Leave him be. He's got a book to sell

An inside source reliably informs me that I shot in like a bullet at #377.

Denise Mina and Foot Fetishism

It's amazing what a google alert can sometimes throw your way. There's me - honest - on the look out for the New Yorker's belated review of the Garnethill Trilogy when what I get instead is a series of flickr pics from a photographer in Texas who recently photographed Denise Mina at a book signing.

Now, with regards to the title of the post, I'm not casting any aspersions on the motives of the photographer: I'm shamelessly going for the brilliant novelist/unhealthy obsession google market.

I can't be the only person who has Denise Mina on google alert, can I?

Simon's Placed

Harry's Place moves addresses, and 'Harry' moves centre stage. (I guess this means that I can now delete this link from my bookmarks.)

Will's right: Harry is a bit of a disappointment as a sports writer. None of the wit and verve that he displayed when he was winding up the CPGB/Weekly Worker crowd over at UK Left Network (or the rest of us in his incarnation as 'Dave Dudley') is evident in his sports journalism, and I don't think Dave Zirin's gig as the pre-eminent radical sports journalist is under threat any time soon.

Will's post over at Drunk Sots provides a couple of links to old discussion boards where Harry discusses his Tankie past - and where he is discussed in turn - and I couldn't help but notice this passage from 'Harry' Simon that is dated 9/14/00:

"If for the sake of brevity I must find some neat expression to sum up the SL [Straight Left] strategy it would be “political sleepers”. I presume that most comrades here are familiar with the use of the term “sleeper” in relation to intelligence work (I am sure Guy and Kim are!) and the Artists (a number of whom were not without some knowledge/experience of intelligence work –allegedly) applied the same strategy to politics.

It is, as Guy points out, superficially similar to the Trotskyist “entryist” strategy but there are crucial differences. For a start the project was carried out with subtlety. Did you ever see an Artist standing outside meetings with their paper? Did you ever see posters? There was a “fighting fund” of sorts but that too was discreet. The only time the group resembled an orthodox organised political unit was at the CPGB congress. Meetings were held prior to congress and efforts were made to gather the maximum number of votes for SL-backed candidates.

The sleeper strategy involved select individuals gaining key positions within certain bodies. But, and this another difference with classic entryism, the aim was not necessarily to take over but to take up a “holding position” and slowly build influence until the time came to activate those key people and those selected organisations. The activation might be done in a period of social unrest, a rise in militancy in the working class, or a threat to the peace during the cold war. In the meantime the short-term aim was to develop progressive policies and outlooks, that would assist the struggle for peace, oppose destructive forces and strengthen the broad left, while attempting some raising of consciousness.

This strategy necessitated a different approach to recruitment. If people were to be trusted with holding a sleeper position for a lengthy period of time, building relationships, both personal and political, then they must be reliable, intelligent and effective individuals. The Artists did not recruit openly, nor did they accept all those who wished to become part of their circle. They took the concept of a revolutionary vanguard seriously and were building an elite group of cadres. The Artists were rarely among the rank and file in any organisation they were involved in – they were invariably holding top positions, although not in the CPGB."

The 'Artists' that Harry Simon is referring to is Straight Left members. Love the following nugget from piece quoted above:

"This strategy necessitated a different approach to recruitment. If people were to be trusted with holding a sleeper position for a lengthy period of time, building relationships, both personal and political, then they must be reliable, intelligent and effective individuals. The Artists did not recruit openly, nor did they accept all those who wished to become part of their circle. They took the concept of a revolutionary vanguard seriously and were building an elite group of cadres . . . [My emphasis.]

And some people wonder why I have an issue with the 'generals without armies' crowd. Pompous and elitist blowhards one and all.

But it does conjure up the fascinating thought that 'Harry' might still sleeping. I wonder if David T, Gene and the other HP regulars ever ask themselves that. Like they give it shit.

A Fleeting Five Seconds of Blogging Fame

Nope, I don't understand why the blog turned up (briefly) on the front page of the New York Times technology section either. (Click on the pic, and then look under 'Technology Headlines From Around the Web'.)

" . . . clichés are there for a reason"

I hope the moderator is on time and a half for moderating the cruel but very, very funny comments to this blog post from Guardian Travel.

Hat tip to Ian Bone. The bloke can sniff out nepotism at 400 paces.

Crooks and Liars? #2

A spike in the sun. Back to the shadows tomorrow.

Knocking that screen grab off the top of the page

Mimicing A Music Blog (1)

I've been here before when singing the praises of Win, so, thankfully, I don't have to do my usual schtick, but I do think there's a nice bit of a symmetry with this one.

Many many years ago, when I first discovered blogs, the first blog that I would check out with any sort of regularity was the Scary Duck blog. Then as now, the Scary Duck bloke has a nice line in self-deprecation when detailing the minutiae of his life, and though I've not really checked him out regularly for a couple of years I do remember spending a couple of hours one night pissing myself laughing at some of his early posts about his schooldays - especially the story about the classroom porn collection. (Google search it. I'm sure it will come up.)

It was a nice surprise, therefore, when recently reading up on Davey Henderson sophomore band, to discover that the Scary Duck bloke is also part of that small but loyal club who thinks that Win's debut album, Uh! Tears Baby (A Trash Icon), is a neglected pop classic.

SDB is practically gushing in his post, and he rightly points out that their lack of chart success was not the fault of the music press, They loved them at the time, almost trying to will the band into the charts with the plaudits, centre spreads and singles of week that were thrown at them. I'm sure that the pic accompanying this post is from the old Record Mirror, which was my music paper of choice at the time, and I remember thinking that I wanted that bloke's red paisley shirt. How some things never change.

Everybody and their aunt always posts 'Super Popoid Groove' or 'You've Got The Power' from the album on their music blogs, so I think I'll break from the norm by posting 'Shampoo Tears' as a sample track.

'Shampoo Tears' mp3

Not the strongest track on the album by any means, but think of it as a third single from an album. The one that has the expensive video, but which only gets to number 23 in the charts because everybody has the album by this point.

Spot The Blogger

You can't even click on a random page on the internet these days without tripping over a political blogger. That bloke will end up in the House of Commons one day. And, if he must, hopefully before this bloke

In other UK blogging news, Dave O has been listed by the Daily Telegraph as the 93rd most influential lefty in Britain! That's 28 places lower than Claire Fox of the dodgy organisation formerly known as the Revolutionary Communist Party Institute of Ideas, but he does rank higher than Ken Loach, Tariq Ali, Germaine Greer and John Pilger, apparently.

You can gauge the semi-seriousness and the lack of political nous of the Young Tory Boy list compiler by his heavyweight labour movement analysis that states John McDonnell that (No.86), " . . . will be a big influence if Labour were to lose the next election", and by the fact that he has appeared to include the Green Party's Sian Berry and Caroline Lucas, primarily on the basis that he has a crush on them both.

Don't forget to also check out the comments generated by the list from your average Daily Telegraph reader. So that's where Guido gets his readership from.