The Casual Vacancy...politics of suburban life

I thoroughly enjoyed reading J K Rowling's first adult novel, having waited for the release of the paperback! Like many great stories, it begins with the unexpected death of Barry Fairbrother, a 40 something year old stalwart of the local community. We then build the jigsaw puzzle of his life, through the eyes of those around him; his wife and children, the other local councillors, the girls rowing team that he coached, local families and many more. The plot thickens when we realise that there is competition for his position on the council; all for different motivations, of course! We hear perspectives from both the adults involved and their children. It is great that the teenage children have such a strong voice, as they add their own form of manipulation to the melee. It is a pleasure to read and become a voyeur to this small rural hamlet that is fighting all of its own demons; can those who have more really share with those less fortunate, can parents really influence their own children, how do we live with mental ill-health, and of course who is really sleeping with whom? So it is not a surprise that the book does not have a happy ending, because there is no ultimate resolution of all these inherent tensions of suburban life. But it does feel like a real experience, empathetically written...

Mr Turner; a beautiful film of an ugly man

The cinema was full on Sunday evening, of the opening weekend; probably in response to brilliant reviews. I was keen to learn about this painter of light, clouds, storms and mist who broke with tradition, but also managed great fame and fortune in his lifetime. So it seems that William Turner was born into an ordinary working class family, where his mother was mad and his father doted on his son. But it soon became apparent that this artistic genius was oblivious to his wife and children, used women to meet his own needs and was fiercely competitive in the traditional art circles of the time. Turner was convincly played by Timothy Spall, as a growling, rotund and callous man. In contrast, every scene in the film was aesthetically beautiful, with early and late sunlight glowing gold and amber on the surrounding countryside, docks and city streets. I think it was quite an artists' film, with many of his masterpieces recognisable in their evolving and final forms. It was fun to see other contemporary artists such as Constable in the Royal Academy scenes. But the film was a long and largely disjointed set of scenes, which lacked a common narrative across time.

Discovering Tutankhamun...in Oxford

The Ashmolean's summer exhibition, Discovering Tutankhamun, recounts the story in 1922 of finding the tomb of this Eqyptian boy-king. Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter led the excavation of the tomb of Tutankhamun and painstakingly began to document every object in the 4 hidden rooms. The exhibition begins with Carter's diary open at the page where, in November 1922, he recorded finding the stone steps leading down to the door of a royal tomb with its seals still intact. When he broke through a second door, and used a candle to illuminate the underground caverns, he reported seeing many "wonderful things". While we can only see drawings and some very old photographs of masks, beads, carriages and painted boxes, of originals which will never leave Cairo, there is a sense of the enormity of his find. Although Tutankhamun only ruled for 4 years, died in his late teenage years and never had children with his step-sister wife, there is a sense that this find gave him an international reputation that is larger than it could have been at the time of his death...

Poppies surround the Tower of London

This is one of the most impressive displays of public art I have seen in London. This progressive installation, titled Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red, marks the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War. Exactly 888,246 ceramic poppies have been hand made by artist Paul Cummins, to represent soldiers who lost their life, and have progressively filled the Tower of London’s moat. It was great to see the crowds of people out to see this spectacle, without entry fee. It was also fun to hear parents telling thier children of the significance of each poppy. And it was amazing to see the enormity of this vision...wow...

Sigmar Polke: linking the Tate Modern with New York and Nazi Germany

Art reflects reality, or so it seems with the wildly divergent creativity of Sigmar Polke. He grew up in what is now Poland, and his family fled to East Germany, and later to Dusseldorf, and then Cologne. It seems he lived through Nazi Germany without having to leave the country. But it also seems that his artistic skills took him on many journeys away from the norm and the establishment. Tate Modern has teemed up with the Museum of Modern Art in New York to co-curate an impresssive exhibition of paintings, sculptures, movies, books and other objects. The interesting thing, for me, was his use of different materials for his paintings; he used fabric, felt and bubble wrap as a basis, and then used various elements such as meteor dust and sand in his paintings. He even exposed uranium to create a wonderful pink hued set of abstract shapes. He also documented his experiments with hallucinogenic drugs, with some respect and artistic license. Overall a very creative man who created a very real alternative to orthodoxy.

Is it golf or money that is A Dangerous Game?

The choices were limited on Friday night, so we opted for this docu-drama, focussed on exposing the ugly arrogant and ignorant Donald Trump trying to bully the locals near Aberdeen, to build a very expensive golf club and resort. This was really the second drama by the British director Anthony Baxter, to follow 'You’ve Been Trumped' which grabbed news headlines back in 2011. It continued the protest against property tycoon Donald Trump’s scheme to bulldoze a luxury golf resort across environmentally sensitive coastline in northeast Scotland. There were quite a few strands to this drama; the corruption of many by money and perceived power; the portrayal of golf as an elite sport for the super rich and the stoic attitude of people who really love the land and their lifestyle in Aberdeen and later Dubrovnick. It was quite disjointed in places and there was a feeling that the film was just another different level of propaganda. There are always more than two sides to every story. But I think the take home message for me was something about the power of bullies to engage people with formal power, such as police and Mayors, to take their side, probably with promises of lots of money! Is it also a coincidence that these people are often over weight and have a very superificial way of thinking and speaking?

Gone girl twists in the tail

The film opens with a scene on their fifth wedding anniversary, where Nick(Ben Affleck) laments that he can not know what his wife Amy(Rosamund Pike) is thinking. It quickly becomes clear that this marriage is all but over, except when he returns home from a fairly honest bar chat with his twin sister, we realise that Amy has gone missing. So the plot moves quickly to find out what has happened and why? Was she kidnapped? Did Nick kill has wife? Did she stage her own murder in revenge for him cheating on her? No one is quite what they seem in this tantalising adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s bestselling marital mystery. The pace quickens and each argument is conveyed very convincingly, until we see a version of the truth that is very confronting... There are questions about who could be a sociopath and at times, it seems both could be.