Jay Reatard and Nu-Matic and Octopus Project and Matt and Kim and Jed Fair & Yo La Tengo.
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Ungdomskulen and Oxford Collapse and Bloodhound Gang and Immaculate Machine.
QBass ft Skeng Gee and Fujiya & Miyagi and Liars and Hutch & Kathy and Trans Am and Animal Collective.
Tokyo Police Club and (some very dark) Nirvana and Adam Green and Clinic.
Reality television, and derivatives, are mostly crap because they attract attention whores and drama-enhancing producers. It rarely documents.
I think I’m on safe ground saying shows about people with ugly and/or embarrassing medical conditions, are a modern freak-show. Especially reality television that deals with disfigurement. Such programmes often have fuck-all to do with the people they purport to document – I’m not being callous - it’s just that disfigured people are cheaper than actors and the make-up is better. Quite often they get paid peanuts in the process. The documenting comes second to the sights and sounds. But…
If people can be desensitised to disfigurement, is it a good thing for disfigured people? If viewers become desensitised to disfigurement, in real-life they will stare less, and, maybe, be less afraid. Which would be a good thing. However, given the tenuous and complex links between violent television and violent behaviour, it’s probably difficult to say that desentisation will lead to better treatment of disfigured people. In the same way that it can’t be said violent television is ever the primary factor contributing to violence. I don’t think freak-shows, aside from supplying an income to the performers, improved the lot of disfigured people. Still, I’m an optimist, I hope that there are positive side-effects to the modern freak-show.
A seriously negative side-effect of this, could be that in order to maintain viewers, medical reality TV will perpetually search for more extreme medical conditions. In order to maintain shock value. Like soap operas adding an explosion or violence. Reality TV will have to go to poor countries to find people shocking enough. Poor people with extreme medical conditions, on our screen, for titillation. Which, if it generates awareness of medical conditions in poor countries, isn’t such a bad thing. The next thing is people may empathise. Tourist destinations may be shamed into action. But..
It could still just be about titillation. I don’t, for a second, think that the majority of medical reality television is made for any altruistic reason at all. I don’t think it’s immoral and I’m not even sure it’s all that harmful, but I do think it amoral, in that it boils-down to viewing figures, and best commercial practice. Change will be in response to a changing audience. I hope people become so desensitised to disfigurement John Merrick could walk down the street naked and people would be more shocked by his penis than his elephantiasis.
Arcade Fire and Bluejuice and Automation and Future of the Left.
Holy Fuck and Sons and Daughters and NRG and The Brunettes and Anat Ben-David.
It’s a sign of the fall of the West when people have time to sit in their underpants, and watch Fraggle Rock. The Wikipedia page is interesting and worth a read. Some Wikipedians know a great deal about Fraggle Rock. I find that amusing. Despite having read the page and remembered quite a bit. Watch a whole episode here (p1, p2, p3).
That show used to give me nightmares.
Times New Viking and The Noise of Art and The Cribs and Aphex Twin.
The video of the interview with ex-Scientologist and actor Jason Beghe is on the tubes. I’m finding it quite difficult to follow because a lot of the jargon is unfamiliar to me. But this segment is worth watching because by the end it has more occurences of the word fuck per minute than a Tarantino movie. It’s fascinating from the perspective of an insight into Scientology (albeit from a apostate’s perspective - but he’s still a primary source). I quite like Jason Beghe, and sort of recognise him from some US television shows, he’s a bit like Frank Costanza (example) but nicer and with more fucks. See here for the background to it.
Boogie Times Tribe and Be Your Own Pet and The Levellers and ArthimotH.
John Maus and Cindy Payne/Ricky Wilson/Mark Ronson and Kid606 and Steely Dan.
D’Cruze and Born Ruffians and Ken Ishii and Adam Green and Thao and the Get Down Stay Down and QBASS.
Kevin Tihista and Shapes and Sizes and Future of the Left and Ennio Morricone.
Octopus Project and Pink Reason and Jesus Jones and Handsome Furs and Spirit Level.
Matt and Kim (live) and The Fiery Furnaces (live - the bass guitar is missing in the recording, but kicks in at the end) and Satin Storm and Sue and the Unicorn.
Johnossi and These New Puritans (if this song is entirely serious it is even funnier) and GravenHurst and IamX.
Whitest Kids U Know on conspiracy theories and eating a burger through a straw.
Tom Green getting horrendously drunk in the name of comedy and doing some kind of obscure dance.
Simon Amstell appropriately interviews people. A man that makes Never Mind The Buzzcocks bridge the gap between shit and and funny.
The Raid and The Passionistas and Enter Shikari and John + Julie and Shock Therapy.
would mean that I would wake up earlier on Sundays.*
* Realistically speaking, being honest with myself, I misspoke when I typed that. I’d almost certainly record it on Sky Plus or download it. Or watch the repeat.
Captain Beefheart and Meat Beat Manifesto and The Cribs and Tom Vek.
There are qualities that exist in all great film-drama characters that are hard to pin down. It is too simplistic to say that the characters have depth or complexity because some great film characters aren’t complex and don’t have depth. An element may be that while a part of a narrative, at some point in the film, (or even all of it) a great character’s motivations are not obvious to the viewer. So elements of the character are open to interpretation and the character is interesting as a result. Another factor may be the freshness of a role. As defined by the script and/or director and/or acting skills. A memorable character - because they’re novel and a benchmark by which others will be judged. And, I suppose, the pathos or revulsion the character can elicit from an audience.
All in varying proportions. Of course. One day a twat will paid peanuts to put together a shoddy equation for the benefit of a cinema chain. Who’ll pump out press releases on the unsuspecting public like bukkake. Mopped up by the news.
Fiery Furnaces and LTJ Bukem and Bobby Conn and The Sword.
The Billionaires and M.A.N.I.C and The Faint and Midfield General.
Animal Collective (the recent leak) and Turzi and D-M-S.
Earlimart and Clinic and Winson and Bob Dylan*.
* yeah, so?
Be Your Own Pet (note the “watch in higher quality link”, that’s new for Youtube, I think) and Mountain Goats and Signs of Chaos.
Never before has the mechanical action of the human heart been made to sound so wanky. Lol. Watch Hard ‘N Phirm here.
Octopus Project and Fiery Furnaces and ddd.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/radio4_aod.shtml?radio4/lifestylenutritionists
It’s a fascinating history of lifestyle nutritionists - including funny fads that your great-great grandparents and grandparents may have known about.
You can comment to the host directly, not indirectly through forums or staff, but at his blog here.
Damien and Matt and Kim and The Knife and The Foo Fighters
Archie Bronson Outfit and Ezra Furman & the Harpoons (the person that shouts out yeah before the music starts was at every US concert I have ever been to or heard. Inluding bootleg Doors) and SDS.
Jim Noir and Fridge and Ragga Twins and Ragga Twins and Ragga Twins and British Sea Power.
An excellent documentary about Richard Feynman.
I have nicked this link from Ben Goldacre’s Bad Science blog.
Beck and Tiga and Stereo Total.
Bluejuice and Menomina and Fiery Furnaces and Moby.
Heh. Russell Brand can sing, a bit, contrary to conventional wisdom. Shame about the fan vid. It’s like watching a peacock fidget around shrubbery. Hopefully someone will rip the scene from a pirated DVD screener. See also this Trey Parker/Alfred Packer classic, along similar lines.
Be Your Own Pet and Bomb the Bass and Jane’s Addiction and Cansei De Ser Sexy.
Kahimi Kari and Secret Society of the Sonic Six and The Pussywarmers and Acen.
Nico Vega and Deerhoof and Mouse on Mars and Adult and SubCulture(3).
Soulwax and Shogun and The Cooper Temple Clause.
Edited - first link removed due to having idiocy in their YouTube favourites.
Celebration and Future Of The Left and Blapps Posse and Supercreep w/Ariel Pink.
Junk Science and MGMT and Jeffrey Lewis and The Prodigy and DMS.
QOTSA and Errors and Sonz of a lood da loop era.
Caribou and Pacman and Rotten Sound.
School of Language and The Cribs (uncensored) and Bobby Conn and Orbital.
These New Puritans and Ben Folds Five and The Orb.
The new BBC drama/black comedy Being Human is about a vampire, a werewolf and a ghost. It could have been really shit. I think it was pretty good. There were a few rough edges but that’s expected of a first episode. I was shocked that it had quality writing because BBC 3 gave us Two Pints of Lager and A Packet of Crisps. Which is right down there with the Vicar of Dibley. If you’re in the UK and you want some entertainment go here, to the BBC’s YouTube like service they rushed out when they realised they’d fucked up with the Kontiki/Microsoft DRM client (BBC: work on Dirac more, produce DVDs worth buying for the extras, and drop the DRM. With decent extras they will still sell.):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/page/item/b0090xff.shtml
If you’re not in the UK go find it on a tracker site. Buy the DVD (which won’t play unless you’ve got a multi-region DVD player) when it comes out, if you feel guilty. Which you shouldn’t. British License Fee payers have already paid for the episode. I’m a British License Fee payer and I don’t give a flying fuck.
A prediction, like Nostradamus, but not taking the piss in code: Being Human is likely to be bought as a concept for American television, or a me-too version. I reckon.
Ariel Pink and YMO.
The New Pornographers and Holy Fuck. The new New Pornographers video is pretty cool. Maybe I’m easily impressed. I’m sure I recognise the style of the artwork but can’t work out who did it. I think it may be a comic book artist. It’s annoying the hell out of me that I can’t remember. If anyone knows drop me an email or comment. Cheers.
Edit:
Fuck you people, with your lives and shit, Google came up trumps: fluorescent hill did the animation for the New Pornographers video.
Body Snatch and Helio Sequence and Danzig.
Very clever and an important message about belief.
Clinic and Ariel Pink.
The Young Knives (I’ve linked this a year or two ago, but for anyone familiar with a certain big eared monarch’s life it’s still funny. Plus it is a version of the video you may not have seen) and Yo La Tenga (this is ironic, where I am at the moment is fucking cold - see spacer pictures from the last couple of days).
Fox News Is Shit. From LNN.
Gerling and Ike Reilly Assassination and Boys Noize and Tender Forever.
Some things are tasteful. The best lyrics of any song in the last few years that I can think-of off-hand, and I’m at a reasonably befuddled point of a Friday night, is Chris Michaels by The Fiery Furnaces. Today, between 5am and 6am, there is rumoured to be a mock special forces snatch raid, by former special forces soldiers, staged on the Big Brother House (see The Sun’s exclusive). Presumably for the Big Brother Celebrity Hijack show broadcast Sunday or Monday night. To kidnap and interrogate some of the contestants. With the cooperation of the programme makers. Too much realism would be a very bad thing indeed because it’s the sort of thing that unhinges some people. Being jumped by three or four tough guys, handled rough, tied up, and tossed in a transit van, can be quite jarring of a morning. I presume the contestants have been screened for obvious psychological problems. If they’re made to wear orange jumpsuits I will lol. I probably shouldn’t.
Deerhoof and Love is All.
Tiger Hifi and Heidi Mortenson and Blame.
“Salutem Punctis Trianguli”. “Salutum Punctis Trianguli”. They shake hands. A strange exchange for strangers meeting in an East Grinstead tea house. It is not a good day. In emergencies Members of the affected Houses are forced into furtive lunch meetings over pots of tea and scones, rather than, as such men expect, modest, but excellent, dinners. Lunch is no time to put things in action. Too early. Putting things in action can be stressful and is no aid to digestion. Which is, contrary to what people may think, the reason for the month rule: On the night of the full moon a meeting is held with a representative from each House. The timing of the month rule, of course, has ritual significance, to baffle the squares, but is, ultimately, a pragmatic choice; Members, the Few, need time to prepare. Eating should be pleasurable.
D and C are taken to their table and seated. D orders cream tea for two. As the waitress walks away, D gets straight to the point, aggressively, “what’s the problem this time? ”. Signification Members came to expect this. Signification is the second youngest House. Its roots were in the late 18th Century, which often caused controversy among Members. Signification’s lack of experience led to mistakes, and Members of the older Houses, such as D, had a certain prejudice towards Members of younger Houses. C sniggered, “we have a Candidate, someone is talking and”, C paused for dramatic effect, “they’re on the internet”. A commonplace problem. D’s lip curled, he resented being awake at lunch, for something so mundane, “so deal with it. It’s dull. I don’t see why you had to involve the other Houses”.
“D, look, I’m sorry for getting you up, I wouldn’t do it without reason. We believe the Candidate is a descendent of one of the Three”. D nodded, “go on”. “We think he, like the great Presbyter, is a descendent of the Persian Magi, as confirmed by his DNA profile - it is thought they may be the result of our John’s flight to Albion in the 16th Century.” Among Members, the triumph of the great Presbyter, is that of legend, because it is rumoured, although nobody knows for sure, the Presbyter was responsible for the present form of the Houses. Some time in the 16th Century the Grand House was divided into magisteria, supported by Elizabeth, the first female Member, for The Golden Age – this is known - but exactly which Member was responsible for the reforms is lost to time, and an inadequate filing system.
Wild Beasts and Anat Ben-David.
Thought for the day
If you don’t pay attention you can forget to put hyphen’s in people’s names. Or get syphilis. Among other things. Like stubbing your toe, or answering the wrong question. Or forget your dogs birthday. Also, things like, one sock conundrums, forgotten birthdays, inappropriate humour in dire situations, hell, nice weather, the smell of water, six freshly plumped pillows, and all the stars in the sky. This is a necessarily incomplete list for reasons of brevity.
Manuals are often written with a lack of humour so acute they’re funny. I’m not expecting “so … three men walked into a bar and … eleemosynary arse burp, bumped their head on it” between paragraphs in a D80’s manual. The tiger tank had a funny manual which was distinctly unfunny in context (1).
What objects warrant manuals? I think, much like many a wanky wankster, had they the balls, that for every ontolog