"The origins of chain saws in surgery is debated."

  It's probably for the best you can't make out the faces above as I've no idea what's announceable yet, but he were are again – or aren't –  embarking on a new thing from the brain of Bottom Left. Monday therefore has been exciting. I don't remember how the conversation got onto chainsaws; it was Top Right, I think, who said she had recently discovered they were invented originally as an aid to childbirth, which I looked up immediately, and... Happy International Women's Day, everyone!

 

Before the invention of gasoline motors, osteotomes such as this were powered by Charades.

 The pop shield I was sent didn't reach from the stand, so I tried holding it over my face like a French fan. Could something perhaps be installed to stop me popping permanently – enquired Bottom Right – like a nose bag? 

 We wracked our brains for something that could be worn over the mouth.

 – Whathever man invents the machine that can make Simon quieter– began Bottom Left.

 – Or woman, I interrupted, in celebration of the day.

 – Whatever man invents the machine... or woman... that can make Simon quieter– Bottom Left corrected himself.

 Whatever we finish making should be available in a couple of months, which is exciting, until which time, I think, I get to keep the whole recording caboodle, which is also exciting. Maybe I'll make some rap. I've been relistening to Rob Hubbard's old Commodore 64 sountracks recently: they're stirring, and would make an excellent bed. Don't copy me.

 

 

My Guess? The Nixon Mask Was Inside Out.

 Sometimes youtube's suggestions algorithm absolutely nails it. There was no way I wasn't going to click on a video called Bob Newhart & the Masked Doctor Who Cured the Gays. Although a possible inspiration for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre's Leatherface, this masked doctor in question is the far more benign John E. Fryer, M.D., a closeted member of the American Pyschological Association at a time when homosexuality was listed as a mental illness. In 1972 he was persuaded to finally propose its delisting at the annual meeting of the APA in a speech entitled "I Am A Homosexual", which he delivered on the condition that he was allowed to do so in disguise.

 

 "Dr H. Anonymous" to the left of the campaigners who convinced him to make this address: Barbara Gittings and Frank Kameny. (Source).
 

  Fryer wore a velvet tuxedo, a large curly wig, and what was reported to be a mask of Richard Nixon, and the "Cure" of the video's title is the subsequent delisting of homosexuality as a mental illness in 1973. That "&" is doing quite a but of heavy lifting, but Bob Newhart was the star of a popular sitcom at the time about a psychiatrist, which in 1976 decided it too should probably take a stand. Since the recommendation of this video I've been for a delightfully deep dive into Matt Baume's channel and it's interesting to note how much more progressive television shows seem in the seventies than in the decade that follows, despite the continuity of creative teams behind them. Things don't always slowly get fairer then. Often they get fairer, then get pushed back. But I don't want to bang on about the eighties.

Sylvia's Super-Awesome Maker Show

is, when all is said and done, super-awesome. But why would on Earth would I wish to make a - ugh - "drawdio"? you might ask. Well watch.

Quick Tip: Don't breath the fumes. Thanks as ever to videogum.com
In other news, I've started reading the second volume of Michel Palin's diaries and the phrase "valuable writing time" keeps coming up. What is that?
Bong.
Morgan's just bought another chainsaw. Bong.
Went for a stroll in Whitehall. Nowhere does ice lollies and Liam Fox comes up to my tit. Bong.

 Oh and finally, I never did follow up that place-holder about scripts, did I? Well the moment's passed now I guess, but my cross-purposed response to Chris Goode's original enquiry can be found in the comments here, and my monosyllabic contribution to his unscripted piece "World of Work" here. Happily, complying with this request turned out to require less time and imagination than turning it down. Bong. 

 

Neat detail from Chris' "Blurt Studies".

Signs of Life

Of course that should be "recommend" in the last post. I kept the misspelling in to communicate a sense of urgency. How do you think I did?

And where was I?

Well a year ago now the house caught fire, but nobody died, not even Kato the cat. It was kind of fine. The place has double-glazing now, although you can still make out the scorched paintwork above what used to be my windows - see? I took the above photo when I went round to Morgan's to pick up post. He lives next door. He always has. That was in... August? I had a swimming pool in August, I may have mentioned. I was living here:

Real twenty-first century stuff. It was called "Osprey Heights". That's my room at the end of the corridor. Then there was Cesar's, but he moved out, and then this room, as seen:

No permanent occupant, but every two weeks a different Israeli in his early twenties would move in. The first one asked to have a television installed. I was always welcome to watch it. None of them ever unpacked. They never shut the door. They all slept with the light on. I didn't mention the show to them- Hey we also had a gym! And it was eighteen storeys tall. Imagine the view! Don't, it's here!

Down a bit...

Down a bit...

That's your lot. Sorry but the windows are a bit narrow- And we had a sauna! And gates! Big gates! All it lacked was a garden.

So in October the lease ended and I moved out. And into Morgan's. That's really the point of this. I'm in Brixton again. With Morgan and his paints and the sign that says "Sea View" and the little Easter Island statues he sticks into alcoves of the Ritzy. And a nice guy called Ed who makes synthesizers from kits. Oh, and Kato!

Morgan painted that for me when I moved in. He's out at the moment, working on a totem pole. There's a chain-saw on the spare fridge in the kitchen, what the place lacks in bannisters it makes up for in carnivorous plants, there's never a shortage of crayons and this is my new view if I look down:

... which I prefer. If I look a little to the right there's a garden with a telly in it and a family and the faces we chalked on the bathroom wall for Fin's birthday, back in - wow... 2000. Yeah. It was time I moved.

(originally posted on myspace here)