I love films and really enjoyed reading Michael Scorcese's list of the "85 films you need to see to know anything about film".  Sadly it seems I know little about film as there are a great many on the list I haven't seen but I like lists like this as it's introduced me to some that I'll definitely get.  My favourite film (if I had to pick one) of all time, "A Matter of Life & Death" is on the list which I'm glad to see.  I'm a big fan of the films of Powell & Pressburger.  I thought it was interesting to read what Scorsese said about the reaction of the public to Powells admittedly creepy but excellent film Peeping Tom:

Peeping Tom: “Michael Powell himself gambled everything on Peeping Tom and lost in such a way that his career was really ended. The film was so shocking to some British critics and the audience because he had some sympathy, sort of, for the the serial killer. And the killer had the audacity to photograph the killing of the women with a motion picture camera, which of course tied in the motion picture camera as an object of voyeurism, implicating all of us watching horror films. He was reviled. One critic said this should be flushed down the toilet. He only got one or two more movies done. He really disappeared. And now in England there are cameras watching everyone all over the street.” 1960

http://tinyurl.com/7rvh376

After Xmas my mum and I went to visit the Wellcome Collection in London.  It's a great place to visit of an afternoon, their shows are free, they have a brilliant bookshop and a Peyton & Byrne cafe which is tasty.  

We saw a lovely show called Infinitas Gracias, Mexican Miracle Paintings.  These were little paintings on tin roof tiles or plaques, painted in thanks to saints who have answered prayers.  They are quite small and depict dramas of everyday life such as illness, lost livestock, accidents, bereavements and lightning strikes. Very simply painted and often with quite naive perspective. Sorry these pictures aren't great as I put them on my phone, they show the recovery of lost goats, falling from a ladder and surviving, getting over an incurable illness and surviving a bull running amok!

http://www.wellcomecollection.org/whats-on/exhibitions/infinitas-gracias.aspx

I liked this project that showed this year at the Bumbershoot festival in Seattle.  Artists were invited to transform their choice of 'Paint by Numbers' paintings and came up with some interesting results.  It's a great idea, I'd quite like to do one for fun myself.  The results were mixed, I didn't love them all but I like the concept. These were a couple that worked well, the artists are as follows:

Mary Iverson - Before and after farm transformation

Jim Woodring - Bucolic covered bridge with added accident

Troy Gua - Ugly clowns transformation

I took my son to London's Science Museum on Monday as it's half term.  You could probably live in there for a week and still not see all the great things they have in there, we love it. This visit we ended up in a new gallery and I was attracted by a case full of phobias.  They had lots of them in Mason jars.  Not to make light of any of these phobias, it must be horrible to have a fear of the colour white or of string!  I liked the way they illustrated Decidophobia (fear of decisions) using little dice.  Notice also the jar containing the fear of vegetables is placed next to the jar containing the fear of constipation.  I guess they do sort of go hand in hand.  

http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/