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[pete_inthehills]

Wordfringe: A new writers' festival for Aberdeen and North-East Scotland

Have any of you checked out any of the wordfringe stuff? Or aren't there enough famous people doing readings?

If like me, you missed "loads of dreads, but no fears" due to its clash with Julian Cope then we all missed a brilliant performance. The next time Rapunzel Wizard is on, I'll nag you all about it. He's excellent.

hope to see some of you at Confessions and Rants at the Arts centre next Monday. That's the next one on my list. But make sure you check out something before the end of the month.

Pete
inthehills

[daveofficer]

Originally Posted by Larsen B

He actually failed to answer my question entirely, he failed to tackle the part about the folky side of some of the music being an attempt to compensate for the glasgow-centric aspect of Scottish music. To make an album which is a collaboration between Scottish writers and musicians, and then claim the aim is purely to make 18 good songs (an aim the album also fails to achieve), is totally pathetic. You make such record then automatically, whether you like it or not, and whether it was the intention or not, it becomes part of the culture by which people will define your country. Roddy just anwered as if I said it wasn't representative because there weren't people from every corner of Scotland on it, and then proceeded to ramble on about tartan and shortbread as if i suggested that it would have been more representative of Scottish identity if it features these kind of things. I'll admit that speaking in front of the room full of people I might not have been as articulate as I'd wished, but I think judging by some of the the subsequent questions that some people they knew what I was getting that, perhaps people who were there more generally for the festival than the starstruck fanboys.

you're right, you are obviously far more intelligent than roddy woomble and he was considerably pwned by your question. get over yourself, you're no paxman and he was hardly squirming in his seat at your devilish question.

i don't see why the prescence of some folk musicians on the album is significant in any way whatsoever. particularly as the folk musicians who are on there are those who are in roddy's circle of musician friends anyway like karine polwart. i think it has more cultural significance because it had no grand plan. if they had made some kind of defined plan for a concept album based around modern scottish identity then the end result would have seemed far more contrived and forced. fair enough the album is patchy but name me one compilation which isn't. as it stands it's a fine testament to musical and literary talent within a cross section of a much larger cultural industry. no conspiracy, no concept, just some good songs.

i think part of the reason he didn't go into too much was also because once it got handed over to chemikal underground he had very little to do with it.

i admit it was frustrating that he wouldn't go deeper into the politics side of things but his political leanings are no business of ours i guess. it's a shame when it's so relevant to everything we do right now.

anyhoo, as i said before it was fairly interesting and i hope the other talks were just as interesting.

[Larsen B]

Originally Posted by daveofficer

you're right, you are obviously far more intelligent than roddy woomble and he was considerably pwned by your question. get over yourself, you're no paxman and he was hardly squirming in his seat at your devilish question.

i don't see why the prescence of some folk musicians on the album is significant in any way whatsoever. particularly as the folk musicians who are on there are those who are in roddy's circle of musician friends anyway like karine polwart. i think it has more cultural significance because it had no grand plan. if they had made some kind of defined plan for a concept album based around modern scottish identity then the end result would have seemed far more contrived and forced. fair enough the album is patchy but name me one compilation which isn't. as it stands it's a fine testament to musical and literary talent within a cross section of a much larger cultural industry. no conspiracy, no concept, just some good songs.

i think part of the reason he didn't go into too much was also because once it got handed over to chemikal underground he had very little to do with it.

i admit it was frustrating that he wouldn't go deeper into the politics side of things but his political leanings are no business of ours i guess. it's a shame when it's so relevant to everything we do right now.

anyhoo, as i said before it was fairly interesting and i hope the other talks were just as interesting.

Well i thought the talk was relatively dull and uninsightful. You've basically repeated what he said about it just being good songs, and I've already stated how I find the lack of a concept behind it disappointing so there's no point in getting into that. I'm not saying I'm more intelligent than Roddy (although I probably am), I'm just saying I'm disappointed that he, as the figure head of the whole project, didn't seem to give it's content and concept as much thought as I, and others I know, have given it. Thus the talk was a lot less insightful and interesting than I hoped it would. I get what you're saying about how it might have been contrived if it had a defined concept about modern Scotland, but as I've said it needn't have had such preconceived concept for him to give some kind of analysis of what the actual end product was apart from just being good songs.

And since you ask, I think Ten Years of Tears by Arab Strap is a non-patchy compilation (although I can't think of any various artists compilations which aren't patchy).

Another thing, did you ever find the tray to hand the evaluation sheet in for the prize draw?

[daveofficer]

Originally Posted by Larsen B

Well i thought the talk was relatively dull and uninsightful. You've basically repeated what he said about it just being good songs, and I've already stated how I find the lack of a concept behind it disappointing so there's no point in getting into that. I'm not saying I'm more intelligent than Roddy (although I probably am), I'm just saying I'm disappointed that he, as the figure head of the whole project, didn't seem to give it's content and concept as much thought as I, and others I know, have given it. Thus the talk was a lot less insightful and interesting than I hoped it would. I get what you're saying about how it might have been contrived if it had a defined concept about modern Scotland, but as I've said it needn't have had such preconceived concept for him to give some kind of analysis of what the actual end product was apart from just being good songs.

And since you ask, I think Ten Years of Tears by Arab Strap is a non-patchy compilation (although I can't think of any various artists compilations which aren't patchy).

Another thing, did you ever find the tray to hand the evaluation sheet in for the prize draw?

fair enough then. yea i was meaning various artists compilations as opposed to bands with a consistent body of work.

and no, we did not. i could do with £50 worth of book tokens as well

[Lester Burnham]

I handed my sheet in at the box office and they added it to the pile