The Ballard of Accounting

The Ballard of Accounting:

Is a song written by Ewan MacColl and he sings it with Peggy Segar. This song is right at the top of my best ever play list, because it is so insightful and would without a doubt be with me on my Desert Island. It has lessons for us all and is the wisest song you will ever hear. The lyrics really rummage deep inside ones own attitudes and approaches to life and its issues, truly one of the finest songs ever written.
The song is a list, in the same format as Baz lurmans Wear Suncream which was good, but this is less American and far more astute. 
Why am I rabbiting on about a folk song? Because there is one line in this song which my wife highlighted as her favourite. My favourite was a different line. But her line is the one that goes:

'Did you ever question the set up?'
  
Now this is leading up to the real reason for this blog post. The Arts Council grant application  to support our Imagined Village project has been rejected, and been rejected as High Risk - Finance. Not broken down or fully explained the cost expenditure. The costs in the box are not detailed enough for a decision to be made to see if this is truly viable.
In my opinion that must be their 1st base.
Now here's the thing!
Their box for the accounts section of the application must have worked in a different way then from all the other boxes in the extensive number of boxes in the rest of the form. I discovered the system of making new lines to go in all the other boxes on the form and I applied it to the accounting box the format did not work and I could not create new lines within the box? 
Stupidly I concluded that this was fixed and that what was listed in the box was how they wanted their budget broken down, so I entered all the figures. 
 All through the process is this ...' it should be easy you can speak with the arts council while you make your proposal and they will answer any questions you have.....oh their really helpful and you can discuss any aspect of the application over the phone. Yes all absolutely true. Did I phone them and ask them anything, well I did and I asked how best to use the supporting material......and the answer was .....well its up to you really? A totally useless question which does not even have an answer.
 
 'Did you ever question the set up?'
 Er No

Had I asked why was the accounts box behaving differently from all the other boxes on the form, that would have been the right question. I don't know what the answer might have been...probably 'does it?' or 'yes the portal is very temperamental today we are making server changes in the very near future and things are a little glitchy right now and try it tommorrow' those kind of answers would have really helped me.
   
That might be one reason why Imaginary Villages are imaginary and not real. 

to listen click here

I noticed one of the comments below the song on youtube suggested that this song should be played every day at school assemblies. 
what a good idea that is!


 

Imagined Village (The Movie)

The Movie: Kind friends spent some time bringing the model to life. Film is an unknown area for me and bringing a still world to life like this is exciting. Models become transformed and the detail is highlighted. A world is created by magic.

Making the model it seemed all about constructing individual and different houses, windows extensions, guttering and loft conversions all seemed interesting. I even made a few cars and trees to make it more like a real community! The location shown by drawing out maps to represent a long lost place was a high priority. 

An imaginery place was alway intended, but somehow its no longer imaginery and the rather quickly sketched tiny figures really grab attention. While I was drawing them I had no idea that the focus or expectation from them would be so high. They feel to me like a next step for development in some way. It was if I was one of them walking around my own neighbourhood where I once lived and this was a flash back to an earlier time, or possibly a look at some future event. An unusual experience made by Nick Godsell and Al Reffall. 

                                              building a world in a few seconds 

So what next? Karens melting the houses as if to reconstruct their demise. I feel I have to pull the handbrake up and wait. Why? Because it doesn't feel validated. Karen clearly has no such hang ups and can enjoy exploring with materials and ideas. Me: things will have to wait.

Wonky Houses & Ice Houses

A New Year has brought with it new ideas, I’ve been experimenting making wonky paper houses based on the drawings I did on the brick pebbles and used for my christmas card design.

Also using one of Rob’s wooden houses as a forma had a go at making a latex mould to see if I could make some Ice Houses, an idea suggested by one of my daughters when we were discussing the project to her during her christmas visit. 

Because water expands as it turns to ice, they are coming out slightly bulging, but I quite like that, it’s sort of making them different houses again to the ones they have been moulded from. 

Spurred on by the success of the initial experimental one I have now set up a production line to make several more moulds, again using Rob’s different house designs as formas with a view to creating a village of Ice Houses for a photo shoot.

Rob's wooden houses with the first coat of latex drying.