blog

Jack is...

2008-01-11T13:39:00.000-08:00

Jack is perpetually annoyed by the fact that whenever he logs onto facebook and goes to update his status setting he can never think of anything interesting.

Having used facebook for a while now, it's quite easy to occasionally think about what you're doing in the third person, and imagine writing it as your facebook status. However, every time I happen to go on to the facebook, I think about what my current real life situation is, and usually only come up with "Jack is sitting in front of a computer." Whilst this statement may be completely true, it's also incredibly boring. And so yesterday, at around this time, as I logged out of facebook, I decided to write down my statuses throughout the proceeding 24 hours as and when I was happened to become aware of my situation in that third person way I described earlier.

This is the resulting list:

Jack is picking up his egg.
Jack is walking up and down stairs way too much.
Jack is easily swindled.
Jack is begrudgingly doing it for you, you big lazy bum.
Jack is suffering from 'counting £10 note disease".
Jack is listening to very loud music.
Jack is Kooper Trooper.
Jack is annoyed that he can't find his capo anywhere.
Jack is very late in writing a new blog entry.

So there you go, I think this was an interesting experiment, although it's yielded absolutely no solutions to the problem that prompted it (other than of course writing these things down daily to update later... but even for me, that's a bit too sad.)

Wizard Rock?!

2007-11-12T14:58:00.000-08:00

Now let me explain...

Actually let's just let the YouTube do the explaining!

Well there you go. Like many other people, one day I randomly came across a band called Harry and the Potters. I later discovered that there were a whole load of other bands all over the MySpace like Draco and the Malfoys and the Hermione Crookshanks Experience. All the while I thought it was quite fun and silly, but ultimately a little too cringe-worthy to take seriously.

With the release of book 7 this summer, there were so many loose ends and unresolved questions that I thought I'd check out a few podcasts - which turned out to be great! - because they were hosted by people who'd already read the book (and indeed the entire series) many times and so could point out all the cool little details I'd missed. The result of this was that I was exposed to more of this 'wizard rock'.

When I found out that Harry and the Potters had played to thousands of people and had released 3 albums, I began to take it a little more seriously, but it wasn't until I discovered The Whomping Willows that I realised how cool this music could be. This band seemed to mainly take the piss out of Harry Potter in a very funny way and at the same time displaying an obvious love for the books.

It was at this moment that I thought "hm... I could do this."

So I did: Click

Turns out it was just a phase.

2007-10-09T15:29:00.001-07:00

When I was about 13 I became slightly more aware, and open minded. In this instance I'm specifically referring to food. I became more willing to try new things and gave more consideration as to where my food came from. This eventually led to my becoming vegetarian. In reality this was a very easy change to make; my dad did most of the cooking at home, and as he'd been vegetarian for about two decades, could make quite delightful meals with just vegetables. In spite of this easy transition, my personal ideological change had a far greater effect. As a pretentious teenager I took it upon myself to constantly point out to my friends how disgusting the very concept of 'Factory Farming' was; how we had made ourselves as Gods - breeding lesser creatures to die for our eating pleasure; how the mangled corpses in Butcher's windows would make me queasy; and that unless you yourself were willing to slit the throat of a struggling animal - then it was complete hypocrisy to eat ones that had been killed for you.

I do still believe all of this stuff now, but luckily I'm not quite so arrogant as to keep harassing my friends about it (and I admit I am myself a hypocrite - I still have a pair of leather shoes). However my views have changed, I'm now quite acceptant of the fact that if I was stranded on a desert island with nothing more than coconuts to sustain me, then of course I'd hunt a wild boar, I'd and kill it, and skin it, and cook it's meat, and I'm sure it would taste wonderful (although by this point probably anything that didn't taste of coconut would be wonderful.) Because ultimately I've now accepted that my life is more important than that of other creatures, in the same way that I begrudgingly accept that Animal Testing is very necessary in the search for life-saving drugs.

Ultimately my philosophy came to centre around one main question - do you really need to? These days there are so many meat alternatives that you can have a perfectly healthy diet without eating meat. Of course you might want to eat meat just because you like the taste, and that's fine, but I personally don't feel it's worth killing an animal just so you can have a tasty snack (especially when there's so much other nice food available.)

I faced a new dilemma when I found out about the dairy industry. Cows only produce milk when they have calves. Within a year or two of giving birth, a cow will stop producing milk. This means that countless bullocks are killed as a result of keeping their mothers producing milk. And anyway, what would happen to the mothers when they got too old? - I don't know but I bet it's not too friendly.

So I then gave up the milk. Even when faced with the fact that this food source would be harder to replace, I reasoned that it can't be a huge deficiency, as in evolutionary terms it's not part of our natural diet - I can't really imagine our hunter-gatherer ancestors running across the plains trying to suckle at the nipple of a nimble gazelle. I didn't however give up eggs and become completely vegan. Chickens lay eggs naturally - it's a biological function that would happen anyway. I felt there was nothing wrong with eating the eggs of free range chickens.

However, within a year or two I felt for my abstinence of milk with far less conviction. Going off to uni was a significant moment in my life, which came with many changes, and many new experiences. I contemplated then whether I still felt it was wrong to eat dairy products. I decided that I was still as convinced as ever about the meat, but with the milk I wasn't so sure. I decided that it was better to keep going as I was rather than risk later looking back with regret at a time of weakness where I 'strayed form the path'... (something like that)

Now that I've finished uni, and am at another significant moment of change in my life, I have again examined my ethics and found that I'm still as disengaged with my reasons for not drinking milk. I can still recite my arguments and work through them to their logical conclusion; but the amount of feeling behind them would never be enough to motivate someone to actually give it up. And so I was left thinking, is there really any point continuing? So the other day I had a slice of a cheese and tomato sandwich - it was ok - but I tell you, that mild cheddar was such a strong flavour! My taste buds obviously need some readjust back to how they functioned before, and then I can begin a life that doesn't involve eating cheeseless pizzas (yep.... sad times indeed...).

But I return to the question I posed earlier - do I really need to? Well no, I don't need to eat dairy products and if I didn't ever eat out, then I'm sure I could manage a milk-free diet more or less.

So again, do I really need to? – No, but... why not? The way I feel right now is that there's really nothing wrong with eating dairy. Yes, the industry around it is does result in animals being slaughtered as a by-product, but I'm not sure I can judge people for that any more, because I know that I myself could slaughter in the same way.

This doesn't necessarily mean that I'm going to instantly change my eating habits - as unfamiliar food sources cheese still seems greasy, and milk still has a slightly unpleasant, pallid, watery smell. And I am able to conceive that I might look back on this time with regret some day; and that maybe this slackening of my ethics is a subconscious manifestation of my insecurity over my future and the direction of my life at the moment. All I know is that to live your life within any given rules, you must believe in them with enough conviction to motivate yourself to do so. (you can't give up smoking half-heartedly.) And being a lacto-vegetarian is a cause I just don't really believe in any more.

So, the cynics were right - turns out it was just a phase - one that lasted six and a half years, but a phase nonetheless.

The Teacher...?

2007-10-04T13:20:00.000-07:00

Now that I'm living in rural Wales once again, I'm keen to keep an eye out for any potentially interesting music related activities that I can get involved with. One such activity is volunteering with the Young Composer of Dyfed. This is a competition that I won in 2005, and as the organisers of YCD have always been very good to me I felt it would be nice to do something for them, as well as good experience for me. So next week I'll be going around a few schools with this year's ensemble in residence, and helping out with their presentations.

Another role that emerged at our last meeting is what I've been doing today. This afternoon I went to a special needs school to do a workshop with a group of 4 children on graphic scores. A graphic score is a way of writing music where you don't necessarily use standard notation techniques. So this could be anything from, simply adding a few symbols to a score, which are explained by a key; to huge sheets of paper with shapes and patterns of different colours all over it, which are left open to the interpretation of the performer.

(Examples: weird, even weirder, what ?!)

The idea with these workshops was to get the kids to make a score on large sheets of paper, several feet long, which could be displayed on a wall and performed by the ensemble when they came to give a presentation the following week.

Thankfully today I was accompanied by a helper from the school and the guitar teacher, so I wasn't left alone to deal with a group of kids with learning difficulties. My biggest concern approaching this workshop was that the children wouldn't find it engaging, because everything I'd planed relied heavily on their participation. Thankfully this was the least of my worries. Let alone being disinterested, I could hardly stop the kids singing, drawing, and constantly interrupting with new ideas. Of course, as well as this they found time to cause mischief, insult each other and disassemble a biro, but all in all I feel it went reasonably well.

I've always dismissed being a teacher, and never really thought I'd be able to be one. After today's experience I can't really say that this view is ever going to change very much. As a music graduate, teaching is probably the most obvious and economically stable career path, but I just think I'm not that great with kids. I will admit that by the end of today's session I seemed better at engaging with the children, so maybe there is room for improvement. I guess we'll see at next week's workshop.

It's not August Supplemental.

2007-09-12T15:39:00.000-07:00

A little extension to my last post, but in the form of things you can click on! (because lots of writing can be quite boring at times... and everyone loves to do clicks!

My graduation looked something like this (although I've no idea who's photo this is).

This is how I beat Sarah at chess in just two moves. (I know!)

Thisis a multimedia piece by opne of my tutors from the summer school. It's fro string quartet,a nd computer with video and it's just really cool!

Harry Potter geeks who enjoy podcasts can waste time via The Leaky Couldron and Mugglenet .

And for the really hardcore Potter fans - Click Click

And as always, you can hear little bits of jack on the myspace! .

Hope this livens things up a bit!

It's not August.

2007-09-06T06:30:00.000-07:00

Yes, unfortunately I have failed to keep churning out a post every month, but in all honesty, there haven't been that many big things to report, although now I think about it, quite a few little ones, (maybe even medium...).

Well I had my graduation! (surly that deserves more than a medium?) It was great fun! (although there was lots of queuing and you had to pay an excessive amount hire your robe that you'd only get to wear for a few hours) I received my certificate, and got to shake hands with our chancellor Richard Attenborough (that old guy off Jurassic Park). Admittedly, we didn't get to throw our hats in the air and cry "Huzzah!" at the end, but still, you can't have everything.

I then went to a week-long Contemporary Music Summer School in Doncaster. This involved classes led by professional composers and performers, as well as workshops and at least two concerts a day. On the way back I visited Ash and Sarah at Huddersfield, which was delightful. I played with Ash's sling-shot, beat Sarah at Chess several times, and enjoy their wonderful cuisine ("Mmmmmm, nice and crunchy Broccoli...")

The only bad thing about that northern excursion was that it began on the 21st of July. (for the uninitiated, this is the day that the last Harry Potter book was released) As I was then to spend a week at a very intensive summer school, I couldn't allow myself to get a copy of the book as I'd have ended up missing concerts, or else staying up through most of the night reading. This meant that when I got back home and could finally start (on top of the fact that I'd spent the previous month or two reading all the preceding 6 books) I was a little bit worked up about it. Once I'd finished though I was perfectly happy. And after I'd then spent a further day or two finding out all the little unexplained bits from interviews on geeky websites, I felt very happy. So if there's anyone out there who hasn't read the books, I would strongly encourage you to go out and buy the entire series - it would be a wise investment!

Other things I've been filling my time with include: a day of recordings organised with my friends at the Young Composer/Musician of Dyfed; writing many silly piano miniatures for no real reason other than for my own amusement; sampling the social life that Lampeter has to offer; and working on another little music project on my computer that I might tell you about later if it turns out ok.

Also, just as more of an overview, my plan at the moment is to live at home (back in Wales) for the year; write some music; read some books; get a job; and hopefully prepare myself for returning to uni to do a masters in composition or something like that. So far this plan has been going ok, although (as I mentioned in my last post) committing to one style and direction in music is going to take a lot of careful consideration.

The Best Music Concert?

2007-07-05T09:51:00.000-07:00

Well now I'm at another stage in my life where I have to try and decide on a few things, which often feels a lot harder than the actual doing of the things. (It's like when my dad and I would talk about what to have for diner, each of us feeling that the person who had to decide what we were to have had a far harder job than the person who would then go and simply cook it). In this instance (as always (i suppose)) I'm referring to music. Far from just trying to 'find my compositional voice', I don't even seem to be able to settle on a single media and genera. Now I don't want to sound like one of those people who thinks that if your music doesn't fit into a pre-existing genera then its doomed to failure; but for me to be able to develop within any given genera, I feel I'm going to need to devote a lot of time and effort into it so that I know exactly what I' m doing, and don't just end up knocking off poorly realised imitations of its paradigms.

This got me thinking about what music I've been exposed to during my time at uni that has really amazed me. And it was this thought that led me to write this entry, and to try and decide, of all the concerts I've seen in the last few years, which have been the best.

One of the first that sprang to mind was a recent free-improvisation gig in the Brighton Soundwaves Festival. This was a cosy little event held in a café, and as I was volunteering in the festival, after I'd helped with moving furniture and setting up the PA, I could enjoy the concert for free. It consisted of three groups, each of which would approach the 'stage' and then just start improvising. How pre-prepared any of these performances were it's hard to say, but they all felt as if any structure they were supposed to have would have been immediately abandoned if the music led them somewhere else. (Here's a link to an organisation many of the performers were in). One of the more memorable aspects of the concert was a drummer who seemed a little bit insane. He played pretty conventional beats all the way through, but seemed to change instruments every few seconds - all the while keeping the rhythm going and making it feel completely natural. He'd start by simply clapping (although getting quite a range of different sounds out of just two hands), then he'd move onto the drum kit, then incorporate some more drums, then he'd pick up a tambourine and shake that in one hand whilst still playing the drums with his other, then carrying the tambourine he'd get up and start stamping his feet, then drop the tambourine and start tapping a microphone, before reaching out to a bottle on someone's table and blowing across it as an additional percussion instrument. He may have overshadowed his bandmates somewhat - but it was nevertheless a incredibly energetic performance.

Another concert that really sticks out is seeing Jose Gonzales at the Brighton Dome. This was a year or two back now, and so I hadn't heard much of his stuff (also, as he was still just pushing past the periphery of the mainstream the ticket was a bargain at just £12.50). First of all he had two unusual warm-up acts that were highly original (the second of which consisted of 3 women in green tutus playing on computers and effects pedals). And then there was Jose himself. I sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have seen Nick Drake in some folk club, or a young Jeff Buckley working the lower east side; and it makes me thankful that I went to this concert. Having said that, a concert hall with a few thousand people - most of them drunken students - made for a less than intimate experience. But with wonderful music and well planed, sympathetic lighting, it maintained a wonderful atmosphere that made for a great evening.

And there have been many other interesting concerts: in the Brighton Festival, and more in the Soundwaves Festival, and outside Brighton in the Aberystwyth MusicFest - two of the real stand out pieces from the numerous concerts there were Fratres for String Quartet by Arvo Part, and Messiaen's Quartet for the end of time - both were completely amazing experiences. There've been great amateur concerts, concerts by the Uni Symphony Orchestra, and the uni's 21st Century Ensemble (a contemporary music group which was radically updated from its former title of 20th Century Ensemble, in 2006). I've seen West End Musicals, and one of my own tutors playing his Piano Concerto with the Brighton Philharmonic. I've found that compositions by amateurs are often more engaging than those by established composers, and that the price of the ticket doesn't necessarily correlate to the enjoyment you will receive (attending an opera at Glyndebourne was a really good experience, but had I not received a free ticket I doubt I would have been willing to pay the standard £150 myself).

Choosing one concert as the best would probably be impossible, (and even if I did I'd probably change my mind pretty quickly,) so the best I can do is to end on a performance that was nevertheless pretty amazing. In a medium sized performance area attached to a gallery I saw a four-piece band called Huun-Huur-Tu. They were a group of Tuvan throat singers and the concert was just mesmerising. At the end of it I had no idea weather the concert had lasted 40 minutes, or 3 hours - you just didn't know - and it didn't really matter, the music was that good.

Well there you go. I've put a few links in here and there, but if I've learned anything about music it's that people have radically different tastes, and that it has nothing to do with quality or complexity - it's just a personal preference. So rather than end this post by telling to listen to all the people mentioned above, I'll just gently encourage you to go out there try and discover some new music that you can love – its for your own good!

I'm done.

2007-06-16T06:38:00.000-07:00

That's it. I'm done. For the first time in as long as I can remember I am no longer in full-time education. My final hand-in date came and went a few weeks ago now and since then I've been enjoying all the things I'd previously not had time to do for quite a while owing to my heavy workload; things like reading, cooking proper meals, listening to music and going to concerts.

When it came to finally handing everything in, I felt reasonably happy. I had no final exams and my four, year-long modules were all assessed by portfolios of work to be handed in on the same day. I'm not great at managing my time even when there's lots of it to spare, this situation meant that there were instances where I sometimes had good idea but just knew I wouldn't be able to develop them thoroughly enough to use. Also, compositions and orchestrations are the kind of things that you can always go back to and re-revise, and ultimately you just have to stop and say it's finished, and just hope that it's in a reasonable state when this moment comes.

The hand-in day itself was really fun. The main Union bar was so full - full of many people I hadn't seen for ages, and there was a strange, contented atmosphere of anticlimactic relief. The bar itself looked like it was the site of a very tired party that had been going on for days, with piles of bottles and plastic cups all over the place, and a huge assortment of poorly arranged chairs, each with varying amounts of beer spilt on them.

The highlight came however as the final 5 o'clock deadline began to draw nearer, and the bar slowly emptied as people made their way to watch the Dissertation Dash. This phrase is quite a literal description of what happens, as here at the University of Sussex there is a long path between the Humanities office (where people collate their work) and the building where they hand in their work. This invariably means that as the last few minutes fade away, the poor people who've left their final adjustments a little later than they should have, can be seen running down the long strait to try and get their work in on time. And it's because of this that there is a tradition for everyone else to line along this path and cheer as our less organised comrades sprint to make their undignified way to finish their degree.

This might seem like a strange act - essentially applauding laziness, but to me it felt like a great community event that added some energy to an otherwise very tired day.

Men of Power

2007-03-31T16:41:00.000-07:00

I wouldn't say I'm a particularly political person. I don't really ally myself with any political party, and have never really assessed my own political views further than that of a gentle leaning to the left. I do however feel that I should try and engage with politics more, and indeed feel that everyone should try and vote, simply as a vote for democracy if nothing else. But whilst watching the budget the other day, I was left rather confused. It wasn't that the politicians were lying - that would be simple enough, they appeared to be using facts to confront each other, but with such a strong conviction of their opponent being wrong, that it undermines the credibility of the facts. More than that, they would seem to take opposing views on any given statement.

"Look at this" one would say "isn't it a lot better than it used to be?!"
"No," the other one would cry, "It's much, much worse"

I'd hoped the media would help to explain all of this, but once again - no such luck. Newspapers emphatically condone or contest the new budget, taking completely opposing views on the same points. So I considered that this could be because the budget is such a big and complicated thing, that there would undoubtedly be some people who benefited and some who lost out, but the political parties direct their comments to the everyman - making it seem like everyone's winning or loosing under these proposals.

I recently received some propaganda through the post in preparation for the upcoming local elections, and it was the same again - so much manipulative rhetoric that you could barely find the points underneath it. And so I considered looking up policies, but we all know they can be changed and ignored. So I am left feeling confused and disfranchised.

A lot of this seems quite obvious, and I suppose I did know it all before, but I just feel that recently I've seen it more clearly, and understood the situation a little better, and it's quite disheartening really.

I knew that David Cameron was never going to applaud anything Gordon Brown had to say. But I'd never followed that to the logical conclusion that as they both had their positions pre-decided; it rendered the facts quite irrelevant to either of their arguments. I also know that there will be amendments, and opposing parties will at times come to agree, but only if they are sure it will not be at the expense of their public image.

In some ways I feel that essentially this is what modern democracy is, and given the alternatives, I'm cannot help but remain thankful to live here. But seeing anew how hollow and superficial politics can be has left me wondering what the point is. It makes me think of something I first discovered when reading 1984, but had never been able to apply to a real life situation- that of a war going on, and no one remembers why it's being fought, but you just know it is, and there's no possibility of stopping, and so you just have to pick a side, commit, and hope for the best.

some films

2007-03-03T02:31:00.000-08:00

This blog entry has unexpectedly ended up being about films (as opposed to just random things I've done recently).

I just watched a film called Adaptation, which was adapted from a book, and is about the adaptation of the book to the film itself. For example, the screenplay writer will have an idea for the opening of the film, and so writes it down, but of course we the viewer have already seen it, as it was (/is) at the beginning of the film. In the end it left me wanting to find out about the making of the film, and how honest it real is.

Also, I went to a concert the other day, at the Dome, of three Charlie Caplin films, with an new orchestral score performed live. I'd seen one of the films before (The Immigrant), and in these new surroundings found it reasonably funnier than I remembered. Maybe this was just because of the atmosphere of community that enhances comedy when performed live, but I still felt the music worked wonderfully. This isn't to say that the music was at times rather challenging. It could be very dissonant, and at one point the two solo singers stood up and begin conducting, enabling the orchestra to break into three sections and each play at different speeds. It also employed a variety of unusual instruments featuring bottles struck with sticks; kazoos; shouts, singing and whistling from the instrumentalists; electronic effects; and at one point, police-like statements recited by the soprano soloist through a megaphone.

And finally, a while back I saw The Science of Sleep, at the Cinema (Incidentally, the cinema in question is the Duke of York's Picture House, a cinema here in Brighton which was purpose built as a Picture House in 1910 and has been used solely for that purpose ever since). It's basically just another love story, but told very well, in a truly wonderful world. At the end of the film there were still some inconsistencies, and certain sections which left you unsure as to whether they were dream or reality. Even the love story - at the heart of the plot - is left unresolved at the end, and I felt a little cheated by that (as Hollywood has taught me). But I resolved that this is just part of the way this film works, part of it's aesthetic, and that it's such a wonderful aesthetic that I really can't complain.

So there you go, I wouldn't say I'm much of a film man, and I'm usually quite critical and not very easily impressed. But as all these experiences have been very enjoyable, I must conclude that I've finally began to work out what kind of things I like, which is good.

London, Cave Story, Bodysong

2007-02-16T05:23:00.000-08:00

Well, quite a lot has happened since my last entry, so lets start at the very beginning (a very good place to start (so I'm told)).

London!

I went to London last weekend to meet up with my parents and my young cousin Rob. It was a delightful experience (as things of this sort often are) and I left feeling thoroughly nourished by the simple wonder of this amazing city. We saw an RSC production of Antony and Cleopatra, with Patrick Stewart in a delightful toupee; we saw Spamalot, the Monty Python Musical - which was funny, very well done, and all in all far better than I thought I would be; we went to the natural history museum and hung out at Lester Square, luncheoned at Covent Gardens, and crossed the Thames on the Millennium Bridge.

We also went to the Tate Modern, which is a truly wonderful place, and never fails to show me to something new which manages to skew my perception of the world, if only for a few seconds. In the Turbine Hall they currently have several cylindrical slides installed, starting from various levels and intended for human use. It's defiantly a different way of experiencing art, expanding the barriers yet again further than what's come before. I'm actually not sure how poignant it was for me as a work of art, but still, it was fun. One of the other main stand-out pieces was a Video Quartet by Christian Marclay which consisted of 4 screens which were used simultaneously to display different clips taken mainly from films. It's main structuring principle seemed (to me) to be a coherent organisation of the soundtracks, at times placing clips with music of the same key together, so you might have Audrey Hepburn singing to an accompaniment of archive footage of a 1930s jazz band, whilst gene kelly taps about, slightly out of time, all brought to a close by Elvis getting shot - what more could you want!

Cave Story

Well, back in Brighton I've been managing to get some composing done, keeping up with the radio show, seeing a few concerts here and there, and amidst all of this productive stuff - computer games!

I like to check the radiohead blog every now and again as they often mention new songs, and what they're doing in the studio, put up pictures, and sometimes random links to things they just think are cool. One such link led me to Cave Story.

http://www.miraigamer.net/cavestory/

It's a delightfully retro little game, akin to Zelda of the SNES era, although with possibly even worse graphics. The trouble is, in spite of its 'old-school-to-the-max' nature, it's still bloody good, and as our TV is reasonably broken, has provided hours of RSI inducing fun!

Bodysong

And finally, yesterday I watched a film called bodysong. The only reason I'd ever even heard of it was because Jonny Greenwood (the guitarist in radiohead) had written the soundtrack. It's about human life and the various stages therein. It's more of an artwork than a feature film, as there's no narrative or characters and its constructed entirely from found clips of footage.

It begins by going through the biological stages in human life from birth to adulthood, and then looks at different aspects of human life: love, sex, food, war, religion, art, communication, death. Often you'd notice (through obvious changes in the soundtrack) that one section had ended, but it would take a while for you to realise what the next section was, as they'd play clips from many exotic cultures from all over the world. For example, the religion section began with clips of African dancing, then a room full of people in pairs hugging each other, then a field full of people completely naked, lying on the floor perfectly still, then someone being crucified, and it wasn't until about a few minutes in when they started showing images of priests, that I realised that this sections was about the many aspects of religion.

Also, this was probably the most disturbing thing I've ever watched. I can handle Horror films fine - blood, guts, whatever - it's always over the top, and cartoonishly unrealistic. Even Scorsese-style violence, it might shock you to begin with, but you can cope with it because it's just not real - you know implicitly that it's fake, and that protects you in some way. In this film, all the images of war, violent crime, police violence, are real. Even images that are well known, like Saigon Execution, or Tiananmen Square, images that could have lost their impact after years of use, appear fresh in the context in which they've been placed in the film, possibly making them even more horrific by their familiarity. However, after saying all that, I'm still not sure myself weather I was more disgusted by the images of despicable human violence, or of Childbirth - I've never seen that before - my god.

But I will say that by the end of the film I was not left entirely distraught by these images, because it also showed many other aspects of human life that make you smile and laugh, and left me with a strange poignant feeling that the human race is a very strange and interesting thing, and although it may seem like a boring and introspective concept to just look at the everyday aspects of human life, it highlights the fact that that's everything our individual existences are. Essentially this film is about everything there is.

Well done if you managed to read this far. In future I'll try and write shorter entries more frequently. Hope you're having a nice day.

A Boring Story

2007-01-23T14:48:00.000-08:00

I had become slightly concerned that some musical avenues I'd recently began exploring, had been adopted in spite of myself... that is, I was worried that by some subconscious self-trickery I had ended up leaning towards music that I didn't actually like, and had been listening to it merely for it's image and energy, and to fulfil the eternal desire to discover new up-and-coming acts that you think are absolutely amazing, but hardly anyone else has heard of.

I say mainly about the New York band LCD soundsystem, and lots of other stuff on DFA (their record label). I think a lot of it is very good (at least i think that’s what I think...) but some of it can sound a bit 80s in places and I really don't care much for music from that depressing decade...

However I was delighted the other day to discover that Tim Goldsworthy (co-person involved in DFA in a big way) was school friends with James Lavelle and was an original member of UNKLE - another electronic music creating team, which I like and had discovered by completely independent means.

Well, needless to say, this has reassured me that I am not in fact subject to such 'subconscious self-trickery', and that merely the some 80s-style tracks are quite simply a bit crap, and I'll have to be sure to avoid them in future...

Education!/

Predicative Text

2007-01-04T08:15:00.000-08:00

Predicative text alternatives for the word 'hapen' (the misspelling of 'happen'):

harem

hardn

gardn

gaseo

Socks!

2006-12-31T06:16:00.000-08:00

Ok, I haven't written anything in ages, but, well basically I just haven't felt like writing... I still don't really... but thought I'd better had do...

But the terrible thing now is that even though there are many things I could write about, since I don't feel any great desire to relate them to you, even if I do write about them, they're inevitably going to come across as being quite boring in spite of themselves...

So that now leaves the question of what to write... ok.. erm... yea.

Ah! I got some socks for Christmas! Now I often get wonderfully imaginative socks for Christmas, which sometimes requires a certain amount of self motivation to bring myself to wearing them the first time. This year however, no such action was needed, as my terrible socks were so delightfully retro, so disgustingly kitsch, that I did not hesitate to don one the very next day. But, what kind of socks are these? I hear you now say. Quite simply put: Golf-socks.

Yes, not only do these socks have the characteristic diagonal, diamond-shape pattern, but just to affirm their identity, they indeed have displayed above the ankle, a picture of a golfer, gazing into the distance having gracefully struck his target, now frozen in the final position of his swing, encompassed by an air of satisfaction. Ok, I might have slightly embellished what is actually perceivable in the pixelated weave of the sock, but still... it's bloody good.

Theatre!

2006-11-28T06:42:00.000-08:00

I think I've mentioned before, now that as I'm in my final year I feel like I should be doing more 'things' (and this extends outside the realms of the radio studio). So, I've decided to be in a play! Well... actually it was more a case of, my being informed of a production in need of musicians, and I eventually decided to motivate myself to respond.

The Uni Dram Society is doing a production of The Elephant Man, and the director wanted some musical interludes. Well, as is usual with things like this, it became apparent pretty early on that I would be providing all the music myself. This came as no surprise, however when it was mentioned in passing that there would be full frontal male nudity for the first 10 minutes, I will admit that I was taken slightly off guard.

This was a few days ago now, and I’m pleased to say that all in all the rehearsals have been going very well (I'm also pleased to say that there is also some female nudity later on as well).

Anyway, we open tomorrow now, so I’ll be sure to let you know how it goes, in a few days.

2006-11-18T08:13:00.000-08:00

Drumming and Dancing

2006-11-11T03:10:00.001-08:00

Living off campus is not good for lazy people who feel they should do 'things'. I'd seen adverts for an African drumming class, postered about the Music Department and now that we were 6 weeks into the winter term I decided the time was right to finally make myself go.

Upon entering the classroom everything first seemed much as I had expected - polite 'hello's, and 'I'm new's, then Lloyd, the quiet, mild mannered guy who was running the class (although who acted as thought he was only vaguely aware of that fact,) said we'd start by clapping out the rhythm we'd be using. That seemed like a perfectly logical start, although I was then left slightly confused as to what I was supposed to do with the small, leather band of bells he began handing out. I was not left in confusion for too long though, as I soon noticed that everyone now had the strip of bells tied to their feet and was enthusiastically stomping out a pulse.

The workshop lasted about an hour and a half and at the end we were still working on that same first rhythm, and trying to construct the piece that it's used in. It became apparent quite early on that I was the only person who had received any substantial training in classical western music (and that included Lloyd). Once I got home I wrote down the main rhythm, and also some of the additional lines we played on top, and suddenly my understanding of it jumped into a clearer focus. I can't help now thinking that if I'd just written everything down at the class, it would have been a lot easier for me. But for now at the very least, I feel I should keep going and try to learn these rhythms the old school way, through listening and copying - it's obviously worked for a good few centuries - who am I to say my ways better.

Then on Thursday, I experienced an entirely different musical event - I went to the ballet! Now I don't think I've ever been to a ballet before and so I decided it was about time, although even before I got there I wasn't in a good frame of mind. When I ordered the tickets online they seemed to have 2 booking fees, on top of the tickets being bloody expensive, and the website just had the feel of somewhere that's going to rip you off at every chance. Also this was the Theatre Royal which I hadn't been to before, and it and its programme just felt mainstream, uninteresting, unjustifiably expensive, and basically rather pretentious. (I'll have to stick to the Dome in future).

But putting all of that aside, I tried to have an open mind for the ballet, and the main thought I was left with was - There's rather a lot of dancing. Now you might say I should really have expected that from a ballet, but I really expected there to be more emphasis on conveying the story through dance. I suppose it's such a simple story that there isn't much to convey, and also since Tchaikovsky wrote it like that, I suppose that's how it's supposed to be. The thing I found a bit boring though was that they would have many large pauses in the action in which there would be several solo dances for no (narrative) reason. Also, as ballet is such an old form of dance, and so stylistically polarised, in a modern context it would be difficult to convey a range of interesting characters within that style because that one style has so many set association already.

Also I thought the orchestra wasn't too good. (Playing with an international Russian ballet company won't let you escape the criticism of jack!) It might have just been that the orchestra was quite small and that the acoustics weren't great, but still, I do feel as if my summery for the week should be:

Drums - Good

Ballet - Bad

That is a bit harsh however. The ballet was ok, but I'm sure there're better shows out there.

Conjoined Potato Twins!

2006-11-07T04:27:00.000-08:00

Halloween

2006-11-05T05:39:00.000-08:00

So after the excessive amount of effort I put in last Halloween, I decided this year that I would be boring and do nothing (well that coupled with the fact that I'd got quite drunk the night before and so felt a bit 'blhh' and the idea of going out, or even staying up that late didn't really tempt me.)

But I am glad to say that not all my flatmates were as unenthusiastic as me.

Jon dressed up as the guy from The Crow.

Lorna dressed up as Edward Scissorhands.

And then a few drinks into the night, my loving flatmates decided that my tediously mainstream appearance needed to be enhanced and so leapt on me equipped with eyeliner and... er... several other cosmetic products that I've no hope identifying.

I have to say though, I didn't really end up with a specific character, other than someone making a very poor attempt to look like Adam Ant.

All you need is Radio Jacka!

2006-10-25T13:28:00.001-07:00

So I decided that if I wanted to have a radio show - it really was now or never. I'd been meaning to get involved with the student radio station for ages, but now that I'd reached my final year, I decided that the time had come to finally do something about it.

Now the radio station, as with many other student organisations, actually isn't very organised. So after turning up for 2 training sessions that didn't happen, and then not getting up in time to attend the replacement training sessions, I found myself sitting in front of the control desk, in the studio, broadcasting my first show, with absolutely no idea what I was doing.

Having said that, I think the show went quite well really. Admittedly the first half hour did mainly consist of dead air, with the occasional fading in and out of music as I tried to work out what all the knobs did. And in my defence there were some rather misleading objects about the studio, such as the red 'On Air' light, which refused to light up no matter what combination of buttons I pressed. This also meant that my first words to the listeners at the University of Sussex Campus, and indeed across the world were:

"Er, yea, hi... um, now I'm not quite sure if I'm actually broadcasting here, but I think I'll just get on with it anyway..."

Thankfully it later transpired that I was broadcasting (well for the second half hour at least), which I discovered through the wondrous 'listen again' feature on the station website. And I do feel reasonably capable of doing a show now, even if I do only ever push no more than 4 of the hundreds of buttons available to me. But the one worrying element that now remains is that now that I've done my first show, I've used up all my material. I've already played my favourite songs. I've already shown off all the new albums I'm listening to...

I suppose there is an obvious solution here, that being: This is a weekly show - who's going to care if you just play the same stupid stuff every time...?

Who indeed...

Gender Stereotyping

2006-10-06T10:16:00.000-07:00

Well, life is continuing as usual. Living in a house full of girls has taken a bit of getting used to but I'm now starting to learn how to adjust to this new environment.

For example - if we're heading out to town, I have now learned that the statement "Ok, shall we get going then...?" does not mean that we will imminently leave the house - but instead it simply causes everyone to quickly stand up and say "Ooo, just give me a minute," and before I've had enough time to even register the sound of bedroom-doors slamming, I am completely alone in the lounge. I then have approximately twenty minutes to wait before I can expect the gradual return of newly fragrant flatmates.

I will however complain that not all such aspects of being the only guy in an otherwise all-girl house are so easy to adjust to...

It just tickles my ear every time...

The Student Lifestyle

2006-10-01T11:00:00.000-07:00

Indeed! I am now all moved in to me new place, and have had a wonderful time getting to know the new flatmates (see Eric, pictured to the left).

For the last few days the house has been filled with merriment, and song... although when it comes to 'song' in a more specific sense, Julia seems to have a tendency for getting lyrics extremely wrong:

"How do you like your eggs in the morning?
I like mine with a pie..."

Freshers' has been pretty cool, and sazzl came down to see me the other day, which was fab. We lived up to the touristy expectations - went to the pier and got knocked around on a rollercoaster - but wait there's more - as we were just walking along we only happened to run into a disgruntled looking Jeremy Paxman – how cool is that!

Anyway, no more slacking now - as this week the Student Lifestyle Proper beings, as that's when the work starts.

Hurrah for Education!

Blog

2006-10-01T10:25:00.000-07:00

I know this seem really quite stupid - I never even wanted one of them 'blog' things, but now here I am, setting up a new one, because I just got too pissed off with 'msn spaces' constantly pissing me off...

So yea, basically - this is the new home of the occasional rambling of jack....

Enjoy!