I've already posted about how Terence Trent D'Arby fits into my music reminiscences and have just bought Introducing the hardline according to... album from iTunes (nobody was selling it on eBay which says one of two things...). And as I now know there are some fellow fans out there I thought I'd post this video. It's not Sign Your Name but Wishing Well which, as a teenager, was always a popular tune for me to dance around my bedroom to and which subsequently annoyed the hell out of my parents due to the excessively creaky floorboards (the living room was underneath my bedroom).
Just like to add that the video shows how a chap needn't spend hours at the gym to get that 'macho' upside down 'V' physique, shoulder pads and slim-fit slacks have exactly the same effect...
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June 2007
30/06/2007
Fife walk
My sister lives in a shitty 20th century village in Fife, Scotland. It was built to house local miners during the 50s. Of course the mines have all closed down now and there is high unemployment and the associated problems.
On a recent visit to my sisters I had time to take her beautiful miniature daschund, Schnitz, out for a walk along the edge of the salt flats on the Firth, near to Culross.
It was a beautiful evening; mild, lightly breezy, late blooming sun, an oasis between some otherwise torrid weather, the whole country had been experiencing.
Here are some of the photo's I took (on my camera phone)
Vox Hunt: It Happened Last Summer
Show us your favorite photo from last summer.
Sorry there are two. Both from mine and Mosh's holiday in Turkey last May/June.
First the silly one:
29/06/2007
I ate cheese cake
Not a big deal for most people I know but I'm wheat and dairy intolerant.
As I've got older I've got stricter with myself over what I would treat myself too that would potentially upset my stomach and I haven't had a proper dessert for at least a couple of years. My philosophy is that if I'm going to upset my stomach it will something I really enjoy but I've sort of been saving myself.
I miss cheese cake and as there is no wheat and dairy free alternative, I miss it a lot.
Tonight, under the influence of some nice Spanish rose in a lovely Spanish restaurant, my resistance was weakened, not helped by the fact that our table abutted the dessert fridge. The cheesecake was home made. It would have been rude not to.
The waitress gave me an extra large slice :0)
I will feel it tomorrow and probably for the next two days. But it was worth every slowly savoured spoonful.
28/06/2007
27/06/2007
Back again
I should probably have done this as an answer to AKA Vasquez's Vox Hunt earlier in the week because everyone I
But I am glad at least that The Verve are reforming. For the second time.
I love the whole slightly miserable, north-west England sound that is also so distinctly British. I don't know how successful they were outside Britain but I can't imagine their songs being played and appreciated anywhere other than here. But then the Arctic Monkey's seem to be enjoying some success in America so maybe I'm being unfair.
I hope they stay together long enough to get a new album out but with their history and Richard Ashcroft's ego it's unlikely to be a long and illustrious recording career together.
Here are a couple of tracks and I've purposefully avoided Bitter Sweet Symphony, even though it is an excellent song.
26/06/2007
Strange film
Went to see Chumscrubber on Sunday at the Clapham Picture House.
The one review I had seen was appalling but it had Jamie Bell in it and he tends to choose interesting films, so I thought I'd give it a go even though I knew very little about it.
I was gobsmacked at the cast: Ralph Fiennes, Glenn Close, Carrie Anne Moss, Rory Culkin as well as Bell.
While all the parents in a perfect middle class town get on with their perfect lives the kids are all happily getting shit-faced on drugs until the town's drug dealer hangs himself without even hinting to his best friend (Bell) what he intends to do. Bell, the town outsider, is then blackmailed by a group of kids into retrieving the remaining stash from his dead friend's house.
That's the basic premise.
It makes it sound straightforward but it is a very strange film. I cannot decide whether I loved or hated it. It completely perplexed me, which is something I suppose.
It lifted scenarios straight from, amongst others: Donnie Darko, Alpha Dogs (although Chumscrubber pre-dates Alpha Dogs it is based on a true story that doesn't), Six Feet Under and Desperate Housewives. The result was a highly derivative mish-mash.
But in it's defence it had that stellar cast who were brilliantly bonkers in their performances and there were one or two excellent satirical moments.
While I was watching, I couldn't help thinking why all these renowned actors chose to be in a film with such a crap title and play such contrived bizarre characters? For example, Ralph Fiennes plays the town mayor who undergoes a moment of enlightenment, having read a local psychologist's self help guide, and starts painting dolphins everywhere. Okaaay.
The Chumscrubber of the title refers to a character in a video game who's relevance is, well I'm not entirely sure.
This film won awards when it was first released. If anyone else has seen it I'd be curious to hear their views because it has completely flumaxed me.
25/06/2007
Vox Hunt: It's A Thin Line...
Show us something you love but everyone else hates.
Submitted by AKA Vasquez.
It's the SIS building at Vauxhall more commonly known as the Mi6 building. It was designed by Sir Terry Farrell and is fortress with art deco sophistication.
It looks like a slightly wacky modern building from afar but once up close you begin to see the many high security features that cloak it in mystery. When I cycle by it in the morning there are often vans with blacked out windows going in through the heavy security gates.
The fact that I will never, ever see the inside or even get close adds to its appeal.
Despite its function of secrecy and security Farrell hasn't forgotten us public, spilling the design over into the river walkway with a water features, art deco inspired seating, gazebo and lamp posts. I suppose it is part of it's disguise.
At night when it is lit up it reminds me a bit of Minas Morgal in Lord of the Rings
24/06/2007
QotD: The Never-Ending Boat Ride
What's the longest boat ride you've ever been on?
Plymouth (SW England) to Santander (Northern Spain) which takes about 11 hours. We did the overnight crossing and got a cabin. This route has
Some people do the return trip as a mini-cruise, spending a just a few hours in Spain for lunch and shopping. Santander is a typical shit-hole ferry port and the ferry itself ain't that great, probably one step up from the south coast-northern France ferrys. You've got to be fairly cheap-scate or desperate or sad to want to do that trip as a mini cruise.
23/06/2007
Musical blast from the past
Was in a shop in Edinburgh this morning and they were playing some old Terence Trent D'Arby that brought back memories of the Sixth Form socials I used to go to at the local yacht club. Despite the fact that most of us were under age the bar served everyone, with some interesting results.
Anyway those are stories for another day.
But it got me thinking about other music that conjures recollections of particular events from my formative years. After a bit of web searching because I couldn't remember the name of the track, I came across this one which is Killer by Adamski/Seal.
It reminds me of my 19th birthday which I celebrated in Liverpool where I was at Uni. Me and my friends used to go to the most strange mixture of clubs, never the truly cool ones.
On this occasion we went to the club underneath the Aldephi Hotel which back then we thought was posh but in hindsight was at best representative of faded grandeur and at worse a flea pit.
I can't remember the actual name of the club, it certainly wasn't a student haunt and was quite expensive to get into. I do remember I was wearing my friend Jackie's strapless black polka dot dress. We'd probably been somewhere first that offered the means to get cheaply tanked up and were inevitably quite wrecked by the time we arrived.
Jackie and co. requested this song for me and I remember the DJ calling out my name and announcing it was my birthday at which point we all dashed up onto the dance floor.
20/06/2007
New music
Bought my first song from iTunes today, thanks to Adam for the music card he gave me for my birthday which has dragged me kicking and screaming into the whole phenomenon of buying music online.
It was this track by new band Reverend and the Makers which is being played on XFM at the moment. It's quite a funky, sunny-morning-good-mood song. Well I think so anyway and besides any band with Reverend in their title has got to be good.
This is the video because I can't get my iTunes track to work on Vox...
19/06/2007
Map of the Problematique and other stuff
After mucking about and pretending I know how these things work I ended up doing exactly as had been originally suggested and burning the tracks onto a CD (thanks Alison). I now have my souvenir downloads on my iBook. So as promised here is Map of the Problematique, recorded live on Saturday. I love the classic Muse tendency to go a bit mental at the end of songs, critics might call it an inability to finish a song but I disagree.
18/06/2007
Yoga achievement
During my Monday lunchtime yoga classes my tutor has been gradually building us up to attempting a head stand. Now I
I didn't think I would be able to get up into the position let alone support myself sufficiently with my arms so that my head and neck didn't feel under huge pressure.
Anyway today was h-day for those who wanted to give it a go. Alan and Nadia both went before me and made it look easy. So I had a go and, with a bit of assistance actually getting up, it wasn't too difficult and reasonably comfortable. In fact my arms felt surprisingly strong with little weight on my head and neck.
We did them up against a wall and with our mats folded over to cushion our heads rather than a free-standing one on bare floorboards like this picture but I'm still very proud of myself.
More stuff from Wembley Stadium
Bought a souvenir bundle from Muse's website which included some official photo's taken before and during the gig.
There is also a live version of Map of the Problematique from Wembley
but it isn't mac compatible so I can't post it just now. Hopefully I can download it on my PC at work and post it from there for all to see...
17/06/2007
Muse at Wembley Stadium - the verdict
Firstly, the new Wembley Stadium is amazing. It's sheer size is breathtaking and you do get a strong urge to walk up the tunnel and out into the arena with your arms raised.
Had good seats - my camera phone has a tendency to make things look further away than they actually are - but we could actually see quite well.
Arrived in time for Dirty Pretty Things, who I'm sure in a smaller venue would probably have been good but were dwarfed by the setting and, well, seemed a bit dull really.
Watched a bit of The Streets and I was expecting them to be really crap was actually pleasantly surprised. Credit where credit is due, Mike Skinner really worked the crowd even singing a couple of lines of a Muse song at one point, and generally created a good atmosphere. That said their sound is a bit monotonous for me and I wouldn't have sat through a whole set.
Then there was Muse. The atmosphere had reached fever pitch by this stage, Mexican waves going around the stadium and a lot of group clapping urging them to start. They emerged from a platform at the centre of the pitch to a shower of confetti and then walked along a special catwalk to the stage escorted by people in yellow chemical-disaster suits.
Once they reached the stage they launched into Knights of Cydonia, two thirds of the pitch simultaneously jumped up and down and I noticed that when Dom's face appeared momentarily on the big screens at either side of the stage he had a huge grin on his face.
There was a huge video screen as the entire back drop to the stage set which was themed, appropriately, around a satellite monitoring station. There was also a little robot, from where I was standing it looked K9-esque, to bring out fresh guitars for Matt when he needed them!
I've nicked the set list from NME's website because, quite frankly, I was too busy enjoying the music to note down what was played:
Map Of The Problematique
City Of Delusion
Butterflies & Hurricanes
Citizen Erased
Hoodoo
Feeling Good
Starlight
Man Of Mystery
Time Is Running Out
Newborn
Soldiers Poem
Unintended
Micro Cuts
Stockholm Syndrome
Take A Bow
It is difficult to pick out highlights because the whole thing was amazing but during one particular song they launched mini hot air balloons over the crowd underneath which an acrobat was suspended. And when Matt asked everyone to raise their phones (I remember when it used to be cigarette lighters) the whole stadium sparkled...
The only shade of disappointment is that they didn't play Sing for Absolution which I love to see performed live.
There are more pictures on my Flickr site thanks to Mosh who was the official photographer for the evening. Incidentally, I must stop getting paranoid about taking a camera to gigs and getting caught, every man and his kid had one and was snapping away...
I'm sure there will be plenty of clips up on youtube so I'm off to investigate just as soon as I've found my neck brace, as predicted I'm suffering for my enthusiasm.
Just found some pics collected on another blog which are really cool
16/06/2007
15/06/2007
Cool blag
Mosh and I as journalists do on occasion's get blags. Mosh more so than I. And I shouldn't moan but most of them are rubbish, branded stuff you can't even give away to a charity shop. But every now and again you get something cool. Well Mosh does mainly.
And this week was one of those occasions. Mosh has been to Vienna on a car launch and he was given a PSP which of course he's passed straight onto me as I use to be a bit of a Gameboy and PS2 fan.
Or course the slight downside is the instruction booklet is only in French and German and the charger has a German plug on it.
The upside is that Mosh did A-level French and the German plug fits in a shaver adaptor. Hurray.
The PSP comes with a racing game and I can already feel my gaming obsession coming back. A list of accessories I need is already forming in my head, a memory stick being number one.
Currently neither of us can work out how to turn it off.
It's at times like this I realise how lucky we are to do what we do for a living.
14/06/2007
More theatre
Tonight Nadia and I went to see The Pain and the Itch by Bruce Norris at the Royal Court theatre. It is a social satire set around a thanksgiving dinner. Sexy spy no. 1 (Matthew Macfadyen *sigh*) starred and put in a sterling performance on what was the first night of preview week.
He plays a character unlike any I've seen him play before which is refreshing as so many actors these days seem bent on playing it safe in the choice of roles.
This character is incredibly annoying. He is house husband, staying at home to look after the kids while his wife goes off to work to pay for their affluent lifestyle, a lifestyle they feel guilty about but not enough to turn there back on it and do something more worthwhile and fulfilling.
The role reversals in the family unit is obviously causing tension and the death of their immigrant non-english speaking maid and the subsequent explanation of the events leading up to her death exposes the lies their lives have become built around. Indeed the denouement has a liberal sprinkling of irony. It all sounds very serious but is actually very funny, with a cleverly observed writing and acting.
The Royal Court is a lovely theatre, medium sized with reasonably comfy seats - we had a great view from the centre of the third row. *sigh*
It has been refurbished in recent years and the bar/restaurant has a functional, minimalist look and serves superb un-pretentious food - much of it from Borough market and Neal's Yard and is very reasonably priced. Worth a visit on it's own if you are looking for a quick meal in the Sloane Square area.
Sexy spy no. 1. So close. *sigh*
13/06/2007
QotD: My Current Top 10
What are your top 10 most-played songs currently?
Call me old fashioned but I tend to listen to albums rather than individual songs. The album that is currently getting comfy in my CD player is the sound track to the first series of Grey's Anatomy. It has some great songs on it and this is my favourite.
12/06/2007
11/06/2007
Harry Potter readathon latest
They always do it the Harry P books. Once I start reading, I just can't put the damn things down. I've raced through the Prisoner of Azkaban and Goblet of Fire and am two thirds my way through the fifth, the Order of the Phoenix or the 'really angry book' as I prefer to call it.
I'm not sure what it means but it has to have some bearing on what happens in the final book and Harry's or Voldemort's potential demise. Also why triumphant - is Dumbledore just gloating that something he foresaw has indeed come true or that Voldemort is finally learning the power of ancient magic? A little out of character perhaps. Or does this mean that he thinks it might in someway help Harry in the final battle?'He said my blood would make him stronger than if he'd used someone else's. He said the protection my mother left in me, he'd have it too. and he was right - he could touch me without hurting himself and he touched my face.'
For a fleeting instant, Harry thought he saw a gleam of something like triumph in Dumbledore's eye. but the next second, Harry was sure he had imagined it, for when Dumbledore had returned to his seat behind the desk, he looked as old and weary as Harry had ever seen him.
Answers on a postcard no later than 20th July please.
It's the final countdown
The Muse Wembley tickets are here.
Six months after parting with cash there are now only days to wait.
Our seats are in the lowest tier around the half way line, so fingers crossed we should get a good view and actually be able to see the band with our own eyes.
Inside I am jumping up and down with excitement while outside I just have a stupid grin.
09/06/2007
QotD: The History of S
What sites show up if you type "S" into your browser's address bar?
My first one is http://www.sierrarica.com/ a Spanish food producer. I must have gone on their site to check out recipes when I bought one of their products, most likely chestnuts.
Then there is http://www.skinmusic.net/.
For those unfamiliar with her work, she was lead singer of a band called Skunk Anansie which is where I discovered her. She left the band after three albums in 2001 and went solo. She has the most amazing voice, is a fantastic live performer and bloody scary looking despite having quite a soft, feminine voice.
Her first gig as a solo artist was incredible. It was at the Scala in Kings Cross, a small, intimate venue and every single person there was a massive fan. She was humbled by the response she got and put on an incredible show.
The last time I saw her was at King's College student union early last year. Mosh and I worked out that some of the students there hadn't been born when we went to our first gig, which was slightly depressing. What cheered us up - apart from Skin's rocking performance obviously - was amusing ourselves by observing the very heavily styled hair most of the students were sporting, the like of which I haven't seen since the new romantic era in the eighties. Several pharmaceutical companies were making a lot of money in hair products alone that night.
But I digress, Skin is currently recording a new album having done a spot of modelling earlier this year for Italian designer Gianfranco Ferre. It is her third album and naturally I'm very excited about it, not least because it will inevitably lead to a tour. Her myspace has a lot of her solo work to listen to. She did a quietish album first then rocked out again for the second.
I've been listening to some tracks and trying to work out which ones to post which best represent her. It is damn difficult as there is so much good stuff but here goes. This is from Skunk Anansie's first album Paranoid & Sunburnt:
Equus again
Blimey the last four months have flown by. It was Equus time again this afternoon and it turns out that row B on which I had a seat, is the front row. The bloomin' front row! It makes such a difference being able to see the actors facial expressions (and acne), my seat last time was row U.
The first time I saw the play was the second performance in preview week. This afternoon was the second from last and I was eager to see how the cast had bedded in over the run.
Daniel Radcliffe has built on his great performance and lost the hint of stiffness he had on the stage the first time. And no that isn't a reference to the nude scene.
Richard Griffiths having fluffed his lines a couple of times first time round gave a faultless performance.
The play once again left me breathless. I came out of the theatre wanting to hug someone partly because I was on such a buzz, partly because I won't see it again and partly because it examines some pretty raw human emotions so that you almost feel like you've been on the shrink's couch yourself.
You would have to be fairly thick skinned not to be touched by some of the issues it raises about human psyche both in teens and adults. Passion, loneliness, faith, self-worth, fate, even the meaning of life - it's all in there.
Perhaps it is worse as an adult, or at least an adult that can remember being a teenager, because you can identify at times with both the Alan Strang and Dr Dysart characters.
Excellent production. Extremely entertaining.
I hope someone sneaks Radcliffe a proper drink at the end-of-run party tonight because he deserves it.
08/06/2007
Vernon God Little - the play
Loved DBC Pierre's book when I read it a couple of years ago as it is a clever and thought provoking black comedy and thoroughly deserving of the accolades it received. So was curious to see how it was translated for the stage in this production at the Young Vic.
The book has many characters and
many locations which must have presented a challenge for the production which ended up with just 10 actors. The stage sets and props were fairly minimal but imaginatively used. There was a lot of movement on stage which built up a level of frenetic energy and tension that goes nicely with the story.
Nadia and I particularly liked the office chairs with steering wheels welded to them which were 'driven' around the stage and want one each for work...
Vernon is played by Colin Morgan who is making his professional debut - not bad for a first role.
The essence of the novel is there and the performances thorough with some real laugh out loud moments and great use of music and song at just the right moment.
However, some of the subtlety is inevitably lost in condensing the story into two and a half hours and the ending was a little rushed with the story somehow resolved all too easily, something I don't remember from the book.
There needs to be some work on the accents which strayed away from southern American drawl to Australian and even British west country occasionally. And it may have been a result of the the accents but the diction at times made it a difficult to understand what some characters were saying.
Overall thoroughly entertaining and worth a hearty applause but not a standing ovation.
Want to go and re-read the book now.
06/06/2007
Vox Hunt: Love the Song, Hate the Genre
Audio: Share a favorite song or album from your least favorite genre.
Submitted by emily sears.
I wouldn't say it's my least favourite, that would have to be experimental jazz or clubby dance music (the sort of thing the fuckwits who live down stairs play at 4am) but this comes from a genre that doesn't appear at all in my record collection. It's not the sort of thing I would normally listen to, let alone buy, but the first time I heard it I loved it and still do. Don't know why.
Video is crap.
05/06/2007
Chocolate or sex?
I'm always dubious when a company pays for research such as this. What did they actually ask these people?
You come home, your boyfriend/husband is lying in bed naked with a rose between his teeth but there's a dairy milk in the fridge which do you choose?
Which do you enjoy more, eating a twix or a three-minute shag?
Still, says a lot about people from the East of England, I wonder if they omitted questions that referred to family members.
And I can't help but think that if it is indeed the case and women do prefer chocolate to sex, then maybe all those men who like to say it with a box of Terry's All Gold might want to rethink.
Four stages of a cold
Yep have come down with a stinker, still haven't been afflicted since November so I've had a good run.
Over the years I've noticed that when I get a cold it always follows a pattern of symptoms:
1. Sore throat of doom
2. Streaming, watery nose
3. Blocked nasal passages and feeling as if you've been lightly beaten around the head with a blunt object
4. Snot. Loud, bubbling snot
I'm at stage 3 but looking forward to stage 4 when I hope I can blow my nose in such a way that it feels like my head is emptying.
Apologies if you are eating.
03/06/2007
Recent Posts
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- My favourite toilet sign
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