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Monday, May 22, 2006
Red pepper earrings and a lone salt pot
The unheard of has happened, I have foregone Big Brother this year for what can only be described as a yell fest - Celebrity xfactor, watching Gillian McKeith shaking her bony ass to inappropriate songs and James Hewitt dancing like what can only be described as a constipated crab.Paul Daniels - Simply Magic
For the first time since Big Brother started 7 years ago I can not be arsed with the most unlikable (except pete) collection of nuts-photo babe wannabees and preeching bullies since probably last year. Maybe I'll be seduced yet, but I really can't be bothered and would rather watch the agile presenting skills of Russell Brand harrasing the public. He was hilarious on Jonathon Ross talking about his previous incarnation as a drug addict - "heroin, so very morish" - and is now my podcast of choice.
The last few months have been somewhat a ongoing reunion, I've been catching up with people I haven't seen for up to 14 years ago. Part of these reunions have come about as a result of me spending more time in the North East, seeing my Mum throughout her illness and recovery and exhibiting at Hatton. In some ways things are not that different, we all look the same - a bit less shiny maybe and in other ways our lives have changed fundamentaly. I'm not sure how different I seem to a naive 18 year old, it's not for me to say. On Saturday there'll be another reunion with a farewell celebration taking place a Victoria Studios to mark the end of the degree I did in Nottingham - Contemporary Arts. It will interesting to see if people really have changed and who is still making art work 11 years on. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous.
Douglas Coupland dropped into Broadway on Friday to give a reading from his new book JPod and caused more than a few people to remark he had changed. Instead of the buff, bequiffed young man projected into the cafe bar on the film stills loop a rather more bearded, khaki wearing older author made it to the stage. He was beguiling and charming and read from his new book - a passage where Kaitlin describes the various autisms that teckie geeks display at some time or another. Douglas, when he finished the reading went on to answering questions, and displayed his own set of mini autisms taking 2- 3 minute pauses between answers. I loved hearing him read his work, in the accent it was written so to speak but was desperate to hear him talk about families or faith, rather than obscure Canadian authors. I am enjoying the book and have ordered Hey Nostrodamus and Life after God from Green Metropolis.Stockton High Street
On my last trip to the North last week, I went to see a band - Idiot Savant - at the Georgian theatre in Stockton. They were like a loud Kaiser Chiefs and I liked the way the (incredibly tall) bassist sat down for the whole set, but they weren't really my thing. I risked accusations of political correctness by asking why they were called Idiot Savant, and didn't really get a clear answer but it was many drinks down the road.Idiot Savant
8 out of 9 of my home clearance items sold on ebay with the price of sentimental attachment and memories coming in at £24.86
posted by Jeanie Monday, May 22, 2006 | 0 comments
Skyping
Since undertaking the House Clearance event at the end of the Home-Maker tour it's made me think about the personal investment and sentimental value I give objects in my own home. I was suprisingly upset when I waved off the van full of objects that I had selected for the touring show. My consolation was that I didn't need the object to maintain the memory and after the initial sadness, I felt an overwhelming feeling of relief and liberation. I no longer had to think and worry about all this stuff that I was responsible for. With this in mind I put 75 items up on ebay and greenmetropolis and slowly the clutter in my house is reducing, very slowly!
With this in mind I developed Home Clearance for Sidehow - please see the blurb below and browse or place a bid. I'm interested to see what sells, what doesn't and whether the sentimental provenance described will add any value or if it will put potentail buyers off who don't want to consider the item's previous life.
Ebay member Jeaniequeeniered has a feedback score of 126 which comes from 138 successful transactions.
For Sideshow and Make TV Jeaniequeeniered (aka Jeanie Finlay) has been undertaking a Home Clearance, putting 9 items of sentimental value up for sale on ebay. Browse and bid online using the links below or join her for the last 15 minutes of the live auctions Thursday May 25th 2006, 17.05 BST
Figurine of woman and Puppy
Lone Salt cellar
Antique sheet music book - Famous Songs by Johanne Brahms
Red Pepper Earrings
Lemon baby dress and pant - 3/6 months
Baby pink rouched sleeve collarless Zara blouse
Vintage, collectable white polaroid land camera
Paul Smith hat
posted by Jeanie Monday, May 22, 2006 | 0 comments
Friday, May 19, 2006
Pretty in Pink and Brick Speak
Skyping is so bad for my health - I love it, have got rid of my ntl line in favour of skype, but the instant chat is deadly and time consuming.
posted by Jeanie Friday, May 19, 2006 | 0 comments
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Tears, Bricks and Balls
As I write I'm watching one of my favourite films on TV - Pretty in Pink, the ultimate teen angst movie. It came out in 1986 and I watched it a suitably impressionable teen age and it has been indelibly etched on my memory since then. In fact, there is an homage to this film with a cover of Pretty in Pink making it on to the Teenland soundtrack.
I know it's cheesy - she lives, literally on the wrong side of the tracks, Harry Dean Stanton appears to be drunk during the filming, Andrew McCarthy is pale and uninteresting - Dirty "Richie" Spader is any sensible girl's choice, her prom dress is an eighties nightmare. In spite of (and probably because of) it's fabulous moving film covering unrequited love, lovely Duckie, struggling to fit in and uncertainty of the future.
An embarrassing admission is that at the age of 17 I attended a summer school for art students along with sixth form students from across the North east. We were holed up in an old school in Robin Hoods Bay trying out different media - I did silk screen, anyway, all week the video boys kept shouting "Molly" at me. At the time "Molly" was slang for deeply unfashionable in a granny, musty kind of way and I was deeply offended. It was only months later that I discovered they meant Molly Ringwald as I had a red bob like in the film and ahem, a retro boho style going on. I ended up being introduced to a whole group as Molly and was known by that for ages. I guess there are worse names, looking back I should have been flattered instead of embarrassed Molly Ringwald was / is fabulous.
I've got quite a few teen movies now which form a contrasting collection next to Sheil's ever expanding horror library. With this in mind I went to see Brick on Monday which I loved. It's a hard boiled, chandleresque thriller set in a high school complete with gang boss Lukas Haas (last seen as the child in witness) who lives at home with his Mom, who serves milk from a chicken jug to his gang buddies. The dialogue is fast paced and takes a bit of tuning into but worth the effort. Below is a glossary for the dialogue used in the film. Go see this and DO NOT EVEN CONSIDER going to see Confetti. I was so happy to have a baby sitter that I sat all the way through this film but after felt like I'd never get the time back I'd wasted on it. Terrible, terrible, terrible "Comedy".
Brick Talk: "It's duck soup for you yegs"
(A partial glossary of words and phrases used in Brick, and their definitions)
Blow- to leave, depart; e.g., "Did she blow last night?"
Bulls- cops; e.g., "What first, tip the bulls?"; also, as a verb, to turn over to the cops; e.g., "I bulled the rat."
Burg (or Burgh)- town, city; e.g., "He knows every two-bit toker in the burg."
Copped- stole; e.g., "She copped the junk."
Dose- to take drugs; e.g., "He dosed off the bad junk and it laid him out."
Duck soup- easy pickings.
Gat- gun.
Gum- to mess things up; e.g., "Bulls would only gum it."
Heel- to walk away from (, and show your heels to); e.g., "I'm not heeling you to hook you."
Hop; Jake; Junk- drugs.
Pick- a ride in a car (as in "pick-up"); e.g., "Did she get a pick?"
Reef worm- a stoner (abbrev. of "reefer").
Scape- a patsy to take the blame (abbrev. of "scapegoat").
Scraped- begged off of, cadged from; e.g., "Ask any dope rat where their junk sprang and they'll say they scraped it off [name]..."
Shamus- a private detective.
Shine- to wield (as with a weapon); e.g., "He shines a blade."
Sprang- originated; e.g., "His gat sprang from Tugger's gang."
Take a powder- to slip away; e.g., "Why'd you take a powder the other night?"
posted by Jeanie Wednesday, May 17, 2006 | 0 comments
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Award winning web site!
The Teenland screening was last Thursday at Broadway and all went well. Response to the film was really good - people seemed to have a lot to talk about which was gratifying. Much of the feedback was that the film slowly revealed full portraits which was one of my main intentions - there were even tears.
My overall feeling of the evening was of being completely overwhelmed. That may well sound overly dramatic and a bit mini-diva behaviour for a small screening (just under 100 people) but it was the first time the film has been seen by anyone, bar those involved and a few other people. I'm not used to showing in a cinema - at a gallery opening or private view you are aware that your work is being looked at but I never feel a specific focus, it always feel much more like a social gathering - with a screening there is no getting away from the fact that the room of people are all watching your work simultaneously. It may take a little getting used to I I'm going to pursue film-making.
I did a short intro and was glad to be able to publicly thank the crew and participants. Immy was their with her friends and family entourage and I would have loved to get their take on it but didn't see them after. Since the photo has been in the Broadway brochure I've been asked if the girls in the film were chosen as they look a bit like me. I'm not sure really - I picked the best people for the film - the most interesting and the most articulate or with that on screen unquantifiable factor (what Simon Cowell calls X factor).
I think there always is a wee bit of narcissism in any film making. I wanted to make a film about teenagers as my own adolescence was pretty turbulent. Throughout my teens my bedroom evolved to reflect what was happening in my life at the time providing a haven, venue and canvas to grow-up out of. There's a recurring theme of illness in the film with 3 of the subjects talking about periods of illness in their lives with Vikki telling the most extreme story (being bedbound with M.E. for 5 years). When I was 13 I was ill and off school for about a year. I think, looking back, that at the time I couldn't cope with the hormonal explosion I experienced with the onset of adolescence. I needed to 'hibernate' and gather my thoughts for a while as I think many other teenagers do. All of the people who ended up in the film appealed to me as they reflected some of the things I'd gone through in my life.
Up North - generic house on my street
One of the things adding to the emotional overload was that my Mum couldn't be at the screening as she was in hospital having had breast reconstruction surgery the day before - she had breast cancer last year. My Dad and brother came for the evening and it was all very emotionally charged. I went home the week before to see her and do a bit more filming; I've been filming her on and off throughout her recovery.
A visit home was accompanied by the traditional trip to the Sportsmans with my old friends from school and art college. Consequently I had one of the worst hangovers of my life, just right for a meeting at MIMA.
I'm not too old for this yet but it certainly hurts a lot more than it used to in my twenties.
Phillip Henderson Divination:Balls
Went to Sideshow event Divination:Balls by Phillip Henderson at Bromley House Library, Nottingham. The brochure blurb (which I got to know intimately when I designed the brochure) states: "Mr. Henderson will release 360 table tennis balls down a spiral staircase in an awful cascading cacophony of ticking and clicking. Billions of tiny rapid explosions promise to enchant and delight."
I dragged Sheil and Betsy along as I'd met Phil at the opening of the British Art Show and he seemed like a lovely fellow. The venue is a private subscription library and is a bit of a hidden gem. The rooms are suitably atmospheric and there is a feeling very much of another world with idiosyncratic filing systems and lace ledgers in a hand written book for overdue books. The start of the event was delayed while the librarian took all visitors on a tour of the building. Normally I would have welcomed this but with a restless 2 year old in tow it was becoming more difficult to prevent Betsy from running riot among the antiques while we waiting for things to start. Finally after nearly 30 mins, Phillip climbed the staircase and the anticipation in the gathered crowd was palpable. We were all asked to remain quiet during the event and we waited. Phillip then opened his small suitcase and let 360 balls crash down the stairs. It was over so quickly I didn't get a shot and the noise was broken by a pensioner saying loudly "is that it" and Betsy shouting "Balls, Balls, Balls, Balls, Balls". It pretty much summed it up - Sheil muttered something about it being Betsy's review and we trailed out to view the lovely gardens. I really wanted to like it as he was such a nice man. Maybe if he'd had about 10,000 balls it would have been really impressive - like the Peugeot advert out at the moment and I imagine that the photos of the split frame will look amazing but as a live event I wasn't quite sure why we needed to be there.
Bromley House Library
posted by Jeanie Tuesday, May 16, 2006 | 0 comments
Monday, May 08, 2006
Deal or No Deal?
In the days when I'm not making films or exhibitions then I occasionally am a design whore, doing sites and print for cash. Great news today is that the web-based annaul report I did for NCHA (Nottingham Community Housing Association) has won Best website for charity/ local government/ not for profit organisation in the annual CIB awards. Hurrah, wonder if I'll get a glass thing for my mantlepiece to go with my ballet and swimming certificates.
posted by Jeanie Monday, May 08, 2006 | 0 comments
How am I supposed to get any work done when there are ridiculous time-wasting games this like this out on the web, brilliant Deal or No Deal
posted by Jeanie Monday, May 08, 2006 | 0 comments