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.

Seeing in person the British Museum’s reconstruction of the elder Michelangelo in ‘Michelangelo: The last decades’ on July 21st at 12.30 with our dear friend Catherine.

July 14, 2024

Seeing in person the British Museum’s reconstruction of the elder Michelangelo in Michelangelo: The last decades on July 21st at 12.30 with our dear friend Catherine. Geoff, Me and Catherine in the sun outside the BFI Café, photograph by Catherine. Geoff and I met our dear friend Catherine at the café pf the British Film … More Seeing in person the British Museum’s reconstruction of the elder Michelangelo in ‘Michelangelo: The last decades’ on July 21st at 12.30 with our dear friend Catherine.

So don’t ask if I want ‘security or adventure’! It is a loaded question, as I hope to show here.

July 13, 2024

The prompt question today recalls the phrase used in English, ‘May you live in interesting times’? It is known, without much supporting evidence as the “Chinese curse“. In the LibQuote above, it is attributed in longer form to Robert Kennedy, and he elaborates it in seeing turbulence in history as the more interesting option. In … More So don’t ask if I want ‘security or adventure’! It is a loaded question, as I hope to show here.

This blog is about eventually seeing ‘Mnemonic’ for myself in the Olivier Theatre at 7.30 p.m. 10th July 2024.

July 12, 2024

‘This is not quite what I remembered’, says Susannah Clapp, the theatre critic of The Observer of mnemonic at the National Theatre who had also seen the original production.[1] Clearly she could not have said this had she read with understanding Simon Burney’s fragment discussing the genesis of this ‘revival’ in Complicité: Mnemonic [A Site],  … More This blog is about eventually seeing ‘Mnemonic’ for myself in the Olivier Theatre at 7.30 p.m. 10th July 2024.

Neuroscientists insist that we cannot, as individuals know the future, or the past, without assembling, and reassembling it, in the hippocampus. Is that why we need each other to make it real.

July 11, 2024

What are you most excited about for the future? Last night I saw the play Mnemonic at the National Theatre. I was intending to blog on it, but today is too full to allow it – with exhibitions on Michelangelo and the Expressionists to see with a dear friend, Catherine. This blog will be somewhat … More Neuroscientists insist that we cannot, as individuals know the future, or the past, without assembling, and reassembling it, in the hippocampus. Is that why we need each other to make it real.

Gently into goodnight

July 10, 2024

What time do you go to bed and wake up currently? Rounded in routine,darkness visibleEats up our nights,and charges up each dayWith residues of power; gets us throughTomorrow, tomorrow and tomorrow, The time left until our last long goodnight,When all we have left is the mournings past. Is our dear friend dieing?I dare not think of … More Gently into goodnight

Support me with your strength to make me stronger, the rest is the verbal equivalent of cotton wool

July 9, 2024

What strategies do you use to increase comfort in your daily life? The etymology, at least, of the word ‘comfort’ is clear. ‘With strength’ is the term that indicates that a stronger person or other entity such as a state, a church, or a loving group of lower formality lends its strength to someone or … More Support me with your strength to make me stronger, the rest is the verbal equivalent of cotton wool

‘If one is to try to record one’s life truthfully, one must aim at getting into the record of it something of the disorderly discontinuity which makes it so absurd, unpredictable, bearable’. Why? The case of Leonard Woolf!

July 8, 2024

Leonard Woolf in the last volume of his autobiography wittily acknowledges that newspaper critics of earlier volumes had a point when they ‘complained of [his] digressions‘ and attributed it  to ‘old age, garrulous senility’. However, he insists that they also missed the main reason for not aiming to ‘force his life and his memories of … More ‘If one is to try to record one’s life truthfully, one must aim at getting into the record of it something of the disorderly discontinuity which makes it so absurd, unpredictable, bearable’. Why? The case of Leonard Woolf!

Beyond ‘genre’, liking and favourites: I think understanding what isn’t already in my culture is my priority : a blog based on Judith Chernaik’s (2018) ‘SCHUMANN: The Faces and the Masks’.

July 6, 2024

Beyond ‘genre’, liking and favourites: understanding what isn’t already in your culture is the priority. This blog is a plan to repair a small corner of the tatters of my ignorance of and feel I have some way of understanding the life of Schumann without neglecting the music. This is a blog based on Judith … More Beyond ‘genre’, liking and favourites: I think understanding what isn’t already in my culture is my priority : a blog based on Judith Chernaik’s (2018) ‘SCHUMANN: The Faces and the Masks’.

Sometimes, landslides kill hope slowly. Getting the dark Cassandra promptings  out there!

July 5, 2024

The British electoral system has delivered another bizarre result, where a political party has secured only about a third of the national vote and holds the biggest majority in the UK Parliament of any party in recent ‘democratic’ history. In no sense has it a democratic mandate understood by people at large, yet it will … More Sometimes, landslides kill hope slowly. Getting the dark Cassandra promptings  out there!

The fragile harmony of consonance without intervals of dissonance. In praise of the role of conflict.

July 4, 2024

Ernst Krenek‘s classification, from ‘Studies in Counterpoint’ (1940), of a triad’s overall consonance or dissonance through the consonance or dissonance of the three intervals contained within. Created by Hyacinth (talk) 17:07, 25 September 2010 using Sibelius 5. We can’t get far with this question without reference to music (and I am hampered by a total ignorance of musical … More The fragile harmony of consonance without intervals of dissonance. In praise of the role of conflict.

Ageing on its own makes nothing better; if anything, it makes it much more difficult, and in more than one way, ‘harder’ to achieve authenticity as a person aiming for ‘a way to the Better’.

July 3, 2024

Currently, I am reading the five volumes of Leonard Woolf’s autobiography. I am on the third crucial volume in which his concern for the oncoming suicide of his wife Virginia is first talked about and explanations that as they increase still don’t suffice to accumulate more than genuine understanding of that tortured, but infinitely great, … More Ageing on its own makes nothing better; if anything, it makes it much more difficult, and in more than one way, ‘harder’ to achieve authenticity as a person aiming for ‘a way to the Better’.