Animated Discussions: "The Congress" by Ari Folman

Just watched The Congress on DVD - a combination live action/animation film. Now I couldn't find it in the shop under "Animation"... but I did find it under "Sci-fi". And that sci-fi hating Old Man did watch it. Mainly because it is another film from Ari Folman whose full animation "Waltz with Bashir"  (based on memories of his own and of friends who were soldiers in the Israeli army at the time of the Shatila Massacre).....he do like.

The Congress stars Robin Wright... as Robin Wright, a middle-aged film star facing the choice of accepting her final contract... to be digitally scanned and become the property of the film company. She must not act or perform in any way for the duration of the 20 year contract, because the film company Miramount owns the character Robin Wright. She finds this an outrageous offer but her son is ill... and as an "aging" Hollywood property she has no prospect of work. What follows is a long exploration of identity, choice, reality, fantasy not to mention the Hollywood machine.
I found it a quite difficult but fantastic film. It is layered with allusions... even the animated sequences refer to different animation styles, including my favourite Japanese master, Miyazaki. Towards the end the film reminded me of "Solaris"... the Tarkovsky version... it had the same flavour of psychological journey. Then when the credits went up I saw that it was based on The Futurological Congress by Stanislaw Lem, the author of the originating novel of Solaris. Which sends The Old Man scurrying to his bookshelves to see if he has it.... cos he do like Lem. But No. Have to get on the internet and see what we can find.

For me The Congress is a feast of a film which left me pondering for some time afterward.

Greenpeace's Coastal Champion Tour Sets Off From Porthleven

The Old Man and I do go to Porthleven on Saturday to see Greenpeace launch (absolutely) their Coastal Champions Tour from Porthleven. Rather grey and brisk weather but people cheered when the boat hit the harbour water and plenty of kids were face-painted.

Local Lib Dem MP Andrew George was there to speak as were Green candidate Tim Andrewes and Labour candidate Cornelius Olivier. No sign of Tory or Ukip candidates... of course... nor of Mebyon Kernow candidate...
(Edit: Rob Simmons -Mebyon Kernow candidate- couldn't make it. See his comment below)
.... Nor of the MP for Camborne & Redruth - George Eustice - our current Fisheries Minister.

Andrew George does get out and about and pushes forward with his own campaigns and issues. You may have seen him ploughing his lonely furrow with his Private Members Bill on Affordable Housing on Michael Cockerell's BBC2 series "Inside the Commons"... being filibustered and harangued in the charming manner of this great institution.
Anyway Saturday was the start of the Greenpeace Tour taking their fishing boat Rising Tide to various ports around the country raising awareness of theirs and NUTFA's campaign to get politicians to sign up to keeping local fishing viable and sustainable.

Vinyl Struck: Listening To Robert Wyatt On Cork

I do love my vinyl playing set-up now that it is in place. The only change I have made, after a few playing attempts, is to order up a replacement mat. The deck comes with a thin felt mat which seems to increase static. Fluff and stuff fly to the record surface. And like some escalating slapstick scene .... when I lift up the record to change it, the mat sticks and tries to come along for the ride. As I try to sort that out... the rubber band what keeps the whole thing turning falls off. And we all do know what a trial it is when your rubber band falls off.
My solution is to buy a cork mat, a "Cork It" in fact. Bliss. No more fluff and static... and it do sound better also I think.

So I  catch up on LPs I haven't played for decades.....
....and my "new" treat.... which is "Rock Bottom" by Robert Wyatt... a layered dreamy thing, full of some kind of jazz and including an appearance from my favourite and late Scottish poet, Ivor Cutler.

The Old Man's Hair Stands On End: A Letter From George

Oh but The Old Man is furious today... and has been for several days. You see, we each get a letter from the Chancellor of the Exchequer. No. Really. From George himself. It do have a photo of him at the top of the page... freshly coiffed, smoothly skinned, straight off his 5:2 diet... and smiling at us.
This is because we are of a certain age. So he is writing to us about Pensioner Bonds. The Old Man explodes.... Is there a public list of pension age people? Has George used government money to compile the target list? How much does that cost? Huff-puff.
Me? Golly I have not received a letter from a minister before ...  about my taxes... my health.... my education... whatever. It's very flattering isn't it. It's a wonder he do have the time to write to little old me.
Does he think it make me vote for him?

Vinyl Crazy

So it's not just The Old Man that is crazy for that black vinyl. It's me now. And I do mean the stuff that's flat and round and revolves at 33 rpm.
Cos we do go into Falmouth and the lovely Jam Records and I really just want to get downstairs where the records live... I just can't concentrate on the CD racks no more.

And I do go down stairs and stagger back with not one but two albums. Jazz... jazz... jazz. Thelonious Monk is my man these days.... and Monk's Dream has been remastered and re-released on 180gm vinyl.
And I also go out on a limb with a very early The Jazz Epistles  with Hugh Masekela  - "Verse 1", similarly re-released on vinyl. Indeed this is so early that The Old Man do pull a face and make cutting remarks.
But I don't care.

Animated Goings On: Who Is This?

I mean, WHO is this now?
You know....I have a nasty feeling that this is Mrs D's dear departed mother.

I think this is taking animating ambition too far....not to mention nepotism.
I mean it isn't even Halloween.

Walking By Copperhouse Pool

Shaken by our morning visit to my old "home town" the other day (previous post). We accelerated away from it all and drove into Hayle, another town being "revitalised". A huge new Asda store removes our bearings... but at least the powers-that-be are repairing the rail viaduct that crosses a main square and has looked ominous for some time.
We find Philps for a pasty each and drive sedately along King George V Memorial Walk, parking up at the other end in a small space still available... for now.

The estuary tide in Copperhouse Pool is low.... a lot of mud... which means waders. On the way I spot shelduck. Out of the car we start to walk back along the Memorial Walk. First up is a flock of lapwings quietly settled on the flats. I see the elegant titfer crests and hear the occasional pipe. Now and then one rises up with that floppy-winged flight... broad ended wings.


My favourite comes a bit further along in the walk... The big guy with his down-curved beak. The curlew. And yes.... he do call as he comes in to land. I love that sound.
Elsewhere.... Redshank, Greenshank, Wigeon.... And lots of dogs chasing balls and stuff. Can hear a thrush.
Wuff.... Just what I need after the grim concrete of Carbis Bay.

PS. Hello friend looking to return to Cornwall.... I take back what I said about Hayle.... for now.

Monday: A Visit to My Old Seaside Home

The sun shines and the cold wind drops. At last I start to unwrap layers of clothing. Time to get out there before us older people do lose the use of our legs.
Struck dumb by a property advert for a flat (£395,000 Edit: £369,000) in the tiny crescent of sea-facing bungalows where I lived whilst a schoolgirl... we strike out to gawp at it.

Carbis Bay is next to St Ives and was a holiday resort of a genteel kind since Edwardian days. Shortly after we moved there in the early 1960s, the cauliflower fields (oops! "Broccoli fields" in Cornwall) between our bungalows and the main road started to be replaced by housing. Still, I never imagined that our outskirt settlement of St.Ives would have developed its own Tesco superstore... which it did, quite some time ago. Let alone ... until this morning... what an apartment-stuffed, suburb of St. Ives my old "home town" would become.

The building with the £395,000 (Edit: £369,000) flat stands on a corner plot of our tiny crescent. Admittedly it looks like a large house rather than an apartment block. Our old bungalow is still there... flanked by other survivors. Its name has been changed to protect its dowdy dignity... made dowdier by Mum's flowers and shrubs, patiently reared from purloined cuttings, having been replaced by a layer of concrete.
A lot of the surrounding buildings... the seaside hotels for instance... have been demolished and re-instituted as.... "blocks of luxury apartments". The area is unrecognisable and actually...... unbelievable.  Does this mean that these plots.... once long-term businesses.... are now prime second/holiday homes? I suppose so. The fact that the immediate approach into St Ives itself has become a terraced pile of towering hotel/apartment complexes says enough. Just try Googling "St. Ives development" to get an idea of the ongoing race. And there are articles about St. Ives' attempts to control it all.. like this one in the Guardian Nov 2014....

Alright, already, I am not a St Ives fan but I am sad about this .... and when guests say they think they will pop along to St Ives and the Tate St. Ives? My eyes roll up into my head. Give me a bucket.