Met Nick Papadimitriou tonight to discuss the video we’re shooting to tie in with the publication of his epic deep topographic tome, Scarp (published by Hodder and Stoughton this June).
Nick drew this map in my notebook to indicate some of the places where we could film to capture the key elements of the North Middlesex Tertiary Escarpment (hope I’ve got that right).
Somehow going to make a video from these notes
Editing can sometimes be a bit of an assache but then you stumble on a clip like this.
And I doubt this will make it into the finished film about Bob and Roberta Smith.
It was filmed during one of Bob’s Make Your Own Damn Music shows on Resonance fm.
There’s more info about the film here
Photos and sounds from my garden at lunchtime today
Click on the daffodil to hear the birds.
I wish I could identify birdsong – anybody know what they are?
Detail above a shop in Gabriel’s Hill, Maidstone.
<p>&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;This</p>
If I ever had a budget to produce a DVD of The London Perambulator this classic 1947 film about the sewage system of West Middlesex, Taken For Granted would be on the extras. It is the backdrop to Nick Papadimitriou’s poetic vision of his region.
Here is he at Mogden Purification Works waxing lyrical about its significance “come and pray at this pile of turds because this is you”
The clip is from the London Screen Archive
Last night ventured down to Whats Cookin’s new home at The Birkbeck Tavern in Langthorne Road, between the cemetery and the old hospital – perfect place for a knees up. Ramblin Steve and Ally now run the pub as well as the music night – an Americana boozer in the Lea Delta, serving up Maldon Gold ale from Essex’s Mighty Oak Brewery.
A trip to the Birkbeck is like time-travel for me – back to the London I first experienced as an 18-year old fresh up from the provinces and decamped to a terrace in Forest Gate. The Birkbeck is still there in 1989. The spirit of Whats Cookin reminiscent of the music nights that inspired me (drunk) to write reviews for the City Poly student rag.
