HAPPY NEW YEAR/A YEAR(+) OF THE YAK
7 Yak hits from the past 13 months.
Happy new year, y’all! London is wet and windswept, not an ideal start to 2025, but this is England... Moving slowly today I decided, as I’d been writing the Yak for one year+, I’d gather a Magnificent 7 of Yaks and add a brief commentary on each: old Yaks for the new year. Hopefully there’s a post of interest to you. Or maybe you’ll roll your eyes and think, ‘god, he’s insufferable…’
1. GEORGE MICHAEL/WHAM
My first ever Yak post was on my relationship with George, the Netflix Wham! doc’ and James Gavin’s epic biography of the singer. Since then Wham! have twice returned to Xmas Number 1 in the UK with Last Christmas and there’s been two BBC doc’s on Wham! (one focuses entirely on the making of Last Christmas). Dear dead George is now one of the UK’s most beloved pop icons.
THINKING ABOUT GEORGE MICHAEL AND A FEW NICE THINGS
Gorgeous George: at one point in the late 1980s the swarthy singer from north London must, surely, have been the most desired man on earth. Girls – and then, post-Careless Whisper - women wanted to snuggle against his stylised stubble, while men (well, gay men) likely fantasised of similar (and more): the Bushey boy, born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou to…
2. LATCHO DROM
As its mid-winter and readers in Europe/North America are likely spending lots of time indoors and watching screens then might I recommend catching Latcho Drom? It is, to my mind, the most beautiful film ever made about both those we know as “Gypsies” and music making. The entire film is available to watch on Youtube.
3. SOHO
I write on the Yak about London and crate digging with some degree of regularity - both are passions of mine - and, on this post from last-January, I describe a rainy night in Soho. Funnily enough, today’s weather is akin to that described here…
4. DEEP IN THE MISSISSIPPI NIGHT
A dozen or so years I visited Po’ Monkey Lounge in rural Mississippi, one of the last juke joints still operating. Read about “the Sistine Chapel of juke joints.” Such a night!
DOWN SOUTH JUKIN’: ONE NIGHT AT POOR MONKEY LOUNGE, BOLIVAR COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
In February I posted on Yakety Yak about experiencing Mardi Gras in New Orleans around 2011/12. This reminded me of further adventures during that journey – here’s a particularly memorable one.
5. A KIWI SUMMER DAY
I’m from Aotearoa/New Zealand - have I mentioned this? - and one photo I took there on a summer day in 2021 has always stayed with me. The beauty of the surroundings and the contentment of the couple made for a sublime Kiwi summer day.
6. TIM HETHERINGTON
London’s Imperial War Museum held the first retrospective exhibition of the photography of the late Tim Hetherington. He was a friend of mine.
REMEMBERING TIM HETHERINGTON
Tim’s 2003 portrait of a fighter in Liberia’s civil war - beautifully composed while tragic in its implications.
7. HAITI: BEAUTIFUL MUSIC, TRAUMATISED SOCIETY
I’ve long loved Haitian music - one of the Caribbean’s most creative if overlooked scenes - yet the collapse of govt/civil society’s led to murderous gangs ruling the capital and terrorising impoverished Haitians.
Soundtrack as I prepared this post: Miles Davis - On The Corner, Chris Barber - Folk Barber Style, James Brown - The Payback, Jimmy Smith - Crazy Baby!, ZZ Hill - ZZ Hill, The Mighty Sparrow & Byron Lee - Sparrow Meets The Dragon, Andre Williams - Bait And Switch, Thelonious Monk & Gerry Mulligan - Mulligan Meets Monk.
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