To make you smile

David RamJam Rodigan

I love, this man. Without sounding like an over-excited Duracel bunny he is the epitome of a living legend. I have never professed to know everything (or anything to be honest) about music 'proper' but my GAWD when Rodigan is playing he brings the house DOWN and is therefore held in my highest esteem.

What i love most about him, aside from the fact that he is 59, aside from the fact that he is a short balding white man, aside from the fact that he has a distinct and alien Jamaican tWang when he DJs is the educational nature of it all. I love that he prefaces every track with an introduction 'a long time ago in Kingston Jamaica...". Not only that but he knows his crowd. The man educates.

Urban Nerds at The Macbeth was no different. The man took us from dub to reggae to grime and dropped some FrESH tunes making sure that we knew we heard them from him first. He even, and again, this is why i love him, ended the set with the very (old) tracks that brought dub and reggae into the mainstream.

Like i said. I've never claimed to know anything about music but my god, in the two (soon to be three) times ive had the pleasure of seeing Rodigan live i have been more than informed, feet first.

Life drawing

I've looked everywhere for a funny comedy sketch about life drawing classes but cant find any. Drawing a man for the first time had me using the easel to hide his manhood and my red face until the tutor pointed out that i was barely looking at the model. Even worse was that the first male model was ginger (everywhere) with a twitchy eye -either that or he was winking at me..

These are from a class i've been going to at The Princes drawing School over the last few weeks.

I hope you like them!

MIA at Brixton Academy

Im confused. I saw MIA at Brixton Academy last night and was left confused.

On the one hand she was immense -in your face, opinionated and creative in her arm-flailing delivery. The gig was swamped by blinding lights and huge projections on stage, and a good thing too because the sound system chewed up her words so much that we couldn't hear them. So it was a good show -gyration included.

On the other hand it felt more like a club night where i was all too aware of what time it was, the giant standing in front of me and my handbag on the floor. I was more interested in the pictures on screen than the music which, having given-up trying to decipher her words through the mic, came down to the bassy chug chug and jing-a-ling of MIAs trademark sound.

Any gig you leave thinking you could have enjoyed it just as much on YouTube is not a good gig. Disappointed that my £27.50 bought me just under an hour of music i wont be shelling out to see MIA again. In saying this i respect her performance, her attitude and i rate her as a producer. That three-note chime from a computer dropped into tracks throws up enough conversation for a PhD. Her music is like one of those books for children that replaces the words with pictures -all the things that her gun-shots and Bangra samples make you think of are for a reason.

So for this reason i will still buy her music and if i could i would buy the projections too -raving in my Pjs being preferable to last night's show. Doesn't that say it all?

Influencers

Someone needs to make a London version of this. Production is slick in a way that belongs to anything with New York as a backdrop.

What are you made of when you're by yourself? 12.08

INFLUENCERS is a short documentary that explores what it means to be an influencer and how trends and creativity become contagious today in music, fashion and entertainment. The film attempts to understand the essence of influence, what makes a person influential without taking a statistical or metric approach. Written and Directed by Paul Rojanathara and Davis Johnson, the film is a Polaroid snapshot of New York influential creatives (advertising, design, fashion and entertainment) who are shaping today's pop culture. "Influencers" belongs to the new generation of short films, webdocs, which combine the documentary style and the online experience.

Polarbear

I was first introduced* to Polarbear after a Poeticat gig a good few months ago now. Completely unaware of his work i did what any curious neek would do and Googled/YouTubed/MySpaced him when i got home. This lyricist wraps syllables around beats that have me nodding my head like i'm ready to dance. Then smiling at the wit and charm of his words. And thats just Jessica;

I went to see him at The Roundhouse for his most recent work 'Return'. Without the rhythm of some of his earlier work that i was used to it took some time to get my head around what i was watching/listening to. In saying that, after unpacking the story i was left with that kind of warm feeling of getting it -'it' being that need you feel to leave home and 'find' yourself and realising on your return that nothing and everything has changed.

Check him out and if you can get yourself to see Return on tour then do. Its amazing how clearly you can see things if your ears are open.

*My little star makes reference to my 'meeting' Polarbear. I said hello, so i dont actually know him but he seemed like a very nice man.

Distant Relatives returns

I went to see Nas and Damian Marley on the first round of this tour back in July. Im struggling to find the words to describe the quality and calibre of the show. In my book, not minding so much about the person elbowing you, the sweat dripping down your face and forgetting completely that you have to travel all the way home and haul your arse into work the next day clarifies just how good it was. And i do not like being elbowed, sweaty or out on a week night.

I bring this up now, nearly four months later because they're doing it all over again and this time they're hitting Wembley. Go, there are no words, you need to see this.