pootling

• Southpark on illegal downloading
  “Man must learn to think of these horrible outcomes before he acts selfishly or else I fear recording artists will be forever doomed to a life of only semi-luxury.”
  (tags: riaa southpark tv video youtube copyright music funny cartoon)

Slightly more up-to-date this week, since I bought the new Razorlight album, and it’s not bad (although not quite up to the standard of the first methinks). My favourite track is Hold On, and that, therefore, is this week’s Song Of The Week.

When I first heard this, I thought it must be a direct rip-off of a song I know already, and I’m still not entirely convinced that this is not the case, since the song sounds remarkably familiar (if anyone knows what song this sounds like and can put me out of my misery, leave me a comment please!). I’m inclined to agree with DV on this though, that it’s a sort of conglomeration of a variety of songs.

The song is very typically Razorlight. It has quite a sixties R&B beat running through it and it builds up towards the end, focussed around the chorus. The song has a feeling of leading you somewhere, and a feeling of tension. I believe that this stems from the fact that the song only resolves a couple of times, just at the end of the chorus, and then only very briefly*. Clearly, this sense of leading somewhere without really arriving fits in very nicely with the title of the song.

The chorus, again, is pretty typical Razorlight fair - fantastically recognisable, and easy to sing along to. I think this is one of their best songs, and certainly the best track off the new album. It comes strongly minifig-recommended.

*Anyone who wishes to correct my probably abysmally poor music theory knowledge is more than welcome

• Naked stage role for Potter star
  “…playing a stable boy who has an erotic relationship with his horses” - doesn’t sound very stable to me. ahehehe.
  (tags: harrypotter danielradcliffe play naked bestiality london)

• Back To The Future’s Under The Sea Dance new edit
  If you know the movies, the Enchantment Under The Sea dance is in the first two movies, from two perspectives, this edits them together. Great. (via Plasticbag)
  (tags: plasticbag film backtothefuture enchantmentundertheseadance googlevideo video edit timetravel)

• Grand Theft Auto: Lego City
  A Lego version of the Liberty City trailer. I love the slightly chunky animation, this is great.
  (tags: lego grandtheftauto trailer video youtube)

Following in the footsteps of little red boat and kaptain kobold, here is my collection of first lines of songs from my itunes for you to guess at. I don’t have enough readers to be picky, so take as many guesses as you like!

1. Heyyaaayaaaya, heyeyaayaa, I was a sailor, I was lost at sea
It is, as Lord Bargain knows, When Love Comes To Town by U2 and BB King
2. My brother knows Karl Marx, he met him eating mushrooms in the people’s park
Ian has correctly guessed this as being Sultans of Ping FC with Where’s Me Jumper
3. Basically I’m complicated, I have a hard time taking the easy way
4. I wrote to you last night because I couldn’t sleep
5. Do you have the time to listen to me whine?
Pretty easy one - guessed by Volecouchant as Basket Case by Green Day, but yes Ian, could have been a more appropriate Coldplay or Keane lyric. There is a real Coldplay song in here somewhere though…
6. Oh, when did you decide to start living like a suicide?
7. We like driving on a Saturday night
Ian’s spot on with Joyriders by Pulp
8. Go, go, go, go, I wasn’t ready for this, it isn’t something you’d miss
9. Come on, my star is fading and I swerve out of control
10. I’m on my time with everyone, I have very bad posture
I can’t believe that no-one knew this earlier either - it is, indeed, Pennyroyal Tea by Nirvana - well done JRAF
11. I was 21 years when I wrote this song, I’m 22 now but I won’t be for long.
Again, Ian’s right with A New England, and it happened to be the Billy Bragg version, but I’d have accepted either.
12. Riding through the city on my bike all day because the filth took away my license
Ian’s come in late with the right answer - LDN by Lily Allen
13. Culture sucks down words, Itemise loathing and feed yourself smiles.
Ian’s right with Motorcycle Emptiness by the Manic Street Preachers
14. Tell me all the things you would change, I don’t pretend to know what you want
15. You win, it’s your show now, so what’s it gonna be?
16. Hey you, do you remember me? I used to sit next to you at school.
This is, indeed, Friday Night by The Darkness as Lord Bargain guessed.
17. I’d like to rest my heavy head tonight
18. ooooooooooooh, ooooooh, ooooooooooooooh, oooooh, (etc) We were lovers, we were kissers, we were holders of hands, we were make-believers just losing time.
19. And into the sea goes pretty England and me
20. (spoken) Why don’t you tell me a story? Please tell me a story too.
Paddington’s spot on with DJ Shadow, Walkie Talkie’s the track which I know he knows since I gave him the CD he’s got it on.
21. I was dreaming of the past, and my heart was beating fast
22. Drink up baby, stay up all night
23. When I buy my mansion, I’ll invite the world to stay
24. mmm-hmm, that’s right, uh-huh, uh-huh
25. She’s bad bad bad-ass she’s bad bad bad-ass
26. Stop making the eyes at me, I’ll stop making the eyes at you.
This is I Bet That You Look Good On The Dancefloor, as it turns out by Arctic Monkeys rather than the Sugababes as Lord Bargain suggested.

And there we go. Clearly using Google (or any other search engine of your choice) makes it all a rather pointless exercise, and it’s more than pointless enough already. Enjoy.

• 100 (Plus) Years of Regime Change
  Slightly comforting to read this in a US newspaper, but I doubt it’s got anything in that you don’t already know. I imagine, on the other hand, that there’s a fair amount in here that Bush wasn’t aware of. Not that he’d care, of course
  (tags: us politics cia regimechange iraq iran middleeast)

• Guide to Springfield USA
  Fascinating map of The Simpson’s home, Springfield. I mean, I’m slightly obsessed by The SImpsons, but nowhere near this… (via neatorama)
  (tags: neatorama simpsons tv cartoon us springfield map reference)

• Isreali/Lebanese Coffin Counter
  If you weren’t quite sure who was coming out of this conflict worse (if, for example, you’ve been watching the UK news) - then this should clear things up for you. Disproportionate doesn’t begin to describe it.
  (tags: death war israel lebanon us middleeast coffin)

• 2006 Eisner Award winners
  Does anyone other than Todd Klein ever win lettering awards? The man is a genius, but surely there’s another letterer out there somewhere that does some good work…
  (tags: comics comicstrips toodklein lettering eisnerawards 2006 award sandiego comicon)

Having access to the wonderful, and cheap, Fopp records on Shaftesbury Avenue last weekend, I took the opportunity to buy the first two (and only good) Suede albums. This week’s song of the week, therefore, is the beautiful The Wild Ones by Suede.

Back in 1994 when this was released, Suede were, possibly, the best group around. Their debut (cleverly-titled Suede, to avoid confusion) was an amazing debut, and one of the best albums of the ’90s. Then the most talented member, Bernard Butler, left just before they released their second album, dogmanstar. The Wild Ones was the second single from that album, and I think contender for song of their career.

The track opens with a fragile guitar riff, played on an acoustic. The song ploughs in a few moments later with the familiar Butler-esque guitar play. Throughout, the song appears to set off, then slow down and pull back. If you listen to the drums in the verses, you can hear that they never get into the regular, basic beat of most other rock songs.

Gradually, the strings build and Anderson’s Bowie vocal plays shine through. Finally the song draws itself to a close, and fades out over a “oh if you’d stay” coda for what feels like a very long time, punctuated by a few piano chords.

The mid-nineties didn’t get much better than this.

It’s what you’ve been waiting for. Chapter IV of Drift by the magical Paddington is now available. There’s even a brief synopsis of the story so far here or, even better, you can read Chapters I, II and III in full.

Wonderful, and free.

• Who is backing an immediate ceasefire in the Lebanon war?
  Good visual representation, although it does make you rather sick to be British. This is why the Stop The War marches on today are so important. (via neatorama)
  (tags: neatorama israel lebanon middleeast news politics war idiot us)
• Britain criticises Israeli tactics
  I’d like to think that this is because of the marches today. Either way, a tiny step in the right direction.
  (tags: war lebanon israel uk politics news guardian observer)

Some pictures from the London Stop The War march, which was quite surprisingly followed by the government, at long last, criticising Israel. The two things may not have been connected, but either way it’s a step in the right direction. Anywho, some pics:

To be fair, it wasn’t all police, but there were a fair number of them around the US Embassy. Nice to know that they’re OK.

Hearing the chanting outside the Embassy was probably the best bit of the march. It would be nice to think that someone took it on board, but I doubt it.

A good, if slightly wet day, and hopefully worthwhile.

On work days, I get up about 6:00, and get into work by 7:30. People think I’m mad. On weekends, I also tend to get up early - I was, for example, up at 6:45 this morning. People really think I’m totally deranged for this. However, I don’t think that people really appreciate quite how wonderful London is first thing in the morning.

Firstly, before 8:00 is about the only time that London’s pretty quiet. It can be spooky, but also very cool seeing the streets without people, probably for the first time. Secondly, the weather first thing in the morning is different from any other part of the day. It’s a time where it’s a lot fresher, the air feels cleaner. It’s almost never muggy, or too hot, or uncomfortable, because the world has not had a chance to heat up yet. Finally, I really don’t think that people need that much sleep. 7 hours is a pretty comfortable night’s sleep for me. I don’t have any idea in my head that it says anything great about me (that early to bed, early to rise thing is a load of old bollocks), I just don’t sleep well in the morning, but I think that people should really try getting up early on their days off from time to time, because I really think that they’re missing out on the coolest bit of the day.

The picture above was taken this morning. I really hope we get a bit more rain, so it cools down some more, I’m sick of feeling like I’m melting.