Vivienne’s Diary 5 – 13 May

Long weekend, Saturday 5, May – Monday, 7 May: Spent all three days reading. Newspapers: I don’t usually read them except when I travel – and I don’t travel much. Then I read them from cover to cover. I prefer surveys in book form, e.g. environment: Lovelock, Mark Lynas, Jared diamond; politics/human rights: John Pilger, Gareth Pierce, Jung Chang – and for real solidity and overview: Bertrand Russell. I’ve been reading him for years; recommend “Freedom and Organization 1815-1914” and “The Problem of China”.

I read “The Week” (which is a survey of the week’s news) but not always, and “The New Statesman”. Cynthia finds and prints articles for me from http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/, http://www.globalresearch.ca/ and www.democracynow.org among others. So, I was reading articles, dipping into my books, making notes and thinking.

Tuesday, 8 May: Wrote up some of this Diary. Own yoga (our teacher, Tom Logan,is on holiday so I did an hour at home). Went to work in the afternoon, checked the work and made one or two decisions re knitwear yarns and colours for dyeing.

Wednesday, 9 May: I am usually awake at 6.30 but thinking for at least 30 minutes. Wrote a letter to James Lovelock. 11.00 am called in to see a neighbour. The council want to evict him and others from their homes so I will write a letter against this.

At work: spent rest of the day with Andreas designing a label. We will see samples and then we may have to re-work it.

Concert at the Barbican; piano and violin: Andreas loves music and gets tickets. He is usually totally absorbed and carried away but for the first and only time I remember, he was distracted by stress. He takes responsibility for the way everything on the creative side of our company is done; he carries it with him and anticipates everything that can go wrong – he’s the boss and I’m the assistant, though he depends on me doing lots of design without him as well as designing together. He really lives for fashion, whereas I have all these other things: it used to be, “When I finish this pair of trousers I can read my book” plus human rights. But now it includes climate change and the lack of culture. I enjoyed the concert (Mendelsohn, Greig, Frank). Andreas was stressed because people don’t give him what he expects of them so he’s the one who must go back over the work and get it right. If it’s not too late.

I have a general worry: climate change is the only thing we should care about. How to get through to enough people to promote urgent action? Noam Chomsky has been trying to get through on politics all his life (see http://www.chomsky.info/). Now he thinks the Occupy Movement may be that catalyst.

Thursday, 10 May: All day with Andreas styling our Red Carpet Collection for a photo shoot. 7.00 pm yoga class.

Friday, 11 May: Specifically thinking about what to say for a person-to-camera video campaign for “Liberty”. I wrote:

We elect governments but we must always fight them. This is Democracy. They will always abuse their power if we let them.
We cannot allow torture and Death and the Death of Justice in our name.
Today LIBERTY must fight harder than ever to maintain our basic Legal Rights which are being swept away.

Afternoon: “Liberty” and interview for GQ China with Robert Johnston. He asked me , “Are you political?” I answered, “Well, a political person tries to influence people and that is what I try to do.” The difference (between me and politicians) is that I know the problem we absolutely must solve and they ignore it. Robert asked me, “Is fashion intellectual?” I answered, “It depends on what you mean by intellect.” (see my blog, “Imitation: The Way We Think”, posted 31.10.11).

Concert at the Barbican: Stravinsky, conductor Gergiev. Andreas and I had a lovely time, snack and cup of tea, wine in the interval. I’m not a music reviewer but there’s nothing more modern, therefore universal, great and exciting than Stravinsky (no progress in art). His fame came from the Ballet Russes; by age 27 the world was at his feet. His looks were intellectual but he was a romantic hero. The age of the Ballet Russes had an amazing impact and Diaghiliev, its creator, was one of the great artists of the 20th century, along with Matisse and Picasso. Tickets for the Barbican concerts start from £10 and it’s the greatest music in the western world. On Saturday, in Trafelgar Square, Gergiev conducted a free Stravinsky concert.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Saturday, Saturday, 12 May: Yoga. Reading – articles and dipping (take it for granted that I read in bed). I must mention cooking and talk about it in full one time. Also, I often spend an hour doing Sudoku – I enjoy it too much to consider it a waste of time.

Sunday, 13 May: Read only my book,”Story of the Stone”. Pleasure from morning till night.

Augmentin