tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54998322010-03-14T09:42:53.177Z<strong>A SIDE: SONIC TRUTH</strong>: Packing in the certaintyBrucenoreply@blogger.comBlogger256125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-8427657986638913612010-03-13T23:13:00.007Z2010-03-14T09:42:53.302Z

Amelia Troubridge's image of Shaun Ryder tying the knot made Britons of a particular vintage smirk. 'Look, Shaun looks just as boring as us now', we droled on a break from our content management systems, enjoying the Happy Mondays' singer resemblance to a lifetime office worker who has divined the middle management game aint worth the trouble but knows enough about the tech stuff to earn his keep

Cullanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-14287937384648812042010-03-03T16:07:00.007Z2010-03-04T11:35:58.211Z

So the BBC has earmarked digital station 6 Music along with The Asian network for closure, in a wider move that seems to be a pre-emptive trimming of its capacity ahead of a possible Tory government and subsequent crackdown. It's the opposition with various Murdoch media that are usually in the frontline of the BBC's attackers ('Big, Bloated and Cunning' was a particularly peevish editorial last

Cullanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-3757952888819833102010-02-23T13:46:00.008Z2010-02-23T14:34:48.643Z

Saturday night at Manchester’s Pronk! run by Matt aka Rod Hotly who’s in the ‘beat-heavy’ (but song-centred) ">Real Dolls. They take over the upstairs at the Deaf Institute and bring in their own clear and crisp system rather than using the club’s, and there’s projections and the club logo in evidence. I heard dubstep, some wobble, hard new percussive/digital tunes, bit of older hip-hop, funk and

Cullanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-69621230414399783382010-02-23T13:40:00.002Z2010-02-23T13:45:34.688Z

Marc was in Hull on a job the other day and stumbled across ">Boothferry Park, Hull’s former football ground (they moved to the KC stadium in 2002). Long a mess even before it got decommissioned it seems what’s left after the demolition (including floodlights) is being allowed to be swallowed up (something that would not surprise Sean O’Brien). Said Starrzinho: “They still had the floodlight

Cullanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-39228036601960771892010-02-19T13:51:00.003Z2010-02-19T13:59:27.664Z

In our eco-barely conscious times cycling is, ahem, riding a cyclical high. Sales of those ugly but practical Bromptons to those that can afford £600 soar, participation in subsidised work bike purchase schemes is on the increase, most broadsheets have worthy columns ">like this extolling the social and personal benefits of two wheels. Go green and get on your bike, replace carbon footprint guilt

Cullanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-28266836722451780332010-02-17T12:48:00.003Z2010-02-17T13:03:34.324Z

Jerusalem, directed by Jez Butterworth and recently transferred from the Royal Court, stars Mark Rylance as the free-living, drug-dealing Johnny ‘Rooster’ Byron who lives in a caravan, willingly outside of mainstream south Wiltshire society (apart from its pubs). After an inspired treatment of Hamm in Beckett’s Endgame, Rylance plays Byron with ferocious whimsy, a dedicated commitment to the kind

Cullanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-74701550866675158122010-02-05T14:03:00.003Z2010-02-05T21:35:01.357Z

+++++update: fabio did indeed sack terry off, putting the leadership baton in the capable hands of renowned clean lifestyle guru Rio Ferdinand. Not only has Johnny Terry let himself down, he's let down the whole of the country, especially Epsom. For that reason alone he needs to be regarded as an isolated case of immoral urges. And sent to play in Dubai instead.Cull speculated years ago on the

Cullanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-73888037785703327612010-01-26T13:16:00.006Z2010-01-26T16:45:15.228Z

Guardian Weekend Magazine’s Let’s Move To section has bigged up the Brockley and Honor Oak Park area, also including Nunhead to the north-west and Ladywell to the east in a general South-East London primer for young professionals (aka yuppies). Earlier migrants now contemplate the bittersweet thrill of recognition with the prospect of younger versions of themselves coming in to continue the area’

Cullanoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-87161449373107083282010-01-21T12:17:00.005Z2010-01-21T12:52:24.901Z

My search for that tune I was banging out on the M1 and banging on about here did not yield instant gratification. It started on Nihal's page - he said Nucleya's Beat One but YouTube merely had what must be the original, so i then started going through tunes either side - one tune by Nuphlo suggested he might have remixed this. So a search on that finally got me there, Nihal having recently

Cullanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-53109801419253221962010-01-20T14:42:00.006Z2010-01-21T13:31:59.481Z

Rearranged semi-final derby day, City’s home leg. With no Euston trains from Manchester after 8 and a need to get back to London that night, I had no option but to shit on my carbon footprint by driving solo there and back. Having done the usual by pissing around at home, stocking up on CDs and reading the City blogs with their mixture of bearish fear and bullish confidence until at 2:15pm it

Cullanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-50909851734225429122010-01-13T11:32:00.006Z2010-01-13T17:48:31.728Z

In a fairly clinical rebuttal to the charge that digital music is just all flat files and no aesthetics, mega aggregator the Hype Machine's project to twin the 50 most blogged about artists last year with 50 artists has produced some great artwork for the bands, transcendent of bland brand logos or each single or album release. Pick your favourites here. If it is just about the music, here are

Cullanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-26829042392519649932010-01-07T20:51:00.003Z2010-01-07T20:59:31.574Z

snow: it's a logistical nightmare:that's a BT mechanic trying to get his van going in the middle of the road.the view to ladywell station from ladywell fields.

Cullanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-796212071125935862010-01-07T14:09:00.006Z2010-01-21T13:32:58.913Z

Of course I didn’t choose the 10 in splendid isolation, there were always several candidates for each place. So to truly sign off the overview (please) it’s only fair to mention the contenders.Miss E’s ">Get Ur Freak On I thought always stood out in an r&b genre whose innovation had been overstated. My other main generic candidate, Mary J Blige’s Family Affair, was a much more conventional

Cullanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-29057387639837119762010-01-04T12:49:00.006Z2010-01-04T13:08:30.725Z

My mate Fish heads the United Hampshire movement (ie, he follows the Shots and the Saints) and is frequently at gigs or in record shops. Here's his decadal ten - all links are to YouTube clips. [Top 10 here, Foreword and Further Reading here. Notes here]* Freelance Hellraiser - a ">Stroke of Genius - back when mash-ups and tight jeans were actually cool, the strokes meet aguilera, seemless

Cullanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-37228066605693551782010-01-02T14:57:00.005Z2010-01-02T15:02:56.704Z

"I came out here to this shed because i wanted to do something extraordinary ... also i would have avoided helping out around the house ... getting a bit worried that this adventure wont make sense without more beer ... (blub) .... I don't want to descale a washing machine"

Cullanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-5802688438765204682009-12-30T13:05:00.005Z2010-01-07T14:29:36.870Z

[Top 10 here, Foreword and Further Reading here, the also-rockers here]The indulgent Noughties, that much maligned tournant du siècle decade where technological advance seemed only to bring socio-cultural regression, started late and ended early, after the Towers (and the new iPod) and before the credit crunch. With mere days to go before corporatised, time-precious fuckers can start running

Cullanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-54211684198608102392009-12-30T12:21:00.007Z2010-01-07T14:34:10.971Z

Further reading:* Ghostly International’s non-Ghostly 110 of the 2000s* Fact Magazine's Top 100 albums * Pitchfork's Top 20 * Guardian Top 10 * Stylus Decade (coming soon) * Noughties notes on musical fragmentation * Fact's 10 house producers of the decade * Blissblog's 9 09s* Guide's People Who Ruined the Decade * Why Kek-W has no favourite album of the decade* Howay Howey! Salaam Ali! Allez Le

Cullanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-18184333938917300372009-12-27T21:03:00.005Z2009-12-30T13:34:35.095Z

Missy ‘Misdemeanour' Elliot – Get Ur Freak On (2001)(series now complete here, with further reading here and final notes here)I’d always intended at least one selection to be from hip-hop or r&b, to give some reflection to those genres’ absolute dominance of popular music at the turn of the decade and years after. At my socially conservative centre you wouldn’t go out looking for an r&b night as

Cullanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-36807687274605008632009-12-27T00:33:00.003Z2009-12-28T13:19:50.639Z

Filled with more filthy lucre from advertising butter, John Lydon has joined the growing bands of revivalists doing a potted Best Of on the live circuit, with a late 80s incarnation of Public Image Limited that includes ex-Damned Mekon guitarist Lu Edmonds, drummer Bruce Smith from the Pop Group and Scott Firth on bass. This was the first of two nights at Camden’s Electric Ballroom, after dates

Cullanoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-4583635013125949932009-12-18T11:29:00.009Z2009-12-20T20:45:09.769Z

+++++++Update, Rage's Killing did make it to the christ-mas number one, seeing off Cowell's 'sterile pop monopoly' as De La Rocha put it, and carl's justification for the campaign was far better than most others' glib defences.+++++Deep misgivings about the Facebank campaign to usurp the Cowellshit with Rage Against the Machine's Killing in the Name as Chrimbo Number One. Certainly, the decade's

Cullanoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-19789126141061903132009-12-09T13:49:00.005Z2009-12-09T13:53:40.923Z

The glasses finally broke. I say finally because Alain Affelou in France had welded on the cheapest pair possible after the frame snapped earlier this year sur les vacances. This time both arms broke clean away, so I needed a new frame or, preferable cheapest option, a repair job.I moved my optician, the chain which I stick to loyally because my sister works for them on the south coast (

Cullanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-34355310766832902832009-12-08T13:37:00.004Z2009-12-08T13:47:07.090Z

Shocked by the canal death plot, Rod Liddle ">has blogged to say ‘the overwhelming majority of street crime, knife crime, gun crime, robbery and crimes of sexual violence in London is carried out by young men from the African-Caribbean community’, before ignoring in his verbal stunt any analysis of class and economics (or indeed statistical analysis) to defend his rant on the grounds of

Cullanoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-86927857861867671972009-12-02T11:24:00.007Z2009-12-03T15:53:09.962Z

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Upon This Tidal Wave of Young Blood (Wichita 2006)(series growing here)As end-of-decade listomania increases - ">look at this horrible Xfm rundown – the subjects gain a veneer of published approval through mainstream re-presentation. Yet I question She’s Hearing Voices’ inclusion as my eighth tune of the decade – there were a lot of contenders in the new wave indie

Cullanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-58409519918751924792009-11-27T14:33:00.003Z2009-11-27T14:35:36.073Z

Not a designer but i have heard similar arguments over their years at loads of places as the twats with the ties and pink shirts engage with the 'creatives'. Subs aren't immune to onerous jobs though - best one I ever had was proofing an Enron dictionary of financial terminology just days before they went tits-up.

Cullanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-14386998105427217512009-11-26T13:08:00.004Z2009-11-27T14:32:47.429Z

Oh the fun and games I’ve had with Warp20. Originally, I had asked for it as a pressie from my partner (at that price it would cover a few birthdays and Christmases), so was prepared to wait patiently as my December b’day approached. But then George jumped the gun, burning me the Chosen and Recreated double CD elements of the box set. Trouble was the CDs came with artwork but no tracklisting (

Cullanoreply@blogger.com0