Antidisestablishmentarianism. Confused? You will be.

Extinction Rebellion chaos at Marble Arch

Easter weekend was odd because I read about the Sri Lanka bombings just before I left for church. Those poor people, just going about their business. It was one of the few occasions when I actually stopped to consider that it is now conceivable that I might go to church one day and just never come back. Usually I just disregard the dangers but this one made me focus  because I was literally at the front door when I read about it. What a world we live in. Same as in all the previous instances, these terrorists or whoever turns out to be responsible won’t even make a dent in how most of us live – the sheer pointlessness of it all is soul-destroying. My prayers and those of billions of others go out to all the people affected as well as all the others living through a nightmarish existence in so many  parts of the world.

London was a lot quieter than usual – I think a lot more people went away this Easter. It was wonderful driving through the empty streets until I came across the random Extinction Rebellion closures. I’m afraid the air turned rather blue in car. On the one hand, I think their demonstrating and showing concern for the world we live in is laudable but quite frankly, after calculating that I’d probably driven a good extra 30 miles over the weekend and wasted a few hours of my precious bank holiday stuck in traffic, I very much wanted to smack a couple of people around. Now I understand why the police presence was required. It’s to protect them from enraged Londoners. What all that extra mileage multiplied across London did to the air quality, I shudder to think. I bet the pollution spiked over that week. And God help you if you had a heart attack or stroke in the general vicinity and had your ambulance diverted around London…… Luckily, it has all been a huge success. China has shut down all its new power stations and we have found a way to do without all plastic altogether. Just kidding, absolutely nothing has changed. That’s the point exactly- demonstrating is pointless; every person on this planet already knows there’s a problem. No need to block the streets. If they want to help, they can start by trying to figure out a solution. This is a tech problem, how to recycle our waste while reducing the materials for producing goods. It’s an engineering, chemistry, geology, biology problem. It won’t be solved with slogans; it’ll be solved by some serious slog in labs around the world. As long as we pay research scientists 25K a year and pay footballers/entertainers/hedgefunders millions of pounds annually, we’re in for a world of hurt. Switch those pay scales around and put some proper money into R&D and we might get somewhere.

To get rid of my rage, I took refuge in Tate Britain. Talk about art calming the savage breast, to paraphrase. I’m always awestruck by the effect that a few daubs of paint on cheap cloth/wood/metal can have on a human being. Great art is so amazingly good, it’s ridiculous. The Turners were mostly incredible as usual although they always have a couple that make me think, Meh. They didn’t have my favourite seascapes on show- some of those are so good I swear I can hear the water sloshing about. What I loved most this time?

Turner’s ‘Angel in the Sun’ I love the way the people are shielding their eyes from the light. Terrific.

Jacob Epstein’s ‘Torso in metal’ One of the many excellent Epstein sculptures on show. I love this, it’s really menacing. It also reminds me of some of Subirachs’ work in La Sagrada Familia.

Winifred Knights’ The Deluge. I’d never seen this before. It was love at first sight. The leeaning figures, the colours, the scrambling and then the Ark floating calmly in the distance. It gets the panic and catastrophe just right. Wonderful yet distressing.

Favourite sign this weekend? Seen outside Dip & Flip in Brixton. Obviously as a healthcare professional, I have to advise you against binge drinking but it was funny 🙂  ………

But while all thsi art is edifying and uplifting, we also need :

Both also at the Tate. How beautiful are these machines? I’m a sucker for mechanical stuff. Plus the room smelled of engine oil. The only thing better than the smell of engine oil is the smell of petrol. And tar. And of course, frying bacon. And coffee  🙂 So, rebellious people, keep the pressure up but turn the politicos towards science departments and companies. If tech has broken the world, only tech can fix it. Anything else is sound and fury signifying nothing. For the hardcore treehuggers out there: fun fact for you. Did you know that 47% of the US is totally uninhabited? I mean, population zero. 4,610,000 square kilometres. England in its entirety is 131,000 sq km  so that’s 35 Englands right there. That should get the ‘overpopulation’ fascists sobbing into their dinners. We stick to cities because we want WiFi and avocados and strawberries at the same time, not because there’s no space. So please feel free to move out there and develop that land and the rest of us will hang on to our subways and planes and Eggs Benedict (random. I know). You can have the hand-knitted hemp clothing, we’ll stick to Dolce & Gabbana.

I’d been listening to the Talking Heads on my way to church and I thought this song was apposite. It always makes me laugh – this is not the original video and the ‘right on’ stats are a new addition. I don’t think he was being ironic at the time – I think he really loves cities. You be the judge. Anyway, Kirsty McColl, Johnny Marr and a fabulous song. Genius.