Thursday 17 January 2013

His Master's Voice



"All I have is memories, and reminders of mortality."

The apparent demise of the high street record store HMV has triggered a whirlpool of personal emotions, not dissimilar, I imagine, to those experienced by Nipper the dog, the company's iconic trademark appropriated from an original painting by artist Francis Barraud.

Barraud's vision depicts a Jack Russell listening intently to 'his master's voice' played on a phonograph. With added poignancy, some suggest both sit atop a coffin, Nipper a demonstrable picture of loyalty and melancholy.

Although I could never show quite such sentiment towards what was, after all, another profit making corporation, its passing does, nonetheless, compel me to contemplate the passing of my own misspent youth and a period in time to which I feel I very much belonged.

If it's not that HMV going into administration makes me feel old, then, at least, it makes me feel no longer young, confused by the implications of a new era of music consumption seeming to threaten that which I most loved about the popular music world in the first place.

For all the sins of Virgin, Our Price and others, HMV was the last, ubiquitous bastion of music on the high street, the final totem of a time not solely about the music alone but about the experience of falling in love with bands and what they represent. We still have independent record stores, of course, but perhaps never again will the wider public appreciate that special environment in which to immerse oneself in something 'other'.

At the same time, I realise I may need to simply accept that fact. I find myself raging against a drift into lazy nostalgia, of thinking yester-year was unanimously better than now, disproved by nothing more than the fact that, despite all I've said, I actually can't even remember the last time I purchased a record from HMV!

I was going to write a fuller treatise on the theme until I came across the piece from which the opening quote of this blog is taken. Written by Guardian columnist Stuart Jeffries, it says all I want to say, including how, of all the high street names lost in this recession, the departure of HMV from our national conscience strikes harder to our hearts due to the emotive pull of music in all our lives.

Omnipresent access to music online is a wonderful thing and perhaps someone soon will fully utilise all the new opportunities for artistic expression it may afford the modern music artist. Yet, I see no signs of it to date and in the mean time such a wealth of music at my fingertips feels as much an inhibitor as an enabler.

Could it be I prefer less choice? Or is it that I've never loved 'music' just for the music itself but for something much, much more? Something the faceless, commitment free download of bytes of data can't help but undermine?

Thursday 10 January 2013

For posterity...


...my intake in 2012...

Read...


Foundation - Issac Asimov
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce
Nobody Ever Says Thank You: A Biography of Brian Clough - Jonathan Wilson
Foundation and Earth - Issac Asimov
2001: A Space Odyssey - Arthur C Clarke
Strange Maps - Cartographic curiosities
Pushing Ahead of the Dame - David Bowie Song by Song - Chris O'Leary
Letters of Note - Shaun Usher
The Blizzard Issue 5 - Jonathan Wilson (Editor)
Proud Man Walking - Claudio Ranieri
XKCD - A Webcomic of Romance, Sarcasm, Math and Language
The Good, the Bad and the Multiplex - Mark Kermode
The Blizzard Issue 4 - Jonathan Wilson (Editor)
Revolution in the Head - Ian MacDonald
Despatches from the Sofa: The Collected Wisdom of Frank Skinner - Frank Skinner

Heard...

Battle Born - The Killers
The 2nd Law - Muse
Ocean Rain - Echo & The Bunnymen
Inside the Huddle Podcast - NFL UK
One Day I'm Going To Soar - Dexys
Four - Bloc Party
Coexist - The xx
Remain In Light - Talking Heads
Marquee Moon - Television
Greatest Hits II - Queen
Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast
New Boots and Panties - Ian Dury and the Blockheads
Searching for the Young Soul Rebels - Dexys Midnight Runners
Drive - The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack - Various
1982 - Status Quo
In the Belly of the Brazen Bull - The Cribs
Complete - The Smiths (CD Boxset)
Radlands - Mystery Jets
Rant - The Futureheads
Blunderbuss - Jack White
Sweet Heart, Sweet Light - Spiritualized
A+E - Graham Coxon
The Ladykiller - Ce Lo Green
Sonik Kicks - Paul Weller
Django Django - Django Django
Dizzy Heights - The Lightning Seeds
Like You Do...The Best Of - The Lightning Seeds
The ArchAndroid - Janelle MonĂ¡e
Exile on Main Street (Deluxe Edition) - The Rolling Stones
Help! (Remastered) - The Beatles

Watched...

Slade in Flame - BBC4
The Girl - BBC1
Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender - BBC4
Mad Men - Season 5 (Blu-Ray)
The Killing III - BBC4
Storyville: From the Land to the Sea Beyond - BBC4
The Hour - BBC1
Crossfire Hurricane: The Rolling Stones - BBC2
Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists (Blu-ray)
Skyfall
50 Years of Bond Cars: A Top Gear Special - BBC2
Chas & Dave: Last Orders - BBC4
Avengers Assemble (Blu-ray)
Dr Who - BBC1
The Hunger Games (Blu-ray)
The Woman In Black (Blu-ray)
Kill List (Blu-ray)
Planet of the Apes - Film4
The Thick of It - BBC2
Russell Brand: From Addiction to Recovery - BBC3
Alien 3 - Film4
Brief Encounter - Film4
The Descendants (Blu-ray)
The Muppets (Blu-ray)
Aliens - Film4
When I Get Older - BBC1
Faster, Higher, Stronger: Stories of the Olympic Games - BBC2
Nowhere Boy - Film4
Alien (DVD)
Quadrophenia: Can You See the Real Me? - BBC4
The Secret History of Our Streets - BBC2
Make Bradford British - C4
Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars - BBC4
The Genius of David Bowie - BBC4
David Bowie and the Story of Ziggy Stardust - BBC4
The Artist (Blu-Ray)
The Guard (Blu-Ray)
Evidently...John Cooper Clark - BBC4
Punk Britannia - BBC4
The Armando Iannucci Shows (DVD)
Marion and Geoff (DVD)
Twilight - Breaking Dawn Part 1 (Blu-Ray)
Hugo (Blu-Ray)
Mark Lawson talks to...Mark Gatiss - BBC4
The 70's - BBC2
Tyrannosaur (Blu-Ray)
We Need To Talk About Kevin (Blu-Ray)
Mark Lawson talks to...Frank Skinner - BBC4
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Blu-Ray)
Drive (Blu-Ray)
Being Human - BBC3
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (DVD)
Upstairs, Downstairs - BBC1
Time Team - C4
Call the Midwife - BBC1
Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy - E4
Room 101 - BBC2
Blade Runner (Blu-Ray)
Armando's Tale of Charles Dickens - BBC2
Sherlock - BBC1

My New Year's Resolution, for the second year in a row, is to read more.