Sunday 19 April 2009

Cobbing, Claire, Nuttall

Three pics I took at the first Eric Mottram 'celebration' held at King's College, London in 1996. They are photos of slides so the quality leaves a little to be desired...


Bob Cobbing

Paula Claire

Jeff Nuttall


Tuesday 7 April 2009

I had no idea...

1.)

Sexual fetishism in a quail (Coturnix japonica) model system: Test of reproductive success.
Çetinkaya, Hakan; Domjan, Michael

Journal of Comparative Psychology. Vol 120(4), Nov 2006, 427-432.

In the present study, the authors explored the reproductive consequences of fetishistic behavior in a previously developed animal model of sexual fetishism (F. Köksal et al., 2004). Male domesticated quail (Coturnix japonica) received sexual conditioning trials in which a terrycloth object (the conditioned stimulus [CS]) was paired with the opportunity to copulate with a female quail (the unconditioned stimulus). Approximately half of the male quail came to copulate with the CS object and were considered to have developed fetishistic behavior. Each of the male quail was then tested with a female quail, whose eggs were incubated to determine rates of fertilization. The CS object was present for 30 s before and during the copulation test. Fetishistic male quail were slower to achieve cloacal contact with the female quail and showed less efficient copulatory behavior. However, they fertilized a greater proportion of eggs than nonfetishistic male quail. These results are unexpected from previous studies of the relationship between reproductive success and copulatory behavior and are discussed in terms of how fetishistic behavior directed toward an inanimate object may modify male-female interactions.



2.)

from Bird bird

Coturnix coturnix (quail)

A man and a quail descend to farmland. Forget cellophane this mister wants to see some quail on quail. For which he wears my nellie boots. His cock-petite & on my lips it was quick quick & I obey to ‘lift up your cups’ on the way in. His wild end was snow on snow & robins cutting in. I have no escape pattern. Some ornithologists moving away. Robins for most people. Ovens you need. At the hay nets the prose is clumsy. Sŏme órnĭthólŏgísts thĕy móve ăwáy. Bare ruined choirs etc. Kitten heels. Dolly pockets. Knee-high flats.

the poetics of shite

In a gesture of friendly plagiarism - see the recent and magnificent http://peckhaminfurs.blogspot.com/2009/03/big-shit-in-peckham.html - I post 3 pictures of the shat-on pavements of Walworth, southeast London (an area named not, apparently, after the murderer of Wat Tyler before London Bridge in 1381 (the vile Lord Walworth he thrust a blade into the hero's heart) but it means 'welsh wood' or something hmmm). A little nexus of poo has emerged over the last week. At the Canting Academy reading last Thursday, Vahni Capildeo very accurately described the persons of this nation as walking "with dog-beshitten and street-wetted footwear into their private living spaces" - vide pic no 2 below and the probable teleology of that trainer. A conversation then ensued between myself and Harry Gilonis (as Harry Godwin rightly asserts at http://thedailyfilth.blogspot.com/2009/04/when-harry-met-harry-or-recrossing-line.html) on the late Ivor Cutler's habit of drawing chalk flowers around the offending mounds to highlight his annoyance. A few years ago in the preface to my book stretchers (oh yes) I talked about Iain Sinclair's complaint that the Isle of Dogs contained no graffiti and suggested he look at the smears of dogshit there as a kind of script, one that Bob Cobbing would certainly have been happy to perform. From the first stretcher: "for graffiti there's dogshit it's a kind/of writing can be scried an inventory/taken of say colour consistency..." Alas I failed to follow up my comments but I would suggest that the crap on our paths take its place as a part of the general economy of signification. The examples below are all shapely - moreso once a foot or pram wheel has slid through as in pic no 1 - as well as colourful and smelly though these latter are surely more indicators of the present state of the dogfood industry.






Monday 6 April 2009

been listening to...

Bright Phoebus (1972) by Lal & Mike Waterson. It begins with the Sergeant Pepper-like "Rubber Band" (not everyone makes it past this track) and visits some very dark places on the way. Highlights are the sudden unaccompanied voice - that of Bob Davenport - on "Child Among the Weeds" - astonishing - it 'wheels and turns' on 'riven/ribbon wing' like the bird he's singing about - and the whole of "Red Wine and Promises" which is sung not by Lal but by her sister Norma apparently. Four tracks from youtube posted below (no videos as such though some nice postcards of Hull) but these are no substitute for listening to the album from start to finish.



Red Wine and Promises: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IGDXDOXRNs&feature=related

Child Among the Weeds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZfgnKIeGRg&feature=related

Fine Horseman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Eh1acHyhe0

Bright Phoebus: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZP_F4YbK1sY&feature=related

Sunday 5 April 2009

An Occasional Series: The Collars of Johan de Wit - no. 1






The Canting Academy @ Xing the Line, April 2, 2009

David Annwn

Ken Edwards

Alan Halsey

Geraldine Monk

Vahni Capildeo

Frances Kruk entering, Paul Sutton (crucial comma)

Giles Goodland

Christine Kennedy

Sean Bonney

Gavin Selerie (right)

Karlien van den Beukel, Pete McNamara, Harry Gilonis

Sean Bonney & Antony John

Frances Kruk & Harry Goodwin

drei und vierzig

43

only into rymans o my bride
rymans or smyrna
one or the other
the great fire of rymans
in the assarts it doesn't matter
if I chopped a rymans down
the british infantry will find thee
buying staples probably
from a smyrna merchant
hey its my turn to touch my penis
in a sonnet
in case of fire
use all available entrances watch
out the bisley cabinets are red too