So last month, Complex played host to Cipha Sounds Presents: The 75 Greatest Tunnel Bangers, a list of tracks from the late 90′s that had been labelled with that infamous tag: ‘Tunnel Banger’.

Tun·nel bang·er (noun) Circa 1994-2000, a record—often hardcore and aggressive—that whipped the crowd into a frenzy during the prime-time hour after 1 a.m. at the NYC club’s Sunday-night party.

Obviously, being in my early teens for most of that period, I never frequented The Tunnel – but I did listen to Tim Westwood who at the time seemed to base his entire show on whatever Funkmaster Flex was doing in New York. So on a Saturday night in Plymouth, I’d be blasting Ruff Ryders, Puff Daddy, Mobb Deep, Noreaga and the rest of them.. It was like I was there. Sort of. But not really at all. I didn’t even know what some of those tracks were until years later (Horse & Carriage for example), but they formed much of my playlist when the radio still meant something.

The list is pretty definitive – as you’d expect from someone like Cipha Sounds – and the small write-ups are occasionally interesting if not annoying to have to click endlessly through on the Complex site. (If you don’t want to read the anecdotes, (the full list in one go is here). Also, some kind soul has prepared a nice download of all the tracks mentioned here if you fancy giving them a listen but don’t really want to buy out the Def Jam / Bad Boy back catalogues.

In response to the list of Tunnel Bangers, Bloggerhouse have been running a series of ‘75 Backpack Bangers‘ (that seems to have reached 100? but whatever) that is a nice counterbalance to the Complex list.

The real reason this post was created was because perusing the list of the 75 greatest Tunnel bangers there were at least 30 of those jawns that underground Hip Hop heads, later referred to as “backpackers” absolutely abhored. Don’t get me wrong, a fair amount of the Complex list brought back some great memories. The thing is a fair amount of the same list brought back memories of me playing a steady diet of Cannibal Ox, Rubberoom, K-Otix, Jigmastas, Five Deez, Cunninglynguists, Atmosphere & Athletic Mic League to combat the bullshit I heard on the radio.

I don’t agree with the ‘bullshit on the radio’ comment, because I actually liked that shit back then – and still do to an extent – but I definitely agree that the list brought a whole range of other memories too. I was getting more into ‘underground’ hip-hop in the late 90′s, much more so than ‘The Tunnel’ esque stuff but it was largely a case of only listening to what I could actually hear. Rawkus were the poster boys and you could get their stuff in HMV, but pretty much everything else underground for me, had to come from the interweb. I’d just started getting onto forums and whatnot, and it opened me up to a ton of new music by people I’d never heard of. Seriously, if it wasn’t for places like Mr Blunts’ hip-hop forum, my musical taste would be so different, but that’s another story. You couldn’t really get hold of anything down where I lived, so you had to buy stuff online. Places like HipHopSite, Sandboxautomatic and UGHH were the shit. They even had Real Audio samples of everything they sold, it was amazing! (Ha! Real Audio. Remember that? I’ve still got tonnes of downloaded .rm files that I have no way of playing anymore. Madness.)

MP3′s were just about picking up pace and you could get a decent amount of this music from Audiogalaxy and Napster. Napster actually had a lively underground hip-hop community come to think of it. But I was still rocking dial-up and getting pocket money so I’d actually try to buy stuff. Most of it I’d never heard before, but got it just because it was underground. Bought Polyrhythm Addicts because I read somewhere that they’d done something with Pharoahe Monch. I got The Arsonists album with a voucher I’d won in an MC battle. I bought Skillionaire from some Swedish guy, but forgot to send him the money. (If you’re reading this J, I owe you!) It was great. But I digress.

Both lists are great, and worth looking through / listening to yourself. But I thought I’d highlight some of my personal favourites from each collection, in no particular order.

Noreaga – Superthug

Download audio file (15-Superthug.mp3)
I never owned this, but I swear Westwood played it at least 17 times every show for months on end. Couldn’t escape it! “Aiyo we light a candle, run laps around the English Channel, Neptunes, I got a cockerspaniel.” Nuff said.

Dilated Peoples – Work The Angles

Download audio file (Work-The-Angles.mp3)
It was the remix of this track on the Sway & Tech album that I really like, but this isn’t too shabby either. Dilated were actually the only US group that I caught live during this time – at The Thekla in Bristol. I could’ve seen Souls of Mischief about a month before in Plymouth but I convinced myself that it wasn’t really going to be Souls of Mischief and must have been some other local group instead. Idiot. Anyway, they were great and The Platform was a quality album. Babu and Rakaa more than make up for Ev.

Arsonists – Blaze

Download audio file (Blaze-Radio-Edit.mp3)
As I mentioned earlier, I got The Arsonists album without really knowing who they were or having heard any of their singles. That’s not to say I didn’t own any of their singles though. I actually had the 12″ of this before I had the album – I just didn’t have a turntable to play it on. Really. I can’t even remember why I ended up buying it, but I did. It’s still shrink-wrapped. Any offers? But anyway, on an album full of quality hip-hop, this track always stood out because of the mind-boggling speed of it. I can still recite 80% of it word for word but the fourth verse is just ridiculous.

Notorious B.I.G. & 2Pac – Where Brooklyn At

Download audio file (37-Where-Brooklyn-At-ft.-2Pac.mp3)
The intro to that Funkmaster Flex & Big Kap – The Tunnel album, this live recording was the closest I’d ever get to seeing either of these live, so it was good enough for me. I was a big 2Pac fan for a long time (obviously; being a white 14 year old boy from South West England) so used to front like the Biggy verse was meh to me, but it’s great.. Seven mack elevens..

DMX – Get At Me Dog

Download audio file (03-Get-At-Me-Dog-ft.-Sheek-Louch.mp3)
I bought the enhanced CD single of this which had a quicktime version of the video on it. That grimy black and white footage of DMX performing in The Tunnel was so ill to me. I used to play this on repeat LOUD.

High & Mighty – B-Boy Document ’99

Download audio file (05-B-Boy-Document-99-Featuring-Mos-Def-And-Mad-Skillz.mp3)
Appearing on pretty much every Rawkus release ever, Mos Def sort of became the face of ‘backpack’ hip-hop. Or at least, it seemed that way. He was like the saviour of hip-hop. I remember having a giant A1 promo poster for ‘Black On Both Sides’ with some tag like ‘the new hip-hop is here’ or some shit. I’m not sure if I believed it, but I certainly appreciated his contribution. The High & Mighty were a bit of an odd one for me – I didn’t like any of their album except for this, Dirty Decibles, and The Last Hit (because of Mos, Pharaohe Monch & Eminem respectively) – but I always associated them with quality music. Weird. This track is a classic though.. I’m still using it as my ringtone today.

Bad Meets Evil (Eminem & Royce Da 5’9”) – Scary Movies

Download audio file (09-Scary-Movies-Dirty.mp3)
Eminem used to rip shit. Undeniable. Loved this track. If they’d have made a joint album, it would’ve been over. As it was though, the couple of 12″s they released will remain gems in my collection.
“The one man on the planet that’ll drive off of the grand canyon, hop off of a grand am and land it hand standing..”

The LOX – Money, Power & Respect

Download audio file (25-Money-Power-Respect-ft.-Lil-Kim-DMX.mp3)
I didn’t like The LOX. Or Lil’ Kim. Sort of liked DMX. But loved this song. The instrumental makes it for me; so many times I would put this on a loop and freestyle to this beat.. It was perfect.

MHz – World Premier

Download audio file (11-World-Premier.mp3)
Again, it’s not so much this track that I remember, but it’ll do for MHz. Long before Copywrite was embarrassing himself all over the internet, I was proud to wear my t-shirt with the big © logo on the front. He was one of the best punchline MC’s to me at that time – a time where punchlines meant so much. In fact, even before all that, I bought a beat off him from his MP3.com page once. It was only like, £10, and was a bit shit, but I didn’t know any local producers and needs must..

Craig Mack – Flava In Ya Ear (rmx)

Download audio file (38-Flava-in-Ya-Ear-Remix-ft.-The-Notorious-B.I.G.-Rampage-LL-Cool-J-Busta-Rhymes.mp3)
You can’t really deny that Puffy came up with a classic on this one. If there’s one thing you can always say about Bad Boy, it’s that they knew what they were doing, and they did it well.

Akrobatic – Internet MC’s

Download audio file (02-Internet-MCs-Dirty.mp3)
Bearing in mind what I used to spend most of my free time doing at that time, I should’ve probably taken offense to this song. But he wasn’t talking to me, so it was cool. Otherwise, I’d've uploaded a maaaad dis onto MP3.com. “So internet MC’s heed my advice: online keystyles don’t make you nice. Bring it to the streets and start to rabble rouse, sincerely yours, Akro 2000.”

Mobb Deep – Quiet Storm / Shook Ones Pt. II

Download audio file (27-Quiet-Storm.mp3)
/ Download audio file (18-Shook-Ones-Pt.-II.mp3)
It was mostly because of the first 30 seconds or so of each track. The slow brooding intro of Quiet Storm before that drum kicks in, or the abrasive, menacing intro of Shook Ones Pt. II. “I put my life time in between the paper’s lines..”, or “I got you stuck off the realness..”. I could never decide which one I preferred, though nowadays it’s Shook Ones Pt. II I reckon. I don’t know what Mobb Deep are up to these days (is Prodigy still in prison?) but I know that for me, they’ll never top either of these songs. (Though, that said, they come very close.. The Infamous is unfuckwitable).

Pharoahe Monch – Simon Says

Download audio file (32-Simon-Says.mp3)
This was actually on the ‘Tunnel’ list, but I always associated it with the ‘Backpack’ realm, what with the Rawkus connection etc.. I’m still always surprised when I hear this on Radio 1 these days because when I first heard it, it was so obscure and fresh to me but I suppose you can’t keep a catchy song down. I could’ve sworn that the 12″ version of this had a remix with Rodney P on too.

Cage – Agent Orange

Download audio file (1-04-Agent-Orange.mp3)
Before Cage the emo ‘rapper’, there was Cage the Clockwork Orange reject. The former > the latter. I realise that people evolve and change but it’s so bizarre to me to see this guy hang out with that bloke from Transformers. Come on Chris, I still have those Smut Peddler videos. Be honest with yourself. I used to lump him in with Necro and that lot and thought he was a dick who had a couple of decent songs, but when he finally dropped an album, I definitely ranked him on a different level to the standard gore shit that Psycho-Logical were putting out. I was waiting for ‘Movies for the Blind’ for ages. I even went for a HipHopSite preorder which came with a ‘people said his brain were infected by devils’ t-shirt. Dope.

Redman – I’ll Bee Dat!

Download audio file (73-Ill-Bee-Dat.mp3)
Another Def Jam enhanced CD that came with the video in QT. I kinda get a late pass on Redman; the first album I got from him was Docs Da Name, after I heard this single. I’ve made up for it since, don’t worry, but because of that, I still have this down as one of my favourite songs from him. It’s catchy as hell.

Last Emperor – Secret Wars Pt. II

Download audio file (Secret-Wars-Pt.-II.mp3)
Last Emp was one of the first people who’s album I downloaded. Fact. The aptly named ‘Legend of Bigfoot’ was almost mythological in the sense that I couldn’t find it anywhere to buy. The only thing I managed to find out about it at all for so long was a tracklisting and tiny image of the cover on Sandboxautomatic. I saw it being shared on Audiogalaxy one night and rushed to get it – but it turned out that the rip was glitchy as fuck so I didn’t really listen to it. I’ve still got it. When it comes on shuffle, it makes my ears hurt. What I did manage to get hold of though was this single, where Last Emperor details the battle that’d take place if he ‘had the power to gather all of his favourite MC’s, with the illest comic book characters, and they became arch-enemies..’. Hearing his slightly shit, but pretty good in context, impressions of GZA, Redman and the like, and about Ras Kass taking out Magneto etc etc.. was so dope. It’s masterfully done, even if it does turn out to be a bit of a one-sided fight.

Ah. Misty water coloured memories.. It was a fun time to be listening to hip-hop. Don’t even get me started on the non-Tunnel, non-backpack stuff!

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That said, I’m mostly interested in things that I have a point of reference to, which is why I found this collection of old Plymouth photographs quite fun to browse through. In fact, the whole site is quite good, if not in need of a redesign.

There’s a massive amount of photos from all over the city (and beyond), dated at various points in the last hundred years or so. Some things look like they haven’t changed at all. The Barbican is going to look like this for another hundred years. I’m surprised that Cap’n Jaspersisn’t in any of the images.

This view of the houses on the Esplanade and Elliot Terrace is pretty much identical today, except for the buildings on the far left next to the Grand Hotel.

That building was actually in ruins when I was a wee lad.. We used to think that a monster lived down there, mostly because the smell was horrendous and there was an old mattress under some bushes. The joys of youthful imagination..

Looking back the other way toward West Hoe, the main difference today is the houses on Grand Parade in between Pier Street and West Hoe Road (the grassy bit furthest away); but it’s nice to see that hardly anything else has changed.

Turning a bit further out to sea, you get the massive difference of the pier which isn’t even hinted at these days.

It’s no Blackpool, but I think it would’ve been cool to have seen the pier.. It would certainly have made the seafront down there more enticing because when I was growing up, all we had was a rotting Tinside, some hazardous diving boards and a rocky ‘beach’.

This view from the end of the pier is quite cool, and shows the seafront with diving board and sea pools looking pretty much exactly as they do today.

It also shows a bit of the ‘wedding cake’ (the Belvadere) on The Hoe where I’ve spent many a night.

It still amazes me that the bit in front of it used to be an actual bullring. Horrible. Not that it was much nicer when I lived there. I got flashed at by ‘Billy Bellend’ while riding past one day. True story. Until then, I’d actually blocked it out of my memory. How odd. But anyway..

There are also plenty of photos of the Barbican and the rest of the town center that I find it hard to visualise in modern settings. Things like Millbay train station behind the Duke of Cornwall Hotel; I had no idea there used to be a train station there.

I vaguely remember when they were building the Pavilions (which is there now) but feel slightly guilty that I was so oblivious to what used to be there, just a few hundred meters from where I grew up. Odd.

But there’s a lot of that type of thing on the site. Places that I know so well but can’t imagine looking like they did (another quick example – this view of the train station looking down toward Pennycomequick.. I used to go down that road on the way to school, and I first met my wife whilst working in a building off center at the top. It’s so familiar yet so strange.)

There are literally hundreds more on the site, and similarly, these aerial shots of olden Plymouth a worth a look.. http://web.ukonline.co.uk/stephen.johnson/air/. Who controls the past, controls the future.

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=idLG6jh23yE

Ever since the ‘Good vs Evil’ / (Nike vs the Devil) advert in ’95(? was that really 15 years ago?! Still one of the best adverts ever), I’ve been a fan of Nike’s forays into football advertising. I remember the first time I saw that advert, I spent the whole of breaktime the day after trying to trap the ball sweetly after chesting it up, so I could flick my collar and have a shot. I never managed it.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOM1k4oLGJU

Au revior! So badass..

The whole infatuation with Brazil and the Joga Bonito thing that dominated Nike’s output since then has been pretty cool, but it’s nice to see a return to the international all-stars approach that made them the best in football advertising. Adidas just can’t keep up. Bless ‘em. Even with Kaka & Messi on their team, they struggle. There was the ‘Impossible is Nothing‘ campaign a few years ago which wasn’t too bad.. And the ‘Jose+10′ idea was nicely done..

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HriehhPvPk

..but let’s be honest, they’re no ‘Take It To The Next Level‘ are they(?)

While I’m here, some other Nike adverts that still make me smile:

• Parklife. That one with Ian Wright playing Sunday league.
• Brazil vs Portugal. When Figo was still good.
• Henry running through his house. Living the dream.
• The Cage. 3-on-3 all star tournament on a boat, overseen by a puppet master like Cantona.

Oh, and the print campaign to go along with the ‘Write the Future’ isn’t too shabby either..

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Unfortunately, I’m not on it personally (that’s what I get for being sat at a computer for 18 hours of every day) but plenty of Matt-related things are. Like this bouncy castle.

I went on this pretty much every day during the summers of 1987-1997 (yes, I would’ve been far too old to be going on bouncy castles in ’97, but it’s true nonetheless).

So indulge me and allow me to take you on a mini tour of my formative years in Plymouth.. beginning with a creepy voyeuristic look into my old Primary School playgound.

Those flats on the left used to be an old paper mill that may or may not have been home to murderous tramps. We used to dare each other to break in to try to tempt them out and though we never actually made contact with killer hobos, I remain steadfast in my belief that they were there.

The ‘Private Shop’ that I genuinely thought sold desserts (thanks to the KY jelly adverts in the window). I was a slightly shocked 7 year old the first time I walked in.

The Mayflower Steps – where we discovered America from – and where I rode a bike into the filthy vile cancer-riddled sea. But didn’t get cancer. Just lost my bike.

Plymouth Hoe. Where I learnt to how to ride a bike, play football, had my first kiss / smoke / drink / broken bone, saw many Radio 1 Roadshows and a plethora of other memories that it’s probably best not to go into.

I still feel quite lucky that I lived on the road parallel to this, probably the best location in the whole city (imho) but it has left me with the ongoing problem that I can’t bring myself to ever live too far from the coast. I’d like a view like that every morning.

The really welcoming looking entrance to my Secondary School where I learnt everything that I know (about wanky A-Level requirements and outdated teaching methods).

Slightly better entrance of my college. The barbed wire was required.

Theatre of Dreams. Home of the mighty Plymouth Argyle.

The Cooperage, where I first (and last) rapped my little heart out into the night.

The posters on the walls there are about the recently incarcerated owner of the Dance Academy; importer of roughly 71% of all class-A’s into Plymouth. It’s Sadly derelict and abandoned now. Doesn’t this view of Union Street just make you want to go out for a night out in Plymouth though(?) So alluring..

Bonus extra: The void of Armada Way in Plymouth city centre that was once an underpass and fountains and flower beds – complete with blurred out faces on a Beryl Cook painting. Is that necessary(?) Censorship gone mad!

I could literally spend days on this.. but I realise that it’s not that interesting for you, dear reader. So I’ll do it in private

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I’m not really into comics, but I definitely appreciate the talent of some people who can draw the most amazing illustrations for them.. It’s a strange alien world to me though. I don’t get how people can keep up with the sheer number of issues of the various comics that get released and I really don’t understand the fandom around certain artists who may have done a particular cover or something; because they all look the same to me. I’m so ignorant. Well, I was. At least now, I have a name I can look out for next time I roll through Comic-Con or whatever it is. Chris Bachalo is apparently ‘internationally recognized as one of the most popular artists in the comic industry’ according to his website. I have no idea if that’s true but he’s at least recognised by me as the artist behind the Wu-Massacre cover art that I briefly posted about last month.

The album drops at the end of March and I’ll happily be making it my first ACTUAL CD purchase of the year. In fact, I’m vaguely tempted to buy 3 copies so I can get each of the cover variants. Thinking about it, surely they’ll be releasing it on vinyl(?) That cover art is crying out for some twelve inch action. (Pause). Soooo dope.

I suppose a slight nod to Alex Haldi is required but it’s the pretty pictures that kill it. Props to Mr Bachalo. I kinda get the feeling from his website that he’s not necessarily a Wu-Tang aficionado but he’s clearly not let that effect his work. Tis superb. And there’s a lot of it too. Peep the single cover for ‘Mef vs Chef 2′ below.

How much do you think he charges for portrait work?

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via bibliodyssey.blogspot.com

It’s awesome that this still exists, and is now in digital format. Love it.

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That title doesn’t really make sense, I just wanted to squeeze in some football related words. What I meant to say is; the new FIFA game (FIFA10) is due for release next week and I just wanted to highlight some of the great ways it has been making the most of this whole social media thing to spread the good word.

There’s no point in me going on about the 360-degree dribbling, the improved AI, or the customisable set-pieces. Nor the quick free kicks, realistic transfers in manager mode, or the new filtering system for online games. There are plenty of other places that do that much better than I ever could and if you’re bothered about that type of thing, you’ll be able to find them quite easily. No, what I wanted to briefly mention was the promotional tools being used to, err, promote the game. There’s been a noticeable increase in ‘social media’ based activity by EA this year, and some of it is rather nifty indeed.

Even the standard stuff like blogs that you’d expect from any self respecting company in 2009 is worth a mention. On the FIFA Blog, the development team have gradually been revealing more and more detail about the game over the past few months, delivering just enough information to satisfy the readers, but never actually giving the whole game away (get it?). Together with the official EA forums, the blog has been an active space in which the developers have been able to directly answer questions and address feedback from gamers. The discussions have taken place all summer long but have been of particular use since the release of the demo of the game with users voicing a range of compliments/concerns to the dev team. Whether there is any time in the production schedule to actually take notice of the feedback is another matter, but at least it’s there.

But the real joy of this campaign comes via the various interactions on twitter. As well as the generic EA FIFA twitter account, prominent members of the development team are active in the 140 character world and they’re successfully whipping the twitter masses into a frenzy. That’s all well and good, but beyond that, EA have created ‘FIFA Earth‘, which is great.

It’s currently in beta, with the promise of more features after the game goes on general release but even in it’s early incarnation, it’s quite a fun tool. Basically, it plots tweets about FIFA onto an interactive globe and looks pretty. That’s all there is to it, and on reflection, that doesn’t seem like much haha , but it inspired me to start this post so it gets a thumbs up from me!

There’s also something to be said about the ‘Virtual Pro’ feature of the game, but I’ll save that for next time…

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So, a while ago, before people like Benni Benassi and Eric Prydz started relying on tits, sweat and slow motion tits and sweat in their promotional material, dance music videos used to be brilliant. You know, back when artists appeared in their own videos, and not just as a seedy looking fat man in the midst of a club of semi-naked girls. Or if they weren’t in the video, it was because the video consisted of groundbreaking 3D animation which more than made up for it. Back when the dangers of strobe lighting effects triggering seizures were irrelevant. When anything was possible. I miss those days.

So in a loose attempt to revitalise the dance music video genre and drag it out of the slump that they’re currently in, I present my top 7 dance music videos from the 90′s. A selection of the best of the best, each one has carefully been considered against the following criteria:

Got any salmon?
How well does it embody the ethos of dance music? Is there a clear use of salmon in the video? (high). Or no dancing at all? (low).

de l’Épée factor
Were the production crew clearly deaf? (high). Or does the video actually have any relevance to the song? (low). (Named for Charles-Michel de l’Épée)

Dworkin-ism
Distinct lack of tits, arse, or any other excessive sexy time allusions in order to try to promote the music. (high). Or, does it look like a promo for ‘nuts’ magazine? (low).

You’re not alone..
Its influence and clones etc.. Also known as the ‘dolly’ element. Because of dolly the sheep. (Two birds, one stone. Genius.) More influence = more sheep.

Sound basis for evaluation, I think you’ll agree. There’s also the factor of whether I like the song or not, but I’m trying to be objective. Honest.

Anyway, Let’s begin by pushing the limits at number 7...

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I stumbled onto these videos by Keith Loutit sometime last year and thought I’d blogged about them back then. But apparently not. I should’ve done though, because they’re great. Then I saw them mentioned again last week and I’m captivated again.

I’m assuming that they’re made from video footage which has been split into frames which have then digitally edited to look like tilt-shift photography, and then put back together again as a complete film. Regardless, they look brilliant and every one is worth a watch.

Go and take a look at the series on vimeo. Superb stuff.

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Saw this today and marveled at the genius of it for a while. Thought I’d share.

It’s basically a collection of songs that have been produced from audio snippets off of YouTube – and the corresponding music videos which are made up of the actual original video footage. I’ll let Kutiman explain it himself;

It’s really nicely done and actually surprisingly listenable-to. It’s also a nice touch having the credits (i.e. links to the source material) because watching the original clips on their own highlights how much of an achievement this project is. Rather mundane videos of people playing guitar in their bedroom or singing to themselves come together to form a decent piece of music. Go watch. http://thru-you.com

Inspired!

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I love google maps. I could happily spend hours just zooming around the world looking at stuff, and in fact, I probably have done just that. It’s awesome. And it keeps getting better and better – and now it’s even better again! The street view option which started off not too long ago with a couple of North American cities now offers imagery from what looks like every major U.S. city and a decent handful from Europe. But no UK representation (yet).

It’s a great tool for checking out potential holiday destinations.. or even past holiday destinations for a hint of nostalgia or to remind you of that road where you nearly got ran over in Prague for instance (that particular view isn’t available yet but I’ll keep you updated).

I’ve just spent a short while checking out Rome and Paris and I’m just amazed at the sheer amount of coverage they have.. Go google!

I wonder how long it’ll be until they send the camera car to my village…

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It wouldn’t be right to let such an awesome spectacle go completely unnoticed; although I think that the BBC are managing to single-handedly cover enough Olympic action for the whole world. Apparently if you were to take every televised minute and written sentence that has been produced by the BBC about this years Olympic games, turn them into tiny people called Olymbits whose natural inclination is to stand on each others shoulders Cirque du Soleil style, then climb up the Olymbit stack, you would actually bump into God and the baby Jesus in the sky. Apparently.

I actually love the amount of coverage the beeb are putting out this year. Non stop live coverage online for every event, mostly with video footage – 6 different live streams on the red button on tv – hours of dedicated coverage on the terrestrial channels – and 5 Live doing the business for the radio. It’s loco. All your needs catered for. Unless you’re not a sporting person of course. Actually, scratch that because surely no-one can deny how good these games have been. Pure entertainment and so many amazing feats I wouldn’t even know where to start with a list of my favourite things thus far. Though it would probably be something like…

The opening ceremony.

Managed to see bits of it while we were in Paris, and the sight of Li Ning running around the inside edge of the stadium roof was brilliant. Unless we have someone running in the London Eye like it was a giant hamster wheel, I don’t think we’ll be able to top that in 2012. (more pictures here)

Argentina coasting to the football final
After the mini dispute with Barcelona regarding Messi was sorted, they’ve not looked back, winning every game on the way to Sundays final against Nigeria and are moving one step away from retaining their Olympic title. I’m not a big Argentina fan (blame it on this) but they deserved to beat Brazil in the semis yesterday. Ronaldinho has been a bit of a non-event which doesn’t bode well for Milan this season but who knows.

Yelena Isinbayeva jumps insanely high (with a pole)
Helped in it’s greatness because of the ‘gonna kick her butt’ comments by her American rival who really couldn’t compete..

“For the first 90 minutes of the competition Isinbayeva did not attempt a vault but sat trackside, her baseball cap pulled down low over her eyes. When the bar reached 4.70m she decided to stop passing and cleared the height at her first attempt. By that point seven of the 12 competitors had been knocked out.”

- The Guardian

She then went on to sail over 5.05m (16ft 7in) for a new World Record. See, that strikes me as kinda cocky (and rightly so) but not as cocky as..

Usain ‘Lightning’ Bolt

How can someone not even really try for the last 10m or so and still get a World Record in the 100m(?) At least he worked hard for the 200m record last night. Both are unreal achievements but the latter in particular is probably more memorable. Michael Johnson, while commentating on the race, seemed happy for the Jamaican but surely deep down he’s curled up in a ball, hugging his gold shoes and weeping.

Natalie du Toit comes 16th in the 10k swim
16th doesn’t sound especially impressive but if you know about her, you’ll see why I think this is worth a mention. Good stuff. It’s the first year that the 10k outdoor swim has been an event, and I can think of few events that I’d least enjoy doing. Utterly knackering.

8 Golds, (7 World Records, 1 Olympic Record) for Michael Phelps
Not to mention approximately 173 drug tests too I’d imagine. Not that I’m trying to imply anything. He’s clearly not on performance enhancing drugs, he’s just a machine sent from the year 2029 by a race of artificially intelligent computer-controlled machines who want to crush every humans will to compete in swimming competitions in order to dominate the medals table in all future Olympic games. And speaking of the medals table..

Great Britain is 3rd
With 17 gold, 11 silver and 11 bronze (at the time of writing). Kudos to everyone involved. So many individual success stories and noteworthy moments but I’m happy to leave it at a general level of praise. Does this mean we get a massive bronze medal at the end?

Just three days left to go til the closing ceremony on Sunday and I’m sure it’ll be on a par with the opening. Politics aside, it looks like China have done a great job hosting this and heaped the pressure on London to match it in 4 years.. I’m sure it will. I mean, the logo is a great start isn’t it(?) What could go wrong(?)

Anyone know how to get tickets for the opening ceremony…?

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Regular readers should know by now that I’m a fan of Atmosphere. They’re easily my favourite group, and my last.fm profile proves it. I’m also a fairly decent Brother Ali fan. I’ve pretty much bought anything and everything that Atmosphere have put out in the last 10 years or so and consequently got put onto Brother Ali quite a while ago too. I’ve also seen Atmosphere before (in 2002/03?) but Mr Dibbs was playing the Ant role so technically I suppose it wasn’t quite ‘Atmosphere’. Blah blah. What I’m trying to get at is: there was simply no way at all I was going to miss the ‘3 The Hard Way‘ European tour this summer. Atmosphere (with Ant) and Brother Ali doing a joint show. Wowser.

They’ve already covered a hefty chunk of Europe but there’s quite a few dates left if you fancy it.. It comes heavily recommended. Last night was the Bristol stop, on board the legendary Thekla (which is actually much bigger than I remembered, but still easily small enough to be considered an ‘intimate’ venue. None of this stood-miles-away-and-cant-see-shit shit).

The drive to Bristol from Bournemouth is horrendously tedious but undoubtedly worth it. We arrived a little early and while generally, that’s not a great thing to do, it turned out alright because I got a chance to speak to Slug outside, and then Ant at the bar. I’m sure I said some stupid shit (I kinda told Ant, in a smug way, to give up smoking) but they both seemed cool about being interrupted by an over-excited me in a Rhymesayers shirt. It’s nice when your idols (strong word but seems apt) turn out to be normal and amiable isn’t it(?) Not that I thought they wouldn’t be but y’know..

Kidz In The Hall opened up, and though I’m only vaguely familiar with their music (a fact attributable to the vast majority of people there by the looks of it), I enjoyed the set. Credit due. Driving Down The Block was an obvious highlight. Also, I don’t want to sound old, but they were really really loud. My proximity to the stage/speakers didn’t help at all but still, loud loud loud.

After a short break, during which I randomly bumped into a couple of people I used to rap with back in Plymouth (word to The Cohorts), Ant came on and introduced Slug and Ali as ‘two of the best mcs in the world’. He wasn’t lying. For just under two hours, they weaved through their respective repertoires with ease. Haha.. That’s an awful line. I suck at reviews But they did do that; I don’t know how else to put it. With a group like Atmosphere who have such a massive back-catalogue, there were bound to be some tracks I’d've liked to have heard that they didn’t do but the set was more than diverse enough to keep me happy.. The tracks off the new album were dope – Guarantees is a great singalong, the bass drop on Puppets is immense – and the older tracks like The Woman With The Tattooed Hands are instant crowd pleasers by now. Scapegoat was a particular highlight for me.. *ahem* scpgt *ahem*.

Brother Ali proved why he’s such a renowned performer and I’m glad I’ve finally got to see him live. The man knows how to control a crowd.. Definitely an mc’s mc. Rain Water, Bitchslap, Forest Whitaker and Truth Is were stand outs. Throughout, they acted as each others hypeman and the whole sharing the stage thing worked really well, but it worked best with the songs they have together. Obviously. Blah Blah Blah and Cats Van Bags have always been favourites of mine, and seeing them done live, by both mcs, with Ant on the decks (/MacBook Pro) was sublime. When they walked off, my throat was red raw (haven’t had that happen in a looong time) but they reappeared to squeeze in an encore of Your Glass House and a little freestyle which is always entertaining. I don’t think I could’ve asked for a better show. Truly superb.

I got plenty of photos, a few of which are here and the rest are on flickr. Got a couple of bits of video too but the sound is atrocious. Ah well. You had to be there really

More photos on flickr.

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So, I spent most of Monday night hitting redial in the phone and refresh on 3 different computers trying to get tickets for this years Reading Festival and after many many hours (and a stack of money going from the account), I can now say I’ll be there on the Friday and Saturday this August. And I can’t wait.

Regular readers will be aware that I’m not really fussed about the type of bands that would generally play at a festival like this (though I did have fun a couple of years ago at Reading), however this year is clearly different. Rage Against The Machine with their only appearance in the country this year (possibly ever again??). Can I get a ‘fuck yeah!’?! Awesome. There’s actually also a few other names I’m quite up for seeing but really, let’s be honest, who’s going to be watching Babyshambles with RATM on the main stage? (Who would watch Babyshambles at ANY point come to think of it..)

Should be amazing. Can’t wait! Yay! etc.. Been waiting for this for years and although I’d rather’ve seen them at Rock The Bells last year with Wu-Tang, I’m sure this’ll do

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‘sunset over the river nile‘ by Matt Northam (me )

A couple of months ago, I went to Egypt and had fun. It was nice. I also took a couple of thousand pictures, most of which aren’t anything special. They’re holiday photos – you know what they’re like. However, I did take a few that I thought came out rather well, and you can see them in a ‘egypt’ set on flickr. I also submitted one of them to the Guardian Unlimted (The Guardian Online) travel section (Been There) and now, many moons later, I’ve been awarded the ‘February 2008 Photo Of The Month‘. Awesome!

I’m still fairly surprised and genuinely stoked to have won because it puts me in fairly illustrious company. It’s an honour and all that.. I’ve been smiling all week.

My winning photo is recreated above in all it’s glory but you can also see a larger version on flickr, or the individual photo page on ‘been there’, or the rest of the months entries.. Whatever takes your fancy.

Ranjit Dhaliwal, the Guardian’s assistant picture editor, says:

“This is a wonderfully evocative travel image, it oozes atmosphere. The use of an architectural feature to frame the subject shows that the photographer has a good eye for composition.”

I says:

Oooooh yeah!

Apparently I win a canvas print of the photo so we’ll see how that goes..

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Stumbled on this last month on cpluv but didn’t actually get ’round to watching it so it’s just festered in my ‘don’t forget to look at this at some point’ bookmarks folder for all that time. Finally made 5 minutes to watch it last night and it’s uber cool.

On a cold Saturday in New York City, the world’s largest train station came to a sudden halt. Over 200 Improv Everywhere Agents froze in place at the exact same second for five minutes in the Main Concourse of Grand Central Station. Over 500,000 people rush through Grand Central every day, but today, things slowed down just a bit as commuters and tourists alike stopped to notice what was happening around them.

The reactions of people walking around are what makes it. Great stuff.

Go and watch: http://improveverywhere.com/2008/01/31/frozen-grand-central/

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You ought to know by now that there’s a new Batman film on it’s way. Next summer apparently. I cant wait. It looks the bees knees. There’s a 6 minute ish preview taken from the IMAX showings of ‘I Am Legend’ that you can watch here if you’re quick. The Joker looks sooo sick (both in the mental sense, and in the ‘whoa dude, that’s sick!’ sense).

What I’m really liking though, is the teaser stuff viral build-up they’re doing online with the various sites tied into the film. I’ve mentioned the Dark Knight and the Harvey Dent ones before but they’re increasing by the week it seems.. There was We Are The Answer for Harvey Dent, and then there’s been whysoserious (and it’s sub-sites) and Rent A Clown and rory’s death kiss which rather splendidly get people to engage with the Joker in ‘real life’ (if I wasn’t afraid of looking like a prick, I’d don the face paint and send a photo in). And then more recently, there’s A Taste For The Theatrical with its links to the high quality preview for the film, and the Gotham Times. Then there’s The Ha Ha Ha Times which is an alternative version of the Gotham paper.

Not to mention the other promo stuff, like this Joker cake or the Gotham Novelties box..

Super stuff! I love it. How cool would it be to be working on this project(?!) Note: WB, if you’re looking for some extra Photoshop work or CSS type of stuff, get in touch. I’ll do it for free. Fact.

I’m sure there’ll be more to come before the film gets released. It’s doing a superb job of building up anticipation (for me anyway) and I’ve no doubt the film will meet all my expectations . My spidey-sense says so. (Oh wait, wrong film…)

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Briefly, I went up to that there London this weekend to see ‘nineteeneightyfouria’, Shepard Fairey’s wee show at Stolenspace. Twas good. And well worth the 3 hour diverted train journey and trogging around in the cold and wet to go see. Been an admirer for ages now and while I saw a couple of pieces of his in L.A. over summer, it was cool to see the work up close..

The website says:

The exhibition entitled ‘Nineteeneightyfouria’, a reference to the surveillance culture of Orwell’s 1984. (Shepard believes London’s CCTV coverage to be ‘Insane’) is comprised of a range of artworks, from large scale multi media installations to smaller album screen prints Shepard’s artwork both scrutinises and distorts the narrative of the modern American Dream. Commenting on underpinnings of what Shepard terms the ‘capitalist machine’, it aims to critique those who support blind nationalism and war. Fairey addresses monolithic institutional authority, the role of counter culture, and independent individuals who question the cultural paradigm.

I says:

Good stuff.

More ‘nineteeneightyfouria’ pictures at flickr.

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I spend a lot of time listening to hip-hop. I like it a lot. It’s my shit, if you will. But now and then I’m partial to something a bit different. Variety is the spice of life and all that. And something that definitely adds a nice bit of variety to my musical life is Cobra Starship. I stumbled on their music when I got their first album before seeing them support Fallout Boy (FOB weren’t good. CS were), and I’ve been a pseudo-fan since. They’re fun and catchy and entertaining.

The other day I saw someone wearing a Cobra Starship t-shirt and remembered that it had been a while since I gave them a listen, so I casually went to their site to see what they were up to and by golly gosh, they have a new album! ¡Viva La Cobra! (dope title btw) is more of the same fun infectious vaguely alternative rock type of shizzle from the first album, if not a little harder to get into (though maybe that’s because I’m old and jaded), and it’s good stuff. Two thumbs up. Go and buy it, it’s out now. Or, click here to listen to the entire album and then buy it.

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Some rather nice photos from the Burning Man festival which I still really want to go to at some point in the far off future.

http://www.jonathan-clark.com/photos/burningman/

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