...and the divine baby, born in squalor in a strange town?

technorati tag: christmas, engage

in a packed programme tonight...

...it's Happy Christmas from me, and Happy Christmas from him!

So, we're off up north for a few days in a wee while, and things might be a bit quiet round here till the new year. Until then, wishing you and yours a happy and peaceful Christmas.


technorati tag: happy christmas

five things...

Darn that emergentkiwi! Just as this was starting to calm down, and I thought I’d escaped the possibility of being tagged, he went and got me…

Five things you probably didn’t know about me:

1 - I won a public debating competition when I was a teenager and as a part of the prize, got chauffeured to London to visit Parliament for the day with Dr Liam Fox MP (the now Shadow Secretary of State for Defence).

2 - In sixth form, I took two extra classes and dropped one - S-level English Lit (failed), GCSE Latin (grade A), and A-level Maths (dropped, it was my fourth subject anyway). Incidentally, I’ve got a GCSE in Photography (grade A).

3 - I have never (knowingly) told anyone how I vote in elections – I strongly believe in the notion of a secret ballot.

4 - For the first decade or so of my life, I was inseparable from my small toy rabbit called Jasmine (given to me by my great aunt Chrysle at my birth, and named by my brother after a similar Teddy Edward character).

5 - I knew within a week of going out with M that he was the one for me forever. Sometimes you just know, right?


I tag Ben Edson, Reach Out And Touch The Screen, Jonnyfun, Cris Acher, and Malcolm Chamberlain.


technorati tag: silly quiz

well, who am I?

I'm the darkness in the light
I'm the leftness in the right
I'm the rightness in the wrong
I'm the shortness in the long
I'm the goodness in the bad
I'm the saneness in the mad
I'm the sadness in the joy
I'm the gin in the gin-soaked boy

I'm the ghost in the machine
I'm the genius in the gene
I'm the beauty in the beast
I'm the sunset in the east
I'm the ruby in the dust
I'm the trust in the mistrust
I'm the Trojan horse in Troy
I'm the gin in the gin-soaked boy

I'm the tiger's empty cage
I'm the mystery's final page
I'm the stranger's lonely glance
I'm the hero's only chance
I'm the undiscovered land
I'm the single grain of sand
I'm the Christmas morning toy
I'm the gin in the gin-soaked boy

I'm the world you'll never see
I'm the slave you'll never free
I'm the truth you'll never know
I'm the place you'll never go
I'm the sound you'll never hear
I'm the course you'll never steer
I'm the will you'll not destroy
I'm the gin in the gin-soaked boy

I'm the half-truth in the lie
I'm the why not in the why
I'm the last roll of the die
I'm the old school in the tie
I'm the spirit in the sky
I'm the catcher in the rye
I'm the twinkle in her eye
I'm the Jeff Goldblum in The Fly

Well, who am I?


[Divine Comedy's 'Gin-Soaked Boy']


technorati tag: divine comedy, gin-soaked boy

a tale of two spaces...

“Black box” and “white cube” - in the arts, we bandy these about to mean two very different kinds of spaces.

A black box refers to a theatre space – dark, contained, flexible, experimental, in-the-background, technically sparse, (a)live. It brings to mind the experimental off-Broadway studios of the 60s and 70s, bearded men in polo necks doing monologues, “worthy” and “wacky” performances, earnestness…

White cube refers to a gallery space – clean, bright, light, simple, neutral, literally and metaphorically a blank canvass. The phrase has been so adopted into the cultural firmament that it’s the name of one of the most famous contemporary art galleries in London (conceived and run by Jay Jopling, art dealer extra-ordinaire). (In)Famously, Martin Creed won the Turner Prize a few years ago for his lights flashing on and off in a white cube…

But hearing the phrases seemingly anew a couple of weeks ago, it struck me that both these places are: for experimentation and experience; for creating work and challenging perception; for providing physical and mental space to encounter ‘the other’; and for hosting and confining both the work and the viewer for the duration.

So similar, so different. Why have we placed these two spaces, indeed two artforms, at one of each end of a spectrum, made them seem so opposed, when in fact they have so much in common?


technorati tag: black box, white cube

first beta post

I'm no techie but even I think that the introduction of the beta Blogger format/ system is a good thing... As I work out what it all does you might find some differences in layout and style in the coming weeks.


technorati tag: beta blogger

gig of the year!

So last night, courtesy of Lisa (you doll!), M and I went to see Seth Lakeman at the Academy 3. The best of the venues in the Academy, it's so small that you can smell the performers' sweat. And what a sweatpit it was! Despite a slightly static but appreciateive crowd, Seth and band "folked" their socks off. By the hour and a bit was up, they had nothing left to give - all 110% had gone into the show they'd treated us to. A pleasure and a privilege - and surely the coolest double-basser ever!

Best gig of 2006, no quibble Officer Dibble.




technorati tag: seth lakeman, manchester academy

swapsies

Tekin and I are undertaking a little experiment this week - reading the newspaper that the other one normally takes, thus he The Guardian and me The Independent. I think we both think we'll have ended the week converting the other to our normal reading matter...


technorati tag: the guardian, the independent

the expectations of a veiled woman...

A veiled woman.
Waiting.
Concealing.
Patiently expecting.
For the advent of the peacemaker, god-with-us son she carries.



In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you." Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end." "How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?" The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God." "I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Then the angel left her. (Luke, chapter1)


technorati tag: veiled woman, advent

lost...?

Sara just found a tenner down the back of her keyboard whilst doing her Friday desk tidy. The (post) modern equivalent of coins down the back of the sofa? Result!


technorati tag: lost and found