Lemmy the Pooh
Postman Patti Smith
Curious George Michael
Simply Red Riding Hood
Bagpussycat Dolls
Andy Pandy Warhols
Hanson and Gretel
Terrahawkwind
Coldplayschool
Thundercat Stevens
The Cat Stevens in the Hat
Dumbo Diddley
Phil Oakey-o
Fred Flintstone Roses
Penfolds Five
Bill and Ben Folds Five
Mr Benn Folds Five
Mr Mr Benn
Dangermodestmouse
Peter Pans People
Duran Durango
Huey Lewis and the Newsround
Bruce Hornsby and the Might Morphing Power Rangers
Count Dukula-Shaker
Fall Out Boyz 2 Men
Tracey DC Beaker
Biggles Audio Dynamite
Henrys Cat Stevens
Bananamanarama
Bananamanfred Mann
He-Manfed Mann
8:15 from Manfred Mann
Right Said Fred Flintstone
Toad of Toad Hall & Oates
Pingugu Dolls
Bod Manners
Barney the Dinosaur Jr
The Family MadNess
The TellytubBees
The BuzzlightyearCocks
Mickey Modest Mouse
The King Rollos of Leon
AsteRick Astley
SuperGran Master Flash
Manic Pigeon Street Preachers
Cities of Gold-ie Looking Chain
Gaye Byker Grove on acid
Fireman Sam Cooke
Lieutenant Pigeon Street
Woody Guthrie Woodpecker
Optimus Primal Scream
Beauty & the Beastie Boys
Guns 'n Rosie & Jim
Jamie Cullum and the Magic Torch
The Secret Soundgarden
Scooby Doo-ran Duran
Terrorvisionhawks
Muttley Crue
Museround
Portland Billy Joel
Superted Nugent
Mummra & Sons
Echobellytubbies
Hong Kong Fooey Fighters
Echo & the Bugs Bunnymen
Michael Jetsons'
Windy Milli Vanilli
Camberwick Greenday
SpongeBoB Marley
Herman's Kermits
Portland Bill Withers
Pete Wylie Coyote
Pob Will Eat Itself
Justified Ancients of Noo-Noo
Super Furry Animals of Farthing Wood
Captain Planet Beefheart
Kevin Rowland Rat
Tiswas Not Was
Dexy's Magic Roundabout
Trevor & Simon & Garfunkel
Deputy Dawgstar
Justified Ancients of Boo Boo
The Sugarhill Press Gang
Smurf Wind and Fire
Chumbawombles
Zebedee-liite
The Temper Trapdoor
The Fresh Artist Formerly Known as Prince
Press Gang of Four
Gamesmaster flash
Winnie the Pooh Tang Clan
Blue Peter Andre
Blue Peter Gabriel
Johnny Ball Hates Jazz
Hector's House of Pain
Pat Sharpe's Funhouse of Pain
Little House of Pain on the Prairie
Mr Benn at Work
Mister Men at Work
Maid Marian and Her Merry Men at Work
They Might Be Jossy's Giants
The Cure-ious George
The Wonder Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Lionel Ritchie and the Wardrobe
Curiosity killed the Top Cat
Dr Snuggles and the Medics
Bagpssy Riot
Barry White and the Seven Dwarves
Simon & Garfield
Muppet Babyshambles
Saved by the Belle and Sebastian
Rosie and Jimiroquai
Green Day Claws
Mr Bungle, Zippy and George
Prodigimon
Sunday, March 18, 2012
The greatest post in the world... EVER!
With help from Keith Watermelon, The Doc of Rock, Big Pete, Ted Splitter, Julie and Ruairidh. A band and-or musician/children's show and-or character pun mash-up. Enjoy:
Disband the Met
Cops with guns on an NHS demo. Yes, an NHS demo, the 17th of March, 2012. And, yes, they clubbed demonstrators then prevented ambulances from getting to the injured. Oh, the banter! Welcome to Total Policing in Olympic year.
The police are a gang, a criminal gang, no more no less. We should start using the slogan "Disband the Met". They kill, they maim, they injure and intimidate, they bribe, they run drugs, they organise blacklists. They are the paramilitary wing of the government.
Disband the Met.
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Comfortably the best thing to happen in 2012
now all we need is george osborne to make like stephen milligan, and i'll really believe things are turning.
Friday, March 16, 2012
Idiots, zealots, insult after insult...
The rich just aren't just tax dodgers, they're wage dodgers, but one thing's certain, they aren't rich enough. Let's nail something right away. Income tax, tax on personal income, is nothing to do with investment (given that the people, though what's supposed to be their government, have majority control of all the major banks, investment should not be an issue). The rich have bilked our society for too much and too long. It's time they paid up in full. Close the tax loopholes.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
The aestheticisation of politics
From The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction:
As in 1936 it is in 2012.
The growing proletarianization of modern man and the increasing formation of masses are two aspects of the same process. Fascism attempts to organize the newly created proletarian masses without affecting the property structure which the masses strive to eliminate. Fascism sees its salvation in giving these masses not their right, but instead a chance to express themselves. The masses have a right to change property relations; Fascism seeks to give them an expression while preserving property. The logical result of Fascism is the introduction of aesthetics into political life. The violation of the masses, whom Fascism, with its Führer cult, forces to their knees, has its counterpart in the violation of an apparatus which is pressed into the production of ritual values.
All efforts to render politics aesthetic culminate in one thing: war.
As in 1936 it is in 2012.
Newspapers as ambient prose
Ambient music is music that rewards attention but does not demand it. In fanciful moments I have wondered whether there is such a thing as ambient prose. I think there is. For no good reason I have been watching people read on the bus to work (carefully, mind you), in particular the speed with which they get through a magazine or newspaper. Not long ago I saw a man get from the front to the back of the Metro in (by my reckoning) under two minutes.
This is a function of mass literacy combined with a lack of an outlet for it. The printed word is a hot medium, requiring attention and patience, encouraging detached and sequential logic. This clearly does not mesh with the reality of life for half-sleeply Londoners on their way to work. There is a problem if newspapers are experienced not as a collection of stories supported by facts but a series of flickering impressions, over in two minutes.
Newspapers were born of bourgeois culture, between the town cryer and the radio station. The medium is shaped by the needs and prejudices of the bourgeoisie (who, amongst other things, have ample time to sit and read). The existence of a socialist newspaper is an example of the working class beginning to master bourgeois culture.
If newspapers cannot fulfil what's considered to be their function, bringing current affairs to the general population, it's time they were replaced (along with the social relations that gave rise to them). Of course that's easier said than done.
This is a function of mass literacy combined with a lack of an outlet for it. The printed word is a hot medium, requiring attention and patience, encouraging detached and sequential logic. This clearly does not mesh with the reality of life for half-sleeply Londoners on their way to work. There is a problem if newspapers are experienced not as a collection of stories supported by facts but a series of flickering impressions, over in two minutes.
Newspapers were born of bourgeois culture, between the town cryer and the radio station. The medium is shaped by the needs and prejudices of the bourgeoisie (who, amongst other things, have ample time to sit and read). The existence of a socialist newspaper is an example of the working class beginning to master bourgeois culture.
If newspapers cannot fulfil what's considered to be their function, bringing current affairs to the general population, it's time they were replaced (along with the social relations that gave rise to them). Of course that's easier said than done.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
No fault of mine
Ether makes you behave like the village drunkard in some early Irish novel ... total loss of all basic motor skills: blurred vision, no balance, numb tongue---severance of all connection between the body and the brain. Which is interesting, because the brain continues to function more or less normally ... You can actually watch your self behaving in this terrible way, but you cant control it. A total body drug. The mind recoils horror, unable to communicate with the spinal column.
Monday, March 12, 2012
More about icons
There are two types of fear abroad in our capitalist democracy, fear regarding the control of information and the resulting manipulation of public opinion. First is that the rigid, hierarchical structure of the mass media means results in information being tightly controlled, the meaning of events strictly determined from above. The second fear is that people are swamped by information, meaning is only broadly defined, the mass of people are allowed, nae, positively encouraged to indulge in fantasy and counter-logic (you can prove anything with facts...).
It doesn't take too much braingrind to realise these two modes of manipulation are closely related, in practice they are intertwined. Rigid control of information is reinforced by exaggeration and fantasy. Fox News is Exhibit A in this case; it turns out no news is better than Fox News.
It's important to recognise neither of these modes of manipulation are not more oppressive or more insidious than the other, though the former might be more obvious. The latter method is icongraphy, broad outlines within which people can determine their own meaning to some degree. Walter Benjamin called it the aestheticisation of politics, which he saw as specifically fascist.
Adolf Hitler was a case in point. Hitler the man was a particular individual, no special talents nor redeeming features; not exactly an aryan superman (not even a vegetarian). Hitler the politician was a deliberately sculpted icon. He may not have been a ruined shopkeeper, impoverished lecturer or disgruntled officer, but a great many of the petty classes, whose lives were crushed the depression, could see an aspect of them in him; one which recovered their dignity (it goes without saying at the expense of others).
Benjamin's response to the aestheicisation of politics was to call for the politicisation of art. More generally this means the continual feeding of the class point of view into each aspect of everyday life (this we take as a practical, as well as intellectual job). Rooting out the material origin of icons demystifies them. It robs them of their power.
It doesn't take too much braingrind to realise these two modes of manipulation are closely related, in practice they are intertwined. Rigid control of information is reinforced by exaggeration and fantasy. Fox News is Exhibit A in this case; it turns out no news is better than Fox News.
It's important to recognise neither of these modes of manipulation are not more oppressive or more insidious than the other, though the former might be more obvious. The latter method is icongraphy, broad outlines within which people can determine their own meaning to some degree. Walter Benjamin called it the aestheticisation of politics, which he saw as specifically fascist.
Adolf Hitler was a case in point. Hitler the man was a particular individual, no special talents nor redeeming features; not exactly an aryan superman (not even a vegetarian). Hitler the politician was a deliberately sculpted icon. He may not have been a ruined shopkeeper, impoverished lecturer or disgruntled officer, but a great many of the petty classes, whose lives were crushed the depression, could see an aspect of them in him; one which recovered their dignity (it goes without saying at the expense of others).
Benjamin's response to the aestheicisation of politics was to call for the politicisation of art. More generally this means the continual feeding of the class point of view into each aspect of everyday life (this we take as a practical, as well as intellectual job). Rooting out the material origin of icons demystifies them. It robs them of their power.
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