Pow Wow 2011

On Sunday night we held our very first "proper" AGM, or in the language of The Magnificent AK47 Charter (our constitution), our very first Yearly Pow Wow.

Everyone was very respectful and serious about the discussions, despite the promise of being fed as soon as we finished, which perhaps helped to focus some of the debates.

In short, we have a number of tweaks to the Charter but were able to vote on accepting it in principal and were able to vote on some of the Officers.

More soon, but thank you to all who took part in a Magnificent afternoon and evening that shall live long in the legends of Blokedom around these parts.

Yuletide 2011 tracks on Soundcloud

Another excellent Workshop session on Sunday, along with all the other goings on of Photo Shoot and Pow Wow. It was amazing that with so many crammed into the pub that we managed to pick up the basic of five new pieces, some of them our trickiest yet.

Chris Samuel has very kindly put some rehearsal tracks together and these can now be found at http://soundcloud.com/the-magnificent-ak47/sets/currentpracticematerial/ towards the bottom of the list.

We have taken what he sent us for the Malpas Wassail and copied it a couple of times to lengthen the piece so that you have more of a chance to get into the Wassiling mood.

Sing your socks off

Recently received from Lisa Samuel, Mrs Chris.

"Stuck for interesting holiday plans for next year? Yourselves, and indeed your better halves, might be interested in the following:

The Sing Your Socks Off team - Chris, Dee, Fran and Elaine are at it again. We had such fun in the Czech Republic in 2010 that we've decided to go back next year.

This lovely country is accessible with convenient, cheap flights, great value food and drink and a real sense of adventure as we head eastwards into the Bohemia region.

We'll be staying in Litomysl, a beautiful city about 150kms east of Prague. In 2010, we all stayed in the YMCA Europe Training Centre, which also houses the workshop rooms. For 2012, we'll be offering a choice of accommodation, at both the YMCA and also the Aplaus Hotel - a gorgeous 4 star hotel in the town that we spent quite a lot of time in!

Find out more from http://www.singyoursocksoff.co.uk"

Sounds like fun although this would contravene the edict of only having the diary full to June next year!

Where were you? Down Under

A rather late entry for this season's T-shirt competition and an interesting one as this is an entry by proxy (the fine print in the terms and conditions has been scoured and could not find a clause that specifically excluded such an option).

Chris A posted the T-shirt to Zurich where it was picked up by his brother-in-law who was on business there. He took it back to Johannesburg where it left with his nephew, Brad, for Australia the next day (he was taking place in an international future problem solving competition which is surely pointless grandeur in itself).

On the way, they stopped off in Sydney from where these pics were taken which has a pleasing degree of moderately pointless but wistful grandeur together with outstanding iconic architectural placement. Together with being in the land of our artist forebears, this is surely a worthy entrant.

So, the scores are in

1. The Location - 4.0 (Iconic to say the least and despite no visible signage as irrefutable proof it could probably pass the "can you prove where it is test" but still unfortunately has to be docked 0.5 points. Rules is rules . . . )

2. The Pose - 3.5 (Not bad for a young'un - close so to pointless grandeur)

3. The X-Factor - 4.0 - (the spectacular views and the story of how it got there)

Making 11.5 - making the highest scoring entry from someone who has not even been in the same country as The Magnificent AK47 yet received - can you beat this?

More photos from St Georges

Remember the old days when you carefully took precious photos, winding on the film, posing, clicked on the shutter not knowing whether you had captured something worthwhile or had inadvertently got a pillar sticking out the top of someone's head? Remember how you had to then send off the photos and wait for sometimes weeks before they came back only to find they were truly rubbish?

How times have changed! Now you can see seconds after you take the photo whether it is worth keeping or not but it still often takes weeks to come back from the metaphorical processors before you can share them with the rest of the world.

Such a thing has happened with the latest batch of photos from our recent triumph at St Georges in Bristol except this time it was more getting around to the quality control and finally posting them to Flickr. Anyhow, these can now be observed in all their serious silliness at http://www.flickr.com

Calendar Photo Shoot + Workshop + Pow Wow

A busy day ahead for our valiant blokes

14:45 Muster in The White Hart

15:00 Start the photo shoot, pints in hand - Sprogs first (see below)

16:45 Finish photo shoot

17:00 Workshop with Chris

19:00 Finish workshop and get suitable refreshments

19:30 Begin Pow Wow and finish as soon as possible to start the meal along with much mingling, drinking, some singing and who knows what else

22:30 We get kicked out of the pub, and rightly so, it being a school night!

Magnificent Sprogs Photo shoot
We thought that we would like to take the opportunity to get some photos of the mini Magnificents, the Magnificent Sprogs, so please bring anyone falling into this category, ie your kids, wearing T-Shirts. There may well be some spare T-Shirts to borrow or purchase if they don't already have their own. We can take some photos of them at the beginning of the session and they can then disappear home.

Pow Wow
We thought that we should go for the following agenda

1. Pre-amble about transitioning from de facto to actual
2. Constitution - discuss and approve
3. Elect officers
4. Plans for the Group
   
5. Award of the prizes for the T-Shirt competition

Here's looking forward to a unique afternoon / evening!

3 sleeps till Pow Wow

It is now only 3 sleeps until our very first official(ish) Pow Wow.

Now we nearly have a grown up constitution we need to do some things that will pass for being semi organized, which hopefully we can just about cope with doing! We are taking advantage of the Workshop we have had scheduled for a while to combine it with a semi official photo shoot for our first calendar (!) and then hang around for an evening meal together and a chance to talk about our ethos, elect some officers and then get on with drinking, eating and hopefully a bit of impromptu singing and possibly one or two other surprises.

The plan for the day is as follows:

14:45 Muster in The White Hart

15:00 Start the photo shoot, pints in hand

16:45 Finish photo shoot

17:00 Workshop with Chris

19:00 Finish workshop and get suitable refreshments

19:30 Begin Pow Wow and finish as soon as possible to start the meal along with much drinking, some singing and who knows what else

22:30 We get kicked out of the pub, and rightly so, it being a school night!

Looking forward to an entertaining afternoon and evening. We'll report back afterwards, hopefully with the odd photo or two.

Where were you? Windswept sprog and dog

Clinging on to his dad for dear life so he doesn't get blown off the hill, Young Simon can be seen next to Big Mike who is proudly bearing his chest which bears our glorious T-shirt.

You can get a flavour for just how windy it was up there by checking out their pooch and his flying fur!

Apparently this was snapped at OS Grid ref NY347051 or more commonly known as LOUGHRIGG FELL which allegedly is at an elevation 1,099 feet making it officially a mountain, which interestingly enough, would make it tenuously linked to the lesser known Hugh Grant film The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain

So, the scores are in

1. The Location - 3.5 (High winds, spectacular views of the Lake district indeed, but, another photo with no visible signage a irrefutable proof of the location so unfortunately docked 0.5 points. Rules is rules . . . )

2. The Pose - 3.5 (good gritted teeth pose which comes close so to pointless grandeur)

3. The X-Factor - 3.5 - (the spectacular views, sturdiness of Mike's pose and the flying pooch all add to the aura of Magnificence)

Making 10.5 - making the highest scoring entry from someone at this height in the Lake District yet received - can you beat this?

Where were you? Sprog in the fog

If you look very closely you might see a small, child like creature in the middle of this impressive rockage. If you look even closer with the aid of some magnifying software to expand the pixels you might make out the nature of the print on the T-shirt to be the increasingly well travelled TMAK47 logo.

The T-Shirt wearing person in question is a mini Magnificent, Tomas son of Lars, or Larsson as he is known in their Swedish homeland which is where this photo was taken at the height of the Swedish summer, covered in fog! However with no signs in sight we will have to take his word for it although he does suggest visiting the location at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%85reskutan. As Lars mentioned in this message with the photo "the fact that Tomas is far away and small, just highlights the magnificence of the wild nature."

So, to the scores

1. The Location - 3.0 (impressive rock formation and allegedly in a foreign country but, another photo with no visible signage of irrefutable proof of the location so unfortunately docked 0.5 points)

2. The Pose - 3.0 (good use of waving arms as he is so faraway from the camera but somewhat difficult to make out if there is an expression of pointless grandeur or not)

3. The X-Factor - 3.0 - (fog in Summer brings back so many happy childhood memories for us all)

Making 9.0- making the highest scoring entry from someone waving on a rock formation in northern Europe that has yet been received.

Another Bloke Band sails into these parts - Port Isaac's Fishermen's Friends

Another recent "Quick Straw Poll" has prompted half a dozen blokes to sign up for a night out sussing out one of the most famous Bloke Bands in all these lands, Port Isaac's Fishermen's Friends.

Famous for singing on the quayside of this extraordinary Cornish village they were catapulted to a certain level of fame by a prominent record deal and have continued to make their livings as before as well as squeezing in visits to festivals and concert halls up and down the land.

They are performing at Cheltenham Town Hall on Tuesday 22nd November and a few of us will be there, singing along to 2Haul Away, Joe" but resisting the temptation to burst into an impromptu rendering of "Let me through". As the tickets were being booked there were about a dozen left so if you still fancy seeing these guys in action try booking at http://www.cheltenhamtownhall.org.uk and you can find out more about them at http://portisaacsfishermansfriends.com/

We'll let you know how we get on after the event and hopefully return with some more inspiration for signing with beer in hand.

Where were you? Hanging around

. . . To be spoken in the hushed tones of Sir David Attenborough in the presence of gorillas . . .

"So, here we have one of those magic moments, a sighting of the rarest of beings in his natural habitat, a member of The Magnificent Ak47 who can actually sing! Swinging from tree to tree in search of his next meal and good company."

A full and plausible explanation for this shot has not be offered by the provider but allegedly it was snapped in the deepest tropical rainforest, somewhere near Newbury, Berkshire! The faraway look could be pointless grandeur or maybe he had just spied some exotic wildlife.

So, the scores are in

1. The Location - 3.0 (not every day you go to rainforest in the UK but, another photo with no visible signage a irrefutable proof of the location so unfortunately docked 0.5 points)

2. The Pose - 3.5 (good faraway stare so pretty good on the pointless grandeur)

3. The X-Factor - 3.5 - (given the logo on the T-shirt next to an actual hanging bunch of bananas)

Making 10.0- making the highest scoring entry from someone in an tropical rainforest yet received