A few weeks ago I was part of the cast for the new Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds video "More News From Nowhere". Another person in the video was the writer Will Self. In the film he sits at the bar and does a crossword puzzle. He was filming his bit when I got to the old Raymond's Revue Bar in Soho where the shoot was taking place. After he'd finished his part he went home and left his prop newspaper behind.
Later, while I was aimlessly wandering around waiting for the lighting to be set-up or some such technical detail I took a look at Self's crossword. He had filled it all in but with words that bore no relation to the clues. These were all proper words. In fact they were proper Selfian, or is it Self-ish words like: perfidy, carillon, phylum and quincunx. And they all slotted into the crossword grid perfectly. It was a revelation to me. Nobody I have now asked has ever seen a crossword done like this before. I wonder if it's a common distraction for dissolute braniacs like Self who care not for the rules or questions of regular crossword compilers but prefer to squeeze their vocabulary into artificially restrictive grids like some form of mental B&D.
It's fun though. Try it. It's more difficult than you think. Like playing Scrabble through a maze. And the video is good too. You can see Self in crossword action. And you can see me. Oh yeah, and you can see Nick Cave too.
the first journalism Lake ever had published was a history of Johnny Thunders for Record Collector magazine, since then he has written for publications including the Guardian, Dazed and Confused, the Idler and more recently, outsideleft.com as you have just seen.
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Alan Devey, Alex V. Cook, Alwyn S, Ancient Champion, Andy Allison, Annemiek, Belle Plankton, Bruce Bailey, Caiomhin Millar, Chantal, Cheiron Coelho, Chris Connolly, Christian Present, Damon Hayhurst, Dan Breen, David Hackney, Debra Ifill, Denni Boyd, Dirty Lillie, Duncan Jones, Emerson O'Sullivan III aka FancyLad, Erin Pipes, Erin Scott, Eswin21, Guilaine Arts, H.xx, Hamilton High, Henderson Downing, Holly Martins, J. Charreaux, Jason Lewis, Jaycentee, Jennifer Lynn, Jeremy Gluck, Joe Ambrose, Julie O, Karl Morgan, Katherine Pargeter, Kelsey Osgood, Kevin McHugh, Lake, Lee Paul, Luke Skinner, Malcolm, Marek Pytel, Mark Piggott, Meave Haughey, Michelle Williams, mindy strouse, Paul Hawkins, Peter Williams, Pixie McMowat, Rene Williams, Rick Casson, Ronan Crinion, Ruby Lake, Ryan 'RJO' Stewart, Samantha Charles, Seth Sherwood, Shane O'Reilly, Speedie John, Founders: Alarcon & Lamontpaul.
If Outsideleft had arms they would always be wide open and welcoming to new writers and new ideas. If you've got something to say, something a small dank corner of the world needs to know about, a poem to publish, a book review, a short story, if you love music or the arts or anything else, write something about it and send it along. Of course we don't have anything as conformist as a budget here. But we'd love to see what you can do. Write for Outsideleft, do. [SUBMISSIONS FORM HERE]
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