25th november slacking

I have half a newsletter written on my computer, but I don’t think it’s going to get sent now. I was writing it in a tech at the day job, but then actual work took over - encouraging students to watch their work from the back and top of the theatre, to think about where they sit in tech & dress may affect the final outcome - and I never got the proper chance to finish it. It was always going to be short, but there was a risk I was going to say things big that I didn’t quite mean.

Back at home now for the rest of the year, more or less.

I am slacking - actively. I’m tinkering with Project APOLLO, going to the movies in the day, and dreaming up a couple of tiny new things.

18th november new website

I gave my website a bit of a spruce up as some parts of it felt annoyingly blocky and clumsy. And I’ve been thinking about artistic biographies a lot, so I re-wrote mine in the third person. Trade secret: it was definitely me who wrote it. There’s not any new content other than this, but it looks a bit nicer I feel.

15th november josie long

Josie Long’s new show Tender is on at Soho Theatre at the moment and it’s a complete dream. To see her in full flow, rhythmically layering 3 or 4 jokes on top of each other, each one punctuating the other, is a beautiful thing. I thought about the Edinburgh Festival in 2005 or 2006, when she had a double bill with Dan Nightingale which I saw a couple of times; I was just starting to dare to think that I might want to try creative work and I was in awe of this person about my age being unique and brave and hip. I thought about how much her work has developed since then but how it’s also remarkably still the same voice. She’s one of my favourites.

13th november

I’m having a morning that is proving very difficult to get into. But I’ve cleaned my glasses, made coffee, opened the daybook, Wilbur’s having a nap in his bed, and all the signs are here that work is going to get done.

This music video by Farhad Ghaderi for a track by Jordan Klassen is really fantastic. The bit where it breaks out into flashing red light is the best and it’ll break your heart.

11th november media guide

I’ve been at a drama school today supporting a director make transitions for one show and then trying to diagnose a problem in a completely different show. It is in deeply uncreative times that is good to take stock of the media that’s been going into my eyeballs recently. I haven’t mentioned the bad stuff here, because why would you do that.

Beanpole

A very painful Russian movie by Kantemir Balagov, about two female friends from the frontline trying to create joy and have a ‘normal’ life of some sort in post-war Leningrad. An amazing scene in which a dressmaker brings a new dress, requiring one of the women to try it on for fitting purposes. “Can I twirl in it?”, she asks, and then twirls and twirls and twirls far beyond joy into despair.

The Souvenir

Excellent Joanna Hogg-ness. “Are they making it up as they go along?”, Abigail asks after we’ve been watching it for 5 minutes. It sure seems that way but watch that scene in a film school where they dissect the shower scene in Psycho and you’ll know there’s much, much more going on.

Cabin in the Sky

We caught a 35mm print at the BFI Southbank of this old Minelli musical - Vincente Minelli has popped up on the second branch of my artistic family tree. His staging is so complex, so fluid, such a wonder. I want to study this more in future.

Missing Person

A novel by Patrick Modiano that I’m tearing through. I keep thinking it’s an easy, pulpy noir thing, and then one chapter is just a street address and you know there’s more going on.

Ru-Paul Drag Race UK

is far meaner than the US counterpart but I still love it.