Posted 4:55 AM by Steve
The All Saints Black Coffee is written by T Nichols/A Van Soos/K Elizabeth according to the liners, has lyrics like I wouldn't wanna be anywhere else but here, wouldn't wanna change anything at all, wouldn't wanna take anything out on you, although I know I do, every time I fall, it's about compromise within a relationship and living in the beauty of the moment, I think, although I could be wrong. It could just be a harmless pop song. Beautiful harmonies and production work by William Orbit at the height of his powers. In the same vein as their hit Pure Shores, probably the best thing about the film The Beach, although I can't really say that as I haven't seen the film. Have read the book, though, and that was awesome. Don't really want it spoiled.

Matt, you know all the time in the world by louis armstrong? Dixie jazz is something my granddad was much into, so I just started appreciating it myself. Pennsylvania 6500 is one he used to play me as a kid and I'd singalong. That Glenn Miller comp has Rhapsody In Blue on, first time I've ever heard it outside of Manhattan, mental. I wouldn't worry about not knowing much music, I'm just as bad. I only know what I grew up with, and was just lucky to grow up where shoegazing was a scene, and that it suited by personality. Thinking about it, Amy could be right about the origin of the term shoegazing, a lot of the bands did used to stare at their shoes onstage, there was little interaction with the audience. I never attributed that to shyness so much as of losing oneself in the moment though. But yeah, there was a certain dergoratory slant to music press coverage. Sorry, Amy, I kinda think you are right as it goes. Hmmm, of course, Kirsten figures it was named after the audience, because hey, she was the audience. :)

I wouldn't be so dismissive of your writing ability Matt, it's probably my reading of the piece, I kinda read it with the thrust of where I want it to go rather than the thrust of where you want it to go, if you know? I've definitely trampled all over with my size tens, I wonder how much can get rescued in an edit. Damn, I'm really annoyed now. Yeah, I really misread the piece and assumed the Factor had been more obviously linked to the Factor. I reallly should have got in touch with you before writing my piece, time just slipped away.

Music. If you trust me with your address I'll try and knock up a compilation tape at some point, if I find a shop that sells 100 minute tapes. The Smiths, hmmm, Morrisey's voice is something of it's own, really. How Soon Is Now is probably their best song musically, in a pushing the barrier way, other stuff can be whiny. No idea who Tim Fries-Greene is, but then, who knows what grows from bad seeds. Sad beads, possibly.

Yeah, I get the glory-radiance-brightness riff, good call. Love the imagery you use regarding the rebirth of Tom and Claire. Absolute poetry to my eyes. It's definitely an end I'd like to work towards, I don't know what anyone else thinks.

Okay, regarding the small communities, sorry, I picked up on something in Pauline's speech in your part the wrong way, but not a problem. I was really puzzling over where Pauline was going, I couldn't quite get a handle. I'm pat with where Jon is going, sure. Pauline wants to, hmmm, Pauline wants to convert the world through killing. She wants to scare people into submission? Yes, got it. Authoritarian? Apathetic existentialists? Ah, that's gone over my head. Erm...let me see...ah, wait, hang on, so would Pauline be a bomb them back to the stone age and Jon a sanctions person? Funny, I find it hard to get into Pauline's head as she seems convinced, very full of conviction, an area I am lacking, personally.

Tarot, what did I have them down on...oh no, yours works much better, High Priest and Priestess works for me, (hierophant is way too hard for me to spell. :) ) Tom. Hmm, maybe the Magician in places, I get that impression from Amy's piece but probably haven't picked up on that in my pieces. Kirsten to me is, sadly, the Empress. (could work, if she is Claire's mother replacement?) The box would probably be the Wheel of Fortune, thinking about it. The museum works as the Tower, I just saw Jon in his ivory tower/tower of babel and made one more Tower connection. Seems like Tom and Claire are death for each other, but I like them as sun and moon although I also like Kirsten and Claire as Sun and Moon. Maybe Kirsten would be the nine of Wands balance against Boris? I dunno. Then maybe also Justice? Although Death and Strength kinda work.

I just sort of throw stuff about to try and get a handle on characters. I have tried to move towards setting Boris and Kirsten together, so Kirsten gets info on Claire and so on and Boris gets some sort of redemption. Probably a sacrificial redemption. Tom and Claire I do see as very much unified at the end of it, somehow. I figure that if Kirsten and Jon are lovers then Kirsten and Pauline need a showdown or at least a bringing to a head, it feels like they should share some characteristics if they were both picked by Jon. Could be Kirsten is Empress, a step on from Pauline? An Empress moving from reversed into normal position? From being detached, (especially story wise, being introduced sorta halfway through), now coming in to bare all. Not sure how that relates to the encounter on the plane, it seems to fit a little though. She has the detached edge but she is a source of desire amongst men? That's the way I've written her, anyway, kinda. I dunno, it's hard this lark, but not unrewarding, watching where pieces go and what they do. Anyone else have handles on the characters?

Another song that works for Pauline is...damn, had to go and clean some poo up and I've forgotten it. Moving on Up Primal Scream?

You know, I missed the last story you worked on blogwise, but I kinda like this exchange of info and stuff.

Posted 3:41 AM by Steve
Matt, that works great, I like it a lot.

Bedheads eh, I'll look out for them. Yeah, I guess a lot of us shoegazers were quite shy, now you come to mention it, but it was coined in the inkies, either the NME or the Maker, kinda derogatory for the way you danced, head down looking at your feet, swaying on the spot. Kind of like a religious moment, or something. Introducing The Band is one of my favourite Suede tracks, I'm not so keen on the stuff after Bernard left. His first solo album is quite good though, and the single Yes with McAlmont is to die for. Featured on the tape I made up to play as I drove to the church to get married, followed by Laid by James, I think. Someone else who uses 100 minute tapes. They're a bugger to buy over here, but I love them. Can't help you on the Roses track, I don't tend to listen to lyrics so much with their stuff, just fall into the rhythm and melodies.

Additions, well, I snuck in three songs in my last piece, If This Ain't Love by DJ Spiller with Sophie Ellis Bextor, All The Time In The World by Louis and that Manics track.

I've got that Tiger Rag, by Louis, interesting. Something I was thinking of also for Pauline was Days by The Kinks, or people might know the Kirsty MaColl version. Is the Nick Cave There is a Light different from The Smiths version? Other riffing songs I think of here are Here Comes The Sun and I Am The Resurrection.

Movie rights. Hah, there's a thought. Scary to think of my youth as retro, but I guess it's getting there. I'd love to whack Black Coffee in there by The All Saints, although how that fits I don't know. Yeah, I couldn't get too much more contemporary, I'm well out of the loop now. Hard to find much that excites that thrill in me anymore. Last thing I bought was a Glenn Miller comp, that's how with it I am.

Posted 6:42 PM by Steve
Oh, and shoegazing was incredibly rare here, too. Just about popular enough to trouble the fringes of the charts, that's all. Matt, check out Loveless by My Bloody Valentine. I'm not sure what your taste is, but it's one of my favourte albums of all times.

Posted 6:40 PM by Steve
That's nice, just a little off balance, needs something down the right hand side on my res, 1024 by whatever it is. Trying to install linux at the moment and about to go to bed because it's not working.

Shoegazing bands, My Bloody Valentine, whose album Loveless is definitive, The Cranes, The Cocteau Twins, Lush, (although before they went britpop, albums to try are spooky or gala), The Jesus and Mary Chain, Dinosaur Jr, very early Blur, their first hit No Other Way was a sort of baggy shoegazing crossover, erm, Chapterhouse, James went into a shoegazing direction at times with Sound and especially Wah Wah Wah. Like I say, My Bloody Valentine were the prime movers, and fans still await the follow up to Loveless. (It's never going to happen, and prime mover Kevin Shields is sort of in Primal Scream now, along with production for the Manics and Dot Allison amongst others.) Allison was in a band, um, One Dove I think, that was shoegazer cuspy, House of Love too, now I think of it, Ride as well.

Posted 1:26 PM by Steve
I said sorry to be polite. Sort of, sorry I dismissed many hours of work with one sentence. I notice the word format translates fine on the published page, so ignore the f'ing comment.

Posted 4:40 PM by Steve
Damn word format, sorry about all the f'ing question marks.

Posted 4:35 PM by Steve
Okay, it’s purple, it needs a coat of gloss, a finetune, a polish and a solid frame, but I can’t look at it anymore without agonising over every fecking word. I think I made a couple of internal errors, and I also cocked up big time, mixing Croatia and Kosovo, but I think it works...

Here’s the blah on where I’m at, kitty cats. Shite, I’m so far up I can see my tonsils. Excuse me, I’ll flick ‘em and puke.

What I mean to say is, this is all the stuff I jotted as I wrote, I don’t know if it helps any, but it might shed light on motivation and so on. Sorry for splurging like this.

Pauline, a follower of St Paul, a Calvinist, a Quaker, a Shaker. God bless the light the light that shines that shines on you, and you and me. Thank you for the days. So she believes, ever so possibly, in predestination? She’s certainly a convert. That’s no sun, that’s one of our gods. The Sun, the hearth of affection and life, pours burning love on the delighted earth. Light is love. She wants the world to bathe in light to feel love. All you need is love. No choice, though. Pauline is an absolutist, whilst all the rest, Boris, Tom, Claire and Kirsten seem to be open to whatever. Jon? Absolutist? Possible. And the Commandant?

Aha. Possible angle, Pauline creates zones of slow light, so one can’t pass through because one can not know where things are. Like the light from distant stars doesn’t tell us what they do now. Therefore, movement is restricted and people are no longer free to travel?
But where would Claire fit in? Claire’s a prime mover, Claire, Claire, Claire. What does she do know, she’s in the back seat of a bus and she don’t know where the hell she is…and nor does anyone else. And she holds the key, and the key is…nano-tech. So is Pauline going to attempt to…well, she’s mentioned that it’s…free will, so she’s no biggie on pre-destination, unless, she believes Claire will choose her path by pre-destination. Gah. What can Claire do? So if you take the view that there’s some explosions going on, is Pauline wanting the explosion?

Light. Light….seeing, seeing is believing… keep rejoining the Matrix slip stream, that was a sort of light conversion, is that too old hat? Where else is there to go, though. Holographica? Virtuous Reality? Explosions, they have the light and the quake. So which side is the Commandant on? This is tough.

Boris is playing all against all. First appearance it’s clear he’s not working for the Factor, but the Factor have become the Basque, so there is a faction within the Basque that is not with the Factor, hence Tom’s being picked up? And why is Tom tortured by the Basque when they work for the Factor, and he’s delivering it to the Factor? So there must be a third faction, inside the Factor or the Basque. The only problem is, the Commandant seems to be in charge of this third faction. And the Commandant seems…unless what the Commandant has planned isn’t what Pauline has planned. Hmmm, maybe then Pauline’s plan is the art sculpture. Plausible.

Tarot imagery, there’s the lovers, Tom and Claire, Jon in the tower. The sun, that’d be the light, so sound is the moon. The box is the chariot, Boris and Kirsten, possibly Emperor and Empress, with Jon and Pauline um, Magician and Devil? Author plays the fool? 

Pauline wants to make people realise life is no game by killing them. She wants to create small communities. How would light allow her to do this? Light, the way we see things, a photon bomb, lasers, turn light hard, give it mass, at such a speed it would cause massive damage. Intriguing weapon. Other angles? Way we see. What do we see. Manipulate what we see to allow for personal freedom? How so? Programmed photons? Sensory deprivation? A photon bomb of virgin photons that would effectively blind everyone? A bit Watchmen? Beautiful image, where I’d like to go, destruction of Guggenheim Bilbao by destructive photons, although slowed by tech that allows slowing of photons, so that the destruction becomes some form of installation art, a living Guernica, by way of photons moving so slowly one sees the explosion and consequences evolving, the split second action taking years to unfurl in front of people. Stick Tom and Claire in the middle, you have a Romeo and Juliet effecting change in a modern world.

Kirsten and Boris

Jon and Pauline

Jon and Kirsten

Tom and Claire

Jon and Claire

Boris and Tom

Boris, somewhere, has become seventy years old or so. In my head I see the cancer man from the X-Files. Erm, is that his official name or just my families name. You know, the bloke who smokes cigarettes all the time, spoiler Mulder’s dad.

THOMAS m English, French, German, Scandinavian, Biblical
Pronounced: TAWM-as
Greek form of the Aramaic name Te'oma which meant "twin". In the New Testament he was the apostle who doubted the resurrected Jesus. According to tradition he was martyred in India. Famous bearers of this name include philosopher and theologian Saint Thomas Aquinas, philosopher Thomas Hobbes, inventor Thomas Edison, American president Thomas Jefferson, and novelist Thomas Hardy.

TOMISLAV m Croatian
Meaning unknown, though the second element is probably related to the Slavic element slav meaning "glory". This was the name of the first king of Croatia (10th century).

CLARE f English
Pronounced: KLER
Medieval name derived from Latin clarus "clear, bright, famous". Saint Clare, a follower of Saint Francis of Assisi, left her wealthy family to found the order of nuns known as the Poor Clares. This is also the name of an Irish county which was named for the Norman invader Richard de Clare (known as Strongbow), whose surname is derived from an English river.

JOHN m English, Biblical
Pronounced: JAWN
English form of Johannes, which was the Latin form of the Greek name Ioannes, itself derived from the Hebrew name Yochanan meaning "YAHWEH is gracious". This name owes its consistent popularity to two New Testament characters, both highly revered as saints. The first was John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus Christ who was beheaded by Herod Antipas. The second was the apostle John who was also supposedly the author of the fourth Gospel and Revelation. The name has been borne by 23 popes, as well as kings of England, Hungary, Poland, Portugal and France. It was also borne by the poet John Milton and the philosopher John Locke.

Boris, the wolf

Kirsten the follower.

Photon bomb, plausible?

Light bomb? Civil wars, blood. Europe war torn. Boris, works for?

Kirsten, nationality? She’s a follower, it’s a scandinavian name, her surname is Hughes. She’s going to be English.

Boris, a thinker, long fingers, hates technology, he’s with the Basque and the factor, why? He believes in order. What order does he want to create? Each man free to choose?

Lyrics to the girl who wanted to be god by the manics:

There are no sunsets just silence
You could see that she was true and faithless
But see through the future and forget all the lies
Black out the words for the blind have eyes.

I am the girl that wanted to be god X2

There are times when you feel hopeless
Just for once for no-one else we are blameless
The dawn is still breaking its heaven is so high
She told the truth, told the truth and then she lied

I am the girl that wanted to be god X2

Hold me she said love me to death.

Yeah, I know, he’s obsessive, he’s inserted yet another reference, but, hey, write what you know. The opening and closing lines just jumped out at me, I’ll confess I was listening whilst I was writing, and I love the song, the way you can hear the disco beat it almost had struggling to jump your bones, and the lyrics, there are no sunsets, just silence? Here we have light and sound, absent. Way cool. And then the end, hah, okay, I’ve got a fixation on Romeo and Juliet, blame Baz Luhrman, he achieved something my English Teachers couldn’t even begin to grasp. Still, that’s teenage swagger for you.

Shoegazing, did you get that in the States? Dinosaur Jr, Lush, Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, very early Blur, Curve, Chapterhouse, The Cranes, The Cocteau Twins. Movement so called because you swayed on the spot head down looking at your feet in rapture? My Bloody Valentine had a set piece where they’d play feedback cacophony for fifteen minutes (it seemed like forever and it was beautiful). Who knows who was more tanked on drugs, them or us, acid, so cheap so alluring, so...good god, so young.

Oh, Kirsten, I’m thinking kind of is it Scott Thomas, the one in English Patient and Four Weddings, but with Joanna Lumley’s voice. (She’s Patsy in Ab Fab or Sapphire in Saph and Steel, or even Purdy in The New Avengers if the States really bought that)

The slowdown option Jon starts up in the lab is this:-

http://www.newscientist.com/hottopics/tech/article.jsp?id=99993581&sub=Communications

I’ve tried badly and baldly to nick a few motifs. I liked Amy’s line about, argh, I’ve lost it, you know, the survival is adaptation, tom adapted, so I nicked it and used it way too much. I’ve tried to see my way through. At Matt’s unstated suggestion I avoided using Pauline in case I couldn’t find her voice. The mention of Mrs Slocum(be?) just kept distracting me with pusy cat jokes, and I dunno if you’ve ever seen The league Of Gentlemen, but they have a Pauline that’s just way too Pauline for any other Pauline to exist at this moment in time. Okey dokey, pig in a pokey. Sorry.

Posted 4:32 PM by Steve
Matt, I like the colours of the third one, but the imaging and layout of the second one and the font on the first one. Sorry.