I want everyone to get what they deserve.

[alexsarll]

I honestly never thought I would one day read a comic which riffed on Dante's Inferno with Luke Haines in the role of Virgil, but I'm very glad to have been proved wrong - though it arguably does Mr Haines something of a disservice given After Murder Park >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> The Aeneid.

I've never really held with the idea of religion as a crutch for those who can't face the horror of the universe - was it Jumpers where one of Stoppard's characters suggests that atheism is a crutch for those who can't face the horror of a supernatural reality? The problem with living in the witch universe, you see, is that if anything goes wrong, it was meant to go wrong. So if Virgin are sold out of the CD of the new Jarvis single, that's not just annoying in and of itself - it is a sign that Something is making moves against me. And just as I was thinking about this in the station, a man passed me who was clearly possessed. It wasn't so much that he was talking to himself as that the range in tone, nature, *everything* of those voices was too much for one rather ravaged old man to manage. So yeah, holed up in the sanctum for the evening, I think. Though at some point I am going to turn this off and do something productive with the evening read comics until it's time for Tourette's de France.

It's not that I think Nick Cave has lost it; there have been iffy albums in the past decade, but there've been brilliant ones too, and I'm looking forward to Grinderman as much as the next man, if only for the name. But listening to the magnificent Let Love In for the first time in years, realising that it followed the equally mighty Good Son and Henry's Dream, I'm faced with the melancholy realisation that this was as good as it got, and it's all downhill since. Downhill at a very gentle gradient, sure, but downhill all the same.

Comments

[darkmarcpi.livejournal.com]

Monsieur...with zese evening posts you are rrreally spoiling us!

I might record TDF, as I'm off to bed soon. Anyway - no laughing, right? Remember, these poor sods have an *illness*...

It's not just swearing - sometimes John barks and yelps

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

The second John Davidson doc, a couple of years back, was actually strangely moving - but I'm guessing that by getting Lily Allen's dad along, this one means to get John back to his comedy roots.

[superba]

It's weird having you update so frequently!

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I prefer to think of it as a return to the old ways...

(Though I imagine after this initial flurry, and once the January social slump passes, they won't be *quite* this frequent)

[superba]

I wasn't complaining, obviously :)

I find I either don't turn on the PC at all, and have no inclination to do so, or I do turn it on and waste the WHOLE bloody evening on t'internet. Though I'm hoping to wrench myself away in a minute for reading/DVDs.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I'm going to need to work on the balance, definitely. At present I'm finding the Tourette's doc amusing, but in a way where I could still chat to someone as I watch. So, via the internet, that's pretty much what I'm doing!

[augstone.livejournal.com]

'henry's dream' is definitely my favourite. i think 'the boatman's call', although different, is as good as 'the good son' and 'let love in'. but after that for me is where it's gone downhill. i love 'love letter','rock of gilbraltar', and 'babe i'm on fire' but his overall album quality is definitely slipping. i would say i like 'nocturama' but i've given that last double-album at least three good listens all the way through and always end up angry with him afterwards for not such great songs anymore and his overdoing it on the christianity.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I don't really go for Boatman's Call. He split his muse by writing that and Murder Ballads at the same time, so all the genuine emotional hinterland was on one album, and all the grand guignol denouements were on the other, where once they were yoked together in a fusion greater than the sum of the parts ('John Finn's Wife' being perhaps the best example; as firmly about Anita as 'West Country Girl' is about Polly, but so much more to it).
I enjoyed Abattoir Blues/Lyre of Orpheus and No More Shall We Part a great deal, though.

[bremxjones.livejournal.com]

Part of me worries that issue was written for about twelve people, half of which I know.

Another part of me loves that.

(I don't disagree on Cave, but that we could all go as downhill as elegantly as Cave did, I think.)

KG

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Well, quite (see also: Leonard Cohen, for one). I think I've just got an eye for the dark side at present.

Didn't you worry along those lines about the early issues too, though? And didn't they all go down well even with the poor benighted souls who'd never received Britpop missionaries? I wouldn't worry; all the best comics writers make incredibly esoteric in-jokes and get away with it.
(Although maybe I'm just saying that because I'm one of the 12 people, just like I forgive Moore and Gaiman their references to twenties fantasy books which I've read even if no other bugger has)

[bremxjones.livejournal.com]

I think it's just a bit more in your face with this issue. I didn't exactly have Luke Haines guiding Kohl to a vertical Knebworth festival before.

Still - too late to cancel us now. We've got away with it! And next month: Kissing!

KG

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Yes...I'd guess you're the first person ever to write yourself/yourself slash, or failing that, certainly the first to convince people to pay you for it.

[oneofthose.livejournal.com]

Let love In is my least favourite Bad Seeds album.
I don't know what that means.




The Queen's a lesbian.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Does Camilla take it up the arse?

Thought Lily's dad came out of it very well too - not least by admitting that was the main reason they knew who he was.

[baphomette.livejournal.com]

Hullo.

A thing you might like. Martin Fry on the Lee Mack show this evening (now on listen again here, click comedy and quizzes - http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/mainframe.shtml)

Someone else has to listen to it and bemoan the lack of audience appreciation for the "part one...part four" joke.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, Listen Again...I feel this shall become a steadfast friend.

(Though I do have Part 2, on the 7", and have always assumed that Part 3 must be on the 12". Though judging by Part 2, I think I can live without it)

[baphomette.livejournal.com]

I haven't heard Part 2 although I knew it existed... I don't think I've ever heard/seen proof of the existance of Part 3 at all though. Hmm. To E-bay, Batman!

[miss-newham.livejournal.com]

I did love a lot of Nick Cave's last album, but yep, I don't think it gets any better than Henry's Dream.