Journal Entries
Play that funky music white boy
Posted May 29, 2000
This jopurnal entry was going to be just about a gig I was at this afternoon from Jamiroquoi, but I then ended up at an art gallery checking out some sound art...
First off, remember all those wakka wakka guitars and slap bass from the seventies funk music. Its still alive in 2000 with Jamiroquoi. JK and the band know how to make this stuff fresh and modern. The gig was at Covent Garden as part of BBC music live and consisted of several songs going out live on Jo Whiley's lunchtime show on radio 1. So there was a lot of standing around waiting between live songs. JK decided that he was bored of this and got the band to play a song. Unfortunately they got told to stop by someone from the council or something like that. After the main show was over the band stayed on and were willing to have done a full set, but again the man from the council got there first so we were allowed two songs. The second of which was strung out for as long as possible with solos from the band 
The second part of the afternoon was spent on London's south bank. First in the book market under Waterloo Bridge where I was able to pick up three books (A Canticle for Leibowitz, Holy Blood Holy Grail and Catch 22) for just more than 6GBP
After this I went to see the Sonic Boom exhibition at the Hayward Gallery. This is an exhibition of sound art. Installations with random visuals and ambient music share space with old gramaphones playing biscuits! It was all interesting to see what people come up with for these kind of things. There were a couple of exhibits on the theme of road movies and guitars. One was an old acoustic guitar playing with a screen placed in the soundhole playing a short set of images of open road. The other was a short film called Guitar Drag, where a guitar (Fender Stratocaster) was hooked up to an amp/speaker on the back of a truck and then tied to the towbar with a rope and dragged round some part of Texas. The soundtrack was taken from the speaker and so the amplified pickups on the guitar. Interesting sounds from this one.
Outside on the sculpture terrace was an installation set up with a bunch of induction loops, and each person was given a set of headphones which could pick up the signals. The sounds were taken from nature, babbling brooks, jungle noises, bird calls. Strange walking round listening to this looking out over the concrete sea that is the south bank.
I'd recomend this exhibition to anyone who's interested in sounds, how you listen to things and what could be classed as music.
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Latest reply: May 29, 2000
Check before moving
Posted May 25, 2000
At lunchtime today I went out to go to a book signing by one of my favourite authors. When I got to the shop nothing was happening. I asked and was told the signing had been cancelled weeks ago, and that they'sd put notices up (and had since taken them down). Oh well.
To make sure it wasn't a wasted journey I went over the road and spent the money I would have bought books with on more music instead.
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Latest reply: May 25, 2000
Another year over and what have we done?
Posted May 17, 2000
Well I'll admit it. It's my birthday today, May 17th. Twenty seven times has this lump of rock made it to roughly the same spot as when I was born and what's happened in that time? Quite a lot I expect.
As a child I often wondered what I'd be doing in 2000, thinking that being 27 was awfully old. Now I'm here I'm not old yet and I'm doing things that couldn't have even been thought of in a small boy's immagination. There's still plenty to do and things to see so I'd better get on with it hadn't I.
And thanks for the birthday wishes from you all
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Latest reply: May 17, 2000
Wooo hoooo!
Posted May 16, 2000
It seems I've just got a front page entry onto Peta's Picks for my grand tour.
Small as it is, it feels nice and I want to shout about it
Now the question is of course where do I take everybody. There's some people signed up already, I don't want to give back the deposits!
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Latest reply: May 16, 2000
H2G2 Meet, London, 2000-05-13
Posted May 13, 2000
A few quick thoughts on the H2G2 in London, on May 13th 2000.
The day started out nice and sunny and when I got to Hyde Park to meet the others it was a nice warm afternoon. I met with the group at the bandstand in Hyde park. Quite a few of the group were already there by the time I arrived, but introductions were going on all the time.
Soon after this we moved out onto one of the lawns to try our hand at
softball. To start with several people just played a bit with others watching. Abi soon swung into action though and organised a game which she refereed. A break happened after the second innings, but eventualy people were bored just sitting and decided to get up and do something again.
A few others turned up during the afternoon while the softball was going on.
During the sitting around after the game, it was decided that it was time to move to the pub. The main reason (I think) being that the drink had run out and also a large black cloud had come overhead. No sooner than we'd started for the pub, about 20 mins walk away, than it started raining. By the time we got to the park gates it was a downpour so there was a group of rather wet and bedraggled people who got to the pub. After getting a change of T shirt from my bag (I'd thought adhead here ) I got some beer. After this I was told that a tab was being run at the bar! Food and drink and discussion was had during the evening and by closing time only a few were left to wander out to the tube station and go home.
So there you are, a quick resume of the day. Lots of people met, lots of faces to names, lot's forgoten already!
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Latest reply: May 13, 2000
Phil
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