Music For Your Tape Recorder

This time last year I was quite excited about La Roux. Here was a band I thought was going to finish what Yazoo started. But the voice and the bleeping began to grate. Music in the early eighties sounded like that because of hardware limitations. Consider these words from All Music Guide on Simple Minds' second album: "It's where [they] ventured beyond the ability to mimic their influences and began to manipulate them." I hope their next effort will endear itself more, but I'll probably forget to check up - which is why it took me till May to find Fujiya & Miyagi's Lightbulbs disappointing. Unfortunately life is too short to spend it listening to stuff again in the hope you might appreciate it second time round.

Only with a band as good as Boards of Canada would I do that. Having devoured Twoism, Music Has The Right to Children and Geogaddi last year, I started searching for In A Beautiful Place..., The Campfire Headphase, and Trans Canada Highway, which were not included in the set I procured (Bought them all since). When I came across Macquarie Ridge, I swore I had heard it before. I listened to it endlessly, trying to remember when I thought I had heard it, before realising it had actually overwritten a memory of hearing Kelly Watch the Stars on a school trip in 1998. That is the genius of BoC.

Last year Dalek i was my now-out-of-print-good-band-your-parents-shunned of 2008. This year it's The Passions. Bet they could only remember through Ashes to Ashes.

Communication Let Me Down

Beginning, Kenneth Noland, 1958

Though I wouldn't consider this blog to be in the same league as Doctorvee's, it seems many bloggers are facing the same issues.

The post rate here and elsewhere is down. In the early days it's probably true the deluge of posts each consisted of 500 words or less. Occasionally I would post some grand interpretation or theory, until gradually great 2000 word essays felt expected. Writing multiple 100 word entries, even if it is a legitimate non-twitter-esque post, feels like cheating . I've tried Twitter and found 140 characters only suited to celebrities talking about a cloud they saw an hour ago, or more interestingly (links to) breaking news.

Saturday's Kids

Preparing the Night Mail, scardy, 2002

I always wonder who's up at 6am watching cartoons and then I remember I used to get up every Saturday morning in the mid 90s to watch Live & Kicking. L&K was on from 9am to noon but I was always afraid I'd sleep in and miss it - the tagline being "Miss it, miss out".

I'd wake up in the dark and drag my duvet into the living room. I was often up far too early, sometimes BBC1 would still be off-air and there'd be static. At some point the test card would kick in with a piercing tone before transiting to Pages From Ceefax. The music played over PFC is often described as terrible, but I love it. As a preteen exposed to manufactured pop, this poor man's jazz/funk/easy-listening was amazing. PFC was probably also my exposure to the wider world: I remember reading about an IRA bomb one morning as the news pages scrolled.

Book of Brilliant Things

Ten years ago, before I had an internet connection or Amazon started turning a profit, I remember being at my Nan's and the TV was on. During the programme break there was an advert for Amazon.co.uk. As a 75 year-old she dismissed the internet as a fad. A strange attitude to have for someone born 18 months before the first demonstration of the very thing she's sitting in front of. I do love the smugness that comes from looking back on that.

Sunshine of Your Love

I fell with her every rise
Dawn watched over me
I'd love to set eyes on blinding beauty
I'll die long before her

1] PAST.fall(ATELIC).PERFECTIVE.ATELIC-SUBJECTIVE-1p-SINGULAR rise.PRESENT-ACTIVE-PARTICIPLE.GENITIVE.COMITATIVE 3p-NEUTER-SINGULAR-OBLIQUE.GENITIVE
2] Dawn.NEUTER-AGENT watch(TELIC).TELIC-OBJECTIVE-3p-NEUTER-SINGULAR 1p-SINGULAR-OBLIQUE.LATIVE.SUPERLATIVE
3] eye(TELIC).VERBIFY.OPTATIVE.OBJECTIVE-1p-SINGULAR beauty.CONCRETE.PATIENT DUPLICATION.blind.SUBJECTIVE-3p-NEUTER-SINGULAR
4] die(TELIC).SUBJECTIVE-1p-SINGULAR.FUTURE DUPLICATION.long.CONCRETE.SUBJECTIVE-1p-SINGULAR 3p-NEUTER-LOCATIVE.PRECEDE

he.darew.[a]qi.kar rejas.[a]dán.en'ad ha.ne
hág.aṭa wirah.e ma'aw
xokå.je.jih.[a]me ṭiw.en.am ba.bál.a
diwax.[a]ke.z ta.ṭaláw.[a]ke hej'per

Hedarewaqikar rejasadánen'ad hene
Hágaṭa wirahe me'aw
Xokåjejihame ṭiwenam babála
Diwaxaket taṭaláwake hej'per

[Sample now out of date, IPA removed]

William's Last Words

Journal for Plague Lovers cover art

In the age before my disposable income, a visit to the local record shop involved lengthy deliberation on which CD I really wanted to justify handing over a massive £10 of pocket money. The problem here was that the price of a CD limited how much you could purchase from decades of musical output. This is why it took so long for me to acquire The Holy Bible (henceforth THB). As a recent newcomer to the Manic Street Preachers, I set out with the money from my 13th birthday to buy their then previous album, Everything Must Go (hf. EMG), only to encounter THB in every shop. At the time I was uninterested and largely unaware of its legendary status - my first encounter with it was actually the title chiselled into a table in the school's music department. Naturally when I tried to find THB, all I could find was EMG - which I eventually got for my 16th.

Deeper Underground

When South Park parodied Cloverfield last October, I put it on my very long list of films to see. So seven months and a hundred films later...

We've Shared This Thought For Some Considerable Time

Corner Reflector, 2007

For a while now I've been toying with the idea of renaming the blog. A good candidate came to me this afternoon. The current name lacks the effect I thought it had nearly 4 years ago - it's far too vague and doesn't communicate anything in particular. Rebrandings can alienate your audience. I got rid of the visitor counter on the site a good while ago, so I'm unaware if I have one. The last thing I would want to do is have everyone update their bookmarks. This is your chance to speak up if you're there.

That said, this blog is split between essays (the humanities, science) and diary excerpts (girls, vignettes, other girls). One seeks an audience and the other is merely on public display. I'm just uploading my mind bits at a time. As for the character of Herr Niemand, to begin with he's not what you'd call human. I'm still developing him and his story, but I may coerce him into making some more appearances. I'll continue to chip away at the half-dozen drafts that remain, and since I've made my way through several dozen films in the past months I may share my opinions on a select few.

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Seen and Not Seen

Home Sewing is Killing Fashion, Bo Peterson, 2006

I've become completely sick of Hollywood. Perhaps the odd classic blinded us to the fact that everything else was always shit? It seems 90% of films since around 1980 have been remakes, or "reimaginings". I'm alright with that if it improves upon the original - case in point, The Thing. But what seems ever more apparent is a churn of films from the past quarter-century being refilmed. Refilmed with the intention of milking everyone again. Name a Japanese or Korean horror film, a Hong Kong action film, any successful foreign film; and you'll find either part or all of it has been ground into a recent Hollywood production. Let The Right One In has a Hollywood remake in production before it even has a full release. Why?

I Wanted to Rub the Human Face in its Own Vomit

Fall of the Damned into Hell

The de rigueur moral outrage is predictable and contemptible. I ask, why is it we send people to prison? People out there consciously debase justice to revenge. Driven by tabloids with their head-on-pike photoshopped front page graphics. Vanguard of morality, continued on page 3 with tits. The eternal shreiking victims are never able to accept that anyone can reform. Did he paint a picture of the rape scene? They will never accept anything less than the death penalty because they cannot reform themselves. An eye for an eye, and still they'll be calling for a second hanging for a one-man murder.

In Scotland this hysteria typically results in yet another outcry against the 'not proven' verdict. Their motivation for its removal has nothing to do with fixing the legal system, but everything to do with gaining closure - regardless of who it's exacted on. Abandon your pretensions of morality. You're really not much better than they are. In the end, there will only be the guilty verdict.

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He'll Build A Glass Asylum

Back in January I was originally going to write about Tommy Sheridan hitting rock bottom and appearing on prolefeed-contest "Celebrity" Big Brother. Instead the bilge-circus centred around a non-entity has enraged me. I'll refrain from mentioning who this non-entity is, though it should be obvious given the saturation of the non-story.

I Close My Eyes (...)

Walk down the street at this time in the summer gloaming, you might see me through the window.
Sitting up in bed, maybe listening to More Than a Feeling, trying not to dream what-was and youth-elation.
If I fall asleep, how can I live when the past has burrowed inside the present?
Someone keep me awake.

Only I and the sender of a card for my 18th birthday know why it's never been thrown out.

I Saw Drones

The vacuum grew in the hypnotic flames. Eyes peered out and into the maelstrom man.

The nightmare exited the hole in his head, while his soul leaked through his ribs. His iris released the pin that held the chimneys and trains in place.

Now spiritless and immune, John stepped through the furnace. His benefactors presented an offer of employment.

With a handshake, he guaranteed his return.

[edited Feb 2010]

Because Maybe

Tucked in bed in my soft lit room
Time slows down.

The little radio on the desk
Quietly plays Wonderwall.

Peacefully drifting off
On a school night.

Pete Standing Alone

Sergeant Farrell's Theory, Prij, 2005

Back last May I read the story about an uncontacted tribe in Brazil. The picture of their show of force against the low flying plane still makes me laugh. How can they not know what a plane is?

Throughout the Amazon and New Guinea, isolated tribes are blissfully unaware of humanity-at-large. There are some tribes which reject continued-contact with the outside world, which is understandable since up to 90% of the Americas were killed off after 1492. Many are trying to stave off ethnocide and protect their culture from the inevitable assimilation that will occur.

The Sweater Song

I noticed back in November the BBC had a story about Gary Glitter, and it made me think of Minority Report (in which your present-self is held accountable for the crimes your future-self will commit).

In Glitter's case, his widely enjoyed music of the mid 70s is now anathema due to the prosecution of his then-future-self for possession of child-pornography. If you look at him now, he's clearly lost it believing he'll be able to make a comeback. In fact, the mediastorm over his prosecution has probably turned him into a genuine molester, hence his deportation from a number of countries.

Then, last night I was thinking about Woody Allen and his divisive relationship. If someone mentions Allen they'll say he's a great filmmaker. If someone remembers Glitter it'll be as a child molester.

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