Jot down the first thing that comes to your mind. The ‘first-thing-that-comes-to-mind’ game is one sometimes used in psychoanalysis to find out how symptomatic connections might occur in the mind that reveal something of how that same mind is structured. Since minds are wily and use both conscious and unconscious filters to hide thoughts felt … More The first shall be last. No creation ex nihilo.
Yesterday I visited with my husband Geoff, the Live Theatre at Newcastle, to see a show that has received multiple awards for its contribution to the art and functionality of different modes of social art – documentary, immersive theatre and digitally innovative theatre. Audiences don digital headsets and then enter a room of unadorned stands … More The many times when action matters in social work. Memories whilst Visiting ‘The Museum of Austerity’ at Live Theatre, Quayside, Newcastle on Wednesday 17th 2024
What place in the world do you never want to visit? Why? I would not visit the Tundra in Alaska. I have not Jamie’s grit or the steel-edged beauty of her imagination. But in her I can see a reflection of it. The feelings it raises are complicated. Of course, worthwhile experience always is. I … More Kathleen Jamie chose to visit the Alaskan Tundra and help with an archaeological dig. Would I?
The shooter shot – a name for the meta-art of civil disturbance. This is a blog on Alex Garland’s Civil War. See it. The film company A24, mainly responsible for this film takes the civil war scenario in the USA we might think seriously, else it would not have produced a map showing the distribution … More The shooter shot – a name for the meta-art of civil disturbance. This is a blog on Alex Garland’s ‘Civil War’. See it.
Francis Spufford(2024) Cahokia Jazz London, Faber & Faber. A preparatory look at the novel prior to seeing the author on the 27 April 2024 at 4.15 – 5.15 at the Queens Hall, Hexham For my review blog of an earlier novel, Light Perpetual, by Spufford see this link. In fact, I think my take on … More Francis Spufford(2024) Cahokia Jazz London, Faber & Faber. A preparatory look at the novel prior to seeing the author on the 27 April 2024 at 4.15 – 5.15 at the Queens Hall, Hexham
What is your favorite restaurant? The Duke still exists on Duke Street, as does Davy Byrne’s eatery, but I do not know if The Duke in which we know Joyce dined regularly was also the ‘Burton restaurant’ referred to Episode 8 of James Joyce’s Ulysses. That episode is usually known as the Laestrygonians, since it … More Join me and James Joyce at Burton’s Restaurant, Duke Street, Dublin. Let your gorge rise.
‘When I think it through, this wasn’t a random encounter’. James’ thinking had a tendency to be spoken aloud and that could be embarrassing. He checked around him. No-one seems to have heard. The boy with ear-plugs, who was sitting next to him on the train, still nodded his head to the same beat, his … More In lieu of an answer and avoiding the personal: a short story with too much telling and not enough showing, perhaps.
The holes in Tommy Orange. The author’s account of multiple contemporary Native American life-stories across time-and-space. This is a blog on the massive over-significance of Tommy Orange (2024) Wandering Stars London, Harvill Secker. The character Sean Price in Tommy Orange’s Wandering Stars is defined by a hole in the texture of social meaning: he feels … More The holes in Tommy Orange. The author’s account of multiple contemporary Native American life-stories across time-and-space. This is a blog on the massive over-significance of Tommy Orange (2024) ‘Wandering Stars’.
What are your morning rituals? What does the first hour of your day look like? Posted on April 11, 2024 by stevendouglasblog Mishearing, of rituals of mourning I thought they queried, as if discerning Some loss was still raw in mind, too unkind In their ‘concern’. Will today again find My first hour, like a cymbal crashing sleep … More Make morning not mourning my ritual now! Xxx Love to Geoff.
Sophie Teasdale’s Backstage Worlds: Picturing the Times, Space, and Sex/gender Practices of Public Performance. A show of photographs at Bishop Auckland Town Hall seen on Tuesday 9th April 2024. Sophie Teasdale’s book Dressing Room No. 1 (it can be purchased at this link as I did) preceded this exhibition which was commissioned by the Bishop … More Sophie Teasdale’s Backstage Worlds: Picturing the Times, Space, and Sex/gender Practices of Public Performance. A show of photographs at Bishop Auckland Town Hall seen on Tuesday 9th April 2024.
What job would you do for free? Friend, I do thee no wrong.Didst not thou agree with me for a penny?Take that thine is, and go thy way.I will give unto this last even as unto thee. Matthew, 20: 14 ‘The eleventh hour labourers’, etching by Jan Luyken based on the Parable of the Workers in the … More Time, Work, and value: life and death issues.
‘Kwame had slept with more than thirty men, and he reflected again on the fact that only three of them had been Black. … reciprocating didn’t come easily. He was always tentative, because, with each of these three Black men, as distinct and variable and beautiful as those encounters had been, with each there had … More This is a blog on intersectional nuance and Black queer sexuality focusing on Michael Donkor (2024) ‘Grow Where They Fall’.
Steve_Bamlett_blog 