Kingdom of the Absurd

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Question #1

December 09, 2008

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Can you tell a man's history from the scars on his shaven head?

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The wood and the trees

It’s hard to be a critic these days. Aside from the fact that everyone is one you also get to a level of age and experience where you find (or feel) that everything is being repeated. Your terms of reference are so much wider that you can hear and see new things but will always have something that you can compare them to – not always beneficially. To illustrate this I recently heard Lewis Watson, feted by many and easily comparable to lots of other artists. Whenever I encounter an act like this I find myself able to appreciate their work but also ask whether I wouldn’t rather spend the time listening to Dylan, Drake, Young, Oldham , Cave or a host of other singer-songwriters. I recognise the necessity of the new but when we all have the ability to dredge through the history of music via Spotify, YouTube and their ilk you realise that new acts are stuck in that impossible position of having to compete with the past as well as the present. It’s a hard slog to say the least...

The Human Yawn

This is the last of my forays into the tube (for now), I don’t want to start repeating myself – there’s enough of that around already. We’re aware that the ‘appointment to view’ has largely disappeared. TV caters for this with ‘catch-up’ and plus one services as well as repeats scattered around the schedule. A large percentage of us also have our own way of addressing the issue with our PVR/Sky+ type systems. As much as is possible I avoid watching any programme shown on a commercial channel in real time or live. The reasons for this are not merely to escape the advertising, some of which I like (the new First Direct commercial is great art), but also to skip what I find most annoying about reality or documentary programming – the reminder sections. You’ve all seen these segments, normally occurring immediately after a commercial break, reminding you of what you’ve already seen and the central crux of the programme. Treating us all as if we’ve got attention deficit probl...

Cast Away

The podcast came of age in 2015. Possibly released from the perception that it was edited radio without the music, people realised that the concept was so much more and that the format was awash with great stories. Serial was the tipping-point, part murder-mystery with elements including a potential miscarriage of justice, you could forgive the occasional irritation caused by the presentation style because you were gripped by the story. It opened a gateway to a world of information and a marketplace for would-be broadcasters everywhere. I was an early-adopter, having worked in radio that was probably to be expected. Long before the internet took hold I used to harass people to record stuff on cassette tape so that I could hear presenters like Howard Stern, Chris Tarrant and Christian O’Connell. As podcasting launched it enabled me to catch-up with great talent like Geoff Lloyd, Andy Bush, Frank Skinner and Dave Gorman. A period working at Absolute Radio had given me an insigh...

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