Cornwall

Thank you everyone for saying such nice things about my sketchies, that's a bit overwhelming. :)

I actually have quite mixed feelings about St. Ives and in particular its "arts scene" which probably make me feel a bit precious. It is a very pretty town, pretty to the point of being twee and sometimes a bit cloying. But especially the kind of cottage (fnar) industry surrounding the whole "move to St Ives and paint the sea" ~lifestyle~ - I dunno, there's some very good art that has come out of St Ives in the past. But there's also a LOT of phenomenally *bad* art (badly executed art, overly mawkish "K-mart Art", match-the-sofa art) floating around the town *everywhere* which makes me kind of hate the place.

There are these sort of... glassed-in booths in buildings just off the seafront, and all around Downlong, which are combination studio/shop spaces and there's something just so desperate about them. Like these artists in cages, like performing animals, painting the same picture over and over and over, and you can see that it's probably not because they are obsessed with that image but because that's what sells.

Not that there's anything wrong with creating art to sell, but because they look so *unhappy*, or maybe I'm projecting because that situation would make me so unhappy, but it's this commodification of this dream which starts with "escape the ratrace" and ends with a glass cage in an art supermarket where you perform for the tourists. (And yes, I recognise the self loathing implicit in my ph34r.)

So I'm glad that you all like them, but the idea of sitting in a shop in Cornwall selling them as postcards fills me with utter abject terror.

So what I like best about St Ives is actually the ability to run like hell and be out of it in about 15 minutes, and up in the hills and miles away from "Artists", even as I'm sketching. I didn't really understand the amount of anger and loathing in Sven Berlin's Dark Monarch until I spent some time there, and then completely understood his wish to blow the place up.

Feel bad now because I do not want to put DJH off hir holiday, and I'm sure they will have a lovely time because it is very very beautiful. But this is why, when people say "you should set up shop and sell yr..." (as lots of people, not just on ILX, have said) I run screaming with my hands over my ears because I see those glass artist cages.

(I wasn't being serious, you know, it was more my way of saying "they are that good")

Yes, I have seen those oldish blokes with beard/strawhat/pipe, doing nowt but making sure nobody nicks the art...

We have been pondering visiting CWall for a weekend... Hmm, there's a bank holiday coming up.

No, I know, and thank you. But there are, f'rinstance, ppl in mine own family that say that kind of thing FOR REALS like I am squandering some giant opportunity and pointing at the glass artcages as we walk by saying "YOU SHOULD TOTALLY DO THAT" with the implication that I am stupid or selfish or petty for refusing their brilliant idea.

Shaun Ryder made a comment one time about "the things that you love, start to own you"

when I was in St. Ives there was some local musicians playing (or maybe a lifeboat choir, it does not matter) on in front of the harbour. People were standing and listening. Two young ladies who had been drinking alcohol came by and stopped because one of them wanted to listen to the music. Her friend wanted to keep talking drunkenly. Another woman who was listening to the music asked her to be quiet, whereupon she threw a wobbler about how tourist scum had no place saying anything to locals (before her friend hustled her away). A few minutes later the friend (the one who liked the music) came back and hugged the woman who had asked the angry drunken woman to be quiet; she was rather overcome by the experience.

Karin/Kate/Karen - I don't know for real if there is any money in pictures, but your pictures are very attractive and you should keep making them if only so that the amount of beautiful things in the world continues to increase.

Thank you, DV. That's the loveliest thing anyone's said to me in a long time, and pretty much the best reason to go on doing anything.

The whole tourists vs locals thing is quite complex. I mean, it'd be easy to frame it in the issue of "it's not tourists vs locals, it's people who try to be considerate vs inconsiderate, over entitled twats" but it goes deeper than that. There are resentments for genuine reasons as well as just being drunk and stroppy.

I'm aware, for example, that there is a huge housing crisis in Cornwall, that the property market has been massively overinflated due to second homes and holiday rental cottages, and people whose families have lived there for hundreds of years have been priced out of being able to find somewhere to live at all (be it to own or rent.) And I'm aware that in hiring said holiday cottages, I'm helping to perpetuate this injustice. But I'm also aware that the area's single biggest industry is tourism, so I'm in a bind as to whether it's ethical or not, if I do my utter best to support local shops and industry while I'm there.

I have read that Cornwall has quite terrifying levels of poverty and stuff like that, but I still find myself thinking that it must be better being poor there than in some really grim urban hellhole. But yeah, it is a pisser if you can't find somewhere to live because of people buying second homes and stuff.

Thanks for this.

Right, now to start on a thematic holiday CD-R ...

So, basically, this time tomorrow I'll be sat on the Cornish coast listening to Movietone's "Porthcurno" with a decent beer.

Kate, there are many, many agents who distribute and represent illustrators and graphic artists - thus eliminating the need to be a trained seal in a St. Ives box.

Thanks for all the hints.

Managed to drink in The Castle (good beer - 3 blokes in the pub all nursing solitary pints) and The Sloop (packed). Very much enjoyed The Tinners Arms (but was driving, goddamn) and The Gunnards Head (for food but would happily go back for a proper pint). Mousehole to Lamorna was a classic, didn't manage St Ives to Zennor (didn't sound like a walk to do in the rain). Really enjoyed The Lizard, a Sennen Cove-Land's End walk and Porthcurno. Ditto Cape Cornwall. A lovely breakfast in Porthmeor cafe, too. Not sure about St Ives itself - felt like everyone who'd ever bought a tube of aquamarine paint was there.

Hayle itself not great but here http://www.tomsholidays.co.uk/html/directions.html served its purpose well (good view, nice enough beach).

Might write something more elequent some other time.

Hey! I've bought tubes of aquamarine paint in my life!

Actually I think it was ultramarine, but point taken. This is one of my fundamental problems with St Ives - it is basically just Shoreditch for 50 year olds. Sigh.

I've never managed to get to the Gunnards Head (it's just that bit too far for walking) but I always hear good things about it.

Gunnards Head is probably worth catching a bus for - think it manages the tourist (ie. me)/local divide well. Delicious food. Good vegetarian options. They need someone to send them some decent compilations (Mum, Movietone, Yorkston would work) to replace the Norah Jones. But, yeah, a trek on foot.

St Ives is a funny one - I did see the "worst painting that I've seen for sale in excess of £500" in a gallery. I assumed it was supposed to be "naive art" but was by someone professing to have a fine art degree.

Countryfile ignoring incredible landscapes to focus on some moss and a few local nutters

Ok. Bookmarked this thread for all eternity. But this is finally *happening*, in two months. Shame Kate/Ms. Tregasking isn't around anymore.

Staying in a cottage with seaside views, near Pendeen. I got the St.Ives-Zennor and Mousehole walks down, if anyone else has prime recommendations, come forward!

My wife has ancestory from Cornwall. She spent time in Mousehole in 1981 and enjoyed it. She watched a play in some outdoor cliffside theater overlooking the ocean whose name and location I cannot tell you. This, too, she enjoyed. I don't think the acting was the main attraction, though. Try looking up some local menhirs. It makes a good excuse to wander the countryside.

Thanks! I have that theatre, on the cliffside, down on my to see list ~ can't remember the name now either.

Ordered the Lonely Planet for Kernow and Devon, should be good.

Next step independence

Cornish indie, fuxxors

Not entirely Cornwall but we've got a "tour" of YHAs booked that goes something like Beer, Boswinger, Lizard, Land's End, Perranporth, Dartmoor.

Recommendations of things to do welcome ...

Avoid the ~Lands End Experience~ thing IMO, and walk down the coast to Nanjizal to see Kan A'n Mor/Song Of The Sea arch. (Or up the coast to Sennen, but that goes without saying.)

The Minack is the name of the theatre on the cliff edge round the corner from Lamorna, but that piece of info probably comes too late for LBI. (Hope you had a splann time!)

there's some really nice hiking along the south coast near praa sands(?) [lol im american] if the weather is nice-ish. my wife and I also knew some people who had a house in mousehole outside of penzance which was pretty chill and interesting

Hi Branwell, no, we went to Minack's, ta! Which was great. The tiny beach next to it (with the steep climb up the rocks to the theatre) was a treat too. Mostly did loads of coastal walking, stretches of 7-10 miles a day. Incredible scenery. Mousehole, Penzance, Zennor is fab too.

Portheras Cove was a true find, too, and rather quiet as it takes quite a climb to get there. If you want something educational or museum like, Geevor's Tin Mine was impressive, but agreeing with Branwell: avoid Land's End like the plague. Good god, they turned that landmark spot into some sort of US western shopping mall ugh. Terrible.

http://i.imgur.com/SIUkCCg.jpg

I took this photo while there, which is basically a blueprint of my time there. Warm weather all day every day, and these views, these views... sighs

DJH I know a bit about the area around Beer (I grew up in Sidmouth). Recs kinda depend on what you like to do; Beer itself is very cute, but the first two things which spring to mind in that little stretch are (a) an excellent pub called The Fountain Head in Branscombe and (b) the good, tiny and crammed secondhand bookshop just by the Cobb in Lyme Regis. On a nice day Hix's Oyster House in Lyme is worth the few quid extra it'll cost you to eat there.

Kernow is currently being suggested as an Anglo-Celtic compromise solution for my wedding next year. Any recommendations for venues, locations, etc?

I would really like to be helpful in suggesting lovely places in West Penwith but I'm rather useless as I haven't the foggiest as to what is required for a wedding!

I went to a good wedding at Polhawn Fort once, which has the feature (may be an advantage or a disadvantage) of not being very far into Cornwall.

Thank you both. I have an open mind about venues (country houses, hotels, forts...) so will do some digging.

the other day I was sat next to someone on a bus loudly telling people about his imminent wedding in Cornwall, but he seemed like a bit of a knob so he's probably chosen somewhere bad

next time I make it to the UK I am going to go to here.

will probably use the modern antiquarian as my guidebook

Sharivari, I asked around a bit:

For sheer grandeur, there's this place (it's Newquay, but eh) though it might be quite pricey?
http://www.headlandhotel.co.uk/explore/headland-history/

There was another one on the Lizard I was trying to remember (but only seen it while walking, not actually stayed there) might have been this one:
http://www.mullion-cove.co.uk/

But if you want a place with good transport connections, you'd probably be better off looking somewhere like Falmouth that is actually on a reliable train service. (Cornish friends say Falmouth is the place for big weddings.) Depends, really, if you want somewhere beautiful and amazing but really out of the way, or somewhere that family coming from out of town can easily get to.

That's amazing. Thank you so much!

the eden proj does weddings in their jungle biome iirc. might be a bit rum but at least you'd definitely avoid the miserable pissy rain

lots of the other famous gardens in the area probably do weddings too, though personally i don't think you should necessarily rule out plain old cavorting naked on the moors

Cavorting's an option. I'll suggest it to the in-laws - would probably work out quite cost effective.

Please do not encourage any fucken hippies to do any bleddy handfasting ceremonies at Men An Tol. Please. They're a nuisance, they frighten the livestock.

Thanks for the suggestions.

cornwall circa 1913

http://i1.wp.com/www.retronaut.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Cornwall-village.jpg?resize=620%2C502

http://www.retronaut.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Cornwall-29.jpg

http://www.retronaut.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Cornwall-191.jpg

http://www.retronaut.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Cornwall-161.jpg

http://www.retronaut.com/2010/02/colour-photographs-of-cornwall-2/?utm_content=buffer5d5df&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Think there was a recent ep of 'don't tell the bride' where they got married at the Eden project.

oh my, those photos are fantastic!

this record sounds interesting:
http://thequietus.com/articles/16179-robert-curgenven-sirne-review

feel like i wanna start a landscape/memory/music thread on ilm but i don't really know how to frame it exactly

That record sounds amazing. And NickB, go for it with your thread!

nickb what sort of thing did you have in mind/were inspired by?

well, um, music that evokes particular landscapes (whether that's urban or rural, and specific, real places or perhaps imaginary ones too) and explores the human stories that have left their mark there, or again perhaps those traces have been erased entirely and can only exist in the present by us projecting them back on the landscape if only in our imagination? and i suppose that's what a lot of folk music does, but also there's quite a bit of contemporary stuff from i dunno, from field recordings like chris watson's in st. cuthbert's time through people associated with psychogeography like jem finer and andrew kötting, to the clattering shire books indie of way through or some of the folk on the outer church compilation who are maybe at more of the occult/hauntological end of things. maybe more high profile stuff like burial or these new puritans are somehow connected too, and i wish i could think of non-british stuff off the top of my head but uh... i dunno, thoughts all half-baked & messy

that's a great batch of material & there should definitely be a thread to collect this stuff together & muse although I can't think of a title

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/sep/14/cornwall-and-south-devon-originally-belonged-to-europe

“This is a completely new way of thinking about how Britain was formed,” said Dijkstra. “It has always been presumed that the border of Avalonia and Armorica was beneath what would seem to be the natural boundary of the English Channel. But our findings suggest that although there is no physical line on the surface, there is a clear geological boundary that separates Cornwall and south Devon from the rest of the UK.”

The findings, go some way to explain why Cornwall and Devon have an abundance of tin and tungsten, metals found in Brittany and other areas of mainland Europe. “These minerals come from deep in the crust,” Dijkstra said.

i've never been to cornwall, but that's changing in a couple of weeks. my aged parents are coming for a visit and we're all going out there. 6 of us! we're going to what i'm told is called the north coast. from london. and... we have no car.

any advice? how to get out there and get back? what to see? (we'll be near tintagel)

I went for the first time this year too! We were based in Penzance and Fowey, on the South coast, but we made it to St Ives which was lovely and on the north coast, and to Lanhydrock which is on the edge of Bodmin Moor. Both highly recommended. Oh and the Eden Project is a must!