Thursday, May 10, 2007

The Tony Blair memorial post

Milking more encores than James Brown, he's finally stumbled back to the dressing room to enjoy a responsible low-alcohol lager and a bowl of M+Ms with all the red ones taken out. No groupies, just Hazel Blears to service his ego.

Like most of us, I'm still not really sure what to make of Mr Tony, so I offer you an appropriately disjointed and confused post, borrowing bits and pieces from various places to present something that looks coherent but isn't really. I'm also slightly hampered by the fact that YouTube is still verboten in the Land of Smiles, so the usual recourse for bloggers devoid of inspiration and energy is not available.

But anyway: the lovely Amylola draws my attention to another review of WTTM, this time at 3am Magazine; coincidentally, about three and a half years late, I uncover a roundup of music books that describes one of my previous efforts as "sugary and a bit tacky", which is pretty close to the truth, to be fair; everything you always wanted to know about stock photos; happy birthday, Helvetica (and yah boo to Comic Sans).

And I know I shouldn't find the story about virtual paedophiles in Second Life remotely funny, even in a bleak and disturbing way, so let's just call it oddly Ballardian (which is pretty much the same thing, with literary pretensions).

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tony was just a good little puppet doing his masters' bidding.

Flirty Something said...

LOVE the James Brown analogy - genius

amyonymous said...

(i wrote such an intelligent, even brilliant comment about an hour ago, then blogger went down and it disappeared. it was truly exceptional. you should have seen it.)

so, as i was saying, i am, like you, conflicted about virtual pedophilia - it's disturbing. but i wonder if virtual immorality (and illegality) is in any way comparable to real immorality. i like the ballard reference = appropriate.

but, subliminally - tony blair and pedophiles in the same post??

amyonymous said...

oh, here i am again. The Guardian, Tim! here is the link:

http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2077494,00.html

in which they describe your book as "written in a kind of gonzo-nerd style."

Tim F said...

Andrew: True - but the identity of the masters changed over the 10 years.

Flirty: Thanks... I thought of it a few years back, when he had his heart scare. The idea of Alistair Campbell rushing out to throw a cape over his back was just too delicious. (Horrible memories of Neil Kinnock bellowing "All right!" at Sheffield in 1992 as well...)

Amylola: Hey, are you my publicity manager or what? Thanks for that... but it's a good thing Poole didn't read this.

patroclus said...

Ooh, I liked that review, I'd be dead chuffed if anyone described anything I'd written as 'gonzo-nerd'.

Is it the same Stephen Poole? If so he seems to spell his name two ways, maybe in an effort to elude linguistical pinning down. Ceci n'est pas Steven Poole, etc.

*shuts up now*

West said...

"O brave new world - with such paedos in it"?

L.U.V. on ya,

Bob

Tim F said...

I think it is the same bloke, P, although he does seem a bit lackadaisical about the spelling. Or the Graun subs do.

What do nonces wear on the beach, Bob? Spaedos.

amyonymous said...

"Amylola: Hey, are you my publicity manager or what?" - no. i get google alerts anytime radiohead is mentioned, and your stuff keeps coming up. nothing sinister going on!

patroclus said, "I'd be dead chuffed if anyone described anything I'd written as 'gonzo-nerd'." i agree completely, but i could never say it in such a cool way as he did!

Dick Headley said...

Tone yes...I have the same problem. The hip prefect? The manic boy-scout? The pop missionary? A renaissance man for all seasons?