Thursday 25 March 2010

Rewinding and fast forwarding a memory


So allow me to declare for the first time here on the blog that in about two and a half weeks I will be presenting my first scratch at the Arches of a piece I will also be presenting at the BAC upcoming Scratch Festival - called "Like You Were Before."

"Like You Were Before" is, at the moment, just about as "in progress" as a thing gets - I'm still working, I'm still writing, and I'm trying to do something difficult. I want to make a show about the fact that time - um - keeps going. Which is no doubt something we all know anyway, and probably something we all also do our best to either forget or deal with. By taking a piece of video and dissecting and contrasting it as record and a memory, well, I'm hoping to get at something. Something frickin' profound. Yes, that's right. In my next piece I am hoping to illuminate the mysteries of time and space and everything else! But for now I'm just trying to get the script done.

Come and see it if you're in Glasgow for the Forest Fringe Microfestival, or if you're in London May 5th, 6th or 7th. I'm going to, like, memorize stuff and talk to an audience and stuff, which is weird for me, but also exciting. You might want to be there.

Tuesday 23 March 2010

Early Morning Blog Post


The sun floods in through the windows by my bed, and seems to ask that I write some sort of manifesto for the day. Surely this moment before you've really done anything in your day is the most important time to remind yourself of what you intend to do every day, what you chip away bit by bit in increments.

Hm.

Hello March 23rd, 2010. We've never met before. And we never will again. So let's make the most of this whirlwind thing we have ahead of us. Let's do our best to make each other proud. Here are my expectations of you:

1. That I do some more work on my Arches/BAC piece - good work, not the bad kind. That's no good for anyone.

2. That I do a little bit of reading. Alexandria Quartet, here I come! (We're through with War and Peace now. Reading it is probably in the top ten things I've ever done. It was like visiting a cathedral or I imagine like seeing the pyramids. This is what human beings can do, this is how far we can go.)

3. That I take a risk. I'm not a risky person in general, and without a bit of risk, where does the life part come in?

4. That I get to my job interview on time.

5. That I go to the theatre tonight with an open perspective, but as Tassos Stevens once wisely advised me, expecting it to disappoint me, so that maybe then it can surprise me.

6. Okay, here's the last one. That I do something good for somebody. (At least one thing.)

Do listing these things make them more or less likely to happen? That really seemed more like a to-do list than a manifesto for the day.

Okay Day Manifesto part deux: Smile, Laugh, Laugh at yourself, Laugh with others, Reach out to people, Embrace when they reach out to you, Try being honest about good things, things that embarass you, Embrace the unexpected, Be ready to throw plans out the window, and Do the Day Proud.

Oh what a cringey blog post. I think I'll publish it anyway. Yeah, that's right March 23rd. Today I commit to the cringe, for better or for worse. I assume that's what you meant by risky.

Monday 22 March 2010

A friend of mine called up to say he'd found something wonderful online...

This is what he'd found:



Apparently it was done in one take and it took nearly eighty tries to get it right. If you look carefully you can see the broken extras from times they tried before.

Saturday 20 March 2010

So Sentimental

This clip is so two weeks ago, you might say.

You're a jerk, I might say. Kids singing with hand motions is timeless.

Sunday 14 March 2010

To all my Live Art Speed Dates on Saturday...


If you've happened upon this website through the STK International website after Saturday, I just wanted to let you know that I meant every word, and I've even made you a picture to show you how much I meant it.

Now let's never meet.

Today's hilariously accurate overheard remark...


A short man's reply to a tall man outside of a terrible looking club on Old street:

"But we're in Shoreditch, mate. Nothing's right in Shoreditch."

(I attach a picture of an art gallery in Shoreditch to demonstrate how truly right this man is.)