Month: October 2011
One of those bands that I loved, but never quite felt cool enough to be really part of their scene. In my head they played most of the set silhouetted against a hazy red backdrop, or maybe that’s just how I wanted them to be.
I think they were supported by a band called E.A.R. that I can’t find on Google. They assaulted us with a white noise set for 40 minutes that seemed designed to test the MBV audience’s tolerance to discordant sounds.
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Tickets nostalgia #5: the Shamen
9pm-6am, those were the days.
My memories of this involve a uncomfortable hour in a dodgy Stockwell bar, an endless night bus journey back to Shepherd’s Bush and a hazy yoof sat on the floor of the Acadamy offering me some Vick’s.
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Playing with Content Aware Fill
Getting the sky to look natural without the stick would have been much harder before Content Aware Fill
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Gourd-like squash
This is the first time I’ve carved a pumpkin
I expect we’ll see these Decim8 effects everywhere, so I’m getting in early!
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The dog & ball
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Tickets nostalgia #4: Wembley
The dirty truth is that the old Wembley, home of the Twin Towers, was a terrible venue to actually watch a game
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Tickets nostalgia #3: Prince
Tickets had sold out in London, so I’d snapped up my mate Mike’s offer to drive to Birmingham, so it was an afternoon off and a trip up the M1/M6.
The NEC is an awful venue of course, but Prince had made the best of it, putting the stage ‘in the round’ (i.e. the middle of the arena). He was very inventive, and the show involved cars, basketball, beds, that fantastic female drummer and lots of I would die 4 U style imagery.
Indeed, some wag noted recently that this was when Prince invented txt spk.
I went through a phase in 87-90 being a big fan. I can smile about it now, but at the time it was terrible.
Easily the most wonderful football match I’ve been to. It was a sunny day soaked with late-Britpop optimism, but no-one thought we could beat Holland, never mind absolutely batter them. Gazza was on wonderful form, as was (IMHO) the greatest number nine England have ever had, Alan Shearer.
Watch the YouTube link below the see the rows and rows of glee-filled faces. We just couldn’t believe it. One wag struck up a barely tuneful refrain of “You can stick your total football up your arse” and at the end of the game, everyone stayed behind for an endless, spontaneous chorus of Three Lions. Frank Skinner recounted the moment when he appeared on Desert Island Discs a few years ago.
Just magical. And then we went for a curry.
As a side note, Shearer was interviewed after the game and asked how he felt that the late consolation goal Holland scored had put Scotland out on goal difference. “Tough that”, he deadpanned.
Was inter-railing with my friend Andy and we went to this purely because of the Half Man Half Biscuit track, “All I want for Christmas is a Dukla Prague Away Kit“.
Twenty years ago, Prague was a pretty different place, with very little English spoken so even finding the stadium was an achievement. My main memory was how nasty the atmosphere was. It was a local derby of course, and one of the teams (I forget which) was somehow linked to the police and there was no love lost.
In the end behind the goal, the local thugs had modelled themselves on 70s/80s English hooligans, and it was both saddening and terrifying to see West Ham banners and Union Jacks held as symbols of hate.
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Little yellow cut-out elephant
This intro to track #10 in the 1990 Festive 50 nails exactly why I loved John Peel.
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Bellenden Bunfight 2011
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Any book recommendations?
[edit] Books I’ve read recently are here
I am Legend
– Don’t be put off by the Will Smith film. This is a minimalist classic by Richard Matheson is right out of the Twilight Zone school
Master and Margarita
– very readable quirky tale by Bulgakov – and Jagger’s inspiration for Sympathy for the Devil
– My favourite writer; vivid characters, wonderful stories and funnier than Wilde Lady in the Lake or the Big Sleep
– Raymond Chandler didn’t write many books, but they were uniformly fantastic. Every single page contains a killer line. Example: “He looked at me like a horse looks over a fence” The Woman in White
– Wilkie Collins wrote four fantastic novels (the others are No Name, Armadale and Moonstone). They all have weaving, teasing plots and were sensations of the time. He pretty much invented the detective novel, and added a whiff of the supernatural too. The Great Gatsby
– A fairly short story and just beautifully written. A 1920s decadent bloodbath. American Tabloid
– well pretty much anything by James Ellroy. Staccato, machine gun sentences and convoluted, near reality plots. Quite shockingly violent at times.
The Strange Tale of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde
– One of those books that we all know, but rarely read (along with Frankenstein). Thankfully, it’s an excellent, warped story and very well told
– Russel Hoban’s novel is unlike any I’ve ever read. I don’t want to reveal any of the plot, but it’s steeped in myth, imagination and history. Takes a little effort to get into the style, but pays back in spades. Ten Little N-words
– Most of the Agatha Christie books are better than you’d imagine. Of course, they were so influential that echoes of her ideas and plots continue to be recycled today, so what might have been wildly original in 1925 is all-but expected today. This book is as good as any of them, though the title is quite shocking to today’s eyes, so you may wish to seek out a re-titled version such as Ten Little Indians. Lee Child
– My favourite escapist thriller writer. I’ve read all of them, and with the single exception of “Die Trying”, they’re excellent. Think a wandering Die Hard
A Study in Scarlet
– Again, all of the Sherlock Holmes books are great, but this – the first – is arguably the most interesting. Not only does it introduce the world’s most famous detective, but the structure of the book is both original and engaging.
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Capri
Spotted in Peckham Rye. This was THE car to have in the 70s
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Dulwich 10k photos
Unexpectedly hot for the October run. Well done everyone.
There are more pictures on flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/carl201167/sets/72157627676139799/show/
If anyone wants them, or to use them, email me carl [at] carllyons [dot] com