Lifelong Obsessions

So once a month sometime I’m going to feature one of my Lifelong Obsessions… The first one to start with seems a perfect choice – a man whose poignant movies I’ve admired for quite some years now, the German Director Wim Wenders.  

A little about the man himself – Wim was born in 1945 in Dusseldorf.  In his teenage years, he dropped out of university to become a full-time painter.  After failing his entry tests at France’s national film school, he became an engraver and an obsessor of cinema, watching up to five films a day.  In the 60′s with the rise of the New German Cinema, he started creating.  

My most favourite movie Wenders ever was made the year I was born (not that I saw it till much later on..) – Paris, Texas.  I think the things I love most about this are the colours (pillarbox reds… light blues…) and the sheer quietness apart from the long stretches of dialogue, its such a peaceful watch and somewhat homely as well as being haunting.  

Last year I purchased Wim’s photography book ‘Once’ which features images in the same vein as Paris, Texas.. each image is so poignant and tells so much of a story.  Whilst scouting locations for new movies, Wim would take snaps across America, loads of these are included in Once.  Again, its so silent, apart from a small amount of poetic captionary.   WOW.

Great Manchester Running

Last month I watched a horrific Dispatches documentary called ‘Return to Africa’s Witch Children’.  This documentary told the story about the so-called ‘witch children’ of the Niger Delta which really struck me because I’d never heard of this before.  Hundreds of children are cast aside each day by their families and communities due to them being branded as witches or wizards for no reason, or worse, are tortured by these same people.  

In the documentary I learnt how a small Stepping Stones, run by a British guy and his partner, are making such a difference to these kids’ lives and on a daily basis they take in kids to their rescue centre with the aim of rehabilitating them back into their communities.  

I’d really like to raise money for Stepping Stones via this run, so please give anything you can via this site.

Back in the saddle again…

Well it’s been roughly 2 years since the last post I made, so its probably good timing to start this beast up again.. The aim will be to try and write a new slot every week which really isn’t that ambitious, beings as I used to write in diaries twice a day for 10 years or so! Here goes nothing…

Drawings of mine

Things I want to do before I hit the big 2-5

• Take an etching course
• Get my Motorbike Licence
• Learn beginners Japanese
• Cut my hair pixie short

 

The work of a photographic genius

Yesterday I watched a truly inspiring documentary about Stephen Wiltshire, a guy with severe autism, but not impaired in any way whatsoever.  He lives life to the full, living in London where he works as a professional and successful artist.  He first realised his talent when he could hold a pencil at a young age, his first word being ‘paper’, he drew the world around him, being especially obsessed with cars and tall buildings.  He is only one of 100 known people in the word who can act as a ‘human camera’, who has a real photographic memory.  In the footage, after a 15 minute helicopter tour over the London skyline, Stephen drew an exact replica of what he’d just witnessed, and recalled every minute detail e.g. how many windows on the Gherkin building.  SO amazing. I’d love to buy an original.