Showing posts with label Captain Beefheart. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Captain Beefheart. Show all posts

Friday, 16 April 2021

Influential

This week I have been watching a couple of music programs / documentaries that I noticed on Amazon Prime. They were "Tom Waits : Under The Influence" and "Captain Beefheart: Under Review" . I am still working through the Captain Beefheart one which is is an in depth take on his development and influences with input from band members and music critics.

The Tom Waits one is an interesting one because it concentrates on the influences on Tom Waits' music by giving you potted histories of the artists that influenced him (sorry about the repetition of the word influence there ) . This has the effect of introducing you to each of these artists by sharing interviews , live video , music and text.

So we see Jack Kerouac , Frank Sinatra , Lord Buckley , Captain Beefheart (he an Tom have more than a passing visual resemblance)  , Ken Nordine who made his way doing voiceovers but also rapped as well as Kerouac and the beat poets but Nordine was low in his delivery letting the listener have time to take in the verbal images he was sharing. This documentary packs so much into it that you want to find out about the artists who influenced Tom Waits. 

As well as these Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht surface in the "SwordfishTrombones" universe with songs like "Underground" confirming this.

Beefheart's marimba influence appears on "Sixteen Shells" but the sound is undoubtedly Tom Waits.

Waits took things on board and progressed the ideas to make a decidedly Waitsian sound  and in that he has become an influence for many artists going forward , being covered by artists as diverse as The Eagles , Rod Stewart , Screaming Jay Hawkins and The Ramones.

Bothe documentaries feature the very articulate John French , "Drumbo" drummer and guitarist with various incarnations of Beefheart's  Magic Bands,

"Captain Beefheart: Under Review" concentrates on Beefheart and his music and bands and while challenging, is a great primer for the music , how he reinvented the standard song structures resulting in sounds that are most definitely challenging to the ear.

So what songs do we go with , well for Tom Waits it's "Sixteen shells from a thirty ought six" and Captain Beefheart "Big Eyed Beans From Venus" . If you can watch the documentaries , but check out the music. You never know you may discover something you like.

On a side note if you do blog you can earn a little pin money by advertising various things like the music links below and adsense to the right. , or direct links such as tattoo style fonts online which have some snazzy music related fonts to featuring in your work.

I am still writing "Mitarantula" so again that might be another repostory to use some eye striking fonts, although just on the front page rather than the whole book or document. The right font in a book can drag the reader in or throw the reader out. 

Good fonts should be easy to read and should not  put the reader off. I think most of this is plain Ariel.

Sunday, 28 March 2021

Did Anything Happen To Music .. or Did I Miss It?

There are usually times in history when musical scenes reboot themselves, probably starting in the nineteen twenties when recorded music became a thing and we had early jazz , blues and crooners making the way into the public consciousness via vinyl and radio. Gramophones and radios were commercially available and spread to sound through the populace especially in the USA and UK.

Six years ago I published a personal history of musical media from the wax cylinder to today's digital streaming here.

After the war we had crooners , Jazz , Western Swing and the beginnings of Country and Western. Rock and Roll was the first big flash propelled by Bill Haley & The Comets "Rock Around The Clock" the film "The Blackboard Jungle" and the genesis of the teenager as someone who could buy things including music, plus the tribalism of Teddy Boys and the like.

In the sixties there were Mods and Rockers, Skinheads psychedelia , ska and reggae , garage rock but this was just a quite smooth progression , resulting in some major rock bands and an unfeasioble amount of money and pretension. In the seventies we also go glam and all along the mainstream kept morst of the public satisfied as it still does today.

Then punk hit , hating the establishment , and prog rock (but ironically loving Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk") but still referring and eulogising krautock , reggae , sixties garage rock and more, while pursuing a minimalist shoestring sound epitomised by The Buzzcocks "Spiral Scratch" , which is why I was so disappointed by The Sex Pistols "Never Mind The Bollocks" as to me it was a heavy metal album, so sounded good but more metal than punk.

This resulted in lots of small independent music which was eventually absorbed by the big labels. 

And since the during the eighties we saw Goth , and Grunge and Baggy at the start of the nineties, and while there is always good music coming through there's been no big band since the mid seventies and no small bang since the early nineties.

So did I miss something or did I just get old? Franks Zappa said that when the old guys were in charge of record labels they would always give anything a shot. Could you imagine a major label releasing "Trout Mask Replica" or even "The Texas Jerusalem Crossroads" today?  Sing the young guys moved in it's all about product and markets , not art and music.

So what should I share, I'll go with the Bill Haley song.

Sunday, 21 February 2021

Zigzagging


I didn't intend to post anything today after posting three times yesterday , but felt I needed to record what I noticed today. It is probably not anything most people will be bothered about but my lateral thinking mind immediately tied it up with Don Van Vliet (Captain Beefheart).

I've been out for a walk today mainly to get some jam from the Moorside Allotment shop for me and my daughters, but this meant a continuation of the walk across Nunsmoor .

No the EU forced Britain to keep driving on the Left Hand side of the road , despite most of the rest of the world driving on the right , and it's similar when walking on paths or escalators , you see signs that say "Keep Left" , and I always try to keep left, but people on paths seem to be all over the place which mean that when I'm walking it's not a straight walk but a zigzag , going from right to left to avoid people walking on the right , and the worst one was a guy who was on the right with his dog on an extendable lead on the left hand side effectively blocking the actual path meaning I had to walk on the grass to get past.

I think will some people it is just pure ignorance , they are the only ones that matter.

The walk was pleasant nevertheless and is an excuse to share "Zigzag Wanderer" by Captain Beefheart, just to show how off kilter my mind gets.

Sunday, 11 October 2020

Back & Romania


 I'm back from and extremely relaxing holiday in Thirsk , on which I did nothing strenuous, didn't walk very far although I maintained more than five miles a day, but I now feel as though I need another week to recover. Maybe I just don't want to resume work, although I set my alarm for 5:45 AM tomorrow morning, and I am sure that I won't want to get up.

I keep thinking I'm not writing as much , because I'm not listening to as much music, although yesterday while posting off some Discogs orders I listened to "Meddle" by Pink Floyd, and "Echoes" is still my favourite Pink Floyd piece, and today I listened to my new vinyl acquisition , a recording of Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana" , my favourite classical piece.

I've been watching a lot of streaming shows, all excellent , namely "Better Call Saul" (the "Breaking Bad" prequel) , "Disenchantment" , "Cobra Kai" (forty years later follow up to "The Karate Kid") and working through the "American Horror Story" series that I've not seen , starting with "Murder House", and "Silicon Valley".

A strange coincidence is that three of the last books that I have read and revisited have been partially set in Romania , the firs was "The Lost" by Jonathan Aycliffe , "Spear of Destiny" by his alter ego Daniel Easterman and the lastest is "Coldheart Canyon" by Clive Barker, which I had forgotten where it started. It's not surprising with the Romanian connections with Vlad The Impaler and Dracula.

So at least I have written something, So what music should I share. Tom Robinson is playing "Ice Cream For Crow" so I think that is definitely worth a share as we fall into next week.

Friday, 19 June 2020

#LikeNoOther #11 - Nadine Shah


I think this is #LikeNoOther #11 though I  may have missed one out as it's ages since I posted in this series. Nadine Shah has released a new album and the new album "Kitchen Sink"  (though just a thought Kitschen Sink would be a great album or book title)  doesn't let up.

Her music is not exactly danceable , but sounds like it doesn't conform to any norm. It has a highly percussive framework  which she and her band use to build the songs, and you finish every one thinking what the hell was that, I need to listen again.

Nadine , as far as I am concerned, falls in the same sprawling universe as all the other artists who have appeared in this series, but my immediate touchpoints are:


  • PJ Harvey
  • Siouxsie Sue and The Banshees
  • Captain Beefheart
  • The Incredible String Band
  • David Bowie
  • Ethiopiques
  • Tom Waits
There is a hell of a lot of original music around and it always amazes be that a combination of 12 notes can continually be moulded to give us something new and original. Nadine Shah continues to do that on every sone her and her band produces.

Watch and listen to the new single and your musical listening horizons will expand.

I've seen Nadine Shah twice and was very impressed both times. Her music is is as I've described and she has a very engaging stage personality as well so well worth going to see her, here are a couple of my reviews with some more video.

Friday, 17 April 2020

Music While You Work ... at the touch of a button


One of the things about working from home is that I was listening to 6Music a lot , and my inherent laziness means that unless a CD is with reaching distance I don't play it , but I have an app on my Kindle Fire called BubbleUPnP that wirelessly links to my digital collection (which Alexa can't / won't do , in fact it won't even play the music I have bought from Amazon , every time I ask it says I have to use Spotify which I won't on principle) so I've linked my Kindle Fire up to some Altec-Lansing speakers and now can play music at several touches of buttons and screens (I love how so many things are sold "at the touch of a button"). Here's an example on my Instagram channel.

I've discovered that my digital collection is missing several of my Captain Beefheart album so I need to excavate them from the box that they are in to add them , specifically "Clear Spot" and "The Spotlight Kid". "Trout Mask Replica" and "Unconditionally Guaranteed" are on there but there are a lot that need ripping from the CDs I have.

I am torn between sharing "Grow Fins" from "The Spotlight Kid" (with it's four / five note riff and incendiary harp sound) and "Orange Claw Hammer" from "Trout Mask Replica" (which was an unaccompanied sea shanty style , but I have one with musical backing, which I will share at some point but I found one with Frank Zappa on guitar) so I can't decide so will go with both , this Friday morning.




Sunday, 9 February 2020

Agatha Christie's Parrot


I'm sure lots of others have said it, but every time I see Agatha Christie's Poirot advertised I think Agatha Christie's Parrot. I wonder if she ever owned a parrot, not that it actually matters.

But in a fairly relaxing day among other things I have been continuing with "Follow The Music"  and after a mainly business orientated section (ie for me boring it hit me with several surprising bands and connections.

Firstly we had the MC5 , extremely revolutionary and anti corporate, with two versions of "Kick Out The Jams" one starting with the original "KOTJ MotherFvckers" and the other "family friendly "OTJ Brothers and Sisters" which caused major issues when the Hudson's Department Stores got the wrong batch causing no end of too and forth repercussions (buy or borrow the book to find out).

The there was Iggy and The Stooges as well, who lasted two albums with Elektra but another out there band who turned up to record their first album with five songs. They were sent away to get some more.

Now I was under the impression that both these bands were on CBS but that must have been the British releases. Similarly Queen were on Elektra in the USA but on EMI in the UK.

I shouldn't have been so surprised as I have a copy of the first ever (to my knowledge) rock picture disk, a German Elektra compilation called Hallucinations / Psychedelic Underground which has these bands plus The Doors and others and you can see it here.

The final and most surprising were the middle or the road AOR band Bread led by David Gates who Jac Holzman knew from his work with Captain Beefheart. I never knew that. This is why reading is such an adventure. You always find out new things.

Obviously there is a plethora of songs I could choose but as it's Sunday night before another working week we'll go with The Stooges "No Fun"

Sunday, 28 July 2019

Millennium Post #2


I don't know whether I expected to do this many posts. I do know I expected to have a book written but the ideas come and go, and I expected to have some recordings out there and a combination of laziness and "not having enough time" , life and things have distracted me from hitting those targets.

My first Millennium Post can be seen by clicking on the link and was about eight and a half years after I started this blog. This one is about four years after the last one so the rate of posting has doubled and again I'm not sure if the quality has improved although the quantity definitely has.

One of things in the last four years I have started walking a million steps every three months on a rolling basis which was inspired by the Diabetes UK One Million Step Challenge which raises money for charity. I just did it to see if I could do it and it has helped me discover a lot of places that I would never have seen if I had not been on foot.

The fact that this has fallen on a Sunday would have some kind of divine significance for some people but lets face it there was a one in seven chance it would happen. At the beginning of the year I wanted to hit two thousand posts by the end of the year, and because I kept posting I realised I could actually hit it this month, so I have done that.

This means I will soon have the number of posts up to our number of Anno Domini years whether that's significant or not.

So nothing momentous to write about, and trying to think of a significant song for this , should we go with Pulp's "Disco 2000"  or The Rolling Stones "2000 Light Years From Home" but definitely not Robbie Williams "Millennium" (which I always thought was spelt with one 'n') or "2000 Man" by Kiss , but then I saw on "Their Satanic Majesties Request" the Stones had a song called "2000 Man" so we will go with that, with it's heavy Kinks influences. The video is full of images that appear in "The Illuminatus Trilogy" so it's strange how many things just coincide.

I thought Captain Beefheart had a song called "2000 Man" but I had got it mixed up with "25th Century Quaker" , understandable mistake.

So it's a sunny-ish Sunday have a good one and thank you for reading.


Thursday, 30 August 2018

Orange Clawhammer


Another for the #SongsYouveNeverHeard series, I first heard this as an unaccompanied sea shanty style song on "Trout Mask Replica", still one of th emost amazing albums you will ever hear should you be able to get your hands on a copy.

Then I got hold of an NME compilation CD which had a version with music, including a harmonica. The only accompanied version I can find features Frank Zappa on acoustic guitar which you can hear here.

The song inspired an eponymous Beefheart tribute band and their site is here.

It is incredibly powerful and once you hear it it will stay with you forever, one of the many gems left to use by Don Van Vliet.

I know this is a very short post, but I would love to know what YOU think about it.

Enjoy your Thursday.

Wednesday, 27 June 2018

Walk On Gilded Splinters - #TenAlbumsInTenDays #3 - #9


I do find it amazing the amount of music that I have available to me, but I do keep going back to revisit old albums, but because they still sound incredible today. "Gris Gris" by Doctor John was something I missed in my teenage years but once I heard it's hypnotic gumbo voodoo tunery it's an album that has never left me.

I'm also doing  #TenAlbumsInTenDays which gives me another excuse to revisite enjoy and write about this stuff.

Similarly Captain Beefheart's "Trout Mask Replica" is another amazing epic piece that I did pick up as a teenager much to the chagrin on many of my Led Zeppelin / Bowie toting friends. This was several steps too far for them, as would have been "Gris Gris".

Rumour has it that Beefheart took the Magic Band into the desert and learned them to play from scratch. The album combines so many musical elements that if you don't approach it with an open mind you will not be able to appreciate the eclectic mix of brass, woodwind, free jazz, sea shanties, blues, garage rock and pure avant-garde. It is truly an experience and again, once you're in there you are truly in. You will never forget or fail to appreciate this masterpiece.

The back to the New Orleans Voodoo of Doctor John, The Night Tripper in full regalia for "Gris Gris". One song "I Walk On Gilded Splinters" has been widely covered by such luminaries as Cher, Marsha Hunt, Paul Weller and Humble Pie but that is just the grand finale of an album of seven amazing and hypnotic songs.

So really that has to be the song I leave you with but check out both these albums and the other versions of the song, you may love them.

Saturday, 12 August 2017

30th Century Man 2: Scott Walker vs Tom Waits


Last nigh I finished watching 30th Century Man and Fiona got hooked. She said that Scott was very like Tom Waits. I disagreed, but then thought they do have a lot of similarities. The main difference is that Tom Waits' music lives in a skewed version of reality while Scott Walkers' seems to me to be in a completely different universe.

As I'm witing this I'm listening to "Cossacks Are" the opening song from "The Drift" which features in the film. After watch the film you are left wonderfing the closing percussion instrument is, as you see dustbins and slabs of meat being used.

Both artiss started out reasonably mainstream, the main difference that Scott was a pin up and Tom looked like a tramp (a description often given to me). Scott charted with the Walker Brothers and when he split he was successful as a solo artist until "Scott 4". Tom's success was augmented my others such as The Eagles, Bruce Springsteen and Rod Stewart covering his songs.

Then for Tom came "Swordfishtrombones" and for Scott "Climate of the Hunter" where they both truly left the mainstream. Tom often used made up intruments but his composition still are recognisable as songs.

Someone wrote about Scott's pieces (and this is how I remember what they said) "they're not songs, they something else" and I can see what he means. You don't listen to a Scott Walker album and get away with not paying attention.

Currently playing is "Clara" inspired by the execution of Mussolini and his girlfriend that Scott had seen on cinema newsreels as a child , and the adults would not explain what had happened, it features the meat percussion.

His pieces are poems mixed with tone pieces, they give the impressions of massiveness and claustrophobia, they do make you feel, but you have a feeling of not knowing where or when you are, maybe something like a mental flotation tank.

Tom Waits is clearer, he takes you on journeys , on foot or in a dodgy automobile, he is Americanm but not a TV American, his stories are engaing and you often wonder "what's that playing". They are songs though.

I think the only other people I could group with these two are Captain Beefheart, The Fall then to some effect Bowie, Zappa and Siouxsie and maybe Pearls Before Swine.

I was surprised to hear that Scott Walker never listens to his work once it's finished. I can understand an autor not reading his own books, but given that Scott is often ten years between albums he does have time to listen to his amazing work.

Having said that Tom Waits is almost a relief after listening to Scott Walker. Two amazing, amazing artists.

Wednesday, 29 March 2017

Ten Thousand Steps Underground


I'm still nowhere near a hundred percent, but am still hitting ten thousand steps dail, and reading and being inspired by Tom Waits. I remember buying "SwordfishTrombones" on the back of "In The Neighborhood" , putting it on and being totally shocked by the first song "Underground" , and that is shocked in a good way. This was something like a mephistophelean take on The Dwarves Marching song from Disney (which he covered for real on the album "Stay Awake") The only artist who was anywhere near this was Captain Beefheart, so to have another singer who could to this was totally mind blowing for me.

This post is going to be short because I am tired and probably overdoing it physically, but I actually managed to do something at work that amazed me, and hopefully it will make one or two of my colleagues happy. That's assuming it still works tomorrow.

Anyway I am feeling totally drained but will leave you with more Tom Waits.

Sleep well my friends

Sunday, 25 December 2016

On Christmas Day Reach For Love


I really wasn't expecting to post today but so far I've had a brilliant relaxing Christmas. I've managed to talk to some friends and family, got some lovely presents, and am listening to one of them , The Rolling Stones "Blue & Lonesome" , Mick Jagger sounding bluesier than ever almost like Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters or, dare I say it Captain Beefheart, and that is just one of the wonderful albums I received today , which I am now transferring to my music server.

There's no snow so it's not going to be a White Christmas I don't think although there's parts of the sky that are black while others are blue and sunny. So really who knows what the weather is going to decide to do.

Be Like Frank
I am sort of wondering what song to play on this one , and though I haven't posted in the #LikeNoOther sequence for ages, which makes me think of Wild Man Fischer but I don't think that's one for today. I remember Frank Zappa telling a story about Larry Fischer meeting his brother one day:

"Larry had the axe, his brother had the bad luck" , which made me chuckle, though I hope his brother was not too traumatized







Just looking out the window and it looks like one of my neighbours has got a new drill for Christmas, I so detest getting or buying anything practical for Christmas and Birthdays, this should be a time of getting something pleasurable and out of the ordinary. I know that is not an option for a lot of people but if you need something you should get it immediately as soon as you can afford it, not wait for Christmas or a Birthday.

I was wondering what to play and it was staring me in the face, Marcel King's "Reach For Love" , it's Shaun Ryder's favourite Factory single, and a truly wonderful uplifting record, from the sadly missed singer , love Marcel's voice. I found this New York Mix which stretches it out to five and a half minutes, and if there's one thing better than a good thing, it's more of a good thing, and this certainly is a wonderfully good thing.



Anyway I hope your day is going brilliantly , I hope that you are going to rest and then kickstart another year of fun, good deeds , enjoyment.

Sunday, 9 October 2016

Counting Down With Polly Jean #ALifeInNumbers #14


14 is the first time I couldn't off hand think of a song so checked out my collection and there aren't all that many songs hiding in there. I decided to go with "Sixteen,Fifteen,Fourteen" by PJ Harvey and John Parrish from the album "A Woman A Man Walked By" which incidentally I was playing earlier today.

There were a few others , "The 14th of February" by Billy Bragg, "14 Black Paintings" by Peter Gabriel and 14 Days by Nick Lowe as well as various numbered Classical pieces, but the PJ Harvey one was the standout for me.

Polly Jean Harvey is one of my all time favourite artists and she was a great friend of Captain Beefheart who she would speak to about her albums and projects to get his opinions and advice.

My cold is still annoying me but hopefully it will improve in time for work tomorrow. I have had chocolate and that has soothed my throat no end.

Anyway that is my fourth post today, I don't know if that's a record for me, but this will be my last today.

Enjoy your Sunday evening and I hope you have a great start to a wonderful week.

Eleven Moustachioed Daughters? #ALifeInNumbers #11


There was only ever going to be one Number Eleven and that is Eleven Moustachioed Daughters by The Bonzo Dog Band , a song I'm sure that everyone knows, or everyone that reads this will now know. I've chosen this excellent live rendition by Viv Stanshall's post Bonzo's band BiG Grunt (that's not a typo although it may have been originally.

 The Bonzo's started out as a bit trad jazz ut all the members had ideas about the direction they wanted to go, very involved in the TV Comedy "Do Not Adjust Your Set" with many of  the pre Python Monty Python team,

While I had heard them on "Do Not Adjust Your Set" and they had a hit single with "Urban Spaceman" I was amazed by the breadth and depth of their music when I put on "The Doughnut In Granny's Greenhouse" and the first track "We Are Normal" blew me away , normal this band definitely was not.

Eleven
By the time you hit the last track on side two "11 Moustachioed Daughters" you realise that you havecovered a hell of a lot of ground with these guys, after the rock, pop , jazz, comedy and everything else the hit you with this rhythmic pagan chant which is both frightening and funny and you do want to hear it again and again.

I once heard that The Bonzo's were the UK's Mothers of Invention (originally Zappa wanted them to be called The Mothers but the record company forced the to add "Of Invention" for decency, don't you love marketing sensibilities) , and Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart were hug fans of The Bonzos.









Anyway enjoy this, and your record collection should really contain a copy of "The Doughnut In Granny's Greenhouse".

Right it's six am on Sunday morning, it's dark. and I am going back to bed.

Have a brilliant Sundaty everybody.

Tuesday, 26 July 2016

Gravity Clones and Seven Nation Armies


One of those phrases that just came to mind for no apparent reason . Clone can be a noun or a verb in this context and Gravity can be a noun or an adjective. Again this could be used as a band name , like Beach Canaries that I used earlier on in the month.

I am thinking of posting a series of songs on here that for me just don't fit into what we expect. Captain Beefheart made me realise that technical ability was subservient to actual ideas. An idea put into practice is far better that the musical ability to play all the notes perfectly , though maybe I am saying that because I can't really play any instrument. The sort of artists that spring to mind are David Bowie , Beefheart , Zappa, PJ Harvey and Siouxsie & the Banshees and that's just a start.

We're coming to the end of July and next week we hit August , the days are getting shorter and soon people will be complaining that we haven't had a summer despite the current heatwave.

Remind You of Anything?
Yesterday I too a photograph in the stairway at work and a friend of mine remarked it reminded him of Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes which is a possibility of a cover for the band I am practicing with although they will be leaning towards the Postmodern Jukebox version so I've included both for you delectation. And that is another coincidence.

So it's a lovely day so enjoy it , it's turning out to be a great week



Friday, 20 November 2015

Phone A Friend Friday - #55 - 2011 - Polly Jean Harvey - Written On The Forehead


Friday is here and today is going to be a long day, it's been an intense week in a lot of ways but I have got a lot done, but amazingly run out of socks , well almost , despite the fact that the laundry basket is only half full and I don't think there's any of my socks in there. But it's going to be a a great night withe a screening of the film Tangerine at The Tyneside Cinema for Transgender Remembrance Day followed by a run down to Think Tank to see The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing , and then possibly a lie in on Saturday before finishing my friend's web site off about the Codonopsis plant family.

Anyway it would be a great idea idea to phone a friend or family member you have not spoken to for a while and maybe meet up for coffee or cake and have a hug and a catch up.

Hope you're is good.

PJH
The Odyssey reaches 2011 year 55. I didn't even look at the charts for this year because that was the year that my favourite female artist released "Let England Shake" one of the greatest albums of all time the difficulty came in choosing the song and I I eventually chose "Written On The Forehead" a brilliant anti war song , and it gives me a chance to add in Niney The Observers wonderful Blood And Fire that it samples. Written on the Forehead refers to either the practice used in military hospitals of identifying what the condition of an injured soldier was or it could be from Th eBook of Revelation 2:24 "His Name Will Be Written On Their Forehead" . I leave that for you you to look up.

Have a wonderful Friday everyone.

Saturday, 25 May 2013

Bongo Fury

The weather is beautiful , but the mood is ruined by the thugs of a certain organisation organising a protest in the cetre of Newcastle. It's amazing how many people seem to think they have a point. Then they start complaining about the Germans taking over London tonight !! Bayern Munich and Boruusia Dortmund are there because they're the best footballing sides in Rurope this season.

Anyway after that I was looking into phone companies terms and condition for internet data usage and check this snippet out:

"Inclusive Mobile Internet:  Mobile internet browsing (whether as part of an inclusive allowance or not) is not to be used for other activities (such as non-company internet based streaming services, voice or video over the internet, instant messaging)."

From that I assume you can't watch Youtube , message friends on Facebook, Twitter or any non approved method, or maybe I just read it wrong.

I just find it annoying when organisations attempt to impose themselves on you in an attempt to control you.

The title of the post comes from a Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa collaboration , so I think I'll dig out a Beef heart video to cheer me up.