I thought I’d show some new work. I’m not totally sure where it’s going, these may just remain as sketches.

Shred #1

Shred #2

Also, I’ve found BBC2’s School Of Saatchi to be quite distasteful – I don’t like art being a horserace. Especially when put into this X-Factor style format. It’s quite a shame as the show does have it’s  good points. Matthew Collings and Kate Bush always have interesting and constructive points to make.  The work of Suki Chan is by far my favourite. Really subtle and poetic. She’d be a deserving winner. I’d seen some of her work at the Chinese Art Centre in Manchester a few years ago, I remember liking it but then forgot who it was by. Revisiting it has been a very pleasant surprise!

I heard today that Disney has bought out Marvel Comic. Poor.

This better not make any difference to The Punisher.

Manchester Productivity

July 29th and Manchester is suffering torrential rain. It’s no wonder inspiration isn’t exactly flowing.

Cross Street, Manchester

Yeah, Manchester’s dreary landscape gave the world The Smiths, Joy Division, Factory Records etc. It just needs a bit more Sally Cinnamon-esque Stone Roses. Or even better Jim Noir. I’ll return to the land of The Animals soon. Just wait and see.

I recently stumbled upton this. I’m hoping it’s a satirical slice of mischief making. I suspect it’s actually a cold-hearted attempt at profit.

FINAL CALL FOR ARTISTS

Brent Artists Resource has one space left for the upcoming exhibition entitled ‘Values’:

World recession and plummeting prices poses the question, what is valuable? Using the current crisis as a point of reflection, ‘Values’ aims to explore this question through art by bringing together a group of artists to express values they hold dear to themselves. As well as financial stability, friendships, political ideals, memories, cultural, moral and religious identity are all values that we may hold dear. The expression of values through art will provide the viewer with a chance to contemplate what is valuable to them.

The exhibition will be held from 20th October – 12th November 2009. The gallery’s exhibiting fee will be £700; with a group of 10 artists the fee will be £70 per artist.

Hilarious.

Well, I wanted to blog about the photography of Chris(tine) Boarts Larson who, in my mind, was/is THE live music photographer. I used to love opening up a new issue of Slug & Lettuce to see her ultra-energetic, atmospheric photos on newsprint. Sadly I couldn’t find enough of her work to post here. You can see her MySpace here although it doesn’t do justice seeing it on a computer screen, it looked even better in print.

Also, really sad to see the Wood St premises of Open Eye in Liverpool has shut. I know it’s re-opening elsewhere but I always liked that space.

My two major irritants as of 20:23 30/04/2009: the neightbours upstairs who seem to move about on pogo sticks with clogs attached and the girl in Borders who seem incapable of looking anything less than filled with all-consuming hatred.

Well, I’ve broken my wrist. I’m in plaster for the next five weeks or so. I had to have my wrist pinned in place. Obviously it makes using a camera pretty difficult – the progress of my work has been slowed right down. I can just about use my Mamiya 7, so I won’t be on a complete sabbatical.

In better news I today received Duncan Redmonds’ Bubble And Squeak from Japan, his album of collaborations with Loz, Jools, Lee and Duncan (from Snuff), Fat Mike (NOFX), Ken Yokoyama (Hi-Standard), NoMeansNo, Simon Wells (Southport/ex-Snuff), Wes Wasley (Consumed/Billy No Mates), Dickie Hammond (from Leatherface, HDQ, Stokoe and Doctor Bison)
and the mighty Frankie Stubbs. Hearing there’s four new tracks with Frankie on is enough to make my day, the others are the icing on a very special cake. Roll on the new Leatherface album. And buy Duncan’s album, I implore you!

I’ve been enjoying Adam Jeppesen’s wonderful little photo book Wake over the past few weeks. It’s a small and quiet meditation on the spaces and boundaries of society all over the world. It’s not really documentary or travel photography nor is it topographic yet it kind of is. Sensitive and thoughtful, it’s certainly worth an hour of your time.

Adam Jeppesen – DK Ørestaden 12·12·05

Iggy Pop Career Freefall

Following on from John Lydon’s Countrylife advert now Iggy Pop is selling car insurance. Poor poor poor.

What next? Blag Dahlia selling cat food? Shane McGowan advertising mouthwash? Hell, resurrecting Derby Crash and GG Allin to sell Sunny Delight!? This must stop!

Review Of 2008

Happy New Year! Best wishes to you all.

Okay, a review of 2008 in lists. The most important one first:

Top Ten Albums Of 2008

1. Magnetic Fields – Distortion (Nonesuch). The sound of Stephin Merritt distorting every instrument and sound on the record and somehow producing the album of the year. An absolute masterpiece.
2. Former Cell Mates – Who’s Dead And What’s To Pay? (Household Name). Picking up where their last album ended this album is full of whisky, tales of regret and same good songwriting. They were fantastic live too.
3. Off With Their Heads – From The Bottom (No Idea). Raging, angry, heartfelt stuff from Ryan and the boys. I’d been waiting for this for quite a while; it didn’t disappoint. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there/From the bottom of my heart”.
4. Those Dancing Days – In Our Space Hero Suits (Wichita). A Swedish girl group with Hammond organ and Northern Soul drums? What could be better? This sounds like nothing else out this year – certainly a good thing. It takes a lot to make this cold heart of mine dance and this quartet managed it! Just a shame I never caught them live.
5. Tindersticks – The Hungry Saw (Beggars Banquet). Stuart A Staples might just have the best voice in music right now. This album is a kinda of lullaby songbook for adults. Beautiful and deep, one of the best bands in the UK – they certainly deserve more success than they receive.
6. Dillinger Four – CIVILWAR (Fat Wreck). This has been a long time coming. Four years since their last album, I feared there’d never be another D4 album. Luckily I was wrong. Great songs, great packaging, great song titles (Ode To The North American Snake Oil Distributor and parishiltonmetaphor being just two
7. Milloy – Creating Problems While Practising Solutions (Household Name/Boss Tuneage). With Leatherface on hiatus (not for long hopefully) Milloy are the premier raging/chiming/gruff/melodic hardcore band in the UK, and very good they are too.
8. American Music Club – The Golden Age (Cooking Vinyl). Is Mark Eitzel my generation’s Leonard Cohen? He covers similar ground but is a much more accurate observer of modern life. A continuation of the good work on Love Songs For Patriots.
9. Calexico – Carried To Dust (Quarterstick). A truly underrated band return with their best album since The Black Light. Less mariachi band more solid songwriting.
10. Virgins – Miscarriage (Kiss Of Death). From the remains of New Mexican Disaster Squad this is Sam’s new band. And it’s great. Very anthemic, very catchy and lyrically it takes no prisoners. Guitarmageddon sends shivers down my spine.

Other good albums out this year have included Jukebox by Cat Power, both rarities albums by Eels, Til The Wheels Fall Off by Hot Water Music, The Evangelist by Robert Forster, Bristle Ridge by Chuck Ragan and Austin Lucas, East/West by Bridge & Tunnel and Saturnalia by the Gutter Twins.

Top Three Singles Of 2008

1. Futureheads – Radio Heart (Nul). Snotty, driven, catchy. Fantastic. Can almost forgive them for being from Sunderland. Beginning Of The Twist was superb too.
2. REM – Supernatural Superserious (Warner). This could have been on Out Of Time, that’s reason enough.
3. The Hold Steady – Stay Positive (Vagrant). The best thing from the album of the same name. Majestic.

My movie of the year was Burn After Reading. I don’t watch many films so couldn’t really put together a list. JK Simmons must be the best actor in America at the moment. Rewatching Oz just drills that home – how on earth does he make Vern Schillinger seem almost likeable?

Top Six Books I’ve Read In 2008

1. Jonathan Lethem – Motherless Brooklyn. My first introduction to this fantastic author. The phrase “sinister mystery weed” made me laugh out loud on the plane to Reykjavik. Lionel Essrog is such a good character.
2. Douglas Coupland – The Gum Thief. More of the same from Coupland, a cast you care about, a dual-layered plot, a few neat twists and another book worth reading from one of my very favourite authors.
3. Patrick Neate – Where You’re At. A global account of hip-hop focusing mainly on race, society and belonging. Recommended even to people who don’t like hip-hop.
4. John Peel – The Olivetti Chronicles. John Peel had a really great easy-going writing style and this collection of his writings from various magazines proves this. He is still a huge miss.
5. Jennie Erdal – Ghosting. A literary account of a ghost writer but much better than that sounds. It’s on Amazon Marketplace for £0.01 – just buy it.
6. Ian Hamilton – In Search Of JD Salinger. After rereading the entire Salinger oeuvre this seemed a good book to read. It was. Hamilton casts a wry eye on the notoriously reclusive writer. It really made me want to read to unpublished Salinger work.

And that, my friends, was 2008.

Some thoughts

Productivity is a killer, eh? Business as usual:

• Editing my Icelandic series which still has no name. Maybe 15% complete.
• Continuing photographing my Nature series. This really needs a kick up the arse, I’ve been far too slack lately.
• Submitting work to the Mini Print exhibition at the Artlink.
• Blogging at least twice a month.
• The new Dillinger Four album is nowhere to be found. A poor effort.
• Hopefully a solo show at the beginning of next year. Fingers crossed.
• Gaslight Anthem/Former Cell Mates at Manchester Academy next month.
• To see the Rachel Goodyear exhibition at the International 3.
• A series of studies I’ve been working on to keep my mind fresh have produced some unexpectedly strong images; need to work out if this is worth continuing with.
• Completing the Teenage Fanclub and Buffalo Tom discographies.

Hopefully seeing this post staring at me will work as a mental post-it note. Ideally everything on this list should be completed or close to completion by January 1st 2009. And yes, I only included the crossed off ones so I didn’t feel lazy.

The construction soundtrack to this post was Pure Cane Sugar by the Sugarman 3 on Daptone Records.