http://www.returntothepit.com/concert.php?date=2009-10-17

Please, spread this link (repost a blog, forward on as a bulletin, etc…)
If you wish to put the pictures on your myspace page or your site, please just hit me back and leave the RTTP logos on the shots (and friend request rttp). if you want to use them for anything else, message me back.
you can write reviews or read them here
Rock And Shock (102)
Abigail Williams (88)
Augury (107)
Destrophy (63)
God Dethroned (119)
Misfits (94)
Randomshots (8)
Saviours (58)
Seventh Void (87)
St Vitus (144)
Type O Negative (126)
Woe Of Tyrants (91)


Some Images:


















rev aaron

—————

death.black.grind.metal.hardcore.whatever

RTTP friend request

For the last couple of years, I have made an effort to forecast the next year, to look at retrospective information in fields I find fascinating (which exists in droves at this time of year), and use the information to extrapolate what next year will bring, in a whole range of fields at once, in a William-S-Borrough’s-cut-up for the Internet Generation. Here is this year’s attempt:

This year has shown a decline in light entertainment and programming, with TV and films still being affected by the online-watching boom that is BBC iPlayer, 4oD, and so on. Popular shows have had a lot of web information and content. The move of light entertainment from the TV to the computer screen is already beginning, and 2010 looks to be the year the online-TV boom starts to truly affect the programming. We’ll be seeing more TV shows made for the online market, maybe even some made to be broadcast online and nowhere else, as well as shows that combine the online capabilities of Youtube et al with regular broadcasting to make an all-round, comprehensive entertainment experience. Channel 4 has made huge headway by combining forces with Youtube, meaning any content they place online, be it original or already broadcast, can be discussed, tweeted about, tagged, commented on, and so on easily and efficiently. Other broadcasters will lag behind until they can find a similar medium for discussion, which will become a new form of advertising.

This increase in web capability for TV shows will also bring an increase in web content; more stuff online means more for people to look at. In his brilliant book Futuretainment, Mike Walsh describes such information as a Sleeve, an extra layer for an existing product. These include fan sites, extra info and videos online, and so on. 2010 will bring a huge increase in Sleeves, with more and more stuff available online to watch alongside your favourite TV show. Misfits, Channel 4’s Heroes-with-Asbos show, already started this trend at the end of this year, with extensive online games, videos, info, Twitter updates, MySpace and Facebook pages, and so on. More shows with similar Sleeves will follow in its wake.

2010 will also be the year of the reality show; X-Factor, Susan Boyle and Britain’s Got Talent had an exceptional 2009, and 2010 will see more of such shows, with more Sleeves (as above), as well as big broadcast slots, as this is one of the few TV shows left where the time medium (being on at a certain time on a certain channel) has any significance. It has to be on at a certain time, as the results are delivered at a certain time. With light, fictional entertainment, pre-filmed and pre-planned, the time medium is irrelevant: 2010 will show more and more TV time taken up by live shows, by programs that need the time medium to keep you hooked. With Big Brother on the way out, and light entertainment shows hopping more and more online, there will be some big gaps for similar shows, where the live medium is the most important part of the process.

The thematic and stylistic content of the year is the hardest to deduce, but there are plenty of signs pointing towards a more outrageous, silly and over-the-top paradigm becoming the norm. The recent successes of Flight of the Conchords and The Mighty Boosh crowd are big signposts, as is the popularity of artists like Anish Kapoor and Anthony Gormley, and musicians such as Lady Gaga and Muse. Everything is big, epic, colourful, over-the-top, splattered and clashing, awkward and huge; see Lady Gaga’s outfits and stage-shows, Muse’s music videos, stage shows and album artwork, Anish Kapoor’s wax-splatter-gun and Anthony Gormley’s loud, shrill fourth column, as well as John and Edward Grimes lasting as long as they did on X-Factor. To counter this, there has also been an increase in the charmingly cultured alternative, suave and gentile seriousness over wacky, insane humour, eg. all of the recent fashion films (Coco Before Chanel and The September Issue), and the moments where these two worlds collide (How to Lose Friends and Alienate People and The Devil Wears Prada). There are many, many more examples of this wacky, over-exuberant energy that seems to be continuing, which I also link back to the move of entertainment towards the online market, where things have to be vivid and over-the-top and wacky and flashing to attract the most attention.

Finally, a couple more one-off thoughts, then bed-time for Zoroaster:

- Thanks to expenses, the Iraq War enquiry, as well as the number of dead soldiers shipped home from Afghanistan, the recent rise of the laughable BNP, David Cameron and Gordon Brown’s numerous faux pas, confidence in government will remain at an all time low. Even an election will do little to spark interest in the disenfranchised, disinterested middle class. This lack of confidence and interest could lead to international problems, as this will be seen as a sign of weakness.

- Barack Obama will be under a lot of fire: his health-care reforms are seen as a threat by middle-America, his Nobel Peace Prize seems like more and more of a joke, considering his recent drone-bombing of civilians in Pakistan, and he’s gone from the Saviour to Mr Sit-On-His-Hands. Without some big successes in early 2010, America will face similar political apathy as the UK is facing currently, again weakening their international position.

- Michael Jackson’s sad passing will leave a vacuum to be filled by numerous Princes and Princesses of Pop. Expect to see many a self-mythologising and aggrandising music star in the next year, trying to reach Jacko’s level of public appeal, respect and understanding, and expect people to give them plenty of chances: we need someone to look up to, artistically.

- The vampire boom will continue, with more TV shows (True Blood) and more films (Twilight) to play to the new vampire/goth/teen market.

- Cheating will be raised to new heights of immorality, and the concept of honesty will gain acceptance and prevalence again, as a backlash against Tiger Wood’s infidelity, Flavio Briattore’s crash-setting-up and Theirry Henry’s Hand of Frog.

- Beards will be the new hairstyles, with Brad Pitt, Keanu Reeves, David Beckham and Prince William (for a short time) leading the way, and charity concepts such as Movember gaining cultural significance. Also see Mariah Carey’s music video for Obsessed.

- The 80s will stay in fashion, with the popular over-the-knee boots, jumpsuits and shoulder pads staying en vogue, although high fashion will go the way of Christian Lacroix: bankrupt, unless it becomes more high street tenable.

- I doubt we’ll lose our global obsession with plastic, but maybe, just maybe, we’ll realise all of this semi-recyclable waste is doing to the planet.

- The rise of video game brands as Wii Fit, Rock Band and Modern Warfare will revitalise the market, but a split will start to form between the old-fashioned, shoot-’em, punch-’em, etc, boy games and the new, rounded, playable-by-all family games, probably with more family games being made for consoles and the old style of video-gaming being relegated to PCs.

- And finally, a hope: more and more religious and spiritual diversity, as a more prevalent internet culture makes access to more and more esoteric ways of thinking both possible and likely, especially those that encourage a sense of imagination and diversity.

I am drained of thought.

Click on image to buy DVD

Reviewed by Pat Harrington

Misfits starts with five teenagers, Alisha (Antonia Thomas), Kelly (Lauren Socha), Curtis (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett), Simon (Iwan Rheon) and Nathan (Robert Sheehan) who are all being forced to attend a ‘Community Payback’ scheme at a local community centre. Just as they are checking each other out and we are finding out about them there is a dramatically shocking, freak storm. The storm changes both them and others. The Misfits develop strange superpowers and others around them start to behave oddly, even violently. Only Nathan is left wondering whether he has a power and what this might be. There are some great comic moments as Nathan experiments to try and find out! Generally Nathan manages to irritate and amuse at the same time.

I enjoyed all six episodes, there is enough suspense to keep you hooked but there is also a lot of humour. Misfits is funny and dark. I found Simon particularly interesting, he kept reminding me of Ian Curtis of Joy Division. Maybe it was his darkness as well as his dress style? Special mention also for the soundtrack which is great (80s post punk influenced). I hope they release it. A fair bit of swearing and sex but those into Skins will be used to that! I’m not surprised that the second series has already been commissioned. If you haven’t yet seen it, give it a go!

When Broadcast Misfits used social networking a lot with each character tweeting and facebook support. They also did a game on their web page. This kind of support is more akin to a film release than a series generally. Full marks to the team behind that.

The DVD features over an hour of extra material including behind the scenes videos with cast & crew, the making of Misfits and ‘Simon’s films’ – 4 videos Simon took on his phone of the other group members.

I am in a media frenzy. What kind, you ask? Anything I can lay my hands on! I already have far too many books from the library, and am on the last episode of Misfits, which I LOVE (it’s like a sci-fi version of Being Human, which just so happens to be coming back on the 10th of January). I really sympathise with Simon (excellently played by Iwan Rheon, and I mean excellent); I feel so sorry for him. In fact, I just want to pick him up, take him home and give him a hug. But anyway.

I decided to come out of my anime-hibernation, and watch ElfenLied despite the fact I hate gore and scary bits as a rule (Shaun of the Dead scared the shit out of me, for Christ’s sake). Although it’s not scary, and the gore is a bit unexpected to start off with, I desensitised fairly quickly (pens through eyes and dismembering seems to get a bit boring after the fourth or fifth gouging). It was pretty good overall, ever more so if you like boobies.

I also went to see Avatar in 3D at the pics last Saturday. What a visual masterpiece! I would gladly sell my soul to live on Pandora. Go see the film, purely for this fact. Ok, the plot is predictable, the dialogue nothing special, but other than that, I actually really liked this film. A lot. I’ve also taken to wearing my 3D glasses around the house: as I don’t wear glasses normally, it’s very much a novelty.

Anyway, after the two and a half hours in the cinema, we walked out to find the snow’s thickness had doubled. We almost didn’t get home as the trains were delayed here, there, and bloody everywhere. We saw the 6 o’clock train arrive at 9 into the station. Anyway, to cut a long story short, at least we got home safe, even if my companion got stranded and had to stay the night.

In social news, I went out with the ‘old crowd’ the other night (i.e. non University home friends) and had a good old catch up with home-made chocolate cake and mulled cider (sounds gross, smells gross, tastes delicious!) Of course, everyone got nicely merry and we played some cracking drinking games (even if I did turn out to be ‘The one most likely to make a sex tape’(nope), ‘The one most likely to be into S&M,’ (no thanks), and ‘The one most likely to ave a sex change,’ (ridiculous). The only sucky bit was walking the last bit home by myself. In heels. In the dark. I was not impressed.

Now, onto Christmas business. I have just made whisky snaps with the bro (we ran out of brandy). Most remained welded to the baking tray, screaming ” You’ll never take us alive, bitch!!” Never mind.

Oh yeah, I managed to cut myself too with a knife, whilst trying to prise said whisky snaps from said baking tray. Lucky me.

I’ve just been wrapping presents today really. I should be getting down to some revision. Oh, I went to the Carol service, but I felt a bit of a fraud, sat there with all the happy believers (I’m agnostic). I told my folks this. My mum didn’t take it too well, which is surprising seeing as though she is the most uncatholic Catholic I know. She kept saying “You must believe in God, oh, believe in God, Katie.” In the end, I just kept my mouth shut and wrapped some more presents. I guess it is Christmas, which is a religious holiday after all.

Ok, I think that’s quite enough for tonight. Well, I wish you a Merry Christmas! Have a lovely day.

I don’t know whether I’ve not watched much telly this week or I’ve just watched stuff that I don’t want to write about.  Either way, welcome to the most half-hearted edition of Stuff I Watched to date.

In The Loop: DVD (Watched 16th Dec)

The film version of The Thick of It is very much like a film version of The Thick of It.  It’s essentially just an extended episode with some of the characters slightly different, but this is certainly not a bad thing.  It’s very clever and brilliantly funny, just like the TV show.  Annoyingly, the DVD broke after about an hour so I don’t know how it ended.  Fingers crossed that it’s on the BBC soon.

Misfits: E4 (R 17th Dec W 19th Dec)

A cracking ended to what has turned out to be an excellent little series.  Annoying Nathan finally does something good (but stays annoying) and he dies for his troubles.  Sort of.

I’m glad to say that it’s got a second series.

Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe Review of 2009: BBC4 (R 22nd Dec W 22nd Dec)

If you like television and didn’t watch this, then you don’t like television.  And you’re probably dead.

Charlie Brooker is probably the closest thing I have to a hero.  It’s strange that one of the best programmes of the year is one that just talks about other programmes.  Absolutely awesome.  I could watch Screenwipe over and over again.  And I often do.

I realise that this is really brief, but it’s Christmas Eve and I’m very sleepy.  If you’d like to chat about any of the programmes, leave a comment and I’ll get back to you when I can face writing more than two sentences.

I got so wrapped up in my Best of 2009 mixtapes I forgot to do this.

The Power Rankings: (may contain mild spoilers)

10. The Mentalist (Episode: “Throwing Fire”) – I didn’t care much for Jane’s “origin” because it didn’t relate to the main case like the last times we revisited Jane’s past.

9. How I Met Your Mother (Episode: “Last Cigarette Ever”) – More or less a throwaway episode except for Older Ted’s explanation at the end when everyone really quits smoking.  It’s like they are holding serve until episode 100.

8. Friday Night Lights (Episode: “In The Bag”) – I find it hard to believe that Matt would leave Dillion and not call Julie in all that time.  That said, it did lead to some great acting from Aimee Teegarden.

7. The Big Bang Theory (Episode: “The Maternal Congruence”) – I didn’t like Christine Baranski as much this time but the scenes with her and Sheldon in the back seat with Leonard driving were gold.

6. Better Off Ted (Episode: “The Lawyer, The Lemur And The Little Listener”) – Please watch this show.  I need it to not be canceled.

5. Dollhouse (Episode: “Stop-Loss”) – They should show people who have actually left the Dollhouse for good and never had an issue.  Or is there no one?  The hive mind soldiers were pretty cool and probably gave someone in the Army high command a stiffy

4. The Venture Bros. (Episode: “Pinstripes & Poltergeists”) – Brock is back!! Well, if there is ever a spin-off from the Venture Bros., “SPHINX” would be awesome.  Obviously, I’m not the only one who thought Shipwreck on G.I. Joe was gay.

3. Misfits (Episode: “Episode Five”) -  I kept forgetting to put this on my power rankings.  The finale was great.  I suspected the surprise two episodes ago when Curtis was fixing the timeline and in the one where he never got arrested and the counselor killed everyone, Nathan survived..  I feel bad for Nathan but he was kind of a prick so I don’t feel too bad.  Thank God it’s been renewed.

2. Dollhouse (Episode: “The Attic”) – This was like The Cell but not…you know…lame.  Elisha Dushku is still the weak link acting-wise but now that she’s only playing one character, she is better and so is the show.

1. Dexter (Episode: “The Getaway”) – I wish Showtime could have not said that there was going to be a huge shock because when Dexter came back to his apartment I knew Rita was dead.  Julie Benz is taking it well

I recently got iWork ‘08 from a friend and have since then been obsessed with using PowerPoint for Mac to make pie charts. These pie charts/bar graphs/cool lines invariably make no sense whatsoever. However, I did manage to come up with a reasonably accurate pie chart that represents how I spend my time during the exams.

I find that exam time is a great time to start developing a multifaceted personality and take up as many activities as possible to avoid studying. This is why I’m being such a regular blogger, taking my dog for long walks and becoming an obsessive photographer. It’s more fun this way. Also, I got data for a pie chart that actually makes sense. I tried the cooler looking ‘Radar’, ‘X-Y Scatter’, ‘Surface’ and ‘Bubbles’ but these ended up with incomprehensible (but pretty) diagrams.

I don’t care what you say, pie-chart mania is here to stay.

The first series of Misfits came to an end this week with yet another great episode. It’s been an excellent series, the best new show of the year, and along with Being Human, Torchwood: Children of Men and (hopefully) Day of the Triffids, has helped make 2009 a great year for British genre shows. If I had to criticise anything about Misfits, it’s that there were only six episodes. As usual, spoilers follow if you haven’t watched yet…

While our heroes have spent the last six weeks using their powers to look at girls in changing rooms and break up with a girlfriend, Superhoodie here has been quietly doing lots of heroic things all along. If you want to see his final message to Simon, go e4.com/misfits, click "Come on in" and play the games.

The finale begins with our heroes looking on as a strange cultish group of teenagers, all dressed as if they are from the 1950s, discuss how they have reformed themselves from their formerly unruly ways. Where they were promiscuous, they are now chaste and where they were once rebellious they are now very well behaved. They are a group who call themselves Virtue, and of course they’re not just here by coincidence. As Simon says, “when weird stuff happens, it’s always the storm.”

They are led by Ellie, who has been blessed with the power of persuasion. She has been going around the streets, brainwashing every slut, vandal and stoner into becoming a model citizen. While her intentions might have been good, the results are unsettling, like the entire local youth has been taken over by the Bodysnatchers. Naturally, our orange-clad friends are in Ellie’s sights, with Alicia her first target. As soon as the gang see her modestly dressed, they know something is wrong. It was quite fun to see Antonia Thomas, who plays Alicia, getting to use her real, slightly posher voice while looking very prim and proper.

In between the action we see that Simon, in some really rather unsettling scenes, has hidden Sally’s body in a freezer in a locked room in the community centre. Occasionally he goes to visit her, sometimes to eat a pizza while he watches her frozen corpse. I have grown to really like and sympathise with Simon, but he still has a little of the Norman Bates about him. Kelly and Nathan also share some pizza in the community centre, in what at the start of the series felt like a very unlikely possible romance but has grown into something rather sweet. They discuss Nathan’s failed attempts to discover his power, he says he’s realised he probably doesn’t have one because “you can’t improve on perfection”. When Kelly asks him how he manages to get girls into bed he comes out with the rather wonderful chat-up line: “I get girls really, really drunk. So, do you wanna steal some booze?”

Alicia tricks Curtis into being taken by Virtue to be converted, along with a few others, in the community centre. The next day Nathan, Kelly and Barry.. I mean Simon.. try to save their friends. Each of them put on headphones to avoid being able to hear Ellie, stopping her power from working. I love their choice of MP3s, as Kelly listens to Lady Gaga, Simon to Kraftwerk and Nathan to the Prodigy. But things go wrong as Kelly is taken by Alicia while Simon and Nathan are chased away. Even now, Nathan is being his usual mouthy self, causing Simon to turn invisible and run away. Just as it looks like Nathan is next in line to wear a cardigan, he is rescued by a mysterious figure on a bike. This is Superhoodie, who has been appearing all over the online stuff thats been going on throughout the series, including a Facebook page which has been around since before the airing of episode one.

Nathan goes to see Kelly, who has of course has become Bizzaro Kelly complete with sensible hair and comprehensible speech. He does his best to explain how he really did like her the way she was before. He liked her attitude, and I think he speaks for all of us there. Who knew that we could have so much affection for a character that so easily could be written and played as a one-dimensional stereotype. Over the six weeks we’ve slowly grown to like all five main characters, and this final episode really showed how much our expectations have been subverted, as we saw the puritanical, goody-goody kids as the bad guys and the young offenders on community service as our heroes. It’s something Nathan brilliant sums up on a speech on the rooftop of the community centre as he holds Ellie at gunpoint after managing to infiltrate the group by dressing in a suit:

We’re young! We’re supposed to drink too much, we’re supposed to have bad attitudes and shag each other’s brains out. We were designed to party. We owe it to ourselves to party hard. We owe it to each other. This is it. This is our time. Yeah, so a few of us will overdose or go mental. Charles Darwin said you can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs. That’s what it’s about, breaking eggs… by eggs, I mean, getting twatted on a cocktail of class As. If you could see just see yourselves, it breaks my heart – you’re wearing cardigans! We had it all. We fucked up bigger and better than any generation that came before us! We were so beautiful!

Unfortunately, Ellie realises that he’s only holding a water pistol and after a struggle, Simon, who was invisibly watching on the rooftop, pushes her off the side, setting everyone free from their trances. Simon tries to save Nathan, but it’s too late, and he falls to his death, shockingly impaled on a fencepost. Before the funeral, Kelly goes to see him, and puts his beloved iPod in his coffin. It’s a really touching moment, it felt like they were really starting to have something together. After the funeral, they all head back to the club where it all started. Simon tells Kelly through his thoughts that he was sorry and there was nothing he could do. Distraught, Kelly leaves, and Simon follows with a smile as he realises that in Curtis and Alicia he actually has some friends. While the two lovers who can’t touch each other put their hands together, with a glass table in between, Simon catches up with Kelly and hands her a DVD of this tribute film he’d cut together from the videos he’d taken of Nathan:

But in the final few moments of the series, we finally found out what Nathan’s power was – you didn’t think they’d leave us without telling us that, did you? Six feet under, in his coffin, Nathan awoke and realised that he is, in fact, immortal. When you think that everyone’s powers are linked to their personality, it really does make sense. After a few moments of shouting and banging on the lid, he turned on his iPod, put on Blur’s To The End and resigned himself to an eternity buried underground.

While the series finale didn’t quite top last week’s brilliant episode, it was still very good and had a remarkable conclusion. It was also perhaps the most beautifully shot episode of the series so far, and I’m not just saying that because it was the first to be shown on the new E4 HD channel. The series as a whole has been a triumph, a hidden gem which hopefully will soon be discovered by more and more viewers. As I mentioned before, the series could have done with more episodes to flesh out the story more and slowly build things like the Virtue cult over time, but that’s just to do with the difference between the budget on a UK digital channel and a major American network. Misfits has been a brilliant series, thanks to the sharp, darkly comic writing of Howard Overman, the excellent direction of Tom Green and Tom Harper, and the whole cast who brought life to a great group of characters.

When Overman spoke at the preview screening of the first episode, he told us that he had lots of ideas in mind for a second series, but at that point he had no idea of whether there would be one. The good news was announced this week, series two of Misfits will be made and shown next year. I’m really pleased for the cast and the team behind the show, when I met them back in September they had a lot of faith in the series but still had no idea of what everyone else would think of it, so it’s fantastic to see that it’s been popular with audiences and critics alike. Looking forward to seeing what sorts of hijinks the gang get up to in 2010.

They'll be back next year. Until then, I'm not sure what to do - save me, Barry!

Series one of Misfits is available on DVD from December 28.

In yesterday’s post I forgot to mention Dinoogle. Thats google for the Paleontologists and the crazies. Its boring… On to the most important things in life: funny searches on google.

Find Chuck Norris

Search “Find Chuck Norris” and click on I’m Feeling Lucky. You get this, to quote my friend, IMBA page.

French Military Victories

I don’t mean any offense whatsoever to the French but I’m not sure Google did. But since Google=God, we are going to ignore the rudeness and focus on the funny bit. Search “French Military Victories” on I’m Feeling Lucky.

Recursion

My dictionary defines recursion as repeated application of a procedure. Which is why when you search ‘recursion’ Google asks you did you mean ‘recursion’??? And you click that link and go into an endless loop. This is funny only if you are in the know and proves that Google is filled with (awesome) geeks.

There’s a whole lot more which I’m in the process of discovering, but my point is Google=God.

Once upon a time England was responsible for “other” music, non mainstream, kicking. Young DAVID BOWIE, THE SEX PISTOLS, THE HAPPY MONDAYS etc…

Today England idolizes pop music. This is where SIMON COWELL came from, the most influential person on music today.

But some brits are fed up with that.

The brain behind the talent TV show X FACTOR is the man and the legend Simon Cowell. He got great instincts for mega hits since the 80’s, and for that chapeau.

As the man charged for the X FACTOR frenzy, he made a very smart move by schedule the x factor finals in the middle of the Christmas / holidays season.

The single which Britons buy the most in the last 3 weeks of December gets to be the “Christmas song” in Britain, which means it get to be played on the radio all the time. In the last years the Christmas song is the winning x factor song.  Kinda shitti situation indeed.

So this year some people had enough of this capitalist conformist pop fucked up situation and decided to do something about it.

These days, the best way to reach a critic mass and get to the people is using Facebook.

So they opened a group with a great idea – stick it to the man and get a different song to b the Christmas song this year. And just any song, one of the best suited songs for this war against the system: “killing in the name “by Rage against the machine.

The song was released in 1992 and was a great rock hit; kicking against the establishment, so there’s really no better song then that for this occasion.

A small thing that makes me smile is that “killing in the name” is not a radio song cos of the word FUCK that repeats numerous time in the great line “fuck you, I wont do what you tell me!”

The best thing is that it fucking works! There are more than 800,000 members in this facebook group, and counting. On Monday, the big online music shops said Rage sells better than x factor winner JOE McELDERRYS’ song.

I hope the struggle will hold on and that we, the misfits, will win.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2228594104

Welcome! I hope you enjoy reading my blog about fashion (or what I like to call – fashawwwn), makeup, music, love, life and whatever I’m feeling that unfortunately, you must read.

PLUS I’ll be keeping track of all my styling projects to share with ya’ll!

Cue intro music!

1977 Punk

What is punk music? It’s three chord rock. It’s debated if it was founded by The Ramones in America or The Sex Pistols in the U.K. I say: Who cares? It exists. These are probably two of the first bands you want to give a listen to – along with The Clash, The Damned (Damned, Damned, Damned), Dead Boys (Young, Loud, and Snotty), The Germs, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bad Brains (These guys are homophobic and I don’t agree what they sing about but they are considered to be the first hardcore punk band. They sound good, just don’t listen to their lyrics. ), and a personal favorite of mine X-Ray Spex. Click on the links to read some of the histories of the bands.

Listening to punk is two-folds: listening to the songs plus knowing the band histories. It’s common punk knowledge that Sid Vicious from the Sex Pistols killed his girlfriend Nancy in the Chelsea Hotel and then died of a heroine overdose. Plus, Sid was famous for his lock and chain necklace given to him by Pretender’s Chrisse Hynde. Sid was a horrible musician – he could barely play the bass. Then, there was the Germ’s Darby Crash, who was gay, and committed suicide. Joey Ramone from the Ramones is often referred to because everyone wants to sleep with him – it’s a joke, his brother even wrote a book entitled, “I slept with Joey Ramone.” Johnny Rotten has since did a butter commercial.

Early punk is often referred to as “77’s punk.” There are some punks who only listen to 77’s punk and considered that to be the only true punk. My personal opinion of some 77’s punk is that it was corporate punk with money making in mind. Like, the Sex Pistols were formed by Macolm McLaren and the “Sex” of the Sex Pistol is from the name of his clothing shop. Some of the punk look was original started by Richard Hell and was taken by McLaren and Vivienne Westwood to make the big bucks. The Sex Pistols were signed to a major record label. That’s not DIY it’s EMI. Punk was about rebellion for a half a second but was really about the money. However, along came the 80’s and the punk band that would live up to what punk is supposed to be. Their name was Crass.

1980’s

Anarcho-Punk

Crass was the ultimate embodiment of punk rock. They took the idea of anarchy seriously, were activists, and pacifists. Now-a-days, you can find Crass t-shirts at Hot Topic which is why I said they were punk rock. They used to sell their music at little above printing cost. Spreading ideas mattered more than money. Crass even stopped the Falklands War by releasing a disinformation tape of Roland Reagan talking to Margaret Thatcher that got the British public so upset that the war was put to an end. Punk is the only subculture to ever have stopped a war. Which is one of the reasons why if people are going to box me into a box – I’d like it to be punk. Crass sounds very crass but their lyrics are amazing. My favorite cd of theirs is Best Before 1984. My favorite song is Big A, Little A, Bouncing B. They were as punk rock as punk rock could be. They are the founders of the punk genre known as anarcho-punk. Some other anarcho-punk bands worth listening are Flux of the Pink Indians, Conflict, Subhumans, and Amebix.

Plasmatics

I don’t know really what category to put this band into – so I’ll make them their own. The Plasmatics are AWESOME. Anti-corporate, anti-consumerism, and anti-materialism. The lead singer, Wendy O. Williams was in my opinion, the first riot grrrl. She promoted vegetarianism and animal rights before it was trendy. She blew up cars and did amazing stunts. She wasn’t the first person to wear a mohawk in punk but she was the first person who brought it to the mainstream. She was as tough as nails and amazing. She also killed herself 1998. I wish she didn’t, I would have loved to have met her. All their music is awesome. She was a real threat to the establishment.

Hardcore Punk

The 80’s was the time of hardcore punk. Most notably: Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Reagan Youth, Dead Kennedys (Fresh Fruit for Rotten Vegetables + all their stuff is good) and Social Distortion. I never really listened to Social Distortion but they are one of the better known punk bands. I see t-shirts and stuff for them all the time so they might be worth listening to. Also worth mentioning is the Misfits who were the first horror punk band.

1990’s

This is the decade that some punk bands started making it big. This is the decade of “selling out” and the birth of the “Hot Topic” punk. If you want to know about Hot Topic punk – go to your nearest Hot Topic or browse their cataloged online. Warp Tour and all that – not punk. Time period of lots of people thinking they are punk rock when they aren’t. I’ll waste no more time on them. Two big things happened during the 1990’s: the birth of riot grrrl and queercore.

Riot Grrrl
Notice something funny about almost all the punk bands mention until now except for X-Ray Spex, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and the Plasmatics? Yep, punk music is dominated by men. There have been very few female punk musicians. Riot Grrrl for a brief time changed that. The girls going to Evergreen University in Olympia, WA were tired of it. Riot Grrrl is credited with being founded by either Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill or Allison Wolfe of Bratmobile. Both bands which I recommend listening too. Huggy Bear was a U.K. riot grrrl band which are pretty awesome too. Anyways, it was all DIY with zines, political actions, and activism. This ladies shared their rage with the world.

Queercore

What’s better than pissed off ladies? Pissed off queers. My favorite genre of music which very few people even know about – Queercore. Queercore is about being discontented with the agenda of gays and lesbians to assimilate and oppressing other minorities to try to fit into society. This was all DIY through zines, art, writing, and film. Bands to listen to: Fifth Column, Pansy Division, Sister George, Team Dresch (my favorite queercore band!!!!! Both albums rock. Listen to them NOW.), Tribe 8 (Love the song “Wrong Bathroom” by them.), and Limp Wrist. I also highly recommend checking out The Need and Cypher in the Snow. Both very underrated and awesome.

Yes, I realise that I’m publishing this on the 15th, but I’ve not seen anything worth writing about in the last few days.  Don’t hassle me, man.

The Human Power Station: BBC HD (Recorded 3rd Dec Watched 6th Dec)

This was a ‘Bang Goes The Theory’ special in which they attempted to power a house for 12 hours using 80 cyclists.  It sounds like a bit of a silly gimmicky show, and it was, but it was also a really effective way of showing how much energy the average household uses.

I was quite enthusiastic at the time, but I’ve kind of forgotten most of it.  The main thing that stuck with me is that they cooked a chicken using two standard light bulbs.  Why hasn’t everyone got a light bulb oven?

The Baader Meinhof Complex: SkyPremiere (R 29th Nov W 7th Dec)

Another ridiculously long, but excellent, subtitled film.  I’m going to have to watch an short, English-language movie soon, just to try and redress the balance.

Anyway, it’s the true story of a student, left-wing terrorist group who operated in Germany in the 60s and 70s.  I’d heard the name ‘Baader Meinhof’ before, but I had no idea what they were all about, or just how much mayhem that they caused.  The film was totally engrossing as well as being an excellent history lesson.

It would have been quite easy for the film-makers to glamourise the young, attractive protagonists, but they showed them warts and all.  What seemed to start as an idealistic reaction to the Nazi generation, soon degenerated in to an orgy of ego and violence.

Russell Brand: Skinned: Channel 4 (R 8th Dec W 8th Dec)

I like Frank Skinner. I like Russell Brand.  I listen to Frank  Skinner’s podcast.  I used to listen to Russell Brand’s podcast -  before he left the BBC.  I was looking forward to watching them in conversation.  It’s just a pity that such a low proportion of the show featured them actually talking.  When they were shown in conversation, it was very interesting and Frank asked him some really challenging questions about his womanising lifestyle.  Hopefully Channel 4 will broadcast an extended interview edition instead of the glorified tour video\advert that this was.

Gavin & Stacey: BBC HD (R 10th Dec W 12th Dec)

I’ve not commented on this new series so far, because I’ve not had a great deal to say.  It’s been enjoyable but probably not quite up to the first two series, with the drama element seemingly taking over the comedy.  So what is it that has motivated me to write?

Is it just me or is Stacey the most miserable woman in the world?  Nothing ever makes her happy.  Her big issue in series 2 was her homesickness, which Gavin had to give in to, but now they’re in Wales, all she does is moan about wanting a baby.  Why has it never been addressed that she clearly has a personality disorder?

Misfits: E4 (R 10th Dec W 12th Dec)

This was probably the best episode so far, even better than last week’s time twister.  Plot-lines included Curtis being unable to split up with his girlfriend, without instinctively turning back time (he couldn’t stand to hear her cry), and a super baby managing to brainwash Nathan, until he realised that he is ‘a prick’.  Best of all was the climax to Sally’s creepy stalking of lonely Simon; it was both disturbing and yet strangely understandable.

The show has really hit its stride now, just as it’s about to end.  It’s cleverly shown the low key, very British problems that might occur if ordinary people really were to get super-powers.   It certainly compares favourably to the histrionics of Heroes.

I made ANOTHER slideshow thing – a tribute to the Misfits WITH music

Enjoy

Most blogs have blogrolls and these are a great place to find new people and blogs. Being a compulsive blog-stalker, I do this often and stumble on really cool blogs. With the new layout, my blogroll has gone way down and you probably haven’t checked it out as yet. So being a good friend (and not having anything witty to say at the moment), here are some of my favourite blogs. These are the people I stalk and who stalk me in return.

Miraculously Unlame

My awesome cousin/soul sister’s blog. In her own words, “Basically, it contains the random words/pictures/thoughts of a teenage girl attempting to make sense of the sometimes confusing life she’s living in.” She does a great job with her blog and is a pretty regular updater.

Raman Scribbles

“Yours Absent-mindedly…” is the name of his blog. He is the funniest person ever and his posts are guaranteed to have you actually LOLing (not the fake LOLs used as conversation fillers.) He also provides gratifyingly enthusiastic and prompt responses to all posts and bugs you till you update.

Shlokie’s Blog

Shlokie’s blog, ‘Perpetual Ponderings’ is just amazing. She is an awesome writer but has a tendency not to update. Its been over 6 months since her last post- so go over and bug her till she updates.

Facebook Addict

MY NAME TWINN! Who is addicted to facebook. So put herself in rehab and is recording her non-facebook activites on her blog. When she doesn’t update, it means she’s back on Facebook.

Asmita Talk

Asmita’s blog which has samples of her amazing writing. Not as regular as I’d like her to be but when she updates, she is awesome!

NEW BLOG:Randblings

Randblings which stands for Random+Ramblings is my friend R’s new blog. Its not yet 2 hours old and has one post. So this is my publicity campaign for her.

And thats it! My post for the day is done. Its time to keep a long overdue date with my Maths Text Book. Fee-fi-fo-fum. Exams should be banned.

=)peace

There’s a great clip from the final episode of Misfits here at the E4 website, featuring ever-grouchy mindreader Kelly and the dorky/slightly psycho invisible boy Simon.

The interplay of characters is one of the things that makes Misfits such a strong series. I hope it gets a second series, as there’s so much more to explore with this group of super powered teens.

ETA: Robert Sheehan is adorable.

This is my friend Joe’s late Dad’s band in 1960’s along with his brother Kim.   Recorded on November 26th 1960 by Brothers Kim & Dave Votroubek at Fredlo studios in Davenport IA. This is an accitate. No known records were made of this recording.

The Votroubek Brothers-Misfits

Click Link to download songs.

The Votroubek Brothers-Misfits

Other side of “Misfit” Recorded on November 26th 1960 by Brothers Kim & Dave Votroubek at Fredlo studios in Davenport IA. This is an accitate. No known records were made of this recording.

The Votroubek Brothers-Saturn’s Advantage

Saturn’s Advantage

Now I’m not a big TV fan really. There isn’t a lot of British Telly that will make me remember to set aside an hour every week, I don’t really feel like any of it is aimed at me. If I really feel the need to watch something that looks really important I’ll have to find it on the internet because it’s American. The US just gets TV in a way that we don’t which is why I’ll spend hours tracking down Mad Men in a good enough quality to meet my demands and I will still sit my arse down at 18.00 every week day for The Simpsons (unless it’s one of the new ones) at the same time as derisively spitting in the direction of home-grown dramas that will I assume involve corsets, bonnets and people getting out of carriages in front of the same two or three stately homes used for this type of thing.

We can either chase the audiences that fantasise about the bonnets and arrogant attractively aloof douchebags on horses or we go catastrophically off the deep end of the other direction and make shows that belong underneath the mulch at the bottom of the cultural gutter like the god-awful Skins. Caution: All teenagers are having drug ‘n’ sex parties all the time! I’m convinced that show is written by reactionary old men trying to justify the creation of nationwide curfews and muzzles for anyone below the age of 20.

Which is not to say that America always gets it right. I mean look at Heroes. The series that showed a great deal of promise indeed during its first season and then catapulted gleefully into nonsense from there on in as the writers sit atop the whole mess, flying through the abyss shooting looks of panicked terror at each other. That show is such a mess that the best thing they could do with it is to collect all the characters together in the middle of a desert somewhere and nuke them all into oblivion, starting afresh. I wouldn’t bet against that being a back up plan of some description, it’s just the sort of plot contrivance they love.

So why, why is it gods of TV, why is the first British TV show to capture my interest for longer than two minutes a bizarre combination of the two shows I just crapped on? E4’s Misfits would be what happened if Heroes and Skins had a hilarious, sweary, filthy baby in a parallel universe where that could be considered a good idea. The show’s premise takes the idea of the cultural impact of comic book style super-powers that fiction has been examining for the last twenty years to a logical and very British conclusion. Why should crazy-awesome super powers only find their way to lantern-jawed, morally strong, John Everyman and not to a bunch of dirty kids with ASBOs doing community service? All the way up to the end of the first episode I still wasn’t sure whether it was genius or eye-rollingly lame. I seriously doubt it’s a work of genius but it certainly is a hell of a lot of fun. If you like the idea of serious written actors, acting seriously inside a silly plot with some even sillier moments thrown in for laughs then you should definitely be watching this. Warning: If you are planning on doing so you may want to read this after you’ve watched the available episodes. I’ll try not to spoil anything but I may do so you know, get on YouTube.

So the cast of broken, almost morally bankrupt criminals get zapped by a deus ex machina in the form of a mysterious electrical storm and get mental super powers that they do not decide to utilise by banding together and saving the world. They don’t even like each other. You’ve got the rotten chav (complete with hilarious ‘what were you aiming for’ all-purpose chav accent) suddenly becoming telepathic, the promising athlete with his bright future shattered by a drugs bust somehow gaining future sight, a possible sociopath mental kid predictably being gifted with invisibility (but only when no one is looking. Seriously. I have that super-power at bars) as well as an amoral party girl that men absolutely MUST have sex with when they touch her as played by Antonia Thomas who is so pretty she actually makes me profoundly sad.

Pictured: My self worth evaporating.

But these guys pale in comparison to the show’s greatest asset and only member of the main cast who seemingly didn’t gain any powers from the storm, Nathan played by the fantastic Robert Sheehan (last seen in the last Channel 4 show to leave me gobsmacked and official best thing on TV since Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, Red Riding in which he played troubled cross-dressing rentboy B.J.) Nathan is one of those roles that young actors must be willing to kill for. He’s allowed to behave outrageously and is constantly blessed with the every episode’s funniest line, delivering them with obvious glee. Through characters like Nathan, shows like these waste no time letting you know what you’re in for. The C Word is sprinkled liberally throughout but never feels too gratuitous, let’s be honest here, if all the people I regularly hung around with all got super-powers and I didn’t I think I’d be shouting the C Word a lot too.

Misfits serves out its subject matter with equal parts respect and mockery. Every deadly serious scene or plot is littered with ridiculous, smirk-inducing moments. Kelly’s telepathy reveals things she doesn’t want to know, leading her to find out exactly what everyone thinks of her and to break up with her grubby boyfriend in the same scene as she hears her dog’s mind muttering about going next door to ‘shag that poodle, she’s proper dirty’. In the fourth episode Curtis is tragically forced to repeat the moment that ruined his life for the greater good and we find out Simon is more fucked up than we already thought all against the back drop of a super trendy rave-type thing with all the popular electro hits of the day! Anyone who saw this episode gets bonus points if they can tell me what in god’s name a ‘rolex sweep’ is. Nathan gets to engage in the most hysterical bout of foreplay before a shocking revelation is made. See where we’re going here? No plot point is treated with utmost reverence or flippancy. A healthy balance is maintained never allowing the viewer to take it too seriously or to lose interest.

I haven’t managed to track down the fifth episode yet so forgive me if I’m a little out of date here (but you know, I am on the other side of the world, cut me some slack) but I already know this is very much a guilty pleasure I will devour as quickly as I can get my hands on it. Very few shows have the power to make me laugh out loud on my own after all. I have to think if a programme achieves that you have to stick with it. Also if you’re into that kind of thing they apparently have Twitter updates from the actual characters during the beginning parts of the episodes that will help clue the audience in on the identity of a mysterious figure to be revealed in the final episode which is just delightfully NOW but I wouldn’t know about that seeing as I refuse to venture into those murky depths. I may be watching what equates to Skin-roes but I’m not doing Twitter! I can take solace in that.

As of the time of writing the first four episodes are all up in very good quality on YouTube so go do yourself a favour and have a bit of fun if you’re not watching already. And if you are watching it already: Oh-mah-gaw right? I know! How crazy was that last one!??!??!?!!! and all that business.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=misfits+1×01&search_type=&aq=f

DH.

So I went out tonight to the Channel 4 building in London to see a bloggers screening of the new comedy/drama/superheroics series Misfits. I was expecting some kind of Skins meets Heroes affair. Something silly, possibly camp, low budget, reeking of desperation and a bit rubbish.
This is so not Skins meets Heroes. It’s Trainspotting meets X-Men. Something very British, very grounded, and the empowering of a disenfranchised underclass. Five young people on anti-social community service orders are hit by lightning in a freak weather storm and develop remarkable and very personal powers. Then end up wearing orange jumpsuits.
And it’s bloody great. 5/5 cre8tive star rating