Memento Mori

Perhaps it's the time we live in (but then again maybe it's been the case for the last 2,000 years or so ) but sometimes to me it feels like stoicism has been having something of a renaissance - every weekday I get at least one gem in my inbox that feels almost like it was written just for me) - here's the source  

What I was told today is take what's on offer - don't be too constrictive.

St David's in Ealing offers care 

Last week one afternoon I popped round to see an old friend (he is old and I've known him for about 5 years), soon he will move into his daughter’s home  but for the time being he’s still largely independent in his own flat– I took a bottle of Red Wine  which we shared (he probably had more than I) - the time we spent together was pleasant our discussion wide ranging.



At the weekend   I visited with another person  a friend for whom the outlook does not look good  he is  I think suffering a terminal condition and unlikely to return to his home.
Hospital operations followed by other treatments have not brought about improvements to his condition .

Vanitas Still |Life (Jan Jansz Teck)

It was clear though that from the time we spent with him that he retains much of his character and personality but communication for him is difficult and he is bed ridden, the care at the home seems good the time we had with him was I think of value.


It is perhaps useful to be reminded of what lasts and what is fleeting - if we know what is to come do we take appropriate action? Do we consider too highly the opinion of others even beyond our own?


The Dutch Golden Age often chose to reflect the phrase
"Vanity of Vanities," says the Preacher, "All is vanity  - in paintings of the time like this marvellous  example of Vanitas Still Life.

We may think we are clever and sophisticated as we seek to impress those around us but we will cease to exist - I'm not usually quoting biblical texts but ..

From Ecclesiastes 2:11,17,26

Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun…

Progress

Recently was  recalling the computer fairs that used to be held in hotels and the like which I'd sometimes pop into (probably in the 1990s), at one I I bought a flatbed scanner - not my first scanner before that when I was in France I had a handheld one with OCR software that was thought to be ‘state of the Art’ at that time.

HP 7720  - good spec' great price

 Well my last scanner  had struggled with Windows 10 for some time and frustration led me/us to get a this new one, it is an HP 7720  ‘All-in-One’ A3 capable, wireless connected, it does double sided colour prints and was very easy to set up – only £90 new amazing.




Also you can email the printer from your phone to print – I wondered to myself what would the class of ’ UWIST 78'  graduates that I was a part of  have thought of this as an everyday thing in a few years or all the other ‘techie’ toys we now have?

Quick to install and software included

Human ingenuity has provided me with much pleasure and the world's population with a longer and better life.

A tear jerker.

I have recently completed reading a book by (the late) Hans Rosling a great example of the sort of people that North European Social Democrats countries can produce, it’s called ‘Factfulness’ and is a nice blast of optimism that reminds us of the great strides we’ve seen in our own lifetimes from a man who could also swallow swords.

[Incidentally near the end the book had me blubbing like a baby unusual for a Non Fiction title.]

But is it Art

The other day I mad a couple of (quick-ish) visits to London exhibitions and thought I could perhaps reflect on these.

First off was..

At Hayward Gallery 

 Aleksandra Mir Presents the Pre Presidential Library, 

"Hello Mr (Pre) President"

it's on until February 7th and is free entry (read about it here), I liked the reminder that UK is not the only country with issues around unsuitable political leaders - it is also a useful reflection on why 'The Donald' might have issues around the  Media.


Mir seems a very interesting (and Global) artist - new to me but her projects are wide ranging and provocative -(as required perhaps) that said it does seem that the phenomenon around coverage of the President pre his political  ambitions is excessive (for some reason).

In some circles a Freudian analysis is no longer the way into a character like the US president but I can't help thinking there are some issue there - maybe he's somewhere on the Autistic spectrum (ASD)  as his relations do not appear to be what many would call normal.

Over the bridge

So am not sure if this was a political commentary or 'Art'?

About  a lot of things

After Trump it was time for another Cartoon Character (or two) ..

Charles Schulz and  Good Grief Charlie Brown 

This one's on until March 3rd and it covers a lot of ground, there's plenty about that guy who made created and drew the characters (biographical), the work (cartoon strips) and TV programmes and  cultural artefacts related to the cartoon (and even some stuff around religion). 

I didn't realise that there was so much going on under the surface of the strip (and perhaps this is now over estimated?) - to me Schulz  might be more of a draughtsman than an artist (but a brilliant and economical one).

A lot of Political, religious and social interpretation seems to be grafted on to a whimsical cast of characters - but I guess Art is (these days) very much about what we bring along to the work?

Through the lens of 'Feminism?'

Consumerism

Even pottery 

One thing I'd say was it is less child friendly than you might imagine - for being quite text heavy, and with regard to content  for the film 'stuff'.

Not knocked out by it but more interested than I was - the two together say something more about America  which is in itself worth some time.

So in Conclusion quite a bit of Art in both shows  but perhaps not the sort that will last centuries..

How to be Human

Thank goodness yesterday evening was fine with no rain - quite a queue (much bigger audience than I anticipated) to See Ruby Wax at the Emmanuel Centre in  Marsham Street Westminster (near Channel 4 HQ) in  centre of London talk about her paperback edition of How to Be Human - (The Manual) - it was a very good venue for such a presentation.

Add caption

Ruby signing the book

Ruby was presenting was quite a revelation. The paperback edition of her recent book on the topic has just come out – a copy of the book was given to attendees, so I’ve another book to read!

 Ruby had two great collaborators for the book  a Buddhist monk and a Neuroscientist,  Gelong (which actually means A fully ordained Buddhist monastic type ) Thubten and Dr Ash Ranpura - the three  seemed to have a really good chemistry between them.

Gelong & Ash - A Buddhist Monk and a neuro-scientist 

Gelong Thubiten seems to have paid his dues,  is the son of actress Indira Joshi who played the mother in The Kumars at No 42 and he was originally  set for the life of an actor but went a different way.

Dr Ash Ranpura has over 25 years in his chosen field,  I listened to Dr Ash here and he comes across as an engaging individual.

The area the book covers  at of real interest to me  (I read the intro' in the book ahead of the talk) – some stuff I took from the presentation  is the idea of 2 brains (almost like a management and board of directors)  and is I think along the track of work done by Economist Daniel Kahneman).


 Also the idea that we can train ourselves using mindfulness and that in turn manifests as a physical change in the brain, it doesn't seem unreasonable and leads us back into the physical.

Of course the topic then raises so many more questions,  I would have liked to know if the authors had thought about diet as a factor in 'Mindfulness' but forgot to ask.

 After the presentation when I got home I decided to follow up - Ruby's mention of  her time on ‘Who Do You think you are?’ I felt it’d be worthwhile to find out about her family (here it is) - one of the things in the programme that I found most surprising is how Austria was such a centre for Jews until as late as 1938.

London last night

Ruby I think uses humour (perhaps sometimes too much) and bravado as a shield and there were times that it seems to me she retreated behind it during the talk but it does seem that folk are more comfortable talking about ‘feelings’ these days one person in the audience pre-fixed her question to Ruby with ‘I’m a recovering alcoholic’ which seemed brave to me ( I recently heard a gang of people presumably fresh from an AA meeting talking about this at the Bus-Stop but this was within the group).

 Also I am reminded  that people who use the term ‘Nazi’ (as they chanted at Anna Soubry MP) might not think about what they are saying or quite how much of a concern Antisemitism (and other racist use of language) is within organisations.

 [Expect more when I've got further with the book]

Orchard Café West Ealing

Orchard and Open 

The Orchard Cafe as a part of OPEN Ealing (Arts)  in West Ealing has been operating for a couple of years or so but now I see the catering contract is out for tender and no classes scheduled.

Prior to the posh premises OPEN operated first in Uxbridge road and then next door to Cherry Pie in Drayton Green Road.

As well as Art classes with Nick Pearson I took a photography class there and Mandie Wilde has been really supportive of my activities subsequently.

Will hopefully find what plans are in the future .

Open Was next to Cherry Pie for a while

where does The ART OF PERFORMANCE come from?

Sometimes it may seem that there's a 'new idea' and so it is that many on discovering 'Performance Art' consider it a revolution with little linking it to the past (as we are perhaps guilty of with other revolutions).

I have been intrigued by Marina Abramovic as an individual for some time.  initially I thought of her as The first Performance artist but having read her autobiography and learnt a little more about Art I now realise that she herself would not claim this and the very ephemeral concept of originality is  of course  like quicksilver and forever impossible to nail down.

There was a bell that rang (internally to me) when I heard the story of how 'Great Wave' artist Hokusai had a Chicken  with its' feet having been immersed in red paint run across one of his partly  completed works (in the court of Shogun Tokugawa Ienari around 1804)  - this was an example of his ability to use self promotion where a commission was to be decided amongst competing artists.

Reminded that that, in earlier times during the 13th century  the artist Giotto was able to win a commission by submitting a near perfect hand drawn circle to the current Pope.

Now fast forward to another performance pioneer Yves Klein (also famed for creating his own version of the colour blue)   and his 'Leap into the Void' - sadly Klein died at the young age of  34 in the early 1960's - goodness knows where his career would have taken him had he lived longer.

With the greater longevity that Joseph Beuys enjoyed a Performance art career built and his association with others in the Fluxus group helped legitimise the discipline (which was often required by its practitioners) amongst the Fluxus group was a Japanese artist Yoko Ono. 

Fluxus was clearly influenced by Dada now the idea of 'performance' being a standalone discipline is of little purpose and routinely many  describe self publicists (perhaps)  like Warhol  as his own  greatest work.

[I thought it'd be nice to do a blog post with no images - and partly inspired by film I saw about Jean-Michel  Basquiat on BBC TV]

NPG and Gainsborough along with DAB Plus - throw out your DAB radios?

A Family Album

Yesterday I was at Museum of Brands in the morning (volunteering Front of House) then I went to see Gainsborough Family Album exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery -


I had not appreciated this artist too much but have spent some time looking at Mr and Mrs Andrews (and I really like this critique of it from Sister Wendy, who died recently).

 I found it a good new way into Gainsborough and his style, very nicely curated and makes one think of parallels with one's own family albums - I'm having a bit of a rethink on English/British art and its place amongst the world's best).


 I was also surprised by very vibrant works from Njideka Akunyili Crosby which were on show.

DAB + (come on OFCOM)

Not 60 years old

one of many DAB stations I listen to is 'Gold' undemanding but okay for half an hour or so - they've been saying that you'll need a 'newer' DAB receiver from January 2nd to hear the channel in London area and sure enough - they've gone!

Seems UK Radio services that are going DAB+ and older radios not compatible - FM radio sets that are 60 plus years old are still capable of receiving High Quality services -A DAB radio that's about 6 years old can't receive the services moving to DAB+ where was OFCOM consultation?

So What's DAB Plus?

As a friend pointed out a cynic might say it's  better for radio manufacturers than listeners

Welcome 2019

Time to take a look forward 

I love a good slogan - let's have more in 2019

I like to take a  look ahead in an optimistic way but my goodness here's one I did earlier (what ever happened to David Cameron?) and I think optimism is perhaps something we should practice in our own personal spheres and hope that it moves beyond this.

I suppose 12 months ago we all thought that Mrs May was unlikely to last as long as she has but she can't still be head of UK government in a year's time - can she?

Equally it does feel difficult to countenance a Labour party struggling in the polls with Jeremy Corbyn at its head - like Cameron, Milliband  has not left politics without a trace and the current leadership system he bequeathed  for Labour is I fear destined to pick someone as unpopular with the right wing media as Jeremy perhaps Sadiq stands a chance?
 
There's an interesting Radio series running on BBC radio 4 currently suggesting things we can do to improve things in terms of 'Climate Change'  on a personal level - plenty of practical tips and perhaps a philosophy that we could consider signing up to - not about despair - 'there's no point'  but actually a bit of a Stoic attitude where we do what we can that's under our control ?

Let's try and be supportive of  each other's best endeavours  help others who are struggling  and thinking before we speak, yesterday I found out a little about Hannah Arendt - there are people who we can (and perhaps  should) seek to emulate she I think had some things to say worth considering (and remained a human famed for her belief in friendship )

Best to all for 2019