I just re-started my Tangents Radio Station... go here and hear. Expect more regular updates to the playlist now that i have broadband from home and can do these kinds of things. Current playlist has stuff like, um, a track from the new Augie March EP, some Russian Futurists, some Mingus, some Yellow Balloon, some July Skies, some of the new St Etienne album... some of the usual suspects. I'm planning the next playlist already... Isn't this Interweb thing fun?
posted by duke harringay at 7:41 PM

I’m excited again. I just heard there’s a new Sea and Cake album ‘one bedroom’ coming out in January on Thrill Jockey. Yay! A new Sea and Cake record… roll on 2003.
posted by duke harringay at 9:31 PM

Heart and Soul

Just finished reading Tony Wilson’s ‘24 Hour Party People’. Wow. Is it a novel? A historical documentation? Neither of these things? A strange hybrid beast that is both of these things? And does it matter? Does it fuck.

It’s a fucking great book. It’s what all great books that purport to be ‘about’ music or culture or art should be; full of wit, wisdom, myth and truth, and not always in equal amounts. All of which adds up to a rollercoaster ride that is as marvellously entertaining as listening to any number of the great records Mr Wilson and his mates put out. And as the man says, what’s the purpose of any Music Book but to make you dig out the records, and oh I have, I have. I put on ‘The Graveyard and the Ballroom’ to remember that spooky, intense early ACR edge; I played ‘Unknown Pleasures’ to creep the fuck out of my skin again; I played ‘Freaky Dancin’ to remind myself that YES, this was some inspired moment of clamorous chaos that did all the wrong things in the right ways, or the right things in the wrong ways, you decide.

And what was that line about every great band wanting to emulate the VU?

Most of all, reading ‘24 Hour Party People’ reminded me of important things like passion and belief. Heart and Soul; intrinsic qualities in anything remotely related to the Pop experience, after all. Wilson and his mates knew it. Why don’t you?


posted by duke harringay at 9:28 PM

Today I slept in. I didn’t get up until nearly half eight… shocking. Then I washed my attic window. Now I can see the street outside clearly instead of through a layer of grime and bird crap. It makes all the difference. Not that it’s a spectacularly interesting view, but hey, you know, any view is better than nothing, right?



Speaking of views I saw a couple of great ones this afternoon when I took the opportunity of getting out of the attic and away from computers for a few hours. One was a wall just outside of Alphington (no sign of any Ponies…) which was awash with vivid crimson ivy. The ivy is one of the few things to be really changing colour; most trees have barely changed in the past two or three weeks. The front of Fursdon house looks similarly glorious at the moment (or did last weekend) with its Ivy clad façade. So the Alphington ivy was the first glorious sight. The second was on approaching Haldon. As the road dipped down before heading back up to the summit of the hills, I was presented with the view of a freshly ploughed field, almost as though it were a canvas hung perpendicular to my line of sight. A wonderful deep red-brown, a true colour field, punctuated at the right edge by the leaves of a tree glowing yellow-green around its perimeter. In a moment of course it was gone, as I disappeared into the dip and started the climb up towards the tower. But it’s imprinted on my memory, which is all that counts.

The countryside looked terrific again today, although I felt decidedly less so. My legs hurt like hell going up Haldon, and again coming up to Longdown from the Teign valley. I blame the cold air. I felt less bad going up towards Hennock, and discovered a new way up to the village avoiding the steep tract above Teign Village. Phew.

Anyway, when I got back I found out that the ride had in fact taken marginally less time that the same route ridden back in July, so although I felt like crap, I clearly wasn’t going that badly. There is some relief in this.

There is also some relief in the fact that the Powerpoint presentation is all but complete. I now only have to convince the Head that it’s what she wants, and that she really DOES need to have the Official Colourbox World Cup Theme as the sound to accompany the parents into the school hall… I mean, we want to present an upbeat, dynamic, positive image of the school, right? Right. I really hope she doesn’t veto it. I have The Sabres Of Paradise’s ‘Smokebelch’ as second string choice. And Underworld’s ‘Rez’ as third. And if she nixes all three? I’ll resign as artistic director. Ha ha.

Oh, and the network is working again, thanks for asking.


posted by duke harringay at 6:17 PM