It Was 20 Years Ago Today ...

 

I've always been interested in writing down thoughts and happenings as a way of reinforcing unreliable memory and interrogating some of my own assumptions. Over the years, I've kept a Diary, a Studio Journal, and this Blog.

My Diary began in May 1983 and I've been good at keeping it going over the years. There are gaps, inevitably, but looking back at entries now and again can be quite surprising. For instance, I recently found an entry from the 80s that detailed a meeting with a friend in a restaurant in Newcastle. I still have no idea why we were meeting (not enough detail, Diary!) but more surprisingly was the description of the restaurant because it no longer exists and without the Diary entry, it wouldn't exist for me now at all.

The Studio Journal has an even earlier start: June 1972. It's progress, however, has been patchy and uneven. Part of the problem is that some things get written up in the Diary which deserve equal space in the Journal and there are indeed times when I make the effort to copy entries from one to the other. The actual function of the Studio Journal has varied over the years, but i still think it's a worthwhile investment of time.

Before the appearance of Facebook, I wrote far more in this Blog. My first approach to blogging was from the perspective of fanzine publishing. In fact, I firmly intended to make this Blog a replacement for the fanzines I used to distribute to science fiction fans round the world, but it quickly became obvious that the intended audience hadn't taken to the idea and I gradually found myself drawn into the Blogosphere, a quite different concept from fanzine fandom. 

Facebook and other social media have, of course, dealt a body blow to blogging. A great number of Blogs are now moribund and, indeed, I let my activities here slide quite a bit. In 2017, I posted 425 blog posts here, a high point because in subsequent years the number declined to posts in the mid 40s. 

I'm now making the effort to revive Boogie Street; perhaps not to its former glory, but at least to something that presents something new fairly regularly. Here's to the next 20 years! And enjoy the celebratory cake (if 2018 doesn't mean it's a bit stale).

Belated Blogiversary

Fourteen years ago, on the 15th April, I wrote my first blog post on Boogie Street. In fact, I wrote my first four blog posts. I soon realised I couldn't keep that up, but am surprised to find that I've kept going, with only one minor lapse, for fourteen years.

Commenters have come and gone and the world of blogging has closed down or moved over to Facebook, but I still find it helpful to write stuff about my work. With luck, my Regular Reader also finds it interesting.

Cheers! Here's to the next fourteen.

No Regrets.

I mentioned a short while ago that there'd been a small flurry of new subscribers to this blog. I didn't know the reason why that should have happened, but I do know why some of them are now unsubscribing - "Content no longer relevant."

I make no apologies for continuing to post My Dad's Diary, which is presumably the content that has given people the hump. This blog, while concentrating on my painting and drawing, has always featured a small amount of  biographical material and will continue to do so. My Dad's Diary provides a look into the first year of my life and I want to keep it somewhere safe. I post the blog entries on Facebook but am aware that they'll quickly disappear into the past; at least on my blog they're potentially there forever.

It's somewhat ironic that, were it not for the Diary pieces, there'd be little or no posts from me here and no one would have been alerted to the possibility that the content had changed in any way.

Getting artwork done has not been easy in the last year or two, for all sorts of reasons. but I haven't given up and there will be more posts about painting and drawing in the very near future. Just haad yer horses, as my Mum would say. 

And remember, Boogie Street is a two-way street. Just as I hope at least some of you want to read what I have to say, I'm always interested in reading what you have to say in return. That's what the Comments box is there for, folks. You can even leave an anonymous comment, although sticking a name of some sort at the end of your comment would be polite.

It's good to talk. Smiley face.

It's Always Boogie Street

"It’s always Boogie Street: Boogie Street in the monastery, Boogie Street on Times Square. You don’t get away from it, No one masters the heart. The heart continues to cook like [a] shish kebab in everybody’s breast, bubbling and dripping, and no one – no one – can escape."

Leonard Cohen quoted in Look Who’s Back at 67: Gentle Leonard Cohen by Frank DiGiacomo (New York Observer, Oct 15, 2001)

Happy New Year to all my Reader!

Happy New Year

Garden Gate (Oil on canvas, 16 x 16 in) Private Collection

2013 was not my favourite year by any stretch of the imagination. It began with a pre-existing eye condition getting out of control, went on to encompass two operations on my left eye and ended with a death in my partner's family.

So I'm not unhappy to bid farewell to the old year, even though it did have some saving graces: Pat, my partner bought a house much closer to my own and we're now able to spend more time together.

I've done no real painting since March. Partly because of the problems with my eyesight, but also due to a definite pause in the creative urge. I've written before about a feeling that I need a new direction to revitalise what I'm doing and I'm still in that uncertain state. But I always like the challenge of a New Year and intend to get some ideas sorted out this month so that I can start to move on.

Meanwhile, what can you expect from me here on Boogie Street, assuming that is that I'm still talking to at least my Regular Reader?  A while ago I promised to resume posting from my collection of unfinished sketchbooks. The Malta Sketchbook is the one I think should come next, so watch out for drawings from that island.

Finally, there are exhibitions in the offing. Two are lined up with Figure 8 this year and I'm delighted to say that I'll be putting on a solo show for the first time in my home town of Gateshead in April/May. So there should be news of those as we get nearer.

Let me end by wishing you and those you love a Very Happy New Year indeed. We all deserve it, you know; let no one tell you otherwise.

Happy New Year!

Etching: Still Life (Etching and aquatint)

It's been a fascinating 12 months on Boogie Street, and I'd like to thank all of you who've followed me through this blog. Your comments have been a real and very welcome encouragement. I hope you'll stay with me in the coming year.

The choice of image may seem a strange one, but I see it as one of hope. The making of the etching itself, in 1998, wasn't really successful: the plate was left in the acid too long and the aquatint started to come loose. However, the end result, with platelets of aquatint shifting about probably makes the print more interesting than it might have been had it worked the way it was meant to. It's been a year of promise and achievement, but some things didn't work out. Despite that, shining through the shifting platelets of 2008, there's still the bright white light of 2009. Better stop there before I get too purple.

I wish you all a very happy and prosperous 2009. Happy New Year!

The meaning of "Boogie Street"

And still they come ... every day here sees a small but constant stream of people wanting to know "What does Boogie Street mean?" As a public service I thought it might help if I quote this explanation from the Wikipedia:

Leonard Cohen has written a song called "Boogie Street", published on his album Ten New Songs (2001). In an interview with Brian D. Johnson in Maclean's Magazine on 15 October 2001, Cohen said of Boogie Street:

"… during the day Boogie Street is a scene of intense commercial activity … And at night, it was a scene of intense and alarming sexual exchange."

Later he goes on to talk of its metaphorical meaning: "Boogie Street to me was that street of work and desire, the ordinary life and also the place we live in most of the time that is relieved by the embrace of your children, or the kiss of your beloved, or the peak experience in which you yourself are dissolved, and there is no one to experience it so you feel the refreshment when you come back from those moments … So we all hope for those heavenly moments, which we get in those embraces and those sudden perceptions of beauty and sensations of pleasure, but we're immediately returned to Boogie Street."

Now your curiosity has, I hope, been satisfied, why not stay and look around? Leave a comment even?

Anniversary Review

Somehow the fourth anniversary of this blog (14th April 2008) slipped by without my noticing. It hasn't been an unalloyed joy, but I still find the act of publishing stuff here quite fascinating.

However, I'm coming round to the view that changes must be made. I tried a while ago to move to a new template, one where I can make amendments to the look of the thing without having always to fiddle around under the bonnet, adjusting the HTML. That didn't work nearly as well as I'd hoped, so I panicked and ran back to this more modest end of Boogie Street.

Did anyone else find it unnerving to make the switch to a new template?

For the last couple of weeks or so, I've been running a private blog created with a new style template and have discovered how to avoid many of the mistakes I made on my last attempt at the Street's modernisation. I like the way it looks and I'm sure the regulars who come here hoping (in vain, I'm afraid) to learn What Boogie Street Means, or What Happened to Jimmy Nail would appreciate the new look, too.

I've thought about changing the title to put an end to the Searchers for Meaning, but I'm rather fond of it now and, although it hasn't anything to do with the main subject matter of the blog, it still means something rather special to me (even if it might not entirely accord with what Leonard meant when he wrote it).

But what do you think? I'm genuinely interested.