Enjoying what i have, yet still pushing for more.
Current mood: contemplative

I'd just like to open with a disclaimer that i am fairly poorly educated in world events, and fairly often open my mouth without knowing what i'm talking about. Here goes

So the people of Burma are trying to stage a protest against the government. And the military government is currently killing/ imprisoning people indiscriminantly to deter them. Think about that for a minute. The Buddhist monks who seem to be the standard instigators of this kind of thing in the region(you dont see many C of E vicars speaking out about anything here, except for maybe the "deteriation of society") are leading hundreds of thousands of people through the capitol city, and the government are putting them down with guns and firehoses. They massacred 3000 people in 1988, when a similar protest was undertaken, so a similar response is presumably on the cards. In fact the only way to tell whats going on inside the country is from peoples phones and the internet, as foreign journalists are not allowed. The statement of that simple fact is an indicator that the government know they're doing wrong and are hiding it from the outsie world, as well as presumably their own people. And the international reaction is, as usual underwhelming. The UN have so far performed the international politics version of shaken their head and tutted. And there is no-one else to act. The west doesnt care as theres no oil there, China wont step in as it may well give their own people some ideas (not to mention the hypocrisy of China talking out against suppressing anyone elses people; enjoy the Olympics coming up, a hell of a lot of people were killed, injured or made homeless for "The Greatest Show On Earth", and then of course there's Tibet).  It all makes you realise how powerless and small we are. I wish i could help, but apart from pledging more cash, i'm suffering a certain amount of ineptitude what to do. If anyone has any ideas please let me know.

It does make me appreciate where i am though. I'm fairly free (though not as free as i used to be) i can protest without getting shot (arrested maybe since the law changed, but i'll probably survive the ordeal) I can post blogs against my government and anyone else in the world i think deserves it and i can be a malcontent if i choose to. We have our problems in the UK, and sometimes they get brought to light (REAL problems, not food ingredients scares or "the immigrants") but sometimes you do have to take stock and realise that it's alright here. But still i want more. Gotta do some work. Adios.

Ps Dont but the new Foo Fighters Album. The first 3 songs are good. The rest is poop. Stinky poop. Dave Grohl lets me down again, and at a pound a song, that's another £7 he owes me!

Currently listening : One Day Son This Will All Be Yours By Fightstar Release date: 25 September, 2007

5:49 AM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Playing Catch Up is fun as long as you’re gaining.
Current mood: Blown Away

So its been a long time since my last blog, and a lots happened. I've moved in with my girlfriend, i finally went out to my parents house in France, we've finally been playing some shows again after practically nothing for the first 6 months of the year, and after 6 years of trying to think of a better name we finally found one that we like a lot. We toured in July including trips to Scotland and Wales, and it must be said though not to many people, we were playing the best i think we ever have. The album pushes on slowly but surely with recording getting pushed back and back and now Mr Js getting married in December, it won't be until next year, but the plans for it are already being made and we seem to agree on what we're doing for the first time. Tracklist at this point runs The Set Back, Humbug, Idiot Machismo, The Greatest Day, Temper Temper (Save yourself), Flat Out, At My Signal, Hang In There Man, Disclaimer Attached, No Means No, Picking Sides. We even have a title we agree on, previous ideas included Life In The Minions, Home Work Ethic, Flat Out to Keep Up and Your Lack Of Destiny and How to Deal With It, but i'll probably save them for song titles instead. My demoes of all those songs have gone out and last night we played 5 of them live, so they're coming together. More songs may yet be written, as i finally managed to write something in the new house after 3 months of playing RX Bandits and Sonic Boom 6 songs instead. It all looks good . We're playing some local shows, and between the time we took off at the start of the year and playing around the country instead it feels like we've lost a lot of ground. That's cool though, new name, new songs, more gigs. Bring it on. Decided that it's time to get in shape and have started doing regular exercise. I forgot how much fun sport can be. Wish i had time for more.
I've seen some amazing bands in the past few months. Watching Arcade Fire in France was a quasi religious experience. The best band i've ever seen live. Passion, Conviction, Musically astounding, instrument swapping. Genius. Better than record if that's possible. especially little musical themes that you dont normally pick out were coming through and the crowd were singing them when the band finished and it was incredible and a little haunting as well. I now cant stop listening to their records. We went to see The Living End a couple of weeks ago and that was astounding, so tight and three astounding musicians, Chris Cheney has got to be a contender for best guitarist in the world seriously. And yesterday i watched a band i have seen about a hundred times called One Day Elliot, and i cannot praise them enough. We've played with them for years and know them well and they've always been one of our favourites on the local scene, but recently every time we see them they keep getting better and better. Yesterday they were phenomenal. For something so familiar to still leave you gobsmacked is incredible, but that's how good they were/are. It's scary 'cos we used to feel on a similar playing field, and it's impossible to judge your own band from the stage, but yesterday ODE became even more of an aspiration/ inspiration to us. Someones gotta pick them up soon.

More wordly blog to follow soon, This one is mainly word vomit, apologies for that. Been listening to Less Than Jake's back catologue today. i love that band.

Currently listening : In with the Out Crowd By Less Than Jake Release date: 23 May, 2006

5:29 AM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Shelly tagged me

The rules are: Once you have been tagged, you have to write a blog with 10 weird random things, facts, or habits about yourself. At the end, you choose 10 people to be tagged, list their names. Don't forget to leave a comment that says "you are tagged" on their profile and tell them to read your latest blog...

1. I love lists. Laura thinks that all blokes are slightly autistic and that is my manifestation of it. I dont know why, it's comforting.
2. I had a twin but he/she never made it to term. I'm not allowed to talk to about it.
3. I have irrational fear of immobile objects. Toys that move themselves and such. I cant control it, if it has eyes and looks like it could move, then part of me thinks it will move even though i know it wont. My dads fault for traumatising me with an action man with movable eyes when i was a kid.
4. .I was so accident prone as a child that it went beyond my parents getting accusing looks from the casualty staff, through to the point where the nurses new all my details from memory.
5. I nearly died of internal bleeding when i was 17. turned my dads hair grey in 20 minutes. Turns out i've got Crohns Disease like Anastacia and Daryl from Glassjaw/Head Automatica. It's all a bit gross.
6. Though i did get an epidural in hospital which is something they normally give women during birth, it's a pipe in your spine that numbs you from the waist down. Was good, i've still got the scar.

(Laura Takes Over)

7. You want to have a pet polar bear.
8. You constantly play the imaginary drums.
9. You're a cheese addict.
10. You have hobbit feet! 

9:04 PM - 3 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

I'm probably wrong, but i'm angry so i'm gonna bluster.
Current mood: cranky

So theres three big news stories for me this week. Obviously the tragic campus killer in Virginia, the politicians playing with the freedom of information act, and the first lady football commentator.

The thing in Virginia was tragic, obviously absolutely devestating for all and without question the sympathies and thoughts of all go out to them. In the coverage since two things have struck me. Firstly it's got to raise the issue of gun control surely, the press over here seem to be inferring that the issue hasnt really been raised in America and that strikes me as a bit odd. But i'm not gonna get into that, as the 60% of Americans who are anti gun will tell you. Rules written when the wild frontier is still open and you've just thrown off a foreign rule can not apply to a world of a thousand TV channels, the internet and one remaining superpower. Otherwise i'd be off to Chester to shoot welshmen found within the city wall after midnight, and anyone caught moving sheep across London Bridge would be in jail. The law changes with the society, it's imperative. The main thing that has really really irritated me about this is the fact that on the front page of two (allbeit right wing) papers, has been the image from the idiots (you do something that stupid you are an idiot) video next to an image from a film called Oldboy, with a tagline and story suggesting that the film with its graphic depictions of violence were an influence to him. Firstly - rubbish - anyone disturbed enough to do that doesnt need any outside influence for stylistc points. Secondly, and this is more about the papers than anything else, if you're gonna blame a film watch it first. Oldboy has little use of guns in it, in fact (and this is purely semantics) the most graphic scene in the film that i recall involves a hammer. No, the reason the picture was used and the film is being blamed (cause we have to blame someone, and it's definitely not the disturbed human or the guns) is that on the front of these right wing papers the picture of two asian faces holding guns in a similar pose, makes good copy to the fascist soup stirrers who run them. Makes me seeth.

A few years ago in Britain an act was introduced called the Feedom of Information act that guaranteed us access to any documents held about us (medical files, reports, criminal records, etc) that did not compromise national security. It also made all government agencies and their internal runnings open to the public so we can check where the taxes go etc. Today a piece of legislation is coming to the House of Commons that gives MPs exemption from that. MPs (the only people outside of the board room who can award themselves pay rises, and generally the most corruptable of the corruptable) are trying to give themselves the chance to hide expenses, dealings, voting records etc, despite everyone else having to comply. Not surprising but still unbelievable, write to your MP (if you know who yours is, they're very good at remaining faceless in between elections) and tell them No! then bang them on the nose with a newspaper. And then watch as they pass it anyway =(

Finally the BBC FINALLY has it's first lady football commentator. Hurray! Another bastion of mysoginistic narrow minded blathering comes tumbling. I was listening on the radio and they had two people one of whom was manager Dave Basset saying how the commentary box has always been a male dominated atmosphere and that's how it should be. I was telling my radio that Dave Basset was a relic with an obselete opinion and that he should sit down and be quiet. except i wasnt that polite. Talking with Tage about it and we reckon that as it's been so long as just blokes it will admittedly sound strange to start with but by the end of the first match you'll stop even noticing. Wait for the jokes in the paper tomorrow with the lady commentator talking about the blokes nice legs. Do me a lemon.

That is all for now i feel better. Bring on the weekend.

Oh one final thought.  The day after the horrific loss of 32 people and one idiot in america, over 160 people died in Iraq from bombs and sectarian violence and it continued again the next day and the next. Any photos of the bombers on your TV or newspapers? and What films do you suppose they've been watching?

Take care of yourselves and each other.

Currently reading : I Think the Nurses Are Stealing My Clothes By Linda Smith Release date: 16 November, 2006

5:05 AM - 3 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

A brief history of timewasting
Current mood: curious

This is gonna take a while but i do have a point hang in there. My parents moved to another country a while ago, and possibly the largest effect it has had on my life was the alteration of the relationship with my dad. He was mostly the aloof, ascerbic witted, disapproving  presence during my formative years and even up to a couple of years ago. Now i actually look forward to talking to him, and, make an effort to when he rings (cant call them. too expensive). My older sisters have said the same, that he actually only regarded them as adults and engaged with them as equals when they were out from under his roof. It's a wierd thing. Not that we have much in common except looking exectly the same, but i really do like talking to him. So is there a lesson? don't take it for granted in case it's gone? No not really, i only talk to him every fortnight, and he has no idea what i do or think, but i guess i do miss him on some level. No, here's the real point. Now i see him fairly rarely, we hug when say hello, and we hug when we say goodbye. WE HUG. This is just craziness, but it's natural now, and i don't even think about it. But then i started to, and there are people you hug hello and people you don't and i was trying to think of the distinctions between. Obviously Ladies are excluded from this because frankly they hug anyone, but for blokes it's a weird thing, cos there's variations depending on who the hugee is. There's the back slapping manly hug, where you try and crush each other. Theres the old friend lazy hug, where you shake hands with the right whilst gently and quickly hugging with the right, and there's the proper affectionate hug, saved for the friend you love dearly and genuinely miss. Most blokes know this, we don't talk about it but we know. So this weekend i went for an old friend lazy hug on a friend of mine and he absolutely resisted and it just ended uncomfortably. So i'm now thinking was i wrong to go for it? Do i think better of him then he does of me? Is he just uncomfortable with it (fair enough)? and also what point do you have to be at before the discomfort fades? These things bother me.

Album is going well, we've jammed out a few and reclaimed a few from the brink and added new spangly bits. (Theres hand claps and everything) so here's how it looks so far (in my head)

Flat Out To Keep Up.

Idiot Machismo

Humbug

Temper Temper

No Means No

Reap My Rewenge

Hang In There Man

The Greatest Day

Nobody Likes A Happy Ending.

Tage has got a new toy 8 track so i'm hoping for even more input from him now. And Matts got a new amp that's so loud it hurts. I reckon 4 more tracks on top of the ones up there and we'll be cooking. Also got a very brief song to produce for another project, and an Antfest song to work on. busy Busy. I've noticed that a lot of the lyrics i'm producing a the moment are strongly feminist in tone, or are stories about girls? here's my second question, is it alright for me to write songs about girls that aren't love/lust/break up songs? does it come off as patronising? Does female empowerment sound too odd coming from a bloke? These things worry me.

5:37 AM - 5 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

It's an honour to be the first president to say "Madam Speaker"
Current mood: devious

A paraphrase of George Bush Jnrs opening line to the State Of the Union Address last night. You hope that in her mind Pelosi was up on her chair either mooning him, or pointing at him and his kith/kin dancing madly, screaming "in your face" and then giving them all the finger with her tongue out. In my head anyway. By all reports he seemed very humble during it. The analogy i heard was like a prize fighter going to the ring for the fight that everyone knows he's gonna lose. badly. hehe.

We had our first good snow for a couple of years last night. 2 inches and the country looks beautiful. It's amazing the ills it covers, even the view from the M25 (that i was stuck on for 3 and a half hours) was beautiful. More due tonight too. Think i have scandinavian blood in me somewhere, or am part Innuit. I love the snow and the cold. Don't like the sun, anything over 20C is hot. Remember riding my bike in the snow when i was a kid wearing a jumper and shorts. Was even fatter then though. So 2007's off to a good start. So much good music to come this year. Bloc Party, Arcade Fire, Capdown, One Toy soldier, Letters, Short Warning, Battleska Galactica, Fastlane and on and on. So many. tis very exciting. And us too. still writing. Got a new toy. a 12 track for my bedroom. So much fun. Re did the end to an old song with it. 7 tracks of vocals going against each other. Hours of fun. Should probably get out more.

In the news today the Christian Church is unifying in it's war against progress. The Archbishops of Canterbury and York sent a joint letter asking the Prime Minister for an exemption for the church run adoption agencies so they don't have to place kids with gay/lesbian couples. Cos god forbid kids who are unfortunate enough to end up on their own get put into stable households with parents who love them, and each other. No we must leave the kids in the orphanage and push the parents towards surrogate mothers and sperm donors. The Archbishop of Canterbury is really starting to grate with his homophobic stance. No gay priests/bishops, cos God made us all, he just got 'them' a bit wrong, right? You wanna take an annonomous show of hands as to how many current priests are in the closet? "We've only just let the women in, and that was a token gesture. Are you mad?" (said in a high pitched hoity toity voice). Remind me again why there's only about half a million (and falling) church going Christians in a country of 60 million (and growing) . If you believe in God then that's great, some of the nicest and most upstanding people i've met are Christians and it works for them and you have to respect it, but can you do something about your leaders please? I'd recommend a newspaper on the nose.. "No!.No!"

Currently reading : Fat (Gollancz SF) By Rob Grant Release date: 27 December, 2006

8:07 PM - 5 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

Adult film music for beginners
Current mood: satisfied

Just a quicky to say that this jamming lark is wicked. We've got loads of bits and pieces on the go now, it feels like juggling musical balls. Tonight we've been playing this big stomping rock effort with chanty chorus and noisy verse, and it's great. Plus Humbug has words and is solid as. Then there's this slow jam thing that sounds like a Pumpkins end of record chill out piece that makes all feel sleepy, then Matt brings out his Wah, Tage whips off the funk chords and we're playing 70's porn background music/disco. Probably won't be on the record, but good fun none the less. And it all sounds great. Plus thanks to Mr J's technical genius (minus a few technical difficulties) we're recording bits as we go. Tis fantastic.

Currently watching : Hard Candy Release date: 19 September, 2006

3:06 PM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Ho ho ho...Wah wah wah
Current mood: geeky

Musical blog time again.

So pretty much everything i had written for the next album has gone out the window for a new approach including a new title that seems to be sticking so far as well. This is good and bad.  See the old way entailed (and this sounds really arrogant) me writing  pretty much all of it, most of the guitar lines, the vocals, most of the harmonies and occasionally some ideas for drums, i'd stick them on a 4 track and hand them out to the rest of the band. Matt would listen to them and learn most of it, Joe would listen to it a couple of times and Tage would lose it somewhere so i'd then teach it in the practice room and we'd alter a few bits, but by and large they stayed fairly close.

This time we're gonna try and jam stuff out and see what comes and so far it's worked well on a song we played live for the first time at our last show. I wanna call it Humbug, but that might change. It's a bit shouty and came out of a chorus we noodled about with, which got added to a verse i blagged a bit, then we jammed out a wicked middle section then a few details got added in the practice room and it rocks. Really Rocks. We keep playing it over and over as we all love it, so we're off to a good start. I think we're gonna keep Idiot Machismo as it fits what we're trying to do, & there's a couple of others floating round (The Greatest Day and Reap my rewenge) which should be keepers with a bit of mucking round, though we'll see.

I'm having a problem though. See jamming out bits of music is great, but putting them to melodies and turning them into songs is problematic. The bands who you see do it i am quickly gaining respect for. I think you can come at it 2 ways, i'm gonna call them Capdown and Bandits. the Capdown way is to jam out music, get a load of riffs that lead into each other and flow well and then add vocals over the top afterwards. The downside being that singing over progressions already in place means you cant take the melody where you want it to go, and unless you're very good at it (like capdown) it will lead to either short bursts of vocal, lots of non-melodic shouting or single note melodies. The Bandits way is to write really simple songs around chord progressions with melodies already intact, then present them to the band to jam through to try and get the music going, before re-adding the vocals.  The trick to working this way is to leave space inside the song for the music to flourish a bit (the Bandits have written the manual on this), though if you get it wrong then it will sound like a really simple song with pointless noodling over the top. It's a challenge. I'm trying to work the Bandits way, but it's like writing songs without writing songs if that makes sense. And although i have a few ideas i am struggling. I'm up for the challenge, and i'm planning on working a lot over the holiday if i get the time, but it's really thrown me, and it's exciting at the same time.

Bring on Christmas i really need a holiday.

Currently listening : ...And the Battle Begun By RX Bandits Release date: 10 October, 2006

5:52 AM - 3 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

More nonsense about things i dont really know about.
Current mood: curious

Let's hear it for the American People! Bring on January and the Democrat majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate. It's gonna be beautiful. I'd like to think it's not a single issue vote, as all the press here have been saying, and that the people have considered more than just the war, but frankly who cares, 'cos Rumsfeld is gone (and just about to get sued for abusing prisoners. Pinch me), Bush is (figuratively) on his knees begging the Dems to be nice and that he didnt mean to ignore them for 6 years, Nancy Pelosi is speaker (3rd in line. tempting eh?) and all is set for the Democrats to put up the presidential candidate we've been waiting for in two years. I like the idea of Hilary Clinton, Isn't it about time for a female president? but it's still early and we'll see. Course they could make an absolute hash of the next two years but again we'll see. These are interesting times.

Just a note to say that i'm not sure why US politics interests me so much more than in the UK, but it does. I could name i think about half the US presidents and i have a friend who can give most of the 20th Century in order with VPs but i really couldn't name you 10 Prime Ministers. Not without venturing into "Pitt the Younger" and "D'israeli" both of whom could have been great men for all i know but i only know names. Maybe it's the money and the regularity of the scandal. The ease at which you can tie American politicians to Oil, Pharmaceuticals, Construction or the Church makes it easy to mock them, and to be angry with them, so maybe that's what it is. In reality it's probably  incredibly boring, like the British political system appears to be. Maybe it's the fictional portrayal. The closest we come to the West Wing etc is probably Yes Minister, which though dated is actually fantastic, and quinticentially British, so maybe it's not that. Who knows.I should probably learn more about British politics. If i could do my degree again, i think i'd have done Politics and History. At least it interests me. Does anyone else have the strange waves that come over them, the urge to educate themselves, to be smarter? every 6 months or so, i'll declare to Lau that I'm gonna go and do a couple more A-levels/ Read her literature reading list/ learn to be a mechanic and i always start to read more, but i don't really get very far beyond that. Lazy boy.

Currently listening : Finelines By My Vitriol Release date: 21 August, 2001

5:27 AM - 6 Comments - 9 Kudos - Add Comment

we're good but not that good.
Current mood: curious

So i was talking to Laura (my beautiful, funny, far smarter than me, yet occassionally endearingly insecure(why are the insecure ones always the ones who have least to be insecure about) girlfriend) last night and we decided on a couple of things. We were watching the last series of the West wing, discussing the Latino candidate for President, and when something like that would happen here(though we don't really have a Latino community obviously) . Everyone knows Tony Blair is standing down, and everyone expects Gordon Brown to succeed him. But we want a fight, so the country (or the Labour party members anyway) get to pick. You see the leader of the Labour Party is pretty much the only viable Prime Minister. The Lib Dems are a mess, and Min Campbell is probably evil. It's fairly tragic because Charles Kennedy was making them look like contenders, but now. Unelectable. David Campbell, is a tory. He's the youthful, charismatic, (slightly, but not very. he's a British politician) energetic face on the right wing devil. The voice will change, as will the tune but the song is still the same. The smaller parties don't really figure, so what we're left with is the new Labour party leader (Lau reckons the next government will be a Labour-lib dem coalition. I'm not that smart) as PM for possibly the next decade. Go place your bets/hopes http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/guides/456900/456937/html/nn14page1.stm.

Oh and why checking that link, see the Lib Dem for Scotish Affairs. She's the same age as me and on the front bench at the House of Commons. makes me feel a little inept. Give the lady a cigar.

Also we were talking about if you had a genie and three wishes to save the world what would you do. We only got to our first but we decided that if every gun in the world disappeared in a cloud of smoke, then the world would be better. maybe not fantastic still, but better. There are possible exceptions though. whether or not the military get them  is dependent on who or where they are. assume they all lose them, except for possibly UN peacekeeping forces. areas of contention: the US in all their endeavours, the Israeli army, etc..   People are always gonna disagree, especially over the minor details of a certain 1800 year old novel, and will fight however they can. If we abolish guns then people will use more explosives, and the only way to counter that is to identify bombs and stop them in advance or from a distance and guns are pretty good at that. Need to talk about this some more. My girlfriend and i can't solve everything in one night, we're good but not that good.;)

Finally George Bush admitted that the CIA have secret jails all over the world, and strongly insinuated that terror suspects are taken to these jails to be interrogated/tortured, outside the US's own laws, the Geneva Convention and the Human rights act. I'm yet to have this argument with Lau, but if she reads this i'm sure i will. I'm confused on this. I think to strip away human rights, to defend 'freedoms' is strongly hypocritical. You don't have to just talk like you're better people, you have to act like it. And i think the people of the US should be screaming about this. President Bush keeps waving laws in the name of whatever his 'Crusade' is. The public should probably be talking about it. The strange and frustrating thing about being British is you presume we dont do that, so you can 'feel superior', but we can do nothing about it.

The other side of the argument is this. Terrorists are real, Bombs have gone off in London, Spain and everyday more go off in the Midle East. The threat is continuing. They are trying to kill civilians and we do not want that to happen. I like sleeping safely in my bed at night, thinking that my family and friends are still gonna be where i left them when i wake up. I like that security and maybe we shouldnt question too closely the procedures used to ensure it, just because we're too squeamish. It takes what it takes and maybe we should shut up and be grateful. Lau will scream at me for writing that but there you go. I'm actually not decided. Today i am full of questions. and i'm over running my lunch writing these opinions. Back to work...

Currently watching : The West Wing - The Complete Seventh Season Release date: 07 November, 2006

5:17 AM - 7 Comments - 8 Kudos - Add Comment