He's Back In Control, Right Now
Jun. 27th, 2006 02:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
peterbirksA possibly maudlin, meandering, perhaps too self-revelatory post. Who knows.
Elkan Allen died on Sunday. I received an e-mail about it last night, but it was an anonymous comment on LJ, so, like the good journalist that I am, I awaited confirmation from a second source. Derek Kelly posted the news on Gutshot about 2am this morning.
Elkan was not a "friend" in the sense that Richard Sharp and Keith Loveys were friends. I'd only known him since Russell Square days, and we had played poker there, at Steve Bennett's, and at Alex & Jo's in Tooting. He was forever trying to get me involved in poker writing projects -- with Inside Edge before it was launched, with Tony G, with other stuff. He was prone to exaggeration and his cat would always be blacker than yours, but, in his case, quite often his cat was blacker than yours. His media CV just about encompassed the 1960s onwards, and not many poker players can claim to have met most of the pop stars of the 1960s (via his work as a producer on Ready Steady Go!) and written the scripts of several Batman episodes from the 1960s. Throw in a stint as a Sunday Times TV critic and Gawd knows what else (you can look it up on IMDB, although I haven't) and you certainly have a bloke who has been around.
Not many people would realize to look at him that he was in his late 70s, and few would have thought him likely to pop his clogs. The only indication that I ever got of his age was when he had to sit for a few hours watching one of the Sky pokathons. His left leg stiffened up. We shared a car back from Sky to central London (laid on by Sky, natch) and nattered away. He wasn't that good a poker player, but he never really claimed to be. He just enjoyed playing the game. Another good'un gone.
There is a moment in a Sopranos episode when Tony Soprano is talking to a contemporary after a funeral. In one of those moments that make the series the masterpiece that he is, Soprano reflects like a latter-day Hamlet on the fact that, as the old guys die off, so he and his contemporary become "the oldest generation". "We have become them", he says. It creeps up on you. One minute you are the youngest kid in the school, and the next you are the oldest man in the city. So, you youngsters out there, just as I and my contemporaries gradually become "the oldest ones out there", realize that you too have moved one step further up the ladder. There's a younger generation than you out there now, and you are somewhere in the middle. Perhaps not smack in the middle (that arrives about the age of 38 to 42, matching your waistband if you aren't careful) but in the middle nevertheless. There's a whole group out there younger than you. And soon there will be a group younger than them. And, the next thing you know, you are part of the oldest group, reminiscing about the old days when the Spice Girls were popular and the Internet still used modems.
++++++++
The struggle at poker continues. I'm at that stage where a large number of players have decided to try another game. Bad runs are gradable. There's that kind of mega-disaster session. But there is also the drip-drip running bad sequence, which can last for months, and can lead to an even greater despair at the chance of ever being a winner again. It's also (for me) the kind of run that tends to make tilt harder to resist. Indeed, I nearly felt it coming on last night, as one more straw was put on my camel's back. And, well, I never tilt. But you feel like playing hands that you wouldn't play otherwise, or calling when you know that you should fold, or checking when, in better times, you know that you should bet. All of these are the result of a long period of running bad. Not mega-bad, but bad enough to affect your belief in your game.
It's at this point that you often see playyers switch games. Well, that strikes me as a worse solution than asking the dealer for a new deck of cards in the belief that this will change your luck. "Hey, I'm running really bad at my best game! What shall I do? I know, I'll switch to a game where I'm not as experienced and where there are lots of sharks awaiting! That might change my luck."
Yeah, right.
Part of my strength is knowing when not to tinker. So, you can see how long this "running bad" must have lasted if I began to lose my self-belief.
I think that I can date it back to either May 8th (when my "running good" stopped) or to May 26th (when my "running bad" started).
I'm no fool. I know that this kind of run can last six months. Although, given that I am now playing more hands, I would be surprised if it lasted klonger than three.
Another factor, commented upon by another player on Party, is that the games have got tougher. He said that he was running at half the win rate this year as he was last year. Looking at my stats, my figures for 2006 are at about half that of 2004. I don't think that this is a genuine rflection, since my performance at the same stakes on Ultimate (a tougher site) has actually improved slightly. But just playing the game tells you that Party is tougher than it was a year ago. More three-bets, fewer limpers first in. $2-$4 is probably playing like $5-$10 a couple of years ago. Hell, with inflation, shouldn't $15-$30 be playing like $5-$10?
+++++++
I finally made it to the St Martin's Show today. I get less excited about it every year. This time round there were just two artists who floated the boat, with a few more "near-misses". And one of these artists grossly overpriced her work. For heaven's sake, this is a BA show. It's not even a postgrad show. I blame Chris Moneymaker. Everyone seems to think that they can get rich yesterday.
Adam Koukoudakis. "Screaming Kid". Acrylic and Spray Paint on Canvas. A small piece (about 35cm x 30cm) that I liked for its single spalsh of colour. Reminiscent, of course, of the girl in Schindler's List, shot in red by Spielberg with everything surrounding her in black and white.
Laura Egan: Two pieces. I liked the serenity of these pieces, bringing tranquility to an urban scene.
Masaki Yada: "Layers 2": Acrylic and Oil. About 100cm x 70cm. Easily the most technically proficient artist in the show, but at £1,200? I don't think so. I would have paid £700 for this, perhaps £750. But artists really have to realize that they can't charge this kind of money when no-one knows whether they are even going to make the grade. Get a portfolio going and you can start knocking out the stuff for five to ten thousand. But for the moment, Masaki, you are one of many.
Carolyn Deane-Gore: Untitled: About 100cm x 70cm. This was a "near-miss". By the way, this is the way that it was hung, but it looks very nice with the lines running horizontally, with the reddish-purple at the bottom an the ochre at the top (or, indeed, the other way round!). So, there you go, three paintings for the price of one.
"The Hostage": The star of the show. Winner of the Kate Barton award. This was not the first picture that I saw (that's the one below), but it was the first that hadn't already been sold. The only worry is that it might be self-consciously populist, in the style of "comic art". But I would have thought that this guy could find a ready market. I was tempted.
"Children of The Revolution": This is a larger picture than the one above, about 90cm x 60cm, and is an absolute stonker. Guaranteed conversation piece at any dinner party.
"Child of Darkness": The one that I was tempted to buy. Quite a small piece, about 50cm by 25cm. Pure comic book excess.
"Taught At Home": A large piece, probably too large for the home at about 1.5m by 1m. I already have one painting that expresses angst and alienation, so getting another one might be a bit excessive. But I liked this guy's work.
"Runaway Puppy": Another large piece. Wy runaway puppy? I dunno. Nice colours, though.
And, finally, a non-painting. Getting photographs of this piece was not easy, since it filled up the whole room. It's called "Attic Basement Garage" from Matt Lippiatt, and the influence is clearly horror movies, particularly Night Of The Living Dead. I thought of asking a "real" person who was walking through to stand in the middle, as still as possible. But then I thought, hmm, no, that would be me creating my own art, not representing someone else's. Maybe one day, when I'm an artist. But not when I'm a journalist.
Elkan Allen died on Sunday. I received an e-mail about it last night, but it was an anonymous comment on LJ, so, like the good journalist that I am, I awaited confirmation from a second source. Derek Kelly posted the news on Gutshot about 2am this morning.
Elkan was not a "friend" in the sense that Richard Sharp and Keith Loveys were friends. I'd only known him since Russell Square days, and we had played poker there, at Steve Bennett's, and at Alex & Jo's in Tooting. He was forever trying to get me involved in poker writing projects -- with Inside Edge before it was launched, with Tony G, with other stuff. He was prone to exaggeration and his cat would always be blacker than yours, but, in his case, quite often his cat was blacker than yours. His media CV just about encompassed the 1960s onwards, and not many poker players can claim to have met most of the pop stars of the 1960s (via his work as a producer on Ready Steady Go!) and written the scripts of several Batman episodes from the 1960s. Throw in a stint as a Sunday Times TV critic and Gawd knows what else (you can look it up on IMDB, although I haven't) and you certainly have a bloke who has been around.
Not many people would realize to look at him that he was in his late 70s, and few would have thought him likely to pop his clogs. The only indication that I ever got of his age was when he had to sit for a few hours watching one of the Sky pokathons. His left leg stiffened up. We shared a car back from Sky to central London (laid on by Sky, natch) and nattered away. He wasn't that good a poker player, but he never really claimed to be. He just enjoyed playing the game. Another good'un gone.
There is a moment in a Sopranos episode when Tony Soprano is talking to a contemporary after a funeral. In one of those moments that make the series the masterpiece that he is, Soprano reflects like a latter-day Hamlet on the fact that, as the old guys die off, so he and his contemporary become "the oldest generation". "We have become them", he says. It creeps up on you. One minute you are the youngest kid in the school, and the next you are the oldest man in the city. So, you youngsters out there, just as I and my contemporaries gradually become "the oldest ones out there", realize that you too have moved one step further up the ladder. There's a younger generation than you out there now, and you are somewhere in the middle. Perhaps not smack in the middle (that arrives about the age of 38 to 42, matching your waistband if you aren't careful) but in the middle nevertheless. There's a whole group out there younger than you. And soon there will be a group younger than them. And, the next thing you know, you are part of the oldest group, reminiscing about the old days when the Spice Girls were popular and the Internet still used modems.
++++++++
The struggle at poker continues. I'm at that stage where a large number of players have decided to try another game. Bad runs are gradable. There's that kind of mega-disaster session. But there is also the drip-drip running bad sequence, which can last for months, and can lead to an even greater despair at the chance of ever being a winner again. It's also (for me) the kind of run that tends to make tilt harder to resist. Indeed, I nearly felt it coming on last night, as one more straw was put on my camel's back. And, well, I never tilt. But you feel like playing hands that you wouldn't play otherwise, or calling when you know that you should fold, or checking when, in better times, you know that you should bet. All of these are the result of a long period of running bad. Not mega-bad, but bad enough to affect your belief in your game.
It's at this point that you often see playyers switch games. Well, that strikes me as a worse solution than asking the dealer for a new deck of cards in the belief that this will change your luck. "Hey, I'm running really bad at my best game! What shall I do? I know, I'll switch to a game where I'm not as experienced and where there are lots of sharks awaiting! That might change my luck."
Yeah, right.
Part of my strength is knowing when not to tinker. So, you can see how long this "running bad" must have lasted if I began to lose my self-belief.
I think that I can date it back to either May 8th (when my "running good" stopped) or to May 26th (when my "running bad" started).
I'm no fool. I know that this kind of run can last six months. Although, given that I am now playing more hands, I would be surprised if it lasted klonger than three.
Another factor, commented upon by another player on Party, is that the games have got tougher. He said that he was running at half the win rate this year as he was last year. Looking at my stats, my figures for 2006 are at about half that of 2004. I don't think that this is a genuine rflection, since my performance at the same stakes on Ultimate (a tougher site) has actually improved slightly. But just playing the game tells you that Party is tougher than it was a year ago. More three-bets, fewer limpers first in. $2-$4 is probably playing like $5-$10 a couple of years ago. Hell, with inflation, shouldn't $15-$30 be playing like $5-$10?
+++++++
I finally made it to the St Martin's Show today. I get less excited about it every year. This time round there were just two artists who floated the boat, with a few more "near-misses". And one of these artists grossly overpriced her work. For heaven's sake, this is a BA show. It's not even a postgrad show. I blame Chris Moneymaker. Everyone seems to think that they can get rich yesterday.
Adam Koukoudakis. "Screaming Kid". Acrylic and Spray Paint on Canvas. A small piece (about 35cm x 30cm) that I liked for its single spalsh of colour. Reminiscent, of course, of the girl in Schindler's List, shot in red by Spielberg with everything surrounding her in black and white.
Laura Egan: Two pieces. I liked the serenity of these pieces, bringing tranquility to an urban scene.
Masaki Yada: "Layers 2": Acrylic and Oil. About 100cm x 70cm. Easily the most technically proficient artist in the show, but at £1,200? I don't think so. I would have paid £700 for this, perhaps £750. But artists really have to realize that they can't charge this kind of money when no-one knows whether they are even going to make the grade. Get a portfolio going and you can start knocking out the stuff for five to ten thousand. But for the moment, Masaki, you are one of many.
Carolyn Deane-Gore: Untitled: About 100cm x 70cm. This was a "near-miss". By the way, this is the way that it was hung, but it looks very nice with the lines running horizontally, with the reddish-purple at the bottom an the ochre at the top (or, indeed, the other way round!). So, there you go, three paintings for the price of one.
"The Hostage": The star of the show. Winner of the Kate Barton award. This was not the first picture that I saw (that's the one below), but it was the first that hadn't already been sold. The only worry is that it might be self-consciously populist, in the style of "comic art". But I would have thought that this guy could find a ready market. I was tempted.
"Children of The Revolution": This is a larger picture than the one above, about 90cm x 60cm, and is an absolute stonker. Guaranteed conversation piece at any dinner party.
"Child of Darkness": The one that I was tempted to buy. Quite a small piece, about 50cm by 25cm. Pure comic book excess.
"Taught At Home": A large piece, probably too large for the home at about 1.5m by 1m. I already have one painting that expresses angst and alienation, so getting another one might be a bit excessive. But I liked this guy's work.
"Runaway Puppy": Another large piece. Wy runaway puppy? I dunno. Nice colours, though.
And, finally, a non-painting. Getting photographs of this piece was not easy, since it filled up the whole room. It's called "Attic Basement Garage" from Matt Lippiatt, and the influence is clearly horror movies, particularly Night Of The Living Dead. I thought of asking a "real" person who was walking through to stand in the middle, as still as possible. But then I thought, hmm, no, that would be me creating my own art, not representing someone else's. Maybe one day, when I'm an artist. But not when I'm a journalist.
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The Elk
Date: 2006-06-27 08:21 pm (UTC)I am sorry to hear that about the Elk.
I agree with most of what you have said, he could be at bit of a know all at times...but then again does that label still count when you often do know it?
I did have some fascinating conversations with him about his time on Ready Steady Go though. He really was a major player.
Always found the Batman thing amusing too. Absolute quality.
You forgot his column he used to write for the Racing Post charting all the 'novelty' markets... I still never forgave him from talking me into closing my bet selling the turnout during Bliar's second election victory. He sounded so convincing grr....8-). Cost me a fortune he did too!
Very sad though. A real one off.
Are there any arrangements for his funeral do you know?
Stevie Bennett
Re: The Elk
Date: 2006-06-27 10:26 pm (UTC)I expect either his son or daughter (she used to play occasionaly in the Dungeon tournies, while the son has apparently been seen at Gutshot) will post it on the Gutshot site. I'll post something here if I find out.
If anything, it would probably prove to be a gathering of one of the weirdest London media/poker collectives ever seen. That would be a nice tribute to the Elk.
I await the Guardian obituary with interest. There's probably stuff tucked away that we didn't know about :-)
PJ
Re: The Elk
Date: 2007-06-07 01:49 pm (UTC)I'm a Saint Martins student myself, and I find it really great that you take interest in the degree shows the college put on, but I also think its important to remember that the paintings are supposed to be challenging. If you don't think you would hang it in your living room because it doesn't match the colour of your wallpaper, then that's great because it remains art and not interior decoration.
As for the pricing: From an artists perspective, whilst making a sale is great, selling your strongest pieces to those who aren't recognised collectors will not take your career forward, and you'll then have one less piece to showcase in other exhibitions. There is a difficult balance between making money and furthering you career. This is reflected in the price.
Poncy art
Date: 2006-06-28 07:43 am (UTC)However if in Paris I'd always choose to go in the Pompidou centre rather than the Louvre, although I like the architecture of both. Strangely architecture is an art form I do like and there's enough in Paris to last me for weeks, but the paintings almost always pass me by. Strangely the only art form I actual like is the Roy Lichtenstein Pop Art stuff, but that's mainly because I think it's undermining the whole thing.
However photography I am endlessly fascinated by and would go out of my way to see a collection of good or significant photographs.
Just a pleb really.
Re: Poncy art
Date: 2006-06-28 09:40 am (UTC)I am as equally fascinated by old art as by new; indeed, as I have got older, so my appreciation has moved futher back in time. When you are a kid and you see, say, some Egyptian paintings, you just say "jeez, wot a load of bollocks, they don't even understand perspective". But after reading some Gombrich and other works that explain that people in the past actually "saw" differently (that the eye most definitely is not a camera), then you can learn a lot simply from the efforts of past painters to paint "realistically".
Of the more modern stuff, I often find myself torn. Pollock's work, for example, could easily be termed a load of bollocks hyped up to high prices by a manipulating art market. And yet, and yet, you see one of those and you realize that there is something that sets it apart. Rothko, too, just seems to have something. But most of the Brit art stuff from 1950 onwards (including Riley) does little for me. Lucian Freud is "the man" in the UK, and that's that.
I would have thought that even you would have been a fan of Hopper, Geoff (Edward, that is, not Dennis).
I saw some "staged" photographs from an American featured in one of the colour supplements (I may have written about it) and, for the first time when talking about a photo, I said "I want one of those on my wall". I then checked with White Cube on the prices. Hmm, £40,000. They were so good that I might have gone to £5,000, and even at 40K, I suspect that it would have been a good investment. These are massive 6ft by 3ft pictures produced in editions of about a dozen at most.
PJ
Re: Poncy art
Date: 2006-06-28 10:00 am (UTC)Re: Poncy art / Matt Lippiatt
Date: 2006-07-22 10:16 pm (UTC)I'm glad you were interested enough to take photographs and give it a mention, especially as it was the only sculpture/installation you picked out.
Rachel Cooke did the same thing in her article on this year's art degree shows (Observer, 2nd July 2006). Rachel focused on paintings and photographs, making judgements in terms of buying for one's home, the prices, etc. My work was the only non-painting/photography that she mentioned and, like you, she described my work without making a value judgement.
I wrote an article for The Times (T2, 11th July 2006), partly in response to Rachel's article, but also more generally about the top art college degree shows this year. My article is here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,585-2263830.html
Best wishes,
Matt
One foot in the grave?
Date: 2006-06-28 05:45 pm (UTC)I remember my mother's friend Charles Simon, who died a while ago aged 96. Now that's old. But I met him when he was in his 90s and he still had all his marbles, living a full life, working as a successful actor, flying around the world to shoot on location, drinking whisky, etc.
Re the paintings, I'm afraid I agree with Geoff. I doubt that I'd accept any of them as a gift; I wouldn't want them in my home even if I had room for them (my home isn't tiny, but it's cluttered). Occasionally in the past I've seen paintings that I liked; if I had the mansion of my dreams and the money to go with it, there might even be some paintings I'd buy; but only a very small proportion of the paintings out there appeal to me at all.
I suppose it's interesting, if bewildering, to see what other people think is worth buying.
-- Jonathan
"Bleeding Kid
Date: 2006-07-05 09:30 pm (UTC)Re: "Bleeding Kid
Date: 2006-07-05 09:33 pm (UTC)Overall, I think your appraisal fits with mine, I definitely enjoyed the Daniel Bourkes; I also quite liked the oversized bar codes, but not at £250 each.
st martins degree show....hmmmm
Date: 2006-07-13 08:36 pm (UTC)thankyou....this piece is called Within Broken Systems not Runaway Puppy (that was the wall painting)...i know because they are my work...also my name is christopher deane...thankyou for taking the time to come to the degree show....