|
|
ThreadingWaves™ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈
KOOL DOOD! ~Christopher David Bentley*
 Aboard at a ship’s helm.
A young steersman steering with care.
Walt Whitman, “Leaves of Grass”
≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈
 Christopher Bentley lives in a house that's something like a little slice of Inter-War, Outer-London suburbia transplanted into the middle of the verdant Derbyshire countryside, overlooking the town of Belper itself, nestling in the valley of the River Derwent, 'The Silicon Valley of the late-18th Century', with his ever-loving parents, still sleeping in the bedroom in which he was born at 3.45 pm on a warm, mildly sultry July afternoon in 1961.
He has done all sorts to earn a living, with varying degrees of success, from baking all the goodies for the tourists at the visitors' restaurant at nearby Kedleston Hall, to his first attempt at being a serial entrepreneur – being his own boss at CeeDeeBee German Translators. He is an alumnus of the University of Derby, ('The Friendly, European University') where he studied Geography with German, choosing to combine the two strands of his studies in his final-year project – an investigation into comparing the public transport system of his home city of Derby with three cities in Germany of a similar population – Aachen, Hagen and Krefeld, working with a bus company in Aachen on the way, leading to his joining the campaign to save Derby's unique Art Deco Bus Station, which is no longer with us but at least the seeds were sown for his magnum opus on the Web, 'Derby Does Curved Corners, Delightful Deco and Magic Modernism' – http://uk.geocities.com/old_soul_rebel/mm/ddccddmm.html
When he's not working on the site he likes nothing better than to whop anything 60s-ish and danceable on the turntable of his ageing record player and practise a little fancy footwork for his nights out around Derby – 'The Brooklyn Of England' (as described, immortally, by some Black American artists appearing at Derby Playhouse). Bizarrely, he's also a fan of Norwich City and Dunfermline Athletic football clubs, although he often wonders why.
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
CHRIS, WRITE
INTRODUCTION … Topics, Issues, Derby’s Art Deco and beyond, Pearls & Jive Turkeys:--
- It is thanks, ultimately, to Milton H. Smith of the Coach Company that one finds me here, contributing to 'Threading Waves'. He was angling for a representative in Europe to sell his company's coach tours in New England and since I had contacts in Germany I thought, “why not put myself forward as one?” Nothing came of it itself but I did get a carton of fresh oranges from his holiday home in Florida, which was nice! I became a 'E-penfriend' of his and in that particular threading of waves I found myself on the left-hand side of proceedings, politically speaking. I was looking around on the Web for references to a Romanian press article he linked off to me and came across Mimi Lozano's SomosPrimos.com site - submitting an article entitled 'Soul Music: The Latino Hole' in the process - and since Arthur was one of her contacts I was sucked into the 'Threading Waves' web. Given my experience of living and working in Germany, a country against which Great Britain fought two deadly wars in the last century, I am passionately interested in the importance of sane relationships between peoples. The same goes for Black and White, in the context of this publication. When dealing with the weighty issue of race relations one may think that the matter of a few Twentieth Century buildings in a provincial city in the middle of England is a mere frippery, but I think it is vital to understand that buildings symbolise who and what we are. Derby's story in the second of the aforementioned 'deadly wars' was a strange one. As the headquarters of Rolls Royce aero engines, providing the very heartbeat of the RAF's heroic resistance to the hordes of the Luftwaffe, one would have thought that it should have been a key target and that therefore it should have ended the conflict substantially 'rearranged'. Ironically, it is perhaps this vital importance that saved it, thanks to the ingenious trickery used to guide the bombers elsewhere. This means that, unlike so many comparable cities, where many very recently-constructed Art Deco-era buildings were destroyed, remarkably many such buildings survive in Derby. The Nazis hated Art Deco, Modernism and everything that travelled with it. Derby stands as a defiant declaration that their attempts to drag the World back to Churchill's 'New Dark Age' had dismally failed. As we enter a new century buildings of the recent past (in British terms!) are coming under increasing threat so now or never is the time to ensure that as many good examples survive to tell the incredible story of the Twentieth Century, so the fight to ensure that survival should be inspired by the same spirit of dogged defiance.
- I urge you, please, to subscribe NOW to 'Threading Waves' to ensure its work towards promoting interracial understanding can continue and that – much more importantly! - I can go out and treat myself, with my share of the commission, to a new record player to keep those sounds of danceable Blackness turning.
- Arthur can claim to have invented the term 'Subliminal Racism'. However, I have a claim of my own along those lines. I have invented the term 'Coffee Bar Modernism' to describe two buildings in Derby of early- to mid-1960s vintage – the development substantially occupied by Millets and the recently closed-down Derby branch of Debenhams. I think the nearest equivalent term in the U.S. would be what is known as 'Doo-Wop Architecture', but that'd be more 1950s than 1960s, wouldn't it? PLEASE JOIN...
|
