Keeping with the Bowie theme from yesterday - just wanted to let people know about the slight changes we made and the other things planned. If u look along the right hand column - below the categories - you will see an authors section. This will show you all the authors with more than one submission on the blog. For those of you who may have written something and you do not see yourself listed - the reason being is you did not register with the blog so I have no username to assign your posts to. If you make a username and want to claim your post just email us.
Overtime we will sort out the donation system but right now not sure how it will all work exactly. So stay tuned. From time to time we may break things or the blog may go down but rest assured we are not going anywhere. bbb will start loading back content soon but we have some editing to do to make it all function.
peace.
On the Bowie headline theme, can I reserve the timeless classic The Laughing Gnome for one of my own pieces?
I’m writing a tribute to Young Penfold.
View all comments by Bangkok Bad Boy
reserved. thanks for the notice.
can we get some sense of what actually came of him?
View all comments by sideshowBOB
Has there been a nickname change here I didn’t read about? No “Smitty” on the Authors list, but sideshowBOB has 323 posts?
View all comments by The Ghost
Also guys, under my name, column #1 seems to be missing.
View all comments by The Ghost
pg - its there. I got 9 columns from u.9 posts.
http://www.2thebigmango.com/author/pattayaghost/
your first one ends up on the second page.
http://www.2thebigmango.com/author/pattayaghost/page/2/
sideshowBOB was feeling like a second class being and decided to inhabit smitty’s body.
View all comments by sideshowBOB
I may be a friendly ghost, but obviously not a very bright one…. I didn’t see the “next” link at bottom!
View all comments by The Ghost
Kenny has 29 and I have 23?!!
Shit… I’d better get writing!!!
View all comments by Werewolf
mochalover/mbkknowsp4p is missing in the author lists, he made some very good pieces
also it looks like i lost my registration… do i have to re-create an account?
View all comments by Louk
louk - I don’t think u can lose your registration but maybe u forgot your login? click on the login and u can’t ask it to email you a new password if you are already registered.
some people do not want to be so well known on such a popular blog.
all content is here:
http://www.2thebigmango.com/category/reader-submissions/
john obama is our catch all author for those that don’t want to be known or are too lazy to make a user name. Can only do so much.
http://www.2thebigmango.com/author/john-obama/
View all comments by sideshowBOB
I got mugged, bummed and had my windpipe slashed by a group of ladyboys under a Sukhumvit bridge.
Thats a joke, its even worse then that, im back in UK
View all comments by Young Penfolds Dead
ypd - so what are u going to be writing about now? something about your re-entry to the real world?
I need to know
View all comments by sideshowBOB
Now I know you are probably no more than a couple of hundred miles away from me you’ve lost that mystical aspect - get yourself back to Sin City immediately - here you are just another hooligan, there, you are a GOD
View all comments by doctorbond
Oooh ok, thanks for explanation
about the lost account, actually it’s more like i lost the “login” button… now that i made a comment everything is back to normal ^^’
View all comments by Louk
David Bowie is a triumph of natural intelligence over actual artistic genius. Unlike the artistic milestones released by the likes of Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and company nothing on Bowie’s records really cries out “GENIUS!”. Sure, he was a great songwriter, and wrote tonnes of songs incorporating catchy melodies into memorable arrangements but, still, the impression remains when listening to them that they are more the work of a man who has painstakingly learnt how to create great art (often through imitation) than someone who can just do so instinctively. They say someone like Bob Marley couldn’t understand what it was like not to be able to just write a song on the spot. I never get that feeling when listening to Bowie. Of course he was good at it (often great), but it wasn’t something “special” that really set him out from the rest. I also believe this intelligence-over-genius characteristic can be seen in the complete lack of any really pioneering work of art in his cannon. As opposed to his heroes like Dylan, the Velvet Underground, the Stones, Beatles and so on Bowie never really invented any kind of musical movement. Through his talent and prominence it might have seemed like he was the spear-head of the glam rock movement but, in actual fact, he was merely capitalising on what his peers had already started. Indeed, his whole career has been a tale of manipulating someone else’s great idea into his own success. Of course, he hardly struck gold straight away and his attempts at beginning life as a sixties hippy singer-songwriter were laughably trite. Indeed, one almost wonders whether his “chameleon” persona was actually a tool of necessity more than anything else. He knew he was never sincere enough to forge a career off his own back and therefore he has been forced to change direction as fashions dictate to avoid falling into obscurity. After milking glam for what it was worth he jumped ship at just the right time but, unfortunately, it meant he had to renew his search for what was going to be popular. Philly soul wasn’t (Young Americans) but arty albums with a smattering of hit singles were (Diamond Dogs and Station to Station) before he hit upon his best idea yet of getting one over on his rival Brian Ferry and riding the coat-tails of the multi-talented producer and composer Brian Eno. Two of the three resulting albums, thanks to Eno’s artistic sincerity, rank as among the best releases Bowie ever put his name to and also saved him from the punk-rock lynch-mob of 1976/7. Nothing lasts forever, though, and even someone as intelligent as Bowie could not survive the dreadful coming of the eighties (if you can name ONE artist that started in the sixties and continued to release good albums in the eighties I’d be very impressed). His pop sensibilities took a battering, his songwriting muse deserted him, and trying to go with the flow in the nineties with techno albums didn’t do him many favours either. It is no coincidence that 2002’s retro-flavoured return-to-form, Heathen, came out after his back catalogue had enjoyed a favourable critical reappraisal. What better way to draw the plaudits than release an album that sounds like the old ones that everybody loves so much? If you can say one thing about him, he is certainly canny.
Bowie’s intelligence is also illustrated, as already mentioned, through his canny knack of choosing uniquely talented “sidemen” to help with his music. Just superseding the fact that Otis Redding’s albums are not credited equally to Booker T and the MG’s when you pick up a copy of Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane or Low and “Heroes” you might be a little surprised to learn they are not credited to ‘David Bowie and Mick Ronson’ and ‘David Bowie and Brian Eno’ respectively. You might have thought joint songwriting credits, joint arranging credits and being responsible for most of the musical magic would deem joint album credits but, somehow, Bowie managed to fob them off. I guess that is the price you pay for supporting someone whose desire for fame was almost as great as his actual artistic sincerity. Of course, Bowie did like art for art’s sake (he is also a painter, writer and a terrible actor) and I’m not suggesting for one minute he was a complete chancer that just wanted the wedge. David Bowie WAS a great artist. Furthermore, he WAS a great songwriter in his own right. Let us not forget the classics he wrote for other people (Mott the Hoople and Iggy Pop prominently). He clearly enjoyed being involved in the artistic scene and clearly did take a strong interest in all forms of art (let us also not forget his obsession with Andy Warhol - he even portrayed him in some duff film I once saw). The fact remains, however, Bowie did not possess the same natural gifts of the likes of Bob Dylan and so, instead, used his intelligence to hoist himself up to that elevated position. By following the trends and using the right people at the right times Bowie was able to forge a career greater than his actual natural talent quite deserved. In short, the mask itself is greater than the man behind it
View all comments by Times Literary Critic
I have a list of white-skinned spunkbags back in UK that need ‘re-entering’
Am giving serious thought to setting up my own blog based on previous encounters and my immenient return. Gonna use my spare time to write that shit down
Can you say ‘YP Weekly?’
View all comments by Young Penfolds Dead
A blog - It’s hard to keep it up - ooooeerrrr missus
View all comments by doctorbond
Does he mean “Young Penfold’s Dead” or “Young Penfolds Dad”? I recoiled from a bottle of wine in a restaurant last night (yes - very hi-so) called “Penfold’s Reserve”. 570 baht for a bottle of YP’s blood-tainted urine? I don’t think so.
Thanks to TLC for his probing and timely dissertation (currently being translated into Urdu) on The Dame’s legacy to pop music. I saw him live (Bowie, not TLC) a couple of years back, and he was in spectacularly fine form. He didn’t do Laughing Gnome, though.
What was this thread about, again?
View all comments by Pants Elk
@ Pants - you didn’t see me live? I got a write up in ‘The Stage’ - they said I was bollocks of course, but what do they know? If they were any good at their job they would be working for an earnest organ like what I do.
View all comments by Times Literary Critic
YP — Isn’t there an equivalent of Tagged! in the U.K.? Maybe they call it Bagged! or something….
View all comments by Pattaya Ghost
Why is it that TLC and Daywalker are never seen together in the same room? Just a thought.
View all comments by Pants Elk
Sorry… but all this is way beyond me.
I don’t read TLC’s comments as it bores me. I’d rather shit in my pants and sit in it. I’ve also gone off BBK’s comments since he stopped talking about poker. How I miss those.
As for Penfold being a ‘god’?!?! Not sure about that. When I think of Penfold, I think of the little stumpy rat-boy thing that is Danger Mouse’s side-kick…. sounds like him.
View all comments by Day Walker
Daywalker said: “I’d rather shit in my pants and sit in it.”
… and he often does.
View all comments by Werewolf
… and since when and why did Daywalker start calling himself Day Walker? Hmmmm?
“View all comments by Day Walker”
View all comments by Pants Elk
WW… true. (23 times so far)
View all comments by Daywalker
I’m afraid my real identity must remain a secret for now…
yours sincerely
Anonzo
View all comments by Times Literary Critic
Pantselkolumbo
(turns from door, squinting through good eye)
There’s just one thing that’s bothering me, sir …
TLC
(with a patronising smirk)
And what would that be, detective?
Pantselkolumb
(waves hand dismissively)
It’s probably nothing. I’m sorry to bring it up.
TLC
No, really. Do go on. I have two minutes before my driver arrives to take me to the meeting of the Booker Prize committee.
Pantselkolumbo
Books? My wife’s a great reader, sir. She …
TLC
(cutting in)
One and a half minutes.
Pantselkolumbo
Oh. Where was I?
TLC
(archly)
Wasting our time, detective?
Pantselkolumbo
I remember, now. It’s just that the comment above, which has your picture on it … (points with cigar stub to comment above this one), well, sir, it’s signed “Anonzo.”
TLC
(blanching visibly)
It - it is?
(C/U PANTSELKOLUMBO’S GRIN. FX SIRENS. FADE IN THEME.)
View all comments by Pants Elk
Damn! or as we say in Spanish…. Maldito!
That cursed ‘UnderwearMoose’ has me on the ropes… I must cogitate for a while by shitting myself and sitting in it (#24)
Which, reminds me of a joke…
” I like to take a pencil with me when i visit the bathroom just in case I need to work something out”
View all comments by Times Literary Critic
I’m a bit stunned that one of the most popular bloggers on the site — Tricycle — isn’t listed in the Authors list!
View all comments by Werewolf
I see BBB’s archives are now live. Really want to start reading htrough them, but I’ve very quickly realized you guys are going to have to invent a way to better navigate them.
If you simply click by author, you get headlines and excertps for only 5 stories. If you want to start at the beginning, you have to click NEXT 52 times. (Or figure out to copy/edit/paste the URL to go to page 52…)
Likely, because of the “coup” nature of getting the archives, a little button on the home page leading to a customized Wordpress “Page” with an easy way to navigate, let’s say, by date might work. Or have that WP calenar widget on that page.
Reading BBB is a WP guru (I caould use a guru when he’s done, by the way…), maybe he already knows a way to work up a good nav for the archives. Obviously, it’s still early in the transition. I simply offer up this early suggestion in case no one realized it’s not easy or quick to get through that many articles.
View all comments by The Ghost
@Ghost: You’re absolutely right - navigation is a complete mess right now.
The articles themselves are even worse. Most, if not all, of the internal links will be broken, there’ll be images missing, and I don’t even want to know what the bar maps look like.
Plus whole pages will be out of date - reviews of bars that no longer exist, drinks prices 2 years out of date, etc etc.
It’s going to take a few days of manual editing to get them anything like useable.
But once that’s done, a less unwieldy method of navigation is very much on our list of things to do.
Today was just about getting the raw data in the blog. Give us a few days to get the actual integration done!
Meantime, there’s a pool contest to attend…
View all comments by Bangkok Bad Boy
“The articles themselves are even worse. Most, if not all, of the internal links will be broken, there’ll be images missing, and I don’t even want to know what the bar maps look like.
Plus whole pages will be out of date - reviews of bars that no longer exist, drinks prices 2 years out of date, etc etc.
It’s going to take a few days of manual editing to get them anything like useable.”
Damn! You told me all of this on the 5th of July, which was the reason for aiming at 08-08-08 for the unveiling. What have you been doing with yourself for the past month?! Obviously not devoting yourself to the restoration of your blog.
No doubt there’ll be some of the usual tripe, “But I have a job!”
Blah, blah, blah.
Get your priorities straight.
View all comments by Werewolf
I happen to know he spends most of his time up there in Badboy Towers slaying elves in World of Whorecraft, and pretending he’s a woman in Second Life (or whatever it’s called).
Aside to TLC: Go on then. Tell us the joke.
View all comments by Pants Elk