MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE !

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads.
And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap.

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tinny reindeer.

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name!

"Now Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! On, Cupid! on, on Donner and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!"

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky.
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of Toys, and St Nicholas too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot.
A bundle of Toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler, just opening his pack.

His eyes-how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow.

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly!

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself!
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings, then turned with a jerk.
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose!

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he drove out of sight,
"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!"


Clement Clarke Moore (1779 - 1863)

Noel Fielding.

"He's a Mick Jagger of comedy ... sweet but unbelievably mischievous and naughty, like a very cheeky puppy: Mighty Boosh comedian making multimedia assault on art and entertainment"

"Over the past decade Fielding's ability to hopscotch his way through the realms of the fantastic, nonsensical and downright bizarre - fluid enough to keep pace with the thrusting and parrying of even the most addled of minds - has made him one of Britain's most recognisable cult comedians." - The Guardian Sam Jones 2007.


I'm pretty sure I'd never be able to write anything this elaborate about Noel Fielding so I thought I might as well quote. I don't know about you but whenever anyone uses the word 'thrusting' I just assume its a sexual innuendo, sometimes wrongly so, but when its found in the same sentence as "fluid" and "pace" I can't help but to reach that fabricated conclusion. Can't blame them though. I mean, come on people the boy (well, man he is in his thirties) is fine. News of The World readers may disagree with me after he was described as androgynous in a really naff interview about drugs, but then what do those racist sensationalists know about anything other than maybe what medication Kerry Katona is on. I think he is a total dish who can still look kissable in weird hats with bunny ears. I'd love to check out his..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................oh my god you're so dirty I was gonna say itunes library!


Anyway I think he pretty much makes Buzzcocks at the moment. The Doctor Who one tonight was hilarious. Who knew Catherine Tate is even funnier when she isn't trying to be? Love it. X

Vampire Weekend - Cousins.

Awesome video, and well catchy tune =]

It reminded me of the Blink 182 video for The Rock Show, where a group of lads are let loose with the tools make a film, and the chaotic end product becomes their latest music video.

If Blink 182 had switched to indie and gone to art school, it might have looked something like this. Its youthful, quirky, minimal but vibrantly cluttered.
 If you're not feeling the song you could always just check out their sexy guitars. They're pretty nice.
People don't chat about music videos enough.

X

This Sound of The Smiths

I haven't done a lot yet this week, (except monday night which was a bit action packed but we won't go into the drunken antics of Portsmouth students), but one thing I have done is start listening to the Smiths (bit late I know, someone should have made this happen before).

I've pretty much fallen in love with them in about two days. Its the kind of music that reminds you how much passion and longing there is in peoples hearts. (Like the plastic bag scene in American Beauty). However, this morning I put on this album to get up to, but by the end of This Charming Man, I had convinced myself the day wasn't worth bothering with and my bed was an island in an vast expanse of general guttedness. It seemed to whisper in my ear things that I loved to not-want to hear and I felt like I had been tricked into taking a tardis back to being 15 again.

So, no more Smiths in the morning.

I think they mess with my head a bit, but I know I love them.

X

Joy Division evening. X

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzTw4PYfROU - This moment is copied

almost exactly in Closer, such a beastly film.

Probs gonna be up all night now with Substance.

My heart leaps up when I behold

A rainbow in the sky:

So was it when my life began;

So is it now I am a man;

So be it when I shall grow old,

Or let me die!

The Child is father of the Man;

I could wish my days to be

Bound each to each by natural piety.

1802. William Wordsworth

X

"What do you plan to do after uni Abi?'

“I saw the years of my life spaced along a road in the form of telephone poles, threaded together by wires. I counted one, two, three.....nineteen telephone poles, and then the wires dangled into space, and try as I would, I couldn’t see a single pole beyond the nineteenth.” (Sylvia Plath -The Bell Jar p 118)

Do you really want to save up for a whole summer.. living like you did when you were 17 with your rents...then go travelling spend it all then come back and be in square one again? It would be totally amazing though.

Need to figure out a future and make it happen. While trying to actually pass this degree. Feel like pulling the duvet over my face for days at a time. Need to man up.

X

Cold War Kids

Not really anyone else like them is there.

I want this on vinyl. Loyalty to Loyalty doesn't quite live up somehow.

Avoiding dissertation work again.

Cracking this album out for the first time in a while + the smell of my room when loads of tealights are glowing everywhere = a nice afternoon in when the rain is beating down outside!

X

Today

Woke up with a reaction all over my skin to some antibiotics I just finished. I hate it when stuff like that happens cos it just reminds you that you have no control over what happens.

Today isn't great. I feel like I want to settle down and runaway at the same time. X

Jay Z feat Alicia Keys - Empire State of Mind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm61weFrK4c&feature=related

Jay Z - Empire State of Mind

When it comes to chart topping hip hop albums and being an influential music personality this man has all the world renowned success money can’t buy. Jay Z is cherished for his swaggering powerful presence in the industry since the beginning of his career and is the face behind some colossal anthems that bring everyone to their feet, not just hip hop fans.

A great collaboration can be a priceless asset for an artist’s year, album or indeed entire career if done with such seamlessness and grace that makes this track what it is. Empire State of Mind features the unmistakably supreme vocal talents of Alicia Keys, which makes for a blinding chorus. Her presence transforms this from a bragging and fiercely self-important rap record to a prodigious song about New York and big city living that is sure to make you more familiar with replay or repeat buttons.

This refreshing track will infect and inspire, making the eagerly awaited for new album The Blueprint 3 a definite must hear.

Local Natives- Airplanes

Local Natives are a Californian band who seem to have taken on the UK in an effortless stride in recent months. When the Guardian featured them as their “New Band of The Day” back in June, they described them “almost too good to be true”.

There is no denying that to discover Local Natives is to discover a pot of gold under the inescapable rainbow of pretentious samey indie rock. This is a fresh new band who wear all the atmospheric musical integrity of The Arcade Fire on their cardigan sleeves and who’s music oozes all the confidence and poise that would expected from a band with at least a couple of releases under their belts.

However these chaps’ debut album Gorilla Manor has only been in the shops for a matter of days yet it has been stamped by many as a gem of 2009. This is thanx to their appearance at the Suffolk’s much loved spoken word and music festival Lattitude this summer, and an eager online anticipation most bands can only dream about.

From the first few seconds of Airplanes, track two of the album it is clear Local Natives not afraid of a three part harmony, or out of the box orchestral embrace. The enticing vocals this track transports will send any low expectations packing and take you to a place the current music climate might just not have prepared you for.

Put Gorilla Natives to the top of your to-listen-to list now.

Apparently...

....I make these when I have loads of writing to do. Great.

Muse @ Teignmouth Den

Saturday 5th September 2009

To see a band you love without leaving Devon can be a bit of a rarity, especially when they’re the sort of band that are one of the first to play the spanking new Wembely Arena, win countless live act awards, not to mention album sales. So when Muse announced their two dates in Teignmouth, they were set to transform the serene and scenic sea side town into a bustling landscape, hyped with festivities. The streets were swarming with adrenalized music fans, anxious to witness the event to make their summer. Any fan would know that this event was the stuff that dreams were made of, despite any preconceptions over the trio’s ability to marvel without sold-out-stadium vastness to back them up. Wait and see.

Ten thousand tickets were sold for each of the two titanic nights in Teignmouth, so the supergroup doubled the population of the ten thousand people seaside town. With ease I might add. The Den was transformed from a coastal green to a bustling festival ground complete with everything from street performers to burger vans, and VIPs to porta-loos. Two punch and judy figures framed the Victorian circus style stage, which projected a quirky nostalgia and childlike excitement on the eagerly awaiting crowds. As dusk was creeping in BBC Radio One’s Zane Lowe busted out a tasty entanglement of anti-anthems without letting the crowd grasp a beat or lyric long enough, like a super-fan’s struggle to catch a breath. Finishing with a pep-talk, emphasising how “to see a band like this, in a place of this size is something that doesn’t happen often, so savour every moment”

With everyone firmly in the spirit, the band swaggered onto the stage with a spring in their assertive step, oozing with confidence and ownership of the night. Instead of soaring into a luxuriously familiar riff, they began, perhaps against the expectations of some, with the first single Uprising from their recent album The Resistance. The track is a polished product of Matt Bellamy’s concept of ‘us’ and ‘them’ which he illustrates through atmospheric dance qualities andpolitical themes with a recognisable Muse pulse running through it. This will have been the first flavour for many fans of The Resistance set for release on Monday 7th September.

Crowning moments of the night would include the hands together audience contributions through Starlight, the sharp emergence of the Plug In Baby intro through the seductive feedback from the front-man’s guitar. Of course joker, not forgetting the memorable mistake when he admitted to forgetting Collateral Damage, the classical piano outro to United States of Eurasia which is the forth track from the new album. If this doesn’t bring the group down from their musical pedestal, it may be the awkwardly nonexistent between-song-banter that gave them back human form. A few timid one-liners communicating their gratitude and fulfillment for being able to play in the spot where they spent a lot of their youths, and where Bellamy first met drummer Dominic Howard.

As Muse conclude the magic with the tempestuous, stormy Knights of Cydonia, the punters are given the last chance to look around at the balcony on-lookers in their seaside flats, and the full moon gleaming down on the second of the Muse homecoming gigs on an extra special September weekend.

The Hills new season

OK, I'm not sure the Hills even exists with Lauren. Audrina looks soo skinny, you can just imagine some fake tanned, grey haired bigwig telling her to cut out carbs and drop a few pounds. She doesn't need to be so thin, no one does, and she is so pretty. As for, Kristen (or whatever her name is), fair enough she is like every lads dream or whatever but she is evil, and channeling it all at the wrong gender. Annoying voice also! Why is Justin still under this illusion that he is cool? He is a complete sell out, treating women like trash on international television for entertainment value? Great one. He tries way too hard to be effortless. Classic mistake. On the up side, Heidi actually seems happy. Even though her husband is a complete misogynist, and well a complete waste of space. Shame.

A part of me would love to get an insight into The Hills and how it works. I predict that you would crack the glistening, sugary shell like the top of a Creme Brule and all this goey superficial and offensive stuff would spurt out. Which would make for some pretty epic blogging.

Its pretty degrading that I let product placement, music and boys make The Hills seem actually worth talking about, but I'm aware of that, so its fine yeah?

Whatever...!!!

X

Media Writing thing for uni. x

Music that you listen to at/or has a different affect at a certain time.

Friendly Fires- ipod on the way to Uni!

Hearing is the odd one out of all the senses. Unlike smell, taste and vision it isn’t based on a series of chemical reactions but it relies completely on physical movement to exist. This is similar to my need for Friendly Fires, which without these moments of longing to dance, it might just not have such a strong existence. However when its 8.35 on a Wednesday morning the general public may not be overly casual about walking past a dancing student when the only sounds they are experiencing are the continuous groans of the morning traffic, unaware of the treats that my ipod is dishing out.

Its my shoulders that are the first to go. The sound spills into my head like the sweet misty aroma of sizzling bacon drawing you out of bed. My head fills with visions of shapes and colours as I fight the urge to shuffle and wiggle down the street like a cast member from a west end musical. My eyes are forced to awaken as I make the journey from my warm cosy house through the crisp autumn streets.

Track 4 of the genius self titled debut is ‘White Diamonds’, which is where it all begins for me. My fingers want to click along with the sparkling metallic beats as they build up towards the chorus where I want to sing the melodies and harmonies to cover the mundane activities of an urban midweek morning. ‘ Skeleton Boy’ is another vibrant track where I feel inspired by singer Ed Macfarlane’s spectacular onstage gyrations that I recall vividly from their Glastonbury appearance this summer. The radiant video for the band’s most recent, and infectious single ‘Kiss of Life’ also includes some electrifying moves which alongside the paradise setting would make anyone want to crawl through the screen to team up.

So back to reality, I’m strolling along the paths covered with fallen leaves but I don’t feel the crunches underfoot. My headphones fog my senses as my hearing works overtime through the quirky romantic wonder ‘Photobooth’ which first appeared in the three track EP released in 2006. A doss of freedom and freshness pumps through my blood when its just me, the city streets and Friendly Fires. My fingers tap as they grip my books, my mouth awkwardly resists miming the words all the way to my crowded destination. Yet I am the only one who saunters on the empty pavements. I’m the only one awake.

Crystal Castles

They were on Skins so they must be cool, along with drugs and pre-marital sex of course.

OK, so I think this is an awesome photo, and I also think that CrimeWave is a bit of tune, but something does bother me about Crystal Castles. Something prevents me wanting to delve into them any deeper. I think its got something to do with the hype, and attitude that they surround themselves with, or that people around them create. At a discussion seminar/meeting type thing last night people were talking about Slipknot and instantly started talking about masks, image and identity, skimming hastily over the fact that they are, musically so distinctive and spot on at what they do. Slipknot have three drummers and six guitarists, not to mention a cult following to die for. Yet, ironically people outside that bubble struggle to move their conversation away from their appearance. A lad next to me in a very stylish CSS Tshirt explained that the music itself only makes up a pokey amount of who a band really are as artists, and that image can play a major part in the rest of that attraction. Crystal Castles are, to be brutally honest pretty average in my opinion, they've got some great electro/vaguely progressive choons, but nothing to write home (or blog about =S). However as they are pretty cutting edge in terms of fashion, photography etc and behave so badly on stage does that make them seem more relevant to music than they really are? Maybe a little bit. I mean where would Alice Cooper be without the face paints and would Elbow's audience change if they bought a running machine and some Crystal Castles Tshirts?

Dog Days Are Over

I just love that song, this mini post is actually an announcement that the summer of blog neglect is over, I'm going to post all the writing I do for Media Writing:Popular Music at uni, and also anything else I conjure up !

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

so that andy warhol was a bit of a **** then?

Factory Girl.

George Hickenlooper (Director)

Aaron Richard Golub (story)

Captain Mauzner (screenplay

Not a new movie, well 2006 but I've only just watched it, and wow it was so interesting. I love films with really intriguing context, and set in Andy Warhol's factory this story of the soaring and plumeting life of Edie Sedgwick, this film is laced with it. 

Its a chore to take your eyes of this film from start to finish, its art. 

Why do people turn their backs on the one person that really loves them?

And how do people maintain complete, malicious control over another?

I'll probs write a proper review of this soon, and some music, but a bit sleepy now.

x

Slumdog Millionaire.

Danny Boyle (director, and

Loveleen Tanden (India)

I went to see this film again because I thought my house mate NEEDED to see it, I think its a bit of a beauty.

So does a Slumdog become a millionaire?

The opening sequence is one of the most impressive I've seen in ages, and acts a real initial culture shock for the audience as we land in the slums of Mombai with the young brothers, Jamal and Salim Malik. The awards really should belong to these actors, the stars who really have been given the ultimate escape from the real tough life of India, they really were amazing. 

After being left tragically orphaned, our brothers stick together as a team, but the elder, Salim longs for power and looks for it in all the wrong places, dragging himself into trouble which haunts the film with danger and betrayal. His sibling never looses faith in him though, and is driven by his love for the lost and devastatingly beautiful Latika who risks becoming just another victim of patriarchal cruelty, but of course Jamal finds her and they begin the life they both longed for, in love and freedom. 

This is an awesome story of having nothing, but risking everything because you know in your heart that it is written, and your destiny will find you. (awwww)

But Jamal isn't interested in money, right?

I didn't really listen to all the hype leading up to Slumdog's release so maybe thats why I was so impressed, I think the people I went with the first time were expecting a bit more. 

What did you think?

I can't wait to see A Boat That Rocked, I think its going to own, I'll be doing allllll kinds of blogging about that little beast.

x

Maccabees - No Kind Words

Free Download from website. 

Thank you yummy musical friends.

After the "this is gonna be amazing" anticipation and hype as the tune dances its way onto your comp calms down you can hear No Kind Words for the haunting stunner this is, not in a jaw-dropping run around your room kind of way, but in a classic warm fuzzy but lump throaty Maccabees kind of way. A definate grower, but you'll be craving that echoing chorus after a couple of plays. Its maybe a little bit darker than the last album, but still infectiously approachable and awesomeeeeeeeeeeeee.

With a university tour in May I'm pretty determined to get my hands on some dollar for ticketage, don't sell out or I'll quite possibly cry. 

I just found this in an interview with the Maccabees lead singer Orlando Weeks. 

You were on the recent NME rock n roll riot tour due to a reputation for a great live act, but also, compared to the other bands on the line up, you wrote songs that actually mean something, other than just singing about having a good time.
It’s true for us, but I don’t think it needs to hold true for everyone. As long as you write a song about an experience that’s worth telling, that’s the main thing.

How lovely!

x

Silly String Partys are the way forward.

So much fun. Not as harsh on the hair as it sounds either. x

Soooo

Dissertation Topic chosen, going for Sylvia Plath and focusing on imagery like metaphors, similes and all that shizzzz...Oh my God Ariel is amazing. How did I not realise this before?

These are my hands

My knees.

I may be skin and bone,

Nevertheless, I am the same, identical woman.

The first time it happened I was ten.

It was an accident.

The second time I meant

To last it out and not come back at all.

I rocked shut.

Lady Lazarus. 

I'm gonna do the Bell Jar Though, hope I don't get too sad writing it.

x

I've still not been caught

Headlights, motorways in the night,

birthday candles, clinking glasses.

Silence falls and your ears are aching,

the room is full but your all alone.

You wonder when the sense will be made

and if its caught on camera.

The violent streak has left a hole in the wall

your searching for the life

without a single clue. 

The Ting Tings

Portsmouth Guildhall

March 4th 2009

So Ting Tings, whatevz yeah? Even though thanks to "Shut up and let me go" they are a bit Location Location Location -backing-music, but as an unexpected dancing session for me it was ace!

Ladyhawke support was very cool, pretty captivating actually. 

Thanx to simple, stylish stage design, of spy cameras and backdrop moving image, and actually really great musicians the Ting's set was wicked. Songs like We Walk, and Great DJ had everyone moving and an acoustic version of Be the One revealing the lushness of the voices in this band. I dunno well it gave me the tingles anyway.

Boys are weird

Whatever

Hanger enlightenment!!

If a boy scores the winning goal in a high school football tournament, he is a legend to all his class mates and could probably take a pick from any girl with highlights and Maybellene Dream Matte Mouse Foundation. The euphoric scene of him being held up by a sea of blue and white stripy shirts is a great and accessible example of how the world we have created can make people happy, and in this case, 'the man'! 

The establishment of money can give people Jacuzzis and remote controls but it also brings interest rates, and debt which has been known to provoke some pretty nasty manic depression. Nothing kills soul like poverty, just ask Elizabeth Bennet about her tough decisions. 

In addition University can educate, improve and churn out some of the best relationships in a person's life. It can leave others feeling alienated undermined and well skint. 

The complex web of 21st century human existence has established opportunities for people to be proud, egotistical and elated. It has also given us the possibility of being dragged through a cloud of quite the opposite, just take the antitheses of the orgasmic affects of heroin against the catastrophic impact the monster has on lives everyday, for a chilling example. If this was a rhetorical piece of (pretty pointless) writing I would have put the positive tripling last, but this is no propaganda. I'm merely pointing out the fascinating weight our lives are laced with. 

Is depression a result of understanding this too well? Or not well enough? And if unhappiness has to exist if anyone ever wishes to appreciate the positive parts of life then are unhappy people just making up all the good and beauty in the world? 

I would write a novel about this, but I've got a lecture. 

And I'm actually really happy by the way. 

The Reader

How Far Would You Go To Keep A Secret?

Do you ever wonder what people have done in their pasts? 

What is left unsaid, what they might be hiding?

This story maps the devastatingly radical affect one person can have on another. Our character's affair only lasted one summer, yet Hannah's impact on Michael was life changing. Issues of morality and justice make the depths of this film unmeasurable, impenetrable, and timeless. The Reader does not claim to answer all of the questions it raises with a simple tangible answer, but explores them with thought provoking elegance that is a joy to watch.

Kate Winslet achieved exceptional realism without avoiding a pimple or wrinkle, her performance brought life to this story and breath to a cold and complex character, enhancing the sinister irony and manipulation that lies in the excellent screenplay. Which however, I did find a bit weak in parts, some of the dialogue was distracting and waffly, maybe, perhaps a little..I don't know!

Any film which sparks discussion about the world around us not just costume or cinematography should be applauded. 

I'm going to find the book and hope there is an appendix. I need to know more about the story.

I really want to see Revolutionary Road as well. 

Awesome.

guided tours

guided tours 

hearing aids

walking stick

i’ll sit. 

i’ll dwell.

I’ll never grow up

keep me fat

keep me quiet

keep me worthless

secret safety

I didn’t want to open up or confide

the secrets are safe with me

I’ll lock away this shame inside 

let it burn and pine and punish me

This is all temporary and so are you

its a drop of frosty winter rain

under the bridge of nowhere one and two

i don’t trust you with my pain

oh yeah and um..

boys are mean

mind reader

Its not like I'm asking for the world

I'm just asking for the key to it

the know how

i want to tell the future

I want to read your mind

I don't want to live forever

I don't want your ins and outs

I've gotta get out of here

I've gotta get in there

Its not like I'm asking for the world

I'm just asking for the key to it