Bitter, Ignorance & Haggis

As far as ways to make people believe you're not racist, starting a sentence with the words "I'm not racist or anything but..." is not the best.
And so it was, sat at a desk doing the most mind numbingly dull work imaginable, that one of my colleagues began talking to the person next to her...great...i thought, another "they took our jobs" (see south park season 8, episode 6.) rant. Not so. A list of moderately offensive, not massively so, but still, a bit racist jokes, that either a) she was looking at on the internet or b) had been emailed...at work. And now I think that perhaps I'm not one to preach, as I didn't, as politely as possible, turn around and ask her to "please shut the f**k up" (at work, so having to censor slightly!).
Moving on, or rather, back, Wednesday night was a busy busy one. Almost a full three months after being given a home-brew kit, and after much procrastination (which, as a wise ladyonces told me "is the mother of all f**kups") I finally got round to bottling the stuff up, which took a fair old while, I tasted a bit, and it tasted like, well, bitter that isn't quite ready, which bodes well. Only two weeks and I can start drinking the stuff properly!
Haggis? Haggis. I had some in the fridge that need using that very night, and as I'd been making pizza bases before bottling my beer up, I thought, why not? As it turns out, haggis pizza is very very tasty indeed, not one for the purists in either camp, but I don't care, it made my mouth and belly rather happy.

Hopefully within the next week or so I'll have another couple of reviews up, one of which I've been meaning to do for 6 weeks...talk about procrastinating!

Finally, Shutter Island, that was a bit good.

Broken Bells - Broken Bells

For a summation of the pairing of The Shins’ James Mercer, and one half of Gnarls Barkley and uber producer Dangermouse, you need look no further than the latter’s sophomore effort “The Odd Couple”.

Since lead single “The High Road” was made available online just before Christmas, I’ve been itching to wrap my lugholes around this, the duo’s eponymous debut.“The High Road”, much like Mercer’s work with The Shins’ has a late 60’s/early 70’s Californian feel to it, this, mixed with Dangermouse languid beats opens the album in a suitably captivating manner, and the last minute or so, as Mercer laments “it’s too late to change your mind” over and over is one of the most life affirming moments of music I’ve heard this year.

Both “The Ghost Inside” replete with Mercer’s (much unexpected) falsetto, and the robot-waltz of “Sailing to Nowhere” are equally brilliant, as is, for that matter, every song before, between, and after.It’s an incredibly laid-back affair, and a record that would be very easy to fall asleep to (which I have, and mean that in the nicest possible way!).

Dangermouse’s production is sparse, yet warm, and at no point does this start to sound like an album by The Shins that happens to be produced by Dangermouse, or a Dangermouse record with vocals by some indie kid-man, it really is a true collaboration, and all the better for it. The only criticism I can level at “Broken Bells” is that when “The Mall & Misery” fades out, I was left wanting more, at 37 minutes, it’s a good 10 minutes short. But when that’s the worst you can say about an album, it must be a bit special.

Save 6music

Two days ago BBC director general Mark Thompson, (herein, referred to as “Cameron’s (herein referred to as “Murdoch’s bitch”) bitch”, still with me? I’m not), as part of the corporation’s ‘Strategic review’, announced the proposed closure of the digital radio station 6music, but you probably already knew that.
Supposedly, some of 6music’s more “distinctive” programs may be transfer to other BBC radio stations, no doubt into ‘specialist’ 2am time slots.
I’m a relative newcomer to 6music, I only really discovered it last November, when I wasn’t particularly well, and it played no small part in keeping me sane when stuck in the house for day after day, it truly is a music lover’s radio station and caters for a wide range of tastes, from folk to funk to metal to dance, lashings of comedy, and in Stuart Maconie’s ‘Freak Zone’ a singular look at weird and wonderful stuff that wouldn’t otherwise get a look in.

6music, and in particular Lauren Laverne’s mid-morning show have now become such a part of my daily routine, that I feel slightly aggrieved if I miss it.

Roughly a fortnight prior to this, the BBC Trust published a report into Radio 2 and 6music, stating that the latter needed to increase it’s 695,000 strong weekly audience without an increase of it’s £9 million budget, there were rumours flying around before this report was published, that 6music may be chopped, but, for a few days, this seemed to suggest otherwise. Surely the Trust had some idea that Cameron’s Bitch was planning something, so why the false hope?

There simply are no other radio stations quite like 6music, no other station gives unsigned and underground bands nearly as much airplay, and loosing it would be a massive blow to not only the audience and staff, but these bands.

Radio’s 1 & 2 however cannot make such a claim, there are countless commercial stations the churn out the kind of drivel, spoken or sung, that these two do during the day, and as for Radio 1’s sister station 1xtra…christ…is this really necessary, Tim ‘my dad was a priest, but I’m super-fly’ Westwood even said, live on air:“I've been broadcasting to absolutely nobody for the last three hours. Didn't you see the figures? No one listens to Westwood in the afternoon. It's soul-destroying." Aight! 1xtra costs more to run than 6music, and has fewer listeners. Where’s the sense in that? BBC Three, which costs over £100 million a year, has produced very little in the way of worthy original content, with perhaps the exception of The Mighty Boosh (pictured above-which was a radio show first, so not original then, quiet Joe!) and Being Human. A quick look over this weeks listings for said channel brought up un-missable broadcasts such as ‘Snog, Marry, Avoid’, ‘Hotter than my Daughter’, ‘Dancing on Wheels’ and ‘Coming of Age’ which looks like ‘Two Pints of Lager…’ Jr. which, to be frank, is not really what the world needs!

True, 6music is by no means perfect; George Lamb is a first class douche bag who seems to know next to nothing about music. His interviewing style is hardly probing either, he asked Ray Davies from the Kinks whether he was bald, and what his favourite vowel was, understandably, Davies hung up on him
After an online campaign to get Lamb off the air, he was shifted across to a weekly show on Saturday mornings, a small victory, but a victory never the less, and one that perhaps gives the 6music audience a tiny glimmer of hope that it could be saved.

Since CB’s report was published, the Trust have indicated that they will take public opinion into consideration during the two and a bit month long consultation period, so please, if you have even a passing interest in independent and innovative music of any kind, go here, and tell the Trust why you think 6music should be saved (that is, if you do, if you don’t, go away please, they gone? Good), if you’ve never listened, I whole heartedly suggest you do,(especially on a Saturday, post-Lamb for some jollity with Richard Herring & Andrew Collings). There’s a group on facebook, shizz going down on Twitter, and a number of online petitions. Ask any likeminded colleagues, friends, family to do the same, if there’s enough of a groundswell of support, the Trust may just reverse the decision.

If not, as Phil Jupitus wrote in The Guardian last week, it would be “an affront to the memory of John Peel and a slap in face to thousands of licence-payers”.
Here’s hoping our faces remain resolutely unslapped.

Why, Peter? Why

I recently re-read Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones, by no means a work of ground breaking literary genius, but certainly a very enjoyable novel. Curious what Peter Jackson made of the source material, me and the Mrs went to see it last Wednesday.
Big Mistake.
Peter Jackson certainly has a proven track record of adapting novels to the big screen, and in Heavenly Creatures, he created another world, apart from reality, much like the ‘in-between’ featured in The Lovely Bones, so understandably, I had not prepared myself for just how awful this film was.

The most fundamental problem here is a complete and utter misunderstanding of the book, which is about the effect that the death of a 14 year old girl has on her family and friends, and their relationships with each other, something that is barely touched on in the film.

“These were the lovely bones that had grown around my absence” narrates Susie Salmon, the murdered girl, towards the end of the film (as she does in the book), but here, it makes little sense.

The film instead, focuses on Susie’s father trying to find proof her murderer is a man living just down the road from them. As, from the moment of her death, you are made fully aware of the identity of Susie’s killer, there is no tension, or surprise.

The film was given a 12A certificate, and was obviously written, filmed and edited in order the get it’s largest possibly audience, turning it into a family film, a detective story, neither of which it should have been, the rape and murder of a young girl is hardly family film material, so much so, that the rape is never mentioned.

Susie’s ‘in-between’ is so overly stylised that it hurt my eyes, all fluffy CGI nonsense. There’s a cloying sentimentality running throughout, you know, the kind that makes you wretch.

Peter Jackson, what happened?