diskant is an independent music community based in Glasgow, Scotland and we have a whole team of people from all over the UK and beyond writing about independent music and culture, from interviews with new and established bands and labels to record and fanzine reviews and articles on art, festivals and politics. There's over ten years of content here so dig in!
Just when you thought Flickr couldn’t get any more addictive or time-consuming, the bastards have added a video function which is amazing. They’ve limited things to 90 secs to give the Flickr videos a feel of moving photographs and give an excellent place to upload stop-frame animations or quick movies you might have filmed on your digital camera.
I put a load up today that have been clogging up my hard drive:
A new Ghibli film is usually eagerly anticipated here at diskant but this one seemed to miss our radar. Directed by (son of Hayao) Goro Miyazaki and based on the books by Ursula LeGuin, it has plenty potential for awesomeness. However, I heard a lot of bad things about it and thus lacked the enthusiasm to push it up my DVD rental list. I got it this weekend and was pleasantly surprised. Most of the complaints have been from Earthsea fans but really, has there ever been a film adaptation that wholeheartedly pleased hardcore fans of the book? Having only read the first two Earthsea stories early last year, I had some vague understanding of the characters and locations and the powers of the wizards, which weren’t really explained at all in the film. I’m really not sure why they didn’t make a film of the first couple of stories first – they could have Harry Potter-ed up the Wizard school for the kidz and everything and then this film would have made a lot more sense.
Anyway, having not read the stories the film is based on, I found it all quite enjoyable and Ghibli-esque with strong hints of Princess Mononoke and a little bit of Castle of Cagliostro. Goro is clearly not his dad and this lacks a lot of the wonder and joy and oddness of Spirited Away or the book-adapted Howl’s Moving Castle but is certainly as good as non-Miyazaki Ghiblis like The Cat Returns. The tale of a wizard trying to restore balance to the world, an evil wizard trying to gain eternal life, a runaway prince pursued by shadows and a girl with very hidden depths, it’s a decent anime with enough spooky bits and action to keep it interesting. If nothing else, it’s really made me want to dig out my book and finish reading the rest of the Earthsea stories, which I’m sure have much less of a happy tied-up ending. In summary, Ghibli fans – go see; Earthsea fans – think of the new fans you’ll gain, not the changes to the story.
Here’s the trailer with subtitles. Therru singing this song in the fields is one of the loveliest bits of the film.
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=YnVCK0jXlJ8[/youtube]
Supremely rare footage of a 4-piece Nation Of Ulyssestearing it up without the suits and without Steve Kroner, opening for Fugazi somewhere by the look of it and right before they broke up too at a guess. An ex-Ulysses member told me Kroner went to a medical facility to do some tests for cash around this time. They also said they had no idea what happened to him afterwards or where he is now. The phenomenon of internet blogging really is just a widespread spewing of misinformation so I’m pleased to play my part in the rumour mill.
Watching: John Sayles’ new film Honeydripper at the Glasgow Film Festival. Good stuff. Full post later, I hope.
Listening: No scope for lying to make myself looking cooler, since it’s all on my Last.fm profile but Honeydripper sent me off to lots of old blues and rockabilly stuff like Hank Williams’ Move it on over. Either public domain recordings rule, or I’m getting old.
Reading: Not enough books, too many webpages. Damn RSS aggregators.
This makes me want to fucking puke. Of course, no one in England plays in shitty venues without a stage, plays in 5 bands, has a work ethic. No chance. We all just play on TV in quaint bands. Our ‘underground’ runs as deep as the Arctic Monkeys. How I wish American bands had the chances we have here.
Bullshit.
There is an underground to the ‘underground’ in the UK that somehow connects popular culture of the last 10 years or more and no one ever gives it credit or even notices it. It takes in Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party, Foals. It even takes in Graham Coxon.
