Whatcha reading?

[tepista]

111) Cycle of the Werewolf - Stephen King. 1983. Audiobook. A very typical short story, which may have come from Nightmares & Dreamscapes, taken out into a novella. This is bloody mawed cocaine King. I said on Twitter the other day that there's no writer quite like Cocaine King. The difference is a little like this:

DRUNK KING: Glenn McKnight cursed all the son-of-a-bitch Polacks as he gunned through his eighth six pack of the night. The baseball bat filled his filthy paw and he thought of getting up and smashing the legs out from under that goddamn weenie neighbour brat.

COCAINE KING: A yellow eyed demon, talons as sharp as lemon juice razor blades, beat its wings above Mary-Lou. A retching sound filled the air as it gave chase, following the scent of fresh blood still dripping from her dangling Achilles tendon.

PAIN KILLER KING: Jerry went to the closet. The top shelf was too high to see and was covered in a thin film of dust and had a shoebox of baseball cards from when he was a kid. The second shelf had a long, steel flashlight, bought from an obese woman who had run a gas station an...

SOBER KING: The old man smiled, his blue Maine eyes sparkling. "Ayuh. It was a hell of a story. I don't know if you youngsters are interested in something the likes of that. Maybe we'll sit together for eight hours next week and I'll show you my scrapbook on the subject."

Bang on. You might tweet that at him—he might get a laugh.

The movie is Silver Bullet with Corey Haim and Gary Busey

https://comb.io/AFNznV

Start at 1:38

[Silent Majority]

110) And Away - Bob Mortimer. Audiobook. 2021. A reflective and at times laugh out loud memoir from Vic Reeves' sidekick. The best parts are after he gets famous, as usual, but there's lots of stories which are memorable and poignant by turns. As he works, over a lifetime, to become comfortable in his skin and overcome his shyness, you find yourself feeling simpatico with him and his most human, and seemingly small, of struggles.

Must admit i never took all that much notice of him until his recent and highly touted appearances on the WILTY panel show, through which I've grown to simply adore him and the warmth and sheer humanity of this book, as you describe it, thoroughly confirms it. And while I haven't the remotest interest in fishing, I also love his tv series with Paul Whitehouse.

I'm a big fan of Whitehouse as an actor, I'm going to watch those fishing shows now.

[Silent Majority]

111) Cycle of the Werewolf - Stephen King. 1983. Audiobook. A very typical short story, which may have come from Nightmares & Dreamscapes, taken out into a novella. This is bloody mawed cocaine King. I said on Twitter the other day that there's no writer quite like Cocaine King. The difference is a little like this:

DRUNK KING: Glenn McKnight cursed all the son-of-a-bitch Polacks as he gunned through his eighth six pack of the night. The baseball bat filled his filthy paw and he thought of getting up and smashing the legs out from under that goddamn weenie neighbour brat.

COCAINE KING: A yellow eyed demon, talons as sharp as lemon juice razor blades, beat its wings above Mary-Lou. A retching sound filled the air as it gave chase, following the scent of fresh blood still dripping from her dangling Achilles tendon.

PAIN KILLER KING: Jerry went to the closet. The top shelf was too high to see and was covered in a thin film of dust and had a shoebox of baseball cards from when he was a kid. The second shelf had a long, steel flashlight, bought from an obese woman who had run a gas station an...

SOBER KING: The old man smiled, his blue Maine eyes sparkling. "Ayuh. It was a hell of a story. I don't know if you youngsters are interested in something the likes of that. Maybe we'll sit together for eight hours next week and I'll show you my scrapbook on the subject."

Bang on. You might tweet that at him—he might get a laugh.

Hah, I wouldn't want to be exposed to his Annie Wilkeses.

[Silent Majority]

111) Cycle of the Werewolf - Stephen King. 1983. Audiobook. A very typical short story, which may have come from Nightmares & Dreamscapes, taken out into a novella. This is bloody mawed cocaine King. I said on Twitter the other day that there's no writer quite like Cocaine King. The difference is a little like this:

DRUNK KING: Glenn McKnight cursed all the son-of-a-bitch Polacks as he gunned through his eighth six pack of the night. The baseball bat filled his filthy paw and he thought of getting up and smashing the legs out from under that goddamn weenie neighbour brat.

COCAINE KING: A yellow eyed demon, talons as sharp as lemon juice razor blades, beat its wings above Mary-Lou. A retching sound filled the air as it gave chase, following the scent of fresh blood still dripping from her dangling Achilles tendon.

PAIN KILLER KING: Jerry went to the closet. The top shelf was too high to see and was covered in a thin film of dust and had a shoebox of baseball cards from when he was a kid. The second shelf had a long, steel flashlight, bought from an obese woman who had run a gas station an...

SOBER KING: The old man smiled, his blue Maine eyes sparkling. "Ayuh. It was a hell of a story. I don't know if you youngsters are interested in something the likes of that. Maybe we'll sit together for eight hours next week and I'll show you my scrapbook on the subject."

Bang on. You might tweet that at him—he might get a laugh.

The movie is Silver Bullet with Corey Haim and Gary Busey

Unlikely with those actors, but worth a watch?

[Dr. Medulla]

111) Cycle of the Werewolf - Stephen King. 1983. Audiobook. A very typical short story, which may have come from Nightmares & Dreamscapes, taken out into a novella. This is bloody mawed cocaine King. I said on Twitter the other day that there's no writer quite like Cocaine King. The difference is a little like this:

DRUNK KING: Glenn McKnight cursed all the son-of-a-bitch Polacks as he gunned through his eighth six pack of the night. The baseball bat filled his filthy paw and he thought of getting up and smashing the legs out from under that goddamn weenie neighbour brat.

COCAINE KING: A yellow eyed demon, talons as sharp as lemon juice razor blades, beat its wings above Mary-Lou. A retching sound filled the air as it gave chase, following the scent of fresh blood still dripping from her dangling Achilles tendon.

PAIN KILLER KING: Jerry went to the closet. The top shelf was too high to see and was covered in a thin film of dust and had a shoebox of baseball cards from when he was a kid. The second shelf had a long, steel flashlight, bought from an obese woman who had run a gas station an...

SOBER KING: The old man smiled, his blue Maine eyes sparkling. "Ayuh. It was a hell of a story. I don't know if you youngsters are interested in something the likes of that. Maybe we'll sit together for eight hours next week and I'll show you my scrapbook on the subject."

Bang on. You might tweet that at him—he might get a laugh.

Hah, I wouldn't want to be exposed to his Annie Wilkeses.

Like you were using those legs anyway.

[tepista]

Unlikely with those actors, but worth a watch?

It plays like a kids movie, like I'm a kid and I saw a werewolf and no one believes me, but it's also rated R! A lot of people like it, I think it's OK.

Stephen King’s Silver Bullet (1985) An R-Rated children’s werewolf film! Wheelchair-bound Corey Haim and his sister who no one pays attention to, enlist he help of their drunk uncle (Gary Busey) to catch a werewolf that’s been slaughtering the townsfolk. Twin Peaks’ Everett McGill is a priest and “Stepfather” Terry O’Quinn is the sheriff. Lawrence Tiereny is a bar owner. Some nice gore, and pretty good fun overall.

[tepista]

I quoted instead of edit.

[Silent Majority]

113)This is the BBC: Entertaining the Nation, Speaking for Britain, 1922-2022 - Simon J Potter. 2022. Audiobook. The BBC grew from an establishment paternalistic public service into a mouthpiece for the war time government under Churchill, then made moves to provide the nation with the kind of enriching programming that it thought it needed before Conservative governments imposed neoliberal bosses who set it up into a purposely confused hybrid state in a commercial world, then more or less terrorised it into a center right wing project by continual attacks on its very existence. It could never have been what it aspired to be at its best, given the structure of the society it aimed to represent and the paucity of diverse voices that society will allow to rise, but it is a shame to know it'll likely soon be strangled from existence. Not so much for the actual BBC, which I will not mourn given its monstering of dissenting viewpoints from its inception, but for the dying idea that not-for-profit television and radio is a model worth pursuing. Potter manages something that the BBC has long paid lip service to; genuine balance in his account.

114) 100 Poems From the Chinese - Kenneth Roxroth. Kindle. 1956. A beautiful set of very personal translations of various Chinese poets from prior to 1200 AD. Specifically chosen for to their universal applicability, it's wonderful to feel the same as an extremely long dead staring out his window in the morning, or going out to see friends, or getting drunk and melancholy alone, or mourning their loved ones. We're the same, you see.

115) The Happy Return - CS Forester. 1937. Audiobook. The first Hornblower book written, but something like the seventh or eighth in the series. It's actually my favourite so far and more like Forester's other famous work, the African Queen, an unlikely romance between a stodgy but good hearted person and a more free and easy one.

[Kory]

Could you summarize? I do use Marcus in my punk course as a basic piece on punk and situationism. If I could replace it, I'd be interested.

When I said "finishing up," I meant I was half-done and planned to read the other half that night, but it didn't work out with my timing. In any case, it's started going into other topics now—focusing on Derek Jarman, Andrew Logan, the cross-section of queer culture and fascist imagery among the Bromley Contingent, Penny Rimbaud's piece "Banned from the Roxy," etc. I'm not sure it's going to be a good replacement for Lipstick Traces if that book is REALLY situationism-based (I never got too far into its pomposity), but I'll let you know when I wrap up.

Ah, okay. I just assign the prologue of Lipstick Traces, but I would prefer a less-up-its-own-butt short piece on punk as situationist. The ones I've found have been little better. The upside is that I pair it with Stewart Home's Cranked Up Really High, which is such an assholish response to Marcus that it has students sympathizing with Greil (even if Home's argument is more appealing). Aannnnnnnyway.

OK, gotcha. I'll re-read those sections with that in mind, I think I might still have the PDF of LT that you sent me too, I can compare it to the prologue. A lot of it was really "Malcolm was a situationist, which made him make these decisions and moves with regard to both the Pistols and his dealings with 430 King's Road," as opposed to situationist theory, per se. But I'll let you know.

Yeah, that's a bit astray from what I use it for. I just want to put a bug in their brain that one interpretation of punk is that it's part of a wider art-driven critique of modern life.

I re-read the appropriate chapter and I don’t think it would really be very useful to you, it’s a lot more of just a standard history lesson than any sort of analysis (first this happened, then this happened. Jamie Reid had this to say about it, that kind of stuff). Still an interesting read, I can mail the book to you if you’d like, a lot of the essays held my attention pretty well. If not, the essay “King Mob Echo” by Tom Vague is the one in question, you may be able to find a PDF somewhere to check just just in case it could be of use.

[Dr. Medulla]

When I said "finishing up," I meant I was half-done and planned to read the other half that night, but it didn't work out with my timing. In any case, it's started going into other topics now—focusing on Derek Jarman, Andrew Logan, the cross-section of queer culture and fascist imagery among the Bromley Contingent, Penny Rimbaud's piece "Banned from the Roxy," etc. I'm not sure it's going to be a good replacement for Lipstick Traces if that book is REALLY situationism-based (I never got too far into its pomposity), but I'll let you know when I wrap up.

Ah, okay. I just assign the prologue of Lipstick Traces, but I would prefer a less-up-its-own-butt short piece on punk as situationist. The ones I've found have been little better. The upside is that I pair it with Stewart Home's Cranked Up Really High, which is such an assholish response to Marcus that it has students sympathizing with Greil (even if Home's argument is more appealing). Aannnnnnnyway.

OK, gotcha. I'll re-read those sections with that in mind, I think I might still have the PDF of LT that you sent me too, I can compare it to the prologue. A lot of it was really "Malcolm was a situationist, which made him make these decisions and moves with regard to both the Pistols and his dealings with 430 King's Road," as opposed to situationist theory, per se. But I'll let you know.

Yeah, that's a bit astray from what I use it for. I just want to put a bug in their brain that one interpretation of punk is that it's part of a wider art-driven critique of modern life.

I re-read the appropriate chapter and I don’t think it would really be very useful to you, it’s a lot more of just a standard history lesson than any sort of analysis (first this happened, then this happened. Jamie Reid had this to say about it, that kind of stuff). Still an interesting read, I can mail the book to you if you’d like, a lot of the essays held my attention pretty well. If not, the essay “King Mob Echo” by Tom Vague is the one in question, you may be able to find a PDF somewhere to check just just in case it could be of use.

I did find an ebook version and will be giving it a quick read next month or so to see if there's anything that works. But I'll keep the Vague piece especially in mind—thanks!

[Dr. Medulla]

Say, does anyone—most particularly Silent Majority—know anything about Andrew Doyle? He's just published a book, The New Puritans, which attacks the culture of social justice. The description of the book reads like standard right-wing "no, you're the real racist" bullshit, but I was surprised to see him described as part of the Corbyn wing of Labour. Can anyone explain the possible confusion?

[Silent Majority]

Say, does anyone—most particularly Silent Majority—know anything about Andrew Doyle? He's just published a book, The New Puritans, which attacks the culture of social justice. The description of the book reads like standard right-wing "no, you're the real racist" bullshit, but I was surprised to see him described as part of the Corbyn wing of Labour. Can anyone explain the possible confusion?

No idea why he's been described as part of the Corbyn wing. Typical half-fash establishment figures, with useful prejudice where thinking should.go.

[Dr. Medulla]

Say, does anyone—most particularly Silent Majority—know anything about Andrew Doyle? He's just published a book, The New Puritans, which attacks the culture of social justice. The description of the book reads like standard right-wing "no, you're the real racist" bullshit, but I was surprised to see him described as part of the Corbyn wing of Labour. Can anyone explain the possible confusion?

No idea why he's been described as part of the Corbyn wing. Typical half-fash establishment figures, with useful prejudice where thinking should.go.

Okay, so he's part of the wretched pseudo-left. Which is what the book's description made me suspect.

[tepista]

114) 100 Poems From the Chinese - Kenneth Roxroth. Kindle. 1956. A beautiful set of very personal translations of various Chinese poets from prior to 1200 AD. Specifically chosen for to their universal applicability, it's wonderful to feel the same as an extremely long dead staring out his window in the morning, or going out to see friends, or getting drunk and melancholy alone, or mourning their loved ones. We're the same, you see.

Was it a countdown? Number 1 has to be the one about peeing in the Coke.

[Silent Majority]

114) 100 Poems From the Chinese - Kenneth Roxroth. Kindle. 1956. A beautiful set of very personal translations of various Chinese poets from prior to 1200 AD. Specifically chosen for to their universal applicability, it's wonderful to feel the same as an extremely long dead staring out his window in the morning, or going out to see friends, or getting drunk and melancholy alone, or mourning their loved ones. We're the same, you see.

Was it a countdown? Number 1 has to be the one about peeing in the Coke.

I think number one was about the timing of a dental appointment.