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poisson d'avril

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A day late, but who cares? The tradition being in Belgium to sneak up behind someone and pin (stick) a fish on their back without - of course - them noticing. What fun!

Listening to the radio while waiting for everyone to get in the car to go off to the pool I was 'had'. The 8 a.m. news bulletin contained an item about removing 1 May as a national holiday as a way of remedying current financial problems (interviews with trade union leaders etc.). My ear not tuned to French language parody I was easy meat. But, on reflection, what is the line these days between hoax and political reality? For example, who a couple of years ago in the U.K. would credit a coalition government between Lib Dems & Conservatives? Oh, come on - you've got to be joking! And now it's a fact, it's an even bigger joke. Only nobody's laughing ...

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The girls are off to flog old books from their baby years. Each one has to pass by me before permission is given. Here's a spread from Comment l'Elephant a Perdu ses Ailes by Marie Nimier and Helene Riff - a book far too good to leave the premises. The handling of paint and pencil seems somehow reminiscent of Cy Twombly. A lovely volume.

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Remember the gym floor, the ancient reel to reel & curling up in a ball, very, very small? I do - and maybe you do, too. My researches into Belbury Poly, Broadcast and the online catalogue of Jonny Trunk have led me to dig out this gift from Alan of a few years ago.

How a page such as this one above speaks of very different times: a D-I-Y approach to teaching and a profound and sincere belief in the Imagination and the Body no matter how silly it must have looked (and felt) at the time.

Farming Today during the week carried an item about 'our' generation of parents being perhaps the last to still take kids for walks in the Big Outdoors. And the other day I took a class for a colleague in which each student settled down in front of their respective terminals, logged on and placed headphones over their ears. I signed 'OK?' and met glassy stares in return.

No need to supervise such a class. The virus has gone deep. Screenagers, indeed.

Surely there's something I can do with this book, though? Ripe for detournement ...

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Despite the best efforts of Music Movement and Mime I am no dancer. However, certain forms of modern choreography leave me astounded - and this is one of them. Wenders' film in homage to the late Pina Bausch is well worth watching. I'd know her primarily from Fellini's film And the Ship Sails On where she plays an anaemic psychic Princess. And wasn't there also an anecdote of her sitting across from Samuel Beckett in a cafe - an encounter marked by the absence of either to say a word? Or perhaps I am confusing things.

The soundtrack is also good if rather overpriced in Fnac. Right now I am listening to track 15 of Britten's recording of Purcell's Fairy Queen ('See, even Night herself is here'). Wenders/Bausch use several pieces by Purcell during the film. Beautiful - and this from someone who does not get on with Purcell.

Which reminds me ... of an evening as an undergraduate snorting with laughter through The Indian Queen after a friend's inspired remark: What's Dryden won't come off even with Purcell ... . Those were the days!