Russell Davies

Darn to Margate

Went to Margate at the weekend. Was nice. Good exhibition of seaside photos at the Turner Contemporary. It's slightly odd when your own childhood milieu is served up as historical oddity but the frisson of nostalgia mixed with 'oh god it was horrible' is still nice.

The most instantly powerful bit for me was a photo called "Illegal raving in Brighton" by Stuart Griffiths. You can see it on Vice. I have no memories of illegal raving in Brighton, or anywhere, but I got an instant hit of memory from the detail of the lads sitting on the roof. It was their combination of jackets, jeans and trainers. So specific and unique to that moment in history. I don't have much of a sense of smell, I don't find it instantly evocative as many people do, but clothes do that for me. They connect me to the my past in a way that most bits of culture don't. Those jeans and trainers.

Music and video

I haven't done one of these for ages. I miss it. Partly because it means I have to make a new snippet of music at least once a month. So I've started again.

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And doing that has had me going back looking for all the miscellaneous music files scattered around various external drives and streaming services, trying to sort it out and having a listen to old stuff. Made me realise some of this is actually quite alright. Slow to develop but there's something to it. 

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And that reminded me that I haven't played with Endlesss for ages so I had a go at that over coffee. Huge fun. It creates little loops and lets you download them. Here are a couple:

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We went to see the Faith Ringgold exhibition at the Serpentine today. Magnificent. I especially liked the portrait of Mr Charlie; "a large grinning head of a patronizing white man". (And reading about the term Mr Charlie was interesting too). Mr Charlie looks a lot like Mr Burns. I wonder if that's a coincidence.