What a Fete!

Its been a while since I've been on here and its because everything is coming to a head. My working class equivalent of the grand tour - a three year search for self improvement and a real career though specialised education - sorta finishes this year. Finance and time are running out and so I've been vary aware of not wasting either. Not that being on here is a waste of time (?) but if I've time to knock out a quick blog I should be writing my dissertation or trying to promote the two 'Introduction To...' classes I am running later this month -
Creative Producing and Screenwriting.

But all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Or maybe a nutter. And talking of nutters, I decided this weekend to take some time out. I read about the Big Swim from Chiswick Pier. Since I've been in London full time I've been constantly working against some sort of deadline and since lectures finished I've not even had the exercise of walking to the tube, so I thought Saturday afternoon about three o'clock I should head out and suss the area a bit. So here in pictures is Nick's Guide to a Bit of West London And Jolly Nice It Is Too.


This road above is not leafy Sussex or Warwickshire. Nope, its a road not far from our Chiswick flat, 20 mins from the bustling metropolis of The City on a Saturday afternoon. How can you not love this?


As a recent convert to Moseley Rugby Club on Billesley Common I was having withdrawal symptoms till I discovered the Chiswick equivalent on Saturday. But although they have a brick built clubhouse instead of Moseley's portacabins, the whole operation is much smaller, provincial (in London!) and lower-leagued. But it means the (smaller) clubhouse is completely bursting with kit bags, players, trophies and beer. I intend to find out more when time and finance allows. And in the fleshpots of the metropolis it also looks as if people can leave bikes unlocked!




Like I said, nutters. They have their own society, don't y' know. This dip pool by Chiswick pier.

Top Nutter wins silver thing, presented by the Mayor of Hounslow, for...




...winning this 1k swim to Chiswick Eyot and back. The winner did it in 12 mins! The last guy took 45 mins against the tide. A huge effort. I stayed to the very end and found the massive cheer, applause and encouragement for the last guy strangely moving. I might be turning into a girl. Or a nutter. And again, being in fleshpots of the metropolis, the whole event, Mayor and all, had the feel of a small village fete. Like Kings Heath Carnival without the tents.

I look again at the river and I start to think this big swim would be something to work towards...

Mmm. Back to work then.

The Party's Over....

I've already Twittered that I can't believe that we had our last lecture tonight! It only feels like a month or so since I started Uni - an MA in Creative Producing - but of course it was last year. The work is not yet over. We have another presentation next week and our dissertation in September, but the formal bit is done and dusted. And although the time for 'real' work is upon me and I have to try and repay the thousands of pounds it's cost me in bank borrowings to do this course, I can't help but feel quite sad.

Have I changed? This was me 2 years ago...

http://www.artshub.co.uk/uk/news.asp?sId=163056&ref=admin#


Maybe not hugely? But I think I have.

As I've already mentioned I'm the first of my family to go to Uni, even though I think my siblings are far smarter and harder working than I, and I almost feel the experience should somehow last longer because of that. I've not had a full summer to learn the routes to cycle to lectures and get to know the real cheap student haunts or be wistful and longing or angry and student arrogant. I suppose its because its a Masters and only one year and unlike most of the others on my course I've not had three years previously taking a 'normal' degree. And maybe its age too; the fact that I'm going through these feelings in my 50's instead of my 20's. Although, as has been pointed out, I was having fun in other ways in my 20's!

And tonight we had a very apt lecture from producer Neil L. We've had some top talent talking to us on this course and Neil by his own confession, is and yet isn't, a major player. He's a real enigma; both supremely assured and simultaneously self-effacing. He managed to piss off some of the chorum at his first appearance with his strong and provocative opinions and assertions. But to be fair to him, our first time with Neil was also his first time with producers, instead of directors or actors. And we soon all warmed to him for his enthusiasm, passion and belief. And tonight, with his lecture entitled 'Surviving as a Producer', he became the first of our lecturers to get a spontaneous and genuinely warm round of applause.

Looking back on the lectures and lecturers we've had over this (fleeting and all too brief!) course, we've been spoiled with some of the very top names in the theatre industry. It's been an eye opener in many ways and if nothing else has made me realise the work I like doing - maybe I can call it a career now - the career I have chosen (or did it choose me?) is as tough as it was at the Billesley Pub in Birmingham.

The business of theatre producing, particularly commercial theatre, is tough and brutal and like most professionals in any tough business you have to be careful. But I've also realised from our lecturers that because this business IS so brutal and tough, there's a perceptible camaraderie amongst those that last the course. We've had lectures from some very hard nosed operators, but its obvious that they are full of admiration for us wanting to be in the game - even at student level. Once we graduate, these Uni philanthropes will treat us like any other competitor. And yet I can't help but feel that if any of us were REALLY in trouble, rather than laugh and spit on us, they may actually rally round and help if they can. In fact I know this for a fact. It sounds weird. And maybe it is unique to theatre.

And I know once I graduate, I shall always think very fondly of the professionals I have met through the course. And never forget Neils final lecture and the final, spontaneous round of applause from we producers to be. Or, indeed, that the first course of this type at Birkbeck appropriately ended with a spontaneous outburst of audience appreciation...