Items of interest

Fantastic deconstruction of the mainstream liberal left’s thinking towards the West, Israel and the US in particular. It argues that we now live in a time that the Left would more likely defend a totalitarian fascist regime, rather then stand up against it and show solidarity towards it’s oppressed. Why? Because of the lazy and vague critique that it is ultimately the West’s fault or that we can’t morally impose our values onto their culture. While these excuses may have a modicum of truth in them – they should not be enough to stop us doing good in the world. Of course, this thinking is what brought us to the current Middle Eastern situation (unless you think it is a guileless conspirarcy all to do with oil and neo-colonialism), so there is no simple answer. Whatever – the book is a bracing intellectual argument, and while I don’t agree with all its points, it’s well worth reading.

Amazon.co.uk – with some great reviews and comments

Into bed with Tony – review in The Guardian (generally negative)

Is Nick Cohen right about the left? His critics reply in The Guardian

Democratiya review

4th Estate

Article by Dave Eggers in the Guardian, following up ‘What is the What’. It talks about the set-up and frustrations in the writing of the book, plus what happened when Valentino Deng visited his hometown – and met his parents again.

He truly gets out there and is on the front line for his beliefs. This time he’s getting beaten up for his beliefs in Russia by some neo-facists. The police then arrest Tatchell – not the thugs.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6669769.stm

Having not read the book, this wasn’t what I was expecting at all. Fantastic physical theatre style production, constantly kinetic, vulgar, weird and often brilliant. A psychotic musical. Except, except… the characters are very simplistic. It was yet another play that yet again sneared and jeered at Americans. That said, the whole thing worked, and the staging was brilliant. Mark Lockyer, who played various characters, was fantastic.

Review in The Guardian.

My favourite British art work in… ages. I would love a print of this… a mass-produced one would be fine. More about it here, including a large version of the image (recommended).

Ace annoying grating music. Rock jazz – but good. On Warp. And at MySpace.

Great gig. I didn’t want to go, but Meadbh had a spare ticket and she didn’t want to go on her own.

Weird crowd. A weird mix of business-types and WAGs scoffing on their faux-posh food. This made the atmosphere slightly strange, as Foy does not come across as someone like this at all.

The gig started off a little interesting, but then went rather bland, before it kicked off and the audience was loving it. What is it like? Bluesy, folksy, Van Morrison, kind of thing. Great soaring gravelly voice. Lyrics sometimes a bit trying too hard, and a lot of “babies”, but it was an ultimately storming show that won the audience over. Great covers of AC/DC and Michael Jackson too.

4/5 stars

Great graphic design is used throughout, to illustrate the mind of the main character, who is an IRS accountant worker – almost autistic. Cute woozily odd story.

Before Gary Glitter turned out to be evil, at least The KLF loved him.

Meadbh takes some lovely pictures right here.

Between 8th and 9th of May I went to Stratford-upon-Avon and saw a fantastic “The Seagull” and “King Lear”. Both featured Ian McKellen who was very good in both. His talent is considerable (so to speak). I wasn’t sure he’d be that good, I’m no particular fan of his). The first half of the “The Seagull” and the second half of “King Lear” were both some of the best moments of theatre I have seen. Go see either of them if you can, although I think King Lear is fully sold out.

I recently finished this book. It is very good, beautiful even. Sad, funny, etc. It is about the life of one Valentino Achak Deng – a Sudanese ‘lost boy. It is a fantastic, strangely magical insight into that part of the world and the head of a child dealing with almost unimaginable (for myself at least) terrors. It never feels patronising. Nor does it feel like liberal hand-wringing. It is hard to know how it is done, but it has been written as a novel – even though it is essentially an auto-biography.

Anyone who thinks Dave Eggers is just about irony-clad smart-arsed literary showing-off* should give him another go.

I had to import it from the States via http://store.mcsweeneys.net/ – which also has lots of other interesting stuff in it. I’m not sure when it is out over here, but when it does come out, it will probably have a less fine cover. The US hardback version is gorgeous with a lovely print on the front.

Take a look at http://www.mcsweeneys.net/books/whatisthewhat.html and http://www.valentinoachakdeng.com/ for more eloquent discussion.

* Something I never got. There was always a proper humanity to his work.

“Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!”

That’s the default line in a WordPress install. So…

This website is not Work. It is not about a careful branding process. Getting overly concerned with design. Pixels will not align. Things won’t be pretty. Inelegant. It will be hard to read. It might be accessible though. This is not about worrying about whether the text is professional, well written or polite. This is a place where I can write, refer to, show, whatever I want. Books, politics, art, stuff and stuff.

It is mainly for me. I forget things – and this might be the best way to remember.

It is also, almost completely nude at the moment. I’ve set the text to be Helvetica, but that’s it for the time being. (Actually, I removed the Helvetica too – now it’s whatever your browser thinks it should be). This is what a website really looks like underneath its clothes.