Sutton Bank Gliding

I used to fly gliders. I eventually acquired this, a Pik-20D, and flew competitions in it.

I commented recently, on another blog, about a course that I signed up to in Yorkshire one October. It was a less than great week.

I just thought I'd post it up here. Although everything sounds downbeat, I did laugh as I thought about it. The Youtube clip below is what I, and the other course members, had hoped to be doing.


Interested to be reminded of Sutton Bank and the mist. Long ago, I booked on a course at the gliding club that is atop the Bank. I arrived on the Sunday evening, and checked into the clubhouse. Monday morning dawned, and I rose eagerly for  the week of low level flying along the ridge. The clubhouse staff seemed rather subdued. I recalled that a few weeks prior, 2 gliders had collided in mid air, and the pilots, both local, had died. 

So, after breakfast, the 5 of us on the course went outside to prepare. Parachutes, pre-flight glider checks. The sky was very misty, but we reckoned it would burn off as the morning warmed up, and we'd soon be able to fly. 

The weather didn't warm up, and the mist didn't burn off. Each morning, I'd wake in my bunk, gaze through the window, hoping, hoping the sky would be clear. 

It never was. By late morning, as it became obvious that a day was not going to improve, we'd all disperse. The number of hours I spent trudging around cold, damp places like Thirsk. A coffee here, a coffee there... And I could feel a nose running, eye watering, sleeve wiping cold coming on.

And so, Thursday arrived. We all gathered together, and the instructor said... "Well, what do you think, guys, what do you want to do..?". 
I said... "I think I'd like to go home. I feel absolutely terrible.". 
Everybody else also wanted to go home. This Up North place wasn't at all like Sunny Hampshire.

I wasn't joking about feeling terrible, and after driving a few miles down the road, I was almost exhausted. I decided to plod slowly down the A1 in my Porsche. Quite a big change from the usual commute up the M3, into the outer lane, and stay there at about 90mph, like all the other rat-racers.

Anyway, I managed the 25 miles to Wetherby, and landed on the doorstep of my sister's home. The next 4 or 5 days being looked after, hot soup, solicitations etc.. 

Yes, I remember Sutton Bank, in 1987.
And the small matter of..., while I was there, incommunicado, Black Monday of 19th October, the London stock market had crashed.
About £30,000 worth of my investments evaporated in the space of a few hours.
Unlike the mist. 

Wet Sunday Afternoon

Well, it's rained all day, so far.

The Italian F1 Grand Prix has just finished, time for some lunch and reading....

Sliced roll with mackerel pâté, olives and a Worcester apple.
A mug of tea.

And the Grayson Perry book, The Descent of Man.

Lionel Martin - Saxa

I came across this today, I hadn't realised.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/may/12/lionel-martin-saxa-obituary

Here he is.....

Waiting - Fun Boy Three - The Lost Album

Something of a lost album, 'Waiting' is loved by just about everyone who did hear it. One of my old favourites.

• Terry Hall - vocals
• Neville Staple - percussion, vocals
• Lynval Golding - guitar, vocals
• Nicky Holland - keyboards, vocals, arranger
• Ingrid Schroeder - vocals
• Bethan Peters - bass guitar, vocals
• June Miles-Kingston - drums, vocals
• Annie Whitehead - trombone
• Caroline Lavelle - cello

Most of it was played during this 1983 gig at the Regal Theatre, in Hitchin.




Most of the album, that is. Except for 'Farmyard Connection'. [Understandable perhaps, as the gig was being recorded for the BBC].

Anyway, here it is......,  a little story about the agricultural life.



Caroline Lavelle, cello..., 2005.



and some teaching....

LSD Meets Bluegrass - Leo Kottke - Eight Miles HIgh

Thought I'd revisit this, written and first recorded by The Byrds. .  

Banned, initially, from broadcast due to perceived drug connotations. The lyrics describe a tour of England by The Byrds, and their observations from the back of their black limousine as the band travelled from town to town. 'Rain grey town..., known for its sound..' is London of the '60's.

The ambiguous title and the 'spaceyness' of the music tell another story. 

Influences drawn from Ravi Shankar. Also from John Coltrane's "India", which inspired the intro. These are somewhat smothered in the original. The repeated jazz phrasing is very clear here, recorded in 1971 by Leo Kottke.

I love the country underlay, quite hypnotic.


Eight miles high

And when you touch down
You'll find that it's
Stranger than known

Signs in the street
That say where you're goin'
Are somewhere
Just being their own

Nowhere is
There warmth to be found
Among those afraid
Of losing their ground

Rain gray town
Known for its sound
In places
Small faces unbound

Round the squares
Huddled in storms
Some laughing
Some just shapeless forms

Sidewalk scenes
And black limousines
Some living
Some standing alone

Written by David Crosby, Gene Clark, Jim Mcguinn 

Glastonbury

I'm not at Glastonbury. I did though watch the Pretenders performance on TV last night. In a very rockers orientated set, my favourite Pretenders song was a no show.  Released in 1981, during lead singer Chrissie Hynde's relationship with Ray Davies of the Kinks, and written by him many years before. 

   


Here's another by Ray Davies. He wrote it, and gave the song to Dave Berry, who had a hit single with it. The KInks never made a studio recording for release. This is live from a session for the BBC. 

Grenfell

Full list of landlord Tory MPs who voted against making properties 'fit for human habitation'

To expand on that, here is the complete list of MP's who voted. ( Scroll down ).

https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201516/cmhansrd/cm160112/debtext/160112-0003.htm

In addition to the former Prime Minister David Cameron, every single member*  of the current Westminster Cabinet voted against forcing landlords to ensure that properties they rent out are fit for human habitation.         *bar Liam Fox, not present (?)

That is...

Theresa May, Damian Green, Philip Hammond, Amber Rudd, Boris Johnson, David Davis, Michael Fallon, Jeremy Hunt, David Mundell, Alun Cairns, James Brokenshire, Pritti Patel, Karen Bradley, David Gauke, Patrick McLoughlun, David Lidington, Justine Greening, Greg Clark, Michael Gove, Chris Grayling,

Local to me in Somerset, this man, Jacob Rees-Mogg.... 

And in Scotland.....

Learning To Play Piano

Chords and scales on the left. Keyboard on the right. 

I'm not really a two phone person. I run my life very much on a budget, stay away from contract phones, and use a sim-only contract for airtime. I dislike using cheap phones,  so tend to go for 2 or 3 year old high quality devices. 

The phone on the right is a Nokia Lumia 830 which plays the 'My Piano Phone' app very well.The one on the left is a Moto G. 

The Moto is a rather good budget phone. As such , I broke my normal rule of thumb about phones, and bought it s/h to try out as a possible replacement for the Lumia. Unfortunately, as usual, after a while, one realizes why a budget  phone is exactly that. Hiccups, pauses, mediocre audio. And it also reminded me that I don't particularly enjoy using Android phones. They always feel like a clunkily assembled assortment of unconnected apps. Whereas the Lumia, with the Windows Phone system, has a smooth, flowing, integrated feel.

So, the Moto will  go soon. For now, I'm using it for the 'Piano Chords & Scales' app.

Why replace the Lumia ? 

When Microsoft took over the phones division of Nokia, they went down the budget route, and brought out a bunch of cheap phones, and no interesting high quality devices. Android phones already had the budget territory well covered, so sales dropped. Microsoft lost interest, so have app developers, sales dropped further. Now Microsoft are concentrating on making the Windows Phone system into a business-orientated one. 

I need a device with some more flexibility than that.

The Horse Flies - Hush Little Baby

In the last week, I've been doing some tidying up, spring cleaning, in my flat. Pulled out a load of CD's, Including the single of this song by The Horse Flies, bought about 20 years ago.

A traditional American lullaby. I hadn't heard of this lullaby at the time, and am unsure of the message that it conveys to a baby. But I did like the song, the music,  and the way they did it.

Here is a recent clip of them at a local venue. They're from Ithaca, new York.

Left side guitarist is Richie Stearns. Centre is Judy Hyman, violin. She has toured with, and played on various albums with Natalie Merchant. Married to right side guitarist Jeff Claus. His day job, professor of multicultural education at Ithaca College.




Also dug out one of my film favourites. The film, Paint Your Wagon, was pretty much a failure. Film musicals were out of fashion at the time. The location filming was done in the middle of nowhere, so each day everything, everyone had to be transported in from the nearest town that had hotel accomodation. Lee Marvin spent much of his time drunk, and had to be sobered up. Budget overruns.

But..., the song was a huge hit, ran to No 1 in the UK charts. And stayed there for weeks, as I recall.

Metamorphosis

Metamorphosis is more than a change of form.
Metamorphosis is preparation for a new way of life.

Currently Reading.....

This Changes Everything - capitalism vs the climate.
by Naomi Klein.

George Michael

I've seldom given much attention to George MIchael's music. Mostly because the songs of 'Wham', his early recording partnership with childhood friend Andrew Ridgely were almost the complete opposite of what I liked in pop music.

As a result, I knew little about his solo recordings. There was one, though, which when very occasionally played on radio, found something in me. A rather beautiful song, really.

Waltz in jazz.


'Cowboys and Angels' - 1991

The only George MIchael single not to make the Top 40 of the UK Singles Chart. He revealed a couple of years ago that the song was about a love triangle where he was in love with a man, while a woman friend was in love with him, but none knew of the others' feelings. 

When your heart's in someone else's hands
Monkey see and monkey do
Their wish is your command
You're not to blame
Everyone's the same

All you do is love and love is all you do
I should know by now, the way I fought for you
You're not to blame
Everyone's the same

I know you think that you're safe
Mister
Harmless deception
That keeps love at bay
It's the ones who resist that we most want to kiss
Wouldn't you say?
Cowboys and angels
They all have the time for you
Why should I imagine
That I'd be a find for you
Why should I imagine
That I'd have something to say
But that scar on your face
That beautiful face of yours
In your heart there's a trace
Of someone before

When your heart's in someone else's plans
Things you say and things you do
They don't understand
It's such a shame
Always ends the same

You can call it love but I don't think it's true
You should know by now
I'm not the boy for you
You're not to blame
Always ends the same

I know you think that you're safe
Sister
Harmless affection
That keeps things this way
It's the ones who persist for the sake of a kiss
Who will pay
Cowboys and angels
They all take a shine to you
Why should I imagine that I was designed for you
Why should I believe
That you would stay

But that scar on your face
That beautiful face of yours
Don't you think that I know
They've hurt you before

Take this man to your bed
Maybe his hands will help you to forget
Please be stronger than your past
The future may still give you a chance.

Saxophone - Andy Hamilton
Bass -           Deon Estus

Transport Problem

Not the best week, recently, for my transport.

The engine of my green Peugeot cut out, half way to Bristol.

Called out the rescue....

Who towed me to my local garage.....


Who pronounced.......

And so, dear reader, off to the recyclers.

I've pressed the Mazda project into service. Still a work in progress, but road legal.

I hadn't quite appreciated that MX5's are thirsty.  Or rather I did, but it only really sank in as I drove around over the past few days. I could almost see the fuel gauge moving downwards.

32mpg compared with 55mpg for the Peugeot.

I've temporarily addressed the problem by reducing the number of unnecessary excursions.
Some pondering on this to be done, though. A lot, really.

We shall see.

Grey Day

Murky day today, here in deepest darkest Somerset.

I found this, as an antidote.......

The Java Sea....

I read this article on the BBC website....

WW2 Ships Vanish....


Brought some memories back for me.

When I was a young teen in the 60's, most of my reading was books from public libraries. As with my parents. There wasn't really enough money around for regular book purchases.

Some books for the living room bookshelf did, though, appear. Mostly, as I recall, book club books passed through from an Aunt and Uncle. They lived in the London suburb of South Woodford. Very long back garden. Doorway through to Epping Forest.

One book that absolutely absorbed me was titled, I'm almost certain, 'The Coral Sea'. Can't remember anything about the author. And even searching the internet, I can find no trace.

The book was fiction based around the Battle of the Java Sea, and aftermath. In the story, the narrator describes, how the makeshift Allied Force Z fought against overwhelming odds to stem the Japanese invasion forces.

His ship was the destroyer Electra. The Electra attempted an attack, through a smokescreen, and was never seen again.

As a crewman, the narrator describes the sinking, drifting, and eventually fetching up on the coast of Borneo, and capture by the Japanese. Prisoner of war, and ultimately a forced march that appeared to be based on what I much later read as the Sandakan Death March.

Lots of years later, I earned my living as a freelance computer programmer. Semi detached house, live in girlfriend, dog. Commuting from Hampshire up to Reading everyday. A large computer manufacturer.

One day, almost Christmas, a call came through from the company person who dealt with the freelancers and contracts. Brief pleasantries exchanged. Then......

"Andrew..., would you be interested in working in Borneo..?"

Absolutely instantaneous... "Yes, I would".

And 7 weeks later, I arrived in Brunei.

During my years there, one of the places I visited was the island of Labuan, a few miles off the Borneo coast. It had been fought over. In the cemetery, the Allied graves were virtually all of Australian soldiers. First were the graves of those who had died when the Japanese forces had invaded. These soldiers were almost all aged in their mid twenties, and plus. Regular Army. Subsequent graves were those who died near the end of the war, as the Allies retook Borneo. Most of them were in their late teens.

6.45 AM On a Somerset Morning

Towards the Somerset Levels...

Towards Glastonbury....

Just Another Diamond Day

This time in 1969 I'd just bought my first album..., 'Waiting For the Sun', by The Doors.
Next was 'Electric Music for the Mind and Body' by Country Joe and the Fish.


Diamond Day was completely unknown, invisible to me....

Just another diamond day
Just a blade of grass
Just another bale of hay
And the horses pass

Just another field to plough
Just a grain of wheat
Just a sack of seed to sow
And the children eat

Just another life to live
Just a word to say
Just another love to give
And a diamond day

Writer : Jennifer Vashti Bunyan (1969)

No one was interested 46 years ago, and the album sold few copies. Bunyan left the music industry, and raised her children. Over the years, the original album slowly became much sought after.  She knew nothing of this, until one day, in the late 1990's, she did an internet search on her own name. 

The album was re-released in 2000, and Vashti Bunyan's music reached a wider audience when, in 2006,  "Just Another Diamond Day" featured in a TV advert for T-Mobile. Here, in 2014, she mentions why she allowed the song's use in an ad.....

From the same album...

Travelling north, travelling north to find you
Train wheels beating, the wind in my eyes
Don't even know what I'll say when I find you
Call out your name love, don't be surprised

It's so many miles and so long since I've met you
Don't even know what I'll find when I get to you
But suddenly now I know where I belong
It's many hundred miles and it won't be long

It won't be long
It won't be long

Train Song

Into The Magic Shop - Richard Doty

I've been reading this book. First time I've been first in the queue to read a library book, fresh and new.

About awareness of the inner dialogue. The use of mindfulness to obtain what you want. And the pitfalls.

His descriptions, as a medic, of delving inside the brain of a young child are absolutely riveting.

C Duncan - Say

Another great song, Radio 6 Music again.

Damien Jurado - Exit 353

Discovered this a couple of days ago. Only heard part, on BBC Radio 6 Music. And then
ferreted it out. The album for the song not yet released.

David Bowie

The media overload has now quietened since the death of Bowie. I never really enjoyed his work, the singles put me off listening to the albums. Unsure why, though I was unimpressed with the personnas he adopted.  They either detracted from the music, or they seemed to try to compensate for average material.

Anyway, there were two major exceptions.

The Passenger, by Iggy Pop. Bowie played organ and sang backing vocals on it. They were both in Berlin at the time. Absolutely visceral version here......

And secondly, The Man who Sold The World. Others have covered this song, stronger than the original. Lulu for one. And here, Nirvana, with Kurt Cobain looking suitably eye-deadened.

Let's Make The Water Turn Black

From a discussion elsewhere today, I got to listening to this....




And the original, from 1968.....




This album is still stored away somewhere in my collection of old vinyls. As a student, I'd skip lectures, and sneak back to my shared flat to be able to listen in peace to my choice of music. My flatmates all seemed to listen to treacle like Carole King , and James Taylor... "You've Got a Friend". To be fair, there is better partying music than a song about mutant tadpoles growing in jars of urine, and the ignition of farts as a heat source for making drugs. 

'Course, I didn't know that then, I just loved the subversive tone, and that if everyone else hated it...., "Why do you listen to that shite ?".., then it must be OK.

Have to say, them classical blokes have dun a right good version.
Quite wholesome really.
Worried.

Somerset Hairdressers - Listening Skills and Emotional Empathy

Driving to Wells the other day, listening to BBC Radio 4. An item came on, an interview with someone from  the Hairdressers Representative Association, or similar.

The gist of the interview was that hairdressers play a huge role in their customers' emotional lives, with empathic listening skills, and understanding of their problems.

As this continued, I mentally worked through some local haircutting experiences.......

The one-off in Burnham-on-Sea, when visiting family, years ago. By the time I'd left the town centre, there was the odd sticky-uppy bit.  Within half an hour my hair was sticking up, out, all over the place.

Then there was another one-off in Weston super Mare. The woman who ran the place had recently parted  from her partner. Acrimoniously. Meanwhile, she took out her angers on my head. Here a cuff, there a cuff. I don't think my head was stationary for more than a couple of seconds throughout.

A neighbour of mine went into Cheddar for a haircut. Paid up, came home.
Paused to admire himself in the hallway mirror, as you do.
They hadn't actually finished the job. Half cut. Just stopped half way through.

A hairdressers in Wells I've used on several occasions. They do a good haircut. Empathic listening ? Endless chatter between the two people who run it.

And of course, there is the well-known barber near the bus station in Wells. Also does a good haircut. I think that the whole experience can be described thus. The waiting customers are the audience, while L, the proprietor, cuts hair and holds forth with his trenchant views on this, that, and his ex-wife. The account that I particularly recall described the problems that L had had with someone who repeatedly parked their car directly outside his house. The space that L regarded as his own.

The story ends, as L pauses from cutting, and turns wide-eyed towards the punters.... ,

"Is it my fault that an Alsation shit all over his door handle.....?".

Phillipa Rees Talk

Last week I drove up to Bristol for a talk by Phillipa Rees.
Loosely, it was about consciousness.

I was reasonably familiar, from about 20 years ago, with the theories of Rupert Sheldrake.
( Hypothesis of Formative Causation). I'd never heard of Phillippa Rees, and certainly was unaware that her work ( Involution ) had preceded that of Sheldrake, Irving Lazlo and others..., by many years. 

She spoke for 90 minutes. No yawns. No fidgeting.

Reference near the end to Phi - The Golden Ratio.

( The Best ) Halloween Song

Morning ......

As I made breakfast this morning I thought..

" The sun is always shining somewhere..."

The Green Table

The other day, as I watched the news about events in Ukraine, I recalled something I'd seen years ago. In the early to mid 90's, I went to various ballet performances. Mostly the classic stuff. Swan Lake, Coppelia, Hobson's Choice....
However, one production really impressed me. Performed . I think, by the London City Ballet.

'The Green Table' by Kurt Jooss. Diplomatic negotiations in the 1930's.

Leo Kottke - Eight Miles High...

I love this.... 

John Coltrane's "India" inspired the intro to 'Eight Miles High'. Not too obvious in the Byrds original.  The repeated jazz phrasing is very clear here though.

I find Leo Kottke's melodic country underlay quite hypnotic. 

VOX CONTINENTAL...... How Cool Is That

Brilliant.



Mike Barson of Madness used it.

And years an years ago so did Ray Manzarek of The Doors. Like so.....

Timeless ....

I had one of those going nuts in Axbridge days today.., or as I said to someone a couple of years ago.. "I feel like I'm dying here..".

So I had a little drive into Weston-super-Mare, ,, and took my camera. A week or so ago, I'd seen something and thought.. "Well, they've done a really good job of that...

The new Grand Pier..

And about 100 yards from the Pier entrance.., 

The Regent Cafe. The cafe scene in the film of Kazuo Ishiguro's 'Never Let Me Go'. I did some work in this film, almost at the spot where I've taken this photo. I haven't seen the film.., unfortunately I read the book. Has it got a happy ending? Uh.., not exactly.

Rise Up

It's a new day....

Time For A Big Mac

Well, my ancient laptop finally went clunk for the last time a few weeks back. Of course I have still have my Asus Eee PC netbook, the original netbook, no crappy imitators here.

The Eee is brilliant for when I wake up up at 6.00 am and do a few hours work before I exit from bed.

However, sometimes I need to see the bigger picture.

I considered the options. I'd come to hate Windows and all the security stuff, malware avoidance, and electronic counter-measures necessary to just switch on and do something. And I'd installed Linux on my now deceased laptop, but I'd never tried an AppleMac. So I looked around.

All my internet access is done through a USB broadband stick, so I kept that in mind. I decided that a second-user iBook G4 might be OK. However, I didn't particularly want to spend £250 on computer hardware. Next option, an iBook G3. Cost would be about £150.

However, the USB ports on the iBook G3 are the old USB 1.1 non-high-speed variety which meant that internet performance would hardly improve over my old laptop. Well. I could live with that, for a while.

Then I remembered. I'd read that sales of desktop PC's had plateaued, or slightly declined, while laptops had continued to increase. So... "Laptops, popular., That must be keeping the prices up." I wandered off to... and found a thing called an eMac, deeply unfashionable, designed for the educational market, same performance as an iBook G3.

£30.00 on eBay. A gallon of diesel. £5 for a new internal clock battery. And a quick dunt with a heavy hammer to re-align a loose panel. At last, 4 decades after Elect. Eng. years at one of the best engineering universities in the country.... Fruition.

Very individualistic styling, I love it..., it looks like a space capsule. I can almost imagine climbing in , to re-appear through the other side in another world..., like Ewan MacGregor in Trainspotting, head down the toilet...

There's an End

I watched the Jim Jarmusch film 'Broken Flowers' a few nights ago. Liked the first piece of music on it, and googled on the film later. Came up with the song There is an End by a band called the Greenhornes and with vocals by Holly Golightly. I searched on her and came up with this, her own version of the song.



Beautiful.

Electric bass.., very double-bassy.., woody and electric.

I wondered about the sound. Apparently, it was recorded at the Toe-Rag
studios in London. The owner, some years ago, knew that he wanted to run
a recording studio, but felt that so many people who poured their money into
today's digital equipment.., really just ended up sounding the same as everyone
else, and soon went bust.

So he took a different route. Guitars with flatwound strings , Vox amplifiers,
Revox tape decks, analogue mixing desks acquired from the Abbey Road studios.

Result. 

Kenneth Bager - Fragment 8 - The Sound of Swing

The Renault UK TV Ad

Security Men and Libraries

26/12/08


About 6 am, some months ago. The Film Location for BBC TV series Lark Rise to Candleford. The tiny orange figure is a security man who has just started to run towards me, as I stand on the bonnet of a jeep taking photographs. Funny, the whole security man thing. You always find it in societies constructed for the rich, or on the slide. Seen it in so many countries.

10/01/09
Update to this

Just been in to a local library, the Campus, Weston-super-Mare, sit down, sign in at PC, about 15 seconds later, a burly uniformed security man walks up, glances at what is on my screen, then proceeds down all the other internet PC's.

I immediately got up and walked over to the assistants' desk.... "Excuse me, would you kindly tell your security man to stay away from me. Your computers are already filled up with your ghastly surveillance software, and I'm not having some guy peering over me. "

Feel like a criminal in my own library. Thought a library was somewhere you could relax, study, work, read , develop....

Instead they seem to be turning into places for the thought police. A while back, I typed in 'Heresy' on a screen just to see what happened, and instead of search results, up came huge red letters ACCESS DENIED . I've used libraries in about 6 UK counties, and North Somerset is about the most blatant, although the surveillance system introduced by Somerset County libraries about last April is very much its equal.

I do know that professional librarians, at least in Australia.. itself not exactly a place of liberal attitudes..., are very, very unhappy at the amount of censorship and surveillance that is now taking place in libraries. Here in the UK librarians have just gone along quietly with all the censorious crap. Unfortuneately, far too many qualified librarians have been quietly removed and replaced with people who, in the name of 'community', don't know much more than how to wield a bar-code reader. Oh, and 'business managers'. I wish someone would say to them....

"You're not a business. A business, any business, exists to generate a profit. You're here to give a great service to members. You are not a business."

Library, security man has wandered off. When I'd finished what I was doing, and headed for the exit, there he was .., leaning on the counter , joking with the staff. Whose library is it?



The more security men, the sicker the society, imo. And I particularly don't want them in libraries.

Woolworths Last Day

Woolworths in High Street Weston-super-Mare, yesterday. All the staff are there, in groups of two or three: they look lost. There is nothing left on the shelves, and in about half an hour they're out of a job. A few minutes previously I'd overheard someone speak with an assistant, who replied... "Well, we've got 12 cameras....". They both look up; surveillance cameras, to go.

Interesting article by journalist Miranda Sawyer about her local Woolies .....excerpt..

Woolworths was a democratic brand. Everyone shopped there: young, old, posh, not. There are few other shops that would cater so graciously for what is now called the care-in-the-community sector. Once it disappears from our high streets, those streets will go one of two ways. Either the site will be bought by a glitzy Tesco Metro or upmarket Waitrose.

Or you'll get Netto, or another pound shop, or it will lie empty and rot. And that egalitarian, come-one-come-all feel will have gone. You'll know the investment value of your local area by what happens to your Woolworths site

Click Here For the Full Article

I rather feel, take away the references to other store names, and you're left with a statement of some of the values of Woolworths. I believe there will be a New Woolworths.

The Baghdad Shoe Thrower....

First shoe flies towards Bush. "This is a goodbye kiss, you dog,".

Second Shoe... "This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq."

First Sales of My New Book

The first sales of my book last night, 2 copies. Real sales that is, not family, or friends. Splashed the proceeds on a bottle of wine to celebrate.
Here

Messing About in the Kitchen

New Photo....

Well, I got tired of that agent's photo, so I had a bit of a think, pulled my camera out, stood up against the door of my flat, set the camera to black and white. Then I took about 100 shots , and chose this one.

I also subscribed to the film database at Imdb. My resume is on here

Photos....

Recently received a text from the Bath agent. They'd organised a photo day in Bristol, so if I wanted mine updated...

So .....

As you can see, there's a certain qualitative difference between these pictures.

If you think I look a bit rough, well all I can say is that this is a fairly standard casting agency bodyshot for a background actor. And I'd had a rush to get there, ages to find a parking space etc.. The other photo is a typical agents /Spotlight picture for an actor.

Actor is Natalia Tena. She worked on one of the 'Afterlife' episodes that I did.


Andrew

"The Other Boleyn Girl " / Cameron Diaz

I received payment this week for a bit of my work on "The Other Boleyn Girl'.
Anyway, having received some of the money that Boleyn Productions Ltd of Pinewood (aka Sony/Columbia Pictures) owe me, I feel able to recount a lighter moment from this film...

On the last day of filming at Chalfield Manor near Bath, the weather was fairly grim. If it wasn't raining, it was getting ready to... The day wore on , running late, constant interrupts to the shoot. Multiple changes of hot-water bottles for the stars, Scarlet Johannsen, Natalie Portman, Eric Bana. For the director/assistant directors, crew.., life increasingly tense. Though not for the extras ....

Most days the background actors had crowded into the cow-shed. However, on this last day there was just 8..., 5 manservants and 3 woman-servants. We rested in the manor tea-room. Warm, cosy, convivial, coffee, biscuits. Snug as bugs in a very large rug. As life got darker and colder outside, and dark, damp, brooding figures carrying film equipment trudged past in the mud, they would gaze in as the jokes and the laughter grew.

With us was the costumier .., Jacqi. Impassive, done this work for 30 years, part of the roving band of location filmspeople.., half of life spent in edge-of-town hotels. Impassive at first, but she gradually opened up, and told a little story.

Once upon a time, there was a big budget Hollywood production somewhere in the U.S. The actors included Cameron Diaz. Jacqui and various other Brits were in the crew.

One evening, at the end of the day's shoot, Diaz returned to her trailer. She opened the door, and right in front of her she saw that someone had laid an absolutely giant turd. Beautifully formed, almost steaming, and with a lovely curly, piggy-tail on top. Needless to say, this caused great consternation and...

Next morning, the American producer gathered the whole crew together. This was serious, the famous American sense of humour had failed. "I think you all know why I am speaking to you today. This is a very serious matter, and I want the person who did this to step forward.."

And as his voice echoed out over the assembly, little speech bubbles formed above the heads .. "I did it..", "No,it was me.." , "No, no it wasn't him,I did it..". And.., well no.

Cameron Diaz took it all quite well, apparently.

'Victoria Cross Heroes' - Channel 5 --- Update

I watched the second episode of 'Victoria Cross Heroes' on Channel 5 last night. I was in it. At least, the bottom two thirds of my wellington boots and half of my arms were.

I had to laugh...; all that dressing up, the layers of clothing, sweating my bollocks off on a hot beach. All that, just for a pair of on-screen wellies.

The takes and retakes, over and over again lifting that body on to a stretcher.... "Phew.., fucking hell, Gino. Next time you play a corpse, you're goin to have to cut back on the pasties a bit.... "

'Victoria Cross' documentary - Channel 5

Last night I watched, on Channel 5 TV, the first episode of the documentary that I worked on in September. At least, I watched the first 5 or 10 minutes ; cheap special effects, just a general feel of cheapness about the whole thing. Urghh, and I told my family about this job, quite looked forward to watching it. Maybe the 1st assistant Director and Locations Director fighting in a pub garden wasn't a good sign.

Anyway, I wasn't in this episode. I'm in the episode about Commander Loftus of the destroyer 'The Shark' at the battle of Jutland in the First World War. I hope it improves.

The local freelance newspaper photographer Steve Guscott was there in September and photographed Andy Brownlie and I. The pic got printed across the South West.




After we had finished on the beach, we all drove a couple of miles down the road to Watchet, where I had lived in 1970, and did some more shots.

Took a quick photo of train pull out of station on the West Somerset Railway. Used to go to school in Taunton from here.

'Persuasion'

I did the Persuasion job last Saturday. I played the candle seller. My stall right next to the cake stall, which was pretty handy, and tasty.

Very different experience on this job, to 'The Other Boleyn Girl'.

1. No repeated threats of dismissal, in case any of the
extras carried mobile phones, and thus cameras.
2. No displays of obsequiousness to expensive, cosseted Hollywood
actors.
3. No casting agents on location trying to stem revolt among the
extras, because the agent has cut a deal with the production
company. So blatant; all you can do is curl your nose, and hope
you don't inhale too much of the smell.
[The lie: "We don't cut deals with production companies." ]
4. Good food. That is, not finding yesterdays Cumberland sausage in
todays steak pie.
5. Not feeling generally like a piece of meat, herded around on
demand.

Yes, an enjoyable day. All dressed up in 19th century gear,
walk the 700 yds through the busy centre of Bath to get to the
location. Good food. And, just about everyone I spoke to, who had
worked on 'Persuasion' earlier in the week while I was at
"..Boleyn Girl", .... said they had enjoyed it.

An onlooker had a mobile/camera....



Andrew

Jane Austen's 'Persuasion'...

Well, surprise..., the Bath agent phoned me mid-afternoon yesterday
to ask if I would do some work on 'Persuasion', Saturday. I drove
across for the costume fitting today.

I play a market trader, and I reckon I looked pretty good in that
gear, complete with 19th century winklepicker shoes. Unlike my role
in 'The Other Boleyn Girl'..., in which I look more like a hard-faced,
rather malevolent character than the servant that I'm really playing.

Anyway, the call-time on 'Boleyn Girl' tomorrow is 6am. So the alarm
will be set for 4.15am.

And I'm off to bed now.

Andrew

'The Other Boleyn Girl' ....

Tuesday 26th September...

This all started about a month ago when the agent phoned
, and she mentioned a minimum of three days work, probably
more, between 2 - 7 October. In a period drama.

I'd had several calls from her in the previous few months,
checking my availability for films, documentaries. So this
time I asked.., "Is this an availability check, or is it
real..?" It was real. And could I grow a beard, and let
my hair grow long.

I didn't hear much after that, but did a couple of other
jobs, where I mentioned to other people about the 2-7 Oct
and it seems that this 'period drama' is the film
of Jane Austen's 'Persuasion'.

Anyway, the third week in September dawned, and the 'offer'
had transformed from 3 days definite, probably more.... into..

a costume fitting, and asked to be available for the last week
in September and the first week in October, at upwards of 13%
less rate of pay than was originally mentioned. And with no
offers about number of days work. This all became clear so late
in the day, that I felt that I had been taken for a ride.
Particularly in making myself unavailable for other work. Oh,
and I forgot to mention , no overtime. And it was a completely
different film.


So anyway... Tuesday the 26th came. The production company
people had told me before I left on Monday night that I wouldn't
be needed the next day. So on the Tuesday morning I mulled a few
things over.

About 2pm I received a text message from the agent, to say that they
needed me for the Wednesday, and could I text them back to confirm.
I didn't reply. About 3 oclock, they tried phoning me on my mobile.
I didn't answer it, and they left a voicemail. I returned home about
5, and found that they had also phoned my landline. I phoned them
then.

An assistant answered. I said.. "I got your message, and yes I'll
do your job for you tomorrow. And I'd like a few words with Kate
(the agent). The agent was on the other phone, so she would call
me back.

She did.. I didn't mess around too much. I said that I didn't much
like the way that something definite had transformed into something
else completely, and completely one-sided. And "I don't quite know
how this fits with your view of things, but when I work on something
big budget, and I'm working about 5 yards away from people being paid
about 10 Million, I like to feel that in some way I'm sharing in the
largesse, even as an extra. If I was working on something with no
budget, but was creative and interesting, then I'd be willing to work
for nothing. This is a big film, and they've just had 15 hours of my
time for less than the minimum wage."

And she apologized. A huge, huge, apology. Some of the others had
been on to her that day. No petrol money. No recompense for taxi
fares for people without cars getting out to somewhere in the back of
beyond in the early hours of the morning. People feeling that they
were being treated as second-class life-forms on set. Long day,
stiffed on the rate.

She said that she wished she hadn't taken on this film, that it was a
100 Million film being made for 30 Million. That the agency was
earning virtually nothing from it. That she had to some extent been
pressurised into it. And that she had lain awake at night 'worrying
about you guys'. Etc..

Quite a performance. If it was a performance, then it was an
Oscar-winning one. It seemed genuine to me. So I accepted it. For now.

Janet Street-Porter ....

Looks like I've got to correct something....

On one of my earlier posts, I suggested that perhaps the reason
for Janet Street-Porter's 6 marriages was her moaning.

Apparently this is not true, at least according to the more recent
article in one of the Sunday's. According to Janet, within quite
a short time of marrying her first husband Tim Street-Porter, she
was off sleeping with various people. She didn't feel anything for
them, it was just good sex, and she didn't give the matter(s) much
of a second thought. And she didn't feel that she was doing
anything objectionable.

However, she wrote, when Tim found out he seemed to get terribly
upset, and promply left her. And she felt that she had ruined a
perfectly good marriage.

...... 3am. Front door opens. Figure enters hallway. Climbs stairs.
[Camera follows]. No knickers. Bitemarks on bum. "I'm home, dear.."