Those of us who have long sussed this year of culture as, inter alia, a civic exercise in Bread & Circuses are not surprised by the hype surrounding the mechanical spider "crawling" the city centre's building. I've no wish to unduly endorse a philistine mindset, but it's difficult to see the cultural or artistic purpose of it. It's as devoid of meaning & substance as the risible Beatle Day in the city centre a month or so ago.
True, the spider did provide a fleeting image for the press when Gordon Brown made a brief stopover in town yesterday (loved the "Joke Box" photo-op, btw, Gordon, was that planned?), but it still leaves me cold.
Brown's visit gave rise to a nauseous confluence of bullshit from Downing Street & the Liverpool Echo (http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2008/09/05/brown-says-city-is-on-forward-march-100252-21679039/ ).
The piece's author, Marc Waddington, must wonder why he went into journalism when he's obliged by his employers to churn out bilge like this. It's so craven in tone & "content" that it reminds me of those Tass & Pravda epistles during the Cold War. Brown's spiel for local consumption is dutifully related by Waddington &, boy, does it suck:
"The motto of Liverpool, 'You'll never walk alone' and the motto of Everton, 'Nothing but the best is good enough', show the support of Liverpool and the desire to aim high for the future."
It's the sort of meaningless cant which has been vomitted forth in Denver & St Paul over the last ten days.
Still, it is heartening to know that aiming high & looking to the future will get people through what Brown's Chancellor, Alastair Darling, has called the greatest economic slump for 60 years.
Isn't it?
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