You see, it all started with a simple celebration of Easter in my Primary School and an equally simple competition. Quite an innocuous event some might think, but to me (well my Dad) it was the most sterling test of my education to date. Forget mathematics, english or...... colouring in. This was the big one. I don't think I am understating it to suggest that failure at this point would've held back my academic development by several years. So what was this simple but potentially life changing event........we had to decorate a hard boiled egg!
I was determined (well my Dad was) to give a good account of myself (himself) and snatch the top prize. But what could we (he) use as a theme for this competition. What theme would lend itself to an egg based structure? This was a tough one. We (he) wanted to avoid the usual chick / animal / bee / eye entries. These were becoming almost traditional and therefore should be avoided at all costs. So instead we (he) needed something that had not been done before. So we sat down at our dining room table and slowly and surely we drew our plans against them.
THAT WAS IT!! We would use the egg as a body of a Martian War Machine! It was perfect. The humble hard boiled egg transformed into a pure, evil Martian fighting machine. With surreptitious use of everyday household items this might just be possible. So by adding a lampshade frame, the obligatory pipe cleaner, tin foil and a small model of a frigate the transformation was complete. Behold as an ordinary hard boiled egg (large) was cunningly disguised as a metal war machine. Behold as the tin foil provided the shimmer of the ocean. Behold as the red pipe cleaner became a martian ray bearing down on the helpless frigate below. Behold the destruction, devastation and tragedy of the human race........
....and behold the annoyance when yet another bloody bee won the competition! Actually I can't remember what happened but I am still yet to see a more effective and .... well downright cool entry into an egg painting competition.
And this was the album that inspired it. When I was around nine, this was my latest obsession. From hearing Richard Burton's opening dialogue I was well and truly hooked;
No one would have believed, in the last years of the
nineteenth century, that human affairs were being watched from the timeless worlds
of space.
No one could have dreamed we were being scrutinized, as someone with a microscope
studies creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. Few men even considered
the possibility of life on other planets and yet, across the gulf of space, minds
immeasurably superior to ours regarded this Earth with envious eyes, and slowly and
surely, they drew their plans against us......
Wow! To a nine year old this was powerful stuff. And so the album became a regular feature in our playlist at home. It was stirring stuff and it's no wonder it inspired me (and my Dad) to create a hard boiled egg based homage. It's hard to imagine how anyone, not even the great Jeff Wayne himself, would have thought that the album would advance the art of decorating eggs to new heights. And how against all the odds, simple everyday items could be used in such an effective way making any subsequent attempts at egg based art obsolete. Now that would make for a great story and 70s prog rock concept album!
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