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
Friday, 29 January 2010
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
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