wireless nights

as part of a conversation about things neolithic i came across the following quote form julian cope on his wikipedia page.
You could put me in a coracle and send me off to some rock somewhere to make art, but do that to any member of U2 and they wouldn't make art, you know, they'd find a way back to the mainland. It's like Joseph Campbell said, it's the difference between the celebrity and the hero. The celebrity will walk across tall buildings and dance on tightropes for his audience, but the hero will do exactly the same things and if the audience has all gone home, he'll still be doing it to please himself. And that's the thing..

i was thinking about this today while i was listening to the radio and doing the drawing thing, the radio being something that's doable while doing something else - tv on the other hand being an exclusive device, demanding attention only for itself. what i was listening to was jarvis cocker's wireless nights in which jarvis imagines himself on a night flight, interspersed with people talking about their lives in darkness. great for a night shift worker! it's the sort of thing that there's too little of on radio these days but is a form that's ideally suited to the medium. it's a quirky, strange wee programme, but brilliant and i can't wait to hear the next one.

where i diverge from julian cope above is that he goes on to say that the campbellesque hero is different from '99.9%' of the rest of humanity. i'm not so sure. i listen to the people on cocker's programme and, a wee bit like my work, find that the lives of day to day people are often far more interesting than anything that can be fictionalised or shown on tv.

what was i going to say? i get distracted. t hangs bits raw fleece in the tree at the bottom of the garden. the robins are squabbling over it for their nests..