Despite London Calling being one of my favourite albums, I'd never before realised what the cover was about:




[via Sheila O'Malley, whose now-waning period of Elvis obsession has been a joy to encounter]

Greek minister: axe-wielding fascist

Mark Ames on Greece:

See the guy in the photo there, dangling an ax from his left hand? That’s Greece’s new “Minister of Infrastructure, Transport and Networks” Makis Voridis captured back in the 1980s, when he led a fascist student group called “Student Alternative” at the University of Athens law school.

Withnail is not gonzo

David Edelstein on the Rum Diary:

Rollicking car chases, colorful carousing in tropical settings, psychedelics jags with outlandish special effects: It should be just what the Doctor of Gonzo ordered. But Robinson doesn’t have the gonzo touch. Even if his Withnail & I featured a spectacularly dissolute antihero, it was soaked through with cold rain and the melancholy specter of alcoholism and failure. To work, The Rum Diary would need to make the case for all the excesses that killed Thompson, and Robinson’s heart (or talent) isn’t in it.

[why Edelstein? Because Sheila O'Malley recommended him, entirely accurately, as "best when he dislikes something"