{"id":15226,"date":"2023-04-21T08:44:06","date_gmt":"2023-04-21T07:44:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/subverting-capitalist-realism-ivor-cutler-and-the-cherry-blossoms-of-glasgow\/"},"modified":"2023-04-21T08:44:06","modified_gmt":"2023-04-21T07:44:06","slug":"subverting-capitalist-realism-ivor-cutler-and-the-cherry-blossoms-of-glasgow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/subverting-capitalist-realism-ivor-cutler-and-the-cherry-blossoms-of-glasgow\/","title":{"rendered":"Subverting capitalist realism: Ivor Cutler and the cherry blossoms of Glasgow"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-15224\" src=\"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/e64421104d283097181b12f6cbfcbb93.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1253\" height=\"940\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/e64421104d283097181b12f6cbfcbb93.jpg 1253w, http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/e64421104d283097181b12f6cbfcbb93-600x450.jpg 600w, http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/e64421104d283097181b12f6cbfcbb93-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/e64421104d283097181b12f6cbfcbb93-441x331.jpg 441w, http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/e64421104d283097181b12f6cbfcbb93-768x576.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/e64421104d283097181b12f6cbfcbb93-1x1.jpg 1w, http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/e64421104d283097181b12f6cbfcbb93-10x8.jpg 10w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1253px) 100vw, 1253px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Late in March 2023, I went on a Cherry-blossom Season adventure to Glaschu (Scottish-Gaelic for Glasgow). Some years ago, my Auntie Sandi \u2013 or Alexandra Lucky \u2013 who grew up in the Gorbals there, passed away. When she was dying, she got a number of guide-books on \u2018JAPAN\u2019, to look at the cherry-blossom on the pages, even with no intention of going. How beautiful, I thought.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-13873\" src=\"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Picture1.jpg\" alt=\"Picture1\" width=\"438\" height=\"329\" \/>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>My road in Aberystwyth is called Alexandra Road and has two flowering cherry-blossom trees. The pinkness of the blossom makes me feel like it\u2019s party-time. Nature Aesthetics can be fraught; but I like the idea of Party Nature. Cherry-blossom confettis off trees like party poppers, and it\u2019s nice.<\/p>\n<p>Somebody whose Nature Aesthetic I really appreciate is the humorist, poet, and man of great whimsy: Ivor Cutler. Ivor Cutler was a master of CELEBRATION in a world of GRIM-NESS. His surrealist, absurdist poetics work against the dull monotony of everyday life at a time of capitalist realism (see Mark Fisher\u2019s <em>Capitalist<\/em> <em>Realism<\/em> from 2009 if you haven\u2019t already) \u2013 against the horror of a grey grind, for the joy of a tickly pink. Like my Auntie Sandi, Ivor Cutler grew up in Glaschu \u2013 Govan, not the Gorbals \u2013 and, after struggling with orthodox employment including decades as a primary school teacher, is remembered mostly as \u2013 with harmonium \u2013 a courageous performer.<\/p>\n<p>This year Ivor Cutler would have been 100! To ode his strange brilliance, KT Tunstall made BBC radio 4 <em>and<\/em> Sky Arts programmes saying he\u2019s \u2018the sort of eccentric that\u2019s been <em>s q u e e z e d <\/em>out of the world today and, I think, the kind of person that we should hang onto\u2019. Yes, and in no fat-cat way either; Ivor Cutler\u2019s rare mode of eccentricity no less than subverts and transcends the routine oppressions and exploitations of working-class life and culture under our economic regime.<\/p>\n<p>Ivor Cutler talks about flowers in a snazzy way. In \u2018RIDE OFF\u2019, \u2018The flower \/ leans over the table, listens to my \/ hand feeling the surface of your \/ stocking\u2019. In \u2018NOT ASKING\u2019, \u2018A pot sits on a table. A flower sits \/ in the pot, [\u2026] When you leave the room, the \/ flower, and the pot, and the table \/ stay exactly where they are\u2019. In \u2018HE HIMSELF\u2019, God and human-angel \u2018Trouble-makers\u2019 drink \u2018nectar\u2019 bees make from flowers in \u2018grey areas at the edge of heaven to which the bored sneak off\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>When I turned 30 in February, my friends Meg and H&#8212;&#8211; bought me a cherry-blossom pink copy of Ivor Cutler\u2019s 1997 poetry-book <em>A Wet Handle<\/em>, where these flower-poems come from. The book looks like this, beside my hat hosting Ivor Cutler\u2019s naked punching torso in badge-form:<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-13874\" src=\"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Picture2.jpg\" alt=\"Picture2\" width=\"449\" height=\"337\" \/><\/p>\n<p>As well as flowers-at-large, <em>A Wet Handle<\/em> alludes to blossoms-in-particular (I imagine Ivor Cutler referred to them as \u2018tree flowers\u2019). On page 58:<\/p>\n<p><strong>FACES OF PEOPLE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>April is a tidy month. Trees grow <br \/>their leaves. Dust lies quietly at the <br \/>edge of the path, away from the <br \/>middle. You don\u2019t see footmarks <br \/>often in April; you\u2019re so busy <br \/>looking at the fresh young leaves, <br \/>or, if your neck hurts, at the faces <br \/>of people who are looking at them.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018FACES OF PEOPLE\u2019 talks about trees and people at post-blossom phase; it talks about pleasing cherry-blossom in a world of strife. Before straining necks to see \u2018fresh young leaves\u2019 in Ivor Cutler\u2019s April, you strained your neck enjoying pink cherry-blossom in Ivor Cutler\u2019s March. Listen to how Ivor Cutler reads \u2018FACES OF PEOPLE\u2019&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IAtvRYyIZcM\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" title=\"YouTube video player\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&#8230;&#8230;and watch an extremely delightful record of cherry-blossom in Glaschu here&#8230;..<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/oyZWu6-clXU\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Research revealed that late March was to be a Decent Moment to attend Cherry-blossom Season in Glaschu, so I booked my train and went to Meg \u2013 half <em>A Wet Leg<\/em> giver \u2013 now in Glaschu\u2019s Dennistoun, hooray. Meg had JUST been to an Ivor Cutler memorial event at The Glad Caf\u00e9 in Glaschu\u2019s Southside, and she said it was v. good. The event\u2019s details are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thegladcafe.co.uk\/events\/2023-03-10-glasgow-dreamers-the-songs-of-ivor-cutler-ft-emma-pollock-and-rick-redbeard-the-glad-cafe.\">here<\/a>, and\u00a0\u00a0I asked Meg a number of questions about it, and she kindly provided some beautiful answers:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q: Ivor Cutler\u2019s a weirdo \u2013 did the event at The Glad Caf\u00e9 give him space for it?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A: Yes. There wasn\u2019t much physical space, so the room filled up with weird quite quickly. Weird came from the microphones and instruments of the 5 Ivor-appreciator-musicians, and recordings of the weirdo himself too. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q: Ambience is pretty important. What colour was the event at The Glad Caf\u00e9 for Ivor Cutler \u2013 plz say pink \u2013 ?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A: The event was overall murky.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q: What drinks and or snacks were available at the event for Ivor Cutler at The Glad Caf\u00e9 and would he have liked any of them do you reckon?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A: I had a nice non-boozed booze, but it was 5 whole pounds which I don\u2019t think Ivor would have liked. There were jars of snack-things in the murk. Ivor would have liked the jar things.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q: Finally, was there any presence of flowers at the event for Ivor Cutler at The Glad Caf\u00e9 as far as you could tell?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A: Yes. Verbal flora were present in several songs, e.g. Track 5 of Return To Y&#8217;Hup \u2013 The World Of Ivor Cutler: Instance The Yam.<\/p>\n<p>Meg then sent a sparkling review of Glaschu\u2019s independent-record-label Chemikal Underground\u2019s musical-product from the event; <em>The Guardian<\/em> described it a \u2018charming tribute\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Appearing on telly next to John Peel a lot, Ivor Cutler is also in Faber\u2019s collection of Scottish verse. Before Glaschu, I looked at wider politics of poetry, nations, spring-flowers, celebrating. In <em>sikfan glaschu<\/em> from 2021, sean wai keung explores eateries in Glaschu \u2013 incl. The Glad Caf\u00e9! \u2013 and there\u2019s pink flowers in a dining-table vase on its back cover; at the same time, Wikipedia tells me \u2018common people\u2019 customarily gather in \u2018cheerful feasts\u2019 under flowering trees during times of cherry-blossom. Wikipedia also tells tales about nationalistic potentials of cherry-blossom meanings world-over. Edwin Morgan spoke in the 1980s on international flower politics in \u2018The Flowers of Scotland\u2019; so does Eluned Gramich in \u2018Flowers of Wales\u2019 forty-years-later; no doubt much flower trouble\u2019s in England and both Irelands too. Derek Jarman\u2019s utopian America has \u2018pink neon trees\u2019 on \u2018silver lawns\u2019 in <em>Through the Billboard Promise Land Without Ever Stopping<\/em> in 1971 \u2013 \u2018just look at the flowers of spring\u2019, \u2018the blossoms dropping\u2019. Poetic flowers make political points.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-13875\" src=\"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Picture3.jpg\" alt=\"Picture3\" width=\"434\" height=\"325\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Arriving at GLASCHU CENTRAL STATION on a Wednesday there\u2019s cherry-blossom immediately, fake on the walled-terrace of a fancy-looking restaurant. It\u2019s a different blossom to when Laura Grace Ford in her 2018 poetic prose <em>Radiant Futures<\/em> describes the old Gorbals\u2019s demolition as an \u2018obscene blossoming\u2019. Seeking \u2018Alexandra Park\u2019 for cherry-blossom hunting on Thursday, Meg and I crossed Cumbernauld Road leading to new-town Cumbernauld; it\u2019s here Laura Grace Ford\u2019s friend\u2019s inner-city gran is displaced in a spate of post-war \u2018regeneration\u2019 (read \u2018gentrification\u2019). It\u2019s all a bit sad but together they imagine a \u2018flowering of new possibilities\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>At Alexandra Park, a line of cherry-blossom trees memorialise people. A goldfinch flies out of one. Robin eats its worms, people roll wheel-BARRAS. Back on the park\u2019s edge there is Alexandra Parade with an Italian caf\u00e9 and I remember you had seen violence. To navigate by cherry-blossom. On Friday, I\u2019m to your house in the Gorbals; pink cherry-blossom tree signals Old Rutherglen Road, with robin and bluetit and another bird inside and this is where you lived though it\u2019s all different now. New Gorbals 1 and 2 on brand-new bike sheds. Pigeons hum, like back in Trafalgar Square. It\u2019s mid-day.<\/p>\n<p>Ivor Cutler\u2019s poem \u2018READY\u2019 in <em>New Departures: Third International Poetry Olympics<\/em> Issue 15 from 1983 speaks endearingly of birds at blossom-time: through \u2018spring fields\u2019, one alights his elbow \u2018singing and laying \/ eggs\u2019 and \u2018drinking the tears of happi- \/ ness as they slid off my chin\u2019. Aside Ivor Cutler in the Poetry Olympics are Kathy Acker, Linton Johnson, Heathcote Williams, William Blake, plus others \u2013 a host of socio-poetic radicals hoping for a better future for the everyday lives of everyday people.<\/p>\n<p>I walk to Govanhill and Mount Florida then back to the city-centre whose big pink PEOPLE MAKE GLASGOW billboards loom out the rainy concrete \u2013 some kind of cultural \/ residential \/ waste-management campaign\u2026 Back at Meg\u2019s, Ivor Cutler watches with sceptical, critical, spectacled eyes in his very own face-badg\u2019d hat.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-13774\" src=\"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Picture4.jpg\" alt=\"Picture4\" width=\"427\" height=\"320\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Like another radical writer also from Glaschu, Alexandra Trocchi, Ivor Cutler praised JAZZ-song to enliven dull post-war modernity robbing people\u2019s fun. After Saturday\u2019s Cherry-blossom Variations at the Barras Market\u2019s \u2018Hong Kong Takeover\u2019, I saw old-fashioned jazz-dancers dancing 2 til 5pm and imagined Ivor Cutler finding it joyful. Ivor Cutler\u2019s celebration poetics cut through capitalism\u2019s infliction of bad-type boredom &#038; ouch-sad functionalism. We must Thank Him.<\/p>\n<p>On Sunday, after paying respects to Ivor Cutler and Auntie Sandi at the Necropolis with Meg, it\u2019s time to go home. Ivor Cutler\u2019s Glaschu cherry-blossom is in my head and my eyes and my heart and my feet, as he raises spirits that might otherwise be razed or erased, truly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Late in March 2023, I went on a Cherry-blossom Season adventure to Glaschu (Scottish-Gaelic for Glasgow). Some years ago, my Auntie Sandi \u2013 or Alexandra Lucky \u2013&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":652,"featured_media":15224,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1660],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/652"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}