James Cameron's Film might at first just look like a Love Story set against the most famous maritime Disaster in History, but there's a lot more to it than that.
At the end we see "Titanic Liverpool" painted on the Stern of the Ship - disappear into the depths of icy North Atlantic. Rewind the VHS (they still had those in 1997) and we see the mighty Ship through the Window of a Bar where we meet Jack Dawson and his Italian Friend Fabrizio. They win a Game of Poker and are both hugely excited about "going to America". And they are, on the last Word in Engineering, a safe Ship - whose name suggests "size and strength" (re; Bruce Ismay). What could possibly go wrong?
While they celebrate their good fortune we see People going aboard, so does everyone in Southampton, but one of those Passengers is a young Woman called Rose. "To everyone else it was the Ship of Dreams - to me it was a Slave Ship!" she says. Those on the Quayside just see the Glamour - they don't see what Rose is feeling.
As the Film progresses we see that it isn't quite as wonderful. We see the Segregation - even when Lives are at stake, we see the snobbishness, we see the violence as Lovejoy beats up Jack, or Hockley his Fiancee. We see the Tokenism - when Jack is invited for one Night only to do Dinner with the posh People. He thinks he's become one of them - until he tried going back and how he is treated then. How he was at the start - People jumping to Conclusions.
So, no Habeous Corpus on the worlds most civilised and prestigious Ship then!!!!!
It was built in 1908, so was a Hotel in London - by William Waldorf Astor - brother of the richest Man on the Ship - John Jacob. Jack has his token Evening with the posh People - so does someone else at that Hotel, while he was also excited about how things might be happening then. He is made to realise that he isn't one of them, and there is scant chance of ever being.
Except, this Story has a Subtext that continued with other Films. Hockley and those others are all part of Philadelphian Society, but what if someone called Dawson had gone with William Penn Jnr to establish Pennsylvania in the late 1600s? In "Pirates of the Caribbean" someone else called Jack has a Father who is keeper of the Pirate Code - as laid down by Henry Morgan - who went with Penn Snr to capture Jamaica in 1655. When Mr Warner beats up Mr Dawson the latter has the same name as a certain Film Companies Co-Founder. When George Calvert - Lord Baltimore - became Proprietor of Avalon in Newfoundland he only did so because it was established by someone called Edward Wynne who disappears from Record after that. Rose becomes Rose Calvert after she marries later in the Story. "We couldn't find any Record of Jack - nothing anywhere" Brock Lovetts Assistant says.
The Disaster was in 1912 but that last scene of the Ship says something about when the Film was made. We had just had this big Beatles Revival thanks to certain 90's Guitar Groups, and in 1996 a very bizarre Readers Poll made "Revolver" the Album of the year - even though it was released 30 years before. That the Decade that started with the token Gesture at that Hotel had become this 60's Revival instead of what ought to have happened. There's this Rock Album with Groups that suggested "size and strength" - the same certainty Ismay's Ship did - what could possibly go wrong? Perhaps that "Titanic - Liverpool" things says what did, or how the Ship was run does. That while everything looks glamorous Jack seems to be the only one who knows what to do. Even Captain Smith looks phased as he retreats into his Quarters. So there must have been People somewhere in all of this who subscribed to all those things the Errors on the Ship are analogous for. People stuck in the 60's instead of where and when they should be - 1989-91. That the 60's wasn't all it was hyped up to be, and Rose's "Slave Ship" comment both refers to a Practice ended by someone else called Wynne - while "Penny Lane" was one of Liverpool's most notorious Slave Traders.
Not so Fab after all!
Why not share this to Facebook, Twitter etc....
Yours truly - 1996.
Wonder how many People have met here ....
Now ...... Here's something that's a bit of a Coincidence(?????????)
These were built in the early 90's
Here's some more relevant Stuff ......
https://metrowynn.blogspot.com/2016/09/memorabilia.html?m=1
https://metrowynn.blogspot.com/2016/10/more-memorabilia.html?m=1
It was that 'Liverpool' thing that started the 60's - except how did that wretched Decade end - Culturally? It ended with a White Trash, Racist Hippie Rock Festival called Altamont.
ReplyDeleteNot only was Penny Lane one of Liverpool's worst Slave Traders - so much so they commemorated him with a Street name and a Song in 1967 - someone who campaigned against racist Segregation was released that year. So it wasn't just Events in the former Warsaw Pact and those of Beirut that happened at the start of the 90's - there was also the release of the Worlds most famous Dissident, Nelson Mandela.
While those glamorous People in Southampton weren't what they seemed neither were those I met in the early 90's, People I'd wanted to be in the 1970's-80's. That, finally - it looked like something with "size and strength" had happened that meant I might. But - like with Jack - all it was was a token Day at that Hotel in London. The rest of it was also like him and Rose - spending the years battling through everything.
Also, if the 60's culminated in Altamont I'm not surprised how some have become in rather more years than January 1st 1960 to December 6th 1969.
That what happened in 1989-91 could be described as the positive Culturo-campaign Stuff that might have started in the 1960's - the Stuff that doesn't involve Drugs, Hells Angels and Altamont, but was squandered by those who obviously weren't with the Program. That someone else called Wynne wasn't a designer Social Conscience - working in Ireland - but whose Surname wasn't Hewson or Geldof might explain why no-one has heard of him. Ditto for Edward Wynne - similarly obscured by George Calvert.
ReplyDelete"Titanic" is an exploration of Disappointment, and while Hockley might have been a Philadelphian Socialite, the Pennsylvanian City rocked to Live Aid in 1985, but had it not been for William Penn there would be no City to have rocked at all. That the Gig was aimed at ending Famine in Ethiopia - while that genuine Social Conscience did more than he had to to help those stricken with same in 1840s Ireland. His Father voted against the Legislation that facilitated it (the Act of Union 1800) while he ended Slavery - others just sing about it!
Also, while there's no Record of Jack on that Passenger List there's also none of someone else on certain Concert Guest Lists either!
That Segregation at all costs - even when 100's of Lives are at stake - shows you how detestable some People can be.
ReplyDeleteWe see Ruth, Molly Brown ..................... Bruce Ismay - in those Lifeboats. They're not flailing about in that icy Water or battling their way through the Ship are they! The Segregation saw to that. This is an accurate Metaphor for what had happened by 1997. In 1996 another Film about the disaster has the SS California 12 Miles away from the stricken Ship - but who ignore their Plight. 12 Miles, that's about the distance from Bristol to here isn't it? So, how many People couldn't seem to make that 12 Mile Journey in the years before both Films were made, even when they do have their own Transport?
The consequences of that are now all too apparent and what's weird about recent years is how you meet People - now 40 somethings - who are like those who were in those 1997 Lifeboats. Those of us flailing about in that Water is like continually doing so in the Street these days, while they aren't of course!
Jacks one Night with the posh People, and that's it, doesn't just apply to that tokenist day at that Hotel in London, it also applies to People you might meet in Bristol, where everything is all so deep and meaningful - but once whatever has ended do you ever see them again?
Not sure who might have been responsible for that but Hockley shoots himself in the Crash of 1929, while certain Record Companies went through something similar a few years ago. If they were responsible then I have about as much sympathy for them as Rose did her Fiancee!
What was particularly brilliant about the Film was how Shibboleths of Rock and Pop Culture - ancient and modern - came in for some Criticism. "Get Back!!!" William Murdoch says as he points a Gun at the Crowd (The Beatles), "Do you want to live - or want to die" - the Steward says - quoting Oasis ("Live forever") when someone suggests they return to find any Survivors, Dave 'Brock' Lovett, 'Calvert' etc - who might "Disappear in Smoke" and be those "Masters of the Universe" - a less than flattering reference to Hippie Stalwarts Hawkwind - because Lovett never let it in, while Stewards never let People through. All of this says that for all their Posturings about being the Voice of the People etc - it was 1997, but it might as well have been 1912, 2 years before the First World War. Even Hockleys Thug aludes to a certain Buch of Girls who appeared the year before with "Wannabe".
ReplyDeleteSo who is the Enemy of Progress here - a Film Maker who confronts all these subtle forms of Elitism or those who subscribe to them?
Then there's something that really does provide a geographical Location - and this is another "Pirates of......" Cross-reference. Mr Lovejoy was also a Character played by the man who would later play Blackbeard - the Anatgonist in "On stranger Tides". Mr McShane is particularly nasty in that and runs his Ship rather like Jones does the Flying Dutchman, while his Daughter is played by (Penelope) Penny Cruz. Beautiful yes, treacherous - also, unfortunately yes. Not what she seems, while there's even a Scene where she has stolen Jacks Identity. "I've come to take myself back" Sparrow says.
So why is "Titanic" so successful - rated the most successful Film of all time in 1997 - which looking at the Decades of Competition - "Gone with Wind", "Ben Hur", the entire "Star Wars" Franchise, "ET" - all of them is quite an Acheivement. Even Films since still haven't caught up - the "Lord of the Rings" - with the Hype, Merchandise, the Internet, Blu Ray, Downloads and Streaming, and being based on the 2nd best selling Book of all time - hasn't. Is it because it transcends all of these things - maing them look contrived and cold in comparision? How it confronts some of those Pop and Rock Shibboleths might explain other reasons, while it connects with things that also transcends all that stuff. It has been surpassed since by a Film which is the ultimate digital Media Movie - "Avatar" made by...........James Cameron.
So, not only does it make certain Cultural Phenomena look mean spirited it also makes them look rather pretentious!
Even those "Wealth and Land" People can be seen in context as the Money it has made could build what we have seen here 4 times.
..............And if it knocks even the most successful Guitar Pop Group of all time into the proverbial Cocked Hat how does it make a pretentious little Town whose eponymous Group has left some off of its 'Passenger List' look? If what I have met in all they years are that brilliant why are they here - and not working on the next James Cameron Movie?
ReplyDeleteA hand comes out of a Lake holding a Rose!
While Jack and Fabrizio never made it America - anyone who saw the 1996 Movie will know someone else didn't. Someone made Demis Rousos famous, but before the Helium voiced Singer sang "Forever and ever" in the 1970's he was in a seriously Psychedelic Group called "Aphrodite's Child" They had a Song called "All the Seats were occupied" - except in this instance they weren't - with disastrous Consequences. So we get some horrible old Woman who seems more screwed up about her Face Powder and Harris Wardrobe than how 1500 People have just died.
ReplyDeletePeople know that some of those Lifeboats were only half - and even a third - full when they fled the stricken Ship. That Woman's Attitude isn't dissimilar to that of People in this - where there was still room for others.
While something connects Messers Dawson and Sparrow via Henry Morgan - Hockley might act like the foppish Philadelphian but maybe Jack had more right to be there than he did.
Who can forget that Song. "My Heart will go on" by Canada's most famous Quebec-an. But there's a connection here that becomes apparent if or when you see the "Titanic" Movie that was made the year before. In that we have a Character called Wynn Park, who is to Catherine Zeta Jones what Leonardo De Caprio is to Kate/Catherine Winslet.
That James Horner Soundtrack is steeped in Celtic references, be it "Waiting for an Absolution" to "Hymn to the Sea" - even the Steerage Band - Gaelic Storm. This suggests a real life Character who helped People escape the Famine in Ireland. He also helped end Slavery ("It was a Slave Ship" Rose says). John Arthur Wynne sent those People from his Estates in Ireland to settle in Quebec, Canada. (See John Arthur Wynne - an unsung Philanthropist).
The Scene with the Driftwood, where Jack holds Rose's Hand has been described as one of the most emotional in Film History - and while I might have listened to some rather tough Music over the years - from Rock to Reggae - that Song has a similar Effect. But then, it's going to isn't it!
At the end of the Film we see Rose throw the Heart of the Ocean into the Sea like a Votive (an Offering People made - the most famous being Bedywr/Bedivere throwing Excalibur into a Lake). In "The Curse of the Black Pearl" Elizabeth falls into the Sea wearing another Necklace - while Rose has her Grand Daughter - Lizzie. "Where did you get that?" Sparrow asks Ms Swann. She got it from the young William Turner who they found floating on Driftwood in that Fog. So, where did it come from?
There's a Documentary appropriately called "Titanic - the complete Story" because it tells another.
ReplyDeleteIt's narrated by David McCallum - who played Alan Breck Suart in HTV's "Kidnapped" - note they didn't get John Leyton to do it ("Square Leopard") although - as he was also in "The Great Escape" there's still a parable. "Kidnapped" the Story of David Balfour - rightful Heir to the Balfour Estate - scuppered by someone called Ebenezer. "Kidnapped" - like People were in Lebanon (See Memorabilia Post).
While Hockley is that foppish Philadelphian someone else had as much right to be there as he did. I remember a former MP for Weston Super Mare being a bit stroppy in 1992-3 at the BBC about that someone. He was also on the Board of Lloyds Insurance - the Maritime Insurance Company, and while White Star claimed from them in 1912 Nathan Hockley does for that Necklace in the Film.
So there seems to have been quite a few People who assumed being somewhere while others couldn't. Those others - like the Steerage Passengers - weren't even allowed to talk to those few People. How about the Radio Operators - Philips and McBride - too busy processing Small Talk and private Messages to deal with stuff that might have been important. Rather like anyone who did same rather than anything important in this.
"The Great Escape" - legendary MGM Movie about those POW's. The Music written by Elmer Bernstein - who also wrote that rousing Piece that introduced "Arthur of the Britons"...........
It's also worth remembering here that those Shipping Companies made more Money from Steerage than 2nd and lst Class. They might have paid less for their Tickets but there were always more of them and they got rather less for their Money than People having Caviar, Champagne, Gognac, Brandy, Cigars etc and the most expensive Service Money could train and buy.
Not only did some of us find out just how little had actually changed in the Years - and Events - since 1912, we were also as expendable to certain People as the Millions who died for all those Isms and Ology's since the supposed War to end all Wars. Rather like those Steerage Passengers I got thrown back into 'Steerage' when I thought I could speak to some of those posh People. A few years after that and I'd turned into Black Billy Jack - sat on that Bench. There are other things that have started becoming apparent too - which shows that the Exterior can be very deceptive, the attitude as patronising as a foppish Philadelphian.
ReplyDeleteWhen that happened in 1993 it was astonishing just how little support was forthcoming, (remember how the Dewitt Bukaters and all the rest of them pretend Jack isn't there when Lovejoy confronts him?). It was rather like being De Caprio in another Film - abandoned by everyone once the Wheedling had wheedled everything.
There was as little as there was for Black Billy Jack in the period just after that - while Mr McCarthy's Union mysteriously had no meetings in Bristol for 4 years. So, no Lifeboats there then either! Suddenly, the Ocracy becomes apparent, the expendability. As cold as that Sea, as many Knives as that Cold.
While it has been mooted that the Ship that sank in 1912 wasn't the Titanic at all but her sister Ship the Olympic - in what has been described as an insurance Job, it has also been suggested that it did away with some hefty Opposition to the Ideas of J P Morgan - namely the implementing of the Federal Reserve. It has also been thought that indirectly - the Sinking, and subsequent demise of Astor, Guggenheim and Strauss - led to the First World War.
ReplyDeleteIt could also be suggested that the Decade that started with that Press Conference turned out differently to how it was supposed to - and that a similar Prestige Issue existed that does Jack and how he relates to the others in the Film. The Film was set in 1912 - the Segregation that existed on that Ship also did in 1990 and the years after it. When it looked like I might get to know some of the posh People after that one day at Waldorf-Astor's Hotel I got fired and relegated to 'Steerage'. All these years later and that is how it still feels.
I'm sure Jack would agree when I say that in 2017 - and very many years before that too - why should I have Angels fly from my Posterior before that Segregation finally dissolved?
When I consider our own Connections with historical Figures - one of whom confronted Slavery in the Irish County that also sent People to Celine Dions Quebec, and someone who opposed Anglo-French Policies as fallacious in 1938, leading to WW2 - the Story becomes quite paradoxical.
They don't use Metal Shutters and Stewards pointing Guns at you anymore - while the vile Trickery they use might as well be any of those and is as smarmy as someone putting a Necklace in your Pocket!
One thing might also be certain, the Band played the Music - as Ryan observed, "Music to drown by" but while the Tune accompanied Peoples journey to the Lifeboats and Absolution, to others it was a cruelly ironic Soundtrack that led to nothing...... Gary!!!!
The Film was set in 1912, except it wasn't even 1912 - it was 1990+ - except it was reminiscent of something, not 100 years before (1890), but more like 200 - being 1790, when America had a 'Constitution' made null and void by the lack of a 13th Amendment, before the Work of People like Robert Owen, some of the Socialite Commentary of Jane Austen, and that of an Anglo-Irish Peer who ran his Sligo Constituency by reducing Rents during the Famine, promoting Literacy and helping to end Slavery. This was after his Father - Owen - voted against the Act of Union in the Gratton Parliament of 1800.
ReplyDeletePeople comment on how there was no Record of Jack - rather like John Arthur Wynne is described elsewhere here as "The unsung Philanthropist" - while People might know of Robert Gore Booth - who evicted Tenants during the Famine and packed them off on the "Coffin Ships". In "Dead Men's Chest" we see another Jack escape somewhere in a Coffin. Thanks to James Cameron there had finally been an implication about someone connected with Celine's Quebec who might not be remembered there or Ireland for the same Reasons Booth might! That they might sing that Song - "Oh hear us when we cry to thee" - which was played at Jack Kennedy's Funeral, but Jack can't attend. What would have happened if William Penn had turned up at the American Part of "Live Aid" in 1985 Philadelphia - wanting to join in with "We are the World"? What would have happened if he decided to do a Rendition of "Answers to nothing"?
And just when it looked doubtful as to which Century we were in, after the token - one day at Waldorf-Astor's Hotel and that's yer lot, then the gradual Segregation not long afterwards - suddenly 'Jack' couldn't vote in 1992.
What is brilliant about this Film is how it has outsold almost every other form of Entertainment, and by doing so ensures someone hasn't been airbrushed out of everything no matter how much any diminutive Soap Stars from Australia might try! Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr would have to write and record another 53 years of Music before even equaling what "Titanic" made, and while there are References to the supposed Peoples Music in the Film that aren't too flattering - it was about time something showed it all for its mean spiritedness
ReplyDeleteEven close to home and THAT Group - whose Guestlists and free Ticket Allocation are like those Passenger Lists Lovett and his Team might have poured over when researching Jack. How the Town is run - even all these years after "Titanic" is like how Smith ran his Ship, which was also how other things were before the Movie, and as I found in 1993 - there's always some little Hitler (re; a Documentary about the Sinking) telling me to "Get Back" when I tried communicating with 'First Class' - still like that now - as I discovered a few days ago!
.....And while Jack gets a Punch in the Stomach from Mr Warner - what part in all this have other things played - like EMI for example? Blur, Radiohead (and more of them in a Moment), Supergrass - Mr Coombes - and even their older Stuff. "Titanic Liverpool" the Stern says as it disappears into the icy Depths. Thom Yorke hardly seems like someone who has ever fought any Battles - while it was a Message kept by Phillips and McBride - that could have prevented the Disaster. He seems as smug as Hockley - as did many of those horrible 90's Musicians.
ReplyDeleteLiverpool - and the not so fab 4 perhaps. Jack has to pretend to be Heir to a Railroad Fortune like he was the fat Controller in those Thomas the Tank Engine Books.
I've reached the Conclusion that these starchy, stuffed Shirt organisations - those whose Representatives Names could read like those sat at that Dining Table in the Film - couldn't deal with the Idea that someone like Jack Dawson might not only be there with them - but also be rather like Tommy Ryans People and helped build why they were all there. I remember how we suddenly had 2 Projects - First Class (the one which meant the Yippie Nights out in Bristol and Trip to Prague) - and Steerage Class - the one I belonged to.
ReplyDeleteAnd, y'know what, someone said something today that justified James Cameron's Film completely...
ReplyDeleteThat - apparently - our Lives are all planned out before us! Doesn't someone say that in his Film, that that is what was wrong with her Life and all the People in it, and how she fights against it - and Jack helps her? The thing is, when it was said earlier today it was said in fatalistic Acceptance, rather like when one of these "Fortune Tellers" Bob Mould sang about said something similar in a Bakers Shop about 10 years ago.
So, I tell ya what, why don't we all think like that, no-one bothers going to School or studying anything, we shut down Academe as a superfluous Spuriousness that won't make any difference to our pre-planned Lives and we just wrap ourselves up in that horribly conservative Fatalism.
Yeah, and why doesn't Rose just leave Jack chained to that Pipe to drown, those horrible metal Gates remain closed, and whatever Steerage that did survive don't! Why bother with the Inquiry at the Waldorf-Astoria - and Shipping continues making the same Mistakes it made on April 15th 1912.
That Attitude is almost like a Script given to them to say - like someone somewhere pays them a Retainer to say it - and all the other things that (don't) happen here. After all, someone somewhere was responsible for those "Morrell" Vans a few years ago - creating the Impression something was happening here - when it wasn't. A sort of Hoarding for us Steerage People to see - while other quaff and scoff!
Whether James Cameron knew something many didn't, and did the real William Murdoch commit suicide on that day in 1912 or not, the Scene on the Stern of the Ship suggests something wrong in someone else called Murdoch's Empire. Something that was going to lead to Problems for the Newscorp Owner a few years ago. A privileged Redhead whose World is full of People who make unsubstantiated Accusations mirrored by another who would cause him those Problems which lead to the Leveson Inquiry and immense Criticism from a very powerful American Senator. I posted this here ..... but also have in other Posts about a very controversial War!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.economicpopulist.org/content/news-corp-finished-senator-rockefeller-tells-feds-investigate-fox-hacking-911-victims
Also, the previous TV Mini Series - which shows how 'Mr Dickie' got to work "In the Films" - rather like Rose Dawson does - also has the fractured non-interaction the stricken Ship had with the Californian. That while it was the same distance as Bristol might be to a Town run - apparently - not unlike Smiths Ship - both seem incapable of travelling that Distance. If I launched Rockets from here they would be seen in Bristol - but would they invoke the same non-response? Seems to have been the Case as far back as I can remember - and maybe I might stand a better chance of a Response from the Land of Harold Lowe - Cearnarfonshire than Bristol. Caernarfon is also the Land of Eagles - represented by its Flag, so while Brian Walsh's Gaelic Storm played the Soundtrack to a real Party - that Song has a more poignant context against this Backdrop than somewhere that does seem rather twisted. While 1500 died because of the chronic Dysfunction in Communication between the Ships - the same can be said of somewhere where everything also seems chronically dysfunctional.
..... And what makes all of this even more poignant is how - while People can't seem to travel 12 Miles from Bristol like Stanley Lord couldn't in 1912, I've walked that Distance many times and it takes about as long as Arthur Rostron's Carpathia did - 4 Hours, while I would be doing it usually at about the same time of day his Ship made that Journey.
ReplyDeleteNo-one seems to be able to travel those 12 Miles.
In "the Druids" Movie the Highlander is trapped at Alesium - while Ceasars Wall keeps him in and the Gaulish Army out, except the Latter had an Excuse - called that Wall. What was theirs?
There are other things....
Important Stuff wasn't getting through because Phillips and Bride were sending Marconigrams - Ship-to Shore small-talk by First Class Passengers, while even if the crucial Ice Warning sent by the MV Mesaba didn't have the "MSG" Prefix - denoting FAO Captain Smith - maybe Initiative ought to have prevailed and it being passed on to the Bridge anyway. Because it didn't, it wasn't. The Analogy of Indulgence, and how it was Wireless Traffic from First Class Passengers that led to the Tragedy and Predominance of 2nd Class and Steerage Deaths is self-evident. Sometimes these things can be unforgivably superfluous and cause what some have described as a "Tragedy with Tea Dances". For some, Irony is an Indulgence they can not afford .... however twee the Orchestra might sound.
That Orchestra - whose Job was to play Music to the Elite on the other side of those Metal Gates contrasts with the Steerage Group in the Cameron Movie - whose Leaders Name associates with the Home of both Harold Lowe AND the Actor who played him. Gaelic Storm ARE what Music is supposed to be - Italian, Irish, Nordic, American, British, Steerage and the posh Lady - all enjoying the Strains of Brian Walsh's Pipes, unlike any Music which only seems to cater to other People.
.... And while no-one ever seemed to be able to travel 12 Miles from Bristol even if maybe they ought to occasionally - closer to home, and the "RMS" in Titanic being Royal Mail Ship - those Gig Tickets are either somewhere in the Post Office - or on the other side of those Metal Gates!
I remember being in a Group which very nearly, but only very nearly, did what Gaelic Storm do in the Film - play mighty Rock and Roll to the posh People at the BBC in 1995 - except I was banned apparently. There are other examples of this - while, someone recently said I ought to meet up with some local Musicians to talk about Music. Which is fine I guess - except that has always been the Problem hasn't it, that People always only ever seem to talk about doing things - not doing them.
We contrast the Scenes where Hockley and Co do Cigars and Brandy in the Saloon - and that "Real Party" they have in Steerage!
Elsewhere I've explained where that name comes from, and it's like Portishead have been doing their Concerts on the other side of those Metal Gates since 1993 isn't it!
ReplyDeleteAlso, while there seems to have been an almost relentless Campaign of Vilification going on here probably since "Dummy" - wasn't there another against someone called William Tuner?
Wonder how Ari in Australia is doing these days too!
ReplyDeleteUntil this 'People's Music' becomes more like Brian and less like Stewards we should start protesting outside Venues!
ReplyDeleteHaving mentioned the Music....
ReplyDeleteJames Horners immense Soundtrack to the Film has influenced others since....
From Howard Shore ("Lord of the Rings") to Hans Zimmer ("King Arthur") - even a Refrain from "Enemy at the Gates" can be heard in "Titanic's" epic Score. Whether it's those Drawings at the end of "Return of the King" or Will being found on that Driftwood, James Camerons Movie set a Precedent for Film and Music. Enya might have done her Vocal on "Fellowship of the Ring" - Maire Brennan on "King Arthur" - but it was a Lady called Sissel who did the ethereal Stuff for "Titanic".
That Song by Celine Dion is also poignant, being the Worlds most famous Quebecan. That Sissel might not be Irish doesn't detract from how her Vocal sounds very celtic, and both allude to someone mentioned here.....
http://metrowynn.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/john-arthur-wynne-unsung-philanthropist.html
Both Jack and Rose mention Slavery - while Wynne helped end that and also People travelling to Quebec from Famine stuck Ireland. Rose meets Jack and is set free from something she mentions at the start of the Film rather than arriving in the New World as a Slave.
A Hand comes out of a Lake holding a Rose, Jack is half submerged in the Sea holding Rose's Hand! Peter Jackson might have used those Drawings at the end of his Trilogy - but as someone else called Jack asks...
"Where did you get that?"
Shame some of us can't play Music instead of just talking about it huh! I remember the Yuppie who slithered and oozed "itzzzz annoying" when I was playing Music once. But while we might have some of these 'George's' maybe I should ask them if they've got Blisters on their Fingers. I have, and those don't happen smoking Cigars and sipping Brandy. Someone says how "Music brings People together" - which I suppose it might, if I wasn't like Jack every time some Tokenism has happened and I have to go back and Row with all the other Slaves!
ReplyDeleteI remember someone giving me a Look that would curdle Milk at 100 Paces when I had the Temerity to jam on a Bass Guitar whose Owner consented to me doing it while he improvised on a Keyboard. This was as long ago as 1997 - so, while being banned from playing mighty Rock and Roll at the BBC in 1995 almost looks like Censorship - this was one of the earlier Manifestations of what I now call the local Ocracy. It's enough to make you want to spit off the Side of a Ship isn't it, or charge at that Gate with a Bench!
ReplyDeleteNot very cool at all this Place is it - whatever Credentials it tries to wrap itself up in - Rock or any other form of Music! Dismal, miserable, as cold as that North Atlantic.
ReplyDeleteSpiteful and toxic .. and hypocritical.
ReplyDeleteRather like the Hypocrisy of a Ship where Benjamin Guggehneim can flaunt his Mistress but Rose couldn't fall in love with Jack. How about Marton Csokas's Wife in "Kingdom of Heaven" - Eva Greene, who says that the Rules don't apply to them, just the People. Oh, and Guy was married - presumably with full Conjugality - when she was 15!
How many other Pecadillos only seem to apply to some and not others?
Awe, but it's all so Rock and Roll huh!
While the Steerage Group are rather more Rock and Roll than the Orchestra - after all, they do bring People together - and it is Music for everyone, instead of a Group whose Gigs must have gone on on the other side of that Metal Gate - and were obviously for other People, there's also something very pro-active about it.
ReplyDeleteThat Gate and that Steward are an Attitude that certainly isn't, and even obscures Pro-activity. It's what Rose says about how her Life was planned out before her, which permeates down to everyone else. Also, Hockley loses the Pendant because Lovejoy has put it in the Pocket of the Coat he gives her. If he hadn't tried to frame Jack that wouldn't have happened.
The Steerage Passengers have been driven to exasperation by the time they charge at that Gate with the Bench. In the TV Movie Black Billy Jack still believes that they should wait - but that is what eventually leads to his Families Demise. If he hadn't, and done what Jack, Fabrizio and Ryan do his Wife and Family might have made it. "Just you wait Henry Higgins, just you wait" Eliza Doolittle says in "My fair Lady" - hmmm, maybe not!
When someone tells me that our Lives are pre-planned a few Days ago - I was reminded of what Rose says in the Film, and also how that might even have been connected with that Photograph in the Book about the Eastern Front in WW2. A bit obnoxious when someone tells you about their Salad Days at Oxford University, others about their 60's, while People collect Houses and Flats and some immerse in the rural Idyl. Heck, why don't we have the twee Orchestra too! So, while an Event at the Waldorf was an Attempt at pro-actvity - even if it turned out to be as much a Token Gesture as Jacks Night with the posh People - things afterwards turned into that Gate and that Steward. Which is why I sometimes feel like doing what Ryan does once they've broken through it. One of the Survivors - and Robert Ballard say how 1500 People need not have perished were it not for the Regime.
That Fatalism is found in Culture when Run DMC tell us "It's like that, because that's the way it is", so People stand on Corners slinging in Baltimore because - that's how it is, even Huey Lewis and the News told us how some things never change. They might wait - while the Developers devour their Neighbourhoods - moving them on in the Process, and while the Sobotkas might have had their Campaign to stop that from happening in the Harbourside surely a former BBC Cameraman and Media Trades Unionist must remember what they used to say about the BBC's Premises in Bristol. How it was almost built to become a Hotel one day with its Restaurant, fully equipped Kitchen, Games Room, Bar, Terrace and lavish Reception. Yeah, and then Hockley and Co can stay there, someone might even have a token Night with the posh People.........
What would Rose Calvert - even Edward Wynn - have made of the Baltimore we see in "The Wire"?
And the thing is, it isn't Party Political either.... it's an Attitude! A lot of supposed 'Socialists' and 'Liberals' seem to think like that too - and subscribe to those conservative Culture References.
ReplyDeleteI come from a Constituency that returned not only a Tory MP in 1992, but also a Prime Minister - but many of those who voted for him don't have that concrete Fatalism. Indeed, even he had his Tussles with some of the more right-Wing Tories. 350 years before and its most famous MP fought a Civil War against People who thought like that. Even during Feudalism its Earl had his Spat with a certain Prince John, Duke of Gloucester - Count of Mortaine, while Llewellyn (and this is where Jack has to correct the Ladies of Tortuga about Pronunciation), fought him to Runnymede to sign Magna Carta in 1215. Heck, even when the Region was a Brythonic Kingdom it's Queen gave a Roman Tax Collector a bloody Nose for his Brutality. All of this in an Area you could hardly describe as traditionally Socialist.
Llwellyn and Magna Carta - even the Cyfraith Hywell - from the 9th Century had more progressive Ideas than some from Wales in more recent Years!
Yeah, let's have Lord Jones of Aberdare - but Wales has been far better and more pro-active than that. Former President Obama climbed into his Limo looking worried as President Elect Trump took Office, then scarpered to Richard Branson's Caribbean Island (Stereophonics Record Boss). A Horse, a Horse - my Kingdom for a Horse, you could say, except in all seriousness - President Trump has just rolled back his Healthcare Reforms. And why not, after all - we're all going to die anyway - so who needs Healthcare? Why don't we sell the B.R.I - a prime piece of Real Estate in Bristol to the Whitewater Property Company (or even "White Star Property") instead? I'm sure some of those Kingsdown Houses would fetch a pretty Purse - although somewhat bereft of any "Pretty Nurses"! Why not close Bristol University and turn those former Houses in Woodlands Road and Tyndall's Park Road into Flats? Have the Wills Hotel on Park Street and be done with it! William Tyndale might have something to say about that - except being another who fought against the conservatism of the Clergy got burned for his Trouble!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in the Robin Hood in St Ives (Cambridgeshire - not Cornwall) I met someone else called Stuart - and he was into Iron Maiden. they had that famous Song "Run to the Hills", and what was that bit where they sing about that Knife in the Back? As Jack Sparrow is interchangeable with Jack Dawson - and Pittsburgh got those Pirates from somewhere - William Penn Junior had his Treaty with the Native Americans of what became Pennsylvania - called the Shackamaxon Treaty. It's what happened after Penn was gone when things started going wrong. Rather like when a TV Company started becoming segregated after that Friend of the Kennedy's had gone. Then we had that Group whose Gigs went on on the other side of that Gate. Whose Guestlists and Promo-Ticket Allocation read like Ismays Passenger List by 1997. Someone was conspicuously absent!
ReplyDeleteWhen I read Jay Rockefeller's Comments about the Iraq War I was reminded of that Scene where Hockley and Co are sat in the Saloon, and one of them says "That's what Rockefeller said". Hockley is very patronizing to Jack when he says how he wouldn't be interested - sort of implying, what would he know about anything? Bit like when Csokas/Guy says of Balian "When I want the advice of a Blacksmith I will ask for it" - or even when James Norrington says something similar about Will in "The Curse of the Black Pearl". Except, when given that chance we see that Jack, Balian and Will do know what they're doing or talking about - and perhaps Arrogance and Foppishness might not.
ReplyDeletehttp://metrowynn.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/why-did-iraq-war-worry-so-many.html
http://metrowynn.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/a-few-years-after-iraq-war-nightmare.html
Then we fast forward to when De Caprio plays Gatsby, and we see all those People who just can't get enough of him, until he dies and no-one comes to his Funeral. He's shot in the Back by the way (which is a recurring Theme), but whether it's him as Gatsby or Jack - and/or both Characters die at the same time - the question is "Where was everyone?" Something is established on the Stern of the Ship - that meant not only did he not assault Rose, and quite the opposite applies, but where was everyone - or were they either like those Sycophants and social Vampires we see at Gatsby's Parties - or Hockley and Co when Jack has his Dinner with them?
ReplyDeleteNot only was a Miscarriage of Justice narrowly avoided because Rose fesses up partially - the Film was the most successful to date - ever - until "Avatar" - so, in the years after it - and before "Gatsby" that question remains? Were the Film-Makers saying something here about fake People?
"Titanic" in the most spectacular way - established that Jack is no Rapist - and he isn't a Thief either. In what Rose describes as "the most erotic moment of her Life (at least - up until then)" Jack has every Opportunity to do it all. Him .... and her - on that Couch wearing nothing but that Necklace, no Witnesses, but he was "very professional" - although he blushes, but then - heck - who wouldn't when confronted by a Woman as beautiful as Kate Winslett in those Circumstances?
ReplyDeleteWhen they've finished she gives him the Pendant and tells him to put it back in the Safe - which he does, and he notices a huge Pile of Cash in it - He could have pinched both - but he does neither.
"Gatsby" is like the same Character a few years into the Future - the 1920's - and he's very generous, and don't those People know it, except where were they after he had been shot in the Back and died? His supposed Friend Wolfschein empties his House of anything valuable - and it's like he never existed.
In "The Curse of the Black Pearl" another Jack says to Will - after their final Battle with Barbosa - that if there was a chance - a Moment - to further his Relationship with Elizabeth - there it was, except he doesn't either! Even Jack declines Elizabeth's Offer later in the Trilogy by saying "once was enough", remembering how he was seduced into the Battle with the Kraken. But you can tell he's was attracted to her during the Franchise.
So, not only is this a Question about fake People - who are like those who take advantage of Gatsby's generosity until his Death when that suddenly stops - it also is of what was wrong with People once it is established that someone is none of what that Sailor or Hockley might think or say he is. This was said in a Movie that was more successful than any other before - and that means some hefty Competition. Star Wars, Bond, Indiana Jones, MGM's classic War Movies, Bogart, Ben Hur, Gone with the Wind - and even the Wizard of Oz.
So, yeah - why haven't I seen People - some of whom going as far back as when I was at School and others from the 1980's, 90's, and even this Century? Like Gatsby I was never what you might call a Recluse - and in that many years that's a lot of People!
And I don't know what some People are looking so Smug about, it's them who are going to have to explain to eager Media Studies Students why Film and Television seems to be avoiding Bristol these days. That there won't be a repeat of 1968 when Jack Kennedy's Friend set up HTV with 'Anthony and Cleopatra' on it's Board of Directors. That maybe some of the Reasons for that are found here in this. Rose eventually becomes an Actress - but only after she has broken away from the Spiteful Brutality of the stuffy Hockley and his Thug. 'Mr Dicky' works "In the Films" only after he has from someone who was a Thief and worse in the TV Series a couple of years before.
ReplyDeleteSome of it might even be found in what Sau Fang says to Will when the Former points out some of the Latters Treacheries - "Why should I expect any better?" he says - which implies Film and Television could say how a Region can't even be honest with People they've known since the early 70's - so why should they?????
ReplyDeleteWhile James Cameron makes awesome Films like "Titanic" and "Avatar", or Jerry Bruckheimer's "Pirates of...." Movies rock more than any dismal, semi-detached suburban Yip Yop (Yuppie Hip Hop) ever could with its elitist Dinner Party Soundtrack and selective Guestlists - what are these People gonna make Films about? Shopping, buying Houses, Adventures in Paperclip Land, mixing Grey Concrete? "Part of the Ship, part of the Crew" Jones's Crew chant like Automata - as they quite literally become that Ship - have they become that Concrete, those Silver Balls? They act like they have, while the Regime is'n't dissimilar to Jones's Dutchman or Smith's Ship!
ReplyDeleteI s'pose you could always ask a bankrupt Flower Girl if she'll put up the Money for a "Titanic" Sequel!
Meanwhile, there's something someone posted on Facebook - an almost idyllic Place, open Fire, nicely furnished - even snowing outside. When International Hostage Release's First Class Passengers went to Prague it was probably like that, while it reminds me of other Stuff in the 90's and even very recently. It could be Hockleys Cabin/State Room - remember that Fireplace? With that, they've posted something involving someone called Moody...
ReplyDeleteIn the Film we see Jack and Fabrizio being let on to the Ship by 6th Officer Moody, and this could be History mirroring more recent History - but while we were sent "Driftwood" by the Moody Blues, there was also someone else called Moody somewhere in IHR Land, and some of us never got any further than Cabin B16. I might even get a letter 'B' from somewhere and put it on my Door to remind Vistors/Posties etc about the Film - and this Connection with it.
There's something else too.....
Someone posted on YouTube about whether Jack needed to die - and a sort of Explanation as to what went wrong with his Involvement in the Story that led to his Death. I'm not sure whether People are retrospectively mimicking the Film, but it seems that every time 'Jack' gets involved with these posh People there's always trouble. The Thug plants the Necklace on him, are they trying something similar? Like he might have been better off just lying on that bench smoking his Cigarette - and looking at those Stars.
Made a lot of Money for someone did this. While I might remember "A Night to remember" I don't remember any pathetic little Men from Birmingham at that Press Conference - with or without any Russian Ushanka! (Cafe Hacks huh!)
ReplyDeleteOne thing I do know was how it gave a huge Boost to the Creative Economy. The above Poster that shows the Ship with Jack Sparrow on it says how we went from "Titanic" to the opening Scene of "The Curse of the Black Pearl".
"Where did you get that?"
The thing is, if this was a Community why are we relying on Cafes anyway? It's a bit like those Internet Scammers, showing Stuff for sale but not wanting any Visitors to see said Goods before they buy them. That's if they existed at all.
ReplyDeleteThey're also like the Confederates who invaded the North, fobbing everyone off with useless Confederate Scrip!
"When you've got nothing, you've got nothing to lose!"
ReplyDeleteIf Jack had survived he might have written a Memoir. The thing is, he'd have written it from a Position of pure objectivity. After all, he isn't involved in any of the things others on the Ship might be. No Macy Department Store, Pittsburgh Steel Mills, Astor businesses, not even the Career Structure the Ships Crew might have available. Even other Steerage Passengers had Families or some sort of Trade they might utilise. He had none of these.
Any Sphere you can think of and the same applies here. There is no Career, Business, Family, whatever to be compromised by making very honest and objective Observations. That this isn't something that happened over night is the fault of someone somewhere.
ReplyDeleteThe fake moral high Ground, full of fake WMD's ....... Probably!
In 1996 we saw Black Billy Jack on the Titanic. "A good Man" who had spent his Life doing the right thing and subscribing to what would have been the moral high Ground in 1912, devout Christianity.
As the Film continues he observes what he is told, sit tight and wait. While he does those Lifeboats are filling up and casting off. People who might not have done any of the right thing are amongst those in the Boats, including the Irish Crook who robs the Pursers Office and rapes the Girl. Mr Dickie, who isn't Mr Dickie - sailing on a stolen Ticket. By the time Billy Jack and his Family had battled their way through the Ship the Boatdeck was empty - no Boats, no People.
If he had been alive today the moral high Ground might be a Hostage Campaign, it could be any of the other similar things you might do these days.
The thing is, be it 2012 it's much the same as it was 1912. You battle your way through it all only to find the same thing Billy Jack does, the empty Boatdeck and no Lifeboats....... No People either!
Almost as soon as the Hostages came home John McCarthys Media Union didn't have meetings in Bristol for 4 years. There wasn't just his being a Hostage, how many NUJ Members worked at HTV? Black Billy Jack is a Christian - so was Terry Waite.
In more recent years we've had the Pro-War, and the Anti-War. Even though the latter were vindicated and David Kelly told Blair Saddam had no WMD's there are still no People, no Lifeboats, the Deck is empty for some who might have been part of that.
How many other things have there been, where you might get a "brilliant" from People, but the Deck is empty?
You could be forgiven for thinking that all of that is a Facade and Script, designed to get People to subscribe to it, do the right thing, make Enemies of any Antagonist (Military Industrial Complex, Pro-War Politicians, Corporate Criminals like Bruce Ismay was in 1912 etc) but the Deck is empty when it comes to it!
The Media used David Kelly to justify their anti-War Coverage, but where were they when he died under unusual Circumstances?
We did that Hostage Campaign in 1990. Fast forward 17 years and I meet someone from then who was quite obviously supportive of the Neocon Government and thus pro-War. This is after Mr and Mrs "Brilliant" had got yours truly to write extensively about why the Iraq War was wrong.
And while you had those doing the right thing, and those doing the wrong (including Hockley who uses Corruption to ensure his Seat in a Boat) there seem to be quite a few People who did nothing at all. I've mentioned those People here before, and I'd like to know how that is happening?
ReplyDeleteThere are many others, some I've met in the last 15 years who are as crap as some were 30 years ago!
ReplyDeleteIt isn't just because the Waldorf is connected with one of the most famous People on that Ship, it was also used to film some of "A Night to remember".
When this Man of Harlech wrote that Press Pack he wasn't thinking about anything going on in a small Town in South West England. Similarly, when the Waldorf gave us free use of the Adelphi Suite they gave it to a Human Rights Project, not any of that Stuff in that small Town!
ReplyDeleteAnd it wasn't just the Waldorf, there were other People and Companies who gave us free use of something or other - from the Avon Environment Center who gave us Office Space to Aer Lingus who sponsored the Posters. None of which was given to a small, wealthy Town in South West England so the usual Suspects can carry on like nothing had happened.
ReplyDelete"Helter Skelter" .....
ReplyDeleteWhile "Titanic" is a Film based on actual History with People from a Disaster that DID happen in 1912, both Versions of "Poseidon Adventure" are works of Fiction, quite probably based on the Beatles Song about being at the Bottom and going back to the Top which is what happens when a Ship capsizes.
The thing is "Titanic" renders either of them superfluous.
They might be based on a Scouse Rock Song, but Scouse Rock went down with RMS EMI a few years ago. The last Pop Star Liverpool produced of any significance globally was Sporty Spice 24 years ago, which is an ominous Name considering who Hockleys Henchman was.
She appeared in a Group that was originally managed by Simon Fuller, but that Rolodex he has had since managing The Adventures in the 1980's was as sunk as that Desk in the Master at Arms Office in the Cameron Movie. Those A&R at Virgin EMI, Parlophone and Innocent Records are gone.
What started in 1962 - when Brian Epstein took Tapes of a Group doing "My Bonnie" to an obscure Classical and Comedy Record Producer at EMI are also gone. Abbey Road is no longer the default Studio for EMI Product because there is no EMI.
A Process that continued after a brief early 70's lull with Big in Japan and a Club called Upstairs at Erics which spawned Ian Broudie (Lightning Seeds), Ian McCulloch and occasionally Bill Sargent (Echo and the Bunnymen), Holly Johnson (Frankie Goes To Hollywood), Orchestral Manouvres in the Dark and a few Teardrop Explodes went on to others like the Real People, The La's - who featured Cast Singer Songwriter John Power - and the Boo Radleys.
There was a blip of Pop from late 90's Atomic Kitten - managed by OMDs Andy McCluskey, but that, as they say, was that.
Wolfgang Peterson might have made his 21st Century Film, but rather like the by then non-existant Liverpool Presence in the World Stage - it was a Work of pure Fiction.
I've had to change the Title because certain Doublespeak Antipodeans erm 'sank' their Teeth into the previous one!
ReplyDeleteImagine (sic) if you were the Editor of the NME or Melody Maker in 1967 and kept publishing Stuff about Music from 1917. The Complaints from all those Nielalikes (Character from "The Young Ones") come thick and fast " Look Man, stop writing about all that old Crap!" they would say.
ReplyDeleteSo why are they doing it now, about Stuff from 50 years ago? And it isn't just then either. Banging on about Oasis and all that Alan McGee Stuff at Creation Records is a bit like doing same about the Hacienda, former Nitespot in Manchester synonymous with the "Madchester" Music Scene. While Creation got scavenged by Sony 19 years ago, and there is no Record Office in London's Primrose Hill, the former Hacienda Building is now a block of Yuppie Flats.
There is no Alan McGee or Tony Wilson to send yer Demo Tape to, ditto for Go Disc/Beat Andy NcDonald, while Noel's Forays into those 90's Camden Venues were more him skimming People's Songs than supporting up and coming Bands anyway. The Stereophonics Kelly Jones once quipped from a Stage " Here's a Song Noel Gallagher will be writing soon!" as a Comment about all this.
I could understand it if there were still some sort of Career Opportunities attached to it but there aren't. Now it's just done out of Spite and a sclerotic Obtuseness bordering on insane Arrogance.
Many are called, but few are chosen.
ReplyDeleteWhat if Bruce Ismay had put on his Promotional Stuff "We will have up to 3327 People aboard, but we only have enough Lifeboats for 1178"
Shame he didn't wasn't it, while the same could be said of anything from that Yippie Shit, to RMS Portishead, as it becomes horribly apparent that there weren't enough 'Lifeboats' for that. That it is becoming apparent as the Scam reaches its Conclusion that that Decision was made a very long time ago. That there were only ever so many Places and everyone else, like those Steerage Passengers and Trimmers, were expendable.
"Oh there is an Arrangement" Hockley sneers, "but I doubt you'll be benefitting from it".
Not sure what any of this has to do with those Def Lepards by the way!
I remember a Media Trades Unionist being miffed because all the Work in Bristol was going to Cardiff, but while those who did it might have made a few Currency Units - and would quite readily go on Strike if things deviated from any Script or Contract they have, how does he think this looks?
ReplyDeleteThe People involved in the Titanic Disaster could quite justifiably say to Bruce Ismay "This wasn't in any of your Sales Blurb when we bought our Tickets" the same could be said of all this.
If they had known what was going to happen during that "Night to remember" how many wouldn't have boarded her?
If I had known in 1973 - before 47 years that would culminate in Crap - what I know now I wouldn't have moved here. If I had known what I know now I'd have told those Album Project Co-ordinators what they could do with getting me to write that Press Pack. Imagine if Jack Astor was alive today and what he might have said as they used his Cousins famous Hotel for their Press Conference.
And if there wasn't anything disingenuous about it all where are 47 years worth of People if they were all so genuine?
Young People might be better off being into Computer Games than that narcissistic, insincere Rubbish.
ReplyDeleteBruce Ismay was like White Stars very own Pied Piper, so is rather a lot of that Shit!
People stupidly bought Beatles "1" without realising they already had that Stuff on "1962-66" and "1967-70".
And while they might saturate it all with Anglo-American Crap that after 60 years sounds like it has been inbreeding too much, the Czech Republic still has a Record Industry releasing Czechoslovak Product which doesn't. The Iron Curtain formed a Musical Line and most of what was east of it - all the way to Vladivostok - is a huge Music Form that doesn't have any of the tired and tested tawdry Clichés of its Anglo-American equivalents.
"Spoilt little rich Girl" Kate said in 1997, and she's right, while most of it by then was jaded and cynical. The People who did go to Prague just after the Revolution came back with a haughty patronising Attitude about those they met. Harsh considering what Vaclav Havels People had endured and achieved.
ReplyDeleteThe People who went were given free Accommodation in a Flat in Wenceslas Square, during Christmas, everywhere is covered in Snow, in a Country that had just freed itself from Decades of Tyranny, where your Currency was worth a Fortune, being offered first Refusal on an Eastern European Gold Rush that made some Millionaires just after and you look down your Nose at it all!
Jack Astor's People give you free use of their Conference Facility and the same applies.
Yours truly wrote a Press Pack that got those Songs for the Album - but certain People haven't done so much as make a Cup of Coffee in the last 30 years.
They must either have been so spoilt they had no appreciation of anything, jaded and cynical before they were even 30, or just too stupid to realize what was happening.
So you want to be a Rock and Roll Star!
ReplyDeleteThe thing is, you probably won't.
Scouse Comedian Jimmy Tarbuck once said, there were several ways of escaping the sometimes bleak Lives of working class Liverpool, you either became a Musician, a Comedian or a Footballer. But as the innocence of those early Beatles Pop Songs was gradually replaced by the snide narcissism of their later Work, and it all turned into a Career Structure for the sort of People who'd have worked in anything, it wasn't that anymore. Paul McCartney might have amazed John Lennon with his "20 flight Rock" riffola but as a 90's Band once put it "Anyone can play Guitar", which, of course also means Johnny Greenwood.
Even the Beatles realized what had happened and tried, unconvincingly to rediscover their Rock-n-Roll Roots with the "Get back" Album.
Comedy became increasingly politically corrected, while how many Scousers play for Liverpool or Everton FC? Come to think of it, was David Beckham a Mancunian when he played for Manchester United?
I remember the late 70's when it was a big deal to even know someone who had an electric Guitar, let alone own one. Since then I have had about 15, including Basses.
You could play to 60000 People at a Weekend Festival, and be flipping Burgers for a living by the following Monday. Hardly Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall, Keef Richards and Marianne Faithful is it.
It has less and less to offer and as the Guy works down the Burger Bar swears he's Elvis, all that Liam'n'Patsy, Liam'n'Nicole Stuff is like it happened 100 years ago.
Thus, why do People insist on using it as a Design for Life, inflicting it's completely contradictory Value System, if it ever had one, on others?
I also remember the end of the Cold War, where 72 Years of Marxist-Leninism had long ceased to provide Answers and was soundly rejected across an entire half of a Continent. In 1917 it seemed like the Answer to everything, promising a Utopia - rather like the dubious Pledges of Rock and Roll, but like the Artform now, it didn't happen.
As you trawl through yer CDs, WMAs and Vinyl putting together your Ideology or your Life Code, be careful you don't
paint yourself into a Corner.
And that was from a Scouse Indie Band.
And while General Grant got corrupted, Churchill was a lacklustre peacetime Prime Minister and even Colin Powell regrets his Stance in the Iraq War, what became of George Smiley after his Oppo's at the KGB, STB, Stasi and Securitae were 'retired' at the end of the 1980's?
Was it just "Business as usual" in the West while Nelson Mandela returned from a 25 year Exile on Robben Island?
And while James Cameron's executive Producer - Gale Ann Hurd - tells us that an $18 Million Budget would now just about cover the Promotional Costs of a small Indie Movie the likes of Nathalie and Kylie had better sell some Records to raise the Money to stop this Region becoming as bland as Ramsey Street. To provide some Creative Economics Employment like we did, while more People worked on "Titanic" than do at Parlophone these days, and quite probably BMG.
ReplyDeleteGale Hurd's estimate was on the DVD Featurette that came with "Aliens" which was released in June 1999, so that $18 Million is from at least 21 years ago. What it would be now would probably be at least the $mid-20 Millions. That's just to promote a Film and doesn't include the actual making of. Then you have the Actors. James Cameron auditioned something like 3000 People before creating the Ensemble who would appear in it.
ReplyDeleteWhen David Selznick made "Gone with the Wind" the search for Scarlett was a Film in itself as he interviewed no less than 1400 Actresses to play opposite Clarke Gable. Among them were Katherine Hepburn, Bette Davies, Dorothy L'amour, Clara Bow, Joan Crawford, Jean Harlow, Barbara Stanwyck, Mae West, Lucile Ball, Gloria Swanson ....... and even a young Gloria Stuart - who played Rose, aged 100 years old. Phew, and these are just the very famous ones, so it was a regular who's who of Hollywood leading Ladies. He finally went for a British Actress called Vivien Leigh, and the rest is History.
This puts Actors into perspective, showing just how many there are, and how many are turned down for each Film regardless of how famous they are. So having a relative married to one doesn't guarantee anything, let alone making you the next Coppola, Scorsese, Lucas, Scott, Cameron, Bruckheimer etc.
Also, while most of these were established Film Makers by their 40's, despite being that Age their Budget can pay an Army of Production Assistants, Secretaries, and the like to take some of the Strain as they work. Someone that Age maybe lacking in the Stamina of someone 20 years younger, without that Money would have to do the Stuff those PA's do, thus it would be very difficult. This is why 40 something Creatives are usually Editors, Executive Producers, Senior Producers, Directors, Managers or Program Organisers. You don't start in the Industry at that Age, while you should have a couple of Films and some TV Series under your Belt by then.
If you haven't, you probably never will! There will be People 20 years younger than you - hungrier for Success and motivated by Ambition that you probably lacked, going after fewer and fewer Opportunities.
ReplyDeleteAnd it isn't just Feature Films either.
ReplyDeleteBoth "Star Trek - the next Generation" and "Deep Space 9" cost as much each Episode as the whole "Star Trek" Series did in the 1960's with William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. In this Country, and even more recently, Thames TVs epic Documentary Series "The World at War" had a similar Ratio in that the complete Budget would now pay the Costs of a single Episode, and that was a Show that was made in 1973-4!
To see about 1000 Jobs in 1968 - paying ITV Rates of Wages, always more lucrative than the BBC - reduced to a few Trip Hoppers puts all of it into perspective.
What (didn't) happen 30 years ago were Lessons in both Stupidity and Insincerity.
ReplyDeleteIf all that Shit that had gone before was any good why were things so crap for some People (Schemes, Dole, crap Jobs, worse Money) in all the years before it?
If certain People had been imbued with a Modicum of Sincerity why was everything so crap after it? (More Schemes, more Dole, more crap Jobs, worse Money)?
The Fella who became a Millionaire Concert Promoter in Prague in the early 90's got with the Now, he didn't put all his Faith in some leviathan Then which might have seemed certain, but wasn't. The Czech Republic's Music Industry didn't lean on it like a Crutch and still has a Record Company producing Czech and Slovak Music.
Oasis discovered this to their Embarrassment in 1995. They started their "What's the Story - Morning Glory" Album with a verbatim Rewrite of a Gary Glitter Song. Then, Paul Gadd got implicated in a Child Porn Scandal. Liam Gallagher was passing a Venue in London where People queued up to see the 70's Glam Rocker. He stopped the Car, got out and exploded "What are you going to see him for????"
Peter Jackson ended his "Lord of the Rings" Franchise with those Drawings set against the Annie Lennox Song "Into the West". While they might have been drawn by Jack, and sold by Hockley to New Line Cinema, that Film Companies Boss was up to all sorts of shenanigans. The Company was reduced severely when he was finally implicated, so Adaptations of Fantasy Epics don't guarantee anything either.
In the Context of both "Stand back and don't move an Inch" is like being told to "Be here now" by an Album in 1997 that sounds like something from the 1960's/70's, or when the NME Album of the year in 1996 was "Revolver" by the Beatles from 30 years before.
ReplyDeleteWhile, isn't it a bit rich being accused of sexual Improprieties when Jack did the complete opposite in that Scene, and certainly didn't do what Mr Weinstein apparently did many times?
It's also a bit like People shorter than I am going on about Def Leppards' who might be taller.
ReplyDeleteOh, and if the Dunedain of Tolkien were supposed to be tall, Viggo Mortensen is 5"11.
And on that Subject, I suppose I could always stand outside the Travelodge and talk to that Bloke about Music. (again)
"Even if we only talk about it" says Rose.
"No let's do it" says Jack, which speaks Volumes about all this.
Meanwhile, while there were Lessons in Stupidity and Insincerity, "Titanic" is a Lesson in Hypocrisy. There's the aforementioned, but then there's also how no-one is thumping Benjamin Guggenheim or his Mistress for having an Affair. Also, is anyone putting Cosmo Duff Gordon down for seeing the Lady with the Lingerie?
"Stand back, and don't move an Inch" is like buying a Siouxsie and the Banshees Album and discovering it has a Beatles Song on it, or the ironically titled "New Rose" by the Damned and seeing that it's b'sided with "Help"!
ReplyDeleteWith all these Contradictions, double Standards, erroneous Zones and Hypocrises in Rock and Pop Culture, John Lennon thought he was "bigger than God" but it was just as well there was another Creative Economics Phenomenon that was bigger than John Lennon.
ReplyDeleteNow, about Cosmo Duff Gordon Mr Waters.........
And if "Titanic" confronts the double Standards and Hypocrises of Rock and Pop Culture that includes all that "Freedom Rock" Bulshit because some are more free than others eh Frank (Jackson, Suggs etc).
ReplyDeleteI think Frank Black is a Hypocrite and all that Indie Bulshit was just Hippie Crap for the 90's. That was when some, like Frank, were patronaged, and others - like us - were just patronised!
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ReplyDeleteAnd on the Subject of exploitative, Scouse Doushbag, Slavery Town, it isn't as if those Hippies are gonna offer any Employment either, so while Philip the Dismal and Co might send us to Till #3 in the Supermarket, how's the Scouse Rock Scene these Days Sir Paul?
ReplyDeleteAnd I don't know what the Government might be so smug about. They're like Hockleys Children, and inherited nothing. RMS Titanic, in the Context of the Film was a very accurate Metaphor for the Arrogance, Brutality and eventual Demise of the British Music Industry.
ReplyDeleteAnd the Meister of Grammar is gonna have to sell a lot of Skateboards isn't he. Ditto for 'Angus Young' and 'Bon Scott' and their Booze, except they don't sell Booze any more do they!
ReplyDeleteI've got questions about an incestuous, cronyist Bunch of small Town Hippies in the 90's that prompted Accusations of Nepotism at the Youth and Community Service 25 years ago!
Oh, erm "Cheers" by the way!
When we do our Bluff Call of Captain Theoden Yosser Smith-Hughes 80's TV Show, we'll include the Song on our Concept Album called "Jobs for the Boys", an eloquent Comment, not just on the local Cronyism in the Region's Music Scene, but how that has permeated to a national and even international Level, and how supposed Newbies merely slotted in with all that in the last 15 years. Maybe we'll dress up as those Hill Billy Redneck Characters in "Deliverance".
ReplyDeleteMore Songs on the Album .....
"More Life in a Black Vest", "Y'all!", "Vulture" (where we send up Lynyrd Skynyrds 'classic'), "Business as usual" (where we do Peter Gabriel's "Biko" but in a Sex Pistols Style like it was still the bloody 70's) and several others.
We'll have to be shit hot Musicians, as good as some of those with Record Deals, maybe better, but not part of that 'Boys and Girls' Network, because that's the Crux of it, and what we are saying. We'd do that piss take of "Freebird", complete with a blistering Rendition of that Guitar Solo at the end like they always seemed to have on the Old Grey Whistle Test, maybe throw "Sweet Home Alabama" in the Mix - but better. Then we do "I can do that, gis a Job" based on the Theme to "Boys from the Black Stuff". You can guess what we're saying here can't you.
ReplyDeleteWe do our Song "Y'all", maybe having a one Armed Singer who does it in French behind a huge Beard. Not sure if I'd be John Voight or Burt Reynolds here! We'll have a Backdrop, running Projections, with the Nightmare Scene where Voights Character dreams about Drews Hand coming from the Lake.
We'll have a Bonus Track, where we do "Meet the new Boss, same as the Old Boss" to the Tune of "We don't get fooled again"! The Video could be filmed in the new Estate that went up in recent years.
That is followed by "Business as usual"!
We could call ourselves The Also Rans, but I thought we might settle for The Almosts in homage to the Scene in the Film .....
(Cue; haughty, snide Tone)
"You could almost pass for a Gentleman"
"Almost"
We might have an Encore Song we do at Concerts called "Long Tall Leppards" except we'll get someone to do it as a Midget in huge Platforms. Then we open Brackets (bit of a tall Story) for the rest of the Title.
ReplyDeleteWe could even do "Time" by Pink Floyd, except we'll call it "Evening all!". Someone will have to sing that stood/sat on a Table, maybe even a Round one ........
....... Made of Paper!
How about "Paper Roses" followed by "Crazy (black) Horses"?
Or "Ring my Bell", except we won't do it like Anita Ward. We'll get a Hunchback Transvestite called Carol to sing it.
Then we might do "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves"!
We could do "More Life in a Black Vest" followed by "Traffic", then a deliberately atonal Version of "Interstellar Overdrive" stood outside a Library on a Zebra Crossing!
I make no apologies either if any of this sounds at all irreverent. The Shit those Bastards have been up to out here, from engineering People's Lives on every Level you can Imagine, to cultivating the local Thugs, they're Doushbags who deserve all the Criticism you can throw at them!
And to illustrate the Point I refer to all the Lebensraum seeking Hippie Nazis in a Pink Floyd Documentary, aided and abetted by some squawky Shite from America called Alicia Moore!
Is there a Lab in the Universities of Oxbridge that grows snotty Rock Bands? I ask this because Radiohead from Oxford look like Roger Waters from Cambridge, except they're about 20 years younger. Maybe they're like Helen Mirren in Excalibur who've used the Spell of Making too many times ...
Maybe they cultivate genetically modified Bovines too. They start as Bullocks called David and end as Bulshit called Matthew. Maybe they're Glory Boxers like De Niro.
"Road Rage" huh!
"Stand back, and don't move an Inch".
Might be how we all had to like "Dark Side of the Moon" then the Cabal of disingenuous Hippy Tossers gave us "Bridge over troubled Waters" by Simon and Garfunkel. Bit like how we're supposed to like "Come together" by the Drab Bore - or else - then along comes Sharleen McCutcheon and her Shit!
All in all, the Regime of inconsistency and hypocrisy in Rock and Pop Culture is as much of a Death Trap as Ismays Ship.
Wouldn't be so bad until they created a Theme Park for all this called RMS Portishead!
And that's run by a Cabal of corrupt Hippie Nazis too isn't it Charlie, Nick, Geoff, Marc etc!
Wonder if it's the same in Cinderford where the Eagles come from!
As far as I know, the only other Character in History who inflicted that intensity of Human Engineering was Joseph Mengele
And to further illustrate the Point they're up to the usual Shenanigans with a Documentary about NWBM (New Wave of British Metal), except it isn't NWBM anymore is it. Maybe the Acronym should be SRBM (Slightly rusty British Metal), because it isn't particularly new!
Joseph Mengele engineered People at the behest of the Reich, they did it just to sell Product and further the latest Interests of yet another Bunch of spurious Creatives!
Not that I want to use their own Guns against them but who was it who sang "Don't stop thinking about Tomorrow"?
And while Mengele engineered People for Nazi Ideology there isn't much difference between how they engineered this Town since the 70's probably for corpulent, corrupt Hippieconomics and what Shirley Porter did in Westminster in the Homes for Votes Scandal!
And as a Comment on this another Song the Almosts could do would be "From the Boardroom to the Bedroom and back again".
Because that is how far they went with it.
Couple this with all that New Age Finnickiness and it starts looking like something from 80 years ago!
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ReplyDeleteSo, if I've had to put up with that Shit since I was a Kid, where every Strata of Life has been exploite .... sorry, 'managed', where everything from what I might try, to Friends and Relationships have all those built-in Obsolescences, fucked if I'm having Wall Mart Numpties call me "lazy" and worse, some mouthy little Trollop shoots her Gob off on the Bus, or any of the other Shit that goes on.
ReplyDeleteIf you're gonna kill off anything People are trying to do that might be lucrative and a lot more exciting so you can have this Theme Park you could at least populate it with People who can make Coffee occasionally.
In continuum .....
ReplyDeleteAs Music in its current form is probably dead anyway as Recording Studios have been closed and live Music cancelled maybe there should be a very irreverent Group that makes the Sex Pistols look like a Tribute Band.
The things they have done to People's Lives in the pursuit of all of that is terrible. You don't start messing around with People's Lives before they even left School, then keep doing it afterwards. When 'Esmeralda' recorded that Song I was still in what used to be called the 2nd year of Secondary School.
Maybe we'll have the Hunchback Transvestite called Carol sat at a Campfire when he/she sings it.
To further illustrate this how about we do some Songs from that "Dummy" Album of theirs (note I say theirs to suggest it is by no means our Culture) with a Montage of Scenes from "The Expendables"?
And when it renders everything so dysfunctional even Emails to local Colleges don't get replied to (and in the Context if this Film and that Press Conference you couldn't make it up), then there seems to be Stuff going on with that Music that isn't just Music.
ReplyDeleteYou could get a bunch of People to look like some very famous Artistes, except they aren't in a Studio or Venue. They're in an Advertising Office being commissioned to write Songs by a Client.
"Stand back, and don't move an Inch"!
ReplyDeleteToday, we are talking about Guitars.
I have had many Conversations about these with someone who, I'll admit knows rather a lot about them. I must say though that a lot of this has been that Coercionspeak, where you know they are trying to control the Conversation. Today was no exception.
Going on about those Telecasters etc.
The thing is, when I reminded him that it's not the Guitar - it's whoever might be playing it, he sort of stuttered slightly. Because this is exactly what we had agreed on a while ago.
There's what I call the Guitar Shop Brat.
These are People you see in every Guitar Shop in the World, with their Parents, and they are bought the most expensive Rig Dad can afford.
The 2 4x12 Speaker Cabs, the 200w Amp, the huge Array of FX and the most expensive Gibson, Fender, Rick etc.
They load it all into the SUV/People Carrier, get it home, set it up, and he wonders why he doesn't sound like Hendrix. Someone else might have a Strat Copy, 20w Amp, a Wah Wah and a budget FX Unit, and not only sound like Hendrix, but also like many others from Tony Iomi to the Edge and Charlie Burchill.
I know who I'd rather have in my Band, while I listen to Robert Johnson playing a battered old Acoustic and sounding awesome.
Not sure how you plug your Guitar into your 15w Hood though!!!!!
Maybe I'll ask an Estate Agent.
Oh, what it is to have another Day in Absurdistan!
Then, while we had that Press Conference at that rather famous Hotel it wasn't 'Clint Eastwood' at the Travelodge.
ReplyDeleteApparently, there's the Outlaw (Josie Wales) as opposed to any In-laws eh David!
But while Little Richard might sing about "Long Tall Sally", what if Sally was neither particularly long or tall?
Another Song for the Almosts .....
ReplyDelete"The 7 deadly Checkouts". The Video might feature a lot of Sharks, some Cats and a Supermarket!
At least it isn't "Matthew and Son" huh!
Meanwhile, how tall is Kylie?
We could do a few Thin Lizzy Songs, except let's hope Snowy White doesn't turn into an Iceberg!
ReplyDeleteWhat they have been up to here for years is deserving of the most scathingly critical Group ever! And we won't be a bunch of Arseholes Mr Lydon!
ReplyDeleteIt'd be like Theater, a send up of everything from the Rocky Horror Show, the Great Rock and Roll Swindle, Clockwork Orange, and anything else that seemed to daub People in Slime.
Might have a Support Group called the Spite Girrrllzzz, Blokes in Drag doing Songs like "Step to me"!
ReplyDeleteWe could do "This is my Truth, tell me yours" - maybe even a Piss take of the Pistols Song, except we'll call it "(I am not a) Liar"!
When you end up like Jack, where - as he tells Fabrizio - "When you've got nothing, you have nothing to lose" you become imbued with an Objectivity that others don't have. Everything in Life becomes an Observation, rather like his Drawings. I certainly felt that by 1997, and for quite a few years before. Then after a few more years that becomes Irreverence.
ReplyDeleteAnother Song for the "Jobs for the Boys" Album might be "Blackboy Hill" to the Tune of "Roads" by Portishead. The Video might feature a Band rehearsing at Walton in Gordano Village Hall, thumbing through an AtoZ for Song Themes!
Wonder what the St Winnifreds Choir is doing now. Not the current one, but those who sang on that Record Clive Dunn made in the 1970's. We might reform them and do a Celdhi Rendition of it with Clips of George Cluney sailing into a "Perfect Storm".
ReplyDeleteWe might do a Send-up of a Shakin Stevens Song called "Green Boat", could even do a Splodginess Abounds style Rendition of one of those Sergio Leone Themes.
ReplyDelete"2 Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps ..... Please!"
And while a rather snooty young Lady once said "Cheeyahs" to me like we were in Sloane Square, I do remember a very "Titanic" moment a few years ago ....
ReplyDeleteI'll admit I might look a bit colourful to some, maybe a bit streetsy.
For a few years I got to know a rather charming Lady in the days before I got turned away from Costa, who I would see in the Town quite regularly. Then, one day she was with her Mum, who was rather posh, and who had sent her Daughter to a private School. The Look she gave me could have been that of Frances Fisher in the Film, like I was an Insect who ought to be crushed.
And I wasn't even seeing her Daughter, let alone spitting off the side of a Ship!
Haven't seen them for quite a while now, hope they're OK.
I haven't seen someone else who could be a bit ladylike since at least before Christmas last year. Hope everything is fine with them too!
Meanwhile, as mentioned elsewhere, has Tommy Ryan turned into "Tommy"?
Shame Sally Bovine turned out to be more of the same!
ReplyDeleteIn "Black Sails", which seems to parallel quite a lot of this, Charles Vane gets Charlestowns Guns and uses them against Charlestown in a Storyline that involves a Hostage Crisis. Except it's one that should never have happened as we see Captain James McGraw in London with several others deciding what they were going to do with Nassau and the Bahamas.
As things, and the years, continued we get to where Ned Lowe kidnaps Abbie Ashe - and McGraw, now Flint, rescues her and returns her to her Father. Problem is Peter Ashe has become Governor of the Carolinas and was involved in McGraws downfall, and the end of what they were all supposed to be doing.
When Charles Vane opened fire on Charlestown it was 2016, and it was like he took Tommy's Silver Balls and used them against Tommy. If he was a WW2 RAF Pilot it was as if he wrote "Meet the new Boss, same as the old Boss ......Tommy" on them, in riposte to the Who Rock Opera, and using another Who Song against them. Cannon and Ball indeed, but none of it was supposed to happen if what was supposed to had!
By producing Abbie Ashes Diary of the Story involving Flints resolution to a Hostage Crisis he presents the Truth against what her Father is trying to contrive against him.
In that Episode we see Flint/McGraw, Miranda Barlow/Lady Hamilton and Peter Ashe having Dinner in the Governor's Residence and she notices a Clock which used to belong to her and her Husband. She starts asking how he got to acquire it.
ReplyDeleteSee above and the Clock at the Waldorf Hotel where we had our Press Conference, and how things ought to have been. Watch the "Titanic" Movie and see how Jack and Rose meet by the Clock before going to the Party in Steerage, and again at the very end of the Film.
So, how did certain People acquire certain Clocks, or even those Mews's in the years concurrent to when "Black Sails" was being made?
Wonder who was involved with that Project that had that Connection with the Astor's via Ormsby-Gore? It certainly wasn't Mark Powell or Judith Weaver.
ReplyDelete"Titanic Liverpool" .....
The last thing you see before the mighty Ship disappeared is that, painted on the Stern of the Ship as it threatened to drag Jack down with it.
It was 2008 and I was sat outside Parsons in Portishead having a Coffee and a Lady appeared who I hadn't seen before and she was the most beautiful Woman I had seen in a very very long time. Then I finally got to talk to her, even though I didn't have Angels fly out of my Arse!
I was reminded of a Line from a Song by Liverpool's most famous Sons, except maybe things turned out like they do in the Film.
She appeared, and asked for Directions from someone like it was a Song by the Eagles. The thing is, Joe Walsh might have sung "Time to open Fire" in "Rocky Mountain Way", but what if Charles Vane had used Walshes Guns against him?
It continues ......
ReplyDelete"This is where we first met", Rose says to Jack just before the Ship sank.
A few days ago a couple of rough old Scrubbers were stood in exactly the same Spot as someone else was 12 years before. Except, by then they had grown Horns and were like something from "Atom Heart Mother". That was after a long Period of all sorts of Shit, including occasionally meeting some Toothless waste of time Drunk who always prattled on about Squirrels.
What is it with those People?
But while you could use Pink Floyd Lyrics against Hippies - "Don't give me that do goody good Bulshit", you could do the same with Radiohead because "Anyone can play Guitar" apparently, and if they could they might fire back a Lyric from another former Yardbird Guitarist ..... "You're everywhere but nowhere".
Which is what all that "Now" and "Then" Crap was!
"Faster than a Cannon Ball" huh?
Someone else used to prattle on about Squirrels. He wrote about them on his Beamer! The thing is, his lot could be a bit Jamie and Cersie from "Game of Thrones", the latter always reminds me of Cates Galadriel, while there were quite a few Marjorie Tyrrell's who seemed prepared to latch into what might have been wrong with the metaphorical Lannisters rather than be any real improvement.
ReplyDeleteThey were so Jamie and Cersie they prompted the Town's Youth and Community Service to be accused of Nepotism as long ago as 1995. Incest, Cronyism, Nepotism ...... they're all related aren't they!
ReplyDeleteSeems we've had about 18000 Marjorie's arrive here since the late 90's. To the Point where, for some it still feels like the 1973 that Pink Floyd Album was released in.
Might show this Webpage and the Hostage Project CD to whoever it is who does that Ship to Shore and ask them what any of that has to do with any of this?
ReplyDeleteJack could legitimately ask why he has to have Angels fly out of anywhere to talk to anyone ........ Tommy!
And if we must do this "Day in the Life" Shit, maybe one day I'll get to meet someone on that one Day in their Life that they don't have their Head up theirs.
Just hope Marjorie doesn't decide to get married!
ReplyDeleteAnd while you had Gloria Stuart, the Actress who played Rose, you have Rod Stewart and Frances Fisher, which would be ....... ?
ReplyDeleteSomeone else called Gloria had a Fling with someone who was married to a Woman called Rose, Rose Kennedy, who with her Husband had a Son who would be known to the World as Jack.
More Stuff from the Almosts .....
ReplyDeleteWe might do a Concept Album called "The Great Rock and Roll Dwindle" where we chronicle the Demise of British Music, and maybe why it happened.
And I s'pose her in the Red Car that time thought she was Jack in that Renault type CB Coup De Ville! Or maybe she was doing a pathetic Attempt at a Red Alert!
I posted this elsewhere, but I had to ask why, on what is probably the hottest Day of the Year, was that Bloke wearing a Duffle Coat. I kid you not, and this was no Fantasy either.
ReplyDeleteMaybe this is the Bit in "Game of Thrones" when Ygritte - played by Actress Rose Leslie (quite appropriately) scorns Jon for saying how the Armies of Westeros always marched to Drums, which kinda gives the - erm - 'Game' away. It was the same when Rhazdal, patronising, condescending Slave Master of Yunkai - arrives on a Litter, carried by Slaves, when he goes to treat with Daenerys.
Maybe I should ask the fake Duff Gordon's.
ReplyDeleteThis is Music????
ReplyDeleteWhy does Popular Music exist?
It's a common Mistake to assume it started in the 1950's with Rock and Roll and Doo Wop, Soundtracks to White and Black, but it didn't.
In a modern Context, some of it started with 1920's Jazz. Before that People either listened to Classical Music or the bawdy Songs of Music Hall. Suddenly, along came this Music that showed that Black Musicians were the equal to Whites, and in many instances better. You could see Duke Ellington, Satchmo Armstrong, Count Basie and many others be the Jazz equivalent of any of those Classical and Music Hall People of the time. The Boundaries of Snobbery started to totter. Jazz was a Statement, a response to Prohibition, something you could hear in Places you weren't supposed to go. It also said to the American Government "I'm gonna drink this and what are you going to do about it? You might ban Alcohol - but what's next?
It then became a Soundtrack to the Depression Era "Brother can you spare us a Dime" was the most famous Song, while it prompted the emergence of the Man who would invent Folk Protest. "This Land is your Land" Woody Guthrie sang, "This Machine kills Fascists" emblazoned on his Guitar.
The early 1940's turned it into a Morale Boost for when the World really was killing Fascists during WW2, Glen Miller epitomised GI Cool, George Formby gave everyone a Laugh, and the very beautiful Vera Lynn wowed British Servicemen.
Then there were the 1950's. The first time Youth had Money, had Power in the Consumer Boom, Rock and Roll and "Blackboard Jungle" was born in a determined Effort to leave the austere post-War era behind. Black Music appeared on Street Corners with that lilting Harmony of DooWop, some of the most beautiful Sounds you'll hear. Calypso started, fronted by its most political Figure, Harry Belafonte.
Concurrent with this came Folkys like Pete Seeger and the Weavers, People continuing the Woody Guthrie Legacy as the famous Troubadour was troubled by Huntingdon's Disease, becoming increasingly inactive.
The 1960's saw it cement the Anglo-American Relationship as British Groups invaded America and looked like it's equal. It became the Conduit for Protest as Phil Ochs, Joan Baez and a certain Robert Zimmerman rose to prominence. "For what it's worth" gave the World Steven Stills and Niel Young, protesting against Police Brutality in Los Angeles. Both would protest via many Songs since. Black America had Motown and Stax, finally convincing them they could have a Career in that Industry making them huge Stars.
"There's a Riot going on" proclaimed Sly and the Family Stone, which was the rallying Cry for the streetsy Protest of American Funk (see Parliament and Funkadelic) that would reverberate the early 70's . Woodstock happened with Richie Havens and Country Joe epitomising Protest, Woody's Heir apparent Arlo stormed into Los Angeles. Jimi Hendrix very presence was a Statement. An Afro-American Guitarist, better than any of his white Contemporaries, including Eric Clapton.
While all this went on a new Music was coming to Britain and America from the Caribbean. People like Desmond Decker, the Ethiopians, Bob and Marcia, Harry J and the All Stars, proved that Afro-Caribbean meant "Young, gifted and Black". A young Jamaican called Robert Nesta Marley honed his Style - ready for the 1970's.
This is Music in continuum ....
ReplyDeleteWhile White early 70's descended into indulgence or gaudy, slightly tacky, Wham, Bam Thank you Mam, the latter half resounded with John Lydon yelling "Get off your Arse" as Steve Jones crescendoed into "Anarchy in the UK". Punk was born and gave People everything from Protest to just having something to do in the grey and biege "Boredom" of semi-derelict Britain. Reggae had established itself and Bob Marley looked set to be bigger than the Rolling Stones.
The 80's started with Ska and 4 Lads from Dublin who would tell us about everything from "Sunday bloody Sunday", to the burning Crosses in "Bullet the Blue Sky" and the Murder of Martin Luther King Jr in "Pride in the name of Love". U2 did their thing, the Simple Minds did theirs. The Decade danced to "Ghostdancing", "Mandela Day", their Rendition of "Sun City", "Belfast Child" and "This Land is your Land". Billy Bragg and the Style Council led the Red Wedge Protest Movement while Hip Hop started reaching a wider Audience. Run DMC appeared at Live Aid, which was Music's definitive Statement against institutional Apathy. It celebrated the Release of Nelson Mandela from the same Stage at the end of it.
John Lydon really could see some History as the Berlin Wall came down, and a certain Album appeared that was compiled in Bristol continuing the Momentum.
Then what happened?
So while Music was a Statement of Protest in the Speakeasies of Prohibition America, and continued to justify its existence in many Decades since by not being just another thing to make People fat and rich has it turned into something George Orwell wrote about in "Animal Farm"? That what started as a Force for Improvement, can now be used for the Opposite?
That those running it have become like Napoleon and his Cronies in the Book, using the others as Cannon Fodder, expendable to their Ends. That they have become the very thing they were against?
And if that is true, why should those "Friends" the Beatles once sang about bother with it anymore?
Particularly if Noddy and Big Ears did a Cover of Blondies "Maria" in a Hotel Foyer!
ReplyDeleteSilly isn't it!
And while Beatles 2 in the 90's trying to be the 60's weren't greeted at La Guardia Airport by 1000s of adoring Fans, neither were other 90's Groups. In Liverpool; is that Cast, or a Cast, Mr Power, and are we in Paris or merely getting plastered?
ReplyDeleteThen, you could ask if he is in fact John, as in "Jilted", from the 1970's, which prompts other Questions like is he a Prodigy and who might Gordon be?
It's as stultifyingly tedious and predictable as those mindless Conversations Rose is running away from in the Film.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the Almosts should do a Hybrid of the Clashes 2nd Album and a very famous Song by Dire Straits. We could call it "Money for old Rope". Tina Turner might have given us a Song for the Hostage Album, but she also did "Whats Love got to do with it?", and if all they ever did was erm recondition Music several times in many years I hope they charged discount Prices for the CDs of these "second hand Emotions".
ReplyDeleteAfter a couple of years of being a Sex Pistol, meeting Record Bosses, other Groups, Management, Studio Bosses, Sids Heroin and Malcolm, Johnny Rotten had had enough. After a nonchalant Rendition of "No Fun" at San Francisco's Winterland he quit.
"Ever get the feeling you've been cheated? he snarled as he left the Group.
Other Songs we could do this with ....
ReplyDelete"Step to me" by the Spite Girls done to sound like Steve Harley and Cockney Rebels "Come up and see me, make me smile". Give Sharleen Texas a Cockney Accent and put her in "EastEnders".
Another Transexual Pop Star called Kylie Diggle or Steve Minogue doing "Can't get the Harmony out of my Head".
Thomas Yorke of Radiohag singing "Trains and Boats and Planes".
I wouldn't be too bothered if the Venue's never reopened. Not after what that Industry has done to some People's Lives in the Furtherance of their Agenda. I'm a Musician, and while the Sex Pistols might have swindled a few Record Companies, the Record Companies have cheated People of a hell of a lot more.
ReplyDeleteThat isn't Music!
.....And when does Irreverence become Contempt? Not Contempt for Creativity, but because I know what I subscribed to 30 years ago, and it wasn't Hippie Rock Operas or Tear stained Guitars. What made the 90's so crap was how those responsible adopted the look and sound of a Decade, but left out the Stuff that made it what it was.
ReplyDeleteIt becomes as incongruous as meeting racist Jam Fans or similar who were into U2. "Down in the Tube Station at Midnight" or "Pride in the Name of Love" are equally valid Songs to anything else those Groups might have done.
I know how the 90's started, rather like People might have remembered how the 60's did. That Decade began with JFK and Martin Luther King and ended with Vietnam and Altamont.
Not forgetting the Fact that it's starting to look like we got horribly used by certain very cynical People.
ReplyDeleteScuzzbags who couldn't send Concert Tickets, others who couldn't even make Coffee! Then there were things from some who really ought to have known better.
ReplyDeleteWhat is all this?
Oh, and when I write about Czechoslovakia I mean Czechish and Slovak People, not a Move in a Game of Chess played in a Shithole Bedsit above a Portishead Curry House or a Desk in a Shop with a Till on it.
Then they gave us All3Media - yet more Thug Yippies wanting their Club 18-30 Lifestyles built on Exploitation.
I'm not sure the Venue's will ever reopen, and if they did they'll be reduced in numbers.
ReplyDeleteIf you had to socially distance a seated Hall like they do Transport that's only about a quarter of its capacity. A Promoter isn't going to make any Money, while how long would a Venue last with that amount of Admission? How would you tell People in a stand up Venue to keep 2 Meters away from each other? Wouldn't make for much of a Mosh Pit would it!
Who is going to insure it all?
A Promoter or Venue Manager would have to be aware that a Member of the Audience could sue them for not taking the necessary Precautions if they got ill at one of their Concerts.
Then there's the effect on the Record Industry.
The Concert Tour was always an intrinsic part of the Promotion Process. To promote an Album or Single and to boost the Artistes Profile. The Studios have been closed during the Lockdown, which has cost them Money they couldn't earn, while the Companies start running out of new Product. Not being essential Services, Staff wouldn't be put on Furlough and they couldn't claim support from the Government.
At least I can say I went see one of only more recent Groups worth bothering about 19 years ago, which was the last Gig I attended. The 90's was like the 60's without the Social Conscience, but the Manic Street Preachers bucked the Trend with many agitprop Songs that weren't just about Drug Habits and Irony.
And they weren't singing about Guitars either.
ReplyDeleteYep, this is the latest Layer of Slime they daub on, but while any Brat can have their Fender, Rickenbacker, Gibson, Martin, bought for them some of us can play. Those with the posh Guitars might, but it seems certain People are using it like a Steel Shutter across a Passageway.
That "Expendables" Video is starting to look very necessary!
Why?
ReplyDelete950 Jobs in the Hippie Media, some for 25 years paid at the IBA Rate, with a Camelot Contact Book.
A Press Pack forming part of that Timeline, written in 1989, that got 27 Artistes to give a Song to a Human Rights Album. A donated Facility to launch said Project, again part of that Preamble, whose owner was probably in that Contact Book.
2 People going to Prague just after the Velvet Revolution, at Christmas, free Accommodation in Wenceslas Square, everywhere covered in Snow.
I don't know how many other things could appear here ......
And no-one seems to be able to make Coffee??????
If I see another Article about Fender I'll either spit or puke!
ReplyDeleteAnd while I might stand there and play all those Protest Songs from the Woodstock Album ("Drug Store Truck driving Man", "Coming into Los Angeles", "I feel I'm fixing to die", "Long time coming", "Wooden Ships" to name but a few) the Yippie Costume People wafting about like they OUGHT to be in the Film, nothing happens. Maybe that's because I don't have a Hand up my Arse working me like a Sock Puppet.
ReplyDeleteUnlike Crimson Bovine Caffeine Drink, or some Crap about Roads which seem to have more influence than one of the most successful Films ever and the Era defining Period of the end of the 1980's then is there something those People should be telling us?
Maybe they're all Pinocchio and if you look closely you'll see the Strings.
How does nothing more than a former TV Actress gain that sort of Influence? Maybe it's done by an Advertising Agency working for a very lucrative Client.
James Cameron never pretended to be alternative, indie or leftfield when he made "Titanic" and while Toxic Natalie sang her Crap Jack says "You know me Rose!"
Having just read several Articles about Joseph Kennedys involvement in the Film Industry, every one of them seems to be lining up to out criticise the others, but they all miss one very crucial Fact.
ReplyDeleteTrue, he took smaller Companies and merged them into bigger ones, People were laid off in the Process, and there was that famous Fling with Gloria Swanson.
But while he did this, he did so for a Reason. He tried saving the Film "Queen Kelly" from the Indulgences of its Maker Eric Von Stroheim, which might have left Swanson in a better Position after it hurt her Career. His Nous for reading the Markets knew they were heading for severe Trouble in 1929. When they did dozens, maybe hundreds, of Film Companies went to the Wall, too small to absorb the impact of a 50% drop in Theater Attendances. By merging some of these he ensured they would survive the Storm, so although he might have left a Trail of Casualties to get there, the long term Benefits were felt into the Decades that followed.
The 1912 Disaster of the World's most famous Shipwreck becomes an accurate Metaphor of what might have happened to a large Chunk of Hollywood if he hadn't.
And while he fused an adroit approach of Creativity and Finance, facilitating a better more effective interaction with Wall Street that Film Companies lacked he also took the Film Moguls into the hitherto off limits Corridors of Harvard. Former Furriers, Immigrant Studio Bosses, were suddenly elevated into Authorities telling Students about their Industry. Before that seen as Outsiders in American Society and given scant Regard by its Establishment.
ReplyDeleteWhen Rose says of Jack "He saved me" it's like she's the Film Industry under his Guidance, contrasting that to Hockley, whose Fortune was devastated by the Crash of 1929.
ReplyDeleteYet more Stuff from the Almosts .....
ReplyDeleteWe might do "Jumpin' Jack Flash", but in a Jefferson Airplane Stylee! Except, while we have that Jorma Kaukonen Guitar and Jack Cassady Bass Sound we could replace the Grace Slick Vocal with a Cockney or Glaswegian Accent!
If, indeed, the Closure of the Venue's does mean the end of Rock and Pop Music, at least they can't scam anyone with that Crap anymore - even the Behemoths of it all are as stymied as any local Indie Band.
ReplyDeleteHaving mentioned Accents, should I ask the Meister of Grammar about these Linguistics?
There's no Peace here! Just a Continuation of what was wrong before!
ReplyDeleteAnd the Howling of Bulls!
ReplyDelete"Yeah"? Nah, fuck off before I go in yer Face!
Not even the real Angus can tour now Wanker!
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, the Almosts could do a Rewrite of a Verve Song ......
ReplyDelete"The Drugs don't work" becomes "The Scams don't work", not only as a riposte to all the Scams we might have encountered, but also to the "Lucky Man" Trap. Where the "Lucky Man who made the Grade" might be in a Photograph taken in Poland during WW2. (See "Cold Wars??????").
How about a Clash Rewrite .....?
"What's my Name" becomes "What's in a Name". Ronan O Rahilly named his Radio Station Caroline after Caroline Kennedy. One of his Crew had a Connection with 'Camelot' via a Family Friend. He also had those with the Manx Parliament, the Tinwald with whom he garnered Support for the Station Ship when the Government on mainland Britain was clamping down on Pirate Radio.
The same can't be said of either Mr Walker or Mr "Flowers in the Rain", "Blackberry Way" Blackburn.
Ronan formed his supposed 'Love and Peace' Group from former Members of Ian Dury's Blockheads. These are the People who sang that Crap about "Rhythm Sticks", which might not be so "gut" after all.
Not surprised "The Wire" featured an "Arsehole" called Officer Walker who bullies and robs Street Kids. It's not so peaceful after all, while "Blackburn, Lancashire" isn't that far away from Terry Walsh's "Penny Lane" in "Twin Towns"!
There's no "Now" anymore!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete"Drug Store Truck driving Men" (and Women) perhaps - who sure don't think much like the Records they play. After all, if yer gonna play "Hi Ho Silver Lining", where some People were "everywhere but nowhere" you could at least have made sure some People were somewhere sometimes!
ReplyDeleteInsincerity abounds huh!
I remember someone in Portishead Precinct 12 years ago, but that was 12 years ago, not last Week. They've grown Horns since, and turned into Terry Walsh!
ReplyDeleteIndiscernable from any of the other Shit I've seen here since the 1970's!
ReplyDeleteAnd not much has changed since 1912, the early 90's, or the Film. It seems the Lifeboat called "Tribute" is only there for People called Angus!
ReplyDeleteIt's encouraging to see that MSN News ran a Story about how the Titanic Disaster might have been 108 years ago, but it hasn't been forgotten!
ReplyDeleteStarting to look like John Carpenter might have been right 40 years ago when he made a Film about a Town that lured People to their Deaths. Then they remade it 25 years later.
ReplyDelete"A Night to remember" = "It's my Life" (don't you forget it).
ReplyDeleteWhy "Jobs for the Boys"?
ReplyDeleteIn the Film Jack seems to be about the only Character who knows what he's doing. Hockley might survive but we see how he "makes his own Luck".
When Beatles 2 were being the most famous Band of the 90's we had our Indie Group, except we played Sound City in a Backroom Venue in Bristol. I knew I was a better Bass Player than 'Guiggs', and a better Guitarist probably than Paul Arthur's, and equal to Noel, but the whole Game is rigged. Heck, if they and Tony McCarroll were any good why did Gallagher replace them?
When Frank Zappa sent up the Beatles "Sgt Pepper" with "In it for the Money" he could back it up with Music. He was an infinitely better Musician than any of them - while the Beatles recruited Eric Clapton to play on that Song on the "White Album" because George wasn't good enough. Concurrently, if the Scene in the Film "Jimi" is true, Hendrix, who had always wanted to jam with Clapton, finally did so and made him look like a Chump. Later in the Film he learns the "Sgt Pepper" title Track in the Minutes before a Gig and plays it live. Could probably have done it with any of their other Songs too, which says "there's no Mystique to this Stuff".
More Songs for the Almosts .....
"Staring at the rude Buoys" which are painted Green in the Estuary and you see them when this Man of Harlech "looks out to Sea, and tells you what he came here for" John Power. From an Album that could be called "Smile and bare or even bear it".
Which brings me to this .....
"Robin Hood, Robin Hood, riding through the Glen, Robin Hood, Robin Hood with his Band of Men. Rob from the Poor to give to themselves, Robin Hood ...."
We'll do this adaptation of the Theme Song to the Richard Green TV Show because that's what it all seems to have turned into. From how the People working on "Robin of Sherwood" were paid considerably more Money in a better Job than this Man of Harlechs £5 a day Job in a 1985 Record Shop to how Noel is building a Games Room in the Woodland of his £8Million Mansion in Hampshire.
The point here being; are you Robin, or just robbin'?
When Hendrix played the title Track to the Beatles Magnum Opus in the "Jimi" Movie he did so to the Beatles themselves - who were in the Audience. They had spent Months writing and recording the "Pepper" Album, Jimi's Group had it figured in Minutes. The Beatles had wearied of playing live, Hendrix DID and could. When Zappa sent up the Album he did so a Record that had been inspired by his own Groups Concept Album "Freak out"!
ReplyDeleteBy calling his Response "In it for the Money" maybe he was being a bit more honest, while the Beatles were less than enamoured by Zappa's Jibe and insisted the Cover appeared as the inner Sleeve. You'd have thought that the Group supposedly into George Martin's Peter Sellers Recordings, the Goon Shows, and who would produce those Hand Made Films in the 1980's would have got the Joke, but they didn't. You'd have also thought Lennon particularly would have respected Zappa's right to freedom of expression.
I can subscribe to it because of what didn't happen 30 years ago, and the years since. (See; Press Conference). Despite all the Causes some of those Artistes supported it seemed to be business as usual into the 1990's. Also, of everyone involved with that Project I seem to be the only one writing about more recent Hostage Crises in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I probably derived the least from it.
You start to become sceptical of People's Motives after that.
Meanwhile, here's the real Jimi Hendrix upstaging Eric Clapton .....
https://www.historyvshollywood.com/video/jimi-hendrix-upstages-eric-clapton/
More Songs ......
ReplyDeleteHow about "The Battle of the frozen Harbour"? This is for People who walk on the opposite side of the Marina and others who throw Stones in Glass Houses like they were the Hounds of Love/Hate or even War.
While, it seems, some People seem to have been worked like Pinocchio by Record Industry and maybe even Film People for years, I hope most sincerely the same hasn't been going on with HBO.
I often felt like the Town was a Film Set, and just as contrived. I say this because I've been on them, TV and Film, even going to Pinewood Studios in the early 80's, so I know what it's like.
ReplyDeleteThe difference is, while a Film Set is populated by People who are paid as Film Operatives - Acting, Production, Maintainence and Clerical, the Town has acted like a Muse for the Industry, a Film Set without the Film Work. I half expect to see they've swapped all the Scenery around during the Night so everything has been moved around.
While a Film has a Schedule with a beginning and end they did this for Decades, even as far back as the early 80's it seems.
What is horrible about it is how everyone is at the Behest of it, while the Pinnochio Reference applies to those who have been worked like a Puppet and lied throughout all of it.
What's worse is if or when they use Words like "Righteous, Ethical" etc, because if they knew what that even meant they wouldn't have been party to any of it.
Which brings me to the Hostages ....
I used several Search Engines to find Quotes, Comments, Articles ..... anything, from any of those People 30 years ago on any recent Hostage Crisis, Kenneth Bigley, Margaret Hassan, Daniel Pearl and the many others who died or disappeared in Iraq and Afghanistan, but drew the proverbial Blank.
I sent an Email to someone from that time less than a year after a Film about the Kidnapping and Murder of Daniel Pearl, when "Mighty Heart" featured Angelina Jolie as the missing Journalists Wife desperate for News about her Husband.
Again, nothing.
So, First Ranger Pick-up Grey Joy, if I went down to the Woods today would I find Theon and Brandon Stark?
Or maybe it's a Grey Lantern, y'know, like 90's schmindie Shit Mansun, or even a "Lemonade Drinker" eh Mr Draper!
ReplyDeleteWhich means Parlophone EMI might have been at it too, as well as the Hollywood Rapist Film Company.
Take it easy ...... erm Chicken, drone, blah .......!
....And if there is a Dearth of those People from 30 years ago, what's with any others who have manouvered themselves to leach off of the Project?
ReplyDeleteNot a million Miles away from here!!!!
"You stand above me, call my Name etc" (Don't you forget about me")
Sheesh, looks like Portishead 2020 is pretending to be Prague 1989, or even Holborn, London 1990!
The Almosts might have to do a Cover of "There's a Woman works down the Chip Shop, swears she's Elvis" which alludes to a couple of things .....
Firstly to someone called Mrs Gordon who ran one, but has nothing to do with the Titanic at all. Secondly, as a response to Sharleen Texas who dressed up as Presley for the "Inner Smile" Video.
Looks like we're back to "Gordon" and the Chip Shops after all! What was it Rose said about those mindless Conversations? A Life where everything was so predictable!
And that was 1978!!!!!
And why does the caricature on the Prodigy "Jilted Generation" Inlay Card, the one cuting the Rope Bridge, look like someone from this Town?
This is the bit where Captain Willard/Martin Sheen does look into Francis Coppola's Camera in "Apocalypse Now" as if to ask both the Film Maker and the President "Why are we doing this?"
ReplyDeleteEither that or - as someone said of those eastern European Dictators during Communism - they were like the TV Conjourer who accidentally let the Audience see where all the Doves were hidden. Once that happens, respect collapses, all Mystique evaporates and they never get another Booking.
"Robin Hood, Robin Hood, riding through the Glen, Robin Hood, Robin Hood with his Band of Men. Rob from the Poor to give to themselves, Robin Hood ...." (Reprise).
ReplyDeleteWhile Noel Gallagher builds his Games Room in the Woods of his £8Million Mansion Alan McGee used to bang on about Socialism etc and he, Gallagher and Meg did that Wine and Cheese at Tony's Downing Street (with Ms Brooks ne; Wade).
The Prodigy were part of that underground Rave Scene that culminated in 40,000 gathering at Castlemorton in the early 1990's. I remember making a Documentary about New Age Travellers in 1992 where we talked about all that.
Think I'd rather have been in Prague organising Concerts!
When HTV made "Robin of Sherwood" from 1983-7 this Man of Harlech was either on the Dole or doing a £5 a day Job in a 1985 Record Shop. If that Job was full-time I'd have got £25 a Week when the average Wage was £100-130, subject to regional variations. A year later I took up a Social Housing Tenancy with a registered fair Rent of £88 every 4 Weeks. That leaves me with the GDP altering Income of £12. Like, gosh, I won't spend it all at once!
ReplyDeleteThat isn't Management, that's Exploitation!
ReplyDeleteEven if it was the former, to use a Rock and Roll analogy; having met People in recent years who were firmly established in every Strata of Life and considerably better off financially, it's like being in a Group, arriving at recording Sessions, Rehearsals and Gigs via Public Transport and someone else in the Group does in a chauffeur driven Limo.
That's when you want to talk to said 'Management'!
So, how does someone on a Prodigy Inlay look like someone from here? This was before things like Phone Cameras, Google Images, digital Photography and the Internet. Either the Group weren't as underground as they had us believe or there's something someone in the Town ought to be telling us!
Until then, I'd rather have been in Prague helping those People organise Concerts - who weren't bullcrapping anyone, and, be it the Prague Spring or Velvet Revolution, were always decent People. Instead of interviewing a bunch of Travellers about all their Gripes and Grievances when they might have been bullcrapping everyone!
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, if we do indeed have a Hound, or Clegane, here, when will they pay the Iron Price and they have an older Brother who pushes them into a Fire?
Come to think of it, if there's a Theon Greyjoy in the 'Godswood' presumably they already have and met Ramsey Bolton!
To give you an Indication that not very much has changed since 1912 I had a very odd Conversation with someone who asked me what my first Job was. It was like I had to recommence it like Stuff since, including the above Press Conference, never happened. Suffice to say it was a crap Job and while "Titanic" shows some of the Hypocrisy of 1912 how about that of the Bloke I was talking to? If I had to end up doing that Job he can do his first Job, one that he hated and caused him considerable Detriment.
ReplyDeleteTo make it worse he was sat there with someone who derived a Pension from a late Husband who worked at HTV!
One Song the Almosts won't be doing is "Hotel California" ...... Mr Bird!
ReplyDeleteThe Almosts currently rehearsing "Paint it Black" in a Radio News Studio wondering what the Weather might be like. We could play it on a Corner in Baltimore.
ReplyDeleteOther Ideas for Albums ....
A 60's Pink Floyd soundalike Album called "Rollocks"!
"Saucy Secrets", "Piper at the Gates of where ever", "A nice Pair" .... Songs like "Bike", "Interstellar Overdrive", Lucifer Sam", to name but a few.
ReplyDeleteWe could do a Zappaesque cover of "A Day in the Life".
And when we aren't doing that we could do some of that "Morning Maniac Music", a Jefferson Airplane Mix!
ReplyDeleteWe might do the Pinnochio Theme, but package it in Portishead Album Artwork, because the Town just seems to be a Puppet Show run by grubby Hacks! The thing is, while there might be Parasites who try to leach off of the Press Conference and all this other Stuff like the Red Woman in "Game of Thrones", in 1993 a Hand came out of a Lake holding a Rose, and the rest as they say is History!
ReplyDeleteWonder if Gendry made Excalibur?
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, while John/Jack Astor could be one and the same, with some Jack Kennedy thrown in, he could ask the 'Duff Gordons' if indeed they are who they say they are. Then the Almosts burst into Song; "There's a Guy works down the Chip Shop swears he's Elvis", they start to sing.
What was it Baelish said of Kings Landing in the HBO TV Series? "Were all Liars here"!
There must be a blisteringly cutting edge full on Hip Hop Scene in Walton in Gordano that is so underground no-one has ever heard of it. While America should brace itself for the Brean Invasion. 1000s of People at JFK in New York waiting to greet ....... erm, erm!
And while Jack was accused of something he didn't do, among the Accusers was Mr Warner. The thing is, if he was a Film Company who was Warner protecting that - years later - would be accused, and found guilty, of the same thing? In other Words Mr Warner's Associate had a diabolical Nerve accusing anyone of anything.
ReplyDeleteAnd as an Admission of all this 'Captain Smith' took to launching some Rockets last night.
ReplyDeleteShine on you crazy Diamond .....
ReplyDeleteThe thing is, the Cuer de la Mare might be the Heart of the Ocean, but then there is also Weston Super Mare, and Mare means the same thing, whether it's a Pendant in a Film or a Town in Somerset.
But there's also a real Diamond.
The Sansi Diamond, an Heirloom of the Astor Family. Hockley might have acquired that Pendant, but as a Metaphor it refers to something else. Despite what Name or Affectation Hockley attached to it. He might have named it after a Town in Somerset, but it came from somewhere else. Rose throws it into the Sea at the end of the Film like it was a Votive (Bedwyr and Excalibur after the Battle of Camlan) - and also like she was returning it to its rightful owner ....... Jack Astor.
And the Internet People might populate the Harbour with those 'Fisher Kings', but they aren't the Mandan Indians, alleged descendants of Welsh Explorers, led by Madog ap Owain Gwynedd, who were shipwrecked on the Coast of what is now Mobile.
ReplyDeleteBulcrap in Blenkinsop.....
ReplyDeleteAll this about Excalibur brings me to this ......
Up in the Borderland Area of England and Scotland there might now be Towns like Haltwistle, except that Region used to be called something else. Forming part of the ancient Kingdom of Rheged it was run by real life Characters in the Arthurian Stories. Urien Rheged and Owain both feature in real History, as does Elffin Map Owain who is immortalised in Druidic Verse ("Primary Bard to Elffin am I ....."). The whole Area of northern England and Southern Scotland was called the Hen Ogledd or Old North, and once run by Coel Hen. Pronounced "Coil" it should not be confused with a middle English Name - Cole - which comes from Cornwall.
The most famous and synonymous Image of the Arthurian Story is the Hand coming from a Lake holding a Sword. This is from when a mortally wounded Arthur - who has just slain Mordred at Camlan - asks Bedwyr to throw Excalibur into the Lake. Bedwyr is reluctant but Arthur insists. He wants it to be used as a Votive, very important in the Beliefs of ancient Briton - as it would invoke the help of the Spirits. In War they would offer Spears or Swords, for Farming and a good Crop they might throw agricultural Tools, for Food they could offer Utensils. Arthur offered his most potent Symbol, Excalibur, as a surety for the Future of Briton in his absence.
When Rose throws the Necklace into the Sea she returns it to its rightful owner, Jack Astor, rather like Bedwyr does Excalibur. Hockley tried imbuing it with his own Vanity and a Name, but it came from and was called something else. Jack might have been the poorest on the Ship, but he was also the wealthiest.
Not sure I could say the same for any fake Duff Gordon's, Weston Super "Mare", or those whistling Bulls.
As Brock Lovett said when he does the same with the Cigar ......
ReplyDelete"I didn't get it, didn't let it in"
The Almosts currently rehearsing "Little Grey Bullshit", a rewrite of the famous Tommy Steele Song. Should put a Tag at the end called "More of the same". We could do an Adaptation of a Little Richard Song ....
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, while the Sex Pistols released Records via A&M, EMI and Virgin in Britain - they did so in America via Warner. Yep, that lovely Company again!
Unfortunately, while Warner's Associate was New Line Cinemas Harvey Weinstein, so is HBO.
Oh, and wasn't it WEA who bought Parlophone like it was part of Hockleys diminished Fortune?
The thing is, what did George Smiley turn into after the Cold War?
ReplyDeleteImagine if Little Richard came from Seattle in the early 90's and played those - what was it David Bulshit in the Travelodge said - "Nasty little Grungy Guitar Solos"!
ReplyDeleteEh Gordon Bike!!!!!
And how about you Russell Gardener?
ReplyDeleteAnother Song by the Almosts .....
ReplyDelete"Hotel Birmingham"! We get the Eagles Song but change the Lyric.
It's about some People booked into a Hotel, except a 41 year old Bloke has been booked in with an 18 year old Woman.
Just hope we don't see any of those Beetles ....... Ouch!
..... and when the Shit hits the Fan!
Meanwhile, we could do a famous Song by Nancy Sinatra!
And after the Almosts have played "Hotel Birmingham" as a splinter Group - the Beetles, whose Instruments are made of Lego, we might do "Cum on feel the Toys" in fake Brummie ACCENTS. Maybe (sic) tag a bit on the end about whips coming down etc!
ReplyDeleteThrow in our Rendition of "More Life in a Black Vest", played outside a Library!
The thing is Noel, what if we did look back in Anger - particularly on Buses?
Meanwhile, currently working on a Clapton Routine .... Some of that Cream Stuff, to fire back at Mr "Collecting", whose probably into Sign Language.
He was a mealy mouth who sneered when I was playing Music that time - "are you collecting" he said. After I've blasted him with some Cream Songs, I'll zap him with a few Pink Floyd Tunes.
Maybe we should reform the old Group, call ourselves the Electric Yeah ....Aye!
ReplyDeleteWe could do "Above the Waves", except it might sound rather like "Comfortably numb" by Pink Floyd and is sung in a Mockney Accent at the Queen Vic.
ReplyDelete"This Ship can't sink!"
ReplyDelete"She's made of Iron sir, I assure you she can!"
The thing is, whether I'm addressing Bruce Ismay or Thomas Andrews, when a Ship is made of Wood like a CSN&Y Song the so called Hippies here are more 2 faced than anything in George Martin's House of Black and White. One moment they're pretending to be Hippies (or at least the Costume suggests), then Radiohead. If you couldn't trust Hippies, you couldn't trust that lot as far as spit off the side of a Ship.
I know the Song and there aren't any Violins in any of it, while it seems someone else seems to think the Cream Bass Player might be a bit challenging.
You don't suppose the Meter Maid might be a bit toxic too do you?
Maybe we should give up with this Hippie Music Shit completely, pull the Bench off the Floor Mountings and gate crash the Party. Whoever is running the Puppet Show has rigged that Music so nothing will happen with it, like it hasn't for 56 years. Like it didn't 30 years ago.
ReplyDeleteAs for all that Hippie Crap how can you communicate Information and Entertainment to the World if you couldn't even communicate with People in the same Offices and Buildings?
How can an Academic communicate Knowledge to Students if they can't People they've known for years?
If we did do Music, we could do "The Mighty Quinn" except when the Eskimo gets here it always seems to be after the Show, like it's coordinated like that!
When Jack charges the Gate with the Bench he's reciprocating the Gesture made when Rose forces the Lift Operator into the Elevator and demands he take her to the Service Passage. That was where she rescued Jack - who then rescued her. When she does it she says how she's sick of being Polite with People.
ReplyDeleteQuite, because if she was what would(not) have happened?
And to emphasis this it seems the Almosts almost got to play in Weston Super Mare today .... "almost!"
So the Weston Roses Rugby Football Club had to do without its Entertainment today!
Look at yourself ......
ReplyDeleteThis is another of those times when I use someone's Ammunition against them.
Mods and Rockers ....
Part of the Reason for the Mods disdain for the Rockers, and how they seemed to be the cultural and sartorial Opposite was because they thought the Rockers were dirty and they smell. So anyone who might be a 60's Obsessive has a rather blank Erroneous Zone, particularly if they might describe themselves as a Rocker.
Looking and smelling like an oily Rag in an old Garage!
Hippies are the same as People who wear too much Perfume. What are they hiding behind all the Incest and Peppermints? Anyone smelt one after they've been on the Speed, that Skunk they smoke - called that for a Reason, other Drugs as their Body tries to excrete them? Wonder what Lennon and Starr smelt like after those boozy Nites out with Harry Nielson? Livers battling against the Whiskey! What they smelt like in Hamburg?
Awe but no, they had Angels fly out of their Arses.
Even Stanley Kubrick, another dirty Hippie Culture Icon, with 60's Shit like "Clockwork Orange" and "2001". All his smelly Hippie Friends, all those "Free Love" People and their dirty STDs.
Same with Kylie presumably, even after a couple of Hours prancing around on Stage under those hot Lights, particularly in those balmy Australian Summers. Radiohead are terminally boring, while their Schmindie Sludge wouldn't make anyone break into a Sweat. Yorkie and Gweenwood are Androids dintcha know, made of Plastic, Metal and Water, not Flesh, Blood and Bone. They have Angels come out of their Arses too, even sat on the Toilet. So do all those Computer Nerds tapping away on their OK Computers.
Radio Station Managers are the same apparently, who never shit, pee, bleed or fart.
Crusties in 80's Bristol were like that too, even if they did look like Tramps in Stokes Croft.
All of these are excuses while they grew fat and rich on other People's efforts, pulling that Gate across the Passage and keeping us out.
We could wear brand new Clothes every Hour, drink Bleach, bathe in Detergent, eat Soap and all sorts of other Stuff and it still wouldn't be enough.
At least we are not too jaded, cynical, spoilt and ugly to realise what we are given, unlike them, who are all those things with a hefty Dollop of Dishonesty and Insincerity!
What happened in 2020 is confirmation that James Cameron wasn't making any of it up with his "almost" Reference.
ReplyDeleteIt reiterated those other "Almosts"!
When someone almost went to a Party in Bristol in 1990, or when they almost went to Prague that year, particularly after their Press Pack got those Artistes to donate a Song to an Album, specifically as an Associate of theirs was part of the Family who established the Venue for the Press Conference.
They then almost played a Concert at the BBC Social Club in 1995. Their Group had played Sound City that year, and given the BBC a very entertaining Interview. But somewhere in the few days from the Invite to it being cancelled someone had put the Black Ball in the Saffron Bag, and have done since 1973.
How they also almost played the Community Festival, which might have been a decent reciprocal Gesture after their Creative Community had all that Work and very real Career Opportunities since 1968, and again after the Hostage Project in 1990.
How they almost worked for a supposed Production Company in the late 90's.
That they almost played Music for the Weston ROSES Rugby Football Club, in Weston Super (Cour De la) Mare couldn't be made up.
As someone whose original Name was Robert Williams I could tell the Rock DJ to eff off and say "Let me entertain you!"
And while the RMS Bristol Community Festival finally sank there hasn't been one for about 13 years. That's after years of the usual Suspects playing it including our local 'Rock Stars'. So even if we reformed the Group who played Sound City 1995 there aren't any BCF Lifeboats left.
ReplyDeleteI often wondered about those sort of People anyway. That they were like Rent-a-Hippie. Cardboard Cut-out People the likes of Eavis populated his Festival with and kept in a Barn for the rest of the year. You always seemed to see them at things like that but never in real Life.
They're a bit like toothless Drunks who always prattle on about "Squirrels".
Meanwhile, another Song for the Almosts could be something about a Hippie Ghost who seems to haunt the same piece of Pavement on the Coast of a small Town. If we must do Australian Pop/Rock we'll do it like the original, pre-Kylie, Group Men at work, who sang about those "Hippie Trailers full of Zombies". We are "Down under" and this is "Business as usual" after all eh Martine!
Molly Brown has just dressed Jack up, using all the Facilities in her Cabin, he's wearing a Tux Dinner Jacket, button down Collar on pressed Shirt, shiny Shoes and coifered, but as far as Hockley is concerned it isn't enough, he still only "almost passed as a Gentleman".
ReplyDeleteI've been there, and it doesn't matter what you do, it still wouldn't be enough. I s'pose a Press Pack and a Venue for a Press Conference wouldn't be enough either. Those and Stuff from before them too!
The condescending, patronising Attitude continues after they have eaten, Hockley says of the after Dinner Conversation "It'd be all business and Politics, it wouldn't interest you!"
And how does he know? Jack might have some very useful Comments on Politics, and a whole Bunch of other stuff. Maybe Hockleys Attitude is similar to those wretched Dinner Party Yippies before, during and after the 1997 Film. Y'know, the ones who patronise you in Shops, Cafes and that awful High Street.
I could have shined up like a new Penny to play at the Weston Roses Rugby Football Club on Sunday, but it still wouldn't have been enough!
Film making is probably the most expensive and involved Area of Creative Economics. Screenplays that could have been written years before, a Work in progress that can be developed through to its final Edit. Huge Budgets, sometimes up to $100 Million, and more. A combination of Work, Money and Personel far more involved than publishing Books and Newspapers, making TV, Radio, recording and releasing Rock and Roll Albums or producing a Play.
ReplyDeleteTherefore it could be argued that James Cameron is the most successful Creative Economicist in the World.
And what is he saying to every other Creative Economicist and Media Type in all this? Who is he comparing Caledon Hockley to, who is a jaded, cynical, sneery spoilt little rich Boy? Jack could quite reasonably ask what else he might have to do before he satisfies whatever Criteria Hockley has to make him "A Gentleman"?
Concidering where that Press Conference was and the Preamble to that Press Pack, I could ask the same Question, particularly after the Hand and the Rose prompted an incalculable amount of Money and Employment.
At least it isn't those Benders picking up Rubbish on Street Corners!
And while the Almosts criticise Rock and Pop Culture by rubbing it's Nose in its own Crap, so does the Film.
ReplyDeleteThe Beatles, Hawkwind, Spice Girls - even the Rolling Stones, all criticised in some way, while what Hockley is like in 1997 is the result of years of it. It has spawned several Generations of selfish, cynical, narcissistic Brats who "can't get no satisfaction", while those Albums and Singles give them an excuse to be these things.
The Almosts start work on the Robert Johnson Song "Crossroads Blues", which was covered by Cream, except we aren't sure whether it's a Blues Song from the 1930's or a crappy 70's Brummie Soap Opera starring Noel Gordon.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's a Portishead Song!
"Do you want to come to a real Party?"
ReplyDeleteJack asks Rose after they have dined in what Molly Brown called "The Snake Pit". While a certain Pub probably thinks it's Demis Rousos's "4 Horsemen", in Creamy Yardbirds 'Clapton', and whoever that is with Ginger Hair thinks they're a Drummer with said Band, and Portishead are a tacky Facimile of a Robert Johnson Song, complete with Meg Mortmer (nee; Richardson) and her Cardboard Motel someone at that Press Conference was associated with the real Jack who "perished on the Sea" in 1912, and even those Musicians.
Don't remember any of them coming from Brean either!
Meanwhile, the Interstellar Overdrivers are stumped by their own Culture as Eric Clapton, (y'know, the Fella with the "Weepy Guitar"), - teamed up with Mr Traffic (Winwood) to form Blind Faith.
ReplyDeleteEveryone scurries off to remove their Roadsign Yellow Clothes.
So, when are we off to Prague to do these Concerts?
Meanwhile, on the Buses, Jack Almost got knifed in the Back by a "Yeah" on a Skateboard who was as Copper as a Penny Lane ..... Arnold.
ReplyDeleteThere's nothing for it but write an Album about a pretentious Town in South West England.
Meanwhile, has anyone seen the Connection between "Titanic" and "The Fog"?
ReplyDeleteHow Hockley tells Rose .... "You will honour me!".
In the 1980 John Carpenter Movie Hal Holbrook/Father Malone says of Antonio Bays Centenary .... "Tonight's Celebrations are a Travesty. We're honouring Murderers!"
That was 40 years ago and suggests a Conspiracy going as far back as the 70's. Suffice to say that if decisions had been made as long ago as that Jack is dealing with a lump of Concrete when he does Hockley. It wouldn't matter what he did, on any Level, his Fate had been as decided as that of Blake 40 years ago.
The Monsters in the "Fog" Movie were the People who wrecked, murdered and plundered the Leper Crew, not the latter back for Justice.
Oh, and the Almosts will have to do "Stopped to fill my Car up". It isn't only because the Songwriter looks in the Mirror behind him and sees someone who wants to smash his Face in, (a recurring Theme everywhere from BBC Libraries, to Buses and Photographs it seems) it's also because of an intriguing Link between something someone said when Jack Almost almost played in Weston Super Mare and a Fuel Tank for sale on eBay.
And how about these Sirens?
ReplyDeleteAs Dad made Mr Aphrodite's Child - Demis Rousos - famous there are the Sirens of Greek Mythology, and specifically those of the Odyssey. They would lure Ships onto the rocky Shore rather like the Antonio Bay Conspirators did in the Film.
Here's what happened in ancient Greece .....
Odysseus was curious as to what the Sirens sang to him, and so he had all of his sailors plug their ears with beeswax and tie him to the mast. He ordered his men to leave him tied tightly to the mast, no matter how much he might beg. When he heard their beautiful song, he ordered the sailors to untie him but they bound him tighter. When they had passed out of earshot, Odysseus demonstrated with his frowns to be released. Some post-Homeric authors state that the Sirens were fated to die if someone heard their singing and escaped them, and that after Odysseus passed by they therefore flung themselves into the water and perished.
Jack has been lured by Rose, and rather than let her throw herself into the Sea he talks her off the proverbial Ledge. Subsequently, as the Story shows, it is he who perished. The Ship itself is a Lure. Sold as unsinkable, imbued with the latest in Luxury and Comfort, Ismays "Size is Strength", what could possibly go wrong?
If Jack alludes to to JFK his Widow married Aristotle Onassis, the famous Greek Shipping Tycoon, who would have grown up with those legendary Tales from the Odyssey and the Ilyad. Her late Husband got lured to Texas in November 1963, and we all know the rest.
So while the Harbourside in Portishead might have a Pub called "The Sirens Calling" what's the Moral of the Story?
Avoid the Place at all costs? That the Pub is an admission of Culpability? That if you are going to lure anyone to anything you better offer them something better than Death?
Give Peace a Chance?????
ReplyDeleteHmmm, but what if we examined this Hippie Shibboleth a little closer?
"All We Are Saying", but what happens if we cut the first and last Word, thus it becomes "We Are". Then you add another Song - "If you're happy and you know it, shout WE ARE". Sounds innocuous doesn't it - until you hear "Wierdo" by the Charlatans. Or should we cut the second and third Words? Then we have "All Saying"!
How about the Plastic Ono Band?
Would that be in western Latin Script or Cyrillic? Maybe it's both and we are "Back in the USSR" (yawn, trying to stave off Death by Tedium). Maybe it's that, and the lucky man who made the Grade. If it is then the N becomes an H, and the H becomes an N. Thus, Ono could become Oh No, the N/H surrounded by the Os.
How about we fast forward to "H Eyes" by the Ruts?????
What was it I mentioned about those Sirens and their Music?
Crap isn't it!
I find it quite depressing watching Archive of 60's Peaceniks singing the John Lennon Song like mindless Automata. Maybe Frank Zappa did too, and wrote his Song "Who needs the Peace Corps?"
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't them who ended the Vietnam War. Chicago 68 prompted the Election of Richard Nixon, not any anti-War Candidate, while even Berkley Activists admit that Demonstrations by then were becoming anathema and even counter productive. It was the prohibitive escalation of the Draught, a Realisation by Robert McNamara that it was unwinnable as early as 1967 and the Vietnamization Program that finally ended it. After Vietnamization, when military Responsibility was handed to the ARVN the South rapidly collapsed.
It was also what happened in Cambodia as increasing Activity caused Prince Sihanouk's Government to collapse and the Rise of the Khymer Rouge. He even pleaded with Washington to stop before this happened.
Probably the most effective anti-War Stance was made by Martin Luther King when he added it to his Civil Rights Agenda. Afro-Americans formed the biggest ethnic Proportion in the Army to how many if them there were in America. The Threat of Afro-American Refuseniks severely worried the US Government.
You can now see why it was important to have something in Creative Economics that was bigger than the biggest Rock and Pop Band in History.
Particularly if the Film is about the most famous Shipwreck in the World, who was on it, and its aftermath.
ReplyDelete"Music brings People together" apparently, except that seems only to apply to certain People, at least here, in a Town made famous by Music, whose Timeline traces back to us anyway. If that was true then yours truly should have about 55 years worth of things to do in his Social Diary. The Jaunt to Prague ought to have happened and I wouldn't be writing this.
And while James Cameron used his Film to confront not only the Injustice done to 1500 People in 1912, but also that done to some People in the years just before the Film, why do other Areas of Creative Economics, particularly Music, seem incapable of doing so?
ReplyDeleteAnd things didn't improve with the Internet ....
ReplyDeleteAlthough the scuzzier end of Creative Economics could be compared to something nasty you might step in on the Pavement, what can at least be understood is how there might be some Work in it (even if it employs and remunerates a Doushbag). The Internet spawned those scuzzy little Email Marketers. Y'know, those People with more Spam than a Monty Python Sketch, and while I can see how People might be bribed by a Career Opportunity in Creativity, or how an Agenda might sell
a Beverage or even a House, just exactly how many Pieces of Silver do they give you for that Email Garbage?
Oh, and there weren't any Cats at the Press Conference by the way!
Music Industry run and Peopled by cynical Thugs????
ReplyDeleteGasp, no ..... Surely!!!!!
How about ironic, neo Hippie Wankers Dodgy? Crappy Album with obligatory VW Hippie Van on the front. "Staying out for the Summer" drone blah! Fake Peace Corp Crap like "Free Peace Suite", and all that other strummalong nonsense.
Awe, but it's "Good enough", apparently, so good in fact that the so called Alternative neo-Hippie Bulshit has People manipulating Social Media. Must have some stage Management Money coming from somewhere.
Must have a Budget to pay that Lego Helicopter too!
Those flying Ukeleles huh!
Back at "Supernatural" Carver Edlund spends quite a few Series passing himself off as a Prophet, meaning he doesn't control what happens, he just predicts and reports it. It turns out he does, and has done forever.
Thus implies that he was complicit in everything that happened, not just to the Winchester's, but to everyone else in the Show, even the People who became the vengeful Spirits they subsequently have to deal with.
Edlund is like some dubious Insurance Salesman who breaks your Windows, then sells you Home Insurance. That if he hadn't have done any of that he wouldn't have sold all those Books.
Now, about this "Event Management"....
Jack's Fate was sealed before he ever reached Southampton .....
ReplyDeleteWhat if Jack was an Ebiker? Not inconceivable in the 21st Century, and what if he was researching a Battery for his Bike? What if he could also read Subtext?
I have just done this and discovered how recent Posts on all sorts of Discussion Fora about this, Reviews, Techie Tips, supposed random Comments from Subscribers who are probably Sock Puppets, one on each Hand talking to each other, and they're all like Brock Lovett, who didn't get it, wouldn't let it in.
We'll pretend that concurrent to this he wouldn't have been quite happy to have exploited the Heart of the Ocean ("It's Payday Boys"), which sounds horribly similar to certain People in this Story. The Hand and the Rose = Hockley Doushbag; "I should have kept that Drawing, it'd be worth a Fortune in the Morning".
Must have sold it to Peter Jackson, who ended his Tweeocracy Films with those Drawings, which must have been nice for all the Yippies in their cutesy Cottages and little Flower Gardens.
Must have been even nicer for those with same, who are now retired, except they pulled the Gate across the Passageway to stop anyone else!
So, if all that Crap about Ebike Batteries had been posted in at least the last year, and long before that Sunday, Jack could have been the shiniest Penny on the Boat, they still wouldn't have let him in.
Jobs for the Boys/Girls in Rent-a-Hippieland!
The Incredible Shrinking Culture ....
ReplyDeleteBarbossa: "Ahhh, and the World is getting smaller"
Jack: "Not smaller, just less in it!"
After the Hand and the Rose in 1993 prompted the most emotional Scene in a Film (at least according to some Reports) in 1997, and contributed to the most successful Film ever, the Kudos and Momentum was gradually being used up. Orlando appeared as PFC Blackburn in "Black Hawk Down" (alluding maybe to a certain former Pirate Radio Broadcaster), and then, in 2004 as Balian, artificer and maker of Swords in "Kingdom of Heaven", then arriving on a floating piece of Driftwood in "The Curse of the Black Pearl", who also went on to make Swords. It's like Jack and Rose had launched many imitators, and the Theme of the Sword, in the form of a Rose established a Narrative.
Unfortunately, as also shown in "At World's end" those imitators can become a liability, and not necessarily friendly either. I know how old I was in 1997, how old were some others?
As more and more of these appear the original Momentum gradually fizzles out . As many of them manouver themselves into advantageous positions at the expense of those involved in that momentum that process is accelerated.
It's almost like that Aztec Gold forming the Pendant, rather like the Diamond in Roses Necklace really is cursed, and the more those imitators try and grasp it, the more it slips through their Fingers.
Even at a Government Level, who would be a Culture Minister now? There's not much Culture to represent. We no longer have a Music Industry after it had a brief revival by the ominously named Spice Girls. Melanie C being Liverpool's last Pop Star on a par with some of her Predecessors. Britain's most famous Football Team, who again had unprecedented Success just after the Film and featured Mr Posh Spice, now stutters around the lesser Reaches of the Premier League and it seems, everyone is an Estate Agent.
Except, as some have mentioned, how much of our Capital City still belongs to us? Londongrad, Londonjing, Londonopolis etc!
Even Peter Jackson could have bought those Drawings at the end of his Tolkien Movies from Caledon Hockley.
All of that now feels like a Lifetime ago, but while Brock Lovett wouldn't let it in, most of it is now completely spent!
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ReplyDeleteThey remade "The Fog" in 2005, and while it was critically panned and regarded with disdain it was in fact very accurate. Something of an Update on the 1980 Original, set against the Backdrop of things contemporaneous it proved to be very correct.
ReplyDeleteNick and Elizabeth are in a Coffee Bar and she notices the Photographs. How the Town was nothing more than a clutch of Shacks and Huts until Blake's Ship was plundered and it becomes a Town. That was when this Town was going through the biggest redevelopment Program of its sort in Europe. Before that it wasn't much more than a High Street and derelict Harbour.
I came from a Town famous for several things ....
Oliver Cromwell, being part of Huntingdonshire and his Constituency. He even had a Residence there - in what was called Slepe.
The Earl of Huntingdon, one of the most powerful in Britain, a Title used by Prince David of Scotland who many believe to be the real Robin Hood. Outlawed by Prince John and participant in the 1194 Siege of Nottingham.
Even made famous by the Poem about the Man with Seven Wives, and while the Town had Pubs commemorating all of these our "Royal Oak" was rather less nefarious that the one in Portishead, famous for other reasons.
What was Portishead famous for before the Group had their 1994 Success? Some might say (sic) that there was the Radio Station, broadcasting to Shipping. Very true - except that is somewhat rarified and really only the preserve of that Community. While the Group had the desired Effect with the targeted Demographic - gonna be Professionals, who will one day want to raise families in the Burbs - not many of them have heard of Portishead Radio.
The thing is, the Group's Career Timeline, pre-Portishead, can be traced back to us. HTV allowed you to network the Music and Film Industry.
So, after nearly 4 years - when they made "Titanic" someone's Name ought to have appeared on that Portishead 'Passenger List' but it didn't!
"Boardwalk Empire" .....
ReplyDeleteWe have 2 of these ....
One by a large Block of Flats at one end of the Harbour, and another in the Nature Reserve.
Similar things apply to this as the Cafe Bar Scene in "The Fog". How in Series 5 of the TV Series about Atlantic City we are shown it at the end of the 19th Century, all made of Wood and could be completely erased by a Storm. The Commodore develops it and When Nucky runs it it's a fully fledged City. Atlantic City really came into its own during Prohibition, being a Mecca for Scofflaws looking for "Booze, Broads and Gambling". Enoch Johnson made his, and the Cities Fortune by being one of the biggest entry Points for Booze brought in by the Rum Runners and Bootleggers. He was also a key Distributor to Organisations across America, including Arnold Rothstein and John Torrio. Almost all of this Booze came from Nassau, stored and bought quite legally by People like Bill McCoy. The Bahamas being a British Colony and there being no Prohibition in the Commonwealth. Thus the British Minister for the Colonies rebuked American requests to shut down the Alcohol Business. There were several in the 1920's but the most constant through almost all was the Junior Minister William Ormsby Gore.
This is the key difference between what happened in the 1920's and any Drug related activity in recent years. Drug Dealers collect an illegal Substance in one Country which is also illegal in its destination. There were no international Treaties against Alcohol like there are Heroin and Cocaine.
And while an incalculable amount of Work was derived from the Hand and the Rose, from everyone who worked on James Cameron's Film to those on the "Pirates of ....." Franchise after the opening Scene of the first Film - set in a similar Fog to that of the "Boardwalk Empire" Pilot, and many other Derivatives - what was going on at the DWP when they were 'managing' my various Claims?
ReplyDeleteJohn Carpenter made a Film 40 years ago, brought to you by the ominously and appropriately named Embassy Avco, and nothing in the last 4 Decades have proved him wrong.
ReplyDeleteLeprosy might be a Disease, but it's also a Euphemism. To have social Leprosy is to be shunned. That is bad enough, but made far worse if the Shunners have something that belonged to the Shunned!
We could write a Song about the sort of insincere People who are just waiting for you to fail. People haven't been like that at all have they! Have they?
This particular Ship wasn't rigged, was it?
Robin Cooper ...... Thomas Hood?
ReplyDeleteNope, neither.
Any Thug - rich or poor - can rob People - rich or poor - and criminal History is full of them, along with the Gaols. Any Thug can use Corruption to establish and consolidate their position.
The Robin Hood I subscribe to wasn't any of that. True, he might have lifted a few Quid from the Wealthy probably as an Outlaw in 1194 Nottinghamshire (where he met Richard 1st during the Siege that year), but his Legend is attributed to other things quite substantial to the survival of the Country, and of Justice.
Prince - then King John, his Nemesis was somewhat peeved at being dubbed "Lackland" and murdered Arthur of Britanny - oldest Son to his oldest Brother and thus rightful Heir to the English Throne. In doing so he killed Prince David of Scotland's great Nephew, via Arthur's Mother who was also a descendant of Alfred of Wessex.
Eleanor of Aquitaine, Arthur's Grandmother, the most powerful Woman in all Christendom, was literary Sponsor to Chretien de Troyes who wrote the famous Stories about the once and future King Arthur, the most famous medieval Literature, and the basis for most of what People understand of the Legends. It was as if she was preparing Britain (England and Scotland, Saxon and Celt, Dal Raidan and Pict) for her Grandsons Kingship, which was ended by his murderous Uncle who was supposed to be his Regent.
Thus, David of Scotland's fight against Prince John wasn't just some Thug robbing People and playing with his Bow and Arrow. It was a Battle for the rightful King of Britain and everything it stood for.
People can pick things up where those Streets might have no Name master Cooper but in Huntingdonshire you would be a very bad Joke indeed!
There are more recent things .....
ReplyDeleteHow about "Game of Thrones" for example?
You would quite literally have to have been on the Planet Zog not to have caught just some of the Hype about the TV Show. While they use Iceland, Ireland, and Croatia as Locations the main Hub of Operations was the Titanic Studio in Belfast. But how many other Ships were built there that no-one has ever heard of? The Olympic and Britannic might have been Sister Ships but it was the ill-fated Sibling that made Harlond and Wolff famous.
But, while it was a Name everyone had heard of - and there had been several Films and TV Shows about it, it wasn't until James Cameron made his vast Epic with that Hand and the Rose Scene, and that Song, that it became an omnipresence and the most successful Film. The Hand and the Rose connected it with "A Night to remember" whose Locations included John Astor's Cousins Hotel, the Venue for our Press Conference.
You'll notice scant Mention of Harry Potter or JK Rowling here, mainly because the fictitious Wizard is exactly that, and nothing else. Rather like Thomas Cooper is a non-existant Character in a supposed Story about Robin Hood. A bit of a Joke where you almost expect him to wear a Fez, do botched Magic Tricks and keep saying; "Jus' like that!"
ReplyDeleteAlthough I could mention how we first meet Rose sat at a Potters Wheel when she sees the TV Segment of Brock Lovett and Jack's Drawing.
Meanwhile, back to Robin Hood; why has his and Arthur's Legend endured when many others haven't, and why do both start at about the same Time? Chretien was sponsored by Eleanor of Aquitaine in the latter 12th Century contemporaneous with Robins apparent meeting with Richard.
While Ridley Scott's Film alludes to Magna Carta it makes no mention of Llewellyn's War with John which the former won at Shrewsbury and forced King John to ratify Magna Carta at Runnymede on July 15th, 1215.
Arthur of Britanny had a far more legitimate Claim than any Plantagenet, including his Father and certainly Richard 1st. His Mother, Constance had Ancestors that connected her with all Peoples of Britain.
Alfred of Wessex, who was one of them and known to us as Alfred the Great, not only resisted the Vikings but also formed Alliances with the Prince's of Wales to achieve this. I might be very Welsh but I think Alfred was brilliant and did as much to ensure the endurance of Wales as he did England.
And while Mr Gibbs and Elizabeth, then Pintel and Ragetti, got the Pendant from the same Place via William Turner in "Pirates of the Caribbean", which was also where Arya Stark got her Ship at the end of "Game of Thrones", where did the 'Meister of Grammar' get his as he sat on that Small Council I wonder?
ReplyDeleteSer Davos Seaworth with his Geordie/North East Accent might have been a Smuggler - but there was another called Jack in an HTV Series called "Smuggler" which starred Oliver Tobias - who was Arthur in "Arthur of the Britons" in the early 70's.
Wanna come to a real Party????
ReplyDeleteThe thing is, by saying that Jack wouldn't mean the Life according to Richard Lester. His Candy Floss Films were nothing like real life in 60's Britain. Ken Loach made some very realistic Films of the time, those "Kitchen Sink Dramas", while even Granada TVs "Coronation Street" was rather more accurate. Ken Barlow would have been somewhat exotic in the 2up/2down Areas of 60's Manchester, and although an ex-Student, intelligent and slightly posh didn't suddenly don a Kaftan in the late 60's. There really were Ena Sharples and Albert Tatlock Characters in every equivalent Area of Britain.
Britain was rough. Gonna be Film Makers would avoid the Pubs because they really were like that shown in "Get Carter" or even that one in the recent Jimi Hendrix Biopic. Swinging 60's really only applied to a few square Miles of London and maybe a bit of Merseyside until Liverpool began to fade.
Even Archive of posh People from the Era show a different 60's. Those vintage Wimbledon Tennis Games don't have a Crowd with Hair, Beads and Flowers. They wore Suits, Blazers and Twin Sets with blue rinses!
If your Life was more Ken Loach and Coronation Street than Richard Lester you might watch his Films and say; my Life is nothing like that, and neither is anyone's I know! They could even make it worse as you frustratedly exclaim: WHY ISN'T MY LIFE LIKE THAT?
THE 90's was like that in how the Music Press created the Impression everyone was "madferit" when most of it went on in Camden High Street. A big Party that seemed to be going on everywhere else except here! Except here could be anywhere, and the big Party was everywhere else!
I used to watch all that Beatle/60's crap and knew others who did, while we would play Songs from or influenced by it. We even wrote Comedy Scripts like we're off to record them in some mythical Studio and run around London like the Dave Clarke 5, like we were fab etc, but it wasn't real, and never happened. Richard Lester faded and fell out of favour with some of us.
I find most of that stuff unwatchable and dislike and distrust that horrible Nostalgia a Beatles Song tries to create!
"If this is the way the Rats are going it's good enough for me!"
ReplyDeleteTommy Ryan said as he and the other Steerage Passengers start trying to abandon Ship.
Then, when finally on the Boat Deck after several Battles he hears the Band; "Music to drown by, now I know I'm in First Class!"
This is what the People of Hamlyn probably said just before they died or disappeared. What the Pied Piper did was evil, and it's like a Comment against what the Music Industry had been up to. The Merry Dance that leads to Demise.
There has always been Music, right back to when People started making Sounds that weren't Conversation or the regular Clatter of Life. People would play it and sing in the Evenings at home, before TV, Radio and Recordings, or the Electricity to play them. There always will be as they discover how to do same. Slaves developed what would become the Blues as they worked but none of this is the Music Industry.
Then People realized you could make Money from it and suddenly you've got a multi-million Units Industry and all sorts of Value Systems that are pure Hypocrisy. Not to mention how corrupt it could be. How it spawned Doushbags like Larry Parnes who never even paid some of his Clients, Crooks like Allan Klein and the many others found in the Rock and Roll Hall of Infamy.
There's also the long List of Casualties, from Frankie Lymon to Florence Ballard, Jimi and Janice, Brian Jones, Biggie and Tupac, Kurt and Aimee, all devoured by it.
But it's how it leads to - at best nothing, at worst what those People at Hamlyn suffered. Not sure which of these applies to me, but suffice to say a Lifetime if being immersed in all that Crap is like being immersed in that 1912 North Atlantic.
They're like those Sirens of Antiquity, whose Song would lure Ships and their Crews to Misfortune.
At least Covid19 could put the Pied Piper out of Business and Music becomes exactly that again. Something to be enjoyed and not exploited or exploitative!
And the thing is, Mr Bodine was right ......
ReplyDeleteBrock and Co - which would also include 'Ms Calvert' with her 'Gift' in 2002 - claim to be so moral, so ethical but they aren't, because they're also so dishonest. I've had to discover all this with tons of Research - not via Conversations with those sort of People. And in several Decades that's a lot of Conversations.
Brock claims to be doing his Work in the interests of historical marine Archeology, but he gives the Game away when he says "It's Payday Boys" after he thinks he's found the Safe with Hockleys Pendant in it.
At least "Titanic" wasn't any of those Clockwork Oranges. Maybe we should take the Piss out of the crappy old Kubrick Film and wear Bowler Hats, Boiler Suits, Cod Pieces and Walking Sticks and go around calling ourselves Ultraviolet. (Not a Typo).
ReplyDeleteOh, and did it ever occur to anyone that the current Astor Family might have some very influential Connections with the Film Industry? ,
The ultimate Question the Film puts forward is this ......
ReplyDeleteBrock creates the Impression that he's some sort of Hippie Academic - in it to tell People about the tragedy that killed all those People in 1912, the marine Archeology History of it all, but as soon as he sees that Safe where he thinks the Pendant is he says "It's Pay Day Boys!"
How about his equivalent in the real Story? That of the 90's just before the Film was made? The 80's even, and People who will fall over themselves about how righteous they might be? How moral, how ethical? Except, if they were why are they doing Deals with someone like Rupert Murdoch and his Newcorp Company?
I used to attend NUJ Meetings (John McCarthys Union) in the late 80's at the real life Spyglass Inn - Bristol's now defunct Llandogger Trow - which inspired the Inn of "Treasure Island" apparently. And one of the main Topics was always Newscorps acquisition of Fleet Street and the Building of the Wapping Newspaper Offices. "Murdoch is bad news" was the Slogan they used.
So where was all this Resolve in the 1990's from those sort of People? The 'alt' Costumes, the Script, the rest of it?
Maybe the Hand and the Rose really was worth a Fortune by the Morning!
And if those sort of People create what is only an Impression that they wouldn't have anything to do with Newscorp, because that is the other Mask they wear while we are fed lots of pseudo PC Righteousness, how about any who we are told if we believe the Punk Rock War Stories wouldn't have anything to do with Punk? Captain Sensible Fitzpatrick-Stark might point his Finger at someone or other, but I could always watch Ned Kelly!
ReplyDeleteAnd don't point your Finger at the Guitar Man!
"Shit, that's cold!"
Oh, and it seems PBS, or whoever posted a Video on YouTube about the 1929 Crash doesn't like you having a Right to reply. Comments were disabled on that particular Video!
Meanwhile, as the 'Meister of Grammar' addresses the Small Council in "Game of Thrones" with his Geordie Accent - and expects Bron, Meister of Coin, to finance his Ships - how about those Geordies in "Byker Grove" in 2004?
Seems he and Maisey Williams got those Ships from the same Place as Cate got those Cards, and you might have to be careful. You could get shot in the Back by her, or another Kates, Brother!
And if that Class of 86, and how it relates to the Portishead Music Scene (Group and Town), is a bit Jamie and Cersie for its Cronyism and Nepotism, Lena Headey's Ms Lannister reminded me a bit of Cates Galadriel which was probably deliberate.
ReplyDeleteAnd if that List, that Music and those People are like the amourous Siblings in "Game of Thrones" how about all those Marjorie Tyrrell's who started arriving in recent years? She seems like something new but quite readily throws herself at Renly when it looks like he might be King. When he dies she then kisses Joffrey's Arse in one of the most cringeable Scenes on TV, even if he might be a complete Doushbag - and then, when he is gone she opts for Tommen. All that seemed to happen when they arrived was they latched onto what had gone before!
As Nick Carraway says in the "Gatsby" Narration - none of them did what hadn't been done before or was original.