Post 60, Passed at 50.

Admittedly and I'm guessing everyone at some point has made jest of Michael Jackson, especially in the last decade. I remember a few posts ago wishing him well on his comeback tour hoping that it would not only be a great event for his music and fans across the world but also be a suitable farewell to such a spanning career and one that was bathed in stardom. But with news this early morning it seems this will never be with the unfortunate passing of Micheal Jackson, by cardiac arrest (unconfirmed at time of typing) age 50.

Some would say this is quite young for such a talent to pass away, but the truth is it was ironically meant to be. His music by the present day seems to have lived lifetimes and has inspired so many musicians the past 40 or so years that it's hard to imagine the number, and all this since his first media coverage with The Jackson Five at the meer age of ten. It appears however that the sheer mass attention and pressure from childhood even right until the final filmed moments of pathologists and paramedics loading his body into a coroners van has ulimately forced this hand. The pace at which Michaels career developed meant he never really braced becoming an adult which lead to his well known gentle and reserved manner through opting for the childhood he never had.

Putting aside all the strange personal stories of the 'created character' of 'Wacko Jacko' that later came to light, it is certainly a great shame for someone such as him to have gone this way and unjust for such an influential and pivotal popular recording artist. The legend (in whatever shape or form) will live on, and the stories/documentaries and rumours will no doubt follow.

Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 - June 25, 2009).

#UPDATE# Last spotted working at Toms Bargains down Cleethorpes seafront, filling the pound thong dispenser machine.

I'm

For the Summer at least, exams are now finished and so is the semester (all right now). Now time to celebrate/pack. I think some Basie will suit the mood just nicely.

Next Week on The Bill(board).

It's around 7 now starting this, I'm already thinking of cracking open some whiskey later and chilling to some stride. My last piece of coursework for this foundation course is now in. The first half the report is to be marked at a later time and as the lab book has been fully ruffled today by post-grad and PHD students, I'm happy that it has got a decent mark that's a damn sight better compared to last semester. So that's how I'm going to celebrate as I'm knackered. And with the prospect that I've really got to start revision tomorrow, it's a nice way to salute the sort of year that's gone by. Sad i know but i think the union would be pretty empty if i went down tonight. Damn the exam period.

A few days ago i saw the story that a Christian group in Las Vegas was coming under the fire for supposedly erecting the following billboards:

This has angered quite a few people including many of the Asian community, and has left others bemused as to why the organisation Truth Ministry would produce quite a prejudicial racial campaign. The truth of the matter however emerged a few days ago with a statement from the Truth Ministry saying that the billboards have been purposefully photo-shopped by a gay rights activist who is a member of that particular Christian church organisation. I found this today with the actual statement released:

To be honest it's quite amusing and has obviously worked in the activists favour. It's still quite hard to believe that in Las Vegas there are these sort of views present towards homosexual Christians and members of the church when there are large numbers of men and women of the church that are openly homosexual across the world, take for example our very own current Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams (aka Night Owl) is openly gay.

Although i can believe that in the case of America there are potentially more radical/strict Christian groups about that take the teachings and scriptures of God very seriously. By today's standards there should be at least an openness to these scriptures and what is meant by the words of God. Here in fact is an interview about a year ago with Dr Williams on his position when it comes to teaching the people and congregations and how he believes a civil partnership is more or less equal to a marital ceremony.

It should be common place for people to be able to accept the self choices of others and their sexual orientations. Religion should not be a choice as to whether you will be heterosexual or not and highlighting the Truth Ministry they should not cast to the many that being Heterosexual is preferable if you are a Christian (especially in the Nevada area).

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Note: i am not begrudging Christians of any sort by this post just because i was approached and interviewed by a member of the Christian Society at my university about Christianity where i told him i am fairly agnostic in belief and was met with the response of "There is no word about it, because you do not worship God and don't thoroughly abide by his teachings you are definitely going to Hell". Not something you really want to be met with a day before a vocal presentation but there you go.

The truth of the matter is even though i believe there is a God and i consider myself a follower of the Christian faith, I'm still sceptical and don't really want to worry or concern myself with devoutly following a religious faith at the moment. That sounds quite rash and prudent of me but that is my choice. Perhaps when i get older i may go to Church more often but as far as i know none of my family have ever really been concerned with going to worship. So if they're going 'down-under' then.. what the Hell (har-de-har-har), i may as well also.

*Jazz all around, Satan's playing that boogie jungle music on the rocks!*

Final note I'd however like to thank the guy from LSCU who asked for the interview for his survey, even if the summary of my afterlife was a pretty extreme statement to dish out to someone who is basically sitting on a 'religious fence'. But from it I've kept the arty condensed version of the bible given out which includes key passages from both testaments to which I'll try reading through all of it in the near future.

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Update - Just found this really nice and recent interview with Sonny Rollins. Well worth a watch.

Musician Sonny Rollins from Texas Monthly Talks on Vimeo.

Bird Is The Word.

"OK OK, I like Birdsong Radio!"

Wasn't planning on doing a blog today since i really need to get on with work. But this news seems quite right for it turning the first of June, a sure sign of Summer rolling in.

This is news that Birdsong Radio is being replaced this morning by the new Amazing Radio a station that will broadcast songs from unsigned pop, indie, acoustic, urban, rock, jazz and other acts from across the country. What's really interesting is that those unsigned acts could be you, yes you. By uploading your own recorded material to the Amazing Tunes website you can not only listen online as well as on the radio, but also build a fan base and get possible attention from those dictating music moguls of popular culture or hopefully some decent labels that won't make you churn out shit but produce a sufficient income and positive outlook on your talents.

Personally i don't know what to make of it. It might go far and last longer than Birdsong has, but it might not be as catchy as Birdsong has (a pure novelty of looped recordings from about twenty years ago). After all i can see most of the new stations music being split in terms of 20% great, 80% crap, or 40%/60%.

Good news or at least i think it is anyway is that Birdsong will still go on but will stream the recordings online, which gives people chance if they want to to become a free member of the site, purchase mp3's and Cd's that can probably be found in most garden centres, or even tell your friends! ... I don't know why I'm mocking it since I'm listening to it now and it is pretty relaxing and makes a change to constantly hearing rumbling morning traffic and is helping to "escape the grind". Maybe it's the fact that i have the mannerisms of a 60 to 70 year old jazz lover. C'est la vie, mais quel une grande surprise il est.

Happy Birthday Ben.

http://www.bigben.parliament.uk/ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8075833.stm

Black and Blue.

What a change today is from the past few weeks of rain and misery. Glorious sunshine cascading over many places across the country with clear blue skies, i can hear bells ringing from the town centre, and it's the same temperature inside as it is out which is turning me into one hot tomale. And while i kill the hours with some needed r&r i thought I'd look up one thing that got me interested recently.

Last weekend when my parents came to visit and bring up some gifts for my birthday they brought one thing which I'd been wanting for a while since i saw them in shops. A brand new Golliwog doll. Now whatever you may think about them they will always be labelled by racism, but to me these dolls are no such things. If you were to look upon those dolls and say they were racist by today's standards, then i think that's more racist actually branding them in that way. I have friends that are Asian, Spanish, French, and black, so when i look at those dolls i don't see a black person but an iconic image. You have to admit they do look cute or the latest versions do that miraculously seem to have invaded shops despite recent events with Carole Thatcher, one of the Queen's gift shops and an incident involving police after the daughter of a woman placed her old Golliwog doll in her living room window to the much annoyance of neighbours. Hopefully as a nation and a global population we have gotten passed the original intention of Golliwogs and can accept that they can be just adorable characters rather than objects of hate and racial stereotyping. I don't want to make this sound that i approve of Golliwogs, so to be clear I am all for Golliwogs as characters but i am not for the propaganda or racist cartoons which are intended as derogatory commentary.
Another point i was interested in was the racial term "Sambo". I've been called it many times but that's because it's my name, the same as calling me Samuel (which I'm not, just plain Sam) or Sammy (the shammy). You would think that the name originally came from American southern states were segregation and racial prejudice was rife up till the late sixties (and still some areas today), but surprising to me it actual originates from Britain. Specifically Morecambe.
As stories go during the height of the British Empire a Caribbean slave ship docked into Morecambe bay for supplies. Days later after they'd left port, the crew on ship noticed one of the black staff was missing and had been left ashore. His name was Sambo. They never returned for him which resultantly caused the townspeople to shun him into living on the outskirts of the town till his final days. There's even a monument were Sambo supposedly died marked "Sambo's Grave".

Minstrels - original product of racism?

What is even more interesting is that both the name Sambo and the Golliwog origins are linked together. Scottish writer Helen Bannerman first published a children's book whilst living in India before the turn of the 20th century titled The Little Black Sambo. The story itself focuses on a little Indian boy called Sambo who outwits a bunch of hungry tigers. Sambo is also an Indian word of Hindu origin so it seems sense to have a story with a related name. However as the book was published across both Europe and the US the original drawings from the book were changed gradually so that Sambo both had progressively darker skin and curlier hair. The comparison was then inevitable that the character in the book started to look like the already existing Golliwogs and made even more impact on the fact Sambo was now prominently used in the US as a racial slur for blacks. Things like this are always amusing to me when the context of original articles is taken beyond original intention. But this is how unfortunately both the use of Sambo and prominence of Golliwogs continued to develop with stronger association of racial contexts.
I also found digging around that there is a change of restaurants in the US called Sambo's still open today from its original founding in 1957. This particular chain uses characters based on The Little Black Sambo artwork but in a positive difference uses a clearly defined cartoon Indian boy and tiger.

Now for news I've been hoping for a long time, Jamie Cullum's latest album is finished! That news and more updates can be found on his Twitter page (don't use it myself, as you can see I'd be useless at limited character blogging). Below is a sneak peek of what is to come, hopefully all the 20 tracks will be released as 12 with 8 bonus tracks in some form because if not that'd be a big shame. JC is currently thinking up the albums title but to me the one on the CD would be just fiiiine. And props on the 'metrosexual hat' featured at the top.

Last note, congratulations to Fred (Frederick Bowers) on getting through to the live semi's of Britain's Got Talent. I can officially say i knew him before he was famous now.

Porno music.

I've finally got a break! After the annoyance of finding out i had a week to complete some coursework instead of two and with the realisation that i had to continue with it over my birthday, i can now breath a little until the next hand in and the one after that. And then start exams, happy days *retarded face*.

"That's the last time i ask for a quickie.."

Besides music I've been watching a lot of porn. Green Porn that is. Not environmental porn but that's pretty close. Green Porno is a film series or alternatively a collection of amusing but factual notations on animal sexual behaviour. Brought to life by its creator Italian filmstress, writer and ex model Isabella Rossellini stars as the lead.. animal, in whatever description such as bees, worms, flies and the like. The first series focuses primarily on insects with a new series this year on marine life. With another series in the reproductive pipeline based on farm animals i'm sure there will be more entertaining moooovies to come (not meant to offend orgasming cows, farmers, or cattle breeders in any way). The Sundance Channel are screening these virally and I'd recommend to watch them. Not because I like to see animals having sex or condone animal sex, but seeing a recreation of a six foot whale penis on what is effectively a blue sumo costume trying to impregnate a cardboard female whale is hilarious. And it helps that the series is also quite interesting.

In relation to insects on a science fiction note, i recently got The Green Death on DVD one of Jon Pertwee's Doctor Who stories. Notably this is the one with the giant mutated maggots that sound like hissing cats (left). Personally i think this story is too well known for that when in fact it has very other brilliant plot pieces, even if in my view it could have been done in four parts instead of six. Not only does it use Wales the current filming land of new series Doctor Who as a location, but also acts as the swansong of Jo Grant who suddenly develops a romance with a welsh professor (uncannily like a younger version of the Doctor, if only Pertwee were a brick shit house) and presumably follows his dreams to journey into the amazon and find a rare fungus, lovely. And also the journey to Metabilis 3 at the beginning of the story has some serious repercussions which would ultimately next series would cost the Doctor his life.
Keeping in the theme i was looking around on the net when i found a clip of a William Hartnell story The Chase where the Daleks chase the Doctor and co through time and space as if they're going "We're going to catch up with you and then hurt you for no other reason except that we don't like you!". This clip is of the Doctor arriving at the top of New York's Empire State Building followed closely by a Dalek which gets the piss taken out of it by a tourist from Alabama. I later found this entry on wikipedia because i noticed a relation from recent episodes:
-The Daleks return to the Empire State Building in the Tenth Doctor episodes "Daleks in Manhattan"/"Evolution of the Daleks". In Doctor Who Confidential, Russell T. Davies comments that he likes to imagine that they stored the Empire State Building in their memory banks and returned there deliberately as a result.-


Do you ever feel the need to revise to different types of music whilst you work or revise? Strangely in my case i can only revise with very relaxed jazz. I know a few that listen to dance and indie to then revise with only classical music, but for me it's got to be almost lounge style tunes. While i was doing this particular coursework instead i tried to look up some new people to listen to, Rahsaan Roland Kirk was one such artist i found. He was a talented musician, went blind at a young age but this did not stop him from learning to play music. He played saxophones, flutes, clarinets, and often at the same time. This multi instrumentalist primarily known for his saxophone skills customised an alto and soprano sax so he could play along with his unmodified tenor all at the same time. Here is an example of Rahsaan's virtuoso ability which has inspired a lot of musicians, notably Jimi Hendrix and Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull.

Also:
Harry James & Buddy Rich - Green Onions: fantastic arrangement, differs from the mod sound but James nails it with the solo.

Question Time in Grimsby: amusing edit of a visit to my home town.

Liquid Soul gettin' Dizzy: Salt.. Pea-nuts-ahh..

You'd like some Pea-nuts-ahh?: Pianist Stan Kenton playing 'The Peanut Vendor', never actually knew this piece until i played it last week. Here to me the flute really makes it sing.

All Wight man: Miles Davis, Isle Of Wight Festival 1970.

E.S.T - Mingle In The Mincing Machine: "Bu-dum-ba-dum-dum".