Filed under: on the horizon, on the mind, on the streets, on the travels, on the turntable, on the waves | Tags: Aberdeen, flickr, memories, new blog, photos, Thank Folk For That
i’d like to throw a few things your way this evening if that’s ok :)
first of all, i have a new blog!
it is chiefly aimed at spreading the wonderful world of folk to the masses, but will also include a number of other music genres etc just to keep you on your toes! i’d absolutely love it if you could pay it a visit once in a while, but don’t worry, The Checkered Mind will still continue as i splurge out nonsensical, longwinded ramblings from day to day!
click the link below to go to Thank Folk For That!
the first post is a review is of Bon Iver’s new self-titled album, and as a little treat i’ll pop it on here too so you can get a sneaky read in :)
secccondly, the end is drawing near on University life. four years of pure, unadulterated, dedicated studying (ahem…) has come to an end and as i begin to pack away all the junk i’ve collected, i can’t help but feel somewhat sad that i’m leaving this Scottish seaside town, despite my many moanings over the years!
i’ve met some quite brilliant people, done things i never thought i would, lived in some hell-holes, somehow blagged my way through essays and exams coming out with as little history knowledge as i had back in 2007, made some hilarious mistakes, made some never-regretful decisions, been to liquid at least 10 times, more than i ever should, shared some historical moments, waded into the north sea resulting in a 5 second case of bollocks-loss, been to rugby games, balls, and mountains, written a bloomin’ dissertation, watched dolphins at sunrise, danced like a twat in exodus, snowboarded, went on the hunt for the legendary one legged prostitute at the docks (lol) and bought a fish that eats better than i do…so Aberdeen, it’s not been too bad!
and, finally, having pretty much nothing to do this week, i thought i’d go on a few travels – went back up Bennachie with Cal and Marc, visited the insane ‘shop’ near Montrose again, mooched on down to Edinburgh for a few days and hit the beach with the camera and Sloan…here are a few snaps from my travels, and you can see more on my flickr if you click the link on the left :)
Filed under: on the waves
big fan of this blog idea….
If your house was burning, what would you take with you? It’s a conflict between what’s practical, valuable and sentimental. What you would take reflects your interests, background and priorities. Think of it as an interview condensed into one question….
for me, (if i was in the aberdeen flat), it would have to be the laptop/hard drive, my camera, the bass geetar, big coat, nepal memories, vinyls, smiths framed poster, whatever i could grab from the man draw and of course barry the fish!
submit your own entry over at The Burning House
and let us know how it goes!
x
Filed under: on the turntable, on the waves | Tags: free mp3, freebies, Friday Treat
im pretty shit at this April Fools Day…haven’t got out of bed yet…it’ll have to be quick!
haha take that dissertation…my word count included the title!….muhahaha…April fucking fools…
right, now that’s sorted, here’s your friday treat, PLUS new addition, free stuff of the week :D
TREAT
FREE
to start, why not have some Hugh Lawrie!? that’s right the British icon that does that yank programme (NOT PROGRAM) is making the music! get a free track over at: http://www.hughlaurieblues.com/free-downloads/guess-im-a-fool.htm
second, you can listen to Alela Diane’s new album for free here…my friends, it is fucking awesome…so do it: http://music.aol.com/new-releases-full-cds/spinner#/19
Mr. ‘the north’ himself, Richard Hawley, has made a couple of free tracks for the Glenfiddich malt whisky of all things and you can have them all for yourself: http://www.glenfiddich.co.uk/news-events/richard-hawley/index.html
those gentleman that make up Eels are also offering you a package of free tunes, and they’re all pretty darn good! http://www.eelstheband.com/main.php
….as is blues legend Ben Harper: http://www.benharper.com/
hear Frank Turner’s new song over at NME, they claim you can download it free too, but i haven’t got my head round it yet :/ http://media.nme.com.edgesuite.net/audio/2011/march/05%20I%20Am%20Disappeared.mp3
this place can surprise with some decent songs from time to time too, check out the Music Mondays link: http://lstn.urbanoutfitters.com/
if you haven’t got it yet then you should have! it’s itunes MP3 Of The Day podcast…they’ve drilled out some top stuff in he past including that BOBBY track i posted last week: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/mp3-day-a-free-spinner-approved/id309328973
and finally, itunes song of the week is James Vincent Mcmorrow’s If I Had A Boat…you’d be a fool not to snatch it!
enjoy :) x
Filed under: on the film reel, on the horizon, on the mind, on the parchment, on the projector, on the streets, on the travels, on the turntable, on the waves | Tags: aberdeen uni, climate change, hard rain, mark edwards, project
if you’ve been on campus at any point this week, im sure you’ll have noticed the Hard Rain campaign near Elphinstone Hall and King’s College. i really hope that most people will have had the time to stop and take in the pain, shame, beauty and hope that is presented by Mark Edwards’ display….however if not, here’s a little bit of info (taken from the uni website) that may draw you into paying the exhibition a visit…
Artist Mark Edwards, one of the few environmental communicators to have personally witnessed the global issues that are defining the 21st century, will speak at 6pm on Tuesday March 22 in the Regent Building Lecture Theatre on the King’s College Campus.
Mark’s presentation — introduced with photos synced to Bob Dylan’s prophetic 60s masterpiece ‘A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall’ shows habitat destruction, overconsumption, poverty, pollution, climate change, war, loneliness and despair gathered from Mark’s expeditions to over 150 countries over 40 years. The presentation explores the state of the world and its people, and brings alive the policies, technologies and lifestyle changes we need to adopt to reinvent the modern world to be compatible with nature.
The accompanying 60-metre outdoor photo exhibition will open beside the Elphinstone lawn on the King’s College campus on March 14 until April 12.
The exhibition has been seen by over 15 million people across all continents and has attracted huge public and critical acclaim. It has been shown at venues as diverse as the United Nations Headquarters in New York and national governments including Scotland, Australia, Belgium and Cuba, to the European supply chain for McDonalds, and the community of Wormwood Scrubs prison.
Hard Rain is being brought to the City by the Aberdeen University Students Association Climate Change Project and funded by the Scottish Government.
Jamie Peters, who represents the Climate Change Project, expressed his hope of the benefits the exhibitions and inspirational talk would have on the University and wider community of the north-east, saying: “The Climate Change Project has been engaging students in environmental discussion and equipping them with the tools to reduce their own environmental impacts since last summer. We are hoping that by hosting Hard Rain we can continue to get the community involved in making positive contributions to the environment and allow them to adopt more sustainable lifestyles.
“We have started a number of initiatives that are designed to reduce the community’s carbon footprint, save students money, help them meet new people, learn new skills, and reduce their carbon footprints in as fun a manner as possible. We feel that every single student can find something in our project that they can get involved in and hope that this exhibition will allow us to engage with even more people.”
The Hard Rain Project was established as a charity in 2009 to support educational programmes for schools, universities and colleges, and public exhibitions that campaign for realistic solutions to the interlinked problems of climate change, poverty, the wasteful use of resources, population expansion, habitat destruction and species loss.
here’s a wee interview with Mark Edwards, taken from when the project was on show down in Manchester…
Filed under: on the turntable, on the waves | Tags: Friday Treat, Johnny Flynn, Laura Marling, The Water
it pains me immensely that these exams aren’t over for another 2 weeks :/
although it pains me even more than we’re stuck with this idiotic government for another 4+ years…i hope to christ that Michael Gove gets slaughtered on question time tonight…goddamn fool!
ANYWHO! i often see it as my duty and my honour to bring you all as many different things that Laura Marling gets her lovely chops on as possible, as soon as i hear them…thus, get an earload of these :)
this first one is an absolute thing of beauty in my opinion…it’s called The Water and comes from both miss Marling and the wonderful Johnny Flynn…
the second one is from an up and coming artist called Emily & The Woods…her debut EP has now sold out, but you can still have a grand old listen on her myspace…it is here where i discovered that Marling has bequeathed her lovely (if a little faint) harmonies to Emily’s track, Go Home. unfortunately it is only on her myspace where you can hear it, but just for fun, here’s one of her other tunes, without Laura, but still really quite ace…it’s called Virginia…
finally, i haven’t got the clips, but if you have a good rummage on youtube you can find loads of cheeky live videos and recordings of Marling’s new songs and a couple of brilliant covers…so go look…now…go!
x
Filed under: on the muddy fields, on the screen, on the stage, on the turntable, on the waves | Tags: 2011, Glastonbury, Pulp, Radiohead
it gets me very, very excited that both these acts are flying high in the rumour mill for glastonbury 2011…
sit down, have no distractions and take in the beauty of both these sets
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00wyn9g/Glastonbury_Radiohead_at_Glastonbury_1997/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00wv3j8/Glastonbury_Pulp_at_Glastonbury_1995/
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 projector, on the turntable, on the waves | Tags: Fourteen Actors Acting, Maccabees, New York Times
how about some ace indie christmas melodies this week?
also go check this out from the NY Times…Fourteen Actors Acting
x
Filed under: on the waves
morning all!
just a quick one to recommend you all pop this into your regular blog-reading collection…
http://badlystrungdeclarations.wordpress.com/
it’s written (pretty damn brilliantly) by a longtime pal from home who’s currently at york uni
enjoy :)
i’ve just finished listening to this absolute gem of a radio show from Zane Lowe…WOW!…
i have to commend any dj that dedicates two hours of a popular radio station, (which often plays pure generic crap), wholly not only to the legendary The Smiths, but also to, in my opinion, the finest record ever made.
although i discovered the true beauty of it only 3ish years ago, i wholeheartedly declare that The Queen Is Dead is and always will be my favourite album of all time. from the 1962 L-shaped Room soundbite at the very beginning of the title track, to the beautifully desperate hopelessness of I Know It’s Over, to the simply god damn fucking amazingness of There Is A Light That Never Goes Out, this record is just pure genius…
