This Is England

Aug 8, 2008 · 2 minute read

Forgive me. I seem to be addicted to concrete. And LEDs. In the past year, my bookshelves have been swelled by works on architecture, radical typographical manifestos, the mystery of the Factory Records numbering system, and computer processing. It’s got to lead somewhere.

Saint Etienne at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in September for a start, I guess.

"Did you know you can rent a generator for $52 and set up and play ANYWHERE until the cops come?"

I was in the Prague Centre for Contemporary Arts and trapped on certain floors due to a bizarre ticketing method. I found myself confronted on all sides by beautiful brutalist models of Soviet architecture from the 1960s and was reminded, of all things, of the start of The Likely Lads; the old pub being demolished to make way for high-rise flats. The urbanism of the 1960s failed in this country, but why? Failure of upkeep? Building the high-rises while neglecting the other parts of Le Corbusier's vision which made Unité d'Habitation a success where others failed? Or are we just bad at doing things?

"I looked the man in the eye. I was able to get a sense of his soul"

Or perhaps he just saw Georgia burning. An awkward moment in Beijing today, I imagine.

"Turn on the real drums"

Online dating sites are just odd. Though my faith in the country is heartened by people that are even more left-wing than I am. Watts Breakaway on iTunes, which is probably a sign that I should stop typing and return to Nixonland.

We all knew there was something about John Edwards, didn't we?

Edwards had told Kerry he was going to share a story with him that he'd never told anyone else—that after his son Wade had been killed, he climbed onto the slab at the funeral home, laid there and hugged his body, and promised that he'd do all he could to make life better for people, to live up to Wade's ideals of service. Kerry was stunned, not moved, because, as he told me later, Edwards had recounted the same exact story to him, almost in the exact same words, a year or two before—and with the same preface, that he'd never shared the memory with anyone else. Kerry said he found it chilling, and he decided he couldn't pick Edwards unless he met with him again.