So Katie Price has made two announcements of late, both somewhat interrelated (hint: they have to do with attention and how to get more of it). One, she wants to start her own line of sex toys. It is unclear what exactly this new line of coitus enhancing (or indeed coitus substitute as the case […]
The X Factor auditions: a cross between the Gong Show and a Pasolini film
X Factor auditions are now underway across Britain, so get on down there all you hopefuls! A Metro article this week very helpfully outlined what potential X Factor contestants should do to ensure their place on the programme. All one needs to do apparently is acquire talent, good looks, great hair and “chemistry”; the last […]
Black Flag: an alternate American dream
On January 27th, 1979, Black Flag played their first ever show under their new name in Redondo Beach, California. They had formed a few years previously as Panic in nearby Hermosa Beach, a guitarist named Greg Ginn and a vocalist named Keith Morris the main engine of the early group. Although Morris left very early […]
The Zayn Malik Palestine tweet: are One Direction about to enter their “Revolver” phase?
Yesterday morning, in the wee hours in fact (how rock and roll), Zayn Malik of the boy band One Direction tweeted the following: #FreePalestine. This caused a shitstorm on Twitter, with many of the group’s following signalling their approval by favouring or retweeting – but also a healthy number expressing deep discontent at the action. As […]
The Cinematic “Magic” of Coleman Francis
“I don’t know…..I like Francis as an actor but really he should have stayed in front of the camera. As a director, he really didn’t know what he was doing.” – Ed Wood Jnr. When the man noted as being the worst film director of all time says you’re rather lousy at this filmmaking malarkey, […]
Cher Lloyd’s apology as another nail in rock and roll’s coffin
I have ranted many times about the death of rock and rock, here and in other places, and I can say with regret that a further spike has now been driven into the mausoleum that hold the remains of the concept of teenaged rebellion as glorious experience. Cher Lloyd, the singer who made the 2010 X Factor […]
Wes Anderson’s best film: “Bottle Rocket”
About twenty years ago, a young Texan upstart named Wes Anderson managed to convince a major studio to give him the money to make a film about a bunch of misfits who try and become professional thieves yet fail miserably. To star two brothers who had never been in anything before. Impressive, but partially due […]
The end of jazz music: the late 1960’s and the deaths of Eric Dolphy, John Coltrane and Albert Ayler
I was depressed a lot when I was younger. A lot of this had to do with the fact that I was living somewhere I loathed, wanted to escape from, but did not yet know how. I filled a lot of space listening to music, and when I was really down I would turn to […]
Pull My Strings: the Dead Kennedys and the American “Left”
When discussing one’s political influences, as a general rule people like to upmarket their antecedents. The more heavy weight, obscure and abstruse the person or group who supposedly shaped your politics, the better it reflects upon you. Supposedly. Unless of course you’re going for an Arnie Graf, grassroots-y type of vibe. Then it has to […]
More on atheism: the parent complex
An opinion I often hear from friends who are also atheists is that the reason for the continued presence of religion in western lives, despite all the pressures for it to recede at a faster rate, is down to one simple thing: fear of death. That the religious are so scared of their own demise, […]