The Long Arm of Jude Law
Apropos of nothing, this is the winner of my own private “Commission a new strip for Viz” competition. Not quite up to snuff were Asher D: Maitre d’ and My Mate Billy. AD:MD was a bit out of date with its su[…]

The Way To Paradise by Mario Vargas Llosa
I’m a big admirer of Vargas Llosa, but this one isn’t much fun. It’s two separate narratives, one of Gauguin, not a painter or person for whom I have much admiration, and one of his grandmot[…]

four art shows
I was nearly put off writing this by Tim’s superior piece below, but as I saw these today, I’d like to mention them. Order of my attendance rather than preference…
Mark Tobey at Robert Sandelson
Tobey’s work kin[…]

Top five things in galleries to go and see for free in London right now (in reverse order)
5. Henrik Plenge Jacobsen: “J’accuse” at the South London Gallery
HPJ is really saying something in this exhibition, something about justice[…]

1968 – Mark Kurlansky
Mass-market history reaches the recent past, and faces a stylistic problem. The genre tends to a gentle narrative style, rich with curios and always willing to take the occasional detour. But widen the focus and the narrat[…]

I expected M*A*S*H (the book) to be like a poor man’s Catch-22, and indeed it is. However that poor man will finish it a lot quicker, be able to read good, hearty, storyful chunks of it on the crapper AND be acquainted with the madness of war. […]

—there might be evil in the world, and human beings are destructive motherfuckers and there is not much we can do about that…But sometimes the dust settles, and even if it affects everything, even if it is in the dust and the air we breat[…]

“that now I do not like to think of maggots in his eyes”
hopkin greenfrog and i argued abt betjeman in the comments to this post, and tim asked “Did he ever liked anything modernist (art lit music architecture whatever)”? So […]

retrospective turner prize for the british empire at its implausible victorian height :
i. for lord cardigan for modellin the cardigan, after ii. leadin the charge of the light brigade right into the russian guns, then iii. decidin that hand-to-hand[…]

Batman in Love
So, I’m reading Pop Out: Queer Warhol, edited by Jennifer Doyle e al, –is a mostly useless academic wank job about Andy loving other men–there was a line here or a line there that might be useful, but I was disappoint[…]