Today I had the pleasure of going to Twickenham stadium with a band full of merry men, even merrier by the time we left. We went to go and see the international finals of the IRB Sevens tournament; in english this means 7 people a side on a full length pitch, 7 minutes each half. It was a great day and the sun shone throughout, even managed to get slightly burnt on the forehead. And to cap everything off, England actually won for once!
Coming home and hearing about all the other scores that went on today got me thinking about how sport can bring massive amounts of people together, for both good and bad reasons.
Firstly, the good. Sport has the power to unite not only a nation under one flag, but also bring together people from the local community to work towards a common goal. As a kid I remember playing for Brockford FC (Brockley and Catford blud!), although we were pretty shite I got meet a whole lot of people who I would otherwise never have met. Ok, so maybe some of them are working in fish & chip shops in Gravesend now, but the 40 minutes (20 minutes a half, we were kids!) that we used to play every sunday certainly gave me a love and understanding of 'the beautiful game' that I might never have got the chance to enjoy otherwise. To play sport professionally is something that I doubt many of us will ever get the chance to experience, and in some ways I don't think many of us would want to. To be at the peak of your abilities requires immense hours of physical training per week (well, depending on the sport ^_^), although in some ways this mirrors a normal job in that the more effort you put into it the more you (should) get out of it.
I also find it funny how different sports attract different crowds. For example, today at Twickenham there was a family who had brought a huge hamper with them, and out of this hamper they produced celery, malted brown bread sandwiches, profiteroles, strawberries with chocolate, I honestly thought it was just a small portal to the nearest Marks and Spencer's at one point. When was the last time you saw someone on Match of the Day reach into a wicker basket of dreams for a tasty morsel? However, in a way this does all make sense. Rugby is pretty much a mandatory sport for most kids blessed to have a private education, as is most other sports such as cricket, hockey, tennis and netball. For the majority that aren't rich enough to afford paying for education, football is pretty much the only sport that these kids can 'grab by the balls'. I'm not saying that you have to be wealthy to be interested in more than one type of sport, it's just that in this country, football is often the first and only sport that alot of children growing up can actually take part in without buying specialist equipment or learning the rules. Let's be honest, the rules to football are straightforward - use feet to put ball in back of net. You try explain to a kid that he has to get the ball from one of the pitch to another using your hands, yet you can only pass backwards, and see if he understands how it works without having to be shown an example.
The fact that sport can transcend boundaries such as class, gender and race is something pretty special, and in some of the poorer parts of the world sport can literally be one of the most important aspects of life. Alot of kids in Southern America, particularly Brazil eat, live and breathe football - it's no wonder those bastards win all the time come to think about it. In my eyes, one of the most amazing things about sport is the ability to fill an entire nation with the same feeling, be it joy, pain, disbelief, anger, humiliation.. the list goes on. Unfortunately, being English means that we are let down by our national sides around 80% of the time, often through sheer stupidity. Go China.
There is a flipside of this ability to manipulate the thoughts and feelings of thousands. Feeling exactly the same as the person next to you is not always a good thing, especially when that feeling is to act like a twat. In my eyes, there is no place in football for hooliganism, the very word hooligan could never describe something productive and worthwile. I'm all for passion in sport, and you can choose to show that in any way possible, be it painting your face or choosing to skip your wedding to watch the final. But for some people, as soon as they leave their house on matchday their brain is in a different state of mind, one that is more like a pack of animals than a crowd of fans. For me, there is a very clear boundary between showing support for your team and causing other people distress, more people than you think die from football related incidents, they're just hardly ever reported properly. This is probably because the government doesn't want us to link something that we love with something tragic too frequently, but I'm diverging somewhat so I think I'll call it a day there.
More teamplay less screenplay!
James
Sunday, 24 May 2009
Thursday, 7 May 2009
Education
So I have my final day in post 16 education tomorrow. There is a 'Leaver's Assembly' at 9.30am, but I don't remember the last time I attended an assembly at the BRIT school, so my plan is to rock in for around half ten. Plus I reckon that it will just be ultimately cheesy and if I see anyone crying I would leave straight away.
So from next Monday I will technically be a free man, I won't have jack shit to wake up for (until I find myself a job, that's something else to worry about). Looking back on my time in education, since the age of 5 (or younger?), I am trying to remember if I have learnt anything particularly groundbreaking.
To be perfectly honest, primary education didn't really teach me a whole lot than more than I already knew. I'm going to sound like an absolute prick here, but throughout my whole time through primary school I honestly thought I was being held back. I despised the fact that I had to have a tutor to help me get into all those secondary schools, but on the other hand it made life a whole lot easier and me a whole lot smarter! If you think back to your primary school class, there were quite clearly some kids who were a bit more gifted than others, and some who were just plain slow (all those kids who were still chewing their jumpers all the way up to year 4). Obviously, there are some primary schools that are better than others in terms of standard of teaching, but I believe the way that the government runs primary education needs a serious look over (maybe it already has).
One of the reasons we get kids stabbing eachother to death over a spilt milkshake these days is because they are so uninterested in making something of themselves; they get brainwashed by the people around them into thinking that this sort of behaviour is ok. If just one person could reach out to some of these kids and have a lasting effect (ie, change the way they think) whilst they were in primary education, I believe we would have a very different youth of today. And why can't these people be their teachers? Admittedly, it takes someone with a certain character to be able to teach, and in my honest opinion around half of the teachers out there today chose the wrong profession. To be able to teach, you have to be able to:
a) Speak about something you understand, not recycle information
b) Deliver your information in a way that will make people want to listen
c) Believe in what you're teaching
d) Make the kids you're teaching think that you are someone they can respect and depend upon
If you can't fulfill at least 2 of these criteria, you shouldn't be allowed to teach. The sad thing is, all you need to be able to teach is GCSEs in every subject, a couple A levels, a degree in your subject, and an extra qualification (which I can't remember the name of right now, some postgrad kind of thing but it's pretty achievable within a short space of time). Whilst a degree may sound daunting, chances are you yourself are probably going to do a degree in your chosen subject. If you aren't, you've probably sorted out how your life is going to work out by now, and what career path you're going to take so that you don't end up on minimum wage until you're 35, working behind bread counter in Somerfield. It's unfortunate, but these days the more letters you have behind your name when you write it down the more successful you are (something I've always found slightly ridiculous).
I think I sidetracked myself (had a Lamb Curry in the middle of writing that last paragraph), so I'll try return to the point I originally had in mind. Oh yeah, teaching. Teaching is something that a lot of people think they can do, but in actuality can't. We've all had shit teachers, the ones that turn up to the lesson and just try and teach straight out of their notes. And (hopefully) we've all had good teachers, the type of teacher that can turn up to a lesson without anything save his brain but still manages to keep you interested for an hour. Admittedly, the more boring the subject is, the harder the teacher is going to have to work to keep you interested, but it can still be done. And at the end of the day, after your GCSEs, you choose what you want to learn about, which is why I just don't understand when people moan about how boring a certain subject is at A level; if it was boring before your GCSEs not alot's going to change it after (people who study Geography spring to mind). I won't lie, there are some kids who turn up to school with the completely wrong attitude, and to be honest they don't deserve to be in school, even if it is mandatory.
I think that there's something wrong with the circle of education in this country, and I don't really see it getting better anytime soon (although believe me, I'm glad I didn't grow up in America - the amount of crap that they are taught in that country from a young age is unbelievable). To put it simply, most of the teachers don't really want to be in the classroom, and neither do the pupils. Learning should be something you should be passionate about, teacher or student. When neither teacher nor student gives a shit about what is happening in the classroom, we have reached some kind of breakdown. It saddens me when you hear of teachers taking their own lives in the newspapers; why should someone deserve to die if they are trying to help other people? But at the same time, the teachers that are committing suicide are probably the teachers that don't care about teaching anymore (probably). The adverts on tv from the government advertising teaching are only really making the situation worse; although the adverts do make the job look lovely and appealing, all people are really interested is the salary part of it. Teaching should be something you do because you love the job, not because of the money involved. If everybody in the world was taught free of charge, the world would be a lot more exciting.
I also have doubts about how useful public examinations actually are. To be honest, I don't remember jack shit from my Maths GCSE, and I got an A in that fucker! GCSEs don't really test your intelligence, they test your ability to remember things. One could argue that to remember things you have to be intelligent, and that's a valid argument, but when it comes down to it, getting a qualification in something should mean that you're good at it, no matter how menial the qualification is. I also think that exams bring about unprecidented stress in young people, especially people who are taking overly complicated subjects such as Psychology. I mean, I thought I was pretty clever, only got 1 C in GCSEs, but a month before my first exam, alarm bells were ringing and I was asking myself if I was actually smart enough to pass at the start of January. Maybe I was just shit at it, but the amount of stuff you have to know for those exams is immense. In the end I scraped through with a D, and managed to bump it up to a C the following year. What I'm trying to get at is that yeah, if you paid 100% attention in class and revised your notes every day then you'd pass that exam no problem, but let's be honest which kind of kid (apart from the nerd kids) actually looks at their notes in their spare time? I am a strong believer of being constantly assessed throughout your course; if you can keep up a high level of work throughout all the time you are doing your subject, it will make sense that you get a good grade at the end of it. Instead what happens is some people do OKish throughout the school year, get sidetracked at times (drugs/girls/boys/table tennis), and then by the end of the year they panic hardcore because they have an exam in a month and they don't know fuck all.
I don't really know where much of this had led to, or what I've been trying to achieve here, all I know is that it felt good to air out some of these thoughts. What I am sure about is that if you want to learn about something, and you are motivated enough to put in the effort, you will succeed. There may be places where you fall off the track a couple times, but it shouldn't matter, as long as you want to learn and succeed to be more intelligent, you will. Look at humankind - we have gone from lives in caves and shitting outdoors to creating online blogs. Anything is possible.
More learning and more gurning.
James
So from next Monday I will technically be a free man, I won't have jack shit to wake up for (until I find myself a job, that's something else to worry about). Looking back on my time in education, since the age of 5 (or younger?), I am trying to remember if I have learnt anything particularly groundbreaking.
To be perfectly honest, primary education didn't really teach me a whole lot than more than I already knew. I'm going to sound like an absolute prick here, but throughout my whole time through primary school I honestly thought I was being held back. I despised the fact that I had to have a tutor to help me get into all those secondary schools, but on the other hand it made life a whole lot easier and me a whole lot smarter! If you think back to your primary school class, there were quite clearly some kids who were a bit more gifted than others, and some who were just plain slow (all those kids who were still chewing their jumpers all the way up to year 4). Obviously, there are some primary schools that are better than others in terms of standard of teaching, but I believe the way that the government runs primary education needs a serious look over (maybe it already has).
One of the reasons we get kids stabbing eachother to death over a spilt milkshake these days is because they are so uninterested in making something of themselves; they get brainwashed by the people around them into thinking that this sort of behaviour is ok. If just one person could reach out to some of these kids and have a lasting effect (ie, change the way they think) whilst they were in primary education, I believe we would have a very different youth of today. And why can't these people be their teachers? Admittedly, it takes someone with a certain character to be able to teach, and in my honest opinion around half of the teachers out there today chose the wrong profession. To be able to teach, you have to be able to:
a) Speak about something you understand, not recycle information
b) Deliver your information in a way that will make people want to listen
c) Believe in what you're teaching
d) Make the kids you're teaching think that you are someone they can respect and depend upon
If you can't fulfill at least 2 of these criteria, you shouldn't be allowed to teach. The sad thing is, all you need to be able to teach is GCSEs in every subject, a couple A levels, a degree in your subject, and an extra qualification (which I can't remember the name of right now, some postgrad kind of thing but it's pretty achievable within a short space of time). Whilst a degree may sound daunting, chances are you yourself are probably going to do a degree in your chosen subject. If you aren't, you've probably sorted out how your life is going to work out by now, and what career path you're going to take so that you don't end up on minimum wage until you're 35, working behind bread counter in Somerfield. It's unfortunate, but these days the more letters you have behind your name when you write it down the more successful you are (something I've always found slightly ridiculous).
I think I sidetracked myself (had a Lamb Curry in the middle of writing that last paragraph), so I'll try return to the point I originally had in mind. Oh yeah, teaching. Teaching is something that a lot of people think they can do, but in actuality can't. We've all had shit teachers, the ones that turn up to the lesson and just try and teach straight out of their notes. And (hopefully) we've all had good teachers, the type of teacher that can turn up to a lesson without anything save his brain but still manages to keep you interested for an hour. Admittedly, the more boring the subject is, the harder the teacher is going to have to work to keep you interested, but it can still be done. And at the end of the day, after your GCSEs, you choose what you want to learn about, which is why I just don't understand when people moan about how boring a certain subject is at A level; if it was boring before your GCSEs not alot's going to change it after (people who study Geography spring to mind). I won't lie, there are some kids who turn up to school with the completely wrong attitude, and to be honest they don't deserve to be in school, even if it is mandatory.
I think that there's something wrong with the circle of education in this country, and I don't really see it getting better anytime soon (although believe me, I'm glad I didn't grow up in America - the amount of crap that they are taught in that country from a young age is unbelievable). To put it simply, most of the teachers don't really want to be in the classroom, and neither do the pupils. Learning should be something you should be passionate about, teacher or student. When neither teacher nor student gives a shit about what is happening in the classroom, we have reached some kind of breakdown. It saddens me when you hear of teachers taking their own lives in the newspapers; why should someone deserve to die if they are trying to help other people? But at the same time, the teachers that are committing suicide are probably the teachers that don't care about teaching anymore (probably). The adverts on tv from the government advertising teaching are only really making the situation worse; although the adverts do make the job look lovely and appealing, all people are really interested is the salary part of it. Teaching should be something you do because you love the job, not because of the money involved. If everybody in the world was taught free of charge, the world would be a lot more exciting.
I also have doubts about how useful public examinations actually are. To be honest, I don't remember jack shit from my Maths GCSE, and I got an A in that fucker! GCSEs don't really test your intelligence, they test your ability to remember things. One could argue that to remember things you have to be intelligent, and that's a valid argument, but when it comes down to it, getting a qualification in something should mean that you're good at it, no matter how menial the qualification is. I also think that exams bring about unprecidented stress in young people, especially people who are taking overly complicated subjects such as Psychology. I mean, I thought I was pretty clever, only got 1 C in GCSEs, but a month before my first exam, alarm bells were ringing and I was asking myself if I was actually smart enough to pass at the start of January. Maybe I was just shit at it, but the amount of stuff you have to know for those exams is immense. In the end I scraped through with a D, and managed to bump it up to a C the following year. What I'm trying to get at is that yeah, if you paid 100% attention in class and revised your notes every day then you'd pass that exam no problem, but let's be honest which kind of kid (apart from the nerd kids) actually looks at their notes in their spare time? I am a strong believer of being constantly assessed throughout your course; if you can keep up a high level of work throughout all the time you are doing your subject, it will make sense that you get a good grade at the end of it. Instead what happens is some people do OKish throughout the school year, get sidetracked at times (drugs/girls/boys/table tennis), and then by the end of the year they panic hardcore because they have an exam in a month and they don't know fuck all.
I don't really know where much of this had led to, or what I've been trying to achieve here, all I know is that it felt good to air out some of these thoughts. What I am sure about is that if you want to learn about something, and you are motivated enough to put in the effort, you will succeed. There may be places where you fall off the track a couple times, but it shouldn't matter, as long as you want to learn and succeed to be more intelligent, you will. Look at humankind - we have gone from lives in caves and shitting outdoors to creating online blogs. Anything is possible.
More learning and more gurning.
James
Sunday, 26 April 2009
Skating
So since Monday I've managed to have one of the best weeks of my life, and I don't think that I could have done it without my plank and 4 wheels, although it has taken a beating!
Skating for me is a release. If I have something on my mind or bugging me, constantly gnawing away like an assignment or a falling out with someone, more often than not I find myself just going down the bottom of my road and practicing flatground. I'll admit this has turned me into the kind of guy that can do a fair amount of moves on flat and probably not is probably that good at much else, but the thing about skating is that whatever aspect of skating you choose to pursue you know that you're always going to have fun. There are some people that only skate bowls or some people that just constantly skate skateparks, they're having fun, I'm having fun, everyone's happy. Back to the release thing; when you're focusing on trying to land a move it's like nothing else in the world matters at that point in time other than trying to make your board flip this way and trying to land on it in a handstand (I'm kidding, but you get my drift). Nothing else matters, and the feeling of landing a trick after you've worked and sweated for it is immensely satisfying.
I believe self satisfaction is a very important part of life. It's important to feel good about yourself, and I believe incorporating this into your daily routine will make you feel alot happier and fresher. Recently I have started skating into Catford in the mornings to catch the bus; the bus stop is literally 3 roads away but it's such a nice skate into Catford, especially when the sun is out and you can just whizz past people on their daily grind. And when I get to Catford, I can feel good about myself in the fact that I've put a fair bit of effort to get to Catford (burned off that curry the night before) and I've had a good time excercising.
People get addicted to excercise, it's not uncommon. The whole principle of excercise or working out means that you tire yourself or hurt your muscles more than you can actually stand, and the body being the amazing organism that it is not only heals the muscles but actually makes them stronger in the hope that the next time you tire yourself out that much it will be better equipped to deal with the situation. After 'damaging' yourself through excercise, the body releases endorphins into the blood, which give a sort of 'ahhhh' effect; you feel tired but there is a slight ecstasy due to the endorphins which make you feel happy and relaxed, also the self satisfaction part of it comes into play and you can feel happy in the knowledge that basically you're not a fat lazy slob.
Once you understand this it is easy to see why some people get addicted to the gym, going there everyday in order to get the perfect figure. I am not against excercise but there is something about the Gym which kind of scares me, I'm quite a competitive person and I'd always think that there's some aspect of showing off in the gym: How much you're benching or how long you can hack the cycling machine - it just doesn't really appeal to me. If you're going to knacker yourself, why not enjoy yourself, which brings me back to skating.
The most rewarding thing about skating is progressing. The better you get at it, the more fun it is, and the more ideas you get in your head (if I can do that there then I could do it in this way, or over that - the cycle never ends). Although skateboarding has changed so much since the 70's when it began, there is always a new trick to try or something new to do, to the point where these days if you actually stop and watch some of the modern day professionals there is nothing more to do than just stare in awe, these guys are literally magicians with their skateboards (watch some Daewon Song or Mike Mo Capaldi on youtube and just stare in amazement as you struggle to even understand how they got their board to do these things).
However, one of the most rewarding things that I get out of skateboarding is not my own progression, but watching other people progress. I have recently started going to a new skatepark on Peckham Rye, they've put some new ramps in and it's banging in the sunshine. There are kids there half my age who are doing things that I wouldn't even think about trying in the next couple years or so, their enthusiasm scares me sometimes! There's this one black kid there who was trying to drop in the other day (as in, stand at the top of a curved ramp and go down it). I saw him fall flat on his face and his arse at least four times, but at the end of the day he was doing it every try. For me, that was really uplifting because no one in the skatepark was laughing at him each time he fell (like you would expect), but in fact everyone was encouraging the kid and giving him loads of support. Imagine if the first time he'd tried it a load of youths had been watching and completely ripped the piss out of him, he'd have been devastated and probably not tried it again for a while, if ever. There's something quintessentially British about cheering when someone fucks up, when a plate is smashed in a restaurant or when a footballer misses badly the reaction is usually 'WEEEEEY'. Are we congratulating someone fucking up?
Skateboarding is a powerful medium, it brings people together but it can also drive people crazy if it lets them. It's as addictive as cocaine, except it's actually good for you, and I think that if everyone was able to skate the world would generally be a friendlier place. The only thing that spells doom in the eyes of any skater is that dreaded english phenomenon called rain. So as long as this sunny weather continues, you may see me skating down the road, singing out load, dancing through cars, generally being unusually happy. You might think I'm nuts, but
it doesn't bother me, because I'll be having such a good time :)
More skating more emancipating.
James
Skating for me is a release. If I have something on my mind or bugging me, constantly gnawing away like an assignment or a falling out with someone, more often than not I find myself just going down the bottom of my road and practicing flatground. I'll admit this has turned me into the kind of guy that can do a fair amount of moves on flat and probably not is probably that good at much else, but the thing about skating is that whatever aspect of skating you choose to pursue you know that you're always going to have fun. There are some people that only skate bowls or some people that just constantly skate skateparks, they're having fun, I'm having fun, everyone's happy. Back to the release thing; when you're focusing on trying to land a move it's like nothing else in the world matters at that point in time other than trying to make your board flip this way and trying to land on it in a handstand (I'm kidding, but you get my drift). Nothing else matters, and the feeling of landing a trick after you've worked and sweated for it is immensely satisfying.
I believe self satisfaction is a very important part of life. It's important to feel good about yourself, and I believe incorporating this into your daily routine will make you feel alot happier and fresher. Recently I have started skating into Catford in the mornings to catch the bus; the bus stop is literally 3 roads away but it's such a nice skate into Catford, especially when the sun is out and you can just whizz past people on their daily grind. And when I get to Catford, I can feel good about myself in the fact that I've put a fair bit of effort to get to Catford (burned off that curry the night before) and I've had a good time excercising.
People get addicted to excercise, it's not uncommon. The whole principle of excercise or working out means that you tire yourself or hurt your muscles more than you can actually stand, and the body being the amazing organism that it is not only heals the muscles but actually makes them stronger in the hope that the next time you tire yourself out that much it will be better equipped to deal with the situation. After 'damaging' yourself through excercise, the body releases endorphins into the blood, which give a sort of 'ahhhh' effect; you feel tired but there is a slight ecstasy due to the endorphins which make you feel happy and relaxed, also the self satisfaction part of it comes into play and you can feel happy in the knowledge that basically you're not a fat lazy slob.
Once you understand this it is easy to see why some people get addicted to the gym, going there everyday in order to get the perfect figure. I am not against excercise but there is something about the Gym which kind of scares me, I'm quite a competitive person and I'd always think that there's some aspect of showing off in the gym: How much you're benching or how long you can hack the cycling machine - it just doesn't really appeal to me. If you're going to knacker yourself, why not enjoy yourself, which brings me back to skating.
The most rewarding thing about skating is progressing. The better you get at it, the more fun it is, and the more ideas you get in your head (if I can do that there then I could do it in this way, or over that - the cycle never ends). Although skateboarding has changed so much since the 70's when it began, there is always a new trick to try or something new to do, to the point where these days if you actually stop and watch some of the modern day professionals there is nothing more to do than just stare in awe, these guys are literally magicians with their skateboards (watch some Daewon Song or Mike Mo Capaldi on youtube and just stare in amazement as you struggle to even understand how they got their board to do these things).
However, one of the most rewarding things that I get out of skateboarding is not my own progression, but watching other people progress. I have recently started going to a new skatepark on Peckham Rye, they've put some new ramps in and it's banging in the sunshine. There are kids there half my age who are doing things that I wouldn't even think about trying in the next couple years or so, their enthusiasm scares me sometimes! There's this one black kid there who was trying to drop in the other day (as in, stand at the top of a curved ramp and go down it). I saw him fall flat on his face and his arse at least four times, but at the end of the day he was doing it every try. For me, that was really uplifting because no one in the skatepark was laughing at him each time he fell (like you would expect), but in fact everyone was encouraging the kid and giving him loads of support. Imagine if the first time he'd tried it a load of youths had been watching and completely ripped the piss out of him, he'd have been devastated and probably not tried it again for a while, if ever. There's something quintessentially British about cheering when someone fucks up, when a plate is smashed in a restaurant or when a footballer misses badly the reaction is usually 'WEEEEEY'. Are we congratulating someone fucking up?
Skateboarding is a powerful medium, it brings people together but it can also drive people crazy if it lets them. It's as addictive as cocaine, except it's actually good for you, and I think that if everyone was able to skate the world would generally be a friendlier place. The only thing that spells doom in the eyes of any skater is that dreaded english phenomenon called rain. So as long as this sunny weather continues, you may see me skating down the road, singing out load, dancing through cars, generally being unusually happy. You might think I'm nuts, but
it doesn't bother me, because I'll be having such a good time :)
More skating more emancipating.
James
Thursday, 23 April 2009
Dubstep
This one is going to cause some controversy.
It's the word on the lips of nearly every young person in the UK. I heard it's even big in Canada these days. No matter which way you look at it, 'dubstep' has become massive (someone told me they were using a Skream tune on an advert for the BBC?). It has become the genre of the moment, the thing that people get excited about at the weekends. It is very 'now'. I myself have split opinions on this form of music.
For those of you who don't know, dubstep evolved out of the UK garage scene, with an emphasis on bass, minimal drum beats and rhythms, and a generally 'ghostlike' tone (for lack of better terminology). Early dubstep artists included producers such as Steve Gurley, Oris Jay, and Zed Bias (people which you have undoubtebdly never heard of). The scene started to grow thanks to nights at Forward (residents including Hatcha, Kode9, Jay da Flex, Zed Bias and many more), which was originally held at Velvet Rooms but moved onto bigger places such as Plastic People and The End (now ended.. ha). Regular dubstep radio shows on RinseFM also helped to spread the word.
For a timescale, this is all happening before 2003. Most of us were 12/13 years of age.
Walking around my college, I regularly hear dubstep being played on phones. I recently asked someone (who was playing cockney thug on her phone) when she first started listening to dubstep. She replied 'around 2 years ago'. I walked away. I'll admit, I'd never talked to this kid before, but I'd bet my middle finger that she wasn't listening to dubstep two years ago.
So fair enough, this is one person in a pretty big pond (and the BRIT school of performing arts of all places...). But the point that I'm trying to get across is that people aren't listening to dubstep because they like it, they are listening to it and going to places where it is played because they think this is what they should be doing to look cool. I'll admit, being and trying to act cool is alot of what being a teenager is about. But who in their right mind would listen to a whole Benga album on the bus? Or have it on their iPod in general (iPoditis is a disease I may delve into in a later post), except to play at parties? Now you could say this about alot of dance music, but I believe that dubstep should really only be played in large spaces where people are intoxicated on one thing or another (hell, it's the only place I can stand to hear it).
It's a shame, but I can see dubstep dying. This generally happens when an underground culture meets the mainstream, we need look no further than new rave for a better example. Can you think of anyone who would start a new rave band now? Thought not. Also the quality of dubstep is getting worse and worse. Compare a Burial track from his debut album (released 2006) to a production from Benga's latest escapade, released last year. Ok fair enough, they are two very different producers, but they are both supposed to be in the same genre. I had a lesson today on synthesis, and just from my teacher explaining and demonstrating on a Juno-6 how subtractive synthesis works (stay with me), I heard at least 4 different techniques used in modern dubstep tracks. What I'm trying to get at is that as dubstep grows, more and more people are jumping on the bandwagon in a race to be part of this 'emerging' scene, and the quality of productions is suffering. Badly. Some people may argue that aslong as people are dancing it doesn't matter, but let's be honest, on an average dubstep night at an average club in Croydon, you generally aren't going to hear more than 5 or 6 different drumbeats or 2 or 3 different bass sounds/lines, and I would give you a shiny golden star shaped sticker if you can remember 20 songs that were played that night. This is going to sound really anal, but as an electronic music enthusiast and a musician, listening to modern dubstep is painful to the ear, and hurts even more knowing that I could have probably knocked out the same tune in around an hour on my laptop.
I myself give dubstep until the end of the summer before it dies out completely, you can generally tell a genre going out of fashion by the fact that younger and younger kids start to catch onto it, I've seen kids who are out waaaay past their bedtimes hanging around in Shoreditch (don't ask why I was there) chatting about how sick the dub police are (and who the fuck are they?). It's a shame because it started off as something totally fresh and different, a breath of fresh air to the UK electronic music scene, and the fact that it has warped into what it is today makes me feel sad inside. It also has attracted alot of females to the producing and DJing circuit, including the likes of Ikonika and Subeena, and a lot more females to the clubs since dubstep is slightly more chilled out than drum and bass and grime (it's more... dubbed... man).
So long dubstep, hope you go out with a wub. I'll be the first one in the club at the revival in 2027. If we're all still here.
More clubbing, but less wubbing.
James
It's the word on the lips of nearly every young person in the UK. I heard it's even big in Canada these days. No matter which way you look at it, 'dubstep' has become massive (someone told me they were using a Skream tune on an advert for the BBC?). It has become the genre of the moment, the thing that people get excited about at the weekends. It is very 'now'. I myself have split opinions on this form of music.
For those of you who don't know, dubstep evolved out of the UK garage scene, with an emphasis on bass, minimal drum beats and rhythms, and a generally 'ghostlike' tone (for lack of better terminology). Early dubstep artists included producers such as Steve Gurley, Oris Jay, and Zed Bias (people which you have undoubtebdly never heard of). The scene started to grow thanks to nights at Forward (residents including Hatcha, Kode9, Jay da Flex, Zed Bias and many more), which was originally held at Velvet Rooms but moved onto bigger places such as Plastic People and The End (now ended.. ha). Regular dubstep radio shows on RinseFM also helped to spread the word.
For a timescale, this is all happening before 2003. Most of us were 12/13 years of age.
Walking around my college, I regularly hear dubstep being played on phones. I recently asked someone (who was playing cockney thug on her phone) when she first started listening to dubstep. She replied 'around 2 years ago'. I walked away. I'll admit, I'd never talked to this kid before, but I'd bet my middle finger that she wasn't listening to dubstep two years ago.
So fair enough, this is one person in a pretty big pond (and the BRIT school of performing arts of all places...). But the point that I'm trying to get across is that people aren't listening to dubstep because they like it, they are listening to it and going to places where it is played because they think this is what they should be doing to look cool. I'll admit, being and trying to act cool is alot of what being a teenager is about. But who in their right mind would listen to a whole Benga album on the bus? Or have it on their iPod in general (iPoditis is a disease I may delve into in a later post), except to play at parties? Now you could say this about alot of dance music, but I believe that dubstep should really only be played in large spaces where people are intoxicated on one thing or another (hell, it's the only place I can stand to hear it).
It's a shame, but I can see dubstep dying. This generally happens when an underground culture meets the mainstream, we need look no further than new rave for a better example. Can you think of anyone who would start a new rave band now? Thought not. Also the quality of dubstep is getting worse and worse. Compare a Burial track from his debut album (released 2006) to a production from Benga's latest escapade, released last year. Ok fair enough, they are two very different producers, but they are both supposed to be in the same genre. I had a lesson today on synthesis, and just from my teacher explaining and demonstrating on a Juno-6 how subtractive synthesis works (stay with me), I heard at least 4 different techniques used in modern dubstep tracks. What I'm trying to get at is that as dubstep grows, more and more people are jumping on the bandwagon in a race to be part of this 'emerging' scene, and the quality of productions is suffering. Badly. Some people may argue that aslong as people are dancing it doesn't matter, but let's be honest, on an average dubstep night at an average club in Croydon, you generally aren't going to hear more than 5 or 6 different drumbeats or 2 or 3 different bass sounds/lines, and I would give you a shiny golden star shaped sticker if you can remember 20 songs that were played that night. This is going to sound really anal, but as an electronic music enthusiast and a musician, listening to modern dubstep is painful to the ear, and hurts even more knowing that I could have probably knocked out the same tune in around an hour on my laptop.
I myself give dubstep until the end of the summer before it dies out completely, you can generally tell a genre going out of fashion by the fact that younger and younger kids start to catch onto it, I've seen kids who are out waaaay past their bedtimes hanging around in Shoreditch (don't ask why I was there) chatting about how sick the dub police are (and who the fuck are they?). It's a shame because it started off as something totally fresh and different, a breath of fresh air to the UK electronic music scene, and the fact that it has warped into what it is today makes me feel sad inside. It also has attracted alot of females to the producing and DJing circuit, including the likes of Ikonika and Subeena, and a lot more females to the clubs since dubstep is slightly more chilled out than drum and bass and grime (it's more... dubbed... man).
So long dubstep, hope you go out with a wub. I'll be the first one in the club at the revival in 2027. If we're all still here.
More clubbing, but less wubbing.
James
Wednesday, 22 April 2009
Sun
Ok just a quick one before I go out and enjoy the rest of the day.
This recent bout of sunny weather has helped me figure out a lot of things in my life. Not just quitting smoking, a whole host of other things, for example being nice to other people makes you feel so good about yourself; I've managed to start at least 5 different conversations a day over the past week which I would probably never have even considered before. Anyways I told myself I didn't create this blog to talk about me, so enough about that.
If you've been around me recently you'll have probably heard this about a million times.
The sun is infectious. It's debatable, but without the Sun there probably wouldn't be life on this planet. Therefore, it's only natural that when the Sun decides to come out from the clouds we feel happy. I can't be bothered to research it right now, but I'm sure there's some kind of chemical or hormone that gets released inside our bodies when we are basked in sunlight. Artificial light obviously won't do the trick, as it just doesn't carry the same sort of energy sunlight does, maybe there's some special sort of ingredient in sunlight that fills us with an overwhelming sense of joy. Who knows, maybe someone will eventually find a way to harness it, and it will be the next big drug (which the government will probably illegalise or tax). Sounds like I'm about to get stuck into something alot deeper, so I'll stop.
More skating less masturbating.
James
This recent bout of sunny weather has helped me figure out a lot of things in my life. Not just quitting smoking, a whole host of other things, for example being nice to other people makes you feel so good about yourself; I've managed to start at least 5 different conversations a day over the past week which I would probably never have even considered before. Anyways I told myself I didn't create this blog to talk about me, so enough about that.
If you've been around me recently you'll have probably heard this about a million times.
The sun is infectious. It's debatable, but without the Sun there probably wouldn't be life on this planet. Therefore, it's only natural that when the Sun decides to come out from the clouds we feel happy. I can't be bothered to research it right now, but I'm sure there's some kind of chemical or hormone that gets released inside our bodies when we are basked in sunlight. Artificial light obviously won't do the trick, as it just doesn't carry the same sort of energy sunlight does, maybe there's some special sort of ingredient in sunlight that fills us with an overwhelming sense of joy. Who knows, maybe someone will eventually find a way to harness it, and it will be the next big drug (which the government will probably illegalise or tax). Sounds like I'm about to get stuck into something alot deeper, so I'll stop.
More skating less masturbating.
James
Tuesday, 21 April 2009
Smoking
I have recently decided to attempt to give up smoking. Currently I have around 1/4 of a 12.5 gram packet of Amber Leaf left, which will probably go up in smoke by the end of tomorrow. I am going to test my willpower, if it last 3 days, 3 weeks, 3 years, 3 decades, or 3 hours then I will have discovered alot about myself. I have told a fairly large amount of people of what I intend to do, hopefully by telling people it will give me more determination to quit (if I end up smoking again after an hour I'm going to look like a bit of a plum, and no one likes to look like a plum!). Also, if they are the good friends that I expect them to be, they will help and support me, even though 2 of my best friends are smokers, one smokes around 15 to 20 a day.
Every day that goes past I can feel myself coughing up more and more shit from my lungs. It's disgusting. I end up having to spit it out, sometimes in the most awkward of places. These can range from my bedroom windowsill, to empty cups and bowls (parents get pretty annoyed with that), and in worst case scenarios, bus floors. It feels disgusting and it is disgusting, but the fact that I cough it up means it is not supposed to be in my body. I can feel cigarrettes killing me.
There is something that also bothers me about being addicted to a something I don't need. I just googled the origins of tobacco, and according to this, the idea of smoking tobacco originated from 'Aboriginal peoples throughout the Americas cultivating tobacco for medicinal and ceremonial purposes. ' - trust the Americans for coming up with something else to kill people with. However, the point is, before the idea of smoking came along humans were doing just fine. Let's be honest, tobacco itself is a fairly crap excuse for a drug. Sure it can relax you, and yea, it can feel fucking awesome smoking a cigarette skating down a huge hill, but there are plenty of other drugs that give a lot more bang for your buck. I think that the fact that tobacco gives such a small effect on us means we think that it must be ok to consume large amounts of it every day. Let's be honest, at the end of a stressful day, what's going to relax you more, a cigarette or a huge spliff (some people are obviously going to have some split opinions on that one). The people who govern us obviously saw the opportunity for a money making scandal which brings me onto my next point.
The following paragraph is based on this, I just kind of summed it up for you incase you're one of those people who finds tables with numbers in fairly confusing (it's ok you're not stupid! ...much)
From 1990 to 1991, the amount of money the government in the UK made on cigarette taxes was 6.8 billion pounds. This continued to rise until 1997 to 1998, where it peaked at 10.1 billion pounds made in one year from taxes alone. 1998 to 1999 saw it decrease to 10 billion, and then the following year (1999 to 2000) when the amount of money made on cigarette tax dropped to 7.5 billion pounds. I can only assume that this was either a large amount of people deciding that they didn't need cigarettes in their lives anymore, or the government lowered cigarette tax, probably a combination of the two. However, since the year 2000 the amount of money made on cigarette taxes has continued to rise again; last year 10 billion pounds was made on tobacco products. If you click on the link in the above mini-paragraph (is that a word?), and then on the link on left of that page named 'Consumer Expenditure', you will see that from 2000 onwards the amount of money people have spent on cigarettes have risen from 11.7 to 12.6 billion pounds.
The way I see it, tobacco is a fairly twisted cycle. The government is constantly raising the price of tobacco, I remember when a packet of Amber Leaf was £2.35! (now £2.65). Straight cigarettes are always on the rise, I mean remember when we were kids and you could buy a packet of Mayfair with some change you found on the floor (well, you still can really). Yet apparently the government wants us all to stop smoking, and litters us with stop smoking adverts throughout our day to day lives. There are also products which you can buy to actually help you quit smoking... I mean come on. You get withdrawal symptoms from most other drugs, ask a heroin addict how hard it is to give up and you'll be in for a treat (although finding one may be fairly tricky), MDMA I'm going to assume is the comedown, etc. When someone says they need a cigarette, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't shrivel up into a ball and die if they didn't have one. If the government really wanted us to stop smoking, they would make cigarettes illegal. The fact is they have raked in too much of our money for too long to ever make cigarettes illegal. I think it would be really interesting if everyone in the UK quit smoking at the same time, just to see what would happen. I can imagine alot of public services creaking under funding that came through tobacco going up in smoke (sorry, had to be done). Now that's what I'd call a credit crunch.
Who knows, maybe God put tobacco on this planet to kill off all the weak willed humans, slowly but surely. Only someone with a brain figured out a way to make a killing off of it.
I realise that this post has gone on for ever, and also that the use of italics has been getting slightly... ridiculous (okay, I'll stop), but I want to end with a story about my neighbour.
My neighbour George has been smoking since he was 13, and he has been diagnosed with emphysemia (in simple terms, basically his throat is fucked). He has recently attained one of those batmobiles that old people get when they can't walk anymore, because he can't walk to shop anymore to get his Richmond Superkings (I keep telling him to buy in bulk but he's greek and I don't think he understands me). He has been given a date on which he is expected to die, although the date keeps on coming and he keeps on living. As fucked as he is, me and my Dad both respect George because although he has effectively killed himself, he still smokes as many today as he did when he was 15, it's as almost as if he's trying to go up in smoke. If I was ever going to die through smoking, that's the way I would like to go, with my two fingers held high, cigarette hanging limply in between.
I've just thrown my remaining 1/4 packet of Amber Leaf in the bin. Outside. If anyone wants some free tobacco, you know where I live.
Less smoking more joking.
James
Every day that goes past I can feel myself coughing up more and more shit from my lungs. It's disgusting. I end up having to spit it out, sometimes in the most awkward of places. These can range from my bedroom windowsill, to empty cups and bowls (parents get pretty annoyed with that), and in worst case scenarios, bus floors. It feels disgusting and it is disgusting, but the fact that I cough it up means it is not supposed to be in my body. I can feel cigarrettes killing me.
There is something that also bothers me about being addicted to a something I don't need. I just googled the origins of tobacco, and according to this, the idea of smoking tobacco originated from 'Aboriginal peoples throughout the Americas cultivating tobacco for medicinal and ceremonial purposes. ' - trust the Americans for coming up with something else to kill people with. However, the point is, before the idea of smoking came along humans were doing just fine. Let's be honest, tobacco itself is a fairly crap excuse for a drug. Sure it can relax you, and yea, it can feel fucking awesome smoking a cigarette skating down a huge hill, but there are plenty of other drugs that give a lot more bang for your buck. I think that the fact that tobacco gives such a small effect on us means we think that it must be ok to consume large amounts of it every day. Let's be honest, at the end of a stressful day, what's going to relax you more, a cigarette or a huge spliff (some people are obviously going to have some split opinions on that one). The people who govern us obviously saw the opportunity for a money making scandal which brings me onto my next point.
The following paragraph is based on this, I just kind of summed it up for you incase you're one of those people who finds tables with numbers in fairly confusing (it's ok you're not stupid! ...much)
From 1990 to 1991, the amount of money the government in the UK made on cigarette taxes was 6.8 billion pounds. This continued to rise until 1997 to 1998, where it peaked at 10.1 billion pounds made in one year from taxes alone. 1998 to 1999 saw it decrease to 10 billion, and then the following year (1999 to 2000) when the amount of money made on cigarette tax dropped to 7.5 billion pounds. I can only assume that this was either a large amount of people deciding that they didn't need cigarettes in their lives anymore, or the government lowered cigarette tax, probably a combination of the two. However, since the year 2000 the amount of money made on cigarette taxes has continued to rise again; last year 10 billion pounds was made on tobacco products. If you click on the link in the above mini-paragraph (is that a word?), and then on the link on left of that page named 'Consumer Expenditure', you will see that from 2000 onwards the amount of money people have spent on cigarettes have risen from 11.7 to 12.6 billion pounds.
The way I see it, tobacco is a fairly twisted cycle. The government is constantly raising the price of tobacco, I remember when a packet of Amber Leaf was £2.35! (now £2.65). Straight cigarettes are always on the rise, I mean remember when we were kids and you could buy a packet of Mayfair with some change you found on the floor (well, you still can really). Yet apparently the government wants us all to stop smoking, and litters us with stop smoking adverts throughout our day to day lives. There are also products which you can buy to actually help you quit smoking... I mean come on. You get withdrawal symptoms from most other drugs, ask a heroin addict how hard it is to give up and you'll be in for a treat (although finding one may be fairly tricky), MDMA I'm going to assume is the comedown, etc. When someone says they need a cigarette, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't shrivel up into a ball and die if they didn't have one. If the government really wanted us to stop smoking, they would make cigarettes illegal. The fact is they have raked in too much of our money for too long to ever make cigarettes illegal. I think it would be really interesting if everyone in the UK quit smoking at the same time, just to see what would happen. I can imagine alot of public services creaking under funding that came through tobacco going up in smoke (sorry, had to be done). Now that's what I'd call a credit crunch.
Who knows, maybe God put tobacco on this planet to kill off all the weak willed humans, slowly but surely. Only someone with a brain figured out a way to make a killing off of it.
I realise that this post has gone on for ever, and also that the use of italics has been getting slightly... ridiculous (okay, I'll stop), but I want to end with a story about my neighbour.
My neighbour George has been smoking since he was 13, and he has been diagnosed with emphysemia (in simple terms, basically his throat is fucked). He has recently attained one of those batmobiles that old people get when they can't walk anymore, because he can't walk to shop anymore to get his Richmond Superkings (I keep telling him to buy in bulk but he's greek and I don't think he understands me). He has been given a date on which he is expected to die, although the date keeps on coming and he keeps on living. As fucked as he is, me and my Dad both respect George because although he has effectively killed himself, he still smokes as many today as he did when he was 15, it's as almost as if he's trying to go up in smoke. If I was ever going to die through smoking, that's the way I would like to go, with my two fingers held high, cigarette hanging limply in between.
I've just thrown my remaining 1/4 packet of Amber Leaf in the bin. Outside. If anyone wants some free tobacco, you know where I live.
Less smoking more joking.
James
Monday, 20 April 2009
Beginning
So I've decided to make one of these. Mainly because there's so much stuff going on in my brain at the moment that I thought if I write it down it might actually make sense, or maybe make even less. I've tried writing it down on paper before, but they just end up getting lost, or lay about the place making mess. Plus we live in an age now where even tiny children know how to work iPods, the world is becoming so technically advanced that soon they are even talking about turning our thoughts digital, which would make this post fairly obsolete............
First and foremost, this is not going to be a blog where I tell you what I had for breakfast, what shoes I put on in the morning, or who I saw on the TV whilst eating a packet of fried potatoes (I don't even eat fried potatoes.... I eat crisps!). This is more going to be a place where I can notate down my observations on what is currently going on in the world that we live in, although there may be some things in here where I relate to something that happened in my day that made me think in a different way. I came up with a basic idea to keep the posts sort of theme based, but who knows how long that idea will actually work for, or if it will work at all.
I realise that by making one of these I am undoubtedly entering myself into a culture of 'bloggers'. Don't get me wrong, I do read this website from time to time, mostly SquareOne (squareoneuk.blogspot.com), but do read a couple others on occasion. Some of the people that people put up here are a complete waste of space, yet the nature of these spaces is that people read them to find out about other people's lives, I don't know why maybe their life isn't that interesting so they feel the need to borrow on someone elses (which they gladly accept... unfortunately). This whole cycle breeds a certain kind of person that I can only describe as (forgive the crudeness) 'The Camberwell Arts College Kid'. Now don't get me wrong, I am sure that Camberwell Arts College is a fantastic place to learn (I wouldn't know, I'm not into Art... that much). However, I'm guessing people go there to learn about Art and augment their individuality, yet everyone who I've ever met from there has been the same person. Same pointy shoes, same skinny jeans, same trendy jacket or T-Shirt, same packet of Marlboro Lights. Okay, occasionally you might see some Camel Blue, but the point is you would never see someone from there smoking a packet of Sovereign (that's not actually the point I was trying to make.... wow this blog shit is harder than it looks). Where was I... oh yeah originality. Yea so I'm guessing people go there to be individual and cool but to everyone else they are exactly the same as eachother, just clones with an artsy attitude. Which is what some blogs are! Finally I've come full circle.
Joking aside, if you are planning to go to Camberwell Arts College I'm not hating on you as a person, just the kind of attitude and the people that a place like that creates just doesn't seem right to me. I'm sure there are some great artists who have come out of that place, but I wouldn't know a single one of them, and for every successful person to come out of that place I would put money on 20 more being broke and poor and living in a squat right now. AND STOP SMOKING ON THE FUCKING STEPS.
So my first post turned into a hate up on Camberwell Arts College, who knows what the rest might bring. Also while you are reading this remember that this is entirely my own opinions and feelings, I'm sure you have opinions and feelings about other things that are equally as bad, I've just chosen to share them with you.
Enough hating more skating.
James
First and foremost, this is not going to be a blog where I tell you what I had for breakfast, what shoes I put on in the morning, or who I saw on the TV whilst eating a packet of fried potatoes (I don't even eat fried potatoes.... I eat crisps!). This is more going to be a place where I can notate down my observations on what is currently going on in the world that we live in, although there may be some things in here where I relate to something that happened in my day that made me think in a different way. I came up with a basic idea to keep the posts sort of theme based, but who knows how long that idea will actually work for, or if it will work at all.
I realise that by making one of these I am undoubtedly entering myself into a culture of 'bloggers'. Don't get me wrong, I do read this website from time to time, mostly SquareOne (squareoneuk.blogspot.com), but do read a couple others on occasion. Some of the people that people put up here are a complete waste of space, yet the nature of these spaces is that people read them to find out about other people's lives, I don't know why maybe their life isn't that interesting so they feel the need to borrow on someone elses (which they gladly accept... unfortunately). This whole cycle breeds a certain kind of person that I can only describe as (forgive the crudeness) 'The Camberwell Arts College Kid'. Now don't get me wrong, I am sure that Camberwell Arts College is a fantastic place to learn (I wouldn't know, I'm not into Art... that much). However, I'm guessing people go there to learn about Art and augment their individuality, yet everyone who I've ever met from there has been the same person. Same pointy shoes, same skinny jeans, same trendy jacket or T-Shirt, same packet of Marlboro Lights. Okay, occasionally you might see some Camel Blue, but the point is you would never see someone from there smoking a packet of Sovereign (that's not actually the point I was trying to make.... wow this blog shit is harder than it looks). Where was I... oh yeah originality. Yea so I'm guessing people go there to be individual and cool but to everyone else they are exactly the same as eachother, just clones with an artsy attitude. Which is what some blogs are! Finally I've come full circle.
Joking aside, if you are planning to go to Camberwell Arts College I'm not hating on you as a person, just the kind of attitude and the people that a place like that creates just doesn't seem right to me. I'm sure there are some great artists who have come out of that place, but I wouldn't know a single one of them, and for every successful person to come out of that place I would put money on 20 more being broke and poor and living in a squat right now. AND STOP SMOKING ON THE FUCKING STEPS.
So my first post turned into a hate up on Camberwell Arts College, who knows what the rest might bring. Also while you are reading this remember that this is entirely my own opinions and feelings, I'm sure you have opinions and feelings about other things that are equally as bad, I've just chosen to share them with you.
Enough hating more skating.
James
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