A ritual to say goodbye to the name of our Buddhist Order...
Rascal Blog
with rascally musings...
I found an old card from early 2008 with pictures on it I'd forgotten I'd taken - trying to shoot flowers in the morning light. I think this is as far as you can push it with a 0.3 megapixel lense...
Ah, Suzanna Hoffs, you didn’t wait for me...
The new brood...
See how they dance!
Been having a revelatory time playing music of late - greatly encouraged by new friends Isis and Seth of the wonderful Breakfast Song. Next, I need to start actually singing in front of folk (apparently). So, to get me started, I made an 8track of acousticy songs I secretly sing and play when no one is looking...
Songs to Sing and Play (in 3 Parts)
Thought it was high time I got my act together a bit and actually started sending poems out to journals again after a few barren years where life has just been too full all round...
I had a fair strike-rate first time around! Agenda is probably my favourite, because it was the first big one and it was founded by Ezra Pound, who is one of my poetry heroes! But then again, Chapman is Scottish... :-)
I had a fair strike-rate first time around! Agenda is probably my favourite, because it was the first big one and it was founded by Ezra Pound, who is one of my poetry heroes! But then again, Chapman is Scottish... :-)
With thanks to Patricia McCarthy (Agenda), Patricia Oxley (Acumen), Joy Hendry (Chapman) and Nicolas Soames (Naxos Audiobooks/Times Online)
Worth remembering in these high-fever election times...
I'll let him speak for himself – he is already eloquent enough.
The Ugly of War (audio)
The original video can be found here, at the excellent Guardian
I'll let him speak for himself – he is already eloquent enough.
The Ugly of War (audio)
The original video can be found here, at the excellent Guardian
As you may or may not have heard, the bodalicious Muxtape is no more. Sigh. Well, they say they'll be back, but somehow that seems optimistic. Still, the splendid Opentape project has decided to strike back for the kids and extend a pleasingly brash come on to the R.I.A.A. Let's hope the latter come to their senses before too much longer and see that they have no choice (if they want to survive) but to work out some new, creative systems to recompense artists in the brave new world of the internet, where music will be shared. They have the most effective distribution networks ever invented ready to work for them, and yet they spend all their time and an awful lot of money trying to rein it all in. Their shareholders should fire them...
Anyway, in the meantime, we have 8tracks! Now, they claim they are legal - so I guess we'll see, eh? The King is dead, long live the Blair/Bush... (Ooops, "little bit of politics", as Ben Elton used to say).
So, without further ado. Here is 'Rascal Tracks - Numero Uno':
Twelve cuts from my new faves Breakfast Song, Welsh harp music, Enur and M.I.A remixed, the awesome Tinariwen, some rarer things from Thom and the Radioheaders, Portishead for comparison, mediaeval Andalusian sacred song, and - lest we forget - the incomparable Smiths, live in their home town...
Sing, ye all, and be merrie!
Anyway, in the meantime, we have 8tracks! Now, they claim they are legal - so I guess we'll see, eh? The King is dead, long live the Blair/Bush... (Ooops, "little bit of politics", as Ben Elton used to say).
So, without further ado. Here is 'Rascal Tracks - Numero Uno':
Twelve cuts from my new faves Breakfast Song, Welsh harp music, Enur and M.I.A remixed, the awesome Tinariwen, some rarer things from Thom and the Radioheaders, Portishead for comparison, mediaeval Andalusian sacred song, and - lest we forget - the incomparable Smiths, live in their home town...
Sing, ye all, and be merrie!
Well, after some meetings in Birmingham that I found pretty fractious and trying, I was totally psyched to land in Glastonbury for the Solstice weekend with my friend Lokabandhu... And, man, what a trip!
Met assorted witches, druids, pagans, hippies and general goddess-loving folks – all delightful and hospitable to this weary pilgrim... Found the graves of Christ and Mary Magdalene AND King Arthur and Guinevere in the abbey (!)... Talked spaceships, Celtic Orthodox Christianity and the debatable pleasures of urine drinking with strangers... Sipped from the Chalice Well, the Red and White springs sprung from cruets brought by Joseph of Arimathea containing the blood and sweat of the dying Jesus... Worked a shift in the Pilgrimage Centre... Ate fresh honey from a hive after a 'Shamanic' journey that involved entering the hive mind and getting covered in pollen and meeting the Good Honey Mother... Danced in torrential rain to live genuine, 100% New Age music... And, of course, climbed the wondrous and windy Tor... All in the beautiful Somerset countryside – no one does summer quite like England, it has to be said – lushly, ludicrously verdant and overwhelming with wild flowers. A real restorative for the heart.
(Cover of my latest album: 'Shadowmancer')
ps. In honour of the forthcoming, famously crusty Festival at Glastonbury, here are two wee pics I took on the streets: a heartbreakingly lovely Paddington Bear shaming us on the recent violence against immigrants to these shores – and a dubiously attributed 'Banksy' on the controversy around Jay-Z's headline spot at the usually rather 'white' festival.
