Feminist Ryan Gosling wins the internet.

Hey girl. It's hard for me to reify Beauvoir's theory of the lost female genius when I'm around you.

More pics juxtaposing feminist philosophy and Gozer looking soulful at http://feministryangosling.tumblr.com/

A final piece of wisdom from The Event

From the Lombard Method exhibition, a piece of philosophy I can get behind.

Who's for continuing adventures?

Occupational Hazards - Birmingham Occupation under threat

The blog of Occupy Birmingham brings distressing news - the City Council issued a notice to vacate just before the weekend.

No news on the blog yet as to what response the camp have reached, or possible solidarity action.

Supplies needed as of 26 October – gas for cooking, pasta, rice, fresh veg, fresh fruit, cheese, tuna & bread.

Latest video here - the first half is a quick summary of what's going on, the second half is personal testimony - oral history being made?

I went to The Event and all they gave me was a toffee hammer

Here is a photo-report from The Event, the annual collaborative art festival in a 1,000 temporary and permanent exhibition spaces around Digbeth.

During The Event over the past fortnight the area temporarily became so hip, when I checked into my local cafe on Foursquare someone else was actually there.

First - Guerilla Gastronomy - a mysterious box found to contain ...


































... all the necessary ingredients for strawberries and cream with meringue. Note safety goggles - only try Guerilla Gastronomy under Art Supervision.

Thanks to Art, I am now also the proud owner of a meringue-smashin' toffee hammer; another life victory realised.

Here are my faves from the rest of the art tour I undertook with my esteemed colleague - at least those of which I could take a half decent photograph.

A most excellent piece of art (Ben Rowe/Laura Skinner)




















Retro on several levels

Stephen Cornford's wall of vintage tape-recorders making like a steam train (if they'd have made the tuneful crackle of a Spectrum game loading then it'd be some kind of creepy nostalgia trap and I've have never left)















And finally

For those who wondered what Birmingham Central Library will look after The Apocalypse, we now have an answer. James Fowkes, your diorama could only be more awesome if you had monkeys or zombies in it. Or zombie monkeys.

Kings In Yellow - gorgeous new Gollancz hardback SF range

Cue mutant Proustian rush for anyone who remembers harvesting the original Gollancz SF hardbacks from your local library shelves when growing up.

Nostalgia aside, let's celebrate the return of a literary design classic for Gollancz's 50th Birthday.

Make mine a 99% - A brief encounter with the Birmingham Occupation

Last Sunday I came across the Birmingham Occupation in Victoria Square. It's small, but perfectly formed at this stage. Just a few tents and banners, but inspiring to see it up in the grill of the Birmingham establishment, across the way from the Council House and cat-swinging distance from the Banking District.

Two posts ago I was reeling at the reminder that 25% of the people in my constituency are unemployed, so it's not like the great and good don't doesn't need reminding.

On Monday the camp had their first General Assembly to decide their approach - interested to hear what comes out of that as I couldn't make it down to listen in.

So, even if you can't occupy, pop along and have a chat with them, find out where they're coming from and what help they might need. They're lovely, friendly people - the Jarrow marchers of our day, perhaps - and along with climate change and global hunger this is one of the most important debates to be involved in right now.

The links!

Facebook page
Twitter feed
IndyMedia article with lots of lovely photos from the rally that kicked off the Occupation.

More photos from the banners slung under the giant video screen in Victoria Square.

Late-period Woody Allen film much like late-period Woody Allen

Proposal: Woody Allen should go down the James Patterson route of getting other people to collaborate with him on his films.

Take Midnight in Paris, where sock puppet Owen Wilson, travels back in time to an idealised 1930's and hangs out with Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Dali, Picasso etc for writerly inspiration.

It's Woody on autopilot: a nostalgic, rose-tinted view of Europe, a bundle of first world problems, and a first-rate cast all bound up in self-referential autocritique (what, it's not enough to live in the past, you say? well strike a light!), an indifferent script with a few good gags and lazy direction.

Lazy direction? Let's just say I was nearly violently ill during the opening credits sequence of tourist-board Parisian scenes and leave it at that.

But it's not a bad idea for a film, if someone was genuinely interested in the artists of the 30's instead of using them to massage his proxy's ego. Oh, and interested in writing some decent jokes.

So why doesn't Woody, as he slips in to his twilight (Woodydammerung?) come up with the idea, keep directing, if he wants, but let other writers, who probably love his work up to the mid 90's, do the heavy labour he doesn't want to do?

Would we out-woody Woody, would we? Only one way to find out.