I’ve had a busy few days. Just over a week ago, I went to see Ralph Fiennes play the titular role in Shakespeare’s “Richard III” at the Almeida. The play was alright, and Fiennes was very good indeed. I did rather think that the saviour of Richards’ victims, Richmond, was a bit lacking in depth? The actor did a decent job, but I think he needed a deeper voice and a heavier physical presence. He looked good, but I didn’t believe his character was strong enough. It was lovely to venture out for a little culture however. Also, should they have had a disabled actor to play one of the most prominently disabled acting roles ever written? I’d have thought the theater would have been a bit more mindful of diversity, but perhaps that’s less important than selling tickets?
I have of late been finding it difficult to sleep soundly. I shift position often to alleviate the pain and stiffness in my right shoulder – the result of an 11 year career in Italian polished plaster. With the sudden demise of the Villain Barbell Club, which I have spoken of in my previous blog posts, I had missed 8 days of training and my shoulder became very uncomfortable. My training seems to serve as a daily rehabilitation for the wear caused by my job, and with out it I was struggling. There has been a silver lining though! I have had to begin dealing with this issue with a new level of understanding of both cause and effect. I have resumed training; now at the Islington Boxing Club, but have devised a number of new mobility drills to mitigate the vicissitudes of my livelihood. As an adjunct to this I am receiving treatment every Saturday at the hands of Selena (a protege of the inestimable Errol Lynch) at the Touch Tuina centre in Chalk Farm.
The other night – Wednesday – I had a dream, and woke up feeling unusually refreshed. It was a profound and profoundly enjoyable dream, which came about for no particular reason….
Perhaps unsurprisingly, I was sailing a boat with Whitmore (Whitmore starred in my previous blog entitled “Whitmore and I” https://bloggingtoids.wordpress.com/2015/12/04/whitmore-and-i/ ). The boat was a Swallow –
I could feel the fresh breeze of a summers day, with a few fluffy clouds over head, I could smell the salt spray, and we laughed as we lunged forward, riding the pitch and surge of the waves. We overtook toiling gondoliers who were rowing regular boats (not gondolas) and looking frustrated and uncomfortable, and we were for some reason sailing pell mell down a street in a mostly submerged Venice; or so I imagine Venice having never been there.
I awoke exhilarated, and fascinated by the potential meaning of this wonderful dream. I rolled the dream over in my head all day at work, and started to realize what I might take from it?
I have been a gondolier, rowing a boat, grafting hard, staring frustrated and uncomfortable at my past, toiling with my back facing the future, escaping the submersion of everything I didn’t really get to know. In my dream I was in a boat, planing into the future, with fear and joy, because I had raised a sail and caught the wind. The journey from the sinking past the same, but seen from two different perspectives. So how do I raise a metaphorical sail and catch the wind in my waking life?…I think that is the allegorical point anyway… How do I float on a depth-less sea of emotion, carried by the inspiration of a thought?
It kind of doesn’t matter which way the wind is blowing, as long as you know the destination. When you put up a sail, you know which way the wind is blowing pretty quickly anyway. And even if the wind is against you?..sailing is awesome fun. It is an adventure in itself, and a pathway to other adventures, but how do I put up my sail. How do I catch the wind?
Maybe I should write to a casting director or two, show them my show-reel and coerce them into paying me to do some acting?
http://www.castingcallpro.com/uk/actor/profile/joss-taylor
Perhaps I should make a point of sharing the next part of my physical evolution, and tell as many people as will listen how i eat, work, train, sleep etc? Maybe both?
Maybe there are other “sails” that have yet to inspire me, but for the record; it is my intention to put up a sail, and journey as far and wide as the wind will carry me…… Maybe I’ll just buy a fucking boat?
bloggingtoids 