AND ON THE SMOOTH TIP..

  

Most of the people that read my blog will not have a clue what I'm talking about with this title.. but hey! you have to learn (at least) one new thing every day don't you? Read on.

I currently have two books in my live reading list pile - one hilarious and one very very enlightening and informative..

So to hilarity..

Touch Wood, Confessions of an Accidental Porn Director... I found this book by accident in a store in London.  Heading for lunch with a few hours to spare before my next meeting and on my own.  I read the back and it sounded brilliant - a fly on the wall, possibly spoof? docu-diary by an anonymous author.  An account of setting up a porn movie business and running around England making mistake after mistake in the process.  It was cheap enough to take a chance on so it was bought.  I opened it and couldn't stop reading and laughing - whizzing through most of the book by the time I stepped off the train home that evening.

It is hilarious, revelatory, I think probably written by someone in the business but maybe not a real porn business owner.

The thing is it seems to have hit a vein in the UK public and is selling like crazy.  I checked amazon to provide a link on this blog and they appear to have only 3 left in stock?!  For a cheap new release that is some going.  So - unashamedly - I recommend everyone who reads this to click the link and buy the book (new or second hand).  And, yes, I do get a referral fee! Not much, but it might add up to the price of my next book over time.

So, on to the much more enlightening (but also at times funny)Jeff Chang. This book is called Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-hop Generation. A proper account of the social/economic/political impacts of the hip hop generation.

In case you're already jumping to the all too wrong conclusion that I'm talking about rap music here. Think again! Hip hop is a culture, it is a culture that has roots way back and is far greater than the pop-rap world that most (very unfortunately) associate with the hip hop tag these days. Hip hop truly is a way of life - one that I and many of my white British friends follow in the way they live, view the world, etc as far apart as we are from the Bronx in the 80s or LA in the early 90s and certainly even further away from the diamond (diamante?) wearing bling rappers of today. Why do they wear stupid jewellery like that?

This book does concentrate on the hip hop phenomenon from a US perspective - and that's the only criticism I'd have of it - but it sets out the roots of the culture well; the interactions between the black inner city deprived neighbourhoods and Jewish middle class white boy world that is US hip hop, telling tales of some very strong minded people along the way.

Again, if you have an interest, click the link.

What was that about the smooth tip? Sorry, this does come from rap - an old phrase that people used to use instead of the more modern 'chillin' out'... (also the title of a favourite 12" vinyl of mine - a 1988 release by female rapper Sweet Tee - On The Smooth Tip) so, now you know.

I will resume my usual ranting broadcast of things that annoy me in my next blog.