Jimmy Kimmel and Paul Weller

This is my first iPhone post, so I'm extremely excited. I was also excited at this following vid. I didn't realise that Mr. Weller was known in the USA. Kimmel and Letterman have some superb bands on.

Start by Paul Weller -

http://youtu.be/JRjxSLuxZwk

Eligh, and Ford and Lopitan

Here's 2 videos for songs by artists I've only just become familiar with. The first is on the the good side of the 80s and is a fan made vid for a duo called Ford and Lopatin. The song is Joey Rogers. The second is an amazing artist called Eligh, from Los Angeles. He's pretty much what we'd called electronic or Leftfield (etc.) in the UK, but he seems to side with Hip-Hop in America, like artists such Flying Lotus. I found both artists via Band of the Day app on the iPhone. It's free and amazing, so please give it a try.

Manet, Morisot, and Goya.

Here's a link between three artists - Manet, Goya and Morisot.

This first one is 'The Balcony' by Edouard Manet. I think of him as king of the Impressionists but I know he's not really.

Manet, I've heard on the grapevine, was an admirer of Spanish art and so 'The Balcony' was influenced by 'The Majas at the Balcony' by Goya.

Lastly, one of the female figures in 'The Balcony' is Berthe Morisot, who introduced Manet to the impressionists. He associated with them, even though he didn't exhibit with them. Berthe Morisot is said to have encouraged Manet to paint plein air.

Enjoy!

Funny Animals, Goldspot and Emika

There's simply nothing funnier than funny animals. Have a go. No - see. Here is a pigmy hippo eating lettuce and a link to more funny animals.     

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/pictures-you-need-to-see-before-the-world-ends

Recently I downloaded an iPhone app called 'Band of the Day'. It's free and amazing. It gives you a new, and genuinely awesome, band everyday. Each band has reviews, a biography, clips from albums and more. Here's two great bands that I discovered.

Goldspot - 

Ina Mina Dika

Friday

Emika - 

Double Edge

 Double Edge, Live in Malta

3D Printing

This is one of many attempts to get back into the routine of blogging. I've never got so much to say but now I have the advantage of having lots of iPhone apps to give me interesting info.

This isn't from an app. It's just something I've been meaning to look up for a while. It's a 3D printer. I couldn't imagine how it worked, but I watched this vid and it blow my tiny mind.

Have a look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aghzpO_UZE

Banana iPhone

Here is the evidence for my claim that when I opened up my iPhone it was full not only of magic but also A BANANA! It appears that although Steve Jobs was a warlock, he was also a liar. Powered by banana and NOT powered by apple as claimed on pretty much everything.

Most Poisonous Animals

From time to time one may wonder what might be the most deadliestestest animals in the world. Some of them are also very beautiful. Just like life, sunshine and storms are often good fellows! I especialy like the poison dart frog - just beautiful.

Most poisonous animals in the world.

Jubilee Madness and a Chochlea Transplant

Here's the wonderful Madness at Queenie's party and a very sweet video of a boy hearing sound for the first time. Enjoy!

Dry the River

A second Dry the River track - No Rest. I love creative music videos and advertising etc. I feel like thre's been a bit of a drought since the 90s (in music vids anyway).

This is the blurb from under the youtube vid.

Dry the River created these huge paper-craft horse posters in collaboration with FOAM creative Xavier Barrade. This short film shows the posters being crafted and fly-posted. Xavier designed the horses in 3D with Google Sketch Up before printing out and assembling the component parts. Each horse took around 35 hours to build.

http://www.facebook.com/drytheriver
http://twitter.com/drytheriver
http://soundcloud.com/drytheriver
http://www.drytheriver.net

www.youtube.com/user/drytheriverofficial

Their songs are also available on iTunes, but I think that you should wait and buy a CD like the real human beings of olden times. I hate iTunes! Buy a CD.

I'm Back for a Brand New Attack (or something)

It's been ages since I posted anything, so here's a few tidbits.

This is a poem about waiting for your phone to vibrate, waiting for a message from your special person.


Waiting For the Buzz

Waiting for the buzz
that’s coming,
Wearing wings
or fins
(or something).
Who am I against this woman?

She is rather bold
(as brass),
Timid, kind,
Strong and funny.
A great petite tiger,
With the purr of a Persian cat,
Sat
on a steam train
that’s trailing off honey.
The windows are
maple leaves
and outside
it’s sunny.

Yet, in my chest
it is brass monkeys.
As cold as gold
bricks
shining, shimmering,
A trembling hand
that’s won
big winnings.

Who am I without this woman?
Waiting for a buzz
(that’s coming).

A villain
or a fiend
(or somone).
She can change my heart
from black,
Back to red
and back intact.
With her
I feel like
a comic book hero
on a tandem to Happiness
with Helen Shapiro.

Ramblings, randomly
assembled thusly.

Here’s the buzz.
From her?
It must be!

This is a new folk band from England called Dry the River. This video shows an interesting poster campaign they did with tin cans that played their song.

Lastly, is Clive Anderson's BBC Radio 4 show Loose Ends. Amongst the guests in this episode is the punk poet John Cooper Clarke. It'll expire sometime, but the show's good to look up anyway, whoever's on it. It's a big mix of things every week.

Loose Ends (with John Cooper Clarke guesting)

Hope you like it!

In Paris With You by James Fenton

I came across this and really liked it. I actually heard Stephen Fry talking about James Fenton, so this is the first poem that I found.


In Paris With You


Don't talk to me of love. I've had an earful
And I get tearful when I've downed a drink or two.
I'm one of your talking wounded.
I'm a hostage. I'm maroonded.
But I'm in Paris with you.

Yes I'm angry at the way I've been bamboozled
And resentful at the mess I've been through.
I admit I'm on the rebound
And I don't care where are we bound.
I'm in Paris with you.

Do you mind if we do not go to the Louvre
If we say sod off to sodding Notre Dame,
If we skip the Champs Elysées
And remain here in this sleazy

Old hotel room
Doing this and that
To what and whom
Learning who you are,
Learning what I am.

Don't talk to me of love. Let's talk of Paris,
The little bit of Paris in our view.
There's that crack across the ceiling
And the hotel walls are peeling
And I'm in Paris with you.

Don't talk to me of love. Let's talk of Paris.
I'm in Paris with the slightest thing you do.
I'm in Paris with your eyes, your mouth,
I'm in Paris with... all points south.
Am I embarrassing you?
I'm in Paris with you.

James Fenton

Mu-ziq and Modest Mouse

Just got these on random on my lovely Kenwood mp3 player. Nice start to the day!

Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson - Relator

Bikkuri, as they say in these parts, Scarlett's a good singer. I knew she had solo album but I'd never listened to any of her stuff. This was just the thing I was in the mood for.

Paul Klee

A great quote from Mr. Klee - 

"A line is a dot that went for a walk"

And I thought that this picture by his good self illustrated the quote very well!

“Animal Catching a Scent,” 1930, Watercolor and india ink on paper mounted on cardboard

The Rain Stick by Seamus Heaney

I heard this great poem on 'Poetry Please' on Radio 4. It's by Seamus Heaney.

  The Rain Stick   

Up-end the stick and what happens next

Is a music that you never would have known

To listen for. In a cactus stalk

Downpour, sluice-rush, spillage and backwash

Come flowing through. You stand there like a pipe

Being played by water, you shake it again lightly

And diminuendo runs through all its scales

Like a gutter stopping trickling. And now here comes

A sprinkle of drops out of the freshened leaves,

Then subtle little wets off grass and daisies;

The glitter-drizzle, almost-breaths of air.

Up-end the stick again. What happens next

Is undiminished for having happened once,

Twice, ten, and thousand times before.

Who cares if all the music that transpires

Is the fall of grit or dry seeds through a cactus?

You are like a rich man entering heaven

Through the ear of a raindrop. Listen now again

It's a Weezer-thon! Parte the third.

Keep Fishin'

"Oh girl when I'm in love with you, keep fishin' if you feel it's true. There's nothing much that we can do to save you from yourself."

Trippin' Down the Freeway

"I told you, you'd put on weight. You went out with someone called Kevin Green."

Dope Nose (Live in Camden)

"For the times that you wanna go and bust rhymes real slow, I'll appear, slap you on the face and enjoy the show."

Hash Pipe

 I'm pretty sure this is about a transvestite prostitute onSanta Monica Boulevard. It's funny that people just sing it like a hash anthem!

It's a Weezer-thon! Parte the Second.

El Scorchio

"But that's just a stupid dream that I won't realize 'Cause I can't even look in your eyes without shaking and I ain't faking, I'll bring home the turkey if you bring home the bacon."

Buddy Holly

"What's with these homies dissin' my girl? Why do they gotta front? What did we ever do to these guys that made them violent?"

Pork and Beans

"Oakley makes the shades that transform a tool. You'd hate for the kids to think that you've lost your cool."

I'm Your Daddy (live on Letterman)

The lyrics aren't so special on this last one, but this video on Letterman kind of got me back into Weezer after I thought they'd lost it. Nice to see them having some good nerdy fun. And this version is better than the album version actually. The little girl laughing at the end's very cute.

It's a Weezer-thon! Parte the First.

I loves me some pop-rock and Weezer are the kings. Blue, Pinkerton and Maladroit (despite cries to the contrary) are their amazing albums, green, red and Raditude are good (with a few stinkers) and Make Beleive (aside from the awesome Beverly Hills), Hurley and Death to False Metal are so-so. In my humble opinion. I loved Alone 1 too and wasn't fussed with Alone 2. Am currently waiting for the weekend to purchase Alone 3. So in tribute to my overenthusiasm for Weezer, here's a few of my favourites.

Good Life (Live in Camden)

"When I look in the mirror, I can't believe what I see! Tell me who's this funky dude, looking back at me?"

No-one (Livid Festival, Australia)

"I want a girl who will laugh for no-one else. When I'm away she puts her make-up on the shelf."

 

Holiday (on the Weezer cruise)

"Let's go away for a while, you and I, to a strange and distant land."

Crybaby - I Cherish The Heartbreak More Than The Love That I Lost

Bristolian and magnificent (even though I've only heard this one song). I thought I'd heard it on BBC Radio 6 and then couldn't remember who played it, to get back and find it on the tracklisting. This back tacking was necessary, since he's really really hard to find on youtube! Anyway, I tracked him down via The Guardian newspaper before realising that I actually heard him on Clive Anderson's 'Loose Ends' show on Radio 4. Here's his website: ohcrybaby

Hugo - Movie Review

This is a review I wrote for the website of my English school -  Voss Natural 英会話, in Kobe, Japan.

Martin Scorsese was a hero of mine when I was growing up. I was never big into action movies and I was too nervous for horror, but I loved gangster movies, and similarly tough films like ‘Raging Bull’ and ‘Taxi Driver’, and Mr. Scorsese was the king. I’m sorry to say that they were very violent (and I loved it!) but there was also great emotion in that. Scorsese films could make you care about characters that were really not such nice people. His story telling was brilliant, his directing was brilliant, everything looked amazing and he was super-cool.

One extremely likeable thing about his movies was always the great feeling of family among the characters. When the characters had arguments and fights it was like a family was falling apart and it was heart-breaking. In ‘Goodfellas’, Martin Scorsese’s own mother even appears as the mother of one of the main characters. Some of his films, since around 1999, have lost that a little, but not Hugo.

This sense of family is what ‘Hugo’ does best. The story is about the lonely feeling that something is missing from your life or thinking you’re not a part of anything. Maybe you’re an orphan (someone without parents) or a person without a partner to love or maybe you’re someone who lost something that you were passionate about.

There is a strong emotional connection between the character Hugo and an old man who works in a toy shop in a train station, where Hugo lives. When the story starts, we don’t really understand this connection but we can feel that it’s important and we find out that the reason for it is linked to a mechanical man which Hugo and his father were repairing. Slowly, emotional connections form between all the main characters in the story and we even start to care about the bad characters, just like in the Scorsese movies I loved growing up. This is not one of Scorsese’s tough films however; it’s a children’s film, but it’s an emotional and intelligent film which has been lovingly made.

Everything that you see here looks beautiful and even the sound makes good use of the space in the cinema. The thing I was most pleased about, visually, was how Hugo used 3D. With lots of modern 3D films, the directors don’t think about 3D while they’re shooting. But in Hugo you can see that Martin Scorsese has put effort into making 3D a part of the film. It’s one of the few 3D films in which the effect really adds to the atmosphere and brings you closer to the story. One film review from Anrew O’Hahir, on Salon.com, said “I’ve seen the future of 3-D moviemaking, and it belongs to Martin Scorsese”. I agree. This isn’t an action movie, so there’s no explosions coming out of the screen, but the 3D is used to tell the story. For example, close up face shots bring us closer to the character and in one scene we can see specks of dust floating around in the sunlight.

Film and its history are a big theme in Hugo and everyone who knows about Martin Scorsese knows how much he loves cinema. With that in mind, Hugo is a film that he should be very proud of. Magic is another theme and Hugo is a magical, heart-warming story and a beautiful production. It’s something that can be enjoyed by both children and adults, hopefully for a long time to come.

Hugo is in cinemas in Japan now, so please go and see it while you have the chance. I loved it!

Collapse along Dover's White cliffs.

There's been a big collapse of chalk from Dover's white cliffs. Thousands of tonnes of chalk! Here's the article. Quite interesting!

Cliff collapse!

A poem by me. Penguin (Green Strawberry)

A poem for the Chi. By me!

Penguin (Green Strawberry)

My Japanese chrysanthemum,
My English rose!
Our love is a
Green strawberry.
Green strawberries will grow.

Bobby Womack - Please Forgive My Heart

I didn't know he was on XL music label. What a great label it is and a nice song. Not too electronic, just nicely simmering. Love it!

Kermit and Debbie Harry - Rainbow Connection

My favourite song (as of recently). Just magic!

And again with Debbie Harry from Blondie.

Valentine's Day!

 Happy Valentine's Day Chiharu!

Randy and the Rainbows and Dion and the Belmonts and The Ronettes

So good!

Groucho Marx, Dr. Seuss and The Littlest Hobo (in Japanese)

Someone posted this on Facebook. Dr. Seuss writes children's books with hidden moral messages. He does it as entertainingly as anyone really could, and gets the message across even if you don't realise the story's deeper meaning (as kids obviously don't). This is a cool picture revealing those hidden messages. I've written the real titles underneath.

             The Butter Battle Book       The Sneetches       The Cat in the Hat        The Lorax

 Yertle the Turtle    How the Grinch Stole Christmas    Green Eggs and Ham    Horton Hears a Who


And to go with it, here's a quote by Groucho Marx - 

"A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five."

To cap it off, here is the JAPANESE theme to one of my favourite shows when I was little. This is the Japanese song that accompanied The Littlest Hobo. Actually, this was the theme to the old 60s show, rather than the 80s version I watched. I didn't even know there WAS a 60s version until I found this, but I was still pretty chuffed with myself! In Japan, it was broadcasted from 1963 to 1965. The Japanese title was "Meiken London", means excellent dog London. This was posted on youtube by Franken000.

この音は当時のテレビ放送の音を受像機から録音したものです。
レコードからではありません。

Here's the English 60s version. I think the Japanese one might have it beat. 

 

But... Oh no! What's this? The 80s LH theme tune? BOOM!!! BIG DOG IN THE HOUSE!!!!!!! WE HAVE A WINNER!!!!!!!

Chris Rock Quote and a Grandaddy Tripple Bill

I love my QI quote book and so here's another, by Chris Rock (with a bit of bad language!) - 

"You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, the tallest guy in the NBA is Chinese, the Swiss hold the America's Cup, France is accusing the U.S. of arrogance, Germany doesn't want to go to war, and the three most powerful men in America are named 'Bush', 'Dick', and 'Colon.' Need I say more?"


This is one amazing video and two live clips of the amazing band that was Grandaddy. The first is Jed's Other Poem (Beautiful Ground). Jed was a robot named in another song. The second is Now It's On (on Later... in 2006). The third is So You'll Aim Towards the Sky.

 

 

Gregory Porter - 1960 What? and Franz Kafka

I heard a really nice song on someone's facebook page, called On My Way Back to Harlem. I couldn't find it on youtube though, so here's 1960 What? off his recent (I think) debut. I was so surprised it was a debut. I figured he was from way back.

The quote for today is from Franz Kafka -

"A book should serve as an axe for the frozen sea within us."

And I need to read more!!!

Quote by James Baldwin and Ash - Girl From Mars

Here's a quote by James Baldwin, which could not easily be surpassed in it's weight of meaning. It couldn't be more true.

"Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within."

In case you don't have a clue who is (like I didn't), here's a piece from wikipedia explaining.

James Baldwin, from Wikipedia

And here's a lovely song (Girl From Mars) by Ash, that's one of my all time favourites. Wish they'd write something like this again! For Chichi-poopoo from Mars!!! Love you XXX

Just in the name of being PC - I wonder if this isn't actually the Irish or Irish/UK version rather than the UK version.

Freud Quote, MIA and Suicide

Here is my quote of the day (that was meant to be yesterday's but I forgot). It made my warm a little more to Sigmund Freud and even read his stuff more seriously (maybe!).

"Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."

I love this, because it's easy to read his stuff and think "Really? REALLY?! You really really think that what it signifies? Really?" But now I shall think about his words a bit more seriously knowing this opinion of his.

The next videos and music have some harsh comtent, but I like them. The first one, Born Free by MIA, contains a sample of the second. I was really happy when I heard it and recently purchased the album , which is pretty awesome all the way though. The second is Ghost Rider by Suicide, which is also from a great album.

And this last one is both MIA and Martin Rev from Suicide performing together on Letterman!

Dennis Potter and The Fall

For Christmas I got a book of quotes, compiled by the guys behind QI. So I thought I'd stick a few here on the blog. Here's one of my favourites by Dennis Potter, writer of The Singing Detective.

"The trouble with words, is that you never know whose mouth they've been in."

And here's Masquerade by the awesome The Fall.

How can someone as grumpy as Mark E Smith, come up with something as danceable as this?!

The Scapegoat by William Holman Hunt and Christmas QI with BRIAN BLESSSSED

I visited the Lady Lever art gallery, in Port Sunlight, around Christmas time and recognised this painting from a book (and the rescesses of my memory) It's a painting I don't need a reason to like. It's very charismatic. So, here's what Wikipedia has to say about it, now WP is up and running again (boooo American government) -

Wikipedia article on The Scapegoat

 And to go with it, here's a Christmas edition of the brilliant QI with Stephen Fry and Brian Blessed. I missed it when I was home and was excited to find it online via the brilliant Nickfromfullham. Enjoy!

The Night

Three short poems that I turned into one. I don't know whether it's corny or not, but I like it.

The Night

I love the night

and her surprises,

all her mysteries

and guises.

What does she hold?

The moon and the stars,

and bats that hang

from window ledges,

then fall into her arms.

So, how can I close the curtains,

and shut out

all those stars?

Deny the night

my room’s dim light

and deny my room

her charms.