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Blurty for Cyril Slartibardfast.
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| Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 |
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Having left Stoke and Bally's quite wonderful Sky TV (complete with good ol' Sky Sports), I've found myself in London with people who have access to ESPN instead, so I've traded one load of Premier League football for another. Which is odd. ESPN are a weird bunch. 5:30pm on Saturday seems like a very strange time for football anyway, but that's not the issue. The problem is their closedown time. ESPN (over here, at least) ends for the night at 4am. Ordinarily that's not a problem (seriously, what's on at 4am? They show more German football than anything else!), but, say, if you're bored and feel like watching the MLS Cup final (kickoff was 2am GMT), it'd be nice to be able to do so in full. Not, for example, watch LA Galaxy boss the first half, Real Salt Lake come back in the second, and then be left with no idea what happened during extra time and penalties because the channel decided to shut down for the night five minutes in. Fucknuts. Apparently RSL won, which is moderately saddening. (I was supporting the Galaxy, due to a lingering loyalty towards David Beckham from his Manchester United days...) |
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| Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 |
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But it's so damn good! Anyway. These are the 33 songs I eventually downloaded from Series 3. Ashley Chambliss - A Little More Of You Asobi Seksu - Lions And Tigers* Asobi Seksu - Nefi + Girly* Au Pairs - It's Obvious Bon Iver - Woods Born Ruffians - Little Garcons David Holmes - Love Reign Over Me Deerhunter - Twilight At Carbon Lake Diskettes - Art Dodos - Walking Early Years - A Little More Elbow - Mirrorball* Electrelane - After The Call Fat Segal - Diver Revive Fat Segal - Lake Control Felice Brothers - Frankie's Gun! Glasvegas - It's My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry Glen Campbell - All I Want Is You Grouper - Heavy Water / I'd Rather Be Sleeping High Places - Jump In Lacrosse - You Can't Say No Forever Lady Gaga - Brown Eyes Little Boots - Meddle Low - Breaker Maps - When You Leave Millionaires - A-L-C-O-H-O-L Robert Wyatt - Just As You Are Son Lux - Break Sparklehorse - It's A Wonderful Life Steely Dan - Do It Again Susanna And The Magic Orchestra - Believer Tujiko Noriko - White Film Wilco - Radio Cure (* - subsequently bought on CD) Phew. Anyway. I've hit a bit of a snag. The Series 1 and 2 DVDs seem oddly lacking in music (the much vaunted Standing In The Way Of Control from S1 is conspicuously absent), which may mean that I'm going to have to rewatch them on 4oD anyway to see if they ever actually had soundtracks in the first place. Still, apparently it's still doing better than the American versions, where they replaced all the songs with rubbish ones and cut most of the contentious scenes to ribbons (they were perfectly happy to show Cook and Effy going all out in a closet, but a subtle scene between Naomi and Emily got shredded)... |
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| Friday, October 30th, 2009 |
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Ours is in the kitchen. Yeah, we need to fix the downstairs bog. |
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| Sunday, October 4th, 2009 |
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Music is weird. It was my birthday towards the end of August, and my present from Andy was a £20 Amazon gift voucher. (Thanks dude!) It got spent on a DS game - Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire Of The Rift - and two CDs, Asobi Seksu's Citrus and The Seldom Seen Kid by Elbow. (And yes, Skins is directly responsible for both. And I still had 57p left!) What with postal strikes delaying things, and then the subsequent... upheavals, I never actually got round to listening to either of them, so they just sat in my CD wallet (I've left most of my CDs in Stoke for now, but I've got a 20 disc wallet lurking around) until such time as I could listen to them. Anyway. Watching some random TV recently, I spotted the awesome music on the trailer for The Soloist. (Not arsed about the film, but the music was great. The more knowledgable among you may have figured out the punchline already.) I was planning to go researching, but never had the opportunity because the computer here is occupied 24/7 and mine is still in Stoke. So, bored the other night (they watch Corrie in this house), I took some time out to listen to the albums. Citrus was the better album (Japanese-American shoegazing indie, basically), while The Seldom Seen Kid seems to consist of the better tracks. Including, by sheer fluke, "One Day Like This". Yep, the song from the The Soloist trailer... |
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| Saturday, September 12th, 2009 |
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I hoped the day would never come that that might be an issue. So, as a couple of you are aware, a few weeks ago Simon designated a date by which I had to find a job, otherwise I'd be thrown out. That date was Friday, and I'm still unemployed, so I'm outta here. I'm not sure exactly when I gave up. I think, if I'm honest, it was around Christmas, when I didn't get that data entry position with the Royal Mail despite obliterating the typing test and proving beyond all reasonable doubt that I was more than capable of doing the fucking job. (For the interested, because there were no more updates at the time; I went in, aced the test, waited to hear back from them... and never heard another word.) That was the moment when I realised that nothing I could do was actually going to work - that despite my best efforts, something about me or my circumstances meant that I wasn't going to be able to get a job. And yes, I know full well that most of that last sentence is complete bullshit. I know that there is something I could have done to deal with this. But seriously, I've spent the last... three years? (Is it really that long since the Arawak disaster?) trying everything I know to find work. And it just hasn't happened. Since the Royal Mail thing, I've more or less shut down. Doubtless it's been noticed that I've been very distant and withdrawn (okay, more distant and withdrawn) over the last few months, because I've been sat around the house with no idea what to do. The JobCentre sent me off on a couple of shitty initiatives, including shunting me out for a natter with the people at Connexions in Hanley, who largely fed me a load of lies (they claimed that I could put somebody at the JobCentre down as a referee on my CV; when I asked at the JobCentre who to put, they told me that it wasn't an option because they only see me for an increasingly small amount of time each week and what possible meaningful reference could they derive from that?), and a large amount of paperwork dedicated to dealing with what I already know. (How To Write A CV! What a load of crap that was.) From there, it's been horrible and painful going. I've barely been able to find the impetus to actually make a significant effort with job searching - which, undeniably, is part of the reason why I haven't found work. Depressive cycles are a bitch. So now I'm here. I'm writing this before I shut down and pack my PC, and getting set for the off. The only problem with the off is exactly where to go. My dad isn't an option; he managed to adopt a couple of my cousin's kids after all, so his spare room is now occupied by two two-year-olds. The basic plan is to head down to Cambridge on Sunday (if I can persuade Simon to lend me the money for the train fare - apparently it's £71! Stupid in-and-out-of-London routes - might see if I can find something better), where I've got an old mate from Norfolk holed up; unfortunately, that's only an option for a few days before he and his girlfriend go out of the country on holiday (and he's not in until 11pm on Sunday night anyway because it's her birthday, or something). Still, that'll buy me time until Tuesday (when my next JSA cheque clears), at which point I'm hoping to go down and stay with relatives in London (my aunt and uncle moved there when they had five kids - they've now got one, and therefore at least two spare rooms). But that's for Sunday. Right now it's Saturday, so I'm going to finish packing, sort out what I might need to get things back in order again, and then head out into the deep dark night. There's an abandoned train station not far away from here, where I'll probably crash for the time being, and then come back in the morning to pick up what I can carry of my stuff and disappear. I'll let people know what's going on when I know. Simon: I am so, so very sorry. For everything. |
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| Friday, September 11th, 2009 |
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| What was the last song you listened to that was sung in a foreign language? | ||||||||
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| Monday, August 10th, 2009 |
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Ten episodes. Two and a half days. One very strong contender for the best episode ever. Of anything. Two clunkers. (Well, every show has to have some.) Why did nobody tell me this show was capable of being this awesome? |
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| Wednesday, March 4th, 2009 |
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I've been meaning to get to the cinema for the last week or so to see this, but took until today due to various things. First time, then showtimes, then Orange Wednesday, then money, then finally today. Bally Inspired Lucas Inspired One Line Review: Dave thinks the Heroes comparisons were way, way too accurate. ( Push review ) |
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| Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009 |
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| But she cannot cover Ash. | ||||||
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| Sunday, December 21st, 2008 |
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So, Alexandra Burke's... interpretation of Hallelujah is the Christmas Number One. I hate The X-Factor. I despise the contrived nature of it, the sheer crappy calculation of it's horrendous manipulation of the charts, and the fact that so many simpering dickheads think that pissing away money on phonelines is a good way to decide which of the latest no-talent bums should have their voice digitally transformed into a saleable product. But mostly, I hate the fact that, by and large, most of the resultant music is fairly rubbish. I haven't watched any of The X-Factor - I have better things to do with my Saturday nights, like battering my head against a brick wall. But as a fan of music, I end up listening to the finished products. A version of Mariah Carey's Hero was released a few weeks ago, as performed by all the finalists. I'm a big fan of the original (I'm aware that that statement will likely invalidate every other criticism of music I've ever made); this one was just plain awful. It's akin to Girls Aloud's version of I'll Stand By You; the intimacy of a single vocalist is lost when it's shoehorned onto umpteen people trying to harmonise on it. Alexandra Burke's Hallelujah is, in fairness, not completely unsalvageable. The first two and a half minutes are quite good; the song is quiet, and calm, and introspective, and it sticks to that. Then it picks up an atrocious Westlife gear change and a choir, and it becomes ghastly. It becomes a predictable X-Factor showstopper. It becomes everything that is wrong with modern music. And yet people still bought it in their hundreds of thousands, because they're mindless twats. Jeff Buckley's version is the most famous; far more so than Leonard Cohen's original, and even more than that relative to the John Cale version which is the template for 99% of modern covers. I'm no fan of Buckley; I'm never fond of anybody who became famous and well-regarded mostly because they died. (Still, at least he didn't get famous by consuming a vast quantity of drugs.) But the Facebook campaign managed to propel his version to number two in the charts, so obviously there is still some sanity left in the world. Most of those people were railing against The X-Factor concept; a large number were railing against the bastardisation itself. Leonard Cohen's original got to number 36. |
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| Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 |
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| Holy shit, it's snowing. | ||||
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| Sunday, September 7th, 2008 |
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| The Belgian Grand Prix is always hilarious. | ||||||
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| Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008 |
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I've been fighting with my computer for the last week or so (it turned out that the main processor was running about 30C too hot - for the last two and a half years), but it's been having a couple of issues before then. Specifically, recently, with accessing certain websites. Those of you who are familiar with my love of computer games will be completely unsurprised to learn that I'm quite the avid viewer of Zero Punctuation, an ex-pat Brit now in Australia who specialises in particularly snarky reviews tied to quite amusing animation. The upshot is that this is one of those websites that wouldn't work properly. And given that it works fine on Bally's PC, I've been forced to upgrade to Internet Explorer 7. First things first - Internet Explorer 7 is a fucking PILE. I despise almost everything about it - the address bar is in the wrong place, the Stop and Refresh buttons are in the wrong place, tabbed browsing is a pain in the arse (although fortunately you can disable that), it's a resource hog that runs slowly on my replacement CPU (I've had to kick back to my old Athlon 2000 now the 3200's blown - yeah, I know, I need a new PC), the new button bar is a complete waste of time and space (what does it do that isn't in the menu bar again?), and it just generally annoys the crap out of me. And the worst part of it? I still refuse to go over to Firefox. I've never been sold on this OMG FIREFORKS thing, largely because I've always viewed it as complaining about Microsoft - and, while M$ are undeniably a group of money-hungry bastards, I don't actually hate them. I see them much like I see Tesco - yes, there's a bit of anticompetitive stomping going around, but the main reason they dominate the market is that they're generally fairly good at what they do. Tesco isn't taking over the world entirely because they walk all over village corner shops; they're doing it because, generally, their product is the best available for the most reasonable price. The main thing they both need to realise, though, is that progress for the sake of progress is not necessarily a good thing, and that their dominant position doesn't (or at least, shouldn't) give them carte blanche to shit on the consumer. Still, at least I can watch the adventures of Ben Croshaw and his funny hat now. Also, Blurty's mood listing needs more options. Where's "bemused"? Or "puzzled"? Or "just generically fed up"? |
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| Thursday, August 7th, 2008 |
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I wrote this review about a week ago to post on ScoreHero (my pet Guitar Hero forum). It should be noted that it's pitched towards the populace of ScoreHero, who are - on average - 14. Addon bits for Blurty readers included, of course, but otherwise it's unchanged. Bally Inspired Lucas Inspired One Line Review: Dave can't help but feel it to have been strangely empty. ( The Dark Knight review ) |
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| Saturday, July 26th, 2008 |
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Pinched from Kirk, who pinched it from Jenny, who pinched it from The Onion, or something. Simply, pick your favourite album from each year you've been alive. The key word there? Simply. In fairness, large parts of this turned out to be easier than I thought. I always exclude Best Ofs from these sorts of lists, which by definition are otherwise likely to dominate. However, they do seem to dominate my CD collection, which means that what's left turns out to be rather thin in certain cases. Where that doesn't happen, the result is hell. Still, I can't resist a good music pondering session. Thanks to the good people at Catraxx, which neatly includes a report function to fart out a list of my albums grouped by year. Some annotations en route. 1980 no selection I don't actually own any albums from 1980. Hmmm. 1981 no selection Two albums - one's a Greatest Hits and the other one I've never got round to listening to, so... 1982 no selection Just one Best Of here. 1983 no selection Nothing here at all. 1984 no selection Or here. 1985 Dire Straits - Money For Nothing There was only one other album here. This is better. 1986 James - Stutter Default. 1987 U2 - The Joshua Tree Also default, but it would almost certainly have won anyway... 1988 James Strip-Mine Default again. Better than Stutter, though. 1989 The Cure - Disintegration Finally, some thought needed! Edges out the big contender (The Stone Roses) simply by being masturbated over less. 1990 no selection I have one album from 1990 - The Simpsons Sing The Blues. Yeah. 1991 U2 - Achtung Baby Best. Album. Ever. 1992 R.E.M. - Automatic For The People 1993 Enigma - The Cross Of Changes 1994 Massive Attack - Protection 1995 Pulp - Different Class 1996 Sneaker Pimps - Becoming X Just edging out four others - R.E.M.'s New Adventures In Hi-Fi, Saint Etienne's Tiger Bay, Manic Street Preachers' Everything Must Go and The Divine Comedy's Casanova. And I'm still not sure if I got the right one. 1997 James - Whiplash 1998 Fatboy Slim - You've Come A Long Way, Baby Oh, god, this was hard work. When I eventually get round to finishing my Top 50 albums of all time list, 1998 will provide fully half of the top 10 - this, Air's Moon Safari, The Corrs' Talk On Corners, Garbage's Version 2.0 and I Bificus by Bif Naked. And there's several other solid contenders too, most notably The Divine Comedy's Fin De Siècle... 1999 Beth Orton - Central Reservation Four-way fight between this, Christina Aguilera (seriously), Sigur Ros and Moby, but thinking about it it's a no-contest. 2000 Toploader - Onka's Big Moka A surprisingly slow year consisting mostly of very ordinary followups to previous better works - The Corrs, U2, Saint Etienne and Enigma, I'm looking at all of you. 2001 Cara Dillon - Cara Dillon Bally's fault. BUY IT. Better still, go and download Black Is The Colour. Then BUY IT. 2002 Doves - The Last Broadcast More cruddy followups, unfortunately... 2003 Sarah McLachlan - Afterglow I know admitting to liking this is virtually a criminal offence, so don't comment. :-p 2004 Jem - Finally Woken 2005 Saint Etienne - Tales From Turnpike House My second 10/10 album ever. It's been a very long time since an album last grabbed me like this one did. 2006 Charlotte Gainsbourg - 5:55 2007 The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible A very early entry for album of the year, and it was never bettered. 2008 so far Moby - Last Night I think. |
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| Wednesday, July 16th, 2008 |
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I went through the whole of yesterday without consuming any caffeine. (It's the JSA cycle - fortnightly cash means that at the very end you tend to run out of money, which means there was no milk left for coffee and no Coke either.) Never let me do that again. |
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| Saturday, July 5th, 2008 |
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| YOU DO NOT DO THAT TO DONNA. | ||||||
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| Thursday, May 8th, 2008 |
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And I'm spent. Simon and Andy were extremely helpful over the weekend in getting stuff shifted down to Stoke; unfortunately, there were still a few bits left behind that needed moving - a large box, a washing basket (full of coat hangers), a PC and my vacuum cleaner. Everything else - the old TV, the TV stand and such - was to be either slung or bequeathed to the flat. So Tuesday was spent shuttling. The keys needed to be back with homes4u by 5pm. Jump on train to Manchester at about 9am, jump on train to Ashburys, walk fifteen minutes to flat. Realise that PC won't fit in backpack. Swear. Empty large box into backpack. Pick up washing basket. Walk twenty minutes back to Ashburys, jump on train to Manchester, jump on train to Stoke, jump in cab back to the house. Dump washing basket, empty contents of backpack onto bed, jump back in taxi to go back to train station. (The guy was good enough to wait.) Jump on train to Manchester at about 1:15pm. (At this point, all the trains have been delayed due to signalling carnage somewhere between Milton Keynes and Bletchley.) Jump on train to Ashburys, walk fifteen minutes to flat. Now the fun starts. I can't pack the vacuum cleaner until I've used it to clean the flat, so... clean the flat. Hoover up everything, clean windows, scrub down kitchen, make some phonecalls to kill the electricity and water, discover that I can't provide final meter readings because the meters are (for no good reason) kept behind locked doors. Call homes4u, get told that it needs a square T-bar key, available from any hardware store. (Thanks guys.) Realise it's now about 4:15pm, and I need to be on the 4:30pm train from Ashburys if I'm going to get back to Manchester in time to make the ten-minute walk to homes4u. Realise then that that is simply Not. Going. To. Happen. The vacuum cleaner needs to be dismantled to fit in the backpack (part of it needed to be clipped to the outside), which is going to be Heavy. Also, the PC is going to be Awkward. Swear a lot more. Inform Bally that I'm not going to be able to go to the cinema, because on the off-chance that I make it back in time I'm going to want to die. Spend some more time cleaning and throwing stuff out and locking up. Leave the flat at 5:45pm to walk to Ashburys. Carrying a FUCKING HEAVY backpack and a FUCKING AWKWARD PC in the process. Arrive at Ashburys at 6:30pm; catch trains and cabs to make it back to the house for 7:45pm. (The film would have started at 7:30pm.) Fall over. Wednesday: go back to Manchester. Apologise for the delays in handing the keys back, but it's their problem now so quite honestly tough shit. They will apparently ring me with the meter readings. Visit Lloyds to change address. Catch train back to Stoke. And that's it. After eighteen months of wailing, gnashing of teeth and general agony (my back and shoulders still hurt), I'm finally through with homes4u. Morons. |
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| Wednesday, April 30th, 2008 |
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I never thought the appeal to sense might work on a being without a brain. :-p Delaying the handback of the keys until Tuesday (the earliest I can return them due to the Bank Holiday) is apparently doable - the only cost is six days rent (£100 ish), which I can just about handle. |
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| Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 |
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Even moving out isn't an option. A plan was formed - rent a storage unit to dump my crap in pretty sharpish for a week, leg it to Stoke on Wednesday, and borrow Andy over the weekend to lunk everything down. That in mind, I today paid a visit to Apex Self Storage, a company that Arawak Walton used back in the day - and conveniently have a site on an industrial estate about ten minutes walk from my flat. After much deliberation about size requirements (a 25 square foot unit looks surprisingly tiny, so I pretty much decided on a 50 sq ft), it was time to discuss access. Unfortunately, because it's the Bank Holiday this weekend, they were going to be closed after 1pm on Saturday, and all Sunday and Monday (the planned transport days), which means I'd need to fork out the extra beans for 24 hour access (which I would have needed anyway to load up, due to the problems of the timeframe). And not only do they not have any 24 hour units spare right now, but due to a hilariously stupid pricing system I'd need to stump up a silly amount of money up front. Their charging is based on a 28-day cycle, so I'd need to pay - up front - four week's deposit and four week's rent. Any unused portion would be refunded after I cleared out after the week - which means that I would need to pay £230.80 immediately in order to rent a unit for a single week, at which point they would refund the £201.95 excess. I, of course, currently get about £110 per fortnight - I don't have £230.80 going spare. I do, however, have a brain that's going spare very quickly... |
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Blurty for Cyril Slartibardfast.
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contemplative.
curious.
tired.
blah.
impressed.
scared.
pissed off.
giggly.
relieved.