Icarus @ 59 # 230

Sometimes you just have to take other people's words, this is from the Oklahoma University Website, Women's Tennis, Women's Tennis Named ITA All-Academic Team, July 12, 2014, NORMAN, Okla: For the fourth year in a row and 17th time overall, the University of Oklahoma women’s tennis team has been named an ITA All-Academic Team. The ITA All-Academic Team award is open to any ITA member program that has a cumulative team grade point average of 3.20 or above. All eligible student-athletes whose names appear on the NCAA, NAIA, NJCAA, or CA JUCO eligibility form and have competed in one or more varsity matches must average into the GPA for the current academic year. In addition to the team recognition, two Sooners [Oklahoma University Athletes are Sooners] earned individual honors. Junior Abbi Melrose and sophomore Emma Devine were named to the ITA Scholar-Athlete list. The honor is the second for Melrose who was named a Scholar-Athlete in 2012. Work hard and play hard, we love to car dance to lots of music and this is a fave of me and Abbi, which I have learned to play on mandolin: 

Icarus @ 59 # 229

The great thing about digital cameras and new phones is the immediacy of the picture after the photo opportunity. I came across this butterfly outside a Mallorcan church. It is actually a piece of stray wedding confetti and I liked the way it was sitting isolated, as if trying to escape and also the way the colour caught the sunlight. Just a passing moment in a visit to the church by the Mirador de la Victoria, which is actually a restaurant in the midst of a natural environment of dense pine trees and magnificent views of the Bay of Pollensa. Mirador de la Victoria means 'View of Victoria' and, as the name suggests it provides an amazing view over the bay - though only after a hair-raising drive up the side of the mountain. not a route to be negotiated in the dark after a glass of wine. But well worth the effort. And maybe time for a bit of Summer playing in the background:

Icarus @ 59 # 228

There is no sense of balance in the world. A huge first world scandal here in the UK has been the 'phone hacking' by the Murdoch press and hearing stories of how those hacked have turned against friends and families as a result - accusing them of betraying confidences etc, straddles the news with second world troubles in Gaza (just as an example), while we can all be concerned by the Australian energy policies and now the new fracking policy here in the UK because really, once that ball gets rolling the third world is going to be pillaged even more, it was ever thus. I don't mean to sound gloomy its just that as a species we do have a propensity for screwing up our fellow human beings in pursuit of our own ends, agendas, energy and the like. And yet somehow we balance this with such beauty, like these cello suites. I know I have posted these before but I am in the mood for them right now because its not yet 6 am and the house is a sleep but the back doors are open, the early grey is in the cup and I am contemplating what good I can do today - well its a start. The clock pictured here (have I posted it before) stands in Blakers Park just round the corner from me. Its not a leaning tower like Pisa, its me leaning on my bike as I snapped it while cycling past. Brighton, like many old  towns in England, is full of Victorian parks - it was one of the best things they ever did, claiming land than can't be built on so the cities have these little oasis of green. And they are full of things like this clock, water fountains and other curios and follies. So just as the city is juxtaposed with green space, surely we can balance our lives out a little - you would think.

Icarus @ 59 # 227

I like a good storm and at 5.30 this morning, as the cats ran back inside, the lightening crackled over the houses. It was a joy to watch in blowing in from the sea. Of course driving in it was no fun, there was so much water on the roads but now the air is cooler and the streets cleaner - storms have many functions and it can be nature's way of washing away our cobwebs. I remember learning to play this song when I was just sixteen, can't paste it here because I am on my iPad so click on it if you like. It's Creedence and Have You Ever Seen the Rain - these guys are hoping they can get the job done before it comes.

Icarus @ 59 # 226

And we are back home, the garden is a little disheveled (seems it was a wee bit warm at home while we were away). Actually, it was cooler in Brighton than Alcanada last night but I couldn't sleep. Malorcan villa, no carpets, shutters, airy rooms, designed to keep cool, Brighton Victorian house designed to keep the winter out and the heat in (though its a bit paradoxical - too hot in summer, too cold in winter). But here I am, sitting at the back door again, have been up since drinking early grey tea and contemplating the day - and I have so many plans - one of which is to keep up the fitness regime. By the end of the week I was swimming 100 lengths of the pool a day. So a regime is in place. And back to posting music + a new film from Dan on 'Should you take a gap year'

Icarus flying

There is only so much time you can spend in paradise, so I am drying out the wings, replenishing the wax and am waiting for a light breeze to lift me into the air. Next stop Brighton by the sea (sigh - I live a charmed life)...

Icarus on holiday # 13

Yesterday I mentioned Americanah and it reminded me of something. Abbi brought this friend over from Oklahoma this summer. She had hardly been out of the mid west far less travel to Europe. We did the usual tourism and she visited London, Oxford, Lewes and Edinburgh as well as Brighton. We took her to a west end show, the lion king, her choice, and she loved it. But the classic comment from her was, 'I expected Simba to be white... Not black.' Ah well, its  not a black or white world. And so today will be the last in paradise, it's been great for re-charging the batteries. I have been advised to take next week off too otherwise I will lose the Annual Leave but that's ok. Next trip, Edinburgh to see my Dad - who took himself off for a picnic to Portobello in the sunshine this week. Good for him. I am going to get Dan to make a little film of him. In the meantime, this week I had a new article published in Axon, here: http://www.axonjournal.com.au/issue-6 so even on holiday I am working - it is ever thus.

Icarus on holiday # 12

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche now finished. I had hear a lot about it and it was a good enough read at this time of year but to me it felt a wee bit like the American food it eschewed. Looks great on the plate and lots of it but ultimately it was a wee bit bland. It was ggood to read the 'black' experience from an outsider's view and her observation if some if the USA is also good, like i say, lots good in it. But it never really set it's own heather alight and for me it lacked both depth and (oh dear) passion which it championed. To paraphrase, I am afraid I was 'content in a house but always sitting by the window and looking out.' It's a phrase that reminded me of Villette but without the commitment to really do something about it. In the end we had Jane Ayre, dear reader (plot spoiler coming up, you know how it ended) she...

Icarus on holiday # 11

The early morning sunshine, early morning coffee, that early morning smell of a new day, somewhere in the distance the sound of All You Need is Love by The Beatles echoes through the air. Hard to believe two of the are dead. So sitting here as the day stretches and shakes itself into life I was thinking, what a huge difference they made to our cultural life. A whole landscape changed, more than at any other time in our lifetime. It was much needed, of course, but it has got me thinking about the legacy and my own next twenty years... Food for thought and a thought for the day... in ellipses...

Icarus on holiday # 10

As Sandy Denny sang, where does the time go. It flew at an unbearably fast rate for the past near 60 years and it is speeding up, I swear it is. I don't anticipate it getting any slower either. So I guess I have no time to dawdle here...

Icarus on holiday # 9

It seemed like a good day to write a new song on my mandolin... So I did...

Icarus on holiday # 8

I have been thinking about Ovid, Virgil, Apollodorus, Pausanias and Diodorus. Thinking about why they all did something with the Icarus myth and how it survived through and often despite them into the twenty-first century. Its odd, really, that such myth should do that, become a trope for artists, poets and the like and how they should keep it alive. But what interests me most is the constant misinterpretation of the Ovid story - the folly of the boy and all that, which persists stubbornly. Stories are like that, often masquerading as truth then they take on a life of their own, its how rubbish newspapers and indeed governments work. Did Blair and Bush lie about Iraq, did Obama lie about Guantanamo, is Putin lying about a Malaysian airline - tell me this, why is a government giving terrorists weapons that can shoot a plane out of the sky when it is flying at 35,000 feet? Daedalus was a liar, Ovid makes that clear (to me at least) but he wasn’t alone. These days its easier to find out so we are using increasing new ways to suppress it - but it was ever thus...

Icarus on holiday # 7

Identity by Milan Kundera read in a day, next Harvest by Jim Grace then Americana by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche, holidays are such a pleasure. I have sniffed at The Snow Queen by Michael Cunningham (thus far) but finished the gloomy, My Year of Meats, by Ruth Ozeki and The secret History by Donna Tartt and let's see, Annie Proulx, Amy Tan, Anne Enright, Eimear McBride, och tons to go, the kindle is a joy - though I try to read paper on the beach. But the coffee is now drunk and the pool beckons. 60 lengths in two stages yesterday, more today - oh yay, getting fit in mind and body.

Icarus on holiday # 6

Meandering, languid strolling, light footed and treading gently through historical Alcudia, it's easy to forget the reputation parts of Mallorca has. You see none of that here, just a quietness that cannot still the thoughts. Milan Kundera writes that there are 3 boredoms, passive, active and rebellious. I confess I am rarely if ever bored, even sitting having coffee at the water's edge brings some kind of thought worth exploring or writing down. I have decided to call them, Brighton Beach Renoirs, just for the fun of it... Greetings from another day in paradise.

Icarus on holiday # 5

Every now and then I have come across a book by Chris Paling called, Newton's Swing and I didn't buy it because I was convinced I had a copy at home. Indeed I was convinced I had read it. So when I saw a copy in the Amnesty book shop in Brighton (buy books for a good cause) I bought it for £2. I figured I could give it to someone. Then I realised I neither had nor had I read it. Well I did so yesterday and it's very good; well written and framed. A result, methinks, can't figure out why it took so long to get there. Life I paradise continues, I will post a fb picture later.

Icarus on holiday # 4

I have read two books already, well actually finished one and started and finished another, which is pretty good going. It also means I am very relaxed and in tune with the pace of the days. That's not to say it's all i have done: what with strolling (not walking), flanuering and we even found a restaurant that serves GF spaghetti which went down a treat with a goblet (not a glass) of rose wine (only the one mind)... Aye, the days are meandering nicely...

Icarus on holiday #3

Ah, the sweet smell of clematis mingled with coffee and sea salt as I sit semi dressed on the verandah, just getting ready for my early morning swim. Indolence doesn't become me. I read loads of books on holiday which is a bit of a bus man's holiday. But I have my mandolin too and will work on something new. Oh, and a book of poetry by Katherine Coles who very kindly gave me a signed copy when last I saw her in London... But I guess that's as tough as it gets, oh lah....

Icarus on holiday # 2

Same balcony, different laptop and now sitting in a small cafe down by the water's edge sipping espresso and listening to the waves lapping on the shore. A huge ferry has just sidled into the bay so the waves are about to hit the sides and rock the lagoon boats with a vengeance, such small ripples in the huge scheme of things. And this is playing close by:

Icarus on holiday 1

Posting is going to be difficult due to my iPhone being the only source of internet. But hey, chillin' already... So I will post when and if I can.

icarus @ 59 # 212

I was remembering today (so many events, so many things to catalogue, I wish I had started writing a blog fifty years ago). I have cooked for and entertained two Bishops in my home. Now not many people can say that! One was in London, circa, 1986 the other in Brighton, circa 2004. Bishop John Richards and Bishop Elizabeth Stuart. And its funny because I asked John about the women/Bishop issue and he replied (I can still see him in my small but snug dining room - I had one in those days - in Dulwich, South London, the evening before the Synod, now I just have a kitchen) - Its too soon, he said. I am sympathetic but the time is not right. He was one of the first two "flying bishops" appointed in the wake of the General Synod's decision that year, that women might become priests. Its been 2000 years I said, at the time. Nothing, nothing at all, for a historian, he replied. Fast forward, I wrote The Storykeepers film idea, became a University Professor and friends with Professor Elizabeth Stuart, don't see her much these days after she became a Bishop (I may be wrong but of the Open Episcopal Church). The point of this story is one was open and humorous the other institutional and closed. They knew each other (John died young - 70) and as far as I know they liked and respected each other - as I do/did them. They knew each other and talking is what they both do/did best. Now where am I going with this. Well Israel and Palestine! Nothing is going to happen for the good unless the real people talk. Men, Women, Jew, Muslim... we fantasise truths for the oddest reasons but surely speaking to each other is better than the alternative. Talking, people on the streets, mothers and fathers, people affected, because religious extremism (which both bishops would eschew) needs to be addressed better. I have been racially abused many times in my life. You might not think it, but living down south in England, being a 'jock',  a 'scot', 'could peel an orange in his pocket, tight-fisted...' has been directed to me, even at my own University. But the worst, though, was in Birmingham. Abbi was playing a huge tournament, had gone to bed and I slipped out of the cheap hotel room to have a pint and watch the football. I was crossing the road and then an ASDA van pulled up so I jumped back. There were three guys inside laughing, the driver shouted, 'Want to taste me van, white man...' I wasn't a jock then, but a white man (in Birmingham)... there you go. I love Christian iconography like the picture of this bible (above). I might like the same with other religions, but my mother was Catholic and I grew up with it. I have written 15 films and tons of books as a textual intervention of the Christian story too... I think a bishop or two might approve, and I am working on a new piece, based on the Moses story... watch the space. This song   taught me I could combine writing with saying something, I am working towards that, even now. I was 14 when I first heard this, I can still play it and the words are always in my head, its one of those songs for me - but Joan too:

Icarus @ 59 # 211

The shadow to the left of the spire is worth considering in an Icarus style story of a photograph. Of course photographs can be engineered and in truth its probably little more than a smudge, but when you are writing fiction the smudge is what the imagination makes it and of course the 'probably' is crucial word. I mean it could be many things, unexplained. You can't just dismiss the possible or the plausible or indeed the implausible just because there might be an explanation for it - because of course there might not be. That is the task of the writer, to persuade the reader that what is on the page is really real, even when it isn't. Film makers do this all the time. I recently had a conversation with a Deputy Vice Chancellor of a University who admitted he put Klingon down as his religion on the census - doesn't he know its all made up, there is no Spock. But that's the power of story and storytelling. And thinking about it, I haven't seen a great movie in years. I wonder why that is? I haven't even seen one I would like to buy on DVD on a passing whim. I have disagreements with others on what a good movie is, I hated Lincoln (I thought a dull stage play) but then I did watch it on the plane to L.A., and I hated Inside Llewyn Davis because the central character was completely charmless, not even a plucky loser, so I await the next recommendation with trepidation. This is what Llewyn Davis lacked - and its all over now baby blue:

Icarus @ 59 # 210

Kamikaze figures influenced by the Icarus myth, perhaps. I was in town yesterday and bought a couple of books for holiday from the Amnesty, second hand bookshop - Amy Tan and Jim Grace, we have a different kind of secondhand bookshop in Brighton. And the holiday promises a keep fit regime. The physic (sic - that should be physio, damn  Apple autocorrect) has supplied exercises for the dodgy leg and I will be in the pool first thing every morning and probably last thing at night too. Doesn't sound much like a holiday I know but it will be and I am looking forward to it immensely. And last night I restrung a mandolin to take with me. I hate restringing instruments. Some say its cathartic but i find it a chore and do it less than I should. What I do like though is the sound of the new strings as they begin to pick out the harmonics of the instrument again. Yesterday I taught Dan how to restring his guitar (I have been spoiling him by doing it for him) but being a left handed stringer, though a right handed player, he strung the top three strings to be tightened anti-clockwise, ah well, he'll learn. I love listening to this pair, they make two voices and two guitars go a long way:

Icarus @ 59 # 209

I am trying my hat on for size in anticipation of the coming weeks when I will be in sunny climes. Just what the doctor ordered methinks, I have been chasing my tail for so long these past few weeks it will be good to take stock. Actually its always good to have a taking stock time, it helps to get the thoughts into order, because they become jumbled and less gets done than we should. And one thin I have to do is set up the Pop-Up-Poetry Vlog, which is an idea I have been working on for a couple of weeks. I will let you see the link once its done but its a simple thing to do. I will film poets talking a bit about their work and then they give a reading (or I will ask them to film themselves and post it). It will work like an extension of  the seminars I have been putting on and hopefully it will gather followers too - fingers crossed. But it will work a wee bit like this:

Icarus @ 59 # 208

Yay, the boy is back and the house is noisy and the cats are fretting and his sister is happy to see him and so is his mother and me, oh yes, me too. Of course, its only temporary. Come September we lose them both to University but that's the way it should be. Childhood is liminal, we are lucky to have kept them this long and we really only get to keep them for a short time before we pass them on to others. Nevertheless, the joy is in seeing them grow into this fledgling adult stage. And Dan's a laugh, on the way home (in the airport) he wrote this to the football team (and it was met with much mirth - bearing in mind they are mostly 3-6 years older than him) So lads we have a match on tuesday, as you know I haven't trained since april, I have only played 3 matches since march, outside of work I have only exercised once and I only arrive home from Australia on monday. But my dad's now officially the manager so I'm starting as striker, glad you all understand. As if I would take such a liberty with grown men but its great to see his impishness shining through. I am constantly surprised by the things I find on Youtube and the time that could be spent watching it all is limitless. I was looking for a copy of Thunder Road and found this whole deal - I don't have time to listen to it now but maybe later, when I am writing I will let it roll. In the meantime, 

... in the lonely cool before dawn
You hear their engines roaring on
But when you get to the porch they're gone on the wind, 

So mary climb in, its a town full of losers
And I'm pulling out of here to win...

Icarus @ 59 # 207

Its easy being a blogger, you just write what you are thinking and then put it down. I have a ten minute slot to do this so what I write depends on what is going on my life, dreams, thoughts because I try to stay honest to the thoughts that happen as I write in that ten minute slot... hmm. But does it really, I mean of course I am cautious, you can't, as Martin Amis asked us to believe, write about the fact that 'men think about sex every seven seconds...' or twenty times a day (what only twenty, goodness) and then the question arises, with whom... these are the secrets of being a man, I guess but I wonder if it is really true or not? This picture of me was taken in Barcelona by my son Dan, who flies home from Australia today and it will be great to see him. By all accounts he has had the time of his life and long may it continue. For me, the most important part of my life is seeing him happy. And when we pick him up at the airport we will listen to this driving home - while car dancing - for now it reminds me of the time we drove down the Pacific Coast from Los Angeles to San Diego, goodness, that was only a couple of months ago, how time flies, how far we travel, we really are Icarus boys:

Icarus @ 59 # 206

Sienna is one of the most remarkable cities I have ever visited. It carries itself off very well. Later in the year this place, the Piazza  del Campo becomes the site of the Palio, but actually it is a fantastic place to sit and eat. Its a city that combines its history and present with aplomb and while the Piazza del Duomo is not the prettiest of Piazzas, the Cathedral is just amazing - especially the library, the ceiling is pictured here. I have been doing a lot of thinking around this idea, the long past and the present because I am working on a piece that carries a myth through it. And its difficult to avoid the inspiration the juxtaposed old and new brings, myth and modernism, its almost a Benjaminian idea though I am sure Adorno would have approved too - did you know that Theodor Adorno did little in the way of philosophy without consulting Felizizitas (his wife Gretel). This doesn't say a huge amount, I expect it was a common idea except that we have come  along way from putting those prominent names at the head of thinking on aesthetics and dialectics. but for now, something simpler. Me and Abbi love this tune - she dances to this in Okie and its the other Bob Dylan song I mentioned to yesterday, rock me like a wagon wheel - and if you watch the film you will see Gillian Welch and David Rawlings lurking (not that everyone will know who they are):

Icarus @ 59 # 205

Summer has gone, or so it seems. After yesterday's enthusiasm and examining a PhD in the garden I am back at the kitchen table with early grey tea and a gloomy outlook. So we must take what we can, this morning I will hit the gym and then take football training this afternoon (for my sins I have agreed to work with the team again this year). There go my Saturdays again, its a commitment to the lives of others and not one I expected to make in my sixtieth year, especially since Dan won't be there, but so be it. I am now beginning to realise the significance of this flying man - especially the expression on his face. And so wooosh, of we go... watch this space for match reports. After his composition “Wagon Wheel” hit No. 1 on the country charts recently, Bob Dylan was obviously pleased with the way things turned out. So he provided The Old Medicine Show — the group that first cut it — with another “scrap” of a song that they could try recording - and here it is. This is Dylanesque country music for Gordon!

Icarus @ 59 # 204

The world is a topsy-turvy place, upside down and inside out. It would be great to wake in the morning and just be able to say, right, what shall I do today. Unfortunately my desk is cluttered with answers that need attention. Never mind, never mind, this morning I can brew some fresh coffee and examine a PhD in the garden. Not perfect but hey, I'm not working in a coal mine, going deep down down... and the most dangerous thing that can really happen is an imminent attack on my sandwich by a passing seagull. My trusty cats are standing guard just in case. But I love the sunshine, I make no concessions on that score and I would rather work at the bottom of the garden than almost anywhere else in the world. If anyone is waiting on an email, well wait away. I might even be climbing a tree, just like in this picture, as way of readdressing the crick in my neck - it works every time. This was one of the first songs I ever learned to play that had more than three chords, I was eleven or twelve at the time:

Icarus @ 59 # 203

Graffiti has a lore beyond the words inscribed, this picture couldn't get the whole quotation in because if I had stepped back further it would have been too small to read. But it said, 'I would end my days in a hail of bullets with you.' Its all very well as a sentiment but I hope it wasn't written literally. Of course, many pieces like this rarely are. Like for example the poem, Desiderata, thought to have been inscribed in a church in 1692 and turned out to be a poem by Erhmann at the start of the twentieth century.

Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.

And it goes on and like any good idea it takes on a life of its own - and I love the line that even the dull and ignorant have their story. Problem is, who judges they are dull and ignorant? Not me, I try to stay away from those kinds of judgements. I will get this blog back on track but these past weeks have been so hectic that time just runs away - although I am up at 5.30 writing this simply because I can't sleep... too much to think about, too much to do and I need to tidy up so many loose ends. At the very end of the series MASH (a huge fave of mine in the days) Charles finally gets the orchestra to play Mozart's Clarinet Quintet in A major - and its a truly stunning piece of music. I think its time to hear it again, it provides a great start to the day:

Icarus @ 59 # 202

Now if anyone is planning to do some work in Madrid, Winchester or London, as I did these past couple of weeks, take these people with you. Professors all, and mad as brushes too. They are dispersed for now and going back to where they belong - but I have a feeling we will meet again. We are already planning two books and an article - and that is just a start - I hope they fly safely - they got rhythm: