general conditions.

Boone. 21 Jul 2010.

Richard Boone was one of my very all-time favorite actors. He starred in Paladin, the 1960 TV series. His most memorable role, to me, was his role as Cicero Grimes in the Paul Newman film, Hombre. It was a revisionist western, not unlike my favorite western, the Jim Mangold re-do of 3:10 to Yuma. 3:10 seems to be such a metaphor – when you watch the western films Peck made, like the Mangold re-do – you realise that to an ‘average viewer’ the film is just a western. If you look more closely – there is a hell of a lot more being said/commented on – a hell of a lot more story and inference. If you are literal in your interpretations – these films will mean next to nothing to you. However, if your capture system is more broad based, these films are gold mines of thought.

Riddles. 13 Jul 2010.

Ridley Scott has spent more time making films that ‘mean something to someone’ or have a less than populist appeal than anyone that I can think of. And still emerged from the other side of the tunnel for it. Back to artists. Back to belief systems. He’s King Kong, in my book.

Digits. 13 Jul 2010.

This is Nori, K and Lago. I had taken my watercolour kit to Venice and the girls wanted to try it. So here we are in San Marco Square after having bought them materials. Their clothes became part of their artwork as well.

I just finished a large digital drawing that will be digitally packed and shipped to Venice for an installation.

Ferguson. 12 Jul 2010.

I was delighted to read Niall Ferguson’s article “The People’s Banker”. On my way from two years in Wall Street to Bombay in 1962, I accepted an invitation for lunch in London from a then recent friend, Ronald Grierson (now Sir Ronald). I arrived at SG Warburg & Co and was pleasantly surprised to be ushered into Siegmund Warburg’s office. SGW barely got up from his chair to shake my hand and said: “I hear you are a poet.” I look puzzled until Ronnie explained that SGW was referring to a comment Ronnie had made earlier about my command of the English language!

SGW then asked me what I had learnt in my two years as a trainee with a major Wall Street firm. I replied stoically: “How to make money at the expense of one’s clients, and to be always alert to being stabbed in my back by some of my colleagues.”
SGW laughed and then asked, “How long will you be here?” To which I responded, “I was invited for lunch and expect to stay till some sherry is served after lunch, if that would be acceptable?” SGW interrupted and said, “No, no – how loooong will you be with us?”

I realised then that I was being offered a job. I stayed as a trainee at SGW & Co for a year and left for India with profound respect and admiration for SGW and the bank. They were the finest group of bankers I have had the privilege to know over 45 years in finance.

Ajit G. Hutheesing,
Greenwich, CT, US

Stretching. 9 Jul 2010.

In America, the stretching seems to flummox about – not here.

FedX. 5 Jul 2010.

LAFF. 30 Jun 2010.

‘chasing KEINO’ will screen on the opening day of the film festival on 9 July. If you are in Los Angeles, please stop by and see my film. I stopped in Santa Fe on my drive home from Idaho & Montana and caught up with Jynocel Basweti. I had the opportunity to run with Basweti on four miles of his ten mile run. He is best friends with Robert Cheriot, four time NY Marathon winner. They call Basweti, because of his build, ‘the small tractor’.