Super Sunny February!

OK…that’s bit foggy. (Warley Woods)

Just a short scrape away from Leeds is St Aidan’s Nature Park – an intriguing place to visit, which was originally an opencast mine for many years. It has since been restored to a nature park with lakes, ponds, meadows, reedbeds, and woodland glades.

From wherever you look in the park, you can always see the huge dragline excavator by the Visitor’s Centre. Known as Oddball, this huge piece of engineering equipment was used in surface mining but is now enjoyed as something of a 1220-ton ornament.

CC by SA – Oddball

Close views of a brave Bearded Tit got the day off to a superb start. The unperturbed reedling (not really a tit – and its not even bearded either, more of a moustache) pinged through the reeds and rushes, and flitted along the frozen surface of the water.

Bearded Tit

As to be expected, there was plenty of waterfowl, including Shoveller, Tufted Duck, Pintail, Teal, Wigeon and Shelduck alongside a supporting cast of Lapwings, Golden Plovers and the odd Snipe. Occasionally a Kestrel hovered into view, and a single Bullfinch zipped overhead.

Bad Hair Day for this Lapwing

As we crackled along the circular frozen paths, a Bittern came floating up above the reedbeds, and in one of the meadows, a lone Bean Goose could be seen waddling behind a tight gaggle of Pink-footed Geese.

It took a long while before the frozen paths began to thaw, which was just as well with shallow patches of slimy mud to slide through.

 

cc-Birmingham City Council

A guided walk around the atmospheric Warstone Lane Cemetery turned up a few snippets of local interest.

At last month’s Film Club, there was a screening of a little feature called Ivor the Engine. Ivor was a popular children’s television programme created and written by Oliver Postgate, who was also responsible for Pogles’ Wood, the Clangers and Bagpuss.

Well, Oliver’s great grandfather John is buried at this cemetery in the Jewellery Quarter. A university professor, John was also a committed food safety campaigner, and his son Raymond founded the Good Food Guide.

The major feature of this cemetery is the two tiers of catacombs, whose unhealthy vapours brought about the Birmingham Cemeteries Act, which insisted on non-interred coffins being sealed with lead or pitch.

Birmingham Conservation Trust

John Baskerville is one of the more notable residents in the cemetery, a businessman best remembered as a printer and type designer.

Another gem is Harry Gem who pioneered lawn tennis and whose memorial has been given a recent makeover, having previously been little more than a lichen-clad slab on the ground.

 

On 13th February 2019, UNESCO celebrated the 8th edition of World Radio Day with the theme of “Dialogue, Tolerance and Peace”.

February’s Flat Disc evening was a triple-bill of films with radio as its connecting theme. First up was The People at No. 19 – a Central Office of Information and Ministry of Health film, followed by The Quay to the Tor, a travelogue of South Devon featuring the voice of ex-Doctor Who Jon Pertwee. The main feature was Privilege, starring Paul Jones, a satire from 1967 predicting mass media being subverted as propaganda.

Dippy’s replacement…

When in London, it borders on heresy not to visit the splendid Natural History Museum, and when your hotel is only about the length of a couple of Plesiosaurs away, it is simply unforgiveable not to pop in for a look around.

It is all too easy to become overwhelmed by the masses of exhibitions – the building itself is worthy of its own pedestal – but once past the main hall with the Blue Whale skeleton dangling from the ceiling, some great little treasures can be found tucked away in a side gallery.

The Cadogan Gallery is one such trove with fascinating items ranged across a variety of scientific disciplines. Gathered here is a selection of the many wondrous things that can be found amongst the museum’s vast collection of natural wonders.

The most valuable fossil in the museum can be found in this corner of curiosities – the archetypal Archaeopteryx, the staple illustration from many a school kid’s first book on dinosaurs. This was the feathered clincher than suggested birds evolved from dinosaurs.

On display are some original images from John James Audubon’s Birds of America book, and a rare first edition of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species.

Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection was co-discovered by Alfred Russell Wallace, and an insect case from Wallace’s personal collection is also on view.

Other startling artifacts are ranged across the gallery – an Emperor Penguin’s egg, one of the three recovered from Scott’s ill-fated expedition to the South Pole; the skull of an extinct Barbary Lion, found during Tower of London excavations – the oldest lion found in the UK after the extinction of native wild lions. There were dinosaur teeth too – the first things to tell us dinosaurs once roamed Earth, and a skeleton of a Dodo, and even a chunk of Moon Rock. It’s all heady stuff!

These photos are from the museum website, plus this little clip of other little treasures on show:

Just up the road from the Natural History Museum, the Royal Geographic Society was showcasing Steve Russell’s Mountains of the Moon exhibition in a series of stunning wildlife and landscape images from the Rwenzori Mountains, a jagged range of peaks between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I remember seeing them when travelling through Africa many moons ago!

There was time for a flying visit to St Martin-in-the Fields church on the corner of Trafalgar Square.

A church was originally built on the site of St Martin’s in 1222. Then Henry VIII built a new church on the site and extended the parish boundaries to keep plague victims in the area from having to pass through his Palace of Whitehall. At this time, it was literally “in the fields,” an isolated position between the cities of Westminster and London.

Then it was time for Pinter at the Pinter, a double bill from the late fifties showing as part of the Pinter Seven season.

Harold Pinter’s first radio play, A Slight Ache (1958), starring John Heffernan and Gemma Whelan was first up followed by The Dumb Waiter (1957) with Danny Dyer and Martin Freeman.

Both plays were short and snappy and didn’t seem to date – Martin Freeman’s character even mentioned Aston Villa losing at home so it’s well up to speed.

Here’s the edited five-star review from Michael Billington of the Guardian:

The season of Harold Pinter’s one-act plays comes to a glorious climax with two of his earliest pieces. The pairing of Danny Dyer and Martin Freeman in The Dumb Waiter (1957) guarantees a pre-sold hit. But it is Jamie Lloyd’s production of a lesser-known radio play, A Slight Ache (1959), with John Heffernan and Gemma Whelan from Game of Thrones that provides a genuine shock and surprise.

The Dumb Waiter is a classic study of two gunmen nervously awaiting instructions in the bleak basement of a Birmingham restaurant. Gus, an anxious hitman, asks endless questions while the senior partner, Ben, obeys orders. In Lloyd’s production, even the dumb waiter comes crashing down with the force of a guillotine.

Photo: Marc Brenner

The play is a joy for actors. Freeman avoids the temptation to make the fretful Gus overtly comic: instead he gives us a dapper organisation man, aware that something is not quite right. Dyer, with his looming physique, is the perfect epitome of fake assurance as he rubs his sweaty palms on his thighs. The beauty of this production is that it shows both men are aware that they are part of a hierarchy of terror.

A Slight Ache has Heffernan and Whelan initially sitting at microphones as they play a comfortably middle-class couple, Edward and Flora, having a mild spat over the breakfast table. But the action hinges on the intrusion into their lives of an old match-seller who exposes the precariousness not just of their marriage but of their whole existence.

Marc Brenner

These two plays conclude a season that has been full of discoveries, reminding us that Pinter had a unified imagination. It has demolished the myth that one-act plays, like short stories, are an inferior form. In Pinter’s hands they are as richly fulfilling as many an inordinate three-hour epic.

With Danny Dyer having recently discovered his right royal roots in a BBC ancestry programme – his bloodline being traced back to William the Conqueror and Edward III – it seemed pertinent to visit some of his family during quick shunt around the National Portrait Gallery. There was only enough time to check out the Tudor and Stuart galleries in which to pay suitable homage to Danny’s kin.

However, statistically we’re all descended from royalty – it’s all in the maths with some experts reckoning that 80% of England’s present population descends from Edward III.

 

Back in Brum, there was more theatre action at the Alexandra with the very sweary Glengarry Glen Ross.

Yet again, a review is lazily plucked and brutalised from the local papers – this one by Euan Rose for the Bromsgrove Standard:

Glengarry Glen Ross comes to the Alex in its entire West End splendor – a brilliant cast,  outstanding sets, and powerful direction.

It shows us the raw underbelly of the nasty world of American real estate back in the 1980s before the big crash.

The ‘Glengarry Glenn Ross’ are poor areas of real estate being marketed as top notch by four salesmen of various levels of success and competence who work for the same company and are prepared to lie, bribe, intimidate and even engage in criminality to make a sale.

Act One opens literally with a bang as the lights snap up in a well worn Chinese restaurant which is so real you could be somewhere next door to the Alex in Birmingham’s Chinatown (they even have the same timeless wallpaper).

The American dialogue bangs in too, Mark Benton plays the overweight, past his sell-by-date Shelly Levene, with Scott Sparrow playing the emotionless office manager. Denis Conway plays angry salesman Dave who is attempting to cajole George (Wil Johnson) into breaking into the office at night and stealing all the sales leads, which he has already pre-sold to a rival company.

Nigel Harman is the oily salesman Ricky Roma, and client James Staddon plays his innocent target.

Act Two is an equally impressive setting – a cheap tired office, which reeks of stale smoke and sweat where our nest of vipers conduct their business.

There are piles and piles of boxes, which literally go up to the ceiling, desks buried in phone directories and papers, open filing cabinets and wallboards with old notices pinned to them in bundles. So great is the clutter that we can be forgiven that it is only when we meet the police detective who comes out of the interview room that we learn there has been a robbery the night before and yes the coveted sales leads have gone!

The all male cast is seven-strong, all simply superbly cast and played to perfection.

I felt in the presence of something very special – it’s not the first time I’ve seen this play or indeed the film but it is by far the best.

There was a bonus in the pub afterwards when we met and chatted (somewhat briefly) with a very agreeable Mark Benton…

Some tunes were needed to see out the month, and a trip to the Birmingham Institute to see Dave Grohl’s favourite support band – the brilliant Struts fulfilling all musical expectations with a barnstorming set that required several ales to be quaffed along the way.

Support was by the Overlaps.

Now for a cribbed review by Andy Thorley of Maximum Volume Music:

Occasionally you might as well start with the obvious. So here is the inescapable fact: The Struts are going to be huge.

The Struts think they’re huge already. They’re rock stars. We are told that rock is dead; we are told that no one likes showmanship anymore and everything has to be hip.

No one told Luke Spiller. The Struts frontman is the sort of fella that goes to Tesco’s in a fur coat and dark glasses. A man who doesn’t walk, he flounces. He does all this in a pair of multi-coloured spandex trousers – with tassels on.

Right from the off, ‘Primadonna Like Me’ is as if someone has distilled every rock n roll cliché down to its absolute best bit and injected The Struts with it.

Spiller is like a cross between Freddie Mercury, Steven Tyler and Noel Fielding. There’s a reason that Guns N Roses, The Stones and The Foo Fighters are just some of the bands that they’ve opened for.

‘Mary Go Round’ does that thing that many bands do where they light the room with mobile phone torches, but it is ‘Dancing In The Dark’ which becomes the centrepiece – even getting a young lady from the first row to do the Courtney Cox thing.

Spiller is soon wearing another outfit – about his fifth – as they play ‘Could Have Been Me’ to end things.

The Struts are a colourful explosion of unashamed and unabashed rock ‘n’ roll – they are out there, they are loud and they are very, very proud!

 

To finish February, another atmospheric photo of Warley Woods, taken early one morning before the unseasonably warm weather (the hottest February on record) burned through the mist.

Sunken March

Fully loaded with a family bag of Minstrels and a frothy Latte, it was off to the cinema for the latest release from Marvel – The Black Panther.

Apart from the dire Fantastic Four films, Marvel’s characters always provide an entertaining diversion, although the eponymous hero in this case seems to have accrued more super powers than the character I was familiar with as a kid.

The film posters are pretty impressive too.

 

It was quite early on in the month when a bit of culture was deemed to be coming on…so it was off to see Quartet. This from the Birmingham Rep:

A very entertaining production, seen from the cheap seats!

Quartet is the charming tale of four ageing opera singers. Cecily, Reggie and Wilfred reside in a magnificent retirement home. The rumour circling the halls is that the home is soon to play host to a new resident. Word is – it’s a star! Jean arrives and old rivalries resurface, secrets are revealed and chaos unfolds, but in true theatrical tradition – the show must go on!

Paul Nicholas, Wendi Peters, Sue Holderness and Jeff Rawle star in a revival of the bitter-sweet comedy Quartet from the Oscar-winning writer Sir Ronald Harwood. A celebration of the twilight years and the hilarity of growing old disgracefully!

 

Redshank

Nature Notes Warning:

The annual long weekend to Devon gave us good weather for ducks…and grebes!

Over the course of the long weekend, we notched up grebes galore – Great Crested, Little, Black-necked, Red-necked and Slavonian.

First port of call was to clock the Cirl Buntings over at Labrador Bay, and one was duly clocked as soon as we parked up, popping along the hedge of the car park. Before we had hardly stepped out of the car, a Skylark ascended and a Sparrowhawk suddenly zipped by. The hawk ominously glided down a scrubby trail leading to a favourite field of the Cirls. Fortunately there was plenty of bunting laid out to celebrate our arrival.

The Cirls proved to be very confiding if a little skittish, and flitted back and forth to snaffle seeds from the field edge. A Peregrine put in a soaring appearance, scything through the sky in typical imperious fashion but the buntings were clearly beneath its notice.

Then it was onto Broadsands to nab the Great Northern Diver – a Rock Pipit, Gannet and Scoter having to be content with second billing. The rain came in hard so rather than huddle away from the elements on Berry Head, we headed to Beesands where in a ley lay our Red-necked Grebe – and a new one: a Ring-necked Duck.

They’re mad for maintaining their flags in Beesands…

Slapton is a little Devon village, which gives its name to the nearby beach of Slapton Sands. Presiding over this coastal bar is a Sherman Tank, which was recovered from the ill-fated Exercise Tiger that took place in 1944.

Exercise Tiger was the code name for one of a series of large-scale rehearsals for the D-Day invasion of Normandy. 749 American soldiers and sailors died during this rehearsal when German E-Boats snuck in and torpedoed three ships. More men died during Exercise Tiger than died in the actual landings on Utah Beach.

This from the information board by the tank:

A strange gull had appeared in the waters around Langstone Cliff, a short sandwich-snatch away from our hotel – the spookily named Langstone Cliff Hotel.

As gullish as a gull can be, it didn’t look particularly exotic to us. However, a handy gull expert nearby insisted it was a possible partial albino Thayer’s and Kumlien’s gull hybrid! (what do you mean, hold you back?)

Here it is:

We then headed over to Exminster Marshes where an obliging Black-necked Grebe pootled about in the canal. Red-breasted Mergansers were also present, as was an unusual Cormorant that looked as if he had just popped in from a face-painting session at the Turf pub.

Bowling Green Marsh near Topsham was where the rain began to pick up again so it called for some serious hide huddling. Wigeon, Teal, Pintail and the ubiquitous Mallard scuttled around the water; a pair of Snipe snipped in for a quick paddle, and Greenshanks and Redshanks stretched out their legs in the shallows. A Kingfisher perched awhile from a post.

A Slavonian Grebe – the final grebe of the weekend – was viewed from Cockwood, bouncing along in the turbulent waters of the sea. Brent Geese were busy cropping the fairway of the adjacent golf course where a couple of dead lapwings were also in evidence – casualties, no doubt, of the recent ‘Beast from the East’ snowstorms or, as they call it in Russia: Thursday.

 

Meanwhile at Film Club Night, the main feature was Double Indemnity.

Scoring 96% on the TOMATOMETER, here’s Linda Rasmussen’s take on Rotten Tomatoes:

Directed by Billy Wilder and adapted from a James M. Cain novel, Double Indemnity represents the high-water mark of 1940s film noir urban crime dramas in which a greedy, weak man is seduced and trapped by a cold, evil woman. Phyllis (Barbara Stanwyck) seduces insurance agent Walter (Fred MacMurray) into murdering her husband to collect his accident policy. The murder goes as planned, but after the couple’s passion cools, each becomes suspicious of the other’s motives. Double Indemnity ranks with the classics of mainstream Hollywood movie-making.

The short second film, also based on a James M. Cain story, was The Girl In the Storm, made in 1990 and capturing the essence of American film noir from the period, using 16mm film stock. The film explores a situation where two strangers are thrown together in a dangerous environment. In fairness, a dangerous environment to the girl could be have been anything from a infant’s tea party at Fluffy Camp to a spelling competition with gerbils judging by the fragility of the woman – she gets knocked out when her car stalls and is killed by a mere waft of a knock on her head.

Anyway, a quick search on YouTube and here it is in all its 15 minute glory:

 

Having been postponed due to the Beast from the East, the annual spring jaunt to the Forest of Dean only just got underway before the month was out.

Cannop Ponds

There was a brief stop at Lydney to check out a couple of waterlogged fields for a reported Glossy Ibis but there was no sign of the shiny bird although a bevy of Red-legged Partridges were nicely lined up on a concrete wall for formal inspection.

Then onto Parkend where we missed out on the Hawfinches but clocked a couple of spiraling Goshawks. New Fancy View provided more distant Goshawks with a supporting cast of several Buzzards and an indolent Sparrowhawk circling above.

The real stars though, were the couple of Adders out for a bask in the sunshine. There was one curled up just off the path, and another braver soul sunning itself beneath the viewing platform where a couple of Common Lizards had also put out their beachtowels.

Never Mind the Goshawks – there’s an Adder in that corner…

After lunch at Beechenhurst, it was onto Cannop Ponds for Mandarin amongst a reasonable selection of Ducks, Coots and Little Grebes; the always-reliable Treecreeper moused its way up the trees nearby.

Finally, nestled in at Crabtree, a Great Grey Shrike put the cap on a fine day.

 

The Coming Out Exhibition at the Gas Hall was well worth dipping into.

This major exhibition featured over 80 modern and contemporary artworks by internationally renowned artists who explore themes of gender, sexuality and identity in art.

The exhibition curated art by many well known artists, including works by Andy Warhol, Grayson Perry, David Hockney, Francis Bacon, Steve McQueen, Derek Jarman, and Richard Hamilton.

Photos from the Art Gallery’s website:

 

January Commentary 2018

Spent the New Year in Matlock with the family (that’s not Matlock above, by the way…)

Situated on the edge of the Peak District, Matlock does a nice line in rocky outcrops, underlying bedrock and watercourses. The River Derwent winds its way through nearby Matlock Bath, and appears to possess something of a dogged nature, opting to cut its way through a limestone gorge rather than follow an easier route to the east. Geologists may suggest landslips or glaciation would account for this but sometimes a river just wants to get out of its comfort zone.

Annie and Sarah in need of some winter sun

Matlock Bath developed as a spa town when thermal springs were discovered there, and both John Ruskin and Lord Byron – celebrities in their day – popped over to check the waters out. Not long after, they may well have been inspired to a bit of canvas daubing and sonnet scribbling.

This may be an opportune time to introduce a few notable quotes from Lord Byron:

Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine.

Friendship may, and often does, grow into love, but love never subsides into friendship.

The great art of life is sensation, to feel that we exist, even in pain.

There is pleasure in the pathless woods, there is rapture in the lonely shore, there is society where none intrudes, by the deep sea, and music in its roar; I love not Man the less, but Nature more.

I only go out to get me a fresh appetite for being alone.

Lots of necessary drinking took place with an inevitable curry at Maazi’s – a contemporary Indian restaurant set in a former cinema with an incongruous tuk-tuk plonked neatly above the main entrance.

An incongruous tuk-tuk

 

I’m not sure if Alan Bennett ever went to Matlock Bath (I’m betting he has) but in his memoir, Keeping On Keeping On, he borrows a line from the poet R. S. Thomas on political correctness, which is worth an airing:

I am not going to affect the livery

Of the times’ prudery.

 

That’s enough culture to be going on with. How to follow a great few days in the Peak District? I would have thought going to a Pen Museum would be the obvious answer.

Pen Museum – Oosoom

Based in a former pen factory, the wittily entitled Pen Museum celebrates the story of how our modern pens evolved from quill to steel nib to fountain pen.

Birmingham’s factories supplied the majority of pens to people all over the world with thousands of skilled craftsmen and women employed in the industry. Apart from anything else, it encouraged many who previously could not afford to write to develop literacy skills.

Tucked away in the Jewelry Quarter, it is a quirky little museum packed with exhibitions and fascinating bits and pieces.

Of course, the whole business collapsed after the invention of that pesky little Biro – but that’s another story…

englandexplore.com/birmingham

 

The annual trip out to Rutland Water turned up its usual blend of birds and banter but we didn’t manage to cover as much ground as usual. This was probably due to a surfeit of waterfowl splashing around on the water, and we enjoyed particularly good views of the bonny Smew (it’s a duck!)

There must be something feathery out there…

There also seemed to be more waterfowl than ever ducking and dabbling around the pools in huge numbers – just about every species of duck you would expect to see including Pintail and Goldeneye. A sneaky Caspian Gull also managed to immerse itself in with a flock of floating gulls until some sharp-eyed birders dug it out.

A few Red Kites were spotted en route to Rutland in the morning. On the return journey, further diversion was provided when a loud crack came from the roof of the coach. Some air-conditioning mechanism had been torn loose, and there was a bit of a cold journey back for some.

One bird at Rutland that did get pulses racing – plus a fair bit of jostling and jousting in the hide – was that splendid little wader, the Whimbrel.

Always a bit of a star whenever seen in the UK, they seem ten-a-penny in the Canary Islands. (This is a lazy little tie-in to that other annual pilgrimage of ours – a cheeky week in the sun!)

Arrecife Gran Hotel & Spa

Lanzarote was the island of choice this year and although not overly sunny and hot, there was still enough warmth for shorts and T-shirts during the day, and a fleece in the evenings.

Steve and I stayed at the Arrecife Gran Hotel & Spa. Located on the front and alongside the harbour, overlooking the Reducto Beach. It is the biggest landmark on the skyline with seventeen floors (we were on the sixteenth, just below the panoramic bar!)

The capital of Lanzarote, Arrecife was once a small fishing village – boats could be hidden behind the black volcanic reefs to deter pirate attacks.

Another defensive stronghold to keep out the pirates was just along from the hotel, the Castillo de San Jose, a historic fortress now housing contemporary art exhibitions in the barrel-vaulted rooms that were once used to store powder.

Castillo de San Jose

“Eat my goal!”

On Sunday, we went to watch Lanzarote FC play the Villa.

Brad Cockerell (the son of a friend of a brother) plays in midfield for Lanzarote’s top team but unfortunately he wasn’t on the pitch as they went down 0-1 in the last minute to Villa Santa Brigida.

The neighbouring resorts of Costa Teguise and Puerto del Carmen are all within easy reach of Arrecife. Certain levels of exploration were required, which took in several bars along the way.

Great Grey Shrike at Costa Teguise

Steve finds his spiritual home

As do I

Puerto del Carmen was within walking distance along the coastal pathway that sneaked around the airport. Flitting around the rocky beaches were more Whimbrel, Turnstones and Sanderlings, which provided the ornithological diversion between beers.

Sanderling

Bar-tailed Godwit

Whimbrel

Ringed Plover

Grey Plover

The marina also became a favoured spot for a little light drinking…

 

Stop Press! A children’s book that I illustrated is now up and running on the shelves:

http://thesanitycompany.co.uk/product.php?id=8

After the publication of the children’s book, it seemed of only natural to attend the Wolverhampton Literary Festival at the end of the month.

At first I thought it would be a good opportunity to discuss the metric structure of Byron’s love poetry with kindred spirits – or possibly to interrogate the conflicting interpretations of Kafka’s Metamorphosis.

But really I wanted to go so I could ride on the tram.

There were a couple of very good talks to attend – a passionate delivery on the merits of writing groups by the Oldbury Writing Group, and a interesting discussion given by a panel of self-published authors, which provided much grist to this mill.

Now, here’s a little extra plug for my own novel published a couple of years ago (in the very unlikely event that anyone missed this little gem!)

Please read the amazon reviews first though – it definitely isn’t a children’s book despite one friend accidentally ordering several copies for her children’s library!

 

The Flat Disc Society’s film offering this month was this excellent choice:

It scored 93% on the Tomatometer – and here’s a review by Hal Erickson from the Rotten Tomatoes website:

John Huston’s 1948 treasure-hunt classic begins as drifter Fred Dobbs (Humphrey Bogart), down and out in Mexico, impulsively spends his last bit of dough on a lottery ticket. Later on, Dobbs and fellow indigent Curtin (Tim Holt) seek shelter in a cheap flophouse and meet Howard (Walter Huston), a toothless, garrulous old coot who regales them with stories about prospecting for gold.

Forcibly collecting their pay from their shifty boss, Dobbs and Curtin combine this money with Dobbs’s unexpected windfall from a lottery ticket and, together with Howard, buy the tools for a prospecting expedition. Dobbs has pledged that anything they dig up will be split three ways, but Howard, who’s heard that song before, doesn’t quite swallow this.

As the gold is mined and measured, Dobbs grows increasingly paranoid and distrustful, and the men gradually turn against each other on the way toward a bitterly ironic conclusion. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is a superior morality play and one of the best movie treatments of the corrosiveness of greed.

Huston keeps a typically light and entertaining touch despite the strong theme, for which he won Oscars for both Director and Screenplay, as well as a supporting award for his father Walter, making Walter, John, and Anjelica Huston the only three generations of one family all to win Oscars.

 

There was a short introductory cartoon, Bugs Bunny Rides Again, to start things off – one of the first cartoons to pair Bugs and Yosemite Sam who faced off in the Western town of Rising Gorge.

 

That’s all folks!

Dismembering September

Occasionally, the UK provides little scenes that wouldn’t be out of place in the wilds of the America West (admittedly there may be a certain lack of fire and brimstone).

One such occasion happened during our weekend in Minsmere in Suffolk where we enjoyed the spectacle of three otters winnowing about in the shallows of Island Mere. (There was also a fourth otter – we saw one earlier but it may have belonged to this particular trio). A Marsh Harrier circled the otters on the lookout for fishy scraps; a Kingfisher fished and caught a fish, a Bittern sailed into the reeds, and a Water Rail sprinted between reed beds.

Water Rail Chick with a bald spot

Rare Headless Water Birds

As dusk approached, a Red Deer trotted past us, and several Green Woodpeckers rose up and pegged it as we walked up Whin Hill. Late sightings of Stoats, Muntjac and Red-legged Partridges all capped a fine day.

With acres of woodland, wetland, scrapes and heath – and a bit of coastal to go with it, you could spend weeks in Minsmere and never think it enough.

Mingling with the ducks and waders were Spotted Redshank, Ruff, Avocet and godwits. Elusive Bearded Tits (stop sniggering at the back) showed well in the reeds, and a Red-necked Phalarope dropped in. Raptors were well represented by the harriers, a Peregrine, Sparrowhawk, Hobby and Kestrel. Emerging from the grazing marshes, a Chinese Water Deer stepped out from the tall grasses for a quick munch.

There is much to recommend Southwold for its proximity when visiting Minsmere. Not least the Adnams brewery, which faithfully stocks the town pubs with a selection of its wares.

The town was also the home of a number of Puritan emigrants to the Massachusetts Bay Colony so it ties in nicely with the previous post.

Southwold has a pier, and a lighthouse; brightly painted beach huts overlook the sand and shingle beach.

Pre-squabble Gulls

A short hop past the old and new water towers took us to Southwold Harbour, where a squabble of gulls fought over a dead rat. The rowing boat ferry service then rowed us over to Walberswick where a quick pint was quaffed. It was not long before the rain lashed down and forced us into Southwold’s pubs.

Now for a little Crow Collection cartoon before we go into the culture section: This one almost never made the cut as it was deemed too icky but it sold quite well:

 

At the Barber Institute, there was a Monet doing the rounds.

Water Lily Pond, on loan from Chicago in exchange for a Gauguin, was showing well in the Blue Gallery. Probably one of the most recognisable motifs of Impressionism – the Japanese bridge over the water lily pond in Monet’s garden at Giverny was a theme he became obsessed with – and this version is considered one of the artist’s most luminescent masterpieces.

Water Lily Pond

Minding its own business close by was an early oil painting by Henri Matisse – Landscape in Corsica – on long-time loan from a private collection.

The Barber Institute never fails to deliver, and in a little offshoot gallery, an exhibition was showing 19^th-century portrait photography, with many public figures striking notable poses including Queen Victoria, Oscar Wilde and John Hanning Speke.

 

Craig Deeley was appearing at the Glee Club’s Rough Works with Joe Lycett, Andy Robinson and a whole bunch of comedians. For the comedians, Rough Works provides an ideal platform to try out brand new material, and the packed audiences are very encouraging and supportive. A very funny night out with drinks before, during and after – and the comedy was pretty good too (drum roll).

The resumption of Film Club opened with the Spanish animation film Wrinkles, the story of a retired bank manager who has been shuffled off into an elderly care home. The Tomatometer from Rotten Tomatoes website gives it 96% and the consensus can be agreed on as such:

Poignant and tender without succumbing to schmaltz, Wrinkles offers a thoughtful — and beautifully animated look at old age.

The “I Want! I Want!” Art & Technology exhibition at Birmingham Gas Hall was inspired by William Blake’s engraving of the same name. This little engraving shows a tiny figure that announces his desire to get to the moon with a cry, “I want! I want!” It conjures up a memorable image of aspirational zeal.

The exhibition features work by contemporary artists who have been influenced by the rapid development of technology. Some interesting stuff was on show – particularly the Dawn Chorus video installation and a computer animation by celebrated Blur cover-artist Julian Opie.

March-ing On

Common Lizard

A heady mix of gladiatorial passion and throbbing football was the order of the day with Tamworth downing high-flying Salford City 2-0 at the Lamb Stadium. Salford City had risen phoenix-like in recent years with the unparalleled wisdom and experience of Manchester United’s former poster boys investing in the club. Unphoenix-like but very in tune with the death throes of a stricken grouse on the Glorious Twelfth, Tamworth’s talons were unsheathed and, with little regard for mixed metaphors, felled the northern giants.

But enough of that.

The avian theme continued, however, with our annual pilgrimage to the Forest of Dean with the West Midland Bird Club.

To notch up Hawfinch, Goshawk and Great Grey Shrike before the day was done is always mightily pleasing. Added for extra vim, in the skies above the New Fairy Viewpoint, were a Peregrine, Sparrowhawk, Buzzards and Raven.

Also warming up nicely along the viewpoint was a couple of Common Lizards, either very confiding or just too cold to move.

To complement, here’s a lizardy cartoon from the crow Collection:

Its impossible not to enjoy a day out in the spring forest regardless of what may or may not be seen but there’s always something to gladden the eye. The Hawfinches were spied along the treetops at Parkend; the over-wintering shrike (there’s always one) put on an inhibited showing at Crabtree Hill and goshawks plied their distant aerial acrobatics at New Fancy.

Great Grey Shrike – Marek Szczepanek (the photographer, not the Latin name!)

Hawfinch – Mikils

 

The Commitments was on at the Alexandra Theatre, and we squeezed into the restricted leg-room seats to enjoy a hugely entertaining production based on the successful film, which was based on the successful book by Roddy Doyle, which was adapted for the stage, which whatever…

Apart from the usual grumpy tirade about having to pay outrageous extra ticket fees on top of ticket prices and then getting hit by a stealthy transaction fee (for what? For why? For Goodness Sake!) it was surprising not to be subsequently charged an entrance fee at the door and a completion charge to exit at the end of the show!

Tirade over. It was a great show, as summed up by this review by Diana Davies of the Express and Star:

The Commitments, New Alexandra Theatre – review and pictures

These are things we learnt whilst watching The Commitments stage show last night.

Soul is politics, soul is the rhythm of the working people, soul is sex and sex is soul.

Well if soul is sex then I am certainly in need of a rest and a cigarette after watching that performance at the New Alexandra Theatre. That much soul can wear a girl out!

Watching this production of The Commitments is like your best night out with your craziest friends – or family!

Set in Dublin in 1986, young music lover Jimmy decides to form the ‘world’s hardest working band’ to bring soul to the people of Ireland and sets about recruiting band members.

What follows is a cacophony of people shouting and occasionally fighting, oodles of laughs and some fantastic classic soul tunes.

Andrew Linnie who delivers a solid performance as the ambitious young entrepreneur plays Jimmy but he is ultimately the ‘straight man’ to the many colourful characters in the band and the production.

The strangely charismatic, ageing musician Joey ‘The Lips’ who claims to have a musical CV to die for, is back in Dublin to spread the word and love of God – though he spreads the love a little too freely with the girl singers in the band.

The base but annoyingly-talented singer Deco is played by Brian Gilligan. If soul is sex then the velvety smooth seductive voice of Gilligan is the aphrodisiac. His performances of It’s a Thin Line Between Love & Hate and also Try a Little Tenderness send a tingle down the spine that sinks down to your very toenails.

And his irrepressible energy in such upbeat numbers as Proud Mary, Mustang Sally and Papa Was a Rolling Stone is stubbornly infectious.

Sadly Deco is an aphrodisiac that works only if you close your eyes, as the character’s personal habits are as detestable as his arrogance and vanity.

Kevin Kennedy – who for most of Britain will only ever be Curly Watts – brings a lot of laughs as Jimmy’s ‘Da’ despite a dodgy accent, while my favourite character was Mickah, played by Sam Fordham, as the excitable and somewhat menacing ‘security’ man.

The trio of backing singers are played by Amy Penston, Leah Penston and Christina Tedders who, as well as demonstrating some incredible vocals, play interesting, individual characters who have their own influence on the dynamics of the band.

It came as no surprise to see everyone on their feet at the end of the show singing and clapping along – we had been fighting the urge from the start of the show.

Bonus clip: here’s a little taster of the gang from their Dublin show on YouTube:

 

This month’s Flat Disc Society film, La Strada, is also doing the rounds at the Birmingham Rep this year. So this is the Rep’s own take on it, which, as usual, saves me a job:

Frederico Fellini’s Oscar-winning La Strada is one of the all-time masterpieces of world cinema.

La Strada ‘The Road’, a metaphor for life, is a deeply impassioned tale of love and loss. A journey into the heart of the Italian countryside where Gelsomina, full of the innocent spirit of youth, is bought by Zampano, a travelling street performer, to join his ‘strong man’ act. When the mismatched pair stumble across a ragtag circus and a daredevil tight-rope walker, Gelsomina finds herself caught between the two men, not knowing which way to turn…

Before the main feature, we were treated to a short film, The Vagabond, featuring Smethwick’s very own Charlie Chaplin!

Here’s some pertinent – and handy – photos from the Birmingham Mail website:

Michael Chaplin attending the unveiling of a memorial to the Romany Gypsy community in Smethwick, where his father Charlie Chaplin is believed to have been born.

The Black Patch in the 1850s.

Black Patch Park in Smethwick, thought to be the birthplace of comedian Charlie Chaplin.

 

It was not too far a venture this month for our monthly walk as we nipped over the border to Warwickshire and stretched our legs around the Studley area.

Here’s Stuart with the particulars:

Map: Explorer 220

Parking: Sports Centre car park, off Pool Road, Studley. Free parking and there are “award winning” toilets a short distance on at start of walk.

Grid reference: SP070636

Post code for satnav: B80 7QU

The walk:

I haven’t pre-walked the route yet but my route will be roughly south towards Coughton and then north west to Sambourne for lunch at The Green Dragon pub. An excellent pub, which serves well-kept Hobsons and Purity beers.

After lunch it’s east and then north to follow River Arrow back to Studley.

It was a nice, flat walk – none of that hilly nonsense. The Green Dragon pub was interesting in that it was a regular haunt for Brummie comedy actor Tony Hancock – his Mom having been the licensee for a few years.

Once more, I have plundered YouTube for this clip of Hancock delivering one of his more memorable skits: The Blood Donor bit:

 

Managed to catch the last weekend of the Francis Bacon exhibition – or rather last chance to see his painting, Two Figures in a Room, at the splendid Barber Institute. The painting was on loan from the University of East Anglia, and is the first ever to go on display at the Barber. Here’s the painting and the blurb from the Barber website:

This disquieting image from Bacon’s middle years features two naked figures, usually interpreted as male lovers, and was daring and provocative at the time of its creation, when homosexual acts in private between men were still illegal in the UK. Works by Matisse, Degas and Michelangelo have been suggested as sources for the two figures – and its display among the old master paintings of the permanent collection simultaneously suggests the debt and influence of historic art on modern painters.

Remembering September

A staff industry update residential by the Business School@UCB tagged Liverpool and Manchester with the onerous task of keeping us informed and entertained for a couple of days.

Armed with Enterprise, Regeneration and Digital Innovation themes, these two major cities ticked all the boxes for our team building and bonding sessions.

First up was a tour of the Auto Trader premises, which followed a talk on the challenges of running an online commercial business.

 

The Auto Trader magazine was published weekly in a number of regional editions with circulation peaking at 368,000 in 2000 but soon dropping down to 27,000 by 2013. It was in this year, 36 years after it began, that the final magazine was printed before the company concentrated on its online business.

First and Final editions

 

Autotrader.co.uk was launched in 1996 and is the UK’s busiest automotive web site with over 10 million users per month.

So many stats and numbers so here’s a little unrelated fun fact: the founder of Auto Trader in the UK was John Madeiski, who went on to take over Reading Football Club.

After a presentation, we ventured through the offices, spread out over wide floors with shiny cars scattered everywhere and not one in need of a polish.

In accordance with its adoption of agile ways of working, Auto Trader’s offices include hot desking spaces, informal breakout areas, walls that can be scribbled on, touchscreens, and ‘war rooms’ for teams to attack various problems.

Some walls were decorated with graphics from the well-known Haynes manuals, which could be coloured in if the mood took anyone but the most striking element were those cars – a series of iconic vehicles that were chosen to represent different decades in Auto Trader’s long history.

Before these were brought into the offices, staff were given the opportunity to drive the cars around the old offices as a tribute. Afterwards, the engines were removed, and the cars coated with a special paint allowing them to be written on. Some were also adapted into little meeting dens – making them the perfect jotting pads!

Lunch was scheduled at Pokusevski’s, a Mediterranean style deli in the heart of Media City. Suitably shored up, the team took a tour of Media City, part of the recently regenerated Salford Quays and home to a whole host of BBC channels and programmes such as Match of the Day, Blue Peter, A Question of Sport, Mastermind, BBC Breakfast, Radio 5 Live, CBBC, and BBC Sport, to name but eight.

Sian with Dave and Derek the Daleks (Dave always stands on the left)

The team was treated to an exciting interactive radio drama experience with all participants performing impressively. Four of them were immediately signed up for the next series of Downton Abbey.

Visits to the BBC Breakfast studio, Radio 6Music studio (where Stuart Maconie and Mark Radcliffe were jabbering away) and the BBC Sport studios were next up.

The team were given the chance to see and take part in innovative digital broadcasting channels and there was no shortage of volunteers with several of the team stepping up to read the news, forecast the weather and play Question of Sport.

An exhausting but enjoyable day saw us depart Manchester for Liverpool where we booked into the Nadler Hotel. This unique hotel – once a warehouse and print works – is situated in the centre of Liverpool’s authentic, urban cool Rope Walks village.

Dinner was taken at the Old Blind School, a restaurant that had previously served as a school for blind children, a police station and a trade union headquarters.

Drink was taken at the Philharmonic Dining Rooms, which is slowly becoming my local, it seems.

With a continental breakfast to help us on our way (a paper bag with muesli and yogurt neatly stuffed in the fridge), our first call was the Museum of Liverpool.

A presentation was given by Tracy McGeagh, the Director of Marketing Communications, on Innovative Digital Practice and Audience Engagement.

A swift tour of the museum followed and then it was off for a ferry across the Mersey.

An Indian festival joined us aboard the ferry, making for a lively cruise along the river, which offered sweeping views across Liverpool’s iconic cityscape whenever the blustery wind wasn’t keeping our eyes closed.

Afternoon tea at the Hard Day’s Night hotel rounded off an excellent couple of days, with cakes and sandwiches being served in the Blake’s Restaurant (Peter Blake being the sleeve artist for the famous Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album).

PS: For more about Liverpool and some sunnier photos, just scroll down to last month’s post (Robust August)…

 

Nature Notes Warning

Having done Manchester on Thursday and Liverpool on Friday, I did Norfolk on Sunday – a full weekend and more! It was the start of the birdwatching season and we made our way to Titchwell.

It’s not always necessary to see stuff when visiting this reserve – just enjoying the wide expanses of water, reed beds and sandy beaches under blue skies generally does the job.

However, amidst the usual array of Titchwell specialties, there was a new tick – a couple of Black Terns flying low over the sea.

Otherwise, it was business as usual with Ruffs, Yellow Wagtail, Little Stints, a Garganey, Whimbrel and various ducks, grebes, geese, swans, plovers, snipe, waders and whatnot milling about to confirm Titchwell as a truly premier reserve.

 

Then there was the fell-walking club’s not-quite-fell-walk around Hopesay in Shropshire. This walk also turned up about six Red Kites, picking through a recently ploughed field for wormy delights.

Here’s Paul with the details, in case anyone fancies doing a gentle amble through some fantastic countryside – weather helps, of course, and it was fantastic on the day too!

Map:  Explorer 217 The Long Mynd & Wenlock Edge

Start Point and Parking: 

Stokesay Castle. The car park is to the rear of Stokesay Castle and the church. It is An English Heritage car park and you pay at a machine.

Grid ref: 435817 – Postcode for SatNav: SY7 9AH

The Walk:

We follow the Shropshire Way via Sibdon Carwood to Hopesay Common. This gets the climbing out of the way and is worth it for the wonderful views from the top. We then descend to Cheney Longville and cross the River Onny to Wistanstow for lunch. The pub is the Plough, which is the tap house of the Woods brewery, an independent brewery since 1980. Probably best known for Shropshire Lad.

Following lunch, we head SE crossing the A49 and the Quinney Brook, then S along the Onny valley, back to the start.

 

To conclude the cultural element of the month, the Flat Disc Society fired up a new season with a screen showing of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis.

This little blurb from the Michigan Theatre Facebook page pretty much sums it up:

This influential German science-fiction film presents a highly stylized futuristic city where a beautiful and cultured utopia exists above a bleak underworld populated by mistreated workers. When the privileged youth Freder (Gustav Fröhlich) discovers the grim scene under the city, he becomes intent on helping the workers. He befriends the rebellious teacher Maria (Brigitte Helm), but this puts him at odds with his authoritative father, leading to greater conflict.

This film was the Giorgio Moroder restored version, which threw in a synth-rock soundtrack including Freddie Mercury, Bonnie Tyler, Pat Benetar and Adam Ant and is, quite possibly, the first ever disco remix of an entire movie.

 

Finally, to round off October – an enjoyable evening was spent at the Birmingham Rep to see Dead Sheep, a play about Geoffrey Howe’s bloodless revenge on Margaret Thatcher.

Here’s the poster from the Rep, and a review from Birminghampress.com by Richard Lutz:

To put this play and its title in context: Labour heavyweight Denis Healey once hilariously called being attacked by Tory politician Geoffrey Howe akin to “being savaged by a dead sheep”.

Howe, Maggie’s right hand man, was indeed placid, quiet, monk-ish and he maybe deserved the quip from the sharp-tongued Healey as they sparred across the Commons back in the eighties. But this play is about when Howe turned from dead sheep to a wolf. When sidelined by an increasingly rigid out of touch Thatcher more than a quarter of a century ago, he resigned from government and delivered a vicious attack on the flailing anti-Europe Prime Minister. She resigned soon after.

Ex BBC reporter Jonathan Maitland re-creates this episode, throwing in the delightful sub plot of Howe’s liberal wife Elspeth tangling with Maggie every time they met – like “two wasps in a jam jar” quips louche MP Alan Clark at one point. She comes across as half Lady MacBeth, half St Joan.

Paul Bradley pulls off the humbled figure of Howe to a tee – even when he wakens from his subservience to launch his fatal assault. Carol Royle is Elspeth Howe… assertive, in love with her cowed husband and still an enigma as to what part she actually played in perfecting the fatal verbal blow against the woman she detested.

As for the Maggie herself, here’s a surprise. It’s taken on by Steve Nallon who voiced the Spitting Image Thatcher three decades ago. He/She comes across as a bit of caricature, the face rigid, humourless, the gait stiff and awkward, the voice perfectly pitched. But sometimes it is a panto dame in what is a fine dark comedy play coloured by superior acting.

A trio of actors valiantly portrays some of the main players from that era: the aforesaid Alan Clark, Neil Kinnock, Downing Street spokesman Bernard Ingham, Ian Gow, Nigel Lawson and even an hilarious impression of Brian Walden, the TV front man who never could pwonounce the full wange of the alphabet. Too bad, though, there was no Denis Thatcher (only an offstage voice) or the Tarzan-cum-elephant in the Tory room, a certain Michael Heseltine.

November Skies

Great to welcome Hunt Emerson’s latest book, Hot Jazz, onto the bookshelves – a very entertaining jazz-themed adventure comic book.

Hunt is a well-renowned and award-winning cartoonist http://largecow.com and I was happy to contribute a little doodle to his latest book.

And here it is – a jazzy little dawn chorus – and with Christmas looming I’m sure Hunt’s book will be the perfect present to pop into a stocking somewhere – preferably one hanging from the mantelpiece.

 

Big Time Nature Notes Warning:

The first of the month was the hottest day in November since records were put on a turntable.

To be on the north Norfolk coast in T-shirts and sunglasses was an unexpected bonus, and even heat haze had to be contended with when scanning the countryside for our feathered friends.

Many of our subjects didn’t need seeking out as Norfolk lends itself to a spectacular array of confiding and easily visible birds (stop yawning now, you at the back).

En route to our usual haunt at Le Strange Arms Hotel in Old Hunstanton, Pete and I popped into Eldernell on the Nene Washes. A short westerly walk along the bank turned up a distant Marsh Harrier and a Green Woodpecker.

We finished up at Titchwell, a reserve we have visited often recently, and it remains one of our favourite locations.

Our forays around Titchwell unearthed an obliging Jack Snipe, which was bobbing away (its what they do) on the shore of the fresh water lagoon, while waders, ducks, geese and swans fussed around in the backwater.

Golden Plover

At dusk, two Barn Owls were seen batting away over the fields close to the Autumn Trail, and squadrons of Marsh Harriers flew into roost; mini-murmurations of starlings scrawled over the reed beds.

Here are some photos of the sunset but you had to be there…

The next day, after a pre-breakfast sea watch squinting at the bobbing speck of a Slavonian Grebe, we took off for Cley Marshes. Along the shingle beach, the saline lagoons, distant grazing marshes and reed beds were continually checked out for anything migratory.

But the highlight was an otter weaving its way up through a channel before hauling up onto the bank.

We eventually finished up at Burnham Overy Staithe, where the river spreads out into multiple tidal creeks before reaching the sea. The walk along the sea bank meant a continuous elevated position was held over the adjoining fields and saltmarshes. From this vantage point, decent views of Grey Partridges, Curlews, Buzzards, Pink-footed, Egyptian and White-fronted Geese could be enjoyed. A Hare also put in a fleeting appearance.

Late mists crept in as the light faded, leaking over the fields and tumbling down in the ditches and hollows. Always a good scenario for a bit of purple prose.

The tongue-twisting little hamlet of Burnham Overy Staithe was the nautical playground of Nelson, who learned to row and sail a dinghy here at the age of ten.

It also provided a home for Richard Woodget, the master of the famous Cutty Sark.

In another maritime aside, it is believed that Delia Smith based her famous ‘Let’s be ‘avin‘ you!’ Seafood Soufflé on shellfish gleaned from the shores when crabbing here as a little girl with Stephen Fry.

Another day, another sea watch before breakfast – and another Slavonian Grebe.

It was thick fog in the morning as we headed to Holme Beach, dipping through the mists covering a golf course to reach the sea. A Brambling materialized on some gorse but the real show-stoppers were Short-eared Owls. To see three of these owls in one morning was as treatier a treat as you’ll ever get. They never seemed particularly bothered by us and just went about their business, flying high and surveying their territories for vole-shaped morsels.

Then it was onto Thornham, a small coastal village where a Kingfisher momentarily lit up the mudflats and tired creeks.

Naturally, Titchwell was once again assigned to top off an excellent day, and we duly congregated to enjoy the usual majestic melee over lagoons and reed beds with some Bewicks’s and Whooper Swans joining the duck soup.

From the reliable Autumn Trail, a female Hen Harrier zoomed in to join the roost, circling a few times before hitting the hay. The Barn Owl was on duty once again, and a whole bunch of Starlings hitchcocked their silhouettes to a dead tree.

Sundown stole the show again as thick layers of mist and fog crawled across the reserve, puddling and twisting around reeds and bare trees to fashion an eerie and ghostly dusk.

Having stayed over an extra day, Pete and I called into Sculthorpe Moor on the way back to Brum.

Sculthorpe is a quietly impressive woodland and fen habitat located in the Wensum Valley. Unfortunately, it was very quiet during our brief visit, and we failed to churn up anything more exciting than a Marsh Tit on a bag of nuts. With excellent education and visitor facilities, more boardwalks are planned to provide even greater access – there is already an elevated hide, which gives great views across the fen and reed beds.

 

The Classical Spectacular concert at the Symphony Hall was conducted by the ever-entertaining Anthony Inglis, with the City of Birmingham Choir and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra pulling out all the stops.   Soprano Sky Ingram warbled away like there was no tomorrow, and the tenor, Mario Sofroniou, absolutely nailed Nessun Dorma.

It was a shame there was no Bolero – always a good one to torvill away to – but its not bad to experience a different programme, and the Borodin number was a decent substitute.

As usual, the 1812 Overture with cannons and fireworks neatly closed the show – then it was off to the pub!

 

This Month’s Flat Disc Society (AKA: the Film Club) came up trumps with Kenny as its main feature – a very funny Australian film about a Melbourne plumber who works for a portaloo rental company.

This screening was deliberately chosen to celebrate the United Nation’s Toilet Day. No lie, here’s the link: http://www.unwater.org/worldtoiletday/home/en/

There was a short warm-up feature, Look at Life: Men of the Snowy, a concise ‘slice of life’ featurette from the 1960s.

 

With a rubbishy wet final weekend (they’ve even started naming storms now) I visited the Ikon Gallery for a bit of contemporary relief.

Scroll Down And Keep Scrolling by British artist Fiona Banner was the exhibition on show.

There was a life-sized glass scaffold tower in one of the spaces with its fragility apparently undermining any sense of usefulness. Some black beanbags representing the full stops of a few selected typefaces were scattered around the galleries for people to sit upon and nod sagely (and stroke their chins). Fiona Banner seemed to be channeling the Vietnam War in other areas of the exhibition – a pile of Jane’s Aircraft Recognition Guide books towered almost to the ceiling, and a film screened a military air show with a Chinook helicopter looping around.

I sat on a beanbag and nodded sagely.