A thought for 2007

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to all blogging friends.

New Release - Mirage CD

Mirage, the long awaited cd from Geoff & Cathy, is finally out. Recorded in Newport (Pembrokeshire, West Wales), it features Geoff mainly on flutes, plus soprano sax, shenai, zithers, jaw's harp, percussion, & voice; Cathy on voice, harmonium, tampura, percussion & singing bowls; plus special guest Chris Rogers on tampura. The music is inspired & influenced by the North Indian Raga Tradition, Contemporary Folk & Jazz Improvisation, & the natural beauty of the Preseli Mountains in West Wales.
As for availability, we're still checking out potential distributors, & hope the cd will be fairly easy to find by late January / early February. We are planning a low-key intimate presentation concert in March, to be held in Newport itself. The cd is released through Hard World, the label shared with the Ex Wise Heads. (Catalogue Number HW CD 004). If anybody out there is really desperate to get their hands on this music now, please feel free to contact me here giving your private email - I will try & sort out a way of getting the cd to you safely - £12 including postage. More news as it arrives! Sorry but for contractual reasons I can't put up any mp3's from it yet - you'll just have to trust me on the quality control front - or wait! Special thanks to the Arts Council of Wales for financial assistance.

Hipsick Alienation Theory In Practice

Well here she is - my beautiful daughter & co up to even more crazy (beat) trix in Holland.

More info -----> www.state-xnewforms.nl

Poor ol' George

Poor ol' George - he always did have problems with spelling - country to c**t-ery he still needs a map and a dictionary, let alone a made in Texas gold armour plated brain protection cowboy hat, just in case nobody recognizes him.

Faust @ ICA

Marian Graham - Art Exhibition

So if you live around the Bristol area & want to see the smallest art gallery there, this will be right up your street. A dear old friend of mine Marion Graham, expert in Double Speak, PunGuage, Iron-Ying, Nab Talk & other sundry communications oriented media, is having a ThumbNailistic show in Bristol's "newest & youngest" art gallery, Room212. Finishes 12th November.

www.room212.co.uk

More MCCB Alien Take-Aways

Looks like the MCCB site has crashed somewhere off the north-west coast of Cyberia - apologies to any folks out there waiting on new downloads - there should have been 9 more tracks available very soon, but that's not going to happen......just yet....

We're trying to either get things fixed, and / or start a MySpace Black Sheep page, as this is the only one of the MCCB groups with a future it would seem!

Alternatively we might use a download hosting site - stay tuned.

Later.

FAUST - New Films, Book, & CD Launch @ ICA London 1/2 December 2006

Press Release from Ankst Records :

This event will also see the launch of the new cd box set of Faust live in the UK, Autumn 2005.

EVENT TITLE - KINO ANKST

DATE - FRIDAY DECEMBER THE 1ST 2006

LOCATION - ICA , THE MALL , LONDON SW1 ( Cinema 1 +2 / BAR )

VENUE + BOOKING INFO - WWW.ICA.ORG.UK Tel : 02079303647

ICA PRESS OFFICE – EMMA PETTIT - Tel : 02077661406 EMMAP@ICA.ORG

SCREENING TIMES/PRICES :

Fri Dec 1st – CINEMA 1 – 8.30 – FAUST : NOBODY KNOWS IF IT EVER HAPPENED (2006) + Q&A + ENTRY INTO CLUB NIGHT (KOSMISCHE DJ’S)
£9 Full / £8 conc / £7 members.

Fri Dec 1st – CINEMA 2 – 6.30 – Y LLEILL (THE OTHERS) (2005)
Sat Dec 2nd – CINEMA 2 – 6.30 – Y LLEILL (THE OTHERS) (2005)

ANKSTMUSIK will be premiering their new film about German Krautrock legends Faust called NOBODY KNOWS IF IT EVER HAPPENED (2006) at the main cinema in The ICA. JEAN HERVE PERON from Faust will be attending the screening, and doing a Q+A session with ANDY WILSON, author of the newly released book FAUST : STRETCH OUT TIME 1970-1975. The film NOBODY KNOWS IF IT EVER HAPPENED is a concert film, featuring the band at the height of their powers playing an explosive concert at The Garage, London, in December 1996.

After the screening in the bar DJ’s from London’s KOSMISCHE Club and Radio Show will provide post screening musical entertainment - this includes the promise of brand new Faust music. The band will be releasing an album of new music in 2007. The film will be premiering at The ICA exactly ten years to the day of the actual extraordinary concert featured in the film. Earlier in the evening ANKSTMUSIK will also be showing their award winning debut feature production Y LLEILL (THE OTHERS) in Cinema 2, with a second performance on Saturday.

This BAFTA award winning bi-lingual (Welsh and English) first feature from EMYR GLYN WILLIAMS (ankstmusik boss, and producer of both Y LLEILL and NOBODY KNOWS IF IT EVER HAPPENED) is a contemporary tale about music and other less important things.

FILM DETAILS :

FAUST: NOBODY KNOWS IF IT EVER HAPPENED ( 2006)
A concert film / 90 minutes / colour / ankstmusik productions.

‘In the midst of FAUST’s music time ticks like a bomb!’
Faust manifesto - 1973.

STARRING…
Jean Herve Peron
Werner ‘Zappi’ Diermaier
Hans Joachim Irmler
Steven Wray Lobdell
Insa Winkler

On Sunday 1st of December 1996 legendary Krautrock pioneers Faust played an explosive concert at The Garage , London. The film is faithful to the sound, fury and disorientation of their performance as it takes the viewer into the thrilling ‘here and now’ of that packed venue on that winter evening. The band’s usual instrumentation was augmented on the night by amplified power tools, arc welders, hay threshing machinery, and in an evening of action painting, nudity, destruction and creation the band more than lived up to their promise of creating more of a happening than a standard concert.

Y LLEILL (THE OTHERS) 88 mins (15)
Welsh with English subtitles/Colour

WINNER ! BEST FILM BAFTA(CYMRU) 2005
WINNER ! BEST FILM SWANSEA BAY FILM FESTIVAL 2006
RUNNER-UP! AUDIENCE AWARD CARDIFF SCREEN FESTIVAL 2005

Y LLEILL (THE OTHERS) is a bi-lingual film about music and other less important things. The lives of a group of young aimless musicians (Y LLEILL) are examined as they play two concerts over a wintry weekend in North Wales. The importance of music to the individuals and the society they exist in is examined in the film. Music is played, recorded, stolen, attacked and censored. As Y LLEILL play their music, the hypocrisy and deceit that exists between the young characters and the resistance to their music that exists in the wider Welsh society is revealed. Manipulative guitarist and singer Pati (Rhian Green) starts the film by stealing the records she can't afford and sets Y LLEILL on a collision course with the established order.

Meanwhile lead singer Rob (John Reynolds) is a different kind of thief who blindly follows his own desires oblivious to family and friends. These fragile relationships are set to explode on stage as the band edge towards one last truly 'revolutionary' performance.

A contemporary tale shot through with politics, small town paranoia, and rock 'n' roll.

ANKST RECORDS: http://www.ankst.co.uk
FAUST-PAGES: http://www.faust-pages.com
KLANGBAD: http://www.klangbad.de
ZAPPI: http://www.zappi-w-diermaier.com
ART-ERRORIST: http://www.art-errorist.de

My Space - Your Call

Had to happen sooner or later - finally signed up.....

http://www.myspace.com/geoffleigh

I'll be your friend if you'll be mine, for ever and a day.

More knobs/buttons/urls/links/blinks/pastings/postings/virtual payments etcetc

Aliens Caught Jester In The Act

Just as every King must have a Court, so every Court must have a Jester. The Jester is another variation of a Jungian archetype, linked inextricably for better or worse with The Fool (Tarot), The Scapegoat (they're everywhere), The Monkey (Buddhist mythology), The Trickster (poor old Carlos Castaneda was a victim of that one!), and to a lesser extent The Black Sheep (say no more). Originally one of the most important pivotal characters of medieval life, History has sadly reduced him to a kind of anachronistic clown-like figure of fun, stripped of all his powers, which apart from his role as entertainer-in-chief, included giving advice and informed opinion on many state and political matters. His very existence was in a constant state of flux, walking a thin red line between total respect or death by execution, depending on his King's whim or mood of the moment. This precarious lifestyle no doubt helped fuel his incessant search for Truth and Wisdom, as many of the Kings were certainly not very bright, being mostly a bunch of inbred aristos, with varying degrees of dysfunctionalism, not to mention subject to the occasional bout of total barking madness. So pleasing some of these demagogic loonies was not an easy task - you know what it can be like - for example being interviewed by someone official (Social Security and Housing Benefit Officers are probably one of the best modern examples), with the knowledge that you almost certainly have more intellectual capacities than them, but have to be very careful not to let them realise this, because it will piss them right off. In other words you have to dumb down simply in order to survive. Closely connected to The Jester is of course The Fool - in Tarot symbolism The Fool is the very first card in the pack - poised and ready to walk blindly over a cliff-edge - this is a metaphor telling us that the search for truth and knowledge starts with blind ignorance - The Fool is an empty canvas, waiting and ready for the first splashes of paint which will eventually develop into a picture, if not A Work Of Art. (To Be Continued).

Who's holding up the sky?

New Ex-Wise Heads CD "Holding Up The Sky" just released.

http://www.exwiseheads.co.uk

Cover statue/title by Lucianne Lassalle.

http://www.luciannelassalle.co.uk/recent_work.htm

And You Thought I Was An Alien?

Well it's Daughter Number Two's 26th birthday tomorrow (22nd August), and she seems to be carrying on one of the family traditions of extreme weirdness and other-worldly-strangeness! Check out http://www.hipsick.nl for more info and crazy photos from her merry troupe of performance artists / pranksters, apparently creating mayhem and chaos in the Netherlands and elsewhere - all sounds very familiar!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NADIJA!

LOVE YOU TO BITS BABY!

Photo-Shop Alien Cover Up

Well I don't normally blow my trumpet too loudly, but.....joking about Condoleezza's Photo-Shopped legs in my last post was in fact right on the button - never believe anything you read / see in a newspaper - only days later & what to we get - proof of doctored photos from the Middle East, & who was 1st on the case? The Blog Community - nice one. Difficult to take sides in such a war of dirty tricks from all sides.....but the Yanks have got the motivation, power, money, & resources to continue their lust for total control of the planet, & it's impossible not to sympathise with the Arab world's reaction to years of subjugation by the Western Bloc & their allies. All this ranting on about Nuclear/Biological Weapons in Iran, Korea, Pakistan.....where do you ever see any mention of exactly how many nuclear & biological weapons the USA or UK have stockpiled? Let alone Israel, the main recipients of American aid in the Middle East. Of course the information is all there, you just have to search a lot longer to find it, while we can read about "The Enemies" pile of horror-weapons everyday & everywhere. For all those non-political folk out there, wake up, get real - go to http://www.ceasefirecampaign.org & sign what is now becoming the biggest online petition in CyberHistory. Time to stand up & be counted.

Rice For The Starving Lebanese

Ahh Bless....Dear Ol' Condi (??) is back and (apparently) cooking on the black and white 88's like a seasoned trooper of the Old Sunday School whoopin' 'n' a yellin' The Word of the Lord Almighty himself to a crowd of Big Eaters - yeh, really looks like she's having a great time, really cool, very in the moment. Yes, when in Rome do as the Romans do - fiddle while it burns to the ground. What a way to get an appetite though, and just as The Almighty War Lord in person is knocking on the back door. Seriously though folks (how many times a day do I say that?) what do you think she's playing? Strange they don't mention that - well....why would they? Could be anything from Kletzmer to Gospel to Liberace to Mozart - first viewer to remotely get the right answer wins a week's holiday in Beirut - 2nd prize a lifetime with Condi. And whose idea is this "Condi" stuff? My mind leaps to words like Conditional, Condiment, Condimonium, Condimental, Condinuity, Condiffusing, Condinental, Condiscending, Condisfunctional, Condifferential, Condiforever. And so far nobody's yet tried to answer my previous question about her - what do you call a black redneck? Watching the news earlier - there she was with the Big Wig Zionists all fawning and crawling and posing and smiling for the cameras oh so efficiently, professionally, radiating the kind of positive energy that people expect from such shining beasts of diplomacy by stealth plane. Way out of my league, and possibly one of the most hated women on earth. And who Photo-Shopped her legs? What's going on there? Oh no......not another Michael Jackson scenario. No this is madness - the more I look at this photo, the more I'm convinced it's a fake.

Photo - The Guardian 29/07/06

Update 22/08/06

Go to

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Od1oBr1xcC0

to see the lady in question in action.

Vic, Henry, Deserts, and Resonance FM

For those of you who don't yet know, top British comedian Vic Reeves is a huge Henry Cow fan. In '03 he was on "Desert Island Discs", (for non-Brits, a radio show where celebs choose what trax they would take if they had to spend the rest of their lives on a desert island). Good ol' Vic chose "Nirvana For Mice" from "Leg End", the only old school "extended tenor sax workout" HC ever recorded, and featuring yours truly on tenor - so I was well chuffed as they used to say! As if that wasn't enough, he gave both La Vache and Fred Frith an excellent review in the Sunday Times (October '05). And now in this week's Guardian, a whole article (about time too!) on Resonance FM - extract above.

More in praise of HC.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/desertislanddiscs_20030309.shtml

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1820598,00.html

Thanks to Andy (Faust List) Wilson for checking the links.

andy@lshift.net

10/66 CrossCountry

The Black Sheep ARE coming back soon to a town somewhere near you even though thinly disguised as deck chair erectors, not an easy one to pull off in such a hostile urban inland atmosphere. We ARE the original Black Sheep - otherwise everyone would know about us.

A black sheep is not accepted, not given any social status other than that of the outcast, so how is it possible for that obnoxious creature to be known to the general public, and even famous in certain circles? A contradiction in terms. There are thousands of Black Sheep websites, from bands to record companies, wool-knitters, pubs, restaurants, breweries, computer games, speech therapists, sheep-shearing equipment suppliers - the list goes on and on. As far as rock bands go, we ARE the originals - we started using the name in 1980, the idea being to start the Black Sheep Liberation Front, fusing into the Black Sheep Liberation Front Music Orkestra - this never happened because we're such a lazy bunch of ex-hippies, so we settled for a trio - the Black Sheep. THE ORIGINAL BLACK SHEEP. With no chance of a website because all those bluffers and blaggers and bloggers got there first!

10/666 Country

So the party continued without them but the image they left behind simply started blending in to the background at an amazingly fast rate, the instrument panels barely registering a whisper while all the onlookers experienced something more related to an obscure H.P. Lovecraft fish fucks femme fatale under Hastings Pier scenario supposedly closed down by the nefarious Crowley Followers Crawley Chapter assuming the guise of deckchair attendants. Feelings ran high as the tide, the backlash waves lashing not just the walls of the citadel but the very heart of the beastly named 10/666 Country while the Council Of The Elders assumed total control of all throwing the democratic rulers book out of the window blown completely away the wind howling like bats on skulls the night taking over voices going unheard in the chaos of stasis and unchange.

Fully aware yet unable to move or react the ghosts hung also batlike upsidedownwards trying to see the world from another point of view in the eye of the storm still blinking under harsh lights of night as early birds washed in the scummy seafroth greenly stinking aftermath of some exotic equally wild out of control all nighter gathered their belongings for a final attempt to escape the clutches of the beach management committee members coincidentally on holiday at the seaside.

Unintentional Errorisms

Sorry to the people who've been leaving comments and not received any feedback (especially DJ Miles - sorry about my impatience etc). Needless to say it's down to me and my blurgin' lack of bloggin' knowhow!

Stoopid! The comments have been lying around dormant in some as yet unexplored bit of my blog - I've been waiting for them to turn up in my mailbox!!

Now found, so you are not forgotten! Sincere apologies!

Also apologies regarding my post from 22/03/06 "Fame @ Last" - of course I'm not the only person on the web who's into Gamelan music - simply that a full stop after an entry on the profile page "interests" renders it totally useless - so put those dictionaries away again and start enjoying the music!

Battle 4 Hastings 2006 - Continued

Oh what the hell - June/July sleepy times down on the South Coast. The Pier in Hastings remains closed - there are so many articles and opinions about it all in our local paper - no point in me chopping, hacking, scanning, uploading etc etc....better things to be doing with my life! So....for all interested parties, go to www.hastingstoday.co.uk and get the latest blabla on the whole mess!

Back soon with more real stories from The Deep......

Battle 4 Hastings 2006

So just as the summer heat finally arrives, and the pebbles are burning the incoming hordes of tourist's feet, catastrophe hits Hastings. The Pier has been closed following safety inspections, which have unearthed some serious infrastructure problems. These photos appeared in last week's (23/06/06) local paper, the "Hastings Observer", and now there's a right old row going on, with accusations of communication breakdowns between the council and the pier owners flying around like seagulls at a hot dog stand.
All of this on top of a whole pile of problems relating to the alleged "regeneration" of Hastings & St. Leonards.
More to follow - it's too hot to stay at home!
Manana?
PS. Is it just me, or this a bit of a weird face?

Sixes + Sevens

There's definitely a link between the history of rock/pop music & sixes + sevens.

Rock 'n' Roll hit the streets around 1956/7.

Psychedelia changed everything in 1966/7.

Punk appeared between 1976/7.

The rave scene & the 2nd Summer of Love 1986-7.

BritPop & Battle of the Bands - Oasis v. Blur 1996/7.

2006?

The supremacy of the Internet.

MySpace etc could soon be history.

2007?

The mind boggles!

The Blog Minders are here.

Mice in alien cat-raps?

I'm really pleased to say that the first ever "proper" (= not a bootleg) record I played on has finally been rereleased - "Mouseproof", by Gerry Fitzgerald. It has a special place in my heart, not just because "it was my first", but also because it was my introduction to the world of avant-rock typified by 70's groups like Soft Machine, Gong, and Frank Zappa's Mothers Of Invention. Through Gerry I met Daevid Allen, Didier Malherbe, Kevin Ayers, Robert Wyatt, & many other strange & experimental (for want of a better word) musicians, and last but not least....some very beautiful women of course! You can get the CD directly from www.sunbeamrecords.com or by simply typing "mouseproof" into a Google Search, which will lead you to quite a few other distribution points. The quality is not really 100%, (+/- 85%?), but after an initial pressing of 500, the next batch will be mastered from a better source copy. But whichever way you look at it, it's a nice album - Sunbeam have done a good job on the cover and artwork - almost the same cover as the original vinyl release, a very readable and informative booklet, details of the musicians playing, some new photos etc. Unfinished in many ways (thanks once again to the original record company, who pulled the plug at a crucial moment, and screwed up big-time on the promotion/distribution!), but pretty out there for the time. Check it out.......

First Pioneering Dope Bust

Ok enough of this blabla about even more blabla - time for the serious stuff, but condensed a bit. Drugs. Cannabis in particular. My 1st bust was in October 1964 - if that's not pioneering, tell me what is. Mitcham. What a tragic chunk of London (then and probably now as well) for such a crazy thing to happen. I was with 2 friends at a party for someone's birthday or whatever - most of the partygoers were connected with the YCND ( Youth Campaign For Nuclear Disarmament as it was then called) movement, myself included. I'd been Secretary of the local YCND group for some time. But the ol' demon weed was starting to sneak into the mix, and a lot of the more old school Communist Party members had a very hardline anti-drug stance. We'd {weed?} (all 3 of us) already had some problems with them - they actually grassed up (haha!) someone. All very friendly - solidarity with our comrades. So we figured it would be cooler to smoke a couple of spliffs outside rather than in "the room over the pub where the party was held". We found an alley just across the street next to a cemetery. I'd scored an ounce of topwhack grass that same afternoon, crammed into a piece of bulky newspaper like fish and chips. We skinned a couple up, decided to stash the grass in some grass (oh no not again!) rather than carrying it bulging out of my jeans like a banana or maybe a pistol. About to light up when 2 big looking guys appear from the other end of the alley. We freeze. They're coppers, just come off their shift - one of them had come out of his house (the very last house in the alley - classic!) to put a blanket over the engine of his car, as it was pretty cold. He'd heard us talking, heard me saying "Put a lump in here", got suspicious, went back into the house to get his other copper mate, walked up to us "hello-hallo-hello" style. We're nicked - stoned out of our crusts with no strategy or hope of doing a runner - rabbits frozen in the headlights stuff. They take us into the house. It's around 12.30 maybe. The heavy squad arrive - good cop bad cop stuff. More and more police start arriving, out of curiosity rather than anything else I guess - this was their first ever meeting with DRUG ADDICTS - unmissable. We had absolutely not a clue about our rights - nothing. One particularly bad-ass sergeant gives us a hard time of it, especially me. I've owned up to possession of the 2 joints, as they were mine after all. Not even realising that I wasn't legally obliged to say anything at all, I make up a cock 'n' bullshit story about where we bought the spliffs etc. He's just beginning to believe me, when another cop walks in with the ounce wrapped in newspaper - "Just found this outside in the alley sarge". They'd been searching the whole area with dogs. We are now well and truly screwed. I've blatantly lied to a large policeman, and he's not happy. They take us to the station. Even more blue meanies arrive - it's starting to feel like some crazy surrealist film. I'm (illegally) forced to make a written statement, and also forced to lie to protect my friends, let alone our dealer. And of course there was absolutely no way we'd be leaving the nick until we got bail, and our names and addresses have been checked out. Great - the younger guy's father has to come and bail us out. He's another not very happy man. I've just moved into a new flat that very same afternoon - not even unpacked - very sweet Irish landlady - the Drugs Squad hammering on the door at 2.30am - turn the whole flat over. She's not too happy either. We finally get out of the nick around 3.30/4am. By the time we get to court a few weeks later, the youngest of the 3 of us, who was only 15, has become badly freaked out, is on anti-depressants, and because of a previous silly bit of burglary was probably going to end up in Borstal - not a good deal. The only way out was for him to admit he was addicted to cannabis, but willing to undergo a "cure" (imagine this bullshit now!) - a good result the social workers said - minimum 6 months in a psychiatric hospital. I was fined £10, and told to go and spend some time with my parents (in those days you were a minor until 21, not 18 like now). The 3rd member of the crew was given a £5 fine. It was a class thing as much as anything else - the youngest was from a working class family - me and the other guy from middle class ones. My father was actually very cool about the whole affair - after all I'd gone to my 1st ever jazz gig with him and dear ol' mum when I was 12, and he turned me on to Jack Kerouac when I was 14.

More tales of dope busts, brushes with the authorities, confrontations with the police and, last but not least, lots of hassles with CUSTOMS OFFICIALS to follow. This time I will finish the stories.

No links, have radio, can travel

Sorry folks - still having a few problems with sites, links, photos, and my life (front tooth). Luckily there's usually a vague shimmering rainbow hovering restlessly somewhere over my head. This week it's come in the form of an online radio station, or podcastbluespot or whatever it's called.

Go to www.homegrownradio.eu for the latest Hastings /St. Leonards-On-Sea / Universal Time Zone Under/Over Ground Sounds. All contributions welcome, but not necessarily interesting enough for our slightly off-kilter tastes, so we can't guarantee you'll get any fresh-air-time!

In the meantime, the MCCB site has been down and out for a while now - should be back online within 48 hours.

PS. DJ Miles - you sent me a link but incorrectly, so I have no way of contacting you! If you're still out there give me a shout please.

Egosurfer

Egosurfer.

Great new word I discovered in a recently published edition of Chamber's dictionary.

SOMEONE WHO SEARCHES THE INTERNET FOR THEIR OWN NAME.

New one on me!

Quad Peaks

Squadraphonic Sonic BoomBox Bangin' Out Quadranoia Vibes ParaMilletSeed Of Doubt Blow Up For Nu-Terror Acts In The ZoobTube Reality Sandwich Caff Just Round The Corner Drop In Point.

(N)Euro-Ticker

So you'll have noticed an increase in the amount of erotica in my posts. (Update - deleted after some complaints!) No coincidence. Spring seems to have come and gone, and an old man's pre-summer thoughts turn to a younger man's "cor blimey fancy that.....whooaahhh" etc etc. All supposedly very normal and healthy. But still frustrating. And maybe not so good for the ol' ticker. Well I'm hopefully exaggerating on that score - I know of one jazz-man who died of a heart attack while on the job, although no doubt his years of booze and cocaine abuse put him in prime position for an early "death by orgasm" scenario. I can think of much worse ways of leaving the planet, so I suppose blessings in disguise are in order. Still.... many of my now dead jazz heroes are.....well....dead - but I'm still here, and recent health check-ups suggest I'm good for quite a while yet, despite my (secret) age and (former) lifestyle. Take note all you young folk out there - as Bill Hicks said, "not all drugs are good......some are great". I'm certainly not going to argue with that one. But no-one escapes the consequences of their actions - youthfulness walks blindly hand in hand with the idea that immortality is the name of the game. Crap. It's mortality, dear friends. Ultimate DEATH. Sooner or later that old Grim Reaper will be choosing his next batch of candidates for The Big Sleep. A serious post-code-lottery with no winners. Do losers take it all with them?

StopStart

I'm really good at starting things and then stopping them before they're actually finished. Could possibly be one of my major weak points, and a tricky habit to change. Even sentences (but not prison ones) get lost in the mist/mix on occasions - starting bright clear and sharp on a topic and then trailing off into Brando-esque mumblings and mutterings. Only difference being he got paid a hell of a lot of $$$ to do it, whereas I'm mostly pretty skint, and who in their right mind would pay me to ramble on and on about the more obscure aspects of life in general and mine in particular? Maybe on a subconscious level that's why I started blogging - once you commit yourself to being "in the public eye" on such an international level, it soon becomes clear that the sheep are rapidly separated from the goats. It becomes an addiction for some people. But there are so many half-finished blogs (I know I've mentioned this in an earlier post) out there, echoing the tangled web people call their daily humdrum (mmm....don't hear that word so often these days) existence, that you feel some kind of responsibility to struggle on, even though the end result might just be a load of old blabla (although blabla seems to have become quite a normal response to anything and everything which requires the slightest bit of actual thought, reflection, or intelligence these days). So when others stop, what do they start next? Another blog maybe? A new life in the sun etc etc? What about those poor souls who only write about cooking recipes, knitting patterns, pets, kids, neighbours, aliens etc? I'm desperately trying to carry on some kind of ancient (maybe even archaic) traditions of endless flow, flux, and change, without compromising my basic existential mainframe operational functions, or getting too involved in other people's lives. Each to his/her own. Already I've ended a couple of posts with the words "to be continued", "back on the case next week" etc, but check them out - still all unfinished! I guess I eventually get totally bored with things which at the time seemed really interesting and important, as if I was fulfilling some kind of social responsibility by writing about them, but - still just blabla for many bloggers. Simply massaging my own ego? The Burning Ideas Factory is still open, the flashes come and go, often in my dreams or a dream-like state, rejected or forgotten before they're even partially explored, and still hanging around at the back of the mind somewhere like an uninvited guest overstaying their welcome. At least in Cyberland you can well and truly get lost with head up proverbial arse and not even a portaloo in sight. In a sea of shit who needs toilets? Sorry - there are many good people (some of them even bloggers) out there in the Real World, but it's easy to get cynical, especially as cynicism (along with post-irony) now seems to be a legitimate philosophy (religion?) to embrace - sad but true. You just never know whether people are taking the piss or being serious these days. Haha! On a really serious level now - I've finally taken the plunge and decided to put more of my cheapo camera/software generated digital art experiments online - some of them have been hanging around on my hard drive (whooo!) for the last year or so - I've really had to think about the realness of it all before jumping in too fast.....now I probably won't stop! A new day, a new game to play?

Erratica

Caged Beast

Hands On/Off

Flow Job

First Crash Out

Whoops.....they did warn me.....

changed the colour of my template and lost all my links,

not to mention the site meter....

hopefully back online by tomorrow....apologies to any serious

viewers, remote or otherwise.

Alien Count

Site Meter figures based on 111 visits since the meter was installed a month ago - estimated 500 visits since 1st January - wouldn't want to alienate anybody by deliberately faking the total. So 611 visits to date seems honest enough, given the fact that I've had just over 800 profile views in the same period of time. So now I can start seriously checking out those pesky alien visitors.

Angels

thought for the day.....

angels rush in where fools fear to tread....

Alien Virus

I'm not trying to cash in on all this alien {as in extra terrestials rather than the "illegal aliens" we read about, especially from the good ol' USA} stuff - in my naivety it never occurred to me that there would be so many people out there who actually do believe that not only do aliens exist, but are already here among us, probably in human form. Clever bastards wotwot! (The aliens, that is, not the believers). Aliens only exist in the mind - projections of our own alienation from a society rapidly going down the pan. Read Carl Jung on flying saucers (1958), or Daevid Alien on flying teapots (1968 until forever) for that matter. Oh sweet mystery of life. All this to say that the MCCB Global website has apparently been infected with an alien virus previously unseen or heard of in cyberland. Is this just the beginning? Or the end? Both? Is it all actually true? Another GoogleGag? The experts are on the case as we speak, so my people will be getting back to your people to deliver an explanation of the situation in no uncertain terms. After all, we need the alien vote in order to stay in power. In the meantime - blog off.

Another Line To Cross

No news for a while here from the sea-front as I've been in sunny West Wales for a couple of weeks supposedly working.....if music be the food of love etc etc....mountains, babbling brooks, blue-rinse sheep, wild winds and driving rain, idyllic sunsets, overhung sunrises, trees that sound like foreign tourists but look like local hairstyles, people that say "lovely day" (for no real reason except maybe sleeping, shopping, eating, dying, as in "lovely day for shopping isn't it?").

Meanwhile time floats invisibly past, dreams don't come true, all my old friends are out there doing it, while I sit here moaning like the sad old bastard my kid brother says I've become - what more can I ask for? None of the essential trappings of modern society are forcing me to do anything except sleep for too long, talk for even longer, dreaming of some hopelessly outmoded state of consciousness beyond my comprehension let alone reach.....I have a roof over my head, a garden which could be a stepping stone to paradise but which in reality is a right old mess, a car, a computer which I still haven't paid for, loads of software I can't be bothered to learn how to use, two beautiful daughters, a soprano sax, a few flutes, all sorts of antiquated instruments both acoustic and electric, an incurable although non-lethal neurological condition, a now very loose front tooth after inexplicably banging it on the corner of the tv set, a nicotine habit which is slowly killing both me and apparently everyone else within a square kilometer of my emissions (at least the nocturnal ones are harmless enough until scientists tell me yes please do tell me otherwise), a mountain of pills to take every day, a valley of death to cross, a thousand tunes to write, a library of books to read. Theoretically this should all keep me going for a while, if I choose to continue on this road to nowhere.....I guess nowhere is better than somewhere I don't want to be?

The Grim Reaper

Almost had a short sweet meeting with The Grim Reaper. First time, and obviously not the last, otherwise I wouldn't be here to tell the tale. Driving on the M25 Friday evening around 7.30pm. Bank holiday weekend so more traffic than usual. Stop start stop start stuff. Finally get moving a bit. I'm in the outside lane, getting up to about 60 mph. I look away from the road for barely a second to grab some gum. I look back - brakelights on full red everywhere, except mine. Jam on the brakes. Skid to the left. Tyres screech, burning. Some space miraculously opens up in front of me. Instinctively try and steer out of the skid. Bad move. Lose control almost completely. Tyres burning even more. Zig-zagging across all 3 lanes thinking this is really it. All so fast not even time for the "whole life flashing past me" mini-clip ritual. Memories of driving lessons kick in subconsciously. I'm steering into the skid now. Foot still glued to the brakes. The car finally stops, stalled, just a few metres from the hard shoulder. I've done an almost complete 180 degree U-turn at 40/50 mph. I was very lucky - slow moving trucks were in the 2 inside lanes, and the cars immediately behind me had slowed right down, so I was face to face with a line of stationary vehicles. Started the engine, pulled off the road, switched off, got out, not sure whether I was in shock or not. No shaking anyway. Take a swig of water. Roll a ciggie. Look at the tyres - seem ok. Rear offside bumper pushed a bit out by the pressure of the tyre against it I guess. But no other damage. Shock absorbers ok. Brakes working. Chilled out for 10 minutes. Drove the 80 or so miles back home in quite a relaxed state. Woke up this morning - that was enough....

Backstage Blow

Warming up the old tubes backstage.

Faust gig @ The Metro Club, London, 02/11/05.

Aliens In Counter Insurgency

Finally got broadband sorted out as I'm fed up with all this time hanging around waiting for downloads, upgrades, leftbehinds, upfronts and all the rest of the package(s) that goes/go with joining the online/one liner virtual community geek parade-ground, standing to attention with the eternal repetitive brain injury brigade. The Frazzled Fifer returns from a well earned break beat holiday camp, only to discover intermittent alien sub-based freakwencies have distorted the virtuality meter into oblivion, probably somewhere between the DogStar Serious and Bill Burrough's spatially evacuated ashes. Which is a lot of space. And lots of meteors. All of which has nothing to do with aliens - current blogs closely encountered during a recent interfacial search gave a final random count down average of 295,360, (which is a lot of aliens). As for insurgency - this is now simply an ongoing global phenomena so enormous that the counter would never have even been accepted by the dis-servers in the first place. So I got a hit culture counter as well. Need to find out who/where those pesky aliens are very soon......

Rice, Lenny, & Sly

Couldn't resist this one - Dear Ol' Condoleezza - courtesy of The Observer 09/04/06.

Tricky one eh? I mean, how politically incorrect is one allowed to be when dealing with politicians who should perhaps be arrested on charges of conspiracy to incite and / or commit crimes such as genocide, mass murder, religious war, and a few other small errors of judgement?

Especially when they happen to be a black female right wing newborn evangelical creationist intelligent design worshipping fully paid up christian ? Words fail me.....well no they don't, but there are borders between thoughts, and words spoken (or worse still - written), which I suppose we have to respect. But with a little imagination I'm sure most people could come up with a few ideas. I can remember Lenny Bruce in the early 60's calling a spade a spade a time or two, and of course they had to shut him up somehow, so a slow death by state-instigated-drug-fuelled paranoia was a good way for him to go. Things have changed.....there was no such thing as political correctness in his day, which didn't mean he got away with it all - quite the opposite. On every single stage appearance he made he could be and often was arrested for all sorts of crimes - obscenity (you simply could not use words like fuck, motherfucker or pussy in public then), references to his drug (mostly heroin) habit, slander (for the corrupt politicians), a lot of racial abuse (references to kikes, spics, niggers, jews, chinks, etc), and anything else the Book Of The Law could find. I remember Sly And The Family Stone in the late 60's singing "Don't call me Nigga, Whitey - Don't call me Whitey, Nigga"....They knew what was going down, they knew what they were doing, they knew EVERYBODY would get uptight on that one. Except all those people who had already gone way beyond that barrier, slipped past the metaphor, sliding gently towards some newly found miniscule taste of freedom. All suggestions welcome.....but just for starters - a random question :- What do you call a black redneck?

Ad Hoc (Key) Styx

This shot has a bit of history. Original photo taken in early 80's.

Chosen as part of a "body and objects" project.

Published in exhibition catalogue.

Exhibition itself was seen all over Holland and parts of Belgium.

Recycled in '05 as a magazine advert for Ad Hoc Records, producers

and distributors of the re-released MCCB compilation CD

"Things From The Past", plus 6 other re-releases.

There are now 12 titles on Ad Hoc,

all only available on vinyl until now.

Strange Daze

What a day for a strange daze....1st thing this morning, I thought yes - check out any blogs with connections to Brighton - I lived there for quite a while, and as I'm only 35 miles down the A259 coastal ghost road (as the Hyundai flies), I go there fairly often. So - the very 1st blog that came up was the Daily Photo (www.brightondailyphoto.blogspot.com) and the photo of the day, (nothing to do with the photo above), posted only the night before, was one of a good friend and fellow mad-sax-man-do, the ubiquitous Gary Cove, busking in the Brighton Pavilion Gardens! Now....how would you describe that - coincidence or synchronicity? There were already 4 or 5 comments on the photo, mainly from "international correspondents" of the same organisation. I left a message mentioning that he's having a bit of a hard time of it at the moment, encouraging all passers-by to give generously out of the kindness of their wallets. Gary is yet another of those great musicians destined to never make it into the big time, because that's just the way it goes sometimes (look at me!), but if you're in Brighton, take a stroll into the Gardens - there's a good chance he'll be there, blowing some beautiful soprano saxophone till the cowslips cry...........thanks Gary!

I've been updating some of my earlier posts - check out the Archives from November - more words added to "Shadows" and "The Dance", also marking the introduction of Es-quim-O'Nell into the mix, or at least the blow-up doll remix of her.....steady on now boys, no rush...

Full Moon Beach Party

full moon beach nonparty windfeeze factor 23 skidoo lefthand{}sidedown upyours mine to keep 4evakeep the key the qi chi the tie/thai nots and lots for sale today/ze + tomorrow's pART- eez never say diedin the bull gothmagorick trix of the tray-ed/out right sides ball-foot match ~~lucifer fallenhumpty-style down +further down dumptywaste matter inbin{}}{upsurge inn-ta-resting sloganisers back to more shit & the differing levelsss... chicken shit = everyday stuff good morning my dear lovely day more sugar late already miss the train going back early again must rush love you me too. bull shit = when this stuff becomes fixed, ritualised, repetitive, eating away at the underlying reality of the superficiality. elephant shit = the final desperate stages of human life as we know it - the infinite joy and variety of emotional richness that makes up the subtle subnetwork-like beauty of existence has disappeared completely, leaving behind simply a script, a template to be stuck to right up to the very end. full moon out of reach party sunfactor number 9 come in come now come quickly all yesterday's pART--ee>>zz gone home for the weekend a little something for the weekend sir nowwhere does all that come from? full full feeling the hairsc on the back of the neck the nape the fur trying to brake thru the night the howl the chheek + Jowell -=bejewelled stars in yer eyez

Aliens All @ C Again

It seems my destiny is leading me more and more into yet another deep black hole in this digitally overgrown underground. I've just signed up to the new Hastings Arts Forum (HAF), only to discover (of course - obvious really!) that the hand that might feed me has nevertheless already been bitten by my subversive attitudes to certain aspects of the art world, the whole internet phenomena, and pretty much anything else connected to them both. There I am sticking my neck out, criticising the (local) powers that be, especially this business surrounding non-payment of work done on the newly refurbished De La Warr Pavilion (DLWP), only to find myself potentially profiting from their contributions to the local arts scene. Now I feel like some kind of wannabe, playing both sides of the game, sounding off at the same people who might one day be filling my stomach and paying my rent. It's a dilemma - a blessing and a curse - past experience has taught me you can't have it both ways. If it means once again being banished to the metaphysical desert, I really don't know what to do next. What would you do? But there's absolutely no way I can compromise on these matters, simply because they do matter a hell of a lot. What kind of strategy can I adopt which leaves my conscience clear, while not rocking the boat so much that someone wants to throw me overboard? The walls do need to be shaken, the cages do need rattling, otherwise mass culture (now often disguised as underground culture) just eats up everything in sight, you and me included. It's the death of creativity to shut up and put up, and that is simply not my style. One of the main reasons I decided to call my blog Aliens@C (apart from the fact that I do like to be beside the seaside) is because it illustrates very well the basic limitations of the binary-code computer-speak world - written like it is with no spaces, a computer will always read it as an email address - the bloody machine can not tell the difference between an email address and a website! And of course it's neither! What's in a name? So much for Artificial Intelligence! Too much taken for granted - electricity, running hot water, fish and chips, letters through the door etc etc, let alone cyberland, blue tooth, MySpace (apparently not cool or underground any more, but corporate! Flava of the week hits the netpunters yet again - now it's Faceparty....well...it was yesterday anyway). What a crazy world we're helping to build. And then......CHINA......what do we do about that? Is it ok for mein host Google to be compromising freedom of speech by taking censorship on board in such a crass political manner? Drowning by the sea , not my cup of tea, can't even swim, just let me be.

Almost Jumped The Gun

Well there you go - not a single word about this financial mess in the local Hastings paper. Before I write anything too inflammatory too soon, I'll double check with the Bexhill Observer, although I'm pretty convinced there'll be nothing there either. Anyway.....now off to a very non-political weekend to celebrate my dear ol' Dad's 85th year on the planet....back on the case on Monday.

Jumping The Gun

I'm definitely jumping the gun here - I can't wait to get Friday's local paper to see what the De La Warr Pavilion have to say (if anything) about all this money owed to the builders (see my post "What would YOU do" for the background info). It's all looking a bit messy to say the least - so much money spent on a serious refurbishment, very well designed glossy expensive programmes, lots of publicity etc. Needless to say I'm secretly hoping and praying that they have absolutely nothing to say - this will be the perfect go-ahead for me to start making noises, starting off with simply emailing all their administration staff the original newspaper article, asking them if they have any comments. And of course even if they do reply, I'm convinced it will probably be just more blabla, well worthwhile following up. Back in a few hours on this one.

Fresh Garbage

As the old song goes - "Fresh Garbage" - it doesn't get much fresher than this.

The Street Where I Live

The street where I live isn't always quite this bad, but for sure some of the locals seem to think the world is their rubbish bin. Unfortunately the flat behind the abandoned supermarket trolley is where I live. I was so pleased when the council installed these bins, but less enthusiastic when they started to get filled to overflowing, resulting in cats and seagulls ripping open plastic bags looking for fishy food. It could be much worse I guess - in another time/space frame, it could be you or me doing the same thing, just like some of our not-so-well-off-not-so-far-away fellow humans.

What would YOU do?

In case you're new to Blogger and not quite sure of the ropes (like me!), here's what to do to read this (badly scanned) newspaper article :- left click on it - when the separate page has loaded, hover about with the mouse in the right hand bottom corner until the"Expand to regular size" icon appears, left click on it, and you'll get a larger readable version. Happy blogging.

Slipping Sliding Simulacrum

A bit of light relief after this over-the-top politicising.

The boys enjoy a day out in a simulacrum of the newly

reconstructed De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill.

PoliticalCorrectNessMonster

Ok - I have now retracted my last post "Harper's Bizarre?" in it's original form, and condensed it down a little, as I found myself on some very tricky and potentially dangerous political ground - the last thing I want is to come across like some kind of right-wing-anarcho-lunatic, although perhaps even that could be an interesting alternative position to some totally blind and bland form of political correctness. The fact remains that there are many unresolved issues in the cultural arena at the moment - a real debate on some of these topics seems to have gained an almost taboo-like status, with the result that no-one is talking. Catch Phrases, Sound Bites, Neo PolitBuro Speak, and UnTruths are spreading like wildfire, with any opposition being stifled through a system of not very well disguised Control Mechanisms. I still stand 100% behind my original post, although it could easily have been misunderstood, and that's the only reason for the retraction. So.......lost but not forgotten - I intend to research and collate some "facts" concerning these issues, and publish them at a later date. Any contributions are welcome, particularly from any locally-based artists (or even politicians!) in the Hastings area.

Harper's Bizarre?

Firstly I have to say that these words are my own personal opinions, and do not necessarily represent the views of my fellow workers. Harper's is (was?) one of the best live music venues in Hastings (if you didn't know already, St. Leonards-On-Sea is part of an urban south coastal sprawl including Hastings and Bexhill). Experimental DJ/VJ/live musicians collective HomeGrown have a monthly residency there. Saturday 25th March :- amazing how chaos, confusion, synchronicity and misunderstandings can actually transcend the planning and expectations of a situation and transform it into something quite different and unique. Firstly : an unintentional double-booking meant sharing the bill with percussionist vocalist Nana Tsiboe's African hi-life band - no probs there really, Nana lives in Hastings, it's a small town, everyone knows everyone - there's an upstairs room and a cellar bar, although it took us all quite a while to realise that both groups could have been playing simultaneously without any real sound-spilling issues. Secundo : for a change, instead of our (un)usual VJ projections, Mr. Illuminati Top-Cat managed to convince Harper's to let us put up a seriously big canvas on their front window, and let a graffiti artist paint on it outside in the street. This was all filmed by our VJ man Jake using some high-power spotlights - the police had a bit of a nose around, (it was well after midnight, and the night the clocks went forward an hour!), but they soon went away, presumably (and quite correctly) assuming that we were not a threat or danger to public order, or actively breaking any silly laws. (Thanks a lot guys!) There's a good moral buried in all of this somewhere - the so-called ReGeneration of the Hastings area is "in full swing", but, as our local media are not telling us, there's a veritable minefield of socio economico politico culturico issues bubbling away under the surface and being totally ignored. Ok so now we can expect an influx of "young, high earning, educated, trendy, and sophisticated" tourists and new residents - very nice.......and then? What will these people actually be doing to support the local community, raise the profiles of local artists, and make some kind of contribution to real life here, apart from putting property and restaurant prices up? The arts scene here is just as close as it gets to the real thing - what happened in/outside Harper's that night was a spontaneously generated cutting-edge-mixed-media-event with no publicity, no (door) money, no subsidy, and no thank you from anyone except the few people who saw it, and the Harper's organisers. I recently performed at a mixed media festival in Berlin - the organisers paid everyone's expenses, accommodation (even if it meant staying with friends), and food for 3 days - in other words we were well treated and respected for our work - no subsidy was available, but the place was jam packed all the time, and even the strangest bands and performances went down really well. OK Hastings isn't Berlin, but unless audiences actually get the chance to see and hear new things, how can they decide what they like or don't like? It's not the place of the state or the media to make these decisions for people. Meanwhile back here the local arts centre St. Mary's In The Castle has pretty much had the subsidy-money-plug pulled - the future of the place for really serious artistic projects is now very uncertain, while a lot of subsidy goes to the White Rock Theatre, which presents "typically English seaside town entertainment". Fair enough, there are some community-related activities for young people going on there, but I can't see these new hip tourists and residents being that interested in weird nostalgic remixes of The Tommy Steele Show, The Black & White Minstrel Show, and an endless stream of Abba, Queen, Elvis, Beatles, Monkees etc covers band gigs. Apart from anything else, I always thought that these "Entertainment" affairs put plenty of bums on seats, and are financially speaking doing quite nicely thank you. So why do they need subsidising? The whole "Art" scene is something else. In the good ol' days most successful artists only became famous because they were already rich, or had some form of financial "patronage". The modern day equivalent of a patron is The State, which in my view has gone totally in the wrong direction. Art is definitely not a mirror - leave that to the White Rock and company - it is a hammer - not to smash or break things, but to reshape them. I'm no expert - maybe I've missed some essential snippets of information which would render this whole debate null and void, but my intuition tells me I'm on the right track. So what next? Getting back to the Harper's Happening - this was a great evening's "entertainment", but with a slightly arty edge to it - nothing elitist or inaccessible about African music, DJ's with live musicians, or graffiti artists - just the opposite in fact. The street meets the beat with no repeats and no bums on the seats because the media's in retreat. We don't do this to get rich and famous, we do it because it's what we want to do, and we refuse to play the game in terms of mass culture control thinly disguised as "sustainable community resources" along with all this "new-speak" slowly eating away at our language, turning it into meaningless jargon. We're not demanding tons of money, just the opportunity to express ourselves as we see fit, regardless of trends, fashions, political correctness, business speak, delivery deadlines, outmoded social and cultural parameters, the needs of the public/private sector to capitalise on anything and everything for it's own ends, or any of the other obstacles getting in the way of real progress in this cold world of art. All I'm saying is there is a lot more room for debate, and if I upset a few people along the way, it can only be a good thing - nothing wrong in gently rattling cages or shaking walls, unless there really is something to hide! And people have the nerve to ask me "Why Aliens@C ?" We'll see....

MCCB Take Over

Blimey O' Really - just realised how much the MCCB has taken over my life the last few days - rediscovering these photos with typically meaningless (or not) culture-babla addendumisms. The reason being of course the need to remind myself that I've been promising The Boss (no no not Bruce the bloody redneck Re-PUBliCAN --->>>THE REAL BOSS) to write the Official MCCB Story, a job I've been putting off for far too long now. It's not an easy one to do, mainly because it's so ridiculously surreal that probably a lot of readers will imagine it's all just made up. That's the problem with disseminating disinformation - "The Sheep v. The Wolf" scenario - if you invent too much stuff, in the end nobody believes anything you say! So please excuse this unconscious foray into that as yet unvirtualified not to mention linguistically solidified history, but do check out the MCCB site now and then - hopefully all will be made clearer as our lives slowly slip away into eternal ontological oblivion without a word or two left behind for future archivists. Still too young to die and too old to rock 'n' roll, but maybe in there with a very small chance to become some kind of gaga-guru. The net is such a great place for fools like me - full of blabla, nowhere to go, nothing to do, no time to even do nothing anyway - what a mess!

On The Beach

Black White & Grey Sheep's Eyes

Connect/click for a better view

Sheep Dreams 2

Sheep Dreams 1

My Personal Mental Zirkus

Berlin Berlin ------ I'm in love with you again. You can smoke almost everywhere, eating out is cheap (strong £?), nobody gets on your case for wearing an ex-East German Army hat to keep the cold war/wind out, the drug dealers usually fuck off when you tell them to.....yeh it's ok there. The Mental Zirkus came to town - something wicked this way comes said Ray Bradbury, and he was dead right, although in the increasingly fast ageing ancient-speak of the time, he certainly meant something quite different. Needless to say in time honoured fashion I spent so much time out I didn't get to see much of the action - setting up, taking down, painting, gaffering, installing, networking but mostly blabla-ing, eating, sleeping, getting totally smashed, chick-checking etcetc. But there are a few memories, mostly of my own experiences of course (?). Fast Faust man Jean-Herve Peron First kicked off the proceedings on the main stage with a solo performance involving a cement mixer, which almost blew out all the juice, so he couldn't use it anyway (a good thing probably!), a sewing machine, some power tools, and a large bin of pretty organic matter consisting mostly of old hay used for cow-bedding, corn husks, and some other smelly slightly gooy but definitely moist verging on wet bits, which of course he dutifully threw handfuls of over the audience! (Twice). Using a loop sampler he built up layers of bass, guitar, horns, voices, and machines. Very powerful - take it or leave it. Then he was also invited to join myself, Tom Zunk, Gunter Schickert and Elke Postler - unfortunately Tom got sick from some meat he ate and didn't play, but the show went on anyway - we were there to improvise, so it wasn't a major disaster - the music was fine, the audience liked it. No probs. Spent the rest of the night checking out some of the dvd/lighting/visuals/installations/artists - missed the other couple of groups that played. Next day I spent 5 or 6 hours setting up for my "Art is not a Mirror" performance. Full title (which was only "made public" on the day) "Art is not a Mirror, it is a Hammer" - involved a lot of painting, gaffer tape, metal wire, mirrors and hammers. But before that Tom (now fortunately recuperated!), Gunter, and myself played while Elke did her "Pink Salamander Dance". This was mostly a nice warm atmospheric 45 minutes on the smaller stage, so more intimate. We finished at around 9pm - theoretically I had an hour and a half to set up the whole stage/place for the mirror/hammer gig. As usual there were suddenly major changes to the programme - nobody seemed quite sure what was happening - remember I did get to see Scapex from Rotterdam, with Zirkus organiser Ron Lageweg on vocals - this was the Real Rotterdam Vibe of the whole weekend! Mean and dirty, spacey and trancey! Back to the schedule ---->> I was supposed to start at 11.30 pm - ended up as the final act, hitting the stage at 3.30 am. And why not I asked myself? Yeh I'm a fucking star man! (Well actually a previously unemployed but now self employed ex-underground cult hero). I went on stage with only 4 definite ideas - music at the beginning, the middle, and the end, and breaking a mirror. A great opportunity to wind people up in a friendly way - the packed-out waiting room captive gotcha where I want you scenario. Why am I here? Why are you here? Hours of waiting and waiting for what? And then maybe totally bored after 5 minutes or halfway through? In other words I really took my time! I wasn't there as a "performer" - this was no act, no theatre, this was me being me the crazed human part musician part performance artist at 4 in the morning, wandering around mumbling, what should I do, so many possibilities. "If you can't just sit there for 45 minutes without getting bored, there's no hope for you!". In a way I guess it's one of the best bits of "anti-art" I've done in quite a while. And the 3 pieces of music were fine - first Indian style flute to relax the place, then very spikey electronic vocals and flute, and to end some wild soprano with Tom on bass drum and Gunter on trumpet. No point in trying to explain the whole thing in detail, although I might give it a go later, but there should be a dvd of it available, and if not then certainly some photos - when that happens you'll be the first to hear and see about it. In the meantime though - many thanks to the Supamolly Club people, who were very helpful with the sound, lighting, and food (very nice!) - also Ron Lageweg who conceived the whole thing - another one maybe next year?

Fame @ Last

FANTASTICO!!

Fame @ Last.

Apparently I am the only Googly-Blagger on the whole goddamm world wide web that likes "GAMELAN".

This makes me very proud I can tell you!

I mean come on all you music loving guys and gals out there.....you don't know what you're missing!

Get your online dictionaries out and get real!

Home Sweet Home

Home Sweet Home indeed.....shattered, knackered, smashed out, mashed up, blown out, filled in, lost out, mixed up......just time to write something which requires no thinking whatsoever, in this case the lyrics to Home Sweet Home, copyright around 1980, yours truly.....

Feeling slightly off the mark, in the dark,

Looking sideways with a smile, for a while,

It could have been just anyone, knocking at your door,

Out of the cold like the morning sun, asking for more.

Feeling slightly kind of blue, what to do,

Looking seedy in a suit, what a fruit,

It could have been just anyone, knocking at your door,

Into the warmly moonlit back room, just like before.

Empty places are sometimes crowded, you just can't be alone,

But it gives you lots more incentive, to get back to your home sweet home.

Home is in your head they say, home is in your bed.

Home can be many places, different places instead,

(now improvise).

Feeling easy in a chair, anywhere,

Looking forward to the time, that is mine,

It could have been just anyone, knocking at your door,

Wondering if the day had begun, the night before.

Crowded places are sometimes empty, you just feel all alone,

But it gives you lots more incentive, to get back to your home sweet home.

Berlin Up Data Bass

X-TRA Info Berlin.

Go to : www.mentalzirkus.net for final line-up 3 + 4 March '06.

3rd - Ghetto Raga / Echodrive with Tom Zunk, Gunter Schickert, Jean-Herve Peron, + myself.

4th - "Art is not a mirror" - Audio Visual Performance/Installation, with me and the crew.

I'll do my best to write a review when I'm back @ HomeBass.

MoreVeg@Hamburg

Experimenting with a few
more pictures of myself,
Lucianne Lassalle, and
Tom Zunk in Hamburg,
September '05.....
2pm in the afternoon.



href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4028/1837/1600/t%201.jpg">

All photos copyright Uwe Schumacher.

www.uwegrafik.de

www.germanrock.de