This week, I…
1. Tried to improve my vocabulary
2. Rolled a little with the Ratpack
3. Heard about Matt Damon‘s new film
4. Listened to PJ Harvey
5. Lusted after trinkets I couldn’t have
6. Ordered hot food in a raw restaurant
7. Stumbled across a Moshi Monster mash-up
8. Did a little bit more research about volunteering
9. Enjoyed a home-made cream tea
10. Checked out the brilliant shoebox art from Kids Company at the Southbank Centre
President Obama and Warren Buffett (Image via Wikipedia)
I’m pretty much one of those people, who live their lives in fear of being found out. Escorted from the premises for being a phony. It’s not obsessive or anything, more like a low-lying hum that pushes me to try harder and do better wherever I can.
It’s why I run a constant programme of self-improvement. Admittedly I do as much as possible of it in my pyjamas, but it’s still stringent. And over the next few weeks, I’m going to road-test a range of self-help/philosophy/live-better manuals for the benefit of you and me.
Let’s start with Now Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton. Continue reading
Image via Wikipedia
Let me take you back to a time when men swaggered, we all wore Adidas trainers and everyone wanted to smoke Benson and Hedges – The Age of Oasis…
Album: Definitely Maybe
Release Date: August 1994
Favourite Song: Cigarettes and Alcohol
Alternative Review: BBC
Weirdest Genius Recommendation: Are you gonna go my way, Lenny Kravitiz
If ever there was an album that expressed the ordinariness of your life, whilst also making you feel like a God, Definitely Maybe is it. Continue reading
I’ve spent the last seven days:
1. Listening to 21, the sublime new album from Adele
2. Going designer, buying Vivienne Westwood for Comic Relief (I missed out on one of Stella McCartney‘s brilliant Morecambe & Wise t-shirts.)
3. Wishing I was in Leeds to visit Mad Elizabeth‘s vintage store at the Corn Exchange.
4. Enjoying a rare night out at the Woodlands Restaurant, Marylebone Lane.
5. Not giving up on Outcasts, even though everyone else has. Hermione Norris rules!
6. Looking forward to South Riding
7. Feeling inadequate and stropping off in Baker & Spice
8. Vowing to find out more about Diana Athill
9. Discovering the Cardboard Citizens‘ performance group
10. Chewing my food 20 times after seeing a Paul McKenna interview!
I’m not one for storming the barricades. No Charlie Gilmour am I. But I do believe in doing what you can to make a difference.
That said I have a tendency to get bamboozled by my own ambitions. Thinking so big, I fail to act – when actually doing something smaller on a more regular basis could have a far greater impact.
So this is me, turning over a new leaf and hopefully bringing you a new feature on how and where we can all do a little good. Continue reading
Image by Bex.Walton via Flickr
Just back from a visit to see “Never Let Me Go” – the film adaption of the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, starring Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and (the new Spiderman) Andrew Garfield. Continue reading
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It seems cruel to throw Little Boots up against the cultural leviathan that is Madonna, but that’s the bar against which every female singer has been measured for the last thirty years or so. And what stands out when listening to all of these albums again is how much Madonna has earned that right.
As a figure of intense interest, her appeal has been deconstructed repeatedly. Yet whatever your own thoughts, what is clear is the commitment and sheer graft she puts into her work.
Listening to these albums back to back, she strikes me as more artist than singer – it’s what continues to set her apart from the hundreds that have followed and cited her as an influence.
Unlike so many of them she walks the talk, each new album innovative in its own way – whether through the discovery of a new pop sensibility, personal revelation or social movement.
Running away to New York with just twenty or so bucks in her pocket, she spent her twenties surrounded by a bohemian mix of artists, musicians and actors and it shows.
Very few of those she has inspired have so dominated every area of their work from the sound to the costumes, production and dance – probably the most recent exception being Lady Gaga – and as a result their music seems to pale in comparison.
Yet for some reason – despite my recognition of her brilliance – I’ve stopped buying Madonna records. When did I become so scared of her arms and overwhelmed by her drive to be the best?
I don’t know. But for Madonna, my defection makes little difference. Even without the guarantee of my £7.99, she will probably remain one of, if not the world’s most successful female pop artist for a very long time.
As for Little Boots, I’ve developed an aversion for anything the Guardian obsessively raves about, but this is a fun ride. The type of record, you should whack on when you’re getting ready to go out on a Friday night.
Image via Wikipedia
This week, I’ve been…
1. Really looking forward to seeing Never Let Me Go on Monday.
2. Listening to a lot of old albums
3. Trying to finish reading Jonathan Powell’s The New Machiavelli
4. Hooked on The Killing on BBC4
5. Trying to get as much wear out of my winter trousers as possible
6. Raising my arms in salute to the weekly Vogueing Dance Class at Pavilion Dance
7. Trying to beat my inane Kardashian addiction
8. Looking to kick-start my inner activist
Image by Frida Borjeson Photography via FlickrAlbum: Humbug
The Arctic Monkeys, Domino Recording Company
Release Date: August 2009
Alternative Review: NME
Favourite Song: Cornerstone
Weirdest Genius Recommendation: Mo Ba Nin – Flip Kowlier
When Humbug was first released, the music press positioned it as a highly experimental third album. With tracks fuelled less by the snakebite and black of the Monkeys’ previous work and more a peyote-infused gap year venture into the desert.
With that in mind and a little time and distance since its début, I’ve been amazed by how accessible this album was when I listened to it again.
Yoko Ono, this ain’t. It’s more a successful indie band after the American Dream as far as it can take them.
Do I like it? I think so. But in the cold light of day, on a British high street, I miss the “Saturday Night, Sunday Morning” edge of their earlier music and lyrics, and the darkened, lager-soaked dance floors they evoke.
Image by acb via Flickr
Album:
Dear Catastrophe Waitress
Belle and Sebastian
Rough Trade
Release Date: October 2003
Alternative Review: Stylus Magazine
Favourite Song: If She Wants Me
Weirdest Genius Recommendation: Doot, Doot Plot – The Hidden Cameras
If the Arctic Monkeys are like the cool guys with good hair who started a band at your 6th Form college, then Belle and Sebastian are the kids doing art who always manage to pull off a Breton t-shirt and vintage Levis so much better than everyone else.
With them, it feels almost like I find their music most exhausting before I listen to it. Like I’ve decided I’m not cool enough to be into this group.
But then I’m always surprised by how many of their albums I own and how much I enjoy their music when I actually hear it.
Boy with an Arab Strap, I think, remains my favourite (I’ll know when I get to it). Yet this album, a burst of Trevor Horn produced indie pop is also a great ride. And even though I can never quite work out what their lyrics are truly about, what I imagine makes me really happy.
Image by Wsobchak via Flickr
Album: Sky at Night
I am Kloot, I am Kloot Records
Release Date: July 2010
Favourite Song: The Moon is a Blind Eye
Weirdest Genius Recommendation: She Needs Me – Fyfe Dangerfield
Alternative Review: BBC Music
If there was any kind of justice I am Kloot would be having Coldplay‘s career right now. Whether it would suit them, I don’t know. But they’re probably one of the best bands most people have never heard about.
I first came across them when they supported Turin Brakes and I thought they were the best bit of the night.
Elbow‘s breakthrough into the wider “buy one cd a year” public’s conciousness, I think, gives them a way in. And this Guy Garvey and Craig Potter produced little number is a beautiful place to start for anyone not familiar with their work.
This is one of those rare albums that if you listen to it on your way into work, any one track will make waiting at a bus stop in the rain seem truly epic.
Update – Christopher Hitchens had a less sentimental, but really interesting take on the film in this week’s Guardian. Well worth a read…
I couldn’t sleep the other night and in that typical way in which nothing good ever happens at 4am, I began to compose a review of ”The King’s Speech” in my head.
Strange behaviour, but it is in the true spirit of our stale popcorn category - talking about a film weeks, months or even years after everyone else has seen it. Continue reading
