Interviews
The Rebel Dollar: Joseph Heath
Originally published in Side Street Review As an artist, if I find myself thinking about economics, it is usually disparagingly. I’m not alone. For years, artists have rebelled against economics through parody in paintings, music, stand-up comedy and Turner Prize-nominated installation pieces. Unfortunately, if we want to comment upon economics intelligently in our work, we [...]
Poly Styrene
Originally published at Verbicide Legendary punk front woman Poly Styrene has cancer and is reportedly too weak for chemotherapy. Three months after diagnosis, however, she is promoting her new studio album, Generation Indigo, from a hospital bed while nurses administer a miracle drug called Herceptin. It is from this bed in a British coastal town [...]
Status Anxiety and Bohemia: Alain de Botton
This is a very short excerpt from my interview with Alain de Botton. The interview can be read in its entirety in Issue Five of New Escapologist. Employment often seems at odds with the happiness and internal values of the individual. Must it always be this way? There are broadly speaking two philosophies of work [...]
The Great Escape: Tom Hodgkinson (with Neil Scott)
This is a very short excerpt from our on-stage conversation with Tom Hodgkinson. The interview can be read in its entirety in Issue Three of New Escapologist. Tom: I’ll go back to when I started the Idler magazine, which was in 1993. The reason I started was because I left university and I was beginning [...]
For the advanced minimalist: Leo Babauta
Originally published at New Escapologist Leo Babauta is the founder of the Zen Habits website and books and (more pertinently to this post) the website, Mnmlist. His sites have thousands of readers. I caught up with Leo by email and asked him a few questions for the advanced minimalist: Q: After minimalism, do you find [...]
Genealogy of the Joke: Ian Macpherson
Originally published at British Comedy Guide Some jokes get chanted like mantras in offices and playgrounds across the nation. Others, like trees toppled in empty forests, will remain unuttered forever in a lazy comedian’s scratchpad. Some jokes achieve immortality in popular parlance. Others die peacefully in their sleep. Just as a punchline is always remembered [...]
Fuck the mall: Judith Levine
Originally published at New Escapologist The polar ice caps are melting, war is rife, natural resources are running out by the clappers and poverty is most definitely not history. Humanity’s ecological footprint is 23% larger than the planet can handle in terms of regeneration: as a species, we’re consuming far too much. While New Escapologist [...]
On escapism, conservation and amusing typos: Dave Till
Originally published in New Escapologist Welcome to Findhorn, a seemingly unremarkable little town in the highlands of Scotland. But slightly north of the main town lies the Findhorn ecovillage, which (like Glastonbury’s Festival and Roswell’s ‘incident’) has surely become more famous than the original namesake. To save the bother of a very long drive, New [...]
Best Days of your life: Kim and Jason Kotecki
Originally published in New Escapologist If you feel as though you’re taking yourself to seriously, have forgotten how to have fun or simply don’t have time for mucking about any more, you’re probably suffering from a bout of ‘Adultitis’. Help is at hand as Kim and Jason Kotecki – authors of a forty-step Escape Plan [...]
On wanting to stay alive: Stewart Lee
Originally published at TMCQ Robert Wringham meets Stewart Lee Arriving at Crystal Palace’s Cafe ABC after a long journey down from Glasgow, I was surprised to see people smoking at the tables and around the bar. Of course, the ban was yet to reach London but I’d become accustomed to smokers – Scotland’s out-group of [...]
