Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Team Type 1


Of all the people I've been told I look like (admittedly not the most enviable collection of doppelgangers: Fred West, Rory McGrath, Michael Ball), Bob Heyer is the one I'm happiest about. Not only does he bear a passing resemblance to the Badger but he is also a diabetic cyclist - uncanny! What looks like an i-pod stuck to his arm is a wireless insulin pump. He's a member of the all-diabetic Team Type 1, who this June won the 3,053-mile Race Across America relay by cycling from Oceanside, California, to Atlantic City, N.J., in five days, 15 hours and 43 minutes. They're hoping to be in the Tour de France within the next five years - that'll confuse the doping authorities!

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

LIAF goes on

Actually, it finished on Sunday - here's Shelly Wine with Mait Laas, drinking water because the bar had closed by this point - 10.30pm. Apart from watching films, copious drinking is the main activity at most animation festivals I've been to, and this is the only area in which London doesn't compete. Great festival otherwise though. Wish I'd caught more screenings.



Cycled up to Hackney last night, where Rod and Adaesi's three five year olds played with my camera, with impressive results:



Sunday, August 26, 2007

London International Animation Festival


Yesterday Shelly and I took full advantage of the first proper bit of summer weather in ages by spending the afternoon in the cinema at the London International Animation Festival at the Curzon Soho. First up was a screening of classic Polish animation, much of which was from the 60's and 70's, with fantastically bonkers soundtracks. Our favourite was 'Little Black Riding Hood', Piotr Dumala's dark and hilarious 1983 take on an already reasonably dark fairy tale.

The Estonian Panorama screening in the evening was even better. While other former Eastern Bloc countries tend to be best known for the animation they produced in the past, Estonian animation studios are making amazing films right now, with the help of the world's most animation-friendly government. The screening gave us a chance to see Mait Laas's entertainingly baffling 'Gene + Ratio' for the second time. I still have no clear idea what it's about, and I'm not sure that he does, but it's a brilliant film. It features a lot of bees, a very rude scene with a cat in a bath and a cast of thousands of frenzied sperm played by matchstick men igniting themselves in their excitement at nearing their target. The other highlight for me was 'Marathon' by Kaspar Jancis, a very funny film about a terrorist entering a marathon and as good an introduction to the Estonian sense of humour as you're likely to find. Mait, Kaspar and fellow animator Priit Tender were there to talk about their work and were as endearingly skew-whiff as their films. The festival is also hosting a great exhibition containing puppets from Estonian films, including the one in the picture up there from the brilliant Rao Heidmets film 'The Pearl Man'. The festival and exhibition both close today so get down there!

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Return of the Wanderer


Today we welcomed Spratticus back to a grey and wet Behomia after a year of galavanting around the globe, keeping those he left behind in Blighty entertained with a marvellous blog of his exploits. He looks a bit different now, mind you - Mexico seems to have left a particularly strong impression on him.

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Blind light




Caught the Anthony Gormley exhibition at the Hayward yesterday just before it finishes. Clever stuff - the Blind Light installation is a real crowd pleaser, though I suppose it's sort of ironic that Londoners are now paying £8 a head to experience thick fog when we used to get it for free on a regular basis. We also liked the 'allotment' bit where he's built concrete structures to house the bodies of residents of Malmo in various sizes, with apertures for assorted orifices, and he's done some nice things with stainless steel wire. The brochure for the show is full of sublimely meaningless nonsense such as 'it's a small thing that has been made into a very large thing, but that large thing is itself a model for something much larger.' Come again?

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Beauty of the ride








Third weekend running in Suffolk as I had to pick our ancient 205 up from having miraculously passed its MOT. Took my bike on the train to Ipswich then cycled 31 miles of back roads to Yoxford, following the pylons. Fantastic weather, so went to Walberswick with the folks, our Sharon and Eleanor, and had another dip in the North Sea. Some bloke rode his horse bareback into the water - you don't see that everyday. Hope it didn't have a piss while it was there, as I was swimming uptide from it. I don't mind doing the breaststroke in radioactive effluent but I draw the line at equine urine. The rest of the Dye clan went off for a week in Wales this morning so I cycled around the W's before heading back for London - Westleton, Walpole and Wenhaston, home to the amazing 15th century Doom painting in St Peter's Church - check out T-Lo's blog for another pic. Had the i-pod on while cycling the quieter roads and can recommend the following for getting the pedals going:

Lets Make Love and Listen to Death From Above - CSS
The Beauty of the Ride - Sebadoh
Run Run Run - The Who
Chicken Dog - Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Ca Plane Pour Moi - Plastic Bertrand
Tunic (Song for Karen) - Sonic Youth
Safe European Home - The Clash
Problem Child - AC/DC
Dr Bucks' Letter - The Fall
Police Car - Larry Wallis

Still on the cycling theme, it was with mixed feelings that I heard of Alan Lee's brace of goals in Ipswich Town's 4 - 1 season opening victory over Sheffield Wednesday. During the week he'd hospitalised a cyclist with his Porsche, the twatter.

Monday, August 06, 2007

Sciapods, Sizewell and Sawboneses

The long overdue arrival of a bit of proper summer coincided with another trip to Suffolk. We made a return trip to Dennington where we followed an outing to the Queen's Head with the slightly unorthodox Saturday night post-pub activity of a visit to the church. Well, it makes a change from marauding through city centres and throwing up in kebab shops. Anyhoo, as well as being the place where I learned to ride a bike, Dennington boasts a very fine church indeed, with some fantastic medieval wooden carvings. Among these is what is thought to be the only carving of a sciapod, a mythical creature with one enormous foot, under which he shades himself from the sun. Very handy. Or should I say footy?
On the way out we met the chap in charge of locking up the church, who used to work with my Dad, thutty-odd year ago. Here's my Dad wearing my Peters and Lee shades, by the way.Anyway, not only did this bloke at the church have the fantastic job of being guardian of the sciapod and presiding over the biggest key I've ever seen in my life, he also trumped my boastful tales of cycling derring-do by telling us that he cycles around 40 or so local churches once a year, totting up over 60 miles in the process. Pretty good for a man in his seventies, I think you'll agree.Yesterday I went for a swim at Sizewell with my brother and his kids, just in front of the nuclear power stations. While Aldeburgh, Southwold and Walberwsick teem with the chattering classes, the two nuclear reactors dominating the beach at Sizewell have funnily enough made it one of the most unspoilt stretches of coast in Suffolk. Not that I'm pro-nuclear at all, or even a proper 'local', since I haven't lived there since 1982, but I quite like the fact that the hordes of Londoners who invade the Suffolk coast every weeekend keep clear of Sizewell, leaving it free for the irradiated local sciapods to enjoy without any apparent ill effects. Some of the dogs do look a bit odd though. Back to London last night for another diabetic check up this morning at the world's tallest hospital - though disappointingly I only ever make it to the 3rd floor. I think you have to require major dental surgery to get to the top floor, so I'm afraid of taking the lift up there to check out the view in case I come back minus a molar or two. On the less than giddy heights of the third floor I got my annual photo of the back of my eyes done, and all was fine. Shame they don't give you a copy, as it's a quite beautiful image, with radiant shades of orange, which kind of makes up for the stinging liquid they squirt in your eyes, rendering you unable to read or tolerate bright light for several hours afterwards - perfect for a sunny day. I also had a review with a doctor I'd seen a year ago. When I told him I'd seen another doctor six months ago, he told me that I hadn't and that he was the last doctor I'd seen. I said, no, I'd seen a woman doctor last time and he said no, that was a nurse. Oh yes, I'd forgotten that the medical profession is gender coded - men are doctors, women are nurses. Silly me. Anyway, I finally managed to persuade him I had seen another doctor and SHE had suggested I went on to metformin, which seemed to be starting to have a beneficial effect. He said that wasn't possible because metformin only worked for type 2's and I was a type 1. He was quite keen to start me on the insulin but I managed to get him to agree to give the metformin another couple of months, so let's see what happens. With a bit of luck I'll get to see the female doctor again next time.