Still dancing to a different tune

 

Our punk gig sold out and there’s an air of bristling excitement. Radicals, renegades, mavericks and misfits from two generations are organising something special. Just like back in the day, it’s the start of bigger things.

Also, just like back in the day, Mid Pennine Arts (no hyphen) are sponsoring it all. Back then, I felt like we were naughty schoolboys and girls misappropriating all their resources. Not once did it cross my mind that what we were doing constituted a valid art form. There must have been some pretty tolerant people within the organisation. Nevertheless, it was a blast of youthful energy in an otherwise fairly stuffy local art and music scene.

After the local punk scene had fizzled out, I did a fanzine and organised an exhibition and once again Mid Pennine Arts (no hyphen) sponsored it. (That’s how I met Louise). Big up to them. In our cracked system, there’s still public money funding arty stuff.

Sage and Louise pushing the boundaries at MPA

 

I have an uneasy discomfort about screens and computers. Being on the ranch with no internet feels right, but an unsavoury feeling accompanies what is effectively an addiction to social media and a deeply ingrained dependence on computers. What’s particularly sinister is the way that Big Brother uses and manipulates our data for its own interest – there are a few things that we still don’t need computers and digital stuff for and those things somehow feel better – the ranch, letterpress printing, playing music and generally being with other people (or trees in my case).

I’m pretty savvy in some areas of computering but kind of dyslexic in others. I can build websites and do video editing but sometimes the tiniest things flummox me – particularly at work. It all came home last week when I dropped my external hard drive and lost everything on it – mainly music stuff and things that I wanted to put somewhere safe. A tiny little square box containing so much information but what does that information mean? Elusive shadowy pixelated whisps. How important are they anyway? I have a mind to switch it off, get rid of all that uneccesary stuff.