Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Seeing Red

I walk out the end of the road and can already hear some sort of drama on the high street. It's 9am and as I make my way the few paces to the bus stop it starts to resolve itself into a road rage incident. A biggish 4x4 is stationary in the middle of the northerly lane. The driver in a bright red coat is on her mobile in front of the bonnet talking animatedly. Why don't you put your hazard warning lights on, you eejit. No wonder people are beeping at you - I had heard her shouting back. My neighbour Ryan walks by on his headphones just about registering some kind of ado. Suddenly it becomes evident that the woman in red is not the driver but is actually shouting at the driver who is hidden by the dark glass of her Landrover or whatever it is. I catch the shouted words "protecting your husband". I immediately assume a mistress in red. A deceived wife cowering in her complacent car. The red woman is dyed blonde with a foreign accent. She uses her hands to speak in a continental way. I think I catch the words and gesture "two years". She is standing right in front of the bonnet and I really fear for her safety, a sudden angry metallic surge as red is seen and red is spread (in exactly the spot where the old lady walked in front of John's motorbike). Eventually she moves nearer the pavement, still shouting, still on the phone, in two planes at once, and the near black grey glass 4x4 moves on, humiliated. Red coat walks down the hill in the direction of the bus stop in the sharp Spring sun on (immigrant? poor? working class?) foot. She won.

Saturday, February 13, 2016

Creative Accounting #310

Mark Duplass = Quentin Tarantino


=

Creative Accounting #309

Chris Cooper = Sam Shepherd

=

Coincidences

11/2/16
News story about Einstein's theory of gravitational waves being finally proved
+
Jogging along listening to old More or Less podcast when item comes up about the measuring of gravitational waves in a 4km long underground tunnel

13/2/16
I was looking at some photos on Facebook of Brutalist Architecture in London - the photographer talking about how staircases are the essence of this style of architecture - up comes photo of the staircases of the National Theatre
+
Looking in the window of a slightly odd Covent Garden bookshop I see an adult colouring book of London Buildings and on the cover is that same stairwell with similar framing

12/2/16
While working on Parkway, Camden Town, came across...
* Mark Jacobs - in Al Parco
* Patrick Uden - driving past in his 2CV
* James Johnson - buying cachaca

19/2/16
Working in Belfast, have dinner in Malmaison, order tuna tartare and try to figure out how to make it myself, wonder how do you get those black sesame seeds, burn them or do they come black?
+
On my return a package is waiting, a gift from Amber at Blue Door, a box of goodies from Ottolenghi, including a small jar of black sesame seeds

31/3/16
Read an article in the Times at Maurizio's about Jewish tartan and how in Jewish law linen and wool are not allowed to be mixed
+
1/4/16
Item on BBC R4 Today about the Jews behind Mod and 60s fashion mentioned how in Jewish law different types of fabric can't be mixed so Jews became tailors to make their own compliant clothing

9/4/16
I listen to Bruce Springsteen's The River on a recently acquired vinyl copy
+
I'm sorting through the pile of new vinyl which includes The River, writing the titles into a notebook, and just as the track Independence Day plays I get to Independence Day, a 12" single by The Comsat Angels

7/4/16
I meet a Newcastle indie called Tunnels & Bridges (named after the unsophisticated folk who stream into Manhattan and lower the tone)
+
9/4/16
While out jogging I hear a podcast of Colm Toibin's Desert Island Discs and when talking about 'Brooklyn' he talks about the worn-down Irish men who built the "tunnels and bridges" (in the Christmas dinner scene) - I'd never heard the phrase before the day before yesterday in Newcastle

1/4/16
I watch the movie The Program on DVD and notice an end credit with the surname Knox-Johnson (I think, isn't that the name of a famous yachtsman? must be same family)
+
2/4/16
there is a fatal accident involving a female sailor in a yacht race organised by Robin Knox-Johnson who comes on radio to defend the safety measures

4/16
I am thinking about the upcoming Christy Moore gig in the showerroom - I look down at the towel I'm drying my hands on and the brand is Christy, something I've never consciously noticed before

Friday, February 05, 2016

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry


Seeing Eileen & Matthew and going out all of us with Joan

Chatting to Isaac on his last full day at C4

Working through loads of proposals

Notes on Joy Division


Martin Hannett was as much the 5th Joy Divisioner as George Martin was the 5th Beatle - their music became the input for a 2nd creative process

Joy Division (Ian Curtis in particular) was picking up on the Bowie slipstream - Kraftwerk, Iggy, Velvets, etc.

Kraftwerk were an immensely important hub band - from Joy Division to Afrika Bambaataa (I saw both JD and AB)

Ian sang with a grown-up's voice

Ian had a certain detachedness, isolated from the others