VERY IMPORTANT PERSONS OF COLOR

CULTURE IS NOT ALL ABOUT WHAT WHITE PEOPLE SAY OR DO

Last week saw the deaths of TS Eliot and John Lennon... now imagine that media fuss. Well, what did happen? In fact, Derek Walcott and Chuck Berry died.

Now consider what actually happened... There was a lot of fuss; obituaries... AND THEN... sort of not all that much.

Certainly not the wailing lamentation when Bowie died... or even Ted Hughes...

I am not saying the media and Western cultural machines are organisationally racist, but there is something wrong with the omelettes in Denmark, when arguably the greatest poet of color of the 20th century dies followed by ONLY THE GOLDARN INVENTOR OF ROCK AND ROLL - and there is no world-shaking sorrow and recognition that SOME OF THE GREATEST ART AND CULTURE is made by non-white folks.

Just saying...

Because Walcott and Berry, for all their human weaknesses, were universal geniuses in their fields. Their deaths were not just sad or notable - they were SEISMIC.

Now imagine they were white... we'd have TIME magazine covers for weeks. Or am I missing something?

BEST SONGS OF 2017 SO FAR

MUSIC SAVES

I turn now to our quarterly report into some of the key popular songs that have made their way as ear-worms into the hearts and minds of the writer of this post, since January 1, 2017 - in short, for the first 25% of the year, what are the top songs so far?

Note, only songs that one can find on Spotify count. It has been a good year so far, for pop and indie music... new Shins, and Depeche Mode albums in the same month as the first album from The Jesus and Mary Chain in 19 years can hardly be said to be a bad time.... so, counting down from Number one, in anti-climactic order.... here goes.... the 11 best songs so far, for 2017.... (and be careful, what with the allusions to a decade now as long ago as the 50s was to the Reagan era, this might be the best of 1987).

1. 'Love' - Lana Del Rey
Arguably her best song - and, like all her songs - a microcosm of her entire canon - like Dylan Thomas', her work is always imploding inwards to achieve a sort of Ur-perfection of its own self-style.

2. 'Doomsday' - Ryan Adams
It is unclear who Adams thinks he is - this song sounds as if Bruce Springsteen had decided to rip-off Tom Petty. That being said its metaphysical conceits, and references to Dante are lovely, and the overall achievement is to generate a classic American rock song of rustbelt heart-break.

3. 'Crying On The Bathroom Floor' - MUNA
I have done this, have you? Sounding like 'Sweet Dreams...' had been slowed down like a sex-robot doused in an acid bath, the whole synth-sound melts into a mournful expression of utter loss. Beautifully cold and sad. A pure class-A coming down track.

4. 'Feel It' - Georgia
In similar vein, the cold, stabbing synth lines from this song could be from Men Without Hats, 1980. But the vocals and pop nous are Robyn's. A haunting dance track with an angry core of noir.

5. 'Going Backwards' - Depeche Mode
Arguably the most didactic track on a major new album - the band's best in 20 years - this is still startling for its misanthropy and bitterness. You might think a band whose leitmotif is kinky sex-play might be counted among those revelling in the end-times of the BrexiTrump Era. But no, they actually mourn for a time when we were not cavemen, and had something "inside". Oddly powerful, vintage DM.

6. 'Automaton' - Jamiroquai
This track is a bizarrely perfect melange of early 80s tropes, beeps and blips in place, Billy Idol references, and a few Mr Roboto echoes... you actually expect a flock of seagulls to gust in. A fun retake on the new digital age, and hugely danceable, with undertones of ennui and isolated sadness.

7. 'Can I Sit Next To You' - Spoon
Speaking of 80s, who expected Spoon, those cool journeymen of American indie, to craft a tune vaguely in hock to Peter Gabriel's classic hits from So? Anyway, this is as smooth, slinky and sexy as INXS at their best. Retro? You mean, the new normal? No problem.

8. 'B.H.S.' - Sleaford Mods
This is the song that most resembles, in terms of moral and cultural import, 'Ghost Town' during the Thatcher era. It means British Home Stores - a massive chain closed by a greedy set of hedge fund managers and knighted entrepreneurs, leaving thousands of workers marooned without proper pensions after decades of loyal service. In short, this is a political song. However, it is insanely catchy, in a DIY fashion that makes many punk ancestors appear like Prokofiev in terms of complexity. It sounds like a drum machine and a few angry lads who never had a chance. But it is stirring, funny, and hugely critical. The Brexit anthem.

9. 'Bad Bohemian' - British Sea Power
A band with a great name, and no discernible pattern of hits or misses (who are their fans?), they've been around for years (featuring in a top list way back in the last decade here) - and here, in yet another 80s nod, they've written a great new New Order song - and inflected it with their own whimsy and craftsmanship.

10. 'Evermore' - Granddaddy
Immensely moving, ennobling pop-rock tune from an American indie band that sounds like autumn creeping over the summer like an opiated whisper. "This was never yours"... ghosts of a Beach Boys track that fell into a muddy creek and drowned haunt this classic slice of Americana.

11. 'All Things Pass' - The Jesus and Mary Chain
Instantly among their best, sleaziest, most inspiring songs - and indeed, up there with the finest alternative/indie tracks imaginable - this dark, clever, and pure rock joint - regretting vows and drugs taken, "girls touched", fearing death and the relinquishing of sins in equal measure - this is a classic lament to be saved, but not just yet.... as if The Ramones and The Bunnymen were rutting in a cavern.

SOME HONOURABLE MENTIONS: Sofi Tucker's 'Johny' is Gallic pop bliss; Priests express the shock of the post-truth era with 'Nothing Feels Natural'; Goldfrapp return with their utopian synth-pop in 'Anymore' - their best song in half a decade or more; and Sundara Karma create an anthemic slice of Springsteen apple-pie pop with 'Olympia'.

FOR LOGAN, THINK LOLITA - the SECRET Ls at the GENETIC CORE OF THE NEW X-MEN CLASSIC

DANGER - SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Logan, the new film by James Mangold, and the tenth outing for the Wolverine character from the Marvel Universe, as played by Hugh Jackman, is receiving a lot of critical praise. Released March 1, the film has been called "the Citizen Kane" of comic book films, and compared favourably to the previous benchmark for quality in this sub-genre, The Dark Knight trilogy, by Christopher Nolan. It shares with that trilogy a gritty realism, a downbeat tone, and serious actors at the top of their game. It is however not an urban picture, but, as every critic has noted, a road movie/Western in its DNA. The cliché is to cite Shane, which the picture does itself, as the blueprint, but this is a red herring, since the actual Western it most resembles is The Searchers - let alone In Cold Blood or T2.

Mangold has co-written the film, at a time of Western darkness (Brexit, the rise of Trump) and the film opens on a landscape torn from Beckett by way of Bannon - loudmouthed American youths on stag nights chanting USA! USA! and a massive Mexican border wall. However, as a serious film-maker (his Cop Land and Girl, Interrupted are indie American classics of their kind), Mangold has mainly based his screenplay and directorial vision on a set of Oulipean puns.

In short, his constraint was to make a film with major allusions to other films that a) are one-word titles starting with L or b) titles beginning with L and ending with Ns. In short, for Logan, read: Lolita, Leon, Let The Right One In.

The 3 key elements of the film are derived from the film versions of Lolita, Leon, and Let The Right One In, in uncanny ways. (These are the Uncanny X-Men):

1. The young girl in the film wears sunglasses, is oddly mature for her age, dangerous, and goes on a disturbing road trip across small-town cheap motel America, pursued by a weird man that wants to possess her;

2. The main relationship in the film is between a pre-pubescent girl and a killer, and they form an unlikely, sentimental bond;

3. The little girl appears dark-haired, quiet, melancholy, and vulnerable, but when push comes to shove, can rip a room of people apart, with her bizarre abilities.

There are of course ways to also see the film as a reprise of The Tempest, or the latest Mad Max, or Rebel Without A Cause* (both films share a trio of damaged persons seeking a safe home) and the strength of Logan is that for all its allusions, film puns, and deep reservoirs of cinematic knowledge, it remains a visceral experience - perhaps, literally, the most visceral (it name-checks Nosferatu early on). The fight scenes are startlingly violent (perhaps the most violent I have ever seen in a mainstream picture), made more so by the humanity of the characters, and their vulnerability; the development of secondary roles, especially that of Caliban, is subtle and moving; the soundtrack is haunting and subdued, when not merely deeply troubling.

It is true that critics could easily claim this as yet another celebration of an American cinema that has valorised violence, lone-wolf gunmen in a wild west, and sentimental relationships where broken older men are idolised by children as would-be father figures. I prefer to see it as a hugely intelligent reprise of all that has gone before in its genres, and an attempt to introduce a whole new level of artistry to the action film. It is a must-see, and Jackman is already a shoe-in for a best actor Oscar nomination for this year coming.

* Logan is set around a series of set-pieces, which all concern a nominally (liminally?) safe space/hideaway, culminating in "leaving Eden" for the ironic new land of "Canada" across a vague border among deep woods. Every safe haven is violated terribly - from hotel and motel rooms, to cars, to rusted-out old factory buildings, to farmhouses - nowhere is safe, period. There are guns in the valley - and until the guns are gone, and the men behind them, then the peaceful, decent settlers are threatened with endless returning threat and death.

OSCAR SMOSHCAR

SHOW BIZ SEEMED BIGGER ONCE

The Oscars - Academy Awards officially - were once huge cultural events - in 1975, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr, Shirley MacLaine and Bob Hope co-hosted, for example - and Best Picture noms included The Conversation and Chinatown. Godfather Part 2 won. Last two years, movies titled Birdman and Spotlight won, and the hosts and those films are retrospectively minor, trifling. This year, some important, resonant films are up for consideration - including Hidden Figures and Moonlight, two favourites of this blog. Viola Davis and Denzel Washington will hopefully win for their sterling performances in Fences. However, La La Land - the most superficial and empty Best Picture contender since Gigi in 1959 (which beat Vertigo) - could smite all comers, and render this year's awards historically trivial, even idiotic.

The Oscars often opt for safe, optimistic films, or safe, pessimistic films, that are usually about white men (less often, white women) finding their path to doing the right thing, or white men tragically failing to do the right thing, and doing bad things instead. This is of course the trajectory of drama from Aristotle up to at least Death of a Salesman - and these are the boundaries known as comedy and tragedy. The darkest ever Best Pic winner, Silence of the Lambs, is actually a comedy (or romance), and it is about the redemption of a bad man by a young ingénue, not a million miles from My Fair Lady.

Since the question of whether art (and drama) should be entertaining or morally instructive, or both, is ageless, and probably unresolvable, it is unfair to blame the Academy of Motion Arts and Pictures for falling prey to this aesthetic puzzle. However, La La Land is, on the spectrum, most comic, and least instructive - unless once considers it a bland expose of how selfish self-improvement is better than love and fidelity - which would suggest it has Moliere's depths. It does not. Compared to Gigi, it is worthless. Moonlight is the greatest aesthetic achievement, but perhaps too instructive for some traditional voters. Hidden Figures, if it won, would be the perfect medium way, the golden mean, of a moral, and entertaining, film.

I would say who cares? - but millions still do - perhaps because, along with the Olympics and a few other very rare global events, this one remains a benchmark of times gone by. You can check the Wiki page, or the Guinness Book list, and be transported back, with these nominees lists, to a window on values, social politics, and ideas of most of the past century, that few other cultural events offer. The magnitude, like our screens, may have shrunk to smartphone proportions, but the Oscars still just barely matter, and they hopefully will reward worthy winners tonight.

TOM RAWORTH HAS DIED

HE BROUGHT POST-WAR AMERICAN POETRY TO BRITAIN IN A VITAL WAY

British poet of genius and cultural significance, Tom Raworth has died after a long and protracted illness, aged 78.

Writer, artist, teacher, and publisher Tom Raworth was born in South London and attended the University of Essex. In 1970, he earned an MA in the theory and practice of literary translation. As founder of Matrix Press and co-founder of Goliard Press, Raworth was instrumental in bringing an entire tradition of American poetry to English readers. Promoting the work of a number of poets associated with the Black Mountain School, including Edward Dorn, Robert Creeley, and Charles Olson, Raworth also published the poetry of Elaine Feinstein, Aram Saroyan, Anselm Hollo, and Zoltan Farkas.

 

Raworth’s own work has also been identified with the Black Mountain School. He wrote over 40 collections of poetry, among them The Relation Ship (1969), winner of the Alice Hunt Bartlett Prize, Eternal Sections (1993), Tottering State: Selected Poems 1965–1983 (1984), the 500-plus page Collected Poems (2003), Writing: Poems 1980– 2003 (2005), and Windmills in Flames: Old and New Poems (2010).

 

His most recent collection As When was published by Carcanet in 2015. John Olson has noted that in Raworth’s work "words and lines are highly compressed: one perception immediately and directly slides to a further perception, and these perceptions accrue, multiply, ricochet and expand into a domain of accelerated cognition protean and variable as cumulonimbus, or gouache."

Raworth’s awards included the Cholmondeley Award, the Philip Whalen Memorial Award, and, in Italy, the Antonio Delfini Prize for Lifetime Achievement.

 

He taught as a visiting lecturer at the University of Texas-Austin, the University of California-San Diego, and the University of Cape Town in South Africa; he also served as poet-in-residence at King’s College, Cambridge University.

 

He lived in Brighton, England.

 

photo courtesy of Carcanet.

 

EYEWEAR PUBLISHING LTD EDITORIAL POLICY

EYEWEAR PUBLISHING EDITORIAL POLICY 2017

Eyewear is a privately-funded company. Its chief aim is literary – to discover, nurture, and publish, significant and interesting new and established writers and poets, across all languages, and all genres. We do so by holding our editorial team to the highest standards of professionalism and integrity; and by ensuring our printing is environmentally sustainable. We actively seek diversity of representation, and opinion, in our editorial choices, and align ourselves with no one political party, or movement. We are, in most things, radically moderate. At the moment, our ideal political leaders would be Justin Trudeau in Canada, Angela Merkel in Germany. As a rule, our editors do not believe Brexit is in the best interests of the UK, and we remain deeply concerned about the direction America is taking under its new leadership. We are on record as welcoming refugees to the UK. Our publications try to build bridges between cultures and continents (especially the US and UK, but also the UK and Ireland, and the UK and Europe, as well as between the West and Asia) and to support authors young and old. Despite, or because of, our views, we want our company to be a pluralistic platform, to paraphrase The Kenya Free Press.

As the BBC states online, we agree: “We aim to reflect the world as it is, including all aspects of the human experience and the realities of the natural world. We will be sensitive to, and keep in touch with, generally accepted standards, particularly in relation to the protection of children.” We will neither court offense for its own sake, nor avoid controversial ideas or statements, if and when they serve a reasonably thought-through aesthetic purpose. As wide-ranging readers, we understand that the shock of the new, such as with Dadaism, can challenge societal values, while contributing to greater cultural purposes. We will be fearless, tolerant, non-judgemental editors and publishers. However, we will steer clear of writing that seeks to advocate violence, cruelty, sexual degradation, racist abuse, or hatefully targets persons or beliefs; except insofar as this may be the expression of legitimate artistic works. We will seek to balance the ideas of Judith Butler with those of Claire Fox, in terms of the harm that free speech and writing can cause versus the harm that closing down debate can cause; and will not avoid offence for the mere sake of gentility, unless we feel genuine harm could be done.

While we cannot agree with Orwell that a clear style is always preferable to an ornate one, we remain concerned that limits to linguistic expression, and the creation of “thought police” could inadvertently aid and abet those seeking more totalitarian systems of governance. In short, while remaining relatively progressive, open-minded, and innovative, and with a clear eye on feminist and democratic viewpoints, we will not close down all correspondence with those who may differ from us in their ideas or opinions. We ultimately believe that robust debate and dialogue are better than even principled silence. As Penguin Books states in their editorial statement, we too wish to “champion writing, freedom of expression, and cultural diversity. … As a company, we are continually investing in a myriad of voices that reflect wide ranges of viewpoints and opinions and impact our society in meaningful ways.” Amen to that.

Eyewear believes in outspoken, fair, kind, and conscientious behaviour in a world too often driven by greed, and cruelty. We do not seek power or wealth or celebrity, for their own sakes, but rather simply a foothold in which we can continue to publish beautifully-designed, brilliantly-written, affordable books. We cannot claim to be perfect, but we err on the side of the angels whenever possible, while reminding ourselves that some of our literary heroes – including in no order: Graham Greene, James Baldwin, Charles Baudelaire, Colette, Anais Nin, Albert Camus, LeRoi Jones/Baraka, Virginia Woolf, William S. Burroughs, Ezra Pound, Sylvia Plath, Philip Larkin, and Gertrude Stein, were not always perfect. We must believe that they did their best, as creative humans, bravely pushing the boundaries of thought and feeling, within the societal and spiritual and psychological pressures of their moment.

Ultimately, publishing is about bringing something into the world that has not existed before – a book. While books in history have a problematic past, we must side finally with those who would prefer to keep all books in a library, than ever stoop to burn even the most inflammatory. In the end, judge us by the books we managed to help create, in a difficult financial, and political time, at cost and challenge to ourselves.

THE BEST OF 2016 IN POPULAR MUSIC, TV, FILM AND POETRY

Eyewear, The Blog, usually enjoys compiling end of the year lists. 2016, now arguably the punch line to a Kafka-Beckett comedy routine, doesn't seem the sort of place to lodge too many enthusiasms, but of course some of the finest films, songs, and poems, have been created during wartime, and The Great Depression, and other major moments in recent history.

2016 will be remembered for the Dylan Nobel, Brexit, the slaughter of Aleppo, the deaths of Castro, Bowie, Ali, Carrie Fisher, and the Trump election - probably little else, except the rise of social media/iPhone ubiquity in the techno-cultural sphere.

 

 

BEST MUSIC

 

A cruel trilogy of masterful albums, two almost posthumous, are clearly in the top five - by Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave, and David Bowie. Then there's Lemonade, by Beyoncé. Drake and Rihanna dropped major new LPs, as did Solange. Warpaint, PJ Harvey, Animal Collective, offered fine new LPs. Lady Gaga reinvented herself. Massive Attack and Hope Sandoval created one of the best dream pop songs ever. Iggy Pop, Suede, The Tindersticks, Paul Simon, The Rolling Stones, Wire, ABC, Pixies, The Monkees, Gwen Stefani, Metallica, Radiohead, The Violent Femmes, Kings of Leon and Barry Gibb all returned with good to excellent new work - reminding us never to assume people are quite done yet. Merchandise crafted a very cunning fusion of The Smiths, Simple Minds and Joy Division. A young  British Asian lad, wonderfully, in this year of hateful Trump/Farage, produced the best Top 40 single: 'Pillowtalk' by Zayn.

 

 

BEST TV

 

The BBC started the year with a double-punch of two great mini-series - War and Peace, and The Night Manager. These got attention, but were promptly eclipsed by The Game of Thrones episode, 'Battle of the Bastards' - easily the finest one hour of TV action ever filmed; and then came the nostalgic favourite, Stranger Things - a perfect synthesis of all that made us love the 80s. Best TV movie - Netflix's The Siege at Jadotville. The Fall, Halt and Catch Fire, Humans, The Americans, Homeland, Goliath, The Affair, Billions, Designated Survivor, all good fun... but I think Stranger Things wins. The BBC ended the year with a clever mash-up, a romantic modernist version of Christie's The Witness for the Prosecution, set in 1923, which heavily referenced poems of TS Eliot (including 'Prufrock').

 

 

BEST FILM?

Sentimental favourite is the NZ family film, The Hunt for the Wilderpeople, a very charming and stylish event. Nocturnal Animals and Elle are both profoundly disturbing films about style and violence. Guilty pleasures included the charming Irish musical comedy Sing Street, the inventive punk-thriller Green Room, the reviled but destined to be classic Costner vehicle, Criminal, and the one about the sexy surfer staving off shark attacks. Deepwater Horizon is one of the finest disaster films ever, and a powerful indictment of greed. However, the most moving, significant films so far have been Certain Women, Moonlight, and Hidden Figures. La La Land is ultimately too fanciful and lightweight for the times to warrant a win at the Oscars.

 

 

SOME OF THE BEST POETRY BOOKS

and books about poetry*

 

The Poems of Basil Bunting, edited by Don Share;

The new book of essays by Stephen Burt, the poem is you;

Cain by Luke Kennard;

Moments of Expatriation by Vahni Capildeo;

Holy Toledo by John Clegg;

Through by David Herd;

Trammel by Charlotte Newman;

The Seasons of Cullen Church by Bernard O'Donoghue;

Exile and the Kingdom by Hilary Davies;

Anatomy of Voice by David Musgrave;

Selected essays by Richard Price, Is This A Poem?;

 The new essays by Charles Bernstein, Pitch of Poetry;

Paul Muldoon, Selected Poems, 1968-2014;

 Stephen Heighton's GG winner, The Waking Comes Late;

 and a major new poetry collection by Denise Riley, Say Something Back, which is arguably the greatest work of British poetry this century.

 

 

*Excluding Eyewear titles.