Posted on Mar 30, 2003
The skies roared with thunder and the earth heaved,
Then came darkness and a stillness like death.
Lightening smashed the ground and fires blazed out;
Death flooded from the skies.
When the heat died and the fires went out,
The plains had turned to ash.
A translation of part of tablet IV of the 4000 year old epic tale of Gilgamesh – King of Uruk, Babylonia (Uruk being the biblical Erech, known today as Warka in Iraq).
This tale, well worth reading (or viewing), is from one of the cradles of civilisation, famous for some of the earliest developments in writing, agriculture, irrigation as well as storytelling.
Shame it’s being bombed back into the stone age.
Posted on Mar 29, 2003
A play called ‘Time After Time’ by Frank Bramwell, (a playwright based here in the Midlands), was performed in a church just around the corner from me. Jaimie and I had been commisioned to film it and that’s what we did yesterday evening. Did you know that standing in one spot, squinting through an eye-peice for three hours is surprisingly tiring? No? Trust me, it is!
Bizzarrely, Jaimie turned up with a mohawk haircut and I could tell that some of the good folk of Edgbaston were a little disconcerted by the site of a Travis Bickle lookalike filming this play about Shakespeare’s Dreams. I’ve noticed that when I’m actually filming anything I can’t concentrate on what’s being said but I have no doubt that I’ll know what the play was about in the hours/days/weeks ahead of editing. I must be a glutton for punishment because I’m going back tonight in order to get some cutaway shots, so in total, there’ll be nearly 9 hours of footage to log, digitise and edit.
And talking about punishment, tommorow I can look forward to a Carlton/ScreenWM FirstCut shoot in a Fetish club in Wolverhampton! I wonder if my mom will want to go?
Posted on Mar 27, 2003
I had a phone call from my bank this morning, the spotty little number cruncher, (…no I’ve never seen him but I could tell), asked me if there was anything he could do to help! Well it’s obviously one of those synchronicities I love so much because today Gordon Brown said that he’s going to liberate over ??3billion for the war effort. Now that works out to be ??50 per person in this pikey little island of ours.
So all the lovely profits I virtually made from the Haliburton investments just prior to the start of this great adventure have virtually been dashed, (darn it!). Well I guess I can’t blame Gordon, clearly it’s all Al-Jazeera’s fault. I mean just ‘cos they get booted out of the NY Stock Exchange did that mean they had to show all those pictures of collaterally damaged Iraqi children with their brains uraniumally depleted. And running that ‘Meet the POW’ reality TV show of theirs didn’t win them any Oscars I can tell you, or get them back onto the NY Stock exchange. I hear that the double de-capitated cappucino is particularly good in the embed coffee shop there.
Anyway, I asked my spotty little banker if he’d lend me some money for an Arab language cable news subscription – he hung up.
Posted on Mar 26, 2003
Today is the 32nd anniversary of the start of the Bangladesh Liberation war of 1971. I only know this because my mom told me! I was at her house this afternoon and she had the Bangla TV cable channel on, as per usual. As I was munching my way through some chicken and chips, not paying much attention to what was on TV I gradually became aware that there was something a little unusual about the Bangla music blaring out of the TV. Typically, the music is in the bangla sangeet style but this time there was a certain martial beat to it.
I managed to tear my attention away from my rapidly diminishing pile of chips and saw a pretty Bangla woman singing with great gusto whilst standing in front of a rather large field gun! Now for those who may not frequent the outer reaches of the cable spectrum upon which Bangla TV finds itself, I need to stress that such a spectacle is not it’s usual fare. On any [other] given day, you would see the pretty Bangla women singing their sweet, (almost east asian sounding), songs while walking in palm thronged beaches, pathchwork quilt paddy fields or flower filled parks. But not today!
I asked my mom what was it all about and she explained that today was Shadinota Dibosh. The war to Liberate Bangladesh was a brutal affair by any standard and many hundreds of thousands, (many say millions), died as a result of this war at the hands of a particularly brutal Pakistani army of occupation. Anyway Bangla TV was commemorating this event with a programme of shows that consisted of music, song and dance, (popular opera like), depicting the heroic struggle of the mukhti bahini (freedom fighters). I think that this is wonderfully Bangla – remembering momentous events with song and music.
A lot of people in the world felt deeply about what was happening during those 9 months of war; George Harrison, inspired by Ravi Shanker, organised a Concert for Bangladesh, which was the template for future such concerts like Live Aid and Joan Baez wrote:
The story of Bangladesh
Is an ancient one again made fresh
By blind men who carry out commands
Which flow out of the laws upon which nations stand
Which say to sacrifice a people for a land
–Joan Baez (Song of Bangladesh)
Sentiments which sadly, (in another context), are still apt today.
Posted on Mar 25, 2003
Fukuyama said that we’re at the end of history, surely he knows that there is no end to a circle…
In September 1191 and after a sweeping campaign in the Holy Lands, Richard the Lionheart sent a message to his foe, Saladin,
Men of ours and of yours have died, the country is in ruins, and events have escaped anyone’s control. Do you not believe that it is enough? As far as we are concerned, there are only three subjects of discord: Jerusalem, the True Cross, and territory. As for Jerusalem, it is our place of worship, and we will never agree to renounce it, even if we have to fight to the last man. As territory, all we want is that the land west of Jordan be ceded to us. As for the Cross, for you it is merely a piece of wood, whereas for us its value is inestimable. Let the sultan give it to us, and let us put an end to this exhausting struggle
Saladin replied,
The city is as holy to us as it is to you; it is even more important for us, because it was there that our Prophet made his miraculous nocturnal journey, and it is there that our community will be reunited on judgement day. It is therefore out of the question for us to abandon it. The Muslims would never accept it. As for territory, this land has always been ours, and your occupation is only transitory. You were able to settle in it because of the weakness of the Muslims who then peopled it, but so long as there is war, we will not allow you to enjoy your possessions. As for the Cross, it is a great trump in our hands, and we will surrender it only in return for some important concession on behalf of Islam.
Incidentally, although Richard was king of England, he was born in France, lived there most of his life and spoke mostly in French. Saladin was the Sultan of Cairo, the conquerer of Jerusalem, defender of the Arab lands and was Kurdish!.
Richard never did conquer Jerusalem but it took the Muslims another 100 years to remove the invaders completely.
Posted on Mar 24, 2003
My last posting has reminded me of one of the many lives tragically lost on 9-11. On that unimaginably fateful day the New York artist MICHAEL RICHARDS died. The following paragraph is from his obituary in the Independent Newspaper, dated 24 September 2001:
Michael Richards was probably working in his studio on the 92nd floor of the World Trade Centre north tower on the morning of 11 September. According to a colleague Richards’s last two sculptures were bronze versions of himself pierced by airplanes and accompanied by meteors and flames.
It seems as if time is indeed a relative concept and when you strip away all the illusions, we are all just dead on arrival.
Posted on Mar 23, 2003
On an interview with a US Military Officer at Umm Qasr I saw the phrase “Shai Hulud” penned onto the front of this Officer’s helmet. I wondered what it meant, it seemed familiar; I googled it and found:
Shai-Hulud
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it is gone past me I will turn to see fear’s path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
…which is, (as any Frank Herbert fan will note), the Fremen prayer at the passing of Shai-Hulud – a sandworm. I won’t go into the details of what a sandworm is or the story of Frank Herbert’s classic Dune trilogy but suffice it to say that sandworms are representative of the wealth beneath the sands.
Some interesting coincidences are the name of the planet in Dune – Arrakis which at a stretch sounds a little like – Iraq, the function of the spice melange that emanates from beneath the sands of Arrakis, which is vital for transportation in that galaxy and that the despotic ruler of that galaxy is named the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV !!!
Posted on Mar 22, 2003
I’ve just witnessed General Tommy Franks’ first press conference since the beginning of the war and as a BBC reporter has just stated, it was interesting how the American Press Corp’s questioning seemed so docile as compared to their “foreign” counterparts’.
It supports the opinion I’m forming regarding the US’ much vaunted ‘freedom of the press’, an opinion that is further bolstered by an article, ‘State media asked to handle war news carefully’, found in the Bangladeshi Daily Star. It seems that not only has the Bush Administration managed to co-opt the obsequious US Media but is exerting pressure on weak developing nations’ governments to do likewise.
Anyway, here’s what Webster’s says is a definition of a bully:
Main Entry: 1bul?
Posted on Mar 21, 2003
I finished the runners job in Birmingham yesterday and am a bit knackered now, but it’s okay, I’ve prescribed myself a movie for the afternoon to aid the healing process.
As I’ve mentioned, the job was for a promotional video commissioned by the Birmingham City Council in order to support Birmingham’s bid to be ‘European city of Culture 2008′ … (good luck to Brum, is all I have to say!). I had to ferry Maria, (the AP), Charlotte, (the Director/Camera) and sound guys around Brum for two days. No easy task on the first day as I was doing all of this in my little Fiat Panda! I managed to borrow my sister Pam’s Punto for the second day, much to the crew’s relief.
Basically the shoot was of food people and places in Birmingham and using this as a metaphor for the cultural diversity of the city. Charlotte kept mentioning to people that the shoot was to support Brums bid to be ‘Multicultural city of Europe 2008′ hence this approach but it didn’t make any difference and I reckon it’s going to be very good. Apparantly it’s one of six three-minute films commisioned.
So for two days I was driving between Soho Road, the ‘Balti Triangle’, our Chinese Quarter, (more of a sixteenth really), and the Jewellery quarter; lugging bags and tripods to various restaurants, supermarkets and other food outlets.
It was instructional working with professionals and I guess I learnt a lot but realise that you can get away with quite a lot as compared with that which is taught at the Lighthouse. (I expect it’s different if you’re doing things for the hoity-toity BBC).
All of which should prove useful for the Theatre Prod. shoot with Jaimie which will be sometime next week. Having spoken to the sound guys at the shoot, (coincidentally, one knew Sue and Hammy, two old friends from Glossop), I really feel going freelance is the way to go.
Posted on Mar 19, 2003
The stockmarkets were rampant yesterday. I myself may have to spend a pound or two on bolstering my impoverished pension plan with a few sharply timed purchases. Let’s see; defence stocks, (of course!), insurance companies, medical supply companies, [re]construction companies and not least of all, oil stocks.
Now that’s a portfolio that will yield a tidy profit for all those who have the backbone not to be dissuaded from the financial opportunity merely by the site of the blood of just a few tens of thousands of arabs. Not our fault if they don’t have the sense to get out of the way of depleted uranium bullets or have the misfortune to find themselves in the vicinity of all those saintly bombs we’re going to lob at them.
I’ve had a thought, given the lessons learnt from that unfortunate incident involving young Rachel Corrie, (who wrote a lot of emails), I think I may suggest a new strategy to the Allied forces. Lets do away with all those clever munitions with their million dollar a piece price tags and instead, equip our gallant warriors with just a handful of Israeli bulldozers.
