Forthcoming Attractions

I’ve been rather lax about blogging for the last couple of weeks.    I’ve a fair few things I want to write about but none of them are even nearly finished yet so to tide you over until Monday, when I’ll hopefully get going again, I’ve made a few notes on what the next batch will be about.

Elbow

A blog about the gig on the 17^th of March.  I’d say a review but frankly any review of I’d write of Elbow would have all the objectivity of Matthew writing about the Sermon on the Mount.  “Jesus brought us all to the kingdom of heaven tonight and totally dissed the pharisees.  The merchandise was a bit pricey though – 10 pieces of silver for replica sandals! WFT!”. Etc.

Musical taste

A lot of waffle on how musical taste is a more personal preference than almost any other art form and why.  This is half written but it keeps going off in different directions.  It’ll be a companion piece to the already published ‘Lost in Music’.

Thomas Cranmer and Aslockton

I wanted to write something about Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, who was born in Aslockton, just to the south of Nottingham.  He rose from humble beginnings to become the first head of the Church of England and the intellectual architect and powerhouse of the English Reformation.  I’m interested in how he was able to rise so high and I want to draw comparisons to the present day when the middle and upper classes are becoming more entrenched than ever in the best jobs.  I find the protestant reformation fascinating anyway as it’s the real beginning of the modern secular world and also for the parallels with modern Islam.

Offensiveness in Comedy

I’ve been avoiding this one for ages as it’s bound to be controversial and I’m not sure that I really want to stand up for what I believe on this one.  I will take the time to write it but possibly won’t post it.  I have few enough readers already and don’t want to piss any of them off!  We’ll see...

Goldstein and Collier at the Nottingham Contemporary

I really enjoyed the current exhibition at the Nottingham Contemporary.  Enough chords were struck with a few other things I was reading and in particular Alastair Sooke’s excellent recent documentary series on British sculpture and Andrew Graham-Dixon’s series on German Art (both on BBC4) and it’s stimulated me enough to want to write about it.  It’ll be about what I’m choosing to call art and meta-art.  It will probably tie into the 'Musical Taste' blog too.  It’s likely to be a bit massive though.

Fear of Falling

This will be about the similarities and differences between climbing and getting on stage to act.  They’re both activities that tend to draw the comment “you’re very brave to do that” and I thought I’d examine this further, ‘cos I think it’s an interesting comparison to make.  This will almost certainly be the last bit I write about acting for a while and hopefully the start of a few more outdoorsy pieces.

And go on then – a short poem.  Some days it’s called ‘The Optimist’ and some days ‘The Pessimist’. Another from last year.

All I have left of a half-love,

are half written poems,

half-lived.

David Millington

18^th March 2011

Nottingham.