j a m e s f o r s y t h ✡ n e t

Great tune. Youth subcultures really don’t have the same substance as they used to.

My friend (& cousin) Pippa recently commented on my recent glamrock post on here asking why there was no Alice Cooper on there. She’s 100% right about that. The above is a correction of that omission.

Today after Church we went to Peter and family’s home for a big lunch. Asher came and played with some Chinese visitors as well as the resident Greek Australians. It was a rowdy afternoon.

The Japanese really know how to enjoy themselves. Wish I was there!

Finlandia is a beautiful hymn. Or, maybe more accurately, hymn words have been written over the top of it.

Recently I have been consolidating some sentence patterns and a lot of vocabulary that I have learnt on this trip. I’ve got a box of 1000 blank cards which act as flashcards, and I write useful material on those. Also, there’s supermemo, which is memorisation software on the computer. Supermemo uses an algorithm which spaces out your flashcards in accordance with how well you know them based on your own response to a flashcard drill. Time isn’t wasted learning stuff you already know. The best time to be reminded of something is when you’re just about to forget it. Efficiency is very important when it comes to vocab learning because there’s simply so much vocab to learn. I look forward to getting back home to my more familiar computer where I can use supermemo in a far more satisfactory way. Recently I would have lost my whole data file due to a USB stick virus had it not been for a timely backup.

Lately I’ve kept myself on the straight and narrow (and out of mischief) by listening to glamrock.

Here are filmclips for some of my favourites glamrock tunes of all time:

Slade - Mama we’re all crazy now

Gary Glitter - Leader of the Gang

The Sweet - Blockbuster

Wizzard/Roy Wood - I wish it could be Christmas every day (Ying & my shared favourite, because Asher was born near Christmas - high maintenance Christmas present).

I used to listen to a lot of ska music. I still enjoy it a lot. Unlike my comments re: rap music below, I don’t think there’s anything particularly childish about ska.

I’m not going to worry about the semantics too much - but there’s overlap between “ska” and “reggae”.

Of course, the most popular ska/reggae performer is Bob Marley. An Aussie barbeque goes really well with a Bob Marley album wiling away the afternoon (and some cabana and cheese - I’ve gone off heavy food recently). But the most popular isn’t always the best - which of course applies in a whole tonne of areas in music, art and life itself.

So, here’s a list of favourite ska performers that I really love:

Toots and the Maytals
Skatalites
Clancy Eccles
Lee “Scratch” Perry
King Stitt
Ken Boothe
Derrick Morgan
Prince Buster
Laurel Aitken
Desmond Dekker
Symarip
Bad Manners
The Selecter

Recently I’ve been listening to Dr Octagon - just a bit, not all the time. He’s Kool Keith from Ultramagnetic MCs. Quite refreshing, funny and crazy. I used to listen to a lot of Lee Scratch Perry, and Dr Octagon is similar in some ways. Their genres are different, though. Lee Scratch Perry is basically a reggae performer, with his early roots in ska, moving through dub and now even dabbles in a bit of techno sound. Dr Octagon is hip hop.

I never enjoy listening to much hip hop anymore. It’s so childish. There are just a few artists that stand out:

Schooly D
Ultramagnetic MCs
Cool Chip/Chuck Chillout
7A3
Whodini
EPMD (first album)
JVC Force - Strong Island
Rammellzee
Grandmaster Flash
Africa Bambaataa & the Soulsonic Force (as long as they shut up about the Nation of Islam)
Whistle
Break Machine
Herbie Hancock - Rockit
Just Ice (early stuff)
Mantronix
2 Live Crew (mainly for DJing, not lyrics - but latter can be quite funny)