Picture Set Of The Month - May - The Oil Paintings Of Ray Lowry

'Two Ladies (Coach and Horses)', as pianted by Ray Lowry
in the early 1970s before he became known for the
cartoons he became famous for. He painted the Coach 
and Horses pub, a pub he no doubt frequented, several times.  

'Early Evenng', capturing two friends and a mother
 with her chidren crossing each others paths
outside the Coach and Horses in Cadishead. Early 1970s.

'Bus Stop - Manchester' as painted in the early 1970s
by Ray Lowry. A Summer street scene set in suburban Manchester.
.

'Road Sweeper' - Ray Lowry, early 1970s. I discovered
the creativity of Ray through his satirical cartoons
that punctured the pomp of the music industry,
in the New Musical Express. 

 

 

Moon Of The Month - The Flower Moon

The Flower Moon is the name given to the spring moon, 
defined by the lushness of the new growth of vegetation
after the plain times of winter become distant memories.

Farmers in there more sentimental moments
 write of the flower moon in their almanacs.

Whilst city folk, lost to the cycles of nature
 beyond the greening of their cities may look up
in their quieter moments and wonder
 at the trees and hear the  birdsong
 as the birds sing louder to hear each other 
in the parks over above the noise of the nearby city.

 

The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie

After the recently abandoned Whitehouse press dinner, where the guests enjoyed their Pea and Burrat salads, the lobster and steak  had to be given to the poor when the room was abandoned, I find the conspiracy theories far too politically partisan and cliched to be either credible or amusing. I prefer to wonder why for his latest non-event the present Misleader of The Free World chose as cover for getting out of an event he did not want to attend to re-enact the plot of the 1972 French film 'The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie', where privileged but corrupt guests try repeatedly to set up a dinner date for themselves, and with each attempt increasingly bizzare and absurd reasons stop them sitting down and eating. Until at the last attempt, the meal is disprupted by hails of gunfire so the guests scuttle to hide under the tables, one guest (see picture above) stealing a snack from the table. The film ends with the guests emptily walking down an empty road, the credits rolling down the screen. Nobody dies. How unlike real life in gun cultures around the world, where life is so expendable it seems to be worth misrepresenting. How surreal, how civilised....     

                                       

 

The Unanswerable Question

If the collective noun for existentialists was 'an angst'
what should the same term be for a loose collection of outsiders?

You'd Better Disbelieve It

 I do my best to steer clear of the new, ever more flexible,
digital colouring-in books of the kitchy fantasy cartoons
of A.I. based imagery that now passes for politics.
But the perveyors of this new media find such fanasies
so easy to create, and they know most about how much
such images undercut the arguments of legacy media
that deep, far, and fast, it is no longer a fair competition.

I don't need to use that many brain cells to know
how absurd this politics-by-meme is. I understand
how infantile the arguments behind  these images are.
But amid the faster moving logarithms of social media
it is hard to find a more grown up politics that explains
the matters the and media that leaver me better informed.
For those I turn to BBC radio programmes and podcasts. 

On Becoming Naturally Anti-Social

And this was when I still went to parties,
I can't remember the last party I attended.
I am sure I left an impression of weakness. 

 

A Joke In A Recent Russian Newspaper

 'Can you tell me where I can get
a long term low interest mortgage?'

Answer: 'in 2018.....  '.