SOFT PLAY - PUNK'S DEAD

If you type 'Future Sounds' into BBC sounds search 🔍 you'll find interesting music and interesting people.

I Feel Love

Tony Hadley had a chance to work with Giorgio Moroder - Here he is guesting on Radio 1. He's a legend. A proper one.

I'll be sharing a few variations of below from time to time.

The video producer does something exceptional. Most pop vids have a theme, very few (FOALS - Exit) are uniquely thematic in a way that keeps surprising till the very 'the' end. It covers a lot of histo-cultural ground with arguably the most relaxing disco number not just then, still now.

Donna Summer - I Feel Love (Moreno J Deeper Love Remix)

Lots of still images of Donna Summer in her prime. She was more than an attractive person; she had moments of stunning beauty. I noticed her strong but graceful posture and unmissably broad shoulders years and years ago, but I never mentioned it to anyone until now.

Donna Summer at some point in time or maybe over a period of time too, transcended physicality (improv), and her voice must surely be prima facie evidence of the word unforgettable? 

If Donna Summer asked me to cover for a broken NY date, I would have bitten off my chewed fingernails in a heartbeat and dropped everything; any time in the past, now, without hesitation, and of course if she accepted my invitation, that would apply to any theoretical time in the infinite future.

WOW, I just had my ass kicked by an unplanned Punk version of I Feel Love and it works terrifically while taking Donna & Giorgio in a direction that, as William Shepherd wrote for Wings in 1985 - "I didn't think, I never dreamed, that I would be around to see it all come true**

Try it. You don't have to love it as I do, but at least have an informed opinion. Venus Hum of Blue Man Group, is the kind of woman I''d like to meet, without knowing anything. Guys too but a woman so unique it is pleasurable to identify through their  energy though sometimes the absence of it can be just as instructive, but words are powerful (Spells), and it's hard to conceal this kind of life carved through rock. The male group are fixed but she's often around as I understand it. I took one look at their audience and saw immediately they're a bit spesh.

Three months ago the algo served up Donna Summer, live in Italy (I suspect) during the year of Lilibet Diana's Silver Jubilee (1977). I was too busy to update it here and thought I'd bookmarked it, but after Venus Hum's inspiration, I tracked it down.

I'm not a musician

I wish I was, though three times in my life I've been blessed to be with musicians, and each time because of the marijuana I've inhaled, the ability to join in with rudimentary instruments and conducting has overtaken me, and I've inexplicably had a moments of clarity, and the blessing of inexplicable comprehension exploding sweetly, but it's the ability to join in and understand where everyone else is at rhythmically and musiscally that never fades in memory including dementia.

The happiest occasion was in Chok-D Bar and restaurant I lived next door, and Alek the owner started unknown to me his circle of friends impromptu act, so I joined in and we were on fire, before we all came to an intuitive end. A nearby table started applauding us and all the patrons then joined in clapping, while my friends were looking at me wide eyed for participating in the ensemble and adding a Jazz drumming percussion to our improv band that I'd previously never knowingly worked for.

Three times a Titan has breathed 'Apollo' in my life.

• The Egg Cultural Centre in Beijing. 
• Chok-D Beach Sports Bar- จอมเทียน
• Blues Bar - สุขุมวิท 24, กรุงเทพฯ (Bangkok)

When I listened to Donna Summer sing this latest live rendition. I don't think more than a handful can today smash out the singing with a faithfulness to the studio recording. Tina Turner, Carol King, Aretha Franklin, Carly Simon (Martha's Vineyard a decade on from Donna in 1987) but the vocoder as killed all that, so again, listen first and make up your own mind.

GEN X

Punk Planning

Punk planning can refer to a DIY, anti-authoritarian approach to urban planning and design that prioritizes community needs and values, over corporate or government interests. It often involves bottom-up initiatives, such as community gardening or guerrilla street art, and seeks to subvert traditional planning processes by empowering individuals and communities to shape their own environments. Punk planning values experimentation, creativity, and direct action over bureaucratic procedures and can challenge mainstream ideas about the role of the nudge social and cultural planners and the wider role of planning in society.

Punk Beijing

What can I say...

This blog wouldn't exist without Punk. I was too young be one in 1976, and certainly too Catholic. Fast forward to 1999 and one of my newest and closest friends (professional troublemaker) Blue Doran sat me down in his Bangkok apartment over bottles of Sangsom and underneath his vintage movie poster collection (Midnight Cowboy and Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid) draping the walls, he explained Punk to me from his first hand experience of following the Sex Pistols around as a fifteen year old from Worcester, and my mind was blown. I got the concept, I got the sizzle and I got the history all in one night, from a living witness and nothing was ever the same again. By coincidence my daughter's Aunty was a punk inspired designer in Thailand with the widely loved Scotch-Soda clothing brand.

Perhaps it is fitting then that this designer, often styled ironically in pin curls and pearls, and so involved with the pop cultural desecration and modern rebrand of British heritage, should depart in the same year as the woman whose image she once helped lance with a safety pin.

On one of my returns to the UK I stayed with Rob, my former design lecturer at Uni, and he had a very expensive Vivienne Westwood collection for both himself and his partner. 

She tossed her prezzies out when they separated and Rob mentioned it was about 20 grands worth. That's just the stuff she was given. Back in the 90's she also refused a chance to be a model for one of the Vivienne Westwood collections. Super Croydon girl is Audrey (went to school with Kate Moss), totally grounded and couldn't give a shit about any attention seeking lifestyle. In a way that's about as punk as it gets.

While at Robs we took the opportunity to go and see Vivienne's retrospective at the Victoria & Albert museum and that's when I really got into her work. He also gave me Jane Mulvagh's biography of Vivienne, An Unfashionable Life, to read. It's a really good book and provides a bit more dispassionate granularity than most biographies.

Raised in Derbyshire from working class stock, Ms Westwood established LET IT ROCK with Malcolm 'Svengali' McLaren on the Kings Road. I dare say Tavistock were all over the show, without even letting them know. Nobody wants to talk about that so let's roll on. After leaving the rock (let it rock, black rock, tavistock... quarry men then the rolling stones and G Brethren and so on and so forth).

I can't let it go

Vivienne Westwood did not feel pretty as a child, but while roaming a wood near the family home in Derbyshire she dreamt of becoming a beautiful wood fairy.

“I daydreamed that I would be walking in this wood and I would have this little house under these tree roots. I would have this fantastic dress and just come upon one or two little boys that I knew and they would just really be impressed by this dress. I always had this idea that some day I could make myself better.”

In a way it's Tolkienesque right? 

In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit. 

Next thing, we're in Rivendell

Perfect

All around the alleged globe, the British don't quite understand that of course the people are loved, but the empire?

... nah... the international community want to punch the football into the net like Maradona, unless it's filling Kiev's MuthaWEFFer pockets or the EU or the WHO or do I really need to continue?

If you consider yourself British (i'm a space mongrel) I can assure you there's lot's of British historiography around the world (all over the world)

She may have come to fashion designing at the comparatively late age of 33. 

Vivienne as it were.

You will only see two British iconographies from the slums of Rangoon to the Showrooms of Beijing. 

Those are Bentley Motors & Punks

All strata of society around the world know those two and till recently the Queen and the Beatles.

Prove me wrong

My Blog Statistics Go Bananas For A Few Days

Punk Planning used to receive about 40,000 hits a month before Google's search engine buried any researchers and writers sharing information the corporate (Fake News) media are unable to. 

I've continued updating Punk Planning, as I still get mentions and links on other larger (alternative media) sites, and I'm happy with a few thousand hits each month from people who do deep dives on search engines.

For some reason it recently picked up massively again for about five days before returning to normal. I've no idea why, but I thought it might be worth a post and tagging in statistics, as I've been booted off Facebook for publishing the Israeli artist Natalie Cohen Vaxberg's art.

It's interesting isn't it?

Every Western icon from Shakespeare to Mermaids can (quite rightly) be portrayed by any other culture/skin-colour than Caucasian, but when it comes to Israeli or Jewish icons, they are sacrosanct. 

It's almost as if hatred of white people is an issue for some very powerful people.

This is probably a good place to publish the information that portions of The Diary of Anne Frank were altered or added to, with a ballpoint pen after 1951, casting doubt over the authenticity of the entire work. 

Mass produced ballpoint pens were invented after the alleged Holocaust.

History is written by the victors, and as much of my research documents, the allies did not win WWII. 

We were the patsies. The useful idiots.

Update: I think something is teasing me. 

Update: Google Analytics says I'm talking out of my arse.

Charles Frith - Punk Planning: The Panama Deception - George Bush, The CIA & Drug...

Charles Frith - Punk Planning: The Panama Deception - George Bush, The CIA & Drug...: Russ Baker has written a wonderful biography of the Bush family and discovered that George H.W. Bush was on record as denying he kn...

CIA Subscribes To Punk Planning

Oddly enough one of my passports is Maltese. So any time you wanna kiss my ring.... More on the Knights of Malta CIA love-in over here.

NASA Wants To Break The Ice On Europa (Good Luck With That)

Insider joke for those in the know. More info on the official story here, and the back stage drama (audio interview) here or the overall picture in Richard Dolan's excellent video above. Good pun if intended and excellent channelling if not. Punk Planning salutes you.

All these worlds are yours, except Europa. Attempt no landing there. - Quote from 2010 Space Odyssey

Nevermind - Twenty Years Later

Two decades ago I'd been listening to Nirvana's Nevermind for a couple of weeks while I was living in the town of Giessen in Germany at the age of 23 selling Harley Davidsons, Chryslers and GM vehicles to US military troops. Three of us headed to Amsterdam one weekend and I put the Nevermind cassette in the car stereo. It wasn't long before Russell, the former punk exclaimed 'what is this shit', Geoff agreed immediately and so it didn't get a full play. 

I can't remember if it was on the way there, or on the return journey back to Giessen but we'd run out of music so it got another play and by the time we arrived back home the other two had becoming raving lunatics about how good this incredible album was. Nevermind became our anthem for much more frequent runs down to Frankfurt in the Corvette or the Jeep show vehicles. It was here we scored cannabis resin and explored the downtown area of brothels, pimps, pushers, junkies and transsexuals around the Hauptbahnhoff till early in the morning before heading back to Giessen to the soundtrack of Nirvana's Nevermind.


I wont burden you with my album review as there are other top twenty emotions I'd much rather write about and I think Stuart Maconie of The New Statesman has done a good job. Here's the bits I liked.



To understand the seismic impact of Nevermind and of that incendiary first single, "Smells Like Teen Spirit", in particular, one has to hear it - metaphorically at least - through the cheap, fizzing foam headphones of late-1980s pop. Nirvana emerged, to paraphrase Auden, at "the fag end of a low, dishonest decade", at least as far as mass-market pop went. MTV had nullified and sedated white rock. Madonna and Michael Jackson were at creative lows. Hip-hop, after the firestorms of Public Enemy and NWA, had fizzled out in the vaudeville of MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice. Alternative rock largely meant REM, who were huge but spoke now to the constituency that also bought Annie Lennox and Bruce Springsteen records, rather than to disaffected teens.


"I've been confronted by people wanting to beat me up, by people heckling me and being so drunk and obnoxious because they think I'm this pissy rock-star bastard who can't come to grips with his fame . . . I was in a rock club the other night . . . and one guy comes up, pats me on the back and says, 'You've got a really good thing going, you know? Your band members are cool, you write great songs, you affected a lot of people, but, man, you've really got to get your personal shit together!' Then another person comes up and says, 'I hope you overcome your drug problems.' All this happens within an hour while I'm trying to watch the Melvins, minding my own business."

Perfidious European Networks

It would be confusing if I didn't clarify the topic of Europe. I've always given my support to the E.U going back to the E.E.C and even further as the Treaty of Rome always struck me as a sensible way to integrate trade ties and avoid the carnage of war that was inflicted on Europe twice in the last century. 

I say inflicted as the Prescott Bush Bank through loans to I.G. Farben pretty much single handedly rebuilt Germany after the second world war and were very happy to let Adolf Hitler get the credit. They were going to both survive the next orchestrated war very profitably which they did, and both the Bush dynasty is still here as are the profit dynamos of I.G. Farben; Bayer, BASF, Hoechst and Agfa.

However I used to believe that the intentions of the E.U. were if overly bureaucratic at the very least honourable. They're not. It's run by the same clique of Bilderbergers, Committee of 300, Trilateral Commission, European Council Foreign Relations string pullers that have a choke hold on government with most members who aren't members of these elite groups completely unaware. And so I give my support fully to Nigel Farrage  in this splendid video above who is a European Parliament superstar along the lines of do-it-yourself punk rock insurrection.

I just thought I'd articulate that as many of you know I'm a committed European (and planetary being) and would be tomorrow if the institutions weren't rotting at the head like a fish. Indeed I remain convinced of the urgent need for a planet-wide wise-council of men and women and some variation of Athenian democracy. But again the global institutions we have are rotten to the core. Psychopaths in expensive suits. So I hope that helps clarify things. I wouldn't want people to be unclear and under the false impression I'm changing my opinion as a weather vain blows in the wind.

Good News

I've got a New passport *wipes brow* (And biometrics and computer chips and all the other lovely stuff that means I'm real and exist)

Actually the British Embassy were in the end very cooperative and seemed to know who I was, so maybe that journalist interview with the South China Morning Post did the trick but I pity the person who doesn't know how to be a squeaky wheel.

The bad news is I've not heard from Sam since last Thursday, as he's climbing a mountain in Tanzania, and I've had to assume the Punk Kiva funds will take too long to get here  now that I'm now officially a registered human. 

It means I can once again get on with my life.

I guess that Sam will take care of refunding all the wonderful and generous contributions you collectively made. I want to take this opportunity to thank both all of you and Sam for rallying around at a bleak point. You all proved that this isn't just about me, it's about us. It's about what we stand for and how we follow through with our deeds and actions. 

I'm enormously grateful and forever indebted towards your spontaneous kindness, humanity and generosity. To paraphrase Ali G: 'Is it because I is a social object?' 

;)

It's now important for me to get on with my plans for the rest of this year including a much needed trip to Beijing as soon as possible.

Once again Thank you. Hope is fortified by deeds and you just did it.

Asian Poses

I've had a terrific day today as I managed to crowbar myself off fantasy island where I'm staying and make it to Hong Kong central for a full-on slap-up English Breakfast 'power meeting' at the Flying Pan (I went for the 'Fly Up' with extra side of English sausage just creeping into the picture on the bottom right) We had a terrific time because I'm a breakfast connoisseur and when tanked up on English Breakfast tea can wax lyrical with Shakespearean soliquoys or even riff on with an Iambic Pentameter (when pushed )about stuff like plate sizes, Croydon fry ups, Kate Moss and hygiene (it's all true), Audrey in Croydon who keeps it real, her ex partner Rob who is a FASHION HO (but a bit of a genius with it) responsible for educating me both on my degree and more importantly on Vivienne Westwood and the punk ethic among many other things.

I even launched into my recently formed "Hierarchy of Nuts" speech because that's the stuff that fills my head at random points. Do you want to hear it?

No I didn't think so but tough luck, as I made sure that Sherri (who is doing something very interesting with a boutique agency network start-up and her interactive head honcho endured my ramblings) I think I should be sharing it with you too.

It goes like this top of the nut food-chain is the Macadamia and below that is the Brazil, Walnut, Almond or Pistachio (interchangeable) followed by Hazlenut, and then there's a whole sub hierarchy of peanuts starting of with dry roasted and shell steamed (Asia only) and ending up with ready salted and then those awful lighly salted partly husked (is that a word?) cheap peanuts that cheapskate bars serve thinking they're doing us a favour when in fact they only serve to remind one of the poverty of taste being endured but more importantly I felt compelled to share that the Macadamia is the fillet steak of the nut world -  juicy, meaty, tender, and I think we concluded that the likes of the almond are not fully represented if the whole cracking procedure (fiendishly difficult in the almond's case) is not brought into the hierarchy metric. Good point I thought when it first raised.

Anyway, it's important to have an opinion on things as a a planner and the nut allegory only serves to demonstrate that. My planning mentor was alway one for making a game out of these things and would endlessly press gang us with impromptu list-games about books, movies or whatever he deemed worthy of inspection. This was before the ubiquity of mobile phone internet of course but it's a loss we should be aware of.

Lastly, because it was such a grand fry up I insisted on a photo of the glorious spread. I thought briefly, and not for the first time that black pudding is in my case an unavoidable  addictive reason for not giving up meat products (along with bacon, but not sausages) because despite considerable moral and ecological arguments for giving up meat I don't think I can - which fills me with horror . I have the ability to break down and weep or write poetry about black pudding and also chuckle as I did today when Sherri asked what it was made from. Pigs blood innit.

Along the way, I shared the Asian Poses websites for the pic above, and so I opted for the cutting edge vogue, of the puffed cheeks looks coupled with the rapidly fading Churchill V sign. You should try this shit because Asians (particularly girls) are well ahead of the game when pulling camera poses and it can rescue a bad pic or easily replace that awkward scowl that is meant to convey modesty but looks like glumness in many a random occidental snap. Here's the web site again for the afficianado.

They were only together for 26 months

If you haven't yet seen The filth and the fury I urge you to take the time out to see what is arguably the best video documentary of the single most important contribution from the English in the 20th century. From Beijing to Tokyo to Washington D.C. the only British legacy I've ever consistently seen as somewhat alive is punk. We stopped making things years ago and no cultural movement is still as visible to this day. One of the myths of the Sex Pistols' Johnny Rotten is how the vulgarity was worshiped for itself, when if you take time out to study the lyrics or listen to John Lydon it's self evident that he is an intellectual who bought a dose of realism to a fetid and decaying society that lined itself with the hallucinatory fur of glam rock and the hologram of let's pretend we feel good. Shang a lang indeed. Thanks to Neil for consistently reminding me that I'm not alone in believing we are on the cusp of potentially meaningful change.

Smile - You're on Camera

One of the first bust ups I had with the Red Bull pitch that we won was the use of this visual. I rejected it on the basis that it used women who aren't the main customer group, but more importantly because it is everything about branding in China that is wrong wrong wrong. It's easy for marketing people in China to look at the smiley happy people in Western FMCG advertising and think that's the way to do it, but what invariably comes out in China is a thick smear of unvarnished schmaltz. The notion of portraying anything approaching real life is anathema to the marketing heads in China including Li Ning who hasn't got a clue that the branding part is the dramatization of the blood pumping through an organisation, not some laquered image projection.

 

These girls are the Olympic hostesses. They are trained to smile and it's this training that is the problem. Not the solution. The Chinese bless them, have had a tragic modern history, that like the Russians is bloody and dripping in carnage juice not to mention infused with suspicion and fear. Nobody could really deny it, even the Chinese, but they choose to ignore it collectively white wash over what makes them who they are today. That's where it goes wrong.

So you can see that the smile is part of the Olympic orchestrated image. The idea put in front of me (yes this is the level of creative in China we often see) was that after a hard days working at their smile, a gal just needs to take a swig on her Red Bull to make it through the day. Of course the idea is risible and explains why I often want to just write the fucking scripts myself but just to be professional I pointed out that the reasons for rejection were, it wasn't female, it wasn't blue collar enough (lorry drivers are often paid a subsidy to drink Red Bull and not fall asleep at the wheel) and most important of all, that the smile did not come from the HEART. A synthetic smile is exactly what I expect Li Ning to insist upon and make no mistake he doesn't undertand that it's all about saying 'fucking hell, I failed' that makes a brand.

It's not just Li Ning. It's the entire country. 1.3 Billion population and despite loving them hugely for so many things, I've yet to come across one Chinese entrepreneur, or brand visionary who has the balls to embrace their flaws and their run with it.

There are reasons for this and I'll explain some of those in some later posts.

But in the mean time I'd also like to see a Western agency that can see past their noses and their short term immediate profits (show me one ad, just one ad) that knows it's all about saying no to clients who are often under immense pressure to deliver the synthetic goods, on time and on budget. What most Western agencies don't realise is that this is an economic bubble we're living in and that doesn't justify running with what I think is so often some of the weakest creativity I've ever come across and I think I've worked in more countries than most. 

One of my predictions however is that just like punk emerging from the ashes of a charred British society I anticipate an unleashing of the creative Chinese spirit once this amazing country hits harder times. When it's not all about the money because there will be less of it about. 

For the time being though most are on the oxyacetylane rampant consumerism which the smarter people in the West know has a logic that predicts and defines it's own end with a simplicity that will leaving most people gasping......or choking if you wish.

Punk Planning Banned in China

I guess it had to happen. The blogging platform Blogspot has been switched on and off since 2003 but I've managed to finally draw the attention of someone somewhere and been placed on the list, along with the greats like Robert and Sean (ahem), of Banned blogs in China.

Beijing Fashion and Trends

I got caught in Xidan again last weekend. That flat peaked baseball hat thing that was hitting London when I left may not have arrived full-on in Beijing yet, but I do like the perched and slightly tilted action going on below with subverted logos .

These guys really made me think I'd lost my antenna for what's going on because their piercings and punk goth look had in my opinion overstepped what Beijing tolerates as acceptable. Its one thing to be rebellious but in my estimation their look (even though its ace) would surely lead to some kind of 'social alienation' in this part of China. I think Vivienne Westwood collector and fashion lecturer Robert De Niet in London would be particularly pleased with those bondage trousers which, like the rocking shoes she designed, are somewhat impractical but look insanely good. Clothes for heroes indeed.

I bumped into them later in that cheap clothes mall I've been raving about and had a chance to ask them a few more questions where they told me in quite good English that they were of Canadian/Korean descent and here to learn Chinese. This kind of pleased me because I couldn't believe how much attitude their style had, although I will always be slightly disappointed in a city that doesn't have room for a few Punk Goths. I understand that Worcester wasn't the sort of place to wear this stuff in 76/77 either!

Here are some examples of those insane T Shirts I've been going on about.

Does Linda know?

Thus adding another dimension to the uncanny valley.

I have no idea what Beverdially Sweetbones Brondnated Beveriseeds means but its the sort of thing I'm beginning to enjoy and expect from Xidan. One of the things I like about the cheap shops is the resourcefulness they put into making them hip, and here in the Jing it seems that using magazine photography covered in glass on the floor is one way the young can inexpensively add some attitude. A lot of the shops also take pride in having rare trend curiosities to attract people in. Although that is a post for another day that I'm keen capture.