Don’t think Im going to post these every week. That would be lazy on my part and, let’s be honest, on yours too. If you want to follow the animated series of Get Your War On, which you should, head on over and bookmark 236.com.
Another muxtape. It gets a little messy towards the end. Brought to you from a dark, dark office underneath the Westway, in plenty of time for Christmas.
Muxtape for 28/07/08 (click here to listen)
These mixes are only available for a week (or two) before they’re replaced (you can only have one mix on muxtape and only one account), so if you’re going to listen, listen fast.
The courtyard at Somerset House is mostly cobbled, at least near the stage they have there for gigs. I’d like to think the discomfort this causes is the only reason why I found Joanna Newsom tiring on Sunday when she played there, but jesus did I want that to finish long before it did.
My feet were sore and my back ached sure, but the killer was this amazing harpist (at least for an indie schmo like me, I’m no harp scientist) wedging however many unwieldy piano songs into the middle of her set. By the time that interlude was over I was watching planes pass overhead, pigeons glow in the lights from the courtyard and yeah, the clock. There wasn’t an encore. I didn’t care. When she said there were only two songs left all I could think was “are they short?”
I’m a little freaked by the thought that I may have started to suck at going to gigs. I had the same feeling of disinterest set in at a Band of Horses show a few weeks ago. After a while I just wanted to sit down. Of course, being a sold-out show at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire, that may have had something to do with having to watch the band through the fucking bar. Seriously, do they consider that area valid space when they sell to capacity?
In the end I don’t know if I’m getting old or just becoming more of an arsehole but the things I’ve been to recently just haven’t ended soon enough. Well, most things except Parts & Labor. That show was awesome and gives me that little bit of hope that this problem is not down to me, just some shitty talent.
That’s right. Get Your War On is now going to be animated . Rad.
If you haven’t read the comic before then Go Now, start reading on the first page and don’t stop until you’ve reached the end or are reduced to a quivering, puking puddle of laughter.
Had iTunes on shuffle all this past week. So I got to listen to things I hadn’t thought of for ages (Beefheart) and some others I didn’t even know I had (Letters Letters).
And why why why couldn’t Tom Waits play in London?
Muxtape for 14/07/08 (click to listen)
Two weeks in a row, maybe this will work out. I’d hoped to write a bit about each of these tracks this week (I mean come on, lists are pretty lame) but I left it too late because of watching the tennis (could Gwen Stefani possibly sulk any more?) and Be Kind Rewind. Which I need to watch a second time to make my mind up on. It felt like it was meant to be funny, but the pacing was weird. I think it may have been a tennis come-down.
Muxtape 07/07/08 (Click to listen)
I swear, if I see Gavin Rossdale raise his ugly fist to the sky one more time I shall destroy the universe.
So here’s something I thought we’d try.
You know Muxtape, the quasi-legal way of sharing mixtapes with your friends? Well I’m going to keep mine updated so it’s fresh for every Monday, with tracks selected from what I’ve been listening to over the week leading up to it.
I’m hoping that by doing this I’ll feel compelled to listen to things I haven’t in a while in an effort to look hip and obscure. I can also be assured that I’m writing on this blog at least once a week. (That’s right, I went there and just blogged about my blogging — screw you)
I’m going to call this exercise, quite spectacularly, Muxtape Mondays.
And Muxtape's free, so if you wanted to you could do this and link to it each week in the comments here. The one rule, which I can never begin to hold you to, is to keep it to things you've listened to in that week prior. Easy yes?
Okay, so here it is, my inaugural muxtape (click that header to go and listen to it):
This is my friend Richard getting down to acting business in a short film made for a 48 hour competition in New Zealand.
Unfortunately it had to be withdrawn from the competition as issues printing to tape meant they couldn’t get the sound in on time, but this is the finished audible version.
If you have ever dreamed about a horse’s posterior taking a panda bear hostage you will likely enjoy this. If you haven’t, well you will likely still enjoy it.
Hell almost everyone on the internet has or will blog this but for those somehow oblivious here is the new Weezer video, with who knows how many internet memes included.
Via Coudal
A couple of videos have penetrated my post–ATP fog in the last couple of days and helped speed my recovery.
I’m not sold on the song itself, but this clip for the bird and the bee’s track Again and Again is clever and cute:
And who knew Brains from Thunderbirds had rhythm?
Train times are sorted, Maker’s Mark money allocated and I’ve thought about food. I still need to find some zip–pocket trousers but apart from that the board is green for killing the chalet at All Tomorrow’s Parties.
Really impressive flickr set here. Souvenirs is a book project in progress by Michael Hughes and really worth a look.
A hundred or so people frozen in Grand Central Station. It looks like this is a few months old at least but I hadn’t seen it before today. It was performed by a group called Improv Everywhere who are about causing “scenes of chaos and joy in public places”. Nice.
Thanks Yemi!
I work for a creative web development company. Because we’re creative we do things like having our Christmas party in February and photographing each other (no they’re not, and you friend disgust me) using hired professional lighting gear. That’s just how we roll.
It being the end of April, with all pointless things taking time I’ve now put some of my efforts from this festive photo-shoot on Flickr – here they are.
And if you’d like to see what kind of day this was without clicking that link (I know dude! clicking’s hard), I present as evidence, When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Confused:
A whale gets himself beached in New Zealand and “chups” won’t help.
I can’t remember who sent me this one, but I’m pretty sure it was someone at work.
I started eating meat again last month. This was roughly eleven years since convincing myself I was in some way “about politics”, trying to impress a girl I never did manage to get into bed.
Since then I’ve eaten my way through every animal that’s made it to my plate with no ill effects. It’s been relentless and I am thus far completely unrepentant. (I did give most of my chops to the dog though – those things are difficult).
If going back to carnivorous roots has been a bloody but enjoyable jaunt back through childhood meals and memories, returning to Facebook has been a poorly planned safari with the windows of an ill–equipped rental about to give way to the mangy pride outside.
Not only that, but there is a big fucking target painted on the car in the form of the new People You May Know feature. This gem allows all the little shits you met once, were bullied by twice or just avoided for five years to find you, friend you and add you to that collection of faces they have no connection to outside of breathing the same air.
I was warned of this before I reactivated my account and I went on and did it anyway. I have no real right to complain. And I have no–one to blame but myself and my own lack of willpower for going back among the beasts. But a lot of my actual real friends are on Facebook and for better or worse it’s become a primary means of communication, so I’ll suck it up and smile for the maintenance of my social network.
If I don’t know you though, to talk to, stay away from me on Facebook. If you drift onto my plate you’ll likely end up in my stomach.
The Maker’s Mark I’ve been depleting as I’ve readied this site for deployment is telling me to stop. That what is here is enough. And to just get the hell on with things already.
As a counter–point I’ve just (well recently, it’s taken a while) been instructed to make this profound, as “it’s not worth reading otherwise”. Jesus. I did not expect a critique before I’d written anything. The comments are off so I can grab a head start.
At this point I was going to pad things out a little, adding some hot video action, but that youtube clip just didn’t look right. (It is safe for work though, and at least halfway profound).
Ah, you know what? Screw it. Brevity is the new profundity, at least for today. At least until I have an admin interface so I don’t have to enter posts in the console.
If you really really must read or see more, you can fulfill this need for distraction at the following locations:
And if you’ve been slung in this direction while trying to access Dirt City Sons (really? Who are you?) then don’t worry, this is essentially the same thing, for the time being at least.
