Hunchbakk - music and musings

oh boy

2012-01-11T13:06:00.001Z

i come bearing bad (although not wholly unexpected) news

it regards the music column that i had been contributing to for my local rag, The Enfield Advertiser, or rather, it regards the lack of it...

it is actually quite a task to cast my mind back and remember the time when the Advertiser were still running regular music columns, as detailed on this blog before, the entertainment section was initially under threat, then it was the staffing of the paper itself that was called into question resulting in strike action, and sadly, these trials and tribulations resulted in the decision of Entertainments editor Jonathon Lovett to leave the paper

his parting words in an email was that the future of The Weekender, that he had been at the fore-front of, was still uncertain, but that he had not heard that its days were numbered just yet... providing a new contact at the paper for submissions

in October i emailed her with pieces on the live return of The Others and the passing of Steve Jobs and the impact he has had on music. these both went ignored.

and in the months since, the newspaper has certainly seen a decline in the entertainment covered within as the once proud Weekender has slowly lost pages and articles and been folded into the ever-slimmer newspaper until there is very little trace of it left at all.

i'll admit that my last couple of articles were not very Enfield-centric, and if the pressure was on then perhaps they would not have been in good stead to occupy prime space, and with that in mind i decided to make one last ditch attempt at getting a focus of Enfield music back in an Enfield newspaper, submitting my recent review of Worst Case Scenarios debut EP.

i received an apology for not having getting any replies to my october emails, but that was by-the-by, the truth of the matter was that 'Unfortunately, we don't have room for music reviews in the paper anymore as we only have three arts pages'

my reply back pointed out that it was a shame that the Advertiser would not even consider running these features and raising the profile of and supporting musicians within the community that they live in.

i did not get a reply back.

better man - part 2

2012-01-06T12:10:00.000Z

it is so often the case that the sequel is never as good as the original, but let's see if we can help to re-balance the theory as i sit around at work, with not much work to be done, and plenty of time to ponder over yesterday's blog post and what i intend to do with my life...

it is common for me to live in daydreams

and despite trying to do otherwise, i still spend more time thinking then i ever spend doing

but i am daydreaming in those moments that happen between moments, the moments that are of little consequence, bus journeys, walking to work and other occasions where you are in a transitional state, waiting, or moving, but not fixed and not dedicated to fulfilling a purpose, those are the times when my mind wanders and the fantasy life plays out

i put belief into these desires, that they could be true, that it will happen someday, that something is holding me back but, in time, i will make good on these flights of fancy

i have some more music to make, my Giles Babel persona has not been as prolific as i had wished, but when i do find the time to mess around for a bit i do start dabbling, because that is what Giles Babel does, he does not merely make music, he makes experiments and projects and tests without placing too much fear in the fact that it is not 'music'

and i hope to push myself and push boundaries a bit more when i eventually get my hands on a fancy little iPad and load it up with useful apps, i have played around with the ridiculously simple garageband while idling in an apple store, and researched a few other useful looking programmes that do not look beyond my own capabilities

the intuitive nature of the touch screen pitches the iPad and the desired music apps somewhere between a toy and a portable music creation tool, making learned skills look easy at the touch of a button and hopefully encouraging a playfulness in my own machinations and a freedom from restriction.

before then tho, i need to focus some energies on wrapping up that which i have already started, drawing a close on what should have been the debut Hunchbakk album that is long delayed, cracking on with this latest collection of Giles Babel sounds, and, as my brother reminded me and his followers, maybe i should be looking to finish up the SoundArt collaborative project that we started in december 2008 with the intention of creating a 12 track album over the following 12 months, but is still stalled on the 9th track that i have barely made a start on.

i shan't go making any wild claims that 2012 will be my year, a grand exclamation like that sets me up for too big a fall for my liking, but lets just take it as it comes and see what happens regardless.

credit where it's due:

that slightly bizarre image up there was half inched from a seemingly unrelated article and was stumbled upon when i searched for the term 'better man' in google images

better man

2012-01-05T16:15:00.000Z

i'm not one for new year's resolutions

but i do understand the reasoning behind it, feeling that we need a new start for the new year

instead i shall continue doing what i believe is the best type of resolution to make, whether it is new year or not, and that is to be the best person i can possibly be, to try and do everything that i have intended to do and more so

so, i've got a novel that needs editing, which i shall get round to this month

i've got music that i need to make and share, and would like to expand upon this by making an accompanying t-shirt design

i've got ideas for a couple of comic book storylines that i should really put pen to paper with, and at least get working on a first draft so that it can begin to take shape

i need to keep Seeking Susan Boyle up to date with musical tid-bits and should really get a logo and header sorted so it all looks a little bit more official

now, this may seem to be just another one of those blog posts where i harp on about the things i should be doing instead of just doing them, and that is because it is

damn, it seemed a better idea before i got started on it

so, post over...because i have the last few christmas decorations to take down and put away, some washing up to do, a review to write and dinner to make later on

counting down

2011-12-31T17:34:00.000Z

ok, we all know what's going down tonight, and we've just about finalised what we're gonna be doing tonight, which isn't much to be honest, but anything to do with New Years Eve must involve a tremendous amount of mucking around so that you can subscribe to the cliche that New Years Eve must be an amazing celebration

and since december is nearly over once again, we must wait another 11 months before it is officially ok to watch Elf again, so let tune into the sweet sounds of Zooey Deschanel teaming up with 500 days of summer co-star Joseph Gordon-Lovett

this video, along with a couple of free mp3s and looks towards 2012 can be found over at my music blog Desperately Seeking Susan Boyle

and i'll see you all on the other side....

have a good one

all wrapped up

2011-12-28T21:15:00.000Z

well, i've done my celebrating and eating (and more eating) and taken my little sabbatical from checking websites and social networks that really shouldn't be a part of anybody's christmas celebrations, so i thought i would pop back in to share a little of how my holidays were constructed

my brother has already revealed his intentions of never paying for wrapping paper ever again, and he supplied me and my girlfriend with some wonderful presents this year, including a magnetic black knight who now adorns our fridge (in four pieces)

of course, it is the giving that is more important than the receiving, and i think that i managed to undertake all of my christmas shopping without breaking the bank (if you ignore the bundles of money that we must have spent stocking up our food and drinks cupboards in preperation, which still remain, for the most part, well stocked)

this has meant that i have been in and out of charity shops and picked up a number of good quality bits and pieces in order to keep costs down, not only that, but i had a part in handmaking a gift and a couple of soft toys that were given as presents, not only has this given me pleasure to do, but it means that these presents were unique and thoughtful and were appreciated as such

and for members of my family, that i tend to only see once a year and do not really have a great insight into their tastes and preferences, i would be a fool for spending a fortune on shit that they may not even like and may end up given to charity.

so instead i go straight to the charity shop with the intention that if they really are not keen on it, the charity shop will have benefited twice

the board games went down well one year, as did the books that i bought (well, i presume so from their reactions anyway)

this was was perhaps not quite so successful.

it seemed a natural progression to buy them all CDs.

like i've said, i do not know their tastes and preferences, so i instead searched high and low for some music that i would like to recommend and perhaps turn them onto.

by now, my cousin's Bowie loving husband will have opened his Robbie Williams CD.

my cousins seemed thoroughly uncertain of Artful Dodger's All About The Stragglers and George Martin's In My Life collection of Beatles covers

Artful Dodger Mini Mix :)

and i'm not even sure my aunty and uncle even thanked me their respective presents of Macy Gray's On How Life Is and Dashboard Confessional's Places You Have Come To Fear The Most

after taking out the CD and perusing the inlay booklet, he still seemed none the wiser (and no more grateful)

he did mumble a little while later that it was a shame that he did not have a dashboard to get it working on....

oh dear, better luck next year i guess...

what's the worst that could happen?

2011-12-17T17:51:00.000Z

the last couple of articles i submitted to the Enfield Advertiser that were unjustly ignored did not cover a local angle, and i wonder if maybe this contributed to the reason they were not picked up to run, or perhaps they just shunned them regardless.

so i'm making one last ditch attempt to see if my local newspaper has any interest in actually featuring stories on local bands, by submitting this piece on Worst Case Scenario that i have just run over on my music blog Desperately Seeking Susan Boyle

and just to keep you up to date on what i've got going on over there i thought i'd bring it to your attention over here too

so give these guys a listen....

in a band?

broke?

don't worry about it.

shunning expensive studio time, Worst Case Scenario show local bands how it should be done, self recording and self releasing their debut EP.

'Lost In The Element', available through iTunes, is a clear indication of a D.I.Y ethos prevailing and proving how a clear talent and determination can shine through and give hope to other bedroom musicians.

Formed in 2005, Worst Case Scenario have garnered six years of experience performing live and becoming a well respected act amongst Enfield's musical community, and it is these years, along with a recent roll-call shake-up that has lead to the long overdue recording of 6 tracks, that were released in late October.

A laptop with Cubase was set up, a microphone was borrowed, £10 was invested in a pop-shield, a mic-stand was improvised by taping the microphone to the side of a door, and some friends and family were roped in to provide shouted vocal takes that were recorded onto a phone before being added to the final mix

and yet, aside from the EP's interesting and inspiring creation, the music speaks clearly for itself.

Mostly a mid-tempo affair with a number of crowning flourishes, the tracks featuring on 'Lost in the Element' connects the dots between a number of disparate influences, touching on the sounds of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Paramore and KT Tunstall amongst others.

As the EP plays through the opening 'Intro' and into 'Point of No Return' the band lay down their wares as a serious band with considerable talent, showcasing a tooled-up acoustic sound that permeates throughout the release.

with 'Save Myself' and 'This Is Your Truth' the strength of these mature songs, belying the youthfulness of the band, holds strong, whilst the musical direction simmers down until it reaches the stripped back, yet overwhelming, stand-out track, 'Whole Again'.

The EP seems to hinge on 'Whole Again', taking in the listener as the the pace has eased through four tracks out of six, only to be hit by a breathtakingly beautiful track that is all the more fragile through the sliding contrasts that have lead to that very point.

leaving us with only the closing salvo of 'Throw It Away' to once again kick things up a notch and round out an accomplished EP that signposts a promising future for Worst Case Scenario.

It may not have the professional sheen that these songs are clearly deserving of, but this is only the cherry on the top of a very pleasing cake that is missing, it is still a powerful set of songs recorded and released in a manner that is a testament to one young band's capabilities and conviction.

stream: Worst Case - Whole Again

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas

2011-12-12T23:29:00.000Z

oh yeah

the christmas tree is up, personally picked and felled in the beautiful landscapes of Morrison's carpark

so it is about that time of year again where i whip off my kit and and allow you to download (for free, i know it has been a tough year for you) my cynical christmas single

and since we are living in a more environmentally aware age, you will be pleased to know that i have been recycling this song since 2008, and that this wonderful digital download has not been manufactured in china and transported across oceans by carbon monoxide fumes

with every year that passes, my sentiments that i sarcastically put into this song strengthen, sick of the christmas that we are having marketed at us every late october through december

help yourself

and please feel free to share

Hunchbakk - www.xmas.com

thanks

what draft? first draft?

2011-12-07T10:50:00.001Z

ok, i'm sticking with this writing theme for just a little longer, until i get distracted by reading comics or something at least.

and i had been asking what happens next.

when i first discovered the notion of NaNoWriMo, it was on a BBC Breakfast feature, with a couple of authors sat on the couch next to the hosts.

they talked about the lost opportunities of all those that had ever considered writing a novel, and i counted myself among them, and they talked of using these 30 days to just write anything, just to keep writing, and i did, and they talked about taking that first draft, and giving yourself a break from it, and returning to it in january to edit your first draft, create a second draft, possibly edit that later in the year, and so forth, until it if done.

first draft?

what?

yeah, ok, i guess it is.

but keep whittling away at it, time and time again? i have conceded to the idea that it will need editing, it was slapped together so hastily that, above all else, it does need a second look to eliminate all spelling and grammatical errors (unless they were intentional), but i've been giving more thought to this...

i may change my mind, but i'm unsure if my 'novel', my NaNovel if you wish, really needs 'editing'.

i think it may well go through a number of changes if it is called for, and some of it most certainly is a bit of a mess, but it is my mess, and maybe, just maybe, i'm a messy worker.

some of the thoughts that spilt forth from my mind, splashed across this novel, may have no real place in modern literature, but why should i let a little thing like that stop me.

this is not my money-maker, this is not my retirement fund, this was a writing exercise, thas was fun (sometimes), and rewarding. and i may even self-publish it.

but i like it the way it is.

my writing has always existed that way. almost like an impulse.
to be acted upon. and then that is it usually.

i read Roger McGough's autobiography a few years back, and was surprised to read that he writes poetry and revisits it and revises it accordingly, working on it until it is complete.

and i was shocked.

not once had i tried to write my poetry this way. i had never even considered it.
so i tried it. and i didn't really like it.

and last year i wrote my first ever 'short story'. in one sitting. and had no desire to change a thing.

perhaps i am foolish for considering my work finished.

or perhaps that is just my style.

perhaps i'll find out in january when i attempt to re-read my very first 'novel'.

cosmic odyssey

2011-12-06T12:15:00.000Z

and now i am just wondering where to go next.

i did spend the few days after completing my NaNovel not really knowing what to do with myself, knocking out a blog entry, but other than that, feeling slightly lost without the crutch of frantic and near-constant writing to lean on.

i could feel how devoting so much time to it had seemed to have given my life purpose, and how blocking out practically everything else (plus the looming deadline) had given me a strong focus.

sadly i feel it slipping away from me already, as 'normal' life creeps back in and all the jobs i had put off until i had finished writing now needed doing.

in addition to housework etc, there is still some more home improvements that need further advancing (if not finishing) before christmas, mix in my intentions to record another christmas single, a follow up to my 2008 effort, and also wanting to learn to play guitar a little more competently and my time is soon spent. and then there is the full time job that i will need to fit all of this around.

i've also made promises of a couple of reviews of Enfield bands that need to go up on Desperately Seeking Susan Boyle sometime soonish and seeing if the Enfield Advertiser will go on ignoring pieces submitted on local acts by a local journalist, which i probably can't do until i've rewired some speakers, and i guess i've got my work cut out for me yet again.

progress on the NaNovel will wait for now, i'll take another look at it in January perhaps, give myself some distance from it and return to it fresh in the new year to work on a second draft, but for now my girlfriend is reading her way through it, and i am preparing a pdf copy to fire off to a handful of people for judgement.

and if i could find the time to write 50,000 words in just 29 days, i really haven't got much of an excuse for infrequent blogging, have i?

has absence made the heart grow fonder?

2011-11-30T12:01:00.001Z

i would like to apologise.

if you read the last blog post that went up on the 2nd of november, then you are probably aware of why i had taken leave for so long.

it was not that i wanted to, but once i was caught up in my NaNoWriMo novel, it became difficult to escape it.

i have a passion for writing, clearly for writing about just about anything from the past form of this very blog, i have had a passion for writing about the music i love, whether it is being published or not, and i wanted to take up this challenge and write a novel.

50,000 words in 30 days.

mine weighed in at 50,778 when i verified the word count last night.

it was enjoyable, and it was stressful, and it was so rewarding to have crossed the finish line, and to have crossed it with time to spare.

it was not looking quite so hopeful earlier this month, i had been writing daily, writing under my own steam, and figured i was not too far off the cumulative word count expected when trying to attain 1,666 words written each day, some days i had missed and i hoped others had made up for it.

on day 17 i took a break from the writing to log back into my NaNoWriMo account and log my word count, only discovering at that time that it would be input onto a dandy little graph and would spout statistics at me.

this was wonderful.

what was not quite so wonderful was the fact that even writing just short of twenty thousand words by that point, i was still over 8,000 off par.

the stats told me my average daily word count to date, how many words i would need to write daily to finish on time, and if i kept going at the rate i was, i would finish on the 13th of december.

much like drivers always aim to beat the little estimated time of arrival that their sat-nav displays as they set off on a journey, i too aimed to whittle down the days and reign in the challenge. i would be proud of myself regardless of when it was complete. but i wanted to do this.

and that is my excuse really.

i'm sorry i couldn't share any words with you over the course of my writing, almost everything that fell from my mind was channelled straight into the novel, i allowed myself the timely distractions of tweeting, but to have given any kind of worthy update on here, or to share anything on here at all, would have felt like a squandering of words that were much needed to plump up my novel.

so now, on this last day of november i sit here.

relieved it is over.

proud that i made it.

contemplating my return to blogging.

and with a rather attractive handlebar moustache to boot.

(please donate what you can afford, thank you)

what month is it?

2011-11-02T14:40:00.000Z

there are a number of answers to this question.

a couple of which i shall look at in some vague sort of detail.

the most obvious answer would be November.

this is correct (1 point to you)

but over the last few years or so, men have been cultivating cookie dusters to raise money and awareness for men's health charities.

this well-meaning trend has seen the month formerly known as November now dubbed as Movember.

and since i thoroughly enjoyed showing off a bit of top-lip fuzz when i went to a screening of Anchorman, and quite impressed to people's reactions that had seen photos of my moustache, but not actually met it, i decided it was only right for it to make a return, for charideee.

the plan is simple, you start November 1st clean shaven, then let nature take it's course until you have enough facial hair to groom into something fascinating

i would be grateful if anyone feels the need to donate via my profile

(i expect contributions to be low whilst i go through the primary stubble phases)

and i shall update y'all with imaginative self-portraits over the course of the month

it is also NaNoWriMo

which looks like some kind of maths equation or a distant relative many times removed from the periodic table, but it is in fact a campaign to engage people in writing for the whole of November (or Movember, or NaNoWriMo)

and as someone that has spent years thinking that i would make a brilliant novelist, if only i would just get my head down and get on with it, this movement is pretty much geared towards people like me

alas, when i struggle to keep my blogs updated and barely find time to do any of the things that i genuinely intend to do, i can't promise how i am gonna fare over the course of the month, the aim (set forth by the campaign) is to complete a 50,000 word novel, broken down, this is over 1,600 words a day, and i didn't exactly get off to a flying start, or any start at all, yesterday.

shit.

less yapping nonchalently.

more natural facial hair growth and unnatural feverishly paced novel writing.

wish me best of luck at both (please)

star of wiki

2011-10-28T01:30:00.000+01:00

strange how some things all of a sudden get turned around

from writing for my local paper as a music columnist to wondering whether they'll ever print anything else from me ever again

from having good relations with my editor at glasswerk, to having a blooming amazing understanding with her successor only for him to leave and all and any glasswerk activity to have dried up completely

but my last editor, in the brief time he was there, sent me some awesome stuff to review

when asked for musical preference i did wonder if i was giving him a tough time with my nit-picking and obtuse reply, but he just 'got' me

and for a lot of what he did for me, and for a lot of the music he sent me, i am grateful

and it is through my uber-wunderful ex-editor that i have attained one of my own personal goals

yup, if you look hard enough, you shall find me on wikipedia

ok, so it is nothing quite as spectacular as having an entire entry dedicated to me, listing my swimming awards (yellow and green), my achievements (good at Creep and This Charming Man on Singstar) and my allegiances (Monster Munch Fan Club and Dennis The Menace Fan Club) but it is still pretty amazing to think that somehow i have made a contribution to the world that was considered worthy of record on the ever-growing, ever-expanding and ever-omnipotent wikipedia

what it is in fact is my opinion on a contribution to the world that was considered worthy of record on the ever-growing, ever-blah blah blah wikipedia

heck, this is an awfully long winded way of saying that if you read the wiki-entry for Crystal Fighters 'Star Of Love' album and keep on reading into the sub-category dedicated to opinions on the Deluxe version of the album, you will find my name, and a quote from my glasswerk review, that sounding out of context sounds rather negative

it sounds rather negative because it is preceded by this introduction...

'Various other reviewers have, however, commented on the re-release in a somewhat more negative light.'

argh

ok, let me clarify

i bloody love the album

it is amazing

i bloody love Crystal Fighters

they are amazing

what i am less fond of tho are pointless money-suckling re-releases that slap a bit of extra fodder onto an album

but you know what, the extra tracks are still bloomin' amazin'

and i got sent the album for free, so i didn't have to pay for it!

honestly, i'm full of positivity, i reject negativity

my real issue is the 'tacking on' of extra tracks, no matter how great they are, that are simply added on a whim in order to add extra time to an album's natural lifespan, and piss off those that bothered to shell out for it the first time round

all this is kind of by the by

and a little outdated

and a little rambling

................................

hey, my name's on wikipedia!!

something's missing

2011-10-26T16:20:00.000+01:00

it was with certain pride that i took up my mantle as 'music columnist ' in The Enfield Advertiser

ok, so it was hardly the Observer or NME

but it was stilla column that i had been reading for years, a column that i had applied to write for a number of years previously, and through the local music scene that (for a little while at least) thrived i had got to know the guy that pipped me to the post when they were last looking for new blood

but now it was my time to shine

heck, it wasn't always easy going

there were a fair number of articles that were published long after i had submitted them, and also a considerable few that were never published at all

i toiled on tho

and i think i done Enfield a great service, introducing Flamboyant Bella and Die Antwoord to a wider audience, musing on the influence and insight of Mike Skinner, popping along to gigs by Deadmau5 and Frank Turner and plenty more besides

most importantly, i gave a lion's share of my columns over to covering and discovering the exploits of Enfield based bands and grass-roots events that gave them a chance to shine

and even despite a blip when the future was uncertain, my columns returned and it looked as if the centre section of the paper known as 'The Weekender' that dedicated itself to culture and entertainment, may have been given a reprieve from the extinction it had been threatened with

those that follow my blog already may already be familiar with what happened next tho, as strike action was taken in the face of a once-great paper being run by an over-stretched skeleton staff as journalists were leaving and not being replaced.

these were the death knolls of the quality paper that people had come to expect

and things were only going to go from bad to worse when The Weekender editor and stern campaigner for improvement at the paper, Jonathon Lovett, left the Advertiser in September.

he contacted each of the journalists that contributed to his section, informing us that despite his departure, no decisions had yet been made on the future of The Weekender, we were breifed to 'keep calm and carry on' as it were and given a new contact for submissions

it is just such a shame that my submissions since seem to have been ruthlessly ignored.

it is yet another devastating blow to Enfield's music scene that suffers continuous setbacks, it is a shame that The Enfield Advertiser now offers less content than ever before, and it is a shame that i have had a platform that i used to shine a light on others, taken away from me.

music articles and opinions will still continue to appear on my music blog, Desperately Seeking Susan Boyle

Female Superheriocs in the DCnU and the quest for more boobs

2011-10-22T12:27:00.001+01:00

i may not have had time to write about it yet, but i have been making time to catch up on the brand spanking new DC universe that has been ruffling feathers since September '11.

ok, so nothing is further than the second issue as we speak, and i've been working my way through a handfull of the #1s after reading Flashpoint and making the decision to completely bypass Blackest Night and Brightest Day since they haven't even happened now anyway, oh wait, hang on, or have they, bloody hell, all this confusion needs to be saved up for a DC confusion specific post

what i wanna focus on here briefly is the role of females in the new DCnU

forget stuffing them in fridges and depowering them, the females characters that i have read so far have all basically been sex on legs, prancing around in underwear for the titillation of presumably teenage boys and lonely geek men as if they were some kind of 2D stripper, oh, have you read Voodoo?! that one actually is a 2D stripper....

again, i think i'll touch on the bigger problems elsewhere, but lets take a closer look at Catwoman shall we

how close do you want to get....

ok, so that is just the first page.

and since this is the DCnU, this is your introduction to Catwoman.

no wonder people are up in arms about this, we're being flashed more boob than we're seeing face and it kind of sets the precedent for what follows, until things get even more full on...

one thing i don't usually believe in is spoilers, yet i'm unsure if this spoils anything since the issue is low on story and high on the boob count...

so, what happens next, well, she escapes from her apartment, yet still hasn't managed to dress herself properly, she goes about her business tracking someone down, in disguise, but with her boobs hanging out, and by the end she is humping Batman... seriously, check out this blog for proof

and if you don't mind the prospect of having to burn your own eyes out, stick with me

c'mon, stay with me...

you ready...

aaaaaaarghhhhhhhhhh!!!

don't you just love simpsons fan-art inspired by overly sexualised comics.

i know that i don't.

sorry.

paint it black

2011-10-21T12:02:00.000+01:00

oh yes, the black paint is out.

and i am back in the attic.

way back when we first moved in we were painting practically everything white, but after a visit to a mate's flat, we saw how well darker colours could look in certain situations and locations.

whilst the aim is to keep most of the house bright and breezy, the attic is a different prospect entirely, it will be my sanctuary, and possibly the boldest decorated room in the house since my girlfriend keeps nixing my proposed murals for other rooms.

yet it does feel slightly odd bringing darkness into what was a rather unbelievably spacious looking attic space, but it will be worth it once all the ideas are in place and come together properly.

my toy collection is growing steadily with occasional additions thanks to charity shops and car boot sales.

and now we are raising questions over what will be done with the fireplace in the front room, i suggested the exposed brickwork should be painted white.... my girlfriend suggested we paint it black.

and i think she may be right

Paint it Black (Paradigm Remix)

'God bless you'

2011-10-18T19:55:00.000+01:00

i have lived most of my adult life as an agnostic theist

and it is alright with me

i don't need to attend church, or fast for religious festivals, or study scriptures or sacrifice my first born or anything like that

i'm quite content to live my life and believe that if i strive to be the best person that i can possibly be then these efforts will not go unnoticed by the universe and whatever higher powers there may or may not be

i certainly have my own personal values that gravitate around the principle of karma, and i do wonder if there isn't really something in afew of these religions that are knocking around, i'll certainly take into consideration anything anyone believes and my even borrow from these beliefs if it suits me, i also went to a Baptist church sunday school when i was younger, and i definitely think it gave me a good grounding in life.

all this is getting away from the point, but may be useful background.

my work has recently involved more and more unreasonable stress, unreasonable customers, a pathetically faltering computer that doesn't make getting anything done any easier, a boss that expects too much and expects it now and a whole host of myriad factors that have made these last few weeks rather depressing. but i'll live with it, i'll keep going in the hope that things will improve, and most importantly, i need to pay bills.

today was no different at all, worse even, throw in a fax machine that is ever-jamming and in my own personal life, a credit card company that is almost certainly retarded, and it was hardly a thrilling time working 9 til 5.

except one customer kinda made things better towards the end of the day.

i'd helped her out, shown her around a few bits and pieces and told her any information she wanted to know and that i though may of been helpful to her. she said that she would let her nephew, her daughter and her grandsons know. i made sure she had our contact details and also handed over a few 10% off leaflets.

i was only doing my job, and i take pride in actually being able to help people when they need it.

she seemed overjoyed at the discount flyers, and thanked me, and said

'God bless you'

now, let me clarify, this wasn't a habitual kind of 'Bless you' that follows a sneeze or anything, i could tell that she was grateful for any effort that i had made for her, and the way that she spoke made it obvious that she had a real belief in God

and it felt good, it felt like being touched by something

i could almost feel a glowing inside of me, as if through some brief verbal communication i had truly been blessed by a deity that i can't even honestly say that i have solid convictions in

this isn't my turning point, this isn't my announcement that i have seen the light.

but it was a beautiful moment that i wanted to share.

credit where it is due:

accompanying artwork, Angel by ~UnKnOwns

Geronimo watch 4

2011-10-07T14:41:00.000+01:00

and so, for the second time this year, Doctor Who has finished.

despite early misgivings, i think that Matt Smith has truly made the role his own and it seems that we have lived with the cast of the 11th Doctor, Amy Pond and Rory for far longer than the two seasons and a crimbo special.

perhaps this is down to the odd splitting of season 6, which meant that after being here for a little while, it went away again, and then came back for just a short while longer and then went away yet again, it perhaps this is down to just another timey-wimey thing, where it goes all wibbly.

and i think that i only actually counted one 'geronimo' that i can remember, uttered in the season finale and nowhere near offensive as when it had been shoe-horned in multiple times in order to give the 11th
incarnation a bloody catchphrase.

so, this season, and the season finale (and even the silly mid-season finale), i must admit that i was rather impressed yet again, it may be true that not every episode was a stone cold classic, but i believe it definitely had more hits than misses, and even the misses were near misses in my opinion, hitting not very far off the mark, just a little bit wider of a usual high standard, but c'mon, nobody's perfect.

and i'm surprised at some of the negativity towards ' The Wedding Of River Song', i infact think that this has been one of the most satisfying finales in quite a long time, there seems to be an unwritten rule that the season should close with an epic story, that the stakes should always be higher and the action more, erm, actioner.

praise Ja, that this time they bucked the trend, look, didn't you get enough action and suspense and dramatic reveal in the mid-season finale, how much do you want from a fractured season that has already finale'd once?! i loved the more subtle sense of drama and soft glaze of confusion that surrounded this last episode, and the fact that the Doctor even took the time to revisit James Corden in the penultimate episode instead of crafting a high-octane two-parter was perfect pacing.

(spoilers ahead here people, look away now, or go watch BBC i-player of something)

we all knew the Doctor was not gonna die, and even tho we knew he wouldn't, he does anyway, there was no getting out of it this time, which makes a change, except of course he did get out of it, but we all expected that anyway, but they let you think otherwise even tho you knew otherwise, and i commend them for that!!

bloody hell, i'm rather bored of faux-danger being faced in each closing chapter of a series, if this version of the Doctor was likely to cop it, it never stays much of a secret that the current actor has chosen to make this series their last.

now with any luck, the Beeb will refrain from any urges to split the next series down any further into tantalising micro-series that will have three micro-series finales and another final end of season finale all spread out across the year, i haven't had any Doctor Who since Christmas, and i'm quite capable of finishing a whole one, thank you very much.

the best jobs in the world...

2011-10-06T14:07:00.000+01:00

like most of my days off, i did not have the telly on this morning

i simply got up and got on with things

i fixed myself a bit of toast, fetched my bike out of the shed and grabbed my i-pod off the dock in the kitchen.

i scrolled through, and stuck on Dizzee Rascal's Boy In Da Corner to listen to whilst i cycled to my Dad's.

when i got there, he stuck on the kettle, and i told my brother about a website he might be interested in.

we fired up my Dad's apple mac and i proceeded to retrieve the link from twitter.

it was only then that i saw the trending news

RIPSteveJobs

i was shocked

in a strange way

i knew he had health complications

but Steve Jobs just seemed to be a constant in this world

i don't know if i can truly say that i am deeply saddened by the news, not personally, but in some way, i do know that this existence has just lost someone that changed so much about our modern lives

with no thought about it at all i had already used two of Steve Jobs apple products that very morning, almost by instinct, they are so ingrained in our lifestyle

all those people walking around with their i-phones, all the music i keep on i-tunes, and my plans to pick up an i-pad in the not too distant future

all these measurable technological stepping stones that have transcended the realm of 'gadget' to become thoroughly mainstream and unquestionably accepted

and we have lost the man that made this happen

and if that weren't a startling enough thought, here is another

without Steve Jobs, we would never have had Toy Story.

Batmeme

2011-10-05T15:33:00.000+01:00

i love Batman

and the internets love Batman

he has provided some classic moments rife for internet riffing

and since it is still on topic if you've been following recent blogs, here is a classic for you to enjoy

women in refrigerators

2011-10-03T23:52:00.000+01:00

so lets continue from that cliff-hanger ending

as i am sure you are all desperate to know what happens next!

y'see, i didn't even realise at the time the comics were published that Kyle Rayner's significant other ended up sharing space with Green Lantern's milk and sandwich ham, and i had no clue that her bizarre death actually served as a springboard for a movement that focussed on the humiliating, severe or just plain old tragic circumstances that see so many female comic book characters suffering.

the Women in Refrigerator movement saw a list produced of superheriones and female supporting cast members that had been "either depowered, raped, or cut up and stuck in the refrigerator", those on the list of particular relevance to my own reading habits and my own blogging include Barbara Gordon's Batgirl (who was paralised and tortured at the hands of The Joker), Donna Troy (who seems to get a pretty bum deal everytime there is a universe wide shake-up) and other DC heriones such as Wonder Woman, Huntress, Black Canary, Jade, Starfire and Zattana seem to have been abused, raped and stripped of powers between them all.

and there is also the saga of Gwen Stacy, Spiderman's squeeze that met an unfortunate end when Spidey's attempt to save here ended in the worst possible way.

I love that Gail Simone (who went on to write, among other comic books, Wonder Woman, Action Comics and Birds Of Prey) got her knickers in a twist in such a huge, attention grabbing way, and i love that the whole premise of the argument is based on a hacked up female that has been rammed into a fridge.

Some of the points are entirely valid, and some points are irrelevant to me, but i can't help but feel, particularly wth the case in point Kyle Rayner, that for the sake of the story, and to properly convey the desired effect, those closest to the hero will suffer.

Perhaps i have missed the point slightly, and i will agree that there are a sizeable number of instances where female characters seem to miss out on all the luck, but losing parents at a young age or even losing your parents, your home planet and the entire race you belonged to are still gonna be pretty tough on the guys too.

promises, promises

2011-09-28T23:48:00.000+01:00

we in England have been promised an Indian Summer all week, it finally decided to arrive today.

most people pray that our country's pitiful amount of sunshine will actually land on their day off, but i tend to be quite the opposite.

whilst other people may relish the chance to laze about in the sun on their day off, i actually see it as an inconvenience, for whilst we are supposedly living in the future and so much of our lives depends on keeping our social networks up-to-date, i would much rather break away from the computer when the sun is shining, which means that remix-work or writing or blog-posts will likely go AWOL whilst i seek to spend my few hours away from housework out in the garden or on the sun-drenched streets.

owning your own home becomes such an enormous burden, waking up on a beautiful day to find that this unseasonal warmth means the bedclothes need changing, and of course the bedroom needs sweeping, and clothes need putting away, and the washing up too, not to mention the fact that i want to finish a remix that needs to be submitted today, when all i should really be doing in basking in the sun like a teenage mutant vitamin D obsessed turtle.

so with housework done, i proceed to prepare for our unseasonable Barbeque, it will be the first of october on saturday, today, on wednesday, just three days prior to that traditionally autumnal month, we are experiencing heatwaves and planning for BBQs, just a shame that the sun still seems to set at some time just after 7pm.

so i google some vegetarian BBQ recipes, head off to the Co-Op down the road to pick up a couple of ingredients, and then later, with my dishes ready to marinate and a couple of sailor jerry and cokes down myself, i proceeded to make room in my fridge for the influx of beer that i expect.

jars of olives and capers are repositioned, and tubs of philly are moved.

which reminds me....

didn't i say i was gonna post up some ol' draft blog posts...

last week i had gone looking into Forbidden Planet for a couple of back issues of some DC comics (that i never managed to find), particularly the DC Retro-Active line of comics, featuring stories by writers and artist from the '70's, '80's and '90's.

i was looking out for the 80's era Superman issue, anything featuring Batman, and the '90's era Green Lantern.

y'see, i liked Kyle Rayner, of course i liked Hal, but i was also quite into this new age of comic books that seemed to be occurring around me and the new blood in superhero talent that seemed to be taking over from some of the old guard.

of course it was all a marketing ploy back then and given time the status quo would be restored (hmmmmmmmmm) and of course, the new Green Lanterns and Green Arrows and whatever else would be usurped by their predecessors given time , but i didn't realise that then.

anyways, much like most plotting for modern day comic books, i have no idea where i thought i was going with this, but i do know that i told you guys that i was intending to shed light on some almost forgotten blog-posts, and y-know what, as fate would have it, the oldest of those posts actually does pertain to circa '90's Green Lantern Kyle Rayner, and a rather unfortunate predicament his girlfriend found herself in..

see....

this is almost practically relevant to my BBQ preparations.

i had to find room in our fridge for all the chicken and other marinated meat that were likely to turn up.

and yeah, a bad guy stuffed Kyle Rayner's girlfriend in a fridge.

i might explain further tomorrow if the sun isn't shining.

otherwise you'll have to wait.........

a second life for street furniture

2011-09-22T20:39:00.000+01:00

those that are following this may be please to know that i am now the proud owner of a makeshift computer desk that used to be someone else's filing cabinet

it also handily doubles up as my filing cabinet now

i feel as if i am following in the ikea trend of life by having dual functionalities for my furniture

and i am also following the green way of living by rescuing a piece of furniture from the side of the road (with a lil help from my brother) and thus recycling it in my own home, meaning that not only have i saved this filing cabinet from becoming just another addition to a landfill site somewhere, i have also probably reduced my carbon footprint or something equally green and trendy to be doing by not having to buy a new piece of furniture

although i am in the market for some new furniture

probably from ikea

the home is slowly becoming a contrast of ikea products and stuff that other people no-longer seem to want (should i call it up-cycling, no, cos that sounds stupid)

a couple of our garden chairs had been discarded just down the road from me (although one of them does only have 3 legs, perhaps this is why it was no longer wanted), the extendable table was a bargain from a charity shop and the same goes for a couple of the chairs around it, other chairs in the house have also been chucked out of their old homes for no good reason, our tv unit has been up-cycled (hmmm) from its original purpose as bakery trays, in the spare room there is a, frankly, quite stunning re-upholstered chair that my brother up-cycled (arrgggghhhhhh) and gave to me as a present for my birthday aaand there is still a rather fetching trunk in the shed that i still haven't found a use for just yet, but i shall.

oh, and perhaps lets not mention the horse (or the dog).

the secret shame of street furniture

2011-09-21T11:22:00.000+01:00

ok, forget revisiting the past for now, i got something else i wanna say

i've just got back from a quick wander around the block

i didn't intend to walk round the block, but i did anyway

my sole reason for leaving the house this morning was to claim a cheap looking little three tiered unit on wheels that had been sat in a front garden on my road for the last couple of days

and herein is where the problem lies.

the poor ejected piece of furniture was about midway up the drive of the house, and in my mind i consider this something of a grey area, i know for certain that there are other people that have no qualms (for i have seen them with my own eyes) about getting stuck in to a pile of rubbish or a skip on someone else's property, but i'd be happier to make myself known to anyone that may be in the house and make my intentions clear, just incase they find that helping myself is something they didn't want happening and i end up on the receiving end of some unwelcome attention or abuse

i actually went down to the house after work on monday and knocked, yet despite there clearly being a telly on, and i could see a PC all fired up and running and what looked like a socked foot, there was no answer, perhaps the socked foot wasn't actually attached to a working leg, i am unsure, but i could see that someone was obviously home, and even tho they didn't notice someone politely knocking on their door, i was concious that they may notice someone making off with something from their front garden, so i left it

i returned this morning with the intention of having it away if there was no answer again, it seemed a safer bet that most inhabitants would either be at work or at school, making for a slightly less embarrassing getaway

but i was too late, it was already gone, and i kicked myself knowing that someone with a lesser set of morals had probably upped and away with it without so much as a second thought, whereas i had been mulling over the idea of helping myself to it since spotting it on sunday afternoon

i also kicked myself as i already envisaged it being put to use as a slightly more practical solution for my computer that is still temporarily set up in the front room, with the monitor set atop a folding table, which then has to be removed and stuck back on the floor if anyone fancies a cup of tea with biscuits or we have guests over and bring out the cheese and wine

i also pictured the small stereo sitting rather comfortably on the bottom shelf, whilst a few light reads, magazines or perhaps my library books might look rather smart in the middle gap

alas, it was not meant to be.

so, if there is a lesson to be learnt from this, i guess i should learn to lose my fear and slight social embarrassment and act upon my impulses, or else live with the disappointment

i decided that i wouldn't walk straight back home, instead i'd take a quick wander around the block (as you already know)

and what do i discover, a home throwing out a cheap looking filing cabinet, sat in the middle of their front garden, now, i'm not entirely sure what i'd do with it, but i'm sure i could find a home for it, i'm just not sure i'd feel entirely comfortable wheeling the thing home (presuming it even had wheels)

oh well, here we go again

saved as draft

2011-09-20T14:33:00.000+01:00

i was just about to knock up a quick blog post, inspired by an image i had seen in a newspaper at the weekend, relating it back to an earlier post on this blog that it had reminded me of.

so, with picture uploaded i went searching through my archives in order to find the relevant post in question.

and it didn't exist.

blast it, damn, it must have been one of those ideas that i had previously had, yet never had the chance to fully flesh out, any self-respecting blogger will know that these are saved as drafts, so that they can be revisited later, updated and blogged properly.

yet any self-respecting blogger will probably also know that it isn't always the case that these drafts actually see the light of day.

they're just forgotten about, as you go about your normal bloggy life, whilst other ideas that come to fruition quicker supercede that initial thought and get left behind.

this also reminded me of another idea that i'd had way back when, when it had got to the point that i had a number of drafts that were being neglected.... 'hey! why don't i do a number of posts that finally shed light on those poor discarded nearly-posts!'

yep, that was the plan, except i never got round to doing that either.

i now have 120 draft blog posts. not all of these were destined for publishing, i sometimes use blogger just to put together ideas, or to work on reviews that end up on other websites, i tend to find blogger and it's auto-save a rather reliable tool and it also means i don't have to worry about where a word document is saved and having to take it with me

but considering my blogging can get a little bit slack occasionally, i think i shall have to go back through my saved posts and breath new life into them

and what can you expect?

hmmmm, well the missing post i went searching for featured a certain superhero clad in green that has resurfaced a few times since what should have been his initial debut on my blog. so keep your eyes peeled for that one....

but i can't be the only one with drafts piling up. what does your unpublished blog list look like?

he's our hero

2011-09-06T15:38:00.000+01:00

i've come to that age when you suddenly starting clinging to nostalgic memories, longing for discarded toys and feeling the need to revisit old tv programmes that had you glued to the idiot box in your formative years

this is why you'll find 80s cartoons gracing the t-shirt racks of many highstreet clothes shops, and why you'll find dvd reissues of classic cartoons

now that we have grown up and no longer ask our parents for money, we are invited to spend our disposable income on recapturing our youth, as if we didn't rinse enough of mum and dad's money on merchandise the first time round

and i'll pity anyone that has coughed up for something like the Thundercats box-sets, as a few years ago i got my hands on a video (retro, i know) of the Thundercats movie that he was chucking out, it is essentially the first few episodes cobbled together without any title sequences to break it all up, and it was utterly disapointing

obviously my under-developed brain was more than content with the flimsy stories that usually lead to fighting and a moral ending, i had thundercats wallpaper in my bedroom and oversized Lion-O and Mum-Ra toys that would also keep me entertained for hours on end, sadly, rose tinted memories were blown away by watching the cartoon with a more mature point of view (although i'd love to get my hands back on the toys, just for old times sake)

and now of course we endure barrages of remakes, either on the small screen or in the cinemas

Transformers enraged me, Turtles entertained me, and it is with trepidation that i shall view the new Thundercats cartoon

i've also come to that age where i have had friends over to my house who are younger than me, and looked bemused at mentions of Captain Planet.

guests at a superhero themed party were urged with a message from Captain Planet to recycle their empty bottles and cans in the correct bins

and even with nostalgia on it's side, Captain Planet is still considered something of a joke amongst those that witnessed it first time around

which is why the news that it is currently being considered for a cinematic revival is troubling news indeed.

cos to be quite honest, Captain Planet was shit.

but if Hollywood had the balls to handle the film like this (seriously or not) i'd be a hell of a lot more interested

Don Cheadle is Captain Planet from Don Cheadle

let the campaign start now...

Don Cheadle for the power-crazed Captain Planet

we're going through changes

2011-09-04T14:02:00.001+01:00

so, as of this week, everything changed.

except some of it didn't.

not that i'd know too much about it, having just finished reading Battle For The Cowl and still not having touched Blackest Night and Brightest Day yet, let alone Flashpoint.

yeah, i'm talking about comics!

not only was the 31st of August 2011 an important day in my household, being the first anniversary of getting the keys to the house and going in and cleaning everything before settling down for a pizza and a night on an air mattress, it was also the day that followers of the DC universe may or may not have been waiting for, as the comics company swiped away a whole bunch of history and began re-numbering issues from #1, starting with JLA #1, ahead of 51 other other titles that shall be following shortly

i won't be clamouring to pick up a whole barrage of number 1 issues, to be honest, i doubt i'll actually buy any, there won't be much on offer to me as a comic book fan other than the chance to get slightly obsessive and delve back into the addictive world of buying monthly issues of comics, that i left behind some 11 or 12 years ago (not counting a slight blip buying the english reprints that got me hooked on Grant Morrison's run on Batman)

if there are stories worth reading that evolve from this 'new universe' than i shall consider stumping up for the collected trade paperbacks to find out why Superman doesn't wear his red pants anymore, why oh why can Barbara Gordon walk again and will Green lantern devise anymore crotch-mounted artillery?

these are comics tho, and i wonder how long it'll really be until the real reasoning behind a new universe is revealed, or how long until whatever changes are made are reversed, or rewritten, or forgotten or maybe just borrowed from in the next big shake up that will inevitably follow at some point or another.

but if i'm losing you... perhaps hear this guy out and see just why these changes are so important...

it's the geeking weekend!

2011-08-26T23:12:00.001+01:00

not that weekend's hold any real importance to me at all, i shall still have to be in work tomorrow morning for what will be my 6th day working in a row, having juggled days off around so that i can go to my girlfriend's cousin's wedding sangi dance on sunday and to a cricket match on monday

so how do we roll on a friday night?

we flick through the ikea catalogue before watching the rest of the Harry Potter film she fell asleep during on sunday, we then quickly pay a credit card bill and discuss home insurance before sticking on another Harry Potter film that she promptly falls asleep during.

leaving me to finish off reading the last couple of issues of Battle For The Cowl instead of having to watch the same film twice over

i'm not quite sure if i'll get the chance to complete a geeky trinity of Harry Potter, Batman and Doctor Who this weekend, as i've been informed that a friend is coming over for dinner and is insisting that we watch Sex and The City

so i have been given permission to hide away in the bedroom and read comics and i shall have to play ketchup after this Bank Holiday weekend's excitement, and for those that have missed it so far, there is a little web-exclusive prequel to the returning Doctor Who knocking around, which i shall stick

right

about

here

and no matter how emotional the mid-season finale or this prequel may be - i still can't help but wanna laugh out loud everytime i read that:

The Doctor will return in

Let's Kill Hitler

my list

2011-08-25T12:44:00.000+01:00

there are a number of things in my life that i would like to do

occasionally i find it useful to make a list of the certain things that i want to achieve, and i know other people live their lives by constantly listing, i think i particularly find it fulfilling to cross through my list and slowly whittle it down to a short number og goals that have so far remained unobtainable

ok, so i know i bitch everytime NME decides to publish a list in it's magazine and that my last post was over a week ago, inching ever nearer to that two week mark, but those lazy gits actually get paid for bumping their heads together and sticking a bunch of things in numerical order, i merely try and jot down ever may be going through my mind, writing and updating in whatever free time my hectic life allows me

you've probably missed out on some real gems of blog posts that never were, simply cos i just wasn't able to get near a computer for long enough to communicate my ruminations..

which reminds me of something else i should probably add to the list..

this is what i want to do:

actually get my Riot Music EP completed
grow a proper beard
find a decent modern-looking blue sofa-bed for the spare bedroom
buy some frames and the blinds for the spare room
remember to actually properly look at the items on the pages of the ikea catalogue that i folded over so that i wouldn't forget
write up reviews/articles for the new EPs from Getaway and Twisted Hearts
try and blag my way into reviewing the autumn Crystal Fighters tour
and work on keeping Desperately Seeking Susan Boyle a little bit more frequently updated

of course there are tons more things i'll have to do, since i went to my cousins wedding last week instead of having time off for myself the upstairs floors need sweeping, but that was possibly getting far too mundane and pedantic to keep listing, oh and i should bring the wheely bins back up the drive this evening, but that would be stupid to give you each and every task and chore

i just wanted to let people know that i am still here

i am still writing (when i get the chance)

and i am still trying to get my house in order and inch slowly closer to having a complete looking (or at least updated) decor throughout

i'll refrain from using my blog as a noticeboard in the future

credit where it's due:

artwork 'Today's Youth' by DangerDog

before the memory fades

2011-08-15T23:56:00.000+01:00

i still can't believe that a week ago Enfield was the heart of trouble kicking off as riots took over the capital for a second night, it felt bizarre and terrifying that this could be happening in my home town and that the few clips that were circulating on the news were of places that i walk past virtually on a daily basis, so familiar, yet so different, transformed by the presence of riot police and organised chaos

thankfully things seemed to have calmed down now, but last week, amidst all that was going on, i tore myself away from the computer screen and wrote a short poem on the feelings that had been stirred inside me, this week, as situations were looking worse, i began expanding on this idea, and on others, to produce a few pieces of music to reflect the times and the tension

this piece is still slightly unfinished, it needs a little more tweaking and polishing to get it up to scratch, but i wanted to put it out before the memories fade

Riot Music EP: Track 1 (unfinished) by Hunchbakk

#Enfield

2011-08-09T01:16:00.000+01:00

what a horribly bizarre and scary night

i should be going to bed but i wanted to put into words exactly how i feel about everything that has been going on, sunday night onwards

my dad had been in touch with me about the tottenham riots, making sure i hadn't been out in london and trying to get home, and news of the devastation was horrendous, but that was tottenham

when i was home from camping i just busied myself, stuck the washing on, washed up my cooking kit and had a bloody good sort out around the house, it probably wasn't until about half 6 or 7 that i turned on my computer and logged into facebook

a shot from the flats above the shops was being posted around, a photo of a smashed police car soon cropped up

there was shock and concern, and as the night drew on and darkness fell it all melted into a large overwhelming blur as hours fell into each other whilst #Enfield was trending on twitter worldwide and all there was to do was keep refreshing social networking feeds and flick between BBC and Sky news' slender coverage as it rolled round and repeated itself

waking up to the cold light of day brought an uneasy calm and a restless mind, i cycled into town to survey the damage done, though most of the reported damage seemed to have been confined to twitter, none of Krispy Kremes, Cineworld or Nandos had gone up in flames the night prior and petrol bombs on the a10 were pure chinese whispers that were soon being passed off as fact

Enfield Town itself was bewilderingly serene, cordoned off as the town played host to plenty of curious visitors that were more confused by it all than shaken in anyway. some premises faired better than others, ranging from a handfull of broken windows to full on looting from sports and electrical shops.

My work was still open, we suffered a broken window along our shop frontage but nothing else, as the sun beamed and people busied themselves it all felt slightly anti-climactic, friends dropped in as they passed by and a couple of pints sunk in The George beside a deserted one way system and police line all contributed to a strange buzz as people came to terms with what had happened

but as the afternoon drew on and grey clouds drew overhead, the atmosphere visibly changed, talk of offices recieving advice to evacuate prompted an ominous vibe that hung heavy in the air, more rumours were dispensed through the day that the same was expected tonight, or that it would be hitting Barnet and Waltham Cross, or Brookfield Farm and Brent Cross

again, rumour and false reports were rife on the way home, my best friend rang me to warn me of a vehicle on fire on Turkey Street just before i had made it that far, i proceeded with caution, but there was no truth in it at all

and i wanted to keep clear of it all this evening, i pulled up weeds in the garden and favoured Don't Tell The Bride over rolling news coverage of scuffles and fires in peckham, i put on a film to escape it all for a couple of hours, but sadly it was all still there, and worse than ever as curiosity got the better of me and i checked the news for a quick update

you don't need me to tell you what is going on all over london, and also in birmingham, i am purely sickened by it all, i'm not sure if there is anymore that needs to be said on the matter, and that is certainly all i will say for now

so as i finish typing this up, and prepare to power down, helicopters overhead and regular sirens wailing are still audible.

good night london, i'm praying for a better tomorrow tonight

Enfield and I

2011-08-07T23:53:00.001+01:00

I am fiercely proud of my home town,
Enfield is part of who I am,
I am a part of Enfield,
And an attack on Enfield,
Is an attack on me.

As the tension mounts,
And ill feeling hangs heavy in the air,
I can't shake the involuntary feeling of excitement,
Mixing with sickness.

Tonight we make history together,
As I pray that everything historic,
Everything beautiful,
Everything and everyone I love,
Doesn't burn down to the ground.

It is all eyes on us tonight,
As we bunker down in our homes,
And make it a night to remember,
With our updates and our outrage,
Trending, reporting and cowering,
As the same four clips of footage,
Repeat over and over on Sky News.

bug hunt

2011-08-05T17:36:00.000+01:00

i'm at odds to think of myself as a massive nerd, certainly i display many geeky tendecies that have reared their heads as i have refused to grow up and instead found myself reading comics again

and although it may not be clear to everyone, there are in fact distinct differences between geeks and nerds

i have never attempted to be fluent in Klingon, nor am i a technical computer genius capable of hacking into FBI files for fun, but i am scared that i may be crossing a line this weekend

for on saturday, i shall be taking part in my first ever LARP event

yes, it does sound as if it may be the noise that a red-necked yokel would make in the affirmative, but it actually stands for Live Action Role Play for those of you that have never ever swung around a foam sword in defence of an imaginary realm

something like Dungeons and Dragons crossed with Battle re-enactments..

c'mon, think Role Models and the socially awkard Augie! yeah, now you're on the right path

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well, a couple of my mates are into this kinda thing, and as a lover of a little bit of home-made fancy dress i decided i would actually give this thing a go

i painted up a nerf maverick earlier this year, and have been having a fair crack at getting a second battle-ready without quite so much aid and guidance this time around

i've got my combat fatigues ready too

as instead of medieval, this weekend will have an alien theme as a small unit of us descend upon a not-so-far flung scout hall in the middle of nowhere, for a trade in bio-weapons which will no doubt go extremely awry and possibly feature a couple of gatecrashing xenomorphs

wish me luck

sound art experiment number 9

2011-07-29T13:32:00.001+01:00

also known as the much delayed SoundArt9

i took the decision not to tinker too much longer and call it a day on this track last friday, and debuted it on my family's hub of creativity, Byford365.

my brother then gave it a spotlight on his own blog on monday, and since this blog right here is supposedly about me and my music, it appears that i am doing you a great disservice by not mentioning it until now...

SoundArt9 by Hunchbakk

i was rather shocked to find that it had been two years since i'd touched this track at all, but given time to think it other and then check back over previous blog entries it appears that the data connected to this was out by a whole year, but regardless, a year away from this is rather disapoiting, although in that time i had been busy moving and setting up home and i have managed to knock out a handful of other tracks in the meantime

but back to the SoundArt project!

the image supplied to me by my brother for inspiration was a photoshopped view of a boarded up old pub in Enfield Lock, the very same pub that i actually spent the night of my 18th birthday at, and now here i am, ten years later with a musical composition inspired by the decrepit look of the place as it is today

i'd been listening to a lot of dubstep around the time i recieved the artwork, and the image instantly connected with my sense of darker music, whilst the throbbing bass would also be rather haunting, yet also a reminder of the parties and nightlife that Rifles will surely be remembered for among certain generations

i did intend to have the finished article as a much longer track, but after revisting it after a year, and in contrast to the two tracks that precede it, it didn't seem such a bad idea to leave this as a briefer moment in the project

the drums that open the track and the chiming guitar were found on my hardrive and may very well belong to Komakino, there are also tidbits of Jamie XX's remix of Florence and the Machine and Skream's remix of La Roux present for those with a sharp sense of hearing

SoundArt9 by Hunchbakk

'you know that i'm no good'

2011-07-27T14:44:00.001+01:00

On Saturday 23rd July 2011, the newest member was inducted into the hallowed halls of the legendary 27 club.

As is the norm these days, most people found out via facebook, twitter or text, that Amy Winehouse had been found dead in her Camden flat.

In the hours and days since, many have commented that Amy Winehouse's death was 'sad news', certainly it was, we have lost a real talent at an unbelievably young age, yet no-one seems to have been shocked by it.

Her problems with drink and drugs were played out across tabloids, paparazzi were there to capture every intoxicated stumble, and increasingly worrying liveshows saw crowds bearing witness to mumbled lyrics, erratic behaviour and a performer in need of serious help.

And sadly it will be these memories and the everlasting lineage of youtube videos that will continue to define her for years to come, creating yet another rock'n'roll legend whose mythology will be as closely intertwined with drugs and tragedy as it is with their musical back catalogue.

It is a shame that with only two albums to here name, Amy Winehouse doesn't leave more music behind, yet it is easy to forget now that these two collections have helped to shape today's musical landscape dramatically.

As always, posthumous sales have rocketed and her past hits are played out as some mourn her passing and others celebrate her life.

But I'm sure that behind the scenes, the pressure will now be on to polish any demos and unfinished recordings that were being lined up for album number 3. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see a new Amy Winehouse album rush-released before Christmas, but it is questionable whether her personal demons will have served her well until the end or eventually tainted her natural talent.

If the loss of Micheal Jackson to my generation was comparable to Elvis, then it is possible that Amy Winehouse will now be immortalised as the 21st century's Kurt Cobain; leaving behind a small, yet significant musical body, complete with the the cautionary tale of the dangers of drug-addiction and the tragic trappings of fame.

credit where it's due:

artwork by Timothy Lamb

rising

2011-07-20T14:12:00.002+01:00

scroll down the page.

what do you see?

right now, at this very specific moment in time, you will be bearing witness to an unholy geeky number of superhero videos and one superhero film review...

and what have i got for you today?

hell yeah! let's balance the whole thing out by bringing you more blooming superhero videos, and of course, when i say balancing out i actually mean that i am tipping us all over into a superhero filled abyss full of home-made Rocketeer costumes, Papercraft X-men and where the memory of Alicia Silverstone as Batgirl still looms large!!

bwa ha ha ha ha ! ! !

ahem, sorry about that...

back on track... obviously the internet is all a-buzz at the minute over any miniscule drip-fed tidbit about Christopher Nolan's third and final Batman flick due in 2012. Casting details and barely revealed character designs have already sent fans into spasms, and now we have a teaser poster and teaser trailer in order to tease us further

i held off watching it on my computer in favour of actual big screen (hinted at) action and i didn't have to wait long, catching it among the trailers before Harry Potter and The Fully Realised Franchise last night

but for those that have no such issues over size or simply wanna watch it again, here it is

and that is it, it doesn't give away too much other than, it has Batman in it, Gordon will at some point be laid up in hospital being rather mumbly, and Bane will look pretty mean.

we have not even the merest hint of Anne Hathaway's role or appearance as Catwoman that has been bandied about since she joined the cast

i'd love to say i'm excited, but i'm not, not yet anyway.

excitement leads to expectations, and more often than not, expectations lead to disappointment.

i'm already disappointed that they called the film The Dark Knight Rises, being such a cop-out that they should have maybe just called it The Dark Knight 2. I can imagine movie executives upset that after the success of The Dark Knight, idiotic punters being bombarded with publicity may not be able to understand that this film is the sequal if it had anything other than the words The, Dark and Knight in the title.

some considered it a brave decision to not include the word 'Batman' in the title of a Batman film, worked out ok by the looks of things, but now we are denied a opportunity of a real title for the third installment. a shame.

and Bane?

i am completely apprehensive about his inclusion, obviously comic book readers are aware of his pivotal role in the Batman titles from the 90s which was somewhat lost in translation completely when he appeared as a muscle-bound goon following Uma Thurman's Poison Ivy in the ill-fated 1997 flick.

whilst some fans are hoping for this Knightfall arc to come across in The Dark Knight Rises, i can't help but think it would be the wrong idea, as much as i would love to see Bane redeemed in the eyes of the movie-going public, the thought drawing upon this story where bane masterminded a mass break out from Arkham, undoing Batman's life work, and weaving it into what are presumably Batman's early years just seems like a huge mis-step.

i'm certain we won't see any back breaking or a replacement Dark Knight in a film that should be tieing everything together, so is Bane the best choice over the earlier reported Killer Croc or the lesser known Amygdala (since we have already seen the barely known Mr Zsasz, albeit briefly, in Begins) or even bringing the sadistic Zsasz back to make the stories cyclical.

if Nolan can turn in a decent tale, and re-imagine Bane and Catwoman in the same way he has reinvented Two-face and The Joker than there will be nothing to fear, but with the The Dark Knight Rises not even due until next summer, we have a years worth of waiting until we find out for sure.

stunted

2011-07-17T15:21:00.000+01:00

it is far to easy to sit around and fester with stunted creativity, i'm stuck at work and feel that i haven't achieved too much today, despite penning a poem as a contribution to my family's hub of impulsive output, byford365, and now i sit here as i allow my mind to wander and string a few sentences together to form a worthwhile blog post.

what i am thinking about now are ways that i can be creative once i get out of here at 4 o'clock today, i am also wondering if i'm gonna get an absolute drenching between work and home as i watch the rain crash down outside.

i really need to pull my finger out and get working on my music and musical experimentation again, as me and my girlfriend chilled watching David Cronenburgh's Scanners yesterday, i felt inspired by a quote in the film, and shall probably fire up Acid when i get in (and possibly dry off) so that i can rip the audio i need, and then perhaps i shall just go back to basics and slowly build up something resembling a tune from the various sample packs and oddities that i have accumalated over the past few years.

so keep your eyes and ears peeled for that one hopefully some time soon.

and i also intend to finish off the fourth track of a five track set, under the guise of Giles Babel, the other four are already floating around in the ethereal realms of the internet, yet i want to gather them together and proclaim them to be a specific and titled unit, existing within the same realms of one another, instead of just being loose clumps of sound that rattle around harddrives and mp3 players with no real cohesion.

this fourth track may take a little while tho, i know how to make it, but the gathering of relavent resources is proving time consuming, and frankly rather boring, but i shall persevere, so that these five tracks may be classified as a collection, or perhaps an EP if you will.

and now i shall fill the remaining time til 4 with paperwork.

mind the gap

2011-07-11T20:44:00.001+01:00

shit.

that has been a little while hasn't it.

and yet again i find myself apologising, for it is slightly embarrassing in a strange augmented-reality kind of way, for my blog being so barren for so long

i've got bloomin plenty that i could spout on about, yet i haven't got the time to get the words down, so instead you get filler and excuses while i wonder if i'll ever get the chance to recollect my journeys in Las Vegas, i also need to knock out a handful or music articles and reviews, step up my blogging game again and get on with it

it may look to you that i haven't blogged for 11days

but for 11 days i have been busy, living my life, taking a holiday, taking photos, babysitting a puppy and sadly getting back into the swing of things at work

all these things (except maybe the full-time job) enrich my life, so there is no reason for me to apologise for that at all

i didn't mean to lie

2011-06-30T00:04:00.000+01:00

i said that i may knock out a blog for you all, i was considering doing a faux glastonbury review, based on the 2 and a bit acts that i actually caught on the bbc coverage at the insistence of my girlfriend whilst i would have rather ignored the fact that the festival was still going ahead without me

but i didn't

i thought i may also update my generic mp3 player, re-pot the pepper seeds that i've been growing, pull up a few weeds, maybe make a Las Vegas party playlist, but none of these things happened

nor have i really updated any of my contributions to byford365 at all

i still have the odd few things to pack and timer switches to set and then hope that the excitement that kept me awake last night and today will give way and allow me to crash and get a few hours sleep

so, expect blog silence for a good week or so

thank you

too soon for another Green Lantern blog post?

2011-06-28T23:57:00.000+01:00

in fact, is it too soon to just lazily knock up another video embed as a blog post?

aaaah, maybe i'll write something tomorrow...

it's not easy being green

2011-06-25T13:12:00.001+01:00

argh

that was disapointing

not only was Green Lantern disapointing, it was also rather frustrating as a result of it being rather boring and rather convoluted

i shall not bother attempting to critique and review the film too much, i just want to express how frustrating it is that DC had a chance to make a popular character just as recognisable and accepted amongst movie audiences and popular culture as Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman already are

to be quite honest, it was a rather sloppy and uneven attempt at film-making, let alone setting up of a decent superhero origin story... it plunged straight into a rather baffling intergalactic speil that is supposedly the premise of the film, and it is mostly down-hill all the way from there

i was forgiving of the slow-ish start, i realise you gotta set these things up slow and build up the excitement, but sadly the pacing was off horrendously, with a smattering of action scenes dispersed amongst a lot of mostly boring filler that seemed to be of very little consequence

i personally thought the inclusion of the Green Lantern Corps would be a step too far for the film, but they were in fact drastically under-used and it seems that perhaps we had been mis-sold exactly what this film was gonna be.

as the film unfolded before me i wondered what it was that i was getting into, and it seemed to almost hark back to nostalgic sense of superhero film, keeping it simple with the set-up, the training and then the pay-off, but it stretches itself too far, then doesn't try hard enough, getting it wrong and slipping up again and again

and it suffers hugely for its complete lacking of virtually any humour - there is nothing to keep you interested as the story meanders along and considering that Ryan Reynolds should have been having a real romp as Hal Jordan, i am sad to report that he falls flat on his face, displaying no charisma at all

the rather obvious setting up of a sequel is checked off as we go, something that is pretty much a given in most comic-to-screen situations, but when you consider that they were likely drafting up a plan of a trilogy, i just don't understand how they could have dropped the ball on this one whilst Marvel are making merry at the box office and doing a pretty bloody good job of it

c'mon DC, i keep sticking up for you, but give me a little more to put my faith in than CGI characters and concepts that are barely explained and Van Wilder in a rubbish looking suit.

in brightest day.....

2011-06-24T19:28:00.001+01:00

ooooh, i actually get to see Green Lantern tonight

my girlfriend is still moaning that it looks shit, and to be honest i don't hold much hope for it either

but i'm more than willing to give it a chance and pray that they haven't done anything too terrible to it

so i thought i'd post up a couple of the Green Lantern vids that have been knocking around

first up is a congratulatory video, where a whole bunch of other superheroes are celebrating Hal Jordan's silver screen debut, but the atmosphere changes when Hawkman tries push his own movie script

and the next, i guess, must echo some of the sentiments of non-comic book readers and non-geeks around the world as DC choose to attempt launching a franchise with a hero other than Superman and Batman

and i may even consider blessing you with my own opinions, if i can really be bothered....

today

2011-06-22T12:58:00.000+01:00

today i should have been woken by a rather stupidly early alarm after holding down discussions as to when Sel would be round to pick me up

it wouldn't have really mattered as the build up of excitement would have kept me awake and the momentum of the day would have kept me going until i finally retired to our tent in a field in Sommerset amidst the familiar smells of camp fires and bbqs

but not today

sadly, this is the first year that we have taken the decision not to go to Glastonbury

it wasn't a decision any of us took lightly, but after failing to actually get hold of tickets at the very first hurdle we were distraught, but slowly came to accept that perhaps 2011 just wasn't gonna be our year

it all seemed perhaps for the best, me and my girlfriend had bought a house and, useful as the deposit scheme is, it would all come at the wrong time, and as the ticket price has increased eash year, we would have struggled slightly with it leaving our now-joint account

and Sel was planning on doing some travelling this year and would be paying out a lot for that

we then took into account that, since they had split up, a couple of friends that we usually camp with would not be going this year, neither would their friend, and another couple that have joined us the past few years didn't manage to get tickets either

last year's Glastonbury, bathed in glorious sunshine for the whole time was a perfect way to leave it, we'd witnessed floods in our times going and we have had one particular wet and miserable weekend that nearly drove us to the edge of sanity (and led me and my girlfriend to give Benicassim a go)

but it felt like those years that we had stuck with the festival had really paid off, as 2010 saw us camped with more friends than we ever have before, we didn't have to suffer a single drop of rain, and the intense sunshine changed the whole dynamic of the usually soggy Sommerset bash

the temperature was up, high spirits were soaring and every single person battled dehydration as we rejoiced, caught up in the giddy throes of a laid back, serotonin enriched festival that England so rarely witnesses

so we bowed out on a high!

i know coverage shall be hard to avoid, and i've cringed everytime there is even so much of a mention of this year's glasto, completelly racked with jealousy and sentimentality for the good ol' days

i've tried to ignore the innevitable stage line-up reveals, and tried telling myself that Beyonce, Coldplay and U2 won't be much of a line-up anyway

but Glastonbury is so much more than just the headliners, and it is so much more than just the music.

my memories of times, good and the bad, at Glasto are innumerable, but i shall have to leave it to all of this years ticket holders to create their own unique take on Glastonbury 2011 as i sit at a desk typing out this blog, considering putting the tent up in our garden, instead of being sat in a car filled to bursting with all our kit, eagerly awaiting the sight of Stone Henge and the requisite stop-off at Countess Services

when we were young

2011-06-20T19:43:00.000+01:00

the aesthetic of our house has taken a change for the better

after only owning our own home for 10 months, we now have our first clock on the wall!

my girlfriend moans that she never knows what the time is in our house, having to check our phones is obviously too much of an inconvenience and the clock on the oven is barely ever right, due to having the buttons to change all manner of things, including the clock, at a rather convenient height so that people are forever leaning on it (we are currently an hour fast i think)

the clock was in fact a birthday present from my mum before we had even bought the house and is part of a rather fetching layered effect set of photo frames, which we picked up afew extra additional frames to match it so as it didn't look quite so lonely on the wall

all the photos are of me and my girlfriend, and i despaired as we went through a crowded harddrive of five years of pictures that of all the ones picked, none of them showed me with a decent amount of facial hair

gifted with rather young looks, and still being ID'ed at the age of 27, i made a significant life choice to remain bearded, or at least quite stubbly, this decision is also beneficial to my rather lazy attitude to shaving

i relented and went with the pictures we had chosen, there was nothing wrong with them at all except i felt that they didn't reflect me, as i am right now

which got me thinking on how long these photos are gonna be on display, and how we and our lives may change

of course we could always update the photos, but then again we could also be in the same house in our 40's or our 50's, perhaps with kids that are growing (or grown) up, and i wonder what they will think of the photos, and considering that i already cringe looking at my bald, non-fuzzy youthful face i wonder how we will look back on them ourselves in the years to come

every photo that is now proudly framed up carries certain memories with it, of the time and the place and what we were up to, on the beach in felixstowe after my cousins wedding, chilling with a beer at the balloon fiesta in Bristol, both in fancy dress at a friends birthday party, out for a sunny day in hyde park, a dry day at Glastonbury and just messing about with the camera when she bought it for me in 2006, times worth remembering that don't deserve to be languishing on a 100gb hard drive

as told by me

2011-06-17T19:28:00.000+01:00

ok, after that lil moan i guess i should actually bless you with the newspaper article that will hopefully see the light of day sometime soon, i don't know why i didn't just get on with it and post it up sooner but never mind

i do know that a second group of Orange Rockcorp volunteers were at Forty Hall Vineyard this week, so it is still a timely piece (just about)

Why would you want to read about me digging up weeds, pushing around wheelbarrows and spreading manure, and why is it relevant at all to my music column?

The reason me and around 50 others were putting in hard work at London's only commercial scale vineyard was all down to the return of Orange's Rockcorps initiative for 2011.

Launched in the UK in 2008, Rockcorps has been inspiring music fans to help communities and charitable organisations, with 4 hours volunteering being rewarded with a ticket to an exclusive gig with an all-star line-up.

This was my second year involved, having helped rejuvenate the Selby Centre in Tottenham last year and seeing a gig headlined by Pendulum, also featuring N-Dubz and Mark Ronson, I was more than up for mucking in all over again, especially knowing that a local organisation would benefit from it

Because tucked out of sight behind the stately Forty Hall, and unknown to many residents, fifteen acres of land is home to a community led and community driven vineyard.

The maintenance of the plants is essential throughout the year and whilst it was Rockcorps volunteers handling it this time around to keep the weeds under control and give the vines the best chance at growth, the vineyard also accepts volunteers from all walks of life, working with a wide range of local residents including adults and young people with learning disabilities, people suffering mental distress and young people at risk.

The graft and the goals seem to unify so many of the people involved, and it is uplifting to see everyone brought together and working alongside each other.

Although by the end of it i had a couple of blisters on my hands and my back ached, it had been worth it to join like-minded people for a few hours where everyone feels equal and comfortable in a situation so far removed from our usual social circles.

Primal Scream will top this years bill, but regardless of the exclusive gig, and despite the hard work necessary, I genuinely feel that you get out so much more than you put into it.

heard it through the grape vine...

2011-06-15T16:39:00.001+01:00

how bittersweet today's news is

if you've followed my blog at all, you may be aware of the recent ups and downs surrounding The Enfield Advertiser and it's fluctuating entertainment section, The Weekender

despite my contributions to the paper, i am never aware of when (or even if) my articles will actually make an appearance

every wednesday i take a flick through to see if one of my pieces made it to print

after an absense of 2 months from the paper, last week featured my piece on Daniel Haaksman and i had kinda hoped that my next article would appear before i produce a huge back-log that would result in either inane irrelevance by the time it surface or simply being scrapped entirely

i'll admit that it has only been a couple of weeks since submitting an article relating to the volunteering i did for Orange Rockcorps, and i have had to wait a lot longer for my colums to see the light of day

it was entirely relevant, shedding light on the good work being done to promote volunteering amongst young people, and also of local interest, since a group of us had been working hard on the Forty Hall vineyard, that until the volunteering opportunity came up i wasn't even aware that it existed, as it is tucked well away out of sight

while their i got to speaking to one of the people running the vineyard, as she was showing us how it should be doen and getting her hands dirty with the rest of us, and far from being an opportunistic wine venture she was telling me how they have worked with people from MIND in Enfield with mental health problems, giving them time out in the fields and helping in exactly the same way we were, but with the added benefit of giving them a little bit of much needed therapy through the work they are doing

in an off-handed comment when i submitted my finished article i mentioned that it would be great to give the vineyard a bit of well deserved exposure

low and behold, do i find that my article has been usurped by the annual give-away of Latitude festival tickets and after another flick through i then find that there is actually a large feature on Forty Hall vineyard and it's work with mental health charities!!

i'd like to think that my music column mat have been a push in the right direction to securing people's attention (it could after all, be coincidence) but i'm hoping that the piece i put time into writing won't just do a disapearing act now because of it

sleeping with the NME

2011-06-13T19:50:00.000+01:00

i finally take my seat in the NME offices and relax at the desk.

sadly, this is not the first day of a new job plying my wares for the UK's premier weekly music magazine.

instead, i have been summoned to their HQ in Southwark as part of a focus group.

much less rock n roll than i'd anticipated, it seems obtuse that these sterile offices were home to a music juggernaut that makes and break careers and has been key in hyping and tastemaking bands and scenes.

but it was early evening and perhaps every hint of excitement and joyous musical rebellion had clocked off at half 5 - regardless, the small group i was joining soon settled in the bland surroundings and were further relaxed by the offer of beers and pizza.

i for one had it clear in my mind as son as i'd had the call-up that i was keen to let NME know where they had been going wrong.

i admitted to have given up on NME many years ago, around the time Arctic Monkey's debut album was released and the front cover heralded another feature on them for the third time in a month, the bands assualt on the mainstream was well and truly underway and the over-saturation left me jaded.

they had once been the most exciting and heralded new band around, but as the magazine churned out another article i wondered if there was possibly anything more that i needed to know about Arctic Monkeys, and thus i turned my back on the gospel according to NME

finally given the appropriate platform to make my feeling known i did not shy away from voicing my dissenting opinion on a frustratingly overwhelming reliance on lists

on the occasions that an interesting cover feature has lured me back over the years, i've often found that good quality articles have now made way for a ridiculous array of lists on almost every conceivable nuance and sub-category of music.

i fully expect end of year polls and speculative new year/ new bands runthroughs, yet is seems all too often that so-called journalists have taken an easy option of compiling a handful of brief opinions and assigning each banal blurb a numerological value.

even of the 3 issues sent to each of us for research purposes, we were subjected to 3 lists.

top ten buzz bands of the great escape.

top 25 band logos.

and 16 pages of NME's top 70 cult heroes.

apart from my moan about this brazen lazy journalism,Other topics breached included our feelings towards a number of regular features and a discussion on whether Lady Gaga and other 'pop' acts deserve to be on the cover of NME, or deserve to be featured at all (I believe they do), a general consensus that the 'funny' cartoon is possibly the most hated part of the magazine and a lively debate for and against Popjustice's 'Peter Robinson Vs' interviews (for which i was firmly and vocally for).

As well as existing features, we were given a sneak peak at possible contributions, of which the most offensive was a sloppily thrown together piece on how to achieve Alex Turner's 'look', shouted down and derided by everyone in the room for turning what should be a respected music magazine into the indie Heat.

as a newspaper columnist perhaps i should not draw attention to the plight of print media, but it is obvious to all that the sheer quantity and variety of information, opinions and recomendations available online has seen publishers suffering, and those conducting the session were equally interested in how we recieve and percieve new music and recommendations in this modern world where the internet is usurping a former great's all-powerful hold.

Even though I hadn't been called upon to shape the future of NME with my own journalistic talents, it was still a unique opportunity to witness the market research and pitches that everyone involved hopes will keep NME vital and interesting in the 21st century.

Having read the magazine religiously for around 5 or so years from the age of 17, and having NME itself shape me in some of my formative years, it felt right that I could try to return the favour.

toys

2011-06-12T14:58:00.000+01:00

for those that felt drawn to looking at my geeky toys on display and felt pleasant waves of nostalgia waving through them, i've got another site that you may wanna take a brief look at

i recently stumpled upon Jason Vorhees' exhaustive toy blog via branded in the 80s

and boy, was that an eye-opening experience, as Jason recounts obtaining practically every retro toy that he has had the good fortune to lay his eyes upon, and takes the whole act of collecting very seriously, whether it is items he has won on ebay, found in toy store bargain basements or at yard and garage sales.

now, i would like to firmly stress to my girlfriend, if she is still reading, that i have not got the intention or the disposable income to go scouring the planet for every single toy ever created

my focus is primarily to rebuild my childhood memories of overactive imaginations by picking up action figures from the 80s and 90s that me and my brother would have played with, and then as we have both aged chosen to discard, if we'd have just hung onto them instead of foolishly growing out of them then this nostalgia-trip would be much simpler, but as it stands, it now means that any car boot sale or charity shop could be holding an articulated holy grail of mine

of course i could just max out a credit card on ebay, but where would be the sheer joy in a few clicks, a bulging 'my ebay' summary and somewhere in the region of £2 postage for every figure, nah, i'm kicking it old skool and gonna wait for these prized figures to find me

but Jason's blog has stirred up some vivid memories of old figures that had been lost in my densely populated cranium, anyone else remember army ants, supernaturals and troll warriors?

acceptable in the 90s

2011-06-10T23:17:00.001+01:00

whilst i was quite tempted to post up another superhero offering, i decided against it since i was afraid of offending those less inclined towards comic books

but i can't promise a break at all from general geekiness

and for that, we head to my attic, which has been designated as the geek pad in my house and which i finally got round to starting decorating while my girlfriend was away in india, yep, it was back to colour swatches and once again looking at a whole bundle of similar colours, trying to figure out which particular tone would be best

on monday, it took a step closer to completion as i got rather creative with a couple of shades of red, a paintbrush, and my right hand

(i am sworn to secrecy as to the complete look, but their is a sneak peak right here)

on tuesday, once the (splattered) paint was dry, i took up the plastic sheets, took down the protective wrapping and put the exceptionally priced ikea glass cabinet in its rightful place, stood back and felt proud

my brother had already been round to help put the cabinet together as i was far too excited to leave it boxed, and a fortunate trip to a charity shop resulted in the purchase of quite a few retro action figures, perfect to kickstart my little nostalgic collection, but having the wall painted, the cabinet in place, and the figures standing to attention made all the difference

(before)

courtesy of my brother's fabled idiot blog

(and after)

and sat proudly on the very top shelf of the cabinet is the beautiful animated style Princess Leia statuette that my girlfriend bought me as a present a couple of years ago, it had spent too long in it's box, and since moving into our house i have been super-keen to get it on display so that it can be fully appreciated

there is still plenty of work to be done before the geek pad is complete, but this week it has definitely taken a huge step in the right direction, and i have spent this very night not just blogging, and updating my contributions to byford365, but also scouring ebay for some film posters to grace the walls of my (ahem) penthouse surely my effort redecorating must have upgraded it from being 'just' an attic

facing another crisis?

2011-06-07T22:32:00.000+01:00

ok

so what exactly is going on with the DC universe then?

i'll have to admit one thing, for the amount of people that the 'reboot' has got riled up, i dare say that all of them, plus a few more, will be curious to see exactly what's going on with september's relaunches

like i said yesterday, i'm hardly up-to-date on current events in the DCU, i'm aware that the latest mass-crossover-type-thing is called Flashpoint, and that it involves The Flash

and word is he's been dipping his toe into the timestream and sodding things up considerably

the fact that Flashpoint concludes just before these massive changes get underway is unlikely to be a coincidence

and news has already leaked that Superman and Lois's marriage will no longer have happened as a result of Flashpoint

which raises a couple of bigger questions

how much will we see undone? and are DC establishing a new status-quo for their universe?

personally, i can't imagine that they would. whenever comic book stories hit a massive turning point it is usually assumed that a year down the line practically everything will be as it was before, unless you're a second string superhero, in which case the usual guarantees don't apply and you'll likely be usurped by a younger hero taking the same name, i'm sorry, but those are the breaks

but the big hitters?

Superman?

Batman?

yes, we've seen massive shifts (better known as cross-overs or money makers) in their lives before, but if you just go re-setting their careers by a number of years, what would that mean?

would Superman never have faced off against Doomsday and died?

i'm more of a Batman fan myself, so perhaps Knightfall would have been erased from history, but would we go further back? would Tim Drake ever have become Robin, would Jason Todd? is Dick Grayson still the Boy Wonder?!

no matter how DC plays this, and it could prove very interesting, i can't imagine that we'll see a complete striking of the DCU's complicated continuity from the books, not only would it be insulting to long-term readers, but it would be a complete about-turn from a company that have always seemed to embrace it's rich history (even if it does shrug off or ret-con portions of it on a whim)

people that have complained that the books have become too complicated to follow, and this is mostly down to the fact that massive cross-overs of late seem to have been drawing the world closer together, with knock-on effects that occur through-out an entire universe and run through multiple books, instead of allowing character their own threads that only occasionally tangle together, which may seem a great idea to get people interested in other books they don't usually shell out for, but isn't particularly easy on the wallet or on more casual or first-time readers

i for one, had always been fascinated by DC's past that i had missed out on, and enjoyed reading stories that referred back to them and would treat myself to back-issues or collected trade paperbacks as and when i could, it made the history richer when i could witness it all for myself firsthand

i don't view it as a messy continuity, i prefer to see it as legacy, and believe that there are writers out their such as Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison and James Robinson that will draw upon DC's rich tapestry of past goings on and almost forgotten characters

and even rebooted, how long could a 'simple' universe last before someone starts to complicate things, comics will continue to be published monthly and stories need to be told

perhaps we do need new comics that welcome new readers, but lets do it without alienating readers that have already dedicated their own time to following the lives of superheroes

green lantern's gatling crotch

2011-06-06T13:44:00.001+01:00

so, DC comics caused quite a hubbub last week didn't they?

now, i can hardly admit to being over-qualified and up-to-date on everything comics, heck, i'm still stuck languishing somewhere in post-Final Crisis and pre-Blackest Night 2009, but this thing right here is the god-damn internet, so why shouldn't i channel the news via my own blog and spout out my own opinion??!

for anyone that may have had this news bypass them, DC comics are re-setting themselves, apparently pretty much re-setting everything (although the confirmed facts are almost non-existent), what we do know is that there will be 52 comic book titles that will be relaunched (and renumbered, starting with 50 #1s) and rebooted in september.

and it seems that there will be changes, with a lot of talk about how these comics will take us back into the earlier years of the superheroes careers, with an emphasis being on foregoing decades of convoluted continuity in favour for easier 'jump-on' stories that are much friendlier to newcomers

which, doesn't seem a bad idea, by any means, the general consensus is that DC fear they are not capitalising on movie adaptions and big screen heriocs by having such muddled histories that the casual reader can't or won't get to grips with

recieving the most attention so far is the re-booted Justice League America, which has already had an artwork reveal that sheds only a little light and raises more questions.

the talk of the town is that character costumes and origins may be tweaked and redeveloped if neccesary, and indeed, in the JLA we appear to have a much (much much) younger looking Superman and a re-jigged costume causing quite a stir, infact the whole team do certainly appear younger than they have in comics of late, it seems nobody is still really sure what's goin on with Wonder Woman and Green Lantern is overcompensating with his (ahem) thought-made-form armoury.

i've got a lot more i want to say on this subject, more opinion and speculation basically, but i shall return tomorrow to do that rather than leave you with a hugely lengthy blog

but before you hear what i have to say, let me give you Hitler's take on the whole debacle.

meeting a hero.

2011-06-03T23:53:00.001+01:00

perhaps it is slightly old fashioned to pass on a demo CD to someone.

i like to think of it as nostalgic instead.

and this is the story of how, with clammy palms, i handed over my CD to Eddy Temple Morris yesterday:

so perhaps my own self-promotion has been a little bit lax of late, perhaps my own musical work ethic has been a little lax of late, i have become accustomed to the truth of the mater that these things will happen when moving into a home, my own home, with the other half (well, half hers too actually)

the spare bedroom has one blue wall and one white wall that i have taken it upon myself to paint, the remaining wall is still that nasty possible-magnolia-really? colour that it has been since we moved in, i would have painted it except she has talked about stripping the textured wall paper from the walls and i don't want to have painted it all for nothing

and yes, the room does actually have four walls, but one is entirely taken up by fitted wardrobes, although i did once consider painting them

but this isn't a case of decoration, this is more a matter that i fully intend to move all my kit into that room and it become my little haven to hide in and create whilst she watches television downstairs, but for now the computer still sits around downstairs, leaving my creativity rather stunted when she turns the tv on

plus, once you consider all the time i actually end up watering the garden, cleaning this, washing that, cooking something, and a whole bunch of other household chores that i hadn't really anticipated yet feel duty bound to complete so i don't end up living in a complete shit hole, there just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day to fire up the machine and start manipulating sounds

and with all this repeatedly happening since last september, why should i waste an opportunity to burn a number of tracks i am proudest of and pass them along to one of my all-time musical heroes?!

Eddy TM would be DJing as part of Akira The Don's album launch party, and Eddy TM is a DJ that i have huge love and huge respect for, and i am extremely proud that he has played one of my remixes on his long running Xfm show, aptly named The Remix

so i pondered the structure of the CD, settling on an equal mix of original material and remixes, including The Enemy remix that he had already aired, and a rejigged Akira The Don track, since it only seemed appropriate

now, i have been training myself to not act like a complete fanboy when meeting famous people, but those that i hold in the highest esteem still cause an outbreak of hysterics in me, and it was no different when Eddy walked past me, i wasn't even facing him, and yet i felt his prescence (or perhaps caught him in the corner of my eye) and my heart skipped a beat

the plan was to grab a little chat with him and try and retain a sense of composure, but the gig moved swiftly and i would have felt that i was disrespecting the performer and Eddy himself if i tried to catch his attention and hold a conversation during a gig

and so there was nothing left to do but approach him whilst he DJed, seriously, the guy is a consummate professional, graciously accepting the CD from me and even holding a slightly disjointed rhetoric as he cued up and mixed tracks whilst observing that i wasn't going anywhere just yet

i introduced myself, told him how much i thought of him, allowed him to do what he had to do, and then continued to tell him that he had played a track of mine before, at which point Eddy took a little more notice, looking over the almost unreadable tracklisting in the poor lighting and acknowledging that, yeah, he remembered it

he then remarked that he thought we had met before, blimey! either he is an extremely gracious person making a lucky guess, but i believe that i saw recognition in his eyes, i didn't expect for him to remember at all, it must have been a good couple of years ago at least, but i'll quite happily live with the belief that Eddy TM not only is a great DJ, but also a great human being with superhuman skills of recollection

we briefly discussed the artwork of the promo, that he loved, and that i admitted to half-inching and not really being able to claim as my own, and then i said i would leave him to it, he had a job to do after all, and i left beaming...

i hope that he will give it a listen and i hope that he will enjoy it, i would be bloody ecstatic if he saw fit to air anything from it but that is regardless, the most important thing is that he is something of a hero of mine and that in the two brief moments that i have been able to converse with him, Eddy has been nothing less than a complete gentleman and an all-round nice guy

and i couldn't ask for anything more than that when meeting a personal hero

Akira The Don - Music of the Spheres ft. Mary Turner (Hunchbakk's dirty elbows mix) by Hunchbakk

a tribute to Gil Scott-Heron

2011-06-01T14:11:00.001+01:00

i can't remember exactly how long ago it was that i first heard Gil Scott-Heron's music or all the circumstances around it

i do remember that i was crossing the A10 on my bike, at the lights just outside the tyre place

i do remember that it was being played on my minidisc player (immediately dating my memories somewhat) and would have probably been part of a radio show that i had recorded so that i would have something worthwhile to listen to on my way to and from work, most likely either Xfm's Remix or Steve Lamaqc's monday night show on Radio 1

i do remember being so taken in by the track that i skipped the minidisc back to listen to it again, and used my clever little player's editing function to seperate the track and mark it as something of note and something i would want to revisit

i do remember being momentarily amazed by 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised', simply in awe of, and fascinated by, everything about it

that ever so simple, almost tribal drum beat that sounds throughout

the spoken words, passionate poetry that was underpinned by the evocative percussion that built the sparse track into something oh so powerful and unbelievably unique

it was bold and daring and spoke to me in ways that no other music had done before

i didn't know that it was some 30 years old or so

i didn't know of Gil Scott-Heron until that point

i didn't rush out to instantly explore his back catalogue, but i looked into his past and his music and found something that i felt a real connection to

i couldn't name you all of his albums or recite you all of his lyrics, in all honesty, i have only probably heard just a handful of his tracks, but what i have heard was enough to inspire me

i do think the world is a little emptier without Gil Scott-Heron in it, but at least we still have his music and his influence that will long outlive him

with that in mind i decided to create my own music tribute to the late great Gil Scott-Heron, based upon the classic The Revelution Will Not Be Televised

i did try something else first, trying to create a looped up and sampled backing to sit under the vocals, but it didn't feel true enough to his spirit

it is quite simple in form, as perhaps it should be, and i hope that Gil Scott-Heron will never be forgotten

Giles Babel - go crazy (a tribute to Gil Scott-Heron)

and again, the world feels a little emptier

2011-05-28T10:04:00.000+01:00

i won't bother to blog about the demise of just about every celebrity who's passing is broadcast to me via facebook of twitter

but i will take a little time to remember and celebrate the lives of the occasional person whose death affects me just a little deeper than most

Gil Scott Heron is an inspirational voice that i shall miss, and a voice that will live on forever

R.I.P

cloud above me

2011-05-26T16:18:00.000+01:00

i feel that i haven't got much to say, and that can never be a good thing

so i thought maybe i should say it anyway in the hope that it will inspire something a little more profound

i usually have a lot of things that i want to say

i never have enough time to compose my thoughts and ideas

that is usually my life

hurtling along like some bizarre rollercoaster, to fast for me to succesfully manage all that i hope to achieve, except this type of rollercoaster doesn't involve queuing for 50 minutes only for the whole thing to be over in just a couple of paltry minutes before heading off to another 50 minute queue or a pizza hut buffet

perhaps it isn't like a rollercoaster at all

no, i guess it really isn't

apologies for the rambling, i thought that if i could just spill out a stream of consciousness then i may hit the creative stride that i have lacked recently, so apologies for that too, to myself and to anyone else that may take an interest in anything creative that i produce

i haven't even managed to knock out a full review this week, tho i guess i should, as i have a number of CDs that need my thoughts chucked at them for glasswerk, i did slightly regurgitate a number of musings on the music of Daniel Haaksman for publishing in the Enfield Advertiser as i hadn't been in touch for a while, although sending the finished article as my girlfriend slept though Glee on monday night already feels as if it was weeks ago

i guess the only reason i'm choosing to write right now is so that my blog looks a little less barren, sadly i seem to have less and less time to get my thoughts across, although i suppose i have already said that and since time is a premium i should spend less time repeating myself

so, today was for relaxing, or doing something, anything, but typically i just can't get my head right, i've had a stab at putting together a new giles babel piece of music, but it just didn't come together as easily as i'd hoped it would, and other than that, i feel as if the world is slipping away from me as i sit around unsure of what i should really be spending my time doing and trying to not think about the biscuits that are open in the cupboard

i guess it's a blip, i'll throw myself into something else and maybe, just maybe have another biscuit, and hopefully it won't be too long until i'm pulled out of whatever hole it is that i am currently wallowing in

and i hope that the next time my blog speaks to you that it sings a more joyous, more coherent song than you and i have both had to endure today

credit where it's due:

i wanted a moody looking picture for this post, i found one yesterday but the computer wouldn't save it, i found a different picture today, it doesn't have much to do with anything i've said and i've no real idea what it is, but i like it and i found it here

the curious case of odd future

2011-05-11T14:40:00.004+01:00

it seems to be getting quite cramped here in this music industry with all this hype surrounding Odd Future taking up so much room.

things have been bubbling up for quite a while now, and it must have been the middle of last year as they were dropping their second mixtape that the words Odd Future first connected with me.

but in the past month or two everything seems to have come to a head for the hip-hop collective as talk of their name and of their members appears to be absolutely everywhere, everyone wants a piece of them, and in the last two weeks alone Odd Future seem to have cemented their current reputation with an NME cover piece and a riotously recieved showcasing slot at Camden Crawl.

and as a person in tune with current trends and eager to latch onto the newest and most exciting music before it is embraced by the wider world, it may surprise you to know (as it sure surprised me) that i have never even heard any music by Odd Future.

i'm pretty sure i should like them, purely the fact that the groups full given name is Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All and that among their members are the fascinating and ridiculous monikers Tyler the Creator, Hodgy Beats and Earl Sweatshirt is enough to light the blue touch paper for me.

Yes, i've read the reviews, they've been hard to avoid, and i'm even aware of the bizarre little news story that Earl Sweatshirt had gone missing from the line-up for months, only to be traced to a 'therepeutic centre' on a Samoan island.

i even decided to scroll through my generic mp3 player, and it turns out that i do have Odd Future's Radical mixtape downloaded from last year, as well as tracks from Tyler the Creator, Earl Sweatshirt and the whole mixtape 'Nostalgia, Ultra' by Frank Ocean that dropped in February this year, yet i have still never knowingly listened to any of these tracks.

but it isn't just the hype-mongering NME that are flying the flag for Odd Future, an innordinate amount of hipster blogs and even America's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon are more up on things than i am.

so, with the possible exception of my girlfriend, who listens to Geoff Lloyd on Absolute, am i really one of the last people on the planet to tune into Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All?

i think it's about time that i popped in my headphones to rectify this glaring oversight and see if i believe the hype.

Tyler The Creator (Odd Future) - Splatter

kurt cobain on steroids

2011-05-09T17:06:00.001+01:00

as a fan of DC, i will admit that Thor was wonderfully entertaining, next up as Marvel Studios build up to Avengers is their Captain America movie later this summer, aswell as a look at the X-men's origins in X-men, First Class

as a fan of DC, i can't say that i am pinning too much of my hopes on Green Lantern as he faces up to this threat from Marvel alone (well, actually he'll be backed up by a bunch of CGI aliens, which may actually be part of the problem)

but as ever, we have the wonderful return of the 'I'm a Marvel, I'm a DC' videos that really seem to get under the skin of the entire situation

Daniel Haaksman + kitchen decorating = worktop samba

2011-05-04T15:45:00.001+01:00

yet another week is upon us that we find the Enfield Advertiser again without it's Weekender section

yet again a local newspaper does not feature any entertainment, movie, music or fashion news

although a food review from The Gannets seems to have kept it's head above the water this week

the past two week's papers were produced by an alternative staff, whilst the real people were striking, hence the fact that the Weekender went astray for those weeks, but now.... i guess it's a waiting game, i still have more that i want to say and i shall keep submitting pieces in the hope that a space will be found for them

but i didn't really let this worry me as i took a week of off work to spend a little more time doing up the house alongside my girlfriend, it didn't prove to be quite as productive as the first spurt of hard work from last year, hindered somewhat by bank holidays and other plans, but a fair amount of gardening was tackled, contemplations of the spare room and geeky hideout in the attic were made and the kitchen walls were partially painted

and whilst my tenure at the Advertiser seems to be crumbling and my home inches closer to looking less like a work in progress i do also have some other news that had me quite literally dancing around the house

it appears that glasswerk seems to be upping its game in the hands of a new editor who has already hooked me up to review MC Lars when he hits London this month (with my fave, Akira The Don, in support) and provided me with a care package that arrived last week of CDs to be reviewed.

i had already troubled this new editor with a fussy description of genres that i would be willing to write about, in accordance with my own whims that i would no longer put up with some of the utter rubbish that got sent my way in the name of 'journalism', i seem to have less time to call my own these days and wouldn't desire wasting it on trying to find something clever and worthwhile about a release i really couldn't give a toss about

and i fully appreciate the effort made, most of the names were completely new to me, but the discoveries involved in having these on rotation made me realise again just how much i love discovering new music and being a part of the wider music scene through my reviews and blogs

receiving far more play than the other CDs recieved has been the debut album by Berlin based DJ and label boss, Daniel Haaksman, that shall be released later this month, the blistering Baile Funk was exactly to my taste and the carnival flavas made short work of housebound jobs, one particular sight to behold was my rythmic ass-shaking as i stood atop my kitchen units, splashing a vibrant lime green onto the walls that seemed to suit the current soundtrack as i imagined myself in a skimpy sequin costume addorned with peacock feathers.

Daniel Haaksman "Rambazamba"-Album Teaser

so now, a couple of walls in my kitchen are bright green and two of my brand new reviews are already up on glasswerk, here, and here

and read a little more about the artists reviewed over on my new Desperately Seeking Susan Boyle post, along with music streams

credit where it's due:
image half inched from firle artists

the spies came out of the water

2011-04-20T16:00:00.000+01:00

i don't like to obsess about it too much, but every once in a while i will spend a few minutes taking a look over what my statcounter has got to say about those that have visiting my blog

i also don't like to talk about it too much on my blog as i wouldn't want anyone that frequents here, no matter how casually, to think that i am spying on them and tracking their every move

honestly, it is more just a curiosity

to see how paper came here and what they have googled in order to find whatever page they came across with whatever i may have been waffling about at that point in time

it is always a little bit exciting to see when people from other countries have stumbled across my musings, yet it is no longer such a thrill to find that someone from sweden or spain has been looking at Roxanne Pallett in her smalls again, but i did get a strange buzz to find that someone in the Houses Of Parliament had been taking a peek at monday's blog post on the Enfield Advertiser's strike action

in fact, that little piece did drive a little bit of web traffic in my direction, so i hope that means that people are taking notice of the cause that the journalists and editors on the picket line outside the Advertiser's offices are fighting for, although it seems that the situation has only deteriorated, with staff now being warned of possible redundancies

and sadly, it seems that this weeks newspaper is not worth an awful lot of time flicking through, especially if you are looking for the laughably titled 'leisure and lifestyle guide', as it seems that even after all that shouting and making a fuss about how important it is and who it appeals to, The Weekender is not represented in this week's edition in any way, shape, or form

i can only hope that the organisation of the aforementioned strike action is the main culprit behind it's disapearance, but i do fear now that the end may be nigh for this longstanding entertainment section, and along with it will go any hopes local bands had of gaining further exposure through their local newspaper.

at least we still have the return of Doctor Who to look forward to this weekend, i suppose.

and in fact, Doctor Who is another one of the topics that seems to keep bringing people all over the world back to my humble little blogspot, so i'm hoping that once we are back in the swing of things i shall again be offering my occasional opinion on what is goin on Doctor-wise

by the end of Matt Smith's debut season, i will admit that he has grown on me, and clearly absence really has made the heart grow fonder, as i cannot wait for the new series to get started! (although this may have more to do with Amy Pond, than Matt Smith's Doctor)

so i shall eagerly wait and see what is instore this time around, with high hopes for an episode scripted by personal fave of mine, Neil Gaiman, and the possibility of more revelations about the enigmatic River Song.

and since we have been discussing favourites, and web traffic, it would be downright rude not to give a huge shout out to what is possible my biggest pull of all time, that gets hits daily from all over the world, i am, of course, talking about Roxanne Pallett in her underwear

it is very nice of you to have joined us again, and as long as people keep clicking, i will keep being tempted to post half naked pictures of famous women.... along with your usual expected insights and geek-outs

strike!!

2011-04-18T15:10:00.001+01:00

i've already schooled you on the shit that may or may not be going down with The Weekender's fluctuating page count and uncertain future, yet it seems that this was just the tip of a Titanic mashing iceberg

after doing my own little bit of campaigning in order to save the section of the newspaper that i am so fond of reading and contributing to, a little more information has come to light and to be honest, it is not good news

no wonder our paper is taking such a battering, since it turns out that editorial staff that have left have not been replaced and other key positions have also remained unfilled as part of some genius cost cutting exercise

great idea, the only problem is now that the people left staffing the paper are now overstretched and unable to do a proper job delivering quality content, with just three full-time reporters having to fill the pages of nine newspapers a week, they are tied to their desks with no real scope for any type of first-hand accounts or investigative journalism, instead the former award winning newspapers are now filled with (the rather brilliantly named) 'worst kind of churnalism'

blogs, facebook and a twitter have all been set-up to raise awareness of what has been going on behind the scenes at our local papers and to further drive the point home, two weeks of strike action have been scheduled starting tomorrow

i was intending to get along and further show my support for those affected, but unfortunately work engagements won't allow me to be in Enfield Town as i would usually be.

not only will i be missing out on the picket line outside the newspapers' offices, i shall also be missing out on the theatrically staged funeral procession that shall be lead through the town with a priest reading the paper's last rites, while a menacing grim reaper shall also be stalking around as a menacing reminder of how these attitudes and decisions are leading to the death of our local newspapers

for more information of the strike read here
and more information on all this dastardly shit, and contact details to try and stop it can be found here

a crimeless victim

2011-04-14T12:15:00.000+01:00

people may talk about victimless crime, but right now i feel just the opposite, as if i am a crimeless victim

last week i had my bike stolen, within minutes of locking it up outside B&Q and picking up what i needed, i returned to find that my bike was no longer where i left it, in fact there was no sign of it at all

a couple of kids that were near the entrance of B&Q confirmed it for me (as if it could have been anything else), that someone had quite casually come along, cut through my lock as if it was butter and then hopped on my bike and rode off

further fuel to the fire, if someone was gonna make off with my bike i do wish that they'd have had to work a bit harder for it

thankfully it was directly underneath a security camera so there should at least be a decent image of the culprit.... but of course, that camera was not recording

yes, this was the kind of day i was having...

i knew anything that follows would be rather pointless, only if i'd had my bike microchipped and satelite traced would i have a hope in hell of it turning up again

as a kid we'd had mine and my brothers bikes stolen from our garden, they'd been security marked by the police at an open day at our primary school and we took along a couple of holiday photos of us with the bikes to the police station so they would know what they were looking for, and the uber-honest cop took the details, and then crushingly informed us that they probably would never turn up again, and if they did they'd most likely resemble scrap metal

not in the best of moods, i filled in the online crime report form (as it seemed an easier option than wasting my breathe) giving as much detail as i could, including the direction i was told that the culprit had headed off in, the names of the major retailers that faced the carpark he would have gone across that i presume would have their own cctv, and a ten minute time slot that it had all happened in, there you go police, that's most of the hard work done for you.... now, if you could just think about checking the cctv in the area...

what i do get is a phone call 2 days later asking me if the bike was locked when i left it (thank you for reading my report!!), informing me of my crime reference number

and this week i get a letter to let me know that 'the crime has been assessed to see what opportunities exist for further investigation' in order to identify the person responsible for the crime, whether cctv evidence could be recovered was given as one example...

oh, they have concluded that further significant evidence would not be readily available

i'd at least like to think that the police had tried, but considering that the times it could have happened between were minimal and precisely reported and that my bike was stolen from a busy retail park, surrounded by a number of other businesses, i am certain that there would be cctv footage, considering that reports say Britons are captured on cctv 300 times a day, i find it hard to believe that someone upping and leaving with a stolen bike is completely and utterly untraceable

i was already resigned to the fact that it was all for nothing, yet the fact that the 'one size fits all' letter i recieved shows no real attempt to act upon the information i have given to them only seems to smack of the fact that the police could really not be bothered to take the time it would have taken to just check....

it makes me feel that maybe crime is a viable way to make ends meet, with no fear of recrimination, with no real consequences, whoever got away with it has a brand new bike

while i have not a lot more to show for it other than a crime number, an empty space in my shed and increased journey times

for a little more information on the crime of stolen bikes, i'd suggest giving this a read

adjusting transitions

2011-04-08T15:09:00.001+01:00

see what i'm capable of doing when i put my mind to it?

not only have i stripped the decking to the best of my abilities whilst catching a fair bit of sun at the same time, i have also found the time to do my fair share of house work, read a comic in the sun whilst enjoying a beer that gets me up to date for reading Final Crisis, fixed the toilet, unfixed the light that needs to be returned to B&Q and fixed my dupstep mix.

of course, i thought it was finished the first time round, but a few little niggles and issues that had been raised by my girlfriend have been taken into consideration and with a little bit of tweaking i'm hoping that it shall meet with approval

nothing drastic has changed, everything has stayed the same, i have just readjusted a handful of the transitions as a number of tracks seemed to be coming in too loud and ruined the flow slightly, but like i said, i thought it was fine the first time round... let's see if i go back for any further edits....

but i am proud of it, the title pretty much says it all really...

wub be good to me, a dubstep cut'n'paste mix by Hunchbakk

Wub be good to me, a dubstep cut'n'paste mix by Hunchbakk

i basically cut and pasted the whole thing together in Acid, creating my own little loops and edits and merging tracks together as best as i possibly could, and i'll say it again, i am proud of it, for every little niggle or obvious flaw there have been other mixes, transitions and edits that have been so smooth that they have not raised any attention at all, it may not be perfect, but it's mine.

and so, perhaps for a little piece of history on this mix.

it was created for a friend that doesn't like dubstep.

we were at a dubstep night at Bar Form, and to be honest, it was slightly on the boring side, there was no real variation, nothing to really hook anybody in to the music, some of it was banging, but the rest of the time it strayed into repetitive and generic territory.

my friend was particularly unimpressed and it was easy to pinpoint what it was she didn't like about what was being played, yet i insisted that there would be dubstep that i think she would like and vowed to knock together a CD of tracks that i think she might have liked.

except some of these tracks and mixes were going on five or six minutes or more long, and strayed into repetitive and generic territory, so instead of just knocking together a playlist to burn off and wallow in the glove compartment of her car i instead thought i'd try and get a little creative and actually mix the tracks to suit her attention span.

so, in my own way i decided to splice together a mix that would reach back to the moody and pioneering dubstep of Burial as something of a history lesson, but also take in more vocal based tracks and remixes, as well as covering a number of more recognisable tunes in a filthy dubstep disguise, and since i couldn't let her get away without a little something to challenge her i also threw in tracks from Caspa and Rusko amongst the more palatable tracks as something of a contrast.

so what are you waiting for?

download it

share it

share feedback

let me know what you think

and for those that have to have the whole package, at teh top of the post is the front cover, at the bottom of the post is the back cover, and for those with snazzy printers that can print onto CDs (you lucky people, you) i have also put together an image suitable for the CD which you can find over here

thanks

the barnyard battle

2011-04-03T13:28:00.000+01:00

how foolish of me, there i was yesterday, typing up a long-awaited blog post and i only go and leave out something of relevance that i wanted to point readers in the direction of.

instead, you get more apologies and an extra post which i guess makes things look just a little bit more active around these parts.

so.

dubstep.

when i'm writing articles or features for The Enfield Advertiser (or possibly Seeking Susan Boyle or Glasswerk) i try to cover most bases, obviously the paper i try to anchor with local interest to keep it relevant, but i also like to mix in reviews of other artists, be they popular or rather niche, and i try to convey myself in my writing by offering up a number of opinion pieces.

something that i had been giving a fair bit of consideration to was the current state of dubstep, particularly how in the course of a year it went from bubbling on the underground, to spawning it's own 'pop'stars in the form of Katy B and Magnetic Man.

but writing takes a little time and commitment, and when i very rarely have an official deadline to meet for any of the platforms my pieces appear on, sometimes these ideas tend to slide.

so while i have been spending time becoming increasingly bored of social networking and waiting for something new to set a fire under my life, or just sinking my head deeper and deeper into comics, Eddy TM has overtaken me and given his own opinion on dubstep's current standing.

i won't bother to repeat any of it here, since it is well worth a read in it's own right.

and perhaps i'll pull my finger out, surprise even myself, and deliver a complete dubstep mix, aaand a dubstep article this week.

we'll see, eh?

credit where it's due:

accompanying image 'weird mouse' by Leo Loikkanen

journey to perplexity

2011-04-02T13:22:00.000+01:00

please, let me explain myself.

i apologise profusely for not yet furnishing your ears with my cut 'n' paste dubstep mix.

a handfull of people of heard it, opinions range from 'tumping' (which i presume is a compliment, and shall take as such), to my girlfriends opinion that it sounded quite amateur, which of course it is, but i had a bloody good crack at it. oh, and i was also told by the friend that the mix was originally intended for, that the asda CD i burnt it on wouldn't play in her car, neither would the previous asda CD we tried, i see a pattern emerging here.

having taken my girlfriend's comments on board, i decided to postpone loading it up for all and sundry to hear and instead shall spend a little longer tweaking...

there are certainly points of the mix that i am not entirely happy with, whilst others are so smooth that few people have even realised when a track has flowed or merged into the next. so it is neither a complete success or a complete failure, it is what it is, a mix that i have cut and pasted together as best i could using acid .

the only thing i shall attempt to change are a handful of sound level issues that are bothering me, and are the reason i have not shared it just yet, the rest shall likely stand untouched, as a testament to what i can and cannot do.

as soon as i find a little spare time to give it the attention it deserves i shall tinker and upload, for now tho, perhaps just check out the artwork that i created for the compilation, and perhaps peruse the other creative outpourings of my family on a day to day basis.

credit where it's due:

accompanying image 'i wanna riot' by butterfly cool

where's my head at?

2011-03-25T16:08:00.002Z

my head feels fuzzy

not in the worst way, but kind of bad enough to make you feel like someone else while your real self is floating around in a bubble

add to this the fact that my nose is alternating between running and bunged up and it equals possibly the worst onslaught of hayfever that i have encountered since i was about 11.

then factor in that i have either not had the means, the time, or the mental agility to bosh out a decent blog post of any real consequence.

and this means that i now feel a lot less like me.

on monday i was considering a blog about who i am, or who i used to be. or maybe who i once appeared to be in one particular photo.

i attempted to write that blog last night, and got all of about 18 words out before i faltered and just couldn't get into the right groove for blogging.

so here is a blog to fill the void, it is mostly hot air, fragranced with pollen and then showered in snot.
enjoy it if you can and pray that normal service will resume soon.

if not frequent blogging, then at least a regular mentality.

march 17th: in memoriam

2011-03-17T15:06:00.001Z

.

everytime i see a famous person's name trending,
i wonder if they've died.

.
this seems to be the culture we are living in now, where snippets of news can be garnered from search engine and social networking trends.

rest in peace, Nate Dogg and Micheal Gough.

written by Glen Byford, March 17th 14:46pm

living for The Weekender

2011-03-15T19:16:00.001Z

when i first caught wind that The Weekender, the entertainment section of The Enfield Advertiser, was under threat things were a little bit hush hush... but word gets around doesn't it...

although the clues were already there, the number of pages had slowly been dwindling over the past few weeks and certain articles and features had either been shuffled elsewhere or were tellingly conspicuous by their absense

which i wouldn't have brought into question if i hadn't known that my own music article had been submitted and yet The Advertiser went for a good couple of weeks (or was it three?) without a single music article appearing

when this type of thing happens i slow up a little, but the week before last the entertainment editor chased me up for a piece since something else he had been waiting on had fallen through, i swiftly finished off my piece dealing with The Fett's debut album

so what happens last week when i take a peek into the paper? The Weekender, apparently, and i quote, 'your number one leisure and lifestyle guide', was a paltry three pages long, and the article i had been hurried on had been replaced with an offer for toby carvery

it was after this sorry excuse for a leisure guide had been published (minus its usual music reviews, fashion features, kids club, cinema reviews and listings, and theatre and resteraunt reviews) that the editor informed me of the sorry state of affairs he was facing...

that The Weekender's days seemed to be numbered

now i'm not entirely sure if this was supposed to be public knowledge, and i drafted and submitted my own letter to express my disapointment, but i wondered whether this would make any difference at all

i know many people i know, band members and music fans alike turn to the centre pages before anything else, but how on earth will the powers that be know this if nobody tells them, and how will people need to know that there is something to fight for if they are unaware that it is in jeopardy

so i put news of this situation on facebook, where it was soon causing quite a stir not just between friends, but also among people that are outside of my own social circle, but obviously care enough to make their voices heard and express their opinion

so if you want to join in and make a bit of a fuss and hopefully make a difference then take a look facebookwards, and more importantly, make your voice heard by contacting The Enfield Advertiser by email on letters.enfield@nlhnews.co.uk

and this isn't a fight for me, this won't affect my livelihood, i have a full time job that pays the bills and all my contributions to the paper have been voluntary, but other peoples jobs are at risk if The Weekender is scrapped, and i also fear that it is unlikely that Enfield's bands and Enfield gigs would ever have the same exposure ever again...

i only write because i love it, i was doing it on this blog long before i had been taken on by the Advertiser, giving a mention to music of the local and not-so-local kind, and the loss of The Weekender wouldn't stop me writing either

but i felt that it would be a blow to Enfield's music scene if it lost such a well recognised and well distributed platform

so again, if this matters to you or anyone they know, please take a look at facebook and find a little time to contact the paper on letters.enfield@nlhnews.co.uk

thank you

would like to meet....

2011-03-13T18:54:00.000Z

i don't know why, but this blog quite often finds Wonder Woman cropping up for one reason or another, as much as i'm into comics, i am hardly her biggest fan, but the fact that she is so iconic makes her appearances in spoofs and parodies a hell of a lot more interesting than many Wonder Woman comics that i have actually read.

and here we have Wonder Woman, among a number of other superheroes (and villians), finding their perfect matches via a dedicated website that caters to the specific needs of comic book characters

everyone's at it

2011-03-07T14:32:00.003Z

twitter. tweeting. ok, i'll hold my hands up and admit that i don't really get it and i spent a good while saying that i just wouldn't bother with it but in my line of.. erm... unpaid employment i guess it can be used as a tool.

i spent the longest time saying that i wasn't gona set up a facebook for myself, and i held out for a very long time, and it was when logging into myspace and realising that pretty much no-one i knew used it anymore i kinda felt alone and needed the cyber comfort of my friends.

and guess what, i'm on the bloody thing near enough every day.

i use facebook on a more personal level, the myspace was about my musical identity of Hunchbakk, my facebook was actually me, the real person, or as real as i chose to be, i did get round to setting up a Hunchbakk facebook page for people to 'like' but i don't really devote too much time to it, it automatically updates with my blog posts, so you may as well just keep checking back here anyway.

it was at a friend's houseparty a few weeks back that i actually thoughtfully considered using twitter, me and my girlfriend were chatting to a guy in the kitchen, i called him Charlie Chaplin as i informed him that i was unlikely to remember his name and he had been drinking in a pub called the Charlie Chaplin before the party, and then not shown up to the party and then we all feared he was dead or worse as we realy weren't in the nicest part of london. all this is besides the point...

i'm quite humble, and don't announce myself too loudly. i sometimes forget the things i have achieved and all that i am, thankfully my girlfriend will occasionally big me up to people, it makes me feel proud, of myself and of her when she does this and i hope it means that she is proud of me. forget the day job, what really makes me interesting is all the other things that i get up to, and she proceeded to talk about my dan le sac vs madonna ciccone article that dan le sac himself acknowledged....

and Charlie Chaplin was quite blown away by this (which made me a little prouder) and he mentioned that i was selling myself short if i wasn't on twitter and trying to get myself out there and connecting with more people that are gonna take notice of what i write and what i do.

i'd even mentioned the use of twitter in the aforementioned article, and considered its use, and perhaps i should have dived in right there and then... but i didn't... i carried on mulling it over and not actually commiting myself to it, because i am a thinker and not a doer....

but it is done, that was a very long way of saying that it is done, i am on twitter, and it is neither musical nor wholly personal, i see it as some kind of self-promotional middle ground that is there for the sake of networking, as opposed to just keeping up with friends. i shall have to get in the habit of logging into it regularly, and linking to the various sites that i am involved in

so far, i have two beautiful followers (where you at @ianbyfordart ???) with whom to share my wares.

if you have any interest in my writing, my photography, my music, my poetry, or just me, then i suggest perhaps you look me up on there

and next time somebody is 'retweeting' my article or some such, i shall be there and be prepared to reap the anticipated rewards..... (and ensure that the bloody link works)

it's a trap!

2011-03-06T14:47:00.003Z

i'm sure it must be a trap!

there is absolutely no way that i am gonna get reeled into having to sit through Episode 1 again, not least when i'll have to pay for the privilege on seeing the stupid thing in 3D, no thanks George.

quick to jump on this blooming stupid 3D (but not even really 3D, just a bit 3D) bandwagon that will lead us all into the mouth of hell, George Lucas climbed down from the giant money stack he had been sat on at his Skywalker ranch and decreed that his 6 Star Wars films shall be re-tooled with some crummy 3D and then drip-fed into cinemas over the course of 6 years in order to bleed die-hard geeks of more of their earnings.

i grumbled when i first heard the news, but now a release date for Episode 1 has been pencilled in for next february i feel the need to grumble a little bit more, and publicly...

because me and my girlfriend have been having our own screening of the two trilogies in our own front room (her suggestion actually) with our projector and our conveniently painted white wall with no pictures hanging.

we'd start at the start (or the middle, dependant on your personal viewpoint) with Episode 1, by no means a classic, but despite the derision and the fact that the film is far from great, i've held a kind of naive fondness for it in my mind, but sitting through it again, i was relieved when the end credits rolled

back in 1999 i think i was kinda caught up in the hype, full of excitement that my generation would have it's own Star Wars legacy to witness anew after growing up with A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi as a standard Bank Holiday TV staple, i don't ever remember being shocked by the revelation of Luke's parentage as it was almost a received wisdom.

right now tho, in 2011, The Phantom Menace sticks out as a moment that the dream soured and as a terrible choice of a way to spend a couple of hours (and however much a ticket to a 3D film will be going for in 2012).

thankfully the other two prequels managed to claw back some of the self-respect lost in Episode 1, but the damage had already been done, and we became imbued with more of a curiosity for parts 2 and 3 instead of being blessed with another huge cultural phenomenon for a later generation.

(and i dare say i may be tempted to sneak into the 3D screenings of Episodes 2, 3 ,4, 5 and 6 as they roll out)

now we are at the halfway point with our screenings (well sort of, she slept through most of Revenge and should realy catch up) and we'll probably fire up the projector tomorrow night and step back in time, but further into the future, although they're all a long time ago anyway, but i'm sure you catch my drift, yep, we'll be watching the 'special' edition of 77's A New Hope.

ok, the lightsabre duels are a hell of a lot slower, and no-one jumps around so much, but nobody mentions midichloreans either, so the other factors that date it don't really matter at all when put into the context of Episode 1.

and for those that are bored of the same song that the Mos Eisley Cantina Band have been playing for what seems like an eternity, then perhaps tune into this Star Wars honouring video for mopey rockers Scattered Trees (no, i hadn't heard of them either) that, through the kitchen sink drama of some Imperial downtime, shows the downside of capturing pretty female jedis if you're a bit of an emotionally charged stormtrooper.

oh, and Boba Fett knows how to play drums, reinforcing his reputation as one of the coolest characters of the franchise.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand, (ever so slightly tedious link) that reminds me t remind you, that my the review of The Fetts' debut album (see what i did there) is up over on my other blog, Desperately Seeking Susan Boyle...

and before i go, i must also comment on how impressed i am with their use of some chalkboard paint nonchalantly daubed on the walls, looking very cool.

wave goodbye to Ronald McDonald

2011-03-05T15:19:00.001Z

that's right, apparently this hellish clown fiend is being made redundant.

no longer will Ronald McDonald be clocking in at the Golden Arches, since the fast food giant has been slowly and rather obviously changing its image over the past few years, the restaurants for a start are much less lurid than they used to be, now transformed into trendier looking hang-outs purposely designed to rival the huge surge of Starbucks as it aims to take over the world.

it has been trying to distance itself from what we remember it as, as all of a sudden it is terribly unfashionable to sell fatty foods, everything needs to be eco, and healthy, and green these days...

and that red and yellow romper suit and curly red hair will not be going green...

Ronald now factors into very little of McDonald's advertising, no longer fitting in with their new look and their new outlook.

cos who really wants a scary clown advertising your cappa-frappa-crappa-cinos?

and i was intending to post this news as an excuse to use a horrifying image of Ronald, one of the plenty of creepy looking pictures that are floating around the internet, you know, like the type used in Supersize Me...

but when the original clown looks this disturbing anyway, i thought i'd just go with the classic look as Ronald McDoanld waves goodbye......

how i've rolled...

2011-02-27T15:14:00.004Z

this week may not have been the most productive from a creative point of view

but they are things on the go and ideas up in the air (and articles to write)

i am still tinkering around - on acid - with a remix idea that i didn't find enough time to devote to this week, all the essentials of the finished piece are in place as far as i'm concerned, but now comes the hard graft and spit n polish that should see the track come through the other side as a fully formed remix ready to tackle the blogosphere (tho it will more likely become buried beneath a bundle of other un-inspiring remixes that have already been doing the rounds)

and i have also made prelimanary preparations for another three pieces of music, a couple of which shouldn't take too much time to complete, but then things very rarely, if ever, actually go to plan, so perhaps it would be best not to hold your breath waiting for a prolific splurge of new material from Hunchbakk.... those that hang around shall be rewarded eventually, and the wait shall be cluttered with mutterings, utterings and obviously videos of a geeky nature....

and what of my writing in general? well, last week i had a preview copy of Beady Eye's debut album posted out to me, and my review should be up on glasswerk in the very near future, i'm also considering knocking together a piece on Liam Gallagher's new band to share between the Advertiser and my new blog, Desperately Seeking Susan Boyle, which is kind of like this blog, but for those with more discerning tastes that perhaps don't want to deal with all of my ramblings and obsessions... yes, it is a music blog in the more traditional sense

talking of music, and blogging, and music blogging, and also talking of the Enfield Advertiser, i have a couple more write-ups to be getting along with, one of which is the long-overdue 9Blind piece, and the second (tho it will likely come first) piece shall be on The Fetts, another local band, that have just self-released their debut album and who played at last week's Sel-out gig at Bar Form at which i DJed, all by myself up in that little triangle window...

the gig was hardly over-subscribed, but it was a nice little turn out for the band in an intimate environment, and without the pressure of trying to please a bunch of willies who have quite clearly turned up to the wrong night, shouting 'play something funky!' i could get a little bit self-indulgent and truly eclectic with my choices, knocking out a set choc-full of tracks i wouldn't usually play or perhaps have neglected, mixed in with a handful of old standards and crowd pleasers, even if the crowd hadn't considered it when they were heading for a night out, they did seem kinda pleased to hear boom-shak-a-lak

the nature of my DJ sets and the obscurity of my tastes did actually prompt a request for a mixtape of decent mixes, which is the third of its kind that i shall have to get to work on, and also brings me back quite nicely to the concept of blogging, and in particular back to Seeking Susan Boyle, for although the content may be pasable for now, i do hope to up the game a little bit, some artwork and an overall style aesthetic is being analysed as we speak, as are plans for a bit of coincidental merch, and also a monthly mxtape, for those that prefer their music in bulk, as opposed to drip fed weekly... all very exciting stuff... if only there were more time to do it all in....

oh damn it, better get started on these other articles......
but do check back, and check Seeking Susan Boyle

and consider yourselves updated
thank you

this must look bad...

2011-02-26T13:09:00.001Z

it looks like a nightmare down there just below.

look, forget it, head over to Go Home Production's website since he seems to have got it embedded and playing ok...

as i was saying...

always enlightening to see someone else, particularly someone who's work i admire, using youtube to find samples and using acid as his weapon of choice, this is exactly how i roll.....

www.gohomeproductions.co.uk

how i roll.... (re-upped)

2011-02-26T12:56:00.003Z

so this is what most people witnessed of thursday's post

when what you should have seen is a video of Mark Vidler (aka Go Home Productions) talking us through a little tinkering he did.

i guess i could have just re-upped the video, but i thought perhaps i should just acknowledge the flaw instead of glossing over it and pretending it never happened (consider it a blooper or an out-take perhaps, or evidence of how frustrating the internet can be at times)

so let's try again then...

how i roll...

how i roll....

2011-02-24T11:03:00.000Z

always enlightening to see someone else, particularly someone who's work i admire, using youtube to find samples and using acid as his weapon of choice, this is exactly how i roll.....

http://www.gohomeproductions.co.uk/

reBirth

2011-02-17T13:16:00.000Z

the text was from Mike Straight, it read:

do u want ur computer back?

or words to that effect

this was practically a month ago, and my poor machine had been in respite for a dreadfully long time before that, and i had shunned it terribly, so very sick of even contemplating dealing with all the hissy fits it tends to throw and the bouts of illness that it has been prone to.

other things were keeping me busy, moving was one of them, and then decorating after that

but as time has worn on and i have settled, it became abundantly clear that i was lacking something from my life

while the girlfriend seems quite content with the television for company to wile away an evening, the hateful telly-box leaves me feeling quite empty and wasted if i am sat in front of it for too long

and it is times like these that i need to delve into my musical endeavours, though hardly an accomplished musician, i do feel a sense of acheivement when i have been able to create something

some attempts are more succesful than others, some tracks have travelled round the world, while others languish incomplete on my hardrive

when i'd handed my computer over to Mike, the only thing that really mattered to me was salvaging a handful of the tracks that i had been working on before it's almighty crash, these tracks were not Hunchbakk tracks, they were a sound of freedom and experimentation, they made very little sense and were purely something i had messed around with for the sake of messing around with and trying new and different things

i wasn't entirely sure what to do with these tracks, i hadn't played them to anybody, i didn't particularly feel the need to as i was unsure that anyone would actually understand them, but they were a new identity and a new outlet for my creative frustrations

when the computer was returned, it was accompanied by a handful of dvds of all the data that Mike had managed to salvage from the diseased beast, including all the unreleased tracks, all disjointed and fractured and leaving me with the humpty dumpty-esque task of putting them back together again, as the files used are scattered amongst the many gigs of data that had been building in the files on my computer

and so we are coming to the end of the tale, and to the reBirth, a new light on the dark days and a new realisation to actually organise the way my music files are saved incase of another such unnatural disaster

it will take time to restructure those un-lost pieces of musical experimentation, but in their stead i decided to let loose a small taster track that was put together over the course of a few hours last saturday, built only using samples that came with a computer music magazine my father bought me for christmas, rediscovering a little simplicity and refusing to commit days to refining a three and a half minute track when i am less than refined myself

witness, the reBirth of Giles Babel

Giles Babel - The reBirth Of A Footsoldier

can you hear the tumbleweed??

2011-02-16T23:05:00.002Z

not even my girlfriend could believe that i hadn't posted anything at all in february so far

and that i had not posted anything at all since january 28th

i'm not particularly proud of how quiet things have been around here, but good quality posts of the highest calibre that you have come to expect from Hunchbakk - music and musings take time, and i simply have not had enough time to pass off my random thoughts and observations in the form of witty blog posts

i fully intend to commit myself to a bit of writing tomorrow

but for now, to fill a gap, i thought i should post something that encapsulates so many of the things i love (and 1 thing i hate)

yep, COMICS! MOVIES! and A MASH-UP! all in one video, ch-ch-check it out

b-b-b-but what is that? at the end?

in 3D??!!!

i HATE 3D!!! seriously! can't you guys just get over it now...

(grumble grumble)

dan le sac vs madonna ciccone: update

2011-01-28T10:15:00.000Z

facebook campaigns

when i originally suggested a collaboration between Madonna and Dan Le Sac i also debated the usefullness of whacking up a facebook page in support of my idea

perhaps i should have moved on it at the time, instead of letting my idea waft around the many empty corridors of the webnets that few people venture down

i still, for one, think it is a bloody great idea, and i'd like more people to know that i think it is a great idea

i'd like record company bigwigs and Madonna's hair and make-up artists to know that i think it is a bloody great idea, even if they don't agree

i'd like the word to eventually get back to Madonna, who will then completely embrace the possibillity...

but maybe first it should be best to aim a little lower and actually let Dan Le Sac know how i feel, even tho i doubt he has Madonna on speed dial, i do believe that it is far more likely i could spark his attention long before it is on the Queen of Pop's radar

perhaps right now is the kind of time that i need a twitter account, as aren't these the type of things that are worthy of retweeting, and everybody tweets and retweets and follows Dan Le Sac, right?

(actually, my little brother is on twitter and could get the ball rolling by mentioning my campaign instead of just tweeting about tea drinking)

alas i am not yet ready for dipping my toes in that world of little blue birds and barely existent sentences

and since my little opinion piece on a possible Le Sac vs Madonna collabo has just seen print in the Enfield Advertiser, and i have also given it a chance to breath over at glasswerk, now seems a sensible time to heavily enforce the second wave , and see if anyone actually agrees with me...

so, for your consideration.....

please feel free to 'like' the officially unofficial facebook fanpage of Dan Le Sac vs Madonna Ciccone

DAVID LYNCH - I Know [dls doesn't know Remix] by danlesac

london aquarium

2011-01-23T20:25:00.000Z

i'm really happy with my family's new blog so far (although i wish my dad would have contributed something to it by now) that features daily posts, quite often photography, although any creative output is acceptable, as i have published a few poems over there already

what i am proudest of is the fact that it has reignited an interest in photography for me, making sure that i am always on the look-out for an interesting shot or angle

for the most part i have kept my blogs seperate, but it does give me the scope to occasionaly allow them to cross over, so where-as on monday i only featured two photos, i have decided to revisit my day and flesh out this post with a handful of the other photos that i was torn between, yet didn't want to include on Byford365 (a working title, although it may stay that way) for the sake of brevity

it was my girlfriend's birthday last saturday so she had decided that she would take full advantage of being able to get her own way, and chose a day out taking in a trip to London Aquirium, since i often moan about going there again whenever she usually suggests it.

unusualy, i haven't included any of the photos i actually took inside the aquarium, since i wasn't overwhelmed with the end results, so instead we have a few photos from the journey there, as well as a couple of oddities i saw along the way and also my first ever experience of Yo Sushi! (which i guess is slightly ironic considering the amount of seafood i ended up scoffing, whereas my vegetarian girlfriend had no such concerns)

are record labels finally getting something right?

2011-01-19T23:16:00.000Z

ever since Lars Ulrich put down his drumsticks and picked up the phone to start ringing his lawyer, it seems that record labels have been several evolutionary steps behind the rest of the world as music, and the way it has been consumed and marketed, has drastically mutated in the late 20th century since the catalyst of Napster changed things forever

but this week it was reported that two of the big boys, Universal and Sony Music (who between them boast the likes of Lady Gaga, Foo Fighters, Kanye West, Kings Of Leon, Rihanna and Susan Boyle amongst their top flight artists) have announced a new policy that will see singles available for immediate download to coincide with the new release debuting on radio.
which finally makes some sense, this can only have a positive effect for the coffers of the music industry, providing that it isn't already too late to reverse the illegal downloading habits of certain individuals.

of course, it was always the case that a song would hit radio long before it's physical release, meaning that those unlucky enough to be exposed to one of the FM frequencies throughout their working day would be completely sick of a tune they once liked by the time everyone else has had the chance to go out and get it into the charts.

and if you desired a single before its eventual release, the best you could do before was to have your cassette deck all ready to go in the hope that you'd catch your new favourite song being played, praying that the DJ wouldn't talk all over it, and then patiently wait for the tape or CD to hit the shelves of Woolies.

but those days are long behind us now.

along with the aforementioned cassettes, CDs and Woolworths, release dates have become a thing of the past, because in this digital age, if you want to look for it, it can usually be found, and when Fearne Cotton politely informs you that the song you just heard won't be out for two months, well.... you're just gonna have to download it illegally then aren't you...

Sony Music chairman and CEO Ged Doherty, seems to have got the message, confirming that "we live in an age of immediacy", while Universal Music's UK CEO David Joseph agreed, commenting that "for a lot of our younger fans and consumers the word 'wait' is no longer in the vocabulary."

"You hear something and want it. And if you search for it then you’ve got to make sure there is a legal site for that appetite." concluded Joseph.

And doing occasional turns as a DJ, I couldn't agree more, hearing a banging choon makes me want to take it out and share it, yet the medieval system of lengthy release dates makes it impossible to obtain the track legitimately and simply being restricted to songs that have already been released only serves to dilute the thrill of introducing people to new music and trying to give them something they may not have heard before.

it is quite likely that this will be too little too late to change the opinions and habits of those that don't want to pay for their music, and is unlikely to stem the tide of piracy that has been hurting major labels in their pockets, but at least it is finally a sensible, albeit delayed, decision from a couple of the major players in the industry.

Grenade (Bruno Mars cover) by Anhayla

credit where it's due:

story found on nme.com

finding inspiration

2011-01-12T20:58:00.001Z

i haven't really made an awful lot of noise about the couple of other blogs that i either have on the go or am involved in, the first is still a little bit of a work in progress, while the second is more personal, although both are in plain sight for all to view if they know where to look

but lets shed a little more light on the second one shall we? the more personal one.

it is something of a digital trinket box perhaps, online, that me and my brother (and hopefully sometime soon, my dad) can all contribute to...

as all three of us are afflicted with the curse of spending time thinking and not spending enough time doing, i thought that it could be used as a prompt to spur us each into action, attempting to find or create something, anything, each day and share it

from my own perspective, i know that i often write either poetry or features, or sometimes have photos that i want to post, but i find that the timing is not write, not wanting to bump something else off of sitting at the top of my blog if i feel it needs to hang around a little longer to garner more attention, and ultimately not wanting the kind of blog that moves so fast that within a few days of being away so much could have been missed, it is these strange invisible limitations and restrictions that i wanted to free myself from...

and lo and behold, has it been an interesting experiment so far! i'll readily admit that some days i have had to purposefully look for my latest contribution, but more recently ideas have flown more freely, not only that, but the latest photo added by my brother (along with the few others posted on his own blog) were actually the catalyst for my latest poem, inspired by the desolate and intrigueing images of discarded memories and dumped furniture

(and yes, you are stepping on my toes slightly, but i'll forgive you.... this time)

the day we found grandad had been flytipped

it was just under the flyover that we found him

upturned and half-out of his usual chair

along with a handful of belongings

and photos that had addorned walls

he looked dazed, confused by it all

the poor old sod

with remote control in hand and a furrowed brow

eyes fixed on the same telly that had seen him through the past fifteen years

now smashed and propped upon a pile of breezeblocks

and he greeted us with very little fanfare

merely stating that the reception for channel five was the worst it had ever been

Freewheelin' once again

2011-01-11T22:46:00.003Z

last week, the Enfield Advertiser ran my little feature on my mate Dion last week, the atricle has been spruced up by the editor a little (as is his want), and we also saw the return of the exceptionally bad headline!!

and since it's not very often i'm playing catch-up with the paper, here is the feature in it's former glory

The Freewheelin' Troubadour
or as the paper tilted it
Troubadour pulls power wheelies...
(groan)

a man with interests very close to my own heart has been following his dreams and desires to creatively produce works for anyone willing to pay attention to them.

The Freewheelin' Troubadour's latest venture has been publishing a collection of poetry accompanied by visuals contributed by a select number of artists.

made available for free, "Freewheelin’ in Monument Valley & the American Offerings" can be downloaded as a pdf, with a limited number of books also circulating, thanks to the genorisity of those that donated towards the costs of publication.

the project was helped to fruition with a fundraising gig in august, and the finished article was celebrated with another night of music and poetry in october, both gigs curated by and featuring readings from the Troubadour himself, held at The Victoria in Mile End.

Originally hailing from Enfield himself, by his 20s Dion Power had been displaced in Cheshunt where he began conversing in the musical circles that were enriching the current Hertford scene, eventually finding himself managing bands and DJing.

When The Freewheelin' Troubadour persona originally surfaced it was of a poetic soul, and his prose was featured on his own myspace blogs.

but owing his adopted namesake to Bob Dylan and surrounded by local musicians, such as The Knaves and The Black Tricks, it would not be long before these ideas were realised musically and a sole CD entitled '10 minutes of darkness' was composed alongside a number of borrowed band members and was distributed in 2007, before a similar vision found form in late 2008 when the Freewheelin Troubadour began fronting his own band that sadly proved to be shortlived.

What followed was a soul searching road trip across america that found creativity reaching new heights via an amassed sense of freedom and an abbundunce of new found inspirations, and it is the poems from these few months that make up the short collection, "Freewheelin’ in Monument Valley & the American Offerings".

His return to London began with a search for somewhere to live, continued with looking for willing collaborators, and with the book now launched, The Freewheelin Troubadour is still searching for means and ventures to make his voice heard, whether it is through spoken word readings, organising gigs or an upcoming documentary that will be a testament to everything achieved so far.

to download your own copy of the book, head to to the funpowder plot

and as an extra treat, here is also a rarity for you, my own remix of The Night That I Die, the original of which was on the 2007 CD '10 minutes of darkness'

The Freewheelin' Troubadour - The Night That I Die (Hunchbakk Remix)

monday monday

2011-01-10T23:38:00.001Z

ok, so i'm running out of monday, but i've got the girlfriends laptop to myself since she's gone to bed so i thought i'd whack up some videos and keep thisblog moving, before featuring the director's cut of my latest Enfield Advertiser article tomorrow

now, i don't know if anyone tuned into Wall:E yesterday, i only caught a glimpse of it while i was busy with other stuff, but it did remind me of this astounding mash-up of the Wall:E trailer with that of the Watchmen film, which seemed so promising at the time

and as much as i'd happily watch the hope-raising, Bob Dylan sountracked intro again, i just can't bring myself to freely admit that Zak Snyder's disapointing vision of Alan Moore's masterpiece even exists

but the faux trailer above is testament to the power of music, and how it can alter emotions, toying with our pre-set senses and the practically cliched musical arrangements that films feel they must conform to

for another example, check out this recently surfaced Ghostbusters/Inception mash-up, and witness how the soundtrack of the Nolan-helmed trailer drastically toys with all the fun and action that we know and love from the ghostbusting franchise

Lost little Orphan Boy

2011-01-07T20:36:00.003Z

can you believe NME stuck out another list feature t'other week??

well i can, one week into the new year and their first issue is yet another bloody list!

admittedly, this time i was a little intrigued to see what was going on tho, The 100 Greatest Albums You've Never Heard didn't seem to be their usual tack and it seemed to hold a lot of potential to actually be an interesting rundown

still unwilling to take such a stupid risk and stick my hand in my pocket for a copy, i instead headed off to the library, that actually let you hang around, even sit down, and enjoy a selection of current magazines (screw you mr Newsagent, and your 'this is not a library' Apu-isms)

and while i was expecting to find a bunch of musos educating the uneducated on a plethora of albums that for some reason or another never actually got released, what i instead found was quite a well informed countdown that had been contributed to by NME writers and rock stars alike, all revealing their own personal favourite albums that are likely to have slipped under most people's radars

yes, it is still another list that has been cobbled together, and with celebrity contributers it has probably meant that the NME writers have put even less effort in that usual, but regardless, it actually held up as an informative issue, and it was interesting to dip into and flick through, especially when there were a handful of modern choices among them

i was pleasantly surprised to see Clor topping the list (tho i'm not sure if the placings actually had any real relevance) and at 57 was another band name that rang a bell

Orphan Boy's 2008 album, Shop Local had been picked out by someone i forget now... and i couldn't fathom for a little while why the band's name sounded so familiar, i didn't remember following the band at all and continued scratching my head

but then it came to me, that i still have this very album tucked away somewhere among all the other CDs that didn't excite me very much, that had been sent to me from glasswerk to review

the album hadn't had much of an impact on me, but its inclusion in the 'lost' list intrigued me and had me questioning my own judgement, so having dug the album out and given it another spin, perhaps it is due a second opinion

afew tracks in and i wasn't exactly offended by it, but nor was i thrilled, it sounded very standard indie fare that was unlikely to set the world alight...

so what exactly did i have to say about it first time around tho?

a quick google pulled up....

'The more you are subjected to, the fewer bands sound truly original, and perhaps that is exactly the point with this album, a repeat listen reveals very strong influences and sonic identities that can be traced back to a lineage of Great British bands including The Clash, Oasis, Sex Pistols and Arctic Monkeys, to name but a few.

Strummer style vocals. Alex Turner style delivery. Ramshackle Libertine-esque guitars. A Kooks pop sensibility. The list goes on. and on.

Lazy comparisons they may be but its far from a negative review for the band, many of the tracks on here are deserving of ‘stand-out’ status but the album seems to get lost within itself as tracks charge off in different directions, pulling the album apart instead of finding a focus'

and i must admit, that even with the passing of time, and a re-evaluation given recent light, i couldn't agree more with my initial review, some tracks are big enough to have found them a place on rock n rolls map alongside The Courteeners, but it just wasn't meant to be...

Orphan Boy - Satellites available on the album Shop Local