tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54096929695724726982012-01-11T18:56:04.782ZWelcome to my blog. I cover transgender issues, film, music, literature, football and anything else I fancy.Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.comBlogger561100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-13820171408929119542012-01-09T01:24:00.002Z2012-01-09T01:40:24.309Z

Music has always been part of my life, from my childhood and my teenage years in a post-punk band (with Steven Ansell, a proper musician in Blood Red Shoes now) to my undergraduate days co-founding Manchester independent label Valentine Records and my recent DJ-ing at If Reagan Played Disco: Sounds from the Counter-Culture 1979-1990 in Brighton with the legendary Thomas Brain. It proved vital in

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-79999125387143120782011-12-03T00:55:00.009Z2011-12-03T01:39:41.701Z

A response to 'Money: Or, speeding ahead to the cliff's edge' by Musa OkongwaManchester, 2001-2002. Halfway through my History degree, I've decided to stop getting stoned and plan what to do with my life. Having failed to get my band, Zinoviev Letter (seriously) off the ground, and certain that Guillaume Apollinaire, Friedrich Nietzsche and Vladimir Mayakovsky are healthy influences who will

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-7605413436209186212011-09-25T19:13:00.005+01:002011-09-26T07:33:41.009+01:00

Originally published in Cineaste.In summer 2001, the career of Chris Morris, Britain’s most intelligent and controversial satirist, came to a crossroads. His one-off revival of spoof television documentary series Brass Eye (originally aired in 1997) tackled paedophilia, focusing on the British media response to the murder of schoolgirl Sarah Payne the previous summer. This included the News of

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-67056874215765784482011-09-18T18:03:00.009+01:002011-11-11T09:34:19.365Z

I've decided to collect all the football writing I've done for various blogs together in one place, for anyone who's interested.First up, all of my pieces for the multi-award winning In Bed With Maradona are here - personal favourites include:Diagne and the Racial Politics of Les Bleus - on Senegalese politician Blaise Diagne, the first African elected to the French Assembly, and his son Raoul,

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-14897912700310035752011-07-15T07:29:00.002+01:002011-09-26T07:37:41.310+01:00

First published in 1985, Thomas Bernhard’s penultimate novel is a bitter indictment of what is widely considered ‘great’ European culture, particularly his native Austria’s relationship with it. It is set on a single day at Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum, where academic Atzbacher first recalls conversations with 82-year-old Times music writer Reger, who has sat for several hours on the same

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-21771823292384179432011-07-12T06:33:00.002+01:002011-09-26T07:38:18.243+01:00

How I Came to Know Fish recalls some of the happiest times in the sad life of Ota Pavel – and his family. Born Otto Popper in Prague in 1930, Pavel grew up in Buštěhrad, remaining with his mother during the war after his Jewish father Leo and older brothers were transported to Terezin concentration camp, which they survived. On returning, his travelling salesman father Leo changed the family name

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-60680775776221241622011-07-10T21:14:00.003+01:002011-09-26T07:39:05.800+01:00

Best known for his Absurdist dramas, Sławomir Mrożek remains one of post-war Poland’s most celebrated writers. Beginning his career as a political journalist, Mrożek published his third volume of short stories, The Elephant in 1957, just as new Communist Party leader Władysław Gomulka was liberalising Poland after succeeding the Stalinist Bolesław Bierut.The Elephant was a domestic bestseller as

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-37798033290180264052011-07-08T07:42:00.002+01:002011-09-26T07:39:45.012+01:00

Set in a time of social chaos but published in an age of political orthodoxy, Czechoslovakia’s Communist government immediately banned Josef Škvorecký’s debut novel The Cowards on its publication in 1958. The book, having been written in 1948-1949, was eventually reissued with a preface, in which Škvorecký felt obliged to clarify the meaning of his politically charged coming of age story, telling

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-75479704320150095752011-07-07T07:40:00.003+01:002011-09-26T07:40:26.606+01:00

A Short History of Decay is a book that could only have been written in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. Written in French and first published by Gallimard in 1949, its core message is ‘believe in nothing’ – philosopher Emil Cioran’s response to the ideologically motivated destruction wrought across Europe.Born in Romania in 1911, Cioran studied at the University of Bucharest.

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-45457169010335796862011-07-06T07:12:00.002+01:002011-09-26T07:41:32.304+01:00

Best remembered for coining the word ‘robot’, Karel Čapek became one of Czechoslovakia’s most prominent intellectuals after the nation’s ascension from the Austro-Hungarian Empire in October 1918. Establishing himself with R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots), co-written with brother Josef in 1920, Čapek filled the void left by Good Soldier Švejk writer Jaroslav Hašek’s untimely demise in 1923 –

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-11146789637416184622011-07-05T17:02:00.003+01:002011-09-26T07:42:31.009+01:00

Originally published in 1931, and newly translated into English by John Batki, Life is a Dream collects ten short stories written by Gyula Krúdy in Hungary during the Twenties. The earliest in Penguin’s Central European Classics series, Krúdy’s warm, humanistic miniatures chronicle the attempts of peasants, proletarians and the petit bourgeois to escape poverty in the deeply militaristic society

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-37437711729112238292011-05-06T21:38:00.002+01:002011-09-26T07:43:00.782+01:00

A review of the BFI DVD of Ian Breakwell's films, part of their British Artists' Films series, originally published in Filmwaves in 2008.*Although his diverse oeuvre was linked by a highly distinctive voice, Ian Breakwell (1943-2005) operated across so many mediums, exploring so many styles and concerns that his works defy classification. Consequently, his stock within the history of British

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-3754258958710717982011-04-10T12:33:00.002+01:002011-09-26T07:43:30.309+01:00

This scenario for a short film was written in 2007, or thereabouts, and entered for a competition. I don't remember which, but it did not win. One day, I may write the script.The Lesser In Fortune‘The door opened. The light came on. There stood Orwell, armed with his shooting-stick … I looked at his face. Through my private mist I saw in it a curious blend of fear and sadistic exaltation. I moved

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-6762227560361132112011-04-08T13:07:00.007+01:002011-09-26T07:45:02.696+01:00

My relationship with George Orwell began at Oakwood School in Horley, Surrey, in 1997, when our GCSE English class had to choose two texts for our open study. We were told to pick a novel by anyone on a list of nineteenth century authors, and compare it to anything we liked from the twentieth century. I’d long been curious about this book called Nineteen Eighty-Four, about which I’d kept hearing:

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-37582476410278791182011-03-13T09:47:00.004Z2011-10-25T18:06:48.166+01:00

Transcript of a talk given to the Cambridge University Students' Union for LGBT History Month in February 2011, and again at The T Party for Brighton Winter Pride in March 2011.*The history of ‘trans’ people in the media long pre-dates the umbrella term – a contraction of ‘transgender’, which intended to draw together transsexual and transvestite people, as well as anyone else who considered

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-37307357526304683052011-02-24T07:30:00.003Z2011-09-26T07:47:43.400+01:00

Originally published in Cineaste magazine, 2007.In so many contexts a pivotal film, Dziga Vertov’s Enthusiasm: Symphony of the Donbass is, perhaps surprisingly, one of the less celebrated works of the Soviet avant-garde. Vertov’s next project after Man with a Movie Camera (1929), Enthusiasm was Vertov’s first sound film, in which he attempted to enhance his distinctive style with music and noise.

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-58148065925552482552011-02-13T23:21:00.004Z2011-09-26T07:49:07.628+01:00

These reviews were originally published in Filmwaves, 2005-2006.Weekend (1967)More than forty years on, Jean-Luc Godard’s incendiary critique of consumer capitalism retains the power to jolt the viewer out of complacency. Perhaps the most savage road movie ever made, Weekend follows a scheming bourgeois couple (Corinne and Roland) who drive from Paris to the countryside in the hope of illicitly

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-90619411223472450832011-01-24T20:53:00.003Z2011-01-24T21:09:18.830Z

You may have seen in the news that Sky Sports football presenters Andy Gray and Richard Keys have been suspended from their posts after making a number of sexist remarks about lineswoman Sian Massey, who had (it turned out, correctly) allowed a debated goal by Liverpool’s Raul Meireles in their televised game against Wolves.There has been much discussion of how to punish Gray and Keys for their

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-57369407354088547392011-01-19T17:07:00.005Z2011-09-26T07:59:36.029+01:00

Originally published in Filmwaves magazine, 2007.By 1985, many of the diverse currents that had constituted late Seventies British avant-garde film had lost their momentum. Its individual filmmakers continued production, but the Structuralists found that younger filmmakers, particularly those from minority backgrounds, were not always interested in their debates, or strongly influenced by their

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-18544222848340526752011-01-13T14:18:00.004Z2011-01-13T14:47:27.956Z

Originally published in FILMWAVES, 2006.By the mid-Seventies, the London Film-Makers’ Co-operative was the key institution within British avant-garde film. After a decade of intense creativity, the Co-op’s leading artists aimed to define and cement the historical standing of the LFMC, hoping to situate it as a crucial development within international avant-garde film culture.The Co-Op filmmakers

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-18617236367522190062010-12-30T13:48:00.006Z2010-12-30T18:11:45.822Z

My latest Transgender Journey column prompted an interesting response from @foibey, raising several issues about the ethics of the project. As this moved the discussion off topic, I suggested that we continue elsewhere: she expanded in this considerate blog post, and I’d like to respond here.*One of Phoebe’s questions was ‘Are you aware of the way the media encourages the public to treat trans

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-53546484040481531702010-12-19T07:46:00.009Z2010-12-19T22:45:40.184Z

JUST PLAIN SENSE: ExtraOn 17 December, I recorded an edition of Just Plain Sense, hosted by Christine Burns, instrumental in the passing of the Gender Recognition Act 2004. Christine’s Equality and Diversity podcast has featured guests such as Calpernia Addams, Gerald Kaufman, Peter Tatchell and Julie Bindel, and I was honoured when Christine agreed to feature me. The podcast itself is here, but

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-1130114655022313612010-11-14T10:29:00.002Z2010-11-14T10:34:24.873Z

I'm reviewing Penguin's series of Central European Classics for The Raconteur, an online arts journal. The first, on Hungarian author Gyula Krúdy's volume of short stories, 'Life is a Dream', is here.

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-87475886593723900582010-11-07T21:12:00.002Z2010-11-07T21:14:29.108Z

These reviews of films by Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer, issued on DVD by the British Film Institute, were originally published in FILMWAVES in 2006.*ORDET (1955)Ordet was Dreyer’s penultimate film, rivalling Ingmar Bergman’s works in its sober reflection on the schism between orthodox religion and true faith. A pivotal film in Dreyer’s diverse oeuvre, which encompassed a sympathetic study

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-909585953645133072010-11-07T21:06:00.001Z2010-11-07T21:07:28.171Z

Originally published in FILMWAVES magazine in 2006.*The period between the outbreak of war and the mid-Sixties is often characterised as an exceptionally lean time for the British avant-garde. Seventies and Eighties film theorists and historians have tended to largely ignore the Forties and Fifties, criticising the lack of theoretical debate and formal experimentation in post-war British film

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-28144635556456635542010-10-24T08:18:00.005+01:002010-10-24T21:50:55.795+01:00

In a scrappy and often strangely slow game at Carrow Road, Norwich City inflicted a seventh consecutive away defeat on managerless Middlesbrough with a single goal from Canadian striker Simeon Jackson.Both sides suffered midweek defeats: Middlesbrough surrendered 1-0 at stuttering Nottingham Forest in their first match since parting with Gordon Strachan, and Norwich lost 2-1 at home to struggling

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-88577893006664067512010-10-16T22:29:00.004+01:002010-10-17T13:26:57.264+01:00

London has not often proved prosperous for Norwich City who, before returning to the Championship by winning at Charlton in April, had won just five times in the capital since 1999. Although Norwich did not make it seven today, they acquitted themselves well in an intriguing tactical battle with League leaders Queens Park Rangers, suggesting that their place atop the play-off positions is not

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-17693021169235512252010-10-14T20:54:00.004+01:002010-10-16T09:38:53.455+01:00

Slowly, the American media is starting to process the sad story of transgendered journalist Mike Penner, who detransitioned before committing suicide in November 2009, 31 months after he announced in the LA Times that he was becoming a woman – namely, Christine Daniels.Penner – I use this name, and male pronouns (excluding when living as Christine) as he stated before his death that this was how

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-81584379464176631762010-10-05T22:33:00.003+01:002010-10-05T22:35:55.935+01:00

A short story written in 2006, intended to accompany the song of the same song by Manchester band Performance, whose new album, 'Red Brick Heart', is now available on iTunes.KEEP STILLOn three sides of the palace lie desert. To the left, there is a river, flowing towards the capital, three miles north. The six hundred foot palace stands on a site of ten square miles. Its stepped pyramid rests

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-42563075304334496962010-09-20T22:14:00.004+01:002010-09-23T09:51:48.403+01:00

'Great result for France' wrote Florent Malouda on Twitter after his team's 2-0 victory in Bosnia-Herzegovina in a European Championship qualifier earlier this month. 'One win does not mean that we're back to our best but it gives us something to build on for the future.'After their disastrous World Cup, France needed something to build on. Having left unpopular manager Raymond Domenech in charge

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-81682934491578019222010-08-27T15:10:00.005+01:002010-09-22T22:50:52.245+01:00

From the archive: this is an article I published in the Capital Canaries fanzine in 2007, arguing that veteran England international Dion Dublin should be voted Norwich City's Player of the Season for the 2006-2007 season. The honour went to Darren Huckerby - but Dion won it in his second and final season, before inventing a musical instrument and becoming a TV pundit.*When Nigel Worthington made

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-87757893889683341602010-08-26T17:56:00.025+01:002010-08-27T04:46:49.202+01:00

Since the beginning of June 2010, I have been blogging my gender reassignment process for the Guardian website, in a series entitled by the Life & Style section as 'A Transgender Journey'.To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time that the transitioning process (either male-to-female or female-to-male) has been documented in such a mainstream British publication. To the layperson, The

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-56327862311141407082010-08-26T16:49:00.004+01:002010-08-27T10:45:36.028+01:00

Every fortnight, I get members of the knuckle-dragging community coming on my Guardian blog and saying "Why should the NHS pay for this? Stop stealing all my money and go back where you came from! It's political correctness gone mad, except they won't even let you say 'political correctness gone mad' any more! You couldn't make it up!" (I'm paraphrasing slightly, I admit.)Most people living with

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-19108396129926009752010-08-21T00:01:00.004+01:002010-09-22T22:51:25.838+01:00

In film as in literature, the Thirties are remembered as a decade dominated by an essentially Realist orthodoxy. John Grierson and the documentary movement dominate histories of Thirties film just as W. H. Auden and his circle dominate studies of Thirties poetry. But the avant-garde circles of the decade, and the films they produced, were not as homogenous as history has often adjudged. Although

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-83977740690488748802010-08-20T23:37:00.002+01:002010-08-20T23:41:52.302+01:00

In the (ongoing) absence of a website for our band, Standards of Care, here are some of my lyrics for our songs, which we hope to record soon.*STORYTerrace by the roadA life quietly charmedShe never tried to regainGlories painfully pastHer child is from the new worldA suburban RenaissanceAll hostilities fadeAusterity becomes lightImpact questions her faithThe world collapsed in a daySome order

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-61983774000219478142010-07-26T23:47:00.005+01:002010-08-27T04:54:31.716+01:00

On 25 July 2010, I performed the monologue below at Jet Moon's Speakeasy at the Arcola Theatre in Dalston, London. The piece was written in collaboration with Jet Moon, who directed all five pieces in the show, which included performances by Greg Renegado, fellow Guardian contributor Natacha Kennedy, the sublime Jason Elvis Barker, Iris Abras and myself - Jet co-wrote every piece except for

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-35747027073256911592010-07-14T00:56:00.005+01:002010-08-27T04:56:07.580+01:00

A DVD review, originally published in FILMWAVES in 2005.*The combined total of Geoffrey Jones’ cinematic output stretches to a mere 93 minutes. Jones, who died in June 2005, managed to cram an extraordinary variety into those minutes, making films for global corporations and national institutions (and for himself), documenting British industry and machinery, simple human pleasures and the

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-74833481685571282362010-07-10T18:15:00.004+01:002010-08-27T04:56:58.544+01:00

Originally published in FILMWAVES in 2007.*AS TEARS GO BYAs Tears Go By marked Wong Kar-Wai’s move into directing films after several years of writing screenplays that combined romance and action. It opens with low-level triad ‘big brother‘ Wah’s’ cousin, Ah Ngor, coming to stay with him in Kowloon; the plot alternates between Wah’s slow-burning, intense affair with her and his highly charged

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-49961355853210455822010-07-10T18:13:00.002+01:002010-08-27T04:57:49.328+01:00

Originally published in FILMWAVES in 2004.*Jacques Tati is not a neglected director awaiting rediscovery: he is widely regarded as the greatest French comic actor of all time (despite having an ancestry drawn from across Europe), succeeding the tragic Max Linder, and his output garnered much critical acclaim during his lifetime, with his reputation undiminished since his death in 1982. Often

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-52294295932691086162010-07-10T17:32:00.003+01:002010-08-27T05:01:57.817+01:00

Here is an interview with the lovely Marcella Puppini that I wrote for 3Sixty magazine in 2008.*After two albums, a world tour and a Gold Disc with her 1940s-style harmony group The Puppini Sisters, Marcella Puppini is (temporarily) taking a radical new direction. With the eight-piece Forget-Me-Nots Orchestra, Marcella is currently writing Chelsea Songs for the Chelsea Theatre’s experimental

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-70400325996993517502010-07-10T15:46:00.002+01:002010-08-27T05:03:52.318+01:00

Below is a match report on a game between Southampton and Norwich City during the 2006-2007 season. I've posted it here as I think it's an interesting curio - a type of writing that I didn't pursue but maybe wish I had. It was submitted to the Guardian's Football section but not published.*After watching Southampton deservedly triumph in this intriguing contest at St. Mary’s, the two managers

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-39504767492306910162010-05-15T08:49:00.008+01:002010-08-27T05:06:02.660+01:00

Originally published in FILMWAVES magazine in 2005.*‘Fifty odd years hasn’t done so badly in getting an art into the world that fifty more will probably turn into THE art, but now, after somewhat magnificent growth, one feels here is its critical age’ . So wrote Kenneth MacPherson in his first column in Close-Up, the journal launched in 1927 by himself, the Imagist poet H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) and

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-86085614784780066792010-05-13T23:19:00.001+01:002010-05-13T23:23:11.086+01:00

Originally published in THE LONDON MAGAZINE in 2008.*Sometimes, journalists call me and beg me to tell them about Bas Jan Ader. I’ve always told them it’s too sad to talk about, but as time has passed, they’ve become more persistent, so I’ve decided to tell you about I’m Too Sad to Tell You. But this is the last time.*I studied with Bas Jan in Los Angeles. One day he invited me to his studio. He

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-68564224778139733092010-05-09T11:22:00.005+01:002010-05-09T15:25:48.410+01:00

Originally published in FILMWAVES in 2007.*Peter Tscherkassky is, in many ways, a pivotal figure in the history of the Austrian avant-garde. Tscherkassky, born in 1958, was inspired by the two main currents in this history: first the Vienna Actionists, whose post-Dadaistic texts and brutally explicit filmed performances were astoundingly visceral reactions to one of post-war Europe’s most

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-85203762693899505912010-05-09T10:10:00.004+01:002010-05-09T15:26:19.486+01:00

An article on Guy Debord and the Situationists' relationship with film, originally published in FILMWAVES in 2005.*‘The Avant-garde is Undesirable’, proclaimed the Situationist International in 1961. ‘The aesthetic debris of the avant-garde (pictures, film, poetry, etc.) have become both desirable and ineffectual. What is undesirable is the complete reorganization of the condition of life such

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-56081600387697240832010-05-09T09:49:00.003+01:002010-05-09T15:26:34.510+01:00

This is an interview with the trans performance artist Pia, published in Trespass magazine, issue two (2008).*When did you realise you were gender-gifted?From a very early age. When you go to school it becomes more apparent, because you grow up with your mother, and you see a lot more of your mother than you do of your father, so gender doesn’t matter – you’re just a little tiny child. But when

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-24705663400762622942009-12-28T15:32:00.004Z2010-05-09T15:27:07.819+01:00

An article on Susan Stryker and Victor Silverman's film Screaming Queens, originally published in Vertigo magazine in 2008.*Revolutionary movements prize history above all else. Their narratives are constructed carefully: the most powerful interests determine key battles and individuals, intending to maintain their prominence by emphasising their radical commitment from the outset into –

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-25937358622529230022009-12-27T17:11:00.004Z2010-05-09T15:27:53.020+01:00

An unpublished review of Christine Gledhill's book 'Reframing British Cinema 1918-1928: Between Restraint and Passion', written in 2004.*British silent film, since the introduction of sound, has endured a dismal reputation. Kevin Brownlow wrote that British silents never advanced beyond the sense of technological astonishment visible in early experiments by GA Smith, Williamson’s Kinematograph

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-77863197081080504012009-12-27T16:55:00.003Z2010-05-09T15:28:25.460+01:00

A review of Jonathan Coe's biography of B. S. Johnson, 'Like a Fiery Elephant', published in RARE BOOK REVIEW in September 2004.*Like a Fiery Elephant is, essentially, a tragedy, telling the story of one of twentieth-century Britain’s most paradoxical literary figures. B.S. Johnson killed himself in 1973, aged 40, after an extraordinarily productive decade in which he produced some of post-war

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-81977936452904048572009-12-27T16:50:00.003Z2010-05-09T15:28:57.766+01:00

A review of Lucia Puenzo's film XXY, originally published in FILM AND FESTIVALS magazine in 2008.Lucía Puenzo’s debut feature asks the bold question: what does it mean to have to choose your gender?Placing Alex (Inés Efron), an intersexed 15-year-old at its centre, XXY makes a familiar theme – the tribulations of puberty – disturbingly unfamiliar, as the sexual confusion and self-loathing that

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-81167637500559245602009-12-27T16:34:00.005Z2011-11-03T14:07:27.590Z

An article on female-to-male (FtM) transman Thomas Beatie, whose pregnancy in 2008 became worldwide news. Originally published in 3SIXTY in 2008.*When female-to-male (FtM) transsexual man Thomas Beatie announced that he was pregnant, did he anticipate the ensuing furore? The 34-year-old’s conception, described as a “miracle” by Oprah Winfrey, was premiered in The Advocate, a Los Angeles-based

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-19945649804879450192009-11-25T00:08:00.004Z2009-11-25T00:27:56.240Z

Three reviews of films by Derek Jarman, originally published in Filmwaves between 2005 and 2007.THE ANGELIC CONVERSATIONDerek Jarman’s early short Super-8 films were characterised by their intense beauty and eschewal of dialogue, establishing him as a director working very much within a tradition of artists’ film. His films drew in a diverse range of influences – English literature (Marlowe and

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-69128678828495398042009-11-24T23:50:00.002Z2009-11-24T23:58:58.783Z

A review of the BFI's William Raban DVD, originally published in FILMWAVES in 2004.A chimney collapses in a cloud of smoke, and the camera cuts to a scene of regeneration, the construction site around the Millennium Dome. In this moment, the thematic and stylistic evolution in William Raban’s work since the London Filmmakers’ Co-op is encapsulated. River Yar (1972, co-directed with Chris Welsby)

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-91253935609655558262009-11-24T20:10:00.004Z2009-11-24T23:01:12.413Z

A brief article on the murder of transwoman Kellie Telesford, originally published in one80news in November 2007:The tragic murder of trans woman Kellie Telesford – in the same week as the ninth International Day of Remembrance for victims of transphobic violence – serves as a cruel reminder of the challenges still facing many trans people simply in surviving.Ms Telesford, born Kayiode Dexter

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-52592353351834706892009-11-24T20:04:00.003Z2009-11-24T23:00:49.325Z

From one80news, November 2007:I grew up in a Daily Mail household (relax – this isn’t a ‘confessional’). I first criticised its editorial policy when I was eight years old, and started cross-dressing when I was ten. I rarely braved reading it, but deprived of any community in mid-Nineties (meaning pre-Internet) Surrey, anything trans-related caught my eye.Generally, ‘trans-related’ meant an

Juliet Jacqueshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797848850182930956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409692969572472698.post-73452139917020813872009-11-24T18:58:00.008Z2009-11-25T13:29:20.544Z

What better way to launch a blog than with links to a bunch of old stuff? (I'll call it "background"). So here, in no particular order, are a few things I've written that can be found on the web:I wrote an obituary for the writer Paul Ableman, published by The Guardian on 8 December 2006.In September 2007, the Dalkey Archive Press published my book on the English author Rayner Heppenstall. Their

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