London ILB - FAP?

Might be able to come to this after all, my sister's had to delay her trip for a couple of days because she's suffering from severe migraines at the moment - which hopefully should have cleared up by the weekend because I, for one, wouldn't fancy going to a Rammstein gig with a migraine.

Aiming for six or earlier

Amid almost total disagreement about the LRB last night, we did not mention Andrew O'Hagan who is back in the current issue.

Does anyone agree that he is a bad, very affected writer?

Was it him who did that awful Grenfell piece?

My favourite moment of a very pleasant evening was when we realised that "The Last Samurai" was DEFINITELY named as a pun on "The Last of the Summer Wine".

gyac: yes it was.

I was just reading his article on Lillian Ross, full of pretentious gossip about whom he knew (half of the names are nobodies and / or he doesn't properly explain them).

Despise O'Hagan, he has nothing to offer.

So this was very enjoyable (and thank you Tim for lending me yer book) apart from the pie at Royal Oak. No game anymore and standards have sorta slipped now :-(

Hope to see everyone again in autumn - enjoy the summer!

xyzzzz and I finally agree on something: changes in Royal Oak cuisine.

I have at last read the whole of this issue - even the two terrible poems.

I guess I didn't enjoy it that much after all.

perhaps for somewhat perverse reasons, i quite enjoyed the lillian ross piece -- it's sent me back to brendan gill's "here at the new yorker". i will write reasons and perversity and gill and maybe ohagan up on the LRB thread when i am no longer ill, also ditto wordsworth's fun

(i am no longer ill today in the sense of being i think virus-free at last but i am still very tired and last night was the first thing close to a normal night's sleep since tuesday)

(i ahev not read the poems and think it quite unlikely i ever will, i feel bad about this habit but it is now decades embedded and i'm guessing unshakeable)

Mark yes it is fair to say that though O'Hagan is bad, the review is not unreadable and has a kind of fun element.

I suppose part of the irritation though is the patent obviousness with which O'H attached himself to a certain world that he admired, and then the way that he (often) writes about it - a kind of (non-comic) pastiche of the original; trying to be Didion, or whoever.

If you think of say a Paul Morley encountering a scene, he wouldn't write in a lame pastiche of its manner but would encounter it with his own style.

Unless it was for a book on rock press history in which case he wouldn't write it?

The poems really are bad.

yes i don't disagree with that -- abt the attachment i mean. i haven't written this up yet bcz i've been apply for a job by telling the publication start-up i'm applying to that their underlying philosophy is probably bad (i have no idea what it is) and so they should feel bad

semi-unrelatedly i just sent the LRB a snarky email re LR and AO'H pointing out that what in fact transformed the unpleasant qualities he admires in her into tremendous journalism was the involvement in her work (or threat of involvement hovering behind it) of the new yorker's fact-checking department, at-that-time world-leading

(but expressed a lot more directly, in case lanchester is lurking)

written up here: Book Reviews? LRB vs the failing New York Review of Books vs ... ?

Just wanted to float this idea...FAP on Dec 12th?

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Bad idea I think - surely we'll either be out knocking on doors or getting home for 10pm exit polls?

i’ll be in f’ing australia *again* as i was for the f’ing referendum. actually i might be in the air on the way back tbh. i’ll be getting absolutely shitted on the plane i can tell you that.

Bad idea I think - surely we'll either be out knocking on doors or getting home for 10pm exit polls?

― the pinefox, Sunday, 1 December 2019 bookmarkflaglink

The reason for this is I wanted to keep drinking through the exit polls and pretty much (for me at the least) all my door knocking will be done (might do it on the day but reckon I'll be ready for a drink by 7).

Also we did have an ILB FAP on the referendum back in 2016 lol

Hey, some of us are always in f'ing australia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ef3beK367tA

Hey, some of us are always in f'ing australia

― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Wednesday, 4 December 2019 02:18 bookmarkflaglink

ah man tell me about it. thing is i just can't abide the place. everyone seems really rules obsessed, boorish sports masculinity, racist, vile and totally dysfunctional politics (yes i know), tolerates a load of shitty identity oppression in the name of 'plain speaking/straight talking'. fascism in paradise.

but i love the nature, the sense of interior - as close to a psychological space physically rendered as you can get, gerald murnane, adelaide cricket ground, the friends i have out there, you and your bloody books, james (i often think of this - FAP!), the sense of apac culture, sydney harbour as a geographical space etc.

Basically i just wish western man had never discovered it (i use 'man' advisedly - aus seems a supremely masculine culture).

an almost NZ obsession with fucking coffee. what lack are you making up for u c'ts.

As someone has said, we're a nation of narcs who like to think of ourselves as relaxed anti-authoritarians.

well, i'm flying back now, but i've had a decent enough time swimming in the sea and the taste of ash in my mouth or walking round in a Sydney bonfire. I feel a bit repentant about my intemperate words. As usual here, the people I encounter professionally are impressive and likable, while the more social side is a bit rubbish, a reverse of my experience in the UK.

I'm besotted by Gerald Murnane - bought three of his books on Sunday, during which process, a woman stared, frozen at me, and said 'you've got a spider on your lip'. I also froze, and then she said 'It's gone down the inside of your shirt'. Cue something of a frightened untucking dance in the bookshop. I mean, I suspect the number of harmless spiders in Aus is the same as the UK, but equally there are some right little shits out here as well and fucked if I know the difference.

Fuck tho this country loves its coffees, cars, smashed avocado breakfasts and its dysfunctionally see-sawing relationship with alkyhol.

Am mildly regretting this not happening tonight (and now I have other plans, at least early evening plans). Good luck everyone.

I'll be watching the Celtic v Cluj game then plan on getting blootered later.

Signed for crappy gym yoga class then drinking in a local with no TV. That's how I make my own luck.

Which local? Just a chance I might be able to swing by later.

Hiya in the half moon from about 9pm. Just planning to drink through the exit poll..

We’ll be there in a bit but don’t worry if you’re inclined to slink off.

Nah just here

Shall we do this soon. First week of Feb?

sounds good to me :)

6th at the usual place.

of course getting there since TFL rerouted the 48 is now a minor chore (2 x buses instead of 1)

not good for me >:(

6th is ok for me. after that i seem to be travelling for work for the rest of my life so it may be the only slot for a while.

6th looks OK for me too.

Grand (Tom D we can schedule the next one and make sure you attend :))

Sounds good to me!

Yes I think I can make it.

Tomorrow!!

See you later.

The usual place = Royal Oak, Tabard street

early-ish start and an early-ish finish for me. bloody meetings with ‘straya first thing in the morning.

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good to see everyone last night. DanielRF - this is the Jeremy Deller documentary I think you'll enjoy after reading the King.

on the question of which books have haunted you in the last year (well two years in this case), i was struggling - eric vuillard's order of the day, maybe, until woof reminded me of pierre michon – really good nyrb review of the translations and michon here.

thanks!

Non-standard I know but we're doing a little launch for the Mary Butts book I've done (and which some of you have seen) - it's a week today, Thursday 27th at the bookartsbookshop from 6.30 to 8 or so. likely pub after. It'd be lovely to see all or any of you. Gonna spam the London FAP thread with this too, so sorry about that.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B8szLA8nXGV/

https://thehalfpintpress.wordpress.com/imaginary-letters-by-mary-butts/