Gilbert & George: God Save

From an excellent profile of the chuckle brothers in the Daily Telegraph.

PS I thought I'd made a BRILLIANT point before about G&G as Tory anarchists, by way of Edward Said, George Orwell and Jonathan Swift, but this seems to have been lost in the ether.

As you were.

The Fall: Hastings

To Hastings to see The Fall again.

Yay.

Bye. x

Shirley Temple: 1928-2014

The Guardian. @markesmith Some people are so childish...

By @beardedgenius

Smith: Smith - Post-Nearly Man

"It's good being a Smith sometimes - you can get away with murder."

Lou Reed: Mark E Smith Writes...

At 14 when some bikers in town told me
I could score at this horrible gig in Sth. M/CR,
Lou Reed was a constant in my life.
The support group was 'Lou Reed & The Tots'.

By 73 I was a criminally devout Velvet Underground fan.
Not a 'Velvets' or 'Lou Reed' fan.
Or Johnny cum latelys.

About 87 when my mother was moving out,
I stood in the front room and looked at the stereogram
I'd listen to "Sister Ray" on full blast, 14 years back.
I opened the curtain and Nico walked past the house.

On the 'Gorillaz' tour,
Lou Reed must've been the only person I didn't talk to.
I bowed and he nodded.

The Velvet Underground group live and on vinyl of 1969–70
excels over 'pop & rock' of yesterday, tomorrow,
this, last and next week.

The Remainderer.

"WHEN ARE YOU GONNA LEAVE,
YOU FUCKIN TRAMPS?"

LOU REED
Manchester. 'Rock N Roll' Animal tour 1974

The Wire.

Love Lou, love MES, so this is beyond wonderful.
Mark thought I was a girl, Lou was predictably brusque.
A New York 60 year-old dwarf in black leather.
I bowed and he nodded.

"Hi Richard!"

Nearly broke my hand.
Great man.
Good times!

x

Fagburn: Where Are They Now?

I am Lawrence of Arabia in Dorset.
I am Lawrence from Felt in Belgravia.
I am Wittgenstein in Norway.
I am Gramsci in prison.
I am Oscar Wilde in Paris.
I am Peter Cook in Hampstead.
I am JD Salinger in New Hampshire.
I am Mark E Smith in Edinburgh.
I am Bobby Fischer in Pasadena, Budapest, the Philippines, Iceland. 
I am Thoreau at Walden.
I am Larry David in Hollywood.
I am Holden Caulfield in hospital.
I am Nietzsche in the nuthouse.
Ted Kaczynski in Montana.
Maybe even Morrissey in Rome.
Unhome alone.

I am nothing and
and I am okay being nothing just for now, thank you,
among all the other disappointed,
disillusioned,
disappeared.

Biding my time.

Mark E Smith: Life

Life just bounces (So don't you get worried at all...)

Fagburn: Why I Love The Fall

"It's not as easy as it looks."

I like Mark E Smith very, very much.
He says/slurs the unutterable.

"Keep thinking."

PS I'm taking a short break from normal Fagburn postings and considering my options.
My absurdism has temporarily conquered my communism.
What is point?
Oh what's the bloody point? 

Maybe it's a rabbit. 

Brighton Festival: Vanessa!

Vanessa Redgrave is guest director of this year's Brighton Festival, which starts tomorrow.
I love Vanessa, me.
It's largely a ceremonial role, with the "director" as a figurehead - a bit like the Mayor of London - and it's hard to see what imprint the mighty Vanessa has had on this year's programme.
Though she has championed the festival as a political project in itself; “Of course, we’re not under bombing and shelling here in Brighton. But things are very hard in the UK. People can’t even turn their gas fires on because of the price. But if you can listen to the radio and hear a beautiful piece of music, or if you can come to some of the many free events at the Festival, then it helps us all, not only to feel together – because we do these things communally – but also to feel better.”
There's a selection of her fillums being shown at the Duke of York's, though sadly no showing for the one I really want to see, the TV remake of Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? she made with sister Lynn.
Vanessa is in conversation at the Dome tomorrow evening (tickets still available at the time of typing!) which is rather tempting.
Being boring the only things I usually end up seeing at the Brighton Festival tend to be these "Interesting People Talking" events; Edward W Said, Mark E Smith, Neil Tennant, Brian Eno.
Actually I was standing outside the MES one, it's a long story.
The best bit of your actual art is Neil Bartlett's What Can You Do?: A Queer Retrospective at the Theatre Royal.
I love Nelly Bartlett, me.
But I see Vanessa is leading the Childrens' Parade tomorrow morning - the traditional start of the festival - so I'll probably go along and watch her doing some waving.

The Fall: Sound?

I hope Mark E Smith is well.
And hope some rumour-mongers can just die.
Some of us still burn, you know?

The Tomb Of The Unknown Craftsman: Art!

Being a ponce I went up to London to see Grayson Perry's The Tomb of The Unknown Craftsman at the British Museum today.
Now if there's one thing everyone knows about Britain's best loved "Turner Prize winning transvestite potter" it's that he's a massive Fall fan.
So I was thinking "I bet he's managed to work MES into this somehow."
I was staring at the badges on his motorbike jacket, but no...
Then I turned a corner and BAM!
One of Grayson's huge fuck-off vases 'Grumpy Old God' about you know who - with a picture of MES on one side.
You can buy postcards of GOG (75p) but with the highest British attention to the wrong detail they show the side without MES on!*
Anyway the rest of the exhibition is totes amazeballs, too!
As is the British Museum.
Though there's none of their Dürer on display at the moment, and I didn't see Neil MacGregor.
I did see a lot of statues of Roman dudes in the nude, though.
Double amazeballs!

* The British Museum also sells postcards of The Warren Cup - tortuously arranged so you can't see any Roman nook. WHAT IS POINT??

Fagburn Awards 12: Hero Of The Year

It's usually a toss-up between Noam Chomsky and Mark E Smith, but this year it had to be their secret love child, whistleblowing wonderboy Bradley Manning.
Hero.