| |
[27.7.06] [Andrew Gallix]
THE MISSING LINKS
 The Observer on Robert Mapplethorpe. * This year's Port Eliot Lit Fest. * Cinema of Transgression on UbuWeb (via Dennis Cooper). * Jah Wobble reviews Merlin Coverley's Psychogeography in The Indie: "The political aspects of psychogeography, in the UK at least, have declined, whereas the literary side of things has gone from strength to strength, and has crossed over into the mainstream. After years of obscurity, Peter Ackroyd and Iain Sinclair have become the doyens of the scene. Coverley seems to have misgivings about Sinclair's new-found popularity: 'Psychogeography, at least as far as it is applied to London, increasingly comes to resemble an institution with Sinclair at its head and this has inevitably blunted its impact, as what was once a marginal and underground activity is now afforded mainstream recognition.' However, Coverley does acknowledge that 'so successful, so recognisable and so ubiquitous has Sinclair's method become that he appears to have inaugurated an entirely new genre of topographical writing centred upon London which has gone some way towards displacing Debord and Situationism as the official psychogeographical brand'." * Mark Simpson of "metrosexual" fame reviews former 3:AM columnist and McCavity of Punk Bertie Marshall's memoir, Berlin Bromley: ". . . This memoir consists of the day-dreamy reminiscences of a pathologically, fabulously narcissistic 15 year-old-boy, perpetually trapped inside 1976 and his own lip-glossed, suburbohemian delusions. He re-christened himself Berlin after reading too much Isherwood and tried to re-create the Weimar Republic in Bromley, Kent -- and came perilously close to succeeding. This is the gloriously pointless autobiography of a boy who never really did anything but take Mandrax, wear lots of make-up and turn tricks. A boy who was in at the birth of punk, but somehow managed to absent himself when it threatened to get too real. A boy who should have been the leaderene of the New Romantics, a movement he personally prefigured, but who told Steve Strange 'it's not gonna happen,' and went back to Bromley just before it spectacularly did, to take some more Mandrax and daydream his life away (with the odd side-trip to hardcore Earls Court gay cruise bars). Next to Bertie Marshall's passivity, Quentin 'if you like...' Crisp looks like a particularly perky contestant in The Apprentice. Still, it's a bonus that he spends as much attention on his writing as he once did on his eyeliner. No one is more aware of his gloriously wasted life than Marshall. His honesty is as breathtaking as Marshall's profile used to be. Even if you find yourself wondering whether honesty and truth aren't always quite the same thing (Marshall is also a novelist), you're left with a clear sense that a life spent as a passive observer, even of your own life, can make for powerful prose". * Novelist/essayist Geoff Dyer on the current heatwave: "In California, people would be talking about 'earthquake weather'. In Britain, we call it 'drinking weather', even though it's never not drinking weather here. No, it's great tennis weather. Did I say tennis? Must be the heat getting to me. I meant tennis dress, I meant sex. It's great sex weather. Are you feeling horny? Well, there's a coincidence because I am, too, so why don't you just slink over here and we'll see what we can do with that cute inside-out forehand of yours". * There's a Stolen Recordings exhibition (preview it here) at London's excellent Aquarium Gallery (where two 3:AM gigs took place). * Mark Thwaite of Ready Steady Book is interviewed by Bloggasm. He claims that he is increasingly shunning contemporary fiction because of its lack of perspicacity, skill, wisdom, depth, relevance and artistry. * An anthology of New Orleans fanzines. * Philip Hensher on why novelists make crap playwrights. * An exhibition about Antonioni's Blow-Up is on at the Photographers' Gallery (London). * Another bloody great idea from our friend Chris of Spike magazine: free-new-books.com.
[permalink]
|
[0 comments]
|
