If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire… Pork Force

Nuff said

And if this guy is right, then we should just chuck it all in and have one hell of a party, a hundred year party even, makes more sense than a hundred year war

“My Last Porn Film” Not actually porn but a short film by Julian Gough.

Beautiful monologue in an odd sort of way but then Julian always had a way with words. I love the fact that he uses tracks from the band Toasted Heretic for the soundtrack, he was the lead singer, I think it’s time they got a post to themselves on here as well so stay tuned for that.

It may not the best monologue to have playing from your speakers in an office, so you have been warned.

Since leaving Primus his music has become more and more interesting (and further from the mainstream) with each album, as he explores the far reaches of his musical influences and his (and his bands) musical abilities.

In the end we only went to one of the three nights. Because of the way the festival is run this meant that we could still take in most of the other acts as well. What a great idea two stages and they change the running order of the bands each night of the concert so if you really want to see all the bands you can catch them all over the three days.

For me, seeing Les was the primary objective of the entire trip and he really didn’t disappoint. While a part of me wishes there had been more classic Primus in the set, it was great to hear the newer material live and it brought the material to life for me in the way that a recording simply can’t. The set followed an almost Jazz like format of theme and variations on almost every track.

The band were astounding in their virtuosity and I cannot find the words to describe the performance other than to say that I have seen many great musicians and Virtuosos play live (Vai, Satriani, Ray Charles, Moving Hearts, Springsteen, Jimmy Cliff, Van Morrison, David Byrne, Stu Hamm, Arlo Guthrie and lots lots more) but Les Claypool and the 3 other members of his band blew me away, taking me on a musical Rollercoaster, I can honestly say, no single band has ever done for me in one concert before.

The closest comparable gig in my memory was the Fleadh Mor in 1993 and even then it takes the full range of bands over two days to equal the journey through a single set.

Apart from the music there was a very cool moment towards the end of the set. A fan simply placed their own Bass on the front of the stage, like an offering to the Gods How he managed to get a Bass into the Gig I don’t know but god loves a trier and on this occasion said fan was rewarded.

Not just having his instrument signed by one of the greatest Bassists of all times, not only having it played by one of the greatest Bassists of all time, but also getting slagged off from the stage because on a cold March evening he managed to get a bass into a hot concert venue and have it (only) slightly out of tune. All in good humour and proving that just because your incredible at something it doesn’t mean you have to be an ass about it, there are a lot of second rate popsters that could learn from Les and not just about music.

As for the rest of the evening, I wanted to see The New Mastersounds and Umphreys Magee, but as Les played first everything that came after was an anticlimax and tiredness set in rather quickly, I can’t help but think that if Les had been playing later, both myself and Elly would have lasted longer.

That said we did catch some of the groove stylings of The New Mastersounds and part of Umphreys Magee’s set and on any other night they would have been great gigs, but on the 22nd march 2010 everyone was outclassed and outperformed by the legendary Les Claypool.

To give you a flavour of the gig here’s some video’s from others that attended…

First up a compilation of some of the performers

And what was (for me) the most memorable track of the gig, Hendershot by Les Claypool, check out the “Surf Cello” in particular. Personally I just love the oddly lurching groove to this track

He has directed lots of movies over the years and quite a few are all time favourites of mine.

• Clerks
• Mallrats
• Chasing Amy
• Dogma
• Zack and Miri make a porno

What I love about these films is that while they deal with some serious topics, they do it in a way that is insanely funny and they don’t take themselves to seriously. I always suspected Mr. Smith had that sort of a personality, but was never certain until I saw this…

It never hurts to have a giggle at your own expense once in a while.

It’s a magnificent piece of Television and the kind of thing that should be made mandatory viewing for everyone. It gives you a sense of just how horrific that part of human history was in a way that nothing else has ever given me.

After about the third or fourth episode I was thinking that a slightly light hearted post along the lines of “I played with toy soldiers as a child, but never had even the faintest idea of what war was like until I saw this” but once I saw the episodes where they discover the “camps” there is no way I could trivialise what this show is really about.

It was created to remind us all of one of the darkest moments in human history and to help us remember just how easily a bully can force ordinary people to abide the most extraordinary things, the cruelty and inhumanity of one crazy individual is one thing but the real horror of what happened is not Hitler’s story, it’s the soldiers that followed those orders, it was the local communities that turned a blind eye to what was happening around them.

The message of the series (to me anyway) was not how great the US army was, but to remind us all to speak out when we see injustice, not to sit back and pretend it’s not happening.

If we see something really wrong in society and we don’t speak out then we are no better that the ones doing wrong. It applies to every level of society, from the kids in the school yard that don’t take part in the bullying but don’t try to stop it, the boss that orders you to do something that you know is morally wrong but you justify it to yourself anyway, to acceptance of a corrupt political system, that fails to bring criminals to justice, thus passively encouraging all sorts of abhorrent behaviour.

What do you see in our world that shouldn’t be there? have your say below.

Hindsight

If you are a fan of the loudness that is “System of a Down” you should be familiar with this song, but possibly not the musicians, a fantastic cover version and a lot *ahem* easier on the eye

Hands up if your surprised by how much Violins can rock, I was.

Getting married? Looking for idea’s for a wedding cake? take a look at this…

I’ve been getting myself back up to speed with wordpress a lot in the last few month’s and while I’m not using all these plugins, I’m definitely going to be testing them, thanks for the post Conor

And finally as the F1 testing season kicked off last week and the anticipation is building for the new season, I stumbled across this video of Bruno Senna training and being the king of all multi-taskers

Aerobic training, Core muscle & balance training, concentration, Focus, as as well as eye hand coordination training, inspired!

Wise words

The venue was the “The Sugar Club” and the evening began with Darren on-stage introducing the movie and announcing that there would be some spot prizes later. Although, he was ambushed by some of the other Culch.ie crew with a large chocolate cake. It was almost a shame to cut it though as it was the Culch.ie logo, but cut it was and passed to the eagerly waiting audience.

Groundhog Day is a film I have seen before but not this millennium, so it was almost like a whole new film to me. Elly on the other hand had never seen it and (like me and everyone else) laughed through most of it.

What stood out for me, watching this film again was the character of Ned Ryerson. I’d never noticed it before but was this character the inspiration for Ace Ventura‘s irritating “funny” voice and mannerisms?

Once the movie finished some spot prizes were given out (congrats to all the winners) and the lights came up allowing the audience to mingle and chat while enjoying the bar facilities, there didn’t seem to be any rush to clear people out and as a result there was a fantastic friendly, relaxed atmosphere.

An excellent evening was had by all and for the my first Culch.ie ‘event’ I was very impressed. Spot prizes, cake, a great movie, a witty and intelligent MC and a great venue, how could I not be impressed. Oh, did I mention there was cake!

I can’t wait for the next one, some come on Darren don’t keep us in suspense…

I made up a play-list of a random selection of video’s by the artists & bands (I could find) that are playing.

Finding Les’s work was easy thanks to youtube’s Vevo service so there are a few Primus Video’s and some of his own as well. The other artists (Umphrey’s McGee, Yonder mountain string band, The new Mastersounds & Josh Phillips Folk Festival) seem to only have live recording’s available (on youtube anyway) so I’m going to have to dig a bit further for more on them and the others listed for the show.

One thing I did notice looking through all the search results is that all the bands seem to have one thing in common, they seem to be fond of guest appearances and jamming live. I wonder will there be much of that? here’s hoping anyway

In the meantime here is the playlist I built…

If anyone reading this is planning on making the trip, or has been to a previous Jam in the Dam, leave a comment below.

“So where are myself and Elly off to?” I hear you ask. The city of Amsterdam, one of our favourite cities in the world and the place that we got engaged. We’ve been there a good few times over the years and we’ve seen a lot of the museums before. Thankfully there is a (kind of) new one for us to see this time, Hermitage Amsterdam.

I say kind of because The original Hermitage museum is in St. Petersburg. I have always thought that it was in the Kremlin as that’s what our tour guide told us when I was in Moscow in 1990, but maybe the 20 years have taken there toll on my memory more than I thought.

Either way that Museum tour was one of the most amazing of my life, our guide barely stopped the whole tour and I know there was a lot more to see. I could have stared at the Imperial Faberge eggs all day, such amazing pieces of craftsmanship and pure beauty, I cannot describe and no photo I have ever seen can do them justice. But I’m waffling now. In short, I’m giddy with anticipation

I mentioned we’re going to a music festival, Jam in the Dam to be precise. Two concert halls under one roof and a full set from all the bands each night, which is great because if you miss a band one night, you get to see them the next. I’d love to be able to go to all 3 nights but these days I’m grateful to even get 1 night.

There is only one act on the lineup that I’ve heard of before (I will be getting myself upto speed on the rest of the lineup before we head off so expect some post about them as well) but I’ve been a fan of Les Claypool since I first heard Primus play at the battle of the bands in San Dimas, California… oh wait a minute, that was in a movie… Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey.

Primus were barely even on screen but the music grabbed me and it’s never let go since, they still sound as fresh as the first time I heard them. Bands come and go and over the years Les has moved on to other projects and I have purchased almost all of his albums since.

If ever there was a band that I would travel through time to hear it would be Primus, even over the chance to be at Woodstock, so there was no way I was going to miss the chance to see Les play, especially since it’s his first European gig since I discovered you could use the internet to keep tabs on your favourite bands.

Unfortunately, I’m going to have to wait until March but in the meantime hears the track that grabbed my attention so fiercely 19 years ago…

Well I’ve already caught up on all my blog and news reading, my Google reader has no unread feeds left for the first time since I switched from Newsgator. although it seems to not want to allow me to add more feeds which is odd cause I know I don’t have as many as the likes of Robert Scoble but I can’t add anymore now

From my reading frenzy this morning, I see Grandad has Blognapped Granny’s Blog to wish her a happy birthday, the oul romantic! Well at least he didn’t head off tourist hunting for the day

Gizmodo seems to be getting less about the gadgets and more about the gags, these days, so much so that I hardly seem to read it anymore, could it be that the volume of posts is costing them quality? Surely not.

And Finally, over on the Blather Zeitgeist, Damien has posted a brilliant short film from Blur Studios, very funny and well worth the bandwidth and time it takes to view it.

So am I going to mow the lawn and fix the Media Centre PC today or just laze around the house all day and do nothing, It’s my day off after all.