The likely lad

Watched "My Generation" tonight, an odd Michael Caine fronted look back at the decade that gave us The Beatles, Mary Quant, David Bailey and LSD. Except nothing is quite that simple. I grew up in that decade and saw it implode in the ten years that followed. Plus for most people it was, like every other time in history, a matter of hard graft and exploitation with retrospectives hosted by an affluent Demi Monde who got to write the cultural history of the era. Keith Waterhouse’s Billy Liar is probably closer to the truth; for most people a working class provincial life could only be escaped through fantasy.

As for the film: rather like the decade itself it was colourful, musically mind blowing, and full of promise, but ultimately it just fizzled out leaving you with the feeling that it had fallen short. My childhood (moon landings, World Cup wins, and Radio Luxembourg) gave way to teenage years and adulthood in the seventies - an era of volatile politics, collapsing dreams, a resurgent right wing, arguments over Europe, and a general feeling that the sixties zeitgeist had given way to the seventies schadenfreude. Uncommonly like today, except that social media now allows you to wallow in other peoples’ misfortune rather just imbibe of it.

I am trying to make my own next decade revolutionary and intend to act irresponsibly, colourfully (or coolly), counter-culturally and so forth. But I will no doubt just bounce along in my own world, using blip as my own version of David Bailey, until the Grim Reaper bumps into me on his way to scoop up someone more important.

That sounds terribly dark but it isn’t. More playful. In a dark kind of way.

As for the real life ... Worked from home today, usual fatigue issues, but got quite a lot done. In black and white terms if not spiritually ...