This blog reflects on the fate of ‘the Word’ (text and books) as an element of ‘Art’ in post-religious subcultures or cultures. It follows up thoughts from my earlier blog (at this link) based on reading Michael Petry (2018) ‘The Word is Art: Text and The Written Word in Contemporary Art’.

September 19, 2023

This blog reflects on the fate of ‘the Word’ (text and books) as an element of ‘Art’ in post-religious subcultures or cultures where religion is displaced from having a central authority over authenticity of the the non-material, spiritual or conceptual forms we venerate. It follows up thoughts from my earlier blog (at this link) based … More This blog reflects on the fate of ‘the Word’ (text and books) as an element of ‘Art’ in post-religious subcultures or cultures. It follows up thoughts from my earlier blog (at this link) based on reading Michael Petry (2018) ‘The Word is Art: Text and The Written Word in Contemporary Art’.

If the way to a straight  guy’s heart is via his satisfied stomach, this was some failure to woo. A student day’s tale.

September 19, 2023

Write about your most epic baking or cooking fail. I was a student at UCL in the early 1970s and in my first year had a room at a single-sex University of London residence near Kings Cross (it’s lost to history now in lots of ways and replaced by a glossy privatised version of student … More If the way to a straight  guy’s heart is via his satisfied stomach, this was some failure to woo. A student day’s tale.

I wish I had believed about myself what Socrates was said to believe about himself when Plato quotes him as saying, “I neither know nor think I know”.

September 18, 2023

Share a lesson you wish you had learned earlier in life. It is almost certain that Socrates never said, as people sometimes believe, anything like, ‘All I know is that I know nothing’, but then can we we truly ever be certain about anything. How people came to believe he said this is explained in … More I wish I had believed about myself what Socrates was said to believe about himself when Plato quotes him as saying, “I neither know nor think I know”.

‘The swirling bonfire of change of the “sixties” put down for all of us to see’. Further thoughts on the meaning of male beauty in painted images, using this re-found treasure: Patrick Kinmonth (1985) ‘Patrick Procktor’.

September 17, 2023

‘The swirling bonfire of change of the “sixties” put down for all of us to see’.[1] Another book found (at the PBFA Bookfair at the Knavesmire Suite at York Racecourse on the 15th of September 2023. Further thoughts on the meaning of male beauty in painted images, using this re-found treasure: Patrick Kinmonth (1985) Patrick … More ‘The swirling bonfire of change of the “sixties” put down for all of us to see’. Further thoughts on the meaning of male beauty in painted images, using this re-found treasure: Patrick Kinmonth (1985) ‘Patrick Procktor’.

To want to see oneself as a leader is the first danger to overcome in ‘thoughtful leadership’. But, in any case, I don’t think I have the skills for it or any other kind of leadership. A little bit on Wilfred Bion.

September 15, 2023

Do you see yourself as a leader? Thoughtful leaders are first of all concerned with keeping their organisation ‘on task’. In pursuit of this, thoughtful leadership provides containment, is available for thought, and mobilises others in the organisation to be thoughtful. Throughout the paper lessons are drawn from the work of the psychoanalyst Wilfred Bion … More To want to see oneself as a leader is the first danger to overcome in ‘thoughtful leadership’. But, in any case, I don’t think I have the skills for it or any other kind of leadership. A little bit on Wilfred Bion.

In 2018 Lewis Segal wrote in The Los Angeles Times of Matthew Bourne’s ‘Swan Lake’ and praised ‘the members of the swan corps: feathered, bare-chested virtuosos whose sense of menace kept the work from collapsing into short-lived camp’. Is this a work that STILL demands attention from everyone in the queer community. I saw it on 13th September at the Gala Cinema, Durham City, UK.

September 14, 2023

In 2018 Lewis Segal wrote in The Los Angeles Times of Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake, playing there at the time and praised in particular ‘the members of the swan corps: feathered, bare-chested virtuosos whose sense of menace kept the work from collapsing into short-lived camp. Bourne created the work at a time when a law … More In 2018 Lewis Segal wrote in The Los Angeles Times of Matthew Bourne’s ‘Swan Lake’ and praised ‘the members of the swan corps: feathered, bare-chested virtuosos whose sense of menace kept the work from collapsing into short-lived camp’. Is this a work that STILL demands attention from everyone in the queer community. I saw it on 13th September at the Gala Cinema, Durham City, UK.

My favourite word is NOT ‘WORD’. Because the Word on its own is not everything but it keeps pretending it is.

September 14, 2023

What’s your favorite word? This piece is dedicated to Heppy, who as well as being a man of his word is also wise because he knows words are links to each other and between us all. He is a hero. And a teacher. Lucky students. Whether we are religious or not, we live in a … More My favourite word is NOT ‘WORD’. Because the Word on its own is not everything but it keeps pretending it is.

As I was reading Mark Griffin’s (2018) ‘All That Heaven Allows: A Biography of Rock Hudson’, I think I concluded that Rock Hudson’s story and life-performance illustrates that the art of ‘passing’ was never the opposite of ‘coming out’.

September 14, 2023

As I was reading Mark Griffin’s (2018) All That Heaven Allows: A Biography of Rock Hudson (New York, Harper), I think I concluded that Rock Hudson was neither insightful nor supremely talented though he was sometimes a very good actor and performer indeed (though also sometimes not so good and – by his own estimation … More As I was reading Mark Griffin’s (2018) ‘All That Heaven Allows: A Biography of Rock Hudson’, I think I concluded that Rock Hudson’s story and life-performance illustrates that the art of ‘passing’ was never the opposite of ‘coming out’.

This evening I am seeing a screening of Matthew Bourne’s ‘Swan Lake’ at the Gala Cinema, Durham.

September 13, 2023

What are you doing this evening? Swan Lake was the first ballet I ever saw, apart from a rather ill-understood experience of Don Quixote in Moscow on a programmed trip of Moscow & the then Leningrad arranged by Intourist (the state tourist agency of communist Russia – Gorbachev was President then). I wrote about it … More This evening I am seeing a screening of Matthew Bourne’s ‘Swan Lake’ at the Gala Cinema, Durham.

Red flags are alerts from our own self-defence systems. Can they sometimes be over-vigilant and deny us new experience unnecessarily.

September 12, 2023

What personality trait in people raises a red flag with you? Image from : https://www.carp.ca/2014/03/07/ask-expert-red-flags-investing/ People don’t walk around with ‘red flags’, even to announce anymore the danger posed by a motor car, yet we are asked to see them everywhere – to look for the ‘red flag’ warnings that situation is not as safe … More Red flags are alerts from our own self-defence systems. Can they sometimes be over-vigilant and deny us new experience unnecessarily.

An author owning the memories and thoughts in ‘Ootlin’.

September 11, 2023

The narrator of Ootlin: A memoir, written by Jenni Fagan, experiences one of her many moves into foster care in Chapter 5 of that book. Recreating the thought of and about a younger self, these co-operating storytellers say: ‘The car windows are tightly closed. A cardboard lemon spins under the mirror. I only want two … More An author owning the memories and thoughts in ‘Ootlin’.