Time for a change. Time to be more all encompassing, more directed in my witterings, ramblings, musings, rants and raves about all things that belong to that thing we call culture, that thing that grows and multiplies, that thing that we cultivate through expression, through life. I work in the arts, on festivals, run gigs, produce events, run a free online arts resource, this ezine, listen to the radio, watch tv, sport, read alot, drink too much, have a constant hankering for sausages and ice cream, give out, complain and don't see enough of what I claim to love. However, if I didn't live in a petri dish I would be nothing. Ever since I was about 15 I've wanted to jump in and have a go, first as a cartoonist, then as a carnival puppet maker, designer and performer, later as a stage designer, theatre writer and producer, then as festival director and finally as one half of an events company.Along the way I have been introduced to so much. I have been influenced and shaped by everything I have had the pleasure and misfortune to be involved in. Like a ship at sea I have changed direction according to the winds in the constant hope that I'd reach the end of the world, the final frontier, the point, the light, salvation. But on those travels I have come to discover that there is no edge, no singularity, no point of arrival, only departure.So, to this end I am once again changing tack and am going to have a poke around my petri dish and like all bacteria I shall virally multiply, form, divide and someday may be of use to someone, somewhere over a rainbow.Start here.What I've just read:A great travel book by Chinese author Ma Jian.I read it years ago and had forgotten all about it until I was looking for something to read. After spending too much time poking around my bookshelves looking vainly for an unread book I stopped, gave up and went for second best; a novel I hadn't read more than twice.In 1983, Ma Jian turned 30 and was overwhelmed by the desire to escape the confines of his life in Beijing. All around him, China was changing. Deng Xiaoping was introducing economic reform but clamping down on "spiritual pollution"; young people were rebelling. With his long hair, denim jeans and artistic friends, Ma Jian was under surveillance from his work unit and the police.
His ex-wife was seeking custody of their daughter; his girlfriend was sleeping with another man; and he could no longer find the inspiration to write or paint.One day he bought a train ticket to the westernmost border of China and set of in search of himself. Ma Jian's journey would last three years and take him to deserts and overpopulated cities, from scenes of barbarity to havens of tranquility and beauty. The result is an insight into the teeming contradictions of China that only a man who was both an insider and an outsider in his own country could have written.Well worth a read and if you have any interest in the rising dragon that is China this is for you - a good counter point to everything we read in the press todayMore notes from a petri dish to follow...