Bits and Bobs

Gooooooooooooood evening people of the internet. I’m going to try and have another vaguely topical rant... Today, I’m thinking about those stories that keep on going on and on without anything actually developing. People keep on publishing and airing stories that don’t go anywhere. Stories like this really annoy me. They clog up the news bulletins for weeks so that by the end of the however long that the story is on for you can recite all the words exactly and know which pictures are coming up.  If a story has to be played over a few days, what’s wrong with trying to write a new script, or at least try and update it a bit? I find that constantly repeated news merely undermines the quality of broadcasting as it just show off the lack of other material that is available to the producers. Putting on the same stories day after day should only really be necessary if there’s been some sort of development (maybe not if it’s a nationwide manhunt, or a murder of some kind, but for those repetition is more a call for help, or to keep people informed and updated, whereas constant reporting on news stories that don’t change at all, or even happened days in the past seems like a waste of time to me).  Although I think it’s important for other reasons, surely there has to be more than one story in Uk news this week. I am, of course talking about the ongoing debacle that is the News International story. Phone Hacking- was bad, was news, the people have been prosecuted. Surely that part’s now over. The closing of The News of the World as a Newspaper; that happened last weekend, it no longer exists, so how is it still relevant? And now the failure of the attempted takeover of BskyB. This was written a few weeks ago, when I had not much on. The only thing that seemed to awaken the media world to the existence of a wider universe was a racist maniac committing mass murder in  Norway. Surely this shouldn’t be the only other thing in the world that manages to force the news corporations out of their inward looking states of mind? It’s idiotic, and seems like all it is is a reason for news programmers to attack each other.

The main reason that I haven’t posted anything recently has been because I have been on holiday. On a cruise. Which is not what I am complaining about, what I am complaining about are certain... aspects of the cruise.  I was sitting in a bar one night, and it turns out that I was sitting next to 3 generations of idiot alcoholics, arguing very loudly, to the entire ship it seemed, about why people put mixers with alcohol, claiming that it’s merely to mask the taste and therefore to enable you to drink more. What I want to know is how, without sounding smug or too self-righteous is one meant to broach this argument and point out reasons which, to me at least, seem obvious. Such as the mixer diluting the alcohol, therefore enabling your body to process it slower, therefore more of it has gone out of your system before it’s all gone through at all. I sat there for over an hour listening to grandma alchy extolling the virtues of making things taste nice then downing them in as quick succession as possible. My other point is the entertainment. Why is it all always so predictable and cheesy. Every night it was the same rota of bad quiz game shows, drunken karaoke and really bland show tunes. Surely a band playing a mix of originals and covers would be better. No-one really goes to a gig to hear a cover band playing every night. I’d far rather go and hear something I don’t know that was a bit more interesting to the ear than listen to the same Take That and Abba covers over and over.

Anyway, that’s the rant over once again. Thanks for paying any attention to it. As ever, please be constructive with any criticism.

Keep the peace internet folk.

And all that Jazz

Gooooooooooood evening people of the internet! Contrary to what my previous two little rants may suggest, this was never really meant to be a current affairs, political newsy blog. It was meant to be a little record of whatever I like, about music mostly, so I've decided that it's about time I started on that.

What people I know know about me is that I'm a bit of a struggling musician. I play a great number of instruments on various styles, however, as I'm not really a stunning guitarist, or a singer/songwriter, then I'm not really in much demand popularly on the university circuit. I have the strange affliction (as it seems to be) of being a *cough* jazz nut *cough* This means that I'm a bit of a pariah, there being very few other young musicians, at least where I am, who are interested in this kind of music. Despite a great many guitar based, rock bands pretending to do poor quality impersonations of the Rock bands of yore, Jazz from a few years before is still seen as something that is listened to only by old pretentious artsy fartsy people or that your grandparents danced to during the war...

There seem to be very few oppertunities for small jazz groups as there used to be back in the 50s, the only things that people are interested in are the odd possibility for big bands, however, my major gripe with this idea is that the music ends up becoming something that defeats many of the original jazz ideals, such as freedom of musical expression, there were many famous musicians, such as the great innovator Ornette Coleman, who were unable to read music at all. Improvisation and self expression seems to be a very limited and, by many, sneered upon aspect of popular music- all people want to do is be able to play pieces and solos exactly how they were played by the original artist. Although replication may be useful from an academic point of view, it defeats the reason why the solo was created as a section of a piece in the first place. Creation as a part of performance, to the musical circle of people that I know, seems to be unacceptable and abhorrent- whether they see it as being too self-indulgent (isn't showing off part of music?) This, I feel is more of a regression on the part of music, rather than a progression. Improvisation was part of music for centuries, Mozart and Back improvised when playing live, and now people decide that it isn't musically acceptable to put a personal stamp on pieces that you play.


This is a very personal rant to me, so if anyone has their own views/differing opinions, then please feel free to comment.


Keep the peace internet folk.