The Afterword

Musings on the byways of popular culture

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Better Call Saul Better Than Expected

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Three episodes in, and BCS, the sidebar prequel to Breaking Bad has become my tuesday night must-see show. Unlike other spin-offs – um, Tucker’s Luck, Joanie Loves Chachi – the quality’s there, and I’m eager to see how Jim becomes Saul Goodman. Lovely use of long-shots, especially in episode two when our hero was waiting for a pay phone call. My post-BB methadone, incidentally came in the form of Dexter, Misfits and Utopia (which also did a very good long-shot, though they tended to culminate in people being shot in the head). Anyone else enjoying BCS?

Bluetooth Noise Cancelling Headphones

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Does anybody have any experience good or bad with these? They may well be the way forward for my commuting. I do have a fear of looking a bit of a dick though (a bit more of a dick perhaps) so have a preference for the more subtle designs.

And can anyone remember the ones that Burt Kocain fellow raved about? Were they noise cancelling?

Thanks.

Floored on stage!

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From http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/video-shows-us-rapper-afroman-punching-woman-on-stage-10056787.html

The US rapper and musician Afroman has issued an apology and said he will be checking himself into a clinic for treatment after punching a woman who climbed onto stage during a performance.

Video footage from a performance on Tuesday night at the Kress Live venue in Biloxi, Mississippi, shows the musician on stage, playing his guitar, while a woman – presumably a member of the audience – dances next to him.

The musician then swings at the woman’s head, causing her to fall to the ground, before he continues with his guitar solo.

Reports say that that the Grammy Award-winning musician, whose real name Joseph Foreman, was charged with assault by police. He was then released on a bond of $330.

In the aftermath of the incident, Afroman, 40, best known for a 2001 song I Got High, appeared to respond somewhat casually to the incident. “It is what it is,” he said on social media.

Later, however, the musician appeared to have had more time to reflect. In an interview with the TMZ website, he claimed that he had been heckled by the crowd and was not aware the woman was behind him. He said he » Continue Reading.

The Americans

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My new favourite TV series.

Based on a great concept: 2 KGB Operatives living in 1980’s US as a “normal” American family; 2 kids, suburban home, 9-5 jobs. All while undertaking the dirty deeds of the Kremlin in the time of Cold War hysteria.

Great lead performances from Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys as the spies

Particularly enjoy Noah Emmerich’s understated supporting role as the FBI Agent who is involved in their lives professionally and personally.

So if you like thrillers with great characters, intelligent writing and accurate period details, you will love this.

Its also got John-Boy Walton in it…what more could you ask for?

The HSBC Song

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This track is from a 1966 special star cast recording, featuring Jon Pertwee as Fagin.

Why should we break our backs Stupidly paying tax Better get some untaxed income Better pick a pocket or two

“Get creative”

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From the same cloying, smug, PR-obsessed octopus, with its celebrity bottom-feeders hoping for a leg-up on their own project, that brought us the BBC Music “God Only Knows” travesty comes “Get Creative”.

Thanks BBC we would be lost without you

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-31531887

The Chelsea Racists

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Am I alone in feeling both depressed and concerned about both recent events on the Paris Metro, and the way the story is now being played out?

As surely everyone must know, on Tuesday night video footage circulated of a group of Chelsea fans preventing a black man accessing a carriage on a Paris Metro train, before chanting en masse “We’re racist and that’s the way we like it”. Obviously, this behaviour is both deplorable and indeed criminal.

It didn’t take long for social media and the op ed columns of the major media outlets to fill with people expressing their horror, highlighting Chelsea’s long history of issues with these sorts of views, linking the incident to the John Terry court cause of a couple of years back, and calling for the perpetrators to be identified, banned and punished. So far, so good.

However, the story has subsequently moved into a secondary phase, as such stories now always seemingly must. Images of the fans inside the carriage have circulated, with a plea to identify and help bring them to justice. From what I’ve seen, it’s impossible to tell from the still images which of the individuals were involved in physically » Continue Reading.

Whatever happened to … Delta 5?

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During the long hiatus over the summer hemisphere summer I took a road trip to Melbourne. On the way what should come up on the playlist but a Peel session by Delta 5. I’d not heard them for years and had mentally filed them away as a dour feminist outfit. Therefore I was quite surprised to hear how funky they were, and the humour in their songs. Since getting back home I’ve been trying to track down more of their stuff, but apart from a decade-old album of re-releases and a single Youtube clip there doesn’t seem to be much out there. I knew they were part of the Gang of Four/Mekons crowd at Leeds Uni and I think I might have seen them at least once (but I saw so many bands then it’s all a blur). Anybody got any idea what happened to them – the only info I can find is a few anecdotes from their former drummer, who said they would ‘never reform in a million years’.

The Last of Last FM? Whither us scrobblers?

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Recently the Last FM community has been gnashing its teeth over the latest itunes update, which moves it to 64-bit and renders it impossible to scrobble to last fm from via its itunes plugin.

What you say? Last FM is a music database website with desktop clients and plug-ins that enables you to consolidate your playcounts from itunes, windows media player, Spotify etc into one place. It’s clearly been struggling recently to sustain itself and the itunes issues shows no signs of being fixed anytime soon though there are unofficial work-arounds in the forums.

I love last fm, wish it well, but can’t help feel it’s time may be drawing to a close. So, should I start to think about somewhere else to scrobble to – their word for recording playcounts. And, crucially, who offers a migration function for the 20,000 odd scrobbles on my last fm profile?

Treme

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Slightly belatedly just getting to the end of Treme, with it’s 4th season.

For anyone not familiar it is a drama by The Wire team about a disparate group of characters trying to put their lives together in post-Katrina New Orleans. Haven’t seen it discussed too much here but there is much to recommend it.

1. The music – I never seen a drama that included so much music – possibly a third of each show includes live New Orleans bands, and it is often in the background of other scenes. I have discovered quite a lot through the show and ther are also accompanying cds, plus websites where they namececk every song in each episode – it’s a real treasure trove.

2. The setting – different, contemporary and familiar but somehow slightly exotic

3. The subject – it’s not crime, fantasy etc but about the real drama in these peoples lives across the social spectrum. It can be a bit slow and a bit preachy but the writing and the tunes pulls it through.

4. The characters – well drawn and believable (ish, once again occassionally “really??”)

5. The acting – strong across the board (apart from DJ » Continue Reading.

Venus and Mars are alright tonight

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If you look west into the sky just after sunset, Venus is as bright as you like at the moment. If you have a pair of binoculars and you look towards it you’ll notice the pinprick of red light that is Mars very close to it. Look east and the brightest object in the Sky is Jupiter, the best views we’ll have of it for eight years or so as it is in direct opposition to the sun.

That’s all, no charge for this service.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=geVR-YI0Tvc

Playing music detective

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We all have those songs, stored somewheres in our heads or on a dusty cassette from long ago (if we’re lucky), that we hope we will someday, somehow, track down. Being a determined sort I’ve hunted down most of mine, though there’s 2 that have eluded me for years. Found this on another music blog today & am planning on using some of his methology to nail at least one of my elusive musical butterflies, & thought it might be useful to some to post it here too. Happy hunting. http://markfgriffin.com/2015/02/18/need-help-identifying-song/