Wednesday 17 September 2008

"I'm a fox. My name's Tod. What's your name kid?"

"Mine's Copper. I'm a hound dog." I used to watch that cartoon every day. Disney banger The Fox and the Hound. It was one of my three videos. E.T, Jaws and Star Wars were on rotation and my Fox and the Hound tape had Jungle book on it too. I'll tell you why that's the title of today's post a bit later on. Last night I went and saw this guy play..



It was a last minute decision I was glad I made. His name is Lach. Kingpin of New York's AntiFolk scene he has a huge catalogue of material to draw from. He is here in the UK playing out material from his latest offering..



The gig was at the Borderline, a good venue for live music. The crowd was into it and it was very polite and respectful in there. British I would describe the atmosphere for the first three tracks. Seated, quiet, greeting every tune with reserved claps. It heated up, he played this one and it went down well..



Towards the end of his set he played his song "Smoking again". Stating some kind of loop hole in the law on the smoking ban he invited smokers on stage. Apparently if the persons smoking are part of a performance theatrical or otherwise it's okay. Claiming we were integral parts of his performance piece a large part of the audience took the stage and the ashtrays were broken out. It sent the bouncers into a frenzy but they allowed it to go on in the end until the song finished. This eased up the crowd and and there was a bit more interaction afterwards. I laughed a lot, one track had the best Dylan impression ever and another broke down into beat poetry. Hugely entertaining, I recommend you catch him when you can. The title of the new album "the calm before the" suggests small venues such as the one he played last night may not always be the case.
Back to the foxes. The Fox and the Hound came out in 81. In 1980 a lady called Barbara Wright wrote a book..



She lived opposite my grandmother and I have a signed copy of it at home. It's the story of how she domesticated and abandoned Fox she named Lucky. This inspired me as a kid, the idea of having a Fox as a pet inspired me. Ever since I was that age any Fox sighting I felt was lucky in the same way as a Magpie sighting was the opposite. On the way home last night I bumped into the Fox who lives at the end of my road. There's a bench on the corner and some bushes which back on to some allotments. He was a couple of blocks away from home. We stared at each other for a bit and then a car came and I said farewell. I've seen the rest of his family in operation, there's a cub and a wife. I've never seen them all together. Upon turning around I saw the wife cross the road away from home and glance my way quickly. Static, eyes glinting then gone into a garden. As soon as she'd dissapeared the cub left a garden further down and bolted towards their den. The cub too stopped and glanced my way. I felt privileged and returned home triple lucky. Next time you see a Fox give it a tip of the hat, they are more resourceful than MacGyver and deserve some respect.
I've heard a lot about the credit crunch and institutions around me crumbling. Jaynsey alerted us to a couple of fellows who were affected by the Lehman brothers news far more than me. Watch this news clip and pay attention to the people in the background just behind the reporter. They need to settle down, it's like a scene in a Will Ferrel film..



The lightbulbs are fixed here at the Reptile house. See you tomorrow

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