#HereComesTheSummer
(at Clifton Down railway station)
‘Soubour’ by Songhoy Blues (2013)
“I’m worse at what I do best
And for this gift I feel blessed”
Top ten tracks from 2014
http://instagram.com/p/pKWpmYny13
This is what I listened to most last year according to LastFM, to which I collect/pump/scrobble most of what I listen to on various platforms, except the CD player in the car. But I only had a CD player in the car for the last two months of last year and then I mostly listen to books anyway.
I use Soundcloud, Youtube, Google Play, Whyd and Spotify. Stuff I purchase goes on Google Play.
Some of these are surprising to me, some of them I probably wouldn’t bother telling anyone they should listen to. But this is what the numbers say so I’m going with that.
There’s an honourable mention at sime point for “Blood in Gutters” by Brody Dalle, which I did drove around the North Somerset countryside howling to a lot, especially during difficult times later on.
Here is a link to a Whyd playlist with all these in, and a Spotify one too.
10. John Grant – GMF
So beautiful, and captures a certain point in one’s life so very precisely.
“You think I hate myself, but it’s you I hate
Because you have the nerve to make me feel.”
9. Dungen – Skit I Allt
Not sure where this came from (apart from Sweden of course). Something uplifting to start the day with? Who knows. It apparently translates as “Screw it All”.
8. Honeyblood – Choker
I’ve written about this one before, it really grabs you by the throat. Building up a list of two pieces that do not sound like two pieces.
7. WhoMadeWho – Space for Rent
Like a mild QOTSA (who are notably absent this year). I think I heard this on a radio show hosted by Josh Homme, so there you are. It’s also nice because the bass (which I play) is prominent.
6. Royal Blood – Little Monster
Royal Blood gets played in the office quite a lot these days, so it’s understandable this would end up on here. Also on the two piece list.
5. John Wizards – Muizenburg
A South African band (not person) formed in 2010. Falls into the category of Falling Down The Stairs Music. Very pleasant.
4. Ninian Hawick – Scottish Temple Stomp
Just the kind of all encompassing madness I favour in the middle of the afternoon. Lo-fi power pop band from the nineties, from the four track EP Steep Steps.
3. John Grant – Blackbelt
More John Grant being amazing. This would be my room song if I ever did X-factor.
“You are at the height of your game, aren’t you?
Would you not say that you agree, baby?
You got your grift all fine tuned and sparkling.
Yeah, you got your bored look all worked out.”
Special Mention: Brody Dalle – Blood in Gutters
See above. It’s telling of the kind of the year I have had that the two top tunes are super calming, but then there’s this.
2. Mulatu Astatke – Tezeta
Brings peace to the soul. The father of Ethio-Jazz. Especially good for driving in the city at night to. I challenge you to listen to and remain angry/sad for very long.
1. The Breeders – Off You
A remarkable song form a remarkable lady. Again heavy on the bass. It doesn’t get much better than this.
“I am the autumn in the scarlet, I am the make-up on your eyes”
Paul Thek: Notebooks
“Thek [was] an avid keeper of journals, producing over a hundred between 1969 and 1980. Complex and varied, the journals form an intimate and often intense portrait of an energetic mind. Most are written in ordinary school notebooks, with routine accounts of Thek’s days punctuated by emotionally raw passages of self-reflection, analysis of his closest (and, at times, most troubled) personal relationships, and as time progressed, evidence of a growing paranoia. In perfect script, he copied page after page of writings that he admired by Saint Augustine, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, William Blake, and others. Copying was clearly a meditation for him, a spiritual exercise and, as such, an antidote to anxiety and to what he knew was his own pettiness and anger. But the journals are full of moments of joyful exuberance and artistic bravura as well: celebrations of sex, silly word games, and a range of visual expression, from simple marks and comic sketches to intimate, exquisite watercolors of the sea.”
Adriaen Coenen’s Fish Book (1580)
“Selected double-page spreads from Adriaen Coenen’s Visboek (Fish Book), an epic 800+ page tome on all things fish and fish-related. Coenen began work on this unique book in 1577, at the age of 63, and in three years gathered an unprecedented amount of information on the sea and its coasts, coastal waters, fishing grounds and marine animals. The information was largely gathered in the course of Coenen’s daily work in the Dutch sea-side village of Scheveningen as a fisherman and fish auctioneer and, later on, as wreck master of Holland (allowing him access to every strange creature that washed ashore). Coenen was also a well respected authority in academic circles and used this reputation to receive learned works on the sea from The Hague and Leiden, copied extracts from which find their way into his Fish Book.”
“Graceful Ghost Rag” – William Bolcom (2004)
War of Words: Soldier Poets of the Somme – Broadcast Scrapbook
I wanted to write some stuff about this programme sooner, but the events previously documented in this blog (which all began on the afternoon of broadcast) meant it’s taken me some time to take stock and collect all the things that happened as a result of the show going out.
As I have mentioned before, “War of Words: The Soldier Poets of the Somme” was a 90 minute BBC Arts documentary, directed by Sebastian Barfield that sought to reconnect the history and the landscape of the notorious 1916 Battle of the Somme with the extraordinary poetry and literature that it inspired. At BDH we created content graphics to help illustrate the history and also animations (which I was involved with) to accompany the poetry. We had a great team on the job, and working on it was a moving and wonderful experience.
This post is partly a scrapbook for my purposes to collect some of the information, posts and reactions that went out on social media, in a Storify style, so I might be updating it as and when I come across more of them. Also be warned, this post is mostly embeds from Twitter, so if you are reading this on anything else that the actual webpage they might format weirdly.
You can see a clip from the show via the BBC here, this part concerns the removal of lice eggs from clothing and Isaac Rosenberg’s Louse Hunting.
There was a preview screening of the programme at the Watershed on the 5th November. Afterwards Peter Barton, Jean Moorcroft Wilson, Sebastian Barfield, Jeremy Banning and Richard Van Emden discussed the programme, the poets and how they shaped the way people remember the Great War. That discussion is available to hear on Soundcloud here:(direct link).
Sebastien Barfield wrote some words on the BBC blog about the show.
This is a link to a discussion of the programme on Military History Online, quite fascinating in itself.
“The Somme In Seven Poems” was a short that BDH produced which anthologised just the poetry animations themselves. That went onto the iPlayer a week before the broadcast, and got some lovely responses from people, especially on Remembrance Day.
Here is a trailer BDH produced for the short.
Obviously in the modern age, people can watch the show at anytime once it goes on the iPlayer so these tweets are not really in chronological order. I just went through the hashtags and search options retrospectively and grabbed some of the most interesting ones.
https://twitter.com/FWWMiscellany/status/533763935141638145 https://twitter.com/ArcanePub/status/535732918468235264The whole programme has been taken down from the iPlayer now but I have heard bits are on YouTube somewhere, you’ll have to search for that yourself, if you feel so inclined.
BDH have produce a VR app that contains the animation for The Kiss one of the poems featured on the show. This works on Google Cardboard and is available on Google Play and iTunes.
07:54 am
Paul Greer 