500
After very nearly six years this post is the 500th on the blog. A small achievement and probably also a bit of a daft one. It is only a number. Why didn’t I celebrate the 431st post? Or the 497th? Read the rest of this entry »
Wait until next year
Putting off what could be done tomorrow, today
August 1, 2014
Friday Jukebox: Something in 4/4 Time
Daryl Hall, one half of soft rock/yacht rock/generally smooth guys Hall and Oates, gets together with King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp in 1977 and records a weird, sonically challenging album. RCA Records shelve the album, as while it is pretty catchy, it is also strange enough to potentially scare off the legions of Hall and Oates fans. The album, Sacred Songs, is finally released in 1980. And there’s your context. Read the rest of this entry »
July 25, 2014
The pint with your fish and chips on a Friday
Fish Friday. Chippy Tea. Whatever you call it. Fish and chips on a Friday night is one of the great institutions, the sort of tradition that genuinely keeps giving and giving, still seems relevant, vital even. Fish and chips are basically great anytime, but there is something special about having them on a Friday. It is a treat to end the week, a night off the cooking after five days of work. A way to see in the weekend. Read the rest of this entry »
July 24, 2014
The Baffler and The Nostalgia Gap
Nostalgia is a form of propaganda, an exercise in laughter and forgetting, in which the right visual iconography and perceived authenticity can create a longing for an existence which is no longer possible and was in fact never possible.
The Baffler have opened up their archives, so you can now access articles from their 25 issues from 1988 to the present day. The piece quoted above, The Nostalgia Gap, was published in 1993, yet still reads as something valid and true today. It is well worth your time, as are the complete archives that I’m slowly working my way through now. Oddly, reading the old issues creates a similar misplaced longing as outlined in the quote above, which makes my head hurt a little.
July 18, 2014
Gotta get a move on tryin´to find a man I know – A near-review of Vulgar Things by Lee Rourke
Vulgar Things by Lee Rourke is a book about a man who goes to Canvey Island, then Southend, to sort out the affairs of his uncle who has recently died. That’s as much plot as you need. I don’t want to give away the plot. Plus, while it is a good plot, and the story matters, Vulgar Things is about a whole lot more. At least how I read it, anyway. Read the rest of this entry »
Wait until next year 