These

Are a few



of my favourite



things

This post is in place of the one that should have come even before the one that was before this! But it's lost in bloggo-hyperspace stuck between two major corporations - Youtube and Blogger. Either there's a backlog at Youtube or an even bigger one at Blogger - it doesn't make sense and doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things.

I was a very impressionable and lively 12 year old when Christiane F came out. I remember seeing the trailer and really wanting to see the film - to this day I have never actually seen all of it. I have seen this clip somewhere before and I love it for two or maybe three reasons - firstly, it features one of the best tracks of all time - Heroes - beat that - difficult for some! But more so, it is beautifully shot and composed. I love the lyrical. tumbling teenagers, their vibrancy and sense of being alive and living for the moment. They seem to tumble at all the right moments as they dash through the dingy, empty mall to Bowie's epic track. It should feel fake and forced but it doesn't. I really did try very hard to get into see the film and failed on several occasions - mainly because I was too baby-faced and always very short for my age so there was no way I was ever going to pass for 18 as a 12 year old but I really tried. I probably looked like a child prostitute as well in my attempt to look older which I'm sure didn't help. But why make essentially a coming of age film and not allow teenagers to see it - because it contained scenes of drug-taking and the demise of the main character because of drugs? Even more of a reason to let teenagers see it surely?

I put up Kraftwerk - live in Utrecht 1981 because it simply is, is, is brilliant and I now know where Beck steals his ideas from. When I worked with him recently he did a great set which ended with him solo randomly punching keys into an electronic calculator that was wired up to an amp - wonderful. When I saw this today - I realised it is a direct steal - probably because he is a fan but even so - a direct steal. My one great regret is that I never saw Kraftwerk live. I remember wanting to go and see OMD instead - how absolutely mis-guided and foolish of me. I'm so ashamed. I hope I will get to see them some day.