Filed under: PROD
After more than a year with no web presence at all, and a long period of the site being updated only sporadically, I decided to give up on having some all-singing, all-dancing affair and do it myself using whatever I could from the whole WordPress set-up.
It’s not complete as yet, but the main thing is that it’s there and that it can be easily updated. At some point I’ll shell out for the upgrade so I can play with the CSS and undo all the good work I’ve put in so far!!
Filed under: Reading
Step forward, Stewart Home, and prepare for recuperation..
Yes, the Guardian’s overview of 20th Century Literature (Time Lines) includes an essay by Nicholas Lezard about what it is to be a counter-cultural author, and how today’s counter-cultural author is tomorrow’s establishment set-text. After laying out his arguments about who is and isn’t countercultural (de Sade, yes – Kathy Acker, no – too knowingly academic apparently!), he comes to Home:
Our current best outsider is Stewart Home, who puts a spoke in the wheels of success not only with his scorn for the conventional niceties of plot and character but also by giving his novels titles like Cunt. Stewart Home is easily the example you reach for first as a contemporary “alternative” writer – but he is so observant, so dedicated to his work, so usefully enraged by mainstream ethical considerations, and personally gentlemanly to boot, that he, too, willy-nilly, will end up becoming respectable one day.
So, the game’s up Stewart – you’ll be on a Channel 4 Top 100 Books About Skinheads On The Art Scene before the decade’s out.
(it’s worth noting, however, that it’s Acker’s pic that heads the page.. )
Filed under: Looking
Spike Jonze.. Dave Eggers.. Forest Whittaker.. Catherine Keener.. they might just pull it off.. Hitting the film festival circuit later this summer, I think..
Filed under: Uncategorized
I lost your phone number after we chatted at ‘that’ party – if you still read this, get in touch!
Drop me an email or leave a comment here with your number. I do think we have something very special, despite the age gap.
Filed under: Looking
so despite being on their mailing list, I only found out this morning that Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers are playing the Luminaire next Monday
saw them for the first time at an all-dayer on the Tyne last year and they were absolutely mindblowing. I’m a little excited….
Filed under: Blogging
Witness the whole sorry spectacle here
As you can see, GPO was also more than a little het up about it all.
Filed under: Uncategorized
I think I’m probably going to hang up my headphones, reggae wise, more or less. Been thinking about it for a while – I find that I barely listen to reggae at the moment and when I do it’s all old roots stuff. Which is fine – I have lots of it, there’s lots more I don’t have and it still makes me happy. But the reggae slots I was getting, I felt like a bit of a fraud - I just don’t hear much new stuff I like. I completely accept that this is as much – if not more – because I just don’t / can’t put the time in any more tracking it down and seeking it out, rather than because the whole genre’s turned shit overnight, but I just feel uncomfortable getting slots at the point in the evening where things are starting to get a bit lively and I’m faced with the option of either slowing things down with some roots or struggling through on a diminishing pile of recent 7″s…
So I’ll still probably do things at Unsound and the like, provided it’s a given that they won’t be getting the freshest riddims out of me or anything, but I’m definitely going to concentrate on other things.
The whole Randy & Earl thing is really early days but I’m loving it. Under the Randy & Earl name, we (that’s Jared and I) have still only done What’s Cookin’ a couple of times – and absolutely loved it. But in various incarnations – Lovely Mornings etc – we’ve played lots of festivals in that kind of style – soul, country, gospel, jazz, big band, all that. And I’ve done a fair few slots of my own playing the same kind of thing and it’s worked out great…
It makes me really happy, it’s still quite unusual and other people seem to enjoy it a lot. Now it looks like I’m actually programming / running a whole tent at Endorse It! Festival this year, pretty much on this sort of footing (the idea is for a mod / soul / ska / motown night, a big band / swing / lounge / 50s night on another) I really would rather go down this road I think…
It’s weird – it’s not like I’ve ever been much of a DJ, but I have got a lot of gigs over the years (must be about 6-7 years now since I was running Dubhammer Sound System up at the Windmill). At first, it was a bit of a laugh but as the slots got a little more high profile, the pressure was on to an extent and I used to worry about it a bit more. And there’s no point doing something if it worries you a bit, eh?
So it’s out with Reggae Reggae Sauce and in with the Memphis Soul Stew. Or something!
Filed under: Dancing
Looks like a cracking night – it’s part of some huge New X-wide one day festival thing. Think I’m on about 10pm, and I’ll be on a jumpin’ jive / New Orleans / swing / rockabilly tip I reckon
