campionland-blog

[campionland-blog]

porch

we sat on her porch

in the night

painting on the wooden deck

she wanted it covered, eventually

with colour and invention, of course;

she wanted the thing to look like endlessly dead childhood

resurrected for a few precious moments

we sat 

all of us on various substances

only converging by merit

of the words they allowed (or didn’t)

to exit our mouths

having piped through our cords

formed against teeth

palate, tongue–having been shaped

by neurons and their movement through time–

we played with ideas

and iterated others that had already been formed

but felt needful to revisit

the night was dark and a little chilly

but it was worth being outside

the trees hung in the darkness

yet the neighbourhood remained friendly

a good block, i’d say

a pleasant street

with children in bed

not mine, granted, but precious to someone

such things can make one feel a little warmth

i gorged on crisps and cheese

very good cheese indeed

which was passed around

interspersing the words with salty tang

and we were all sufficiently sensitive to notice

the play between the two...

we talked about death

we talked about struggle

we talked just to talk

and pretended it was all

terribly important.

the painting came along a bit

aided (and hindered)

by various substances

and gradually, the deck filled with pleasant silliness

the night grew no colder

and even seemed to grow a little warmer

then we decided to go our separate ways

and now, more than a few hours later,

i am sitting here 

putting some colour

on this deck, too. 

[campionland-blog]

tolstoy

by alex campion

drinking at 1 lazy central heating some abhorrent minus just beyond the brittle window the day was not much the evening little more now early hours and bad breath and aching back caved into cushions typing not sure why dog’s asleep wife and mother-in-law too cats all worn to the nub by some raving patriarchy of various tyrant children i'll quit soon myself my bane a carpet of stars blandly smearing the sky places i'll never see all imagined promises they may as well be just beyond arm's reach fuck you tolstoy you were right it all falls back into the sagging arms of superstition in the end

[campionland-blog]

it was only a matter of time: cars. i will have all of the above one day. i really like the late 70s boxy look, that, for me, culminates in the delorean. a couple of these choices are fairly silly, particularly the mondial, but they amuse me (i’ll hear nothing said about the delorean–it is the greatest car design of all time.) the mondial is ostentatious and tacky; pure beverly hills excess (right down to the fact that it has been photographed in front of a bunch of designer shops–totally appropriate.) it amuses me the most. the F40 is just plain ridiculous, but, let’s face it, it looks fucking cool as fuck. the citroën DS was voted the most beautiful car of all time by a panel of designers that included giorgetto giugiaro who designed the delorean, the esprit, the audi and the scirocco amongst many, many other classics. as you can see, there’s hardly a practical car among them. i also like my cars pointy. the pointier the better. the lotus is very pointy indeed. it could probably hold open a very large door, although, it’s fiberglass, so it would probably splinter. and then the large cunt living behind the large door would be stuck inside this hypothetical large domicile forever. fuck. i’m a pretty shitty person. 

i will look mostly like a cunt driving all these cars. that’s good: i am a cunt–it’s right that i be easily identifiable. 

[campionland-blog]

a couple of little artists in nature. the top one is the satin bowerbird; the bottom, the vogelkop bowerbird. they build their little respective shrines to impress prospective mates. the one with the fanciest creation gets to procreate. not far off human art, really. i think it’s marvelous but, of course, to them it’s all the same. 

[campionland-blog]

i have only just discovered lucian freud. i knew of him and had seen his stuff before but wasn’t ready. i think bowie’s death had something to do with it, a gratitude for the existence of art that hadn’t been quite so consciously present in me. the stuff reminds me a little of rembrandt: jaundiced and slightly bleak. there’s frailty in it. something tragically delicate, as if the thick, fleshy subjects of his paintings could melt away and trickle down the plughole at any moment. it snags and pulls at my wee heart sack. what makes great art? who knows? what makes a stupid question? i don’t care to look into the why’s and wherefores of art i love. art is like food: once it hits your palate, it’s either delicious or not; will grow on you in time, or remain repulsive forever. i collect this stuff in my brain like a little bower bird. 

[campionland-blog]

games that, though you beat them, never shall be beat.

...oh my god just endless, ENDLESS games of super mario kart battle mode with my brother, theo. i don’t think another game has ever exceeded it. 

[campionland-blog]

it’s 5 in the morning. i started tumblr-ing at 1. i had finished with my music work for the day and had no energy left. i’m knackered now. everything up to this point has been done this evening. got through the whole of jonny greenwood’s bodysong, penderecki’s threnody, some ambient eno, most of the soundtrack to norwegian wood. i’m glad i’m not drunk. my wife is over on the couch asleep. we’re at the in-laws, so we don’t have a bed. haven’t shared a bed with her in 2 months. feels profoundly wrong. there’s a fat fucking ginger cat on the other couch called oliver. he’s the size of a fucking bobcat, and he’s a right cunt. he hisses at the other two cats in the house, and takes swipes at the dogs as they walk past despite being the new kid to all of them. winnie was around here, a little white manx with a couple of tortoiseshell splodges. she’s a sweetheart. maddie jokes that i’m having an affair with her because she meows at me specifically to open the basement door when she doesn’t bother with anyone else. i pay attention to her, you see. it’s all about paying attention to them. that’s what they like. it’s not hard, just don’t be a cunt and you can do it too. it’s time to go attempt my dysfunctional sleep habit. goodnight.  

[campionland-blog]

things from when i was not big but small instead

my grandmother lived on broad walk, north london when i was little. when i was much older i met a girl so middle age dowdy despite only being 17, my friends and i referred to her as “wallpaper girl”. one thing about her was anything but boring, however: her grandfather had invented matchbox. where did he live? broad walk. 3 doors down from my grandmother’s THE WHOLE FUCKING TIME. in his house he had every car ever made. fucking kill me.  

loved the lego pirates. simple faces too. can’t stand the new, snarky faces. 

[campionland-blog]

mica levi with “micachu and the shapes”. she composed the soundtrack to “under the skin”. fucking chilling. saw them live in seattle late 2015. they were one of my favourite shows ever. met mica afterwards. shoved towards her by my wife, i said, “sorry–allow me a moment of shameless fanboydom–your soundtrack to under the skin was fucking unreal...” “...oh, thanks mate, thanks, that’s very kind of you...” very sweet people. wonderfully loony music. 

[campionland-blog]

houses and street

by alex campion

the houses don’t move they sit either side of the street just after the rain with the sky heavy and at other times too but right now where everything’s wet; and the street cuts right through the middle and shines slate grey and the houses don’t move they sit simply on two sides and the street doesn’t move it remains still but a person comes out of one of the houses and gets into a car and then the car leaves its tyres smacking against the wet tarmac and you can hear it for a while until it’s gone completely then the houses don’t move again nor the road but the wind does a little in very minor swells and returns but what you can hear most of all is the sound of a car approaching from a very long way off and a child at one of the windows of one of the houses looks out and the car grows steadily louder and then it's upon us then gradually the sound recedes and the houses don’t move again and the street also doesn’t move the slate grey, wet street and before you can continue observing the movement and non-movement of things a thought makes itself impatiently ever more present and then you go and take care of whatever the thing was clamouring for you to do.

[campionland-blog]

i am always TOTALLY FUCKING SHOCKED IN MY TINY LITTLE SPHINCTER HOLE how few people have seen this film: “under the skin”. watch it. it is the greatest sci-fi of the decade. it is my favourite film of the decade. it will make everything in your life become shiny and excellent.

[campionland-blog]

i think the west has adopted nihilism as its new religion. the end is coming. it always has been. i’m amazed that people bother to get worked up about various disasters, diseases etc. as if these things could really ruin the party. hasn’t the party already been ruined? wasn’t it ruined from the start? people are smashing and grabbing with little regard for the consequences; sub prime mortgages, bailouts, hedge funds, no one taking the blame, covert wars, the breakdown of reverence and politeness. there’s no reason to be polite anymore. we’re all slipping down the icy slope, and everyone’s clawing and tearing to try to get purchase on the next fellow. yeah, sure, there’s love and friendship and all that shite, too. i don’t really care about that shit. like my mum told me when i was at boarding school, “you only ever call home when you’re down in the mouth.” i am congenitally apocalyptic, and everyone has to suffer the consequences. 

[campionland-blog]

this stuff’s nice. concept art from a movie i love. a movie a lot of people love, really. name the movie! (my, how i tax you)

if you want to get really fancy, name the artist...

[campionland-blog]

the soundtrack to akira is bloody marvelous. it was composed by a consortium of 99 musicians, so i understand. i have not heard anything else like it. find it on youtube and immerse. 

[campionland-blog]

some shots from akira. i love the film. like blade runner, a little style over substance...but WHAT style–

[campionland-blog]

i am listening to brian eno’s “ambient 1/music for airports” and a live police scanner from LA, in the front room with everyone asleep around me. there are dogs, cats and a wife. i’m trying to recreate the feeling of being drunk without having consumed an alcoholic beverage. i have given up alcohol for now as part of a diet regimen trying to fix my fucked up digestive system. i’m going to post some random shit now. 

[campionland-blog]

i want my room to look like this. actually, i want this room. if the person who lives here could kindly vacate, i can be in by next week–thanks. x