The Petit Tour - Day 1 Streatham Hill to Brittany is a few hundred miles as the crow flies. We didn't have a crow big enough, so chose to drive, crossing the channel in the belly of a train and stopping at a WWII cemetery and in William the Conqueror's backyard on the way. Driving on the right, and therefore the wrong, side of the road didn't hinder our progress as much as the numerous 'peages' (toll stations) en route, which reduced the deluge of British caravaners to a trickle. The American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer is located behind Omaha beach. Looking down from the viewpoint you get the impression that the flat expanse of sand would be an excellent place to throw down a towel and chill out. No need to get up early to beat ... read more

The "Andy Warhol, Other Voices, Other Rooms" exhibition at the Hayward was a laugh. My first impression was that we were the willing subjects of an extended piss-take and that the joke was on us....ha ha very funny mofo! As my fellow art critic Tash and I moved around the gallery it seemed to me that 'satirist' was a suitable endgame for Androwski Warholi whose artistic evolution took him through stages as dancer and jester. I imagined he would have delighted (satirically of course) in an extravaganza composed of his photo, audio and video detritus. The 'stuff' in the exhibit, we learned, was Warhol's attempt to present contemporary culture as art and through it comment on life, death, love and philosophy. As well as this 'art' Warhol objectified the 'Andy Warhol' persona, making it a product ... read more

...that so proudly we hail "democracy has new meaning". Alas, the unreasoning distaste for America (fuck you) can now begin to fade. To which nation can we now direct our only slightly illogical ire. The relief I feel at B.O's imminent move to the Whitehouse only serves to illustrate the deep discomfort having W in office had instilled over time. The sense of mis-direction and negativity, caused by his stewardship of part of all our destinys, has only become clear to me since news of Barack's succession. We've yet to discover what difference it will actually make, but instinctively it seems that the undiplomatic swagger, bluster and references to old wild-west signs saying "wanted dead or alive" will cease. Instead, we look forward to a more equanimous, thoughtful, persuasive entente. Suddenly the threat of catastrophe seems ... read more

After bouncing some of Plato's theories around, Aristotle had some different ideas about things. Plato, it seems lined them up for Aristotle to knock 'em down. According to Aristotle there's no abstract Form of a goat as per Plato. We need to look at all goats to come up with a definition and the concept of goat-ness 'adheres' to all of them. I'm not sure how you get all the goats in one room for the assessment. Also, the generalisation we should apply to conceptual or mathematical (envy or a polygon) versus physical objects (a table) should be different. Thank fuck. This addresses the problem of Plato's all encompassing logic for Universals, where the ideal form of a tree, of courage, of the colour white all reside in the same place and are defined in the ... read more

I thought of this the other day. "We have an embarrassment of material riches yet a paucity of spiritual wealth". I think I made it up myself but I'm quite forgetful so I might have read it. I discovered last week that Nathalie believes in God. I think I laughed. Rude eh! But she didn't mind as it's her god. She tells me that she's prayed at times and her prayers have been answered. Jesu Cristo. If there is someone watching all we do, listening in all the time, then why are there are people bothering to moan about CCTV and ID cards. Or to look at it another way, assuming more than one person is praying at the same time how does god prioritise? Obviously some people's prayers don't get answered which presents more of ... read more