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Christian Cecchi proudly presents "Mr. Haleeb's Delight"Musings and reportage from a has-been funny man |
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June 16 Isle of Wight Festival - June 2009 Karen Stephenson was very kind enough to think of me when her boyfriend discovered he could not attend. I am pleased she did. First night highlights were The Ting Tings, Basement Jaxx and The Prodigy. All were excellent. Basement Jaxx always put on a good show but props to The Prodge who were delightfully over the top and loud as fook. Second day wasn't really my bag: Razorlight and The Stereophonics headlined. The 'Phonics were better than expected, but highlight was certainly McFly in the Big Top Tent (where "lesser" bands perform). However, my enjoyment may have been highlighted by too much bourbon. Third day was all about The Pixies. Goldie Lookin' Chain were brilliant, Simple Minds were not and sadly I was not to see The Pixies. The ferry was booked for 2030, they were on at 1930. I left the field to the sounds of "Debaser". Life's really not fair... May 26 Ligabue in London! HMV Forum 25th May 2009 Luciano Ligabue is the only Italian musical artist I honestly like. Sure, it's old re-hashed Cod-Rock, but he does it with heart, and back in 1991 when I had moved to Italy, and was listening to Pixies and Cardiacs (with a nice dose of West Coast rap thrown in) this was the only music that I could possibly nod my head to. 99% of popular Italian songs are love songs - or at least they were in the late 80s/early 90s. Nowadays it is a bit different and groups like Ligabue, Litfiba and even Giovanotti were responsible for making Italian popular music a bit "harder" / less sloppy... Anyway, I digress: nearly 20 years after my introduction to "Liga" (courtesy of Giampiero Piscitelli and Enrico Lucci) there I was at the HMV Forum in bastard North London "rocking out" with 2 Italian chicks... whodathoughtit??!! They played for pretty much 2 hours, some great songs that encapsulated almost 20 years of work, and it was testament to his continued quality of output (not that I am really aware of it anymore) that people in their 20s, 30s and 40s were there. A great spectacle and he certainly has something of "The Springsteen" about him, in that he is nearly 50 but somehow keeps on rockin' without looking ridiculous. Great fun at the "wrong" end of the Northern Line: http://www.ligachannel.com/?q=node/1319&media=foto&content=Eu09londra May 23 Shoot London - 16 May 2009 http://www.shootexperience.com/photos_new/ I was invited to join Jobby, Simon Allum and Sally Foote on a project. So, the idea here is simple: we all assembled at Tate Modern at 10am. We were all in teams of 4, and we were given 4 phrases from a famous story and given 3 hours to rush out and photograph representations of these phrases. Obviously good photographs were the order of the day, but also humour and using the back drop of London were also important. Our 4 phrases were: "she said" "tea-time" "you stay here" "do not fear" I'll post our 4 efforts over on the right, but click on the link above and see if you can find ours. It was a good day out, very enjoyable, and I would like to do it again... May 02 Guilty Pleasures #3 "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert". I really like this film. I must have seen it 4 or 5 times (not that many times when I compare this with say, "The Godfather", "Aliens" et al.) but none-the-less a firm favourite. The 3 central performances are so strong, but yet pretty much all the supporting cast are memorable, comic, touching and in some cases tragic. There's a musical of it on now in London. I doubt I will go and see it though. April 13 Ain't technology grand? An Easter Sunday evening in with Paul, Titty, Ham & Cheese and Mrs. H: we did not watch television, we did not listen to the wireless, we did not read. Instead we all took turns on Spotify: unearthing hidden aural pleasures of yesteryear... Favourite moment: discovering the sub-genre of "Anthemic Rock". Strangely enough 10cc turned out to be the only band we could all agree were good. Nobody appreciated my Busta Rhymes / My Bloody Valentine / Nu Shooz mashup. Fools. April 12 GhostbustersThe second DVD I bought (after "The Matrix") was "Ghostbusters". It remains one of my favourite films. It has not aged terribly and there is a fine combination of younger and more adult themes/humour that make this 'good family viewing'. One of my favourite birthday parties was when mum & dad treated me and a few friends to a trip to the cinema to see this and then a trip to The Deep Pan Pizza Company. I also love the theme song and video that features the stars as well as Chevy Chase AND John Candy plus a few other comedy gods... Enjoy. March 29 Reading Half Marathon 29.03.09 2.01:55 Would have probably been sub 2hrs, but for the fact that I got to the pen too late so had to start with the 2hrs 30mins group and so spent the first couple of miles working my way through the pack. Felt good pretty much all the way round, 10-12 miles a little tough, but a great race: well organised, nice day and good group. March 16 Mai Tai - "History"People often say, "Christian, if you had to go back to the mid-eighties... what would you be dancing to?" "Five Star"? "Dead or Alive"? "Paul Hardcastle"? "Phil Collins & Philip Bailey"? I smile contentedly, lean back on my deckchair, shake my head dismissively, take a sip of my cream soda, loosen my Hi-Tec Convertibles ...and I answer, " Mai Tai - 'History' ": The best job in Britain? I'm hiring! http://www.milkround.com/jobs/graduate-job.aspx?isPreview=1&jobid=360255 Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough! London, Soho, W1 We are looking for an enthusiastic, hard working, articulate and confident graduate who is interested in breaking into a fast-growing International Digital Media Sales team. Working with a team whose remit covers the sale of advertising for www.newsweek.com to the European, Middle Eastern, African and Asian markets, you must be able to demonstrate a professional approach, have drive & ambition, be highly numerate and demonstrate a passion for Digital advertising; this is a prerequisite for the job. This role is sales support, working alongside the sales team. The key responsibilities of the job are to assist the manager in all aspects of setting up campaigns and dealing with our foreign offices, advertising agencies and clients. Proficiency in MS Office is a must. The job will also involve the booking of campaigns, monitoring their performance, adjusting/optimising where relevant and creating reports. The role offers excellent opportunities to work with many markets, and so we are looking for candidates who have an affinity with foreign languages. If you think you have the right skills and aptitude for this role then we would love to hear from you. Please send a covering letter and a copy of your CV to: christian.cecchi@newsweek.com. March 15 Area 5 The 1UP Show was a great Vodcast/show that Ziff Davis ran. Not sure of the details, but 1UP certainly got sold and these guys got laid off. Very few Vodcasts are this good. In fact, very few TV shows on video games have ever been worth watching.... The last show went out at the end of 2008: http://www.1up.com/do/minisite?cId=3145462 A group of the guys formed a new company Area 5: http://area5.tv/about : About Area 5 MediaThe crew of The 1UP Show was laid off after UGO’s purchase of 1UP.com. This is where we’ve landed. Area 5’s named after the last (and our favorite) area of the game Rez, and we’re going to continue to do what we do best—make the best gaming shows that we can. Area 5’s first original show is CO-OP, a weekly look at the meaningful, the important, the interesting, or the just plain fun games that are out there or will be coming out. I wish them luck - check them out on iTunes - podcasts - the show is called "co-op". Look, it's new now: don't blame me if it's old hat by tomorrow 9am... Ladies and gen'men, I give you http://www.mediacloud.org/ (from their site) Media Cloud is a system that lets you see the flow of the media. The Internet is fundamentally altering the way that news is produced and distributed, but there are few comprehensive approaches to understanding the nature of these changes. Media Cloud automatically builds an archive of news stories and blog posts from the web, applies language processing, and gives you ways to analyze and visualize the data. The system is still in early development, but we invite you to explore our current data and suggest research ideas. This is an open-source project, and we will be releasing all of the code soon. You can read more background on the project or just get started below. I'm going to have a look at this over the next couple of days, will update with my thoughts. Please feel to add in the mean time... March 14 Think it's time to make the floor burn...Why can't we have more programmes like this? "Dance Energy" people - live and direct from 1991. Only The United Kingdom could create a programme like this. I bet Norman Jay, Trevor Nelson and Sir Jazzy B are proud. March 10 Is this my favourite game?I never get bored of playing this. I first played this at an exhibition at The Barbican ("Game On"?) round about 2000/2001 I guess. I have it on Dreamcast and on Xbox 360. I cannot find any difference between the 2 apart from the fact that the 360 version is HD and I can link it up via optical link to my amp. The 360 version is therefore superior as it gives a better audiovisual experience, but both games are the same. The controller is also kinder on the thumbs: less blisters (I am serious). An amazing game. Truly original. Always enjoyable. March 08 Watchmen (update)October 24 2008 - I posted this: Watchmen - the film Please Lord, don't balls this up: http://watchmenmovie.warnerbros.com/ Points that bother me: - Will they really be able to give Dr. Manhattan that detached god-like indifference whilst rendering him still strangely sympathetic? - Will Rorschach's face look as cool as it does in print? - Will Dan Dreiberg have that "wasted chances" look, be paunchy enough and yet be heroic? - In fact will the WHOLE film capture this decaying world where even though gods DO walk the earth, it hasn't all worked out as quite as well as it should have; and drastic measures are about to be undertaken? Good Wiki: http://watchmen.wikia.com/wiki/Watchmen_Wiki Having seen it today in IMAX I can say that it is a success - perhaps more for people are au-fait with the GN: it certainly helps join a few of the dots that the narrative. Dr. Manhattan is a an absolute triumph, The Comedian, Ozymandias and Nite Owl II all work well. Rorschach funnily enough, is more one-dimensional that I would have liked. Aside from a disappointing and OTT prison scene (where Nite Owl II and Silk Spectre spring Rorschach) and a slightly contrived ending (more of the blame for the disaster is laid at the feet of Dr. Manhattan) I think I liked it. In order to bring it in at under 3 hours and not run off in all directions (there must be 12-15 narrative strands running throughout the GN) some stuff had to be chopped: Bernie and Bernard (news stand guys), Hollis Mason and The Knot Tops are all background characters really; the the whole "Tales of The Black Freighter" narrative is gone. I would not say the film suffers terribly for this. Interestingly enough some of the bits that are compeletely original e.g. the credits at the start where this alternative world's history with heroes is told (approx. 40 years) leading up to 1985 is wonderful: Silhouette grabbing the girl in Times Square at the end of WWII and thus changing that enigmatic "Time" photo, The Comedian on the grassy knoll, Dr. Manhattan on the moon during the lunar landings are brilliant. If anything a film guilty of staying too true to the source material (but WHAT source material)... March 07 Newsweek.com I very rarely (if ever) post about the site I work for, but http://www.newsweek.com has really done some interesting things recently. We've launched a section called PopVox - http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/popvox/ which is honestly breaking some new stuff that is interesting and really makes the site worth a visit. First up is "The District" a satitrical take on MTV's "The City". It has exactly the same style, editing, and look of a Yoof TV, but is applied to a week in politics: Washington to be precise. It started here: http://video.newsweek.com/#?t=9961941001&l=9860081001 - but can be seen a bit more easily via the Newsweek YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/NewsweekVideo. Another one I like (because I like them) is a piece we did with Sonic Youth: http://tinyurl.com/cwxdds - a mashup of their forthcoming album "The Eternal" - hard to believe "Goo" was nearly 20 years ago... Anyways (as we say down at three-ninety five Hudson) have a look. I think we're a bit cooler than people think... February 25 Now THAT'S what I call music!"Requiem" by The London Boys LONDON BOYS: "Requiem"This is a fabulous band. I have a framed photo of them in my spare room, and have had for some time. Oh yesh. Why? Well, just LOOK at this (abridged) history from Wikipedia: London Boys were a German based, British dance pop duo comprising Edem Ephraim (born 1 July 1959, London) and Dennis Fuller (born 19 June 1959, Jamaica). Although they lived near Hamburg, Germany since 1981, they had actually met when they were at school in Greenwich, London. Their musical style was a mix of soul and dance music or eurobeat dance music. Spinning on their heads, combined with choreography acquired during their experience as Rollerblade dancers prior to forming London Boys. Dennis Fuller was a former member of the Roxy Rollers rollerskating disco act. The most notable songs of the group were "London Nights" and "Requiem", which were initially released in 1988. The record "Requiem" eventually became their breakthrough single in April 1989, and reached No.4 on the UK Singles Chart. The album The Twelve Commandments Of Dance, both peaked at No.2 in the UK singles and album charts, respectively. The music videos for their singles were largely based around dance sequences and relationship/love storylines. After being dropped by their record label the band effectively split up. In 1995, a reformed version of the group made a crossover album called Hallelujah Hits which incorporated Eurodance arrangements into traditional religious compositions. They were both killed in an Alpine car accident in Austria on 21 January 1996 How do I know this SHOULD have been the super-band of the 1990s? Well: - Almost identical age with Teutonic/Caribbean backgrounds (ideal for Eurodance) - check - Choreography and Rollerblading background - check - Tight lycra outfits (including bicycle shorts), double-breasted tailored suits... oh, and fedoras - check - Ridiculous dance routines that include backflips, human pyramids and spinning on their heads - check - Album with grandiose over the top title ("The Twelve Commandments Of Dance") - check
Over to you La Roux and Little Boots. Make us proud. Give us something to dance to. February 24 Dave Gorman - America Unchained http://www.davegorman.com/projects_america_unchained.html I went to the Clapham Picture House to see this tonight. It also featured a Q&A session with Dave Gorman and the Producer in person at the end. It's an interesting adventure, and the stop they make in a town called Independence features a charming family running a diner. I'd love to have go there. Sadly it closed down after 57 years in business. A true slice of American pie. February 22 Posh NoshI only saw one of these when it was on TV - it stands up to repeated watching as well. Enjoy. http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/poshnosh/ Talking about YouTube - Posh Nosh- Ep 1 US Online video ad spend topped $2bn in 2008Picked this morsel off a chum: February 18 "....No, but you can do me up the Twitter..." Heh, you'd have to ask my old friend Marcello about that one... Ah, Twitter. I joined about 18 months ago. My first tweet was "Watching bare-chested men lay felt." I shall probably never improve upon this. It seems to have become so much popular since about December - something stoopid like 700% growth YOY appatrently. Man. So, how are they going to monetise it and make a fortune? Google has done it, I'm not sure that YouTube and Facebook are raking it in anything like them yet. With Facebook you can target to a very specific demographic, and users can tailor the kind of ads they want to see, but I would like to see what kind of conversions and cost per action the marketeers have to stump up... Will this change with Twitter? Will they create an almost bespoke non-intrusive marketing delivery system and make a fortune? My gut feeling is "no" (well to the latter part). Dwell time is normally less than other social networking sites (I am in and out in what? 30-60 seconds? If I am on the hop then even less...). Perhaps sub-sets will appear that the marketeer will be able to target. Perhaps hardware will improve so that ads appear differently e.g. next generation Googlephone and iPhone. Over to you future: my brain is tired and I am going to stop here. G'night. Minder - Channel 5 http://www2.five.tv/minder/ Paul recorded the first episode of this re-invented series: Minder 2.0 if you will. The weirdest thing happened as I sat down to watch, cynical smirk already upon my lips ... I started to like it. Well, I guess I wanted to like it. I have fond memories of watching the original on ITV with my father in what? The early 80s? Anyway, it's pretty much business as usual: Arthur Daley is now Archie Daley, Terry McCann is now Jamie Something-or-Other, he's still pretty tasty, but not a boxer: he's a cabbie. London is still London: Archie works out of Bermondsey, presumably because Bermondsey is the part of London that still looks anything like "London"... The stories are still pretty lame, and our lovable rogues now run around London getting into and out of scrapes to slightly dated indie-pop (Kaisers, Hard-Fi, Killers etc.) and there is no sign of The Winchester as yet ... but I don't know ... there's just something there that I like. Even if this particular Daley is a bit more "clean" than his predecessor. I probably won't watch another episode ever, but give it a go, you never know, you may be a self-indulgent, nostalgic silly-heart like me... February 03 Snow! It snowed quite a bit yesterday in London (approx 15cm give or take). This was forecast for several days, but as expected London ground to a halt. The snow was something that united us miserable Londoners though - for a few hours there was a vague sense of camraderie between those who ventured out, braved the journey to work, the shops or just a visited a loved one. It's gone now of course, and all that remains is black ice. Still eh? January 19 Mad Men So many people told me to watch this that I treated myself to the box set of series one in the January sales. It is SO much more than I expected. I have just watched episode 8: "The Hobo Code", ( http://www.amctv.com/originals/madmen/episode8 ) which takes the characters of Don and Salvatore in many directions. I was held to the screen during certain conversations. <update> Episode 9 looks at the role of women in the workplace. Naturally this is not as simple as it sounds, with particular focus on Betty and Peggy. Excellent television. Why can't we make this stuff? January 14 Adidas Originals Another one from me banging on about Brand Adidas - here they use a combination of music and sports stars to communicate originality. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGTL7pz9vMo&feature=related http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=TT3Jj9OGMA0 |
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The G Man -wrote:
It's nice to come across a space with some Blogs.
Apr. 12
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