Song for Sunday

Regular readers will know I had high hopes for the album this song comes from. Safe to say I wasn't disappointed. Starts out quiet, but just wait to about 2.20 in ...

It's the little things ...

... that brighten your day. Not that I am saying Smoke is little or anything. Perfectly formed at 210 x 150 mm and roughly 52 pages thick, it always makes me happy whenever I know a new issue is on its way from SE11 to my letterbox. As Matt Haynes, publisher-in-chief, says it is probably the greatest small-format magazine ever published.

Even more exciting than the imminent appearance of Smoke 12 however was the news that Matt now has his own (typically unique (or is it uniquely typical)) blog danger: void behind door. First two entries are vintage Matt and I am looking forward to the next weekly installment. Also hoping that the collected Shinkansen news pages will make an appearance at some time ...

Smoke always makes me a bit homesick for London. And while we are on the subject here is my top 10 things that I will miss about London when I amn't there anymore:

1 Walking over Waterloo Bridge. Either way or either side doesn't matter. But if you did press me probably north to south was better.
2 Standing on the back platform of a Routemaster number 19 bus going over Battersea Bridge just before the last stop
3 The box file next to the photocopier outside the west kitchen labelled 'Broken dreams 1997 –'
4 Christmas lights in the trees in Sloane Square in November
5 Chelsea Kinema
6 Polish Vodka bar
7 The Albert pub at Friday lunchtimes (and sometimes Friday afternoons too ...)
I never did write down what 8 to 10 were.

Song for Sunday*

*Apologies and thanks to Scott Pack

Ballard USA

Great essay about Miracles of Life and JG Ballard's life and work by Paul DiFilippo on the Barnes and Noble website. Thanks to the ever reliable Ballardian for pointing it out, as it is unlikely I would have seen it otherwise.

Ballardian also has a link to an interview conducted by mail between DiFilippo and Ballard in 1991, published originally in Science Fiction Eye. Again, not a publication that I read regularly...

The original interview was beautifully presented around cut-up text from an anatomy textbook accompanied by striking black and white artwork. It is full of fascinating morsels about Ballard, his work, the UK in 1991 and, of course, has some wonderful quotes –

Doctors are no more to be trusted than lawyers or estate agents.

... post-modernism represents a dead-end, a desperate admission that the author has nothing to say and can only think of evermore devious ways of disguising the fact.

And now I need to work out how can I get to Barcelona before November.

Euro 2008

My tips for the Giro went so well that I think I should try some predictions for Euro 2008:

1 Netherlands v Portugal final, Netherlands win 3-2 after extra time
2 Neither host country makes it out of their respective groups
3 The best game of the tournament is one of the quarter finals, probably Croatia v Czech Republic

Giro d'Italia hat eating

Well I was right that di Luca wouldn't make it two in a row, but wrong about almost everything else including Contador's form. Although, to be fair, he did start slowly and ride himself into the race ...

Pellizotti was good, but never looked like he would be in the maglia rosa in Milan. Dave Zabriskie crashed on the first road stage, Mauricio Soler retired on stage 11, Karpets was 31st and Klöden dropped out on the penultimate stage. I was right about McEwen going home early, but of course Förster didn't last much longer. Cavendish did make it to Milan (and with two stage wins) but he was a long way from Bennati in the race for the maglia ciclamino.

Hopefully I'll do better in July ...

Which is more harmful?

Listening to 2GB or posing for a Bill Henson photograph? I know which I would be more worried about my children doing.

Interesting article in yesterday's Age about the seizure of the Bill's photographs from the Roslyn Oxley 9 gallery. Is it just me or is anyone else disturbed that the police raid was prompted not by complaints from members of the public, but by an email from a producer trying to stir up controversy and consequently boost ratings for a commercial radio station?

Of course this is the radio station that already has previous, including promoting race-hatred, contempt of court and defamation ...

Meanwhile, the police have passed a brief to the DPP to decide whether to press charges and, of course, what charges to lay. Rudd reiterates his moronic comments and the Arts minister is struck dumb. The only politician who has had anything sensible to say is Malcolm Turnbull. I almost feel pity for Peter Garrett and wonder how long it will be before the suppression of all his true feelings becomes too much for him and what will happen when he reaches this point.

MONDAY UPDATE
And now Germaine Greer joins the party.