Couple of Tracks

So thought I'd share what I've been listening to this week. Not that I'll be doing this every week mind. Just y'know, when I can be bothered.

The first is an absolutely pounding slice of hip-hop courtesy of Childish Gambino. I'm pretty behind on what the heck is going on these days since I've been touring Africa. That and I'm a loser. This track is absolutely great though. And even if it wasn't, anybody who finds their rap-name in a Wu-Tang name generator and also enjoys a successful career as a writer for 30 Rock and as a stand-up comic gets my nod of approval.

Freaks and Geeks- Childish Gambino

On a completely different level, weren't you totally just sitting on your butt today wishing that Hard-Rockin Gospel music was the new electro? ... Oh. Right. Well screw you, I'm going to be recommending this anyway. They're basically a bunch of kids who really love Tom Waits, The White Stripes and John Steinbeck books. Naturally I think that they are incredible. Oh, and they're from Bath.

Pray On Me- Kill It Kid

Good Winter

Bon Iver 'Bon Iver' Review

I haven't done any reviewing in a little while, but as anybody who knows me will tell you, I am something of a Justin Vernon fanatic. 

Justin Vernon returns with an album that is both a natural progression from his debut 'For Emma Forever Ago' and its musical counterpoint. Just as 'For Emma's' defining theme was loneliness, 'Bon Iver' revels in its sense of multitude. Where before there was sparseness, 'Bon Iver' is densely layered.

Album closer Beth/Rest is the logical conclusion of Bon Iver's experimentation.  Overblown and swaggering to the level of Axl Rose it lies in stark contrast to the beautiful Re:Stacks of yesteryear. With 'Bon Iver', Vernon completes the transformation from isolated soul to textured multi-instrumentalist that we heard in 'Blood Bank'. Songs like Holcene and Walsh make use of distinct rhythmic sections and retro samples as well as autotune and dense layers of reverb.

Ultimately, the problem with 'Bon Iver' is that Vernon has released an album in a new destination, but seems confused as to where he has arrived at. It is not so much that 'Bon Iver' is a change of direction. More that it could have been released by almost any other artist this year. Stand-out songs like Perth have all the hall marks of classic Bon Iver, reverb-drenched vocals, delicate melodies and cute harmonies yet these traits are also those of Grizzy Bear, Cults and whoever the hell Brooklyn decides to churn out this week. And they would have done it a little better too.

Sure 'Bon Iver' is a pretty album. It paints lovely pictures of various parts of North America, but the tracks struggle to resonate with the subject matter. Instead Bon Iver plumps for nice sounding but nonsensical soundbites like 'Solar peace/ Well it whirls and sweeps/ You just set it'  (Hinnom TX). Lovely, but it doesn't mean a whole lot. Perhaps another comparison should be made. Where 'For Emma' was heartfelt, 'Bon Iver' is vague.

'Bon Iver' is not without interesting ideas. Holocene is sublime and Beth/Rest makes fantastic use of overdrive but tracks like Lisbon are pure filler. Luckily we have Michicant to remind us of Vernon's undoubted talent as a song writer. It is an ode to boyhood, bicycle bell and all. It is simple, playfully rhythmic and reverberates with a sense of loss and nostalgia.

'Bon Iver' is absolutely worth listening to, preferably several times. But after you have done that, listen to Re: Stacks and remember what came before.

Assante Sana

The local name for Victoria Falls is Mosi-o-tunya, The Smoke That Thunders. As with every major attraction in Africa, it is immortalised in a million post cards, sculptures, paintings and even its own beer ‘Mosi’ to the point that before arrival the traveller might well think that he has already been. These tiny snapshots daubed on card and relentlessly advertised across Zambia are, like everything I saw in Africa, nothing when compared to the mighty vision that greeted me on arrival.

 
Over 6 million years old, the Victoria Falls plunge down a face of basalt rock. The waters were high when we arrived, sending spray that could be seen from 30 kilometers distant. Imagine a giant garden sprinkler launching sheets of water (there is nothing so dainty of droplets here) hundreds of feet into the air. A quick walk along Victoria Gorge was wetter than most baths I have taken.



I have chosen to first (inadequately) describe Victoria Falls because it is iconic. I could have chosen almost anywhere. The sheer beauty of South-Eastern Africa is daunting. The open planes of the Serengheti, miles of flatness punctured by protrusions of rock. In the distance you can see entire storms brewing, unleashing and dispersing. The Ngorogoro crater: the red soil of Africa drags lush vegetation from the ground and feeds herds far as the eye can see. The Sahara as seen from the air, a scabbed skin stretched across the earth, smoothing itself into the cloudline and dotted with sidewinder-like dunes.

“It is a good place,” the man next to me on my flight to Nairobi assured me. Quite.

I am not one for nature. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I bore easily, that I am often hyperactive and find it hard to sit still. I have never before been able to while away hours simply looking at things. On the Great Rift Valley, no amount of time was too much.

Africa’s wildlife is on a par with her natural beauty. In these limited photographs I have tried to convey a small sense of what I saw. It is futile to say that these things must be experienced. We all know that.

In this case I have tried to convey a sense of my excitement. A distant shot of animals, partially obscured. The regularity and diversity of wildlife forced me to revise my photo-taking philosophy. That and I am a shit photographer. Pretty soon the only pictures to make the cut are this.

And this.

Elephants move absolutely silently. Their weight is dispersed over four solidly muscular legs giving them a lilting gait. Like ghosts they appear slowly, melting into being as they emerge from the undergrowth until they are suddenly so utterly there. Solid, powerful and slow they stare, registering every movement. Their movements are confident and relaxed. They know that nothing on this earth compares to them.

I have taken a fair few photographs of these. You can never have too many.

Oh an by the way, here is a male lion. They sleep for 20 hours a day. The females do the hunting. As far as I can tell they spend most of their time looking like utter heroes. I could absolutely get into that lifestyle.

I am keeping this blog-post concise since even with more description all I can honestly do is give but a vague impression of my visit. To anybody who is listening, I like to say that I have been to Africa. This is an understatement at best, and at worst an insult. This is not for some luvvie attempt to portray myself as having a social conscience. It is simply the truth. What I visited was a small part of the south-east of an unimaginably vast continent. I did not even begin to touch the west: Cape Town, Ghana, Angola or the North: Egypt and though when on a map they seem tantalisingly close, I know that even were I to spend a lifetime on the continent I would visit less than a single percentage of the sights worth seeing and meet even less than that of the people worth meeting.

Here are a couple of my favourite shots.

Oh alright alright. I admit it. I watched the Lion King when I returned.

By the way "Asante Sana! Squash banana! We we nuga! Mi mi apana!". That’s a real saying. It means, “You’re a baboon. I am not.”

Oh, and here is the greatest song of all time.

NFL Playoffs

It's January, and for probably less than a single percent of the world's population, that means gluing yourself to the television for some National Football League action. For the rest of the world, sorry but you're missing out. I'm going to bet that the average attention span for a European viewer, used to the quick action of soccer or rugby union will be something in the region of five minutes. Usually after this they will start playing absent mindedly, huff a little and then start saying things.
These things inevitably are, in no particular order:
"This is shit."
"Why do they keep stopping all the time?"
"Nothing is happening."
Or all of the above.
Usually during these times, oblivious to the chess-match played by warriors blaring from the screen in front of them they will go and make some snacks or generally mooch off to get on with their evenings. This is probably a good thing for two reasons:
a) If it is the former perhaps they can get you some snacks too. These games can go on a long time.
or
b) With them out of the room it leaves no room for comments like, "I could definitely take *insert name of 250ib, 4.4 forty yard dashing player*, look at all those wussy pads."
Seriously, as much as we aren't big on those damned yanks and their confuzzling hobbies, this is one to get into. My recommendation is to support a team in each game. American Football games can get hair-pullingly tense and given that every single play can go all the way for a touchdown, even teams with enormous leads can see them vanish in the last seconds of the quarter.
Although the games take a long time, the action is 'blink-and-you'll-miss-it' quick. The NFL is one of the fastest leagues in the world and the game is designed for those with lightning fast reflexes despite their size.
We are at the playoffs now, a crucial period in the year where the 4 divisional champions in the AFC and NFC conferences and two 'wild-card' teams play in a knock out tournament to crown the new AFC Champion and NFC Champion respectively. These two winning teams then play each other in the glitzy superbowl with the aim of becoming, the ambitiously titled "Champions of the World."
 I've included, for anybody reading a quick list of the teams involved and why they are contenders. Pick your favourite and get watching (games are streamed on atdhe.net, and you usually grab them on sky sports).
I'll start with the AFC and move on the the NFC in a couple of days.

AFC
1. New England Patriots

The pretty much undisputed best team in the AFC right now. The AFC East champions have been consistently incredible all year and best of all are doing it with a very young team. Under the experienced eye of Tom Brady, a dizzyingly talented athlete with a trio of superbowl rings and the ballistic ability of a high-powered sniper rifle, the Patriots have aimed for nothing less than perfection in everything: running, passing, defence. For a rookie fan wanting to know how this game should be played, the Patriots are the team to watch.

2. Pittsburgh Steelers

If the Patriots represent the skilled finesse of a fencer, the Steelers are the brutal power of a marauding viking. From the tough manufacturing town of Pittsburgh, the Steelers are a team you love to hate. They play nasty aggressive football, characterised by linebacker Troy Polamalu. Linebackers are the guys who try and catch opponents passes or tackle them before they get too far up the field and this is a role in which Polamalu excels. He loves to charge down quarterbacks, smashing them to the turf faster than they can blink and if he can't manage that, well, their dainty wide receivers are going to be in trouble if they even dare to get anywhere near the ball. Worse still, the Steelers have a big bastard of a quarterback. Usually these guys are quite easy to knock over. Sadly Ben "Big Ben" Roethlisberger is not. He's fucking massive and likes nothing better than to batter defenders whilst picking out that unmarked receiver to hurl the ball to. The Steelers are nasty bastards and if you're in it for the violence (let's face it, you are) then they're the men to see.

NB As number one and two seeds in the playoffs, neither the Pats or Steelers will be playing this week, they'll be playing the winners of the next lot.

3. Indianapolis Colts

Oh bloody hell I wrote a lot about the Steelers didn't I? Despite the fact that I hate them. Anyway, the Colts were snubbed for the Superbowl last year by young upstarts, the New Orleans Saints and despite having an incredible quarterback in the name of Peyton Manning, they've struggled to return to form this year. That doesn't mean that they are not formidable though: bad form for the Colts is the sort of finesse that your average Carolina Panther fan can only dream of. I wouldn't follow the Colts for two reasons though: one, they have shit uniforms and two, this is not their season. Still, if you want to be schooled in how to throw a ball or engineer a heart-attack inducing last minute comeback, Peyton Manning is your man.
They'll be playing New York Jets this Saturday.

4.  New York Jets
A bit of a surprise really, these Jets. Coached by Rex Ryan, the coach of the mighty Baltimore Ravens, the Jets have played their hearts out this season. They have a really fucking irritating quarterback called Mark Sanchez, but he's also really quite good so we can probably forgive that. The Jets main feature is that they are basically a big gang of nasty bastards who like to hit people really hard. Sadly in the AFC this does not make you unique. The Jets need to prove that they really have what it takes to be playing with the Patriots and the Steelers this year and earn their stripes.

5. Baltimore Ravens
There will be no bias in this paragraph. Except this little bit where I say that the Baltimore Ravens are incredible. Actually, they've been a little bit disappointing this season. Which is strange because they finished 12-4, their best ever record and have made the playoffs. All this goes to show though is the sheer amount of potential on this team. Their quarterback Joe Flacco has a cannon of an arm. They have runners who are small and agile like Ray Rice and runners who can smash shit up like Willis McGahee. They have speedy receivers, massive lineman and of course the defence. One of the most feared in the league, the Ravens will cause problems for any quarterback. Similar to the Steelers (though never tell a Raven that), the defence relies on the ball-grabbing skills of the speedy Ed Reed and the terrifying tackles of Ray Lewis, Tyrell Suggs and Haloti Ngata. On paper, the Ravens have everything: speed, aggression and power; problem is they haven't quite shown it yet. Will this year be their time to prove it?

6. Kansas City Chiefs
These guys put the "wild" in 'wild-card'. Nobody expected them to get far in fact, this is the first time they have made the playoffs since 1993. A cynic might say that they have been blessed with an easy schedule and a lackluster division. The Kansas City Chiefs should not be underestimated though. They might have gone down last week to the Oakland Raiders, but everybody expects them to have sorted whatever was wrong out in the playoffs. They have a fantastic running back in the name of Jamaal Charles. Most of all, they have a lot to prove.

So that's the AFC. An exciting clutch of the best teams in the sport, these playoffs should be fantastic.

Next up, the NFC and my picks for this weekends games.

A Short Story

They were two conical hats, stalking from stagnant grass. Sickly odours of saturated fats and revelry drifted from the mess hall. The air wallowed in sound.

“Benite came to us by the sea,” said the first.
“The sea came to us,” said the second. He was the dryer of the pair.
“Do you think Ricardo will have much luck?” said the first.
“Not the sea,” said the second, thoughtfully, “The sea is salty.”
He bent over and picked up some of the sodden earth. It stayed, slouched into his palm and refusing to crumble.
“I said,” said the first, “Do you think that Ricardo will have much luck?”
“The sea is full of life too,” said the second, “Reefs. Plankton. Not this squalid swamp of weeds and gnats.”

They carried on like this for some time, exchanging chatter over the throbbing laughter cascading from the mess-hall. Soon, night was staggering into being, casting long shadows across the turgid earth. The pair moved on, oblivious. Here and there, they lit scented lamps to keep away the flies and snakes.

“How,” said the first, “Have you not acquired trench foot?”
The second shrugged, “Nor has Benite, or many of his closer followers.”
The first stiffened, offended. The buzzing of a swarm of flies, doggedly surging towards the light and smell of the mess hall filled the gap.
“You are not Benite,” said the first finally.
“Listen to that crowd,” said the second, after a while.
“They can be happy,” said the first, “The water is leaving and we can settle again. For you or I though, things will not change.”
“Only after Ricardo left,” said the second.
Then they paused, a full circuit of their slushy stomping ground nearly complete. A row of winking candles on stepping stones marked their path through the mire.
“Why did you not answer me earlier?”
“Benite came to us over the sea,” said the first again, “And the rains were gone. What did Ricardo offer but misery, trench foot and squalor?”
The second said, “Ricardo left to take the rains with him.”
The first said, “He still left.” A beat. “I do not think that he will have much luck at all.”
The second shrugged.
“For us, things will not change.”

They were growing cold. Night’s frozen fingers groped playfully at their necks and moisture was jostling for room with feet on the stepping stones. They lit the final lamps and slumped back to the mess hall, fending away flies as they vanished into the light and the noise.

The next day, after six years of rain the drought started.
Once again, the colony changed for good.

Gaudemus igitur, iuvenes dum sumus.

Post iucundam iuventutem, 

Post molestam senectutem,

Nos habebit humus, nos habebit humus.

It is clouded over tonight, but it is not always so.

When I was 16, I was lucky enough to take part in a month long trip to Peru. For most of that you are a mile above sea level, on or above the cloud line. At night it is beautiful.

Mentioning the constellation is always a rather clichéd way of opening a discussion on theism or lack of it but it is probably one of the best ways of doing so. Other places where one may experience the same feeling are atop a mountain, looking across a great cityscape or perhaps best still in the ever-enduring peace that comes when knelt alone under the raised arch of a beautifully crafted cathedral.

I often despair at some of the reasoning behind the existance of God. My favourite irritation is that 'The Evidence is all around us.'

To this I must requote (as have many before me) the famous Douglas Adams line, "Is not the garden beautiful enough without inventing fairies to live at the bottom of it."

For millenia people have looked in awe at the stars and wondered 'Why?'. That has always seemed a little odd to me. The question in my mind is not 'why are they there?', that takes far too much brainpower alltogether. Instead I am content to simply be awed.

There is beauty in civilisation, from what we have made of it. Staggering beauty. There is beauty in nature too. Elegance, chaos, awe. Everything.

Anybody who can look at these things, experience them fully and yet still be underwhelmed enough to wonder about the identity of their maker or whether the movements of these great forces will somehow be part of some divine plan or other seems to me to be somewhat cynical.

Some things from my trip.

A desert in the sky. 

 

 

An old old town. 

Orchids. One of the rarest plants on the planet.

 

 

I am not preaching. Nor do I think that I am particularly original. Nor do I think that my examples based entirely on my own experiences are particularly great (a simple glance at the pages of the National Geographic should prove otherwise), but what I do think is that  there is too much in this world to narrow it down into the dusty pages of an ancient book. 

 

The world is simply too amazing.