Thursday, February 18, 2010

'Only connect'....actually don't


At the risk of sounding a bit deep, or worse flaky, been thinking a lot about juxtapositions over the last few days. I'm listening to Devendra Banhart Radio on Last FM which starts off with an artist you like (in this case, er, Devendra Banhart) and then moves on to tracks it thinks are related or you will like. This results in some very peculiar juxtapositions of music, some wonderful discoveries and some awful crap. I give you Radiohead Radio which started off with a sublime Radiohead track and through some circumlocuitous route ended up with Coldplay. Nooooooooo!

Juxtapositions were on my mind too as I walked through our local subway. There was evidence of alcohol consumption and drug taking under there and bizarrely someone with a serious Bakewell tart habit. Then earlier in the week there was the unfortunate juxtaposition of a wedding dress stall at the local shopping centre and a stall giving advice on chlamydia!

Finally in my week of peculiar combinations there was the photo of the band which we are using to promote a couple of forthcoming gigs. There we are trying our hardest to look moody (and by gad it's hard to look moody when you look like us) and behind us is a high chair and a microwave. Rock n roll!

Perhaps these combinations of the banal and quotidian and the edgy are a good thing. After all we wouldn't know other things were dangerous, original or pleasant if there weren't things that aren't.

I seem to remember that making spurious connections between things is a sign of madness. Oh well, pass us a Bakewell tart, I might as well enjoy myself.

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