// August 2007
Readers Wifes – Gaslight
It’s been a few years in coming, but finally the Readers Wifes are about to release their debut album “Gaslight” on the 10th September via all the usual digital download outlets. And – without wanting to over-egg the pudding – it’s a bit of a corker.
The title sums it up perfectly. It’s an album of murky light and dark shadow, the sort of palette that seems perfectly suited to describing both the dangerous back-streets of Victorian London and a world of grim 1960s/70s squats, and that’s a feel that pervades the album through and through.
It’s also a quintessentially English affair, the sort of thing the Pet Shop Boys might come up with if they became punks and swapped their irony and bittersweet melancholy for songs about dangerous sex, sleaze and self-hatred.
Former single “Nostalgia” (featuring Justin Bond of Kiki and Herb fame in fine scandal-mongering form) is a highlight, with its gossipy anecdotes of Candy Darling’s and Charles Hawtrey’s last days. It also features probably my favourite lead-out of a track ever. Similarly “Boy Ain’t Right” is a brilliantly punchy, scathing track with a rolling disco beat with echos of Divine’s “You Think You’re a Man” and “25 Floors” is possessed of an irresistible saw-tooth disco-octave bassline.
There’s a few rockier, more mosh-pit styled tracks in the mix too. The punchy “Black Silk Stocking” and the list-based sleaze of “Gays In Suits” are probably the least interesting parts of the album for me, but the formula works brilliantly on “Cheap Dress” which features a surprisingly angelic ending.
There’s some more delicate arrangements here too like “Shiner”, whose disturbing lyrics are belied by a languorous delivery. There’s also the sensitive and battered feeling of “The Women who Went to the Chair” and the paean to lost youth that is “16″ (although for me this is by far my least favourite track).
All of this is book-ended by two simply lovely tracks: “I Love You at 200,000 Feet” feels something like a slowed down “Light Years” with its pulsing bass and twinkly arpeggios; and the final track: “Weekend Colder, Brighter” feels like stepping into the dawn of a new day after a night of serious excess and heartbreak. For an album which seems so bitter at times, the hesitant hope of this track is a really nice touch.
To be honest, Gaslight is easily one of the two best albums to be released in what has been a fairly barren summer pop-wise.
Posted on August 26, 2007 | Filed Under Pop Music | 0 Comments
Charity Ends at Home
In the wake of the new television was the question of what to do with the old one. It is, after all, in perfect working order – it’s just surplus to requirements. So Chris decided to give it to a charity shop for them to do what they will with it. It should, we considered, raise a few quid for someone.
Turns out however, that none of them (or at least any within easy staggering distance) will take it. Electrical goods have become a no-no it seems since they require a certificate of electrical somethingorother to be sold again so it’s just easier for them not to bother.
Same was true when our old furniture got taken away from the old flat. We had to make sure they all had fire-retardancy labels or they wouldn’t be taken – and of course that huge tag is usually one of the first things to have its string cut.
So, despite our best intentions it looks like the TV is just going to have to go outside the block with a “it works” label on it in order to get nicked, rather than raising money for a good cause.
It’s getting so you can’t even try to do your bit for charity these days.
Unless you’re being chugged on the street, of course.
Posted on August 26, 2007 | Filed Under Musings, My So-Called Life | 3 Comments
Vision On
Following our move to wireless broadband, the latest technological leap-forward at the Lemon and Panda Free House (otherwise known as Chris and Mine) has occurred. BT Vision has been ordered and we now have a widescreen HD-ready flatscreen television.
The latter, it has to be said, was particularly important since our old CRT box was somewhat precariously balanced in the only available space and was thus in constant danger of going all “Curse of Peladon” on our asses.
So… the new telly arrived on Saturday and – as with the previous setup – I let Chris plumb it all in. He activated its internal Freeview receiver, tuned it in and gave it a whirl… only to find that ITV, Channel 4 (and all their offspring) and BBC3 and BBC4 weren’t receivable. Or if they were they were only so for about thirty seconds a time.
This wasn’t good news. For me the whole point of having Freeview is for BBC3 and BBC4, plus we wanted digital Channel 4 because our analogue reception was lousy and interfered with Hollyoaks. Without these our plans for having BT Vision were in jeopardy since it doesn’t actually pipe any freeview services through the hub, just its own channels.
We may, we realised with horror, have to get cable. Which would mean a separate supplier and everything.
As it turns out however, it’s just that I shouldn’t let Chris do anything technical. On a quick visit to B&Q I picked up a new co-ax lead just in case the existing frayed one was exacerbating the problem. And, whilst Chris lurked in his bedroom (on either World of War or DudesNude – it’s hard to tell), I examined the aerial point.
It seems our existing aerial lead was plugged into a socket marked “FM”. This was presumably because the one marked “TV” had an obviously different connector, but I had an inkling that I knew what the problem was, and so I slammed the new lead into the TV slot with a gender-changer attached.
Suddenly both analogue and Freeview sprang to perfect glorious – not to mention stable – life, and I felt a mixture of insufferable smugness and relief that actually everything could go ahead with BT as planned.
Naturally I then wandered (with my usual caution) into Chris’ bedroom and told him the good news, although I will confess that this was an announcement mixed with a certain amount of ribbing. After all, the whole cause of our reception issues over the last month was his inability to cope with an opposite gender.
Quell Surprise.
Posted on August 22, 2007 | Filed Under Battles with Technology, My So-Called Life | 3 Comments
Snogging Quicksilver
My iGoogle home page served up my daily star sign today as usual (well, I usually find them diverting in a “yeah, right” sort of way) but the opening line this morning was particularly unusual I thought:
“Your key planet Venus receives a thoughtful kiss from intelligent Mercury”
I’ve got to say, a full-on tongue-lock with intelligent Mercury sounds like a scene worthy of Doctor Who in my opinion.
It’s probably being RTD’d even as I type…
Posted on August 17, 2007 | Filed Under Film, TV, Theatre, Musings | 0 Comments
File under: Self-Awareness (Lack Of)
Much has been made in the news about Billie Piper’s distressing episode of blindness the other night, which it is thought was finally triggered by the flashbulbs used by the paparazzi.
Apparently there’s a suggestion that the problem may have started during a shoot earlier with celeb-snapper Rankin, but it was later as the other bulbs were going off that the problems really started, culminating in Piper being unable to open her eyes on Friday morning.
Which means that the Sun’s decision to run the story alongside ‘razi pictures of her distressed and weeping on the as she started suffering problems is at best a bit of an own-goal. Still, what did you expect from The Sun, eh? A sense of personal responsibility and self awareness? Nah.
Still, Billie’s going to be alright. Which is very good news indeed.
On a less positive note: Victoria Newton’s Bizarre – a grubby little column where the title is probably the only consistently accurate item – is still going strong.
Posted on August 11, 2007 | Filed Under Film, TV, Theatre, The World we Live In | 0 Comments
Of Work, Quizzes and Reduced Alcoholism.
Yes, yes, I know I’ve been a bit remiss in posting of late, but it’s been all go, I tell you.
I’ve started a new job, you see (or rather been enticed back to my old one) which has been occupying my thoughts more than anything else of late I must confess. So I’m now back in the exciting world of client reporting and busy rebranding / amending documentation, rewriting training materials and – only a week and half after joining – presenting training courses to clients.
Lord, I’d missed the training. I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed it actually.
And all told I’m feeling much more relaxed than I have done in quite some time actually. Which is evident from the fact my skin is starting to look less haggard and that my desire for alcohol has somewhat reduced. (In fact on many days I’m down to half what I used to tank away.)
The Vauxhall Griffin quiz is still going strong too. In fact, spurred on by a £300 jackpot the last two weeks (which is still to be won) and improved bonus prizes the number of attendees has increased hugely. In fact we had twenty teams on Tuesday which is unheard of. Admittedly controlling that size of audience is trickier and makes the marking a bit more fraught, but to be part of such a success is rather gratifying (and of course the pub’s happy because they’re raking it in).
So, if you’re not up to owt else on Tuesday night, why not pop along? Get there before 7:30 is my advise. I know we don’t start till eight but at this rate you won’t get a table otherwise.
And I can heartily recommend the food too. (Last orders for which are at 7:30.)
Posted on August 11, 2007 | Filed Under Health and Fitness, My So-Called Life | 0 Comments