Billy Austin’s portrait of Sinead O’Connor captures the wistful beauty of this remarkable woman. Listen to her sing the Parting Glass and shed a tear.
Doesn’t This Take The Biscuit.
From dear friend and theatrical guru Houston Marshall.
OH MY GOD !! I PASSED ON MY GOOD WISHES TO SOME THEATRICAL ACQUAINTANCES ON THIER WAY TO EDINBURGH FESTIVAL. AND IN MY USUAL THEATRICAL TRADITION I TOLD THEM TO “BREAK A LEG OR FEW”FACEBOOK WANT ME TO REMOVE THE POSTING BECAUSE I AM THREATENING/INCTING PHYSICAL HARM !!!!!!WHAT LOW HAS FACEBOOK REACHED !
THE 6TH COMMANDMENT
What a sensational BBC series. The 6th Commandment is one of the most compelling television programmes I’ve seen. This four part production is based on the actual story of two vibrant, intelligent, respected elderly people who are courted by a sinister yet charming young man, a student and a Baptist minister’s son. Although this is a chilling true event it is so compelling and with such brilliant acting the viewer is absorbed from beginning to end. Timothy Spall as Peter Farquhar and Anne Reid as Ann Moore-Martin head the cast with Eanna Hardwicke as the scheming murderer Ben Field.
CHASING THE SUN
There are so many annoying phrases these days especially on radio. ‘Thank you for having me’ says an interviewee to the programme host, ‘That’s a good question’ when stalling to take time to think what to say. ‘OMG’ is common – with hands over mouth – not only on media but in life in general and I’m willing to bet my bottom dollar many of those who allow this to trip off their tongue don’t actually believe in God! Then there’s the common reaction to a question, ‘I won’t lie to you.’ How truthful is that!
A student said recently, “If I’m honest, if you don’t lie on your CV you’ve no chance of getting a job”.
There is big talk of false news these days – lying. Boris Johnston is accused of embroidering the truth – lying. As for Donald Trump, he meanders off into a world of make-believe – lying.
These people are grownups, has the world corrupted their values and weakened their morals? How can anyone deny climate change with the horrors going on at the moment, as Captain Boyle in O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock solemnly proclaims, “The whole worl’s in a state o’ chassis”. I would add, ‘so it is’.
Surely one of the biggest untruths happens in early childhood when Christmas comes around. All over the world, letters are written to this man called Santa Claus, lists of presents requested, then milk and a biscuit are put in the child’s room for this complete stranger to come to the bedside, leave the presents, take the snack and go. And yet children are told never to have anything to do with strangers, not to talk to someone they don’t know, yet condone a stranger coming into their child’s bedroom. It’s tradition and probably won’t change but Santa is a falsehood.
There are so many shades of a lie, it could be white to avoid hurting someone, it could be black, it might be deception or a conspiracy theory. Mark Twain said, ‘If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything’.
Lies Live On Why do we cross our fingers if we’re telling a lie? Presumably so you won’t break the ninth commandment – ‘You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.’ I still have a conscience about my first lie. As a child I would walk to the village shop for messages. One day my aunt complimented me on how neatly I’d packed the basket saying I’d the makings of a good housewife. I didn’t disabuse her by telling her Mrs. Burnett in the shop did the packing. I still feel badly about not coming clean.
Teaching children not to tell ‘porky pies’ is not easy. A child minder told me her way of dealing with this was to tell children she’d check their tongues for black spots if she suspected they weren’t telling the truth. It worked; on occasions she checked tongues but never found black spots. I recall asking one of my children if they’d cleaned their teeth before going off to school. The answer was yes. “How come then the toothpaste I put on your brush is still there, do you want to think again.”
Is it possible to go through life without lying.? At a function in the House of Commons, ignoring his pressurised invitation to go for dinner, I asked a prominent English MP if there is such a thing as an honest politician. “No”, he replied “how could we go through business without bending the truth, it would cause chaos, we have to be mindful not not to be totally open with the truth.”
Reminded me of Nineteen Eighty-four, George Orwell’s amazing novel of life after a nuclear war shortly after World War ll. The population was watched by Big Brother, cameras everywhere, the Thought Police monitored everyone, listened in and snooped, and in the Ministry of Truth history was rewritten to suit the Party plus a newly created language, known as Newspeak, designed to limit free thought and promote the Party’s doctrines. The hero Winston Smith rebels against this and attempts to live his truth and honesty but he fails.
Sound familiar?
Brilliant book and if you haven’t already read it please do.
And now consider Artificial Intelligence. Scientists have worked hard for the last 60 years developing technology from computers to robots and now electronics might well take over the running of the world. Of course AI is important and offers a vital service, just think of it’s uses in the area of health, business, even in the home. Although some think Alexa is spying on us as we go about our daily life, she is a godsend when it comes to spelling.
Experts say AI could become more intelligent than humans and robots could develop their own agenda so programming of all robotics is vitally important other wise we could be in trouble, Witness the impact of ChatGPT the latest in a series of AIs which founder Elon Musk refers to as Generative Pre-Trained Transformer. Think Alexa’s Big Brother – tell Musk’s website what you want and this technology can be used to write anything on your behalf, no wonder schools and universities are concerned that course work is not actually written by the student but by an artificial intellect, that young man writing his CV can just asked AI to do it for him. The possibilities know no bounds – just think, I might not have written this article at all!
And AI threatens to impersonate people. Actors are striking in Hollywood because there is a growing danger of using artificial images cloned from themselves and used in films and ads without having to pay the original actors expensive repeat fees. Apparently David Beckham’s image is being used already in this ‘deep fake’ phenomenon.
So lying and deception has reached a new and frightening level. Important that young people, from early childhood, are taught to think for themselves, about balance and the pros and cons of deception, from Santa Clause to Elon Musk and beyond.
