unpopular

Arrivals

You see what meeting Timmy made me do? It made me spend money... To be fair though I had been meaning to pick up these BFI ‘Famous Five’ DVDs for some time. I’m looking forward to a nice rainy November Sunday afternoon to watch them. Thanks to Phil King for pointing out that Daryl Reid, who played Dick in the 1964 ‘Five Have A Mystery To Solve’ film later became the drummer in thug-rock group Crushed Butler. If you have not picked up on the ‘Uncrushed’ collection I urge you to do so. As Phil pointed out it is “ugly music for ugly people” and magnificently so. Crushed Butler of course also featured the great Jesse Hector, later of the legendary Hammersmith Gorillas about whom Kevin Pearce once wrote a few lines for my old Tangents site way back in 1996. My, how time flies.

Also featuring in the above photo is my copy of the new Tracey Thorn single, in ravishing blue vinyl and with a signed sleeve to boot. Delicious. And a little orange horse. Of course.

Bad Moon Rising

Construction soundtracked by William's very fine Halloween mixes which you can find here and here.

Timmy

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Timmy and his stick. We met this fine chap yeterday on our walk across the fields and along the old abandoned railway line to Brampford Speke. Our suspicion is that he lives in the old station house and hangs around waiting to charm passing walkers with his unbearable cuteness. It's also a fairly good bet that his owners are/were big Famous Five fans. Either that or Julian, Dick, George and Ann had been trapped in an old barn nearby by some ruffians and Timmy wanted us to follow him and free them. If so, sorry kids, but the village pub was calling our name...

With My Eyes Wide Open I'm Dreaming

And on the subject of art, if you are in or around Poole in the coming month you can catch up with a bit of contemporary art at the Atrium Gallery. My friend and colleague Megan Calver is exhibiting and her work is about as far removed from the macho muscularity of Picasso as it is possible to get. Think the sound of July Skies, Epic 45 or Virginia Astley’s ‘From Gardens Where We Feel Secure’ as visual art and I think you’d be getting close.

Pablo Picasso gets called an asshole

Here’s another priceless piece of Houellebecq:

“Picasso’s portrait of Dora Maar, who gives a fuck about that? Anyway, Picasso’s ugly, and he paints a hideously deformed world because his soul is hideous, and that’s all you can say about Picasso.”

Of course it is possible that Houellebecq lifted that from Wikipedia, but who cares? I haven’t laughed as much at a book in ages. Picasso is the Beatles of art. Go figure that one out.

you irresponsible son of a bitch!

I've been reading Michel Houellebecq's 'The Map & The Territory' recently. I always enjoy Houellebecq's work and this one is no exception. There are some choice quotes of course, but this one jumped out at me immediately:

"to be an artist, in his view, was above all to be someone submissive. Someone who submitted himself to mysterious, unpredictable messages"

I'm not sure I wholly agree with the statement but as a starting point I think it is pretty good. If I were being critical I would say it suggests tendencies to surrender responsibility, but then perhaps it’s just my age and the age we find ourselves in that insists on the value of responsibility. Certainly my younger self would have delighted in the idea of irresponsibility as a key artistic impulse. This page from a sketchbook would appear to give some proof to that...

Dawlish bars

New Pleasures

Notes about what every pleasure is are on the Flickr page.

I wanted to give you money but you made me steal your music

Here’s a message to all the groups and labels who ‘license’ their records to labels in other countries and territories: You might want to think about checking in with those licensing labels once in a while to see if they are even bothering to make your music available... I mean, otherwise you might find that people who want to give you money for your work get so irritated that they turn to less, ah, ethical means of acquiring said work. Artists, give yourselves a break and sidestep the whole label thing altogether. Stick your work on Bandcamp or something. Take control over the means of distribution and make it easy for people to give you money for your work. Either that or be prepared to never ever whine about people ‘stealing’ your music.

It Was Dark And I Welcome The Calm

Teenage Parties End In Tears - My Awesome Mixtape (from How Could a Village Turn Into a Town)
Baldessari - Fair Ohs (on Stereogum)
Any Other Day - Woods (YouTube)
Misery - Veronica Falls (from eponymous album on Slumberland)
Fly - Play People (on Soundlcoud and available on CD from This Almighty Pop) 
Terrible Day - A Classic Education (from Call It Blazing)
The Howling - Dog Ears (Bandcamp)
Waiting for Kirsten - Jens Lekman (live on YouTube)
I Could Fall in Love Again... - Jesper Lundager (Bandcamp)
Hazel - Weekend (Soundcloud)
See Through You - The Oscillation (Bandcamp)
It Was Dark And I Welcome The Calm - The Delta Mirror (Soundcloud)
three - Vampire Slayer (Bandcamp)
The First Last Dinosaur Song - The Last Dinosaur (Bandcamp)
Republic of the Average (Paperfangs remix) - Big Wave Riders (Soundcloud)
Do You Like My New Hair? - The Pre New (MP3 on Amazon)
Dancing to Music I Hate - Shimmering Stars (Soundcloud)
British Melancholy - The Hardy Boys (from The British Melancholy album)