Scoville Units Unite

Friday was an eventful night – I was a DJ.

Years ago at Coalesce I would occasionally step in for a couple of songs if I was blethering to one of the DJs and they had to nip off to the loo or whatever but never actually DJ’d.

Around Christmas Sean asked if I’d be interested in doing a night with him at Kage. We sat and worked out some ideas for playlists etc then asked if we could get a night. 31st May was penciled in. The idea was to be something like Get the Funk Out and have funk and everything inspired by it – hip hop, rap, rap-metal, ska, some dance etc.

A few months avoiding doing anything was had, before I started hunting out old singles and similar to try and rip as much music as possible. he then got a new job which meant he would be regularly djing on that night. I had a think – never done it, don’t have a laptop/software, crap. Then it donned on my that Neil who DJs Entropy/Coalesce/Big Muff might be up for it. Gave him a shout and he agreed to step in too. He raided library and his already ripped stuff whilst I started trawling my music collection for stuff that might work.

I decided to donate the money I would get from it to Rusty Hip and Neil said he would do likewise which was pretty awesome of him too. Having done so we then thought it would be good to try and make a conscious effort to include hip hop with positive lyrics. Lots of people see rap as being poor quality tunes and guys ranting about bitches, hos and busting caps in asses etc. Having tracks like Contribution by Jurassic 5 and Keep Ya Head Up by 2Pac was pretty necessary

A few days before the night I thought it might be worthwhile installing the DJ software and mucking around with it.

The one minor issue was that we had styled it as Funk and stuff inspired by it but apart from some Funkadelic and Parliament the only funk stuff I listen to is p-funk and g-funk. As the night approached and we got panicky Kage was getting into full refit mode and we didn’t know what was happening with it. On the night itself the sky opened and it started pissing down and kept pissing down.

Our paranoid it could work or be a total disaster thoughts started to lean towards the second.

We arrived early (me leaving another awesome event to do so) and set up the hard drive of tunage and so on. As well as transporting back in time to play some old music I also had to do a task I hadn’t done in years. Kenny’s ball was disgusting and covered in congealed rubber, it also wasn’t very pliable. Once the mouse was working we could test levels and stuff.

Neil showed me how he sets things up, testing queued tracks and so on and I hope I picked it up enough to be passable.

The place was quiet at first but slowly filled up. Some welcome faces included my wee sister who hadn’t been to a club with me in about 10 years and Morag who came from Glasgow for it. Initially the dance floor was a bit barren with some well kent faces shy to go up and me not really able to. We tried to break things into chunks of 20-30 minutes of similarish styles and it seemed to work. The first hour being awesome stuff which no one would no/dance to like Hiphopopotamus Vs. Rhymenoceros by Flight of the Conchords, Greydon Square and Afro Reggae.

Sean also stopped by and did a short set which both gave Neil and I a chance to go socialise/dance for a few minutes but let Sean take part in the night he had planned which was awesome.

We did get a bit of hassle from people who were confused as to why Metallica wasn’t being played or planning to be played at the night for funk and stuff inspired by funk. On the whole though the feedback was pretty good and once the dance floor filled it stayed pretty busy. By the end of the night we were panicking about what to cut down for the last half hour slightly contrasting to the panicking beforehand that we didn’t have enough stuff.

We both really enjoyed it, got a chunk of cash to support Rusty Hip and hope we can do it again at some point. For no other reason than there’s a big pile of stuff we wanted to play and couldn’t squeeze in!

Occasionally I throw together stupid 4-8 line poems. Normally in text or on birthday cards at the last minute etc. Seeing Kieran puts much better ones online I hadn’t really got round to it much.

Just texting back and forward about nerdy shit I had two quick ones. Written in one go with no editing or corrections makes you plan ahead but leads you into corners and is quite fun. Write a stupid ditty today

Unlike the elfs who prance by the flowers
And wizards who hang around towers
The dwarves have their bread
axes and beards
and mine and smelt metal with powers

Min maxer tastic
He’s chosen 6 classes
Books piled high
with notes and distractions
His gaming is like life
Over compen sating
Too young to drink
Too nerdy for mating
Super hero char min maxing his life
Unfortunate praxis

What took her so long? is the phrase on many lips. After 87 years of oxygen thievery Margaret Thatcher has finally stopped polluting the universe with her presence. Unfortunately her vile ideas are still here. Being implemented by all stripes of bastards in councils and governments up and down the UK and in other places throughout the world too.

Her legacy is the promotion of greed, selfishness, individualism and an I’m all right Jack attitude which festers and spreads like a poison.

I received the news by text and immediately checked the BBC for confirmation. An unfortunate placement of a dinosaur skull image made for an amusing social network share. Within minutes the jokes had started based on her closing down furnaces in hell.

Shortly afterwards began the hagiography. From the wide spread of Labour to LibDem and Tories, i.e. all across the right side of the political spectrum. Her heirs and followers spread glowing praise of her many achievements such as destroying communities, introducing the Poll Tax and selling off state assets for buttons. The North Sea Oil windfall of course provided the money to fund huge tax cuts for those who turned out to be complete Yuppie Bastards in the 80s.

To counter the hagiography, many of us immediately began to publicly celebrate. No way can her passing be met with 100% tributes and arse-licking. Having planned for years bottles of champagne were popped in George Square and Is Thatcher Dead Yet probably peaked in visitors.

(remember – talking ill of the dead is bad and should never ever be done – they all have families to consider the feelings of. We shouldn’t consider the harm done to the victims of their actions. Especially if they are a suspected paedophile)

The celebration was necessary.

For those traumatised by Thatcher and her policies, whose families and communities were attacked and torn apart a cathartic expression of impotent triumphalism was never going to return any of those things taken from them. But it does as the political class repeatedly like to say draw a line under it so we can all move on.

Tory rags and misguided liberals immediately condemned those of us expressing jubilation, the Guradian handles some of their notions nicely.

She was still a person and has a family. We should think of her family they say.

Her dead husband who was an disgusting racist shit bag. Her daughter who seems to be following in his footsteps. Maybe the son Mark, arms dealer and funder of coups. Similarly I can’t remember these same newspapers saying similar when Moat, Gaddafi, Hussein or Bin Laden were killed. Last week they were crowing over the death of 6 children using it to spread their political opinion. They are using Thatchers death to eulogise her and promote her political philosophy. But apparently describing her in negative terms is somehow bad? Remember – there’s no such thing as society so we shouldn’t give a shit what her family think.

We shouldn’t celebrate the passing of a frail old woman.

Correct. She should have been strung up ages ago by the Hague for sinking the Belgrano. Perhaps a fitting tribute would have been to treat her like the political opponents of her friend Pinochet? He liked to have dissidents kidnapped, tortured and killed.

Evil supporter of fascist authoritarianism next to South American Dictator

Celebrate the death of Thatcherism, not Thatcher

I will. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like that will happen for a long time. I’d rather have jam today than have hope for some jam tomorrow.

You shouldn’t celebrate anyones death.

Here’s the deal – don’t celebrate what she did when alive and I won’t celebrate that she’s dead.

The last time I wrote about her I quoted Elvis Costello.

Let’s make it number 1.

I am ashamed about one thing from yesterday.

I forgot to have some jelly and ice-cream.

I did however take some cake and Spitting Image to the pub.

Dodger follows on from The Long Earth in being a non-Discworld book. I’m not sure whether this is an attempt to hide Pratchetts changing writers voice when working on Discworld novels or simply a way to leave a non-Discworld legacy with some ideas he has but it is a welcome change. I remember reading a story about an interview with a journalist who seemed incredulous that Pratchett was famous I’ve never heard of you was met with a response along the lines of well I’ve been in the bestsellers list with at least one book constantly for the last 20 years. Unfortunately writing fantasy which satires politics, religion and real people means you are somewhat overlooked. The Long Earth was a really good book which makes you think about limited resources and morality even though it focuses on one super being.

Dodger, unfortunately is not as good. A view of Victorian London from the gutter. The main character, Dodger, feels like he would fit in in the Shades. The constant references to people and Victorian London seem forced and unsubtle. Unlike Discworld where they are peppered throughout but only ever explained in footnotes if explained at all, here they are crow-barred in. One part is essentially, Oh you are telling me about the living conditions of the poor? My friend Charles who recently came here as a refugee is interested in that and is writing books on the subject, I’ll be sure to pass these comments on. The journalist Charles Dickens scribbling little phrases in his book and so on lampshade what would otherwise be passages to cause a smirk. These spoil what would otherwise be an enjoyable tale.

But, taking a break from Ankh-Morpork to write a less funny book set in a place which inspired huge chunks of Ankh-Morpork doesn’t really work. I’d only recommend to completists or those who have a love for pre-20th century literature and it’s parodies. e.g. You love Dickens or enjoy the Pride and Prejudice + Current Popular Meme Monster/Creature books.

The Rusty Hip have made a zine
follow the link and support the scene.

Come to the gig, give us a quid
it’s being launched on Friday

So have it a read,
tell us what you think
dinnae just moan and cause a stink.

Go to events, tell other fowk.
Negative pish gies us the boak.

This 5 minute poem is no very good
but no-one said being creative should

do something new, arty or fun
watching telly? better shit to be done

meet other people out and about
banter wi bands
don’t stand and pout.

“nothing happens in Dundee” says some prick
stuff comes and goes it disnae stick

get yourself involed you’ve something to give
go promote music, music positive

See also the free compilation of local music

Today is International Working Women’s Day, a day to celebrate women and support them in emancipating themselves from patriarchy.

A new blog has launched which aims to be a Gender Obsessed Discussion Group. This post discusses the disgusting sexist abuse from a debate at Glasgow University Union. Having never went to it, I was unaware it was the breeding ground for misogynistic Neanderthal reprobates.

This event also prompted a new page on Facebook to document and expose the sexism which appears to run rampant on campus. Right now a rally is taking place at the Union so hopefully more negative press will put pressure on the Uni to finally do something about these arseholes

I was recommended The Book of Deacon whilst discussing good fantasy novels. It’s the first part in a trilogy by Joseph Lallo and was self published.

Within 10 pages I was totally hooked. The descriptive text is simply breathtaking. Myranda Celeste wanders through a frozen waste spurned by those she meets. There is a piece of alliteration on p10 which I stopped and re-read about 4 times to just process it..

When all of the life had been drawn from the grass it spread skyward. Night flooded the field in spite of the sun above. In a grim finale, that too was blocked out by a curtain of black clouds. Only darkness remained, a darkness stirred by a frigid wind. Myranda strained her eyes, searching desperately for some wisp of what had been before. She saw faint, flickering lights far off in the distance. She rushed towards them, but one by one, the embers of light winked out, swallowed into the darkness as all else had. (emphasis mine)

Within the first 40-50 pages the dialogue is sparse with the narration taking place in the main characters head. By the end of the book though I decided if that had changed I wouldn’t have taken to the book as well as I did. Where dialogue does take place it is slightly hammy and seems to veer towards high-fantasy pretentiousness in what appears to be a grotty low fantasy setting. In a world with dragons, fox-humanoids and magic, it’s human interaction which stutters the immersion.

The book is totally centered on Myranda, although it’s named after another character. You feel that she is covered in mythical plot armour. When Deacon enters you don’t get the impression he is in danger either. In a Mary-Sue-ish twist, all the other important characters introduced in the novel are related to the main character already in some way.

The other let down is that you get brief glimpses into the lives of others in the book including the main antagonists, but only when it relates to Myranda. No character development other than small sections of text describing their nefarious plots to get to the main character.

As a debut book, and a self published one at that these can be forgiven. I am a massive fan of Pratchett, but cannot read the first two Discworld books as the voice in them is so poorly developed compared to what I am used to in the latter books (at least the good ones). The jokes are obvious and the wit and intelligence of the humour is nowhere near as developed as they were by book 8-9.

I’ve ordered book 2 in the trilogy so hopefully these criticisms don’t apply. But even if they do I’m sure it will be a good book and Lallo definitely shows promise as a fantasy author.

The e-book has various promotions and is currently free on the Kindle so there’s no excuse not to pick it up.

I was told recently of a film called No about the 1988 referendum in Chile. I checked IMDB the next day and the DCA and was delighted to see it was showing soon.

Having taken Monday off I took a trip to an afternoon showing and was entertained. Set against the social context of the time (for those who have seen it..), it shows René Saavedra as an advertising expert brought in to work on the No campaign.

The film is shot using U-matic cameras which allow the archive footage to blend in with the film shots, helping you to imagine them as one piece. The film is shot almost entirely from the view of the No camp. Brief glimpses behind the arrogance of the Yes campaign show them to be made up of those protecting their own social position. After this, the world will see the No camp as run by the workers, and the Yes camp supported by the bosses or similar is how René describes it.

The characters are shown as paranoid and shifty, hiding what they are doing from those around them. For any viewer unaware of what was going on in Chile this might have seemed strange before the film gradually depicts the state violence meted out to the individuals and those at rallys. State censorship is shown and then telegraphed in the next days campaigning.

René’s character is more complex than as he first appears, skateboarding down the street. Often shot solo in self-contemplation coming up with ideas his personal history is gradually revealed.

I think my favourite part was the pitch he does before each of his three demos. Identical in tone, delivery and content, they are interpreted differently by the different audiences. Very clever, if not too subtle.

Viewing it as a film documenting history it is important. Firstly for showing what was happening in Chile at the time. Secondly for those of us in the UK, both understanding why there was outrage at Blair and Straw letting Pinochet off the hook for his crimes and also to show one of Thatchers favourite pals and the politics and violence behind what she and her cronies supported. It is worth contrasting the poor health of a mass murderer as a reason to not extradite with the government happily deporting those at serious risk of torture, rape and murder.

It does have an added dimension though. For those who were turned off by the terrible pro and anti campaigns for the Voting Referendum in 2011 we now have the Independence Referendum campaign to look forward to. In Chile, the No campaign was victorious in the face of state repression, expectation of electoral fraud, intimidation of campaign organisers and a massively biased media campaign against them. During all this they waged a positive campaign which raised peoples aspirations and looked to the future whilst trying to pull as many people as possible behind them. Not because they had a shared future of what they all wanted but they knew that the current political situation needed to change. What hope for Yes Scotland and Better Together. Will they spend the months leading up to the referendum telling us how much better our lives will be under the relevant decision, or will they snipe at each other and fear-monger of the consequences should the other side be victorious?

Well that year kind of dragged a bit.

I’m not quite sure whether this post will ever make it public so I will just write it, read it, edit it and decide.

The year started with me making a big list of about 30 things I wanted to achieve by the end of the year. I’m normally not one for resolutions but some stuff had happened in 2011 and I had started work on some of them already but wanted some motivation to do them all so set a high goal.

A couple of days into the year it became obvious that some of them wouldn’t be achieved as a relationship of almost 8 years started to crumble, not surviving the month.

A week later I had a very uncomfortable big family celebration to go to, where I spoke to one of my aunts for the last time. For a two week period in February I had a terrible throat/chest infection and just as it started she went into hospital after cancer returned to attack her for the third and final time. Due to her being in the cancer ward this meant I wasn’t able to visit her.

As you can imagine this was not a very good time. It wasn’t helped that due to some work happening at the crematorium it took almost two weeks for the funeral to take place. I followed it with the only tribute I could muster, a vodka and coke, a bacon roll and a Star Wars marathon.

During February I was worried I would end up with no home internet briefly so bought a second hand iPhone. My previous phone was about 6 years old and also second hand.

Along with Alan 2 I also launched Joy Stuck in the Past but we haven’t done all that we planned with it yet. Maybe more will happen this year.

I spent a hell of a lot of time at gigs in 2012 and March and April were brilliant, with GBH, Onsind and others. I think I went to more gigs that year than the previous 7. Back to what I used to enjoy to do before then. April also saw a fundraiser for Make That A Take called Big Muff which was a celebration of 90s alternative music. It was to return later in the year for a second outing too.

At a work do, I took part in a sketch show for our department and this spawned the ever amusing brick photo. In movie land there was Cabin in the Woods and Instrument showing. I went to a lot of films over the course of the year but these two stood out already as being brilliant.

In April the house situation started it’s slow momentum with an expectation of closure by July. Ha!

May saw Warped reach an epic high not matched until the birthday party with a special Star Wars May the 4th party. This quickly became my favourite club night. It also saw the opening of Cerberus.

I think it was about May that we started our weekly online campaign of Baldurs Gate. Our NerdFest weekends had continued roughly monthly throughout the year too.

In music news I noticed the UGS group on Facebook had become almost empty due to a stupid upgrade and so kicked it off inviting people again. It quickly grew in numbers and I managed to find lots of long lost friends and acquaintances.

In May I was approved for a mortgage to buy my house. I also got in early donating to Marys Meals before it hit it’s target.

June saw literally dozens of idiots celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee. I mocked a lone neighbour who had up Butchers Apron Bunting. It also saw some football tournament take place to bemused indifference in Scotlandville.

July saw my birthday. I celebrated by going to a really good nerdy talk by Scott Hanselman then holding a big house party. Apparently I made lots of new friends both up to that point and that night itself. There was lots of to-ing and fro-ing on the house and things seemed to be in progress.

In August mortgage stuff seemed to be approved and then sat in limbo for ages.

In movie news we learned of a proposed new He-Man movie. I was obviously unexcited by the information. I got my bike through the scheme at work and it was the final push I needed for a couple of my goals for the year. In sport the first Dundee derby in ages resulted in a 3-0 victory for the big team over the wee team. Revenge was coming assured our bluenose chums.

In music the amazing Franz Nicolay graced Dundee with his presence followed by Chalk Talk (Mike still has my album!) before a welcome one night only return of Entropy.

September started with a visit to Dundee by a bunch of knuckledragging Nazi wankers who were quickly made unwelcome and scurried back to the pits they crawled from. It also saw me do the Cyclathon round Dundee and was when I first became aware of PSY.

Jeff Rowe tickled our eardrums at Cerberus whilst Elway blew us away at Kage. We saw the launch of the Rusty Hip Collective. In nerdy PC world an old hard drive died and I managed to salvage a bunch of stuff off it just in time. Some stuff was lost however although amusingly none of it mine. I didn’t laugh at all. Really.

In October I hit a goal I had been working on for a year ticking off one of the long term items on my stuff for the year list.

My wee sister was greedy for presents and both had a birthday and a wedding.

Music wise we lost Michael Marra which was a real blow to Dundee.

I prepared for the long awaited house purchase to go through and had the rug pulled out from me 9 days before it’s agreed date.

In cinema They Live played at the DCA and Disney bought Star Wars.

November saw the announcement about Major Arcana opening and we set up a weekly games night in Cerberus when we discovered how many people might be up for it.

Big Muff returned and we also saw the start of Book Yer Ane Fest.

At the end of the month I finally got confirmation that the house sale would go through at the start of December. Eleven months of shit finally came to an end.

Hole was formalised. Those in the know: know, those who don’t: get confused what is going on in public.

In December the world didn’t end, but the DCA did show Gremlins and Princess Bride.

So much awesome shit happened and 2013 is looking to be on course to keep up. Obviously there’s loads of stuff, good and bad, which I didn’t post about here but if you know what they were you already know. Also I’ve been a bit busy hence the 5 week delay in my end of year round-up. I’ll try better at the end of this year. I promise.

Following the deaths of Dougie Martin and Gus Foy, Dundees own Michael Marra has died suddenly at the too young age of 60.

I feel like one of the old guys who used to hang round the Westie or Balcony years ago talking about all the old musicians, bands and venues which are sadly no more (the Westie now included in a crime against Dundees music scene).

You have to wonder if any of those playing in bands around Dundee just now will end up as universally acclaimed as Michael was a few decades into their music career.

The best tribute to him is to both listen to and enjoy the music he put out and to go and support the local acts plying their trade around town just now to keep a live musical tradition alive in Dundee.

Chain Up the Swings

Hermless

Hamish the Goalie

Green Grow the Rashes

He was also instrumental in launching the career of Saint Andrew.

Ananinginaneana