10 in Tianjin

Farewell single figures, Alyssa is 10 today. Turned out to be an action-packed, slightly weird day. Presents at breakfast, frantic morning at work (that's me, not Alyssa), then met up for lunch of burgers & chips with friends... and who should be sitting on the next table but Ai Weiwei. So I had a bit of a chat, and then he left with his friends. Sort of normal, but with an air of unreality about it. Anyway...

We then headed off to Tianjin for the opening of the Philharmonia's Re-rite exhibition/installation. We've been preparing this thing for six months or so and I never know what to call it; I don't think they do either. Suffice it to say, it's a sophisticated video installation of an orchestra (needless to say the Philharmonia) performing Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, filmed with 29 cameras, and then re-presented in the labyrinthian back-rooms of Tianjin's new and very large Grand Theatre. The idea is to break down the gap between platform and audience so you can experience indivudual sections of the orchestra, control their respective volumes on a huge screen, have a go at conducting, have a go at some percussion... get it on, bang a gong, etc.

It was fun. Made more so by Liz and the girls being with me. I don't think A&N have ever witnessed Daddy giving a speech before. But what made it extra special was the Theatre staff bringing in a cake for Alyssa and then everyone singing Happy Birthday. One of those great moments. It didn't end there either. Off we went to see the snappily named Moscow State Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theatre's Ballet (hereafter called MSSNDMTB) perform Prokofiev's Midsummer Night's Dream in the new and very impressive Opera Hall upstairs - all 3 hours of it. The girls managed to stay awake, helped by the extended death scenes which they found funny, but trumped by the hilarious curtain call. For some reason, staff brought on not just bouquets but large potted plants which they placed in a neat row. Unfortunately this was precisely in line with the curtain which, opening & closing, proceeded to knock them over and they rolled around the stage, resulting in hysterics from our two... which continued all the way back to the hotel and in bed eating salami sandwiches.

Early Beijing & London on film

Back to UCCA for another dose of silent movies - this time a fascinating compilation of 'home movies' and early newsreel footage of (because we wanted an Olympic theme) mostly London and Beijing from 1896 to 1937. The Chinese content found its way into the BFI's Collection from various sources but they've sat idly in cannisters for years until we gave them a bit of money to digitise a selection. 


Watching them made me realise how political film often ends up being. Not in the obvious way - they're mostly just street scenes - but simply the fact that the 'Chinese' films were all shot by Europeans. Also, the footage shot in London showed a sophisticated (for the time) metropolis with men in top hats, omnibuses and an incredibly busy Thames, contrasting with, in Beijing, 'backward' looking cobblers and men with hair in queues (mandatory until 1910). There were even captions referring to 'natives'. I must admit to feeling slightly uncomfortable watching them. We hired a Chinese jazz pianist who improvised along. It was packed-out by the way.

Restoring Silents

Good talk & screening by the affable Robin Baker (Head of BFI's Film Archives) this evening at UCCA in 798: from the painstaking intricacies of conservation to how to make the archives accessible as possible to the public. Their big project at the moment is restoring Hitchcock's 9 surviving (one is lost) silent movies. First they have to find who owns the best extant prints, which could be anywhere in the world. Then they have to take decent bits from each to make the best composite print possible. Sometimes they're so warped it's difficult to run them through the machine. Then they have to digitally touch up all the scratches & blemishes frame by frame. Occasionally they'll have to restore the hue of a film which might originally have been shown with a blue tinge, not straight B&W. And in the case of the Hitchcocks, they're commissioning new soundtracks by different composers, young and old. Robin gave as sneak 2-minute preview of the restored version of Hitch's first film, The Pleasure Garden (1925), made at the age of 26. Looks great. All nine will be screened in the UK this summer.

Sickie

Today I took a sickie, my first since I don't know when. Sore throat, cough, nothing serious but needed a quiet day at home to get over it. But of course ended up working, if not the usual 12 hours, then not that far short of it. Tons & tons of it. On top of that there's arranging simultaneous decoration of our flat and renovation of mum's house, girls' birthdays coming up and just the usual daily life stuff of children, homework, shopping, bills, schedules... and our computer's dying. Rant over. 

Fairweather Footie

Not doing a very good job of staying on top of football scores, but I do know that it's tight at the top of the Premier League and Bayern beat Real on penalties in the Euro-semis this evening so will meet Chelsea in the final. I used to be an avid footie fan: supported Revie-era Leeds (a 'fairweather' fan then), would never miss an FA Cup Final on the telly (for a time, an almost religious experience, now almost irrelevant?), swapped World Cup coins in the playground (I still have them) and loved actually playing (my career took me to four illustrious clubs: St Richard's Colts, Chichester High School, Sounds and BCFC). Haven't played properly for ages, but enjoyed an impromptu 15 minute kickaround in Chaoyang Park the other day with a bunch of kids and their dads, and it got the old adrenalin going as I swept down the wing, past one 6-year-old, past another (a girl), before cutting inside and firing an acutely angled shot the wrong side of the post (3 jumpers). Brought it all back...

Google Zipper

Great gimmicky zipper on Google's homepage today. Drag the mouse down and it reveals search results for its inventor, Gideon Sundback, who was born on this day 132 years ago. Many people over many years had worked on the idea of a 'separable fastener with interlocking teeth' but it was Sundback who had it all zipped up in 1917 with Patent # 1,219,881. What an invention! They still get stuck though. 

Cars!

One of the stranger things I've done in my job is to launch a new car. It was at the massive Beijing Motor Show and the car in question was an MG Icon, a concept car. Well, I helped launch it, stood on stage, gave a speech. MG have sponsored our Rockarchive exhibition and in return have borrowed a few photographs and used the UK Now brand. In other words: Brit car + Brit rock = Cool. Or something.
I remember going to a couple of Motor Shows at London's Earls Court in the 70s. My little brother and I would head straight for the Lambourghinis, Maseratis and Ferraris and implore the salesmen to give us all the glossy brochures they had, on the premise that we would buy one when we had a job. They were glamorous affairs. They still are I suppose. Thousands of gleaming cars at alarming angles, flashy videos of saloons with darkened windows driving through deserts, and lots of rock music. I didn't see any decorous models draped over bonnets, but one guided me up the two steps to the stage, for which I was very grateful.