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Stickiness

July 19, 2010
Matthew Sheret, Personal
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I’ve got a new job. More about that later in the week, but for that reason alongside a couple of others I’m slowing down the pace of projects known and unknown.

The recent comics blogs (now redacted), the unzine, a few microfiction projects: all on hold or dormant. The Audioboo-related project won’t see light of day until August now, and it’s likely to be a much more background affair, a compliment to threesixfivestart and The Polaroid Press rather than something totally new. WAW+P continues, although that’s going to transform a little too, and I’m also going to be working with Emma Vieceli and the rest of the team to produce the Comic Village at London’s MCM Expo.

I’ve also been closing tabs. Chrissy Williams had a chapbook – The Jam Trap – published the other week over at Silkworms Ink and, much to my annoyance, I hadn’t read it last time I saw her. I have now, chuckling away in the living room while The Girl dozes next door.

It’s a lovely collection – short, sweet and funny – and I’m going to reblog one poem here – Digital Ghost Towns – because I like the images so much. I can’t stress enough how good Chrissy is live. She’s become one of the most charming performers I’ve seen, and I always feel nudged to do something live after I’ve watched her.

I forwarded you the thing about the British Library’s web archiving project and you said it looked very interesting and I suddenly remembered that time I was trying to google some old poetry sites and kept seeing things like No Updates Since 1997 and how depressing it was and how somehow it was even more depressing seeing these digital ghost towns than it was for a physical magazine to simply stop making any new issues and then how the more I looked the more I realised the internet is full of dead ends and holes and the bits of it that actually work are just bright lights shining in a desert, not like Vegas because Vegas is offputting to lots of people so it’s a bad analogy but I just mean that when the lights are working they’re wonderful and anything abandoned especially something creative makes me sad but it’s part of the process I suppose and we just have to try and avoid these holes and my god how many blogs will there even be online in 50 years’ time and have we got another 2000 years of blogging coming up and shouldn’t we be setting up grander projects that will last brightly forever without getting lost on the internet and just what are we playing at anyway? “Shall we put the kettle on?” I say.

Sarah Jaffe‘s also been busy, and her latest column for Global Comment is one close to my heart. She meanders through London looking for some kind of Bowie-ghost, and it conjures up a little of my New York wanderings last year as I groggily tried to hunt down something like inspiration.

And standing in the liquor store line with my mother back in the States, buying wine that we would drink later and cry over, it came on again, “China Girl,” and by now the only thing those piano plonks reminded me of is the fact that they kept appearing to remind me of things. Suddenly I didn’t want to tell that story anymore.

That’s a wrap. Keep an eye on the WAW+P blog for an update soon.

Towards a UK netroots

May 10, 2010
Global Comment, Matthew Sheret, Politics
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My latest piece for Global Comment follows on on the heels of this weekend’s dead-end negotiations for a coalition government. I’ve spent the whole weekend telling anyone who’ll listen that we’ll see no formal coalition, instead witnessing a Tory/Lib Dem pact on some economic measures aimed to shore up the economy but short of an actual coalition, i.e. Tory Minority Government. But I have no idea. The Global Comment article emphasises the need for Labour and the Lib Dems to make the most of their opposition years while accepting that we’ll never see tide of people looking for Obama-level change. We might see US style campaigning appearing in other ways, but only if it’s done ‘smart’.

EDIT: to add that, given this evening’s events, not only do I have no idea, but that ANYTHING could happen. (17:15)
EDIT: And it looks like, at the very least, prospective candidates for the Labour leadership might be on the right track. (17:31)

He was writing with a tattoo needle

February 9, 2010
Comics, Global Comment, Matthew Sheret, News, Personal
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Most of the last week has seen me holed up in WAW+P towers, picking away at some of the threads hanging on next weekend’s takeover of Notting Hill Arts Club. If I were a Weeknotes kind of person I’m sure I’d go into detail about the lessons we’ve learned, but actually the micro-view of that process doesn’t quite feel right, either for myself or WAW+P. What I’m trapped in at the moment is something closer to The Long Angst wherein all sense of perspective and judgement is lost amid a clutching emptiness somewhere just underneath my ribcage. My back is so tight you could use it as a string instrument. If you’re not me though it’s going to be a great day.

In the meantime, my review of Los Campesinos! new album Romance Is Boring went live up at Global Comment. I felt a strange frustration listening to the record, wondering why the lyrical ennui was so present in the face of the escapism and excitement both the music and their lives as musicians can instill.

“I know people whose lives are lived in a state of momentum – both internationally and within London – that I need to think twice about phoning in case I get an international dial tone or just slow them down. They are far from rock stars. This when every day I find myself surrounded by a ‘no future’ rhetoric of financial stagnation that chokes the half formed dreams of school-age Brits. At the same I’ve spent all day listening to an album by people who have barely graduated that’s all about interstates and momentum rather than England’s pylons and crumbling piers, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Except that, also, everything is wrong with that, because if you acknowledge the escapism it takes to get there then you can change lives.”

More after the link (and two compliments that’ll charm me for weeks).

Of course there’s a lesson for me too in that excerpt too; organising WAW+P can be frustrating and difficult, but I’m really proud I’m able to do that kind of thing, and honored to be doing it with the people I am.

December round-up

December 17, 2009
Matthew Sheret, Music, News, Newspaper Club, PaperFuture, Personal
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Lots of things published in the last couple of weeks. Christmas seems to act as a deadline vortex – who’d have guessed? Christmas message, and one final project for the year, to be announced next week.

* First up my 100 Days pictures got a mention on the official site (edit: and it looks like Josie Long quite liked it too)

Armed with a Sharpie and a stack of address labels, Matt’s left warnings for mice on the skirting, social observation on parking meters and gone sticky-backed-cheerleading for Paul McCartney at ATP. Such an interventive [sic] fellow.

The notes can all be found here on flickr.

* My two Pitch Up & Publish eBooks (Unguided and Expeditions In Paper Science) were published over at the Diffusion website, so you can now download them at home. Big thanks to Giles and the Proboscis team for selecting my work.

* The final print edition of Electric Sheep Magazine is on the shelves, and it contains my review of Stingray Sam, one of my favourite films of the year. The stockists are listed online, and it’s well worth picking up, and not just because I’m in it.

(I’m very sad to see it go. The magazine was passed around a lot in my final year studying film, and contributions have been sharp across the board. A loss on a par with Plan B – must have been the year for it)

* My review of All Tomorrow’s Parties was published by Global Comment, a site that remains one of my favourites. Editor Natalia Antonova has been far too kind about my writing recently (and I should really point out that if you aren’t reading her blog then you might as well switch your RSS feed off), so a big thanks to her for that. I’m very proud of this piece, so please do check it out.

* Finally the Top Ten of Last.fm’s Best of 2009 have been published, and it’s a strong, striking line-up. What’s even better is that Last have produced two newspapers – one for London, one for New York – to accompany the project. They are an absolute joy, an entertaining archive of what’s been an incredible year both for Last.fm and pop music in general. If you’re lucky enough to get hold of a copy then make sure you treasure it. I’m really very proud to have been involved in this, and I won’t be able to thank Team Last (special shout to Hannah) and Jens Nikolaus enough for creating an excellent interface and online experience that manages to make my copy look good too.


Frankie Say Pop

November 11, 2009
Matthew Sheret, Music, News, PaperFuture
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My first words on pop are live now on Global Comment, a review of Frankie Say Greatest, their THIRD greatest hits compilation…

It is a disco at the dawn of the eighties. Pop, bombast and synths are swamping stereos and “Blue Monday” has already happened. GRID has been reclassified as AIDS – it’s ravages being made clear worldwide – while war, holding actions and terrorism are part of the worldwide language of engagement. Holly Johnson is wondering if we’re living in a land where sex and horror are the new gods? Posters on ever street corner tell you that “Frankie Say Relax.” People ask “How?”

A few hundred more words here. I’ve got a massive respect for Global Comment, and when editor Natalia Antonova got in touch I was more than happy to join the team. Sarah Jaffe‘s work has been a pleasure to keep up with over there and, oh, I’ll just insist you go over and find your own favourites…

As well as that Solipsistic Pop is now for sale. Head over to their shop and spend a few pounds on what is, frankly, the start of something very important.

Coming soon: Paper Science!

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