The words contained in this here journal may not make much sense and they may not bear any relation to reality but one thing is for sure, they'll contain the word pasty.
Saturday, December 13, 2003
Time to do some awards before Capps has chance to beat me to it.
Category: Best Album
You've had the singularities, now here's the bunches:
Green Day - 1039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours In an attempt to fit into the schooling fraternity I was a part of during Year 7 I bought this album on cassette and found to my pleasure that I rather enjoyed it. Endless years on I've gone and trapped this album in this brand spanking new format called the compact disc. Very shiny it is too. This album came way before Dookie and is a simple blend of guitars, a silly fast beat, and Billy Joel's unique brand of literature in the lyrics. Good for singing along to, good for playing air guitar to, good for playing air drums too. Just generally good for making me feel alive. Top Song - Paper Lanterns
Symposium - On The Outside Once upon a time I had an album called Shine 9. Shine 9 had a disc 2. Disc 2 had a song called Fairweather Friend by Symposium. I had a liking for Fairweather Friend. I soon had a dozen Symposium songs on MP3. I had a liking for these songs. Soon I had many CD's. More guitars, more music that's good to sing along to and this album grabbed me particularly because the lyrics seemed to be falling out of my head. Top Song - Bury You
Symposium - One Day at a Time Once upon a time I had... I got stuck on this album because of one of the songs in which it's appropriate to shout You Make Me Sick! It's not even the best song by a mile, I just got so caught up I'd be exhausted by the end of the song. Top Song - Any of them.
Dire Straits - The Very Best of Mmmmmmmm 80's. I've always been a big Dire Straits fan thanks mostly to my parent's LP collection which was my only source of music through childhood. Well I could have listened to the radio but that was shite. This CD actually has songs I don't like on and I regularly find myself skipping tracks to get to the good ones. The presence of stuff I don't like though only helps to identify the tunes on here that I'd regard as some of the most beautifully written music in the history of existence. These tracks being specifically Romeo & Juliet and Tunnel of Love. They both mix some wonderful storytelling, Knopfler's finger picking good sound, and the sort of wonderful song structure I thrive on; those that build into a crescendo. Top Song - Tunnel of Love
My Life Story - The Golden Mile This lot are like a mini-orchestra for those who don't know (i.e. all of you). To hear contemporary music played with instruments other than guitars generally means you're listening to Vanessa Mae (sorry if I got your name wrong) or something else they'd have on Blue Peter. In this case it's some nicely written upbeat music with so many different instruments on offer it makes my head spin. Quite regularly the songs seem totally different to anything you've ever heard and yet totally familiar at the same time. Bizarre but brilliant. Top Song - King of Kissingdom
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon A trip in an album. And I mean trip in the drug sense, as Pink Floyd would have wanted it to be. Hours of listening to this in the early hours while playing minesweeper sent me barmy.
Red Hot Chili Peppers - By The Way The songs are consistently brilliant. One of which I considered no so brilliant actually totally took control of my mind for a number of days at it played over and over and over for hours. My constant singing along also brought it into the consciousness of a one Miss Wend with whom the song will be indelibly linked for me. Proof of this came the other day as it played in JJB sports and teal comic sans text started flying about in front of my eyes. Top Song - The Zephyr Song
And the winner is............... Symposium with On the Outside *applause*
These are the songs I've loved this year. Some because they hold emotional attatchment for me, some cos the lyrics just seem to fit, and others just because they're bloody brilliant songs. Note I have only included songs I have either heard for the first time or started loving during the year:
Green Day - Time of Your Life (Anthem for while I was booking the Scilly Holiday)
Green Day - Green Day (Drums sound like they're sneezing)
Green Day - Paper Laterns
Green Day - The One I Want (Hooked on the instrumental)
David Gray - Sail Away (Sailing is fun)
David Gray - Be Mine (His head falls of in the video. Nuff said)
Red Hot Chili Peppers - The Zephyr Song (*smiles*)
Red Hot Chili Peppers - By The Way
Martha and the Muffins - Echo Beach (It's a beach innit)
Evanescence - Wake Me Up Inside (Remix)
REM - End of the World (*gets up and dances*)
Symposium - One Day At a Time (Kinda my "up yours world world, I'll do what I like" song)
Symposium - Smiling (The lyrics are so cheesy but they're so me)
Symposium - Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (Good song, many an hour spent sulking to this one. Best sulked loud)
Symposium - Bury You (More cheesiness)
Symposium - Disappear ("Sometimes I like, To get on my bike and ride, Ride beside the river")
Symposium - Puddles (Always get caught up in this one. YOU MAKE ME SICK)
My Life Story - Angel (Nice story, beautifully written song)
My Life Story - Stars Collide (Just so happy smiley)
My Life Story - King of Kissingdom (Even more happy smiley)
My Life Story - You Can't Uneat the Apple (Not so happy smiley but quite nostalgic)
Coldplay - Shiver (Just you try and stop me)
Foo Fighters - Monkey Wrench (Guitars. Fast beat. What more needed?)
Joe Satriani - Surfing With the Alien (No lyrics but plenty of guitar)
Dire Straits - Sultans of Swing (What fine Guitar. Can you tell these last three are from my air guitar album?)
Bennett - Someone Always Gets There First (Well they do)
Grass Show - 1962 (Graham Hill won the championship in 1962. Good song)
Candyskins - Monday Morning (For singing to Capps on a Sunday)
Monaco - What Do You Want From Me (For singing to myself when no-one is in)
Reef - Place Your Hands (For singing to Jono when we're in his car)
The Seahorses - Blinded By the Sun (Beautiful song. Good for feeling sorry for yourself to)
Gary Jules - Mad World (Not my kind of song at all. But I like it)
The Darkness - I Believe In a Thing Called Love (Their only really good song. Anyone who says otherwise is wrong :P)
Embrace - Come Back To What You Know (Reminds me of my brother. He used to sing it persistantly)
Dire Straits - Romeo and Juliet (How romantic)
Dire Straits - Tunnel of Love (Just good)
If anyone reads all that then you deserve a pat on the back. My apologies for it.
Friday, December 12, 2003
Things are all a-go-go right now, christmas is coming around and suddenly everyone is persuading it's a good idea to go shopping. Ugh. Thank the lord for the interweb that allows lazy buggars like me to do my christmas shopping without even shifting my arse one centimeter. Yesterday I was pulled away to christmas shop at Teesside Park, my second trip into Middlesbrough in one day. Thankfully it quickly degraded into a trip to Pizza Hut and the cinema to watch SWAT. For those interested SWAT is a film about SWAT. They're some kind of natty american gun club funded by the police and disappointingly have nothing to do with flattening flies. It was quite possibly the most mindless film I've ever seen but it was enjoyable nonetheless. And a note for Capps who at Pizza Hut called me sick for going back for two more slices of pizza from the buffet shortly before he scoffed an enormous tub of icecream :P
Incidentally I'm off to Middlesbrough again this afternoon for more yuletide cheer and expenditure with my brother. I don't really fancy the idea myself but I figure my brother could use the company. Shopping sucks with people, on your own it's just *shudders*. I might try to break up the monotony and suggest to my brother that we have a whizz on the temporary ice rink they erect in Boro every year. Well I would suggest it except I foresee broken limbs. Perhaps I could give him a lovely guided tour of the university instead. And the fact I suggest this as an activity for breaking up the christmas shopping should very well illustrate just how horrible it is. *shudders again*
Then again it's worth it on that special day when wrapping paper obscures the carpet and the cat becomes extra bloated on all the chicken leftovers. Giving is usually better than receiving.
I've been doing a lot of reading back through old e-mails and journal entries and pictures and such like the last couple of days. As Wend points out I've got that end of year feeling. Not really nostalgia as such but just an attempt to sum up the year inside my head, to make sense of all the stuff I did, all the stuff that happened. I've found it really helped to pick out where the real highs were, all the positive bits jumped out at me. Mind having said that there were so few nasty bits that they're insignificant anyways.
I spy over the other side of the green a lorry carrying a house. And he keeps going backwards and forwards. I suspect he may be having trouble deciding whether of not he can proceed without crushing half a dozen cars in the process. Who chooses to live in a tiny wee house that has the look of a portakabin and the colourscheme of a herbal remedy? Well me probably. It's somewhere halfway between a tent and a house, and I bet the rain makes the most wonderful noise on the roof! Not so sure about the net curtains though.
Well later today my brother's uni friends are coming to stay for the weekend. I've met them before and they're good lads. Plus my dad has building plans in the offing for which he needs the PC. And I've got an important date at the hairdressers tomorrow to watch Capps in mortal terror as bits of him drop off. Consequently I might not make it online much despite my ingrained desire to smother Wend in waffly conversation at every opportunity. *grins*
Monday, December 08, 2003
Two commenting facilities! I spoil you lot. I notice enetation has started displaying the figures right now that it's under threat. *grumbles*
Sunday, December 07, 2003
Jono's and then Scarborough. Just like to say it's been so good to see (in alphabetical order):
Capps
Drum
Jono
Julian
Liam
Ryan
Some I see all the time, other's were making a welcome return to a position nearby me, and as always it was good. And lastly it's been pretty damned flippin' good to see Wend, t'was only when I saw your face that I realised just how much I've missed you :)
