Song for the Day!

Today's big shout out is going to Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, their album Etiquette was played at least once a day over the christmas holidays, it was frequently played back to back in fact. It is a somewhat christmas/new years themed album, generally focusing on the lonely/forlorn/melancholy side of that season. It's a genuinely beautiful album. It's nigh on impossible for me to pick a favourite track from it but i'll plumb for Nashville Parthenon

Kidulthood

Picture; My future son?

Last night i watched Where the Wild Things Are, it was a really nice, pleasantly melancholy, nicely soundtracked and visually pleasing film, with a simple premise and plot. Basically the workings and emotions of one child. Curiously, on top of the predictable yearnings for the 'simpler' time of childhood etc, i was left with a very paternal feeling. In short i straight up wanted to adopt the kid. Although i'd like to point out that i entirely would have gone and played with him in his fort and whatever rather than have a supposedly 'mature' date with some jerk(ess) from my office. I can't stand this pseudo idea the majority of people possess about adult maturity. It's definitions as far as i can tell appear to be the ability to have no sense of humour about oneself, and be entirely lacklustre about everything in your life, except maybe getting drunk and organised sports. Bear in mind this isn't the absent ramblings of a child who never wants to grow up, and will never leave home and never drink alcohol and all that stuff. I love being drunk and away from home. I'm 23, i know who i am and i know how i feel, and frankly, i feel like i'm one of very few people who have truly grown-up.

Burka

The whole Burka issue. Any infringement against civil liberties and personal freedoms is liable to be a mistake and in the long run isn't worth it. It's not worth the loss of those freedoms, or the precedent that's established by introducing such legislation. The supporters of it argue that it's socially devisive, that could be applied to any mode of dress, someone with short hair and a tracksuit probably views my hair as socially devisive. It's generally up to the indvidual to be socially involved, certainly through most of my teenage years i didn't appear especially approachable when i walked down the street. And that seems to be the only reference to said devisiveness, the apparent fear caused by a group of burka clad women, how talkative is anybody as they walk down the street? I don't leave the house and expect to make new friends everywhere I go. I also doubt there would be much of an issue if the women in question weren't muslim Asians, i doubt if they were simply a new fashion favoured by white british women there would be so much terror. Only time and a cautious, inoffensive government, can assure a hope of ethnic integration, and continuosly pointing out the differences, whether through posistive or negative discrimination, will only heighten the divisions.

No Direction (home)

It's the middle of the week, and i feel way too distant from the joys of the weekend; i.e. the excuse to drink liberally. As much as i don't want to openly acknowledge some kind of mid-twenties crisis, i've reached the stage were i feel slightly uncomfortable if i haven't got at least a taste of whisky on my lips at some point during the day. If nothing else it's an expensive habit to possess. Otherwise things are going OK with the revision etc, there's not alot i can do now about the various things i don't know, and i'm confident in my ability to spin a story that makes me look like i do know what i'm talking about with the barest amount of information possible. I've come to the conclusion that i really need some things to focus on outside of academia (not that i ever focus very much on that), that's part of the reason i started blogging. I've also very tentatively begun writing, a short story is the aim, and I think the premise if nothing else is fairly strong, but whether or not i've actually got the ability to write it is an open question.
I completed watching No Direction Home last night, i spread it over two nights due to it's considerable length and a wholly inadequate buffer speed. I won't go into detail, you should probably watch it if you want to know what it's about. But i was mesmerised by it throughout, I know it's predictable to idolise an enigmatic musician, but i think with Dylan it's reasonably acceptable. Not to mention the fact that my cynicism (and probably narcissism) rarely allows me to be fully complementary about anybody. And i think his character could be described as cantankerous, fickle or petulant but hardly enigmatic.
Back to what it's all about, the music. It's a mighty difficult taks picking out one Bob Dylan song, there being many. Do i go electric or acoustic? So many controversies (although i assume nobody actually cares about that anymore). Well if anybody does this is going to sting - Highway 61

Song for the Day!

Todays song will be from Canadian mentalists Of Montreal, their music can vary wildly but always possesses sexually dubious undertones and their live shows appear, frankly, terrifying. We Were Born Again With Leafling is possibly not the best way to really advertise this band or their general sound, but is possibly more accessible than some of their other songs, and plus i could only find live versions of the track i wanted to choose.

Must be Dreaming

I've been having some strange dreams over the last couple of nights, last night i was engaged in a violent confrontation with a fictitious neighbour over a bike i apparently stole from him. A surreal dream, most of all the part where my mum slipped me a baseball bat but at least my unconscious self feels well supported. The night before involved one of my friends insistantly calling me a 'creep', so much so in fact i woke up pouring with sweat. Clearly i get very upset when i get called a creep. I also dreamed that this guy i had a fight with a couple of years ago paid some guys to get me, as i was visiting my ex-girlfriends grandfathers house with another of my friends, something that only happens occassionally in my everyday life.
I'm hoping tonight i might get some slightly more romantic dreams, maybe involving a young Kate Bush? Although those dreams are worse to wake up from, there's a relief provided waking up from bad dreams, but waking up to realise i'm not in fact involved in a steamy affair with an 80's pop star tends to ruin my entire day. I generally don't dream more often than once every few months so this is a surprising spree that i can't say i'm exactly enjoying, although my unconcious hours are certainly more interesting for it.

Exam/Song for the Day!

I survived my first exam intact today, unfortunately i think the experience has once again reinforced my belief that i can get by with the minimum amount of effort. It might of course turn out that i failed completely, but i'm feeling pretty confident that i've passed it, for better or worse. I decided to get a song wedged in my head before i went in, it's a new tactic of mine designed to fill the tedious pauses between writing that occur when sitting an exam. What better song to preserve my consciousness than Kate Bush - Cloudbursting.

the wide ocean

I went down to the seafront today, i'll probably steal a few of Sophie's photo's to put up later. I find whenever i see the sea and stand by it for a while i feel rejuventated, young again; all of the guilt, shame, pain and dissappointment that's accrued through my adult life is washed away and swallowed by the deep and i'm once again a child, free of weight - reborn. The rush of the waves over the sand and stones and the hiss as they slide back out, drags a little of my burden away with it, out into the wide ocean. It's a temporary release, but a pleasant one.

Song for the Day!

A Sunny Day in Glasgow are a mega hip philly based ensemble, my favourite song of theirs presently is The White Witch!

Every Other Blog

Pictures; where i'm aiming to go with this blog

I made the mistake of clicking the 'next blog' button a couple of days ago, and it's been hard to stop clicking it since. However the initial excitement at the prospect of prying into other peoples lives swiftly wore off, giving way to the discovery that there only appear to be eight different types of blog. Worst are the generic twenty something's (hello me). Almost every twenty something female blog begins with a statement along the lines of 'i'm just a twenty ___ year old girl, trying to make my way in the world', usually accompanied by a picture of a rabbit/puppy or kitten. Their blog posts are usually a brief description of what they had for breakfast followed by a mildly amusing story about what happened to their boyfriend/friend/parent while shopping at the mall today. And they have a considerable predisposition towards pink.
The average male twenty something blog (replete with manly black background) begins with a statement such as 'today we do what we do everyday, try to take over the world', or something equally humourous/bewildering, usually backed with an image of their favourite hollywood star in all his blood-spattered glory. Their posts tend to be about the latest video game/film they've watched/played, followed by a brief description of their most recent night on the tiles complete with an amusing story of what happened to their girlfriend/friend/genitals.
The other six types are; Left Wing liberal, Right Wing conservative (political blogs), nuclear family blog, religious nuclear family blog, eccentric japanese girl/boy blog, a blog trying to sell beauty products. While I'm aware that my blog is probably not a bastion of interest and originality, the banality of most of the carbon copy blogs out there seem to confirm my suspicions that most people are actively trying their hardest to be exactly like everyone else. Anyway, i've got this great story from last night about my genitals....

(I may have left out depressive teenage goth/emo, desperately single man/woman in their mid to late 40's, and OAP's with a wealth of gardening and allotment information to share)

Song for the Day!

I been putting up print outs of bands/images etc on my walls to cover up the sterile hall walls, I've completely covered the giant cork board, so I'm celebrating with Jeff Lewis' Posters!

Vive la Revolution

There's not going to be much of a post today, due to revision en masse (the Gallic language is seeping in). Up above is the book i'm using, in that image it may not appear terribly intimidating, until you pick it up. Then the terror is only too real. In truth it's a fairly enjoyable read, and if i'd done as i planned on doing, and read the whole thing over christmas i'd have no doubt enjoyed it more than my present enforced diet of it allows. It is a fascinating and bizarre period of history, with consequences which altered the world substantially in the long run. Certainly it sheds a wonderful light on just how ker-razy (it really required it) the French were, and no doubt still are. It's a great study of people and in particular the people of Paris. History is simply the study of people, somehow through the secondary education system we've been lead to believe it's something much less interesting.

Song for the Day!

I almost forgot Song for the Day! Going for a bit of a genre change with this one, Memory Tapes makes lovely lush synth based stuff, some of it reasonably dancey, some of it ambient. All of his Seek Magic album is a magical listen, i've picked the track Graphics today.

Woman of my Dreams

If anyone if curious as to exactly what i want out of a woman, they, and I, need look no futher than this video. She has energy, enthusiasm and charisma, not to mention a fantastic sense of rhythm. The guy next to her is totally missing out. I like to look at pictures while listening to music, it's a great way of avoiding revision and of feeling like your participating in life, i've been looking at a few sites including Selby. There's nothing better than getting a look inside the homes of the trendiest people on the scene. If anyone can recommend any other picture filled sites for me to while away the hours to, that'd be great!

Birthday, revising and Hugo Chavez

Pictures; Happy Birthday! and Hugo Chavez looking for imperialist pig-dogs

Happy Birthday Sophie! For yesterday obviously, hopefully a blog post is as good as a card. You've got to get used to people not caring anymore now you're not a teenager. A lengthy day of revising lies ahead of me. It will be fascinating to see just how much i do (i told myself i'd be doing it by now). It's likely i wont do nearly as much as i hope/and need to, but that shouldn't come as a surprise to me by now. I've spent all of my life in academic unpreparedness, and so far i've scraped by. And i've probably just jinxed myself rather badly.
Anyway, on to other news, it looks like the death toll in Haiti is much higher than was first predicted with somewhere between 100-200,000 people likely to have died. At least the relief effort is firmly under control now with plenty of aid workers and US troops on the ground. Gotta love Hugo Chavez, he's already accused America of occupying Haiti under the pretext of delivering aid. What an amazing mentalist. One of my housemates' dad lives in Colombia, which neighbours Chavez's Venezuela, and according to reports from her family there Chavez is on the verge of pushing the two countries into a war with each other. What a wonderful man, how could the guardian have misjudged him so badly?

Song for the Day!

The time has come for me to post a Jay Reatard track, i've been listening to him every day but the man made alot of music. Puppet Man isn't neccesarily my favourite track of his, but it's the one that's in my head at the moment. Apparently his death is now being handled by the homocide department so it looks like it might have been murder which is mega freaky. Reatard was supposed to have been a bit of a loose cannon, lots of drugs and fights etc, which i imagine accumulates a few enemies here and there. It'll be interesting to see the cases resolution anyway.

That time of the year

Pictures; Would you look at the size of that egg! and Manhood MAX (no puns required)

I bought my first creme eggs of the year on saturday! Their appearance on the shelves is without a doubt the most exciting thing about the start of the new year. I bought a six pack, impressively i've only eaten two so far. Unfortunately my metabolism is beginning to slow, the heady creme egg consumption of my teenage years is long behind me.
I noticed today that they sell viagra on Amazon, quite alot of it in fact. I SWEAR i was only browsing films, nothing more. Seriously, it's true!

District Dirt

Pictures; Big Spaceship and (possibly) Alien fecal matter

Ah the university high-life. Hygiene is clearly an integral part of my flatmates lives, as the above picture of our kitchen bin (taken just before i emptied it/scraped it off the floor) is testament to. I really have no idea why there was a broom lying across the heap, it certainly hasn't been used anytime recently, artistic license perhaps. But the real feat of the day is the smell emanating from the flat opposite us. While i'm still holding out that they were attempting to break the world record for most eggs scrambled in one day, it's looking ever more likely that they are the victims of a sewage leak. It certainly makes me feel better about the mysterious puddle that forms in the middle of our carpeted hallway every afternoon.
I watched District 9 on the big screen for FREE last night, i liked it, it was a definite step up from most sci-fi films. The filming and effects were nice, and the lack of any recognisable actors only improved the immersion of the experience (although the opportunity to cast aspersions about Tom Cruise having sexual relations with aliens would've been wonderful). South Africa was a great place to set it, connotations with apartheid etc worked really well with the plot and atmosphere.

Californication

If you're bored enough to be reading this, you're also possibly bored enough to need a new TV show in your life. I've just watched the first series of Californication and am mightily impressed. There are very few tv shows that i've actually enjoyed or had more than a passing interest in but this one i've both enjoyed it and feel genuinely invested in the characters involved, the lead in particular. In a nutshell David Duchovny (of X-files fame) plays Hank Moody, a washed up author living in LA, his wife has left him for a rich guy and taken their daughter with her, while Duchovny's character hasn't written anything new for years. And his prized novel 'God Hates Us All' has been filmified into a romcom starring everybody's favourite scientologists Tom and Katie.
It's set around (primarily the most expensive parts of) LA, and centres on a few main themes of Hanks life. His endless series of explicit liasons with a vast multitude of women, his longing to have his family back, and his inability to write anything. Hank's a laconic, witty and highly likeable character, possesed of New York disdain for the city he's in and a general loathing for most of the people in it, replete with various references to punk rock and Bob Dylan. Duchovny's great in the role and soon dispels any X-files related fears about his acting ability, the show's well paced, funny and i've found it's that rare thing - a TV programme who's characters i can actually indentify with, in one way or another.

'Blacker than Barack Obama'

Pictures above: Sexy Rod Blagojevich and Fox Noos

If you pronounce Obama as Obam-er it rhymes. This is going to be a mini-rant about this article and the current trend of overt racism in the republican branch of the american media in general. The article in question occured after former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich (pronounced bla-goi-a-vich) inferred he was 'blacker' than the current president of the US because he was poorer when he grew up. So once we've managed to overlook in fact that a man who lost his position after charges of corruption, in one of the highest profile cases of it's type in US history, has the nerve to criticise anybody else about anything at all, we can then revel in his apparent belief that racial groups are now predicated on their wealth and social status rather than the colour of their skin. It's hard to work out if this makes him more or less prejudiced. Certainly there is no dispute about him his levels of studpidity.
Anyone who isn't familiar with the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and has access to 4od (another downside to university is the network will only let you watch the adverts), it's imperative you check it 'art. While it might be possible to label it as a specifically biased left-wing, pro-democrat show, once you see how the other side (ie Fox News) operates, you realise that there are many good reasons for their leaning that way. A) They're not crazy and B) they're not nearly aggressive enough. The levels of overt and frankly unquestioned racism beggar belief. While i believe there is an overwhelming trend towards politically correct broadcasting in this country, which is stagnating creativity and the media in general (Daily Mail exempt), when you see the remarkable slander american journalists can get away with it makes you more than a little grateful. From one pundit demanding Tiger Woods renounces Buhddism for Catholiscism because it offers greater spiritual support in such cirumstance as adultery (is that really a positive advertisement for a religion?), then moving on to point out how Catholiscism is in fact better than every other world religion, to another pundit simply stating how much better America and it's cities are than every other nation and their cities.
To cap it all off Sarah Palin now has her own show and has been told she has the full backing of Fox News to say absolutely whatever she wants. I gather her shows will primarily constitute advocacy of abortion clinic bombings and mandatory death sentences in every state. The number of bleach blond faux tanned idiot bints who have a pedestal on that station is alarming beyond words, the face of the future Hitlers and Stalins is likely to belong to a 'soccer mom'. I suppose at least it proves sex discrimination is very old hat.

Sunny Day in Aberystwyth/ Song for the Day

A sunny sunday in aberystwyth! Not alot planned today, possibly some film watchin' and/or whisky drinkin'. I probably have to get myself mobilised revision wise tomorrow, my first exam is a week on monday. I might do another post later, but i'm helping my currently crippled friend sophie down at the library so this one will have to be cut short. Song for the Day is by the inglorious (does that mean glorious or not glorious, is it even a real word?) Modest Mouse, probably and predictably my favourite band in general terms. When i saw them in December they played this song as the first part of their encore, it was well worth the twenty odd minutes they took before returning to the stage, and it's a song that's been floating around in my head all over the christmas holiday. The song is Spitting Venom.

Song for the Day!

This is my first post from uni, made it back safe and sound to aberystwyth yesterday. Got back at about 3.30ish, and started drinking from about 5. A fine first day back courtesey of Teachers whisky, I think the new year has really begun now. I can't think of anything especially interesting to post today so i'll stick with Song for the Day for now.

I listened to No Age's Nouns album twice on the drive back (and not just because of the limited selection of cd's in my car), it helped break the monotony of a journey spent behind the same vehicle for roughly an hour and twenty minutes. There are definite similarities between No Age and Times New Viking, they're both part of a new Fuzz-Punk (my definition) movement that seems to be happening in American indie circles at the moment, a movement i'm entirely happy about. I decided i'd upload the video's straight to the blog, but i'm getting the impression the university servers aren't happy about that, so i'll stick to linking. This is Teen Creeps by No Age.

Last post today is a video/mini-movie by Dan Deacon, Woof Woof

Song for the Day!

I'm planning on picking a 'song for the day', basically whatever is floating my boat most as i type this. It would've been most fitting for todays to be by Jay Reatard, but the aforementioned lack of familiarity means i'll hold off on that for a couple of days. Todays is by Times New Viking, a fuzzy lo-fi threepiece. Think Moldy Peaches covered in distortion. With amazingly short songs. Another Day racks up a lengthy 1:49

It was sad news to hear about Jay Reatard yesterday, i'm not amazingly familiar with his music, but from what i have heard it's good stuff. No doubt i'll become his biggest fan now he's dead (Elliott Smith anybody).
Here he is in living flesh, all i've heard so far is he "died in his sleep", plausibly the vaguest description ever, at just 29 years old too. Which will only add to my ageist paranoia.

Continuing the morbid theme, things are looking pretty heavy over in Haiti, tens of thousands may be dead, and that's a figure that could rise. It seems like there's been a rapid and positive international reaction to the disaster, with alot of aid in men, food and equipment coming in from alot of places. Haiti's one of the few countries that will actually benefit from being on the USA's doorstep. I've posted a picture of the presidential palace there (post earthquake). My first post proper is an impressively depressing one.

Link worked! Here's a picture of me!

Creation

I decided to make a blog as a record of myself for myself, as nobody else is likely to waste their time viewing this except me. So basically a diary. But, because it's on the interweb, more exciting by default, which means i'm more likely to keep it updated. Oh and also i can post videos (i think? i'll find out) and photo's and stuffs.


Here's a link tester, this is the hard working British police force in action