Grim viewing... Requiem for a Dream
According to a scientist at Cardiff University, today is officially the most depressing day of the year. A combination of terrible weather, failed New Year's resolutions, post-Christmas debt, next to no daylight and a general sense of nothing much to look forward to conspires to make more people feel glum today than any other.
GPs say that exercise is the best way to beat the blues. No doubt this is the case, but we all know that gloom loves company, so perhaps the best thing to do is make a virtue out of necessity and simply wallow in misery instead. To do this effectively, you need to get hold of some of the biggest downers in art - sad music, depressing books and dismal DVDs.
For the sounds, I think I'd choose Nico's The Marble Index, an album so bleak it makes Radiohead sound like the Cheeky Girls. My book choice would be a toss-up between Thomas Hardy's agonised Jude The Obscure ("because we are too menny" - gulp) and Yukio Mishima's pitiless revenge tragedy Forbidden Colours.
As regards film, today would be a good day to revisit Ingmar Bergman's Through a Glass Darkly, but I might steel myself for my first look at Requiem for a Dream - friends who've seen it certainly hold it up as the most remorselessly grim movie they've ever witnessed.
Then again, I could just watch EastEnders. What heartrending artworks would you recommend?
