Song for the Day!

I'm enjoying being thoroughly blissed-out on a daily basis by Washed Out

Kate Bush & Delia

Well knicked this off another blog (I wont say which), but i think that's basically how blogs work anyway.

The Sea The Sea

I finished the above book last week and thought i'd post about it. It's a story about a retiring theatre director who buys a house by the sea (surprisingly) and begins to recount his memoirs in diary form. The book is written by the main character as it were. It starts off pretty tranquil with some beautiful and quite evocative descriptions of the sea, and the lead, Charles Arrowby's monologueing his general pottering about, then becomes something quite different. I don't want to give away the plot (and ruin it for the hundreds who read this blog on a daily basis), but suffice to say it becomes a lot tenser. Being written from the leads perspective everything is written in the past tense, and all from his perspective, and this conjured up some really insular feelings for me. Sometimes i would find myself siding with his opinion, at other points against it, and eventually feeling like it was my opinion regardless, the mad heights which he reaches seemed to be acceptable to me until i reached the end of the book. I'm also impressed with Iris Murdoch's writing from the perspective of a male, as much as Charles Arrorwby is hardly your average 'bloke', the writing still feels firmly masculine. I would recommend the book, providing you're willing to devote some time (it's a bit on the wide side), and plenty of patience.

And some more

Pic-chas

Song for the Day!

Doing my usual malarkey of ignoring my blog completely now i'm home and it's the HOLIDAYS (!!), here's the Wave Pictures, who a couple of my friends (I have at least two) went to see the other night and were amazing, and really nice guys or something. Their lyrics are incredible and ring bells loudly in the ears of anyone who's grown up in a small english town, the song Kiss Me is among the best of these, with the John Lennon bit blowing my mind.

Whatever Works

Just watched Whatever Works, an interesting one. Essentially it's Woody Allen expressing the anxieties of his age through the medium of Larry David, who is the most perfectly obvious candidate to fill his shoes, perhaps the only man alive and in acting who could rival Allen as the definitive neurotic narcissistic new york Jew. I think there is some curiosity as to why Woody didn't take the lead himself in this film, character issues aside (David is much more brutal and less vulnerable than Allen), i think the role of non-acting director is one which we can probably get used to from him from now on. It's strange to see Allen with silver hair, not that he was ever the picture of youth, a small and unathletic build and inch thick glasses, but there was a kind of fervent, rabid energy to his performances (maybe 'behaviour' would be a better word) which I suppose could only fade with old age. Larry David meanwhile didn't hit the screen until his latter days and being old and crochety is all part of his schtick, as opposed to Allen being middle-aged and crochety.
Woody's opinion; "You don't get smarter, you don't get more wiser, you don't get more mellow, you don't get more kindly. Nothing good happens. Your back hurts more. You get more indigestion. Your eyesight isn't as good. You need a hearing aid. It's a bad business getting older, and I would advise you not to do it"
Honestly i'm looking forward to being able to say stuff like that. More than i already do.
I always enjoy Allens films so there's no point in me atempting to disect it or whatever, and i'm also mightily looking forward to You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger (we should all be so lucky amiright).

Brockian Portrait

The picture above^ needs some explanation. The guy on the left is Isaac Brock, Modest Mouse frontman and songwriter, the guy on the right (with the specs) is the rather patriotically named Sam Adams, mayor of Portland, Oregon. On the wall in between them is a portrait of Isaac wearign lederhosen and standing in front of a boar (!?), this painting hangs in Mr Adams' office. Truly indie reverence has reached new heights. Check out the video below

Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse Unveils His Rokoff Portrait from Mayor Sam Adams on Vimeo.

Fresh Gig: Laura at the Literary Festival

Saw Laura Marling at Hay Festival last night. First up got to say a little bit about the festival and how nice it is to live near something like that, it's amusing and kind of wonderful that all these people turn up to a tiny town and wander round reading books and being slightly pretentious. And I mean that in the most flattering way possible, it's just a very lively place to be.
Laura was marvellous, incredible. Her voice is remarkable, it's strength and depth and it's flexibility are astounding, and never used gratuitously, so good is it that the hair on the back of my neck was prickling with excitement throughout. The songs I've posted above where all played last night, including the Neil Young cover (The Needle..), which was one of the first songs she learned to play, and apparently her mum thought she wrote it. Despite it being about heroin. On stage she was charming and witty, and also emotive and open, i think everyone in the room (or tent) felt a connection with her, even when the sound cut out during Goodbye England. Did I want to marry her immediately after the show? Yes I did. Surely there can be no better way of grading the enjoyment received from a gig. She's even a top drawer whistler.