Flotsam & Jetsum XXVIII
So here we are. To paraphrase a childhood hero, life moves pretty fast my friends. If you’re understandably disinterested in any commentary on my career then you’ll need to jump a couple of paragraphs to get to some film stuff, since I treat this blog as something of a public diary on occasion and there have been some tumultuous shifts in this area I have some developments I need to get off my chest. So, I’ve quit my previous role – I’m being a little cautious with namechecks. It is without doubt one of the most dysfunctional and frustrating environments I have ever had the misfortune to work in, not surprising on reflection when you consider 
that it is a local authority that inadvertently kills children. Life’s too short to shoulder absurd workloads without support from corporate management, to manage contractors who lie and fabricate data, to ‘work’ with Councillors who notoriously move officers to tears with their outbursts and demands for results – fuck that. I’ve done my time in the trenches believe me – in an early assignment of this phase of my career I had to contend with drug abuse, alcoholism, sexual harassment and violent incidents – and this was just amongst my staff – I’ve had enough of those stresses to last me a lifetime. The authority was situated in a pretty nasty part of London, one of my team found a loaded 9mm pistol in a recycling centre two weeks into the role, that’s just one of many anecdotes I could report back to give you a glimmer of what it was like. I only ever took the role which was always a sideways step career wise to keep the money coming in and keep a roof over my head, for some reason the career angels where smiling upon me as a new opportunity arose shortly after I left which I have now secured.
The new assignment is quite frankly perfect in almost every way. Geographically it’s in Southwark meaning a twenty minute commute which is exceptional, it also centres me slap bang between Waterloo and Elephant & Castle which 
results in a ten minute walk to my beloved NFT and all the attractions of the South Bank. Being a senior role it exposes me to some very promising agencies such as GOL, the Mayors Office and GLA, Defra, the Environment Agency and a slew of sub-regional groups which is perfect. Most importantly though is the role itself which is in a sphere which is exploding in both central and local government – sustainability and climate change. It’s an area I’ve been musing over getting into for a while, it is gathering enormous attention around the world with the shift to green energy, to reducing C02 emissions and all the other tangential efforts that must be programmed and managed over the coming years and decades. It is quite a challenge to say the least, for implementing the infrastructure to meet challenging EU and Whitehall targets for an authority of 270,ooo residents and thousands of businesses, I’m assuming it will keep me out of mischief for a while. Reading that sentence back my blood has run a little cold. <exhales>. Oh well, whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger eh?
Speaking of luck after a barren couple of months at the NFT – the extended James Bond season held no interest for me I’m afraid – it looks we’re back in the swing of things with two new runs in July, the first a series of material celebrating the 30th anniversary of the moon ‘landing’ – One Giant Leap – which includes a screening and discussion entitled ‘Kubrick’s Moon’ (stop sniggering), the documentary that was culled from the hou
rs of interviews and research material he acquired during the prep of 2001 (which is getting two screenings, a godsend since I missed this back in March), I haven’t seen this documentary yet so you can imagine my reaction. There’s also a preview screening and director Q&A of ‘Moon‘ which has been garnering some terrific reviews from the US. Coupled with this in an effort I suspect to vaguely cash-in on the release of ‘Public Enemies’ is a comprehensive US gangster movie season. This looks particularly juicy with a slew of films from Golden Age Hollywood – all the Edward G Robinson and Jimmy Cagney movies of the 1930’s (Hmm, great depression movies – interesting) through to ‘Bonnie & Clyde’, ‘Scarface‘ etc. with the jewel in the crown being a screening of the 3 hour, 40 minute original cut of ‘Once Upon A Time In America’. I haven’t pulled a mammoth evening at the NFT since I got through a screening of the re-cut of ‘Heaven’s Gate‘ many years ago so this should be a real treat. I’m a big Leone fan and ‘America’ is in my top ten gangster films so I’m jolly excited, it’s being projected in the main NFT1 as well. Bliss.
I’ve been quite productive with my time off, I visited the recently opened Whitechapel Gallery which was OK, I wasn’t hugely impressed although the centrepiece of the musuem, a tapestry of Picasso’s Guernica was quite impressive. I also managed a visit to a wonderful Diane Arbus exhibition at the Timothy Taylor art gallery. Finally, here are some links to some general film material that I’ve been catching up on since the imac expired, an 
excellent but frustratingly short del Toro interview, some Lynch, heck even this couldn’t dull my good mood. I must be maturing as I couldn’t give a damn, Scott was an advert director when he tackled ‘Alien’ (although of course he had the wonderful ‘Duellists‘ under his belt) so who knows what may emerge (NSFW, heh). Not that he’d be interested but give it to Cronenerg already. Finally, some youtube amusement;
Minty's Menagerie 
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