Blogcritics Author: High Heels

Announcement: Short-content feeds

Phillip Winn — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT

Sunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding.

Not Harry Potter: What Were Your Favourite Childhood Reads?

High Heels — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 21:26:04 EDT

Last night I was chatting with a friend about the recommended retail price of the latest Harry Potter, and how prohibitive it is for children from low-income families. I told him I felt so sad about the fact some poor children can't afford books that I intended to give mine away to one as soon as I've finished - but to whom? I racked my brains for a short while and realised who should have the book: the public library, of course! When I was little, money for books was not only lacking in my family but unnecessary; and an important privilege I enjoyed was the brilliant free public library service in Scotland. This, coupled with an enthusiastic family network of women readers who coordinated their own and their children's fortnightly library borrowing so that everyone could swap books and enjoy the most recommended, enabled me the immense pleasure and escape of good children's fiction. To this day, I don't go anywhere without a book in my bag just in case an opportunity to read arises, and my little boy has a stash of books in the car.Children's literature matters so much that I believe every child should be able to access it freely and without limit or reserve. If they have trouble reading, someone should read aloud to them. I owe so much, I feel, to the authors of my favourite books in terms of enjoyment, the development of my literacy and enrichment of my life and imagination that I wish I could thank them all warmly in person. This is, of course, not possible. I don't want to think about the reason why I can't contact most of them today: I prefer to imagine that they live on in their work. I have tried my best to whittle down my favourites to a top ten, but the best I could do was twelve, and several of these are series. I've chosen from books I loved best between the ages of eight and ten. I'd like to know what other people's top ten childhood reads are; I can certainly recommend you sit and think back for a while about the texts of your childhood. You may well find yourself transported emotionally as you remember the plots, characters and descriptions and recognise the authors' names, and may find you are tempted to buy some old favourites if and when you go to the bookshop to get The Deathly Hallows "for a child". That's o.k., if you can afford to do so: you can pass them on somehow when you've finished re-reading them, can't you?Here is my top ten-ish (ok, twelve!) childhood reads. Just a list, not reasons: each deserves a review in its own right.Five Dolls in a House series by Helen ClareFamous Five series by Enid Blyton Mrs Pepperpot by Alf Proyson What Katy Did by Susan CoolidgeBobby Brewster, Boy Detective series by H.E. Todd Lizzie Dripping and the Witch by Helen Cresswell and T. Ross Mallory Towers series by Enid BlytonThe Princess and the Goblin by Arthur Hughes and George MacDonald "Fairy Book" Series: The Blue, Red, Green, Yellow, Pink, Grey, Violet, Crimson, Brown, Orange, Olive, and Lilac Fairy Books by Andrew Lang Peanuts series by Charles Schultz (Yes, it's a comic strip - but it's literature in my opinion!)The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis (not forgetting The Magician's Nephew)Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer

High Heels is a writer, poet and blogger. She is a tutor in an arts college in the UK. She is a specialist in Literature, Art History and Film Studies. Her interests include film, art and photography, literature, philosphy, politics, fashion and style, popular culture, music, surrealism and the avant-garde. Image of High Heels by kind permission � Ben Wharton 2007.

Music Review: The Gossip Live at Amsterdam Melkweg on European Tour

High Heels — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 21:08:09 EDT

I saw the Gossip at Melkweg in Amsterdam on June 27th. I must confess to having been slightly underwhelmed previously by the brief footage on TV of the lead singer Beth Ditto jumping round on stages with audiences going wild. I was in no doubt that "Standing in the Way of Control" is a fine pop song -- energetic, catchy and well structured -- and that Ditto's vocal performance on the track, a club favourite made widely popular in the UK by its use on the Channel 4 drama Skins, was very powerful. But what was all the fuss about? Everything I saw or read seemed to focus on her weight and her attitude toward body-image. So she's very, very fat and she's cool with it? That doesn't make her cool. That makes her -- well, fat and cool with it. I wondered why she was voted Coolest Rock Star on the Planet by NME, and put it down to NME being -- well, not quite what it used to be.The Melkweg has to qualify as one of the oddest, but coolest venues I've ever been to see a live band in. It was possible to stroll through a big crowd to the front unjostled and unchallenged, climb up to the balcony, and occupy a prime spot with a full and uninterrupted view of the stage. A more relaxed venue you could not wish to find. Then...Beth Ditto appeared onstage. Beth Ditto pounced onstage. Beth Ditto leapt onstage. Beth Ditto exploded onstage in a clinging low-cut shiny pink dress and opened her mouth to release a voice the likes of which I have never, ever heard live. Powerful, strong, expressive, angry, soulful, energetic - these adjectives don't do her justice, vocally or physically. I was immediately reminded of footage of Janis Joplin -- at the height of her powers, and of Aretha Franklin, two strong female vocalists from the past who have since become legendary. I was reminded also of punk stars Siouxsie Sioux and Poly Styrene. I was moved to tears at some points by the sheer emotional force of her voice, which, when she sings of pain, has the authentic quality of a true blues singer. At the same time, her performance was uplifting and defiantly optimistic. Her tiny band, consisting of guitarist (Brace Paine) and drummer (Hannah Blilie) was easily equal to a much bigger line-up, giving an impressively tight, hard-edged performance which gave the songs a driving energy. At the end of the set, they had half the audience on-stage for an impromptu party. Many were aided and abetted, as I was, by a highly amusing man who started it all by asking Ditto if he could join her in the last song. Ditto talked to everyone, hugged, kissed, laughed, posed for photos, gave autographs, and showed herself to be a really lovely person. Sadly this liberalism led to one of her silver shoes being stolen, though I heard someone got it back for her.The Gossip are a bluesy, soulful punk outfit with great song-writing and performing talent. Don't miss an opportunity to see this band live. They will no doubt become legendary. As for Beth Ditto - she's gifted and she is cool with it.

Concert Review: Devo Live At The Manchester Apollo

High Heels — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 10:56:12 EDT

I caught Devo at the Manchester Apollo on June 20th on their first European tour in fifteen years. It was a much-anticipated tour for UK Spuds (fans of Devo) and the atmosphere in the Apollo reflected this. Several fully grown men, dressed in replica Devo boiler suits and "energy dome" plastic hats, couldn't contain their excitement, and caused ripples of laughter by leaping in the aisles and leading chants. They sat down and behaved themselves when the support act, the will-be-iconic, new-punk UK band Scanners, came on. Further back in the atmospheric, gloomy grandeur-gone-off of the Apollo was a wide range of Spuds: middle-aged ex-punks, -- funny how you can just tell -- some with teenage grandchildren or children in tow, others with friends. There was also a healthy contingent of teenagers and twenty-something student types attending by their own volition. The coolest audience member in my opinion had to be nine-year-old Amie, who had been brought by her parents Dan and Sue, whom I chatted with as we waited. I can't think of a better or more memorable way to introduce a child to live music. She didn't speak a word to her parents the whole way through, but stood mesmerised on her chair as the familiar songs were performed live with incredible energy and showmanship. From the opening projection, on a characteristically low-tech screen, of the "Devo Corporate Anthem," and "In The Beginning Was The End: The Truth About De-Evolution," through to Mark Mothersbaugh's tongue-in-cheek arrival with the aid of a zimmer frame, it was clear that this was to be a gig full of humour but also of anti-authoritarian sentiment. "Secret Agent Man" was met with a rapturous response, as was the hit "Whip it." "Are We Not Men?" led to the audience responding with "We Are Devo" at screaming pitch, punching the air. Booji Boy - a gigantic foetal child, "as old as themountains but as yet unborn" - was embodied by Mark Mothersbaugh, who sang "Beautiful World" in a creepy, surreal falsetto, concluding a gig that was energizing, rebellious, angry and delightful all at once. What could have become a dated repertoire -- after all, these guys garnered their cult following in the eighties -- was validated by the utter relevance of their satirical lyrics, and by the enduring quality of their songwriting. "You know they got me doin' this doin' that and a little bit of something else fighting cavities of evil safe-guarding America's health but not an afternoon pass I don't get up off my ass and thank you god 'cause I'm a secret agent man"They left out some of their earlier, more obscure songs, leaving enough material for another tour on the back of this one in the near future, hopefully. Devo should, in my opinion, re-release some of their material. It would strike a chord in today's political climate and could be inspirational to a new generation of teenagers in danger of turning into Facebook corporate zombies, volunteering for Big Brother's scrutiny. Duty Now For the Future!

Music Reviews: Queens Of The Stone Age Era Vulgaris; The 88 Over and Over; Scissors for Lefty Underhanded Romance

High Heels — Sun, 1 Jul 2007 09:32:54 EDT

This June, I’ve been strangely drawn to these three albums. Could it be all that testosterone? Watch out for your sister if they get their hands on her...Queens Of The Stone Age - Era VulgarisIf you’ve been attending music festivals in the UK this year, or watching music coverage on TV, you can hardly have missed Queens of the Stone Age thrashing out their latest material in your face, without mercy. Their new album Era Vulgaris is an audacious, scary, sexy, arrogant, strutting, noisy, devastatingly good-looking bastard son of nasty mainstream rock. From the horror-film opening drone of “Turnin’ on the Screw”, through the skull-hammering “Sick, Sick, Sick” and post-modern Jaggerisms of “Make It Wit Chu” it’s clear that QOTSA will have no mercy in this melodic, psychotic rock offering. My designer friend, who is already a fan of QOTSA and couldn't wait to listen to this new album, says it's very different to their other stuff - much darker, more frightening, harder. This may account for the one-or-two less than flattering reviews it has received - sometimes people want safety, through more-of-the-same. All I can say is, I want more like this. In the words of Josh Homme, the singer/guitarist/ “mind” of QOTSA,“It’s actually a reaction to what we think is the era vugaris. You don’t have time. I already know that. And, so, here we go: Pow, pow, pow, pow, pow. In a world of short bursts, it’s like trying to reach down someone’s throats in two seconds.” That's bound to hurt.Era Vulgaris will take your sister and your mother for a dark trip to a strange place, and leave your dad bleeding in the driveway. The 88 - Over and OverSuch clean-cut, smart-looking guys! The 88's Over and Over demonstrates a variety of charm-offensives, and demonstrates a sound grounding in pop, without sacrificing originality and musicianship. I first encountered The 88 when I watched them perform their up-beat, slightly manic “All ‘Cause of You” on YouTube this year. Frankly, I fell hopelessly in love with the song and the lead singer as soon as I watched the performance: one of those web-crushes you get when you’re stumbling around the Internet randomly and finally find there is something worthwhile, something alive and fresh about this 2005 album, with a hard edge which doesn’t detract from its dance-ability. The 88’s music has been featured in over 30 television programmes including Grey’s Anatomy, Numb3rs (CBS), Laguna Beach (MTV) and The OC. “Coming Home” was the catchy tune behind Target’s TV ad campaign last year. Chances are, if you add this album to your summer listening, it’ll solve a few of your “What is” that song?” puzzles. They should be far more widely-known in the UK, and I hope they tour here soon.So suspiciously nice your mother might not notice the dangerous glint in Over and Over's eyes as he drives your sister off on a date. Your dad will, but he won't be able to argue a case against letting her go.Scissors for Lefty - Underhand RomanceEverybody knows Americans can’t do Brit Pop. Everybody knows Americans can’t do irony. Oh, hang on. What’s this? Scissors for Lefty have managed an ironic interpretation of Pulp-style cynicism and Franz Ferdinand-style ironic harshness whilst retaining something original and personal in their latest, full-length, Underhand Romance. San Francisco’s Scissors for Lefty have been voted “best up-and-coming indie band” by SF weekly, and were described by NME as “quirky, promising and quite possibly awesome”. They’re signed to Rough Trade outside North America, which is in itself a recommendation to indie fans, and have just released Underhand Romance in the US through Eenie Meenie Records.Very charming, self-absorbed, slightly unwell, sophisticated and easily bored into cruelty, Underhand Romance will drop your sister home at the appointed time unharmed but oddly unnerved, and pick your brother up the following night. Expect much dancing, expect vicious sibling rivalry; expect neither a wedding nor a civil ceremony.

Music Review: Suzanne Vega - Beauty and Crime

High Heels — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 16:14:52 EDT

Suzanne Vega's seventh album Beauty and Crime develops the theme of New York life, and has its roots in her seminal debut album Tom's Diner. The ingenue of Tom's Diner has grown up and gained a whole lot of sophistication along the way. Vega has grown into a musical force who can easily hold her own amongst other contemporary artists such as Feist, Sujan Stevens and CocoRosie. The album was recorded in new York and London, and the sessions produced by Jimmy Hogarth (Sia, Corinne Bailey Rae, KT Tunstall), and mixed by Tchad Blake. Also involved were orchestral arranger Will Malone (Dido, Seal, Corinne Bailey Rae); background vocalist and arranger KT Tunstall; guitarists Gerry Leonard (David Bowie) and Lee Ronaldo (Sonic Youth); bassist Tony Shanahan (Patti Smith); as well as members of Vega's impeccable touring band, bassist Mike Visceglia and drummer Doug Yowell. The sound is unmistakably Vega; her clean, subtle voice is undiminished and as fresh as ever. Opening with the danceable "Zephyr and I", which recounts a conversation Vega had walking on West End Avenue with the seminal graffiti artist about their shared memories, with Johnny Marr-ish guitar riffs and sparkling tambourines, you could be forgiven for expecting nothing but happy optimism and an easy ride. Her lyrics have developed a contrapuntal irony and cynicism, however, which is at times heartbreaking in its realism. The track "As You Are Now", arguably the only sentimental track on the album, dedicated to the experience of mother-love, is haunting for what it doesn't say, but acknowledges - our children grow up, are not really ours, and suffering is a part of life we have to accept, even for our loved-ones: ("I will take up all your tears/ salty tissues through the years/ spread them in the sun to dry/ diamonds every time you cry.")"Pornographer's Dream" (She's a pornographer's dream, he said:/ I knew what he meant/ but it made me imagine what kind of dream he would have") and "New York Woman" (Suburban boy out here for the first time/ from the twenty-seventh floor, above the mid-town roar/ You were startled by her beauty and her crime .... New York is a woman, she'll make you cry/ And to her you're just another guy... She's happy that you're here, but when you disappear/ She won't know that you've gone to say goodbye) see Marlene come down from the wall from where she used to watch and mock and confront male vanity and vulnerability directly in the lyrics and indirectly through the sly lounge-lizard lounge-lizard jazz of "Pornographer's Dream" and the contrapuntal upbeat acoustic guitar of "New York Woman".A subtle off-beat snare pushes relentlessly through "Frank and Eva", itself a relentlessly dispassionate look at a pair of lovers ensnared by habit. ("She says its not enough to be in love... They broke up, they broke up/ they were so volatile and all the while life passed/ And it went fast/ And yet they never could forget the chemistry".)Sit down and listen, with a strong coffee or a straight bourbon, to this tale of urban life, which speaks frankly, almost callously, of disappointment, cynicism, aging, loss and bitter-sweet love - but does it all so beautifully you hardly notice til it's too late. She captures the spirit of her age - in every sense. When I saw the album cover, I thought "Oh look, Suzanne Vega dressed up as a femme fatale". This album proves it's no costume. Beauty and Crime will seduce you, spit you out, and leave you asking for more.Beauty and Crime is due for release by Blue Note on July 17th 2007. You can listen to the first single from the album, "Frank and Eva", on her website.

Music Review: Wax Poetic: Brasil, Istanbul, and Copenhagen

High Heels — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 12:29:51 EDT

If you have eclectic musical tastes, or would like to acquire some, check out the Wax Poetic trilogy: Istanbul, Copenhagen and Brasil from Nublu Records.Saxophonist/keyboard-player/composer Ilhan Ersahin, the "organizer" of the albums, set out to explore and extend the dissemination of musical styles and cultures over thousands of years to the present. He has done this by journeying to Europe, Asia and South America to create a trilogy of albums based in three geographical and cultural centres, employing "a shifting configuration of personnel and instrumentation". The result is as close as I've heard to a musical distillation of all that is interesting about truly cosmopolitan, truly urban 21st-century locales, whilst avoiding sentimentality and "world music" clichés. Istanbul opens with "Dreamland", in which Pink Floyd meets temple singing meets street bazaar meets blues dance meets underground dance club. If you think that shouldn't work, I think you'd be right. It shouldn't. But it does. It has to be heard to be believed. "Striptease in Istanbul" is a fusion of trance, dance, trip-hop, dub, ambient and something else. The "something else" was partly defined for me by my charming lunch companion last week who, having been left in my car for a few minutes with the track "Hoppola" playing, announced, "I don't know what that woman is singing about, but it's filthy." The female vocals on the album are reminiscent of - and easily as good as - Bjork's, but with an added sensuality and soulfulness, employed to great effect on the track "Istanbul Can Be Dub". "Watching Me Watching You", with its slightly unnerving speech samples had me racking my brains for the source of my feeling of déjà vu, and finally took me back to the opening of Kate Bush's "Waking the Witch".Copenhagen delivers global eclecticism with a more Western, rock-based flavour, which is less to my taste, but still with the same level of quality, and may well be more accessible and appealing to the mainstream US and European markets as well as those drawn to Indie and avant-garde sounds. The opening track, "U and I" manages to reconcile bitter, cynical lyricism with stadium rock, reggae, and experimental pop. "Under the Sun", with its languid female vocals and haunting melodic hooks is reminiscent of the Stranglers in the later, more reflective phase. "Beauty" occupies the interface between Portishead and Tricky, reconciling the ethereal qualities of the former with the harsh lyrical realities and more brutal bass-lines of the latter. NYC is a triumph of unlikely fusions. Think the soundtracks to Twin Peaks in harmony with back-alley blues and reggae; become confused; listen to the track; become enlightened. Brasil takes the best that the Brazilian pop tradition has to offer - great dance beats and beautiful melodic hooks - and shows you where it came from and where it's heading. "Dolar a Dolar", which concludes the album, marries West African rhythms with tech loops, salsa, jazz, dance, and rap with accomplished close-harmony male vocals. Like the album as a whole, this produces offspring showing just how contemporary urban music and ancient cultures that have migrated and populated nations and cultures are related, and just how they are forging new, youthful and experimental identities. The trilogy overall gives the impression of revealing ancient musical and poetic sources in a cutting edge style. Some bands spend months in the studio and in production, building layer upon layer of sound to get something approximating to the level of vibrancy and complexity which Wax Poetic delivers with apparent ease and raw immediacy. This is what happens when the pop-star retires for the evening, or passes out, and the real musicians jam. It is clear from this trilogy that Ilhan Ersahin is an incredibly talented songwriter and a generous collaborative musician. He has co-written Norah Jones' new single "Thinking About You" from her album Not Too Late, which was initially intended as a Wax Poetic song, and is the result of a long-standing collaborative relationship between the two artists dating to when Ersahin was signed to Atlantic.Wax Poetic will tour this summer. If you are lucky enough to be able to attend one of their concerts, I strongly recommend you do so. Based on these albums, I cannot fault them.Tour DatesJuly 1st The Yard , Gowanus Canal, BrooklynJuly 2-6th Nublu, NYCJuly 7th Montreal Festival

Music Review: Bassnectar - Underground Communication

High Heels — Thu, 7 Jun 2007 23:37:07 EDT

San-Francisco-based cult DJ Bassnectar's latest album Underground Communication has a lot to recommend it. But I have a major reservation, which I will get to.The album opens with a tranquil bamboo-wind-chime sound in the intro leading us into a pacey, energetic journey. In places this offers very danceable break-beats, and in others an atmospheric ambient chillout, such as is found in the languid, Orbit-esque "Fsosf." There are some edgy found-sound samples juxtaposed with sweet melodic passages, which make for a complex and satisfying mix. Some of my quibbles are purely a matter of personal taste. The almost total lack of Jamaican accent in the vocal samples, for instance, jarred with me. But that is probably a personal prejudice based on my UK-based sensibilities. Underground Communication is an accomplished, eclectic dub-fusion overall. It includes elements of dance, trance, experimental electronic, drum and bass, trip-hop, hip-hop, ambient, reggae, wobble, bhangra and even a truly inspired rag-time piano loop -- on the track "Carried Away." Clearly this is the work of an eclectic and accomplished musician, one who has used his imagination and has a sense of humour. Most of the album is intelligently arranged, if a little overambitious at times. In my favourite track of the album, "Carried Away," -- which I found very interesting for its use of ragtime piano and bhangra and which exudes joie-de-vivre, -- there were enough motifs to make at least three, simpler and possibly more effective tracks. The effect as it stood was somewhat fussy, though it stopped short of being a mess. The later phases of "Ridiculous Wobble," and the track "Amorphous Form" show what can be achieved by this artist when he allows himself to follow a groove. Which brings me to basics -- or, more precisely, to the bass. The bass is an essential element for the enjoyment of dub. It's not enough to hear it, you've got to feel it in your feet, in your chest cavity, in your neck. The sub-bass must almost threaten to destabilize your heartbeat or it just doesn't work. That's my opinion. I read the press releases for Bassnectar and was happy. I was in for some heavy dub fusion, with "throbbing bass." In deference to my neighbourhood, which is somewhat less -- shall we say -- raw than the neighbourhoods of my teens and twenties, I prepared by turning down my sub-woofer, taking it to the kitchen (which has a concrete floor), closing the windows, and playing the CD on a Saturday afternoon. This seemed like a reasonable time of the week to blast next-door's ears and chests for a while. Five minutes later, I was upstairs in the bedroom, speakers on the wooden floor, volume up, sub-woofer at maximum -- and frustrated as all hell. It was better in the bedroom with the wooden floor, but not heavy enough. Ten minutes after that, I was in the car with the children demanding I turn the music up, then immediately asking me to turn it down again. The top-end became deafening but the bass was only a little better. It tickled my knees, but it never reached my chest. You can't feel the sub-bass strongly enough on even a decent domestic sound system. I checked it against other CDs for reference, including Tricky's Maxinquaye. I had hoped that it could perhaps compete, but Tricky beat it hands down. I believe there is a weakness in the mastering of this album. If there isn't, I can only surmise a couple of things. In America, either everyone in the market has a massive, professional, stage-standard sound-system; or Bassnectar isn't producing truly heavy underground dub in the studio. Perhaps someone can enlighten me after their forthcoming US Summer events and let me know if the live shows are as body-shakingly throbbing and heavy as I've heard they are. At any rate, I'm sure there won't be anything amateurish about the quality of the music you hear. You will certainly dance, have fun, and want to explore the eclectic roots of the music, which is no bad thing.

Should Children Play With Toy Guns?

High Heels — Wed, 30 May 2007 07:38:08 EDT

I never allowed my eldest son, now nearly 19, to play with toy guns, swords etc. If I discovered he had borrowed, found, or been given a toy weapon, my immediate reaction was always to confiscate the item; he would be psychologically damaged otherwise, according to contemporary thinking; he might become a murderer! These days, he is very sociable and popular; a musician and trainee chef; a decent, hardworking young man, but a tough cookie who takes no crap from bullies and will fight if attacked. I put this down to testosterone.I have stuck, so far, to the same principle with my younger kids; no toy guns, no toy weapons of any type allowed. My youngest son, aged seven, spent most of this morning joyfully tracking goldfinches and looking for caterpillars for the sheer pleasure of admiring their colours and habits. He says the finches hop onto the bottom of dandelion stalks and then do tightropes along them, flattening them to the ground so they can peck at the seed-head. He is worried that a black-and-red moth he found yesterday in undergrowth has hardly moved since then, and may be ill. He is very gentle with all living creatures, and deplores the slightest unkindness to even the smallest insect. However, after lunch, my daughter came home to tell me that her brother had found a toy gun whilst looking for a nest in a hedge. My immediate reaction was to check and make sure it wasn't a real one. What a sad sign of the times we are led to believe we live in. A real gun in a hedge in a suburb of an English city? The possibility seemed real.Keeping as calm as possible, I strolled out to see and found him with a very fine toy machine gun, green and yellow camouflage with automatic rattling fire; and what was this gentle little soul, this brown-eyed teddy bear in human form, doing? He was playing at murdering four of his friends as they cycled around our cul-de-sac! All were having a delightful time, laughing and shrieking. I opened my mouth to speak against the toy, against the game, but as I did so I remembered the great fun we had playing Cops and Robbers and Cowboys and Indians as children. I saw the happiness on the kids' faces as they swerved and veered to avoid being shot; I saw cooperation and coordination, fresh air and exercise. I understood it. I left them to it. I didn't feel guilty - I feel differently now than I did in my twenties about this. I thought breaking up the sociability, disappointing him in front of his friends could be more damaging than sticking to my guns, so I let the play-massacre continue. They wanted to know if they could keep the gun. I said I'd think about it, but the mean look my daughter gave me as she aimed and fired was somewhat unnerving. I hadn't formed a full opinion on this yet. I decided the issue of property rights would be my focus, and they would have to put the toy back where they found it. Hours later, a loud argument broke out amongst all the kids on the street over who should possess the gun on a more permanent basis. This resulted in a summit meeting of neighbourhood mothers. The gun's in the bin, now, with the rest of the garbage. My little girl doesn't care -- in fact, she agrees it's the right thing to do -- but the boys are particularly unhappy and grouchy.I'm back to the no-guns-no-weapons rule. It seems correct, but it doesn't seem much fun to my inner child or to my youngest son.

Movie Review: Heading Home

High Heels — Sun, 27 May 2007 10:14:18 EDT

Heading Home (2006, directed by Jane Rose) is an independent short film about a mad scientist (Ean Sheehy) obsessed with immortality, whose frenzied experiments coincide with the disappearance of local children. His wife (Jenny Mundy-Castle) uncovers his secret and with the cooperation of a huge, menacing man called "The Butcher" (Chuck Bunting) attempts to do something about it. Her efforts, shown in flashback, lead to a chilling, twisted dénouement. The film made the Official Selection at the Pretty/Scary and H.P. Lovecraft film festivals in 2006. Rose says, Ramsey Campbell’s story “Heading Home” was given to me as a reading assignment at some point in grade school. Though I can’t remember exactly what grade I was in, I’m sure it must have been around Hallowe'en and I was of an age for such things to make a lasting impression on me. The twist ending came as a shock and combined with the clever title caused the story to remain in my memory for years. Campbell’s visceral descriptions translated easily into mental images; whether I knew it or not, I probably came up with the idea for a movie version of Heading Home then.Watching Heading Home took me right back to when I was nine years old. From that age I was allowed to spend Friday nights at my Granny's house. I say "house", but her house consisted of two rooms, one unheated, on the ground floor of a gloomy Victorian tenement building with no hot running water and an outside toilet. If you wanted to pay a visit to the bathroom in the night, you'd have to take a big iron key and a spluttering candle stuck to a saucer with melted wax; make your way outside down a cold, dark stone corridor (the "close"); sit in an equally dark little stone room, shivering and shaking; then run like hell back to the safety of the fireside before the "man" got you. I loved it. It was the ideal setting for experimenting with terror, and in this Gothic haven I was allowed to stay up past midnight to watch late-night horror films.Now, these films on TV were not the gory slasher psycho-serial-killer fare you see today on virtually every channel. Real X-rated stuff was strictly the reserve of the cinema. They comprised, on the whole, black and white '20s and '30s melodramas; Bela Lugosi; bats on visible knicker-elastic; pretty tame-looking wolves ("they arrrre the childrrrrren of the night!"); horribly disfigured madmen dangling screaming women over vats of hot wax; Hitchcock suspenses; lunatic-genius scientists gone to the bad... you get the picture. They suggested more than they showed, and that thrill of having the source of terror suggested by melodramatic reaction-shots, eerie music, and elaborately creepy mise-en-scene is what gives them lasting resonance. They don't make them like that any more. Well, most of them don't -- but I was delighted to find myself transported back in time by Heading Home. It is an innocent film by today's standards, but with just enough visceral gore and a strong hint of something you really wouldn't want to look at, to create a pleasing frisson. The film is knowingly unsophisticated in its theatrical presentation of character and narrative, giving a true retro feel; yet, despite having been shot on mini-DV with a micro-budget, it provides much in the way of expressive - even painterly - cinematography and editing, and moments of great suspense. Of course it takes more now to horrify me, but I was affected enough by the special effects by Joe Renz, Ben Jurin, and Jane Rose - particularly at the gory climax of the film - to feel not a little unnerved, even nauseated; but, as of old, with a big grin on my little face. Jane Rose is a member of Willamsburg, Brooklyn’s Reel Sweet Betty Film Collective.

Children Subjected to Terrifying "Gunman Attack" on School Trip

High Heels — Thu, 17 May 2007 02:32:43 EDT

The post-Virginia Tech hysteria has finally hit innocent victims. Teachers from a school in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, entrusted with a group of little kids on what should have been an enjoyable educational trip, decided to experiment last Thursday night. They wondered what would happen if a gunman attacked. How would they cope? What would the kids do? This turned into a nasty "prank" they later tried to pass off as a drill, in which staff enacted a gun-siege situation, traumatizing their 6th-grade students.Scales Elementary School Assistant Principal Don Bartch, who led the trip, got together with his colleague, teacher Quentin Masters, and decided to stage a mock attack on their young charges - a "drill," if you will, but a drill with a difference. The teachers told the students a gunman was on the loose and their lives were in danger. For five horrifying minutes, 69 children hid, cried, and begged for their lives under tables in a locked, dark room while a teacher, disguised in a hooded sweatshirt pulled at the locked door like the Big Bad Wolf and pretended to grapple with an armed assailant. What made this worse, if it could be worse, is that the children had, according to the school, already been put through properly organised Red Code drills in the wake of the VT and other campus and school shootings, so they were fully aware of the implications of a real alert. Their teachers repeatedly told the kids it was not a drill, that it was a Code Red situation. This effectively abused the trust built up by the process of authentic drills and made their experience all the more traumatic and all the more cruel.Principal Catherine Stephens said the events "involved poor judgment." More like a poor grip on reality, in my opinion. Scales Elementary School Assistant Principal Don Bartch who has now been suspended along with his colleague amidst the public outcry, said, "We got together and discussed what we would have done in a real situation."Newsflash! Having 69 vulnerable young people in your care is a real life situation. Instead of dealing with reality appropriately and in a trustworthy manner, he and his colleagues decided to play fantasy games with children's emotional well-being. If I were a parent of one of those children, I'd sue his ass. If I were any of the staff involved I'd be looking for another job - perhaps "World Of Warcraft" needs people?