Craig’s got himself some pet tarmac. This isn’t a quaint way of saying he has a favourite stretch of road, though he may well have. It is literally a pet piece of tarmac that sits beside his desk at work and which he occasionally pats. Read the rest of this entry »
A member of our board sent through a link to “>this blog, which feels very well timed. There is a move amongst independent arts organisations in Birmingham to collectively undertake a ‘cultural benchmarking’ process, in which you feed a load of stats into an on-line database and it tells you if you are doing better or worse than similar organisations. The notion is that it will help you appraise your company and help you prove your worth to others.
We’re slowly coming to the conclusion that there aren’t enough hours in the day for this kind of effort. If lobbying Birmingham City Council is part of that agenda then it seems entirely futile. We have seen the figures and know that the council essentially disregarded their own measures of success and value when making funding decisions.
The major problem, as the blog title suggests, is attempting to attach a monetary value to something that measures itself by an entirely different value system.
My favourite contribution to the blog so far quotes Nietzsche before asking “which is a more fundamental question — the monetary value of culture or the cultural value of money?” priceless!
I’m sure there was a time when “take care” was a parting phrase I used but I don’t anymore, in fact I now don’t even like people saying it to me.
I don’t see my world as hostile or dangerous and don’t want anyone suggesting it is. I don’t want the cue that I should be anxious or cautious in my daily life. A careful life is a dull life. I’m not an adrenaline junky and I’m not reckless but I enjoy those moments when I can be carefree.
Ultimately, my job is to take risks, someone telling me to ‘take care’ is the equivalent of saying to a professional athlete ‘don’t run too fast’ – obviously it’s not the same at all but that’s the irrational turn my mind has taken on this thing.
“Be carefree” James
I was given the Steve Jobs Biography for Christmas. It is a quick and diverting read if you are interested in computers/technology/big business. There are some good anecdotes and some startling stories. Initially there seemed little that can be learned from the book and applied to Stan’s Cafe but my opinion is changing on that. Most valuable for me at the moment is some back up for my response to the questions that are starting to come in from undergraduates about our relationship with audiences. Read the rest of this entry »
Here’s a recommendation for anyone who is going to be in London a bit in February. Kindle Theatre are in the Vaults beneath The Old Vic with their award winning Heavy Metal inspired version of the Clytemnestra story The Furies.
Mr. Graeme Rose has his name on the credits, it’s on Thursday – Sunday, 9th -26th February and you can hear a sample of the fury here.
Warwick University are looking at ways artists may be able to link up with academics to make exciting things happen. It is an intriguing prospect. It was worth the trip there, not least now bicycle / train combination has been perfected cutting out the need for bus or taxi getting there and back. There was a tasty bit of lunch and some good thoughts to chew over. Perhaps most encouraging was discovering that The Anatomy of Melancholy has traction in these circles.
The Mail Room at Birmingham City Council used to be great. You could walk in with a stack of fliers and – for a modest fee – they would include them in mailings which were going to every school in the city. Now that facility does not exist and there isn’t a database available, so Chris has spent a two days working through a directory typing the data into a spreadsheet, mail-merging it, printing addresses onto labels and sticking them onto envelopes. Now, finally, we are ready to post out details of our Partnership School project to all +400 of the city’s schools.
Eyes and ears open today: there will be features about I Like Theatre on BBC Midlands Today and the Lunchtime equivalent, plus an interview on BBC Radio Coventry & Warwickshire. Satnam Rana to our scruffy (though tidier than usual) office late yesterday afternoon having shot footage at The Belgrade. She has been an interested and supportive journalist, keen to find Arts News stories and give them exposure. We could do with more like her.
Remind me never to get involved in any collective letter writing again. Eight, maybe nine months ago at a small meeting it was agreed that it would be useful for City Councillors to receive a briefing document about how the arts ecology works. The thing finally got sent of a couple of weeks ago – WAY too late. Read the rest of this entry »
At risk of turning this into an obituaries column it is worth noting the death of Václav Havel. I find the story of how a playwright becomes the president of Czechoslovakia more compelling than how an actor becomes the president of the USA. His book, To the Castle and Back, about his time as president, is thoroughly engaging. It spurs me on to read some of his plays which, rather shamefully, I have never sought out.
