On the allotment

The skies opened on us yesterday afternoon. Oscar and I sheltered under the shed veranda. Oliver decided to stand in the rain amid thunder and lightning and a shower of hail.
'Come here, Oliver!"

He refuses shelter. Thunder cracks; trees swirl.
"Oliver!"
I suppose he presents a smaller area to the weather. That's a rough speculation. This is about the pleasure of instant mud, puddles and dripping greenery. I must put up guttering on at least two edges of the shed to harvest rain like this. I had the wicked idea when sipping tea...

...a nicer version of that frightful father in Yorgos Lanthimos' brilliantly horrid film Dogtooth Κυνόδοντας imprinting his isolated children with toxic inaccuracies about the names of common objects.

Oliver and I will plant some random seeds on Plot 14. A few days later, after I've prepared the ground in his absence, we'll harvest small toys. Maybe not. I like that he sees and helps collect potatoes to eat emerging under my fork from the earth, and sees beans in their pods cut from their stalks to be on his plate in the evening.
*** *** ***
To our delight there arrived, a few days ago, a letter from Angeliki, with sweet greetings to the family from Ano Korakiana, including a card congratulating Amy on the birth of Hannah...

...and expressing happiness that her grandfather now has a Greek and English Wikipedia entry. "On the 30th June my sister also gave birth to a healthy boy, my first nephew, so I understand your feelings" Of the continued search for Aristeidis Metallinos she writes:

When you'll be back in Ano Korakiana you can continue your work as you have planned STEP BY STEP. The doors of the 'μουσείο' are and will be always open to you, Linda and whoever you want. My mother respects both of you. You know that!!! You are also free to write on your blog whatever you think it can help my grandfather's recognition.

Such joy to read these words; also that Angeliki and her family, after Andreas met them on Democracy Street, had been able to welcome Thannasis Spingos and Kostas Apergis - scribes and historians of Ano Korakiana - to the Museum.

...Πάντα στον νου σου νάχεις την Ιθάκη.
Το φθάσιμον εκεί είν’ ο προορισμός σου.
Aλλά μη βιάζεις το ταξείδι διόλου.
Καλλίτερα χρόνια πολλά να διαρκέσει·
και γέρος πια ν’ αράξεις στο νησί,
πλούσιος με όσα κέρδισες στον δρόμο,
μη προσδοκώντας πλούτη να σε δώσει η Ιθάκη...

In pursuit of those 'steps' I took the train on the three hour journey north to meet Dr Alexandra Moschovi. I'd contacted her back in May to ask if she could share thoughts on the laic sculptor. I'm digesting our discussion, working through Alexandra's many insights on Aristeidis.

Meeting Alexandra Moschovi in Newcastle to explore the world of Aristeidis Metallinos

8th August from Birmingham:

Dear Alexandra. What a fascinating visit for me, with lots of new ideas and encouragement on the subject of our - now I dare hope - shared interest in the laic sculptor of Ano Korakiana. I have this morning posted you two DVDs containing images from my visits to the Aristeidis Metallinos ‘Museum’ - some are my photos or Linda’s, but mainly they are by Angeliki Metallinos of the works of her grandfather, which she does not claim as adequate representations. ...As we agree the images are in no special order and so represent rather ‘raw’ data. Yes! A catalogue is vital.
 You have encouraged me in the important task of giving a context to AM’s work (I just noticed the coincidence of initials!) by checking the historical time-line that accompanies the sculptor's working, especially the significance of the year 1981.
I am also alerted to his likely exposure to a number of popular Greek films...more alert to the impact of some of AM’s themes within a village, especially if there are even more sensitive issues of his relationships with others in the village...Given that AM said he took up hammer and chisel 'to bear witness to human nature and its weaknesses' «να παρουσιάσω τον άνθρωπο και τα ελαττώματά του» I am unsure whether he himself is involved in these adventures ... or whether AM's work is observational - which could also bring animosity, even spite upon him....  As we discussed, many more things will emerge.

Archbishop Makarios carved in 1974 by Aristeidis Metallinos

I was told by Angeliki that her grandfather sketched his planned works on unfolded cigarette boxes. I hope to see his actual tools and more personal possessions. I hope I may be trusted to see and handle these - with kid gloves.
 Meanwhile I'm delighted you are curious and interested in the same subject. For me it is about the struggle to improve my Greek, but also about my relationship with Ano Korakiana.
I am pleased that you do not see AM's work as pornographic or sexist. I think there are others who may be repelled by some of it; who would wish to censor some of the more ‘grotesque’ or ‘horrifying’ pieces. But is AM a feminist? What novel view of women emerges from this Greek man in his seventies brought up more or less all his life in a pastoral economy.

What did he learn in Albania in the war? What mix of fascination, admiration and excitement, anxiety and even anger and contempt informs Metallinos' experience of the changes in the condition of women during his life - and especially in the 70s and 80s with the great tourist invasion of Greece?

There are aspects of AM’s depiction of sexuality and gendered work that my own maleness may disqualify me from understanding. This is why I am interested in Lin’s views. I know Angeliki is as close to her as she is to me - the English couple!

Your gaze and critical view as a woman is an addition to your academic perspective on Aristeidis Metallinos.

There is also the matter of how his relations with his children and family, and especially Eleni, influenced him. I have the believe that he was passionately and sensually in love with her. Or was he, like some artists, more and more egotistical and preoccupied with his marble. His work seems to be a burden on his son Andrea.
Perhaps I fix on some of these matters because I’m an old man.
There’s also the matter of many other sculptures and the lovely reliefs depicting a world that has all but been forgotten, and was passing away with immense rapidity in the last decades of the sculptor’s life.

 In a recent Greek film Lin and enjoyed - Attenberg - the young woman’s father, an architect, observes “We never had an industrial revolution. We built an industrial colony on sheep pens”. All over the world the Greek diaspora partakes and leads in projects of modernisation but in Ano Korakiana there are still remnants of pre-industrial enchantment (about which I am not sentimental any more than I am about ‘democracy').

Thanks again for your interest, your advice and your company in Newcastle. I’m glad the rain held off. 'Σὰ βγεῖς στὸν πηγαιμὸ γιὰ τὴν 'Ιθάκη, νὰ εὔχεσαι νἆναι μακρὺς ὀ δρόμος, γεμάτος περιπέτειες, γεμάτος γνώσεις….'
Kindest regards and my best wishes to your dear family Simon

Αριστείδης Μεταλληνός (1908-1987) ~ his gaze? Are these stone women 'passive'?

In July I asked Jim Potts for his reflections. Jim has seen only photos of AM's but I've greatly valued his and Maria Pott's opinion of the sculptor's work...Jim also said he might try to seek his daughter's reaction. Ditto I, the women in my family:

13th July from Zagori (an extract): Re Metallinos, I feel I need to see his work in situ to really understand his take or stance on women. From the images I have seen, there are works that seem to explore quite different aspects of human relations, and the nature of men and women. I don't feel able to judge which is the dominant strand of his thinking, but he was certainly pushing back the boundaries, and that makes his work unusual and interesting.
At the moment I am struggling with a chapter on Tourism for an American book. Corfu is one of my case studies. I have been gathering information, statistics and anecdotes dealing with the development of tourism since the early 1950s. Like everything else, there are a lot of ambiguities and contradictions, making generalisations very difficult. I have found a theoretical sociological book The Tourist Gaze 3.0 by John Urry and Jonas Larsen very helpful, athough it doesn't deal with Corfu.
What was the nature of the Metallinos "Gaze"?
Did AM's work change and evolve over a period of years, are there various "periods" when he depicts women in one way or another?

His 'gaze'? I need images of Metallinos looking. Not the 'women' but him.

'Αυτός είμαι εγώ ~ That's me' (1980)

*** *** ***
Earlier this month Lin and I went to a BBQ organised by Aftab Rahman - 'quintessential Englishman' - of Legacy WM, in the secret spaces behind terrace houses on the Hamstead Road.

Colin Simms tells how he came to be involved in the re-creation of these handsome terrace houses...

The evening was going to be a little expensive.
"I'd love too come, Aftab. It's a bit dear for us"
"Come anyway and give a talk about Handsworth Park"
So I came with Lin with a brief to sing for my supper.

Photo: David Ash

David Ash was taking pictures. We explored - in and out - a small group of attached gardens behind Colin's houses. The court where we ate was warm from the sun that had followed rain in the early afternoon while Lin and were still 75 miles south working at Rock Cottage. I'd showered, changed, cooled a bottle of wine; still aching from the climbs up Bell Hill, nursing an appetite. Around eight I spoke for about twenty five minutes about the Founding of Handsworth Park.

Photo: David Ash

"You were fine at first" said Lin after "but you read too much from your history"
"I know, it was when I was going over the script of the public meeting where the decision  was made to proceed with Handsworth Park"
I find the past in the present so fascinating. I get carried away. But it was just alright. I rehearsed my account of the political work required to create a park - one that was not a philanthropic gift; which had to be paid for with taxes. I earned us supper.

Photo: David Ash

*** *** ***
While they seem busy, often anything but carefree, with alway more to do than there are hours in the day, we shall recall these weeks, while Amy and Guy stay here with their children, our grandson and new born granddaughter, plus the two dogs, Oscar and Cookie (with her irritating bark), as the happiest of times.

Hannah with her great grand parents

Oliver and his new sister

*** *** ***
Greece's economy - worst since the worst depressions 'in recent memory'.

Greece’s GDP shrank by a mere 0.2% in the second quarter. While still a decline, it’s the smallest drop since the third quarter of 2008—which means that after 24 consecutive quarters of economic contraction, the Greek recession’s end might finally be at a hand. Don’t expect any wild celebrations in the streets of Athens anytime soon, though. The Greek economy has been through hell over the last few years. Unemployment is an atrocious 27%. And roughly 25% of the economy has been destroyed since the peak in late 2007. That collapse in economic output puts the Greek recession right up there with the worst depressions in recent memory.

In Ano Korakiana, in the courtyard of Saint Athanasios; Anastasia Metallinou and Sakis Karanikolas gave villagers a recital of beautiful melodies from the repertoire of Manos Hadjidakis.

Υπό το αδιάκοπο θρόισμα της παλιάς νεσπολιάς, στον αύλειο χώρο του Άη-Θανάση, η Αναστασία Μεταλληνού και ο Σάκης Καρανικόλας μας χάρισαν χθες το βράδυ υπέροχες μελωδίες από το ρεπερτόριο του Μάνου Χατζιδάκι.

Inside the church on another evening there poetry was read

«Η τέχνη είναι ένα μέσο να συγκινεί κανείς το μεγαλύτερο αριθμό ανθρώπων, με το να τους προσφέρει μια προνομιακή εικόνα των κοινών πόνων και ευχαριστίσεων» (Albert Camus – «Ο Λογοτέχνης και η εποχή του»). Έτσι λοιπόν, απόψε, στην εκκλησία του Αγίου Αθανασίου, σε μιαν ατμοσφαιρική αύρα, οι εκλεκτοί προσκεκλημένοι Δημοσθένης Δαββέτας, Δημήτρης Κονιδάρης, Μαρία Πρεντουλή, Σωτήρης Τριβιζάς, Νάσος Μαρτίνος και ιερ. Βαλέριος, μας μίλησαν για «ποίηση», αποδίδοντας το διπλό της χαρακτήρα, του «εμπνευσμένου» και του «σοφού». Η αιώνια και δραστήρια φιλοσοφία της σκέψης, αντιθετικές σχέσεις με την υποκειμενική φύση, μια εξαιρετική δύναμη αφαίρεσης και ανάλυσης. Η βραδυά «έκλεισε» με την ανάγνωση ποιήματος του Δημοσθένη Δαββέτα και με την υπόσχεση της συνέχειας…

Poetry evening in St Athanasios, Ano Korakiana

(My hopeless translation)...So, an atmospheric night in the church of St. Athanasius, the distinguished guests Demosthenes Davvetas, Dimitris Konidaris, Maria Prentouli, Sotiris Trivizas, Nasos Martin and rep. Valerios, we talked about 'poetry', debating the dual character of the 'inspirational' and the 'wise'; the eternal and dynamic philosophy of thought, contrasting relationships with subjective nature, a fine celebration of strength and resolution.  The evening 'closed' with the reading of a poem by Demosthenes Davvetas and the promise of a return in the future...

On 11th August Ano Korakiana's orchestra marched in the annual procession celebrating Saint Spyridon  Ἅγιος Σπυρίδων - Corfu's patron saint.

11 Aυγούστου σήμερα και η πόλη της  Κέρκυρας θα φορέσει τα γιορτινά της για τη λιτάνευση του Ιερού σκηνώματος του Αγίου Σ πυρίδωνα, σε ανάμνηση της σωτηρίας του νησιού απο τους Τούρκους το 1716. Ο κόσμος, αρκετός, κερκυραίοι και μη, θα κατακλύσει απο νωρίς τους κεντρικούς δρόμους της πόλης απ'όπου θα περάσει η πομπή. Ξεχωριστό χρώμα όπως πάντα θα δώσουν οι φιλαρμονικές, 8 στο σύνολο, αναμεσα τους και η δική μας αποτελούμενηη απο 60 μουσικούς, οι οποίες θα συνοδεύσουν το σκήνωμα με αρχή και τέλος της διαδρομής, την εκκλησία του Αγίου...

*** *** ****

Francis Niemczyk has at last completed the second exercise in synchronising one of the hundreds of episodes of Out of Town from my archive. It arrived a few days ago - as a Digibeta tape, a DVD of sound, a DVD of film, and the one I could view and hear, a DVD of sound and image synchronised. Of course the film of Jack in the studio, as we know, is missing. The challenge is finding ways of having more than a dark space over his introduction. Ever helpful, Ian Wegg has suggested this, adding the theme tune and introductory titles. He moves from a fuzzy image of my stepfather in his shed at Raven Cottage in Dorset. This fades into black and white with greater clarity -  a picture of Jack with recovered film boxes on shelves, that dissolves into colour ribbon titles dissolving into Stan's location film...

Ian has edited out some of the talk that referred to an unidentified object. I like what he's done. Being able to sustain chat about this project among several hundred people on Facebook is encouraging and useful.
**** ****

Συγχωριανού μας Σάïμον Μπάντλεϊ  2012 (Αυτός είμαι εγώ με το μπαστούνι)

Leaving the Highlands

For breakfast I fried two eggs from the new hens in butter and laid them on buttered granary toast, added a little pepper...

...Tuesday morning, after the swift farewell mum prefers and a hug and kisses for Liz, Sharon dropped me and Oscar at Inverness station. All reservations were booked into the first coach on the platform, my seat surrounded by large fellow passengers with large children and luggage. Three coaches closer to the front. We had a table to ourselves most of the way to Edinburgh. An hour and ten minutes out of Inverness I'm alerted, as ever, to the train speeding up, even though the small river that meanders beside the single line still flows north we're descending and then - I always miss it - another similar river, is winding south, the watershed at a T-junction from the stream out of long Loch Ericht...

Past the watershed, the river's flowing south

...past the slopes of Badenoch into softer country; the beginning of the Lowlands. At messy Waverley bustling with Festival crowds I found my way by lift to the banished southern platforms and caught a Virgin Train towards London, among the last. First Group takes over the West Coast Line in December - it's winning bid for the franchise described as highly risky. I read most of the way; Jan Morris' Venice; watched Helen Mirren and Anne Bancroft in The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone, through Lancaster, Preston, Wigan North West, Warrington Bank Quay. By Crewe I'd returned to my book shrinking the journey with recognition and memory of places - not only that city but Padua, Ferrara and Bologna where I left the train to Rome, catching one south east along the coast, with time to buy a picnic, for my onward journey south through Rimini, Ancona, Pescara, to Bari for a ferry to Greece. Leaving Wolverhampton as we hurried beside familiar towpaths and canal bridges through green burgeoning dereliction I  phoned Lin who, thirteen miles later, collected us outside New Street station.

Waiting for Linda at New Street Station

Settling in at home, going through my post, an email from Sharon with a photo. She's managed, with help from Liz, to coax Mum out for a conversation with the hens.

***** *****
Wednesday: It's been pouring on and off; a sample from my in-tray - send energy meter readings and phone the energy company to ask for a refund of the credit they've collected from me, check a cheaper storage place on the Tyburn Road for my stepfather's archive - half the present price; work up Handsworth Helping Hand's (HHH) guidelines for safeguarding children and vulnerable adults, circulate minutes and prepare an agenda for our meeting on Thursday night; meet up with Aftab Rahman at Soho House, moving on to Colin Simm's terraces on Hamstead Road then St Mary's Convent on Hunter's. He'd brought along a young film-maker, Amirul Hussain, and a photographer Johur Uddin, joined later by Jesse Gerald, to help assemble materials for our planned Lozells and East Handsworth Heritage Trail. We were joined by Rajinder Rattu and Cllr Waseem Zaffar. As we looked at Colin's gardens I asked Waseem what he knew about an inexpensive way to get HHH people Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checked, something we need to do to qualify for funding. Rajinder told me we must get these through a CRB registered agency, HHH being too small to be so accredited.

Colin and Simon

L-R: Colin Simms, Rajinder Rattu, Cllr Waseem Zaffar,  Amirul Hussain, Aftab Rahman and Johur Uddin

*********
Liturgy for the Madonna in Ano Korakiana...On the Eve of Our Lady, one neighborhood is preparing to share celebrations with all the village; a procession beginning and ending at the small church above Mourgadas - της Μουργάδας - where the service will be.

Marietta’s conscientious attention has spread whitewash up Tsimpani hill, reflecting off edges and old ways. The afternoon starts with decorating the Epitaphio and Icon of Our Lady. Sophia Nikolouzos will offer ribbons woven by devout sisters (from old Korakiana families), while Alexandra Spingou-Trivizas will decorate the cross with Cloves and Basil. Commissioner George Kentarhos will as usual oversee the ceremonies. Following its recent refurbishment, pictures, like the image of the Virgin of the Life-Giving Spring - της Παναγίας Ζωοδόχου Πηγής, hang on the walls at the back of the little church. The clouds thickened but the threatened storm left the village alone....By evening amid candles and cherubs, young children have early positions guarantee - Michael, Constantine, Mary, Nectarina, Ellie, Vangelis and several others.

Some reckon the unusually high numbers a sign of the times...Wednesday morning, the day of the feast, and the scene’s repeated; lots of people gathered in the small courtyard, crowded inside the church, despite the heat and humidity....Το πολυπληθές ψαλτήρι σε σπάνια αρμονία και χωρίς φωνητικές εξάρσεις συμπληρώνει μια εικόνα αγαλλίασης, όπως θα πει λίγο αργότερα ο κορακιανίτης γαμπρός, γιατρός Γιάννης Βαρβαρίγος. Στα γύρω σοκάκια, τα παιδιά δεν κρατιούνται και ξεδίνουν στο παιγνίδι, όσο και αν ακόμη βαραίνουν τα αφτιά τους οι οδηγίες των γονέων. Το τελείωμα της Λειτουργίας θα ακολουθήσει το προσκύνημα της Εικόνας και οι ανταλλαγές ευχών. Η προσφορά άρτων από την Ενορία και σπερνών από την οικογένεια Αλέκου και Κατερίνας Ιωνά, συμπληρώνουν το καθιερωμένο κέρασμα, που προσφέρει η οικογένεια Κώστα και Ειρήνης Μπαλατσινού.

Wednesday evening, the curtain fell on the last night of our Band’s Cultural Programme for August, a performance by our musical association’s dance group. As usual, three ‘generations’ of dancers performed in a composition of traditional rhythms from different parts of our country, set against austere and beautiful scenery....

...With a boat named ‘Victory’ - designed by G. Metallinos, Katerina and Alekos Jonah - sailing through blue waters and Nike Kentarhos, their skilled captain, quietly directing the performance of the dance, with the help of Francisco Koveou on sound. Wonderfully encouraging was the Association’s children's ‘set’, getting the audience’s repeated applause.

“They will be here next year” promised Spyros Savvani, Philharmonic President, celebrating the annual contributions of long term supporters of the dance section since it was founded.  
Η αυλαία των Αυγουστιάτικών Πολιτιστικών Εκδηλώσεων της Φιλαρμονικής έπεσε χθες το βράδυ, με την παράσταση του Χορευτικού συγκροτήματος του Μουσικού μας Συλλόγου. Όπως πάντα, οι τρεις «γενιές» χορευτών και χορευτριών έδωσαν το παρόν με μία μουσικο-χορευτική σύνθεση παραδοσιακών ρυθμών από διάφορα μέρη του τόπου μας, με φόντο ένα λιτό και όμορφο σκηνικό. Με ένα καραβάκι ονόματι «Νίκη», που επιμελήθηκαν οι Γεράσιμος Μεταλληνός, Αλέκος και Κατερίνα Ιωνά, να αρμενίζει σε γαλάζια νερά και με τη Νίκη Κεντάρχου, επιδέξια καπετάνισσα, να διευθύνει αθόρυβα την παράσταση του χορευτικού, με τη βοήθεια του Φραγκίσκου Κωβαίου στα ηχητικά. Σίγουρα ενθαρρυντική ήταν η παρουσία του παιδικού «κύκλου» του τμήματος, που απέσπασε επανειλημμένα τις επιδοκιμασίες του κοινού. «Ραντεβού για του χρόνου στο ίδιο μέρος», υποσχέθηκε ο Πρόεδρος της Φιλαρμονικής Σπύρος Σαββανής, κάνοντας παράλληλα μια ενδεικτική αναφορά τιμής στα πρόσωπα που στήριξαν το χορευτικό τμήμα όλα τα χρόνια, από την ίδρυσή του έως σήμερα.
*** *** ***
With various other things out of the way Linda and Denise went down to do some work for Handsworth Helping Hands, weeding, digging and planting a neglected raised bed at the top of Putney Avenue, a car-filled cul de sac. They'd a Pelagonium left from previous plantings by us, four Dahlias from a resident, and from Jill, Lin's friend, Geraniums, Bergenia and Euphobia.

Lin and Denise doing voluntary work in Putney Avenue

I took a hand-fork and a rake from them and weeded the bed on one side of Church Vale - one we'd dug, weeded and planted three weeks ago, and picked up litter in and around the bed. Ten of our ninety Pelagonia gifted by Allen Broad at the Park have been taken; but Lin was told the miscreant, a rather rickety old man, had been caught by a neighbour who'd asked him why he was taking the flowers. He'd replied "Because they're nice" 

"Be not afeard: the isle is full of noises."

The summer stays with us a little longer. Oscar contributed to Martin Creed's 'all the bells' cacophony to mark the start of the 2012 Olympic Games in London as I chimed in with St Mary's Church bells this morning - just up the road.

We were in St Mary's yesterday noon. Rev Brian Hall was showing around a group of us involved in designing a two hour Heritage Walk around Handsworth and Lozells. We'd begun the pilot walk at St.Mary's Convent, gone on via St Silas' Square to The Old Toll House...

Outside the Old Toll House

...on the corner of Villa and Hamstead Roads, before strolling on to see the Gatehouse to Heathfield Park - once the Lodge of James Watt's estate.

 - From St Mary's we climbed over the churchyard wall and strolled through Handsworth Park to the bandstand where I gave a short account of its loss and restoration with the re-opening of the Park on 8 July 2006

On this occasion we missed the Victoria Jubilee Allotments though they'll probably be included in the planned walk. We headed on to Soho Road for a lovely vegetarian meal with mango lassis at the London Sweet Centre before going round The Council House a few yards further up Soho Road, now home of the Handsworth Campus of City College.

Richard Trengrouse, Ashok,  Simon and Oscar

In our little group of strollers, Ashok, Aftab Rahman, Sue, Richard Trengrouse waxing enthusiastic about the buildings and green spaces; grumbling at examples of damage done them by lack of restoration or, worse, unimaginative restoration. We agreed over lunch that the tour should take in some family homes. Richard emailed us about an encounter on the way back to the walk's starting point at the Convent in Hunters Road

Hi Aftab. Brilliant day, thought the Convent and the park were wonderful  I didn't realise just how good Handsworth Park is, surely the best in the City. After I left you things just got better! I went down Terrace Rd onto Hampstead Rd to look at the restored terraces there. A rather dishevelled man covered in paint came out and went to go to his car. He saw me and accused me of being a historian, an accusation I hotly denied. It was Colin Simms and I got a guided tour of all nine houses and their courtyard gardens in the ninth house which he has just started renovating he has just uncovered the most spectacular stair rails and newel posts, so spent the end of the afternoon supping iced water with Colin! Best wishes,  Richard

Colin Simms restored terrace houses on Hamstead Road

Terrace House on Hamstead Road

Note to Aftab: I hope the Heritage Walk we are planning in Handsworth and Lozells and for which we have funding, will include the possibility of focusing on bad architecture in the area. I noticed how our conversation as we walked together through the neighbourhood was laced with annoyance, even anger, at the examples we passed of ugly renovation and unimaginative new building. The writer Evelyn Waugh wrote in the 1960s about 'the grim cyclorama of spoliation which surrounds all English experience in this century and any understanding of the immediate past…incomplete unless this huge deprivation of the quiet pleasures of the eye is accepted as a dominant condition, sometimes for mere sentimental apathy, sometimes poisoning love of country and of neighbours.' I hope we can draw attention not just to English but global aesthetics as these effect old and new, private and public buildings in Handsworth and Lozells. Here's an example of what I detest about so called improvement in our area (there's an image next to it of one of Colin Simm's restorations to show how beautiful these terraces on Hamstead Road can be). What was in the mind of the builder, owner, who did this to a house? 

*** *** ***
I've typed up the minutes of the meeting on 12 July at which 17 month after the problems of insolvency and lack of leadership were first presented we formally set up Handsworth Helping Hands, previously Central Handsworth Practical Care Project, as an unincorporated association - an extract:

MINUTES OF THE CHPCP COMMITTEE

& CHPCP VOLUNTARY ADVISORY GROUP JOINT MEETING

held at 19.00 on 12^th July 2012 at 34 Beaudesert Road, B20 3TG

Present:

CHPCH COMMITTEE:   Charles Bates*, Daphne Robinson

CHPCH VOLUNTARY ADVISORY GROUP:   Mike Tye (Chair), Linda Baddeley, Simon Baddeley, John Rose, Denise Forsyth, Charles Bates*

* Charles Bates is a member of both groups

1. Apologies: Cllr Hendrina Quinnen

2. Minutes of last meeting ~ 28^th June 2012: Approved

3. Achievements of the Voluntary Advisory Group (VAG): LB reported:

 Over the last 15 months, the VAG have kept accurate minutes of all meetings, maintained proper accounts, filed receipts for all money spent and paid all debts, including reassessment and payment of income tax and national insurance for tax years 2010-2011 and 2011-2012.

All PAYE forms for 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 have been completed online and submitted to HMRC, (including amendment of incorrect 2010-2011 figures originally submitted to HMRC by BVSC), and the PAYE account has been closed. A £300 fine for late submission of 2010-2011 figures was successfully appealed by LB.

The majority of the Central Handsworth Practical Care Project Committee have resigned, leaving only four members. The two paid employees have both left the project voluntarily and have been provided with P45 forms.

Two vehicles (tipper truck and LDV van, (the former now impractical and the latter untaxed and uninsured and originally parked in the street) and the hardly used wood chipper have been sold. The remaining van has been MOTed, taxed and insured, and secure parking in the Handsworth Park compound has been obtained.

All tools belonging to the project have been removed from the garage in St Peter’s Road to secure storage in the Handsworth Park Compound.

Employer’s Liability and Public Liability Insurance was renewed for 2011-2012, but is now due for renewal again. (LB is obtaining quotes.)

The Voluntary Advisory Group has established good relations with the three Ward councillors, keeping them informed of progress and all matters concerning CHPCP.

From a position of being £20,000 in debt, the project now has a balance of over £14000 in the bank account and the Central Handsworth Practical Care Project is now in a position, in accordance with the wishes previously expressed by the CHPCP committee, to be closed, to be replaced immediately by Handsworth Helping Hands (HHH). Handsworth Helping Hands will have the same objectives as CHPCP.

4. Vote on VAG proposals re. dissolution of CHPCP:

LB proposed the immediate closure of CHPCP and transfer of all assets to Handsworth Helping Hands, to be used for the benefit of the Handsworth community. Three votes in favour, two from the CHPCP committee members present and one in writing from Mr Ilyas, who did not attend the meeting, carried the motion. The fourth CHPCP committee member, Mr Kennedy, did not attend, send apologies, nor put his views on the matter in writing.

5.Official inception of HHH

Acceptance of constitution: LB proposed that those present accept the draft Handsworth Helping Hands constitution. The HHH constitution was unanimously accepted.

Election of officers:

Chair:  Michael Tye

Proposed by LB,  seconded by DF. Carried

Secretary:  Simon Baddeley

Proposed by LB,  seconded by JR. Carried

Treasurer:  Linda Baddeley

Proposed by LB,  seconded by DF. Carried

Vice Chair:  Denise Forsyth

Proposed by MT,  seconded by CB. Carried

It was agreed that JR would shadow LB’s role as Treasurer.

DR and CB volunteered to serve as members of the HHH committee. Cllr Hendrina Quinnen, after council legal advice that HHH does not have to have a nominated ward councillor on its committee, will remain as a ‘friend’ of HHH.  HHH will continue to keep local councillors informed.....(continued)
*** *** ***
When Handsworth Helping Hands were clearing the gardens at CMAT studios in Grosvenor Road last Tuesday 17 July I got talking with people who worked there - Pervaiz, Lucy and Mikey - about the work of the studios. That led onto a discussion with Mikey about the film and tape in the Jack Hargreaves' archive. Mikey suggested it might make sense, in the absence of a Steenbeck machine, to digitise films and sound tapes independently, and worry about matching them later. They had the kit to digitise the sound. He'd explore what would be involved doing the same with the film. I made an appointment to bring samples from the archive in the lock up in Sherlock Street this Wednesday. 

Simon, Pervaiz and Mikey at CMAT

I showed Mikey the sound tape - carbon-fibre rods, picking up - pheasant shoot.
"It's in good condition" he said

"We can digitise that"
I showed him a reel of the 16mm film also from the 1970s, this one with Jack's writing recognisable the can 'Out of Town' programme film made on Colonel Hawker and Terns. 

We chatted. I realised that digitising the film wasn't straightforward. Mikey and Pevaiz had been exploring possibilities - but after some circuitous conversation I realised they had no suitable conversion equipment nor experience of digitising 16mm film. Here's a passage from the internet hinting at the challenge:

If you have a box of old 16mm film, digitizing it is either dead simple or very difficult. The dead-simple op­­tion is to send the film to a transfer service...doing the job yourself is hard and time consuming, as no consumer-level dedicated 16mm film scanner is available. It's physically possible to scan 16mm film frame-by-frame using a 35mm slide scanner or a flatbed scanner that handles slides. But this approach entails endless cropping and reassembly....A maximum 18 frames per second for 8mm film means 1080 images per minute of movie...

No way...and here's another website offering a 'secret' method for digitising film after dismissing standard methods:

...Project the film and video it off a wall then put the video into an all-in-one Video to DVD machine. It still flickers! There is a huge array of cheap and expensive machines all purporting to reduce this flicker. Some of them work, however with such manipulation any detail left is lost for ever as these type of machines compress MPEG and digitise at one set low rate. We have stacks of Documentary evidence to prove none of these methods work. We use a proprietary based system which is a closely guarded secret and the envy of our competitors. This system produces top quality, flicker free film transfers which are a pleasure to watch with rich colour, contrast and crisp sharp detail. You can clearly see the faces in our films....

Later at home I phoned Simon Winter of Kaleidoscope. He and colleagues played a key part in uncovering the 34 original Out of Town videos that Delta will be publishing in October.

We discussed the 16mm film in the collection.
"I know someone," he said "Kaleidoscope use him for digitising films they recover."
*** ***
Those lines came over the tele' spoken by Kenneth Branagh in the Olympic Stadium on Friday night...

Be not afeard: the isle is full of noises,
Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight, and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears; and sometimes voices,
That, if I then had wak'd after long sleep,
Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming,
The clouds methought would open and show riches
Ready to drop upon me; that, when I wak'd,
I cried to dream again.

Lin said "But...that's not England, it's Corfu, Prospero's Cell!"... the gold and moving blue have stained our thoughts...brilliant speck of an island in the Ionian...waters like the heartbeat of the world...darkness opaque...we see in our dreams the world as if in some great aquarium...

Κέρκυρα

Allowing for that small error I without enthusiasm for the thing, was transported into delight and admiration by Danny Boyle's orchestration of the opening ceremony Isles of Wonder. He and his team surmounted that great challenge of entertainers - working with animals and children, demonstrating, in as brilliant a 15 minutes as I've ever seen or heard or read, that defining event of the modern age - the Industrial Revolution, not sparing us the Satanic Mills, the price paid for its wealth, dissent and protest and destruction of a green and pleasant land. 

As the performance proceeded we saw the empire - about which we're inclined to be like a softer version of the Anglo-German "Don't mention the War" - imploding, accelerating the resentment - already stirred by the plural 'Isles'; - of anyone needing an Island Story whose chief job is to keep the others in their place. The messiness carried many stories - the hybridity of London, the multiplicity of the British Isles. In a ceremony being blogged, tweeted and facebooked across the globe - narrowcast even as it was broadcast it was good to see Tim Berners-Lee feted as the inventor of the world wide web or - rather - as Watt's refinement of the Newcomen engine made steam really 'work', achieving the same for the Internet with HTML. I didn't get some of the more contemporary reference, Soaps and Pop, but it was something to get away with the Punk 'God save the queen, The fascist regime' in the same stadium as 'God save our gracious queen Long live our noble queen'. That was the span - the isle is indeed 'full of noises'. I don't recall having so many laughs at any previous Olympic opener. HM being called on at the palace by James Bond - Daniel po-faced Craig - and helicoptered by him to where she could parachute into the arena. I'd seriously like to see a vignette of the correspondence when that was agreed; Rowan Atkinson getting landed by Simon Rattle with the repetitive note that starts and runs through Vangelis' Chariots of Fire, becoming restless with it, looking, Bean-like, for distraction. Bouncing doctors, nurses and children from Great Ormond Street - part of a cheeky paeon for the NHS combined with fairy stories from Barry through Kenneth Graham to J K Rowling. Boyle had real nurses, kids and doctors - all volunteers - dancing. He saved some cash there and included tribute to that British predisposition - volunteering, something 'we' probably prefer to dancing, though that may be changing. Another of many similarly connected groups, were the relatives of the dockers present at the arrival of  M/V Empire Windrush at Tilbury this time 64 years ago to usher her replica into the stadium - relatives of dockers who might also have marched for Enoch Powell after his 'rivers of blood' speech in April 1968. The visual wit and the fun weren't fortune cooky treats. They vaccinated against the heavy risk of getting too tingly with emotion, let alone welling a tear - just what the doctor ordered for the British dis-ease. This was also my stepfather's England of hybridity, starting with the mixing of two races - preceded on this his last broadcast for Southern Television thirty one years ago by four minutes of commercials.

On the higher ground ~ Jack Hargreaves from Simon Baddeley on Vimeo.

***
On Friday night in Ano Korakiana, apart from some unknown - άγνωστοι - miscreant spraying red paint on cars parked in the square to the fury of their owners, our news - Τα νέα μας - that on Saturday evening there'll be the annual festival of music, dancing and a roast to celebrate Ag Paraskevi:

1. Το καθιερωμένο πλέον ετήσιο πανηγύρι της Αγίας Παρασκευής πραγματοποιείται αύριο, Σάββατο 28 Ιουλίου 2012, το βράδυ υπό τη συνδιοργάνωςση της Φιλαρμονικής και της Εκκλησίας, που υπόσχονται διασκέδαση με μουσική, χορό και ψητά...
2. Άγνωστοι ψέκασαν χθες το βράδυ με κόκκινη μπογιά τα παρκαρισμένα αυτοκίνητα στην πλατεία του χωριού...προκαλώντας την αγανάκτηση των ιδιοκτητών τους...Τι άλλο θα δούμε!
3.Παλαιωμένο κακοτρύγη από την Πούπουλια είχε υποσχεθεί για τα πρώτα γενέθλια της εγγονής του Αγγελικής, ο παππούς Κώστας Απέργης...αλλά τελικά ήταν από Αλευκιμιώτικο αμπελώνα...

It will also the first birthday of Kostas Apergis' grand-daughter Angela - but like lots of the Ano Korakiana website it's tricky for me to translate. What's Αλευκιμιώτικο? and Παλαιωμένο κακοτρύγη?

Preparing for the party at Agia Paraskevi

Κορακιανίτικο πανηγύρι ~ Saturday night party in Ano Korakiana

On Saturday 28 July - the annual festival and party, panigyri:

Δύο ώρες πριν από την έναρξη του φετινού πανηγυριού της Αγίας Παρασκευής, οι προεργασίες συνεχίζονταν με αμείωτο ρυθμό. Γυναίκες της χορωδίας και του χορευτικού είχαν αναλάβει την προετοιμασία των λουκουμάδων, πλάι στους υπόλοιπους που ετοίμαζαν τις ψησταριές και τους υπαίθριους παγο-καταψύκτες, ενώ τα τραπεζοκαθίσματα ήταν ήδη στρωμένα. Την ίδια ώρα, στη γραφική εκκλησία με το νεόκτιστο και φρεσκοβαμμένο καμπαναριό, ο ιερέας τελούσε τον Εσπερινό, ενώ ο κόσμος που άρχιζε σιγά-σιγά να μαζεύεται περνούσε πρώτα από εκεί για το άναμα ενός κεριού.
Οι πρώτοι ήχοι της ορχήστρας λίγο αργότερα, θα δώσουν το έναυσμα για την έναρξη του πανηγυριού, ενώ καθώς νύχτωνε ο κόσμος γέμιζε το πλάτωμα. Λίγο πριν από τα μεσάνυχτα το υπαίθριο γλέντι βρισκόταν στο φόρτε του, με τον Πρόεδρο της Φιλαρμονικής να οδηγεί το χορό. Μα πέρα από τη διασκέδαση, το πανηγύρι, όπως κάθε χρόνο, θα προσφέρει μια ευκαιρία συνάντησης των Κορακιανιτών κάθε ηλικίας, που θα συρρεύσουν. Αργότερα, θα μοιραστούν λαχνοί προς ενίσχυση των διοργανωτών της εκδήλωσης, Φιλαρμονικής και Εκκλησίας και το γλέντι θα διαρκέσει μέχρι τις πρωινές ώρες…

Two hours before the start of this year's festival of Agia Paraskevi, preparatory work continued unabated. The women's choir and the dance group looked after the preparation of donuts, next to others who were preparing barbecues and outdoor freezers, while tables and chairs were already arranged. At the same time, in the picturesque church, freshly painted with a newly built tower, the priest was doing vespers, while everyone gradually began to gather, pausing to light a candle.
Later, the first sounds of the orchestra will trigger the start of the festival. As night falls people filled the plaza. Shortly before midnight, the outdoor festival was in full swing, the President of the Philharmonic leading the dance. But beyond the fun, the festival, as every year, will offer a chance for Korakianas of all ages who've flocked to the village to meet... the party will last until the early hours...