Painting, drawing, films, stories, travel and other odds and ends
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The life and career of a Scottish man who suffers from Tourette`s Syndrome, then seeks to promote better understanding of the condition and help others.
The film describes Scottish provincial and working class life, containing scenes which are in turns, disturbing, sad, and reassuring. It is occasionally funny, unsentimental and even disturbing in places.
It`s freshness of style is, thankfully, free of amateurishness of naivety.
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Iranian/British (Scottish) film about recovering a lost Oscar statue near a dump and scrap merchants.
The film meanders, losing focus: boring. The child actors, as is typical, are tiresome. The characters have no relationships. It is impossible to care abut them or their dilemmas.
Through sentimental devices the film attempts to be a celebration of cinema, but this is merely irksome.
The landscapes, however, are enjoyable to see, and for this the film gets a 2 stars.
Reviewers often give these flabby, overlong Iranian films a free pass, and f you look online it is very generously treated. If it were a Hollywood film it would be ripped to shreds, or not reviewed at all.
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El Jadida
This was the third place on our tour.
It has an odd feel about it: unfinished, sometimes quite slummy at other times aspiring with new, very anonymous blocks along the seafront to the east, along with fast food joints and a cinema, all oriented towards car users. The town centre is full of shops selling bric-a-brac, cheap clothing and, not to mince words, rubbish. There are innumerable cafes which seem to be occupied by men in black or brown clothes doing very little except occasionally using their cell phones.
There are restaurants serving piles of fried seafood We ate at one and I`m not sure I`d recommend the experience. The seafood is cooked in batter like British fish and chips but had an appalling greasiness about it. The service was needlessly hurried and brusque.
Mazagan
Mazagan is a walled enclave by the sea, with a church and other Portuguese architecture, and tourist oriented shops and cafes. I enjoyed painting here.
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Printed invitation to an exhibition at No31 in Duns, in the Scottish Borders, with Jenny Ozwell and Jane Rutherford.
Do come!
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