[[youtube:8E9l_i6HPYM]] Hope is a difficult thing to maintain. It is easy to become hopeless, especially in this age of intentional disconnection. The age of connection has ended by force and the social networks are being ripped apart, quite literally, by bombs and tanks and the incessant vicious morons that pilot them. It’s easy to give in. Maintaining hope requires resources, it requires fuel like any other living thing, but the funny thing about hope is that it’s shared. You don’t need your own fuel to use it, as sometimes all it takes to ignite that spark of hope is the knowledge that someone else out there has it. Jesse Wells may seem to have popped out of nowhere like the angered ghost of Jim Morrison, but he actually has a well stocked backlog of tracks under the name of his band <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq-Ko6wg_-M">Welles</a>, but it’s only on his newly created youtube channel where Jesse performs original masterfully written guitar ballads almost daily. It’s creation at a level and speed previously unseen or unheard of on the platform. [[image:https://guitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/jesse-wells-welles-1@1400x1050.jpg]] His piece War isn’t Murder is especially notable for attracting new listeners to his channel due to it’s bitingly sarcastic commentary on the Israelli Genocide of the Palestinians. In an age of AI music where anyone can create a radio-ready song in seconds the only bastion left for humans is true expression, and I mean that in the driest and most clinical way possible, as in the expression of the will of the people. It’s easy to lose hope when you lack a voice but someone shouting what you want to say from the rooftops is essentially the same thing as speaking. Musicians can give people a voice by expressing their perspectives and desires, in a way that politicians should but never do. We tend to think about music as a creative artform where musicians can just do whatever they want, but to really be effective they must be responsive like a tire responds to a road. Just like farmers react to supply and demand, so must a musician write the songs that voice the people's spirits. After seeing this song performed by Jesse the first time I had to learn it. I’m an avid musician and when I see someone play something I can’t I feel the need to learn it, so I’ve made a couple videos of me performing it. [[youtube:q7xjpmqGAYY]] It’s a good way to spread the message to people who do not know of Jesse Welles yet, just be sure to credit him. Here are the chords and a description of how to play them: C (hold for a long time, move finger to play G bass note)Amin, G walk up to G7 Fmaj7 ...Dead people... (there is one bar here that is only 2 beats, pay attention to the strumming which occurs on the 1st and 3rd beats) ...Dead people... F9 C, walk down to A7, D7, G walk up to C ,A7, D7, G Fmaj7, Fminor7 , C (Minor Plagal Cadence, really beautiful) walk down to A7 again to end the verse. On the second verse there is an extra bar where he says "have nice trip" and that is just a quick D7, G, C, which is a 2-5-1, the most common Jazz Cadence. The picking pattern is - 2 - 3 4 - 1 3 - 6 5 - where - is the beginning of the beat and the numbers are the strings. You must play the base string 1, 2, and 3 with a pick, and the rest with your fingers. You can think of it as a bass pattern that goes: - 2 - 3 - 1- 3 - except the last note is sped up so it's - 2 - 3 - 1 3 - - Then add the remain notes with your fingers like - - 4 - - 6 5 - This is the pattern for C and A, but of course for D and G and F the base notes change, and for that you will have to figure it out yourself. I usually just go from the Root note to the fifth and back again instead of a tri-alternating pattern.

Are we going to change the world with music? Again?

Music Revolution

[[youtube:r4-ave70tRA]] Comedy, I suppose, is a subjective thing. What is funny to some may not be funny to others, one man's meat is another man's soiled underwear, and all those well trodden cliches, so the idea of crowning someone the best comedian usually comes down to a popularity contest. I suppose if you wanted to be scientific you could place microphones in the audience and measure the decibels of laughs per second, and do your best to elliminate bias by cross referencing the participants relationship to the performer, a polygraph to measure whether the laughs were genuine, etc. After all that there is still a strong chance that 50% of people won't like the results. In fact it has been said that in order to be a successful comedian 50% of people should dislike you. Here is an excerpt from Callum's write-up on his most recent poster: “Callum Hitchcock is a vibrant force in the South African comedy landscape, hailing from the Eastern Cape and now based in Cape Town. The Savanna Comics’ Choice Newcomer of the Year for 2024 infuses his performances with a dry, observational wit and a distinct perspective on societal nuances. By combining a charming mixture of casual confidence and self-deprecation, Callum ensures laughter across the country. The only question is whether the audience finds themselves laughing at or with him - he’s not bothered... As long as they’re laughing!” [[image:/blog/ComedyJournalism/Callum.png]] Now this comedian has recently won an award for being the best newcomer, or the most promising new comedian on the scene. I just want the reader at this point to ask themselves what this writeup says about Callum, specifically the part about the audience laughing at him. I understand self-deprecation, it's pretty much universal for comedians to self-deprecate, but it's rare for any well-respected comedian do have the audience's reaction being described as "laughing at" them. If you watch the above video, there is a part where a man cackles menacingly. Who knows why people laugh? I personally laugh at the strangest times. Often in a comedy club when a comedian is doing particularly bad you will hear a loud "Ha-Ha!" coming from my direction, and it's an unfortunate reality (or perhaps fortunate if you're particularly sadistic) that many young comedians take this as an indication of their success. Perhaps I sound bitter, and if that's so it's because I am. I have performed on the same stage as Callum many times, and I always felt bad for him. Perhaps I am the one who is delusional, but from my perspective the institution of comedy that is Savanna Comics Choice awards is not particularly interested in promoting social change. Callum's threads bio states "Mostly making jokes to distract myself from the West's descent into fascism." Well, okay, now there is something I can get behind. What is the most pressing political issue in the current day involving fascism? Well Israel, to put it bluntly, Israel is the obvious bad guy on the global scene right now, apart from perhaps Russia, so then Callum must be all over that, right? He must be tweeting left and right about the atrocities committed by the Jewish Ethno-state, right? You guessed it, the closest that Callum ever actually gets to commenting on the West's descent into fascism is criticising the ANC. I actually don't think he's a terrible comedian. He's okay, definitely pretty good for a beginner (probably not as good as the comedians he was nominated against but that's another story). I personally got a standing ovation on my first try of stand up at MSU in America, and continued my killing streak across South Africa, but not everyone can be me, I get it. [[youtube:gFtfnbjA3Uk]] He's a pretty decent comedian, and I would not be writing this article at all if only I had the opportunity to perform comedy at all in Cape Town. You see, I had to do it all on my own. I attended the Savanna Comics Choice Awards in 2017, but I wasn't a nominee as I had not paid the R700 entrance fee for the competition. That's right, Callum and all the contestants in the competition pay Savanna for the chance to compete in their pony-show. I was invited to the competition on my own merit due to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OVKf8DZTQE">some videos I made in support of my cousin Matthew Armstong</a>, who is a more talented comedian than Callum will ever be. [[image:https://pleyland.co.za/blog/ComedyJournalism/horseAndHound1.png]][[image:https://pleyland.co.za/blog/ComedyJournalism/horseAndHound2.jpg]][[image:https://pleyland.co.za/blog/ComedyJournalism/horseAndHound3.png]][[image:https://pleyland.co.za/blog/ComedyJournalism/Carlyles.png]] I started my own shows in Durban and Cape Town, in the city and in the suburbs. I was running two shows simultaneously when I was randomly and flasely accused of sexual assault. It ruined my life, and I have no idea who accused me or of what, I don't know who I am accused of assaulting, all I know is that everyone that I assumed I was friends with blocked me from contacting them, and all of my shows disapeared from my hands and appeared in the hands of others. The show at Saggy Stone is still going, and Callum is scheduled to perform there on the 19th of June, at the show that I started.

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