This Blog In September 2001: Day Twenty-Five.

Theatre 'The Frieze' reviews Jeremy Deller's The Battle of Orgreave. One of the pivotal moments of the 1984/85 miner's strike was recreated in the style of medieval re-enactments. A heritage day out and social commentary all in one: "Any rail passengers staring out of the window as they sped through south Yorkshire on June 17th would have had the double-take of their lives: 800 or so miners and policemen, in period jeans and uniforms, could be seen slogging it out in a field as if no one had bothered telling them the miners' strike of 1984-5 had long been called off."

Archaeology The Dead Sea Scrolls too fragile to travel. Oh really ... there has always been a debate within museum circles about the viability of moving objects for exhibition and whether the risks involved outweigh the educational value. To move the scrolls for an exhibition at the Olympics is surely for entertainment not education. Doesn't seem like a fair risk to me -- and surely they need the context of the original setting...

Opinion The Sunday Post's usually mild mannered reporting has been overtaken by a mood of danger. Terrorists — are you listening . . . puts into words what many of us are thinking -- and without the cautiousness of London journalists: "Your goal was to divide us. You made us stronger. You brought us together. We are truly indivisible. United we stand, with liberty and justice for all. Even you. Be aware of the FBI. See them track your every move. Watch your back. Our armed forces are on your trail. Attention, terrorists . . . observe. Stop running for just a moment. Listen and look and smell and hear and feel. You must. But then resume running. You have the United States of America on your heels!" *

* Editor's note.  How times change.  The old website for The Sunday Post only ever used a limited number of URLs for its news stories so when they posted something new, they'd just swap out the content of that page rather than generating a new one.  The Wayback Machine only caught up with it in February 2002 so instead of 9/11 it's about Will Young winning Pop Idol.  But someone reading the blog in October 2001 would also have seen some else too.

This Blog In September 2001: Day Twenty-Four.

Void

Time stopped.
Or so it seemed.
For him, floating in the void, nothing worse could happen.
The loneliness wan't like anything he had experienced before in his life -- perhaps, he thought, to anyone in anylife.
After all - he was the first to get into this situation, he supposed.
Strangely, he didn't feel the terror he should have experienced in expectation.
He felt oddly optimistic that something eas going to happen.
Soon.
Time went by.
He tried to remember how he had found himself in this situation.
He found it impossible.
He began to spin.
He didn't know why he was spinning.
As he spun, he tried to use the inertia to move even quicker forward.
He succeeded.
The problem was he wasn't going anywhere.
He didn't care.

TV US attacks in West Wing storyline -- at a time when the US entertainment arts when actively ignoring world events, it's not surprising that the current second best programme on TV (behind Buffy, obviously) should be confronting this issue head on. It is difficult to see how as such an event within the fictional realm of the series would more than likely cast a show. Dream sequence?

Radio Danny Baker is broadcasting again -- on the not at all nation BBC London Live. Aha -- but it's broadcast on the web -- between 8am and 11am on a Saturday, while I'm on my way to work. Denied, I feel...

This Blog In September 2001: Day Twenty-Three.

Music I will say one thing about 'America: A Tribute To Heroes'. What was Natalie Imbruglia doing singing backing vocals for U2?

Net The Brains Trust watches the Internet reach the parts other global information sources cannot reach...

Fashion Marks & Spencer's new print campaign featuring a stunning model in lingerie revisits the Wonderbra's 'Hello Boys' series of the early 90s. But you get the feeling they'll need more than this to turn around the fortunes (especially in the present economic climate. The article talks up the hiring of George Davis to revamp (yet again) their range. Bet they wish he didn't make it sound like charity work: "When I got the call from M&S, I realised it had been in my pores all my life. Also, they were getting so much stick. It was a feeling of 'Let's try and help M&S, it's part of our culture'."

This Blog In September 2001: Day Twenty-Two.

People Recent events meant that the Conservative leadership contest all but disappeared into a new black hole -- the only sign being that some other bald person is now pontificating in a blue tie. I was reminded of the only time I met a Conservative in person. I was at a small but perfectly formed Waterstones, and who should be there signing copies of his memoirs, but Michael Heseltine. I could tell it was him, because amid his agent, bookshop rep and security guard, not a soul was around. Actually to be fair to the book chain, the shop was packed, but there was just no one around him. He sat dejectedly behind his desk in the window chatting politely to the rep and glancing now and then at his ex-voters striding past not giving him a second glance – or looking like they were trying not to. And in the twenty minutes it took me not to find the book I was looking for, his only visitor was a Young Conservative who looked for all the world like Nigella Lawson. I thought about approaching just to see what he was like, put to be honest I also had more fun walking past him...

Architecture Rachel Whiteread's 'House' despite protestations to the local council by the art world, was always going to be a temporary structure. The latest momentary vignette features an architect who's structure was designed to be far from temporary until it was destroyed by the ultimate act of 'vandalism'.

Music Tara Palmer-Tomkinson lists her top five classical pieces. Strange seeing Zadok The Priest in there, which I've actually sang for the Queen (I've been about a bit you know). The Queen was visiting Liverpool one day during my last year at secondary school. Someone decided it would be good idea to fill the Anglican Cathedral with school kids and have them sing Handel very loudly, whilst other kids offered a martial arts demonstration. We practiced solidly for two weeks, frequently after school and on the day the big church looked a treat, and even though we had all rehearsed separately, all of the schools sounded epic. And even the anti-royalists amongst us (of which I'm on the edge) were excited about meeting her majesty. So the time came and we began to perform -- and she walked past us, not batting an eyelid -- not that she could miss us. She seemed more engaged with the flowers she'd collected on her way past us. Perhaps she isn't as big a fan of Handel as Tarapt (appears twice in her top five) -- but many of us never forgave her for the slight...

This Blog In September 2001: Day Twenty-One.

Music Catatonia is catatonic...and many other tabloid headlines will ensue. Anyone who saw Cerys fawning over PAUL CLARKE! on 'Big Brother's Little Brother' those few short weeks ago will have known it was on the cards. Cerys seemed at best loopy, at worst deeply fragile. Looks like Gorki's Zygotic Mynci are Wales's number one band again. About time too... *

* God, I was little shit then wasn't I?

This Blog In September 2001: Day Twenty.

Dreams I remembered my dream for the first time in a long while the other night. I had gone to the old cinema which features in many of my dreams, a cinema which doesn't exist. I'd gone to see a French film which as far as can gather doesn't exist. I was the only one there (which is unusual, as the place is usually filled with everyone I've ever met). At the end I visited the box office to buy a ticket for the next showing to find the actress Laura Fraser working behind the counter (recent star of 'A Knights Tale', biggest film to date 'Virtual Sexuality'). She was leaving and I followed. We walked across a derelict urban wasteland. I asked her what she doing working in a box office and she told me it was because whilst she enjoyed acting she still wanted to have a normal life. I smiled. And as we walked we began to hold hands. She invited me to her house -- a giant shared accommodation in the middle of a large city which appeared from nowhere. I stood on the step and told her I had to go. We kissed, but she pulled away, because I didn't know how to kiss her -- and she disappeared into the house without another word -- I followed her in and the scene merged into a road and I was suddenly on the back of bicycle being pedalled along by the Python Eric Idle (now not then) dodging cars at an endless series of crossroads -- and then I woke ... what the hell does all that mean?