Travis - The Boy With No Name

It's no surprise that Travis's new album's title bears some strange resemblance to their earlier The Man Who, the 1999 album that catapulted them to fame.

A quick summary: Travis is a Scottish alternative rock band that croons out slow melodic tunes. Their 1997 album Good Feeling didn't make it into the mainstream radar, but producer Nigel Godrich (of Radiohead fame) took over the helm and Travis released The Man Who, which is undoubtedly a classic. The Invisible Band followed, with a more laid-back, dreamy slant.

Subsequently, Travis came back to life with 12 Memories, which was, in honesty, a flop. You'll remember it for the single Re-offender, which was totally atypical of Travis. And well. There weren't any other remarkable singles. Was it because Nigel Godrich wasn't on the team anymore?

==

And now Nigel Godrich's back again. The old Travis is back again, with an audible new determination and concentration.

The album starts off with 3 Times and You Lose, a track that's reminiscent of of the Travis that we'd liked in the The Man Who era.

Selfish Jean's a cheeky song that throws the album into a new, cheery mood with a sweet, honest vocal melody that lets Fran Healy's vocal prowess shine.

Closer's the single that's currently on the UK charts, doing quite well. A simple love song, while Big Chair exudes an obvious Radiohead-like quality.

Hey, you know what, I'm reviewing every song in sequential order in detail as though everyone of them are all single material. Well, it's true. Guess I'd stop gushing about every track on the album, because you just gotta hear every one of them. They all stand up on their own.

Who can possibly dislike the catchy Battleships or One Night, or even their hidden track?

They're all lovely. If you didn't already know Travis, you'd be hard pressed to determine if the many hits are part of a greatest hits compilation, or just a really really good album.

Friday's Dust

I guess I haven't been blogging blogging for a while now - I've been documenting just bare snippets of my life the past week, without really telling you what really goes through that squash of mine. So here goes.

It's Groundhog Day again, waking up, sneering at the clock, cussing at the absurd kind of time I have to wake up to get to Pasir Ris.

Quickly shook off the dream I had of 1. looking out of the bedroom window 2. seeing a grey bus go over the kerb 3. and topple 4. and killing everyone on it.

Come to think of it, strange that I had had so many looking-out-of-the-bedroom-window dreams. In my slumber I've enjoyed watching a parade from my bedroom, witnessed the building of a new residential building and even saw the whole world engulfed by toxic gases.

Thinking about dreams, I find that they occur mostly during these times:
1. when sleeping patterns are irregular
2. after consuming caffeine late into the night
3. being awoken by someone/something, rather than waking up by oneself
4. when the bladder is full

In a way, dreams are fun. I did a project on it in Secondary 3, mainly about dream interpretation. While my conclusion was that it was a load of bullcrap, there's still some principles that can be applied. Such as understanding the ideas that subconsciously preoccupy you.

But what can I draw from this particular dream of mine? I don't know. What does a grey bus bursting in flames and culling all in it mean? You tell me.

==

And the drudgery of the trip to Pasir Ris that takes forever. Played Pokemon again and yay, I managed to capture that elusive Abra that teleports out of battle in the first turn! Tried to capture a Snorlax but ironically, the sleep attacks must have transcended beyond the LCD screen as...

... I jerked awake in the middle of Pasir Ris, clutching the DS in my hand. When do I get dreams? Point number one: when sleeping patterns are irregular.

==

Lesson wasn't too bad, the teacher was amazingly nice and friendly.

==

And finally got around to buying a new DVD burner for the computer! BOTH the DVD burner and the DVD reader on the computer were on their way south.

The DVD burner - a Sony DRU-710A (I'm listing the brands and model numbers so that other users of the same drive can Google it up if they're curious) - stopped reading discs reliably.

The DVD reader - Samsung SD-616 - still reads, but the chips have gotta been fried, as the drive tray sometimes ejects and refuses to stay closed. And sometimes when I eject a disc, it's still spinning in the middle of the plastic tray, complete with a horrible grating sound. This is gonna scratch all my discs in the long run.

New one's a LG GSA-H44N. Works smoothly so far!

Took the time to de-gunk the chipset fan on the NF7S motherboard YET again. Somehow the grease just loves to dry up into a sticky goo and make the fan whine like a dying rat.

==


Arctic Monkeys's new album isn't my cup of tea.

I vividly remember going to the CD shops once every few days after the UK release of their debut album, only to be told repeatedly that they didn't have any stock yet. Waited almost 2 months before I could get my grubby hands on an Aussie import. Who could not like the infectious singles When The Sun Goes Down and I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor?

But here comes their sophomore album with mechanical rhythms reeking of The Klaxons. Truth be told, The Klaxons do a better job of being The Klaxons than Arctic Monkeys can ever dream of.

They'd do better with their own advice: So get off the bandwagon, and put down the handbook.

Bloody Math Rock

Been trying to get myself to like Thom Yorke's The Eraser. For months. Yorke's the brains of Radiohead, seeing them through the pop-rock of Pablo Honey to the experimentations of OK Computer, to the weird-shit stuff you hear on Amnesiac and Hail To The Thief.

And well, The Eraser is the same kind of weird-shit stuff. Only weirder-shit. Well, you could say that the disjointed beats and weird time signatures are quirky and a breath of fresh air. But well. I don't like it. They could write those weird-shit stuff until the cows come home, but I'd rather have the typical 4/4 time signature, verse--bridge-chorus-verse-bridge-chorus-verse-chorus-chorus kinda stuff. Harrowdown Hill is sorta OK - if you ignore the weird time signature, but the rest just makes you want to wear down your 'next track' button.

Musical taste is so much about peer pressure and acceptance. You can't be caught dead liking Avril Lavinge and Dream Theatre at the same time. Or mentioning Blink-182 and Sepultra in the same sentence. But well, sometimes, no matter how much our peers love the stuff - and how much we want to like the stuff - it's just not us, no?

I don't bother listening to Thom Yorke anymore.

Soundtrack for a Headache

Slept. Awoke. Slept. Awoke. 6 hours of fitful sleep with a headache to boot. Waking up in the mornings is especially painful with a headache (well, duh.)

Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb It's hard not to hear of Pink Floyd when all the music lovers of the previous generation gush about it, about how great they were live, how much of their youth was spent listening to them. Pink Floyd's music is all about the whole experience - not just the music or the melodies - but losing yourself in the whole atmosphere while you listen to their albums in their entireity. When you'ge got a pounding and raging headache, the best way is to lose yourself in some slow, soft music.





The Smashing Pumpkins - Mayonaise
Recommended to me by a friend on IRC some years ago. Love it.











Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven
Old, good stuff.











Foo Fighters - Walking After You
I remember listening to this song many many times on the radio when I was 14, back when radio actually still played alternative rock rather than soppy manufactured crap. From the X-Files movie soundtrack, if I recall. However, the album version with mellower guitars is much better in times of a bad pain in the head though.






Sigur Ros - Hoppipola
Lovely song. 'Hopping Puddles' in Icelandic it is. Dreamy, sweet, lulling you into a peaceful retreat from that crushing ache in the skull.









Elbow - Powder Blue
Another, soft slow piece and the headache's hopefully gone now.











(Cover art blatantly spirited from www.amazon.com )

My Chemical Romance, Emo and Emo Bashers

Haven't done a modern culture analysis kinda piece in a long while so I guess I'd get started. Those modern culture kinda thing was what got me by General Paper in Junior College. Instead of focussing on cliched quotes from George Bernard Shaw or other commonly-quoted people, I took the liberty to write about popular culture and art and quotes people like Jarvis Cocker from UK Britpop band Pulp and relate the art, culture and etc with the stuff we see on TV and hear on radio. GP teachers liked it, I loved it - because it's MY field, so I stuck with it. Now to the meat.



What is Emo? If you trace emo culture, I would say it all started with the music. Back in the 90s when emopunk was a independent-label, underground sorta scene. I don't claim to know much about this early period of the evolution, but it was an offshoot from punk itself. Naturally, with punk came the mascara and mopey Robert Smith-esque look. It's not like they want to look 'emo' or anything, but it was just a part of the punk thing.

Next we got these bands that were just starting to break into the mainstream, for example The Get Up Kids and their ever-so-catchy single Red Letter Day. And who can forget Dashboard confessional, which had dominated the emo scene for goodness knows how long, but only really got their limelight when they had released the single Vindicated in conjunction with the Spiderman Original Soundtrack.

It's music. It's not some mopey dopey act about bloodletting and feeling sorry for oneself. It's not about thinking it's cool to be sad or anything. It's music. Music that appeals to a younger crowd, that lets them identify themselves with.

To be honest, My Chemical Romance - the band that had gained as much notoriety as popularity for fitting the emo musical style and fashion sense - is not bad. While they are not entirely original (lifting much of its ideas from bands like Queen), they do sing well, play well, and write songs that appeal to a large audience.

Do we really have to judge a band by what category they're pigeonholed into, rather than the quality of the music? I don't think so. But I dare you to wear a My Chemical Romance T-shirt in public and NOT be verbally lynched for that.

There are some bands though that do have their roots in emopunk, but have since shed the fashion sensibilities associated with it. Jimmy Eat World and Weezer are 2 of them that come to mind. I love Jimmy Eat World. So sue me. It's pretty sad that bands have to shed their emo image just so that they won't get ridiculed.

All in all, isn't emo just music and its associated fashion and culture? Nothing to be ashamed of. Nothing to ridicule about. It's a genre with some great bands, just like all other genres.

Emo is not an insult.

Review: Jarvis Cocker - Jarvis

Thanks for the head-up CH!

It's a sad era for Britpop when you see your favourite bands of the mid 90s fade away and disperse into a number of solo side projects. From Blur we get Graham Coxon's solo projects, the Gorillaz and more recently, Damon Albarn's The Good the Bad and the Queen. Suede was reincarnated as The Tears, and so on.

Pulp, along with these superstars of the Britpop era, faded, leaving Jarvis Cocker to do a couple of collaborations, most notably the contribution of 3 tracks to the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire soundtrack, before finally settling to produce his debut solo effort.

I'm tempted to compare Jarvis to Graham Coxon's recent solo effort Love Travels At Illegal Speeds. Both albums feature a bespectacled songwriter writing chirpy songs reminiscent of the buzz and enthusiasm of the original mid-90s Britpop boys.

The album starts off with a quick piano intro, before bursting into the familiar croon in Don't Let Him Waste Your Time, the first single off this album. It's catchy, it's sweet, but somehow, it just doesn't hit enough special notes to become a masterpiece like Common People.

In this album, makes use of soft jangly guitars and generous splashes of percussion almost in the same way Pulp used to. The old tried-and-tested style essentially, and this is a good thing to me, having missed Pulp for a long while.

The first half of the album's fast and melodic, keeping your feet tapping while Jarvis makes morose lyrics such as Heavy Weather and I Will Kill Again sound so damned happy.

The second half of the album becomes more experimental, with hits such as Fat Children (it's as catchy as Do the Hippogriff!) and Disney Time (we're back to Jarvis's old sardonic self - "How come they’re called “Adult Movies” when the only thing they show is people making babies filmed up close?"). And with misses such as Big Julie and Quantum Theory that would probably be better off just being notable B-sides rather than lacklustre album tracks.

All in all, it's worth several listens, more if you were into Pulp in the first place - this album is proof that Jarvis Cocker IS Pulp, complete with the dark cynical humour and catchy tunes. Nowhere as catchy as Graham Coxon's Love Travels At Illegal Speeds, but at least this is Pulp reincarnated. No doubt about it.

Music

I remember a week back when i was in the train, idly sitting beside a young but plain looking lady with an iPod nano plugged to her ears. She looked just like any typical harassed commuter on the train, eager to get where she wants to go and leave in a jiffy.

Out of curiosity I peered at what she had in her collection and I saw Aqualung. I fell in love immediately. With her musical choices I mean. Not her. It's strange how you can immediately feel like you know someone just by peering into his music collection and seeing all those favourites you have in common.

Just a peer at her music, and she's no longer another faceless commuter but someone unique, someone special. Well of course I couldn't approach here abut this, because it'd be like eavesdropping on her, then repeating what she had said to herself.

Most of my closest friends agree somewhat with my music tastes. From those i've known since i was a kid. If a friend has too different music tastes it'd be weird. It'll be so irritating to have to explain myself each time, who the hell is the Guns and Roses, what does punk mean, how come I'm not familiar with whatever singer they love and I don't.

Meeting friends who share the same favourite musiciand and musical styles, it's like meeting a familiar face who speaks your tongue in a strange land. Immediately there's something to talk about, something to feel something for, to stand up for. And every time you leave such a conversation, you'd know of a couple more songs you should take a listen to.

Music's so lovely. It brings people together, no kidding.

5 songs no one can possibly not like!

(Youtube links)

Lightning Seeds - Pure

U2 - With or Without You

Green Day - Basket Case

Oasis - Songbird

The Cure - Friday I'm In Love

The Perfect MP3 Ringtone

Now with the advent of phones that are able to use MP3 (or AMR or AAC or WMA, whatever floats your boat) ringtones, people are starting to get creative with their ringtones, letting their phones pelt out the latest beats whenever someone calls.

It's easier said than done. So often, the ringtones simply fall flat. A song that sounds great on radio ends up being totally inappropriate as a ringtone. Ringtones that simply don't capture one's attention, or even worse, start with a 1-minute piano intro so soft you hardly notice it.

Here are some tips to creating your dream ringtone:

1. Face it, your favourite song is more likely than not to be a bad ringtone
When I choose a new ringtone from my playlist, it's usual that out of 30 songs I screen through, only 1 meets my criteria for being a good ringtone.

The criteria:
a. extremely catchy and perky
b. reasonably fast - no Dido or Celine Dion here for sure
c. easily recognisable even in a noisy area
d. the song should start fast and loud; if not, at least part of the song (then you trim to that part)



2. Don't irritate the hell outta your friends. That's not too hard. Just don't use some over-used, corny song like that Chinese-language Mice Love Rice, badly-recorded songs where you can hardly hear anything sensible, vulgar songs like Super Furry Animals's The Man Don't Give A Fuck or some dated somg you'd catch your parents cha-chaing to. And no, not everyone shares your taste for Vivaldi's Four Seasons.



3. Don't be afraid to trim down the song file on your computer first. What I usually do is to use Audacity or Goldwave to cut out the intro to the song, so that the ringtone jumps straight into the verse or the chorus. It takes some practice and mouse dexterity, bit it's worth it.

A ringtone that starts right at the climax of a memorable song catches one's attention quicker than anything.

If you're more technically inclined, you can add subtle fade-ins and fade-outs at the beginning and the end to make the transition less abrupt. Even more technically inclined? Run it through the equaliser to remove some of the volume from beyond 8KHz to reduce distortion in the puny phone ringer.

Cut the file into a snappy clip of about 1 minute's length. Really, phones hardly ring longer than that so save your memory space in the phone for better stuff. 10 seconds for a message tone. Save it as a 64kbps file in mono, because with small phone ringers it makes no difference if you go higher.



4. "And don't wear it out!" Green Day - St. Jimmy

Change your ringtone periodically. You'll get sick of it otherwise. So will your friends!

5 Randon Songs on the playlist early in the morning

Lipps Inc. - Funkytown
It's been a whole decade of 80s music. And somehow the ones that stick aren't the technically and musically accomplished songs, but those that are so dance-catchy we don't want to admit that we love.

Jay-Z and Linkin Park - Encore
This is one hiphop masterpiece and the naysayers can just shut up cause this remix just brings out the best of the original, cutting out the whiney bits, and adding in a great beat. There's always this stigma that lingers with bands that perform to a younger audience, so it's a pity so many of the self-proclaimed music enthusiasts are missing out on so much cause of that.

Radiohead - Black Star
This Radiohead song's one of the greatest. I still remember playing The Bends album over and over again a few years back, savouring the haunting vocal and mellow melancholy.

Wilco - Say You Love Me
CH intro'd me to Wilco and I hafta say, some of Wilco's tracks are really great. Simple and melodic stuff. It's sorta genius how Wilco manages to write something so good with so little words and instruments.

Weezer - Dope Nose
Fast, trippy and happy. I swear that even if it's the first time you're listening to it you'll get hooked!

Graham Coxon - Standing on my Own

I've been thinking about this song for a while. Such a sweet fun and upbeat song. Everyone loves it. But It's just sorta weird that it's so technically simple to play on guitar, the lyrics aren't particularly imaginative, and it doesn't exude much creativity.

But yet it just sounds so good. Some palm-muted guitar scratches, then a barrage of power chords and catchy vocals.

Simplicity can sound so beautiful.

Certainly makes one wonder, why do so many bands aspire to be the next Smashing Pumpkins or X-Japan or Dream Theatre when simple snappy songs can be equally successful?

Freaking beautiful song

MSN me or something, I'll share. Nothing to blog lately so here's the song lyrics.

ELECTRIC SOFT PARADE - Silent To The Dark

Small talk on the radio
It seems I am going nowhere today

Small talk gets you nowhere choose
Between a curtain or a star
And I'm silent to the dark

'Cause when I needed someone to talk to
You were the only one around
Small cost, it pays to be alone

Small talk on the radio
It seems I am going nowhere today
(Not today)
Small talk gets you nowhere
I'm silent to the dark and tepid
Only when you ask

'Cause when I needed someone to talk to
You were the only one around
Small cost, it pays to be alone

When I needed someone to talk to
You were the only one around
Small cost, it pays to be alone

And you can do anything you want
Yeah you can anything you want
You can do anything you want
It doesn't matter
It doesn't matter

'Cause when I needed someone to talk to
You were the only one around
Small cost, it pays to be alone
When I needed someone to talk to
You were the only one around
Small cost, it pays to be alone

When I needed someone
To talk to
To talk to
To talk to

'Cause when I needed someone to talk to
You were the only one around
Small cost, it pays to be alone

Special Singapore Edition?

For quite a long while, we've all seen those China-press music CDs in the shops, selling for about $10, with the same musical content as the local retail ones but with horrid packaging and printing (the booklets barely fit the casing, LOL).

But this is what I found recently:



There's other titles, The Feeling's debut album, Sugarbabes, Scissor Sisters, Keane. It's no secret that most of the CDs we get in Singapore are printed and manufactured in Singapore itself, as here is some kind of distribution hub for the region.

So. Million dollar question. Why were we paying more for the same thing, printed in the same plant right in Singapore? I have no idea.

To be honest? I bought this CD only because it was going for cheap. It ain't that great - their previous album Final Straw's much better. This one is too Keane-ish and happy.

Local radio

(richie has The Kooks - Naive as the now playing song)
kc - shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it, like a polaroid picture says:
i like the swingish rhythm of naive
richie says:
its overplayed in nz
kc - shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it, like a polaroid picture says:
o rly
kc - shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it, like a polaroid picture says:
at least you get good stuff being overplayed
kc - shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it, like a polaroid picture says:
sian ½
richie says:
[o rly
richie says:
i had nightmares in the start of the sem dude
kc - shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it, like a polaroid picture says:
would you rather have black eyed peas being overplayed?

Paolo Nutini - Jenny Don't Be Hasty

Currently addicted to this so-rocky-yet-so-bluesy song!

Yay 2 more hours to STOMP Ghost Tour! *Gets ready.*

Morning filler

Since this thing has been making its rounds on the net and I'm a diehard music fanatic, here goes:

instructions.
1. put your music player on shuffle.
2. press forward for each question.
3. use the song title as the answer to the question even if it doesn't make sense. NO CHEATING!
4. tag 10 people to play this game too.

how are you feeling today?
Smashing Pumpkins - Frail and Bedazzled
Hey, scraped knees and groggy from insomnia. What do you expect?

will you get far in life?
Radiohead - Sail to the Moon
Well, the moon's quite far...

how do your friends see you?
Placebo - 20th Century Boy (T-rex cover)
"Friends say it's fine, friends say it's good, Everybody says it's just like rock'n roll. I move like a cat, charge like a ram, sting like a bee, Babe I wanna be your man." - yeah riiiiight.

will you get married?
Oasis - She's Electric
"She's electric, she's got a family full of eccentrics."
"Coz I'll be you and you'll be me/There's lots and lots for us to see/There's lots and lots for us to do/She is electric, can I be electric too?"
Sounds like a yes to me! Yay!

what is your best friend's theme song?
Foo Fighters - Walking After You
This song reminds me of one of my best friends when I was in secondary school, cause he liked Foo Fighters quite alot. He migrated to Australia.

what is the story of your life?
Al Green - Lean on Me
Nahhhhh wrong song.

what was high school like?
The Darkness - Growing on Me
Nopes, not relevant either.

how can you get ahead in life?
Gabrielle - Rise
"Now I'm ready to rise again"? Nah I'm not an optimist.

what is the best thing about your friends?
Dodgy - Water Under The Bridge
The close friends of mine are a forgiving bunch, whatever nasty things I did, it sounds like it's water under the bridge by now. Hopefully at least.

what is in store for you this weekend?
Cake - Guitar
Nopes, I don't think I'm ready to touch the guitar again so soon. Just feeling so lazy lately.

what song describes you?
The Cranberries - Just My Imagination
My life is just my imagination. Pretty creepy come to think of it. Is whatever life we're living just an imagination? I can't tell.

describe your grandparents...?
Manic Street Preachers - Small Black Flowers That Grow In The Sky
Yeah, they're dead.

how is your life going?
Placebo - Special K
No, I'm not high on drugs.

how does the world see you?
Radiohead - Packt Like Sardines in a Crush
Huh?

will you have a happy life?
Radiohead - Like Spinning Plates
Huh again?

do your friends really think of you?
Arctic Monkeys - From the Ritz to the Rubble
"Last night these two bouncers/And one of em's alright/The other one's the scary one/His way or no way, totalitarian/He's got no time for you/Looking or breathing/How he dosen’t want you to/So step out the queue/He makes examples of you"
I'm not welcome. :(

do people secretly lust after you?
Robbie Williams - Road to Mandalay
"There's nothing left for you to give/The truth is all that you're left with/Twenty paces then at dawn/We will die and be reborn"
Probably not.

can you make yourself happy?
Toploader - Dancing in the Moonlight
No I don't dance to make myself happy.

what should you do with your life?
Yellowcard - Breathing
Nice advice. Think I'll just sit in a corner... and continue breathing.

will you ever have children?
Kings of Convenience - I'd Rather Dance With You
That's a no I think.

In the mood for fast happy songs

So here it goes: Bloodhound Gang - The Bad Touch
Ha-Ha! Well now, we call this the act of mating
But there are several other very important differences
Between human beings and animals that you should know about

I'd appreciate your input

Sweat baby sweat baby sex is a Texas drought
Me and you do the kind of stuff that only Prince would sing about
So put your hands down my pants and I'll bet you'll feel nuts
Yes I'm Siskel, yes I'm Ebert and you're getting two thumbs up
You've had enough of two-hand touch you want it rough you're out of bounds
I want you smothered want you covered like my Waffle House hashbrowns
Come quicker than FedEx never reach an apex just like Coca-Cola stock you are inclined
To make me rise an hour early just like Daylight Savings Time

Do it now
You and me baby ain't nothin' but mammals
So let's do it like they do on the Discovery Channel
Do it again now
You and me baby ain't nothin' but mammals
So let's do it like they do on the Discovery Channel
Gettin' horny now

Love the kind you clean up with a mop and bucket
Like the lost catacombs of Egypt only God knows where we stuck it
Hieroglyphics? Let me be Pacific I wanna be down in your South Seas
But I got this notion that the motion of your ocean means "Small Craft Advisory"
So if I capsize on your thighs high tide, B-5 you sunk my battleship
Please turn me on I'm Mister Coffee with an automatic drip
So show me yours I'll show you mine "Tool Time" you'll Lovett just like Lyle
And then we'll do it doggy style so we can both watch "X-Files"

Do it now
You and me baby ain't nothin' but mammals
So let's do it like they do on the Discovery Channel
Do it again now
You and me baby ain't nothin' but mammals
So let's do it like they do on the Discovery Channel
Gettin' horny now

You and me baby ain't nothin' but mammals
So let's do it like they do on the Discovery Channel
Do it again now
You and me baby ain't nothin' but mammals
So let's do it like they do on the Discovery Channel
Do it now
You and me baby ain't nothin' but mammals
So let's do it like they do on the Discovery Channel
Do it again now
You and me baby ain't nothin' but mammals
So let's do it like they do on the Discovery Channel
Gettin' horny now

Response: Question Music a distraction or encouragment during jogging?

To answer STOMP forums: http://talkback.stomp.com.sg/forums/showthread.php?t=4015

For me, since I bring one of these items all the time, guess which one I use for my entertainment when I go for a jog?


Yep. The brain. Somehow an earworm just keeps on looping in my head when I go for a run, so I make the best out of it! Hey, I don't have to have to worry about dropping or losing an expensive object (not that I'm saying my brain isn't precious but brains tend not to fall out of the pockets of one's shorts.) And I don't have to coat any earphones with icky sweat.

Today's earworm was Guillemots - Trains to Brazil.

In other news, bad news if you may, I probably am developing some psychiatric pathology. Waking up at 6.45am and not being able to go back to sleep on a weekend, in addition to being poorly-rested, in addition to laying in bed awake from 6.45am to 7.45am feeling utterly crappy, covering my face with the pillow not wanting anyone to see how messed-up I feel, and not having enough energy to pull myself out of bed; are rather sinister signs of psychiatric disorder. Sigh.

Reviews

Screw those arty-farty reviews! My reviews will be down-to-earth, focused on entertainment value and does away with all those oh-this-is-a-work-of-art-because-it-uses-so-and-so-literary-devices.

For today, a song, a book and a graphic novel.

Song: Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit (Live in Melbourne 1992)

A short note on this song. This song is one of the most iconic of the grunge era, because, well, it's catchy, it exudes angst and its style broke most of the rock-music conventions of that time.

Kurt's screaming into the microphone "Here we are now, entertain us!" while Grohl pelts out beats so frantic you're so sure his bass-drum foot would be numb by now.

Truly a masterpiece of its time. You gotta listen to it here, along with the other tracks from Melbourne '92. http://www.bigozine2.com/archive/ARrarities06/ARnirmelb.html

Book: Ron Mclarty - A Memory of Running

This book is about a loserish guy who loses his parents in a car crash. And by riding across the USA on a bicycle he rediscovers his life. I like losers. I like bicycles. I like this book.

A little like Annie Proulx's Shipping News since both books have its protagonist rediscovering themselves by understanding their past.






Graphic Novel: V for Vendetta

I don't like it. It's one of those new age graphic novels with corny goth/romantic themes such as the Sandman, and I can never dig the pretentiousness of such works.

V for Vendetta is about a modern Britain where freedom, and the idea of it no longer exist. It's sort of an Orwellian 1984. They cull prostitutes, they write their own news and music doesn't exist. This guy V is a masked man who's supposed to save Britain from that tragedy by using acts of violence to shake up society. Or something.

Gave up on it after 10 chapters.

As a tribute to one of the greatest music videos ever

As a tribute to one of the greatest music videos ever, I bought this at $1.90 at Takashimaya.

Remember the video with those 2 milk packets trying to make their way through the real world? That's Blur's Coffee and TV (Youtube link). Love that music video.