ACOMSDave

Community Journalist

ACOMSDave Community Journalist

Tom of Finland

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Tom of Finland

Queens Film Theatre (QFT) – 11 August 2017

August 2017 and the QFT (Queen’s Film Theatre, Belfast) showed two completely different films on LGBTQ experiences – namely ‘Tom of Finland’ and ‘Britain on Film: LGBT Britain’

Tom of Finland

Tom of Finland is an award-winning film by film-maker Dome Karukwsi who has brought to the screen the life and work of Tuoko Laaksonen.  Toko served his country during the 2nd World War but upon his return to Helsinki discovered a town rampant with homophobic persecution (like a lot of the world).  He found work as an advertising artist but in private sought refuge in his ‘art’ which specialised in homoerotic drawings of muscular men.  The story revolves around his life in Helsinki and to a degree being in the closet, and that of being persuaded to follow his dreams and this led to his work being printed and promoted in the USA.  For a generation, his art became the emblem of freedom and helped fan the flames of a gay revolution.

Britain on Film: LGBT Britain

Britain on Film: LGBT Britain is like a gallery of snip-its of films spanning 1909 to 1994, and seeks to document a century(or thereabouts) in which homosexuality went from crime to pride.

It highlights courageous activism, the change of attitudes of communities to LGBT people, whilst the greater community was itself going through tumultuous explosive social change.

This film provides a window into that period, but in a film which lasts only 1 hour 20 minutes, it cannot hope to provide answers for those of us who like depth and quality.  What it does do is provide a signpost to those who want to do follow-up research starting points.  Areas to start, names, events to look at.

As an adjunct to the film possibly a website with the timeline of the events and films with links to resources would be the next natural step for the producer or researchers who supported the production.

Educating the masses…

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Educating the masses

On April 11, 2019 I read a very telling article ‘We always have to fundraise for school essentials‘.  This article was in the Metro newspaper and highlighted how so many schools in the United Kingdom, must beg parents for money to make ends meet…

Spsonored Read

Sponsored Read

The article described how they did a sponsored read, which meant that by teaming up with Usborne Books it was able to add to the school library; or on another day how they had a cake sale to raise money towards a wish list.  Each year there seems to be new areas of concern, new fundraising challenges, and yet according to our politicians, we have never had it so good!

Sylvia Pankhurst

In 1918 Sylvia Pankhurst, wrote a paper

Education of the Masses

And whilst some of the contents of the article seem a little dated now, the underlying premise of ensuring the right number of teachers, to the right number of students combined with the right premises and facilities still rings true…

‘“The funds of the National and British schools are utterly insufficient to enable the Committees of management to instruct a sufficient number of teachers.’

In Yvonne Roberts article published in the Guardian [27/10/2018], she quoted the latest  Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) publication which said that the poorest pupils in this country were more unhappy and discouraged than in any other developed country bar Turkey.

… Fewer than one in six feel resilient, satisfied with their lives and integrated at school…

There have been so many “initiatives” within the education department(s) that it has become a laughingstock; if it wasn’t so important to our children’s future, and that of the country I also would be laughing!

The Edge Foundation states… We are living through a unique period in which three fundamental factors are affecting our economy and society at the same time – skills shortages, Brexit and the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This chapter looks at each in turn before examining what they mean for the skills and behaviours we need young people to develop…

… The government’s suite of education policies aim to tackle the challenges of Twenty-First Century education by turning the clock back to the Nineteenth Century – a narrow knowledge-focused academic curriculum taught in a traditional manner to prepare young people for exams based on rote learning. This is at odds with giving young people the broad skills they need for future life and work before the age of 16, while post-16 apprenticeship numbers have fallen fast and T-levels are narrowly defined and lagging in delivery….

Our politicians need to get real…

Our politicians need to get real; they need to understand that they are creating [if not already created] and underclass who feel disenfranchised, disconnected from society, and in consequence feel little warmth to those who have, whilst they have not!

Until we address the imbalance between those who have and those who have not, until we address the imbalance shown within a political system which favours those with money [and therefore power] and those who have no money {and, therefore, no power], we as a society will continue to devolve, spiralling ever more down into the abyss.

Educating the masses - children

Benny and Omar – Book Review

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Title Benny and Omar
Place Wexford and Africa (Tunisia)
Publication date 1998
Pages 237 pb
Price £4.99 or less
Author Eoin Colfer
Publisher O’Brien
Edition Pb
Special features (maps, etc.)  
ISBN 0-86278-567-7
Amazon Link Benny and Omar
Benny and Omar

Benny and Omar is written for the teenage market, and with its setting in Wexford and then the move to Tunisia the audience should be large.  The story also introduces sibling rivalry between Benny and George, brother but two complete opposites with little to bring them together except genes, and also the transportation from an Irish rural setting to one in Tunisia, Africa, and then from a state Irish school environment to one of temporary visitor in a school run for the benefit of the children of temporary workers (something which I have experience off), and here he has to try and break into the clique which has already formed before his arrival.

The story in Tunisia develops through the friendship of Benny and Omar.  Benny in Omar’s eyes has a life of privilege, in Benny’s eyes, Omar is just existing.  Two complete opposites (again) in an economic sense, but as is often the case two kindred spirits who go on a series of adventures culminating in a madscape run escaping from the village guards, Benny’s parents, and ultimately the police.

This a book worth preserving with, because at times the patois language developed by Omar from watching American TV can be difficult to comprehend – but make the effort and you will love the characters in the story, it will also make you think about other cultures and the way in which they live and work.

Third Man Out

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Title Third Man Out
Place Albany area
Publication date 1992
Pages 173
Price £9.00 pb
Author Richard Stevenson
Publisher Harrington Park Press
Edition  
Special features (maps, etc.)  
ISBN 978-1-56023-656-6
Third Man Out

The ‘Third man Out’ reads like a bad headline in a tabloid about a cricket match at Lords: thankfully however Richard Stevenson’s, Donaly Strachey mystery, is anything but!

The story centres around the ethical question and decision of whether gay activists should “Out” closeted public figures, and in particular those who do damage to the LGBT community through actions or inaction.

I am not a philosophy major, and after the numerous newspaper articles showing high profile figures being caught literally with their fingers, if not something else, in the cookie jar, I will leave the rights or wrongs of “outing” to you as an individual.

But back to the story: it is a story set in the broadest terms of a gay community, with a loosely classified reporter being killed (murdered) for running an outing column.  Enter Don Strachey, whose similarity to the creations of writers such as Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and Mickey Spillane is compelling.  Strachey cannot be ignored, as with so many noir detectives. The story noir has all the integral parts, murder, mystery, lies, cheating, big wigs, little wigs – apart from the central them of the story being set in ‘gay and’, it could be an offshoot of the Big Sleep.

There is for a change a non-stupid police chief, who uses Strachey to do his hunting, and of course, the insurance payout.

Set within the story are the second thread, that of a gay man dying from AIDs, and of his family and his lover.  This story is tangential and apart from Strachey and his partner/lover has little impact on the main crime.  But what it does show is AIDs at that time, people’s understanding of the disease and its impact and also a moral decision that may have to be taken.

Of course, just like those great noir detectives of old, Strachey solves the crime and the murder, for they are two different things.

I am not going to give away the ending.  You are invited to read a well-crafted story with believable characters, and I will be looking for the other books and also for the movies now available on DVD with Chad Allen as the lead.

Third Man Out

Links:

Wikipedia – Noir Fiction

Full Service

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Title Full Service
Place USA
Publication date 2012
Pages 286
Price £8.99
Author Scotty Bowers & Lionel Friedberg
Publisher Grove Press
Edition PB
Special features (maps, etc.) Photographs of the stars
ISBN 978 1 61185 5807

Full Service as a phrase has many interpretations, but in the world of sex, the understanding is clear and unambiguous, which means that ‘Full Service’ as a title for Scotty Bowers (with Lionel Friedberg) book would seem very relevant.

Full Service - 5
Scotty Bowers

When reading Full Service it is like taking a ladder of dates and placing a small cameo of a story where you can and then filing the blanks with joining stories (some relevant and some not) from Scotty’s past.

The subtitle to the book (‘Secret Sex Lives of The Stars’), is open to your belief or disbelief of each story and character.  The ladder holds stories about stars in the entertainment business and begin from the mid-40s and includes people up to the present day in one form or another.

Most of those items which some may think interesting are not new in terms of some of the stars supposed sexuality, the reference to the Duke of Windsor and Churchill are open to whether you seem them relevant to this book.

The books is an easy read, it does not have a bibliography or reference notes, so at best it one person’s memories and observations, at worse it is a light weight novel.

Full Service

Apart from the personal family photographs of the children, most of the photos are in the public domain and do not bring anything extra to the table.  There is also no chapter listing at the start of the novel, which would make it easier to dip into and out of the book, or even to look something up in the future

Full Service -3

So in summing up, Full Service is a lightweight reminiscence into the past without validation, and without a lot of peoples opportunity to challenge these reminiscences.  Certainly it will prove to be of interest to some, but not in my belief to any in-depth researcher.


The Guardian – Hollywood’s secret history: Scotty Bowers on sex and stars in the Golden Era

Wikipedia – Full Service

IMDB – Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood

To A Mask

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Poems, Oct 2013-Dec 2014

by

Peter Brooke

“Politics and Theology”

25 Page Booklet

To A Mask - God

The main theme of this group of poems, To A Mask, is a relationship with God.  There are other sub-themes of Christmas, moss-covered boulder, the Church, but all of them link in one form or another with ‘God’.  I am not a poet, so it is beyond me to write and critique on the forms used; I am also not a believer in ‘God’ as defined by the various churches and religions, but as a member of the human race I believe I can write about the human condition.  The feeling of isolation and of loss that so many of us have.  For me, it is difficult to be thankful for a diety that I don’t believe in that in any way be considered fair.  I am thankful to those who have been a support to me, to my parents for developing in me a self-reliance trait.

Peter Brooke’s To A Mask poems ask questions about belief, about God and for the relationship that so many have with God.  There does seem to a theme of underlying guilt and remorse in the poems:

Was it worth it (perhaps

it was) that past

generations should die,

that Christ’s

birth be accompanied by

a massacre…

                                                                     (Joyeux Noel for Madeline Albright)

To A Mask
birth be accompanied

and the ability of God to impose his wrath:

…Our God is a destroying fire,

and a destroying fire there is.

If God is not angry, yet

the Wrath of God is real –

space and time, burning in the calm

Ocean of Eternity…

                                                            The Wrath of God

To A Mask - Volcano meteor

But as with all beliefs, it is individual and personal. Which takes me back to my previous personal point, I do not believe that organised religions, encompassing churches and people of authority in them, should be directing or controlling our lives. The individual strength of character brought about by relevant education and training as we grow through childhood to adulthood should suffice.

Contact details for Peter Brooke:

www.peterbrooke.org.uk

pbrooke@phonecoop.coop

Movie Review – Furious [2017]

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Title Furious
Release Year: 2017
Director(s) Name(s) Dzhanik Fayziev, Ivan Shurkhovetskiy
Lead Actor(s) Ilya Malakov, Aleksey Serebryakov, Aleksandr Ilin
Genre Action, History
DVD/Blueray  
Amazon Link: Legenda o Kolovrate
   

Furious (or in Russian “Legenda o Kolovrate) is a Russian movie which is well thought out, with a few new twists (Russian style) and also Russian weather (Napoleon and Hitler style)!

I is a really enjoyable movie, with the lead of Ilya Malakov carrying his role of soldier, father, leader wonderfully well; I will not tell his foible, but it does make for an interesting (if not totally original) aspect to the movie.

The fact is it is a Russian movie in Russian and Tatar, with what appears to be well put together subtitles, and has lots of humour balanced against a well-crafted story of 13 men fighting the Mongol hoards.  The music is by Tankian, and to quote his own words’ “For years I contemplated to compose for a film with epic musical proportions utilizing big orchestral, crazy rock and moving ethnic elements. In that sense, my dreams came true. I am extremely proud of my work on this film”.

Furious
Legenda o Kolovrate [Furious)

Furious is an epic, and can easily be talked about in the same breath as:

  • 7 Samurai
  • The Magnificent 7
  • 13 Assasins
  • 47 Ronin (to a lesser extent, as the story for this movie is wonderful, just the film didn’t quite live to expectations)
Furious

I recommend this Furious to anyone who loves a good story, great acting, humour, tears, Russian steppes weather…well just about anything.

External links:

Women in Politics

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Today I was in the ‘Self Help Africa’ bookshop in Botanic Avenue, when I came across two postcards which reflected the development of women in politics.

Miss Kelly

The first postcard Shows ‘Miss Kelly’ a champion Votes for Women seller’, on what was her pitch in Charing Cross.

This refers to the period when women were fighting for the right to have a vote during elections; suffragettes were members of a militant women’s organisation who in the early 20th century, under the banner “Votes for Women”.

The term referred in particular to members of the British Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), a women-only movement founded in 1903 by Emmeline Pankhurst, which engaged in direct action and civil disobedience.

Irish Women Workers’ Union

My second find was a postcard showing a group of ladies who were part of the Irish Women Workers’ Union (1911-1984).  The Irish Women Workers’ Union was founded at a public meeting held on September 5th 1911 in the old Antient Concert Hall on Great Brunswick (later the Academy cinema on what is now called Pearse Street ).

The IWWU at it’s peak represented 70,000 women including, bookbinders, contract cleaners, laundry, print and electronic workers.  They were instrumental in obtaining the right for two weeks annual paid leave for all Irish workers in 1945, something which no organised male worker had previously demanded.

olitics

What peaked my interest was the situation of two completely different countries, having spawned women’s movements because women had little or no rights, and were considered to be inferior:

‘Masculine prejudice is the major target: man’s opinion of the fair sex is due to nothing more than mere custom, and the male chauvinist viewpoint (to use a modern term) has neither a logical nor a scientific leg to stand on ‘

Today we still have problems accepting women in positions of power and also in politics; in the last few years we have seen the rise of ‘Times UP’, in 2017 a group of women published a letter which said in part:-

“The struggle for women to break in, to rise up the ranks and to simply be heard and acknowledged in male-dominated workplaces must end; time’s up on this impenetrable monopoly”…

Just as we have seen and continue to see the fight for LGBTQ rights throughout the world; something which the British Government has in past created the problem through it’s empire days, and even today it continues to on one hand says it is supportive, but on the other pays lip service to it when economics comes into pay (e.g. Middle Est, African Continent etc).

We have a long way to go in this world until we have equality for all, not matter what the gender, or where they live!

Further reading:

Banking – The digital Age is Upon Us

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On Saturday May 25th, 2019 the Daily Mail’s Matt Oliver wrote on how Facebook maybe moving into the banking scene by offering digital currency. It would appear that the Bank of England’s governor Mark Carney had a meeting to discuss the possibility of Facebook launching a new digital coin ‘Globalcoin’, a digital payments system that would allow people to send money to each other without a bank account.

Banking - The digital Age is Upon Us
Currency Virtual Coins Digital Cryptocurrency

Banking – The digital Age is Upon Us, whilst we might benefit from more players in this market, it is also obviously worrying that Facebook has seen another large market to exploit and with its 2bn daily users it would appear to have the clout to do so – however, we must also be aware of Facebook’s history in not securing peoples data, and I for one will be looking to see what assurances are put in place to not only protect our data but to protect our money!

Banking - The digital Age is Upon Us - protection is the priority

Art I have Bought

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Over the last month, as I always do, I have haunted charity shops to look for books, postcards, music and art which I find interesting. I am combining December 2018 and January 2019 together for this article due to the holiday, and I have to report that it has been a success, the art I have bought from my finds is exciting (at least for me).

I have bought the following:

  • From a charity shop in Newcastle, Co Down this lovely oil painting. It is not by any recognised artist, indeed some of the work is very naive, but I love the topic.
  • Then from another charity shop in Belfast, near Rosemary Street, I found the following two prints. Both in excellent condition and of an excellent size also, both have no name or artist attributed, so if you know please comment:
  • £4
  • £2
  • 10 postcards which cost me £2.50
Art I have Bought

It is an eclectic mix, and each has been bought because it will bring enjoyment to myself and hopefully others.

The £3 sailing boat seascape is hanging with pride of place in my bedroom at present (I am soon to redecorate my apartment, so locations will change)

The two prints I shall have to get framed and they will then hang in my study/art room to give me inspiration (or to create a guilt complex because I haven’t done any drawing or painting!)

And lastly the postcards have been bought for me to send to friends. I still love writing properly to my friends and giving them the joy and surprise when a postcard arrives through the letterbox.

So you can the art I have bought, whilst not expensive, will be enjoyed and cherished, just as much as the art I see in galleries and museum – but these I own