An exhibition  at the National Portrait Gallery of his portraits has led to renewed interest in the media for Mr Wyndham Lewis recently. Since my initial curiosity I have grown into a great interest in the man and his work, having hugely enjoyed Tarr, Blast!, and various of his artwork.
I probably won’t be able to make it [...]

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr John Cooper Clarke.

Here is a great BBC4 adaptation of Ballard’s short story “The Enormous Space” I first saw a few years back. Its very impressive, well worth an hour of your time if you’re at all into JG.
These are well worth your time too of course.

Irvine Welsh’s new novel Crime is out in about a month’s time.
 Here he is reading from his last, Bedroom Secrets of the Masterchefs
And of course, don’t forget Spike’s whole dedicated independent Welsh state…. 

I’ve got a lot on at the moment and am about to go on holiday, and so I don’t know what reviews are going to get done or not. Regardless of what gets done though, I must remark on three excellent new albums, CSI: Ambleside by Half Man Half Biscuit, Imperial Wax Solvent by The Fall, and “couples” [...]

Jon Savage, writer of the latest film about Joy Division, writes a very interesting article in today’s Guardian about the literary influences on the young Ian Curtis. Sad to say,  the Manchester book shops he mentions are no more. There’s still a smattering of off-kilter bookshops around Shude Hill now, but porn takes precedence. Ian would have [...]

I am not, it must be said, a  fan of the music of Art Garfunkel. I am however taken aback in my admiration of the size of the man’s library. It seems that, as a “voracious reader since the 1960s”, Art has now reached book number 1023 and counting, and has listed every one for [...]

Benjamin Kunkel on Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle in today’s Guardian.
“Reading it, you want to reject Vonnegut’s pessimism as too easy and comprehensive, like the sour negativity of adolescents - always Vonnegut’s best and most devoted readers - but it’s not evident that the 21st century will grant us very strong grounds on which to do [...]

Here’s an oddity and a half. Back in 1988, when Howard Devoto was promoting his new band Luxuria, the newly solo Morrissey turned up unannounced at the beginning off the gig, and started reciting  Marcel Proust. As Harry Hill used to say, what are the chaaances…..? (via Morrissey Solo)

I’ve had this bloody thing on order from Amazon for over fifteen months now, and with the publishing date forever slipping further into the distance. But now it seems M.E.S’s memoir Renegade is finally about to emerge. Judging from this extract it seems great fun.
Still no sign of this though. Boo.