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.

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"...

Hardy Country (and shit puns...)

Wasn't familiar with her work before, but saw one of Anne Hardy's pictures in the paper the other week and was completely sucked in by it. She builds rooms in her studio and then 'decorates' or fills them with junk and discarded equipment before photgraphing them and then dismantling them. The results are quite beautiful and evocative and spooky. Have a look here...

Books What I Read

I've been somewhat pathetic at updating over the last few months and I still can't think of anything interesting to write now (except for the attempts of a load of pirates to buy Sealand, which I've now spunked away in a parenthesis). So, instead here's a fascinating list of some of the books I've been reading in that time. It's neither complete nor accurate as it was put together only by what I could find lying next to my bed. Maybe I'll add commentary on them later...

H.G.Wells - Tono-Bungay
Joseph Conrad - The Secret Agent
Daniil Kharms -Incidences
Quincy Troupe - Miles and Me
Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Crime And Punishment
Jose Saramago - Blindness
Emmanuel Carrere - I Am Alive And You Are Dead
Steve Erickson - Days Between Stations
Harold Pinter - Plays: Vol 2
Harold Pinter - Collected Screenplays 2

It's pleasing in that it makes me sound much more intellectual than I actually am.

I've now embarked upon the Pynchon Challenge which means no new lists any time soon... I'll have to think of another way of appearing to be interesting...

Smile Please...

Excellent report on the growth of the surveillance society, launched by Richard Thomas, the Information Commissioner, yesterday. Great to hear that Britain remains a world leader in something even if it is installing CCTV cameras...

Stranger Than (Cliche)

The problem with trying to write books about life now is that they're usually out of date before they come out. Which is why I'm both satisfied and horrified to hear that Mr Blair has announced that we should all be queuing up to become part of his national DNA database. But you'll have to wait a year and half to find out why I should care... That is, if you care...

Gwyn Thomas

Picked up "The Dark Philosophers" by Gwyn Thomas over the summer (from the excellent Library of Wales series). It's been a real revelation, like a missing link (for me) between Halldor Laxness, Alan Warner and Marxism. Very funny and very sad tales of the valleys, unemployment and grotesque bosses. Oddly appropriate at the time we're remembering the Aberfan disaster, as Thomas' eulogy, recorded for the BBC exactly 40 years ago today, is available on the internet here