Category Archives: New Utopia

Review: David Byrnes American Utopia, directed by Spike Lee

Two years ago, on a warm Broadbeach night strolling back to our hotel, my teenage daughter gathered up what we were thinking in eight words: That was the best night of my life.

We had travelled south from Brisbane to see show number 141 of a 143-date world tour of David Byrnes American Utopia.

It takes a lot to prise us loose from our suburban setting, but memories of Talking Heads first Australian tour came back into focus and gave me a nudge.

The Festival Hall show in the winter of 1979 had been sharp and groovy. A gaggle of us walked the two blocks back to their hotel with the band. I followed Byrne into the lift, where we suffered in pained silence until his floor. I was too shy to speak.

Back in the bar with the rest of the band, bottles of red wine and my silly, punky buddies I was probably loquacious as hell.

The Byrne on stage in Broadbeach was 40 years older but no less energetic or committed. The energy was different smoother and more focused than the frenetic twitch of the 70s but the commitment was clear.

This show was a transformation. A new way of looking at live music.

A bare stage. An oblong light illuminates Byrne on a basic wooden chair, his hands flat on a wooden table framing a human brain.

The music delicately builds as he lifts the brain and sings:

Here is a region of abundant detail, here is a region that is seldom used.

Thin cables raise mounds of chains gathered on the floor. A set has been created: three walls of shimmering metal curtain.

Spike Lee filmed five shows at the Hudson Theatre in New York in order to create David Byrnes American Utopia. The result is stunning.

The breadth of the show the shape and swing of it are captured in shots from the audiences perspective. Precise overhead shots of the stage provide neat patterns of light and movement. But, edited by Adam Gough, it is the feeling of being onstage with the performers, the close-ups and crane shots, which bring this remarkable story home.

Byrne and his band come and go through the walls, barefoot, in matching grey suits and shirts. After the opening of Here, the band are slowly revealed through slices of the Byrne/Talking Heads catalogue. Beautiful versions of Dont Worry About the Government, This Must Be the Place (Nave Melody) and then I Zimbra, when the whole band finally appears onstage.

There are five drummer/percussionists, guitar, bass and keyboards, two wonderful singers and Byrne. All are untethered as he describes it later wireless mics and marching band rigs allow them to be anywhere, redefining the idea of what a band onstage looks like.

There are some songs, like The Bullet or One Fine Day, which have a slow, almost static quality, but mostly the movement is constant. Annie-B Parsons choroeography is delightfully appropriate to Byrnes style, and as intrinsic to the film as the music.

Somewhere around the middle of the film, he is thrown into the spotlight a floppy man, a rag doll for Once In A Lifetime. People on stage sway and swoop, sometimes chaotic, sometimes ordered and symmetrical.

The constant movement is mesmerising, often with Byrne at the centre and the players snaking and skipping around him.

As in Johnathon Demmes 1984 concert film Stop Making Sense, Byrne has much to say.

He carefully illustrates the importance of voting, asking people to register at the table in the foyer. He tells the story of Kurt Schwitters Ursonate, and of Hugo Balls poem Gadji beri bimba which became I Zimbra. He remembers Janelle Mone singing Hell You Talmbout at the Womens March on Washington in 2017 before performing his own powerful version.

Lee makes this moment bigger and stronger by cutting in pictures of the names being spoken: relatives holding up the faces of their murdered sons and daughters on an empty stage.

But what resonates most with me, maybe because it feels so personal, is the thread which begins with the brain in Here. We start life with a myriad connections between the hemispheres, discarded as we grow and we make choices on our way.

As the show comes to a close, Byrne proposes these connections, seemingly lost, can be reconstructed in our relationships with others; that music and performing are his way of rebuilding those potent connections with which we are born.

American Utopia had a profound effect on audiences around the world. The movie honours that love. Lee has created a live performance film that can sit up there happily with the best of the genre.

And then the chains rise and disappear, leaving black walls and the band onstage singing the beautiful a capella introduction to Road to Nowhere. Then the instruments kick in and they slide off the stage and around the theatre, making the connection between performer and audience as real as it can be.

The song finishes, Byrne hooting and high-fiving the audience, and looking genuinely happy as he exits the stage door on his bicycle, heading off into the chilly New York night.

My kid was right. That was the best night of my life.

American Utopia is in Australian cinemas from today.

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Review: David Byrnes American Utopia is a film honouring the love of the live performance - The Conversation AU

To succeed on an open-access network, providers must treat customers well, assess the competition, and take a modern approach to marketing.

I did a double take. On my computer screen was the second negative Google review in a matter of days. We hardly ever see negative reviews at UTOPIA Fiber! I called the marketing team into my office. Whats going on, guys? I asked.

We had just finalized a deal to let a new ISP onto the UTOPIA Fiber network. The agreement was a coup for both UTOPIA and the ISP. Virtually overnight, the ISP got to expand its footprint to 15 cities in the greater Salt Lake City region, UTOPIA got bragging rights for landing a major provider on its open-access fiber network and customers received an additional residential choice for gigabit service from a big-name brand.

But it looked as though the honeymoon was ending before it even began. That struck me as strange because UTOPIA Fiber is the highest-ranked internet company for customer satisfaction in Utah and among the highest in the United States. UTOPIAs net promoter score (which measures whether a providers customer base would recommend it to friends) is a whopping +61. Most other internet companies rank around -15.

So why were there now two negative reviews? I dialed our contact at the ISPs corporate headquarters. Hey, its Kim. We received two negative reviews on Google. Can you please look into it? I went on to say that we hold our ISPs to the highest standards and want to make sure our customers are taken care of. I explained that UTOPIA has worked extremely hard to create the industrys best customer experience, a designation the network didnt want to lose. I offered to help.

Kimberly McKinley, chief marketing officer of UTOPIA Fiber, inside one of UTOPIAs nearly 200 fiber huts strategically placed throughout the Greater Salt Lake City area

I was surprised that the ISP responded to my request with data. Data from the call center experience, data from hold times, data from an incomplete install. Data, data and more data.

What the ISP didnt come back with was a solution. Though it has been in business for more than a decade with a robust customer base, it was unable to solve problems with basic business issues when it came to installations and customer care. It hadnt listened to the customer concerns and just closely followed the call-center script. It became clear that this ISP could not rise to UTOPIAs level of customer experience because the ISP wasnt really ready to operate on an open-access network.

This was instructive. You see, competing for market share on an open-access network is like nothing a traditional ISP has ever experienced. Suddenly, the playing field is larger and wider and has more competitors. The ISP in my example offers the same products as a dozen others competing on the UTOPIA network, so the ability of an ISP to deliver a seamless customer experience can make or break its success.

And its not just the competitors that an ISP needs to think about. Its also intertwined with the infrastructure owner. That means the network owners reputation and the ISPs reputation are married. When things go wrong, customers dont care about a blame game they just want their problems resolved, and they dont care who handles them.

Offering services on an open-access network differs from typical models. Weve seen a lot at UTOPIA Fiber and have identified best practices for ISPs looking to compete. Here are five key factors to consider before joining an open-access network:

Customer service also has to adapt to an open-access network environment, particularly when it comes to troubleshooting. Communicate quickly and transparently about outages and maintenance issues. Take the lead on messaging. If your company has an outage, get that message out to your customers. If youll be doing maintenance on your system, set customer expectations early and often. At UTOPIA, if we have a fiber cut or are performing maintenance, we overcommunicate to our customers through a variety of channels to let them know were doing our best to keep their downtime low.

Another customer service area to focus on, particularly on an open-access network, is handling customer complaints. If we all do our jobs right, there will be few complaints. However, the world is imperfect, so handling complaints and other customer issues is a top priority. In UTOPIAs case, a customer can switch to 13 other providers in one click, so customer service has to be effective and able to solve problems.

One of the most frequent reasons UTOPIA Fiber customers switch providers is because of problems with their routers. Our most successful providers know how to help customers troubleshoot issues with routers. Weve seen many customers switch ISPs because a provider tells the customer that the speed issue is UTOPIAs, when its not, or to contact the routers manufacturer. Customers see right through these tactics.

However, simply putting together a great package for customers is not enough; you have to do your homework. Understand the market; have a clear understanding of the revenue margins you realistically can expect from both the commercial and residential customer bases. Most important, understand what youre offering. Are you seeking to provide business-class service, residential service or both? My best advice is to offer only services in which you have experience, so you can always deliver top-notch service. This is a winning formula for the ISPs on our network.

Some may be surprised to hear that when it comes to product offerings, I dont recommend giving away the farm. The race to the bottom in a price war has no winners. But that does not mean I advocate overcharging customers. Rather, be sure to give yourself enough of a margin to invest in your operations, your marketing and your people. Do your homework, have a clear understanding of what the market will bear, and then put your best offerings out there.

When you join an open-access network, be prepared to get in front of consumers and businesses in creative ways. What works best are digital marketing campaigns, social media marketing, referral campaigns, PR, and grassroots marketing. What doesnt work? Relying solely on telemarketing or direct mail campaigns. Those are outdated tactics, yet I see many in the fiber broadband industry still relying heavily on them. There also may be co-op marketing opportunities with a network operator. At UTOPIA Fiber, we do the heavy lift; we take the lead on marketing the network so that all our ISPs have to do from a marketing perspective is focus on differentiating their offerings and providing the best customer experience for network subscribers.

That said, be realistic in your approach and market-share expectations. One provider asked me how to market because it wasnt seeing any return on investment from its direct mail campaign. Naively, the provider expected a 10 to 15 percent uptick in sign-ups with one direct mail campaign. Marketing is a marathon, not a sprint.

Ultimately, to succeed in open access, treat customers well, show them you value their business, do your homework and take a modern approach to marketing. This will set you up for success.

So, hows that ISP on our network with the negative Google reviews doing now? Im happy to report that it followed our advice and made the necessary adjustments. Its been a process, but the ISP has a much stronger understanding now of how to compete on the UTOPIA network. I was excited to learn that one of the ISPs executives actually called an unhappy customer to learn how the company could do better. This type of action goes a long way in the hearts and minds of customers. Im sure our mutual customer now feels heard.

The telecom industry is notorious for providing terrible customer service. After a decade as a marketing director in the hospitality business, I came to the fiber broadband industry with the goal of reinventing the customer experience. For UTOPIA Fiber to succeed, I knew wed have to operate differently. From the get-go, we emulated the type of customer care that high-end resorts practice each day. We began anticipating our customers needs, listening to feedback (really listening, not just giving lip service) and redefining what being a UTOPIA customer means.

And it worked. Really well.

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Want to Compete on an Open-Access Network? Better Read This First! - Broadband Communities

Covid-19 has crippled television production in 2020. And yet, an astonishing number of new series limited and otherwise have premiered so far this year. Maybe youve already seen the most talked-about shows: The Last Dance, Normal People, The Queens Gambit, Tiger King, The Vow. That leaves only about 500 more. No person with decent sleep hygiene can or should keep up with them all.

But Thanksgiving, and the long weekend it introduces, invites bingeing of all kinds. Here are a dozen options, across form, genre and age rating, that you may have slept on. And since these are all debuts (meaning they have aired only one season or are limited series), you can watch them in their entirety, or at least until that tryptophan really kicks in.

American girls who came of age in the 80s and 90s regarded Ann M. Martins novels of tween entrepreneurship as sacred texts. Happily, the series creator Rachel Shukert has updated these stories to the screen without losing any of Martins sympathy, pluck and can-do attitude. Its heartwarming but not heavy, our critic James Poniewozik wrote. The casting is impeccable, for the preteens and parents both particularly Alicia Silverstone as a frazzled mom. Which probably explains the shows immense intergenerational appeal. Gen X and millennial parents can reunite with the literary heroines of their youth. Their Gen Z kids can ask what a landline is.

Watch it on Netflix

If you want to spend the holiday considering how the wrongs of the past echo into the present, give this Showtime limited series a go. Based on the National Book Award-winning novel by James McBride and created by Ethan Hawke and Mark Richard, the seven episodes provide an antic, imaginative biography of the 19th-century abolitionist John Brown (Hawke). Its like getting to be King Lear, but even better, Hawke told the Times. Onion (Joshua Caleb Johnson), a Black boy informally adopted by Brown, narrates the hourlong episodes. Few shows since Deadwood have offered a vernacular so lush or a vision of an earlier America so morally complex.

Watch it on Showtime

This Netflix documentary series, which turns its anti-aging-creamed eye on Paltrows wellness and lifestyle company, seems purpose-built for hate watching. Yes, its version of the best life ethos focuses on healthy, wealthy lives that float free of systemic oppression. And it often trades in woo-woo. (Although is woo-woo the worst thing?) But the series brisk, unexpectedly engaging and beautifully shot throughout includes one perfect episode: The Pleasure Is Ours. An exploration of female anatomy and sexuality, it features the peerless sex educator Betty Dodson, who died in October, and demonstrates the female orgasm without winking or embarrassment.

Watch it on Netflix

A prestige dramedy with a filthy mouth and a staggering textiles budget, this 10-episode show from Tony McNamara (a co-writer of The Favourite) embeds itself in the Russian court of Peter III (Nicholas Hoult). The enchanting Elle Fanning plays Catherine, Peters bride, who learns that while the emperor has very nice clothes, he has little brain and an entirely depraved moral center. Subtitled an occasionally true story, the shows liberated approach to historical fact gives the series a saberlike satirical edge. A comedy of royal corruption and debauchery, it is also a canny tale of a young womans political awakening.

A workplace sitcom that trades on the real-world slog that makes online gaming possible, this Apple TV+ series debuted in February. Created by Rob McElhenney, Megan Ganz and David Hornsby of Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the show sets its nine go-down-easy episodes within a studio responsible for a wildly successful multiplayer online game. If the characters begin as flimsy stereotypes, later episodes fill them out a little. And in May, the show somehow managed its best episode yet, a surprisingly moving 25 minutes, shot remotely during quarantine a technical feat made manifest in a delirious Rube Goldberg finale.

Watch it on Apple TV+

Come for the dancing. Stay for the feminist workplace critique. This Starz drama, from the first-time showrunner Katori Hall, follows the employees of a struggling shake joint in the Mississippi Delta. Here these women, most of them Black, get to be subjects, not objects, Poniewozik wrote. And they demand notice. Plotlines tangle, like a string bikini left in the dryer, and resolve only rarely. But the dancing is dynamic, no character is minor and a drama that treats exotic dance as just another grind deserves the rain of some very large bills. Playing the principal dancers, Brandee Evans, Elarica Johnson and Shannon Thornton give stand-up, standout and occasionally upside down gripping the pole by thighs alone performances.

Watch it on Starz

Philip Roths 2004 novel imagines an alternate history in which Charles Lindbergh, an America First xenophobe, wins a presidential election, sowing racial and ethnic division. Which makes David Simon and Ed Burnss wintry, richly textured adaptation only slightly more comfortable viewing now than when the limited series debuted on HBO in March. If your family fights about politics, scroll past. Otherwise enjoy the layered performances from Zoe Kazan, Morgan Spector and Winona Ryder and the uneasy reminder that totalitarianism can happen here. Its a story, Poniewozik wrote, in which America comes to realize that democracy is merely a choice, not an inevitability.

Watch it on HBO

This Portland noir stars Cobie Smulders as Dex, a locked-and-loaded private investigator with big-time personal trauma. A case-of-the-week procedural, it might have benefited from the prestige treatment: fewer episodes, bigger budgets. But Smulderss persuasive, tight-lipped performance and the pleasure of seeing tough-guy conventions tailored to a tough-girl form made it sing, however morosely. This show actually debuted in September 2019, but its first season ended in March. ABC renewed it for a second, then walked back that renewal this September, blaming coronavirus-related delays. The season finale cracked one foundational mystery, then introduced one more. Maybe another network can pick up the series and put Dex back on the case.

Watch it on Hulu

In this 10-episode series from the Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence, Jason Sudeikis plays the title character, an American college football coach improbably hired to manage an English Premier League soccer team. Its a familiar fish-out-of-gridiron situation, redeemed by Sudeikiss inherent likability and some snappy writing. (Also watch for Hannah Waddinghams French-manicured, iron-fisted team owner.) Ted Lasso makes pleasant family viewing, assuming your family doesnt mind colorful cross-cultural obscenity. Citing relentless positivity and commitment to making its audience comfortable, our critic Mike Hale called Ted Lasso the dad pants of sitcoms.

Watch it on Apple TV+

Think of this show, about twin sisters who collar wanted criminals and bail jumpers, as kettle corn television: sweet, salty. Set in Atlanta, where the girls (Maddie Phillips and Anjelica Bette Fellini) attend a conservative Christian high school, the show does smart, sometimes subtle work as our heroines make their own moral choices. And the cast attacks the scripts with the enthusiasm of a newly adopted shelter puppy. Its quirky and naughty and funny, the show so many teen shows think they are but arent quite, satirical and earnest often in the same scene, our critic Margaret Lyons wrote. So dont flee this series, created by Kathleen Jordan, even though Netflix canceled it not long after its August premiere.

Watch it on Netflix

This hallucinatory limited series, which borrows from folk horror (think Midsommar, but chillier, or The Wicker Man, though less flammable), entrenches an elegant nightmare in a bold structure. Created by Felix Barrett and Dennis Kelly (Utopia), its first three episodes star Jude Law as a man ensnared on a peculiar island. The next three star Naomie Harris as a woman who goes in search of him. When the series aired in late summer, a durational performance by the immersive art stars Punchdrunk linked the two halves. Youll just have to perform your own response to a claustrophobic chiller about the inability to travel.

Watch it on HBO

Has 2020 sometimes felt like a simulation gone awry? That sensation will prepare you for this bleak, ingenious comedy from Greg Daniels (The Office, Parks and Recreation). In the near future, technology allows the recently deceased to upload consciousness into a cloud-based afterlife. The show stars Robbie Amell (all chin and masculine complacency) as a bro coder who is suddenly introduced to a plush digital heaven. (It looks a lot like Mohonk Mountain House in upstate New York.) The series skews cynical. Nathan is often punchable. But theres some nifty Imagineering and charming support from Andy Allo as Nathans living handler. And as Poniewozik wrote, coming to screens around the height of the pandemic, a comedy about death and bridging the distance between the living and the digitized had an unintended level of poignancy.

Watch it on Amazon

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Catch Up on These 12 Great 2020 Series This Thanksgiving Weekend - The New York Times

That film was mesmerising, a road map to the digital future. Surely he could not do anything as good this time, 36 years later and without the Heads? Im here to say yes, he can. American Utopia is so good, I wanted to turn around and watch it all over again. It made my heart soar and my feet stomp. Ive always thought Byrne a bit of a show pony enormously talented, but a little too full of himself. I was wrong: he is the complete show pony, but what a show. And with age, he has acquired a certain humility and generosity, sharing the limelight here with 11 talented musicians from around the world Brazil, France, Canada, Chicago, New Jersey.

David Byrne (centre), and cast: the whole show is meticulously choreographed.Credit:Matthew Murphy

He reverses the idea of the original film. This time, there are no fixed trappings of a band no amps, no drum kit, no mic stands, no wires. Everyone carries their instrument, even the keyboardist, and everyone dances. There are four or five drummers, not just one, splitting the kit so the players can move, like an American marching band.

Its the right film for the times, a blast of joy and high spirits. As Molly would say, do yourself a favour.

The whole show is choreographed within an inch, each musician taking his or her place in a crafty design that makes full use of the enclosed cube of stage. The lighting is intricate and timed to the millisecond. Its a clockwork performance, without tape loops or stage tricks. What we hear is played live, as Byrne demonstrates, building a song voice by voice, to show how good the band is. Bassist Bobby Wooten and guitarist Angie Swan had me transfixed.

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Byrne is sometimes at the centre of it all, his arms outstretched like a preacher. At other times, hes at the back, letting the others strut. His songs are heavy on traditional American forms notably call and response. His structures may be unconventional, but he synthesises a lot of traditions, not just American ones: lyrical pop, Brazilian funk and groove, the Broadway songbook and a dollop of Motown. Its a heady mix, delivered with humour and verve.

Spike Lees direction is unobtrusive. Byrnes show was already highly developed for the proscenium stage. Lee adds aerial views, Busby Berkeley-style, to give it an extra dimension, but otherwise, he lets the performers carry the weight. We come to see each of them as an individual, which is remarkable when there are 12 people on stage, most of the time. Its the right film for the times, a blast of joy and high spirits. As Molly would say, do yourself a favour.

David Byrne's American Utopia releases in Australian cinemas nationally on 26 November.

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American Utopia is so good I wanted to turn around and watch it all over again - Sydney Morning Herald

November 24, 2020 As internet service providers are moving to enable numerous Wi-Fi services for their customers, security threats are looming larger than ever.

According to the Parks Association, the typical American family currently has an average of 12 connected devices per home, with the amount of Internet of Things devices utilized in each household rising every year; however, the majority of these devices lack the proper security or have no security at all.

In the face of manifold cybersecurity threats, Tier 2 internet service operators, or internet service providers which engage in peering with other networks, are working tirelessly to combat security threats alongside efforts to expand broadband access.

On Monday, representatives from Tier 2 operators gathered to explain their companies approaches to securing Wi-Fi networks, during a Broadband Communities webinar.

Wi-Fi has evolved, said Matt Krueger, vice president of product management at Shentel, Six or seven years ago our job was to provide a single Wi-Fi connection. Now, we are on the security front. According to Kreuger, Tier 2 operators role in network security has drastically evolved over the past five years.

We pushed security responsibilities to the device originally, said Krueger. Yet, in 2016, the service provider launched Eero, a company specializing in network monitoring tools, which moved the tracing of cybersecurity threats to the network.

According to Kreuger, Eeros system allows Shentel to see where threats exist and where they initiate. If there is a fishing attempt or a malware attempt, we are able to see what is being threatened on a device-level, he said.

UTOPIA Fiber CEO Roger Timmerman detailed UTOPIAs unique wholesale and open access model causes it to utilize a different approach to securing its networks.

However, that does not keep us from getting involved, said Timmerman. We provide recommendations, but we do not provide ISPs with network security monitoring tools.

Timmerman recommended that users only connect trusted devices to their Wi-Fi networks, and that they not attempt to discount crucial equipment, such as routers.

Users cannot rely on old or cheap routers, said Timmerman, adding that the life cycle of routers is typically three years, and that outdated equipment is likely to get hacked.

David Smith, vice president of technical operations at Lumos, detailed the companys approach to securing its networks, saying that getting network security tools in the hands of customers is a high priority.

We want to give customers the tools they need to control their homes, said Smith.

Lumos partnered with AirTies to empower users to utilize the range of security functions offered by the Wi-Fi mesh technology, one of the most secure wireless networking strategies.

According to the security experts, technology and cybersecurity threats are going to keep adapting, with Wi-Fi 6 capable devices on the horizon.

Shentel will be deploying Eero Wi-Fi 6 devices within the next 30 days, said Krueger, saying we want to get the devices out there so end users can begin to feel the benefits.

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Continuing Pandemic is Causing Broadband Operators to Adjust to New Cybersecurity Landscape - BroadbandBreakfast.com

Drum is a virtuoso in the electro-acoustic harp. The Utopia Within opens on a soothing note with the hypnotic "Entering Shangri-La" and it is followed by the lengthy yet gorgeous "Ancient Memories," which feels like a story within a story (which would be perfect for a vintage vinyl record), as well as "Tribal Dance," which has a stirring groove to it. He picks up the pace with the progressive "Orbital Adventure."After the uplifting "Sunrise," it closes with the atmospheric "New Day Dawning," where he leaves his listeners wanting to hear more harp music.The Utopia Within is available on Amazon Music, Spotify, and Apple Music.The VerdictOverall, Gary Drum delivers on his second studio album The Utopia Within. He is able to pacify his listeners with this six-track, eclectic collection, as well as paint a vivid picture through his harp chords. Each song has its own identity and it earns 4.5 out of 5 stars. There is something in it for everybody, and fans that enjoyed Undiscovered Realms will certainly love The Utopia Within. Grab a bottle of wine and let Drum and his harp playing lure you in.Read More: Digital Journal's Markos Papadatos chatted with Gary Drum about his harp music.

Gary Drum playing the harp

Photo Courtesy of Gary Drum

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Review: Gary Drum shines in his enthralling 'The Utopia Within' album (Includes first-hand account) - Digital Journal

A friend was asking the other day for books in which no bad things happen, because sometimes you want your reading to be all upbeat. But yet, there arent many books where nothing bad happens. Myself, when I want comfort reading, Ill settle for everything all right at the end which leaves me a much wider field. Nothing bad at all is really hard. I mean, you have to have plot, which means conflict, or at least things happening, and once you have obstacles to defeat theres almost certain to be something bad.

Keep reading, because I do actually think of some.

Childrens books, suggests one friend.

Ha ha, no. Apart from the fact that some of the scariest things Ive ever read have been childrens booksCatherine Storrs Marianne Dreams and William Sleators Interstellar Pig for exampleI realised some time ago that I am never going to be able to read Louise Fitzhughs Harriet the Spy without crying. I mean I am never going to be grown up enough to get over it, there is no mature state in which I am still me where I will be able to read Ole Gollys letter without bawling. Gary Schmidt, a childrens writer I discovered recently, is absolutely wonderful, but terrible, terrible things happen in his books, and its not even reliably all right at the end. Hes the person who made me think you have to earn your unhappy endings just as much as your happy ones. And William Alexanderagain, terrific writer, terrible things happen.

There are some childrens books that almost qualify. One of my comfort reads is Arthur Ransome. He wrote a long series of books about kids messing about in sailboats on lakes in England in the 1930s, and nothing actually bad happensexcept theres a fog on the hills once, and theres the time when the boat sinks in Swallowdale and John is so humiliated, and there is the scary bit where they get swept out to sea in We Didnt Mean To Go To Sea. (And its the 1930s, so their father in the Navy is going to be in WWII, and every adult in the books is complicit in appeasement and there are terrible things happening in Germany already) But just on the surface, thinking about that little sailboat sinking, it makes me think you have to have bad things to overcome or you have no story.

So how about picture books for tiny kids?

Nope. In Martin Waddell and Barbara Firths Cant You Sleep, Little Bear? the Little Bear cant go to sleep and the Big Bear consequently cant settle down and read his book, and all this is because Little Bear is afraid of the dark. Being scared of the dark is a bad thing, even if it gets happily fixed by the end of the story. In Penny Dales The Elephant Tree the elephant gets sadder and sadder on his quest to find his tree, until the children make a tree for him and make him happy. Dont even think about Dr. Seuss and the terrible anxiety of having your house turned upside down by the Cat in the Hat or being forced to eat icky things by Sam-I-Am. (I dont believe he actually liked them. I used to lie like that all the time when forced to eat things as a kid.) Then theres Raymond Briggs The Snowman, which confronts you with mortality and the death of friends, thank you very much no. When I think of the picture books that are actually fun to read, they all have conflict and bad things. They certainly come into my category of all OK in the end, but they definitely have bad things.

Incidentally, apart from the fact theyd be very boring stories, I think kids need those bad things to learn from, and sometimes those awful moments are the most vivid and memorabletheres a moment in Susan Coopers The Grey King which will be with me always, and its a bad moment.

But there are some stories that qualify, I think.

Romance. Pretty much all genre romance is everything is OK at the end but bad things happen in the meantime. But some Georgette Heyer has plots that work because bad things seem about to happen and are avertedthis is different from everything being all right in the end, the bad things never occur, they are no more than threats that pass over safely. Cotillion does this. Two people are separately rescued by the heroine from iffy situations that could potentially become terrible, but they dont. I think this counts. (Its funny too.) That makes me think of Jane Austens Northanger Abbey in which the worst thing that happens is somebody exaggerates and somebody else has to go home alone on a stagecoachthats really not very bad. Right up there with the bear who cant go to sleep.

Then theres Good King Wenceslas. Somebody notices an injustice and sets out to redress it and succeeds. (OK, the page gets cold, but that also gets instantly fixed.) Zenna Hendersons Love Every Third Stir is a version of this, though what the story is about is discovering the magic. Im sure there are also old clunky SF versions of this. I want to say Clarkes Fountains of Paradise. But I think there are others: person invents thing, everything is solved. Mostly more sophisticated versions of this are it creates new problems.

Utopiasomebody visits utopia and it really is. So Mores Utopia and Bacon, and Callenbachs Ecotopia and other early naive utopias of this nature. Which makes me think about Kim Stanley Robinsons Pacific Edge but the way that book works without being naive is to have the actual story be sadthe softball team loses, the boy doesnt get the girl, the old man dies in a storm. The worst thing that happens is gentle regret, but thats bad too. But check out older utopias.

And now, my one actual real solid in-genre example of a book where nothing bad happens!

Phyllis Ann Karrs At Amberleaf Fair is about a far future where people have evolved to be nicer, and theres a fair, and a woodcarver who can make toys come to life, and there is sex and love and nothing bad happens and everything is all right. Its gentle and delightful and I genuinely really like this odd sweet little book, and unless Im forgetting something I dont think anything bad happens at all.

If you have any suggestions please add them in commentstheres at least one person actively looking for them.

Originally published in March 2020.

Jo Walton is a science fiction and fantasy writer. Shes published two collections of Tor.com pieces, three poetry collections, a short story collection and thirteen novels, including the Hugo- and Nebula-winning Among Others. Her fourteenth novel, Lent, was published by Tor in May 2019. She reads a lot, and blogs about it here irregularly. She comes from Wales but lives in Montreal. She plans to live to be 99 and write a book every year.

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Searching for Books in Which No Bad Things Happen - tor.com

A Bill & Ted star unearths the holy grail of Mothers of Invention lore, albeit in miniature, in a new, most excellent documentary.

During the time Frank Zappa was fighting prostate cancer, to which he succumbed in 1993 at age 52, an old friend and fellow lifelong FZ obsessive generously invited me to accompany him to a couple of the margarita Fridays Franks staff had initiated as a therapeutic break from the composers otherwise strictly workaholic ways.

We drove to the Zappa familys home in the Hollywood Hills and chatted in the kitchen with his wife Gail before proceeding downstairs to Franks studio and workspace, a.k.a. the Utility Muffin Research Kitchen. Though obviously weakened by his illness, Frank couldnt have been more gracious and loquacious. He was a consummate host.

During one memorable evening, while eating Beef Stroganoff, he riffed sardonically about whatever atrocities were flickering on CNN. Afterward, he played his Synclavier magnum opus N-lite for us over a spectacular six-channel stereo system as we listened in awe to the densely maximal sound of a lifetimes worth of music distilled into 18 cosmic minutes (or at least thats how I heard it). And after a few hours, as we started saying our goodbyes, he insisted we hang out with him even longer simply because, I am an entertainer, and it is my job to entertain you!

Not only was Frank approximately twice as cool in person as I could ever have imagined (having checked my journalistic detachment at the door), he was both fully present and unexpectedly human. A scruffy beard had replaced his by then trademarked mustache and soul patch. At this point in his life, he was more serious composer than satirical rocker, more deeply informed political commentator than Sheik Yerbouti or The Man From Utopia. And that Frank Zappa, Im happy to report, is the Zappa I recognized in ZAPPA, a revealing new documentary by director Alex Winter.

A Hollywood actor best known for his starring role in the three Bill & Ted movies alongside Keanu Reeves, Winter made a midcareer pivot to documentarian a decade ago. Prior to spinning the correct spells and earning Gails trust in 2015and thus receiving the keys to the castle, as son Ahmet Zappa puts it during our three-way Zoom conversationWinter wrote and directed films such as Downloaded (which focuses on the impact of internet file sharing) and Deep Web (which explores bitcoin, Silk Road and the dark nets).

ZAPPA, however, had more emotion, drama and challenges to an order of magnitude beyond almost anything else Ive worked on, and Ive been in this business since I was nine years old, Winter says. I told Gail, straight up, that I was not a Zappa maniac. I didnt talk to her about the time signatures in Inca Roads; I talked to her about his relationship with Vclav Havel, his sexual politics and his art. And we talked about how he made films and revolutionized aspects of the musical recording process.

And what did Gail want from the worlds first authorized documentary about her husband? According to Ahmet: The most important thing for my mother was, How do you convey what its like to be a composer?

***

Most of this material has never been seen, read an early title card in ZAPPA. It suggests that the films real star may actually be the Vault, where Frank kept, well, everything.

My first holy-fuck moment, Winter says with a laugh, was when they opened its door. Those gummy YouTube videos do not do that thing justice. Having visited the Vault, I can attest to the floor-to-ceiling, row-after-row abundance of master (and minor) tapes, housed alongside a treasure-trove of visual ephemera. It was all stored in a massive climate-controlled subterranean facility excavated out of the Zappa familys front yard (real estate now owned by Lady Gaga). Franks life was down there, Winter says.

To even begin the film, that life had to be preserved. Winter and the Zappa Family Trust launched an elaborate yearlong Kickstarter campaign that raised more than $1.1 million to rescue a vast amount of endangered media. Most of that money was spent on predigitizing the material. Thats saving it so you can digitize it, Winter explains. And at the end of the two-year preservation process, we still had to find the money to make the movie.

They eventually found that funding, and a touching, profound and inspiring film bloomed into existence as the Vault gradually gave up its secrets. Bookended by Franks 1991 visit to Prague, where he helped celebrate the Velvet Revolution with Havel and company, ZAPPA properly begins with a bang. Frank, via voiceover, recalls his youthful fascination with explosives as editor Mike Nichols weaves together a rich, dizzying montage of surreal ephemera and home movies from Franks Baltimore childhood. Its a thrill to see Frank directing his younger siblings in an eight-millimeter kitchen zombie spectacular; youll gasp at his precocious adolescent editing skills, such as when he inserts Godzilla footage into his Sicilian parents 1939 wedding film.

Im a sucker for the stuff about the family, admits Ahmet, who discovered his own trove of previously unseen home movies in the Vault. (Mugging for the camera as a child, he resembles a baby Michael Cera.) Frank died while Ahmet was still a teenager, and he becomes emotional while expressing his gratitude to the fans on Kickstarter who brought these rare examples of Zappa family togethernesshis father often being on the road or self-isolated with workback into his life.

Gail approved Winters proposed film in June 2015, after which he interviewed her extensively at his own expense. In early October of that year, she died of lung cancer after a long illness. One thing Im very clear about is I married a composer, Gail explains in the movies only interview with an immediate family member. And to be an American composer, both she and Frank will emphasize, virtually guarantees an intimate relationship with failure.

Frank Zappas story is not a predictable arc of youthful talent and enthusiasm blossoming into commercial success and critical acclaim followed by a long, boring afterlife. Frank began composing as a teenager after hearing the rhythmically iconoclastic sounds of Edgard Varse, and well before picking up a guitar. In 1965, he formed the Mothers of Invention to support his composing habit. According to Paul McCartney, Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band was directly inspired by the Mothers debut album, Freak Out!, which would have been rocks first double album if a different variety of freak out, Dylans Blonde on Blonde, hadnt arrived a week earlier. Have I mentioned that ZAPPA devotes surprisingly little screen time to Frank onstage with his various Mothers iterations? There are snippets galore, but dont stream this movie expecting previously unheard guitar magnificence or comedy-rock tomfoolery. Winter points out that you can easily find that sort of thing elsewhere, and thats definitely not the crux of this cinematic biscuit. A triple-CD companion soundtrack, meanwhile, delivers oodles of complete tracks along with composer John Frizzells unexpectedly discreet and complementary score for the film.

That said, Winter has unearthed the Holy Grail of Mothers lore, albeit in miniature. In 1966, the Mothers of Invention performed six shows a week, for five months, in the 300-seat Garrick Theater above the Cafe au Go Go in Greenwich Village. Sometimes usingand often abusingaudience members who returned night after night, Frank conducted the Mothers through improvised performances that juxtaposed extemporaneous theater of the absurd with tightly rehearsed compositions.

Unfortunately, the Vault contained little that documented this watershed run. We literally used every frame we could, Winter says of these very special yet frustratingly few minutes. Under other circumstances, he adds, I would have delivered a film to the Zappas and they would have asked, Why did you make a three-hour film about the Garrick Theater? And I would have answered, Because we found all the footage!

But ZAPPA is not a concert movie. And while Ahmet insists that Winter had every opportunity to use whatever live material he wanted, Franks onstage antics and air-sculpting guitar solos didnt fall in line with the director and editors overarching narrative notion. I felt very strongly that the film should be a story and not try to be the cinematic Wiki entry for Frank, Winter says. You could easily make a Ken Burns 10-part series on Zappa, but Im not that filmmaker and dont know whod finance it. Maybe someone somewhere in Italy.

Nonetheless, he says, I am interested in doing a more expansive, virtual-reality project that would allow the possibility for a more expansive deep dive. At which point, Ahmet, perhaps evincing some of the same techno-thusiasm that gave birth to The Bizarre World of Frank Zappa touring hologram show of 2019, hints that something along these lines is already underway.

***

ZAPPA is a big -hearted documentary, which is largely due to the onscreen presence of Ruth Underwood. The percussionist first caught the Mothers at the Garrick Theater and later played xylophone, marimba, vibes and other hittable objects on more than 20 Zappa/Mothers albums. In the movie, she tearfully recalls hand-delivering a letter of love and gratitude to Frank, whom she once considered distant and dismissive, during his cancer days. He gave her a hug in return.

Underwoods dazzling rendition of Franks famously challenging The Black Page #1, with drummer Joe Travers, is one of the films very few, more or less, complete performances. In another, the Kronos Quartet run through the crepuscular None of the Above, which they commissioned from Frank but only performed once due to its difficulty. Winter says, I reached out to Kronos [founder] Dave Harrington and his response was, Yes, in a year. I said, I guess you guys are busy, OK. But he was like, No, it will take us a year to get good enough to play it on film. I called them a year later and they were like, We could still use a little more time. But they set a date.

ZAPPAs finale consists of a choreographed version of G-Spot Tornado as performed by the Ensemble Modern at the 1992 Frankfurt Festival, where Franks music was featured alongside that of new-music icons John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen. By Franks reckoning, it was the first time all the circumstances were designed to satisfy his creative needs, as opposed to thwarting them, 1988 Zappa-band utility infielder Mike Keneally told me recently. The Yellow Shark, which documented this concert, turned out to be the final album Frank released during his lifetime.

One of the movies many themes, Winter says, is this kind of gold ring hes chasing his whole life to hear his compositions played properly. Winter believes that it didnt particularly vex Frank that the classical community ignored his music. Why would he want to chase someones adulation? The work was more interesting than anything else, and thats what drove him.

***

A substantial chunk of ZAPPA is devoted to the musicians political interventions. Frank says, early on, that the most informative part of my political training occurred in 1965. An undercover member of the San Bernardino Sheriffs Department vice squad commissioned an audio porn tape for which Frank would spend 10 days of a six-month sentence in jail. Later, we see him cleaned up and besuited on Capitol Hill in 1985, speaking as a middle-aged Italian father of four against the infamous Parents Music Resource Centers attempt to censor pop music. In Prague, during the Velvet Revolution, he was hailed as a symbol of Western freedom and would be named the Czech Republics cultural and trade representative to the United Statesat least until Treasury Secretary James Baker, husband of a PMRC co-founder, said nyet.

Frank was moved to help the Czech people preserve their music, art and national spirit, Ahmet says. Who helps people like that today?

According to Winter, Zappas fascination with politics never flagged. Hours and hours of Vault tapes reportedly document Frank in his basement, quizzing experts about economics, trade and other matters. He wasnt vamping for an audience, or doing it for his ego, Winter says of this unscreened material.

As for his sexual politics, ZAPPA suggests that Frank was about as woke as the next boomer guitar hero, which is to say not very. Groupie raconteuse Pamela Des Barres both dishes about Franks on-tour proclivities and lauds him for giving his groupie friends a voice on the wonderfully bizarre GTOs (Girls Together Outrageously) album he produced and then released on his Straight label.

But if you want to stay married to your rock star, Gail suggests, dont have those conversations. Winter perceptively connects Franks entitled domestic arrangement with his more general disengagement with the feelings of others, including band members. In the film, Bunk Gardner attests to the disappointment that the original Mothers of Invention felt when he broke up the band in 1969. And how could they not, having basked in the intense glow of Franks early genius?

I loved Zappas charisma, loved his eloquence, loved his ability to walk into that Senate hearing and lay waste to that whole room, just by talking, Winter says. But its not what I wanted for this movie. I wanted the guy who was insecure, quiet, afraid and joyful. I found that going back to when he was a little kid, and it was a gold mine.

Frank may have never been more joyful than when performing, however. Thats where every part of his creative gestaltguitarist, composer, performance artist, ringmastercame together. He really just enjoyed blowing peoples mind onstage, Keneally says. Audiences expected to have their minds completely blown, and he took it as almost a sacred duty to make sure it went down that way.

Or, as he once said: I am an entertainer, and it is my job to entertain you!

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The Life and Times of Frank Zappa - Relix

Summary

Part Broadway performance, part concert but all David Byrne, all the time. A film that sparks joy and thought in equal measure and thats just the first five songs.

In 1984, David Byrne, Talking Heads and Jonathan Demme elevated the idea of the concert with withStop Making Sense. With this hybrid film, he joins forces with Spike Lee to elevate both theatre performance and modern music performance.

At its most basic level, this is a recording of David Byrnes Broadway show. Its a performance that features the former Talking Heads frontman, 11 musicians and 21 career-spanning songs. Thats a perfectly serviceable account of what happens in the 105 minute runtime, but to leave it at that would be selling this show monumentally short.

On a simple blue stage, surrounded on three sides by dangling chain links, all of the performers use wireless equipment. This allows the performers freedom of movement across the stage, liberating the band from the fixed positions were used to seeing. Plus, by removing everything from stage except what we care about, Byrne and his amazing ensemble strip away the clutter and present new songs and old in completely original ways.

Byrne sets the scene with Here a newer song written for AMERICAN UTOPIA and places us in another dimension/like the clothes that you wear. Yet Byrne immediately takes us on a journey through songs off Rei Momo (1989), Talking Heads: 77 (1977) and his 2002 collaboration with British House duo X-Press 2.

When This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody) drops a mere five songs in, and Once In a Lifetime shortly after, you might wonder if hes peaked too early. Yet that would be also be forgetting just how many influential tunes this man has been involved with over the years. That said, one of the most powerful moments is a cover of Janelle Monaes Hell You Talmbout, a group chant that names people like Freddie Gray, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Sharonda Singleton and other black Americans killed by police.

The latter is the most direct link to Lees dramatic films, although it should be noted that he has been filming stage shows since at least since 1998s Freak. (Indeed, Lees next project is said to be a musical about the invention of Viagra!) The steady hands of Lee and regular cinematographic collaborator Ellen Kuras guide us through this world. The camera is no more static than the performers, finding new angles throughout and all culminating in the band marching through the audience like a Dixieland troupe.

At the end of a very long year, one that has served up some of the biggest hardships weve had to face as a generation, its wonderful to see something that is just a joy to behold. At times freewheeling, and at others marching to the beat of an unencumbered drummer, but its always tightly controlled. This isStop Making Senseon contemporary HBO money, and thats better than a bag ofchips.

2020 |US | DIRECTOR:Spike Lee| WRITER: David Byrne | CAST: David Byrne, Chris Giarmo, Tendayi Kuumba, Karl Mansfield, Angie Swan, Bobby Wooten III, Mauro Refosco | DISTRIBUTOR:Universal Pictures (AUS)| RUNNING TIME: 105 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 26 November 2020 (AUS)

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Review: American Utopia The Reel Bits - The Reel Bits

Fraser T Smith has had his name on a lot of hits. The numbers speak for themselves. He's worked on 18 number one albums, had two US number one singles, eight in the UK.

There's plenty of industry bling on his mantelpiece. Grammy? Check. Ivor Novello? Check. But it is the different styles he operates in that gives you a better idea of his sensibility, and it makes him all the more interesting as songwriter and producer.

Smith produced and co-wrote Adeles Set Fire To The Rain, has worked with Florence and The Machine, Sam Smith, and Gorillaz, yet brought bass, punch and the whiff of cordite to Stormzy's debut, Gang Signs & Prayer (more industry bling right there, with the 2018 Brit Award for Best Album).

As this 10 Songs... feature proves, this taste for eclecticism doesn't come out of nowhere. It is built up over time, influences siring new inspirations and passions.

A Kind Of Blue opened up a love of jazz for me, and showed me that in writing and soloing, less is definitely more and taste is everything

If the recorded works of Hendrix all but taught him how to play guitar then you've got Roddy Radiation opening his eyes to British multiculturalism's impact on popular culture, and Public Enemy igniting the potential for radicalism in song and verse.

That sense of radicalism is writ large in Smith's Future Utopia project, which makes its debut with 12 Questions. Heavy on the guests, with the likes of Dave, Idris Elba, Mikky Ekko, Arlo Parks, Bastille and more joining him in the studio, it is an audacious work of urban poetry and avant garde hip-hop.

The power of suggestion can be too seductive for its own good but looking at the 10 songs he has listed here, and the artists behind them, and you can hear their influence the cool jazz approach to structure, the unsparing moral fire of Public Enemy and the listless angst of Messrs. York, Greenwood, O'Brien et al.

Smith kicks things off with something more elemental, with a guitar player and an artist of nigh-on supernatural gifts...

I was 14, and used to jam with Tom Rowlands from the Chemical brothers in the school music room in our lunch breaks. He was the coolest kid in the year. He had a drum machine, longish hair, guitar pedals and a great taste in music. He gave me this album and it floored me.

Id never heard the guitar played like that, and I spent months learning the solo to Hey Joe after Id recorded Toms vinyl to my cassette recorder. I finally had it to where I could just about play along with the record, and was excited to see that Jimis performance at Monterey was being televised.

I watched it and my jaw hit the floor when it came to Hey Joe. Jimi played the first solo behind his head, and the second with his teeth. Back to the drawing board!

Growing up about an hour west of London wasnt particularly diverse in a musical or cultural way, so my record collection was a ticket out of the safe, predictable world Id been bought up in. The Specials were the first multicultural band Id ever listened to, and I loved the mix of punk, ska and rockabilly.

The lyrics took me a while to understand, but had a profound impact when I understood that the band were singing about the threat of racist attacks throughout the country, and, in this case, on the cold, hard streets of Coventry.

I grew up thinking that jazz was like an exclusive club, reserved for musical prodigies who would look down at anyone daring to play a song with less than five chords in it. Miles Davis changed this.

Cool jazz felt way easier to digest and I found myself able to explore John Coltrane and Bill Evans other work once Id understood this song and the album. It opened up a love of jazz for me, and showed me that in writing and soloing, less is definitely more and taste is everything.

Taken from Kanyes second album, Late Registration I still marvel at how groovy, menacing, cool and effortless the beat and Kanye and the Game's flows are on this record. Jon Brions musicality is all over this record too which affected me deeply realising that played instruments over Hip Hop beats could be a thing. This track and all of Kanyes music opens my eyes to endless possibilities in music. Truly inspiring.

How can you not be hugely affected by Frank Zappas music? I saw this album live on TV and then dug into the album Zoot Allures, the track, really stuck. Franks imagination, his ability to fuse jazz, rock and comedy together. The fact that it was so tongue in cheek, yet deeply rehearsed, deadly serious.

Theres an exuberance to Franks music that leaves its mark his dedication to music was unwavering throughout his career, forever pushing boundaries and challenging the status quo. His credits on the album read; Guitar, Bass, Lead Vocals, Synthesizer, Keyboards, and Director Of Recreational Activities.

Again, music affects you so much as a kid. My mum used to play this song over and over again, and to me the raw soul of Carols voice, the simplicity of the lyrics, the chords and strings have stuck with me ever since.

Without a great song, no amount of production or studio wizardry is going to fix the record

Tapestry opened me up to Carols incredible catalogue of songs, but also James Taylor, Joni Mitchell and a lot of the great Laurel Canyon artists. It taught me so much about songwriting the pure essence of a hypnotising lyrics, and interesting turn of phrase... How, without a great song, no amount of production or studio wizardry is going to fix the record.

Theres some music which you can admire from a distance, but the best music draws you in and sometimes drags you down with it. Ian Curtis lyrics, vocal tone and the stripped back sound of drums, bass, guitar and the haunting synth line does just that to me. Its impossible not to feel haunted by the isolation and nihilism of Ian Curtis performance.

To me, the best bands make a single noise and its not about slickness or tightness per se, its a unified feeling, a oneness. And I always feel this from Joy Division. My wife and I got to see New Order play this live as the sun was setting one afternoon in Hyde Park, as a tribute to their friend and former frontman they rarely play it, so was a pinch yourself moment for everyone there.

I bought Ok Computer on CD, and went back to my parents house to listen. I listened to the album first on my Dads Bang and Olufsen oversized headphones, reading to every lyric. Id be lying if I said I enjoyed the first listen, or understood what the hell was going on. All I knew was that I wanted to hear it again and again.

Its since become my favourite album ever. The songs, the mood, the production, the engineering, the emotions, melodies, chords, instrumentation, freedom, angst I could go on.

Id be lying if I said I enjoyed the first listen, or understood what the hell was going on. All I knew was that I wanted to hear it again and again

From the intro of arpeggiated acoustic guitar with that weird processed percussion to Thoms intro line of, 'Please could you stop the noise? I'm trying to get some rest, from all the unborn chicken voices in my head,' I never grow tired of listening to this.

Its an epic piece, with different movements the cosmic Jonny Greenwood guitar solos, the outro section that feels more like Faur than a rock band from Oxford. Its almost too much to take in, yet never feels excessive, like all truly great art.

My mum used to play Hunky Dory a lot late at night. Id try to work out the lyrics as a young kid as I lay in bed. I still cant work a lot of them out, but Ive never stopped loving Bowies music. The chords seem to be impregnated within me.

I played guitar with Rick Wakeman in the late 1990s and shortly before a theatre tour he asked me if Id sing Life On Mars and Space Oddity with him and his son Adam during the tour.

Id never sang at these kinds of venues I was a pub singing graduate and to sing and play guitar with the man responsible for playing all the keys, mellotrons and organs on Hunky Dory was overwhelming. But I did it, and looked forward to it every night. When I listen back to the recordings, to me I sound like a very drunk Elvis Costello, but I think people liked it.

My friend suggested we go and see Spike Lees Do The Right Thing at the cinema. I came out a changed kid. Id never hear Public Enemy before and through Fight The Power was introduced to the power of music through the raw power of rap and hip hop music.

It was a game-changing moment, and to have worked closely with some of the best UK rappers, such as Kano, Dave and Stormzy, whove used their words to question, to change, to stir debate, has been a humbling experience, and reminds me of the spirit of It Takes A Nation Of Billions To Hold Us Back.

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Fraser T Smith 10 songs that changed my life: Its impossible not to feel haunted by the isolation and nihilism of Ian Curtis performance - MusicRadar