The Chap-Hop war wages on!

It seems that the rap scene in England is a more diverse platform than I had hitherto believed it to be! It seems that there's a war waging in the relatively new genre of 'Chap-Hop'. A chap, for those unfamiliar with the movement, is a very particular type of gentleman. If you'd like to learn more you can find all the information you'll need at The Chap, a local English publication of note and of no small influence.

As Chap-hop is a burgeoning musical tradition there are only, as far as I can tell, two artists vying for recognition as England's preeminent gentleman rhymer. The first is Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer (yeah, I've appropriated his name for rhetorical value) and in this short clip I hope you'll get a good sense of his style, although he does have a rather sizable body of completely original material as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t28COxEp2k

His competition is Professor Elemental. In this clip he's responding to Mr B's presence in the chap-hop scene in a rather eloquent but in no way convoluted manner. It was actually this video that first peeked my interest in the Chap Hop scene, and I'm only including it second as it references Mr B explicitly and I had hoped to avoid any confusion or ambiguity regarding the song's subject.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iRTB-FTMdk

So, now that you've familiarised yourself with the Chap philosophy, and with the works of both Professor Elemental and Mr B the Gentleman Rhymer, I shall leave it to you, the reader, to discern for yourself who is the most deserving of England's recognition and admiration.

Despite my best efforts

No matter how hard I try, or how long I go without trimming or shaving, I will never beat this cheeky little bastard!

Well played sir monkey, well played indeed!

My flippin' phone

The title of this post would be more apt if, in fact, my phone were a flip phone. It is not, but it is annoying me. It works well (most of the time) and has a lovely camera. Sometimes when I don't have my actual camera with me it's nice to be able to snap a picture on my phone and capture the moment. Sadly, and despite my best efforts, I'm unable to transfer the pictures from my phone to my computer. I have a connector cable and drivers but it won't recognise my phone. My phone has blue tooth but my laptop does not. I have 100mb of free internet use that includes e-mails sent from my phone but I don't have a phone that allows me to send e-mails.

I'll keep at it and we'll see if I can eventually sort something out!

Words to live by

Travel light - preconception and prejudice are unnecessary luggage.

Road trippin`to France!

Why not? I've been living in Reading for about 6 months, haven't been anywhere outside the home counties yet, and the cost split 4 ways for petrol and the round trip ferry ticket made it too good an offer to pass up! We're gonna hit up Lille the first night and then off to Paris for the 2nd and then back over to the UK for the 3rd. Not a trip I would fly for, but taking a car somehow works for me!

I've contacted friends in both cities that I made a few years ago when I first passed through France, and hopefully the 4 of us will be able to find a couch together but who knows? I'll take lots of pictures though, and post, perhaps, the best 3 or 4 of them!

Hallowe'en 2010 - National Stereotypes Party

This hallowe'en we partied with the Couchsurfing community in Reading. Danielle was the good intentioned Canadian lass who hosted the fete and imagined the concept. Said concept simply put was two fold...

1) You must have a costume to attend the party.

2) You must dress like a stereotype of your nation of origin.

As you can see we leapt at the creative opportunities these rules afforded us! Fiona donned her finest Leprechaun outfit while I sported the rugged attire of a hearty Lumberjack!

Fiona did get a bit carried away with all the jigging, but it was much to the amusement of the other party guests and especially it's host. Some of the other national stereotypes we bore witness to were...

Spanish bulls

English farmers and teapots

Hungarian porn actresses

German tourists and Bavarian milk maid

Romanian vampires

American cowboys, hicks, gangsters, Nascar girls and the statue of liberty (there were a lot of Americans at this one)

Lebanese suicide bombers

Brazilian surfers

There was also our hostess who donned the noble attire of the Inuit. This is a picture of the two of us together, the Canadian contingent, making merry with a little maple syrup! You know how antsy in your pantsy you can get after gulping down a few swigs of the sweet sweet sap of a Canadian sugar maple!

Truer words were never spoken!

`Every Time You Shave, A Moustache Dies` by Dead Cat Bounce.

I think it pretty much speaks for itself!

Now that you`ve heard their argument, go out and grow a moustache!

Seeing double

Inspired by a picture taken a few years ago but recently remembered, I thought I'd make an attempt of my own. I'm quite happy with the results!

Jamie likes to be bad abroad!

Jamie recently came to visit and he brought the devil along with him. Together we tread the cobbles 'neath bow bells seeking neither fame nor fortune, instead just having a good time. In London we hit up the portrait gallery where we each worked in pastel to reproduce some of the modern art in an impromptu artist lead exercise, checked out Camden Market and took pictures of some of the city's main attractions.

At first Jamie found the whole experience somewhat surreal, but before too long he got excited!

Then he just got carried away!He's home now, in Canada, and England can breath a sigh of relief. I, however, will miss the guy.