May 2012
2 posts
April 2012
1 post
“What came first, the music or the misery? People worry about kids playing with...”
– Rob, High Fidelity
March 2012
6 posts
In which Werner Herzog fails to deliver
I watched Death Row on Channel 4 last week, and as it was a topic I am particularly interested in and by a director I admire considerably, I had no doubts that it would be compelling, informative and artistic… Yet it failed to meet my expectations completely. The first five minutes grabbed my attention and really set the scene for a frightening, gruesome portrait of life on death row, but...
4 tags
February 2012
5 posts
My Blood Is Your Blood
I had an idea recently, which I later found out had already been done in a similar way. A very lovely man I work with had kidney failure a couple of years ago and, thanks to the donation of his wife, now has one working kidney. He was telling me about his dialysis, and the amount of other people’s blood he received in order to stay alive. Similarly, my own dad recently had a bowel cancer...
January 2012
21 posts
For God's Sake, How Do You Stop It?: Brothers →
A beautiful memoir of a brother by howdoyoustopit:
The above is a photograph of my brothers and I, taken in the rented council house that we shared decades ago, before we were all men.
I’m on the right, the youngest of four. My position as last-born has felt at different times both blessing and curse. My relationship with each of my brothers…
Man of Refraction | ARTnews →
David Shrigley opens his brain – video →
The Nick Drake Files
I’ve been reading the Nick Drake Files with various interview transcripts. He seemed to come across as a slightly tormented soul.
”I can look out of the window now, and that tree over there is green, whereas before one goes to bed, just when one goes to bed, that tree should be black, surely. Everything should be black before one goes to bed, but that is surely the essence of the...
M83 - Birmingham HMV Institute - Saturday 21 Jan...
Having finally released his dream double-album last year - something which he had longed to achieve since childhood - Anthony Gonzalez’s energy and passion on stage affirmed his contentment with his new release.
Founded in France in 2001 by Anthony Gonzalez and Nicolas Fromageau, M83’s self-titled first album never reached a wider audience than inside of Europe. And after touring their second...
Techno-crazy.
How far do we have to go until we get to the techno-dystopia seen in films such as Wall.E?
In an article “The Year in Education: Seven Innovations Changing the Way the World Learns”, Liz Dwyer talks about the way technology is changing education. One teacher in Atlanta uses Angry Birds to teach physics, and kids checking their phones and social networking sites proves to be a positive...
Pay It Forward
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about good-will. How positivity, when used both physically as well as mentally, can change the world we live in. There are so many angry people. There always has been and there always will be. But it got me thinking about how it can be changed, and how we can look to a happier future. Sure, there are some things that are just out of our control; government...
1 tag
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Wow what a film!! David Fincher never ceases to amaze me. What a stunning piece of work. And of course the stunning writing by Steven Zaillian laid the foundations and kept me enthralled the whole way through. As was pointed out, the title sequence resembled something from the latter Bond movies - a kind of erotic, dark, enigmatic sequence in monochrome. Having never read the book, or seen the...
“Everyone has a little voice inside of their head that’s angry and afraid. That voice is resistance-your lizard brain-and it wants you to be average (and safe).” - Seth Godin
I took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart. I am. I am. I am.
Tree of Life
Wow. Erm. (Whispered and accompanied by abstract scenes of explosions) Where to start? I watched Terrance Mallick’s Tree of Life for the first time yesterday. It was the first film I watched in 2012, and after all of the hype, the build up and my utter excitement about seeing it, it completely let me down. I found that after twenty five minutes I had to turn it off. Turning a film off...
December 2011
2 posts
Turner Prize 2011 →
It’s really nice to see a local artist doing so well and being nominated for such a brilliant award. Having spent most of my life in and around Coventry, I felt a bit humbled to see George Shaw’s paintings. I blogged one of them in May, and it’s still been in the back of my mind until recently when I saw an advert on Channel 4 for ‘Turner Prize 2011’. I’d...
November 2011
23 posts
Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to...
“We stand morose, near comatose.
In a state of repose, we shoulder woes.
As loneliness grows, our weariness shows.
And nobody knows, that we are composed.
Of Rainbows And Halos.”
Simeon Farrar
This poem accompanied his new exhibition ‘Of Rainbows and Halos’.
simeonfarrar.com
Stanley Donwood has a great website.
It still seems to be a long time until I no longer need food, water or air, and here I am in the foyer of the supermarket, an empty wire trolley idling beneath my imperceptibly trembling fingers. The light is bright, and the smell is of nothing at all. My mind is blank. There is a route to be followed: straight ahead, turn right then right again, travelling aisle by aisle until (I am planning...
OCCUPY LONDON
dazeddigital:
Dame Vivienne Westwood spoke to us having rallied the protesters at the Occupy London St Paul’s camp on the importance of culture.
Can you really be anything you want to be?
I read an article from The Guardian today called, ‘Can you really be anything you want to be?’ and it got me thinking about the disappointment I felt when I first got out of university, and the disappointment I still feel sometimes about expectations and reality.
When I was younger my idea of an ideal career changed rapidly from chef, inspired by Jamie Oliver of course, to rally...
I've been reading too much Sylvia Plath
Agony aunt in a victory jaunt,
Cave in my skull - you’ll find my fruit,
Tables and chairs (this time they’re bare),
Deliver to me.
Be seen.
Be seen.
Tuck me up in the rose beds,
It’s hard for him - he’s gone too far,
Wood and wire (with metal attire),
Take it away from me.
Save me.
Save me.
“In solitude the mind gains strength and learns to lean upon itself.”
– Laurence Sterne.
