The Afterword

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Afterword dinner party

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I’m settling-in to the first episode of the 3rd series of Detectorists (like you do/did), and Andy and Lance are settling onto the sconce of their favourite oak for a spot of idle rumination. Which six people would you invite (alive or dead) to a dinner party?

It made me wonder in quick succession, who I would invite, and then who the wisdom of the AW crowd would identify as the top six raconteurs, sympathetic listeners, buxom/well-packaged companions for a night around the Afterword Algonquin round table.

So, if you’d care to line up your nominees, I’ll see if there’s consensus around a final sextet of the brightest and the best whose company we’d revel in.

Here’s my starter for, um, six Jane Austen Dorothy Parker Niccolo Machiavelli Umberto Eco Douglas Adams Jane Boleyn

Politics and pop culture – mix and match

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I enjoyed the cut and thrust of H.P.’s Brexit thread, but at some point it got a bit bogged down in complex political terminology. Tahir made a comment about political postings on a music site, and it made me think of all the different sorts of political philosophy/ideolology/dogma that one can list and how they are a bit like musical genres – over simplified but sometimes helpful as a basic guide to a school of thought/musical form.

Then I thought, I wonder if there is a musical genre for every school of political thought. Could we map them, one to another and say why they match?

I’ll post a few example genres and philosophies in the first comment, as a form of kindling, then step back, and watch to see if the bally thing lights up.

Things you can’t Google – Marcel Duchamp album cover

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A bit of a shot in the dark here. I was browsing stories and came across an article about Marcel Duchamp’s last artwork, Étant donnés, as you do. I thought, that looks familiar. I had an album once with that as a cover. I think the background colour was dark green, and it was by somebody cultish and a bit weird like the Legendary Pink Dots or Coil.

Could I locate the name of the band or album online? No. No, I couldn’t. Does anybody here know?

Is there a film clip that will make me laugh?

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I confessed on the ‘Do you really like that? Honestly?’ thread, (which sits comfortably at the top of the charts), that I didn’t understand why people liked ‘Laurel and Hardy’. Tediously unfunny, imho.

OOAA, as was very evident – masters of their art, precursors of much of successive comedy, a gift that their performances are captured for posterity. Such were the responses of the cognescenti.

Each to their own. But then I was challenged by the good @Douglas to come up with my top 5 films. Not having one to hand, I hastily scanned various online polls to see if there were any I had seen or enjoyed actually remember laughing at. There were very few, but I just about scraped together a list that passed his muster.

I was troubled. Did this mean I have no sense of humour? Or just don’t like slapstick? Maybe the answer is to put it to the Massive:

Here I sit, arms folded. ‘ Entertain me!’ I bellow. If the prospect doesn’t discourage you, please would you post some clips from movies you can’t help laughing at, and I’ll let you know if I can uncover a funny bone » Continue Reading.

Pet Shop Boys vs. The Divine Comedy – the arched eyebrow war

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As part of my year-long music writing blog, I am trying to demolish deeply-held prejudices about music, and one of those is that, while the Pet Shop Boys write great tunes, their lyrics are overrated. I thought I would ask the Afterword cognoscenti to inform me which would be the best song to confound my misjudgement (Being Boring, maybe?).

But then I though, let’s make this a bit more fun. While I don’t particularly rate the music of the Divine Comedy, Neil Hannon writes very impressive lyrics (see clip). Every now and then the Afterword used to do band duels (Cream vs. Hendrix, Roxy Music vs Talking Heads, Fairport Convention vs. Pentangle vs. Steeleye Span, etc*).

I haven’t seen one of these artificially-contrived wrestling deathmatches recently, so – it’s a fine May weekend (well it is here in Bonn). So why not draw out your keyboard epee and mouse foil and get fencing*** on this fraught issue?

Pet Shop Boys or The Divine Comedy?

Fight fight fight!**

——————-

*Obviously the former in all three examples

**Not really channeling my inner Quaker here

***And no fence-sitting, please.

You may find yourself in a shotgun shack

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Where do you find yourself?

I find myself in the top two floors of a townhouse in Bonn, some 66 steps up from the ground. Looking out of the windows I can see the rooftops of the city and the hills in the distance. I am rooted in the centre of the city, near a large square where people ebb and flow during the day and during the seasons. 10 minutes and I am on the banks of the Rhine which stretches up towards Liechtenstein and down towards Rotterdam. I am in the western regions of Germany, not too far from the Luxembourg border, but there are big stretches of wooded countryside on either side of the Rhine valley before the next major conurbation.

How about you?

Are you a flame warrior?

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In a FB Archers group*, somebody posted a link to this website (link at bottom), which lists some 89 internet discussion group archetypes. Some of them are very funny, and I can see myself in a few (archivist, strumpet, yuk yuk, for example).

This site seems quieter than it used to in the days of Thatcher’s death, Indieref, etc, but I’m wondering if anyone else sees themselves in these types?

*Archers fans can be the worst trollers, cybersisters, coffee klatches, nitpicks, toxic grannies, etc.

http://www.flamewarriorsguide.com/

Last time films were rated – 2015

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I thought there might be interest in seeing what was judged to be the best films the last time there was an Afterword best film poll. The poll winners were the standard popular films, but what was more interesting was each voter’s number one favourite film. Here is an alphabetical list (first comment):

Supergroup silliness

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Franz Ferdinand and Sparks, The Last Shadow Puppets – are supergroups something to celebrate? Never mind that, let’s think of some new ones. Here’s one to get the ball rolling:

It’s a multi-generational, cross-genre supergroup, involving singers, bands – even an actor. Great line-up:

Frank Sinatra, Lee Hazelwood, Mighty Lemon Drops. A House, Ride and Owen Paul with Keifer Sutherland and managed by Tam Paton. Not sure about the name, though:

Frank Lee Mighty A Ride Owen Keifer Tam!

____________

* Blame KFD – he persuaded me to transfer this idea from the AW FB page.

Who posts on here?

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I stumbled onto the Afterword error 404 page just now, which lists all the authors and number of posts they (we) have contributed since April 2014.

The numbers are only accurate at the moment of sampling, of course, but I thought it might be of interest to a few other list fans/ navel gazers. The list is in the first comment.

Cry Baby Cry

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A comment by Moose on the teenage top ten thread about the White Album dislodged a memory. Back in the late 80s I was slightly peeved to discover that my favourite song by Throwing Muses was a cover of a Beatles track. Liking covers, in my skew-whiff view of things, meant I wasn’t really a fan, didn’t really ‘get’ the artist/band. Still, it was a fantastic song, so kudos to the Fabs for coming up with another classic that I hadn’t known was theirs.

I never actually listened to the original – I think it must have passed me by on one of the few occasions I struggled through the White Album so I could tick it off the list/say I’d heard it. So, tonight, thanks to the wonders of YouTube, I did. And it’s nothing like the Throwing Muses version.

So my question to you is – can I reclaim my perverse musical self-worth by really liking a Throwing Muses original, or is there some way in which it is a copy, but I’m just not hearing it?

Feel free to post other crying songs, if the mood takes you. I can think of tracks by INXS, » Continue Reading.

Write Here, Write Now

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I was working on the tab(let), late one night,

– on statistics for @Tiggerlion’s end of year poll. when he said, in an e-mail, “I’m dying to know what your New Year’s resolution is”.

In previous years, I’ve done ‘Image Resolution’ – a sketch every day for a year (2014); and ‘Consecutive Compendium of Culture’ – 26 fortnights of alphabetized threads (2015). Last year (I can say that now) there wasn’t one and I hadn’t really thought about doing one this year.

I was intrigued by the gauntlet thrown down and have spontaneously decided to throw myself into a new challenge – to write something (anything) every day for 2017. Being a fairly passive kind of person, it’s been quite easy to live an unexamined life recently, and I’ve heard that’s not worth living. Setting myself the discipline of drafting text every day might help me to reflect more.

Learning from previous experience, I won’t be posting everyday on here, but on my own WordPress account. I might try to report in on the monthly blogger takeover.

I don’t yet know what I am going to write, how personal it is going to be, » Continue Reading.

Unsung heroes

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Before yesterday, I’d never heard of Hovis Presley, but I’m glad I now have as he was a funny guy. Probably every other Afterworder already knows him, but in case not, I thought I’d share this clip.

Also, I wondered if, in these quiet short days between the years, it might nudge you to post about other cultural figures (for want of a better word), on whom the spotlight of recognition shone only faintly.

Raising the spirits

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Good tidings on All Hallows Eve – a good day for goths and a time for raising spirits, however you interpret that phrase.

The word ‘spirit’ derives from the same root as breath – the stuff of life. We breathe, the planet breathes with the changing of the seasons – northern hemisphere folk now entering the darker phase of the year – longer nights, shorter days. Mists, damp earth, cold mornings, bright winter sun. I’m going to start lighting candles on my evening desk – a miniature hearth to gather around as the screen flickers across from me – two different sources of illumination.

Any rituals or habits for the day or the autumn and winter ahead? What’s good music for evoking an eerie atmosphere, rousing good will, getting raucous or just drinking liquor? What gets the spirits going?

Here’s an oddity (odd ditty) from me.

http://www.breathingearth.net/

Land of 1000 Dances

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Digging into my new collection of soul CDs (https://theafterword.co.uk/gimme-a-holler/), Wilson Pickett was on the virtual wheel of steel this morning with this fantastically energizing song – hasn’t he got an amazing voice?

Then I wondered – are there a thousand dances? What are the really good ones? Who can I consult for guidance on this? Do Afterworders live in the land of 1000 dances – maybe they’ll fill me in on this?

Gimme A Holler

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I am a happy bunny. On Saturday, I stumbled across a charity stall where some decent cove had offloaded a sizable collection of folk, jazz, country, blues, African, reggae, soul, fado, etc. Presumably it had all been digitalized and space was needed.

Some ten cases of CDs (24 apiece) sorted by genre, as well as a sundry assortment of odds and ends, (including a few Word of Mouth cover mounts). I wonder if he was a Massive member?

Anyway, I bought the soul and what must have been the erudite guitar plucking collections – some 45 CDs for 35 Euros.

I’m listening to Bill Frisell’s Nashville now, and wanted to share my joy with you lovely music fiends. A lot of the music is new to me, and if you’ve been affected by any of these artistes, I’d love to get your guidance. I’m looking forward to filling great holes in my musical knowledge.

(Lists of music acquired in posts below)

https://radiofreemidwich.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/the-review-pile-yesterday.jpg

The Word according to Prince

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Apart from a talent for genre-hopping (dance) music, Prince Rogers Nelson* had a sublime gift for lyrics, both bawdy and affecting, often turning out great rhyming couplets. Here’s one of my favourites:

“Hot thing, barely 21

Hot thing, looking 4 Big Fun**”

I’ll post some more in the comments, but I’d welcome other fond recollections*** __________________

* Blessed with such a name, how could he not turn out such beautiful innuendo as he did?

** I think they’ve split up

*** as well as snappy dismissals and sneering disdain, of course

When your heroes run out of gas, where do you turn ?

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So many bands reform and perform perfunctory retreads of their glory years, or just keep on slugging away without knowing when to quit. Pop music – it’s a young person’s game, eh? When your nearest and dearest no longer do what they used to do so well, where do you turn for freshly-sourced spring waters of zestful musical exuberance? . So, you liked Dylan, XTC; Jam, Sisters, New Order*. Who do you like now? . ________________ . ‘*Add super-annuated/deceased genius of choice

Grimey rock’n’roll

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I was just reminded about Thee Hypnotics, a band I used to see live in the nineties with a great Stooges/MC5 image and sound. After they split, the Jim Jones Revue (apparently) continued the dirty, noisy rock’n’roll sound (clip featured). It puts me in mind of a kind of genre or feel of music – sort of Cramps, Gallon Drunk, Gun Club, Lounge Lizards, Morphine, Barry Adamson, Eat – grimey, loose, swampy sound.

Anyone else inspired to get down and dirty with some mucky music?