COUNTER-FACTUAL BRITPOP

Managed to set down most of me thoughts about the Stone Roses reunion in a piece for The Quietus.

In the original draft normative radicalism was italicised: it's the keystone of the argument.

Somewhere change is
afoot. By the banks
of a flooding river
tracksuit girls
huddle and mutter,
through the gutters
of stadiums, Dundee,
Dalkey, basement tapes,
car parks black
with siren squall,
a turquoise landscape
by the Roman Wall,
bedrooms, banlieues,
everything strays into the
light at least once.

"ABSOLUTELY PLEASANT": NAMING AND SHAMING PRIYA ELAN, MATTHEW HORTON, BEN HEWITT

Sublimely spot-on close readings of contemporary music journalism by Neil Kulkarni.

In fact, I can see a lot of potential in dissections of this kind: they belie the notion that the technocrats are technically proficient.

An elitist culture is necessarily an intellectually impoverished one.

Some of those quotations have to be repeated, they're so godawful:

Coming on like a twin of ‘Live Forever’, Noel Gallagher’s no-nonsense lyrics, a typically bolshy delivery from “our kid” and a guitar riff which sweetly echoed George Harrison’s ‘My Sweet Lord’ added up to the very first Oasis classic.

Trip hop progenitor ‘Unfinished Sympathy’ is really a slick piece of hip-hop soul blessed with Shara Nelson’s broken bawl and some muted beats and cowbells from 3-D, Mushroom and Daddy G. It came out under the more politically sensitive band name of Massive during the first Gulf War and ensured the collective remained the urban sophisticate’s artist of choice for the next decade.

This last one definitely the best:

As it stood, it was an absolutely pleasant slice of indie pop dreaminess.

JOEY BARTON, NEO-DADAIST

I don't wish to comment on Joey Barton's latest piece of performance art, but I continue to be intrigued by his portrayal in the mainstream press. This today from The Guardian's Five Things We Learned From the Premier League This Weekend:

For all that he has tried to reinvent his image this season and make himself the poster boy for fascinated intellectuals with little interest in football – mainly by showcasing an in-depth knowledge of where the CTRL C and V keys are on a keyboard – this was Barton at his worst: vicious, thoughtless and selfish.

Interesting, this, given that, as I believe Jon Bon Jovi once put it: "THE VAST MAJORITY OF BRITISH JOURNALISM ADOPTS EXACTLY THIS NAKEDLY ERSATZ APPROACH TO THE USE OF LITERARY QUOTATION".

But seriously, if you don't believe me, check out something like this, from the New Statesman. In my experience, this is what most reviews in these sorts of publications (TLS, Guardian, LRB, etc) look like. You begin a piece by parachuting in some quotation/anecdote from somewhere or other as a way of showing off erudition and wide-reading. Okay, you could defend this on postmodern grounds (all writing is quotation blah blah), or by arguing that alluding to others shows a certain scholarly deference, but more often than not the contemporary habit is much closer to a wider culture of casual namedropping and the gossipy, celebrity-ish adoration of Great Men and Women. Merely adopting this stylistic tic is a sort of class password, a shibboleth of sophistication, a fast-track to the inner circles of court.

As such, isn't Joey Barton actually doing something quite interesting, quite revealing, in recognising that this simple methodology is a shortcut to power and influence in the modern mediascape? See also his fawnish Twitter exchanges with Piers Morgan and Alan Sugar (ie. the most repellent, reptilian Great Men in the postmodern universe). Why is Barton any different from those journalists who wheel out risible morsels of Philip Larkin's un-poetry for the umpteenth time in articles about the sixties? Why are his quotations of Smiths lyrics a topic of condescension and ridicule, while J.K. Rowling/David Cameron/Boris Johnson have adopted exactly the same point of reference as a way of shoring up the intellectual/moderately-radical-in-youth side of their PR bios?

Why are Barton's displays of erudition automatically dismissed as fake opportunism? Might I take the opportunity, by way of an answer, to reintroduce an old-fashioned phrase that is unfortunately becoming increasingly apposite in all kinds of contexts right now: class prejudice.

Not saying Barton isn't a tool, of course. I just think it's important we try to ascertain exactly what kind of tool.

TRU DAT

All writers think that the world has reached its nadir, its low point … in fact this age will be lamented just like the last – that’s the paradox. What you can say about the world is that … it’s getting infinitely less innocent all the time. It’s been to so many parties, it’s been on so many dates, had so many fights, got its handbag stolen so many times … the accumulation is what makes the world seem that it’s worse always, because it’s never been through so much as it’s been through today …

- Martin Amis

ANTI-HIPSTER

A pattern of "allusion, not assertion" in response to Wayne's.

THE WAY WE LIVE NOW

Owing to a series of unfortunate instances such as banking problems, I had no money whatsoever between last Thursday and Monday, stuck in the house with nothing to do that I could realistically fathom much interest in and no money whatsoever. I have applied for various full-time positions over the years, but temping is a quick and easy fix, much like alcohol that merely serves to address short-term concerns before throwing you back to square one in the cold light of day. I’m nearly 30 and in a relationship. I’m not interested in being a major player in the rat race, but a little bit of dignity would be nice, or even a holiday if that’s not possible. 

Another great vignette about love on the dole by Dave Lichfield.

GLOSSES ON FOLK OPPOSITION

There's an interview about me book by the estimable William Farrell (of decades blog fame) up now at the estimable New Left Project.

Weird things, interviews. Chagall-esque caricatures: even weirder!