Author: Peter

I'm a retired civil servant in Surrey, UK. and long-time blogger at Conscious Entities. These days I'm spending more time writing stories and doing other creative stuff

Still Super

May 18, 2024

We went to see Jesus Christ Superstar at the the New Theatre, Wimbledon. It’s still a great show some fifty years after it first turned musicals upside down. This is a lively production based on the Regent’s Park version, with a single set remaining in place throughout. There are nice touches – at the Last Supper the apostles strike the poses they have in the famous Leonardo fresco – but giving Christ a guitar (and baseball cap) doesn’t really work.

I’m always slightly surprised by how much many religious people like JCS, because it is a pretty agnostic account. No resurrection, no miracles, and Christ as doubting and kind of burnt-out. There are many references to his teachings, but they don’t get much of a showing. In fact when there’s an argument about principles it’s hard not to feel that Judas wins (‘people who are hungry, people who are starving, matter more than your feet and hair’). But I suppose the title warns us up front that this is about celebrity more than holiness.

It is certainly a great evening, and the audience loved it: some were just a bit too keen to start applauding when the show really required silence. But this is probably the outstanding example of a show where you don’t just leave humming the tunes: you’re doing it on the way in, too.

Spirited Away in the theatre

May 16, 2024

My daughter Elizabeth kindly organised a trip with her sister and me to see the theatrical production of Spirited Away. You probably know the film, Miyazaki’s most famous, which has become a much-loved classic here as well as in Japan. It’s about a girl navigating the dangers of a spirit bath-house, filled with strange but sometimes friendly creatures. Above you can see the Radish Spirit in the cartoon and in his theatrical version.

Being full of magic and weird beings, this is not a story that is straightforward to present on stage, but the designers have done a great job. They usually allow us to see how the tricks are done, but the effects are none the worse for that. The story is delivered pretty faithfully, following the film very closely, and it helps that probably everyone sitting in the Coliseum knows and loves the film.

This is, I think, the original Japanese cast, and the dialogue is in Japanese with the Coliseum deploying the surtitles it is famous for using with opera. It’s a deservedly popular show, and elsewhere in London you can already see a theatrical version of My Neighbour Totoro, another Miyazaki film. Someone must surely be thinking about doing Howl’s Moving Castle, though perhaps that one is a more complex business. Rather than the film being an original work, it is a significantly rewritten version of the story by Diana Wynne Jones, which has itself already been turned into a stage show…

Pond life

May 2, 2024

We’ve had a go at setting up a mini pond in an old Belfast sink. We’ve started with a little water lily, water crowfoot and a pickerelweed. We’ll see how it goes.

The Labour Party Bazaar 1926

April 22, 2024

Looking through my late mother’s papers I found a souvenir of the Peterborough Labour Party’s Bazaar of 1926: a reminder that my grandparents were keen supporters in the early days. I should hate to introduce any politics here, but it is an interesting document.

It consists of a series of rather flattering cartoons of prominent local party members, drawn by the prospective parliamentary candidate J.F.Horrabin. It is no surprise that they are rather good, because Horrabin was a professional newspaper cartoonist, responsible for the largely forgotten strips ‘Adventures of the Noah Family’ (later known as ‘Japhet and Happy’) and ‘Dot and Carrie’, a cartoon about two secretaries. He went on to win the next election and was MP for Peterborough for two years under the leadership of Ramsay MacDonald.

In 1926 the Peterborough party was only eight years old. Labour had overtaken the Liberals and was slowly growing into its future role as one of the two main parties. The Bazaar looks very respectable, which may reflect the party’s nervousness about seeming Communist or revolutionary. The General Strike had happened only months before, but without Labour’s official support, and there are no echoes of it here. (Interestingly, Ellen Wilkinson, who opened the Bazaar, had worked tirelessly in support of the strike.)

One little detail that slightly puzzles me is that in the list of stall-holders and helpers, a distinction is drawn, not just between Miss and Mrs, but also the ‘Mesdames’. I conjecture that ‘Madam’ meant you were a widow?

I must say I also wonder what Messrs Doodson and Perkins had on the ‘Men’s Stall’.

May 2024 Competitions

April 20, 2024

So here I am, back again with a list of competitions I might enter during May. I’ve included ones with a deadline of 30 April, since I didn’t do an April list. Here they are first.

  • F(r)iction wants up to 7,500 words: entry is $10 and first prize $1,000.
  • The Plaza Prizes include a category for short stories up to 5,000 words: £15 to enter and  a prize of £1,000
  • Desperate Literature again offer a prize which besides €2,000 includes a residency and consultation. Up to 2,000 words, €20 to enter.
  • Free Fall takes up to 3,000 words. Entry is CA$25 and top prize CA$500
  • The Ironclad Creative short story competition has the unusual theme of ‘7:12 am’. £7 to enter and the prize is £100.

Moving on into April…

  • The Cheshire novel prize is back – send the first 5,000 words plus a synopsis. It’s a full £29 to enter and the top prize is £1,000, deadline 1 May.
  • With the same deadline the Tom Howard/John H Reid competition offers $3,500. $22 entry and up to 6,000 words are accepted.
  • Letter Review will take up to 5,000 words, you win a share of $1000 and it’s free to enter. Deadline 1 May again.
  • Leapfrog is looking for longer works – minimum 22,000. It’s $35 to enter and your main prize is publication, though all finalists get $150. Enter by 5 May.
  • Another novel competition is the Goldfinch one- again your first 5,000 plus a synopsis are required. £10 to enter, prize £300, deadline 15 May.
  • Lush Triumphant from sub-Terrain looks for 3,000 words, entry $30, prize $1000. Again, the deadline is 15 May.
  • I don’t normally do very short pieces, but the postcard competition from Geist looked interesting. You have to send them a postcard and a 500-word piece which relates to the picture. It’s CA$25 to enter and the prize is $500: deadline 20 May.
  • Do not forget the mighty Bridport competition, with its prize of £5,000. Entry is £14 and the word limit is 5,000. Last year I was shortlisted – so close! The deadline for this one and all the rest is 31 May.
  • MTP want up to 3,000 words. An entry fee of £8 gives you a chance of winning £1,000, and a decent chance of featuring in their chunky annual anthology, which is always named after the winning story.
  • Finally the good old Frome Festival is back. 1,000 to 2,200 words, entry is £6 and the prize £400.

Good luck – if you get anywhere with these, do let me know!

Legion

April 17, 2024

We finally went to the British Museum’s highly-praised exhibition about life as a Roman soldier. It is illuminating, giving an insight into what was in many ways the heart and epitome of the Empire. Clearly on display here are some of the well-known features that made the Roman army so successful. It recruited anyone who met the height requirement without bothering about where they came from: it taught them basic Latin and sent them all over the place, turning them into loyal, well-off citizens who would settle and stabilise the provinces. There were only so many Greeks or Egyptians, but anyone could become Roman and enjoy the substantial opportunities that went with it.

The exhibition makes considerable use of soldier’s gravestones. One interesting thing about them is that they were often paid for by the dead soldier’s slaves, set free on his death. This reinforces the sense I picked up from the Pompeii exhibition, that Roman house slaves were often treated almost like family: better than the free servants at Downton Abbey.

The exhibition includes many unique and remarkable items, including the only surviving legionary’s shield and some extraordinary cavalry parade helmets which include masks, one of which was supposed to make the rider look like an Amazon. The suit fashioned from a crocodile’s body is probably more weird than representative, though you can see why the curator couldn’t resist it.

It’s a very child-friendly exhibition: so many large cartoons and features with Rattus the cartoon character you almost begin to wonder whether adults are welcome.

Parracombe Shortlist

April 16, 2024

I’ve been longlisted in the Parracombe competition! The announcement is a bit late, and I had put them down in my spreadsheet (oh yes, I have a spreadsheet) as a ‘no’, but there we are. The shortlist and winners should be announced in about a week.

Update: I’m on the shortlist! This means my story will be in the anthology.

Short Pause

February 26, 2024

I’m dealing with a combination of things at the moment that are taking up all my attention, and I’m afraid I won’t be able to focus on writing or other creative stuff for a few weeks. But I’ll be back!