Industry | 2009.11.10
Hugh Muir's diary
What if they threw a party and nobody came? Or everybody came and there was no party
What a night it should have been. The cream of the literati don\'t want for occasions to meet and congratulate and bitch and brag, but the Sunday Times books\' Xmas party is special. Long awaited all year round, invitations are like gold dust. So how to console them. Though invitations have gone out, the party has been postponed, kicked into the grass until March. And they don\'t know why. Some say there has been a clash with what must be an even more fabulous occasion, others fear it may signal a downgrading of the mighty books operation. Others blame the accountants. But no one knows for sure because the Sunday Times itself won\'t tell. 9 December was the date. The Reform Club in London was the venue. So be kind to any creative types seen loitering outside, for news of the postponement might not reach everyone. Break it gently. Give them strong drink.
No sooner had Harriet Harman told MPs that Professor Ian Kennedy had been appointed "chair-designate of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority" – the new parliamentary watchdog – than an aggrieved and plummy voice cried out from the Tory benches: "Chairman!" And who was that brute? It was hard to be sure. But Harriet will find him.
At one point during his meeting with the press, expenses-buster Sir Christopher Kelly appeared to wander off track. He explained that his weak throat was due to catching something while working with lots of kids in his capacity as chair of the NSPCC. Pause for effect. "Incidentally, I have just won a bet with them that I would find a way of mentioning them in the course of this press conference," he gloated. Winnings to be declared, naturally.
Our search for useful and contemporary proverbs elicits this from reader Sion Whellens. "Jim Woodley, my colleague at the workers\' co-operative Calverts North Star Press, and long since retired, had a saw which would apply for politicians and hard-pressed banking staff alike," he says. "You can never do enough for a good boss – so when you find one, shoot him before he turns bad." Jim\'s grasp of workplace relations wasn\'t what it could have been. For all that, we are grateful.
Fireworks at the Oxford Union this evening when Charles Thomson, leader of the Stuckists , clashes with Dr Stephen Deuchar, director of Tate Modern. To their surprise, the Stuckists, who believe that people should paint and draw in the traditional way, find themselves supported by none other than Mark Leckey, who won the Turner prize in 2008 with his "industrial lights" installation. Thomson says he is mystified. "Leckey is a conceptual artist, if he thinks that he isn\'t, he is sadly mistaken." That\'s fighting talk. A tad ungrateful too. Remember, Leckey is trying to help him.
Still, each to his own. And because art requires experimentation, there will be something just a little different among the masterworks at Tate Britain. The world as seen by Viz magazine. More specifically, the world as it appears through the careworn eyes of Roger Mellie, the foul mouthed, uncensorable Man On The Telly. This week represents a milestone for the scabrous, phenomenally successful Viz, 30 years old and celebrated on Tuesday with an exhibition of original artwork at the Cartoon Museum in London. But final proof of the magazine\'s journey into the establishment comes next June, when we learn that the team will take charge of their own section of the Tate as part of a season on social satire. Nothing has been ruled out, so the expectation is displays of work featuring the full list of characters, such as Biffa Bacon, Sid The Sexist, Buster Gonad, Johnny Fartpants, Spoilt Bastard and Mrs Brady Old Lady. The Viz cartoons, highly regarded by those who know about comedy and artworks, will take their place alongside the traditional satire of Hogarth and Cruickshank, and Tate types say they will blend in nicely. Roger, as curator, will write the accompanying plaques. Profanity is all he knows. Sensitive souls, be warned.
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/[...]imes-party-kelly-stuckists-viz
