Continuing on the theme of end of year greetings and the real Christmas message (not the ‘buy buy buy’ one that Amazon stopped imparting once it realised it couldn’t deliver its goods) here’s a very apt scene that I took on Sunday 19th December — on the way back from the Nine Lessons and Carols service. I’ve not photoshopped the colours — it came out like this with the moonlight on the snow.
Interesting post Mike – I recently watched Dennis Potters Pennies from Heaven again on DVD – for the first time since I first saw it in 1978 – its brilliant and he is a brilliant writer. If we are talking originallity he’s is someone who has it by the bucket load. In the mid 90’s I was rumaging in a second hand bookshop on the Norfolk coast and came across an old guide to Tangiers basically it was from the 1950’s and had the Tangiers Inn where Ginsberg and Jack K spent alot of time featured..I went offand stayed there on my own – a seedy little place with rooms costing £8 a night. In the bar downstairs one night I was propositioned by a drunken local – his only english was ” My name is Ali , I am taxi driver from Tangiers”…I bought him a drink – more than anything so he would leave me alone. He promptly threw up all over the bar.
I dont know what prompted this specific genm of a memory – your own archive of meoribilitlia/old paperbacks/stories/memories no doubt…and the fact that I should be writing now not blogging – BUT -I started an hour ago and after a bag of nuts felt so whacked by another late night and the humidity here I had to return to my bed…now I’m up again and I still feel sleepy. I will now feel a little less guilty as atleast I have blogged about writing. I will make myself sit down and carry on with where I left off later.
BG
Bren,
I remember watching ‘Pennies from Heaven’ when it first was on TV but didn’t fully appreciate it — it was the ‘Singing Detective’ that I really thought was special — some incredibly funny scenes.
The Beats were probably more popular when I was first at university than they are now — partly because their attitude to women doesn’t sit well with our more feminist attitudes. Apparently ‘On the Road’ was written on a long roll of paper and typed out in about a fortnight. There’s quite a gay subtext to it, isn’t there?
I read your latest blog entry from Buenos Aires and found the fact that your writing space is currently a colonic irrigation treatment room to be quite intriguing. I wanted to make a comment but was a bit too dumbfounded to do so.
Mike
Mike…you…lost for words…well, just to update we havent moved in there yet…we are going on the 4th January BUT not sure if its going to work out or not..not sure if I trust the guy..he is asking us for deposits in advance etc, etc…I wouldnt object to this except we arent renting the whole flat just part of it and he will still be living there and we will be sharing the facilities…another adventure comming maybe…
Got down to writing again after a siesta this afternoon and did just over two hours…should have another chapter drafted by the end of tomorrow I hope. Nice to have got it moving again(no doubt the thought if an imminent colonic !) w.e.f.1st day of the new year.
BG