The unfairground

I have been listening a lot to the latest Kevin Ayers CD called "the unfairground". Kevin Ayers has an interesting career history, he was in the same scene as Syd Barret. He had not made an album for over ten years. The new CD is so catch and fresh. I can still feel the songs when I walk into work.

Scott Walker 30 century man

I watched the DVD "Scott Walker 30 century man". This is a documentary about the singer/artist Scott Walker. He started out in a boy band, but ended up as an experimental artist. I love Scott's rich voice and the way he always used to wear sun glasses. Julian Cope released a compilation record of his work during the 80s. So he invited on the film, but Julian doesn't appear in font of the camera, so they showed his email instead. Julian is always so cool. Perhaps I will check out some of Walker's later experimental work.

not a review of death proof

I have been feeling realy burnt out recently. One of the ways I like to relax is to go and watch some a film. There is a new Tarantino film out called Death proof. This is a film about a stunt man who kills women, and then maybe gets killed by women in some way. I am not a high brow kind of person. Trash is my middle name. I felt better after watching "shoot em up" last week, but I really couldn't face going to see this film. Somehow I get annoyed that a big hollywood company would make an exploitation film. Instead I went home and watched a DVD called "Blade house of Chthon". This was a straight to DVD film about the blade vampire killer. It was actually better than blade III. THis looked like a TV series film, because it ended in a strange way. Thanks to google I found it was a pilot for a TV show that got cancelled. Never let it be said that I am not a man of principle.

airport security

I thought I was being so cool when I used a picture of William Burroughs sitting on a porch holding a rifle as the desktop background on my linux machine. I don't use linux for presentations, so I thought I would be safe. However, it didn't seem such a good idea when I was going through security at an airport and security asked me to turn the laptop on. As I watched the screen come up at the airport, I suddenly thought this could all end in tears (or me missing the flight). Anyway the security guard was not watching the screen. I have a picture of a bluegene computer on the windows partition.

Advice to new bloggers.

I have been keeping this BLOG for over 3 years now, so I am entitled to give some advice for new bloggers. One thing that is very IMPORTANT is that you don't write anything that might stop you getting a job. The human resources departments usually have nothing better to do than than surf the web and send people word documents. So I humbly suggest that blogging that smoking a garden of blow is your main hobby is probably not a good idea, if your goal in life is to be corporate. (This shouldn't be a problem if you want to sell fast food and stay up late watching DVDs). Also I would stay clear of talking about controversial subjects. For example I would never consider writing a blog post about necrophilia. This is not really a problem because I don't really know anything about necrophilia. Of course there was that Soutpark program about the kids stealing the corpse of somebody's grandmother for some zany reason. When the police are telling the family about the lost of the corpse, the police make some very tasteless remarks about necrophilia. In the UK, this had people ringing in to complain. This must be one of the reasons that we can't see southpark on terrestrial. I did watch the DVD "visitor Q", directed by Takashi Miike, that had a long segment about necrophilia in a green house. Given the type of films that Miike directs, this was pretty tame, by his standards. I could of course research necrophilia by reading a wikepedia article, but you can't believe everything you read on the Internet. Some things need to be experienced. I did have a dream about having sex with someone who was tied up. I was pretty shocked by this and woke up immediately. The only part of my action film script has two hit men killing a woman. So this is part of the script (I own the copyright) Bang, bang the woman dies, Hitman 1, says "she's dead." Hitman 2, says "oh well waste not, want not", and starts to pull down his trousers. Hitman 1, says "what are doing man." Hitman 2, says "but she is still warm. I don't like it whan I have to talk about Eastenders, and they wriggle around when we are doing it". Hitman 1, says "put your trousers back on or I will kill you". Hitman 2, says "ok, ok, man your so weird". The two hit men exist stage left. I am a bit stuck on the next 87 minutes of the film, but there is clearly enough to hook Tarantino in to direct it. Anyway if you follow my advice you will be able to keep bloggng and hold a job.

blog in search of a theme

I was staring at the vortex of the toilet, trying to get my head in the mood for another day. I am so stressed that I have been unable to think of anything to blog about. The toilet bowl mouthed back "you have got Bloggers block", but your pooh is still runny, frequent and smelly. Ten minutes later I had an idea for a posting. I can still do this, I thought. I am not just a broken shell with all the creative juices lost in a pub toilet somewhere. Then I went to work. I got back home an hour ago. I looked at the keyboard, and I had this vague feeling that I had something to type. I remember reading about some young genius, who wrote poetry, but he didn't have enough life experience to write about the world, so was reduced to writing poems called "poem in search of a theme". Anyway I have remembered what I was going to talk about. In the online guardian there was an article about broadband from the grave. Essentially you get a web site when you are dead, so you can record content and email, and send it tour family and friends when you are dead. It reminded me about a conversation I had with someone over 10 years ago. We were asking what happens to a persons web site when they are dead? There should be a graveyard of web sites. Effectively this already happens with myspace, because many of the people on my friends list are actually dead. They still manage to post video and pictures, and that makes me very proud.

Venray

I started this post sitting in a hotel room in a town called Venray in the Netherlands. Why was I there you may ask? Good question. I took a plane to Dusseldorf airport to go to a conference. I used ryanair, and the Dusseldorf/Weeze airport turns out to be 70 km from Dusseldorf. I stayed in Venray because it was closer to the airport. When I got off the plane last Sunday I noticed that there were many people actually sleeping in the airport. Venray is a nice town. I arrived there in the afternoon and went for a walk in the city center. There were lots of nice cafes with seats outside. Cafe culture, so sweet. Later in the evening I went for a walk. Many of the street cafes were closed, so I walked into the outer edges of the town's centre. There I found a kebab shop where I feasted on another Donner kebab. Although I like to think of myself as an outlaw, I am not so wild. At the edge of the town there were some cafes where you smoke dope. I just stared in at the window and watched the cool young things get mellow. I did go to a bar. No one there spoke English, but I did hear a conversation, that involved the words Stella and Heineken. Yes, isn't it wonderfull how travelling broadens the mind. There was some kind of rave/dance party at the edge of the town center. The drive to the airport was mostly through the country. Even the countryside seems ordered and designed in the Netherlands. The forests in Germany always strike me as very ancient and full of wild fury. The German forests have not been designed, but seem to have been there since the birth of mankind. Of course in the Netherlands, everytime I passed a big greenhouse. I winked to myself and wondered what they could be growing.

shoot em up

I went out to see the film "Shoot em up" on Friday night. I felt a bit guilty, because Mark Kermode gave it a bad review. The film is just a lot of mindless violence, however it was done with style and was actually quite funny. Anyway I felt better for watching it, though it was not the kind of film I would take my mum too. Somehow I feel a lot better after a bit of a laugh. I just watched a south park episode that involved Cartman taking off all his clothes to do a Ninja invisibility trick. He did this in front of an audience. I have to admit I laughed so hard, I thought I was going to die.

the historian

I have finished reading "the historian" by Elizabeth Kostova. I am not sure that reading a book about Dracula at a nuclear physics conference is a good idea. It was a very clever book, involving scholarship, and some good forward-backwards narrative. I am ashamed to say that it was on Richard and Judy's summer read.

slaves of sleep

I have just got back from a conference in Germany. While I was there I read "slaves of sleep" by L. Ron Hubbard. This was a kind of cheesy fantasy novel, with a nerd living a different life when he slept. It was a fun read, but not very deep. I have read some great science fiction books that are based on some philosophical idea. The strange thing is that Hubbard was the writer who founded Scientology. He just writes a standard by the numbers fantasy book.

online viewing

When Apple announced that you could buy TV shows from ITunes, obviously my first thought was to try to get a science documentary. Somehow I ended up downloading a Southpark episode. I like to think of my self as unique in some kind of pompous way. However, I noted that the top download of TV shows from Itunes was Southpark. People in the UK clearly miss Southpark since it was pulled from terrestrial TV. I watched the episode "make love not warcraft". I used my old laptop. Trouble is the scenes slowed down and sometimes stopped. The animation on Southpark can be pretty weak, but it doesn't usually stop for 2 minutes. I was more successful watching "brother" downloaded from Channel4 on demand service. I originally wanted to watch a film, but couldn't be bothered to walk to Blockbusters. Unfortunately it took 2 hours to download, so I ended watched it a week later. Of course the software from Channel4 interfered with the BBC iplayer software. Of course if I was really cool I would download free stuff from peer to peer sites. I just get nervous having to deal with viruses and things. Anyway Blockbusters on Byers Rd have now got a much bigger collection of box sets. So I rented "family guy volume 3". Who needs the internet? One of my friends asked "what are you reading", I replied "that I was much too busy and stressed to do any reading". Umm.

Bourne Ultimatum

I am behind on this blogging thing. I went to see the Bourne Ultimatum maybe two weeks ago. I was really excited to see it. I am not really sure I enjoyed it so much. Part of the reason was that half way through the film, I really needed to go to the toilet. OK. perhaps if I hadn't drunk the traditional pre-film beer, I would have been OK. I bet Jonathan Ross doesn't have this type of problem. Somehow the film was too much of a mismatch of the earler films. The film made me want to really go to Tangiers. Jason Bourne and the Nicky went over to Tangiers via a ferry from Spain. That is the best way to go, after going to Spain via some cheap airline route. Tangiers looks so sunny and beautiful.

The new old thing

I have just finished reading a book called "The old new thing" by Raymond Chen. Chen was on the development team that wrote Windows 95/98/XP. It is interesting to hear his side of the story in the be nasty to Microsoft debate. His view was backwards compatibility at all costs. The programming examples were very ugly though.

The 8:55 to Baghdad

While I detox my system a little bit, I am finishing some books I started a long time ago. This week I got to end of the book "The 8:55 to Baghdad" by Andrew Eames. Agatha Christie took a trip to Baghdad in 1928. Andrew follows her trip, as best he can. Andrew's trip is just before the second Gulf war, so there is some tension when he is in Iraq. Agatha made the trip originally after her first marriage broke up. What is depressing s how friendly the Arabs were to Andrew. I doubt that he would get such a warm reception now. I need to plan more adventurous holidays.

Green man festival -- No music on Sunday

What bands did I see on Sunday? Err, well none. It was muddy and I slunk out of the campsite at 10:00. After checking with more experienced festival goerers, I find that walking through mud is part of the festival experience, so I was a bit of a wimp frankly. If I had stayed then I would have wanted to see on the main stage: Devendra Banhart (not sure why), Gruff Rhys, Malcolm Middleton (ex Arab Strap), and Mistys big adventure. In the folkey dokey tent, I would have seen: artic circle, John Renbourn, Herman Dune, and the aliens. I was particularly looking forwardto seeing Herman Dune. Such is life though. Thus ends my coverage of the Green Man festival 2007.

Green man festival -- music on Saturday

On Saturday it rained. I usually switch between the main stage and the folkey dokey tent. It is nice to new bands. Unfortunately, I have managed to forget most of the people I saw in the Folkey dokey tent. I did see some good music there. I saw part of the set by "north sea radio orchestra". They were some kind of small classical ensemble who make classical music and have people sing William Blake songs. I am over my hatred for classical music, so I enjoyed their set (OK they are freakzone approved). I saw part of James Yorkston's set. On the main stage the first band I enjoyed was "monkey swallows the universe". Next on the main stage was Lisa Knapp. I liked her set, but I can't remember why. Later on clinic played. All the members of clinic wore surgical masks -- they were fairly indie, so made a nice change. At 5:30 a band called "the broken family band" played. They are some kind of alt-country group from Cambridge. I enjoyed their set. The penultimate band on the Saturday was "Vashti Bunyan". Vashti has an interesting history that you can look up else where. Even though she is over 60, she does have a sweet beautiful voice. Unfortunately, she was a bit quiet for a late night festival slot. Still I am glad I was there. The band on Saturday was "Robert Plant and the strange sensation". You can't accuse Robert of being quiet. I have to admit I never really got into Led Zepplin when I was growing up. Robert played a really goo set. He clearly enjoys singing. He played a mix of old and new stuff. The program said that he had gotten interested into middle eastern music. The mud bewitched me, so I didn't hear his full set. Still I had a great time.

Green man festival -- music on Friday

So what about the music at the Green Man festival Craig? On the Friday night the headline act was Joanna Newson. She plays the harp in a beautiful way. Unfortunately, she is fairly quiet, so this means that the drunker members of the audience start talking. A 40 year old woman was loudly trying to pull a collegs student. The guy was saying I have no artistic understanding of music -- very true. In my minds eye I can still Newson pluck those harp strings. Before Joanna, her husband Bill Callahan played a set. Callahan used to record under the name "somg" and was a tad gloomy and slow. Now that he is married, he records under his own name and sounds a lot happier. I enjoyed his set -- although he doesn't move around so much. I also enjoyed Rachael Untank and the winterset who played the main stage about 16:30. I own their first album called "creul sister". There were some really good tracks on "creul sister" (one of which involved a hangover). I was amazed to see some tap dancing as part of their set. They were much more traditional than I remembered. The first band on the main stage was Gwildor. I liked them. The next band was Fanfarlo, who I am sure I have heard on the freakzone radio show. I was disappointed with Fanfarlo's set for some reason. I saw some good bands in the Folkey Dokey stage, but I can't remember their names. Sorry...

festival reading

While I was on the train I overheard a conversation about the Harry Potter books by people who looked as though they were also going to the green man festival. Don't get me wrong I have nothing against the boy wizard, but somehow spending the weekend with 10000 Harry Potter fans filled me with a Lord Voldemort like dread. Ok I was reading a fantasty novel as well. However my fantasy novel was based on a philosophical idea, so there is no way that it could be considered a nerdy book. In fact all 3 fantasy books that I read while travelling to and from the Green Man festival were all based on some deep idea. So here are the 3 books: Simak, "Why call them back from Heaven". The human race is constructing a business to revive the dead. But do we really want immortality? A.E Van Vogt, "the battle for forever". Pacifism mixes with vengeance. Tim Powers "The Anubis Gates". A man goes back in time to be a tourist guide for a talk by Coleridge. Things go wrong and he finds himself living the life of a person he was writing a biography about. Apart from being a good yarn, this touches on issues of free will and destiny. I think you will all agree that my choice of reading material was not at all nerdy or spotty faced.

camping with the green man

So part of this festival trip I took was about getting back into camping again. Some essential camping gear. I got most of my tent up without any help. I couldn't work out how the inner metal things worked, but someone kindly helped me after watching me looking at the instructions for ten minutes with a look that said I would rather be in the bar. When I bought the tent from Tescos for ten pounds it did seem a good deal. However when I looked around the camp site of 10000 people I did feel a bit cheap having such a basic tent. Some people had huge tents with awnings and almost fully equipped kitchens. The tent was some kind of pastoral blue, so it didn't look like a hard core camping tent. Also the forecast was for heavy rain on Saturday and Sunday and it wasn't clear my little tent could take it (although it was OK in the end). I had gone out and got a better sleeping bag from Blacks, rather than use the sleeping bag I got from Home bargains for 5 pounds. The first thing I noticed about the tent was that it wasn't ensuite. So I had to get up and walk through the mud a couple of times during the night to relieve myself. I had a two man tent, but there wasn't too much space. I got used to it in the end. My mum told me to not to touch the tent walls because that lets the water in. I was very paranoid about this and every time I did touch the walls, I did expect that God would punish me, in the same way he gave me bad eyesight. I think I needed a small ground sheet just outside the door, so I could put my boots on. The tents were pretty close together. So I could hear people talking until late at night. The music starts playing at 12:00pm, so most people seemed to stay up late, then get up late. This is what I would have done if I had been with a group of people. I felt refreshed in the morning, so I can't complain. OK, next time I will be better organized. When I was young, my family used to go on camping trips. Somehow the tent would always get blown down or flooded, or we would get attacked by blood sucking insects. Anyway these disasters would at least stop the arguments and fights for a little while, so we could all relax a bit.

Green man festival

I will post more stuff about the music at the green man festival later. This festival has a different feel to others. It really is a weird folk and psychedelic festival. It is clearly not a traditional folk festival, but when Rachel Unthank and the Winterset played the main stage on Friday at 16:30 they had some clog dancing in their set, that people who looked like indie children seemed to like. On reflection the Welsh like their psychedelic folk. There were a lot of ex-members of Gorky's Zygotic Mynci playing. The only reason I had heard of many of the bands is by regularly listening to the freakzone on radio 6. Normally I live happily in my own musical world where no one has heard of the stuff I like. At the festival, I heard people excited to watch Vashti Bunyan and Bill Callahan (these are not so obscure I might add). I am not alone, but perhaps if I move to the next level of obscurity then I will be.