The car is on fire and there's no driver at the wheel

I am still attempting to get over my cold...every time I think it has gone it comes back in a different form, first it was the sore throat, then then the cough and now a stuffy nose. Not that it's keeping me from anything, but just a general lethargy. Some day I will 'score' some time to do something a little more creative. Haven't quite had the 'what am I doing here?' moment that all 4th years go through just yet but I can feel it niggling away just under the surface.

I open up my wallet and it's full of blood. Post-apocalypticism was once again brought to mind while I was watching Shaun of the Dead last weekend; mostly indirectly as said film was very amusing and filled me with a somewhat sadistic desire to wap Zombies with cricket bats. Rather it reminded me of 28 Days, another Zombie film (somewhat alluded to as "bollocks" by the end of SOTD); it isn't a particularly original or interesting film save for the first scenes where this bloke wakes up from a coma to a completely uninhabited London. I don't know why the thought of being that person frightens me, but it does. Perhaps it's the completely unlimited possibilities for why everyone has buggered off (maybe they don't like me or I smell too much etc.) or just having to cope on my complete lonesome. Would I believe that this was as it had been "predicted" Biblically?

Ahem. It's not like I'm pre-occupied with these thoughts but it's interesting to ponder them even for several seconds.

Hello Monkey Children

Nothing much to say really. I had a nasty cold over the weekend tied in with a traumatic (in several senses) mouth ulcer.Also remembered how frustrating recording something in your room on your own is (well in my room on my own). Today was quite long, but reasonably edutaining (ah the Game of Medicine). I have gained a passion for (a limited amount of) 70s music over the summer, consisting mainly of Neil Young, Elton John and Nick Drake. I tried Tim Buckley too but he was just a bit too er...medieval (anyone want to buy a CD?) Bjaaarrk? Definitely odd winter music. Missing the electronica undertones (not electronica Undertones - Teenage Glitch), but perhaps I shall learn to love the choral ones.

Nonsense.

Some days are better than others

Zooropa, that forgotten U2 album, is reasonably good, I think. It's never really grabbed my attention in the way that Achtung Baby or Pop have; War is also another favourite of mine (the album rather than conflict). I can take or leave the others. A brief unrequested opinion on the self-proclaimed "world's greatest band" or whatever rubbish Bono's been talking recently. In saying that, however, I appreciate his campaigning for awareness of Aids in Africa and previously during the "Drop the Debt" campaign.

Films recently watched (at the DCA, possibly the best cinema in Scotland/Northern Ireland , if not, inner most regions of the solar system):
Sunday - The Motorcycle Diaries - road movie cum pseudo-documentary; various South American people shine; beware romanticising of Che Guevara.
Monday - Collateral - Tom Cruise's trademark wooden acting is an advantage in this suspense thriller (beautiful shots - reminiscent of Lost in Translation).

I was going to comment further on the above, but it's suffice to say that both are worth watching, if not in the DCA then at your local movie emporium.

And further to the above - Star Wars on DVD; little more needs to be said.

I listened to Elliott Smith's eponymously titled album last night before sleep. It's one of those albums creates an almost suffocatingly intimate atmosphere; his pronunciation of the lyrics, every syllable almost, (especially in Needle in the Hay) give the impression he is undergoing a kind of self-exorcism. The swearing seems so sincere that you want to join in and the extreme minimalism of the production only serves to reinforce this tension. The world is out to screw you up, it says; and who am I to disagree with that?

Goodnight brian brain

Seemingly finished, although I reckon I could have done with a bit more work on it. Oh well, if only I hadn't....[insert moderately remorseful but generally not bothered remark here].
It probably all be guff in the morning and I'll have to rewrite it in half an hour, but isn't that the joy of university?

what I used to be will pass away and then you'll see

Aaah! I just can't kill it off. Die curriculum outcomes. Feeling nervous about something, but I can't quite work out what it is as yet...this is a common feeling for me, perhaps it's just the coffee come down. Zombification to use a well-worn phrase.

Avoidance syndrome

I have lots of work to do for tomorrow. Why am writing here? Because of what I like to call (but probably subconsciously stolen), "Avoidance syndrome". If I start it then I'll have to stop thinking about all the other things I'd like to be doing. Not sure how to be more disciplined, ah well, stuff that. Here are some of the things I'd rather be doing:

1. Sleeping. I am quite tired after last night and the previous week's ?musical efforts.
2. Eating. I can think of many and various tasty meals to be ingested, all of which take time and effort to prepare.
3. "Rocking the world" or at least doing a wee bit of recording. I enjoy writing songs, taking time to construct each part then screwing it up until it's somehow less listenable (this is what some people call "singing").
4. Playing frisbee. It's been a while since a threw a disc in anger. The fresher's fair is tomorrow, which I'll hopefully attend in order to recruit some bright-eyed, bushy tailed, Freshers.
5. Travelling to somewhere warm and sunny. This should have been first on the list. I wouldn't be tired, hungry or thinking about anything else if it were nice and warm. Perhaps this is merely a hangover from not having seen the sun much this summer and then waking up to find it's winter again. Ah well, I like winter when it's not wet.

Enough enough enuff.

To die is gain

Gig. Set list:
Rocker
Stand Tall/Riff song
Belong
53
Christmas Tree
Acoustic song, which sounded great.
Then long amalgam of different songs: Imagine/Face Down then Lord you have my heart.

Reasonable performance. Personally I thought the rocker and stand tall and Christmas tree were good. 53 was patchy and Belong sounded a bit off tonight - but this is merely my own performance and possibly lack of ability to hear the overalll sound. It will be interesting to see if anything further comes of this current group after the Season Collective gig and Dingers experiment (The Action Verbs??) were partially abandoned. We need a rhythm section. Any takers? Thanks.

Bear with us while we sort out the problem

You may find a few nasty missing links (hm, I wonder where the ape-man had got to) but they should be sorted out with the passage of time. Thanks.

Maybe it's time for a change

As you may have noticed, I have changed the layout of the site - currently to a default blogger one, but hopefully I'll get a bit of a chance to change it. I'll have to update my links also so if you have a blog to which you would like me to link, send me the address or something. Nice one.

Tomorrow, tomorrow, I hate you, Tomorrow!

Well that was a bit negative, but I do dislike musicals.

Anyway, this week is proving to be a bit hectic. As usual I have left all my work for my end of block hand in till the last minute, which is unfortunate. Almost finished one of the parts of it. Unfortunately with the gig tomorrow (yes, playing with "Sow" tomorrow at the Fresher's week event in Sessions) and the practices...before I go on with this obvious excuse I'll have to admit that I have spent a bit too much time looking at blogs this week. A-henyway, I realise that often inadvertantly obfuscate whatever I'm trying to say, but this is mainly due to a misunderstanding and rather it is nonsense in the first place.

So there. Ha.

Did you ever wonder where that short Russian bloke went?

Broken Sounds
yes, it's Ross Thompson. I wondered what had happened to him. Well I was actually looking for 5 dollar soul stuff, but by happy coincidence came upon his blog. It's actually very amusing. I shall link to it in my exponentially increasing links section.

The Ark Life

A thought provoking article
Christian Sub-Culture
Perhaps more relevant in the US, but the same culture of separation threatens to engulf UK Christians.

UK Ultimate
New University season starting soon, hurray. Looking forward to a bit of disc-chucking.

The Wolf and the Lamb

"Once upon a time a Wolf was lapping at a spring on a hillside, when, looking up, what should he see but a Lamb just beginning to drink a little lower down. "There's my supper," thought he, "if only I can find some excuse to seize it." Then he called out to the Lamb, "How dare you muddle the water from which I am drinking?"
"Nay, master, nay," said Lambikin; "if the water be muddy up there, I cannot be the cause of it, for it runs down from you to me."
"Well, then," said the Wolf, "why did you call me bad names this time last year?"
"That cannot be," said the Lamb; "I am only six months old."
"I don't care," snarled the Wolf; "if it was not you it was your father;" and with that he rushed upon the poor little Lamb
and
..WARRA WARRA WARRA WARRA WARRA..ate her all up. But before she died she gasped out

"Any excuse will serve a tyrant."

Aesop must have met George.

Hit the neds

Everybody Come Down

"The feeling is bad, the feeling is bad"

Apparently Eddy Grant's "I don't wanna dance" was no.1 on the day I was born.

I don't know this song. Perhaps I should feel some kind of bond with it...or not.
Unfortunately the poor children born today will have Nelly as the no. 1 (well at least it wasn't JoJo).

"Whatever you do, don't drop the Baby"

In preparation for my night shift on the Labour Ward I have compiled a list of tunes (and if were to own an iPod I may have made this into a playlist):
+ Don't Drop the Baby - Low
+ Cry Baby Cry - The Beatles
+ Newborn - Elbow
+ Up All Night (Frankie Miller Goes to Hollywood) - Counting Crows
+ Only Takes A Night - Gorky's Zygotic Mynci
+ Sleep Comes Tomorrow - David Kitt

Any other ideas? Comment below:

Collating Sufjan Stevens interviews for the masses

Read brothers and sisters!
Sufjan Stevens: Pitchfork Interview

It returns!

(ignore the semi-nasty sunburst job).
Well hopefully it will be back up to 100% health (I wish people could be measured on a percentage scale)

We Haven't Been Told, We Have Been Loved

Half-Handed Cloud
A great quote: "It sounds like a really smart Sunday school class on a sugar high let loose in a music store"