Author: stevendouglasblog

Born in 1954. Chequered career including Lecturer in English, Social Worker and Lecturer in Social Work. Had breaks related to mental health that also meant I worked in social care. Now retired.

The one thing I cannot live without is art – however raw its raw materials. Uncluttering the classic stage: Lear, a production of The National Theatre of Scotland at the Traverse Theatre seen 2.30-3.30 p.m. Saturday 7th June 2025.

June 8, 2025

The one thing I cannot live without is theatre – however raw its raw materials. Uncluttering the classic stage: ‘Lear’, a production of The National Theatre of Scotland at the Traverse Theatre seen 2.30-3.30 p.m. Saturday 7th June 2025. Bcck in the old days at Honley Grammar School, my friend Ann will remember that we … More The one thing I cannot live without is art – however raw its raw materials. Uncluttering the classic stage: Lear, a production of The National Theatre of Scotland at the Traverse Theatre seen 2.30-3.30 p.m. Saturday 7th June 2025.

Perhaps we all spend ‘the most time’ with ourselves and that rowdy group of conflicting persons’ thoughts. Hence, the need to keep learning!

June 7, 2025

Who do you spend the most time with? Mine is the next train, and I sit here with my skinny cappuccino waiting for it, aware I hate leaving my hubby and doggy behind in Durham. But that’s what it is like to be driven to leave no vacant space that might get filled by experience. … More Perhaps we all spend ‘the most time’ with ourselves and that rowdy group of conflicting persons’ thoughts. Hence, the need to keep learning!

‘The Secret Seven’ fail to catch up on ‘The Little Prince’.

June 4, 2025

‘The Secret Seven’ fail to catch up on ‘The Little Prince’. When I was in primary school, Enid Blyton ruled the world of children’s fiction, yet apart from having a kind of loving fascination for The Island of Adventure (because I liked island books), I had not even a pretend interest in The Famous Five … More ‘The Secret Seven’ fail to catch up on ‘The Little Prince’.

Dis/Placed: meanings in the art metamorphose, and the variant contexts are at base space and time

June 3, 2025

Dis/Placed: meanings in the art of Anselm Keifer metamorphose in association with the variant contexts contingent on the ‘placement’ in space and time This blog post is a sequel to one on Part One of the Anselm Kiefer exhibition in Amsterdam at this link. Just a glance at the new work at the top of … More Dis/Placed: meanings in the art metamorphose, and the variant contexts are at base space and time

‘… something between me and the picture felt poised on an edge waiting to happen, the verge of something wild’. This blog is for Joanne, who loves and understands Ali Smith, relating to that author’s republished essay on Munch in book form, ‘So In The Spruce Forest’.

June 2, 2025

‘… something between me and the picture felt poised on an edge waiting to happen, the verge of something wild’.  [1] This blog is for Joanne, who loves and understands Ali Smith, relating to that author’s republished essay on Munch in book form, ‘So In The Spruce Forest’. Some people, and Joanne is one of … More ‘… something between me and the picture felt poised on an edge waiting to happen, the verge of something wild’. This blog is for Joanne, who loves and understands Ali Smith, relating to that author’s republished essay on Munch in book form, ‘So In The Spruce Forest’.

It would be: ‘He tried to notice the underlying things!’ Is this a case in point?: This blog looks at a discovered copy of the 75th anniversary issue of ‘Granta’ from 1964 [Volume 68, No 1233].

June 1, 2025

It would be: ‘He tried to notice the underlying things!’ Is this a case in point: This blog looks at a discovered copy of the 75th anniversary issue of ‘Granta’ from 1964 [Volume 68, No 1233]. In it a poet speaks of another much earlier poet: ‘Going, he carefully left his words behind’. My husband … More It would be: ‘He tried to notice the underlying things!’ Is this a case in point?: This blog looks at a discovered copy of the 75th anniversary issue of ‘Granta’ from 1964 [Volume 68, No 1233].

Anselm Kiefer sees Van Gogh in Amsterdam, and the confrontation is world-changing.

May 31, 2025

Anselm Kiefer said in a lecture in Tate Britain in 2019 (abridged for the new Van Gogh exhibition in Amsterdam in 2025 as an introduction to the catalogue): ‘Van Gogh’s composition is minimalist. There is no shimmering light dissolving the material world into pointillistic touches of colour. Van Gogh builds the landscape like a bricklayer, … More Anselm Kiefer sees Van Gogh in Amsterdam, and the confrontation is world-changing.

This blog is a reflective take on Seán Hewitt’s 2025 novel ‘Open, Heaven’ New York, Alfred A. Knopf.

May 29, 2025

‘It was  all unfinished and most likely it always would be’. Open, Heaven, which despite having many endings is also truly an unending story, asks us how much we really want our loves to remain open rather than closed to future promise: that ‘life of constant negotiation, movement, agony, bliss’ And we desire this perhaps … More This blog is a reflective take on Seán Hewitt’s 2025 novel ‘Open, Heaven’ New York, Alfred A. Knopf.

The Van Gogh Museum: Preface to seeing Van Gogh through the eyes of Anselm Kiefer

May 27, 2025

The Van Gogh Museum: Preface to seeing Van Gogh through the eyes of Anselm Kiefer The pictures above were by other tourists than us. This blog is an intrusion into the three-part set of blogs, in effect a fourth added to them but to preface the ones on the joint exhibition of Anselm Kiefer, both … More The Van Gogh Museum: Preface to seeing Van Gogh through the eyes of Anselm Kiefer

On the myth that visiting the Rijksmuseum is the primary way of knowing the culture of Holland and the Dutch spirit.

May 26, 2025

On the myth that visiting the Rijksmuseum is the primary way of knowing the culture of Holland and the Dutch spirit. In my introductory blog on our Amsterdam trip [at this link], I suggested there would be three more Amsterdam blogs to come.  There, in the first version (now updated to reflect the chosen final … More On the myth that visiting the Rijksmuseum is the primary way of knowing the culture of Holland and the Dutch spirit.

I don’t think I do know when to ‘unplug’. But I do get to points where I feel I have ‘unplugged’. It happened in Amsterdam. Our Amsterdam experience: an introduction

May 25, 2025

I don’t think I do know when to ‘unplug’. But I do get to points where I feel I have ‘unplugged’. It happened in Amsterdam. Our Amsterdam experience: an introduction You could say our Amsterdam experience was defined in the wake of its progression: the place of one’s status quo existence becoming a mist that rides … More I don’t think I do know when to ‘unplug’. But I do get to points where I feel I have ‘unplugged’. It happened in Amsterdam. Our Amsterdam experience: an introduction

We evaluate both a belonging and the feeling of belonging with or by principles of rightful exclusion for ownership and membership thereof respectively.

May 24, 2025

What personal belongings do you hold most dear? In a blog on  novel called, and in some degree about, the wider implications of what we mean by Theft (see it at this link), I found myself considering associations with two different kinds of entitlement: the entitlement of ownership of things (and sometimes people) one calls … More We evaluate both a belonging and the feeling of belonging with or by principles of rightful exclusion for ownership and membership thereof respectively.