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What a difference a year makes.
Last year, March 2009. I was a stay-at-home Mum who had recently left a career in banking. I'd noticed in the local paper that Andrew Davies (the TV scriptwriter famous for his BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice), was speaking at DMU's Cultural eXchanges week.
"Well, that's a good way of spending an hour or two," I mused, as pictures of Mr Darcy fresh from the lake ran through my mind. What a fascinating man! I mean Andrew Davies, of course. He brought a wealth of inside stories from the world of film and TV. University seemed another world to me then.
Fast-forward to March 2010. I'm a full time first year Creative Writing and English Language student at DMU and have booked to see nine events in Cultural eXchange week, 2010.
I met a teenage hero of mine on 1st March, Alexei Sayle. Several of his comments struck me: everyone is searching for significance and safety. How true - we all want to matter somehow, and feel secure.
His thoughts on the similarities between Santa and Stalin were sickle-sharp. I'm not sure I'll look at either of those two 'great leaders' in the same way again.
Finally, his method of writing comedy was inspiring: take a mad, insane leap into the great unknown, don't be Earth-bound. I may take that as a new mantra for my own writing.
(Meanwhile, for those of you who like men in breeches, here's a picture of one of the men I've discussed in this post.)
(I bet you're glad it's not Stalin in the red breeches.)
Sally Jack
[photo by Shawn Lee from wikimedia commons]
A personal favourite moment from yesterday's Alexei Sayle talk was when he was asked about any memories he had from the set of Indiana Jones. Was it just me, or had anyone else forgotten that he was in Indiana Jones?
Anyway among other anecdotes (with less swearing than the rest of his talk because the speaker had asked on behalf of his young son) Alexei described finding himself in a room full of shifty looking people… It was only later he realised they had just been auditioning for the part of Adolf Hitler. He hadn’t recognised this at the time because all had, understandably, removed the trademark [false] moustache.
Alexei had us laughing throughout the entire talk but it was that image that made me laugh the hardest. It's also the one that has stuck with me since. The image of Alexei arriving in the Spanish desert and finding himself, unexpectedly, in a room of Hitler look-alikes has kept me smiling all day.
Aaron Latham
Booking events for Cultural eXchanges proved rather problematic. Each time the website declared it was 'timed out' - an obvious lie. I knew it couldn't take twenty minutes to book four tickets. This caused me to lose the little faith I had in the festival. Spending a week at home, tucked up in my bed, clutching a copy of Bram Stoker's Dracula seemed much more inviting, even if I was reading the novel before beginning the essay I'd already put off for weeks.
Fortunately, my faith was restored after Michael McMillan's The Front Room, a poignant yet humorous presentation, speaking of the lives of immigrants moving to Britain during the 1950's and 1960's. Their expedition to England was 'like going to the moon,' leaving their old lives behind, and creating a new identity amongst the terraced houses which seemed so unusual to the newcomers. McMillan described England as 'the land of milk and honey' which, in all honesty, greatly amused me. I'd much rather be sat on a Caribbean beach, soaking up some of those much needed sun-rays and sipping on some good ol' rum.
Later, Alexei Sayle made an appearance, after being delayed in London traffic during the rush-hour. I was too young to know The Young Ones so my friends took the opportunity to educate me prior to Alexei’s visit. I endured watching the comedy on retro VHS, wondering what on earth the characters were wearing. Sat right at the back of the lecture theatre, all I could see were the tops of two bald heads. Despite this, I laughed on numerous occasions, and left the Clephan Building clutching a signed copy of Alexei Sayle's Mister Roberts - and knowing his mother had never allowed him to watch Bambi.
Laura
A full account of Alexei Sayle's appearance at Cultural eXchanges will probably appear here soon. Meanwhile a couple of bloggers have posted comments.
The shut me up blog offers an account of two of Monday's events.
And here, more briefly, is Chris (from Your Dreams Are The Films Only You Get to See).
kb
4 Events. 1 Day. 250 Words?
Ouch.When I first booked the events for Cultural eXchanges I figured getting everything done in one day would be to my advantage. Cheaper on train fare and it meant a few days off to catch up on my reading.What I didn’t realise at the time, was that I’d created a situation for myself where I had to run from the ground floor, up to the third, and then right back down to the bottom again. It didn’t take long to start regretting my decision.It was a long day that didn’t start off particularly well. There was a crowded train journey and then a 50 minute wait before the first talk that just didn’t grab my attention, despite some interesting material on Modernist Magazines.Luckily, the day got better and better as it went on and ultimately the whole thing was certainly worthwhile. I moved to Postgraduate Creative Writing, which was thoroughly enjoyable, if a little short. Then onto ‘The Front Room’ with a fascinating, and amusing, insight into the lives of Caribbean immigrants. Finally, there was Alexei Sayle, who, despite being late, kept the audience laughing and time just flew by.At the end of it though. The most profound thing I’ve learnt?The freezing lecture theatres that I study in, actually have heating that works. Who knew?
Natasha Rowinski
