Rehabilitation

I watched The Work, the 2017 documentary about the group therapy sessions run at Folsom Prison amongst long-term prisoners. The notes with the disc release make clear that this was a long project, taking up ten years of preparation before the filming could properly begin. Rob began to speak to the prison shot-callers of the […]

Sein Und Zeit

I recently finished watching all 3 seasons of the German sci-fi series whose title is translated as The Dark. It is all available on Netflix, and I was watching with the option to hear it all overdubbed by American actors, with subtitles whenever the viewer was expected to understand text in the scene (including “POLIZEI”). […]

Imperial Measures

I went to the South London Gallery. First I saw the exhibition of work by Rita Keegan. In Gallery 1 at the old Fire Station, is a large work bringing together several previous projects. There are 3 video displays replaying her old films Trophies Of Empire (1992), Rites Of Passage (1991), Outfit (1999) and a […]

Orbital

I watched The Wonderful: Stories From The Space Station. This gives the human interest stories around the International Space Station. We start with the back story of the Space Race, and President Kennedy’s offer for US/Soviet collaboration on a mission to the Moon. It is implied this was a serious initiative that vanished after its […]

Ceramic Ono

I went to the office today. As far as I can see, mask-wearing on public transport varies according to the time of day, presumably tracking the different kinds of jobs people are travelling to. Bus passengers in the early hours will be covered, but later on the schoolchildren don’t bother and there are some smarter-dressed […]

Death At One’s Elbow

I watched the film Dreams Of A Life. Made in 2011, this dramatises the case of Joyce Carol Vincent, whose skeletal remains were discovered in her flat in London in 2006, and it was determine that she’d died in December 2003. The film reconstructs as much of her life and death as could be discovered. […]

Tankograd

I went to Conway Hall to see Anthony Beevor delivering his talk The Soviet Union And The Second World War. This was the first public talk I have been to since March 2020 and it seemed to be the first big post-lockdown event at the Ethical Society. It was held in the Main Hall whilst […]

Definitions & Boundaries

I went to Bush Theatre to see the new production of Pink Lemonade. The production of Overflow is still running in the main Holloway Theatre, and there is also the exhibition of the Museum Of Transology. Pink Lemonade is in the smaller Studio venue. There is a single set of pink carpet and a 3 […]

Jazz And Jasper

The evacuation of western forces from Afghanistan has provoked lots of comment about it marking a great defeat and the end of an era of foreign policy. So we might remember that there was also the great disaster that happened 100 years ago, which the Establishment succeeded in the keeping out of popular memory: the […]

The Red List

The last week I went in to the office and had the most “normal” day since March 2020 – we had to clear out of the building for a fire alarm, and there were leaving drinks for someone moving on to somewhere else. The office itself is still not back to its old usage, as […]