Artsmonkey Blog

I have decided that 2009, well some of it anyway, should be given over to admiring/lauding the work of creative people out there in the social media universe who’ve got something to sing about. Why virtual rather than real? Because I spent three months researching ‘Social media and the Arts’ and where else am I going to let rip some of the fruits of all that labour?

2008 ended with a memorable moment when GL Hoffman, author of the ‘What Would Dad Say?’ Blog site, took a leap of faith and emailed me a pdf of his forthcoming book ‘Dig Your Job’ Keep it or Find a New One. It’s a “not so serious career handbook” written by an astute entrepreneur and Chairman of www.JobDig.com for the US market, with the wisdom and insight of one who really does know what he’s talking about. So if you’re a student/graduate, unemployed, a dissatisfied freelancer or disenchanted with your current work status quo then this could be money well spent http://blogs.jobdig.com/wwds/dig-your-job/ you can download a pdf for approx. £5 or buy a paperback version from www.lulu.com for £8.69 https://www.lulu.com/commerce/index.php?fBuyContent=4947573 or you can purchase a Kindle (Amazon) edition for somewhere between the two. It doesn’t matter what your career path is, there really is something for everyone in ‘Dig your Job’. G.L. Is even offering free copies to Libraries – which makes him a social entrpreneur as well as businessman.

I stumbled across two writers this year and last, both very different, whose work has inspired me. Mark C. Hewitt aka MCH was running a ‘Funding your Madness course’ with The South last November and we managed to tease out of him stories of some of his inspiring ‘word-related’ projects that he dreams up himself, before approaching potential partners to work with him . This year, I’m hoping his project with BBC South comes off, as I’m looking forward to seeing Salisbury Cathedral covered in other people’s words but he’s also Artistic Director of a live literature production company ‘Lewes Live Lit’ so look out for ‘Dementia Diaries’ at this years Eastbourne Festival in April http://www.mchblank.co.uk/

@Sniffyjenkins aka Justine Kilkerr started following me on Twitter  and has been making me smile, laugh and howl with glee ever since. She’s about to publish her first book ‘Advice for Strays’ with Jonathon Cape . If you’re an aspiring writer or creative then read her blog http://amihumanyet.co.uk/ it is an honest and open retrospective and do, definitely look out for her book, if it’s anything like her tweets it will be a sound investment.

Facebook friend Doug Macfarlane; Film geek/maker/actor/director and monthly ‘guest’ on Sky TV News, has had a full-on year and he’s just messaged to say he’s off to the Sundance Film festival where he will interview/grill celebrities and film folk for the delectation of UKFilm Network suscribers. Doug is waiting on the release of his first film ‘Making it in Hollywood’, is a founding member of ’shooting people’ and also runs  the UKTheatre network, his dynamism, grit and determination sometimes exhaust me but Doug is a great example of hard work and dedication paying back dividends.

So these are the people currently at the top of my creative iceberg, I should also mention recent twitter friend, @Mikebreed. Mike is a copywriter/aspiring film writer based in Dorking (Reed Words Ltd. - LOL!) and it was his website http://www.reedwords.co.uk/reedwordsblog/reedmiscellany/misc.html that made me think about who I admire and what it is about their work that inspires me. I was both entertained and informed by his blog article on Puccini’s and their marketing campaign I can see why he does what he does.

Oh, alright then, just one more. Do you remember the Tanker’ ‘Ice Prince’ that left a swathe of the Souths coast covered in five thousand tons of timber. Well Worthing does and this year artist Dan Thompson aka @artistsmakers is narrating a workshop to mark the first anniversary of the ‘Ice Prince’ disaster, hence Jan 24^th sees Worthing’s one day ‘Ice Prince Festival’

I first came across ‘Larkrise to Candleford’ when my mother got a part as the feisty field worker Lizzy in a community production at the local arts centre. It was in the early eighties and directed by Steve Addison a fore-runner of a community education director and was produced as a ‘promenade production’* featuring local people either volunteering at the Arts Centre or keen amateur theatre folk who had responded to an ‘Ad’ for an open audition in the local paper. The Arts Centre, which was little more than a de-consecrated church that had been stripped of its pews and altar etc. and lights hung from a single scaffold frame in the centre, made an evocative setting. It was magical; the story, the production, the cast, the whole thing.

Years later, I discovered an uncle kept a framed copy of a national review in their loo, such was their delight to discover a pre-production publicity shot of the whole cast, including my mother dressed in rural ‘labourer’ garb sporting scythes and ancient farming implements. I went away, read all the books by Flora Thompson I could get my hands on and bribed my mate Ian who had also been in it and was destined for RADA to take me on a field trip in his Ford Cortina to the flat, but rich, earthy plains of Oxfordshire – the setting for the stories Larkrise and Candleford. We walked from Juniper Hill after reading the tombstones in the churchyard to Fringford, the inspiration for Candleford and the memories stay with me (despite the fact that Ian was also teaching me photography and I took dozens of black and white photos which I learnt how to develop myself and subsequently have lost somewhere, somehow). And all this is why I would have been reluctant to watch any TV production, wary of having the warm happiness of memory spoilt by miscasting or poor production values and unsympathetic scripting. As it was, I came across the first episode by chance and was mesmerised, not at first even realising, I was watching part of the Larkrise to Candleford story. I haven’t missed an episode since. Great cast, a visual feast and wonderful adaptation. I particularly enjoyed the ‘ghost’ episode, haunting and beautifully gentle – a rare achievement for a TV production – well done Team Larkrise – excellent effort. More please.

*where the audience and actors mingle, moving round the performance space.

Starting a new year with so much uncertainty also brings with it a possibility of excitement, the thrill of the unknown as well as the fear of it.

I know 2009 will involve a wedding, travel across the South East of England again including some forays back to Kent where I ’saw in’ the New Year and I’m certainly going to make an effort to get back to Folkestone where we stopped off before returning home and Begbury Forest and the very glamourous Tenterden with it’s avenue of trees festooned with twinkling christmas lights (yes, I know they’ll be gone soon but the memory will linger on). I also know that 2009 will see me changing my ways as I strive, much harder to keep in touch with nearly ‘lost’ friends who have proved much better than me at re-establishing communications and greatly enhanced my Christmas as a result. Good to know that although I can’t remember what day of the week it is, I still retain minute details of past teenage adventures and daring do’s, which I think is a good thing?

Otherwise it’s a case of “he who hath the steerage of my course, sail on…” except that of course, if I’ve learnt one thing in 2008 it’s that we’re masters of our own destiny, if only we have the courage and the drive, or the vision.

Roll on 2009, I’m ready (and so’s my hypnotherapist, my fitness instructor and my psychologist – I wish!)