Global Trade

Today arrives a tiny parcel A man in a van drives to my door He posts it through. It is from China A necklace worth three US dollars From number three Yanhe Road Elephant Kok T Origin village Nanhung Street hexi D district There is a telephone number. Small packet by air Guaranteed to contain nothing dangerous or prohibited. Chinese characters Necklace in Chinese A month ago Late at night Browsing my ipad In bed Alone I chose a necklace Blue beads One yellow, one pink, one purple, one red And a green one One metal butterfly Two fish Tiny metal flowers It's perfectly sweet I put it on Happy Some Chinese hands assembled it. A person I hope paid decently Thousands of miles it travels to me. Only profitable because - measured by cost of living We are a wealthy country - they a poorer one.

The Joy of Painting

The Joy of Painting Bob Ross showed people how to produce corny horrible inauthentic paintings for years on tv. These programmes are being repeated on British TV bbc 4

Apparently he practised the day's painting and copied from his practice efforts that were kept out of shot. While he works he keeps up a smooth softly voiced commentary, referring to 'happy little clouds' etc. He shows clever tricks of using the paint to depict land and seascapes. At the end he signs it prominently in red - the only red in the painting so it stands out. In a way the whole painting is just a background for the name he adds - Kilroy was here on a grand repeated scale. There is no soul, no observation, no personal experience, no innovation, nothing but a few tricks and a chocolate box image. I find it unbearable. I find it appalling that some tv producer accepted this, that people admire it, that there's no programme showing artists that are trying to produce something original, personal and not this complete trash. Well occasionally - there was 'What do artists do all day?' There used to be stuff about the Turner prize. How to explain to someone who likes this what I feel is so bad about it? Is it pointless to try? Do people in fact like it or even watch it? Bob Ross made a living from this repetitive nonsense. He died some time ago. How is it possible that it's on British tv now?

All or Nothing - Mike Leigh

All or Nothing'. Mike Leigh 2002 The first third of this film shows us a collection of unpleasantly depressing characters on a south London housing estate. Their lives are wretched, their vocabulary and conversation limited, so that I felt like not even giving the DVD to a charity shop because of its horribly stereotyped view of the working or underclass in contemporary London. By the end I was crying, moved by the central character - Timothy Spall's taxi driver - who reminded me of myself once on holiday with my husband but temporarily cast into utter wretched despair - feeling I would rather be dead if our relationship should fall apart. It's as if Mike Leigh sets himself the challenge to take all the worst stereotypes of the poor and after presenting us with characters we can scarcely bear to think exist then develops them to a point where at least some of them become people so real to us that we long for the best for them. This director works via long improvisations which actors find alarming and wonderful. Their statements are on the DVD and it's a relief to see these actors - not those grim characters after all - but existing outside the Mike Leigh workshop. They didn't get a script but explored their characters and acted only knowing at any point what their character would know. Watching them talk about the process reminds me of the intensity of a psychodrama holiday I once went to on Skyros. Ruth Sheen as Maureen for me provides the most memorable and joyous moments in the story as she sings in the pub and becomes a beautiful, confident and subtle performer who could have had a stage career if she weren't living the life she has. Mike Leigh says in his interview that they are lucky to work in a loving atmosphere where they go 'on voyages of danger which produce the goods' which are 'a heightened and distilled reality'. I believe films are the greatest art form of our era - paralleling medieval cathedrals in their wide scope and combining of many talents which are largely left as anonymous contributors to the audience despite the end credits.

Mary on her art

The Money Trick

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