rik burnell

2009-12-16T11:48:00.000-08:00

2009-11-11T15:43:00.001-08:00

My Old Man

2009-10-22T10:30:00.000-07:00

Cheap Pigeons

2009-10-22T10:29:00.000-07:00

Meatmen

2009-10-19T09:18:00.000-07:00

Gonzo coffee drinking

2009-10-18T04:11:00.000-07:00

Excited With a New Purchase

2009-09-26T10:45:00.000-07:00

Reading Festival

2009-09-26T10:33:00.000-07:00

When this occurred within metres of our tent the following conversation ensued.

Rik "Shall we go?"

Chris "Yeah."

Hippy Crack

2009-09-13T06:10:00.000-07:00

2009-08-02T09:07:00.000-07:00

On a farm somewhere in Norfolk, "Whats that Media all about then?" "I don't know? Perhaps we should get some one in who does?"

2009-07-16T04:06:00.000-07:00

My present stage of liminality allows much of my time to be spent on the internet, searching for job vacancies. Searching is often tedious and fruitless but occasionally a little diamond in the rough is found. This job ad, in all its non-specificity, bearing in mind Norwich's agrarian reputation couldn't help but make me smile.

Desk Portrait

2009-07-07T07:15:00.000-07:00

2009-06-20T15:56:00.000-07:00

Will this ever happen?

2009-06-09T11:51:00.000-07:00

BATMAN BIG SHOT

2009-06-09T11:43:00.001-07:00

Friend, musician, philosopher, teacher.

Found Consciousness

2009-04-28T16:58:00.000-07:00

An experimental short made for Camilla Peters; all footage was sourced from Youtube.

Pez Machine

2009-04-16T12:00:00.000-07:00

A New Member

2009-03-25T08:01:00.000-07:00

Friends

2009-03-18T13:10:00.000-07:00

Pretent/sion!?

2009-03-10T04:48:00.000-07:00

So I have been subtly accused of pretent/sion. Its not the first time. What do I do about this? Reactions come with out choice. Even If I did not react then that paradoxically would be a non-reaction, which would be some form of reaction. Another paradox I have encountered is that being non-dogmatic is in itself dogmatic. Well I have confused myself so I’m just going to react.

Firstly lets get our word defined so I know what I am actually addressing. According to the Collins dictionary pretension (as they choose to spell it) is, “a false claim to merit or importance.” And the Merriam-webster dictionary says this,

Main Entry:
1pre·ten·sion
Pronunciation:
\pri-ˈten(t)-shən\
Function:
noun
Date:
15th century
1 : an allegation of doubtful value : pretext
2 : a claim or an effort to establish a claim
3 : a claim or right to attention or honor because of merit
4 : an aspiration or intention that may or may not reach fulfillment
5 : vanity , pretentiousness

I could analyse these definitions and see whether my blog fitted into such a concept, however that would be pretty dull and mostly subjective so probably pointless; so I will just say that I'm not sure if I have claimed anything of false merit or importance? probably? but when I started to write this blog I had no certain intention. The more frequently I have used it, I have tried different styles of writing and also tried to write about things in an honest way, without boring my reader. I have also tried to avoid writing about my day in a mundane or banal fashion or replicate generic reviews of movies/books etc that can be found in abundance elsewhere on the Internet. I’m not really sure where that leaves this claim of pretent/sion. I have probably just written my most boring blog entry; who knows?

Lastly, I do worry that the word pretentious has reached a level of use where people don't really know what they mean when they say it and use it to describe something that is not typical or perhaps they don't initially understand? Anyone care to further discuss this? fill your boots!!!

Teddy Bear That Sits Outside All Day

2009-03-01T06:52:00.000-08:00

Don't get fooled by this cunt. As a seemingly innocent birthday present I welcomed him into my life. He stayed on the stairs for a while. Then it was suggested that he should take place beside me whilst I sleep. Placed on my bed by another, there he did stay for a few nights. When moving him one morning beneath him lay many black dots. Having memories of cats whom carried fleas and what thier beds looked like whilst they were infested; logic suggested this fool of a teddy bear may also be infested with such creatures. He was placed outside on a bench were he still sits to this day.

2009-02-28T11:56:00.000-08:00

I heard that this 'ß' is no longer in use in Deustchland.

Adam

2009-02-27T05:48:00.000-08:00

Managed to get a photo of one of my compadres while he was feeling.

Book

2009-02-25T09:05:00.000-08:00

some books hey!

The Trial - Orson Welles

2009-02-22T03:24:00.000-08:00

So I’ve read the book, just watched the film but I’m not really interested in getting a T-shirt. That’s because I have enough t-shirts already and am quite fussy about the fit of t-shirts I choose to wear. I like to try them on before I buy them and I’m not sure I will come across a The Trial T-shirt in any of the shops that haven’t shut down yet. So even if eBay did offer me one, I probably wouldn’t buy it unless I could go and try it on first, but that’s not really what eBay is about. So my reasons for not wanting a T-shirt have little to do with my appreciation of The Trial whether referring to the novel or the screen adaptation.

I’m trying a new logic, its called Broderick’s logic after a great thinker. It is still in the process of being defined but as far as I understand so far it works thus. Make a statement already thought to be unlikely or untrue, if even granted any previous thought. Then prove it untrue through rhetoric. For instance; it is unlikely I’m going to buy a The Trial T-shirt. No one ever really thought I was going to buy a The Trial T-Shirt. I have suggested with rhetoric that I probably won’t buy a The Trial T-shirt.

Anyway replace the thought of a T-shirt at the front of your conscience with the thought of a film because that’s what I just watched and its more interesting than T-shirts; even if they have got The Trial written on them. For reviews of the film, there is an abundance of ‘em on this ol’ interweb thingy; http://www.rotten tomatoes.com has got loads! For me, Welles’ adaptation acted as a pleasant kind of study guide to the original novel; which has chronic positive resonance. It summarises the themes in a less gruelling format, that doesn’t require days of concentration. Typical of many films I suppose but as the credits role I didn’t feel like Welles had just robbed a piece of my soul and want to cry, “It wasn’t as good as the book!” as I, and probably yourself, have often done in the past at other adaptations.

Steven Hogg a.k.a X-Factors Eminem

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1mQ_B3Q65c

may have inspired this;

(in a childish American accent)

Danny Boyle!

You made Slumdog Millionaire which was good.

But The Beach!

you don’t know shit about filmmaking!

Humanity is perpetually amazing!

The Trial - Franz Kafka

2009-02-13T09:43:00.000-08:00

See that photo above. I took it. It's a photo of a book called The Trial by Franz Kafka. It's not funny. The photo or the book. In fact the book is quite tedious and hard going to read. It wasn't even finished. His mate put it together after he died. Kafka wanted to burn it. I wanted to burn it a little bit. But I didn't. Stayed with it to the end. On reflection, it was like one of those horrible experiences that when are clearly in the past, are actually quite interesting to think about. Researched it on wikipedia afterwards. Led me to research existentialism. That's also quite interesting; need to learn more.

Paddy Hussein

2009-02-11T10:38:00.000-08:00

bought a new DSLR, who hasn't. took the mandatory photos as you do when a new digital camera is purchased; including random shit in your house, your back garden and a dog. instead of upload my version of such generic images i will just allow one to surface. this guy reminded me of that Iraqi dude who threatened our freedom had a WAG or oil or something. You know the one that fundamentalist christian tony blair who used to run our country and his mate george executed and then accidently uploaded the video of it onto the interweb. wonder if gordon brown will also admit to believing in a load of shit that he forgot to confirm before he headed the british government.

waste some time contextualising this

2009-01-27T04:41:00.000-08:00

Postmodern Cous Cous

2009-01-21T05:46:00.000-08:00

music by dkg

listen @ http://www.myspace.com/dekersaint

thanks x

Keep Going

2009-01-05T16:19:00.000-08:00

Football Fans

2008-12-27T04:01:00.000-08:00

Why have they all got the same T-shirt on?

Christmas Tattoo

2008-12-27T03:17:00.000-08:00

The Jar

2008-12-09T14:15:00.000-08:00

hmmm

www.vimeo.com/thejar

might be something to do with me?!

Abolish Enviromental Stigma

2008-08-31T03:49:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately this week I had the opportunity of listening to commercial radio whilst at work. I think it was the regional station Essex FM, which is part of the MixNetwork, the ITV equivalent of radio. I was (don't want to sound too dramatic) offended by one of the adverts broadcast as I thought it was irresponsible. The product advertised was Comfort fabric conditioner; it was concerned with promoting a new stronger concentrate version of the product.

Whilst I am indifferent toward the product, what I take issue with is that when highlighting the benefits of the new product. In particular that the new products packaging is smaller and therefore better for the enviroment. The adverts traditional style voice over changed to what I can only describe as a mochery of a hippy. What is offensive is that irresponsibe advertising like this enforces the stereotype that enviromental issues are only of concern to (hate to use the term) hippy types. This suggestions/stigma needs to be eradicated and the general public need to be reassured and encouraged that enviromental issues are of everybody's concern regardless of ideological stance.

I smell a Christian!

2008-08-11T02:58:00.000-07:00

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article4473274.ece

AA Gill’s review in The Times of The Genius of Charles Darwin in reeks of petit rhetoric to undermine the fundamental message and facts projected in the programme. Whether a fan of Dawkins honest, unscripted dialogue or not is down to personal opinion, I feel the need to congratulate the producer for allowing a show to be made that is not sensational and unnecessarily dramatic; which is unfortunately where a majority of TV is heading. It is easy to write a sensational review using sloppy adjectives such as tongue-tied and muddled, but to compare Dawkins with Darwin (using a fabricated portrait) is wrong. Darwin existed 200 years ago when the majority of the planet believed in religion as there was no scientific proof that is it a collection of archaic farcical stories to attempt to explain the world; had Darwin chose not to live alongside a Christian that would have been most people, surely. Thank you for reminding me why, if I choose to purchase a paper The Times it will not be.

Had Enough Holiday?

2008-08-06T16:56:00.000-07:00

I returned from Morocco three days ago after having spent a week there, I was meant to spend three but booked a flight home early. I have to admit I did not return to England because I missed the way of life in Blighty; I was managing ok without The Sun, ITV, ASDA and all the other contemporary Great British institutions. After much autonomous thought and discussions with my compadres who undertook the trip with me I have become aware of a number of reasons as to why I came home earlier than planned with the bad taste of tagine still in my mouth.

I will start with the reasons I brought to the table that coerced my inevitable hundred pound donation to Ryanair by getting an earlier flight. Firstly, I handed my second year of uni work in on the 18^th of May and the immediate advantage of studying with the Celts in the duchy of Cornwall is that when one has seen to their responsibilities, Cornwall offers an abundance of beautiful beaches to parade along with a wetsuit draping from the waist. I was obliged to move back to the delights of Essex, my family’s habitat, at the end of June and did pay a little weekly tax whilst waiting for the 18^th July (a.k.a. my summer trip to Spain and then over to Morocco) to arrive. I broke up the weeks reminding myself what drinking establishments Colchester had to offer as well as with trips to Belgium and Brighton. Something was a little out of shape when excitement didn’t rear its welcome head in regard to the main trip of the summer but I initially put this down to my perpetually maturing self. Hindsight, what wonders it offers! It is now apparent that perhaps the reason excitement didn’t acquaint itself, was because I had pretty much already been on holiday (synonym with vacation. break form work) for two months before I even stepped on Michael O’Leary’s blue and yellow metallic tube of wonder, that would transport me and my little martin guitar (for an extra 32 fucking quid, it has to go down a ‘special’ baggage conveyor belt even though its ickle and designed to go in hand luggage) to Spain.

So maybe I had just been fucking around for two months and didn’t need to fuck around some more in a foreign country, but, I can’t seem to help thinking every other holiday I have been on has been the bollocks, why was this one not? Do I not like holidays anymore? Am I just remembering the good times of previous holidays? Probably, but at least there were good times! I need to quickly give Spain a get out of jail free card and excuse it from the table; it was a fun, sun and beach holiday for a few days before the ‘real travelling’ began in Europe’s Third World neighbour.

From what I remember Morocco was chosen as a destination for many valid reasons, because of its proximity to England, I haven’t been to Africa before, it should provide a glimpse of culture different to Europe, which, from my own experience, is doing its best to become mono. I guess to be general, I seem to think that I like travelling, I tell people I do, I have done the whole Southeast Asia-Australia thingy, that was good, driven around Europe and have also visited Russia and Cuba; for my age (24) I would consider myself fairly well travelled. Visiting Morocco is not only another country to tick off the list but should help in the maintenance of my opinion. So what is my gripe with my time spent there then?

Having arrived in Tangiers by ferry under advice from several people we headed straight to somewhere that wasn’t Tangiers, in our case it happened to be the ‘charming’ (lonely guide) city of Asilah. Within 6 hours of being in Morocco I would have experienced three fundamental reasons as to why 21 days became 7. Firstly, I trusted the lonely guide, I know they are full of shit but they are useful and do provide a blueprint to work from. In this case the book had plied Asilah with all kind of adjectives such as ‘charming’ that encouraged our visit. I don’t want to immediately sound ignorant, even though I felt it and am still unsure whether I am, but I have to agree with an anonymous blogger who’s online description of Asilah was ‘there is nothing to do here but walk around’. Maybe I missed something but it did appear to me that there was not much to do in this ‘charming’ city. As the days progressed and the question ‘what shall we do?’ wore thin, persistent reference to the lonely guide seemed to manage to generally make things sound much grander than they were. The obvious argument that adjectives are subjective is relevant but I have to lay some guilt to the lonely guide for promoting places that may just not be that great. I guess if you picked up the book in a bookshop in England and read about a place and it just said ‘yeah its alright, wouldn’t bother with it really’ that would firstly be sloppy travel writing and secondly, wouldn’t sell many copies, “I’m not buying that book, just says its shit.” So well done to lonely guide for providing a spine to many a trip but the pinch of salt just got heavier.

So onto my second grumble please bear with this one. Upon arriving in Asilah to cut it short, we were hustled. Having been the (potential) victim of a hustle many times before and having the naivety to think I was experienced in such situations probably led me straight into this particular, familiar scenario; unintentionally got a guide (some dude with nothing better to do) around the city showing us all the ‘best’ places to buy stuff, stay or eat food, where he probably earns commission. Upon telling him we were ok without him and in need of some privacy he request some money for his troubles. I am not really grumbling about the specific hustle that I was a victim of, that doesn’t really bother me. What got chronically aggravating was the persistence of such hustlers; having been burned on the first day made me wary of Moroccans. However, I think I am a pretty reasonable guy and I attempted to give each Moroccan the benefit of doubt and not just think they were all out to rob me. I detest generalisations but found my self within a week constantly finding out that another Moroccan only wanted to talk to me to offer me a hotel, drugs, clothes, girls or food. I have experienced this behaviour in other countries as well as Morocco, but have never been so vexed before. It was relentless to the stage where I didn’t want to leave the hotel, as I couldn’t be bothered to put “no thanks” on repeat. When the words wouldn’t come out of my mouth anymore, and it appeared as though I was ignoring their generic rapport building lines, the rapport building lines turned to mockery and insult. Yeah, yeah, I know they are trying to make a living and sticks and stones but bollocks, I just couldn’t be bothered with it and the fact it came with no endearing qualities, that I have experienced from similar kinds in the past, pushed me further toward the ticket office in the airport.

My final highlight of the first day was the evening’s activities. Having repeatedly read in my good guidebook about Medinas it was off to see one first hand and experience the ‘excitement’ and then see where the evening takes us. Took us around some shops producing mass produced crap that you are supposed to buy in Morocco, tagine pots, paintings, rugs, shoes, jewellery… Shopping is not my favourite way of wasting time in England so visiting a primitive lakeside in the Third World didn’t hold my interest for very long. But that’s ok, lets see what else happens in the evenings here; if we take a walk along the main street there maybe somewhere cool to go for a drink, we may meet some people. The main street consisted of many, what I can best describe as cafés? These establishments had many Moroccan men sitting outside drinking coffee or mint tea. They didn’t appear to be engaged in banter or conversation with each other just sitting staring out into the street. I wouldn’t consider my self an alcoholic but I do enjoy a drink, Morocco as a state heads towards some Islamic ideals, one prominently being the omission of alcohol from society. I am blaming this on subsequently creating a situation I found hard to comprehend. People just going out and doing nothing. I don’t mean to indirectly advocate going out and getting drunk but I have done this many times and met some lovely people through doing it, and had some memorable funny times. Going out and sitting in a café drinking hot drinks all night does not have the same appeal and as I might ignorantly say pretty much renders doing nothing. The fact that the cafés had no cultural or aesthetic draw and didn’t seem welcoming, allowed an easy decision, or should that be a solo option, to return to our place of sleep. Our quarters for the night allowed us to partake in activities such as reading, playing guitar and chatting, non-exclusive to Morocco or anywhere.

I hoped that our experience would be contained to Asilah and would be quickly shaken off by the rest of the country but unfortunately, as is probably already obvious, stained the rest of the my impressions of the country with similar experiences. I don’t want to pedantically further illustrate with examples from each city, the above problems I had with Morocco, so you will just have to take my word that I found these issues present everywhere I visited.

Within six days our spirits were broken and a general sense of apathy had overwhelmed us. Hoping Marrakech would lift our spirits, it didn’t, and it failed miserably. Regardless of the oppressive heat it offered nothing new to change our ambience. We finally tried a trip to Ouzoud waterfalls as a last ditch attempt to salvage our relationship with Morocco. They were ok, pretty, but made bitter by hassle from ‘guides’; everybody selling orange juice and tagine, and most disappointingly the falls had a hefty collection of rubbish. That evening a trip to the airport to book tickets home ensued and left us a day to dwell on why we had not got along with Morocco. We could have stayed and visited the desert or more beaches but the sour taste was strong and I don’t think the mild glimpses of natural beauty could have outweighed the boredom gained from the indifference to the culture.

I am very aware that I don’t want to sound like an ignorant philistine with no cultural appreciation, these feelings toward a trip has challenged my own opinion and upset my ideas on travelling. I have spoken to people that have awarded Morocco high praise and this constantly baffled me whilst there; why don’t I like it? Perhaps it is more appealing to stoners? Perhaps if you want to buy some ‘exotic’ goods from the country of origin, opposed to the hippy shop in town, Morocco serves well? Perhaps I was not in desperate need of respite and if I were Morocco would be allowed to shine? Perhaps Morocco failed to show me anything I have not already witnessed from previous trips that are still vividly present? Had it been my first time in a non-European culture perhaps experiences would have had more gravitas? It would be fair to conclude that I have no immediate plans to return and I am sceptical about visiting another Islamic dry state. It has questioned my whole concept for travelling without obvious purpose; presently I have no plans to travel abroad and just fuck about, I am intrigued as to if/when I will travel without a pre-determined reason again.

These are just my impressions and thoughts about Morocco. I would hope that they would be bore in mind whilst individual opinion is formed from individual experience. However, also bearing in mind times winged chariot, Morocco is currently at the bottom of my fantasy travelling league.