Category Archives: “And another thing …”

Despite the name, this is not a place for more rants. It is for posts that don’t fit into any of my other sections.

MORE THESPIAN INTERLUDES

Posted on by

0

That student film “Old Age Pillagers” has now been finished and a week ago I went to a screening of all the graduate films of International Film School Wales. It was pretty scary seeing oneself on the big screen (in HD too) at Cineworld in Newport, but I thought that the team had put together a rather professional production.

Since then I’ve done another student film for a UWE project. Tomorrow I’ll be having my first viewing of the finished product “Warm fuzzies, cold pricklies”, which is being shown as an installation; also “One More Kiss Darling”, which we shot in March: both as part of graduate week of the film studies department, at the Bower Ashton campus of UWE.

OLD AGE PILLAGERS

Posted on by

0

That’s the name of the student film I’ve been cast in. It was inspired by the real-life story of two Scottish pensioners who entered into a life of petty crime, apparently just for fun. Move the action to Porthcawl on the Welsh coast and the result will be a 10-minute short, which is a final-year project for students at the International Film School Wales, part of the University of Wales. We started rehearsals last Friday and shooting begins on 22 March. I have been impressed with the professionalism of the production; the whole project has already been running for several months. Details in www.oldagepillagers.webs.com

THESPIAN INTERLUDE

Posted on by

0

Having taken part in the world-famous – well, Bristol-famous – Hotwells Panto in March last year has reawakened an interest in acting. Thanks to that entirely positive experience, I was inspired to audition for, and was lucky to get a part in, Theatre Raconteurs’ production of Richard III just before Xmas. Directed by the visionary Tristan Darby – watch out for the name, folks – that was the most professional production I’ve ever been involved in, by a country mile. Meeting and working with so many really talented and in most cases very experienced actors could not fail to be a learning experience, so I decided to audition for a couple of short (10-minute) student films. I’ve been lucky enough to be cast in both of them, moreover. “One More Kiss, Darling” is being shot in Bristol in mid-March; the title comes from a Van Halen record in the 70s, used in the soundtrack of a famous film whose identity I have forgotten. And “Old Age Pillagers” is being shot just afterwards, in Porthcawl on the Welsh coast.

GIGS AND CLOAKS

Posted on by

0

Last night to the Metropolis in Bristol (UK), a beautifully restored former cinema that is home to Jesters Comedy Club. Last night, though, was a special treat for fans of Steely Dan. The performance by their UK-based tribute band Nearly Dan was great, though the sound was nothing like as good as it had been at their previous Bristol venue, the rather scruffier but atmospheric Fleece.

My only other gripe about last night: on a cold night in January, everyone arrived well wrapped up. Those of us who’d arrived early enough to get a seat at the small number of tables were OK; they could drape their jackets, coats etc over the backs of their chairs. For the majority, who had to stand, no such luck. They had to dump their coats on the floor, keep them on, or pile them on one of the few empty chairs.

That prompted a thought; is it only in the UK that we seem to forget that in winter the weather can get cold? Is it only in the UK that venues will welcome punters and the money they’ve paid for admission and will spend over the bar, but provide nowhere for them to put their coats? Theatres generally have a cloakroom but cinemas don’t. As for pubs, I know a few (old-fashioned) pubs where there are jacket-hooks and coat- hooks on walls and under the bar, but they are an exception.

End of moan. It was indeed a great evening. Highpoint, for me and many others, was a superb trumpet solo in an extended version of “Hey Nineteen”. I was keen to find out the name of the player; the band’s website indicates it could have been either Phil Nicholas or Steve Parry. Sadly, due to the imperfections of the venue’s sound quality and / or my hearing, I couldn’t make out the name when he was credited by the leader. Memo to self; must get my hearing checked out again.

BOOK LAUNCH: "BACK TO THE BLACK"

Posted on by

0

The free download version, containing Chapters 1 – 3, of my book “Back To The Black: how to become debt-free and stay that way” is now available as a .pdf file.

It’s on the social publishing site Scribd.

Click on this link, or copy and paste this URL into your browser:



http://www.scribd.com/michael_macmahon



It’ll also be available on other sites soon. Watch this space!

WHAT CONSTITUTES A SPORT?

Posted on by

0

Tomorrow is a crucial day for cricket-lovers. England are playing South Africa, until recently the no. 1 side in the world, in a Test series in South Africa. What’s more, against all expectations, England are one-nil up in the series with only this final Test match to play. If we lose the match we will draw the series one-all, but if the game is drawn then we’ll win the series one-nil. Add this to the fact that we won the Ashes by beating Australia last summer, and you’ll see that this could be a crucial day for English cricket.

As I write it’s the end of the third day’s play. England are on the back foot – an appropriate metaphor – and will be hard-pressed to avoid losing the match, which makes the situation all the more nail-biting.

On this important day for English cricket, comprising maybe six hours of play, how much coverage will I be able to enjoy on TV, either terrestrial or freeview? Nothing, nada, rien, nichts, zilch. Not even five minutes of highlights. I could watch it by subscribing to Sky Sports, of course, but I don’t think it’s worth committing to that monthly cost for the occasional overseas Test match.

So the BBC did not think it worthwhile to cover this series. What other sporting delights does the Corporation offer in its place? The answer is snooker, which dominates airtime this week in “BBC Sport”. (I use the quotation marks advisedly) Last week it was darts. And when I say dominates, I mean it: up to six hours coverage in every 24 when there is a major tournament on, sometimes even more.

No doubt snooker and darts are cheap TV compared with cricket. But are they sports, as BBC branding insists they are?

Right now, by the way, the snooker competition that swamps the schedules (especially on BBC2, which was promoted as the culture channel when launched) is called the Masters. No, let’s give it its full title, as a sponsor has no doubt paid handsomely for the privilege. It’s the “Pokerstars.com Masters”. I know this, because I saw it in a graphic alongside the BBC Sport logo. Maybe, in future, the BBC Sport schedules could include poker too? And why could not snooker, darts and then poker become Olympic sports?

I’m about to stop writing this before it becomes a full-on rant, so that I can watch the football on “Match of the Day”. I am not really a football fan; after all I don’t really support any particular team. Rugby is really my game and I’ve never played football except five-a-side. But I appreciate – and often watch with pleasure – the superb quality of English Premiership football: the skill and, yes, the athleticism and fitness levels, which seem to get better and better every year. (although some of the pundits say this is a lacklustre season.)

Where am I going with this? Snooker, darts, (and poker too) require great skill of course. But athleticism? Fitness? What constitutes sport and what constitutes a pastime? Discuss, as they say.

Simon Barnes in the Times did indeed discuss that, very recently. (see link) He praised the skill of the darts player Phil Taylor (no problem with that) and suggested that anyone who says darts is not a sport (and that includes me) does so out of snobbery. Well, who am I to disagree with such an eminent sporting journalist, but I shall. If you were to suggest that croquet is a sport I would say that that is a pastime, just like darts and snooker; snobbery doesn’t come into it. Tosh, Simon, no matter how brilliantly you expound it. Frankly I think it’s marginal as to whether golf (now to be in the Olympics) is a sport; or whether it’s “a pastime that’s almost a sport”, as one of my all-time favourite Dilbert cartoons memorably described it.

EVENTS IN BRISTOL

Posted on by

0

Greetings to my readers in Bristol (that’s the one in the UK) and surrounds. I wish you a very enjoyable (and, of course, cultural) 2010.

My random selection of imminent events starts here:

Sun 10 Jan, 4 pm: something new at the Coronation Tap, Clifton. The Neil Smith 4TET: standards from Coltrane to Carmichael. Neil Smith, guitar; Jon Short, bass; John Blakeley, drums, Dino Christodoulou, sax, with some Greek-flavoured originals. www.thecoronationtap.com/calendar.php

Sun 10 Jan, 7.30 for 8 pm: “Sunday night at the Lansdown”. Acoustic Evening, featuring Emily Grist, Rosie Garrard, Bashema. Lansdown Inn, 8 Clifton Road, Clifton, BS8 1AF.

Tues 12 Jan, 8 pm: Science Café at @Bristol. “Waste not, want not”. Forum for discussion of waste. Representatives of local organisations, e.g. James Sessions-Hodges (Ethos Energy), Sean Spencer-Worte (Bristol City Council) and Katie Winterborne (Resource Futures) share experiences and viewpoints. “Bring an item of rubbish for a warm-up activity!” www.at-bristol.org.uk

Weekend of 15 / 17 Jan: Bristol Acoustic Music Festival at St George’s. Too many acts to list: see www.stgeorgesbristol.co.uk

.. and finally, two Festival of Ideas events: (www.ideasfestival.co.uk)

Mon 18 Jan, 6 pm, St George’s. “The future of environmentalism”. Stewart Brand.

Tues 19 Jan, 7.30 pm, Central Library. “The True Desperate Romantics”, Lucinda Hawksley

Enjoy!

RIP JONATHAN DELL

Posted on by

0



A friend died at the weekend. His name was Jonathan Dell and he had been in the restaurant business for many years, notably as a director of Pizza Express and then in his own businesses. He also reinvented himself several times in recent years by developing his creative talents, including photography and copywriting.

If you’ve never heard of this man you may wonder why I’m blogging about him. The reason is this. Jonathan died of a brain tumour at the age of 51. Before that he had been living with multiple sclerosis, ever since I first met him; first the relapsing-remitting type, then the secondary progressive type. He went from being the restless entrepreneur – driving all over the country to manage his restaurants and look for new business opportunities – to being a train or taxi passenger, but still striving. Then he could walk with the aid of a stick but preferred to avoid it. Then he needed two sticks, then eventually a wheelchair. I remember he invited me for tea at Brown’s Hotel a year or two back; at that time he could walk with the aid of two sticks but wanted to get from our table to his taxi without them. I was impressed with how the staff was solicitous and caring but did not try to interfere, even though the 10-yard journey took us about 10 minutes.

He tried all kinds of new treatments, of course; volunteering for trials of new drugs and technologies, including a drug based on serum from goats’ blood and later an electrical impulse system called FES, (functional electrical stimulation) to boost the failing nerves in his legs. Never giving up, always striving.

Earlier this year Jonathan went downhill; it was first thought it was the MS getting even worse but then a brain tumour was diagnosed; the ultimate obscenity on top of what he had already been through. By the time he died at the weekend, he had had enough, in the words of his partner Sarah who has cared for him these past few difficult years.

Now here’s the point; if you didn’t know Jonathan you might have wondered when I was getting to it. Jonathan Dell had more health issues (to use the modern euphemism) than any 10 or 20 or 50 average people, but he made light of them. Yes, he would complain if he thought that health professionals had let him down, but that was simply because he had been in business all his life and liked to get things right; he would complain just as effectively and articulately if he got bad service in a restaurant or shop and he didn’t believe in the usual British way of pretending that everything is acceptable, as in: “How’s the food?” “Lovely, thanks!” However, he never – at least never in my hearing – complained about his condition. I never heard him say or imply “why me?” Strangely enough, when I worked for The Stroke Association and met many stroke survivors, I found the same thing: the people with the real problems complain the least.

I’ll try to remember that, next time I have a cold. Rest in peace, Jonathan.

THEATRE RACONTEURS, BRISTOL

Posted on by

0

I’ve been lucky enough to be cast in a production of Richard III by Theatre Raconteurs. I’m the Archbishop of York and the Bishop of Ely as well as Lord Herbert (but all at different times in the play, I was relieved to hear). We open on 24 November at the Alma Tavern Theatre, Alma Vale, Clifton, Bristol and close 5 December.

If you want to find out about Theatre Raconteurs (“new professional theatre company based in Bristol,” it says here) and our production of Richard III, check out the company’s Facebook page: enter “Theatreraconteurs” in the search box, then check “events”.

ROTARY CLUB OF BRISTOL (UK) – RETIREMENT PLANNING

Posted on by

0

I spoke at the Rotary Club of Bristol on Monday, where my intended topic was “Retirement planning: it’s not about the money.” I already knew that many Rotarians are already retired but, when I arrived, the affable Speaker’s Friend, John Bedford, told me that retirees were in fact in the vast majority in this particular Club, so the intended topic was a little too late for most of them.

I thus immediately dropped the word “planning” from my topic; moreover I asked the assembled members (a healthy turnout) to indulge me by being guinea-pigs, i.e. a test audience for my plans to write a series of articles, and maybe a book, on the topic. They seemed happy to do that; however my “memo to self”, à la Bridget Jones, is to note that lunchtime Rotary clubs tend to attract retired members, whereas Rotarians still working tend to favour breakfast and evening clubs, provided there is a choice. In Bristol there is indeed such a choice, as there are nine clubs already, with another one about to start.

I prefaced my remarks by quoting the Canadian retirement coach who told me: “in my experience, the people who are happiest in retirement are not the ones with the most money. They are the ones with a plan.”

What kind of plan? A plan that deals with how to spend all that time.

I had had a plan of sorts since my forties – that plan started from the viewpoint of never wanting to retire totally. Noel Coward said “Work is more fun than fun”; at the very least, a balance between work and fun seemed to me a desirable element of a happy life and one that should not be discarded at age 65. I also knew that going from 100% employment to zero overnight can, and does, kill many people. Of course the work / fun balance can shift as one gets older but it should still be there, I decided. As for what is meant by “work” in this context, that’s the interesting question.

In 2002 women then aged 65 could expect to live to the age of 84: for men it was 81. (ONS) Naturally this was a UK average; the figures increase markedly for those who are well educated and / or live in a good environment. So retirement lasts about 20 years on average but most people spend more time planning for a summer holiday than they do for these 20 years.

In the normal course of events, 250,000 people retire in the UK every year. To this figure should be added the increasing numbers who, in today’s economic climate, face involuntary retirement either through being persuaded to take early retirement or facing redundancy and then finding it impossible to get another job.

What should the plan entail? In a research project called “Retire 200”, 100 men and 100 women, all retired or soon-to-retire, were interviewed at length about their experiences and expectations. Here’s their consensus as to the elements of a happy retirement.

1. Being able to choose when to retire. (not a given these days)

2. To retire early enough: they recommended not above 55.

3. Financial independence – whatever that means for you.

4. “Purposeful” (sic) activities for at least 5 hours per week. Most retired Rotarians would probably laugh at such a small number.

5. Someone to rely on for emotional support.

6. Proactive health management.

7. Having a plan covering both the financial and lifestyle aspects.

8. Having received pre-retirement advice and education.

The armoury of many life coaches contains a set of questions called “Five Minutes that could Change your Life”, coined by US author Brian Tracy. The first question is “if you won a million on the lottery (or 10 million or whatever figure represents total financial independence for you) how would it change your life? Where would you live, what would you do, with whom, etc?” The power of this question is that it reveals the things that are important to you, or would be if financial constraints were removed, even mentally. However, many of those things that are important do not depend on millions to get started.

An accompanying question is “if you discovered that you would live only 6 months more – in perfect health – how would you spend that time?” Both questions are effective ways to challenge what are our priorities; or values, if you like.

According to Charles Handy, the tendency for jobs in organisations to go to younger people – ageism cannot be rooted out by legislation – should not be a source of complaint; where else are they to get their experience? Our response as we grow older should be to develop a “portfolio” of skills and talents that we can provide to a variety of “clients”. Some of those activities may be rewarded financially, some just by satisfaction, but we should not distinguish between paid and unpaid activities. It’s all work, says Handy.

Considering this concept, (“it’s all work”) a friend of mine says she would never call gardening “work”. Why not? Because she loves it. But who says you have to hate your work? Or because it’s not paid? The distinction is unnecessary, as Handy might say. After all, an unpaid labour of love might be developed into a paid activity, if so desired. “It’s all work”.

I concluded by saying that I had traded a business card describing myself in my former role as a managing director in the chemical industry for one that now reads “actor & voice-over; author; radio presenter; speaker” and considered myself a most fortunate person.

John Bedford discharged his duties as Speaker’s Friend by proposing a most charming vote of thanks. Even if it’s his custom to compliment all speakers as a matter of course, it was encouraging to hear him conclude, “You should write the book.”

Feedback on this post would be welcomed. If you are a retiree or are in the process of planning your retirement, do you have any commnets on any of the above?