Our friend and yours, Rev. Josef Jetsream, asked me this on Twitter earlier today: "Say, what's Alan Moore's spoken word stuff like? Like poetry, or the Rollins sort stand-up storytelling? And how might I find it?"

Glad to be of service. The two albums I have of his are The Highbury Working and Snakes and Ladders. They both have music by Tim Perkins and they're both fantastic. To answer the second question, it's just spoken word blank verse set to fantastic music.

To answer the first question, here's the opening bit of Highbury:

Direct link for the feedreaders.

And here's a snippet of Snakes:

Direct link for the feedreaders.

Now that you've tasted it, the last question--where do you find them--is unfortunate in that it appears they are all out of print. However, you can still find them used for decent prices--some of them, anyway. I've listed them below. The good news is that Alan Moore told me, by way of Graham Linehan--who was kind enough to facilitate the one shot Q&A--that Moore might have a new CD out next year. Excellent.

• Click here to buy The Highbury Working from Amazon.
• Click here to buy Angel Passage from Amazon.
• And if you want to get Highbury or Snakes new, go see Top Shelf.
• Click here to buy Alan Moore stuff from Amazon.

a

The Vocal Stylings of Alan Moore

I was uncertain what to think about something called "Gamer Grub" that purported to be a "Performance Snack." Especially since from what I can tell (the fine print for the ingredients is mighty fine, if you know what I mean) there's no caffeine in this packet. I know some people will be shocked, but we're about stimulants of all kinds. It doesn't have to have caffeine in it, it's just that a lot of products do. Instead it promises "vitamins + neurotransmitters." And if you're anything like me, then you're thinking: well, what the hell does that mean to me, the consumer?

That's a very good question. The back of the package promises that the "tasty blend of Peanut Butter Chips, Peanuts, Strawberries, Strawberry Jelly Chips and Sweet Bread" is "packed with select vitamins and nutrients supporting cognitive performance" and is "scientifically formulated to power your core gaming systems for maximum performance."

Yeah, I still don't know what that really means. I do know it sounds impressive. I'm honestly surprised it doesn't have the "this product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease" footnote. The entire package, if you were to eat it all at once (which is, let's face it, what most people in front of a keyboard are going to do with this) gives you 75% of your RDA for Vitamins A, C, E and Niacin with 30% of your magnesium. Of course it's also 60% of your fat intake for the day.

And here's the other thing I was concerned about--with only one exception, I can't stand nuts in snacks. I will eat nuts as a snack, but not in a snack. It's a weird texture thing. I don't like to bite into a brownie and crunch. (Incidentally, the one exception is a Nutrageous candy bar.) But I went for this variation because the pizza version just scared the crap out of me.

And yes, if you were to pick bits out of the bag and eat them individually, you'll be underwhelmed. The sweet bread bits are dry. The peanut butter chips are nothing special. The peanuts are also nothing to write home about. However, if you take their advice and just tip the bag back and pour a handful into your mouth all at once--it works. You really need to get the flavors together and once blended, yeah, it's some nice PBJ action that works probably better than it should, at least taste-wise.

As for it "boosting my game," I can't really speak to that. I can't tell any difference in my performance now that I've consumed a large amount of this. What I can say is that I was a bit peckish and it seemed to handle that just fine.

• Click here to buy it from Amazon.

a

PB&J Gamer Grub - Review

So, many among you are iPhone converts. And many more of you are Threadless fiends (like we are). Well, just imagine that Griffin Technology and Threadless each rounded a corner and smacked into each other.

"Hey, you got your Threadless designs on my iPhone cases!" "Hey, you got your iPhone case covered in my Threadless design!" Two great tastes that taste great together.

Yes, Threadless, smartly reusing existing art, is making these iPhone cases available on their site as well as at Apple retail stores. There's two cases available currently. And there's more in the pipeline, I'm sure.

And P.S., even if you don't have an iPhone and need a case for it, you need to be aware that one of my favorite zombie tees ever has gotten printed. It's not on full-on black, otherwise I would have bought two already.

a

Threadless Now Wants to Clothe Your iPhone

Greg Giese played two roles in Gone With the Wind, the newborn infant versions of both Bonnie Blue and Beau Wilkes. He was all of eleven days old. I got to spend a few minutes with him in Marietta during the World's Largest Virginia Reel stunt for the 70th anniversary of Gone With the Wind. A heckuva nice guy and fun to chat with.

Direct link for the feedreaders.

• Click here to buy Gone With the Wind stuff from Amazon.

a

A Chat With Gone With the Wind's Greg Giese

Ain't nothin' like the Reel thing. Thus, I've posted an album of photos taken at the World's Largest Virginia Reel event for the 70th anniversary of Gone With the Wind in Marietta, Georgia. If you check out our photo album on Facebook (and become a fan while you're there, why don't you?) you will see glorious anachronisms, a Disney character cameo, and more shots of this fantastic Carol Burnett-inspired costume.

• Click here to buy Gone With the Wind stuff from Amazon.

a

World's Largest Virginia Reel Photos

This past Friday, there was the kickoff of a celebration for the 70th Anniversary of Gone With the Wind, as the Ultimate Collector's Edition hits DVD and Blu-Ray today. One of the first items was a staging of the "World's Largest Virginia Reel," taking place in Marietta, Georgia. I was there to witness this historic occasion with my own eyes. And here's some of what I saw:

Direct link for the feedreaders.

The Ultimate Edition on Blu-Ray is snaggable here. And you can get the DVD flavored one here.

• Click here to buy Gone With the Wind stuff from Amazon.

a

Gone With the Wind Celebration: World's Largest Virginia Reel

Each Monday we like to start off your week with a bit of insanity--consider it a vaccination against the true madness that is your work week. Trust us: we wear white lab coats. Some of us even wear stuff under them, too.

Today we ask the question: What happens when Germany's only super hero fights not only an evil Nazi scientist and Dracula, but Hitler's brain in a whacked out robotic body? We're not sure, but it's called Captain Berlin vs. Hitler. It's apparently a play that was then filmed and is available on DVD from Amazon.de. Here's the trailer:

Direct link for the feedreaders.

It looks like six shades of genius. Perhaps we can get an actual review...hmmm. Found via William Gibson.

a

Your Monday Morning Mental Sorbet: Is This The End of Everything?

Adult Swim in a Box. At first glance, this set seems like a total no-brainer. Season sets from six Adult Swim shows plus a bonus disc of never-before-seen pilots? Brilliant. Then on second glance, you see that we're not talking a true Adult Swim primer, i.e. first season sets from everybody. We're talking the second seasons of Sealab 2021 and Robot Chicken, the third season of Space Ghost: Coast to Coast, and the second volume of Aqua Teen Hunger Force. The only first seasons in here are Metalocalypse and Moral Orel. So what was the perfect gift and primer for a sick individual you know could use some Adult Swim is now...suspect. It seems like they're just trying to unload some inventory, frankly. But the Adult Swim hardcore...should they buy it? Since, after all, they're the ones that will be drawn the most to the pilots on here: The Best of Totally For Teens, Cheyenne Cinnamon and the Fantabulous Unicorn of Sugar Town Candy Fudge, Korgoth of Barbaria, Perfect Hair Forever and Evan Dorkin's Welcome to Eltingville. And that coupled with the price point--it's $47.99 on Amazon as I type this--it becomes a two-pronged conditional recommendation. If you don't own the sets involved and want them, you'd be crazy not to snag this, because once you've bought two of the sets individually, you've paid for the Box. And if you're an Adult Swim fanatic and want the pilots on DVD, well, this is where you can find them. Click here to buy it from Amazon.

Kevin Smith 3-Movie Collection. Streets this coming week and has Clerks, Chasing Amy and Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back hitting Blu-Ray for the first time. First things first: all three films are available individually on Blu-Ray, but you're basically getting three for the price of two by buying them in this set. If you just want one, by all means, snag them individually (list here) but I've got a feeling this works best for most Smith fans. Although do bear in mind that Jay & Silent Bob was previously available on Blu-Ray--it's the first two films that are making their debut. As to features, you do have a bit of a crapload, the majority you've seen before--although the new ones aren't without merit.

Starting with Clerks, there's both the theatrical and the "first cut" versions of the film, each with their own commentary. The theatrical version comes with a trivia track. There's the animated version of "The Lost Scenes," the "Flying Car" short (from The Tonight Show), a restoration featurette, the original auditions, "Snowball Effect: The Story of Clerks" and outtakes from the same, "Mae Day: The Crumbling Of A Documentary" with introduction, the 10th Anniversary Q&A, MTV Spots, and more. The new bits are an intro by Smith and "Oh, What a Lovely Tea Party: The Making of Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back."

With Chasing Amy, you get new stuff: a new commentary from Smith and Scott Mosier rather than the scene-specific one from the previously released (and still available) Criterion edition, a docu, a convo with Smith and Joey Lauren Adams, and a Q&A with Smith and the cast for the 10th anniversary. There's also the obligatory deleted scenes and outtakes.

It's on Jay & Silent Bob that you have just an audio commentary. So if you want Smith on Blu-Ray, this is your best bet--the only thing to bear in mind is that Jay & Silent Bob will no doubt have a Blu-Ray special edition at some point, incorporating the bonus bits from its more packed DVD release. Yes, I know...it's not easy to decide, but that's the downside of being an adult. Click here to buy the set from Amazon.

Monty Python: Almost the Truth: The Lawyer's Cut. Available on DVD and Blu-Ray from Eagle Rock Entertainment, it's a Python special (for their 40th birthday) that I'm going to go ahead and recommend for any fan. Period. So goodbye.

Oh hell, you want me to back that up. Well, fine. You get all six episodes of the series that looks at the series. It also has a number of Python sketches that I previously stated were exclusive to hi-def to this set on Blu-Ray (since the series hasn't been remastered and re-released yet). And then beyond the regular outtakes, you've got a slew of extended interview footage with each of the Pythons. Now, it's available on both formats, but with only $4 difference between the two on Amazon, I would say if you've got Blu-Ray capability, you'd be nuts not to go ahead and pay the few more bucks. Oh, certainly, there will be more stuff ten years from now, but for now, if you only add one title to your Python collection in celebration of the 40th anniversary, this is the one. Click here to snag it on Blu-Ray; click here to snag it on DVD.

I Love You, Beth Cooper was Chris Columbus' layover in comedy-land (after leaving musical-land with Rent) in-between his big budget kids' film stints with Harry Potter and The Lightning Thief. And it underperformed at the box office, especially considering the inclusion of Heroes darling Hayden Panettiere. She's the head cheerleader that Paul Rust's character declares his love for as part of his valedictorian speech. But that didn't draw out audiences, who were no doubt waiting for home video. Well, it's out on both DVD and Blu-Ray from Fox, and both editions have an alternate ending, deleted scenes, a featurette on the source material with author Larry Doyle, a making-of docu, and more. Most people are going to be fine with a rental or a Netflix on this one if they wish to see it at all, but if you must own, let your capability be your guide. If you have Blu-Ray capability, it's only $4 extra. So there you have it. Click here to snag it on DVD; click here to snag it on Blu-Ray.

Rome: The Complete Series hits DVD this coming week with all twenty-two episodes across eleven discs. And because this is out from HBO, that's an hour an episode, so you do the math. This is both seasons of the aborted series (which brought much rending of garments and gnashing of teeth at the time it occurred) and although I don't have each of the single season sets here to compare them to, it appears there's nothing exclusive to this set. The main reason to buy this--if you don't already have the individual season sets--is, well, the whole thing in one box, since the complete set is pretty much the same price as the two sets combined: $64.99 on Amazon as I type this. But there's a great deal of content here besides just the episodes: thirteen audio commentaries on various episodes, four historical featurettes, five making-of docus and more. Whether or not you want this on your shelf depends on how big a fan you are of the series itself along with your feeling of historical epics. But HBO has made the set worth owning, certainly. Click here to snag it from Amazon.

Some people might ask: John Denver, Widge? Seriously? Seriously. Say what you want, but he was a close personal friend of The Muppets, and that makes him aces in my book, buddy. Eagle Rock has put out a crapload of live Denver content. First up, the five-disc monster that is Around the World Live. The title basically explains what this is pretty succinctly: live bits from 1977 to 1990, with stops in Australia, Japan, England, as well as his Farm Aid performances. It's ninety-seven live tracks of Denver's music for close to nine hours of goodness. That's a haul, friends. And the boxed set is definitely the way to go, since Rocky Mountain High: Live in Japan is a single disc of material from the overall big five-disc set...but the other material isn't available elsewhere, from what I can tell. Oh, and did I mention there's extra stuff on the big set as well? Denver's 1990 Earth Day program is here as well as a 1972 show regarding bighorn sheep. If you or someone you love is a serious Denver fan, then the Around the World set is a must-own. Click here to snag Around the World; click here to snag Rocky Mountain High.

Some of you might be wondering: did Widge just talk about the bloody series of Rome right next to some John Denver releases? Yes. Because he takes his amusements wherever he can.

a

Headsup: Big Boxes of Adult Swim, Kevin Smith & John Denver

You, like me, have probably spent an undue amount of time wondering to yourself: Is everything exploding? Or is it just me? And by "just me," I mean "just you under the impression that everything is exploding" since, you know, you'd probably notice if you yourself were exploding. Unless you were just as quickly imploding so that you reached a state of uneasy equilibrium.

Where was I? Oh yes. You have wondered this, but you don't go on hunches. You want evidence. Jason Nelson, purveyor of games, art and insanity, is here to give you what you have always sought. He does this in the form of the dada game "Evidence of Everything Exploding." You run over pages of text, blocked by your own preconceived notions of meaning (i.e. lines) and try to reach the reach/reach. Upon doing so, you are rewarded with a running exposé of how the Illuminati have been secretly running the world by means of matchbooks--the real reason smoking has been banned most places, to sap them of their ability to pass encoded messages. Or...something. Regardless, it's maniacal brilliance. Or what would have happened if William S. Burroughs and Salvador Dali had been in charge of game design for Konami.

Find Jason Nelson and his gallery of surreal nonsense here. And check out the rest of his site. The opening page is like a horror movie about grass scored by Bernard Herrmann being assaulted by a midi machine.

a

Jason Nelson: Beware the Sleeping Zombie Bear

And we're back. Please note: this podcast, if you haven't figured it out, is profane and not safe for consumption by children or animals. Or sentient creatures of any sort. You can't say we didn't warn you.

Download audio file (wjustice111309.mp3)

Agenda:

• Kids and cocktails
• Rox, your Agony Aunt for the evening
• Eastwick cancelled
• Stargate
• The obligatory NCIS discussion
• Alan Cumming's perfume
• An aborted attempt to talk about sports
• Dindrane grades the podcast
• Jai alai
• You must be this tall to ride this podcast
• Picasso hentai
• Opera discussed, in a desperate attempt to elevate the podcast
• A very troubling version of the obligatory Torchwood discussion
• The tale of the Russian icebreaker
• Eastwick cancelled
• Ken produces a menu choice for Dindrane
• In Leigh's face
• Alabama vs. Florida
• Widge's laugh
• Us vs. Michael Balter
• Pirate Radio
• Bob Dylan vs. Tom Waits
• Modern Warfare 2 brouhaha
• Catching up with Doc on games
• The Lightning Thief
• Hamilton vs. Bulfinch
• Hobo graffiti
• On delicatessens
• ...Tuffles?
• Lego Rock Band vs. regular Rock Band
• More on Leigh's need to give her child a childhood
• Song Fu
• Challenge: Remix Weekend Justice
• What the hell is that thumping?
• Disney's A Christmas Carol
• The purgatory of kids' films
• Recommend Din some fiction

Thanks to Jon from The Unique Geek for helping us sound good.

You can find all of our Recommendations at our Amazon Store. And a special bit has been created for our discussion about good books and comics for kids.

As always, special thanks go out to Clutch for letting us use their absolutely badass song, "Promoter (of earthbound causes)" as our theme music for this.

Buy Blast Tyrant, which is where you can find "Promoter". Buy their latest album, Strange Cousins from the West. Send them love and coin.

BTW, you iTunes subscriber types can nab this feed here. If you like us, why not rate us? We don't bite. Mostly.

Or if you want to do something else with it, the feed feed is here.

To download this episode directly, Weekend Justice Episode 44: In Your Face, then do that thing.

a

Your Weekend Justice #44: In Your Face

The madness continues. Now that obstacles have been removed, we're on our way. Going to make 700. For more information, go here.

631. Collective Tractor.
Suggested by Bailey. I would really like this band to be Fishbone if there were an all-Soviet era song cover band.

632. Peanut Butter Suzie.
I have no idea. Ask ScottC. Actually, you know what? It's safer not to ask ScottC.

633. Punting Yoda
Siege suggested this one. And knowing him, he's actually done this.

634. The Jesus Chicken Horcruxes.
One half of me wants this to be a parody Christian response to bands like Harry and the Potters, singing about how Harry and his books are all satanic. The other half of me wants a taco.

635. The Pudding Casualties.

636. Chief Bottle Weasel.

637. The Whims of Frankie Boyle.
I'm not sure but I think this should be if G.G. Allin decided to front The Wiggles.

638. Cupid in Chaps.
I don't remember if ScottC came up with this one or not. But for God's sake, it's best not to ask him.

639. Rox's Rowdy Rangers.
The world's first, to our knowledge anyway, country and western steampunk band.

640. The Plasticine Meerkats.
I have no idea. I blame Phill Jupitus.

New band names up for grabs now until we get done. Because it's time to be done already.

Entries 621 - 630 here.

a

700 Bands: 631 - 640

The second stop on the road of my Not-A-Top-5 for Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror Novelists That Use Dreams to Crack Your Head Open In All the Right Ways...

Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves is a sprawling, convoluted tale of a found manuscript which recounts the exegesis of: a non-existent film and family; a conspiratorial friendship; a young man's inability to deal with death, intimacy, and hereditary madness; the mutable nature of communication in the shared soul that a home creates; and a house which is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. All of these things are the same thing, and they overlap and intertwine in a tragic, hopeful arc that runs from Virginia to Hollywood, from the Arctic sea to the Mediterranean, and through the minds and lives of three men who may all be the same man, or the man for whom whichever of them is "Real" is searching.

It's the faulty recall and outright lies of Danielewski's characters and his ability to craft the world around his people in such a way as they are not infallible, but imminently flawed, which, when coupled with the interwoven themes, places, and states of mind mentioned above, make this entire work an exercise in parsing the memory of dreaming. Each footnote is a step on a giant spiral staircase of the unconscious, and each chapter a landing, and whether you're going up or down, you find yourself pulled not only into the lives of these people, but into the spaces between them. You find yourself in that hearty darkened hollow in the centre of each of them that keeps them apart, keeps them from seeing each other, and which, ultimately, is the only thing that can help them put themselves back together.

Danielewski is extremely gifted in portraying the act of denial. In House of Leaves, each character denies the reality of the situations in which they find themselves, putting their horrifying experiences down to nerves, or miscalculations, or hallucinations (as if that were somehow better), even as they find themselves terrified and paranoid of what comes next. In this, Danielewski describes the feeling of our waking from nightmares, as opposed to when we are In Them: the sense that we are trying to Force the reality of the dream to dissipate, so that we can lessen its impact and slot it somewhere safe...and the intimate sneaking fear that it never works. Danielewski knows that sometimes our dreams haunt us throughout the day, even if we don't remember the details of them, and that sense of haunted, hunted discomfort is described at multiple points with eye-opening clarity.

The House of Leaves is a sprawling, shifying thing, but it comes with a handy, somewhat static map: The Index. If you look through it for each mention of dreams or nightmares you'll see that the context of each mention follows a theme. Every time we find a reference to a dream, a nightmare, or a dream-like state, we find it in conjunction with the experience or fear of darkness, blindness, insanity, and/or becoming lost while exploring a vast, often threatening, ever-changing space. The two exceptions to this is when we're given a glimpse of the dream of our primary narrator, Mr Johnny Truant, in which he finds himself floating free and "bathed in Light," and when another character ascends into the darkness of a huge spiral snail shell, knowing that, eventually, there will be more light than ever before.

But Johnny's dream is his hope, toward the end of his convoluted journey, and it reflects the things he's willing to shed and leave behind. It's at this point that he's had to deny himself the reality of his stories, for so long, that he finally has to fall into them, and let them swallow him whole. It's the only peace he can hope for. And the other dream is still in the vein of being lost, and of a man being swallowed by something he was meant to swallow, only there's hope, in it; there's reconciliation and peace, and a sense that it's all right. These dreams are the kind we have when we're just starting to understand a new truth, in our lives, and all of the symbols in the whole world are trying to show us how important it is.

Jorge Louis Borges said something like, a work (or an author) creates its (hers/his) own predecessors. Meaning that, in what people synthesise and refine down into their own craft, their own style, Other people will find it and say, "well obviously it was influenced by This artist or That writer, and Surely these books were most influential." Which, honestly, is bullshit. Not that people will do it, but that it'll mean anything close to "right," When they do it. But anyway, if Borges was right, and we're gonna do it anyway, I will say that Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves owes its existence to Borges and his "Garden of Forking Paths," as surely as it does to Joseph Campbell, to Carl Jung, to the death of a family patriarch, and to the strange inner workings of human grief. It's not their direct offspring, but there's a sense in which it definitely owes each of them its life.

It's strongly implied in House of Leaves that the only thing that saves the inhabitants of this labyrinth made of horror, miscommunication, animosity, and the terrifying realisation of the personal crosses we bear, is the ability to take ourselves into our Selves, and to refuse to flinch when we get there, no matter the cost. Danielewski's lesson is that, when we deny the experience of a dream and instead try to run and break through the doors of our unconscious interactions (with ourselves and those around us), the landscape shifts and the architecture changes, and it eats us up, takes us further and further in. When we accept what we are and what we do to each other, when we reconcile our unconscious desires with the facts of our lives, we can accept loss, change, and death, and we can finally realise that, in large part, we build the dreams and spaces in which we lose ourselves, and we can bend them to whatever purpose we see fit. This is self-realisation, and this is some of what dreams can teach us.

And if we don't, we can go mad, and be destroyed by what we refuse to accept and understand. This is something else dreams can teach us.

• Click here to buy House of Leaves from Amazon.

a

Mark Z. Danielewski: Using Dreams to Crack Your Head Open

Spike Hardcore Energy Drink, in the "Orange Cold" variety, is quite possibly one of the most amazing drinks I've ever had the opportunity to try. It is probably the most intense orange drink I've ever tasted--so let me try to explain to you what this experience is like. Imagine that orange drink they used to have (or maybe they still have it, I have no idea) at McDonald's. The one you used to have as a kid. The one you thought was awesome because it was like mainlining orange-flavored sugar. Now imagine that all the regular sweetener they used to have is gone and replaced with sucralose. So there's this intense burst of fake orange flavor that just gets faker and faker as the main taste fades out and the sick sucralose aftertaste is all that's left. It is taking all of my will power for me to take a sip every couple of sentences to make sure I've captured it sufficiently for you.

What's sad about the drink is that I'm sure if I could get past the horrible taste, it would be amazing. 350mg of caffeine in a 16oz can. A utterly ludicrous 33,333% of your B12 requirements. So I'm very depressed by the taste. And impressed as well, because normally it's the aftertaste that kills a sucralose drink for me--but here even the initial burst of flavor is bad. I can only assume they've upped the sucralose to cover the caffeine taste that comes with having so much in the can. Oh well.

a

Spike Hardcore Energy Drink - Review

Rob Levy: Are you surprised that forty years on Yes are still seen as a revered and relevant band?

Jon Anderson: I'm happily surprised and blessed and on every level thankful that people all over the world, wherever I travel there are pockets of Yes fanatics. I love what we've done and what we've achieved musically. So it's a great feeling to get to a state of mind where you realize that what you've done is being listened to by young people as well as the fans that still love the music. The young people are tuning into and realizing that it is really accessible music.

RL: You are currently involved with the Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy Camp. How did you become involved with that?

JA: I met David Fishof, who created it, many years ago in Brazil. I was working with him on a tour with Alice Cooper and James Taylor. We were down there for a week or two and we talked. I was very interested in doing a Yes camp for a long weekend. We'd get bands to come and we'd do seven hours and I'd do a barbecue and stuff. Of course, the rest of the guys thought I was crazy as they usually do. When David decided to do it I did his first one in New York and then another one in LA and then another one in New York. Then last year I was very ill and couldn't do very much. This year he called me and said they would be doing Hollywood and asked me if I wanted to come down. I said I would love to.

RL: What do you do at the camps?

JA: You walk around like the Big Cheese and try to make them perform better as a band. Because all of the musicians have just met and you have ten separate bands and ten separate artists sort of trying to control them and make them understand the balance of sound, volume and stage presence and things like that. You spend a good afternoon with them and then in the evening we start doing performances. We do a recording and a DVD and get t-shirts.

RL: How long does each camp last?

JA: Six to eight days, seven days. I do two days. It's a lot of fun because the people are very interested in what you have got to say. You do find these people who are very talented anyway and you say "Don't over play just play what you can play. Don't try to impress too much. Just enjoy playing what you play and turn the bass down."

RL: Do you interact with the other teachers? Do you ever talk smack with Meat Loaf?

JA: Yeah. It's like a game. You get people saying "Well, how's the band?" and you say "Well, not so good.' But you know inside they are very good. But they're going to wipe the floor okay. It's a lot of fun. It's like a holiday for these people. You know a lot of them are professional people, doctors, lawyers and businessmen. We even had a Congressman come one time. He loves coming every now and again. We‘ve had a couple of DJs come.

RL: How have you been feeling lately?

JA: A lot better. I've started singing again in February and March of this year. I didn't sing for six months, which was a bit of a trip. But I did a lot of painting, which was kind of nice. A lot of meditating and generally recuperating. I did a short tour, just me and my wife and a guitar. We just toured Europe where I played once a week. It is very nice to actually tour like that because I used to go on tour with Yes and it was like an endless stream of playing, hotel, airport, playing, hotel, airport. After a while you don't know where you are. Exhausted after three weeks you just wanted to just lie down somewhere. But you carry on because people are coming to see you and they paid to see the show so you keep it going. After so many years of doing that you know my body just can't do it. So I said to the guys I'd love to tour but I can't tour on a crazy level. But they just wanted to tour the way they want to tour and I said okay, if that is what you want to do.

RL: You've worked over the years with tons of people. Is there anyone you'd like to work with?

JA: There are so many. I keep bumping into Herbie Hancock and we talk about doing something. Which is more spontaneous music. Where I just make up the song and lyrics. It's an art in itself. I'm sort of blessed with equipment now. With a lot of songs I do 70% of the words at home on the first take.

That's what I used to do with Vangelis years ago when I would do first takes with him and then he would just go and edit and sort of produce. Then I would come in and sort of realize what I was trying to sing and just sing it. It was like we'd do a song every couple of hours and then have lunch and dinner. Within a week we'd have an album. It was more fun, that sort of getting down to construction, which was what basically I did with Yes. Where we were into structure and form and the usual Yes music.

Jon Anderson and Vangelis

RL: What was it like working with Vangelis?

JA: Well it was amazing. He was a one-man band. He could play a symphony every ten minutes. He'd just sit down and write a symphony in as long as it would take to play it. He was one of the first people to put together what became midi keyboards. He'd have five keyboards with five pedals and then he'd have about six echo units all linked together to create this incredible echo reverb. Some of his early work is unbelievable for one man to be able to do that.

So when I met him in Paris I fell in love with him like a brother, like a mentor. He taught me about music on many levels. When he got a studio in London I would go over to the studio and spend a couple of hours there and sing three or four songs spontaneously on first take. That's what we made albums with. They were always the first take because we didn't want to get him to try and learn a song and structure it like a normal studio. I think that's why the music of Jon and Vangelis is very unique because it was very very much what it is.

RL: What was it like working with Mike Oldfield?

JA: I just went in and sang songs for him. He was very well organized as a producer. He'd sort of get people to come in and say "This is what I need you to sing, thank you, goodbye." That's how he worked. I never heard the finished thing until the album came out.

Sometimes you work with people because it's like a friendship thing. I worked with Kitaro because it was a fun thing to do. We traveled over to the Far East and worked together. Then we toured a little bit.

RL: With the fantasy camps what is the best advice you pass onto your students?

JA: Have fun! Don't take it all seriously. Experiencing the joys of life and the joys of music go hand in hand.

RL: Finally, do you remember where you were when you learned that "Owner of A Lonely Heart" went to number one?

JA: I was on holiday in Barbados getting ready for a tour. Someone rang me up and said it was number one. And I said cool! I was lying in my hammock.

Lead image.

• Click here to buy Jon Anderson stuff from Amazon.

a

A Conversation With Jon Anderson