Missing (Leith) Links

Antony Gormley statue at Edinburgh Ocean Terminal. This is why I blip. I walked round the concrete and the barbed wire, trying to get an angle on the huge cargo ship moored by the shopping centre - and I found this. Which is exactly what Gormley intended - I stopped in my tracks and changed what I was doing which changed the focus for the rest of my day. That's art, so it is. By the way.

Gormley's Edinburgh statues link the Modern Art Gallery to the sea, positioned along the Water of Leith. This one is the 'end of the line', standing over the Western Harbour by the shopping centre and next to the Royal Yacht Brittania (and don't start me on the concept of paying to board a vessel which we the tax payers paid for in the first place...).

My friend Ross blipped "One of those metal men around Edinburgh", which he helpfully observed "even has a willy". Hmm. Maybe that's why mine's bashfully facing out to sea. Or maybe it's pissing on Fife. Officially it "looks out to the point where the river course meets the sea". Whatever. Cracking lump of rusty metal.

Seeing Gormley's "Field for the British Isles" (thousands of little clay men - which won the 1994 Turner Prize) in the Edinburgh Modern Art Gallery many years ago (1993?) was a real "no way" moment for me. Art, from that moment, is for me about effect not about craft. Craft is great, yes. But change my mind and you have my heart. Who really gives a fig about Velasquez or Picasso, versus the visceral impact of Gormley's childlike simplicity? Not me.

Sermon over!

The children and I went to the cinema to see the very very bad "Marmaduke", which they enjoyed. Cost £1 each - "Kids AM" - so OK. Awful film though. Then we went to various shops and spent various vouchers we'd been given for Christmas. Spent almost nothing, came home with a hoard. Wii games, DS games, books, lunch. No cash. Excellent. I got "3 for 2" on "Very Short Introduction" books on Design, Photography and The First World War which apparently shouldn't be 3 for 2. So even better. Free Bargains!