Yesterday was a brilliant day: starting from the night and moving backwards, there was music and poetry at Yessim’s cafe which included Kurdish songs, a late Ralph McTell, some Beatles, some Scottish heeland saings; a couple of stories told in the proper manner – and two poems from me. They were ‘The Lady in the Van’ and ‘Ode to the Upperton Rd Bridge’, both of which are parodic poems and which were well-received. I’m so glad they’ve started to include poetry in these sessions as I’m much better at poeting than I am at singing. In the afternoon I tidied the bedroom, which may not seem much fun but was very satisfying, before which we watched Casualty (preposterous as ever) and Dr Who. Dr Who had a nice twist on the Western theme but I couldn’t help thinking that it’s usually a sign of jumping the shark, to set something in a Western setting: this definitely seemed to be the case with Red Dwarf and has been so with countless US series. Also, the monster was very reminiscent of the Iron Giant, I thought; but nonetheless a good story and moral ambiguities nicely done.
Big congrats to Lydia for making the shortlist for the Bridport Prize. I am not at all envious (grits teeth) even though I have submitted several times and got nowhere. It is a very prestigious prize, so we wish her good luck with it.
After all that excitement, I couldn’t sleep last night and am feeling particularly groggy this morning. So that’s it.
Oh! I nearly forgot – the phrase ‘jumping the shark’, in case you didn’t know, comes from ‘Happy Days’; a series that is generally considered to have passed the point of no return into crapness at the precise moment when Fonzie jumps over a shark:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpraJYnbVtE
God, that looks so lame.
Kirk out
Sarada Gray 