Other
Publictions
new
- aug04
Articles
from Prediction Magazine
- Portrait
Of Whitstable
- I first came here in 1981 or 1982. I was visiting
a friend in Canterbury. We caught a bus to Herne Bay,
about six miles further along the coast, and then walked
to Whitstable along the sea front. It was early Summer.
We had cherries and soft cheese with us for lunch. And,
when we arrived in the town, we sat down on the sea
wall in a place backed by off-balance wooden sail lofts,
looking out across the ruffled estuary, and ate our
lunch. I knew then that I would like to live here.
more>>
- Wally
- It's 21 years since the Wally Tribe first occupied
Stonehenge and declared it a free festival site for
the duration of the Summer Solstice. They were known
as the Wally Tribe because everyone called themselves
Wally.
-
Net Virgin -
It was back then, a long way back,
in that little house we shared and loved, and the cat
had just had kittens.
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Other Publications: The Independant - Back to Brummagem
It's
like I said to the old man in the park: it's the
Birmingham disease, constantly knocking itself
down to start again. Which leaves the native Brummie's
psyche in an equally uncertain state. Always knocking
down bits of personality to make way for something
new. Which is what I'm doing here, really. Make
way for the bulldozers, there's a by-pass coming
through. A brain by-pass.
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Biker
Dads - And
then he's wrapping the white silk scarf around
his neck and pulling on his helmet, pressing in
all the studs on his heavy-weight jacket up to
his neck, slipping the goggles over his eyes.
Anonymous. From a kindly old chap to a deadly-looking
biker with the aid of a few studs.
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A
Quick Prophet - Some
of his best friends are astrologers and witches,
but even counter-culture expert CJ Stone is overwhelmed
by the apocalytic gibberish inspired by the total
eclipse due on August 11.
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Harvest
- It's Autumn. "Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,"
as John Keats so evocatively put it. It is also the
apple-picking season.
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Smuggle
- I met Louie at a pre-arranged spot outside the
pub. He was carrying a black briefcase, dressed for
the part in a flared pin-striped suit, with a stripy
shirt underneath. He looked like some psychotic dentist
out on emergency call. We were going tobacco smuggling.
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- Oh
I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside.
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“There
was one thing I loved more than anything else, and that
was to fall asleep to the sound of the rain as it rattled
against the bedroom window. It gave me such a feeling,
nestled there beneath my covers, warm, self-contained,
listening to the gentle pitter-patter of the rain, as
if the huge world out there was communicating with me,
little tittle-tattle tell-tale secrets, in a code only
I could understand. I felt privileged by it. It was
a feeling I can only describe now as love.”
more
>>
Security Guards
Is
this crazy, or what?
Picture
the scene. It's an area of remote woodland, maybe
the size of two football pitches stretched out in
a line. And around it, cordoning it off, standing
virtually elbow to elbow, there's several hundred
men and women - mainly men - dressed alike in blue
overalls, with fluorescent yellow jackets and white
safety helmets, each with a rucksack lying close to
them on the ground.
more
>>
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The
Independant
Biker
Dads
More
older men too, men in their forties or fifties, greying,
balding, going back to biking after all these years,
or taking to bikes for the first time, looking for
something "out-there" they no longer find in their
ordinary lives. These are the "born-again" bikers.
A phenomenon.
more>>
The
following were all written for X-streme Magazine.
1.
Sexism and Poverty.
There were two women, and the host. One of the guests
had just had a boy child, while the other, already
pregnant, was wishing for a girl. The second woman
said - something like - "girls are more sensitive
and devoted than boys".
2.
Boybands.
Before you start to think that I've gone all funny
in the head (a lot of men my age do) coming over with
the sudden urge to wear pink, frilly, fluffy things
after a life time in black leather: don't worry. I'm
researching a story, that's all.
3.
The War On Drugs
After the St.Paul's riots in Bristol in the 1980s
- which was sparked by a raid on the Black and White
cafe, a well-known place for scoring ganja at the
time - heroin suddenly started appearing on the streets
of the district.
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Three
stories from 1998, when CJ was working as
a car-park attendant in a local supermarket. The first
appeared in the London Review of Books, the
second in Free State (an anarcho-hippie magazine
out of Glastonbury), the third in the Welsh Edition
of the Big Issue....
1.
NOTES FROM THE CAR-PARK.
This is a fine power to have, the power to fine.
more
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2. A SLIP IN TIME
As for the Mini: well it's nothing like a Steamroller.
It is much, much prettier than a Steamroller.
more
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3. FRONT AND BACK..
"Yeah. He probably had a spliff before he came
out."
"He was probably jacking up in the toilets."
"He'd just had a line of something and needed
a cup of tea to wash it down."
more
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“The trouble with working in a car-park (as in
so many areas of human endeavour) is that you are always
wishing your life away. You're only ever half-there.”
more
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