I beseech all who can to come bearing seventeen dollars to the Riverside Parramatta to see, at 7 on Tuesday November 5, The Word Before Shakespeare, a play by me, Shakespeare, Henry VIII, Thomas Wyatt, Thomas More, Thomas North, Thomas Nashe, William Tyndale, Plutarch, Philip Sidney, Shakespeare, David, King of Israel, Ben Jonson, Elizabeth II and Richard III, and starring me, Paul Bertram, Terry Clarke, Jane Harders, Denny Lawrence, Nathaniel Pemberton and Natasha Vickery, or do likewise on Tuesday November 12. It will become a standard entertainment, like The Hollow Crown or Cowardy Custard, for the next four centuries and you should get in early; not least to experience, behind widening fingers, my Charles Laughton, Richard Burton, Laurence Olivier and Frank Thring.
Hurry, hurry. Selling out.
Name:
I will be there on the 5th.
Will you be mingling afterwards?
Oh yes.
Good luck. Tyranny of distance. Damn.
Abbott’s refrain to the troops. Bitter sweet?
Something I wrote in 1999. Hoping this loads here. Nothing else will.
Sassoon
The weald of youth succumbs to age
Enshrouds his bones so peaceful laid
Denies the corner of that field
Where England fell.
Rest now contentious bard
Your words we read with love
They come not bitter to our ears
They provoke, they arrest, they awaken us.
In war’s dim end you told such truth
A truth unchanged from added years
In modern times we still forget
Your peace-wove messages.
bitter sweet
testing
Thank you very much for introducing me to H Wilson-Green. I would love to see some pictures of his work. I’ve looked online, but no luck.
You might be interested in this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58qdcwQfeQw
I wonder whether an Australian Darger would have been discovered and celebrated.
Clarice Beckett. There’s also the under-rated Olive Cotton and Joy Hester. Better known now, certainly. But overlooked in their time.
Much thanks, K.bites - I was unaware of Clarice Beckett and Olive Cotton; I know Joy Hester’s work, which is still frustratingly under-rated. I really like Beckett’s painting of tram’s passing and Cottons work looks incredible - I particularly like photography.
I wikipedia’d them both. In Cottons entry was this line: “…both the artist and the significance of her talent became largely lost to memory.” This process seems to happen to women artists, writers film-makers continually and it is still happening.
You may be interested in this woman: http://www.vivianmaier.com/about-vivian-maier/
She was a little bit like Henry Darger - only not quite as occluded as him. She worked as a caregiver. At her death she left behind over 100,000 negatives. Not only did she never try to have them published or exhibited, it seems she never even showed them to another person.
Just found this
There’s a torrent available through this link of the recent BBC Imagine doco, ‘Vivian Maier: Who Took Nanny’s Pictures?‘, if anyone’s interested in downloading.
Yeah, if ‘they’ take a dislike to you, well you make the art for yourself really. Dorrit Black, James Ferries, both got pretty much ignored in their day. I am used to being ignored these days…
Master,
Your input is greatly appreciated. I am always interested in peoples stories, whether they be the local dump scrounger or some famous person, like the Dalai Lama.
Unfortunately, I am somewhat sceptical about the Australian art scene. HWG is yet to be credited but I am working on something so stay in touch. Cheers.
ps, I am having a lot of trouble loading, as is Helvi.
I share your scepticism. A lot of people in the arts in Australia seem unhappy and worried unless everyone is singing from the same hymn-sheet.
Good luck with HWG. And with your own work.
Lesbians have always championed my art, gay men have struggled with it. Most of the galleries are controlled by gay men. I’m not homophobic, but I would suggest that plenty of hetrophobia exists. Pity.
If you google CD Hunter The Blue Lady you will view a Lesbian icon. It has been exhibited all around the world. It was painted in 1982.
The site, built 23 years ago, shows some of my earlier imagery and was/is, looking back, rather crude by todays standards but I have let it live. The guest book was hacked into and destroyed years ago along with all the site meter details etc.
13 years ago
Chris, lovely to see your work on the web.
And, you’d be familiar with Rex Battarbee, yes? His son was a colleague and friend of mine for a number of years in Adelaide, but we’ve lost touch, more’s the pity.
http://www.hermmannburgschool.com. My eldest son’s site. Check it out and let me know what you think? He is writing a book on their history up to the present day. Spends a lot of time in The Alice talking to the Elders.
hermmansburg - vegemite deficiency. javascript:grin(‘:lol:’)
Chris, Just had a look at your site. Eclectic, like a sampler stretched over decades. But fuck! Why not still painting? You have control of the medium. Age seasons and focuses. Listen to this flea. Clean your palette. Get back on your bike, me young shaver!
thanks K.Bites. The fat lady hasn’t sung yet!javascript:grin(‘:grin:’)
Neither she nor the orchestra are warming up!
Just looked at your site and very pleased to hear the fat lady has kept her gob shut. Really enjoyed the words and pictures. Would have been nice if the pictures were a little bit bigger.
Much respect to you; it’s good for the heart to make things.
I’ve booked for two. Doug Quixote, what about you?
I look forward to meeting you and Judd!
and de Vere?
I’ve accessed your website for the first time tonight. An interesting collection, Chris.
I freely admit that I take any claims made anonymously (or apparently so) regarding any personal expertise, with a grain of salt. But it is now evident that you are what you have at times alluded to being.
If nothing else, you deserve full credit for your openness. You seem to have dabbled in quite a few genres; one or two are rather Dali-esque others, early Picasso-ish. The female eunuch one is rather decorative.
PS I hope the self-portrait is not realist
Well soon I will be replacing my generic avatar with my real live photo so you can be the judge.
BTW where do you purchase tickets for Bob’s show. I’m thinking of shouting my son and his wife before they depart for Germany for Xmas. Cheers.
Chris, don’t post your photo. I don’t want to see what a fool looks like.
Bob Ellis has posted the details and you like a retard, still can’t figure it out. No loss to the world of art I think…
Here is the link idiot.
http://riversideparramatta.com.au/show/the-word-before-shakespeare/
In future, here is a novel idea, try using your brain. It is under utilised.
Bought one of those gluey, stylised Stallone’s yet twerp? Or are you still shrinking your walnuts in fear of Campbell shutting you down in NSW where real men live?
“I don’t want to see what a fool looks like.”
No mirrors in your house, Frank?
I feel sorry for Frank’s wife.
How do you know if he’s got a wife.
This is internet. I know people (real life), their stories and their profiles do not match
Try and stop me!
Comme dit on “dress the salad”? Nous avons oublier, maman et moi.
é!
I’d love to be there but alas distance deters the 3k km journey.
This is a test to see if I am allowed back in public after being denied internet access in the new age of repression by Murdoch Abbott goons?
If only I would compromize.
Ya canna handa manna a grander enlightenment
Maybe this is what Helvi and I are going through?
a high probability
Welcome back, I was worried for you. I was gonna get the scuba gear out re concrete boots re your last sighting at Freo docks.javascript:grin(‘:eek:’)
it was so - on my b’day and Pearl and Bubbles turned up out of nowhere that day beside the fishermen’s wharf in Freo
Thy canny skill still shows thru after my banishment
Aww Mal, I was so looking forward to meeting you too.
Unfortunately my visa application to leave the Imperial State of Queensland was rejected by decree from the grand little emperor, Campbell Newman.
I thought of riding pillion as a illegal refugee with a drug crazed bikie fleeing Queensland’s police, but then I thought, nah, bugger it, the state may never let me back in for consorting with a bunch of crazy Lefties.
You guys will have to enjoy yourselves without me. I’ll just have to imagine Ellis playing Frank Thring in my minds eye. Save myself $17!
Your gonna have to change your number plate Frank, after Newman’s latest display of fiefdom sabre rattling, sending the coppers after the Vietnam Vets MC.
Sunshine State or Smart State, or Beautiful one day perfect the next don’t seem to cut it when government policy is to harass old diggers.
Any suggestions?
Police State seems a bit too in ya face, but the little emperor might approve.
Canguro,
All they do is raise money for charity. Most of them will have been diagnosed with PTSD. Newman is ex Army and Abbott spend his day at the War Memorial in Canberra lauding diggers. This is stranger than fiction!
Evidence regarding PTSD or are you just making stuff up?
As a founding committee member of our local Vietnam Veteran’s club and former RSL President and Secretary I know personally about 100 Vietnam Vets. Approximately 90% of them have been diagnosed with health problems, mostly PTSD orientated.
I have been hospitalised with PTSD, and have six-weekly meetings with my psychiatrist at Daw Park Repatriation hospital. Unlike the majority of veterans I take no medication for my condition - I decision of my own making, respected by the medical staff assigned to my case.
What war veteran is not in some way traumatised by his/her experiences? Name ONE.
Thy canny skill still shows thru after my banishment
Some sort of strange interference seems evident
Bob’s thespian skills are no match for the cold logic of database maintenance or the possibilities of code injection attacks and the need for essential updates.
code injection attacks?
code injection attacks?
PRISM. I’ll say no more. Burn this message.
Malcolm, Helvi and me, oh and Gerard, all slated for concrete boots, hope Helvi’s are fur lined for a lady…
Got my Labor Party Members card today. Just updating PRISM. Looks like Malcolm’s under attack again.
Sounds great Bob. I recognize only two names in the list: Tom More and, that genius, Bill Tyndale, the Edward Snowden on his time. I am wondering whether the play will travel, perhaps to Wollongong, or failing that you might put it on DVD.
Wollongong very likely.
I would be surprised if Ellis is remembered 4 weeks after his death let alone 4 centuries.
gumshoe who?
I may not be famous but neither was the boy who pointed out the Emperor’s lack of clothing.
Gosh Gummo, you great goose, goodbye.
Goodbye! Are you off somewhere?
Before you go maybe you could explain why you think Ellis’ play will become a standard for 400 years?
I could, easily, but I have no wish to indulge a rude F#@k-wit who is about to be forever banned from these pages.
Well, it’s not by me, but a clutch of writers of the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, selected by me. Writers who are still remembered now, after four and five hundred years. Why would they not get, through this, two centuries more?
Banned for life.
Liar. You mean no, so why not be honest?
Get a grip, goon.
I have high hopes that Mr Ellis will do the tooth-drilling scene from The Boys From Brazil as a tribute to Larry.
There could be a different federal politician in the chair each night.
Gimp! Surely you are thinking of Laurence Olivier’s dentist scene in the movie, Marathon Man?
“Is it safe?”