After a break, I have returned to John Tilbury’s mammoth biography of Cornelius Cardew. It is 1966; Cardew is swanning about in Buffalo, New York while back in London his wife Stella struggles with four children and virtually no money … Continue reading
On the bus : I have to write to distract me from the woman, the warm pressure of the femme de trente ans, her softest arm. Boulez – rescue – your programme note must curb my corpuscular eruptions. Cornelius Cardew, … Continue reading
When Cornelius Cardew went crackers and became, first a Maoist and then a devotee of Enver Hoxha of Albania, he repudiated much of his own earlier work and the avant garde in general. He turned his fire particularly on Stockhausen, … Continue reading
The picture above is a still from Alan Bridges’ 1985 film The Shooting Party, based on Isobel Colegate’s novel of 1981. James Mason plays Sir Randolph Nettleby, landowner, enthusiastic bird-shooter, and budding pamphleteer. John Gielgud’s character is giving him some … Continue reading
John Tilbury, in his biography Cornelius Cardew : A Life Unfinished (2008) on some of the later songs, when our hero had become a member of the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Communist Party Of Britain (Marxist-Leninist): Invariably, the songs … Continue reading
Another splendid quotation from the journal of Brian Cornelius Cardew, circa 1959: My passport is more important to me than my sex-life.
It surprised me to learn that the good people of the New England state of Maine are raising their tinies to become Marxist-Leninist firebrands. But Mr Mike Jennings has sent me incontrovertible evidence from the Maine Organic Farmers And Growers … Continue reading
Yesterday I told you lot it is International Brain Awareness Week. I neglected to mention that it is also International Brian Awareness Week. This is the time of year when we make sure we are aware that the full name … Continue reading
Diligent readers who commit to memory everything that I have ever written (that is, most of you) will recall that somewhere or other I bemoaned the fact that my brainpans are assailed by a persistent earworm. It is my fate … Continue reading
I have just read The Wilder Shores Of Marx by Anthony Daniels, a 1991 book subtitled Journeys In A Vanishing World. Daniels – better-known by the pseudonym he has latterly adopted, Theodore Dalrymple – sensing in 1989 that communism was … Continue reading
Chapter Three of Mr Key’s Book Of Birds, a work in progress. The corncrake is a type of bird. Its call is raucous and alarming. To gain an idea of how raucous, how alarming, imagine you are fast asleep in … Continue reading
I am delighted to announce a fantastic innovation here at Hooting Yard, the Hooting Yard Red Button. It has been developed by a dotcom startup run by twelve-year-olds. Here’s how it works: While reading the latest effusion pouring out of … Continue reading
I went for a morning trudge around Nameless Pond and, having completed a circumnavigation, I sat on a bench for a breather. I lit a cigarette and contemplated the ducks. Foolishly, I had left my iDuck at home, so I … Continue reading
Yesterday I had a persistent earworm in the form of the Skye Boat Song. “Speed, bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing…” I have to say this was a more welcome noise in my head than the usual one, … Continue reading
The latest Hooting Yard podcast from Resonance104.4FM includes a blistering rendition of Cornelius Cardew’s 1971 piece 10,000 Nails In The Coffin Of Imperialism. 10,000 Nails In The Coffin Of Imperialism