Darth’s Grandbag

I woke up this morning(for the second time*) to the sad news of Dave Prowse’s death. Yes, Darth Vader (and the Green Cross Code man) has left us, having looked upon us with his own eyes one last time.

I know his own voice wasn’t used in Star Wars, and instead, we got the wonderful deep tones of James Earl Jones, but Vader (and therefore Prowse) has been a part of my life for a long time—pretty much since I was born.

As an aside, my friend reminded me of this work of over-dubbing genius earlier.

I’m not particularly big on cinema. I don’t really know what I’m talking about and wouldn’t claim to be well-watched by any stretch of the imagination. I watched a lot of films as a youth, but nothing particularly highbrow. We had a VHS player my uncle had given us (he’s bet his boots on LaserDiscs being the format winner) and that came with 20 tapes…One of which was Return Of The Jedi, but there was also Kelly’s Heroes, Where Eagles Dare, Midnight Express and Poltergeist. I didn’t understand Midnight Express at all (I was about 10), but the other three I loved and they have stayed with me. Two of my oldest friends did fall for cinema in a big way and became obsessed, but I stuck with music and books.

It was interesting to see, then, this week this post by Jess Mookherjee about the crossover between poetry and cinema, and in this case between Interstellar and Dylan Thomas. We’ll skip over the representation of poets in films and also films about poets.

It’s also giving me the chance to do a little bit of self-promotion for a podcast I’m part of with my friends Simon and Jon (mentioned earlier). The podcast is called Grandbag’s Funeral, and the idea is we link films together in a sort of six degrees of Kevin Bacon way, and, while in this latest episode we did feature Kevin Bacon, we won’t use him as a link because that’s kind of cheating.

Other Platforms are available

The latest episode sees us discussing Tremors, Big Trouble In Little China and Robert Altman’s Short Cuts. All three are excellent films in their own ways. It was a joy to discuss them, it’s not always the case with these discussions—for example, the episode where we discussed Dune was a “joy”. Short Cuts feels especially pertinent at the moment, a city in lockdown because of an unseen menace, tensions boiling over within families, etc…

However, the reason for bringing it up, beyond the self-promotion (and please note as the non-cinephile, I am there largely to play the idiot to Jon and Simon’s much considered and experienced voices) is that Short Cuts is based on the writings of Raymond Carver and draws from his poem, Lemonade. I don’t know much about Carver’s work, and even less about his poems, but I know his poem ‘Late Fragment’ and that seems like enough of a reason to keep digging.

Despite it being over 3 hours long (and I genuinely believe there should be a law against that) I highly recommend this film (and the others as well). And that you read Jess’ article. Oh yeah, and listen to all of the eps of Grandbag’s Funeral.

To make things a bit more cinematic, one of the poems I’ve been working on this week is based on/inspired by a scene from Blade Runner.

THE WEEK IN STATS

35k running – Made my weekly target…and 57K to go to hit my entirely arbitrary goal of 1500 Km for the year.

0 day of 2 x 7-minute workouts, but the above means I don’t feel so bad

0 x rejections: All good.

1 x acceptance – 2 poems. (Fingers crossed, I won’t know for definite until the mag is published), This brings me to 14 accepted poems for the year, but I won’t make the charts yet…

3 poems worked on. Family Secrets, Fishing Exercise and the Blade Runner one. Title TBC on that one

2 poems finished: Family Secrets and Fishing Exercise

2 Submissions: TLS and New Statesman

0 Reviews written and submitted. 3 to do though, so must crack on

24 days without cigarettes…I think. Certainly haven’t this week. Weird, barely even thought of it. Maybe, just maybe this is the time…

1 more week that I’m not having an affair with Eva Green

TITLE GIVEAWAY

Astral Turf

READ/SEEN/HEAR/ETC

Read
Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal #5
Under The Radar #26

Music
Pixies: Live At Brixton 2.06.04
P.g. Lost – Oscillate
Phoebe Bridgers: Copycat Killer
Ride: Nowhere
The Elgins: The Motown Anthology
Howlin Rain: The Alligator Bride, Magnificent Fiend, Mansion Songs, The Russian Wilds
Luke Abbott: Translate
The New Pornographers: Whiteout Conditions, Twin Cinema
Brett Anderson: Black Rainbow, Slow Attack
Jeff Tweedy: Love Is the King, Showbiz Kids (OST), Together At Last, Warm, Warmer
Jessica Pratt: Quieter Signs
Jim Ghedi & Toby Hay: The Hawksworth Grove Sessions
The Hold Steady: Heaven Is Whenever
Kiasmos: ST
Matthew Halsall: Salute To The Sun, Colour Yes
Jacqueline Du Pre & Dame Janet Baker: Elgar Sea Pictures Op.37
VA – If I Had A Pair Of Wings: Jamaican Doo Wop Vol.3
Grateful Dead: From The Mars Hotel, Aoxomoaoa