E Y E W E A R, THE BLOG - FREEDOM MEANS BEING UNAFRAID TO WRITE WHAT YOU THINK

Imploding The Mirage , as critics and reviewers will quickly inform you, is a title that refers to the famous Las Vegas casino's demolition, which made way for something arguably even snazzier, or more empty. Born in Vegas, that most artificial and symbolic of American places (famous for gambling, glitz, misadventure, criminal origins, and mass murders), The Killers - named after a Hemingway-based film noir, but following in the footsteps of numerous rock acts that have signalled their outlaw claims with similar names ( Jerry Lee Lewis was called The Killer) - are a very American rock band. That their lead singer, Brandon Flowers , is famously a Mormon and allegedly a straight arrow, albeit flamboyant on stage, only adds to the resonant enigma - they are part of the myth of the American Dream, while in classic post-modern mode, nod to the artifice, albeit a non-nihilistic one with a God. Their inoffensive, hummable songs, mainly about broken hearts, yearning, broken lives, and ho...

This brilliant medic thinks the West is ill-prepared for the pending pandemic. It may seem ironic that the editor of Drawbridge Britain , a book which advocated for humane open borders, would now suggest we (briefly) close them for health reasons, but I do think the time is here to act boldly, and intelligently. Clearly, this is a threshold moment, when action is still possible, to avert unimaginable chaos and sorrow. To stop a disaster of biblical size. Covid-19 is now a pandemic, in all but name . It is in 40 countries, has no cure, spreads easily, and kills 2-3% of everyone it infects; there are expert suggestions the death rate by year's end would equal or surpass that of the 1918 influenza epidemic. It is estimated by government studies that up to 1,086,176 or more UK citizens would die from the virus within a year (based on estimates of 80% infection rates, and 2% death rates), if it begins to spread unchallenged here, as it is now doing in Iran, and Italy. Major e...

ON THE SUPREME COURT RULING AGAINST THE PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT, two sonnets Rain is impartial, it falls On the client, the accuser, And the bewigged court, Without favour, without fervour; The rain functions like law, It delivers its decisions On days of death, days of birth; It touches the heavens, the earth, The in-between citizen; Unlike snow, love or hatred It never thaws; it flows Where learned minds have led… It arises, in distant tumult, Above mortal struggles of those Who would play gods to ants; To go below Machiavel faces, Reading past their blank pages, As a void, to where morals plant Forests that build up parliaments, The wood that grows strong vaults. Rain is not passionate, It is sane, measured, sober… You can drink the rain Unlike wine, and not go wild; Though sometimes, supreme, It makes people run in streets In what is only apparent chaos, To partially plan, partially drea...

Yesterday's parliamentary vote made British history - the government's Brexit deal lost the support of a vast majority of the House of Commons, losing by 230. To put this in perspective, this is the BIGGEST LOSS EVER for any government in UK's history. To make matters worse, the Prime Minister Mrs May, refused to resign afterwards, and seems incapable of adjusting her bearings sufficiently to locate a compromise Plan B that could pass, before a No Deal Ultra-Hard Brexit occurs on 29 March - the so-called Cliff Edge. Meanwhile, the Speaker of the House, Mr Bercow, seems driven to enter history as the man who undermined executive authority in the parliament, moving the control of the order of business from the Cabinet to the back benches; such a transition would represent a revolution no less significant than Cromwell's time, in terms of the sudden shift of power in the land. Making this turbulent, exciting, and deeply worrying crisis in British democracy all the more f...

One is reminded of King Lear, broken on the heath, by the immensity of human loss and suffering. London, and the UK, is reaching a summer breaking point.  As temperatures soar to 31 Celsius, murder, hate and death keeps erupting in weekly events, each unbearable for both victims, and any bystanders with a heart or soul. Last night, a terror attack on law-abiding, decent, and needless to say, blameless, Muslim British people attending a Mosque, injured many. This is awful, and this blog is not going to state the obvious here. But we did not want this event to pass without comment. This blog considers the British Muslim population of the UK to be an incredible, enriching, and valuable part of the whole intermixed splendour that is UK culture and society. Far from being a fifth-column, Muslims in the UK are - as we saw after the Grenfell Tower Fire - as compassionate or more compassionate than any other community - and their doctors, nurses, teachers, engineers, workers, drivers, ...

The Eyewear blog is no stranger to hyperbole - I can go over many of our past posts, as editor and chief writer, and see claims of looming disaster, downfall, or war, that never quite materialised; crisis is the loom on which a poet spins his best writing. The past week in Britain - to be dramatic, in British history - has been different.  It rendered me speechless. While there were some facebook declarations, I could not face this blog, or gain the strength to compose lines on this debacle. I have been profoundly hurt by this nasty decision. It has all been said, and at least as well by others. I think the Downfall video meme, featuring Boris Johnson , may be the best, but Jonathan Freedland, Polly Toynbee, AC Grayling , and others, have also done a good job of sketching out the horrors ahead, and the horrific causes of them. But the past week has just been plain bad for England, the UK, the world - and me personally, too. Since last Thursday I have lost my 12...

FRANKIE SAYS REMAIN No one can predict the Spanish Inquisition, famously, and no one, probably, could have predicted the intensity of the current EU referendum campaign in the UK, which culminates in a vote on 23 June; currently the Remain and Leave camps seem perilously tied, at about 44% support each, with many in the undecided middle.   The most tragic result of the astonishingly vicious, often dishonest, sometimes racist, claims made in the UK media and by some Leave campaigners, was the assassination of the 41-year-old Labour MP Jo Cox , the first woman MP to ever be killed in office in Britain, and the first of any gender for over 25 years. The apparently far-right killer seems to have targeted her for the advocacy of refugee and immigrant rights she was widely known - and admired - for.   Eyewear, THE BLOG  has long supported the EU, and more bluntly, EU integration. There was never a question of this blog endorsing the Leave campaign, but we do ...

THE IDEA OF THE STUDIO AS THE PRODUCER'S INSTRUMENT 5 0 years ago, in 1966, the most important person in the world of pop culture was 40-year-old, thin, patrician-looking smart-suited  George Martin , the Abbey Road, then AIR, music producer who was the Beatles' main ally (the '5th Beatle' of lore) from 1962 to their end; and fifty years later, he still is. For as The Guardian reports today, in interviews with various pop, alt, indie and rock producers, no one has ever come close to bettering what he first imagined, first achieved - not even the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson (who came close).  Nor were Martin's ideas lofty stale things - but the truly best of British - a working-class London East End* mesh and mash of comedy recordings, sentimental string arrangements, melody, harmony, and virtuosic (and stoic) professionalism - he was Sterling when it was Gold standard. As Stuart Price suggests, Martin took the idea of the studio as instrument and made per...

Sad, devastating news - the undisputed world genius of popular independent music of the past 45 years, the chameleon and game-changer David Bowie , has died suddenly, of cancer, after releasing his 25th studio LP, Black Star , on Friday, on his 69th birthday. The Rev. Richard Cole , has called him the greatest Englishman of his time, and he was, without a doubt, the most influential rock/pop musician alive since the death in 1980 of John Lennon . RIP, you man of many parts.

According to Time , The Observer , and David Cameron , "we" are at war with IS. This is debated, but if you consider the murder of 30 British tourists in Tunisia by an IS gunman provocative, and if you believe the news reports that 7 major attacks on British soil were foiled this year alone - and that one is pending any moment - you might think that IS was attacking UK interests. At any rate, the decision facing the British Parliament this week is  - bomb Raqqa in Syria, or not. As is widely known, Labour is divided on this issue, and some Lib Dems and SNP are also unsure it is a wise move, as well as a few Tories; Canada and Australia are not currently bombing Syria, it should be noted. Russia, Turkey, and France, however are, along with the USA. Mr Corbyn's pacifist leanings are not 'terrorist sympathising' despite what the British Prime Minister has said - it is honourable to question going to war. Furthermore, Britain could and should take far more refuge...

HE WEARS EYEWEAR Something actually amazing has happened. Today. Perhaps not an Obama moment, quite - but close. The most left-leaning Labour MP (arguably) - a 500-1 shot - has just been elected Leader of the Labour Party - despite being vigorously opposed by most of the media, all leading Labour big beasts ( Blair, Brown , etc) and the Tories. And he won by a first-vote landslide of nearly 60% of over 400,000 voters (a huge number) - due to his brilliant grassroots campaigning, evident no-nonsense integrity, and lurch (in labour terms) back to solid socialist ground (leaving NATO, cancelling Trident, etc). Britain has - perhaps for the first time since the 1980s, if not earlier - a bona fide strong oppositional figure who represents exactly what the Conservatives do not - an alternative to rampant capitalism and industrial-militarism. Anti-austerity, pron-nationalisation of industries and railways, in some European capitals he would be considered normal. In the UK, where ...

As the world now knows - sadly or happily depending on your affiliations and ideals - the majority of voters in Scotland have said No to the question of whether Scotland should be governed as a separate country, and thus leave the "United Kingdom" of four nations. Tellingly, the pound soared on the news, and David Cameron looked pleased. Anything which makes financiers and Cameron happy is likely to be suspect. I wanted a Yes vote, because I cannot imagine any good reason why the Scottish people, with one of the major cultures of Western Europe, are unable to govern themselves, and because I believe that he governs best who governs least far from home. Far-flung empires and federations are never as accountable to their citizens as more local governments, which are usually preferable, except where state or provincial urges tend to the unethical (one thinks of segregation in the Deep South). In this case, the Scottish government seemed motivated by a rather benign sense of...

Today is a day for British citizens - and I am one of them - to pause, and reflect on what their politicians have done in their name.  For this morning, Britain is - depending on your politics of war - either a seriously diminished, paltry thing, isolated and deflated - or a nation that has shown it is nobody's lapdog, and that parliament is indeed in charge.  This is the day that lays to rest Labour's sins under Blair , and that dodgy dossier - or, makes Ed Milliband the new Neville Chamberlain .  For make no mistake, yesterday's vote against the PM's declared aim to take Britain into war against the Assad regime is historically momentous - never before has a British Prime Minister had their war plans kiboshed in such a way.  It is, depending on your view, a humiliation or a triumph, or maybe both. Eyewear's view is that it is a potential tragedy, for the following reasons: while it is good that the primacy of parliament was upheld, it is not clear such a domes...

On Thursday, July 25 th at noon, within seconds, I went from being a middle-aged slightly chubby university lecturer and poet, to a man bizarrely christened into the world of Boy Band mega-celebrity.   For, as the police report confirms, I was assaulted, that moment, by several members of The Wanted , famous bad boy antagonists to One Direction – and, as linked to manager Scooter Braun , tied into the heady milieu that also includes Justin Bieber , and his balcony-spitting entourage.   Cue their hit song “All Time Low”. What I don’t want to do here is go over old, and stained ground, but to express my astonishment at just how privileged and above-it-all (literally) this celebrity culture is.   For, in a sort of grotesque re-run of Marie Antoinette , the “boys” seem to have decided to drench me with a bucket load of champagne as I nonchalantly passed beneath their window. The undisputed facts of the case are this, according to the police report.   I...

  Edwin Smet's gift to me for the occasion... I am glad to report that I will be become British tomorrow morning, April 3, in Marylebone, London, at the same venue where Paul McCartney was once married.  That's British.  I am greatly excited and honoured. In honour of the occasion, I am about to post a list of SI XTY OR SO things, PERSON S, PLACES, that are among the "Best of British" in terms of the interests of this blog - Poetry, pop Culture, and Politics...

Eyewear 's belief in the 2012 London Olympics has been totally vindicated, not least by Jonathan Freedland and Blake Morrison , both writing lyrically in today's Guardian .  One of the greatest games ever held - and surely the fairest, with no teams boycotting and women represented as never before - it has showcased a bold, lively, upbeat, good Britain - filled with enthusiastic, celebratory people able to enjoy the successes of themselves and others.  The nay-sayers are wrong about the Olympics, and always were - its ideals are real, as are its golden gifts.  The Games inspire and reveal the best of ourselves - as competitors, as hosts and as audience.  I am proud to live in London, and to be on track to get British citizenship.  I have lived in London for 9 years now, and am happy to be here.  British people, too often sold short by their media and their bankers and their politicians - have risen to the occasion, and vaulted over the establishment to mak...

The Olympics looms - it has always felt central to the Eyewear story, because the blog began just as the Olympics was announced for here, way back in July 2005 , 7 years ago (yes, this is our 7th year!).  And there is every chance it will be a great Games, and Team GB will do very well, perhaps coming in fourth in the medal tables.  However, the news today is more grim than that gold lining implies - the UK is in serious recession.  The economy has shrunk 4% in the last few years, and, according to the BBC analysis, this is now the worst financial crisis the UK has faced, outside of the war years, in the last hundred years - that is, worse than the Great Depression, or the 70s.  So, as Eyewear faces forward, it does so chastened, and concerned.  Yes, poetry matters, and yes, it needs to be published.  But the perilous state of the nation is of grave concern also, and overhangs other considerations.  Let us try to enjoy the remarkable hot sun, and mov...

Diamond Bob We have recognized that banks need to become better citizens Now there's a man you'll hear about most anywhere you go. and that our ability to do this is critical His holdings are in Texas and his name is Diamond Joe. to generate long term value for shareholders. And he carries all his money in a diamond-studded jar. This is not philanthropy He never took much trouble with the process of the law. – it’s about using Barclays' unique skills and resources I hired out to Diamond Joe, boys, did offer him my hand. to deliver real commercial benefits He gave me a string of horses so old they could not stand. in a way that also creates sustainable value for society. And I nearly starved to death, boys, he did mistreat me so. We have made firm progress against our Citizenship agenda And I never saved a dollar in the pay of Diamond Joe. in 2011, delivering benefits to the real economy. Now his bread it was corn dodger and his meat...

It is, I think, a wonderful coincidence, that, just as Britain's PM, David Cameron , announces in Oxford that Britain is a Christian country (tolerant, however, of other faiths), one of the leading UK artists, Banksy , has unveiled a pixillated priest, representing the worst crimes of the church.  What this shows is that, above all else, the UK is a land of liberty of expression - and this can only be a good thing, so long as the atheist, the agnostic, and the believer, are each permitted to have their say.

The UK is an island, in name, and attitude - at least according to one man, David Cameron, who returns, raising his empty hand like a salute.  While the Eurozone struggles with an epoch-defining crisis that could yet plunge the world (including the UK) into deep recession, or worse, our PM fiddles with party politics.  As one French wag put it today, the Tories are acting like a man going to a wife-swapping party, without his wife.  Indeed.  It is time for the voters of Britain to decide, whether they see a future inside Europe.  Eyewear does, but also thinks a referendum makes sense - it will force the hand of all sides, and get the best arguments out there.