Seven stylish things

Bryan M. White, that onlie begetter of Nuclear Headache, has burdened me with an award nomination as a Stylish Blogger. Never fear: if you are already in my blog-list below, and have taken the trouble to read this far, you’re ipso facto stylish enough. There is, as always, a catch. You can’t win the lottery without buying a ticket. In this case you have to follow certain rules. I’ve included them lower down. First I’ll discharge one of my obligations herewith, by sharing seven things about myself. Nothing new about that but here goes. If “stylish” means “in the latest style”, they all fail.

1) In August 1959 I met Christine Keeler and asked her for a date. We were both seventeen. She’d been telling me about the social whirl she had recently been introduced to, in particular Lord Astor and Douglas Fairbanks Junior. Had she gone out with me (unfortunately she was washing her hair on that day) the course of British history might have been changed. She might not have subsequently dated both Yevgeni Ivanov the Russian spy and John Profumo the Secretary of State for War. This would have prevented the scandal which helped bring down the Government of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in 1963. Reader, I did my best for my country.

2) In May 1962, I was a guest-writer at Shakespeare & Co (then Librairie Mistral) run by the eccentric George Whitman. Here I nearly met Henry Miller, Gregory Corso and Allen Ginsberg. Fortunately I didn’t, because if any of them had arrived in Paris, I would have been chucked out so that they could have been accommodated in the bed I was using. Guest-writer? Reader, I lied. (Not to you. I’d never do that. To the bookshop owner.) And when George asked what I was writing, I said “A book on Zen Buddhism”. (Whereas, I was actually reading one.)

3) In August 1962, I was instrumental in putting a fig-leaf on Michelangelo’s statue of David in Florence, as written up in this blog post. This brief but intimate encounter with the Chicago movie industry (Coronet Films), and the sensitivities of schoolmarms in the US Bible belt, failed to blossom into a career in Hollywood.

4) In December 1958, I played tea-chest bass in a skiffle group at a school concert. One of the numbers we played was Tom Dooley. John Lennon stole a march on me. He’d started his own skiffle group a couple of years earlier, The Quarrymen, at his school, Quarry Bank High. I’ve heard he went on to start some pop quartet, I think it began with a “B”.

5) For a period of 30 years, I meditated for an hour a day. It may have done some good. It might have done a lot of harm. Should I be proud or ashamed? As for my Guru, I recall the words of St Matthew’s Gospel (7:16): “Beware of false prophets… ye shall know them by their fruits.” Oh yeah? I still don’t know. St Matthew, you wasted a lot of my time. You should have explained in more detail.
6) Favourite film: if…., together with its theme tune, the Sanctus from Missa Luba; not to mention the deliciously watchable Malcolm McDowell & Christine Noonan, whose appeal to my inner adolescent has not dimmed with time. My picture above shows them as the rooftop revolutionaries they play in the film.

7) My favourite music includes the following tracks:

• I’m a dreamer – demo track by Sandy Denny, accompanying herself on piano at home, March 1976. From her album Rendezvous
• “Testament Ya Bowule”: lyric from a poem by Lutumba Simaro, sung by Malage de Lugendo
• Lux Aeterna (Morten Lauridsen), recorded by Polyphony (choir) with Britten Sinfonia & Stephen Layton
• On verra ça: The 1978 Paris Sessions, album reissued in 1992 by Orchestra Baobab. The title track is more easily obtainable on Specialist in all Styles, the astonishing comeback the band made in 2002; but not as good.

OK, here are the rules for giving yourself an award.

1. Link back to the person who nominated you.
2. Share seven things about yourself.
3. Pass the nomination on to ten blogs that you read regularly
4. Notify them of the award.

I shall follow the example of Bryan and consider this announcement as the only notification. As far as I’m aware, there is no adjudicator or blogging policeman to enforce the rules. If you have a full-time day job and are secure in your own stylishness, you need not bother.