Posts by Jackie Clark
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I was just thinking that the brief you gave, Jackson, was to post our best shots of 2011. It grieves me, more than I can say, that I can't ever share my best shots with you all, because every last one of the most wonderful photos I take are of the children I teach. So in lieu, I shall have to describe my favourite photo to you. I should qualify why it's my favourite. In theory, one should not, as a professional teacher, have children who one favours. However, there is one little girl - I call her my daughter from another mother (out of earshot of everyone concerned, of course). And in practice, I don't favour her more than anyone else, except in my heart. She has a lovely family, a loving wonderful family, so it isn't that she has it worse than any other child here, like some I teach. She has just the most wondrous, joyful, inquiring, open spirit. Every morning, she comes to seek me out, just to touch base, and make sure that we are where we are meant to be, her and I. The photo is of her and I looking into the little aperture on the top of my laptop, with our faces together, enjoying the photographic capture of our relationship. It's one in a series of photos that she and I took together, using Photo Booth with it's different effects. When we'd finished taking the photos, we were looking at all of them. And I asked her which one she liked best - bearing in mind, we'd taken about 20, and that big a number can be confusing to a 3 1/2 year old. She looked at the options on the screen, and pointed to the shot. Why do you like that one? I asked her. "Because. It's you and me" she said.
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Capture: City Scenes, in reply to Damian Christie,
I love this shot, Damian. Such fierce concentration on this wee man's face.
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Capture: City Scenes, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
Oh, so that's where you were last night. Next Thursday, I promise, I will be there too.
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This year, I saw Phoenix Foundation live for the first time every, at the Power Station. I was struck by how very Pink Floyd Wall of Sound they were live. Otherwise, my brother tried to educate me musically from afar with Lykke Li, Cut Copy, and others. But I just didn’t get it. Angus and Julia Stone were a revelation though.
2011 will always be, to me, the year I got my first iPod. And discovered playlists, and such things. How did I ever walk without music? I don't know how others do it, but I walk in time with the music, and over the year, my walking pace has increased so that this is my speed.
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Capture: Colour is the new black, in reply to Richard Aston,
As a kindergarten teacher, it behoves me to be colourful.....
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I do, as it happens, Richard.
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OnPoint: Dear Labour Caucus, in reply to Damian Christie,
I wasn't brought up middle class. We didn't have the words for it back then, but I guess my origins, on my father's side, would be upper middle class, if anything. We all went to private schools. Most of us went to university. I was brought up that that was just what you did, if you had the inclination - although Dad didn't, but that was because of the Great Depression. And that had nothing to do with money, any of that. Private schools in those days didn't cost an arm and a leg, and university was as cheap as chips to attend. Seriously. We travelled all the time (domestically, but still). We had a yacht, and nice cars, and Dad had a Very Important Job. After the last yacht was sold, we had a holiday home. My father never had a mortgage, and never owed anyone any money, for anything. All that sounds pretty elitist, I guess. But it never felt like that. We were never allowed to talk about money, ever. Or class. Or the lack of it. Now, I guess I would say I'm middle class - if it were to do with income, and means. If it were about expectations and how you are brought up? Far more complicated.
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But it was also the year that Ruby came into our lives. She's brought some controversy, and disruption, but most importantly, she's brought inordinate amounts of joy and allconsuming love.
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This was the year that my beloved Cleo died.
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I have to say that today I am wearing red, and much of how I made the decision this morning revolves around how this thread has made me think a bit more about how much colour there is, out in the world, and how determinedly I stick to wearing black most times. And how utterly ridiculous it is that many of us go around wearing what would have been mourning garb many years ago. Piss on that. It's been a hard enough year for a great number of people. Time to get cheerful with the clothes!
