1299 BLack and White Acrylic and Goal 2

Today Thursday 28th of February has been a day of pure self indulgence about food starting with Baxter's Minestrone soup with two thick slices of Brown bread, for tea, a cup of coffee and a chocolate wafer biscuit and for evening meal a prawn from shell sandwich with a large glass of Open Basket Australian Shiraz Cabernet as a starter, half an uncooked red pepper as a second course, then a plate of Heinz baked beans followed by two grilled Lochmuir Salmon fishcakes. The two should have been eaten together but I mistimed the cooking, and the meal ended with four buttered crackers two thin slices of mild uncoloured Cheddar cheese, and a dozen red and white grapes with a large cup of percolated Columbian Supremo ground coffee without sugar.

I broke off from the writing to watch the 10pm news, primarily to learn if there had been any progress in the investigations in Jersey, only to find that for 10 weeks the third in line to British monarchy, Prince Harry, the second son of Prince Charles and his former wife, Diana, has been fighting in Afghanistan, and that an agreement had been reached with the British and significant other foreign press to keep the information secret in order to protect the Prince and his military colleagues from becoming the primary target for Taliban and other forces. Since his disappointment at being pulled out of going to Iraq I guessed that something like this might happen and for once it is to the credit of the Media that the agreement was kept and that it is on the internet that the story was broken. As a consequence it was previously agreed that film of the Prince serving on the front line would be released and my reaction on viewing is that it will enhance the Prince's standing with everyone except the entrenched anti Royalist and those opposed to our original and on going involvement in Afghanistan. I followed on this news with Question Time and the political magazine programme this week and my mood until the news changed and I had to reappraise my day. Three cheers for Harry and King George.

It has commenced after a good sleep and some dreaming, and another clear blue sky morning, with later the information that this has been the sunniest February since records commenced another indication that the weather has changed, whether from human activities in one form or another or from changes the consequence of extra terrestrial events. I completed set work for the month, some 120 additions, bringing me close to the average since August 2003 of 125 a month, approximately 4 a day.

This afternoon was devoted to a visit to Sunderland which included a leisurely cup of coffee and a wafer biscuit looking through various brochures obtained from the Sunderland City Information centre which is truly the best I have seen anywhere in the UK. I was interested in three types of information. There was bus information for those going to Durham City, Middlesbrough and Carlisle as well as into parts of Northumberland. These are long hall day trip although the trip to Durham City from Sunderland is forty five minutes and there should be a similar time taking trip direct from South Shields. Some of the trips were from Sunderland Newcastle and onward so it will be possible for me to take the short in time route by Metro to Newcastle central bus station and from their or from other metro stops to Northumbrian towns such as Alnwick and Warwick. One issue is that with people like me travelling outward from 9.30 there could be homeward congestion so it might be risky to leave departures until the last buses. The second kind of information was on places further field where I have booked accommodation this summer, including Oxfordshire and Yorkshire. There was also some local event information although from previous experience the city library across the way has the more comprehensive range of cultural event programmes.

I rarely give way to day dreaming about situations which are unlikely such as what would I do if I won the European Lottery in a week where the fund had accumulated, but today as I set off to buy some canvasses, I indulged and continued with the concept when I returned home.

My priority would be family interests followed by supporting charitable and cultural interests as I am only able to do now on a very modest scale. But then everything else would be used to build and equip a black monolith building on Tyneside, hopefully planning permission would be given here in South Shields. A six floor structure clad in black polished stone with black glass. Thus recreating the black monoliths in which the main confidential component of the work will be housed. (Not everything treated as confidential will be secured beyond human curiosity, I have decided with red display units full of boring stuff house receipts and household communications suggest bank statements, income tax accounts gas and electricity accounts which could be displayed and become public access after a period of years after the security information contained in them no longer mattered and the names of employees identified no longer mattered.)

The argument being that only some material is never released to the public by the state such as on the workings and activities of the security services, especially those involving covert operations. I was amused by the outbursts of righteous indignation about the collusion of the media between the media, the Government and the Palace over the deployment on the front line of Prince Harry, although George Galloway on Question Time was consistent in his true colours defending the actions of Castro who imposed censorship and curtailed human rights because he regarded his country as being under constant attack by the United States, which it was of course, and where in 1939 we had to impose similar restrictions while we waited for the German onslaught on our people and their shores. The suspicion I have about George and others on the far left and right is that for them the control of the media would not be a short term expedient born of necessity but become a permanent way of government. This has been the evidence of all previous situations. Was Mr Galloway also beings serious when he appeared to be giving support for the way of life of the Taliban, while in the same breadth defending the high expenses spending life of those dependent upon public funds, on the grounds that those part of capitalist enterprises were able to use used business funds for lavish expenses approved lifestyle. This is class war hypocrisy George and the sin of all those prepared to misuse public funds. Mind you there is also just as much hypocrisy on the part of the unfettered capitalist who exploit the poor and uneducated.

I am presently set on my building having six floors to create a separate areas for guests which would be excluded from the 24 hour on line surveillance, recording and broadcasting system of everywhere else, except for bodily function areas. Within the edifice the rooms would be similar to those I have experienced during my life, in terms of size including height and recreating how the presentation of the work has developed as well as the work itself combining the routine daily living experience with the ongoing working activity. Retirement is only a concept for those who do not like or enjoy their work or wish to have greater financial.

If the amount was truly huge I would incorporate into the adjacent land area of the site, a restaurant cum bar, with facilities for music and song performances restricted to jazz, especially traditional jazz and the blues and a small complex of art studios and accommodation units to enable individuals to work and live while they attempted to establish their work. Dream on Dream on.

The second purpose of the trip was to purchase of four double primed, medium grain and hand made canvasses 16'' x 16'' to become part of the Black and White project which so far includes 101 copies of my 400 page autobiographical creative statement with 101 photos, which have been separately framed full size in Black and White and the first edition of 101 selected statements which are to be framed for display when the final version have been decided edition.

There will be 104 of the canvasses created, 101 for display with three reserves to complete four sets of 24 plus the 4 artman glitter and artman 100,75 project registration cards. Each Canvass will include an actual black or white A 4 size card, although I am yet to decide on the proportion where the card or photo card will be viewable or where it will have been submerged by acrylic, including acrylic representations of black and white cards. Pastel, crayon, pencil and watercolour will also be among the material used in addition to photographic montages, but while there will be a black and white A 4 size space, the surround will be worked in other colours.

Each canvass will be numbered within the creative sets where the range is 4001-8999, cards 96024-215976 as they will contain an actual card, and in some instances the painted representation of the card, or the additional photograph of the card which it covers. Although I am not a numerologist, the work will commence on the 69th anniversary of 9.3.39. I wonder what are the odds of a lottery ticket comprising 3. 9.12 36 39 42 or 3.9.12.15.18. 3 .6..9 12, 15 etc?

My evening meal was shared with a second viewing of the first film in series of three Goal 1 where I recently I Goal 2 for the first time. I saw the first film in theatre at its North East Preview having attended the two games at St James Park, against Chelsea and against Liverpool which are included in the film and interestingly only recently stood waiting for a bus opposite the Tynemouth terraced housing overlong the beach included in the film after my visit to the Church of St George at Cullercoats. The order of viewing the two films on DVD was set by the service supplier and it was consequently interesting to find what I had forgotten and to learn that the three film scenario had been agreed with FIFA and FA from the outset, concentrating on a British Premiership club in Goal 1, the European Club competition in Goal 2 and the World Cup in Goal 3, although getting Mexico, the USA or Spain to be the World Cup winners for which the star could be shown to have become eligible will be interesting. Newcastle was selected not just because the club had become internationally known with the first Keegan era, but because the ground is located on a peak of the hill which forms the greater part of the city, if filled to capacity with 52000 supporters and has the greatest night life on par with any other city in the world in a concentrated area from the Bigg Market in Grangertown down to the quayside and where between the High and Low Level Swing Bridges and the Millennium swing Bridge there is the Contemporary Art centre and the Sage Concert Halls and other developments on the Gateshead riverside.

Although the intention was to show modern football and its impact on cities, Newcastle and Madrid so far, the film is also about the impact of the rocketing economic and social status of becoming a international football star with the family (the Mexican father grandmother and brother of Santiago Munez (Kuno Becker) becoming USA illegal economic migrants in California where he is discovered by a former Geordie players and scout on holiday is given a Newcastle Trial where the International sounding Manager reminds of the new English Manager, and he hooks up with the goal scoring aging playboy Gavin Harris played by Alessandro Nivola and meets his future live in girl friend, who has the film name of Nurse Roz Harmison, (Anna Friel) which interestingly is the same surname as Durham and England Cricketer and Newcastle fanatical fan Steve Harmison. I had also missed the first time round the segment of the film on what it is like to play in the cold with driving snow and gale which is a features of playing and watching football in this region, and elsewhere of course but where here some male fans strip to the waist. I enjoyed the film even more than the first occasion.

I was disappointed with the second round of male performers in American Idol except for 17 year old David Archuleta who brought floods of tears to just about everyone from Paula Abdul, to his mom, and me, even Simon looked moved with his performance of Imagine, with Paula saying he was about to become a superstar. Simon's comments that there were now 19 other depressed contestants was not the kiss of death with the public as only David himself can prevent his otherwise inevitable success.

1693 Working with Don McLean and Judy Collins singing

This is not a time to bring into immediate consciousness Easter holidays of previous years as I decided to work on the project with relaxed attention rather than concentrated fervour. However I have been remembering previous writings as I continue to read Myspace published Blogs of 2007 and upgraded the presentation for publication again through Google. Coming across writing of attending concerts of Don McClean and Judy Concerts I have been listening to their records.

Don Mclean If you could read my mind
Vincent
Wonderful Baby

This work led to the completion of Google Blogs volumes 5816- 18; 5819-21, 5822-24 and reminds that I forgot to mention that in error I overwrote the list of completed sets according to category and number with the current record of completed sets listed according chronological date. Fortunate I had a copy on disk but saved at the end of September 2008. It was therefore necessary to reassembled the updated listed from the chronological list, in stages with Developments and Creatives and then Events and confidentials and the limited number of record records. Printing updates of the records led to reorganising my record of records indexes.

Love me Tender
It was a very Good Year
El Paso
My saddle Pal and I

The circular nature of aspects of the work does not escape me as I record having completed volumes of MySpace Blogs writing about recording volumes of Google Blogs of previously written Myspace Blogs, such is life. My Space Blogs 5789-91 5810-12

And I love you so
Crying
Empty Chairs
Homeless Brother
(Jesus on the Highway was a lost Hobo)

Birdie has been more on evidence on the nest because although the sun has been bright the temperature became cold, just above freezing on Bank Holiday Monday. I watched and listened to the Papal homily from the Vatican window overlooking St Peter’s Piazza in which he argued with conviction for the resurrection as a factual event and not symbolic. If I understood the transition correctly he claimed that without the reality of the physical resurrection of Jesus the rest of the religion was rendered meaningless because of our knowledge of scientific reality since then. In my opinion he made a fundamental fallacious conclusion equating moral conduct in its widest meaning with religious belief and immoral and decadent behaviour with scientific materialism when the evidence is to contrary in that some of the greatest acts of immoral and ungodly behaviour has been committed by religions and some of the heroic selfless acts of sacrifice, renunciation of wealth and worldliness committed by atheists. Cloistered thinking without a sense of space, time and history me thinks.

T Blues
Magdalene Lane
Infinity
Although chill the sun was so bright even after three pm that I had to go out, with camera to capture the sun rays on the spring flowers in North and South Marine Parks. The only pity is that the Council has miscalculated the volume of people enjoying the holiday weather and all the red waste bins were overflowing. Picnickers had done there best putting the overflow in bags. I will go out later if the weather holds to check if this rubbish was removed overnight or left to accumulate. The parks looked brilliant and were being enjoyed by a wide cross section of the population.

Prime Time
American Pie
Run Diana Run
(They are crossing the Atlantic: It is just assassination)
You have gotta share

I wonder when Run Diana Run was written as it warns her to escape the attentions of the media, or the CIA who wish to destroy and where all those who briefed the media against have her death on their immortal conscience.

Judy Collins Cats in the Cradle
They Say its Wonderful
Amazing Grace

I enjoyed my food cooking the round kilo of gammon and eating several slices with roast potatoes, followed by half a small sweet melon. Later I could not resist a couple more slices with an olive, cucumber, tomato and lettuce salad followed by a banana. I enjoyed the Mclean so much that listened twice. Also see 183 Myspace - November 2007 and 1189 Don Mclean Starry Starry night.

Blowing in the Wind
My Heart Stood Still
Embraceable You
I’ve grown accustomed

In addition to completing the volumes of Blogs the new versions are being added to a separate Disk from the latest in batches of ten to twenty and the Blog index is being revised with inserting the Google Blogs alongside the My Space. I discover that I have not saved Google Blog 1214 Cry Tsotsi and to recover the position I have to call up My Space and find the writing, copy, and then save on hard drive and copy to disk. In the process that I also discover I have not printed 0ut 1213 The Headlines of a lost Blogs written at the time and then lost so feeling tired and lazy I had noted the main points I had written about.

Barbara Allen
Till there was you
My Funny Valentine
Morning had broken

The one task I have been shirking is photographing completed sets. I must get myself into the grove again. I sent some e mails and received some comments which generated a further cycle. I wrote and checked and had to rewrite and recheck.

How are things in Gloccenmara
Times they are changing
Leaving on a jet plane
Send in the Clowns

Priority in the evening as the last Lewis oft eh present series. It struck me that In Oxford the working class are obviously finding the working day too hard to contemplate murder where as the University is full of calculated killers and men and women of murdering passion. This last episode took the team into the countryside and an aging group of hard rockers which extraordinarily and incongruously Lewis was a fan of in his alleged youth. Rubbish, such personalities as he portrays were conformists. The Beatles perhaps and locals such as the Animals, Bryan Ferry and Dire Straits and even more likely Lindisfarne. He is unlikely to have had friends who smoked dope let alone had the occasional puff.

Don’t Cry for me Argentina
Loch Lomond
Plasir d’amour
Both sides now

Having slagged off this aspect of the two how show the saving grace were the number of fine actors assembled for and otherwise predicable who dun it when clues were ladled up for the simplest of watcher to work out well in advance. In fairness I did not work the motive. Joanna Lumley played the fake former rock singer and Simon Callow the gay creative impresario who had to get rid of those who realised the returning star was her overshadowed younger sister. Horribly miscast although she did her best was gorgeous fine actor Helena Baxendale who made her name in Cold Feet and went onto Friends.

Black is my colour
Bewitched
Younger than Springtime
Let it be

See Google 1226 Judy Collins and MySpace 218 Truth and Therapy.

1152 Artman Report

Sometimes what I do is circular. This is the 149th MySpace published writing, commenced at 10.30, Wednesday 22nd August 2007,on a morning when I amputating my 101 project records. I have completed a printed 4 set volume of creative work numbers 5462-5465. It also contains two Artman glitter cards, the first written in freehand green and silver glitter and second in gold and red glitter, and two signature card signed Artman in black crayon which includes the numbers of each card in sets 131065 113060 and the numbers of the Artman glitter cards 108363 108365 and of the signature cards 108364 10836 of set 4515, also classified as a creative set. Technically only the glitter cards should be described as creative and the signature cards record cards but in the beginning I decided against because I was being lazy and therefore it is something that has to be lived with.

I have also photographed the volume one page at a time, although some volumes I also photograph two pages because the this interests and also establishes that the written or visual material exists in addition to the record of the writing on a computer and a computer disk, and in the instance of this work, on My Space, retrievable by me as long as I keep the My Space account and it keep me, and technically I assume in the master Myspace database unless all individual records are deleted if an account is ended.

I have also entered the record of the last two completed the sets in a chronological list 6570 6571 as the others were previously entered thus making 157704 cards officially registered although I have over 30 volumes some from one set volumes others of eight sets to be checked and registered and photographed of completed sets of work which rise from the floor onto a settee. Some of these volumes or where the Artman glitter cards or registration signatures also need to be created. The glitter cards can be created while I watch television, usually I am bored after twenty and I only have surface space for that number o dry in this room, and by the evening after a meal I am sufficiently tired not to make the journey into the front room, cannot be called a living room, because I use it rarely at the moment other than to clean, or get a bottle of wine, check on literature work from the library shelving, a DVD, to view on the wide 32in wide screen TV now in my ground floor work room. The front room also houses two thirds of the video collection and I cannot remembered the last occasion I viewed material although the intention is to transfer to DVD someday. The audio unit including vinyl record player is also next door, in theory I will listen to my music or use the music as a background to reading although this is also rare, because both activities should be undertaken separately.

Tonight it is a friendly football match between England and Germany and the BBC has again risked wrath by adding some laughter when it advertises that it showing the match, trying to generate an audience obviously having paid a substantial some to show the match in competition with other media and forgetting that in pubs across the land, the National Front and other right wing groups will assemble and use the occasion to display the worst kinds of nationalistic and threatening racist behaviour, and which will spill over into physical violence at any opportunity, especially if England lose. Oh some may say, if this is read by anyone how do you know? I have witnessed this myself, the last instance was at a public house at Waddon near Croydon where a charming young man explained to the Black barman that they would wreck the place if England lost. This was not banter, or boastful I intimidation. We all knew it was meant, that is the ladies who disappeared first with their partners because of vile references to their bodily parts, and the rest of us who decided to leave at half time, giving sympathetic glances to the barman and each other as we retreated while the yobs were at the bar to refreshing themselves for what was to come.

Working in was not my original intention as I hoped the weather would have brightened up to undertake the next stage of the two rivers walk, which covers the cliff promenade and suntrap sunbathing areas between the Seaburn and Roker beaches which includes a gap between the cliff over which there is the road, but under which there is pathway into a park which has been upgraded back to its Victorian splendour. It is brightening but having started I will do some 101 work, make myself a cheese or salami omelette followed by a banana or some plum visiting my mother between 2 and 6 and return for the evening meal and the match. Whoops I need to iron the three nightdresses washed and dried last night, next before the food. Tomorrow a walk is also out unless I get up early and the weather is suitable because I have been asked to meet with the consultant at noon, and in the evening I want to go to the pictures, to experience the third Bourne trilogy film, at least I assume it is a trilogy, and where through the kind benevolence of ITV the first two films were shown on Sunday and last night, repeated on another of their channels on Monday and tonight. An first of all to check emails and myspace and the post.

Great my internet post DVD club has sent Jamon Jamon, the 1992 film directed by Bigas Luna and starring Penelope Cruz, together with the Francois Ozon film Time to leave with Jeanne Moreau, both of which I know nothing about, more internet checking, but before or after? Hospital has telephoned to confirm I will be at the round doctors round tomorrow. New debit card arrived to replace one which expires in a week's time.

12.15. There was another of those infuriating annual discussion about the cost of school uniforms and the requirement to wear them. The BBC sees its role in these programme to present as wide a viewpoint as possible within the permitted framework of free speech without coming to any conclusions irrespective of the evidence presented or the logic of a particular argument. As a consequences it sometimes misses out on fundamental points. Earlier in the week or even last week a woman became very upset when others did not share her passionate argument that children should have the nurturing of their mother in the earliest of years, but nobody was on hand to explain to her that she was right, but only to a degree because it so much depends on the mother and her social, educational, cultural and economic circumstances. If she loves her child, recognising it is a young person, is comfortable being a full time mother and wife, and is able to prepare her child for school and for living in society then great, but how many young first time mothers are equipped to do this? An what effect will this have on the child if she not? It is a sad truth that the more poor in every respect the mother, the greater the child will benefit from mixing with children from different backgrounds and being ion contact with adults who have some insight and experience of good mothering. The converse is also sadly true that the stronger the background of the mother the greater is the ability of the child to function in whatever environment it is placed. Where is some circumstances the mother has died, departed or made herself unavailable a substitute mother is preferable and then a natural or substitute father figure. There is no absolute position and in every situation the issue depending on the circumstances and background of those with the primary responsibility for the upbringing of the child.

12.45 This morning the subject of school uniforms also had its infuriating moments. I agreed with those who argued that a school uniform was a social leveller in so far that within school the worst aspects of children's clothes wear can be avoided from inappropriate clothing to the showing off wealth and following of fashion which should be regarded by all sensible and caring people as one of the deadliest of sins and a guarantee of moving into the anti room of hell rather than heaven. We hen had the extraordinary situation of a male head of department arguing that children who wore uniforms correctly had better examination results than those who did not. If correct no one was on hand to explain that this meant we had the wrong examination system because it was measuring conformity and not originality and creativity. As a nation , it is true we once needed conforming masses who would be comfortable in the future roles working in heavy industry and manufacturing, or undertaking routine clerical work which can now be undertaken on a computer as part of other more interesting functions. This is not longer the situation and in order for the nation to survive we need an increasing number of creative, imaginative, energetic, inventive individualists, even to undertaking comparatively simple and lowly paid work such that being a waiter in a restaurant or serving behind a bar The establishment has to attract people to leave their homes from where the same food and drink can be provided at a quarter of the cost, and where those who make can continue to do so. This is also true for those who spend most of their day and night cleaning the bottoms of the old and disabled and ensuring that they are appropriately fed and clothed. The least suitable person is someone without imagination and creativity who cannot see every resident as the person they have been or someone they are likely to become. Unfortunately some schools do have teachers, even heads, who are the kind of adults who prepared their young men to go off and be slaughtered in their millions without being able to question if what they were doing is justified. This of course is what happens in totalitarian regimes of the extreme political right and left. What attracted me to Jesus Christ was his subversive tendencies.

1.20 I had my daily fix of profit predicting from antiques, a daily reminder that as with stocks and shares the only people to make a regular profit are the dealers. There is one expert who always qualifies the estimate or sale figure by saying there is a little bit of commission to take off hohoho. I hate to think what his definition of a big bit is. There are the occasional amazing tales of luck something bought in a car boot sale for coppers which is then sold for hundreds and even thousands of pounds, but the odds are no different from the national lottery or bring murdered by a stranger who is in their teens. Later while watching subtitled TV with my mother there was a programme where someone brought a Moorcroft Vase to a dealer who offered cash which is not accepted would go to auction. The person was foolish enough to tell the dealer that he had been offered £75 which he did not consider acceptable. The dealer offered £100 adding that at the auction there would be commission to pay. I have watched sufficient of these programmes to know that the Moorcroft vase usually makes over £200. By coincidence in a separate programme a pair of Moorcrofts, similar but not matching fetched over £600.

10.30pm I did a good pre holiday weekend shop after the hospital visit with on naughty naughty. Two choux chocolate topped fresh cream filled buns, eaten after a meal of two pork chops, steamed unfrozen vegetable and a bowl of cherries after red wine and peanuts, followed by a can of coke. This proved to be suitable preparation for the match which commenced with a good disaster in that I went to sleep for just over nine minutes after kick off thus missing the opening English goal. I then saw our goal keeper make the mistake which is likely to cost his international career and a first cap back (i.e. not a forward), blast a shot to put the opposition ahead 2.1. The Mr Owen short of match fitness, and good riddance Mr Dyer both missed golden opportunities plus the makes lost of mistakes, usually, opposition goalkeeper made some great saves, so we lost, but it was a no consequence friendly.

I have managed to transfer the photographs from two memory sticks and do the signatures cards for the Myspace Blog new volume and then for a volume of creative photographs with the title photodream and where one set 5470 is completed.

23.45 Checked the position in the legends prediction league and find that I have progressed from 600 something to 400 something at the end of week 2. The slowness of activity because for background I decided to watch Rat Race on Film Four. A ridiculous escapade race movie from Las Vegas to Silver City in which John Cleese sets up six punters chancing their arm in his casino to get to Silver City where he has placed two million dollars in the station left luggage available to any of the six who gets their before the others. The six who include Rowan Atkinson, as a badly speaking Italian, Whoopie Goldberg playing nun on the run and Cuba Gooding playing Cuba Gooding, are worthy of Membership of the Big Brother club and each have prosperous and predicable adventurous mishaps until the spectacular finale in which they decide to abandon their individual quests in order to help feed the world.

Another day is ending and despite the weather four or five members of the Big brother gang are in th heated pool while others coated sit at the smoking bench, which others get comfy in the bedroom, but I will be abed and asleep long before any of them are. I have added a registered six developments sets 1915-1919, completing one volume 1907-1904 creating the signature cards to 1925. 6578 sets registered and 252648 photos.

1122 101 Project and past 7 days review

It is only a week since my last uploaded writing, the consequence of technical problems, the decision to upload photographs, and ongoing task, participation in outdoor activities, in part a serious effort to reduce weight sand improve fitness, some household work and some emotionally challenging situations over which I had little or not influence.

On the journey to the Diana concert I took a major decision about autobiographical writing deciding to set aside the work on Fragments of Memory and Fragments of Time for one composite work, centred on what experience, reason and some research indicated was a criminal scam, but which I hoped was not. Almost as soon as I devised the framework for the new work, I received confirmation that I had been chasing a fantasy, an illusion and the framework was shattered.

I had mentioned to a friend studying Literature that I had written a novel and following an expression of interest in reading the work I tried to find the disk on which I had transferred the original manuscript from Amstrad loco script to Microsoft Word and knew that I want to lose myself in recreating the work as my main task for 2007 and into 2008. I am pleased with the first 24 doubled lined pages and decided to attend to some household tasks and to finish the uploading of photographs.

Since July 2003 I have taken 250000 digital photos, over 200000 of these are of the 165000 completed cards with rest a mixture of specific projects on the seasons, visits related to previous experience an individual projects which interested me or part of personal and confidential matters. As with the crayoning and use of pastels they are intended to reflect development from childhood to adulthood, middle and old age and individually are not intended as free standing work but part of the whole. Many of those presently uploaded will last until I am ready to go through completed work and all the non work photographs and decide which I like most as representing the overall work and its development.

The golden rule applies that no one other than my mother and me will be identifiable unless permission has been given or the photo has already been published such as that when I organised a gathering at Parliament, technically an individual Member of the Commons hosted, to mark the passage of the 1969 Children and Young Person's Act, coinciding with the end of the Labour Government which supported the measure and the arrival of the new Conservative administration which opposed several key components. It was an important event in my life but insignificant in terms of the political and social changes which then followed. Some photographs will require time taking research. Over the years, my photograph appeared regularly in the local paper together with regular references to the work of the department I managed, I would send the cuttings to my mother which were kept in scrapbooks, but which were then destroyed as part of her illness. There are over 5000 editions of the local evening paper to be checked, and to be comprehensive there are two regional dailies and two other area evening papers and one regional Sunday which would require checking, unless the editors were prepared for someone to make copies of whatever they have kept on file.

A different kind of problem covers the photographs, some faded, the slides and the negatives from the period 1966-2003 before the digital camera was purchased. This process has commenced but it slow and tends to make way for other work which is of greater interest, until as now I wish I had devoted more time. The present frame work is of one set of 101 of me and one of homes, and work places, the one on my mother and of the family homeland, there are two on the seashore and one on the sky, with one on the garden year. The two which will take longer to complete are those on the work development and on completed work.

I also embarked on adding music and other video's from the Myspace collection, a treasure trove and where I am not sure if the profile will take 101 without freezing or taking time to then download.
I have been so busy doing and experiencing that I have not made daily notes or written up some important to me cultural events. I will make time for this weekend's mouth of the Tyne festival, the third, especially after this year going over by ferry to Tynemouth to visit the trad jazz stage and discovering that it was located next to the Rock of Gibraltar restaurant and pub, and where the staff explained in true Geordie that it was given the name because on a clear day you could see it!

During the past ten days I got to see the most beautiful love story and gripping mystery thriller "Don't Tell her," which if it does not receive the 2008 Best non English language film I will want to know why. This was the film I thought I was seeing a fortnight Friday. I also found watching United 93 almost unbearable. Cronos on DVD, the forerunner of, the Devil's Backbone, Pan's Labrynth, or so I thought only to find that it was not!

1117 Tate Modern and Dance at Royal Festival hall

08.30.04.07.2007. On Saturday June 30th as I travelled the underground to Waterloo station torrential rain began to savage the streets of London, creating disappointment among thousands of families and couples making their way to destinations in the open air. My plan had been to travel one more station and walk along the Embankment along to Tate modern and then later along to the rebuilt Royal Festival Hall for a quick look and lunch and then to the Saatchi, before returning to Victoria for a visit to Brighton for an evening meal. Such was the rain on the station roofing that I changed plan and decided to exit the Waterloo closest to the London Eye and make a dash for Saatchi, using my small umbrella, but not the waterproofs packed in the rucksack.

The rucksack was already proving an excellent purchase, back sculptured with built in cushioning, straps to spread the weight and a multitude of compartments and pockets which enabled items to be organised for different uses. It was suitable for a day trip, rather than for prolonged trekking adventures. I could not run too fast because the downpour was such that my trouser bottoms were in danger of being soaked. And then I had a surprise. Saatchi had disappeared. There was nothing for it but to find the first public entrance to the former County Hall building and use the outfit intended for the Sunday concert. I then made my way along the embankment to the Royal Festival Hall where I decided to take a quick look and discovered that at 2.30 there was to be a dance event to celebrate the reopening after the rebuilding. The first impression was that the building appeared to be little different from what I could remember before, a concert hall within a concrete structure shielded from the noise of the passing trains, and where outside the only noticeable difference was the new attractive walking bridge alongside the railway, and which provided one of the great vistas of the city of London, and one of the great city vistas of the modern world.

I had resisted a temptation to find out what films were showing at the National Film Theatre but passing the National Theatre building a notice board of events included the word free and closer inspection revealed the Tango music concert at 1pm. The day was being reshaped. At the Tate I took the lift to the level 5 without any prior knowledge of how the collections were being organised and presented. The focus of Idea and Object was Minimalism but with reference to the antecedent Constructivism and which paved the way for Conceptual and Installation art. There was much to interest the student of the development of contemporary art, but not me, and although previously the work of Joseph Beuys had attracted my attention, this was because of the man and his ideas behind the work, rather than the work itself.

I was still shocked by the disappearance of Saatchi, given the decision to break from a previous decision that I would not revisit until it was to view my work and could give the Tate, the attention the exhibition merited.

The second collection was organised under the title State of Flux and was devoted to the evolvement of Cubism, Futurism and Vorticism. There was nothing which entertained, provoked WOW or made me reassess the direction of my own work. And then, and then, I turned into Room 3 "After Impressionism," and there it was, first seen half a century before as the star attraction at the Tate, Rodin's Le Baiser.

I realised that I only I remembered part of the work. Then, before my first experience of wondrous female flesh wanting to give to you, she, Francesca de Rimini, giving her adulterously sexuality, had set the ideal. Then as now, she, they, in their nakedness could not be described as erotic, contrary to the present day Tate internet site notes, and in fairness to Rodin he is said to have described the pose as a "large sculptured knick knack following the usual formula". (I will leave what I regard as qualifying as eroticism to another day). She was also of fuller figure and more mature than had been my memory.

What I had forgotten was my reaction fifty years ago to the form of Paolo Malatesta. At the age of sixteen or seventeen, continuing until I was approaching thirty, I was slim size zero, although my legs had developed through cycling. He, Paolo was rugged, enveloping his mistress who herself was no virgin bride. As a consequence of his form I had contemplated a body building Charles Atlas programme, but I lacked the resolve and incentive.

Nearby the statue was the Picasso Girl in a Chemise and the Matisse Standing Nude, but the Le Baiser was all that I could cope with, at least in terms of experiencing an actual work and not its image. There were so many other memories to digest as half a century of experiences presented themselves as if standing looking on to banks of video screens.

I was ready to leave, but my attention was then directed to a large single video screen encompassed in an engaging red three sided and roofed enclosure mounted over the stairs which lead to the balcony overlooking the great Turbine Hall, with cushions to encourage visitor to stop and sit, if one could get down and then get back up. I wish I knew the words to describe the geometric shapes of the enclosure because it engaged me as something more attractive and compelling than most of the work I had seen on display. I know this says more about me than the work, but I hoped someone at the Tate Modern would take pleasure from me mentioning that their construction merited longer term display, especially as the two films were brilliant, succinct and clear explanations of the connections between movements told by the artists themselves and an umbrella commentary.

Afterwards I went in search of the video and later still, wished I had changed my mind about going to the National Theatre for lunch and for the Tango and re-watched the films and made notes. I curse I curse I curse my inability to remember even when I concentrate, am engaged and desperately want to remember.

Before leaving the Tate I had one task to perform which was to remove my soaking shirt, replacing with the sleeveless jacket and the weatherproof, after using paper towels to dry my upper torso. At the Royal Festival Hall I found a seat overlooking the ballroom dance floor against a pillar and hung the shirt over the adjacent seat to dry while I had my after meal siesta, and watched the performers limber up.

At least from the provided programme I thought I knew what to expect. Around 2pm the dancers and musicians had been given little memento gifts and sent off to their designated changing rooms with the reminder that they were on stage from the moment they changed into their costumes until they returned to their everyday wear.

At 2.30 instead of the company returning to perform we, the would be audience, were summoned onto the huge dance floor and told to attach ourselves to one of waiters waving white napkins. Each party was then taken on an exploration of the building from basement level to top, or from top to basement, and those who know the RFH will appreciate that it is a vast warren of rooms and spaces with restaurants and bars, surrounding its primary function, a large concert theatre appropriate for a capital of Europe.

At every space at every level there were over 100 dancers and musicians performing dance and mime, sometimes a solitary man at work over a desk or transporting toxic and dangerous substance, sometimes a couple, or a group, sometimes a group of musicians.

I quickly sussed that it was best to find something which I liked and enjoyed and then move on ignoring the crowd management of the stewards. I was not the only one who worked this out, and therefore there was some chaos. This was a good approach because after half an hour everyone was called to the ballroom for a half hour finale of passionate dance, which banished all the prejudices against classical ballet, not because of Billy Elliot male and cultural stereotyping, but it was too structured and predictable. The combination of individual or small group work experienced in close up and the ensemble performances viewed from the second floor balcony converted me to going to experience some dance at the Northern playhouse next season.

The overall work is entitled "Space Between" and was performed at 5 and 10.30 pm on June 29th and 2.30 June 30th and was three years in the making to mark the reopening of the building, and a collaboration between the South Bank Centre whose administration now covers the three concert buildings and the Hayward, the CandoCo Dance Company, and Newham Sixth form College (the New Vic). Some 200 individuals were involved in creating and performing the work including several in wheel chairs and one remarkable young man with cerebral palsy who proved that it is possible to anything to the highest level of ability if you are singled minded and have talent. He was the uncontested star as the audience response indicated.

The individual performances around the building were exceptional because the artists had to work for half an hour while diverse groups stopped by, looked and moved on much like animals in a zoo. They are unlikely to face a more challenging situation in their professional lives.

The South Bank of the Thames is now a very exciting place, as is London, and if one could be satisfied with a one bedroom tiny flat, anywhere located, the availability of free travel throughout the capital, and free museums, galleries and free shows, it is possible to have a full life of old age experience with sufficient over from my pension to pay for a wide range of other events. But there would be no time for work, especially if one or more companions were found to share some of the experiences.

It was a momentary thought which quickly passed.

The shirt dried but was left to Victoria before changing. However this did have one potentially embarrassing moment as on reaching Embankment station I opened the jacket to reach for the day travel ticket in the non existent shirt top pocket and then forgot to re-zip leaving a large expanse of hairy chest until realising my situation on reaching the platform. Well if anyone noticed it was gay pride day for exposing flesh, although mine is not a pretty sight. I put the shirt back on at Victoria and caught the right train and was struck once more that because of the surrounding geography the approach to Brighton Station gives no hint that one has reached the English Channel.

1094 Project 101 progress review

This day Monday is turning out to be a Bob Geldorf Monday. My intention last night was to complete the set work yesterday while writing something and this created the first problem because I was not in a thinking creative mood. The choice appeared to be between writing up a holiday and meal occasions remembered at the hotel where I first stayed in the autumn of 1973 prior to my interview and appointment as a local authority chief officer and where I had a meal once more, a week ago.

Something, which I cannot remember a couple of hours later, led me to think that I needed to reflect on the fourth anniversary since commencing full time work on project 101 on July 1st 2003 and I quickly realised that I only had a broad recollection of how the work had progressed and that I needed to check records, and then to my horror I discovered that some digital records could not be found, although I had a printed record, but worse still I had become lazy about the keeping of some records which will be important in years to come.

The day was reorganised and after a salad lunch with an unbuttered roll and a mini siesta watching Bargain Hunt, I directed myself to making a summary record. I had spent too much time with one eye of Big Brother House and I must soon decide if this enthusiasm is to be maintained or abandoned. I arranged my travel to London for the Diana concert on July 1st, going by train and return by coach; although on reflection it is such a long journey I may re book by train later this evening.

As previously recorded the 101 project has it seeds in the opening of the Baltic in 2002, the film of the life of Jackson Pollock and the purchase of two books, in particular the last two chapters of the Stangos Edited Concepts of Modern Art. Then after an important break involving three diverse life changing events I had visited the Saatchi and Tate Modern on a Spring Day in 2003 I knew not only what I wanted to do but how to do it. It was after a fourth event which shocked and devastated after a first visit to Gibraltar at the end of May 2003 that the decision was taken to commence full time work on July 1st , having planned to commenced on the 65th birthday in March 2004. July 1st was also the day that I was advised I had won a joint BT Tate competition with prizes which included a state of the art BT phone and the Tate companion to British art. It appeared to be a good omen.

The first decision had been to the test out my concept by anonymously sending a sample set to eight critics, artists, exhibitors and art media interests. There were three reasons for doing this: 1- A commitment to the project; 2- An attempt to find out if anyone else had previously thought, or was working on something similar and 3- to see if there was a reaction or any interest. At the time I was debating if I should attempt to raise funds to maintain the former family home, or start afresh elsewhere.

I decided against acquiring the knowledge and technology to put myself on line but kept a record through a mixture of open access and confidential audio tapes which I continued until 101 90 mins tapes were completed. I commenced to digitally photo each completed set or volume of sets, and these photos comprise the about three quarters of the 350000 photos taken to-date. I also commenced a record of how the work was displayed around the house, of the garden year and of the immediate environment as well as visits to former residential and occupational homes and offices. Some 20 hours of unedited film was also taken in the first two years of the project.

While I can list the main project work activities without reference to records, I need to have a better memory of how the work progressed. My first activity was to work with crayons and then with pastels. I made a visit to Oxford to where I had studied and worked 1961-1967 and to Teddington and Ealing where I had then moved and worked 1967-1970. Later in the year I translated by 1993 completed unpublished novel into creative set work and before the end of the year a list of all published writing. There were also the records of my confidential records of the Department of Health Drug Advisory Service visit to Oxfordshire in 1989. Between July 1st and December 31st 2003 I created 413 sets an average of 68 a month.

During the first quarter of 2004 a major project involved former work and homes and then my diary of events covering a ten year period from 1988. There were field trips to former homes in Yorkshire and Cheshire, and to Manchester and Birmingham where I had undertaken practical work and attended the University and a second visit to Oxford. There was work on the Drug Advisory visit to East Suffolk. The major field trips were to Calne, in Wiltshire and Gibraltar, as I recommenced work on the family history. There was information on financial history from Bills and receipts and systematic work on my creative writings from the early 1960's to the mid 1980's. I remembered that I had lent my only copy of a play which was not returned. In the late 1960 I had written a weekly report on child care social work matters raised in Parliament through Hazard and these had been sold to local authorities, voluntary organisations, training institutions and government departments, as well as writing a loose political column each month for a professional journal. I undertook some work on my support of Football and the great share dealing adventure when I had turned £1000 into £7000 in a matter of weeks and then lost everything when the stock market crashed. In 2004 I produced over 1600 new sets at an average of 135 a month.

The spring of 2005 was devoted to creating a chronicle of events 1939-2004 and to the writing of an autobiographical work 101 in Black and White where 101 copies were privately printed and which are likely to form a work for exhibition, in black and white boxes 9.3.39 together with 101 photos and 101 statements. There was component set making such as the period of involvement with non violent civil disobedience and direct action, some college tutorial work and confrontation with trade union and political extremists. The anniversary year came to end with the sale of the former family home and moving to my present location. There was further work on personal history with my interest in Jazz and the years of adult and further education, and professional work training. In the autumn of 2005 major work was commenced on family history with the development of on line searches of census records and church records before the creation of the national records of births, marriages and deaths in 1837. Despite moving home 2005 has been my most productive work year with just under 2000 sets completed at a monthly average of over 160.

2006 was devoted to family history research and a major visit to Calne to study original church record. This led to an amazing discovery of a Tithe Map of all properties drawn to scale with a register of all owners and renting occupiers and which showed the property where my mother's great grandfather and his extraordinary wife gave birth to seven daughters in succession and then five sons. I walked into the local history centre on the same day that a distant relative who had once lived in the same street as the great grandfather were visiting and being shown a photograph of an ancestor. A family history to 1901 covering information and photos was produced in three versions. This work is basis of a work about my relationship with my mother.

It was after the completion of this part of the project that I decided to create the AOL Blog from May 2006 to April 2007 and which has 900 entries. Each day I made one to three entries chronicling work and other activities, and a review of a cultural experience which had some reference back to life before 2003 when the project was commenced. There was also a back up record of some 50000 photographs, primarily of development work. I was not aware of any readership but the writing was checked to ensure it met the rules of the project and therefore it was not a comprehensive truth because thoughts and feelings related to known living individuals were excluded unless there was prior approval or the issue had been made public. There were also those matters restricted by statute. The writing of the Blog provided a structure for the day although this remained secondary to the main project task recreating my previous self aware life.

During the second half of 2006 I worked on the records of a child care inquiry when I had accepted an invitation with the approval of my employers in the early 1980's and where because of matters uncovered I drafted the majority report, although it was carefully rewritten and agreed by three of the four panel members of the inquiry. There were important lessons about inquiries within a legal framework there were some fifty lawyers ranging from Queen's Counsel to office assistants involved on behalf of the main interests. Those who had warned and complained, neighbours, foster parents had to rely on panel members to listen to their interests. The inquiry lasted 3 months and the study of the documentation and writing of the published report took a further year, undertaken early morning before commencing my normal managerial responsibilities 1855 new sets were completed in 2006, at an average of over 150 a month. I completed inventories of Books, of audio sounds and visual films in the media format of fifty years. I read and I listen trying to recapture the original experience and re-evaluate from the perspective of subsequent experience.

This year over the first five months the rate of new work has fallen significantly but remains over 100 a month. I have been considering why this has been so, and why I have not pursued some activities where there had been great enthusiasm and a sense of priority.

Yesterday I watched a programme about the life of the Comedian Benny Hill who devised his work and TV programmes and became an internal celebrity because of the visual nature of work. Various friends and admirers mentioned that he liked his own company, overeat and drank when he lost his new work contract, but that he liked to be in company but chose to control when and with whom. This was me but no longer.

It commenced last year with the experience of live theatre, and switching from seeing current cinema in theatre to the study of films and film makers centred on Ingmar Bergman and Almodovar with some 40 viewings todate.

Then there has been the impact of my Space discovered by accident having attended the live performance of X factor finalists and doing some homework on the artists. My interest quickly developed as a means of fulfilling the original intention that the process of my work should open to anyone interested in addition to the open part of the work itself. I also commenced to trawl the profiles of others and their friends to find those whose lives touched on aspects of my previous experience, and then discovered tribute sites to many of those who had significantly influenced my development. However this has had several unexpected consequences. It has led to important real live interactions and experiences where the links with time past has been stretched.
That my mother has reached 100 years also has had its impact, although being able to make almost daily visits, since her move locally approaching three years ago, has been more profound, because we have both had the relationship we never had as a child. Until now I have known what it was like to grow up without a meaningful relationship with one or both biological parents and only guessed at what it would be like to have had that unique relationship with a biological mother and flesh to flesh bonding father. This is not to imply that that all such relationships are good and appropriate, and enable children to grow up as productive and effective members of society and with constructive relationships with subsequent partners and their own children.

Too often when politicians and media comment and moan about the loss of Englishness, they are referring to a narrow sub culture created by heredity and industrial revolution wealth, which dominated and had authority over Victorian society, and which continued until the early part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. The majority culture has always been very different but without power. This has changed significantly over the past two decades. The composition of the British Isles has become European and International. The majority of young people are involved in liberating adult education and our cities and major towns have been given over to their culture and entertainment as well as to their education. The internet digital revolution has not only transformed what we see and hear but how we see and hear, but had rapidily sidelined politicians and the political process. People not only watch but vote in their millions Big Brother, Idol and X Factor. Business has become global with the capacity to switch everything to where goods can be produced most cheaply, and managements and research to where the best can function the most effectively. Meanwhile religions and ideologues murder and create havoc in order to justify their continuation and authority.

I was stuck in a limbo between a vanishing minority but powerful English culture and a new forced from which I felt and was to a certain extent excluded. I suddenly find that I am able to live in the world wide culture of the present. This requires a revaluation of how I am using my time and work priorities.

interesting blog. Posted by ~ Z ~ on 12:06 - 12:44

1064 Artman Creative

Recently an artist contact disclosed to the world that without a studio their artistic production environment was a garage, with the consequence that work had to be disposed off in some way before new creations could be commenced. This implied that the rest of their home was normal in terms of what normality is for those whose lives do not become taken over by their work. Visual and other forms of creative artists are not the only beings whose homes reflect their obsessions and fanatical interests. Programmes about collectors have revealed homes where every nook and cranny is filled with books, with objects and memorabilia of some form, and animals, from traditional domestic pets to creatures of the wild.

I have always been loath to throw anything away as a consequence of regretting the decision in my youth to "change" and dispose of everything which represented the being I wished to escape from. However I assumed that keys aspects of my life until then such as school reports and basic information of my childhood would be retained by my mother and remain available if needed. Alas when in the midst of the illness of severe memory loss with psychosis, and she saw anyone and everyone, including family members as enemies, she destroyed almost everything that I might have wanted to know and treasure. When the aunt who provided mothering died prematurely it was too late and contact with over a dozen surviving first cousins in England, the Mediterranean and the USA confirmed that there were significant gaps in the family history, in that no one had a photo of my mother's father and mother, and no one knows where her paternal parents are buried. It is unlikely this void will be filled although I will make another effort later in the year.

The interior of domestic homes should say something about the lives of their owners, and which they consciously wish to project, even if this is "I am a follower of fashion," or it is all a compromise because of my income, my background, my partner and children all having their say, and quite rightly too because it is their space and well as "my space."

I am revising this having floundered around for a few hours uncertain how to make the most effective use of this day. Yesterday was exceptional and this morning I awoke around 9am, after going to bed after 2am with what can best be described as an activity hang over.

I decided on sorting out the piles of cards waiting to become sets which cover the floor and every available flat surface in this work room. And then guilt struck and I felt physically better and vacuumed the front room and hallway. This is a Tardis house in that is has a narrow front sandwiched between other houses of similar appearance. Having not been inside theirs other than the entrance porch I cannot say if they have the same cavernous spaces inside with four living areas on the ground floor with two large rooms with alcoves, adjacent at the front, with tall ceilings and grand central light fixtures of days when the homes were town houses for sea captains and professionals with servants. Not on the grand scale of those of fashionable London houses and other elegant towns and city centres, but up market compared to the acres of public housing and for renting in the town, and in fact not too far away similar properties have been converted into two flats or used as small hotels.

The secret of the property is that running off from the entrance hallway are two further rooms parallel to the an outside back area which is mostly used for garaging but which in my instance because I have small vehicle, also accommodates a table and chairs, and some vegetation in pots, hanging baskets and window boxes to reminds of when I had a quarter acre site to develop and enjoy. My garage area is covered with some transparent material which produces intense heat as well as light so that during last summer the temperature reached over 100's degrees several times over a period of several days. There is a downstairs toilet which has to be entered from the garage so not ideal in winter, but compared to most such facilities, it has quality fittings and it is not only old ladies who find they need to make it quickly from time to time.
I am digressing from the theme of working environment to report a wondrous new development, viz the all singing and dancing six cartridge printer scanner which I have set up, partially, and scanned and printed my birth certificate to establish for Sunderland Football club that I am over 65 and entitled to a concessionary season ticket. The concessions and disadvantages of old age will be a subject for another day.

The reason why the printer is being set up today is because my second Epson standby printer failed. Both were free from my supplier of inkjet cartridges and both could not be used without technical intervention after reaching a certain use, I think somewhere over 30000 sheets. It only took a few minutes to clear surplus ink and re set and my local agent did both for the price of one, a few weeks ago, warning that the working life would come to an end. Then I had a severe paper jam and one machine stopped working and now the second. This would not have been a problem if my main machine had not commenced to print pink for blue.

I usually rush at making things work my way, but so far having unpacked, then spent more time that I cared for finding where the mains socket was, and tentatively exploring the main features, I discovered that I could copy and print freestanding without the computer.

Having successfully copied I decided to proceed with installing, but did not panic where I received a hardware not recognised notice. Then, for once, the solution immediately dawned. The suppliers had insisted on selling me a printer computer cable, albeit at a concessionary price, although the printer appeared to come with its own. Disconnecting this caused a flutter because for a moment it looked as if was an integral part of the equipment, but once this was solved and new cable attached, the machine was recognised and the installation from the CD could proceed. It took sometime because of the quantity of components and that some old software had to be uninstalled before the latest versions could be added but this was undertaken automatically. There were some further heart stopping moments before everything was in order and I was able to print out in blue the set numbering card called black which is part of a volume of internet information on the devil and all his little helpers which formed research alongside with My Space work, used for writings before Easter. The reason for needing set card number 13502 covering cards numbered 324025 324848 is that I had used set numbering 13546 twice. In order to avoid this situation which happens with greater frequency than I need, but which is not surprising because I have between 50 and 100 separate, but often related projects works, under way. I do have a master framework having originally guessed the balance between output of development work, events, records, confidentiality and creativity and I keep track with two lists which never balance, unfortunately. The first sequentially numbered 0 to 6250 or whatever is the latest completed set in the sequence, and the second list covers completed sets under their sections and this is useful in tracking partially completed sets. I keep records of each signature registration card which also helps to avoid duplication although sometimes it creates mysteries as I cannot explain why a gap has created eg why is there no such set 1824 when I am up to 1870? I also then photo each card individually and jointly with its partner in a volume including writing drafts, but not as in the instance of internet information prints because in theory these could be printed out again, if for an reason the work, or parts of it, is lost. Now wasn't that all interesting! I find it boring and resent the amount of time work housekeeping consumes.

I may be no good as a creative artist but I am working seriously at it.

I would get back to writing about my working environment except it is time to have a shave and put on decent clothes and visit mother. I shall return but not quite in the grand manner of Mr McArthur, or was it MacArthur. I will check that up on return? It was big Mac.

My first working environment was a large house of seven potential bedrooms and four living areas plus two good landing space areas and a double garage to develop as a total art use space. This was to be ArtmansArthouse.

Getting heavy, even when empty, four drawer filling cabinets to the first floor was challenge enough and as the time to downsize approached I settled for housing five in the garage, two in the main entrance hallway, one at the end of my bed, one in the main lounge and one in the kitchen. Two large black display units dominated the utility room, and the spare doubled bedded room was an interesting mixture of display units housing the blue work volumes with blue bedding and curtains. It was a compromise because the walls were bedroom wallpapered and I never got round to using the blue paint which I subsequently used here on the garage patio space and where one giant tin remains unused. I experimented with various combinations of units and a former lounge/dining room was given over to work and the technology experience history. I needed lots and lot of tables and flat surfaces to spread work and work materials, box files in their hundreds, card in their thousands, glue and glitter. I use kids glitter glue which takes 24 hours to dry and even longer if I decide to be creative with a mix of colours on the simple lettering of Artman of which one is created for every display set, but not for those to be locked and sealed in the confidentiality cabinets which I guess is an inconsistency.

I have got things badly wrong with using a fixed outline and format for the artman cards, until realising that I could create free form signatures, and I may switch to using acrylic for those which are the frontispiece for creative work sets, especially as I discovered a shop selling inexpensive packs for me to experiment with. These cards are not only for artman signatures but some use "witness" to my own life and others, and some "guardian" of my life and of others. The working environment and how the completed work was displayed changed and were photographed and I remember why I did not continue with this aspect when I moved here except hating to have to reproduce ideas once they have been worked out and through.

I decided on this theme for the main Blog writing of the day after waking with an activity hangover around 9am and it was an hour or so before I could begin the house clean which I had promised myself, vacuuming the front room, the parlour, which until Christmas had the appearance of comparative normality to any passer by. (I have said this before but I needed to say it again.) It was the only one of the other nine rooms which could be described as such. Admittedly there were three tall display units for books and black boxes housing completed creative work, but there is good sideboard, a settee, a couple of chairs, and my mother's glass display unit with an internal light, if only I possessed objectives worth illuminating.

Then at Christmas the myth of normal existence was destroyed when first I kept UP the 101 fairy lantern lights after January 6th. The initial reason is that it was not possible for everyone who wished to celebrate the 100th birthday of my mother on the day itself, and fortunately as she is within her own world of space and time the birthday can be celebrated at different times. If it is good enough for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth to do so then it is good enough for my mother! Then I had the idea of keeping the lights up during the remaining lifetime of my mother, or my own whose ever ending comes first, to at least until she 101. There is a similar set of 101 lantern lights fixed to cross beams in the garage to create a Mediterranean feel sitting out on balmy nights drinking wine and writing in my head. I could give myself a performance art soliloquy but could I get locked up in a mental institution? It is safer to do so on the net. The second, and greater reason, for ending the conventional front parlour image is that I brought down a single bed base to use as a work surface and then as a base for 101 9.3.39, and which I completed yesterday, but where I need to settle on the 101 dedications before it is ready for showing. Do I dare? Do I want to cope with the ridicule? The bed base has a secret because underneath is a fold up bed which can be set alongside the other to form a double. The idea is that if I cannot use the stairs at some point in the future I can survive on the ground floor. The give away that this was never intended to be treated as a normal parlour is the Black Cabinet in one corner. I use this room to watch videos and DVD's. I have the means of transmitting Sky TV from the next room and I got it to work, with the signal penetrating book display shelves either side of a solid brick wall. The books in here are novels, plays poetry and English Literature. There is also the DVD and video collection.

My Black and White work space has a mauve carpet and a colour poster with ticket for Live Aid 1985 but otherwise there is a combination of black and white units, a dilapidated settee covered in white and which is large and comfy enough to sleep on and where I often nap in front of the telly. I work by the window using a former kitchen table and a trolley to house the second printer, pending communications and cards for printing. There are mountains of packs of white card everywhere, usually 10 ream open and piled on top of a lot level display unit with over 2000 sheets of photopaper, 1000 sheets or so of communication paper and in between the settee and this display unit there is hidden the boxes of printing cartridges about 150 at present plus thirty for the standby printer to go back, and will be credited and then replaced. There are also packs galore of glitter and glue.

At present the floor is covered with piles of cards grouped but not sorted into an order of making into sets. There are about forty binders and folders of sets in the making, ten boxes in two sizes and three colours, of work also in the making and 25 partially made folders which will each hold 100 pages of text and photos on photo paper celebrating the life of my mother. There are two black filing cabinets, behind me.

The are 101 special books together in this room plus books on history, politics, economics ( I studied these subjects when taking an economics and politics course, and then books on philosophy, psychology psychiatry and psycho analysis, sociology and social work, when studies for the diploma in public and social administration and then for child care. There books on trade unions and their history on jazz and other music, on sport and this and that. There are several years of bound copies of New Society Magazine from the first edition, books on art and large travel places photo books not included in the 101.

The hallway leading to the stairs has two units containing 101 framed photos accompanying 101 and the first 150 volumes of development work. There are also 37 reams of white card here. I will have to count those upstairs and work out how long before I need a new supply and if this will be after my supplier brings out another 2 for 1 offer. Along the continuing hallway to the back of the house there are book cases for map and travel books, cook books and D IY books and on top information about goings on in all the arts locally and in the region. I am constantly having to vacuum the thick carpet because it is red and shows up everything light. Perhaps I should do it more often.

The day room is a mixture with a wall to ceiling rustic dresser and a table at the window which I inherited. There is a cavernous cupboard under the stairs and I wonder if the house had a cellar. In the other side I have two more cabinets and the separate Fridge and Freezer and the dryer, so that the room is more functional household although it is not unknown for the table and floor to be covered with work. The square kitchen is functional with coming with the house a gas cooker, a fridge freezer and a washing machine as well as adequate storage and another giant cupboard with shelving. I have an electric oven/grill which is better than the gas oven which I only use for roasting chickens every other weekend, as one chicken provides three or four meals subsequently made up with veg and stock. There is a steamer and two microwaves although one is hidden under the day room table.

And then there is the first floor half landing area, the first former floor bedrooms, my black bedded room, the second floor half landing, the second floor landing and the three rooms and then there is great loft of two room sizes (it has two lights) and a proper staircase, and then there are built in cupboards and wardrobes, about a dozen doubles and some singles. But how they are used must wait until another day.

But here is the thought that haunts having seen the images of the work produced by my friend from the limitations of one garage, it is not the quantity of work space or output that matters, but its quality. I am yet to be proven, my friend does not.