May 4, 2009
BUG 13 & NORWICH BUG 2 NEWS!
BUG 13 SOLD OUT BUT BOOK NOW FOR 17th SEPTEMBER IN NORWICH!
Hey ho hoo ha hey! BUG 13 and BUG 13 The Directors Cut at the BFI Southbank on Thursday 14th and Friday 22nd are already fully booked although I would stress how much I’d recommend just coming along on the night and seeing if you can hold of a ticket as there are always a few no shows and free seats. Of course I can’t guarantee you’ll get a seat and I wouldn’t want you to put yourself in the position where your night would be ruined if you didn’t, but I really think it’s worth a try if you’ve been unable to book a seat for what continues to be my favourite live engagement in one of London’s most smartiferous cinema shaped venues.
As well as the usual selection of extraordinary music videos from around the world I’ll be unveiling my own no budget effort for my song Nutty Room which I made recently with the help of video whizzmachine Dougal Wilson.
NORWICH BUG 2
If you’re in striking distance of Norwich then here’s some very early notice of the second BUG show at the wonderful Norwich Playhouse on Thursday 17th September at 8pm. The first one of these was a giant East Anglian hoot and I’m looking forward very much to another hoot slice so book early to avoid crushing disappointment and also to make me seem popular and important.
You can book seats for NORWICH BUG 2 here
April 8, 2009
STEWART LEE NEWS!
YOU’RE WATCHING ‘STEWART LEE’S COMEDY VEHICLE’, RIGHT?
It’s over halfway through the series and I’m digging it so much. It’s on BBC2 on Monday nights at 10pm in case you haven’t caught it yet. Quite apart from the fact that it’s very satisfying to have a comedy show this intelligent being commissioned ‘these days’ (he says sounding like an old fartprick) it’s properly funny stuff. Even the bits that don’t make me laugh are so artfully done I’m happy to wait for the next very funny/brilliant bit, of which there are many. The riff on nostalgic memories of Woolworth’s, MFI and Zavvi this week was a peach. My wife, who normally has low tolerance for TV comedy said “he’s very dishy isn’t he?”. Yes he is, I thought, which I guess makes me a kind of groupie.
So it was exciting for me to contribute to the show, kind of. OK, I contributed to the first of the red button interviews that Armando Iannucci did with Stewart that you can see after the show goes out each week. I was excited to be involved even though I don’t imagine Stewart even knew I was. Can you spot my input? Is it sleazy to want you to spot my input? Sorry if so.
March 26, 2009
NATE VID NEWS!
A MESSAGE TO A YOU TUBER FROM THE AUDIENCE OF BUG
Lat night’s BUG 12 The Directors Cut at the BFI Southbank was one of my favourites so far. We showed some wonderful stuff including an animation called Story From North America by talented young animator Kirsten Lepore, Reuben Sutherland’s video for Royksopp’s Happy Up Here, Martin De Thurah’s for Fever Ray, Karni & Saul’s for Flogging Molly, a very funny vid for French band Odelaf’s song Le Café, a jaw dropping skate vid for UNKLE’s lovely track Heaven directed by Ty Evans with Spike Jonez, and various things I made myself and with Garth Jennings who was our guest at the previous week’s show.
One of the standout animated videos we showed was by super smart directing team Walter Robot for Deathcab For Cutie’s Grapevine Fires. I read out some of the comments that had been left by You Tubers including one mini thesis from a chap called NathanY579. You can find the comment if you scroll down far enough but in case it gets removed or whatever, here’s a pic:
Intrigued, I navigated the BUG audience to Nathan’s channel where I found a video he’s posted of himself singing the traditional American song Wildwood Flower. The bad part of me was hoping it would be dreadful and he would be revealed as a colossal ponce, but only the very hard would deny he’s got talent and throws himself manfully into his early Johnny Cash routine. I couldn’t help noticing that someone calling himself devinoxford had left a message on his home page, clearly part of an exchange that had taken place elsewhere on You Tube telling Nathan that:
you’re only a poor musician because you suck, it’s that simple!
to which Nathan replies with an unguarded candor seldom found in You Tube comment sections:
I wasn’t referring to myself and you have hurt my feelings. However you are entitled to your opinion.
When the audience at BUG saw that comment they let forth a loud and sincere ‘Aww’ of sympathy for Nathan’s hurt feelings which spurred me to take it a few steps further and film a message of support on my camera which I have posted below. I’m not suggesting anyone should further hound devinoxford (who as Nathan magnanimously points out is entitled to his opinion) or overload Nathan with commentary to make him even more self conscious than I may have already, but I thought it would be a good chance to reach out to a man admirably unafraid of writing essays beneath Deathcab For Cutie videos and posting vids of himself doing heartfelt Johnny Cash impressions for all the scary internet to see. Good on you Nate! And I’ll see the rest of you at BUG in May.
February 26, 2009
OUT OF FOCUS GROUP C NEWS!
BOOK NOW FOR FRIDAY, MARCH 13th @ BFI SOUTHBANK!
In between trying to write the ultimate 80’s song for next week’s Song Wars I’m preparing frantically for the third Out Of Focus Group at the BFI Southbank. If you haven’t been to one of these before it’s basically an excuse for me to show some old and new video morcels I’ve made in between live performances from myself and other more talented actors, comedians and musicians. Finalising the running order is always a fairly last minute thing because foolishly I ‘organise’ these shows myself and never really get to grips with the logistics so I can’t say exactly who’ll be appearing, but it’s always a good night, one way or another.
The show starts at 6.50pm on Friday 13th, March and should be over by 8.30pm. Let’s have a drink at the Benugo bar at the BFI after the show! Lovely. I wonder if any of you reading this are the kinds of people who refuse to go out if it’s a Friday 13th because you’re so superstitious. If you are, I wonder if you’re also an atheist. If that’s the case you’re my kind of totally irrational fuckwit and all I can say is it’s a great shame you won’t be able to make it to the show because I think you’d like it.
You can book you tickets for Out Of Focus Group C here
Here’s the kind of thing I’ll be showing at the BFI. It’s another Signing For The Deaf thing from my BBC3 pilot, MeeBOX, but this is a longer edit than the piece that was actually broadcast. The twatty annotations feature on You Tube is actually quite brills for these as it means that you can enjoy them (or not) if you are actually deaf. I had a few complaints from deaf people that the last one of these I put up didn’t have subs and they felt that to be playing about with deaf signing while not even letting deaf people in on the joke was a bit much, so I’m glad to be able to fix that here. By the way, don’t forget you can always turn the subs off. I’ve been thinking about doing some more signing bits but I may not get it together for the 13th, especially with Song Wars. Wish Phil Oakey or someone from New Musik or Landscape would get in touch with a backing track, then I’d be sorted. It’s possible they have better things to do, but you never know! Hope to see you on the 13th March!
I notice that when playing the vid in HD it’s got all lines and shit innit. Field dominance issues. These are exactly the kind of issues that I hoped Obama would address when he came to power but so far, nothing. It’s all very well saying you want to help the Odds (lower?) AND the Evens (higher?!) but sometimes they just have to remain de-interlaced. Either that or you drop a field, but who wants the responsibility of making that kind of decision? Not I.
February 17, 2009
BUG 12 NEWS!
BOOK NOW FOR BUG 12 THE DIRECTORS CUT, WEDNESDAY 25th MARCH 2009!
BUG 12 on March 19th is already sold out but BUG 12 the Directors Cut (the same show minus interview but with additional music vids and joy added) still has a few seats available as I write this. As usual the show takes place at London’s wonderful BFI Southbank, starts at 8.45 and features a selection of interesting, unusual and brilliant music videos along with the occasional very short film and some random bullshite from the mad, mad world wide web. In between I drink beer and make asinine comments.
Our inaugural BUG at the Norwich Playhouse a couple of weeks back was a lot of fun with a really good, varied and enthusiastic crowd turning up for the show and staying for a drink in the very cosy Playhouse bar afterwards. I hope we’re going to do be doing more in a few months time and will of course keep you posted in my semi efficient way. Hope to see you in London though.
In the meantime you can book tickets for BUG 12 The Directors Cut here
