Another Weekend Part Three...
So time was killed looking around the Baltic. The exhibition was full of pretentious rubbish, every single one of them on five floors. I won't be going back there in a hurry. One room just had massive rectangle blocks that looked like they were made of stone but were polystyrene, some had a metal strip in them. On the wall was a kind of small picture hanging of wheat with a loop of 35mm film through it.
The same artist had another display, a lit room which you looked into with two tables in it and some red lines drawn on them in ink.
Another artist had a number of projected images onto walls into a room on a loop of film and the images were doing very little, one was just the back of someones head.
The same room had what looked like an old printing press the kind schools used to use when they used to do their own newsletters placed on the floor.
Too many examples to try and explain away and worse.
I still have no idea what the hell I was suppose to make of what I was looking at. One can only guess what the artists were paid.
Now to the concert and I was so happy when it was over. Thankfully it barely lasted two hours and that included a 15 minute interval. A previous one two days ago was longer I am told. Boring isn't the word...I know you have to encourage people to have dreams and aim for them but the people who were performing were poor and its highly unlikely we'll be hearing of any of them anytime soon or thinking we've found a talented star of tomorrow. They've been sold a pup by one of the local universities.
Most of the audience I suspect was made up of friends, parents and relations...so obviously they were supportive and biased. I found myself totally unconnected to the show. I don't think they were good enough for the X factor auditions. No charisma or that special something.
I was more concerned about getting home and not being stranded or having to pay up to £20 for a taxi to get home.
Thankfully, the show ended by 9pm and though I struggled "We" managed to get back onto a bus that got me home by connecting to the last bus to my town.
So did my companion perform at all in the show? Of course he didn't! And I doubt that he was ever going to.
He made some excuse for not appearing and even had me feeling for a microphone under his T-shirt near his neck to prove that he was going to appear but it had been cancelled(there was no mike)I'm not stupid.
He lives in a Walter Mitty world(if any of you know the reference I am making to the old Danny Kaye film)I'm not saying its done maliciously, he may genuinely have difficulty grasping reality.
But some of the tales I was told across the day are fantasy and I don't know how he comes up with them...already he told me he only has a year to live, that he needs an operation that could see him bedridden and eventually in a wheelchair, he claims he has an agent and soon an exhibition of his will be at the Baltic and there will be a preview night. Two weeks time he claims to be conducting an act of an orchestra...and much more...
Interestingly enough I witnessed an incident I won't say where but the manager of a place we were said that he was unhappy about something and accused him of being dishonest. That was a bit of an eye opener. If alarm bells weren't ringing before, they were after that! I am going to do all I can just to see him if I have to at the the town hall shows...I wish I did not have to there but if I don't go I miss a decent show at reasonable prices.
The same artist had another display, a lit room which you looked into with two tables in it and some red lines drawn on them in ink.
Another artist had a number of projected images onto walls into a room on a loop of film and the images were doing very little, one was just the back of someones head.
The same room had what looked like an old printing press the kind schools used to use when they used to do their own newsletters placed on the floor.
Too many examples to try and explain away and worse.
I still have no idea what the hell I was suppose to make of what I was looking at. One can only guess what the artists were paid.
Now to the concert and I was so happy when it was over. Thankfully it barely lasted two hours and that included a 15 minute interval. A previous one two days ago was longer I am told. Boring isn't the word...I know you have to encourage people to have dreams and aim for them but the people who were performing were poor and its highly unlikely we'll be hearing of any of them anytime soon or thinking we've found a talented star of tomorrow. They've been sold a pup by one of the local universities.
Most of the audience I suspect was made up of friends, parents and relations...so obviously they were supportive and biased. I found myself totally unconnected to the show. I don't think they were good enough for the X factor auditions. No charisma or that special something.
I was more concerned about getting home and not being stranded or having to pay up to £20 for a taxi to get home.
Thankfully, the show ended by 9pm and though I struggled "We" managed to get back onto a bus that got me home by connecting to the last bus to my town.
So did my companion perform at all in the show? Of course he didn't! And I doubt that he was ever going to.
He made some excuse for not appearing and even had me feeling for a microphone under his T-shirt near his neck to prove that he was going to appear but it had been cancelled(there was no mike)I'm not stupid.
He lives in a Walter Mitty world(if any of you know the reference I am making to the old Danny Kaye film)I'm not saying its done maliciously, he may genuinely have difficulty grasping reality.
But some of the tales I was told across the day are fantasy and I don't know how he comes up with them...already he told me he only has a year to live, that he needs an operation that could see him bedridden and eventually in a wheelchair, he claims he has an agent and soon an exhibition of his will be at the Baltic and there will be a preview night. Two weeks time he claims to be conducting an act of an orchestra...and much more...
Interestingly enough I witnessed an incident I won't say where but the manager of a place we were said that he was unhappy about something and accused him of being dishonest. That was a bit of an eye opener. If alarm bells weren't ringing before, they were after that! I am going to do all I can just to see him if I have to at the the town hall shows...I wish I did not have to there but if I don't go I miss a decent show at reasonable prices.
posted by The Great Gildersleeve | 1:31 pm
5 Comments:
Oh dear, Gildy. Sounds like you've had a narrow escape. I hope he doesn't know your address.
Always listen to gut feelings!
I'll pipe it off VQ and just say at present I don't mind seeing him at the odd show at the town hall but I'm not well enough to go places and as I rarely answer the door or telephone should he find out where I live or who I am he'll be out of luck.
If needs be I'll even drop ome of the shows at the town hall which would be a pity.
If it gets to be a serious problem I'll take it up with someone...
He had something planned in a couple of weeks and wanted me to phone but I haven't and by the time we meet again(I have a ticket booked for the next show at the TH, that event(real or otherwise)will have passed and I'll just say I misplaced his number.
As it happens I may be at an exhibition with someone I know is safe to do with the railways and we'll be looking at some historic steam trains.
The day after its the service in memory of Mum's passing. The day before the railway event I am at the concert with Manfred Mann and the day before that my birthday.
I may have to have to pay extra attention if I happen to travel to the town he lives to do any shopping which is a pity.
But the shops I use hopefully he doesn't. I'm not sure whether he cooks for himself being in sheltered accommodation perhaps a carer comes in and sees to that?
Though as I said he did not eat at all tomorrow(just had the coke I paid for and one later in the interval of the show)He did buy me one but I didn't want it so they cost £4.10 in total. Silly money!
Its a bit of a white lie but I know my income and circumstances will change this year and with the new rules the Government have planned anything could happen so I may make on I am on some kind of training programme and I haven't much spare time. If he can understand that and it sound legitimate.
Things like this come with having a kind heart.
I have a thirty year-old adopted
cousin who is a dwarf, he's deaf and has the mental capacity of about a twelve or thirteen year old.
He can be quite the little schemer and works his disabilities to his advantage frequently. He understands much more than he lets on. But at the same time, he's very gullible when it comes to people who use him. He's also been known to be more than sexually inappropriate in the past.
After many, many years of trying to work with him and get him to family events, being lied to and taken advantage of, talking very honestly and bluntly with him, I finally gave up.
It was driving my family nuts. He just would not cooperate.
He was in a really good group home and the gentleman who ran it totally had his number. I would talk to this man pretty frequently to see how things were going. He was honest and truly wanted to help my cousin. He had the patience of a saint. Not only did he get him professional help to try and teach him how to treat people, how others should treat him, teach basic social skills and relationships and basic psychiatric therapy, but he also had several other special needs folks in the home that he had to manage. My cousin has a horrible temper (though he's never shown it with me) and can throw a pretty mean tantrum, so he was dealing with that too.
My aunt and uncle moved to Texas a few years ago, and though my cousin goes back for visits once or twice a year, and they call him almost every day, for all intents and purposes, have left him to his own devices.
Well he finally had one tantrum too many and decided to leave the group home. At that point I figured he's on his own, although I think of him and pray for him all the time I just couldn't do it anymore.
You can only do what you can do. This was my family. The man you're speaking of is of no relation to you.
As far as I can see you've done more than most to give him a chance. And you're absolutely right to move on and distance yourself.
I'm sorry you're in this situation, Gildy, but I wouldn't change your soft heart for anything.
Hang in there.
Jan :o)
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