Greenbelt

90 or 06

Back in the summer of 1990 this snippet from the Backstage column in Greenbelt's Strait magazine caught my eye:

"Sam Phillips, in her earlier incarnation as Leslie, used to sing in Sunday School with another spine-tingling female vocalist Maria McKee, who, now based in Dublin, has made a verbal commitment to playing Greenbelt herself - just when remains unclear (if you're reading this Maria, GB '90 would be fine). Watch this space - or even the Big Top."

Today the Greenbelt website shows that it pays off to be patient. Either that Maria prefers to read upside-down.

Arts

Lines of Defence

Spot the difference between these two photographs, taken from the same spot just about one year apart.

Lines of Defence was a site-specific installation on the coast at Bawdsey. Thirty-eight flags were planted in the earth at the top of the cliff while a camera recorded their fall into the sea as the waves nibbled its way seventeen metres inland.

The camera's been removed now, but a stop motion film of the work has been released. I particularly like the white flag of surrender which found its way to the site during the last week of the year-long project.

(See also Teeth come to the eyes, a companion piece.)

Tech

Sacrificed

Well well, it looks as if someone in the Treasury has finally wised up to the inequality of salary sacrifice.

The Treasury says it is closing down the scheme because it has benefited too many higher rate tax payers (who saved proportionately more). It plans to shift the focus on improving internet access for the unemployed and pensioners.

Let's hope this new focus on bridging the "digital divide" actually hits the mark instead of giving discounts to the rich once more.

Angels

Dancing on my tongue

One day the Fine Food Company will have quotes from genuine customers on their blackboard.

One day I'll post picture of Angels again, rather than just the word.

Arts

Film: Good Night, and Good Luck

I expected Good Night, and Good Luck to give me a history lesson. It's set against a backdrop of McCarthyism in the the early 1950s, an period of paranoia and speculation that I know little about.

Behind the curling cigarette smoke that features in almost every frame what the film really focusses on is the right (and perhaps duty) to debate and challenge.

Personal

Sixty tides later

Emma and I collected two rocks today. To celebrate at last picking the first rock up from the jeweller we headed back to the beach. And there - just below the rusted iron breakwater - we found another.

Slightly faded. Weathered, but still clear. Sixty high waters had washed our rock. Countless beachcombers will have seen it. We stowed the stone in the car.

It's reasonable to presume that the four further reminders of that evening lie nearby or elsewhere in Cardigan Bay but we were in no hurry to find them. Instead we've left them as signposts. Markers. Accidental graffiti. A lesson that whiteboard markers aren't water soluble after all.

Personal

Mountain lambs are sweetest

Eight years ago I told a new friend I didn't want a good camera - I just wanted a better memory and the eloquence to share those memories.

Emma moves to Reading next weekend so this is my last ever drive from east to west across the middle of our island. Today I'm camera-less so my eyes are wide open, burning familiar landmarks onto the film of my retinas, hoping the images will stay.

There's Paul's Malt near Bury, the travellers' site at Cambridge, the turning for Deene Park and the new windfarm on the A14. The landmarks on the middle third are all roads: the nasty A14/M6 interchange, the new M6 Toll, the roundabouts at Shrewsbury.

When the road drops to single carriageway I know I'm nearly in Wales. The snow-topped Breidden hills watch me cross the border at Middletown and a couple of miles later I cross Offa's Dyke. The canal and the Severn guide me for a dozen miles or so before handing me over to the Wye. This is my favourite part of the drive. The snaking mountain road below Plynlimon, the Sweet Lamb sign, the Elvis stone before finally tipping over the pass to see in the distance Aberystwyth and beyond it the Irish Sea.

I won't miss the time it takes to drive to Emma's but I will miss these moments.

Arts

Film: Walk the Line

The more I learn about Johnny Cash (and I'm a late starter here), the more I'm drawn to him, flaws and all.

Personal

Here, there, then

That's a few more decisions made then. Now to solve the really tough equation: num_friends > hall_capacity.

Arts

Film: Munich

Munich starts at the 1972 Olympics and picks up the tale of an assassin hired to kill those responsible for the murder of the Israeli athletes. While it's never clear which of the film's events are fictional, the themes and concepts running through are easily recognised.

What does it mean to have a home? What happens when you feel that your home has been denied to you? Is 'home' a place, a feeling or a person?

Is violence the best response to violence? How do you break a cycle of violence?

Perhaps the most chilling moment is the final shot of the film. Set in the early 1970s the World Trade Centre is seen on the New York horizon as a reminder that the cycle was not broken and that we all know the story continues through the present day.

Personal

Good for the ego

It's not quite the same desk, and it's certainly not the same company or the same job but it's rather close. I started work again on Monday and for the time being my office is one room over from the one I left two months ago.

Consequently for the past two days I've been hearing these phrases rather a lot:

I thought you'd left. It's good to see your smiling face again! I knew that voice was familiar. Did you enjoy your break? That's great news.

An overwhelmingly positive welcome. I guess this is what they call a soft landing.

Arts

Film: Brokeback Mountain

Here's a surprise: I just couldn't engage with this film. All the critics are raving about it but it left me cold. All I kept thinking about was the cliché of a moustache.

Tech

Geek mileage day

The inner geek smiled at my car's odometer today.

65,536.
2¹⁶ miles.

You'll be pleased to hear this is the last geek mileage report: I don't know my powers of two beyond sixteen.