5X15 at the Tabernacle. Howard Jacobson and the Booker prize.

How do you humanise a writer?

 

Photo: Christopher Scholey:

 http://www.christopherscholey.com

In Howard Jacobson's case you give him (desevedly) the Booker prize then get him on the stage at 5X15 at the Tabernacle a couple of days later.To a layman such as myself; I am not a 'completist' of the Jacobson Canon by a country mile, Jacobson came across as a Man pleasantly surprised by the award and pleased as punch to boot... A joy to listen to and an incitement to buy his books.


5X15 have got it right; 5 literary types are each given 15 minutes in which to talk, not read but talk to (from what I could see) a healthy looking knowledgeable audience.  15 minutes is spot on; short enough to leave you wanting more but not long enough to allow for waffling induced boredom. The auditorium at the Tabernacle is the perfect venue in being neither too small or too large with a sense of being somewhere special.


Jacobson was preceeded by Rachel Johnson, Alexander Masters, Diane Athill; an absolute delight and Alex Bellow; a sum greater than his parts (this is a very clever joke designed to get me invited to take part in 5X15) talking about numbers and keeping every ones attention, even at the back!


5X15 is a regular event at The Tabernacle and a high point in the calendar.

Virtual Factory press release for Turf Freinz.

Due to the hijacking of Virtual Factory I no longer have any say.  I wish the guys well and hope they can avoid unscrupulous types trying to make money out of them.


http://virtualfactoryone.blogspot.com/ 

Virtual Factory

http://virtualfactoryone.blogspot.com/  Check it out for a low down on the low down.

Rotten Hill Gang - City of Cold Steel

O.K.

 Ok. I start my blogs with OK quite often. but what does it mean?


OK. Hey Ho let's go; I got that from the Ramones back then and I'm old enough to remember the Ramones back then when they were alive and alive enough to remember me.


Ok. I am going to take time out.   Enough.

Cassetteboy vs The Bloody Apprentice

Not so Rotten Hill Gang and the West Born.

What a Day!  (I nicked that from my director who nicked it from a Robbie Williams song); Filming on the streets of Notting Hill with cameraman Gordon Anderson and  Farah Damji. Farah turned out to be an unwelcome arrival in my life and is no longer involved in any of my projects.


Then on to Powis Square W11 for an afternoon of music courtesey of  Pink Cigar and the delightful West Borns; who are certainly destined for greater things and considering their ages, something in the region of 13 years, have plenty of time, plus the debut of Gus Robertson and Johnny Borrell's new band topped by the irrepressible Rotten Hill Gang who were on great form.

                                          Rotting Hill Gang

I spotted Christopher Scholey; general manager of the Tabernacle, out in the crowd with his camera.

                                          Christopher Scholey


There again it was a pretty Notting hill rock n roll type thing all round.

Honesty.

'Sometimes'. said Jan by telex this evening. 'sometimes you just have to be honest. Even if it hurts'.


Listening to you feed me this bullshit is hurting Jan. I thought.


But I am too tired to do anything other than tell the truth today, I cannot pretend, I cannot lie:


I spent the day being filmed and interviewed for a viral press release.  We had lunch courtesy of the Tabernacle (always a treat) followed by a well earned siesta. The evening was spent cooking for a good friend (a rare treat up in the garret) and a telephone conversation with a Californian turf dancer friend.  How cool is that.


O.k. said Jan when he called back. No one is going to believe that.


Lie for their sake.

Turf Feinz can RIP me any day.

I have posted this, have gone against all of my principles and policy purely to demonstrate that there is so much depth to what these guys are doing.


when I go; taken out by whatever bullet modern so called civilisation sends my way I want these guys dancing on my grave!


At least I will have known I had lived.... Not dawdled through life waiting for some other fucker to do something.




.

Sunflower Tate modern fiasco update. Seeds of doubt!

Stolen from Tate Modern?

As usual Jan Nieupjur was on the button... Of course the Health & Efficiency people are going to kick up a stink over opening a giant hamster cage full of unhygenic foreign detritus to the public.  
Jan suggested via Skype this morning that they should have filled the space with all the brown M&N's that prima donna rock stars insist out of their riders. Of course then it would look just like a rabbit hutch... Same problem.


Jan went on to say that soon we will be asked to don surgical gloves before wiping our arses;  try calling that 'ART' Mr Serota.

Yoram Savion interview & poem (Stop Youth Violence Project at Youth UpRi...

Club 21 - Remaking the scene, something new is going to happen and Andy Warhol without a wig.

To the club 21 private view/launch party last night at No.1 Marylebone (you know the one time church that now has a valid use).


A refreshing antidote to the Freize rubbish down the road and for once an enjoyable 'Art scene'


Jan Nieupjur writes:


CLUB 21


Shit, me and Andy were always in that place; him to be seen and me to be styling him. He had really got into my wigs by then; he stopped me wearing them in case confusion set in. Bianca Jagger was always there deep in conversation with her lawyers (she had some cute lawyers back then) Claus Nomi would sing occasionally while Grace Jones watched attentively.


I have dug a couple of old photographs out; I am not in them because Andy had me airbrushed out of everything since the incident with the monochrome prints : http://jannieupjur.blogspot.com/2008/08/guggenheim-and-warhol.html

                                        Andy Warhol (without wig) and Marcia Mercadante

Andy Warhol(without wig), Stephen Torton, Jean michel Basquait & Marcia Mercadante 

                                          Madonna


Club 21: Remaking the scene.
One Marylebone, London NW! 4AQ
October 13 - 23, 2010


Something new is going to happen every day.

As usual Book prize goes to one of my mates!

London author and columnist named winner

12 October 2010.  Jan Nieupjur is tonight (Tuesday 12 October) named the winner of the £50,000 Nieupjur prize for Fiction for The Pentimento Question, published by Blogger.

London author and columnist Jan Nieupjur has been longlisted twice for the prize, in 2006 for Oi vey Missus and in 2002 for Is it cos I is going to the right parties, but has never before been shortlisted.

The Pentimento Question is a novel about love, loss and male friendship, and explores what it means to be old hat today.

Said to have ‘some of the wittiest, most poignant and sharply intelligent comic prose in the English language', The Pentimento Question has been described as ‘soso' and ‘written by my mate' and as a novel of ‘full of wit, warmth, intelligence, human feeling and networking'.

Blah blah exquisitely written blah!