unpopular

Smoosh go up against Avril Lavigne and Joss Stone, amongst others, in a fight to the death. Well, not quite, but still kind of freaky: Smoosh listed as one of the ’21 under 21’ list of artists on AOL. You get to vote for who should be top, so I think you should all go vote for Smoosh. Right now. And then, if you haven’t bought a copy yet, pick up their Unpopular 7”. You know it makes sense… if for no other reason than to flog it on ebay once they go super-nova. But you wouldn’t do that, would you? Of course not.

Thanks to C for this amusing and intriguing piece of info. I wonder if anyone will continue with the trend of re-compiling old comics into plush books (a la Fantagraphics’ collected Peanuts and Drawn And Quarterly’s Walt and Skeezix) and do a Collected Outbursts of Everett True?

In Glasgow, listening to Jens Lekman on my Powerbook. Feeling marginally ropey, though I’m not sure if this is the result of the sealed hotel room and air con or the after-effects of the few wheat beer’s I drank yesterday afternoon / evening down at Mono. Probably a mixture of the two, particularly since I’d not drank that much beer (still only three) in around four years. It was okay, but again, I think, nah, actually it’s not worth it. So it’s back on the wagon for me.

Been dashing around a lot the past week, so I’m looking forward to getting a bike ride in tomorrow when I’m back in Exeter for the day. I hadn’t realised that the Tour Of Britain starts from here this week (Tuesday, to be exact. Uh, so that's tomorrow, duh). The Tour organisation seems to be based here in the hotel, and it was tempting to try and gatecrash into the Press Room, but heh. Someone was asking at reception for the Team CSC rooms, and we were trying to think of who rides for Team CSC but couldn’t really come up with anyone, which shows how out of touch we really are. Does Bobby Julich ride for them? A quick check of the TOB website suggests that in fact CSC’s team leader for the race is Kurt-Asle Arveson… which means very little, I admit, apart from being a recognisable name. Michael Rogers leads the Quick Step team, and I guess he’s the most well known name on the race, at least to me. T-Mobile have a team here also, so it’s quite a decent turn out.

Anyway, enough about bicycles, you want to know about the Plan B bash at Mono, don’t you? Well, it was ace. It was good to meet some people in the flesh for the first time, after a while (in some cases years) of e-contact, and good too to make some re-aquaintances. The entertainment was fine, especially in the afternoon, although the afternoon’s forum was frustrating, partly because of the lack of volume (project yourselves, dahlings…) and partly because of… I dunno. I hesitate to comment on these things because as a teacher it’s kind of what I’m all about: presenting information to people and trying to generate discussion. So I naturally want to take control of those kinds of situations and, ah, well, you know how it is. Maybe. Or maybe not. Anyway, of course planning is key. What do I want to say? What are the key points we want to discuss? What kinds of questions can we ask ourselves to ensure we start to reach for those points? But naturally people who run record labels or publish magazines or even write for magazines are not necessarily strong on those kinds of things, because their skills lie in other areas. So picking panels is a difficult task. Stephen Pastel made a good point about doing things because you love it and if its beautiful people will come to you. I think that's quite obvious and glib on one level, but it is inescapably at the root of independent activity I think, and is something we should not forget. People being involved in activities because of love and artistic endeavour above all else. And I think that we (if I can use that collectively here) as like-minded souls often forget just how anathema to many people that approach actually is. We do take it for granted, but in fact I think it’s one of ‘our’ greatest strengths.

But what about the music? Well, Uter opened up and were fantastic. Very motorik chic, at times they reminded me of Simple Minds circa Sons And Fascination but without Jim Kerr’s pomposity and with even more of a rhythmic dynamic. They certainly tread the heady lines between Krautrock, trance techno and space-rock textures with an easy aplomb. Watch out for the great ‘Accordination’ on a forthcoming 7” from OSCarr records.

Bill Wells was next up, bolstered by a two-man horn section, Isobel Campbell on cello and Jens Lekman on some kind of electronic noise making doo-hicky (I ain’t no musician). Together they made all kinds of fabulous sounds that leapt and skipped and scowled and wept. I admit I was somewhat ignorant of Bill Wells until seeing him at the Chickfactor festival last year, and I was really eager to see him play again. I understand he’s something of a Glasgow fixture, and he strikes me as a gloriously quiet and almost mythic figure who just happens to pop out of the woodwork every now and again to perform genius before blending back into the shadows. I’m making all that up of course, and it’s probably far from the truth, but whatever, the crowd was certainly treated to some lovely moments, best of which were the jazz tinged efforts that flourished with an Os Mutantes tint of mad genius. Assuredly non-Rock and wickedly fine as a result.

Also most assuredly non-Rock was Jens Lekman, who closed the event with a startlingly fresh set that was, typically, utterly captivating. He’s in so many ways such an unlikely star, yet when he takes a stage he is mesmerising, compellingly beautiful and oddly both otherwordly and rooted in the earth all at once. Urbane fairy-tale folk. Or something. The whole show was a highlight, of course, but if forced to pick out moment I’d want to remember forever I’d be going for the delivery of ‘do you remember the riots?’ where Jens played karaoke to his own record crackling on the portable record player, harmonising and adding exquisite ukulele parts; a both ravishing and ravaged ‘You Are The Light’, ably supported by Isobel on the cello; the gorgeous rendition of the Swedish folk song his mother used to sing to him as a child, brutally aching and plaintive; and then finally the set closing ‘Julie’ where Jens steps away from the mic, unplugs the uke, and plays un-amplified, the pixie-bells on his shoe shooting fairy kisses that land with dextrous, giggling delight on our lips, sparking torrents of love coursing in our hearts. Yes, he really IS that special.

And in fact, there were numerous very special people there, most of them doing their own things, creating their own artefacts (music, words, art), part of an organic network of independence and inter-reliance/alliance that I for one feel kind of honoured to be a part of, even if only in a tiny, peripheral way.

Oh yeah, and finally, some photos are here.

Exam results came in today. It’s always a fretful time, but thankfully things went pretty well for us in the Art team. The regular Art GCSE came in at just under 95% A* - C, with around 22% getting A* or A. This is pretty much in line with previous years, so that’s great. It’s probably even better in fact because we had more student’s actually entered this year, and almost no withdrawals. The photography results weren’t so great, but 75% is more than respectable I think, given that it was the first time we did the course and that for almost a whole term we had no facilities (and that for the whole of year 10 we were in a crappy old room). Don’t know yet what the breakdown of results are, so not sure how many A grades there were, but heh, I’m pretty happy.

The whole school results were significantly down though, which is a real pain and concern. I have no idea what the reasons for the poor results are… What can we do to turn things around? One thing is for sure; lots of big (and potentially difficult) questions are going to be asked when we go back on September 5th. I’m already thinking that maybe some of my work next year with other curriculum teams might be aimed at improving standards at KS4, though the details of that will need a lot of working out.

And I guess this post means that the holidays really are turning to a close… though there’s still the Scotland trip and The Clientele in the Smoke to be done. Meanwhile we’ll be back on the Eurostar in a couple of hours, heading back to London and then to Devon. That should give me a chance to catch up with my Mickey Spillane. Yay!

Did another of my Must Do rides yesterday, out to Hound and Hay Tors. It wasn’t significantly further than most of my usual rides; just around 80km, but it was significantly hillier. Don’t think there was anything flat to speak of, apart from maybe the Alphington Road back into the city and the couple of kilometres between Bovey and Chudleigh Knighton. I pretty much did the same route that C and I drove on her birthday, only in reverse. I think it’s easier doing it that way, although I guess starting and finishing in the same place means that there must be pretty much the same amount of up and down whichever direction you go… But at least riding out the way I did, up Longdown and then to Steps Bridge and over to Moretonhampstead I was going up hills I know well. It was only the climb up to the moor from Moreton that was pretty much new to me, though I do recall I rode a part of it once some years ago on a ride out to Chagford. It wasn’t as difficult as I’d imagined it might be, either, and really I ought to make the route more regular. It’s funny, as time goes on and you try new things, how the old ‘big’ rides become short sprints. It wasn’t so very long ago that a ‘big’ ride would be going out to Haldon and back via Starcross. Now I’m doing probably three times that. And even then I feel like I’m not really doing as much as I might. But yeah, that ride up Dartmoor was great, especially once I cut off towards Heatree Cross and Hound Tor. And it only took an hour and three quarters to reach Heatree, so you know, maybe next time we do the school residential there I should get Jenny to take my gear in the coach and ride out. Ha ha. I can just imagine the kids’ faces when they see me ride up in all my kit. So maybe I’ll not bother…

The ride over from Hound Tor to Hay Tor was really great. Quite barren and dotted with sheep and ponies. Very pretty. And the views down to the coast from the top of Hay Tor! Glorious! Certainly made the pain in my legs worth it. Plussing as which the descent down to Bovey was amazing – super fast and with surprisingly few cars to get in the way. Still not sure I’d fancy climbing up from that side though. It looks like it would be so much more relentlessly painful, although maybe it would be easier to hook into a single rhythm compared to the often steeper but more varied gradients of the Moreton way up.

Came back via Trusham and Haldon, but rather than head out to Starcross I came back in through Alphington, which was much quicker. It occurred to me that I hadn’t been on those roads in ages, and it kind of took me back. And even though I was pretty tired by that time, the hills there just didn’t seem as big as I remember them being. I guess that’s a good thing.

But no more chance for riding for a while now. Off to Brussels tomorrow for three days, then on Friday I’m flying up to Glasgow to see my parents and brother; also to attend the Plan B all-dayer at Mono. I’m really excited about seeing Jens Lekman again. Also excited about seeing The Cientele at the Bush Hall on the 31st too. It’s their album launch show for Strange Geometry, and it should be great, certainly if the album itself is anything to go by. It’s been one of my most constant companions this summer. Oh, and the always delectable Pipas will be playing as well, so it should be a grand night out.

And then after all of that, it will be nearly time to go back to school. Before which of course we will have had the brutal truth about exam results (they come out when I’m suitably far removed, in Brussels). I just hope we don’t take too much of a drop in our A – C percentages this year. And of course, my photography GCSE results will be particularly under the microscope, what with it being a new course and just me teaching it and all… I must admit, I am quite nervous about it, even though the moderation went well. At the end of the day though, those marks got sent off and I have NO IDEA how those marks will translate to grade boundaries. Which kind of sucks, but heh.

Anyway, so now I’m sat in one of the sofas at the Phoenix, waiting for C to finish up her yoga session so we can have tea and maybe get her a new phone. We are such tech junkies. Mostly horrible shows here at the moment, incidentally. Some fairly interesting large flower paintings in one gallery, but the other has some rather pointless neo-realist paintings that are neither beautifully executed enough to enjoy the artist’s skill nor interesting enough with their subject matter to raise more than an eyebrow. And that eyebrow is raised as much in questionable mirth as one reflects on the rather tiresome GCSE level of contextual appropriation. Oh, a still life arrangement of objects on the back of a door! And is that musical instruments being thrown in the mix too? My advice if this was one of students? ‘You’re going in the right direction, now can you take the idea further? Can you take it one, two, three steps away from the influence of the original painting you studied?’ Then, if they do, they might get an A grade. If they don’t? Maybe a C.

The bar exhibits are resolutely C grade through and through. Horrible designs on t-shirt templates. Lots of textile stuff, and not very exciting textile stuff at that. I saw much better at the EDC A-Level/GNVQ show (step up Lily and take that prize… oh wait, she already did).

Watched Closer the other night. Well, to be accurate we watched some of Closer the other night. Couldn’t make it all the way through, as there came a point where we were like ‘I do not like any of these characters’ (which, admittedly was perhaps the point) but more to the point, also felt like we did not care in the slightest what became of them. So we switched it off. It was terribly disappointing because people had raved about it so, and I was stupidly excited near the beginning when Portman and Law’s characters went into Postman’s Park near the London Wall, because it was only on a very recent visit to the city (in fact when I visited the London Museum for the first time) that I discovered that little park myself and took some photos of the grave stones. So that was the highlight of the movie for me… isn’t that sad?

But yes, the film: no, no. no. I just kept wondering if these characters and their lives were meant to be reflective of typical contemporary lives and relationships. If so, I’m just really glad that I guess I’m not either typical or particularly contemporary. It just all seemed so soulless and sad and empty and loveless. It was pretty depressing.

So WAS that the point? Was the point of the movie to show how depressing and vacuous contemporary lives and relationships are?  I don’t know... Movies today.

Carrie sent me this link today. We’d been talking about summerhouses and she suggested we have one of these in our next back garden instead. Ha ha. Actually looking at it reminded me of when I was studying architecture, and we did projects to design similar kind of things. It reminds me of the kinds of structures I would always go for doing myself; all platonic forms, minimalist and pure. Funny this cropping up now, as I just did a review of a book of Sottsass drawings for Stride, and that really took me back to those art school years of design and architecture. Not that I’m regretting my career trajectory or anything…

Monkey Business

Went to see Arctic Monkeys last night at the Phoenix / Art Centre in town. Wouldn’t have bothered normally, but Emma at their PR asked if I wanted to go, and since it’s the holidays, I thought why the hell not… They were, uhm, okay. At first, when they came on and they played their first number I was thinking, ‘oh you know maybe they could be like a 21st Century Purple Hearts’ and to some extent I still hold by that. Certainly they looked quite roguish and like little Mod upstarts (though a bit too casual for my personal preference). I liked the way the singer held his guitar too; quite high and proud, not all low slung and nasty. Good haircut too; kind of like a young Weller. He danced a bit like Weller too… no, sorry, that was mean. He wasn’t that bad.

They held my attention for a few songs too. They sounded quite righteous and full of fire, but, and here’s the big but; BUT their noise started too often to veer in the direction of (post) hardcore, and it reminded me of how the original US hardcore bands cited bands like the Cockney Rejects as being influential, and it felt almost as though here was a kind of reflected influence coming right back. Does that make sense? And I never much liked The Cockney Rejects.

Certainly for sheer volume and energy you couldn’t fault them. It’s just that those qualities aren’t what I really need from music right now; are not what I need from live performances. Or if I do, I want them married to something more. Like really good tunes, perhaps. And I want that energy to be taught, strung out, edgy, and self-consciously awkward, not self-confident and smelling of Rock Orthodoxy.

What was welcome, however, was the luxury of being able to sit up on the balcony away from the sweaty mass below and the frightful crowd surfers (do I want strangers sweaty hands manhandling my body? No sir, I do not!). See? Showing my age again. Oh well. NME readers are welcome to ‘em.

i want one of these. please.

Hound Of The Basket Meals

Ah, the infamous Hound Of The Basket Meals! Spent C’s birthday driving up to Dartmoor, and to Hound Tor in particular to track down the mythic beast. Or the mythic van, at least. It was fun. We walked up to Hound Tor and clambered around on the rocks a bit. It was okay, though it felt a bit like a tourist attraction plonked in the middle of a moor. Quite strange. Plus my hayfever seemed to kick in badly again, just like when we went walking in the sun in Spain. I think maybe I need to restrict my summer activities to cycling, and leave the walking to the other seasons. I feel bad though because C wants to do stuff together, and so do I, but I do get quite miserable walking in the sun and being all sweaty and what have you… at least when I’m cycling there’s the wind resistance to cool me down. And I really don’t like cycling with anyone else. Whenever I am out and see someone up ahead I think ‘oh no, I hope they don’t want to ride with me’. God, I am so anti-social.

Having said that, I did exchange a few words the other day with a chap who was part of a John O’Groats to Land’s End bike ride for Cystic Fibrosis. I caught them on the climb out of Exeter up to Longdown, and we chatted for a bit. He asked me if I had ever thought of doing anything like what they were doing and I had to admit that no, I hadn’t. Not seriously. Too much like hard work… And coincidentally, just before going out on my ride that day I had an email from an old friend telling me of another old teenage cycling friend who is currently engaged in a marathon ride for charity. Him and a partner are cycling from Perth in Scotland to Perth in Australia. 18,000 miles. Bloody mad. But good luck to ‘em of course.