For want of anything better to post

Who Is Mr Satoshi? by Jonathan Lee

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This has some good moments after a bit of a shaky start. Quite reminiscent of Lost In Translation in some ways. The author's no Haruki Murakami but I had the impression he was quite up to speed on contemporary Japan and setting the novel there, as a way of taking the protagonist out of his (dis)comfort zone, was effective and believable. The plot of an unhappy man coming to a greater understanding of himself and the world has kind of been done before but don't let that spoil your enjoyment of this novel which is definitely worth a go.



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Feckless Parents...

Under the 1996 Education Act (section 444) "if a child of compulsory school age who is a registered pupil at a school fails to attend regularly at the school, his parent is guilty of an offence". Using your powers of intuition and knowledge of how the world works try to work out in which of these three utterly hypothetical scenarios Kent County Council decided to issue penalty notice(s) for £100. (£50 if paid within 6 weeks.)

1/Chavetta Smiff is committed to her career as a dope dealer so she frequently works late nights and has been known to surface from her bed at past noon. Her four school age kids have to get themselves up and dressed and fed etc most days. Some days they don't bother. Chavetta rings the school and says that Sherry has period pains or Chianti has a cold, on the days when she can be arsed to, assuming she even knows the girls aren't at school that is.

2/Jeremy and Jemimah Smugly decide to take a holiday in Nice at a time when there won't be too many common people about so as they barrel down the motorway towards the airport, with Jeremy flashing the lights of their Grand Cherokee at any road user daring to drive at less than 90 mph, Jemimah rings little Timmy's school on her iphone and tells them that unfortunately he's been in bed all weekend and the doctor says its chickenpox and he can't go to school all week, terribly sorry. With their suntans refreshed Jeremy and Jemimah drop Timmy at school the following Monday with a little note to the head-teacher saying that he's feeling much better thank you.

3/John and Jane Mild decide they will book a few days in a modest cottage in the north of England during term-time because during the school holiday week they will be hosting an exchange student. After months of job insecurity John was made redundant a few weeks before, so they could really do with a change of scene and the student income will be really helpful. They do the right thing and write to the two schools their kids attend requesting permission. Neither school responds favourably but they take the holiday anyway. They ring both schools every single day saying that the pupils are unwell. (Their kids have near-perfect attendance otherwise.)

Naturally we don't condone the behaviour of the parents in any of these three entirely fictitious cases.

Clue: KCC will only make half as much money if they fine a single parent....

A moment of clarity

The internet is awash with dead and dying blogs, but let me assure you that wild talents is not one of them, despite all appearances to the contrary. Why only the other day I thought a deep thought and then followed that up by thinking (yes, twice in one day!) "I should blog about that". And one day I will.

In the meantime here is a photo of my new favourite statue, A Moment Of Clarity by Marc Quinn, currently on show at Turner Contemporary in Margate as part of their excellent second exhibition Nothing In The World But Youth.

Another favourite of mine is The World Won't Listen, by Phil Collins. (Not that one.) He filmed a bunch of people singing karaoke to Smiths songs and then assembled the resulting films into a loop that reproduces the running order of the album of that name (which was a compilation so includes a number of their strongest songs). The three jolly fellows belting their way through Bigmouth Strikes Again are especially fun. It's a warm and humane project, I think, showing how people from all sorts of areas of the world, Indonesia in the case of the installation at the Turner, can share an affection for an eccentric English pop group. A neat and entertaining way of displaying how we all have a common humanity and the singers are all loveable and quite marvellous, like Morrissey himself.

Another set of exhibits that caught my attention were some early drawings and paintings by Turner which are slightly naive, but very skilfully executed. Assuming that he was in his mid to late teens at the time I was fairly impressed. Then I worked out from the accompanying caption with his birth date and the dates attributed to the works that in fact he was just 9 years old. Downright staggering.

The first exhibition at Turner Contemporary, called Revealed, was about the gallery space itself: using light and open space very generously. This second exhibition is much more densely packed with probably 200 or so exhibits crammed in, and I will definitely need to visit again to appreciate it some more. The exhibition runs for another couple of months and if you're near Margate I definitely recommend it.

http://www.turnercontemporary.org/exhibitions/nothing-in-the-world-but-youth