Blog No. 37
Wednesday, July 21, 2010 at 12:12AM Well I must say the Udderbelly gig was really terrific. They were a really great audience and the place was more or less full, about 400 people which is pretty good going for a book-reading for a book that isn’t out for two months.
The day after my reading I was back on the South Bank when I was made a Fellow of the University of the Arts. The Unversity of the Arts is all the London art schools, Chelsea, St Martins, Camberwell and so on. I wore a proper gown and hat and everything. I didn’t want to say anything too encouraging in my speech so I told the audience of graduating students and their families about how Chelsea were going to throw me out after my first term until I made a short film cruelly mocking the teaching staff then they let me stay.
In this South Bank themed blog I am pleased to see the return of The South Bank Show to Sky Arts after it as cancelled by ITV. I always longed to be on this pretentious arts show, it would have played to my intellectual vanity but I was never featured even though they had Ben Elton about seven times and Lenny Henry at least twice and now it's back maybe I’ll still have a chance. I plan to begin my interview with a long diatribe against Melvin Bragg for not having me on sooner.
Reader Comments (7)
Congratulations on the reading.
Armando Iannucci was on TSBS once, wasn't he. He spent a while discussing Paradise Lost. Paul Merton was on it too. Discussing his past mental illness. What topics - other than the hatred of Melvyn Bragg - would you discuss?
Guns!?
I learnt the difference between a Mac-10 and a mini-Uzi this week.
Smug me.
(And the Ben Elton South Bank Show was out on video).
I wouldn't say that Russell!:))
what am I? Some kind of raving capitalist bent on stepping on others for my own ends.
No!. I'm a raving realist with my toes wedged firmly in the crack of social responsibilty.
so I n the words of my mother-in-law. "I hope you don't die, coz we can't afford to bury you."
also..."London Tonight is like Chicken Tonight but with bits of London in it."
Sheer class Sir!
:))
You're too kind, Leon. And ever so slightly potty.
Top notch.
Yet again, I wouldn't say that, Russell!:))
Saw a 5 min interview on the Beeb with Baron Bragg, of Wigton in the County of Cumbria. Didn't say anything about the SBS being moved to Sky, just axed. But, in more diplomatic terms, the passing away of sort of thing. Working class made good, if a touch pretentious. However, well intended. Bringing the arts to the masses on a commercial channel like ITV.
Didn't realise he has had some pretty serious mental health problems over his lifetime. He talked about having to restrain himself from jumping in front of a train at one point. I've always seen him as a kind of uber well-adjusted everything can be worked out if you sit down and apply logical thinking to it type of person. And, imagine him sitting round having In our Time (his Radio 4 show) type conversations over breakfast at home as well as at work. But, I suppose it's a bit like thinking if you eat healthy, exercise and don't smoke or drink excessively you won't get sick.
I read that Paul Merton is supporting some mental health charities. It reminds a bit me of Kevin in Overtaken when he gets involved with the group for the families of victims of reckless drivers when previously he hadn't given a toss. In Overtaken there's a reference to a quote from Kant about the only moral act being one that brings no benefit to the performer of the act. I'm not sure if the self-satisfied glow of having performed a selfless act is included as a benefit in Kant's thinking. I remember feeling particularly self-righteous having completed a 5k 'fun run' for SWAPO many years ago. I can still feel the glow now. Something to put on my street-cred CV I suppose. I think someone just asked me to do the run, and as I was unemployed as was nearly everyone I knew at the time (80s early 90s) had plenty of time on my hands to set the world to rights.
Now I'm employed but, I still have plenty of time on my hands. Maybe time to dust of the running shoes. These days being a fat and forty something, and a fairly heavy smoker, I think I'd prefer a fun bike ride for (insert worthy cause of choice). Actually, never much liked jogging,it's all desperately flailing arms and red cheeks in my case, especially on concrete. Bad for the knee and ankle joints I'm told.
any plans for an audio book verison of Stalin Ate My Homework?