DEATH, ART AND BUTTERFLIES

“Mother and Child Divided”

‘It’s amazing what you can do with an E in A-Level art, a twisted imagination and a chainsaw.’ – Damien Hirst acceptance speech after winning the Turner Prize 1995.

In Channel 4′s entertaining documentary about Hirst’s current retrospective at London’s Tate Modern the controversial artist looked disconcertingly like Phil Collins and was keen to show that he’s still an ordinary diamond geezer.

His obsession with death is obvious from his works although he revealed that he has never seen a dead body of anybody he was close to.

Presenter Noel Fielding established to no great surprise that Hirst does not believe in God but holds that “all art is about immortality” and he said “my belief in art is religious”.

He has moved on from dead sharks, sheep and cows and currently favours butterflies which symbolise hope because they look alive even when they’re dead.

TEN REASONS TO (STILL) BE CHEERFUL

Today I am 54. Instead of allowing myself to be burdened by birthday blues, I decided to make a list of ten things that give me reason to smile today.

My own glass is half full because :

TOUCH WOOD, MY HEALTH IS GOOD
This is something I never take for granted. Having passed the half century mark four years back I am all too aware of the ageing process and, being fearful of middle age spread , I exercise regularly, eat sensibly and drink moderately. In consequence I feel in better shape than I did 20 years ago.

I’M STILL A MUSIC JUNKIE 
Up until his untimely death at the age of 60, John Peel always said that he remained as massive a fan of new music as when he was in his teens. I feel the same way. The limitless availability on the net and the CDs I get to review help fuel an insatiable passion that I’m sure will never wane.

PISSING UP THE WRONG TREE

THE WICKER TREE written and directed by Robin Hardy (UK, 2011)

 The Wicker Man is justifiably regarded as one of the best UK films ever made and was number one in my list of of best British cult movies.

The memorable ending can’t have had many viewers wondering what happened next. The finale was certainly conclusive enough for Police Sergeant Neil Howie (Edward Woodward) and probably the only unanswered question was whether the human sacrifice achieved the objective of reviving the harvests for the Pagan community.

Director Robin Hardy must however have felt there was some unfinished business. He wrote a novel on similar themes in 2006 called Cowboys For Christ and The Wicker Tree is the misguided movie version of this story.

It is actually is billed as a ‘spiritual sequel’ and Hardy is keen for it to be regarded as a black comedy and not a horror movie. A turkey is the most accurate label I can think of.

2011 IN REVIEW : BLOGGING

I DID IT!!  I signed up for the WordPress Postaday challenge and with this post I have achieved this goal. Congratulations to me!

I originally signed up for the daily post prompts from WordPress but quickly found these more irritating than helpful. I didn’t like them because the assumption seemed to be that blog posts are always somewhere between personal diary entries, motivational messages and confessionals. This is not why I blog.

I disliked these for the same reason I don’t like the new sidebar setting me a new blogging target every time I make a post. I prefer to feel free to post what I want; to invent my own prompts and set my own goals.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

MERRY CHRISTMAS  to bloggers and non-bloggers everywhere

Image courtesy of The Friendly Atheist.