My tractor’s got no nose

Hastily cobbled-together first draft of a thesis, after visiting Rodchenko & Popova: Defining Constructivism at Tate Modern (and fondly remembering a previous exhibition at the V&A):

SOVIET CONSTRUCTIVISM IS REALLY JUST MODERNISM WITHOUT A REDEEMING SENSE OF HUMOUR

Destroying the economy, one hotel booking at a time

I did say I’d stop writing about the political situation in Thailand, because it’s turned into a modern-day version of the Schleswig-Holstein Question, but the Graun asked nicely, so I came up with this.

Pablo hummy

As you enter the exhibition Picasso: Challenging the Past (at the National Gallery until June 7), you’re confronted with a sign declaring: “LECTURING IS NOT PERMITTED IN THE EXHIBITION”.

Which raises a number of questions, not least the precise definition of lecturing. Obviously you don’t want your viewing disturbed by 47 wannabe Schamas, what exactly is the distinction between that and the sort of low-level explicatory natter that two friends might share when looking at a painting? While it’s deeply annoying to get an unsolicited running commentary during a film or play, a certain level of chat is tolerable in the otherwise silent gallery.

Although of course, it’s not silent: the ambient noise of the modern gallery is the fractured buzz leaking from those bloody headphones, all slightly out of sync with each other, as if a Tube carriage-full of commuters had all started the same track on their iPods at two-second intervals. To be honest, I’d rather have a wannabe Schama, even at the risk of provoking a scene like this:



As it was, the main distraction from the buzz (apart from the exhibition itself, of course, which is quite good, but a bit short for 12 quid) was the sight of a lady sitting and sketching in front of ‘Women of Algiers (After Delacroix)’, apparently unfazed by all the people standing in her way. Only by looking over her shoulder did I realise that she was drawing the people, not the painting.

Thom’s Thomism

Just to note that Radiohead and Philosophy is now available from Amazon in the UK (and presumably in bookshops and libraries and things).

Freek zine

If you can tear yourself away for a moment from the ruthless twazmuppeting of poor Sir Fred, do check out Freekly. It’s an application that tracks your iTunes listening habits to create a bespoke weekly music magazine, drawn from the archives of Rock’s Backpages. Well, that’s the idea, at least. The temptation is surely to listen to nothing but Nurse With Wound or The Saturdays, just to push the product to the limit. But what’s wrong with that?

And if you don’t get the laboured pun in the post title:

Freddie’s dead

Type “twazmuppet” into Google.

Go about half way down the first page.

Say thank you, LC.

Hey, hey LBW

Just finished Joseph O’Neill’s Netherland, which is about many things – marriage, masculinity, mid-life crises, migration – but above all about the barely visible subculture of cricket in New York. O’Neill describes it as a post-American novel: as the dust of 9/11 refuses to settle, a hodgepodge of immigrants indulge in a pastime that’s almost as alien to the American psyche as Marxism or not liking apple pie. (Although, as one character points out, cricket was played in New York in the 1770s, and the first international sporting events were cricket matches between the USA and Canada, in the 1840s.)

I think I’m reading it at exactly the right time. America may not yet have ceded the 21st century to China and India at the G20 summit, but Obama’s presence at the G20 summit struck a new tone of humility. Meanwhile, Afghanistan responds to its prolonged occupation not by opening McDonalds and Starbucks in Kabul, but by moving inexorably towards a place in the next Cricket World Cup.

Cricket becomes the signifier of not-Americanness; the next step will be America meekly submitting to its charms. And the conclusive sign that the American hegemony is over will be President Paris Hilton bowling the first googly of the 20/20 World Series.

La Chanson de Roland III (instrumental)

Sorry, all been a bit frantic this week, so I haven’t really had time to come up with a proper blog post. And you know what that means: