Alex de Campi: Gojira!

Desperate August, with its curious mix of restlessness and lassitude. Everything moves like treacle. The music video inches along; London List inches along; I storm and fret, awaiting feedback on the many things I have thrown out there into the void. But then 4pm rolls around and the sunshine gets the better of me. Fifty feet out the door and I am on Primrose Hill, with a book of love stories under my arm, and the dog trotting behind. Long afternoons of lying on the grass unavoidably ensue.

This hopefully will be my last summary of London events before the List launches. The NFT is having a Michael Powell season; if nothing else you should see A Matter of Life and Death: poetry, love, bombers, quintessential Englishness and, most importantly, David Niven. On the 30th, the ICA is screening a documentary on songwriter Daniel Johnston, and - if his mental health issues allow - Johnston will be there for a Q&A. There were rumours of a gig as well, but I think it's been cancelled. If you don't have The Late Great Daniel Johnston (Discovered Covered) album, get it. Just trust me. If you hate it, you can write me angry emails. I don't care.

At Frightfest, see A Bittersweet Life (26th) and Night Watch (28th). Bittersweet Life is going to hit bigger than the first John Woo film. There's an open-air double feature of Shaun of the Dead and Land of the Dead on the 20th at Somerset House (they're also screening Life & Death on the 17th). No booze served, so plan ahead and tuck a flask about your person. There are certain things in life you should never do sober, such as get married, or watch zombie films.

Beg, borrow or steal to go see Mary Stuart at the Donmar; it's supreme theatre. Schiller is the great chronicler of power and Catholicism, and the way he places every character in a web of compromise is intimidatingly masterful.

Two must-have books come out this month. First is The Wild Highway, the latest adventure chronicle from Mark Manning (Z of Zodiac Mindwarp) and Bill Drummond (KLF). You may remember these two gentlemen decided that they could bring about world peace by taking an icon of Elvis to the North Pole. The events arising from this were recounted in their previous book, Bad Wisdom. For their next trick, they retraced the journey of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness:

"As will be revealed to you in the following pages, Z and I realised that we had sold our souls to the devil and that if we wanted to retrieve them, then we should head for darkest Africa, confront Satan and demand our souls back and, if that didn't work, nick them back off him when he wasn't looking. As for why Gimpo is here, I've no idea. He's obviously never been stupid enough to have lent his soul to anyone, much less sell it to the devil."

Bill Drummond is my favourite person I've never met who isn't Peter O'Toole. Like O'Toole, Drummond seems to squeeze more out of one year than most people do out of their entire lives. Remember when he and Jimmy Cauty burned a million quid? You should.

Drummond and Z will be signing and reading from the new book at 6.30pm on the 25th, at the Borders on Charing Cross Road. This presents a difficulty: is it advisable to meet one's heroes? I am quite sure my fiction of them is superior to the reality. Still, it would be foolish to turn up the chance.

I was lucky enough to be sent an advance copy of Swimini Purpose, Brendan McCarthy's codex of 30 years as an illustrator and comic artist. It knocked me clean sideways. You know, this thing I do, writing films and comics - I try to balance my own voice and brand of madness with the requisites of a commercially acceptable story, and then something like Swimini Purpose comes along and reminds me that there is no need whatsoever for balance and compromise. Not in comics, which in any case has always been a cult stepsister to the "proper" arts.

There is more inspiration and joy and wonder in this one volume than in anything else I've seen in the past five years. It is at turns Dadaist, psychedelic, scatological, minimalist, satiric, but always beautiful, always playful. It helps that McCarthy is one of the most effortlessly talented illustrators and graphic designers of his generation (imagine a cross between John Tenniel and Basquiat), and the book is worth buying just as a piece of design pornography alone.

Somewhere, Dan Goldman is smiling. "You're gushing, Alex. Get back to work." Ah, so I am. So I will.

( 10:19 AM )

2 Comments:

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By frangy93tslando, at 12:27 AM

As a note I found in my mailbox earlier today indicates, the copy of "The Wild Highway" ordered aged ago has finally arrived and will be picked up first thing tomorrow morning. For the time being I settled for googling the book to see if any reviews are out and came across your blog.
Just wanted to say that if I had the chance I'd definitely go to the Borders' reading, getting ready for the disappointment by reading my favourite pieces from Drummond's 45 - "Now that's what I call disillusionment" parts 1 and 2.

By Shahar, at 4:04 PM