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.
What’s your definition of romantic? The romantic is a sensually and imaginatively heightened form of interaction between people, although I sometimes feel it is mainly a narcissistic experience entirely for some and a little for everyone. It elevates the physical sensation so it isn’t the opposite of the embodied or ‘sexual’. It engages the mind … More A heightened form of interaction between people.
An update based on actually seeing the exhibition of Yayoi Kusama at Factory International Manchester on Tuesday 4th July at 11.15 a.m., as part of a selection of the items from the Manchester International Festival. The original blog available at this link. It could not have been a worse morning. Suddenly deep in a low … More An update based on actually seeing the exhibition of Yayoi Kusama at Factory International Manchester on Tuesday 4th July at 11.15 a.m., as part of a selection of the items from the Manchester International Festival.
An update based on actually seeing the production of The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions (based on the cult book of that name by Larry Mitchell & illustrated by Ned Asta. A brilliant show at Home Theatre 1 in Manchester on Sunday 2nd July at 3.00 p.m., as part of a selection of the … More An update based on actually seeing the production of ‘The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions’ (based on the cult book of that name by Larry Mitchell & illustrated by Ned Asta). A brilliant show at Home Theatre 1 in Manchester on Sunday 2nd July at 3.00 p.m., as part of a selection of the items from the Manchester International Festival.
‘The pain of his childhood was of such a common source that it embarrassed him. … they all had the same pain, the same hurt, and he didn’t think anyone should go around pretending it was something more than it was: the routine operation of the universe. Small common things – hurt feelings, cruel parents, … More This is a blog on using art to build a culture within queer communities. It’s also a blog about Brandon Taylor (2023) ‘The Late Americans’, a great novel IMO.
How important is spirituality in your life? I would have to start by saying that I don’t believe there is anything essential signified by the word ‘spirit’. There is no thinginess or essence in other words that equates with ‘spirit’. Instead it is a sign that we believe that the meaning of objects, animate and … More The spirit gives a life and meaning to the forces that animate material objects
‘… . Infinitely more grisly than actual pain is the danger of being excluded from the collective adventure. To be an outsider is the one unbearable humiliation. … In puerile fantasies I tried to deny and to overcome the intrinsic law of my nature which forever prevents me from belonging to the enviable, if pain-stricken, … More This is a speculative blog based on the Klaus Mann’s play ‘Siblings’ and novels/novellas: namely, ‘The Pious Dance’, ‘The Children’s Story’, ‘Alexander’, ‘Pathetic Symphony’, and ‘Mephisto’ (1936). The blog refers to his autobiography and to the fine biography by Frederick Spotts (2016) ‘Cursed Legacy: The Tragic Life of Klaus Mann’.
This second of two linked blogs relates to my current thinking of about the ‘personal-is-political’ movements and their slogans. As I reflect back on my life from the 1960s (I was born in 1954), I recall how fluid were the attachments we referred to as a ‘rainbow alliance The boundaries different kinds of identity, and … More This second of two linked blogs relates to my current thinking of about the ‘personal-is-political’ movements and their slogans. The second part of this blog reflects on looking towards seeing a production of ‘The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions’ (based on the cult book by Larry Mitchell. To be seen at ‘Home’ in Manchester on Sunday 2nd July at 3.00 p.m.
This blog relates to my current thinking of about the ‘personal-is-political’ movements and their slogans. As I reflect back on my life from the 1960s (I was born in 1954), I recall how fluid were the attachments we referred to as a ‘rainbow alliance The boundaries different kinds of identity, and their sometimes-ambivalent labels, were … More This blog relates to my current thinking of about the ‘personal-is-political’ movements and their slogans. The first part of this blog reflects on an artist whom I did not know till now. My introduction to her work will be an exhibition at Factory International Manchester, which I am visiting on Tuesday 4th July at 11.15 a.m., as part of a selection of the items from the Manchester International Festival.
‘Talking about trauma was a vital part of the recovery process, … ‘.[1] I had opened up myself to be vulnerable, to allow myself to trust in someone else, …’.[2] Some reflections on why the exploration of vulnerability and response to trauma has become so prominent in queer life-stories. A blog in preparation for hearing … More ‘Talking about trauma was a vital part of the recovery process, … ‘. I had opened up myself to be vulnerable, to allow myself to trust in someone else, …’. Some reflections on why the exploration of vulnerability and response to trauma has become so prominent in queer life-stories. A blog in preparation for hearing a reading of new life-stories by Paul Burston and Michael Handrick at Blackwells, Manchester on Monday 3 July 6.30 p.m.
‘… reading him was like falling in love with a dead man – …’.[1] This blog is an attempt to assert that writers are either open to unintended, even queer, readings of their written work or accept that their words, like all words intended for one time and one occasion only, will die when they … More ‘… reading him was like falling in love with a dead man – …’. This blog intends to find so much more than reviews do currently in Andrew Motion’s (2023) ‘Sleeping on Islands: A Life in Poetry’.
A televisual telling of ‘the magical tayl of the greyt King Dayvid Hartley’, who in Myers recreation of his final written testament was ‘a man hoos life itself was lived like a pome Hoos every thort’ ( I would prefer ‘thoort’ as a self-transcription by David of his spoken Yorkshire dialect, Steve says) ‘and ackshun … More A televisual telling of ‘the magical tayl of the greyt King Dayvid Hartley’, who in Myers recreation of his final written testament was ‘a man hoos life itself was lived like a pome Hoos every thort’ ( I would prefer ‘thoort’ as a self-transcription by David of his spoken Yorkshire dialect, Steve says) ‘and ackshun was poetry And who rose to graytnuss and his final ritten words and his lassed dying breath Well that was poetry too’. These words of the ‘pote’constitute part of a kind of base story to Benjamin Myers’ ‘The Gallows Pole: The True Story of King David Hartley and the Cragg Vale Coiners’. This blog looks at how Shane Meadows retells the story of David Hartley.
A BOOKER WINNER!: ‘Even shit has life in it, after all’. Sometimes Kevin Jared Hosein suggests that we had better look anywhere for a source of meaningful life rather than we let life hide from us with no attempt to search for it; or worse, realise ‘ that time has left (you) behind’.[1] This blog … More A BOOKER WINNER!: ‘Even shit has life in it, after all’. Sometimes Kevin Jared Hosein suggests that we had better look anywhere for a source of meaningful life rather than we let life hide from us with no attempt to search for it; or worse, realise ‘ that time has left (you) behind’. This blog is a review of Kevin Jared Hosein (2023) ‘Hungry Ghosts’.
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