Bowie and Otway similar shock?

You would think that having a diet day, which of course means no alcohol or, alternatively no food, on Tuesday, that I would earn some brownie points, especially as I had to witness That Nice Lady Decorator slam dunk several large glasses of wine the evening before last whilst I stared at a glass of water, but I have encountered a problem. This 600 calorie a day diet causes slight constipation so, the brownie points are, how can I say this without being tasteless?, a little harder to come by. I am dedicated to this diet, not just going through the motions (eek) and it is working. I must cling to that concept that if it is to continue, I could be Twiggy’s double eventually. In fact l I think I shall refer to myself as that willowy author from now on.

So the willowy author caught the train to London last night to go to the Roxy in Borough High St near London Bridge to be present at the press screening for Otway The Movie, attended by Currencies Direct client John Otway himself. Now much edited and the better for it, the film was well received with rounds of applause and gales of laughter at regular intervals.

Otway turns his back on stardom? surely not

Being in London affords opportunities that will not be available in the south of France. Take the David Bowie exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum for instance. We did. A blast from the past of wonderful nostalgia was very refreshing and uplifting for some old codgers. Uplifting as well to find that Sprog 2 loved the whole thing. She was the one who wanted to go and persuaded us that we should too, obviously as long as we were going to pay. The exhibition was very well done and brought back great memories of my early rock and roll influences, but if I had a complaint it would be that personally, I thought the Ziggy Stardust (Otway was once featured in a TV documentary called Star Dustman) era was under represented whereas later incarnations of his persona and work were over represented. He has always been a brilliant charlatan, an actor and a sponge for artistic ideas and then brilliant at regurgitating these and calling them original. Some parallels to Otway? For me the early 70’s was when Bowie was at the peak of his powers and I for one would have preferred this to been more fully acknowledged.

So now I am an art critic. Seldom have I been more ashamed than when I realised that I made comments concerning artistic matters. I have been a businessman all my life, and adhering to those principles through my lack of career has served me well, so the realisation that I had inadvertently entered the world of artistic criticism was a bitter pill to swallow. I shall be on the look out to ensure it does not happen again. The fundamental rules from which I draw my life creed are that art is for money’s sake and all modern art is crap. As long as I remember these two important points in the future, I am sure I will have fewer problems.

The long train ride back from Victoria to Arundel close to midnight is not one that I ever wish to repeat. Without an imminent trip to France with which to contend, we would have done as I suggested and booked into a hotel. I do not intend ever again to take the train at night, France or no France. I made that clear to That Nice Lady Decorator (whose decision it was not to hotel it) and I hope the throbbing will die down later today. Does she not understand the concept of Freedom of Speech?

Chris France
@Valbonne_News