Wednesday, March 31, 2004
Endnotes
‘Writing’: one of modern-life’s better-known exit-strategies... Presumably I don’t need to labour this point. Suffice to say the modern literary loom is driven as much by instincts of bloody-minded office-aversion as by honourable devotion to the Muse. The productivity of such endeavours is dependent here on the usual combination, found in all walks of life, of talent, luck and myopic eccentricity (and not necessarily in that order)
When I began this project in 1998, I was fond of insisting (to my more patient friends) that ‘I didn’t care’ if it took me ‘ten years or more!’ Whether through wish-fulfilment, or semi-accurate prognosis, here I am 6 years later – about to round off the bastard for once and for all. My tenure of slackness is drawing to a close.
In the meantime, there’s the expected pile of proofing and editorial work. If the contract goes ahead with the present publisher (hereafter known as The Second Party), I am to submit a manuscript by the 30th of September this year. The following thread will document the bitter-sweet journey towards the end of the production-life cycle of the work involved, referred to hereafter as The Little Monster…
Posted by Will @ 22:43 GMT|
Belle de Jour: The moment of truth!
The Book Club Blog is there. Join the dots.
On 8th Jan 2003, a writer revealed their own personal history in The Evening Standard as a means of publicising their newly released book about someone else's personal history.
On 26th October 2003, a writer demonstrated a knowledge of Martin Amis's latest novel "Yellow Dog," in an Observer piece about the need for men to be aware of the increasing need to look their best in order to attract empowered career women. It was pointed out that this article 'makes no reference to Sex And The Bloody City'.
The same writer has listed their top 10 scandalous French novels for The Guardian.
Two days earlier, on 24th October 2003, a new blog "Belle de Jour" appeared on the internet.
On 18th December 2003, this "Belle de Jour" blog won the 2003 Guardian Weblog award for best written blog. As Bruce Sterling, one of the awards' judges, said: 'She is in a league by herself as a blogger.'
On 10th March 2003, The Times featured an article on "The web diary, the book deal and the very happy hooker."
On 11 March 2003, this blogger confirmed that "Yes, there is a book deal. . . It is not, as has been reported, a 'six-figure deal. . . if you are an icky slimy journo at a Sunday tab bothering people who have never met me for shreds
of information, take your filthy lucre and leave those nice ladies and gentlemen alone."
On 14th March, The Times took a closer look at the "high-class hooker whose web diary is set to be a literary sensation."
On 18th March 2004, The Times announced that it had unmasked the Internet 'call girl author.' The London Evening Standard among other publications reported this, but noted that the bloggers recently acquired agent had never heard of the person named.
On 21st March 2004, the writer identified by The Times as the author of Belle de Jour published a denial in The Observer. "I want to make it clear that not only have I never been a call girl - which will especially please my mother, who has had journalists calling on her Manchester home - but I am not the author of the Belle de Jour net diary."
On 28th March 2004, the real Belle de Jour entered the print game for the "first time" with a piece in The Sunday Telegraph Magazine. She wrote: "I'm a whore. Not in the metaphorical sense, often invoked by writers my age, of auctioning my intellectual abilities to the highest bidder. I'm not some disillusioned twentysomething desk-job graduate equating salaried work with selling out. No, I'm an actual, exchanging-money-for-sex prostitute. . . . I began to write anonymously for several reasons. I don't plan to stay in this field forever; some day I want to have a real job in the subject I studied. Also, it is easier to write frankly under a pseudonym. People still do not think that women can have sexual lives and yet be respected for their character and intelligence. This is not true for men. Plus I didn't want to get escorting work from men hoping to see themselves in print. And I didn't want to compromise client confidentiality. . . I plan to remain anonymous for several reasons. It would embarrass my friends and family; they don't deserve that. I can take any slings and arrows the press choose to throw but would feel terrible if I put my loved ones through all this. In any case, my manager's job is illegal, and I suspect she would be in a world of trouble. . . Some people accuse me of being fake, and I'm flattered that anyone thinks my writing so good that I could not be real. Unfortunately for the conspiracy theorists, there is no conspiracy. I am a young woman, I have sex for money, and I love to read and write. My taste in books shouldn't come as a surprise. After all, this job affords more spare time than most. Think of Occam's razor, the principle of parsimony: what would be simpler - that I am who I say I am, and write about, or that I am a famous author living a double life, unable to tell anyone and having a joke at the expense of my agent, publisher and readers? What does bother me is the presumption that a person's occupation is a reflection of their intelligence or value to society: I have known plumbers who were geniuses and surgeons who couldn't tie their own shoelaces. But there are thousands of wittier, sharper authors in the world. I'd sooner spend my future as a reader than a writer."
On the same day, 28th March 2004, Professor Foster - whose research had supposedly substantiated the Times story of 18th March 2004, had a letter printed in the Observer in which he denied he ever definitively identified Sarah Champion as Belle.
Today, the Book Club Blog noticed that our original "writer" has a new book set for publication on 10th March 2005.
Curiously it is to be published by Weidenfeld & Nicholson. The Times reported on 10th March 2004 that Weidenfeld & Nicholson have bought Belle’s book and plan to launch it next Valentine’s Day, 14th February 2005.
Is Belle just an anonymous blogger or is she a professional writer with more than one book on the go? As she says: "It's inspiring to have a large project to work on again." But how large exactly is the project?
Posted by Nick @ 21:17 GMT|
Gram Parsons linkage via Luther and Ali Campbell's Brit Pop Party!
W E L C O M E to Gram Parsons Project
Plus, the views of The Strokes on Iraq as featured in Q Magazine, via here.
Posted by Nick @ 15:40 GMT|
Literary Football Connection No. 2
Just what is Luther Blisset doing popping up on my Bookslut xml feed?
I now see that this is old news and that Luther in fact made it onto the long list for Guardian's first book prize last year. It judge seemed incongruous seeing him being mentioned by Bookslut!
Posted by Nick @ 15:24 GMT|
Paris by night - and no not the other Hilton, nor the hotel for that matter!
Found this link at troubled diva and thought WOW!
Posted by Nick @ 14:25 GMT|
GHOST TOWN
A story about a town where one can ride with no stoplights, no police, no danger to hit some cage or some dog.. my rides through chernobyl area. Seems to be the site of the moment!
Posted by Nick @ 13:15 GMT|
Tuesday, March 30, 2004
Roald Dahl
Thought this might be of interest.
Posted by Nick @ 20:08 GMT|
Alistair Cooke dies aged 95
Following the announcement earlier this month that he was drawing his 58 year long "Letter From America" to a close, it has been announced that Alistair Cooke has died aged 95. A legendary broadcaster, and an insightful commentator whom America's future will do well to remember. Knowing that Alistair Cooke was there somehow made America seem a little saner!
Posted by Nick @ 08:07 GMT|
Hitchens on Clarke
Clarke's Progress
Christopher Hitchens: "Guess who used to believe in the Iraq/al-Qaida connection?"
"How do you explain the conviction, shared by Clarke and Benjamin and Simon, that Iraq was behind Bin Laden's deadly operation in Sudan? The Age of Sacred Terror justifies the Clinton strike on Khartoum on the grounds that "Iraqi weapons-scientists" were linked to Bin Laden's factory and that the suggestive chemical EMPTA, detected at the site, was used only by Iraq to make VX nerve gas. At the time, Clarke defended the bombing in almost the same words, telling the press that he was "sure" that "intelligence existed linking bin Laden to Al Shifa's current and past operators, the Iraqi nerve gas experts and the National Islamic Front in Sudan."
"To listen to Clarke now, you could almost imagine that the invasion of Afghanistan and eviction of the Taliban—the actual first response of the administration to Sept. 11—had not taken place."
Posted by Nick @ 06:36 GMT|
Monday, March 29, 2004
The growth fetish exposed again
Here's a link to a slightly-extended version of the FT article I mentioned at Filthy's the other night, by Samuel Brittan (brother of Leon - can you see the family resemblance?).
And I'd like to remind you that I was the only one brave enough to take on the cock-sucking cowboy.
Blogging plans didn't work out this weekend because our computer's bust - hence the delay. McGonagall will have to wait a few days.
Posted by Jon @ 11:29 GMT|
Updike wins fiction award
Celebrated author John Updike has added another honor to his list after he was named the winner of the 2004 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for his short story collection, "The Early Stories."
The Updike collection, containing most of his stories from between 1953 and 1975 and published by Alfred A. Knopf, was chosen ahead on Monday of four other finalists by the judges -- fellow writers Ron Carlson, Chitra Divakaruni and Elizabeth Strout.
Posted by Nick @ 10:00 GMT|
'Call Me': No Inhibitions, or Excuses, for a Hollywood Madam
Heidi Fleiss the TV movie starring Jamie-Lynn DiScala (Meadow from "The Sopranos").
"Heidi has no heart of gold hidden beneath her Rodeo Drive push-up bras and garter belts. Nor is she driven by "Waterloo Bridge" necessity or "Belle de Jour" psychosis. There is not even a traumatic childhood incident to help explain her career choice."
Sound familiar?
Posted by Nick @ 08:57 GMT|
Sunday, March 28, 2004
Houellebecq in line for England job!
Well he might as well be!
Posted by Nick @ 22:53 GMT|
Flatmate de Jour
Where has Belle's flatmate been hiding?
Posted by Nick @ 21:41 GMT|
belle de jour coverage on Sarah Champion's site
Thanks to Darren at LINKMACHINEGO.COM for putting me onto Sarah's scans of her recent media coverage!
Can anyone tell me what the craic is when it comes to scanning press and mags and popping them up on the web?
Moreover, Darren at LINKMACHINEGO.COM has found in the Observer's letters what I've been waiting for all week in my email inbox - namely a denial from Professor Don Foster that he ever definitively identified Sarah Champion as Belle.
It is beocoming clear why Darren won the 2003 Guardian Blog Awards Special Judges Award for his blog.
Citation: "And there was no doubt that this should go to Darren Shrubsole's LinkMachineGo. It fell between the stools of best specialist, and best written. But it is one of the great wonders of the British blogging world: an understated, but always readable collection of links. If you're ever stuck for something interesting on the web, you'd be hard pressed to find a better starting point than this."
Posted by Nick @ 16:17 GMT|
Belle writes exclusively for The Sunday Telegraph Magazine now . . .
So the blog thingy is officially old hat - and she has joined the world of the hardcopy printed word (The Sunday Telegraph Magazine piece is not online until lord knows when - they say they don't work on Sundays but are too busy working to answer my questions now - go figure that one out!) presumably to reach a fee-paying (i.e. book buying) audience. What does this say about the power, or rather the limitations of blogs, and the resilience of print newspapers and books - does anyone still bother with that as a debate?
Belle writes:
"I am flattered that anyone thinks my writing so good that I could not be real," (a real person? a real prostitute? or a real writer?) "What does bother me is the presumption that a person's occupation is a reflection of their intelligence or value to society: I have known plumbers who were geniuses and surgeons wh couldn't tie their own shoelaces. But there are thousands of wittier, sharper authors in the world. I'd sooner spend my future as a reader than a writer."
Though she says that "some day (she) wants to have a real job in the subject (she) studied." So a return to academia beckons.
She also says she supports "legalising brothels, hard drugs and other socially awkward habits. If the crime and disease surrounding these activities can be reduced through legalisation and protection, and if the government can collect tax from it, what is the problem."
Anyway, steaming through Belle "the new newspaper exclusive" and the Houellebecq connection is there again. Belle on her childhood:
"My parents fancied themselves 1970s revolutionaries . . . the house was stuffed with books of all kinds. Psychedelic sci-fi disguised as literature: Aldous Huxley."
Halfway through "Atomised," (pp. 186- 192) Houllebecq recounts an episode when Bruno visits his half-brother Michel Djerzinski and the two of them discuss Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" at length. Then Michel goes on to detail Huxley's "large family of English biologists, his brother Julian's "What Dare I Think," (1931) and Aldous Huxley's final book "Island" (1962) (In which "The civilisation is technologically advanced but still at one with nature."!) but concludes that Julian's attempt to "set out the principles of a religion which could dovetail with science," was not terribly convincing:
"In fact, any attempt at fusing science and religion is doomed because of the understanding of morality, so cruelty and egotism have free reign. Its small comfort, but the same goes for love."
Posted by Nick @ 15:00 GMT|
Belle Watch
LINKMACHINEGO.COM reports Belle has written 5 pages in today's Sunday Telegraph Magazine - and its not on the sodding internet! Can this really be true? Off to the newsagents now.
Posted by Nick @ 13:35 GMT|
Team Dustin update
The Book Club Blog has taken over from the Team Dustin Blog as the main area of my blogging focus in the last few months. Sadly, Dustin has been somewhat neglected if not forgotten, there are only so many blogging minutes in the day afterall! If you've missed the latest on his 68 homes all over the world, then do pop over there to find out more.
And remember to visit the home of Team Dustin if you haven't already done so - and do please leave a comment if you have any valuable Dustin news!
Posted by Nick @ 12:07 GMT|
The Baltimore Lowdown on the pre-Belle Chick Lit scene
One of The Book Club Blog's newest readers reviewed the Hottest Gal Tales Around back in September, 2003.
In fact she's written a fair bit, and has even interviewed our dear friend Helen Fielding.
Posted by Nick @ 11:16 GMT|
plasticbag.org | weblog | On Belle de Jour...
Over at the plasticbag blog - pretty fantastic for all things blog - they've been discussing the Belle phenomenon for the past week (haven't we all!) and I noticed today that Franz has said (March 20, 2004 04:26 PM):
"I don't think anyone is really shocked and startled as you said, but just curious. Belle's blog - in case it's not just fiction - allows people to relate to a hooker on a different level through short stories and musings, and there's no need to read a whole Houellebecq."
So if Atomised is beyond you or you can't stretch to get hold of a copy from your work station you know where to go instead.
I have just posted a comment at plasticbag.org on the end of the discussion and thought I'd put up here too:
"A great discussion - with virtually all sides of the current debate regarding the BjD phenomenon expressed. I'm not sure if Tom Coates and yeahright are really disagreeing too much about what they recognise as Belle's achievement - you both seem to have more in common than you may think. What is it with this hostility towards media types and their lifestyles? Explain yourself coherently or get over it!
I'm surprised that people are still getting sidetracked by the identity issue, and concerning themselves with the degree to which it affects the quality or honesty of any author's writing - surely all storytelling is a construct - whether it represents itself as fiction, news journalism, commentary, political speech making, UN resolutions or judicial reports on the machinations of government. Haven't we all accepted that by now. Surely we all gather information from the environment we inhabit and choose to convey it in the way we see as being appropriate to our medium, audience and ends.
At the receiving end surely the process of interpretation is the same in reverse. Who are we when we read or hear something? Are we the same person all of the time? And do we truly know who we are? It is all constructs being deconstructed and reconstructed in different contexts over and over again.
(By the way I am not the nick who posted the Foucault link - and I wonder just why "literary anonymity is not tolerable"? Its not a zero-sum game - after all, who was William Sakespeare, really? And why is it so important when the words are the message?)
Regarding whether Belle is worth the Blog she's written on - its merely a case of personal judgement - either you get something from it, for good or bad, and choose whether or not to carry on reading as a result. That's the case with all written words and stories - you care or you don't.
Regarding the commercialism of Belle. Its unfortunate that the manufacture and purchase of a thong or a t-shirt, a book or a film, to signify an association or convey a message conjures pejorative reaction - but how on earth do ideas disseminate wholly outside of the pecuniary marketplace whilst there is still a material world out there beyond the free exchanges of the net that we are now so familiar with?
Regarding Belle being the latest in a long line of a particular genre: is there any singularly unique new genre out there that I haven't heard about yet? Surely a writer's challenge is to be conscious of the genre/tradition in which they write and to extend it knowingly. Is Belle guilty of failing to do this any more than say virtually any published author in the world today?
I don't mind admitting that I enjoy Belle's writing for what I take it to be - which is lots of different things that change over time - but on balance I continue to read. And that is the only measure by which I can honestly judge anyone's story - no matter who they are, or why they tell it.
Finally, does anyone know Lisa Hilton? And has she made any public or private statements regarding whether or not she has a blogger account responsible for http://belledejour-uk.blogspot.com/?
If I'm missing the point - please rattle my cage."
Posted by Nick @ 09:56 GMT|
SharpReader RSS Aggregator
SharpReader is an RSS Aggregator for Windows, created by Luke Hutteman. It does what it says on the packet and is a fantastic tool for keeping up to the minute with all your favourite websites and blogs - just as long as they have an RSS feed - the lastest version (0.9.4.1) handles Atom, which is Blogger's feed of choice for its basic level free blogs. The Atom feed for The Book Club Blog is in the right hand pane, simply right-click copy the shortcut into the Open RSS Feed window (under File dropdown) tick the subscribe box and away you go!
Posted by Nick @ 09:24 GMT|
Saturday, March 27, 2004
kickAAS - Kick all agricultural subsidies
kickAAS: a blog for the third world - seems the perfect blog for the morning after a night in the pub discussing the pros and cons of capitalism, globalisation, poverty - and much more besides over a thirst quenching "Cock-sucking Cowboy."
Stasis or Evolution? (Our language strikes me as being ill-equipped to provide suitable terms for positing the dilemma. If anyone can come up with more elucidating alternatives, please let me know.) The joys of hunter/gatherer subsistence or the Shangri-La of the call centre?
• "Some global debt has been cancelled. Most has not, while the rich world has slashed aid and rigged trade," writes Bob Geldof.
• Ayn Rand on capitalism: "The moral justification of capitalism does not lie in the altruist claim that it represents the best way to achieve 'the common good.' It is true that capitalism does—if that catch-phrase has any meaning—but this is merely a secondary consequence. The moral justification for capitalism lies in the fact that it is the only system consonant with man's rational nature, that it protects man's survival qua man, and that its ruling principle is: justice."
• Karl Marx on capitalism: "Capital is money, capital is commodities. … By virtue of it being value, it has acquired the occult ability to add value to itself. It brings forth living offspring, or, at the least, lays golden eggs."
• The Almost Capitalist: "What Marx almost discovered was that both the benefits and the success of capitalism grow with the number of men who are capitalists. His error in failing to discover this truth was the most fateful near-miss in history." Louis O. Kelso, "KARL MARX:THE ALMOST CAPITALIST," American Bar Association Journal, March 1957.
I don't come across too many hunter/gatherers today (Jared Diamond Biography) (Interview), but I do remember hearing Raymond Blanc - widely acknowledged as one of finest chefs in the world and a tremendously skilled entrepreneur - talking about growing up as a hunter/gatherer.
• Raymond Blanc on growing up as a hunter/gatherer:
"I lived in a very rural environment in France and I was a hunter/gatherer from the age of six, selling (?!) wild asparagus, wild mushrooms, and frogs and snails that I gathered from the land around my home. This closeness to the land gave me a deep, deep understanding of the cycles and the moods of the seasons. I lived in a tiny little village environment where my father was a fantastic gardener and my mum was a great cook. She plied her simple craft to what my father provided her with, whether it came from the forest, or the garden or the peasant next door. Preparing good food was act of love, there was a simple chain from soil to pot, and the sharing of that moment added to the food."
• Raymond Blanc on the moment he realised he'd lost that hunter/gatherer instinct.
• Hunter-Gatherer blogs!
• Ever wondered about the gene that "Made Us Human" in the first place?
Posted by Nick @ 11:05 GMT|
They've already made the movie!
Grand Theft Parsons
In the wake of The Book Club Blog's recent spotlight on Gram Parsons, I am very surprised to have missed this until yesterday.
Grand Theft Parsons stars Johnny Knoxville, Christina Applegate and Robert Forster. Having screened to great acclaim at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, the film was released in the UK and Ireland on March 19th, 2004.
Recently initiated fans may be interested to know that "two Parsons fans have bought the Joshua Tree Inn, where Parsons died, which they intend to preserve in part as a shrine and die-hard Parsons fans have even been given a name - "grampires". Yet there's still a long way to go before Parsons gets the recognition he deserves. His ghost has been excised from the Joshua Tree National Park tourist literature and during the filming of Grand Theft Parsons none of the park rangers claimed to have any knowledge of the Kaufman/Parsons story."
Johnny Knoxville on Gram: "He's up there with David Bowie and Johnny Cash for me. Coupled with his death and what happened with his body, that smacks of cult following to me."
Posted by Nick @ 10:19 GMT|
Friday, March 26, 2004
Are rude French a dying race?
What do you think?
Reputed to be one of the world's rudest breeds, Parisians it seems are growing politer by the day, turning off their cellphones in restaurants, asking other diners first before lighting up at the table and, even picking up their dog droppings.
Loud personal cellphone conversations in public buses and trains are dying out -- "only people who are hard of hearing tend to speak too loudly nowadays" said one phone operator -- as are once-popular ear-splitting ringtones featuring hunting music or Bizet's "Carmen."
Posted by Nick @ 14:31 GMT|
Tony Blair and the Treaty of Westphalia or should that be West-Failure?
Recent Articles On Treaty of Westphalia in wake of Tony Blair's Sedgefield speech (6/03/04)
Telegraph.co.uk Mar 08, 2004
"Mr Blair argued that failing to take a stand on Iraq would have shown the international community's will to act over rogue states and WMD was weak. But it would be "monstrously premature" to think that the threat had passed. It was not a time to err on the side of caution, particularly when terrorists were "pouring into Iraq". Mr Blair claimed that "containment" would not deal with the threat. The terrorists had no intention of being contained, and there needed to be a global response. In what...
Blair's doctrine UK PM defends intervention to deal with rogue states Mar 08, 2004
He even mentioned the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. That basically ended the religious wars in Europe and began the modern system of the nation-state, whose rights, he suggested, should be further curtailed.
Guardian Mar 08, 2004
So, for me, before September 11, I was already reaching for a different philosophy in international relations from a traditional one that has held sway since the treaty of Westphalia in 1648, namely that a country's internal affairs are for it and you don't interfere unless it threatens you, or breaches a treaty, or triggers an obligation of alliance. I did not consider Iraq fitted into this philosophy.
Posted by Nick @ 10:05 GMT|
Move over Belle - the master linguist, Noam Chomsky, has joined the blogosphere - yesterday afternoon !
Turning the Tide
Posted by Nick @ 07:05 GMT|
Thursday, March 25, 2004
Breaking Belle news - Well more of a confirmation of what we already knew - South Manchester Reporter
It seems that The Times "which, (according to "The South Manchester Reporter") as everybody knows, never gets its facts wrong" has erred slightly. Having "decided to unleash the might of its investigative team on the trail of the mystery internet author" (Our dear Belle), and "even called in an American expert to identify the person who'd been writing the graphic entries on the website under the name Belle De Jour," the newspaper's expose is now reported to have done nothing more than "upset and embarass" the accused's parents.
Sarah Champion's mother Elaine has now said:
“It's awful, I don't see how this professor could have done it; he's supposed to have got it right with other people. We want to set the record straight that it is not Sarah and we are just hoping it's all going to blow over.”
Teachers at Sarah's school, Oakwood, were bemused by the suggestion that Sarah was either a working call-girl or knew enough about prostitution to write the diary.
Oakwood teacher Ed Wiley who taught Sarah said:
“I couldn't believe when I heard it. It seems odd; she was very studious and dependable. There was nothing to blot her copy book and her parents were very supportive of the school.”
I'm curious. Does this imply that a university educated woman who decides to pursue a career as, in the words of one of Belle's co-workers Lara, "a travel companion to discriminating gentlemen who appreciate beauty, elegance and intelligence" in exchange for "$4,000/day, plus associated expenses, with a 2-day minimum," would not have been "very studious and dependable" whilst at school and would have determinedly "blotted her copy book"? Would someone who chose such a career automatically have parents that would not be "very supportive of the(ir) school"? A woman like Lara who draws attention to the fact that "she has no tattoos or piercings, does not smoke and appreciates fine wine and champagne" and "holds an advanced engineering degree from a top tier California university (and before you ask - Do you really have an engineering degree? Yes I do. You don't think I could fake a technical background, do you?), is bilingual and an avid world traveler," does not sound to me like the typical school troublemaker or dropout. In fact she sounds more like a candidate for Head Girl (no pun intended).
In response to the question "Why are you doing this?" Lara tells her potential clients "I am doing this for the same reasons that brought you here or, more precisely, it’s the mirror image of your motivation. You might want to read the following article for a historical perspective on Courtesans." The nub of this piece on the role of courtesans in Renaissance Italy is that "Being a courtesan allowed women to hold on to their sexuality while cultivating their minds.The only other women who were allowed to study were those in convents." Moreover, "Homosexuality was seen as a huge threat and punishable by death (men would be beheaded and their bodies burned), so Venetian officials often paid courtesans to "cure" homosexuals. Courtesans were encouraged to stand topless on the Ponte Della Tette, or Bridge of Tits, as it's still known today, to entice and convert suspected gays." Comparing this Renaissance past with the twentieth century, Christina Valhouli concludes: "Renaissance Venetian Victoria Franco charmed her powerful men with poetry and sex. Fast-forward 400 years or so, and courtesan spirit is embodied in women like Pamela Harriman and Clare Boothe Luce, who propelled themselves to power through their associations and marriages with powerful men. The throne is still open for a true courtesan of the 21st century."
In the light of Ally McBeal's nauseating inability to find true love in the professional workplace, Carrie Bradshaw's sexual merry-go-round in the city, and Bridget Jones' flirtation with the edge of reason, is it any wonder that seriously career minded, well-educated women, who grew up in an era that championed the free-market, entrepreneurship and the survival of the fittest (substitute "sexiest" and read Madonna, Britney etc. etc.) should seek to maximise their ability to realise the ideal lifestyle of free time and spare money that we are all seemingly expected to aspire to today, by taking the most lucrative and least labour extensive option available.
Cue Belle's own account of a conversation about her motivation for following her chosen profession:
He: "So why do you do this?"
Me: "I'm not sure I have an answer to that."
"There must be something that you at least tell yourself."
"Well, perhaps I'm the sort of person apt to do something for no good reason other than I can't think of a reason not to."
"So if someone told you to jump off a bridge..."
"Depends on the bridge. Depends if they were paying. Why?"
Finally for now, Belle on her family:
"My family is quite normal, and I am in touch with my parents almost daily. They know I do 'adult entertainment' and I leave it at that. On a similar subject, I am not a drug addict and have never been on the dole."
Belle is clearly right on the cutting edge of the culture war that has beleaguered both Right and Left in Britain for so long. Namely, she is an empowered economic rationalist with a libertarian morality to match.
Posted by Nick @ 19:40 GMT|
Is Belle de Jour . . . Yann Martel?
Your Local Goddess says that what has really struck her "is the relevance of the end of The Life of Pi. Regarding the subject of Belle, a reader should be more concerned about her enjoyable story, not who she is or whether she is real."
So Belle does have simpatico with The Book Club Blog's choice of reading matter. I knew there must be some relevance somewhere!
Posted by Nick @ 16:01 GMT|
Sting's 'wife-swapping turn-on'
Perhaps Stan was mixing in the wrong circles.
Posted by Nick @ 15:13 GMT|
Guardian: Belle doesn't ring true in Cynthia Payne's professional opinion
When did anyone last hear from Britain's best known madam?
Posted by Nick @ 14:19 GMT|
Belle Beaten By Britney in Battle of Babes
Miss Belle de Jour, despite wearing Kylie's knickers on Tuesday, has suprisingly lost out to Ms. Britney Spears in FHM's annual poll of the world's 100 sexiest women.
Could this be due to the fact that Guardian blogging award judges do not read FHM?
Posted by Nick @ 12:52 GMT|
Has anyone else been to Tony's for dinner lately?
Catherine Bennett: Small brain and no big ideas
The official line
Posted by Nick @ 11:29 GMT|
Telegraph Media diary
The Minx points out that its now rebuffed outing of our favourite courstesan diarist wasn't the only Belle tolling for The Times this week.
Posted by Nick @ 08:00 GMT|
Press Release: Athenais by Lisa Hilton
"Lisa Hilton was born in Cheshire, England. She studied English at New College, Oxford, and Art History in Florence and Paris. Hilton worked at Christie's auction house before beginning writing full time and has also been a nanny, a roller-skating waitress, and a model. She has lived in Paris, Florence, Milan, and Vienna, and has traveled extensively through Asia, Russia, Europe, and South America. She speaks German, French, Italian, and Russian, and reviews French in the original for the Times Literary Supplement. She lives in London and the south of France, where she recently bought and restored a seventeenth-century tower."
Posted by Nick @ 07:38 GMT|
Wednesday, March 24, 2004
Mystery prostitute plagues UK press
According to dot journalism.
Posted by Nick @ 23:30 GMT|
Been wondering what sex Belle is, rather than simply what sex she's having?
Here's an awful lot of trouble to go to in order to establish that you don't know whether Belle is male or female.
Posted by Nick @ 23:10 GMT|
Lisa Hilton (possibly aka BjD) puts "Atomised" at number 8 in her top 10 scandalous French novels
Devotees of The Book Club Blog may be interested to hear that Belle de Jour prime suspect number 1, Ms. Lisa Hilton, has only put this month's chosen book at number 8 in her top 10 list of scandalous French novels.
I have suspected for some time now that The Guardian may well have known far more about exactly who Belle is all along (since about 24/10/03 in fact). Why else would their fabulous weblog editor deride The Times expose as "wild speculation." Fair dues that those in the know wish to prolong the game. What's the betting they secure a serialisation deal just prior to publication?
Posted by Nick @ 22:10 GMT|
What happens when The Times publishes a story and everyone involved denies it?
According to The Times hack who broke the Belle de Jour is Sarah Champion expose, the newspaper is standing by its story based on Professor Don Foster's (Vassar College) 20 minutes of internet sleuthing (he's not the only one!), in spite of the denials by Champion and her some time acquaintance Andrew Orlowski. The Times seems convinced its all a devilish conspiracy by the two of them to outsmart bloggers and the literary community in one deft move.
Given that the Times dedicated an investigation to the story it seems a little odd that they've gone quiet on it for a few days now - but I'm assured that they'll be hitting the world with a more substantial follow up anytime now. Somewhat discouragingly, Belle is now being spurned as old hat (not an old hag just yet!) by some in the UK blogging community.
This despite the fact that the whole thing is still deliciously up in the air, and the reluctance of the satisfyingly photogenic (surely its not just the lighting!) novelist and "sex" journalist Lisa Hilton (who makes a point of not referring to "Sex And The Bloody City") to deny widespread (!??) claims that she is Belle de Jour. If anyone knows Professor Foster - can you ask him if he still stands by his initial research.
Posted by Nick @ 19:34 GMT|
White House Counters Ex-Aide (washingtonpost.com)
"This is Dick Clarke's 'American grandstand,' " White House press secretary Scott McClellan said of the new book by former Bush aide Richard A. Clarke.
Half a dozen top White House officials, departing from their policy of ignoring such criticism, took to the airwaves to denounce Clarke as a disgruntled former colleague and a Democratic partisan. Vice President Cheney, on Rush Limbaugh's radio show, said the counterterrorism coordinator "wasn't in the loop, frankly, on a lot of this stuff." Cheney suggested Clarke did not do enough to prevent three attacks during the Clinton administration and said "he may have a grudge to bear there since he probably wanted a more prominent position."
White House press secretary Scott McClellan spent much of both of his briefings yesterday arguing that Clarke's book was politically motivated and timed. "This is Dick Clarke's 'American grandstand,' " McClellan said.
"His assertion that there was something we could have done to prevent the September 11th attacks from happening is deeply irresponsible, it's offensive, and it's flat-out false," McClellan said. He said Clarke had interviewed to be the deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, then left the administration after being turned down. McClellan said Clarke was repeatedly absent from Rice's daily morning meeting for her senior directors after being told to attend.
McClellan sought to tie the book to Sen. John F. Kerry's presidential campaign by saying that Clarke's "best buddy" is Rand Beers, who resigned as a top counterterrorism official at the National Security Council after the invasion of Iraq and later became Kerry's coordinator for national security and homeland security issues.
Rice, on Fox News, said: "Dick Clarke was counterterrorism czar for a long time with a lot of attacks on the United States. What he was doing was -- what they were doing apparently was not working. We wanted to do something different."
Clarke, appearing on ABC's "Good Morning America," said it "pains me to have Condoleezza Rice and others mad at me," but added that "both the Clinton administration and the Bush administration did much less than they should have" on terrorism.
Posted by Nick @ 09:24 GMT|
Scotsman.com: Blowing the SAS's cover up
Former SAS soldier Mike Coburn has dared to take on the hallowed image of the unit, but will he win?
Posted by Nick @ 08:04 GMT|
Tuesday, March 23, 2004
In an effort to preserve Belle's anonymity I would like to know if we've had a Lisa Hilton denial yet?
Is Lisa Hilton Belle de Jour?
In the wake of the denials generated by The Times investigation 18/03/04, it is perhaps time to focus on the suspect who as far as I can find has yet to deny being Belle de Jour. Lisa Hilton.
Rumours that Belle de Jour is Lisa Hilton began circulating lord knows where.
Chad Jackson, a contemporary at New College, Oxford has alleged:
"I’m not belle de jour. it’s lisa hilton. I’m so jealous. I was at college with her for three years and was sure she’d never amount to anything. Her tactic of fucking her way through a series of rich old men while dressed like something out of the moulin rouge seemed a resonable path to riches but now she’s writing *about it* and doubling her money. Not that I’d want you to infer she was a manipulative, heartless, self-serving tramp."
Sleuth de Jour agreed:
"Lisa Hilton is quite a good bet. She’s certainly got the reading list to fit. And here’s the background Martin Amis reference, a la recent blog: Step forward Miss Hilton!"
Leonardo da Vinci has confirmed that Belle's first name is indeed Lisa, but he seems a little sketchy:
"Belle de Jour lived above me and I’d see her in the hall each morning. When I needed a model for a portrait she volunteered. She told me her real first name was Lisa. Or maybe it was Mona. I can’t remember now."
The Wibbler, a twenty-something ex-student from Hampshire, picked up on this rumour at 17.53 on 18/03/04, highlighting:
"an article by Lisa that's very Belle."
And going on to say:
"I think a clue's in the website address. belledejour-uk. why put the "UK" bit in? Was someone using "belledejour" already? Or was it part of a global strategy from someone who doesn't live in the UK anyway? Whatever - I'd prefer not to know. More anonymous is more fun, as someone might have said."
Well the answer is yes. Someone without much literary ambition was already "using" http://belledejour.blogspot.com/. But not very much since dimanche, septembre 09, 2001. Curiously uses French for the date, but different punctuation. The post (there is just the one by Agrippine: "Bonjour.") is in French not English. And the template is different. What does this tell us? Not a whole lot.
The chain of connections leads us on to that gaggle of googling academics over at Crooked Timber.
Noah claimed (March 18, 2004 03:17 PM):
"I know someone who knows Sarah Champion, and says it’s definitely not her. The rumour I’ve heard is that it is the journalist Lisa Hilton. Personally I believe it to be a fake but not by a journalist, because the writing is too poor (cue joke)."
Whilst according to Loobiloo (March 19, 2004 05:20 PM):
"Belle is not Sarah Champion
Belle is not Lisa Hilton
Belle is not Chris Hart
Belle is not a writer
Belle is, actually, a real person and a call girl.
taps nose"
Elsewhere, yours truly wondered at 12.42 19/03/04 whether Lisa Hilton's face might be that of Belle de Jour too.
And Old Hag linked to the piece at 6:28 PM EST 20/03/04, in admiration of the use of lighting by whoever took the photograph of Lisa Hilton that I'd pinched:
"THERE ISN'T ENOUGH LIGHTING IN THE WORLD
The Book Club Blog suggests that journalist Lisa Hilton may be the real Belle De Jour. We really don't give a rat's ass, but here's what we want to know: why can't someone take a picture of us that looks like that?"
Elsewhere, as recently as 21/03/04 Troubled Diva, the patently ludicrous conspiracy theorist of 19/03/04, who invites email but doesn't write back, was still obsessing about Belle with a "Bellewatch - weekend update" and continuing to associate her with Sarah-odd portrait on her homepage-Champion.
However, today Troubled Diva (aka Mike from Nottingham) declares that the Belle de Jour is so:
"last week. That subject is so over," despite recording for posterity that The Register's noting of his theory netted his blog "A few hundred curious visitors."
In fact it seems that some bloggers, who by chance happen to be Mike's readers, are oddly enough losing interest in the whole Belle de Jour phenomenon.
Nigel asks simply:
"Am I the only blogger in the world who doesn't care less about BdJ? Ah. Right. Thought so. . . "
But despite his resignation he is not alone. Mike points to signs of growing apathy elsewhere.
.
In fact a whole anti-Belle de Jour movement appears to be on the march, and Anna appears close to tipping over the edge of her little.red.boat becuase of it, and declares:
"For the record, can I be the founder member of the;
'I really don't care who Belle de Jour is. Really. I honestly couldn't give a fuck'
club?
Just get on with it, she's good at what she's doing, let her get on with... y'know... and...
Look, the first meeting of the
'I really don't care who Belle de Jour is. Really. I honestly couldn't give a fuck'
club will be somewhere in Islington on... oh, it really doesn't matter, you'd all just show up hoping to catch a glance of BdJ anyway...
Forget I mentioned it.
The world has gone mad.
I'll go and drink alone."
In my opinion, Anna's followers (see the comments) appear to protest too much.
So that brings us more or less up to date - and no sign of Lisa Hilton making any denials anywhere today. Despite some chap called Andrew Anthony, whose name wasn't even in my frame, denying that its him in today's Guardian as I think I've already mentioned.
Belle de Jour (as in, you know who) is now being painted (imaginatively) by Charles Saatchi's new favourite artist Stella Vine. Whom The Guardian reports:
"was a teenage runaway, and took up painting after jobs including acting, waitressing - and, to tabloid glee, stripping. In the past month she sold two provocatively topical canvases to Saatchi, and her world changed. One was of Princess Diana, and another of a schoolgirl image of Rachel Whitear, the heroin addict found dead; both figures stream blood at the mouth. Vine got £600 each."
I wonder what Stella Vine is going to depict streaming from Belle de Jour's mouth.
Posted by Nick @ 15:05 GMT|
Andrew Anthony - This anti-war movement is led by fools/Suffice to say, I'm not Belle
Great topic combination journalism in today's Guardian - It seems The Book Club Blog is not alone in its simultaneous preoccupation with the War on Terrorism and the identity of Belle de Jour.
For the record, our latest denier writes:
"There has been much speculation, following close textual studies of my punctuation and use of language, and the revelation that I once drove along the A23, that I am in fact Belle de Jour, the escort with literary ambitions.
The Diary of a London Call Girl is a weblog that records the activities of an anonymous young woman and her insatiable clientele. Suffice to say, I find the very suggestion that I am the author utterly cringe-worthy. As for talk that I have signed a six-figure book deal - all I can say is that I'm still receiving negative royalty reports from my last four-figure book deal.
Apparently, suspicions have fallen on me due to my unique use of dashes and hyphens, and phrases like "cringe-worthy" and "suffice to say", and not for any parallels between the business of prostituting your body and your opinions.
However, I did once visit a brothel for journalistic purposes. I was asked by a (female) editor to see if it was possible to procure a massage in a massage parlour. It resulted in one of the more awkward discussions I have ever conducted in this noble trade, in which I made the singularly perverse request to receive no extras. Suffice to say, the only recorded occasion on which a hack has made his excuses and stayed."
Moreover, after 3 days off, Belle has posted a new entry this morning and she's wearing Kylie's knickers rather than her own.
"Black lace thong with pink ruffle edges and a pink bow on the left side." My word!
Who was Tallulah Bankhead?
"She smoked over one hundred cigarettes per day, drank gin and bourbon like they were water, and carried a suitcase-full of drugs to help her sleep, stay awake and just function in general. She reportedly engaged in hundreds of affairs with both men and women. Her biting wit, salty language and outlandish behavior – like the propensity for taking off her clothes at the drop of a hat – shocked and outraged everyone."
With Belle now set upon disproving Tallulah Bankhead's assertion that "only good girls keep diaries and bad girls haven't the time?" The Book Club Blog thought it might be worth pondering a few more of Tallulah's immortal words.
Posted by Nick @ 10:34 GMT|
Monday, March 22, 2004
The Baghdad Blogger on Guardian Unlimited
Salam Pax on the expanding Iraqi blogosphere and winning the blog world's equivalent of an Oscar.
Live online: Talk to Salam Pax today at 1pm
SalamPax - 01:03pm Mar 22, 2004:
On Blogging:
I don't think anything can kill blogging, as long as the reality TV thing has an audience most blogs will have an audience as well. All the attention blogs are getting will change it a bit and the credebility of bloggers will be an issue. The thing is because most bloggers write about their lives it kind of burns them out after a while, within one year a number of my favorite bloggers have either stopped or changed their URL or erased their archives. I don't know what it is exactly but at one point you go "oh my god. what have i been doing" and you stop.
On Blogging v. journalism
blogging by definition is an opinion thing. that is the main difference between a blogger and a journalist, i think. always read blogs with that in mind. I am glad that there are more iraqi blogs online now because i do not have to do the impossible duty of "being the voice of Iraqis" that is not possible. read the weblogs, see the spectrum of opinions and remember that there are 20 million other opinions as well.
Posted by Nick @ 13:06 GMT|
The Register: Internet virgin faces police probe
Rosie Reid, the Bristol University student who tried to auction her viriginity online, is facing a police investigation after having sex with the highest bidder.
Avon and Somerset police are investigating if Reid is guilty of soliciting. A London man paid £8,400 by banker's draft to sleep with the lesbian student.
Are the police hot on the trail of Belle de Jour too?
Posted by Nick @ 11:37 GMT|
Downing Street Says...: Middle East
Prime Minister Blair's line on Israel's policy on terrorism.
Posted by Nick @ 11:10 GMT|
US elections 2004 | Chomsky backs 'Bush-lite' Kerry
Noam Chomsky: "Kerry is sometimes described as 'Bush-lite', which is not inaccurate. But despite the limited differences both domestically and internationally, there are differences. In a system of immense power, small differences can translate into large outcomes."
Posted by Nick @ 08:51 GMT|
CBS News | Did Bush Press For Iraq-9/11 Link? | March 21, 2004, 23:52:44
Richard Clarke, former White House terrorism advisor, says that as early as the day after the attacks, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was pushing for retaliatory strikes on Iraq, even though al Qaeda was based in Afghanistan. Clarke suggests the idea took him so aback, he initally thought Rumsfeld was joking.
"Rumsfeld was saying that we needed to bomb Iraq," Clarke said to Stahl. "And we all said ... no, no. Al-Qaeda is in Afghanistan. We need to bomb Afghanistan. And Rumsfeld said there aren't any good targets in Afghanistan. And there are lots of good targets in Iraq. I said, 'Well, there are lots of good targets in lots of places, but Iraq had nothing to do with it.
"Initially, I thought when he said, 'There aren't enough targets in-- in Afghanistan,' I thought he was joking.
"I think they wanted to believe that there was a connection, but the CIA was sitting there, the FBI was sitting there, I was sitting there saying we've looked at this issue for years. For years we've looked and there's just no connection."
Clarke also tells CBS News Correspondent Lesley Stahl that White House officials were tepid in their response when he urged them months before Sept. 11 to meet to discuss what he saw as a severe threat from al Qaeda.
"The president dragged me into a room with a couple of other people, shut the door, and said, 'I want you to find whether Iraq did this.' Now he never said, 'Make it up.' But the entire conversation left me in absolutely no doubt that George Bush wanted me to come back with a report that said Iraq did this.
"I said, 'Mr. President. We've done this before. We have been looking at this. We looked at it with an open mind. There's no connection.'
"He came back at me and said, "Iraq! Saddam! Find out if there's a connection.' And in a very intimidating way. I mean that we should come back with that answer. We wrote a report."
"Frankly," he said, "I find it outrageous that the president is running for re-election on the grounds that he's done such great things about terrorism. He ignored it. He ignored terrorism for months, when maybe we could have done something to stop 9/11. Maybe. We'll never know."
Clarke went on to say, "I think he's done a terrible job on the war against terrorism."
Clarke is due to testify this week before the special panel probing whether the attacks were preventable.
His allegations are also made in a book, "Against All Enemies," which is being published Monday by Free Press, a subsidiary of Simon & Schuster.
Eschaton thinks the important point here is:
"the fact that when the Bush administration came into power, they decided that the position of National Coordinator for Counter-terrorism wasn't important enough to be a Cabinet level position."
He also highlights this:
"Clarke was the president's chief adviser on terrorism, yet it wasn't until Sept. 11 that he ever got to brief Mr. Bush on the subject. Clarke says that prior to Sept. 11, the administration didn't take the threat seriously.
"We had a terrorist organization that was going after us! Al Qaeda. That should have been the first item on the agenda. And it was pushed back and back and back for months.
"There's a lot of blame to go around, and I probably deserve some blame, too. But on January 24th, 2001, I wrote a memo to Condoleezza Rice asking for, urgently -- underlined urgently -- a Cabinet-level meeting to deal with the impending al Qaeda attack. And that urgent memo-- wasn't acted on.
"I blame the entire Bush leadership for continuing to work on Cold War issues when they got back in power in 2001. It was as though they were preserved in amber from when they left office eight years earlier. They came back. They wanted to work on the same issues right away: Iraq, Star Wars. Not new issues, the new threats that had developed over the preceding eight years."
Clarke finally got his meeting about al Qaeda in April, three months after his urgent request. But it wasn't with the president or cabinet. It was with the second-in-command in each relevant department.
For the Pentagon, it was Paul Wolfowitz.
Clarke relates, "I began saying, 'We have to deal with bin Laden; we have to deal with al Qaeda.' Paul Wolfowitz, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, said, 'No, no, no. We don't have to deal with al Qaeda. Why are we talking about that little guy? We have to talk about Iraqi terrorism against the United States.'
"And I said, 'Paul, there hasn't been any Iraqi terrorism against the United States in eight years!' And I turned to the deputy director of the CIA and said, 'Isn't that right?' And he said, 'Yeah, that's right. There is no Iraqi terrorism against the United States.""
Posted by Nick @ 08:39 GMT|
What do you think people will use their blogs for next?
A blog marriage proposal.
And the answer.
Posted by Nick @ 08:35 GMT|
Sunday, March 21, 2004
And the winner is . . . John Bird
Born in Paddington, this one-time art student, gardener and party activist founded the Big Issue magazine to help the homeless. Now he's been declared London's Local Hero by the BBC. Let me know what you think of the result by adding a comment.
Posted by Nick @ 23:46 GMT|
"cringe-worthy"+"suffice to say"?
Dancing Brave
Posted by Nick @ 21:36 GMT|
I was branded a call-girl blogger
Sarah Champion's denial in today's Observer: "I want to make it clear that not only have I never been a call girl - which will especially please my mother, who has had journalists calling on her Manchester home - but I am not the author of the Belle de Jour net diary."
Phew, for a moment there I was concerned that Dr Don might have found his hooker!
Posted by Nick @ 20:59 GMT|
The Register
The Register: "Did Register staffer mastermind 'call-girl weblog' conspiracy?" It doesn't look like it.
The accused, Andrew Orlowski: "I'm shocked, shocked - to find a conspiracy theory on the Internet of all places. Newspapers have space to fill, and bloggers have time to fill. Lots of time. I'm shocked. To be accused of being a whore is one thing, but to be accused of being a weblogger is actionable."
Posted by Nick @ 20:49 GMT|
Saturday, March 20, 2004
21 Grams: A Phoenix night to remember!
I saw 21 Grams at the Phoenix cinema in East Finchley on Thursday. The oldest purpose built cinema in Britain (1910), the Phoenix is a welcome reminder of the way picture houses were intended to be. A step up from the living room, yet as comfortable, familiar and reassuring as a favourite armchair. (A quick aside - a close rival in my movie house affections is the Majestic Theatre in Madison, Wisconsin, which I had the pleasure of frequented on a weekly basis for about a year, and first opened in 1906. Sadly, unlike the Phoenix, the Majestic has now ceased projecting films and has become a cosmopolitan nightclub. I appreciate that I was often one of only a handful of people who turned up for the films, but Madison moviegoers now have to go elsewhere for their films. Whilst the choice of venue might be vast the cinemas are awful - no wonder they don't have an image of it available. Lets hope the Phoenix manages to keep showing movies for many more years to come.)
I've been limiting my exposure to movie screenings recently (I've rationed myself to "LOTRs: The Return of the King," "Kill Bill" and "Cold Mountain" - each marvellous in its own way it must be said) partly due I suppose to the impersonal anonymity of the multiplex. Its not that I am wholly opposed to their prevalance. They serve their purpose, and are an improvement on the cold, tatty shells served up by the Odeon chain during my childhood (To be fair to my local Odeon, it is a great picture house and has been smartened up no end in recent years, but it still fails to realise its full potential). They're just so lacking in character and charm that they fail to add that certain something which comes from watching a special film in a magical place. Which afterall, is the experience I'm seeking when I troop out to the flicks.
21 Grams is a welcome addition to that body of films which I consider to have successfully utilised the device of a deconstructed narrative. Put simply, its a car crash film which incrementally re-assembles the lives of its victims whilst concurrently revealing to the viewer the chain of events which tragically brought them together. Its a genre oddly reminiscent of the experience of connecting the footprints of a particular blog occurrence. The detective isn't at first quite sure of the timing of events, nor the consequence of actions and decisions. Yet gradually, as the links and their significance become ever more apparent for the witness, so too do the disjunctions of meaning and emotional impact for the characters experiencing them. Perhaps the comparison somewhat overdramatises the humdrum activities of the average blogger.
The principal performances in this piece are outstanding, and it is quite something to see Sean Penn marginally upstaged in my opinion by Benicio Del Toro, Naomi Watts and Charlotte Gainsbourg who each exceed him in his now familiar quest for hyper-realistic characterisation. Del Toro has been excellent before, and repeats a now well honed ability to establish his own terms in no uncertain way. The upcoming "Che," set for (2005), could be something very special indeed. However, this was the first time I had consciously seen Watts on screen (I didn't recognise her as Jet Girl from "Tank Girl," (1995) and haven't seen "Mulholland Drive" (2001) all the way through)and she is a very welcome addition to the familiar cast of female leads. Not least because I think she looks like a plausibly "real" person (well almost). True, this may in part be due to unfamiliarity. However, her understated style of acting and ability to generate a genuinely personal space around herself on screen promises much for the future. I wonder how she'll compare to Fay Wray and Jessica Lange opposite Peter Jackson's "King Kong." I've been saving "Mystic River" up until now to allow the hype to settle a little, but I hope that Penn doesn't just overegg his Oscar winning performance as he does here.
Alejandro González Iñárritu
21 Grams/Amores Perros (2000), LA Weekly: " . . . where Amores Perros was a feast of energy, wit and imagination, 21 Grams is like a starvation diet — a movie that wallows so profoundly in its own misery that watching it is like atoning for some sin you didn’t commit."
Posted by Nick @ 20:13 GMT|
The Great McGonagall (I)
Another comment of Simon Hoggart's in The Guardian this Saturday (referring to Andrew Motion’s doggerel on England’s Rugby World Cup victory) set me thinking about poetry. I have on the bookshelves above the desk Private Eye’s Poetry Corner, which I sometimes browse whilst waiting for the computer to boot-up. The poems attributed to William McGonagall have always held a certain attraction for me, and I was pleased to find several references to one London Legend, Big Ken, in Lines On the Opening of The New Thames River Barrage:
'Twas in the year 1984, on the 8th May
That there dawned at last the glorious day
When the great Thames Barrier was complete –
A most remarkable engineering feat.
Etc, etc, until:
So at last they arrived at the magnificent barrier
Each section as big as an aircraft carrier
And there to greet them were many important men
But most famous of all was the great Red Ken.
Newt-lover and Monarch, at last face to face
The two greatest members of the British race.
Such a sight no one had ever been able to behold
Since Henry VIII met the King of France on the Field of the Cloth of Gold.
Of course, they’ve met so many times now that they must be old friends.
And by the way, it looks like Vanessa Feltz is revealing the results of the London's Living Legends poll in her BBC1 show tomorrow, at 1.25pm. What a travesty - Glenda Jackson's in the top ten, but no Ken. Think I may have to boycott the show in protest.
Posted by Jon @ 19:16 GMT|
Rebecca Blood, The Weblog Handbook: Practical Advice on Creating and Maintaining Your Blog
review centre
The Guardian special report on weblogs
Posted by Nick @ 18:19 GMT|
Iraq: They say 'right', we say 'wrong'?
Surprised not to find a link to this story earlier in the week: Oxford Research International's poll of 2,500 Iraqis for the BBC and other international news agencies.
Compared to a year ago, are things overall in your life much better now, somewhat better, about the same, somewhat worse or much worse?
Much / Somewhat better: 56.5%
Same: 23.3%
Somewhat / Much worse: 18.6%
What is your expectation for how things overall in your life will be in a year from now?
Much / Somewhat better: 71.0%
Same: 9.4%
Somewhat / Much worse: 6.6%
From today's perspective and all things considered, was it absolutely right, somewhat right, somewhat wrong or absolutely wrong that US-led coalition forces invaded Iraq in Spring 2003?
Absolutely / Somewhat right: 48.2%
Somewhat / absolutely wrong: 39.1%
although
Do you strongly support, somewhat support, somewhat oppose or strongly oppose the presence of Coalition Forces in Iraq?
Strongly / somewhat support: 39.5%
Somewhat / strongly oppose: 50.9%
The ICM poll of 1,014 people for Newsnight is also interesting.
Thinking about the build-up to the Iraq war and everything that has happened since, do you think that taking military action was the right thing to do, or the wrong thing to do?
Right: 48%
Wrong: 43%
Don't know: 9%
In the run up to the war with Iraq, do you think Tony Blair and his government...
Told the truth: 29%
Exaggerated but did not lie: 40%
Lied: 22%
Don't know: 8%
Posted by Jon @ 18:07 GMT|
Rumsfeld Holds No-Holds-Barred Martial Arts Tournament At Remote Island Fortress
I think this spot in The Onion offers a more realistic glimpse into Don Rumsfeld's ideas on folklore.
Posted by Jon @ 17:57 GMT|
Protests mark Iraq war anniversary
"Make tea, not war"
Posted by Nick @ 15:37 GMT|
plasticbag.org | weblog | On Belle de Jour...
Even bloggers who claim to not "get" the Belle de Jour thing are following developments avidly. How long's it gonna run?
Posted by Nick @ 15:33 GMT|
Who is the real Belle de Jour, the internet's best-read whore?
The Indepenent enters the fray.
Posted by Nick @ 13:16 GMT|
Don Foster snippet from Simon Hoggart in The Guardian
Don Foster is the professor at Vassar, New York, who believes he has identified the author of the Belle du Jour Diary of a London Call Girl blog on the internet. He used the technique of matching the tricks and quiddities of writing style which mark us out as surely as our fingerprints. That's how he discovered that Joe Klein was the author of the anonymous novel Primary Colors, and persisted until Klein stopped denying it.
But I think Foster's most fascinating discovery is one which is normally ignored. For years scholars have tried to work out the identity of "Mr WH" to whom Shakespeare's sonnets were dedicated. He declared that "WH" was either a misprint or a typeface oddity, and at a time when printers often did the dedications, "the onlie begetter" had to refer to Mr WS, Shakespeare himself. ("Begetter" in the sense of "inspiration" didn't exist in the language then.) It didn't attract much attention at the time; there aren't many lines of research in "Shakespeare not gay after all shock".
Posted by Nick @ 08:41 GMT|
Of course Belle was faking it. That's what sex — and cyberspace — are all about
Times Online - Comment - Whilst content to accept that the Times has revealed Belle as a fake (be she Sarah Champion or someone else) Jeanette Winterson concludes that "it is touching, anyway, in a society fixated on personal fame, that Belle is happy to keep us guessing."
If Belle de Jour has been an exercise in debunking the zeitgeist's pop-cultural obsessions all along, then the preservation of her anonymity is surely the ultimate prize.
Posted by Nick @ 00:41 GMT|
Friday, March 19, 2004
CNN.com - Bush hails 'day of deliverance' for Iraq - Mar 19, 2004
One year on from the invasion of Iraq
Posted by Nick @ 18:07 GMT|
MoveOn.org: Democracy in Action
Donald Rumsfeld's idea of folklore!
Posted by Nick @ 17:16 GMT|
Who is Neal Pollack anyway?
suicidegirls > members > Neal Pollack
Posted by Nick @ 15:49 GMT|
The Register - Orlowski reported that William Gibson gave up blogging on 25/04/2003
Read
Posted by Nick @ 15:47 GMT|
LinkMachineGo: neo-maxi zoom linky | weblog: Belle connections
Andrew Orlowski / Sarah Champion ???
Posted by Nick @ 15:26 GMT|
Troubled Diva. Second verse, same as the first...
Bellewatch
Extract: "Orlowski and Champion cooked up a fake weblog last year - firstly to take the piss out of gullible bloggers, secondly as a parody of "washing your dirty laundry in public" personal blogs, and thirdly with the express intention of winning the Guardian's "best written weblog" competition, thus cocking a gleeful snook at all the self-important "real" weblog writers out there."
Posted by Nick @ 15:09 GMT|
Amazon.co.uk: Books: Playing the Moldovans at Tennis
Belle or nor Belle
Tony Hawks' debut book, Round Ireland with a Fridge, was an irreverent satire. The topic of the sequel is even more absurd. Like Round Ireland, it supposedly originates from an obscure bet. This time, Hawks bets he can't track-down the Moldovan football team and beat them all at tennis. The loser must perform the Moldovan national anthem naked on Balham High Road. However, knowledge of tennis and/or football isn't required to enjoy the book.
Hawks' Irish trip was characterised by willing accomplices who joined in the fun. In Moldova, Hawks also expects a good laugh. Instead, he discovers a grey, dour people, ground down by decades of poverty. He describes Moldova's "total lack of anything whatsoever to offer the tourist". Despite the rarity of visitors, he receives an apathetic welcome as his mission provokes little more than weak smiles. Tracking down the footballers and persuading them to play turns becomes almost impossible.
The book treads a fine line between brilliant and juvenile, between Jeremy Beadle and the genuinely witty. Hawks' sixth-form joke of presenting a round table to Moldova's new King Arthur is especially cringe-worthy. His experience as a second-division stand-up leads to innumerable trite quips. Still, overall Playing The Moldovans At Tennis is an entertaining, easy read that will make you chuckle. It provides an interesting view of Eastern Europe's post-Communist life, while keeping you in suspense: Will he? Won't he? Suffice to say that, yes, at the end of the book someone does end up naked and singing outside a South London Woolworths. --Sarah Champion
Posted by Nick @ 14:40 GMT|
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