Thursday, October 19, 2006

A couple of things

1) Bloody Simon Reynolds, first he obliges me to buy the Wire for the first time in years (and there isn’t even a free CD with it, unlike say with“Rock Sounds”. I mean I didn’t even buy it when David Thomas was on the cover last month…) Now to add insult to injury he is simultaneously disavowing cheapskatery and gloating (nay veritably cackling) over his victory in the International Quidditch Cup by picking up records for 12p. Yup, twelve pence. So victory is yours for the moment, but have I mentioned that as usual this year I will be visiting Argentina, a country whose recent financial tribulations (terrible for the local populace, of course, excellent for the globe-trotting Quidditcher) mean that twelve pence, is let me tell you, a veritable kings ransom! And should the economic situation have lamentably improved then Bolivia, Latin America’s poorest country, is just a hop, skip and jump away, where great virgin tracts of obscure vinyl are waiting to be strip mined by Quidditch Consolidated!

2) I’ve never heard Joanna Newsom but think I can assert without fear of contradiction from even the most staunchly loyal of her advocates that she has a profoundly irritating face. A degree of punchable winsomeness and self-satisfied artsy-slapability not seen since Bjork pig-tailed and boss-eyed her way into the public mind. Do these two share a missing chromosome? I suspect that if I actually read the interview then I’ll later have to kill her. This is why I should not buy The Wire.

3) Thinking about PMPEP’s post re Dg.307 it set me wondering how come if early Seventies Czech life with its repressive politics was a "cultural living death", it produced such fine music, yet at the moment as far as I can make out nothing much of authentic interest is going on there culturally, in fact, less than the early Seventies heyday, the post implies. So I wonder whether the cultural living death isn’t actually brought on by liberalization and the proliferation of markets and culture (dear god, the endless proliferation of it!) and the usual “repressive tolerance” shtick (as opposed to just good old repressive intolerance!) Does this mean I would argue for a spot of political repression as a way of sharpening up the music when it gets a bit flabby? Err… maybe I should go away and think about that.

4) I’m off to see Mr K-Punk do something in a garden on Saturday, rather looking forward to it, but naturally slightly apprehensive at being in the great man’s presence and back in a University again (shudder), even if it is only Godsmiths. Now I may have an over active imagination (and under active will) but I cant help but visualize the people whose blogs I read (all right, so I already know what Familyhobgoblin and PMPEP look like.) Initially I though that picture of John Foxx on his blog was Mr Punk himself and was seized with envious rage. He looks like some of kind of cool, underground Eighties rock star, I thought, look at those cheekbones! Now I imagine him as a kind of eight foot, purple-dreadlocked Cyber –Goth harrying Academia with the cold eye of a raptor and clad in a metallic pseudo-skin that scintillates in the light of South London staffrooms. Of course I know that’s absurd so I immediately flee to the other extreme and imagine him instead as a tiny, bald, clawed, pop-eyed homunculus with orthopaedic shoes on both feet, poisonously haranguing dissenters and dragging round a hardback copy of “The Anti-Oedipus” that he uses to stand on when he has to get something down from the high shelf. Anything but normal, you know.

Ah that’s interesting. So in fact, he would look like a combination of Family Hobgoblin and PMPEP, then.

See that, see what I did there!

4) Re that “Death is their Zion” thing I notice that there’s a track by “High on Fire” who have affiliations to Sleep as was, called “ Blood from Zion.” (and it’s pretty good!)

5) I’d be really grateful if you could just forget numbers one to four.

2 comments:

familyhobgoblin said...

Whoo! Nice one! LMFAO ROFL ~:@<>@?>

Check out my latest. It might be of interest to you (he said in an Eastender fashion).

ASHDAV said...

Hmm.. yes I guess I've been caught contradicting myself. What I suppose I should have said was that the mainstream, permitted culture back then was a living death, but I let my guard drop - evidently a mistake with you around. I have to say I agree with your point about repressive regimes inadvertently producing a more vibrant counter-culture than more liberal ones, and I'm almost tempted to pine for the heady, polarising days of Thatcher - but not quite that much. That photo doesn't look like you by the way, you're cheating.