Filed under: on the bookshelf, on the mind, on the parchment, on the plate, on the projector, on the travels, on the turntable
had quite a goodun methinks!…
a fair bit of reading for the diss & a much larger bit of cinema going for giggles!
had a crack at making some of these as part of my procrastination exercise…
made a few cheeky purchases…a soviet typewriter from oxfam for a fiver, a ticket to the scotland-italy game next saturday as a pitstop point on my way home, and my first battered mars bar, from the original ‘batterers’ in stonehaven!
had a spot of man flu, so plenty of custard creams and cups of tea were on the cards…
went on a road trip down the east coast
and wrapped my ears around these three treasures…all absolutely brilliant
x
Filed under: on the bookshelf, on the film reel, on the mind, on the muddy fields, on the parchment, on the plate, on the projector, on the screen, on the stage, on the streets, on the travels, on the turntable, on the waves
it’s almost the end of another year…so let’s review it!
these are all my personal opinions, so please feel free to agree or agressively criticise, sup to you :)
Best Moments Of The Year
- That first look at Mt. Everest
- Faithless followed by Stevie Wonder at Glastonbury 2010
- Going to the Taj Mahal
- Having an elephant back bath
- White water rafting in Nepal
Biggest Mares Of The Year
- Being told I had to turn back with Everest Basecamp just ahead (but at least im still alive!)
- The Tory Government coming to power
- The World Cup…both the event itself and our bid going to pot
- That bungee jump lol
- Come Around Sundown…get it together KOL!
Best Book I’ve Read This Year
- Lustrum – Robert Harris
Best 25 Albums Of The Year
- Warpaint – The Fool
- Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
- Laura Marling – I Speak Because I Can
- Stornoway – Beachcomber’s Windowsill
- Foals – Total Life Forever
- Bombay Bicycle Club – Flaws
- Tallest Man On Earth – The Wild Hunt
- Beach House – Teen Dreams
- The National – High Violet
- Lonelady – Nerve Up
- Villagers – Becoming A Jackal
- Gil Scott-Heron – I’m New Here
- GAYNGS – Relayted
- Deerhunter – Halycon Digest
- Broken Bells – Broken Bells
- Delta Spirit – History From Below
- Two Door Cinema Club – Tourist History
- Anais Mitchell – Hadestown
- Perfume Genius – Learning
- Phosphorescent – Here’s To Taking It Easy
- Midlake – Courage Of Others
- Band Of Horses – Infinite Arms
- Interpol – Interpol
- Best Coast – Crazy For You
- Robert Plant – Band Of Joy
Best Embarrassing Album Of The Year!
- Ellie Goulding – Lights
Best 25 Singles Of The Year (From What I Know Were Released As Singles…)
- Foals – Spanish Sahara
- Laura Marling – Rambling Man
- Two Door Cinema Club – What You Know
- Warpaint – Undertow
- Aracade Fire – Ready To Start
- Stornoway – Zorbing
- Foals – This Orient
- Mumford & Sons – The Cave
- Ray Lamontagne And The Pariah Dogs – Old Before Your Time
- Aloe Blacc – I Need A Dollar
- Villagers – Becoming A Jackal
- Bombay Bicycle Club – Ivy And Gold
- Gorillaz Ft. Little Dragon – Empire Ants (not a single, but such a fucking ace song!)
- Arcade Fire – We Used To Wait
- Kelis – Acapella
- Black Keys – Tighten Up
- Interpol – Barricade
- Delta Spirit – Bushwick Blues
- Dum Dum Girls – Stiff Little Fingers
- LCD Soundsystem – Drunk Girls
- Lonelady – Intuition
- Beach House – Zebra
- The Morning Benders – Excuses
- Caribou – Odessa
- The Coral – 1000 Years
Best Embarrassing Single Of The Year!
- Katy Perry – Fireworks
Best Band/Artist Of The Year
- Justin Vernon – the dude is just everywhere, again, making sensational music! he features chiefly on Relayted by GAYNGS (a supergroup including the likes of Justin Vernon and Mike Noyce from Bon Iver, Ivan Howard from The Rosebuds, Joe Westurland and the Cook brothers from Megafaun and Jake Luck and Nick Ryan from the Leisure Birds). Vernon also features on many of the songs from Anais Mitchell’s brilliant folk opera Hadestown, based on a modern story of Orpheus and Eurydice. Finally, he even makes a couple of appearances on Kanye West’s knew record!
Best Gig Of The Year
- Interpol (Edinburgh Corn Exchange)
Best Festival Of The Year
- Glastonbury 2010
Best 30 Movies Of The Year (Released In The UK Since Jan 1st)
- Inception
- Un Prophete
- Shutter Island
- Scott Pilgrim Vs The World
- The Social Network
- Toy Story 3
- Exit Through The Gift Shop
- Crazy Heart
- The Secret In Their Eyes
- Gainsbourg
- Le Concert
- Winter’s Bone
- Another Year
- The Kids Are Alright
- Please Give (not released in uk, but seen and liked!)
- The Ghost Writer
- Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Pt. 1
- A Single Man
- Kick-Ass
- Megamind
- Greenburg
- The Town
- L’arnacoeur
- The Lovely Bones
- Certified Copy
- The Road
- The American
- The Arbor
- Robin Hood
- L’Illusioniste
Plus…The Way Back, Black Swan, Blue Valentine, The King’s Speech, 127 Hours, The Tempest, Never Let Me Go and True Grit (not released yet…but i’m expecting them to be pretty darn good!)
Best Documentary Film
- When You’re Strange – A Film About The Doors
Best Embarrassing Movie!
- Easy A
Best Actor Of The Year
- Leonardo DiCaprio – as it has always been said…he doesn’t make a bad movie. And seeing how both the remarkable Shutter Island and the even greater Inception were released this year with DiCaprio playing the lead roles exceptionally, it couldn’t really go to anyone else!
Best Actress Of The Year
- Julianne Moore – i wasn’t sure who to pick to be completely honest, but Moore’s roles in both The Kids Are Alright and A Single Man were really very very good and im certain she’ll be up there with a fighting chance for an Oscar
Best 10 TV Programme’s Of The Year
- Accused
- This Is England 86
- Any Human Heart
- An Idiot Abroad
- IT Crowd
- Five Daughters
- I’m In A Rock N Roll Band
- I Am Slave
- Secret Britain
- Pillars Of The Earth
Best 5 Exhibitions Of The Year
- A World Observed – Dorothy Bohm – Manchester Art Gallery
- The Doors: When You’re Strange – Idea Generation Gallery
- Wolfgang Tillmans – The Serpentine Gallery
- Skin – The Wellcome Collection
- Exposed: Voyeurism, Suerveillance and the Camera – The Tate Modern
Best 5 Sporting Moments Of The Year
- The Ashes (not over yet, but we’re playing pretty damn well!)
- Rooney And Scholes’ last minute winning goals against Manchester City in January and April
- Amy Williams’ Winter Olympics gold medal
- England’s T20 World Cup Final victory over the Aussies
- Mark Cavendish kicking ass in the Tour De France
And Finally…Best Fish Of The Year!
- Barry…because the other one died…
:) x
Filed under: on the mind, on the muddy fields, on the parchment, on the plate, on the stage, on the travels
YAY! im going to glastonbury again :)
BOO! in a few weeks i have to hand in/present 6 assignments within a teeny weeny time span of a fortnight
YAY! some lectures are cancelled this week
BOO! i have a tenner a week if not less until next loan day :(
YAY! its time for burritos again for dinnerrrr
BOO! i have to cook them in the dark lol
YAY! liverpool are doing shit!
BOO! united could also do with improving
YAY! im going to interpol, frank turner and laura marling this term
BOO! Gamu didn’t get through on ahem..x factor…ahem:P
YAY! im going to loch lomond on friday to see peeps from home!
all in all…YAY’s win…good times!
x
sometimes, i’m quite content sitting in on a friday night, munching down cheese, crackers and grapes whilst jools holland and his musical pals keep me company :)
i’d say this is definitely the best time of the university calendar…lectures are over, exams aren’t for a few weeks, we have more loan than needed, the sun is surprisingly shining, and my room smells of french bread…awesome!
i went home at the weekend, which i’m sure every student would agree is one of the best feelings ever having stressed to betsy over work and stayed up late to meet deadlines. once all such nasty things are out of the way, there is nothing better than bobbing home to drink with the people you haven’t seen for a long long time, eating homemade food (nothing beats ma’s lasagne!) and watching the footy with dad on a sunday afternoon…
i’m pretty happy at the mo :)
ps: this has just come on the radio. good times!
When Boreas, fell and doure,
Sharp shivers thro’ the leafless bow’r;
When Phoebus gies a short-liv’d glow’r,
Far south the lift,
Dim-dark’ning thro’ the flaky show’r
Or whirling drift:
Ae night the storm the steeples rocked;
Poor Labour sweet in sleep was locked;
While burns, wi’ snawy wreaths up-choked,
Wild-eddying swirl,
Or, thro’ the mining outlet bocked,
Down headlong hurl:
List’ning the doors an’ winnocks rattle,
I thought me on the ourie cattle,
Or silly sheep, wha bide this brattle
O’ winter war,
And thro’ the drift, deep-lairing, sprattle
Beneath a scaur.
Ilk happing bird – wee, helpless thing!–
That in the merry months o’ spring
Delighted me to hear thee sing,
What comes o’ thee?
Whare wilt thou cow’r thy chittering wing,
An’ close thy e’e?
Ev’n you, on murd’ring errands toil’d,
Lone from your savage homes exil’d,
The blood-stain’d roost and sheep-cote spoil’d
My heart forgets,
While pityless the tempest wild
Sore on you beats!
Now Phoebe, in her midnight reign,
Dark-muffl’d, view’d the dreary plain;
Still crowding thoughts, a pensive train.
Rose in my soul,
When on my ear this plaintive strain,
Slow-solemn, stole:–
‘Blow, blow, ye winds, with heavier gust!
And freeze, thou bitter-biting frost!
Descend, ye chilly, smothering snows!
Not all your rage, as now united, shows
More hard unkindness unrelenting,
Vengeful malice, unrepenting,
Than heaven-illumin’d Man on brother Man bestows!
See stern Oppression’s iron grip,
Or mad Ambition’s gory hand,
Sending, like blood-hounds from the slip,
Woe, Want, and Murder o’er a land!
Ev’n in the peaceful rural vale,
Truth, weeping, tells the mournful tale:
How pamper’d Luxury, Flatt’ry by her side,
The parasite empoisoning her ear,
With all the servile wretches in the rear,
Looks o’er proud Property, extended wide;
And eyes the simple, rustic hind,
Whose toil upholds the glitt’ring show –
A creature of another kind,
Some coarser substance, unrefin’d –
Plac’d for her lordly use, thus far, thus vile, below!
Where, where is Love’s fond, tender throe,
With lordly Honor’s lofty brow,
The pow’rs you proudly own?
Is there, beneath Love’s noble name,
Can harbour, dark, the selfish aim,
To bless himself alone?
Mark Maiden-Innocence a prey
To love-pretending snares:
This boasted Honor turns away,
Shunning soft Pity’s rising sway,
Regardless of the tears and unavailing pray’rs!
Perhaps this hour, in Misery’s squalid nest,
She strains your infant to her joyless breast,
And with a mother’s fears shrinks at the rocking blast!
‘O ye! who, sunk in beds of down,
Feel not a want but what yourselves create,
Think, for a moment, on his wretched fate,
Whom friends and fortune quite disown!
Ill-satisfy’d keen nature’s clam’rous call,
Stretch’d on his straw, he lays himself to sleep;
While through the ragged roof and chinky wall,
Chill, o’er his slumbers piles the drifty heap!
Think on the dungeon’s grim confine,
Where Guilt and poor Misfortune pine!
Guilt, erring man, relenting view!
But shall thy legal rage pursue
The wretch, already crushed low
By cruel Fortune’s undeserved blow?
Affliction’s sons are brothers in distress;
A brother to relieve, how exquisite the bliss!’
I heard nae mair, for Chanticleer
Shook off the pouthery snaw,
And hail’d the morning with a cheer,
A cottage-rousing craw.
But deep this truth impress’d my mind:
Thro’ all His works abroad,
The heart benevolent and kind
The most resembles God
happy burns night everyone! i hope you’re all putting your haggis in the steamer soon and preparing the neeps and tatties and a big dollop of scotch whiskey gravy…yummy
although i have actually planned to do just this myself, i am however a bit concerned that i’m not actually going to stay awake for much longer. unfortunately half my housemates decided to stay up til 9 oclock this morning playing some shitty video game in the room right next to me and shouting and screaming at the tv which was also turned up ridiculously loud so that it basically sounded like the fucking blitz everytime a character said something, never mind took a shot or threw a grenade or whatever…. so yeh, as you might be able to tell im not in the best of moods as i too got fuck all sleep last night and still haven’t had a wink! butttt, fingers crossed i’ll be able to keep from my bed for another hour or two so that i can enjoy some burns supper :)
i wonder if robert ever had any trouble with restlessness? clearly this here poem suggests he witnessed the same kind of winters that continue to piss off most scotsman to this day, yet i doubt he was forced to go to boots for some earplugs because of flippin call of duty!
x
Filed under: on the film reel, on the horizon, on the mannequin, on the mind, on the muddy fields, on the plate, on the projector, on the screen, on the stage, on the travels, on the turntable, on the waves
to begin 2010, let’s have a looksie back on the naughty noughties through the great power of a big fat list…
2000
1. i brought in the new year playing a shit board game and wearing a sparkly cardboard waistcoat that said millenium all over it :/
2. following the countdown to the year 2000, unsurprisingly nobody/nothing blew because of the millenium bug, although some may have sneezed… it depends whether they had a cold that day
3. although i do not know for sure, im pretty certain that in the year 2000, jarvis cocker did not hook up with that deborah that he was born within an hour of… despite suggesting that they should meet up when they were all fully grown at the fountain down the roooooaaaad… you bloody cow deborah, i don’t care whether your name suits you or not… you’re still a bint :)
4. america elected president george bush and fucked up the world for eight or so miserable years…. whilst britain began broadcasting big brother and fucked up the world for loads of miserable years
5. i probably ate a curly wurly
2001
1. stanley kubrick’s hopes and dreams all went to pot when 2001 ended up being fuck all like he had imagined in ‘a space odyssey’…. stupid stanley
2. the glorious wikipedia first launched on the internet, helping me improve every essay written ever since by a gazillion percent
3. some dicks blew up the twin towers in new york…and blamed it on the middle east… sparking the regular use of the word ‘terrorist’ for anyone that moves or breathes (ooooo controversial! but yeh i agree with that one particular conspiracy suggestion thing, but that’s it, just that one, so don’t judge me as a conspiracy nerd, because i’m not…. thanksss)
4. the sensational and only beatle really worth mentioning, george harrison, passed away :(
5. i both started and finished learning the saxophone
2002
1. a load of countries started using the euro, blowing every british mind for at least an hour when they went on their annual package holiday to spain, until they found the pies and chips and settled back down
2. all the scum in britain was put under the collective term ‘chav’ so that it was easier for the daily mail to describe them during their regular rants about society when not paying tribute to diana
3. pele began telling the world that sometimes he just couldn’t get it up like he used to
4. lots of people came to our manchester to see how good it was and take pictures and talk about it and love it and recommend it to everyone and also watch a few runners go round a track at the horrendously named ‘city of manchester stadium’
5. everyone at school voluntarily went in extra early… but to watch the world cup rather than to do extra science… or is some sad cases to see blazin squad mime their way through half an hour of painfully bad shit
2003
1. a bloke called johnny wilkinson twatted the ball over a bar in the last seconds of the rugby world cup, spreading a love of rugby across the nation for at least a week
2. tony blair shat himself when people started to discuss the failure the find any weapons of mass destruction during his bollocks campaign in iraq, so had one of these people, david kelly, murdered in the woods and tried to disguise it as suicide
3. saddam insane was caught chillin in an underground box and sentenced to death, whilst arnie took over the role as scary politician man and became governor of the OC
4. i reluctantly left the scouts after many happy years
5. the world lost some great names: johnny cash, barry white, katharine hepburn, concorde, dame thora hird from the stairlift ads and rod roddy from the price is right
2004
1. ireland banned smoking in all pubs, causing severe distress as old men are forced to leave their guinness and step outside for a feg
2. as i finally become cool by getting a mobile phone for my birthday, north korea banned the use of them…. because they’re simply mad
3. the film ‘the day after tomorrow’ scares the living daylights out of everyone and forces the world to go power saving crazy, introducing a trillion different things to stop global warming and polar bears from getting their feet wet
4. a huge tsunami buggered up christmas by killing over two hundred thousand folk on boxing day
5. a couple of blokes manage to explore well over six thousand feet below sea level, most likely to get away from all the shit that was happening up top…. in particular, greece winning the european championship… what the hell was that all about!?
2005
1. america didn’t learn from their idiocy so elected president bush again…twats
2. we didn’t learn from our idiocy and elected prime minister blair again… twats
3. pope john paul the second unfortunately popped his clogs and a german fella took over his job in the vatican… he celebrated his new position by munching on a well deserved curly wurly
4. because britain is ridiculous, any asian bloke seen with a rucksack suddenly became hated due to the london bombings in july
5. tons of famous musical faces and bob geldof joined hands across the world during the live 8 concerts in order to raise awareness for the call for complete debt cancellation and more aid for the world’s poorest people… which is fair enough!
6. some bitch called katrina decided it would be great fun to wipe out the home of jazz along with thousands of other homes… bloody wind
7. liverpool became the jammiest of all sods by coming back from three nil down, to beat ac milan on penalties
8. i finally got out of the hell hole that was secondary school, went to the haven that was college, began earning some money and joined a band… :D
9. luther vandross, arthur miller, richard pryor and george best all passed on
10. i obviously started registering things that took place around me in 2005
2006
1. hard rock hallelujah becomes the song on everyones lips as the mighty lordi destroy the competition…. in eurovision
2. for those not to arsed about lordi however, fourth trace delighted the crowds with the likes of parallel games and the fiesta song :/
3. england did shit again in the world cup
4. saddam insane was finally hung for being a complete nob
5. syd barrett of pink floyd passed on :(
2007
1. we all learnt the ending to harry potter’s life at hogwarts and i still want to know what that little creature was under dumbledore’s chair
2. some daft twat forgot to do his research and tried to drive a flaming truck into glasgow airport… he musn’t have known that glaswegians are fucking mental and one happy chappy decided to smack the on fire terrorist to pulp in between tokes on his cig and chugs on his irn-bru
3. gordon brown took the leadership of the labour party and the government, irritating, worrying and scaring people up and down the nation
4. i had the best year of my life by farrrrrrrrrrrrr
5. the legendary tony wilson of factory records passed away and manchester mourned
2008
1. the international year of the potato and sanitation!
2. manchester united boshed chelsea in the european cup final rendering me voiceless for three days :)
3. michael phelps and usain bolt went mental at the beijing olympics and smashed a bollock load of records whilst britain did pretty bloody awesome as well…. then they all ate curly wurlys
4. somalian pirates proved that pirates do still exist
5. the worlds economy broke down as huge banks all over went bankrupt, causing every news reader on the planet to litter our ears with the words ‘recession’ and ‘credit crunch’ fucking over and over again
6. barack obama was elected president of the us, finally ending the disgraceful power period of bush and giving new hope to the world
7. an extra second was added to the year….whoopdedoo!
8. i travelled europe and got to see the oddness of a stoned bloke with a flower pot on his head in amsterdam, mass celebrations and parties in the host capital cities of the european championships and almost forgot every important document ever in a bar in bruges
9. we said goodbye to heath ledger, yves saint laurent, paul newman, charlton heston, eartha kitt and isaac hayes
10. sadly… i did not have a curly wurly once over these 365 days
2009
1. swine flu broke out, scaring the bejeeezus out of everyone with half a brain cell, whilst everyone else just got on with their lives, even when they actually caught the virus
2. michael jackson died at the age of fifty, resulting in everyone side-stepping what they had whinged on about for years, his paedo-ness, and instead broke down in tears everytime his name was mentioned
3. i decided that i would trek to everest basecamp next year
4. i attended glastonbury for the first time and had most definitely the greatest experience of my life bar none
5. england qualified for the world cup, sparking everyone to reaffirm that we will definitely win it this time…. mhmm
and that my friends, was the noughties… i hope you enjoyed wasting the last twenty minutes of your life… you’re never getting them back you know :D
x
Filed under: on the horizon, on the mind, on the muddy fields, on the plate, on the stage, on the turntable
haha! i knew this would happen…
i’ve had a pretty sensational weekend to be honested. not a huuuge amount happened, but it’s just been good. i couldn’t even tell you what i did on friday or most of saturday, but it was just one of these weekends where everything seems ok… you’ve still got ten days to do an essay, you’re getting some sleep, chelsea lost, liverpool drew and united won! To make things better, Mr Scruff played on saturday night which was epic and most definitely the best night of third year, and on sunday, i had my first roast dinner in aaages and followed the family recipe to perfection… if i must say so myself :P
however, those bloody monday blues have kicked in again. i can just tell from the actions of certain people and their general moods that completing this essay will be a thousand times harder than first expected. plus, i still don’t technically have an essay title, which can’t be much help either. fundraising has also come to a halt this week, with still only a ninth of what i need to raise, with only 69 days left :/ even the things ive signed up to do are going tits up… aaargh!
nevertheless, i’ve still got some special made ham, a load of roast potatoes, nine days to do an essay and some Mr Scruff on the turntable… it can’t all be that bad!
