The Man Who Rode The Mule Around The World: August 2012

Friday 24 August 2012

Mix No 2 August 2012

The Man Who Rode The Mule Hopes That You Like It......

1. I, Ludicrous - Preposterous Tales
2. Gladys Knight & The Pips - Didn't You Know (You'd Have To Cry Sometime)
3. Jim Boss & The Sundowners - Your Love Is Stronger Than Dirt
4. Robert Smith-Hald - Thou Mayest
5. Bob Dylan - Dixie
6. 4h Royalty - Fall Of The Face Of The Earth With Me
7. Muddy Waters - Unk In Funk
8. JKutchma - Used To Believe
9. Mondo Davis - Dear London
10. The Dimestore Junkies - The Machine
11. Hacienda - Don't You Ever
12. Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner - Jeannie's Afraid Of The Dark
13. Floyd Dakin Combo - Look What You Gone And Done
14. Hurray For The Riff Raff - Ode to John And Yoko
15. Lisa Cormier & The Sundown Playboys - Saturday Night Special
16. Roger Alan Wade - Cars And Guns
17. T.Rex - Woodland Rock

The Man Who Mix No 2 - August 2012

Friday 17 August 2012

And as the poor worked for a life at every waking hour

Last week I had just departed the train station in a large student enclave outside a major Northern city when I saw stencilled on a wall the following logo ‘Slave To The Wage’, this made me chuckle slightly as it hit home to me immediately that this message completely put a name to my current feelings at work. I have been a Wage Slave now for about 35 years without a major break. Not for me a life changing gap year, no staying at home in my late teens with my parents paying all the bills, no long term sick, absolutely nothing, ‘nada’, other than the six months in 1985 that I spent travelling the USA with my best mate Paul H.

I guess almost certainly by reading these comments you can probably tell that I’ve had enough and dear readers that would be a spot on assessment of my current work life predicament. I Want Out……no more days spent listening to bullshit, staring at spreadsheets, glancing at the clock on my PC then pretending I actually care about my job, my employer, my future prospects. I’ve done my bit for Queen & Country, I’ve paid my tax, I’ve contributed to National Insurance, I’ve maintained my pension and contributed to a Union for all those years and continue to do so BUT now I want a rest and a chance to live my life the way I want and not be a Wage Slave anymore.

So I have chosen four tracks that represent a wide ranging summation of my feelings on the matter of work. We have Australian anti-capitalist/consumerism electro band Snog, next are the legendary Gourds from Austin Texas, long term purveyors of mad Alternative Country with a twist, followed by the jazz/soul ensemble The Young Holt Trio from Chicago performing live and finally from further along the States in Ohio you can find ex-Soledad Brothers member Johnny Walker’s kicking up a storm of noise with his superb new band The Cut In The Hill Gang.

Enjoy

Snog - Corporate Slave

The Gourds - When The Money Comes Rolling In

Young Holt Trio - Aint There Something Money Cant Buy (Live Medley)

Cut in the Hill Gang - Fuck The People/Revolution

Saturday 4 August 2012

Better Call Saul

I try not to watch too much TV, and most of my favourite programmes over the last few years have hardly managed to break into the mainstream TV schedules anyway. Of course BBC4 is on freeview and there you can view great Nordic Noir and I have especially enjoyed The Bridge, The Killing and Borgen recently, all of which were high class series written for people who actually like to think about what they are watching.

Thinking about this in more detail I realised that over the years I have always gravitated towards shows from the US most of all. I remember Barney Miller, The Rockford Files and Hill Street Blues. Who could forget Jack Lord on Hawaii Five-O every Friday night in the 1970’s. Recently though things have changed and American TV series have a harder more contemporary edge.

Series such as The Sopranos, The Wire, Boardwalk Empire, Game Of Thrones and others such as Justified, The Walking Dead, Oz, Falling Skies to name some more. Although I will admit that none of these have moved me and caused such anticipation in me every time a new series was produced until AMC’s Breaking Bad appeared in 2008. Now this is a show that deserves a wider audience, it is often only found on the more obscure satellite channels and then put on with no fanfare or advanced warning which is a TV crime because this series has just everything. Great acting, great storylines, great music and it also has the unique ability to pull you into this fictional story and you really live these characters. I won’t bore you with a long synopsis (try Wikipedia Folks !) other than to mention that it’s the story of two men Walter White played by the majestic Bryan Cranston and Jesse Pinkman played by actor Aaron Paul and their life and death struggle to produce and sell Crystal Meth on the streets of Albuquerque, New Mexico, but it is so much more than that so please go and purchase the DVD’s, you would not be disappointed. I know the final and fifth series has just begun in the States and I am ready and waiting to see these guy’s through to a conclusion. As I have said earlier the show has tremendous background music supplied and sourced by David Porter and I was lucky enough to find a ‘homemade’ compilation on the net with all the music from the first three series, so below are a few personal choices.