Chocolate fondue

Is really easy. I made it today. This is what you do:

Take equal parts chocolate and double cream (300g/300ml will do for 8 people). Break the chocolate into equal sized chunks (or different sized chunks if you're lazy) and put in a bowl and stick cream in a pan and bring it to the boil. Pour cream over chocolate. Stir lots. Add whisky. Dip stuff in it.

You don't need a proper fondue bowl, melted chocolate stays runny for ages when there's cream in it.

The end. Delight all round.

Added bonuses are that you won't need to eat for the rest of the day and that it turns into Nutella-style gloop once its hardened.

Forgotten gems

My music listening is largely dictated by the device most convenient and closest to hand. This for a long time was the laptop on which I type now. It was passed up for my iPod, perfect for nasty London commuting, good old fashioned CDs and my work computer. Said laptop is experiencing something of a resurgence and today I had a dig through my old tunes. I came out with some corkers (many of which I cannot claim I discovered myself). They are the songs I defined myself by, danced to and played out most but which I have rarely listened to since coming to London.

I remember that there was a time when MSTRKRFT was the most exciting thing in the world, Jesse F Keeler was beating Josh Homme in the contest of hottest man in rock and I spend hours accumulating thousands of MP3s. Some discoveries lead to further listening (thanks for Jenny Wilson, Uncritical) and others just to some dancing (Panico). Many of them I never really listened to (apologies to those of you I passed up, you'll get over it).

Here is today's top 5 re-discovered, undisovered gems. Totally danceable, totally disposable. Perfect for a Sunday night when you've been pissed off by a vanishing plumber and have consumed little but Lemsip and porridge for the last 48 hours.

1. Ce'cile - Hot like we
2. Panico - Transpiralo
3. Capricorns - The new sound
4. The Fever - Ladyfingers
5. Diamond Nights - Girls attractive

New York Times on My So-Called Life

This article is almost perfect, like My So Called Life.

Choice bits:

"To a certain sort of woman who is somewhere between late youth and an unacknowledged middle age, the name Jordan Catalano isn’t a television reference, it is a sense memory. You don’t recall Jordan Catalano, you feel him." Fact

"There is never any question that Angela and Jordan are doomed as a couple. The show gently mocks her infatuation, cutting to Jordan applying eyedrops whenever she begins to read in his intense blinking the signs of poetic torture. Where she sees soulfulness we know there is merely corneal irritation and presumably a bad habit."

Read here: Dear Rebecca, rocker boys are useless. Also, its AMAZING how MSCL uses Jordan Catalano as a piece of comedy, even though he's the love interest. Apart from when he can't read. That's not funny.

"As the touchstone examination of adolescence in the ’90s, “My So-Called Life” rejected the Clintonian ethos of ambition: striving, perhaps, wasn’t better. And at the same time it linked itself closely to the feminism of the period, one that prized interiority, self-help and revolutions from within. It was a diluted notion of female advancement, but at least it was a modestly dressed one."

Anyone with me for a modestly dressed revolution? Thick tights and polo necks here I come...

Pop conversion

I am undergoing a pop conversion. I am going back to my roots. I am also (re)discovering a love for solo artists. I think the only solo artists I ever really loved were PJ Harvey and Jeff Buckley (for which I am ever repentant). Nick Cave is good too. Sleater-Kinney obliterated my need for solo songstrels.

In today's pop world it seems that being a lady solo pop start means you can take risks and make interesting but accessible (crucial for me, that) music and, most importantly, be as wacky as you want.

Cases in point, in descending order of love:
Robyn
Roisin Murphy
Gossip (essentially a solo vehicle in pop world)
Jenny Wilson
Girls Aloud (do it multiple)
Britney Spears
Marnie Stern (not really pop but pretty crazy and I find it really hard to edit my lists)

I am going to investigate Sara Berg in more depth but I have a feeling she should go on there.

Which leads me to ponder, as ever channeling SJP, is perfect pop
Sassy woman + awesome outfit + electronic future music?

Kitty Empire discusses this much better here.

Bop

With more internet comes more posts.

Tonight is the bop, my favourite night of the month.

Bop bop bop.

Posts will get longer. Eventually.

(re)Acting

You can catch me at (re)Actor 2, the second international conference on digital live art at Leeds Met University on Monday 10th September. The theme is Bad Girls, Gadgets and Guerilla Performance. I will be giving a paper on Girls Rock! UK, focussing in part on the experiences of campers and volunteers with the technology of music production.

The conference looks great - the Guerilla Girls are giving the keynote! Very excited about that since I missed them at Toynbee Hall a few months ago and their work is liberally plastered over the femoloo in the flat. I’m sure I’ll meet some interesting people too.

Haircuts by men

Yesterday I had my second scalping in recent memory by a male hairdresser. I am going to publicly vow here never to have my hair cut my a man again, barring when I am deliberately having it all cut off.

Both have given me great haircuts, but both could not resist cutting it really short, much shorter than I asked for. Maybe its because my hair is so straight they can do these incredibly meticulous, precise cuts. Maybe they don't realise the emotional attachment women (or just I?) have to their (my?) hair. Whatever, the end is nigh for male hairdressers in my life.

EDIT Actually that great haircuts claim was a lie. The first short one was possibly my worst haircut since childhood. It was infact the SAME one I had in childhood, only more Shoreditch. Hideous.

EDIT 2 I started loving my haircut about a day after I wrote that. Now its grown out and I'm all sad. Especially because the hairdresser in question has run away to Australia.

Do it

Component parts of my imaginary persona

Here’s a snippet from a Bust interview I re-read this weekend with Peaches

Bust: Why did you create the Peaches persona?
Peaches: I guess I just felt like something was missing from music, or from me.

B: I just put all the elements in music that I like together. I like when Kathleen Hanna would say, “Suck my left one!” and you’re like, “Yeah, such my left one!” Then one day it seemed people didn’t say that anymore.

I tried to answer this question at lunchtime in Food for Thought with the hope of spurring me on to greater musical heights. This is what you get when you put all the elements in music that I like together.

Sleater-Kinney’s singing
Sleater-Kinney’s songs
Sleater-Kinney’s guitar interplay
Sleater-Kinney’s drumming (Meg White too, I wish everyone would drum like a girl!)
Sleater-Kinney’s refusal to use a traditional band set up (ditto White Stripes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Gossip)
The raw anger of Hole
The Manics ambition and desperation to be icons (back in the day)
Gossip’s ability to bond with their audience and be super-subversive while being really fun (I might just mean Beth here but I’m not saying because I hate it when people talk about the Gossip like only her). Special mention to Le Tigre for the outfits and projections here.
PJ Harvey and Patti Smith’s determined ploughing of their own paths (for Patti also the use of the clarinet in rock)


So what can I conclude?
The music I want to replicate is not necessarily the music I spend most time listening to.
I admire longevity.
I don’t want to make dance music. I want to kiss Jesse F Keeler not be like him.
I like Sleater-Kinney more than anything.

Fluurppp

My headphone are broken. The right ear is all rattley at the bottom. Everything sounds like Justice, even Feist. Quite like it.

Mean rock camps

Not all rock camps were created equal.

Some rock camps only let you in if you're essentially a stage school brat.

Some rock camps only let you in if you've got lots of cash. £7000 for rock camp? Don't even get me started on the spouse packages...

Ladies Rock! UK loves you even if you're skint, single and lacking in any discernable musical talent.

Reflection/Resistance/Justice

This weekend I went up to Cambridge. I haven’t been there for almost three months. Even Cambridge changes a little, with new shops and building work and different people to meet. Lots has happened since I was there last. Most noticeably it really doesn’t feel like home anymore, I know it so well but I don’t have anywhere to go that’s my own. The Portland Arms is still one of my favourite places in the world though. Strange, because I didn’t really start going there til the post-university year, but suitable because its one of the few places in Cambridge I felt comfortable in.

End reflection.

The most pleasing change that has happened since the next-but-last time I went to Cambridge is that the Resistance has got good again, much to my delight and relief. I think they are great (hopefully forever), a judgement unfettered by knowledge of serious music of the feedback and drone variety. Maracas and flying laptops added to the spectacle. They are playing next here:
04/07/07 - Brixton Jamm, London
12/07/05 - Dublin Castle, London

You could do much worse than go and see them.

My brother Matthew currently has the number 10 download on the Hype Machine. You can listen to it on his myspace. I am very proud. Not only is he a superstar DJ/philosopher, he has given me his guestlist to Justice’s album launch party tomorrow. At the Mean Fiddler, weird. But special as the first place I ever saw Sleater-Kinney. That was the best gig I have ever seen in my life. I don’t think Justice will be so good but it will be pretty cool.

Leeeeeeeean

Behold! My So-Called Life on DVD in the UK FINALLY! And all over Virgin Megastore’s windows.

I only ever saw a handful of episodes when it was on TV when I was about 13 and was struck by its genius instantly. I could even recognise that it was better than Dawson’s Creek – a considerable testament to its power, considering my youthful love for that most overwrought of teen dramas. (For the record, I still think its ace).

I watched episodes 1-4 last night and was amazed at its perfectness. My favourite things about it so far:

Angela loves Jordan because of the way he leans. (Full disclosure: I have in the past loved boys for reasons like ‘He does maths’)
Jordan is so stupid (I was too in love with him in my teens to realise how stupid he was). Not stupid because he can't read, that's a failure of the education system, stupid because he writes love songs to his car instead of to Angela.
Angela is awesome even though she loves a stupid boy (I hope this applies to me too)
Jordan Catalano *sigh* is still hot (ditto)
Jordan Catalano looks like Mark Owen even more than I remember
The parent’s relationship is of more interest to me now and it’s done really well (better even than the Creek!)

Overall, the most striking thing is how well observed it is. I never watched This Life so my flatmate showed me an episode a couple of nights ago and it was so sloooow. And dated. Buy MSCL is not. Maybe it helps that it’s American so I don’t notice cultural dating so much. The teen stuff, especially the crushes and girls-toilets scenes are so perfectly pitched and resonant (sorry sorry this post doesn’t get any more wanky I promise) that I am forced to conclude that in its ability to capture the pain of teengirlhood and general wonderfulness

My So Called Life = Mean Girls

No sleep til the season finale…

Come to Ladies Rock! UK…it’s rocking!

Ladies Rock! UK, August 17-19th, Lambeth Young Women’s Project, London

£50 with a number of free places for those ladies who can’t afford the fee

If you’re female and aged 18 (no upper age limit) please come along – you’ll learn an instrument, form a band, write a song and play a gig and do some righteous workshops too. Soft ROI includes spending a weekend in an empowering all-woman environment, a confidence boost, helping keep the Lambeth Young Women’s Project alive and kicking and hanging out with me all weekend. I might even teach you the geetar if that’s you instrument of choice.

If you’d like to register please email ladiesrockuk@gmail.com for a form. You can volunteer by contacting the same address too. The deadline for applications is 20th July. It’s run by women for women and is trans-inclusive.

There’s more info at www.myspace.com/rocknrollcampforgirlsuk and a website coming soon.

Tell your friends/wives/partners/sisters/daughters/colleagues/
mums/aunties/grandmas!

Viscountess Rebecca

My Collins diary about which I was so excited a few months ago has rubbed pink plastic all over the contents of my bag. This is lame.

In a fit of pique I'm buying a new diary from Smythson. I've just got to the Title box of the checkout page. My options are, this order:
Lord
Lady
Sir
Mr
Mrs
Dr
Ms
Miss
Viscountess

England is fucked up. And where's the Viscount?

Pictures of things I love: Rock Camp, Femocake

The inside of my head this weekend

I write from my bed, channelling Carrie Bradshaw… Will men and women ever really understand each other? Why on earth did I call my perfume Lovely?

Aaargh! I am not Carrie! I always wanted to be Samantha but whenever I mentioned it to anyone they laughed at me. This weekend, other than the etiquette of relationships for thirtysomethings, I have mainly been thinking:

That it will be great to go home next weekend.

Its not fair how much more comfortable men's shoes are than women's.

Just how freeing minidresses are.* For good reason did some women’s magazine call them Freedom Dresses recently.

How much I love Patti Smith and the Gossip, despite their differences they were both ace when I saw them play last week. I wish Patti would stop going on about being anti-feminist and stop shouting about how no one should take anti-depressants (ponder for a moment a Cruise-Smith anti-Prozac alliance) but otherwise she is grand.
Her make-up is as follows:
(Iggy Pop x Scarecrow) + Clarinet – Deodorant = Patti Smith
I just tried to make a sum for Beth Ditto but it’s not possible. I can only manage for the gig itself:
Normal Beth + Paparazzi + Flying sanitary towels – Clothes = Beth Ditto on the evening of 16th May 2007

That I look like the happiest Rebecca ever on the picture on my LRC lanyard.

That sweeping the porch in Tower Hamlets is much less glamorous than sweeping the porch in the Deep South sounds.

How lame the new Maximo Park album is. And it even starts with a song called Girls Who Play Guitars. Not a Hot Topic-esque roll call, a song moaning about Paul Smith’s girlfriend. He should go out with me instead, I’m great and I play guitar, and would write him a much better third album.

About how I am going to Bristol for the first time in a few weeks to stay with Rosie and Paddy and see my post-exam brother. Whoop!

That at weekends I like doing nothing better than doing something at the moment.

* In my house when I don’t have to worry about innocent bystanders seeing my pants.

Hot new lingo

House: eat an item of food voraciously, hungrily
e.g. I'm going to house this bagel

O.M. God: when 'oh my god' just isn't enough
e.g. O.M. God that's Carrie Brownstein

(Both courtesy of Fett and Blythe, 2007)

You rock: you rock
e.g. All the time, to anything, often accompanied by appropriate hand gestures

(Courtesy Ladies Rock Camp, Portland, 2007)

LRC: The Fallout

I'm probably never going to get round to a proper Ladies Rock Camp review, so for now I will tell you only how much I miss it. I never thought that I would miss a place and group of people so much after only 3 days together. [I promise that I haven't turned into a big sap.]

Lots of love to Allison, Jen and Lucy, Kerry, Christina and Molly and all the rest of you. You rock! Big big thanks to all the organisers and instructors for doing such a fantastic job and giving us so much fun. Thanks to Winner for making my get over my fear of karaoke.

I went to my first Girls Rock! UK meeting on Saturday, should be ace. Ladies Rock Camp London is going to be held on 17-19th August at the Lambeth Women's Project, a great place which is at risk of closure. You should all go (if you are female). You should all come to fundraisers (any sex).

Spectacle

Almost a month since last post! Very tardy. During this period I have been mainly doing this:

Old Age

Filling in review sheets for the new singles of crappy indie bands I am feeling really old. Has music got shit/I've got old/I never really liked mainstream indie boybands anyway?

Time aside, some of the things that are most important to me are mine only retrospectively. Check out Hole singing Dicknail from way back. I miss them (retrospectively) so much. The way I felt when I first heard the cassette copy of My Body the Hand Grenade that I bought in Hull is brought back by watching this. It even makes me slightly regret replacing them with Sleater-Kinney as my official favourite band in 2002.

Great Swedish Triumverate Complete, Your Correspondent Satisfied

Behold the great triumverate of Swedish pop, Robyn, Knife and Jenny Wilson, all now gifted with my presence at one of their gigs. Last night the final piece of the puzzle, Jenny Wilson, fell into place with lots of costume, percussion and rude pushing people. When I was a wee lassie I thought my life would be complete when I'd seen Hole, Babes in Toyland and L7. This will never happen and my life remains incomplete. This Swedish victory has brought me some consolatory satisfaction.

I once bought a grey cape to look more like Jenny Wilson. It's too itchy for me to wear, but I do get a small amount of "Jenny Wilson wise owl" when I put it on with red lipstick. I learned last night that I'm going to have to grow up quite a lot to be like Jenny Wilson, practise my dancing and get a lot sterner. She is going to be my dancing and guitaring role model for Ladies' Rock Camp, lots of staring and shuffling then surprisingly graceful jiggling.

In other non-how to make myself look more like Jenny Wilson news, the band was good; no drummer; lots of fit Swedish people; I do like bands who sing in English as their second language because they twist the rhythms and emphases which makes for much more interesting music; much proper singing and four-part harmonies. A very good replica of the album but while I really enjoyed seeing it the gig wasn't exactly an epiphany.

No more Swedish gigs lined up, feels pretty sad. I love going to Swedish gigs because of the outlandishly good looking people and the nice feeling that you're seeing something a bit special and everyone is happy to be there. Where oh wear is my Scandihusband?

"For admirers of quality pop music, Sweden is almost too good to be true"

Robyn is still brilliant. She sang for Nellie and I at Cargo last night. We both fancy Kleerup (phew, thought it was just me). He's pretty close to The Boyfriend Face with his little nose and pouty mouth but he's not got enough hair (see Nick Cave also for close-but-not-close-enough faciness).

There was a great article about Robyn in the Guardian a few days ago. My favourite bit is when Robyn says:
"I think I'm always adopting a persona. That's how I look at pop music. I don't feel like I have to be myself. I feel like I have to be true to myself, but I don't have to show an exact picture of who I am."
Perfect! I think she's so convincing because she's totally performing and wringing herself out because of that, rather than through trying to be authentic like Snow Patrol might.

I also like the way she dances and wears a funny bra/overall/dress thing. She's so tough she can have her underwear and proper clothes all in one.

Robyn gigs are the most fun places to be. Lots of lovely Swedish people, some in suits too and all very friendly. I hope there's another one soon. Until then, I will content myself with Jenny Wilson (JENNY WILSON!) on Monday.

Adventures close to home

On Tuesday, someone tried to rob me while I walked home from work.

Last night, someone got herself lost while she was walking home from work.

What will happen tonight I wonder? Should I just stay in the office overnight?

Late show

Saw LCD Soundsystem with the lovely Kate P (taker of the photo) the other day, ranging from moderately ok to excellent. Cowbell! As ever, I love the hits, am not interested in the album. Flake.

I have long espoused the theory that I will one day marry a man like James Murphy. Now I have seen his swingy arm dancing and true lardiness I can confirm my suspiciouns vehemently. He also looks a bit like a teddybear. I think he is talented. Nancy Whang is not. She does very little and seems very meek. Let's have more girls in band so the crap ones won't matter so much.

Please note this is my first blog post with a picture. There's a little icon for uploading them I'd never seen, its really easy. Techie Becky strikes again!

Underground

As I trudge up and down the Northern Line from Old St to Kings Cross/Euston, Beth Ditto occasionally stares at me from advertising posters. The posters are not just in Old St (see also under the bridge where Old St meets Kingsland Rd and Shoreditch High Street) but in Kings Cross station.

From my recent misadventure into advertising I can tell you this means that the record label are directing their media buyers to advertise to the GENERAL PUBLIC as well as the trendies in Old St, foisting fat lesbian activism on unsupecting ordinary folk. Revolution grrl style now through mass media. Hurrah! (I think?)


UPDATE: So that's who is buying the advertising space! There I was hoping all the cash would be flowing to the pockets of my beloved KRS...
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/41616/The_Gossip_Sign_to_Columbia

Shady behaviour

It's early March in London. Sunglasses are blossoming in Hoxton (not least on the tube). Let the posing commence.

Zane Lowe is a fuckwit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LnuaJSSCmA

Nick Cave savaging Zane Lowe, hosted by Lauren Laverne. Bliss.

Robyn

Despite appearances, this is not a gig review blog. However, I am going to tell you about another gig or two.

Along with showbiz Kat, Nick and Gemma I journeyed to the skanky Metro club on Oxford Street on Friday, after a brief sojourn to Nincomsoup (how I love thee, Nincomsoup) to see once again the delightful miss Robyn. The girl is so feisty she needs TWO hot Swedish drummers to back her up. This time she played a full set INCLUDING SHOW ME LOVE. That's right, she played SHOW ME LOVE!

Things we can learn from Robyn:
1. Being short doesn't matter if you've got balls (see Louise Murphy, guest of the weekend for supporting evidence)
2. Pop is great
3. Don't be afraid to repeat a track if it is as good as Be Mine
4. Scarves make an excellent promotional item (even if they are make for dolls/people of Robyn size)

Things we can learn from Temposhark, who we happened to bump into later:
1. If you're a band, don't be shit
2. If you're a reasonably cool band, don't play gigs in shit places
3. If you've only got a couple of good songs, try playing them over and over a la Robyn and drop the crap ones
4. If you're a synthpop band, make sure the people can hear the synths
However, we can learn from the night Viva Pedro (?) that playing the Longpigs is excellent DJ behaviour, whereas playing rubbish mashups is not.

Forthcoming: lessons to be learned from Stay Beautiful. This blog is an education!

No Sissy

Did I tell you I love Hawksley Workman? Not here, and probably not since about 2004 I reckon. But lo, I tell you now, I love Hawksley Workman. Even if I found out his real name is Ryan Corrigan - gutted.

Just what has brought about this volte-face, you may wonder? Simply: an evening with the man himself. I saw him play with his pianist Mr Lonely at the Borderline on Saturday and he was possibly the best thing I've seen since Sleater-Kinney (to the uninitiated, this is the highest form of praise). Unlike the usual crap I go and watch, Mr Workman is actually a musician! Imagine Jeff Buckley if he didn't faff around so much, add humour and bloat, and you have Hawskley. He can play his tunes and sing with his lovely voice so well that he can stop his songs and give us little skits to keep us smiling in the middle. He does requests too, so we got all the hits. It felt unusually communal (perhaps churchlike) at the gig - very polite, lots of singing along and fit Canadians in check shirts. Hott. So, next time he tours, likely 2010 at his usual rate, let's get down there!

If I had the skills I would insert a link to an MP3 here. But I don't, so you will have to be patient.

If I had the skills, I would have inserted a picture of Hawksley, taken on my digital camera, if I had one that worked in the dark, from the gig in question.

If I had the skills, I would insert a hyperlink behind Hawksley's name, taking you to his website. This would also be aided by him having a website that wasn't full of his new album.

For now, needs must, and I will leave you only with these conclusions:
Hawksley Workman is great
My blogging is not
If Hawksley can get better, so can the blog!

In the beginning...

This is my blog.

The question: Is my life interesting enough for me to sustain a blog?
The challenge: Make my life interesting enough to sustain a blog
The result: A blog

Progress: Blog started. Links edited. Posting underway.

Verdict: Ace