Jan Freeman writes The Word column for Ideas.
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« R.I.P., Baudrillard | Main | Baudrillard and "The Matrix" » Wednesday, March 7, 2007Parker on 'Stalking Pete Doherty'Ideas columnist James Parker is always worth reading, which is why I follow his reality TV column in the Boston Phoenix, despite the fact that I don't watch any reality TV myself. This week he's particularly good on the subject of "Stalking Pete Doherty," a British documentary chronicling the sad, creepy, but funny efforts of the depressive documentarian, Max Carlish, to get to know the shambolic Babyshambles frontman. Here's an excerpt from Parker's column in this week's Phoenix: Disaster engulfs the filmmaker. "A long hot summer of love in my heart was coming to an end," narrates Carlish bitterly, "to be replaced by a nuclear winter.” Brokenhearted and vengeful, he sells footage of Pete smoking heroin to a London tabloid. Pete tracks him down and assaults him, with surprising effectiveness. ("He's got a much more powerful punch than you'd imagine...") Carlish, alone in his bedroom, turns the camera on himself like a suicide's pistol: he is weeping, his black eye glistens obscenely, and he recites from William Blake's preface to "Milton": "I will not cease from Mental Fight/Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand..." Find, watch, marvel. You can view "Stalking Pete Doherty" at the Phoenix, via YouTube. Posted by Joshua Glenn at 11:24 AM
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