Thursday, September 29, 2005

And the words that are used for to get the ship confused will not be understood as they're spoken

Oh the foes will rise
With the sleep still in their eyes
And they'll jerk from their beds and think they're dreamin'
But they'll pinch themselves and squeal
And they'll know that it's for real
The hour that the ship comes in.

Then they'll raise their hands
Saying we'll meet all your demands
But we'll shout from the bow your days are numbered
And like Pharaoh's tribe
They'll be drownded in the tide
And like Goliath, they'll be conquered.

When The Ship Comes In (1964)


You know when you can't stop playing the same song over and over, and you think you'll never get bored of it becasue it's so rich and beautiful and exciting. Well, at the moment, I'm like that about Bob Dylan's 'When The Ship Comes In' from The Times They Are A-Changin'. Above is written the final verse of said song, which I think is wonderful. My favourite line is 'But we'll shout from the bow your days are numbered'. It's so defiant, as is the entire song, but the way he phrases 'numbered' feels like he's poured all his anger into this one line. It's wonderful. All the more wonderful, because it was written after a clerk in a hotel snubbed him when he tried to pick up the booking for Joan Baez's room. Of course, I can imagine Bob looked a bit scruffy, and when he entered the hotel saying 'Does Joan Baez have a room here?', they were a bit suspicious. Little did they know she was waiting out in the car and had sent Bob in to see if they'd got the right hotel.

Thursday, September 22, 2005

All of your suggestions I keep in a box

I am addicted to Cricket 2005, which I bought for the PS2 the other day, but unfortunately, I'm not very good at it. Or it's very hard anyway. Anyone fancy a game?

I'd like to get back into doing Friday Night Movie again. We watched 'Harold And Maude' (1971) on Tuesday, which was great. I stop working at the pub in a week and a half, so will be free on Fridays again. We could do one this saturday, or next tuesday again.

Monday, September 19, 2005

Jarvis can't think of anything clever to say... and neither can I

I've updated my links on the right, needed a bit of a change. Gone are some of the politics sites, particularly the ones relating to the election, in favour of Americana UK and the wonderful Richard Hawley (album's in the post!). I've also fucked off the Labour Party in favour of Ryan Adams, who's fucking great, and has a new album out on the 26th Sep (cheers Hugh!).

Also gone is 10 Downing Street, replaced by the English Cricket Board! Get in.

Newcastle F.C. and The Idler obviously retain their places (the former mainly because we finally managed a win yesterday - 3-0 at that!), as do Wikipedia and the Parliament site who are both wonderful and very loving to me. However, Anxiety Culture is looking shaky, and could face relegation soon (as soon as I can find a worthy promotion candidate).

Three posts in one day - a new record for me.

No name #1

The new Idler is out in October! And I've just noticed that Amazon do it for only £6.99 as opposed the normal £9.99. Get in! Can't wait. It's the money issue. For those of you who aren't aware of this magnificent publication, see the link on the right hand side of this page. And if you've completely forgotten what life is really all about, then read this

In the place where I have what it takes

I've got a gig at the Green Room on October 22nd. It's been a while since I've played live anywhere and I want to get back into it, some practice for when the band start playing gigs (although that won't be for a while yet). I'm looking forward to it. I'm really enjoying my songs at the moment, my most recent compositions.

It's two weeks today 'til I start full time work again, so I'm going to enjoy this enormous amount of free time I have at the moment. Well, I'm gonna watch some videos anyway. Have started reading some film books to get back into the academic practice. It was hard at first - y'know, that agitated feeling you get when the reading is really slow but you just have to accept that it's gonna takes ages to read two pages. It makes me think whether I'd be suited to an academic career. I get a real buzz out of the information and I think I'd really enjoy teaching it, but it does take me a long time to process all that info and understand it properly, and I'm very impatient. I suppose I'm better at the big picture as opposed to details, so this may mean my research skills are quite weak - does that disqualify me? Maybe, but I'm not too worried, I'm just looking forward to enjoying the subject for the next two years, then I can decide if I could it full time.

Over the past year or two, I've had an anxiety about time running away from me, and wanting to be on the right career path, but I'm finally beginning to enjoy the present, and not be thinking about the future too much. I don't think in terms of five year plans, so what's the point in worrying about something I can't see. I'm not sure I really believe my life should be about career progression, even though, at the same time, I'm quite ambitious (well, in an idealistic way). I want to achieve things, but it's more like events (making an album, finishing my book), not reaching some kind of plateau. It probably sounds like I've contradicted myself there, and I'm not sure it makes that much sense to me either, but hey, I'm running away from the original thought and can't seem to trace my way back...

Friday, September 16, 2005

"The early bird catches the fuckin' worm..."

I have a job. I am going to be a postman. I start in two weeks. This is good news. I will have money again. I can buy CDs again.

I should be able to do my MA with it too, which is one module, on wednesdays, but I may have to miss the screenings in the mornings. That's not a major problem, I can watch them on video. I'll be working a 30 hour week, 7am-1pm, 5 days a week (6am-12pm on Saturdays). It means I'll have my afternoons free to do uni work, or write songs, or write, or sleep.


PS The title is from a Bruce Springsteen song, 'My Best Was Never Good Enough' from the album The Ghost Of Tom Joad (1995). I'm listening to it now. One of my favourite Boss albums.

Thursday, September 15, 2005

Are you Scotland in disguise?

...we sang with glee! What a horrible insult, and what delight we took in hurling it upon the best cricket side in the world. Monday was a beautiful day. It was my first experience of a live test match, and of course, it was wonderful because it was the last day of the Ashes, the first England winning Ashes side since 1987, but also because I got to see one of the most magnificently brave and fearless innings played in Ashes history. To see Pietersen hit so many sixes with such ease (he certainly made it look easy) was extroardinary, given the kind of pressure the side was under.
There were a number of other wonderful moments throughout the day. Singing "Warney dropped the Ashes" to the brilliant spin bowler was lovely (as the clip of him dropping that catch from Pietersen was replayed throughout the day on the big screen), as well as witnessing the huge admiration Warne received from the crowd - he nearly got as much praise as Pietersen, I think he became a little embarrassed at one point ("There's only one Shane Warne", "We only wish you were English", "We love you Warney, we do..." etc.). The man truly is a legend.
Elsewhere, when Glenn McGrath came to our boundary, all we needed to sing was "5-0!, 5-0!, 5-0!" after his prediction of a series win of said score after Lord's. Very enjoyable. What was disappointing was hearing the very unimaginative shouts of "Oi Fatty!", "Wanker!", "Fat arse!" directed at Matthew Hayden when he came to the boundary, to which he replied, when McGrath got a wicket, by giving us the bird (a footballer could never have gotten away with that). Ponting soon moved him to a safer fielding position. He did the same with Tait, who, after making a terrible fielding mistake and then over throwing the ball, was applauded rapturously all day long by fans across from us on the off side. Every time he managed to successfully field a ball, a huge cheer went up from the fans. The poor guy.

What struck me when I first entered the ground (as I said, it was my first visit to a cricket match) was how close we were to the players. We were on the fourth row from the front, and Brett Lee was fielding right on the boundary. It was weird, he was so close. One guy was bantering with him, and Lee seemed to enjoy bantering back. Amazing. Nothing like a football match. On the subject of Brett Lee, I have to say that he was my Australian of the Series. I love the guy. So aggressive and competitive. A brilliant fielder, excellent with the bat, and devastating with the ball. HE also seems to have a really good attitude - that time he hit Strauss in the face and went up to see if he was ok, you've got to respect him. None of the England players ever did that, even went Ponting was bleeding from a fast ball.

It was a wonderful day. I'll never forget it.

Saturday, September 10, 2005

The fate of man is random so don't look down

Listening to:

Richard Hawley - Late Night Final

Scott Walker - Scott 3

The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin

Bright Eyes - Digital Ash In A Digital Urn


The cricket is definitely gonna go to five days and the weather forecast for monday is good so we shall be watching cricket at The Oval on the final day of the Ashes! Come on!

It is stupendously rubbish being a Newcastle fan. There's nothing good about it. Nothing.

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Tonight I am a child

Justice is done! Anthony & The Johnsons win Mercury Music Prize!

Was very pleased (and surprised) to see 'I Am A Bird Now' win said award.


Had a band practice last night with Rob and new addition to the lineup, Marshall. Andy was playing a bit of slide on his trad guitar, and very lovely it sounded too. However, I think in the future he's gonna bring his electric along, which I'm looking forward to.
Played my two new songs, which seemed to go down well. One of them is supremely depressing and the other rips off a Led Zeppelin song. Ho hum. We all agreed that we'd like to play live sometime in the future, so keep your ear to the ground, the story is in the soil.

Disappointing news... Cripple Creek 2 has been postponed. Got a message from the Lescar, they've have to change our date due to "unforeseen circumstances", and the nearest date is 22nd November. Bit annoying, never mind.

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

The domination of the executive

I've decided to do the MA in Film part time. I had been accepted onto the course on a full time basis, but wasn't going to bother doing it because i didn't sort any funding out in time. But if I do it part time (1 module per semester), I'll stretch out the fees so it won't be so expensive. Now all I need to do is find a job, which is proving more difficult than I thought. I even went to the lighting shop I used to work at to see if they had any vacancies, but alas, they do not (probably a good thing really). I've got an appointment with another agency this morning, but it seems there isn't much around at the moment.

However, deciding to do the MA, even though it's only part time, has given me some hope, no matter how false. I was thinking last night that it is quite a false hope, because I am merely comforted by the structure given to me by the academic year; it makes me feel directed somewhere. But even if I am lying to myself, I'm happy to be duped for a while - it's better than feeling aimless. And it is a good thing for me, to get my brain moving again, something that is going to challenge me.

Sunday, September 04, 2005

Our hearts are growing old

I had wandered onto the beach without realising where I was. The wind was loud and heavy, swirling into my face. I turned around quickly, anxious, thinking I had heard someone come up behind me, but it was a phantom. I looked up at the white houses that sat perched behind the cliff face, and felt colder. It was in the afternoon, and the time felt unfillable, as though I would never leave this beach. I let my weight tumble me down the sand banks, before slowing to an ambling pace towards the sea. The wind was whipping the sand at me, and my hair was collecting in the air. My feeling now was of the inevitability of my situation. I was free, and surely I had had a sense earlier of this accidental scenario happening, of the fate of my escape. The water was coming closer, my feet dampening from the wet sand, before the relief of the water colllecting around my toes. The sea receded. I stopped. I could walk along the beach, enjoy this sound for a little longer, but it would be too late by then. I would be found. I started to walk again. I tried to think of everything I had ever done, to collect it all around me, maybe it would help me float. The memories felt like arrows shooting into my chest as the water reached my waist, but I continued to accelerate the movement of my brain. They were flooding my head, but I couldn't stop. The water was at my neck. I tried to pull the arrows from my chest but as soon as I tried, another pierced my throat. Now I was struggling to stand, and soon the memories would collapse into me. I stuttered forward a few more steps and was gone.

Thursday, September 01, 2005

You are by far and away my most imaginary friend

Listening to:

* The Lemonheads - Car Button Cloth

* Anthony & The Johnsons - I am a bird now

* Arcade Fire - Funeral

* Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Abbatoir Blues/The Lyre Of Orpheus

* Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Let Love In

* Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Nocturama

* Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Henry's Dream

* Smog - A River Aint Too Much To Love


Enjoying the Cavester a lot at the moment, mainly due to the talk at Greenbelt devoted to him, which was, quite simply, a biography of his career. Fair enough.

I lied until I fit the bill. God bless the great indoors.