Solving obesity- fat chance? or is there truth in the 'it's in my genes' response?

So, is obesity solvable by molecular intervention?

The problem of obesity is approaching epidemic proportions, but for those who are seriously overweight, can they be saved?

That could be a yes.

It may be a while off but theoretically, it is possible to make people lean.

It has to start with the food we eat, less of it for a start and the food that is consumed has to be free of additives and ingredients like corn starch.

Molecular intervention is the next thing, it may sound like science fiction but it is the way forward to combatting obesity.

It can be done in two ways, firstly by means of high metabolism foods such as Chillies and naturally producing chemicals in our own bodies that keep us slim - in men, after age 26 a chemical declines and the weight goes on.

The real Freakenstein bit comes when you can re-code the genetics of the body and possibly the brain. These steps combined will shrink people down, but only with careful dietary regimes, otherwise obesity will remain unsolvable.

Rockabilly - the Frankenstein music - and why it refuses to die!

Rockabilly - the true Frankenstein of music

a right old lash up and mash up of styles and sounds!

Define Rockabilly - not an easy job.

Ask any non-specialist DJ to define the genre and the examples they'd probably state as being worth mentioning might be a revival group or two.

So what are the roots? Well, its a right old melange of musical styles. The structure is usually around a blues type of sequence of 3 chords. The music is hard to define, it sort of was like adding different bits into a cement mixer and eventually you got something you could say 'well there's a bit of that in it.'.... 

The real down home roots of it is the Hill Billy and Western swing style, plus an injection of black blues music, which had suggestive lyrics, sometime but not always, toned down for the white folks.

That's where Bill Haley came from, as one of the originators of Rock and Roll, he served up a slightly cleaned up version of the original meaty music styles. Shake, Rattle and Roll, is one such number, slightly amended so as not to shock the local Vicar.

Ike Turner came along with his Rhythm and Blues style in his song Rocket 88, which came from the opposite side of the screen and then when Elvis jigged up the country music songs like you'd hear on the Louisiana Hayride television program, you were starting to get the cocktail stirred and built.

The real Howdy Doody of the music though, was the new sound. The electric sound.

Gretsch, one of the new breed of guitar makers 'gone electric'

a 6118 Anniversary model guitar, based on the earlier Electromatics

Rockabilly came along bang on cue with the new developments in music technology, namely the practical and purpose made electrical guitar and amplifier situation. Developments such as the echo chamber, tape echo machine, reverb tank and multi track recording all had their exposure around the start of the 1950's.

Elvis Presley with his 1942 Martin guitar

at the famous Sun Studios c. 1954

The first commercially made 'electric' guitars had appeared in the 1930's and after the hiatus of WW2, production started up again, building on new technology developed in the war.

The dedicated electric guitar, not merely an existing acoustic with a pickup lashed on to the body was now a recognised tool for the working musician. More likely to be found in the conservative venues of jazz and swing dives, being be-bopped in a Charlie Christian style.  

A 2015 Fender Stratocaster, little changed from the 1954 original

one of those 'right first time' designs

In 1954, California radio engineer Leo Fender came up with the guitar that changed music forever, the Fender Stratocaster. Building on the success of the Precision Bass and the Telecaster, his bolt together guitars took the Henry Ford production line approach.

Over in Memphis, Scotty Moore and friends were asked to back a young singer called Elvis Presley. Sam Phillips, the Sun owner had been looking for a white man who could sing like a black man and when Elvis jived up an old Bill Monroe song Blue Moon of Kentucky between studio takes, Phillips had found valhalla.

Scotty Moore on guitar, Bill Black on bass and later DJ Fontana on drums, backed Elvis on guitar, in what would be some of the embryonic rockabilly into rock and roll music. It sounded alive and exciting, it still does over 60 years later.

Gretsch guitars in the 50's were rarer than they are today

Sam Phillips, Norman Petty and Les Paul were three movers in the music technology world of the 1950's. Sam and Norman, both record producers developed ways to get unique sounds from their artists, Les Paul, was a great innovator both on musical instrument technology and music recording fronts, besides his excellent playing ability and style.

Norman Petty did for Buddy Holly, what Sam did for Elvis. Gave him a great studio sound. This was a young man's music and both Buddy Holly and Elvis were young and vibrant, that's why the music sounds fresh, even today.

What Elvis and Buddy did, was to originally take old music and shake it up. Borrowing from the Western swing, giving it a harder edge and more pace.

But then it changed, Elvis was provided with songs and Buddy Holly started writing his own, the divergent paths away from the roots had started, the music was evolving. Inevitably, record labels wanted 'their' Elvis or 'their' Buddy and anyone young with a modicum of talent started to get into music, to be the 'next whoever.

It is interesting now to look back at the diverse plethora of artists from the 1954-57 era that had a go and put their efforts onto Shellac. Many were the classic 'one hit wonders' but some survived to move out into more 'acceptable' music styles in later years.

Rockabilly started to get the harder edge and a harder look. Gone were the check shirt ploughboy cowboy hicks of 1954 and in came black leather, greased pomps and loud motorcycles of the 'Wild One' era.

Oh, and public outrage. Much as would emerge 20 years later in the Punk Rock era.

So what about the modern rockabilly scene? Well, its a varied bag of groceries, that's for sure.

After the deaths of Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran and the call up of Elvis into the Army, Rock n Roll as a hard edge sound gave way to a pappy, preppy, bobby soxin' bubble gum music, where it was a Bobby this or Bobby that singing it. The sort of toned down pomp haired boy next door look, in a pastel sport coat and tie look that'd probably get you called a queer a few years earlier.

Yep, public outrage and corporate America cleaned it up... but not for long.

Brian Setzer of the Stray Cats, Gretschmaniac

In the 1970's, a movement started to gather ground to revive the corpse of the old music. At that time, many of the original 50's stars were still young enough to perform and made appearances on the circuit. They were probably amazed at the level of renewed interest.

The untimely death of Elvis Presley, likely sparked the interest in the music again and that brought the music back up. A number of bands who had been on the fringes of the pop world were now 'booked' to record and fill the new fashion.

The UK had a big following for the music, some of its late 50's stars such as Cliff Richard, Billy Fury and others were still making records and new 'revival' acts followed, bands like Matchbox, Darts and the 'Cod Rock' set of others 'sort of in the style of'. Many were performing their own material, some covered old hits.

The movie 'Grease' came out in 1978 and further ignited the interest, although it featured music written originally for the stage show version, which starred Shakin' Stevens for a while I beleive?

In 1980, a band called the Stray Cats hit the scene and they sounded more authentic than some of the revival offerings. Their debut hit 'Runaway Boys' sounded like a train coming past you, it was exciting, vibrant and they looked the part.

With this 70's revival, in the shadows, people started to buy up the old early 50's records, usually imported in from America by the bucket load. A scene started, reviving the clothes and bands started their own efforts at the music going.

These days it has all become rather 'serious.' People are adopting rockabilly as a 'lifestyle' not old geezers, but young people. Fitting out a house with old style furniture, dressing the part and prices for some of the artefacts and clothing from the era are getting out of reach.

A Gretsch 6120 Brian Setzer Hot Rod model

In the 1970's, the revivalists often never used the 'real' guitars the music was originally made on. The great fallacy was that everyone played a Gretsch or a Fender guitar on early recordings.

The reality was that in the 1950's, many couldn't afford one of these guitars at the time, a Gretsch 6120 being around $500USD.

The reality was that many used catalog bought guitars from the Kay range and others from Sears catalogs and the like. Often, they might not have a high fidelity amplifier and use an adapted unit someone with a bit of savvy had bodged up from what radio parts were around. Ironic that many are trying to emulate a crusty old sound with much better equipment!

So, some of our Roots Rockabilly fanciers of today adopt this 'down home' way and dig out the check shirts and strap on an old Sears guitar or something similar. That's what the hardcore does. Most others go for a Gretsch, because they give you the best sound I think.

A search on YouTube will get you any number of modern revival bands who are out there servicing a willing band of followers, not just in the UK and US but all over Europe and into Japan.

It is surprising to see how serious these people are about the music and the lifestyle.

Rockabilly, the original Frankenstein music.

And there's life in the old beast yet, just crank up the volts and bring the creation to life. Again.

But watch out for the angry villagers with their flaming torches....

When the spare parts take over - transplant nightmare, here's where it gets a bit 'Frankenstein.'

That life saving transplant could have side effects!

Thanks to the Organ Donor scheme, thousands of lives have been saved and the quality of lives improved with donated human organs.

But, beyond the success stories, there is the other side of the coin, rejection and influence.

Rejection of organs, we have all heard about, this is likely due to the brain detecting that a rogue part has been installed and is trying to remove or eject it, pretty clever? So how does this work?

The Genetic strands of life perhaps code our being deeper than we think

Well, this likely has to do with the Genetic Coding unique to each of us. Essentially, all of our body parts are 'data coded' with our own genetic coding, like a computer has a unique IP address, we must therefore have a genetic fingerprint.

So, medication to stop rejection has to be given, why is this? Because the brain has already gotten the message that an organ has been 'deleted' from the body? And maybe then works out by the chemical messages that reach the brain, that something is 'different.' So, when a 'new' part appears in the circuit, it 'knows' chemically that something is wrong.

Almost, this like installing a wiring loom in a car and getting some of the plugs wrongly connected, it can start sending error messaging to the 'brain', like asking it do something out of sequence, as might happen to a robot if the software became corrupted. In a modern car, a wrong signal to the ECU can make the car malfunction.

Perhaps this type scenario in a human sends the brain neurons into some sort of a panic, or it might send out a signal that gets confused, much like a defective memory board that gets installed in a computer and the computer can't 'recognise' the board. But you know its there and installed.

Perhaps the brain neurons can't detect the original 'coded' organ that should be in the chain of human components and only detects something that is right, but is wrong because the fingerprint doesn't match.

Perhaps the DNA coding in our bodies goes deeper than we may appreciate, but this could have another reason that goes very deep and that is concerned with the next part of this work, influence.

Whilst the transplant of an organ may be a success and the rejection issue has been negated by medication that may fool the body by blocking chemical changes and then by reduced medication fooling the body into accepting something that should not be there, there is sometimes another thing that occurs and this could be straight out of a Frankenstein movie, that of 'influence.'

'Influence' is when the alien organ starts to exert the 'personality' of the donor and bring traits to the new 'host.' Such 'influences' have ranged from being attracted to certain foods, or in some cases turning people to become vegetarians, it can be attractions to some thing or a newly discovered dislike of something that you previously liked.

Although we now have a record of the human genome that if printed out on paper is an enormous 'build document,' within that 'script' as it were, must be trait indicators that code our very existence.

This is the brave new world of science, a world where we are in the shallow end of the gene pool at present in being able to determine the sex of a baby, perhaps in years to come, a manipulation of the human genome at a nuclear DNA level will effectively allow us to create a 'shopping list' human being.

Whilst this is preferable for disease or behavioural trait situations, it is starting to mess with nature. Nature makes compensations, what we may find is that by our 'customising,' that we are in danger of beautifying something but also causing further and possibly damaging and far reaching future problems.

 

Roy Lichtenstein the comic book graphic genius in review

                                  An F-86 Sabre jet In the style of Roy Lichtenstein

The original 'Whaam' by Roy Lichtenstein

The style of the late Roy Lichtenstein is instantly recognisable, from the comic book lines to the Benday dot colouring, you know who is responsible.

For me, Roy's work is dynamic and punchy. It delivers a nether world that never was in some respects, a modern America that is resplendent in its plasticity and consumer good driven white picket fence bubble.

I used to be able to buy cheap tin plate toys often coming from Hong Kong or Japan in the early 1970's before the liberal health and safety pariahs decried tin plate was dangerous. These tin plate press-formed toys were Roy Lichtenstein's artworks made flesh, well tin at any rate.

Using the Benday dots and solid colours in a harmonious union of colour, these toys either friction drive or wound up with a key were futuristic and dynamic looking.

Beyond the play value, these fragile icons looked great on the shelf. These extrusions were pop art for the masses, whenever I see a Roy Lichtenstein picture, I also think of the tin plate toys lost or still in my grasp.

I was fortunate to see the original picture of Whaam in the canvas, to actually be within a foot of those many little hand painted dots was incredible, especially when you saw the scale of the artwork.

For his dynamic impact which was all pop art is about, some of his geometry was not very exact, some of the detail on the aeroplanes were not quite 'right' but that would be only known to a person with that knowledge.

From the famous soup cans of the Pop Art era to the glamourous pin ups Roy drew, bright and often garish colours were the order of the day, impact was the name of the game.

Roy Lichtenstein broke through that illustration barrier of snobbery. Gone were the stuck-up art school pretentiousness of 'fine art' and 'classic line' that was a relic of the 18th century. Now we had West Side Story energy thrown at you, bursting with vitality.

Roy Lichtenstein broke the mould when he gave permission to be bold and simple, like Buddy Holly with often three chords and three musicians, he simplified and gave tremendous impact over the old age with a symphony orchestra behind dressed in tuxedos.

It was a pity that Roy Lichtenstein did not bring his work to life in the computer age, his iconic figures could then have been automated and pushed into motion pictures. This sort of thing was done at the time in the Yellow Submarine Beatles film, but it was all hand drawn pop art.

Pop art might be defined as Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol styles, but Jackson Pollock was in his own right a pop artists. His spun paint pictures may seem simple, but the flung out strands of paint seem to illustrate a desperation, like outstretched human limbs, grasping for something, whatever your interpretation, be that food, adulation, escape perhaps, this art is not just mindless and cheap.

Peter Blake with his Sergeant Pepper collage album cover is defined as a 'pop artist' because of that cover. No doubt, the sniffy art critics might have brushed aside that piece of iconic work as lazy, cut and paste robbery from a nostalgic age.

Or consider the work of Terry Gilliam, should that also be slated as some sort of juvenile rip off of Victoriana? No, it was clever, surreal and looks fresh, Pop Art does, that is the whole point.

It is alternative, different and is a bit like Frankenstein's monster, it doesn't really sit with the other art forms. Like the music that came together to form 1950's Rock and Roll, Pop Art is that unruly and slightly dangerous cousin that bred with close relatives to go onto spawn the Punk Rock movement and challenged the viewer to 'look at me.'

Pop Art is the art of the 'off centre' that's why I like it. It doesn't do convention.