Keep Right On...

Birmingham City Football Club won the League Cup tonight.  I'm not a huge football fan, but it's hard not to be lured by the pure drama of it all.  There's goodies and baddies and hope and despair.  Just like life in fact.  And there's nothing like a good sporting celebration to help keep our minds off an unfair economy...

Blues are celebrating their first silverware since about 1963.  But I actually think it's the first major trophy they've won since they were formed.  About 130 odd years then.

I'm approaching my fiscal survival this year with the same tenacity. I just hope it's not going to take me as long as the Blues.  More beer!

Romantica

It's been a tough few months.  But the return to a radio show I did years ago has been very positive. And a great way of introducing an arts concept that very few will realise was one! Maverick this year is to be about nostalgia and reminiscence and Romantica was just that, with a lovely bunch of people sending in stories that, in some cases, had never been repeated before. On the first of two nights some of the feedback was tearful and very emotional. But it's great. It's what makes us human.

Students are revolting...

And to prove it...

Happy New Year!

Chiswick House and Gardens

A Detour On The Way Back From The Post Office

And Wow!  What a detour.  I was on my bike and dropped a parcel off at the Post Office at the top of Chiswick High Road.  Having a half hour to kill, I thought I'd take a slightly different route home and this is what I came across.  I'm blessed that even at my age I'm still surprised at what London can come up with.  These are snapshots taken with my phone, but all taken 20 mins from our flat.  You should try a detour from a daily route  and post the photographs here.  I'd love to see what you come up with.

Chiswick House.  Available for weddings apparently!

This is the view from the gate I entered.

And the view from a little further back.

Swinging down past Chiswick Mall, this is a public right of way to the River Thames.

Is this little cottage in Stratford-upon-Avon? Nope.  Chiswick again.

Groovy sign to the river 'right of way'.

The view toward Hammersmith Bridge

People live on this.  I can't blame them!

Look the other way from the boat and this is St Nicholas' Church.  Many famous folk rest here.

A house in St Peter's Square, Hammersmith.  Our flat is just round the corner.

Groovy baby!

Southwold my Southwold

These blogs seem less... I don't know... relalvant with Twitter and Facebook and a brilliant little programme which is almost perfect called Momento which I downloaded onto my i-phone.  It's a great little diary app although there are a few problems - you can export the text but not photo's and the text when exported is full of code.  But it's a great way to make notes on the go and will provide a record of life for years to come.

I could write about Hancock and how that went.  Quite well thank you.  But I'm in Southwold with my partner who is performing in Abigails Party in a week or so.. And its a great place, stuck in the past somewhat!

Time for a picture from the pier I think.  And maybe more later. Now where is that bucket, spade and raincoat...

That's Very Nearly Three Months-full!

Well I've been a busy boy.  Dealing with a friend's cancer and setting up a middle/large scale theatre tour at the same time has proved challenging to say the least, which is why I've not really had a chance to come on here since March.
Thankfully friend has recovered completely apart from her regular check ups and the Hancock's Finest Hour tour, although incredibly difficult financially, seems to just about be holding its own.
So I shall be back later methinks.  And if you live near the Georgian Theatre Royal in Richmond North Yorkshire, or the Middlesborough Theatre in.. er... Middlesborough, then come and say hello in the next few weeks

Ere, ere! Vincent Van Gogh – just one of us really.

I went to the Van Gogh bash at the Royal Academy of Arts last week.  There’s so much else going on at the moment I arrived sort of testy, especially when it turned out there had been a power cut for 4 hours and they were only just thinking of opening when I arrived.  My pre-paid 3pm ticket may have only cost me about £4 (plus booking fees – how ridiculous!) but the place was unpleasantly packed.  It was a disappointment, especially after my rock 'n' roll tour of Amsterdam with The Arrow where rather than explore the red light district I excused myself and visited the Reich Museum and the Van Gogh Museum.  My colleagues kindly decided to ignore this behaviour and, I think, in spite of my Rock Credentials put it down to age!

So, to this exhibition.  It confirmed what I’ve always thought and admired about Van Gogh.  He was a bloke like us who had a number of careers but when he decided he wanted to paint, he just went for it.  He wasn’t very good when he started, but he had heroes, people he looked up to and he just decided he was going to try to be a painter – an artist – and his big ambition in the early days was just to try and make a living.  He had his equivalent of the Arts Council as well, his younger brother Theo, whose financial contribution allowed Vincent to stick at it.  And although tragically Vincent died without any real recognition, you have to say the boy done good.  Packing out – and I mean packing – the Royal Academy of Arts.

                       This says it all really, about being an artist.  (Although I didn't photo the letter sketch.)