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Friday 30 September 2005

techno techno techno techno

OK so i am not a Motor City fetishist or owt like that, re-processing arid history, immersed in dry debates (heck i read Simon R's best of 90's list as a little kid and was like "Belgium"!! gotta get me some of that!! tho' in truth i remain a Hawtin fan - and Pole too, incidentally) but how ace does this Carl Craig nite in the Chi later today sound
Demon Days is conceived as "dark music for dark ages"....DJ Gamall, who has teamed up with Craig for the launch, touts sinister sonics of vintage Cabaret Voltaire tracks and guests - the Pop Group's Mark Stewart...Chris Ofili - as evidence of a weirder tint in the event's future programming....Craig's a big fan of...Michigan's Spectral imprint and Chicago label Still Music, digs minimal German stuff...and listens to hip-hop for its production.
OK, so that last bit is a bit shooting hoops 'Vitor watches La Liga because he likes football'-styling but hey.
apparently Craig's favourite places to shop are Barca and London and his favourite jazzer is Miles Davis [hey, Jeremy Clarkson's is Max Roach, did ja know...].

i will not be attending as my numpty pills are again on high, but i will be at a tiki bar {OK there may be karaoke} which is something. and a good one to boot.
at least over here they have proper tiki bars, not just that Trader Vic shit like back in the UK...

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btw, Norm Geras on form eh

P.S.
'Mr. Habré was once supported by the United States, which provided him with considerable military aid because it found him useful as a bulwark against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in Libya'
wonderful understatement from the NYT this morning
(still many Yank newspapers this morning appeared to rely on a Paul Ames wire from AP, so the USA paper of record can rest easy; i don't think the GUMG will be calling about this)

Thursday 29 September 2005

the lovely companion was in the line for autographs after a MIA instore last night and asked MIA who her current fave grime emcee is.
MIA gave the question some thought and said that it's D Double, "still" [MIA was given some anti-racism badges because the organisation my woman works for has a motto of toward the elimination of racism and empowerment of women and MIA said something we took to mean that she thought racism was more subtle in England than the USA].

so there we have it.

incidentally as perusing various Ocora and Folkways things [in the world section was a Sainkho Namtchylak CD case that had a startling front and back design] there was this little beauty.

Wednesday 28 September 2005

where music/intense spirituality and alcohol may meet

if you drink a pint of Adnams fisherman (just look at that pump clip!) whilst listening to 'Fisherman' from Heart of the Congos [preferably in some sort of bricabrac-addled gaff that resembles the old Black Ark replete with Jah mystick articles, old Pocomania notes of service and a familiarity with this essay about a rasta reading of Psalm 137] and maybe even wearing a reddish Don't Look Now pacamac

then music/intense spirituality and alcohol may well meet for you

Sunday 25 September 2005

JAMBOS PISSING THIS TINPOT SPL

Friday 23 September 2005

thanks to Tony Herrington & co, tonight at the Empty Bottle not only is William Basinski performing but also Henry Grimes and Isolee [Chi-Town debut!].

and where will i be tonight?

why, about 100 miles away from the Empty Bottle.

obviously...

Tuesday 20 September 2005

RIP Simon Wiesenthal

Monday 19 September 2005

a disastrous weekend of football with some good in the rugby (still, 5 down at York and blatantly not caring yielded COME ON CHRIS YOU CAN GO GET PISSED AFTER THIS) interspersed with maths.

maths, that's right (and not just that i recently rewatched Pi), because all the churches in Indiana seem to have the sweep and the shape of Eero Saarinen.
beautiful.
the tall cornfields line off into the distance, perfect geometry, and the Frank Lloyd Wright Prairie Style commingles with the buzz of the cicadas, the hum of feedback and the brutal sun baking down hot.

well then
oh, i must admit i don't download but i always pay attention to Tom [&, well, do get to know].


ETA:
fuck me, Stelfox in the Telegraph.

awesome
{via The Rambler}.

Friday 16 September 2005

so i was browsing the soul and funk and jazz and techno and oddities and polka (man, you should have seen some of those) and comedy and indie sections of this record store the other day, and eventually found the rap.

i was lingering over some Jedi Mind Tricks singles i'd never seen before when the girl behind the counter started chatting to me about them.
eventually we got onto the subject of how i appreciate 'Vexed' is a track on the American release of Dizzee's debut album (this is in Chicago).

she was saying how small he was and how little he looks when she's seen him, and i started proselytising about Roll Deep. she told me how when she'd seen Mike Skinner he was so wasted he just collapsed on stage and was fucking about. good lad.

but the punchline is that she'd recently seen Lady Sovereign over here in the Windy City.
i asked her what she thought of that gig.
her reply?
fucking awesome.

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re. this top thread started by Ingram about '24' (Dennis Hopper accent king) i am now wuvving Pearsall even more than usual because he says The best American tv show of recent years has been 'The Wire'.
how i heart Bawlmer' 'tec shows, how i do!!

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to end on a deadly serious note, Nick Paton Walsh's Chechen dispatch here ends with the utterly chilling "Basayev is like a dog on a leash. Eventually he will get agitated and bite".
i bet i'm not the only reader to be stopped in their tracks by that today.

Thursday 15 September 2005

about a year ago, my dad found his cousin, dead, at his home. cousin John lived with another chap, but he was on holiday in France at the time.
anyway, one thing the old man got out of all this was a watch that John used to wear.

apparently it's been keeping perfect time, doing very nicely (the old fella is a delivery driver of parts for the Ford motor company, so he certainly needs a watch).

on the morning of the 7th of this month the other week (the day John's body was found in 2004) my father's wristwatch started going haywire. it kept keeping really bad time and going forward two hours. my dad would keep resetting it but it kept going forward two hours and whizzing about. ma and pa decided they would take it to a H Samuels, the watch and bling people, and ask someone who knows about watches to fix it.

well, on the morning of the 8th the other week, my father gets up and the watch is back to keeping perfect time.
and it's been fine since then again.

weird huh.

Friday 9 September 2005

the following club listing from a very recent edition of Time Out Chicago (issue number twenty six: bless!!)

"...explores that shady territory between soul...and Broken Beat that sounds a bit like what's hot in West London right about now."

[my emphasis]

am i being ignorant here or is the dating of this piece not, uh, about two or so years outta it??

Wednesday 7 September 2005

me personally, i've only been to New Orleans once. i spent a couple of nights there, in late December 2002 (and one morning breakfasting on incredible biscuits and gravy and grits in Jackson, Miss. en-route).

the river was big and brown, and looked like chocolate. it was magnificent.

i spent a lot of time walking around the French Quarter and admiring everything. there were some interesting street artists. music was in the air all around, and it was like all great cities in that life was being lived on the street, and people were noisily dancing and hollering and the like. it was so hot.

it was the first time i ate catfish po'boys. i ate catfish a few days running, from a little sandwich shop near downtown, from some booth near the aquarium, from some place. that was awesome.

here's a recipe.