Welcome to my first video blog…
The Soundtrack To My Life. 15/01/2012.
Where to begin.
I’ve been secretly putting a band together.
…Even more secretly than that, I’ve also put a second secret band together!
- I’m two timing myself with myself! (Hope I don’t find out!)
So, that makes 2 secret bands and they are so secret that even I don’t know how they’ll both eventually sound!
I’ll let you know.
Anyways, here’s what I’ve been listening to lately.
You should try to get your mits on some or all of these folks!
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“Bad As Me”. (Deluxe Edition). (2011).
Artist: Tom Waits.
Why You Should Get It: Because Tom Waits sound like a homicidal Jim Henson muppet! Especially on ‘Chicago‘.
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“Let’s Dance”. (Single). (1983).
Artist: David Bowie.
Why You Should Get It: Because all Dave’s love for you, would break his heart in two.
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“Crazy Clown Time”. (2011).
Artist: David Lynch.
Why You Should Get It: Because it’s an album by David Lynch and this is the first track.
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“Spilt Milk”. (1993).
Artist: Jellyfish.
Why You Should Get It: Because Jellyfish were one of the best bands of the 1990′s and nobody even seems to mention them these days which is criminal because LISTEN TO THIS and then THIS!
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“Crumb” (Original Soundtrack). (1991).
Artist: Various.
Why You Should Get It: This is old time music selcted by Robert Crumb himself from his own personal collection. Back then, people used to put their lives and souls into the songs they wrote.
Every cut on this record is a one of a kind gem and this is probably my favourite.
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“Middle Of Everywhere”. (2011).
Artist: Pokey LaFarge & The South City Three.
Why You Should Get It: Pokey LaFarge can do no wrong for me so I don’t care if you get this or not because I have it and that’s good enough.
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“Yes I’m A Witch”. (2007).
Artist: Yoko Ono.
Why You Should Get It: Because you probably just think Yoko Ono is about breaking up The Beatles and screaming but really, you’ve never even heard one of her songs and have no idea about how far ahead of everyone else she always has been.
Listen to this for starters.
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“Rhapsody In Blue”. (1924)/(1928).
Artist: George Gershwin.
Why You Should Get It: CLICK HERE.
Al Cook’s Necropolis Memories.
My comic strip Al Cook’s “Necropolis” is about to change and so, I thought I’d share some memories.
…Ahh, memories.
…ARGGHHHHH! MEMORIES!
Last month I decided that my strip was over detailed and I had a good mind to make it really scratchy and quick but just as I was about to do that, Christmas arrived and Anna presented me with a rare Glasgow comic book called “The Bogie Man” and that changed everything.
A while ago, I mentioned “The Bogie Man” HERE but I had no idea how detailed it was inside and how good it looked because of it.
So that’s that. Next time you take a look at Al Cook’s “Necropolis”, things should look pretty different.
ALSO!
Last week I bumped into this mysterious graveyard character.
That’s Trevor.
Trevor conducts Ghost Tours of Glasgow Necropolis and when I told him about my comic strip, he offered to help me out.
I told him that I didn’t believe in ghosts and so, he asked me if I’d be interested in jumping out from behind tombstones and scaring tourists.
- “Would I get to murder anyone Trevor?”
He said that I wouldn’t be able to so instead, I’m gonna accompany Trevor on a few of his ghost walks and take in some scenery and stories.
Because Trevor won’t let me off any of his tourists, I’ve decided to…KILL EVERYBODY!
You can tune in HERE and all going well, the next strip will be up on Valentine’s Day 2012.
Discovering John Byrne Again And Again.
I keep seing pictures in magazines and on telly of an old guy with the best moustache and beard in the World!
He dresses just like me and I keep thinking to myself:
(a) Who is that guy?
(b) What does he do?
(c) That is exactly how I hope to look in later life.
It turned out to be playwright and artist John Byrne and although I didn’t know it, I’d been a great admirer of his work most of life!
Everything fell into place for me when John Byrne appeared in the recent BBC documentary on Gerry Rafferty.
“THERE’S THAT GUY!” I shouted at the screen.
I’ve only got one Gerry Rafferty album (“Can I Have My Money Back”) and I’ve always really liked the front cover but silly old me, I had no idea that John Byrne was the artist behind it.
I thought to myself: “If I was Gerry Rafferty, I’d want John Byrne’s artwork on all of my albums forever!”
…And that seems to be what Gerry did!
Can you believe how beautiful those album covers are!?
Looking through them all felt really familiar to me even although I don’t own any of them. It was like I’d seen them before but until Gerry Rafferty died, his albums were surprisingly hard to find in Glasgow so I think I can rule that one out.
The album covers reminded me of being really small and after some digging around on the internet, I found out why.
When I was young my folks used to take me to the People’s Palace in Glasgow where these paintings hang:
So there you go. it seems that I’ve been looking at these paintings all of my life and never once bothered to find out about the artist.
Shame on me but at least I made the connection in the end.
I’ve spend all week investigating John Byrne and as the days go on, I find myself thinking: “No way! that was him too?”
I remember being in a shop a few years ago and staring at the downright glorious DVD artwork for “Tutti Frutti”.
Yep, that was John Byrne too! Today I feel really stupid because John Byrne also wrote “Tutti Frutti” and I never even knew that.
My latest John Byrne surprise concerns The Beatles’ White Album.
I’m a huge Beatle fan and I have shelves of bootlegs and one of them is called “A Doll’s House”.
“A Doll’s House” was a sort of working title for “The White Album” and John Byrne was commisoned for the album cover which of course wasn’t used in the end but it’s on the bootleg I have and it was eventually used for “The Beatles Ballads”
I feel like I’ve been looking right at John Byrne’s work with my eyes closed for 25 years!
I learn something new every day.
EDIT:
My pal Natalie just got in touch to say that Mr. Byrne designed some posters for some plays which her theatre group performed. Also, John Byrne happened to write the plays.
I should’ve known.
Happy New Year To You But Not To Me.
Happy New Year everybody!
2012.
How can that be?
I mean, that’s the future right?
Anyways, I’m glad we all made it this far.
I’ve been off work for 3 days now for New Year and I’ve had a GREAT time!
I hardly ever get time off from work so I made the most of it.
Today was my first day back at work and I decided to take a taxi because of THIS and I almost made it right to the door of the building I work in when the police pull the taxi over.
They ask me to open the door and then…”FREEZE MOTHERFUCKER!“
Okay, they weren’t THAT aggressive but they weren’t all that pleasant either.
They pulled us over because I wasn’t wearing a seatbelt and automatically hit me with a spot fine of 60 bucks!
Motherfucker.
I was clearly in the wrong here.
If we’d have crashed, my body could have flown through the windshield and killed someone!
But goddamn, 60 bucks is a bit severe.
I said to the officer: “Let’s meet in the middle and call it 30!” but she was having none of it.
I said: “Okay. 35! And that’s my final offer!”
So that was that.
I went into work with an ‘Offenders Ticket’ which says I gotta pay Strathclyde Police 60 clams within 28 days or I’m going to the can.
I wonder where my money will go once I pay it.
Happy New Year to me 
PS: The taxi driver didn’t charge me any money.
