Spending money on music is good

After so much work lately I took some time out for some retail therapy. Got myself a delicious double album by Themselves, along with 4 CDs - double CD of cLOUDDEAD, a Stereolab album from '01 that I didn't have, Boom Bip (had THE most wonderfully designed sleeve - yum, yum) and a bunch of remixes of Can tracks. All in all a jolly good haul. I've been enjoying the cLOUDDEAD - among my internet purchases a while ago was a cLOUDDEAD DVD of their tour in '02 in the States. Most of the footage was them in San Fran. They rocked. Oh hell, living in NZ is all very nice - we have a beautiful country and lifestyles that many would envy - but all this amazing live music we miss out on just kills me. Thanks goodness for the live music scene in Wellington or I would go mad, but some overseas talent would be very nice. (Not that I get out all that much cos I'm always working!) Mostly I want to go to an ATP gig in Europe. My friend Caron is working in London and has been for a few years. She was telling me about the last ATP gathering she went to where she met Vincent Gallo at the local pub and was chatting to him for some time. She told him, in her straightforward kiwi way, that she heard his album was actually pretty good, although she hadn't listened to it herself. She then asked him if she could cop a snog. He said "no - kissing was just too intimate" so she got a few pecks on the cheek instead. She said it was worth a crack. Good old Caron. I wouldn't have the balls. Okay, back to work - getting the Wellington Film Festival programme file into shape now. And when that is finished, I CAN BOOK MY FILMS!

If any of you follow those music links, you'll see these guys are under a label called Anticon. Most of the artists on this label do a fair bit of cross-pollination. I guess they are a kind of collective. Some say this is the future of hip hop. I would say, I wish, but I doubt it. I enjoy hip hop a lot, but the majority of hip hop these days focuses on bling bling and pussy - totally misogynistic and pretty depressing. Mind you, it ain't just the guys. Missy Elliot is great, but what is the total obsession with sex. Not that I'm against it, but it seems to be all they wannna sing about. They living in their lower chakras, man!