SOMEONE ELSE'S NIGHTMARE

I've always liked Carey Grant. He made acting look effortless. His timing was impeccable and he never seemed to take himself that seriously. He was a very skilled actor. The other week I walked into a cinema toilet and there was a huge frieze on one of the walls, a still from North By Northwest. That classic scene when he's been chased by the crop dusting plane through the maize field. The image set me thinking.

CHARADE

In the toilet of a cinema in Warrington

I almost bump into Carey Grant

Frozen as he is in black and white and panic

all over one of the walls

He’s in a bit of a pickle

look at those enlarged eyes

Definitely flight or fight mode

who wouldn’t be

He’s been chased

by a crop dusting aeroplane

And is stuck in the re-enactment

of someone else’s nightmare

As if he didn’t have enough

of his own to be going on with

The title Charade is a reference to another film he starred in, one of my favourites. I saw it when it originally came out in 1963 and many times since. Mr Grant had a terrible upbringing and appeared to only become at peace with himself in the 1950s following LSD therapy. I was wondering how a person with so many issues of their own dealt with being in another person's nightmare.

I was reading a series of articles recently in the Irish Examiner entitled Ireland in 50 Albums. It brought back memories of some bands I'd not thought about for years. The Stars of Heaven being one of them. Here's The Lights of Tetoan.

Until next time.