This following clip, I think, is a comedy sketch. The reason I am unsure is that it is in Italian and I don't speak Italian apart from bonjourno and ciao, etc. so one must assume it is funny. Mind you, the product featured in the sketch does actually exist. You can buy alarm clocks that whizz around the room like that.

Anyhow, they have used my track "Loops and Scales" as the soundtrack to the "advert". I think it's cool. I also think it is another great example of how the net can help us cross pollinate our arts to create wonderful new things...like this!

Meanwhile, in the village, the rumour mill is nine months too late...ha ha ha ha!

The background of this is that Leader of the Isle of Wight council David Pugh, a single man, takes out a fellow single lady from the pensions office as his "date" at the Council Ball. Unfortunately, said lady can't hold her booze makes a show of herself and causes a major confloption, of which said council leader is completely unaware. However, the reporting of this evening is neither delicately handled nor sits within the realms of journalism. Meanwhile, her ex-husband is skulking in the shadows armed with a video camera and viddies the drunken lady outside the venue and posts it on YouTube. Creepy stalker type behaviour alert!!!

This is a tittle-tattle piece written by someone with issues and proves, without a shadow of a doubt, that you do need an office full of sub-editors working on the local press, because whoever owns the Isle of Wight gazette is probably having kittens now. I hope Mr Pugh has an expensive lawyer. We've all had too much too drink and acted daft, or been around someone who makes a show of themselves under the influence - thankfully, a guttersnipe reporter hasn't been around to stitch us up.

It certainly doesn't make you want to visit the Isle of Wight in a hurry! Pass it on...

This is a video from some chubby lad called Paul Hawkins and his band The Awkward Silences. I am not sure why I like because both the song and the video are a little rough, but I guess it captures the awkward fizzing energy of younger people who think they are right.

Of course, I also like the Reggie Perrie theme running through the video and it has the same kind of appeal as The Fall or The Wedding Present, so I am beginning to understand why I's likes it.

Why the soup? Well actor cyber-chum (I don't know if he'd class me as that, but I am fond of him because he represents the person I wish I could be rather than the person I am - one of those folks who "can do", whereas "I can't"), Daniel Hoffmann-Gill has written an entry on his blog about the nature of web presence. He is weary...and a little wary...of the amount of web presence out there and the need for it.

I think the gist of his argument is that he doesn't like it, but his entry is so shrouded in double-speak that I am not sure exactly what he's getting at. I think he might be upset at someone. He sounds like he's upset at himself. This is a person who is in a business where he markets himself as a brand in order to make money. He is a tin of beans. He is an ingredient to be plucked off the shelves and to be used when needed. In a way, we all are, I guess.

But there is too much ego and self-promotion on the net. This is a symptom of our media-savvy time and Warhol was way ahead of the game. Fame and self-agrandisement is the order of the day and if you have a home computer and an Internet connection you can self-publish in an instant.

For me, the Internet is the great leveller. In the old days, our news output came from trained journalists and was edited and sliced and diced for our consumption. But now, anyone with a mobile phone that has a video camera can find themselves at the heart of the news. Journalism has been reduced to its basic components, it really is all down to who was closest to the events when then unfolded and did they have their mobile phone pointing in the right direction.

The same can be said of magazines too. This is a world I used to inhabit and in the old days we would write reviews of music, films, computer games and whatever, and people would buy the magazines and, well, read them. Now we can all write a review of whatever we feel like and again the Net is the great leveller because invariably the amateur doing the review has paid good money to get the product has has a genuine interest in its quality. There were many times on the magazines when I'd write a stinky review of a product only to be told by my editor to tone it down and up the rating because the publisher of the software had paid for advertising to appear in the issue. One soon learnt to despise the shackles.

But yes, the Internet is the great leveller, it allows anyone with a modicum of talent to get their stuff out there. A million songs have been heard on the net that would never have been given ears back in the old days. Many musicians from the old world resent this, they say it is a waste of time because we aren't proper musicians who have paid their dues and done the gigs and toured the world. They might be right, but who holds court here? Who has the right to judge?

So why am I here? Why do I have a web presence? I've had a web presence since around 1997. My first website was static with some links to some stories I'd been writing. Yes, I used to give novels away back in the old days. That was before the MP3 music format rocketed into our consciousness.

By 1998, I realised that I could use my computer to record multi-track audio, so I stopped writing as a hobby and began recording music with gusto. The intention was to record and release the tracks on the net...for free... This is something I've done for the last decade. It's true that you can also buy my tunes from the likes of CDBABY and iTunes, but any profit I make in a year might just buy me a packet of new guitar strings. But the point is that without the Internet, I would probably have not recorded all this music. There wouldn't have been an audience. And without an audience there's not much point in me doing it.

Remarkably, this site shifts around 300Gb of music data a month. I don't know who is downloading this stuff or whether they even like it as I get very little feedback, apart from the comments I get via YouTube on the videos I post there (though I only did those for about a year before my interest waned). But I am here to make music primarily. When I was made redundant, I took on the blog format because I enjoyed keeping a diary. Being alone as a freelance writer, doing a blog entry kept me sane. Commenting on the postman or whatever took my fancy was a just a folly.

In fact, most of the Internet is just that - a giant virtual electronic folly.

But since my situation has changed, I've not been able to write much about my real life. It would make very interesting reading, but this is not the time. There will be a time, but it is not now. I think it is useful for us to share human experience via the web, though the candid nature of some of the writings out there seem a little unnecessary. However, while I feel I should defend the average Internet user's rights to self-publish, I am just like DHG, in that I am conflicted by it.

We are sliding down a big electronic hole of the self-obsessed. But this is an extension of our media-driven age. We live in strange times where the notion of celebrity is the be-all and end-all of our culture. To be famous is the only way. To actually use your brain is out of fashion. These are strange times indeed.

Why do this? Why open yourself up? I try not to. Most of my entries are either music related, or reviews of gigs or whatever. I'd like to do more review stuff myself, but with two young children, my time is limited and my music is more important. The most popular pages here are the ones I wrote about "In the Night Garden" or about music gear I've reviewed. So while people are happy to download my music, there aren't that many actually reading these pages.

So maybe I should just shut up and play my guitar, eh?

Of course, I gave the disc a spin before heartlessly ripping the digipack apart and modifying it to The Missus's requirements. Of course, since then there have been various TV appearances and his "greatest misses" package came my way about six years ago, which was a very interesting prospect. I was also entranced by his work on Eno's Spinner project, which was an extension/revision of Eno's Jarman-based Glitterball non-soundtrack.

Where am I going with this, you is probably asking? Well I pretend to be an uncultured buffoon, I like to play up to my class and pretend that I drag my knuckles on the pavement, beat my wife and have a closed mind, but nothing could be more contrary to the truth. Without sounding like an online dating advert: I actually enjoy museums, art galleries and have even seen a ballet or two in my time. Fuck me, Darren. You sure you ain't some kind of shirt-lifting jobby-jabber, trapped in a lavender marriage?

No, I pretend that I don't read and an I'm the archetypal East End yob because I have nothing to prove and it is easier to play up to expectations. But seriously, one of the reasons I don't read, especially fiction, is because when I come to write my own works, the influence of what I've read is often too strong and I find myself inadvertantly writing in the style I've been reading, adopting all the semantic ticks and quirks, and diluting my own style. So I steer clear of fiction because it is bad for me as an artist.

However, I do have a penchent for biographies, especially music biographies. It's obvious really because I love music and I also want to seek our the shared experiences of other artistes. It's something I really enjoy and I should do more of if I had the time. Sometimes they don't really get to the nuts and gravy of the person (pick almost any Bowie biog), but I've read a book recently that is an essential read - even if you don't like music.

Now this bit is where my intro collides with the actual theme of this entry. Somehow I stumbled over the fact that Jah Wobble had written his own biography and I was compelled to buy it. Don't ask me why: I'm not his biggest fan, but I've always had an admiration for his work ethic and prodigious output. I can't stand artists who spend 10 years releasing albums (I'm looking at you Gabriel) because they ain't really musicians. Musicians are people who think music all the time and find rhythms and inspirations in all moments of waking life.

Anyway, I bought "Memoirs of a Geezer" last week as a birthday treat and read it from cover to cover, despite constant protestations from Verity to "put the daddy book down". Jah Wobble is a bit of an arsehole during his early years, but even he would admit to that, nearly ruining his life through excess, but always maintaining a way of providing for his family.

Image via Wikipedia

In his writing voice, this is someone who spoke to me in my own voice. Someone who was from the East End of London, who saw the ridiculous in everything and could see people for what they were. He is someone who was conflcted as an artist: does he piss his time away making music or get a proper job, he asks? This is someone who doesn't take bullshit and takes actions often to his own detriment.

This is the first book I've read where it answered some of my own internal questions and provided me with a grounding to who I am and why I tick the way I tick. I'm like this because of class and geography. You cannot change who you are, even though you might get the right haircut or change your accent. He also charts the cultural changes in the East End and echoes my own views.

Before reading this book I was seriously thinking of calling it quits on making any more music because I felt I've done enough and no-one is really listening and unless I am "out there" I am really wasting my time. But reading this book got me to realise that if you can do, you should do. If you have a talent, you should at least attempt to share it with the world.

Thanks Jah, I owe you one!