Monday 28 February 2011

Dave Charlesworth

Sunday: Press up....date 9-9-10-9-9 (46) with 90 seconds with 90 seconds rest in between sets. Really tough going towards the end and got that tell tale wobble of a weakening body.. It has a progress bar at the end of every session and it is getting alarmingly towards the 75% mark.. I feel far from ready to face a full 50 non stop. 


On to Dave:

 Met Joe Meegan and Jamie Ruszczynski at The Woodmill to get some footage of the artist and friend Dave Charlesworth. I was an hour late. Joe and Jamie and I are making a documentary of Dave as a side project. Dave is an interesting, successful, and clearly talented swine that I have been very privileged to work with on a couple of projects (one being Wander Walker that you can find HERE).  He is a conceptual artist that works both alone and as part of a collective Charlesworth Lewandowski and Mann. We followed him around, filled sandbags with him and interviewed him. Our concept was to compare his work, life and style to the very different David Charlesworth. David (not Dave) Charlesworth is yet to get back to us about the project so we made a start with Dave. 


Dave was extremely busy and I am not sure we got the best out of our time there (not a criticism of anyone at all)  I have no experience in documentary filming and I am hoping a narrative becomes clear at some point along the way. This may happen the more we film or when we watch the footage. We will have to see. 


On the way to the tube we dived out of the rain into The Marquis of Wellington. A real local with as many screens showing football as there were customers. Above the bar was a poster for  Nigel Benn (my favourite boxer ever) Vs Michael Watson and another for Chris Eubank Vs Gary Stretch . In a pub bore sort of way I turned to Joe and Jamie and pointed out that Gary Stretch played the head of the gang in Dead Man's Shoes. The landlord over heard this and could have not been more excited about this pub fact. It happened that it was one of his favourite films and had never realised the link. It was the best reaction I have ever had to one of my boring facts. The bad news it will encourage me to come out with more. 

Sunday 27 February 2011

Fish, France and Photography


Saturday morning. Met James, Cathy and Howard at the Museum of London for the start of a 'London' day. 


James Shanks and I .....waiting for a Salisbury

The reason for meeting at the Museum was to visit the London Street Photography exhibition. It was extremely busy and there was a short wait before we could get in. Howard was looking forward to some quality images of 'street urchins'...he wasn't disappointed.  Urchins were rife. We developed a urchin competition where you had to call your favorite urchin. You could only choose one and once chosen you could not change your mind. I waited till the early sixties and choose a classic urchin working on a market stall. The competition was smashed out of the park by an unbeatable seventies urchin who was smoking, had a gang and was swinging on a rope in a wasteland.. classic urchin. The exhibition was excellent though and I intend to go back when it is a little quieter. 


We then headed into town for lunch. Cathy and Howard had booked us all a table at J Sheeky fish restaurant near Covent Garden. I will admit to being a bit of a food heathen in the past but I am getting better. I did feel bad  having the chicken but it was brilliant. The fried fish starter was good but maybe too much and the plum ripple ice cream and shortbread was superb. 


Then off to Waxy O'Conners to watch England V France in the six nations. It was incredibly busy and with their big screen being very low and me being quite tall I couldn't help pissing off the people behind me. This is the trade off for being able to see I suppose but it is one of the reasons I avoid  situations like small gigs.  The game was scrappy but close and very tense. I absolutely love the six nations but I will write about that another time. We won a tough game and this could set England up for a championship decider in Dublin...Perfect.


To finish the evening we went to the Palm Tree in mile end. An absolute belting pub. It looks like it was once at the end of a terrace which has now disappeared and this gives it a slightly surreal look. It is that good I am annoyed. There is a lack of decent pubs round my way and I could have made great use of this one. 


Last tube home and a bag of chips for the walk from the tube.......Great day. 

KMA Awards Night




Friday saw the end of season (well nearly, they are refitting the pitch with one game left) award and drinks night. It was held in the Kings Arms. Although not the cheapest venue it does have an upstairs room with speakers you can plug your own music into, free pool and, most importantly, 2 dartboards. It was a great night organised and hosted by the club chairman Jamie 'Razor' Ruszczynski. 


The results were as follows:




 Clubman of the season- Richard Wilshire


 Most Improved Player- Dave Lewis


 Worst Attitude- Jarlath O'Hara




Champagne Moment of the Season- Blog Author


Player of the Season- Clare Adams on behalf of someone who couldn't be bothered to turn up.........disappointing.



Wednesday 23 February 2011

Update

What have I been up to?

Well, not enough. 

Monday 

I flew back back to England early in the morning. 30 min delay and was kindly woken by a fellow passenger when my train arrived to Liverpool st. Straight to work. I then met up with HS to chat about our impending best man duties for his brother and our esteemed lead singer MS. This meeting happened at  the equidistant venue to our workplaces The Angel.  Not the best Sam Smiths but good enough. Talked about everything but best man duties and will have to meet again. 

Tuesday

Work and then home. Failed miserably to do anything interesting. 

Wednesday (Today)

Press up app day. Press ups done 7-7-8-8-7. Found the last set tough. I am not sure if I mentioned it before but the aim is to do 50 in one go. 

Got into work to play JR at squash and avenge last weeks defeat that I conveniently had no time to write about. I arrived to JR telling me that the office (containing our rackets) had been double locked and we couldn't get in.. There was nothing for it and we went for a fry up at Wrights. Sausage, bacon, beans, chips and a tea for £3.75. 

I also need a haircut.

Vote Haskins!



You may or may not be aware but Ireland is in the middle of a general election campaign. One thing is for sure if you do live there it is inescapable. Every lamp post and I mean every one is like the one above.s. I like this a lot... it gives you a chance judge people purely on a aesthetic basis. My vote on this criteria would go to the spooky, young looking Dylan Haskins. He definitely has world domination aspirations. 


These placards can vary in their success though.  




Cllr Kevin Humphreys and his campaign team should have used flesh coloured ties to attach it to the lamp posts. Amazingly, they were all like this. It reminded me of something I had seen before but I couldn't remember what......


I would like to say though that the election is being  held in a far better way than the one we had here in Britain. Politicians seem to express themselves better and are punished less by the press for expressing opinions. They appear on popular radio and TV programs and answer frankly and sometimes with great humor.  They are allowed to answer questions they are asked by interviewers and debates are respectful. That is not to say they get an easy time because they don't. The biggest difference is Ireland seems very used to coalition governments (currently Fina Fail and Greens likely to be replaced by Fina Gael and Labour). In fact most people I have chatted to about it distrust single party governments altogether. No one can see understand the fuss we are making about it. 


I guess that a smaller population will have something to do with this but the Irish seem to have a greater sense of connection with the election process. It seems to be an acceptable topic of conversation and I get the sense  it has less of the tribalism of British politics. The recession has, is and will continue to hit the country hard but far from anger people seem to feel a certain responsibility for the way the government has handled the situation. I can't say we  have showed that here.  


So far nothing has taught me more about Ireland and the Irish. 


I remembered Cllr Kevin's placard reminded me of...It was a picture I saw in the National Portrait Gallery in London





English social reformer Sir John Fielding by Nathaniel Hone. 

Monday 21 February 2011

Pushing Literary Boundries



The view of Landsdown Road from the end of my new road. 










Weekend in Dublin. Had Friday to myself so decided to wander the city, ignoring all suggestions about where to go. I quickly realised I had no idea where to go or what to do and I soon sought refuge in the tourist information center. Now armed with the cultural map of Dublin I preceded to independently 'discover' all the places that had been kindly suggested earlier. I spent a good 2 hours in the Chester Beattie Library. Once private collection, now donated too the state, it is basically a huge collection of old religious texts. Don't let this fool you though, it is great and well worth a visit.


Other News:


I finished reading Engleby by Sebastian Faulks. I am not great at receiving recommendations so I am reluctant to write reviews of the books I read. I think I might just be really brief and leave it up to you.

Engleby-
I enjoyed it.
Disturbing without being gross.
Especially interesting if you went to Cambridge (I didn't).


Just started reading Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. It is ruddy huge so you won't have to suffer another review for a while. 


I bought a push up app for my phone. Push ups are a Evo weakness and I think it may be genetic as Evo Snr is hopeless at them too. You program in how many you want to be able to do continuously and how many you can do now and it puts a program together. You do it every other day and it times the breaks in between. I have been doing it for a week and today's session was 6-7-8-6 -6 with 60 seconds in between each set. It hurts. 


 I will keep you posted.  

Wednesday 16 February 2011

5 things I will miss, despite not doing/visiting them enough....





5 things I will miss-

  1. Turnham Green Terrace- Spent a great deal of time there during my time at ArtsEd. 
  2. The National Theatre- Even though I didn't get the job there. 
  3. The Princess Louise- Not the Toilets though..
  4. Rock and Sole Plaice chip shop-  Great chips, you can sit outside and you can order beer..perfect.
  5. All Star Lanes, Holborn.- Only been once but it's great!

Tuesday 15 February 2011

Inspired by the Uninspiring

 Shepherds Bush, September 2003.AB and I on our first night in the flat.




Busy weekend just gone.. Saturday was spent with the Tom watching the 6 nations. England and Wales won so we both were happy enough. Tom and I have watched the England v Wales match up 9 of the last 10 years and it reminds of of University days in the Social Bar. Sunday I met friends to watch the Ireland game (they lost a close game to France). I thought it was best to watch it in a Irish bar, Waxy O'Conners, and get used to being surrounded by green shirts. Left shortly after kick off to head to the Butlers for a Sunday lunch. 


After a great meal (including the best carrots I have had) and wine, talk moved to me moving. That of course led to reminiscing about moving here in the first place. When Andy and I moved here we know only a couple of people between us and we had no idea what living here was going to be like or for how long it would  be for. All we knew was that we were both in drama schools and it was going to be exciting.. and it has been. I might write about that next. 


Not the most inspiring post I've written but it has reminded me of a few things I do want to write about. It hasn't been a waste! 



Monday 14 February 2011

Waterloo

Waterloo Bridge 09:00 14/02/11




Not written anything for a while but will soon. I could have got to work earlier this morning but I went out of my way to take a walk across Waterloo bridge. Your in London but can see London...

Tuesday 8 February 2011

Painting a bad picture


Attended the opening night of the Green Week Exhibition at Central St Martins. It was a successful night for the curators. The work was varied and good all round. My particular favourite was a series of lockers containing items the artist had found. They all had signed tags attached to them and you are encouraged to take an item with you as long as you promise to appreciate it. Enjoyed the essential private view red wine in a plastic cup and a few crisps of mixed flavours. When everyone had left we locked up and had an unnecessary pint of IPA in the Shakespeare's Head near Holborn tube with JR and RW. Then another. I bounded on to the tube with a full confidence that I could make the 45 min journey home in 18 mins to meet the Tesco delivery I had ordered (22:00-23:00 slot). It turns out that a 45 min journey takes 45 mins. A 45 min journey can also end in a telling off on your own doorstep by a Tesco delivery driver. I would have argued but I fully deserved it.

Woke early for a squash rematch with JR. JR, stung by his last defeat raced to a 2-0 lead. With a mixture of good play and outrageous fortune I levelled it to 2-2. With the unnecessary IPA  starting to influence matters we were both shattered at the start of the decider. The game got what it deserved and we ended up on 8-8 with me serving and JR calling to my  and possibly his surprise, that we play to 9 (the wise choice is 10). Jack killed my serve and he had his turn to  serve for the match. It was a fantastic point and  with us both wanting to win it happened..... I played a deft drop short to the bottom left corner. Jack got there and played a even defter (more deft?) dink that grazed the wall and fell at his feet. My lanky legs propelled me forward, desperately forward. I thrust my poor quality but overpriced racket low,narrowly missing the retreating JR. It was close.....I missed.......................I called a let.......the next point.....I won........I win.........but I didn't win...........not really..........and not really winning hurts far more than losing.

Sunday 6 February 2011

My Bedside Table


The book in the picture was excellent. It just under 1000 pages and if you do read it take notes as you go. It is full of abbreviations, code names and acronyms. It also follows a topic (eg the Cambridge Five) from start to finish and then jumps back in time to follow the next topic. The notes idea only occurred to me 40 pages from the end with a realisation that was sudden and maddening.

Would I have taken this photo if I was reading a terrible book?....maybe not. The fact is though I am unlikely to be reading a embarrassing book for a simple reason. I live in London. Living in London means tube travel. Tube travel means everyone seeing what you are reading.  Is it vanity? or maybe insecurity? who knows....probably both. I love seeing what other people are reading and I have bought many books based on seeing them being read.  .

 Not that I haven't read embarrassing books whilst I have been here.I have read all the 24 Sharpe novels...in order (Sharpe's Tiger though to Sharpe's Devil).. including a Christmas special ( called,surprisingly, Sharpe's Christmas). I bought them all for around 10p each on Amazon and quite a few are propping up my wardrobes.


A friend of mine has a rule regarding particular editions of books. He refuses to read books that have been made into films and then have an edition with  a cover that features the films actors or branding.

Only one of the Sharpe books had had a sleeve with Sean Bean on it...Sharpe's Eagle. The only way friend will find out will result him being killed by a falling wardrobe. He would not be happy.

Saturday 5 February 2011

The First Time I Went to London

Before moving to London at 25 I had visited the capital maybe only twice that I can remember, and both when I was quite young. The first time though was very memorable for 2 reasons.

Firstly it was a trip to Wembley to watch Nottingham Forest in the 1989 Littlewoods Cup  Final. I remember it being very exciting to go on a trip to watch the football with my 2 uncle Daves (1 blood,1 Married in) and their mate Stan. From what Dave says Stan was a darter and pub singer of some note. Apparently he does a fantastic Johnny Cash. I saw him last year and though he must be in his 60's and still has a teddyboy quiff. I can't imagine anyone epitomising  to the East Midlands more. We were stood right at the front at one end of the stand. The pitch was at a slightly higher level than the stand and it with the fence that was the way of things then, the view was not the best,. Forest won the game 3-1.

Secondly it was the first time i saw a condom. It was inflated and bouncing around the terraces with cheers. Being young, I didn't know exactly what it was at the time. What I did know was that Dave's amused 'funny looking balloon that Johnny' comment was a gentle education.

The M1 on the way back was grid locked. The weather was red hot and all the cars seemed to be full of Forest fans on their way home. Every one had their windows open and were chatting about the game and singing. A group from a coach were walking among the cars handing out biscuits to other Forest ssupporters in their cars. I got a custard cream.

Wednesday 2 February 2011

Court short..less

The day started with a game of squash with Hacker Jack Rowley. The quality of play varied wildly but we are both competitive so it was well fought. Jack's mind games of leaving me waiting and booking two different courts over the time we were playing didn't throw me..much, and I grasped victory. Squash is a game that is daunting to start, especially at 8:30 in the morning. It is going to be exhausting and frustrating and rarely fun. I always find it a better memory than experience.

I am hoping to play again on Friday


What I don't intend on repeating on Friday is forgetting clean boxers to change into. I realised this horror post shower. A short but uncomfortable trip to Sports Direct (I miss our old office off Oxford St and it's quality pant purveyors) plus £4.99 and I was in possession of two pairs of navy Londsale cotton boxers. I have a friend who never wears boxers.

He must be a button fly man.

Tuesday 1 February 2011

Waiting for training..

What I can see as I wait to deliver training in LCC, Elephant and Castle. Weather grey. Buildings grey. Even the chairs are grey.