Latest Features
Freedom & Memory
“Tokyo is very strange. Actually the title of the novel was taken from my feelings I had when I was there, that you are both there and not there at the same time. It’s like you’re looking at the city from behind glass. It’s so different from what I am used to and the people there are so closed to foreigners. They walk past you. I always had a fascination with Japanese culture — film makers, writers, everything. I went there with an eagerness to learn about it and came back with the feeling that I hadn’t been there at all! But I was fascinated by the fact that the city was such a difficult place to connect with. That’s where the title came from. Those feelings.”
Richard Marshall interviews Spanish novelist, screenwriter and film director Ray Loriga.
Four Lads Who Shook The Irwell
Northerness was crucial to The Smiths. Crucial because it gave them and Morrissey their scorn, their humour, their heart, their unpretentious pretentiousness and also their chippiness. The Smiths saved Englishness from the South who had held it captive in the basement of a posh house in West London. Since the 1980s it’s become devastatingly clear that London and its outer ring-road, the Home Counties, have nothing to do with England any more and in fact is set against it. The South East is now Global and Euro and, at a pinch, when all else fails, British long before it’s English. England has been forgotten or buried by everyone who actually lives in England except northerners and London cabbies.
Andrew Stevens interviews Saint Morrissey author Mark Simpson.
Blackout
i am in philly rite now –
some lover thing –
but i ain’t happy –
got an email from my ex –
still kinda hurts to read her name
it is hard to be alone –
just slept with someone – but i don’t feel things clicked –
they never click –
By Tyondai Braxton, Stefano Giovannini, Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, Leah Singer, Matthew Wascovich.
Riot City Blues
“In fact, you can dismiss the significance of the February 15 march altogether, no one took any notice, Tony Blair still had his war despite Worcester Woman taking to the streets to make her polite protest. What was more significant were the disturbances at New Cross outside Millwall FC in 2001 — a lot of people were involved and got hurt there, a lot of police were injured in what was a mobilisation of non-political aggression. But because it’s football violence its significance is felt to be lower.”
Violent London author Clive Bloom interviewed by Andrew Stevens.
Yeah I Fucked You
Should I be a madonna or a whore? I wondered as I rode around Denver in the ice and storm with you, an American Icon Rock Star Poet Warrior of the People. But you had no such hang-ups as you pushed my head into your lap on Colfax Ave. Not wanting to be recognized you paid for a motel room under an alias. And as I sat on top I asked you who you really were even though I was really asking myself.
By Jeri Cain Rossi.
Three Poems
Eat logic hot dog bugger. Magic
stain octagon name black skulls
push a button. Not to “variance” the
shock, but to allergic psychosomatic
suffusion lack time sphere demonic
Italy.
By Travis Jeppesen.
Jim Giraffe’s Stories
Jim and Daren King and Alistair Canister went to the pub. Daren and Alistair didn’t have any money so Jim bought the drinks. Jim had a pint of beer and Daren had shandy. Alistair wanted oil but they didn’t have any so he had water. Then, Opinion Onion came in.
By Daren King.
Afternoon Play
Hugh transfers his cigarette from right to left, then lays his hand briefly on top of Tom’s. Too briefly. More like a pat. Damn. The gesture of a distracted nurse, he thinks, registering the slight tightening of Tom’s jaw and deciding, quickly, to bring that hand to his mouth as if he were about to cough again, as if the withdrawal of his hand had been some sort of politeness reflex. Clearing his throat unnecessarily, he waits for the moment when he can replace his hand on Tom’s. ‘How about some music, instead?’ he asks.
By Tony White.
I Was A Teenaged Go-Go Girl
Jayne sang along to a backing tape, what?, four or five songs. “Cream in My Jeans”, “Fuck Off”. Some others. The anorexic girl and I danced around, shaking our arses at the audience, showing our knickers, being totally unafraid, free, the coolest kids in the world, absolutely triumphant! Then we disappeared down into the depths of the club on that stupid fucking stage. It was over pretty quickly.
By Charlotte Cooper.
Trendier Than Thou
Is Tony White, author of Satan! Satan! Satan!, Road Rage! (Crusty!), Charlie Uncle Norfolk Tango and editor of Britpulp! a usurper, an interloper perhaps? Not quite.
Andrew Stevens reviews two new East-End focused novels by Tony White and Matthew D’Ancona.
Summer Sun: Yo La Tengo Interviewed
They remain the proverbial elephant examined by blind men, different things to different people. Which is okay, as far as Ira Kaplan is concerned. I asked him what he’d say if the dictionary people came knocking, wanting a definition. ‘That’s their job, isn’t it? Finding definitions. We’re happy just playing the music.’
Peter Wild interviews Ira Kaplan about Yo La Tengo‘s new album, Summer Sun.
Changing of the Vanguard
The presence of Bolshy elements was not altogether absent — if the banners were anything to go by then the Communist Party of Great Britain, the Communist Party of Britain, the Socialist Party, the Socialist Party of Great Britain, Workers Power, the Indian Workers Association and, of course, the Socialist Workers Party were all in attendance. What was surprising was the presence of banners and placards from the kinds of ‘mainstream’ political parties that are usually otherwise preoccupied when these events take place — the Labour Party, the Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru (Welsh nationalists) and the Green Party.
Andrew Stevens reports on London’s February 15 Peace Protests.
A Decennial Appreciation & Celebratory Analysis