Just recovering from the Pride weekend....ow ow ow!

Started as you do on Hampstead Heath - John's train was delayed, didn't know exactly what time he'd get in if at all (he turned up 3 hours late due to a problem at Koln) so cruised around the heath as you do ;-) Was quite quiet though and I bear the (mosquito) scars.

So Friday was round at mine, then off to see the Parade. It started late and at Baker Street this year, so although I got up late I still made the tail end of it at Piccadilly Circus and walked a bit of it (pics at my Flickr - link below - tbh once you've see one Pride flag photo you've seen them all) 0 fave moment was everyone waving, whistling and shouting at the Christian protesters just before Trafalgar Square.

Got to the square, had a look around, bought some expensive drink then the yawnsome singer/songwriter woman left the stage and Nick Clegg arrived (who? yes exactly...leader of the Liberals here) claiming that he's on top of all gay issues by protesting Heinz pulling that advert. *Sigh* So before I started throwing things I quickly left the Square, and headed around Soho, loads going on, I like the shut off streets. Invariably ended up at the King's Arms, seeing a few friends of mine (Chuck and Colin and John and Andrew) and a few I didn't want to see but fairly mild on that front this year.

Headed off to Retro bar because later we were going to Gay Shame, the event run by Duckie:


Bearlesque doing their act - I was making eyes at the one in the right all night. Short furry bear - WOOF! Not sure about the plume tho....

So this year the theme was masculinity - got quite freaky in places, did the Dad Menswear thing, heard strange stories about the Mysterious Glory Hole (hmm lets just say glitter balls where they usually don't go and leave it to that), and the Eau De Toilette was just that...as you can see by this pic.(fairly SFW unless you zoom and even then) which was right above the dancefloor and was used by men and women to earn extra Nine Bob Notes (extra kudos to those outside the UK who get that reference). Oh and penis shaped lollies, Male Chauvinist Pig Roast with sausage roles with dodgy jokes stuck in them, modern punch and judy at a roles-reversed Greasy Spoon Cafe, etc...

The stage set was a Builder's site, I didn't get to do the Bearlesque Builder's site tour but I got to dress like one:


Me in Construction drag with Kirk

I still have the visivest LOL...there was also racing with pantomime horses you could bet on, and loads of cute bears, but the freaky thing was so many people were rocking the fake beards AND ironic 70's porn/sleaze look it actually got quite hard to work out what was real! I resisted the temptation to tug though.

More mostly embarassing photos here.

Over at the Spanish remix/community site Buffet Libre are 40 (!!!) covers and remixes of 80's tunes, and mighty good they are too. As always it's a mixed bag, but those of an electronic persuasion and those who love 80's tunes (that's most of my FL then) will love something in this.

There are even some more well known names in there such as Electric Soft Parade, Fil OK..and err...well that's it from that regard but some of the names ring slight DX7 Bells.

Apparently there are more to come in September - may it roll on!

Usually I keep stuff like this solely for the podcast, not sure if and when I'll do one next, so here are my choices in a new bloggy format:

Simply brilliant:
Electric Soft Parade - Jealousy - a simply astounding cover of a song that never ever gets old - slowing it down and stripping it down, adding distortion and piano at points adds a lot. Nice to hear from these guys again, where have they been?...

Mashup yet not:
Saint Bernadette - Owner of a Lonely Heart / Things Can Only Get Better - yes a band doing a 'live' cover mashup of Yes AND Howard Jones (!). And it works...almost a guilty pleasure hearing Howard Jones, but then again what is Yes then? I can't decide which is more guiltier - It's a guilt paradox!

Stick that Purple One:
Culture Prophet - Erotic City - yes sort but sleep glitchy electro version, which unlike a lot of Prince covers floating around in a sea of writs is actually good.

Kate Bush in good remix shockah!
Kate Bush - Under Ice (Fil Ok Remix) - And by a ex-happy hardcore person as well...wow. Great non-obvious-but-inspired choice of track, a ambient electro burbling remix of an album track off Hounds of Love.

Loud shouty rudeness award goes to:
Pomomofo - Ride The White Horse Yes that one, "if you wanna be a phony, ride the white pony!"

What I was listening on Pride:
!Trash Yourself - Fuck The Police - I wish someone had dared to play this at Pride. No fucking way they would though. Rude noisy angry glitchtronica.

I can't believe it's so gay!
Madonna - Into the Groove (Sidechains mix) - yep Madge goes french house compression style. And I like it, unusually for 99.9999999% of any Madgephonia. Maybe cos it's one of the few really good songs she has. Well like only one...pretty much. No this fag does not like Kylie or Madonna, be warned.

Doubly gay and double the guilty pleasure:
Belinda Carlisle - Heaven is a Place on Earth (Hidden Cat Remix) 0h. dear. This is SO GHEY I can imagine the bopping shirtless throngs now, but unusually for La Carlisle I actually like it - and I hate this song usually, even that Orbital remix. A banger as they say in teh biz.

You will meet at least;

20 times deafened by whistles
2 people you don't want to see
1 person you do want to see and you haven't seen in ages
1 person who will annoy you by overdoing it and barging into you
1 drunken/stoned but good conversation with a dyke/gay man
0 shags, but that's OK ;-)

HAPPY PRIDE!

Never knew what RockaFire Explosion were, but this is funny even so.

Oh it's been a few years and inspired by franken_bear so...(holds breath for the random shit I do tend to collect on my iPod - I have craploads of RSS feeds automatically adding music to my iPod, so it is very likely I will have about 6 songs I go WTF IS THIS?)

1. Pete Shelley - Witness the Change (from 'Homosapien') - sadly unloved and unremembered album it seems, loads of people know the title single but the rest of the album is unusually good bisexual electro-pop goodness ;-) One of my favourite discoveries of the last few years.

2. Siouxsie and the Banshees - Cities in Dust - oh THIS. I've heard this at Duckie many times. Love this, especially the 'ding dong' Avon calling refrain . As you might tell I'm not a Siouxsie fan, not NOT a fan, I have nothing against her. Just never really got the energy up to know more than the singles.

3. George Carlin - Killer Carlin - listening to a lot of George since he died - someone I knew very little about and loving his stuff, especially the really ANTI later stuff, where it's uncomfortable listening. Although a disciple of Bruce and inspiration to Hicks it does seem his early stuff is a bit tame, Filthy Words disallowing.

4. People Like Us/Matmos/Wobbly - Clawing Your Eyes Down to the Throat -(from Wide Open Spaces) - I love this, it's evil country cutup, meets Wobbly's glitch and People Like Us's odd easy sampletronica. Dunno what Matmos did on this - probably added the odd squelches and burps. Very good. It's the kind of song I love greatly and play on Radio Clash (I have in this case) and everyone goes WTF IS THIS?. Sigh. I can all but try.

5. Bo Diddley - I'm Looking For A Woman - yes again you don't miss something til it's gone, and another death dedication about a dog dying - *click* sorry death related checking out of back catalogue. I really love what I've heard of Bo, brilliant rock and roll and proto-punk guitar playing.

6. Fleetwood Mac- Come a Little Closer (from Heroes Are Hard to Find) - I should be embarassed about this but I'm not, it's a brilliant song, sung and written by Christine McVie and the album before all the 'hits' with the pre-Buckingham Nicks lineup. And it's on my iPod cos of the Fleetwood Mac mashup album I'm running. And the album is actually very good sort of New Orleans blues/70's AOR mix, surprisingly so cos a lot of the post-Green pre-Buckingham/Nicks albums can be very variable.

7. George Carlin - American Bullshit - aha the aforementioned hard-hitting later comedy - this is my favourite George Carlin. Yes he's doing the angry older man, but there is a point 'This entire country is completely full of shit!'.

8. The J's with Jamie - Music - umm definitely from WFMU; a commercial advertising song about a refrigerator. This is no American Standards 'My bathroom is a private kind of place'* which is an incredibly beautiful song.

9. Eric B and Rakim - Paid In Full (Coldcut's 8 Minutes of madness mix) - THIS STILL ROCKS. Reminds me of the genius of Coldcut despite the frankly annoying noodly jazzbient Ninja Tunes stuff. It's a sampling classic, inspired by Steinski, and includes a lot of surprising samples.

10. Fleetwood Mac - Sara (demo version) - for years and years I HATED Tusk, seemed to be the epitomy of bloated cocaine arrogance - but I'd never really heard all of it. When I did, ignoring the frankly odd Buckingham songs (apart from the wonderful 'Save me a Place') then I realised I was very very very wrong. Production is a bit messy but it stands up with their best albums, and the experimental nature stops them getting too Afternoon Delight. This demo is brilliant for the spoken intro - 'I wann be a star, I don't want to be a cleaning lady!' - and of course the song is a classic; 'drowning in the sea of love, where everyone wants to drown'.

Funny how like Carpenters, FM have been slowly re-evaluated for the talents they were; yes they sometimes devolved into slush, but when they got it right, they hit something that others didn't. The songs are good, but unfortunately got caught in that punk/new wave hatred. I always liked them since Tango of the Night came out, and I checked out their later stuff, as a 14 year old. It's why I don't see them as a guilty pleasure, I think everyone actually likes at least one FM song.

* EDIT - after writing this that song was #12. WEIRD.

via why_a_duck

Who'd have thought this:



Would have turned to this:



Which made me cry and joyful for some reason, when everyone starts dancing...but apparently he wanted to include all of the people who wrote to him. There is an advert at the end, which is a slight spoiler but they apparently paid for the trips, so...

Oh wow I must've done this a long time back, but an interview with someone called Tim Baker has popped up a few days ago on the PodFinderUK blog...thanks Neil!

Someone has stolen Ian Curtis's gravestone.

It might not be a popular view, but I think this is the downside of all that 'Control' type demagoguery. Elevate the man to be the new wave Jim Morrison; then woodwork squeaks you'll attract the freaks. Grrr. Leave him to the people who care about him and the music, rather than the wannabe vamps and freak-o-goths who like 'totally understand him, maaaaan'.

FFS, go bother Nick Cave or kill Marilyn Manson or something. Take your cult of death elsewhere, I'd guess all fans of Joy Division would be the first to say that although sad, and understandable, Ian was stupid, a total c*** to do what he did. Love the music, love him as an artist and songwriter, hate how he ended his life, it seemed so...pointless and cowardly. I do worry that now with all these films people are distanced from the real sadness of Ian, how he died, and just think it's 'cool', part of the myth, 'Death of a Singer', makes it all so genuine, so gritty, so Kurt and Sid. Sadly films do that, gloss even the most distasteful things.

And now his grave has been desecrated - no fan would do that. Leave the man alone.

uh oh - the e-voting part of the Mayoral election bothered me, but with such a close vote is it possible Boris didn't win at all?

Report:

However, transparency around the recording of valid votes was a major issue, leading many of our team of 27 official observers to conclude that they were unable to observe votes being counted. And while hundreds of screens set up by vote scanners showed almost meaningless data to observers, London Elects admit that the system was likely to be recording blank ballots as valid votes.

The report also details how London Elects are unable to publish an audit, commissioned from KPMG, of some of the software used to count the London vote, because of disputes over commercial confidentiality. The situation highlights the problems that arise when the very public function of running elections is mixed with issues of commercial confidentiality and proprietary software. In the context of a public election, it is unacceptable that these issues should preclude the publication of the KPMG audit.

Link to Open Rights Group report

Today in Berlin was beautiful; John played hooky from his conference so revisited the Wannsee with me, I got sunburnt it was so hot, we visited the Peacock Island (very camp, sorry these Germans seem to devolve into Disneyland trying to do that eccentric folly/english landscape/mix-and-mash culture thing) but had a lovely walk around if rather hot and dry (not a single cafe or shop on the island!) and then walked down the old Berlin Wall way towards several other Schlosses (they were sloshing around there was so many of them!) and Potsdam...and then back to Wannsee, had loads of pfifferlinge (mushrooms), eis (ice cream), erdbeer (John had the amazing erdbeer kuechen, me erdbeer and cream and icecream....spent some time just sitting drinking lemonade watching the water and the fake schloss across the river, and the finished it in Berlin with pizza and wine at a Biergarten in the Tiergarten, and then I rowed John around the lake, remembering my rowing skills.

Altold one of the best days of my life - so it should stop there. Sadly it didn't. Slight rather childish meltdown from a certain someone who can't stand noise, TVs, open windows during a heatwave but does snore a lot, conveniently for me, which is why I'm typing this at 3:52, sigh.

Can't live with them, etc. Anyone want to swap? Maybe I could put him on eBay.

At least I might sleep for my flight tomorrow.

At 10pm...

lMorgoth Djing/VJing at Mash Up Yr Bootz

Ooh this is good - not only did I get to meet DJ Morgoth & friends at the excellent Mash Up Yr Bootz in Berlin, where not only was he mixing mashup videos and audio live (as well as some Radio Clash graphics amongst the 'mix' of mashup flyers, covers etc). he also played my Neon Sex People mashup which he also just posted to Mashuptown.

Thanks Morgoth ;-) Really enjoyed the club, and heartily recommend it if yr in Berlin.

Mash Up Yr Bootz with added video!



Mashup Yr Shiny Shiny Discoballs!



Morgoth is \M/ ETAL!!!!

After the Christopher Street Day yesterday (yes I did Pride this year, just probably not my own!) the total contrast is today with some silly football match and Berlin goes crazy.

They lose to Spain - something that made me very happy btw - and you think 'ooh maybe we'll get a quiet night. Nope.

They spent the night shouting, beeping horns, ringing bicycle bells etc, causing all sorts of chaos, acting like they won, but they didn't (or maybe the expat population of Berlin is bigger than I thought?).

Anyway I felt like shouting 'STFU YOU LOST!!!' many times...I mean in the UK when England loses, as it always does, people tend to go home and be quiet - there's the odd fight but generally people are just down and morose...

Otherwise Berlin is good - spent today walking around the Tiergarten (yes I did partake of a rather cute german daddybear ;-) and yesterday attending the parade and getting wet, tonight is hot though...I attended a Mashup night here in Berlin, it was quiet but the DJ was mixing video which was tres cool, I wanna do that (and he wants my Neon Sex People vid too!)...weird hearing that out in a club, and seeing my graphics projected on the wall, as DJ Morgoth has thousands of mashup-related flyers, covers etc.

Friday night was dinner and Scheune, a rather err, infamous leather bar. Was fun, if not totally my scene. Made out with a cute little bear - what is it with little bears and me? Is the height? I'm not complaning....

OK Don't Fear the Reaper isn't the best soundtrack. George Carlin's Airport Security however is excellent.

NSFW!



Have fun this weekend - I'm off to Berlin...

via maclondon - this is very true:

http://www.thewebsiteisdown.com/ (NSFW!)

Although I hasten to add not being a web server/dev tech I don't play FPS at work...I have worked places that do, though ;-)

It makes me laugh, cackle as only a schadenfreunde can, in fact.

And hearing even the people arriving at Glastonbury today slag off Jay-Z, also gives teh lulz.

That is all.

Video of CMP#9 back in May - yes that's a certain DJNoNo Djing at the 4:37 mark!

Thanks to Bob 'Batboy' Levingbird and the CMP crew ;-)

Oh and middle finger to Prince who just stopped a 5CD covers compilation fron Norway which featured this band's 'Condition of the Heart' - WTF? I didn't know you could stop covers? And pulled the video from YouTube. Sound familiar (and he didn't even own that one)?

Probably Universal or Wonky Symbol protecting 'their' 50th tribute, whatever that is. C***s.

So just for you, my little stupid purple one, is the link to Frost's cover of Sex Shooter which they posted themselves, for free as a FU to the one with the stupid symbol*: http://www.zshare.net/download/14193982dc0b200a/




* Did you know why he changed it back? Apparently you can't sign over royalties to a 'symbol', you have to have a name, so he couldn't be paid. HAHAHAHAA. You can't even make this stuff up...

Or Salty Shanty's One Shot Tea:



Dunno what's worst - the bad Thriller ripoff or the funny lyrics it sounds like...

And this is the original with better sound of the hilarious video for Tunak Tunak Tun - I dig his dancing and several cute men:



And here's the 'subtitled' version!



I heard 'merry merry musclemen' in the 2:20ish mark...;-) 'laying bears' indeed!

EDIT: Tunak Teletubbies:



I'll save you the World of Warcraft versions (megageek!!!)