Artsmonkey Blog

Obsession however is all consuming, it destroys like the volcano and then implodes on itself. Is it obsession that drives us as a world? Obsession and greed that hand in hand walk through the world burning, pillaging to feed it’s need, it’s hunger? Here in the UK the news today is full of suicide bombers (fuelled by faith and driven by irrational belief) war atrocities (fuelled by greed, driven by hunger) retribution (fuelled by pain driven by pride) and the world-wide economic downturn (fuelled by greed driven by obsession?)

So what, I hear you yawn from the back row. Well, whilst we talk of managing our obsessions, what of humility? Increasingly people in the public eye are struggling to be humble and to say sorry, whether it’s the BBC over the Russell-Brand phonecall debacle or Hackney Local Authority over the death of Baby P. or the crush of people in job centers.

Woke up this Monday with questions:

When does passion become obsession? What tips a person over that razor sharp edge from say, admiring a celebrity into an obsessive need to know every detail of their life, search out every available photo and become a pseudo authority on the ‘object of their obsessions’ analyse every public move. What is the moment when a dispassionate distance is melted by the heat of a need to know more, pouring through magazines, internet sites, forums and chat rooms for more detail, more glimpses?

Is it the fine line between passion and obsession that draws and excites some people and scares other people off? Passion can be very attractive but unrestricted it can be overwhelming, off-putting. The strength, the voracity of the passion can be volcanic and destroy whatever stands in it’s path.

People with passion exist in all walks of life whether its passion for sport or technology or maths or history, art, furniture, houses, people…. the list stretches on into infinity. The important thing is the passion itself, that fuels and drives the possessor onwards needing to share, to convert, to inspire, to draw in, to recruit. Often with passion comes vision, sometimes people buy into it, sometimes they run from it. From Evangelism to mission to belief to unadulterated enjoyment, passion adds colour, excitement and focus to our lives. S/He who dares, wins?

Whilst the poor girl who came on to play the Harp before the match must have felt a million miles of detachment from the impatient crowd eager for the game to get going, she was a message. Music plays an important role in setting the patriotic tone of the game – allegiances are made, emotions toyed with as both the harpist, the band and choir who led the national anthems galvanise the audience, er sorry crowd, into a deeper emotional link with their team. In fact, with a bit more stage management the whole game could have left the crowd exhausted and begging for more.

Purists, I’m sure, could happily watch the game of Rugby played in a field half-way up a mountain and do without all the flim-flam but that doesn’t pay for the horrible polyester kit, sorry, I meant hi-tech, wind shear, shower proof, breathable membraneous sportwear – (whatever happened to those good, thick, quality cotton rugby shirts that actually look good on most people? ) and probably wouldn’t begin to pay the team’s nightclub bill for the celebration/commiseration party after the game to reward all the pre-match sweat, blood and tears of rigourous training.

You can tell I’m not sports orientated but I do appreciate the skill involved and am looking forward to seeing what Football and the Arts Award Academies get up to over the next year. The important thing is that young people have a chance to learn skills and that they have icons like Football & Rugby players to encourage them to aim high. The young welsh mascot who was marched on at the beginning of the game (alongside a goat??!) was beaming and it is very likely that he’ll be trying harder in PE for a good few months, if not years and as a result he might grow up to be a sportsman or maybe a sports commentator, a camera man or sound engineer, all equally vital parts of the modern world of Sports – if it wasn’t a good watch (ie. Entertaining) people like me would stay at home.

So we need to celebrate the opportunities where organisations invest in young people or they’ll end up like two young girls I bumped into at Cardiff Central, one clutching a bottle of Malibu, the other so high she couldn’t do her clothes up properly (or walk straight), overlooked by two stoic members of the St Johns Ambulance who’d voluntarily given up their Saturday night to be on hand with first aid, as the girls thrashed about in pursuit of a good time, looking like their ‘night out’ may just be about to end in the gloom of the platform one toilets.

Rugby is a bone crunching, awesome game when viewed from the heady heights of the Millenium Stadium, Cardiff. Choreography, speed, teamwork, body mass, muscle and nerve all come into play. This weekend’s Wales versus the Springboks (South Africa) brought 74k people to huddle under the roof of this city centre based stadium, causing network rail to galvanise staff at Cardiff Central into various attempts at shepherding those visiting safely in and out of the station (I wonder where the 6,000 people who didn’t make it got to?). Some shops saw fit to close before the game ended and I can see why, seventy four thousand people leaving a venue is quite a sight and it occured to me that if everyone there dropped a penny in the bucket that members of the Armed Forces were holding on behalf of the charity ‘Help for Heroes’ that would have been an easy seven hundred and forty pounds made, but it looked to me like most people had already spent their money on several pints of beer; I’m not a regular Rugby match attender but it does seem that this is as much a necessity as having a ticket.

It’s a sporting month in the youth arts universe; this month saw the launch of Arts Award Football Academies, an example of football and art coming together to work with young people on creative activities to gain a qualification. Already I have noted the almost dance-like grace of the Springboks where their defense was almost a choreographed routine taking them from one side of the pitch to the other with the Welsh team crashing about around them, literally like bulls in a China shop (Wales I was cheering for you, honest!) and I can see how the arts and sports are really not so different, who’s that rugby player gracefully holding his own in ‘Strictly Come Dancing’?

Glorious afternoon in Brighton. 

Our heartfelt thanks to Food Project volunteers/friends and to Feral Theatre Company for the wonderful storytelling. Homemade Toffee apples, soul cake, pumpkin soup and baked potatoes made for an unforgettable All Souls Day. Before we tore ourselves away, I couldn’t bear to dismantle my ‘inner child’, so left it hanging on a bush to scare the crows away.

Watch out for Feral’s new website and if you live nearby don’t miss their next event, heartwarming, affirming and brimming with friendly folk – plus the big adventure of finding it in the first place!

 Travelling from Brighton to Chichester one evening this week I witnessed a lovely train guard at work, he evicted a group of excitable youngsters (who clearly didn’t have tickets) with such good humour they got off at the next stop without a fuss and impedending disaster was averted. He then rescued a woman traveller in distress (on the wrong train and doomed to miss her connection to Cambridge) he got her on the right train, calmly and coolly sorted out a new route and timetable then, equally calmly issued another man with a ticket for his journey the next day when he overheard him worrying about the ticket office being open – not sure I’ve conveyed the sheer amazement I experienced watching someone be so personable, so thoughtful. It was that small but kind gesture that warmed me and next day I was invited to join a facebook group  ’small acts of kindness’ these are indeed, the times for small acts of kindness.

 It’s always pleasant to find yourself unexpectedly in a room with like-minded people and thanks to The South  I got to do just that this week at The Brighton Writer’s Centre with writer Mark C. Hewitts session on ‘Funding Your Madness’ which was so enjoyable that I barely noticed the two hour journey home. A catchy title with a truthful ring to it, we all have great ideas and often it seems like madness when you get into the ‘funding zone’. Mark is a man who has made it through the pain barrier and approaches each new collaboration or project with zest and enthusiasm, as a result his work is vibrant and inspiring you can check him out at http://mchblank.co.uk. I was also inspired by learning about Feral Theatre Company who offer seasonal themed outdoor performances around East Sussex and will be peforming at The Allotments (at the food project) Whitehawk Hill (off Manor Hill Road), Brighton at 3pm on Sunday November 2^nd in case you’re looking for something for the family to do that week-end and similarly inspired by meeting Umi who is a member of the Newhaven Storytellers group and is off to a storytellers convention in Israel next year to seek inspiration for a storytelling project she is in the throes of creating and seeking funding for. I went, intending to be a passive onlooker, to refresh some of my knowledge and check out The South but I came away full of other people’s creative experience’s and fired up to do my homework and get it in on time. In fact, it is only today that I realise I was given homework, that’s how clever with words Mr Hewitt is. The view from the front room at BWC overlooks the Grand Parade with its constant, frenetic to-ing and fro-ing of traffic and people. It is virtually next door to Brighton Photo Bienniale http://bpb.org.uk which I fully intend to have a look at on my return visit next week – I caught glimpses of a photo exhibition: the war of images and images of war curated by Julian Stallabrass as I passed; pictures taken by soldiers in Iraq flashed by as I hurried to make my ‘class’ (as I fondly think of it). The South offers a myriad of events for creatives and is partnered with some fascinating organisations such as sea lion and pighog press and offering exceptional events (Carol Ann Duffy) and professional development workshops including ‘The Write Club’ - don’t let them go to waste you’re bound to meet interesting people and have a very enjoyable time.

National poetry day looms on Thursday October 9^th I’ve been browsing sites in search of inspiration and have enjoyed stumbling upon the Altered Books project and had fun with ‘Written in the city‘ especially the Brighton pages although Brighton in 2002 was a different universe. Did you know that ‘newspaper+sharpie=poems’? Well Michael Palmer seems to think so and creates and collects great “blackout” poems in this fashion from around the world, check him out on Facebook or visit www.michaelpalmer.net to see examples or enter your own. I came across ‘the invitation’ by Oriah Mountain dreamer from the book ‘invitation’ and really enjoyed some inner wisdom from the mountains…

“…It doesn’t interest me to know where you live,or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done to feed the children…It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away”

 But then I got sidetracked by Digg & Twitter and went from Doug McFarlane’s you tube recommendation on the credit crunch (filmed in a car park I dimly recognise) to this: check them out on My Space Antan Debt performs with his band ‘The Overdrafts’ not to be confused with Adam and Joe’s “Credit Crunch Musical” song, as touted by Charlie Booker or Old Man Pies credit card song posted in 2006 (and a prophetic cartoon animation) which are both equally witty commentaries. Then, somehow and I’m really not sure how, I ended up watching the ‘Shelbinator’ show me how to turn a nokia N95 into a video cam with external mic. If you are a techgeek who has accidentally clicked on the wrong blog site - you can watch it too @ http://shelbinator.com/2008/05/04/n95-external-microphone/ which tells me I must end here or who knows where I’ll end up before tea-time so take it away e.e. cummings (as found @ www.kerismith.com/wishJarTales/ ) “To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing it’s best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.”

@ the Rootstein Hopkins Space, London College of Fashion last week for own-it and Stellar Networks seminar starring the very patient and extremely well-phrased lawyer Harry Karaolou from LG Legal. The event, ‘The Writer/Producer/Director Triangle - a guide to good practice of collaboration in Theatre’ didn’t disappoint. A rare event indeed when the panel has as many questions as the audience but ever since, my head has been full of ‘creative commons, trademarks, originators, copyright, performers’ rights’, and phrases such as, “asserting your moral rights”.

What can I pass on in a creative universe where more and more people are creating bodies of work through collaboration and shared experience? That it’s important to know your intellectual property from your development or design rights? You don’t want to make the same mistakes that members of the audience have done in the past, so at the get-go agree who does what and what is whose. Get an agreement, get i-p savvy.

I remember reading an article in a newspaper a few years ago, asking what our lives would be like if there was no television, if we all switched them off for a day, a week? At several points in my life I have lived without TV. When I was born and up to the age of about four, then later when my father suffered a major injury and our TV died and my mother couldn’t afford to replace it whilst he was in hospital, even later during a tour of Scotland when I wasn’t interested in anything other than ‘Taggart’.

In the eighties my uncle moved in to our flat in Streatham with his portable TV. I had been living in poverty without a TV, feeding myself and baby on £10 a week whilst my partner was up north in a seventies revival musical - then it was a novelty being Tv-less. Now I switch it off , at will, for days at a time because who ever the programmers are, they only seem focussed on young audiences and the kind of stuff I like watching is clearly in the non-commercial bracket or maybe it’s because I’m not a robot but a human with eclectic tastes. I like to dip in and out of genres, prefer quality to quantity and genuinely enjoy good acting and performers who prefer to entertain rather than to shock (although I can cope with that in small doses).

In fact, I am in danger of becoming a ‘new audience’ there is so little for me to watch on the tele despite the variety of channels. I read that young people are switching off from mainstream TV - really?  As a parent this is great news, but as a parent I know it’s because they’re glued to their computer screens having their brains sucked out by msn, bebo, myspace, deviant art, my yearbook, IM, etc., downloading i-films to watch in the privacy of their bedrooms.

 ”New method sought to measure audiences”, no let’s have A NEW MEASURE TO STOP APPLYING METHOD TO broadcasting ?