Soft southern bastards.
― Is Lou Reed a Good Singer? (Tom D.), Monday, 25 May 2020 09:52 (four years ago) link
this pretend-autism thing is some high-level zone-shit-flooding
― imago, Monday, 25 May 2020 09:55 (four years ago) link
Kindof interested in how the terrible genie that lockdown has let out of the bottle is solidarity. unlike austerity or immigration that worked to divide people into those attacked and those jealously guarding, the need to get people to undergo a rather harrowing collective experience (in spite of the extent to which it reproduces all the existing inequalities) has generated something of a collective understanding that is not immediately available to culture war tactics. it's interesting that this took a while to set in (at the outset there was so much stuff about 'bad' stockpiling etc.) but it maybe reveals the extent to which the petty jealousy that props up Tory rule is based so totally on the purging of any notion of collective experience. anyway just a thought, not very optimistic about 'what this means' as it kindof suggests a very limited possibility that endless Tory rule will ever be over and that's not really how I like to think. maybe by dinnertime Cummings will be hanging from a barnsbury lamppost and we'll all join hands and sing the Internationale but I suspect not.Its just disturbing to see laid bare somewhat the extent to which the crowd psychology of little England requires such detailed guarding if the possibility of commonly occupying the same world under similar conditions with unifying obligations and expectations. trust this cadre of fucking numbnuts not to understand the volatile possibility inherent, I suspect they won't make this mistake again so it's troubling to consider what this might mean for the next inevitable spike
― plax (ico), Monday, 25 May 2020 09:55 (four years ago) link
The people I hear most pissed off about this Cummings story aren't leftists - who are pretty split on whether it's an issue worth pursuing - but people who tend towards the apolitical, seldom post about the govt, some might even vote tory for all I know. So I get the reservations as to what we actually expect to get out of this, but having the general populace furious at the tories is a good start imo.
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 25 May 2020 10:12 (four years ago) link
Times Leader is calmly posting thrash as usual:
I think this Times leader is the result of many, many people in the senior ranks at that paper having taken lax notice of the lockdown rules. pic.twitter.com/M10RkwFRAf— Mic Wright (@brokenbottleboy) May 25, 2020
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 25 May 2020 10:17 (four years ago) link
well another way of thinking about it then is that Cummings is just being positioned as the culture war scapegoat position, standing in as the neighbor that has been out exercising as much as they want. while it would be poetic justice for the Tories to become victims of the curtain twitching they've encouraged it doesn't fill me with optimism for a brighter tomorrow
― plax (ico), Monday, 25 May 2020 10:20 (four years ago) link
The South Bank might be fucked:
https://amp.theguardian.com/culture/2020/may/25/southbank-centre-warns-it-may-have-to-stay-closed-until-spring-2021?
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 25 May 2020 10:26 (four years ago) link
Right now the story has weakened, not strenghtened, the curtain twitchers. General stance is well fuck this then there's no rules I'm just gonna do what the fuck I want, which is concerning for different reasons but yeah, the scolds shouting about too many people in the park have gone very silent.
I'd be more concerned about Cummings being positioned as a sacrifical lamb if there was the slightest indication that they're willing to sacrifice him.
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 25 May 2020 10:27 (four years ago) link
but the thing about the curtain twitchers is that they are the embodiment of something I saw James butler say that the only thing the English believe in more than rules is that those rules apply to everyone but themselves. Cummings has made a mug of everyone who went along with the lockdown, however halfheartedly, and anyone who has been negatively affected by it in any way (seemingly everyone but me, guiltily I fn love it) I think this has the same 'energy' and it doesn't necessarily emanate from a feeling towards justice or equality
― plax (ico), Monday, 25 May 2020 10:33 (four years ago) link
xps
It’s likely to be every arts venue. The South Bank centre isn’t going to put on anything before before Spring next year even if it had the money to do so. I can’t envisage any theatre or concert hall will. The entire sector will be bankrupt long before then without intervention.
You’d assume that this is not top of the list of government priorities but ‘culture’ plays a huge role in keeping London’s position as a financial hub strong, even if you don’t care about intrinsic value.
― ShariVari, Monday, 25 May 2020 10:35 (four years ago) link
I don't think the curtain twitchers actually are that. From what I can tell they seem to be very content in following the guidelines, mostly because that kind of person has no joy in their life anyway so what would be the point for them to go to the park or visit friends when they could be having a much better time lecturing people online?
The energy I think for many people is one of personal betrayal and grief at not having been able to say goodbye to their loved ones - this doesn't translate into more abstract feelings of justice or equality necessiarly but it also doesn't need to, it is valid on its own.
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 25 May 2020 10:46 (four years ago) link
I saw a link about theatres on their knees a few days ago. I'm guessing because of the way 'culture' works with finance that some bits of it will get bailed out xp
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 25 May 2020 10:47 (four years ago) link
I think we're basically agreeing, there's something happening that is partly collective and partly about individualist injury (whether real trauma or pettiness about curtailment of 'freedom') and there's some dissonance between the two that seems to be playing out in a way that would have been hard to predict, at least for bbclaurak
― plax (ico), Monday, 25 May 2020 10:54 (four years ago) link
Some of the more prominent venues might be able to get by with the help of some big donations from the extremely wealthy. Theatre in particular is absolutely central to London and its self-image so you would expect cheap money to be flowing in that direction reasonably quickly when things can get going again, but no one has the slightest clue when that is right now.
A lot of smaller venues might be fucked and of course there are huge consequences for performers and others whose livelihoods depend upon them.
Booming Plax posts today BTW. (xposts)
― Matt DC, Monday, 25 May 2020 10:55 (four years ago) link
Some of the National Theatre plays have been doing mad numbers on YouTube in the space of a week so they can at least point to pent up demand (even if they are free).
― Matt DC, Monday, 25 May 2020 10:58 (four years ago) link
Just realised it's two weeks since bloody conga VE day, so if we're going to see an infection spike from that it should be imminent
― stet, Monday, 25 May 2020 11:01 (four years ago) link
the black lace noose of death tightens...
― calzino, Monday, 25 May 2020 11:07 (four years ago) link
the national theatre online program has been crap when I've checked it (I saw that rubbish Jane Eyre production at the time, total nonsense) but the schaubuhne have a daily showing and many have English subtitles definitely worth checking (haven't watched in a couple of weeks, presume they're still going on....) I'm already concerned that the next documenta will be cancelled, they've already delayed the Venice biennale until 2022
― plax (ico), Monday, 25 May 2020 11:10 (four years ago) link
not that I'm arsed about the Venice biennale
― plax (ico), Monday, 25 May 2020 11:11 (four years ago) link
Wrote to my MP pic.twitter.com/y5xfH3wu8c— John Wilson (@tug) May 25, 2020
― gyac, Monday, 25 May 2020 11:11 (four years ago) link
so you did, sorry gyac. right on time otm
― stet, Monday, 25 May 2020 11:13 (four years ago) link
I remember enjoying that Jane Eyre at the time, up until the exact point at which they started singing Gnarls Barkley for no reason and then it rendered the entire production shit for me. The Magnolia of theatre adaptations.
― Matt DC, Monday, 25 May 2020 11:20 (four years ago) link
the first line of Jane Eyre is "there was no possibility of going for a walk that day" it's about social convention (it's raining, but the 'possibility' is something that the passive construction of the sentence referes to) there's a characteristically 19th C novel tension between the active claim made by the sentence and the role of the social in arbitrating that claim (as in "its a fact universally acknowledged
― plax (ico), Monday, 25 May 2020 11:34 (four years ago) link
the first line of the play was "it's a girl"
― plax (ico), Monday, 25 May 2020 11:35 (four years ago) link
Cummings to make a statement and take questions, this should be fun.
― Is Lou Reed a Good Singer? (Tom D.), Monday, 25 May 2020 11:42 (four years ago) link
"did you order the code red"
― stet, Monday, 25 May 2020 11:44 (four years ago) link
i almost admire his front tbh
― imago, Monday, 25 May 2020 11:47 (four years ago) link
He'd better rustle up some charm from somewhere pretty sharpish
― some infected evening (Matt #2), Monday, 25 May 2020 11:47 (four years ago) link
I’m still furious and I’m not alone - this is just some of today’s in-box. I’m with you all.Each has a story of lockdown suffering and painful sacrifices we were prepared to make to save lives. @BorisJohnson this is one rule for us and another for you. pic.twitter.com/CJYSIx9lI2— Fleur Anderson MP (@PutneyFleur) May 25, 2020
Dominic Cummings is expected to give a public statement and take questions later himself, as calls for him to quit and explain himself mount— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) May 25, 2020
― gyac, Monday, 25 May 2020 11:48 (four years ago) link
We're going to see some absolute brick shitting from journalists here when he gives them the eye, even over Zoom.
― Matt DC, Monday, 25 May 2020 11:49 (four years ago) link
This could be awesome.
― Is Lou Reed a Good Singer? (Tom D.), Monday, 25 May 2020 11:50 (four years ago) link
Somebody lock Peston in cellar though.
― Is Lou Reed a Good Singer? (Tom D.), Monday, 25 May 2020 11:51 (four years ago) link
he’s gonna go full trump and call them all fake newsbe interesting to see what happens when someone who doesn’t have his own slavish cult of personality tries that approach
― a denim head and an aficionado of Japanese craftsmanship (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 25 May 2020 11:52 (four years ago) link
you think he doesn't?
― imago, Monday, 25 May 2020 11:52 (four years ago) link
not to the extent that trump does, not even close
― a denim head and an aficionado of Japanese craftsmanship (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 25 May 2020 11:53 (four years ago) link
the awkward, abrasive brazen overgrown-whizzkid archetype is a british standard and the public love someone who fronts up, he will come out of today much more popular than how he began it, guaranteed
― imago, Monday, 25 May 2020 11:54 (four years ago) link
n.b. i am not saying that i actually like the bastard, he is ideologically menacing in a way that other tories can only aspire to be, but he has ideas and strategies on how to implement them; he has the charisma of the highly-functional
― imago, Monday, 25 May 2020 11:56 (four years ago) link
I don't know who Mr John Wilson is, but that letter from him above is tremendous. Poignant, desperate, furious.
― the pinefox, Monday, 25 May 2020 11:57 (four years ago) link
his is middle england iirc: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitchurch
― mark s, Monday, 25 May 2020 11:59 (four years ago) link
It really is. The messaging that Cummings was only doing what any decent parent would do obviously carries the subtext for everyone who lost someone and didn’t see them before they died/didn’t attend a funeral of ‘what sort of husband/wife/child are you?’
― crisp, Monday, 25 May 2020 12:00 (four years ago) link
I don't think it's possible to be more wrong than imago is being at this moment.
― Is Lou Reed a Good Singer? (Tom D.), Monday, 25 May 2020 12:11 (four years ago) link
I have so many questions. like what is he going to wear? i hope he left the iron in Durham
― stet, Monday, 25 May 2020 12:11 (four years ago) link
i'll be pleased to be wrong this time, let's see
― imago, Monday, 25 May 2020 12:14 (four years ago) link
― a denim head and an aficionado of Japanese craftsmanship (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 25 May 2020 12:15 (four years ago) link
he'll selectively detail his timeline and selectively quote guidelines and legislation to support his actions then rigidly stick to both until we do the Limmy shoulder slump
― BRAVE THE AFRIAD (onimo), Monday, 25 May 2020 12:21 (four years ago) link
yeah i still don’t think he’s getting fired
― a denim head and an aficionado of Japanese craftsmanship (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 25 May 2020 12:23 (four years ago) link
If they let Peston fuck it up again I’ll be so angry
― gyac, Monday, 25 May 2020 12:23 (four years ago) link
struggling to remember the last time he didn’t fuck it up tbh
I reckon he'll say he's decided to step aside for the moment, in the national interest, but that the scheduled inquiry will clear him of any wrongdoing.
― Is Lou Reed a Good Singer? (Tom D.), Monday, 25 May 2020 12:26 (four years ago) link
... Cummings that is, not Peston, though his performance is worthy of a public inquiry.