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...