bookmark_borderBalls

Blimey.

Anyone watch the snooker – what a finish!

bookmark_borderBankers Skive

Standing around in the rain isn’t the best way to spend a hungover Sunday morning, but then neither is working on a bank holiday Monday whilst several gallons of phlegm slosh around your head.

Anyway. Series finale of Huff last night, and boy am I glad that a second series has been ordered. Of course I’d have loved to have confirmed this on the show’s official website but alas, as you’ll see if you visit, those “pages are intended for access only from within the United States”.

There is a small bell ringing in my head that I’ve read about this recently on another blog.. nope, can’t remember. Anyone??
UPDATE: Twas the lovely Meg which as David points out I’ve already mentioned. I’m so well organised, aren’t I. Wish I could REMEMBER that I was that well organised. DOH.

So what’s all that about then, why on earth would you limit access to a website for a TV show that is syndicated into Europe (and probably other regions). How long will take for these companies to “get” the web properly? The entire point is that ANYONE ANYWHERE can access the information about that fabuluous TV show you’ve commissioned, they want to see if you have anything else in the pipeline that might be as good. Sheesh.

Anyway, Huff was an intelligently written and superbly acted show and it was nice to see Hank Azaria playing a ‘normal’ character, he’s quite an accomplished actor as well as being the voice of many Simpsons characters, and despite the show revolving around his character you never really felt it was all about him until last nights episode. Cleverly written, brilliantly acted.

Oliver Platt stole most of the scenes he was in, and as the series progressed you go from loathing him to loving him as he slowly reveals the real person behind the drinking, drug taking selfish idiot he starts out as. Paget Brewster (is she a relation of Sean Young?) also grew into the role the further the series developed, and showed that there is more to her than a short spell in Friends (the one where Chandler kisses Joey’s girlfriend, that’s Paget Brewster). Blythe Danner was excellent as Huff’s mother, slowly pickling her liver whilst dishing out backhand insults left right and centre. If it is repeated I’d highly recommended you watch it, I just hope that they trim the opening title sequence for the next series.

So we now have a hole in our viewing, 24 is still going (SHUSH, not watched last nights yet!!), Grand Designs allows us to dream of having enough money to build our own house, but apart from that… well House and Boston Legal are recorded but not watched yet, they come recommended but I’ll hold off judgement, anyone watched them?

One thing I did record last night, with many thanks to the Paramount Comedy Channel, was the TV series of Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Real reviews of the movie, as in reviews from people I know or whose blog I read, are trickling in and they’re not too favourable. Of course I’m aware that the books hold a special place in many home libraries and that films rarely stack up against the books they come from – how on earth could they, competing with millions of different imaginations – but I’ll still be going to see it.

bookmark_borderBANANAS!!

Well apples actually… ohh ok Apple – the people who make all those lovely laptops, widescreen displays and the little white music boxes.

I hate them you see. Every where I turn I seem to be reading more and more about their latest little white box (and boy, is it tasty).

And now I really REALLY want one. And before you start pointing fingers (especially THERE, this is a family blog you know…) it’s not JUST because I’m materialistic and love their adverts. No no, there is a very good reason for this. Two in fact.

Reason One
The thought of simplifying the music choice for my commute to work appeals. Frequently you can find me standing at the platform at 7.50 am running my finger round and round the scroll of my iPod. Round and round and round I go, pausing, changing my mind, pausing, changing my mind. At 8am the train pulls into the station and I just randomly pick whatever track I’m on. Within seconds I’m wondering if maybe I should change it for something else… and I’m off again. Usually takes a good ten minutes to finally make a decision.

So an iPod shuffle would ease my problems. Every morning, plug it in, let it grab some random tracks, and just push play. Simple.

Reason Two
I don’t actually have an iPod. LOUISE has an iPod, I just use it more than she does. I’m fed up of her reminding me of this fact. I’m also fed up having to have a playlist of her music on … er.. her iPod. Don’t get me wrong I’ve nothing against the entire catalogue of crap 80s pop, honest, it’s just that… well… it’s crap and there is a danger that someone I know might see that I have “I think we’re alone now” by Tiffany on my iPod.

So if I had my own iPod Shuffle this wouldn’t be an issue. I could put MY music on it exclusively. You’d be saving my marriage. Think of it as an act of charitable goodwill.

So if you have a spare £100 lying around, I’ll have the 1GB model please. Thanks! (awfully generous of you, you shouldn’t have bothered, no really.. ohh it IS lovely, isn’t it…)

What? You want an incentive!? Aren’t saving my marriage and solving my “what music do I want to hear this morning?” issues enough for you?

Well, tell you what, how about I throw in a Flickr Pro account for ya, sweeten the deal? Ehh.. what else? A signed photo? Of course! Least I can do. Hmmmm what else? Go on, what would it take for me to get YOU to buy ME an iPod.

What can I do for you?

(You know this makes me feel cheap, and possibly even a little slutty, but I really don’t care…)

bookmark_borderVice Versa

“There is a light that never goes out” Morrissey sings into my head. I work on, aware that the tune was familiar, from somewhere else? (I don’t listen to The Smiths that often, did they do cover versions??). I paused to listen to the lyrics. VERY familiar. Where had I heard it before?

Somewhere. Faster maybe? Something with more of a beat to it? But surely The Smiths wouldn’t have borrow the lyrics from another song, no no, it can’t be that.

Then it came to me. Erlend Øye used the lyrics on “There Silikon Soul remix” on the DJ Kicks album bearing his name. A split second later I realised that, of course, it was he who had used the lyrics from The Smiths song, not vice versa.

A most odd feeling that, when a newer track takes on higher precedence, in my own personal song rating system, than the original. Doesn’t happen often. In fact I don’t think it’s ever happened to me before. I knew, and liked, the Smiths song long before I’d even heard OF Erlend Øye let alone heard anything he’d done. Yet somehow, his use of the lyrics has completely obliterated any recollection of the original track. Until now.

It’s not like having just heard the original version of a song you only knew as a cover version (even though you didn’t realise it WAS a cover version until you heard the original) nor is it the same as hearing an existing song reworked into something completely new as, in that case, you still have the existing song in your head.

No, for some reason my brain had switched the association of the lyrics “Take me out tonight, cos I want to see people who are young and alive, driving in your car, please don’t drive me home, because it’s not my home, it’s their home…” to the new Erlend Øye track and it was a bit of a jolt to hear the original Smiths version. Most odd indeed.

Having re-read that, I’m not sure it even makes any sense but then, when have I ever bothered about that?

My point is this; sometimes, despite the fact you know the original version of something, it doesn’t mean that it can’t change and replace itself in your affections. In other words, things change, sometimes for the better, and whilst you never really forget the original you do put it to the back of your mind whilst embracing the new.

I’m sure there is a deeper meaning in there somewhere.

bookmark_borderSome Cities

Doves – Some Cities @ Amazon.co.uk
Album Reviews from Metacritic

I missed their previous album for some reason, although I think I’ve got a copy at home but I can’t actually recall anything about it, ohh hang on. I see a trend developing already. F is for Forgettable.

Maybe that’s a bit harsh as this isn’t a bad album, trouble is, it’s not a great album either. No, it falls directly into the “good” album category and struggles to get back out, do not pass the Top 20, do not collect a 5 album deal. That’s a bit harsh too, as this is precisely the kind of album that is selling bucketloads at the moment spurred on by the success of Coldplay, Keane, and Snow Patrol.

Ahh but you see that’s harsh as well for comparing the Doves to those three would mean that I think they, the Doves, are capable of imparting a little more emotion into things than they seem able (it’s harsh on Coldplay, Keane and Snow Patrol that is). I mean, c’mon, call yourself a rock group at what point are you going to actual “RAWK”? You know, up the tempo, give us some electric guitars, drums…

And that’s my main gripe with this album, it’s close to being a very good album but at every turn it falters and falls just short. The upbeat tracks don’t ever really get all the way to being good rock tracks, the slower tracks don’t have enough emotion to carry them, and the others feel like cast-off tracks or B-Sides that are in there to make up the numbers (which they probably are).

There are some redeeming features scattered here and there – Black and White Town you’ll have heard, and … em … that other one… nope can’t remember it’s name – and at the very least it will be worth a re-listen in a few months, if only because by then I’ll have forgotten what it sounded like.

I read recently that they were trying to get permission to sample Delia’s recent footballing chant (Let’s be ‘aving ya!) and to be honest, if that is their aspiration then I can begin to understand the lack of ambition displayed by this album. By all accounts their first album was “very good”. This album seems to be lost, directionless and very much in need to a half-time pep talk from Britian’s favourite TV chef. That’s NOT a good place to be.

bookmark_borderScrob this

1 year equals
               52 weeks OR
               365 days OR
               8,765.81277 hours OR
               525,948.766 minutes OR
               31,556,926 seconds

AND (at time of writing)

               ~31,700 tracks

One year since I installed audioscrobbler and I have to admit that I’m astonished by that number. Granted I have, on occasion not regularly, left iTunes running overnight, so you can probably knock that down to around the 30,000 mark.

Ohh and that doesn’t include iPod tracks on the journey to and from work. Or music played in the car. That’s just at work and at home.

Expanding on the maths then, and presuming an average track length of 4 minutes, that’s over a quarter of last year spent listening to music. Is this a good thing? and why do I still complain that I can’t find anything decent?