1. The Big Adventure - Bolivian Salt Lakes... finding the Devil at the bottom of a mine in the highest city in the world... Lake Titicaca... Peruvian Inca ruins... my stomach raging like the surf in Rio...
2. Re-entry into the UK - reunited with people, records, curry, weather, debts.
3. Costume changes: Dabbling in male modeling, cross dressing, office dressing.
4. End of the AAA's 5 year plan celebrations and schisms. (plus talks at the Unconvention, The Lux, tech_nicks in Hull, etc).
5. Big Chill Enchanted Garden, Triology in Hackney and not much else at all on that front, really.
6. Mashing up the place in a cheesy disco style at our party. (And indeed, our party.)
7. Bryant-esque Performance Art - being shouted at simultaneously by fifty pissed people, the alchemy of the bacon filing cabinet, balloon launch as social lubricant, meetings with unremarkable minds.
8. Shaka, Tubbys, Abashanti-I.
9. The joys of OCR (oh dear).
10. North Wales, Bristol, Dorset, Belfast, Harrogate, Barcelona, ChelmsfordÉ
Shout Outs:
Chris, Sallie and Robbie, G-Master Fish and Miss E, and my parents for providing us with places to stay. Also our new Landlady for actually being alright Shock Horror.
Dil23, Rodney Brown, The London Spy and Loki for their help with the site. And anyone we blagged time and text from...
Jason. Paul & Carolyn & bump. Les Disconauts. All autonomous astronauts anywhere whether former or latter. Ye Stoke Newington pub posse. Everyone I didn't get a chance to see properly (most of you). New colleagues for making work almost bearable, almost. The teenage "lesbian" "satanic" "goths" for invading our space and making me realise how old I am. Hackney Council for reminding everyone what a bunch of wankers they are - again! And Lorna for still living with an insensitive, obssessive, malcoordinated, vacant eejit.
1.The Inca Trail. Exercise, exhiliaration, ridiculous views and very potent coca tea.
2. Pink, black and white flamingoes in green, black and red lakes. Trippy.
3. Our flat. Big, battered and colourful. Felt like home straight away.
4. Stargazing in the southern hemisphere, especially while swimming in a deserted pool/to the sounds of the jungle/from a high altitude salt desert.
5. Our house party in July. Warmed the flat, wrecked the carpet - lots of people had a lot of fun in the process.
6. The Big Chill (Enchanted Garden). Bumped into old friends and chilled out with peacocks.
7. Caipirinhas. Sugar cane rum, lots of lime, loads of ice and maybe a bit of sugar.
8. At Close Range. Short stories by Annie Proulx, especially Brokeback Mountain.
9. The Donkey Show. Audience participation, disco hits and lots of flesh. Why wasn't Shakespeare like this at school?
10. 100% Dynamite. Dancing with Bonnie and Clyde.
John, you wankah! I was going to give you my rundown of dubplates and promos, of course, but Muzik were after me for it as well... ;-)
1. Bloodclaat Gangsta Youth - Kill Or Be Killed (Full Watts 7"). - BO!!!
2. Drum 'n' Bass sorting itself out pt1 - Digital on the dubby ragga tip,
3. Drum 'n' Bass sorting itself out pt2 - Creative Source and Defunked bringing back the funk.
4. UK dub scene - BSL, Step Forward zine, Reggae Explosion exhibition etc
5. Brixton Bass Pressure vol1 mix CD by Mr Meme for proving that 2-step isn't actually a pile of cack after all!
6. Revival reggae - Niney The Observer, Lee Perry represses and lots lots more...
7. Reggae 2000 - Morgan Heritage 'Gunz in the ghetto', Luciano 'Blast off go a Moon', Sizzla, etc. Plus Zion Train kicking it at Essential 2000.
8. Shirty reviews and ranting. Where's all this notoriety I was promised, you fucks!
9. Third World Cop - okay so it's not exactly up there with Citizen Kane or anything, but it's a larf, innit! American Beauty was alright as well. Neither film was as entertaining as the dramas unfolding in our local video shop, however.
10. Carnival.
TEN THINGS I LOATHED ABOUT 2000
1. The Holy Roman Jubilee of the fucking Pope
2. Clinton's "Colombia Plan" (Cocaine as a pretext for repressing leftist guerrillas)
3. The character assassination of South-African president Tabo Nbeki for his out-of-the-flock position on AIDS
4. The father of Tony Blair's newborn baby
5. People in Kosovo inhaling depleted uranium (and nobody gives a flying fuck about them)
6. US and UK radioactive bombs still being dropped on Irak
7. Austrian fascist arsehole Joerg Haider visiting Italy every week
8. Ariel Sharon still there after all these years
9. The ETA demented killers raising hell
10. Spanish dictator Francisco Franco remembered as a nice fellow
John - thanks for the chance to retrace my footsteps, think this meant most to me...'though it'll change tomorrow! Not really in order....!
COIL at Royal Festival Hall
Peaches CD (Teaches of Peaches)
MyEyes' <<Centrallodoncinedrive>> attack on the the Film Council
Inventory <<coagulum>> in Bentalls Centre Kingston
Winston Churchill's Mohawak in Westminster Square
Dancing to Joan Jett & Kim Wilde at Shinky Shonky
Picketing friends' events (losing/gaining friends)
Thai food in Portobello Rd
Grizedale Forest, Lakes: walking & showing films in the pissing, pissing rain
Blagging an iMac
Hello John! In 2 hours I'm travelling to Peru and I still haven't got my baggage finished, so my head's in the travel, however I took some minutes in order to do my charts. Nothing too original, since I'm doing it in 5 minutes, but here's what I got.
Music:
Silence is Sexy - Einsturzende Neubauten --- Neubauten keeps on ignoring all commercial rules and goes pop
Helikopter Quartett - Karleheinz Stockhausen --- tripping music (literally)
Astral Disaster - Coil ---some people say that Coil started to repeat itself years ago, but perfection needs no variations
Times Up - Thee Majesty --- Best spoken word album of the year, even if it's supposed to be music and not a spoken word album
White Noize for Black Rituals - Aesthetic Meat Front ----Alpha Wave madness for everyone, the album includes a beautiful black mirror and a big Sigil which had been performed with blood (yes, a different bloody Sigil in each CD!)
Expo 2000 - Kraftwerk ---The return of the futuristic grandfathers
Books:
The edition of the Diaries of E.M. Cioran!
Events (some of them are a bit personal, however...):
1) Morrissey in Buenos Aires!
2) Travelling to London by plane on 1st January in the middle of the Y2K madness and rumours about computers that will go mad and planes that will crash in the sky.
3) New Years Rave at the Planetarium of Buenos Aires.
4) Monthly updates at John Edens webpage!
Hiya John! Here's my personal top 10 for the year 2000.
1 - Acid Mothers Temple and the Melting Paraiso UFO @ the Garage - super psychedelic noise overload!!
2 - The Seppuku of Luther Blissett, The end of the AAA 5 year plan.
3 - Coil @ Royal Festival Hall - twice!!
4 - Morgan Heritage - Guns in the Ghetto
5 - Terre Thaemlitz' fagjazz compilation and Ultra Red's continued queer sonic activism
6 - Ice-Cream led psychogeography on the Isle of Dogs during the (brief) summer
7 - Mr. Lex - Top Gal
8 - AAA ideas spreading and mutating in new and unforseen patterns (long may it continue!)
9 - Chris From St. Albans @ Warp Records 'Nesh' night - glitch-rave extravaganza!!
10 - Having a nice holiday in Crete and meeting fun Greek Communists (with fantastic music taste). Finding ancient pirate treasure in the sea and surrendering it to the authorities!!
MARK'S TOP 10 SOCIAL EVENTS IN 2000
1. Afternoon Tea, Olivine Ice Plateau, Aspiring National Park, Monday, February 28
2. Red and Black Party, Vauxhall Cabaret, London, Saturday, October 31
3. Galileo After Party, CORSO Rear Warehouse, Hamilton, Saturday, May 13
4. Salmonella Dub, River Inn, Takaka, Wednesday, January 5
5. My Thirty Three and a Third Birthday, Claudelands, 20 Kitchener St, Tuesday, July 25
6. Gathering 2000, Canaan Downs, Takaka Hill, Saturday & Sunday, January 1 - 2
7. Nandor's Office Opening, Railway Buildings, Hamilton, Friday, September 1
8. World Stone Skipping Champs, Easdale Island, Argyll, Saturday, September 23
9. Barnstoneworth Pudding, 20 Kitchener St, Claudelands, Sunday, September 3
10. Speedy J, Milky Weg, Amsterdam, Sunday, October 8
1- "World-Information.org", July 2000, Brussells, Event
2- "Rave In Space", AAA, CD
3- "333", Sonic Belligeranza, Lp
4- Roger-Gilbert Lecomte, oeuvres completes, T.1, Gallimard, (classic lit)
5- "Nicholas Eymerich", by Valerio Evangelisti, Science-Fiction, novels
6- Nocturnal Emissions Gig at Gravit Zro Festival, paris, 01 november 2000
7- Bologna, Italy, the city...
8- Django Reinhart, old classics...
9- "1984-1999", Widerstand, Praxis records
10- Ubris, electronic grindcore band.
Top 10 of 2000, in no particular order:
- Primal Scream: Xtrmntr & Brixton Academy
- May Cannabis Rally, Clapham Common
- Zwee's birthday
- Brian Eno, hammocks & Taunton
- new PJ Harvey album
- Coil at the Festival Hall, both times
- Hun Huur Tu & Kodo drummers, the Barbican
- Sonic Boom exhibition, Hayward Gallery
- the Whitehouse hotel, Amsterdam
- rediscovering Stereolab while driving round Mull
Miscellaneous Top 10 of 2000, in not a lot of order
1/ My son, Robbie's first birthday party
2/ Holiday to Robin Hood's Bay, North Yorkshire.
3/ Record/clothes/assorted stuff bargains in Charity Shops
4/ Hearing demos of the unreleased Cornershop album
5/ Holiday to friends in Atlanta, Georgia, USA
6/ The Toes live gig at the Monarch, Camden
7/ Discordia - La Luna Discordia CD (Kookydisc)
8/ Cannabis Prohibition Rally at Brockwell Park, Brixton
9/ Brassy live gig for Japanese TV at LA2, London (and pizza with band)
10/ Mad Pride book anthology, edited by Robert Dellar (Spare Change Books)
Hi John, Not sure if this will be in time for you with timezones and stuff (brain not working), but it was fun to do anyway. It wasn't a great year for me, but there were some great things going in. In no particular order . . .
1. Swimming at beautiful beaches morning and night on perfect summer days
2. Sydney during the Olympics when most of Sydney left town -- people from all over the place were out on the streets celebrating something, there were hardly any cars on the roads and the trains ran on time
3. A few great drum and bass nights, especially seeing the Usual Suspects after crossing the road from work at midnight
4. The oddest and biggest family Christmas ever, with durian at 2am
5. Back Door Ubiquity -- celebrating the eventual replacement of our back door after it was unceremoniously kicked in months earlier (and the replacement of the stolen stuff)
6. Tsui Hark movies, Japanese novels and, in another dimension, shift.jp.org
7. American Psycho
8. The best Asian food: yum cha/sushi/Korean/Thai/Indonesian/Vietnamese -- and not being able to figure out whether that yummy stuff was crocodile, kangaroo or chicken (it was crocodile)
9. Friends finding true love and admitting it
10. Slutfest 2000 -- finally seeing Flange after her return from Japan
