This more biblical photo was taken over the village at the same time by villager Jo
Empire Of Light
Cinema that acts as a panacea to all of the ills in life is a common theme in movie history.
Cinema Paradiso, Amelie, The Last Picture Show and more recently The Fabelmans all feature characters that are “saved” by the fantasy of film. Indeed it is a common theme that runs through Going Gently where a sometimes sad, middle aged gay pongo retreats to the warm land safe place of his childhood when disasters were all overcome by handsome men in dinner jackets and spunky ladies in their best frocks.
Empire of Light is Sam Mendes’ homage to the cinematic wonder of his youth. Set in 1980, we enter the world of the Empire cinema on the South East Coast . Although streamlined from its original four screens this beautiful and slightly down heeled Art Deco building is hanging on in a “ modern “ world and ran by a ragtag group of staff. Headed by a sleazy Manager Mr Ellis ( Colin Firth). We meet the mousy and lonely deputy Hilary ( Olivia Colman),wise cracking and gentle doorman Neil ( Tom Brooke) and grumpy geek projectionist Norman ( an underused Toby Jones). When a twenty something black undergraduate Stephen ( a lovely performance by Michael Ward) joins the staff. The lonely Hilary and he embarks on a friendship and then an affair which is complicated by his youth, her hidden mental illness and the racist overtones of that pivotal time.
Empire of Light is a coming of age movie with twists. Colman is wonderful as always, whether it is in the bravura and very funny scenes where her mental illness finally is unleashed on a pompous charity showing of Chariots Of Fire or in the quiet and painful moments when she is silenced and slightly vacant by her lithium medications and sat on the Promenade in Broadstairs.
Michael Ward has a gentleness and more importantly an openness of a young man who is just dipping his toe into life and who wants to do so righteously.and Tom Brooke in a brief role is very sympathetic as Hilary’s caring and insightful co worker.
Filmed predominantly and with feeling by Roger Deakins in Margate’s Dreamland and Broadstairs ( both towns I know well) Empire Of Light has a particular charm and a nice sense of time and place.
I enjoyed it, even if it was a tad too long and the one scene where Stephen’s Mother ( A dignified Tanya Moodie )reminded him to be “Kind” with Hillary and her illness had me weeping into my sleeve.
Lovely
Nothing Changes
The Last of Us starts tonight on sky Atlantic
A tv series based on a video game is about the zombie apocalypse…quelle surprise!
Nothing much changes.
I shall be watching.
I see Carrie Bradshaw is dating good old Aiden In Sex and City’s And Just Like That…. Prince Harry is still banging on in Spare about how bad his lot is..
I’m still reading it , and am now rather bored…can’t you tell?
Days off now. A cinema trip to see Empire Of Light , college, The Lesbian and Gay book club, supper at Gorgeous Dave’s. It’s a full week, before night shift again on Saturday
Nothing much changes.
I made a chick pea and coconut curry yesterday from scratch, it was nice.
I had extra door keys cut for Trendy Carol and I sent the Beatrix Potter book to my great nephew.
The weather is cold and damp
And I long for some sun
A Walk Around The Village
I checked my landline answerphone yesterday .
Eight messages since New Year’s Eve
I never use the phone now except when I call Nigel .
His home phone blocks incoming mobile calls
Four silent entries, 2 spam, and one from covid help line about my fourth jab.
The final message was a passive aggressive message from Mrs Davies in the village asking if I was alive or not . She said she had not seen me in months and wished me happy new year.
She’s lonely and had probably fallen out with her son again , so I harnessed Mary and called round to say hello.
Luckily she was out , so I left a note saying hello and apologising for my absence stating I will work full time ( with college)
I doubt I’ll be forgiven
It was cold and blustery, but the weather did us both good and we had a proper mooch around the village, something I haven’t done in a good while, not with Dorothy hating a walk near the main road. We walked around Bron Haul and I waved at Marion who still delights to share how her gay grandson is doing. No one else was about until we got to High Street where I spied Jo with her three whippets disappearing into her driveway. One of her dogs only has three legs but I never can tell when they are all together.
We could go up High Street towards the “ posh Houses” on the side of the Gop but as it has started to rain Mary led me into Maes Offa , and down into Byron Street where I spied Mrs Trellis busy polishing her windows from the inside. The lights were on at affable Jason’s neat little house too, but I couldn’t see anyone to wave at through the small symmetrical windows.
We walked past the dark lMemorial Hall as it rained harder and Mary stopped briefly to give me a look.
We then crossed the road into Well Street which looked deserted.
The cheerful Manleys, Velvet voiced Linda with Nick, Bridget and Boffin Cameron all live nearby but again we saw now one when we gave the Pond a once over.
It looks splendid with its new little jetty and sympathetic planting even in the bad weather.
Mary had a wee next to the well, which reminded me that we need to look at an official opening day
I have so much to do
Why don’t I ever feel as though I’ve got enough time?
Answers on a postcard please?
We walked back towards home, and Mary quickened her pace, half closing her eyes in the rain
Wendy from Rhoda Arthur waved from her car as did Della driving back from Pen y Cefn Isa
We stopped briefly to shelter under the Church Lytchgate.
It looks bare as the massive wrought iron gates still have not been returned from being repaired
I reminded myself to ask about them when I saw Islwyn next.
Before we left for the cottage and the fire
I checked on my laburnum , now stripped of its leaves but remaining healthy and strong.
The rain lashed down from the West just after we got home so hard that I had to put a sock in the letterbox to stop the draught bursting into the living room.
Saturday Morning
Slightly less blustery today. For days you could see the white waves whipping the sea from five miles inland and Trelawnyd seemed to have hunkered down against the Gop as one dark day merged into another.
I’ve started Prince Harry’s “ Spare” and minutes into it, you know you are are listening to a damaged soul, so much so that I’ve stopped reading it today. I will catch up with it in a day or so .
So it’s a non Saturday. Work later. Sleep in the afternoon.
I’ve put on Classic Fm , but only very quietly.
I can still hear the wind in the graveyard trees and the tick of the kitchen clock.
I had a Chinese life reading the other day
Thanks to my Friends in Korea.
I like dopamine fixes of sex and alcohol and I have a good voice with excellent expression and although I’m good at singing I have weak lungs …..( which it oddly true)
I have a pure heart and am attracted to people who will look after me
“the clear water cannot sustain fish” means I am straight talking and popular but people may be jealous of me and will scratch my personality …go figure…..there were pages of reflections and thoughts all pretty accurate I must say
It also underlined the need for routine, which I get…….totally
It was incredibly interesting and indeed hopeful …2023 may feel more positive
I will leave you with two videos both fascinating and both incredibly moving in different ways
Dim,Dim, Sweet but Dim
I think it’s time for a Roger update, given the fact he’s now been with me six months now.
He is 18 months old and not a puppy anymore.
I snort….yeah right!
There is no hiding the fact that Roger remains dim. Even with the girls providing the ideal role model, he still has not mastered the art of jumping into Bluebell for his morning walk and stands clumsily on the sill waiting to be helped.
Getting out of the car is easier, as all you have to do is pull his lead and hope for the best, but even then, that is a bit of lottery of how he in fact lands. He’s no cat after all.
The cottage stairs he has mastered, and to be fair he makes a rather good job of them once he gets his legs going.
It’s a bit of a “hurl himself hopefully at them” sort of thing but it works…..eventually.
Like William before him , he is a gentle dog. I’ve not seen him chase bees but he’s a big leaf kicker and skips in this autumn like a little boy does in short wellingtons.
Uncoordinated but delightfully gauche.
Since everyone’s hormones have settled, his resting relationship with Dorothy is somewhat non plussed .
He and Mary will play together and Albert is gently tortured until his temper snaps and claws are shown, but for a lot of the time Roger is on guard.
He patrols the house and the garden with rigorous efficiency being careful to bark his gentle bark at anything new.
He is friendly with other dogs but is too quick to say hello and has yet to learn manners with a more dominant male. He smiles with his eyes and trusts everyone he meets and in the evenings will curl up on the back of the sofa next to Albert and place his head gently onto my shoulder
In short, he is a delightful dog
Sleeping on my shoulder
"Standing at the Sky's Edge" Crucible Theatre set
This short drone movie , moved me so very much tonight.
It was sent to me by a dear friend who I worked with on Spinal Injuries with the note
“ this will make you cry”
And it did
And it sort of captured the pride I have for a city I no longer live in , but which I adore so very much.
I had a lovely time touching base with old friends yesterday and this afternoon.
Tea and cake in Kathryn’s cosy front room with Vince just as sweet as sitting smiling at John H holding court with me and Mike in All Bar One and Jane running through the sodden Sheffield streets with our umbrella giving up the ghost.
Standing At The Sky’s Edge
I’m in Mark’s having a coffee.
Just enough time for a sausage ciabatta and a blog before I meet the others.
Standing At The Sky Edge is a lovely Sheffield own musical. cleverly staged and impeccably acted it explores three generations in the history of one of the Hyde Park Flats In Sheffield. A listed building built in the 1950s as a “streets in the sky” panacea to slum clearance .
And so we meet 1960s young couple Harry & Rose . She a loyal housewife , he an idealist foreman in the steel industry, they move and laugh and love in their flat in the sky alongside an 1980s Liberian immigrant family and 2017 Poppy an unhappy lesbian from London in search of a new life in the recently upgraded and trendy housing complex. The three stories unwind on stage together and it takes some very clever choreography to keep the action going and storylines precise and clear but Richard Hawley and Chris Ode for the most part carry the whole thing off admirably .
Of course the in jokes were lapped up by the packed Sheffield audience
A character brings a bottle of Henderson’s relish as a housewarming gift, the spicy contents loved by the Liberian family who think all English food is not seasoned enough whilst another character slags off Leeds to cheers from the audience, all jokes being lost if the production shifts to London.
I did enjoy it, and was incredibly moved at some of the visuals and memories it evoked. The story of regeneration, hope and positivism balancing the real backstories of urban decay , poverty and misguided local government decisions .
The ensemble cast were wonderful
They even managed to bring in the prop of the I love You Sky Bridge which didn’t leave a dry eye in the house when it appeared
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