Brought To You By The Letter J

Sugarhill Gang - Rappers Delight.

2010-03-07T15:27:00.002Z

The full 15 minutes.

Fuck the radio edit.

Enjoy.

Sugarhill Gang wax lyrical for a full 15 minutes over the best bassline, perhaps ever.

Mother London - Orange

2010-02-25T14:47:00.005Z

The ad agency Mother Orange got raped by Fallon for the orange ad account.

Mother came up with the pre-film slots for orange, the really funny ones with different stars trying to make serious movies only to be usurped by the hilarious guys from orange. Genius.

In celebration here is my personal favourite two, Rob Lowe and Mena Suvari.

Rob Lowe basically gets rinsed for being too pretty for his historical remake of "All the President's Men"

Mena Suvari is frustrated by the attempts to turn her Joan of Arc biopic into a Cheerleader driven, tight-tshirt displaying teen drama.

These ads showcase some of the best things about really good advertising, referencing the truth and humour. I love adverts that realise the truth of the brand they are selling (The Sun 'best handheld for 40 years' spot) and the celebrity stars in the orange spots do the same thing. Secondly the ads are genuinely, heart-warmingly funny. I always look forward to the orange pre-film advert at the cinema these days. Isn't that their objective?

Bloom Box

2010-02-23T09:33:00.005Z

http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/22/the-bloom-box-a-power-plant-for-the-home-video/

This is a video about the Bloom Box. It's a green energy fuel solution being trumpeted by Google, eBay, FedEx, Walmart and others.

More than anything else, I'm thinking about the artisitic applications of this, working it into a sculpture to hide it? A Stack in a spiral resembling/functionally working as a staircase? Why not build a wall of your house of these and hide them?

Function must always equal beauty, eventually.

Apple vs Adobe

2010-02-17T22:30:00.002Z

Clash of the titans, its the big two at the top, Ali-Frasier, Mayweather-Pacquaio.

Apple is being annoying and not bringing flash to the Iphone, claiming the net is moving over to HTML5 and flash is too buggy and isn't controlled like they control the apple network. Adobe just says, EVERYBODY uses flash, the net is not the net without flash. Hypem is a clear example. My friends and I make extensive use of it, however it will never get an iPhone port due to being based on flash.

Guys, can't we all just get a bong/along?

Lampooning Apple

2010-02-17T22:28:00.002Z

The Apple Ipad is a interesting piece of technology. If they can create the demand for that third market between laptops and smartphones then fair play. Personally, I just do not see it happening. The Ipad doesn't do enough well that you can't already do on your smartphone well enough, not enough to justify the extra expenditure.

The naming is awful too. What was wrong with Islate? Itablet? Ipad just leads to this....

Audi Rubiks Cube

2010-01-31T21:34:00.003Z

This is one of a raft of brilliant advertising currently taking residence on my TV and YouTube listings.

Audi take a clear Perspex Rubik's cube of parts and twist them, cascading through the spaces into their correct slots, leaving us with an Audi A4 - Efficient Technologies, Intelligently Combined,

Visually arresting with a strong brand and product image link, what more do you need from advertising?

25 Ways To Smartness

2010-01-31T21:30:00.003Z

25 Ways To Get Smarter In 2010

This is a great little aggregate post from The Daily Beast, it basically is 25 ways to expand your mind and your horizons for the new year.

What my friends and I are doing, which I suggest you do too is picking one per day for a few weeks. Currently we are planning a day of the Times Literary Supplement and red wine.

Cultured? Moi?

Parisian

2010-01-06T12:22:00.002Z

Paris
Paris Social Club
Good nights.
The plan is, go in the morning, shop all day. Party all night. 5am Eurostar home.

Clare Market Review

2010-01-06T12:21:00.003Z

I should probably link to the Journal that I Copy Edit for.

Clare Market Review

We also run a tumblr online creative art/culture/music/interesting shit area

Clive

Enjoy...

Pink Gloves Viral

2010-01-06T12:18:00.005Z

This is a cool viral video from somewhere in the States. It's very american, with people doing silly things and acting out for charity. Still I like the execution.

Rebirth

2010-01-06T12:18:00.002Z

I'm bringing back this blog, with simple posts when I'm lazy and interesting posts when I'm not.

Sport and Science

2009-07-06T02:11:00.003+01:00

Sport is one of those situations where the mastery of science can run away with itself. Take two recent, important sporting events; Lions tour 2009 and Wimbledon 2009. In the men's final of Wimbledon there were 3 breaks of serve, 3. The longest final ever and only 3 breaks of serve. The quality of first serve, in terms of percentage, power and placement was unbelievable. One began to question whether the loser would not be the lesser player, but the one more susceptible to the attrition. The Lions tour takes a similar bent although the consequences are direr. As players increase in size and power, concern themselves with the hit and winning the collision, injuries skyrocket. The Lions loss of the second test can be purely attributed to the loss of both props and therefore contested scrums and the loss of both centres around whom their gameplan ironically centred. The physical nature of rugby is an undoubted asset; however when half the players in a game require treatment at one point or another one begins to wonder.

The unifying factor here is the advancement of training techniques through science perfected in the professional era has changed the game. In the example of tennis less emphasis is placed on winning rallies than winning free points from powerful serves. The ace count in the final topped 70. The Lions tour has bigger players hitting harder than ever before. Science has enabled fine-tuning of bodies for maximum power, perhaps over-riding skill and subtlety. This places a greater premium on players like Brian O'Driscoll, able to be subtle under the pressure of power.

Sport and Science are bedfellows and will continue to be so with the amounts of money and pride at stake, but perhaps concentration on raising the spectacle of the game, raising the welfare of the players would be prudent.

2009-06-28T12:30:00.000+01:00

I don't beg
I don't borrow.
I steal.

Girls everywhere

2009-06-28T10:47:00.000+01:00

Hollywood would have you believe for every job there is a beautiful girl performing it somewhere. I would love to agree; potential miss world cleaning out trash in mississppi or an old miss Australia helping the aboriginies in the outback. Sewage collector, dung roller, physics technician. If you can find that holy Grail, that perfect girl doing your job, you better watch out cause you know she is gonna get promoted over your ugly face!

2009-06-06T20:35:00.002+01:00

Lookbook fucks me off

People on it are just good looking and getting hyped and not stylish. Fair enough they are hot, thats cool. Don't hype their style.

2009-06-06T20:31:00.002+01:00

Too well dressed?
Simply well pressed; Simply
Freeform at its best.

Marketable skills?
Just sudden overkill?
Not over the rest

Tony Ariawan

2009-05-30T11:11:00.007+01:00

Stumbling across the gutter of cyberspace that is the blogosphere in desperate hope of finding internet directions to the plimsole man on brick lane (on Chesire street near the Bethnal Green end) I found this guy

http://www.behance.net/Gallery/Stop-Haunt-Me-Everyday-Collection/53669

Creates these on photoshop, the bottom one is my favourite. Listen to the blurb too

"This collection is talking about the girl who always came accross my mind, everytime and everyday i can't forget about her. She like a ghost, how hard I try I can't reach her."

Beautiful.

Passion Pit

2009-05-23T18:24:00.005+01:00

The new blog darlings are Passion Pit from Cambridge (US version). Depth and variation to the overly falsetto vocals that just soars on almost every track. The album highlight is not the overly blogged Sleepyhead but the instapop classic Little Secrets. From the initial 8 bars of electronically fuzzed melody to the back and forth twixt voice and refrain across each verse it just works. The duality continues into the chorus, a (ironically) small chorus sings back to the lead eventually descending into repeated "highers.." Just lovely.

The highest praise I could give it is a more streamlined These New Puritans. Cunning as they have toured with them. Check the video for sleepyhead in youtube though, Pitchfork liked it.

Library Fines and Lego

2009-05-23T11:31:00.003+01:00

Library fines are a crazy concept right? You suddenly owe money to a library of all places for having a book. Surely having a book is the reason the library exists? Sure it means someone else can't have the book but then you have to wonder what the library does with your money...buy another copy of that book so it won't happen again? Of course not. It gets even worse if the fine rises above the value of the book (some books in my library are 50p an hour fines). I'd rather buy them a new book and say get used to it. Charging for words and the privilege to glean knowledge is something that has never set right with me.

Lego is everywhere, everyone used it. Dee and Ricky make brooches in it for Marc by Marc and their clippings/lookbook is immense. It is a great concept that throws a curveball into any outfit. Plain trousers, white tshirt, black braces and a brooch. Classic combinatino. The only issue is, I'm not sure how nicely $65-85 sits right with me for something that costs (practically) nothing in Lego. I have a lego brooch a friend made for £4. Inc P&P. Markups are just crazy sometimes, I wish someone would tell my local librarian too.

Movement

2009-05-07T14:26:00.006+01:00

I adore the movement in style.

Womens to Men - Skinny silhouette and Skinny jeans. Florals. One more versed in catwalk shows could pinpoint it more exactly but its an obvious and long-term trend. Galliano is probably a massive proponent. Henry Holland at LFW A/W09 showing the same florals on men and women.

Men to women
Just take a look.

Ankle brogues. Leggings that could be Tux Trousers. Check shirt.

Yet she looks so effeminate and beautiful.

Love the borrowing and changing of Fashion

Throwbacks

2009-04-17T03:07:00.001+01:00

This is a gorgeous cover that takes lyrics and completely changes the song to a smooth acoustic cover.

Bo!

2009-04-15T22:11:00.003+01:00

Well isn't that just the cutest little portugese water dog you ever did see? I love the amount of media coverage proportioned to the appointment of 'First Pet.' The little campaign promise jokes form Obama, the donation from aging Senator Ted Kennedy even the consideration for the eldest daughter Malia. In fact quite a lot can be deduced from this first pet appointment. The media circus juxtaposed against the secret nature with which 'Bo' was chosen. Add in compassion and jokes on Obama's part and you have some of the key characteristics of this administration.

2009-02-09T04:14:00.001Z

I'm turning into a misanthropist.
It's the check shirts. I just can't deal with them.

2009-02-01T03:34:00.001Z

Love is no excuse for bad art

Oprah...Penises?

2008-09-22T03:28:00.001+01:00

http://over9000penises.ytmnd.com/

Oprah with 9000 penises. lulz.

/b/

2008-09-22T03:21:00.002+01:00

http://img.4chan.org/b/imgboard.html

Quantum Of Solace

2008-09-17T12:04:00.001+01:00

A window into the new James Bond theme? Music by Jack White.

Cool - Train of thought

2008-09-05T02:41:00.000+01:00

The notion of cool is one vast amorphous topic that has probably been dissected and rehashed plenty of times by journalists, “it” article writers and the like. So one more can’t hurt!

Cool as defined by urbandictionary.com is

The best way to say something is neat-o, awesome, or swell. The phrase "cool" is very relaxed never goes out of style, and people will never laugh at you for using it, very convenient for people like me who don't care about what's "in."

Homestar is cool.

The Red Sox are cool.

Twinkies are cool.

The problem with that definition is that within itself, it is an opinion on cool. In the last stanza, he has defined cool by purveying to being a “cool” person who doesn’t care about what is in. But perhaps that IS the true definition of cool. It’s the people who truly do not care what you think about them. Let me clarify, not those who use not caring about opinions others make as a shield to hide their sincere longing for peer approval, but those who truly don’t give a fuck. Those Asian (forgive my stereotyping) kids who will spend 15 hours in the library working away, never coming out to play or see the sky outside of lectures. Maybe even the kids who are stuck in another decade, wholly dedicated to the perpetuation of a bygone time, clothes, hair and music suggestive of the 40s. Not those who do it because the 60s were “cooler” or like the ideas of Peace and Love. But the 40s, the 30s, maybe even the 90s, the decades you might not immediately think of. They do it out of a lack of knowing otherwise, rather than a choice. That’s a fair enough conclusion to come to, and I might have decided what my ideal definition of cool is. That definition however, doesn’t stand up to closer inspection. Those Asian kids often have monumental parental pressure on them to achieve the best and be the best, cool isn’t their natural leaning but their only option. That can’t be cool, it isn’t autonomous. The 40s kids are probably closer to the true essence, but they themselves are often brought up in that age. Not literally, but from parents who are stuck in their own time and refuse to let their children modernise. You go home every night for 16 years and listen to 40s music from a 40s radio tuned by a dad in 40s attitude and style, your going to end up being a vessel for the 40s. Those kids don’t have a choice.

Similarly you could decide the hipsters are cool, they are always right on the cusp of the cool-crest. They don’t care if you think whatever they are reading or doing isn’t cool, they trust it will be and look down their nose at you for not realising this yet. I would argue that they in fact are the absolute downfall of anything cool, they are the trendsetters and by proxy ruin cool. They have a few main issues with their outlook on life which completely discounts them. Firstly they try to be cool, it’s a conscious decision and as discussed that is not cool; however it’s more than that. They dedicate themselves to being cool, so they’re trying too hard. Nothing screams uncool like a try-hard. One must make a clear distinction here, you can try hard and think you are cool, which means your one link down the proverbial chain, but they try hard but don’t want to be cool in the general opinion. Does that then signify some sort of limited cool? Being so on-point that they can never be caught in the latest trend, but the next one coming after that? I would argue no, not at all. The trying hard outweighs any potential cool they could have. Their attitude is the next real problem with them. When cool becomes something that consumes you, naturally you don’t understand other peoples lack of desire and effort to be like you, which causes your nose to rise and your eyes to stare down the bridge. This shows you immediately worrying about what people think, in an indirect manner. People can’t think you are cool, they can only think you WERE cool two months ago, before you jumped off the trend for the next one. The recall-cool-face is what I like to call it. When check shirts exploded and you saw someone on the street and thought to yourself, perhaps looking skywards with fingers on chin and a speech bubble above ,”wasn’t [insert hipster name here] wearing one of those two months ago?.” The hipsters love it, and therefore cannot be cool.

I digress slightly with the hipster analysis, let us accept the fact that cool must be a choice and cannot be forced upon you by lifestyle. Is this self-defeating? if you choose to be cool, then you have given consideration to that thought and probably, if only briefly, thought about the consequences and outside opinions of that decision. It occurs to me that cool must be a choice, but an unconscious one. You can’t be born cool; in the nature vs. nurture debate the latter wins hands down. I guess for cool you have to ingest, distill and regurgitate in a manner that befits your personality. You have to do all that, while being true to yourself and forsaking others entirely. Even that is not enough when it comes to the grand scheme of things. The real issue of cool is entirely relative, you can’t be cool until someone else thinks that you are cool; the delightful paradox at the heart of the issue. That is why countless blogs, countless articles have probably been written about being cool, it matters to others. A generation of coolhunters lurk amongst the masses, beady eyes out for the latest trend and style to throw down their blackberries and ruin in seconds. That’s the other terrible paradox of cool, as soon as people think something is cool, it ceases to be. People are a stupid notion; a person is clever and individual. The perfect state of cool could perhaps be surmised thus: A state of being, created by an unconscious choice of what around you to reflect, that another person/persons thinks is cool. Even this definition has issues, multiple people can think you are cool, and therefore copy. This then becomes a trend, which is by definition the antithesis of cool. I’ll take fashion to demonstrate, plimsolls were cool. You couldn’t buy them, you couldn’t copy them, unless you went to a school shop, the individuals wore them, but you seldom saw them in multiples of more than one. The second you see groups of people in them? They became a trend and not cool. The same thing is happening with check shirts right now.

I think the best way to describe cool is in terms of time. There is a cool point in time, when multiple persons think it is cool, but no coolhunters and no-one in a group. The initial spark is probably one person, but they are blissfully unaware and probably belong to the 40s kids or the Asian geek group, it’s the second person who is truly cool. The regurgitation of something seen around, the one who takes it, bastardises it for their own ends and doesn’t care too much when other people start to pick it up. The person who becomes a vehicle for that item because they liked it, and don’t hop straight off the bandwagon because they still like it. For that split-second in time, before the coolhunters, hipsters and trendies destroy it, they are by definition, cool.

T.I, Kanye, Jay-z, Lil' Wayne. MIA

2008-09-04T15:00:00.004+01:00

So this track reads like a whos-who of the top names in Rap at the moment.

Track - Its a sample of MIA - Paper Planes, over a dark moody angry synth.

Kanye West - The mercurial, tantrum-prone genius, reinvented production with his sped-up-soul samples, then stepped in front of the mic and had a go at that too. His rhymes aren't no.1, but they are not far off at all. Canny references and jumpy wordplay, always brings a Kanyeezy touch.

Jay-z - The grandmaster, never bettered the Blueprint, but bettering the best album in rap of the last 15 years isn't so easy. Back, with class and style.

Lil' Wayne - The new pretender, maverick ridiculous wordplay and voiceplay, can say a line like no other can say a line, not reached his peak yet, but his wordplay is only getting better. Utterly insane (he plays live, terrible, guitar solos while stoned out of his face)

T.I. - Always the underdog, never quite the king. Outside of the three above him, definetely the best rapper around, in fact he kills this track in a way none of them do.

There it is - heres the download http://www.zshare.net/video/17751425235e8885/

Lyrics

(MIA sample)

no one on the corner have swagger like us

swagger like us, swagger like us

no one on the corner have swagger like us

swagger like us, swagger like us

no one on the corner have swagger like us

swagger like us, swagger like us

no one on the corner have swagger like us

swagger like us, swagger like us

[kanye]

Mr. West is in the building

swagger on a hundred thousand, trillion

ayo I know I got it first

I’m Christopher Columbus, y’all just the pilgrims

Thanksgiving do we even gotta question

Hermes pastel I pass the dressing

My attitude is tattooed

that means permanent so I guess i should address it, huh?

my swagger is mick jagger

every time I breathe on the track I asthma attack it

why he’s so mad for, why he gotta habit

cuz I slaved my whole life, now I’m the master

na-na-na, how it feel to wake up and be the shit

trying to get that coke number, one over jordan

no one on the corner have swagger like us

swagger like us, swagger like us

no one on the corner have swagger like us

swagger like us, swagger like us

no one on the corner have swagger like us

swagger like us, swagger like us

no one on the corner have swagger like us

swagger like us, swagger like us

[jay-z]

no one on the corner gotta bop like this

can’t wear skinny jeans cuz my knots don’t fit

no one on the corner gotta pocket like this

so I rock Roc jeans cuz my knots so thick

you can learn how to dress just by jocking my fresh

jocking jocking my fresh

jocking jocking my fresh

follow my steps, it’s the road to success

where the niggas know you thorough

and the girls say yes

but I can’t teach you my swag

you can pay for school but you can’t buy class

school of hard knocks I’m a grad

and that all-blue yankee is my graduation cap, and

Hova, dipping different rovers whipping with the soda

Hova could u even have any doubt that the doubter(?) is over

[lil wayne]

No one on the corner has swagger like moi, Church

but I’m too clean for these boys

I require what I desire I got stripes, Adidas

mami scream papi no mas

run up in your shit just me no moss

runnin this shit like I got four thighs

none has swagger like this Oh god!

When it comes to styles I got several

sharper than a swagger, dagger all metal

and my jewelz blue and yellow

type of shit that make em call you Carmelo

Rules as follows stay true to the ghetto

Write your name on the bullet make you feel special

ha, what the fuck you boys talking about?

I know its us cuz we the only thing you talk about

no one on the corner have swagger like us

swagger like us, swagger like us

(and I’m done)

no one on the corner have swagger like us

swagger like us, swagger like us

(bye!)

no one on the corner have swagger like us

swagger like us, swagger like us

no one on the corner have swagger like us

swagger like us, swagger like us

[TI]

you go see Weezy for the wordplay,

Jeezy for the birdplay,

Kanyeezy for diversity and me for controversy,

all my verses picture perfect and they meant to serve a purpose,

you ain’t living what you kicking and you worthless,

looking from the surface it may seem that I got reason to be nervous

then observe my work and see that my adversity was worth it,

verses autobiographical, absolutely classical,

last thing I’m worried ’bout is what another rapper do,

ain’t nobody hot as me…

even if they rap they ass off blast, off and have outstanding qualities,

sell alotta records I respect and salute that,

but spitting real life on hot beats..

I’m the truth at, you kick it like me no exaggeration necessary,

living revolutionary, nothing less than legendary,

gangsta shit hereditary, got it from my dad

flow colder than February with extraordinary swag

Mystery Jets - Half In Love With Elizabeth

2008-09-03T14:46:00.003+01:00

This video is pure genius! Have you worked out who Elizabeth is yet?

New Banksy

2008-09-03T13:45:00.001+01:00

So banksy ran off to the USA for a short time to get some of his work up. He has focused on New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina in the aftermath, its quite a nice set. I especially like the photo of the final piece and the TV looting one. Check it

http://banksy.co.uk/outdoors/horizontal_1.htm

Sarah Palin

2008-09-02T20:08:00.004+01:00

Oh John McCain you scored a spectacular own goal when appointing a gun-toting, hardline religious nut as your VP. Let's not even pretend she was there on any kind of merit, she had significant plus points that you could not see past. She was a woman for starters, if your opponents had just been taken to the wire 49/51% for the nomination and the loser is a woman, your damn right it makes sense to involve a woman in your campaign. Your already attracting those independent and floating voters with your astute demographic studies. Women would like to vote for a woman, genius stuff right there. It even improves your credentials with the hardline christian right...oh wait.

Turns out Governor Palin wasn't so religiously correct as first thought. Her teenage daughter is A) Pregnant B)Unmarried and C)with a boy who's myspace page refers to himself as a "Fucking Redneck." Should it really be a campaign issue? Hell yes it should, if you can't keep your own house in order, how will you keep the countries house in order. This becomes especially important when you realise that since John McCain is older than the Velcro, Mcdonalds and the State of Israel, the situation in which he may die and leave the VP as President is far more likely that ever before. I do not want a VP possible president who can't even control her own daughter when she knows she is about to be in the political spotlight. It also throws into a funny light some of Palin's campaign choices, no sex education, abstinence only taught in schools and no abortions even in rape cases? I hope your daughter can finish her education, only problem is her baby bump is too big, she can't sit down and fucking write. This is not to mention her questionable stance on Pork Barrel spending, which John is clearly against, but it seems she has been right behind in her native state. I won't comment on the allegations of her once being in an Alaskan Independence party because frankly I don't care.

She could have plus points. She will certainly look to energize those who simply would like to vote for a woman, although she should make sure she gets their votes and doesn't simply pique their interest. It will be interesting to see exactly how the Evangelicals react to this, they could rally round and support the teenager or whatever, in their terrible mistake that they learned from. There are allegations that the last baby that the Senator bore is actually her daughters and it was faked, but these are sketchy at best. She has certainly convinced John C. Dobson, who is reported in the New York Times as only being able to vote for John McCain now that Palin was on the ticket. He is an influential conservative christian leader, so it seems for the minute she is doing her job.

There is another school of thought to the Palin question. John McCain is actually a very complex character, seemingly given to displays of hero-esque risk-taking decision making, often in order to bring down corruption or selfish spending. Palin falls right in behind him, allowing him to make this election about the issues he wish to make it about. I'm rambling and not expressing this eloquently, so here is a quote from the New York Times:

When McCain met Sarah Palin last February, he was meeting the rarest of creatures, an American politician who sees the world as he does. Like McCain, Palin does not seem to have an explicit governing philosophy.
Her background is socially conservative, but she has not pushed that as governor of Alaska. She seems to find it easier to work with liberal Democrats than the mandarins in her own party.
Instead, she seems to get up in the morning to root out corruption.
McCain was meeting a woman who risked her career taking on the corrupt Republican establishment in her own state, who twice defeated the oil companies.

So in fact she allows the election to be about McCain's ideological philosophy rather than any specific governing one. It certainly is an interesting thought, but will McCain be able to devote the election to these principles when Obama will clearly try to make it about the popular policies he is trumpeting, Healthcare and Education for one. Increased government spending on the lower-middle classes at the expense of higher taxes on the upper classes. The top 1% who earn more than the 90% are his target.

The problem is, Sarah Palin seems to be still making gaffs. Here is one youtube video in which she chuckles away at a political adversary who is called a "cancer" and a "bitch." In a sensitive political climate, you can't have things like this floating on youtube.

What does go to John McCain's credit is the expedient timing of his announcement. Not 24 hours of democratic gloating were allowed past their conference that could be described akin to Dan Rice's circus as "the greatest show on earth" before they were usurped and beaten on the inside. The shock reverberated around politics showing ill-prepared democrats AND republicans. When republican officials are saying they only had time for surface level investigations on her and her partner, and nothing on the rest of the family, John was always asking for trouble. So his initial triumph also went against him.

Must I repeat that old football metaphor? A catastrophic own-goal. At least its more exciting than David Milliband.

Don LaFontaine

2008-09-02T19:17:00.001+01:00

If you have ever seen a Trailer with a deep voice then you KNOW this man's work. 24, Speed, Terminator 2, every action film ever. He is THE voice over artist. It's too bad that a man's work is only really recognised and understood when he dies.

RIP Don LaFontaine

Jeremy Warmsley

2008-08-28T12:07:00.003+01:00

Well short-term this has turned into a music blog, I'm sure that won't destroy any credibility I could have/had.

Jeremy Warmsley is another member of this London anti-folk/anti-LDN basically lovely twee indie folk music "crew." I had listened to Dirty Blue Jeans and I Believe in the Way you Move and had thought him okay. Just okay. The deliciously juxtaposed song If He Breaks Your Heart changed my mind entirely. I love the concept of the protective best friend/secret lover. Perhaps my favourite aspect is the beeping twitchy electronic backing under his dynamic voice, itself pulsating through the higher reaches of the falsetto scale only to crash down to earth with barely concealed malice. Who ever knew the lovely half-french london boy had these lyrics in him...

If he breaks your heart
I will break his legs
If he takes the piss
I will break his face
If he fucks it up
I will kill him stone cold dead
If he breaks your heart
Will I stand a chance?

Check it out.

His album The Art of Fiction is up for release on October 9th through Transgressive Records, which is the perfect place for upcoming edged british music. Ex-members of their stable include (not all british but hey-ho) Regina Spektor, The Subways, The Young Knives, Battles, Foals and the Mystery Jets.

Fast Furious

2008-08-27T16:54:00.002+01:00

Fuck the crappy sequels, Fuck the idiot texan and the japanese. New film, original cast, yeeah boy!

http://www.thefastandthefurious.com/

Trailer is here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJTo5OPDtTY

Its top.

Emmy The Great

2008-08-26T13:49:00.002+01:00

Well I ran off to V/Reading for two weeks, hence the minimal bloggingtime. I'll be posting catch up posts on things I saw/did over the weeks.

Emmy the Great

Part of and rebelling against the anti-folk scene in london, termed "Anti-LDN" by the journalistic peons at NME. Her fingers dance lightly across the strings to match her quickly delivered lyrics of intricate rhyming schemes and cadence. Her voice is light and smacks of girlish innocence until it is required to reach a note out of her usual range, which she does with aplomb. While her voice may not stand her out from the crowd, and perhaps even not her actual melodies and songs, the lyrics demand recognition; here is an excerpt...

Later on me and a bottle will hook up to have some fun,
Then I'll call your house at twelve to let you know that I'm drunk,
Say I'm sorry Mr C,
I was just looking for your son
How are you, incidentally, do you know if he's out alone?
There is this book he lent to me something like seven months ago
I'm gonna burn it in the street be so kind as let him know
that I'm dealing
with this badly
and
could he please get back to me?

and from perhaps my favourite song...

the day that we
took out a car in the rain
is the day you forgot how to
brake and see
how quickly the picture will change
filled with fingers and voices and teeth
i still remember holding my hand
against your face just before it was sprayed
across the radio
as it played

Basically the song is all about the car crash, where everything (including the driver) got totally messed up, but the radio still played. The song apparently sounds like the one that was playing. Very literal and heart-breaking to hear.

The reason I mention her anti-folk scene credentials, it totally links her into Lightspeed Champion, Jeremy Warmsley, Laura Marling et al. I believe she has also attended an Eel Pie Island party of the Mystery Jets and been on Jeremy Warmsley's tv show (Which has its own post.) Basically she is fantastic, better than Kate Nash or whoever is the latest media darling of the female singer-songwriter from London. To sum up, lyrics of Regina Spektor, throw in classic folk guitar strings, a smattering of Decemberist-esque uniqueness.

Barack The Vote

2008-08-14T03:18:00.000+01:00

Sherlock Holmes knows.

Albums you can listen to

2008-08-14T02:57:00.002+01:00

The entire way through because every track is a banger.

Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory
Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans
Rufio - MCMLXXXV
Radiohead - In Rainbows
M.I.A - Kala
Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worst Nightmare

Thats what i have so far...

Nods

2008-08-14T02:10:00.005+01:00

Just two little snippets from my GQ reading, a real post on it coming soon...

Tartan/Check scarf or summer scarf is a necessicty, a way to tip your hat at the trend without becoming one of the faceless masses actually following it.
Soft Denim Shirts – fits with the western patterned nature of the check shirts without blending in, perfect.

When you didn’t reply to that text

2008-08-14T02:10:00.001+01:00

One, just before you wake,
Two while you dress and make the tea that you take
The third while you sun, sweat and sizzle in the zenith
It runs dry.
It fills up.
Four hikes your hackles; it’s off the cards now
Five pleads and begs, balefully sorrow
Six wishes you luck, cravenly cowering from the fight
The seventh never comes
You take such pity on such a sap, opening the door
Hair dappled with sparkling rain drops, envelopes my lobes as you lean
Over my face, yours cracks with a grin
It was all just a game.

Tracy Emin 2007

I like it.

Internet Death

2008-08-14T02:05:00.003+01:00

My internet went down, so i started scribbling and reading GQ, welcome to the Musings.

10 Things Younger Than John McCain

Israel (1948)
Mcdonalds (1948)
Alaska (1959)
Nylon (1938)
Golden Gate Bridge (1937)
The Dandy (-1 Year)
Ball Point Pens – Biro (1938)
TV Ads (Bulova Watch Commerical 1941)
Scrabble (1948)
Spam (1937)
www.thingsyoungerthanmccain.com

Genius!

I haven’t read GQ in a while, feeling my style could do with a return to basics that weren’t aspiring to the Saville Row chic completely out of my price-range. However on a whim (and to impress a girl) I happened to buy it again this month. Its depth of quality articles really surprised me, the kind of thing that can make you laugh and chuckle while your neurons make brand new connections. Just a few ideas I picked up from the articles...

Ceramics are coming back, manly horses and shapes.
Light small under 14in screen laptops are so right.
Hellboy II and its director Guillermo Del Toro are just artists trapped in cinema. And he’s doing the Hobbit, not that Jackson fellow.
Ryan Giggs is still the most professional football in the Premiership, loyalty and utter success. Plus Nelson Mandela knows he is, that’s the pinnacle!
Hilary Clinton just wants to be Cristina Fernandez, the strongest woman in politics bar Germany’s PM.
Berlin is the new city to be at, vibrant industrial and at the heart of a resurgent Germany. Just see the Sony Center on Potsdamer Platz.
Ben Sherman is the perfect british make now its returning to its roots, a mix of skinhead, mod, rocker and indie dandy. Its reclaiming itself from the rudeboys.
Oh, and this one doesn’t need explaination, you just need the title. Flattery gest you nowhere.

Prep

2008-08-10T20:57:00.003+01:00

Chuck Bass from Gossip Girl, can only be labelled as a complete poster boy for outrageous prep style. While a lot of his clothes come from expensive designers designed to showcase their customers wealth simply by association as well as exquisite clothing, I feel like if he really lived in London like his actor, he might dress down in Franklin & Marshall. It's pretty readily avaliable from places like ASOS and fits the whole preppy look. I saw a classic outift in town today, signature grey hoody with white writing married with jeans shorts and birkenstocks. Nothing says daddy came from money like wearing a hoody with flip-flops.

My favourite pieces from the line....

Purple + Turquoise Writing - The blue really jumps, and I have an unnatural obssesion with purples.

And the classic White on Grey hoody

The problem is diversification. While they have tried out different designs that are "edgy" "hip and "urban" it just doesn't quite have the same first hit that the classic arched writing does.

Irony

2008-08-10T18:04:00.002+01:00

Oldie, but a Goodie

2008-08-10T18:02:00.002+01:00

Helen Mirren may be 63 (Thats right, grandmama age) but she puts girls I know to shame on the beach. Just look and appreciate the older woman, and remember unlike paedophillia or jailbait, its not illegal :)

LOLzzz

2008-08-10T00:37:00.002+01:00

Hai!!11oneone/1/1

I haz nu interwebs languaggezz, LOLCODE

Can has pgrms n talkiezz

Plz don't EVER talk like this in real life?

KTHNXBAI

Its' based off LOLCATS

I'm not a skillfull water carrier

2008-08-05T21:20:00.009+01:00

Taking a style note from the short boxy cut styles of Thom Browne (who tells you how to wear his suits in the link) and our european style counterparts, it seems the men around my town have hiked up their trousers and made vertical with their shorts. It's actually coming in a few different forms.

Trousers

Roll them up, Roll them up, Roll them up. Below is just one example I can across while fashion-blog-surfing, but it is everywhere. Messy rolls, ruler-straight folds and assymetrical legs. Ankles are out.

Alternatively you can simply sit there rocking the cropped trousers. Longer than 3/4 but not trousers.
Shorts

Now shorts are far more interesting. Short shorts will be huge once they have a champion, some-one vaguely famous who will step out in them and give most men confidence to wear them. Businessmen are starting to embrace the short shorts, and the look certainly works. I especially like the awkwardness of the far left and the more classic relaxed on the right. The key thing is, they are all killing the look!

On a less formal note, short length sometimes doesn't matter, but whether or not they are turned up does. Heres a small selection from the blogosphere

Thats just three, but there are so many.

Another way to wear them is simply to make the shorts ridiculously short. Not 70s porn star short with a moustache hopefully, but short! This is my favourite picture of this post so far.

He just rocks it, the high tops and jacket sets it off perfectly. Manbag can only help.

Kudos to Haute Concept for having a similar eye.

Emmasculation

2008-08-04T03:55:00.003+01:00

The times today provided us real readers with a decent article from American Columnist Kathleen Parker. Scarily enough she is not illiterate, overweight or ignorant of what is going on the wider world around her. Who would have thought our view of americans (can i clarify, people from the united states) is actually a caricature! Anyway Kathleen here looks at the final manifestation of feminism, in which they continue further from simply empowering females to emmascualting males in some sort of attempt to neutralise gender differences to a more female centric andgroygenous "uni-gender". Obviously I am only talking about certain branches of feminism, a lot of it deals with the patriachal nature of capitalist structures, or base themselves solely in law. Further reading can be found on wikipedia if one wants it. It is certainly a point which needs to be made with the advent of the metrosexual over-preened man. Her references to the detrimental view of traditionally manly roles of protector and such. The advent of the metrosexual man is over personally, woman want the alpha male, they want everything, the hypersexual. The one who takes care of himself, but can still beat up a guy that hits on you at the bar or letches. Don't want much do they?

In a Honky-Tonk, Down in Mexico

2008-07-20T14:03:00.004+01:00

If you haven't seen the unrated version of grindhouse, then you won't have seen Vanessa Ferlito's lapdance. Its dripping with sex.

Icyhot.

Farnsworth Bentley x Andre 3000 x Kanye West

2008-07-17T13:52:00.003+01:00

Cool Outrageous Lovers Of Uniqley Raw Style - C.o.l.o.u.r.s

Great Video for this track from Farnsworth Bentley's new album, big guest spots, hits the laid back summer vibe and the mens fashion dinner jacket vibe.

Radiohead - House Of Cards

2008-07-14T17:01:00.002+01:00

Making of: Radiohead - House of Cards

Theres no cameras, just mathematical points.

Levi Fly

2008-07-10T18:47:00.001+01:00

Apparently your jeans can fly!

Interweb Trends

2008-06-28T01:14:00.003+01:00

Apparently the latest internet forum trend funny cool thing to say has gone from "ftw (For the win)" to this...

Unassuming debate of any nature is spied by a prankster, said prankster makes a post in the following style...

1. Step One
2. Step Two
3. ??????? (Missing step)
4. Profit!

So for example in a discussion on how to fill in your P46 to get on the right tax code...

1. Fill out form P46

2. Hand it into employer and tax office

3. ???????

4. Profit!

Apparently its funny, but i'm missing it slightly. Guess Geekspeak will never be my forté...

Live, Work, Create

2008-06-27T01:50:00.004+01:00

I'm thinking of bringing a lot more fashion into my blog, since its really what drives and inspires me for much of the day. I'm usually searching hither or thither for the latest thing, what looks good, what doesn't and then thinking how to bring that style into what I wear anyway. I tend not to follow trends, but let trends open doors for me. For example it wasn't so long ago that tailored shorts were unheard of, but now because they are stylish it gives me another summer option to wear. Then you can mix in your own ideas and colours, like purple is my summer colour, so american apparel has been well and truly rinsed. Some kind of mix of fashion photography a la The Sartorialist and general analysis of trends and patterns and ideas like GQ. Thats the idea anyway, whether or not it comes to fruition, we will have to see.

First step is to get a decent camera, I think a digital SLR is too much of an investment, so probably a fish eye camera and a Lomographic will be the way to go, a proper Russian made job.

Girl Talk

2008-06-25T10:01:00.003+01:00

Girl talk done done a Radiohead a released its own version of the classic "Pay what you want for my album." Although this time, if you really want to be mad cheapskate and pay £0.00, then it asks you for a reason. It will be interesting to see what the output on the reasons statistics are.

Anyway the album is another seamless mix CD from the man GirlTalk. It's less frustrating than his old album Night Ripper, as in he usually allows the samples to play themselves out fully and develops his drops better. I found with Night Ripper, it almost teased with you, let you expect the drop and instead of dropping the same track or even a similar one, it just cut to the next musical experimentation. Feed The Animals has been a more pleasurable listening experience. Some of the samples are crazy inventive, sinead O'connor pops up in the first track over a heavy bass beat, avril lavigne gets her girlfriend vocal played with, which is what it was made for really. Overall, after one or two listens It really works. The one issue is that you can't cut out tracks too easily, it really works as a concept album, rather than a collection of tracks.

Wikipedia has an incomplete samples list, but its pretty fucking extensive. It's actually quite a nice addition to your listening experience, to see how and where hes used all the samples, certainly aspiring if your a mash-up/mix DJ.

Get it Here from Illegal Art

Little Boots x Hot Chip

2008-06-25T09:41:00.004+01:00

Little Boots, a lady from Blackpool covers Ready For The Floor in the MOST imaginative way I have seen so far. She gets a Tenori-on, which is a musical sound/light interface, and builds up the track until she sings over the top. She keeps changing the pitch to match the real track, it sounds perfect. I really want a tenori-on to jam on now.

EDIT: Two things.1) http://uk.youtube.com/user/littlebootsvideos That's Little Boots' youtube channel. She does weekly covers on request. It may be hyperbole but I'm utterly in awe. Can I put her in my pocket and take her home?2) Tenori-On on ebay - Wanna go halves?

Euro 2008

2008-06-22T13:49:00.003+01:00

Well classy speedy in all essence Dutch, Russia destroyed the dutch last night in a brilliant game with more than 50 attempts on goal in total. Which besides helping my fantasy football team produced this brilliant picture from gettyimages. The best sports photo's always juxtapose utter elation with sheer despondency, after all in sport the encapsulating idea is that there are winners and losers.

Andre Arshavin after scoring.

Cheeky Chappie.

Coldplay is Thieves

2008-06-22T13:46:00.002+01:00

Turns out the new Coldplay song...isn't so much a Coldplay song, as a song with an entirely unoriginal stolen melody...woops. We aren't talking sampling or even using a flavour or an idea, the melody is quite identical. Now usually it wouldn't create too much fuss, but the complaint was made in a youtube video, the complainer has a moustache and the complainee gave it credence by calling his band the "worlds most enthusiastic" plagirisers...

Still the little video is good, take a look!

The Disciples

2008-06-21T18:04:00.002+01:00

This is a really cool photography show in New York at the moment by photographer James Mollison. It basically goes to a gig, takes everyone who has dressed themselves up like the band and has them on big prints. It ends up looking like a pretty cool effect, The Klaxons wannabes are clearly my favourite.

http://themoment.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/in-focus-the-photographer-james-mollison/#more-951

Klaxons concert, London, 2007.

P. Diddy concert, Miami, 2006.

USA

2008-06-05T09:35:00.003+01:00

I did quite a lot of rambling while in the states in my little golden book. Sometimes words are the only expression, so here are a few, i'll probably post them from time to time.

Withdraw,
Calculated, Risk-assesed attempt,
Why should I barely transcend contempt?
Rainbows never scaled,
Distance twixt never curtailed
Just notes on hotel doors

Sugar cubes in Kinder eggs

Fingertrails and blurring and a slight disassociative feeling, brain lighting. Random trails of thought that feel as if they will run away with themselves, spiraling gently in obscurity and obscenity. Colours exploding in front of your eyes, not unlike the inside of your eyelids. Writing colour in crayon of colour. Arms becomes palettes and multiple artists collaborate, flicking swirling patterns fade into the melanin only to revive and surf the epedermis. Sunlight, backlight, spotlight.

Justice x 28 Weeks Later

2008-06-04T10:05:00.005+01:00

So when you toke a few, smoke a few and get high, what is the first thing you wanna do?

Well if your anything like these guys its put your favourite driving, building soul-destroying electro track as the soundtrack to your favourite new horror film 28 Weeks Later. What is produced is nothing short of a marvel, that people in such a state could produce the kind of unintended synergy between music and film.

Anyway thats enough from me, watch it, watch the transitions between tracks and how the drops almost mirror the jumps!

Stress & Waters of Nazareth

AsianManDan

Oh and will you PLEASE check the justice - stress video, its INSANE. A Man bites dog crazy type theme, basically a gang of kids in black justice cross leather jackets beating the shit out of everything in a town, the police, old ladies, street performers. Its nuts.

USA

2008-06-04T10:00:00.003+01:00

It's been a while, i spent about 2 months in the states, but summer will be blogging time.

Impressive this art from blublu, its a music graffiti video, but it shot in stop motion (like nightmare before christmas) check it out

Time Out

2008-04-08T07:57:00.003+01:00

My bad, long time no blog. Work is time-consuming if not well paid.

Fundies!

http://cgi.ebay.com/FUNDIES-UNDIES-FOR-TWO-GREAT-FUN-GAG-GIFT_W0QQitemZ230119746977QQihZ013QQcategoryZ102374QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQ_trksidZp1638.m118.l1247QQcmdZViewItem

Essentially a large pair of pants, "half the fun is getting into them, the other half is up to you"

I think a collectivised, OH DEAR is thats needed. Still I'm sure...someone....will order one!

Films

Vantage Point - Interesting concept, billed as new and revolutionary but its already been done in a few other films, so really I wasn't that impressed. Forest Whitaker was good, because he is, but others didn't put in such a great performance, Matthew Fox for one. 6/10

Léon - Natalie Portman's first feature role, fantastic french film about a hitman and a 12 year old girl who wants to learn how to be a hitman. Probably one of the best looks at the awkward relationship of dealer of death and child. The exploration of the sexual link between them is really interesting, without delving into paedophilia, very accomplished if not mature from Portman too. Apparently she "poses better than she acts", but i don't see that so much, only flaws are the slightly one-dimensional villians bar the main one. 8.5/10

Festivalness

Reading lineup is beyond good. Rage, frankly I'd pay the admission price just for rage. RAGE. I never thought I'd see them again until they started playing shows last year. I knew they would play a big UK festival. Supporting line-up is good, only to get better. Now if only I didn't have to buy an eBay ticket for inflated prices :(

Quiet Old Trafford?

2008-03-18T17:19:00.004Z

Stick THIS in your prawn sandwiches and smoke em.

Bring this back to OT!

Viva Ronaldo,

Running Down The Wing,

Hear United Sing,

Viva Ronaldo,

V Festival 2008

2008-03-03T17:42:00.003Z

V STAGE: MUSE - THE VERVE - KINGS OF LEON - STEREOPHONICS - AMY WINEHOUSE - THE KOOKS - MAXIMO PARK - LENNY KRAVITZ - THE FEELING - ALANIS MORISETTE - GIRLS ALOUD - THE FUTURE HEADS - SQUEEZE

My first impression is Muse, meh seen them plenty! KOL - Fucking A!, Winehouse - Fucking A! Alanis Morissette! Girls Aloud FTW!

The Kooks/Maximo Park/The Feeling - Crappy standard indie popness.

Squeeze and Futureheads = Interesting!

CHANNEL 4 STAGE: THE PRODIGY - KAISER CHIEFS - THE PIGEON DETECTIVES - THE ZUTONS - NEWTON FAULKNER - THE VIEW - THE HOOSIERS - REVEREND AND THE MAKERS - DUFFY - SCOUTING FOR GIRLS - AMY MACDONALD - SHED SEVEN - THE COURTEENERS

PRODIGY FTW

Zutons=Valerie=Good. Newton Faulkner will be good for a relax, Amy Macdonald is really good.

Kaisers/Pigeon Detectives/View/Hoosiers/Scouting for Girls - Indie Rubbish.

Shed Seven/Duffy = Interesting.

JJB ARENA: IAN BROWN - THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS - THE POGUES - THE CHARLATANS - JAMIE T - HOT CHIP - TRAVIS - THE TWANG - SUGABABES - DAVID JORDAN - ROBYN

Chemical Brothers FTW, Pogues for that Christmas Song! Charlatans are good, Jamie T!

HOT FUCKING CHIP,

Sugababes and Robyn = Wooop.

Travis/Twang = Meh.

David Jordan = Who?

Iplayer

2008-03-02T21:49:00.000Z

Does anyone else love how the iplayer sound goes up to 11? How wicked.

Balshaw.

2008-03-02T19:26:00.006Z

Iain Balshaw
Franky he makes my skin crawl, he looks like a small child with retarded down syndrome, runs like one too. My heart leaps into my throat every time England receive a high ball. Frankly I could get into the England team, my skills include:

Catching the ball.
Moving underneath a high ball, in order to exercise skill no.1
Using my eyes to notice the other team has kicked the ball
Staying in position

All things seemingly outside Balshaw's capabilties. His flaps under the high ball seriously damage England, let us not forget it was HIS failure against Wales that caused the first try and can we extrapolate, the entire collapse? Ashton clearly has a soft-spot for his best friend and/or gayloverboy.
Candidates to replace him:

Me
Matthew Tait
Danny Cipriani (Who would even play into the nice questionable sexuality that Balshaw provides, seeing as he bummed a ladyboy)
Mike Brown (Harlequins - Great game this weekend)

So let's be honest. Anyone but Balshaw. Frankly its a travesty also that Simpson-Daniel doesn't make it into the team. After two abject performances hopefully Aston will see the light, or at least find someone else to plow his hole.

EDIT: Prophecy on Simpson-Daniel Albeit at the expense of the fleet of foot Dave Strettle instead of Balshaw.

Censor Glasses

2008-03-02T19:19:00.005Z

They are made by a brand called "Stupidotic" and my god was that prophetic.

http://www.urbanjunkie.co.uk/product.php/636/0/stupidiotic-black-bar-glasses

"On their own, Black Bars appear to be silly looking sunglasses" - I have to agree, well done product makers!

"Just the thing for budding celebs who want to make it look like they’ve got something to hide when leaving a club in front of a crowd of photographers. Let the paparazzi (or your mates!) do their worst. The pictures won’t prove anything! Stupidiotic Black Bar look and photograph just like censor bars, so you can be caught out in compromising positions, yet still maintain plausible deniability! " - This is the stupidest campaign spiel I have ever heard! Come on, you just look like yourself with stupid glasses on, if your mates can't tell who you are, then I'd get new friends!

Truly awful. 1.99 from play.com

Ugly Models.

2008-03-02T19:10:00.003Z

I have always said that models are not hot, there is a clear defintion between Model-Hot and Hot, with a few notable exceptions, who are actually beautiful, rather than hot. Model's generally have to have an interesting 'look' which then serves as their gimmick. Agyness Deyn is androgyny personified for example (also she is smoking hot). This particular model is a man first of all, which makes me question his suitability for life, but also has a 'look' which can only be described as Dumbo [Props to Duncs for spotting the disney reference] Enjoy.

Remember When Kickflips Were Rare?

2008-02-29T07:53:00.002Z

Remeber when you first got that skateboard, saw Tony Hawk hit a 900, did it yourself (in the game) and then tried to do an Ollie? Okay so you got that down, now let's try a kickflip, cue failure and loss of 'cool'

Rodney Mullen drops some mindblowing skills to show you what it would have come to with perserverance.

Pharrell Moves

2008-02-28T19:33:00.003Z

Rip the Runway, some fashion/music crossover in the US. N*E*R*D performed Everyone Nose, its disgusting.

Pharrell is dropping some MOVES here. Commenters claim it is Tecktonik, but I would just say he is just going wild OUT! Enjoy.

TecktoniK

2008-02-28T19:29:00.004Z

Well you had Soulja Boy, you had Move those feet.

Now the French.

TecktoniK

No rhythm, no style, just pace and SHAPES. It really reminds me of the expression throwing shapes...

Insane. Can you do it?

Musical

2008-02-27T21:57:00.004Z

Jay Jay Pistolet

Horrible name don't you agree? But Oh, Caroline is a great little piece. Evokes feelings of americana, feels a little like Sufjan Stevens, which can never be a bad thing. Am currently diving into alternative songs of his. So far nothing quite catches the ear in the same way, although Holly seems to feel vast and sprawling.

Jamie Lidell

The Funkster himself. He is brilliant and highly under-rated, it is an absolute travesty that he isn't more popular. His live show is something to behold, sampling and re-sampling his voice over a midi controller until he builds up to a crazy house of cards style piece of music that he always manages to hold together. An utterly different experience from his more orthodox studio albums which in themselves hold merit as contained funk experiments that explode into melodic brilliance.

A new album on the way, he has begun to give us little tasters of his new stuff, figured me out is good. I can't wait to hear A little bit of feel good and the rest of the album.

Division Day

A straight-up indie rock band of the kind I don't usually listen to, but great none the less. If I had to compare them to any band it might be Air Traffic, but its only a loose comparison. My favourite song is Tigers, it has some great lyrics like

"I want your blood inside my head"

That's a serious WTF moment when your lyric-listening. I enjoy the cryptically dark lyrics though, their album often juxtaposes this against the ostensibly soft and frail voice of the lead singer. On the song Ricky it all gets a bit too busy for my liking. If I want insanely busy music I'll listen to Fall of Troy thank you very much. The dd-dd-d-d-d-d-d-d electronic beat in the background pretty much makes it unlistenable! For me anyway. Tigers needs another rep though, calmer more considered track that ultimately is far more successful.

Pineapple Express

2008-02-19T17:25:00.003Z

This is Pineapple Express. M.I.A on the soundtrack, Seth Rogen on the Actor-track and Jude Apatow in the Directors Chair. Cue stoner comedy genius.

LED Nightclub

2008-02-18T12:32:00.003Z

LED panels on the toilet doors to indicate which is which? It all seems fairly standard until you realise that they are switchable on the fly. Queue Scenario

*Boy walks in 'Boy' Toilet*
*As door shuts, sign changes to 'girl' toilet*
*Boy is walking out as Girl walk in, queue embarrassment slash confusment*

Could be pretty funny, especially when pretty drunk in a club, I'll definitely be wary of LED toilet doors when I'm out and about.

Flashing Lights

2008-02-17T17:02:00.003Z

That's Kanye West and Spike Jonze' creation for flashing lights. It's actually a very cinematic clip, long panning shots and that. Music videos these days are a very drab affair usually, thrown together to a vague formula that usually involves scantily clad girls, dancing not that far from the line stuff deepest darkest texas exhibits. It takes quite a dedicated artist to break the mould these days, Kanye jumped on the bandwagon of Ed Banger in more than one way when he got So-Me to direct "Good Life" although it turned out to be quite the video. Still, doesn't compare to "D.A.N.C.E." how that didn't win the Grammy, I don't know.

Digitalism are playing some UK dates, which is fun. They have a fantastic live show, like a proper live show. JFK from MSTRKRFT was discussing how far a DJ can actually be called "live" when at most they are just sequencing from ableton and midi's on a laptop or three. I agree cause most sets aren't really live, not like with a live band where anything can happen, including total failure! But digitalism sample their voices live and use some instruments, so that gives them some credence to call themselves a live act.

N*E*R*D, my favourite band, are on the comeback trail with their single Everyone Nose. With some inspired googling I'm sure you can find a copy *cough* and its something very different from Fly or Die I think. Its got a real jazz room feel to some parts, and others it reminds me of the chanting staccato stuff like Thrasher. Certainly the bridge is real real nice. I want to hear more, leak the damn album pharrell.

Finally on the university front, I have four offers, two I'd seriously consider taking. Now its decision time. LSE vs. UCL.

Skins Secret Party

2008-02-11T18:06:00.001Z

That's Maxxie (Mitch) and two lady-friends of mine. Elle, my darling lover of many months on the left, and Georgia, a BFF (lolz.) on the right. Maxxie was wearing the same top as me basically, good style clearly for good-looking people.

Alcopops taste good when they are free :)

Great party overall, The Teenagers were there. Awesome. We also managed to get posters and wristbands, so I was happy.

Grammy!

2008-02-11T17:54:00.000Z

The Grammys are probably the most heralded music awards in the world, you win one of these you gotta be a little bit better than your average popstar.

This is Kanye West's performance with Daft Punk, its literally spine-tinglingly good.

Daft punk are amazing, but for anyone who hasn't seen this, It can be quite the eye-opener.

It takes skill to sort out all those samples, so kudos to them, but they ARE samples! Still, lets not detract from Daft Punk's awesomeness.

Also - Barack Obama won a Spoken Word Grammy! Barack - the only presidential candidate with a Grammy!

Morality.

2008-02-07T19:18:00.000Z

Overseas premiership games? Hell no!

Too right!

I also agree with the sentiment that fans have to unite over this. I mean ALL fans don't want this to happen, it's only going to create issues! Its like I said earlier, if the title is decided because Arsenal draw Derby in their 39th game and Manchester United draw Tottenham (Only the top 5 teams seeded) then COME ON. I don't think you could get more ridiculous. It's more money-grabbing tactics, I'm very confused by the clubs reaction as well. I would suggest that they should have known how the fans would react, so why even agree? The financial departments clearly have too much clout. But c'est la vie, that's a capitalist football market.

Other morales are cheating. Cheating is generally not good for relationships. So say I know both members of Couple A AB and AG (boy, girl) and there have been rumours about AB cheating lots but then I hear conclusive proof. So the enterprising young gent I am, went to talk to AB bout it. He just said yeah I did it, told AG and she wasn't too happy. Considering Couple A went out ages ago and broke up cause of cheating, fuck me she is forgiving! Anyway, the morale dilemma is if one should discuss the subject with AG. Especially as I know all three of the girls who partcipated in the cheating. Oh dear, modern morality in the times, help me!

New Music Generator - 3/2/8

2008-02-03T22:59:00.000Z

New Music Generator - Sunday Regular?

Colbie Caillat.

This lady has a really laid back smooth style to her sweet pop. It's quite refreshingly naive and beautiful in the face of Winehouse/Spears. Written in a break up and a break down respectively. Apparently another myspace popularity gone world-wide (in fact the top unsigned artist for FOUR MONTHS, and like literally a million plays of her songs), I initially stumbled across her tracks Magic and Oxygen. Then I hit bubbly and it all made sense. It's literally drenched in sunshine, set in a lazy summer afternoon when the acoustic guitar just ooozes pathetic fallacy. She references Lauryn Hill and Fleetwood Mac, which I guess is a good a place to start from as any! Whatever happened to Lauryn anyway? Last I heard she was bombing at the Fugees London return. Anyway, Colbie. She's really good, the singles outshine the album, in a 7/10 is better than 6/10 kind of way. I have Coco, its a lovely listen, but perhaps too long in my opinion. My preference is for the short punchy leaves you wanting more album rather than the extension beyond your means. Colbie requires variety, before she can produce an album of perfection like the idols she speaks of on her myspace (Joni Mitchell, Carole King)

6.5/10

Notable tracks

Magic - "It's leaking out all over my skin" - 8

About love so strong it hurts, an ode to a lover basically. Think an acoustic guitar with a light drumbeat with colbie's voice gliding serenely over the top.

Oxygen - "Staring at my fingers, feeling like a fool" - 6

This is good, IF you ignore the lyrics and let yourself succumb to the 'feel' of the song. The lyrics are saccharine.

Bubbly - "I get the tingles in the silly place" - 8

Probably the best track on the album, better lyrics, allegory and similie tone down the sugar sweet nature.

So this is music reviews, I'll do more since I'm constantly listening! My next technique is the review in the track, you review the track as you listen. Interesting concept!

Lightspeed Champion + Turner + Strokes = Nice.

2008-02-03T21:33:00.000Z

And so into the realms of music blogs, mp3 blogs, hypemusic, elbows and the like.

Thats Alex Turner, Dev Hynes and a host of mates! Looks a great gig, mental front row/bouncers etc.

I like the cover, and Alex always says how much he loves The Strokes. I'm actually suprised if they haven't rehearsed because they sound like pretty damn accomplished musicians these days! Well done to them tbh. Everyone loves a supergroup.

Lynch

2008-01-29T17:02:00.001Z

A Lynch-rope joke?

A LYNCHING joke?

Okay, I won’t get all on my high horse about these things, everything is comedy these days and you can’t get too politically correct about these things (especially religion, those Muhammad cartoons? Hil-arious) but you would have thought America in this day and age wouldn’t stand for a lynching joke in mainstream Hollywood movie. Definitely a double-take moment, like, did he just say that? Reminded me of Birth of a Nation, President Bush=President Wilson? To be fair Wilson wanted tighter European links, and so does Bush (as long as they support his war.)

So I was watching Knocked Up on DVD, was shocked by one of the main characters saying “Shall I get my lynching rope” in jest at getting the local sex offenders, because he didn’t really care when his wife was worried. Now there are many things here,
1) Is he assuming that all sex offenders are AA and therefore lynching? I suspect not, but it’s a logical conclusion from his statement.
2) Does he really think that slavery and civil rights demonstrations were so long ago that they don’t matter and have become easy fodder for comedy? I think its still raw in the minds of millions of AA’s.
3) Has he really just mentioned lynching? He could have just said rope, or shotgun or even knife. But LYNCHING, why would you even associate yourself or the film with that.
4) This came from the writer of the film, whom I now do not like.

Anyway systematic chasing down, hanging and burning of victims that was state promoted less than 100 years ago is no laughing matter IMHO.

Learning

2008-01-28T22:15:00.000Z

So this blogging lark is actually a fair amount of effort! It's not like people are even reading this one currently. What hopefully will happen is that I will somehow get famous either for blogging or for celebrity reasons (lottery win perhaps?) and people will read this blog to find out my past and what I was doing before. Or people will read my blog, for it being a blog/commentary/editorial column. Either way, I think I've been coming off a bit right-wing, which i fundamentally don't want to do. I'm not entirely sure of my political view-point yet, I just like to express forthright views on most subjects. I'm always open to criticism and interpretation, in fact I think its one of the few ways you really learn. Just listening is one thing, becoming amorphous and incorporating new views you agree with into your world view, is a whole other level of learning.

(Cue tenuous link) About learning, recently I learned that absinthe, far from common myth is actually legal and buy-able within the UK. Absinthe is a ridiculously strong drink mainly from the continent, that due to the inclusion of wormwood actually has hallucinogenic properties. It is referenced in Moulin Rouge (Kylie is actually the absinthe green fairy, Le Feé Verte a common absinthe). Now personally I have not really had any effects like this, but I probably am not drinking enough! Anything past 4 shots and I'm on the floor. I enjoy my absinthe martini's which always seem to slide down very nicely.

So learning, drinking, this post has got everything so far! I'm also toying with festivals this year, Glasto is a hope, Reading is a definite, V is a possibility providing I can buy four tickets and sell the other 3 for more than the price of my own ticket, thereby actually paying myself to go to V *chuckle* It's a hard life for us small-time touts.

List of Bands who must be seen

Kings Of Leon
Radiohead
*to be continued.

Hilary Clinton

2008-01-21T10:07:00.000Z

"Dr. King's dream began to be realized when President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act. It took a president to get it done." - Hilary Clinton

You stupid bint! I've been keeping a cursory eye on the US presidential election, the high chance of a woman or a black president certainly makes interesting viewing. However Hilary just said an impossibly stupid quote. I've done a lot of reading and work on the civil rights movement, and the statement is just simply not true. Dr King's dream had started to be realized way before LBJ, and it took far more than just LBJ to get it done. Anyway, we are missing the key de jure, de facto debate AND the logistical implications of introducing such an act. Affirmative Action and actual implementations of civil rights laws were required to realize the dream, plus a fundamental shift in the public opinion towards other races. Basically LBJ passed the act, Kennedy WANTED it past before he got shot, but all of them were kicked up the ass by a south of the usa wide activism group. Not only SCLC but SNCC too. Hilary, check your facts, you just lost the black vote.

Edit:

Of course we are forgetting the main fallacy she spouts. It took a president to get it done, lies, it took the senate/congress to get it done. LBJ needed their approval and support. Any significant change requires one of either Supreme Court, Executive or Senate to significantly support. It just happens that a president was involved in this, doing his job to represent the people and lead the country. She completely misunderstands King's role, Oprah however, doesn't.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=LDc1JZzpZOU

Britney Spears

2008-01-19T03:10:00.000Z

Stephen Fry is a maverick these days; an intellectual with a comedy TV program based on...quirks of knowledge. It’s excellent. He said something very poignant when he was on Jonathon Ross, [paraphrased] QI is an oasis were for half an hour you can hear absolutely nothing about popular culture, no pop stars, no soap stars, just ancient Greeks and oddities of the natural world. Naturally after chuckling at this anecdote I switched over to The Box/The Hits/MTV, surfed to Idontlikeyou... and Perez and inundated my mind with said celebrity. It occurred to be Britney Spears has decided to try and be famous for what she actually can do, sing. Her new album got a 64 on metacritic, which isn’t actually all that bad. The opinion seems quite polarized, with the obviously ‘hipster in the outlook’ publications panning it, and the more intuitive giving it around 7/10 or 3/5. Occasionally a reviewer see’s something in the music and goes the full 100, but I think with this Britney album that is a tad ambitious. One review I read claimed it was the musical personification of a sex doll. This is pretty clearly driving for a quote, gobbet or sound-bite and not quite hitting the mark. Britney has taken a good look at the current trends within music, and albeit slightlybehind trend, has hit the nail on the head. Justin Timberlake was the first artist bringing the new electronic/electro-pop sound from the hipster clubs, to the clubs. Taking his queue from the Ed Rec sound, throw in Hot Chip, Ladytron and Yelle and the whole swedish invasion, it has been bubbling under for quite a while. Then Kanye West did the same thing, especially with Stronger. Britney is the next proponent of this style, and does it with typical aplomb. The downside of this album lies in her lyrics and delivery, the production is often brilliant, but the juxtaposition makes it laughable. Britney is trying to play on her image within the media ironically, with the sexed up lyrics, moans and groans that are present across much of her album. She fails here and comes off as seriously trying to pull that off, unless she was attempting to be serious at the start, in which case her approach is flawed. You can see how trying to determine artistic intent can be treacherous. The second mistake she has made is in the video for ‘piece of me.’ She used to have some very artistic and energetic dance routines, but now has resorted to a very short skirt, Paris Hilton look-a-likes and flashing the inside of her thighs. Granted that kind of flashing of leg is usually quite alluring, as it gives indications that we might see her vag, problem is pictures of that already exist...

If only Britney had stuck to her original religious ideals, got married at 25 to a boring guy from her hometown, had two kids, and come back to music by 30 with a new, more mature sound. She still sells plenty of records and sells out tours, but she is oft-derided and almost pitied in the media. Then again, all publicity is good publicity and as they say, you can’t ignore the market.

Savings

2008-01-16T02:54:00.000Z

Why is it just so impossible to keep a little nest egg growing? Birds, who are clearly further down the evolutionary chain than us, can do it. So why can’t we? Of course I’m not suggesting we forego maternity leave and simply let an egg incubate, savings are my real subject. Unless direct debit is taking your money and locking it into a 10 year ISA, I just find it impossible to have the discipline to hide money away for nothing.
Person 1 “What are you saving for my erstwhile companion?”
Person 2 “Nothing in particular, just making a nest egg for a rainy day”
*Error. Does not compute.* Sure I can save towards something, say I want to buy a new laptop, I work hard and make enough money to do so. But that’s tangible; you can set little goals along the way, and most of all its REACHABLE. “Save for university” is not only a ridiculous vacuous subject matter, it just makes no sense. Save for University? University is paid for by the state in a loan, save for living at university may be more accurate, but again maintenance loan. So really, what those people should be saying is “Save for drinking/spending/eating/pissing money away at University, while being partially funded by the state.” I digress horribly, and for that I am sorry. Back to savings, it’s certainly difficult when that new t-shirt has just come out that you love, or the January sales are tempting you with percentage points off clothes that were far too expensive, and only just fall into the upper echelons of your price scale now. My savings fall into two real categories, real money, and stupid money. I have a coke bottle the size of a small country half full of pennies, 2pennies, half-pennies anything else you care to mention. This is just stupid money, it might be worth 50 quid when I’m done, but it’s been going for two years already. Secondly I have real money; someone bought me a Simpson’s pint glass, now I don’t drink beer at home, so it gets filled with notes. If I go out and take 20, I’ll usually come back with 5 to put in there. Inevitably this gets raided, but every time I get a decent amount it goes into my account. There it gets spent easier. You can see the vicious cycle I’m stuck in.

My plan? Well my gap year is currently aimlessly listing to port in search of a rudder or the North Star. My North Star will be something for two-three months June-august or may-July. I do NOT want to be away for my birthday. My savings will then be my rudder. To save, I will get a new job! All my motivation is brought together in a neat package. This is my plan, to my own true love, lost at sea. The Decemberists – Picaresque, do check it out, fantastic twee indie with depth to character creation and scene selection.

Ps. this blog will soon add reviews of music or books, as I’m going to be writing a lot.

The lottery of university admissions.

2008-01-13T23:13:00.000Z

Recently I took my poor mind through the ignominy of applying to 5 UK universities, as the government wants 50% of the population to do. My hippocampus will never forgive me. Bad enough you have to pay for a service known as UCAS, presumably standing for Unnecessarily Causing Applicants Stress, to take over your life, but the universities themselves give off a crass superiority while considering your application. The generic rejection/offer (*delete as applicable) letters are heartless, and give no real indication of what the university thought of your application. One UK University is massively over-subscribed with anxious students, yet it refuses to even acknowledge receipt of your application unless it gives you an offer! Common courtesy drives the majority to send out postcards or letters (albeit second class) to say they have received and are processing your application. Those rejected are treated to a lovely Unsuccessful on UCAS track and subsequently ignored. Those brazen enough to ask for feedback to assist in a reapplication, or simply curious are met with a wall of indifference occasionally punctuated with a reply that could only have been conjured by a thousand monkeys on a thousand typewriters. “Your personal statement was unsuitable for the course” really does take the piss. What part? Was it my one grammatical mistake, or my lack of work experience? The content, context or colour? A second request for feedback can often lead directly to small man infiltrating UCAS using only the centre of a ballpoint pen, and defacing your application to appear as it if were from a 6 year old child. Poor applicants can be driven to distraction by 3, 4 even 6 month wait’s for replies, often past the official UCAS deadline for Universities. This can severely affect interim exam performance, so that even IF they manage to meet the opaque and oblique criteria and get an offer, they go on to not meet it! All of this simply encourages rampant speculation and wild behaviour amongst applicants, badgering teachers to see supposedly confidential references, and in cases actually legally forcing the reveal. The Student Room has posts such as “Oxbridge Application jeopardising other applications” or “Truth about GCSE importance at LSE” with hundreds of conflicting posts following them.

What is all that these students, our future prime ministers, CEO’s and heads of industry want? A clear, transparent application system, where they can see everything the university receives regarding their application, and they know exactly what the universities are looking for in each subject. This is utterly impossible, illogical and frankly logistically impossible. When Student A realises his reference isn’t quite up to scratch and he has ‘only’ been predicted a B the teacher of student A suddenly becomes a target. Disclosure of references is impossible, however on the university side, transparency could be vastly improved. At least *some* clear criteria of what each course is looking for, rather than the usual PR spiel about “well-rounded individuals” or “aptitude for the course.” Tell us precisely you will not consider applicants with less than 6A*s, and your applications will go down, easing your time burden and allowing students to make better informed choices of where to apply. Your decision makers will thank you, the students will thank you, and most importantly my hippocampus will be delightfully stress-free to become that intelligent well-rounded individual you want at your institution of higher learning.