Love, Poetry and Revolution - Saturday 18th February 2023

My Saturday started in the usual way with shopping.  I had a good chat with one of the women who works on the bread stall.  She has an autistic young son and we often talk about him and life in general. Visiting the 'Bread Girls' stall is often a high spot of my shopping trip.

Household chores never end do they? That's enough on that subject. 

Despite the above, I managed to read both the Guardian and Times on Saturday (or at least the parts I want to read).

Over lunch I finally got around to watching the BBC 1 documentary 'Emily Atack: Asking For It?', and I am glad I did.  It was eye opening and something I'd like all three of my sons to watch, though I'm fairly sure they are already aware and behave properly. The documentary also features a very brief clip of Q's daughter who filmed something for the programme.  As a complete aside, I was surprised to see Seann Walsh in out.

For my 'Ulysses For All' course I am reading episode 3, 'Proteus', this wee'  It starts with one of my favourite lines: 'Ineluctable modality of the visible', and begins an interior monologue of Stephen Dedalus as he walks along the beach at Sandymount. Stephen muses on philosophy, especially Aristotle (who always reminds me of Monty Python), making this one of the more difficult chapters of the book. I'm going to have to read up on Aristotle, to fully make sense of some of the Stephen's thoughts.  When I first read 'Ulysses' in my early 20s, post-university (where I discovered the pleasures of literature by way of Ian McEwan's, at times sexy, short stories), I fancied myself as a kind of Stephen Dedalus, though nothing like as clever, and felt he was the hero of the novel.  As an adult who's experienced the highs and lows of life, I realise now that Leopold Bloom is the hero, a man who's experienced life, has flaws, but has love for life and humanity. The world would be a better place if we were all more like Bloom.

Sons 1 and 2 are going to a club in London tonight to celebrate a friend's birthday.  They are coming back in a pre-hired minibus, and won't be back until 5 or 6 am, I imagine.

Son 1, his gf and I eat dinner together and they head off to join up with the others in town, leaving me to my own devices.  

I had a chat with my Berlin correspondent (friend) on Friday and he reminded me, if not implored me, to watch 'Don't Look Up', a movie that stars Leonardo Di Caprio (in an unrealistic role, as he has an affair with Cate Blanchett, who is a similar age to him), Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lawrence, amongst others.  The film is a parody on the USA, a recent President (played by Meryl Streep, which avoids lawsuits), social media, and the alt-right, amongst other things.  It is both frighteningly realistic and funny at the same time.  It ends as it should (both endings).

I watched the film in two parts as I had a long chat with Q before returning to finish watching it. 

Distance, distance. Damn it.

When I finally headed for bed I returned to 'Proteus' to have my mind blown, falling asleep to the audio book of what I'd just read.

Sonic Youth / 'Bull In The Heather' / 'Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star'

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