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This ones a music one

Hitch — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 21:11:31 +0000

So borrowed a huge bunch of cds from Segal’s Fresh Air promo bag this week and did listening whilst training up some Fresh Airers to Dee Jay.* Not ideal listening conditions but hey, got through the stuff. Just thought I’d share a few of the ones I liked. First Up.

(Never Mind The) Stars – Holiday
These chaps are from Amsterdam, and they want me to take them with me on holiday. Lovely intro. Ripe for a remix please someone. They got an Alphabeat vibe, but don’t hold that against them. They’ve got Fearne Cotton’s support, so maybe hold that one instead.
Label: STRFCKR RCRDS
Release Date: 8th March 2010.
Just realised theres no track of this I can share, they’ve not even got a youtube or myspace with the music on so down in my estimations some what. sigh. Right change of plan. No band gets my support unless there is some way you can listen to it. That was for free “stars” and your unfortunate punctuation accomplice. Next time I WANT TO SHARE YOU.

Alan Pownall
sampler from his album arrived, and it is wonderful, soft folky guitar, with a few other strings lying about, very pleasant, well worth a listen. But I can’t embed the video for any of his song from youtube. sometimes I don’t get record labels. instead then, heres a jabwok remix.

Label: Mercury Records
Release Date: 23rd March 2010.

Lulu and the Lampshades
Right just as I was about to lose all hope in unsigned bands, new music and all that jazz, I found this.

I have unofficially labelled this “Ode to the Unemployed”. Really lovely.
Label: Voga Parochia (possibly?)
Release: Unknown

And you won’t go wrong with a free download of OK Go’s “This too shall Pass”.

Thats enough for now. Other people from the bag that was my bag, even if its not from my remit.
Either that or they just didn’t bother allowing me to share their stuff. I don’t want to break the law, I want to share you.
Mama’s Gun – Ivor Game – – The BDI’s – Officer Kicks – DLDown – Aaron Carey – Bang Bang Ece

*I am well up for more promo stuff so feel free to send stuff in, especially demos and ep’s from local unsigned Edinburgh bands – email me at Programming@freshair.org.uk if you are interested.

A Poem

Hitch — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 09:24:43 +0000

	1. Gordon Brown Sat down and started to talk. His eyes spanned the room pupils pierced the gloom, but with his first vowel, began to balk.
2. “Bloody Tories” he muttered, stories That gave away their cowardice like one he spoke crying Camerons toke on jazz cigarette of cannabis.	3. “Why not heroin or eyeball tonic and gin not weed like a thug if her were any sort of man a jean claude van dam man he’d do a real drug.”
4. Relieving jacket, PM reached for his pocket removing a syringe from its pack at first he couldn’t find it tongue searching mind; “it’s like looking for a needle in a hay stack”	5. Piercing the skin, fresh smack rushed in Gordon’s eyeballs started to roll; relief spread through him, lips lifted in grin and from his chair his body did fall.
6. The room fell silent, and eyes fell violent, upon this most outrageous crime; what brown had forget about the brown he had got was that it was prime minister’s question time.

Brilliantly Simple Video From Pete

Hitch — Fri, 01 May 2009 17:05:35 +0000

Just finished the schedules for Freshair semester 3 – and boy does it look good! Hitch and Doug will be making an appearance every Tuesday 5 til 6. 30 so be sure to c c c check us out. Might just play a bit of James, Gordon, Brown. I like how he starts to dance a bit as well.

Day… well it doesn’t matter now does it. that obviously didn’t work.

Hitch — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 22:04:54 +0000

Daily updates haven’t been going to plan – now I can hear millions of young children weeping desperately up and down the land. That is not because I have some bizzare government endorsed access to small children, but sarcasm. For as long as it lasted, I had about one or two ideas. For those who were listening, or indeed reading, then you’ll be pleased to know dissertation is in and, suprisingly, finished. If I had been somewhat more prepared I would have taken a photo of my smug little pig face smiling broadly with death in my eyes. Or not.

But I’m blogging now to rebuff my feed, with this little gem – a wonderful little video made by a handful of people, hand animated (I imagine, though computers these days eh? who knows!) but it is beautifully sweet, sightly magical, but brilliantly apt, understanding the magic of summer love without spoiling it. Wonderful.

Day 14. re Dj Medhi, Ed Recs and genitalia Disscount 5909.

Hitch — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 17:41:44 +0000

I might let Dj Mehdi and his ‘Pocket Piano’ crawl into my urethra and live there for the forseeable future.

Day 13? Is it? Comments – really?! Discount: 5462

Hitch — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 16:11:43 +0000

So it looks like theres a person who loves this site, and they also love free online gambling. In fact, he, and I’m making a brash claim to believe its a he, but I couldn’t imagine a women ever being bothered to do this (though they can multitask…), loves the two sooooo much, that he’s decided to leave around 259 new comments on one of our posts. Which is lovely, I’m very thankful that someone would take the time out to leave such positive remarks, only if they’d press a bloody ad!

No one is actually reading, I do understand that, but in years to come, when people trawl endlessly over these blogs as potential sources for research into the lives of the 21st century, I hope that hitchanddoug.com will be an invaluable resource. For those reading in the distant future, hello; let me give you a brief run down on exactly what’s going on right now –

The world is shitting away

In other news. I am re-watching This Morning With Richard Not Judy’ which you can get at from Stewart Lee’s website. I’ve mentioned both Lee and Herring before seperately, but now, the two are fused in a really great show – and it was first shown on a sunday morning. What a bizarre time for comedy n the television. It really highlights the failure of modern television, just how quality this is compared to the terrible droll things you see on BBC3, a channel which was originally created to allow for experimental tv.

I’s nice having a blast from the past too – there’s old school internet links (they have an email address with compuserve.com) and a mention of Graham Lineham, now considered one of the best comedy writers in the world, being described as ‘just some bloke’. Brilliant. Tatty Bi. x

Day 11 and 12. Possibly. Red Dwarf. Discount 4758.

Hitch — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 12:09:58 +0000

Over a week or so since we started this excercise, and its getting progressively more difficult to keep it up, but I shall percevere!

So anyway, the last 24 hours have been fairly unremarkable; my brother came to stay whihc was lovely, and we had a bit of a spree in terms of watching things. First off, we saw the Boat That Rocked.
Now I really liked this – set on an imaginary pirate radio station “Radio Rock” (not radio caroline. Don’t think for a moment this is a biopic) features an all-star cast having a fun, ‘rock and roll’ (retro pop) life on a boat. A ot of reviewers have slated it, for being too ‘hickledypickledy’ (though they use much better language then that) but it isn’t at all – it might be a little long, but these reviewrs need to stop seeing films as literary narrative; they are films in their own right, and this is great. Also, IT IS funny. In places. If you don’t think of it as a comedy, or a biopic, and you are prepared for something which is really cheesy, and like the name TWATT (there are more jokes than that) then you will like it. Curtis, whatever you think of him, can write a good situation. Also, so many characters – it could be about 3 films; it must have been an absolute twatt (haha!) to write. The next big event in our calendar was the return of Red Dwarf onto Dave.

Me and my bro are big fans of this show, always have been (I think it first came out about the time when I was born) and we have fond memories of some episodes (Quarantine being a particular favourite) being rented from Harlow Library (apologies, but I’m pretty sure we wore out that tape). So we were really keen for the return, 9 (or 10) years since its last outing. Now, this high expectation would of course be a hinderance, and it was. There is no way it was as good as we want it to be. And that said, I have grown up a lot more, and as a result, I am more aware of plots, and comedy, and what is funny etc. etc. so I found it less funny – it was quite slapstick in places, a lot of things happening in the background, whilst some one is oblivious in the foreground. But they looked good together, and it is fantastic to see them again, doing a succesful TV show (when there is some utter shite on the tele), but It should be so much better. There are two more episodes to come so we shall see. According to @bobbyllew it got a very impressive 2.2 mil, which dave thoroughly deserves for commisioning new material in this troubling time for tele. Finally on our list was a wee rent of Oliver Stone’s film W.

I had been quite keen to at least see this, because it looked like something worth watching. Oliver Stone is a name which associates itself with good, solid films. Epic even. This however was not. It was awkward to watch, really poor. The impressions for a start, were horrible; condalisa rice in particular was gut wrentching to listen to on her own, but as part of the ensemble, it was dire. The whole thing was a farce, a poor dead ringers sketch, and looked like a will ferell film, a cheap nasty national lampoon flick. But it was true. That was the worst thing, the plot, however roughly based on his life, was true. But unlike the rigteous feeling I’m sure Stone was aiming for, I was distincly underwhelmed. My brother was the same. A waste of a rent, and of 2 hours of our lives.

Back to work! Tatty Bi x

Days 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10. Possibly 11 too. Discount – 3982.

Hitch — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 10:41:42 +0000

Obviously part of the allure of a daily blog is that it keeps you writing on a daily basis. I however, was unable to be online long enough to write online, if you get what I mean.
Not being online, I also haven’t managed to scout out the latest in amazing technology and whatever (no doubt images of someone destroying themselves or someone else.). TV however, I have been well up on. Try out Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle for example.

Having previously assaulted books, tv and ~~politics (i think can’t quite remember)~~ political correctness , Lee in the latest episode turns his sharp wit towards the beast that is Global Credit Crisis, and once again he gets it spot on. Just watch it.
Also, theres an extra video feature when you press the red button involving the producer Armando Iannuci, that is well worth a look.

Oh, a very large dead nail has fallen off my foot. tatty bi. x

Day 5: Terminal Issues – Discount – 3020

Hitch — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 13:10:24 +0000

Helo again, Day five of the experiment, and it has backfired, in a sense – I’m not doing anything more as I had planned; no, instead of planning elaborate things for my day to be filled with, I’m just highlighting my failure to work. Oh well!

Edinburgh was beautiful yesterday, properly sunny, so I spent the day reading outside, working away on some situationist stuff – If you’ve never encountered them, check out Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle, a book outlining the decline of western society into that of spectacle, and it is really easy to read, in fact I would say it is too easy. This is the sort of thing that every teenager should be reading, not only that, it should be in their back pocket. I know I’m only 21, but I miss that world… the one that only ever existed in french novels.

Anyway I got thinking the other day about death. But more specifically, death within the realm of the internet. Recently, a number of facebook groups have emerged as memorials to freinds passing in freak accidents, or in shootings – really terrible things; but I find their profile pages so alluring – there is a really spooky feeling, visiting the page of a ghost – not least beacuse it is completely normal up to the death, and then suddenly there is a wall post that says R.I.P. It’s incredible.

but the more I think about it, the more you realise that it will soon become a genuine problem for the companies that host these sits; within a hundred years, a whole generation of people and their cyber identites will become null and void; whether on facebook, Second life or some other soon to be unveiled social network, there is going to be millions of dead facebook pages – some by then only connected to other pages of the dead. I’m sure there’s anovel in this somewhere.

BUt here’s my idea – a facebook will. Incredibly morbid, but I like to think of this as a positive action – you could opt into or out of accont deletion, allowing your webspace and photos to be owned by other peopl perhaps, just as you opt in or out of your organs being used after your death; or why not donate this space to cancer research? It’s a serious question. Or, and this is another thing I’ve found out about, why not request that after your death, messages be sent to your friends. How amazing would that be to find a dead lover has written an apology, or offers words of wisdom.. I discovered a website that travelled through time, which would send an email to you in ten years time, from which you could tell your future self something from your past… I’ve already forgotten what mine says, so I’m looking forward to that kick in the arse in ten years time.

There are other possibilities – it could just be simple things, like changing your profile picture every few months, or changing your status to “ants are eating my face” or “you know what, this heaven thing is overrated”. Or more positively, why not ask your facebook will to create an event for your own memorial, either directly after your death so that you’re guaranteed that perfect funeral you always wanted, or alternatively, five years after your passing so that everyone can revel in your amazing glory. More suggestions please. Tatty Bi x

Day 4: A Reading Day “Diss-count” 2765

Hitch — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 12:54:25 +0000

Yes, okay, it was a reading day yesterday, that’s why I didn’t get much done. There are you happy?
That aside, the day was well spent. Dinner included a KFC variety bucket (not their bonless banquet as originally intended) followed by a public screening of High School Musical 3.
OKay, I’m not in its key demographic. But, i’m not afriad to say it, I do like a good musical. This however, stunk compared to the greats. I’ve missed out on the first two, and apparently this is the best of the three. I enjoyed it on a ‘this is awful’ level, and feared that those who genuinely loved it haven’t seen real musicals. It was so crisp and clean, the music was second rate pop candy and didn’t have any ‘wow’ moments that are so wonderful. It just didn’t have any realism, I got nothing from it, and it typifys what is wrong in contemporary films – all style no substance. It looked great, they all sounded eletronically pitch perfect, but it lacked the grime – far better were it to show the reality of a high school. Just like Harry Potter, I would love to see HSM4 go dark.

Apart from this mare of a film (is that even a word?) I’ve immensely enjoyed Martin Scorcsese’s ‘A Personal Journy Through American Movies, where the legend himself explores cinema from the early part of the twentieth century, focusing on the directors of musical, gangster and westerns. Although it may not actually be written by him, he does seem genuinely to love cinema – something that I’m not sure the producer’s of HSM3 share. it is incredibly interesting, bearing in mind I’m used to a european centric history of cinema, most of these films were new to me (bar the Cagney mentions). For 3 hours Martin’s amazing New York tones lead us through some pioneering moments in cinema, and it is wonderful, well worth a look. I’ve only watched 2/3rds of it (it’s three hours long), but I have learnt so much, I’d wished I’d written down some of the names!
That is all for today, I promise at some point this will get readable, dare I even say it enjoyable, but right now I am only partaking to keep me writing, and to make sure my brain keeps ticking. Tatty bye!