Gilbert & George.

Gilbert & George., originally uploaded by NeueDeutsche.

Taken outside their house in Fournier Street, Spitalfields.

Totally Wired.

Totally Wired (Signed), originally uploaded by NeueDeutsche.

Signed By:
Simon Reynolds (Author)
Colin Newman (Wire)
Tom Morley (Scritti Politti)
Ana Da Silva (Raincoats)
Viv Albertine (Slits)

Jarvis Cocker (Live Video)

Jarvis Cocker (Live Video), originally uploaded by NeueDeutsche.

As well as photo's I shall be posting videos that I have recorded and in this case Jarvis Cocker dancing around at his in-store gig at Rough Trade, London. The gig was the second occasion I have had the pleasure of meeting Jarvis and he is a thoroughly lovely chap. Oh, and if you are wondering what the song is it is 'Caucasian Blues' from the album 'Further Complications'.

Jarvis Cocker: "Matt? Is that like Matt with two T's?"
Matt: "Yeah; else it'd be like the sort you wipe your feet on"
Jarvis Cocker: "No one steps on you Matt."

My Mate...

My Mate..., originally uploaded by NeueDeutsche.

Marmite.

This is an old photo from my Flickr account, every now and again I will be posting a random photo that I have taken; not for any reason other than to add another visual dimension to my blog.

Rabbit.

My mind had erased all memory of this video until I was sat on the Oxford Tube this afternoon staring at the fields through drizzly window panes thinking about rabbits. It was Reading Festival a few years ago, the final day and all the bands were back safely in their porta-cabins. Myself, Joe and Jonny had reached new found levels of inebriation thanks to several bottles of Bourbon. We walked (sorry, stumbled) into a one of the huge marquees as a gaggle of dread-locked employees were cleaning up rubbish with pointy-ended sticks. This video was playing in the background. At the time it was far from what our whiskey soaked minds needed and from watching you'll probably understand why. Silent, motionless we watched in cloudy eyed awe:

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly.

Yesterday our course had a visiting lecturer who happened to be my tutor from my BA degree. Dr. Roger Sabin is arguably the worlds leading expert on comic-book culture and has written numerous books and papers on the subject. I must confess, and Roger has been made well aware of this in the past that comics have practically escaped me. The few occasions I have read any comics were when I purchased the ever so occasional Beano or Dandy when I was a child (more interested in the promotional drumstick lolly) or when I was given a (for what was the majority sexually explicit) copy of 2000 A.D when they were being given away in Newquay as a part of a promotion (I was about 10 years old at the time.)

In the course of the lecture/seminar we discussed comic books in relation to wider cultural concerns and I would like to further discuss one of the points I raised in the discussion duration. It seems to me that comic characters differ greatly when looking at the American and British output contrastingly. In America most superheros start off as dowdy geeky sorts with little hope in life and are subsequently transformed into a 'hero' with muscles, personality and earth saving abilities. In Britain however our comic book characters are similarly geeky, flawed and outsiders but make a virtue of it through rebellion and making the best of what has been given to them.

It is also interesting to note how the 'ideal' physique is represented. Let's look at Clark Kent/Superman as an example:


Here we see Clark Kent as civilian, nothing remarkable in his appearance with 'preppy' style and large framed glasses, an unassuming character.


...and here we see Clark Kent transformed as Superman with over-accentuated muscular structure, minus spectacles, clothing with a figure hugging silhouette. To me this has a lot to do with specific targeting and the quest for 'The American Dream.' Comic books, for the most part are read by adolescent boys and always have been. These days (in particular) this audience is seen as 'geeky' and the sort of audience who are not particularly renowned for their suave lothario nature (I am well aware this is a massive generalisation but I feel it humorously illustrates my point.) American comics seem to make the 'Average-Joe' uncomfortable with their god-given lot and yes, YOU too can be 'a' Superman if your heart desires. This notion is backed-up with the inclusion of specific advertisement alongside the comic strips, spot-creams and Mountain Dew all apparently making you one step closer to invincibility.

Before I go onto give British examples I shall stick with this theme of 'Americanization' and look now to Action Man as he is known here, or, over the pond as G.I. Joe.
Once again we have an instantly noticeable difference in physique ideals; Examples:


Here we see British 'Action Man' slight of figure, gormless expression, the only real 'action' coming from a little toggle at the rear of his head to make his eyes move.


...and here is G.I. Joe with highly emphasised torso, once again America seems to give it's children a different ideal for aspiration complete with 'dynamic' facial expressions, all features are made larger apart from the feet which need to fit into standardised army boots giving the doll strange proportions which is not necessarily the case with 'Action Man.'

With this in mind let's look at some of Britain's most beloved comic book characters:

Billy Bunter as one example endears himself to use through humorous and obsessive gluttony and he is not the only character whose main trait was to eat, this seems to be a uniquely British fixation far removed from the ultra-fit and honed figures of American comics and toys.


Desperate Dan was the main character of The Dandy, a character whose 'superhero' status was played out through the consumption of enormous pies made from entire cows horns n' all.


The Bash Street Kids were featured in the pages of The Beano, a British institution, each character weirder, uglier and more flawed than the next to some children these characters were heroes because of their rebellious anti-parental, anti-establishment stance.

It seems that here in Blighty we are most comfortable when poking fun at our foibles, muscle and brawn are not conducive to the alleviation of social status. Instead we would much rather show our mettle through eating epic pies, placing a whoopee cushion under a teachers posterior or being rotund and funny looking. Here we are more than happy to be Clark Kent as opposed to Superman and aspire to an Action Man who looks like Nicholas Lyndhurst.

Books (1)

I thought I would let you know the books I have recently read, am currently reading or have recently purchased with the intention of reading in the non to distant future. I have a slight problem in that if I see a book I want in a shop (or anywhere else for that matter) more often than not I have to buy it; when it comes to books I have no control and I have somewhere in the region of 800 of the things in my possession but to be honest I've lost count as half of them are back at my parents house in Cornwall.

Anyway, here, for your delectation, a few tomes:

On Some Faraway Beach: The Life & Times of Brian Eno - David Sheppard. (Eno Biography)

20 Jazz Funk Greats - Drew Daniel. (Throbbing Gristle Album)

Cowley Road: A History - Annie Skinner. (Cowley Road, Oxford)

Miracles Of Life - J.G. Ballard. (Ballard Autobiography)

Bryan Ferry.

"You never bother about anyone else, you're well educated with no common sense, but love, that's one thing you really need to get by."

A Really Good Time - Roxy Music.

Recipease.

I have heard a lot about Recipease, the new Jamie Oliver ‘food and kitchen shop’ in Clapham. I am a self-confessed armchair foodie, I enjoy food immensely but enjoy nothing more than watching food television, flicking through a (dare I say) glossy celebrity-chef endorsed recipe book or magazine. Jamie Oliver fits into the ‘celebrity chef’ bracket more than most and ‘Recipease’ helps to back this notion presenting Oliver as a global brand with shelf upon shelf of Oliver-face-endorsed merchandising.

We enter the ‘shop’ in a huddle and we are immediately greeted by the cheery chirpings of the staff, who incidentally are lovely in every sense of the word but I am not entirely convinced that they didn’t go through some rigorous ‘pucka’ lingo training programme in order to fill employment briefs. No grey hairs in sight the staff are bouncy and ‘street’ and only just on the correct side of being, to use a food pun, cheesy. We are here to make Risotto, in our case of the wild mushroom variety.

We are told to gather around the central station and we are taken through the basic elements of what makes the dish but just before we even touch a pan we are given an Orwellian message from on high in the form of a DVD introduction from the great man himself. Jamie (it seems more than appropriate to refer to him by his first name) wishes us luck and tells us that we are in the capable hands of the ‘kitchen champions’ which is Recipease lexicon for ‘chef.’ Our kitchen champion makes it known that Jamie and herself are good mates and should you have any burning questions as regarding him as a person to please let her know.

First we are told to turn our hobs to ‘5’ an order that I find disturbingly succinct, in-fact all margins of potential error are removed and all ingredients are ready chopped, measured and arranged as if they are ready for a screening as part of a television recipe. Is it any wonder we are about to create ‘the perfect Risotto?’ In-fact the only stage in the creation that allowed a refreshing foray into dangerous inaccuracy was when our ‘kitchen champion’ splashed wine into our pans with seemingly unforeseen gay-abandon and we were then allowed to season creations to our own palettes.

After some stirring and pouring, but only when told to do so and a few variations in hob temperature anywhere between 1-5 we are told to dish and present the finished product and not unsurprisingly it tasted wonderful.

We ate with cutlery forged with the J-Me branding, cooked with utensils and drank out of coffee cups all bearing the proprietors name with a few Jamie magazines nonchalantly strewn about the table. Although I admire Jamie Oliver it is seemingly and increasingly more for his canny business sense these days than anything else. The only Jamie Oliver products I own are in the medium of printed word but then again that is the nice thing about recipe books, you can do your own measuring, add extra ingredients if you are feeling so inclined and to any amateur, young and not even necessarily enthusiastic cook the writings of Oliver are as good a place as any to start.

At £35 per person it is a nice gift for anyone who wishes to pass an hour or so with guaranteed results although if you are the adventurous sort and doesn’t like to be bound to portioned ingredients and cooking on ‘5’ I would suggest buying Oliver’s book ‘Jamie’s Kitchen’ instead where you can find an identikit version of the recipe and of course so much more besides. As a closing point I feel I should also let you know that if you are indeed going to visit the shop you can even walk away with an authentic Jamie ready-meal, plant-pot or hand-cream. Need you shop anywhere else? With a growing online shopping empire, maybe not.

(Image: http://earthfirst.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/jamie-oliver.jpg)