Not shaped for sportive tricks

Well, another disaster averted - or postponed. J the director wanted to recce in Sept and film in January 2010; which would make it eight years since writing the script. We wrote and said not acceptable - so the dates are now: filming in December (the hottest time of the year - exactly when I did not want to be prancing around in the bush wearing a Yowie costume) and pre and post production either side of that. Well it must be, then. Es muss sein. I found an interesting thing on the internet: Vincent Van Gogh's letter of July, 1890 (just before he shot himself - wonder why) mentions an Australian artist named Walpole Brooke with whom he would go out - whether painting or not Vincent doesn't say, though we can infer it was probably painting, as Walpole Brooke was an artist.

Vincent thinks he has potential and mentions that he was brought up in Japan. Intrigued, I google further. In Van Gogh's sketchbook no. 7 is found a visiting card: E Walpole Brooke. Aha. I google E W Brooke in Australian webpages only and come up with an entry saying that not much is known about him (they didn't know of the Vincent connection) but that he did exhibit in Yokohama and study in Europe. Also that he was the son of a minister of lands in the Victorian state government. More Aha. I googled the MP's in the government archive and found the father: John Henry Brooke, MP for Geelong in 1956, who went to Yokohama of all places in 1867 and set up the first foreign language newspaper there: the Japan Daily Herald. Further fascinating things on the internet from the Japan Daily Herald - which in its day was very influential. So I'm on the track on E Walpole Brown, another forgotten artist. On a personal note - I have resigned from the military doctor's post I held - this will leave me more time for creative work. The number of times I've tried this sort of thing before is upwards of five or six. And every time I've been driven back into the arms of general practice by the need to pay the bills. Sigh. I'm getting tired of this process. Still, in a week I'll be freer than I've been for years. Watch this space - but no breath-holding, you might just die... laughing.