Putting together music for tonight’s White Mischief DJ stint. It’s a steampunk-themed event, so I’ve been thinking about what a steampunk disco might actually sound like. I’ll spin the usual showtunes and cabaret fare, but this time I’m keen to try a bit of Philip Glass… Songs From Liquid Days? Mishima? Have to be careful not to play the stuff that reminds people of ads for electricity companies.
Maybe some 80s Nyman, like the frantic ‘Angelfish Decay’ from A Zed And Two Noughts, which did funny things to my brain in 1986 and still does now. Or a waltz from Drowning By Numbers. Perhaps the ‘Ice Dance’ from Edward Scissorhands, or some of Murray Gold’s widescreen scene-setting from Doctor Who. I’m rather fond of ‘Song For Ten (Original Version)’, from the end of The Christmas Invasion. It’s that Phil Spector-esque song which plays while David Tennant chooses his costume from the TARDIS wardrobe.
And then I could follow with ‘Dirty Business’ by the Dresden Dolls and ‘Eight Steps’ by Electrelane. And, and, and…
The Fall’s ‘Kurious Oranj’ (Peel Session Version) also has something of the steampunk about it to my mind. Hmm. Maybe.
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Yesterday: to Claudia Andrei’s to help weed her backyard of the sprawling ‘Evil Dead’-like branches and thorns there. It’s one occasion I regret not owning any jeans. The only rough trousers I have are thin jogging bottoms, which are no protection when kicking against such horticultural pricks. I come away with few thorn-inflicted wounds to my legs, and have to scrabble for the Germolene and plasters. Still not going to buy a pair of jeans any time between now and the grave, though. Thinking of bleach-blond gardeners brings to mind Kim Wilde. As I snap away with the secateurs, I wonder if I look like Kim Wilde from a distance. I suppose everyone looks like Kim Wilde from a distance, if you go far away enough.
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Emails:
I’ve been enjoying your diary since circa 2000… I wanted to thank you for so many years of quality tales and insights into Bohemian living… Also, thank you for the recent direction to Sebastian Horsley’s written work. I’m half way through ‘Dandy in the Underworld’ now and enjoying it thoroughly. I can certainly see why it makes it onto your now ‘essentials only’ bookshelf.
Maggi Hambling also praises Sebastian’s remarkable memoir in her Telegraph profile this week.
And here’s Sebastian himself on YouTube, spouting his polarising aphorisms.
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Had a couple of ‘viral marketing’ enquiries, asking if I’d be interested in hosting video ads alongside my diary entries. Though I could do with the money, it’s not really my sort of thing. Even if it’s for a product or cause I’d happily endorse, it’d just feel out of character. The Web is stuffed with adverts enough as it is.
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From: alex pollard
Hello. I am an artist (painter mainly) from glasgow… my work can be seen on www.sorchadallas.com… i have been asked to make new work for a show in Whitechapel in London and i was thinking that i might make a black and white painting of yourself (rendered in black make-up a little like the italian mannerist painter arcimboldo)… i’ve just realised that i can print images from your gallery section and they are a good quality of dpi. I intend to start work on some paintings soon – i was wondering whether you would be interested in seeing the outcome.
Consider me interested. I exist to be photographed or painted. I’m the opposite of that Native American concept about photographs stealing one’s soul.
I cope better in images than I do in real life.
