Graeme profile picture

Graeme

London cold. ribbit again tell it to dem!

About Me

Moved to South London from the east side not so recently anymore. Not getting used to trains, busses, Lambeth/Brixton nutters and jive turkeys from the Wandsworth side in their 4x4s cluttering up the long narrow, cycle-lane free roads.Disliking the fact that a couple of weeks ago some poor kid a got shot dead a stone's throw away at the Streatham ice rink. Poor soul.I will tell anyone with ears and a broadband connection to listen to www.radioparadise.com, for a fantastic mix of anything from Muddy Waters (playings as I write this) to Siouxsie and the Banshees, via Stevie Wonder, Gnarls Barclay, Joe Strummer (trails off... )But, oh christ, they do play the Counting Crows every once and a while. Why do they do that!??Currently enjoying shopping at Lidl, wines white and red (though not purchased at Lidl) and the aeolian mode.

My Interests

Playing bass, seeking the perfect work/life balance, playing guitar, singing in tunnels, reading, writing, avoiding growing a large belly, seeking ways not to become a bore

I'd like to meet:

People who like coffee. Strong coffee.

Music:

A ton of things from the 1980s, roots reggae, funk, disturbing amounts of soft rock. Currently enjoying Flaming Lips, Richard Thompson, Jeff Buckley, Mara Carlisle, Damian Marley, Gnarls Barkely, Joni Mitchell, Jaco Pastorius, Muddy Waters, Big Mama Thornton, Led Zeppelin, Wailers -- separately and together, to name a few.Just a couple of my favourite rhythm section folk a saw knocking around on YouTube. Top o' their game, p'raps. Not exactly the smoothest of framerates, but you can't have everything, right?

Movies:

The Graduate, City of God, Fog of War, Wallace and Gromit - Curse of the Wererabbit, The Harder They Come, Purple Rain, Face/Off, Blade, Betty Blue, Do The Right Thing and many more that I can't even remember

Television:

ER, Scrubs, My Name is Earl, Sesame Street - the old ones, Spooks - before that big rugby dude joined up, The West Wing, Life on Mars, documentaries featuring religious or political interrogation

Books:

Black Boy, Another Country, Notes on a Scandal, Life of Pi, Disgrace, Microserfs, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, pretty much anything by Walter Mosley, Cockroach Dance, Fight Club, White Teeth, the Harry Potter series -- and then some

Heroes:

Spider Man, Batman, as well as the usual big three (Muhammad Ali, Bruce Lee, Nelson Mandala - despite it p'raps being a somewhat unchallenging choice), plus enjoy the pure foolishness that is Wayne Coyne. John Bonham for the drumming, Family Man Barrett for the bass playing and ability to sire something like 50 children, Donny Hathaway for the effortless singing, David Gilmour for the sheer enormity of his strat tone.

My Blog

Poetry in motion and active resistance

Not so much a musical note here, but one that harks back to the spirit of '76. Americans were celebrating 200 years of independence, and I was a little tiny one celebrating West Indies cricket. It was...
Posted by Graeme on Wed, 06 Jun 2007 12:58:00 PST

I was looking for a job, then I found a job

Where a few months ago I seemed to be trying to think of ideas and of how to hustle up a little bit of work lest I be forced to flog all my shit a cash converters to meet the rent, I suddenly find I h...
Posted by Graeme on Mon, 04 Jun 2007 01:40:00 PST

Kiss?? -- Grrr! Grrr! Grrr!

I've been real busy. So haven't had much to say, really. Apart from talking about stuff for work. Things about slikscreened protest posters and greening my apple, not to mention the joy or Adobe After...
Posted by Graeme on Wed, 30 May 2007 09:33:00 PST

Abandoned the thought. Highway to Hell

I had this fantastic old blog entry planned all about books. And being jazzed up about the FA Cup. So I waxed on about the FA Cup and how great it is, having just had the pleasant surprise of Radio Pa...
Posted by Graeme on Sat, 19 May 2007 05:21:00 PST

The worst from the best

So, while I was waiting for YouTube to eat the hell out of my last rambling entry, I stumbled up on this fantastic groove. It's probably not for everyone, given its kind of 'jazziness' and 'technique'...
Posted by Graeme on Thu, 17 May 2007 11:59:00 PST

My Larry Graham paradox

I've surrendered to the scatterbrained inner me, who usually takes over when I have to do something very important. Certainly an article. They take a good bit of sitting around, fretting over your bri...
Posted by Graeme on Thu, 17 May 2007 11:06:00 PST

Ramblin' catch up -- oo Eurovision

There's not a lot to say: I've been totally busting a gut to get a whole heap of work done nearly and almost on time, without clouding my tiny mind with doubt and discouragement. Carefully writing thi...
Posted by Graeme on Mon, 14 May 2007 05:11:00 PST

The Romantics, Fishbone and Cheryl Lynn

I'm continuing my general musical nostalgia and combining it with a new love of embedding things. I was once trying to explain the majesty of the one and only Don Cornelius, host of the Soooooouuuul T...
Posted by Graeme on Thu, 03 May 2007 02:58:00 PST

Dana and the Mann

So, A couple of good things. Beating the beat of hanging and seeing and performing with various unsigned folk, I've come across one or two people who actually do sincerely rule. Or, perhaps I could or...
Posted by Graeme on Mon, 30 Apr 2007 05:38:00 PST

The world is kind of normal

Between around January and March, I have to admit there was a certain gloom about the world. The world was a tired one. It was turning out of habit rather than out of joy. It seemed sort of pointless....
Posted by Graeme on Sat, 21 Apr 2007 05:59:00 PST