Category: Other Culture (film, media, fine art, exhibitions, other people’s writing etc.)

A Few Evenings during September 2008, not least 30 September 2008

That time of year, I suppose. A few evenings worth listing.

11 September 2008: Ivan Shakespeare Memorial Dinner – explained in the third entry of the link piece. Here is John Random’s tombstone e-mail from that night:

Just like to extend a heartfelt thanks to all those who came to the 32nd Ivan Shakespeare Memorial Dinner – actually I don’t know if it is the 32nd but we’ve been doing an average of four a year since the year 2000, so it sounds plausible. Those of you who weren’t there, whether in Africa, America, Ireland or some oil-producing nation such as Harpenden you were all sadly missed, You missed a great quiz from Gerry, and the surprise (and welcome) re-appearance of John Cowen. Special guest Neil Watson brought a touch of class to the proceedings.

16 September 2008: Gresham College – one of Michael Mainelli’s very last lectures that “fed” The Price of Fish. This was at Barnard’s Inn Hall. Z/Yen will have sponsored drinks and some of us will have had some grub (almost certainly at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese) afterwards.

23 September 2008: Bill Emmott’s Sir Thomas Gresham Docklands Lecture which was excellent. Followed by a drinks and then a round table discussion/meal at the Four Seasons Docklands.

26 September 2008: Kim, Micky and Charlie dinner, 7:00ish. Sounds like it must have been at Sandall Close; a trawl through Janie’s diary archive will confirm or deny at some stage.

30 September 2008: Stuart Rose lecture at the Royal Opera House. Can’t find an on-line reference but I do recall being there. Something about probity and stuff.

 

Blood On Paper: The Art Of The Book, V&A, 2 June 2008

This exhibition was about contemporary/recent artists and their relationship with books.

Janie and I had both heard/read good reviews about this exhibition and ensured that we took a Monday off at a suitable stage in the exhibition’s life to have a quiet look at it. This plan worked very well on the first Monday in June.

On the V&A site, there remains an excellent essay and resource link about this subject matter – click here.

Also this scholarly article by Dr Rowan Watson – click here for V&A link to pdf...

…or here for the Ogblog upload of same.

Interesting reviews/articles on the exhibition in:

 

An Utterly Arty Day Off, Several Exhibitions At Several Galleries, 14 April 2008

Janie and I only occasionally took days off to do arty things in those days. So when we did, we went a bit mad and did lots.

So this particular day, 14 April 2008, we went to see three exhibitions at three separate galleries (Ogblogged here) and then went on to the theatre (which I shall Ogblog separately).

First stop, the Royal Academy Of Arts to see From Russia: French and Russian Master Paintings 1870-1925 at the Royal Academy – click here for an excellent preview fro the Guardian.

This piece from the Telegraph – click here – describes the hoo-ha that nearly prevented the Russia exhibition from going ahead.

It was a fabulous exhibition.

Then we shuttled across to the Tate Britain to see the Peter Doig exhibition, which we also enjoyed very much. Click here for the Tate’s informative stub on this exhibition.

Then on to The Hayward to see the Alexander Rodchenko exhibition of photography. Click here for the Southbank Centre’s stub on this excellent exhibition.

All three had been justifiably very well received by the press and we enjoyed a super arty day seeing all three.

 

 

 

 

 

The Savages, Unspecified Cinema, 16 February 2008

We don’t go to the cinema all that much. On the rare occasions we do go, it tends to be on an impulse. So most of our visits to the cinema prior to my live blogging (i.e. prior to December 2015) will be lost in the mists of time.

However, my diary for this day reads:

John and Mandy?  Savages

I was a little perturbed by this entry at first. Surely I wasn’t cross with John and Mandy for postponing our get together for a few weeks, especially as it had been put in the diary with a question mark. In any case, I would never describe our friends as savages.

Then I remembered seeing a film named The Savages and discovered that the film had indeed come out around that time. Mystery solved.

Here’s the IMDb entry for that film.

I remember that we both really liked the idea of it – I was just getting used to the idea of having a dependent parent at the time, some 6 months after my father’s death. I suspect that Newsnight Review put us on to it (we do miss that arts programme) and we both would have liked the thought of Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman heading up the cast.

We weren’t disappointed. It was both very amusing and touching. A bit long for the slightness of the story, but an enjoyable couple of hours nonetheless.

No idea which cinema we went to – probably the Vue Acton or whatever it was called back then – still the nearest/quickest to get to at the weekend, even since the move from Janie’s maisonette to the house. Might have stayed at mine and seen this one at The Gate – that’s the other thing we often did back then.

If you haven’t seen it, well worth looking out for when it comes around on the box or through whatever Prime/Netflix type service you use if you are a movie-fiend.

The Savages, Watermans Art Centre, 16 February 2008

At that stage, Janie and I must have both been retaining enough of a sense of humour and curiosity about the challenges of looking after ageing parents, not least the onset of dementia, to have been attracted by the reviews of this movie, The Savages.

Just a few years later, I can imagine saying, “I can get all that at home” and not wanting to see it. But then, we were clearly so keen to see this movie,
unusually, we made an appointment to view in our diaries, hence me knowing years later (writing in January 2019) that we went to the Watermans Art Centre in Brentford to see The Savages – click here for IMDb listing.

In part we would have been keen to see Phillip Seymour Hoffman, whose theatre work had impressed us so much by then. In part the great reviews and subject matter would have drawn us.

By that time we were not so keen on the Watermans, finding it rather cold and utilitarian, especially at that time of year. But we were that keen to see this movie and the Watermans was the most convenient place to go and see it.

Below is an embedded link to the movie’s trailer:

We thought this movie was simply excellent. We laughed, we felt sad, it made us think.

Highly recommended to anyone who is on the verge of or is currently having to deal with parental decrepitude.

The Masque Of The Red Death by Punchdrunk, Battersea Arts Centre, 15 February 2008

Wow and double wow. This was a Friday evening to remember.

There is an excellent Wikipedia entry describing this outstanding immersive theatre / site-specific installation show, saving me the trouble – here.

The references section of that Wikipedia article has links to most of the hot reviews.

Here also is a link to Punchdrunk’s archive piece on this production.

This piece from the Battersea Arts Centre (BAC) site is very interesting.

We went on a Friday evening, so we got to enjoy an after-show party as well as the show.

Naturally we lost each other in the first part of the show; the cast and ushers deliberately separate you to add to the sense of discombobulation and to make you wander around in a less-than linear way.

I managed to find my way to the bar a fair bit quicker than Janie did and ran into Richard Russell (who I used to see regularly at Lambton Place back then) and his entourage. Janie eventually joined us; she had met Richard before, not all that long before in fact, at the Cafe Anglais. She wondered afterwards if “that man is everywhere”; turned out soon enough that he was!

Then a bit more wandering around; I wanted to make sure I’d seen all the action from the earlier part of the show. Then the ushers started to steward us into the more climatic scenes and then to the finale and party, where we ran into Richard and Co. again. They stuck around longer than we did. The live band were very good; I remember them playing Swing Swing Swing with great verve.

An especially memorable show and evening.

 

Moore at Kew, 30 December 2007

Henry Moore at Kew - "Oval with points" and Palm House
© Copyright David Hawgood 2007, licensed for reuse under a Creative Commons Licence

We were keen to see this exhibition over the holiday period, so decided to take advantage of a bright, albeit cold day.

There weren’t many people around, which suited us down to the ground, but probably did little for the fortunes of Kew.

Janie and I have always really liked the Henry Moore stuff.

I remember going to see an exhibition in Battersea Park when I was little and crawling through some of the holes in the sculptures.

Indeed I have subsequently (March 2021) discovered some photos from my hole-crawling day and written up that 1966 exhibition (more thoroughly than this 2007 one) – click here or below:

Battersea Park Open Air Sculpture Exhibition, Summer 1966

I am delighted (while mildly disappointed) to report that there was no hole-crawling activity from me (or Janie) at Kew.

My Name Is Albert Ayler, ICA, 27 December 2007

Our tradition of going to see interesting movies between Christmas and New Year goes back quite a long way, but many of those visits will be lost in the mists of time as we often would plan and do those visits “on a whim”, with neither of us recording the details in our diary.

But both Janie and I recorded this one in our diaries, as we were fitting this evening visit between quite busy Twixtmas work schedules that year.

Christmas had been a slightly sombre but not sober affair that year. The first gathering without dad and (as it turned out) Len’s last gathering. Janie soldiered on with many of the traditions that had formed over the past few years, not least (I think) a goose. I’ll write more about such gatherings for an earlier, happier year.

Anyway, My Name Is Albert Ayler was a highly acclaimed movie about the jazz musician of that name. We had not got round to seeing it when it was released earlier that year in the UK so were thrilled to see that we had the chance to catch it one evening at the ICA.

We were both very much taken with the movie, which we found very interesting, although we are less sure about free jazz music, as our experience at the Festival Hall a few months earlier attests:

Cecil Taylor Quartet featuring Anthony Braxton, supported by Polar Bear, Royal Festival Hall, 8 July 2007

Albert Ayler’s free jazz is a little easier on the ear than the above concert was…but not much. You can judge for yourselves with the YouTube of Ayler’s 1963 album, My Name Is Albert Ayler, below:

No trailer for the movie on line, sadly.

We were hardy (foolhardy?) folk in those days – we saw a late movie and must have eaten afterwards, as we both saw clients late afternoon/early evening. Then we got up at silly o’clock, because Janie had a very early patient to see the next morning.

Still, at least we can be pretty sure that free jazz wouldn’t have given either of us an ear worm tune through the night.

The Art of Lee Miller followed by Dinner at Cambio de Tercio, Z/Yen Staff Christmas Event, 14 December 2007

Ian and Janie

The above picture, from Cambio de Tercio, is possibly the last photo taken of me before I grew my beard over that Christmas break. I suspect I should be “crediting” Monique for it, or possibly Jez given the proximity of the photographer to Sarah.

Earlier in the evening we had all enjoyed a cultural time at the V&A. Most people followed Linda’s lead to The Golden Age of Couture, but I was keen to see photography instead; The Art of Lee Miller. I think Janie had already seen the couture, so some folk joined us for the photographic exhibition.

Cambio de Tercio is a fine restaurant and we indeed had a very fine meal there.

The song that year was, ♬Santa’s Using PropheZy At Z/Yen♬ to the tune of Santa Claus is Coming To town:

SANTA’S USING PROPHEZY AT Z/YEN
(Sung to the tune of “Santa Claus is Coming To Town”)
He’s made an edict!
He needs to know why!
He’s out to predict,
He will classify;Santa Claus Is Coming To Z/Yen,
PropheZy has done it again,
Santa’s using PropheZy at Z/Yen!Santa’s making a list,
He’s checking it twice,
His model works out
Who’s naughty and nice.

Santa Claus Is Coming To Z/Yen,
PropheZy has done it again,
Santa’s using PropheZy at Z/Yen!

He predicts when you’re not sleeping,
He predicts when you’re serene,
He computes if you’ve been bad or good,
In Support Vector Machine!

A Santa index,
A Santa Claus game,
A Santa benchmark,
The answer’s the same;

IndeZy is coming to Z/Yen,
ExtZy is coming to Z/Yen,
PropheZy is coming to Z/Yen.

The boys and girls in Z/Yen-land,
Want to know the reason why,
Each name has got to start or end,
With a Z and then a Y.

They’re eaZy to use,
They’re peaZy to play,
No sleaZy abuse,
When done the Z/Yen way;

IndeZy is coming to Z/Yen,
ExtZy is coming to Z/Yen,

Here’s Bruce Springsteen’s version of Santa Claus Is Coming To Town:

I seem to recall that a very good time was had by all that evening.

Surreal Things Exhibition, V&A, 2 July 2007

Janie and I tended, even in those days, to take a day off work on the Monday after going to an international cricket match on a Sunday. We went to the ODI at Lord’s on the Sunday and I’m pretty sure we walked back to the flat after the match.

We had been talking about going to see the surrealism exhibition at the V&A for some time, so the Monday after the match seemed an ideal opportunity.

Here are some on-line artefacts about the exhibition:

We both really liked this exhibition. I can’t for the life of me remember what else we did that day. Probably not a lot.