eleutheria

Film Society

Just come back from the Penwith Film Society showing of My Architect. As usual, the projector's focus slipped and we missed half the middle of the film. This time, someone else went up to tell them. Things got worse and worse, and I thought the film was about to melt and burst into flames (like in the old days), and the lights went on. The staff announced that the film had slipped off the projector, and they were just putting it back on. The projector started off again, went out of focus a few more times, and then that was the end of the film. The only good bit was the filming in Bangladesh at the end. The bit we missed in the middle looked like it could have been interesting though.

Before the film started, 2 middle aged ladies (ie, women capable of wearing standard high healed shoes and make up) came and sat in the next row forward, and I got a whiff of Cannabis. I thought it must be cannabis soap. They spend the film russling sweet rappers (munchies), muttering to each other, making huge arm movements, and coughing in a deep throaty way.

Pseudonymous comments....

Phew. Strong stuff. However, we all know who you are; it would be nice if you had the guts to use your own name, and didn't have to hide behind an assumed name. Here

Cheese Shop

The Cheese Shop is the best cafe in Truro. We walk past it every time we go to Truro, but never been in until yesterday. Delicious cheeses and nice cup of coffee. Highly recommended! Thanks to MMS for the prompt (here). However, I didn't like Fodders - rubbish food, atmosphere, service, and extremely high prices. I had a piece of quiche because the kitchen was closed, and it cost something like 4 quid. To try and justify why I went along with paying that much, I can only say that I was expecting something outstandingly and memorably tasty from this recommended cafe. It was very disappointing! (We are spoilt by Richards health food shop in Penzance which has really nice food, and really cheap to take away, at least.) Couldn't find the hot chocolate cafe.

Private Eye Classified

Does anyone know if the ads they have in the back of Private Eye actually work? IE, do people begging for help with money to fund their education etc actually get money put directly into their bank accounts by kind readers?

By the way, thanks are due to Gordon Brown for his Tax Credits, a sensible system that has successfully and painlessly helped us out with more money. Getting money to us is no easy task, if our experience with other available grant fundings is anything to go by. Credit cards have proved to be the best source (so I'm a bit concerned to hear the government is potential going to restrict the amount of credit available to people). We've only just discovered it because the name Tax Credits implies that you'll get money off your tax, and we don't pay any tax. In fact, it's actually a larger tax allowance.

Libraries

This depressing advert was found in the Guardian earlier in the year, and has just risen to the top of a pile of papers. Libraries are changing; no longer boring old places you can go to freely to find some guaranteed peace and quiet - which it may not be possible for you to find anywhere else (particularly in winter, when there is not so much chance to sit outside).

This is clearly happening everywhere, and is very upsetting to the old school trained librarians I meet who are being edged out against the will of the public. One lady told me how people will always ask her, rather than the younger members of staff, if they need to find something out. This is not surprising, not least because the high turnover of new members of staff, and their clear disinterest in the job. Whilst Undercurrent was checking some books out, the new librarian issueing the books was having a loud conversation with a colleague. She said she didn't like being indoors, didn't like the job, and was going to try to find a job doing Outward Bound courses. These same staff are always amazed when you want to take out a book, rather than use the computers!

See previous Cornwall Libraries entry

Interestingly, Private Eye [1116] reported that a trial has been undertaken in Gorleston library to add taking down crime and anti-social behaviour reports to library services. Librarians will also handle lost property inquiries, firearms licence applications and receive driving licences for penalty points; the council officers call this enabling libraries to offer an 'holistic service'.

More sad news is the turning of the British Museum "Great" Hall and Reading Room into a wi-fi zone (can't find anything about this on the web, but it was reported at length and with delight by Radio 4's In Business - and staying in business - programme). The Great Hall is a lost cause already, they can't make it any worse, the architecture guarantees that. However, the Reading Room still survived as a relatively quiet and lovely place to study*. I was in the reading room the other day, and the tap tap tapping from computers is certainly taking over.

* The Reading Room has always been quite intense, rather than tranquil, since I've known it, due to the hum from the Great Hall and the constant flash photography from tourists. It is lovely because of the padded blue leather writing desks, and special book related features, retaining their unexploited mystery.

hayvend

Here is what I got from the vending machine at the ICA before I ran out of cash - yes, I only had �4:

It's an excellent idea and I would like to suggest Christmas 'art crackers' as an additional line.

Recommended TV

Dennis Potter: Brimstone and Treacle
                    The Nigel Barton plays
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Director John Irvin
Brass Eye
The Day Today

Recommended Films

The Wicker Man, Director Robin Hardy
Chris Cooke: One For The Road (stars Hywel Bennett from Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy as Richard)
Japanese Story, Director Sue Brooks
Enemy Of The State, Director Tony Scott

enamel paint

when I was 8 or 9 I bought a bike in a auction (held at a fete at my school in Helpston) with my pocket money, and used a small pot of silver enamel paint from a model shop to paint the bike silver. My memories of that bike are joyful, cycling for miles on my own, no handed, exploring villages and countryside that were new for me and seemed only to exist on those rides. Found once, never to be found again. See undercurrent about George Shaw, who paints using enamel paint: Utopia in Humbrol

Recommended books

François Mauriac: Therese
Hermann Hesse: Demian
Thomas Mann: Doctor Faustus
J G Ballard: The Drowned World
The Tales of Hoffmann (my copy = Four Square Classics published new selection and translation by Michael Bullock, 1962)
Carlos Castaneda: The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge
                         A Separate Reality
                         Journey to Ixtlan
                         Tales of Power
Germaine Greer: The Whole Woman
                      The Female Eunuch
                      The Obstacle Race: The Fortunes of Women Painters and Their Work
Gordon Burn, Damien Hirst: On the Way to Work
R.K. Narayan: The Man-eater of Malgudi
John le Carre: Absolute Friends
                   Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
                   Call for the Dead
Malcolm Bradbury: Eating People is Wrong
                         Stepping Westward
H. Palsson & P. Edwards (Translators): Seven Viking Romances
Jakob Walter, Mark Raeff (Editor), O. Springer (Translator): The Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier
Edmund Wheatley, Christopher Hibbert (Editor): The Wheatley Diary: A Journal and Sketchbook from the Peninsular War and the Waterloo Campaign

If you want to buy any of these books from amazon, click on the titles & urbanomic makes some cash!

Top of the Pops

Why has Top of the Pops adopted the Consignia logo as its own?