Tate Modern - the tanks

Such a pleasure to sit in "the red room" - a metal cylinder lit by a red light bulb - looking out at the speeded-up video of "The Crystal Quilt" performance (1987) and listening to what the women had to say about the process of ageing and being their older age.

 The women talked, among other things, about
-the need for a vocabulary to describe what's beautiful about older people
-respect for ourselves as a picture to the world around us
-living a richer life because you're experiencing things more
and, of "women's values" - being willing to work with impermanent things.

Also at the tanks: a double-projector work by Lis Rhodes (Light Music, 1975) - "an innovative work presented originally as a performance that experiments with celluloid and sound to push the formal, spatial and performative boundaries of cinema" -

Looking around, you see remnants of the former life of this space -

A few steps away, in the big bookshop, lots to choose from - this is a bilingual sort of art-slogan book (The Future will be ... China; impromptu thoughts about what's to come) -

Book(s) du jour

A day of bookmaking and exhibition planning started with this prezzie from Janet - one of her books with gold spines - the subject is  "Spectacles" and I happened to have to hand some frames found on a walk -

 To her gold books, Janet has added a quote on page 46 [why 46? see her DNA-related explanation here].

It reads: "As sight is in the body, so is reason in the soul" and was said by Aristotle.

The product of the afternoon  was an experiment with embossing/debossing -

I'm calling these "cupboard books" because the "doors" open at the centre, making for a long format when open. Karen (the arrows) used the bookcloth cover to join the back and fronts, and will be sewing a signature into each side, whereas Janet (black) and I covered the boards separately, using the paper inside to hold them together. We'll either draw or write on that paper, or glue in something else.

Threads and their labels

My current Morning Stitching needed some green, so I took this one out of the box of stranded* cotton - the box with threads passed on to me by friends whose mothers hadn't used them in their lifetime. (*Doesn't that give a new meaning to "stranded cotton"?)

Though "vintage", it's a brand new skein -  neatly tied up so you can easily find the end of the thread and carefully pull it out. And look at the lovely lines on the label! They prompted me to look closer at other labels - a mini-history of the evolution of Coats Anchor, and a glimpse at other brands -

Looking for information on the history or manufacture of embroidery threads, I found this, and was not tempted -

460 colours! (DMC has 465...) Just as with those huge sets of crayons we lusted for a children, some colours would disappear quickly and others would be left sadly around for years. Also, it was instructive to see that individual skeins (8 metres) now sell for prices randing from 47p to 77p - or,  three or four skeins for the price of a cup of coffee.

Book du jour - return to the blue distance

It's been a while, getting back to making books. After reading "Why handwriting matters" in the newspaper on Sunday, I started yearning for my blue distance ... and rewrote another copy of "Something is always far away".

Once one side of the tracing paper is written, the writing on the back suddenly brings it into the realm of blueness -

 And when several pages are written on both sides, the blue deepens -

The pen used for this was bought from a limited selection, and is somewhat on the sky-blue side; I prefer a pen that has a bit of an indigo cast to it.

Moan on Monday - pricing policy

It started with the hunt for "a simple nail file", which surely was available somewhere in the ground floor cosmeticatorium that hinders access to anything useful at John Lewis (Oxford street), once the most useful and sensible of department stores. (I'm grumpy enough about this assault on sight and smell to go out of my way to use a back entrance on my ever-rarer shopping trips.)

It took a while - and a couple of trying-to-be-helpful staff - to find it: "all the nailcare products have been put together ... over there somewhere...."

As you can see, most products do not display a price, either on the rack or on the individual packet. Which might save time and effort for staff, but isn't very helpful for customers.

It's enough to get you biting your nails!

Scroogette goes grocery shopping

It pays to keep your wits about you in the grocery store. For instance, the bigger package doesn't always work out cheaper (like it used to) -

The 500g bag works out at £2.00 a kilo, but the 1000g bag has an "everyday low price" of £2.99 a kilo. Hmm...

And what about the profusion of flours? The upper shelf offers strong white bread flour - white very strong bread flour - super strong premium white bread flour (would that premium refer to price?).

Below, though, is own-brand "strong white flour" which will do just fine - at 60p for the bag.

Guys who knit

The other day, on the Overground train, I looked up to see a chunky fellow in a seat opposite getting on with some knitting. My first thought was "wish I had something to knit right now" and then "hey, you don't see guys knitting on the train very often" - but why not? Why should knitting be seen as gender-bound? It's estimated that 10% of knitters are male.

boys knitting during WWII

The image comes from "K is for knitting" on www.tafalist.com, where you can also the the great little video called "the last knit" - literally a cliff-hanger.

What's more, "K is for knitting" has a link to a blog about the intersection of typography and knitting: http://unionpurl.blogspot.co.uk. The sky's the limit!

(And it goes on to "L is for linen" - but that's making a further diversion from the topic of this post....)

There is an online community of men who knit - http://www.menwhoknit.com/community/ - as well as many blogs of men who are enthusiastic about their knitting. Perhaps my guy would like to have another try? 

The top 10 men in knitting - chosen for various reasons - include Charles Dickens and Uncle Sam. And Lord Raglan (guess what he did).

A quick search turns up lots of (newspaper) stories about men who knit. Here's some knitting lingo from one of them:

Frogging. When you have to fix a mistake, you rip out row after row. You might say, you Rip It, Rip It, which sounds kinda like a frog. Hence the term frogging. You might use it like this: Do you have to frog back 10 rows?

Tink. Not as bad as frogging. When you have to take out a few stitches, one at a time, it's like your knitting backwards, hence t-i-n-k (Get it? Knit, spelled backwards.)

Stash. Your extensive collection of yarn stashed in your house.

Sex. Stands for Stash Enhancement Expedition. Going shopping, with the sole purpose of buying more stash (as in yarn). As in, "I'm going on a sex trip."

Stash diets. When you stop buying so much yarn and make a genuine effort to use up what you already have.

Found art Friday

The landing of a wooden staircase becomes a little landscape.

Intriguing, how some parts of the wood have become scratched and others have resisted abrasion.

"Blue Distance" in Kiev

Work from the Camberwell book arts degree show has travelled to Kiev Book Arsenal and is currently on display there. Thanks, Egidija, for taking the work and looking after it! It looks like an amazing show - 150 events on ten sites....

the venue

lots of space and lots of visitors

work by Di Suo

work by Xizhi Li

Things aren't displayed as they were in the degree show - so "Lost in the Blue Distance" has lost its lights and it's eerie blue glow - but I like this possibility too - 

National Poetry Day

In the two days since I heard about it, National Poetry Day morphed in my mind into World Poetry Day. This latter used to be celebrated on 15 October - the birthday not only of Virgil but also of my dear friend Rita, but has now been moved to 21 March.

Today we'll have to be content with "national" - the theme this year, says the website, is stars - and after all there are a lot of British poets to be read. Or, better - memorised - however transiently, however imperfectly. A poem becomes a companion, after all, even if it can't be perfectly recited on demand. So I've been repeatedly declaiming (to the empty room) a short poem by Kipling, from "the epitaphs of war" - nicely ironic yet oh so sad, it's called  A Dead Statesman:

I could not dig: I dared not rob:
Therefore I lied to please the mob.
Now all my lies are proved untrue
And I must face the men I slew.
What tale shall serve me here among
Mine angry and defrauded young?

I found the poem, rather randomly, in one of my favourite poetry anthologies -

It was published in 1996, for the 10th anniversary of Poems on the Underground. This version is illustrated with a selection of "poetic" travel posters, such as these by John Farleigh (who is best known for his wood engravings) -

I was already living in London at the very start of Poems on the Underground ... and still love to come across a poem when travelling, rereading it in the hope it will stick in memory, or I copy it into my book - such as this one by Guyanese poet John Agard, encountered on 24 April (at the start of my sonnet-memorisation-and-overwriting project - it seemed like a good omen). It can be found in World Poems on the Underground -

Toussaint L’Ouverture Acknowledges Wordsworth’s Sonnet
 ‘To Toussaint L’Ouverture’ 
I have never walked on Westminster Bridge 
or had a close-up view of daffodils. 
My childhood’s roots are the Haitian hills 
where runaway slaves made a freedom pledge 
and scarlet poincianas flaunt their scent. 
I have never walked on Westminster Bridge 
or speak, like you, with Cumbrian accent. 
My tongue bridges Europe to Dahomey. 
Yet how sweet is the smell of liberty 
when human beings share a common garment. 
So, thanks brother, for your sonnet’s tribute. 
May it resound when the Thames’ text stays mute. 
And what better ground than a city’s bridge 
for my unchained ghost to trumpet love’s decree. 

If you are non-UK or non-London or non-Underground-travelling, you can click on a link at the bottom of this page to read a random poem from the archive. Or maybe there's a "poetry in motion" project on the transport system where you live?

London Transport poster sale

Spare copies of London Transport's poster collection will be auctioned today at Christies - over 300 posters dating from 1913 to 1955. Expected prices are upwards of £800. The slideshow is here and the e-catalogue is here .

Some of my favourites -

 The English weather is probably the major theme -

That set of four is badly lit for photography - here's a closer view of some of the mythic elements running through the collection -

The one I would have taken home is this, by Marc Fernand Severin -

I love the shots of colour among the audience - impossible to photograph through the glass -

On the London Transport Museum's site you can search the collection by artist, theme, date, and colour. Many delights await you there.

Sketchbook Project comes to London

See European contributions to the 2012 project at Canada Water Library:
Friday 12 October 4pm-8pm
Oct. 13th 11am-5pm
Oct. 14th 11am-5pm
Oct. 15th - 19th 4pm-8pm

The 2013 Sketchbook Project won't be travelling outside the United States, unfortunately.

Taken (subject to collection)

I had a rug to give away on Freecycle - my bedroom rug -

With some reluctance - the rug was purchased in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in...hmm...1982 - to replace one loaned to us, which was a "real" persian rug - wool and worn. This one sort of had that persian-patterning look - and when we came across it, it was seriously on sale, reduced from (I think) $427 ... but I can't remember what we actually paid for it ... 

It's made of some sort of synthetic, but is nice and thick and not too nasty-feeling. That rug turned out to be indestructible, because 30 years later it isn't looking at all worn. It has lived at 9 Purcells Cove Road, Halifax; 43 Norreys Avenue, Oxford; 16 Sparsholt Road, London N19; and "here". 

There was a lot of interest in the rug. Nothing venture, nothing win -

It seemed fair to wait a day and then to ask my impartial assistant to draw a name from "a hat" - 

Life's a lottery. (Even if your name is there twice, by some mistake, you might not win.) 

The Red Room at UCL

UCL Scandinavian Studies has transformed the North Lodge at the Gower Street entrance to the college

into a "red room" as a venue for talks to mark the centenary of the death of  August Strindberg (1849-1912) - author and so much more besides. Various events are listed on the website.

Today Sarah Wingate Gray talked about "The Poetics of the Library".  I've often quoted the saying: "Once a librarian, always a librarian"; although I haven't worked as a librarian for some decades, I'm still interested in the organisation, preservation, and sharing of books, information, and knowledge - but more so, I was interested to hear about the current climate of librarianship, especially about user participation in libraries, about their needs and desires, conversations in communities, the "reality" of fictional others, transmissibility, SoLoMo (social, local, mobile) libraries - and not yet knowingly needed knowledge.

Ranganathan - how could I have forgotten S.R. Ranganathan and his five laws of library science (1931)? (He happens to have studied at UCL, what's more.)

1. Books are for use.
2. Every reader his [or her] book.
3. Every book its reader.
4. Save the time of the reader.
5. The library is a growing organism.

This next list, from my notes on the talk, is of unusual libraries:
- The Library of Lost Books
- Wildgoose Memorial Library
- Chicago Underground Library
- Mile High Reference Desk
- Occupy Wall Street Library
- Boston A to Z
- Street Books

Also to mention : the Epilogue documentary on the future of print; Let Them Sing It For You (the demo needs Quicktime to play); and, the idea that poems endure as presences - they become a companion spirit (doesn't that make you want to memorise a few?)

Sarah brought along a travelling poetry library, which included a book of erasure poetry I've seen on the internet, Jen Bervin's Nets -

How marvellous to hold "the real thing" and flip through it, stopping when something catches your eye! I was very excited about this wonderful surprise.

The Itinerant Poetry Library will be at the Red Room 3pm-6pm on Thursday - which happens to be National Poetry Day.

The North Lodge is a small and very pleasant space; it contains a "Strindberg resource" that mixes old and new materials -

Visitors are encouraged to type something -

or to sit in a comfy armchair and annotate copies of The Red Room (1879), Strindberg's most famous novel -

or read the other materials in the suitcase. I did read a bit of the novel - it conveniently opened to a page introducing two characters making, or trying to make, a living from art according to their temperaments (after all, Strindberg was a painter as well as a writer). The annotation will have to wait for another day; I couldn't quite bring myself to "deface" the book, even though it's "allowed" here...

On the wall, for those (like me) who should know a bit more about this famous person, are engaging bits of information -

 And outside, all the excitement of the first week of the new university year is going on -

Art I like - Jill Townsley

A simple idea that opens up other possibilities - the writing and erasure, the layering and melding, in Jill Townsley's "Satie 840" -

This is part of a selection of artists' working dealing with making and mending on the Axis website, axisweb.org

Jill Townsley says of her work: "My work is often large in scale, installation or temporary, though the physical action applied to its construction is generally excruciatingly repetitive. I am interested in the subjective results of repetitive action, such as ‘failure', ‘temporality', ‘erasure' and 'authorship'. Recent work has utilised time-lapse animation or video, in the quest to reveal the repetition of process through time."

"Excrutiatingly repetitive" - ah yes!

A 2009 work shows the accumulation of the tracks of a computer mouse - watch it at www.jilltownsley.com/#/2009/4542585747

She currently has a solo exhibition in Washington DC.

Typing machines

Seen (and resisted) at Queens Park Day, last month. Such nostalgia ... not!

The fate of flowers

Glorious blooms - wonderful colour! -

 ... because ...

Then, after a prolonged interval ... inevitably ...