Category: Uncategorized

On Sunday, following in the footsteps of the Lost promenade, Joh, Sophy and I made an epic journey to Dungeness. The drive there was fantastic, through some beautiful villages, and Dungeness itself was as flat, desolate, beautiful and as windswept as I'd hoped.

The scenery reminded me a little of a western in places, and the atmosphere was heightened by the people dressed up for a wedding at the lighthouse. Our group might have been a little over-dressed for Dungeness – Joh was asked if she was attending the wedding since she was "all dressed up", and my black jacket apparently made me look like some rock-star.

Here are some photos:

 

 

As the Sparks Blog has just announced, I will be reading at the next Sparks night on October 6th. I assume this will be happening at the 3-and-10 again, but I'll post again when I know all the details. Sparks is a night of flash fiction, with each story illustrated by a specially commissioned photograph. It's a lovely night and well worth a visit. Also reading on October 6th are Tim Wells, Wendy Greenhalgh, Sarah Charsley, Nik Perring and Jon Heath.

There are loads of things I have to blog about (such as the weekend's race) but that can wait till tomorrow. Today has been an ugly day, but it's made me think. I've been re-reading The Scum Also Rises, an interesting article about publicity and integrity. The writer, a musician, talks about a fan they met while playing a corporate event:

"He gave me this regretful look as he explained that he was a longtime
fan, he'd seen us play many times in smoky downtown clubs that smelled
of bleach and shattered dreams, and, although he was psyched that we
played his company party, he was also disappointed in us for being such
corporate whores. I quizzed him a little bit on what exactly he meant,
trying to discern whether he was hip to the irony of his disappointment
in us, and he revealed a familiar self-rationalization. He was only
working for this company until his band got signed, or his novel was
published, or whatever, but he would have expected better from us."

I'm pretty scornful about bands and writers who sell-out (and that includes you, Mr. Burroughs and Mr. Sinclair). So why don't I hold myself to the same standards in my own life?

I went out on an adventure last night. Below are some of the photos.

 

I've had a very quiet day today, mostly spent writing at my desk. I went for a short nap about 2 and woke at 6. I have therefore missed Pride, merely enjoying it vicariously through twitter. I'm going to get an early night tonight and catch up on some reading as I have actual plans for tomorrow (among them a long run).

Meanwhile, here are some photos from April that were lost in the draft posts folder. They were taken at White Post Farm (referred to by one road-sign as White Post Modern Farm – how cool?). Visiting the bird-feeding cage has incredible.

• I had some good writing news this afternoon. Firstly I had a
  submission I made on Monday accepted (although it won't see the light of day
  until 2010, which probably makes it my first hit of next year). I've
  also been asked to start a new blog, which will run in addition to this
  one and the EMLN posts. More news on both soon.
• I went to see Moon and Antichrist on Tuesday. Moon was somewhat
  underwhelming – a pedestrian science fiction story full of
  inconsistencies and logic gaps. Antichrist, while gruelling and
  unpleasant, was a stunning movie, far exceeding my expectations. There's a good discussion of Antichrist here.
• I love six-word stories, but it's rare to find satisfying ones. This one by Colin Houlson is pretty good.
• Lolcats were invented in Brighton in the 19th century (via twhume)
• Lovely timelapse footage of the Elephant Bed exhibition being installed at Fabrica.

I spent last weekend visiting my sister at her new house (from which the above photo was taken). It's a lovely place – near Mum & Dad's yet in the middle of the countryside. The garden is beautiful, if a little wild, and the house itself is impressive, although it does need a little work. My sister and her husband invited family and friends to join them on their first Saturday in the property. It was a wonderful afternoon: just relaxed conversation and catching up with the people I know up there. These days I really appreciate the value of a relaxed afternoon eating food with decent folk.

A good weekend was made even better on Sunday morning by a decent 8-mile run. I'm not quite in the condition I'd like to be for the Morecambe Cross-Bay half marathon next month, but it should be good enough.

I took a lot of photos of the new house but I like the ones below, which look like stills from a creepy rural movie.

• My friend Justine's novel Advice for Strays now has a cover and is available for pre-order on Amazon. I'm very excited as I've been waiting to read this for ages.
• Drew Gummerson had a contest for 50-word stories about the moon and has posted some of the entries on his blog. One of them is mine.
• Speaking of Mr. Gummerson, ages ago I meant to post a link to his story When the Chips are Down. Go read it!
• A Surprisingly Common Omission is a great 'drabble' by David Langford which he acknowledges may have been too subtle for its own good.
• One of my favourite short story collections is Kelly Link's Magic For Beginners.  Much of this is now available for free download.  Stone Animals
  is a fantastic spooky story but the highlight for me is the story Some
  Zombie Contingency Plans.  It's not 'about' zombies – it's more
  wonderful and subtle than that.  "It turned out that everyone in the prison had a zombie contingency plan, once
  you asked them, just like everyone in prison had a prison escape plan, only
  nobody talked about those."

I arrived back yesterday from the Latitude Festival. Many commentators sneer at Latitude for being 'middle-class' without saying why that is a bad thing. I had a great time, seeing lots of acts I'd not normally seek out and watching a lot of poets.

The weather was appalling, with an unpleasant thunderstorm on Thursday night and more rain throughout. Despite that the festival ground didn't turn into a swamp, unlike some other festivals I've been to. However, having my Mum & Dad's caravan to retreat to probably made things easier than they might have been. Among the highlights for me were:

• A fantastic line-up in the comedy tent, including Stephen K. Amos, Shappi Khorsandi and Matt Kirshen. I was sad to see the talented Janeane Garofalo's set, which ended after 6 awkward minutes. (UPDATE: what happened next)
• I didn't see many bands, but was delighted to discover The Vaselines were playing. They were charming and I remembered most of the songs they played. There was also a stunning set from Tricky, who I'd not seen play for about 10 years.
• The film tent featured some fascinating events. Sadly Jeffrey Lewis missed the slot for his lecture on Watchmen, but Richard Dedomenici's lecture on plagiarism was fantastic. It included his response to people saying "I could have done that" when confronted with modern art: but why would you be doing it?
• I spent most of my time in the poetry tent, which featured some fantastic acts including Mik Artistik, Jessica Delfino, Ross Sutherland, Byron Vincent, Nathan Filer, and Jay Bernard. The poetry tent had a rapid turnover of acts and ran for about 14 hours a day, so was always a good place to return to between other events.

All in all, a fantastic weekend, and possibly the best festival I've been to.

Today I'm having a relaxing day after a busy end to last week. After ages staying in I went to two gigs on Thursday. I started out at the launch of Hattie Snooks' new EP, Bon Appetit. It's absolutely stunning and I've been playing it repeatedly. My favourite track is the first, Jericho, which made an amazing opening to Thursday's performance. After Hattie's set I headed to the Hope where Rufus Moonshine was celebrating his birthday. I saw three amazing bands there: Kinema, John-John Slave and the stunning AK/DK (who featured Rufus Moonshine on vocals for a song). Well worth the slightly late night.

Friday night was the public opening of Fabrica's new exhibition, The Elephant Bed. I wasn't sure about the scuplture at first but warmed to it over the evening. There is a video featuring interviews with the artist that does a good job of explaining things and also features a fascinating time-lapse video of the work's installation.  Like many of Fabrica's exhibitions there is something calming about the space and I'm looking forward to making some calming lunchtime visits.