I hear grumpy sounds from this winteRR of disco tents
If you press play on the youtube clip there’s will be a little (slings and) arrow that appears at the bottom right just in from the youtube logo – if you hover over that and click the 23 track playlist will show along the bottom – skip to your hearts content.
Time to think outside the globe – a few suggestions:
If I Should Die Tonight
unwinding this mortal coil
Brakes
Le Sac Des Filles
To be or not to be
Camille
Hyped On The Mic
Great or supurb, to be or not to be, that’s a good question
Salt-n-Pepa
Different People
To be or not to be
Sonic Boom Six
My Kingdom For A Horse
Frank Turner
Caesar
Caesar…caesar…beware beware the ides of march
Iggy Pop
Don’t Be A Doctor
When men such as these should kill. ‘Et tu brute’.
Forward, Russia!
Balthazar, Impresario
My friends from theater school all thought I was a fool for leaving Shakespeare for the music hall
Frank Turner
Oh England My Lionheart
You read me Shakespeare on the Rolling Thames,
Kate Bush
Coded Language
DAVIS, COLTRANE, MORRISON, JOPLIN, DUBOIS, CLARKE, SHAKESPEARE, RACHMNINOV,
Saul Williams
S.A.L.T.
And just as that froggie could never have conceived of Shakespeare, so we can never possibly imagine our destiny.
The Orb
Looking For The Perfect Beat
Must exercise the quotes of Shakespeare, with this life upon a stage
Afrika Bambaataa
Dialect
Shakespeare cliche a reality
Siobhan Donaghy
The Session (Longest Posse Cut in History)
Like Shakespeare, Mark Twain, or Edgar Allan Poe
The Roots
Hawknose Harlequin
And Shakespeare’s pen
Amon Düül II
Too Much Weight (feat. Bahamadia)
And what if there were no tracts for Shakespeare or wax for Flash no road for Kerouac
Princess Superstar
Excursions
The Abstract Poet, prominent like Shakespeare
A Tribe Called Quest
Great playlist. Lovely to see Princess Superstar in there. Delighted to see lots more hip hop and rap as well – it’s a genre filled with comedy and tragedy.
Will listen tomorrow. Cheerio.
Yay! A Shanelist
Boo! It’s YouTube – & all I can get on the phone is the Frank Turner or a Lego ad.
grrr – I haven’t got all the tracks as MP3′s – or time at the moment.
Can you not put ad blocker on phones (I got my old LG mobile for £25 2nd hand as an extra camera – so don’t have a clue why people would spend so much on a phone – luddite that I am)..
you could go to my channel and play through that if that helps, search:
5ane5hane
if not I’ll try and upload a few tracks later.
sorry shoey.
No problem – any Shane list is better than no Shane list – even if I have to find some time to shackle myself to a C20 device to hear it.
Favourites would be Camille, Saul Williams, dEUS, St. Vincent, Princess Superstar, Amon Düül II, ATCQ, The Good LIfe, The Walkmen.
Here’s Funziona Senza Vapore – Shakespeare It’s twee Brazilian pop from the early 1990s. The version I own is by DJ Dolores and for a second sounds like “Slippery Slope” by The Dø but then goes on to be a slinky, dubby, downbeat number sung by a French singer living in Rio de Janeiro called Marion Del’Eite. (No, I have no idea who she is, but that’s what it says on the liner notes.)
http://grooveshark.com/#!/search/song?q=DJ+Dolores+Shakespeare
One of the bonus tracks on CD is a song called “Danger Global Warming” features Hugh Cornwell intoning ‘I feel Mother Earth is burning’.
I won’t be contributing to The Guardian’s blogs anymore after an incident last week on a football blog. No trolls involved. “Everything in moderation” is the phrase but that day The Guardian operated with the policy of moderate indiscriminately. The next day some of the information I posted ended up in another article. They can do their own journalism without my unpaid help.
I like the tune – interesting variations throughout the track.
I’m pretty pissed at the Guardian – for a company that highlights the unpaid interns (in the paper, at least – I expect they abuse them in the office) and also try to champion the living wage – they have become just like the libdems – all words… backstabbing bastards in reality.
RR is a rip off – they get advertising revenue – the writers should be recompensed somehow.
When I e-mailed the commissioning editor with the idea originally, I identified how companies (only music related) could sponsor RR in the column (thus avoiding Adblock) and the writer each week – at least – would get music orientated goodies for their effort… it wouldn’t effect the game and the G would not have to dig in it’s pockets to provide fees.
But … well … it’s the world we live in.
I had a major band asking me to ‘donate’ a tee shirt design – but then found I wasn’t the only one. I would have been in a competition to ‘give away’ my artwork… and then paid in ‘one printed for me’ – WHAT ?!
*sigh*
Was it the match fixing comments thread they pilfered?
I have a lot more to rant about on this – but it’s not raining for a moment – so I’d better out the house for a moments fresh air.
back soon.
It was the match-fixing thread. I know a bit about it. However, I only linked to articles that I double-checked by reading the Finnish to check that no mistakes in factual accuracy had been made. Took a while to do that.
Then I found the visual evidence from a match that helped convict one of the players involved. They didn’t even have time to read what I linked to before they deleted it. My follow up post doesn’t even exist as moderated. I expect indiscriminate censorship from other organisations, usually scared autocratic organisations, not The Guardian. They didn’t even read it to see if it was acceptable.
I decided not to post for them after that.
The fact that clearly related information was then used in another article just depressed me even more.
BTW. Not the first time I’ve noticed blog work being seemingly being recycled by journalists. Very hard to prove and you give the journalist the benefit of the doubt but then wonder why they didn’t think of it before.
And the unpaid culture is just getting to be too much. More to say about that myself…
This level of unemployment suits certain types of business practices…
Ms Fuel will be home soon, so I’ll have to sign off until tomorrow.
Was nice to rediscover the Waiting playlist.
Cheers
Don’t even get me started on the unpaidness of RR gurus. Also if you look on the main music page, down below in the community section, they’re basically soliciting contributors to write for free under all of those sections. Pisses me off, it does.
Was just thinking that maybe we all should call their bluff and go on strike for writing the RR column. What they’ve basically done so far is implicitly threaten to axe RR if we don’t do it for free. MAybe it’s time to let it go. I’m thinking maybe we ought to have a powwow. I have one more guru stint this month, and then i think i’m done.
The Graun has basically become Huffpo Uk.
Will get to the tunes in a day or 2, Shane, when i get buckled down to work. Still dealing with storm fallout here, dunno if i’m working today or now. Fuel probably thinks that yankees are wussies whining about 2 feet of snow and power outages.
Shane -
don’t even get me started on designs of mine i find ripped off and posted all over the interwebs. I go ballistic on the CiF copyright threads – but there hasn’t been any for awhile now.
Two feet of snow overnight will stop any country working at full capacity, unless it’s prepared – Finland has to be, but The UK and the US should have the wealth to be prepared.
At Xmas I decided not to guru again (“Hooray!” I hear you say). Not being paid was part of it. The lack of feedback from a Guardian representative was another. If there has been feedback I’ve not seen it. Plus, the use of the RR format when it suits The G is another. (Songs for London Underground and great opening tracks are recent examples.)
Nope, i’m not saying hooray at all. But i don’t blame you in the least. I’m almost sorry i signed up for another stint – we do it for each other, not the Graun. But the Graun does benefit nicely from all the free labor, and as you well know it’s a shitload of labor to do one of those columns. Other columnists are paid for columns that suck a lot more, and aren’t a tenth of the labor to do. It’s really quite sleazy of them, and from a paper that protested so mightily about Huffpo, and as you both said, about interns too. The nesting bullshit is kind of like the last straw. And stuff like forgetting about posting Suzi’s column.
I was a photo intern for around 8 years, but i got an awful lot out of the deal. Free labtime was huge. If i wanted to be a pro music journalist, maybe it would be worth it in the long run. But i don’t. If i did, maybe i’d write a few album reviews for free.
I’m not saying ‘hooray’ either – the fact of not paying or valuing RR, means only people with time on their hands and/or NO need for ‘valuing’ their work, will be able to curate. This has already limited the people offering and will increasingly limit the diversity of writers …. making it narrower and narrower in it’s variety.
Those that have stepped in so far have been brilliant – but the speed in which the turnaround has happened is telling. And the shambolic treatment of those writers makes them question the worth of doing it again – it’s unacceptable … it has the effect of devaluing the paper and it’s morals – as well as causing friction in the small corner of a mostly pleasant game … the odd player could be nicer to gurus giving their free time too – but that’s yet another rant …..
As you say – the London Underground and Opening Tracks threads have been a kick in the teeth – if they don’t value it – leave it alone and give it complete freedom to choose track numbers and topics itself – if they do value it and want to keep the RR umbrella – pay the going rate.
“Two feet of snow overnight will stop any country working at full capacity, unless it’s prepared – Finland has to be, but The UK and the US should have the wealth to be prepared”
I think the UK doesn’t need to be – it has to change it’s attitude to how it is dealt with.
I don’t want the stupid sums of money spent on getting people to work for 8 days a year that snow stops play here – change the expectations.
All people that can work from home should do so – making the roads safer.
Those that need to be in at work should get other help – for example: There is a ’4WD club’ here that steps in when nurses or ambulance drivers can’t get to where they are needed. It’s a perfect solution and shows how a community can work together to find solutions to problems.
Businesses should just go with ‘snow day breaks’ and get refreshed workers back afterwards – they would profit from the feel good factor too.
Ah I forgot about the nesting. That was another reason for not guruing. Another was that they have a potentially long running blog that fulfils all sorts of ideas about community and they just don’t seem to care or promote it, or only promoted the troll-attracting results pages. Honestly, I get more positive feedback from Finnish workplaces than The Guardian has given RR. I really thought they might do something with our approach to RR but I can’t see it.
BTW. I’ve done low-paid, intern stuff in the last two years to prove I can hack a job. It has led to more and better paid work but I resented it.
Sorry to rant. saneshane’s list is great give it a listen.
“Those that need to be in at work should get other help – for example: There is a ’4WD club’ here that steps in when nurses or ambulance drivers can’t get to where they are needed. It’s a perfect solution and shows how a community can work together to find solutions to problems.” saneshane.
Exactly, most of Finland works on this very principle. Communities work to clear the snow around the houses and buildings and the council or municipality clears the roads. This morning I cleared the outdoor ice rink of snow with help from a total stranger so that our kids could skate on the smooth ice the council had prepared.
Communities and individuals that work together with help from a ruling organisation that is responsive to the needs of the majority of the people. It’s not too hard.
Cheerio for now.
“As you say – the London Underground and Opening Tracks threads have been a kick in the teeth – if they don’t value it – leave it alone and give it complete freedom to choose track numbers and topics itself – if they do value it and want to keep the RR umbrella – pay the going rate.”
Exactly.
BTW. It was great fun doing the list but other things have annoyed me enough to want to stop it. And the moderation of my researched post when so much bile and unreasonable opinion and professional spinning are left on the blogs was just the last straw.
Ms Fuel’s looking at me, so I’ll call it a day and head for bed.
I don’t mind doing the RR columnsf or free. I don’t do it for the guardian. I do it for fun. I get paid to write other stuff that, quite frankly, is a lot less fun or even boring.
I’m pissed off at the guardian for other reasons that have a lot more to do with the moderation that fuel has mentioned.
Going to listen to the playlist, which is what I came here for. Shoey, if you open it on the i-phone and click a little further down the screen on “open playlists” you should be able to listen to it ok.
Wrong place to ask this but, Shane, are you still doing guru T shirts? I’m up for duties again mid March and would love one.
maki – all those that have stepped in are also doing it for fun.
But – it should be valued somehow – because the paper is making something out of it – they get content and advertising.
RR works best written by it’s own players because most of them know the format and idea of the game better than their staff.
what Fuel says above:
“they have a long running blog that fulfils all sorts of ideas about community and they just don’t seem to care or promote it”
That is my thought too – it actually means a lot to me – because I use it as an example of how communties on-line CAN work.
…. mostly it is good and can be used as an example of people reading a blog with more depth and explaining things that might be upsetting them – without instant verbal abuse – but that is becoming more the norm and the redesign has encouraged that.
(I’ll bite my tongue and gloss over tinny during RR Blood at the moment …)
RR has been dumped on and it’s own unique value will crumble with a smaller and smaller pool of people able to do the writing ‘just’ for fun.
.. there’s off the cuff reactions and lack of proper thought (simple research could save people’s feelings) that have made me stop playing at the moment … but it’s still a good idea.
I’d enjoy doing a Guru t-shirt for you – it would be a pleasure .. Amy mentioned wanting one too – but I’m not going to be plugging them this year… ‘special request’ t-shirts now !
Thing is they’ve got us over a barrel. And they know it. If we stopped doing the columns and stopped playing they would just drag out the formula for an occasional airing – as they are already doing. I don’t think the recent faux RR’s are in the slightest coincidental. As for content, they can get that anywhere. Quality obviously not, but that really doesn’t seem to matter to them.
They will kill the game when they see fit. I fear it will be sooner rather than later. Adam’s post about having gurus until Easter makes me think that that’s going to be our limit. He didn’t ask for volunteers beyond that date, did he?
I sometimes get the feeling that some of the shit stirring that is going on on the motheship isn’t entirely unrelated.
All of this pisses me off and makes me very sad.
Maki -
I find myself losing interest more and more lately – partly due to my work schedule these days as i have to miss the TOFF and can’t get caught up, and also due to the IT bullshit. I also get really, really busy in the spring when i start shooting so will be even less able to take part. I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re right about Easter being the end.
I don’t see why they wouldn’t keep going as long as they have people willing to do it – it’s free content. Adam has to try and remember to let someone know they are writing it, and someone has to remember to press the button to publish – 2 minutes pay – for a vast amount of clicks and site visits.
Easter is a long way away – he’ll ask again when people are needed.
unless it IS too big a thread to justify the space – it’ll keep plodding on.
Appreciate i’ve only recently joined but SaneShane, Amylee and Fuel if the Graun is causing such animosity could we not use The Spill for RR?
Looking forward to listening through the playlist.
Two feet of snow! The UK comes to a standstill after two measly inches!
hey ya, leaveitallbehind9
I’ve need to spend a couple of quality hours with the Ms. then I’ll be right back with my thoughts on this.
hope you enjoy the playlist.
I’ve done a few RR’s over the years on the ‘spill when the main blog shuts down at xmas. It’s good fun, but it’s only a few people that play.
The ‘spill or wordpress doesn’t have the space to have so many people for such a large thread – the Guardian doesn’t really either, it’s too big. Doesn’t fit the profile of short, sharp, shock, articles… doesn’t suit the advertising. It’s many different people that count not – regular or loyal visits.
If played here only a few people ever notice it and no way of publicising the fact its going on – the game on the G has a wide variety of people mingling – it would become a very small gene pool – smaller than some think it already is… if it was taken away from a major platform.
The different personalities make it easier to keep civil – it’s remarkable calm in comparison to almost every other thread. As maki says above: “they’ve got us over a barrel. And they know it” but the foolish thing is – it should be championed as a ‘healthy’ blog. Rather than letting the niggles fester and eventually kill it.
So far – Frank Turner was lovely, both of them. The second one sounded Decemberistsy. Sonic Boom Six i was all ready to skip at the intro and then it turned ace. I had Iggy on one of my playlists – i think it was for Ancient History or something. BAD rocked. Ok, back to work now.
Shane – I’d love a shirt. Broke as shit right now though. I know Fintan wanted one too, did he email you? But if you’re not really into doing one-offs these days i totally get that too. Play it by ear.
amy – I will be perfectly happy to do one offs .. I actually prefer to do unique things… just having a break (from design) while I straighten my head.
we will sort something when ready to get going again – for everyone that wants one.
Couldn’t get the play list up. Is this an i-pad issue or user error!
Have selectively gone through it and absolutely love the Frank Turner songs. (Only discovered this yesterday with I Still Believe see post on RR.)
Kate Bush – can do no wrong IMHO.
Princess Superstar – not for me.
Will listen to some more later.
Appreciate your reply to my initial post and understand the IT constraints and also the need for as diverse a contribution as possible.
Hi leaveitallbehind,
Frank Turner recently came to town. He was supported by Jaakko and Jay..
FT fans might like.
Princess Superstar is not for you. Maybe J&J aren’t either but that’s how it should be said. Cheers.
I don’t know what area of Norway you are in Fuel – but (I guess you probably know this) Pepe Deluxé gig at Tavastia, Helsinki. Saturday, February 16th. Rare as hens teeth they say on the e-mail. If it’s rare there – I’d better not hold my breath for an appearance in Norwich.
the PDL gig would be possible for me to go to but i promised to do something else for next weekend… winter holiday time for the children…
good call on ‘I still believe’ – as daddypig said, I have been known to nominate that in the past (as RANTaGHOST) … writing this with my 2 year old climbing over my desk – so better give up for now.
sorry about the i-pad issues.
back later.
As today appears to be rain preceding snow, I may well get round to your list, shane (for which, I’m sure, you will be eternally grateful…..).
My twopenn’orth on the Graun is that it won’t be around next year unless they can come up with a brilliantly original way to make some money. The print edition is becoming less and less attractive (it’s now £1.40 per day, over half of it is full-page ads – including several wrap-around Brad Pitt atrocities – and the old Graun typos are returning with a vengeance) and they haven’t figured out how to make a profit from the on-line version. Consequently there are fewer staff to dedicate to anything, let alone actually care about running an RR-style blog of nerdy enthusiasts. Adam is now Mr Music Blog: i.e. he cadges subjects off anyone in the office who once heard a record or any ‘contributor’ willing to dedicate their time gratis (for the love of music or to promote their own blog). I suspect the same applies elsewhere (including the moderation function, probably staffed on a rota basis by people who may or may not give a damn). They simply don’t have the resources to give a shit.
When we run out of people willing to guru RR (in the next couple of months; I’m not sure I can be arsed again), it will stop running. I doubt it makes any significant impact on GMEN’s bottom line. The same applies to every other corner of GU on-line.
I wish it weren’t true but the general decline in print media revenue will leave us without a valued independent perspective on the world in general, not just lacking a list of, say, the best songs about the end of the printed word.
If it’s any sort of bright spot – the NYT actually has made a profit – but that’s from asset sales. Ad revenue has declined.
I’m not sure of the numbers involved, but i still think the Graun made a big mistake in expanding and going for the US market. It’s pissed off the Brits who are sick of so much US news, and we can get better news and commentary elsewhere. It’s a nice supplement for us, but doesn’t take the place of our domestic media.
“(including the moderation function, probably staffed on a rota basis by people who may or may not give a damn)”
there was an article in the careers/job section in the old days (do they still have this?) about the company that is employed to do the moderation – like most things, it’s outsourced to people who have a selection of threads they are looking at – they WILL NOT be qualified, or have any interest in the subject being talked about.
What happens is – the comment is flagged up – and they make a 2 second judgement – or at least that’s what I gathered from the ‘babble’ and ‘blue sky thinking’ waffle I read – about a comment.
It didn’t really seem to have any direct link with the subject, if someone read penitence, as say ‘penis stance’ and got offended they took it out – just in case. It’s the “don’t trust the morons with the keyboards below the line” stance – except when they are doing the work for free.
This is why if a moronic comment is just ignored – it stays – but a sensible comment where someone has something to gain from it being removed can easily be got rid of .. they are not reading the thread – just the flagged comments.
This is not a go at the Guardian – it’s the whole media experience that uses these companies.
I liked several of those tracks, shane. Not the long noodly ones, of course, (or, more seriously, the rhymey-talky ones) but the Frank Turners, Camille, dEUS (I own this!), Some Tragedy (is that the act and the song?) and The Walkmen all slipped down quite nicely. Ta, chuck.
The band is called The Good Life the song is Some Tragedy. They’re a side project.featuring a couple of Cursive band members.
Hope you’re wrong about The Guardian’s future.
Cheerio.
Cheers, Fuel. Yes, I hope I’m wrong too. The signs aren’t good though.
Sorry I’m late to this thread, folks.
No time for the tunes til tonight at the earliest, but on the subject of GU / RR, this makes for a depressingly accurate summation of my own feelings. I’m on guru duty this coming weekend, but I won’t be volunteering again either after that either.
I need to concentrate on more paying work; that’s killing my blogging time outside of my dogged determination to participate in the TOFF. Consequently, I’m feeling more and more disconnected from the whole community, and fear I’m becoming precisely the kind of dump’n'run participant that I dislike on RR. But whereas I used to spend time trying to engage with the promising-looking posters that did that, these days it’s all beginning to feel a bit “Oh what’s the point?” defeatist.
the re-design has killed the idea of a community thread – you need to know how to ‘discover’ any replies to your original comments… how many people care after they have had their shout? It’s egotistic – not involving.
So, if you find something of interest 2 days later and use reply – you will only be talking to an audience, at most, of the original writer – if they have even bothered to look back.
…. and the reply button makes TOFF – readers typing – not recommending. (even worse than before) – because who goes back to read an added link put it 32hrs later, the guru – it’s all done to get a A listing, not recommending to a group of music enthusiasts .. it’s ALL now about the game not the music.
non stop 147 character puns is all we have to look forward to – welcome to the future of engagement …. and as we said – it could so easily have been hi-lighted as ‘working’ online community.