Sketching, Key Workers and Dragons.

Here are March's efforts for my one-sketch-per-day project, now presented as a short video. Do let me know what you think, or if you've any suggestions or ideas.

Actually, the hyacinth you see in one of the watercolour sketches here has now finished flowering so I've planted it in the garden. Hopefully it will come up again next year. It was in our living room, where it filled the air with its delicious, heady perfume.

We're living in strange times, hmm? The news is laden with tragic death counts and infection rates and tales of life under the shadow of the coronavirus/COVID 19. The restaurant where my husband works is closed and this is his third week at home. So far he's weeded the garden, washed down all the windows inside and out, spring-cleaned the house and finished reading the entire series of graphic novels of the X-Men. At the time of typing this, he's just come back from walking the dogs and is now listening to Scala Radio while reading a Derek Landy novel.

I've been doing my part-time job as usual as my role is that of an Activity Co-ordinator in a care home. As such I'm classed as a key worker, one of the few thousand people who are still allowed, indeed expected, to continue going into work. Suddenly we're vital workers! But instead of giving us all a round of applause each Thursday at 8pm, how about doing something genuinely useful and campaigning on our behalf for a decent pay rise?

Smokin' Dragon, issue #7, August 1993.

Around a million years ago, I launched a homespun publishing project which evolved into a quarterly music zine called Smokin' Dragon. It featured masses of interviews with emerging bands, demo and gig reviews, plus poetry, pen pal listings and serious articles on diverse subjects. The project ran for several years and was a lot of fun to do. The phone would ring at bizarre hours and I'd never know who might be on the end of it. Torrents of cassette tapes would clatter through my letter box, some good and some terrible, but all conveying the precious dreams of those who had recorded them.

Whatever happened to all those bands whose names are already forgotten by almost everyone? Are any of them still around? Do any of their members now play with other bands, or has life buried their dreams under necessities such as jobs, paying mortgages, raising children, etc? Your guess is as good as mine.

Anyway, I decided to create an archive for Smokin' Dragon, and now you can read about the first seven issues. Read it here.

A second installment will follow shortly.

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