Thursday, June 25, 2009

Smith is thinking about a long tail


I am wondering about the long tail? What other kind of tail would you have? I guess if you are a Manx cat you have a short one..
Anyway Lucinda Clutterbuck has made it onto the tip of the long tail. There is a nice article about her film at


http://www.animationblog.org
and you can watch TIGA here

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

wish list


One must be very careful of the modern world.... I thought that I would like to have a wish list in my blogg .. Like 
I wish...
That Obama is going to save the world. That I can have sardines for dinner
That that mean old teacher who tortured my brothers will slip on a banana skin at assembly.
That I had two dead rats so I could give you one...
But no... I wish list is some sort of shopping cart!!!!
Mine said it was empty....
Smith

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

It’s true that in my youth I was interested in anarchy. I am still interested in law abidingness in people. Some people like to rage against the machine but are law abiding to the letter in other circumstances.

I used to park my car in one of five disabled parking spaces down by the bay. In fact it took me ages to notice it was disabled parking. The likelihood of all 5 spots being needed at once seemed remote especially as I never saw even one of them being used. My friend were so horrified by my actions that I rethought and changed my ways. But I would like to know what a disabled person thinks? Probably there are some who would be affronted while others not at all… 


On my sixth birthday I was given a hand puppet. I called him Smith. At school that day everybody wanted to play with him and I wasn’t strong enough to assert myself and keep Smith all to myself. A girl took him and pulled his beautiful whiskers off and licked his nose. Her lick left a nasty residue on the stitching of his nose and he was never the same again. Still beautiful but forever a reminder that I had been weak.

When I had my own children I got Smith out and introduced him. He was an instant success and they ignored me and addressed him directly. He enjoyed this and took up the role quite easily.

 Rachel insisted on his coming shopping with her but he became very shy in the supermarket. On one such occasion he lost one of his eyes. He was profoundly upset and I had to give him an eye operation in which he was given an eye transplant. It was impossible to get a green glass cat’s eye so he had to be content with a blue doll’s eye.

I found Smith could express his feelings with conviction. Worrying about other people’s feelings did not encumber him and he would threaten to scratch and bite anyone who annoyed him. Through him I could tap into my ethical centre and I found it to contain humour, satire and clarity. 

When a person sees Smith I sometimes see their eyes light up as they remember some icon of their own and then I know they are in their own heads seeing some universal Smith within.

Smith chooses a childlike simplicity to express adult ideas, He is derisive and allows himself to be ironic. He will call a spade a spade when I personally would not. He dares to disagree.


Smith has been sulking but now he is not!

Lucinda Clutterbuck
2009

Smith eats meat

Smith has been sulking...