This is just me burbling on about whatever is current
Last five alright films what I've seen
In Bruges
Rogue
Wristcutters: A Love Story
Lars & The Real Girl
What I'm reading (alongside John Robb's Punk Rock)
The Fall by Albert Camus
Last 10 songs to shuffle through the pod
All the Night Without Love - Elvis Perkins
At That Time - My Architects
Cold Rain - Crosby, Stills & Nash
Yes, I Am Blind - Morrissey
Tonight in Bilbao - Sun Kil Moon
Postage Stamp World - Rogue Wave
Chicago - Sufjan Stevens
Quiet Houses - Fleet Foxes
Stones - Sonic Youth
You Really Got Me - The Kinks
What I'm reading (25/6)
Punk Rock: An Oral History by John Robb
Manual by Daren King
Today I wrote first drafts of
Not Maxine Carr
Theoretical Girls
Spindrift
Just For Tonight
What I'm reading (18/6)
Paintwork: A Portrait of The Fall by Brian Edge
Rid of Me by Kate Schatz
Punk Rock: An Oral History by John Robb
Today
I'm writing The Passenger & H.E.H.
I'm off to see Fleet Foxes at the Roadhouse
I am mostly listening to
Meš suš ķ eyrum viš spilum endalaust - Sigur Ros
Lookout Mountain Lookout Sea - Silver Jews
Yesterday
Martha's first tooth made the scene
What I'm reading (15/6)
Armageddon in Retrospect by Kurt Vonnegut
Pocket Full of Rain by Jason
The Imposter by Damon Galgut
Today
I wrote Chapter 11 of The Passenger
Last three movies what I've seen
Son of Rambow (good)
The Savages (very good)
RFK Must Die! (okay)
Today I listened to
Warehouse - Husker Du
Curses! - Future of the Left
Double Nickel on the Dime - The Minutemen
What I'm reading (11/6)
Daydream Nation by Matthew Stearns
The Imposter by Damon Galgut
Am mostly listening to
Murray Street - Sonic Youth
Today
I wrote three chapters of The Passenger
What I'm reading (6/6)
Goodbye 20th Century - A Biography of Sonic Youth by David Browne
The Confessions of Max Tivoli by Andrew Sean Greer
Today
I am ordering and reordering Paint a Vulgar Picture
Am mostly listening to
Youth Novels - Lykke Li
What I'm reading (2/6)
The Isle of Dogs by Daniel Davies
Yesterday I watched
Teeth (worth watching if you aren't horrified by severed members)
What I'm listening to a lot at the mo
Stay Positive - The Hold Steady
The Noise Made By People - Broadcast
For Emma, Forever Ago - Bon Iver
Hideaway - The Weepies
Today I'm
Interviewing Tim Winton
Writing Chapter 5 of The Passenger
Scratching around at the 33 1/3
Editing stories for PAVP
Reading at the Briton's Protection
Last three films what I've seen
Boy A (great)
[REC] (alright)
My Blueberry Nights (mostly duff)
What I'm reading (28/5)
Mere Anarchy by Woody Allen
The Story of a Marriage by Andrew Sean Greer
Last Friday, I
was up at 5,
mopped up dog pee
changed dirty nappies
dealt with about 19 bags of recycling
flew to Gatwick
trained to Brighton
taxied to the Neo Hotel
ate a nice risotto
drank wine in the sunshine overlooking the pebble-y beach
dressed up all dapper
shook Huw Edwards by the hand
won an award for being a top communication-type chappy
quaffed much in the way of champagne
pretended to be a starfish in the big, lovely hotel bed.
Last three movies what I've seen
Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (pretty terrible)
Kiss of Death (pretty terrific)
Semi-Pro (a bit of a drag)
What I'm reading (15/5)
The Dark Volume by GW Dahlquist
Today I'm mostly listening to
Santogold
What I'm reading (for my sins) 13/5
Renegade: The Lives & Tales of Mark E Smith
10 songs I listened to while walking the dog this morning
In Transit - Albert Hammond Jr
Eternal Life - Jeff Buckley
Bryte Side - The Pernice Brothers
I Want You - Shack
Maniac - Cinerama
Jesus Christ Was An Only Son - Sun Kil Moon
Your Protector - Fleet Foxes
Must Be Dreaming - Frou Frou
Tired of Being Alone - Al Green
Red Rabbits - The Shins
What I'm reading (11/5)
Bleeding Heart Square by Andrew Taylor
Yesterday
I got copies of The Empty Page (and spotted the first mistake)
Last 5 movies what I've seen
Funny Games (US) (still good, I think)
Iron Man (plot holes you can drive a truck through and supported by the US army which is always a bad sign but still alright, you know?)
Lust, Caution (the kind of movie you can imagine actually wanting to see more than once)
About A Boy (the Cobain doc not the anodyne Hugh Grant vehikkle, arty but sortof cool)
Jesus Camp (profoundly depressing but also bizarrely compelling)
What I'm reading (7/5)
Meat is Murder (331/3) by Joe Pernice
TV shows loitering in the recesses of the Sky Box waiting to be watched
Pushing Daisies
He Kills Coppers
Age of Terror
Mad Men
The Last Enemy
I am currently reading (24/4)
Great Jones Street by Don DeLillo
The Complete Short Stories of Franz Kafka
The Complete Peanuts 1967-1968
Sherlock Holmes: Original Illustrated Strand Edition: Complete Short Stories
The day before yesterday
I finished watching The Wire (booooo)
Whilst in Prague, I
largely derided Prague Castle
walked down Wenceslas Square without knowing it
was kept awake by the wind howling like a clarinet through a gap in the window of our hotel room
wandered around two Jewish cemeteries without finding Kafka's grave
enjoyed the museums devoted, respectively, to Communism & Medieval Torture
pondered the authenticity of graffiti in the tower over Charles Bridge
preferred the story of the person who made the Astronomical Clock to the Astronomical Clock itself
found Czech sausages don't agree with me
used the following words: prosim, dekuge, dobry den, dva (often in conjunction)
read Jar of Fools by Jason Lutes
Last 3 movies what I've seen
Horton Hears a Who!
4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days
Night & The City
Books I'm taking with me to Prague
The Secret Fish by David Means
The Night Buffalo by Guillermo Arriaga
Great Jones Street by Don DeLillo
Am mostly watching
The Wire (Season 5)
What I'm reading (alongside the Kafka short stories) 14/4
Slam by Nick Hornby
The Brain-dead Megaphone by George Saunders
Right now I'm listening to
Stephen Brodsky's Octave Museum
Over the weekend, I reviewed
Once Upon a Time in the North by Philip Pullman
The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie
Today
I finished a story called [insertnamehere]
Today me and my homeys listened to
Endtroducing - DJ Shadow
Greatest Hits - The Doors
Juno (Soundtrack)
Bringing It All Back Home - Bob Dylan
The Shepard's Dog - Iron & Wine
What I'm reading (alongside the Kafka short stories) 10/4
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
I am currently mostly watching
The Wire (Season 4)
Metalocalypse
Today
I finished a story called The Future of the World Writ Small
What I'm reading (6/4)
The Complete Short Stories of Franz Kafka
This week I saw
The Other Boleyn Girl (alright)
Cassandra's Dream (better than Scoop, not up to Match Point)
The Orphanage (like half a dozen other films but alright)
What I'm reading (4/4)
A Study in Scarlet - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Last three films what I've seen
There Will Be Blood (s' good)
Vantage Point (no Breach)
Persepolis (also good)
What I'm reading (27/3)
Born Yesterday by Gordon Burn
Jessica Farm by Josh Simmons
5 things I did today
I had a bit of an email back-and-forth with Lee Ranaldo
I wrote some Fairweather & some Outlier
I made some Empty Page amends
I watched The Kite Runner (was okay) and some Season 3 Wire (g-g-g-g-great)
and I played Worms 4 some
What I'm reading (14/3)
The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie
Three favourite albums of the moment
Heretic Pride - Mountain Goats
Ragged Wood - Fleet Foxes
It's Never Been Like That - Phoenix
Today
I'm proofing The Empty Page: Fiction inspired by Sonic Youth
What I'm reading (11/3)
Omega Force by Rick Moody
Am now loving
The (American) Office (am watching Season 3)
The Wire (am still ripping through Season 1)
JPod (am streaming episode by episode, baby)
Last three movies what I've seen
The Counterfeiters (not as good as The Lives of Others)
Eagle Vs Shark (quirky but okay)
Run Fatboy Run (okay-ish)
Favourite album of the mo
Let's Stay Friends - Les Savy Fav
What I'm reading (28/2)
Skinny Legs And All by Tom Robbins
Text I got offof mi Mum yesterday:
We never heard or felt anything
What I'm reading (25/2)
Miracles of Life Shanghai to Shepperton by JG Ballard
What I'm listening to right now
It's Never Been Like This - Phoenix
What I'm reading
Gaza Blues by Etgar Keret & Samir El-Youssef
Movies what I've seen in the last week or so
Angel-A ('s alright)
Juno ('s good)
Rambo (unsurprisingly terrible)
The most fun imaginable
Playing Worms 4 with my boy
TV I'm soaking up at the mo in one format or another
JPod (reserving judgement)
The Street (depressing... compelling... depressing)
The Wire (Season 1) (too soon to tell)
The (American) Office (surprisingly alright)
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (only worth watching - so far - for Lena Headey)
What I'm reading (15/2)
Thomas Hardy: The Time-Torn Man by Claire Tomalin
What I'm listening to at 3.46 on a Friday afternoon
Eureka - Jim O'Rourke
What I'm reading (7/2)
I play the drums in a band called okay by Toby Litt
Next gig I'll see
American Music Club at Dingwalls, London
Last gig I saw
American Music Club at Academy 3, Manchester
What I'm reading (31/1)
Duma Key by Stephen King
Musical I liked far more than I thought I would
Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Musical I disliked far more than I thought I would
Once
What I'm listening to right now
I'm Not Afraid of You & I Will Beat Your Ass - Yo La Tengo
What I'm reading (23/1)
His Illegal Self - Peter Carey
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier - Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neill
Over the weekend I saw
The Black Cat (melodramatic)
Shoot Em Up (cartoonish)
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (diabolical)
Ghosts of Cite Soleil (okay)
You Kill Me (okay)
Interview (sort of theatrical but still pretty good)
I'm Not There (over-rated, for me, but worth watching for Cate Blanchett)
What I'm reading (7/1)
Ginsberg by Barry Miles
First four films what I've seen this year
No Country for Old Men (okay but over-rated)
Manufacturing Dissent (goodish)
Bender's Big Score (infinitely better than The Simpson's Movie)
Two Days in Paris (the kind of movie I'm a sucker for)
First thing what I read in 2008
A Scandal in Bohemia by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle