Drawing attention

Drawn 2015, The open submission show at the RWA, taking up most of the late Bristol spring, follows on from Drawing On, which featured such luminaries as Edward Burra, Cecil Collins, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Mary Fedden PPRWA, Elizabeth Frink, Barbara Hepworth, Keith Vaughan, Henry Moore, John Nash, Ceri Richards and Stanley Spencer - and has been well worth catching for a wide variety of reasons, not least as a nudge in the ribs if you've forgotten what drawing is for.

 

K2: the movie

There has been a lot of talk lately about the degrading of Mount Everest from frontier of the unknown, a near-religious entity, to the site of regular public day trips - with, for all I know, a MacDonald's at the top. This, and the lives of the Sherpas, making some kind of living from  acting as guides since the first attempts to get to make the ascent, and the danger to their lives that comes with the job. The World's other great majestic mound, K2, is yet to be added to the package holiday deals but it is surrounded by the same kind of dichotomy between the 'intrepid' visitors and the locals. Iara Lee and Cultures of Resistance have produced a documentary, simultaneously sobering and beautiful - even as a small-screen trailer. In Iara's own words: 
 "K2 AND THE INVISIBLE FOOTMEN: shot in stunning northern Pakistan, it is about the plight of the unsung heroes, the indigenous porters of majestic K2, the earth’s second-highest peak." 
https://vimeo.com/125332915
On the strength of a quick look on my laptop, I for one am convinced that this big picture is one to catch on the big screen.

The Damned. Thank you; I publish...

www.last.fm

If you were too young, or too old, to really "get" Punk - or even if you were in the thick of it, the band that was the missing link between Music Hall and armageddon - as remembered in this documentary - is for my money the one to fill in the gaps. Summing up so much about the punk attitude, really dangerous onstage and sparking riots on tour - with a bass-player called Captain Sensible.

The Insect Farm

Stuart Prebble
Alma Books
ISBN 978-1-84688-361-3

Like any good novel, The Insect Farm may have you looking back at your own world in a new light, and questioning your fix on reality. Jonathan is his brother Roger’s carer. Roger is obsessed with the elaborate universe he constructed in a shed in their parents’ garden, populated by millions of tiny insects. His obsession is equalled by Jonathan’s obsession with his beautiful, talented and absent girlfriend Harriet.

As Roger lives in an impenetrable world of his own, after the mysterious death of their parents Jonathan was forced to give up his studies to take care of him. This obligation forces Jonathan to live apart from Harriet – boosting his already jealous nature. Halfway through the 'deftly plotted' tale their obsessive little world is shattered by a new trauma, and we begin to wonder if it is Roger, not Jonathan, who is the ‘carer’ in their relationship.

By now we readers have become so used to being inside Jonathan’s mind that we can’t put the book down until we are sure of his survival. But even the existence of a threat to that survival is increasingly questioned. If Jonathan knows more than he is admitting, he never quite lets us know. Despite the shock near-ending and a couple of unexpected twists, the plot remains in full flight right up to the final page.

Chris Rainbow

Chris Harley, who metamorphosed into the Rainbow for the short few years of his career in mainstream pop, has died before he could extend his album Home of the Brave (which contained two of his singles) into the body of work we listeners and friends so eagerly anticipated, although there is  The Best of Chris Rainbow, 1972–1980, which has appeared in single and double CD sets and includes radio spots, and rare and unreleased material.  Back in the early 1970s as his pals and fellow musicians in Glasgow agonised interminably about what they would do when they hit The Big Time, he just quietly sneaked off and became  a successful singer/songwriter, working with Stevie Wonder's producers and gaining expertise as a producer in his own right. He started out as a member of successful Glasgow band Hopestreet, and soon moved on to run Vital Spark Studio on the Isle of Skye. He is now widely seen as inhabiting the same territory as Brian Wilson. Among his friends, he was as famous for his stutter as much as anything, and adding that to his sense of humour leads to the name of his own record label "Stutter Music". More here: 

Oscars for sale

Premiya-Oskar

It's well-known that the British cinema industry is concentrated around a few airing-cupboard offices in London's Soho. In fact, with the digital revolution a tiny room at the top of a west-end stair can be enough to run the show. The Soho connection is important - and the important word is "connection". Same as in the music and broadcasting business. If you want to make your mark you probably are still best doing it in Soho (despite the universal complaints that it's not what it used to be) - and the other two requirements are tenacity and loads of money. If you have all these sorted you can join the struggle for an Oscar, which nevertheless has to look like an unexpected surprise when it comes. Today (Thursday January 15th), the nominations are announced, and over in the USA backstage the struggle continues. This week's guest blog has the story: http://stephenfollows.com/how-much-does-a-hollywood-oscar-campaign-cost/

a propos Charlie Hebdo