Albums of 2010

Favourite albums of 2010. In no particular order...

Joanna Newsom 'Have One On Me'

Baths 'Cerulean'

Beach House 'Teen Dream'

Deerhunter 'Halcyon Digest'

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti 'Before Today'

Wavves 'King of the Beach'

Caribou 'Swim'

Winter Wonderland

Demonstrate

A collection of photographs gathered from across the internet of the recent student protests in London ...

7"

Clearing out the loft space and I came across a beautiful sight...

Christmas came early! I'm now in the process of cleaning and listening to each one. There's loads of Motown classics in there. Love the Motown sleeves...

I might be able to break into the competitive Wedding DJ circuit with this lot. I've already dug out some real gems. Among my favourites...

Linda Lewis - It's In His Kiss...

Petula Clark - The Other Man's Grass (Is Always Greener)...

Visionaries

Whispered secrets of a shattered age, I summon you: renew this sage

Draw upon the breath of stars, And scorch the skies with fiery scars

Three suns aligned pour forth their light, And fill the archer's bow with might

Sheathe these feet in the driving gale, Make swift these legs o'er land I sail

A whim, a thought, and more is sought, Awake my mind; thy will be wrought

By warmth of heart, your pain I feel, Grant me the power, your wounds to heal

Snow

The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of a world and wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment then where is it to be found?

J. B. Priestley

Ice Scene (1610) by Hendrick Avercamp

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.

John Ruskin

Change

It's out of laziness, I suppose, that the world looks the same day after day. Today it seemed to want to change. And in that case anything, anything could happen.

Jean-Paul Sartre, Nausea

Roofless

Having some work done in the loft at the moment and they've taken the roof off.

Oh and the gas metre has decided it doesn't want to work anymore. Its had enough.

Cold? No, I leave the house at 12am every night and get on the N44 night bus for a few hours or so, just long enough to get a bit of sleep and to soften the numbing in my hands.

Daytimes are better. Sometimes I visit Battersea dogs home. I have to pretend I want to rescue a dog and they let me in the cage for a while to stroke it and to see if we bond. I can't take the dogs home but it's nice to have a little cuddle for a bit. The older, more disheveled ones tend to be the warmest. But then they also seem to be sadder when I leave.

I'm not proud of myself, but needs must.

Something Else

By Rick Moranis

...that

101 expressions to use before "that"...

1. accepts that
2. affirms that
3. alleges that
4. argues that
5. asserts that
6. asseverates that
7. assumes that
8. assures that
9. attests that
10. avers that
11. avows that
12. bears in mind that
13. believes that
14. claims that
15. clarifies that
16. comments that
17. comprehends that
18. conceives that
19. concludes that
20. confirms that
21. conjectures that
22. considers that
23. contends that
24. declares that
25. deduces that
26. deems that
27. demonstrates that
28. discerns that
29. elucidates that
30. emphasizes that
31. espouses the view that
32. evinces that
33. explains that
34. explicates that
35. expounds that
36. expresses that
37. gathers that
38. has no doubt that
39. has the view that
40. hints that
41. holds that
42. hypothesizes that
43. illustrates that
44. imagines that
45. implies that
46. indicates that
47. infers that
48. insinuates that
49. insists that
50. intimates that
51. is aware that
52. is certain that
53. is convinced that
54. is of the opinion that
55. is resolved that
56. is swayed that
57. judges that
58. maintains that
59. marks that
60. mentions that
61. notes that
62. observes that
63. opines that
64. perceives that
65. points out that
66. posits that
67. postulates that
68. presumes that
69. proclaims that
70. proffers that
71. professes that
72. pronounces that
73. proposes that
74. propounds that
75. proves that
76. reckons that
77. realizes that
78. reasons that
79. recognizes that
80. reiterates that
81. relates that
82. remarks that
83. responds that
84. says that
85. speculates that
86. spells out that
87. states that
88. stresses that
89. submits that
90. suggests that
91. supposes tha
92. surmises that
93. takes it for granted that
94. testifies that
95. theorizes that
96. thinks that
97. understands that
98. urges that
99. utters that
100. verifies that
101. writes that

Zipangu Film Festival

Spiral has been selected to be screened at Zipangu Festival this Wednesday 24th, 7.15pm at Cafe 1001 just off Brick Lane. Come!

Last Stop

Living at the end of the Northern Line means that I have the pleasure of always, without fail, getting a seat. Not just any old seat, oh no, second carriage from the end, last seat on the left, next to the pane of glass. My seat.

Although comfortably seated, the downside of living at the end of the line is that my journey lasts longer than most.

But then there’s also the benefit that I can fall asleep on the way home without missing my stop. I may be vulnerable to being laughed at, robbed, sexually assaulted, having my shoelaces tied together etc., but at least I can feel safe in the knowledge that if I fall asleep I won't miss my stop.

That’s because there’s always a fellow passenger who is more than eager to nudge a stranger awake. Just a little tap of the knee is all it takes to save an individual the hassle of finding their way home from the opposite side of London in the middle of the night. A gentle little tap o’ the knee, that works well. A short, sharp prod into the rib cage isn’t so good.

I’ve seen these people in action. Over the years, during the countless hours of pulling into Morden Station that I’ve endured, I’ve had a chance to study these curious individuals and put together somewhat of a ‘case study’. I shan’t bore you with that now but I will take this opportunity to note some general observations.

They begin ‘Operation Wake Up’ innocently enough, clocking their target, their personal little Sleeping Beauty, from across the carriage. Then they deftly maneuver themselves into the optimum position, choosing the exit that will take them directly past their target. With a quick little tap and a sympathetic smile, they soothingly pronounce the words ‘last stop’.

Unfortunately, the "thank you" that they so desperately yearn for, the "Oh, wayfaring stranger, how kind of you to wake me up, how unlike most other inhabitants of this sprawling metropolis you are. Come, let us dine together and it will be the beginning of a fruitful and decade-spanning friendship between kindred spirits!", that reaction seldom comes.

Instead the reaction is quite the opposite, the awoken traveler is more likely to "tut" with annoyance than to show any sort of gratitude. For the first few seconds of waking up on the tube are disorientating to say the least and there are questions that demand answering, like "where am I? And why the fuck did that pervert just touch my leg!"

Wish List

So it's approaching that time of year again. Just to make people's lives a little easier I've taken my sisters advice and compiled a Wish List on Amazon.

Feel free to get me whatever's on the list. A few of you might want to club together and get me something better. To be honest, rather than you all getting me little things that aren't so good I'd prefer just one big thing. Even if it means I'll have less to open on Christmas day, that's cool...

My Wish List

If you decide to use a bit of initiative and get me something that's not on the list then that's great, I encourage that. But do keep hold of the receipt just in case.

Nutters

At any given moment, on any given carriage, there is a nutter on the Underground. It's said that in London you’re never more than five metres away from a rat. Well the same applies to nutters on the Underground.

Now, when that person is not immediately apparent and everyone seems relatively normal, I wonder whether on this particular carriage, at this particular moment, am I the nutter?

Do people look at me and question my sanity the same way I look at them and question theirs?

Perhaps they are wondering if being enclosed with me in a space fifty-metres below the ground requires an immediate rethink? Am I prone to spontaneously lashing out at innocent passengers? Or will I take a shit in an empty McDonalds bag before flinging it around the carriage? Maybe I’m one of those rare monsters that try to hold eye contact for longer than a split second before smiling in an all too innocent way.

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