After Cornwall I had planned to travel north to visit my parents. My journey began badly as I lost a day stranded in a small village in Suffolk. Buses failed to turn up and trains were cancelled due to industrial action. Despite leaving at five I was still without transport by ten and gave up. It seems the further east I go the worse public transport becomes. The following day I did finally manage to catch a train north. My itinerary was to take me via Peterborough, Doncaster and Stoke on Trent. However, it soon became apparent that Doncaster was closed to me and I would instead be going to Nuneaton. It was while waiting in one such station that I received the news that my mother had taken ill and been rushed to hospital.
Whilst holidaying in Cornwall, between large meals and some desultory swimming, I set about organising my affairs. We had planned a sort of Hammer Horror tour; apparently a Zombie film had been made in one of the local quarries. But apart from an overwhelming feeling of death at Mousehole and an extremely bizarre dog show there were no signs of the living dead anywhere. I soon became distracted by other things, mainly trying not to make a noise while going to the toilet. Normally this is not a huge problem but the B&B where we stayed had little soundproofing and our toilet was directly above the breakfast table.
I have been “organising my affairs” largely by making lists and then remaking them adding new things each time, it is an endless task as more items are added before the list is ever cleared.
Transcribed from notebook (16/08/09)
Edit films for The Great Central – make three? Triptych?
Do drawings + invoice
Choose film for Cell outside screening, automatic??? Stars???
Bath Show, do plan, DO PLAN, edit writing, new film?? “in conversation” – look up JJ
Cardiff in conversation look up Plowman? Talk about what??
Write blog
Invoice Leicester
Invoice Bedford
Ideas for Whitstable??
Instructing assistant to fly planes, sing, do magic
Pebbles film – ? made – any good?
Pepper’s ghost
The Bingo Caller
Display locations – seaside telescope (ebay?) – pub?, Theatre? Need another visit?
Email received while in Cornwall:
Dear Alex,
Upon my return from the Basque country to the Island of Great Britain, I stumbled across something that you may or may not have heard
about. It was through researching my current fixation of bodily hair and fur that I read with much excitement about the Greek Isalnd of
Santorini. In reading this information I thought of you and your current obsession with Vampires. I do hope this will enlighten you.
An interesting description of the process by which a victim of vampire becomes a vrykolakas from a priest on the island of Crete was
published in 1898 :
“It is a popular belief that most of the dead, those who have lived bad lives or who have been excommunicated….become vrykolakes; that
is to say, after the separation of the soul from the body there enters into the latter an evil spirit which takes the place of the soul….
it keeps the body as its dwelling place, and it runs swift as lightning wherever it lists….And the trouble is that it does not remain
solitary, but makes everyone, who dies while it is about, like to itself, so that in a short space of time it gets together a large train
of followers. The common practice of the vrykolakes is to seat themselves upon those who are still asleep and by their great weight to
create an agonizing sense of oppression. There is great danger that the sufferer might himself expire, and himself too be turned into a
vrykolakas….This monster, as time goes on, becomes more audacious and blood-thirsty, so that it is able to devastate whole villages.”
This quote is found in “Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion” by John Lawson, and in “The Vampire in Europe” by Montague
Summers.
I particularly enjoyed the idea of the Vrykolakes using their body weight to sit upon their victim until they too became a vampire. There
is alot of information to be had about them.
I do hope you and your companion are enjoying Cornwall.
Much Love to you both, Hayley xx
Thwarted by the train strikes I will not be attending For Sale: Baby Shoes, Never Worn at g39 in Cardiff. (www.g39.org) This is rather disappointing as I was quite looking forward to spending an evening in the binge drinking capital of Europe. However I have been invited to be in conversation with someone (as yet unconfirmed) at Axis’ Café Artistique in that very same city in September. I am perturbed at the number of ‘in conversations’ I have to do in the next few months as I am not sure I have that much conversation to go around.
03/08/09
The Train to Leicester was very full. I had had to delay my journey a couple of days due to industrial action and was beginning to wonder if many of my fellow passengers would have preferred to have been on that canceled train. To make us feel sympathetic to the rail workers cause we were subjected to a two carriage train with no working toilets and a haphazard reservation system which meant that more than once new passengers had to negotiate to attain their allotted seats. After a bad tempered journey I was met by Eric who hefted my bags into his estate with preternatural strength. I was in Leicester to make a film for the opening of Eric’s new gallery and studios The Great Central. The idea was that I would document the space using my Automatic film kit prior to its destruction and rebirth as a gallery. I didn’t realise how pressing the refit was until I announced I had finished filming. With a large sledgehammer and a manic gleam Eric and Steve (who had seemed very calm and gentle up to this point) attacked a dividing wall with great gusto. Within five minutes the whole gallery space was opened up and the floor looked surprisingly like an installation I had seen in San Francisco early this year.
I am home now mulling over two hours of video that i must somehow craft into three short films. Whitstable must, temporarily, be pushed to the back of my mind although some ideas to do with performing women, vampiric control and magic are beginning to fester there.
