Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Monday, January 28, 2013
Monday, October 31, 2011
Monday, October 24, 2011
Charity shops and soul food...
I was in Preston last week. A town about an hour and a half south of here. Turns out it's the charity shop capital of the United Kingdom. Or at least I assume it is. It must be. It's like an elderly person's (or my) dreamland. Second hand shops as far as the eye can see! Stores full of second hand clothes and music and books! What's better than that? In all seriousness few things excite me more when I'm out shopping or roaming around a new town than stumbling upon an Oxfam shop.
In Preston it seems like every street has a charity shop on it. And yes, they have an Oxfam. I found a sweet copy of Waylon Jennings greatest hits in there. And books! Oh the books. I'd even discovered whilst researching Preston charity shops online before my trip(yes, I do that) that Preston had an Oxfam Vintage shop. For anyone unfamiliar with Oxfam that's where they send all the really sweet second hand clothes. Manchester has a great Oxfam Vintage shop in the Northern Quarter.
Anyway, so it was that I walked off the train in Preston excited about a rare visit to an Oxfam Vintage shop, and so after completing my business I walked to the street where the shop was supposed to be, and walked up it and down it, back and forth for an hour. I could not find it. I could only assume it had closed at some point. Or it was somehow invisible to my Canadian eyes. I was disappointed but the variety and quantity of other charity shops helped dull the pain. During my searching I found a copy of Grinderman 2 in a British Heart Foundation. A copy of Rounds by Fourtet in a small local charity shop.
I also stumbled on a great record shop called Action Records and bought a copy of Dr John's Gumbo for a fiver. For high quality second hand music it was a good day. Oh and I also passed my Life in the UK test. I guess that's of some consequence, too. Shortly after passing my test, I was walking around trying to find Preston's fabled Oxfam Vintage and stumbled accidentally on Coco's Soul Food. I knew immediately it would be wonderful because when it comes to food I'm good like that. I got a Smokey Barbecue Caribbean Chicken Burger and Fries, and yes, it was a majestic celebration meal. I took some picture's to remember it by:
In Preston it seems like every street has a charity shop on it. And yes, they have an Oxfam. I found a sweet copy of Waylon Jennings greatest hits in there. And books! Oh the books. I'd even discovered whilst researching Preston charity shops online before my trip(yes, I do that) that Preston had an Oxfam Vintage shop. For anyone unfamiliar with Oxfam that's where they send all the really sweet second hand clothes. Manchester has a great Oxfam Vintage shop in the Northern Quarter.
Anyway, so it was that I walked off the train in Preston excited about a rare visit to an Oxfam Vintage shop, and so after completing my business I walked to the street where the shop was supposed to be, and walked up it and down it, back and forth for an hour. I could not find it. I could only assume it had closed at some point. Or it was somehow invisible to my Canadian eyes. I was disappointed but the variety and quantity of other charity shops helped dull the pain. During my searching I found a copy of Grinderman 2 in a British Heart Foundation. A copy of Rounds by Fourtet in a small local charity shop.
I also stumbled on a great record shop called Action Records and bought a copy of Dr John's Gumbo for a fiver. For high quality second hand music it was a good day. Oh and I also passed my Life in the UK test. I guess that's of some consequence, too. Shortly after passing my test, I was walking around trying to find Preston's fabled Oxfam Vintage and stumbled accidentally on Coco's Soul Food. I knew immediately it would be wonderful because when it comes to food I'm good like that. I got a Smokey Barbecue Caribbean Chicken Burger and Fries, and yes, it was a majestic celebration meal. I took some picture's to remember it by:
I also found a copy of It Might As Well Be Swing by Frank Sinatra and Count Basie at the Scope charity shop here in town.
Oh and I can't tell you how much I'm enjoying the newest series of Treme. I don't think a better show has been made about community and music. It's uplifting and heartbreaking and just a whole lotta fun to watch. David Simon's importance to American television and American culture in general cannot be overestimated. No one else is as obsessed with showing you the absolute truth as he is. Treme is an incredible celebration of the great city of New Orleans and a scathing critique of how badly it has been mistreated during and post Katrina.
On a final note I'm going to see Paranormal Activity 3 tonight with my wife, and my brother in law and his wife. So, yeah, there goes sleeping peacefully for the next two or three days. It's gonna be great.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Compulsions and late night rambling...
I treat all the animals I pass while out in the world as companions. I think I weird out various neighbours and strangers frequently while doing so. But I can't help it. It's a compulsion. I can only apologise in advance if it ever happens to you.
I'm listening to the song Nightcall by Kavinsky right now. It's really good. I downloaded it from Emusic years ago and recently heard it in the film Drive. Now it conjures up images of Los Angeles at night, and neon and muscle cars and Ryan Gosling. That last part probably sounds a little gay but it's not. Not completely.
I also recently watched Warrior. Tom Hardy is in it, and Joel Edgerton. Edgerton was in the superb Australian crime film Animal Kingdom, and was also Uncle Owen in The Phantom Menace. Nick Nolte was also in Warrior. That dude is the real deal. You should see the film, it's pretty great.
I was just watching this Greek film Dogtooth. It's a weird weird film, but oddly captivating. Well at least it was until one character attacked a cat with a pair of garden sheers. The film is about parents who are raising their three teenage children in a strangely isolated environment.
I've been thinking a lot recently about the idea everything is one single moment. That there is no past or future. That everything happens in one stretched out moment. Sometimes it feels like I could close my eyes, open them again and I'd be an old man. Sat on the couch. I could open them and I'd be ten years old again playing in the snow. I could open them up and I'd be stood outside Flinders Station. I feel like these moments, all the moments that make up my life are separated by a membrane thinner than paper. That is only growing thinner. This idea kind of fascinates me but mostly it terrifies me. I don't know if you know what I mean.
I've been working on this radio show with two friends of mine. It's been reinvigorating for me creatively. For a while it had felt like my brain was shutting down. I'd sort of stopped thinking. Now I'm trying to think up creative themes and idea's for the show. It's been challenging. My brain has not been overwhelming me with original idea's. It's a little scary and more than a little difficult to be creative when you are seemingly incapable of original thought. Still I'm making this sound weirdly negative. It isn't. It's been a blast. We're going into my friends studio to record episode five this week, and we've just extended the running time for each episode from one to two hours. It feels good having to think again. The station should hopefully be up and running soon-ish. I believe there will be a trial run of some sort first.
I did one of those Mojo-esque music questionnaire things for the local paper the other week. The feature is called Pet Sounds. It included a god awful photo of me and in the piece I used the word veracious. What an asshole. That's what I probably would have thought if I was a stranger reading the paper at home. I don't believe I've ever used the word veracious in real life, but I couldn't resist the urge to be a little bit of a pompous dick. It's fun.
If I had to put it down to one thing, I'd probably say the main reason I love cats is because they're jerks.
Am I the only one who finds the theme song for QI with Stephen Fry a little emotional?
I've been listening to Incesticide by Nirvana whilst writing most of this. It's been a long time since I've listened to that album because my physical copy is in Canada and for some reason I forgot to add it to my hard drive before I left but I just found it on Spotify. Hairspray Queen never gets any less goddamn amazing. Jesus I love this record.
Oh and I just watched the trailer for Paranormal Activity 3. It freaked me out. I'm a real sucker for those films. The first one got in my head and stayed there for days. I still don't look at attic doors in the same way. And even though the rational side of my brain understands how gimmicky and artificial those films are, the irrational(and dominate) side of my brain does not. The irrational side of my brain is desperate to suspend it's disbelief for two hours. It's fun.
I discussed Paranormal Activity with my friend recently. We were visiting him and his lovely family in Ireland and he showed me a sophisticated baby monitor he had purchased. It had a little video camera on it that recorded the crib. So you could watch and listen to your baby from the comfort of your living room. The little screen on his mantel displayed a small slightly grainy greenish night vision view of his little girl asleep. I asked him if he'd seen Paranormal Activity? He said no. I said he wouldn't look at that baby monitor in the same way ever again if he did. Then we had a completely unrelated discussion about Catholicism that kept us up far longer than we had anticipated. That was a good trip. He has a little girl who could power the universe with her joy and infectious enthusiasm.
Finally, it's late and I'm tired. Well, I'm tired now but I'll still lay awake in bed in the dark for a fucking hour.
Oh before I do go a big Happy Thanksgiving to everyone back home. I cooked my first Thanksgiving dinner ever to celebrate. Never has a chicken been butchered so badly with a carving knife. It was delicious though. I cooked chicken because turkey wasn't available. Tomorrow I'm making chicken soup. It's going to be monumental.
Anyway, good night.
I'm listening to the song Nightcall by Kavinsky right now. It's really good. I downloaded it from Emusic years ago and recently heard it in the film Drive. Now it conjures up images of Los Angeles at night, and neon and muscle cars and Ryan Gosling. That last part probably sounds a little gay but it's not. Not completely.
I also recently watched Warrior. Tom Hardy is in it, and Joel Edgerton. Edgerton was in the superb Australian crime film Animal Kingdom, and was also Uncle Owen in The Phantom Menace. Nick Nolte was also in Warrior. That dude is the real deal. You should see the film, it's pretty great.
I was just watching this Greek film Dogtooth. It's a weird weird film, but oddly captivating. Well at least it was until one character attacked a cat with a pair of garden sheers. The film is about parents who are raising their three teenage children in a strangely isolated environment.
I've been thinking a lot recently about the idea everything is one single moment. That there is no past or future. That everything happens in one stretched out moment. Sometimes it feels like I could close my eyes, open them again and I'd be an old man. Sat on the couch. I could open them and I'd be ten years old again playing in the snow. I could open them up and I'd be stood outside Flinders Station. I feel like these moments, all the moments that make up my life are separated by a membrane thinner than paper. That is only growing thinner. This idea kind of fascinates me but mostly it terrifies me. I don't know if you know what I mean.
I've been working on this radio show with two friends of mine. It's been reinvigorating for me creatively. For a while it had felt like my brain was shutting down. I'd sort of stopped thinking. Now I'm trying to think up creative themes and idea's for the show. It's been challenging. My brain has not been overwhelming me with original idea's. It's a little scary and more than a little difficult to be creative when you are seemingly incapable of original thought. Still I'm making this sound weirdly negative. It isn't. It's been a blast. We're going into my friends studio to record episode five this week, and we've just extended the running time for each episode from one to two hours. It feels good having to think again. The station should hopefully be up and running soon-ish. I believe there will be a trial run of some sort first.
I did one of those Mojo-esque music questionnaire things for the local paper the other week. The feature is called Pet Sounds. It included a god awful photo of me and in the piece I used the word veracious. What an asshole. That's what I probably would have thought if I was a stranger reading the paper at home. I don't believe I've ever used the word veracious in real life, but I couldn't resist the urge to be a little bit of a pompous dick. It's fun.
If I had to put it down to one thing, I'd probably say the main reason I love cats is because they're jerks.
Am I the only one who finds the theme song for QI with Stephen Fry a little emotional?
I've been listening to Incesticide by Nirvana whilst writing most of this. It's been a long time since I've listened to that album because my physical copy is in Canada and for some reason I forgot to add it to my hard drive before I left but I just found it on Spotify. Hairspray Queen never gets any less goddamn amazing. Jesus I love this record.
Oh and I just watched the trailer for Paranormal Activity 3. It freaked me out. I'm a real sucker for those films. The first one got in my head and stayed there for days. I still don't look at attic doors in the same way. And even though the rational side of my brain understands how gimmicky and artificial those films are, the irrational(and dominate) side of my brain does not. The irrational side of my brain is desperate to suspend it's disbelief for two hours. It's fun.
I discussed Paranormal Activity with my friend recently. We were visiting him and his lovely family in Ireland and he showed me a sophisticated baby monitor he had purchased. It had a little video camera on it that recorded the crib. So you could watch and listen to your baby from the comfort of your living room. The little screen on his mantel displayed a small slightly grainy greenish night vision view of his little girl asleep. I asked him if he'd seen Paranormal Activity? He said no. I said he wouldn't look at that baby monitor in the same way ever again if he did. Then we had a completely unrelated discussion about Catholicism that kept us up far longer than we had anticipated. That was a good trip. He has a little girl who could power the universe with her joy and infectious enthusiasm.
Finally, it's late and I'm tired. Well, I'm tired now but I'll still lay awake in bed in the dark for a fucking hour.
Oh before I do go a big Happy Thanksgiving to everyone back home. I cooked my first Thanksgiving dinner ever to celebrate. Never has a chicken been butchered so badly with a carving knife. It was delicious though. I cooked chicken because turkey wasn't available. Tomorrow I'm making chicken soup. It's going to be monumental.
Anyway, good night.
Thursday, October 06, 2011
Friday, September 30, 2011
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Friday, September 16, 2011
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Tuesday, September 06, 2011
Saturday, September 03, 2011
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Saturday, August 27, 2011
It's the song of the day!
I was going to find something a bit less obvious but this track is just too nice to deny, setting your Saturday afternoon vibe bar somewhere just outside the stratosphere. Plus the quality of this classic video is pristine.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
A belated compilation...
A couple of months ago I wrote a bunch of nonsense about outlaw music. Around the same time I was listening to all the music I wrote about I put together a big compilation of music...of all the music I was listening to...that I wrote about. Here it is for anyone interested. There's a bunch of related stuff on the compilation I didn't write about, too. Plus two mystery songs! That didn't fit on the screenprint I did.
You could cut the tension with a knife. (I was going to put a crazy picture on above the playlist for effect but then I wrote all this stuff and spoiled it, so I added one on the end.)
The Fresh Cup of Coffee Early Morning Mix! (Click on the title to hear the tunes)
Okay, so the photo isn't that crazy but it is pretty fantastic.
I found it here on this interesting website, Lundahl's Coffee Shop.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
A video message from Mr Tom Waits...
For a while now Tom Waits has been hinting at some new developments. He told those who care about such things to check in at his website today at a specific time. This is what he had to say, in typical fantastic Tom Waits fashion...
(if the rest of popular culture is a small man throwing a bucket of waste over you, Tom Waits is a large guy with a sledge hammer and a smile)
(if the rest of popular culture is a small man throwing a bucket of waste over you, Tom Waits is a large guy with a sledge hammer and a smile)
Friday, August 19, 2011
It's the song of the day! (maybe the best ever)
Some mornings you wake up uninspired and weary. Exhausted by the world and the dirge that is popular culture and world politics. You realize your out of peanut butter. Then you check your emails and stumble upon this and spend the rest of the day smiling...
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
It's the song(s) of the day!
Cloudy day. Another runny nose, more plugged sinuses. Reading Zeitoun, a beautiful and frustrating book of non-fiction written by Dave Eggers. Heavy. Things pile on top of you every now and then. Laughter and self deprecation are valuable tools. Optimism over fatalism, so...just in case the first song is too grey for you, I've followed it up with another...
Kenny's Theme by Buck 65
and/or
The Model by Buck 65
Kenny's Theme by Buck 65
and/or
The Model by Buck 65
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