Second week of April and still no potatoes in the ground. They've been chitting on the windowsill for weeks and developed some fine and sturdy shoots - I'd hate to sacrifice them into a cold wet grave to rot, so waiting for some warmth. I also have salad seeds and other things to plant but still cautious of frost. Surely surely soon....
This weather has brought a sober feel to the month. We had some frolicsome days last week - sunshine bringing students out to lounge on the grass between Northern Stage and the Union building. I watched wistfully through the glass in a lunch break from rehearsing a work in progress - The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter, adapted by Bryony Lavery. All was dark and musky in the studio so sunshine was delightful but incongruous.
Now, all is grey and drookit as they say in Scotland. I hope things brighten in more ways than one. Some sadness and uncertainty around for at least two people I love.
Monday, 7 April 2008
Monday, 3 March 2008
Jackanory
Lots of stuff in the ether about narrative. Switched on the TV last night and heard the tail end of Channel 4 news about Marion Cotillard's scepticism towards the accepted versions of 9/11 and the moon landings. Her views were apparently recorded before her Oscar for Piaf, but the newsreader punned on whether Marion would 'regrette' what she'd said. There was something chilling in the way this made the news at all. There seemed an aspect of 'thought police' about it - as in 'woe betide those who don't accept the truth as we tell it'. If she'd said 'I'm a Virgo and I believe everyone has a One True Love' I'd imagine this would only have made the celebrity gossip magazines, such beliefs being common currency and heartily encouraged in that domain, despite their tenuous basis. She would not have been presented as either a crank or subversive, which seemed implicit in the brief clip I saw. Of course what Marion was discussing on record concerned two world events, not just personal fancies. Though, as far as I'm aware, she didn't say she didn't believe the truth as told, only that she had doubts.
The two big news stories she had doubts about pertained crucially to America and its identity, one as wronged in this century, the other triumphant in the last.
On BBC 4 later were two great programmes about the stories America wanted to tell itself in the 1960's through advertising - a doc about the industry itself and Mad Men, the new drama series set in the midst of it in New York's Madison Avenue. What was immediately striking about the latter was the ubiquity of smoking. This became both subject and metaphor - the dilemma of how to continue to sell cigarettes despite the growing health warnings and the way in which almost all the characters smoked, clinging to the dream of what they thought this meant (suave sophistication) rather than the reality (they were addicted to something poisonous). The doc spoke of how, in the '60's, despite American affluence, anxiety levels seemed to rise. I remember cigarettes being sold as a way to relax, despite the fact they actually increase our heart rate.
This morning, Nassim Nicholas Taleb was on Start the Week, Radio 4, talking about his Black Swan theory, about how we don't see things coming because we're telling ourselves an out of date, out of touch, story. Why we might want to believe in incomplete stories in the first place begs several questions.
The two big news stories she had doubts about pertained crucially to America and its identity, one as wronged in this century, the other triumphant in the last.
On BBC 4 later were two great programmes about the stories America wanted to tell itself in the 1960's through advertising - a doc about the industry itself and Mad Men, the new drama series set in the midst of it in New York's Madison Avenue. What was immediately striking about the latter was the ubiquity of smoking. This became both subject and metaphor - the dilemma of how to continue to sell cigarettes despite the growing health warnings and the way in which almost all the characters smoked, clinging to the dream of what they thought this meant (suave sophistication) rather than the reality (they were addicted to something poisonous). The doc spoke of how, in the '60's, despite American affluence, anxiety levels seemed to rise. I remember cigarettes being sold as a way to relax, despite the fact they actually increase our heart rate.
This morning, Nassim Nicholas Taleb was on Start the Week, Radio 4, talking about his Black Swan theory, about how we don't see things coming because we're telling ourselves an out of date, out of touch, story. Why we might want to believe in incomplete stories in the first place begs several questions.
Tuesday, 19 February 2008
eventide
After a day of reading and writing, reflection.
So good to be working in Live's lovely new building, using those writers' rooms to grow great new work.
So good to be working in Live's lovely new building, using those writers' rooms to grow great new work.
Monday, 18 February 2008
Rock and roll
A soft sun this February morning, frost on the grass between the flats and the houses, giving it a lovely pale jade colour. And fog on the Tyne. We've had a succession of days starting like this, sugared stillness first thing, burning off the mist by midday. Today the announcement - Northern Rock to be nationalised. There's something slightly ludicrous here - a bank - the sort of thing that might happen in an Ealing film with Ian Carmichael in it - but also momentous - things getting serious, the point of no return. Yesterday, at Baltic seeing art, a little boy was wearing the Toon away strip - grey/blue shirt with the name of the sponsors. Newcastle FC now the official state team?! (not just Tony's favourite...)
We'd gone to Baltic after a shortish bike ride, on which we discovered a large-ish section of the Keelman's Way (?) cycle route still closed due to 'contaminated land'. It seems like work is going on but possibly laboriously and when we rode on a section beyond the closed bit, it had a sulphurous odour.
At Baltic, I most enjoyed Barthelemy Toguo's work Heart Beat. The blocked out newsheet 'wallpaper' showing only the pictures was really effective, a clamourous backdrop to his gorgeous paintings. The way each organism bloomed into shape on the paper was beautiful - the pain and beauty of living.
Today, the NR pink cerise seemed everywhere. It's often struck me as an odd choice, for them. But maybe the logic went - pink as in 'in the pink', a rosy glow, but not too soft or infantile; a strong colour and not predictably 'rock-like' - not dark (like coal) or a boring grey (like granite?). Rumour has it, the company might be re-named British Rock. The new chairman exec purportedly will earn £90,000 a month.
What consequences there'll be for the many employees, savers, house-owners and arts orgs up here, remain very much to be seen. Martin Jacques claims in The Guardian that we (i.e.Britiain, the west, but most of all the US) are at 'the beginning of the biggest geopolitical shift since the dawn of the industrial era'. Blimey.
We'd gone to Baltic after a shortish bike ride, on which we discovered a large-ish section of the Keelman's Way (?) cycle route still closed due to 'contaminated land'. It seems like work is going on but possibly laboriously and when we rode on a section beyond the closed bit, it had a sulphurous odour.
At Baltic, I most enjoyed Barthelemy Toguo's work Heart Beat. The blocked out newsheet 'wallpaper' showing only the pictures was really effective, a clamourous backdrop to his gorgeous paintings. The way each organism bloomed into shape on the paper was beautiful - the pain and beauty of living.
Today, the NR pink cerise seemed everywhere. It's often struck me as an odd choice, for them. But maybe the logic went - pink as in 'in the pink', a rosy glow, but not too soft or infantile; a strong colour and not predictably 'rock-like' - not dark (like coal) or a boring grey (like granite?). Rumour has it, the company might be re-named British Rock. The new chairman exec purportedly will earn £90,000 a month.
What consequences there'll be for the many employees, savers, house-owners and arts orgs up here, remain very much to be seen. Martin Jacques claims in The Guardian that we (i.e.Britiain, the west, but most of all the US) are at 'the beginning of the biggest geopolitical shift since the dawn of the industrial era'. Blimey.
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