Dragons and Woody Allen

Visited the Natural History Museum by Central Park to see an exhibition for creatures that have never existed. Mythic creatures such as the Kraken, unicorn and dragon are covered along with lesser known creatures such as the mermaid water goddess Mater Wata and the giant eagle Roc. The exhibition is interesting but like most things in the US it feels like a lot of style over substance. I wanted more information, more history, more ideas but all I got was a lot of pretty pictures. It also feels as if the curators are laughing at the ideas rather than understanding and expressing the social and mythical meaning of such beasts.
Back down to the village after with a trip up and down Bleeker St. looking for a comic shop that seems to have vanished. But I did stumble across a club, The Bitter End, which is one of the places Woody Allen started out back in the early 1960s.

After lunch in a bar we end up down town and pass by Ground Zero. It’s still a big hole in the ground, though building has started on the skyscrapers that will replace the lost twin towers. It’s a poignant reminder of the world we now live in, a world of our own creation.

Brooklyn is Not Expanding

The Edinburgh Festival is now in full swing and I have been fortunate enough to visit a couple of excellent pieces this weekend in the company of Madame Vin and Van the Man who was visiting from that Midlands metropolis, Nottingham.

Natasha Wood: Rolling with Laughter - I'm always wary about seeing or reading something by a friend. What happens if I don't like it or think it ill conceived? How do you hide your initial thoughts and come up with something true but non-inflammable? Fortunately I don't have to do this with Tash's play because it is excellent. It was well written, displaying both great wit and deep pathos, it zipped along as fast as Tash in her wheelchair and not once did it fall foul of political correctness.
Most people when faced with a character as forthright as Tash often clam up, unsure about how to react or whether they should even laugh along with the jokes, but the audience at 'Rolling...' soon felt comfortable enough to guffaw, chuckle and dare I saw splutter saliva on the bald man sitting on the front row.

Simon Amstell: No self - Amstell is known better to me as 'that guy with the big hair off 'Never Mind the Buzzcocks'', but he is also a successful comedian in his own right. This is gentle humour, not eyes watering but enough charm, wit and intelligence to last the hour without any embarrassing silences. His humour is based around the basic philosophical questions of the self and what a selfish society we have become.

*****

"I am greatly relieved that universe is finally explainable. I was beginning to think it was me." WA - Mere Anarchy

"I awoke on Friday, and because the universe is expanding it took me longer than normal to find my robe."
WA - Mere Anarchy

I've been reading the new Woody Allen collection 'Mere Anarchy', his first new collection in 25 years. Now as any of you will know I am a huge Woody Allen fan - in fact the reason I write has probably more to do with him than any other influence. As a child growing up in a village in the Midlands I would squirrel myself away watching movies on a small portable TV and VHS video player I had installed in my bedroom. I love film...I lived for film but up to that point I only ever watched Hollywood movies. Then my Mum introduced me to WA films and I fell in love. For the first time I realised it was possible to be funny and entertaining but also clever and intelligent and a little bit different. WA's film spoke about writers, literature, European films, art - and I wanted to know about all of them. Through WA's work I begin to read and eventually to write.
That said his new work is (and I hate having to say this) okay...that's it...it's just alright. Like his last set of films there are some amusing bits, some clever ideas and one or two laugh out loud lines but nothing that has blown me away. Perhaps I've changed, perhaps WA has changed, after all I've been watching and reading his work for 20 years and he's been creating for nearly 50 years. You can't expect every piece of work to be amazing so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. I still think he's a genius and one of the best film makers I'm ever likely to experience.

Read this week:
Mere Anarchy by woody Allen

Who watches the Watch Men?

I’ve just finished reading ‘Watchmen’. This is one of those comic books that I’ve been meaning to read for some time but I kept getting put off by the fact the industry considers it a mile stone, a totem of the adult comic book world. I was worried that I’d read it and not be able to work out what all the fuss has been about. I don’t like things being built up. The moment someone says this book, film, play is the best they have ever seen I know that I’m now going to be bitterly disappointed. They have taken away the magic of discovery for me, and a piece of work that I might have watched and thought of as good, now becomes simply okay.

The best pieces of work are those that I discover for myself. I can still remember the first time I sat in the cinema as saw a re-run of Cinema Paradiso, the first time I watched Casablanca on a wet Saturday afternoon, unaware that it was considered a masterpiece. The first time I read The Great Gatsby with its magical last lines and the first time I heard Gershwin accompanied by those great black and white scene’s of Woody Allen’s.

However I digress…

‘Watchmen’ is clever. It takes something of the infantile comic book staple ‘the masked hero’, and shows them with all their failings, hang-ups and personal problems. Too many hero’s, both on TV, in films and comics, seem to have few if any problems that would stop them from spending their days fighting crime, but what effect would this have on a person’s mental state. This, coupled with a super power, would turn these do gooders into gods, practically unstoppable and left to make snap decisions about what they considered right or wrong.

Another main issue is how society would cope with these heroes living among us. If we relied on these few heroes and then they fucked up, what would be the response? Would we place them above society’s normal values and concerns or would we ensure that they toed the line - that they conform to ‘normal’ society.

The book is slightly dated, rooted in the idea of the cold war and the east / west issue, but this distance helps to gain a perspective, though it would be interesting to see the book set in today’s celebrity, reality TV, ‘terrorist around ever corner’ obsessions.

Off out tonight to see a couple of authors (one of which is the writer of ‘Scar Night’) in discussion. Will report back soon with details.

Read this week: Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
The Killing Kind by John Connolly