Archive for 2010

2010 seems determined to end, and November doesn’t bring with it a huge amount of great news. The arts cuts are making me nervous. With Barnet already suspecting cuts to its service, and Somerset County Council following suit, my position as arts officer for a local authority  is truly unstable. It’s not just Quangos and Local Government that will suffer either – it’s arts establishments like the Oxford Theatre, the RSC , and local groups too as Arts Council England takes a hit. What that means for London as a whole remains to be seen, but with job opportunities within the arts sector shrinking, there would appear to be few places to go. No reasons to be cheerful there, then.

No good news for Stephen Fry either, as he vacates Twitter after some spurious comment in a magazine article. I’m not going to judge him, but I left Twitter first, Stephen, and I didn’t even say anything weird about women.

I’ve started my end of year album list, and suspect that it’s going to take some time to get it all up. As I said previously, I’ll release the 40 – 50 albums weekly starting at the end of this month.

In ten days or so, I’m going to the Bath Film Festival for a Q&A on Self Made with Gillian and Sam. I’m looking forward to that as it gives me a chance to catch up with an old friend down there, and spend time with a few people from the film. Having lived in the city for a year or so, I’m glad I’ll not be staying in Bath Spa much longer than a few hours. I’ll not be going to the Newcastle screening as there’s no way I can justify the cost that close to Christmas – particularly with a potential job loss looming.

Oh, and British Summer Time has become Greenwich Mean Time, so it’s all dark, just to reflect the current mood of the country. With no GMT, we’d get an extra 300 hours of daylight! Wouldn’t that be something? Maybe we’d drink less with more daylight – especially seeing as (today) alcohol is considered the most dangerous drug in Britain. I’m sure someone’s said that before.

Still, I did watch the cleverly conceived and well-shot Skeletons this weekend (along with a clutch of horror movies), and totally recommend it. Another example of British film in rude health. Enjoy it while it lasts.

“>

That’s a lot of people.

I’m not really into long-winded blog pieces, fascinated by the arbritary and commonplace. Last night I was out to dinner and surrounded by teenagers howling into their empty plates while taking pictures of each other continually. Last weekend, I spoke to a 21-year-old who commented on having access to the internet since he was six. Last night, I watched a boy who couldn’t have been more than 10 say to a security guard, “You’re a total wasteman, you know that? You’re really begninning to piss me off.”

When I was 14, and at school,  we had Computer Studies: it was a class that involved creating a fucking Ceefax page on a BBC Micro computer. In 2010, there is more tech on a phone than one of those beasts. It’s possible to surf the net, watch videos, store music – well…you know what they can do because you probably own one of them HTC or iPhone thingies. You flash git.

But what’s happened to working towards a goal? So much is instantaneous now. I want an iPod, so I’ll put it on credit, along with the rest of my debt. I want to go to New York. Done! The dream is attainable. It’s an oblique lifestyle, and not one that I want any part of. I know, this sounds like a total whinge doesn’t it?

Read the rest of this entry »