we want the young blood;

On Sunday, me and Nat went to Victoria Baths, an old public baths that has been renovated and opened again to the public. Of course it’s no longer a baths (although that is the long term ambition) the pools are now drained, the offices emptied, the changing rooms abandoned. It’s been emptied, and was unused since 1993. But now with some funding, and the help of volunteers, it’s been kept alive.

The building reminded me a lot of another baths that I grew up near to. Lister Drive. Again, this is no longer a public baths. That stopped a LONG time ago. Maybe my parents once swam there, but all the time I was growing up it was a fisheries. A place selling fish, hamsters, mice, rabbits, snakes, birds, and all the things needed to keep them alive. It was actually a great place, and still functions today. But I couldn’t help but look at Victoria Baths, and think of what could have been.

I’m forgetting the main reason we went to Victoria. They were holding a Vintage fair, and inside the middle pool (there were three originally, 1 for 1st class males, another 2nd class, and a third for girls) there were a number of stalls set up selling a variety of vintage items. Furniture, hats, that sort of thing. It was a good turn out. To the left of this was a cafe ran by elderly folks and volunteers (I presumed), selling home made pies, cakes and coffee.

The overall vibe of the place was a success. I loved it (bit of an old man). Everybody was just having a good time, and enjoying being indoors doing something nice. But there was one thing towards the back of the first pool that brought my mood down slightly, and made me write this thing today.

Amongst a number of medals and wooden trophies (like we had in my old school, now burned down and demolished) was a small piece of paper explaining that in the winter, because people generally didn’t swim then, they would board up the pools, and cover them with dance halls. Here they would invite big acts to perform and people would turn up to dance and have a good time. This struck me as something beautiful, something that is missing from Modern Britain.

We don’t do anything like this now. Nothing for ‘the people’, the ones who make this country what it is. And why is that? I don’t know. What are we missing? A sense of pride? Identity? Belonging? It’s a real shame.

Here’s are some pictures of then and now:

And one of my old baths, the fisheries on Lister Drive Liverpool:

Fresh. So fresh, and I thought I was near given up on fiction. I’ve been feeling tired, a little bored when reading fiction/made up stories. But looking at the size of this (pretty thin) I decided to give it a go. It was Saturday morning after all.

50 pages in I wasn’t totally convinced. I’d put it down twice and looked at the pile of maybes to my right, but after another 20 pages, I was asking Nat if she could make me another coffee and what we were doing with our morning. (Meaning, can we stay in bed a little longer and read?) Something about the writing style had got me, and I was determined to find out what.

Well, now I’ve finished it, and I know what it was. It’s fresh, feels new, and it’s very real. I’m not Dominican, nor do I have a record of regular cheating on my partners, but there were several times, when I knew exactly how the main character Yunior was feeling. It’s relatable, and that’s pretty important when you’re reading fiction.

My interest in Spanish probably helped me enjoy this book most. If you’re currently learning the language and want to further yourself with some light-ish reading, then give this a go. Be warned, you’ll probably end up just learning several ways of saying each swearword, but that’s all part of the fun.

Here’s a small part from the book:

One day the sister was out by herself and I followed her to the field. Huge concrete pipes sprawled here and there on the snow. She ducked into one of these and I followed her, crawling on my knees.

She sat in the pipe, cross-legged and grinning. She took her hands out of her mittens and rubbed them together. We were out of the wind and I followed her example. She poked a finger at me.

Yunior, I said.

Elaine, she said.

We sat there for a while, my head aching with my desire to communicate, and she kept blowing on her hands. Then she heard her brother calling and she scrambled out of the pipe. I stepped out too. She was standing next to her brother. When he saw me he yelled something and threw a snowball in my direction. I threw one back.

I like this part. This is Yunior as a kid, and already we see his interest in girls, or people in general. But this is before he’ll notice women in a sexual way. This is a part where him, his mum and brother, are all holed up indoors whilst it’s snowing heavily outside. It describes life as we know it, and he captures a child’s imagination, curiosity and voice perfectly.

As the kid Yunior gets older, he comes face to face with the temptations of cheating on his partner, and as the title suggest, he does just that. He says it was always going to happen. It’s a Dominican thing. His father done it, his brother done it, it was inevitable. But he’s not proud of it. Just can’t seem to shake it off.

I think this is why I liked the book, because Junot didn’t try and beat around the bush. It’s brave writing, straight in, told modernly. And it’s fast and has energy, quite like the Spanish language. But I think the best thing is, he’s captured a culture and a time, and that is what makes artists. Write about what you know. He’s done that, and he’s done it terrifically.

I’ll be looking out for more of his books. Luckily for me, this was a freebie from my workplace, but the others I’ll buy for sure. Well worth a read. 7/10.

So over the last few days, I’ve been feeling like I’m missing out on something by not writing. I feel like I’ve sat on the shelf too long, and even though probably the only person that will read this blog will be myself, if it makes me feel better then it’s worth it, no?

So it starts with me talking about the film ‘The Double’ which I went to see the other night in Manchester’s Cornerhouse. The film was great. I laughed a lot, I sat with suspense, I felt sadness, I connected with the characters, I held interest, I felt like £8 hadn’t been too much. So it worked right? It was worth it?

Well, yes. Richard Ayoade has done a brilliant job, for only the second film he’s directed. (Correct me if I’m wrong.) I watched Submarine a few years ago and felt like this was a director willing to do things his own way. And that’s quite brave in today’s day and age. Well, The Double is even more adventurous, and it all works. Jesse Eisenburg is great in it (both of him) and Mia Wasikowksa perfect. It was even nice to see the kid from Submarine having a part. Richard seems a decent guy, and his films are turning out alright.

These reviews aren’t meant to be serious. I won’t use ostentatious words that I only know because I’ve looked them up in a thesaurus. Is it worth going to see this film? I’d say so yes. The score is also brilliant. Ps. Now read the novella. 8/10.

For Mark McKenny Illustrations: http://markmckenny.tumblr.com

For Cargo Collective: http://cargocollective.com/markmckenny

For Etsy Store: http://etsy.com/shop/markmckenny

Please note, this tumblr is just where I keep a record of what I am reading/watching.

Books:

• LOTR: The Two Towers (1954) J.R.R. Tolkien - 31/12/12 - 15/01/13
• The Sense of an Ending (2011) Julian Barnes - 15/01/13 - 17/01/13
• Cry, The Beloved Country (1948) Alan Paton - 17/01/13 - 04/02/13
• The Fountainhead (1943) Ayn Rand - 04/02/13 - 18/03/13
• Tolstoy’s Diaries Volume 1 (1847-1894) Leo Tolstoy - 18/03/13 - 16/05/13
• The Gospel in Brief, The Life of Jesus (1921) Leo Tolstoy - 23/03/13 - 05/05/12
• Snowdrops (2011) A.D. Miller - 20/04/13 - 27/04/13
• Cat’s Cradle (1963) Kurt Vonnegut - 27/04/13 - 11/05/13
• The Spanish Civil War (2005) Helen Graham - 14/05/13 -
• A Dance with Dragons (2011) George R.R. Martin - 22/05/13 -

Films:

• Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) Wes Anderson 6/10
• Audition (1999) Takashi Miike 6/10
• Les Misérables (2012) Tom Hooper 9/10
• Neds (2010) Peter Mullan 4/10
• Into the Abyss (2011) Werner Herzog 7/10
• Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010) Werner Herzog 6/10
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) Tomas Alfredson 6/10
• Django Unchained (2012) Quentin Tarantino 8/10
• Funny Games U.S. (2007) Michael Haneke 7/10
• Tideland (2005) Terry Gilliam 2/10
• Tyrannosaur (2011) Paddy Considine 7/10
• Lincoln (2012) Steven Spielberg 5/10
• Invictus (2009) Clint Eastwood 9/10
• Take Shelter (2011) Jeff Nichols 8/10
• Adventureland (2009) Greg Mottola 7/10
• Seven Psychopaths (2012) Martin McDonagh 7/10
• The Breakfast Club (1985) John Hughes 5/10
  
• Argo (2012) Ben Affleck 5/10
• In A Better World (2010) Susanne Bier 8/10
• Sexy Beast (2000) Jonathan Glazer 5/10
• Silver Linings Playbook (2012) David O. Russell 9/10
• Please Give (2010) Nicole Holofcener 6/10
• Amour (2012) Michael Haneke 8/10
• Potiche (2010) François Ozon 5/10
• Stand by Me (1986) Rob Reiner 8/10
• Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012) Lorene Scafaria 7/10
• Tape (2001) Richard Linklater 7/10
• Lolita (1962) Stanley Kubrick 6/10
• The Hunger Games (2012) Gary Ross 6/10
• The Fighter (2011) David O. Russell 7/10
• Promised Land (2013) Gus Van Sant 8/10
• The Great Gatsby (2013) Baz Luhrmann 6/10
• Side by Side (2012) Christopher Kenneally 7/10
• Dazed and Confused (1993) Richard Linklater 6/10
• In the Name of the Father (1993) Jim Sheridan 8/10
• Looper (2012) Rian Johnson 5/10
  Going back now, I’ll only talk about these two and then all future films will be explained. This was good, but that was it. I gave up on my first time of watching as I decided I’d rather be working.. (what the hell?) But the following Friday I decided to finish it, and I was glad I did. It’s a good film, but not my type of thing. I think by the time I’d figured out what a loop was, I was just a little bored. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is good but not great. The stand-out performance has to be that of Pierce Gagnon. So scary.
• Scent of a Woman (1992) Martin Brest 10/10
  I actually miss writing a short amount of text, explaining why I’ve marked it out of 10 as I have ^. So I thought I’d start again. This film gets a 10 because it is pure brilliance. Al Pacino is at his best, when is he ever not? The film is not what you’re expecting, full of ups and downs and twists and turns. And you are literally stuck to the screen. There were times I felt like crying, followed by short outbursts of laughter. And that, is exactly how cinema should be. I can’t fault it, so it gets the maximum score.