Friday 29 July 2016

Fancy Flâneuse!

Interesting article this morning on R4 Today programme about the Flâneuse.

I'm a follower of Phil Smith's work and his devotion to walking, and I'm looking forward to reading that new book on my wishlist: Flâneuse: The (Feminine) Art of Walking in Cities.

And I'm really looking forward to enjoying the leisure time when I can truly indulge this sport.

But, R4! A dog-end treatment from your tinkly-piano department. Oh dear. The soul, the melancholic, the wistful regret in those lingering notes! Your tinkly-piano department undermined the whole point of the piece. The idea of the Flâneuse to me is not so I can become the wistful fragrance of an invisible woman, hollowing out my mourning soul in quiet introspection to the slow melodies of your C notes.

Walking is to create a vibrant, imaginative and creative space: a practise which means I then find home and stitch paper to cloth to leather with a visceral urgency more resonant of a remix of the Dambusters thrashed out by a Wagner-Heavy Rock mash up. But wouldn't that challenge your stereotypes?

Thanks anyway for the article.

Wednesday 27 July 2016

HOLIDAYS ARE NOT HOMESCHOOL

Jeezusbegeezuz, what is the matter with this world?

Kids on HOLIDAY should be 'brave, fun, and up to no good.'

So here's a holiday reading list from Me and the Man who Thinks, aka Dig.

Who's Not In School? by Ross Mountney, illustrated by James Robinson.
Good luck as you try to get your hands on a copy.

People Get Ready by Robert W McChesney and John Nichols. Cos the jobs aren't there. Meanwhile, your education system now killing childhood is a big fat business to get citizens into debt, force compliance, and leave a population without the thinking independent-minded creative energy to do anything about it.

Pft.

I don't know whether to get up on a soapbox or just say, to hell in a handcart.

But that's it. Life's all about CHOICE.