Masters Of Their Art

Masters Of Their Art©

By Michael Casey

I was watching the tv and I was musing on the skills of performers, Robbie Williams and Jonathon Miller to be exact. Just how do they manage to be so confidence, confidence and arrogance are first cousins I suppose, but confidence is what I’ll talk about first of all. In my own case I started primary school as one brother got into Grammar school, so it made me happy and aware of  my mother’s mantra “you’re as good as anybody. In the end 4 of us got to grammar school. I could say how amazing that was considering we were from a working class Irish background, but in the end that may be considered boring, as everybody talks about just how poor they were. By the time I got to grammar school the eldest had just got into Oxford, now that WAS amazing for the time. I remember him listening to Cream at level 11 while he studied, our mum used to bang on the door “Mr Dixon is working nights, switch it off” Years later the next brother listened to music too, but not as loud, using the same speaker. He was different, he did not get to Oxford, he had a gap year before they were invented, then HE went to Cambridge. I do have one thing in common with my clever brothers, they listened to Eric Clapton while studying, I met the man himself when I was a concierge at a hotel.

The point of all this family boasting/pride is the fact that they worked very very hard, that’s how they achieved what they did. Me I’m the “failure” with 5 books on Amazon Kindle and I’m working on “Tears For A Butcher” my 6^th book, when I’m not blogging on my sites, including The Daily Telegraph blog area, just  Google “michaelgcasey” and follow your nose.

Now Michael Parkinson is back with a new show and that will be “masterclass”, I grew up with Michael in the 1970s when he was on the BBC, but what I hope his show will reveal is how “masters” do what they do. I had confidence most of my life because of what my bigger brothers did, it was like a shield, or intellectual big stick which was always with me. I should say though that I was a big fish in a small pool most of my working life, however once you work at a Law Firm then you begin to realise just how little your intellect is. However the LOVE that my mother gave us all, now that  was as powerful as having Saint Michael by your side, a Kerrywoman never stops praying, and even if she is dead 16years now, she is still praying.

Confidence the like Robbie Williams has, or ability the kind Jonathon Miller has really is an amazing thing to watch, I had a peek at both of them on the tv tonight. Now I’d love to see how the pair of them would get on together, thinking about it though, Jonathon might turn Robbie into an opera. Confidence is born out of ability, out of practice,  practice prevents piss poor performance as Derek once said to me. Mental energy is used at 1million volts level when you are a top performer such as Robbie Williams. As for Jonathon Miller he said he is a people watcher and modestly said he is just reminding his actors  how to insert body language into their performance. The writer Jack Rosenthal used to say he did the school run in order to pick up dialogue for his plays. So observation works its way into performance, into writing.

Making things up does not really happen, life is filtered through us, and when we create or perform we are giving something

extra to the observed life. I tell people that I am like Slumdog Millionaire because what I’ve lived has created the man I am, and gives me whatever ability I now have. Yes you can inherit pretty genes, take my daughters for example, last time they were in Shanghai, at the zoo they were filmed more than the animals.  Both  girls are very artistic, 700 crayons and felts and paints is the last estimate, which is not enough, they always need more. Where did this skill come from? Gene  pool and uncles giving them the tools, and not being allowed computer games at home. Today they were modelling clay in their studio, which sometimes passes for a bedroom.

Now to become a master practice is almost like an obsession, we had Richard Clayderman  at the hotel once, 10 years ago or so when I was there, and Richard had a practice keyboard with him, something you roll out on a desk. Even he kept the practice going, it’ll be interesting next weekend as my girls will start piano practice behind me. Will my girls become the next big piano thing, Lang Langs from Birmingham?

You can get sick of things, things can get stale, ask any actor, actors move on to fresh fields. Artists and Masters are lucky because they get paid to do stuff they enjoy. The famous quote from Jacob Bronowski to Michael Parkinson  “ I’m like a prostitute, I get paid to do what I enjoy.” and Michael quibbled about prostitutes and enjoyment. Bronowski replied “ perhaps you know more about that subject than me.”  Game Set and Match to Bronowski.

In conclusion, the more you like stuff the better you become, most  of us have to do stuff we don’t like so that we can do stuff that we do like  at the weekend, that’s if you don’t work shifts. Me I’ve done shifts all my life, but now I write I can really enjoy myself whenever I’m by a computer with Word on it. Feedback can make or break any spirit, but a few well-chosen words can really be a life saver to somebody reading your words. A song sung can help people survive the pain of the day, so think of that in the morning when you go to church.

Ricked my Back

Michael Casey

Ricked my back, so its a chance for the wife to nag me, you should do this, you shouldn't do that. Pushing me into a hot bath, as if she's boiling chips. Hiding my dressing gown, leaving me to simmer while she screams to her mum in Shanghai over the Internet The usual Adams Birmingham Family behaviour


Crawling Like a Worm in The Dirt, humbled by a photo copier. ©

By Michael Casey



Well this is my 100th post, I had hoped I could think up something nice or even spectacular. This is what I've come up with. I'm laughing now as I type. Yesterday 5minutes after I started work I bent down to fill up the copiers. I filled one, then another, then I did a third. I then screamed, I had straightened up too fast and had ricked/strained my back on the right hand side. So these past 27hours have been a lesson in pain and humility. I felt such a fool at work, the girls I work were both sympathetic and funny. Somebody came by for some coloured paper , I bent down to look under our shelf and I was racked with pain, one girl told me to crawl away out of the way so that she could find it instead. I hobbled away, out of the way. The rest of day I moved about like an 80 year old, rather like my own dad. I hoped that on my lunch break while I sat for 30mins in the cathedral my back would be restored. We stand all day in our print as some of you may remember me mention. Prayer and rest for 30mins no doubt aided my soul but not my back. I went back to work and hobbled about for a couple of hours. Then I decided I really had to go home and rest.
Getting home I got off the bus and had to walk only 300yards, a crippled Charlie Chaplin kind of walk, though I look more like Oliver Hardy. I was home 2 hours earlier than normal so the family were surprised.
I told them I was fired as a joke. Then I sat down on an old chair and then I could hardly move. Standing up again was an impossibility. Last Friday we had a drama with my youngest, this Friday,Friday 13th it was my turn. My girls all laughed at me,just as I would laugh at them if the tables were reversed. Night came and knew I could never climb the stairs to bed, but at least our bathroom was downstairs. So I tumbled onto our sofa and got ready to spend the night there. Only we have a glass coffee table in front of it and I was afraid of falling off onto it. So at 1am I staggered up the stairs like a drunk with locked joints, then I rolled onto my bed, screaming as I did so. I did sleep, but in the morning I had to slither out like a snake sliding out of bed on my belly. Some positions were possible and some were not. My wife laughed till she cried my youngsters did too, as for me, I laughed and cursed and laughed again. My wife went to see the pharmacy man for advice and a spray for me. The pharmacist laughed too, he's an old friend. When she got back I was all sprayed up, the old spray and the newly bought one drenching me and my room with the stench of a bad back. I slithered in and out of bed, crawling around as I couldn't stand up straight. As for getting down stairs that would be an impossibility. My wife went shopping, stopping first to steal my debit card, laughing she left me in my bed of pain. When she returned she gave me yoghurt and orange juice. Later I just had to go downstairs, but I couldn't walk. I slithered off bed like snake, then made it to my hands and knees, then an inspired idea. I bounced down the stairs one step at a time, on my butt , one step at a time. Then I crawled across our living room and pulled myself up onto a chair. I did notice that we needed a new carpet after 20years our carpet does need replacing. I then rewarded myself by stealing my wife's pork she'd just made.
Later after some movements like belly dancer of 120 years old, I managed to straighten up. I do walk as if I have a full diaper though. I made it too my big chair in front of my computer. And that’ s how I got to write this 100th post.
The moral of all this? Well I am a very bad patient. Health is the most important thing in our lives. I rejoice that my girls have a good sense of humour, even if I am the butt of it all. Last year when I had food poisoning they had plenty to laugh about then. And I do laugh at that memory. We are all worms crawling in the dirt. It is God's love that lifts us up, as does our family life. Sometimes it is only though pain and adversity that we learn such truths, sometimes we learn mundane things, but they too have meaning for us, even if its just the fact that we need a new living room carpet.

Amazon reviews

NOVEMBER 21ST, 2012 16:42

Amazon Reviews

By michaelgcasey

I just finished The Book Thief  and have The Shadow of The Wind lined up, as well as a bit of Macbeth. So I’m looking at reviews on Amazon and reading a few sample pages to help me choose what next to read. I noticed some of the reviewers had been given review copies. So how do I get on that list,  the review copy list. My girls are going through Michael Murpurgo and the Lemony Snicket books, we’ve just bought and built two bookcases. I’d love for all of us to read a lot more. The wife is Chinese and doesn’t read  books in English, apart from the Bible and that’s a bilingual version proped up against the phone to my right. The girls read the Bible too, in English, I’m an old Catholic so I have a tape recording of it in my head, 50+ years of attending Mass…

To the point though, just how could I get new books on tap, do I go to the pub and the barman pours me a pint of best seller, straight from the cellar. Now that could kill two birds with one stone. I don’t really visit pubs any more, I used to when I was a music and beer  fan, Folk and Jazz clubs…

Just imagine being plugged straight into Amazon, and if I didn’t like that week’s book I’d just hand it to the charity shop, I’m smiling at the very thought of it. Something is stiring within me, maybe I need to finish off writing  my 6th book, Tears For A Butcher. Having just finished The Book Thief this very morning I’ll be trying to capture the poetry when I write myself, though I have been told in the past that my writing is a bit poetic, or was it pathetic, I’ll have to have my ears cleaned again. Just in case any Amazon People read this I am Michael Casey  or michaelgcasey on my Id, ah well I live in hope, free books……

Day Off

Michael Casey

Why do girls love crayons and pencils and pens and so on. Just had to order more for my girls. One of them had a day off as the school heating was broke, so she read 3 Lemony Snicket books while at home. I read more of The Book Thief myself. Then I had to buy some cotton socks for my daughter, her feet grow so fast, size 5 at age 11, I hope she doesn't turn into a giant. She's battering my ears with piano practice just behind me. If ever I sell some books we'll have a music room, with soundproofing!

Amazon Kindle for my 5 books and future soundproofing

The Book Thief

Built another bookcase today, the front room really looks nice now. All the ringbinders are all tidied up, my CDs are all neatly in a row now. Only I don't have a HiFi anymore, perhaps in the future, but I do have my music on the computer.
I have been reading The Book Thief which is narrated by Death, I'm at page 200 now. I am very very impressed by the writing, I'll never be that good, but I'll try to be as good as I can be, cannot say fairer than that. I reached the part where the painter said "A promise is a promise" he would hide a Jew from the insane Nazi machine, his life had been saved by a Jew and a dear friend, who had taught him to play the accordian  in The Great War and he made a promise to the widow,   "a promise is a promise", I cried. Such simplicity, such honour. A life saved now 20 years later he would protect the son because "a promise is a promise" The painter's only life would now be in danger, but "a promise is a promise." I've still got to finish the book but it  really did make me think of the war generation, the war generation in Germany, they suffered the madness of Evil. All I can say is read the book.

Author Blurb

Well I'm fat, almost tall and I have silver coloured hair. You can see for yourself on the book covers. I wear shades because I need them they are not a pose, do I look like the kind of person who poses?

I have a Shanghai wife and 2 bilingual daughters, laughter is a big theme in our house, it stops the wife form nagging me. The term the wife is an old fashioned term that I like so I use it, its from British comedians from a different era. I try and write comedy/comic pieces as I'd rather make you laugh or at least smile instead of causing you pain. I do reserve the right  to make you think too, or try at any rate.

Writing is all about trying to influence people without the use of substances, touch their heart or influence their mind, and maybe steal a bit of their money and get them to buy all 5 of my Ebooks. So much for the theory, I'm a much fatter version of Gangham Style and see what happened to him.

Building a Bookcase

Building a Bookcase ©

By Michael  Casey

Well you buy your kids books to read, to expand their minds, then you need a bookcase trouble is the flat pack had no tools, normally an allen key is included. So I went hunting for the tools, mine used to belong to one of the lodgers, 30 year old tools, I got his tools when he died, he got my prayers. He has no family so  only my prayers are helping him get into Heaven, a trade off. He was like an uncle to me, he gave me my 1st watch for passing the 11 plus. So I always remember him, whenever I see the time. I think he got the better part of the deal.

So I root out my tools and then I have to put the bookcase together up the corner of the girls’ room. If I found the posidrive screwdriver than I could have doen it in 10 minutes. I had tipped my screwdrivers out all over the floor and the bed. I had to use the traditional/normal screwdriver with plenty of brute force. I did half a job. The I sat on the bed and I sat on the correct screwdriver the posidriver, the cross shaped one, the one that GKN invented in the 70s. So with a sigh, or maybe a curse I finished off the job in a couple of easy minutes. Then just the matter or tacking the back on with a hammer, I do have a nice hammer of my own. Then ever so carefully I manoeuvred the bookcase into the corner. The girls were happy and I left them to stack the shelves.

I returned to discover they had filled it. Luckily the shelf depth is such that you can put 2 rows of books on each shelf. Maybe we should have bought a full height bookcase. £22 from Argos was what I got, for double we could have doubled the height of the bookcase. I do have” teacher’s corner “in the room downstairs, so maybe when the girls have filled their bookcase double I’ll invest in a new bookcase, a full sized double width one. Then my teachers corner can be tidied up and they can rent out a shelf or two from me. You don’t think of all this when you read a book or two, or when you encourage your kids to read. Yes we do use the library at the bottom of the road but there is a nice satisfaction in owning a book or two.

Amazon sent me a list of books I may like:-

The Time Keeper – Mitch Albom; Hardcover

Have A Little Faith – Mitch Albom; Paperback

Tuesdays With Morrie: An old man, a young man, and life’s greatest lesson – Mitch Albom; Paperback

The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom; Paperback

The Book Thief – Markus Zusak; Paperback

Life of Pi – Yann Martel; Paperback

And they are  on my to read list once payday and the lottery arrives

But I need to make sure of one thing, I am not sitting on a posidrive screwdriver when I need to build a flatpack book shelf again , and that could be very soon.