29/11/2011 A happy dogI've been meaning to post this for ages and never got around to do it. I love this picture. Yes, it is disgusting and I don't want to know what this woman is trying to do. But imagine what's going on in his little dog's head? Such a happy bunny, oops, I mean, dog. 24/11/2011 Making sense of OCCUPYAmanda Palmer has shared this video in her newsletter, saying that it's the best explanation of the OCCUPY MOVEMENT she's seen so far. And it's true. Now, I am no hippie, I am more on the post-punk/misanthropic side of the road, and anything with "LOVE" in it makes me shiver and run for cover (apart from when it's about one particular person...). But once you've managed past it, well, it all makes sense. Really. And if I hear or read anyone say "they should go an get a job, blahblahblah" once again, I SCREAM. 11/11/2011 The AwakeningOh, no!
This movie is tackling similar themes to those in my second book, The Book of Thoth, albeit in a different way. It's a ghost story, set in an isolated house in the aftermath of the First World War. Like The Book of Thoth! There is also a short paragraph about a new BBC drama, Parade's End, which will be set around the time of the First World War. It will have Benedict Cumberbatch in it! One to watch as well, then! BBC article below: THE AWAKENING It looks like The Book of Thoth will take months to complete - and we're talking about 6 months or so, now - so I won't even be taking advantage of the interest in First World War stuff... These drive me nuts. We now see those mistakes in newspapers, magazines, posters, ads, job ads, etc. And I am not even a Native English speaker. But grammar was hammered into my head from age 5 so I understand how language works... Go on, make a bloody effort! Or ask me, I can explain slowly.
11/11/2011 11-11-11-11Matt ArtPix's 11th November blog is particularly poignant this year. Matt's interest for the First World War started in very strange circumstances when he was 17. I hope he will write about this experience once day as it is quite disturbing. But ever since, he has tried to understand what happened to those people and their very personal, very individual experiences. MATT ARTPIX 11 11 11 11
I will borrow from Matt's blog: Great Men The great ones of the earth Approve, with smiles and bland salutes, the rage And monstrous tyranny they have brought to birth. The great ones of the earth Are much concerned about the wars they wage, And quite aware of what those wars are worth. You Marshals, gilt and red, You Ministers and Princes, and Great Men, Why can't you keep your mouthings for the dead? Go round the simple cemeteries; and then Talk of our noble sacrifice and losses To the wooden crosses. © Siegfried Sassoon, 17 August 1918 Unfortunately, as Matt says really well on his blog, we keep being obsessed with history but we don't learn. The phony wars our leaders are waging these days are useless, and don't even get me started on the religious authorities always trying to hijack remembrance day celebrations, when it is well documented that most of those men had lost their faith if they had one in the trenches. Absolutely disgusting. So years after year people "remember" then they go back to their shallow little lives and our government try and find yet another country to which to send their idiotic planes. Because they are so ineffectual in sorting out their own countries, they use "wars" to distract our attention away from their ineffectuality. My second book, The Book of Thoth, is set 7 years after the First World War and if I do not tackle it directly, the effects of the war play on part in the story. 9/11/2011 Occupy!As a fitting tribute to the Occupy movement and student fees protests, here's a picture of the next group to join the movement:
4/11/2011 Some people are taking the mickeySo.
The Olympics logo looks like a bad Hackney gang graffiti. OK. We got used to this one - sort of. We just try and not think about it, really. Then some "leading artists" are commissioned to create some posters to promote the Olympics and paralympics. And the result is HERE. My very own personal verdict, as someone who thinks art and literature are two of the most important things in life: bloody ugly and amateurish. Honestly, some of those posters could have been done by nursery school children. Someone is taking the *piss*. What a shame. There are still a lot of people who are hostile to art and who think that it's all but a waste of time, money, etc. Is THIS going to help? Who would blame them when you present that kind of ridiculous work and announce it as being by "leading artists"? Where's the ambition to inspire, enthuse, celebrate beauty, challenge the senses? There are thousands of extremely talented artists in this country, and that's all the people in charge of the Olympics can do. It is shameful, really. And yes, I am opinionated. And quite angry, actually, as it happens. Missed opportunity. 14/10/2011 Hedingham Castle in the news"A portrait of the late fashion designer Alexander McQueen and magazine editor Isabella Blow has been acquired by the National Portrait Gallery (NPG).
Burning Down by surrealist photographer David LaChapelle was originally published in Vanity Fair in 1997. The shot was accompanied by an article branding McQueen and his mentor "The Provocateurs". NPG director Sandy Nairne said he was "delighted" to receive the work, which is now on display in the gallery. The portrait was shot at Hedingham Castle in Essex in 1996 and shows McQueen dressed as a woman, brandishing a flaming torch." It is great to see this fab "local"-ish landmark make it to the BBC website (and the National Portrait Gallery). Snow permitting, I will be at Hedingham Castle with Matt ArtPix, who will be having a stall at the "Made in Essex" Xmas art, craft and food fair on December 3rd and 4th. We will be staying in nearby Sudbury in a little B&B which promises to be quite fab... |
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