Creative Spaces

I went to the Whitechapel Gallery to see the new exhibition A Century Of The Artist’s Studio. The exhibition is divided in to 11 thematic sections, containing paintings as well as photographs and videos, of varying sizes and not in any particular chronological sequence: Performing The Studio The Collective Studio The Studio As Installation The […]

On Tuesday I travelled up to the Midlands. I stopped at the M40 services at Beaconsfield. I would say mask-wearing was down to less than 10% and now definitely something that mostly older people are persisting with. I saw an advert about the exciting opportunities to retrain as a worker on the new HS2 project. […]

Lens Flare

I watched 2 productions that relied on 1980s/90s VHS recording technology to provide “recovered documents” for mystery stories. This sort of thing became known as “found footage” after The Blair Witch Project (1999) and also the rather superior The Last Broadcast a little earlier. But the basic idea is the Mystery Manuscript that goes back […]

Sunday League Heroes

I went to see Red Pitch at Bush Theatre. Masks are still advised in the auditorium but there’s no strict enforcement nor is there any requirement for audience members to be distanced in the seating now. The show is in the main Holloway Theatre auditorium, presented in a 4-sided stage made to represent the titular […]

Palimpsest

I watched Undone (2019). This was 1 season of 8 episodes, each 30 minutes. Apparently a 2nd season was commissioned but I can find no evidence it was aired. It’s hard to see how the premise could have been continued anyway. The series is made using animation techniques, which are essential for the many transformations […]

Hypertorus

I watched Tales From The Loop (2020) on Amazon Prime. It is excellent, and all the better for the fact that it ended after 1 season of 8 episodes with absolutely no info-dump exposition of what it was all about. Thus we get the best elements of Twin Peaks and The Dark without the boring […]

Stagflation

Like a lot of people I’m not very happy to hear about rising energy bills and the other costs, and the expectation that we’ll probably have higher interest rates soon as our Conservative government reacts as its predecessors did to rising inflation. Although employment and unemployment figures are good at the moment, we are in […]

Discarded From Stock

I’ve read the new edition of They by Kay Dick, which was first published in 1977. First editions are now selling for hundreds of pounds. I had one of them in my hands about 35 years ago. If I’d had any idea I suppose I could have pinched it and realised a decent profit in […]

A Game Of Croquet

A set of all 6 Mapp And Lucia novels has been on the shelf in the Book And Record Bar in West Norwood for a while now – if you stare hard enough, you can make out the titles of Lucia In London and Queen Lucia faded out after years sunbathing on a shelf somewhere. […]

Metal Waves

I went to White Cube Gallery in Bermondsey to see the exhibition A New Nature, works by Isamu Noguchi. In the courtyard outside: Inside: In the 9 x 9 x 9 gallery: In the North Gallery: In the South Gallery: At the end of the hallway: In the room at the end, a documentary was […]

Month: February 2022