Odds 'n' Sods
I guess you're reading this page either at home or in the office, and on the balance of probability, feeling a little bored. But it could all have been so different if only you'd heeded my advice to get your money on Hollinghurst's gay-Tories-in-the-80s saga 'The Line Of Beauty' to win the Booker Prize at odds of 10-1 as a fifty quid bet could have won you a holiday. Just occasionally, I know my shit.
I haven't read the prize-winning book, but I thought Hollinghurst seemed a gracious and thoughtful winner, just about managing to disguise the fact that he was shitting himself (I should imagine being quizzed by an excitable Kirsty Wark is quite a scary prospect, actually). Not everybody's a fan of his book though, and the backlash has begun with Bookmunch sticking the boot in sans ceremony, outing him in the process as something of a furniture fetishist.
'If I were to put together a truly essential thank-you list for the people who most made it possible for me to write my first six novels, I'd certainly owe as much to Ronald Reagan as to Bill Gates or Lou Reed. Reagan's presidency put the grit in my dystopia. His presidency was the fresh kitty litter I spread for utterly crucial traction on the icey driveway of uncharted futurity. His smile was the nightmare in my back pocket.'
Good to see William Gibson back blogging. Miss Modernage has also finished temping and returned to the blogging mainstream.
And look who else is keeping an online diary - 'It didn’t take us long to find the revolving bar at the top of our hotel, but it took us much longer getting to it since it was on the 55th floor and to get to it we had to negotiate a network of lifts. Not an easy task on a jet lag and a few glasses of rice wine. We ended most nights before the gigs there, though we did venture out to the near by ‘Piano Bar’ on John’s (bass player) birthday. The name of the bar turned out to be a bit deceptive since the DJ was playing the theme tune from ‘The Omen’ to a hard trance beat. The music was so loud the speakers were making the flames from the candles dance around the empty room. That, the full on laser show, a Hong Kong cyber sex flick projected on one of the walls and waiters dressed in suits serving us water melon on the side of our drinks made for quite an experience.'
Yes that's right, it's Mira from Ladytron reporting on the band's tour of China. But moving on to some less exotic bloggers, Ben has been devoting his site this week to a Right to Reply special where he's corralled some music writers and friends to discuss the future of pop/rock music in the digital age. Yours truly even pops in here and there with a rude and noisy interjection or two, an experience familiar to those of you that have ever been out drinking with me.
Meanwhile, this week's Parallax View Single Of The Week goes to Goldie Lookin' Chain for Your Mother's Got A Penis. I listened to their album in a friend's car last week and it's mostly rubbish, but YM'sGAP has a surreal, demented charm that will make it this season's novelty hit: use it up, wear it out, then move on.
Finally, some sad news today, as Bill Nich has died following a long illness. He was by far and away the best manager the Tottscummers ever had.
I guess you're reading this page either at home or in the office, and on the balance of probability, feeling a little bored. But it could all have been so different if only you'd heeded my advice to get your money on Hollinghurst's gay-Tories-in-the-80s saga 'The Line Of Beauty' to win the Booker Prize at odds of 10-1 as a fifty quid bet could have won you a holiday. Just occasionally, I know my shit.
I haven't read the prize-winning book, but I thought Hollinghurst seemed a gracious and thoughtful winner, just about managing to disguise the fact that he was shitting himself (I should imagine being quizzed by an excitable Kirsty Wark is quite a scary prospect, actually). Not everybody's a fan of his book though, and the backlash has begun with Bookmunch sticking the boot in sans ceremony, outing him in the process as something of a furniture fetishist.
'If I were to put together a truly essential thank-you list for the people who most made it possible for me to write my first six novels, I'd certainly owe as much to Ronald Reagan as to Bill Gates or Lou Reed. Reagan's presidency put the grit in my dystopia. His presidency was the fresh kitty litter I spread for utterly crucial traction on the icey driveway of uncharted futurity. His smile was the nightmare in my back pocket.'
Good to see William Gibson back blogging. Miss Modernage has also finished temping and returned to the blogging mainstream.
And look who else is keeping an online diary - 'It didn’t take us long to find the revolving bar at the top of our hotel, but it took us much longer getting to it since it was on the 55th floor and to get to it we had to negotiate a network of lifts. Not an easy task on a jet lag and a few glasses of rice wine. We ended most nights before the gigs there, though we did venture out to the near by ‘Piano Bar’ on John’s (bass player) birthday. The name of the bar turned out to be a bit deceptive since the DJ was playing the theme tune from ‘The Omen’ to a hard trance beat. The music was so loud the speakers were making the flames from the candles dance around the empty room. That, the full on laser show, a Hong Kong cyber sex flick projected on one of the walls and waiters dressed in suits serving us water melon on the side of our drinks made for quite an experience.'
Yes that's right, it's Mira from Ladytron reporting on the band's tour of China. But moving on to some less exotic bloggers, Ben has been devoting his site this week to a Right to Reply special where he's corralled some music writers and friends to discuss the future of pop/rock music in the digital age. Yours truly even pops in here and there with a rude and noisy interjection or two, an experience familiar to those of you that have ever been out drinking with me.
Meanwhile, this week's Parallax View Single Of The Week goes to Goldie Lookin' Chain for Your Mother's Got A Penis. I listened to their album in a friend's car last week and it's mostly rubbish, but YM'sGAP has a surreal, demented charm that will make it this season's novelty hit: use it up, wear it out, then move on.
Finally, some sad news today, as Bill Nich has died following a long illness. He was by far and away the best manager the Tottscummers ever had.
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