Emerge from a post-January hangover of incapable gloom and general slump in productivity. Doesn’t help that the free NHS therapy has ended and I’m on my own, so to speak. Still, I have done the bit about staring at a blank page or screen until my head starts to bleed and cranked out pieces of writing here and there. Two thousand words for Neil Scott about the JT Leroy affair. I know there’s hundreds of similar articles about right now, but I bet mine is the first to compare Laura Albert’s impressively successful hoax with Annie Proulx’s Brokeback Mountain and Catherine Tate’s ‘How very dare you!’ TV sketch character. Women portraying gay men, you see.
The current issue of Plan B has a few pieces by me, including one linking Alan Bennett’s latest audiobook with the current TATU album, indiepop band Pipas’s impressive 10-songs-in-20-minutes album ‘A Cat Escaped’, and Nico’s ‘Chelsea Girl’.
Last night – to Tom’s to continue work on the Fosca album. We’ve cracked open the big box of chorus pedals in an attempt to go a bit dreamy. I never understood why bands like My Bloody Valentine eschewed decent lyrics (if audible lyrics at all) in favour of startling snowstorm guitar sounds. As ever I want both.
A recent Friday: to Kirsten and Charley’s flat in Crouch End for a very modern pastime – a Big Brother Eviction Night Party. Essentially a shameless excuse for consuming drinks and snacks around the TV with friends. This year’s Celeb BB has definitely been the most gripping, and the result arguably says a fair amount about UK cultural life and concerns in 2006. Chantelle, the token non-celebrity, wins and thereby becomes a celebrity herself, albeit of the more precarious and disposable variety. A thousand newspaper columns and student theses about What Celebrity Means are born. Russell Brand tells Jade Goody ‘Meet your replacement!’, and he’s not joking. Chantelle must represent the average BB viewer / Heat reader. They like her, because she doesn’t threaten them. She reminds the BB voters of themselves, or someone they know.
Ms Charley describes her own current look as ‘Liza Minnelli Joins The Strokes’.
Ms Kirsten teaches young children for a living, and at Christmas is the recipient of umpteen boxes of chocolates from kids’ families. Even in late January, there’s still a few unscoffed boxes knocking about in their flat, and I’m only too pleased to help relieve them of this enviable burden.
On their kitchen wall are a couple of adorable letters and written exercises from pupils. I’m particularly fond of one noting changes made in the city since the Great Fire Of London.
“When London is rebuilt must have…
New houses built whith briks
No more people running whith bucit.
New fire engines when there is a fire.
hose for when there is a fire we can put it out.
No more tach roof houses.
No more teris houses.
No more dressing gown
and no more men werring tights.”
