Laughing at Ourselves: On The Oh Fuck Moment and John Cooper Clarke
A thing is funny when, in some way that is not actually offensive or frightening, it upsets the established order. Every joke is a tiny revolution. George Orwell said, “If ...
Words in the Park Lit Fest: Idleness vs. Activity
If someone were to draw a vertical line down a sheet of paper and write your name on one side and ‘Time” on the other, how would you score? Modern society ...
Last Night A Speed Date Changed My Life
It had been nearly six months of telling my cousin that I would be his wing-woman on a random escapade to either find him a nice girlfriend- or at least ...
Collaboration and Sex: Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie
Ask the Brit comic book artist Alan Moore about his relationship with Hollywood or DC and he’ll slump back to Northamptonshire, grumbling that he’ll never cross the Atlantic again. He has ...
With a Tent and No Purpose
The Dark Side of Camping is just north of Milton Keynes, where the land is still flat and the distant thrum of the M1 can be heard from the bottom ...
Turning Balfron Tower Inside Out
It is a bleak day when I visit the artist Rab Harling at the Balfron Tower in Poplar, East London. I have always been suspicious of Brutalist ...
The Perils of Self-Publishing
Until recently, the self-publication of books was considered unusual, but now we are either homing back to the start of things, which is exciting, or the publishing ...
The Creative Flow
With the death of the wonderful Amy Winehouse over the weekend, I am not alone in writing about addiction and the battle of ...
Cowboys, Gunslingers and Actors
“How would you like your steaks cooked?”
“Oh, just knock its horns off, wipe its nasty ass, and chuck it right here on this plate.”
The rustic image of the cowboy has ...
The Perils of Being Nice
According to a professor at Harvard Business School, “We admire and help people who are both warm and competent, and feel and act contemptuously towards the cold and incompetent.” And ...
The Great American Graphic Novel
It was a sad moment for my dad when I stayed with him recently and he caught me in bed reading Judy Annual, 1976. It had enraged ...
Reading On The Train
“Reading is an act of resistance in a landscape of distraction,” says David Ulin in The Lost Art ...