To set nine ice-cold children free in the ashes of the universe

[alexsarll]

A sign on the main gates announces that Finsbury Park itself will be closing at 5pm by the end of October, with even that shrinking down to 4.30 for the whole of December and the beginning of January. Now, aside from remembering that a couple of years ago it was never closed even in the middle of the night, I'm sure those times are ludicrously and unprecedentedly early, but I suspect that the joggers among you would be better placed to confirm that.

I've been having my old, epic dreams again lately, grand disjointed things that survive the interruptions even when they get crazed or loud enough to wake me. Which means that when they give the impression of continuing from night to night, I can never be quite sure whether they're telling the truth or just building on all those tricks about giving the appearance of a continuity which one picks up consciously and subconsciously from reading a lot of Grant Morrison. Lately there's been a lot of imagery which would suit a Saturday night TV take on Lovecraft - organic matter unfettered by contact with some nameless Unknown, extruding tendrils, faces coming loose - and it may or may not have been linked to the scene which mashed Seizure up with Gormley's Fourth Plinth to give us a slowly filling tank full of copper sulphate solution up there, the last Plinther drowning beatifically in the poison.

Not being an expert like cappuccino_kid, I've only seen three Joseph Losey films, enough/few enough that having taped The Damned I was surprised to find it a Hammer shocker with a young Oliver Reed in the main supporting role. There's a stilted Englishness I recognise in there, a menace, and a sense of perversion barely suppressed, but at times early in the film the stiltedness would just seem like bad acting if you weren't looking for it, if you didn't see that this came from the same year as his classic, The Servant. Without wanting to spoiler the film (old, but fairly obscure - the spoilering protocols there are always unclear, aren't they?) the Hammer elements seem strangely well-fitted to Losey's England.

Alan Moore is doing the libretto for the next Gorillaz opera.

Comments

[cappuccino-kid.livejournal.com]

Gutted about the park closing times. What am I going to do for a blow job now? It's going to make my walk home from work a lot longer.

Pre-Servant, most of the stories J-Lo got given were pretty silly. I mean, 13 radioactive children living in a cave under Weymouth, who will take over after the nuclear holocaust? But those films have a real angsty energy and most people prefer them to the late stuff where he withdrew into baroque/rococo swirls. His golden age is considered to start with The Criminal, where he ditched the Hollywood writers that came over with him.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I imagine it's being touted as a Health & Safety measure to prevent nonexistent muggings, just like Duncan's garden recently had all its trees butchered because they were 'a hazard to buses' they were nowhere near.

Do you think there's a personal element in the American character who thought he'd got away from all the violence and horror by coming to Britain, before being rudely informed otherwise?

[cappuccino-kid.livejournal.com]

I think the love story side was a part of the package he had to reluctantly accept, but his interest is focused on Alexander Knox and the sculptress. He seems to enjoy setting up the American as a fall guy. He said he was "kind of a false character, an attempt to express some kind of liberal middle way".

It's funny seeing that film after reading about it, because they go on about how it was the first film with a rock & roll soundtrack and 'Black Leather Rock' is really primitive, nihilistic and violent- you imagine it sounding like 'White Riot' or something. Then you hear 'Black Leather Rock' and it sounds like bloody Matt Monro!

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Was it really thought of that way? There's an eeriness to it which I like, but it's hard to believe it being considered genuinely anarchic, even in the context of a moral panic about 'rockers' whose leader looks, if anything, more like a mod.

The sculptress annoyed me, more than anyone except the prissy military hanger-on that was where I was wondering 'did Losey *want* them acting this implausibly?'.

[sbp.livejournal.com]

the stiltedness would just seem like bad acting if you weren't looking for it - :-)

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

There are other directors whose trademarks I'm less inclined to forgive, of course - Mike Leigh may be miserable and dull deliberately, and for carefully articulated reasons, but I still primarily find his films miserable and dull.

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

Where to start. Historically the Finsbury Park issue is that they close the gates they can get away with closing, but track access (the floodlit sports area is obviously useable after dark, that's the point of the floodlights) means they can't close the Hornsey gate or the Manor House gate until late at night, so there's a strong contingent who say "why close any gates" because if people who really want to can get in and out anyway, then...

The policy, in any case, has been to close all the other gates 'at dusk' and the remainder at 10pm. There have been a fair number of attacks on the unlit areas between those times, and as well as the pressure that creates, I think the Parks Constabulary would be keen to see the earlier closing be more official to reduce their associated costs.

The bigger problem in terms of the cost of opening it later and doing so properly is that any such cost falls wholly on Haringey Council (who have had to, you know, move every penny they have into trying to stop anyone killing any more kids because otherwise the government will take them over) despite the fact that statistical evidence suggests only 40% of park users are Haringey residents (34% Islington, most of the rest from Hackney). Obviously, therefore, a Council is going to prioritise spending on parks that are used mostly by its own residents / voters / taxpayers. I could add that when Finsbury Park was managed by the London County Council it had a conservatory, an open-air theatre, and a boathouse, but that would be venal.

The next meeting of Friends of Finsbury Park takes place on Thursday November 26th 2009 7:30pm at Manor House Lodge. Go and cause bother.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I remember five years or so back, there was a concerted attempt to stop Finsbury Park being neglected because of that boundary issue. And though it bore dividends in the short term, I should have guessed it wouldn't survive the crunch.

I'm tempted to go to the meeting, but my only prior experience of such local pressure groups was when the Arthur Simpson Library was threatened with closure. And the majority of comments from campaigners made me think, well, even if it inconveniences me personally, I'm OK with the library closing if it inconveniences these parochial little worms more.