The complete guide to the Beautiful Game of Perching. And some other stuff.
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Rap It Up Please
There is an advert on BBC television recently which irritates somewhat. It involves a classical music - rap crossover concert, in which the rapper utters the following lyric.
This is history in the making Posh people, black people Giving you want you ain't seen before You wouldn't have believed it But it's right here in your face
Something like that. What this appears to be insinuating in its naive verse, is that classical music is entirely composed, performed and watched by upper class white people, and conversely that rap music is the realm of working class black people. To me, this doesn't seem to be the message that I think the BBC should be broadcasting. I am inclined to believe that the generalisation of music that this man makes is largely untrue and slightly offensive.
"This is what we do" - What? Perpetuate racial and class stereotypes? Great to see the licence fee being put to good use.
If it were not for the fact that the lyrics were in actuality written by William Wordsworth in 1812, then I would have been forced to write a strong letter of protest to the director general of the BBC.
Guy Richie Chris Moyles Mike Skinner (The Streets)
These are a few of the names I have heard recently together with the word genius in the same sentence. These people are not geniuses, these people are idiots. Mike Skinner for instance - I have heard it uttered that he is "The New Dylan", and even an "Urban Poet". This is simply ridiculous, the man is a shambolic moron of the highest order - talking like a pisshead in a bookies does not constitute poetry. The odious Chris Moyles is about as funny as a debilitating bowel disorder on a slow moving train to Liverpool without toilets. And Guy Richie... I would like to take all the copies of Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and put them and Richie inside a Hitchcock shaped wicker man and set fire to it with a torch with Scorsese's face on it.
First off The Academy 3, Manchester on Friday. Pretty good venue - probably the first "proper" one we've done I think, although I can't see anything particularly more glamourous in it (except maybe a dressing room with seats in it).
Jai and Marc get comfy with the free booze
There were 3 other bands on, which was pretty confusing for people, as the night was billed in the flyer as Jeepster, and a few people came down to see us manage to put in only half an hour on stage. Enjoyed it though, especially the free booze, the nice cross-section of audience, and the chips and naan on the way home!
The audience at the Academy - they were dancing during songs honest!
The Cavern in Liverpool was on the Saturday. An odd one for me because I got horribly drunk and can't really remember that much. We met Rolan Bolan and his band - a great bunch of guys and I'm pretty sure they were more drunk than me - particularly enjoyed Dave's bass chordage, and Rolan's tale of dressing up as Rolando Calrissian every halowe'en.
Me with Rolan and his band. Oh and Pat from Jeepster on the right there.
My fingers are now pretty much in tatters. And there's another gig next weekend.
Not played a gig in about 3 weeks, then we have 2 in a row! Needless to say, my fingers couldn't take the abuse and one of them packed up mid song, so I had to play the rest with a pick - something I've not had to do for years and years, and it showed.
We've got another 2 gigs next weekend, one at the Academy in Manchester, and one at the Cavern in Liverpool, playing with Rolan Bolan (Marc Bolan's son). Blisters are an absolute certainty when playing bass guitar - the strings are thick and heavy, and a break of a couple of weeks without playing cause my callouses to peal off. Then you play again, and below are the kind of results you can expect:
As I was walking into the heart of the historic city of Chester today, I was overwhelmed by a peice of graffitti (sorry, a graffitto) underneath the flyover by the lock system of the canal by Telford's Warehouse. I've seen a lot of these lazy stencil jobs around these days, largely of unimportant people (you know, like Marilyn Monroe and Jesus), but it came as quite a shock to be confronted by one of the greatest movie directors of all time.
Evidently sourced from an image later on in his career, not the moon-faced genius of Citizen Kane era we all expect.
My head was filled with thoughts. - did the "tagger" realise who's face this really was? - what does it mean to stencil Orson Welles onto a concrete post under a dual carriageway?
Maybe tomorrow, I'll create my own stencil of Carol Reid and see what happens.
For those that don't know, Carol Reid directed The Third Man, which starred Orson Welles.
Nothing much has happened in my world of late, apart from turning 31 on Monday (I spit on you twentysomethings) - but in the same way that the year 2001 was the official start of the 21st Century, 31 is the age where I officially enter my 30s, not the age of 30, no sir. There is a logic at work there, and I am sticking to it so help me Lord.
I got a digital camera finally, so prepare for a deluge of indulgent and pointless photography - so far I've managed to run the battery flat twice soley by taking pictures of my own feet, and many cups of tea (or brews as we call them on Earth). Also finally started working on my first ever graphic novel (or "Comic" as they are known by laymen). Described as "Max Payne in Chester", it will be a rendering of a short story I wrote a while ago, using digital photographs and photoshop trickery to create a kind of digital impressionism (yes, it's as pretentious as it sounds) based largely on the work of graphic artist Dave McKean who worked with Neil Gaiman on comics such as Sandman, Violent Cases and Signal To Noise (but obviously no where near as good or imaginative, and not as abstract either). I expect it to be largely rubbish, but I've always wanted to make a comic, ever since reading Frank Miller's versions of Wolverine, and it would be nice to say "I wrote a graphic novel" at parties and see if people really do look at you like your face just fell off.
Not posted here for a while, but it's not due to laziness this time. Oh no, far from it - the main reason is that I've been far to busy making a movie - yes, that's right, a movie.
Although it might not be quite as ambitous as Orson Wells making Citizen Kane when he was 26 - this 5 minute film of me and my mates has been fairly challenging, considering I have never written, directed, edited or even starred in a film before.
Needless to say, the results are quite good and I learned a lot about the process, and have vowed to do things completely differently (no, there doesn't seem to be a How-To and being a director on the internet).
