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 …
Christian Marclay’s ‘The Clock’ shows on weekdays from 10a.m. until 7p.m. (Saturdays, 10-5, closed Sundays) at Nottingham New Art Exchange as part of the British Art Show (the image above is from the White Cube showing, which has now finished, Nottingham was much less formal – two benches, two sofas and, last night only, six bean bags). Yesterday and today saw the only 24 hour showing of this masterpiece of installation art. Sue and I had already seen most of the hours between 10 and 7.30, so we had to take in as much as we could. We got there at 8.40p.m. and, to my surprise, the place wasn’t full. There were 21 people in a space that holds forty or fifty. As we arrived,…
I bought a ticket for Billy Bragg last night, the umpteenth time I’ve seen him. Then the Nottingham Post’s reviewer was snowbound, so I agreed to step in at the last minute. Would I have enjoyed the show more had I not agreed to review it? I doubt it. This was by far the worst Bragg show I’ve been to, indeed, the only under par Bragg show I’ve been to. Anyway, here’s the extended web version of the review, and a download of the song that was the highlight of the show. Billy Bragg, Rock City, December 2, 2010 Billy Bragg first visited Nottingham with an unforgettable, seven encore show at the Garage, 26 years ago. His greatest triumph at Rock City was on the…