Things that Nile Rodgers Taught Us
Mr. Bailie and I had no debate over the last figure we would discuss on his radio show. I suggested Nile Rodgers and heads shook in agreement around the room. In the intervening month, I had almost entirely forgotten about it, until it was announced, via Mr. Bailie to me, that Mr. Rodgers would appear [...]
A Crisis In Masculinity
Ms. Samara Lieber is the author of Astronaut, an astronomical comic strip, and art editor of New Escapologist, an escapological magazine. She may yet even prove to be the artist for a graphic novel idea that she and I have been considering of late. This is not to define her by her job, of course. [...]
In Translation & A New Career In A New Town
On Monday past, I joined Mr. Bailie on his show, as usual, to discuss somebody on the ‘edge of the radar.’ Luckily for us both, it was the great M. Jacques Brel and, frankly, we couldn’t play enough songs to satisfy ourselves. In furtherance of that: * I dislike thinking of the relationship between songs [...]
On Seaneen Molloy; Or, I Propose A Crown
I have loved very few women in my time. And few of those have deserved it. Fewer still have been Ms. Seaneen Molloy: writer, reader, and raconteur. A diminutive figure, like the number 1, she is possessed of no little charm: partly Gertrude Stein, partly Dorothy Parker, partly infinite monkey stenographers. Much is made of [...]
The Ballad of Harry & Yoko
Following last Monday’s loose conversation with Mr. Bailie, some further thoughts on Mr. Nilsson & Ms. Ono.
In Nireland, we do not talk with terrorists, only former terrorists…
The revolutionary Wolfgang Moneypenny interviews the revelationary Reggie Chamberlain-King
Creep’s Last Tape
The Tales Of The… anthology website is a multi-media, genre fiction doohickey, brain-birthed by Mr. Stephen Downey, Mr. Andrew Croskery, and myself, along with some notable (but here, unnoted, due to space requirements) others. The idea is no more complex than this: various creative individuals from about the place would work in one-or-two-off collaborations in [...]
The Line Between Love And Hate
To add to nothing that I said when discussing Mr. Van Dyke Parks on Mr. Bailie’s show the other evening… * To give Mr. Mike Love credit where he has earned it (and, if others followed this example, I doubt he would have made anything from royalties in his whole career), he had the decency [...]
Tell Tchaikovsky The News
Mr. Bailie asked me to join him for a full two-hour show the other evening, which I was, as ever, more than happy to do (What qualifies as happiness in excess, I’m not sure: ecstatic, perhaps? Jubilant?). The theme that I suggested was that of the pop music/classical music cross-over, something that has concerned me [...]
A Recluse Loose Aboot This Hoose
Further to Monday night’s incoherent gamming about Scott Walker on Radio Ulster. * The first observation that an initiate would make, in the 1980s, the 1990s, the zero-zeros and the nows, is that Mr. Walker is a recluse. One doesn’t see him around all that much and, goodness, he doesn’t offer interviews with any frequency. [...]
