music – Page 23 – EXCUSES AND HALF TRUTHS

The Cut Season 2 Episode 11

Featured image by Joel Meyerowitz, Times Square, New York City, 1963. Via Flashbak.

We begin with a little housekeeping. Some of you will have noticed there was no drop yesterday. The inevitability of a skip day has been looming ever more since responsibilities other than The Cut (yes, we do have lives and engagements more pressing than the newsletter, distressing as that might sound) have jumped on our backs and starting nibbling at our earlobes.

So, thus and therefore, the executive decision has been made to shift The Cut’s drop point to Saturday morning. This gives our beleaguered staff a little more wiggle room to deliver on schedule and means you, our beloved Readership, can now read our compilation of curiosities in bed with a nice cup of tea. Everyone wins! Do join us in this brave new world of possibilities.

This week—Muppets! Creepy skunks! And yes, something about reading in bed.

Saturday is the time. Bed is the place. This is The Cut.

The Cut Season 2 Episode 10

+++BREAKING NEWS FROM THE ARTS DESK+++

As we hit the last lap on locking this week’s issue, news emerged regarding the graffitoe which appeared on the walls of Reading Gaol on Sunday evening. Following a week of fevered speculation, stencil-wrangler and prankster Banksy has confirmed they are to blame for the artwork. Many see the piece as a show of support from the influential street art collective for the ongoing campaign to turn the long-disused site into an arts hub. The references to Oscar Wilde’s stay are clear. We note with a smile that the work’s position, high up on a wall which is still government property, will dissuade the usual chancers, shysters and thieves which gather at the first sniff of easy profit from ‘buying’ it and denying access to a work of art which belongs to the people. As Reading locals and street art fans, we at The Cut are doubly delighted at this new addition to our already rich cultural heritage.

We now return you to our scheduled programming.

Now is the time. Here is the place. This is The Cut.

The Cut Season 2 Episode 9

How are we all feeling about the roadmap to the future? For a ‘data not dates’ release, there seem to be a lot of dates in there. It’s so hard. We’re all desperate to get some sense of normality back. Shunt the kids off to school, go to the shops, get a haircut, pop in somewhere for a cheeky pint. We have to take this in baby steps, we suppose. At least it’s light nearly till six now. That feels like progress of a sort.

Sigh.

A slightly truncated episode this week. The feeds have been cruel. Enjoy a load of control panels, an exploding head and Transformers rocking out.

Now is the time. Here is the place. Oh yes, this is The Cut.

The Cut Season 2 Episode 8

We may, perhaps, finally, be on the verge of a beginning of an end. At least to this phase in The Situation. Vulnerable and aged members of The Cut Crew (yeah, ok, that describes most of us) have been given their microchips and are now beaming all our secrets to a server in Wuhan Province. Whatever gets us back in the pub soonest, right?

In this ep, how political cartoons have always been science-sceptic, all the radio on the planet and a childhood favourite goes prog.

AYE AND GAMORRAH. Here is the place. Now is the time. This is The Cut.

The Cut Season 2 Episode 7

It’s all feeling a bit liminal. Although the news improves around vaccination levels and dropping R rates, life still has the frozen quality of a holding pattern. The streets remain quiet, the shops mostly closed. The pubs… better not to think about that lest we dissolve into a puddle of regretful tears. But hey, as the great seer Steve Miller put it— ‘time keeps on tickin’, tickin’, tickin’, into the future’. Bring on the summer.

Today we check out the fun you can have with explosives, consider how a Mars colony might deal with a pandemic and consider the vexed question of American cheese.

Hey, you there! Now is the time, yeah? This is the place, right? What else could this be but The Cut‽

The Cut Season Two Episode 6

Cold. Damp. Miserable. At least it isn’t January any more, right? Look, we know it’s tough for all you G’s, but see it the way we do—it honestly can’t get any worse. Vaccinations are bombing along. Sunrise is starting to happen at a point after we stick our collective noses over the duvet. And it’s Friday! Come on y’all, upside down them frowns and put a little sugar on it.

This week—sex! Cheese (which is sex in dairy form)! Little Richard (the man who was sex and drugs and rock and roll)!

OY! TIME YES NOW PLACE HERE YES! COME AND GET YER CUT!

The Cut Season 2 Episode 5

Hotchie motchie! Another wild ride of a week, eh? We feel as if we’ve been shoved headfirst into the bell of a euphonium which is being enthusiastically but tunelessly played by an elephant with really bad halitosis. If you too are getting the hardcore blasts of bad wind blues, then retreat to your safe, quiet space—here at The Cut we will firmly coddle your mollies.

This week we’ve got dragons, William Burroughs putting a coffee bar into a time warp and the story of how the Emperor got his Groove.

Now be the time. Here be the place. This be The Cut.

The Cut Season 2 Episode 4

The temptation to drop this episode yesterday, the 21st day of the 21st year of the 21st century, was very strong. But we believe in continuity, even in a week of momentous change. We like to hope as the sands shift under us, this weekly offering of Friday foolishness offers a foothold of stability on which to perch.

A packed programme ahead, featuring the greatest EVAR home cinema, boozy monks, and why you should never sneer at Mills and Boon.

YES TIME NOW. YES PLACE HERE.

This is The Cut.

The Cut Season 2 Episode 3

Dunno about you, Readership, but we are starting to get a bit bored with this whole living in interesting times bit. We’d rather read about history, not find ourselves living it. We assume you’re covered when it comes to the Trump thing and the Covid thing and the Brexit thing. That’s not why you’re here. You’re after some hot links to archive Soviet science fiction movies, or to read about the bars at the South Pole, or to check out the un-nerving return of Seinfeld, right? Well, you, our loves, have come to the right time and place.

This is The Cut, and we haven’t had our breakfast yet.

The Cut Season 2 Episode 2

(image courtesy of our pal and X&HTeam-mate Dominic Wade – more of his work available to view here.)

Right, who had a third UK lockdown, calls for a second Trump impeachment and shots fired in the Capitol Building on their Apocalypse Bingo card? Us neither. Nice to see 2021 is off to a slow and gentle start, eh? Allow us to ease you into the first proper weekend of the new year with our mix of effervescent nerdery. You’ll feel both smarter, cooler and more refreshed. That’s our promise to you or your moneys back.

Lo! This am place. Now am time. This am The Cut.