I’m between drafts of a new novel, so I’ve had time to work on a couple of short stories that lay, unfinished, in the ‘pending’ folder on my computer. This week I finished one called ‘The After Life’. This morning, when I saw a new song with the same name linked to on the whatevershebringswesing mailing list, I had to click through. This is the second song to be previewed from Paul Simon’s forthcoming album, So Beautiful or So What and it’s so good I just listened to it twice. Simon’s last album, Surprise, was a real return to form, as was the accompanying tour, and this sounds even more promising. Check out the song here. A former student of mine, novelist Chris Killen, published…
Teddy Thompson is single, and the songs on his new album ‘Bella’, released on Monday, let us know it. On each of his three visits to The Rescue Rooms the admiring throng of female followers has grown thicker. Hardly surprising, given his film star looks and rich, memorable singing voice. It’ll be interesting to see if ‘Bella’ emulates his last album, ‘A Piece Of What You Need’ by entering the album charts in the top ten. Reviews have been mixed. Unfairly, for it’s as good an album of country tinged pop-rock as you can hope to hear. It gets a good airing tonight, as does the last album and his second, ‘Separate Ways’, the title track of which takes on the air of a classic.…
Next month I’ll be reading, with novelist Thomas Legendre, at the Flying Goose Cafe in Chilwell Rd, Beeston. It’s the first time the Shoestring Press readings series has had two prose writers, so I hope we’ll get an audience (7,30-9, only £3). I’ll be previewing my new novel ‘Bone and Cane’, which Tindal Street publish in March. To give you a taste of the venue, here’s a short film I made last week, with the permission of Lawrence Sail. I rate Lawrence as one of the very best poets writing in this country at the moment. He was launching his New & Selected Poems, ‘Waking Dreams’, which I can’t recommend highly enough. ‘Feeding The Dolls’, first published in ‘Eye-Baby’, is followed by ‘The Musical Box’…
So, it’s over. I make no apologies for blogging a third time about Christian Marclay’s incredible video installation ‘The Clock’ at Nottingham Art Exchange, which closes in two hours’ time. I’ve visited twenty times, taking in over 15 hours of this epic masterpiece. And, while it kept getting fuller, I’ve never failed to get a place on one of the two sofas (admittedly, on Thursday, when we went for our last big 50 minute chunk, I had to wait half an hour). It’s been a great place to meet people too. Today, when we went to take in six minutes we’d missed from 1.36-1.42 (yes, we kept a careful record, using the wallchart above) I bumped into two couples who I hadn’t seen in ages.…
Every new year, my oldest friend and I exchange best of year music lists. This is based purely on how much we’ve enjoyed stuff, no attempts to be cool or comprehensive (well, OK, I do try to listen to everything, must have heard over a hundred new albums this year, some of which have yet to sink in). The positions freeze at midnight so maybe I’ve put Kanye too low and the Eels should have slipped in rather than The Fall, but it’s too late to change. Here’s my top twenty. 1 The National – High Violet 2 Arcade Fire – The Suburbs 3 John Grant – Queen Of Denmark 4 Spoon – Transference 5 Vampire Weekend – Contra 6 Robyn – Body Talk 7 …