Guitar Hero

A long time ago, at primary school in Birmingham, Molly had guitar lessons and her own acoustic guitar. But, like children do, she stopped when we moved up to Pocklington.

(I'm assured it's children and not just our child who start something with great passion and commitment and then slowly lose interest. Or is it just Molly?)

So, we come to Pocklington the guitar went by the wayside. There was some interest in drums, even getting so far as to have Grandpa's drum kit take up seemingly permanent residence in our garage, but various things have stopped that one taking off. And then we had the trumpet. We always said we'd support her in any musical, sporting or generally worthwhile endeavour but, in retrospect, neither Louise or I are sure that the trumpet was the best idea we ever supported.

Fast forward a little while. Molly's finishing off primary school and it's becoming obvious she's absolutely no interest in trumpet anymore. With perfect timing, we finally have the "I don't want to do trumpet anymore about 2 years and 1 month after buying the thing. So much for the idea of 80% of the money back if she gives it up inside 2 years. Have you ever tried to sell a trumpet on ebay? It's not the easiest of things.

Fast forward again. About half a term into secondary school. Now she wants to do guitar lessons. Fair enough, have a cheque and enjoy. Now she wants an electric guitar because her acoustic isn't good enough. We'd obviously wised up at this point. Or maybe I was still smarting over the money lost on that damn trumpet. And we told her to either put it on her Christmas list or save up for it.

Well, it took her nearly 5 months of saving up, but she did it. And now she's the proud owner of this:

Guitar, amp, accessories provided by the great Pocklington Music. Guitar hero posing and dreams of stardom - all the models own.

Pocklington Music were absolutely marvellous with us. Sure, we could have gone to Argos at York and got a cheaper package. But the package deal we got going with the local shop (guitar, amp, strap, bag, stand, lead) was very, very good. Plus we got to stick to the principle we decided on last year - where we can buy it independently and locally we will. Any excess in terms of price should be written off as a payment to keep the town vibrantly independent and full of shops. In the end we decided it was a small price to pay.

And you know what, a couple of weeks later, as I'm leaving the house and the owner of Pocklington Music walks past and asks me how Molly's getting on - you don't get that at Argos. Likewise, when Molly has trouble, she can pop into the shop for a tune-up, advice, or just to show off how she's doing. That's what local is all about.

I'm not a reluctant gardener, I'm just banned from helping

Well, the sun is out, Molly has been out most of the weekend with friends, Louise has ventured out into the garden for the first time this year with intent on kicking it into shape and I have been having a great old time writing stuff. I've done reviews, articles for the FPI blog, stuff for the school website and blog. Hell, I've even found the motivation to write some stuff here.

The gardening thing – yes, I am banned from helping. Absolutely, there is simply no argument. Louise has made it quite clear that my help is not required.

The totality of my gardening involvement is getting the lawnmower out, putting it away and taking the garden waste to the recycling centre.

You see, the problem is that I have a very minimalist view on gardens in general. Or rather, I have a very minimalist view on gardens that I have a hand in. Other people’s gardens – they can be as complicated and exotically overgrown as some suburban version of the Hanging Gardens Of Babylon. I love sitting in gardens, love relaxing in them, very peaceful.

Unless it’s my own. Then my mentality to do things kicks in, I see things that need doing, cutting back, tidying up, and the relaxation is lost. Hence my gardening routine was very simple; if I cut it back by X and it takes Y weeks to grow back, surely if I cut it back by 2X it would take 2Y to grow back. Can you see where this naturally leads me?

Start of the gardening season used to be devastation in our garden. Cutting everything back to within an inch of it’s life, often passing over into an inch of it’s death to be honest.

I may have done less damage if I’d have just carpet bombed the garden with DDT.

Louise also likes the garden. Louise likes the relaxing aspect of sitting in the garden. She’s also quite partial to the relaxing aspects of getting a garden looking right. Having a garden that looks like it’s been attacked by an indiscriminate chainsaw does not relax her at all.

End result; around March or April, when the sun comes out and the garden wakes up, Louise makes it quite clear to me that SHE will sort the garden out the first chance she gets. She also makes it quite clear that I am not to attempt to help in any way.

Which is why, right now, I’m upstairs, listening to Kraftwerk, with a big mug of coffee, writing lots of things and Louise has just finished mowing the lawn for the first time.

Kraftwerk again....

After watching a BBC4 doc on Krautrock (again) last night and realising that:
1. Trans Europe Express is one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever.

2. I could listen to a loop of Autobahn pretty much forever without getting tired of it.

3. I'm so very pleased I got to see them live, because I'm not sure they'll ever play live again.

It was fitting to read this from Tim O'Neil:

"Because I love pointing out the obvious, let's run down all the people who haven't been inducted into the Hall of Fame yet despite their eligibility.

Kraftwerk
Estimated Years Eligible: 16
Chances of Eventually Being Inducted: Even

The same crowd who complained when Madonna and ABBA were inducted (and Grand Funk once again overlooked!) would probably weep tears of blood to see Kraftwerk inducted.

And yet: without a doubt one of the five most influential bands ever. I mean, they're German! But without Kraftwerk the shape of modern music would be so different as to be recognizable. Every group either goes through a Kraftwerk phase or they go through a phase where they emulate the no-/new-wave bands who were influenced by Kraftwerk, or the 70s Bowie albums that were made under the direct influence of Kraftwerk and cocaine, in that order. Even U2 went through a Kraftwerk phase, for Chrissakes. If you're a rapper, you've got Kraftwerk so far back in your RNA that even if you don't know who Florian Schneider is, you know all the guys who built hip-hop out of sampling "Trans-Europe Express." If you sing pop music in 2011, you're basically standing on Kraftwerk's shoulders.

They'll get in eventually, I'll wager, but probably not before half the band is dead."