February 28, 2007

Their Office no.1

"So if I call you when I get to Liverpool Street can you go and get some cat litter?"

These are the first civil words I've heard from the office next door all day. There's a couple in there who I presume are married as well as running a small business together. I know when both of them are in their office because they argue, loudly and incessantly, with liberal use of the word "fuck" until he gets up and leaves again. It's distracting but also quite funny. Rather than wasting the best of their gems, I'm beginning an occasional series of them here.

Company Loyalist

Have been on a bit of a Faber binge recently.

First of all I read David Peace's "Damned Utd," which tells the story of Brian Clough's 43 (44?) days in charge of Leeds United in 1974 ('73? As you can tell, the details have really stuck). Although, to be fair, it tells the internal story, as events take place very much from Ol' Big 'Ead's point of view. The results are absolutely inspired. It's a massive achievement that, stylistically, it's very much a David Peace book (Lots of. Very. Short. Sentences. And italics) but that you also feel the Spirit of Clough (and often the Spirits of Clough) leaking off the page. From now on the name "Don Revie" will send a cold shiver through me.

Anyway, it's been featured everywhere, so I'm not telling you anything you don't know, nor in a way that will enlighten you. I leant it to my sister, who I was visiting at the time and will report back her opinions as someone with no love of football when and if I receive them. In return, she leant me "Snow" by Orhan Pamuk, which is another book which everyone else in the world has probably already read. It was beautiful and moving as well as intricate and clever and deserves much better than to be treated as some sort of marker in a perceived battle between East and West.

Incidentally, these were both authors I'd tried before and not got on with ("GB84" and "My Name Is Red," respectively) so perhaps I'm improving as a human being. Or a reader, anyway.

February 22, 2007

Evil Genius...

Bit of an advert this one, but what can you do when you have a (kind of) commercial interest in a man as worthy of the world's attention as Infinite Livez? Go and get your free download now and revel in the sheer heroism of the man behind a nearly-pop tune titled "Unbiased Reductionism In 21st Century Music Practices"...