back and forth

Was supposed to spend the day preparing a 10-15 minute introduction to the film 'Nosferatu', which I am meant to deliver tomorrow morning to a bunch of 30 or so GCSE kids
at the Phoenix cinema. Instead, I do my usual bunch of assing about.

First up, I go looking for Nosferatu on Stage 6 and find it pretty quick. However, I also find David Lynch's astonishing early short film The Grandmother which I haven't seen in full since my old video copy was stolen along with its host VCR in my first year of university. So naturally I have to sit and watch it. And then that gets me searching for other things I haven't seen in a while...

Before long I am on U B U W E B watching such great things as Billie Whitelaw's original Royal Court performance of Beckett's 'Not I', a 70s documentary on Dada and a 2 hour show featuring Terry Riley being interviewed in a field whilst he milks a goat, followed by one of his typically trippy performances.

Before long friends start to invade the house. Helen drops by for a cuppa and a game of Scrabble. Then Renee shows up and it's two games of Scrabble and more tea. Then I decide to make scones (in the shape of horses no less), and before you can say 'plague of rats' it's time for me to leave for Oxford. Not a jot of relevant work done. Ah well. I'll just do what I usually do - blather on excitedly an incoherently for a few minutes until everyone looks thoroughly bewildered, then throw down two smoke bombs and disappear before they can lynch me...then it's back to the internet for more of this: