Things I Learned On My Summer Vacation

I recently spent a couple of weeks cruising around the good old US of A. I didn't want to bore you or myself with a full recap, but here a few morsels of observation from my travels, for what it's worth.

Las Vegas is a silly, silly place. No matter how many times you've seen it on TV, in films, on the internet, the reality is they've got a ruddy great pyramid shining a light into space so bright you can see it 40 miles away.

In Minneapolis I went to see Banner Pilot at the legendary Triple Rock Social Club. The first of 4 bands came on at 9:30; Minneapolis rockers do it late!

Wisconsin's billboards are divided evenly between pro-life sentiment and cheese curds.

In Chicago I checked into an unplanned bed and breakfast and my host recognised the tour my Primus t-shirt was from. Then I ate 3 different types of ribs. That's the kind of town Chicago is.

Toledo is a bit of a ghost town, with much of the industry gone; a "mini-Detroit" as my host put it. However its Old West End has some super-friendly locals and bars serving, and in some cases brewing, great beer.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland will easily entertain you for 4 hours.

In Buffalo there is a very distinct racial segregation, weird and sad to see in this day and age. I had good times at a free show at the harbour though, where music and booze united everyone. I've not been to Baltimore but Buffalo felt like The Wire.

I saw Foxy Shazam playing a small show in Asbury Park, New Jersey. If you get chance to see them, do it: you will thank me. Unfortunately Asbury Park itself was less Boss and more Jersey Shore; by which I mean a sub-par British seaside town full of idiots.

In New York I went to Williamsburg Music Hall in Brooklyn to see the great things being done at Willie Mae Rock Camp, teaching girls to rock. Then I hung out in Manhattan, where a passing Deadhead clocked my Zappa t-shirt and gig wristband and became convinced I was a member of Roger Waters' band (in town for his 'The Wall' shows).

Los Angeles is a huge, sprawling metropolis, comprised almost entirely of motorways, which themselves are comprised entirely of traffic jams.

A final thought: living in England I have heard countless people criticise American beer. I am here to confirm that those people are ignorant and wrong - and have probably never ventured further than a Bud Light; the equivalent of judging the UK on Carling or Australia on Fosters. In almost 3 weeks I had plenty of beers and never a bad one. There's a great microbrewery scene going down in the US right now.

There is no God only Bosses

Hello folks,

There’s been quite a hiatus from Chris and I recently (well the last 5 months) which is frankly appalling.  At least Chris has the excuse of living in Australia and therefore now addicted to manly activities such as sport, casual misogyny and eating meat.  I have no such excuse and so thought I’d best put things right with a little catch-up.

Last Tuesday I attended a book launch, organised by the British Humanist Association for the Young Atheists Handbook by Alom Shaha.

Overall, I found the night a little odd as the venue reminded me of a Methodist church as did some of the details of the décor and details replete with lectern and choir… I guess that when the association was formed all public meetings were quasi-religious and looked like this. Old habits die hard in the Secular world too…

The evening itself was lots of fun with a free bar (you don’t get that on a Sunday in St Johns) and lovely canapés.  Of the guest speakers I had heard of two: RobinInce of the infinite monkey cage fame who talked too fast, which was a theme for most of them if I’m honest and AC Grayling who slowed it all down. When I grow up I want to have a lion’s mane of hair just like Mr Grayling… it was magnificent. He also had the best line of the night suggesting that “Militant” Atheists makes about as much sense as “Militant” Stamp Collectors… Look at me! NOT Collecting stamps…Militantly.

The obvious star of the show was Alom, who was clearly giddy and running on the kind of adrenaline I normally only see in skittish grooms.  However his talk (speech? What the hell do you call it?) did hold together and was full of the warm, humble charm that makes the actual book such a pleasure to read. Towards the end, Alom became deeply passionate about the hope he has for Bangladeshi women to be able to free themselves from the some-times horrible lives they find within their religion.  I also suspect he might regret promising to make the entire audience dhal…especially as I’ll be at the front of the queue with my largest bowl!

The book is an antidote to Hitchens and Dawkins or if like me you don’t think these guys need an antidote a far warmer and more personal account of losing God.  Instead of a reference manual that the title suggests this is just Alom Shaha sharing some key memories and thoughts on how he ended up as an Atheist and what it means to him.  Alom has previously criticised Atheism in the UK as too white and too middle class as I| am probably both of those I am largely ignorant of what might be peculiar to Muslims or in particular Bangladeshis.  So I was hoping and expecting for his journey to be quite different to mine and for me to learn more about his (ex)faith through how he lost it.

While this was certainly the case – I didn’t realise that the Koran, being written in Arabic was indecipherable to the vast majority of those who hope to use it – I was struck by how similar some of the experiences were, especially the moments of clarity that he seemed have with his own mind… the fact that it seemed perfectly natural that there was no God.  No epiphany, No big Bang, just No! Its almost as if we're all the same species with the same wants needs and desires irrespective of what God our parents prayed to.

Alom is a Science teacher and had dreams of being a scientist proper so it was a surprise that Science did not inform his decision.  That decision was made long before he discovered the joy of understanding how the world actually is though investigation. A discovery that was hindered, not helped by the science teaching at school.  Like many of us it seems that his Science teachers were crap or cared little for their subject and so unable to pass on the “magic” of it all*.  Sadly most of us are saddled with an (at best) average education but in my case family made up the difference in the arts…It is a shame that science is seen as so specialist that its off the menu at family dinner tables.  I hope people like Alom can bring their readability and smile to popularising this subject.

The Chapter about being labelled a “Coconut” was very timely as with-out it I wouldn’t have realised how unpleasant being called “white on the inside” might be or the significance of the idiot Rio Ferdinand’s comments about his former team mate.

I think my favourite image in the book is when Alom shares his first experience of eating bacon.  We all know how Heaven Hates Ham and this first glorious taste of prohibited porcine pleasure brings to the first page the fun and homely sense that courses throughout the book.  The Bacon Incident highlights how trivial religion is (do you really think he cares what’s in your sandwich?) but because the simple act of having left over breakfast was such a bold step it also demonstrates how powerful and insidious religion still is in the 21^st Century. This act got me thinking so if you know any Jewish or Muslim friends who are wavering or perhaps haven’t been brave enough yet …send them round to mine for a sausage sarnie and a chat.

So, having finished the book and feeling confident that there is no super-natural deity I went to see Springsteen…On Woodie Guthrie’s 100^th Birthday



* Please take note of a correcting tweet I received from Alom. Sadly one of his teachers Mr Clarke died the year he finished School.

Alom Shaha ‏@alomshaha

@MrRegars thanks for writing about book and launch. Have to point out that some of my science teachers were truly brilliant & inspirational

Duality

Let's cut to the chase: Great Men are going to be playing 2 shows in London this month and you and all your friends should come for the following reasons:

1. These will be our last shows for quite some time.
2. We're going to play a completely different set list at each show, covering our entire back catalogue between them.
3. You can submit requests for which songs you'd like to hear at each show.
4. At the gigs we'll be selling the last of our Springsteen VS Stallone t-shirts at the bargain basement, holiday season friendly price of £5 each!

Here's the lowdown:

On Thursday November 24th we've been invited by the excellent Motherhood to play at their EP launch at the George Orwell on Essex Road (near Islington and Dalston).

On Wednesday November 30th we're playing at Camden Rock in, err, Camden.

On Thursday December 1st we burrow into our warrens and commence hibernation.

Submit setlist requests on the Facebook events linked above, or on Twitter @Great_Men.

See you soon: bring friends, buy a t-shirt!

Take That Took This

You may recall that earlier this year we released our Great Men: Springsteen VS Stallone t-shirt (stock left in all sizes!):


Take That may have returned to their original lineup, but unfortunately Robbie Walliams hasn't also brought some original merchandising ideas along with him; imagine R-Man's surprise whilst browsing in Tesco today when he spotted the new garment from Gary Barlow's boys:

Rumours that Take That's 2011 tour will be entirely instrumental have yet to be denied.

Springsteen vs Stallone: The T-Shirt

Remember that time when we talked about the American dream as exemplified and mirrored in the careers of Bruce Springsteen and Sylvester Stallone? Well we realised that the next logical step for any successful essay is to merchandise it. Also you may recall that we're a band, and bands have t-shirts. Also we're not much to look at. All these facts combined into one obvious course of events: press-gang people we know who can do Photoshop and that sort of thing into designing us a sweet Great Men: Springsteen vs Stallone t-shirt.

Then, on a roll with the exploitation of our friends, we remembered that one of them was handy with a camera and that another one, instead of being a beardy ogre like us, was in fact a pretty girl, so we decided to take some photos of said t-shirts in action. This has the double bonus that maybe a promoter will see one of these photos and think we're a band with a pretty girl that sings, hence book us on the kind of sweet gig from which instrumental beardy ogres are usually precluded, not finding out the truth until it's too late...

As you can imagine we get a lot of fan mail here at GMHQ, so I thought I'd share some completely at random...

Well Little Jeffy, thanks for your continued support over the years, and thanks for asking about the t-shirts. You can buy them now for only £8 over at greatmen.bigcartel.com and I'll tell you what, because it is very nearly the season to be jolly, if you order before the end of 2010 we'll do you a free personalized CD of Great Men demos and stuff to enjoy when the radio isn't playing The Pogues or Phil Spector. If any of our extensive international readership are interested in a t-shirt, do drop us a line and I'm sure we can figure something out - we've already sent one to New Zealand (hi Enthusiastic Tom!).

Finally on a sad but celebratory note, RIP Leslie Nielsen and Irvin Kirshner. True facts: I did my English A-Level coursework based on the linguistic humour exemplified by Nielsen in Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker projects such as Airplane and Police Squad. And I wrote said coursework whilst nestling in the intestines of a Tauntaun.

One of those facts was not true.

American Dream: Springsteen VS Stallone

Great Men are great fans of America. I took a less than cannonball run speed coast to coast road trip a few years ago and C-Bomb spent some of his formative years in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Presumably he was baptised and learned to swim in the warm brown waters of the Mississippi, the Old Miss, the Old Man…

The American Dream is a simple one – that anyone no matter their background can through their own ingenuity, hard work and strength of will – become somebody. This creates a dichotomy of equality and aspiration, all men might be born equal but that don’t necessarily mean that they die equal. This contradiction seems to me to inform the lurches and crises of confidence that have typified post civil rights America. 2 men also seem to illustrate the choices and dilemmas that have faced the recent generations of Americans who were the first not guaranteed to enjoy a better standard of living than their parents. 2 men whose work have scratched at the neuroses of an entire nation and illustrate that nation and its people at their best and worst. A nation that schizophrenically holds both Charlton Heston and Woody Guthrie as heroes.