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.
If there was a biography about you, what would the title be? The title of my ‘Life’, as I prefer to call my auto fictional biography, would start with my childhood of course, something I addressed in a blog on the year of my birth, 1954 (see the blog at this link). The rather sentimental print … More “Hidden in a book: A Life wrapped in dust covers”.
Are you patriotic? What does being patriotic mean to you? I have blogged before using this quotation, actually from a Canadian poet, but used on the outer wall, and as an epigram, of the Scottish Houses of Parliament at Holyrood, Edinburgh, as if they were the original words of Scottish author (poet, novelist and dramatist), … More ‘Work as if you live in the early days of a better nation’
Part 1 of this two-part blog about Andrew Scott’s achievement in enacting all the multiple personae of Vanya. In this part 1, I prepare myself, by examining the audacious text of the Stephens screenplay, to see Andrew Scott perform all the roles of this play, as it was intended one actor would, in the streamed … More Part 1 of a two-part blog which aims to talk about Andrew Scott’s achievement in enacting all the multiple personae of ‘Vanya’, as aspects of the solitary and solipsistic self, perhaps. (Part 1 is about preparing myself for the novelties of the Simon Stephens’ text).
In Andrew McMillan’s Pity (2024) personal memories and socio-political histories meld so much that they are perfectly expressed in the same metaphors, as concerned with that which, ‘came back to him every so often, when the wheel of memory dredged it up and brought it into the light and then sunk it down inside of … More This is a blog on Andrew McMillan (2024) ‘Pity’ Edinburgh, Canongate Books.
Orinal publication was: Online pedagogy in art: comparing A844 Block 2 Sec. 2 and Exercises 3.2.2, 3.2.3, 3.2.4 & 3.2.5 in Sec. 3Friday, 23 Nov 2018, 18:11Visible to anyone in the worldEdited by Steve Bamlett, Friday, 23 Nov 2018, 18:17 Having recorded real disappointment about the pedagogy revealed by exercises in Sec. 2 of the … More Reissue: Some thoughts on online teaching method in the history of art.
‘I open my mouth to tell him he’s wrong. That he’s talking in tongues. Though no words come out. Nothing hitchhiking on my breath. Truth is troublesome like that’.[1] This is a blog on the second ground-breaking queer novel by Jon Ransom (2024) The Gallopers London, The Muswell Press. For my blog on Jon Ransom’s … More ‘I open my mouth to tell him he’s wrong. That he’s talking in tongues. Though no words come out. Nothing hitchhiking on my breath. Truth is troublesome like that’. This is a blog on the second queer novel by Jon Ransom (2024) ‘The Gallopers’.
A day in Edinburgh with Prints and Photographs: Exhibitions in National Galleries of Scotland: (3) Making Space for a Reason. But what reason? (Part 3 [FINAL PART] of Edinburgh blog). For Part 1: A day in Edinburgh with Prints and Photographs: Exhibitions in National Galleries of Scotland: (1) Introduction; use this link. For Part 2: A … More A day in Edinburgh with Prints and Photographs: (3) Making Space for a Reason. But what reason?
A day in Edinburgh with Prints and Photographs: Exhibitions in National Galleries of Scotland: (2) Hidden ingenuity and affordances to thought and meaning in the Art of Printmaking (Part 2 of Edinburgh blog). For Part 1: A day in Edinburgh with Prints and Photographs: Exhibitions in National Galleries of Scotland: (1) Introduction; use this link. For … More A day in Edinburgh with Prints and Photographs: (2) Hidden ingenuity and affordances to thought and meaning in the Art of Printmaking.
Are there any activities or hobbies you’ve outgrown or lost interest in over time? I can’t even remember the last time I willingly sat in a pub with a friend or group of other people and certainly can’t now remember why I found it a satisfying or pleasurable thing to do. As a boy, drinking … More Goodbye intoxicated outings.
For Part 2: A day in Edinburgh with Prints and Photographs: (2) Hidden ingenuity and affordances to thought and meaning in the Art of Printmaking: use this link. For Part III: A day in Edinburgh with Prints and Photographs: Exhibitions in National Galleries of Scotland: (3) Making Space for a Reason. But what reason? (Part 3 of Edinburgh blog). … More A day in Edinburgh with Prints and Photographs: Exhibitions in National Galleries of Scotland: (1) Introduction
The most important invention in your lifetime is… The term invention has an interesting etymology, for the idea of merely ‘coming upon’ or even ‘discovering’ (taking a cover from something previously hidden under that cover) is a relatively passive idea compared to the concept of ‘creation’, although in practice it involves activity of an equal … More Try this for ‘significant invention’! LOL. The decay of the idea of ‘invention’ and making space in the cosmos for the creative life-forces may be all that matters.
‘Orpheus is as old as storytelling itself. He opened his mouth and all of music and all of poetry fell out. … Two thousand years of passing mentions later, can O and E, released from the weight of their histo-ry, make a new fate? Can the myth be escaped?’[1] So starts Tom de Freston with … More ‘Orpheus is as old as storytelling itself. He opened his mouth and all of music and all of poetry fell out.’ This blog explores Tom de Freston with Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s 2017 book ‘Orpheus and Eurydice: A Graphic-Poetic Exploration’.
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