New York: Ten Thousand Waves…

UK artist Isaac Julien currently has an installation piece at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. And it’s one of the best things I’ve seen in ages.

It’s essentially nine films that project onto nine different screens, which are hung at different angles and different heights in a huge gallery.

As a viewer, you can sit in the middle of the screens and try to follow all the action, or you can perch yourself off to the side and focus on two or three screens, then move around as certain screens go dark and the film is projected onto a new screen or multiple screens.

Sometimes the film only fills one screen while at other times it fills all nine. It’s a disorientating experience and it’s very easy to miss things. But that’s sort of one of the points.

The film employs news reports about a gang of at least 21 Chinese cockle pickers, all low-paid slave labour immigrants to the UK, who were drowned by rising tides in Morecambe Bay in Lancashire in 2004 as a launch point for a meditation on cultural migration and identity.

The narrative thrust, such as it is, interweaves either real or reimagined footage of the police search for the bodies along the Morecambe coast, alongside a Chinese myth about a wind spirit, Chinese calligraphy, a story about a mother who turns to prostitution to feed her child, and behind-the-scenes footage about how the 55-minute movie was made.

It’s a beautiful piece of film-making that looks utterly stunning and it manages to be thought-provoking, sad and moving, and the experience of sitting through it amplifies the ideas of disorientation as the viewer is never quite sure where to follow the narrative and can’t settle on one particular viewpoint.

The sound track, featuring traditional Chinese music and Jah Wobble, is also amazing.

Installation art usually leaves me cold. This didn’t. It was stunning and beautiful and moving and thought-provoking. It beguiled, it amazed, it inspired, it provoked. It did what the best art is supposed to do.

I was utterly sold on it.

New York: The Night Alive…

I missed Conor McPherson’s latest play, The Night Alive, when it premiered at the Donmar in London in June 2013, so I was delighted to catch it at the Linda Gross Theatre in New York.

I like McPherson. His award-winning, hit play, The Weir, and it’s haunting lyricism will stay me with me for many years, while the National’s production of a later plays, The Seafarer, and it’s tale of emasculated dreams was similarly good. His comedy, gangster, buddy movie, I Went Down, which starred Brendan Gleeson, was also quite brilliant.

I wasn’t, however, totally sold on The Night Alive.

The play begins with Tommy, a ne’er-do-well who scrapes by and lives in a room in his uncle’s house, saving Amy, a young prostitute, from a beating. The ensuing relationship between the two turns into a sort of love story that offers both an escape from ultimately failed lives… until outside forces, in the shape of the young girl’s violent former boyfriend, soon bring those dreams crashing down.

The central story of a ne-er-do-well filling in time and bumbling along rather than living  life to the full is a common McPherson theme, and there are some great bits of dialogue between Tommy and his dim mate Doc and his over-bearing Uncle Maurice.

But it didn’t feel whole or finished in the same way as his previous plays did. And, even though there was violence and a murder along the way, it just didn’t feel as though it headed anywhere.

It’s still worth seeing if you get the chance, though. I’d rather take a so-so McPherson than a good of most other playwrights.

Happy New Year...

So. What will 2014 bring? Here's the nut-shelled plan so far, then I can compare my hopes and ambitions with the actual outcomes in one year's time…

i) New theatre company. I was planning on starting my own company but I am now involved with another one instead. And we have big plans involving a varied season of new work and ACE funding.

ii) Martial arts. I will continue to improve in 2014 and this is the year I will finally compete.

iii) Writing: Finish the new stage play, finish the first draft of the CDA play and finish the new TV comedy idea.

In summary, one theatre company, some competitive martial arts and three new scripts. That's enough to be going on with. For now...

The Waterboys...

I've had an ongoing love affair with the music of The Waterboys for nearly three decades.

I first heard a crackly bootleg tape of one of their early gigs when I was about 16 or 17, and I instantly fell in love with their big, driving sound and pseudo-Celtic rock mysticism that was part WB Yeats and part William Blake, with some 1980s politics thrown in.

Their debut album, The Waterboys, with its haunting masterpiece, Gala, and the still brilliant Savage Earth Heart impressed and still does. But my adoration of that album was soon overtaken by the excellent second album, This Is The Sea, and the booming third, A Pagan Place.

Then they released Fisherman's Blues in 1988.

Some fans loved the raw Irish folky rock sound of the 1988 album while it bemused others who wanted more of the heavily produced sound of its three predecessors.

I loved them all and have consistently bought anything The Waterboys or Mike Scott as a solo artist has released since, so I was delighted when they announced they were doing an anniversary tour to celebrate 25 years since the release of Fisherman's Blues. Even better, former band members Steve Wickham on violin and Anthony Thistlethwaite on saxophone and electric mandolin were also onboard. And they were coming to my home town. Tickets were rapidly bought.

And the gig didn't disappoint. They played lots of stuff from Fisherman's Blues but also dipped into other albums with A Girl Called Johnny, Don't Bang the Drum and The Raggle-Taggle Gypsy.

Singer Scott was an engaging and charming frontman and the memory of this gig wiped away the stain of the only other time I saw them, which was in 1990 when they touring the Roam to Roam album and they put on a pretty lacklustre show in Southampton.

But this gig was wonderful and I was delighted to finally see the fabulous Waterboys gig I'd waited almost 25 years to see. Happy camper...

Other Woman News…

The Other Woman is a black belt martial artist who has just passed the first part of her second dan exam. She’s a tiny powerhouse in sparring, her strikes break wooden boards and her low spin kick is probably the best I’ve ever seen in the decade plus I’ve been doing this and other fighting arts.

A while ago she and her sister went on a zombie experience. In this, a group of participants are locked up in a warehouse or a shopping centre and are attacked by actors in full make-up pretending to be zombies. It sounds like quite good fun.

There are certain agreed parameters, however, to ensure everyone’s safety so the zombies never touch the participants and the participants are not allowed to touch the zombies.

The Other Woman, however, rounded one corner and a zombie pounced out of the shadows to scare her and her sister… so instinct took over and she punched him in the chest and sent him crashing to the ground. She was very apologetic and the zombie recovered. Eventually.

But fact: My Other Woman kicks arse and kills zombies. Just when I don’t think I could love her any more, she finds a way…

Commercial Break...

The great Bill Hicks once said that anyone who calls himself an artist, but then whores himself out to sell product is off the artistic roll call. Done, finito, no longer allowed in the club, etc…

While he does offer sympathy for struggling artists who need the money when they're starting out, he lambasts multi-millionaires who sell themselves to push product for ethically dodgy multi-nationals just so they can add to their millions.

The rest of the routine is scathing about George Michael hawking Diet Coke and is probably one of the few things that is too obscene to be printed here.

I’ve always agreed with Bill Hicks on most things and the latest set of adverts pushing Sky and its various products reminds me of his argument.

One advert features national treasure Joanna Lumley, and another features a faux conversation between Ruth Jones (of Gavin and Stacey fame) having ‘a perfectly natural chat’ with actor chum Robert Lindsay about how brilliant Sky’s various services are.

For me, one of the truths in life is that the only thing you ever really own is your name. And these ‘artists’ have sold theirs to promote the TV arm of a multi-national whose newspapers are alleged to have hacked into the mobile phones of dead British soldiers and at least one murdered schoolgirl. And they must be aware of this but they still choose to ally themselves with it anyway.

Corporate whores selling themselves for the Murdoch buck. Well done…

Dream Lover...

It is early in the morning. I am heading out to work, but the Missus is wide awake and keen to let me know about her latest dream. The Missus has a long history of bizarre dreams, but this one is unusual for the relative lack of violence.
'I dreamt you were having an affair with a French woman...'
'Was she pretty?' I enquire.
'Sultry, lithe and elfin,' she answers. 'You brought her to my mum's house and introduced her as a friend, then you told me you'd been having an affair with her for years.'
'How did you react?'
'I beat you up, then I beat her up...'

I ponder the dream.
'You do realise I'd never have an affair, don't you?'
'Yes. I know that,' she replies.
'Though the French woman sounds lovely. Did you get her phone number?' I inquire.
'It would be wasted on you. The only place anyone as stunning as that would ever look at you would be in a dream. Probably a wet one...'

She does love me, really. Probably...

Other Woman News...

I am in the pub with the Other Woman. It is a normal evening. We are chatting. About stuff. When she offers the evening's most memorable quote:
'The other thing about fucking somebody in the skull is this...' she mused.

I love my Other Woman. She offers sanity in an increasingly insane world. I am much better for having her in my life.

English Martial Arts...

Terry Brown is an English martial artist who began training in kung-fu in 1967 and has nearly five decades of fighting experience under his belt.

In 1980, he began researching English martial arts, and he's now one of the leading authorities on a vast subject that includes using weapons, such as the broadsword, the bill, the quarterstaff, the sword and buckler, and the sword and dagger, and using no weapons, which involves bare-fist fighting and wrestling.

His book, English Martial Arts (Anglo-Saxon Books, 1997) is a very informative and entertaining read, chronicling both the cultural shifts and historical conditions that, from perhaps as early as the sixth century onwards, helped forge a nation of warriors with its own indigenous fighting style.

The book not only includes a potted history of English martial arts and records its eventual decline, thanks mainly to improvements in ballistics, but also includes great stories about some of its early heroes. These include bare-fist fighting champions James Figg, Jack Broughton and Daniel Mendoza; plus some of its lesser-noted characters, such as Elizabethan sailor Richard Peeke, who was captured by the Spanish and agreed to fight for his freedom against up to six armed men at once... as long as he could use a quarterstaff. Peeke defeated his opponents and won his freedom.

The early chapters chart how the Company of Maisters, the governing body who controlled schools of self-defence and the teaching of martial arts in England, was established. The Company of Maisters was obviously important as it won royal patronage from both Henry VIII in 1540 and James I in 1605, and the 'schools of the science of defence' that flourished under the banner of The Company of Maisters were run along the lines of other respectable trades with strict rules and regulations.

The schools also had a strict order of promotion, very much like the ranking and belt system in many modern martial arts, and students first entered as a Scholar, before being promoted via a series of open challenges to the rank of Free Scholar, Provost and then Master. The Company of Maisters itself was governed by the Four Ancients, who were the four most senior members of the organisation.

Brown's book also includes details on the theory of fighting, such as the Four True Times, the Four False Times, the Four Grounds and the Four Governors, organising rules from more than 700 years ago about how and when to attack, which will make complete sense to anyone who's ever taken part in a sparring session, whether it involves weapons, hands and feet, or just hands.

It's a wonderful book that's clearly written by someone who's passionate about his subject. And it's also worth remembering that, with the current resurgence of martial arts thanks to MMA, England also has much older martial arts traditions to sit alongside its rich history of boxing and wrestling.

Anyone fancy a bit of quarterstaff work?

Masters Of Sex...

I return home from a busy day at work, followed by a martial arts training session. I am exhausted. The Missus, however, is quite chipper as her latest freelance project is going quite well.

'How was your evening?' I inquire. I am a caring husband. This is what caring husbands do.
'It was fab. I finished my work then watched Masters Of Sex on Channel 4. It was very good,' she replies.

I know Masters Of Sex is a much-heralded drama series starring Michael Sheen. I also know the Missus has a crush on the aforementioned Mr Sheen. He's on her allowed list.

'Well, it's got "him" in it, hasn't it? You were obviously going to enjoy it,' I say. Trying not to sneer. But failing.
'It has nothing to do with "him". It's just a very good series, although he is excellent.'
'You fancy "him", don't you?' I say. Before realising I am descending into teen umbrage.
'Yes. I suppose I do. He's unconventionally attractive. I like unconventionally attractive men. Hence you...'

This is what is called a backhanded compliment. It's also called an insult. 'Unconventionally attractive'. It will be my epitaph...

Other Woman News...

Me, the Missus, the Other Woman and the Other Woman's Long-suffering Boyfriend recently went to a mutual friend's wedding.

They'd kindly offered me and the Missus a lift as we were all staying overnight at the same hotel. Sadly, their car had a few problems with a dead battery so we had a slight drama getting there.

We made it, however, and the wedding was a blast... but, when it came to leaving the following morning, we had another battery problem so the four of us were stranded in a hotel car park for more than an hour waiting for the battery to recharge.

We kept ourselves amused and here are some of the things we learnt:
i) The Missus wants to start her own pottery and ceramics business.
ii) The Other Woman wants to grow vines and produce her own wine.
iii) The Other Woman's Long-suffering Boyfriend speaks much sense when he questions the Other Woman's lack of any horticultural knowledge of any description.
iv) It's probably OK for me to like Jay-Z. Even though I'm realistically too old, too white and too middle-class. As long as I don't keep 'fucking going on about it'.
v) The Missus is 'sick to death' of her 'idiot husband' 'poncing about with his stupid, fucking hair' and wishes 'he'd just have it fucking well cut.' Apparently.

Sound Advice...

I've been discussing my current writing projects with my oldest friend. Her advice is:
'Stick with the criminals and the prostitutes. It's your bag, baby!'

She has much wisdom, does my oldest friend.

Stewart Lee...

Stewart Lee, better-known as the husband of 2013 Fosters Comedy Award-winner Bridget Christie, remains one of the best stand-up comedians I’ve ever seen.

His latest show, Much A-Stew About Nothing, is currently touring the UK before taking up residency at the Leicester Square Theatre in London from November 2013 to January 2014, prior to filming a new series of the BAFTA-winning Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle for the BBC.

The new stand-up show is Lee doing three half-hour sets for what will eventually be material for episodes of the new TV series, then throwing in an extra ten minutes of new and untried material as an encore.

The three sets are full of the usual Lee tropes, such as exasperation at the audience not getting some of the gags, then explaining why the gags are funny and how they set up something that will appear later in the show. There’s also the usual mock frustration with the modern world, and his despair and failure to understand much of its fascination with celebrity culture and its political torpor. Routines about his role as a father and a husband also put in an appearance.

It’s familiar Lee territory and it’s brilliantly done, and his stand-up stage craft as a performer and the quality of the material he presents make Lee worth a dozen other comedians currently clogging up the TV schedules like fat tissue in an artery.

Lee makes you laugh and makes you think. Go see him... before some arts critic from The Daily Mail can take no more of him and goes postal at one of his gigs. He’s brilliant.

Sticking Point: Part II...

My tahn bong (short staff) training continues at hapkido.

I was hoping to be a natural at this because it heavily relies on hand and eye coordination, and that is a skill set I'm comfortable with. But, sadly, I was hoping to be a natural at many things in life and they never materialised. I also realised a long time ago that the concept of being 'a natural' at anything is utter rubbish, and dedication, hard work, commitment and perseverance are the only things that really matter.

Consequently, I'm spending a lot of time working on basic strikes at the moment and hoping it will all come good. I will yet be Daredevil with his trusty billy club.

Public House: Part I...

My new theatre company is slowly taking shape. I have two large-scale projects in the early stages of development, two potential writers, some serious academic back-up, several possible venues, some initial funding contacts established and a fledgling website.

My next tasks are to register it as a limited company at Companies House, then set up a bank account and, by December, I should be good to go for its launch show next year.

It's going to be tough and probably not without a considerable amount of stress. But I think I've found a way to fund it and make it sustainable.

I used to do this without worrying about it. It was just something I did and any obstacles were things to deal with en route. I'm now about to start doing it again. It's scary and it's exciting... but if you don't push yourself, you'll never know how far you can go.

RIP Willow: Part II...

Myself and the Missus buried the ashes of our dead cat Willow at the weekend.

We dug a pot-bound twisted willow tree out of its pot and moved it into a bigger one near the back door, with her ashes placed at the bottom of the new pot.

We both cried a bit as we said a last goodbye, but I like the idea she's now home and close-by.

I even caught myself talking to her in the garden the other day, then explained to our remaining cat, Buffy, what had happened and why she was no longer around. I always talk to my cats. I sometimes prefer them to most people.

Rest in peace, Willow. You are home.

The Little Book of Prison: The Play: Q&A...

Here's part three, the post-play question and answer session with Frankie Owens, after the rehearsed reading of the play, The Little Book of Prison.

The play by Paul Brooks is a stage adaptation of the award-winning book by former convict Frankie Owens, which was directed by Jack Lynch and produced by LynchPin Productions Theatre Company at the Guildford Fringe Festival in July 2013.

The Little Book of Prison: Part Two...

Here's part two of the rehearsed reading of the play, The Little Book of Prison.

The play by Paul Brooks is a stage adaptation of the award-winning book by former convict Frankie Owens, which was directed by Jack Lynch and produced by LynchPin Productions Theatre Company at the Guildford Fringe Festival in July 2013.

The Little Book of Prison: Part One...

Here's part one of the rehearsed reading of the play, The Little Book of Prison.

The play by Paul Brooks is a stage adaptation of the award-winning book by former convict Frankie Owens, which was directed by Jack Lynch and produced by LynchPin Productions Theatre Company at the Guildford Fringe Festival in July 2013.

RIP Willow: Part I...

Our youngest cat, Willow, was hit by a car today. One of our neighbours knocked on our door to inform us that the accident had happened and our seriously injured cat had crawled under a nearby car. So I had to go and drag her out from under it and, accompanied by the Missus, rush to the vet to see what they could do.

Willow looked awful and was panting and could barely move and, even after she was stabilised, put on painkilling medication and x-rayed, it didn't look good. She had a broken leg, a broken pelvis, kidney damage and internal bleeding... so we took the decision to have her put down.

It was a horrible decision to make: but, bizarrely, seeing her no longer suffering rather than in the absolute agony I initially found her in offered some consolation. I'm also grateful she was spotted by our neighbours as the thought of her slowly dying in agony under a car would have been too brutal.

This is the second time I've been through the process of having a seriously ill cat put down and it remains a truly horrible experience. Myself and the Missus walked home from the vet and both vowed we were never having another cat when our other one, Buffy, eventually dies.

But having pets remains a sort of life lesson. You can only get love if you give it but in giving love you also expose yourself to be hurt, betrayed or bereft. If you don't give love, however, then you may as well be dead yourself.

So, bearing that in mind, we'll probably change our position about getting a new one when we're over the pain of losing this one.

RIP, Willow. You were greatly loved and you'll be sorely missed.

Sticking Point: Part I...

I've been studying the Korean martial of hapkido for more than ten years, and every grading and every belt en route to my first dan came with its own challenges and problems.

I've now had my prized black belt for a few years and it's still a challenge to retain the standards that got me there in the first place. But, as pointed out by Winston Churchill, 'Success consists of going from failure without loss of enthusiasm.' So I just remember that struggles remain part of any process when you're trying to improve.

I started training for my second dan a while ago and I've just graded for the first part of it, so it's something I'm particularly remembering. I passed the grading so I started officially training with my first martial arts weapon yesterday.

The name of the weapon in Korean is 'Tahn bong' and this translates as 'short stick'. And I'm particularly excited about this because, as a kid (and as an adult), one of my favourite superheroes was Daredevil, a blind superhero who used a short stick.

So if times get tough and I'm struggling to learn new techniques for my second dan, I'm going to console myself with the quote from Churchill and remember work and failure always comes before success... and the fact I could be a real-life Daredevil complete with short staff in a few years.

Holiday: Part I...

Me and the Missus are back from a fortnight in Corfu. It was very much a sun, sea, sand and relaxing holiday and a chance to recharge the batteries, but now it's over I'm raring to go.

First up is the Little Book Of Prison play and how we develop the script. I'm meeting the book's author in a few days to discus how we do this. I'm thinking radio play and possible theatre tour and he's thinking Podcast.

Then it's the Contagious Diseases Acts play for my new theatre company. I've done a lot of research on this while on holiday, perching myself on the balcony with several books on prostitution and a notepad, and I think I've now got a good handle on how I want to develop the project.

And I also want to grade at martial arts at the end of the year.

So that's three pretty clear goals to aim for. Let's go...

The Little Book Of Prison: The Reading...

The first and second rehearsed readings of my new script, The Little Book Of Prison, have come and gone and it's been a thoroughly enjoyable but quite demanding experience.

Now, after a hectic time on both the work and creative fronts, it's time to take some down time and assess not only where this play goes, but where my new theatre company goes and how it gets there.

And, fortunately, a holiday in the sun beckons so it's two weeks of winding down and taking stock... and getting ready to come back stronger and make some things happen.

Watch this space...