13-11-2011
Considering it’s November it’s amazing just how mild the weather has been this week, bar Thursday when the temperatures dropped and the wind howled, but other than that it’s been T shirt weather, and few better places to be in such climes than the Fische on the riverbank. With the van now all done and legal again, thanks to Fred fitting all new brake drums, pads, and shoes on the old banger, we could crack on with the work on his houseboat.
One of the joys of working along the riverbank, is the ever changing vista, courtesy of the tidal flowing river, as well as the wildlife. Fred called me up on deck, calling, “Kingfisher”, so I sprinted up top in time to see this magnificently bright coloured bird sitting on the mooring ropes, it had a bright orangey red chest, and when it took off to investigate elsewhere, with its wings spread in flight, showing off its luminous green/turquoise back, you only had to look and admire. The area behind the houseboats is a wetland wildlife trust, so it has protected status, just imagine having that as your back door view.
The latest stage of work on the Fische has been the raising of the floor level amidships, to reduce the headroom and make the place easier to heat, as well as preparing it for the change around of the existing staircase, which currently descends forward, the idea is also designed to free up room forward of midships to increase the gig space for the occasional bands that they have come to play, and DJ mixing parties which Fred and Polly’s sons Jake and Toby host, but the deadline for everything at the mo is for Sam, their eldest boy, so they can host his fortieth birthday party in January.
I see in the papers recently that Tracey Emin, has had one of her pathetic scrawls chosen as a poster to advertise the 2012 Olympics. Apparently Emin was influenced by Billy Childish after a four year relationship with him, which is quite ironic, as the talentless woman has trotted out nothing but childish crap throughout her career of being a non artist, or I should say, con artist. Only someone who aspires to to wallow in the slag heap would want to emulate her ‘crapart’. Brit art ought to be called ‘shitart’, an embarrassment to the art world, and all those mugs who were taken in by the bullshit they called, ‘conceptual art’. At one point, she destroyed all her paintings from her early period, one of the paintings that survives from her time at Royal College of Art is, ‘Friendship’, and when you see it you may have a better understanding of why she burnt the rest. Charles Saatchi was a finacial patron of Britart, and bought her ‘Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963-1995’, which was basically a tent with names stitched on to the inside in letter squares, something like you might see at a childrens play group, but less interesting. Fortunately for Saatchi, a large part of his collection was destroyed in a warehouse fire in east London in 2004, before the world might wake up and recognise it all for the horse shit it was, or was it fortune? It wouldn’t be the first time someone has used an insurance claim to cover potential losses.
But while I’m clearly not a fan of Emin’s so called art, she does me no harm, the Olympics on the other hand, I’m absolutley no supporter of, but believe it will do significant financial harm to this country, just look at what it did to Greece. The only interest I’ve ever shown in the Olympics would be to look at the medal scores and see how well, or badly, the team GB has fared, although I’m perfectly well aware that plenty of people do enjoy it, my main bone of contention is simply that no country should be made to pay for an event that can pay for itself. I was desperate for the French to beat our bid when all that hoo ha was going on, let it drag them down was my abiding thought at the time, but now that we’ve been saddled with the poisoned chalice, it’s like a tsunami heading towards you, whether we want it or not it’s coming, and nothing will stop it now. I just wonder how many terrorists and extra immigrants it will wash ashore with it.
The only thing of interest left for me will be the stories created around it, something this big arriving on these shores will have an effect, it’s just a case of waiting to see what kind of effect it will be, how the story plays out. Will London, already operating with the Square Mile ring of steel security, suddenly become more akin to Helmand province, or Kabul, as the security forces attempt to keep on top of any or all potential threats?
One set of the community that will benefit, will be the media, and real vermin, such as the insidious Murdoch empire. I see their latest threat is to close ‘The Sun’ newspaper after fresh allegations of phone hacking had been disclosed. Not content with having already closed one of the countries oldest papers, blaming everything on everyone else bar themselves, they are now prepared to close down the single biggest selling paper in this country for the last thiry years or so. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no fan of these red top rags or the shyte they print, but the idea that they be closed down, for no better reason than to save the backsides of the very people responsible for the way they go about their day to day business, is a disgrace. How can you own and run a paper, and not be accountable for the way it carries on its business, a bit like saying, as a Pit Bull owner, that it’s not your problem once it’s off the lead, patent nonsense. Rupert Murdoch created the vicious, pack mentality, mob rule journalism that pervades his media outlets with their base level, sensationalist news items, so he should be found directly responsible and made to pay once they find themselves in the dock. I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating, when you hear someone saying that cream always rises to the top, just remember, so does scum, the main difference being, there is far more scum than cream, bear that in mind when you look at the political and financial spectrum around the planet. The good guys are profoundly outnumbered by the scum.
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