The Wonder of the World

I am a musical aficianado of sorts, an obsessive appreciator. I can talk musical history, appreciation, origins, even throw in a few technical terms, but that is where my musical ability ends - in appreciation, not creation. I am not adding to the catalogue, I am not making music, I am not furthering the cause. I play no musical instrument and hence keys and chords mystify me and I look upon those who know a major from a minor with an air of reverance and more than a little envy.

And so with this sense of enigma in mind, I set off with a friend to find him a guitar. After looking in a catalogue, and deciding that a £60 Argos guitar with complimentary carry case was totally un-rock 'n roll, we headed to Denmark Street. Located behind Tottenham Court Road station, it is like Harry Potter's Diagon Ally - a hidden gem lined with guitar shops and musical book stores.

From the windows of half a dozen shops gleam the wood and paint of every type of 'axe'. Electric and acoustic jostle for elbow room and my eyes darted back and forth, taking in metallic paint jobs, inlaid wooden roses, straggles of strings and pedals ripe for pushing. Outside most of the shops a rock veteran or two lurk, pinching their cigarettes between calloused, nicotene stained fingers.

Some of the stores cater purely to the professional, and they smirk at our beginners uncertainty, but others patiently take down Fender after Fender and encourage us to hold them, pluck them, strum them. Shyly we make our first tentative sounds, listening to the difference in woods, in strings, in necks. We know nothing and yet nod appreciatively as one after the other's sound is described to our novice ears.

They are beautiful, and I feel like I am at the pound and should take each and every one of them home. I wonder which ones will belong to owners who will take a few lessons and cast them aside, and which ones will be used to sing a lullabye, write the next Stairway to Heaven or smashed in a fit of punk rage. I hope they will comfort lost adolescents and be toted belovedly across countries, and that they will be used to make more great rock 'n roll so an appreciator like me can keep appreciating. My friend didn't buy the guitar that day, decisions like this take time. But it looked so comfortable in his arms I hope he does soon.

"Years will come, years will go and politicians will do fuck all to make the world a better place. But all over the world young men and young women will always dream dreams and they will put those dreams into song...in future years there will be so many fantastic songs...they will be written, they will be sung, and they will be the wonder of the world..."

- The Count in The Boat that Rocked

You won't fool the Children of the Revolution

I really enjoy retrospective English films that go to great pains to capture the aesthetics and character of the age they are portraying. There have been a rush of them lately... Nowhere Boy, An Education, and most recently Cemetery Junction.

Cemetery Junction, like the others, explores the psyche of England in its chosen decade ( in this case early seventies) and explores the need for escape. Escape from the rigidity of the older generation, from expected norms, from damaging relationships, from prejudice, from class expectations, etc. Great care is taken to portray the struggle between old values and the expanding horizons of youth, and the film has a distinctly English flavour i.e. its honest. Instead of a glossed over glory days outlook, it instead works to portray an era as it is - the good, the bad the ugly.

Any age is not without its strengths and weaknesses, and any piece that is retrospective will always marvel at the innocence of days gone by. Hindsight is 20 20 as they say, and it is much easier to take a diagnose a societies ills post facto, however it is a shame that more film makers cannot make such incisive films about our own age.

Sometimes it seems as though the world we live in is spiralling out of control. With the media ever more prevelant in our societies the youtth of today live under the shadow of a bevy of big stories that are bandied about in a constant frenzy of fear and disappointment - dramatic financial upheaval, weak leadership, a dragging war, the shadow of terrorism cast across life in large cities, so called Broken Britain, the disengagement of youth from society, etc. I often here people say that our generation missed all the good stuff, we missed the change and we missed the party. Fuck that - the change is here, the party is happening!

With the proliferation of the mass media comes that more many chances to know. You can read mainstream media, or you can read blogs, or other people's tweets, or podcasts - you have an abundance of information you just need to learn how to filter. And if we are so dissatisfied with our leaders and the paths they have led us down in recent years, then do something about it. Register to vote, make yourself heard, discuss politics - we have a very well protected right in this country, to chose our own politicians and to make ourselves heard. The very same people I know who have bitched and moaned through the expenses scandal, the Afghanistan war, the recession, are now telling me they can't be bother to vote. Can't be bothered to register. You want to make a change? Now is the time. Don't wait for someone else to tell you what to do - go out there, read, talk to people, watch the debates...Engage!

And those of you who believe you missed the party... Travel has never been as popular or as possible. With the advent of Facebook, we are all keeping in contact with people we haven't seen for years, all over the world - Show up at their doorstep. There are countries all over the world waiting for you to visit. There are people to be met and things to be seen, and a million lessons to be learned. Go to Mardi Gras in New Orleans, a Full Moon party in Thailand, Hogmanay in Scotland, Carnival in Rio, Oktoberfest in Germany. Go diving in The Bahamas and feel the spray of Victoria Falls soak your skin in Zimbabwe, drink tequila in Mexico and have tea in Morocco. Hike the Inca trail, and see the Sistine Chapel, and have your own revolution... Go get a passport.

Sometimes these things are easier said than done, and there are a great many things from other eras that I wish I had been a part of...But the point is, those things had to happen so I could be here now, doing what I get to do. There is still a party, and we still have a chance to make a change...we just have to grab them both!

Rant over.