Splinters

Aside from press releases for self-published space opera bodice rippers and post-apocalyptic political zombie thrillers, Spike receives a lot of correspondence with the plaintive enquiry “What ever happened to Jeff Noon?” We know of several theses being written around the author of Vurt and many, more casual readers have been waiting for something new. Well, [...]

We are approaching – as you may have noticed – the anniversary of September 11th. Don’t let the media saturation blind you with cynicism to the genuine human tragedy of the date. I think of three distinct horrors,  remembering  the dead of each.  Firstly, the one on which our media fixates now - the nightmarish massacre of [...]

I’ve not seen this film yet but am intrigued enough to blog about it. Described by indieWIRE as “an apocalyptic love story for the Mad Max generation”, Bellflower has a special preview screening at New York’s Museum of the Moving Image tomorrow (August 4th). The interesting thing for me is that auteur Evan Glodell went [...]

In an age of self-publishing, the role of critic as mere arbiter of taste seems outdated. Concerning itself with essays on contemporary poetry and literary fiction, Gentry Read Literature “strives to present arguments not just feelings”. Making a case as opposed to runing one’s mouth. Run by Daniel Casey out of New Haven, Connecticut, the [...]

I was just listening to an album I hadn’t played in a while; Portuguese composer Nuno Canavarro’s delightful 1988 collection Plux Quba. Because of his initials and his nationality, I suddenly remembered that photographer Nuno Cera (covered by Spike here) is exhibiting as part of a group show called An Urban Silence at The Exchange [...]

David B Livingstone wrote an interview with Spike hero J.G. Ballard just over a decade ago. It’s one of the site’s most popular pieces. We were delighted, therefore, to gain him as a new Twitter friend (@DBLivingstone) this morning and to learn that he’s revised the article with a new introduction: I’m reposting a feature [...]

FACT Magazine has (rightly) been blowing John Cale’s trumpet (perhaps that should be ‘twanging his viola’): John Cale rarely leaves our thoughts, if truth be told. But in recent months he’s been a little more present than usual. The reason? He’s headlining the Field Day festival in London on August 6, playing songs from his [...]

We’ve just had an email from Richard Brouwer. I’ve not seen his drawings before (or his elegant photographs) and was glad of the introduction. Richard writes, “The main topic is a combination of useless lies, myths and assumptions in Evolution vs. Creationism vs. Religion”. The Surrealist collision of absurd elements fits this very well. The [...]

Regular Spike readers will be familiar with Maurice Blanchot. Stephen Mitchelmore’s articles are amongst our most read. We recently had word from Michael Holland, a Blanchot scholar at St Hugh’s College, Oxford, about a new journal. Co-edited by Holland, Cahiers Maurice Blanchot has a rather fine design and opens with Derrida’s postcards to Blanchot between [...]

Excellent news from the New Statesman, Alan Moore has a new novel  Jerusalem out soon, a 750,000 word epic about the history of Northampton, with one  chapter  in “a completely invented sub-Joycean text” which even Moore himself finds incomprehensible. The whole thing sounds fascinating, as is Moore in the interview, dwelling on his theory of the non existence of time [...]

I have not agreed with the majority of Christopher Hitchens’ stances and conclusions over the past decade, his support for both the Iraq invasion and the re-election of George Bush Jr. being the starkest cases in point. And during this period I have frequently found his style of intellectual thuggery aggravating in the extreme – [...]

The Spike bunker has just received word from Brighton’s Kino Club about Steve Aylett’s documentary Lint The Movie. We’ve been meaning to write about Mr Aylett for ages so, until we do, here’s a heavy plug for the film, which sounds (frankly) rather great (as does Kino Club itself). From the press release: Lint the [...]

Unnerving news for Britain’s final major chain of book stores, as Waterstones is bought by Russian Billionaire Alexander Mamut for £53m.  Since the demise of Borders, Waterstones is now the last bastion of books on the high street, and  becoming the plaything of an oligarch doesn’t fill one with confidence for its future. We all may [...]

“Reality 86′d” A film by David Markey from David Markey on Vimeo. A road documentary shot from the inside of the last Black Flag tour ever (the 1986 “In My Head” US tour.) Available in full at Vimeo

Well, it looks like we’ve got just that little bit longer to wait for the Rapture after all. Meanwhile,  to tide us over, Mark E Smith’s Q&A interview in today’s Guardian magazine is brilliant.