star of wiki

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!!

cloud above me

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

Daniel Haaksman + kitchen decorating = worktop samba

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

dan le sac vs madonna ciccone: update

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

Ban this sick filth!

i can't believe i actually had my review pulled from glasswerk!!

i went looking for my Mr Fogg review so that i could link to it and it had disapeared.

just an unfortunate accident i presumed, some sort of glitch in the matrix.

i'd inform my editor and let her know so that it could be reinstated.


turns out that the head honcho at glasswerk took a dislike to some of the gonzo elements of the review, feeling that my guestlist woes really had no place within the feature.

perhaps it detracted from Mr Fogg.

perhaps it's cos it's a trade secret that reviewers don't actually pay to get in places, or perhaps reviewers are considered as gig going apparitions that just float through the walls of venues, either way, they just pulled it completely.


i took the news humbly, tho i was slightly baffled as to why it couldn't have just been edited, and then offered to rewrite the piece without the offending comments as i didn't think it was particularly fair to Mr Fogg to lose out on any kind of exposure due to something i had written about an experience that he had no control over.

so i re-shaped and remoulded the review and the new unoffending article is back up on glasswerk for all to view.



i harbour no hard feelings over it at all, somebody made a decision that something didn't belong and that was that, if anything i feel an intense satisfication and a sense of pride that the words i had written provoked such a reaction.

of course, the full guestlist issue can be read about on glasswerk's blog or right here on my blog, and the sanitised Mr Fogg review is right here.

73 pop-ups blocked.

it seems like i've been lied to.

the editor said my article would be in this week's paper.

it wasn't.

stir in a number of emails back and forth between me and our solicitor's in which i think i managed to piss her off because i don't really understand all the jargon bullshit and i also insinuated that nothing had progressed for weeks.

top another wednesday off by heading out to a gig i'm meant to review and finding out that not only is the guy i'm meant to be reviewing not headlining at all, he is in fact the first support on, but add to the mix that i'm not on any of their guestlists.

long story short, i got in, and the review should be up on glasswerk shortly because i've had a rather productive hour and a half and not only completed my review of last night but also knocked out another blog/article based on last night's experiences, so keep your eyes peeled for that one too (unless you plan on looking out for it in the Enfield Advertiser, in which case you might as well hibernate for six months).

and so around these parts you should be expecting a fair few music related pieces coming soon as i have also got my write-up of monday's Battle of the Bands gig and my *ahem* 'review' of Enfield's truly likely to be absolutely spectacular Fake Festival !!!

all of that is without even mentioning the truly cheesey new-wave band that actually were headlining last night, i certainly wouldn't spend fifteen quid to go and see China Crisis live, but their music was pure teen movie montage material which was nigh impossible to not like and the camp, expletive-ridden between song banter was surely a highlight of what was possibly the most enjoyable band i have seen for a long time!!




but before all of that kicks off, let's breifly revisit my mild obsession with Synchromystiscm, and a quote that i think really sums up how i think it should be viewed, treating it as a curiousity to be observed instead of merely letting the coincidences pass us by.

"Unless we prefer to be made fools of by our illusions, we shall, by carefully analysing every fascination, extract from it a portion of our own personality, like a quintessence, and slowly come to recognize that we meet ourselves time and again in a thousand disguises on the path of life."

- Carl Jung

credit where it's due:

quote found on griFen of the Fringe

only words

i am rediscovering a passion for writing.

perhaps you can tell since the blog posts seem to be swelling a little lately, i actually want to have a bit of informative content on here (even if most of it may be pretty irrelavent).

i've got a ton of ideas that i would like to transfer to articles or blog posts but sometime it's just a case of trying to find the time to do it, along with all the other bloody stuff that i have the best intentions of getting on with.

but for now i'm just gonna keep this one short(ish) and point you in the direction of my recent writing....

Bank Holiday weekend i managed to get myself on the guestlist (thanks glasswerk) for Deadmau5 at Brixton Academy and the resulting article can be found here.

My review of They Live has just been published in this week's Enfield Advertiser which you can either take a look back at on my blog or can be viewed in the online digital copy of the paper (page24)

and i also think my recent blog posts are worth a bit of a read (but i am a little biased) so maybe peruse some of the latest offerings in which i have tried to stretch myself a little more.... i'd suggest my father's son and inspiration (in which i also previewed a new track which you can download)

and maybe check back tomorrow as i'm currently toying with a new piece that should be posted up quite soonish.....