Ostedagbøkene

Den mest berømte dagboken som dokumenterer sosial klassereise er sannsynligvis Che Guevaras Motorsykkeldagbøkene. En mindre dramatisk klassereise - i hvert fall politisk, men kanskje ikke kulturelt - er tidligere bassist i popbandet Blur Alex James' overgang fra partyløve i Soho til sauebonde og osteprodusent på den engelske landsbygda, som D2 skrev om på fredag. James' utvikling som osteprodusent er dokumentert av den britiske avisen The Guardian; ikke på papir, men gjennom videosnutter kalt Ostedagbøkene.

Selv om dagbøkene er ett år gamle, er det mye morsomt å se, ikke minst for dem som er glad i ost. Smart og slagferdig er han også, som i dette intervjuet i forkant av Ostedagbøkene:

"So yeah, there was a connection with me and cheese. [...] I've always loved France; and what's that quote from De Gaulle? 'How can you govern a country that's got 300 different kinds of cheese?' Plus I was a vegetarian for a long time. Till we moved to a farm, in fact. I was the opposite of Paul McCartney. He moved to a farm and became a vegetarian. I moved to a farm and started eating meat ... I think I was a vegetarian as a guilt trip, an attempt to be passively benign. But managing a farm is all about balance. On a farm, you can be much more benign with a shotgun, than you can with a nut roast."

Ett år etter Ostedagbøkene er han åpenbart fortsatt i full sving som osteprodusent, noe som fremgår av hans ukentlige spalte i avisen The Independent. I tillegg til at han småfilosoferer litt over livet som bonde:

"Chickens fighting, sheep always falling over, pigs had measles, dog's got fleas. Tractor, quad bike and digger, in pieces half the year. Roofs blowing off, hedges sprouting out of control like magic beanstalks, mulberries ailing. Beams failing. Badgers, rats, rooks, rabbits all gatecrashing the party. There is always some small emergency or other unfolding in this tiny soap opera, something that demands my full attention and since I became a farmer I've noticed that the existential angst, the malaise that afflicts all those with no tussles, has evaporated completely. I pity anyone who knows what they are doing. The utter boredom afforded by the riches of Croesus and international rock stardom has been replaced with different troubles – overall 'Why?' has turned into 'How?' and that's a much better class of problem to have."

Odelsgutten i hovedstaden merker en liten dragning mot morsgarden på sørvestlandet.
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