'Dark Days, Luminous Nights'

This evening, the Minx and I walked down the Irwell towards Manchester (extra 1) to see the 'Dark Days, Luminous Nights' exhibition at the White Hotel. (As we approached, I was delighted to see some Kraftwerk related graffiti: extra 2.)

The White Hotel is the middle of a fairly run down area that's kind of like an industrial estate. Inside it has a pleasing unfinished chic of exposed walls and floors, and, even more pleasingly, a bar. Before we could get to that, though, we were told about the exhibition including an explanation of Simon's photography. I always feel a knob saying "I know him, actually", so we listened to that, then grabbed some drinks, and went through to the exhibition space.

They'd done a great job of putting up a dozen or so of the pictures that Simon had taken for the exhibition, illuminating them so that the photos themselves appeared to be giving off light (although his photos often do that unaided).

Then there was the film. Hm. I found out afterwards the Simon had written the script for the dancers once the music had been chosen. Unfortunately for me, the music was from my second least favourite genre of soundtrack music: frantic, atonal strings*. Anyway, given that this was what Simon ad to work with, it explained the slightly baffling sequence of chase scenes.

I'm not sure how long the film was, to be honest: not *too* long, anyway. Quite apart from the music, the fact that the story was told through choreography also left me struggling; I find dance to be either too literal - "I'm a tree! - or too abstract. (That said, I do enjoy some of the miniMinx's commercial dance.)

Anyway, the best bits for me were a scene on Angel Meadow and some shots of the city's buildings, which I could happily have watched more of, ideally with a different soundtrack. Oh, and there was one bit where it looked like the protagonist was going take 50p out of someone's ear and I enjoyed that, too (even though he didn't).

After a final walk around the photos we retreated back to the Crescent, where I took my last Extra. One side of the road has been closed down for resurfacing, which is nearly finished, and I'm enjoying seeing skateboarders and skaters making use of the new tarmac. There's talk of the Crescent being pedestrianised so perhaps this was a glimpse of the future!

*My least favourite being 'smooth saxophone'.

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Reading: 'Touching The Void' by Joe Simpson