Farewell Fopp

I first encountered Fopp in Aberdeen, and initially thought that it was some local record shop rather than a national chain. Subsequently, trips to some of Fopp's many branches became a routine part of any trip to the Britain. Fopp had a handy business model, at least as far as the punter was concerned - they sold a lot of mid-price stuff for a fiver in Earth money. My well-informed friends tell me that this was based on some cannibalistic business practices, involving buying up the stock of bankrupt retailers in firesale auctions, but I was always too busy picking up records I had never got round to buying before to care. It helped that Fopp branches were always bright and cheery places well suited to record browsing. Famously, the one in Edinburgh even had a bar (even if it was more like what in Budapest they call a Drinks Bar).

And on Friday the 29th June, Fopp closed down all its stores without paying its employees their last month's wages. Cockfarmers. The BBC suggests that internet retailing and music downloading is to blame, though my well-informed friends suggest that instead M. Le Fopp accidentally found himself buying a retailers debts as well as its stock. Uh oh.

There may nevertheless be something to this idea that online retailing and downloading is killing record stores. Apparently London's Berwick Street is in serious decline these days, with there being far fewer shops there then there used to be. If this trend continues, there will soon be no reason to visit London. It is interesting and perhaps heroic that Rough Trade are planning to open a new monster shop in the Brick Lane area, with a view to stopping the Internet, but I fear that they are being a latter day Canute and are engaging in a futile action that will bring down their two existing shops with it.

This is life.

Name of a Pipe!

I saw this great French and English phrase dictionary in London. It was called something like "Name of a Pipe!" and used scenes from a Euro comic to show how translating figures of speech literally is a bad idea. Anyway, the comic from which the scenes were taken looked deadly – all whacky adventures and people doing exciting early to mid 20th century stuff. Some chaps called Mortimer and Blake seemed to be involved.

Later, in Gosh, I stumbled across an actual Blake & Mortimer comic: The Yellow "M", by Edgar P. Jacobs. It is excellent stuff, about a superpowered maniac who starts off stealing the crown jewels and robbing the vault of the Bank of England before going on to kidnap some eminent figures against whom the mysterious villain seems to have some kind of grudge. It does perhaps get a bit outlandishly coincidence driven towards the end, but as a piece of work it is very evocative of a kind of pulp adventurer's London.

This edition comes with so little covering information that I thought for a moment that it might be a modern day work of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen style conceit. The interweb reveals that actually Blake & Mortimer comics started coming out in the late 1940s, appearing first in the same anthology title as Hergé's Tintin, with which The Yellow "M" shares obvious stylistic elements.

It is also incredibly wordy, which I like because it spits in the face of comics convention.

Crimes Against Pop

I went to a club called Crimes Against Pop in that London, largely through inertia as other people I knew were going. CAP is one of those pop-music-for-indie-kids clubs. It takes place in a somewhat divey basement club that does not have any beer on draught – the place is cheap in but if you care for a drink then you will end up severely out of pocket. I was reminded yet again of what good value illegal death drugs are.

The music, well it's grand. Things like this are great for getting an impression of what the young people like. I also got to dance to 'WE! ARE! YOUR FRIENDS!'. although it did seem like a somewhat lame remix version. The place got very full as the evening wore on so we lost interest and made our long way home.

There was one great moment, when some piece of insane electropop madness was rocking the floor…. And then I caught a snatch of lyrics and realised the singer was saying 'Let's make love and listen to Death From Above'. So I was hearing Brazilian sensations CSS for the first time. Now I know why people go on about that track, it is awesome. And I heard Amy Winehouse's 'Rehab' song for the first time. I was struck by her voice's somewhat comedic qualities and the derivativeness of the tune, but it seemed to strike something of a chord with the many people present who were drinking to excess. I wonder will alcoholism become the new smoking?

Love "Forever Changes"

I was in a record shop and there was this amazing psychey music being played, so I wandered over to the counter and it was this. So I bought it, but not there and then. I get the impression at times that everyone in the world except me has a copy of this, so maybe talking about it too much is irrelevant. But I will do so anyway, to an extent. The album opens with 'Alone Again Or', a track I think of as the big Love song. It is noticeably less good than the rest of the album, overcompensating in horn flourishes for the lack of a great tune; its being written by the band's minority songwriter might be significant. The rest of the album is excellent, a kind of melodic and polished psyche making much of Arthur Lee's measured vocal tones.

And then bonus tracks attack. Most of the bonus tracks are actually perfectly enjoyable, but then there is one where the band have an unfunny Spinal Tap style argument in the studio. I never understand why record companies think that releasing this kind of shite is a good idea.

Nostalgia

I've just discovered that things I wrote years ago for Freaky Trigger (in its pre-blog incarnation) are still available online. Around five years ago I wrote this piece about Nordic music: His Wotanic Majesty's Request

And four years ago, I gave them this snippet about John Otway playing at Glastonbury: John Otway At Glastonbury – Beyond The Fringe

Sparks "Hello Young Lovers"

This is a recent album from the crazy Mael brothers. It is very lushly arranged, with loads of strings and keyboards and stuff counterpointing Russell's perhaps somewhat treated voice. On a first listen or two I was maybe a bit confused by this, but it is something of a grower. One thing I thought about it from the word go – this is not an album by a band who had a big hit 30 years ago and are now content to tread water, chase trends, or plod through rehashes of past greatness. Even if you do not like this record you will have to acknowledge that Sparks are still reaching for the prize.

I remember seeing Sparks on Top Of The Pops in the 1970s, though I did not know their name and just thought of them as that-band-with-the-weird-keyboard-player. Much later I discovered that they were the band Sparks and heard 'This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us' etc. I think it was Frank's APA Andrew bigging these guys up so much that tipped me over into buying their record (er, my beloved actually bought it, but I made her do it using my psychic powers).

HI DERE I UPDAT LINKS

I have updated my links to other blogs and deleted links to ones that do not pass muster, as part of my commitment to bring YOU only the very greatest of the world's other blogs. Just in case you are reading this out in blog aggregator land, and thus never actually see Inuit Bikini Scarlet Carwash in all its true glory, I now present you with a list of all the other blogs to which I currently link, and a brief description of each.

:-) means they link to me
:-| means they do not link to anyone
:-( means they link to other people but not to me

LiveJournal Syndication of Inuit Bikini Scarlet Carwash :-)
This is a Live Journal feed of this blog; handy for people who only read things in LiveJournal.

Hunting Monsters :-)
My incredibly interesting other blog.

The Dublin School of International Relations :-)
This is a Spy School group blog. Everyone who writes for it has at least one other blog. This explains its lack of updates.

Extracts of Thought :-)
First blog to ever link to me, hence its appearance in pole position here. Extracts of Thought is written by Idleberry, whom I know from the Internet.

Accentmonkey Is Ainm Dom :-)
Accentmonkey is an old friend from college and a member of Frank's APA.

Percy's Depressed :-)
This is written by Queenie, an OFFC and a member of Frank's APA.

The John Heron Project :-)
This is a group blog written by people who include Wood, a member of Frank's APA and someone I know from the Internet.

Sunshine Pop :-)
I know Sharon from the Internet. She is one of those knitters.

Optimuscrime London :-)
Another person from the Internet. He needs to update more often.

Andrew Sherman's blog :-)
Andrew Sherman is from Chester, though he does not live there.

Conceits :-|
Mr Henry the Cow is a member of Frank's APA.

Carsmile Steve :-|
Carsmile Steve is a former member of Frank's APA. I know him originally from the Internet.

Thinking Outside the Helicopter :-|
Leedy is an OFFC.

Per Stratagem Ad Gaudium :-)
Ammonite is a special OFFC.

Fattening Frogs For Snakes :-)
Paul is a member of Frank's APA and a fellow student in Spy School.

Persis Khambatta Skiing In The Negev :-)
Kealo is a member of Frank's APA and a fellow student in Spy School.

Click Opera :-|
I know Momus primarily through the Internet, even though he does not write for it anymore. You might know him through the many records of selective appeal he has released. Of all the blogs I link to, Click Opera is one of the very few that I actually recommend.

Chris Gilmour's Diary :-(
I know Mr Chris Gilmour from the Internet. This is somewhat ironic, as he has been banned from there for some time now.

Doklands :-|
Dok is a former member of Frank's APA. This is one of those MP3 blogs.

This ain't KFC, baby :-|
I have been linking to this blog under false pretences, for reasons that are not entirely clear to me. The blog seems not uninteresting, but unless I discover who this person is it will probably be disappearing to the hell that is my Bloglines listing

Popular :-|
Former member of Frank's APA and the Internet is working his way through every British number one single ever.

Old Style Rabbit Tales Of Furry Fury :-(
SebCatLitter is a member of Frank's APA. Joana is not.

PopJustice :-|
This is a blog about pop music… you know, that stuff young people like.

John Moore :-|
John Moore used to be in Black Box Recorder and the Jesus And Mary Chain. He is currently pursuing a number of projects.

Rowan Tree and Red Thread :-|
Myles Corcoran is an OFFC.

Press '1' to Bun Dem :-|
I know whatever the writer of this blog is currently calling himself through OFFCs.

Knut's blog :-|
Knut is a polar bear who lives in the Berlin zoo.

From the Heart of Europe :-(
NHW is the brother of an OFFC. He lives in Brussels and does important things (like watching a lot of Doctor Who).

Cope :-(
James Wallis founded Frank's APA, but is no longer a member of it.

Undersea Community :-)
This is another one of those MP3 blogs, this time by OFFC JMason23 and others.

Masonic Boom :-|
I know Masonic Boom from the Internet.

Meehawl – all that is solid melts into air :-|
I know Meehawl through OFFCs. If you are interested in Female Clown Bathtup Shark Porn then his blog is a must.

Living the Rainbow Nation :-(
I know Riona from Spy School. She is on a field placement in South Africa.

It has taken me an age to compile this. The lesson – that I link to too many blogs.

Charlie Parker [some not obviously titled record from Fopp]

Charlie Parker plays that jazz music. This is an interesting record, and very enjoyable, but maybe it is difficult in retrospect to see what people considered so groundbreaking about Parker's work. But that's not to run these enjoyable sounds down.

I may have always known the name Charlie Parker (wasn't he a friend of Ben Rowlinson?), but it was the Ken Burns "Jazz" documentary that made me interested in acquiring music by him. It made him seem like a kind of doomed figure, almost gothic in his devotion to heroin and music, an image oddly belied by his cheery appearence in any footage of him they had.

What was that tank?

I went to see The Battle of Algiers again on Wednesday night. This is my second time seeing it. I won't spoil the plot, but there is a bit near the end where a tank appears, or a tank destroyer if you are being a pedant. When I saw the film before hand, I assumed that it was a JagdPanther, given the sloping nature of its fixed turret. Watching the film again, I was not so sure, and started wondering if it was something else entirely. Notably, it looked like it had a T-34 chassis, so I wondered if it might have been some kind of Soviet tank destroyer. Investigation reveals that the vehicle was almost certainly an SU-85 or SU-100, Soviet tank destroyers built on the T-34 chassis.

There is a certain irony to my mistaking the SU-85 for a JagdPanther. The JagdPanther was a tank destroyer built on a German Panther tank chassis. As the Panther was in many ways a German knock-off of the T-34, it is fitting that the JagdPanther should look suspiciously like the T-34's tank destroyer variant.

One of the things with The Battle of Algiers is its cinema verité look, with the riot scenes at the end in which the tank appears often being taken as actual newsreel footage spliced into the film's narrative. The appearance of a Soviet-made tank breaks the illusion - the French in the 1950s, at the height of the Cold War, would hardly be using Soviet armoured vehicles, while the newly independent Algerians would no doubt have been able to acquire some antique tank destroyers from the Eastern bloc, and it is surely one of these vehicles that were pressed into service for the film.

film: "300"

This is the one where these 300 Spartan soldiers face off against a zillion slave soldiers of bi-curious Persian Emperor Xerxes. As you know, it is adapted from a comic by Frank Miller and filmed in a CGI-tastic manner similar to that used in Sin City. It is enjoyable enough, but maybe not as totally brilliant as it might have been. The whole subplot about the Spartan Queen and the evil Spartan traitor in league with the Persians is grand in and of itself, but essentially irrelevant to the main story and plainly only there to have a hot woman character on screen for a bit longer. The depictions of the combats between the Spartans and the Persian troops are also problematic. Apart from one fight early on, the Spartans do not fight as proper hoplites (in a wall of shields). This is somewhat unrealistic, as it would in practice allow the greater numbers of the Persians to come to bear on them.

Overall though, this is a very enjoyable film set in a testosterone-fuelled age when men were real men, not afraid to hang aroung with other men while not wearing too many clothes. I wonder would Leonidas draw comfort from the thought of his story still being told 2,500 years after his heroic death?