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Bimbo

Bimbo

has 26 followers and is following 25 people

Noise artist. Born 1976.

Good music: Noise, 60s/70s free jazz, dub reggae, dubstep/grime, filthy punk rock and avant garde classical.

Food: spicy

Sexuality: straight/irrelevent

TV: The Wire, The Incredible Hulk, Alan Partridge, Prisoner Cell Block H, anything to do with Chris Morris...

Misc hobbies:... more »
  • London
  • member since November 4, 2006

Reviews

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Displaying 1-10 of 17 reviews
  • Everybody Cosplay Volume 1
    • Rated 5 stars

    “Cosplay means Costume-Play, which is a kind of cult or hobby which involves dressing up as characters from computer games and animations (I deliberately didn’t say “video games” and “anime” because I’m an Englishman) Image search Cosplay on the internet and you’ll find a lot of people dressed up in bin bag and crete paper outfits. Poor them, the queen of Cosplay Jan Kurotaki puts them to shame with her craft of costume creation and and her innate stylishness.

    This book was displayed as you walk into the library, cover facing the entrance, in the New Books section. A very pretty happy young lady on the cover I couldn’t fail to have noticed. The originally planned cover for the book was a photo from her shoot as Meer Campbell (long pink hair, violet and white dress) but now has a picture from the Haruhi shoot (a mix between schoolgirl and sailor boy chic)

    Personal favourite costumes inside don’t come from a knowledge of contemporary culture, but come from stereotypes that boys often react to: Anna Kurauchi (naughty French maid outfit: black vinyl and white doilies), Clair (Snow White), Nurse (nurse), etc.

    It would be unfair to suggest that I’m ruining the purity of the whole thing by appreciating the book in a less than 100% innocent way. I think that it comes full circle as animators and computer game designers create women to the requirements of their own fantasies, take Lara Croft for instance.

    Everybody Cosplay! is cute, sexy and a fantastic negation of dull everyday reality.”

    Bimbo wrote this review Wednesday, March 5, 2008. ( reply | permalink )
  • My Loose Thread
    • Rated 5 stars

    “
    The adolescent depression that runs through this book isn’t communicated by describing the feeling itself , it’s the sulky and short style of the prose which really captures the wish to avoid speaking or interacting while a black cloud builds around you. It is beautifully realised, far truer than any stodgy description-heavy poetics could give. This book is also really funny, but Cooper always has a dry sense of humour. But the depression mood is real power of this book. I write about this right this moment because I feel just this way today. And often when hit by such a feeling I start remembering music, particularly Joy Division, Swans or Red House Painters, but right this moment I think of this book and I’m glad that I own a copy because I will read it again just as I will repeat play my records. Christ, I hope I feel better soon. Once I finish my day and can close the door behind me I’ll be right.
    ”

    Bimbo wrote this review Thursday, December 6, 2007. ( reply | permalink )
  • German by Association (Link Word)

    German by Association (Link Word)

    by Michael M. Gruneberg
    • Rated 5 stars

    “The Linkword method is probably the best way to begin learning a foreign language as it teaches a method of remembering which you can take with you through any further courses that you go through. In itself it is far from comprehensive but it’s a good primer to take the fear away from future challenges. Showing you that you are good at remembering really encourages you for your future in language learning. It has been about 3 months since I read this book and my German has accelerated as never before. By contrast, I felt that in school we were not taught any method for remembering, rather we were only taught that you simply must remember otherwise you were “of lower ability.” The methods to deal with genders of nouns has been a real help for me, if English is your first language the element of non organic objects having a gender in linguistics feels cumbersome, its necessity is lost on us. ”

    Bimbo wrote this review Thursday, December 6, 2007. ( reply | permalink )
  • Anthem
    • Rated 3 stars

    “Anthem is a decent enough book, with a canny twist at the end, but all opinions I have heard said about Ayn Rand are polarised in a way that makes something like Anthem sound as though it would be more devastating than it really is. That she was criticised for “not understanding communism” makes a work like Anthem sound like a political threat to anybody who believes that there is virtue in community. This book is no threat to communism at all because it seems slightly hysterical. It is frightened that group concerns necessitates the crushing of the individual. These ideas are aged to my mind as it is really not such and and/or matter. Personally, I’m more inclined towards Ayn Rand’s position of individualism that of collectivism. But neither feels like a force that can threaten my freedom. Anthem should be to communism what 1984 is to fascism, but the object of its ire isn’t intimidating enough to portray a convincing vision of a dystopia.”

    Bimbo wrote this review Thursday, December 6, 2007. ( reply | permalink )
  • Lace
    • Rated 4 stars

    “Lace would be far shorter if the author was not obsessed with the description of intricate details of posh garments and opulent décor, trying to illustrate every visual detail like some autistic Dickens. Some of the narration sounds like a department store cosmetics dragon on a microphone. This sort of fluff really excited housewives of the 1980s bolstering the sex and drama (the true meat of the novel) into a power woman holy book.
    Perhaps, it seems odd that I would read Lace. But it is something I always wanted to read since watching and enjoying the TV mini series when I was 8 years old. When the phrase “Watch with Mother” was coined they surely didn’t imagine me watching a TV mini series adapted from a book which is infamous for the scene where a Prince sticks a live goldfish up a ladies pudendose. Phoebe Cates as Lili was one of my primary sexual awakenings, absolutely stunning, she was up there with Snow White. But I had no chance, what would Phoebe Cates have wanted with an 8 year old with a temper problem? Therefore, such a landmark should be explored now that I don’t find a 600 page book so terrifying. Next thing, I need to get the mini series second-hand on video, reading the book has kind of jigged some memories of the series that I need to clear the fog from.
    I remember liking the character Pagan, and I like her in the book too, especially where she is heartbroken and spends three years drunk, very dramatic. But, she had a toughness about her that is appealing to young boys in an empathetic way.
    Some of the sexy parts of the book just made me laugh out loud. They are very much like: He held her roughly in his strong arms and she felt his mounting excitement against her hip. Haha! There were also a few points where time speeds up out of what seems impatient writing. There are about 10 pages on Kate’s first pregnancy then she has three miscarriages in a row on an eleventh page. Such things are easy targets for parody, it begs to be done, if it hasn’t already.
    It was good to read something different from my usual tastes. Interesting also to know that such muck was such a bestseller. It makes me wonder whether Bridget Jones Diary is, on the sly, a load of filth… but it doesn’t make me wonder enough to make me read that too.
    ”

    Bimbo wrote this review Thursday, December 6, 2007. ( reply | permalink )
  • Tainted Love
    • Rated 5 stars

    “Its really pleasing to read a good Stewart Home book again in Tainted Love after the disappointment of the preceding 69 Things To Do With A Dead Princess and Down And Out In Shoreditch novels. 69.. was particularly galling for me in that it seemed that it was made up of a lot of reviews of other books which I’m not interested in, an awful lot of stuff about ley lines and stone circles with a garnish here and there of sex; only the horny ventriloquist dummy gave some relief. With Tainted Love he has produced a great book not by safely returning to the style and methods recognised as the foundations of his oeuvre as seen in the likes of Red London, Blow Job and Slow Death. Whereas those three great books kind of meld into one in my memory, Tainted love is fresh and stands alone. It is a fiction draped around a framework created from Home’s mother’s diaries. Taking at face value Home’s claims that his mother moved in circles of some legendary names in 1960s London, plus taking into account Home’s past work in hoax and post-situationist/”neoist” reality screwing, one can expect some iconoclastic treatment here (The Krays, John Lennon, Brian Jones and others do not come out of this looking pretty.) This doesn’t only undermine individuals but it also chips away at the nonsense of the 1960s being a time of great freedom and fun, finding instead the exploitaion and nihilism. With the central figure (first person in prose) being a female, Jilly, I think you can see through the BS of the whole free love thing of the 60s, that it was more free for some (men) than it was for others (women.) That’s probably how “free love” failed. ”

    Bimbo wrote this review Tuesday, July 17, 2007. ( reply | permalink )
  • Red Shift
    • Rated 3 stars

    “One day in primary school in the mid 1980s my teacher Mr MacGregor told us all that we could read anything we wanted from the bookcase. Unlike him to not want to actively teach us, but he evidently couldn’t be arsed with us that day. Many of the boys picked the books with the typically exciting and colourful covers, books with words like “Dragons” or “War” and other key Boy words in the titles. I picked up Red Shift, I loved the mysterious title and cover. I was quite enjoying reading the first ten pages until Mr MacGregor shot out of his chair and snatched the book out of my hands and said “You’re not reading that!” I’ve since managed to pick up a copy of the same edition and satisfy my curiosity about twenty years later.
    It’s unusual for a children’s book to include decapitations, discussions of sex and stealing without punishment. Its certainly noteworthy that this was first published in 1973 which put its original readership firmly in the bracket of the eldest of contemporary parents, and as we know of such people they constantly harp on about the innocence of their own childhood compared to these morally corrupt present days.
    In addition to Alan Garners high regard for young readers harsh reality threshold, he also believes they can follow some fairly difficult writing. Its not that long long words and sentences are used. Quite the opposite, they’re clipped and obscure, sometimes its not too clear who is talking and where and what time the speech is set in (and the book is set in three different centuries.) In this way it reminds me of Dennis Coopers Period, which is my least favourite of his for these very reasons. As an adult I found this quite hard to follow at times, though I’m glad I stuck with it. I find the end kind of heartbreaking, particularly as the two lead characters are delicate and likeable adolescents.
    ”

    Bimbo wrote this review Tuesday, July 17, 2007. ( reply | permalink )
  • The Complete Richard Allen, Vol. 1
    • Rated 4 stars

    “The back cover says: Not for sale to yuppies. That’s telling ‘em! I’m fortunate to have found a Richard Allen book at a nice price without competing for this in an internet auction, these books have quite a cult status yet have not been republished in a long while and if you come across anything in the Complete.. series you’ll have 3 books in one. Bargain. I came to Richard Allen’s writing through an edition of SMILE International Magazine Of Multiple Origins which was published as part of VAGUE #20 back in 1998 (though this SMILE was anonymous it would be understandable to assume it was written/a work of plagiarism by Stewart Home – he was involved in SMILE.) In the article it was claimed that Richard Allen was a pseudonym employed by a James Moffatt, and that he had published under his real name in the 1960s before writing as Richard Allen. I’ve not been able to find any information on these books since reading the article, and so I’ve not been able to confirm its’ veracity (SMILE was a project that sometimes engaged in hoax, red-herrings and misinformation.) I’d be keen to know more. If there is any more to know, send me a note. Richard Allen’s book are based on 70s youth cultures; skinheads, mods, etc. The books are pretty violent and have a lot of sex in them (the sex is pretty sexist and violent too.) The publishers really seem to have gone for how well this stuff could sell to semi literate delinquents back in those days. The depictions of violence in this work is quite irresponsible and gratuitous, it would be wrong to place this alongside A Clockwork Orange, this is trash/pulp writing. All said, to rediscover these books decades on, makes for a swirling-in-the-cesspitt kind of thrill with the fortunate distance from the times of its depictions. One thing I find funny in these books is the morality that laziness, not working in a steady job, is a cardinal sin to the protagonists as they identify it with hippies. Its okay to kick several shades out of someone, but to be on the dole is a terrible, shameful thing. These books will be of interest to any fans of early Stewart Home books as there are is lot of compare and contrast funto be had between the two writers, I think home was employing the thrill tactics of Allen while also mocking Allen’s conservative manners.”

    Bimbo wrote this review Sunday, July 1, 2007. ( reply | permalink )
  • The Damned Utd
    • Rated 5 stars

    “To write a book about English football could be problematic in terms of readership as most countries which play soccer are not of English mother tongue. The USA doesn’t have a rich heritage of soccer, something which Robbie Williams found to his dismay when he tried to become successful in the USA with a picture of him in a soccer kit on the cover of the Sing When You’re Winning CD. This is not a real shame in Robbie William’s case but it is a shame for David Peace’s The Damned Utd. Though a prior knowledge of the game isn’t so essential, the fact that it is a soccer novel will put many off. This is more a tale of Brian Clough, a proper English eccentric. It is about his time working as manager for the football team the hated, Leeds Utd. In football now, you can watch the managers speak after the game using clichés given to them through PR training, post match interviews are nothing but platitudes and are not worth hearing anymore. Brian Clough’s post match interviews were footage of a funny, straight talking, eloquent man often losing his temper. My Dad told me that he loved watching him on TV, he said it was hilarious. In this fictionalised account of those months at Leeds Utd, this humour comes across as well as the tragedy that comes from being one as passionate about his job as Clough was. I’m glad this book was written, I feel I missed out on a lot of this character’s appearances in the public eye and its enjoyable to has some kind of facsimilie of him through The Damned Utd.”

    Bimbo wrote this review Sunday, July 1, 2007. ( reply | permalink )
  • Quiet Days in Clichy
    • Rated 5 stars

    “I’ve tried to read Tropic Of Cancer, Crazy Cock, one of the ones that end in –us (Nexus/Sexus/Plexus) and have always given up about half way through. For Henry Miller this is a very short book, about three times shorter than any of the aforementioned. I wonder whether he is better suited to this short format or perhaps its just that this book is somehow different in prose to the rest of his writing, because this one I’ve read twice which beats halfway through by four! (Maths, see.) I’d suggest that anyone who also finds some indefinable stumbling block in Miller should give this naughty little thing a go and you may be pleasantly surprised to enjoy it.

    ”

    Bimbo wrote this review Monday, June 18, 2007. ( reply | permalink )
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Displaying 1-10 of 17 reviews

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