The Idler

Country Diary 98: Feathers and Blood in Stable

I HATE HOLIDAYS. You come back from them to find that the vegetable garden has degenerated hugely. Mine looks very sad: wilted, browning, grassy, with lettuces bolting and rocket going to seed. It is a real low compared with the high of the bright, neat, well-kept garden I had in June. I think this feeling of being overgrown is possibly common to all gardens at this time of year. While they may still be very productive, there is something sickly about them. My turnips, for example, have split and grown too big. The beetroot look nibbled and woody. The carrots, though, are splendid. My priority this week is to dig over the empty beds and fill them with brassica plants of all sorts: kale, cabbage, sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, purple sprouting. I am going to buy the plants from the market and from the local nursery. Leeks, too. And more lettuce. This should ensure a plentiful supply of winter crops. And on the bright side, we have still not bought any vegetables, bar onions, for the last three months. (more…)

The Great Beatnik Novel

I have just finished reading Penny Rimbaud’s brilliant and beautiful new novel, This Crippled Flesh. It combines intensely romantic flights of the imagination, self-effacing humour, philosophical enquiry, pornographic language, righteous fury and a spiritual pilgrimage with innovative typesetting. Truly radical, you could call it the great Beatnik novel. The book is presented in a lovely limited edition with illustrations by Alice Smith. It is published by Bracketpress and Exitstencil Press, and costs £18.

Facebook is Big Brother

A couple of years ago, I wrote an attack on Facebook. It was actually simply a description of the agenda of Peter Thiel, one of the principal investors in the business, and that of a few other investors. I admit I had never really looked at it from the point of view of a user. Now I have, and I am absolutely amazed at the pure drivel that people spew out. And also at the level of intimacy that people will share with it, almost like it’s a priest. Have none of the millions of people who upload rubbish, and also non-rubbish, read Orwell’s 1984? Facebook is Big Brother. And no one realizes it. It watches you. It records your tittle tattle. Your likes and dislikes. You waste a horrendous amount of time on it. And people confess things to Facebook that they would not confess to their nearest friend or relative. Think about it. You are being watched, analyzed, counted and commodified by a vast American business. And you have allowed this to happen voluntarily. Wake up. TH

Ditch the Day Job: Top Tips

Some of you may have come on the ‘Ditch the Day Job’ courses that Graham Burnett and I ran earlier this summer. I am now passing on two useful looking websites for those looking for practical help in this area. The first is by 30-year-old Jacob Lund Fisker and is called Early Retirement Extreme. Here Mr Fisker shows you how to cut your costs down to the bone, become resourceful, and enjoy a life free from drudgery. The other is the Retire Early website, which also offers practical tips on those wishing to escape the rat race. Both are practical about the money issue.

Second Term at the Idler’s Academy

Following the storming success of the Idler’s Academy at Port Eliot, we are pleased to announce that we are running a second term. This time we are guests at the Curiouser Gathering 2010: Back to Albion, a small music and crafts festival in the grounds of Berry Pomeroy Castle near Totnes in Devon. It takes place on 3-5 September.

We Return for a Second Term

Also playing at the festival are the amazing ASBO KID, comprising Justin from Elastica and James from EMF; Cornish stompers BLACK FRIDAY and folk-rock troubadours MAD DOG MCREA.

Summer Slowdown

Idler shop customers may have found that they have had to wait longer than usual for their stuff… apologies for this. It’s to do with the summer holidays. We plan to catch up by mid-August. Another problem is that the second edition of Idler 42: Smash the System has completely sold out. We have ordered a third edition from the printer, and would hope to get it delivered by mid-September. So we’d be grateful if shop customers could, in that awful phrase beloved of call centres, ‘bear with us’. TH