janineaswriter

[janineaswriter]

An Ode to HMV

I learnt everything I’d ever need to learn (and more besides) from my time at HMV - I started as a 17 year old Britpop obsessed, music snob and left many years later with such an appreciation and knowledge of all music in all its glorious genres. My interview in 1997 for a Christmas temp role included a quiz on music and film and when I finally reached my life goal of becoming a permanent staff member my induction involved filling out a binder full of information on music genres and questions that everyone in their 1st jobs had to answer in order to keep our jobs!

It didn’t matter that I didn’t like rap music, I could still hold a conversation about rap artists and recommend something to someone because I had read the HMV review or chatted to another staff member about music they liked, or even heard the clean version imports we used to get in. I could even offer an opinion on whether I thought Tupac was still alive and in hiding when asked by the two rap obsessed teenagers that would frequent HMV Middlesbrough every Saturday afternoon. Working in the Specialties (a fancy name for all music that wasn’t considered popular) department I made connections with the customers who loved this quiet space in the basement to browse the HMV Classics or Naxos collections and I’d choose the playlists based on who was in the department at the time - That customer looks like the kind of guy who would love this Kate Rusby album or Sarah Brightman album, let’s put that on! Saturday afternoons on the ground floor were dance parties, because that’s who was browsing the racks on a Saturday afternoon - people waiting for their Saturday nights to begin! We knew what would sell if people had the opportunity to actually hear it and so we played what we thought they should hear. I do believe all HMV shops did this when I worked there though it was definitely getting more uniformed by the time I left in 2008. Forget all you know about HMV being responsible for the first Beatles or Cliff Richard demo, HMV was the first high street shop you could buy the import versions of the first albums by Eva Cassidy, Eminem and Dido’s (sorry about that) and many more besides. It was a place for all people to come together and discover new things.

I still remember the pride I felt at being able to identify what customers wanted by their vague enquiries and some of those enquiries were pretty vague...”hey, I heard this song - get Frankie with me! Do you have it?” “My son wants this album, it’s by a rock band with a female singer. The cover is white with red marks on it” “I’m looking for a singer, Terry Wogan keeps playing her on radio 2.” I knew all those answers and many more.

We were also seen as part of the music community. I will never forget on the day Sinatra died the couple that came in to just talk about him with us. The man was in tears, describing about how much Sinatra meant to him.

80% of my current friend group worked at HMV at one time or another and for the longest time it really did feel like Empire Records... friends hanging out, playing music and getting other people to buy the stuff we liked. I wasn’t a retail worker, I worked at HMV.

And that’s just the music obsessive geek in me. I know all the movie geeks and games geeks who felt exactly the same way - it never felt like work even on Christmas Eve when you wanted to murder that last customer who just refused to fuck off so you could close up and get the store ready for the Boxing Day sales and still make it to the Irish pub for last orders.

I possibly got out in time - my last Christmas involved add on selling crap DVDs and the Paris Hilton CD onslaught (“yes, you only asked for 20 copies but we are sending 200 because we bulk bought so we can sell it for £10!” Music buyer, whoever you were at the time, you may have had my dream job, but I hope that had I been in it at the time I would have fought that decision from the management - I believe in Greenwich we sold no more than 3 and we sat on that stock for months to come. We were not alone.) I feel sad that the powers that be weren’t quick enough to react to digital music or online shopping. Can you even imagine if there had been an online store that was as knowledgeable and exciting as the in store experience? It would have kicked Amazon’s butt that’s for sure.

I feel even sadder that after the last administration scare nothing really seems to have been learnt. Still the cheap DVDs and CDs front of store, with the merchandise tat next to it. Abd yes the market changed but so did the customer. In my last year I got more questions about price matching than I did about artists or albums. But just because most customers stopped asking, it never meant HMV staff didn’t have the knowledge to help the few that did need questions answering. In a world where we have the answers constantly one click away, do we need to knowledge and range of product that HMV was famous for?

Just like Madonna, HMV stopped being ahead of the trends as it had been its entire life and actually found itself scrambling to keep up, desperately shredding prices and finally those knowledgeable people to save money. I hope someone saves HMV again but I hope they know how to make it essential again. Because it does feel in the past decades it became all about making a profit and less about the product required to make a profit and we know from Apple and its ilk that you can do both with the right management and the right vision.

[janineaswriter]

Spent the day in bed...

Is it better to burn out or to fade away? In the case of Stephen Patrick Morrissey I’m calling the first. After the ridiculousness of his autobiography – a diatribe of twisted memories from an embittered man unwilling to just fucking let it go already – I’m listening to his new single “Spent the day in bed” which is possibly the saddest example of a once great and relevant songwriter who now has nothing better to write about than actually just spending his time in bed. Like the privileged parents who gush about how amazing it is they get to be stay at home mum/dad with no thought to other parents who would love this, given the finances; it’s like he’s rubbing all of our pleby faces in it. It’s hard really because as an artist, Morrissey has the right to sing, talk, write about whatever he wants and if I don’t like it I should just ignore him. But it taints what went before. The brilliance of The Smiths, the belief that they saved a lot of people’s life, including mine (or at the very least made it better) and now the architect of that is now racist and so out of touch with all those people that he helped in the 80s. Of course no one believed him when at the height of his fame he made that statement about how he’d never be old and fat, performing his hits to his aging but still adoring fan base, like the Rolling Stones BUT there something so unbelievably tragic about the fact that this is now his life. Don’t even get me started on John Cusack…

[janineaswriter]

Dear Ryan,

Dear Ryan, What happened to us? It used to be that you'd come over and talk about things. We'd have a sing along, a laugh and maybe a cry but it was always good. I always felt you were there, connecting with me. Now you come over and you just want to jam with your mates. You don't even look at me, let alone talk. It's all guitar wank and I'm barely acknowledged. Don't get me wrong, you are amazing still - maybe technically better than you've even been and certainly more coherent. So I suppose we want different things these days and I should let go of the past. But it hurts. It was 15 years ago that I first saw you in Melbourne. Holy shit, that was an amazing night. In my Top 5. And I know those times you were kind of wasted and now you're not. And I'm happy for you, proud even for getting through all the tough times. I guess I just need to adjust. You know what? I don't even have any right to say this shit to you. I'm not your girlfriend, I'm not even your friend (though I've always thought I'd like to be). But I have feelings too. Let's be honest, I'll still follow what you do and I'll still love your nerd tweets and your honest words. I'll probably even still come along next time you're here, though I'll be more cautious, less naive. Anyway, peace. Love, Janine

[janineaswriter]

Rockstars of the Auckland Stage - review of the Pop up Globe season 2

I'm not familiar with the original version of Shakespeare's play "As you Like it" but I'm guessing it didn't include gay shepherds or female masturbation. But maybe that what's it been missing this whole time because it's definitely a fan favourite at the Pop up Globe part deux. To be fair, there are only 4 plays and each one has its loyal fans and very few detractors.

Personally, I don't like Othello. Not because of the acting; that is top notch, the cruel and tragic storyline handled beautifully especially by Jasmine Blackborow as Desdemona and Roimata Fox as her maid and friend Emilia. I don't like it because I don't like the storyline, full stop. It was a brave choice and it is performed exceptionally well but I always feel like it should have one of those "have you been affected by domestic violence?" helpline voiceovers at the end of the performance instead of a dance.

The Queens company are also responsible for high energy, high fun "Much Ado about Nothing" (a title I've always disliked as it's not about nothing, it's another story of a man believing someone he knows to be a villain over the woman he claims to love and the shitstorm that follows). It has a beautiful Polynesian vibe, helped by Semu Filipo as a laid back bro of a Benedick and the rockabilly Jacque Drew as Beatrice. Kieran Mortell as Dogberry gets the biggest laughs and rightly so. After all he is an ass.

However my heart belongs to the Kings company. "As you like it" is bawdy, funny and sexy with its serenading, dancing and sheer ballsiness. Jonathan Tynan-Moss as Rosalind / Ganymede is adorable yet sassy; I never thought my confused ladylove for Olivia in last year's "Twelfth Night" (played by the very talented Daniel Watterson) could be matched but there you go. The decision to have Stanley Andrew Jackson III play her cousin Celia was inspired. He plays the part of the precious teenage princess very well, but more than that their friendship is genuine and it's a joy to watch them on stage together.

I won't mention Le Beau because if you've seen AYLI you already love him and it probably made you go and watch Henry V as well. If you did, you were rewarded with Chris Huntly-Turner's Henry as the hottest king that ever did live. He's strong but he knows man's limitations and is torn between what is right and what is God's will. He's funny and witty but don't take him for a fool or he'll fuck you right up. He inspires loyalty and bravery in his men, and in the audience too. It is a brilliant act of direction to make the audience part of his army; it creates a sense of solidarity and it makes for the best piece of interactive theatre I've ever seen.

And that's what's so great about the Pop up Globe; the interaction. Usually going to a play is like going to the cinema. You watch quietly and passively. Going to the Pop up Globe is like going to a gig. You laugh hard, cheer and boo and it feeds the actors and makes them push themselves to be louder, funnier, meaner. These guys and gals are rockstars of the Auckland stage. Most of the audience each night have already seen the plays before, this is likely to be their 2nd, 3rd or 6th viewing. Like band groupies, they just need to be see it again. I have been volunteering as an usher for these 2 seasons and it has been one of the best decisions of my life. I feel a part of it in the same way those loyal fans do. Fuck it, I am a working loyal fan! So thank you Pop up Globe crew for trusting your fans to be good ushers too.

As the season draws sadly to an end I'm keeping my fingers crossed for part 3 next year and I don't think I'm alone in this. I want to see Stephen Butterworth camp it up again, I want Jonny Tynon-Moss to win over the hearts of teenagers again, I want to see Adrian Hooke sing modern songs in a Shakespeare stylee again...I want to see all that and more so please Miles Gregory, please do another season?!

[janineaswriter]

So a year or so ago my brother gave me his oversized but beloved Muse Tee to "do something with". He wasn't down with the man bag idea, and I'd already made him a travel pillow so I pondered for a long time before remembering all those unused canvases I have in my craft cupboard. Hours and many staples later - Voila! A Origin of Symmetry canvas print was made.  

Hope you like it bro!

[janineaswriter]

http://www.etsy.com/listing/95535679/candyretro-flying-ducks-wall-art

US$50. 

[janineaswriter]

Wall ducks for my friend Natalie for Christmas.

Templates from Hands Craft Store, Christchurch and vintage wallpaper from Vue Finder on Etsy.com.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/VueFinder?section_id=10013653

I am so happy about the way they look I may some more for selling!  

[janineaswriter]

Christmas wreath. 

Made with the Snow Kitten and Snow Girl books, plus wrapping paper. All it's missing is a bow!

[janineaswriter]

Lyrics deconstructed part 2

"This Love."

Adam Levine doesn't understand women. And only now gets some because he's the singer in a band. 

[janineaswriter]

Lyrics deconstructed part 1

Crazy in Love.

It's about a needy woman -a potential bunny boiler. 

[janineaswriter]

adtweek:

school’s in teachers, time to hit the bottle, not the kids (via The Best Of Liquor Store Signs)

[janineaswriter]

Candyvintage goodness on Etsy.com

[janineaswriter]

Cosmetic bag (to go inside Baby changing bag as made by Natalie.) For Patricia and Princess. 

[janineaswriter]

[janineaswriter]

especially love: 

Tinsley Towers

Mr Tea Towel 

London Map

[janineaswriter]

[janineaswriter]

" one thing I have learnt is that it is more fun to accidentally break your own stuff while enjoying it, then to have it all randomly smashed for you"....

Susannah @Bolt of Cloth -http://www.boltofcloth.com/shop/

Not just excellent fabrics, but wise words too.