04
Dec 08
GENIUS: B.O.B. - Autotune
This is fucking ace.
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03
Dec 08
Hubba Hubba! Zoot Zoot!
This goes out to my girl, who’s doing her exams today.
Grown up exams, before you start. No R Kelly.
Anyone know where this is from?
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03
Dec 08
Rev Petitions Form 696
From Playlouder:
Jon ‘The Reverend’ McClure has set up a petition over at number10.gov.uk, the official website of the Prime Minister’s Office, protesting the use of Form 696, an ugly piece of paper that basically stops people like Big Narstie putting on gigs.
Mcclure calls the form “racial discrimination”, which it is, since it is used for “risk assessment of gigs”, asking for details of the ethnicity of music fans set to attend events, plus the style of music that will be played. Hence Big Narstie’s raves getting raided and shut down before they open, and that sort of thing.
Even born-again Neo Labour stooge / head of music industry representation umbrella group UK Music Feargal Sharkey doesn’t get down with the thing. he reported the use of the form to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and has called for a judicial review into its use.
The petition is over at Petitions.number10.gov.uk/scrapthe696.
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02
Dec 08
Are We Rioting Yet? The Icelanders Are.
“REYKJAVIK, Iceland — Protesters angry over Iceland’s economic meltdown clashed with police today, and at least five people were sent to the hospital with injuries.
Police fired pepper spray at the demonstrators as they tried to storm a police building in the Icelandic capital. The protesters — some of whom threw eggs at police — were demanding the release of a fellow demonstrator held by authorities since Friday.
The confrontation ended, and police calmed the crowd by freeing the man after an unidentified person paid his outstanding fine associated with a previous demonstration, police said.
Today’s protest began with several thousand people in front of Iceland’s parliament, but a few hundred of them then moved to the police building.
There have been many demonstrations in Iceland in recent weeks, as that country has seen its economy fall apart under the weight of the global credit crunch. Iceland’s banking system collapsed in October, and the country’s currency — the krona — has lost half its value since January.
Four Nordic countries and the International Monetary Fund recently pledged a combined $4.6 billion in loans to help Iceland’s economy recover.
The demonstrators blame the government for having failed to adequately oversee the banking industry. Among other things, the protesters have called for early elections. The current government was elected last year and does not need to call elections until 2011.”
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“Now the world is a stage and I’m acting
Look at all the viewers I’m attracting
Stall seats packed in”
Me, 2008
Or, “This pig’s FLY!”
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02
Dec 08
New Morrissey Sleeve
I like it!
I don’t know if its a comment on ritual abuse and pop music or anything. But I like it.
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02
Dec 08
The Svenhunter Drops Poetry Book
That Svenhunter has completed his first book of poetry. There are a couple of downloads left on Rapidshare. Get in!
Here’s a seasonal sampler:
Asleep, The Earth Exhales
There’s a tear in the air,
Which is so cold this time of year
That it freezes, falls, and shatters
With each uttered word that flatters
An unassuming ear.
Oh, are they burning, dear?
That must mean your wedding is near;
Let’s hang mistletoe up and choke
On all the back drafted wood smoke:
Eat mince pies and drink beer,
While outside the shore snores.
Akin to the hinges of doors,
The lake creaks, ablush with sleep,
And sheep bleat, because they’re just sheep.
We are untouched by laws
And watching you lie there
On that tumble-dried underwear,
Rolling in its godly glow,
I’m trying not to let is show,
As snow melts in your hair,
That I’d wish the world slow:
That I’d wish each fake flake of snow
That wets itself at warmth would stay,
Your frozen face to greet each day:
That we never passed ‘Go’.
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Back in the day I used to run PlayLouder (when it had a capital L in the middle), and would often find myself on the receiving end of disgruntled emails from bands I hadn’t been overly kind to. Like Scissor Sisters. Actually, they set me quite a nice email, saying something like, “why didn’t you like us? How could we be better next time? Thanks!” Unlike Death Row, who sent me threatening emails for suggesting Suge Knight might be something of a fat git.
Anyway, my lil’ brother Ali took my spot this last year. he retired already, but he’s still getting hate mail. From TheSvenhunter.blogspot.com:
Russell Joslin or Further Ravings of a Self-Important Self-Googling Douchebag
Yet another livid e-mail from a no-mark musician I happened to offend during my brief stint as a music journalist; one Russell Joslin. this is what Russell said:
(15 Nov 2008)
“I just had the misfortune of stumbling across what you wrote about me on a website called playlouder.com.
Coward.
If you want to say something about me dont[sic] bother emailing back, come find me and say it to my face, or are you another one whos[sic] forgotten how to do that?”
Where to begin with this?
Right, for a start off, nobody stumbles across anything on Playlouder as nobody stumbles across anything that’s encased in 3-foot-thick cement: he’s been Googling himself. Don’t be embarrassed, Russell: we all do it.
Next up: what the hell did I do to offend him? What could I have said that was so cowardly? I couldn’t remember who the hell he was so I assumed I’d given his album a bad review or something.
Not so - the album was so bland I didn’t bother reviewing it, so it seems; I just tagged his artist page with three helpful indicators for any browsing user: ‘hippie‘, ‘wishes he was American‘, and ‘shower etiquette‘.
Is that it? I’ve said much worse about much more interesting people, and have learned, as a result, that saying nasty things about people on the Internet is far from “cowardly” - it’s actually very brave.
And the audacity of the man: telling me I’m not allowed to e-mail him back! Why don’t you shut your eyes, cover your ears and sing “la-la-la” while you’re down there, Russell? Jesus!
Furthermore, if I was contractually obliged, as a professional music journalist, to journey to every godforsaken corner of the globe (smelly Dalston in your case - I haven’t “forgotten” how to get there, but I’d rather avoid it when I can) just to offer my two cents, I’d have given up the game long before I actually did. You should be grateful I gave your utterly superfluous album the time of day. There’s plenty of much better - and a few much worse - albums this year that barely got a look-in from my critical ear and/or pen.
And if you wish to continue in the music game, (if you really must - I’m not suggesting you do), you’re going to have to get used to people not enjoying your awful music, which is awful, and not react like a spoiled school-girl every time someone calls you a hippie, which you are, or says you need a shower, which I’ll bet you do, or says you wish you were American, which, judging by your whiny voice, you do also.
If I were you I’d either
a) cherish the 11 fans I have on Facebook and work on an improvement to my tepid, self-released debut, ‘Dream Token‘, adopting a degree of humility and maturity, accepting the opinions of others, and not waste my time sending curt yet unimaginative e-mails to tired hacks who happen to have a music taste that conflicts with my own output.
b) get another hobby.
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Road To Till The Casket Drops > Dedication 3.
I can’t help myself, I dig this hard.
Their clothing line looks illy too…
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From The Grauaniad:
A report on cannabis prepared for next year’s UN drug policy review will suggest that a “regulated market” would cause less harm than the current international prohibition. The report, which is likely to reopen the debate about cannabis laws, suggests that controls such as taxation, minimum age requirements and labelling could be explored.
The Global Cannabis Commission report, which will be launched today at a conference in the House of Lords, has reached conclusions which its authors suggest “challenge the received wisdom concerning cannabis”. It was carried out for the Beckley foundation, a UN-accredited NGO, for the 2009 UN strategic drug policy review.
There are, according to the report, now more than 160 million users of the drug worldwide. “Although cannabis can have a negative impact on health, including mental health, in terms of relative harms it is considerably less harmful than alcohol or tobacco,” according to the report. “Historically, there have only been two deaths worldwide attributed to cannabis, whereas alcohol and tobacco together are responsible for an estimated 150,000 deaths per annum in the UK alone.”
The report, compiled by a group of scientists, academics and drug policy experts, suggests that much of the harm associated with cannabis use is “the result of prohibition itself, particularly the social harms arising from arrest and imprisonment.” Policies that control cannabis, whether draconian or liberal, appear to have little impact on the prevalence of consumption, it concluded.
“In an alternative system of regulated availability, market controls such as taxation, minimum age requirements, labelling and potency limits are available to minimise the harms associated with cannabis use,” said the report.
It claimed that only through a regulated market could young people be protected from the increasingly potent forms of cannabis, such as skunk. It is intended that the report will form a blueprint for nations seeking to develop a “more rational and effective approach to the control of cannabis”.
The authors suggest there is evidence that “the current system of cannabis regulation is not working, and … there needs to be a serious rethink if we are to minimise the harms caused by cannabis use.”
Last night, the report was welcomed by drug law reform organisations. “The Beckley foundation are to be congratulated for the clarity of their call for cannabis supply to be brought within government control,” said Danny Kushlick of Transform. “We look forward to the same analysis being applied to heroin and cocaine.”
The report is being launched at a two-day conference, which will be attended by leading figures in the drugs policy world.
The conclusions are unlikely to be embraced by the government or the Conservative party, both of which are opposed to relaxing restrictions on cannabis use.
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