at the life drawing group, but I'm thinking of creating one.
Maybe we all get lashed, put huge canvas' on the floor, pour paint all over each other and drag each other across them ?..........artists naked, model sitting on a stool fully clothed ?
I wonder if the public at large are stupid enough to join in with the slightly hysterical tone of the BBC this morning ?
Picture the scene, some eighteen year old students, who have spent the last five to six years being constantly pressured by educational establishments and their parents, are away from home for the first meaningful time in their lives. Knowing very few people in their new environment they nip out for a couple of pints.
Next thing they know, they are are prostrate, vomiting with a bag on their head, being screamed at by a Nazi..............which of us can honestly say they have never found themselves in a similar situation ?
Anyone who joined H.M.Forces in the 1980's will be very familiar with this sort of training.
Apparently the military still indulge in this sort of thing. Really ?
Men and women who are about to be sent to, or have just returned from, wars in hot foreign countries feel the need to get thoroughly trollied with their mates, and arse about.
The people should be told, it's an outrage, and such a new phenomena.
Old Hogarth was perhaps using a little artistic license, or maybe he tidied things up and the reality was worse, my point is hopefully obvious, people getting hammered and making themselves look stupid is not a new thing.
It's not big, or clever, but at one time or another most of us have got a bit Pinot Grigio'd and made errors of judgement.
If my vague memories of being young, enthusiastic, callow and inexperienced are correct, I was feeling the pressure a bit.
Economically the country was in a hole, and I had joined the military for work. However, as a thinking young man I took the responsibility of that decision fairly seriously.
The received wisdom at the time was that Ivan the Terrible could rip through the Fulda Gap any day he liked. A good friend of mine in a forward unit in Germany had an officially stated life expectancy of six minutes, post kick-off.
Odd though it may seem, we sometimes got a bit pissed up.
Could it be possible that these kids are just letting off steam ?
