Isn't he the most wonderful?, part two. Glenn Gould

Glenn Gould March 1956

Glenn Gould by Gordon Parks for Life Magazine, March 1956

Glenn Gould by Gordon Parks for Life Magazine, March 1956

Glenn Gould by Gordon Parks for Life Magazine, March 1956

Isn't he the most wonderful?, part one. Bas Jan Ader

Tea Party, 1972

Primary Time, 1974

Primary Time, 1974

Fall II, 1970

Tea Party, 1972

Jean

Jean Shrimpton wears denim in 1964 for a spread from the first ever Sunday Telegraph supplement.
Photographed by Ronald Falloon in 1964.

“

Sebastian met Isabelle outside the Hillhead Underground Station, in Glasgow. Belle harrassed Sebastian, but it was lucky for him that she did. She was very nice and funny, and sang very sweetly. Sebastian was not to know this, however. Sebastian was melancholy.

He had placed an advert in the local supermarket. He was looking for musicians. Belle saw him do it. That’s why she wanted to meet him. She marched straight up to him unannounced and said, ‘Hey you!’ She asked him to teach her to play the guitar. Sebastian doubted he could teach her anything, but he admired her energy, so he said ‘Yes’.

It was strange. Sebastian had just decided to become a one-man band. It is always when you least expect it that something happens. Sebastian had befriended a fox because he didn’t expect to have any new friends for a while. He still loved the fox, although he had a new distraction. Suddenly he was writing many new songs. Sebastian wrote all of his best songs in 1995. In fact, most of his best songs have the words ‘Nineteen Ninety-five’ in them. It bothered him a little. What will happen in 1996?

They worked on the songs in Belle’s house. Belle lived with her parents, and they were rich enough to have a piano. It was in a room by itself at the back of the house, overlooking the garden. This was where Belle taught Sebastian to put on mascara. If Belle’s mum had known this, she would not have been happy. She was paying for the guitar lessons. The lessons gave Sebastian’s life some structure. He went to the barber’s to get a haircut.

Belle and Sebastian are not snogging. Sometimes they hold hands, but that is only a display of public solidarity. Sebastian thinks Belle ‘kicks with the other foot’. Sebastian is wrong, but then Sebastian can never see further than the next tragic ballad. It is lucky that Belle has a popular taste in music. She is the cheese to his dill pickle.

Belle and Sebastian do not care much for material goods. But then neither Belle nor Sebastian has ever had to worry about where the next meal is coming from. Belle’s most recent song is called Rag Day. Sebastian’s is called The Fox In The Snow. They once stayed in their favourite caf’ for three solid days to recruit a band. Have you ever seen The Magnificent Seven? It was like that, only more tedious. They gained a lot of weight, and made a few enemies of waitresses.

Belle is sitting highers in college. She didn’t listen the first time round. Sebastian is older than he looks. He is odder than he looks too. But he has a good heart. And he looks out for Belle, although she doesn’t need it. If he didn’t play music, he would be a bus driver or be unemployed. Probably unemployed. Belle could do anything. Good looks will always open doors for a girl.

”

From the sleeve notes to belle and sebastian's first LP, Tigermilk.

record girls. mark2

jane b.

Annie Nightingale

Francoise Sagan

Audrey Hepburn

Sylvie Vartan

Andy Warhol and Kip Stagg in the Factory

Sunday September 29th

Archers omnibus. Egg, bacon, fried bread, the People. Roast beef, roast potatoes, mashed potatoes, cabbage, carrots, peas, Yorkshire pudding, gravy. Apple crumble, custard, cup of tea, extra strong mints, News of the World. Tinned salmon sandwiches, mandarin oranges and jelly, sultana cake, cup of tea.

 Adrian Mole, the Wilderness Years. page 167, by Sue Townsend.

ive set a goal for myself to make each and everything from this cookbook.

so far i have made marmite and cress sandwiches, cinnamon toast, flapjacks and honey biscuits. yum

now all ai have to do is decide that i really ought to see petula clark and jane birkin considering they are both playing concerts this month. even though i am already seeing the wedding present too. how exiting!

xx

up the junction

a [Sir William] Russell Flint

Cecelia Reclining

I could not speak for amazement at your beauty

As you came, down the Garrick stair,

Grey-green eyes like the turbulent

Atlantic And floppy schoolgirl hair.

I could see you in a Sussex teashop,

Dressed in peasant weave and brogues,

Turning over, as firelight shone on brassware,

Last year’s tea-stained Vogues.

I could see you as a large-eyed student,

Frowning as you tried to learn,

Or, head flung back, the confident girl prefect,

Thrillingly kind and stern.

I could not speak for amazement at your beauty;

Yet when you spoke to me,

You were calm and gentle as a rock pool

Waiting, warm, for the sea.

Wave on wave, I plunged in them to meet you -

In wave on wave I drown;

Calm rock pool, on the shore of my security

Hold me when the tide goes down.

Sir John Betjeman

Shall I tell you about life? Well, it's like the big wheel at Luna Park. You pay five francs and go into a room with tiers of seats all round, and in the centre the floor is made of a great disc of polished wood that revolves quickly. At first you sit down and watch the others. They are all trying to sit in the wheel, and they keep getting flung off, and that makes them laugh, and you laugh too. It's great fun. It is very much like life. You see, the nearer you can get to the hub of the wheel the slower it is moving and the easier it is to stay on. There's generally some one in the centre who stands up and sometimes does a sort of dance. Often he's paid by the management, though, or, at any rate, he's allowed in free. Of course at the very centre there's a point completely at rest, if one could only find it. I'm not sure I am not very near that point myself. Of course the professional men get in the way. Lots of people just enjoy scrambling on and being whisked off and scrambling on again. How they all shriek and giggle! Then there are others who sit as far out as they can and hold on for dear life and enjoy that. But the whole point about the wheel is that you needn't get on it at all, if you don't want to. People get hold of ideas about life, and that makes them think they've got to join in the game, even if they don't enjoy it. It doesn't suit every one.



in Evelyn Waugh's Decline and Fall


I am reading Scoop by a woman called Evelyn Waugh; Adrian Mole