As I approach the Beatles song age on Saturday I feel the need to vent something important worthy of my imminent descent into \u2018old geezerness.\u2019 Albert Steptoe springs to mind although Wilfred Bram\/bell\/well was probably about 42 when he played the role. Talking of maturity I once tasted a 100 year old port – it was unpleasant but certainly memorable – perhaps I will be similarly rancidly recordable in 2057.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To celebrate my Birthday, It would be nice to hear other people\u2019s news that hasn\u2019t been passed through the social media \u201cremove anything remotely challenging filter.\u201d So get cracking you lot!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I am happy to report that our four kiddies are coping admirably with Lockdown 2 (or is it 3) and so are we. I admit to a touch of lethargy but they be the result of our coal burning polluting stoves being too roasty toasty (soon to be banned I gather). Actually I thought the myeloma was back with renewed lockdown enthusiasm because over XMAS along with the lethargy the dreaded back ache came back I was a wee bit of a misery \u2013 anyway since then the back ache has gone away (an Xmas miracle (must have been my dedication to the Presepio (or in Neopolitan dialect Presebio \u2013 Angela (p\u2019s become b\u2019s in Paupisan) ) so I am very very very very thankful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite that welcome deliverance I am preparing to embark on the chemo journey again as advised by the National Amyloidosis Centre and my consultant at York \u2013 a newly approved formula that includes another derivative of thalidomide \u2013 some other compound I can\u2019t remember \u2013 duh – and steroids! Hurrah. This was predicted months and months ago as my numbers slowly deteriorated and is not a disappointment or setback. I have done really well for two years with only a very slow slide toward the stage where this intervention has become necessary. That may be down to the stupidly expensive herbal curcumin I take but that may well be snake oil. Though delighted by the prospect of the creative hyperactivity the steroids impart I confess I am not looking forward to feeling ill again or the monthly visits to the hospital given the current danger of death that trips \u2018abroad\u2019 (touch of Bridgerton there (wasn\u2019t it a fab show \u2013 I fancied him too \u2013 and the WIGS!) however danger of death in the current climate is s certainly not my exclusive concern so I plan to suck it up – besides I am probably 64 when you read this, so times nearly up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking of times nearly up \u2013 I am putting my affairs in order \u2013 not because I am pessimistic actually the opposite I am feeling very optimistic that I still have lots to offer and lots to add to my affairs that will consequently need ordering. Anyway the process involves purchasing a lovely bamboo box drawer set (something of a fetish of mine we now have three) from Amazon and every time I think of something that will confound my decedents I bung it in with the intent of explaining it later \u2013 so far it includes a scratchy awful video on CD of my production of La Pazzia Senile I did in the 90\u2019s with no audience and an inaudible narration by a dear actor friend that should explain what\u2019s going on \u2013 and an equally inaudible live audio recording of an opera (Dirty Tricks) by my best friend Paul Barker (concept by me) written in iambic pentameters (after Shakespeare) by Steven Chance – that SHOULD NOT<\/u><\/strong> HAVE FAILED TO DELIGHT IN THE WAY IT DID \u2013 cos it was rather brilliant \u2013 I will collect my catalogue of telephone box audio files in due course – my collection of old Eynsford memorabilia (mainly postcards) \u2013 all my poems and stories even the terrible and incomplete ones \u2013 the instructions for the telephone box to insure it chatters on in perpetuity \u2013 FAT CHANCE (sadly it would be months of work to document and even then I doubt I could communicate it in a way that would make any sense) \u2013 together with passwords to bill payment websites- so that\u2019s my legacy sorted out \u2013 inexplicable operas with associate funny and largely inaudible voices, a bunch of dog eared faded postcards sent by unknown people, and equally dog eared poems and bills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Uni work is intense \u2013 tons of prep and marking \u2013 the hard part is staying up with the tech. I guess it\u2019s a good way of staving of Alzheimer\u2019s but blimey modern software packages are so fiddly and so hard to remember (oh oh – early onset on its way).<\/p>\n\n\n\n I am planning but not producing the next live broadcast for the telephone box that talks like me. It\u2019s for Easter Sunday so resurrection themes could fit the bill nicely. I am still obsessed with Berio\u2019s sinfonia that quotes from Mahler 2nd<\/sup> Symphony (The Resurrection Symphony – aha) \u2013 so sampling a work that is a compilation of samples is suitably post-modern I suppose \u2013 but could be horribly dull – that\u2019s as far as my thinking has gone so I have a bit to do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I have also found another interesting alignment between my enthusiasms and heroes that may bare so telephone box fruit in the future. It\u2019s probably not true but could it be the case that Charles Ives who lived close to New York heard or saw my anarchist heroine Emma Goldman (who also lived in New York up to 1919 when she was deported) speak at one of her rallies and as a consequence produced this text to a song in 1917.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is just the last two verses of \u201cThey are There.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here you will find Charles Ives singing it – really badly – I LOVE IT<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhen we're through this cursed war,\nAll started by a sneaking gouger,\nmaking slaves of men\nThen let all the people rise,\nand stand together in brave, kind Humanity.\nMost wars are made by small stupid\nselfish bossing groups\nwhile the people have no say.\nBut there'll come a day\nHip hip Hooray\nwhen they'll smash all dictators to the wall.\n\nThen it's build a people's world nation Hooray\nEv'ry honest country free to live its own native life.\nThey will stand for the right,\nbut if it comes to might,\nThey are there, they are there, they are there.\nThen the people, not just politicians\nwill rule their own lands and lives.\nThen you'll hear the whole universe\nshouting the battle cry of Freedom.\nTenting on a new camp ground.\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n