work

If I don’t do it, I’ll stop doing it.

Link | | Paul Greer

Great interview with Laurie Anderson on reality, virtual reality, working practices and the election. Worth reading all of it really.

This on Philip Glass and daily work:

I’ve been playing with Phil a lot lately. It’s been really, really interesting and fun, really nice. I remember one particular thing, the summer before this we were playing Ravello. It was a hard day. We had traveled there. We rehearsed. We’d done the show. We’d gone out for an endless dinner. It was two in the morning and we came back. I had to leave for Rome in a couple of hours. I was just packing and doing stuff. I came up from the garden and he was there with [his girlfriend] Sari. They had just done two hours of yoga. I was like, “Phil, it’s four in the morning. Couldn’t you do it tomorrow?” He said, “No, I wouldn’t of done it today. I need to do it everyday. If I don’t do it, I’ll stop doing it.” He’s like that with music, too. He’s so disciplined. It’s amazing. I’ve known Phil for many decades. He’s always been like that. He’s dedicated. He puts the time in. He’s also massively, musically talented… he’s a genius, and a hard working genius.

 

“I think the enemy of creativity in the world today is that so much thinking is done for you. The environment is so full of television, party political broadcasts and advertising campaigns, you hardly need to do anything. We’re just drowning under manufactured fiction, which satisfies our need for fiction – you scarcely need to go and read a novel.”

Quote | | Paul Greer

“Cyril Connolly, the 50s critic and writer, said that the greatest enemy of creativity is the pram in the hall, but I think that was completely wrong. It was the enemy of a certain kind of dilettante life that he aspired to, the man of letters, but for the real novelist the pram in the hall is the greatest ally – it brings you up sharp and you realise what reality is all about. My children were a huge inspiration for me. Watching three young minds creating their separate worlds was a very enriching experience.”

–- JG Ballard (via austinkleon)

meta

Aside | | Paul Greer

So we went up to the London Hilton yesterday as we got the nomination for best content graphics at the National Royal Television Society awards for our work on War of Words: Soldier Poets of the Somme. We were up against Doctor Who (although why that wasn’t submitted into the effects category I needed explaining to me), and Sports Personality of the Year, the latter of which won out.

It’s a crazy process sometimes because you try not to take it too seriously, and when something that is so completely different to your work does win, that becomes easier.

We are still so very proud of the work we did, it was a once in a life time job, and a marvellous team effort from Hugh Cowling, Libby Redden, John Durrant, Tim Marriott and Steve Burrell.

I’m still working out what this site is for, and I have had it for nearly ten years now. I just want a space that is mine where I can put stuff on my own terms. Also build up a resource and life record of sorts. That’s what these really long posts are for in effect. My ability to write anything was slightly thrown by the events of the last few weeks I have to admit. But it is in times like these that the world need more art not less. So let’s keep going, and communicate and resolve.

Listening

Nadine Shah – The Gin One

Grimes – SCREAM ft Aristophanes

20 years of BDH

Aside | | Paul Greer
Celebrating their 20th year in 2015, BDH has long been at the cutting edge of British television – directing commercials, creating brand identities, music visuals and motion graphics.

Join the Royal Television Society for a rare opportunity to ask local heroes BDH, one of the most awarded digital creative teams in the UK, to reveal their secrets in this special panel discussion.

Yes, there are a few more tickets left for a twentieth anniversary “In Conversation” evening with my employers, Steve, John and Rob (The B, the D and the H, in that order) to be held tomorrow evening at 6pm at the Watershed. Lynn Barlow, Chair of the Royal Television Society in Bristol will be interviewing them and taking us through the highlights of their work over the years. Bookings can be made through the Watershed website.