The past uncovered

And only because the garage flooded.
Mark went in there yesterday to get his bike out and came back hurriedly, face pale: 'catastrophe!' It was as unfortunately a lot of his music stuff was in there and is now fairly saturated. The other things that got part-submerged were folders of artwork - nothing valuable monetarily just artworks from ours and child's respective pasts.
Staring at my own sodden photographs, drawings and paintings I was seized with the urge to bin it all, so I did, holding back on a few things for . . . what? Nostalgia? we never look any of the folders' contents. Maybe it's just a certain security in knowing our pasts are there should we ever need physical reminders.
Mark's still going through his stuff and the purge-frenzy is not happening; most of it is laid out in front of the fire slowly crinkling into parchments from the 70s and 80s. Ezra's (son) art from age of four or so are more difficult to bin even though most of the pictures have leached into strange unintentional renditions of the aurora borealis. I've kept quite a lot especially the ones with surreal titles such as:
'very special piano and some chocolate,' a landscape with a tiny lawnmower, ' and 'a bus stop and people waiting at a bus stop and an acorn cup.'
Other casualties of the flood were all my documentation of the Wirksworth festival back in the early 90s; something I was very involved in for several years. Again, do I need all this anyway? Ezra won't want it when we've shuffled off this beleaguered planet. I've dried a few mementos and the rest of it's gone to the dump, the images of the actual event still fresh in my mind.
Possibly the best thing to do is document some of it, put it on a blog and make it into a book - which I did do with the last ten year's worth of life-recording. Yes, think I'll do that.
So, a few pictures.



Some of the rescued stuff before investigation



Drying. From the left: one of Mark's from Secondary school, one of my Beasti paintings  (Alfi Beastie's, Don't Eat That' book) something me and Ezra did when he was titchy, and another Ezra painting.

                        

                          A pencil drawing I did on art foundation. No idea who it was.



A later Ezra work - about fourteen?



A cartoon of our Geography teacher for secondary school rag. I can't recall his name now.

words and action

Mark and I had helped set up the Wirksworth (Derbyshire) Festival back about twenty years ago.
This year they invited us back to perform something of our choice. As I am currently involved with the last stages of developing my book, Hoxton, I suggested some readings.
Fast forward to just before the festival and we - myself, and more importantly, two excellent actor friends from the town, had more than just readings prepared.
During the day we rounded up props and costumes, and then in the evening they performed while I sat back and watched with amazement, and joy! my written words come to life on stage.
Debbie played Hoxton beautifully and Paddy wowed the audience with his stock of many perfectly-honed accents (he played about five characters linked together by a narrator in the form of 'Jake the Prophet')
Here they are in Hoxton's 'vestry' in St Leonard's church in Londonia 2070 talking about Marmite, (think it was that point).





                                                    Photographs by Nick Lockett

If you are ever in Wirksworth for the festival, make sure you see Paddy and Debbie perform alongside other wonderful actors in the company, 'The St John's Street theatre'. This years play 'All Fools' written by Tony Jones was, as always, a visual and audial treat!