Mark E. Smith

Mark E. Smith looks like a raisin
and likes to causes mayhem
He should moisturise
and surprise
with a detox diet
RIOT

A few of our favorite photos from Cheryl Dunn’s recent show in London.

Read on…

I hadn’t known too much about Micachu until she made an impromptu appearance during the Ninja Tunes Boiler Room takevoer. That (here) blew my mind. So, needless to say, I was very excited when I heard she was playing Boiler Room again, only this time it was a whole night curated by her, featuring Clout, Kwes, Raisa K and Micachu herself, playing live with the Shapes!

The whole night was great… I left fancying Raisa K and in love with Micachu.

Rhys 

Adam Gong is a friend, a scholar, a gentleman, a Brit in New York, an artist and a photographer. This is his excellent new zine, 6 Rolls. GO.

RATSO

OK, so if you don’t really know much about Bobby Fisher, and you’re umming ‘n’ aarring about whether you want to watch a documentary about a chess player… then consider these facts:

Bobby Fisher grew up in Brooklyn, started playing chess at 6, started taking it seriously at the age of 7 and became the world’s youngest grandmaster at 15 and a half. He was completely devoted to chess, it was his whole life, and he never really lived outside of it. He was more or less a complete recluse and wasn’t socially active at all… it was all about the chess for this cap. Kind of how you’d imagine a nerdy chess kid being, I guess.

Then came his world title match against the russian Boris Spassky. And, as it was during the Cold War, there was a lot of press attention. It was seen by many as America’s free world against a communist Russia.

Bobby Fisher won the match but, immediately afterwards, he quit chess and went into hiding. He was thought to be living on the west coast of America, simply roaming the streets and nobody saw him for a number of years. During this time, he had become delusional, anti-somatic (even though he was Jewish) and anti-American.

Then, out of nowhere, he got a letter from a young girl begging him to play again.

Being the nutter he was, he thought this was a calling, and went off to Yugoslavia for an unofficial rematch against the Boris Spassky guy who he’d beaten for the world title all those many years before, ignoring America’s warnings that he’d be breakign U.S. law if he was to play there during the war.

Bobby subsequently won that match, winning a couple of million dollars too, but then the U.S. told him that if he returned to America, they’d take his winnings and imprison him for up to ten years. Guess what? He didnt go back. Instead, Bobby trotted about numerous countries, and then decided it would be a good idea to call up a Japanese radio station just after the 9-11 bombings and talk shit on America. Not a wise move.

President Bush flipped the fuck out, and instantly demanded that Bobby be deported back to the US. Then, completely out of the blue, Iceland, of all countries, steps in and said they’ll take him and give him a passport. So, off to Iceland Bobby went.

BIT MORE INTERESTING NOW, isn’t it?

The documentary is below, and so are these photo’s taken by Life photographer Harry Benson, during three different occasions.

Read on…

Tuesday can be a cruel time.
Time to think twice about your excessive drinking and question if making art and music will ever make you money – or if you are just going to be a failed miserable bum that can’t afford to take girls ice-skating or for dinner at Nando’s or whatever it is that girls like.

But then you listen to some Wesley Willis and watch this documentary with him walking around with ten grand in his pocket for singing songs and drawing things and you think everything might just be absolutely fine, and I should make some more arts, and let’s start a band, and it’s only 3 days till Thursday when we can start drinking again. Then, all of a sudden, you’re back on top.

I first came across Wesley Willis through the medium of skateboarding:
THE CHICKEN COW on Dan Drehobls part in Thrashers video Hall of Meat.

I had absolutely no idea that he did drawings that I would like:
Short documentary on WESLEY as a street artist.

This is my favourite song from his days in ‘The Wesley Willis Fiasco’, it is about The Frogs who are a band I also enjoy:

This Documentary on Wesley Willis will pick you up from the bottom of your creative despair and give you the joy to carry on living the rock-and-roll dream:

Just like the big man says, ‘keep busy like a German cockroach’ and ‘stay off that mischief hell-ride’.

TBONER

Whilst this season has been by far the most bizarre and exciting Premier League season I have ever seen, something you can attribute to the pace and athleticism of the modern game, there’s been a very cheaty, horrid element to this season too. Possibly a bi-product of this modern game and the difficulty the speed causes referees seeing everything. Anyway, that cheaty, horrid element is grown men throwing themselves to the floor like they have been shot with a high calibre assault rifle from point blank range. When, in reality, they’ve just been tapped lightly (if at all) by a man with gelled hair. The first person to drop like a fly was Joey Barton in the Newcastle v Arsenal game on the opening day of the season. Whilst still a Newcastle player, before his move to OPR, he dropped to ground after having his body lightly caressed by Gervihno.

Now look at him! Last day of the season, and he’s kicking off because someone else dropped to the ground easily. And, if that’s not enough, then decided to publicly berate two English football legends for their deserved criticism. We all loved it when King Eric kicked that chap, but King Eric was a King after all. Barton is a nugget. And King Eric simply gave a poetic seagull analogy in a press conference. He didn’t squabble with a pair of legends on the internet. It’s madness.

Paul Le Foot