Also, from tomorrow, I'll be starting my requested-by-no-one-in-particular Best of 2003 feature, where I'll talk about which female singer with a guitar I liked this year. Hurrah!
That's my Christmas mix-cd for this year. If anybody wants a copy, let me know (if you're overseas, then I'll probably need to know by Wednesday, otherwise you will get it in January). Comes complete with simple paper cover design!
Oh, also, expect a few Advent changes on Monday. Muahahaha…
Wait, we can not break bread with you. You have taken the land which is rightfully ours. Years from now my people will be forced to live in mobile homes on reservations. Your people will wear cardigans, and drink highballs. We will sell our bracelets by the road sides, and you will play golf. My people will have pain and degradation. Your people will have stick shifts. The gods of my tribe have spoken. They said do not trust the pilgrims. And especially do not trust Sarah Miller. For all these reasons I have decided to scalp you and burn your village to the ground.
First up: The Elvis. The finest in American sandwich-science. Is anybody game enough to try it?
More spectacular news about the all-new Top of The Pops. Ooh. Three weeks of Victoria Beckham, that'll give the show a shot in the arm. For those of you who aren't in the UK, it's difficult to explain quite how culturally important this show has been over the past thirty-five years (I suppose I could say it's a bit like MTV, only it isn't a channel, it only lasts for thirty minutes, and isn't backed to by a huge multinational conglomeration. So it's not much like MTV at all, really). Suffice to say, for every week since 1967, TOTP has provided a snapshot of the country's taste in music. Most of the time, it's pretty bad; in 1982, people actually went to shops and actually bought Renee and Rento's Save Your Love without being openly derided by right-thinking people (WARNING: if you click that link, I accept no responsibility for any ill effects it will cause. Your ears are precious. Anything, I mean ANYTHING else from 1982 is preferable). On the other hand, the programme records the moments of genius as well: Rod Stewart performing "Maggie May" with John Peel playing along, Dexy's Midnight Runners singing "Jackie Wilson Says" in front of a portrait of the Jock Wilson, famed darts player, the indie-dance episode that had both The Stone Roses and the Happy Mondays in the same studio, Nirvana's weird rendition of "Smells Like Street Spirit", and many more. When I was eight, we'd all come into school on Friday morning talking about last night's TOTP, about how good Salt-n-Pepa were, having fights over The Bangles' "Eternal Flame", and wondering just why Fuzzbox wanted the help of International Rescue.
Umm, there was a point here somewhere. Oh yes. Over the past few years, TOTP has been marginalised, shunted to a Friday night slot up against the most-watched programme in Britain, and yes, it's seen better days. I'm not sure whether extending the programme, cutting back on the music, and filling the time with fluff interviews is the way to go myself. But who knows? It could be good. Once Victoria Beckham's residency is over, naturally.
Next up, the people over at Suprnova. Normally, I can't complain; they make it easy for people to grab BitTorrent links of their favourite shows and pirate the latest cinema releases. My complaint at the moment, though is this: STOP RE-ENCODING KILL BILL AND DO THE FILMS I WANT TO DOWNLOAD! Thank you.
I haven't seen this but, apparently, the Swedish Chef attempts to eat Big Bird, and there's this exchange which officially makes it one of the Greatest Films Ever:
Kermit, Doc, Sprockett and The Count are looking outside at the raging blizzard
DOC: Boy, that storm sure is getting worse!
KERMIT: Yeah, I hope Miss Piggy will be OK.
DOC: (to the Count) That is one worried frog, I tell you.
COUNT: Aha! That's One...One worried frog!
(Robin enters)ROBIN: And he's not the only one!
COUNT: That's two...two worried frogs! Aha-ha-ha-ha! (thunder and lightning outside)
It's genius, I tell you.
Did you ever want to know about the Zip Code and how it came to be? Well, then go here and satisfy that desire. We won't tell anybody. Honest.
Jimmy Has Fancy Plans, and Pants To Match.
And finally, a shaggy dog story from Raleigh, North Carolina.
Woo-hoo!
Please, help us to help them. Adopt an American today.
Beck's original version of the song sung by Pink on the Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle soundtrack. This is a bit funkier than her version, sounding like it would sit happily on his Midnite Vultures album.
It's Christmas time, so it's the point in the year when the music world is flooded with compilation releases. Tales of A Librarian is Tori's effort, with remixed versions of tracks from Little Earthquakes, Under The Pink, Boys For Pele, and From The Choirgirl Hotel. And two new songs to convince fans to buy the album, (happily, the iTunes Music Store allows you to pick and chose what you want, so you don't have to go out and buy the old tracks again). It also serves as the final album in a record deal that she hasn't been too happy with, which might explain why it's a fairly uninspired collection (nothing wrong with the songs - it's just that there's a stack of unreleased material sitting around which would have made an impressive box-set). Anyway, this is a Steely Dan cover, taken from the Spark single, and it's quite lovely. Yes.
Still a big hit in Connecticut, apparently.
Finally, another song from the Britpop days, a perky and bouncy number from Gene. (Note: actual contents may vary from description)
I also remembered that I didn't have the best of times at the protests in Raleigh or Washington DC (to clarify — the people and the marches themselves were fine, but most of the speakers decided that they'd rather indulge in conspiracy theories and outrageous claims than actually talking about the war itself), so I'd probably come back feeling depressed about my contribution to the world at large. Instead, I shall stay at home and work on my world domination plans… (I have a no-gnome policy already fleshed out)
The Flaming Lips could never be accused of being grounded, could they?
To celebrate President Bush's visit to the UK, here's a speech Al Gore made last week, lambasting the current Administration for un-American behaviour (I'm a dirty liberal hippie and proud of it, dagnamit!)
The Vatican has to go and spoil all the mystery.
Guys, I really think you're spending far too much time trying to explain away the flaws in a below-average sci-fi film 8-).
Red House Painters — Have You Forgotten?
The question for this week - as I'm a shiftless layabout who can make time, should I go to the Bush protest in London this Thursday, or should I just stay home and do something more useful instead? Leave your thoughts in the helpfully-provided comment section…
You learn to rollerskate
You learn to rollerskate
You learn to rollerskate
Your forward momentum slows
And you travel straight lines
You gotta know how to stop
When you do the bunny-hop
Before you learn to walk
Before you learn to rock
You learn to rollerskate
You learn to rollerskate
You learn to rollerskate
Loop-de-loop
Around the rink let's go I go
Loop-de-loop
Around the rink let's go I go
Loop-de-loop
Around the rink let's go I go
Loop-de-loop
Around the rink lets go I go
I go I go I go I go I go I go
Before you learn to walk
Before you learn to rock
You learn to rollerskate
You learn to rollerskate
You learn to rollerskate
You learn to rollerskate
You learn to rollerskate
You learn to rollerskate
The Guardian tries to find out just who invited George Bush to next week's Riot In London.
I invoke Godwin's Law on the "What **** Are You?" meme.
"I'm gonna sing the DOOM song now!"
Oasis heading back to the studio with Death In Vegas's producers.
Something to think about when people rant on about how superior our TV is to America.
And finally, in case you actually want to use the information in my article, be aware that the dvdauthor team changed the syntax two weeks ago. Ho hum. On the bright side, the changes do make it simpler to use…
I'm on page 50. US readers can pop along to their local bookstore and get hold of a copy. The magazine's distribution in the UK is rather limited, but I often manage to find issues in Borders (yeah, I know, Laura, worrying globalization, but they carry a wider selection of periodicals and journals than any shop outside of London, so there are times when there's no other option ;-)), so you might be able to pick one up there.
It's very much a technical article (it's about making DVDs in Linux, so there's a bit of code, discussion about how DVDs work and other interesting things), but nevertheless: my first published work!
He's also rather funny in person. Always a plus. He's on a book tour promoting two new children's books, a picture book, 'The Wolves In The Walls', and a book aimed at a slightly older audience, 'Coraline'. There weren't too many children present tonight (although enough for Neil to be embarrassed when he started swearing during the Q&A session); instead it was mostly teenagers and people in their twenties (like myself and Richard).
Neil read The Wolves In The Walls to us (it's a fun children's book with helpful instructions on how to deal with wolves, silly parents who don't understand the abilities of puppets, and the magical properties of McDonald's apple pies), and then opened the floor to questions. A little boy got the first question in:
"Where do you get your ideas?"
Serious credit to Gaiman here; He told the boy why some of the audience had laughed at the question, that authors always get asked that, but he was going to answer it for him, talking about weird combinations of ideas and ending up creating a story idea for the Evil Were-Chairs that Time Forgot. He then went on to say that he stole the idea for Wolves from his four-year-old daughter, which got a big laugh.
He talked for about half-an-hour, on subjects as diverse as his Babylon 5 episode, the dream he had the night before where he ran around a cartoon world disguised as a dinosaur biting the heads off dinosaurs disguised as humans, sharing a hotel with Terry Pratchett, and meeting Rip Torn in Wilmington, NC ("BEASTMASTER!"). He was as informative and witty as you could have hoped for, plus we got to see the limited-edition beard (he promises it'll be gone by Friday).
We didn't hang around for the signing, mainly because I didn't bring any of my books with me (I wasn't sure whether Borders would allow it - turns out that they would have), and the shop helpfully took all the Neil Gaiman books off the shelves and stuck them on the table where he was signing. Which, of course, had a huge group of people clamouring around it, all trying to get Neil's signature. Sigh. Nonetheless, it was a fun night, and thanks must go out to Richard for coming along (and providing the lift to Oxford and back)…
Suede split up yesterday, so here's the first single of theirs that I bought, all the way back in 1996.
Cat Power — Wonderwall
From a John Peel session from a few years back. It's like her version of "Satisfaction" on The Covers Record; stripped down to the bare essentials, beautiful and naked. Plus! Also features the dulcet tones of John Peel at the beginning and the end (i.e. I couldn't be bothered to edit the MP3 down).
Camera Obscura — Knee Deep At The NPL (National Pop League)
From their new album, Underacheivers Please Try Harder. They're a Scottish band with some connection to Belle & Sebastian (not quite sure what that is though), and they sound quite similar, so consider that a warning if you think B&S are twee indie-popsters to be avoided. (If so, be ashamed of yourself!) I seem to have really got into this little alleyway of indie this past year; my favourite album so far is Saturday Looks Good To Me's All Your Summer Songs, which filters the C86 sound through Detroit to lovely effect. This is quite nice as well. Give it a try!
Excuse me, Wayne Coyne is bouncing like a monkey. Back in a moment.
Okay, bouncing over. Back to CBS. Is the right-wing power bloc that powerful now? That they can get a show cancelled in a week if they disagree with some of its content? That no-one is allowed to speak ill of Reagan's presidency? I can't imagine they'd make the same fuss if it was a "warts'n'all" TV movie about Bill and Hillary Clinton. Oh, it's going to be a fun election next year.
But, let's end on a more happy note. Saudi Arabia is going to crack down on people stealing sand. Yes, that's right. Saudi Arabia is afraid of running out of sand. The world is a strange place…
I talked about Reloaded a few months ago, and today I went to see the final film in the series, The Matrix: Revolutions. I still can't see it. On the plus side, there's fewer over-convoluted, slightly-dodgy philosophical conversations this time around, plus you finally get to see those hulking robot suits in action. The attack on Zion is easily the highlight of the film; excellent CGI sentinels swirling and swarming around the city, killing everything in their path, while the human defenders act out all the great war film clichés. It's a great hour.
But.
I don't know, it just doesn't seem to hang together all that well. Loathe as I am to turn to the Star Wars films as an example of how to wrap up a trilogy, Return of The Jedi is actually pretty good in that respect. Revolutions isn't. The first twenty minutes is "What Happened To Neo, Anyway?", except it decides to redo the lobby scene from the first film and have a stupid, stupid confrontation with the Merovingian (no, really, it makes no sense. Why didn't they just shoot them after they agreed the deal, hmm?), and then gives us some time with the All-New, All-Different Oracle to explain the plot again. Then the film splits into three, just like Jedi; There's what's going on in the Matrix, the attack on Zion, and Neo's mission to save humanity. Fair enough. But the film, understandably, wants to concentrate on the Zion attack, so Neo disappears from the film for about half an hour. And we're not allowed to see what's happening inside the Matrix until the very end. It's weird, because you'd normally expect these stories to be edited together, and watching them one after another is a bit anticlimactic, especially after the spectacular Zion scenes. The finale isn't that bad, as it at least attempts to move away slightly from the standard fight setup (I won't spoil it, but I will say it's not something that a long-time comic reader will be surprised at, but it's better than nothing).
Also, the acting is a bit weird. Lawrence Fishburne has very little to do after the initial rescue, Keanu looks bewildered most of the time, and Carrie-Anne Moss turns in her best Skeletor impression (honestly, have a chip!). The best performances come from Jada Pinkett-Smith, who seems to channel Harrison Ford during the chase scenes, and the commander of the APU forces; sadly I'm not able to track his name down on the imdb, but he's playing one of those gruff and insane captains that you find in war films. IN A BIG MECH BATTLESUIT, WITH GUNS. Everybody else is adequate enough, but, as you might imagine, this isn't a showcase for acting talent.
So, should you go and see it? Well, it's always nice to see how things end. And I know that I have a tendency to look harshly on the series as a reaction to how popular it is (sorry), so you might not have the same problems that I did, or they might not matter to you quite so much. If nothing else, there's a cool middle section with hulking robot battlesuits shooting robots! They're always good for a day out at the cinema…
Then there's the situation in Iraq, but I get depressed just thinking about that these days. Current feelings: Look, I don't want the US to pull out, because the country would descend into chaos relatively quickly, but would it be so hard for them to swallow their pride, and allow the UN to have overall control of the area? I mean, they could hardly do worse at the moment, could they? And don't get me started about the whole stupid "oh, that sign? Not ours, guv? Well, okay, it was ours, but they didn't have to put it up, did they?" business.
I would link to pictures to Chapel Hill's Halloween (look - no '‘' 8-)) party on Friday, but it seems that the Daily Tar Heel didn't take many pictures (hopefully, they were all out having a good time instead). So I won't. From what I hear, it's going to be a long night in the dth office, as they have to cover the local elections, so good luck to everybody involved…
Um, the new Camera Obscura album is quite wonderful, in a wistful, lovelorn-type way.
The scary thing was that it didn't seem too implausible that they'd do such a thing…
Norton Internet Security 2004 blocks NRA sites (possibly by default, the NRA's notice is a little unclear about that).
A picture demonstrating why Nokia's N-Gage is going to be a miserable flop.
The Top 50 Most Common Used CDs in America. I own six!
Finally, something I've been meaning to mention for the last two weeks, but kept forgetting: The HMV site is now usable! They've got rid of all the horrible JavaScript links, replacing them with splendid normal tags. Navigating through their huge sale lists is now much easier. I'll let you know whether this is a good or a bad thing when I get my bank statement next month…
