Back in the Saddle

So.

It's been soooo long since I blogged I can hardly remember how to do this. Should I be telling the world such things? Possibly not. I believe that's now the domain of Twittering. Or is that Tweeting?...

Who cares?

Birthday amuse bouche, Lauzerte

And now, I know what you are thinking. Have I started a cooking/foodie blog?

Perhaps.

Is this turning into a mish-mash of a travelogueartyfilmcritiquedocudramentary?

Perhaps.

Thing is, having turned 50 this summer, things have to change. The blog has to be bigger, better and at least more regular. Life moves on.

So first thing's first, I realise I must bring you, dear reader, up to speed. Well - ish. A lot's happened since Venice and the Edinburgh you never got to see, in 2011. 

As you'll notice, for one, I've been back to Venice. My return trip brought back to mind the work of Michael de Feo, the New York street artist you may remember I met last time, propping up the bar in Harry's. He was in my thoughts, as I'd not long since seen Banksy's 'Exit Through The Gift Shop' in which Michael's work makes an appearance.

And as you will also see, below right, things don't get cheaper in St Mark's Square.  Still, not bad value for coffee from silver pots, romantic music and the best place on earth for stirring the imagination.......

Venice 2012 was a day-trip from Udine, where I was staying as the guest of an artist I was interviewing. So in Venice, this time, I was with a painter, rather than seeing art. We did very little that day apart from swan around in the heat, swatting away all the other tourists - he looking suave, sophisticated and Italian/Albanian and totally cool (crisp white cotton shirt, low slung trousers with a sharp crease, barefoot in loafers) and casually and frequently smoking very slim, long elegant cigarettes. Whereas I, Mancunian/Londoner was overheated in black linen, sweating and flustered, trying to keep up with his Aperols via my spritzers and finally a vodka martini. I am always impressed that the Italians, no matter how seemingly macho, opt for downing wine and prosecco, rather than pints.

The artist, in case you are wondering, is Endri Kosturi, a young, passionate ball of energy who works hard and generates exhibitions, films, performance and backdrops to opera in Trieste. He also manages a restaurant while in London. His friend, film-maker Marco Tessarolo, works with him:

  http://vimeo.com/49375792

Anyway, back to the foodie thing.

A month before Venice/Udine/Trieste, I spent a few days - including the one on which I turned half-a-century - in the Dordogne as the guest of another artist I was interviewing. 

I am not at liberty to divulge the identity of the artist just yet but save to say, the experience made for a memorable celebration of my birthday. Not least for the food, (the plate on the above left was just the starters, the main deal was guinea fowl and the best chips (not pomme frites) I have ever tasted (- and I don't even like chips!) - the armagnac, and the pale, oatmeal- coloured cows, unique to the region. 

Oh, and the fields of sunflowers and walnut and plum-tree orchards surrounding the isolated farmhouse that forms the artist's home and studio.  The environs alone were enough to stir my artistic imagination, let alone the resident artist's, but as far as I can tell, their work betrays not even the most subliminal of traces of the location from where it originates, geographically speaking. Except, I guess, that it might not originate at all, were it not for the mental and emotional space that living in such a environment allows.

Back in Blighty,  I am working on compiling material gleaned from interviews with Rodney Dickson, an old friend of mine who is a painter now living and working in Brooklyn, New York where I also was back in January.

Having recently had a solo show in Chelsea at www.gassergrunert.net and taken part in a group show STILL at Frith St Gallery in London, he's poised for even greater things.

There will be more on Rodney later. The new format of the blog now that I have (almost) everything else out of my system will be more agile, more nifty, less talk (perhaps) and (even) more pics. It may be a bit haiku-ish even, a few one-liners and a few spoilers, a few nips and tucks and tips and hints. The key thing is, it will be more regular, more dependable, more consistent.

.....And I have to end this version, this current series (can I call it thus?) with an image that sums it all up for me, given I recently revisited the movie. If I was to say, "Name that film!" there'd be no prizes for shouting out the answer. However, it occurs to me that what's missing is an inventive caption expressing the mood, the sense of triumph, the curious high of achievement mixed with the dawning reality of uncertainty, expectation and unlimited possibility that just about encapsulates the feeling.

It's how I am right now, as it goes, having turned fifty and shades of going grey.....

Any ideas/thoughts re captions on an e-postcard please.....

'til the next one,

Bo