tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55125732008-07-08T18:41:35.443+01:00davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02942904101462561169noreply@blogger.comBlogger114125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512573.post-79345802747881725712008-07-08T18:27:00.008+01:002008-07-08T18:41:35.489+01:00

We've never really considered having a scarecrow in our allotment. However, with all the summer fruits out and under attack, one would come in useful. Seeing the beauty above at the Jardin Des Plantes in Paris last week, has made the idea tempting. The CD eyes and half CD mouth are very effective, and only the French would think to give a scarecrow that rather stylish jacket. Once my novel

davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02942904101462561169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512573.post-3004987140978657532008-06-20T16:41:00.009+01:002008-06-20T20:01:44.826+01:00

Leonard Cohen Live from Macleans Magazine on Vimeo. I blame Mel Gibson for the loss of my phone. I was due in Southport yesterday lunchtime, for , a conference on censorship that is ending as I type. It was a big day, as I was seeing Leonard Cohen in the evening, and I woke up early. Failing to go back to sleep, I thought 'sod it, I'll get to Southport early and see Mel Gibson' (no, not

davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02942904101462561169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512573.post-67941529209483990372008-06-11T15:22:00.008+01:002008-06-11T16:54:34.758+01:00

I'm one of the signatories to an online petition against age banding books for young readers that reads as follows: We are writers, illustrators, librarians, teachers, publishers and booksellers. Some of us have a measure of control over what appears on the covers of their books; others have less. But we are all agreed that the proposal to put an age-guidance figure on books for children is

davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02942904101462561169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512573.post-33062713740514296892008-06-07T12:27:00.004+01:002008-06-07T13:14:27.062+01:00

Been too busy to post much lately and today I have a houseful of guests, but they're all at the cricket, getting wet, so here I am. What's new? I love the cover of this week's new New Yorker, which just popped through my door, by my favourite comic book writer, Adrian Tomine (the illustration of it to your right is from his myspace , check it out). This is a month of clashes. Not that I'm

davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02942904101462561169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512573.post-73739959757293053812008-06-01T13:38:00.001+01:002008-06-01T13:38:37.777+01:00

more at twiigs.com...

davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02942904101462561169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512573.post-45813210563989645262008-05-17T19:44:00.003+01:002008-05-17T19:47:16.913+01:00

Been too busy writing (and marking) to blog recently, but here's a fantastic video, full of fun references, of the single from Erykah Badu's great new album. Check it out.

davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02942904101462561169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512573.post-35986819070997209062008-05-03T15:22:00.008+01:002008-05-03T17:08:58.757+01:00

This week I've read two books that stuck in my mind. I picked up The Suspicions of Mr Whicher after seeing it discussed on Late Review. It was as engrossing as the panel suggested - keeping me fully occupied on a flight to and from the lovely Polish city of Krakow. The subject is a Victorian murder mystery that fascinated and inspired Wilkie Collins (leading to 'The Moonstone') and Charles

davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02942904101462561169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512573.post-57548158041833905722008-04-20T18:08:00.003+01:002008-04-20T18:17:13.339+01:00

for the link to this video that she posted a couple of weeks ago, but I've only just caught (the blog's updated even less frequently than the one you're reading). This ought to be shown before every movie at my local Cineworld. That said, it must be an old video, as it doesn't mention the special circle of hell reserved for people who send or receive text messages during movies, as if to say 'I

davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02942904101462561169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512573.post-91691057505320175812008-04-09T10:13:00.006+01:002008-04-10T10:06:43.379+01:00

For thirty years, my favourite novelist has been the Irish writer, Brian Moore, who died in 1999. I love the way he never wrote the same kind of novel twice, his brilliance with writing female characters, his mastery of suspense and, most of all, his unshowy yet graceful, clean, tight prose style, which I would encourage any aspiring writer to learn from, as I did. Authors tend to drop into

davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02942904101462561169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512573.post-87913940724798177092008-04-04T10:29:00.004+01:002008-04-04T12:47:50.750+01:00

I saw Leonard Cohen twice in the 70's, once on my own in Liverpool and four years later with my then girlfriend in Birmingham. Both times, hearing about the tour, I posted off a cheque after the tickets went on sale. A few days later, great stalls tickets arrived. That was how it worked last century. Unless an act was absolutely huge, like Led Zeppelin, you could always get tickets. The only

davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02942904101462561169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512573.post-85636636701328638572008-03-31T16:16:00.005+01:002008-03-31T16:48:44.294+01:00

When I wrote about iPod farming four weeks ago, I meant to tidy up a letter a day on my iTunes, a schedule which would have got me through my entire library by the time term starts again next week. But I didn't reckon with a three day trip to Derbyshire or the length of certain letters. So, a confession, so far I've only go to M. Or, to be precise, 'Ma'. Yesterday I cleared a few of Madonna's

davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02942904101462561169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512573.post-6933458608939599402008-03-17T15:11:00.007Z2008-03-19T12:34:45.199Z

After reading the UK press coverage of David Mamet's Village Voice article about why he is no longer a liberal, one might assume that he has become a rabid right winger. I just got round to reading the article that inspired the fuss and it turns out that, in writing his enjoyable farce, 'November', which I saw on Broadway last month (probably the first and last time I'll be able to write that),

davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02942904101462561169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512573.post-9756320778886779232008-03-11T16:16:00.004Z2008-03-11T16:48:05.585Z

I thought seeing Lou Reed play 'Berlin' was excitement enough for June. Now comes news that Leonard Cohen is to tour for the first time in nearly thirty years. Regular readers will remember that I visited his home on Hydra last September. I saw him play Birmingham on the last tour, in '79, and briefly met him in Liverpool in '75, after his show at the Empire (I'll save that story for another time

davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02942904101462561169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512573.post-34604394108432810462008-03-07T15:46:00.003Z2008-03-11T16:29:26.080Z

I somehow managed not to notice that my last entry was the 100th one on this blog, so here we are, well and truly into treble figures, with entry 101. I'm kind of excited about going to see Duffy at the Bodega Social tonight (I've decided that her voice is better than Lulu's, although the latter maybe had a better knack of song choice in her Atco soul days). I'm delighted that I've got front

davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02942904101462561169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512573.post-66558535168247434632008-03-04T20:23:00.002Z2008-03-04T20:44:32.119Z

I've been an American politics junkie since, age 14, I got caught up in George McGovern's 1972 campaign against Richard Nixon. So I'll be watching tonight's results from Texas and Ohio with great interest. As a Brit, it doesn't behove me to take sides in Obama vs Hillary but my favourite live band, Canada's Arcade Fire, have been campaigning for Obama in the last week (two of them were born in

davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02942904101462561169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512573.post-16191102372132714762008-03-02T11:08:00.003Z2008-03-02T11:42:46.108Z

I learnt a new phrase this week. After his talk to the MA on Monday I went out for a quick meal with Mike and described how I'd spent half my morning deleting and adding tunes to iTunes. 'Ah yes', he said, 'I call that iPod farming'. And that's what I'm doing now, before going to an exhibition and taking my nephew swimming. Only, there's an added urgency. I've had a 60GB iPod photo for nearly

davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02942904101462561169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512573.post-91731068868848919592008-02-24T19:34:00.004Z2008-02-24T20:09:35.416Z

Since I have him coming to talk to my MA students tomorrow night, I think it rather behoves me to link to my pal Mike's Which Decade Is Tops For Pops? project, now in its sixth year. It's a concept recently nicked by the BBC and it's a load of fun if you've got any interest in popular music. Enjoy. And since I've been listening to this album for weeks with great joy (and bought their first album

davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02942904101462561169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512573.post-7322439598306011672008-02-17T12:20:00.006Z2008-02-17T13:08:19.691Z

Just back from London, where we saw the Monty Python musical (great fun, though Peter Davison doesn't have much of a singing voice) and David Hare's latest play, 'The Vertical Hour' at the Royal Court. This is worth catching, with strong performances from the three leads, although it was hard to credit the sexual tension needed between Anton Lesser and Indira Varma who's more than a decade

davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02942904101462561169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512573.post-80928970859455446272008-02-07T11:23:00.000Z2008-02-11T11:30:50.696Z

I forgot to say that the photos above and below were taken by Georgina Lock, those of the panel by Tessa Hadley and the one at the bottom by a nice guy on Lenox who saw me taking a picture of Georgina and offered to take one of the two of us together. Thanks to all three.

davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02942904101462561169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512573.post-61480825807871518142008-02-07T10:29:00.000Z2008-02-08T11:16:49.846Z

David Mamet's 'November' is the lightest thing he's done in years, and the funniest. We strolled through heavy rain to get there and found that, while the expensive seats in the beautiful Ethel Barrymore Theater were full, the cheaper ones upstairs weren't, so we were able to move from the back of the gallery to the front when the lights went down. It's a comedy featuring Nathan Lane as a

davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02942904101462561169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512573.post-2756042257013384002008-02-06T13:16:00.000Z2008-02-07T17:43:52.370Z

After a breakfast bagel at Pax Wholefoods, down 7th Avenue, I headed for the program directors plenary, which was compulsory, but also standing room only and not aimed at UK Creative Writing MA Programme leaders, so instead I hurried over to downstairs at the Sheraton, where I was in time for most of the first speaker of a fascinating panel about the problems of being a transatlantic writer.

davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02942904101462561169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512573.post-17218227753505260752008-02-05T15:07:00.000Z2008-02-11T11:32:04.784Z

At half past one, US time, yesterday morning, five hours after we were meant to be in the air, I thought I might not be here now. Earlier, just as we were about to take off, a warning light had come on in the cockpit, and the engineers couldn't locate the problem. They'd stripped, then rebuilt the engine and were about to test it. 'We're going to give it a try,' the pilot said. 'And if it

davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02942904101462561169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512573.post-52558154680241688332008-01-22T13:07:00.000Z2008-01-22T16:11:24.364Z

So much for writing weekly entries. What with passing a significant birthday, the accompanying hangover, a paper, a novel and an article to deliver, forty short stories to mark - all by next Monday - and an impending trip to New York (on Tuesday), this is going to be a rushed entry. I've heard the Vampire Weekend album, out next week, and it's wonderful - barely half an hour long and all the

davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02942904101462561169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512573.post-88079810093170861842008-01-12T13:59:00.000Z2008-01-13T13:20:05.586Z

Stealers Wheel's three albums from the 1970's have been remastered and reissued, putting an end to a situation whereby you could only hear their music digitally on a cheap 'best of'. I've been bingeing on them in the car and on the iPod this week and finding that the songs sound just as good now as they did in the mid 70's, when I was a huge fan. Their music had a richness and invention that

davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02942904101462561169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512573.post-75888781346460887222008-01-11T13:10:00.000Z2008-01-11T13:13:52.079Z

davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02942904101462561169noreply@blogger.com