Vivienne Westwood
Just plain bad. (I hear you Mum)
(by Vivienne Westwood and Ian Kelly) It is no secret that, ever since I read “From A to Biba” and “Quant by Quant”, there has been a special place in my daydreams for an assuredly idealised and somewhat chronologically inaccurate 1970s King’s Road, London. I’ve often imagined bobbing into Biba for some knee-boots and popping into Mary Quant for some pop-art makeup*. But until I read this bio/auto-bio, I never, but never, envisaged wandering into Dame Vivienne’s “Worlds End” store on that same blue-skyed Saturday morning. Perhaps because it is in such a different world altogether from the non-challenging swinging London I…
Continue Reading →Incitement
Caesar stabbed in the forum & elsewhere, painted by Vincenzo Camuccini (@ Moderna)
Julius Caesar (1601) (Dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1953) A good film of a great play, scribbled when Shakespeare was limbering up and entering his white hot phase. The story is mainly of Brutus, nicely and very glumly played by James Mason as the ‘reluctant’ conspirator. All of the key players are good, although one might say Louis Calhern plays Caesar much like he was as the big spy boss in Notorious (that playing strangely fits the minor but key part in the play but is much too vigorous for a 66 year old prone to fainting spells). Suetonius called Caesar “deified” and suggested that…
Continue Reading →Mad King Ludwig
The Moon King
June 13, 1886: what happened? Ludwig II King of Bavaria, son of Crown Prince Maximilian and grandson of Ludwig I, died mysteriously that summer day in Lake Starnberg, Bavaria. If he was mad, he was our kind of mad. But he was also a threat, and this is why his ‘death by drowning’ has serious questions hanging over it – he was found floating, with his asylum doctor (also dead) near the shore, in shallow water, no water in the lungs, and he was a strong swimmer. As accidental drownings go, it has as much cogency as the water commissioner’s in…
Continue Reading →Half-priced sex
Up for it...Laura de Sade by Stefano Bolognini
Music being the food of love, where to get it cheaply? Some suggestions for starving pagans on this Eastertide: Bluesfest, just north of Byron Bay, can be done inexpensively, but TVC does not recommend it! Classic FM – yet another argument for the national broadcaster. Seriously though – how expensive is it, such that the ‘savage cuts’ by government threatens its existence? With all due respect to the superb pre and post prandial duo of Lawrence and Lester, they’re not paid as much as Leonardo Di Caprio! With a staffer to select the material and a taxpayer funded studio, plus the strongest transmitters…
Continue Reading →Chuck Close
Museum of Contemporary Art (Circular Quay, Sydney) (March 2015) Whilst this is more one from the lab than one from the heart, Close’s close work with photography, a computer loom, tinting and printing techniques, application of a slurry of paper and fibre, and some minor pointillism, creates a satisfying realism that seems warmer and more true than a mere photograph. MOCA had 77,727 visitors for this exhibition. Star spotting and the ‘I could of dun that (sic)’ syndrome may be clues. The precision of the process can be seen by reference to:
Continue Reading →