The iPhone - it's not just a phone

For those of us who are yet to be convinced that Apple offer us anything other than a higher price...

Shakespeare & Co.

Reading that Shakespeare may no longer be compulsory for English undergraduates at Oxford ("Shakespeare in peril..." as the Independent has it)I'm tended to think it's a non-story. I studied English at Lancaster 85-8, and Shakespeare was nowhere to be seen in any compulsory sense, and I imagine that's true for the majority of degrees throughout the country. I did, it's true, take the one language course that included Shakespeare, but it was hardly a highlight of my studies. I was wanting to discover the British and American novel during those 3 years, and I did, without regretting that choice. Poetry in particular, and drama were minor interests at the time. Oxford undergraduates apparently have to study all 36 Shakespeare plays during their final year, which probably puts Shakespeare into the Readers Digest "condensed books" category. My in-depth study of a few Shakespeare plays at O and A level gave me a lifelong love for the bard, that I occasionally top up. Last week, I saw The Tempest for the first time at the Royal Exchange. It's absurd that I'd never seen or read it before - but, being Shakespeare there were few resonances I didn't notice. It's an absurd play, though a thoroughly enjoyable performance, and my real regret here was not having read it before, but not having the kind of classical education where I might fitfully place "The Tempest", surely one of his most Greek of plays? Recent books and films have tried to place Shakespeare in his historical context, and I like him all the more for it. Some of the pyrotechnics of "The Tempest" seemed like an old writer grappling with the new fangled "sensationalism" of younger writers. I've always enjoyed Webster, and have more recently enjoyed Ben Jonson and Marlowe - it seems that the less Shakespeare that an undergraduate gets, the more he or she may seek him out. Along with the King James Bible, the Complete Works is one of the twin pillars of English Literature. Of course, it may be that you can now go through from 13-21 without a sniff of Shakespeare, in which case, I'd have to ask, why are you doing an English degree? My own love of the 18th/19th century English novel or the 20th century American novel doesn't invalidate my debt to the great dramatist - nor stop an interest in his contemporaries.

***

I've not mentioned BBC4's wonderful 3-part series "Classic Britannia", a history of post-war British classical music. Brilliant archive footage, illuminating interviews, and a superbly realised story-arc have made this an absolute joy. Next week's closing part may cover a period too close to our time to be truly revelatory, but one couldn't help but be both amused and amazed by such performance pieces as Cornelius Cardew's "The Great Learning" (basically, a chorus of people er...hitting stones minimally). I'm glad that the "crossover" between the rock avant garde and contemporary classical music was acknowledged (Brian Eno's record label putting out Gavin Briar's "Jesus Blood", Taverner being an early signing to Apple records)and one can only despair at how the last twenty years have seen the rise of a "classical music lite." The audience who benefitted from music education in the 60s and 70s must be in their 40s and 50s now, and probably wonder why the only classical music they are encouraged to like is Russell Watson. Reviews for "Monkey: Journey to the West" have been generally positive, and I'm sure its a spectacle, and wish I had tickets, yet despite his fecundity, I can't help but think that Damon Albarn remains more commercially accessible than artistically successful. Better him, than Lloyd Webber or similar to write a modern opera, but better still perhaps a Mogwai or a Matthew Herbert. Albarn's perhaps become a British equivalent to David Byrne, who, admirable though his post-Talking Heads work has been, has never come close to the highs of those first 4 seminal albums (though his first foray into solo work, the score to ballet "The Catherine Wheel" was always a favourite of mine.)

Shakespeare & Co.

Reading that Shakespeare may no longer be compulsory for English undergraduates at Oxford ("Shakespeare in peril..." as the Independent has it)I'm tended to think it's a non-story. I studied English at Lancaster 85-8, and Shakespeare was nowhere to be seen in any compulsory sense, and I imagine that's true for the majority of degrees throughout the country. I did, it's true, take the one language course that included Shakespeare, but it was hardly a highlight of my studies. I was wanting to discover the British and American novel during those 3 years, and I did, without regretting that choice. Poetry in particular, and drama were minor interests at the time. Oxford undergraduates apparently have to study all 36 Shakespeare plays during their final year, which probably puts Shakespeare into the Readers Digest "condensed books" category. My in-depth study of a few Shakespeare plays at O and A level gave me a lifelong love for the bard, that I occasionally top up. Last week, I saw The Tempest for the first time at the Royal Exchange. It's absurd that I'd never seen or read it before - but, being Shakespeare there were few resonances I didn't notice. It's an absurd play, though a thoroughly enjoyable performance, and my real regret here was not having read it before, but not having the kind of classical education where I might fitfully place "The Tempest", surely one of his most Greek of plays? Recent books and films have tried to place Shakespeare in his historical context, and I like him all the more for it. Some of the pyrotechnics of "The Tempest" seemed like an old writer grappling with the new fangled "sensationalism" of younger writers. I've always enjoyed Webster, and have more recently enjoyed Ben Jonson and Marlowe - it seems that the less Shakespeare that an undergraduate gets, the more he or she may seek him out. Along with the King James Bible, the Complete Works is one of the twin pillars of English Literature. Of course, it may be that you can now go through from 13-21 without a sniff of Shakespeare, in which case, I'd have to ask, why are you doing an English degree? My own love of the 18th/19th century English novel or the 20th century American novel doesn't invalidate my debt to the great dramatist - nor stop an interest in his contemporaries.

Prince of Tabloids

Fascinated to read that Prince's new album isn't going to be distributed through anything as mundane as record shops, but on top of being available with his concert tickets, will be "free" with the Mail on Sunday. There's a bit of logic here, in that artists like Prince (like the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney and the Who) can pack out any venue in the country but have problems shifting copies of their new albums without the sniff of a hit for years. Only reliable hit machines like Madonna seem able to keep the public buying their listening wares as well as seeing them. Yet, its somewhat troubling that someone somewhere has worked out that there is a close affinity between the demographics of Mail on Sunday readers and potential Prince fans. (This is the man who wrote a whole album called "Dirty Mind" - somewhat of a favourite of mine incidentally - with tracks called er... "Head" and "Sister".) Though I'm sure Mail on Sunday fans are going to be in for a treat, since his last two albums, the jazz-inflected "Musicology" and the taut pop collection "3121" were his best for a decade. As for me, I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to stomach reading a whole issue of the Mail on Sunday.

Why I'm the best blogger in the world (part 1)

Why I'm the best blogger in the world ever is because I will talk about a number of different un-interconnected things and yeah, connect them. So here goes...

I was in London at the weekend ("What was it like?" a friend said, "Oh, a big city with a river down the middle" I replied), at the Taste of London festival in Regent's park. The food Glastonbury they call it, but probably first time they had mud to match!

There's a massive new Fopp on Tottenham Court Rd so I caught up on a few records/CDs and saw friends. One of whom has stood for Labour party candidate-ship a few times and so mid afternoon she got a phonecall from Manchester to say who'd won deputy leadership contest. She said guess, and I said John Cruddas - then Alan Johnson - and in some ways I was right, since apparently Harriet Harman ("the comeback queen" anyone?) got in above Johnson on the back of Cruddas's support. (He won the first round.)

Obviously Gordon Brown is now our Prime Minister. If he had better advisers I'm sure he'd announce a Minister for England on Wednesday, which would at one stroke devolve certain questions. I'm not a betting man (I lie, I am a betting man, but the sentence requires that start) but if I was I'd say that come Thursday there won't be a DCLG or a DCMS and the DTI is probably wobbling. If GB has any sense he'd take the Network Rail/BBC models of getting rid of problematic departments and give the Arts Council its independence (with all the responsibility THAT entails.) Any speculation or comments about any of this in our national press? Nope. They've been so obsessed with the Brown/Blair story that they aint got a story for when Blair's out of the pic!

I was in London, as I said, and friend's there are in Manchester next weekend. "Oh, its Manchester International festival" I said. "What?" they replied. Apparentlty publicity for this hasnt reached London yet, which is strange given that there's even a Virgin train festooned with it. But, the jury's out - I'm still puzzled by what the MIF is all about - I can't find a ticket office, for a start, and as it comes up to the festival I don't want to go throught their corporate website, I want to ask someone what's available! Not entirely sure it will leave an imprint on mine or anyone else's life....

... unlike the protagonists of "Classic Brittania". First episode of this astonishingyly good programme about post-war British classic music was a revelation to me. Apparently Manchester music didn't start with the Buzzcocks! Footage of astonishing pianist John Ogdon (winner of Tchaicovsky piano contest in Moscow in 1962 height of Cold war) Harrison Birtwistle and Peter Maxwell Davies was wonderful. Manchester was where it was at! But when it comes to commissions, getting Benjamin Britten to write "War Requiem" for the reopening of Cov cathedral, or Oldham-born Willaim Walton to write the music for the Queen's coronation is somewhat more impressive than Damian Albarn and "Monkey Journey to the West" don't you think?

I have only one question for Alex Poots, who led on the MIF, did you even ASK Birtwistle or Maxwell Davies for a commission? If not, shame on you.

Best bit of the weekend of course was the amazing Ricky Hatton, rapidly becoming Britain's best ever boxer, winning a massive fight in Vegas in quite stunning fashion.

Opportunities

I was at Manchester Business School yesterday and was shown this very effective video as a "primer" for Web 2.0. Well worth a look - created by Mike Wesch, University of Kansas.



And any creatives working with new media may find this of interest....

"North West Digital Academies

www.digitalfuturesnw.com

Northwest Vision + Media is looking for the best and brightest undiscovered talent in the region for our exclusive Digital Academies. We want fresh ideas, new approaches and out-of-the-box thinking to develop innovative, new digital content.

The Digital Academies are intensive, three day residential courses at a top hotel in central Manchester. You will learn about the application of creativity, how to develop content, and crucially how to pitch and sell your product.

Live briefs have been set by the regions top production companies – Multi Media Arts, Hat Trick North, Channel M, Centini, Turn On TV and All Out Productions. Two Digital Academies will support up to 30 creatives and entrepreneurs with the best and brightest being selected to work with these companies to bring their ideas into production.

If you want to get into an Academy all you need to do is:

1. Read through the project briefs on their website
2. Draft a proposal for one of the briefs using the guidelines & application form
3. Email your completed application, proposal & equal opportunities form to digitalfutures@opening-doors.org.uk by noon on Wednesday July 4th

All proposals will be assessed by an industry panel and 30 successful candidates will be recommended.

The three day intensive course will help you develop your ideas with expert industry advice. On the final day you get to put everything into practice and pitch your proposal to the commissioners. And that’s not all, up to five of the academy graduates will be funded to continue their work on placement for up to nine weeks and receive over £2.5k for the project.

The two 3-day Digital Academies will take place in Manchester on:

Weds 18th, Thursday 19th and Friday 20th July
City Inn, Piccadilly Place, Manchester
And
Weds 25th, Thursday 26th and Friday 27th July
City Inn, Piccadilly Place, Manchester"

Bolton to Tokyo

Fiona Campbell, whose recent novel "Death of a Salaryman" was a very enjoyable debut, is reading from it tonight in Heaton Library, Bolton, and then again at lunchtime on 13th July at Central Library in Manchester, in one of their regular lunchtime readings. You can find out more information here.

Rushdiestani

I wrote a post about Salman Rushdie's knighthood, and then deleted it, coward that I am. So here instead is a poem I wrote a couple of days after the London bombing. Not that the two things have anything in common. Of course not.

Was the sequence unknown?

Was the sequence unknown?
Had they, perhaps, missed a turning?
Did they, in fact, know something else?
Or did another get there first –
Long after the incident.
With their civilian shoes and laundered notes
And a taste for Allah; yet human
With the sense and feeling of us all?

It sometimes seems the private days are here again.
That our innocence is misplaced,
Found in lost luggage, when the crime’s long gone.
“Yes, he lived here, But I never knew him.”
Our global village, a lawless west
With flowers amassed to mark the spot.

And life goes on. The build up of expected days
Where nothing as strange as love or death might happen.
You would think you’d sense approaching tragedy
Or thrills.
unhooking her bra in a terror zone,
for the first time,
Better, much better than nothing.
For we step too easily into loneliness,
And tread in the seeds of our hate.


Language always escapes us of course "tread in" in the last line is meant to be "tread" as in "treading grapes" rather than accidentally stepping in something.

The End of the Album?

40 years after Sgt. Pepper effectively invented the album as a standalone entity, I read that Irish band Ash have buried it, their new album, their last, and from now on, just recording and releasing single tracks as downloads. Which effectively takes us back to before Sgt. Pepper. Remember even the Beatles and Stones early albums were just collections of songs, reordered for different markets in the UK and US, singles kept off (and Sgt. Pepper would have been a better record remember if it had included Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever!)Anyone with a liking for pre-Beatles pop (the wondrous Shangri-las, much of early Motown, even Elvis), has long been frustrated that the "long player" doesn't do justice to those talents and we are left with a ragbag of greatest hits. What Ash are doing, is admit that bands like them, with a good fan base, and that good British tradition of being a "great singles band", can now forget about recording a "London Calling" or a "Revolver" and concentrate on what they were good at. Formats have always influenced the creative side - the album itself - 20 minutes each side - was originally developed for classical music, to replace a stack of 78s, and it took a decade for its possibilities to be fully explored. Yet, the CD - with its 80 minute playing time bowdlerised this - and there was no longer a concern about which song was at the start and finish of each side. I've never been that keen on the CD as an artistic statement/format - even great albums of the last 10 years ("Californication" say, or "Ladies and Gentlemen We are Floating in Space") seem to run out of road after 50 minutes or so. But this is something else, taking us back to a pre-album era, single tracks, e.p.s., clusters of tracks. God knows where the wondrous 12" will be in this new culture, for instance, back to the clubs from which it came I guess. I'm not convinced that bands will go for the radical options that gave us - love it or loathe it - "Bohemian Rhapsody", more likely that those identikit 5 minute songs all with the same dynamic that you find on Coldplay albums will become the norm - after all who'd pay 79p for a 2 minute slice of pop? But the jury is still out - and we could say the album's been dead for a while, yet, and modern classics like my favourite of last year, Midlake's "Trials of Van Occupanther" comes from another era entirely, a CD that wants to be an old fashioned long player. I think only in dance and post-rock has the CD been really explored for what it can do - think Orbital's "Snivilisation" or Godspeed You Black Emperor "F#A#Infinity" for instance - and maybe bands like Radiohead, with their album dynamic being like a particularly intense live show - taking you up, bringing you down. I guess "Dark Side of the Moon" was meant for CD rather than the other way round. I've experimented with the Download EP - and realise I never really took to the CD album format at all - the 23 or so "Albums" I recorded between 1984 and 1998 were all on cassettes that you got to turn over; I've always liked to have 2 sides to my argument!

Murder in the Cathedral

Interesting story about the Sony Playstation game that's partly set in Manchester Cathedral. Obviously everyone from T.S. Eliot down could have told you that murders and cathedrals weren't necessarily unnatural bedfellows, and I'm pretty sure it was chosen as a suitable venue after the endless crime novels and Hollywood movies that have used similar baroque backdrops. Obviously with the North West having such a vibrant games industry we can only hope that it was a local graphic artist who thought that Manchester Cathedral would be a good setting for the game. Perhaps the church has only itself to blame, after all, most people have probably forgot that cathedrals are working religious buildings rather than tourist destinations. And, I can imagine there's a bit of head scratching down south "Manchester? You mean its got a cathedral! Heavens!" I'm actually a great fan of the building itself, and can see why it might have been chosen as a model - and though I'm sure there wouldn't have been half the fuss if it had just been in a book rather than a video game, I do have some sympathy for the church. After all Sony Corporation probably wouldn't take kindly to a shoot-'em-up in Sony Towers (pictured on the left)it might given people ideas, remember), and, probably the clincher, can you envisage any scenario where they'd have dared have use a synagogue, a temple or a mosque? And, to offer a slightly more sober perspective on all of this, there were two teenagers shot in Moss Side last night, for real. Not, I may add, for the first time.

When I'm feeling dull and stupid...

When I'm feeling dull and stupid (hot weather, a busy week, hayfever) I'm prone to read something anything but. I've been reading some Borges - not just re-reading some of the great stories from "Fictions" but his earliest book, The Universal History of Iniquity, a series of pen-portraits of bad men (and women.) Its rich in everything you want, easy to read, playful, but also focussed, aware of its power. I've always been a bit of a "rationer" of Borges, because every story does have so much in it, you can gorge yourself on it a little bit. Its fascinating reading where he might sit, between Chesterton and gangster movies on the one hand, and Burroughs on the other. Its modern writing, even this far removed, and yet with its libraries, its learning, its great books and its Biblical references its also ancient. Not saying anything that anyone doesn't know - but its good to be reminded.

Mags Thru Doors

Good thing about subscribing to magazines is that its a nice surprise when they arrive. Lamport Court 9 came through the door this morning, and being a Saturday time to read it. When I was its co-editor I think I was always trying to expand both the contributors and the audience - a somewhat thankless task - but now its just got one editor it seems to have settled into having a few regular contributors, a few guests, a few strangers. For those who've not seen it, it's the most unpretentious magazine you can ever see, no letters, reviews or even an editorial (a Kenneth Rexroth poem suffices in this issue). It's a little on the "beat" side of things, now, with a few dips into the avant garde. But poets (and despite there being some fiction, its now mostly a poetry magazine)are given room to breathe. Given my previous posts about finding good poetry hard-to-find it does make you wonder when you read a well-edited magazine, why that is the case. Like a John Peel listener in the age of Wham! and Shakatak, you get the feeling that editors, publishers and the like aren't really doing their job well enough. The real find here is Simon Robson for his superbly realised "My Cleanliness Moron for a Union Rep." The contributor notes only state that Simon Robson "works for the post office." As did Bukowski of course.

And...

One reason given for the Orange Prize was that it would give an opportunity for the type of books that women wrote and read to be valued. Men, it seemed took on big subjects like war, and these were the kind of books that won prizes. Interesting that this year's Orange winner is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie with her novel about the Biafran war. Already a bestseller, whatever one thinks of the Orange Prize, its undoubtedly a weighty prize these days, with a highly competitive shortlist.

Having a conversation with someone last night I started talking about a couple of interesting issues. Firstly, under the guises of "simplifying" our communication large corporations are increasingly looking at "controlling" how we contact each other in a work context - e.g. through all our phone/email numbers being centrally managed and being rung/sent simultaneously, and connecting us to whichever one we pick up first. I can see why corporates would want such a level of control, but I think we'll resist it. Increasingly our identity is becoming a precious commodity which we choose how we "distribute" - different emails/numbers for different purposes. Personalisation when it is mentioned by the corporates means selling to us personally - for us, I think its about choosing how our identity is communicated to. We can give permission - but also remove permission. But linked to this, I realised that for all the talk about "globalisation" and the speed at which the internet allows messages to be passed around, in an organisation or a community the knowledge is held, not at the centre but at the edges - and those of us on the edges are rich in knowledge BECAUSE we make connections with other communities. Therefore, in literature terms, probably the publishers (see post below on poetry) or critics or editors are actually a long, long way from the richest nodes of knowledge. I need to think about this more - and sure there's probably a "term" for it - but I think its true. True decentralisation is like during the Fall of Rome - the centre no longer holds.

What happened to poetry?

Baroque in Hackney's post about a new "poetry war" (between the young and the old) made me think that in the last few months, blinking, or not taking notice, or something like that, I've somehow lost sight of poetry. Not my own, (its mostly shy, but not extinct), but other peoples. Perhaps I've just disengaged again - but, on the other hand, what is there to engage me? Is it just that poetry only comes alive in the autumn - with festivals and prizes - or is that there's nothing particular interesting happening out there anyway? The magazines seem to be the same as they've always been. Local upstarts like Lamport Court and Parameter have new issues out but the poetry scene has a familiar look to it, The North, Poetry Review, PNR, Poetry London, Ambit et al, with, inevitably some (or alot) of familiar names. Poetry Review under Potts and Herd was an interesting beast, but under Fiona Sampson, I don't know, it seems to have reverted to its usual eclectic but non-polemical past, unthreatening to a dowager in Devon or a schoolteacher in Swindon. As Katy says in that Baroque in Hackney piece, she's not hearing anything particular interesting on (or under) the grapevine, and I doubt that she will in the near future. Too many poets perhaps, who'd become part of the education system over the last decade, probably frightened to death at across-the-board Arts Council cuts? (And nothing rhymes with "Olympics" anyway.) As she adds in the comments, those young firebrands of the past didn't just snap away at the heels of older poets, but compete, threaten, dominate, kill... The Faber-Carcanet-Bloodaxe axis is still there, but older, not necessarily wiser - and despite valiant work from Salt, and some others - Seren perhaps - it's not like there's anyone finding diamonds in the mine (and when they do, Daljit Nagra perhaps, he's on a transfer to ChelseaFaber FC before you can say broken pentameter.) I'm not sure that poetry MAs at universities have had quite the same impact as Oxbridge magazines and old boys' networks. Also, perhaps as female poets have rightly gained more of the audience (and become more of the audience), perhaps a whole different set of conventions have grown up. I'll be honest here, there's quite a few female poets, Carole Ann Duffy for instance, who I can admire, but don't really interest me with either their subject or language. This surprises me, I guess, in that I don't really believe in a feminised poetry as being gender-specific in any real way; yet there's clearly some connections between (some) female poets and some female audiences. (Yes, there might be the same man-to-man, but I don't think its necessarily so eyeball-to-eyeball.) More vitally, I think, where are the contemporary poets - male or female - who reject that easy audience? I stopped performing poetry live in no small part because I began writing poems that could get a laugh, could be easily read live. I still value the "voicing" experience that reading poetry live can give the poetry, but reading poetry live is different than a live poetry reading. All to say, in other words, is there someone there I'd get out of bed to see - who would be worth getting out of bed to see? (Or even buy the book...the pamphlet...) I had a feeling a few years ago that we were just in a bit of a dip, where we had decent poets, but of the more reflective variety, now I just wonder if our short attention spans, our performance culture, our litfests and prizes, our internet vagrancy, our regularly funded magazines, our reality TV shows (they're not allowed to take any books into Big Brother! Let them take poetry, I think...what harm would it do?), our veneration of the famous-seamuses and the like, our universal university education and probably a number of other cultural signifiers that I haven't enough E numbers in me to remember have all combined to turn a downturn into a permanent slide. In the future, all poetry will be mediocre. I do hope not.

100,000 words later

I've written over 100,000 words of this blog since August 2005, when I began writing it, which is rather frightening, considering that in that same period I've written perhaps half a dozen stories, and a novella, probably less than half that length. If only you could recycle words and make them into something more useful, like a candle holder from a wine bottle or something similar.

Control/Freedom

A recent (rejected) story came back with the pleasing comment that it showed "incredible control." Yes, I thought, that's what I'm aiming for. Yet, then I thought again, I write because I want some kind of freedom - not knowing where the narrative is going or what it might churn up. Which is it I want then? Control or Freedom? Is it even a choice or an either/or? I can see that Hemingway's stories or Joyce's "The Dead" or "The Great Gatsby" are remarkably controlled, but what of longer pieces? Its the glorious freedom of the language that makes me love "Tender is the Night" whilst I admire "The Great Gatsby." I remember a James Wood essay where he compared the control of (a better) Bellow with the flabby freedom of (a worse) Amis. Yet, his own novel, one would guess suffered from over-control, not enough freedom. Its freedom that I liked in "White Teeth" despite its faults - and yet "Life of Pi", essentially a fable, was baggy with freedom, to its detriment. What is it then? Control implies that the writer knows exactly what they are doing - freedom that they are doing anything they're capable of. Would I rather be someone who exceeds expectations - and talent - but risks falling on my face? or someone who controls every nuance, but fails to let the work breathe. I'd say control makes a good story, and freedom a good novel - but its not that simple - perhaps its that in a novel, a paragraph or a chapter can have as much freedom as you like, but without control, the novel can and will despair the reader. The same writer can do both - Amis is superbly controlled in "Night Train" or "Time's Arrow", yet his preferable writing is the freedom of "Money" and "London Fields." (If I recall, that Woods criticism was about his least successful novel, "The Information".) The best writing will do both - fitting the strategy to the flow of the race - which means control in the sprint of a short story, and periods of both in a marathon like large novel. I've been puzzling about this, and thinking that yes, maybe the answer to this question is important to me...