31 Aug 2011

Quote of the day

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions.  Rilke

26 Aug 2011

Dead End

I forgot about this. it's been on my hard drive for years but as my Mac is literally dying I haven't watched it in forever. A pre-Nolan Batman (vs predator / vs Alien). Sick:

25 Aug 2011

Jaws

Between this clip and THIS clip... I don't know what's even going on anymore. Seriously.

24 Aug 2011

Stop.


If they are in your way
Slow
Turn
Stop

If they’re blocking your flow
Change
Soften
Yield

If they will not submit
Dance
Adapt
Improvise

Or
Just walk in the goddamn road.

23 Aug 2011

Everything spins into today.

Daydreams fight their way into me and I fight
Back
I’m a wall
A tank
A stray dog unleashed
Protecting no one  
Only fighting to keep what is
Mine
The little sanity left
From the overspill of years gone by
When the rain fell like it
Falls
Today, and I sit alone staring out of windows
As the grey sky
Grey city
Grey heartbeats
Turn toward death and menace

And wishes try to slide under the carpet
Under the floorboards
Through my misted eyes in an attempt to make me
Succumb to the other reality
The non local, non event
A rise in adrenaline and car crash of mind
Body
And soul
I am a prisoner with nothing to lose
No escape necessary
Simply drowning in idiocy and hatred
Pessimism and naive fantasy combining
Like knives in my back

And it all spins into today
Same as last year
Same as the last 20 years
In and out
Back to front and a hundred miles to heaven
The grey city envelopes me
Suffocates in some kind of childish game
The words fail as always
The faces blank, voices are background radiation
At best
And the only sense to be made from it 
All 
Remains light years away.


16 Aug 2011

It’s really not as easy as it seems.


A board drops with a loud CLACK
Legs push and push then stand
Lean
Carve
Roll around corners
It glides through
On and on...

But that is not what I see.

I see broken paving stones
Uneven curbs
Small plant life creeping from
Between cracks
Soft tar
Rough pebble dash concrete

Jagged drain covers
Wet from the morning rain
Dog shit
Pigeon shit
Spilt coffee and last nights vomit

I see a chasm of bodies
Columns of legs closing in
Arms out dangling steaming
Hot coffees
Eyes away
Or down on phones
Unaware
And then Broken glass 
Dogs
Feral children...

I see around corners
I see the ground immediate, and the
Road ahead
All at once
I lighten my body and
Lower my centre of gravity
Within a split second

Buildings pass at high speed but
I turn right angles before
You
Can blink
And stop on the spot as though
Glued to the street
All this to get from point A
To point B.

20 years in, and it is still so
Much
Fun.



11 Aug 2011

Customer service

Because I'm petty, and bored...



From: buying@*******.com
To:
*********@hotmail.com
Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2011 08:06:41 +0100
Subject: Your ****order has been posted.


Dear *******

Your order for "Toy Story 3: Double Play has been posted by the ****** Seller ****UK.
Please allow 3-4 days delivery.  Please check the following order information:

On 21 Jul 2011, at 09:17, ********@hotmail.com> wrote:
Hello
I was not aware when ordering, that this item was used and may need to return it if the condition is not satisfactory. Can you please let me know the procedure should I need to do so. 

Kind regards
********

From: ********@gmail.com
Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2011 11:45:17 +0100
Subject: Re: Your ******* order has been posted.
To:
***********@hotmail.com

It’s really very clear on the ****.com website when things are sold used or sold new. I am a private trader using the ****.com ******* facility to sell on my used products. This product was really clearly indicated as “Used – Very Good” under the condition column. In future, I suggest you pay closer attention to what you are buying to save situations such as this. I have refunded and cancelled the order. Luckily, I have managed to stop the parcel being posted (although that’s a wasted jiffy bag).
Thanks.
*******.
Sent from my iPhone


Dear *****

Thank you for reply and for refunding the item. I’m not quite sure where your frustration stems from, however I’d suggest you re-read some of your email replies prior to sending out, to try and limit the hostile tone contained therein.

Firstly I clearly stated that I – myself – did not notice the item was used until after the fact, and thereby claimed the oversight as my own.

Nor did I ask you to refund the dvd. I asked for details of the procedure in case I felt a return was necessary. The fact you have kept the item has inconvenienced me greatly, as it was to be a gift for a small child whom now may go without a birthday present due to your inability to read plainly worded emails.
Lastly, I truly and deeply regret your loss of a jiffy bag. If you can spare a moment out of your busy schedule of posting dvds and not reading people’s correspondence properly, I would be more than happy (possibly even joyously so) to send you a brand new jiffy bag for all of the trouble I have caused by requesting you press some buttons on your computer keyboard.

Peace love and understanding,
Mr ***** Esq. BA, PhD, MD.



Broken Bells

I had to do the 'who's this playing?' thing, for the first time in years, in Selectadisc - sorry - Sister Ray the other day. It was these guys. Not this track, but this video has Christina Hendricks in it so, yeah...

J Lee

After reading the Jason Lee interview at ABD I thought I'd post the clip that I've watched a million times and that everyone who skates already owns... so really what's the point. But here you go:

Riot quote of the week

Thought I'd let all the hoo-haa die down before bothering with any mention of the local mischief...

'Whenever a theory appears to you as the only possible one, take this as a sign that you have neither understood the theory nor the problem which it was intended to solve.' Karl Popper

4 Aug 2011

Show


Gimpel Fils Logo
30 Davies Street
London W1K 4NB
www.gimpelfils.com



Corinne Day
THE FACE

1 September - 1 October 2011
Private View: Thursday 1 September, 6-8 pm

Kate and Lorraine


For further information please contact alice@gimpelfils.com
Tel: +44 (0)20 7493 2488  Gallery hours:  Mon - Fri 10am - 5.30pm, Sat 11am - 4pm

2 Aug 2011

A conversation started by a link to Rolling Stone...





Honestly, I’m just over Kanye and all them – if Hov wants to come with a grimy analog hip hop album then I’m there – otherwise it’s all equivalent to Em doing a record with frickin’ Rhi-Rhi as far as I’m concerned. Wasted talent.
Ha!

I put 95-2005 Hov over pretty much all other mc’s as far as the perfect mix of lyrics, flow, wit, consistency, punchlines, beat selection, beef, ‘swag’ *ahem* and all that, which makes this ‘I’ve still got it’ old man routine all the more painful as a Jigga fan from back in the day. Seriously, remember our debates/arguments about whether he was any good aside from reasonable doubt? It’s painful for me to watch.

Right. And when ‘on to the next one’ drops you’re like – again – why aren’t you doing WHOLE ALBUMS of this? Same with Em for me – where even on ‘without me’ (which I dislike) lyrically and the way he flows is still the shit, but I cannot get past the music. Wasted.

All those cats need to: make your mark/money/move on. You’re not Led Zeppelin or the Beatles or Radiohead where you can change record to record and maintain any semblance of integrity – so stop trying.

Or even the soulful shit on ‘American Gangster’... Hov and Beans over a Just Blaze / Isley Brother’s loop? Yes please.  This skinny jeans / electro beats soul sample with me shouting ‘swag' for four minutes is a waste of everything. 

Yeah Em needs to stop too, sadly some of his flow on ‘relapse’ is the best he’s ever had, but the beats and the content? Horrid.  Do that Scarface shit, of, ‘every five years I drop an  album, same producers, same vibe, same ethos.  Maybe the odd club track’...I think it’s called ‘doing me’.  fuck all this ‘I’m still twenty’ shit.
Dudes are killing rap.  Them and the blog rappers. Fuck it, whatever, it’s over.  Life goes on.

It’s true – funnily enough it parallels skateboarding like that – it goes in cycles of getting too big/overexposed and the only thing it can do to prevent imploding completely is to go underground again and recoup.

Like I don’t give a flying fig that P-Rod is in the new Nike TV commercial along with some surfers/bmxers etc – all glossy and shit. Same with the Adidas one – all ‘faces’ and hype. Pah – there IS no scene anymore – there is no music industry anymore!

It’s all mass marketed - homogenised bullshit. And still, at the end of the day there’ll always be some dude skating a waxed curb somewhere by himself, and having a blast - and dudes in a basement making fat beats that will never see the light of day, bar on a mix CD.
So yeah – whatever.