They make a good point
via guardian.co.uk
Dispatches from the Back of Beyond...
Can something ever be too funny?
What can yo say about this? I just have to think about it and it maks me laugh. Thank you Michael for sending me the link. I think it important that it be disseminated as widely as possible.
Brett on 6 Music
My favourite Spinal Tap moment from this interview with Brett Anderson:
"I loved the fact that my second album as a solo artist was just of me and a solo cello, that's just the sort of thing you simply can't do when you're in a band."
I enjoyed listening to this interview. When we were about, ahem, twelve or thirteen, my friend Will and I used to record our own radio show onto cassette called "Parlour FM". The main feature on our pretend station, the only real features we ever had in fact, were in depth and exhaustive interviews with Brett Anderson where Will would pretend to be Anderson and I a sort of Steve Lamacq type character.
Will's Anderson was much more camp than the real life one. I wonder if I can dig out a cassette and make an MP3...
The Adventures of Unemployed Man
This one is on my birthday wish list.
My Father's Anti-Americanism
Last night I watched some TV with my father. This in itself is pretty rare. What made this event even more unusual, was that the shows we viewed were American in origin: The Daily Show and Curb Your Enthusiasm.
I found myself having to do a fair amount of preparatory priming for both shows; most American culture and pop culture in general is alien to my dad. He thought that The Daily Show was pretty good (it wasn't a brilliant edition), but he also thought it was 'heavy-handed', and that it was shame that we didn't produce something similarly satirical on a daily basis in this country. He conceded that Curb your Enthusiasm was 'sophisticated' and seemed to find it quite amusing.
But I wasn't quite prepared for when he then said (and I'm paraphrasing slightly):
"This has confirmed to me that your generation are hopelessly engaged consumers of American culture".
The episode in question featured Steve Coogan and I suppose he interpreted this transatlantic collaboration as significant.
I somewhat took umbrage from his choice of words 'my generation' and 'hopelessly'.
Depressingly, just when I thought I might have made a breakthrough, I am reminded of what has been a longstanding point of difference between us: his cultural and old-world snobbery allied with a knee-jerk leftist anti-Americanism.
I challenged him to tell me what was so bad about American culture and what it was he perceived to be so fantastic about European culture. In response I just got vague notions about the spread of consumer capitalism (as if Europeans aren't capitalists also), cultural imperialism and the two World Wars.
My father laments the fact that in his view Britain isn't more integrated with the rest of Europe. I'm just not sure what he really means by 'integrated'. Given that America shares our language, closer 'integration' with our European neighbours seems a hopeless chimera. Besides, we already do have many close ties that my father seems to overlook.
It's as though he's disappointed that I'm not into French Comedians, or listening to Portuguese Pop music - I'm not doing either of those things because if I was that would make me a massive weirdo. Even if I were fluent in the French language I think I would stay well clear of most French culture because that country's protectionist policies towards it have rendered much of what is produced there shite anyway.
For most of the last fifty years America has been the cultural trailblazer and the rest of us have been desperately trying to keep up. Now with civilisation in tatters, thinking that anything new or important will ever come out of the old world again is just deluded.
Just needed to get that off my chest.
The Fridge has Opened!
This is a nice piece from the Guardian In praise of the Cricket World Cup's nine-to-five heroes.
And listen to Geoffrey Boycott's commentary in this clip, and the sound in the slow motion replay. Wonderful stuff.
Any Takers?
So I'm heading up to the bright lights of London Town this weekend and have been searching the live music listings for something interesting to attend. Naturally I'm quite into 'World Music', and some of my most memorable and unexpectedly brilliant live music experiences could be classed as such.
Looking through Timeout I see something in the Union Chapel, 'Six singers from the La Plaine quarter of Marseille perform traditional Occitan music and songs, with percussion accompaniment'.
Wondering what 'Occitan' music was I did some incredibly lazy research and found this video. Can I interest anyone in perhaps attending this night?
The Incredible headless man
Bieber: Impressive
"He's the moppet from another planet: I defy anyone to watch this docu-lite promotional tour video about Justin Bieber's live show (back when he was 16) and not be sort of impressed, if only at an anthropological level."
This from Peter Bradshawe's review of Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, a film for which he awarded three stars, made me laugh out loud. The idea of being 'sort of impressed only at an anthropological level' is great.
Mom & Pop are back
My Mum and dad have just returned from France where they've been house sitting for the past six weeks. Now commences a period of deep despair period of readjustment.
That isn't them by the way - my parents are way better looking.
Since he was living in a mansion next to the Pakistani equivalent of Sandhurst why didn't they just alert the police and have him arrested? Or at least keep sending him junk mail and delivering take out food he didn't order. Maybe rent the place next door and have continuous loud parties featuring western music.