Saturday & Sundry Thoughts

It's odd that once one becomes aware of something of which previously unaware, it pops up unexpectedly sometimes to silently wave:
"Hello - remember me?"

I mentioned Fuseli's The Nightmare's appearance in the TV series The Fall in my post yesterday - that was the phenomenon in reverse: first the painting then, as I was preparing yesterday's post. its creator popping in to say "Remember this?" This week I was reminded of my January post on Brion Gysin, William S. Burroughs and their creation, the "cut-up" method in art, literature etc. (See HERE). In the midst of watching the first season of British TV police detective series Luther, in episode 3 (or maybe 4) the detective is seen surrounded by pieces of text, photographs and bits of newspaper cuttings. When asked by a colleague what the heck he was doing he replied, "Trying out "Bowie's cut-up method". David Bowie did use the Gysin/Burroughs cut-up invention in writing some of his lyics during the 1970s.

A conversation with mike, in comments following last Monday's post, got me further thinking about Britain's wide range of accents and dialects, and in particular how often a single term can pinpoint where its user hails from. I'm not sure of the correct term for the particular "place-marker" I have in mind. A term of endearment? No - that's far too intimate. Pet name? Still too intimate. What I'll refer to is the casual mode of address sometimes used by warm-hearted people to strangers or near-strangers (often to females and children but not always). For instance, a waitress to a customer, a bus driver to a passenger, a store-keeper to a customer, casual acquaintance to a casual acquaintance....that kind of address.

If blindfolded on a tour of Britain you could almost guess where you were by the type of casual, warm address being used. In the north-east of England you'd hear "pet" ("Would you like tea or coffee pet?"); in Yorkshire it'd be "luv" ("Hey, you've dropped yer ticket luv!"). In parts of West and South Yorkshire it's "flower" ("Don't forget yer bag flower!")

In the Scottish borders and parts of Scotland it'd be "hen" or "hinney"; down in the beautiful south-west of England you'd hear "my lovely" "lover" or "my 'andsome".
In the middle area of England it'd be "duck" or "mi (my) duck" ("How are you feeling now mi duck?")

I always enjoyed these warm terms of... whatever they were. I've heard women complaining about these modes of address, considering them sexist, demeaning (or something). It's an attitude that strikes me as feminism at its most churlish.

If you enjoy a horror-tinged movie now and again, give The Machinist a whirl via DVD, Netflix or similar. (Beware spoilers at the Wiki page).

Christian Bale (Sun + Mercury/Jupiter in Aquarius) plays the lead brilliantly well, and for this role he lost what would seem like a very unhealthy amount of body weight - probably even more than Matthew McConaughey lost for his role in Dallas Buyers Club. Looking at Bale's usual photographs it's hard to believe he was The Machinist.

We saw ZumaZuma a travelling group of performers from the continent of Africa, on stage at our local theatre on Monday evening. Those taking part came from Zimbabwe, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Guinea and Senegal. All performed together in an elaborate acrobatic dance, circus and song event.

Huge energy was expended, non-stop, with super African rhythms, and colourful regional costumes, singing, dancing traditional to each region, and some very skilful juggling and acrobatics. Lots of audience engagement - especially enjoyed by the many children in the audience, who had met the travelling group earlier in the day. Zuma Zuma is well worth making the effort to go see, should they happen to be performing in your area.