Computers
Yet another radical revamp of this website is in the offing and it has become something of an all-consuming project, but this project is proving to be more consuming than first hoped. You see, I want to make it a lot more concise and impart some quality of stylistic coherence. Someone once described my more considered photos as being a bit like “visual haiku’s” and this notion has kind of stuck in the mind. I suppose there is a certain zen like effect in the quality of intensely studied details and forms. So I have decided to radically minimalize the home page (at least) in an effort to try to enhance and support the intrinsic qualities of existing and forthcoming photo projects. Of course this “minimalization” will eventually spread to the rest of the site.
Now there is a need, or a trend, to make websites as forward compatible (if that’s the term) as possible. My old and slightly non-compliant table lay outs are just not good enough, and nor are they likely to be widely supported across a range of browsers. So, I will have to get to grips with Cascading Style Sheet controlled layouts. I have been using CSS to conform the text and links aspect of the site for a number of years, but this CSS layout shilarney is proving to be a lot trickier. I insist on doing it all in note pad because I like to have a sense of being in total control of every aspect of the coding—more trickiness-arrrrgh!
Music
Whilst we are broaching the subject of trickiness it may be a good time to risk modest incredulity from some of my fellow jazz nusouls and confess to setting up a frazy.com list that includes vintage (Peter Gabriel period) Genesis and King Crimson albums. Yes they were all a part of my erstwhile vinyl collection, a collection that incidentally contained many more classics and collectables than the current CD collection that has replaced it. But there is no denying that some of these old masterworks were some of the best albums ever made by rock musicians at a time when the genre was genuinely “progressive” and comparatively new. I have become obsessed with the idea of recovering as much of this old collection on CD as possible, though I would prefer older CD’s that are more faithful to the original masters, not re-masters and revamps!
I only have a vague recollection of the form and sound of Foxtrot and Selling England by the Pound. always two of my favourite Gen albums. But I do remember that they were both outstanding examples of the “prog rock” idea with coherent narrative content and a very high degree of musical virtuosity. Selling England was an almost seamless album with a mellifluous quality that seemed to glide effortlessly through a range of different but related tracks and it was musically perfect! A lot of material served up under the banner of “prog rock” was utter crap as too many bands found themselves in too deep with this whole “concept” album malarkey and proffered bad and often misplaced music concrete or semmi classical asides that didn’t work and just seemed pretentious. The more or less good King Crimson were moderately guilty of this on the potentially interesting Larks Tongues in Aspic album.
I think I may be getting some inspiration from younger generations who are embroiled in a search for more meaningful and crafty forms almost as a reaction to several decades dominated by electronically fired music or ultra commercial chart nonsense. The growing interest in styles such as post-rock and the metric indulgences of math-rock are in some ways a kind of 21st century prog-rock But non-”rock” like arrangements, obscure tonalities, and polyrhythm are not new things. For wild excessive experimentation, even the use of microtonality, may I refer you to Frank Zappa, Can, and Henry Cow. But despite all of this, or possibly due to all of this my heart still lies in the Nujazz camp and its many off-shoots including the wondrous Stereolab.
Politics
By way of a digression I think I should point out that I do feel a little guilty and somewhat effete for writing in a “weblog” (prefer diary) at the current time and only mentioning personal minutiae. So many other good diarists are much more involved in the important issues that concern the wider world. As I write, a diabolical situation in the so called “bible lands” once again threatens to engulf us all in a wider conflict or exacerbate the global terrorism threat a hundred fold. I read Laurence Hughes’ diary and “further musings” and become acutely aware of the peculiar, complex, and self evident nature of the decline of English civilisation. And the other night the ever-irksome Bee Campbell almost caused me to smash the bloody radio in response to her ludicrously out moded and generalised thoughts on gender, and all of them mired in bitter feminist chauvinism. The hottest temperatures on record evince serious global climate change and the silly Daily Express runs an anti-cyclist campaign! But I think I will need to fortify myself before letting rip and expressing potentially inflammatory views on a website that is apparently visited by everyone that either knows me or may want to employ me.
I think we need a breakaway page here at Oliver Wood photos—but hey, at the end of the day lets not forget that it is in fact supposed to be all about that very medium with a few other harmless interests thrown in. Yes computers, music, politics, we have it all.
Its off to the wondrous and lovely Ms Heritage for the weekend—-arrrrgh— relaxant at last.
