blowin' in the wind

I woke on Monday to the sound of wheely bins careering around the pavement.

The rather strong Ides of March had playfully decided to beat the bin men to the recycling contents and to playfully scatter papers all over the road aided and abetted by the rain.

I don't think it would make a very enchanting picture, so instead, as I sit here this evening in the full aroma of daffodils and tulips scenting the room, I thought an appropriate picture would instead be the unusual view of the London Eye that I awoke to a few days ago.

Mad Men

I've just watched the second episode of this show by some of the Sopranos team, with a slew of new actors. I really want to like it but I'm struggling at the moment. Its certainly well filmed and luscious but I'm not sure about the pacing which may be a little slow for modern viewing. As a quick 'for instance' Tin Men was on television yesterday - the one set in a similar era about the scams of selling aluminum house cladding with Danny de Vito, and I must say that had a more driven plotline, sharper cuts and still funny observations of the time.

I guess the challenge with Mad Men is that in between the clever evocative Madison Avenue 1960 colour schemes there's an acting style that seems to owe too much to old TV re-runs from the era. The press releases all say how wonderful this show is and historically accurate and so forth but I wonder then if it sways towards unnecessary reverence in some of the portrayals.

For my eyes there's still to much sign-posting around the what would be judged in 2008 as political and social incorrectness of the 1950s turning into the 1960s. Tonight when the girl walks in playing spacemen with a clothing plastic bag over her head, the comments about 'I hope you haven't left my dry cleaning on the floor' seemed just a little too forced. And when our secretary heroine is being eyed by the 'red blooded office men' it gets a lengthy montage in case anyone is missing the point.

The equivalent 1970s incorrectness of the British 'Life on Mars', for me, usually in a split second gesture gives a more robust counter to some of the social change between the decades.

So back on Madison Avenue, there's the new girl in the office, who presumably will fall inappropriately for one of the other office workers by the end of the first series. There's the main man with a pretty but ailing wife and bohemian mistress (who probably lives on Bleeker St., but I suspect another couple of episodes before that unfolds). I'm concerned that we have another psychiatrist supporting a main character though in Sopranos it was Tony, this time it's the wife. And there's the sort of barber's shop quartet of main man's office buddies, all of whom smoke copiously and drink manhattans, old fashioneds and similar cocktails from about 11am.

At the moment I'm struggling to find characters to like. Perhaps they will do more with the advertising campaigns that get passing mention. Cigarettes, Nixon and new aerosol Right Guard all have potential, but somehow are being underplayed. Maybe I'm looking for plot when the series main ticket is a form of sixties evocation that I don't properly comprehend.

Perhaps I need a blast of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" to set me more in the era. Bring on 169 East 71 Street. And maybe some cultural drift from the real 1960s into what is presumably still a late 1950s workplace. Don't think twice, its alright.

neutral sons

People sometimes talk about parallel universes, in my case there is sometime the one between visible and hidden. So when the CD I'd acquired from Neutral Sons morphed into a hidden world for several months, it meant I'd moved from a brief initial hearing to being unable to make more informed comment.

Fortunately, its resurfaced in all its yellowy greenness and spins as I type. Inbetweentimes I'd listened to some tracks on the web-site and also an impromptu live jam somewhere in a bar, via melanie.

Anyway, the album is filled with silky goodness. How to describe? Two primary musicians Richard Knutson and Mark Cottrell have somehow collaborated across the space between UK and USA and provided a mix which is very seamless even with the musicians sending each other takes of their parts of the tracks.

The more conventional tracks have a shimmery floating quality with layers of instruments backed with ambient choruses sometimes of singing, other times of strange and mysterious sounds.

'Drop out' has a quite Zappa-esque feel and there's some subsequent pieces that maybe pay some dues to Captain Beefheart. Further along several species of small furry animals may well have been gathered together in a cave and be grooving with a Pict. I don't mean its all 'Ah feel like Ahcid' stomping, but rather that there is considerable variety with jazzy wah-ed guitars and slices of flange and phase washing across some of the tracks. Parts of the vocal can sound a little Velvet Underground early days although the majority of the record has a bubbly uplifting vibe.

I don't want to attempt to over categorize though, because this is really an album to listen to on its unique creative merits. There's tracks which have been given a chance to breathe like rm 101, which, whilst short, takes a simple riff and provides a sensible chorused progression of the idea.

I may have to sit munching picasso truffles and vanilla beans whilst I listen. There's clear care and attention to the mixing and some rather good wide spacey stereo too, more enveloping and swirly than just nailing the instruments to a position. The ambient pieces made me look around a few times before I realized there were little pingy effects and voices off that have been dripped into the mixing.

So I mentioned parallel universes at the beginning and indeed this album finishes with a dark universe, but along the way has yielded a partisan and committed soundtrack - anything but neutral.

flat surfaces

Some time spent decluttering today. There seemed to be more stuff coming indoors than going out and I needed to adjust the equilibrium.

Yesterday I junked a seriously large amount of unneeded items and today was similar. So indoor areas show more clear horizontal surfaces again, which is always a good sign. When I've done this before I've also managed to donate items to others fairly successfully, but even that needs a time limit.

My retention/rejection criteria included: Does it make me smile? Have I used it in the last year? Can I squish two of something down to one instead? Are there boxes of stuff that haven't been used at all for the last year? I could probably have been more calculated, but this seemed to work well enough.

economy of intelligence

Unexpectedly, a complementary copy of the Economist's foray into quarterly publications thudded through the letterbox a few days ago, with a personalised letter dated February 2008.

The heavy volume was titled Winter 2007 and I can't help thinking they may have had a few left over as the news included the upcoming Led Zep concert (December) and somewhere a picture of figgy pudding.

Big format, thick matt art paper, I was expecting something quite special. Unfortunately, the advertisers have better grasped the page size compared with the journalists. A few classy jewellry, perfume, watch and fashion advertisements leading into...an airport seat back magazine. Genre equivalents like Vanity Fair or even the ft's 'How to spend it' do the job better. And I'd rather read 'Why things suck' in Feb's Wired than the pathetic analysis of what's wrong with airports in the freebie. And twice baked potatoes don't suck, by the way.

Advertising itself as "Intelligent Life" I found it more of an unfortunate contribution to the wrong side of the carbon footprint debate. Perhaps the website version will be better although as that still promotes the Winter version too, I wonder if their heart is really in this project?

Technorati Tags: rashbre, economist, intelligent+life, magazine, vanity+fair, wired

jammy dodger

I see they are talking about new pay lanes on some of the UK motorways around London, like the M3 and M4. The idea is to make the outside lane chargeable in the rush hour and cars would have some kind of sensor like the TAG that's already used on the M6.

I'm sure there will be big debate about this, on top of congestion charge and £25/$50 per day parking for London.

But my guilty confession is that I couldn't help smiling whilst in Milan this week being driven around in big black Mercs that zip around all kinds of special lanes that bypass the normal traffic.

The driver yesterday even had a black peaked cap and sunglasses. When I worked regularly used in Milan I thought that Italian traffic didn't really park, it was just momentarily at rest. Yesterday, my driver reversed up along the pavement to the front door of the building where I was working and then used a combination of bus and taxi lanes and some special routes separate from the slow main traffic to drive me around.

So I'm sure the UK arguments about the pay lanes will escalate, but for a day I can't help admitting its quite fun to speed past the jams.

Technorati Tags: rashbre, london, motorway, toll, M3, M4, Milan, congestion, TfL,

my manic and milan

Speaking of Union Chapel, I was also supposed to be there tonight, because I'd got one of the magic tickets to see Laura Marling and others performing live. Unfortunately, despite leaving Milan centre at 17:00 to take the fast route back to Linate, it was all in vain because the plane was delayed taking off.

The pilot made suggestions that we'd be able to fly really fast knocking some 40 minutes off the advertised time, but as I suspected it was uphill on the way back and we actually arrived around 30 minutes late.

By the time we'd got steps to the plane, been bussed around half of Heathrow and then retrieved my car it was around 21:15. With the gig about 50 minutes away if the traffic was perfect, I had to cut my losses and admit defeat.

So above, instead, is Laura Marling singing to accompany me taking a drive this evening across Milan to the airport.

And here, as Siouxsie Sioux leaves the stage, is Laura singing 'New Romantic' on Jools Holland.

Technorati Tags: rashbre, milan, linate, laura, marling, union, chapel, lauramarling, manic,

frapping

I've gone a bit folk-poppy this week listening to er - Goldfrapp - whose recent album surprises by swinging away from phat dance basslines (ok there are still some) and now twirling some acoustic jangly bits into the mix.

The album start is reminiscent of early Joni Mitchell encircled with a warm sweeping synth. The poppiest track is probably 'Happiness' and was played on Jonathan Ross last weekend.

The less obvious choice for the videotrack is called A&E (Accident and Emergency) and appears to be describing someone slipping in and out of consciousness after too many tablets.

Goldfrapp's private warmup gig on Monday at the Union Chapel was to fans before they tour. Hopeful ambassadors for new inventiveness whilst tipping a hat to some different genres.I'm also pleased to see another CD 'worth buying' with some more imaginative artwork including a little notebook of hand scratched lyrics and artwork alongside a yet to be watched DVD.

This album takes the owl as its totem suggesting secrets and truth and for Goldfrapp yet another direction.

Technorati Tags: rashbre, goldfrapp, union, chapel, seventh+tree, owl, truth, folk, totem, synth

tiger tiger

Part of Saturday's plan was to also find a bar nearby the Haymarket Cinema. The Haymarket is very close to Piccadilly but instead of our usual wandering around Soho, we'd called toptable to get us a rendezvous point very close to the theatre.

They suggested Tiger Tiger, which is only about 100 meters from our destination, so we went along with their choice.

We somehow missed what a lot of people know about this venue and a particular type of event which takes place there - especially at weekends.

Yup.

Hen nights. I suppose I should have said Hen Nites.

We'd been there less than ten minutes when the first group trouped in with several balloons and a selection of other inflatables.

About five minutes later a group with black sashes appeared, but they circulated and then hit the bar.

A few moments later a large group wearing pink sashes which flashed with little red lights arrived. They had balloons as well as a rather large inflateable champagne bottle. The smaller black sash group then seated and the pink group took over the bar area.

it was clear that things were going to get progressively more raucous, and as we left, a group with little cats ears were just arriving.

Tiger Tiger would seem to be well and truly on the same circuit as the pole dancing and bus parties.

Technorati Tags: rashbre, london, tigertiger, hen, nite, hennite, haymarket, piccadilly, leicester+square, soho,

hibiscus

I wonder if its a reaction to the embarrassment of a few days ago that has caused Gordon Brown to make his latest Public Relations move?

For those that missed the first story, which was well publicised at the time in the London papers, Gordon Brown somehow endorsed tourist travel to Fiji. Furthermore the picture used and which is still on the Fiji website shows Gordon with a bright red flower behind his ear.

In case any Londoners missed this, it was helpfully projected onto the side of the Houses of Parliament during the week as well by some people protesting about this type of Prime Ministerial endorsement. Neighbouring countries to Fiji, such as Australia and New Zealand are particularly aggrieved because of the military dictatorship currently running Fiji, since the coup in 2006. And of course the PM's Press Office wanted to put the record straight and explained that the sign-off to do this PR endorsement had been done at the wrong level.

So the latest idea by Gordon's office has been to spice up his public relations by the hiring (unpaid) of Jennifer Moses, whose CV includes being a former non executive director of Agent Provocateur, the well known purveyor of fine lingerie.

So whether Gordon will soon be branching out into a variation of Dolly's Diary remains to be seen, although perhaps the practical advice will instead come from Jennifer's prior background with Goldman Sachs (who have other links into Number 10) or the CentreForum think tank which is a critic of Labour policies.
Jennifer's other recent claims to fame include being the court case victim who didn't notice an assistant has siphoned £1m from her bank account. And in other recent news her investment banker husband's company hedge fund just collapsed as a result of sub-prime bets in the USA.

Maybe the new advice will prevent Gordon from any further accidental tie ins with military juntas, although I notice that Dolly from Agent Provocateur has somehow become tied up whilst kneading the dough.

Technorati Tags: rashbre, gordon+brown, brown, fiji, dictator, blooper, parliament, PR, press, fauxpas

brief encounter

A fine evening's entertaiment yesterday. I shall have to write about the Tiger Tiger part separately though. We decided to see the recent adaptation of 'Brief Encounter' which is running in the Cinema in the Haymarket, which is being used as a theatre for this show.

Its one of those immersive events. You walk into the foyer of a 1930's cinema, with uniformed usherettes and tea and cucumbers being served amongst the popcorn. The whole production is a delight, the actors move around in the audience, there's black and white film inserts shown, a superb ensemble band and a kind of relaxed excellence about the whole production.

There's rock cakes, platform refreshments served by a lad, subsidiary romances alongside the main event and all manner of steamy evocations of the era. As a play it balances the action of the main affair between the chiselled faced doctor played by Tristan Sturrock and the desparate housewife of Naomi Frederick who goes shopping via the train every Thursday.

Alongside them are other members of the excellent Kneehigh ensemble who hail from Cornwall and are each multi-talented at acting, movement, singing and general musicianship.

Before it starts formally, with its own special Certficate and the clatter of a 1930's projector, we get tunes and songs from the musicians, and then again in the interval, along with a series of black and white movie advertisements for stain removers and toupees. A few moments of very entertaining front of curtain stage acts decoy us through set changes too.

The cinema effects are used well, including the actors on stage fusing with those on screen such as when the greyness of an unexciting marriage is portrayed.

I found the show very captivating, and the time flew by. There was plenty of applause at the end and a refrain of one of the excellent (mainly Noel Coward penned) songs.

If you get a chance, its one to see. Trailer here

Technorati Tags: rashbre, brief, encounter, brief+encounter, noel+coward, haymarket, london, theatre, kneehigh, tristan+sturrock, naomi+frederick

yellow teeth

They are trapped
somewhere outside;
silently pressed between others in anonymity
suffocating in unwarranted suppression.

They are trapped
yellow teeth with power of fangs
to tear through thought
ripping and cajoling uncomfortable ideas.

They are trapped
by casual throw and subtle collapse
ideals pinned to dead spiders and rotting leaves
preventing 6pm hopscotch and dustbin jinks.

They are trapped
in 60's red with three and a tanner looks
merseyful sounds rioting for exposure
beneath left luggage dereliction.

And then today
an upstart child, a shiny relation
letterbox squeaked then shrieked for touch.
The captive nods release as words noisily escape.


Since a post last week, I've been trying to find the 'The Mersey Sound' poetry book stashed somewhere in the garage. Eventually I gave up but then today a little envelope containing a silver covered copy arrived. Above is my minor attempt to emulate some of the great words.

Technorati Tags: rashbre, poetry, mersey, sound, henri, mcgough, patten, yellow, teeth