Decode Magazine Back Issues order form Decode Magazine, the region’s premier creative culture publication is 2 years old!. We’ve come a long way over these past 24 months and we hope you’ve enjoyed the ride as much as we have. Decode isn’t as time sensitive as listings magazines (opting instead to focus on themes, stories and people), so we make a point of keeping a store of back issues handy. Each unique issue is therefore available to you for £2.95. Simply choose the issue(s) you want, fill in the form and send it to the address indicated. DM01 Stanley Donwood, Kam & Esther (film-makers), Gavin Thorpe, Bath & Bristol storytelling, James Reade & Slalom Records, Student View, Photo essays: Daniel Aldo Gomez & John F. Anderson... DM02 (*FREE CD) Geoff Barrow (Portishead), Martin Parr, Stencil Graffiti, Music & Mental health, Festivals in bath & Bristol, Art of the State, Outside Looking in, Faces of Trinidad by Alex Smailes, Russian Glimpse by Gianni Giosue + free CD rom... DM03 Bath & Bristol design agencies, Smith & Mighty, Sickboy, Pause2, Mooz, Gina Palmer, Catsou Roberts on curating at the Arnolfini, Ruth Bowers, Bath & Bristol Fashion, Essential Graffiti... DM04 cinema culture, Bristol Poetry Festival, Chris Baker & the Bath film festival, Stoloff & Hopkinson, Socket & the Jungalator, Andy veira, Film Previews, Alan Ng, Bristol & Bath’s finest wordsmiths, Save or Delete, Writing Novels... DM05 (*FREE CD) Music in bath & Bristol, Is the internet dead?, Bristol 2008 update, Electric December, Creative Re-solution, Cultural Diversity post September 11 Debate, Making it in business, Beth Carter, Applying for arts funding, The Girls + Free Decode Audio CD... DM06 The Future of Cities Debated, Lego Boy, Bath Literature Festival, Blaze Ceramics, Gerard Bellart, Ink Blot tests, Keep Music Live, Word Tapestry,Record Shops visualised, Gallery... DM07 the Art of War: 16 page feature, Helen Wilson, vote for a world leader, stick it to war, Demos, Dettmer Otto, Four Design... DM08 (*FREE CD) Visual Audio Explored, David Bates, synesthesia, degree show art, Ylid, Keyop, music therapy, futurlife, Madnomad, Summer Festivals+free Decode audio cd... DM09 Illustration: Drawing inspiration from bath & Bristol, Hunter gatherer, Psychid, Artrage, Venice, 10 things to do when you’re bored, Joan Davis, Jane Taylor, Ralph Steadman, Ali George, Life Drawing... issue 2 issue 3 issue 4 issue 5 issue 6 issue 7 issue 8 issue 9 issue 10 issue 11 issue 12 issue 13 DM10 Decode looks at our fascination with the paranormal. Prague, design trio Project 88, Graphic novelists Andy Prentice and John Weil, 10 best sci-fi movies, ways to make a fast buck, Living in London and role-play events... DM11 Words are Power. Nick Hornby interview, Visual essays of Siwa, Egypt / On the road in the U.S. with photographer Martin Tompkins, visual diary from China with Liam Gallimore-Wells, Profiles of singer Kizzy Morrell, film-maker Nick Maddox, an alternative Big Read selection... DM12 Home/Identity: who are we and where do we come from? Ray Harryhausen, Billy Bragg, Memories of home, Artrage, SriLanka, What is British music?, The Journey Home, Clumsy Inc., Rachael Pereira, 5x5x5.. DM13 Work is Hell: Office Hell, Poetry competition, Paradise Lost, Daysleeper, 5 Records that rocked your world, new Grand Smoking Palace, Originality, Lomography, Andrew Spackman... issue number(s): name: address: e-mail: The cost: £2.95 per issue please send a cheque made out to Intellect Ltd. to PO Box 862, Bristol BS99 1DE, UK Fax the form: 0117 958 9911. Copies should arrive 14 days from receipt of payment. Total: £ *Postage: £ Grand Total: £ Payment enclosed (Cheques payable to intellect Ltd.) * postage is free in UK. Please add £1.05 per issue for postage elsewhere in EU and £2.05 per issue outside EU. Please charge my Visa / Mastercard No: Expiry Date: 2 3 Feature ABOUT Picture Credits Top Clockwise Who do you love? Gabs Stackpool Bernard & Bernadette Alex Higgett Love & Film The Apartment The Lovers James Bourne Sometimes... Ben Newman The Kiss Jemimah Kuhfeld Memorial Theo Berry Love Hurts Scott Whiteman ^ ^ ^ Decode Magazine July to September 2004 FROM THE SOPPY TO THE SCIENTIFIC, AFFECTIONATE TO SEDUCTIVE, DECODE FALLS IN LOVE AND TAKES YOU ALONG FOR THE RIDE. Decode Magazine Issue Fourteen 24 FEATURE ALL A B O U T LOVE... Decode Magazine July to September 2004 25 ILLUSTRATIONS BEN N E W M A N 2 6 Feature LOVE HURTS “WHAT CAME FIRST, THE MUSIC, O R THE MISERY? PEOPLE WORRY ABOUT KIDS PLAYING WITH GUNS OR WATCHING VIOLENT VIDEOS… NOBODY WORRIES ABOUT KIDS LISTENING TO THOUSANDS, LITERALLY THOUSANDS OF SONGS ABOUT HEARTBREAK, REJECTION, PAIN, MISERY AND LOSS. DID I LISTEN TO POP-MUSIC BECAUSE I WAS MISERABLE? OR WAS I MISERABLE BECAUSE I LISTENED TO POP MUSIC?” NICK HORNBY. HIGH FIDELITY hours after he polishes off the chorus our songwriter is at a gathering, a party of sorts, discussing his achievement with some fellow wannabes (they want to form a band, but they never will) – Cool! – they say - Well, maybe I’ll play it for you later – he smiles. And the drink flows and this group of sixteen year olds swoon and sway from the alcohol and soon everyone is quiet, and the host’s older brother’s guitar has found its way into our young songwriter’s hands. He impresses the crowd with some stock renditions of their indie favourites. (Wonderwall, Live Forever, High and Dry). And then some bright spark pipes up – Play that new song you told me about, y’know, the one you just finished – and our songwriter shakes his head and begins to tremble. Because sat to his left is the very subject of the song itself, the girl who has ignored him pretty much completely up until that point, every day, every week, for years. Go on! Play it! – they insist. Go on - she chips in, the first words she has ever said to him - play it for us. And the songwriter gasps for air – She would know! She would know it was about her! She would know and… and… - and in his panic, he does the only thing he can think of. I’ve got to go home he says. And he throws the guitar aside and bolts for the door. True story. What the hell was I supposed to do? As I said, sometimes it’s easy to forget they’re just songs. SAD AND BROKEN HEARTED Decode Magazine Issue Fourteen dead! (My Heart Will Go On). Music and love have somehow become hopelessly intertwined. I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who can chart their relationships by looking at their record collections and how many of us have wallowed in music after a break-up, drowning our sorrows in the most miserable lyrics we can find? It’s easy to forget that at the end of the day, they’re only songs. For a songwriter – and I at least pretend to be one – knowing all of the above makes for a fascinating, and frightening prospect. Fascinating because if music and love are intertwined, if you can make one, then maybe you can make the other! And frightening? Well, imagine this: A budding songwriter, a 16 year old who still can’t hold down an F chord without wincing, writes himself a song about some girl he knows, about some lost opportunity that he may or may not have imagined. It’s not a great song, he realises, but he also realises it is his first and it is a love song, of sorts. And just a few WORDS PAUL CUNLIFFE Most music, certainly most popular music, is about love, about people falling into it (Can’t Help Falling In Love) or out of it (You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling) about wanting it (Give Me All Your Lovin’), needing it (Baby Love), losing it (Bye Bye Love), or missing it (Where Did Our Love Go?) Some songs are about enjoying it (Love to Love You Baby) or celebrating it (All You Need is Love) and some are about just trying to figure out what it’s all about (I Want to Know What Love Is). Some are wonderfully positive (How Sweet It Is to Be Loved by You) many achingly negative (Love Hurts). The really interesting thing about love songs is that most of them are kind of desperate. Sometimes they’re desperately sad (Love Will Tear Us Apart), sometimes desperately unhappy (Love Don’t Live Here Anymore). More frequently they present a slightly more sinister proposition: complete and total devotion (Saving All My Love For You) for the rest of time (I Will Always Love You) even after you’re PHOTOGRAPHS BY GAL, ORIT & THEO HARPAZ FAMILY THEO’S MEXICAN VACATION Todos Santos Decode Magazine July to September 2004 Baja Del Sur San Jose Del Cabo 2 8 Feature CRAZY IN LOVE LOVE! IT’S NOT ALL HEARTS & FLOWERS YOU KNOW. IN FACT IT’S GOT NOTHING TO DO WITH YOUR HEART AT ALL AND EVERYTHING TO DO WITH THE CHEMICALS IN THE BRAIN. THE CONTENTIOUS ISSUE OF SCIENCE AND LOVE. Decode Magazine Issue Fourteen through evolution. We are all familiar with the drive for sex, we can explain this as a need to reproduce, but scientists have recently found out that the pursuit of romance is also a drive within us, like a hunger. It’s this drive that allows us to focus on one particular person in order to stay with them for long enough to form a relationship. When we find that person our brains release certain chemicals including phenylethylamine (PEA), dopamine and norepinephrine which together act like ancing us out. This could be because nature wants us to eliminate our differences long enough for us to get it on! And we can thank our loved-up ancestors and their genes for our drive to have sex and find love. Those that were into sexual activity and companionship were more likely to reproduce and parent healthy offspring which were more likely to survive these qualities have been passed down adrenaline making our hearts beat faster. The release of these hormones are only triggered by this special person so our loved one becomes the focus of our attention and our desires just like a drug. As we fall further in love oxytocin is released which is linked to sexual arousal. These chemicals are not as dramatic as the chemicals released in the first flush of lust but they are more addictive and part of the reason we want to keep being around this one person. In 1999 Marazztiti also showed that levels of serotonin, which has a calming affect, were below normal in those in love as well as those with obsessive compulsive disorder which suggests that people in love are indeed, a little bit crazy. So to those people not in love I say don’t get down - after all its just a bunch of chemicals doing their job, but to those in love - enjoy it, it's kind of nice being nuts isn't it? ILLUSTRATIONS BY ALEXANDRA HIGGETT enough to mate and become a parent. Research has shown that the more the partners idealise each other the closer they are and this can guide them through any conflict. Not only do we become more like the lovely person our partner perceives us to be but we become more like our partners in terms of sex drive. Recently Donatella Marazziti of the University of Pisa found that levels of testosterone (the sex hormone responsible for sex drive and aggression) dropped in men and rose in women, effectively bal- WORDS GABRIELLE STACKPOOL Have you ever looked back on an old relationship and cringed? How could you have missed their annoying habits? That grating high pitched laugh, their way of questioning everything you do, the way they always choose what films you go and see, their smelly feet, and their frizzy ginger hair? How could you have ever found them desirable? Well, according to new findings by scientists Dr Andreas Bartel and Professor Semir Zeki from University College London, you can be forgiven for your lack of judgement. The pre-frontal cortex and the neural circuits associated with social assessment are suppressed – in other words parts of your brain responsible for judgement are temporarily switched off, making us ‘blind’ to our partners faults. All logical reasoning concerning our loved one seems to fly out of the window when we are in love; adjacent areas of our brains that deal with trust, fear and planning also seem to be switched off - explaining to some extent why we choose inappropriate partners and why some people can fall for conmen or women. Our brains effectively dumb down, making us rush headlong into a sexual relationship, but then happily other factors work to make us stay with that person long enough to remain in love and sustain a relationship. When this initial blissful ignorant state is over, or the honeymoon period as many call it, areas of our brains that have been ‘switched off ‘ – gradually return to normal levels and are switched back ‘on’. There’s a very good biological reason for this - if we didn’t suppress our judgment in the early stages then our overly analytical brains would never allow us to take risks and you might end a relationship too soon or not even try. That’s not much fun is it? Interestingly, when we are idealized by our partners, research suggests that we actually grow to become more like the person our partner perceives us to be – so we actually create the relationship we wished for. With each partner responding to the others approval, lovers become closer to the ideal. The idealisation stage is essential if we are to stay together long 2 9 Feature: STORY BY HOLLY SMALE IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN IN ME. IT HAS BEEN SITTING IN THERE, WAITING: TAPPING ITS TOES WITH FRUSTRATION, WAITING TO BE ACKNOWLEDGED, HUMMING WITH IMPATIENCE. EVERY BOOK I HAVE READ, EVERY FILM I HAVE SAT THROUGH, EVERY RADIO I HAVE TURNED ON HAS FED IT, WATERED IT AND NURTURED IT UNTIL IT IS THERE: FULLY GROWN AND KICKING AGAINST MY INSIDES IN EAGERNESS TO BE RELEASED. OR SO I THOUGHT. EVERY TIME I TRIED TO PUSH IT OUT, IT WOULD SCREAM, STRUGGLE, CLING ON. IT WOULD SHAKE ITS HEAD: NO, NO, I AM NOT COMING OUT, I AM NOT READY, THIS IS NOT MY TIME. AND I WOULD TAKE HOLD OF THE BEDPOSTS - PUT A STICK BETWEEN MY TEETH - AND PUSH. YES: YOU ARE COMING, I WANT YOU NOW. I HAVE BEEN PREPARING FOR YOU FOR YEARS. AND YOU WILL ARRIVE: YOU MUST. I CANNOT WAIT, YOU MAY NEVER COME. AND THEN? AND THEN I WILL BE ALONE, I WILL DIE, AND YOU WILL DIE INSIDE ME: DRIED AND CRIPPLED, WITHOUT EVER HAVING TAKEN A BREATH. I CANNOT BE FORCED, IT WOULD SAY. I AM HERE; I AM WAITING. BUT DO NOT PUSH ME, YOU CAN NOT THREATEN ME. I HAVE NO USE-BY DATE AND I WILL NOT GET TIRED. I WILL BE AS FRESH IN A YEAR AS I WILL BE IN TWENTY - AND I CAN BE READY TODAY - BUT YOU MUST NOT RUSH ME. YOU THINK YOU ARE READY, BUT YOU ARE NOT. I KNOW WHEN IS RIGHT, AND I WILL BE THERE. BUT I FELT IT GROW HARD. IT NO LONGER CURLED AND CIRCLED INSIDE ME, RUBBING ITS SIDES AGAINST MY CHEST, NUZZLING MY STOMACH. IT NO LONGER LIFTED MY INSIDES AND THRILLED ME WITH NUDGES AND WINKS. IT WENT HARD, BITTER, SILENT: A BALL THAT WEIGHED AND PRESSED, GREW STILL AND STAGNANT. AND I STOPPED PUSHING. IT HURT TOO MUCH, AND EV ERY TIME THE BALL GREW DARKER, SHARPER. FINALLY I FORGOT IT. A LINE, A WORD, A RIFF WOULD BRING IT BACK - THE JAGGED EDGES PRESSING OUTWARDS FOR A MOMENT AND I WOULD FLINCH. THE BALL WOULD MOMENTARILY SINK FURTHER. THEN MY BACK WOULD TURN, MY HEAD WOULD LIFT AND IT WOULD BE OVER: IT WOULD QUIETEN TO A MURMUR AND THE KICKING WOULD STOP. THIS IS NOT A WAR, IT WOULD SIGH: BUT YOU HAVE WON IT, I WOULD ANSWER. AH, I SOBBED. FOR SOME PEOPLE IT WILL NEVER COME, OF COURSE, OF COURSE: FOR ME IT HAS DIED, IT WILL NEVER UNCURL. IT IS AS IT WAS MEANT TO BE. SO I RESTED AND THE STRUGGLE WAS OVER. THERE WOULD BE NO MORE PUSHING. BUT SLOWLY, SOMEWHERE IN MY DARKENED PART - WHERE I NEVER LOOKED SOMETHING WAS BEGINNING TO STIR. SOMETHING WAS UNRAVELLING, LIFTING ITS HEAD, RUBBING ITS EYES, CLEARING ITS THROAT. QUIETLY, IT WAS UNFOLDING. I DIDN’T SEE IT. I WAS WAITING FOR THE PAIN OF NEWNESS, THE STRUGGLE INTO EXISTENCE, THE SHARPNESS AND THE PUSH. AND THIS WAS GENTLE, COAXING: THIS HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH ME. IF I WASN’T SCREAMING THEN IT WASN’T COMING, AND I KEPT MY HEAD TURNED. NO, NO I SHOUTED: I KNOW WHAT IT IS, I HAVE WAITED FOR YEARS, I HAVE WANTED IT FOR YEARS, AND THIS IS NOT IT. Decode Magazine July to September 2004 BLOND HUMAN VOLCANO Story Liam Gallimore-Wells Layout Charlie Watkins 3 1 Feature THE GREATEST LOVE STORY EVER TOLD – AN OFFICE CLERK, AN ELEVATOR GIRL, AND NO KISSING: JAKE WEBB APPLAUDS... THE APARTMENT JACK LEMMON AND SHIRLEY MACLAINE CLASSIC FEATURE LOVE O N SCREEN catch up with his superiors, but he’s not happy with what he feels he’s become forced into to do so, while below Fran’s ‘Watch the doors please, blasting off!’ banter, you can tell she deserves more than this, and knows it. Unlike romantic comedies these days, their relationship doesn’t follow any sort of first-date-sleep-togetherfall-out-make-up formula. It’s not until a couple of viewings that you realise they don’t so much as hold hands throughout the whole thing. But you root for them, and gladly accept the patently not inevitable happy ending. This is partly for their characters, and after the sleeping pill episode, we see Bud for who he really is: kind, thoughtful, caring, and willing to lay himself down for love. Fran, meanwhile, is any man’s dream girl: funny, wise, heartstoppingly beautiful, sweet and sentimental enough to have her heart broken, but tough enough to come out fighting. But it’s also for what they’re up against: the cold, creeping life their colleagues have made for themselves. The world of the film may be cynical; they’re anything but. That said, it’s a brilliantly smart and witty world, too. Wilder and Diamond create a story where everything happens for a reason, where every joke sparks off a whole language of word-play, where the slightest aside or off-screen incident can send events hurtling down unexpected routes. Even as Fran lies slumped on his bed, Bud thinks she’s just asleep and mimics the owner of the bar he’s just returned from: ‘O-U-T: Out!’ The film’s Christmas setting explains its frequent appearance in the festive tv schedules, and it won a handful of Oscars, including best film.It is often called a masterpiece. But it occupies a curious position now: slightly forgotten or mislaid, alwaysalways- mentioned as an afterthought to Some Like It Hot. Still, its value goes beyond ‘top 100 comedies’ lists. Like the best stories, The Apartment is wholly of its time, but the plot could be taking place right now. For better or worse, Friends, Sex and the City, Ally McBeal and a million J-Lo movies can be traced back to its tale of life, love and working in New York. None of them do it like this, though: a romantic comedy with heart and soul, and a love story with fists and teeth. ‘FOR BETTER OR WORSE, FRIENDS, SEX AND THE CITY, ALLY MCBEAL AND A MILLION J-LO MOVIES CAN BE TRACED BACK TO ITS TALE OF LIFE, LOVE AND WORK IN NEW YORK...’ ILLUSTRATION BY MR.G Decode Magazine July to September 2004 ‘If you leave something in a drawer’, the saying goes, ‘it will either rot or ripen.’ The Apartment can stand as example of the latter. In 1945, Billy Wilder watched David Lean’s Brief Encounter and was intrigued not by the main characters but by the friend whose house they meet in. But it was not until the late 1950s that he and co-screenwriter I.A.L. Diamond, having just completed Some Like It Hot, returned to this idea. It is not clear who came up with the clever twist: the owner of the apartment is loaning his place to his bosses, in return for a swift foot up the corporate ladder. Jack Lemmon plays the owner in question: C.C. Baxter (but you can call him Bud), an affable sort of guy working for Consolidated Life, a vast insurance company in New York. Almost everyone has the wrong idea about him: his bosses think they can keep him shivering on a park bench while they conduct their tete-a-tetes with various Consolidated secretaries and switchboard operators, while his neighbours think he’s nothing but a ‘good time Charlie’ and a love rat‘easy come, easy go’. The lonely sort of irony here is seemingly lost on everyone bar the audience, but all the same, it plays as a comedy of errors until the plot darkens and thickens. Bud, it turns out, is developing a hearty crush on Fran Kubelik, an especially loveable elevator girl. This should be fine- and boy, do we hope it will- he even scores a date with her. But she stands him up, while taking a slow cab back to his apartment with Consolidated’s director, the very married and very loathsome Mr Sheldrake. They’ve been having an affair for a while but this time, he promises her, the divorce is imminent. We can see the truth. She can’t. In a typically beautiful bit of plotting, Bud discovers the truth, and soon after discovers Fran slumped in his bedroom on Christmas Eve, Sheldrake long gone and an empty bottle of sleeping pills in her hand. Predictably, Wilder and Diamond came under a lot of fire for this particular move, and for the rest of the story in general. It has been called cynical time and again, saved, apparently, only by the sympathetic performances from Lemmon and Shirley Maclaine as Fran. This is partly right. That nearly fifteen year gestation period is well timed: The Apartment could not have been made until the late fifties. Its look and language is pure Eisenhower, yet it runs deeper than that: just a few years before Kennedy and The Beatles, America is booming. There is money to be made, dates to be won, Martinis to be sunk. But corporate New York can be a lonely, vicious, andyep- cynical place. Bud may be keen to Buy the Apartment for the ridiculously low cost of a fiver from HMV and Fopp while stocks last. 3 2 Feature W H O DO Y O U LOVE? COS EVERYBODY NEEDS SOMEBODY. No, it’s not just because he played Doctor Who! It's because of his eccentricity, the way he seems to see things in life in that slightly different way to everyone else. He is a very funny person with a host of vivid, sometimes almost whimsical expressions and views on life. LEE BARROWS ON TOM BAKER LEE Decode Magazine People we love Comedians Bill Bailey Peter Kay Bill Hicks (dead) Dave Gorman Authors Dave Eggers Paul Auster Nick Hornby Lynn Reid Banks Harvey Pekar Ian Banks Musicians Rufus Wainwright Laura Veirs Josh Ritter Elliot Smith (dead) Jeff Buckley (dead) Jim White Kathryn Williams Sufjan Stevens Miles Davis Poets Pablo Neruda Ben Okri Artists Ella Brown Holly Smale Alexandra Higlett Lee Barrows Film-makers Sophia Coppola Michel Gondry Gus Van Sant Decode Magazine Issue Fourteen Luise Rainer. Discovered on the stage in Europe by MGM talent scouts and shipped to Hollywood as the 'new Garbo' in 1935. Less than 10 years later her career was over, but her mark was indelible - two 'Best Actress' Oscars, and her personal and artistic integrity intact. An indomitable woman who refused to kowtow to the men who controlled her every move, she shunned the celebrity and artifice of Hollywood and all it represented, to forge her own way through the 20th century.... still intrepid now, in her 10th decade. CRAIG CARRUTHERS SHIRLEY CRAIG A person I really love is my best friend who lives in Upstate New Jersey. We met when we were 10 years old in the playground of our Junior School in Hertfordshire. She was threatening to punch another girl whose little gang I was in. Suddenly my friend Joann passed out and was carried into the school by the Headmaster, flopped in his arms, eyes rolling and I felt so sorry for her. A year later we became the best of friends. We had so much in common. We had both lived in Africa as children, our fathers were both Army Officers and we were both determined to turn the world on its heels. We did in the 60's. And some! To this day, 43 years later we still love each other and have each others children to stay. She is now a master gardener and does voluntary work in an Aids Hospice in New Jersey in her spare time, and all this with 3 children to bring up on top of having been in a wheelchair before her hips were replaced a few years ago. Interestingly she only told me a couple of years ago that she had just pretended to pass out in the playground all those years ago. Nice act with the rolling eyes Joann! CLAIRE PEARCEY CLAIRE LUKE ATASHA I love my mate Pat. He’s the man, my oldest mate, and the funniest fucker I’ve ever met. ‘Talent’ is his middle name, but so is ‘lazy insecure fool’. He’s a selfish bastard, who can infuriate the hell out of me and make me wanna smash his face in but when we’re in the zone, he makes me laugh so much I want to cry. We’ve composed music, written comedy scripts, been in a band and performed on stage together, and I’m gutted that he’s in Bristol and I’m now up in London. LUKE KEEN Decode Magazine July to September 2004 Why stop at one love when there's a whole world out there. My first crush was on a boy called Peter whose father looked like Danny Kaye. Yes, it really was that long ago! Boy, was that man talented (Danny Kaye, I mean NOT Peter's father). Then, when I reached my teens, Steve McQueen could do no wrong. It was the curl of his lips, I think. There's no other movie star out there today who can match him for looks, sex appeal or cussedness. How I howled when he died. Just two ladies stand out for me. Sophia Loren – beauty, talent, majesty! Liza Minelli – beauty, talent, lack of majesty! Then to cap it all, just when I think the world has no more surprises in store for me, who should I "discover" but the greatest, most sexy actor of them all, GERARD DEPARDIEU. Utterly, utterly mad about the man. Can anyone think of more diverse films to appear in than Georges Danton and Le Closet? Of course, the real love of my life is the father of my children SHIRLEY STACKPOOL PHOTOGRAPHS BY JAMES ARA MY BEST MATE AND SISTER JO. FOR LENDING ME CLOTHES, FOR COOKING MY DINNER, FOR CHAUFFEURING ME AROUND TOWN AND FOR ONE PARTICULAR INCIDENT WHEN SHE CAME TO MY RESCUE AND FOUGHT OFF AN INTRUDER IN MY FLAT. HE WAS COWERING BY THE END OF IT AND SORRY HE EVER SET FOOT IN THE BUILDING! A CONSTANT SUPPORT AND, MOST IMPORTANTLY, ALWAYS UP FOR A GOOD LAUGH. TARA KAY INTERVIEWS GABRIELLE STACKPOOL 3 3 Feature I loooove Keith Richards, as much as you can love someone you’ve never met. I love him for that formidable talent that has had a massive impact on me & many others so often. Keith is a great musical force way beyond the Stones. A humble, generous gentleman with a razor sharp intellect who oozes wit, sensitivity & originality. It helps that he looks fantastic especially back in the 70’s; the hair, eyes, mean ole cheekbones & unsurpassed natural style. Add to that longevity & stamina and, as for stage presence... Mick who?! NATASHA PULLIN 35 Feature LOVE LETTERS HEARTFELT CONTRIBUTIONS IT AIN’T ALL HEARTS AND FLOWERS... 4 2 3 5 1 THREE PICTURES... from my recent sojourn in Pembrokeshire that got me thinking about love and the way we, human beings, try to preserve it. This Dolmen (1) was once the entry to a bronze age burial ground - it must have taken a huge effort to erect and maintain. The cross and flowers (2) were tucked among boulders at the top of a hill. People preserving their love for those who have passed away through acts of remembrance lest their love fade and dissipate. Is this love, or the fear of being forgotten? Do/did these bronze age and modern mourners preserve these monuments purely out of love, or did they hope that by doing this, somebody would then do the same for them, and that they to would be remembered? Just how far is love simply the fear of being alone and forgotten? How different then to the pebble heart (3) built by a pair of young lovers on the beach - the tide washed it away in a matter of minutes, but their love continued. Theo Berry LOVE - THE BOND (4) All mothers have a special bond with their children, some stronger than others. My mother claims the love she feels for me is so powerful she couldn't possibly describe it with a few worthless words. This intangible love was apparent from the day I was born. She has given me her all and she loves me unconditionally. Even when she hates me, she loves me. I am priveledged to be part of this special bond and feel I have captured this connection in my photograph of my friend and her new born. Sophie Holmes THE KISS (5) This image contains two things simultaneously: the spontaneity of both being kissed and giving a kiss. Klimt’s Kiss is very male dominant: but this picture feels balanced between both people. It combines the immediacy of kissing with the fragility of what makes that moment: what draws people together towards a kiss or keeps them apart. Jemimah Kuhfeld SONG OF LOVE Love is a gambler and a critic a tender fool with wings the philandering professor and the careless bird that sings Love is the rite of passage the doorway and the drought the darkness of the morning and the threadbare clothes without Love is the night of hunger and the passing of all dreams the tempers frayed with feeling and minds breaking at the seams Love is the chamber of horrors and the freedom flailing arms the tattooed soul of violence and the raging sea becalmed Love is the holy promise in Augustine's golden book the salt and seal of fortune and the pale desiring look Love is the lasting testament to the restless heart of man the endless time of reckoning and the devil's only plan Love is the seat of learning and the hook upon the tree the colours in the shadow and the eyes which cannot see DREAM MAN Every night you drink my blood through sheets, panty paraphernalia and sanitary wear. When I wake, swooned and drained I see you everywhere. You are The smoke my mouth breathes out on a cold day. The shadow that attaches itself to my body as I walk past light. The ether of my solidity. Remembering and calling you my mind wanders simultaneously bumping into memories and future dreamsWill we fuse and collude some form of present reality? I crawl into the morning, leaving behind your time; I feel you in my coffee steam as I drink in the experience of being someone else’s drink. Tania van Schalkwyk 18th November, 2002: Bristol Love is last and love is first Love is death and love is birth. John E. Vistic WANT YOUR WORK IN DECODE? ISSUE 15 THEME: ‘FAITH’ DEADLINE: AUGUST 15TH IMAGES / STORIES / ARTICLES / POEMS / ILLUSTRATIONS / PHOTOS... [email protected] / PO BOX 3120, BATH BA1 5WB BRISTOL FOLK HOUSE 40A PARK STREET . BRISTOL . BS1 5JG LEARNING FOR PLEASURE Autumn Term starts Monday 13th.September. Saturday workshops start 25th. September. Free Autumn programme available now. Phone or e:mail for details. The friendliest Adult Education Centre in the City. Tel/Fax: 0117 926 2987 e:mail: [email protected] web: www.bristolfolkhouse.co.uk