And of course I had to take a break from the infuriation of Powerpoint to finish off my Richard Buckner review /article. If you haven’t already heard Richard Buckner, then boy, do you have a treat in store for you.

posted by duke harringay at 12:06 PM

I’m being a bastard this morning. I think others may be suffering from my bad mood… I’m rejecting submissions for Tangents right left and centre. I feel mean particularly for rejecting a couple of well written pieces, one about the fabulous Nuggets CD box, simply because of too many Beatles references. But you know how I am by now, surely… the way my mind works the Beatles were / are simply the most over-rated band in the history of blah blah blah, I’m off again, aren’t I? My colleague Colin and I have had good debates about this in the past actually, about context and access and so on. He having grown up in the late 50s and early 60s and testifying to the genuine impact the so-called Fab Four had on the whole of society. Which is something I don’t deny, of course. It’s just I don’t think their records were much cop, and I’m afraid I can’t dig an artist just because of their importance within a historical context. I need more. Like great songs that speak to me and make my spine tingle, as indeed many of those Nuggets tunes do.

And before you start, yes, I DO accept that if I were to hear a Beatles single now, ‘blind’ as it were, with no knowledge of who and what they were as ‘phenomena’ I may well like it. I may even well love it as much as I love the newly discovered (to me!) Sandy Salisbury tracks on the resuscitated Rev-Ola label, although I doubt it. It’s just… that’s a nonsense argument because I can’t. It’s not going to happen. So why even think about it? Exactly.

The irony of it all being that in fact this weekend more than any other in my life I actually feel intrigued to hear some Beatles songs, specifically Helter Skelter and Revolution 9. Blame the just finished copy of the Bugliosi book on the Manson murders that lies on the shelf beside me if you will (I certainly do)… But I’m fighting the desire. I know it will pass.

Now, after that brief interlude, it’s back to Powerpoint. (incidentally, as you probably realised, I got my connection running again, although not the network…)


posted by duke harringay at 9:54 AM

My ‘Little Enid’ doll stands atop my ‘Omni Cube’ control box. Grasping her handbag, she looks at me with disdain. ‘You fucked it up again, didn’t you?’ she says. You’re damn right I did.

My lovely wireless network is fucked. I don’t know why. I didn’t know what I did differently that made it work in the first place after a day and half of frustrated tinkering. It just suddenly worked. I hate when that happens. I hate technology so much sometimes, usually because when it comes down to it I don’t really understand any of it. Like most blokes, I just kind of pretend to, and bluff my way through as best I can. Which I suppose has been the story of my life, but then I expect it’s been the story of many people’s lives so I shouldn’t consider myself in any way unique because of it.

There’s a great strip in Dan Clowes’ ‘20th Century Eightball’ where Squirrel Girl and Candy-Pants decide to be anti-tech superheros (or heroines if you prefer) after watching a TV show where the presenter says ‘the hero of this modern age is he who makes the computer his enemy.’ Or her enemy. Of course. I liked that idea. Today, at least… I mean, I kind of oscillate between thinking the computer is a wondrous gift and a horrific menace. No middle ground for me… And today I hate its fucking guts. Even though I’m writing this on it and hopefully later will post it to my blog. Ah, the irony.

It’s still quite dark out. It’s 8.45am. There’s a faint pink glow in the south east, just visible over the roof of the Conservative Club. Just a strip of sky with a few small clouds beneath the much larger strip of grey that darkens as it approaches Exeter, or the top of the window frame if you want to talk two dimensionally. I’ve been up since 7, head full of crap. I tried fixing the network first of all but I have to wait for the cable modem to set its connection, and it seems this can take a couple of hours. My fingers are crossed.

So here’s what the day ahead has in store: fiddling with the network and saying ‘fuck’ an awful lot, just as I did last night when it stopped working and constructing a new Powerpoint presentation for the Head to use in the Open Evening in school next week. I had a day off school yesterday to work on it too, but that was taken up mainly in preparation, collecting photos and planning it out. People (usually me) forget just how long these things take to put together. I mean, the actual doing it is kind of easy and fairly quick (but boring and laborious, as I’m sure anyone who has put together a Powerpoint presentation will testify to) but the preparation can be a bitch. Especially when your brief is to stick in loads of pictures and music and blah blah blah, you know that score. So, um, that will take up much of the day, no doubt.

And whilst I do that I shall NOT be thinking about the fact that I could have been travelling up to London, for this evening to attend the Chickfactor Ball and to see lots of lovely people and experience a bit of, ah, ‘Pop Culture’. Do people still call it that? I have no idea.

So yes. NOT thinking about what I’m missing out on at all. NOT thinking that tomorrow night I will be missing seeing The Clientele AND the Future Bible Heroes on the same bill. NOT thinking about how my life sucks, about how everything I touch these days seems to turn to crap.

Instead thinking about Custom Animations, Transitions, Ipconfig, Hits and Pings.

Little Enid looks on and laughs at my plight.


posted by duke harringay at 9:07 AM

It’s Thursday night, and despite being knackered from another day in school, I’m actually quite excited. For example, I hear there’s a new Yeah Yeah Yeahs single due at the start of November. This ought to be something to bring light and energy into a time that is traditionally devoid of such pleasures, at least around these parts. Or if not THESE parts exactly, then the parts of ‘these parts’ that are peopled by children between the hours of 9am and 3.25pm. If that makes sense. I know that being excited about a new Yeah Yeah Yeahs single makes sense though. If you think you know otherwise then you don’t know nuffink.

I’m also excited by the arrival recently of not one but TWO new Richard Buckner recordings. ‘Impasse-ette’ is an EP, and ‘Impasse’ is an album. Both are great. I mean, it’s Richard Buckner, so what else would you expect, right? Right. I’d say more, but since Impasse isn’t released in Europe until the end of November, it would be unkind to leave you desperate to hear it after my proclamations of genius. Wouldn’t it?

It would.

I’m excited by the arrival the other day of a new single by Augie March. Admittedly I haven’t taken fully to it yet, but hmmmm, it’s Augie March, so it’s great. Actually I don’t think it’s a great SINGLE because they seem to have forgotten to write a traditional kinda ‘song’ and instead have a kind of neat tune that drips insistent notes on your head, which is itself a traditional kind of folk approach I guess. There’s four demos on the EP too, one of which is particularly beguiling. It has lines about there being no point playing Sunday Morning Records on a Monday. Well quite.

I’m much less excited, however, by the prospect of my weekend being taken up with school work, and trying to catch up with myself somewhat as a result of all that school work, and hmmm, enough mentions of the words ‘school’ and ‘work’ already. It all means I will have to forego a visit to London for what will no doubt be the wondrous Chickfactor Black and White Ball… Grrrr. Such is life. It sucks. But I’m trying not to think about it. I’m trying to stay excited. I’m trying to think Good Thoughts, listen to Good Sounds, look at Good Sights and read Good Words.


posted by duke harringay at 7:19 PM