I’ve decided I’m a fan of electro-swing. For those of you who are uninitiated in such things, it is not a type of futuristic playground ride, nor is it some sort of gangbanging with robots. Instead its a new music genre that has done that clever thing of being called after two music genres that its combined together ie electro and swing. Pretty easy really. Its basically some pretty funky 30s swing jazz with breakbeat style beats. They were playing it in the bar I was in last night, that I was supposed to do my solo show in. Sadly the solo show didn’t happen as, of the eight people that attended, only two stayed after the interval. I knew those two and so it seemed a tad silly to do the whole show just to them, especially as they’d already seen it. So instead I watched Caroline Mabey’s completely nuts and very fun show and then we snuck upstairs for a drink. The bar, Last Days Of Decadence in Shoreditch, has followed that recent trend of 30s style speakeasy/cabaret bar type design. That kind of time period, along with electro-swing and certain fashion bits has all come back at the moment and we were trying to work out why. Was it the recession that perhaps mimicked the depression of the 30s? The BNP being not dissimilar to the Nazis rising to power? Or perhaps just that people have run out of past crazes to turn to and in time people will prefer Victorian era style dress and outside toilets before eventually in 2050 everyone is dressing up as medieval knights. Either way I quite like the 30s style. I don’t think I could particularly get away with it, although I’d like to think that if I spent the day wearing brogues and bowler hat I might stumble across a murder or some sort of adventure that would need investigating. That time period still has the feeling of undiscovered mystery and adventure to it, forgetting of course the poverty, disease, and the fact they didn’t have Twitter. Perhaps thats why people are indulging in such things now? We can have a 30s again, just with things like the internet and better cars which would make the 30s better, although would have hugely ruined Indian Jones’s adventures if he could’ve just checked where the arc was on google maps first.
Anyway. electro swing is awesome. Have a listen to this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjJhnHt_JwE
Its the first of December today which is insane. Once again the year has gone by far far too quickly and now its nearly over already. Worse than this, I don’t have an advent calendar. Not that I really want one, unless they invent one where there is actually a surprise behind each door. I’ve grown to expect a chocolate or a picture of a smug looking bear being pleased with a present we all know is shit or a cracker that probably contains a joke that everyone’s already heard. I want to start marketing advent-ure calendars. They are advent calendars but they’re tied to some sort of animal or moving vehicle, or put into a post box with lots of stamps on, and you have to follow where they go to get a prize. The prize will be the adventure you have to get the calendar back. Thats because the calendar doesn’t even have chocolates in, just incase they get diseased or go off during the hunt. Or maybe they should make convent calendars where as you open each door, a nun jumps out, tells you off for blaspheming and then goes back inside. Or advert calendars? Although I suppose thats what many of them already are. Sadly all I have at the moment is my normal calendar which says I have to do Buckinghamshire University tonight. Its not really a fun surprise as I knew that ages ago. Saying that it is better than finding a chocolate there as it would’ve just ruined my filofax. Electro-swings and roundabouts.
