Ok, so I’m a bit early for my post this month, but rest assured this is just a small segment of my blog this month!
***
The brilliant VBS.tv (and I mean this totally non-subjectively, despite what the banner may imply) have just made a new doc as part of their “Rule Britannia” series – this time it’s apropos the Afghanistan war. In the 5-part “Afghanistan In The UK” , the strange world of casualty simulation is explored at the STANTA training camp, where the spheres of acting and combat collide. There are moments of unnerving humour, but ultimately the film gives a rare look into the training which our armed forces receive and their emotions before deployment. Reality hits home via the story of a real army casualty, and footage from Wooton Bassett. In true Vice style, Andy Capper and co. deliver the stories respectfully, and with aplomb. Rather than a preachy critique of any sort, “Afghanistan In The UK” is merely a sensitive setpiece of comic and tragic proprotions, among a much larger theatre.
Hey there – happy summer!! Disclaimer: the following video is an example of a video which is both happy and summery and totally non-subjective.
Admittedly I didn’t quite meet my blog deadline this month *boo*. I also missed Truck Festival *boo* due to my current internship (marketing, all very fun). But, as one of my top-used words here is “fun” (Wordle word clouds I salute you) I did manage to pop along to Underage with Artrocker.tv. My review is being edited now, but in the meantime do take a look here for my Highs and Lows of the festival. We had time to chat to Akala, Ellie Goulding and Daisy Dares You, who liked my (excuse for an) outfit! We also spotted Darwin Deez and Tahita from NYPC backstage (whilst popping to the posh loos). My favourite act of the day were probably Chiddy Bang, though I advise you to read the full review when its out!
We caught the tail end of this too – an illegal set from Isleworth’s finest, The Ruskins:
Here is my favouyrite picture from the immense (as in great, not GREAT BIG as she is not) Cathryn Innocent:
I’ve just been on my 2nd journalism course, which was great and really got me thinking about the presentation of my blog and interviews, not to mention the law and various bias which media outlets can hold. Just to reiterate, I am completely independent despite any media affiliations and the thoughts expressed here and on my Twitter account are all my own musings and annoyances 🙂
…that said, I love the BBC. Stood outside the Tardis as part of said course, which may count as a religious epiphany. Nowhere near the Blue Peter garden but that’s fine, I don’t need to regress any further *sucks thumb*. I digress – I had an amazing time on my course and found a few amazing twitterers and bloggers who I’ll link to it due course. As always, you can reach me at hannah@hannahjdavies.com if you want to collaborate.
Thursday night gem The Real Hustle: Celebrity Scammers has filled the Question Time-shaped gap in my TV schedule. However, I think we’ve all seen Matt Willis – formerly of Busted fame – pull that “I just shat myself” face long before he joined Alex, Paul and Jess on one of their most daring scams yet. Lest I ruin the episode for those who are now two weeks behind, it was a corker. The Real Hustle has always relied on comedy and shock value in equal measure, but the introduction of z-listers like Matt and Strictly lothario Brendan Cole has added a new dimension of cringe to this BBC3 staple! I don’t want to be cynical but Busted do have a new album out, reportedly hitting the shelves next year. Long live the long con..and shameless self-promotion!
Year 2004?: Loveable hasbeen Matt added to the already popular show
Play that List
Besides listening to “I’m Coming Out” every day, if you care to know what is in my playlist then take a look on Spotify…you didn’t actually think I’d link you there, when I have Kajagoogoo, Cyndi Lauper, DMX, Danny Swain, Tea Leaf Green, Simple Minds, Ashley Tisdale and Badly Drawn Boy in the same playlist??? More likelihood of finding a blood diamond down the back of a supermodel’s sofa. Oh, wait…
x x x x
Having a chat about politics with AkalaA quick chat with Ellie Goulding
So..we’ve had a few extra posts last month, due to the launch of Vice’s Creators Project (tomorrow), but I feel as though I missed my actual end of the month post as a result!!
On the box
Last month I had a reader’s review of GLEE published in The Independent’s Arts/Books section, which you can find amongst the thoughts of other readers here.
Besides that, I’m not watching a lot of TV…although the occasional episode of Victoria Coren’s Only Connect on BBC 4 is like Actimel for the soul. I especially like the fact that despite team names like “Rugby Boys” and “History Boys”, they’re all just neeks who can solve complex puzzles which make 3am Quizcall on Channel 5 look like playschool. Especially love the (very rare) occasions when I get something right.
The current series of Big Brother is also providing good entertainment whenever I flick onto it, and Emmerdale lookylikey Nathan’s monobrow has luckily been evicted. Desperate Housewives has just finished its sensational sixth season, which saw a triptych of psychos, copious amounts of flashbacks and *tear* Mike and Susan leaving Wisteria Lane. Silver fox Paul Young (Duck from Mad Men – portrayed by Mark Moses) is back on the scene, however. I’m rewatching some of the latter at the moment, so the next season of Housewives could be very confusing for me indeed, having become accustomed to seeing Mr Moses in 60s mode.
Adieu, adieu, to Mike, MJ and Su-use...
Girl’s just wanna have fun (and not much else)
WARNING: MAY CONTAIN SATC2 SPOILERS
Late as I am, SATC2 was a ton of fun.
I wish I’d seen it earlier. Casual racism, gay stereotyping, marital cliches and Samantha’s (Kim Cattrall) grossness aside, it was a great laugh. Moreover, SJP was on form as Carrie Bradshaw (or Preston) and the Abu Dhabi scenes were beautiful, despite being filmed 4000 miles away in Morrocco (ironically, due to the same Islamic strictness of the UAE which the film constantly lampoons). The plot looses its way more than a few times, but is saved by some genuine laughs courtesy of cameos from Liza Minnelli as herself, performing at said gay stereotypes wedding, and Miley Cyrus, who turns up at a premiere in the same “young” frock as Samantha. Said dress is rather Littlewoods for the stars to be wearing, but I’m sure it was a designer number. There is tons of product placement in the film, as one would expect, but which is all the more distracting given the “exotic” setting. The Arabic Pringles aren’t particuarly rare, either, SJP – we’ve been buying them in the pound shop forever in the real world. Anyways, I digress: SATC2 is a cheap laugh rather than a well-plotted and wholesome one. There is some fleeting realism via Charlotte’s insecurities (with the gorgeous Alice Eve as her Gaelic nanny Erin, who wouldn’t be worried?) but this is quickly usurped by stupidity, as director Michael Patrick King decides to go kamikaze, peppering the flick with millions of unneccessary shots of Eve’s bra-less nipples which probably contributed towards the film’s poor reception. The outcome of the lazy storytelling is that overSexed and The City is a whopping three hours long. By the end, I felt as though I’d been beaten over the head with a Complete Seasons 1-6 boxset. Not only was the film overly drawn out, it felt a million miles away from the innovation which the original SATC had. Age-wise the “girls” have outgrown the format, but I fear that perhaps we’ve all tired of their antics and nineties semantics, too.
Forty love: the girls are showing their age, and what an age it is (187 in total)
At least Cougar Town kind of had a noughties “menopause-chic”, a Demi and Ashton vibe…Sex and The City 2 is good fun, but it does feel dated.When Charlotte (Kristin Davis) cries about her ruined “vintage Valentino” she is pretty much a cariacture of herself.
So, what can we take away from this Emirates-set escapade? Don’t cheat on your husband, perhaps? Even that doesn’t quite follow, with Carrie and Big making good of their relationship, even after the former kisses an ex-love in aforesaid foreign climes. In conclusion, SATC2 is a slice of the big apple without all the chewy bits (storytelling, drama, genuine adventure). The racebending here wasn’t as awful as Prince of Persia (Gyllenhaal as an arab?), but boy, must Omid Djalili and Raza Jaffrey be having some serious cash issues right now.
Did you hear the one about the obscene time machine, which made every but Charlotte look older rather than younger?
More acerbic words from the rainy environs of London coming up soon, when I hit Truck festival and Underage with Artrocker, and pump some PR into the blog with brand, brand, spanking new content.
..should explain more. This event on July 17th at Victoria House is going to be huge, lets hope that this writer manages to blag her way to the afterparty!
The event is free and open to all, but the party is invite only; register tomorrow (June 28th) to get in and see Mark Ronson *swoon* and Filthy Dukes play Vice’s biggest party, period.
Ok, so I usually blog at the end of the month, but my Mark Ronson news couldn’t wait.
This video from VBS.tv’s Ryan Duffy is the definitive explanation more about the man, the myth, the raspberry-blowing legend who is Mark Ronson. The goregous (totally not being subjective here) MR was recently seen on BBC’s “I’m In A Rock’n’Roll Band” giving some didactic words. He’s just as talkative here as he promotes VICE & INTEL’s Creators Project.
Not a Lindsay Lohan reference in sight unfortunately, but luckily its all music here as he analyses the craft which has helped him earn his place as the most exciting producer of the 2000s. Chronicling Winehouse’s post-Frank revamp and featuring Lily’s sexed up Kaiser Chiefs cover, Version (2007) was an instant classic.
Technology, however, is the theme of his eagerly awaited 3rd album – Record Collection – this time with new band The Business Intl. Oh, how it pleases the ear to hear Le Ronson talk of using vintage synths purchased from eBay and the bygone age of pile-em-high garage bands! His oh-so-Nintendo viral video for Circuit Breaker features here, too, as does some Tweeted wisdom.
Its April/May. The showers are coming down on my window like sweat on a pubescent kid’s spotty forehead in a tennis lesson (not speaking from experience here) and exams are impending BUT I still reserve a little time for such art forms as interviewing cool creatives like the guys from ad agency C.R.A.P !! Below you can see me prodding the collective intellect of Scottish Ad Men Chris Rush & Andy Peel.
FIRST UP: Top tips for advertising and some “random words” from C.R.A.P.
Subjectively, they’re the new Saatchi & Saatchi. I know someone will execute me for that. To save you from CSI-type measures, his name will be Charles Saatchi and he will be in the conservatory with the lead pipe.
HJD: Due to the popularity of Mad Men, which has just finished its oh-so-stylish third series, do you guys think that the ad world is getting a makeover? And, of course, what’s the most glamourous part of your day job?
AP: [its] between people spending money on our ideas and going on shoots. Traveling the world(ish) and meeting celebs is pretty good, and you can live in the pub so long as you’ve got some awesome work to show for it when you stagger out.
CR: ^What? *reality check Peely* maybe getting free drinks on expenses? We can go anywhere to do ‘work’ and not pay a thing when we’re there. Anywhere can be the office… till I have to direct some art at least.
HJD: Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce (Mad Men) vs CRAP (you). Whats in a name, and do you honestly think your, well, crap? Do clients call you ‘crap’ or C.R.A.P? Or is it like M*A*S*H where the periods are ignored? Help.
AP: to start with, the name was everything. we were crap. We took the piss out ourselves because of people didn’t like our work, we told them “what did you expect from crap?” CRAP got us noticed and remembered. It works, but because he’s CR and I’m AP. If i was John and CR was Bob, being crap wouldn’t have a purpose. And it’s always crap, except my dad hates it, so to him we’re c.r.a.p.
CR: Clients don’t really know us. For the most part only the account handlers deal with them, there are exceptions of course. cr.ap is memorable. It just works for that. When doing crits (HJD: book crits are visits to ad agencies to try and get work by showing a portfolio) we’d start out by telling them we are crap – its on the cover of the front page of the portfolio – then anything they see from then on might not be crap. We’re getting better, not entirely crap anymore but always cr.ap
HJD: At least your not Chris Underwood and Nathan Thomas, I here that their agency didnt go down too well. Jokes aside, how did you guys get into the business and what advise would you give to someone of about my age (17) who is thinking of getting into the PR or mad ad world?
AP: I didn’t have a clue. I did an ad course, after year one I teamed up with Chris and then started getting book crits and placements ever since. Network, work hard and being nice go a long way. Plus being good at it helps. Find a coach/mentor that’ll help is a bonus. See our Facebook group for more.
CR: Have fun. Meet people -agency people all ‘have been there once’ and most will give you good advice on how to get into the industry. There’s not one set method that works, as a creative it relies a lot on timing, luck and of course you being willing to put the graft in. And be polite. Everyone knows everyone in this industry, piss one off and the rest can hear about it…
We got here by not being perfect. We made a lot of mistakes and did a lot of bad ads. It’s how you learn. Literally. Just practice. Meeting people who can push you in the right direction helps and don’t rely on just one person’s opinion because it is just that: an opinion. Always try and get several people looking at your work, then you can take a consensus from that.
AP: Sound advice Mr Rush.
HJD: Sound advice indeed. I’m curious as to what has been your favourite project to date and why? (my personal fave is the Jaffalympics above)
AP: A toss up between our first TV shoot for the Scottish News of the World and our pitch win for Scotrail which will break nationally (in Scotland) in the summer. (HJD: Scotrail is the Scottish railway if you hadn’t guessed).
CR: What AP said plus the Smoking campaign for Northern Ireland. It was effective and got a lot of good response.
AP: It’s because you got to fly to Belfast you jammie git. It looked pretty good though, *pats head*.
HJD: “CRAP is one guy drawing and one guy writing” – discuss
AP: One Photoshops, one waffles, but it works. I don’t think we’ve been blown our cover yet.
CR: I can’t spell, he can.
HJD: Would you ever consider more government propaganda…I mean, information campaigns…like your work for the NHS?
AP: of course, we worked with the Scottish and Northern Ireland Governments before. Sexual health, drinking and smoking. So long as it’s for a good cause we’ll sell our souls.
CR: They aren’t propaganda, there’s a difference between telling someone they must quit smoking and suggesting they do. We don’t really ‘consider’ whether we do a brief or not anyway. It’s a job, it pays the company’s bills so it has to be done. We’d never get a product that it is wrong to advertise because they aren’t allowed to be advertised. We do of course get some briefs we’d rather not have…like a girls beauty brief thats on my desk right now.
AP: that’s true. A brainstorm with 6 women is a scary moment. Especially when you can’t get a word in edgeways over the “isn’t he just gorgeous” or “eugh, fat thighs”.
Mr A.I.D.S: one of CR.AP’s NHS initiatives simplifies serious illness for dramatic effect.
HJD: Better than working on those disgusting ads where those women discuss diarrhoea over lunch. Finally, who would be your dream client and why? For example, if I had any idea about the ad world whatsoever I would love to make an advert where a car is created out of cake..ohh thats been done…
AP: Chris and John at Fallon (who made the Skoda cake ad) gave us our first crit and placement. I’d love to work on Sony, Nike or Coke. But something closer to home would be good.
CR: A one that just allows creativity to shine through instead of worrying about the size of a frigging logo. It’s amazing the difference between an original idea and the work which the general public end up seeing. 9/10 its a watered down version that isn’t anywhere near as good. So not a specific client, just one that wants to be creative and bold.
AP: I think our portfolio has a few of those in…
HJD: Thanks guys, all the best…Can’t wait to see if these guys do become the Real Life ‘Mad Men’ (which, by the way, I really don’t advise)
BEST OF THE REST
Elsewhere, I very unfortunatly had to miss the Underage Easter festival with Artrocker due to illness (boo), but I did end up with a friend at Storm Models, which got me thinking about something which only a tackly glitter graphic can show :
Vice Style is currently in Beta, but it looks pretty awesome. Some of the stuff I’ve found and loved so far has included a bit on bindis (below) with the beautiful French reporter Dora modelling some sticky jewellery to great effect.
Drop in some top-class editorials and pictures like this:
….and I think we can say that the little sister to Vice and VBS.tv s going to be huge. YVAN Rodic, LOOBOOK, WWW aside…ViceStyle looks set to join the ranks of net stardom. Oh, and some of their superb offerings make it into the paper VICE magazine. There’s even a few words with the world’s most famous plus-sized model, Crystal Renn – author of the memoir Hungry: A Young Model’s Story of Appetite, Ambition and the Ultimate Embrace of Curves.
And no fashion website worth its salt (or low sodium substitute) would be complete without the man himself, Karl Lagerfeld, as interviewed by film-director-cum-Vice-man Bruce Labruce (those familiar with Bruce, do excuse my wordplay there).
Karl's pad is both cluttered and library-like in its order. Viva Ikea!
My friends at Vice are also going Pretty Scritti Political right now, in celebration of next week’s election! Click here to watch a trailer for their (genuinely thrilling) docu Rule Britannia: Elections.
On an extremely important political note, not sure if its just me, but don’t these guys look alike?
Nick 'spanish wife and french chateau' CleggOr is it Dragons Den king, telecoms magnate and sock-puller-upper Peter Jones?
Possibly not the best picture to show a comparison.
I think I’ll finish with a bit of music, eh?
My mateys The Ruskins come from Isleworth (not too far from me) and I can’t believe they’re still unsigned. Not for long I hope/bet. Here’s their latest offering, Old Isleworth…the video features Elliott Tittensor (Shameless) and Kaya “Effy” Scodelario.
Its a cracker.
ALSO LOVING: OK GO, Lou Reed, N Sync, Amy Studt (yes I know), Sparks, Interpol (back on form), Julian Plenti…
And this:
Yes, that is Corbin Bleu’s Deal With It you can hear there…turns out that a whiley Jay Sean penned the song for the Afroed teen and sold the music to Korean superstars Shinee too. Clever move. Cleverer than that smug ‘blazer dance’ in the Down video, anyway…
Urrgh, I’m almost a fool. I have to use these Sweet Valley High titles in order to grab your attention. That said, “almost a fool” refers only to the fact that its April Fools tomorrow rather than any intellectual anguish I might be having over my upcoming exams. I’ve almost been a fool millions of times, from fake £20 notes to bogus prizes…just dont trick me tomorrow because I will fall for it.
This pretty amazing (cake vs.) pie chart from This is why you’re fat has caught my foolish attention:
…as has everything else vaguely sweet recently. Weird craving for a proper, gen-u-ine New York cheescake, actually; one of those which looks like a round French cheese and tastes like one too. If anyone wants to bake me one then please go ahead.
Anyways, onto some higher culture. I have enjoyed such cultivated televisual viewing of late, including The Undercover Princesses on BBC3.
A follow-up to the equally cringeworthy culture-clash comedy of The Undercover Princes, this series saw three ethnically-diverse but equally stereotypical “royals” – the Bugandan with a shapely behind and a taste for market-stall weave, the shy, sari-wearing Indian wallflower and the whiter-than-white Europop heiress from Germany, who almost didn’t count as foreign – looking for love in the UK. So, the BBC sent the trio to our culture capital of Essex and watched asmadness ensued. One of Uganda’s princesses, nicknamed Cinderella, found Caribbean match Paul (Paw-ul) on a trip to Asda for mushrooms in a surprisingly tidy scene which was typical set-up fare. Meanwhile, sweet-natured asian princess Aaliya went on a series of disappointing dates with men who looked like Crimewatch-paedo-cut-outs for conversations about the weather, where we almost expected to hear Mad World dubbed over her plight. Eeyorl-liah was a nice girl but socially inept when it came to the opposite sex, and scuppered one of her dates by getting claustrophobia…whilst wearing a helmet. Doh! Instead of love, we got more BBC subtitles over anyone who wasn’t from Essex and a horrible soundtrack which even featured “world’s most overused and dramatic tearjerker” Kissing You by Des’ree. Yes, the song from Romeo+Juliet. A highlight was Xenia from Germany, however, whose much-hyped “relationship” with hairdresser Elliott involved much retarded singing, impressionism and crap dancing. Put her anywhere else and I think this woman would have been labelled a fag hag. Hilarious stuff as always from the BBC’s digital stable, but can we please have some proper princesses next time…this lot really lacked authenticity!
High Renaissance Man – exclusive –
Yes, THIS is what the title of the blog is about! HIGHLY CULTURED MEN!
Vice ran this pretty amazing picture of JFK in a series of hats for next month’s issue…just to cover myself legally I should point out that the pic below is by Tara Sinn of http://www.babydinosaureyes.com/, and it is just so cute. Especially the top hat…can someone please Cafe Press this into a mug/t-shirt/babygrow (with permission ofc).
And here is my horrific illustration for the following feature. I forbid anyone to Cafe Press this:
It’s been less than 2 months since Mr Totally Tom – that’s Mr Totally Tom Stourton and Mr Totally Tom Palmer to you and I – launched their comedy short High Renaissance Man on Youtube. Part one of four is above, and given my damning review of a BBc 3 programme (also above), I advise that our controllors take note: this is what TV needs.
The two Toms – who have somewhat sarcastically declared that they want BBC’s “pinkies”, that’s £50 notes to you and me – have been friends since the tender age of 12, when they met at a sleepover (everybody say: awww!)
Described by Michael Hessletine as “Evelyn Waugh on acid” (100% true quotation), the duo take their inspiration from Garth Meranghi’s Dark Place and Brass Eye among other series’, although this Bristol-based mockumentary is all their own work, and they strongly deny “copying” anyone. In fact, their influences peek through rather than being worn on a collective sleeve, surely the mark of subtle genius. Thanks to the way in which universities are “interlinked” through Facebook, High Renaissance Man has gone down a treat on the interwebs – probably because James Talbot-Smith (Stourton) is the perfectly recognisable Oxbridge-reject turning his hand to uni pursuits such as event promotion with his trademark awkwardness. If Abercrombie did philosophy degrees…
That’s enough from me anyways…let’s read James’ exclusive diary for hannahjdavies.com!
The diary of James – by Mr Totally Tom
D e a r D i a r y,
J a m e s h e r e a g a i n. F i r s t o f a l l, a s y o u m a y h a v e n o t i c e d, I h a v e j u s t f o u n d a f u c k i n g
l e a n f o n t t o u s e f o r m y d i a r y e n t r i e s. M a k e s i t l o o k l i k e a n o l d s c h o o l t y p e w r i t e r – a n d
i t u s e s u p l e s s i n k.
Spiked Mathew’s tea with seven grams of Mephedrone this morning. He has an exam later AND his parents are taking us for lunch after. Would love to be a fly on the wall for that one! Even though I will be sort of. He’d better pay me back.
Speaking of pranks, expenses scandal broke out today – so fierce! In a bit of trouble with Dad as I ordered a duck house on his account for one of my nights – he is soooooo angry. Also v. bum-out as has ruined my Duck and Bass night – apparently freedom of expression has been banned by the government! Sorry, didn’t realize Tony Blair had collaborated with the Nazis! (Not! – as in I’m being sarcastic not as in I think Nazis actually are actually in power in real life).
Anywayz, until the next time we meet, see you tomorrow dear diary.
Yours truly truthfully,
Me….James.
*Thanks to the two Toms for their help with this feature…now go and watch all four parts of High Renaissance Man on Youtube!
<br>
LIKE A DRUG
Up on VBS.tv right now, you can click here to watch the first part of the Vice Guide to Film, on Mexico’s Narco Cinema, from their popular internet TV station (you might remember me talking about another VBS production, Swansea Love Story, in a previous post).
I digress: in this series, Vice will be exploring some lesser-known cinematic genres from across the globe, as co-founder Shane Smith and creative director Eddy Moretti explore the relationship between drugs and B-movies in Mexico, Korea and Japan. It’s described it as a foray into the low budget, seedy, fast-paced, straight-to-DVD genre inspired by (and often funded by) Mexico’s ultraviolent drug cartels. This culture-packed production is essential viewing for all Vice-lovers and beyond, as it also touches on the bizarre pagan patron saint of drug dealers…and a music genre based about trafficking! Throw your guidebooks in the bin, grab un sics (yes, thats a six pack of beer in spanish…spanglish) and click onto VBS.tv instead…
Til next month, adieu (actually, I’m going to be working with Artrocker on Underage Easter festival next week so that might pop up here too)
This is where my famous green typing ends for a while, and you get to sample The ‘Zine. It is a magical thing when you can use paper and a pen in a cross-promotional marketing strategy inspired by THE APOCOLYPSE OF PRINT. Here we go:
The Mona Cheryl by Hannah J 'Leonardo' Davies
*Have you got any thoughts on this month’s paper-licious issue, written on pretty ancient paper my mother used whilst at university I might add? Email me: hannah@hannahjdavies.com with your thoughts. A letters page might happen, y’know.
PS: Click here to watch something which touched my heart this Valentines. Vice Magazine’s VBS bring you, yes you, a Rule Britannia special six-part ‘Swansea Love Story’, focusing on addicts such as Lee Dennis, who graphically recounts his drug abuse and how he contracted Hep C in prison, as he rifles through his possessions in an Iceland bag casually. Desperate fights to get clean in a city which, according to its older inhabitants hasn’t changed…its the people who have. All in all, such deprivation, tales of sexual abuse and familial collapse are handled with class by director Leo Leigh sooo go watch. Plus, CNN thought it was noteworthy.
Listening to: JAM. I hope Liorah Tchiprout, the author of this pretty amazing playlist for use with Spotify, won’t mind me sharing it with you x x
Even more January greetings from hannahjdavies.com…I realised that it would be a cool idea to keep a track of how many posts I’ve made by occasionally quitting with the ‘oh-so-ironic’ names and actually just telling you a number. So here we are: post number 24. Yeah, I was gonna make a Jack Bauer joke there but I think a Dane Bowers one might be more appropriate considering that the ‘singer-songwriter’ has just come second place in this year’s Celebrity BB.
Is it just me or…
1) Does Dane look weirdly like Anthony Costa? Are they, in fact, the same person?
2) Does a “Dane Bowers” sound like a specially bred sheepdog?
3) Am I the only person who heard this:
on loop everytime he engaged in parlance with other members of the house? It’s stuck in my head like a tapeworm.
Anyways, I digress, Alex Reid – the loveable ‘doofus’ of the house came out on top (not a reference to his new adult flick) – and Dane has seemingly gone back to being a ‘singer-songwriter’ for the time being. Whatever that means. Swedish voyeur Jonas aka Basshunter has presumably flown home, so us girls can breathe easy for a sec without having to worry about him re-enacting the moment when he left a pencil lying around for a helpless lass to chew on…which had been up his friend’s “area”. Should always observe that rule about not chewing borrowed stationary, right?!
Meanwhile, foul-mouthed ‘Lady’ Sovereign’s raison d’etre was to shock us with her childish behaviour, and then slag everyone off for “treatin’ me like a child!” She really made a (corned beef) hash out of staying popular in the house. Not sure if it was just me who thought that this Daily Mail pic looked like Davina “Peter Pan” McCall had gone all Fantasia on us and spawned an evil, (younger) twin?
Shawwwwty Sov. And her delightful older lady-friend, Run(ningawaycoveringmyears) DMC
Annoying Davina actually went in to the house, albeit for 48 hours, but the real stars of the show were big-lipped billionairess Ivana, who was duped into thinking she had won a business award, and Dane, whose chilli-themed attempts to ruin dinner for a task were actually met with culinary compliments. He went on to fake a nightmare in order to win the task, but to be honest I doubt anyone in the house was getting sweet dreams with oddball Stephen ‘Alex’s Brother’ Baldwin’s cautionary Biblical tales and glammma modull Nicola T’s spooky premonitions that something was wrong with her baby daughter.
Anyways, I digress; but this is a little scary:
Celebrity Big Brother 7 was one to remember, alright. We had a bit of everything, really, including wrinkly Ronnie Wood’s ‘girlfriend’ Katia, who bore a striking resemblence to a creepy doll and didn’t really have a lot to say for herself.
Sisqo was surprisingly cool. Guess I would be chilled-out too if I’d been living in the bargain bin of Asda since 1999, right next to all that Birds Eye.
Moving swiftly on…
Are the KIDS united?
I hate book-ending ‘pop culture’ posts with ‘culture posts’ but here we go…
Jacob Wheldon is your average 16 year old.
Until his parents took away his copy of COD this week, he could happily spend hours online and his penchant for Facebook is undeniable. He loves Cheryl Cole. Oh, I almost forgot…he’s a musician who was sharing a stage with Bloc Party when most of us were just getting to grips with the idea of ‘indie music’ rather than dance compilations of Billie Piper and Sonique (I do genuinely own a few of those). For all intents and purposes, Jacob has been Lo Fi Culture Scene since the age of 13, although he caught up with me to talk about his future now that the band are on a hiatus…
Here’s a tasty portion of vintage Lo-Fi if they’ve escaped your radar, with “ABSTRACT” from 2008:
__
Hannah J Davies: “Abstract” was written when you were rather young…is the girl in question real, or was she a composite figment of your combined pubescent imaginations?
Jacob Wheldon: I write all the lyrics for the band, i think “Abstract” really was a large overreaction to friends who were starting to drink/do drugs/smoke for the first time. The girl is basically just a metaphor for what I hoped it wouldn’t do to my friends. I still hope it doesn’t, but i’m less worried now.
HJD: Officially best hidden drug ref since ‘Golden Brown’ in that case. Your video for the new single “Waxwork” was filmed at Bush Hall, which is a beautiful venue…do you prefer ‘haunts’ like this to the commercialised ‘chains’ of venues *coug&h O2 Academys etc?
JW: Definitely, with no disrespect to any of the O2 Academies we’ve played, we are not fans of them at all. Bush Hall is the venue I use to put on all the shows that I promote, it’s a beautiful venue, and the people there are the best people to work with. I think it’s a shame that there aren’t more venues like it.
Lo-Fi with “WAXWORK” (’09), as heard on Radio 1. Ring the changes…:
HJD: Do you ever get any weird fanmail?
JW: We get a lot of strange messages through our Myspace, most prominently from Japanese fans as their English isn’t great, but all of it is really appreciated.
HJD: Do you think having four out of five members with curly hair impoves your indie credentials or makes it harder in a way…besides avoiding cities with high humidity you must get a lot of people assuming that you are a standard Kooks/The View cover band?
JW: Yeah a surprising amount of people comment on all of us having curly hair, i don’t really know what it does for our ‘indie credentials’, we get a lot of people relating us to The Kooks, which i don’t see as a bad thing at all, though many do, but i loved Inside In/Out [The Kooks] [Ed: can I join…please?]
HJD: What has been your favourite track to play live with Lo-Fi?
JW: Favourite track to play, in all honesty was our cover of “I Gotta Feeling” by Black Eyed Peas at our school’s Battle Of The Bands to end the night in November, and that was incredible. But of our own songs, probably a song called “Yes”. It gets people dancing and people are usually singing along with the chorus before the end of the song, even if they’ve not heard it before.
HJD: Finally, where does Jacob Wheldon go from here?
JW: I’ve got to get my GCSEs out of the way – we all do. For the moment i’m doing a lot of lyric-writing, and some songwriting. I’m working on with a guy called Dean Tynan which i’m very excited about, then soon we’ll [Jacob and Lo-Fi members Angus, Tom M, Tom H, Callum] be getting back together to start writing for whatever the name of the next project will be. I’m also starting to write for a website called Get Your Ears Out, reviewing a few shows and introducing some new bands. I’m hoping to do some more promoting as I did a few shows last year at Bush Hall to raise money for Teenage Cancer Trust so i hope to do a few more this year. I also want to get involved in some form of acting if i can as soon as possible…so i’m busy as ever.
Sounding off:
Jacob on… the disposable music industry:
Haha, well i would say that i’m very separate from the others [members of the band] in that, i got very very bored of guitar music about 6 months ago, and as a result have just looked elsewhere for new music. It’s not just pop music that i’ve taken to, but there was definitely something that intrigued me as to the way [pop producers] Xenomania work. They seem to have some kind of formula to writing great pop songs, and it was intriguing to see how they’d managed to do it for so long without really having to change a lot in terms of style. What interests me about pop music is the core of the songs and the melodies..I think if you can look past all the over-production and the auto-tuned vocals, a lot of it is very good stuff or else the people who wrote the songs wouldn’t be paid to write them.
Jacob on… the lowest point of Lo-Fi:
It was probably an internal thing at some point. It’s not like we don’t get on, but there’s always going to be arguments in any relationship. It keeps things fresh and exciting, though it’s important not to let it turn into an episode of Hollyoaks, which has happened on occasions.
Jacob on… freebies:
We got a lot of free albums and studio time from labels who wanted to sign us which was quality, we were delighted with it. Our booking agents also get us absurd amounts of guest passes to various shows which we are eternally grateful to them for.
Jacob on… mixtape heaven*:
Bloc Party – So Here We Are
Coldplay – The Scientist
Bruce Springsteen – Thunder Road
Mark Knopfler – Sailing To Philadelphia
Curtis Mayfield – Move On Up
*subject to change…every few minutes 🙂
– Thanks to Jacob Wheldon. Lo-Fi are represented by 13artists and Kids records.
VICE VICE BABY: Noam Chomsky
Before I go I better talk about VICE. I’ve – rather excitingly – just become part of their new Blog Network (you can find a list of the other Vicetastic members here. This just means that, from time to time, I’ll cover new and exclusive content from Vice and VBS, but it doesn’t mean that my output won’t remain typically hannahjdavies!
Firstly, VBS caught up with Noam Chomsky recently…you can watch the full interview here, and below is a little teaser of the esteemed academic and ‘father of linguistics’ talking arts, speech, protest, Bad Religion, Obamarama and Americana plus much more, all with his usual eloquence and Conservative brand of anarchism.
Slightly more sense spoken between Obama’s online publicity guru Kate Albright-Hanna and Chomsky when they caught up in Dublin where he was giving a lecture, than happened here in 2006:
Chomsky proves himself to be a thought-provoking speaker in both interviews, although the latter certainly sheds more light on the world of politics and arts than Cohen did, although oddly enough, he is also Jewish and has a pretty good degree behind him so maybe they talked more enlighteningly off-camera.
Do watch Kate Alrbight-Hanna and Noam Chomsky having a truly intellectual interview here.
___
Adieu til next time,
x x x x
NB: Don’t forget to send me some feedback if you have any, as well as feature ideas…hannah@hannahjdavies.com!
and hannahjdavies.com x x x x
Hannah J Davies 