So yes, it's true, Homelovin' is huge. Those of you who don't know (you must be living on Mars AND under a rock) Homelovin' is reviewed in this week's NME. It's the January 8th issue with Franz Ferdinand gracing the cover and it's a feature on Franzines. Homelovin' is far and away the best, most pure, fanzine in the world but here it's rated as one of five of the best. The galling thing is, the soundbites they've included by me are THE dullest ones that could have been selected from the questionnaire I filled in. Man, I really laid it on thick for that questionnaire, I gave them comedy gold, all NME attitude and swearing. So the thing I’ve realised is, you take the comedy out of Paul and what you’re left with is quite dull and slightly geeky. Which is really fucking galling. And I hate Franz Ferdinand. Hate ‘em. But I’m not complaining, I was looking at the piece again yesterday in WH Smith (I’d already bought a copy) and I thought to myself, “God that cover looks good.” It really stood out.
Anyway, here's the essay to accompany my show Abstractionism which begins on Monday 17th January at the Ruskin School in Oxford.
22nd DECEMBER 2004
Abstractionism is pretty much going to be it when it comes to me and art. I'm going to put my all into this show and whether it succeeds or fails doesn't matter - these are my final paintings.
28th NOVEMBER 2004
Here's a review of Homelovin' Sweetest Memories from
Vanity Project:
Unnumbered, but not unloved, this edition carries on where the last left of, discussing Calvin Johnson at length, and also Bobby Conn, The Cribs, Ben & Jason, Major Matt Mason. It’s like a diary, it’s like prose, it’s like a transcript from a dictaphone-captured stream of thought, and it’s certainly worth getting your mitts on cos its more than bit good.
Abs and I did one show of PAM Sounds the other day.
3rd OCTOBER 2004
Homelovin' Sweetest Memories has so far been an overwhelming and humbling success.
I recently tried my hand at travel writing and South-North is the result. "Is there anything he can't do?" you'll be forgiven for asking.
If you're perhaps unsure of purchasing your free copy of the new fanzine then why not have a sneak preview over at the homepage Curtis Eller where there is a transcription of my review of him. It's surprising, out of the context of the zine I am surprised by how entertaining and able I am as a writer. But be warned, Curtis has credited my location as Preston which isn't true at all. I live in Lancaster.
23rd SEPTEMBER 2004
"I truly want it to blow everything away." Judge for yourself, because, yes, a brand new Homelovin' is complete. In it, I write about Calvin Johnson, Brian Dewan, Bobby Conn, Gerling, The Cribs, Curtis Eller, Ben and Jason, Jesse Malin, Antifolkers and Paddy McAloon and there's an essay called Staring Problems by Bunny Poe. There's a stack of them, piled up on the floor next to me. And I don't know what to think.
7th AUGUST 2004
Yes, the heat is one and the anticipation unbearable, a new Homelovin' is in production. I truly want it to blow everything away, to be the best, so I can just carry on being a jerk and waste my life and not feel guilty.
"Creatine" is a poem I wrote with the genuinely muscular Alexander Groves.
And here of those photographs of my paintings as
King of the Ruskin.
20th JUNE 2004
Frankly, I’ve let things go. Having a webpage is like having a child. And do parents leave their children locked in their bedroom while they’re out on a two-month long bender?
So with that in mind, consider Homelovin’ a recovering alcoholic on the road to recovery. Day by day you should see a lusty vigour return to his face and he might event take up new hobbies like squash or polo.
By way of apology I’ve updated the PAM Sounds page with all the news on the eventful last series.
So what else happened? KING OF THE RUSKIN. My paintings are pretty amazing. And I did this show of my large-scale paintings in the Long Room of New College, Oxford. Even by my own estimation it was quite evidently a truly wonderful show. Perhaps I'll put some photos up sometime.
And original PAM performed at a Ruskin fundraiser and this gave me the chance to refine my oratory skills. I started this year good and have got better and better.
1st MAY 2004
PAM Sounds returns this Tuesday at 4pm on Altered Radio. I ain't going to yack about how great it is, if you're going to listen you're going to listen. But I will say this. The first song we will play will blow your stupid heads off. And this series is going to include my exclusive remix of 'Cowboy Dreams' by Prefab Sprout.
Anyway, I've just realised there's a page of some of my music reviews written whilst moonlighting for the Cherwell newspaper. If there's ever a line where you think, "Wow, that's way more witty and clever than anything Paul could ever write" then it's proably an improvement made by a talented editor. For instance, my new review of the Miss Kittin album originally opened with "Miss Kittin is a woman DJ. As if that isn’t bad enough..." They've replaced that with something far more funny.
25th MARCH 2004
I’ve gotten round to a few uncreative time-filling tasks. The results are thus:
1. Photographs of the Brian Dewan and Calvin Johnson shows
Now I’ve been trumpeting this prerecorded show, bandying the word prerecorded around like it’s salad but now it’s gone. Some technological hitch. But it should be back up soon so keep checking in. Because it’s great. And that’s not me talking – it’s my inner truth.
13th MARCH 2004
Since we last met I have been furthering my bid for complete social alienation by insulting people and then singing at them. PAM's first live function involved a lot of Abs calling people "motherfuckers" and awkward silences and a live rendition of "Is He Fit?". Needless to say, we were genius. And if you need further proof then check out our prerecorded show over at Altered Radio. It's a half hour of our greatest hits, reinterpretated for fair-weather listeners.
21st FEBRUARY 2004
ATOMIC ART BOMB just blew my mind. One of these days I'll get round to writing about the Brian Dewan and Calvin Johnson shows but if you weren't there you just won't know how weird and fantastic it all was. By the way, 'The Oxford Show' which followed our show and is on for a few weeks at Modern Art Oxford includes an amazing home cinema made by Ted Dewan with a filmstrip running called 'King of Instruments' by him and Brian. It's really cool.
So there is one more live PAM this Tuesday. It should be wicked. I know for a fact we had four listeners last week. And then we will create a pre-recorded show that will be archived for all eternity on the internet.
8th FEBRUARY 2004
So this is it. ATOMIC ART BOMB opens on Thursday at Modern Art Oxford. You will be able to see a big painting by me called ‘New Love’ and a short new film I have made called Mother Nature. There’s going to be a ton of stuff on over the four days including, of course, Brian Dewan and Calvin Johnson. Maybe I’m being delusional to think I’ll see any of you there but it would be great if that were the case. It’s going to be amazing.
I got a letter from the British Library last week requesting copies of every Homelovin’. Isn’t that cool? You see, it’s like a slightly less good immortality.
This Tuesday’s PAM Sounds will be the last proper live two hour show for a while. We’re going to be doing some shorter recorded shows for the Altered Radio webpage after that – so then you’ll have no excuse not to listen and I’ll be able to stop preceding the word ‘friends’ with ‘so-called’.
31st JANUARY 2004
I don't need to tell you that PAM Sounds Radio returned last Tuesday because you were all listening. As ever, it was great fun and the page has all the songs we played. As good as that music is it is but the icing on the cherry of PAM. There's a whole world in those two hours. There's going to be two or three more live shows and then some recorded shows that'll be on the Altered Radio page. It's all too much.
There's a ton of other BIG announcements but they must wait.
11th JANUARY 2004
Crazy isn't it? Brian Dewan and Calvin Johnson are flying over to England to perform at Modern Art Oxford. In a small way I feel partly responsible.
7th JANUARY 2004
"Hi, it's me," is how I'm going to start phone conversations from now on. That is my New Year's Resolution.
Please take a look at the new Drawings page I've done.
PAM Sounds Radio will return towards the end of the month and I can't wait for that. Me and Abs are raring to go!
And there's this something, this live music show I'm involved in planning, for February, which'll feature two Homelovin' greats and if it happens (if it doesn't all crumble to the ground like so many other of my ill-fated projects) then it'll be INCREDIBLE! As soon as it's 100% confirmed I'll let you know...
11th DECEMBER 2003
Did you hear PAM Sounds? No? Well it was a joy, I loved it and it was really gathering momentum when they pulled the plug six shows in. But hey, I reckon we broadcasted some fine songs and words to our twelve listeners. I've archived the playlists and the lyrics to all of Alex's raps and there's also a transcript of a monologue I wrote called "Abs-Fans". Word is that PAM Sounds will return next year so be sure not to fail yourself again.
1st NOVEMBER 2003
PAM Sounds has been born and is still living - but not for long! So why don't you quit wasting your life and listen, because I promise you this is my chance to refine my Screw You High Five theories into something my parents can feel proud of. And there'll be human beatbox aplenty. So let us unite online at Altered Radio every Wednesday 6-8pm GMT.
18th OCTOBER 2003
Here is some news about a couple of HUGE Homelovin’ events which can only be described as historic.
PAM Sounds, my as yet mysterious radio adventure, will begin this Wednesday and run for the next few weeks on Altered Radio.
‘Fear Your Parents’ is a show of some of my almighty paintings (they're not very similar to the technical drawing on this webpage) and it runs from the 27th to the 31st of October at:
The Ruskin
PAM Sounds could go either way. 'Fear Your Parents' will be nothing less than amazing. And what's more, you will probably be unable to share in either of these special moments...
3rd OCTOBER 2003
All in all I quite liked September.
It would have been very easy for me to protire, such was the productivity of the past few weeks. But I am committed. Here’s a short review from Think Small:
Homelovin' is een Engels fanzine, dat gratis te krijgen als je wat postzegels opstuurt. Op de wat rommelige website vind je onder meer een interview met Elephant 6-band The Music Tapes.
I’m currently posting loads and loads of copies of the new fanzine out to pretty much anyone. Do you want one? It’s around this time that I begin to really question the sanity of the world in the face of such ignorance to Homelovin’. It truly astounds me.
Anyway, I keep changing things around here in an attempt to make the paper fanzine and webpage an aesthetically integrated whole. I’ve done an illustration for my essay “You’re What?” and written a new essay entitled “Golden Flesh”.
15th SEPTEMBER 2003
Boy o boy o boy o boy. Well that's that and the new fanzine is done. What a waste of everybody's time, mine included. See for yourself.
6th SEPTWMBER 2003
The last news was standoffish and unfriendly. I'm very near to being able to say there's a new Homelovin'. It'll be all wrapped up shortly, I just have to go to one show on Monday that is going to blow my mind and I'll have to write about it. But this webpage is supposed to be a fanfare.
2. Photographs of some old paintings
3. A transcription of the spoken word introduction to the prerecorded PAM Sounds show
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