ARTISTS TALKING

# 122 [2 June 2010]

My new flat is around the corner from the derelict irnmongers Martin & Newby that for a time housed in it's lavatory the world's oldest light bulb which burnt for 109 years.

# 121 [26 May 2010]

I've just bought a Reader's Digest Atlas on eBay. It was one of the things I used to look at in my father's study. I would look at the photographs of the rocks and minerals on black velvet backgrounds. Topaz on silk reminsiscent of a net gown worn by Princess Margaret on the beaches of Mustique, or an amethyst concertina babydoll in Liz Taylor's mirrored wardrobe.

Back to the drab vegan dinners of the kitchen in my Liverpool house: The Overstrand, The Esplanade.

I am not sure I have bought the right edition of the Atlas.It is being posted to me at the moment. 

':-) Never done it before, but I've just been into paypal and requested a payment of £13.50 which (apparently) they will request from you. Once you've paid it let me know (they may - I'm not sure) & I'll mark it as paid and post to you. I hope you get a lot of use from the book, it was my sons, he was killed in an accident 9½ years ago aged 24. :-('

# 120 [30 April 2010]

Brighton pavillion was built for the Prince Regent so that he could dip his gouty foot into the sea and get pissed on gin in the garden.  During the First World war the pavilion was again used for recuperation and served as a military hospital for Indian Corps troops The Sikh and Hindu soldiers who died were cremated on the Downs to the north of Brighton. The Muslim fatalities were buried in a specially constructed cemetery in Woking, Surrey: at this time, Woking contained the only purpose-built Mosque in England. Although the Indian Military Hospital closed in early 1916, it reopened as a military hospital for limbless British soldiers. It did not return to civic ownership until 1920.

# 119 [22 March 2010]

Mag and Bet helped me to play Bingo. I sat on a table with them. Bet had a 'Take a Break' magazine and they had their own camping cutlery that they had brought with them.

Mag filled my bonus bingo sheet in for me. I felt like I did when I was little, surrounded by sisters on a kitchen table. Mag and Bet had a gentle intimacy that suggested to me that they were sisters, adn indeed they were. Bet had been married for 52 years, Mag for 51. They said they were terrified at the thought of them dying.

Bet told me her daughter in law caught German Measles when she was pregnant and that both she and the baby died.

I thought of Susan Sontag and her comments about an illness being foreign, Spanish Flu, English Flu (in other countries). I wondered how German Measles came about German Measles came about a s a title. German Ocean a much more lovely name than North Sea. Alsation more poetic than German Shephard?

# 118 [1 March 2010]

Shackleton's expedition sailed from Cape Royds hurriedly in 1909 as winter ice began forming in the sea, forcing them to leave some equipment and supplies, including the whisky, behind. However, no lives were lost.

Shackleton's whisky recovered from South Pole ice

The crates of whisky were found under a hut built and used by Shackleton

They were buried beneath Shackleton's Antarctic hut, built in 1908 for a failed expedition to the South Pole.

The ice-bound crates were first discovered three years ago.

The master blender at whisky company Whyte and Mackay said the find was a "gift from the heavens" for whisky lovers.

Richard Paterson, whose firm supplied the Mackinlay's whisky for Shackleton, said: "If the contents can be confirmed, safely extracted and analysed, the original blend may be able to be replicated.

"Given the original recipe no longer exists this may open a door into history."

Al Fastier from the trust said: "To our amazement we found five crates, three labelled as containing whisky and two labelled as containing brandy.

"The unexpected find of the brandy crates, one labelled Chas Mackinlay & Co and the other labelled The Hunter Valley Distillery Limited, Allandale, are a real bonus."

The smell of whisky in the surrounding ice also indicated full bottles of spirits were inside, albeit that one or more might have broken.

# 117 [1 March 2010]

The other night I watched The Conversation. I got hold of the film by asking the lovely, shy man in Video Heaven if he knew what I meant when I described a film where blood floats out of the toilet.

In the film I notice that Gene Hackman spells his name out and it is Harry Caul. I wonder out loud if it's Coppola being ironic as Harry is monosyllabic and those born with a caul on their heads are meant to be great orators.

I look up the connection and Professor Fred Westman of Illinnois has already made the connection and lectured his students on it.

The jelly mac Harry Caul wears are embryonic, the description he makes about slipping down into the bath and regaining consciousness greased all over in holy water-are indications of his ability to resist drowning. Cauls were solf for high prices to sailors who would be immune from drowning if they wore it on them at all times. It was a perk of a Medieval midwife, to smuggle a caul.

One in a thousand are now born with a caul and most parents don't realise as the doctor/midwife ussually punctures and bins the evidence.

Liberace, King Zog, Freud and Freud's 'Wolfman' were all born with cauls.

# 116 [1 March 2010]

A few years ago I saw a beautiful picture in my friend Mark's gardening book. I thought then that it was the pencil trace of Tolstoy's profile after death.

# 115 [1 March 2010]

Anything to declare, ma'am? … Yes, this live, wriggling jewel-encrusted pet beetle brooch … Sorry ma'am, you don't have the right paperwork, you need a PPQ form 526

It was an unlikely fashion accessory but the arrival of a jewel-encrusted beetle at a US border post certainly bugged customs officers.

A woman crossing from Mexico at Brownsville, Texas, declared the live insect decorated with blue and gold as she drove up to enter the state but she did not have the right paperwork.

Pest control measures meant officers promptly confiscated the item worn as a brooch on the traveller's sweater and sent it for further inspection. The beetle was attached to the woman's clothing by a gold chain and safety pin.

The story of how the six-legged fashion victim was intercepted came in a press release and video from US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), part of the security machine responsible for protecting the country from terrorists and a body more used to trumpeting the seizure of cocaine, marijuana, hidden cash or fugitives from justice.

"CBP officers seized the decorative clothing accessory and sent the live beetle to the Plant Inspection Station at Los Indios International Bridge for further identification. Because the traveller declared the insect no monetary civil penalty was issued," the official account declared.

"Moving live plant pests in any form, including pets, imported into or exported from the United States must be declared to CBP on PPQ form 526 declaration for importation or exportation, must be properly labelled and packaged prior to release by CBP."

Animal rights campaigners were less forgiving, reported the south Texan newspaper The Monitor.. Jaime Zalac, for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals,said: "Beetles may not be as cute and cuddly as puppies and kittens, but they have the same capacity to feel pain and suffer. It's ironic. We spend hours each week helping kind people find humane ways to relocate lost insects such as ants, bees and roaches that wander into their homes. People feel so good about not hurting them, while this woman paid someone to mutilate them."

Beetle species have proved popular subjects for jewellery for centuries and attaching it to live beetles is apparently not uncommon in Mexico. Jackie Kennedy is said to have been given one with emeralds.

# 114 [2 February 2010]

John the life model sits still for 3/4 of an hour examining the pipes with his engineering eye.

John got a his uncles medal form the war office last week.

When John was 14 he travelled by coach to the Dutch boarder where he stayed with the head of the Dutch resistance.

Eating cold ham, homegrown broad beans and new potatoes  in the garden. John's host remarked that his uncle had been buried in the garden.

Before John left the hosts wife asked John's parents to sign the tablecloth. Later she embroidered the names into the cloth. This she did for everyone who had come to stay and visit the graves.

# 113 [30 January 2010]

The studio is cold and bright today. I feel fuzzy in the head. The skip has gone and I still seem to be surrounded by a deep litter of clothes and embroidery thread, Haiti auction letters, brown tape, hot chocolate mugs, books that half interest me, and the mouses bed.

coldtonguecoldhamcoldbeefpickledgherkinssaladfrenchrolls
cresssandwidgespottedmeatgingerbeerlemonadesodawater

Sooty bird has a girlfriend and I realise that his last two mates were boyfriends. Snowybird sits still on the top rung of the ladder and fades into the whitewashed wall. Sootybird has been plumping up the cushions in his nest.

The Pig (cat) has gone quiet, fat and depressed.

The lavatory has blocked again. Every time I come back, the water is rising and the tank is dripping.

An old student told me he was on the toilet when the bomb dropped and smashed the school windows out. I blame him for the blockage.