Educating Julia

Well, having earlier finished my voracious gulping down of one of my latest sci-fi/fantasy novel purchases (Above The Snow Line:  Steph Swainston)  I now have to choose a new book to go to bed with, so I have picked "Me talk pretty one day" since several sixers have mentioned their admiration for David Sedaris. 

Humour is a strange thing and often doesn't cross boundaries well, so I am interested to see how much I get out of this book.  I'm not sure how many American comedians/comediennes I could name/enjoy.  Apart from Bill Hicks, obviously ;)

According to Kate Fox (anthropologist & author of the fantastic book Watching the English) the "rules" of English humour are anti-earnestness, irony, understatement & self-deprecation; and the "rule" of English comedy is embarrassment.  Think 'The Office' & 'Fawlty Towers'; Alan Partridge if he crossed the water.  To quote from her book:-
In other cultures, there is 'a time and a place' for humour; it is a special, separate kind of talk.  In English conversation, there is always an undercurrent of humour.  We can barely manage to say 'hello' or comment on the weather without somehow contriving to make a bit of a joke out of it, and most English conversations will involve at least some degree of banter, teasing, irony, understatement, humourous self-deprecation, mockery or just silliness.  Humour is our 'default mode' 

Of course, this is not to say the English are "better" at humour, just that we are always looking to lighten a potentially awkward social situation by being a bit silly... forgive us in advance?

HoW I spent my afternoon

Blue sky and sunshine here in sunny Teesside, and the combine harvester droning in the background, as it has for days now. I went into my studio for the first time in ages and printed four prints from the Jenna collagraph plate, however, being made of tile grout, the detail on the plate deteriorates with each use.

HoW soon is now?

Oh, any excuse to bring a Smiths song into the blog ;)

HoW the...

It's just gone dark at 3:30pm, as a summer storm hits my little town of Siegburg.  There are hailstones exactly the size of peanut M&M's (I know, I have just comfort eaten half a packet) battering my fuschias, and poor little Seville, never the bravest of cats is cowering under the kitchen table as the forked lightning appears in the strangely colourless sky...

It is August...  it is summer for crying out loud!  
It does match the rather torrid day I have had so far, but I am struggling to imagine HoW hot & humid it is half a world away...

HoW Quotes: 02

HoW sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child!

William Shakespeare
(I picked this one especially for you, Sandra!)

HoW bad do you want it?

Perhaps this song of Tim McGraw's could be our anthem?

HoW Quotes: 01

HoW many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone.

Coco Chanel