BANG. ON AND ON
AND ON…

“Music played, and people sang/
Just for me, the church bells rang.”
(Nancy Sinatra)

Bang. On and on and on…the self-proclaimed best league in the world is back (^TM) to help us forget about a summer of despair. We didn’t even manage to reach the finals and lost to Spain 1-0…again! Oh, and then there was England who didn’t do too well either I gather. At least now we’ll see how good Rooney really is, how the behemoth of corporate Premier League football (with prawn filled sandwiches and empty corporate seating, please) means that England will win the Euro and so on so forth and et cetera. After all, we did beat Hun-gry 2-1…yet there is no fire in their bellies. I for one have lost my appetite for footie.

Bang bang. That’s a double bang for the double ‘b’ that’s Blair and Bush. Their undoubtedly…explosive…memories of how they contributed to everyone’s ruin will soon hit the shelves. Blair is donating his advance to the Royal British Legion. £5 mil squid. Blood money apparently (remember that old bit of same old same old…WOMD – not match of the day btw -) it’s probably just Pr…everything is nowadays. Everything is about the ran$om notes. You can even get a signed copy for £150…crimson red with a gold stamped title. His book used to be called ‘The Journey’ but is now ‘A Journey’: to make him more human. According to The Guardian less messianic ­- less what? Exactly. One of us apparently…a fk up?! As for the other ‘b’…Bush..the less said the beta.

The big bangs, of course, happen elsewhere. Out of sight out of mind. Iraq: 60 more killed; 500 for the month (July) but at least Bliar(?) has got a cracking story to tell. Bringing freedom to the world and so on and so forth and et cetera.

Freedom by the way is the name of that new book from that middle aged bloke – the saviour of literary fiction; or so i’m told. Franzen will even appear on Time magazine. First time in a decade for a living writer. Franzen is propa. A stalwart from the old school, taking you back to days gone by, except it’s all about the now and here, an epic family saga of the everyday and everywhere, except it isn’t cause it’s only for the highbrow dictionary burrowers. But he mentions Iraq and the war and so on so forth and et cetera. Nobody knows if it’s as good as they want it to be, expect it to be or need it to be, but it will cause a stir. Maybe even a bang.

Welcome Matthias Mueller to R$N. Check out his ace Cultural Constellations blog

More to come.