Last week I met a few people from overseas, and it got me thinking about how big the world is and the enormous range of people and cultures that exist on this planet. The people I met mostly spoke spanish, which is great because although I got an A in spanish GCSE, I think we all know that languages taught in Britain are on par with being taught PE or something else as menial; teachers teach you to pass the exam, not speak spanish. In other countries, when they are taught English they actually learn how to speak english, even if it might be a bit ropey at first, with practice it just gets better and better.
Sometimes I think we take it for granted that most people on this planet are able to speak (basic) english. Approximately 375 million people speak English as their first language. There are around 6,692,030,277 people in the world (thanks google), which roughly means 1 in 4 people in the world will know at least a couple of phrases of English. The classic stereotypical brit on holiday will not attempt to speak any of the native tongue, they will instead speak in english to the shopkeeper/barman/animal, and if they do not understand they will simply speak louder, as if this means they will understand. I find this quite distressing; imagine if some polish guy came in your workplace and started screaming polish in your face in an attempt to make you understand, and all the while you know he is insulting you to your face.
Whilst learning other languages is obviously difficult, it can also be very rewarding. Through meeting so many spanish speakers over the past week, I can feel that my spanish has improved, and it is fun to learn because I am learning words and phrases that I want to learn, not 'my favourite subject is english because i think it is fun', like the bullshit they teach you in school. I can now hold a conversation in spanish, which is very useful - spanish girls... jheeeez! Other than english, the other most widely spoken languages in the world are chinese and spanish. At some point in my life I am going to attempt to learn cantonese (a type of chinese), when and where is another story. It will be immeasurably complicated, mainly due to the fact that when you learn another language you use the same alphabet and some of the words are the same or vaguely similar; in chinese there is no alphabet, only symbols for whole phrases. Sometimes the meaning of a sentence will be changed by only the tiniest flick on a character.
Just by meeting just a few people from other countries (this past week I have met people from Malaga, Columbia and Switzerland, to name a few!), I have noticed just how different their way of thinking and values are, which I find fascinating. I didn't feel like this before last week, but I am slightly bored of England. Obviously I can't say that with any real sort of conviction because I haven't been everyone, but coming from a very middle class family I have seen a fair bit of it on my holidays! It has definitely got me really excited for my trip to Australia (1 month exactly till I fly!), I am going to try and talk to as many people as I can (not everyone obviously, probably mostly the pretty girls!). If you spend your whole life only speaking to english people and living english lives (which works for some people, I'm not saying it's a bad thing), then you will have spent your whole life experiencing mostly opinions and stereotypes of english people. More brits than you think fuck off out of this shithole and start life elsewhere, hell if people can learn english (which is a pretty fucking bent language, an amalgamation of about 3 thousand different languages, probably why it became the most widely spoken though) then english people can definitely learn another language, it's not like because we're english we have to speak english. Languages do take slightly longer to learn if you are english, because you are not used to all the rules that govern other languages (I'm sure you remember all that bullshit about verb endings), but once you conquer them it is relatively simple. The best way to learn a language is to learn a basic understanding (rosetta stone or whatever your weapon of choice may be) and then go and live somewhere where you have to speak that language, you will be fluent within 3 or 4 months. Remember, you can do anything you set your mind to.
Ok, so to sum up, everyone in england = wankers! Haha not quite (a good 60% though still), but seriously, I mean I love my city, but how would you know if your soulmate wasn't halfway across the poledancing at a bar in tokyo? (if that's your thaaaang). Or that mexico city was actually the sickest city on the planet, or that poland is actually a really really nice place. Next time you see someone in public who you can quite clearly tell is foreign, and looks amazingly pretty or a bit quirky, I challenge you to approach them and start a conversation, most people from other countries feel really welcomed that someone has taken the time out to talk to them! (most, not all, don't go messing around with no bearded muzzies). Until I next get some cracked out thoughtflows, peace out
Speak to a stranger but stay out of danger!
James
Monday, 8 March 2010
Wednesday, 3 March 2010
D:
03.03.2010
Quick one just for the kids
Via Facebook:
'Robbie Ramsden
James I think you should go update your gay little blog... '
Robbie Ramsden is the real gay.
Updated!
Less hating more creating
James
Quick one just for the kids
Via Facebook:
'Robbie Ramsden
James I think you should go update your gay little blog... '
Robbie Ramsden is the real gay.
Updated!
Less hating more creating
James
Thursday, 4 February 2010
Virtual Insanity
The video game industry. In 2010, it is one of the largest markets on the planet. The amount of people who own a console, play games on their pc, or any handheld peripheral in this day and age is staggering. No longer are they 'just for kids', now there is a whole campaign about getting the whole family involved. I've played video games for the majority of my life and these are some of my thoughts that I have about them.
My video gaming career started from a young age. I used to be in love with the Sega Mega Drive, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 in particular. I didn't own one, I used to go round to my friend Theo's house and play it till my fingers hurt. There was one time when my Mum had come to pick me up, called for me about 5 times to no reply, so Theo's Mum came up to tell me it was time to go, and I told her to fuck off! At 7 years of age! Rah, looking back that is some next level of hooked, and it only got worse.
I had all the Gameboy shit, must have clocked all the pokemon games (never did catch them all though, what was the point?). There were some other sick games on Gameboy/Gameboy Colour, Zelda springs to mind. We got a big fucking Dell PC around the time I was in year 5, and me and my Dad used to boss it on this game called 'Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines'. It takes place in WW2 and you control all these little dudes that run around and kill Nazis, although there is an emphasis on stealth in the early levels you can just cruise around doming Germans to your heart's content, gets a bit trickier once you get into Germany and that though. So anyway, I used to sit at this big fucking Deller for hours on end, there were other games that I used to hit up too, flight simulator, lego rock raiders, all which kept me amused to no end.
I always used to ask for a playstation when my Birthday or Christmas was near, even though I knew my Mum would never get me one. The first console I ever got was a Nintendo 64, donated to me by a friend who got a PS2 (what a nice guy!). Now as soon as I got one of those, I knew I was on to something. There were some dooooooope games for that console, Ocarina of Time motherfucker!! Banjo Kazooie, Donkey Kong, I could go on (if any of you ever played Conker's Bad Fur Day, come talk to me, that game was toooooo crease). From N64 we moved up to a PS2 which my brother got for his birthday (what a wanker! Pops got it cheap at Makro, gotta love). So that was a pretty sick console for a while, although it kind of lived in my brother's room which was a bit gay, couldn't really hit games late night. I forgot to mention, I used to share a babysitter and the kid who I shared with had a PS1, we played every sick game on that, Tony Hawk's, Metal Gear Solid, Crash Bandicoot bla bla bla. When he got a PS2 he donated me his PS1, and I think there is when my love of RPGs (Role playing games, not rocket propelled grenades) began. I bought Final Fantasies 7, 8 and 9, and completed 7 and 9, didn't really like 8, the magic system was a bit fucked up.
This must be getting a bit boring for you guys, so I'll wrap up my gaming history as quick as I can (no promises). When I got a computer with the internet in my room, a whole new world opened up to me - online gaming. I started off getting fucking hooked on a game called Counter Strike: Source. It's your basic shooter, you run around as either a Terrorist or a Counter Terrorist trying to plant or defuse a bomb or saving/protecting hostages. There are massive public servers which anyone can join, but the real beauty of that game was when you found 4 other people and had a match. This involved using VOIP (voice over internet protocol) programs such as Ventrilo or Teamspeak (you thought skype was new! ha!) to talk with your teammates, telling them where the enemies are, basically becoming a fucking nerd, but I didn't care I was having way too much fun. I joined various clans (teams online) and had varying degrees of success. Obviously the more you play the better you get, but I was hampered somewhat by my shit pc and my wireless connection, sometimes my internet would just drop right in the middle of a league match, my clanmates were not amused. I didn't really have the money to buy a sick gaming pc, which is what you need really if you want to take it seriously. There were tri-annual LANs where everybody from the community would take their pc to like a big events hall or something, sleep there, and have a tournament. The prizes at these events ranged from pc peripherals (headsets, mice) to 15 grand. While I never went to one of these, I seriously considered it at some points. In some ways I'm glad I didn't, I would have never found my way back!
I said I was gonna wrap up my career quickly, well there's still one more games I haven't told you about. I haven't told many people this, because it's very embarassing (and here I am writing it up on the fucking internet), but yes, I used to play World of Warcraft. I know. Fucking WoW. I remember telling myself I was never ever going to play that game, that I was too cool and too into Counter-Strike (we used to hate on WoW all the time on Vent). But a couple of my Counter-Strike 'friends' downloaded the demo, so I gave it a chance, and bought it when my 7 day trial ran out. I'd like to take a moment here to talk about the people that you meet online. You get your run of the mill spastics who badmouth everything and everyone, and by god you learn to fucking hate them, but you also meet people who want to play the game and use teamwork to do well. I was one of those, although I did my fair bit of abusing, only when it was due of course (sometimes not hehe). One friend I met playing WoW (and Counter-Strike) I actually went down and visited in Cornwall, and I had a sick fucking time. He's a couple years older than me, at Bournemouth uni now designing computer games or some shit, but he wasn't a spotty nerd with a pasty grill and glasses, he was just like me, although slightly emo-er, but it wasn't an issue, we puffed nuff cron and had good times.
Deviated yet again, right World of Warcraft. Yea, so once you actually play the game, if you're not hooked by level 10 there's something going on. The scope of detail in that game, even if you are mildly interested in fantasy (orcs n shit), is fucking unreal. It is literally another life online. You don't have to eat and wash and shit (although you can eat), but once you get it in your head that you want your character as G'd out as possible, you will become addicted. It's not really a game you can play casually, although there are some players like that, but you get the most enjoyment out of it if you just immerse yourself in it (for 15 quid a month I think most people would want to get what they paid for). Of course, your social life suffers. Mine did. To be honest I would basically run home from school and sit on it till bedtime really, proper fucking hooked. I basically lost my first girlfriend because of that, I mean I still saw and fucked her obviously, but in the end it was just me being a fucking knob. Now the people I met on this game were another level of hooked. There would be people in my guild (clan, whatever) that would be on from the moment they woke up to the moment they went bed. There was this one mum who was on it all day with her kid, he didn't go school or nothing they just both sat side by side on their computers. In Counter-Strike you have to use strategy to win, and in World of Warcraft once you reach the top level (70 when I was playing, think it goes up to 90 or something now) you basically start blinging out your character, and you can only do that by killing gnarllllly bosses in the dirtiest dungeons. You can't even enter these dungeons unless your 25 man deep, so each night I used to sit in a vent with 24 other people, more sometimes, and try and take down these stupidly hard bosses. You would spend whole nights just constantly dying against one boss, and when you know it wasn't your fault and someone elses because they wouldn't move out of the fucking way of the chain fireball or something, you start to get a little bit wound up. And then there were other nights where you killed the fucking dirtiest boss you'll ever find and it would drop some siqqqq garms that boosted your stats above the fucking stars and you remember why you play this game.
So yea, my name's James and I used to play World of Warcraft, not proud about it but it was a fucking good game, anyone who tries to chat shit you can't even begin to understand. When I had finally kicked the habit, I sold my characters for 300 euros to some danish kid. Bet your not laughing now! Well you probably are, who am I kidding, I'm never gonna get that time or that girlfriend back. Anyway, I started writing this to discuss video games not just my neeky life, back to the matter at hand.
Think about the games that were around when you were growing up, they were nowhere near as advanced as they are now. Take Call of Duty for example. If we all that growing up we would be fucking hoooooked! (I prestiged once, instantly regretted it, never doing it again). Kids (and adults) are growing up today in an ocean of online entertainment, you can sit in front of a screen all day and be kept amused, I feel living proof of that. But what are all these games doing to the youth of today?
How many kids do you know that are under ten years of age yet have played games that are 18+ rating? Nuff. Now, this is against the law, they would never be able to buy it in the shop (I saw some little kid asking for GTA in game one time, fucking funny the way the guy was just like NO), so how do they get hold of them? Basically Mummy sees this game, kid whines on for a solid week about how he NEEDS it in his life, Mum finally caves and buys it for him. Now, in my eyes, when Mum goes to game and plonks down Left 4 Dead 2 on the counter, the guy behind the desk should ask who the fuck she is buying it for, because quite clearly she's not gonna race home and started blowing out zombie brains (that last sentence could be taken....sexually), it's for little Timmy at home who's gagging to see some heads roll. Parents who buy overage video games for their children are basically lazy, they see that their kid really wants this game and they know that it will free up alot of time in their day where they don't have to clean up piss and shit (ok maybe I went a bit too far) and they welcome it with open arms.
So the youth of today is fucked, let's talk about something positive. Obviously not all video games are bad, I for one think that the nintendo Wii is a really good idea. To be fair I don't own one, I just see the adverts but the idea of making console gaming something everyone can enjoy not just watching your mate (wilf) destroy your KD on CoD is a good idea. Also, if the people you met online weren't fucking idiots half the time you might actually have fun for once, people don't seem to understand that when you communicate it makes the game 20 times easier. As a possible career choice (making music for video games), I think its important that the video game market stays healthy, but at the same time I would like to see it keep moving forward at the pace that it is now. They say the next generation consoles are gonna blow our fucking minds, that it's going to be some VR shit but personally I don't think I would enjoy running around inside some polygon world all that much. I would like to see some new ideas, new controllers and shit (they never experiment, playstation has had the same trolly for time, I suppose if it ain't broke don't fix it), just a general breath of fresh air. Also, I would like to see them stop wasting money on releasing pointless games such as High School Musical 2 for the DS (don't know if that's an actual game, probably is though). The amount of resources and effort it must take to make a complete game must be alot, why waste it making a remake of Pocahuntas.
Whether you love them or hate them, video games are slowly becoming more and more intertwined with out lives. And despite what people say, they are a good source of release, but only if you play well! There is nothing worse than coming home after a stressful day and playing like some fucking diseased donkey on call of duty, it will make you want to put your fist through your screen. At the same time, they are slowly destroying working class Britain, so many people just collect their dole and sit on WoW, I mean it's not like they need much money to live, just an internet connection and a subscription. In my opinion this is why we have so many foreign workers doing the 'shit' jobs in this country, because most of the youth of today wouldn't take a job in a warehouse for shit pay, and the Polish are more than happy to work it, especially since it pays better than at home. Anyway, I've rambled on for long enough and it's nearly closing time at work, so I'll save you all and fuck off.
More gaming less flaming (only the 1337 will get that)
James
My video gaming career started from a young age. I used to be in love with the Sega Mega Drive, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 in particular. I didn't own one, I used to go round to my friend Theo's house and play it till my fingers hurt. There was one time when my Mum had come to pick me up, called for me about 5 times to no reply, so Theo's Mum came up to tell me it was time to go, and I told her to fuck off! At 7 years of age! Rah, looking back that is some next level of hooked, and it only got worse.
I had all the Gameboy shit, must have clocked all the pokemon games (never did catch them all though, what was the point?). There were some other sick games on Gameboy/Gameboy Colour, Zelda springs to mind. We got a big fucking Dell PC around the time I was in year 5, and me and my Dad used to boss it on this game called 'Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines'. It takes place in WW2 and you control all these little dudes that run around and kill Nazis, although there is an emphasis on stealth in the early levels you can just cruise around doming Germans to your heart's content, gets a bit trickier once you get into Germany and that though. So anyway, I used to sit at this big fucking Deller for hours on end, there were other games that I used to hit up too, flight simulator, lego rock raiders, all which kept me amused to no end.
I always used to ask for a playstation when my Birthday or Christmas was near, even though I knew my Mum would never get me one. The first console I ever got was a Nintendo 64, donated to me by a friend who got a PS2 (what a nice guy!). Now as soon as I got one of those, I knew I was on to something. There were some dooooooope games for that console, Ocarina of Time motherfucker!! Banjo Kazooie, Donkey Kong, I could go on (if any of you ever played Conker's Bad Fur Day, come talk to me, that game was toooooo crease). From N64 we moved up to a PS2 which my brother got for his birthday (what a wanker! Pops got it cheap at Makro, gotta love). So that was a pretty sick console for a while, although it kind of lived in my brother's room which was a bit gay, couldn't really hit games late night. I forgot to mention, I used to share a babysitter and the kid who I shared with had a PS1, we played every sick game on that, Tony Hawk's, Metal Gear Solid, Crash Bandicoot bla bla bla. When he got a PS2 he donated me his PS1, and I think there is when my love of RPGs (Role playing games, not rocket propelled grenades) began. I bought Final Fantasies 7, 8 and 9, and completed 7 and 9, didn't really like 8, the magic system was a bit fucked up.
This must be getting a bit boring for you guys, so I'll wrap up my gaming history as quick as I can (no promises). When I got a computer with the internet in my room, a whole new world opened up to me - online gaming. I started off getting fucking hooked on a game called Counter Strike: Source. It's your basic shooter, you run around as either a Terrorist or a Counter Terrorist trying to plant or defuse a bomb or saving/protecting hostages. There are massive public servers which anyone can join, but the real beauty of that game was when you found 4 other people and had a match. This involved using VOIP (voice over internet protocol) programs such as Ventrilo or Teamspeak (you thought skype was new! ha!) to talk with your teammates, telling them where the enemies are, basically becoming a fucking nerd, but I didn't care I was having way too much fun. I joined various clans (teams online) and had varying degrees of success. Obviously the more you play the better you get, but I was hampered somewhat by my shit pc and my wireless connection, sometimes my internet would just drop right in the middle of a league match, my clanmates were not amused. I didn't really have the money to buy a sick gaming pc, which is what you need really if you want to take it seriously. There were tri-annual LANs where everybody from the community would take their pc to like a big events hall or something, sleep there, and have a tournament. The prizes at these events ranged from pc peripherals (headsets, mice) to 15 grand. While I never went to one of these, I seriously considered it at some points. In some ways I'm glad I didn't, I would have never found my way back!
I said I was gonna wrap up my career quickly, well there's still one more games I haven't told you about. I haven't told many people this, because it's very embarassing (and here I am writing it up on the fucking internet), but yes, I used to play World of Warcraft. I know. Fucking WoW. I remember telling myself I was never ever going to play that game, that I was too cool and too into Counter-Strike (we used to hate on WoW all the time on Vent). But a couple of my Counter-Strike 'friends' downloaded the demo, so I gave it a chance, and bought it when my 7 day trial ran out. I'd like to take a moment here to talk about the people that you meet online. You get your run of the mill spastics who badmouth everything and everyone, and by god you learn to fucking hate them, but you also meet people who want to play the game and use teamwork to do well. I was one of those, although I did my fair bit of abusing, only when it was due of course (sometimes not hehe). One friend I met playing WoW (and Counter-Strike) I actually went down and visited in Cornwall, and I had a sick fucking time. He's a couple years older than me, at Bournemouth uni now designing computer games or some shit, but he wasn't a spotty nerd with a pasty grill and glasses, he was just like me, although slightly emo-er, but it wasn't an issue, we puffed nuff cron and had good times.
Deviated yet again, right World of Warcraft. Yea, so once you actually play the game, if you're not hooked by level 10 there's something going on. The scope of detail in that game, even if you are mildly interested in fantasy (orcs n shit), is fucking unreal. It is literally another life online. You don't have to eat and wash and shit (although you can eat), but once you get it in your head that you want your character as G'd out as possible, you will become addicted. It's not really a game you can play casually, although there are some players like that, but you get the most enjoyment out of it if you just immerse yourself in it (for 15 quid a month I think most people would want to get what they paid for). Of course, your social life suffers. Mine did. To be honest I would basically run home from school and sit on it till bedtime really, proper fucking hooked. I basically lost my first girlfriend because of that, I mean I still saw and fucked her obviously, but in the end it was just me being a fucking knob. Now the people I met on this game were another level of hooked. There would be people in my guild (clan, whatever) that would be on from the moment they woke up to the moment they went bed. There was this one mum who was on it all day with her kid, he didn't go school or nothing they just both sat side by side on their computers. In Counter-Strike you have to use strategy to win, and in World of Warcraft once you reach the top level (70 when I was playing, think it goes up to 90 or something now) you basically start blinging out your character, and you can only do that by killing gnarllllly bosses in the dirtiest dungeons. You can't even enter these dungeons unless your 25 man deep, so each night I used to sit in a vent with 24 other people, more sometimes, and try and take down these stupidly hard bosses. You would spend whole nights just constantly dying against one boss, and when you know it wasn't your fault and someone elses because they wouldn't move out of the fucking way of the chain fireball or something, you start to get a little bit wound up. And then there were other nights where you killed the fucking dirtiest boss you'll ever find and it would drop some siqqqq garms that boosted your stats above the fucking stars and you remember why you play this game.
So yea, my name's James and I used to play World of Warcraft, not proud about it but it was a fucking good game, anyone who tries to chat shit you can't even begin to understand. When I had finally kicked the habit, I sold my characters for 300 euros to some danish kid. Bet your not laughing now! Well you probably are, who am I kidding, I'm never gonna get that time or that girlfriend back. Anyway, I started writing this to discuss video games not just my neeky life, back to the matter at hand.
Think about the games that were around when you were growing up, they were nowhere near as advanced as they are now. Take Call of Duty for example. If we all that growing up we would be fucking hoooooked! (I prestiged once, instantly regretted it, never doing it again). Kids (and adults) are growing up today in an ocean of online entertainment, you can sit in front of a screen all day and be kept amused, I feel living proof of that. But what are all these games doing to the youth of today?
How many kids do you know that are under ten years of age yet have played games that are 18+ rating? Nuff. Now, this is against the law, they would never be able to buy it in the shop (I saw some little kid asking for GTA in game one time, fucking funny the way the guy was just like NO), so how do they get hold of them? Basically Mummy sees this game, kid whines on for a solid week about how he NEEDS it in his life, Mum finally caves and buys it for him. Now, in my eyes, when Mum goes to game and plonks down Left 4 Dead 2 on the counter, the guy behind the desk should ask who the fuck she is buying it for, because quite clearly she's not gonna race home and started blowing out zombie brains (that last sentence could be taken....sexually), it's for little Timmy at home who's gagging to see some heads roll. Parents who buy overage video games for their children are basically lazy, they see that their kid really wants this game and they know that it will free up alot of time in their day where they don't have to clean up piss and shit (ok maybe I went a bit too far) and they welcome it with open arms.
So the youth of today is fucked, let's talk about something positive. Obviously not all video games are bad, I for one think that the nintendo Wii is a really good idea. To be fair I don't own one, I just see the adverts but the idea of making console gaming something everyone can enjoy not just watching your mate (wilf) destroy your KD on CoD is a good idea. Also, if the people you met online weren't fucking idiots half the time you might actually have fun for once, people don't seem to understand that when you communicate it makes the game 20 times easier. As a possible career choice (making music for video games), I think its important that the video game market stays healthy, but at the same time I would like to see it keep moving forward at the pace that it is now. They say the next generation consoles are gonna blow our fucking minds, that it's going to be some VR shit but personally I don't think I would enjoy running around inside some polygon world all that much. I would like to see some new ideas, new controllers and shit (they never experiment, playstation has had the same trolly for time, I suppose if it ain't broke don't fix it), just a general breath of fresh air. Also, I would like to see them stop wasting money on releasing pointless games such as High School Musical 2 for the DS (don't know if that's an actual game, probably is though). The amount of resources and effort it must take to make a complete game must be alot, why waste it making a remake of Pocahuntas.
Whether you love them or hate them, video games are slowly becoming more and more intertwined with out lives. And despite what people say, they are a good source of release, but only if you play well! There is nothing worse than coming home after a stressful day and playing like some fucking diseased donkey on call of duty, it will make you want to put your fist through your screen. At the same time, they are slowly destroying working class Britain, so many people just collect their dole and sit on WoW, I mean it's not like they need much money to live, just an internet connection and a subscription. In my opinion this is why we have so many foreign workers doing the 'shit' jobs in this country, because most of the youth of today wouldn't take a job in a warehouse for shit pay, and the Polish are more than happy to work it, especially since it pays better than at home. Anyway, I've rambled on for long enough and it's nearly closing time at work, so I'll save you all and fuck off.
More gaming less flaming (only the 1337 will get that)
James
Tuesday, 2 February 2010
Future Music
Had some thoughts on the way the Music Industry might be heading for a while now, feel to air out my thoughts on the matter. The Music Industry today is in a state of turmoil, although some people have said that it is in a state of 'transition'. I'm sure you would agree, music is a big part of our lives; it shapes our teenage years, dresses us (strangely sometimes!), changes how we think, our moods etc. Without music, I think our lives would be very grey indeed.
I listen to the radio nearly every day at work, normally turn on Kiss from 11 till 12 (Kisstory dun know!) and then Smooth FM until everybody leaves to keep them happy, and then for my final half hour or so I have a little boogie to SelectFM UK (HEAVYWEIGHT HOUSE, LIVE LARGE AND IN CHARGE!). The occasions that I do listen to chart music (Sonia does love a bit of Capital), I am amazed by the amount of crap that gets pumped out on a regular basis. I mean, it's not like the songs are unlistenable (let's hear it for neeeeeeew yoooooooork!), but nearly every tune I hear these days is a resample of another tune - if you listen to Smooth FM or another station that plays vintage music you will see what I mean. The female pop song arena is dominated by electronic beats and wishy washy synths, listen to any Lady Gaga or Saturdays tune and you'll know exactly what I'm talking about
The problem with popular music now is that it is that it is being produced for radio and tv i.e over compressed and boosted to the absofuckinglute maximum. While I was still in college, my recording teacher showed me something very interesting; he played a Led Zeppelin tune and showed us the graphic EQ compared to a Fall Out Boy tune and the difference in the dynamic range was astounding. Songs are pushed to the absolute limit so they can be the loudest on the airwaves. This all detracts from the overall vibe of the tune, there are no quiet bits to chill too or significant break and drops to go barmy to, it's just all straight in your fucking grill.
Let's talk live music. In my opinion, this is a shrinking market. It will never die out completely obviously, the amount of people who live and breathe rock n roll, indie, heavy metal and every other backwards arty fucking genre that you a fiddle with a guitar to is too large to ever let it die out. But personally, I am fucking tired of listening to some shit band from Coventry try and reinvent something that I've already heard (The Enemy anyone?). It frustrates me when shit bands get good, and I'm sure it hurts you too. The problem with the way bands get big these days is that labels don't look at the music, they look at the hairstyles and the clothes first and decide how they can spin it to make money (The Horrors anyone? I could go on). Image is more important than the music these days, although there are exceptions. It is these exceptions that I find myself listening to most often, bands who are big because of the music they have created, not the shoes they are wearing or who they are fucking. A good example of a band who have broken through on the strength of their music is the Whitest Boy Alive, there are others I'm sure but they immediately spring to mind. You have to wonder, why are 80% of bands these days shit? It's because 99% of the time they are following some kind of formula, either through image or ripping off someone elses tune. Granted, it is hard to make 100% original music these days, but I hear some songs which are nearly note for fucking note. Hell, I used to be in a band, and our first single was a sly cat of Iggy Pop's I Wanna be a Doll.
The internet has changed music permanently, there's no question about that now. Some say it's a good thing, others a bad thing. Personally I think it's a bit of both - the ease of finding and listening to a song, either legally or illegally means someone is Hawaii could write a ukelele banger, upload it to Soundcloud or something (wicked site) and I could be listening to it the next day. On the other hand, the ease and availability of music is detracting the quality of it, as shown by chart music today. This has been said before countless times, but I think the whole business model that the Music Industry uses needs a very good look-over. It pisses me off when you hear major labels whining and bitching about how much money they're losing, do you know how much fucking money they made before illegal downloading became common?! I think it's time for a change, in this modern environment, you don't need to be signed to EMI or Sony BMG to release a song, you can release it yourself! Indeed, independent labels, while they make next to no money, often release the biggest tunes. The ease of releasing a tune is relatively simple aswell, 9 times out of 10 if you've written a good, quality tune that is exciting and keeps people interested or dancing for 70% of the tune then if you approach a couple of labels at least one of them is bound to be interested.
There is a bit of a problem with this digital music age, in that there is so much fucking choice of shit to listen to that alot of it doesn't get listened to at all. I blame this partly on MySpace (remember?). I can't remember how many times someone linked me some piece of shit band to listen to, clicked on their page, listened to 30 seconds of their tune, got bored and turned it off. If you want to get a lot of plays on your MySpace, just make the first 30 seconds of your tunes really interesting. Someone said to me (I think it was my old teacher, good old Liz Penney!), that in the future we will all be listening to 1 minute songs, and to be honest I don't see that as too far off an idea. We would be able to fit more music into our lives, and at the hectic pace that we lead them it would make alot of sense.
You may not agree with my next point, but I don't care! I see the future of music becoming completely digital, not in the sense that everything is going to be blip blip blip, but everything will be run through some sort of effect or plug in to beef it up or something. The scope of what you can do in modern day DAWs (that's digital audio workstations such as Logic or Cubase for the computer illiterate) is fucking immense, you could produce anything you hear on the radio, it's just how you make it. If you want to hear some real future music, check out a guy called Bop. He's from Russia, St Petersburg, and I think his music is absolutely astonishing. Here is a link to his site (www.iambop.com), download the micromix, it's a minimix of all the tunes on his album. I love the way he can create a sense of space in his tunes, it's not really dancefloor material but definitely bedtime zoot music. It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but just listening to it and trying to understand how half the sounds are created, you can tell alot of time and knowledge has gone into making this shit.
So to sum up, all pop music is shit, and dance music rules! Haha, not quite, but I definitely think there is going to be a major shift towards electronic music in the years to come, to be honest it's already heading that way. In the top ten this week, only 'Owl City - Fireflies' and 'Alicia Keys - Empire State Of Mind (Part II)' are live (obviously produced on a computer but you get my drift, it wasn't written on a computer). Anyway, this has taken the majority of the day to write, having flitted back and forth to Greggs in Lewisham and shit. Because of that I don't think I explained myself very well, when I read over it I'll probably think I was smoking crack or something, but fuck it, it's Friday, I've got the perfect weekend lined up and I don't give a shit! Love you all
More raving, more or less misbehaving?
James
I listen to the radio nearly every day at work, normally turn on Kiss from 11 till 12 (Kisstory dun know!) and then Smooth FM until everybody leaves to keep them happy, and then for my final half hour or so I have a little boogie to SelectFM UK (HEAVYWEIGHT HOUSE, LIVE LARGE AND IN CHARGE!). The occasions that I do listen to chart music (Sonia does love a bit of Capital), I am amazed by the amount of crap that gets pumped out on a regular basis. I mean, it's not like the songs are unlistenable (let's hear it for neeeeeeew yoooooooork!), but nearly every tune I hear these days is a resample of another tune - if you listen to Smooth FM or another station that plays vintage music you will see what I mean. The female pop song arena is dominated by electronic beats and wishy washy synths, listen to any Lady Gaga or Saturdays tune and you'll know exactly what I'm talking about
The problem with popular music now is that it is that it is being produced for radio and tv i.e over compressed and boosted to the absofuckinglute maximum. While I was still in college, my recording teacher showed me something very interesting; he played a Led Zeppelin tune and showed us the graphic EQ compared to a Fall Out Boy tune and the difference in the dynamic range was astounding. Songs are pushed to the absolute limit so they can be the loudest on the airwaves. This all detracts from the overall vibe of the tune, there are no quiet bits to chill too or significant break and drops to go barmy to, it's just all straight in your fucking grill.
Let's talk live music. In my opinion, this is a shrinking market. It will never die out completely obviously, the amount of people who live and breathe rock n roll, indie, heavy metal and every other backwards arty fucking genre that you a fiddle with a guitar to is too large to ever let it die out. But personally, I am fucking tired of listening to some shit band from Coventry try and reinvent something that I've already heard (The Enemy anyone?). It frustrates me when shit bands get good, and I'm sure it hurts you too. The problem with the way bands get big these days is that labels don't look at the music, they look at the hairstyles and the clothes first and decide how they can spin it to make money (The Horrors anyone? I could go on). Image is more important than the music these days, although there are exceptions. It is these exceptions that I find myself listening to most often, bands who are big because of the music they have created, not the shoes they are wearing or who they are fucking. A good example of a band who have broken through on the strength of their music is the Whitest Boy Alive, there are others I'm sure but they immediately spring to mind. You have to wonder, why are 80% of bands these days shit? It's because 99% of the time they are following some kind of formula, either through image or ripping off someone elses tune. Granted, it is hard to make 100% original music these days, but I hear some songs which are nearly note for fucking note. Hell, I used to be in a band, and our first single was a sly cat of Iggy Pop's I Wanna be a Doll.
The internet has changed music permanently, there's no question about that now. Some say it's a good thing, others a bad thing. Personally I think it's a bit of both - the ease of finding and listening to a song, either legally or illegally means someone is Hawaii could write a ukelele banger, upload it to Soundcloud or something (wicked site) and I could be listening to it the next day. On the other hand, the ease and availability of music is detracting the quality of it, as shown by chart music today. This has been said before countless times, but I think the whole business model that the Music Industry uses needs a very good look-over. It pisses me off when you hear major labels whining and bitching about how much money they're losing, do you know how much fucking money they made before illegal downloading became common?! I think it's time for a change, in this modern environment, you don't need to be signed to EMI or Sony BMG to release a song, you can release it yourself! Indeed, independent labels, while they make next to no money, often release the biggest tunes. The ease of releasing a tune is relatively simple aswell, 9 times out of 10 if you've written a good, quality tune that is exciting and keeps people interested or dancing for 70% of the tune then if you approach a couple of labels at least one of them is bound to be interested.
There is a bit of a problem with this digital music age, in that there is so much fucking choice of shit to listen to that alot of it doesn't get listened to at all. I blame this partly on MySpace (remember?). I can't remember how many times someone linked me some piece of shit band to listen to, clicked on their page, listened to 30 seconds of their tune, got bored and turned it off. If you want to get a lot of plays on your MySpace, just make the first 30 seconds of your tunes really interesting. Someone said to me (I think it was my old teacher, good old Liz Penney!), that in the future we will all be listening to 1 minute songs, and to be honest I don't see that as too far off an idea. We would be able to fit more music into our lives, and at the hectic pace that we lead them it would make alot of sense.
You may not agree with my next point, but I don't care! I see the future of music becoming completely digital, not in the sense that everything is going to be blip blip blip, but everything will be run through some sort of effect or plug in to beef it up or something. The scope of what you can do in modern day DAWs (that's digital audio workstations such as Logic or Cubase for the computer illiterate) is fucking immense, you could produce anything you hear on the radio, it's just how you make it. If you want to hear some real future music, check out a guy called Bop. He's from Russia, St Petersburg, and I think his music is absolutely astonishing. Here is a link to his site (www.iambop.com), download the micromix, it's a minimix of all the tunes on his album. I love the way he can create a sense of space in his tunes, it's not really dancefloor material but definitely bedtime zoot music. It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but just listening to it and trying to understand how half the sounds are created, you can tell alot of time and knowledge has gone into making this shit.
So to sum up, all pop music is shit, and dance music rules! Haha, not quite, but I definitely think there is going to be a major shift towards electronic music in the years to come, to be honest it's already heading that way. In the top ten this week, only 'Owl City - Fireflies' and 'Alicia Keys - Empire State Of Mind (Part II)' are live (obviously produced on a computer but you get my drift, it wasn't written on a computer). Anyway, this has taken the majority of the day to write, having flitted back and forth to Greggs in Lewisham and shit. Because of that I don't think I explained myself very well, when I read over it I'll probably think I was smoking crack or something, but fuck it, it's Friday, I've got the perfect weekend lined up and I don't give a shit! Love you all
More raving, more or less misbehaving?
James
Friday, 29 January 2010
Oh Bananas!
Bit of a change from the normal headfucker posts, just had a mad crazy thursday night! Can't be bothered to type it out to everyone on facetube so I thought I'd bore you on here.
Night started out slyly on the wrong foot, there was meant to be four of us going up, I'd booked four tickets but two flaked out, was cool though me and dan are the original partners in crime when it comes to drum n bass (I have seen D dots rolling around on the floor before trust me). So we roll up there 2 deep, (had to emergency exit from the bus still, that shoreditch slash is a killer, could of filled the fucking sea), our plan being find two honeys in the queue and get them in for free. Turned up there, no one in the fucking queue! Not like we were gonna dick about like lemons shouting about free tickets, so we swiftly headed inside.
To the bar batman! Went downstairs, music was alright, not loud enough though. Ordered two double Jameson's and coke, 16 pound 60!!!! I thought he said 6.60 and gave him a tenner, when he busted my balls with the big 16 I nearly fell backwards. Had a little boogie, then went out for a zoot and sat down outside some edgy bar which was closed. Two people sat down a bit away from us, I encouraged them over with a waft of cron. One had scruffy ginger hair, Daniel was like, 'cool bruv what's your name?' to which (she) replied 'sarah' in some DEEEEEEP voice blad! Dan was like... oh. Had fun with them, fucking art students though, felt like I had been up the arse of Pete Doherty (who apparently has made a baby, the spawn of that man cannot be a good thing).
Went back inside and skanked a bit more, music started pickin up, they pumped the system n all. Met some more randies (BASILDON BOYS GONNA DROP SOME LYRICS! na, I wish, Taz n Beefy 4eva!) who were kind of forgettable. Ended up leaving the club around 2ish, Tony was just dropping the baitest of tunes, me and dip aren't one to bounce to log tune, especially 5 in a row.
Started walking to the N47 stop, it both taking us to home to Catford n all. At this point in time we were both pretty slew, I think I was having trouble staying upright. This is where the night began to get a bit interesting. We were walking for ages, I was following Dan cos he has google maps on his wackberry, through some expensive parts of London, I think we were walking through the financial bit. Found some siiiiiiiiiq skate spots, alot of them were knobbed though. We were joking about saying we should smash the windows and raise up nuff equipment as you do, and then we walked down some tiny street with a Costa Coffee on it. There was a van parked outside, and no one was around at all. I looked inside the van and there was bare crates of boxes, picked one up and was like DIP WE ARE SERI DIP. Set off down the road, turned the corner to see what we had raised, and it was a whole box of Costa Coffee fruit and nut biscuits! JACKPOT! We were walking around going up to literally everyone and asking if they were hungry, put bare smiles on tramps faces, feel really good. Asked two underground workers, one was like 'what flavour' other one was like 'I don't eat stolen goods mate'. Suit yourself.
So yea we were livening up the bus stop with our biscuit bonanza, wacked out the last pre rolled cron it was a fucking party. Met two girls from Goldsmiths (it's impossible not to), one was kind of peng the other one was a bit grim, but Dan got their numbers so it was all bless. Started chatting to some randy Polish guy (again, impossible not to in London, or England for that matter), and when he got on the bus he took his hood down, I was NOT expecting him to have a chromed dome, trust me I could see my face and shit. Hype started winding down, fed the whole bus with biscuits (Dipper had eaten about 8 by now, packets of two aswell!), Polish guy got off in Surrey Quays (who lives there? Polish mandem obv), said goodbye to Dip and jogged home from Catford. Blinder of a night
I have discovered I've managed to lose my wallet AGAIN, although it's not as bad as it could be, only 2 cards and an Oyster but still, 3rd oyster card lost this year! Gonna have another hunt when I get back from work, might just be under my bed (fucking hope so!). So there we go, hope I've put a smile on your face with our shenanigans, I wish more night were like that! Must of spoken to nearly everyone I met (not everyone obviously, I say a good 65% though), I don't see why we don't do it more often, you can meet the creasest people and the hottest honeyz! can't link if you don't open your mouth, give it a go. Gonna try hack the rest of work, don't feel too bad although I did wake up still feeling pretty hammered, got in late as you can imagine. This glass of water here is like drinking from the Holy Grail right about now, fourth cup already. Gotta drink water homies! Peace
Be a bit spontaneous, meet someone fame-eous (that was bad, couldn't think of anything better though, brains melted)
James
Night started out slyly on the wrong foot, there was meant to be four of us going up, I'd booked four tickets but two flaked out, was cool though me and dan are the original partners in crime when it comes to drum n bass (I have seen D dots rolling around on the floor before trust me). So we roll up there 2 deep, (had to emergency exit from the bus still, that shoreditch slash is a killer, could of filled the fucking sea), our plan being find two honeys in the queue and get them in for free. Turned up there, no one in the fucking queue! Not like we were gonna dick about like lemons shouting about free tickets, so we swiftly headed inside.
To the bar batman! Went downstairs, music was alright, not loud enough though. Ordered two double Jameson's and coke, 16 pound 60!!!! I thought he said 6.60 and gave him a tenner, when he busted my balls with the big 16 I nearly fell backwards. Had a little boogie, then went out for a zoot and sat down outside some edgy bar which was closed. Two people sat down a bit away from us, I encouraged them over with a waft of cron. One had scruffy ginger hair, Daniel was like, 'cool bruv what's your name?' to which (she) replied 'sarah' in some DEEEEEEP voice blad! Dan was like... oh. Had fun with them, fucking art students though, felt like I had been up the arse of Pete Doherty (who apparently has made a baby, the spawn of that man cannot be a good thing).
Went back inside and skanked a bit more, music started pickin up, they pumped the system n all. Met some more randies (BASILDON BOYS GONNA DROP SOME LYRICS! na, I wish, Taz n Beefy 4eva!) who were kind of forgettable. Ended up leaving the club around 2ish, Tony was just dropping the baitest of tunes, me and dip aren't one to bounce to log tune, especially 5 in a row.
Started walking to the N47 stop, it both taking us to home to Catford n all. At this point in time we were both pretty slew, I think I was having trouble staying upright. This is where the night began to get a bit interesting. We were walking for ages, I was following Dan cos he has google maps on his wackberry, through some expensive parts of London, I think we were walking through the financial bit. Found some siiiiiiiiiq skate spots, alot of them were knobbed though. We were joking about saying we should smash the windows and raise up nuff equipment as you do, and then we walked down some tiny street with a Costa Coffee on it. There was a van parked outside, and no one was around at all. I looked inside the van and there was bare crates of boxes, picked one up and was like DIP WE ARE SERI DIP. Set off down the road, turned the corner to see what we had raised, and it was a whole box of Costa Coffee fruit and nut biscuits! JACKPOT! We were walking around going up to literally everyone and asking if they were hungry, put bare smiles on tramps faces, feel really good. Asked two underground workers, one was like 'what flavour' other one was like 'I don't eat stolen goods mate'. Suit yourself.
So yea we were livening up the bus stop with our biscuit bonanza, wacked out the last pre rolled cron it was a fucking party. Met two girls from Goldsmiths (it's impossible not to), one was kind of peng the other one was a bit grim, but Dan got their numbers so it was all bless. Started chatting to some randy Polish guy (again, impossible not to in London, or England for that matter), and when he got on the bus he took his hood down, I was NOT expecting him to have a chromed dome, trust me I could see my face and shit. Hype started winding down, fed the whole bus with biscuits (Dipper had eaten about 8 by now, packets of two aswell!), Polish guy got off in Surrey Quays (who lives there? Polish mandem obv), said goodbye to Dip and jogged home from Catford. Blinder of a night
I have discovered I've managed to lose my wallet AGAIN, although it's not as bad as it could be, only 2 cards and an Oyster but still, 3rd oyster card lost this year! Gonna have another hunt when I get back from work, might just be under my bed (fucking hope so!). So there we go, hope I've put a smile on your face with our shenanigans, I wish more night were like that! Must of spoken to nearly everyone I met (not everyone obviously, I say a good 65% though), I don't see why we don't do it more often, you can meet the creasest people and the hottest honeyz! can't link if you don't open your mouth, give it a go. Gonna try hack the rest of work, don't feel too bad although I did wake up still feeling pretty hammered, got in late as you can imagine. This glass of water here is like drinking from the Holy Grail right about now, fourth cup already. Gotta drink water homies! Peace
Be a bit spontaneous, meet someone fame-eous (that was bad, couldn't think of anything better though, brains melted)
James
Wednesday, 27 January 2010
Happiness
Past week or two there's been a sly shift in mood from me as many people close to me may have clocked. Acheiving happiness isn't hard, you just know how to tap in to your body and how it runs. You treat it like a piece of shit wife then you gotta respect that fact that that bitch is gonna kick and scream at you until the day you die, maybe even the afterlife if there is one. If you treat yourself right, you will be marvelled at how easy it can be to put a spring in your step.
Take drugs, for example, yea you can feel hell fucker good like you're in the most amazing place and everything you see sparkles, trust me I've been there, but you don't stay like that forever, sometimes I think we all wish there was a magic button on our bodies which instantly resets you to sober. You could play about with it, make the most ridiculous circumstances actually, like go out on an amazing lunch break where you fly the intergalactic highway, then turn up back at work and instantly be in the ZONE. Might have gone a bit too far there, what I'm trying to get at is that hangovers, comedowns, STALE BUZZ (slyly stale right now) are all signals from our body to our brain that this shit just isn't all that good for you in the long run, and it makes damn sure you know that. I don't know if anyone does any major exercise (some do, some don't) but I went skating tonight for the first time in about 2 weeks and I was BLOWIN. I mean I cycle to work and back each day, but to be honest it's only 15 minutes tops there and back, and even though I burn it there and back I honestly don't really feel myself getting fitter. Because we are young, sometimes I think we take our health for granted a bit too often, because if you're still smoking 15-20 a day well into your 20s, you're going to have some serious underlying health problems that could end up being fatal. You've also got to take into account the second hand smoke, you are literally smoking even if you don't smoke. In some ways I think this is kind of offensive to people who don't smoke, in particular a certain friendly squat which too much of us spend large periods of time in, I'm sorry to say (you all know what I'm talking about). Feel as if I've digressed a bit. Oh yeah, drugs. Another thing to consider is the state of your brain after you constantly melt it with harmful chemical substances, which brings me nicely onto my second point, mental health.
I have been working at a doctor's surgery the past couple of months now, and my job began as basically scanning all the confidential post onto the computer system and direct them to the relevant doctor's. I'm supposed to keep complete confidentiality, but often you have to read the content of the letter to know what to categorise you (hope I'm not losing you here! If you're tired go to bed, I may be here a while), which means you read some fucking boring letters like Jack and his orthopaedic knee (and his fucked up arm while we're at it, and ya webby toe! love ya jack man), whilst sometimes you read about how much cron Federico Dominico Luigi Margaretti Fumagalli Switzerland is smoking a day and how his life is slipping into a state of disrepair. (although recently Fede has found new meaning as a shotter, I rate him for finally seeing how to play the game and win) Which can be fairly interesting. But I find it surprising how alot of people that have mental health issues are our age. Now I know that alot of these people are from lower class families, but why should that make a difference, they live in the same fucked up world as we do, admittedly we have certain luxuries (this 32" beast of a TV that I'm staring at) but we're both equal human beings (although there are not a single two souls on the planet who have exactly the same DNA code, something which still amazes me). I honestly think depression is a byproduct of our society, and it could cripple us, being in a constant state of negativity affects how we act and interact with those around us. I know there's times when I've been majorly pissed off with the world and maybe even thought about taking my own life, mostly when I was younger, hopefully I've outgrown those sort of thought patterns. Think about how primary school kids get bullied, that shit affects how you trust people and gives you lasting memories, I know I remember some traumatic experiences during the first stage of education. Anyway, enough about the downers, time for some uplifting shit, some simple things to do help deal with the neverending turmoil that is our planet these days.
Firstly, your body. Give it what it needs. It doesn't need shit. I fucking love chicken, who doesn't, but if you eat it all day, well they say you are what you eat, so that would make you a chicken. Humans have evolved so far because of the fact that somewhere in the world something you would never DREAM of touching is being eaten (insects anyone?). It is through this that I believe we gained the molecules and genetic information that makes us the most successful animal on this planet (this is getting pretty deep, rah). Anyway, don't eat shit and you won't feel like shit. Also most of us are constantly dehydrated. In an ideal situation, you should drink 2 litres of water a day, and urinate as much as possible. It's not good to hold in 1s and 2s, this is the body's natural way of geting rid of the shit it doesn'twant, why on earth would you hang on to stuff which has no nutritional value? Drinking lots of water also cleans out your system, recently I have been drinking 10 glasses of water a day and a lot of tea aswell, and sure you piss like a hose all day, but you can instantly feel the difference, you can think clearer and you are far less distractable (is that a word), the brain needs water and depriving it will cause it to start to dry out. Can't remember that randy fact of the ratio of water in our bodies, and neither can I be arsed to describe how important eating healthily is as well, we all know it but for us sugars and fats are just more appealling, this is your body's way of trying to survive for long winters and such, but we don't live in the fucking caves anymore so it is actually harmful to us.
Getting regular exercise is also really good for you, it's just unfortunate that our lives are so full of so many choices of how to pass 24 hours in a day. Even if we think we are busy, I'm sure we can find time in our lives to exercise how ever many hours it is in a week we're supposed to do (not good on my facts tonight, google is a whole mouseclick away but it looks so far...). A good way to begin exercise is to set yourself small, acheivable targets, not some gnarly regime, that path is bound for failure. Once you find that you can easily do 30 push ups before you go to the shower, you can then set yourself more, like 30, then 20, then 10, constantly adding the reps is a good way to quickly build muscle or lose weight, in moderation and over a period of time of course. Which brings me onto my next point.
Setting yourself little goals and things that you would really like to do or learn can be a great way to get yourself feeling positively. There is nothing more satisfying than getting the girl you always wanted, or finally learning that fucking nollie flip. This can have a sharper side to it though, as set your targets too high or don't do something that you know you can achieve only leads to more negative thoughts. There's a fine line between success and failure, and trust me I've been on the wrong side, can start a whole episode of chain reactions that steamroll into you feeling like shit. I guess what shapes us as individuals is how quickly we return to the fray after the fall, some people are very good at taking it on the chin while others flip out and self destruct into global thermonuclear war (too much call of duty). I'd like to think that I've gotten better at dealing with these situations, to the point where if something overly gnarly happened now, sure it would shock, but I think I'd be able to get past it fairly quickly, no-one likes holding grudges (some more than others), the minute we stop and think that they would rather be friends than enemies the minute the shit is sorted. There's people I dislike I'm not gonna lie, but it's mostly because of the way they act or speak about other people or in general, not because of my opinion (well I suppose that is an opinion, shot myself in the foot there).
My final point is breathing (hey it's 2.15 in the morning and I wanna go bed, gotta work at half ten and I'm going clubbing tomorrow (tonight actually) so I'm gonna try be as brief as possible, if at all possible). I bet you think you're the fucking shit at breathing. You could do it since day one. You can even do it when you're sleeping (not when you're unconscious though ya stupid fuck). Well here's what dickhead, you're fucking crap at breathing. Hate ta break it to ya, but here's how it goes. I think I'm being fairly obviously in saying that if we didn't breath we would die (wow I am buzzinggg to say something retarded like that), but I bet you didn't realise just how important our good o2 is. The minute you get out of this smoketrap of a city we call London, the minute you realise how shit the quality of our air is. There's a reason people who live outside the cities are the way they are, although it does turn them a bit funny let's not beat around the bush). A while ago I borrowed a book called Healing without Freud or Prozac: Natural Approaches to Curing Stress, Anxiety and Depression without Drugs and without Psychoanalysis , link here, had to Amazon that fucker, happy now. It was a pretty amazing read, I thoroughly recommend it, although you may have to hide behind something else on the bus, unless you want people thinking you're a bit loopy. Basically the first chapter is about breathing, and some simple exercises to enter your brain into a state of high concentration, I'm not gonna go into it now (read the book for fuck sake) but by learning how to control your breathing you can easily make a potentially damaging situation into a good one in the blink of the moment. Learning how to control your breathing through sex is also VERY intense, I think there's some shit about it in the karma sutra or something. I bet hardly any of us have ever tried to meditate, but there's so many good things about clearing your mind and thinking in a productive way, hell how the fuck do you think we have evolved from shitting in our hands to 4 blade razors. The basic concept of meditation is to think about nothing but your breathing, concentrate only on taking in the perfect breath and feeling yourself exhale, this is harder than you think, I've been trying it for a while now on and off and I can't say I've ever properly been in a state of meditation. Most of the time I use it to get to sleep, which I suppose you could call a state of meditation, more rest and dreamtime if you're being anal.
I could probably go on longer, but I can feel my brain melting and I have a gnarly day tomorrow so I might round it off. Apologies also if I've made you feel like a retard by stating the obvious so much, but sometimes it just needs to be done. So yea, I'm not condoning the use of drugs, shit I take as much as the rest of you, but I can definitely see myself getting bored of them, already bored of this shit that we keep shoving up our noses, meph, mioaw miaow or whatever the fuck you wanna call it (who calls a drug mcat, I mean come on), cheap knock off in my opinion. I think we may have all skipped a beat in taking so much so early in our lives, people say you make your friends at uni for life because they're the people you first take drugs with, but I know there's already certain people in my life who aren't going anywhere anytime soon because of the scatty times we've had that have brought us closer together, or at least I hope not. Shit some of us even go back primary school days, christ. What else, oh yeah eat right drink right breathe right and err, think right? think that's everything I dribbled about for a good hour, never get that back again. Stay positive
Less drama think about karma
James
Take drugs, for example, yea you can feel hell fucker good like you're in the most amazing place and everything you see sparkles, trust me I've been there, but you don't stay like that forever, sometimes I think we all wish there was a magic button on our bodies which instantly resets you to sober. You could play about with it, make the most ridiculous circumstances actually, like go out on an amazing lunch break where you fly the intergalactic highway, then turn up back at work and instantly be in the ZONE. Might have gone a bit too far there, what I'm trying to get at is that hangovers, comedowns, STALE BUZZ (slyly stale right now) are all signals from our body to our brain that this shit just isn't all that good for you in the long run, and it makes damn sure you know that. I don't know if anyone does any major exercise (some do, some don't) but I went skating tonight for the first time in about 2 weeks and I was BLOWIN. I mean I cycle to work and back each day, but to be honest it's only 15 minutes tops there and back, and even though I burn it there and back I honestly don't really feel myself getting fitter. Because we are young, sometimes I think we take our health for granted a bit too often, because if you're still smoking 15-20 a day well into your 20s, you're going to have some serious underlying health problems that could end up being fatal. You've also got to take into account the second hand smoke, you are literally smoking even if you don't smoke. In some ways I think this is kind of offensive to people who don't smoke, in particular a certain friendly squat which too much of us spend large periods of time in, I'm sorry to say (you all know what I'm talking about). Feel as if I've digressed a bit. Oh yeah, drugs. Another thing to consider is the state of your brain after you constantly melt it with harmful chemical substances, which brings me nicely onto my second point, mental health.
I have been working at a doctor's surgery the past couple of months now, and my job began as basically scanning all the confidential post onto the computer system and direct them to the relevant doctor's. I'm supposed to keep complete confidentiality, but often you have to read the content of the letter to know what to categorise you (hope I'm not losing you here! If you're tired go to bed, I may be here a while), which means you read some fucking boring letters like Jack and his orthopaedic knee (and his fucked up arm while we're at it, and ya webby toe! love ya jack man), whilst sometimes you read about how much cron Federico Dominico Luigi Margaretti Fumagalli Switzerland is smoking a day and how his life is slipping into a state of disrepair. (although recently Fede has found new meaning as a shotter, I rate him for finally seeing how to play the game and win) Which can be fairly interesting. But I find it surprising how alot of people that have mental health issues are our age. Now I know that alot of these people are from lower class families, but why should that make a difference, they live in the same fucked up world as we do, admittedly we have certain luxuries (this 32" beast of a TV that I'm staring at) but we're both equal human beings (although there are not a single two souls on the planet who have exactly the same DNA code, something which still amazes me). I honestly think depression is a byproduct of our society, and it could cripple us, being in a constant state of negativity affects how we act and interact with those around us. I know there's times when I've been majorly pissed off with the world and maybe even thought about taking my own life, mostly when I was younger, hopefully I've outgrown those sort of thought patterns. Think about how primary school kids get bullied, that shit affects how you trust people and gives you lasting memories, I know I remember some traumatic experiences during the first stage of education. Anyway, enough about the downers, time for some uplifting shit, some simple things to do help deal with the neverending turmoil that is our planet these days.
Firstly, your body. Give it what it needs. It doesn't need shit. I fucking love chicken, who doesn't, but if you eat it all day, well they say you are what you eat, so that would make you a chicken. Humans have evolved so far because of the fact that somewhere in the world something you would never DREAM of touching is being eaten (insects anyone?). It is through this that I believe we gained the molecules and genetic information that makes us the most successful animal on this planet (this is getting pretty deep, rah). Anyway, don't eat shit and you won't feel like shit. Also most of us are constantly dehydrated. In an ideal situation, you should drink 2 litres of water a day, and urinate as much as possible. It's not good to hold in 1s and 2s, this is the body's natural way of geting rid of the shit it doesn'twant, why on earth would you hang on to stuff which has no nutritional value? Drinking lots of water also cleans out your system, recently I have been drinking 10 glasses of water a day and a lot of tea aswell, and sure you piss like a hose all day, but you can instantly feel the difference, you can think clearer and you are far less distractable (is that a word), the brain needs water and depriving it will cause it to start to dry out. Can't remember that randy fact of the ratio of water in our bodies, and neither can I be arsed to describe how important eating healthily is as well, we all know it but for us sugars and fats are just more appealling, this is your body's way of trying to survive for long winters and such, but we don't live in the fucking caves anymore so it is actually harmful to us.
Getting regular exercise is also really good for you, it's just unfortunate that our lives are so full of so many choices of how to pass 24 hours in a day. Even if we think we are busy, I'm sure we can find time in our lives to exercise how ever many hours it is in a week we're supposed to do (not good on my facts tonight, google is a whole mouseclick away but it looks so far...). A good way to begin exercise is to set yourself small, acheivable targets, not some gnarly regime, that path is bound for failure. Once you find that you can easily do 30 push ups before you go to the shower, you can then set yourself more, like 30, then 20, then 10, constantly adding the reps is a good way to quickly build muscle or lose weight, in moderation and over a period of time of course. Which brings me onto my next point.
Setting yourself little goals and things that you would really like to do or learn can be a great way to get yourself feeling positively. There is nothing more satisfying than getting the girl you always wanted, or finally learning that fucking nollie flip. This can have a sharper side to it though, as set your targets too high or don't do something that you know you can achieve only leads to more negative thoughts. There's a fine line between success and failure, and trust me I've been on the wrong side, can start a whole episode of chain reactions that steamroll into you feeling like shit. I guess what shapes us as individuals is how quickly we return to the fray after the fall, some people are very good at taking it on the chin while others flip out and self destruct into global thermonuclear war (too much call of duty). I'd like to think that I've gotten better at dealing with these situations, to the point where if something overly gnarly happened now, sure it would shock, but I think I'd be able to get past it fairly quickly, no-one likes holding grudges (some more than others), the minute we stop and think that they would rather be friends than enemies the minute the shit is sorted. There's people I dislike I'm not gonna lie, but it's mostly because of the way they act or speak about other people or in general, not because of my opinion (well I suppose that is an opinion, shot myself in the foot there).
My final point is breathing (hey it's 2.15 in the morning and I wanna go bed, gotta work at half ten and I'm going clubbing tomorrow (tonight actually) so I'm gonna try be as brief as possible, if at all possible). I bet you think you're the fucking shit at breathing. You could do it since day one. You can even do it when you're sleeping (not when you're unconscious though ya stupid fuck). Well here's what dickhead, you're fucking crap at breathing. Hate ta break it to ya, but here's how it goes. I think I'm being fairly obviously in saying that if we didn't breath we would die (wow I am buzzinggg to say something retarded like that), but I bet you didn't realise just how important our good o2 is. The minute you get out of this smoketrap of a city we call London, the minute you realise how shit the quality of our air is. There's a reason people who live outside the cities are the way they are, although it does turn them a bit funny let's not beat around the bush). A while ago I borrowed a book called Healing without Freud or Prozac: Natural Approaches to Curing Stress, Anxiety and Depression without Drugs and without Psychoanalysis , link here, had to Amazon that fucker, happy now. It was a pretty amazing read, I thoroughly recommend it, although you may have to hide behind something else on the bus, unless you want people thinking you're a bit loopy. Basically the first chapter is about breathing, and some simple exercises to enter your brain into a state of high concentration, I'm not gonna go into it now (read the book for fuck sake) but by learning how to control your breathing you can easily make a potentially damaging situation into a good one in the blink of the moment. Learning how to control your breathing through sex is also VERY intense, I think there's some shit about it in the karma sutra or something. I bet hardly any of us have ever tried to meditate, but there's so many good things about clearing your mind and thinking in a productive way, hell how the fuck do you think we have evolved from shitting in our hands to 4 blade razors. The basic concept of meditation is to think about nothing but your breathing, concentrate only on taking in the perfect breath and feeling yourself exhale, this is harder than you think, I've been trying it for a while now on and off and I can't say I've ever properly been in a state of meditation. Most of the time I use it to get to sleep, which I suppose you could call a state of meditation, more rest and dreamtime if you're being anal.
I could probably go on longer, but I can feel my brain melting and I have a gnarly day tomorrow so I might round it off. Apologies also if I've made you feel like a retard by stating the obvious so much, but sometimes it just needs to be done. So yea, I'm not condoning the use of drugs, shit I take as much as the rest of you, but I can definitely see myself getting bored of them, already bored of this shit that we keep shoving up our noses, meph, mioaw miaow or whatever the fuck you wanna call it (who calls a drug mcat, I mean come on), cheap knock off in my opinion. I think we may have all skipped a beat in taking so much so early in our lives, people say you make your friends at uni for life because they're the people you first take drugs with, but I know there's already certain people in my life who aren't going anywhere anytime soon because of the scatty times we've had that have brought us closer together, or at least I hope not. Shit some of us even go back primary school days, christ. What else, oh yeah eat right drink right breathe right and err, think right? think that's everything I dribbled about for a good hour, never get that back again. Stay positive
Less drama think about karma
James
Sunday, 24 January 2010
Haiti
Starting these off again after some recent goings on
The recent earthquake in Haiti is in the record books as one of the largest natural disasters known to man. So far, over one hundred and fifty THOUSAND bodies have been buried, according to the government. Here is an alarming quote I lifted from a hit off Google:
"Nobody knows how many bodies are buried in the rubble — 200,000? 300,000? Who knows the overall death toll?" said the official, Communications Minister Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue.
Port-au-Prince, the capital, had a population of 1,082,800 before the earthquake, so that means that literally 1 in 5 people are dead, that's quite outstanding. For fuck sake, the last time that many people died a nuclear bomb was dropped, something's going on. How long until a major international city such as Tokyo or Los Angeles gets completely wiped off the face of the fucking planet? The damage done to the city of Port-au-Prince is pretty incredible, I severely doubt there will be much activity there for at least a couple of decades, the whole fucking city is full of bricks and dead people. If this happened to a city as important to the world like LA or Tokyo (which are both near fault lines in the tectonic plates, Tokyo sitting in the middle of a joining of 3), the amount of global chaos that would ensue would be unbelievable. Can all these recent disaster movies at the cinema come a reality? It's on the fucking news. Films portray recent goings on, there's a film about 9/11 and countless other films re-enacting important events, think about how many fucking war films there are. We are breaking our planet and we know it.
Wow, just re-read that paragraph and it what a way to shit in a sandwich that is. Try read that in the morning and have a good day. No way. Didn't really come on here to make people wanna jump so I'll try get back to the original retarded thoughts I had bubbling away up there when I turned on this fucking thing because I couldn't sleep. Even though this is one of the single biggest natural disasters in the history of mankind, what have you personally done for the people of Haiti? This isn't a guilt trip, I haven't done a fucking thing believe you me, the closest I've heard from anyone I know saying they did something good for Haiti was go to a rave in aid of them. Wow, so you won't help them out of the blue, but if they put on a sick night for you and your mates to go and get completely off your trolley at you're all for it. Nice. I can't be bothered to do any gnarly math right now, (it's 4 in the fucking morning even if there is a calculator button in the top right hand corner of my keyboard) but if everyone in the world who could afford to give like a quid or something did, these people would be in haiti would be driving round in ferrari's or something. OK, maybe not to that extent, but there's 6 billion people in the world for crying out loud. Thing is, there's all this shit about they ain't even getting aid so it's not like i'll be putting a pound into the box at greggs in luusham anytime soon, that pound coin is strictly for steaky bakey purposes. mmmmmmmmmmmm
Expect a couple more of these from now on, I doubt they'll be daily (hell it was my new year's resolution to not just switch on my xbox as soon as I fucking got in from work and just nerd out on it till bedtime) but I'll try keep it like twice a week or something, maybe even go a bit more personal than just the random shit that I used to post up on here last year (re-read some of those earlier... wow memories), I'm not sure. Looked about at some other people's (a certain ex girlfriend of mister john nash petherbridge) and wow that is some next level of stalk. I felt kind of abused to be honest, maybe it was just that one. Shit already got a bit too personal, might get in trouble for that. Better quit while I can.
More thinking less drinking?
James
The recent earthquake in Haiti is in the record books as one of the largest natural disasters known to man. So far, over one hundred and fifty THOUSAND bodies have been buried, according to the government. Here is an alarming quote I lifted from a hit off Google:
"Nobody knows how many bodies are buried in the rubble — 200,000? 300,000? Who knows the overall death toll?" said the official, Communications Minister Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue.
Port-au-Prince, the capital, had a population of 1,082,800 before the earthquake, so that means that literally 1 in 5 people are dead, that's quite outstanding. For fuck sake, the last time that many people died a nuclear bomb was dropped, something's going on. How long until a major international city such as Tokyo or Los Angeles gets completely wiped off the face of the fucking planet? The damage done to the city of Port-au-Prince is pretty incredible, I severely doubt there will be much activity there for at least a couple of decades, the whole fucking city is full of bricks and dead people. If this happened to a city as important to the world like LA or Tokyo (which are both near fault lines in the tectonic plates, Tokyo sitting in the middle of a joining of 3), the amount of global chaos that would ensue would be unbelievable. Can all these recent disaster movies at the cinema come a reality? It's on the fucking news. Films portray recent goings on, there's a film about 9/11 and countless other films re-enacting important events, think about how many fucking war films there are. We are breaking our planet and we know it.
Wow, just re-read that paragraph and it what a way to shit in a sandwich that is. Try read that in the morning and have a good day. No way. Didn't really come on here to make people wanna jump so I'll try get back to the original retarded thoughts I had bubbling away up there when I turned on this fucking thing because I couldn't sleep. Even though this is one of the single biggest natural disasters in the history of mankind, what have you personally done for the people of Haiti? This isn't a guilt trip, I haven't done a fucking thing believe you me, the closest I've heard from anyone I know saying they did something good for Haiti was go to a rave in aid of them. Wow, so you won't help them out of the blue, but if they put on a sick night for you and your mates to go and get completely off your trolley at you're all for it. Nice. I can't be bothered to do any gnarly math right now, (it's 4 in the fucking morning even if there is a calculator button in the top right hand corner of my keyboard) but if everyone in the world who could afford to give like a quid or something did, these people would be in haiti would be driving round in ferrari's or something. OK, maybe not to that extent, but there's 6 billion people in the world for crying out loud. Thing is, there's all this shit about they ain't even getting aid so it's not like i'll be putting a pound into the box at greggs in luusham anytime soon, that pound coin is strictly for steaky bakey purposes. mmmmmmmmmmmm
Expect a couple more of these from now on, I doubt they'll be daily (hell it was my new year's resolution to not just switch on my xbox as soon as I fucking got in from work and just nerd out on it till bedtime) but I'll try keep it like twice a week or something, maybe even go a bit more personal than just the random shit that I used to post up on here last year (re-read some of those earlier... wow memories), I'm not sure. Looked about at some other people's (a certain ex girlfriend of mister john nash petherbridge) and wow that is some next level of stalk. I felt kind of abused to be honest, maybe it was just that one. Shit already got a bit too personal, might get in trouble for that. Better quit while I can.
More thinking less drinking?
James
Sunday, 24 May 2009
Sport
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
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
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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