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Turn Up for the Books

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Edited by Joseph Jensen, Thursday, 16 Oct 2014, 16:26

CSF

 

These are currently available as pre-orders. Not that the OU merchandise isn't spiffy. But Clear Soul are Clear Soul so you know, buy a hoodie. 'Cos then they can come to the UK. Then I can stop having these very difficult passive aggressive emotions towards the French. They are available on their website, which is probably Clear Soul Forces dot something, all one word, anyways,

My course materials turned up! Sort of. I had them sent to the place where I live, which is a small block of flats made out of shipping containers, somehow they got lost in the post. Probably because we had this thing put on the gate outside so only residents could get in, that they forgot to inform the postie of. So I got them resent. They have sent me print outs of the online materials. Which is fine and stuff. No excuse not to get on now though.

I am trying to think legal thoughts but see, there was this party, which I went to. It lasted a couple days. I drank as much as I have ever drunk. I then managed to get up the next day (BECAUSE I AM THOR!) and go to work to collect my wages and say Hi, then I got the bus to Sunny Tunny. That was two hours. Also surprisingly fine, though I was a little tired the other end. I then managed to get through the drive to Maidstone and dinner before eventually having to retire before the end of Captain America 2. My God. I learned some things about myself last night. I woke up today, no glasses, no contacts, used up my whole inhaler, a whole pack of ibuprofen and paracetamol and even my emergency snickers. So Mother had a panic attack about the asthma, deciding to drive me all the way home to make sure I got another inhaler. This is because nowadays you can't get emergency prescriptions or anything, records are also kept a lot less long. So when asking in the pharmacy (that I went to for like four years) if I could get an inhaler, I might as well have been asking if they sold diazapam by the hundred. I have to get my bizzle together for work today anyway. I don't feel, Asgardian, lets say.

So yeah I have got to get on with this degree. I have lots to get on with at the moment. I am contemplating getting myself one of those little chromebook laptop things. Though I don't know. Having avoided the hipster hand grenade that is iPads, do I want to risk it? I have an old piece of crap laptop that is so just much more retro. Blatantly going to end up hiking that around with me. Fucking news. Ebola, great, yes, its terrible. It was terrible when the first ten cases or whatever were uncovered. You totally under-informed everyone and now that it is as bad is it is, its better news so on it goes. New Scientist reckons if there are over ten thousand cases before the New Year there will be a million in the next year. Syria and the general Jihad is gathering pace. Excellent. Awesome. Report it more in the Western media, just to make sure they know, that yeah, terrorism is bad mmkay. That'll get 'em scared. Not riled up. Maybe more news reports on multi-cultural Britain and less on terrorism. Not that The Sun is responsible for using terrorism as a way to unite people and sell newspapers to the enraged hoard. They all do it in fairness. It's OK *hug* I love you interwebs. Whatever the fuck else. Apologies for the cussing. Rio Ferdinand is getting sued for Twitter Abuse. Which is abuse of twitter or abuse using twitter? I don't know. Or care. Some more terrible racism in football in Eastern Europe/Russia. Not that the racism is like, bad. Nope. They just need to keep it away from football. Ukraine much? The only sign we have of the seriousness of the engrained beliefs of certain groups is through football hooliganism, which we stop, but are then surprised when a 'revolution' like the one there occurs. Even then, its as peaceful as is humanly possible, until a major power gets involved and make it all military. So hey lets leave the EU and undo the Human Rights Act! Not that I don't get it. Having read more about some of the ways that rule about interpreting it differently for different countries given circumstance has been used, is scary. They just need to be more like America are with their foreign policy. If you deny people these rights, we will bomb and occupy you until you do. Then theres that whole independent military problem. Hired guns. War mongering. Ugh.

What have I been listening to lately, I hear you cry! You crying. Mostly. No, I jest, more metal since the Forum night. Raven Age are proper. Even recorded. My friend went to see Marmozets and put me on to them. They good. Listened to a l'il grime (gryme?) for the first time. I thought it was all broken glass sound effects and jump up. Apparently not. Some of the Barenboim sonatas. Listened to La Traviata because I girl I was into went to see it. Ironically it sort of ended up like the Opera did. Well we aren't together and I think we're both sad about that. So its sort of the same. She isn't dead though. Some sort of spacey drum and bass bits. Oh and the radio. Some. Little bits. There is a lot of shit on the radio. More Gay and Christian stations than I remember, less actual music.

Speaking of music - KLIKK THISS!

FOrum

 (  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dcNrS5FMXc )

Not only is The Forum doing a weekly TV show. Where you can learn about local music. In general. From people in a place where there is one. Also my friend CJ is in this video. My older and less well known friend, acquiantance, Matt also presents the whole show. I nearly died when I first saw it. Anyway. Click the link, please even if you don't watch it, the hits all go towards helping this stuff happen more. Which I like. I will totally have a big party or something if whatever.

Not sure what else. The next blog post is going to be so freaking expie-alla-docius you might break out into tap and start singing in a cockney accent.

So thats nice.

BAII

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if woe was me

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Happy Birthday me. I brought myself whiskey and self deprecation. I don't really care for presents like I used to. Or celebrating things. Or growing older. I had a hard time thinking of something I needed for Christmas, people had to ask me because they couldn't think of anything. I got a hi-fi that I have since given away.  I don't know. Now I've started collecting graphic novels and whatnot maybe I'll just get really big shiny picture books. Instead of gadgets and video games. I guess Will was right on with the stages of man. Not too long and I'll be back to not being able to see properly and mashing up my food. Not that I'm being nihilistic. I'unno. Read the poem. If you haven't.

So yeah, haven't had a nice grog since ... ahh. Christmas I guess. I got up to go to work and all that, painkillers, water, in the shower, get dressed, have breakfast, feel human. Turns out I was 6 hours early. So yeah. I would've probably just lied in bed all day, its a blessing in disguise. Making myself bubble and squeak with roast leftovers for lunch. Which even thinking about is making me grin. Cannot beat bubble and squeak on a hangover. You can't actually beat it most of the time. I had bagel for breakfast though. Which can almost beat it. If I had to choose between the bagel for breakfast or the bubble for lunch, heck, I really don't know. No sense in sweating that which is beyond your control. Having both. Which means I win. Tuna bagel with avocado and olives. So yeah. big decisions, mint jelly or redcurrant sauce. Hmm. I may even make gravy.

  Martin Freeman

Don't have a lot of law related things to talk about as my course mats still haven't arrived (THE HORROR) but I guess this whole noise abatement, music venue thing is relevant. An acquaintance, Jason Dormon, is having his business threatened because they are building a new block of flats near the venue. Thanks to an excellent and organised local music scene all of the right steps have been taken. The council have been contacted, petitions signed, ultimately everyone is on the side of the venue. Even so. It comes down to law, which I thought was generally that when you move to a property it is your responsibility to check the surrounding area. Very wrong. They have now been directed (by local councillors and friends) that the law would need to change for them to be able to protect the business, if residents move in, they will have a right to complain and the venue simply will not be able to comply with the noise restrictions the council will have to impose upon them. Even if the council don't want to apply the restrictions or let the building be built. Its not that they won't soundproof and install limiters on the sound system, the money they would have to pay to do so is too much of a risk. It only takes one guy to do one thing and even after spending all that money it could just get closed down. May go on the forums here and do some inter-versing with some folks, as my knowledge is out of date. Seems though that its the same sort of right wing culture that has led to the deconstruction of economy in the U.S., business people turn up sensing there is an opportunity in an area and they intend to take it. To make their money. Even if it is a detriment to the local area. Words like, business isn't personal, and competition is part of progress, are utter nonsense in 2014. Sure when you're actually growing villages to towns, you need everyone to be making something and competing to increase the quality of the product, its production and ultimately manage the cost of it. Or so I would think, at least. Those phrases today are rhetoric. As relevant as the idea the world is flat. If they held truth, now, then how did we come to have an enormous global recession? One thing most people in business know is that you must look successful to be successful, which infers the basic principle of business is to lie to people, then cheat them by selling them the worst product at the highest price so as to maximise your profit. Which you will then put in the bank, and take away. So you can eventually sell the business for a lump and retire. All of which is totally accepted modern behaviour. Like the continuing mass production of fossil fuel or McDonalds. I'm not burning my bra and saying its all going down, I just don't understand how we can continue to accept the way we treat each other and think that everything is going to get better before it gets worse. 

/rant

I got invited to play in a football tournament, my wrist is still bad enough I can't risk it. Very frustrating. I did, drunkenly, do my ALS challenge though which is good. Not for ALS. For me. I have to get the video and stuff. Kinda thinking I might go back to football when I can. I'unno. I fixed the homestead which was nice. Is nice. I still have to decorate but I think I have the space how I want it now. I'll have to move in 18 months anyway. Long enough for me to bother though. They re-painted the containers so we no longer have tags all over us now. Yay. We're growing vegetables and having cook outs on the weekend with the produce now, which is nice, they did one Saturday unannounced. It was more hangovers than green fingers. There is a part of last night I can't remember, I just remembered. I wonder if as soon as I actually get around to having a go at making music that I will instantly decide to go back to writing. If I keep changing my mind forever I never have to do anything. 

Been playing Warframe from release as well. Which has been alright. Too many late nights. Finished my Ultimate X-men collection. Like a boss. Oh my days the ending is. Oh my days. Without spoiling the whole series, it basically has every plot-line that you have ever heard of. All the major characters and arcs, except the phalanx, anywho. I kind of thought it was going to leave me feeling glad I got to the end but unsure of what I really feel about the books as a whole. Often the case with comics. But yeah, it is utterly stonking. May have to collect one of the new 52 now. Maybe Lantern or Aquaman. I have issues. The different way people react to me when they find out I like anime and manga has been amusing me lately. A very cool dude who was around mine making music and stuff, who I barely knew, instantly thought I was the man and bust out his manga collection on his phone when he saw my (new) bookshelves. Which have my comics on them. Law books and comics. Such a gangster. A middle aged couple at work think that I am some kind of sexual deviant. Maybe some people in the UK don't know what Otaku means. They probably just think pedophile. Not that I even am anyway. Or that it changes my opinion as a whole. I am going to start reading oneman punch, when I get my phone sorted. What a saga. EE have to go. So I tried to get the phone unlocked, waited days, couldn't. So I have to get a new phone. And a new sim card. With credit. Looked at contracts, which are still an unbelievable rip off. So I'm currently offline and out of touch. When I do get it sorted though I know how to tether hotspots now so I can actually use the internet. On a computer. w00t. 

Work today. Two days off. Going to see the Mother Unit. For to say that it is nice that I had birthday. Now she lives in the town where I was born its gonna be weird. I was so wasted most of the time I remember being there, it'll all look different. I'm trying to sound cool. I wasn't that wasted .. though thinking back I can't remember the last time I was there that I was completely sober. God I don't know. I go now to continue my day with this attitude-

whiskey

- Thanks Lazarus.

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Thank You for the Music

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Edited by Joseph Jensen, Friday, 21 Mar 2014, 13:58

a television screen

 

It all started with the BBC and a band called The Cinematic Orchestra. I was introduced to them by a promoter friend from Europe when I was 18 and over the last ten years I have come to be an avid fan of their music. Sadly none of my friends share my passion. They released an album called Ma Fleur when I was about 20 which contains this song,  To Build A Home.

The Cinematic Orchestra - To Build a Home

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QB0ordd2nOI

I had heard pieces of it on various BBC sponsored programs, it features in a David Attenborough nature program but it wasn't until I heard it an a pivotal point in the Sherlock Holmes series that I stood up straight and said to my friends 'Hey now, what are you doing using this song?". I should quantify, I had a copy of this album on CD at my brothers wedding and I remember being moved to tears at one point listening to it, so to hear it as a backing track was surprising to say the least. Moving on.

Over years I came to accept that this was more than coincidence, a record I had fallen in love with had become a piece that would be used in all kinds of television programs. It makes sense that such a beautiful song would be. Skip forward to this year, and I hear this song on a television advert.

C2C - Down the Road

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1uUIJPD0Nk

C2C are four DJs who won the world DMC championship for four years running from (I think) 2003-2007. This is no small feat. I was introduced to them by a DJ called Dark Matter in 2008, he showed me their 2005 DMC winning performance on youtube and to this day I rate it as one of the most spectacular pieces of musicianship I have ever seen. You can find it on youtube if your into that kind of thing. Anywho, C2C never released an album following their success until Tetra came out in late 2012. It is a wonderful album full of the kinky, inane but ridiculously polished music only they are capable of. So to hear it in a CAR ADVERT made me actually very happy (surprisingly), what a great pay-off for a great bunch of guys and also you never know, with Shazam, maybe they could get some new fans. I was still very shocked, enough that I stood straight up and said, 'Holy shit, thats C2C", when I first heard the advert. It's ok, my friends think I'm weird too.

So anyway, I'm watching House of Cards on Netflix, season 2 and it happens again. Bonobo this time. Strange thing here is that I have been listening to Bonobo for years too, I have had various favourite tracks by them over time but just recently this song-

Bonobo - Kong

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3qZxf2Lg-Q

- has become my number one A-rated favourite piece of music. Well over the holiday period at least. I can't really explain why, it's all full of melancholy, drab pacing and eerieness but it has this lovely subtle narrative that makes me feel like I'm listening to someone taking a breath-taking walk. So when it drops in this bar scene in House of Cards I was like, uh, I was alone this time so I paused the show and re-watched the scene to make sure it wasn't just a similar piece of music. I had a desire to make a post on facebook about it, about how strange it was, but I thought better of it. Who cares right? I've met a few people who know of Bonobo and it is a great record, the fact it was my favourite song in the world a few months ago is nothing to write home about.

The last part of the story is what enamoured me to make this post, when I was about 20 or so I met a gentleman called Nat, Nat was a grade 6 and higher accordian player. Strange no? It was an incredible skill and he had a fantastic musical palate, he introduced me to lots of interesting things, some horribly strange things and one thing I still love to this day. He uploaded some songs by a band called Son of Dave to the works music system and I was instantly a fan. It's one guy with a harmonica, a bass drum, a microphone and a loop pedal. Anyway, this is a truly strange facet of the music world. like Jah Wobble or Anal Nathraak, it falls between genres. I think its blues, I don't even really care what it is, for some reason I have always just got on with it. Anyway.

Son of Dave - Shake a Bone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCnG2HwT24g

This is what I find when I type the song into youtube. I have been digesting Breaking Bad this last week or so and this was the last straw. It's the first song on my hip-hop/blues/rhytmn and blues play-list, well its actually second after Devil Take My Soul, which is a much better record. What I was saying, the other songs I could understand but this is just weird. I would never, ever, have thought I would hear this music anywhere but on my Spotify play-list. This time I had no idea what to do, nobody to be shocked and surprised with so I wrote a post about these strange musical happenings.

Also still waiting for my results, I am getting more and more sure I have failed as more people get their results. Ho-hum, heres hoping.

 

Joe 

 

 

Permalink 2 comments (latest comment by Joseph Jensen, Sunday, 27 Apr 2014, 20:19)
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