H is for Hawk

Thanks to Mary for recommending this beautiful programme about a woman training a goshawk. (Although "training" implies something very different from the process that unfolds: practising stillness and gradually developing a connection & communication with a non-human being).

It's available here on iplayer for another few weeks. The original book about training her previous hawk whilst living through a period of grief is well worth a read.

The Secret Books

I am heading out to a bookshop today to buy my classmate Marcel Theroux's new book 'The Secret Books'. Here's a great short interview with him about it, available for the next 6 days.

His last two books 'Strange Bodies' and the superb 'Far North' are two of my favourite novels of the millennium so far. Christmas gifts sorted: buy all three and get them signed at class...

Marcel's most recent 'Unreported World' aired this week on Channel 4 and is available on catch up.

A new Bayeux?

I love tapestry and I will admit I love Game of Thrones.
Put the two together and voila...

Nafisah Baba - a great young dancer

Just had he accidental pleasure of watching the BBC Young Dancer Grand Final on BBC2 tonight. Go and watch it on iplayer. Nafisah Baba won, my favourite by far, she danced with so much strength and emotion it brought tears to my eyes. I have enjoyed contemporary dance since I was about 14 both on TV and in theatres when I could afford it, but some years don't get to see any. During my teens Channel 4 used to have a thread called 'Dance on Four' and I saw DV8, The Cholmondleys and the Featherstonhaughs, Michael Clark and many more, which made a huge impression. Tonight it was a joy to see such a creative and distinctive dancer get some prime time on our screens. Her piece for the duet section was stunning, felt like they were dancing from my own feelings. Congratulations to her and all the finalists. Now I will have to go iplayer and watch all the heats...

First poetry with Kate Tempest, now awesome dance on BBC2. Very happy for my license fee to pay for this. More meaning in the finalists' movements tonight than a whole day of politicians' rubbish. 

Unreported World

I just spotted in the TV guide that our Tuesday class colleague Marcel has his latest documentary airing tomorrow on Channel 4 at 7.30pm. His programmes (and books) are superb.

Good things

I usually round up lots of the things I have enjoyed each year at Christmas. However, my broadband only just got fixed, and for the last 3 months the connection has been super slow, so I was averse to going online at all. It's now fixed. Here's the first go at a list of things I have enjoyed that I'd like to share. I'll fill it out during the next few days.

Arve Henriksen I have loved his music for years, particularly 'Chiaroscuro'. You can listen on Spotify.
Wendell Berry I am reading Paul Kingsnorth's anthology of his wonderful essays 'The World Ending Fire'. I have to keep stopping to put yet another post-it page marker in the book.
John Berger got me through art college without going mad. A wonderful thinker and writer, I have been delving back into his books since he died. I would recommend 'Ways of Seeing', 'Confabulations' and 'And Our Faces, My Heart, Brief As Photos'.
The TV and film work of Brit Marling, particularly 'The OA'.
Some select TV has been good: The Man In The High Castle S2, Falling Water, Mr Robot.
Benjamen Walker's Theory Of Everything. My favourite podcast. If you don't know it yet you have a treat ahead.
Radiolab is still good, but perhaps not quite as good as it once was.
Kate Bush still rules.

Recent good things

The Tao Te Ching says that to the Tao humans are like straw dogs...

I just re-read John Gray's excellent book Straw Dogs, which was even better on a second read. Also last week I found an article by him in the Guardian. I highly recommend it.

On an arts front I also have to say how much I loved BBC2's adaptation of Wolf Hall. However I am already a huge Mark Rylance fan, and have seen him on stage three times in the last few years. To be honest I would happily pay folding money watch him do nothing in particular. This would also apply to the superb actor Tilda Swinton. If the filmic and televisual gods are listening - please pair them both in something fabulous soon... (Interestingly, both have said in interviews that they did not speak for about five years as children...)

There may always be cut-throat men of power in the world, sadly. 

If only they dressed, moved and stood as well as this nowadays.

Today I am having a complete day off after looking after two of my lovely nieces for 22 hours, during which I slept for about 4 hours.

The Living Mountain

This lovely programme from BBC Scotland about the book by Aberdeen-based Nan Shepherd was repeated recently on BBC4. It's available here on iPlayer for 28 days.

Beyond

© BBC

From the BBC Horizon program about the Earth's core.

Pussy Riot - A Punk Prayer

I haven't had a TV since March, and was round a friend's house at a loose end so took the chance to indulge for an hour or so. I watched this BBC4 Storyville documentary totally by chance and was gripped. I knew of Pussy Riot from the newspaper, but seeing them speak out with such authority, conviction and courage moved me greatly. May they prevail.

China's Lonely Hearts

My excellent classmate Marcel Theroux has just made this great documentary for Channel Four's 'Unreported World'. Clips are available at the link, and the whole show can be watched on 4OD and it will be screened again Friday 25th October at 7.30pm.

 

 

Secret Knowledge

I have just spent three days reading and enjoying David Hockney's 'Secret Knowledge' (2006 expanded edition, isbn 0-500-28638-8). In a year of reading wonderful books, this has sprinted forward at the end and is my book of the year! If you have even a passing interest in painting, art, film, European history, the visual world, science, a gripping yarn, mysteries, magic, secrecy, friendship or the knowing that comes from the heart of practice- whether that be looking, drawing, movement or another rich human endeavor, then order this book from your library and tuck in. What a wonderful book. This morning I made an amazing, painterly, living projection using a shaving mirror and a darkened room! If you want to know what on earth I am talking about, get the book! More info, film clips, article and photos here. I shall be happy to provide a good bottle of wine and share a lovely evening of discussion with anyone who knows me who finishes it and has thoughts about it. Over the next few weeks I will reflect on this in the light of Iain McGilchrist's work, and in relation to my visual and T'ai Chi trainings, which I find inform each other beneficially more and more as I get older. Happy New Year!

Leonardo Da Vinci

Mark put me on to these wonderful programmes on iplayer, featuring Mark Rylance as Da Vinci.

Macbeth

Tomorrow night, Sunday, at 8pm, BBC4 TV will be showing a television adaptation of Macbeth from the RSC, with Patrick Stewart as lead. I saw the original stage production that this was based on, and it was tremendous. If it's a cold night in, it'll make for a great evening's viewing.