Interesting test to take… makes you think about what you really believe in and where you stand on society and social responsibility. I was actually surprised to be considered so left-wing. As someone who grew up in the rural countryside of the UK’s South East home counties (largely a rich and Conservative area), my time in London and (largely) San Francisco has been truly important to my development of my social and economic views. I do truly believe that until you’ve seen a glimpse of the “other side” of the “fence” you can’t be taken seriously as someone who has an informed view of society… and yet I still find dealing with the extremes we experience in life (extreme poverty, class restrictions and a lack of access to resources and education through to the heavily prejudiced, capitalist and financially rich) an utterly uncomfortable and baffling principle to address in a rational and seemingly ‘fair’ manner. How do we as the educated and socially-advantaged handle an unwillingness (in a socially irresponsible manner) by the disadvantaged sector of society to use and accept the help provided by us? How can we keep an unprejudiced attitude when we’ve been wronged, experienced friends or family be wronged or conversely seen the rich and powerful step on the normal man? Can a well reasoned belief-system even practically work within a modern society? Will we constantly be going from “boom to bust,” from one extreme to the other for eternity? Is social and economic nirvana in the Western society an eternal pursuit rather than an achievable reality? The answer to that final question I firmly do believe seems to be “yes.”
| You are a Social Liberal (68% permissive) and an… Economic Liberal (23% permissive) You are best described as a:
Link: The Politics Test |
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UPDATE: PART 2…
I then did the test again… this time being a little less liberal over the questions I initially spent time reaching a decision over. Still fairly liberal though.
| You are a Social Moderate (56% permissive) and an… Economic Liberal (26% permissive) You are best described as a:
Link: The Politics Test |
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[THIS REVIEW] that I did for The Quietus has finally - after a month and a half of them sitting on - just been posted on the website.
THIS HALLOWEEN… WE SHALL “PARTY ON!!” OH YES… WE SHALL “PARTY ON”
“I too am not a bit tamed,
I too am untranslatable,
I sound my barbaric YAWP over the roofs of the world.”
I’ve been watching the Bat for Lashes documentary Two Plus Two on and off this week. It has sparked a number of thoughts…
There is often more of a bias when creating these ‘in the studio’ type documentaries to following the band purely in the studio, recording takes and just generally watching the coming together to form the final product (seeing as they are normally tacked on as bonus features on special editions of the album). However, this profile covers (or depicts) more of the creative process Natasha Khan went through on her journey to that illusive second album Two Suns. She is frank (if not a little over-eagerly head-in-the-clouds spiritual at times) but honest, candid and genuine in giving us a very interesting account of how her latest creative work was formed. It is refreshing to watch, especially when most bands like to downplay this process or are ineloquent about it, often having nothing inspiring to say and being overly literal (rather than conceptual) about what occurred during their writing and recording experience. I also like the way she sums up her role and process of being a solo songwriter: “I’m just trying to please myself in the studio. As far as being clear of my vision and where that comes from, its just always been there really. The confidence comes from doing something and feeling that its right and it resonates in a good place inside you and you just feel like you don’t really care what people think of it because it’s making the right vibration. I don’t know why that is, or where my taste comes from, I just feel quite clear about it” she says.
Then, it started to dawn on me (due to very direct recent experiences) the intensity of creating - specifically - an album (but really any work of art such as writing a book, making a movie, etc). The amount of time and effort - not to mention often money - put into creating these works is almost always forgotten. Nowadays they become cast aside so quickly. Next time you walk into a book store or record store and undertake that laborious process of flipping through titles, just think. Not only does every piece of work have its own contextual and literal story to tell through its words, art and sounds, but behind it there are whole other real - and sometimes just as interesting - stories. And this applies to every… single… one… of them. Every album. Every EP. Every demo. Every book. Every screenplay. Every DVD. The story of creation is likely to be one of confusion, time, struggle but ultimately the difficultly overcoming of all of these elements to successfully achieve what many have either only ever drempt of (and only ever will) or gave up before achieveing their goals. Cast aside and left to wither in the creative graveyards. Then there is the story of the works journey from successful completion to being out into the world and in your hands or ears. It’s a question of who will listen? What will motivate them into picking it up (a name, the cover, recommedation, press… a combination?) It’s a random and gentle mixture of elements coming together to either thrive… or wither and die. And for every work that thrives, a thousand die. And what were the reasons for their trip, stumble and fall to failure? And how do we make sure the right work thrives?
It’s hard to answer. After all, life is just a collection of moments in a fragile arrangement of dying cells.
NOTHING…
That’s what there has been to report. I’ve been sick and apartment-bound over the past 2 weeks and it’s driven me crazy.
However, I have watched the following movies during this time:
- Match Point
- Uncle Buck
- Joe Versus The Volcano
- Bachelor Party
- 10
- Arthur
- Groundhog Day
- Wendy and Lucy
- plus some other terrible, terrible movies that question how someone can put so many peoples time and efforts into making.
Something interesting soon…
Yesterday I had the privilege of attending an advanced benefit screening of what has been labelled in places as “the most highly anticipated movie of all time”: Where The Wild Things Are. In fact, last night was the second ever public showing of the film in the world, and it was right here in San Francisco at the city’s Metreon theatre.
Directed by Spike Jonez and with screenplay co-written by novelist Dave Eggars, the final product is reportedly the culmination of over a decades worth of work started by Maurice Sendak - original author of the classic 300-word children’s book of the same name - to see his 1963 work turned into a feature length movie. The film follows the imaginary adventures of a young boy named Max (played by Max Records) who sails away to an island inhabited by seven imaginary monsters called the Wild Things, led by Ira (whose voice is played by Forest Whitaker). They crown him as their ruler. But Max realises through his adventures with the Wild Things that reality is a lot more complex than fantasy. He experiences emotional and organizational problems with them and starts to understand his own emotions by witnessing them through the monsters own traits. The movie is - as any work of Jonze’s - a visual spectacle but with the assistance of scriptwriter Dave Eggars, the story benefits from the depth that was lacking in some of Jonez previous works. The soundtrack, created by Karen O (with help from numerous credible indie rock helpers such as Deerhunter/Atlas Sound leader Bradford Cox and members of Liars) lends a sweet and original song-based angle to the film as well as some very valuable indie-cred. It flits in and out of the scenes nimbly and ties the project together in a noticeably beneficial manner.
Sendak recently said, having seen a completed cut of the film, “I’ve never seen a movie that looked or felt like this. And it’s [Spike Jonze’s] personal ‘this.’ And he’s not afraid of himself. He’s a real artist that lets it come through in the work. So he’s touched me. He’s touched me very much.”
After the screening Jonez, Max Records and Catherine Keener who plays Max’s mother, Connie in the movie were on hand to speak about the project. While Jonez may be an accomplished producer/director, eloquent he was not. We got a sense that the studio that was financing the movie at the time (Universal) had caused various problems during the filming to influence the films direction, so they later moved production to Warner Bros (whom they also experienced minor issues with). Interestingly, the script itself started life in the late 90’s in a house that Jonez had rented in San Francisco’s Castro purely to begin work on it (probably due to the proximity to Bay area resident Eggars). The movie itself was filmed in Melbourne, Australia and some of the spectacular costal shots undoubtably around areas of Victoria’s breathtaking coast line.
It’s a movie worth seeing, worth loosing yourself in and a movie that if you were still a young kid something to become profoundly lost in!
7 Song EP released early November 2009 (TBA)
Preview tracks online now here
Cut from a newspaper, by my mum, on September 7th, 1982… you just can’t make this shit up.
Grand Archives - ‘Sleepdriving’ (Demo, 2007)
This is one of my favorite songs and is a particular high point in the development and refinement of Mat Brooke as a songwriter and recording artist. However, geekery aside, when listening to this perfect piece of music with its vivid, descriptive lyrics I am always mentally transported to the scenes that it paints. So, I have decided to try to externalise these inner visions for the first time using only photographs obtained from Flickr as tools. (Whilst this concept seemed like a brilliant idea at conception, in practice it becomes rather frustrating when you can’t find the specific image you are hunting for to bridge a gap, plug a hole, etc, etc. I don’t consider this to do a particularly great job of painting the scenes in my head at all, but it’s an interesting experiment).
