The Life and Times of a Fresher

Excuse this late entry, you must forgive the delay. I find it quite funny that I type as if I'm talking to people that willingly read what it is I have to say. My reasons for not writing a new post for weeks are mostly due to the fact that I have officially left 'home' and entered the crazy life of University, and therefore am much too busy to sit in front of a computer for hours on end. However, after two weeks of heavy drinking and falling out of place into this chaotic world of clubbing, something had recently inspired me to get back into the habit of writing.

Last weekend I went back to visit the place I'd once called home. I'd planned to catch the 9 o'clock bus, which I later discovered no longer existed. I had an hour to pass before the 10 o'clock, so I settled for a bacon bap and tasteless coffee at the local café. Now this isn't exactly the most 'hip' of places for someone my age to hang about, but it was cheap and close. I was by far the youngest sat within the vicinity, everybody else at least sixty years of age. I'm not typically one to eavesdrop, but when you still have a further forty minutes to kill after breakfast, you can't help but take into account the discussions that occur around you. Amongst these folk, the subject of the day seemed to be about 'young people'. Since I'm classed as a 'young person', I was of course intrigued. One woman expressed outrage about how one of these 'young people' poked an elderly friend of hers, whilst another would nod in agreement about the lack of discipline amongst the modern youth. I'll be honest, being surrounded by these 'young people' the majority of my days, I could actually see what it is they were concerned about. But it wasn't until another elderly woman claimed us all to be the same that I began to take offense, since I was clearly within audible distance. Suddenly I felt as if the swarms of elderly people entering the premises could potentially turn on me, the only one of these demonic 'young people' in the café. I hastily left.

Seven days before Glasgow

So I hear that Radiohead were absolutely brilliant at the Leeds festival. The performance made a fan out of the aforementioned friend. It's hard to talk about a band like this when the twee sound of The Boy With The Arab Strap by Belle & Sebastian emanates from my record player.

That's right I said it, The Boy With The Arab Strap is twee. It's hardly a bad thing, but other fans of Belle & Sebastian would spear me for using such labels. I wouldn't call the band twee in general, but songs like Sleep The Clock Around and Is It Wicked Not To Care? are just so bloody precious. It's probably my least favourite B&S LP as a result of it, but still a great album regardless. As Stevie Jackson puts it, although it doesn't feature their best work, the album works as a whole. Chickfactor is awful though (Sorry Stevie).

Here, have a Dirty Dream Number Two music video:


Sarah Martin - Now she's an under appreciated member of Belle & Sebastian. She's been kind enough to answer some of my questions directed at the band, such as my latest query:

Q.I'm travelling to Glasgow in less than a month to visit the University. The problem is, I'm doing it alone and I've never been to this vast city before. Any recommendations on what I could get up to and where all the free/affordable places are? I've got an entire day to kill. Also, is it worth paying a little extra to spend the night at Queen Margaret Residence as opposed to Cairncross House? Thank you, and keep up the great music!

A. I'll tell you this much: Cairncross house (where Chris and I both spent our respective first years in Glasgow) is way closer to the action than Queen Margaret. In fact, it's right next door to a little venue called the 78 which has its moments. and it's a couple of minutes' wander from kelvingrove park, and the museum - both of which are of course free. the Doctor Who exhibition is still on i think, if that floats your boat, though you have to pay for that. If you do stay in Cairncross house, say hi to room 233 for me?

Unfortunately Cairncross House was fully booked, so I had to settle for Queen Margaret which is three miles from the city centre. I'm not going to lie to you, but I'm quite nervous about this, particularly after all the violent Glasgow rumours you hear about the city outskirts.

As for University, the excitement builds as the date for Fresher's week draws nearer. I'm selling off the crap I wish to dispose of in exchange for money to be spent on clothes, vinyl and general University requirements. I've already decided that I'm going to set up a society at the Student Union called the IFS (Independent Film Society). If there's one thing I dislike about Lincoln it's the fact that there's not enough culture in regards to museums, galleries, arthouse cinema etc... Hopefully starting up the IFS might give students the chance to view films by independent and foreign filmmakers.

I'm not going to review a film in full, even though I've seen a few since my last post. I will say that I certainly enjoyed David Fincher's The Game which I had always been meaning to see. Another film that surprised me somewhat was Krrish, a Bollywood romantic comedy action sci-fi superhero movie. It's ridiculous, but it has its moments.

We're not scaremongering, this is really happening...

Apologies for the lack of effort in my previous post. It began with my eagerness to write an elaborate post, but unfortunately ended in a half-arsed ramble about Kate Bush and Sister Act. The reason for this was a conversation I was having with a friend at the same time. This 'friend' had never really taken the time to listen to Radiohead, and was asking for some advice about what material to check out before seeing them live at Leeds festival. Our conversation sparked an obsession I had long forgotten and as a result disrupted my train of thought. Let's face it, Radiohead are absolutely brilliant. If you're wondering, the songs I recommended were:

• Creep
• Paranoid Android
• Karma Police
• No Surprises
• The National Anthem
• Idioteque
• 2+2=5
• 15 Step

...among a few others that I can't quite recall. The point is, once he had asked me I could not stop myself rambling on about how brilliant Radiohead are and why Kid A is one of the most incredible things to have occurred to chart music. I still can't believe a remarkable album like that could snag the number one spot. It was of course riding on the success of OK Computer, but it's still a spectacular achievement regardless. Bloody hell, what's with my elaborate use of adjectives?

So today I've had somewhat (I honestly can't leave this word alone) of a Radiohead fest comprising of Kid A start to finish. At the moment I'm making my way through Thom Yorke's solo effort, The Eraser. If you forgive the initial disappointment of repetition which is the only problem I think this album suffers from, then it really is a fantastic achievement. My favourite tracks are undoubtedly The Clock and of course Analyse, which always reminds me of the film The Prestige. I could really sidetrack and begin to write up about how much I admire the works of Christopher Nolan (Radiohead fan and director of such films as Memento, The Prestige and The Dark Knight), but there's only so much I can talk about before boring my readers. If of course any of you exist out there. In fact, if somebody is reading this, do you mind leaving a comment so that I'm aware of a presence? It really does feel like nothing but me and my mind co-exist here, which is probably the case.

Get the bow going, let it scream to me

Wow, the inflow of University and accommodation forms is overwhelming. That's right, it won't be long till I move out of this very room and enter the Uni-life of Lincoln. Anyway, I had quite a selection of films on the television to choose from the other day, and after much serious thought, I settled on Sister Act, because I'm just that cool.

No I'm not going to spend the majority of this post reviewing Sister Act. I like to think I still have enough dignity left to do otherwise. I'll say one thing: I didn't hate it.

Onto other things... You might wonder what the post title references, if of course you actually care. I'm actually listening to the sweet sound of Never For Ever by Kate Bush, which emanates from my record player. At the time of writing the title I was mid-track on Violin. It's not my favourite album, but just talking about nonsense seems to pass the time. Ignore my lack of effort to please readers.

What a bloody waste of a post this has been.

Don't look back, like Bobby Dylan in the movies

So I've heard these thirty second clips that have been released of Muse's new album, The Resistance... Wow. Erm, I can't say that it didn't 'surprise' me, but what a complete load of utter awfulness! Yes yes I know, I can't judge the whole thing having heard just two songs and the rest in thirty second snippets, but considering this is an attempt to promote the album, surely this is the gist of their new sound? If this is what they become recognised for, then I feel almost embarrassed to own some of their music. It seems that Muse are either trying to be what they're not (electro-pop superstars), or taking their traditional sound so far that they're butchering it to the point of self-parody. I didn't intend to review an album I have yet to hear in full, and having got a brief session of whining out of my system, I will move on to more important things.

One of my absolute favourite bands in modern music, Belle & Sebastian, had released If You're Feeling Sinister: Live At The Barbican back in 2005. It was only available for digital download mind, and I had yet to take in the joy of Belle & Sebastian's attempt to recreate their most critically acclaimed album to date, with horns and a string section. Stuart Murdoch had understandably always been disappointed with the production aspects of the 1996 release of If You're Feeling Sinister, so for the first time he decided to take the opportunity to flesh out those remarkable songs he had written all those years ago. The result is a masterpiece, and one could only pray for such a thing to be recorded in-studio. I had always strangely admired the poor production of the original, as I felt the amateur sound added a more personal and delicate touch. I must admit that having heard well and improved renditions of songs such as Me and the Major and Judy and the Dream of Horses, I can see what it is that had irked Stuart Murdoch for all these years. The performances of many of these songs should perhaps be considered the definitive, however I think I'll stick with the humble original sound for songs like Seeing Other People and Like Dylan in the Movies.

On a personal note, I don't think I've mentioned in previous posts that I have, sorry - did have a donkey. Well unfortunately we had to send our farewell to ol' Bailey, and also our beloved Husky Teddy. I hope they live on happier with their lives.

Who wants Crank when they got Bush?

Hmm, it seems that since Kate Bush came into my life, I have lost the motivation to write anything that doesn't relate to her or her work. What I could review I suppose, is the 1971 film The French Connection, but all I really want to do is YouTube Kate all night.

Enough of that. Last night I watched a film titled The French Connection starring Gene Hackman. Funny enough, I already had a poster for it up in my room despite not having watched it until now. Might I say that it certainly deserves its critical acclaim, as I most definitely enjoyed the high-speed action interspersed with gritty humour. Its narrative is supposedly based on a true story, which is that 'badass' cop Doyle (Gene Hackman) is struggling with his latest case involving a French heroin distribution network. Can Doyle catch the criminal mastermind behind such a criminal plan? The answer is not to be told until you watch the film (and its sequel, apparently). I enjoyed it to an extent, particularly its unconventional open-ending, which is not something you see in films these days let alone the fact that it was a rarity even then.

That wasn't the only film I saw as of late. I decided to switch my brain off, crank up the volume on my TV set and tune into the more recent, Crank. Well what do you expect? It's funny, it's violent, it's sexy, and the pace is as speedy as a driving hooligan. For those of you that don't know, Crank is a high-octane action film starring Jason Statham. The plot is simple - Statham plays a gritty bloke that kills for money, only to have woken up one morning with poison flowing through his bloodstream. The antidote to said poison is adrenaline, hence the 'high-octane action' description. At times - yes - the film is really quite stupid, but considering what it is, it's not a particularly bad movie as such. The shooting style involves fast cuts and 'shaky cam' which may be annoying to some, but personally I liked the way in which it represented the adrenaline.

Anyway, Crank isn't the type of film one should spend too long looking into, so I'm going to move forward. As the title of this post suggests, who needs these silly/fun/mindless films to occupy their time when there are clever/thoughtful/beautiful women like Kate Bush out there? Whenever I watch something that I fear may have killed a few braincells, I make sure to counteract it with the works of a genius. I advise you do the same.

The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman

Well I didn't expect to be talking about Sparks again so soon, but it seems that - out of the blue - The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman has already come forth and departed on Swedish radio. If you're wondering what the bloody hell a Bergman is, well I initially didn't know myself. Thankfully, Sparks are here to educate us with a new musical radio production titled - you guessed it - The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman, which teaches us listeners all about the apparently famous Swedish film director, Ingmar Bergman.

That was somewhat of a lie, as the story itself is a totally fictional account based around the concept of what if Ingmar Bergman had gone to Hollywood? The results are certainly comical with hilarious track titles such as 'Bergman Ponders Escape'. In essence, it's a bizarre fantasy about misfit-Bergman who unwillingly ends up in Hollywood.

Listening primarily to the overall sound, the musical is often triumphant and is the first time Ron Mael has ever composed something almost entirely with an orchestra. Let's just say that by adding 'Classical Composer' to his C.V, he wouldn't exactly be fibbing. Unfortunately Russel Mael's vocals sound somewhat weaker, but that may have been to do with the fact that I was streaming the production at 96kbps, which is really quite poor. This leads on to my main complaint, which is likely not to be a fault of the Maels. It was extremely hard to follow the story, as the English spoken parts were much too faint for my hearing, let alone the fact that much of it was in Swedish. Hopefully the CD/Vinyl releases will prove that this is merely due to the streaming process.

All-in-all, this is a remarkable departure for Sparks and proves how versatile their talent really is. Talent is an asset, and the Maels really have it (cheeky Kimono reference). I look forward to the release of The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman, which will serve well as their 22nd album, departing from their trilogy of 'chamber pop'.

I've also considered banning myself from ever using the word 'somewhat' again.