tourism

Extract from David Foster Wallace, Consider the Lobster:

As I see it, it probably really is good for the soul to be a tourist, even if it’s only once in a while. Not good for the soul in a refreshing or enlivening way, though, but rather in a grim, steely-eyed, let’s-look-honestly-at-the-facts-and-find-some-way-to-deal-with-them way. My personal experience has not been that traveling around the country is broadening or relaxing, or that radical changes in place and context have a salutary effect, but rather that intranational tourism is radically constricting, and humbling in the hardest way — hostile to my fantasy of being a real individual, of living somehow outside and above it all. (Coming up is the part that my companions find especially unhappy and repellent, a sure way to spoil the fun of vacation travel:) To be a mass tourist, for me, is to become a pure late-date American: alien, ignorant, greedy for something you cannot ever have, disappointed in a way you can never admit. It is to spoil, by way of sheer ontology, the very unspoiledness you are there to experience. It is to impose yourself on places that in all noneconomic ways would be better, realer, without you there to experience. It is, in lines and gridlock and transaction after transaction, to confront a dimension of yourself that is inescapable as it is painful: As a tourist, you become economically significant but existentially loathsome, an insect on a dead thing.

Sad Keanu Day

Yesterday's DC blog hosted a Sad Keanu Day presented by everyone's fave artist Kier Cooke Sandvik. I made my own contribution to this meme and here it is:

FIELD - BY MEANS OF MATTER, Generator Projects 25.06.10

To the Generator last night for a show by the London-based artists' collective Field:

FIELD - BY MEANS OF MATTER

NATASHA BIRD
MICHAEL J DAVIES
CRAIG DOW
LUKE GODFREY
MARIA DE LIMA
NICOLE MORRIS
ARTHUR STEWARD
FRANCIS THORBURN

Minus the Shooting

In case you hadn't noticed, apparently there's a World Cup on. Amidst all of the hype and the hoopla there's one source of informed opinion that stands out as being essential. A star-studded line-up of bloggers, including the renowned Mark 'k-punk' Fisher, have all pooled their talents to give us Minus the Shooting. The site is frequently updated as the tournament progresses, and its 's worth checking back for regular updates: LINK

launch video 18.06.10

Launch for the Summer issue 2010 at the Hannah McClure Centre at the University of Abertay Dundee.

Featuring the great Pie Roulette from Edible Wearable and Ben 'Jack your Body' Robinson.

Filmed by Steven Crichton
Music Cinnamon - Cakes and Pies

Filmed on a GF1 with the Tester 13 AVCHD hack

Frank Sidebottom RIP

Oh blimey, there's been some bobbins news today. The showbusiness legend Frank Sidebottom, aka the Manchester entertainer Chris Sievey , has died at the ridiculously young age of 54. A few weeks ago I interviewed him for the summer issue of Yuck 'n Yum, which you can read here: LINK

Frank's act was unique and the world is a poorer place for his passing. You know it is, it really is.

launch photos 18.06.10

A selection of photos taken at Friday's Yuck 'n Yum launch:

launch playlist 18.06.10

An illustrated list of records played by myself at last night's Yuck 'n Yum launch:


Marcello Napoletano - The Space Voodoo (Celestral Intro) (Mathematics Recordings)


Armando - Don't Take It (Thomos Edit) (Let's Pet Puppies)


Les Aeroplanes - Ils Disent Que L' Orient Est Rouge (Mathematics Recordings)


Traxx - Violet Epoch (Nation)


Jamie Principle - Bad Boy (Unreleased Mix) (Rush Hour Recordings, Trax Records)


Traxx - Mysterio (Nation)


Africans With Mainframes - A Mind Is A Terrible Thing 2 Waste (AWM)


Rude66 - As (Nicolas Courtin Remix)(Crème Organization)

Ben 'Jack Your Body' Robinson

Photo: Sanna Dyker

Me DJing at the Yuck 'n Yum launch earlier this evening.

Yuck 'n Yum summer 2010

Stop press: the new issue of Yuck 'n Yum is now online and available for your delectation: LINK

launch preview

Look out for an exclusive interview with Frank Sidebottom in the forthcoming summer issue of Yuck 'n Yum! Plus lots of art too. Launch is tomorrow 6pm @ the Hannah Maclure Centre and there'll be documentation thereafter on this 'ere blog.

autumn insert

Watching North Korea play so well in the World Cup tonight I felt inspired to make this insert for Friday's launch:

linkies

Back after its brief enforced hiatus, I bring you another round of links from my Delicious page:

New Statesman - Appreciation: J G Ballard

The Onion Sports Introduction To World Cup Soccer | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

Diana Dors: more than just the British Marilyn Monroe | Film | The Guardian

Dundee Degree Show 2010 | The Skinny

Brendan Lott: Newsman - Page 1 - LA Life - Los Angeles - LA Weekly

Harmony Korine - Film - Interview - The A.V. Club