Sprezzatura

Serious work deals in facts and truths. Check the Wikipedia for South London and you will read of our extensive train links and temperate maritime climate. My work deals opinions and vague feelings - like a comment on the last post said, I'm "fuzzy on the specifics," but by the end of this post you will have a much better understanding of what being in South London entails than if you were to solely read the wiki. You can never get the whole story from facts and figures alone, otherwise poets would just do econ and Ronaldo would be universally acknowledged as better than Messi, which you guys know is wrong because I've been subliminally reinforcing it for months now. James C. Scott makes a distinction between metis , a localised, experience-based form of knowing things, and episteme , the more abstract, generalized, theoretical knowledge, and Samzdat writes about the ramifications of that here . This post will provide you with the metis that Wikipedia cannot. You ...

"Nobody knows anything." --As the late William Goldman famously said in his book, Adventures in the Screen Trade (1983). Many others said it before, I'm sure. It's an open secret to Hollywood insiders. But amateurs still need to learn it. https://t.co/n1SVABmgAE — Lizabeth Felti (@LizabethFelti) February 9, 2019 I cannot stress this enough: no one knows what the fuck they're doing, least of all companies. Real truth about it is, no one gets it right . Yahoo! consistently makes the worst decisions imaginable and yet somehow still exists. Leeds United are just one of countless examples of brands that tried to update themselves and their image for the modern day and lost the plot. And once Nirvana broke, no label had any idea what they were doing. There's a ridiculously oversimplified narrative that says "indie did not exist, and then Nirvana released "Smells Like Teen Spirit", and then everything and everyone was suddenly indie." Thi...

WAAAAHHHH I MISS BEING SEVEN WHEN THE ONLY INTERNET I USED WAS THE CBBC WEBSITE there now you don't have to read the post, you're free :) Some housekeeping before we begin. Firstly, here's Alan Shearer taking like one sentence to say what I took a few paragraphs to. Secondly, in case you were worried , Freedman DID pull the trigger and bring in Batshuayi . David, this internet thing will never catch on... 🤦‍♀️ #davidbowie @timberners_lee pic.twitter.com/XKoSBVqZGU — BBC Radio 6 Music (@BBC6Music) January 13, 2019 To business, then. When I first had the idea to blog, I thought this post would come a lot later, as a sort of grand finale, but it's come to my attention that I can't do a lot of what I want to in the near-future without explaining what I believe. Perhaps I will do something a lot more in-depth, more well-researched, and less bluster-and-bullshit focused in future, but hopefully this will suffice. Samzdat has to walk us through Plato and ...

I'm reviewing another offering from Trickhouse Recordings - this time it's the third release from Lancaster duo Cake & Menstruation. Public Egg-nemy Number 2 (2) by Cake & Menstruation "This is our dark release. If you can't handle it, you'll wanna go FUCKING OUTSIDE!" screams guitarist Alex George at the beginning of Public Egg-nemy Number 2 (2), thus cementing his bands reputation as confrontational iconoclasts. Over their past three releases, 2018s Public Egg-nemys number one and number two , and now this project, Cake and Menstruation have carved a niche out in the art-punk world. Their philippics contra eggs, the menstrual cycle, and anything else foolish enough to displease them, are impressively vitriolic, not to mention catchy. This album is (mostly) no exception. Before we begin, a word on lore. The events of this album take place before the events of the first two Cake and Menstruation albums, making it a prequel. Singer Chloe Arbury...

I'm reviewing a couple of projects from the local record label Trickhouse in the modern critical style - think Pitchfork, Stereogum, etc. First up, it's the debut EP from the indie project Sweet Embrace. Isabelline by Sweet Embrace In case it isn’t clear from the black nail polish and eyeliner he insists upon wearing at appearances, London-born, Lancaster-based Phillip Johnson is an emo at heart. It’s clear in the over-reliance on proper nouns ( Mitcham ? St Chad’s Cathedral, Birmingham ?? The IJsselmeer ???) that we so detest here, it’s clear in the rapid time-signature changes and histrionic coda of “Isabelline” ( cribbed directly from Sunny Day Real Estate, natch ), and it’s clear even in Johnson’s choice of alias (his full webpage title reads ‘Sweet Embrace… of Death’ because of course it does). Most importantly, however, it’s clear in the fact that the entire project is misogynist garbage. You know, like his heroes make ! Opener “Isabelline” starts off strongly enough...