Wednesday's Weekly Write Down; JCC

 An ode to the bard of Salford. JCC, is a talent. A true original. Poetry at the speed of light. With wit as sharp as a nail. He leaves everyone in his set to fail. You can copy this man and it will be obvious, your not as good as his royal highness. I am not sure why I am writing this but to tell you people the good word of John Cooper Clarke. Poetry without pretension. Writing as an outsider, what do you think of the human race.

Far from the 3 chord wonders of punk made him the true punk. A bare voice. Nothing to hide behind. No chords to help you guide where this is going. No melody to carry the message. Words mouth to ear. Words on Sci Fi, words on death, words on love, words till he runs out of breath. This man ranks among one of the best lyricists/poets in popular culture. Poetry was a high art, until it married a monster from out of space, thanks to JCC. Bringing it to punks and then the masses rather than the cultured few. Like the beat poets before him; it mattered how it was said, not simply how it was read.

I am have little authority as a designer to do reviews on areas I have little knowledge of, but he is my favourite poet and one of my favourite people in general terms (never met the bloke as with everyone on this imaginary list inside my list, but he's just someone you'd expect to be awesome). Although I have seen him live. It would be hard to choose a poem to end this rant on but here it goes

Wednesday's Weekly Write Down; 2015 in Music

So it's list time of the year and you guys know how much I love lists. So I thought it would be good to combine my love of music and lists for the years run down. Here is the 15 best albums and tracks of the year;

Top Albums
1. Sometimes I Sit and think, Sometimes I just Sit – Courtney Barnett
2. To Pimp a Butterfly – Kendrick Lamar
3. No Cities to Love - Sleater Kinney
4. FFS -FFS
5. Highest Point in Cliff Town - Hooton Tennis Club
6. Are You Satisfied? - Slaves
7. In Colour - Jamie xx
8. Currents – Tame Impala
9. Why Make Sense? – Hot Chip
10. Key Markets - Sleaford Mods
11. Fading Frontier – Deerhunter
12. Short Movie - Laura Marling
13. Multi-Love - Unknown Mortal Orchestra
14. Get To Heaven - Everything Everything
15. La Di Da Di - Battles

Top Tracks
1) Elevator Operator – Courtney Barnett
2) Huarache Lights – Hot Chip
3) No Cities to Love – Sleater Kinney
4) King Kunta – Kendrick Lamar
5) False Hope – Laura Marling
6) Mystery – Boxed in
7) Distant Past – Everything Everything
8) Ship to Wreck – Florence & the Machine
9) Chateau Lobby #4 – Father John Misty
10) Burning For No One – The Cribs
11) Jasper – Hooton Tennis Club
12) Come Home Baby - The Charlatans
13) Anna – Will Butler
14) Gunga Din – The Libertines
15) Bronx in a Six – Sleaford Mods

Wednesday's Weekly Write Down; Imitation Blame

I have watched the "Imitation Game" the other week and it broke my heart. It is an amazing film, staring one of the people I admire the most Benedict Cumberbatch starring as Alan Turing. This man halted the second world war by two years and was convicted of homosexuality! He was convicted of being Gay. What were the police thinking? Sexuality was never and is not a crime. Murder is. Robbery is. Rape is. But not sexuality.

The way we as a country treated the war hero is shameful. This man saved millions of lives by breaking enigma and he should of been celebrated but instead he was left to his own devices via medical castration to survive. He ended up taking his own life of which we should be ashamed of. A war hero made to kill himself.



It's not just this guy who was convicted, many thousands were so; I hate you police, whom prosecuted this man. I hate the police who convicted all them other people. I hate you who think homosexuality is against nature. It is natural to love who you do. Science says so.

Wednesday's Weekly Write Down; Give it a Squeeze

Singles 45's and Under is one of the finest pop albums of all time. If you disagree you are wrong. Glen Tilbrook and Chris Difford at the height of their powers complied in one single album. Side one when then had one of the best pianist/ TV presenters in the band and the second without but the songs have no less merit. They are some of the most perfect songs ever written since the Beatles. Having come out of time with so much anger and political upheaval (Punk), they sound timeless. I am not sure if its bias because one of my favourite songs ever is on it but wow. I am inclined to explain why ever track is so good but just listen. Harmonies, smooth piano lines, funky guitars, powerful bass and choppy drum patterns. The best part was I spent £1 for this gorgeous LP and its one of the most played albums I own.

Wednesday's Weekly Write Down; Opinions

Its Nice to have an opinion or should I phrase that a bit better. Its good to have an opinion. Especially a rounded and justifiable one based on fact. There are lots of people who believe they have an opinion, when they just stole it from someone else. People who believe in untrue facts when the clue is in the word "untrue". And there are people who just have no opinion. I believe it is good to have an opinion as it adds to you as a character and makes you more human. You become interesting when you can debate and have a stance on devisive issues. There is too much emphasis on the clueless zombies who just believe what they are told.

If you grew up in a rascist household and you go around saying those sort of things around town without knowing that they are rascist. You are to blame. You can't blame your up bringing for your ignorance. Why do you think so many kids have left the west boro Baptist Church; because they got brainwashed in to thinking the wrong only to get educated and leave the brainwashers. Twitter is full of these clueless people; because a mate of a mate said something vaguely political about the Corbyn being a terrorist, a bloke thinks that is the truth. The facts are out there to prove he's not. Does this matter to the bloke who over heard this in a pub over a pint of fosters. No. It is easier to be ignorant.

Opinions shape you. It helps who you ally with because you can make a connection with a similar opinion. This works both ways. Some of these zombies have a collective opinion so they decided to form rascist groups called Britain First, the BNP & the EDL, as a collective veichle for no thinking, face value opinions. So have an opinion. Don't have a trendy opinion because its cool. Don't have a zombie opinion, it'll make you stupid. Don't Nick some else's. Have a justifiable one of your own. It will do you good.

Wednesday's Weekly Write Down; Odd Time

Its an odd time to be alive really isn't it (never mind be awake). News isn't just at 9, 1, 6 & 10. So at a moments notice we will get to know anything. Social media is a 24 hour news source of personal stories from your drunken friends , your mates holiday snaps or their latest vinyl purchases (or is that just me). These feature along side real and trending news. Real news posted by real sources and trending news which is a celebrity did something, look at that thing that they did & isn't it great/not so great that they did that thing.

We have a great system culturally. We as a nation have managed to have a fashion industry that does match the size of people who are buying it, thus making the really awful word, never mind trend, of body shaming. We, allegedly have a police force that does not match the cultural areas they police in. Sorry Teresa May but there is no way to fix that. You can't force people into policing roles/jobs just to make the numbers look good. And we have a press which outright refuses to accept regulation despite knowing without it they've made mistakes. Phone hacking should of been the wake up call and Mr Leveson should of made it mandatory. Regulation improves quality of the product. It happened in the US, with lifting legal restrictions on marijuana. It drove up quality so the users got the benefits and the idiots just got out of selling because there is no need to sell legal product in back alley's. While on the subject of our Atlantic cousins, I am impressed. Both by the idiocy of some Americans who think Mr Donald Trump is a viable option for election. Probably based on the crude assumption that money equals power and power can only be a good thing when you are a gun toting, sexist, racist toupe. I am also impressed to see a left emerging in the form of Bernie Sanders. I haven't heard a man speak so much since I last watched a Michael Moore film. Dangerous words as I am aware some Americans hate both of these guys; not going to mention any names but that channel owned by Ruppert ... IT'S FOX.

After that short skip across the Atlantic we end up home, I consider this whole land mass to be my home as I never thought I would ever move away from Sunderland and as I write in in Carlisle, I am wondering whether to go back to Sunderland (where the football team is rubbish but my heart is) or to stay here or to go to the bigger city. South or North. Its all up in the air.

Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Wednesday's Weekly Write Down; EU better leave!

As of writting this, it is 06:55 on a Saturday morning a few weeks before you are going to read this so let me fill you in. I have been up since I can't remember when and I have been reading guardian articles on Europe and redditing as you do when you can't sleep. I am going into uni later too because it's an open day so they need some people to "look busy" and to help a friend, which makes this early morning rant have more gravitas because I should be asleep.

anyway Europe, did I not say that this is what the rant was going to be on, oh okay. One of the articles I read which was a great piece about who, what & why. Who; which politician. What; pro or anti Europe. Why; because why. makes sense. right?

What I liked so much is it's a minefield for all concerned in the political process. We have already had multiple people tell us any division in a party is bad. Labour manage to sup up it's beer at there recent conference so it looked like they were united as one. The rebel Tories, or the Tory rebels as the press call them were just told to put up and shut up about their European leanings so it looked like they were united.

No one is allowed to budge and so their hand for fear repercussions from the whip or the leader. I am a Europhile at heart so I will be voting to stay in but I am free to say that. If John Mcdonnell says where he stands and opposes other Labour members, the press will jump on it. Some in the team, that are going to have to negotiate the new deal with Europe have an especially difficult job, trying to let their opinion shows.

Sit tight guys it's going to be a fun ride to the brexit (or not).

Wednesday's Weekly Write Down; Lessons of Depression

Depression, what's that I thought, as I was looking down the symptoms of it ticking off over half of them. It was early 2014 and I had officially cracked. It had started a bit before then but I was not willing to accept that I had a problem "I'll get over it" I said. But ticking off the symptoms off it was clear I had a problem.

                University was the dream, ever since I went to my interview and fell in love with it. I am based in Carlisle, with a home town in Sunderland so I was plonked in a house with 11 different people with a few familiar items and just had to adjust. There is a lot of pressure to succeed at university in terms of grades and when you reach below what you feel your potential is you do get down.  But when you set the bar so unreasonably high and have done your entire educational career you are destined to be disappointed. Everything I was doing was a perceived failure because that bar was too high.

                There is also a big big pressure to socialize and go out (clubbing/pub crawling). This was the second problem, I could get on with people but felt the opposite of comfortable about the idea of going out so when I didn't I apologized for my "failing" of not going out. I didn't want to go in a place where I would be uncomfortable but staying in the halls just drove me insane and occasionally to self harm because of the anger I had against myself.

                There is not a pressure as such at university for relationships but I was driven to think there was. All of my actual friends (half of the 11 I was put in a house with) were in long term relationships which gave me the feeling of inadequacy as I had no one. They were my friends and they were happy and I should have been happy for them & not jealous of what they had. I was driven down, thinking I need to get a girlfriend and then I will be happy.

                These are the things that brought me down at university and lead to my depression taking over my life. My mother helped me find the local NHS run mental health service after a close university friend said that the provision of Mental Health Service at the uni wasn’t helpful for her friend.  So I enrolled in classes, 30 minutes a week or two at the local medical practice. After a few months, I was prepared to give up, just remove CBT therapy and put up with it. Nothing was working in these classes. The next session I went to call the whole thing off.  I addressed it wasn’t working and they said “you can move up to the next level if you want?” ”Try that”.  These sessions were hour long and more intensive.

                The next week came, skeptical and open minded, I went in and after a few months it still felt like it wasn’t working but persistence paid off. Every week was talking about problems, then tracking my mood and the problems linked to its decline. We worked out a plan and I was discharged with a weight off my shoulders. I still get the occasional day/ few days of low mood but that’s normal.

                It is hard, really hard when you are stuck in the low mood rut. It is hard to get up in the morning, concentrate on your work & even get to sleep at night because you are worrying bad things are going to happen. But if you are reading this, you are not alone, there is help out there. I am now using my experience to design promotional posters, to raise awareness of mental health problems because there is not enough out there at the minute.

Wednesday's Weekly Write Down; Men Plus Lists Equals Happiness

Is any "top" list ever definitive? Can opinion ever be universally accepted that these things are the best of a certain category? It is kinda accepted that men do love a good list, or so I've read, and I am a man who loves lists so yeah I can believe this. My favourite of all the lists, is albums/singles of the year. I ususally buy the NME at the end of the year regardless of it's opinion just to see what I've missed or to complain that Kanye West is too high in the list.

But I have been compiling my own lists for a while now. I did do a best songs of all time disc when my dad did his and been unhappy with most of it ever since. So I bought a little blue book from Sainsburys (other super markets are available and started again. Using the first list as the basis. I also started doing albums in the back the other day too, just for balance. I am more of an album man, but some bands never really suited albums; Pet Shop Boys, Suede & T-rex. Some bands never suited singles, Mainly Pink Floyd, this is true of many others I am sure.

I can hear you're call, "James, we want to see some of them" and It would be silly not too. I am up for an open debate about the merits of each of the songs and albums as long as in conclusion, I will be declared right. Thats just the way it is. Firstly is the singles; you may have to click to enlarge them to read the tunes on there.

Albums I have just started so I only have one page for your viewing pleasure. I think to think of myself as having a vast taste, despite me having a little distaste for country music, Folk music is good in small doses & as far as Dubstep goes I don't think there will be an album as a must go too. I would also like to take this last sentence to say; the album will never die as an idea; there are people who will always like to sit alone in a room, no distractions and just listen for 40+ minutes to some music.