Filed under: Arts, life, music, videos, Youtube | Tags: elbow, glastonbury 2008
OK, so this is a video, not their live performance at Glasto. But the song and performance was my favourite moment of the weekend. It’s lovely, isn’t it.
Funnily enough. Amy and I saw them at Meadowbank a couple of years ago supporting Snow Patrol.
We christened them Elbore.
Just shows, you have to keep an open mind to everything.
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Filed under: Arts, gigs, music, Rants | Tags: amiee winehouse, amy, amy winehouse, back to black, frank, glasto, glastonbury, hot chip, jay zee, massive attack, rehab, wine house, winehouse
I called the kids into the living room to watch Amy Winehouse’s performance. Not as a matter to laugh about but to see what the horrors of drugs does to people.
Her presence at Glastonbury may have been in the face of medical advice given that she ‘allegedly’ is suffering from Emphysema but it was apparent to all that the drugs have taken hold.
It was very sad.
Not only did she fidget uncontrollably with her clothing throughout but she also appeared to punch somebody in the audience having been physically helped from the stage to get nearer her ‘fans’,
A third album will be a miracle. I have to say I very much doubt we will ever encounter it.
Jay Zee was an interesting choice as Saturday night headliner and, for me, only really worked in parts.
My favourite moment (apart from Hot Chip dueting with Wiley) was Ethiopiques on the World Stage.
My mate Jon Stevenson is there. At least he won’t get foot rot this year.
Oh, and the 30 seconds of Massive attack that I saw looked good.
Filed under: Arts, life, music, videos, Youtube | Tags: 22 dreams, Paul Weller, the jam, the style council
I have an ambivalent attitude to Paul Weller.
I don’t know why, because you could fill several CD’s with his highly enjoyable ‘best of’… However, I think he blows a bit hot and cold for me; maybe it’s just because he’s had such a phenomenal output in volume terms (even this album has a collosal 21 tracks).
Wildwood was classy.
I liked some, but not much, of Style Council, I liked some, but not all, of The Jam.
So, this stunning album, (I was prompted to buy it on the back of seeing him live on TV a couple of times, but more significantly by the outstanding single, ‘Have you made up your mind.“) has really taken me by surprise.
It’s massively varied, although it has a strong rock backbone to it.
It’s not a life-changing record but it is a very, very good one by a man who has had more iterations than a highly iterative thing. Like a website for example.
Try it. You might like it.
Here’s the stunning single I referred to.
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Filed under: Uncategorized
Originally uploaded by digitalagency’s.
Filed under: advertising, business, life, photography, Scotland, Uncategorized, work | Tags: ambergreen, digital aim, scottish marketing association, sma, spider online., the digital agency, w00tonomy
Originally uploaded by digitalagency’s.
Ha! This is a shot of me at last night’s SMA meeting. I am the Chairman of The SMA as you might know, and it was a brilliant debate about digital marketing featuring Mike Coulter, John Campbell, Eliza Dashwood, Stewart Kirkpatrick and Scott Howard.
I just sat intently with my arms folded. As you can see.
Check out the sunburned fizog. I’d just played golf at Archerfield that afternoon.
Filed under: big brother, life, Rants, tv | Tags: bb, big brother, dennis on big brother, gay dennis, spitting
I’ve tried not to watch this. Really I have, and I’ve mostly succeeded, but tonight I watched in horror as the disarmly camp gay guy from Edinburgh was thrown out of the house for gobbing in the face of Mohammed.
Not nice. No, not nice at all.
See ya. Wouldnae wannae be ya.
If Zimbabwe had oil we’d be in there sorting the situation out.
But we don’t.
So we just sit back and watch. Totally immoral and total double standards. Maybe Obama will remember his roots and deal with this when he gets into the White House.
Filed under: Uncategorized
The BBC news tonight was full of nasty stuff. But surely the worst was about the pub owners in Sheffield who starved their three year old daughter to death in the upstairs room of their pub.
She gets 12 years. He gets 5. (Can anybody explain why they didn’t each get the same sentence by the way?)
For torturing an infant to death you get 12 years, reduced to six presumably for good behaviour?
That’s not right is it?
Filed under: advertising, Arts, humour, jokes, music, videos, work | Tags: lean mean fighting machine, online advertisiing.
This is complete and utter class from a London online ad agency called Lean Mean Fighting Machine.
http://www.leanmeanfightingmachine.co.uk/#0120
Filed under: Arts, life | Tags: edinburgh film festival, the king of ping pong
OK, so I did do some work this morning. Hard work at that.
Then I met me old mucker David for lunch at 99 Hanover St. Quite good food but nothing to particularly write blogs about.
After that the adventure began.
We set out to ‘do’ the Edinburgh International Film Festival.
First up a series of shorts called Idle Hands.
Idle fucking film making more like. The guy who set it up virtually apologised about the fact that the screenings may, or may not, have a theme.
Anyway the depression started with an Israeli 26 minute film about an old guy who’d been fired from a print factory and couldn’t deal with it so kept going back to work. Well acted and totally fucking miserable. Shred of Hope it was called.
Aye, we had a shred of hope that things might get more interesting. (Being as they couldn’t get any more worthy.)
Next up.
Hero.
An Australian 18 minuter about the most depressing fucker you’ve ever come across in your life. Brilliantly acted but ended in deep confusion and, of course, depression.
Then the piece de resistance a Turkish ‘thing’. I mean you couldn’t call it entertainment; or art. It was just total pish, luckily only 14 minutes long, and called ‘the slope’. Aye the slippery fucking slope. It consisted of a chronically badly filmed travelogue of a Turkish guy walking slowly up a slope to his work as a hospital porter, working, then going back home down the bleeding slope.
And the worst of it was the guys who made it had come along and were sitting right behind us.
Well, the applause at the end of the screening was deaf. (Note the lack of the suffix -enning.)
The film grading, editing, cinematography, music, direction and script were utterly rank.
It was, however, saved by being only 14 minutes long.
Despite this I had to wake David up twice.
The final instalment of total and utter depression was a French farce about a guy working as a pizza delivery man but having delusions of sitting in boardrooms. Frankly, you don’t wanna know any more. We gave it till half time.
We walked.
After that it got worse. We switched from The Filmhouse to Cineworld to see a piece of boring shit from Sweden called “the King of Ping Pong.”. (Correction; pretentious, tedious, boring shit.)
It’s about being a kid, fat, hating yopur parents, confusion and stuff.
Take my advice,
Don’t.
Ping Pong?
Nah, Pish posh.
Filed under: Arts, family, humour, life, music, Scotland | Tags: queensferry, queensferry High, school plays, south queensferry
We went to see Amy in the Senior School’s show tonight, having seen Ria in the Lower School’s excellent ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ last week. The older pupils write, direct, choreograph and costume their own shows, three in all, one by each house.
Inevitably it’s hard to know where us dads should look at times with all that dancing about in skimpy dresses.
And that’s just the boys…
Anyway. It was excellent entertainment and a credit to the heidy; Mr Birch and his drama department.
I am constantly amazed by the standard of teaching at Queensferry High. The performances and turn out tonight showed just how amazingly the school has integrated itself into our community. Something to be really proud of.
Oh, and both Amy and Ria were brilliant.
Filed under: Arts, music, Uncategorized, videos, Youtube | Tags: jazz, joan as policewoman, rufus wainwright
On the subject of female singer songwriters…here’s another one.
The second album by Joan as Policewoman will not go down well if you don’t like jazz. So don’t even go there. It isn’t an outright Jazz album, but it certainly leans in that general direction. She comes from a great musical stock having first come to my attention as one of Antony and the Johnston’s band members. And is currently supporting Rufus Wainwright who puts in an appearance on the new album. She was Jeff Buckley’s bird you know.
Her debut, ‘Real Life’ last year firmly put her on the map in her own right
The new one, ‘To survive’ is an absolute peach. Languid, free-flowing and lush with unconventional song structures. It’s not all verse-chorus and makes for a very easy listening experience
Great with a good book and a glass of red wine.
Try this for size – from Real life.
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Filed under: Arts, music | Tags: aimee mann, american rock, pop, Singer songwriters, smilers
I’ve been getting a kicking from Fowlup for my dissing of The Fleet Foxes new and rather good, but not at all great album. And he hasn’t had the bottle to purchase the new Aimee Mann disc without the prior benefit of my outpourings. However, because he is sulking about my review of the FF’s (no, not the Foos) I suspect he will, in turn, seek to take an opposing line with my views on this.
I predict he will say “Ah, Gorman’s off on one of his female singer songwriter” things again. How dull.
Well, perhaps, but the fact is Aimee Mann has returned dramatically to form after the disappointment of The Forgotten Arm.
Her seventh, yes seventh, album “@#x%x*! Smilers” (despite a desperately bad title and sleeve) is a peach from the very first bars of the opener, Freeway. It’s a lush, subtle, melodic, brilliantly arranged mood piece that sits as a companion with with Batchelor No 2 her previous finest hour
Perhaps it’s her most mature work to date. And that wouldn’t be a surprise given that she’s been round the block a few times now.
I was fortunate enough to visit Victoria and Karl in Peterheed last week and amongst other things I played Karl a copy of this album and his view was that he thought he hated Aimee Mann but thought this was great.
It’s excellent stuff.
Don’t listen to Kenneth.
Listen to this…
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Filed under: football, sports, tv | Tags: arshavin, EURO 2008, holland v russia, spain v italy
Well, I’m quite glad I backed the Russians to win Euro 2008 at 22/1. They’ve been spectacular in their last two matches and Arshavin has been the revelation of the tournament. Here’s hoping there’s more to come from him. It was a splendid game and a great performance all round (51 shots on goal) and was what footie should all be about.
Then there was the Italians.
Utter cynicism.
Toni finished the tournament without even looking like scoring.
A terrible game ‘dominated’ by Spain but ruined by Italy. Oh how we cheered when they lost on penalties. But it begs the question; are the Spanish good enough to win the tournament? I don’t think so.
In terms of my predictions; well I thought Russia and Germany would be in the semis, and they are; and that Italy would beat Spain in the other quarter final. Well, I got the teams right but not the result.
I honestly think Russia can do it. My bank manager hopes so to.
Filed under: Arts, family, gardening, Jeana's Gardening, life, photography, Scotland | Tags: fathers day
I had a delightful Father’s day spent mostly with Jeana as our three children were working (Amy), sleeping over (Ria) and not talking to me (Tom).
So, we went and met an old pal, Steven Tait, who was back in Scotland for a few days from Australia en-route to the Cannes Ad festival.
We had a really nice time spending a few hours in the wonderful Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh.
Followed by a trip to a Wood Festival full of hippies that was actually good fun.
Then to the Mother-in-laws for a wee nip.
Finally, home to open my Father’s Day pressie from the kids.
A chrome and black fire pit. What self respecting dad would not have one of those to go with his barbie?
Sat in the garden for hours reading, looking at the sky, listening to music and football and generally chilling out with, at times, the kids.
Lovely.
Filed under: advertising, business, life, Scotland, WordPress, Youtube | Tags: content marketing, interview, stewart kirkpatrick, w00tonomy, Web 2.0
Me, being interviewed by Stewart Kirkpatrick of the very interesting new company; w00tonomy. Personally I can’t see past the highly agitated Bunteresque hands. But see what you think.
Filed under: Arts, music | Tags: aimee mann, one, one is the lonliest number, three dog night
I read a five star review of her latest album, which hopefully means a return to form. Her last was poor.
For me this remains her greatest moment and for ages I thought it was her own song, but actually it was recorded in the 60′s by Three Dog Night,
I’d just like to point out that on February 25th I predicted that The Ting Tings would be the next big thing.
A fortnight ago they were number one.
Don’t believe me?
I’ve been catching up on old Jools Holland Shows and I’ve only a few left before I am in real time. Imagine my delight then to fall upon this – Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds playing probably the best song I’ve heard this year (perhaps The Rip by Portishead excluded).
Just dwell on this won’t you.
Look at the passion of every single member of this immense band. And try to work out thier average age. I’ll give you a clue. Cave is 50 and for my money he looks one of the youngest. The boy on Rock and Roll violin is sublime.
Later in this particular show I stumbled upon this.
My mate Iain Hawk has been raving about Glasvegas for months in a visionary sort of way. This demonstrates why – thier own song; Geraldine. One thing I really like about them is the way they’ve inverted the usual rock and roll cliches.
The drummer’s a burd. And bloody good at it too, despite the lack of a bass drum (Yes, I know… White Stripes…)
[Youtube=<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/NcBVhZKZqfg&hl=en"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/NcBVhZKZqfg&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>]
Filed under: Uncategorized
I watched the BBC preview on Friday night and was convinced enough by Clair Boulding’s view (and actually my own) to back New Approach. He won at five to one.
Despite being boxed in; which makes me think he is worth further interest.
Filed under: Uncategorized
I wrote a post several months ago that I admit was niaive.
It was a bit of a rant about a malicious rumour, and it transpires it was no more than that, claiming that The Holocaust was no longer going to be taught/discussed in the British school history curriculum because of pressure from Muslims.
That particular post has generated a lot of comment. But the only one that really incenses me is the one that I received this afternoon from a Namibian Holocaust denial promulgator.
Rather than let the pathetic ramblings of the ultra right languish in the back alleys of old posts of mine I thought I should present it to you, unedited, to make your own minds up.
WordPress is a brilliant thing because it allows free speech for all. And so I’d like to share with you what some people actually, genuinely believe. For the record, this is the image that the Namibian ‘dishpan’ refers to as a fake.
My good sir / madam,
Those photos don’t imply any gassings or random acts of violence as shown in portraits of varios wannabe artists. The pile of bodies? Come on, even a first-grader could tell you (after being terribly shocked that you showed him the picture) that those people could have died from anything. Maybe they died of Typhus like the people in the diary of Anne Frank? Go look it up: no one there died of poisonous gasses. And how do we know that Hitler wanted to KILL Jews? There are no papers stating this except the so-called Ramsi (or however it’s spellt) Protocols, and any German (after reading through them) would know that they are badly-done fakes. After the war the Americans (who didn’t win, btw, the Russians did) had access to all the German typewriters, letterheads, stamps and everything needed to make fakes.
And how the hell do you think they got rid of so many bodies in one day? No, burning bodies in a pit doesn’t work. The human body is made up of (I can’t remember exactly now) about 70% water, which makes us really bad burners. A cremation expert could tell you that it takes around two hours to burn one body at a searing temperature. (this takes a LOT of ‘coke’ fuel – much more fuel per day than the camps had imported) And even then the major bones aren’t gone, they have to be crushed in a machine. So if they had to burn thousands of bodies per day, they’d have to have the biggest crematories ever built and the most coke fuel ever used for cremation in a single day – both of which they didn’t have. (The crematories were in the camps for the people who died natural deaths or were victims of war)
So please, sir / madam, know your f-ing facts before you go denouncing Germans. I am a proud Namibian, with Afrikaans and German heritage, spreading the good word about Hitler.
He wasn’t evil. It is not something I believe, it is something I have enough evidence of to believe.
- “Dishpan”































