Life Of A Starchild

Twitter Exile Update #5 and Shipwrecked: What A Load Of Plebs

starchildluke — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 21:51:35 +0000

Only a quick update today. I’ve not blogged much over the past few days as I’ve been spending less time on the internet in the evenings (I really must be changing). I’ve decided to stop sending blog posts to Twitter (after a chat with an anonymous friend). As for missing Twitter, I’m becoming more used to not having it. I’m still going to do the whole month and then see how I feel after that. In all honesty, I don’t think I’ll be the same user I used to be and I don’t plan on putting the apps back on my phone.

Now, for the main event…

Shipwrecked

Today, something strange happened. Something I hadn’t felt for a very long time: I felt physical hate towards a group of people. It used to be a common occurrence when I was in my late teens; not so much in a “teenage angst ridden why doesn’t anyone understand me?” kind of way, but just a general distaste for society (which still remains). The reason for this vitriol-fuelled anger is because of (half) of the people in the picture above.

Meet (most of) the cast of Shipwrecked 2011. In terms of my faith in humanity, it disintegrates every week watching these people. They give twentysomethings a bad name and Tories ammunition to dump on younger people. Why do I watch it? Cos I like half of them and it’s interesting to watch how people work. I made a point of saying I dislike only half of the cast. This is because a section of them took it upon themselves to split themselves up into two groups: The Hills and The Slums. In The Hills, you have:

Anna, the stereotypical blonde bimbo model with the fake breasts (how ironic it would be if they were PIP implants, which sounds cruel but you may see why I said that later)
Bear, possibly the biggest cretin this side of the Milky Way, who is secretly in the closet (if the closet was the sky and the sky was pink)
Tristan, the kick boxing trainer-cum-wanker from Bedfordshire who sees himself as a master tactician but instead comes off more like The Hooded Claw
Brimes, the stereotypical grime MC/entertainer/comedian/look at me I’m black and from London token black guy who is or isn’t homophobic, something he hasn’t really formulated in his own mind
Dominique, his “island girlfriend” who claimed she “preferred light skinned guys like Chris Brown”. Yeah, GOOD LUCK WITH THAT!
Salema, the black model who is Anna’s arch nemesis but can’t decide whether she’s also a moron or pretending

For The Slums, we have:

Danni, the buxom law student from Essex who defies 90% of the stereotypes that Essex girls hold close to their large chests. Seriously though, she’s really nice (and hot)
Ashley, the Mancunian lesbian who’s more down to earth than an earthworm and she’s a vegetarian, so that’s two reasons (out of a million) why we could never be together
Carl, the model Scouser who’s really just a bit of fun and doesn’t take things too seriously unless you rub his friends up the wrong way (best kind of friend to have)
Kate, the “larger than life” Londoner, self proclaimed wheeler dealer who had to abandon her game plan after being outed and now just wants to make friends

Now, I’ve been quite biased in my descriptions which may give you a reason why I hate “The Hills” so much. They are, in short, nasty pieces of work. Watching their lies and deceit unfold reminds me of a horrific mix of Lord Of The Flies and Britain as it is under this Tory government (cos let’s face it, the Lib Dems are marginalised enough for their names to barely get a mention on TV unless they fuck up royally). The Hills are the “rich, prosperous folk who rule the roost” and The Slums “live barely teetering on the bread line, not wanting to better themselves, bless their polyester socks from Sport Soccer on sale for £2″. Anna seems to think she runs the show, giving the air of the most arrogant of twunts you could ever meet, even going so far as to look disgusted by the presence of herself during her one-to-one interviews, the smug cow. (Of course, this is pre-recorded and the show has already happened, but let’s pretend they’re currently horrible parasites as opposed to TV imbeciles.) Her choice of “alpha male” comes in form of Bear, a man who is one manly slip of the hand away from a gay orgy. To call him an airhead is like claiming The Pope is only slightly religious. But that’s how it really happens on TV and in real life; the island is like a nightclub to them. While they’re there, people hook up with anyone, no matter what they look like or how they speak. In the real world, they wouldn’t even piss on them if they were on fire. Same sort of situation with Brimes and Dominique. As stated before, Dom likes Chris Brown-types *snigger* while Brimes thought there was something there. Or maybe there was, who knows (or cares). Either way, superficial is the name of the game with The Hills.

Every week, they vote for who they think should be island leader, with people standing for election with their themed weeks. Currently, The Hills have it rigged so one of the group get voted in every week as they have majority (where’s the alternative vote when you need it, eh?). Each elected leader gets a bead and the last leader can take a bead off someone else and give it to someone who they think deserves it. Sound a lot like the Tories taking money from the taxpayers and giving it to… the bank, perhaps? Or just keeping it for themselves as the working class exist to facilitate the upper class through a life of servitude. Or something. The worst thing is, everyone in The Hills think they’re alright because one of them will win and that’ll make them feel good. Little do they know Tristan is backstabbing them all (David Cameron?). Bearing in mind only ONE person can win, what benefit is it to the “losers” if they help someone else win? That’s the part I don’t get. I suppose it’s like when Arsenal fans support any team that plays Man United. At least I understand that in a way but wouldn’t waste my time with that level of nonsense.

I guess what I’m really trying to say about the whole charade is pretty much how people behave in Britain. We have the rich and the poor, the poor hate the rich and vice versa. Communities are more like self-segregating ghettos in towns and cities, nobody wants to talk to anyone and when shit hits the fan, it’s either the fault of Labour, students, black peoples, Asian people, immigrants or terrorists (and of course, they’re all Asian so they’re even more screwed). On the island, there was even an incident where people who decided they didn’t want to watch a pig get slaughtered were “cowards” and “hypocrites” if they didn’t watch but ate the meat. Sounds a lot like the way people are treated when they are looked down at when they turn their nose up at unpaid voluntary work and prefer to not work but actually get money. Perhaps if we stopped and looked at ourselves before we started looking at others and how everyone else is doing it wrong and worked together, we wouldn’t have such a shit nation and society to live in. Until then, we’re stuck with The Hills ruling forevermore. Sorry Gil, but the revolution WILL be televised.

Twitter Exile Update #3 + Thanks

starchildluke — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 23:20:50 +0000

Just an update today, not got much else to say (hey, that rhymes). Today’s been a lot easier than yesterday despite me not doing very much. I’ve decided to let my blog posts go to Twitter from now on. It’s a bit like when you decide to leave where you live cos you hate it and start a new life somewhere else but you want to let everyone you know back home how you are. In other words, these blog posts are like postcards or those fake cigarettes people use when they quit smoking. Also, in my time out, I’m already getting to work on a new album. It’s gonna be darker and different to Addicted and won’t be released under my Starchild moniker. That’s all I’m saying for now. Thanks to everyone who has downloaded the album so far; up to 17 at the moment. If you haven’t already, be sure to check the link below.

http://starchildluke.bandcamp.com/album/addicted

Twitter Exile Update #2 + A Day Of Album Listening

starchildluke — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 01:16:28 +0000

Another quick update for you all. Day 4 is drawing to an end and it’s been the easiest day so far, purely because I’ve managed to keep myself fairly occupied. The nights are hardest though as that was when I usually tweet a lot and it made me realise just how lonely I am without it. I think I’ve texted four people tonight just to get some form of social engagement. Unfortunately, some of my best friends live quite far away and I don’t drive, so I can’t just randomly go to them so technology really is the only way to keep in touch. On the plus side, I bought some more memory for my laptop and once that comes and it’s installed, I can finish off this new track I’m doing. Trying out a new style for a subsequent release, more towards Flying Lotus, Wax Tailor and the like as opposed to J Dilla, Pete Rock and ATCQ. Once I’ve done enough, I might post a snippet on my Soundcloud.

Onto our feature presentation. Today, I made my way through four albums, two from artists I’d slept on and two from guys who released new material in 2011 but I hadn’t got round to listening to. They were:

Sam Baker’s Album – Samiyam
Butter – Hudson Mohawke
NoYork! – Blu
The Golden Age of Apocalypse – Thundercat

First up this morning was Samiyam’s latest album Sam Baker’s Album. I’ve been a fan of his music since I heard Moon Shoes on YouTube a few years back (after hearing a FlyLo track no less). Eventually, I gave Rap Beats Vol. 1 a listen and thoroughly enjoyed the 8-bit hip hop vibe so I was expecting more of the same for his next album, and he didn’t disappoint. It starts slowly with the opening track Escape but begins to pick up with the classic 80s funk-infused Bedtime. Without a doubt though, my favourite track early on had to be Already, just for the four-chord progression and percussive beat. It would have been amazing if it had been extended to more than the loop but with these kinds of tracks, less is more. The good thing about this album is it never lulls you into a false sense of security, sound wise. It doesn’t tail off into mediocrity but instead sparks your interest just when you think you’re getting comfortable with what you’re hearing, which means you should be taking notice. If you like off kilter beats to the sound of the Atari/NES generation, you might like this one. 4/5

Up next was Hudson Mohawke’s debut LP Butter. Now, I admit I haven’t been a massive fan of his work from the tracks I have heard. Not to say he wasn’t a good producer, I just couldn’t get into his music. Despite this, I decided to give him a full listen via this album so I had something substantial to judge him on. I think it’s fair to say I was pleasantly surprised. The opening track was somewhat weak for me as I felt myself wondering when the beat was going to drop and it never really came. Eventually, things really began to kick off with 3.30 and continued from there as I began to bop my head to the beats. Again, much like Samiyam and everyone of that ilk, his beats are unconventional and “out of time” but some how move something within you that seems just right. I might have made that sound like love making which it isn’t but it’s definitely unique without being different for the sake of it. 4/5

Third album of the day came in the form of Blu’s NoYork!, an album I had wanted to hear for a while, but with the number of albums I had sifted through for my albums of 2011 list, it got left behind. Needless to say, I was hooked from the first two tracks (produced by Flying Lotus, unsurprisingly) and felt that this would be a good new direction for Blu to go in. However something strange happened on the third track. I heard a beat I had grown used to purely as an instrumental. It was none other than Samiyam’s Moon Shoes (entitled Never Be The Same) and it unnerved me a little as I had grown so accustomed to hearing it without vocals over it. I let it go but as the album went on, it felt a bit disjointed with the mix of abstract beats from the FlyLo school of production mixed with the more “conventional” kind of sound from Madlib’s production (not to say he is conventional in ANY way, nor that I prefer conventional). There were a lot of guest stars on this LP but it didn’t seem to spoil the broth as it were. Seemed like an album of two halves but two good halves on their own merit. 3.5/5

Final album of the day was The Golden Age of Apocalypse by Thundercat. For anyone who isn’t aware of Thundercat (or Stephen Brunner as he is known by the government) he’s played bass for US band Suicidal Tendencies, Sa-Ra Creative Partners and Flying Lotus (on Cosmogramma). So you’ll never guess who helped him produce the album? Unlike the other three, this wasn’t isn’t as glitchy as the others, relying on smooth instrumentation with a dash of that FlyLo sound you all love so much. I really enjoyed this album as it sounded like what would happen if some of the jazz greats were cryogenically frozen back in their heydays and thawed out in the 80s, frozen again and thawed out once more in 2011 to show us what they had learnt. Great jazz, soul, funk, 70s everything feel and great production. 4.5/5

Twitter Exile Update #1 + Artist Of The Minute #8

starchildluke — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 22:11:52 +0000

Click me to access my new album!

Happy new year everyone! Just thought I’d give you all a quick update on how my self-exile from the land of Twitter is going: it’s tough. I’ve been on “breaks” before and they’ve been pretty easy compared to this one. I even opened one of my Twitter apps out of habit. Fortunately, I had deleted my account settings therefore not breaking my own rules. I also accidentally “tweeted” last night due to automated tweet settings on Soundcloud when I favourited a song. As I didn’t actually log on and tweet that directly, I won’t count that as a rule break. As you can see, I’m finding this harder than it should be but that’s the price I’ve paid for going cold turkey. I reckon if I can do a week, the others should be easier. The main thing I’ve missed about it at the moment is the chance to publicise the album. I’ve not had many hits since I left as I was the only one sending the link out, but in spite of that, I’ve accrued 14 downloads in the 3 days so thanks to everyone who has supported. For anyone who hasn’t checked it out yet, click the album cover at the top of this post.

Onto the main feature. My artist of the minute today is Flying Lotus. Born Steven Ellison, he is the great-nephew of the late Alice Coltrane, which serves as no surprise when you hear his music. He’s been a huge inspiration for me, ever since I was first sent his debut album 1983 back in 2008. I remember the first time I heard Tea Leaf Dancers, it was like I was tripping. Since then, I’ve always been fascinated by his sound and how he creates it. He’s been somewhat pigeonholed into genres like “experimental hip hop” and “trip hop” but I think his music is beyond those sorts of labels (without sounding “hipster” or pretentious). You can hear how he tries to create soundscapes, filling every silence with some form of noise without it being unnecessary or overbearing. His second album Los Angeles is the one that really hit me. The cohesion of each track is superb and even though all but two of the tracks are instrumental, you don’t feel like there’s anything missing.

From here, he moved onto Cosmogramma. While I have a fondness in my musical heart for Los Angeles, Cosmogramma is *that* album. Everyone has an album from one of their favourite artist where it really cements their place in your own little hall of fame and this is it for FlyLo. It’s good enough not to warrant a genre as it traverses a myriad of sonic concepts (I’m beginning to sound REALLY pretentious now, but bare with me). Without doubt, my favourite track has to be Do The Astral Plane and something that I look to when I’m running out of ideas for my own tracks. It’s a stream of musical elements and you don’t even notice when one goes and until it reappears again. Anyway, judge for yourself:

With talks of Ellison working with Erykah Badu on a new release, it seems the only way is up for the Los Angeles producer and I couldn’t wish it for a better musician.

2011: My year

starchildluke — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 23:34:47 +0000

At the time of writing this, I have just over forty five minutes before I leave Twitter and Facebook indefinitely. Which means I have to sum up my year in a short space of time. To be fair, it’s not been what I expected and not very “eventful”, per se. The first half saw me break up with my long term girlfriend (can you call eight months long term?) and find someone really special, which unfortunately didn’t work out. I spent the second half getting over that and while it was very hard on me, emotionally, I managed to get through it and keep a friend I thought I’d lost forever. In a way, it was quite a sad year in that it was defined by those two relationships or that I let them define the year but some great things came out of 2011. I managed to complete my first solo album Addicted, meet some fantastic people and attempt at getting my foot in the door. I also managed to get through my first full year of university without dropping out, which is always good. So yeah, definitely a mixed twelve months.

Some things I’ve learnt/am learning to take with me into 2012:

I’m worth more than I know
I need to think less and do more; act more on impulse or “gut feeling”
Express my opinions more
I need to save up for a musical instrument of some sort
I don’t need to let a relationship define who I am
I should read more
I should engage with others more

I will try and make a conscious effort to make all these things happen and turn these “resolutions”, if you will, into actions. My first main action is removing the connection I have from social networking altogether. This might sound counter-productive being a musician but I’ve made sure to leave things in place where I won’t NEED to be ingrained into something I don’t need to invest so much time into. I’ll still be blogging and using the internet but I won’t let it become a “second life” or the main life I lead. I want to be able to experience 2012 in the real world, with real people and not have to share it electronically in the ways I have.

I suppose I’m covering old ground from my previous post(s) so I’ll leave it there. It’s currently 11:28pm on 31st January 2011 and I am wishing everyone who is into 2012 already a very happy and prosperous new year and to everyone who hasn’t reached it yet the same. A massive thank you to everyone who has made Twitter and Facebook a great experience for me and I hope to hear from you very soon. Feel free to leave your email address in a comment if you want to stay in touch, else just subscribe to the blog and keep a look out for my life updates (if I can be bothered; I can be lazy like that sometimes).

And don’t forget: Be inspired!

My Albums of the Year: 2011

starchildluke — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 23:08:28 +0000

Yes, it’s that time of year – the “album list” blog post. But this one is slightly different. This is purely based on the albums I’ve listened to this year from 2011, ordered by my favourite right down to my “least” favourite. In that respect, these are MY albums of the year. I won’t like the same albums you will and vice versa so saying “who is X not ahead of Y” is futile. This is a common disclaimer in these kinds of posts and it’s a shame but it needs to be said. So, enough of all that. Here’s the list!

53. Tha Carter IV – Lil Wayne
Album in six words: Hash tag crap, but Busta killed

52. Revolver – T-Pain
Album in six words: Can’t teach old dog better tricks

51. Take Care – Drake
Album in six words: Struggle bars and lots of moisture

50. Radioactive – Yelawolf
Album in six words: Toxic waste, maybe. New Eminem? HAHA!

49. Section.80 – Kendrick Lamar
Album in six words: Sorry, I just couldn’t feel it

48. Scars & Stripes – The Away Team
Album in six words: Okay hip hop, nothing more really

47. XXX – Danny Brown
Album in six words: Album of two halves, second better

46. Thursday – The Weeknd
Album in six words: Not my kinda vibe, but good

45. Echoes of Silence – The Weeknd
Album in six words: Same as above, a little better

44. Audio, Video, Disco – Justice
Album in six words: Was expecting better, same ol’ electropop

43. The Presentation – LA
Album in six words: Great effort from a female MC

42. Mondo Amore – Nicole Atkins
Album in six words: Just how I like my rock

41. Watch The Throne – Kanye West/Jay-Z
Album in six words: Overhyped, but otherwise return to form

40. The Martyr – Immortal Technique
Album in six words: Goes in hard, comes out well

39. Dirty Pretty Things – Rapper Big Pooh
Album in six words: Great effort, half of Big Brother

38. Cole World: The Sideline Story – J Cole
Album in six words: Jack of all trades, mastery imminent?

37. THE PRESTIGE: Jam Boy Magic – Money Making Jam Boys
Album in six words: Top quality, obviously it’s Black Thought

36. COPYCAT (a Dilla Tribute) – vlooper
Album in six words: Dilla tribute? This was done well

35. The Wonder Years – 9th Wonder
Album in six words: Wanted a little more, solid nevertheless

34. Population Control – Statik Selektah
Album in six words: Great work featuring some brilliant MCs

33. My Life II The Journey Continues (Act I) – Mary J Blige
Album in six words: Mary did her thing, nice soul

32. Immortal – Michael Jackson
Album in six words: Less of an album, more extravaganza

31. Darkest Before The Dawn – Daikatamy
Album in six words: Great sample selection, not quite dead

30. Winston’s Appeal LP – Curly Castro
Album in six words: Catchy hip hop groove, underground shit!

29. The Most Awkward – Knowsum
Album in six words: Same as above, top German shit!

28. High Life – Vanilla
Album in six words: Great sampling flipping, a UK treat

27. El Camino – The Black Keys
Album in six words: Fuzzy goodness courtesy of Danger Mouse

26. Camp – Childish Gambino
Album in six words: “Don’t take it seriously” hip hop

25. The Renaissance - Verandah-Maureen Shepard
Album in six words: Sweet voice caressing sweeter prose

24. Mylo Xyloto – Coldplay
Album in six words: Usual Coldplay, playable pop (controversial opinion)

23. Random Axe – Random Axe
Album in six words: Rough around the edges, just right

22. Deerhoof vs. Evil – Deerhoof
Album in six words: German rock laced with Japanese charm

21. Beat Beast – Audiodope
Album in six words: Clues in the name, Swiss dopeness

20. Soundcheck – Suhnraw
Album in six words: Generous offering, Raw Soul indeed

19. Ceremonials – Florence + The Machine
Album in six words: Red head, pale skin, pop album

18. Perfectionist – Natalia Kills
Album in six words: Bradford plus Uruguay equals hell yes

17. Peanut Butter Blues & Melancholy Jam – Ghostpoet
Album in six words: Great production, nice experimental flow here

16. Ambition – Wale
Album in six words: Better than his debut, top quality

15. Master of Ceremonies – Styles P
Album in six words: Don’t sleep on this one, okay?

14. Wasting Light – Foo Fighters
Album in six words: First foray into hard rock. Brilliant.

13. New Blood – Peter Gabriel
Album in six words: Lovely orchestral covers of Gabriel’s best

13. Barton Hollow – The Civil Wars
Album in six words: Phenomenal chemistry from two good friends

12. Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang – Raekwon
Album in six words: That’s some tight production. Wu-tang!

11. Monumental - Pete Rock & Smif-N-Wessun
Album in six words: Pete Rock at his very best

10. The Light of the Sun – Jill Scott
Album in six words: She’s still got it, hot soul

9. Pala – Friendly Fires
Album in six words: Had this on repeat late Summer

8. Habits of the Heart – Idle Warship
Album in six words: Almost my favourite hip hop collab

7. The Greatest Story Never Told – Saigon
Album in six words: This shit goes IN. Cop it!

6. 21 – Adele
Album in six words: British soul for a new age

5. Metals – Feist
Album in six words: My favourite folk album currently. Tremendous!

4. Charity Starts At Home – Phonte
Album in six words: So close to #1, fantastic album

3. Elmatic – Elzhi
Album in six words: Superb reinterpretation of a classic album

2. The Dreamer/The Believer – Common
Album in six words: Hip hop doesn’t get much better

And at #1…

1. Undun – The Roots
Album in six words: This album: starting a new era?

Album Release: Addicted

starchildluke — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 01:48:55 +0000

At midnight tonight, I will be releasing Addicted, my first solo album. This post is to really explain what the album is about, my musical background and my influences.

I’ll start with explaining the title. I had initially wanted to call it Nebula (Starchild, Nebula being the birth of a star, space, you get the idea) but changed my mind and ended up with Addicted, which was a “rumoured” title for Jamiroquai’s eighth album, which was eventually called Rock Dust Light Star. It was also the reason why my first EP was called Obsessed; I like to link my titles or give them some kind of meaning. Once that was decided, I had to figure out whether to make it another concept piece or just a culmination of my best tracks. I had an idea to have all the titles begin with “The” but as time went on and my newer beats became more improved, I had named them different things and scrapped the idea. However, a few of the original beats, including a few from the EP, will feature. Another reason for picking “Addicted” as a title was because it reflects just how addicted I am to music. I’ve spent nearly a year working on it, for hours a day and I’m really happy with how it’s turned out.

My musical background is somewhat patchy to begin with. I played recorder like most junior school kids in Year 3 and soon stopped. At high school, I played the clarinet for five years but never went past Grade 3. I had wanted to play saxophone but there weren’t any left, so I was left with its smaller black wooden cousin. By college, I had dreams of being a graphic designer, which turned into dreams of working in computer science and I went to university still holding onto that “dream”. Within months, the dream became a nightmare and what I was expecting wasn’t what I got. Days would go by where I would just stay in my room and not talk to anyone. Depressed and having no friends, all I really had was my iPod, my radio and a new secret passion for music. I transferred to study Mathematics in the new academic year, however due to financial difficulties, I had to drop out altogether and I was now at home, desperately looking for work. My passion for design had also been renewed and decided that was what I wanted to do, until a rejection from a university interview put me off entirely. As you can see, I’ve flitted from pillar to post quite a lot over the past three years but music always seemed to stick and that’s where I am now. Okay, I’m waffling.

My influences are quite diverse: Pete Rock, Madlib, J Dilla, ATCQ, Bonobo, Quantic, 4hero, Jamiroquai, Michael Jackson to name but a few. My sound is generally more “old school” than the kind of hip hop you hear in the charts. I like to keep an element of groove and funk in the samples I pick so you can chill and relax or just bob your head. If I’ve ever been stuck in a rut, listening to a few songs from these artists has rejuvenated my drive and I’d like to thank them for all their music. In terms of dedications, I’m dedicating the album to all the fallen greats of music and anyone who has died suddenly or tragically this year, may they all rest in peace and power. Thanks to Nyt Arcanum aka Blaise for all the help and support as well as everyone at RGS. Thanks to everyone on Facebook and Twitter for all your support, kind words and motivation. I’m sorry to be leaving but it’s just something I have to do.

All that’s left for me to say is thank you and I hope you enjoy the album!

EDIT: The link to download is here: http://starchildluke.bandcamp.com/album/addicted

Identity Problem

starchildluke — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 23:09:12 +0000

I’ll cut straight to the point – I’m having an “identity problem”. It’s not serious enough to be a crisis but not insignificant enough to be an anomaly. For four years, I’ve been connected to Facebook and Twitter and almost obsessed over status updates and tweets. Four years is the longest I’ve concentrated on something with a level of discipline like that since high school. In the greater scheme of things, I don’t need either of these things. Sure, they help immensely with communicating with friends and family from around the world and they’re great for getting the word out for my music and anything I feel like telling the world, but they’re not necessities. If I never used them again, my life would be no worse. However, I’ve been using them unconsciously in this way. Constantly refreshing pages even to this day, watching timelines change – actually watching them move. That’s not how humanity was meant to work and that’s why I’ve come to the decision of leaving both Facebook and Twitter as of 1st January 2012. Indefinitely. The joys of “indefinitely” are that I may come back when I feel my life is adequate enough to not feel like I depend on both of these social media. I may even have such an adequate life that I no longer have a need to use them at all. Unlike previous breaks, this one is serious. For my own sanity and wellbeing, I need to make this work.

I’ve not properly explained the link between this and my “identity problem” so I’ll do it here. My problem (and a problem with society in general) is that we let things define us. I’ve been reading a book called New Earth by Eckhart Tolle and he says exactly this. This obsession with “my”, “I” and “mine” is intertwined with the things we “own” and we let them become part of us. At the end of the day, they’re just things. When they get lost or we relinquish them, we still stay as we are but the thought of giving things up or not feeling any form of loss when our things are stolen seems absurd. Of course, I wouldn’t just give my Macbook away as I do genuinely need it for work, but hopefully you get the idea. My “thing” in this case is Twitter (more so than Facebook). I’ve let it become who I am to the point where I’ve let it take place of a proper personality. I tweet incessantly, this I’m aware of. I’ve managed to accrue over 119,000 tweets in over three years, which equates to nearly, on average, five tweets an hour. That may not seem many as a general figure, but when I tweet from as early as 7am and as late as 2am, that only leaves a minimum of five hours where I’m not tweeting and I’m sleeping (I usually go to bed around 1am). And that has gone on for over three years. If you replace that kind of behaviour with, say, drinking, gambling or smoking, you’ve got yourself an addict. In that sense, that is what I’ve become and I’ve let that become who I am. That is not who I am. I am not my Twitter account; I am the surveyor of the account. Even writing this sounds ludicrous in my head but it’s true. Recently, it has really made me unhappy and I really don’t like Twitter or Facebook anymore. I rant a lot more, I find people boring or incredibly ignorant and annoying and even though I’m not a great lover of society in general, I don’t need them to be at the forefront of my “habit” as I facilitate this need to be there.

That’s not to say I hate everyone I’ve ever encountered on either site; that would be a horrible thing to say. I’ve made some great friends via Twitter and Facebook: some I’ve fallen in love with, some I’ve stayed friends with and some who actually make the sites enjoyable to use. I actually look forward to finding out how these people are, what they’re doing and what they have to say. But it’s come to the point where I can just email, text or Skype these people if need be. Fortunately, my obsession doesn’t extend to these media as I only use them if I must. If I miss anything from Twitter or Facebook, it’ll be more frequent contact with these people; America is a long way from here after all. I’m assuming some people may miss me as they’ve expressed a form of sadness from previous Twitter breaks I’ve been on. If it weren’t for that, I wouldn’t expect anyone to care, which is perfectly acceptable because why should anyone care? That might sound a bit cruel but I can stay in contact with my friends in other ways; Twitter or Facebook needn’t be the core of communication for me. A friend of mine wrote something, which triggered this decision. She alluded to the fact that we spend our lives connected in this manner and lose the potential to be much better and more creative. Ironically, she posted it on Facebook but, as she inadvertently and unintentionally made the point of in her note, it would be the best place for it for most people to read. I don’t want to be the kind of person who says so much behind a computer screen but loses the ability to fully engage with someone when the conversation is conducted face-to-face. I feel like, in some way, I’m coming close to that and it makes me sad. I met someone last week and felt like that was happening and it was mentioned back to me. It’s bad enough that I’m nervous talking to people upon first meeting them without killing off the remaining ability I do have by conversing so confidently when another human being isn’t involved. I no longer want to interface with a machine all my emotions (as I’m doing right now, so I’ll tone it down).

If you’re wondering why I’ve chosen 1st January 2012, it’s not because I’m putting it off, far from it, it’s because I have an album out next Monday and need to use the remaining time I do have to promote it. After a week, I’ll be passing those duties onto someone else (if they won’t mind) so I can find “myself” again, or at all. I just want to be a better person than I am and I don’t see Twitter or Facebook being the services to provide that for me. I read a book that said that reality was human and that is the only way I can see myself being “real”. Social networking is an oxymoron and something not to be taken literally as a whole phrase. It is a mix of the real and the artificial. If you get immersed in the network, you lose the social aspect and vice versa (if done correctly).

So, that’s the big announcement. If you just can’t bear to be out of contact with me for whatever reason, below are some of my contact details. If we’re particularly close, I’ll email you my number but I must warn you, I’m not a great telephone person so a text might be more productive. I appreciate you taking the time out to read this and I can assure you I am okay and that I’m not dying of cancer or something.

Email: luke@starcrazy.org

Skype: munchester2cool

Making The Band

starchildluke — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 16:54:56 +0000

Bonjour, mes amies!

I’ll cut to the chase. Basically, I wanna start a band/sextet and need a lead guitarist, bass guitarist, drummer and keyboard player. You’d preferably need to be from or live around the area of Luton (as that’s where me and the vocalist live) and have an interest in soul, funk, R&B, hip hop, jazz, rock and pop. If you’re interested, you can contact me at luke@starcrazy.org and we’ll be in touch.

Life Thru Someone Else’s Lens

starchildluke — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 11:44:00 +0000

We are living in somewhat chaotic times at the moment. There’s a financial crisis gripping two of the most powerful continents in the world, conflict in north African and the Middle East, a terrorist attack in Norway, riots in London… the list goes on. This is enough to send Jehovah’s Witness in their droves to your door saying “we told you so”, conspiracy theorists to do the same via YouTube videos and people in society to wonder if the world really will end next year. So what would you do to get by? Some turn to drink or drugs, which cost the life of a certain singer this year, some decide to make a stand and some decide to kill people they think are to blame (not mentioning any Western names). But an increasing “release” from the horrors of the real world is what I like to call vita vana (unreal life in Latin). I’ll explain with a few examples.

My idea of vita vana is where someone decides to effectively “live” their own life through the goings on of someone else’s, usually a celebrity or someone they look up to or deem worthy of a higher status than themselves. By doing so, they can get the satisfaction of happiness and success through said person (or sometimes collectively through a whole team, in the case of a football club, which I will look at later). Because the media usually portrays these people as almost invincible, the happiness and success is seemingly everlasting and so the pretence can go on for a long period of time, until the person living the vita vana either matures or gets bored. An example of this is the recent announcement that R&B star Beyoncé Knowles is pregnant with Jay-Z’s baby. Now, normally if someone announces a pregnancy, you get the usual congratulatory messages and people are generically happy for a brief period. However, Twitter went insane with messages. People had somehow become engrossed with the news, making speculative comments about its name and its future talents, genuinely feeling excitement for the baby’s arrival and expressing their jubilation and shock at the news. From a neutral point of view, this seems like an exaggerated response to a fairly common announcement, if not slightly perverse. Women get pregnant everyday. If I had reacted like this for a random woman in my town on Twitter or Facebook, I would be seen as strange (even more so than usual). I’ll look at possible reasons for this reaction later.

Another example is with Steve Jobs announcement that he would be stepping down from his role as CEO of Apple due to ill health. Unfortunate, but a fairly common decision to make for a frail businessman with cancer. The responses to this were just as extravagant, but on the opposite side of the spectrum. There were eulogies for his career, questions concerning the stability of Apple and even the state of computer technology, early criticism at his replacement, even heartfelt messages regarding his influence on computing (which was almost a love poem on “innovation”). A man had decided to quit his job because he was sick and people reacted in ways disproportionate to his decision (in my opinion at least).

Then we look at a football club like Arsenal (this example is a little different but has similar parallels to a vita vana). Having played a poor match against Udinese mid-week but still managing to pull through 2-1, many fans I had noticed were quick to ignore the performance when goaded by rival Spurs fans and decided to discuss how badly they perceived Spurs themselves to be doing. This continued as Spurs lost 5-1 at home to Manchester City on Sunday (not before the embarrassment to come back at them significantly worse, losing 8-2 against champions Manchester United). This wasn’t the first time Arsenal fans had deflected issues at the club they supported onto rival fans. It happened a few times last season when they dropped out of two competitions (three, if you count the league race) in the space of two weeks. By technically “living” their fan lives in the revelling of other teams’ defeats, they had forgotten their own problems. Just by taking on these problems as fans (not even shareholders with financial ties in the club, just people who chose to pay to go to matches), they are living through the club, which is possibly even worse than living through another human. A club is just a company after all. But perhaps I’m being a little too lateral with that last example, thinking that a club is just a company. And it’s not just Arsenal fans that do it; all football fans like to ignore their own problems at the expense of their rivals’ issues.

Three examples of vita vana there. So, why the reactions? For the first one, it can be fairly simple. With their influence on music and current popular culture and black culture (which is, arguably, at the forefront of both music and popular culture at the moment, for both good and bad reasons – something that I’d welcome a debate on and maybe another blog post), Beyoncé and Jay-Z are seen almost as royalty, as I saw someone mention on Twitter today. Their popularity has warranted these reactions and the reactions perpetuate the popularity. Jay-Z can “leak” or advance release any album or song now and people will jump on it and give their opinions good or bad within minutes, and most of the responses will be extravagant in some way, whether it’ll be through parody or seriousness. Same for Beyoncé. And this sort of hysteria can stretch further into the lives of other “superhuman” celebrities, even if they’ve previously beaten up their girlfriends. Fans of Chris Brown (or Team Breezy as they’re known) immediately forgave his actions and have now moved on from the issue, despite Brown having shown further signs of his aggression and temper, Hulk style. His fans have become Brown’s little army, attempting to defend him from attack.

With Steve Jobs, this could be seen as an example of how we have put technology high in the pecking order of our life priorities. People rushed to see him do his keynote speech every year for Apple, announcing another iteration of his flagship Macbooks, iPods or iPhones. They wait intently to hear about the next releases, even if they show no significant improvements but cost a few hundred more to purchase. You get people angrily denouncing Apple or Apple users; PC is better, Mac is better, I’m a PC, I’m a Mac. And that is the exact problem at hand. Suddenly, we are the computers. We have taken on the role of these machines, these factions of plastic and silicon. At least, that’s what we are told. I’m certainly neither a Mac or a PC, I’m a human being that uses a computer (probably too much, but I’m still human). The sooner we live our lives properly and not through these machines or these people, the better. As David Boyle said in his book Authenticity, reality is human.

For the football fans, this has been an ongoing situation for many years and had initially started out as a bit of fun and community spirit. As the 70s and 80s creeped in with its hooliganism, there was a dark undertone in British football which reached an apex with the Heysel and Hillsborough disasters. the hooliganism died down in the 90s and was replaced by a hunger of power and money via the influx of wealth the Premier League had brought. As the Bosman ruling came into force in 1995, power shifted to the players and a whole new era of football came into being. By the 2000s, money, controversy and foreign takeovers had begun to rule over what used to be a working class sport. Fans had now got themselves caught up in the mess and found themselves trying to defend the actions of people they would not normally back in other circumstances. Would you give a vote of confidence to a group of men who had used money from a company to buy that company and subsequently put it in potentially bankrupting debt? Most haven’t, but some have. As long as their club is successful, they’d probably say. Their club. Not for long, some others might say.

I can’t really sit here typing this and say I’ve never done these sorts of things myself. I’m a huge Jamiroquai and Michael Jackson fan and I’ve found myself dressing up in their respective regalia (if that isn’t living through someone else’s life via their wardrobe, I don’t know what is). I cried when Michael Jackson died, said I missed him and had someone tell me my feelings were over the top as I hadn’t known him. I’ve also got emotional to the point of tears when my team won the 1999 Champions League final. I was 8 at the time. Perhaps we all, at some point, get bored with our own lives and decide to tag along with the joy and happiness of others, to say we were part of it. Or maybe it’s to deflect away from our priorities because we’re too scared to face them ourselves. Either way, these vita vana shouldn’t be our primary lives or our only lives. We should be able to be happy for ourselves and face up to our own problems and not look after the happiness of those we don’t know because for most celebrities nowadays at least, they don’t know us individually or collectively and ultimately, they don’t really care as long as you give them money or “support”.