There are some songs that are real growers, requiring patience and repeated listens to before they blossom fully into the agelessness of an enjoyable classic.  Then there are others that introduce themselves by smacking you upside the head with their undeniable greatness.  And i've made a condensed (coz my memory fails me) list of my personal instant classics.


Keane - Somewhere Only We Know

Snow Patrol - Run

The Streets -Dry Your Eyes

Kasabian - Club Foot

Muse - Starlight

The Twang - Either Way

Supergrass - Alright

Oasis - Don't Look Back In Anger

Vertical Horizon - Grey Sky Morning

BRMC - Whatever Happened to My Rock n Roll?

Wolfman & Pete Doherty - For Lovers

looking back i'm quite surprised by how many are from 2003-05, which i had thought were something of a musical doldrums.  and supergrass! ah man, that brings back some memories, watching mtv at cousins' in the summer - 94/95?  when i was 11/12? that is ages ago already. fantastic times.

i'm quite unapologetic about liking taylor swift. she's got some great tunes. nice lyrics, near blissful melodies.  i think she's a genius.

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Teardrops On My Guitar

White Horse

even this one, which i've only just heard for the first time right now is really likable.  a little cackhanded but its a grower.
You Belong With Me

so  i was rooting around in my archives of poetry and verse and all that, and came across this simple piece i am inexplicably quite proud of.  there are very few that have proven to be satisfying or stood the test of time, but this one from 5 years ago still hits a good nerve.on a personal level i'm comfortable giving it a 4outof5, despite being rather twee in structure and of cliched cynicism in content - though the two combined, i think, offset eachother nicely.

the only thing i don't like- apart from the middle where it gets sloppy - is that it sounds so, well, cynical.  really the words were there so i wrote them down.  felt bad enough about it thought to write a counterpart which is more positive - if dismissively pastoral.

anyway...


A Wedding Hymn

I am here
to pay my respects
to the freedoms deceased
each wedding begets

Flowing white satin
with accents of lace
this Mourning
with joyous brave face

as sure and sudden
as the sun fades
and the tide falls beneath the ocean
all return
e'en the past forgotten
in thrashing waves
of bitter burning emotions

The choir of laughter
jangling tins on strings
let the court jester
have his merry day as king

All the men dressed in black
discreet with their wisdom
Acquainted with the dire fact
a wedding day is sad and solemn

i'm so desperately hoping chicago wins. what an epic series, what a great sport.

this is almost more exciting than the heady days of jordan and pippen.


please, please, please win tonight.

i swear everyday i think about how great this band was and could have been.  surprisingly i don't actually have this album, afraid it will be one of those never-meet-your-heroes situations, four good songs but the rest turn out to be completely awful.

the singles though are fantastic and still give me a buzz 3,4 years on.

the upper room :
All Over This Town
 Black and White
 Combination

ah man, i've gotta get this album. modern classic, definitely.

i like this one

life in technicolor ii

i'm pretty sure quakers invented rocknroll.  almost positive.


check this out

The Racket 
Girls and football and rock'n'roll

And if you do
baby give up
About a girl i know
brown eyes and a bottle of gin
Even if you go you'll never really leave
On the pier
Helpless man
I like the sad scenes
The fighter
Keep the fires burning
the boy who fought the war


La Raquette!
Filles et football et rock' ; n' ; pain.

Et si vous faites.
Le bébé abandonnent.
Au sujet d'une fille je sais.
Yeux bruns et une bouteille de genièvre.
Même si vous allez you' ; le ll partent jamais vraiment.
Sur le pilier.
Homme délaissé.
J'aime les scènes tristes.
Le combattant.
Gardez la combustion des feux.
Le garçon qui a combattu la guerre.

i'm not sure why, but the name needs an exclamation mark when translated into french.

can't believe it's april 14th already. i should do my taxes i suppose...after wasting a few hours with pointless ramblings.
1st: Benjammin' - james dean was rock n roll and he didn't even play music. and he were that way from day one, even before he was famous.  live long and prosper in you new home on the west coast.

2nd: really disappointed with the new 16oz coke bottles.  not at all in keeping with the classic greek philosophy of designed proportion.  I think they've deliberately skewered the dimensions to make it appear bigger.  It's all a bit cack handed.  Maybe if they bring out a 12oz bottle i'll start drinking soda again.  coz if you've ever cared to notice every single 12oz beer bottle is brilliantly balanced visually.  I've yet to see a bad one -even the funky red stripe is alright.

3rd: which is the most rocknroll football club in the world?  I was going to write down a detailed list but i can't be bothered and we already know that it is man united.  Off the top of my head: ian brown, mani, herman's hermits, davey jones, courteeners, happy monday's, morrissey (actually, i'll have to double check that one, might be arsenal) that opera singer guy, richard ashcroft and everyone else in the world.  at least leicester city have kasabian!

As much as i enjoy my time off i'll be glad to get back into my usual routine.  For some reason I can't get to sleep at night and end up missing half the day at the expense of all the important things i could (should) be doing.  With all that extra time i somehow end up accomplishing less than usual.

On a side note: tearing out the living room ceiling today.  started it yesterday.  it's even less fun than it sounds.  Once i've got that done and finished studying for tomorrow, i think i'll see if anyone wants to get the scooters out.  Or i could do the same as i have done for the past two weeks and take out the old Rough Trade collection and muck about on the guitar for hours on end.

these photos are almost to blurry to be of any use, but there they are all the same.

very nice jacket


moz


a blurry photo of mickey dolenz, i mean michael courteener.


moz


moz and his gang of lumberjacks, apparently.

what can i say about last nights courteeners/morrissey concert?  great show but the afterparty was unbelievable.  Singing morrissey songs with the courteeners is a fairly rare experience and one to remember for a long long time.  on the downside i think my shoes have been murdered and covered with about 7 diseases.


showtime

this is the band i came to see

liam, he is a charming friendly guy.  and not a half bad songwriter either.

only about two photos turned out....should've invested in a proper camera. doh!

no, i don't know who the big fella with the cap is either.

So first impressions of the new england home kit, have to say i was a little underwhelmed initially.  All white, white white (er, apart from the logo, badge and numbers on the back).  I'm so used to those surprise-and-delight features that i was expecting to there to be embossed graphics of the queen barbequeing corgis, or mock abs like man city did not too long ago (yeah, that was a good idea).

So disappointing.  innitially.  but it really works. its not plain, its minimal. or maybe it is plain but that's okay cuz there's a recession going on and its not right to have anything to flashy.  And like the newspaper articles point out, this is a better reflection of Fabio's team - no fuss, no frills, down to business, straight-forward football.  Where everyone is named either frank, terry, mick or john like they were plumbers from the 1970's.

I thought umbro was being lazy but when it comes right down to it, it's absolutely pure genius.  best kit since, erm, the last time england played in a plain white shirt.   Unfortunately the price is not so plain.

Doesn't italy play in a very basic blue kit? classic.  theirs is also tight fitting shirt i think, which might work for suave italian womanisers but loses some of it's appeal when you think of gormless, paunchy rooney strutting about like a sow with aggro.

2009 home shirt

with deepest respect to cali cali for telling me about this guy all those many moons ago - or like two years ago - i'm posting a few key tracks from one of the greatest albums of the year.  i'm absolutely smitten by this one.  some of the lyrics are really quite sweet, but all of them seem to be haunted by the tragic reality of modern somalia.  

K'naan ABC's

K'naan Wavin' Flag

K'naan Fatima

and to keep the hip-hop vibe going here's a few select tracks from beyonce, who is actually r'n'b i suppose. 

Beyonce Halo

Beyonce Irreplaceable

Beyonce If I Were A Boy

and why stop there.

T.I. feat Rihanna Live Your Life

and it all comes back to the king monkey himself...

Ian Brown El Mundo Pequeno

It's like buses, you wait for ages and two come along at once.  Haven't been to a proper full on concert for who knows how long, but i'll be breaking that long run on april 6th with an epic gig featuring morrissey with special openers the courteeners.  Not only that but glasvegas are playing the 7th ---doubt very much i'll go, as that is the week of special activity.
something is squeezing my skull
and
i'm throwing my arms around paris


bide your time

two weeks into what is probably the greatest tournament in the world.  don't like rugby that much, but the atmosphere, importance of each match, the history makes it far more enjoyable, in my mind, than any world cups or european championships etc etc. 

love the simple beauty of it.  5 games, no replays, no return matches.  The dimensions of it all is just perfect.  Things like the football world cup can feel overdrawn and over blown with their two years of qualifiers, group stages and a thousand games between unknown domingo republika's and -izikstans, only to have brazil win it everytime anyway.

whereas the six nations is perfectly balanced with teams ranked in good (wales, france), fair(ireland, england), and poor (scotland, italy).  Regardless of who you are you'll always be fighting for something  1)the triple crown 2)the grand slam 3) not getting the wooden spoon 4)not being the first to lose to italy.5) calcutta cup 6) millenium trophy 7) guiseppe garibaldi trophy   - all that, in one tournament - genius.

can't find any ads for the 2009 6nations so i'm posting some of the better rugby ads from the past few years.

B&I lions & NZ all blacks last man standing
Football is for girls
Powerade Lewsey v Crouch
Nike Street rugby

Listed below are some of the top picks from the past year.  Overall, not too bad, a good show from the old guard as well as the new blood proving their worth.

The Streets - Everything Is Borrowed
Vampire Weekend - Kids Don't Stand A Chance (live)
The Duke Spirit - The Step and The Walk
The Duke Spirit - My Sunken Treasure
Coldplay - Lovers In Japan
The Last Shadow Puppets - My Mistakes Were Made For You
Keane - The Lovers Are Losing
Kaiser Chiefs - Good Days Bad Days
Verve - Love Is Noise

and the absolute best song of 2008....
THE COURTEENERS - THAT KISS

Listed below are some of the top picks from the past year.  Overall, not too bad, a good show from the old guard as well as the new blood proving their worth.

The Streets - Everything Is Borrowed
Vampire Weekend - Kids Don't Stand A Chance (live)
The Duke Spirit - The Step and The Walk
The Duke Spirit - My Sunken Treasure
Coldplay - Lovers In Japan
The Last Shadow Puppets - My Mistakes Were Made For You
Keane - The Lovers Are Losing
Kaiser Chiefs - Good Days Bad Days
Verve - Love Is Noise

and the absolute best song of 2008....
THE COURTEENERS - THAT KISS

Easily the best cup competition in the world. 

I'm more than a bit partial to pompey, so i make no bones about my joy in seeing them knock united out.  some questionable calls but on the day portsmouth deserved it, or more likely united didn't.  And to hear another classic paranoid rant from ferguson makes it all that much more special.

Man Utd V Portsmouth

Apart from this we also establish that Ronaldo is by far the most poncy, whining sally in football at the moment.  And Rooney is a mindless thug - (studs down my friend.)

The only thing better than that is seeing a div 1 club battling against relegation going on to the semi finals.
After beating liverpool barnsley somehow managed to brush aside chelsea.  magical.

Barnsley V Chelsea


In the end I think I'd rather see see portsmouth win it.  Good on barnsley getting this far but they've already got loads of credibility and respect to take home from this competition.  I'd like to see portmouth have a trophy (heaven knows this is their only real chance).  Worse case scenario: Cardiff wins it all. ...oh shoot me now.

One of my favorite sketch clips.  Are We the Baddies?

I don't know how this song makes me feel, but it's catchy  Start Wearing Purple

and the sweetly ethereal Cat Power Where Is My Love?

now i must brush my teeth, clean my house and face the day.  Coz The Man says so!