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Mandingo!
the recent VBS documentary Mandingo! about the Floridian interracial swinging scene features a new Cut Hands track, one that isn't expected to be included on the forthcoming album - in case you're wondering which it is, it's the one in the film that doesn't sound like a Led Zeppelin remix

Bijin Tokei
am suffering from a mad addiction to these bijin tokei iDevice apps; not sure what's cuter - the ones with random girls in the streets of Japan, or the ones with the photos taken with fish-eye lenses of kittens and puppies; not to leave anyone out, there's even one with boys now, not to mention a porn incarnation (it had to happen sooner or later)

The Wire
I didn't envy David Keenan's herculean task of transcribing the 4+ hours of dialogue for the Invisible Jukebox, which then had to be edited down quite a bit; anyway, I thought he did a great and meticulous job of making it all work pretty well; there were just a couple of minor corrections I'd like to point out: of course, it was Robert Rental who sold me the Wasp synth (not Daniel Miller), and Bad Girls Get The Fuck Over It is in fact Whitehouse (not a side project as was suggested in the feature's introduction); the magazine also have posted an exclusive short streaming extract from 'Extralinguistic Programming'

Movies
it was time last weekend, once again, to dust off the 3D glasses for the (presumably) valedictory Jackass movie, review coming for that soon, along with Enter The Void and much more; nor has the promised Disney special been forgotten about, I know how much people are not dying to read that

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NME
notice anything strange about the NME's Greatest Cult Heroes chart? ah, it brings back fluffy memories of when in 1977 chain store WH Smith listed the weekly pop charts in their windows with a blank at #2... The Sex Pistols' 'God Save The Queen' was gloriously absented (in fact, as everyone knows, it should have been in top position); as with the very same WH Smith's, the NME has been so painfully uncool for such a long time that I'm not sure how much vindication can be derived from this, though excuse me for enjoying this fleetingly sweet poetic irony

Webbys
on a vaguely related subject, what exactly are awards for? I'm not entirely sure what prestige means; however, semantic pedantry notwithstanding, yay! VBS's Liberia documentary has won two Webbys!

The Secret Of Scent
ever since starting this infuriatingly good book about the mysteries of fragrances, I've been sniffing around big store perfume departments like a truffle-starved black boar let loose in the woods; despite Luca Turin's slightly condescending literary tone, his scent descriptions are intoxicatingly evocative - I am now not a little impatient for even a four-hour stop-over at Schiphol airport, let alone the dream of one day visiting the Osmothèque in Versailles

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Afro Noise I
the response has been really fantastic, thanks so much to everyone who's already pre-ordered the CD (sadly, the free art cards are now finished but, since it's been such a success, already thinking of getting some new designs in); the first shipments have already started going out this week so they should start arriving with you very soon - was also (I confess) thrilled to see that The Wire had given it such a lovely full-page review in this month's issue, written by Nina Power

Cut Hands live
there's a Cut Hands show at the Glasgow School Of Art on 3rd June - it's free entry; I'll post more details as soon as I get them

Urbanomic
the publishers of the wonderful Collapse journal are doing a summer auction of various unmissably exciting stuff

Uncle William
afraid to say that there's no Uncle William this week; he is willing to accept sole responsibility for the inevitable disappointing dip in the number of hits taken at the blog due to his absence

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Halloween
big plans for this weekend are centred around the imminent release of Saw 3D; in contrast to that, I've been obsessing over Disney Original Movies the last few days, brace yourself for a full exposition of this guilty new pleasure in the coming days

Ante Mortem
the celebrated forensic anthropologist Professor Sue Black gave a supremely enjoyable talk at Edinburgh's Surgeons' Hall last night; she veered an absorbingly dark path twixt some atrocious cases of terrorism, murder, paedophilia, and domestic abuse, while delivering her presentation with a cheery sense of humour that never felt trivialising

Invisible Jukebox
written by David Keenan, this feature is appearing in December's edition of The Wire magazine; it was a lot of fun to do (despite much apprehension about making a fool of myself), especially owing to his such exquisitely selected tracks (as were those, tellingly, not selected)

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Extralinguistic Sequencing
here currently working on a re-adaptation of the originally two-hour experiment in creepy dark mass hypnosis for Tate Britain that may, just might, translate to a personal listening experience context

Zeitkratzer CD
I haven't been given the full information regarding the Zeitkratzer Whitehouse CD yet, nor have I received any copies yet - according to this month's Wire it's said to be released on October 22nd; hopefully, it'll sound much better than the cover disappointingly doesn't promise

Pope hailed
can you believe TC Ratzinger had the audacity to drive past my front door in his Merc just as I was on my way out to the barber's? as he leered at the heathens and mortals from behind a semi-smoked glass window, special attention was paid to the crisply uniformed schoolkids who'd been let out for an afternoon skive to 'greet' his holiless in a surge of puerile antipathy evidenced by universally healthy disdain, and anagram jokes

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The Wire
god knows I have a love/hate relationship with that magazine: it's thanks to the free annual subscription I earned from having written the piece on Yoko Ono last year, I get to feel apoplectically irritated on a monthly basis over lunch at the nearby Himalaya Indian restaurant; and yet with that all said - and ignoring wankers like Edwin 'Pencil' Pouncey and Nick 'But' Cain - the editorship is genuninely respectful towards its contributors, I'd much rather it existed than it didn't, and they most pleasingly capitalise all words in song, book, and movie titles

Nurse With Wound
Andrew Liles kindly invited me along to Nurse With Wound's performance a couple of weeks ago at the Tramway in Glasgow; never having seen them play live, nor having heard recorded output since Soliloquy For Lilith, it seemed far removed from the carefully structured fondly anarchic surrealism of the 80s, more like loud droney lo-fi ambient; and yet that was neither here nor there because it was a real pleasure to see Steve, erstwhile loath to stages and audiences, revelling in the limelight

Wroclaw Industrial Festival
sad to report that there won't be a Whitehouse performance at this year's Industrial Festival in Wroclaw, Poland - there's more than enough else to enjoy at the packed four-day event for everyone who'll be there; I certainly would have loved the chance to catch up with Glenn (Michael Wallis) again

Books
I've been acquiring new books at such a prodigious rate in the last few months that I've decided to sell some older ones to create some much-needed space - they're mostly on the usual filthy subjects that we all love, and many are pretty rare; I'll post a downloadable pdf list of what there is soon, or just drop us a message

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Tectonic plates II
shock investigation? once again, it would be surprising were it to be otherwise - why so much resistance to female priests? religion's hypocrisy against homosexuality (amongst other things) is far more to do with the delicious exercise of power through denying others pleasure combined with a desperate fucked-up cycle of internal conflict between their own sexuality and an inherited set of bizarre beliefs; I blame that maniac Augustine

Tate Britain
on September 3rd I'm contributing what I'm describing as 'extralinguistic sequencing' as part of the Late At Tate monthly special event sponsored by Urbanomic, which is 'exploring the emerging philosophical paradigm of Speculative Realism and its impact on contemporary art practice' - also at the event will be new work by Florian Hecker, plus screenings, sculpture, and a panel discussion; it's a free event and I hope you can come, it'll be quite special

YDI
oops... after the critical failure to resurrect the old PS3, you'd think I wouldn't risk an attempt at replacing the cracked glass on my old iPhone - and predictably, after another self-inflicted botch-up resulting in a damaged LCD, am now getting the entire upper part replaced; the lesson has, finally, been learnt

Books
this is the update of remaining titles from List A - look out for a List B in a few weeks' time!

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Uncle William
oops, this Uncle William business is getting a bit out of hand - the blog had about four times the usual number of daily visitors last Tuesday and there have already been several, seemingly genuine and sincere, emails from all over the place soliciting help

Cut Hands
preorders for the 23/5/11 official release date are now available from Susan Lawly, 2x special exclusive Cut Hands art postcards with each copy while stocks last - read more

Disco Caligula 4
in anticipation of his set at this year's Gallery Event Berlin a week on Saturday, DJ Benetti has just unchained (for those of us thus inclined) his new fourth Disco Caligula mix: a capricious new odyssey within the magical paradise of Rimini discotheques circa '83

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Munich
wonderful week in Munich spent really getting to know the city better than the previous too-short maiden visit - and really, what a marvellously enigmatic place it is, especially outside the busy tourist season; loved the museums, the walks, the markets and their produce, the fresh air, the singular preponderance of single male shamblers, and of course the bierkellers (damn, the Augustiner beer is soooo good, and I don't even like beer)

Mignini and Giuttari convicted
that's the good news; the bad is that while Knox and Sollecito languish in jail, these two bastards are allowed to remain in office pending the duration of their labyrinthine appeals process

Thermal compounds update

we have the tools, we have the technology; we have the innards, we have the operating table - can this be brought back to life, or are the Demon's Souls forever gone?

Cut Hands on CNN
in what seems to be a remarkable coup for Vice, the Vice Guide To Liberia film is now being featured on cnn.com

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More arbitraries from the last week or so.

Surgery Tourism part two
just back from a lovely weekend enjoyed in London - Saturday was spent doing the Wellcome Institute's Euston Road HQ exhibition (Helvetica Design Squad Alert :-(); the highly recommended Hunterian Museum (featuring an unfeasible preponderance of strange things suspended in jars, a unique collection of forceps and scary extraction devices, the skeleton of the Irish Giant, in addition to lots of other seriously weird surgical ephemera); and finally, the Old Operating Theatre near London Bridge, an extraordinary no-concessions bastion to the depressing onslaught of modern day museum culture - fascinating talk and demostrations, freedom to walk around and peruse the quirky exhibits close up, and even a super-quaint bookshop

Amaral said 'fala com', you fucking idiots
tabloid newspaper The Sun is officially the most obnoxious and ugly rag, notwithstanding the UK already having serious competition to that accolade, and you may already know what I think about that most loathsome of institutions that is the BBC: this story is a neat encapsulation
update 16/1/10: add that asswipe Tony Parsons of the Daily Mirror to the above

Thermal compounds
the beloved first-gen Japanese PS3 of this Sony fanboy got the Yellow Light Of Death last night, and now I'm gently assembling the necessary tools to perform open-heart surgery on its sexy innards with the aid of some sticky thermal compounds and a phallic-looking heat gun

Cut Hands update
the film is being premiered on January 19th - canNOT wait to see it; another track added to those already listed:
Cut Hands - Welcome To The Feast Of Trumpets 6:45 (written and performed by W.Bennett, 2010)

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Horror Celebrities Night
never having been to a meet 'n' greet Q&A evening of this type, it was fun to be at the Jeckyll And Hyde pub to see David Hess, Catriona MacColl, and Giovanni Lombardo Radice
- they were all most articulate and likeable, Hess being especially entertaining with his anecdotal swipes at Dennis Hopper; shame he was so short-changed by the thoughtless structuring of the event, which otherwise was so much fun

Let The Right One On
some call it pedantry, some call it rigour, but I feel compelled to draw attention to the unbelievably retarded set of rules for the application of capital letters in song, book, and movie titles; seriously, who came up with this utter fucking nonsense? it all depends on coordinating conjunctions, phrasal verbs, prepositions of three letters or 'less' (sic), position of word in title, special notes for this and that, added to what your starsign is and whether you were born in a leap year or the seventh offspring of a black cat: for god's sake, just capitalise every word and be done with it (anybody anywhere who already does receives the dubious privilege of my unconditional admiration and respect)

Cut Hands
there's a Cut Hands concert this Saturday (20th March) at Roxy Art House, Edinburgh with the great Zbigniew Karkowski plus support from Aliased Neuron, demand for tickets may be quite fierce as the venue is said to be pretty small - more information

Thermal compounds update
sad to report that the flatlined patient could not be reanimated; a replacement was immediately procured in the form of a shiny new Slim

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Random bits and pieces and comments from the week's goings-on.

Ryuichi Sakamoto concert at Queen's Hall
I surely didn't like the fact that Sakamoto's piano playing is essentially a mime, so much being streamed off computers hidden in the wings, but I hated the moralistic Helvetica'd climate change lecture on the fuzzy back projection; I walked out after 5 songs

Amanda Knox is innocent
you can't trust justice and its corrupt players in any of the world's courtrooms, let alone the highly suspect Italian judiciary, and I for one certainly don't trust this guilty verdict in the case of the death of Meredith Kercher; OK, all I have to go on is all the newspaper reports, but I can't see any reliable proof whatsoever that isn't just the usual bullshit demonisation, or coercion, of the young accused

DJ Benetti buttons
thanks to Marta, I have a small handful of the cute Cocadisco badges specially made for Saturday's fab extravaganza at Brixton; if you'd like one, just send me something for the postage

Cut Hands update
so listed below are the tracks completed for the project, several are being featured in the forthcoming Vice documentary on Liberia, and there'll be a few more too before long

Cut Hands - Who No Know Go Knows 4:08 (written and performed by W.Bennett, 2009)
Cut Hands - Who No Know Go Knows (percussion) 4:07 (written and performed by W.Bennett, 2009)
Cut Hands - Rain Washes Over Chaff 4:11 (written and performed by W.Bennett, 2009)
Cut Hands - Rain Washes Over Chaff (ambience) 2:38 (written and performed by W.Bennett, 2009)
Cut Hands - Rain Washes Over Chaff (percussion) 4:07 (written and performed by W.Bennett, 2009)
Cut Hands - Munkisi Munkondi 5:09 (written and performed by W.Bennett, 2003)
Cut Hands - Nzambi Ia Lufua 2:44 (written and performed by W.Bennett, 2006)
Cut Hands - Bia Mintatu 6:57 (written and performed by W.Bennett, 2007)
Cut Hands - ++++ (Four Crosses) 2:57 (written and performed by W.Bennett, 2009)
Cut Hands - Impassion 2:59 (written and performed by W.Bennett, 2009)
Cut Hands - Backlash 1:53 (written and performed by W.Bennett, 2009)
Cut Hands - Backlash (percussion) 1:52 (written and performed by W.Bennett, 2009)

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Tectonic plates
'petty gossip'? I wonder how many priests, from their pulpits at services this Easter, and as representatives of the world's biggest child sex ring (second only to the UN and other international relief agencies), will be quoting from Matthew 18:6: "But whoever shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea."

Noumenon 
it was very nice of someone to think to include me at nndb.com, even though I'm not entirely grateful about being openly described as being 'straight', and even less an 'atheist' (on the latter point, sadly also labelled thus in the otherwise excellent Micro-bionic)

Play park
while a visit to the Hunterian in Glasgow last Saturday was thwarted by their being closed at weekends for roof repairs, the best cultural alternative seemed to be Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum - epic mistake, full gory report to follow in EXPOSITION 3












Great White Death
the new vinyls should be delivered any day now from Germany, which is most exciting - the cut sounded absolutely delicious