Updated for the Summer


Large copper sulphate crystal from Roger Hiorns Seizure installation

Large copper sulphate crystal from Roger Hiorns Seizure installation

The Kids Who Do Art were obviously very, very clever. Having had the contents of last year’s Turner Prize substantially dissed, they decided to ensure that this year’s nominations at least produced some interesting, albeit highly exclusive, art, rather than tedious monologues of string and manikins.

This time instead of nominating some oververbal, cliche ridden artphags, the Turner Prize people have nominated personal favourite Roger Hiorns (along with three other lucky losers). Hiorns, who poured anything between 60,000 and 90,000 gallons/litres/bathtubs of copper sulphate into a council flat to ‘see what happened‘, is everything the Turner people need after the tedium and torpor of last year. Most essentially he gets noticed outside the patronisingly oblique little artworld that the Turner people inhabit. Seizure, the copper sulphate council house, is fantastically compelling and emphasises that the most extraordinary, most relevant art today is taking place outside the confines of the galleries and museums the Turner people live in. The demand for spectaculars, whether it be Seizure or the recent grafitti under Waterloo station, far outweighs that for most retrospective showpeice exhibitions. Admittedly, at least one of the other nominees, Richard Wright, is interesting, but for my money it’s Hiorns’ to lose. I particularly look forward to seeing the Little Artists’ lego version.

Meanwhile, I’ve been adding to my overbearing web presence. In particular I’ve been forced (forced you understand) to upgrade my Flickr account. You can see all my pics from the copper sulphate house, along with a whole load of other stuff, most of which has been taken by and manipulated within my iPhone. I can’t wait for Apple to put together a halfway decent camera lens for it in the next release.

I was super happy to find out that after what seemed like three or four lifetimes worth of waiting, Powers volume 12 is out. I had worried that, as with many comics, I might have got bored during the interval and it would be a hideous disappointment, but I needn’t have wasted the worry. Powers 12 is the best volume yet, finalising the Deena Pilgrim story arc along with a bunch of in-the-wings characters. Overall it feels as bittersweet as the final episode of The Wire series 3, it’s hugely satisfying, but I’ve no idea where they’re going to take the series now. Pilgrim sitting on a beach somewhere feels very reminiscent of McNulty swinging a baton as he’s returned to the beat. Still in Bendis we trust. Like David Simon, he seems to have his finger on the pubic bone of the police procedural and is capable of playing it about at will.


300 years later…


Yeah, poor form to have ignored the whole of September I know. But it wasn’t such a class act as it turned out. Anyway, there I was thinking that Watchmen sounded like a really good film adaptation of a really, really good comicbook, so I decided to check out 300, Zack Snyder’s last comicbook revision.

I also decided to try using iTunes’ music store to actually buy it (it was a slow day, I was bored, it was only about a fiver). As far as the store goes it’s not bad at all – downloaded fast, slipped easily onto my iPhone (so I can watch it on the train going ‘THIS IS SPARTA’ as commuters look at me in a combination of awe and repugnance) and so far it hasn’t worried too much about being migrated all over the place.

As far as the film goes, stylistically it’s great, way more effective than Sin City, and manages to combine a sort of comic super-reality with some kind of emotional connection, which again Sin City just never accomplished. And it has many good bits, not least The Wire’s Dominic West once again playing a deceitful womanising political whore and David Whenham once again playing a grovellingly obsequious sidekick. And it does have that sense of super-realism that started to come in vogue with The Matrix and colour timing and really great greenscreen work. It also works as a story.

But no matter how good it is, Ridley Scott’s Gladiator still shits on it. Visually way more expansive, better story, better plot, better acting, more emotionally engaging and it even has better lines. So while 300 gives us “Give them nothing, but take from them everything”, Gladiator gives us “What we do in life echoes in eternity”.

Still looking forward to Watchmen though.


And where does that leave The Wire?


Just endured the worst productivity blackout of the year as I rampaged my way through the entire fourth series of The Wire. And even at a relatively well paced 3 episodes a day, it puts an end to all kinds of normal social activities.

I was fortunate that I’d already got through a lot of The Shield when I was introduced to The Wire. If only because for a short time I’d deluded myself that The Shield was as good as the police series was going to get. You certainly couldn’t do it the other way round. The Shield, for all its good points (and Vic Mackie rolling about in millions of dollars of stolen gang money is pretty good), is still a ‘crime-o-the-week’ copshow, with a relatively simple beginning, middle and end to each episode. It’s still great, but it’s a light snack once you’ve dined out on The Wire.

Where's the love McNulty?

The Wire has plot coming out of its arse. It’s so slow burn that it takes most of the first series to get the initial wiretap up at all. It’s the most English American TV show out there, a real series that demands total attention, not so much because you’ll miss a key plot moment, but because every character is just so well brought out. Even the minor characters are fully rounded, so that when Ray, the most useless, can’t solve a case detective dies of a tragic stairmaster injury, you’re actually left feeling sorry for the poor sunovabitch.

The Wire‘s not just about the crime, the most interesting parts happen when you follow the money as it escalates from crack corners to political lobbyists and beyond and you see that the machinations of the drug gangs are ultimately no different from those of the top politicians. Only The Wire could leagalise drugs in a major American city for nearly an entire series and almost get away with it.

Now I’ve done with series 4, I’m left waiting for series 5 on DVD and that, I’m told, isn’t until September and is the end of it. Cut us off just when we’ve become addicted? That’s as cold as it gets. Where’s the love McNulty?