I intended to write an entry about the fact that I haven’t updated since Nov 2009. Then I wondered if that mattered at all, since the central argument of the entry was how I didn’t think ‘resolving’ to do things was a good idea when the length of my to-do list is an Andrex Puppy’s wet dream. So I’ll scrap that, and make it quick: in the last seven days I have been oogling at the London Word Festival; checking out the Robin Hood Tax; salivating over Jinoos Taghizadeh’s Rock, Paper, Scissors (2009); using various Giacomo Brunelli wildlife photographs as my desktop background; organising LadyFest Oxford 2010; and, finally, wondering what current topics relevant to women and literature, I could use as the basis for a comic. I’d really like to return to the idea of women and YouTube – how creative ladies vlog about themselves and their work, and whether this could actually be an advantageous move given the impending doom that is the Kindle / ipad…
I have also learned a lot about the Howard League through the good work of WomCam… One of the speakers said she’d yet to see an accurate portrayal of prison (besides the structure of the buildings), but I wondered if she’d seen Stranger Inside (Dunye, 2001) or Scum (Clarke, 1979). The issue of voyeurism came up when she mentioned the fact that the National Association of Official Prison Visitors really does exist. It claims to be about ‘friendship’, which is an idea I can support… I left the meeting wondering whether the impulse to observe could become less voyeuristic if used to the end of creating art. How could a film like Scum have been made if someone didn’t think that what they’d seen inside was important enough to be shown to the rest of us? Of course, there is the added problem of a bunch of Oxford students – 99% of whom lead very nice lives – descending upon Pentonville and reaching out with our pudgy little hands. But then I am also bored with the implication that your actions are somehow tainted if you’ve had a nice life. It often amounts to saying you ought to shut up and do nothing because you’re middle classed.
I’ve also been quietly seething about the cuts to universities and rejoicing over Gill Scott Heron’s new album. Praise be to the man, who can make me feel excited about performing poetry again…
