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

Eyewear is a blog that values the rule of law, within reason.  While, a week or so ago, the blog began featuring poems by poets writing on - and often in praise of - the American spy and whistleblower, Edward Snowden , at no time has the editorial policy been to praise or condone illegal activity, even if by a member of the intelligence community.  Indeed, the initial sense that Snowden was a hero has been somewhat dampened by his extraordinary personal flight, from Hong Kong, to Russia, then Cuba, and on to Venezuela, aided by China and Russia along the way. Friends of human rights should take pause at that odd list of allies, for when an agent of espionage is supported by enemies of America, suspicions must be raised.  What is Snowden up to?  Evading punishment, for one thing - but when Eyewear first praised the man, again, before he had been charged with a crime by the US authorities, he seemed to be stepping forward, as Socrates , and Christ , and Mandela did...

There have been several hundred releases this year that have raised eyebrows or popped corks - including David Bowie 's startling return to form, Daft Punk's reinvention of Disco , Johnny Fucking Marr 's album, Iggy and the Stooges (who almost made this list) the new MBV , the Queens of the Stone Age , and a bunch of NME indie bands whose hype lasted one second, or the near-dead experience of Sabbath 's 13 .  I do not follow critical or proper trends when it comes to playlists for the summer - what matters is what actually gets the toes tapping, the blood boiling, the groin itching, the heart racing, the skin prickling, the soul lifting.  One knows a great pop or rock song when one hears it, and such choices are entirely and rightly up to each pair of ears.  So, here are 13 Eyewear picks for best songs of the year so far, and for the summer... CHARLIE XCX - NUCLEAR SEASONS - The most haunting and effective pop song so far in 2013, this recalls the nous of a Madon...

Homeless Chronicles from Abraham to Burning Man reviewed by Nick Houghton by Gerard Sarnat Gerard Sarnat, now in his seventh decade, has brought the precision learnt during his medical career, combined it with the compassion acquired while running staffed clinics for those on the margins of society, to produce a collection of great power. By fusing his own life experiences with those of the outsiders described in the poems, Sarnat has achieved the goal of every poet, that of making the personal universal. In the opening section Sons Rise in the West , the two poems First Times and Whimperbang: Yad Vasheem Revisited , initially seem aesthetically worlds apart. However, the two poems are linked by the juxtaposition of the joyfully erotic in First Times, when the poet’s first sexual encounter is described, basement rendezvous dark and dank, huddled near the furnace, boil boil, trouble trouble trouble, and the bleak evocation of industrialised slaughter in, Whi...

The Quick And The Dead At Easter, we went for lunch And then, in a while, We bought ten red roses And took them to Your parents’ resting-place. The day was beautiful, and sunlight Feasted on the earth.  Our daughter Placed the roses carefully – We prayed, lingered Too long I suppose – The grave whispered Like a lover Unforgotten. I dreamt in the night Of stones falling From a wall. I tried To stop them, but they fell anyway. I woke up sweating To the sound of your breathing And rain repeating Like a vow On the window. Tony Lewis-Jones

MINA WESTBY SUGGESTS ONE OF THE ALBUMS OF THE YEAR IS BY BAD RELIGION Who would have thought that when punk band Bad Religion first became known in 1980, thirty-three years later they would still have most of their original band members, and sixteen full-length albums? Much has happened in three decades, but it was the reunion between Greg Graffin and Brett Gurewitz in 2002 that re-signed them with Epitaph; their first record label and returned Bad Religion to their melodic 80’s and 90’s punk rock sound.    A few months ago, Bad Religion released their sixteenth album; True North. The album contains a vast range of punk melodic songs and eloquent lyrics that truly celebrate the history of Bad Religion. Through the song “The Past is Dead” Greg Graffin buries his differences with Gurewitz, but also looks into a better future and sings; ‘let’s focus on tomorrow instead.’ For loyal fans the album is a reminder of the late 80’s and early 90’s through tracks suc...

Goetia rutilated quartz pyramid, turning on its gold vermeil, braided band, skittered like wee rodent dents on a compact of blotting powder, in trying to open his lid's fallout, not knowing if he actually lifting the the mid portion's diamantes in siam. steering the cell display's form, slung below a glider, with an upright bent. wind warily at the nylon rear of his long rise shorts, tilting the device. cranes it the other way in sighting trees trimmed to the 1000 meter altitude. it pitches again in his balancing by the concrete ledge, the carnelian labret watched sprang ahead of him, toward clamour of flare gases, like in muscle- propelled force feedback. a distended “de morte,” with “transire ad vitam.” pulls him from the propelled reaction from the pounding of a seismic truck's hydraulic weights, rubbing at lower lid margin, he shifts a snuffle by the sliced-off corner of the sofa module. harking for the sanctus, through the strip windows, repeatedly ...