Music

Well, last week I said I'd given my notice at work, and this week I've had my exit interview and had a farewell in the end of term meeting, so that's nice. The interview was good - it gave me a chance to say what I think is wrong and what needs fixing in the hope that the things that bug me get sorted to some degree, ready for the next guy. The farewell was nice enough, though some people were somewhat perplexed when they misheard me and thought I was telling them I was starting a career as a taxi driver. Never mind! So, two weeks left at work, then about a month off when I get to do some exciting stuff like change nappies and move house, and then it's time to start doing that tax advisin' thang.

Things are going OK with Bethany at the moment, though her eating and sleeping have been somewhat disrupted. It doesn't help that she's extremely difficult to wind. Ironic that in 5 years or so we'll be telling her for burping, huh? Still, we're getting by. I've just set her down to sleep after her feed, and she seems to have settled OK which is a good thing. Ali is pretty frazzled at the moment, but she's in bed and hopefully getting some good sleep, so she should recover to some extent.

The dedication last week went very well. The service was good, and Beth behaved well enough that Ali and I could stay in church to hear the whole sermon. It was good to have all our families and some friends together with the church to dedicate her. The barbecue afterwards was delicious, and it was great to sit and chat with people I don't get to see enough of. It was the first time my brother had seen Beth, and it was something of a surprise to see how emotional and excited he was by it all! I wouldn't have expected it from him, but it's all good. He's a very proud uncle! I've got some great photos from that day, so I'll upload them sometime soonish.

That's about it really... here's a few random mainstream musical thoughts:

• Eleanor, Put Your Boots On sounds more like Belle & Sebastian than Franz Ferdinand.


• The new single by Rhianna, or however you spell her name, is truly awful. R&B meets EMO with unsurprisingly awful results.


• The new Justin Timberlake single is distorted junk, but annoyingly stick-in-heady.


• I think I do like Muse' Supermassive Black Hole after all. Album might be a purchase for next month.

Right. I'll try to get photos up tomorrow. Bye for now...

PS WTF was Zidane thinking, eh?

Regular Urban Survivors by Terrorvision is a great, if rather dated, album, which I had a listen to the other day, much to my pleasure. Some good lyrics on there.

I'm stressed as anything. I'm not sleeping right at all. I think it's this whole job/baby/move house thing. Three life changing events in the space of a few months... great. Anyway. Let's not moan.

The baby is due in 10 days, which is pretty scary. It may not actually be here for two weeks after that, at which point they induce labour, but either way that's pretty soon. I think we've got all the gear we need, but I wouldn't say we feel ready in any way. It's quite scary, but in quite an unreal sort of way. As far as I'm concerned so far it's just involved Alison getting bigger and bigger and not feeling very well. I think it'll get a whole lot more real when the baby actually appears, and then the sheer magnitude of what lies before me will probably hit me pretty hard. Still, on the plus side, it can't be that hard, can it? Stay tuned to watch me eat my words...

We've found a house, which is good. Might help relieve the stress. It's in Atherton, just outside Manchester. It's a 3 bedroom semi at the end of a close, and it's very fancy. The people selling it have done loads of work on it and it's really well kitted out. We've made an offer and it's been accepted, so it's just a case of getting the survey and mortgage and all that stuff sorted. Good stuff.

I forgot something in my "thing I like" list the other day... Those new Cadbury's Creme Egg/Dairy Milk bars! They're delicious. Clearly a great idea in the world of chocolate. I salute the Cadbury's person who came up with that one.

That's about it for now... More when I get round to it. I still want to write about scary computer games and books by Chuck Palahniuk. Later people.

Random lyric... random post...

1) The Brits were on last week. Quite pleased that the Kaiser Chiefs won a few things - pretty good band. More pleased that Green Day won a couple, though I find it a bit odd that they got best internation album when that record was out a fair while before last years awards. Obviously a bit of catching up to do. Not sure why Blunt beat Williams in the best man category, and even more baffled that he beat Madonna for best pop act. Still, there we go.

2) The Baftas were on just the other day, Sunday if I recall. Not at all surprised that Brokeback Mountain won quite a few. Colour me cynical, but surely any reasonably arty film about gay cowboys is going to win shedloads of awards. I was very pleased that Crash won a few - best screenplay is pretty cool. Hope it does well at the Oscars whenever we get round to that. Watching the awards gave us a few ideas for films we ought to see, so I might burble about Good Night And Good Luck, Syriana, The Constant Gardener and a couple of others some time soon.

3) We're buying a new car. Very exciting, very grown up. We're part ex'ing our slightly tired Corsa and getting a shiny black Ford Fiesta Flight. It's a few years old but in excellent condition with very low mileage. It's right nippy too. So, that's all good. We're picking that up on Friday.

4) Alison has gone away for the week to visit her sister. I am home alone with only the cat to keep me company. Still, I managed to cook a cauliflower cheese for myself yesterday without burning the house down or poisoning myself, so there's hope yet. The cat liked the cheese sauce too. Weirdo.

5) I'm a bit freaked out by all the free speech controversies going on at the moment. Between religious hatred, cartoons about Muhammad, holocaust denial and that stupid Jerry Springer opera; I'm gearing up for a good rant about double standards, hypocrisy, blasphemy and all the rest of it. I'll try to get round to that in a few days time.

I find it highly weird that the Arctic Monkeys current single is about a pimp. Highly suitable material for the charts, I'm sure.

A few weeks ago my friend Greg pointed out the rather unpleasant lyrical content in Busted's modern classic, Air Hostess, in which Charlie alludes to defiling with the hand while admiring a member of the flight crew. Disgusting.

Anyway, with this in mind I will now discuss a glaring logical fallacy present in another recent masterpiece, Love Machine by Girls Aloud. The chorus goes thusly:

I'm just a Love Machine

Feeding my fantasy

Give me a kiss or three & I'm fine

I need a squeeze a day

Instead of this negligee

What will the neighbours say this time?

I find myself somewhat baffled by lines 4 and 5. Why does she need a squeeze instead of a negligee? Does the wearing of a negligee preclude a person from being squeezed? Are the two mutually exclusive in some way? Perhaps I'm wrong, but I think it is physically, biologically, ecumenically, grammatically... possible to be squeezed while wearing a negligee, and while I'm certainly not the expert on ladies nightwear, I would venture that you may in fact be altogether more likely to be squeezed while wearing one.

Then again, the song does also feature the line "I'll breathe underwater 'cause I like the way it feels" so unless the singer has some peculiar fascination for SCUBA diving, I suspect it may in fact just all be a load of bollocks.

There's a new Belle And Sebastian album out. Well, technically it's been out for about 4 months, but clearly I've been half asleep so I'll have to pretend it's only just come out recently. Anyway.

It's called Push Barman To Open Old Wounds and it's a collection of all the EPs they released on their old label, on two CDs. This is clearly handy for people like me who missed the EPs the first time round, though it may stick in the craw of the elitist fans with their framed first edition vinyl copies. There's some great songs on there... the demo of The State That I Am In, String Bean Jean (the intro to which sounds like The Kids Aren't Alright by The Offspring, bizarrely enough), The Loneliness Of A Middle Distance Runner, the hilarious break up song I'm Waking Up To Us, and the epic Take Your Carriage Clock And Shove It which is a strong contender for greatest song ever in my book. There's plenty on there that I've not heard too, including the brilliantly titled Judy Is A Dickslap, though tragically it's an instrumental... goodness knows where the lyrics to that would have ended up.

So, there's one to buy in the near future, assuming I can find the cash in between buying silly knives and epic comic book collections. Failing that, could someone buy it me for Christmas? Please?

Bye for now.

Honestly, who buys this garbage? Fools. It's your fault Top Of The Pops has moved to graveyard shift on Sunday night between Songs Of Praise and whatever action/drama film Channel 5 is showing.

Stupid music buying public.

When the new single by Nelly (bling blinging "R&B" star) uses a sample of True by Spandau Ballet, you know somethings not quite right. I mean, was the song really any good the first time round? Not really. Does it adequately prop up Nelly singing about some woman with man trouble? Not really. For that matter, do R&B stars sing about anything but men with women trouble, or women with men trouble? Not really. But I digress. The song is terrible, and the sample only lends further lameness to it. As a Radio 1 listener this morning pointed out, it sounds like something Goldie Lookin' Chain might attempt.

Kylie Minogue has breast cancer. Which sucks for her. It looks like she'll make it through pretty easily though, as they've caught it early. Call me a cynic, but I suspect this will garner a lot of attention from middle aged men praying that her beautiful figure stays intact.

The real big news, of course, is the Iraq soldiers Amarillo parody video. You may have heard about it on the news last night. The Amarillo single by Tony Christie, released for comic relief with a quality video by Peter Kay, is clearly loved by the British public if the charts are anything to go by. Since when do singles stay at number 1 for seven weeks? What is this, 1993? Anyway. Apparently some squaddies out in Iraq decided they liked the song too, and recorded themselves re-enacting Peter Kay's video. Only it's called Armadillo this time around, because apparently there's a few of them in Iraq. Anyway. They then sent the video to all their friends and so on, which crashed the MOD's e-mail system. Awesome! After some scratching around on the 'net this morning, I have managed to find a site where you can download the video in full, but by the looks of things it's getting clobbered so you might still have to hunt around the 'net if you want to see it. It's quality. I'd put it up on this site, but I'd like my bandwidth to last to the end of the month, not just the hour! Enjoy.

Good grief, I want this week to end.

Work has been long and difficult.

We can't get a mortgage because we don't have enough money.

London Energy are the most inept company I have ever dealt with. I will rant about this when I can be bothered.

I got overdrawn by mistake and now owe the bank £30.

I need a weekend.

In other news, happy birthday for tomorrow to Mikey H. If you're reading this Mike, have a great day tomorrow, and here's a link to a page that made me think of you.

Channel 4 had a Top 100 Albums show on last night. It was quite interesting. You can take a look at the programme details here, which also has links to the original nominations and - more importantly - the results. As you might gather, the poll was done by drawing up a shortlist of 125 nominated albums, and then getting the public to vote for their favourite albums from the selection. While probably easier than letting everyone vote for any old thing, it does obviously limit what can be voted for, so perhaps it's a bit flawed. You also have to question the sanity of the people doing the original nominating, when The Libertines make it into the top 125. They're not really my thing, so maybe the album is great and I just don't know it, but I still find it slightly dubious that they would get in at number 50, putting it above Margin Gaye, Dusty Springfield, Public Enemy... I could go on, but all I'd be doing is listing most of the bottom half of the results page.

This of course leads into the other problem with these kind of polls - the more recent stuff will invariably do disproportionately well. There are certainly many more young people voting in these polls who've never even heard of Nick Drake or Jeff Buckley, who will thus end up voting up Oasis, or even Blur for that matter. Even then, the older generation may be less likely to vote for some of the stuff they grew up with, when the newer stuff is fresher in their minds. The top 20, for example, has two Oasis albums, a Blur album, Parachutes by Coldplay (!) and even Alanis Morisette's not-actually-her-debut-even-though-everyone-thinks-it-is Jagged Little Pill one place above Led Zepellin IV. Hmm.

Now, about 7 years ago Q Magazine ran a top 100 albums chart, allowing the readers to vote for anything ever. The number 1 on that chart, was OK Computer, by Radiohead. At the time, I thought that this was a case of the fresh things getting to the top of the heap. Yes, OK Computer is a great album, no doubt. It's experimental and different and emotional and it takes you to all manner of weird musical places. Is it the best album ever? Well, I don't know. Channel 4 viewers clearly think so, as it came top of their little rundown. This time it's a bit more interesting, as it's getting on for 8 years since OK Computer was released. That's not quite so fresh anymore, is it?

I don't know if it is the best album. I certainly like it a lot, but at the same time I appreciate that it's not exactly accessible and certainly not for everyone. I guess I'll have to wait another 30 years and see if it's still topping charts.

Right. I'm back on the Wirral again. I've had the afternoon off work so I could come and see the dentist to have my teeth polished, my X-rays from last time checked, and the weird blue thing in my palate looked at. My teeth have been polished, my X-rays show I need a feeling, and the dentist wants to refer me to an oral surgeon about the blue thing in my palate as it might be a cyst. Well, 1 out of 3 ain't bad. Hmm. More on the filling on the 1st of June, and more on the cyst as and when we get in touch with a surgeon who can X-ray my palate.

So, I've just had supper with my mum and I'm about to head back to Leicester. Another 120 miles of driving. I think my mp3 player is about to run out of batteries too, so I can't listen to my ELO albums. Curses. I got Discovery (disturbingly, the Amazon page shows I am in the company of people who buy Olivia Newton-John records... hmm) at the weekend and I'm in the process of assimilating it. It's good, but it'll probably take a bit of time. Mind you, Out Of The Blue took me a while, and I now consider it one of the best albums I've ever heard, so there you go.

Alison and I watched Vanilla Sky at the weekend. It was OK. I guess in the realm of "it was all a dream" (if you've not seen it, I've just spoilt it, but come on... you're a bit late, huh?) type films it does a fairly good job of things - it certainly goes all out in making the dream dramatic and what have you. It just feels a bit shallow after all you've watched, to find out that that's what was going on.

I finished Half Life 2 as well. It was great. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I'm now looking forward to upgrading some of my PC hardware so I can enjoy it in it's full glory with some nice high detail settings. This, of course, requires money. Time to get saving.

Right. Time to drive back to Leicester. See you soon.

The Stereophonics were number one the other week, with Dakota. I think it's a great single to be honest, and certainly a lot better than much anything off their last album. I like the vocals, I like the guitar, I like the change of pace in the chorus... Good stuff.

I heard the new Oasis single this morning on the radio. It's called Lyla or something. It sounds kinda like some of their old stuff. It's got a very retro sound to it, but doesn't everything these days... It's not very interesting though. It's pretty much in the same league as their early stuff, but it's not very inventive. It's the same stuff with a few different effects on the guitars - just different production. Hmm.

Liam Gallagher's voice is even more whiny and irritating than ever.

Maybe it'll grow on me... I doubt it though.

In other news, the new Athlete single is great. It's called Half Light, and it reminds me a lot of doing the whole long distance relationship thing with Alison while I was at uni. Lyrics as follows:

The sun got stuck, as it's making it's way back down, 

We find ourselves, in a familiar part of town 



And all that I've seen means nothing to me without you 



So when I see you next we'll make the most of it, 

Tell the sun to start moving again, 

The taste of your kiss I still got on my lips, 

And ill take you there with me 



My head crashed down, and conditioned myself to sleep, 

The great night out, that will continue to the end of the week 



And all that I've seen means nothing to me without you 



So when I see you next we'll make the most of it, 

Tell the sun to start moving again, 

The taste of your kiss I still got on my lips, 

And ill take you there with me 



It's you and me connected to a satellite 

It's you and me love through a machine 

It's you and me connected to a satellite 

It's you and me love through a machine 



So when I see you next we'll make the most of it, 

Tell the sun to start moving again, 

The taste of your kiss I still got on my lips, 

And I'll take you there with me

I watched Top Of The Tops on Friday. G4 (who oh so sadly don't have a website I can link you to) were on it singing their cover of Creep by Radiohead. Hearing them sing:

I'm a creep

I'm a weirdo

What the hell am I doing here?

I don't belong here

was almost too much for me to bear. I almost choked on the irony that was issuing forth unstoppably from the TV.

Talking of choking, I had a dream last night about trying to eat a slug. It was only small, but the damn thing was sticking onto my tongue so I couldn't swallow it. So that was a pretty rubbish dream on the whole.

No, it's not Mary Poppins. It's... Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time. The game that I've burbled on about wanting to buy, and which I've finally picked up on ebay. I'm over a year late in picking up this game, and to be honest I've been quite remiss in letting it pass me by. I'm not going to go into great detail about it, because as far as I know, there aren't many gamers in my (small) readership, and any among you have probably already heard about this game. Suffice to say, this game is a masterpiece. The graphics, the puzzles, the story, the combat... it's all brilliant - utterly superb. If there are any niggles, it's with the camera position and the controls, but I'm prepared to overlook these minor issues for a game with fiendishly clever puzzles, and that allows me to fight 4 enemies at once with a big hulking sword then rewind time with a magic dagger when I screw it up.

Anyway.

I went shopping on Saturday to spend a bit of my birthday cash, and picked up the Blink 182 and Franz Ferdinand albums. I'd previously ripped the Franz Ferdinand album (though I'm now making restitution for my copyright infringing ways, hence actually buying the CD) so I've heard that, but the Blink album will be new to me. I'm looking forward to it, especially after the recent news that they've split up for now. I also got X-Men and X-Men 2 on DVD. Nice. Looking forward to X-Men 3, but that's not due out till 2006. Oh well.

I need some new shoes sometime soon. My current trainers are disintegrating on my feet as I type. When I was in town, I found out that you can get shoes from a company called No Sweat that guarantees fair pay and treatment for their workers, much like Fair Trade does for food producers. I'm all for that, so I think I'll be picking up a pair next week.

Alison went away for the weekend, to visit a friend she was at uni with.

So while she was away I... did the ironing, hoovered the house, watered the plants and cleaned the bathroom. Hmm. Married life must be getting to me.

Sure, I also spent 4 hours in my dressing gown playing Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (good game, looking forward to Chaos Theory in the near future), watched too much TV, stayed up late and didn't cook anything more sophisticated than cheese and tomato toasties but even so... cleaning the bathroom? Man.

Anyway.

I saw that Golf GTI advert again last night. They now appear to have edited out the bit with the dodgy jump on the lamp post. I understand why they did it, as it's badly edited (when he jumps he's one way round, then they change shot to show him hanging onto the lamp post and he's the other way round - d'oh!) but it's a bit of a shame too as the move looks pretty cool.

Also, what's the deal with some dance music becoming quite likable? I mean, normally I can't stand the trashy dance music that gets into the charts, but in the past 6 months or so we've had Call On Me by Eric Prydz, My My My by Armand Van Helden, Shine by the Lovefreaks (sampling ELO - woohoo!) and now some song about catching a falling star or some such nonsense. 4 dance tracks I like in 6 months? At the turn of the century it could take 6 years to find that many bearable dance songs. I'll try to keep a check on myself, in case this peculiar infection spreads, but in the mean time if anyone catches me in Woolworths buying Ultimate Trance Trip Hop Hits 2006 Big Beats Edition, then please beat some sense into me.

Right. This is a bit random and waffly, so I'm going to go home before I get snowed into this miserable school.