Earlier Kyla was asking Mr Hopkinson, our administrator about about all his personas as people had been talking about him to her this week. Mr Hopkinson asked me to explain to Kyla about his personas.
And now for you dear cubelog readers or the readers of what Rasha refers to as Mr Hopkinson’s diary, I will share the information I procured from him for an interview for the arty book OUT NOW IN MANY ART SHOPS including Here. The information below
explains all of Mr Hopkinson personas in great detail.
>I am interested in your multi talented, multiple personality creations. How many personas do you have ?
Confident Bob, zoofoxx, mr_hopkinson are the main ( self assigned 3 ) also related are . . .
mr_hopkinson’s computer, David Hopkinson, Dave Hopkinson, Dave, Vid, Hopkinson, Chiz ( we have been mistaken for each other by strangers on occasions ), Hoppo, David
I may have missed some . . .
These variations, are not so clearly ‘personas’ however, any name has subtle( or not so subtle ) associations that approach personadom . . . Some of these other people call me, some I call myself and some are both (usually the best! ).
Confident Bob was a deliberate construction from when I was working primarily on Stoloff&Hopkinson to distinguish my djing from that project. Still gets occasional use.
Zoofoxx rocks. Other spellings include Zufoxx, Zoofoxxx etc . . . I could goon about Super Group Extreme, but why should I why you can just switch on your teevee, or pick up a copy of ‘Heat’ magazine etc
mr_hopkinson is a catch-all general use one ( also abbreviated to mr_h ). Used to include design, music, filmmaking, radio hosting, photography and djing, and other things. Also as an easy ‘unique name can help to avoid other variations I’m not so fond of ( see below ). It’s nice to use what ismy ‘real name’ as a persona – makes me chuckle anyway when I get letters from the bank etc addressed to ‘Mr Hopkinson’.
mr_hopkinson’ computer. This is the name for electronic musical cover versions. To be honest I do the bulk of the work, but I like to give the the computer a bit of the glory, and I couldn’t do it without her/him/it
David Hopkinson is my name, no joke, my parents really did call me this. wow.
Dave Hopkinson is what I sometimes get called, tho I prefer not to . . . especially on flyers etc, but I don’t like to make too much of a fuss ( conversationally that is, I will make a fuss for a flyer/poster if there’s any chance before print . . .)
Dave, inevitable abbreviation of David – don’t really like it – and will point that out occasionally, but not excessively – making too much of a fuss just isn’t cricket. ( see above. )
Vid, preferable David abbreviation ( kind of punny with the videoing thing )but never really caught on any significant scale, and you can’t force these things. However in S&H on occasions Mr Stoloff would call me this and I would call him Dre ( from his first name Alexandre ).
Hopkinson, left over as a kind of abbreviation of the aforementioned S&H,maybe I guess, or an abbreviation of ‘David Hopkinson’ – applied by othersnot myself – could be a bit like Morrissey stylee, but I don’t really like it – reminds me of belligerent ghouls in Manchester schools . . . implies nastier teacher pupil relationship, hence the more respectful and adult(ha!), though mainly cheeky, ‘mr_’ prefix is added.
Hoppo, this comes from the Minto days – the studio that I moved to Bristol to be a part of. Minto is a long complicated and beautiful story that there’s no time to unfold here. Most of the artists were assigned abbreviated names ( e.g. Mark Samsworth – Sammy, in a tabloid footable style ) – I think mine came from Annabel Other ( or Zaa Zaa ). Hoppo stuck,and I don’t mind it toooo much as it’s usually quite affectionate, however Iam aware it is somewhat ludicrous sounding, like a circus clown or something(possibly part of the charm ), and would never introduce myself with it . . ( tho I riffed off it for certain artworks, e.g. my art shop ‘Hoppo Shopper’ )However it’s not really a persona as such, more an affectionate nickname. Hopkinson has too many syallables for some people, so they say
‘Dave . . .’, ‘Which Dave?’, ‘Dave Hoppo’ “Ah, ok . . .’
David. This is how I invariably introduce myself. [ to which the person says “Dave, right, right. Ok, right. Dave.” ]
>
>
>
> which ones are extrovert, which ones are introvert,
> which ones are eccentric… which ones are
> enthuisasts.
extrovert : Zufoxx, Confident Bob, mr_hopkinson
introvert: David, mr_hopkinson’s computer, mr_hopkinson
eccentric: Zufoxx, Confident Bob, mr_hopkinson, mr_hopkinson’s computer
enthusiast: David, mr_hopkinson
By the way, I am also known as Granzon, but enough about me already. Sheesh. May as well call it ‘The Hopblog’.
Balls to Hoppo – More Cubes please.
Re: The John E Vistic Experience and ‘Rule 101’
(1) John E Vistic is not English
(2) Next time you listen to Van Morrison tell him to sing in an Irish Accent.
(3) Next time you listen Nick Cave tell him to sing in an Australian Accent.
(4) Next time you listen to The Coral tell them to sing in a Liverpool Accent.
(5) Next time you listen to The Alabama Three tell them to sing in a Scottish Accent.
(6) Next time you listen to Coldplay just TURN IT FUCKING OFF.
Not pissed off at all by small town colloquial accent facsists in pursuit of so called ‘authenticity’ particularly those who make and sell covers albums of a computer voice singing Top 40 hits.
Or maybe I just don’t understand why fellow Bristol-based musicians have to slag each other off.
Regards,
Marcus Black Heart
http://www.blackheartstudios.co.uk
Hi Marcus,
very sorry to hear you took offence to my blogging of The John E. Vistic Experience at The Venn Festival.
as I said :
Thank you for pointing out that, as I suspected . . .
. . . and that something was . . .
I did not know that and am genuinely happy to have it pointed out.
However, I would like to make a few points . . .
I feel I must point out that the purpose of moderating the Blog for the Cube is to document and celebrate The Cube and it’s associated scene ( such as the Venn festival ) – it is not aimed to cause offence.
I personally am very sorry it was read as a case of . . .
This was definitely not the intention.
As I see it, I made one mistaken assumption, which you have now corrected, and simply stated that it wasn’t my thing – not that I thought The John E. Vistic Experience was of poor quality or as it happened not to my taste that this was in any way a general consensus, or intended to be presented as such.
I feel being labelled . . .
. . . is unfair and insulting, and the idea that I would feel it appropriate to “tell” another artist what to do in their own practice, a misunderstanding.
I also feel it is inappropriate and embarrassing to myself to attach the comment to a different post and catergory ( both created by someone else, that I find embarrassing enough as it is ! ). I feel that this could well appear to be self-aggrandising at first glance to the casual viewer.
With your permission I would like to move the post to the Venn post [ https://sparror.cubecinema.com/cubelog/2005/06/17/where-was-i-venn/ ] to which it relates.
I heard many very good reports relating to The John E. Vistic Experience, though I would be lying if I didn’t say, some people were very into it, some happened to prefer other things – I took this not to be an adverse indication of the band’s quality, but of a variety of tastes from a festival audience.
In the short time I shared with them I thoroughly enjoyed their ( your ? ) company, and aim to support anyone pursuing artistic endeavours locally, nationally or internationally, it can be hard I know!
I’m pleasantly surprised when *anything* I do gets a warm reaction, I know my output isn’t to all tastes, as no-one’s can be – in my experience if anything approaches universal approval it ends up being bland and common denominator, which can be the worst thing of all!
I hope my intentions are clear, and genuine apologies for any offence caused,
with respect,
David Hopkinson
I actually did this, and Mr Van Morrison informed me that he does sing in an Irish accent – that Irish accents are one of the many roots of what we know as ‘american’ accents and that they do tend to sound similar. Thus informed, I told him to sing in a Puerto Rican accent, which he did… ‘lovv to lovv de lovv dat lovvs to lovv’ and so on. It was very heartwarming.
Um, firstly, with reference to personas I am known primarily as two – ‘mummy’ and ‘bird’. Some women would find the latter offensive but as it’s not part of my vocabulary I find it both amusing and romantic. Generally I am known as Emma – (and know myself as this), though my ex calls me Em, along with his family – although I never gave them permission and havn’t had the heart to say otherwise. It makes me feel a little little and somewhat homely, especially when Auntie is added before it. But try as I might to hide it homely is exactly what I am.
In the village – if not known by name I’m ‘the artist’. Which I quite like – in an egotistical kind of way.
Officially speaking I insist on Ms and get annoyed when it is pressumed I’m a Mrs or a Miss.
It is interesting that I should be I should be reflecting on this as my email address is a reference to a past identity. One which I must in some way still hanker after. I am not happy that I chose it, in fact rather embarrased (it seems now a bit ‘trying to be different’)- I was being pressured by the ‘bird’ caller to come up with something quick as ‘Emma Davies’ is far to ‘common’ – and ‘we’ll be here all bloody day’.
And secondly, if you are the same David Hopkinson that is part of my past may I take this opportunity to say hello.
Kind Regards and Best Wishes
Yes, I am the same David Hopkinson that is part of your past, unless by some strangeness there are 2 Emma Bluehairs! May I take this opportunity to say hello back . . .
. . . good to hear from you, Emma. And good to know, extrapolating from what they call you in the village, that you’re still making Art : )