Haphazard travels of Sirman Deville across the Isles

[niminy-piminy]

note to myself: investigate hammer horrors!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammer_Film_Productions

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

despite Curtis, baby was not part of this discourse about patriotism so far, now there is something also for him.
there is a German word that is as cool as Waldeinsamkeit and it is Nestbeschmutzer.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestbeschmutzer
it can be translated as "someone who shits in his own nest."
when i discovered (in the past) this word (in relation to Elfriede Jelinek and Thomas Bernhard) i was so excited about it.
i was so glad such a word/term exists and i believe kids in the schools should be taught "to shit in their own nest" as a part of the "patriotism & citizenship" curriculum.

15 concepts that only Germans have
https://en.berlinoschule.com/15-concept ... mans-have/

2/ Nestbeschmutzer: “The one who makes the nest dirty” is a person who messes up the environment where he/she belongs (family, church, party, homeland…). It’s an outrageous behavior which even animals would not have.

[sally]

oh that is a fantastic word, very satisfying to say

[niminy-piminy]

btw. this is the house that i wished to see during my London stay but i was there in February and National Trust opens in March.

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/575-wandsworth-road
575 Wandsworth Road was acquired by the National Trust in 2010, because of the rich and striking interiors created by Khadambi Asalache (1935-2006), a Kenyan-born poet, novelist, philosopher of mathematics and British civil servant. He bought the house in 1981 while working at the Treasury, and over a period of 20 years (from 1986) turned his home into a work of art.

In pictures: Kenyan artist Khadambi Asalache's London house
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-47693440

[Lencho of the Apes]

(plus exceptions of a sort were made for war so '43 films will not give accurate impressions)

This may not be exactly what you're talking about, but "learning to love our mediocrity" seemed like a big plot point in Asquith's Demi-Paradise.

[sally]

i've no idea what i'm talking about, i'm mostly sat here yelling at broadband at the minute, but not even full paradise! sounds brilliant! (and as the son of a prime minister, asquith must have been mainlining all the perverted patriotism that was going)

thanks for the prompt

[brian d]

there is a German word that is as cool as Waldeinsamkeit and it is Nestbeschmutzer.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestbeschmutzer
it can be translated as "someone who shits in his own nest."
when i discovered (in the past) this word (in relation to Elfriede Jelinek and Thomas Bernhard) i was so excited about it.
i was so glad such a word/term exists and i believe kids in the schools should be taught "to shit in their own nest" as a part of the "patriotism & citizenship" curriculum.

i've often wondered if there is any austrian writer who hasn't been connected to that term. the honduran/salvadoran writer horacio castellanos moya has also been connected to it, and he's influenced by bernhard, so it makes sense.

[niminy-piminy]

it is quite likely that there is an international network of Nestbeschmutzers!

i don't remember how and when i stumbled upon the word.
i guess it was because i read something about Elfriede Jelinek.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elfriede_Jelinek
Elfriede Jelinek schreibt gegen Missstände im öffentlichen, politischen, aber auch im privaten Leben der österreichischen Gesellschaft. Dabei benutzt sie einen sarkastischen, provokanten Stil, der von ihren Gegnern („Nestbeschmutzer“-Diskussion), aber auch von ihr selbst mitunter als obszön, blasphemisch, vulgär oder höhnisch beschrieben wird.

but (it seems) it has primarily something to do with Waldheim affair.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/ful ... cros.12379
Shit Bucket Campaigns and Nestbeschmutzer

“Dirt campaign,” “shit bucket campaign,” or sometimes just abbreviated as “the campaign” expressed clearly what Waldheim thought of the criticism he received for his inexplicable memory lapses, which excluded significant segments of his life, particularly the years before 1945. To him, this was merely an attack on his integrity, an unjustified blow below the belt aimed at harming him politically and obstructing his election.
...

The Nestbeschmutzer and the dung heap

The term Nestbeschmutzer was pervasive and used as a blanket term to refer to any opponent of Waldheim as a way to insult and defame them, by Waldheim as well as by others. It became so commonplace that critics reclaimed the term and used it as a battle cry to unify the opposition. For instance, the previously mentioned “Republican Club,” which became active in the political struggle, published a book called “The Art of Nest‐fouling.” Schindel's novel Der Kalte retells the scandal that attended the opening performance of Thomas Bernhard's theater play “Heldenplatz” in Vienna in 1988. Heldenplatz is the name of the square in front of the Hofburg Palace, where Hitler announced the Anschluss [annexation] of Austria to Germany before an enormous crowd on March 15, 1938. The well‐known writer Thomas Bernhard was commissioned by the politically controversial German theater director Claus Peymann to write a theater play to mark the one‐hundred‐year anniversary of the Austrian National Theater in Vienna, the Burgtheater in 1988. The play was kept strictly secret before its first performance. But a journalist had been tipped off and published some excerpts from the theater text, which caused public outrage. The Austrian public resented the impending “defamation of Austria” and the “nest‐fouling” that would be performed on stage in Bernhard's “manure piece” [Sudelstück]. In protest, on the day of the premier, a truck of manure was unloaded in front of the main entrance of the Burgtheater on Heldenplatz. As Schindel retells the scene in his novel:

Around four p.m. a large truck appeared before the Burgtheater. It parked illegally before the entrance of the theater. Two men in overalls climbed out of the cab, walked to the back of the truck, opened the cargo area, jumped up and began to use pitchforks to dump piles of manure, straw drenched with cow urine and dung. A policeman began to approach the scene, eyed the two men. The driver, a strong, fat fellow with a shaved head, stood in front of the hood and gazed calmly at the cop, who stopped, scratched his neck, and retreated. People began to gather around the growing dung heap and expressed their appreciation and sympathy. One person shouted “Cover the Burgtheater in shit.” Some people laughed, and more people gathered. Finally, both men climbed down from the truck, each lifted a bucket from the cargo area and dumped its contents on the dung heap. The viewers standing closest to the pile pulled back. Before the men drove away—the license plate was smeared with filth and hence illegible—they threw leaflets into the crowd, with the printed message “THROW THE BASTARD SCHÖNN OUT OF AUSTRIA.”

The figure of theater director Peymann is renamed Schönn in Schindel's novel, but otherwise it follows the historical events closely. The words of Johann Wais come true in reverse fashion: The critical theater performance is covered in shit, as the metaphorical shit bucket hit the venerable Burgtheater. Of course, this attempt to disturb or block the premiere of the theater play failed spectacularly, as Thomas Bernhard's play Heldenplatz only gained publicity and notoriety.

[niminy-piminy]

speaking about "Art Nouveau" in the other thread reminds me of my "Arts & Crafts" encounter in 2019...

another house (besides 575 Wandsworth Road, viz above) that i wished to see in London (and didn't (in February) because National Trust opens in March) was Red House... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_House,_Bexleyheath
so, (as a substitute) i went to see William Morris Gallery.

https://www.wmgallery.org.uk/about
From 1848 to 1856, the house was the family home of William Morris (1834-1896), the designer, craftsman, writer, conservationist and socialist. Morris lived here with his widowed mother and his eight brothers and sisters from the age of fourteen until he was twenty-two.

it was a cool place, i did plenty of snapshots there (these are only a selected few)...

only two snapshots (out of many) of William's textile patterns.
i picked two pics with birds (the second with bunnies besides birds).



i was especially curious about the drawings that were "half-finished".



(if i remember right), this charming embroidery was done by William's sister???


i like about William Morris he was a successful businessman (fabric swatch of Morris & Co.) and simultaneously fervent support of socialism (who designed and manufactured his own original banners to hold while attending socialist rallies).


it is always a memorable experience for an Easterner to encounter a socialist campaigner in the West.
so, i couldn't resist taking pics of covers of William's prints exhibited in the gallery.



the gallery is friendly to children (or childish) visitors.
i have no clue what specific task children visitors were supposed to perform (with those wooden toy cubes).
i built a skyscraper!
took (very quickly) a snapshot of my achievement and got lost because i didn't want to be around any longer — it was predestined to crash down and make a noise (so i hoped some dumb kid will be blamed for this stupidity and not me).


last but not least, in the gallery, i also took a very important lesson about manhood and about real masculinity.

[sally]

i spent the first 5 years of my life in 121 belvedere road, bexleyheath. it is where i first saw a fruitbat and believed i had discovered the secret to flying, but i do not recall any visits to any red house...

[greennui]

*googles Bexleyheath*, are u Kate Bush?

[niminy-piminy]

you might not remember the phrase "Red House", but maybe you do remember secretly entering (being a 5 yrs old mischievous kid) an old house in the neighborhood and drawing (on the walls inside) the 5 figures (the rest is history)...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_House,_Bexleyheath
In 2013, a previously unknown mural depicting five figures from the Book of Genesis was discovered in Morris' bedroom at the house. It was believed that it resembled the joint work of Morris, Burne-Jones, Rossetti, Siddal, and Ford Madox Brown; as a result, the building's property manager James Breslin described the mural as being "of international significance".

[niminy-piminy]

if you had ever visited Better Gym Bexleyheath (that i initially wrongly read BETTER GYM BexleyHEALTH), then Red House is only a few more steps southwards.

[niminy-piminy]

if i will ever find in the attic of your house some scribbles, i will publish them under the title "Twodeadmagpies: From Bexleyheath to Heathcliff".

[niminy-piminy]

looking into "notable residents" too, and if you don't lie about your age (and you are not Kate Bush *1958) then it is quite likely you played (in Better Gym Bexleyheath) squash with Stephanie Brind!

Stephanie Brind (*1977), professional squash player, born in Bexleyheath and lived on Chieveley Road

[sally]

no, surprisingly i'm not kate bush, although my dad did go to school with mick jagger! ('go to' is doing a lot of heavy lifting, my dad started the year mick left and they never met, but that has never stopped him mentioning it)

tbh as a 5 year old i don't think i was ever gym-bound, but we did go a lot to danson park which is just over the road, so it is even more amazing that i was never aware of it. how strange that visiting tourists know more about my culture than eg my parents who were living in it. (we moved to sussex when i was five so i consider that my conscious origin, not the blurred ballardian suburban kentish edges of london)

i was just surprised to see 'bexleyheath' crop up on here...

edit: and that's precisely where my scribbles are! *decides to have an ash-filled afternoon burning secrets from future scribble-marauders*

[niminy-piminy]

my Max-Brod-part-of-the-self suffers just to hear "From Bexleyheath to Heathcliff" might turn into ashes.
i truly hope some random bird flying in front of your windows will divert your attention from this evil plan!

[Mario Gaborovic]

i spent the first 5 years of my life in 121 belvedere road, bexleyheath. it is where i first saw a fruitbat and believed i had discovered the secret to flying, but i do not recall any visits to any red house...

Baggy Trousers
"The music video of this song was shot in a school (Kentish Town C of E primary school, in Islip street, London NW5) and the Peckwater Estate in Kentish Town]. The band's saxophone player, Lee Thompson decided he wanted to fly through the air for his solo, with the use of wires hanging from a crane."

So how far is this from where you grew up?

It was music videos that mostly "told" me about UK back in the 1980s. I clearly remember how Boy George freaked me out. I wasn't sure what he actually was, I was too young to be completely sure but I kinda suspected. Thankfully there was Jimmy Sommerville to explain me I shouldn't be afraid.

[niminy-piminy]

exploring (on the map) the Sussex sea cost, i see Bexhill-on-Sea (starting point of Andrew Kötting's GALLIVANT) is next to Hastings (late Crowley's refuge). suddenly, all the places related to your past (starting in the proximity of Red House) seem so (virtually) familiar!

[sally]

So how far is this from where you grew up?

oh that's proper london, which was and is almost another country....

and not meaning to turn this thread into my own private nostalgia-wallow, but i googled some of the villages in sussex where i lived and whilst the information thus newly learned has no bearing on my own experiences of them (i'll leave the celeb spotting to the tourists, the most connected i ever felt to the land was being dragged on a series of night walks along old pilgrim routes by aforementioned psychotic teacher, whilst having chaucer yelled at us at age 10) i did learn that folk singer bert jansch recorded a whole album in and about the place i lost my virginity, so am going to go and freak out a bit now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VnKqbNHk6g

[greennui]

I've strolled around Bodiam castle once, that is my most vivid non-Brighton memory of Sussex.

[St. Gloede]

Lovely to see references to two very different people who have had a degree of impact on me today, from the wonderful folk artist, Bert Jansch, whom I consistently listened to in my early 20s (after finally venturing beyond Bob Dylan) ​and the incredibly inspirational William Morris.

My favourite Jansch album is fairly unconventional, "Lovely to see references to two very different people who have had a degree of impact on me today, from the wonderful folk artist, Bert Jansch, whom I consistently listened to in my early 20s (after finally venturing beyond Bob Dylan) ​and the incredibly inspirational William Morris.

My favourite Jansch album is fairly unconventional, "Moonshine" from 1973, but that is clearly not his best guitar work, and it is as a guitarist (including for Pentangle) that he is fondly remembered. All of his records up until the mid-70s are strong frankly.

I still consider Morris' 1885 essay "Useful Work vs. Useless Toil" to be one of the most important must-reads of all time, and an assessment of humanity's relationship to social organisation and labour perhaps even more important and relevant today than when it was written, particularly its focus on automation. I strongly recommend it to all, and it is such a breezy read (available for free online, and in audio form as well).

Morris is certainly an urgent and important counter to most socialists of his time. He was one of the few voices to prioritize beauty as a source of well-being and he is generally recorded as the first socialist theorists to not just look at people as workers, but as consumers. This was later expanded upon by a long line of theorists, including G.D.H. Cole (who added a civil dimension - i.e. people are workers, consumers and neighbours/citizens). Morros also offered a radical philosophy of how consumers could leverage their purchasing power to change the nature of the economy. In his context it was to re-prioritize buying cheap mass-produced items in favour of supporting craftspeople, and allowing people to find fulfilment not only in their labour but also their belonging. His most famous quote is probably:

“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”

He is also often credited as being one of the first theorists to find a major flaw in Marx' class analysis, namely that a large portion of the working class would align themselves with the capitalist class, as it was in their best economic interest (at least short term) to benefit from this union. Essentially he discovered what for a long time would be discussed as unskilled vs. skilled labour, the proletariat vs. the salariat (wage labourers vs. salaried staff) but today is usually called the "professional class" or simply "the middle class" (though this term has different meanings across the world). He not only rang the alarm bells but started looking at how this could be changed, i.e. how society could ensure that it was in the salariat/professional class' interest to oppose capital.

In general Morris' social and economic theories, despite being accused of wishing to go back in time and being distasteful of mass production, are among the most timeless of his era - and the problems he addresses remain important until this day - including his focus on the importance of beauty - which keeps being downplayed. A beautiful world is a beautiful thing.

(Oh, and let's not forget he essentially invented high fantasy as well)

[St. Gloede]

Spent a decent portion of the day listening to Jansch. Mainly Moonshine, but listening to Rosemary Lane now.

[niminy-piminy]

CORRESPONDENCE (Sarah Wood, 2020)
https://letterboxd.com/film/correspondence-2020-1/

1/ watching this short film is a fruit of my diligent letterboxd stalking.
https://vimeo.com/493395872

2/ based on my viewings log, (i see) i watched (in 2016) also I AM A SPY (2014) by Sarah.
I AM A SPY is already blurred within my memory but (seems like) i should rewatch it and investigate Sarah's whole oeuvre (at one point).

3/

CORRESPONDENCE speaks across time to fellow artist Alfred Wallis about the role the site of art plays in a time of social isolation.

Alfred Wallis (1855-1942)... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Wallis

4/ seemed to me i never heard about Alfred Wallis before.
however, his paintings felt somewhat familiar (i had a vague idea i might have captured something similar in Tate Britain).
i browsed my deposit of snapshots from 2019 London trip and (among the random pics from Tate Britain) there were the following two...



5/ i didn't record (not to speak of remembering) who is the author.
till today, they were the pics of two "anonymous" paintings.
now (thanks to the film) i could identify them as:
5.1/ Alfred Wallis, St Ives (c.1928)... https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/wa ... ves-t00881
5.2/ Alfred Wallis, Houses at St Ives, Cornwall (c.1928–42)... https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/wa ... all-t00239

[sally]

stalk away old chap, i have plague vaccine flu death and don't know what's happening

i've seen a few alfred wallis pics tho obviously i prefer the sea ones (& my timbers are definitely shivering right now)

[niminy-piminy]

old chap

btw. today i watched this...
and was deliberating if my lovely juvenile misanthropy (& juvenile "poetic sadness") will turn into despicable bigotry in old age???
https://youtu.be/Aeu0-su5M-E

i am too old to be a guy growing up with Simpsons.
and i am too young to be part of The Smiths & Joy Division & The Cure generation.
i attended in 1990 The Cure gig only because the elder brother of my then friend was a fan (but to me it was already somewhat old-school).
i started to listen to The Smiths only recently — after one of the readers of my dreams' accounts told me i should definitely listen to one of their songs — and (surprisingly) i could relate to it.
so considering my lately (late) affinity to early Morrissey and considering what is told in the video (reviewing the "Quilloughby affair") i feel it is not unlikely (having the juvenile misanthropy & juvenile "poetic sadness" foundation) i will (slowly but surely) turn into a disgusting hater & bigot (in the upcoming years).

[sally]

lol it's getting feisty tonight in the little bookswap niches

[niminy-piminy]

cool!
after stumbling upon this...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornholme
Cornholme is the location of a number of scenes in the 2004 film My Summer of Love.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Summer_of_Love
the film explores the lesbian relationship between two young women from different classes and backgrounds. Working class Mona (Natalie Press), whose once-hotheaded brother Phil (Paddy Considine) became a born-again Christian in prison, meets upper middle class Tamsin (Emily Blunt, in her theatrical film debut)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebden_Bridge
It (HB) is known for being an LGBT-friendly town, and has been called the UK's "lesbian capital".

now, i understand the notice in the book swap niche about "good God-fearing Christian village" vs. "the cesspit" as a part of the ongoing efforts of Cornholme & Hebden Bridge (& maybe some other local places) to outdo each other in "filth" and stand out as the "oddball capital" (equivalent to the rivalry seen in "Pink Flamingos").

After learning that Divine has been named "the filthiest person alive" by a tabloid paper, jealous rivals Connie and Raymond Marble attempt to usurp her title. ... Divine is confronted by the Marbles, a pair of criminals envious of her reputation who try to outdo her in filth.

-------------------------------------------
moreover, it all made me to discover this chat...

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/top ... 0&t=867398

Has anyone seen this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBsURhlQbEo

Its a documentary based in Hebden Bridge, a quaint touristy town set in the valleys of Yorkshire. But behind the thin veneer of bohemian beauty, it is mired by drugs, depression and suicides. The town has a very insular feeling, trapped deep down in the valleys between steep hills that go off in every direction, seemingly miles from anywhere.

I grew up in Halifax, just up the road from HB, and we always knew it as a bit of a cool, but odd place. People would openly smoke pot in the street and you could buy hand baskets knitted by lesbian farmers from Cambodia. But everyone knew about the underlying issues, the fact that it seemed so cut off from the outside world, so hard to escape with those brown hills bearing down on you and closing out the sky.
There was a jokey saying that referred to the place as 'A drugs town with a tourist problem'.

Has anyone been there before? It grew very popular with hippies when all the old mill workers left 50 years or so ago and is now apparently the lesbian capital of the UK, so all in all its quite an interesting place set in beautiful countryside.

And to be honest, I don't know why I made this thread, but I was thinking about the place today (after reading a review about the above documentary in the paper) and its quite an interesting place so I thought that hearing some opinions would be good. Other than that, there isn't really a point to this post, so enjoy the rest of your evening folks.
-----------------------------------------
Have a few (I'll call them) "friends" in Hebden Bridge and Todmorden. Lesbian Central as I call it.

Salford is almost as bad for dykes though but HB takes the biscuit.
----------------------------------
I drive through Hebden Bridge quite often and I've always thought it seemed a bit weird.
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Live about 10 miles from Hebden bridge in Rawtenstall.

Been up there a few times - quite a nice place to spend an afternoon. Not had a night out there but from what I've heard it's supposed to be half decent.

Wasn't aware of it being popular with lesbians (might have a drive up there tomorrow & have a look!) but there's definitely a fair number of oddballs up there. Proper oddballs...

Drove through there a few months back & there was a bloke tottering up the street in a dress & heels. He had a shaved head though, loads of tattoo's & no make-up, which was strange. This was around 1pm on a Sunday afternoon.
-----------------------------------------
We dont like them in hebden.

Kin yoghurt knitters and cheese dancers.

And Cornholme is the lesbian capital round here.
We don't have lesbians in Tod. We'd burn them.

(Well apart from my next door neighbour, and that chubby woman up the road, and the grey haired woman with the sensible shoes).

They have no sense of humour in hebden either, it would damage the environment, think of the children/yogurt/african babies/goats.
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Used to live in Tod, always thought HB was a bit of a sh!thole, but Calder Council considered it the jewel in their crown, never could work out why.
------------------------------------------
it's been carpet central for years. Ironic for a place that used to be called Trouser Town.

It's also got exactly the same issues as every other town round there..... lots of white hard drinking, drug taking, illeducated zero ambition trash. Obviously, not everyone's like that, but all the towns round there seem to have an overrepresentation of them.
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Been quite a few times, did a university project that was based in the town, and nearly bought a beautiful Morris J4 camper from some vaguely hippyish people there. There is something odd about the place that you can't quite out your finger on, it does all feel a bit 'Red Riding', if you've ever seen the channel 4 dramatisation, there's even the unsolved murder of Lindsay Rimer to back up this feeling. Guess it's something to do with the town feeling so enclosed by the hills on all sides. Seems like there's a group of pissheads/crackheads like that featured in the film in any small town and many suburbs everywhere in this country though to be honest, just not all of them had a friend who grew up to be a filmmaker. That said I'd like to see this, anyone know where it can be seen?

I imagine the arrival of a load of minted lesbians from down south, and company directors commuting to Manchester and Leeds can't help with house prices/ forcing locals out etc. Haven't many of the old folk died of Asbestosis as well? I don't think it's really that different to many small northern towns to be honest, it's just most lack even a veneer of respectability.

[sally]

you can see the roof of my house in that film trailer!

my summer of love is dreadful & cornholme is hardly even a village, just a gloomy slit in a deep valley that's always in shadow, no wonder they're guardians of purity. but the better frame of reference is the witch around eagle crag
https://www.blipfoto.com/entry/3375610

also, i'm not sure the lesbian capital thing is still true, although the lesbian-only meditation with horses flyer is still up on the wall of a closed cafe...

but i didn't know about these free library things there, i thought it was just the train station and the disused phone box in the town square....i think i might have to go and make a 'deposit' in this one now it's famous

[niminy-piminy]

roof of my house

nice roof!


3 tram stops from my place is this book swap street thing.
a few times i got rid of some worthless literature by placing it there (without regret).
knihovna=library

[niminy-piminy]

and there was a nice book swap niche in a wall (in a yard) of a house near (2 houses away) the birthplace of Jaroslav Hašek ("Schweik") who was known to be the reader of anything and everything (including the trash books). the niche was an hommage to him. but i don't know if it is still there. i didn't visit the place a few years.