Evolution of a classic, part II; Tune!

If ye like more than one genre of music, then there's a fair chance you will have heard of the classic tune, 'Duelling Banjos' from the film Deliverance. If not, here it is:



Now, I hope ye didn't just skim past that or decide to not read on at all, because ye have to admit there is some seriously good fretwork going on there - both from the guitar and the banjo. Mind you, I have never understood why it's called 'Duelling Banjos' when there's obviously only one banjo there... Ah well.
All petty nit-picking aside, my point is that ye know when there is a classic tune when it's covered by other artists. And yes, a quick search reveals that it's been covered by pretty much all the usual suspects from much of the country and western world. However, the mark of a true classic is when artists from outside the original genre take an interest and decide to put their own slant on it.
For many folks recently, the most obvious example is to be found on the DVD of Bill Bailey's Tinselworm tour. On this, our multi-gifted, intellectual and absurdist comedian comes back to do an encore. This is no ordinary stand-up encore, though - not by a long chalk. Waiting for him are the Hindi group known as the Bollywood Pandits. Hopefully, ye can guess what happens...



Bill Bailey is well known fer striking out and beyond what many folks would consider to be 'normal', but there are plenty of places that you really wouldn't expect to find a cross-genre influence creeping in. The musical form known as 'Oi' is an offshoot of the British wave of punk. One of the most well-known proponents of this were Sham 69 ('If The Kids Are United', 'Hurry Up Harry'), but there were plenty of other acts too, all recognisable by the football terrace feel to their music: The Piranhas, Splodgenessabounds and The Toy Dolls. The latter were more famous for their punky rendition of the kiddie classic 'Nellie The Elephant', but the following clip shows they weren't averse to dipping their toes in foreign waters...



Obviously, once something has entered the collective consciousness to a great extent, it's going to be ripe fer - how can I put this - less serious renditions. There may be gentle ribbing, fond homages and complete piss-takes. Again, modern technology steps in and the glory of engineering helps to shoehorn tracks into clips of film that, until now, did not fit.
To that end, may I thank Marc Bullard fer providing us with what I feel to be a future classic; 'Close Encounters Of The Redneck Kind'.


Close Encounters of the Redneck Kind from Marc Bullard on Vimeo.

Meanwhile, in an alternative dimension, the Fabs still rule.

In 1971, the world ended for may music fans: The Beatles split up. Three and a half extremely creative people in a band that was effectively run by two who were growing further apart on a daily basis - let's face it, it was only a matter of time, really. From that point on, they were never to meet again as a four-piece.
Over time, the various members went their separate ways, following their individual destinies. Some were slow burners, whilst another shone brightly but paid the price. And, of course, there was always the dark horse, quietly working away and becoming perhaps the most critically acclaimed of them all.

Years went by and interest in the band came and went in waves. Finally, the barrels were scraped and demo tapes were dragged out of deep storage to provide us with 'new' Beatles tracks. And weren't they awful? George Martin may have helped them become the stellar talents they were in the 60s, but the new discs just proved that there was no replacing the chemistry of the whole band in the same room.

More recently, the Cirque du Soleil reignited interest - briefly - as emergent technology allowed mashups to effectively create new tracks from certifiable classic existing ones.
And wasn't that awful too?
Even more recently, gaming tech has 'proved' that anyone can have what it takes to be an utter prat a rock god, with games like Guitar Hero. And the cycle began again - after all, there was an opportunity for more money, wasn't there? Now, you could BE The Beatles. I couldn't possibly comment on how good it is since I don't have even the necessary hardware, but I did notice that it completely failed to reach its expected targets... Hmm...

In all this, everyone that knows The Beatles' music are thinking, 'I wish they hadn't split up and left us open to all this crap.'
Well, it turns out they didn't - in an alternative dimension. Someone has not only proved this, they have also managed to get hold of a cassette (LINK fer those who are too young to know what a cassette is) of one of the post-1971 albums they released. Even better, it has been made available as a download fer everyone to hear!
It's an odd tale, to be sure, but an entertaining one. It involves a knock on the head and waking up in a familiar, but strangely different place. It also involves pinching a souvenir from some otherworld bloke's tape collection (apparently, CDs never really caught on).
Here's that tape:

I've had a listen and it's quite enjoyable. However, it does look a lot like the individual Fabs had a few ideas going around in their heads that are common to both our worlds. It's just that they had to record them as solo efforts over here, as opposed to pooling ideas with the rest of the guys.

See what you think. Go visit the site at The Beatles Never Broke Up.

Taking it to the third dimension - Polaroid style.

Here's a question for ye: What do ye get when you combine Polaroid photography and sculpting?

Nope. The answer isn't 'a tourist in an art gallery'.
Instead, say hello to Korean sculptor Osang Gwon.

Neither of these chaps is the artist, of course.

They are, in fact three dimensional sculptures fashioned out of hundreds of polaroid photos, attached to a blank skeleton/dummy. Life-size sculptures, by the way. This, my friends, is what ye get when collages break out off the flat page. Naturally, it all takes a huge amount of time and effort - and no small amount of patience on the part of the subject(s).

See this sculpture of Tom Chaplin from the band Keane?

I know he looks more than a little like Jimmy Carr in this (poor bugger), but ye can see just how much work has gone into this. According to O.G., he took between one and three thousand pictures per band member. All to promote their album, Perfect Symmetry.

Below, you can watch the maestro in action - just look at the expression on Chaplin's face. O.G. must have started at the head and worked his way down and be nearly finished. Nearly finished taking almost 3,000 Polaroid pictures. And don't forget; those cameras need very frequent loading.

Osang Gwon, talented wee so-and-so that he is, worked his way up from humble beginnings. Considering the pace of his work, he had to begin with subjects that didn't mind sitting rock-solid fer three hours or so - his family, in other words. As his talent and  acclaim grew, Keane approached him for their promotional work and he's now being courted by the big names (like Nike) for advertising work.

I'll leave you with one final image. Here, O.G. stand in front of his sculpture of a mounted police officer. And yes, the horse was also snapped...

For more on this hugely talented guy, you can visit osang.net or drop by the page on Environmental Graffiti where I first came across his work.

Don't smoke it - build with it!

What a brick!
It's been a compliment for many years, used to indicate someone of good, solid and trustworthy character. These days, it's somewhat outdated, but could do with being brought back into use...
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In this day and age, there's an increasing emphasis on using more eco-friendly materials to build things with. Up until recently, the main emphasis has been on been on wood and other renewable sources. Then, having got that out of their system, the designers and architects moved onto reclaimable metals - they're easy to melt and re-shape, you see.
In all this, bricks were seen as pretty much a necessary evil. You can't do much with a brick once it's been made, apart from break it up. Bricks are made from clay and fired in a kiln. This is a one-way process, much like cooking an egg. Once it's done, that's it - it's either used or it's dumped. In all this rush to find better materials, bricks were left behind. At best, they were reclaimed from other building and had the mortar chipped off at great expense in time and money.
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Of course, there were always going to be those who advocated a return to more traditional materials, such as wattle and daub. This was never going to work, because there were very good reasons fer moving on from them in the first place - most notably the weather.
Obviously there needed to be a radical change in thought on building materials.
With that in mind, say hello to 'Hemcrete'.

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I know, I know. Considering I was just having a go at traditional materials, it seems a bit rich that I'm advocating an essentially revived method, yes?

Well, yes and no. Hemcrete works along similar lines to many previous materials, but the twist is in the treatment. Thanks to modern technology and industrial processes, the shredded hemp stalks are bound with a lime-based mix and can now be used in the same way as the more familiar concrete.

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It's got a few bonuses too. Like the more familiar clay bricks, Hemcrete is fireproof, waterproof and - as long as long as it's above ground - utterly resistant to rot. Furthermore, it's recyclable. Should a building need to be demolished, Hemcrete can be broken down and used as fertiliser for the agriculture industry.

Oh, and talking of that side of things, Hemcrete is actually a carbon negative product. This means that, unlike normal bricks will add to the atmospheric carbon during the course of their manufacture, AND unlike many new products that claim to be carbon neutral (ie add no carbon or offset it by planting trees), Hemcrete actually removes carbon and locks it away. Even better, when the hemp is grown, there are no unnatural herbicides or pesticides used.

One problem. The species of hemp used to make Hemcrete is illegal to grow in the USA. You can buy the product, but not the plant, so that's going to be somewhat pricey for import and on the environmental impact of the haulage.

You can find out a little more about Hemcrete at Limetechnology and Tradical.

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And finally (what - is this the 6 o'clock news, then?), if you want to be ecologically minded with your bricks in a different way, why not build your home using some bricks that have been specially designed to help some endangered species?

Quick - to the Bat-box!

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Pipistrelle bats have been on the endangered list fer quite some time now. The main problem was that houses were being built without the beamed eaves. Bats aren't the only ones to have this problem - and to have it solved in a similar fashion - have a look at the swift brick.

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It's simple, unobtrusive and it provides a home for bug-eating wildlife. Yeah - because you were thinking about wasps too, weren't you?

Go visit Ibstock for more details.

Cartoon fun. Let's make a point.

Yes, I like cartoons and comics.
Here's a couple for ye. One's from Kevin and Kell. Not too sure about the new Sunday format, but this one makes a decent point.
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The next couple are from a new discovery by the name of Rock, Paper, Cynic. That's me right down to the ground there.

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Aaahh... I can feel my cynicism levels slowly refilling....

Lost skills and lottery wins (transferred from Myspace)

I've been talking to a friend today about training for a job and having some decent skills but paperwork ruining everything. As it was, I was reminded of a blog I set out on Myspace some time ago and thought it best to transfer it to here than just link to it.
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    Bear in mind I love folk music, hate multi-national conglomerates and try to buy local stuff when I can. Obviously, then, this is going to be right up my country lane.
    As it turns out, it's as much to do with Askwith's mid-life crisis and coming to terms with his father's illness and death as it is with bemoaning the loss of village life.
    However, his journeys around the (mostly Southern parts of) the country do reveal certain common themes. The closure of village shops, post offices and, most importantly it seems, schools are definite signs that a village is about to lose its 'soul'.
    Askwith doesn't come out with the reasons himself, but that's alright, because there were plenty of villagers of various temperament to place blame. Essentially, I managed to boil a book's worth of village moaning down to four causes:
    1) Cars. Everywhere has become easily accessible these days, thanks to the internal combustion engine. Now, this means that people can range a little further in their search for entertainment or supplies.
    2) Home technology. Why bother talking to people you live near when you can watch mindless celebrities 24/7 on TV or join internet communities? (er... *ahem*...)
    3) Cheaper products from elsewhere. Because it's 'less expensive' to import stuff from China, France or Argentina, local farms and manufacturers suffered and were forced to shut down. That's without all the health scares too...
    4) People just don't work in villages anymore. The farms went (previously a focal point for the community), and disaffected young people left to get jobs in the city. Even better, you get the moneyed city folk buying village properties for teeth-suckingly high prices that the real locals can't afford - but commuting every day to the towns and cities.

    People talk these days about the 'global village' and how the miracles of modern communication have made this vast world of ours smaller. I don't think it has though; Ok, so I live in a largish town, but the fact remains I'm more at ease talking to you (at least one of whom isn't even on the same continent) like this than I am to people who live two doors away from me.
    And that's not good. Which brings me to part two of this blog.

WHAT TO DO WITH A MASSIVE EURO LOTTERY WIN

    Yeah, I wish. It's not even as though I buy a ticket that often, so the odds are rather remote.
   The thing is, one of my more recent fantasies (because, let's face it, that's what they are) has been to buy somewhere in the countryside. A nice, large plot of land next to a wooded area, with a stream and/or a small lake nearby.
    And then build a house. The most carbon-neutral, free-from-the-national-grid, environmentally friendly - and yet technologically stacked - house my money could buy. With the rest(???) of the money, I would have large areas for raising some animals and growing as much fruit and veg as I could. All this would be in an area that is as wildlife-friendly as I could make (and, I suppose, stand) it.

    After having read Mr Askwith's book, I now find myself furthering this little fantasy and desiring to create a modern village - from scratch.
    This village (well, hamlet, I suppose really. It wouldn't be able to be that large) would be built along the lines that I suggested for the main house. Everyone would be working at their own tasks, but for the community's welfare. Since there would be more people, it would be possible to have larger areas for crops, so maybe a rotational system could be used there.
    Hopefully, there could be a large central hall, where evening meals could be taken and events could take place.
    The best thing about this idea for me is that people could be making use of all those skills we seem to have nearly lost and only exist as curiosities for craft fairs or BBC programmes.* Oh - and to prevent this looking utterly WASP, I would ideally like people from other cultures in there too. Just because they weren't here during the agricultural revolution, that doesn't mean to say they can't take place in my own little reactionary idea.
    And the best thing about this idea? Because the people would have to work in conjunction with each other, therein lies the kernel of a new village community.
    Well - I can dream, can't I?

*By the way, if you're interested in trying out some of those lost crafts yourself, you could do far worse than to take a look at this book.

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It certainly points me in the right direction fer a great many worthwhile activities.

Nerds and dance. Wait - what?

I like to listen to music - yeah, I know; bleeding obvious and all that. But the important thing is that I like to listen to stuff I haven't heard of before. For me, one of the best things around is my local library. For 80p per album per week, I can try out something I'm not 100% sure of, but looks interesting.
And this one looked very interesting:
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Datarock are exactly what they seem to be from their name. Electronic, Scandinavian (Finnish, to be precise), nerdy and infeasibly danceable. I love it and will certainly be adding it to my wishlist (not a short list, as you may well imagine). Have a look at these two videos and see what you think. The first on is Computer Camp Love - see if ye can spot the Grease references:
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And here's 'Fa Fa Fa'. Nothing to do with Otis Redding's (sad song) - they seem to be channelling Talking Heads funky groove though.
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