Today in 1909, the Futurist Manifesto was published in Le Figaro. Written by Italian poet Filippo Marinetti, it set out the aims and ideas of Futurism, an artistic and cultural movement which celebrated modernity, technology and speed.

Futurism repudiated much that had gone before (the kind of Year Zero mentality that would later inform punk's ethos), and the manifesto urges artists to "Regard all critics as useless and dangerous". This is quoted in the sleevenotes to the Manic Street Preachers' Generation Terrorists, partly as a handy get-out in case any reviewers mentioned that the Manics were nowhere near as clever or talented as they thought they were and much of the album was boring shit which sounded like Guns 'n' Roses.*

Despite Futurism's invigorating beginnings, the movement's legacy is tainted by its association with Italian Fascism, and its impact isn't as widely felt as other 20th century artistic movements such as Cubism and Abstract Expressionism.

Is anyone going to read all that? Fuck it. Here's Rich with the sport...

*Jokes, LOL.