Imbecile Questions... Inadequately Answered...

Long Night

2010-11-21T15:25:00.001Z

Stepping over the vomit, you remember too late: only a fool would go out into a provincial English town centre late in the evening. It’s night of the living dead out here.

Screams that sound like they come from the Dante-damned. And that’s just from the people who are enjoying themselves.

The lurching zombie threat of violence simmering.

Saw two fights on West Street last night, and a third on Division Street. None of them amounted to much; the second came closest when a girl took off her heels and went for the chap with whom she had her grievance. Police jumped out of a van and intervened, but not before his shirt was ruined.

Later, walking to The Wicker to get a taxi, I attempted some photos of Castle Market.

None of them came out.

The steaming bowels of the earth

2010-11-06T15:19:00.003Z

J.B. Priestley, English Journey (1933)

The ideals that dominate the colleges to-day will rule the world to-morrow

2010-10-21T00:02:00.002+01:00

Bookmark found in Culture and Society, by Raymond Williams.

Not exactly imbecile…

2010-10-20T23:37:00.001+01:00

Capitalism and Donald Barthelme.

Ruined towers and broken bridges

2010-09-08T00:38:00.001+01:00

It is almost embarrassing to say, but I am not sure that I have ever really loved Nabokov. Maybe the closest I came was with Pnin, but for the most part admiration is not love.

Still

2010-08-28T01:01:00.001+01:00

via

Fragments are the only forms I trust

2010-06-30T21:49:00.002+01:00

I expect that in certain circles the above is as clichéd a thing to quote in relation to Barthelme as ‘Fail again. Fail better.’ is in relation to Beckett.

But what of it? There are times when even the most laboured of clichés can be profitably put back to work.

This fierce and unregenerate clay

2010-05-17T01:48:00.001+01:00

This map of Scholes Village, South Yorkshire, was drawn by Kevin Rooney and appears in his book Rook Town.

What does it all mean?

2010-05-16T23:54:00.001+01:00

Bookmark found in The Fall of Public Man, by Richard Sennett.

Happy Loyalty Day!

2010-05-01T15:45:00.001+01:00

Leaflet printed on 100th Anniversary of first Chicago May Day Demonstration, by Coventry Trades Council, May 1986.

Eskimo Poem (for Nigel Barton)

2010-04-20T23:48:00.002+01:00

He was out of place and
he knew it.

Photo lifted from here.

Fancy-free

2010-04-18T21:34:00.001+01:00

Arghiri Emmanuel, Unequal exchange; A study of the imperialism of trade.

So Rotherham

2010-04-06T19:17:00.001+01:00

On the way to the bus station this afternoon I bumped into the town mayor, and my MP.

On the bus home I read The Impact of Inequality: How to Make Sick Societies Better, by Richard Wilkinson.

I wish I had thought of something more trenchant to say to Mr MacShane than ‘Uh… well… good luck beating them… not that you need it here.’

Kids Know

2010-04-05T18:07:00.001+01:00

Etre et Avoir.

Education

2010-03-16T23:30:00.001Z

Ruth Ewan, Moderately Wrathful. Part of Art Sheffield 2010; Life: A User’s Manual.

Du mußt dein Leben ändern

2010-03-03T23:51:00.001Z

Rilke, tr. Stephen Mitchell.

(Not) my philosophy

2010-01-12T19:12:00.003Z

Do not underestimate objects

2010-01-05T14:09:00.002Z

What if we're lacking something?

2010-01-03T20:13:00.003Z

Surviving Desire is an odd film. Lots of mannered acting; I was going to say it reminded me of Lynch + Kaurismäki, but having already made one witless comparison to the latter - NO!

My Endz

2009-12-25T23:11:00.003Z

At 115 feet, Keppel's Column is the tallest of the Wentworth follies; it was originally planned to be even taller and capped with a statue of Admiral Keppel, but evidently the Marquis of Rockingham ran short of funds! It was designed by John Carr, who was also responsible for the Wentworth Woodhouse stables and the family's Irish house at Coollattin.

Admiral Keppel was a friend of the Marquis and a fellow Whig who was court-martialled following a naval defeat at the hands of the French in 1777. The Marquis had already planned to build a pillar to mark the southern boundary of his park, but following Keppel's acquittal he adapted the design and aimed to create a triumphal pillar by way of celebrating what he saw as a defeat for the government. Sadly the building as designed wasn't completed, which leaves us with an oddly proportioned tower which seems to bulge out slightly due to the entasis about three quarters of the way up (had it been completed to it's full height this architectural effect should have made it appear straight from a distance).

Remove Ya!

2009-06-24T18:52:00.005+01:00

Inspired by BtI:

Capitalism demands the best of every man – his rationality – and rewards him accordingly. It leaves every man free to choose the work he likes, to specialize in it, to trade his product for the products of others, and to go as far on the road of achievement as his ability and ambition will carry him.

Hi Scores

2008-05-02T01:37:00.003+01:00

For the last few months, I have, slightly embarrassingly, somehow become, well, addicted, to playing Snake (II), on my antiquated mobile phone.

I had hoped I could reach 3000 and then never play the bastard thing ever again, but tonight I have accepted defeat.

I got 2883.

Capitalism sure is sunny!

2008-04-06T19:49:00.004+01:00

Two 3 hour long films that deal with two types of capitalistic society; Lindsay Anderson's O Lucky Man and Lars von Trier's Dogville.

Capitalism arose and took off its pajamas. Another day, another dollar. Each man is valued at what he will bring in the marketplace. Meaning has been drained from work and assigned instead to remuneration. Unemployment obliterates the world of the unemployed individual. Cultural underdevelopment of the worker, as a technique of domination, is found everywhere under late capitalism. Authentic self-domination by individuals is thwarted. The false consciousness created and catered to by mass culture perpetuates ignorance and powerlessness. Strands of raven hair floating on the surface of the Ganges…Why can't they clean up the Ganges? If the wealthy capitalists who operate the Ganges wig factories could be forced to install sieves, at the mouths of their plants… And now the sacred Ganges is choked with hair, and the river no longer knows where to put its flow, and the moonlight on the Ganges is swallowed by the hair, and the water darkens. By Vishnu! This is an intolerable situation! Shouldn't something be done about it?

Tati + Kaurismäki + Kafka =

2008-03-25T18:05:00.002Z

Roy Andersson?

Oh, I don't know, I don't know where Kafka fits in, but there's something of him in there.

You, the Living (Du levande) is peculiar, but wonderful.

Bertolucci's The Conformist (Il Conformista) looked a lot better than it actually is, sadly.

Snow White

2007-10-04T23:43:00.000+01:00

In the further development of the story, would you like more emotion ( ) or less emotion ( )?

Perhaps it is wrong to have favorites among the forms, but retraction has a special allure for me. I would wish to retract everything, if I could, so that the whole written world would be...

Women of the World, Take Over

2007-09-04T23:35:00.000+01:00

Fat Girl (or, À ma soeur!, to anyone who prefers it that way)

Awful film, in almost every way.

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

As good as anything by Almodóvar, brilliantly ridiculous.

A Woman Under the Influence

Far, far too great for me to even try to write about.

Welcome to Everytown

2007-09-01T15:08:00.000+01:00

I confess that I wanted to hate this book more than I did.

There is even half a page about education and (the poverty of-)aspiration. What more could anyone ask for?

Funny Games

2007-08-24T19:52:00.000+01:00

For a long time, I have wondered what a novel written by me would look like. My best guess is that it would look like some tenth rate Beckett.

On occasion I have also pondered what the result might be if I turned my hand to making music, but I am yet to come up with a satisfactory answer.

I had never really considered what a film made by me would look like, until I saw Funny Games a few days ago.

There is a half-decent piece here about it. The parallels with A Clockwork Orange are obvious, and I am rather disappointed that I did not consider the Brechtian angle, especially given its general verfremdungs-ness. There might also be profit in considering the film in relation to the plays of Pinter, but that is well beyond my capabilities.

The Dolt

2007-08-24T19:34:00.000+01:00

Thinking of anything was beyond him. I sympathize. I myself have these problems. Endings are elusive, middles are nowhere to be found, but the worst of all is to begin, to begin, to begin.

Consider this a beginning.