Murmuration

Pete and I finally got around to helping Lee make his video. We didn’t turn up on Monday or Tuesday, so this time he came round to ensure we helped.

Pete and I took the bus into Watermouth with him and collected the video equipment from his studio in 312 at Maynard Gardens. We had £2000 of equipment with us—a camera, VCR, mike, battery pack and leads . . . the VCR itself was worth £600. We struggled back onto the bus and got off at Crookgreave Cemetery.

I was nervous as we walked up the spacious tree-lined front drive, because Ian had told us that one of the Polaroids he’d dropped in the crypt was of me, pulling open the door. But we evaded detection and climbed up to the columbarium where we spent an hour or so filming. The mist closed in and gave everything a serene feel.

We went back to the Art College and watched the video on one of the machines in the library on Barnum Avenue, and I think Lee was surprised at the good quality. He caught me in the film twice; once standing under a tree, and reeling back embarrassedly from a full face shot with white gravestones, swirling mist and trees in the background.

I was supposed to be reading Hermsprong by Robert Bage for tomorrow’s tutorial but I much preferred to push those shadows to the back of my mind and lose myself in the filming. Back in Room 312 we watched the starlings wheeling in great black clouds in the blue twilight, screeching and filling the air with their deafening cries. The trees were thick with them and they reminded me of Easterby on a dark wintry teatime.

Lee came back to Jervis Terrace with me and cut my hair. He, Barry, Inga and her friend Ebbe went to Masquerades at eleven & missed ½ price drinks by three minutes. The club was nearly empty, Barry deep in conversation with a pretty girl who looked like Clare Grogan.

I stayed home to watch "Five Go Mad on Mescalin" which had been hyped up but proved to be crap. Mo and I went to Masquerades later. Gareth and Stu rolled up late and livened things up a little, and I lost myself in ‘dancing’ (ha ha) along with Lindsey, Guy and Lee. . . .