June 18th, 2010
I’m sick of football, my head is full of hay-fever and the council are digging up the road outside my office window. But things could be worse. I could work for the insurance company I spent several hours with the other day.
Along with various other organisations, I had been invited by this particular company’s beleaguered HR department to an afternoon aimed at encouraging employees to make the most of all that the city around them has to offer – lunchtime music concerts, talks and walks, gyms and sports clubs, libraries and short courses, massages and spas, volunteering opportunities and in-house social clubs etc. etc. The clichéd work/life balance may have been the message, but there were loads of interesting things to do.
But well, you know what I’m going to say next.
Were the employees interested? No, of course not. They just drifted around looking faintly bored, if not perplexed, by the whole thing. As one man told me ‘We don’t have time for this kind of stuff. I go to work and don’t have time to do anything else other than watch TV’ and another ‘Why would I want to do a course for fun? What’s the point?’. But mostly, they all just looked non-plussed.
Admittedly, some people were interested in life outside work and commuting, and to give them the benefit of the doubt, others may have been put off by the continuous loop of background ‘motivating’ music featuring the likes of ‘Happy Talk’ from South Pacific and C&C Music Factory’s ‘Gonna Make you Sweat’.
Perhaps the world of insurance just attracts boring types, but really?! Life must be tragic for some people.
Tags: boredom... b'dum b'dum
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June 15th, 2010
The Bamboos
Keep me in Mind
This song doesn’t have an original bone in its body. From the two-note piano solo and classic horn runs to the strangely predictable melody and boring female backing vocals it is same old – same old nu-soul. In fact, I can’t think of anything remotely interesting to say about ‘Keep me in Mind’ other than that the label it’s on, Tru Thoughts, is a top Brighton-based indie who generally release way more interesting music.
But it’s great. Song of the week I say!
‘Keep me in Mind’, The Bamboos, from 4, Tru Thoughts, 2010
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Tags: song of the week
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June 14th, 2010
Usually the National Film Theatre/BFI over there on London’s sunny South Bank is a sedate place. People go in to the cinema sans popcorn, talk to each other in low voices, watch the film quietly and leave swiftly (usually after dutifully watching all of the credits). It is, in short, not the Wood Green Cineworld.
But last week something different happened at the NFT, an event so rare that I need to share it with you. Particularly since it happened, not once, but twice:
1. Drunken Angel
This is one of Akira Kurasawa’s ‘modern’ films (i.e. not a samurai epic). The film tells the tale of an ‘unlikely friendship’ between an alcoholic doctor and a gangster with TB, a death wish and hey, a keen interest in booze as well. Although quite grim in places, I would say that Drunken Angel is pretty enjoyable and definitely compelling. It is, however, certainly not the sort of film where you expect to see snogging couples indulging themselves in the seats in front of you. After a while though, I came to unfortunately recognise that there was indeed an emotional connection between the tongue-wrestlers and the film – as the gangster’s plight became more desperate so did their passion. Probably because they’d long given up on reading the subtitles.
2. Bronco Bullfrog
This British film from 1969 about a group of miserable mono-syllabic 15-year-olds living a life of petty crime and violence in East London is not the sort of film I previously expected to appeal to the cinema snogging type. OK, there is a blossoming romance between the two main characters* and I personally found this story of non-swinging London a strangely touching portrayal of youth, but clearly there is more to the film than that. The bleak streets of late 60s London make a perfect accompaniment to cinema fumbles. Well, for the couple near me anyway.
Well, it makes a difference from the usual straight-laced cinephile types I suppose. Any other unlikely snogging at the cinema tales to tell?
* Sample dialogue from when he first goes round to her flat to ask her out:
‘Is your daughter in? I don’t know her name, but she’s medium size with long hair.’
‘I’ll get her for you…’
[girl arrives at door]
‘So do want to go out with me on Saturday?’
‘Yeah.’
‘See you then.’
[boy leaves]
Tags: j'aime le cinema
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June 2nd, 2010
A little while back I wrote about the joys of the e-cigarette and now, you’ll be delighted to know, I’ve found the ideal accompaniment to it. It’s Le Whif inhalable coffee.
Inhalable coffee is perfect for the busy person who doesn’t have time for a coffee break or who is just plain tired of having to repeatedly lift those damn cups to their mouth and swallow pesky liquid. No, with the Le Whif, you just raise the convenient pocket sized aerosol spray to your nose once and take a sniff.
And with one quick hit containing as much caffeine as an espresso, inhalable coffee is also a handy reminder that you’re a lazy, joyless sod with an addiction problem.
Tags: I still can't figure out whether this product is a joke or not, the incorrect use of science
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May 31st, 2010
Joglaresa
Stella Nuova
I’ve been keeping myself busy with an evening course on Early Music recently. Since I know practically nothing about any music from before 1900 it has been enlightening and educational to say the least.
One thing that I have learnt is that not all ‘early music’ involves Greek Orpheus types plucking lyres and monks chanting spooky exhortations to God. No, sometimes there is rippingly upbeat stuff such as this.
‘Stella Nuova’ is an Italian tune from around the 12th century and like say, this year’s German Eurovision winner ‘Satellite’*, is annoyingly catchy.
‘Stella Nuova’, Joglaresa, from Stella Nuova: Celebratory Songs of Medieval Italy, 2005
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* You did watch it didn’t you?
Tags: song of the week
Posted in Records | 9 Comments »
May 28th, 2010
Things got rather morose down the pub the other night as conversation turned to the last drink you would choose before you died.
Friend 1: ‘a pint of Badger’s Hopping Hare’
Friend 2: ‘oh, it’s got to be a plain old pint of London Pride. Or maybe a whiskey…’
Me: ‘a martini, definitely’
Friend 3: Some kind of lager, probably Carlsberg’
Friend 1: ‘Are you kidding?!’
Friend 3: ‘Well, I like lager… but really, if I was about to die I’d try heroin.’
Friend 2: ‘Yeah, why not? I mean it’s got to be good.’
Me: ‘And that’s probably one of the most practical times to give it a go.’
Friend 1: ‘Hmmm… a pint or a wrap? It’s a tough one…’
So what do you think? What would be your last drink? Or are you going to go for the heroin?
Tags: late night conversations
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May 9th, 2010
It’s been an odd weekend. It started off badly when our lovely neighbours decided to ‘prune’ the tree in their garden – how I love the sound of chainsaws at 8am on a Sunday morning – and descended into just plain weirdness when Mr C. announced that he was going to do some pruning of his own.
‘I have too may records’ he said surveying his not insubstantial collection, ‘I don’t listen to some of them very much and well, I don’t really need to keep them all do I?’
‘No… ‘ I responded, swallowing my disbelief, ‘but are you absolutely sure about this?’
‘Yes, there are too many’ he said determinedly ‘I need to purge.’
I am sorry to say that I just snickered unsupportively at this point and went off to read the paper.
Several hours of struggling later, he had triumphantly managed to reduce the vinyl load on the shelves by around oooh… eight LPs.
Not that I have any right to be sarcastic. He did much better than I ever could. The last time I attempted a purge was just before I freighted my vinyl over here from Australia. Once it arrived after several long months on the boat I realised I’d made a terrible mistake and had to go out and buy them all again.
And as we discussed, post failed purge, it doesn’t matter if you don’t listen to all of your records all of the time. It’s just comforting to know that they’re there. Even the ones by James Last.
Tags: what I did on the weekend
Posted in Records | 13 Comments »
May 6th, 2010
I know that Oscar Wilde once made some comment along the lines of ‘The most frightening sentence in the world is the one that begins with “I had a really interesting dream last night”‘, but forgive me because I’m going to indulge myself…
I had spent a good hour or two last night combing the internet for some background information on various local candidates and wasn’t getting anywhere. Incomplete CVs, unexplained party politics and general spin prevailed. I went to bed disgruntled and my sub-conscious quickly took over: it was now Thursday morning and time to vote.
So I rolled up at the local polling station only to discover that all of our usual candidates had been mysteriously de-selected, disqualified or disgraced.
‘Don’t worry’ said the chipper election official to the growing crowd of disgruntled voters, ‘Rod Stewart has volunteered to be your MP instead.’
Murmurs ran through the crowd. We turned to each other and shrugged. Why not? Perhaps he’d get The Faces together again for a jam at the local pub? None of the other parties could do that.
Sadly I woke up before I could find out whether The Faces did play the Standard. And it was with a certain degree of resignation that I dragged myself off to the polling booth this morning to vote for the usual suspects.
Happy Election Day everyone.
Tags: can't just keep her politics to herself, whimsy
Posted in Random | 13 Comments »
May 5th, 2010
Everything is annoying me at the moment.
I’ve tried to keep it to myself, but what is a blog for if not to rant and vent?
- Why does David Cameron think that it is ‘a good thing’ to show that he can pull an all-nighter? So he’s been up for 24 hours campaigning, pressing the flesh and inflicting himself on innocent people. I’m not impressed. I would prefer my probable prime minister to realise that work is more productive after a good night’s sleep.
- What’s the appeal of the new John Lewis ad? They’ve reportedly spent £6 million on a load of schmaltz and a dodgy cover of the lamest Billy Joel song ever, ‘She’s Always a Woman’, to remind us that all a girl needs in life to be happy is marriage, some lovely children and a nice aspirational lifestyle bought from a department store. And over 600,000 mugs seem to have watched the ad of their own free will on youtube. What is with these people? It’s an ad!
- One of our suppliers at work thinks that the way to get on my good side is not to complete the work to deadline, but to send me through pictures of the new addition to his family, a puppy, with every email. How can I tell him that I don’t care quite as much about his precious pet as he does (even if it is very cute)?
- My already mixed feelings about Doctor Who have become even more mixed. I’ve long thought that the show is completely and utterly unrealistic. I mean, if you could go anywhere in the space time continuum why you would choose to hang around the UK in the late 20th/early 21st century all the time is beyond me. But who exactly is the target audience for this show? It’s surely not a family show now – the 7 year old me would have had a minor nervous breakdown watching the recent angels episode. What would I have done? Hidden behind the sofa in fear or stuck my fingers down my throat with all the yucky snogging? Many children must be facing this same dilemma and I feel for them.
OK, enough now. I’ll be back later when I have something civil to say.
Tags: rant no. 1
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April 14th, 2010
The Easybeats
She’s so Fine
Another delve in the mix tape box (sorry) came up with this early tune by The Easybeats.* I don’t think ‘She’s so Fine’ charted in the UK, but it was a bit of a ‘hits and memories’ radio perennial when I was growing up. Once you hear it you’ll know why – it’s 2 minutes 9 seconds of catchy pop perfection. And just listen to that scream five seconds in. What a way to open a song!
‘She’s so Fine’, The Easybeats, from Easy, 1965
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* bunged on the end of a tape after ‘What I like about you’ by the Romantics, but never mind.
Tags: mix tapes, song of the week
Posted in Records | 13 Comments »
