Month: December 2003

I own, ohhh that’s wrong to start with..

LOUISE owns an iPod, but as she drives to work and I get dumped onto our wonderful transport system, I get the iPod to use most of the time. It holds a couple of varied playlists of mine, several favourite albums, some music-snob albums and a few of those albums that you always never listen to.

You know the ones, you scan by them on the shelf, pausing briefly thinking “I really should listen to that” before heading back to safer ground and listening to The Bends, or Dummy, or Mezzanine for the four hundred and twenty second time (ohhh OK, Police Greatest Hits or Aerosmith Big Ones, you found me out).

I have several albums like that, some bought via recommendation (Emperor Penguin, Gavin Bryars), some bought because of the artist (Neil Finn, Pearl Jam), and some picked up cheap for no reason other than the evil that is FOPP.

So a quick scan of the iPod this morning and “Neil Finn – One Nil” caught my eye. I think I’d listened to it once a few months back but couldn’t recall anything about it (so probably not listened to it at all). The album is typical Finn, glorious harmonies, smooth sultry melodies with the occasional jarring moment to remind you that what you are listening to is very much alive and riddled with emotion.

I think this could be a new usage trend for me and my (sorry her) iPod. Limiting the “known” music in favour of the unknown or “least listened to” albums, something I can easily find out thanks to iTunes smartlists.. .why it’s almost as if those clever Apple chappies put some thought into this!

Current least listened: Neil Finn – One Nil
Current music snob choice: Photek – Modus Operandi

What are you listening to at the moment, and why?

Like many others, I’ve got a profile on the Friends Reunited website. And, undoubtably, like many others I’ve not checked the site for ages… probably about a year now I come to think of it.

They’ve added a few new features, made the navigation a bit easier, and polished the whole thing. It’s looking nice and slick and shiny.

But the best bit is that you can now create a little ‘picture profile’ of yourself if you don’t want to load a photo. Now obviously this is open to abuse, and the thought of putting up an ickle me with pigtails, boobs, and a mini-skirt does fill me with.. well probably more excitement than it should actually…

So I won’t. But I did create one.

What do you think?

P.S. Obviously there are only a few people who have been blessed with my masculine beauty in person but it would kinda ruin the whole idea behind this post if I based my decision, on whether to post this or not, on that fact.

P.P.S. I don’t half go on sometimes.

P.P.P.S. Of course, when I say that … [EDITOR: THAT’S ENOUGH!] Ehh? Who said that?

I grew up in a musical household. Lots of records and tapes lying about, music constantly played in the car and kitchen. My Mum was a screaming Beatles fan, my Dad favoured folk music in various guises. Both of them enjoyed rock music, Status Quo and the like, but it was an album sleeve with black and white concentric circles that caught my eye. I snaffled it, and took it upstairs to my little portable record player. The first shock, which I guess is the right word as I was only about 9 or 10 at the time, was the picture spread across the gatefold sleeve. I can remember blushing, and feeling a little naughty, but it only served to heighten the expectation as I lowered the needle into the leader track on the LP.

I sat, baited breath, as the needle crackled along the track until a strange sound issued forth. It sounded like a man but not singing anyway I’d previously heard, a strange warbling noise in a strange language. The track was Mustapha, the album was Jazz, the band was Queen.

And that’s how it started. I spent the rest of the day playing that album over and over and over. The next day I pestered my Dad to get him to take me to the library so I could see if they had any other albums by this ‘new’ band. They did, and I returned home having borrowed The Game, and Queen II. I decided to play Queen II first, and was immediately convinced that I had the wrong group. Aside from the bloke singing it was a different sound altogether, heavy and dark, hardly playful, but I checked the album sleeve and it was the same people. The Game was next, and again it sounded different. Bouncy, pop songs, big booming bass on a couple of tracks. I was getting more confused by the minute, except for the fact that I loved every single dark, bouncy track I’d heard.

I now own every Queen album on both vinyl and CD. I own two copies of Greatest Hits I and II, with one of each in a gold boxset (supposedly never to be touched until I caught a nephew playing them – we’ll miss him). I have several singles, most of the videos but no t-shirts. I never saw them live and I still get a tear in my eye when Freddie Mercury, addressing the rumour that the band was to split at a gig recorded at Wembley in 1986, says “We’ll stay together until we fucking well die”. I produced and hosted a tribute show on our local hospital radio when he passed away. I still have most of the “My Greatest Hits” tapes I made up, featuring my favourite album tracks like Sleeping on the Sidewalk, ’39 and Stone Cold Crazy. I joined the fan club.

My name is Gordon McLean, and I am a Queen fan.

(This post was brought to you by Karen, and with a little help from Adrian – even if they don’t realise it!)

BlogShares – Closed Down.

I signed up but never really got into this, but congrats to Seyed for bringing a little fun to the blogworld.

I had hoped to be slightly more erudite, and hopefully will be this afternoon, but right now I can only think of one word.

ARSE!

Yes I slept in. Yes I’m grumpy. Yes I’m pissed off.

Since starting the miniblog (on the right) I’ve tried to keep this area free(ish) of post which are no more than links, however from time to time I will make an exception for something like this.

Like all the best articles, this points out things you were already aware of, but gives you a different view on them. So if you are still wondering how Schwarzenegger got elected (amongst other things), read on.

George Lakoff tells how conservatives use language to dominate politics (via Do You Feel Loved?).