Po Hymn?

I was replying to a comment from the lovely Rosie on myspace about our recent freak meeting at Bangface in London and I noticed a little poem I had written on her page. I reproduce it here for everyone to appreciate:

A rolling stone gathers no moss,
Jim Crow don't ride no hoss,
But in the depths of the old woodland,
The Froggies croak is rather hoarse.

That is ALL.

Red Top Trash

News of the World? What a fucking misnomer. The title should be rescinded forthwith.

Talk Talk - Lift Your Spirits Part One

Today I found myself talking to the lift at work. Not in expectation of any scintillating conversation you understand, I had pressed the wrong button and was apologising for my error. It was a kind of appeasement to ensure its continued operation, a bit like the soothing noises made to an old car when trying to start on a cold morning. This set me to thinking how the practice of talking to inanimate objects (we'll consider the lift inanimate despite its gravity defying propensities), in fact treating them with the respect generally given to people, is commonplace throughout the world and indeed the fourth dimension.

From pre-historic animism to naming ships we seem to have a penchant for trying to make things like us. Very evident in children who are always integrating objects into their fantasy world as characters; be they man made toys or stones, the tendency seems to fade into adulthood, at least surficially. However anthropomorphism is there behind many everyday ideas and behaviours. From country to country we may dispute whether the Sun is male or female and likewise the Moon, but no-one seems to question the existence of a certain personality to these heavenly bodies. It is understandable that such importance has been given to these celestial close companions, after all even before our understanding of the Moon's influence on the tides and seasons it was these two bodies that gave light and warmth, that self evidently brought about two of the major and frequent changes on the planet. Similarly attributing spirits or personalities to trees, rivers and mountains also makes sense in terms of their importance in providing water, shelter, food as well as their prominence in the landscape, in fact, making the variety that accompanies so many lives. Simple transposal of this from country to town explains the humanising of lifts, vending machines and other paraphernalia of modern living.

At the other end of the scale from reverence is the transferral of anger. When stubbing a toe on a door or stepping outside just as it begins to rain it feels like there should be someone to blame. Yet they are really just coincidental occurrences and ranting at nothing seems pointless. To make the anger seem more worthwhile and directed the object comes under fire. Fists are shaken, expletives uttered, sometimes physical violence is attempted. However in such cases it is usually the foot that comes off worse than the door!

Both these instances come from a need to relate to things non-human and from the fact that it is easier to understand and relate to things in human terms, even if these are enforced by our minds in spite of reason. We remake the world in our own image. It's an organismic trait common to all animals, an elephant for instance cannot relate to us in a human way, it projects an elephant world view onto the humans, wardens, zookeepers, it comes into contact with. A better example is perhaps the dog, living in a human family a kind of dual transference occurs. We integrate the dog into our household and our lives as an extra member of the family giving it human desires and characteristics. From the other perspective the dog treats us as fellow members of its pack with a distinct 'pecking order' etc. The two can function together but neither really 'sees' the other in any way but the one in which its species allows it.

Sex is Relative

There are two lots of sexual criteria to be judged, physical and mental - the most ancient is the physical - there was never a mental beyond successfulness in terms of finding food. Human society has created complex demands when finding the correct match or "life partner". More abstract things such as a sense of humour or a specific way of looking at the world (humour is of course one facet of this metacapability) become valuable. Yet still the tug to the physical, the sexual, is strong. Understandable when sex and touch plays such an important part in our relationships, but these properties, those of the head and of the body, are not necessarily linked and can be mutually exclusive. Here lies our dilemma: a person can be sublimely attractive mentally and be a wonderful conversational companion but if the spark of physical attraction is not there this counts for nought. Similarly a stunningly physically attrative person can be an utter dolt incapable of all but the most base and shallow communication. These inconsistencies I feel sure are the cause of much suffering and heartache on all sides in the quest for close companionship.

Human Rights and Human Wrongs

Does anyone else feel disgusted at the behaviour of our government? Does anyone else feel frustrated that there is no way to show our utter contempt for such sordid and morally corrupt actions? With the present cash for peerages scandal sounding a bit close to cash for questions and suitably short and snappy for the media, see Arms for Iraq, one wonders if anything will ACTUALLY come of it. Oh? So Tony Blair MAY be questioned by police? Well I'd rather he were extradited to Iraq to stand trial for war crimes along with Bush. Seems only fair for people to whom Geneva Accords are just words to be surmounted. As for Sharon, I see he has cleverly done a Pinochet. Coma eh?

Just to prove my point another recent example of such Houdini like escapology. Innocent man shot dead on crowded underground platform, lenghty enquiry, police officers stand trial, reputation of execution of law and order policies and justice system in Britain on trial, result: no criminal charges brought! I rest MY case. As Tom Stoppard said in an interview earlier this evening, we live in a country of democracy of obedience.

Arab Retro Fun

I have discovered by playing an emulated version of the old arcade game "Chase H.Q." whilst listening to North African pop I have created a new game which I call "Maghrebain Cops"! It's so much fun imagining your Arabic cops chasing down some criminals in their old car whilst eating sweet snack food =)

A History of Violence

Casting ones eye over European politics of the twentieth century with a layman's view of history, one sees a change from larger scale conflict to more domestic squabbles. When one thinks of the polarisation of the European powers on two separate occasions in the first half of the twentieth century it seems the conclusion must be that we have 'worn ourselves out' and are now concentrating solely on the imperialist style aims that have always gone hand in hand with state rivalry. The amount of energy expended to keep the public in the dark to what is really going on has increased due to the proliferation of global means of dissemination of information such as the internet (this informing of the general public en masse seems to have begun with the advent of the printing press and the accompanying concept of pamphleteering). A large amount of money and time also goes into keeping subject states in line with the wishes Western powers have for them. But given the relatively short time span that the European power dynamic has taken to change it is conceivable that a new stable power bloc could emerge in the next few decades, with the assistance of a growing lobby of global moral conscience. Attempts to form such alliances rival to that of the Western powers have so far been scuppered by sponsored coups or assassinations, but if the eyes of the world watch closely with a new awareness of the underhand dealings of the secret service etc it is possible. I await with interest the developments in both the Middle East and in South and Central America.

Venn the moon shines over the cow shed

Hey hey hey, now I have a job! It's only temping in an office in Bristol but good to finally get back to work and earning money. Also yesterday went to Venn Festival in Bristol. A number of acts throughout the day at venues spread up and down Stokes Croft. I was thinking this is a great way to spend fifteen quid when my friend Andy said the same thing to me! The moving between venues made it feel like a festival, reminded me of ATP, and we saw some cracking music. Chris Corsano was a droning drumfest, Ariel Pink were poppy like a trip to the past via a tape recorder time machine and The Chap were supercallifragilistic, I found myself wanting to swap heads with the lead singer, if only for a day. Check here it's the Lo Recordings site and look them up. I just did and am even more impressed, the lead singer's name is Johannes von Weizsäcker!!!

Lids Are Heavy

Sometimes I get so tired of everything. But maybe it was the thunderstorm earlier that makes my bones ache. I wish I had been standing in the middle of it. I am going to indulge my love of deserts by watching a film about mirages, "Fata Morgana".

Oh well, Orwell

I might as well write a post since I have been on here for ages. Was about to get off and write something, you know that weird paper stuff, but I shall endeavour to get my brain in gear to bash something down on zee keys.

First things first, the Orwell biography I am reading is a goodly read. It's a relatively recent one by D.J. Taylor who was born and lives in Norwich and looks like a fun packed fella by his press shot in the back. It is well organised and referenced with a multi-part index containing not only general but biographical summary, attitudes and works sections as well as citations for references used and notes for each chapter. The structure is chronological with the book being split into five broad "Parts" subdivided into chapters and each dealing with stages in the development of his career. Interspersed in these are short character related sections with titles like "Orwell's face" and "Orwell and the rats". It also contains two sections of plates with photographs of Orwell growing up and some of the main players in his life, publishers and romantic interests.

The book itself has been a fascinating read so far a fairly minute study of his life with an attempt to debunk all the posthumous mythologising and coming to the conclusion that the reasons given by him for his actions right from school onwards appear to have been carefully structured to give a trajectory to his life that was less than the more random series of occurrences it was. I also find the historical aspect interesting, covering as it does the transitional period away from the age of empire, a still existing old style class system and the move into the modern era. I am getting on well with it and should finish soon, I have volume 1 of his collected essays, journals and letters to read too. He is about to go to Spain to fight against Franco and the Fascists, will be good to compare Taylor's account with that given in "Homage to Catalonia". Actually whilst describing the circumstances around the writing of each book Taylor also gives his own little description and potted review within the chapters. That's all for now.

P.S. Surely Mozilla must win something for the best icon for a browser? What's better a blue "e" or a cute fox curled around the world? come on.

Keep an eye on the media

Just a brief post as I thought I should advise any people who read this to remember that just as the media has been used for propaganda on a scale from the gross to the extremely subtle in the past, this is STILL going on today. One must bear this in mind when reading newspapers or watching television news. The important thing is to have an open mind and a questioning nature, never take anything at face value. It sounds difficult and there is no guarantee if you do so you will get the whole truth but at least you will have a more balanced viewpoint. I am putting a link to the medialens website, they publish sporadic emails which attempt to put certain news stories into perspective and make extensive use of references combined with a non-polemical editorial stance. In other words they try and say where everything comes from as much as possible and they don't go on angry rants. Of course it is up to you if you take my advice but you should at least check out the site with an open mind. There are many more sites on which there is some alternative to the mainstream media, read but don't forget to read without taking every word as the truth.

MEDIALENS WEBSITE

Pearls of Wisdom

Lately I have been reading a book given to me as an, I think, apposite Christmas present. It is The Consolations of Philosophy by Alain de Botton and attempts to elucidate everyday relevance in the works of several famous philosophers.

[As an aside, in finding the link for this book I read the snatch of review for it by Martin Cohen from 'The Philosopher', I assume a philosophical magazine. I would research further but that would consume I feel unnecessary time when the likelihood is self evident. He comes down it seems not a fan of de Botton but it seems to me he has to accept the success of the format at popularising philosophy, for five minutes in the public eye anyway, and so can't be as damning as he would like to. Whilst I agree with the banal nature of the images used within the book and accept it is basically a rushed effort to coincide with a tv series, I am reading it without having seen the series, in fact all of de Botton that exists in my memory is as a vague balding image in a suit jacket and jeans I believe. I can't argue on the interpretation of the philosophers as I have not studied any of them intensively but although Cohen comments that the book is "platitudinous" it seems to me an important point to make that popular derision is not automatically a sign that the object of derision is inherently flawed. But I digress, in some way I suppose I am trying to exonerate my discussion that follows from accusations of my lack of authority to write what I have.]

I read of Socrates, Epicurus and Seneca with interest, aided by the easy style of the book, and gleaned some good and seemingly sensible advice about the use and value of logic, the elements most important in personal happiness and the ability to cope with lifes frustrations through a pragmatic and analytical viewpoint from these three. Some of the ideas seemed more a timely reaffirmation of general principles that I have tried to follow but, as we all know, sticking to a regime be it exercise, dietary or behavioural is a difficult task. An acceptance of ones limitations whilst not precluding attempts to better ones behaviour and attitudes is a principle to which I have tried to adhere and which appears to me to be vilified in the reported writings of the previously mentioned ancient philosophers.
On reading the fourth section I discovered the existence of Michel de Montaigne, a French philosopher of the 16th century. His views seem to be an antidote to what I assume has become the prevailing intellectual standpoint of the time and appears to still be the case to a great degree today. Well read of the classics he nevertheless advocated a non reverential attitude to those ancient Greek and Roman philosophers, not to be afraid to criticise certain books or ideas as less than brilliant and incisive. He bemoaned the excess of commentaries on these ancient works and the lack of original writing based on observation of personal experience.

"Whoever recalls to mind his last bout of anger...…sees the ugliness of this passion better than in Aristotle."

His own work, the "Essays" is, according to de Botton, filled with entreaties to tolerance, mutual understanding and acceptance. It also contains copious detail of the minutiae of his daily life, his likes and dislikes and personal anecdotes. He covers not only the mental but the physical, in most intimate detail, his shits, farts and burps. As well as showing a human individual behind the words it is an attempt to subvert taboos on what are suitable topics for conversation and thus give a more accurate portrayal of the whole person. Extremely rare in a serious book at that time such frankness is unusual even today, people generally preferring to maintain a distance between their print personality and their physical selves (this could be seen as a mirror of the body mind duality). In many ways Montaigne was ahead of his time, his attitude to the wholesale slaughter of the supposedly subhuman South American Indian tribes, such as the Tupi, by the conquistadores a prime example:

"Every man calls barbarous anything he is not accustomed to; we have no other criterion of truth or right-reason that the example and form of the opinions and customs of our own country. There we always find the perfect religion, the perfect polity, the most developed and perfect way of doing anything!"

I found much to agree with and admire in Montaigne, the previous quote I feel is all too relevant now as it was at the time of his writing. It is tempting to say that we have not learnt anything from that day to this in almost five hundred years, many of those consumed by warfare and general fighting within and between nation states, and writing from this time of intolerance and distrust of those we consider different in other countries and even our own. His more personal and intimate comments too struck a chord with me and stirred a certain feeling of behavioural kinship with regards his liking quiet when using the toilet and his regularity:

"My bowels and I never fail to keep our rendezvous, which is (unless some urgent business or illness disturbs us) when I jump out of bed."

Such mixture of the mundane and the more philosophical put in mind the blogosphere and its similar mixture of tone. In a way Montaigne's "Essays", which consisted of three volumes, were its confessional precursor, equal measures high minded and basely preoccupied. I hasten to add I do not mean to elevate or denigrate either by my use of those terms.
All this is really an explanation of the revival of inspiration that reading of him and his ideas has given me. A rejection of scholarly culture as:

"We are richer than we think, each one of us"

and an encouragement to mine the depths of my own experience to recover some hopefully useful conclusions. I should also mention that I am writing this on good old lined paper and with a red biro, the constant glare of the computer screen and lure of the interweb something of a set of headlights to the startled rabbit that is creative thought, or at least my creative thought. It seems that all the plans of what to research or write down when online fall out of the brain as soon as the fingers hit the keyboard and the little box says "You are now connected at 2Mb/sec."

P.S. In a brief afterthought I was in the library today, ended up borrowing a George Orwell biography so expect some Orwellian posts, I had a flip through the guardian. There was a piece about bloggers and the increasing encroachment of companies getting their views across, in some cases, a Wal-Mart example was used, feeding copy to bloggers to print. I must admit I may be a little naive but I feel the point of these things is not to promote product, theres enough bloody advertising in life anyway, but for people to share their ideas. There were also a couple of articles about myspace, it seems like the media beast has stirred since the Arctic Monkeys became their new five minute darling. Tell the truth I am already getting frustrated and annoyed by the whole myspace thing, it tires me looking at all those people. It is a bit like celebrity gossip, one is drawn in to it but ends up feeling cheapened by it all. Everyone, when the weather gets better turn off your computer set, and do something less boring instead.

FINAL THOUGHT: For those of you getting het up about wasting water (I'm not advocating being thoughtless here) see: A hosepipe would have to run 70,000 days to waste as much water as Thames Water leaks every day.(Private Eye No.1154)

XXXXXX

Socrates was a hairy dwarf

Ah I have finished my Prehistory of the Mind book. Lots of good ideas, after summing up he did an Epilogue implicating his cognitively fluid mind in the advent of agriculture around 10,000 years ago. For reasons certainly other than that of the global food shortage proposed by some. His reasons have more to do with social gains for the few, the overall effect of switching from a hunter gathering to farming method of subsistence was to lower general health and fitness standards due to limited the variability of food sources (relying on hybridised crop varieties) and increased proximity of larger groups of people leading to disease. However the possibilities for prestige afforded by possession by the individual of a majority of resources as well as the ability to construct tools related to specific plants, a consequence of a merging of technical and natural history intelligence, was too good an opportunity to miss. Eager to read more on the same line, or at least more anthropology or psychology stuff I ended up picking up the Alain de Botton book "The Consolations of Philosophy" that I got for Christmas, thanks mum, and started reading.

Each chapter is devoted to a different philosopher and their concerns and the idea of the book as a whole is to try and use philosophy as a tool to better understand and cope with life. A sterling plan I feel and should be a good read to get me up to speed on basic ideas before I wade waist deep into the Classics of Western Philosphy on my shelf. The post title refers to Socrates apparent appearance, but actually sounds like a lovely chap on an even keel, don't think I could have taken a sentence of death by draught of hemlock with such aplomb.

Tachyons and Magic Wands

Hello there, the other day it snowed. On my way back from the pub Saturday evening I felt the touch of tiny snowflakes. Pah! I thought nothing of it but when I awoke next morn, twas covered. Actually it didn't take long to melt but I took the advantage of taking some photos before it did.

Snowy Trees

Snowy Berries

Snowy Log

Phew that was quite an effort! All that resizing, and writing even basic html code at this time of night strains my brain. So anyway the snow was a pleasant surprise. Also last week I went to see "Sympathy for Lady Vengeance" the new film by Chan-wook Park, oh he of "Oldboy" fame. Normally I would link all this up but as I said earlier...if you curious go check IMDB. Was good but seemed somewhat disappointing, think maybe because my expectations were risen by loving Oldboy so much and Sympathy for Mr.Venegeance. It was still enjoyable and had some nice visual fades as we expect of him, such as Geum-ja's face into tv static and a long pan up from her in the street inside a building. Not as dramatic as Oldboy though, more slow moving. Packed with detail and I want to see it again. Also last night I saw "March of the Penguins" at Chepstow Film Society. Treasurers eyes must have been glinting as there was a BIIIG turnout, over 80 people. Even a couple with a baby from Bristol...and a little girl who asked to sit at the front so she could see. When it started I felt a bit like the camerawork was workmanlike and not exciting but as it wore on I became gripped by the simple story and ended up enjoying it. Though I did find the over anthropomorphising annoying, attributing specific extreme emotions to them unscientifically and saying things like the return of the female penguins to the sea was "unfortunately" awaited by the seals. Also when a bird swooped to attack the chicks the commentary didn't deign to tell us what bird it was (some sort of gull). But aside from these quibbles there were some nice shots of the aurora and once scene I particularly liked was a time lapse of a "dead" egg cracking as it filled with ice.

Meanwhile my book draws to a close as he analyses all the elements of our culture created by the cognitive fluidity of the modern mind and now puts its evolution in context of a fluctuation between specialized and generalized ways of thinking. A quick comment on an interesting programme on BBC 2 this eve from BBC FOUR. Twas about climate change and though the ultimate conclusions (that man made global warming is a fact) were well known to me it had good footage of melting Greenland ice sheets, Viking ships and supercomputers. Oh and the presenter, Paul Rose, used the word massive every other sentence. Now I am tired, my eyes are blurry and I must sleep.

Oh and quickly here is a link to my LOMOhome where you can see pictures taken with LOMOcams or at least a LOMO aesthetic.

My LOMOhome

Trees, Sky and Human Thought

Yesterday after having been inside for most of the day I decided to go for a little walk, in fact I felt quite tired so I was going to go up to the grounds of Piercefield and find somewhere to lie down in the grass for a bit. I followed along the Wye Valley walk for a while on the path we normally go to walk Meghan. I had in my head that I wanted to see some bird action (I still want to watch a woodpecker for longer than a few seconds) so I stopped for a bit at a small tree which I could lie down on and wait for some birds or possibly other bigger creatures (though I didn't really expect a deer or badger to come bounding along a path frequented by humans). This story has a bit of a boring ending if you are expecting lots of animals as apart from the usual calls of magpies, blackbirds and tits the only mildly exciting thing I heard was a Nuthatch tapping lightly on a tree to release some tasty insect grub (in both senses of the word). But lying on the tree I looked up through the branches and got a lovely multi-layered view of branches at different heights and pondered the possibilities of successfully recording such a view through a lens, either still or video. I took a picture with my phone camera, which didn't record it successfully!

Here is the photo I got, OK but resolution TOO small!

I also took a couple more pictures, one of which was taken from the same tree but facing to my left and slightly behind me. The low afternoon sun is shining through a few thin trunks. I liked the oblique angle of the tree in the top right corner, gives it some minimal framing and contrasts the vertical trunks.

The tree seems to loom over the image don't you think?

I carried on walking and got a phonecall from my friend Heather when I was round near the back of Piercefield House, looking up the river to the north. Was nice to have a chat and funny as I had been thinking of her earlier. She is going to a dry stone walling place in Derby soon where they also have an exhibtion of walls made from different stones around the country. It sounds like a good trip but am trying to save money at the moment. It is annoying as when I get a job I will have more money but less time for visiting people and places, frustrating! Whilst I was talking with her I noticed some bramble leaves that had an odd marking on them. It was visible on both the top and bottom of the leaves with the colour changing from white on the top to red on the bottom. My thoughts were that it was either caused by some kind of fungus or by an insect boring into the leaves for food. I took a photo so if anyone knows you could leave a comment, I would like to find out. After all curiosity is my middle name! It seems to follow the same pattern on both sections of the leaf, growing in thickness from its start point at the edge to its finish point near the centre from less than a mm to 3-4mm. It begins at the edge and at some point follows one of the divisions inwards towards the centre of symmetry.

What do you think this could be?

I have also been reading more of my book "The Prehistory of the Mind". His argument grows and he has just got past the stage of interpreting the mental processes of Homo neanderthalensis. In his view it seems to be the case that from the circa. 6 M.Y.A. common ancestor to Neanderthal man and other early humans that on top of the module for general intelligence have grown separate modules for technical intelligence (represented by stone tool making so far culminating in the Levallois spear points made by Neanderthal man), natural history intelligence (relating to the ability to hunt in groups and understand distribution of plant food items and behaviour patterns of prey animals) and social intelligence (relating to interactions between group members and vying for primary positions within the group etc.). It is from the social intelligence module that language grew, as a means of replacing the function of grooming which takes up more time with increasing group size and therefore removes time which could be used for hunting and gathering. Also language can express feelings to more than one group member at a time. The initial language is considered to be more of an advanced form of cat purring, like the oohs of pleasure and aahs of pain we use now. However by Neanderthal man it appears, from both reconstructions of braincases (endocasts) and the presence of a modern hyoid bone (a bone attached to the larynx and pharynx and important in vocalising complex sounds) that speech similar to our modern language was at least technically possible.
But I fear I may be getting too technical in my descriptions, the point is that although these modules allowed advance behaviours, Mithen postulates that there were still no connections between the modules that would allow thought filled with cross pollination of ideas so vital to our modern minds. In other words when making tools they could only think about making tools in a general sense and couldn't think about making tools for killing specific prey animals for example. This was because any knowledge about prey animal behaviour or physical makeup was purely contained within the natural history intelligence module. In general I think its a good theory though I question some assumptions he makes based on limited evidence, for example the use of chimpanzee behaviour as analagous to the behaviour of the common ancestor due to lack of fossil evidence and the over use of archaeological and fossil evidence of Homo neanderthalensis due the greatest evidence of early humans being of these. However he is working with what he has and he backs his ideas up with evidence wherever possible. Plus the book has an extensive notes and bibliography section which is always good in a popular science work.

I would have finished writing this earlier but I was distracted by Radiohead on my iTunes and then I wondered if they were still together and went to their website. Yes they are and the site is excellent, lots of interesting tidbits to browse over. I feel it only fair that I link to it here so you can all check it out. Also here is a link to Guapo's website, they're a great band I saw years ago supporting Kid606 in Cardiff and I want to see them play again. But they seem to be only playing in Belgium lately, bah!

Radiohead's Website

Guapo's Website

The Monroe Transfer

I just listened to a live session on Resonance FM of my friend Rhiannon and her band called The Monroe Transfer (that's the UK one not the rubbish US pop punky or whatever one). Lots of swelling strings and building drums. I would very much like to go see them when they play soon in London, they have two gigs coming up. I may be able to go but if I do I will only get snatched time with sister as she is sooo busy with studies. Still at least she is enjoying it, she is learning lines at the moment.

The Monroe Transfer

Also on the show were some peeps from Bristol that I feel ashamed I hadn't heard before since I only live down the road and two of them run a record label there 58 Records . They are called Rasha Shaheen and Joe Volk and having looked at the 58 Records site it appears they put on nights called PLUG:58 to advertise and support local music and arts. Well the band on the Hello Goodbye show were called M-A-L-E and have two members Rasha Shaheen and Annette Berlin. Both sing and Annette plays drums whilst Rasha plays guitar. There are enough links there for y'all to be going on with so check em out. I'm going to have some lunch now so TTFN.

Anger!!!!

Those stupid speaking emoticons are REALLY annoying! Anyone else? Everytime you go onto page with an ad for them you get "You make me blush" or "Bite me!" or "I'm counting down the minutes until I see you again". This type of stuff, like the text with stupid images of stars or hearts around it for Messenger, makes me incredulous that anyone could actually think they are cool or worth anything other than petitioning the creators to cease and desist immediately on pain of death for polluting all our mental environments. Still I suppose these are the same people that buy the crazy frog ringtones. Gasp! Humanity is so easily swayed.

Dappled Leaves and Sunburned Hands

Ah the Cube! What fun. Yesterday evening I saw Sunburned Hand of the Man in an evening of what could only be described as pure theatre. The night saw a selection of projects by members of the musical collective including a performance piece and culminating in an ecstatic performance by Suburned Hand themselves and the showing of a 22 minute 1968 psychedelic film by Ira Cohen entitled "The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda" rescored by the group. The whole evening was compered in a humourous and unprententious manner reminiscent of something that may have been seen at the commune in "Easy Rider". Obviouly these guys are heavily into the communal organisation thing popularised in the 60s but perhaps with a little more financial savvy, though still seat of the pants stuff. Another highlight for me was the music provided to listen to by Keith Wood (music under the name of Hush Arbors). I got to listen to a recording from vinyl to CD of the solo album of John Phillips (from the Mamas and the Papas), sun drenched, drug inspired simple tales of woe but with a comforting feeling.

First up were Bridge of Trust a slow building compote of subdued noise combining delicate guitar, violin and synthwork. It was performed seated or hunched on the floor with rocking movements bringing to mind the comfort and muffled sound inside the womb (based on my memory of those fateful 9 months anyway ;-)).

Then Mark Orleans played under the name the Ozone Layer described as "New Orleans crossed with Katrina...cold black heat inside his heart". After an amusing false start with getting the Line 6 delay pedal to work the piece consisted of looped out of tune piano, warped tape voices with lashings of whistles and recorder and plenty of onstage humping segueing into some searing picked guitar action. The next song was a bluesy, jokey number written the night before "from a pile of vomit" entreating us to "lick the falcon".

After this came The Clear People, a hilarious Pythonesque collection of battered samples, clattered mike stand legs, bells and muttered cartoony vocals. "I can't come to Christmas dinner, I'm so high...SURPRISE!"

As you may have gathered from my intro comments I am a big fan of Keith Wood and his Hush Arbors project . He's a really great guitarist and my toes were a tappin on the back of the seats at the hard, bluesy, folky stuff he came out with. I only wish he'd played more.

Man Cry was built up throughout the evening as being a descent into the darker side of the soul and then undercut when it came to it. It consisted of a series of cards with put downs on them being read to the members of the troupe in turn. Each member sat on a chair, received their news and then cryed and bemoaned their fate before having water thrown on them. It was a funny experience and though something of a sending up of serious thespishness it did have something of a truth of emotion to it.

When Sunburned Hand came to play it was a wondrous droning, noisy, throbbing, chaotic thing of beauty. All swopped instruments, climbing about the stage with an organic, oil in water like back projection adding to the slow burning nature of the set. I think everyone there was agreed it was a great job and the addition of the rescored film screening afterwards was the icing on the cake. The film had a real sense of claustrophobia with a motley cast of performers representing partially mythical characters and partially Oriental denizens of an opium den. Face paints abounded as did colourful costumes, the unwrapping of indeterminate parcels and funhouse mirrorlike image distortions. This gradually gave way to the protagonists finding themselves outside where they danced ritually around in a sunlit field. It is difficult to give an accurate description on only one viewing as the imagery is so dense it requires repeated watching, something I intend to do as it is apparently being released on DVD with the troupes rescoring. The rescore itself was suitably meandering and contained a number of oriental sounding instruments and occasional flicks of a lighter as the opium pipes were lit. Apparently the original score for the film was by early Velvet Underground drummer and poet Angus MacLise and it contained lots of heavy drumming. It is available to buy on CD so hunt it out if you wish. All in all a fantastic evening, left me feeling good inside.

Sunburned Hand Slideshow

Sunburned Hand of the Man website

On a more personal note my friend John from Swindon was there but sadly had to run off before the end as he had to catch the last train back. Damn that public transport!! Also this morning I went for a great walk down by the river in the woods and heard some woodpeckers tap tap tapping on the trees. I took some phone pics and present them here for your delight and delictation.

Branches

Shadows

Building

Fume!!!!

I am angry!! Angry angry angry!!! Stuff gets lost and breaks, it does this to annoy me personally! Or thats how it feels. I am tired of wanting to do stuff and it taking many times as long as it should or breaking entirely.

I made red cabbage today for first time. I put many many spices in as told but I feel it didn't quite come out how I wanted it. Still the mash was good. Have also been reading more about html to prepare me for web designing, whoop de whoop! Am listening to a Classical genre mix up on iTunes...at mo it is Wendy Carlos. Feeling tired, my HEAD is tired you hear me?

Oh yeah and other things annoyed me today like Tessa Jowell and the still unfinished Wembley stadium refurb.

Snowy and the Human Swiss Army Knife

Hey hey folks, here is a pic of the snow that just came down today. It has been alternating between snow and sunshine, heavy weather! Just missed getting caught in it when I went for a walk earlier. Got a good look at a buzzard on the walk. I was sitting at the top of the cliffs and saw it rise up on a thermal, wheeling round and round, climbing above the cliffs into the sky and away. Could clearly see its underside markings and the shape of wings and tail. I'm sure one could see a lot just sitting there for a while with binoculars. I also want to try and find the sandstone contact in the woods down there. It is supposed to be between the upper jointed Limestone that forms the cliffs and the lower more massive Whitebrook Limestone but I've never actually seen it. Also was only a couple of feet from a robin singing away on the cliff top. Tried to film him with phone but quality was crap. Shame as if I'd had video cam could have zoomed in really close and seen his hairy nostrils.

Well actually I wanted to post a bit about the book I am reading, it's very thought provoking so far (three chapters in). It's "The Prehistory of the Mind" by Steve Mithen and is about the evolution of the modern human mind and the development of art, science and culture. He is an arcaeologist who apparently went to art college but has been a Research Fellow at Cambridge so nice mixed background. He is just getting onto his theory now, which appears to be a kind of synthesis of the ideas of foremost psychologists. He has been describing the difficulties in trying to establish how the mind works in that it appears so integrated with information and ideas being shared around and used extensively in analogy and metaphor. Looking at the way hunter gatherer peoples interact with the world around them today it seems clear that they conduct their tasks holistically without keeping separate tasks compartmentalised as the theories of evolutionary psychologists such as Leda Cosmides and John Tooby would imply. But all this is me simply summarising the first few chapters. He also mentions the "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" quote, which basically means if you look at an animal growing up it goes through similar stages as it did in its evolution. So he is going on to wonder how it is children think and talking about some theories in which the child first uses a generalised learning "programme" to acquaint itself with the world (using similar methods to learn language and symbols) but the mind becomes modular in its organisation. The basic problem seems to be a way of reconciling specific individual skills or intelligences with the generalised way in which elements are used to cross fertilise disciplines, the use of analogy from one area of knowledge to elucidate another. Well we shall see what he covers further into the book but I really wanted to write about this last night when my mind was whirring.

I can't exactly remember what it was that I wanted to write down, but it was roughly to do with wondering how people from hunter gatherer cultures interact with themselves and each other when transferred to a situation such as one we find ourselves in. In other words how do say, American Indians or Australian Aborigines function in a modern city environment disconnected from the land and where people do not have such a strong connection with one another. Putting aside the accusation of drinking and gambling which is often made to both the groups I have mentioned as this is I believe due to the way society has stigmatised these people and taken away their rights. But how do these people who regard a multitude of elements within their own landscape and environment as interlinked and multi-representational; regard objects within our society. After all we can find similarities in our behaviour where an apparent transference of these mental functions occurs, our reverence for the technological such as televisions and our modern day crucifixes and portable oracles, mobile phones. But of course my comments here are slightly flippant and surficial as such relationships are much more complex than I have made out. The mobile phone for instance could seem due to the way people hold it in high regard, panic if they lose or misplace it, as analogous to a totemic symbol such as a crucifix. However it has a function as a communication device and as such is a kind of cybernetic extension of the body, an addition to such means of interpersonal communication as face to face conversation, or letter writing. But I often wonder if the apparent "showering of gifts" upon mobile phones, giving them new covers, ringtones and pictures is somewhat akin to the behaviour of many people towards the household pet. These behaviours seem to be connected to those briefly mentioned by Mithen when he discusses a child lavishing attention on a favourite doll. In some ways more so as the mobile like the doll is essentially an inanimate object, however once again the issues are more complex as since we can communicate with ones we love on our mobiles, even now with video on some phones, that a mobile seems perhaps an intermediate form between the animate and inanimate. One can certainly imagine a person of even a few hundred years ago perhaps believing a mobile phone to be some kind of magic or divine artefact.

I could probably go on in this vein but perhaps if I read more I will have more insight, though I doubt he will deal with artefacts. I may be wrong there though as he is an archaeologist. In other news the PC I bought has finally given up the ghost and I can't really be bothered to even try and fix it any more. It just makes me angry and depressed (I'm glad I carried on writing this as it cheered me up or at least refocussed my mind) so I shall salvage what I can from it, sell bits and just concentrate on saving for a Mac so I don't have to worry about all this shit anymore. Bah!

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Two Weekends of Music - Part One

Bit of a double header this one, being as it is the true and accurate account of two weekends of veritable music in diverse and interesting settings about the metropolis of Bristol. I can't be arsed to talk like this for the rest of the blog. Oooh that just reminded me of how my mum used to think for ages that when I said "I can't be arsed" I was saying "I can't be ASKED", tee hee. Anyways I am writing about last Sunday and yesterday.

Last Sunday was the Osaka Happy Noise Tour (or something like that). My friend Tom put them on, was a load of crazy Japanese noise music people and a couple of guys from the UK. Was at a place called Native down a side street in Bristol near the old market. I came over to Bristol in the day and helped Tom pick them up and sort out the sound system etc. They had lots of fun on their laptops, all iBooks or Powerbooks bar one and when we met them in a cafe they were on the net through the WiFi hotspot, mmmm techy! So we took them to Tom's gfs house and they hung out there whilst we went and grabbed the PA stuff and then we had to get them all down to the venue in a taxi and we took the PA in the car. Actually was lots of fun setting up the system, would like to do some more gig making, but hopefully with more people next time! There were so few at the gig, probably cos twas a Sunday and raining and maybe cos Native is a little TOO tucked away. But no matter the guys were all superb and lots of fun.

Ove-naxx made some funky crash sounding stuff with some speaking over the top "My music is shit...kind of!"

Distest DJed up some crazy mashup stuff with some more poppy stuff and did some scratching.

Maruosa waved his hair bout alot and played metally electronic stuff whilst shouting.

Gulpepsh did some great beatboxing and singing of Mario tune for one.

Horatio Pollard made loud hurty noises and some that sounded like floating in the stars using Max MSP to play samples

Germlin made mashup Shitmatesque tunes and danced around like a an epileptic.

Doddodo played last and was as good as last time we saw her. She played cute and noisy stuff through phrase samplers and climbed around a bit and waved her arms like she was conducting a mini orchestra. Everyone danced.

After writing this I have decided to add the second lot of photos about yesterday as a second post, simply cos the pics took up lots of space. So see you in a sec, bye for now!

Two Weekends of Music - Part Two

And so to yesterdays crazy noise fest at the Junction in Bristol. AIDS Wolf were the main draw but lots of other bands played too, so many I can't remember them all (that may also be the alcohol). Alice came to visit this week from Wednesday to Saturday. We had lots of fun playing dominoes and Scrabble, but now I have no one to play dominoes with, sadly! So Saturday she and I took the bus to Bristol she went off to hang with Nikki and I went with Andy, John Scott and Farrow to the Junction. We missed the first two bands (one of whom were Fuck Buttons which was annoying) but there were plenty more to be had.

The first band making noise with matching T-shirts, how sweet!

These guys made lovely slow noise with contacts mikes on cymbals and later...a floor tom!

Orion Arm doing their thang. They were great, melodic, noisy... and shouty.

I thought this guy was Tim Harrington at first, but sadly no. I would have loved to see Les Savy Fav again. Still had a nice line in nude drumming and hairiness.

Here is Team Brick enjoying himself with a cup of coffee. He didn't play he just came to watch.

And here is one of me taken by the lovely Stacey, I think its quite good. Perhaps impromptu would be an accurate description.

And there you have it in a largeish nutshell, the highlight for me was Orion Arm and whoever the guys with all the pedals were. Actually there are loads more pics of some of the other bands, one has got a tasty GREEN cab and amp in it. All in all I think it was a bargain for 6 quid, a day of lots of good music. In retrospect perhaps I shouldn't have drunk so much but then, I blame Andy and the Swindon posse. They are the worst influence I know. Ah I am listening to Orion Arm now check out their myspace page Orion Arm. That's definitely enough computery stuff for today I need to sleep. Bye for now XX.

Teratoma of the Mind

Last night I watched the Oliver Stone Castro documentary "Comandante". I had been planning to for ages, it was a very interesting study of him and his ideas. Initially I had thought I wish it was longer, since Stone spent 30 hours with him, but I think the length is just right. Good too is the interview with Stone at the Edinburgh premiere in 2003. Although at the beginning Stone states that either he or Castro could say cut at anytime I sometimes felt that a certain spontaneity could be lost in editing. Often the words of Castro's wife, translating for Stone, did not match her movements onscreen. But all in all I think it was pretty fair. Now I want to track down the follow up film by Stone, apparently entitled "Looking for Fidel", don't know if it has actually been released though. Also I watched the 3rd episode of "The IT Crowd". It did nothing to change the opinions of either myself or Tashi, who find it very funny, or those of Alice and my folks, who don't. Or at least they seem less enamoured of it than me, though they stop short of calling it rubbish. I will admit it lacks a certain je ne sais quoi but each episode so far has had me laughing out loud, which seems a fair judge of a good comedy to me. Whether it will stand the test of time, I don't know.

So today I read more of "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat", the second section about excesses of the human mind, hence the title of the post, and reading about the Tourette's sufferer Ray I was inspired to draw this picture:
After initially being prescribed Haldol by Sacks Ray returns a week later with a black eye due his newfound inability to dodge in and out of rotating doors. I have several mind related books to read afterwards, thinking maybe "The Prehistory of the Mind", want to browse through "The Oxford Companion of the Mind" thats downstairs too.

Actually I thought of drawing it afterwards when I went for a walk with Meghan up to Piercefield. She ran off in the grounds, it seems some gunfire there in the past has permanently spooked her, though at the time I wondered if she had become agoraphobic in her old age. Probably just me being influenced by reading about disorders at the moment. I was also pondering filmmaking and getting some ideas for things to do when I finally clear some tape space, or buy some new ones. I really think a wide angle attachment would be a wise investment, but I'd like to try it out first to get a feel for it. I am listening to Jazz Record Requests at the mo on the little radio in my room, its "Big Blow" by Manu Dibango, a funky Afr0-jazz tune. Last tune now, Louis Armstrong and Jack Teagarden "On the Sunny Side of the Street". I love the mix of old and new stuff on JRR...and there always seems to be someone from around Portsmouth putting a request in, go Pompey jazz fans!

I had a chat with Alice today on the old dog and bone, was trying to get her to send me the burrito recipe she told me about but she has to write it all down so may take a while. She has mucho work to do at the moment too with dissertation in soon and her interview at Bristol. I also spoke to Jessie, she took over while Alice was cooking eggs!

Hello Interweb, I'm back on the air!

Shucks folks! Not that anyone is reading this but since the last post many many things have happened. Mainly now we have a new computer and broadband it is easy to create posts again so I may have to keep it up. I have been engaged in much myspace activity and Little Ottmar's Myspace Page is the place to go to check it out. As well as this there is the myspace music page of stuff done by me and my friend Tom. The place to go for that is The Nature Reserve. If you find either through looking at this leave a comment to let me know as it's always good to know if anyone is checking this blog =)

So apart from that I have been engaged in job hunting activites for a while now since being back home. Unfortunately although I have had an interview I haven't had much luck so far. Oh I have also been learning html hence the advent of links I did myself and these snazzy paragraphs. I am in the process of making a proper website for the Nature Reserve so look out!

Here's a fairly recent picture of me in front of the old computay, tapping away. I like this new blue shirt, twas a bargain in the sale.

Oh another quite exciting thing is I have been writing some bits and pieces for SPILL magazine. It's a free music mag but did my first new release reviews the other day, getting CDs in the post feels cool. Now I fancy reviewing books, films etc. Actually to be honest I have wanted to do that for a while, despite having a mixed feeling about reviewers. SPILL Magazine this is the place to go to check them out. Right I think that's quite enough for now, you will hear from me again soon. For now bysie bye. xx