Monday, November 29, 2004
Stella And 2-Tone
Fresh and freezing, would be the best way to describe the weather. With an ocean blue sky overhead and the autumnal weather toying with winter, my beanie hat days are not far off now. Beanie hats are vital for a baldy during the winter months. Apart from the obvious need to keep your head and body warm, I have a nice selection of Madness beanies, illustrating that they are a not just vital for warmth, but vital for your average Madness fan to look great going to work.
I desperately wanted to listen to Yello’s album Stella again this morning. Regular readers will know I love this album, particularly at this time of year. The problem is that I only have it on cassette tape and have yet to convert it to mini-disc or buy the CD. So I dug out my old 6x4x1.5 inch “walkman”. It is so bulky and heavy but the desire to listen to it was too great.
I printed off all the lyrics to the songs from Stella and am going to write a story based on the soundtrack to the album. I have often thought about this since it was released in '89 and I think the time is right. I see romance, an international spy agency, murder, a vampire, misty moonlight over a river, a deserted railway station, a hint of the Netherlands and maybe Switzerland, a pub called The Three Roses. Hmmmmm.
I spent some time trying to track down the meaning of my weekend dream – the one with the bleach. I wrote to a couple of dream websites and mentioned it in my forum. One idea that came back to me is to get a Dream Catcher. I like the sound of this and am going to look into them; a shop recommended by Devon to which I still want to visit to find out more about Calvanism.
Struggled to write again. My laptop just lay open and nothing came. I’m getting ever frustrated so took a new line and started a brand new short story. It worked. I wrote over 1,000 words but it’s very rough and not finished.
I watched a fantastic documentary tracking the history of 2-Tone and the political/musical influences behind it all. 2-Tone defined my life and one of the bands, Madness, have been the single biggest positive force in my life since I was 6 years old.
2-Tone gave me an identity, and as I moved into my teens it gave me the affirmation that it was okay to be different and do your own thing. Who gave a shit if you didn’t follow the norm? Why reason why – when you can reason, why not? And this is the reason I still go to see these bands, because what they stood for wasn’t just fast reggae, it was multi-culturalism and acceptance of one and all. Many people mistake the skins as being fasciast Nazi’s – WRONG! They were the bad apples who attached themselves to the movement. 2-Tone is based on black and white, and the music is essentially derived from the Rude Boy’s of Jamaica. Hardly racist is it?
I desperately wanted to listen to Yello’s album Stella again this morning. Regular readers will know I love this album, particularly at this time of year. The problem is that I only have it on cassette tape and have yet to convert it to mini-disc or buy the CD. So I dug out my old 6x4x1.5 inch “walkman”. It is so bulky and heavy but the desire to listen to it was too great.
I printed off all the lyrics to the songs from Stella and am going to write a story based on the soundtrack to the album. I have often thought about this since it was released in '89 and I think the time is right. I see romance, an international spy agency, murder, a vampire, misty moonlight over a river, a deserted railway station, a hint of the Netherlands and maybe Switzerland, a pub called The Three Roses. Hmmmmm.
I spent some time trying to track down the meaning of my weekend dream – the one with the bleach. I wrote to a couple of dream websites and mentioned it in my forum. One idea that came back to me is to get a Dream Catcher. I like the sound of this and am going to look into them; a shop recommended by Devon to which I still want to visit to find out more about Calvanism.
Struggled to write again. My laptop just lay open and nothing came. I’m getting ever frustrated so took a new line and started a brand new short story. It worked. I wrote over 1,000 words but it’s very rough and not finished.
I watched a fantastic documentary tracking the history of 2-Tone and the political/musical influences behind it all. 2-Tone defined my life and one of the bands, Madness, have been the single biggest positive force in my life since I was 6 years old.
2-Tone gave me an identity, and as I moved into my teens it gave me the affirmation that it was okay to be different and do your own thing. Who gave a shit if you didn’t follow the norm? Why reason why – when you can reason, why not? And this is the reason I still go to see these bands, because what they stood for wasn’t just fast reggae, it was multi-culturalism and acceptance of one and all. Many people mistake the skins as being fasciast Nazi’s – WRONG! They were the bad apples who attached themselves to the movement. 2-Tone is based on black and white, and the music is essentially derived from the Rude Boy’s of Jamaica. Hardly racist is it?
Colin 11:00 pm