THROWBACK THURSDAY: I Don't Know Much About Art, But I Know What I Like

One New Year's Eve - at a virtual gathering of Rachel's friends during COVID - the discussion came up about what "arty posters" people had on their walls at university, with Klimt's The Kiss and Kandinsky's Concentric Circles proving to be the highbrow hits.

I didn't really go for "art" per se, my final university digs having up a Manic Street Preachers poster and a Star Wars one.

However, I vividly recall that in my 'cosy', downstairs room in our previous Bournemouth residence, Len & Jenny's House, the wall over my bed was decorated with the classy cherubs poster (a doctored version of Raphael's pair of chubby cherubs) pictured above.

Honestly, I have no idea why. I guess I must have thought it was funny. Or some kind of satirical statement on university life!

I also remember the cupboard in that room that I decorated. One door was coated in pictures of Shirley Manson (from Garbage), while the other had a full-page advert cut out of a newspaper that featured the lyrics of R.E.M.'s Everybody Hurts (one of the most beautiful songs ever written and guaranteed to bring me to tears).

I have a feeling that the advert was probably for the Samaritans - or a similar organisation - and was thus a wholly inappropriate use of their public service announcement to have it pasted to a student's cupboard door as a kind of 'rock poster'.

Between that and the random cherub poster, I start to realise what a messed up soul I can be at times.

My tiny downstairs room in the house we rented from Len & Jenny

THROWBACK THURSDAY: University

Two of the things that helped get me through uni: The Manic Street Preachers and Star Wars

It's hard to believe that I graduated from Bournemouth University at the end of the last century!

My degree course - which is no longer offered - was Scriptwriting for Film and Television, and while it helped hone my writing and broaden my knowledge of cinema, I never really pursued a career in the arts, instead simply returning to what I knew best: local journalism.

Of course if you need proof of how long ago this was just check out the 'modern' technology below - at my work station in the last house we all lived in: the slimline PC and the discrete music system!

You can just make out, next to the CDs, my collection of West End Games' Star Wars RPG books and fanzines - my only real acknowledgement during that era of my gaming hobby.

It struck me, years later, that I never really gave the idea of active gaming a serious thought during my time in Bournemouth, instead relegating it to the reading of old supplements, and occasionally as an outlet for creative writing. 

The picture below is of my VHS video collection - note the top shelf with the Star Trek movies at one end and Star Wars at the other. This was pre-Prequels, so there were only three Star Wars films then.

And talking of cutting edge technology, please be impressed by my ancient top-loading video recorder on the bottom shelf. I loved that machine!

And that portable TV (with the Bjork picture on top) stayed with me from my later years of living with my parents in Pembury, through my own house in Tunbridge Wells, then uni, back to my parents', then flats in Sevenoaks and Tunbridge Wells, and right up until the time I moved in with Rachel.

As there are no notices on my notice board in this picture, I suspect it was taken just after we'd moved into this house (which Paul and I shared with Gordon, John and a young girl from a different course whose name has slipped my mind completely).

And finally, a cheeky (staged) photo of me reading on the toilet! Just for the hell of it...