Birdiehop
My blogs
| Gender | Female |
|---|---|
| Industry | Museums or Libraries |
| Occupation | National Cynic |
| Location | A dark metropolis, London calling, United Kingdom |
| Introduction | The name Birdiehop is mostly in homage to nature lover, musician, artist Syd Barrett. I love nature, born on the edge of Birmingham in the Midland shire of Warwickshire, bordering close to Worcestershire in '55, I was lucky enough to grow up before the UK became too urbanized, and yet due to industrial Birmingham I've always been drawn to cities.My grandparents all Brum born and spoke the lingo well. I love the Brummie, Midlands and Liverpudlian dialectics to this day. (As well as others). I am a bird lover and adore animals. |
| Interests | Wide and diverse from poetry to comedy, reading, listening to music and radio, (world service and BBC6music mostly), to good fast (veggie asian fusion) food, modern art to walking (though now thx to Arthritis and Fibromyalgia plus a slipped disc x2, in September 2014 means I'm walking with an foldable stick that doubles as numchucks, should I need them :). Living without eating meat, anti factory farming. Trying to make do with less possessions, and less extravagance. Simplicity, if this is a concept that can exist in the austere 21C. Oh yes, I hate and despise our privileged Etonian allegedly Christian government with their war on the people, they're creating a vast pool of impoverished, homeless and intransigent people and they should be ashamed! They do not appear to share Xtian values or humanity! |
| Favorite Movies | Out of many loves Bladerunner remains in my top ten (both endings) of dystopian fantasy/sciencefictional film. Also Stalker and Rashoman. Ridley Scott, Bergman, Tarkovsky and Kurosawa represented in my favourite Directors, although I'm not a great fan of Solaris. I've loved French, Italian, Spanish and Scandinavian film since a teen. I should add my love of Mike Leigh's realism and holding up the working class spirit in his sensitive hands, alongside fellow spirits Ken Loach, Danny Boyle and Shane Meadows all brilliant UK directors. Love Spirit of the Beehive and also Fellini's La Strada. Wes Andersen's Fantastic Mr Fox (I watched it again today, love that solidarity salute near the end). Not forgetting my love of Batman and The Silver Surfer. Or The Marx Bros, Chaplin, James Dean and Brando. I have too many favourite films to list all. Recent years I've been watching a lot of Swedish (and Danish) film and tv. I loved The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and epic series: The Bridge ||| |
| Favorite Music | Too many to list, but. without music, my life would be poor. I'm a massive music fan still, and it was the Beatles that first drew my child attention span to pop music! Though I was an avid listener to radio as a very young child. Moonriver still makes me tear up! I still love the Tornadoes first big hit. Come 66 I was into proper music, Cream was my biggest UK love then, but it was Folk and the Blues (mostly Delta) that I listened to daily at that time, mostly because I didn't have my own record collection aside of singles. I inherited my eldest sister's cast off albums, what an inheritance. Chicago and Delta Bluesmen and women. Scottish Irish and UK Folk. Music was huge in my family home with 3 older siblings who adored Dusty Springfield, The Beatles and the Stones respectively. I liked them all and more. Hendrix is probably still my favourite guitarist, he was MASSIVE back in 67 here and although looking back at film archives he looks very dated, his guitar playing is still very fine. He had an innate genius for music and lyrics. I was 8 and listening to Dylan's lyrics with much interest, that's never left me. I have to mention some other UK bands that I loved back then, FAMILY was very much loved, and Pink Floyd, who I fell in love with (their guitarist), it was beautiful music perfect for the time. I was very very upset when Syd Barrett vanished after the 2nd single, and I heard later he was very ill. But in fact had been sacked from his own band! I was I admit besotted with Procol Harum. Sadly (or perhaps not) they weren't as huge in the UK as they were in the States and the continent. Again the early lyrics were something to behold, but it was Matthew Fishers Hammond organ that initially drew me in. |
| Favorite Books | OED... + Roget's Thesaurus. George Orwell (many of his writings), Erving Goffman's Asylums, Laurie Lee 'I walked out one Midsummer Morning', The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Gormenghast Trilogy, His Dark Materials Trilogy, Kesey's 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'. 'The Master and Margarita', Magic and Mystery in Tibet, The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelasny . There are books (and music) in every room at my home. Which are currently being weeded massively due to a wish to downsize. I'm moving to a matchbox des res! Orwell, Hitchens and hundreds of books will accompany me. |