I’ve just rationalised (in most cases reducing) the prices of my books and ebooks so they’re consistent across like formats. Since I’m based in Britain and price things in pounds the prices may still translate into odd amounts in foreign currency, but they will at least now translate oddly and consistently.
Career Suicide is my memoir of working as an artist and film maker for most of my adult life, while experiencing almost every misfortune except popularity. I’ve been told it’s funny, a good read and it contains valuable insights on the art world’s foibles and failings. And slightly less valuable insights into my own. My adventures in gonzo art criticism continue at my other blog, of the same name.
Uncanny Valley collects my published short stories from various anthologies and magazines circa 1996-2006: among other things, a magic talking dog castrates the Estuary Gaffer Tape Rapist with his teeth, a robot maid trades housework for sabotage, and the last living intellectual escapes from his cage at the zoo and goes on a rampage of contemplation…
Normal nonsense will be resumed shortly, and if you’re on the front page you can scroll down to see the newest posts as normal. In common with most bloggers I do this in my free time with no great expectations because I enjoy it and because I relish the knowledge that thousands of people share my interest in the things that I post, and probably also because I’m a bit of an attention whore. As many of you probably do, I use an ad blocker and I tend to switch right off when people try to sell me stuff or talk to me about my responsibilities, so I understand that some of you might not want to hear this little lecture from me.
Also in common with most bloggers I have to make a living and I rarely make any money from blogging, although in my case one of my day jobs is also writing so sometimes I do get paid tiny amounts for blogging elsewhere. But the fact remains that there’s no such thing as free; everything you get on the internet cost somebody something, at some time. I know very well from the last hellish eighteen months I’ve just battled through that times are hard, but hard times for most of us make it more important– not less– that we should all try to support people whose work we like, whether it’s paying for a download or CD of a band we like, donating to the programmer of the app we use all the time, helping out with somebody’s Kickstarter project, or– yes– by purchasing a book by a writer whose work we appreciate.
Know what I mean?
Career Suicide is my memoir of working as an artist and film maker for most of my adult life, while experiencing almost every misfortune except popularity. I’ve been told it’s funny, a good read and it contains valuable insights on the art world’s foibles and failings. And slightly less valuable insights into my own. My adventures in gonzo art criticism continue at my other blog, of the same name.
Uncanny Valley collects my published short stories from various anthologies and magazines circa 1996-2006: among other things, a magic talking dog castrates the Estuary Gaffer Tape Rapist with his teeth, a robot maid trades housework for sabotage, and the last living intellectual escapes from his cage at the zoo and goes on a rampage of contemplation…
They’re not expensive, they’re professionally designed and copy edited so they look a hundred times better than your average self published bunch of shit, and they’re available in various print and electronic formats. Even the Apple Store, although they had a bit of a wobble at first because they interpreted mention of a rapist getting his nuts bitten off as “erotica.” Really, Apple? Really? This blog isn’t stopping, I’m not on strike, the books sell OK already and I’ll still love you even if you don’t buy something after I’ve blatantly whored myself out like this.
But please do buy something, if you can afford it, and do the same for other people whose work you regularly enjoy and follow. Me love you long time if you do.
It’s now been several years since I started this blog, and like all bloggers, journalists and media outlets I seize upon the end of the year as a great excuse to do a minimal amount of work by recycling a bunch of old crap. I already marked the 100th post at my art blog with a look back at the most popular posts, in the sense of them being the most read and/or linked to. Here I thought I’d just pick my favourites, which includes some that also happen to be very popular and some that I’m just fond of for one reason or another.
It would be somewhat futile doing a top ten recap here based on page views anyway, because by far the most visited page on this blog is (and has been ever since I posted it) the page dedicated to James Joyce’s letters about his fat pink mickey and what he’d like to do with it. I’m proud to be one of the whole damn internet’s primary providers of the full, uncensored texts that evidently give so much… er, let’s say pleasure for lack of a better word… to so many people. But regardless of whether you’re visiting to have a quick one off the wrist while thinking about the eyepatch-wearing author of Ulysses, or if you’re here because you’re interested in disco, squid, Nazis, semantics, gay flying squirrels, Victorian memes or seances, this is where I salute every one of you sick, weird little swines and say thanks a lot for visiting and reading. Check out my books (on the right sidebar) if you like what you read here. Continue Reading
Last week a friend of mine said “Hold on, you can’t just say you made a video for an Icelandic black metal band and then carry on with the conversation as if that’s normal.”
Yes I can.
Birgir from the band asked me, because he particularly liked the video mixes I did for my live show Magickal Realism. And he was open to the idea of giant rabbits and cardboard skeletons being totally metal. Kontinuum’s allbum is getting good reviews and I’ve already been described (approvingly) as bonkers by a German metal website, so I’d say that’s a pretty good result all round.
At last, recognition that I am indeed famous. From FamilyTree.com, which I’m sure any reasonable person would agree is the first place they’d check for confirmation of who is and is not famous.
“A French and English surname, Gentry comes from the Old French terms ‘gentil’ and ‘genterie’ which means someone who is of noble birth or high born. The spelling variations for Gentry include Jendry, Gentiry, Gentric, Gentil, Jentry and Guntrey. In England those with the Gentry surname are scattered mostly in the central and eastern portions of the country. The highest percentage are in Essex and the city of London. In Scotland the greatest concentration of gentry families is in Perthshire county. [etc, stuff about USA Gentrys omitted] Famous: Dennis Gentry (professional baseball player), Robert Gentry (actor), Teddy Gentry (musician), Minnie Gentry (actress), Bobbie Gentry (singer and songwriter), Curt Gentry (writer), Gary Gentry (professional baseball player) and Alistair Gentry (science fiction writer).”
I’m the only British one, too. Hurrah! And… er… the only one with a trisyllabic first name. In combination with my surname, this is a dactyl (a stressed syllable, then two unstressed) followed by a trochee (a stressed syllable, then an unstressed syllable). Edward Alexander Crowley changed his name to become the occultist and “most evil man in the world” Aleister Crowley in the belief that this formula had some kind of magical power and would lead to its bearer becoming famous. I’ve seen it noted that (to give two examples) the names Jeremy Paxman and Eleanor Rigby follow this meter, but I’ve never seen any documentation regarding from where precisely Crowley picked up the notion to begin with. From doing far too many drugs, probably, like most of his mad ideas. Silly sod.
Bobbie Gentry is an imposter Gentry, though, a pseudo-Gentry. It was a stage name inspired by her mother in combination with the 1952 Film Noir Ruby Gentry, a movie in which it’s not even that character’s original name, but one she acquires from her husband shortly before she accidentally kills him, but before she shoots her brother and becomes the captain of a fishing boat. You know, as you do.
If you like this blog and have been intrigued, titillated, surprised or disgusted by anything you've seen here then please consider sending a few £/€/$/¥ etc. my way by getting one of my books. They're written by the same person who writes this blog, so you will like them too. They're available in print, or as ebooks for every existing type of reader and tablet. You can also tip my films on Vimeo, if you want. Thanks.
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