Fantastic Metropolis

The White Stripes continue to put out some good music. Ian Dury fans will want to read Ian Dury & The Blockheads: Song by Song, by Jim Drury, which comes with its own CD. Ian Abrahams gave us his excellent Hawkwind book this year, too.

I was glad that Thunder’s Mouth brought out the US edition of New Worlds: An Anthology. Stories drew from the golden age of the so-called ‘New Wave’ in the UK. Here we see the difference between the UK New Worlds and the US. US went for improved writing. UK was looking for new ways of doing narrative. I was also flattered to see The Deep Fix on record again with Roller Coaster Holiday, actually alternative takes, in the main, to those on The New World’s Fair. I prefer Roller Coaster Holiday, I think. Otherwise I tended to listen mostly to old favourites from Messian to Dylan. Which reminds me to recommend as the outstanding autobiography by a musician, Bob Dylan’s Chronicles, Vol. 1. Continues to obscure his own life, but writes illuminatingly on the art of song writing and is very generous about those who influenced and helped him in his career. I’m sure there’s a lot of other stuff I’ve enjoyed but that’s what springs immediately to mind.

Oh, I even liked the third Harry Potter movie, which I can’t say about the first two, and Bombay Dreams on the London stage left me pretty cold. A pity since I enjoy good Bollywood movies (Devdas is tremendous). I enjoyed Calendar Girls, too, partly because it was set in my old neck of the woods around Settle, W. Yorks. But some great performances by a strong cast of outstanding UK actresses. And John Alderton, who remains one of my favourite actors. Sadly Judy Dench was utterly wasted in the derivative and disappointing Chronicles of Riddick, Vin Diesel’s second science fantasy vehicle.

The White Wolf’s Son, Michael Moorcock’s final Eternal Champion book, will be out in June 2005.