Sunday musings

I’ve been experimenting with my pictures again. I made this one sepia and gave it a perforated edge like stamp. Artistic? I think it’s better than some art I see that looks like a pile of bricks or paint thrown at a canvas. Ordinary people with their feet on the ground would want a picture like this on their wall, rather than the work of some over-rated artist who pickles sheep in formaldehyde.

Pickled sheep

I read this week that the leader of Walsall council thinks the regions don’t get enough money for arts. I suppose he means Walsall. Walsall art gallery gets £874,000 from the council, £878,000 from the Arts Council and £150,000 from ‘other routes’. That’s nearly £2,000,000 a year! What do they have on? A sheep pickled in formaldehyde and that’s not the only stuffed animal in there. Walsall is a maze of grotty streets, charity shops dominate the town centre, together with pawnbrokers and that big shop opposite the art gallery is Poundland. I think politicians need to open their eyes and see what is really needed in that town.

Energy bills

Energy bills are in the spotlight as the Mirror reports that MP’s are claiming huge amounts of ‘expenses’ to cover their energy bills. Ed Miliband wants to ‘freeze’ energy bills, but that would simply mean prices going up even more when the freeze ends. We need a investigation and we need MP’s to pay their own bills. One way to make it fairer would be to require energy companies to scrap the standing charge and the higher tariff that replaced the standing charge. Make every unit of gas the same price and every unit of electricity the same price up to a limit when people with mansions, pay more. The government could also scrap the VAT on domestic energy too. Even if it meant increasing the general rate of VAT to 22% the same as the rest of Europe, that would be fairer.

The BBC

Following the the BBC1 programme Nick and Margaret: We All Pay Your Benefits, it seems Aunty Beeb is going to have another go at claimants on behalf of their Tory masters with Britain on the Fiddle on Wednesday (9pm). In a free market we have a choice though. Eh? You don’t have to own a TV, you do have to pay the license fee six months in advance though to pay for their new billion quid television centre.

Downton Abbey

Downton Abbey is on tonight, just to remind you oiks of your place…

National lottery

I had the TV on last night watching Casualty and the lottery. I got three numbers up. How about that? It’s the first time I’ve won for years. I won’t let it go to my head. I’m still off to Aldi looking for bargains later. I don’t expect to shop anywhere else, but cheap shops, for the foreseeable future.

Walsall

I would like to see Walsall Art gallery having a open exhibition for local artists. They could  try  serving the community it’s in, rather than spending money trying to get the Turner prize there or making Damien Hirst even richer. I’ve been around some of the poorer areas of Walsall with their speed humps and graffiti and I’ve been around some of the posh parts too. I suppose when it’s a 20 miles an hour limit right across Walsall and every street has speed humps, the posh people will move to the Royal Borough of Sutton Coldfield. The people of Walsall should be sure they don’t keep their council seats.

Have your say

What do you think? Do you shop in Marks and Spencer and Tesco or Aldi and Poundland. Will you be watching Downton Abbey tonight and tugging your forelock? Please use the comments box to share your thoughts. You can also follow me on Twitter.

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• Art | Can we define it? (mike10613.wordpress.com)
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