Cooking chicken curry for a friend:)

The Vanishing

Apologies to all readers who are a bit fed up of crying over spilt milk. I would like to, instead, draw your attention to some music, a festival and a film.

Namely, the Manchester International Festival. A recent trip to the city yielded a visit to a performance called The Vanishing by Michael Mayhew, a live artist based in Manchester. In this particular instance, Mayhew sought to record and represent stories of vanishings in people's lives, the bigger project having him question notions of invisibility, and involving travel to Australia to track down a missing sibling as well as collaborating with a magician on illusions. The day's performance resulted in a sonic representation of recordings of people's stories as shared with the individual performers; audio that rose and fell and boomed within the high ceilings and mosaiced floors of the town hall, a whisper rising to a crescendo to a rasp, a momentary silence shattered by the sound of waves crashing, and chanted stories blurted, shouted, scrawled on the black clad performers walking the globe they had mapped in their heads. I closed my eyes and relaxed while one of the performers, in this instance a friend, writhed beside me, her eyes shut tight as she chanted, chanted, chanted...

Also featured in the festival were two rising stars of British music, Bat for Lashes and Kid Harpoon who, caught my ear, but, i missed.....i missed.....i missed.....

As for my latest trip to the cinema; Marion Cotillard is phenomenal in La Vie En Rose. Her large, expressive eyes coupled with the little sparrow's soulful voice are delightfully haunting. I'll play some music and let it fester.

Crying over spilt milk

The milk in the fridge has curdled
And i'm making yoghurt today

I can feel your gaze on me
As i reach for the curdled milk

In the light that switches on as i open the refigerator door
the empty bread bin
the teapot standing still on the kitchen shelf

I pour the milk into a bowl
and it splatters onto the table top beneath

You look away

Diaspora

Fear. Guilt. Isolation. Exile. Freedom.

Rakshanda in London: A Retrospective

A Publishing deal:

Fairy Tales from the Funny farm, out shortly, at a bookstore near you!

An Installation in a launderette:

From a quick sketch to an arts festival, nothing quite like seeing an idea come to life.
'It seems absolutely obvious, as well as convenient, to use as a subject what you are thinking and looking at all the time'
- Lucien Freud

A Failed relationship:

'I didn't know what hate felt like, not the hate that comes after love. It's huge and desperate and it longs to be proved wrong. And everyday its proved right it grows a little more monstrous. If the love was passion, the hate will be obsession. A need to see the once loved as weak and cowed and beneath pity. Disgust is close and dignity is far away. The hate is not only for the once loved, its for yourself too; how could you ever have loved this?'
- Jeanette Winterson, 'The Passion'.

Precious friendships:

'U need money? If u w8 a cpl wks, mine is comin. will get u a bike as a pressie!'

'Practice saying "no" like i advised. Three expressions of interest? Looking like you do, and living in London - you should get that every week. Be choosy, very very choosy - you are a bit 'o class, you know. But what do i know?'

'Of course we will as this is not easy 2 have in many people's lives n we are lucky 2 meet each other n we will keep it forever.'

'Thats right, we are always together, whenever, wherever. And we'll get over all these things together'

'Don't look back and look forward to the things to come. it'll all be good inshallah'

'Are you home? Do you need a lift? I'm on my way back from work, can pick you up'

London, i will miss you.

where i go on my day off:)

Spin Cycle

Pictures of performance will be posted soon