tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83193240834780391932024-02-19T06:51:26.281-08:00TROUBLED STRIKERWill Burns' blogWill Burnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202815833010488392noreply@blogger.comBlogger149125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319324083478039193.post-59058356600063334862013-01-18T04:06:00.000-08:002013-01-18T04:06:35.238-08:00New website...Right. In an effort to organize the various abortive on-line <i>stuff</i> I have attempted in the last couple of years, I have started a new site which is going to have my blog posts, writing news, events and everything else on it...<br />
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It will be found <a href="http://willburns.co.uk/">here</a>.<br />
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willburns.co.uk<br />
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I have uploaded a couple of posts from this month on there, and I'll keep this blog up for a while for anyone reading the older stuff.<br />
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I can still be contacted at info@willburns.co.uk<br />
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Cheers...<br />
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<br />Will Burnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202815833010488392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319324083478039193.post-48603531204197029112013-01-16T03:54:00.000-08:002013-01-16T03:54:30.116-08:00What do They Know of Michael Johnson...Perhaps it is an indictment of what football, or more pertinently footballers, have become that when I read about Michael Johnson in the press yesterday, about how he has "squandered" his career, his life, his gift (NO, NOT HIS GOD-GIVEN GIFT, FOR CRISSAKES!), instead of feeling sadness, or as the Guardian put it, "deflation", I felt damn good. I liked the guy more than ever. Shit, he looked just like I did at 24. The <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2012/jun/02/daniel-taylor-michael-johnson">Guardian article by Daniel Taylor</a> was a classic piece of sports non-writing, full of badly taped together logic, spurious morality and the same kind of self-referential, narrow world-view that serves merely to alienate more and more people from both sportsmen and sports journalism. The only moral compass deployed in building Taylor's argument was one that simply reinforced the myths of SPORT™ in what must surely be its most insipid, colourless age - namely, that caps, cups and stats make the man. Bullshit. There are countless players who never won a thing, that were fat or useless or brilliant or drunks or mad or all of these things. And twenty years ago, they were footballers in much the same as you or I are whatever the hell it is we are. I guess <i>human beings</i> would be a good start.<br /><br />I personally felt a sense of pride in a young man described by that human monument to stoic professionalism Mark Hughes as not having "the personality for professional football". Perhaps "Sparky" (ha!) means that here was a kid who actually <i>had</i> a personality. From what I can see more and more often, it appears to be a near catastrophic attribute in the modern game, where the monolithic egos of former players-turned-managers demand that their young charges live, breath, eat and shit the same myopic bullshit propping up their own Xanadu-ian house of cards.<br /><br />Taylor's article starts with a pretty unsubtle contrasting of the careers of Gary Neville and Lee Sharpe, quoting some stories Sharpe tells about Neville's dedication to the game, the implication (although maybe implication is the wrong word, seeing as Taylor is happy to drop in the fact that Sharpe's Wikipedia entry currently describes him as being best known for appearing on Celebrity Love Island) being that we must accept that Neville as success incarnate, and Sharpe as failure. Leaving aside the use by a professional journalist of a Wikipedia entry as basis for an argument, or the petty sneering at Sharpe's post-football career, let us ask ourselves why we must see this contrast in the terms set out in this article? Why can we not take a more philosophical view? In any other walk of life, we would want balance. We would want perspective. We would want broad horizons. This is not to say that balance, perspective or broad horizons will help a young footballer when he will need every ounce of everything he can give in an arena that has become so elite and rarified as to become, frankly, freakish. Nor is it to say that someone like Gary Neville does not have as wide or rich a life as anyone else. I hear he is an excellent golfer, for example.<br /><br />My point is not really about the <i>player</i>. Players will make what they make of what they are or have. There will be a whole spectrum of achievements, and achievements of wildly differing types. But I want more from sports writing than this. Turning in an article that renders Michael Johnson's story as a watered down parable of squandered gifts is passing up an opportunity to really rip open the heart of what the game has become and ask what it could be. Why is there no room for someone like Michael Johnson? I find Mark Hughes' use of the word "personality" fascinating. Why not dig deeper into it? I want journalists to stop praying at the altars of their sports, devoid of critical faculty, to stop regurgitating simple ideas and trading platitudes with ex-pros, or tugging their forelocks in deference to the quasi-mythic ego-maniacs that blight sport and have removed it from any semblance of a relationship with real life. Because as CLR James said, "What do they know of cricket who only cricket know?"Will Burnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202815833010488392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319324083478039193.post-27833284244130449612013-01-15T03:37:00.003-08:002013-01-15T03:42:46.492-08:00The first day of the rest of our life...Another day, another cultural shit-storm of confused ideologies and mixed up, nostalgic nonsense. This morning we woke up to a life without HMV, and while I know plenty of people whose work, and by extension life in general, will be adversely affected by this sudden commercial black hole, I won't be mourning the loss. There are some consequences of HMV's closing that will be profound, not least of which will be the impact on bands at a certain level who might be looking at an immediate future in which a retailer that accounted for anywhere between 20% and 60% of their record sales is no more. This is a real worry for those artists, and not to be dismissed out of hand. The idea that one can genuinely make a living out of creating art is a beautiful one and a cultural ideal to be guarded, but to mistakenly ally a capitalist monolith like HMV to such lofty and noble heights is folly. <br />
This is where so many people's reactions today appear confused and muddled. Firstly they are conflating commerce and culture. HMV was a huge, faceless corporate chain. It was Costa, Tesco, Superdrug. I can just about understand the nostalgia people feel about small, independent shops. I love book shops, comic shops, little craft shops and record shops. But they are just <i>shops</i>, in the final reckoning. And even these small, independent entities have nothing in common with HMV. In fact the reason there is so much misplaced nostalgia out there for the passing of this monstrous juggernaut is an irony in itself, an irony built on the fact that over the last twenty years the HMV chain marched across British high streets chewing up and spitting out the independent record shops that formerly proliferated in just about very town of reasonable size. Oven Ready Records in Aylesbury was ours, but if you were any younger than about 26 today, you wouldn't recall it. HMV was your only contact with record buying, and a shallow, pale approximation of record buying it was too. <br />
An appropriate phrase here is hoisted by your own petard. HMV shat on plenty of smaller retailers without a second thought, and the labels and distributors snuggled up in bed with them and lazily accepted the drips from the table. They are all culpable today and guess what? They are the flabby dinosaurs waking up to a new dawn and wailing about it. But the new model rolls out today, and all those sales reps and sales managers will have to start getting back to work to find those missing sales. Good. Good for the artists that they can't cosy up to the shitheads anymore. Good for the labels that they'll need to work fewer, better artists. And good for the distributors that they'll need to help out the smaller shops, cut their own slice of the cake a bit smaller and eat less of it. <br />
No-one will stop making ART because of today's news. That is a fact. There might be people who have to make changes, to tighten belts or maybe lose their jobs, people who will experience sorrow because of it, and hardship. But that is the way of things anyway, and HMV's closure is not any kind of cultural nadir. It is the monster eating its baby, the necessary death of the castrated father. And I will not mourn it.Will Burnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202815833010488392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319324083478039193.post-4026772914858733102013-01-11T08:24:00.003-08:002013-01-11T08:24:49.379-08:00For all you January De-toxers..."Only around a table with a plate of food and a few bottles can you settle down properly and talk about things."<br /><br />Keith FloydWill Burnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202815833010488392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319324083478039193.post-3200919205805133602013-01-08T04:14:00.001-08:002013-01-08T09:57:56.051-08:00Riddles in the Dark...Sam Harris' article on <a href="http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/the-riddle-of-the-gun">The Riddle of the Gun</a>, a strange title for an article in which there is no ambivalence suggestive of any riddle, is full of dubious logic. Of course it is, it's an article suggesting that violent weapons are a method by which one can defend one's culture/populace/children from what? Oh yes, violent weapons. One doesn't have to be a philosopher to deconstruct the flaws in this tired line of reasoning. Indeed, despite claims to the contrary, one doesn't need to be a philosopher to be Sam Harris, it would seem, as some of the logic deployed in this curiously simple piece illustrates.<br />
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Harris quickly and continually falls into the use of vague value judgements such as <i>"a good person"</i>, <i>"bad people"</i> and<i> "deranged and/or evil person"</i>. The kind of banal and half-arsed interrogation of human motivation that has allowed Harris to forge a career from making fatuous points about everything from Islam to, well... Islam, mostly. Also, as luck would have it, it is the same kind of ethics-by-numbers that has led to his books selling by the hundreds of thousands.<br />
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Once into the swing of things, and having first described himself as <i>"standing on both sides of the debate"</i>, Harris describes how he owns a number of guns, shoots them regularly, and has a relationship with guns going back <i>"decades"</i>. The <i>"both sides"</i> he mentions quickly turn out to be merely WE WILL HAVE GUNS, or WE WILL HAVE MORE GUNS. With a bit of added POLICE WITH GUNS, and NORMAL DUDES ON THE STREET WITH GUNS.<br />
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Harris goes on to justify his position, (which is on both sides, remember. Even if he sounds remarkably like someone justifying how and why the American love affair with guns must continue...) with some hilarious machismo. A personal favourite of ours was the following quote, <i>"I have always wanted to be able to protect myself and my family"</i>. What strange use of the word "want". I am imagining Harris' fantasy - the intellectual giant dons his dirty white vest and mounts the heroic, singlehanded, ultra-violent defence of his family that has hitherto existed merely on HBO or, presumably, Harris' DVD collection.<br />
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Surely, a more desirable state of affairs would be to never <i>have</i> to defend one's family? <br />
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Fantasy is a dominant principal in analyzing Harris' argument in fact, as he deploys the idea almost at will throughout, <i>"A world without guns is one in which the most aggressive men can do more or less anything they want"</i> Not only inflammatory conjecture, but also the groundwork for another important theme in Harris' argument; self-contradiction. The world Harris talks of sounds suspiciously similar to the world we see today. The world <i>with</i> guns. The history of the West, and its obsession with armaments could easily be described as a history of compounded brutality... an irony that seems entirely lost on Harris in his essay, <br />
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<i>"It is no exaggeration to say that if we merely had 300 million vintage revolvers in this country, we would still have a terrible problem with gun violence, with no solution in sight."</i><br />
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Key word here? <i>Still</i>. Harris allows that there is a <i>"terrible problem"</i>. And one that would not even be assuaged if America only contained 300 million revolvers. So how can he continue to espouse the More Guns Are Not The Answer - Until They Are logic? Simple. He invents an army of <i>"good, trustworthy"</i> and <i>"well-trained"</i> security guards to monitor all these <i>"evil"</i>, <i>"bad people</i>" roaming the country wielding the weapons he is so at pains to defend. Here comes one of those fantasy dream-sequences again. I think Mr. Harris needs to spend some time away from the XBox,<br />
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<i>"And any person entering a school with a revolver for the purpose of killing kids would most likely be able to keep killing them until he ran out of ammunition, or until good people arrived with guns of their own to stop him."</i><br />
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Towards the end of what is a long and, in fairness, very thorough article, Harris makes salient points about the need to resist fixation on symbols of violence, which low frequency mass shootings, with their blanket media coverage and attendant media reactions so easily become. But by the time he makes these points, his own logic has already rendered them largely worthless, mainly due to his previous one-dimensional rhetoric and frequent contradictions. For example, having previously asserted, <i>"But I am under no illusions that such restrictions would make it difficult for bad people to acquire guns illegally."</i> he goes on to decorate his final paragraph in the garb of enlightenment, with a token nod to compassion - <i>"Clearly, we need more resources in the areas of childhood and teenage mental health, and we need protocols for parents, teachers, and fellow students to follow when a young man in their midst begins to worry them."</i><br />
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A capacity to shift from broad brush nonsense that supports Harris' argument, like <i>"bad people"</i>, to what feels like a bit of a counter-argumentative after-thought is characteristic of the weak rhetoric at work here.<br />
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Harris does hint at the real truth behind his argument - that he himself loves guns, and more importantly that he loves the myth of American machismo and how that myth drip feeds into ideas of self-defence and self-reliance, and also that his position is emblematic of so many Americans. There can be no under-estimating the power of myth. But he stops short of the ultimate reveal, because it would betray the truth that gun culture, and perhaps a culture of violence itself is so rooted in the American, or Western, or even <i>human</i> psyche itself as to be impossible to worm out. That we might as well (there is a distinct whiff of the "might-as-well" about Harris' case) pile gun-on-gun, body-on-body, war-on-war. And this is what Harris needs, intellectually, anyway. War. The notion of humanity in a permanent state of conflict. Ideologies violently rubbing each other out.<br />
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Perhaps, as the atheist he is, he might ruminate on a passage from Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, and ask himself if he has not merely replaced one kind of fictitious dogma for another...<br />
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"This is the nature of war, whose stake is at once the game and the authority and the justification. Seen so, war is the truest form of divination. It is the testing of one’s will and the will of another within that larger will which because it binds them is therefore forced to select. War is the ultimate game because war is at last a forcing of the unity of existence. War is god."Will Burnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202815833010488392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319324083478039193.post-40691386859496897342013-01-07T07:28:00.001-08:002013-01-07T08:25:49.364-08:00To Rage and Rage Not...An interesting line in outrage and counter-outrage across the press today regarding Luis Suarez's latest attempts to alienate every non-Liverpool fan in the country. But it seems to me that there is a point being missed on both sides of the argument, at least as I have seen it put forward. Firstly, there are the ex players and current players, the Liverpool fans, Brendan Rogers himself and, to be fair, many more, who trot out the age old defence of the pragmatist; that Suarez is a <i>striker</i>, and therefore a mere slave to his instincts; that it is the referee's job, and his alone, to uphold the laws of the game; that it was (most laughable of all) pure accident that the ball hit his hand... and so on. So far, so Monday-morning-reading-the-sports-pages.<br />
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But the opposite side, it strikes me, have missed the real nub of why this actually <i>matters</i>. Of course, if it were anyone else, the apologists argue, we wouldn't have heard any more about it. And while that might be true enough, it is a facile and frankly inconsequential point. It wasn't anyone else that did it. It was Suarez... a player, and more importantly (as we shall find out later, dear reader), a <i>man</i>, who has consistently cheated, dived, conned, argued, racially abused and niggled his way through a career that has nonetheless established him in the firing line of the press and football following masses due to its undeniable sporting merits. And here is exactly where the rub is. If we stop asking <i>more</i> of football and its cast of heroes, if we merely shrug our shoulders and continue the tacit acceptance that everything about the game is tawdry, that the players involved are cynical, materialistic, professional to the point of detached disloyalty, ego-maniacal and too stupid or unimaginative to maybe try and improve their own culture and habits, then we are destined to descend to that very low as participants ourselves. We as fans, or more accurately in the economic culture that we find ourselves in, as <i>consumers</i>, are the true stake holders in the game. In the culture of the game and in the spirit in which we want to see these people uphold the game.<br />
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This is a metaphor for the cynicism that blights our society. Low election turn-outs, no trust in our Government, in the banks, the media, the police. Our systems and institutions sit rotting in front of our eyes while the rats that have managed to salvage a crumb escape the sinking ship in all directions (Dubai, the Cayman Islands, Switzerland... Manchester City.)<br />
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But let's lose the righteous indignation. And let's up the humour and the intellect in the way we talk about football and about sport in general. But most importantly, let's demand the same high standards of everyone involved. Let's demand integrity in the players. And let's demand intelligence in the writers. And let's demand insight from the pundits. These are the people involved in making money out of the game. The game we all love. The game we want back, please.<br />
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<br />Will Burnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202815833010488392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319324083478039193.post-43610453601010247782012-12-07T04:06:00.000-08:002012-12-07T04:06:12.560-08:00Illustrated Ape...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5Ci3NknY8c78vkmZVMDBDi1IXDEBbs8UJLoAA6Oz-64q700tnBi3xt0TKSsR9B8NNzMYz4Yofc4oBBxqhFyeQa36ooFkYd8YIuN0wvI0bKz5fLoZ8bQR_jKA7uBPPOCehz_3NndGIrADY/s1600/28.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5Ci3NknY8c78vkmZVMDBDi1IXDEBbs8UJLoAA6Oz-64q700tnBi3xt0TKSsR9B8NNzMYz4Yofc4oBBxqhFyeQa36ooFkYd8YIuN0wvI0bKz5fLoZ8bQR_jKA7uBPPOCehz_3NndGIrADY/s1600/28.jpg" /></a></div>
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... I have a poem in the new issue of the much-lauded <a href="http://www.theillustratedape.com/">Illustrated Ape</a> magazine which came out yesterday. There was a little launch in <a href="http://www.orbitalcomics.com/">Orbital Comics</a>, with whiskey and some of the art on the walls. It's a great object, full of wit and ideas and brilliant drawings and I'm honoured to be a part of it. Thank you, Christian.<br />
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<br />Will Burnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202815833010488392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319324083478039193.post-58926083010913894922012-12-04T09:05:00.002-08:002013-01-08T09:42:53.488-08:00An Interview With Robert Rubbish...I recently conducted this interview with the artist <a href="http://www.robertrubbish.blogspot.co.uk/">Robert Rubbish</a> whose new exhibition, <i>To London with Lov</i>e begins on Thursday at Material Gallery on Rivington St. London.<br />
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Robert was great to interview, funny, intelligent and effusive about art, music, books, politics. Since editing this interview I have had trouble spelling.<br />
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Hello, Robert.</span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Hello.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";"> </span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Could you
tell me first what it is you like about the aesthetic qualities of a postcard?</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;"></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">I like the size of postcards, the fact that they are so easily
accessible. I like that they are cheap and easy to store, easy to handle,
really. And I really love the fact that they are normally a reminder of some
event or place. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";"> </span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">And how about the actual
word "postcard", what does that mean to you?</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;"></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Well the word conjures up a few images, I suppose... holidays,
something you can post for sure, communication. All of these works are actual
postcards, Cass Art postcards, so can be posted. It's also about the group
aspect... that somebody can go to an art gallery and buy a postcard. Well, here
they are buying the original artwork.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";"> </span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">So the work
and the representation of the work are one and the same here?</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;"></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Yes, the original is affordable enough to take away. There's a
greater connectivity with the work.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";"> </span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">It seems that the space behind the art suddenly
becomes important when the art is this size, how did you choose or use the
spaces you've chosen for these exhibitions?</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;"></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Well, the thing with the Bristol show was that I used to go into this
underground comic shop and buy comics. The guy there knew I made art and asked
if I wanted to do something and I thought a group show would have the most
impact. So I guess practicality informs the whole thing, also with the work, we
didn't need to get a van to transport a load of artworks. And in the room
itself, we couldn't drill into the walls, so we hung the cards on the washing
line. So again, there is the practical. You know, it is quick. Afterwards, you
look and you see the shadows and the wall behind the cards... it's nice to see
it with the pegs and string. They look like Christmas cards...</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";"> </span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">...sort of
domestic? There is a play between the idea of high art and the small, homely
idea of postcards, clothes line, pegs.</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Yes, yes. Sometimes, with exhibitions... the chance factor comes into
play. When you're hanging the work. Unless you're spending a lot of money and
time working out the lighting, spacing, the image order... but this was in a
little basement, three walls. It works the way we did it.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";"> </span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">So how do you
see the relationship between the practical and the conceptual with this work?</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;"></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Well it's about <i>accessibility. </i>The whole idea is the
practical. The people involved are friends, associates, the spaces are where we
have relationships. The work is easy to buy, to take home, the cards are easy
to make. I mean by that, it's easier for me to give the artists a stack of
cards and tell them they can make what they want. There's no brief so they can
just have ideas.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">I like the idea that the work is affordable and want to encourage
people who don't usually think about buying a piece of artwork to buy an
artwork. I've been thinking about this a lot in the last few years... that
people, myself included, don't think about buying art because it is out of our
price range. So a show like this, most people can afford to buy a piece. Most
people don't mind going out getting wasted and at the end of it having nothing
to show for it. So why not come to this show, get wasted <i>and</i> leave with
an artwork that you can enjoy for a longtime afterwards? Also it would be good
to encourage people to get interested in artists, they might want to buy a
bigger work from in the future and if they lived with the small bit might think
that's a good idea. They learn to like the piece, "I want a bit more of
that</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">.”</span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">There is a sense of democracy about the works.
All the artists contributing have a space, a size of canvas that is uniform...</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;"></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">The idea of giving the artists the same postcards to work on
gives the whole show a uniform, an order, even though a lot of the artists'
work will be very different. I suppose it's about the overall look of the show
when it is hung. It is also, again, about the practicality of how easy it is to
pack the work up in a box and take to a show. It's easy to hang and artists can
even post the cards to me so it's all very easy. </span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Ok, I want to move on to the musical aspect of
the launch night. How do you see music in the context of making your art?</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;"></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Music is integral to the making of the artwork. Most people, if you
go to their studio, or watch them work, they are listening to music. Classical,
the radio, whatever it is. So when you work without a brief, especially, the
music feeds into it. So, for example, Neal Fox has these things - saints, he
calls them, and there's Miles Davis, Iggy Pop, whoever... and Hannah Bays has
done something with Bowie, so the references are in there, direct, or more
oblique. The Heretic Printmakers have done these one-off prints for the show.
You go to their studio and they're blasting out the crazy music they listen to.
Music's a massive part of what they do, (they've) collaborated with all these
psych labels, Tim Burgess, Factory Floor. But everyone I know listens to music...
is influenced by it.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";"> </span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">The images
are small individual pieces, but together they create something larger, and the
collaborative whole has a power of it's own...</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;"></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Yes, I like what you are saying there... from a distance the whole
show hanging will look like a sea of abstract colours and marks, but then when
viewed at a closer inspection you pick out the details of individual works. So
yes, it becomes like a symphony.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";"> </span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">I saw your
exhibition of "lost" album sleeves last year and I'd like to know
about your musical influences, especially with regard to the content of the
launch night for this exhibition... how do they relate to the way you work?</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;"></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Music and me have always been close. I can't play anything properly
and would have loved to. All my sisters are musical. I went to piano lessons
once because my sister told me the teacher gave you a mini mars bar afterwards.
I got the mars bar and he told me the piano wasn't for me. I would probably
agree. I have been in some strange musical outfits like the nu-cabaret outfit
The Meatballs in Jersey and the Victorian punk revivalists The Rubbishmen. I am
hoping on the launch night to bring together some friends who have musical
projects and have a mash up and the punk-poet Jock Scot's going to perform, who
is also in the show, The Fat White Family are playing...<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I'm not too sure how the launch will
pan out because there's so much happening.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";"> </span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">I see a
parallel between the impermanence of musical artistic detritus; sleeves, sleeve
notes, rock criticism and the idea of postcards, is that something you feel
strongly about? </span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;"></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">I think that sleeves and sleeve notes have been an important thing
for me right back to the first records I bought. In a pre-internet age the
record was a source of information as well as music. And I think more time was
spent on the overall look of the L.P. Bands like Crass... the artwork, the
sleeves, the lyrics...<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>were so
important to what they were saying. And it was so interesting to look at and
read. It's art with a message. I also love the thank yous on records where the
bands would name check other bands, people, drug dealers, writers, artists,
cafes, pubs, organizations. You could read all this stuff and come out of it
knowing some new stuff. We have taken the thank you idea into the front of Le
Gun, it's a very fun part of making the magazine. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";"> </span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Are you still
involved in making music? </span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;"></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">I have made a few things in the last few years and would like to make
a solo album at some point before I die. Lias from The Fat White Family has
made a backing band for me called Five Robert Rubbish Fans Cant Be Wrong. It's
just me and The Fat Whites doing soul covers and a cover of one of their songs.
It's wrong we have only done one gig to about five people in a pub in Brixton.
Maybe we'll do a number or two at the launch, who knows? </span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Ok, now I want to talk about Le Gun as an idea,
you seem to associate strongly with the idea of the "collective". How
do you feel that has benefitted you artistically as an individual? </span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;"></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">I think being in a collective was the thing that we felt was a good
idea at the time. It meant we had strength in numbers and we could push our
ideas forwards better. Le Gun is probably better known than any of us as
individual artists around the world, so it gives us scope that we wouldn't get
on our own. There was a whole load of us into the same art, literature, music,
underground comics, drinking. At college you would see people, see their work <span style="color: #030302;">and you know you'd never seen anything like it and you'd
sort of gravitate towards each other.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";"> </span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">The whole
thing is a bit like a band then?</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;"></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Yeah, you harness the individual energy for a greater gain. And yes,
it is like a band in a sense because there's difficult relationships, everyone
has an ego, there's communication problems... but when everybody's sitting
there, together, you can really push things further. Things progress in a way
they don't when you're on your own. There's totally different skill sets. There
might be, like, motifs or ideas that go right back to our first book, which
was, kind of, quite raw, I suppose. But as a whole there's always different
threads and ideas. But the group makes it happen. It's bigger and we can be
more epic.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";"> </span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Could you tell me more about the group of people
who have contributed to the show?</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">All the artists in the show I know and like. The work and the people,
so in that way I have curated (the show) in a personal way. I see that. And I
gave them no brief or theme and have just waited to see what comes back. I've
always liked whatever everyone has done.</span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">How did you all (the Le
Gun Collective) meet?</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;"></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Just common interests. We met at the Royal College of Art in 2003,
and we had to do this course called Personal Sense of Place, it was a sort of
nerve-wracking slide show type of thing, and it was a really good indicator of
how people were, you know? How boring someone was, or what they were into, what
they liked. And then you would see the same people in the bar, drinking and
you'd start from there. You started to see that Andrzej Klimowski, who was the
course leader, had maybe chosen people, not chosen everyone... but there were
definite connections, a lot of narrative ideas, storytellers, really. So yeah,
the conversations you'd have were about, "Have you read this? Have you seen
this film?" And you'd start seeing things in people's work and then the
idea started to form that we should all do something. And then it was a money
raising thing, so we started to do these parties, with print-making, group
drawings. And that's how it all started. It became a kind of group
consciousness.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";"> </span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">There could
be an obvious political reading to the idea of art as collective rather than as
an individual enterprise. How pertinent would you say politics is to Le Gun, or
Robert Rubbish's work generally?</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;"></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Well, yeah. I mean, you can't call something a collective without
realizing it's got some connotations. But I don't think it's a big politics, as
such, it's more of a personal thing. I mean, we all hate David Cameron and the
Torys. That's just common sense. I suppose I'd say my personal politics are a
mix of the anarchic and the absurdist and some socialism. But I think politics
is about big business and keeping the rich rich. There's a real lack of social
responsibility. Capitalism is an idea where the end game is the destruction of
the world's resources and we are living in a time that is seeing Capitalism not
work, and there's no connection with politicians, it's all public schoolboys
engaged in one-up-manship, and people don't care. And that's, I suppose, what
we try and do with the magazine if anything, is show the sort of absurd nature
of politics. It is absurd. But obviously as well, we work together and again,
it's about a greater good.... the sum of your parts and all that.</span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Again, art as a collective pursuit? It's
interesting because art is so often associated with being a solitary
occupation.</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;"></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Yeah, but you know, it goes back to the renaissance, loads of
artists; in the renaissance, modern artists, the Chapman Brothers having teams
of people making models, whatever -artists have always used other people. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">... <i>but our cult of personality means we need to believe in the
great artist?</i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Yes, right. I mean, Damien Hirst is Damien Hirst to us, not Damien
Hirst PLC although that is exactly what he is. But it's not a new thing, it's
always been like that. And you know, you learn as well, while you're there.
It's like if you were a tailor, you'd go and work for someone on Savile Row,
and eventually you'd go off and do you own thing. Or, you'd like to think you'd
go off and do your own thing.</span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Ok, lastly, I'd like to ask a few questions
about the Robert Rubbish book, how did you select the work that is included?</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;"></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">I just chose work that I've created since I started going under the
name Robert Rubbish, so from 2007 to now, basically.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";"> </span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Again, like a
band name?</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;"></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Yeah, I suppose it is. I wanted a pseudonym, and I was doing The
Rubbishmen at the time... so yeah, I chose work from that period, some of it is
Rubbishmen stuff, some of it drawings, assemblages, all sorts. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";"> </span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Did you become aware of any progression of ideas
as you sorted your own work chronologically that you weren't aware of as you've
continued to make art?</span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Yes I think my work progresses with what I get into at the time. And
I try and create work that reflect my latest interests. Soho has always been a
big influence on my work and Victorian stuff, drinking, joke shops. But I see a
lot of motifs and things cropping up, stylistic things. It's also interesting
to see little spells where I draw or paint more, and ideas that I move on over
time, where I can see I've said to myself, "Oh, I like that, I'll expand
on that..." and later have done, without thinking almost.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";"> </span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">Finally, what is your
favourite piece in the book?</span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">My favourite piece in
the book is my homage to Martin Kippenburger's work, Feet First, which is a
frog, crucified, wearing a loin cloth and holding a German beer in one hand and
an egg in the other. But it's a great piece of art when you read about it... I
mean when I first saw it, I thought it was quite a novelty piece, really. I
thought it was funny, but also intriguing. And it's all about machismo,
creation, religion, big ideas, you know? And I was inspired and wanted to make
a homage. I only really came across his work, because we were asked to do a
group thing in Paris about the Paris Bar in Berlin, and he'd painted the bar,
and hung out there, drank, ate… so we looked at doing a group drawing and I
started getting into him, reading about him, looking at his work. And then I
saw that piece and it really tickled me and I wanted to make a homage. I was
thinking about how to make this thing, and I went to this carboot sale and I
saw this Kermit the frog for sale and I thought, "Oh, I want to think this
is fate." I mean, not fate, but sort of... I like it when you have an
idea, and then the way of doing it sort of just comes to you somehow. It's like
Bob Dylan, where he says that he could always just see the path ahead. Like he
knows that if he did this, this and this, it would come together. And I felt
that with the Kermit and that piece in the book.</span></div>
Will Burnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202815833010488392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319324083478039193.post-29895473215823337232012-11-30T03:28:00.000-08:002012-11-30T03:28:03.569-08:00South Bank Poetry launch night at the Poetry Cafe...I'll be reading a couple of poems at the launch night of South Bank Poetry's latest issue next week.<br />
We'll be at the Poetry Cafe, in Covent Garden, on December 5th, further details can be found <a href="http://www.poetrysociety.org.uk/events/event/2113/">here</a>, and also reading will be Ruth O'Callaghan, Stuart Mackenzie, Claire Booker, Christian Ward,
Angela Croft, Michael Wyndham, Laura Hume, Bernard Battley and Chris
Hardy.<br />
<br />
Hopefully see a few of you down there.<br />
<br />
http://www.poetrysociety.org.uk/events/event/2113/<br />
<br />
<br />Will Burnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202815833010488392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319324083478039193.post-91236574327802666382012-11-26T09:24:00.000-08:002012-11-26T09:24:33.320-08:00Poem in South Bank Poetry issue 14...South Bank Poetry's latest issue features my poem <i>Strawweight</i>, and came out a couple of week's ago.<br />
<br />Anyone interested can purchase a copy <a href="http://www.roughtrade.com/site/shop_detail.lasso?search_type=sku&sku=357787">here</a>.<br />
<br />Will Burnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202815833010488392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319324083478039193.post-72817651329143255042012-11-23T09:18:00.002-08:002012-11-23T09:18:27.951-08:00Caught By The River Social Club...Hey all,<br />
<br />
I'll be reading a few poems here early next year. Should be a great night, in a really great pub.<br />
See you there...<br />
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Will Burnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202815833010488392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319324083478039193.post-39370183771778023612012-10-17T03:43:00.001-07:002012-10-17T03:50:24.381-07:00Kelly and VictorI was so happy to see <a href="http://vimeo.com/kieranevans">Kieran Evans'</a> film Kelly and Victor at the London Film Festival last night. It was a perfect antidote to so much of the vacuous, aspirational Downton-tainment that we are inundated with. The film looked incredible and held that magical line between revealing the brutal de-humanization process that people in deprived areas all over the country, but more specifically urban in this case, are still undergoing as a result of the strip-and-sell politics of Thatcher (heed the warnings... this film could<i> not</i> be more prescient.), and the tender, beautiful moments of humanity that take take root like dandelions, spiking through the cracked concrete (or deeper, causing the cracks) in sharp green shards of nature defiant. A haunting story - as haunting as a life, or city itself, with all the wonder, love and pain thrown in, a beautiful paean to a place and the people that haunt it. Will Burnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202815833010488392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319324083478039193.post-64185602938703718512012-10-08T07:47:00.003-07:002012-10-08T07:47:39.851-07:00Osborne on benefit "fairness"...A quote taken from The Guardian today... <br />
<br />
"So we are absolutely clear that those with the broadest shoulders must bear the broadest burden. But our conception of fairness, and this is perhaps where we differ from the Labour party, also extends to the welfare system. We also think it's unfair that when that person leaves their home early in the morning, they pull the door behind them, they're going off to do their job, they're looking at their next-door neighbour, the blinds are down, and that family is living a life on benefits. That is unfair as well, and we are going to tackle that as part of tackling this country's economic problems."<br /><br />This is exactly the kind of emotive, imaginary, anecdotal <i>bullshit</i> that the Tories continue to use to justify their unabated attacks on the people they are paid to govern, not wage war on. The stupidity and immaturity of the drivel spouted here is just lamentable. Not just because it comes from a public figure who we can surely expect to at least have a kind of basic respect for <i>everyone</i> he is elected to represent, but more because this is the overly simplistic view of a <i>grown man</i>, for chrissssakes. I've heard Jeremy Kyle offer stiffer analysis than this.Will Burnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202815833010488392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319324083478039193.post-71295463266593747912012-09-05T04:12:00.001-07:002012-09-05T04:12:38.958-07:00Festival No.6Hey all.<br />
Sorry there's been so little action on here recently.<br />
Seems like everything happens in the same fortnight about this time of year, festivals, last-ever shows, birthdays... blah blah blah.<br />
<br />
Anyway, next weekend I am completely honoured to be reading at the <a href="http://www.caughtbytheriver.net/2012/05/festival-no-6/">CBTR/Faber Social</a> stage at <a href="http://www.caughtbytheriver.net/2012/05/festival-no-6/">Festival No.6.</a><br />
<br />
I'll be co-hosting a 45 minute poetry slot with John Barlow, a fellow <a href="http://www.caughtbytheriver.net/">CBTR</a> poet and I think it's going to be great, so hopefully see you there...<br />
<br />
A <a href="http://www.caughtbytheriver.net/2012/09/carcass/">new poem</a> on the site as well today. Cheers, Jeff, Andrew, Robin etc!<br />
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<br />Will Burnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202815833010488392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319324083478039193.post-301451294060196492012-08-01T07:23:00.000-07:002012-08-01T07:23:37.439-07:00Come Down and Meet the Folks...Hey, <br />
It's going to be a real pleasure to finally take the stage at <a href="http://www.comedownandmeetthefolks.co.uk/">Come Down and Meet the Folks</a> on August 12th. Run by seminal UK cosmic country pioneer Alan Tyler, it's a genuine honour to have been asked to do it. More info on their site, <a href="http://www.comedownandmeetthefolks.co.uk/">here</a>.<br />
Hopefully see a few of you down there.<br />
<br />Will Burnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202815833010488392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319324083478039193.post-52778759762847594712012-07-25T06:41:00.002-07:002012-07-25T06:41:38.243-07:00The End of (the Outside) World...<br />
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<br />
<br />
A huge thank you to everybody that made Port Eliot such a great time. <a href="http://andrewsofarcadiascrapbook.blogspot.co.uk/">John Andrews</a> and all the Arcadian crew, and also Jeff, Carl, Danny and all in the <a href="http://www.caughtbytheriver.net/">Caught By The River</a> bar for creating what genuinely feels like a tiny haven from the world for a few days.<br />
<br />
It is a truly jarring experience to come back to news of a startlingly shrinking economy, RVP's impending choice between Utd or City, South African cricketing celebrations and London bathed in sunshine.<br />
<br />
<br />
Such a shame the festival is having a year off next year. But I'm not one to dwell in sentimental reverie.<br />
<br />
As the man said, <i>the past is a foreign country... and Lovejoy doesn't live there anymore.</i><br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06616185542377447101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319324083478039193.post-90872162758186313532012-07-17T04:47:00.000-07:002012-07-17T04:47:19.056-07:00Port Eliot Festival...I'll be getting in the van down to Cornwall tomorrow morning for what is a genuine highlight of my year. I only wish the weather could see its way to acting just a little less "end of the world", and maybe a little more "end of the pier". <br />
<br />
I'll be reading on the Saturday, at 12.30 on the <a href="http://fivedials.com/fivedials">Five Dials</a> stage, and then at 2.30 in the <a href="http://www.andrewsofarcadia.com/">Andrews Of Arcadia</a> installation in the <a href="http://www.caughtbytheriver.net/">Caught By the River</a> area. Which is down by the river, funnily enough.<br />
<br />
See a few of you there, I hope.<br />
<br />Will Burnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202815833010488392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319324083478039193.post-84646322051638002632012-07-02T08:56:00.001-07:002012-07-02T08:56:38.424-07:00Please Plant These Songs...The <a href="http://www.brautiganbookclub.co.uk/">Brautigan Book Club</a> have put together <a href="http://soundcloud.com/brautiganbookclub/sets/please-plant-these-songs">this</a> beautiful little collection of songs to play alongside their re-imagining of Brautigan's Please Plant This Book at the Dinefwr Festival recently.<br />
<br />
All the songs on there are great, and the whole <a href="http://www.brautiganbookclub.co.uk/the-making-ofplease-plant-this-book-londondin">project</a> is the work of some truly dedicated and brilliant people. It's an honour to be on there.<br />
<br />
<br />Will Burnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202815833010488392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319324083478039193.post-30002320805206619452012-06-15T02:36:00.002-07:002012-06-15T02:36:53.807-07:00A New Poem...... up on <a href="http://www.caughtbytheriver.net/2012/06/a-high-garden/">Caught By The River</a>, if anyone fancies a read.<br />
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<br />Will Burnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202815833010488392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319324083478039193.post-22774638985491388622012-05-31T04:16:00.000-07:002012-06-01T04:06:52.694-07:00Jubilation Time Has Come...I'm already sick of the jubilee. Every magazine full of penile sausages, pork pies and red white and blue.<br />
£3000 Union Flag high heels and female columnists cooing over the Queen's effortless wardrobe.<br />
Well done Your Majesty. Here's to another 60 years of benign exploitation. It's heartbreaking to see<br />
the country bowing its collective head in servitude to the pinnacle, the seed, the beating heart of the unfair class system that has allowed capitalism in Europe to run amok both morally and practically. <br />
<br />
But who cares if we get a couple of days off work to eat Asda sausage rolls and look at the rich people's pretty clothes?<br />
Every photo of a street party that I've seen in the press is full of white people. Is anyone else invited?<br />
<br />
Cut out your Rob Ryan Jubilee Bunting and enjoy the sun. <br />
<br />
Smile while you drown at their party. You'll drown in cheap cava while they drink champagne <br />
in the gardens that they've built upon your country. That they've walled off and de-marked. <br />
That they've labelled property and that they value higher than human life. <br />
<br />
You're allowed in. For one day only.Will Burnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202815833010488392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319324083478039193.post-86700064108727305842012-05-29T02:52:00.002-07:002012-05-29T02:52:34.450-07:00Telegraph Review...... A nice piece <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/9295670/Postcards-from-nature.html"><i>here</i></a> about the Caught By The River Variety Show at The South Bank in the Telegraph's culture section.Will Burnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202815833010488392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319324083478039193.post-58471642746320139792012-05-28T08:46:00.001-07:002012-05-28T08:46:40.213-07:00Long Division FestivalBig thanks to anybody who came and listened at The South Bank on Friday. It was a beautiful evening.<br />
The band will be re-convening this weekend for <a href="http://www.longdivisionfestival.co.uk/about.html">Long Division</a> in Wakefield. <br />
<br />
The line-up looks great, and it's our last show of the summer while we finish the new record.<br />
<br />
Hope to see some familiar faces up there.<br />
<br />
Cheers.Will Burnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202815833010488392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319324083478039193.post-11183083663806134952012-05-09T02:16:00.000-07:002012-05-09T02:16:57.386-07:00CBTR on the South Bank...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<br />
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<br />
... the 5th birthday celebrations for the wonderful <a href="http://caughtbytheriver.net/2012/02/the-caught-by-the-river-variety-show/">Caught By The River</a> are coming up and it promises to be a great event as well as a lot of fun. Some of the site's best contributors in a beautiful space promise to make it a fantastic evening.<br />
<br />
Tickets can be purchased <a href="http://ticketing.southbankcentre.co.uk/find/music/tickets/the-caught-by-the-river-variety-show-64713">here</a>.<br />Will Burnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202815833010488392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319324083478039193.post-67053754017024211992012-04-25T09:56:00.000-07:002012-04-25T09:56:18.890-07:00A Kind Of Justice...Firstly, in a rare moment of magnanimity, I will say now that I almost, half agree with some of the chest beating rhetoric we have seen in the UK press today regarding last night's Chelsea 'heroes'. It would be churlish and mean-spirited to deny that there was something wonderful (in the true sense of that word) about watching the improbable unfurling from the impossible in the second half of a thoroughly entertaining game...<br />
<br />
However, while I can understand Chelsea players and fans wanting to see an amnesty on the yellow cards shown to their players in the semi-final against Barcelona, I can't help but feel like those suspensions somehow represent the true legacy of the kind of football Chelsea played over the two legs of the match. They didn't play, they defended, and when you defend without the ball for 80-odd percent of a football match, you give away fouls. You give away yellow cards. I cannot see a more logical progression of events than one whereby an entirely negative approach to a match (never more cynically revealed than in Terry's sending off) over both legs results in you having players suspended because they have basically been asked to play against the law of averages with the amount of tackles they have had to make.<br />
<br />
Cruel, unjust and unfair is how some Spanish reporters labelled last night, and to an extent that is as true as it ever is in sport, a notoriously arbitrary moralizer, but a sense of justice is visible through those suspensions and for that reason they must stand.<br />
<br />
Oh and also a small part of me is pleased to note that Fabregas has still got that cabinet maker on hold...<br />
<br />
Like I say, magnanimity has never been my long suit. <br />
<br />
<br />Will Burnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202815833010488392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319324083478039193.post-89212935733011977462012-04-24T04:11:00.001-07:002012-04-24T04:11:04.697-07:00Record Store Day...With all the furore and euphoria surrounding Record Store Day there was an element of poignancy about reading <a href="http://www.chunklet.com/index.cfm?section=blogs&id=707">this</a> today. Jason played in Rough Trade's East shop on the first Record Store Day and later that night came to watch the band play at The Windmill, with Centro-Matic. It was a strange day of hanging out with someone we all thought of as a genuine hero. For everyone in the band Jason was right up there with the people whose music had really inspired us into doing what we were doing... So to have him come along to a show, have a few beers with us and talk about Warren Zevon and Waylon and Wallace Stevens was a strange and heady experience. It might as well have been Zevon himself there with us, such is our respect for Jason's art. <br /><br />Anyway, I wanted to echo the sentiment in this piece and think about a hero facing difficult times...<br />
<br />Will Burnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14202815833010488392noreply@blogger.com