To Anna S’s for a haircut. Am rather gratified to find that the layer of unbleached hair underneath is still pretty healthy, thick and devoid of any signs of thinning or greyness. David B goes off to his night shift job, Anna goes off to the club Stay Beautiful, and I just go home for a quiet evening in. Not so much due to any lack of energy as preferring to get on with a few things at my desk.
I have a new neighbour, a face from the past – Ms Sophie W. She once interviewed me for her fanzine nearly ten years ago. In fact, I came across the fanzine last week while tidying up a pile of clutter. Not only is Orlando in it, but so is David, in his former band Guernica, featuring the now prominent London DJ, Erol Alkan on guitar. There’s also an interview with The Longpigs, dominated by their guitarist, Richard Hawley. These days, Mr H is successful as a solo artist, his appeal somewhat further-reaching than that of The Longpigs. Even real people buy his records. I can’t see how anyone would want to get passionate and hot under the collar about his entirely inoffensive music and minimum-risk appearance, but then I forget that making pleasant music for its own sake is more than enough for most. Not everyone wants to make a statement. He does appear to be re-writing Buddy Holly’s True Love Ways on more than one occasion, but there are worse songs to re-write.
Read an excerpt from AN Wilson’s Betjeman biography, concerning his bisexuality. The great poet once described an attractive female secretary as looking enticingly like ‘a ruined choirboy’. And that famous line in A Subaltern’s Love Song about lusting after a hardy tennis player always struck me as a rather unusual way to describe a girl:
The speed of a swallow, the grace of a boy
But then, where some say ‘bisexual’, I say ‘English’.
