“…To celebrate both his literary accomplishments and his contributions to the University of Illinois, the Provost’s Office commissioned production of five short video works, each of which interprets a passage from one of Richard Powers‘ novels – The Goldbug Variations, Galatea 2.2, Plowing the Dark, The Time of our Singing, and The Echo Maker. The videos are a collaborative endeavor between Powers and a group of artists and designers from the School of Art + Design.
Over the next several months ninthletter.com will publish all five video works. This interpretation based on The Time of Our Singing is the first installment…”
For some reason, I find myself faintly embarrassed to be quoting Khalil Gibran, but this one feels pertinent right now. My thanks to Gina for sending it..
“I want the hunger for love and beauty to be in the depths of my spirit, for I have seen those who are satisfied to be the most wretched of people. I have heard the sigh of those in yearning and longing, and it is sweeter than the sweetest melody.”
“Chelsea boss receivesdeath threats”, you sensationalist numbskulls. And shouldn’t I really be getting on with something else?…
UPDATE: This just in..
Haha! It’s now two hours later, and the headline on the BBC website has been amended to read “Chelsea boss gets death threats”.. see for yourself.. Oh well, I suppose ‘receives’ was probably beyond them – all that ‘i before e’ business.. But, hey! You see now, the power that I wield?.. No? Yeah, you’re right, I really should be getting on with something else..
“I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours…”
Hope you had a good Valentine’s evening. Mine was spent in the company of the inimitable Jody Linscott. She brought round ‘Marnie‘, which I hadn’t seen in years. Great movie – Bernard Herrmann really goes to town on the score – I’d quite forgotten how powerful it was – not much of which is featured in this clip.. it’s somebody’s home-made edit, which captures the prevailing mood quite nicely, I think.. and anyway, it contains my favourite little vignette where Sean is telling her about the flower..
(…this clip is posted on Youtube and in the comments section somebody has written the following..
“I think all the beauty of Hitchcock movies comes from the fact that sex is considered as an awkward act. Love, sex and desire are everywhere but in the act itself.”
In keeping, albeit somewhat loosely, with the Valentine theme – here’s my favourite psychoanalytical writer, Adam Phillips on “Pride and Prejudice”…
“… First Impressions, a novel that on second thoughts was called Pride and Prejudice, is about, among many other things, how pride and prejudice is a better way of describing first impressions. Because the so-called first impressions that Elizabeth and Darcy most prominently have of each other are not merely skewed or distorted by their personal pride and their prejudices but constituted by them. It is as if Jane Austen is saying: if you want to find out about your pride and your prejudices – if you want to reveal your most cherished preconceptions about yourself – then it is your first impressions you should attend to. And not, of course, any old first impressions, but one’s first impressions of an object of desire. Where there is desire, where there is unusually intense interest – of a positive or negative kind – there are no innocent eyes. The innocent eye may see nothing, but the desiring eye sees too much. It sees too much of itself, too much of its past – for which the words ‘pride’ and ‘prejudice’ are as good words as any – and it is seen by itself … to have been self-preoccupied. To desire someone else is to fall back in love with oneself. It is to ignore the other person – to misread them, as we say – in the interests of self-preservation …”
Well, perhaps caterpillar then.. After my four-day stint without human contact of any kind, this week has begun a little more promisingly – two straight evenings of relaxation in the presence of others! Guzzling Guinness in the Reliance bar with a not-yet-renowned film-maker on Monday, and, last night, dinner in Clerkenwell with the utterly captivating and hugely talented photographer, Ms. Valerie Phillips. Here’s one of her pictures..
Oh, the social whirl! When will it all end? Today, actually.. back to Hoxton and in the studio for the foreseeable..
Celebrations upon the arrival of the second goal.. Sorry, couldn’t resist. Not a bad day, all things considered.. well whisky-ed up now, to be honest..
Happy birthday to the Queen, the absolute Queen, of song-writing..
This is the song of hers I like the best, and nobody ever sang it better..
We had the huge pleasure of meeting Carole – sadly just the once. One of my favourite Corinne moments, actually. We were performing at the Supper Club in New York and, at the time, Carole’s daughter Louise Goffin was opening for us. At the sound check, Louise let us know that Carole was in New York and would be attending the show that evening. Louise is a delightful, talented girl, but very conscious of, and understandably nervous about, the fact that she’s the daughter of a legend..
So, just before showtime, Corinne is in the ladies room putting on her make-up (backstage facilities are not great at the Supper Club) and spots someone familiar in the mirror next to her. In typically disarming Corinne style, she turns and introduces herself with the words… ” is it.. are you.. Louise’s mum?”..
She stayed for the gig and hung out in the dressing room afterwards, saying very gracious and enthusiastic things about the performance – you never saw a band look more pleased with itself .. Turns out she was preparing for her role in the Broadway production of Blood Brothers and was workng on her Liverpudlian accent. I recall we all took turns to demonstrate to her the proper way to say “You’re a fookin’ staaarr!!”
Strange reversal at the moment. I’m sitting in Corinne’s house in London, trying to complete a short film soundtrack, and Corinne is sitting in my house in Manchester, running the band through the new songs.. Feels very odd, probably something to do with the fact that I haven’t spoken to a living human in nearly three days now, apart from the minicab drivers who ferry me to and from the studio, and whose mastery of English does not generally lend itself to lengthy conversation..
Just watched the preamble to the Superbowl – hey, I’m a guy – and heard somebody called Jordan Sparks singing The Star Spangled Banner. Gotta tell ya, if you didn’t see it – try to. She’s no mean singer, but the arrangement was quite spectacular. Caught me entirely by surprise, brought a tear to the eye and a lump to the throat. Don’t worry, I’m not actually going to watch the game or anything..
