Next morn. Dean cooked me a lovely breakfast and carried my bags to the train station. He gave me a jumper (sweater) to keep me warm in Manchester. It’s a nice one. Man, these folks are so flucking nice.
dean cooks.
I’m on the train to Manchester now…It’s packed to the gills. I’m sitting on the floor. I guess a lot of kids go to Manchester to party every weekend.
I’m on my way to go teach a filmmaking class to a group of teenagers at the Mumbo Art Centre. That’s what I was flown here to do. That’s what bought my ticket. Everything else is just gravy. I feel a little tired. What am I going to teach them? I brushed up on Premiere on the laptop on the train yesterday. But how to condense all of my knowledge of film and promotion and the other stuff (the "keep your integrity and never give up" pep-talk stuff) to two days of four-hour sessions? I wish I’d slept more last night.
But I’ll pull it off. That’s what I’m here to do, and I wouldn’t have the opportunity if I couldn’t do it. That’s how my life has been the past few years. (Basically since I got clean again, and since I quit smoking. Also since I moved to Los Angeles. But I think it’s the two former rather than the later. Regardless, today should be quite interesting.
I’m listening to a continuous loop of Rancid’s "I Wanna Riot" on the headphones. Something about Brixton Ska via Berkeley Via Los Angeles that somehow does this moment right.
Later. I got off the train in Manchester and I’m waiting at the taxi stand for the guy who is to be picking me up. He’s an hour late. I finally got a hold of him. He’s on his way now. This is the first time that the people have been late to pick me up at the train. I was told there would be a man with a sign that said "DIY or DIE" on it. But I’m still sitting here…..
Even though I’m cold and hungry and tired and didn’t feel like waiting outside in an hour in the Manchester chill, I’m gonna be extra polite. These are the fuckers who made this trip possible and I am very honored to be doing this.
manchester gloom and beauty
Day Seven. 9/21/2003. Saturday.
I am sitting in a playground in the middle of a council tenancy (housing project run by the city) in Manchester. My host put me in one of the several houses he has keys to, occupied only by an 18-year-old girl he saved from some fate. I haven’t met her yet, she came in after I went to bed and I went outside while she was in the shower this morning. He left her a note and left me keys. I’m here two more nights and then two nights on the back end before flying back to the US, so I suppose she and I will meet at some point.
It was so cold this morning in the house that I was running all four burners on the stove and hanging out in the kitchen only.
Man, I can understand why Joy Division (one of my favorite bands by the way, and a big influence on Bomb) came from here. It’s grey grey grey and very beautiful (in a dismal way). Manchester looks like Joy Division sounds.
I think rain helps make bands. Seattle has a lot, so does San Francisco….When you can’t go out a lot, you stay inside and make your own fun.
Manchester in specific and England in general has a LOT more reggae than the U.S. (it’s as ubiquitous here as Hip Hop in America. And there is way more music made with two turntables and a microphone. Or a computer, two turntables and a microphone. I don’t like most of it.
My friend, Warren Huart warned me of this when I interviewed him for "$30 Music School" last month. Warren is my hella cool pal who is a Londoner who lives in Los Angeles and works recording and producing rock bands. He told me "In England now, only about 1% of the music on the radio has a real guitar on it." I thought he was just kidding. He’s right. And half that 1% is either reggae (which I am starting to like) or Coldplay (who I actually do like).
bad band name.
In a way, I like turntable culture because it’s "instant youth culture, just add talking". In another way, it doesn’t really do it for me, for exactly the same reasons…It’s like you make a track and then add any number of interchangeable "stars" over top of it. And every kid here wants to be a DJ and wants to be famous.
The more that things change, the more they stay the same.
I did have a blast though with some kids at the Mumbo Arts Centre…This is what I was flown here for. I envisioned it much more structured, maybe me standing up in front of ten kids walking them through step-by-step how to make a movie. It was a lot more laid back. First, I was told that we were to start at 3 PM. We didn’t get there until almost four, and the guy, Tony who had the keys was with us. It was pouring rain and I thought we’d pull up and see ten kids huddling in the door way shivering. But we got there and none of them even showed up until about 6. It was a group of ten kids, age 14-16 (they look a little older) from disadvantaged backgrounds. I dug them. They all had a lot of spunk and life. Several of them are from Jamaica (Tony, who flew me over here, is from Jamaica too) and all of them had accents that took some getting used to. We all ignored each other for a while, I was kinda shy and also waiting for something much more school-like to occur. They just ran around the youth centre playing pool, yelling and jamming on the turntables and computers. (Sometimes playing computer games, sometimes creating beats in programs like Reason).
Finally we noticed each other and talked a bit. As soon as they learned I was from Los Angeles, the very earnest rapid-fire questions started. "Are your from South Central? Did you ever meet Tupac?" (As silly as this seemed to me, I remembered that if I’d met someone from England when I was 14, I would probably have asked them if they hang out with the Beatles.). They were really cool and really fun. Then they started rapping or toasting over pre-recorded beats on the turntables. The type of music is called "Speed Garage". It’s fast and hard and they are a "crew" who pass the mike around in a circle and dance when they’re not MCing. It’s fucking cool. Very high energy and quite delightful. I grabbed a camera and shot a video and told them to come back tomorrow and I’d show them how to edit it. You can bet they’ll be back.
As much as I love England, I somehow can’t wait to get to Germany, not only because it’s warmer. Even though much more of my ancestry is from the UK (I am, in order of most to least, English, Irish, Welch, French-Canadian and then German), somehow I feel like when I get to Germany I’ll be HOME. The three months I spent there with Bomb where some of the most alive moments in my life. And I didn’t even bring a camera that time! And I was there the same time of the year I’ll be there this time. And I won’t have band mates to argue with. (I’ll just argue with myself I suppose).
Some little 12-year-old Oliver Twists who were blowing things up with firecrackers just walked up to me and started talking. They were astounded to see someone typing on a laptop in the middle of an empty basketball court in their neighborhood. They asked me for a cigarette, (I don’t smoke) then one of them handed me a fat ballpoint pen and said "I found it but I don’t know how to work it. Maybe you can." I hit the plunger on the pen, and of course got and electric shock. They had a good laugh on that one.