Following consultations with everyone concerned a final statement will be made in the next few hours.
Ossian
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Update: The judgment of Solomon
Dear Angry Willesden Herald Readers,
We apologise again for any upset we caused - it was all my (Zadie's) fault. Stephen is innocent! Better luck next year I guess. Power to the people, etc.
Yours,
Zadie, Stephen and co.
Note/update: Well, we tried. See Bilal's report for the final outcome/ decision/ result. (Ed.)
We apologise again for any upset we caused - it was all my (Zadie's) fault. Stephen is innocent! Better luck next year I guess. Power to the people, etc.
Yours,
Zadie, Stephen and co.
Note/update: Well, we tried. See Bilal's report for the final outcome/ decision/ result. (Ed.)
The art of argument
Breaking news: Short story competition result 2008
Dear Willesden Herald Readers,
This is a difficult thing to write. Just like everybody, we at The Willesden Herald are concerned about the state of contemporary literature. We are depressed by the cookie-cutter process of contemporary publishing, the lack of truly challenging and original writing, and the small selection of pseudo-literary fictio-tainment that dominates our chain bookstores. We created this prize to support unpublished writers, and, with our five grand, we put our money where our mouths are. We have tried to advertise widely across this great internet of ours and to make the conditions of entry as democratic and open as we could manage. There is no entry fee, there are no criteria of age, race, gender or nation. The stories are handed over to the judges stripped of the names of the writers as well as any personal detail concerning them (if only The Booker worked like that!) Our sole criterion is quality. We simply wanted to see some really great stories. And we received a whole bunch of stories. We dutifully read through hundreds of them. But in the end – we have to be honest – we could not find the greatness we’d hoped for. It’s for this reason that we have decided not to give out the prize this year.* This doesn’t make anyone at The Willesden Herald very happy, but we got into this with a commitment to honour the best that’s out there, and we feel sure there is better out there somewhere.
Now I would like to lose the collective pronoun and speak personally for a moment. I am very proud to be patron of this prize. I think there are few prizes of this size that would have the integrity not to award a prize when there is not sufficient cause to do so. Most literary prizes are only nominally about literature, they are really about brand consolidation – for beer companies, phone companies, coffee companies even frozen food companies. The little Willesden Herald Prize is only about good writing, and it turns out that a prize faithfully recognizing this imperative must also face the fact that good writing is actually very rare. For let us be honest again: it is sometimes too easy, and too tempting, to blame everything that we hate in contemporary writing on the bookstores, on the corporate publishers, on incompetent editors and corrupt PR departments – and God knows, they all have their part to play. But we also have our part to play. We also have to work out how to write better and read better. We have to really scour this internet to find the writing we love, and then we have to be able to recognize its quality. We cannot love something solely because it has been ignored. It must also be worthy of our attention.
Once again, the judges and I, we are absolutely certain there is great writing out there on this internet. Many of the entries we received suggested it. But we didn’t receive enough. And now, in order to try and draw whatever great writing is out there towards this little website, maybe my fellow judges and I need to be a bit more specific about what we’re looking for. Actually, as it always is with writing and reading, it’s more useful to say what we’re not looking for.
For I have thought, reading through these entries, that maybe the problem with this prize is that my name is attached to it. To be very clear: just because this prize has the words Willesden and Zadie hovering by it, does not mean that I or the other judges want to read hundreds of jolly stories of multicultural life on the streets of North London. Nor are we exclusively interested in cutesy American comedies, or self-referential post-modern vignettes, or college satires. To be even clearer: if these things turn up and are brilliantly written, they will not be ignored. But we also welcome all those whose literary sympathies lie with Rimbaud or Capote, with Irving Rosenthal or Proust, with Svevo or Trocchi, with Ballard or Bellow, Denis Cooper or Diderot, with Coetzee or Patricia Highsmith, with street punks or Elizabethans, with Southern Gothic or with Nordic Crime, with Brutalists or Realists, with the Lyrical or the Encyclopedic, in the ivory tower, or amongst the trash that catches in the gutter. We welcome everybody. We have only one principle here: MAKE IT GOOD.
So, let’s try again, yes? All the requirements for entry you will find below.
I’m very sorry for any disappointment caused this year, but this prize will continue and we hope it will get stronger with each year that passes. And we promise you now and forever: it will never be sponsored by a beer company.
Yours sincerely,
Zadie Smith
* For more details, please see 1) Bilal's report, 2) Disposition of the prize money, 3) Common faults in short stories submitted. 4) The latest competition pages (updated 2016). Ed.
This is a difficult thing to write. Just like everybody, we at The Willesden Herald are concerned about the state of contemporary literature. We are depressed by the cookie-cutter process of contemporary publishing, the lack of truly challenging and original writing, and the small selection of pseudo-literary fictio-tainment that dominates our chain bookstores. We created this prize to support unpublished writers, and, with our five grand, we put our money where our mouths are. We have tried to advertise widely across this great internet of ours and to make the conditions of entry as democratic and open as we could manage. There is no entry fee, there are no criteria of age, race, gender or nation. The stories are handed over to the judges stripped of the names of the writers as well as any personal detail concerning them (if only The Booker worked like that!) Our sole criterion is quality. We simply wanted to see some really great stories. And we received a whole bunch of stories. We dutifully read through hundreds of them. But in the end – we have to be honest – we could not find the greatness we’d hoped for. It’s for this reason that we have decided not to give out the prize this year.* This doesn’t make anyone at The Willesden Herald very happy, but we got into this with a commitment to honour the best that’s out there, and we feel sure there is better out there somewhere.
Now I would like to lose the collective pronoun and speak personally for a moment. I am very proud to be patron of this prize. I think there are few prizes of this size that would have the integrity not to award a prize when there is not sufficient cause to do so. Most literary prizes are only nominally about literature, they are really about brand consolidation – for beer companies, phone companies, coffee companies even frozen food companies. The little Willesden Herald Prize is only about good writing, and it turns out that a prize faithfully recognizing this imperative must also face the fact that good writing is actually very rare. For let us be honest again: it is sometimes too easy, and too tempting, to blame everything that we hate in contemporary writing on the bookstores, on the corporate publishers, on incompetent editors and corrupt PR departments – and God knows, they all have their part to play. But we also have our part to play. We also have to work out how to write better and read better. We have to really scour this internet to find the writing we love, and then we have to be able to recognize its quality. We cannot love something solely because it has been ignored. It must also be worthy of our attention.
Once again, the judges and I, we are absolutely certain there is great writing out there on this internet. Many of the entries we received suggested it. But we didn’t receive enough. And now, in order to try and draw whatever great writing is out there towards this little website, maybe my fellow judges and I need to be a bit more specific about what we’re looking for. Actually, as it always is with writing and reading, it’s more useful to say what we’re not looking for.
For I have thought, reading through these entries, that maybe the problem with this prize is that my name is attached to it. To be very clear: just because this prize has the words Willesden and Zadie hovering by it, does not mean that I or the other judges want to read hundreds of jolly stories of multicultural life on the streets of North London. Nor are we exclusively interested in cutesy American comedies, or self-referential post-modern vignettes, or college satires. To be even clearer: if these things turn up and are brilliantly written, they will not be ignored. But we also welcome all those whose literary sympathies lie with Rimbaud or Capote, with Irving Rosenthal or Proust, with Svevo or Trocchi, with Ballard or Bellow, Denis Cooper or Diderot, with Coetzee or Patricia Highsmith, with street punks or Elizabethans, with Southern Gothic or with Nordic Crime, with Brutalists or Realists, with the Lyrical or the Encyclopedic, in the ivory tower, or amongst the trash that catches in the gutter. We welcome everybody. We have only one principle here: MAKE IT GOOD.
So, let’s try again, yes? All the requirements for entry you will find below.
I’m very sorry for any disappointment caused this year, but this prize will continue and we hope it will get stronger with each year that passes. And we promise you now and forever: it will never be sponsored by a beer company.
Yours sincerely,
Zadie Smith
* For more details, please see 1) Bilal's report, 2) Disposition of the prize money, 3) Common faults in short stories submitted. 4) The latest competition pages (updated 2016). Ed.
Monday, February 04, 2008
Tuesday on their minds
Why I'm Voting For Obama
"Voting in presidential elections usually means picking the lesser evil among the politicians running for office, but this time I found a candidate I'm genuinely excited about: Barack Obama. Voting in presidential elections usually means picking the lesser evil among the politicians running for office, but this time I found a candidate I'm genuinely excited about: Barack Obama." (Laila Lalami)
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Pretend movie
Pretend Genius promo. (Press F11 to see full screen.)
All sorts of warnings pop up when running this. Apparently it's made of some deadly stuff, but it all came from one of Microsoft's own programs, so I don't know what they're worrying about.
If that doesn't work, you could try this strange musical version.
Simon Moribund
Advert by Gombeen™
All sorts of warnings pop up when running this. Apparently it's made of some deadly stuff, but it all came from one of Microsoft's own programs, so I don't know what they're worrying about.
If that doesn't work, you could try this strange musical version.
Simon Moribund
Advert by Gombeen™
Friday, February 01, 2008
The Angel of the South
Channel 4 - News - An angel for the south?
Giant surveillance mast by yours truly, ripped off by some nerk
T-Boy
Beijing 2008
Video: Living under house arrest
"Chinese state security police have arrested one of the country’s most prominent civil rights activists, Hu Jia. In a video diary, he recorded life under house arrest – and round-the-clock surveillance – with his wife, Zeng Jinyan" (Guardian)
Tyranny is a creature with a thousand arseholes.
Celebrate 60 years of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Article 1: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
...
Article 30: No governments, groups or individuals should destroy any of these rights and freedoms.
Zoz
"Chinese state security police have arrested one of the country’s most prominent civil rights activists, Hu Jia. In a video diary, he recorded life under house arrest – and round-the-clock surveillance – with his wife, Zeng Jinyan" (Guardian)
Tyranny is a creature with a thousand arseholes.
Celebrate 60 years of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Article 1: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
...
Article 30: No governments, groups or individuals should destroy any of these rights and freedoms.
Zoz
Marvellous new resource online
Atlantic Online
"Beginning today, TheAtlantic.com is dropping its subscriber registration requirement and making the site free to all visitors. Now, in addition to such offerings as blogs, author dispatches, slideshows, interviews, and videos, readers can also browse issues going back to 1995, along with hundreds of articles dating as far back as 1857, the year The Atlantic was founded."
Ossian
"Beginning today, TheAtlantic.com is dropping its subscriber registration requirement and making the site free to all visitors. Now, in addition to such offerings as blogs, author dispatches, slideshows, interviews, and videos, readers can also browse issues going back to 1995, along with hundreds of articles dating as far back as 1857, the year The Atlantic was founded."
Ossian
Monday, January 28, 2008
The die is cast
Round and round and round she goes
And where she stops, nobody knows
Jacintha
* Series of Dreams (Bob Dylan, YouTube)
Friday, January 25, 2008
Jazz in Willesden
The Tony T Trio and Guest Artist. Every Friday from 8:30 pm. Café Gigi, Willesden Library Centre. Featuring London's finest jazz artists. Plus jazz bands every second Tuesday and every second Wednesday (syncopated dates, niiice!) Click image for details. FREE.
Hannah Brown, Crosstown
Great film clips and trailers
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Forget Jericho
Ridley's Believe it or Not (No. 5)
Exclusive: Hamas 'spent months cutting through Gaza wall'
"...details emerged of the audacious operation that brought down a hated border wall..." (Times Online)
A large part of a 40-foot by 12-kilometer wall has been felled, lifting the siege of Gaza.
<< Previous | Next >>
Herbert Ridley
Exclusive: Hamas 'spent months cutting through Gaza wall'
"...details emerged of the audacious operation that brought down a hated border wall..." (Times Online)
A large part of a 40-foot by 12-kilometer wall has been felled, lifting the siege of Gaza.
<< Previous | Next >>
Herbert Ridley
Solve obesity and energy crisis together
Eco-fitness
Why not provide people with exercise machines that generate electricity to power their houses? This would encourage people to exercise in the knowledge that they were saving money, helping the environment and improving their own health. Is there some reason why this could not help families work together to fight the obesity epidemic, and at the same time provide a sustainable source of energy?
<< Previous | Next >>
Professor Kronk
Why not provide people with exercise machines that generate electricity to power their houses? This would encourage people to exercise in the knowledge that they were saving money, helping the environment and improving their own health. Is there some reason why this could not help families work together to fight the obesity epidemic, and at the same time provide a sustainable source of energy?
<< Previous | Next >>
Professor Kronk
Bigfoot on Mars?
NASA captures alien figure - Telegraph
" 'It’s definitely Bigfoot. That’s why we’ve not been able to find him on Earth, he’s gone to Mars.' "
Willesden Observatory
" 'It’s definitely Bigfoot. That’s why we’ve not been able to find him on Earth, he’s gone to Mars.' "
Willesden Observatory
Monday, January 21, 2008
Good president, bad president
Obama confronts Bill Clinton over campaign attacks
Imagine two presidents in the White House. "A question for the President...No, the other one." "Nice to meet you Mr President and you too Mrs President, and of course your lovely future President Chelsea." I wonder if they'll bring back the furniture they nicked on the way out last time?
Feargal Mooney
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Home Secretary admits London street fear
BBC NEWS
"'I understand that whilst it's a fact that crime is falling, what you want to know is what's happening on your street; what the police officers in your area are doing and who they are,' she said. 'That's one thing we'll provide to people. Serious violence is something we need to address.'"
Oh yeah, serious violence. That category is burgeoning rapidly. But the other statistics are getting better, so (as Tony used to say) y'know...What is your problem? It's only one category in the statistics. ("Serious violence"—don't even know what it means. Note: ask a focus group?)
The statistics for wheat harvests etc. were superb during the horrendous famines presided over by Mao and Stalin. Similarly "it's a fact that crime is falling" during this present upsurge in serious violence. That's according to the Axis of Bureaucracy in the police, local government and Whitehall.
Feargal Mooney
"'I understand that whilst it's a fact that crime is falling, what you want to know is what's happening on your street; what the police officers in your area are doing and who they are,' she said. 'That's one thing we'll provide to people. Serious violence is something we need to address.'"
Oh yeah, serious violence. That category is burgeoning rapidly. But the other statistics are getting better, so (as Tony used to say) y'know...What is your problem? It's only one category in the statistics. ("Serious violence"—don't even know what it means. Note: ask a focus group?)
The statistics for wheat harvests etc. were superb during the horrendous famines presided over by Mao and Stalin. Similarly "it's a fact that crime is falling" during this present upsurge in serious violence. That's according to the Axis of Bureaucracy in the police, local government and Whitehall.
Feargal Mooney
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Radiohead free music video podcast
If you haven't got iTunes, I highly recommend that you get it by clicking on the link and selecting Download iTunes (it's free). The links in the following only work if you have iTunes installed (iThink (therefore iAm).)
There is so much you can tune into or download for free, including thousands of radio stations from all over the world in a handy list by genre, coming through in beautiful quality, podcasts from highbrow to lowbrow, or my favourite: middlebrow. For example weekly podcasts from the BBC, Guardian, RTE (Irish broadcasting service) etc etc.
It's not all about music tracks, but it can also hoover in all your cds and share them with an iPod, if you ever get one. Whatever you play on iTunes, including your podcasts will all go into your iPod, every time you plug it in, but you don't need an iPod - that's just an optional extra.
If you want to spend money, there are wonderful music videos, including - highly recommended - new John Lennon videos, featuring footage recently discovered. I can't get enough of the new video to Mind Games or Nobody Told Me, not to mention the classics Stand By Me and Imagine. Did you know that Michael Jackson's Thriller is still in the top five selling videos on iTunes after all these years (number 2 in the UK at the time of writing!) While on trivia, Amy Winehouse's album Back to Black has been in the top ten albums I think for over a year(?)
But back to the free! Radiohead offer a free video podcast series from their new "In Rainbows" album. It's not just talking heads, it's real music performances, the latest being "Weird Fishes". If you have iTunes installed, the following link will take you to the Radiohead podcast listing where you can click Subscribe to download from this video podcast series from "In Rainbows" by Radiohead, which lists Weird Fishes and several other videos of tracks from the album for download.
Some of the Radiohead podcasts start with tiny clips from "Scotch Mist - a film with Radiohead in it", and mostly followed then by filmed performances of the tracks. (I wonder if the film ploy is for contractual reasons?)
Stick with your Auntie Jacintha for all the best free music and video downloads. You know your auntie always brings you treats. That's what aunties are for. Maiden aunties, anyway.
Jacintha Pucka
There is so much you can tune into or download for free, including thousands of radio stations from all over the world in a handy list by genre, coming through in beautiful quality, podcasts from highbrow to lowbrow, or my favourite: middlebrow. For example weekly podcasts from the BBC, Guardian, RTE (Irish broadcasting service) etc etc.
It's not all about music tracks, but it can also hoover in all your cds and share them with an iPod, if you ever get one. Whatever you play on iTunes, including your podcasts will all go into your iPod, every time you plug it in, but you don't need an iPod - that's just an optional extra.
If you want to spend money, there are wonderful music videos, including - highly recommended - new John Lennon videos, featuring footage recently discovered. I can't get enough of the new video to Mind Games or Nobody Told Me, not to mention the classics Stand By Me and Imagine. Did you know that Michael Jackson's Thriller is still in the top five selling videos on iTunes after all these years (number 2 in the UK at the time of writing!) While on trivia, Amy Winehouse's album Back to Black has been in the top ten albums I think for over a year(?)
But back to the free! Radiohead offer a free video podcast series from their new "In Rainbows" album. It's not just talking heads, it's real music performances, the latest being "Weird Fishes". If you have iTunes installed, the following link will take you to the Radiohead podcast listing where you can click Subscribe to download from this video podcast series from "In Rainbows" by Radiohead, which lists Weird Fishes and several other videos of tracks from the album for download.
Some of the Radiohead podcasts start with tiny clips from "Scotch Mist - a film with Radiohead in it", and mostly followed then by filmed performances of the tracks. (I wonder if the film ploy is for contractual reasons?)
Stick with your Auntie Jacintha for all the best free music and video downloads. You know your auntie always brings you treats. That's what aunties are for. Maiden aunties, anyway.
Jacintha Pucka
Marvellous photo and video journalism online
Sky News Pictures - World In View
They do these very well. Other online news services offer photo series like this as well, but Sky News seems to have a good eye for them. The standard of photo journalism and video reportage on the web is becoming more and more impressive every week.
Skynews features clips from their TV station, but Guardian and especially Telegraph practically have their own TV stations online, there are so many video reports. Sticking to British sites, naturally BBC News is a leader, with live 24 hour transmission of their News 24 channel. Adding to that the BBC iPlayer which shows all main programs from the last seven days of BBC TV, it really is getting to the point where the old TV sets will be defunct and all TV will be computer based.
Of the overseas providers, one that is always compelling is National Geographic, where seldom a day goes by without video and photo-based reports that are compulsive viewing, offering a good overview of developments in science.
Simon Moribund
They do these very well. Other online news services offer photo series like this as well, but Sky News seems to have a good eye for them. The standard of photo journalism and video reportage on the web is becoming more and more impressive every week.
Skynews features clips from their TV station, but Guardian and especially Telegraph practically have their own TV stations online, there are so many video reports. Sticking to British sites, naturally BBC News is a leader, with live 24 hour transmission of their News 24 channel. Adding to that the BBC iPlayer which shows all main programs from the last seven days of BBC TV, it really is getting to the point where the old TV sets will be defunct and all TV will be computer based.
Of the overseas providers, one that is always compelling is National Geographic, where seldom a day goes by without video and photo-based reports that are compulsive viewing, offering a good overview of developments in science.
Simon Moribund
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Gates bids farewell
Picture: Harry Lemon, Sphagnum
Founder Bill Gates has confirmed that he is retiring this year from Windows™ software company, Microsoft. He is donating most of his money to charitable foundations for the eradication of malaria and other projects. Let's call it penance.
Simon Moribund
Voice analyse TV statements in famous cases
I know the technology may not be totally accurate, but I can't help wondering what the results would be if it was run against the statements of people connected with various notorious cases. Call centres use it to detect when people are lying. The users believe it works, but others say it's not proven. Nevertheless, curiosity demands that somebody run it and let us know. You know what to do. I'm not paid to tell you. This is dry hump number 999, so do it yourself you lot (journalists/cops/enterprising software geeks).
Zoz
Zoz
US tape laughable?
Did anyone else hear that tape supposedly of Iranian speedboat radio operator telling the US fleet they were about to be attacked? It sounded comically false. On Newsnight last night, we heard the crackly and noise-overlaid sound of the US captain warning the speedboats, then we heard this deep, up-to-the-microphone voice saying in English something to the effect of we are going to attack you; as if that laid-back, steady tone could be achieved from a small speedboat bouncing about at sea in the middle of a naval incident. It must have been produced by the same production company that produced those ludicrous, so-called intercepted phone calls supposedly of Iraqis saying "Quick move the weapons of mass destruction, the Americans are coming." (Where did they move them to - outer space?)
Zoz
Zoz
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Thousands of world radio stations on a dial
TUN3R.com
Really clever and interesting way to access thousands of free radio stations online. The way things are operated is sometimes very important, as with the iPod - and something some manufacturers, for example Sony and Microsoft, will never understand in a million years (it seems).
Simon Moribund
Really clever and interesting way to access thousands of free radio stations online. The way things are operated is sometimes very important, as with the iPod - and something some manufacturers, for example Sony and Microsoft, will never understand in a million years (it seems).
Simon Moribund
Saturday, January 05, 2008
Raine on memory
Look back in wonder
"In A Moveable Feast, Hemingway fails to return to his past, he is exiled from his memories, because his prose is writing itself and he is having a hard time keeping up." (Craig Raine, Guardian Review)
Lots of comparing and contrasting snippets from many authors
Ossian
"In A Moveable Feast, Hemingway fails to return to his past, he is exiled from his memories, because his prose is writing itself and he is having a hard time keeping up." (Craig Raine, Guardian Review)
Lots of comparing and contrasting snippets from many authors
Ossian
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