I miss ’em. Yellow chinagraph pencil in your teeth, offcuts of tape round your neck, and the total certainty that there is a wonderful edit in your hands if only you could find it.
Computers have ruined handicrafts, haven’t they?
But may I boast at you about something? I can boast because it’s not remotely important but I think it works so sweetly. And it’s this: at 4’37” into this week’s UK DVD Review podcast there’s a clip that segues between two totally unrelated films that, for just a moment, you’ll think were made for each other.
And, sorry, that link goes to my website’s podcast page rather than directly to the audio because I also want you to see the photograph. It has no connection to anything, but I like it. Central Park, New York City, 2005.
Still got Suzanne Vega thumping away in my head,
William
I’m sure I recognise this writing style – and a little bit too much love of a good segue. Now I know who ate all the chinagraphs at BHBN. Or do I?
‘Ere, I bought my own!
Actually, I did: the other year I saw some on sale and bought a little box of them entirely on nostalgic reflex. Haven’t used them once, despite having a nice reel to reel recorder right by my desk. Maybe if I ever used the reel to reel.
Did you know that chinagraph pencils come unsharpened? They’re perfect cylinders. I didn’t and you probably didn’t because you would never see a new one in a studio, it’d always be a stub. And when would a radio studio have a pencil sharpener?
But of course you never needed one: you were cutting tape with razor blades so you’d just whittle the pencil when you needed.
And I had entirely forgotten that. I’ll probably forget it again quite soon, but ta for the burst of nostalgia.
William