Same old wind. Getting a bit boring now, got the idea, sleeping through it, sure, big change, but it's a reminder, also, that not all problems are solved in the single epiphany on the mountaintop. You come away with the tablets of stone, the words of insight, the clarity, but then you've got to follow it through in the ordinary world, with the ordinary people. They may be players in your drama, but they're also themselves. And you - I - may have been director for a while, dramatist with free access to the pages on which it's all based, but how easy is it to take that on this stage, which is a place where we all believe utterly in our roles? We don't know that we're actors here, and in our dealings with each other, we stay in character.
Beautiful walk on Sunday, with the dog on Pendower. There were windsurfers and kite surfers; so many, must have been waiting for the day. And a scattering of people, dogs, but mainly the wind and the spray and the waves and that stream running down the beach at the Carne end among the rocks. Built a dam quickly, diverting the water, in honour of the many dams built with children over the years. Remembrance Day, a man with a dog and a spade, out on a windswept beach after listening to the service on the radio, remembering the past and mainly the successive families. Shakespeare said something about the many roles we play in life: child, boy, young man ... and onward. But I think perhaps King Lear would be the play for today, with the daughters' arguments for cuts in the king's retinue? What is the argument against cuts? There isn't one, except that they're wrong.
There was mention of an e-petition recently. There's a debate in parliament today that was forced by an e-petition - it had so many signatures that it had to be taken seriously. In my redesigned world, I would take us back to the start of the protest at St Paul's, and instead of having the protesters lapse into cliches about capitalism and democracy, I would have them - at the height of media interest in what they had to say - making relentless on-air references to an e-petition. Easily memorable title; the folk back home could have signed up. Then we would have known whether, and how much, people cared.
Today is the day police moved in to clear the tents of the Occupy Wall Street protest in New York. Mayor's decision. Health hazard, etc. Protest spokesperson soundbite: they's moving to Central Park, if I heard this right, and Central Park is going to be New York's Tahrir Square. Uh huh. Here is going to be there. Historical note: when Ceausescu was overthrown in Romania, the crowds attached ropes to a statue of the dictator and pulled it down: instant heap of rubble, great TV moment. So the US military tried the same in Iraq - mostly it worked, but if you've seen the footage - Saddam's statue had steel girders strengthening its legs, so not quite the same drama. What happened there can't be made to happen the same way here. Don't benchmark against a successful event elsewhere.
Beautiful walk on Sunday, with the dog on Pendower. There were windsurfers and kite surfers; so many, must have been waiting for the day. And a scattering of people, dogs, but mainly the wind and the spray and the waves and that stream running down the beach at the Carne end among the rocks. Built a dam quickly, diverting the water, in honour of the many dams built with children over the years. Remembrance Day, a man with a dog and a spade, out on a windswept beach after listening to the service on the radio, remembering the past and mainly the successive families. Shakespeare said something about the many roles we play in life: child, boy, young man ... and onward. But I think perhaps King Lear would be the play for today, with the daughters' arguments for cuts in the king's retinue? What is the argument against cuts? There isn't one, except that they're wrong.
There was mention of an e-petition recently. There's a debate in parliament today that was forced by an e-petition - it had so many signatures that it had to be taken seriously. In my redesigned world, I would take us back to the start of the protest at St Paul's, and instead of having the protesters lapse into cliches about capitalism and democracy, I would have them - at the height of media interest in what they had to say - making relentless on-air references to an e-petition. Easily memorable title; the folk back home could have signed up. Then we would have known whether, and how much, people cared.
Today is the day police moved in to clear the tents of the Occupy Wall Street protest in New York. Mayor's decision. Health hazard, etc. Protest spokesperson soundbite: they's moving to Central Park, if I heard this right, and Central Park is going to be New York's Tahrir Square. Uh huh. Here is going to be there. Historical note: when Ceausescu was overthrown in Romania, the crowds attached ropes to a statue of the dictator and pulled it down: instant heap of rubble, great TV moment. So the US military tried the same in Iraq - mostly it worked, but if you've seen the footage - Saddam's statue had steel girders strengthening its legs, so not quite the same drama. What happened there can't be made to happen the same way here. Don't benchmark against a successful event elsewhere.