The Afterword

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42 – snappy synopses of the meaning of life

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Whether life actually has any meaning, or just that what we give to it, it’s easy for answers to be trite or perfunctory, cliched or empty of any real meaning.

But sometimes a quote can pop up that grabs me unawares and says something in a way that makes me stop and think. It doesn’t answer all questions, but it points the way to more interesting perspective.

In honour of Douglas Adams, are there 42 such quotes out there? I’ll put two in the comments.

Silly questions and stupid answers

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On the grounds that there are no wrong questions, but some are quite silly, and that it’s not easy always pretending to be grownup and having all the answers.

But also, that it’s entertaining making up ridiculous answers and that the stupidity of crowds is as valid as assessment of humanity as its wisdom.

Here’s one to start with:

Why is water wet?

Greater than the sum of their parts?

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TLDR: bands – better knowing who the members are or not?

Browsing through the RSS feeds tonight I came across this article on the Beach Boys and the song in the clip. It’s beautiful – a ghostly shimmering sound that makes it as fresh as the first time I heard it. That’s a long time ago – Beach Boys songs were some of the earliest music I can remember listening to – my parents had a Greatest Hits cassette and Loop John B and others are ingrained in my memories like inner rings of a tree – weirdly sweet interweaving harmonies over happy, jolly music. I never wondered then who was singing what, and to this day, though I know a little more about prodigy Brian with his cracked psyche, tragic womanizing surfer Dennis, cynical and self-centred Mike, and even third bro Carl and Richie Cunningham lookalike Al, I couldn’t tell you who sang what in any of their songs. I wouldn’t know where to go to google it (a big thank to anyone who can break down the track for me).

Then I got to thinking about something that has entertained me every now and then – bands where » Continue Reading.

T.S. Eliot sticking it up your ass

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TLDR – Eliot (and poetry in general) and modern music – discuss

I like the idea of T.S. Eliot. But I don’t like his poems much. They don’t ‘make sense’. I start off reading a phrase, a line with intent to draw meaning out, but frankly it’s a struggle. Thrown at school into Ash Wednesday, (what feels like the deep end of the pool of Eliot’s poetry), was almost enough to put me off completely. I mean: Because I do not hope to turn again Because I do not hope Because I do not hope to turn Desiring this man’s gift and that man’s scope I no longer strive to strive towards such things (Why should the agèd eagle stretch its wings?) Why should I mourn The vanished power of the usual reign? A quote from Wikipedia “In the first section, Eliot introduces the idea of renunciation with a quote from Cavalcanti, in which the poet expresses his devotion to his lady as death approaches. Dante Gabriel Rossetti translated it under the title Ballata, Written in Exile at Sarzana, and rendered the first line as “Because I do not hope to return” What the fuck?

What better way to signal » Continue Reading.

Which decade will your bookcase stop shaking at?

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This video has really struck me, not particularly because my father is, probably like a few of yours, suffering from failing memory and cognition, but rather from the metaphor of 2 bookshelves, one of specific memories, one of emotional associations, and how shaking the shelves does or does not dislodge books. Part of our brain stores facts, part stores emotions – they are connected, but they don’t seem to function in the same way.

It’s a short video. If you watch it, which decade would you fall back to, should the circumstance arise? For me, it would be the 80s. I was listening to this video by Annie, and the deep connections to eighties synth pop just resonated with me so deeply, I just felt that, when I finally lose my cognition, music like this will reanimate me like those fan-driven inflatable figures outside car showrooms. https://youtu.be/aWj_fkGamfk Now, where’s Ally Sheedy and Molly Ringwald?

Sea shanties?

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Where do these things come from? I was watching Steven Colbert last night for his latest wry take on US politics, when he dropped in references to sea shanties. Whatever, I thought. Then, today the wave, which must have been cresting for days now, broke over me on Facebook. It’s officially a ‘thing’.

These phenomena multiply exponentially from out of nowhere, don’t they? So quick, you can almost see them happening in real time.

I guess communal choral singing is a good thing in these strange times, as @TheCheshireCat would probably attest. What would Afterworders sing a capella together, I wonder?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/15/shantytok-how-a-19th-century-seafaring-epic-inspired-a-covid-generation

Got an *ology? Are we being watched?

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I was googling for the name of a contributor to the site (latin “theafterword.” co.uk) after Retro asked a question: (https://theafterword.co.uk/one-vote-wonders-and-no-vote-blunders-lets-have-some-love-for-the-ones-that-almost-got-away/#comment-456184) and this was one of the links on the first page. Is this fame or infamy? I’m not sure I should even name the organization referenced.

https://religiouslibertyleague.org/Response%20TM%20Denial%20re%20Name.pdf

Your favourite words of 2020

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Probably the official OED wordoftheyear will be ‘lockdown’ or some such much-worked close assembly of letters.

But do you have a favourite or favourites?

I got to thinking about this after reading the Brian Eno article in GQ. He lists nearly 400 new words, though not necessarily all from this year. I’ll post the nearly 50 that were new to me in the comments below.

https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/preview/articles/5faaa9a0ab4311e33c32f69f?status=draft&t=1605028609053

Stories in songs

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Winter is drawing in. Today it rained and rained. COVID is keeping us under our roofs. It’s time to hunker down around our hearths, be they fireplaces or flatscreens, kitchen stoves, turntables or tablets.

Hearths are places for stories, the oral tradition, passed on tales. And nothing conveys a story more than a bed of music – prompting the next verse, stirring and prompting reaction, locking down inevitable conclusions with half-expected rhyme.

I got to thinking – there must be a lot of story songs that have a special place in Afterworders’ hearts – be they folk ballads, rap battles, ponderous prog rock pottering or snappy punk flick of the wrist. Can I unlock a flow of recollection and anecdotage?

Ground rules What I want are posts with connections, a little scattering of descriptive context. This ain’t the place for scattershot spraying of countless URls. Less is more. We’re tellin’ stories, here, not selling encyclopaedias. Please one clip max per post, and wait your turn.

Come at me with your best!

When the world falls apart, some things stay in place. Who or what do you trust?

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An interesting engagement with H.P. on his Trump/Biden thread about (how to / if you can) rebuff the ‘fucking idiots’ made me wonder who or what members of the massive place their trust in these days. Are there any voices of reason out there? People who you may or may not like what they say, but you know they are speaking from a position of knowledge or even wisdom?

Or is it the great taste of English beer that holds true for you, the sound of a nicely-tuned 12 string, the appalling English weather, etc?

Who or what is it that you hold to in times like these?

I may put my role call in the comments below, but I want to hear from my olders and youngers and betters. Also Rob C, who is almost exactly the same age as me.

The Afterword Autumn Festival – YouTube concerts

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@Uncle-Wheaty’s concert films thread reminded me that I sometimes like nothing more than switching on YouTube and watching musicians live in action – an hour or more of a band playing through their catalogue – a chance to enjoy them in depth, see how they interact with their instruments and each other.

A pleasure currently denied in the flesh means any concert from however long ago is as close as something recorded last year.

How about an Autumn Afterword Festival? Post live concert clips you’ve enjoyed – only rule is there should be at least two songs per clip, more if possible. Then maybe, to sum up, we can decided the running order and GCU Grey Area can draw us up a festival poster…

For lack of anything better to choose, I’ve clipped your favourite and mine, but don’t feel restrained to any particular genre.

Fairport’s Cropredy Connection 2020

Thompson and Thomson

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Because, why stop with Richard (and Linda), when there are so many other Thompsons (and a few Thomsons out there)?

Personally, I’d like nothing more than lots of clips featuring Danny, but anyone with the Thom(p)son moniker is welcome to the family gathering.

Richard and Linda – tell me more, tell me more

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I hear Richard Thompson is quite popular on this site. I have a few songs in my collection including one of his albums (You? Me? Us?) and know of Vincent Black Lightning. I even saw him live, in Bradford in the 90s. I have a few early Fairport albums, of course. But I don’t know much else.

A Richard and Linda song was posted on the Catharsis thread and it was a stunner (Dimming of the Day). And now it seems there’s a new collection out. Maybe it’s time to gem up. Any tips on other songs or albums of theirs to listen to?

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/sep/12/richard-and-linda-thompson-hard-luck-stories-1972-1982-review-box-set-31-unreleased-tracks

Cath, our sis – the potency of cheap music

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Life, don’t talk to me about life. Sing about it instead. Sing the blues, sing through, sing until your body rings with feeling of it.

If you’d like, post the songs that knock you down when you hear them, that hold you close, that leave you clear headed and comforted as the final notes fade away – songs you know so well, they feel like home.

youth tribes – fashion victim or style icon?

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When I was younger, I used to dress in black with long white collarless shirts and pointy boots that I thought made me look great. The footwear ruined my toes and I switched to DMs and army boots pretty quick, but it was too late.

Any youth culture fashion choices that you made that you now regret, or even that remain a source of pride?

View post on imgur.com

Stuff from nonsense

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I talk a lot of nonsense.

Having two languages in the family, one of which I am not fluent it, a lot of words, phrases and ideas go completely over my head, particularly as I am outnumbered 3:1 by native speakers. I end up spouting half words. But as I like wordplay (have you noticed?), it’s often a shortcut down a narrow path to a linguistically lawless world of free association and, basically nonsense. Over in that Facebook world, I’m in a group composing never-ending limericks, and that taps into my tilting at the edge of syntax and content in the order and form of language norms.

Nonsense doesn’t stay nonsense. Like seeing animal shapes in clouds, faces in inanimate objects – pattern recognition and causal relationship detection – we coax, extract and form meaning from any and every random expression of sound. From the sublime Ivor Cutler to the ridiculous Stanley Unwin, the perimeters of sense are explored and expressed in many ways.

Here’s Stephen Fry’s riff on linguistic uniqueness, now preserved forever on the internet, no doubt accumulating some form of meaning just by being there:

Hold the newsreader’s nose squarely, waiter, or friendly milk will » Continue Reading.

Genre vs. Generic

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Genre. It’s a convenient way of classifying forms of culture, be it music, cinema, dance, art etc. Quite helpful shorthand if you want to describe a song or a film to someone – a quick way of conveying the experience, based on shared understanding of the conventions of that form.

But then generic as an adjective is neutral to pejorative – tending towards dismissing something as trite, hackneyed – tab a into slot b, to use a Kermode-ism.

What or who decides genres? Do they have a lifecycle, from fresh merging of existing artforms into something new and self-standing towards imitation, lazy copy pasting, and finally mass-produced ‘generic’ blandness?

Any answers to or reflections on this minor trouble doll of a thought challenge that’s been sitting with me for days are gratefully received.

ATM – Google Play RIP. What next?

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Probably there aren’t many on here who have used the upload function of Google Play, but it has been a useful tool, letting me listen to my own music without ad breaks across different devices wherever there’s an internet connection, without lugging around a terabyte hard drive and plugging it in.

Now Google have decided to junk it. I’ve done what they suggested and transferred my files and playlists to YouTube Music. But the functionality is shite. Lists instead of icons, no way to download my music and no way to edit the files online. All of which Google Play allowed.

Apparently we’re all streaming now anyway. But that means a monthly sub or adverts every 30 minutes.

Are they any suggestions for alternatives?

Thank you!

Bovril songs

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Working our way through the rich, dark sauces and spreads, Bovril stands for dark, rich, meaty songs – pungent and penetrating barry-tones salivating deep into your sensory organs, bass notes that thud and reverberate through your skull and pulse into your core.

In this long hot, sweltering season*, what better to kick off this mucky, beefy, aromatic thread than Barry’s first song?

*I’m so hemispherist, sorry)