CURRENTLY READING:
Reggae Explosion: The History of Jamaican Music Eddie reviews this book, and explains to me the difference between JAMAICAN SKA, ROCKSTEADY, TWO TONE and REGGAE:
Eddie: I’ve always been a huge (Jamaican) ska fan, and this book offers a great explanation of the early years of Jamaican music. One third of the book chronicles the artists and events that helped develop the different styles of Mento, Calypso, Ska and Rocksteady. There’s also a great explanation on the rise of the Sound Systems, and the turf wars that eventuated. The rest of the book is mostly about reggae (where my interest in Jamaican sounds ends) although more recent styles like dub, ragga and dancehall are also covered (where my interest picks up again!).
Up until now, the best information about the early years has been via the liner notes on various CD releases on Trojan Records, so this book is really useful in filling in the gaps.
The Handsomest Man In Cuba. Very inspiring memoir of an Australian who bike rides around Cuba. Even though sick with the flu, this book is making me crave that garlic chicken dish from Versailles…
w3schools.com’s CSS Tutorial. I decided not to fork out another hundred bucks for a computer how-to book (which is how much they all seem to cost). This tutorial lays down the basics with easy to follow examples.
MOVIES WATCHED RECENTLY:
Catch Me If You Can. Cool opening titles.
Eddie: Typical Speilbergian fluff – there was a good movie here just trying to get out.
The Omega Man. Wow. An interacial relationship between Charlton Heston and a black funky lady with big ‘fro. Lots of hammy acting by goth albino mutants and the score is totally out of place.
Eddie: I’ve always loved this film, and have been looking out for it for years – thank you Bill Collins! It also contains one of the most ironic scenes in motion picture history, when our favourite gun-lobbyin’ republican – Mr. Chuck Amuck Heston – has to donate his Grade A “Anglo saxon” corpuscles to help an African American kid recover his, er…blackness!
8 Women. It’s a whodunit with songs, and we both immediately thought of The Happiness of the Katakuris, which was a much cheezier (ie, more entertaining and successful) effort. We both thought 8 Women tried too hard to be clever and interesting. (Where every woman has a dark secret… so what?) In the end you’re left wondering if you’ve just seen a beautiful-looking misogynistic film… (or was it not tongue-in-cheek enough?)
The Harder They Come. With Jimmy Cliff in Jamaica. Thank goodness for the subtitles.
Eddie: This is great! It contains the most sampled line in drum ‘n bass…”who’s the bad man, who can draw?” as Jimmy fronts up to the advancing soldiers, cowboy style. The soundtrack is awesome – Desmond Dekker, The Maytals, and Jimmy himself. Totally copasetic!
The Krays. Identical twins who were mean, violent bastards, in 50′s-60′s Eastend London. The same famous Kray brothers who also inspired a kid’s cooking show back in 1998…
by Eddie Mort/Fudge Puppy Productions
for Nickelodeon WDG
So we missed Lucha Va Voom and looks like we’ll also miss Comic-Con 2003 next week, as much as we’d love to be there. (not having ever been to this event) Have said this before and will say it again. There’s just too much to be done here before we can leave the country.
There’s a big long list of attendees on this page
There’s a 
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