Peter Gabriel’s Big Blue Ball project will be released here in Europe near the end of the month (it’s already out in the US - you lucky bastards). The project has quite an interesting history:
Almost eighteen years in the making, Big Blue Ball grew from three extraordinary Recording Weeks at Real World Studios in the summers of 1991, 1992 and 1995. The project’s originators and curators were Real World founder Peter Gabriel and Karl Wallinger of World Party and The Waterboys.
I’m a huge, huge fan of Peter Gabriel, so I will definitely be running to the store clicking on “Buy Now” in iTunes when the album is out. In the meantime, I’m quite content with the free MP3 single “Burn You Up, Burn You Down”, that’s available here. Be sure to check it out!
Explain this to me: I own over a 100 films on DVD, 87 of which are special or limited editions that I bought at a premium price on the day they were released. Why, for God’s sake, do I need to see that annoying “movie piracy is stealing” ad every time I pop a disc in the player? I BOUGHT the friggin’ movie!!!
I had ordered the “2 Disc Extended Collector’s Edition” of American Gangster three months ago from play.com, but somehow the first two shipments were “misplaced” in the mail (MPAA, why don’t you do something about THAT?) When the DVD finally arrived in the mail yesterday, I promptly sat down to watch the unrated extended cut of the movie. Or, at least I tried to… Read On
Music gets around, it seems. Years ago, I wrote a song called “How Long Can You Go On” as a small protest against the (then) rising conflicts between the Israeli and Palestinians. At one point, the song was going to feature on Life Baggage, but the strong political connotations felt out of place there, so I chose to keep that song to myself. Later on, I lent the music to my friend Inez Triëst, for her song “Zo Klein” (translation: “So Small”) and made a CD with just the piano part for her to practice with. I had all but forgotten about that particular recording, until I was contacted yesterday by Inez’ friend Coen Veerman, who used the piano part for his instrumental entitled “Pilgrimage”. I think it’s cool… check it out:
With More done, it is now a good time to look ahead at what comes next. First, I have decided which eleven songs (out of roughly twice the number of candidates) will be on Start Here. Here’s the complete list:
More
Tonight (August)
Up To You (January)
Picture Perfect (September)
Start Here (April)
Before You Cast Me Aside (October)
(The Road That Takes Me) Home (March)
Grave Colored Glass (November)
Surrender (February)
Secret Love (July)
Goodnight Mary (May)
You might notice that there is no song for December. That is because, in my infinite wisdom, I had miscounted the number of months in my 12 month plan. Or maybe it was a suppressed desire for a spot of vacation just around that time…
Anyway, next up is Secret Love, which will be recorded at Sound Vision Studio on July 26 and should be available the next day. Since I’m not recording this next song myself, I’ll be doing some preperations for later songs. Of course, I also still have a video to finish… more on that later!
