(Some reflections at an internet cafe in Kuala Lumpur Airport)
The legend is that Dylan Thomas drank 16 whiskies at the White Horse Tavern in Manhattan, announced "I think that's the record," keeled over and died. It's a good story but it's not true, Thomas probably died from an overdose of morphine which a doctor injected into his abdomen to 'help' with his hangover. Why am I bringing this up? Well I was thinking about DT the last few days because one thing about his life that it is true is that he went to a lot of parties, met a lot of writers and drank and brawled in a parody of Celtic tropes that unfortunately is still alive today particularly in the "heroic" alcohol inspired shenanigans of certain Irish actors. A little to my chagrin, my life has been a Thomasesque walking stereotype for the last few days; last night at the charming and well lubricated Profile Books party in London I met 4 writers whose books I very much admire: Roy Foster, Aifric Campbell, Chris Mullen & Garth Cartwright and the previous night, after my reading in Belfast, I went for a session with Dave Torrans, Colin Bateman, Stuart Neville and Gerard Brennan. While I had a blast at the Profile Party it was very nice to drink and ride the zeit with other Northern Irish writers - Ulster in the 70's, 80's and 90's is a lost world that most people in Britain and Ireland would like to forget about, yet whose resonances are continually being played out in the contemporary scene in such diverse places as Rwanda, Tehran and Xinjiang.
...
Before I go, I should mention the generosity of everyone at Serpent's Tail who put together my journey from Australia to Carrickfergus, Belfast and London with special thanks to Anna-Marie, Rebecca and Pete. One very bitter sweet aspect of this 24000 mile round trip was getting to spend a few hours in Carrick with my brother Gareth who shipped out for Afghanistan on Tuesday night. Go mbeire muid beo ar an am seo aris.
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46 comments:
Safe journey back to Oz and our thoughts are with your brother Gareth and all our boys in Afghanistan.
OOOOH Roy Foster!! mon dieu.
Best wishes to your brother and his fellow soldiers.
Will listen to Charlotte when I've found some earplugs.
Thanks Uriah. I dont want him to do anything heroic, just his time and come back safe.
Roy Foster is quite the dish, tall, Irish, long haired, brainy, he'd definitely be a suspect in a Miss Marple novel.
I'm glad you got to see your brother. Must be strange to go on such a long journey, of which both ends are in some way 'home'.
Sounds like a great trip, Adrian, for all its travails. And way to keep the dipsomaniac stereotype alive for future generations.You and Bateman passing on the torch to young Brennan and Neville,now that's touching, it really is. Not that I expect they need much instruction.
Congratulations on what sounds like a wonderful trip, and safe passage home.
I'm not a religious or prayerful person, but best wishes and all positive energy to Gareth. No heroes necessary. May he and his mates look out for each other and all come home as they left.
It was good to meet you the other night, Adrian. The food me and Gerard Brennan had later in the evening was not so good.
Seana
Seana wait a minute Bateman's about six years older than me dont stick me in with the fogies, I'm with the kids, dude! People still say dude, right?
I picked up a British copy of DIWMB for you, as small recompense for Blood's A Rover. I'm only 100 pages into that book but it looks so far as Ellroy has toned down the style a little from Cold 6000.
Dana
It was a very nice trip and I'll second that thought about Gareth. Cheers mate.
Stuart
How long did you guys stay exactly? And what was this food? Surely not Abrackebabra?
BTW I met the reviewer for a prominent national newspaper (and her commissioning editor) who absolutely loved Ghosts of Belfast/The Twelve and will be giving it a big write up soon. You've done well sir!
I knew you'd take that solemn rite of passing down the tradition the wrong way.
Let's just say that I am not in any position to call anyone here a fogie, young Colin included.
I find it hilarious when my young coworkers address me as "Dude!"--it's wrong on so many levels, yet somehow flattering.
Are you saying you're feeling a bit let down by Blood's a Rover so far?
I'll look forward to that British edition of DIWMB. Thank you.
First time I've known anyone to fly 24,000 miles for a couple of piss-ups.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Seana
I'm not saying that. Blood's A Rover is a terrific book. All I'm saying is that I dont think its quite got the deranged genius of The Cold 6000.
Peter
Well since you put it that way, it actually seems like quite a sensible idea.
Good. I've got a friend at work who often seems to be on the same reading wavelength as I am, and he was excited to snag up a used copy of Cold 6000 the other day. I hope he'll get around to it soon, as I'll be interested to hear his take on it.
Around the World for a Piss-up. Round-the-World Piss-up. Piss-up in the Other Side of the World. 20,000 Leagues for a Piss-up.
I like it.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Although I don't know that I care for the whole full shebang orchestral arrangement, Charlotte Church does have a very pure voice and that is a lovely song. I don't think we have one for Santa Cruz. Although I think it does come up in a few surf songs.
Seana
Oh there are many many versions but a lot of them are blocked on youtube (at least they were in Malaysia).
Well, I'll look around.
I did like Malaysia when I was there, though. It seemed both tolerant and well-informed. I don't know what has changed in the many years since I've been there. At that time it was plainly Muslim, but not at all extremist in its views.
Malaysia must be pretty tolerant if it let a singer named Church appear on YouTube.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Not sure if this will work as a link, but I thought this was nice:
Celtic Women, Carrickfergus
Peter
Gotta say I wouldnt know. I only saw the airport.
Seana
That is a very nice version.
Adrian - We had another pint after you left. Dunno where it was we ate, but it wasn't the kind of place you'd eat in sober.
Out of interest, which newspaper, just so I can keep an eye out?
It's true one does not learn much about a country from a layover in one its airports. All I know about Japan from a layover at Narita is that baseball on television is popular and that the thing served under the name of hot dog is vile.
Stuart
Well I was a little gone then myself, however this was not a hallucination. It might have been the Observer, both her and her editor loved the book, and I talked you up as a "nice person" though I'm not sure that that's important.
Peter
I took a different lesson from my five hours at Narita (my only experience of Japan, alas). I stayed in one of those capsule "hotels" at the airport between flights and found it to be a haven of sanity and tranquility. I'd like to go back one day though Tokyo doesnt sound like my sort of place. Incidentally I met David Peace's agent last week - after twenty years in Tokyo Peace has moved with his family to a small village in Yorkshire.
I've always regarded those capsule hotels with a mix of fascination and horror. How much room does one have in them?
I've wanted to see the sand and rock gardens of Kyoto. From my reading of Japanese crime fiction, I'm also fascinated with the Japanese fascination with trains. I have read that Japanese loosen up on trains, to the point of removing their trousers to relax in public.
I wonder if David Peace will now start writing tranquil novels.
By the way, have you ever seen Kurosawa's Stray Dog? Among other things, it contains the most realistic baseball action I have ever seen in a movie. I wonder if Kurosawa used footage from a real game. That would not surprise me.
Peter
I liked the hotel. I didnt think I would but I did, although being utterly exhausted might have had something to do with it.
Havent seen Stray Dog.
BTW I cant think of more a baseball deprived place than Yorkshire. Possibly the Western Isles of Scotland.
Yeah, I guess cocoons are good for exhaustion, less so for those who like to stride around hotel suites, checking the mini-bar, trying the sofa, abd flicking the TV on and off.
You ought to see Stray Dog. It's an atmospheric, moody police procedural, with interesting glimpses of postwar Japan. I think it also may have been Toshiro Mifune's first movie with Kurosawa.
In re baseball and England, when Uriah "Norm Price/Crime Scraps" Robinson hosted me in England a couple of years ago, he showed me the Devon Coast and the sights around Exeter and explained cricket to me. But he was also proud to boast that Exeter was the birthplace of Henry Chadwick, inventor of the baseball box score.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
“Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home”
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Peter
I'll check it out. I dont think Kurosawa has disappointed me yet.
You understand cricket then eh? I'm sure you were as riveted as me by the draw in the first Test.
No, after Norm's explanation, I understood a minute but measurably larger bit about cricket than I had before. I've mentioned this previously, but I visited Norm during an England-West Indies test. We watched the highlights on an evening sportscast, during which I asked questions.
Kurosawa made a few Western-style crime movies in the latest 1940s and early '50s, of which I think Stray Dog was the best. Mifune's older colleague is played by Takashi Shimura. Look up his filmography, check out the roles he played for Kurosawa, and think about his range as an actor. I was pleased to see that his filmography on IMDb calls him "one of the finest film actors of the twentieth century." He may be the best character actor I've ever seen.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Well, I definitely want to see Straw Dogs. At the peak of my Kurosawa interest, I wasn't all that interested in his movies that didn't have Toshiro in samurai gear, but I suppose I've matured a bit by now.
Did any of you cricket followers read Joseph O'Neill's Netherland? It's all about cricket in Manhattan--unlikely, I know--and 9/11, with a nod to The Great Gatsby. Obama read it as a break from foreign policy treatises, which has boosted it right up the lists. I have to say that it wasn't really my cup of tea, but then I know nothing about cricket, and am also one of the few people I know who doesn't really care for Gatsby. But I am definitely in the minority on that. The writing is good, though I found some holes in the plotline. Its a post-9/11 novel that has some added resonance for New Yorkers, I think. But I may have read one too many of those elegaics.
You say Straw Dogs, I say Stray Dog, let's call ...
Seana, it was a novelty to see Toshiro Mifune a) as a young man, and b) in Western dress, including a smart flat cap not unlike the one Drew Barrymore wears a few posts down from this one.
But that Takashi Shimura was astonishingly good, whether in Japanese dress as a resourceful samural in Seven Samurai,om Western dress as a cop, as a timorous doctor, a weird buffoon in Hidden Fortress ...
Have never read Netherland, I'm afraid.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Oops. Stray Dog. Got it.
Be careful if you decide to rent Stray Dog (singular), not only lest you wind up with the Sam Peckinpah movie, but lest you get Stray Dogs (plural), as I did one time.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Hey mate. Thanks for allowing me to tag along for the beers. Had a great night. Looking forward to the next session. Hopefully I'll get time to fire up a post including a few pics of you, Bateman and Neville.
BTW -- I thought the food me and Stuart had was okay. It was a wee kebab shop beside KFC. The only place open at that hour...
Seana -- I haven't seen Stray Dog but Straw Dogs is a pretty hard hitter. Heed Peter's advice well.
gb
Adrian and Peter it is not cricket weather here in Devon today. The weather looks more like the West of Ireland very very wet.
There are very few subjects that I know much about cricket, baseball, American history, dentistry no cut that last one, I was never interested in that it just paid the bills.
I learned all about baseball from my first boss driving from London to Luton every day in 1968-69. He had returned from working in the USA for several years and went on about Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale and the Dodgers constantly.
I was chuffed when Peter asked me to explain cricket in 30 minutes. I said it was too subtle a game to be explained in less than a lifetime. That was before the abomination of 20/20 came along.
What a game, that First Test! And proof that five day test cricket is more exciting than these limited over bash-abouts.
A great escape by England but can Australia really keep playing at that standard and retain the Ashes after losing Warne, Mcgrath, Gilchrist, Hayden and Langer five of the best players ever to play the game.
This escape reminded me of Watson and Bailey saving England in 1953, Australia being foiled by rain in four tests and then losing in the fifth.
Cricket lovely cricket!
Uriah
I take it you're not falling for hte "unsportsmanlike conduct" the Oz papers are full of.
Funny about Warne too, I watched him bowl everyday in May during the IPL in SA. As for the Test, well it was the finest Welsh Test Match ever.
You and I are of a select band understand both games. I've even played both in high school and later in NY (the softball equivalent). Still there cant be many of us.
Ger
You werent tagging along mate. You were an integral part of the quintent and then quartet after Dave sloped off.
Sly of Bateman to sneak into my photo with his book the git.
Peter
Ok after that ringing endorsement I will definitely check it out.
Seana
I actually think you might like Straw Dogs, there's one very dodgy scene but the rest is pretty good.
I only know that Cricket has some things called "Centuries". I always thought it was a nod to the way the poor spectators experience the passage of time during the matchdays.
Marco
I got a 9 not out once, that was about the highlight of my cricketing career, remarkably it did not merit a mension in Wisden.
U.R., that's quite the thrilling rhapsody about your favorite game. I probably know just a bit more about cricket that I do about dentistry. I'm on my way to have tooth number 31 extracted thanks to a problem I first noticed right adter Crimefest. That troublesome molar turned out to be cracked below gum level and will soon be replaced by an implant. I could rhapsodize about my dentist's technique the way you did about cricket, but than the bill will arrive (only partly covered by insurance).
In re cricket in thirty minutes, you should have done what Hillel did when asked to teach the Torah to a skeptic while he (the skeptic) stood on one leg.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
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