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

The International Nuclear And Radiological Event Scale , from 1-7, has been applied to the disaster in Japan.  It is now set at 5.  This means there will be, or have been, already, "several deaths" from nuclear exposure, and need for some limited countermeasures.  It is no longer a merely local event contained by the plant.  This is cause for grave concern.  We all hope not to see an event 6 or 7.

Eyewear is very glad to welcome British poet Alex McRae  (pictured) this rainy London Friday.  McRae was born in London; educated at Oxford; and now lives in Washington DC, where she works in the media. She won an Eric Gregory Award in 2009. Her poetry has been published in Poetry Review, Magma, the Manhattan Review, Penumbra , and Nth Position .  I met her first when she was a student of mine in an advanced monthly poetry seminar I was running at The Poetry School, which has included the likes of Helen Mort, Joe Dunthorne, and Emily Berry .  She more than held her own in the group and I was very glad to see her work recognised with the Gregory.  I'm now looking forward to her debut collection.  She has a wonderful eye for detail, a good sense of music, and a disconcerting way with an image. Buffalo Billiards I was apart in a green sea of tables, players cocked at the hip over spotlit baize, taking that last behind-the-shoulder glance before committi...

James Christopher Sheppard reviews Femme Fatale by Britney Spears It’s Britney Bitch. Yes, the former teen queen of pop is back with her seventh studio album Femme Fatale . Following the rather pointless Singles Collection from 2009 that was released only five years and seven singles later than Greatest Hits: My Prerogative , new album Femme Fatale shows a new side to Ms Spears; all out dub-dance diva. At least that is what first singles Hold it Against Me and ‘Till the World End would have you believe. Combining the sounds of Ke$ha , Britney’s own Blackout album and the current club crave of bass-heavy dub-step, this should be Britney’s edgiest album to date. Here’s the lowdown, track by track. 1. ‘Till the World Ends Penned by Ke$ha of ‘Woke up in the morning feelin’ like P. Diddy ’ fame, it’s easy to draw comparisons between this and Ke$ha’s last few singles, but this does somehow manage to take you slightly higher than any other Ke$ha song. The very simple c...

Rarely has a day been so fraught with peril and possibility as St. Patrick's Day, 2011.  On the one hand, we have the potential for three or four nuclear meltdowns, that might wreak great havoc on Japan, and on the other, we have the danger that rebel-held Libya might fall to the brutal government forces.  In both ongoing dramas, each of the highest possible orders of importance, brave people are facing mortal danger to try and save the day.  In each case, the outcome is fully uncertain - will the rods be cooled in time, will the West intervene and stop the Colonel?  By the weekend, we may be looking at two compounded tragedies, or two upward trajectories to sunny uplands of hope and repair, or a mix.  Fingers crossed.

The latest news from the BBC, that there is a nuclear meltdown  possibility in Japan, adds horror to the already humbling natural disaster of last week.  The people of Japan have endured much in their history - not least the atomic bombs the West dropped on them in 1945 - and they will come through this.  However, this is still a dreadful challenge for them - and an occasion of great national and international sorrow.  I wish Japan well at this terrible moment of crisis.

Eyewear is pleased to publish a new poem by a former student on the MA in CW at Kingston University, Hudson Hornick .  Hornick is an American writer - a talented young man.  This was sent to me by him lately, and seemed like a good start to the day. Dogs pulling leashes When the light reaches that point of day, when it casts gold windows on your wall, and the lushness of a place that is green in a way that can only be green in a place which rains a lot, but is no longer raining, there is a runner who, beside me now past, has been coming to the park for a while also to run. His face cannot understand why it is so hard for him, or where the effort turns rote, while a purple-stocked vine and its green green leaf grow out and reach.

Sad news.  The great B-movie cult figure, Japanese-American actress-dancer Tura Satana , has died.  Satana, who inspired the Kill Bill! films, was best-known for her tight-costumed pneumatic psychopath in Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! , perhaps the ne plus ultra of camp schlock movie making (sexploitation).  She also dated celebrities like Elvis and Sinatra , before her career took off.  Later, she abandoned her bizarre and novel mix of martial arts and burlesque, and settled down to a series of Joe jobs, but was always a fan favourite.  She will not be forgotten.