Monday, November 12, 2007
The 'Troubled Diva' John Barrowman interview
Come on, read it! You know you want to! (BUT BEWARE!!! ***minor Doctor Who season 4 spoiler...***)
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Updated Buffy book list
My sidebar list of Buffy-related materials has been updated (and I may have forgotten something so may yet be updated again!)
Rachel is back...
... with a cracking post on the voices of the net. She's been in debate with Andrew Keen and Microsoft on Richard Bacon's FiveLive radio show.
Nice to see Rachel back on the internet as capable as ever of sparking debate and thought: she's had a rough time for too, too long.
Nice to see Rachel back on the internet as capable as ever of sparking debate and thought: she's had a rough time for too, too long.
Sunday, November 04, 2007
To try and cheer me... here's my lovely dress I bought in Lincoln
The photos don't really do justice, but that about sums up my days at the moment...
On the upside, ssh, but Blogger is now letting me save draft posts and upload pictures again....
My CD /DVD driver appears to have packed up
****SOB****
I now dare not use the computer to load tracks to iTunes, play music or burn anything.
****SOB****
I now dare not use the computer to load tracks to iTunes, play music or burn anything.
****SOB****
Saturday, November 03, 2007
Arcade Fire Review: 31 Oct 2007, Nottingham Arena
The full review of Arcade Fire at Nottingham Arena is here at the new music blog set up by lovely George.
Just to say here that we had an incredible time and that the delight of patting Win Butler on the shoulder to say thanks for such a great gig was awesome! I was very chuffed to get a nice new t-shirt as well, even if by the end it was as shoogy (I meant soggy!) as if I had got caught in a rainstorm!
And Cloud wore a great T-shirt too!
Just to say here that we had an incredible time and that the delight of patting Win Butler on the shoulder to say thanks for such a great gig was awesome! I was very chuffed to get a nice new t-shirt as well, even if by the end it was as shoogy (I meant soggy!) as if I had got caught in a rainstorm!
And Cloud wore a great T-shirt too!
Friday, November 02, 2007
TV recommendation: Shooting the Past (Saturday 3 November 2007)
Poliakoff is an acquired taste, but Shooting the Past remains one of my favourites of his works. With the divine Lindsay Duncan (god, I love that woman so much) and the utterly wonderful Liam Cunningham... and its about photography and histories... what could be better?
Thanks Mark (TV Today) for the tip off: though I do have it on DVD...
Thanks Mark (TV Today) for the tip off: though I do have it on DVD...
Best titled post of the day
Eine Kleine Rob wins this for a real gem:
Then they came for Ann Coulter and I did not speak up because I was too busy organising the street party
What we did this week: A Very British Coup
Cloud says it well for part 1. A Very British Coup remains a thrilling dramatic ride.
If there is any justice, a 20th anniversary DVD edition will come out next year.
When Perkins makes his national broadcast.... oooh, it makes me have chills just thinking about what happens in the studio!
If there is any justice, a 20th anniversary DVD edition will come out next year.
When Perkins makes his national broadcast.... oooh, it makes me have chills just thinking about what happens in the studio!
Thursday, November 01, 2007
New Music Blog and Arcade Fire review
Just to let you know, we had an utterly awesome time seeing Arcade Fire last night (despite the knob-end pillock who nearly drove the band to cease the gig when he threw something directly at Win Butler that hit him in the face*).
There will be a review - hopefully with some of Neil's pictures - but it may be first appearing as an exclusive on the new music blog: Music Is Our Hot Hot Sex.
Am sure you will enjoy book-marking the new site anyway, which was set up by the lovely George. So far there's a couple of gig reviews and a piece on music radio for your delectation. We're working on the sidebars etc, so stay with us!
* The NME review online is just plain inaccurate on this matter though. The review will say how so.
There will be a review - hopefully with some of Neil's pictures - but it may be first appearing as an exclusive on the new music blog: Music Is Our Hot Hot Sex.
Am sure you will enjoy book-marking the new site anyway, which was set up by the lovely George. So far there's a couple of gig reviews and a piece on music radio for your delectation. We're working on the sidebars etc, so stay with us!
* The NME review online is just plain inaccurate on this matter though. The review will say how so.
Work, blah, blah
ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sadly, not even the uplift of Arcade Fire has managed to stop today being utterly excessively busy and exhausting.
Sadly, not even the uplift of Arcade Fire has managed to stop today being utterly excessively busy and exhausting.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
The Hen Shuffle: a Shuffleathon 2007 review
I'm going with the standby reviewing format of track by track. This is not least because at first glance I've not heard of most of the artistes, let alone the songs. That's brilliant as I always like to find new stuff.
With a cracking drum intro, the Hen Shuffle kicks off with a real bang - and a clear statement of intent. "I've done all the dumb things". That would be Australian icon Paul Kelly's work. I'm in quite an upbeat mood from this and a fairly self-reflecting and defiant one too.
We then move onto a slower paced but equally percussion driven track with "That's When I think of you" by 1927. Hmmm. I'm beginning to spot another trend here: there's a distinct antipodean flavour to these tracks! Hey, that's well cool given that this house of Rullsenberg and Roberts has considerable links with the southern hemisphere via Neil's family in NZ and so many friends in Australia.
Right: we now have a piano introduced track - and here comes that cracking percussion again! Woo-hoo! And more than that, this has the sort of lyrics that I just feel SOOOO in-tune with. "I will not go quietly": now doesn't that title just ooze Rullsenberg bolshie-ness!? So with a big hands in the air whoop, I hereby declare that this Southern hemisphere inflected collection is hitting the spot. This track will certainly get airplay in the house on a VERY regular basis. Well done Whitlams.
Onto the next and the pace keeps upward with a mid-tempo, cymbal crack sentiment. There's a real sense of being jollied along here with some carefully thought-through selections. Even with the (male) perspective on life, there's something so affirming about the tunes and lyrics that you can't help but be swept along. So thank you Custard for your "Girls like that".
And now as we start towards the middle zone, there's a definite slowing of pace and its here that we get the softer familiar voices of Savage Garden: with lyrics speaking more directly to a female recipient, we have the tenderness of "Crash and Burn". I certainly think I know of several people who will appreciate these lines:
Opening with soft guitar plucking under quirkily half-sung/spoken lyrics, later picking up a slow percussive beat, we now take a very different route. And then we get some jazzy trumpet playing come in: oooh, this is kinda funky! So I get introduced to yet another new band in The Cat Empire and their uplifting "The Crowd". Very nice indeed!
It's a long way in but there it is: a female voice. Welcome Missy Higgins with "Ten Days"! This reminds me very much of someone else but I can't quite make the link - there's elements of the voice of Raissa but not quite. But there's a lovely strings interlude here and everyone here knows how I'm a sucker for the use of strings in pop music.
Again, it's a mid-to-slow paced burner with Hunter and Collectors' "Throw Your Arms Around me" (video here). Again there is the familiar and reasurring drive of a percussive sound and yet another melancholic desire in the lyrics. Overall, I get a sense of longing from this collection - a defiance but also deeply romantic character, acutely aware of relationships, change, unrequited emotions... Of course, that may not be the case at all - hell I have a real penchant for the same... hmm, that may not actually refute my interpertation...
Moving on, we next have a soothing electronica shuffling track by George "Breathe in Now". I especially like the female voice of Katie Noonan. Hmmm: that's throwing my iTunes as I have two other tracks by a band called George from the Pickled Egg collection Jar. Let's just try that out: yep, that voice sounds familiar! Yeah! Brilliant: I already have something by these people.
And so we come to the final track: John Williamson's "True Blue" - a more than heart on sleeve and wryly humoured pean to Australian-ness.
So how has this collection been received in the Rullsenberg house? Very well. Pretty much all the tracks on here will get good rotational airplay, with perhaps only the Missy Higgins track striking a less than fully memorable bullseye. But I can definitely say that the Whitlams track will be well-circulating in recommendations and I'll also be following up on artistes to get more of their work.
Thank you Suburban Hen. A big hit!
With a cracking drum intro, the Hen Shuffle kicks off with a real bang - and a clear statement of intent. "I've done all the dumb things". That would be Australian icon Paul Kelly's work. I'm in quite an upbeat mood from this and a fairly self-reflecting and defiant one too.
We then move onto a slower paced but equally percussion driven track with "That's When I think of you" by 1927. Hmmm. I'm beginning to spot another trend here: there's a distinct antipodean flavour to these tracks! Hey, that's well cool given that this house of Rullsenberg and Roberts has considerable links with the southern hemisphere via Neil's family in NZ and so many friends in Australia.
Right: we now have a piano introduced track - and here comes that cracking percussion again! Woo-hoo! And more than that, this has the sort of lyrics that I just feel SOOOO in-tune with. "I will not go quietly": now doesn't that title just ooze Rullsenberg bolshie-ness!? So with a big hands in the air whoop, I hereby declare that this Southern hemisphere inflected collection is hitting the spot. This track will certainly get airplay in the house on a VERY regular basis. Well done Whitlams.
Onto the next and the pace keeps upward with a mid-tempo, cymbal crack sentiment. There's a real sense of being jollied along here with some carefully thought-through selections. Even with the (male) perspective on life, there's something so affirming about the tunes and lyrics that you can't help but be swept along. So thank you Custard for your "Girls like that".
And now as we start towards the middle zone, there's a definite slowing of pace and its here that we get the softer familiar voices of Savage Garden: with lyrics speaking more directly to a female recipient, we have the tenderness of "Crash and Burn". I certainly think I know of several people who will appreciate these lines:
When you feel all aloneKeeping that tone of offering one's self to the beloved, we have the even gentler musical constructions of Crowded House: "Fall at your feet". Again, there is the echo of an offer of caring attention that may not go anywhere but where the love is given in endless hope of something more. Yeah, we have all seen that...
And the world has turned its back on you
Give me a moment please
To tame your wild wild heart
Let me be the one you call
If you jump I'll break your fall
Lift you up and fly away with you into the night
If you need to fall apart
I can mend a broken heart
If you need to crash then crash and burn
You're not alone
Opening with soft guitar plucking under quirkily half-sung/spoken lyrics, later picking up a slow percussive beat, we now take a very different route. And then we get some jazzy trumpet playing come in: oooh, this is kinda funky! So I get introduced to yet another new band in The Cat Empire and their uplifting "The Crowd". Very nice indeed!
It's a long way in but there it is: a female voice. Welcome Missy Higgins with "Ten Days"! This reminds me very much of someone else but I can't quite make the link - there's elements of the voice of Raissa but not quite. But there's a lovely strings interlude here and everyone here knows how I'm a sucker for the use of strings in pop music.
Again, it's a mid-to-slow paced burner with Hunter and Collectors' "Throw Your Arms Around me" (video here). Again there is the familiar and reasurring drive of a percussive sound and yet another melancholic desire in the lyrics. Overall, I get a sense of longing from this collection - a defiance but also deeply romantic character, acutely aware of relationships, change, unrequited emotions... Of course, that may not be the case at all - hell I have a real penchant for the same... hmm, that may not actually refute my interpertation...
Moving on, we next have a soothing electronica shuffling track by George "Breathe in Now". I especially like the female voice of Katie Noonan. Hmmm: that's throwing my iTunes as I have two other tracks by a band called George from the Pickled Egg collection Jar. Let's just try that out: yep, that voice sounds familiar! Yeah! Brilliant: I already have something by these people.
And so we come to the final track: John Williamson's "True Blue" - a more than heart on sleeve and wryly humoured pean to Australian-ness.
So how has this collection been received in the Rullsenberg house? Very well. Pretty much all the tracks on here will get good rotational airplay, with perhaps only the Missy Higgins track striking a less than fully memorable bullseye. But I can definitely say that the Whitlams track will be well-circulating in recommendations and I'll also be following up on artistes to get more of their work.
Thank you Suburban Hen. A big hit!
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Shuffleathon 2007 - sent and received!
Well, I now know that despite the best efforts of a delayed UK postal service, the CD I sent in for Swiss Toni's Shuffleathon 2007 has been received. [There's a regularly updated table at the end of this post].
And now I get home and find my gift CD also safely arrived! Hurrah!
A review will be duly posted when I've had chance to fully the goody bag sent to me!
And now I get home and find my gift CD also safely arrived! Hurrah!
A review will be duly posted when I've had chance to fully the goody bag sent to me!
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)