Friday 30th May 2003
The Glastonbury line up has just been officially announced, happily timed to co-incide with today's sunshine - it looks alright too, even if in my opinion some of the bands lower down the bill will be worth seeing over the likes of REM and Morph. And I'm not sure why the Manics are playing second fiddle to the ad-friendly slaphead.
Moby yesterday
But good to see The Flaming Lips finally emerge from the New Bands tent (after a decade or so) and I'm curious to discover the reaction the Sugababes will get, as a "pop" act - Daphne and Celeste were a very different kind of pop band but I'll never forget watching them being forced off the stage at Reading 2000. The festival vibe was in full swing that day - true to the spirit of the occasion a random bloke kindly offered me a plastic coke bottle containing piss to lob at the poor girls on stage, if I so wished.
But hang on, what's this? - Saturday night headliners on the Pyramid Stage - Radiohead. And on the One World stage - Lamb. The horror: a merciless clash. Shit shit shit. BASTARDS! HOW DARE THEY?! FUCK THEM!
Ruined. I may as well not go. According to Matt's countdown clock I have 27 days within which to work this issue out. It's going to be a tough one.
or
Hmm, maybe it's not all that tough after all.
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Tuesday 20th May 2003
A poem by CP Cavafy, a Greek poet unknown to me until about a month ago, which is a shame.
Voices
Ideal and beloved voices
of those who are dead, or of those
who are lost to us like the dead.
Sometimes they speak to us in our dreams;
sometimes in thought the mind hears them.
And with their sound for a moment return
other sounds from the first poetry of our life --
like distant music that dies off in the night.
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Wednesday 14th May 2003
Ali G in the USA is broadcast in the USA, and has been met with an unenthusiastic response. While the States produces some of the funniest comedy around - Seinfeld, The Simpsons, South Park, Futurama plus all those films - it doesn't surprise me that American don't 'get' Ali G. I'm quite glad they don't, to be honest. British comedy is very parochial and funny mainly to those in the parish - whether it's the more stylish and subtle programmes like Spaced or the brilliantly puerile such as Bottom, it is characterised by its Britishness. Americans wouldn't get it, not because of the often argued assumption that they have no sense of irony, but because they aren't British, they don't give a shit about the British and they're quite happy with their own products. The only reason that good American comedy is so popular in this country is because, having had to swallow over the past 40 years a interminable volume of American culture, the British are familiar with American humour, understand it and have grown to like it. The mistake that is often made is that the reverse might be true. Why should it be? It's no surprise to me that the only comedy that has managed to sucessfully travel to the States is either the very basic (Benny Hill) or those broad comedies made with a very decided objective of attracting an American audience - Four Weddings, Shakespeare in Love, Bean...there are of course exceptions, Monty Python being the most evident.
However two things relating to the States's rejection of Ali G do bother me. First, apparently some victims, like Ralph 'man of the people' Nader are considering suing. Grow up, you fucking humourless idiot.
Secondly, and this is the thing that really bugs me, tv reviewers in the States objected to Ali G referring to 11 September as "7/11". Apparently this trivialises the tragic event and is tasteless. Hang on just a bloody minute, this is hypocrisy of the most contemptible sort. It takes a very stupid or wilfully blind person to rush to condemn from an easy moral position, completely ignoring the United States's own trivialisation of the event in terming it "9/11" in the first place. It's a horribly 'trendy' media tag, a corporate brand (easy to fit on Baseball caps and T shirts) and an iconic logo, designed to promote gung-ho glamour and mock-Hollywood heroics. All of what "9/11" is, as opposed to "September 11" or "The Attacks on New York and Washington", gave George W Bush the power to manipulate his people into supporting a questionable war. Ali G is still sometimes about satire (as it used to be all the time) and referring to "9/11" as "7/11" (a corporation) along with the reaction that this has had (highlighting the all too frequent American political and media hypocrisy) demonstrates that it can still work.
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Tuesday 13th May 2003
Going into work this morning was a horrifically depressing experience, my senses mutely crumpling in despair when woken by the fucking builders across the street at 6 in the morning, and still not recovered.
It is amazing how quickly office existence can trample over all the good that a recent weekend has done. Lamb on Friday night, at Brixton academy, were outstanding and uplifting, as always. Even some narky bitch in the crowd during their last tune, Cotton Wool, couldn't destroy my good mood. I can't wait to see them at Glastonbury (here's hoping they make it). Then on Saturday an equally excellent gig at the Astoria, where Blur were great, the songs from Think Tank sounding twice as good as they do on the album - and my only gripe about Graham not being there was no Coffee and TV.
Then back to cramming anything individual into the grim and rushed mornings, or the speedily receding hours before sleep. Is it any surprise that people come up with this or this every now and again?
Or perhaps it's more to do with watching a repeat of This Life on Sunday night, which finished with a jubilant Egg, swigging champagne, laughing Bollocks to the Law.
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Thursday 8th May 2003
'Moore' (sorry) on Roger. The man is a true British icon.
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Although he's older than Sean Connery and has been very ill in the past I've always thought the great Lord Roger of Mooreshire was super-human (and perhaps nowadays he may be a bit bionic). Anyway the news of him collapsing on stage is worrying. I hope it's nothing serious, and he can struggle on to, one day, get that knighthood.
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