Christmas is a time for giving

Posted on December 25, 2008 by blogmywiki

My oldest friend Bruce Guthrie used to do a fine mock-homily, gently taking the piss out of the Church of England as she was practised in North Somerset in the late 1970s. It always started with him clasping his hands together and earnestly proclaiming “Christmas… is a time for giving.”

And as I’m sitting here watching the midnight eucharist on TV, it’s in the spirit of giving that I give you this story which I will attribute to Claire Bolderson. Apologies if I have misremembered this, Claire.

There was a televised mass coming from St Patrick’s Catholic cathedral in New York. At a crucial point in the mass where the sacramental bread was offered up, the TV director shouted down the talkback for one of the cameramen to “close up on the Host! Close up on the host!”.

The cameraman, who was Jewish, naturally took this as an instruction to zoom in on the officiating priest.

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Never had the Latin

Posted on December 19, 2008 by blogmywiki

“I could have been a Judge, but I never had the Latin for the judgin” – Peter Cook.

Well I did have a bit of Latin and I was thinking the other day of The Aeneid which I did for O-Level. It was the only thing that made it bearable; that and our Latin teacher shocking us all to bits by using the F-word to describe quite what it was that Dido and Aeneas were getting up to in that cave.

I was looking it up on Wikipedia just now and the entry on Dido – Queen of Carthage (as opposed to Dido – The Singer, presumably) has this amusing paragraph: (bear in mind that prior to this Aeneas has slung his hook with his fleet and Dido has impaled herself on his sword and indulged in a bit of self-immolation on the marital bed…)

During his journey in the underworld Aeneas meets Dido and tries to excuse himself, but Dido does not deign to look at him. Instead she turns away from Aeneas to a grove where her former husband Sychaeus waits. T. S. Eliot once called this “the most telling snub” in Western literature.

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Becoming more like Guy

Posted on December 15, 2008 by blogmywiki

Someone at work today told me that I am looking more and more like Guy Garvey out of Elbow.

Now that’s fine and dandy but it occurs to me as a bit odd as I’ve been listening to an awful lot of Elbow lately, so maybe the more you listen to a singer the more you come to resemble them. I think I should try listening to a lot of P J Harvey or Karen Carpenter and see what effect that has.

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Myers-Briggs for Blogs

Posted on December 2, 2008 by blogmywiki

This website reckons it can analyse your personality type from the writing style of your blog.
ha ha ha ha
It took about 3 seconds to decide that I’m ESTP when on written tests I’ve always come out as INTP or INFP. Oh well.

The blurb is hilarious as anyone who knows me will agree, although the cartoon is spookily accurate…

ESTP – The Doers
The active and play-ful type. They are especially attuned to people and things around them and often full of energy, talking, joking and engaging in physical out-door activities.

The Doers are happiest with action-filled work which craves their full attention and focus. They might be very impulsive and more keen on starting something new than following it through. They might have a problem with sitting still or remaining inactive for any period of time.

(Thanks to Clare’s Diary for this!)

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Martin Parr on Flickr

Posted on November 10, 2008 by blogmywiki

Someone on Flickr quoting Martin Parr on Flickr – he’s quite right, of course… there is a huge compulsion to conform to what will make an image that will be popular on Flickr. I do it all the time. So hard to be original and find your own style.

I also would say that a lot of the work on Flickr is generic. It looks quite modern, because you lot are aware of trends and the language of contemporary photography… But I cannot recall seeing a set of work that would make a stunning book.
Before you all bite my head off and tell me that you are all geniuses, you have to remember that there are over 1000 books of new work published every year and most of these tend to disappear after publication.The quality of this published work is high, but it is difficult to achieve the uniqueness that will assure you of a place in photo history.
It is a tough world out there, and I think that Flickr has a great contribution to make, but still feel it is unlikely that the next big photo star will come from this source.

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