10 Guilty Pleasures

A friend challenged me to name my 10 Guilty Pleasures, and like her I am finding it hard to reach 10 - but here goes...in no particular order...

1) Crime novels - I was turned onto Rebus when we were studying genre fiction at art school. I am picky though - I like a crime novelist to be a decent writer too. I like writers like Henning Mankell, Ian Rankin, Kathy Reichs, and Tom Ben...

2) Star Trek - but not Captain shirt-off and your original Trekkies. No I am talking TNG. Yes I know it is cheesy, but there is something hugely comforting about the whole Next Generation universe - and it's not just Jean Luc Picard with his uber sexy voice.

3) Cheesy music - you know the kind of tracks that you don't want to your ipod to play when your poetry group is round. I am talking Abba, The Bee Gees, Adam and the Ants, James Blunt etc. and those tracks where you don't even know who the artist is like "Sleep all Day and Party All Night"...oh well it's out there now...

4) Crisps - chocolate is nice, but if it's in the house I do not feel compelled to eat it. Savoury snacks though, are anther matter - crisps, curry crackers, wasabi peanuts...keep them away from me!

5) Pot Noodle - I get the craving for one of these about twice a year - god knows why - they are full of crap - it must be nostalgia or something...or MSG. But when you get the craving only a Pot Noodle will do, and preferably spicy curry flavour.

6) 70s TV series - The Waltons - yes very cheesy I know but I grew up with it, and in what other TV series can you hear entire poems by people like Walt Whitman? I am sure The Waltons set me on the path to being a writer. Other 70s gems I love are The Wombles, Hector's House, Survivors (you gotta love the BBC), Citizen Smith, Butterflies, Starsky and Hutch, The Tomorrow People and of Doctor Who with Jon Pertwee as The Doctor. 

7) Kindle - I said I didn't want one - in fact I was vociferously anti. I was given one as a present and was almost instantly converted. I still buy and read books - and poetry doesn't really work on the kindle, but the kindle has given me a new lease of reading life. It is great for BIG books, it is great for going away, it means slightly less book clutter in my house, you can get lots of free classics, and, most importantly you can make the text bigger which means I can now read comfortably in the evening when my eyes are tired. 

8) odd and retro crockery - I have 70's vortex plates, a Rob Brandt Crushed Cup, and a siletti silver milk carton milk jug -  I love them.

9) My retro style turquoise trim phone - I love it -i t looks good, it feels good and actually it is much more comfortable to hold and talk on than the modern all in one jobbies.

10) 80's films - The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, desperately Seeking Susan...you know the kind of thing. Best watched on your own in your comfiest clothes and under a blanket.

Blind Light

I watched a channel 4 programme about Antony Gormley yesterday, which was both moving and inspiring. If yoy live in the UK and have digital or cable I would highly reccomend watching it.

It was a breath of fresh air to see a hugely famous artist who is still so involved in his work and not ruled by his ego.

The crew had filmed Gormley as he designed and worked for his current show at The Heywood Gallery. It was fascinating to see a project from beginning to end - the process to make the figures from huge metal cubes was amazing and Gormley was fully involved every step of the way. Starting by casting his own crouched body in plaster.

What was also fascinating was the painstaking creation of a cloud chamber and Gormley's reaction when it finally worked. When his dream finally came to fruition he had tears in his eyes. It was incredibly moving to see someone who believed so wholeheartedly in what he was doing and such a contrast to the programme I saw featuring Damien Hirst a few weeks ago. Hirst came across as quite a different character - arrogant, full of himself and quite removed from the work that his assistants were making. He would breeze into the studio for a while in the morning offering a few words of advice here and there, whereas Gormley was in the studio working at all hours and becoming increasingly frustrated by outside distractions like telephone calls.

I have long been a fan of Gormley's work - I especially liked Field for the British Isles (pictured above) and am hoping that I will get to see his new exhibition "Blind Light" before it finishes in August.

Not Fuzz

Simon Pegg fails to thrill in this thoroughly unfunny pastiche of cop films. Pegg delivers a film overloaded with famous British actors and gratuitous and pointless violence. This film was a sad reminder for me of the sorry state of British society.

I once rated Simon Pegg very highly as a comic writer - the series Spaced was original and extremely funny. It seems though, that he has gained stardom and lost the comic plot. He may be hob nobbing with the likes of Tom Cruise but he seems to have forgotoon the ingredients of a good, intelligent comedy. The intentions in Hot Fuzz are good, it gives a nod to several genres of film - most notably cop and Hammer Horror, but sadly fails to deliver the laughs. In a cinema three quaters full there were only one or two laughs and those were from teenagers.

Simon needs to get back to his comic roots and rediscover intelligence and subtlety.