I’ve been recently reading Tim Harford’s book, “Messy – How to be Creative and Resilient in a Tidy-Minded World”. It’s a fascinating little book full of interesting anecdotes – great for dipping into. The general theme is that, contrary to what you might think, a lot of the times mess and disorganisation is a boost to productivity.

One of the well-worn case studies he focuses on is the story of Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies cards – a process to introduce randomness and disruption to the process of recording music, and force thinking outside the box.

But here’s one bit I just thought I’d share today, and it’s been condensed as an article on Harford’s website. Well worth a read if you have twenty minutes to spare, and some smug food for thought if, like me, you have a messy desk and messy email inbox at work. Maybe we’re in the right and it’s the over-tidiers and over-organisers who have it wrong….

A short excerpt if you don’t have time to read the whole thing:

“When it comes to actual paper, there’s always the following beautiful approach. Invented in the early 1990s by Yukio Noguchi, an emeritus professor at Hitotsubashi University » Continue Reading.

Just a little nugget that might be of interest to some. Colin’s Pentangle post (“which one?”, ha ha) sent me off on a little YouTube journey of acoustic guitarists.

If anyone knows and loves Mike Oldfield’s Ommadawn album from 1975, here’s the original of that beautiful melody from side two (the bit with Paddy Moloney’ s Uillean pipes). This was an outtake from an album he did with his sister in 1968.

He was fifteen at the time. FIFTEEN. Can you imagine creating something like this at that age?

I’m still not fully convinced this is just one guitar. He has that Bert Jansch octopus style playing down pat. Have a listen and see what you think.

https://youtu.be/rUw_1eH5Xms

This might not fly… and I’m well aware I’m pandering to that particular branch of Afterworders (list-lovers) that seem to cause much disdain with some people…. but let’s see…

(and hopefully this hasn’t been tried before)

I want to create a list of The Best Album Of Each Year From 1959-2019 As Decided By The Afterword Massive. In other words, the sixty best albums of the last sixty years.

What’s my plan? Well, I have my excel spreadsheet primed and ready to go. My idea is, everyone who wants to can nominate any album from any year (no more than one per year) to create a long list – then I’ll have a series of posts (probably one for each decade) where we vote on the winner for each year! Maybe you’ll get a chance to make an impassioned argument for one of your nominations. Then at some point we’ll end up with a definitive list of 60 albums.

It’s fun! Yes??

So add your nominations below! As many as you want, but no more than one per year. Original album releases only – so contemporaneous live albums (say, Live at Leeds) are okay (for example) but greatest hits and » Continue Reading.

Did anyone watch “63 Up” tonight?

(It was terrific, of course, as always. Very moving and thought-provoking. If anyone hasn’t heard of it, it’s a documentary series that has been running since 1964 where they follow a group of people every seven years).

Anyway…. just before the end credits, NOT the end credits…. there was a flashback montage to a scene from the first series in 1964, and it showed all the seven year old kids playing on a building sight. What was the tune that was playing??? It was absolutely gorgeous and I need to listen to the whole thing. Sounded like a very English classical thing, something like Vaughan Williams or Elgar or something. The sort of thing you would hear on Classic FM. It sounded very familiar so it must be quite famous.

Again, I DON’T mean the sinister-sounding tune that plays over the end credits… it was just before that.

Please someone tell me!

I thought it would be fun to post the flip side to Harold’s thread. There are plenty of movies I have been a bit nervous about watching again, in case they don’t stand up to my rose-tinted memories, but then I have been overjoyed to find them to be every bit as good as they always were:

– ET is emotionally manipulative, but is a joy to watch and is a relatively young film maker at the absolute height of his powers.

– Cool Hand Luke, The Hustler, The Sting, Torn Curtain… Just about anything with Paul Newman in it really! His imperial phase is just unbeatable.

– Tarantino films, i think, have aged magnificently. I reached both Pulp Fiction and Reservior Dogs recently and found them both vibrant and exhilarating. Apart from, ahem, some problematic language that wouldn’t be allowed today.

– All the Monty Python films. I think they set a bar for comedy that has never really been surpassed.

– The Back to the Future trilogy. While so many eighties films have dated so badly, this film series still seems timeless. Probably because, erm, it’s about time travel. But also because it uses a proper orchestral score » Continue Reading.

How did we miss this? And how will we survive??

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/entertainment-arts-45377506/rem-s-michael-stipe-i-m-quitting-instagram-this-week

I noticed today Fopp are selling a range of (mainly) 80s movies on Blu ray, but packaged to look like video cassettes!

Doesn’t really appeal to me. But how long do you think before we go the whole hog and bring back the fuzzy, unreliable little buggers?

I’ve only just found out that one of my favourite films, Unbreakable, had a sequel and I didn’t even know about it. Apparently a film called Split starring James McAvoy came out a couple of years ago (it passed me by completely) and in a surprise ending revealed itself to be a sequel to Unbreakable.

I’m not spoiling anything here. The cat is out of the bag now and there is a third film, Glass, being advertised now which reunites the entire cast of both previous films, including Bruce Willis and Samuel L Jackson.

I’m slightly concerned… Unbreakable was such a perfect standalone film that I’m wary of sequels. In hindsight it did something that NONE of the subsequent mainstream superhero films have done, which is to treat the superhero genre with the subtlety and maturity it deserves. It’s so low-key it can hardly be called a superhero film at all.

Unbreakable also crystallised Shyamalan’s unique approach. At his peak (Signs, The Village) he was a master at recontextualising hokey, pulpy plots into quite emotional and spiritual experiences. Like Tarantino, he was a master of merging high and low art approaches. I’m a staunch defender of his peak films.

Crucially, » Continue Reading.

If we had to elect a Patron Saint (an honorary figurehead if you like) I’d vote Robert Plant.

– Unlike Kate Bush, he’s male, and a sizeable proportion of us on here are men. Sorry, but it’s true.

– unlike Bowie, he’s alive.

– He’s current AND heritage. Unlike Macca who even his most fervent fans would admit is probably purely a heritage act now.

– I think he’s less divisive than Dylan or Richard Thompson. A lot of people on here (including me) have respect and love for what he does and what he has done.

– But crucially, he’s not a bland favourite. He excites, but also repels people who don’t like him. You want a Patron Saint to be someone that not everyone likes, so the rebels can be happy to have someone to kick against.

So what do you say? Sir Robert Plant, Patron Saint of The Afterword?

List thread alert!

I overheard this as the phone in topic on a radio show the other day, and I thought it would make an interesting thread. So … artists who have chosen to do a completely new recording of the same song, for whatever reason.

(It’s such an obvious idea for a list thread I can’t believe it hasn’t been done before… so it probably has… but hey ho).

I’m not talking about: – live versions (too obvious) – acoustic remakes (because EVERYONE has done that) – remixes (too common) – bootlegs (I mean proper released versions only)

The two that spring to mind for me are: – Bowie re-recorded Space Oddity not once but twice. I believe there was an original version in ’67 or ’68 that sounded a bit twee and it bombed, then the classic ’60 one, then he did a complete reworking (which is terrific and sinister) in 1980. – Kate Bush wasn’t happy with her original “squeaky” version of Wuthering Heights (she was wrong, but it’s fair enough as she was probably about 16 or something at the time) so took the opportunity to re-record it for her Greatest Hits collection in the late » Continue Reading.

I’m not averse to a bit of dance music. I’ve never been to Ibiza. I’d quite like to go, at least once. I mean the full on, clubbing until dawn experience.

I’m 45? Am I too old? Am I going to feel like a fish out of water? Any old ravers in the afterword massive?

Google it if you don’t know what I’m talking about!

I find this stuff really fascinating. I hear ‘laurel’ quite convincingly but I played it to my seven year old who heard ‘eeany’.

The brain is a weird thing and objective reality is more fluid than we thought….

I’m going to see Damo Suzuki at Mono in Glasgow tomorrow night with a group of married straight male friends. It made us ponder how much listening to CAN music is a bit of a solitary affair, in that we can only really do it when our wives aren’t present.

Which made us wonder, do any women actually like CAN?

Which made we wonder, what other music seems to be the sole domain of men?

I’m slightly worried that I’m actually sexist for even asking this.

Anyway, looking forward to the gig, and I’ll try and review it for here. I haven’t a clue what he’s going to look like or sound like or anything.

(Please no grumbling if you are just not a fan – unless you are constructive in your criticism!)

I thought it was excellent. As I suspected, the trumpeted ‘improv’ nature of this episode was almost unnoticeable. It was just the usual good natured rambling and easy bonhomie. Maybe a bit more rambling and aimless than usual, but still just as funny as ever.

Some great observations like ‘what’s the u in a club sandwich?’ and the wrong song to be playing while you are driving past an accident.

I was a bit puzzled by the continuity though. Is this meant to be a flashback before the emotions of that last episode? Or have we jumped on a few months? Or is it outside the normal continuity like a Comic Relief special or something? These kinds of things bother me.

But overall just good to be back on the daily commute with this pair. Can’t wait for the next one.