Boneditch By Ian Bird

www.mrcarapace.co.uk bit of a cheat, this one - here's one of the greatest short stories ever written, a gorgeous cameo of sadness and beauty glimpsed and remembered forever as a blessed wound. yes yes yes, i know that blesse means wound in French, that's why I said it, damn it. Anyway, it reminds me of that sense of sadness and gratitude you get when something fleeting and essential falls into view, and the pain is worth bearing. Hope you enjoy it...

www.mrcarapace.wordpress.com this week's diversion is a tete a tete with Crazy Jane, an old folk witch who we can find in a Van Morrison song, a Grant Morrison comic, in poems by W B Yeats and Amiri Baraka, in Nick Cave and Skip James murder ballads and even in modern TV series like the brilliant Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (it's a little more nuanced that that...) Crazy Jane is the subject of a portrait by a Victorian murderer locked away in a lunatic asylum for most of his life, and is a victim and a confidence trickster both, a temptress and a madwoman - Ophelia underwater and Hamlet with his sword. She's weird and strange and she's everywhere, so you've probably already met her... Hello, Jane... www.mrcarapace.wordpress.com

www.boneditch.wordpress.com A car crash that creates a saint. An abused child who becomes the quintessence of distrust. A playground that runs the world. The world's largest organism. The secret truth of bone disease. The witch who became a saint. The town where only psychopaths are allowed to buy homes. The literary festival at the end of the world... For twenty years Eliot Rent has been travelling the world, collecting stories about the little accidents and disastrous catastrophes that have shaped the world, divining at the epicentre a crazed apocalyptic witch.  This is the story when she finally recognises that face at ground zero, and this is the point when the competition steals ahead and gives this battered world just one more push. www.boneditch.wordpress.com

music by Ed Smith - https://soundcloud.com/ed-smith words by Ian Bird - www.mrcarapace.wordpress.com "Look over there, she said to me, passing me my drink, taking my money. I think they’re going to kill each other. "I looked where she was pointing, out in the car park, but it was too dark already – I could only see the shapes, likes bones underwater, could only hear the screams, and the punches, and the sounds of beating wings..." Thanks for this opportunity, Ed...

www.mrcarapace.wordpress.com i should be writing a horror story, but instead here are twenty minutes of words about Grendel, the demon of society's mediocrity, and how he inspires Batman, who needs a great movie right now... www.mrcarapace.wordpress.com

www.mrcarapace.wordpress.com This time I’m sidestepping slightly to talk about two films I really enjoy, which I wrote about some time ago on my other website, www.mrcarapace.wordpress.com, and which I just stumbled over again – Ken Russell’s 1971 masterpiece with Oliver Reed, The Devils, and Luis Bunuel’s 1967 work of art Belle de Jour, starring Catherine Deneuve. I think both films do an incredible job of describing a strange and rebellious, erotic and devastating heart, and they’re both deeply affecting and amazing fun… www.mrcarapace.wordpress.com