For those of you who are into it, my film blog is online and is called:
http://popcornfromouterspace.tumblr.com
Go follow it! It’s a little bit bare at the moment but I promise to talk about (very briefly) films alot and show it care, and love, and attention, honest!
what I have learned, *spoilers alert*:
I made one of those up. Try to guess which one.
I’d more or less got this down by November, last year I did a Top 5 which, if your interested, you can find here, this year having to pick TEN was a bit more of a challenge. So here is my list, if I had to write this again I’d probably switch the entries around, but I think the top, say, 3 are…
I’ve written this short long post on my Top 10. TEN. albums of this year. It’s quite long and wordy and I hope the other guys don’t get angry and shout at me!
While Tumblr was down yesterday, I took the liberty to do a little bit of research on Julian Assange and Wikileaks.
Not sure where I stand or what other peoples opinions are, but the general consensus is that what they are doing is arguably borderline criminal. Confidential data is classified as such for a reason, usually because it’s content is not intended to broadcast to the general public, or indeed those by which it concerns. Sometimes secrets are meant to stay secret, for a reason. That being said, the anarchist socialist within me is loving all the red faces that ‘Cablegate’ is making right now, and there is a very strong argument for transparency within government and with freedom of speech, e.t.c. Not saying that I don’t take these arguments on board because I do. It doesn’t take a Politics student to work out that government is crooked as the day is long and will only function for it’s own benefit, and perhaps that is what Wikileaks serves to uncover, but Julian Assange has to be one of the most powerful men in the world right now…
That being said, it is interesting to watch a countries across the globe do their very best to drive it into the ground with Amazon, Paypal & PostFinanace all withdrawing service, I just hope that it can survive long enough to reveal everything that it has to say, even if that does bring us into a new age of post-nuclear-apocalyptic warfare.
PS: I also voted for Julian Assange, TIMES person of the year…
I’m just going to take a moment to talk about cars, I own a Fiat Seicento, it’s a nice little car, slightly limited edition and is 10 years old so it has seen prettier times. It is, to all intent and purpose the 2nd biggest inanimate object of my affection, and it’s a little bit of a wrench on the hypothetical heart strings to have to part way with it but unfortunately I am concerned that pretty soon I may have to counter-balance what I paid for it with what I’m going to have to pay to make sure it is no longer a mobile deathtrap…
Perhaps out of sheer curiosity, or boredom, or maybe because I just fancied wasting 10 minutes I decided to check out that website with the really annoying, borderline killing-spree inducing advert, ‘webuyanycar.com’ at this point, I’d like to take a quick timeout and say I would hyperlink to it, but I pure don’t want you to even look at their website. So anyway, here I am on the website going through the ‘Steps’ and putting all sorts of options in, it then flashes up a mock image of cheque for an amount no greater than £200. Two Hundred pounds only, and that is subject to a £49.99 + VAT transaction fee, so all said and done you go home, from the garage, sobbing into your hankey without your sweet little companion whom you have been through thick and thin with, safe in the knowledge that your bank account is now an earth shattering One Hundred and forty two pounds better off, and that’s to the nearest pound!
I cannot believe, comprehend or understand why anyone with more than half a brain cell would consider this company a viable option. I’m not a motor mechanics expert, or a Car Salesman, or a Bank Manager, however I feel that as a consumer I can more, or less estimate that my vehicle, a 2000 plate Fiat Seicento is worth a considerably larger amount than £142!!! They sell on Ebay as spares and repairs for less than that! My Rear Bumper is worth more than that unattached from the vehicle!
Ok, moving onto the next bit, they send you an email. It’s all lovely and corporate with the correct letterhead and nice, goofy pictures saying:
Dear John Wilson
Thanks for choosing webuyanycar.com for your car’s valuation. Simply follow this link to make an appointment for a guaranteed, no hassle sale.
webuyanycar.com will then make the payment direct to your bank.
So follow the ‘Sell your car’ link alongside now and enjoy a trouble-free sale, just like thousands of motorists nationwide.
* Online valuations are subject to in-branch inspection and contract. A transaction fee applies on purchase. Based on a purchase price of £200, an transaction fee of £49.99 including VAT will apply.
Blasphemy. Pure blasphemy. I’m not sure where to start. First of all, as I politely reminded my Facebook friends not less than 33 minutes ago, I would rather fully engage my cock into a plug socket than sell my baby for £200! Secondly, the price is subject to an inspection at their garage or some bollocks, to which I would be most surprised if they do not reduce that figure even further, thirdly I cannot comprehend why anyone would consider disposing of their vehicle on this website when you could park it on the side of the road, with a little sign saying “webuyanycar offered me £200, any offer better than that and you’re a winner” and you would probably make more money than regrettably trundling down in your little bundle of joy and virtually handing it over for a nominal fee.
Ok, so perhaps being on the verge of a slander lawsuit I’m going to stop there and reflect, I’ve never used this kind of service before, I don’t have any gold or a nice watch that I’d like to pawn, but I have used entertainment trading centres and I feel they give you a reasonable price, actually scratch that, they fucking suck, but that’s video games man, cars are big business! You could say I’m just bitter but in all fairness I would rather drive my car until it falls apart around me than feel like I shelled out and sold it for pocket money, but the really worrying thing is people are probably being exploited by companies like this just to get a quick buck. It fucking sucks, there is no two ways about it, recession vultures that (hopefully) in five years will be driven out of business.
Also in the space of 35 minutes they have emailed me 5 times, and will probably continue to do so until you click this little link at the bottom of the page in the smallest text ever that says: I’m not selling right now, please don’t remind me about my valuation!
Fuck webuyanycar.com. Your advert was bollocks as well.
Books - Tall Ships
Tall Ships, from Falmouth, are currently sailing all over the UK getting everyone silly excited by performing their breed of post-everything synthesizer rock music…
I’m particularly bemused with the awful nautical puns that I used when quickly writing this out in the 4 minutes that I had between actually doing some work, at work, and going on my lunch break outside of work.
Something which is a real bug bearer of mine, something that really brings my blood to a proverbial boil is when you happily show your loyalty to an artist, band, songwriter, group of Gregorian Nuns or whoever happens to be tearing up the charts at the time, by pre-ordering their latest release, your reasons for which can usually be catigorized as following;
only to get let down.
You pre-order their release and you either like it or hate it, whatever and then about 3 or 6 or 9 or even 12 months later they re-release it with “bonus” tracks and you are like: “W. T. F.”
The usual scenario is that you hear a new song on T.V or on the radio or on their myspace and think ‘oh wow, I can’t wait for to hear the next record!” only to faced with the soul crushing, stomach churning disappointment when you discover that ‘Track X’ is going to be featured as bonus content on the re-release of a record that you already flipping own.
“FUUUUUUUUUUUUU”.
This a real annoying turn of events for me, and not-so-much because so many of the bands that I follow have been guilty of releasing, re-releasing and re-re-releasing their records. To name and shame a few:
There are others that escape me right now, but you get the point I’m trying to illustrate?
In my not so humble opinion, and speaking as perhaps one of the last of a dying breed of music consumers that still order shiny round things called CD’s that used to be around before ITunes and MP3 players, would it not be too much to ask of musicians and record companies that those amongst your fan base who are loyal enough to effectively provide an angel investment by pre-ordering a record receive some kind of remittance when you re-release that same record with a bonus song?! Perhaps a download link to download the track for 39p? Or whatever is cheaper than the going rate for a song from Amazon MP3? It really is quite a humble request considering that you effectively render our precious pre-release record redundant when you slap a tasty and catchy bonus single on there.
I’m sure there are a 1001 industry arguements for this kind of practice, whether it be to revive falling sales of a debut album, or perhaps purely to keep an artist/singer/songwriter/Gregorian Nun in the spotlight while they are on a particularly lengthy stint between album number X and album number Y, but I’m sure it cannot hurt to somehow reward the disconcerting music fan, who faithfully pre-orders a record with, largely, honest attentions only to be let down when the same record hits the shelves with that track that they have grown to love, I mean nobody wants to buy the same album twice just for one or maybe two songs do they? It really is an awful practice that has been around, i’m sure, for alot longer than recent memory, but unfortunately it still happens today and quite a heavy majority of musicians and record labels are guilty of it.
This is my adopted work mug. It used to sit at the back of the cupboard getting all dusty and cobwebby, so I decided to disinfect it and clean it all up cos I like it. This was taken with a Canon Powershot SX200 IS by the way, which is our new camera at work and it’s very good, you should invest in one if you are thinking about buying one… I want to know what the lettering on the front reads, if anybody knows hit me up with a reply?
Often there comes a time in the progression of a band, usually between album number 1 and album number 2, that they find themselves conflicted between two different sounds. It happened with Nirvana, post bleach. Radiohead, Matchbook Romance, Red Hot Chili Peppers and even Minus The Bear who traded noodly-math-ambience for a zig zaggy melodic structure.
The same can be thought of with Foals. It became apparent upon the release of Antidotes that the dancefloor indie pop sound of ‘Hummer’ and ‘Matheletics’ was on the way out and a much darker, more sinister melody was creeping in more evident on ‘Electric Bloom’ and ‘Big Big Love’.
tlf takes that ball, and runs with it. The entire album has more in common with ‘Brazil is Here’, ‘Humanate’ and the other b-sides in respect of the Antidotes single club.
Here the yelping and gnarling vocals have been trading for more soothing educated structure with more thought provoking lyrics. For me Foals have always been a progressive band, birthed out of a “college indie rock scene” friendly sound found on ‘Two Steps Twice’, growing into a darker, more edgy pop band with ‘Red Sox Pugie’ and finally culminating into an educated and expressive alternative band with ‘Miami’ and ‘After Glow’.
The typical undertones you feel accross the spectrum are still there, but Foals are now a totally different animal.
