Cool days, music, hair cuts and what’s on telly.

The weather has finally settled itself down after a week of humid, sticky, but dark and damp weather. Today is sunny and cool, perfect!

 

I have finally been listening to more music. Most of it has been quite retro, as it always usually is for me. I can’t help being stuck in the 70’s/80’s/90’s. I hardly listen to any “new” music. The “newest” music on my rotation of play is Franz Ferdinand. So far it’s been revolving around Bjork and Eurythmics, with a bit of kd lang splashed in.

 

This is the Bjork song I can’t get enough of at the moment. There’s a line in it I just love…”Since we broke up, I’m using lipstick again. I suck my tongue, in remembrance of you.” How sexy is that?!

 

The Eurythmics stuff I’ve been listening to is Touch, and Touch Dance (an album of remixes of songs from the Touch album) and Revenge. Here’s my favourite song off the album (I love The Miracle of Love as well).

[youtube=http://youtu.be/KKFIAYQccKw]

I am fully in love with kd lang’s voice. The Cambridge Folk Festival was on over the weekend, and she played there. I SO would’ve loved to have gone, but the tickets were long sold-out and damn expensive anyway! The stuff on her most recent album sound as lovely as ever. She just does beautiful songs and has the voice of an angel. Her voice would make me do naughty things 🙂

 

Last artist on my rotation id Nick Lowe. Not a person I’d expect to have on my list of music at the moment. BBC Four showed a concert of his the other night and I watched it and really got into his music. I got his latest CD and have it in my playlist.

 

I’m going to cut and dye Em’s hair today. All the greys are coming out again! I should have my OWN hair cut now. I’d booked an appointment last week to get mine done, then I got man flu, thrush, then my period, so ended up cancelling the appointment. I’ll go this week though. I got myself some dye too. I’ll take a pic once my hair is cut and killed (dyed).

 

Just got through watching the 2nd series of Blackadder on DVD. There is something scarily sexy about Rowan Atkinson as Blackadder in the 2nd series. I SO love Tim McInnerny as Percy. He’s such a nonce! But you can’t help but feel sorry for him. Still got Brigadoon and Jekyll to watch.

 

The Tudors was back on Friday night. Yay! I hate to break it to the actress playing Anne Boleyn, but she doesn’t have much time left! Still, she’s got to have Elizabeth yet so I’m sure she’s in a few episodes to come.

 

The only other show that I’m into at the moment is Bonekickers. They’re making archaeology exciting! I’m sure it is for those directly involved in it. And of course, with it being fictional, there’s a bit of artist licence, so they are making discoveries that probably would not actually happen in real life.

 

I have to show up Em. For about the last 12 months or so, there has been an ad campaign for this “pure, filtered” milk called Cravendale. They have the most SURREAL ad campaign involving a Tour de France cyclist, a pirate and a cow?! Yes, I know! Anyway, the ads are stop-motion animation and they are growing on me. I couldn’t see why Em would get so much pleasure when these ads came on air, but over the last few months I’ve begun to see the appeal.

 

The premise of the ad (in case it escapes you) is that the cyclist, the pirate, and the cow wake up and want to have their morning glass of milk. The cow goes to the fridge to pour out 3 glasses of milk, but guess what? There’s only enough for one! NNNNNNOOOOOOO! So, they decide to have a game of musical statutes to determine who gets the glass of milk. The cyclist cheats by putting a paper cut-out of himself there, so in the meantime he can drink the glass of milk. Naughty cyclist! I love the pirates reaction when he realises he’s been robbed!

 

Here’s the other, which makes a little more sense once you’ve seen the first one.

The thing I love most is the cow. Why would a COW be craving milk THIS MUCH?! This second clip is much like how our trip to Hitchin was the other day! Except we didn’t end up in a milk truck, just a ditch!

Man Flu, Black Books and Casanova.

I’m already starting to get over my “man flu”, thank goodness! I know it’s hard to believe, but the weather has actually been hot of late and having man flu in the middle of a heat-wave is NOT fun! If you don’t believe me, I snapped this from the TV last night. This is today’s forecast!

Media_http1bpblogspot_osjfa

YES! That is a three and a zero, together, hovering over London!!!

I can hear titties outside!!! Yay!!! Titties are back!!!! Can you tell I love tits?

Anyway, I am already feeling better with my man flu, but I now have yet ANOTHER fungal infection and my boobs are red-raw, which isn’t fun in this weather either. I wouldn’t care if I only ever got to use it for 2 days a year, I SSSSSSOOOOOOO want air-con!

Just finished watching the 2nd series of Black Books last night and the 3rd is coming in the post today with the Casanova disc. Even MORE David Tennant to OD on! There was a special Doctor Who Prom on at the Albert Hall yesterday. It was broadcast on the radio with a little specially made clip played during the interval. Mr T wasn’t there himself, as he’s being Hamlet at RSC Stratford at the moment, but he was in the little specially commissioned clip. Radio listeners didn’t miss out as it was available on the official Doctor Who web site as well.


Lovely and interactive, must’ve been great fun for the kids there, believing The Doctor was talking to them all, too cute!!

All of series four is being repeated on BBC3 at the moment. Silence In The Library was on last night…that’s SSOO scary the way that ends with “Donna Noble has left the library. Donna Noble has been saved” repeated ad nauseam while a clan of Vashta Nerada (the dust in sunbeams – hidden in shadows) that have invaded a human body manoeuvre it chasing The Doctor and a group of archaeologists down the narrow halls of the library.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/9eg6PdFdAFg]


These episodes to come are my faves, the second part of this (Forest Of The Dead), Midnight and Turn Left, all brilliant.

Favourite Music Artist – X/Y/Z

I just thought I’d end it here. There’s not really enough artists in the X section to warrant a devoted post to. Anyway, here goes.

X – XTC
[youtube=http://youtu.be/S9gq-ANfjc0]

Senses Working Overtime

Y – You Am I
[youtube=http://youtu.be/kAdB-zRQdv8]

Forget It Sister (hidden bonus track on their album Hourly, Daily released in 1996)

Neil Young
[youtube=http://youtu.be/qVi0UvFu8Yo]

Harvest Moon

Weird Al Yankovic
[youtube=http://youtu.be/t2mU6USTBRE]

Fat

Z – Warren Zevon (only for this one song)
[youtube=http://youtu.be/MZa3EYWCY3w]

Werewolves Of London

Favourite Music Artist – W

Three here:

Wings (I’ve chosen Silly Love Songs as a sample)
[youtube=http://youtu.be/AK9QVN0bpa4]

Stevie Wonder (I chose George Michael’s version of “As” with Mary J Blige as…it’s an excellent cover)
[youtube=http://youtu.be/kriL8CuxQV4]

(The) Who – early Who stuff though and I wouldn’t watch them live now, they’re too past it.
[youtube=http://youtu.be/7BmkBroiw1s]

I Love Music.

And I just don’t listen to it enough.

When I was growing up, through my teens and into my late 20’s, I’d listen to at least 2 hours of music a DAY!

Now all my music I hear in a day is probably about 20 minutes worth of incidental music I hear whilst watching TV. I no doubt hear MORE than that, but it’s background stuff on TV shows and the like. Not music on the radio or from iTunes/CD’s/whatever.

On Thursday night there was SO little on TV, I decided to put the radio on and listen to Radio 2. Radcliffe/Maconie was just about to start – the program I was hoping to catch. Stuart Maconie was on his own this week while Mark Radcliffe was filling in for Steve Wright (in the afternoon). It was like stepping back in time…

Here’s a short back story. Mid March 2008, Em and I are on a anniversary break. We’d spent the afternoon in Birmingham waiting for the time to come around for us to go and watch U2-3D at the Imax theatre in Brum. We wasted time by sitting in the car listening to…Mark Radcliffe and Liza Tarbuck filling in for Steve Wright while he was on hols! That night as we were driving home (having just seen U2-3D on Imax), Stuart Maconie was hosting the show on his own.

I’d promised myself a few days ago that I MUST start listening to Radcliffe/Maconie because that night coming back from Brum, Stuart was playing some great stuff. So, lo and behold when I listen in for the first time since that night, Maconie’s on his own ‘cos Radcliffe’s filling in for Wrighty! It was like picking up where I’d left off!!

I only got to listen in to the first hour of the show and it was most enjoyable. And now because the BBC are so damn high-tech and stuff, if I DO miss a show, I can listen to it the next day via the BBC web site. Oh, technology!!

Tonight I listened to a program on Radio 2 that was repeated from 2004 about the history of Chillout music. I love Dance/Chillout/Ambient stuff. Love Chemical Brothers, Royksopp, Faithless, Daft Punk, Moby, Fatboy Slim, Paul Oakenfold, Massive Attack, Moloko, Goldfrapp, and then into similar genre stuff like Portishead and Everything But The Girl. It was a good prog and it made me want to get back into listening to dance. There’s an Oz group I’ve just heard about called The Presets, as well as another group called Midnight Juggernauts (Stuart Maconie played MJ’s last night), they both sound fab. I thought The Avalanches were going to be the only Oz dance group ever to make it out of Terra Australis.

After that, it was time to watch a DVD. I watched Sweeney Todd. Much better than I anticipated. I know, if I felt like that, why did I want to see it? Curiosity mainly, to see how Johnny Depp would play it. I thought he was good. I know the reaction was mixed. A lot of people saying he just parodied David Bowie’s singing voice – is that bad? I thought he delivered good vocally. It was enough of his own NOT to totally sound like DB. And let’s face it, if we’re talking parodies, DB himself was only parodying Anthony Newley anyway in his early days, or Scott Walker. I was worried I was going to tire of the musicality of it, but I didn’t. It had aspects of being an old-style film musical, which surprised me. It wasn’t “top notch”, but it was better than I was lead to believe it would be, or that I thought it would be. I could endure it again at some point. It’s something I could watch again, so that’s good enough for me. The one thing that was making me giggle through it though was Helena Bonham-Carter’s character and the young kid regularly referring to Depp’s character as “Mr. T”!

DVD’s to come are…the first series of Black Books (re: Dylan Moran discussion a few posts back) and Threads – 80’s “crap yourself” drama about potential nuclear annihilation. Nothing like a bit of 80’s nuclear war drama to cheer you up! Credit crunch?! Peh!!!

I Know I Have! Thanks Daniel.

I saw an article on the BBC New web site saying that Daniel Powter’s song Bad Day has been the most played song in the UK in the last 5 years.

I can’t tell you how much I detest this song. As soon as I hear the first melodies, I scream blue murder and try and get away or turn the sound down. Anything to get away from it. If I actually HAVE had a bad day, this song is the blooming last thing I want to hear! “Yes, Daniel. I’ve had a bad day. And now YOU’VE just made it worse!” I mean why sing to someone “you’ve had a bad day, ne na na na nar”. Just f*ck off Daniel Powter!!!

Next most played was Kelly Clarkson’s mediocre Because Of You. I don’t mind admitting to the “guilty pleasure” of liking Since You’ve Been Gone, but Because Of You?! God, it’s SO MOTR!

James Blunt’s You’re Beautiful was 3rd most played. That I don’t mind. There’s a lovely sentiment to that song that I’m not ashamed to admit liking. I can see why people have been “Blunted” out though. I like Goodbye My Lover and Same Mistake more though as songs.

Rounding off the top five were Scissors Sisters’ Don’t Feel Like Dancing (probably not my fave track of theirs) and Snow Patrol’s Chasing Cars – which I adore! I mean, that sentiment in that chorus – “If I lay here. If I just lay here, will you lie with me and and just forget the world?” That’s on par with the chorus of The Smith’s There’s A Light That Never Goes Out…for me. As far as I’m concerned, Chasing Cars isn’t played ENOUGH!

Hedgehogs and Hairspray.

Watching DVD’s again. I’ve finished watching my set of Blackpool discs. It was a really good series. I think you need to have something of the Brit about you, or be Anglophilic to appreciate some of it. I can understand why Viva Laughlin (a US re-production of it made by/for CBS) failed. I found something outrageously sexy about David Morrissey’s voice in it. I loved the kitschy musical segues.

More discs arrived by post yesterday. After spending the morning doing the whole bankruptcy petition thing at the local county court, I needed some light relief. One disc to arrive was Hairspray. I’d been wanting to see it for ages. Just the mere notion of John Travolta in drag was funny enough! Oh, it was SO good. I just freaking LOVE musicals! I’m a gay man trapped in a heterosexual woman’s body!! I’d love to see it in the West End now. I’d love to see Michael Ball as Edna. Musicals are even more special when you see them in the theatre. I haven’t been to the West End for a musical for years now. Last one I saw was Cats, just before it ended its run. Maybe, just maybe for my birthday or something. Anyway, it was just the “pick me up” I needed. I LOVE the music of the show.

After watching that, I just had the TV on Big Brother. Chris was looking out the loungeroom window with something in her sight, seemingly. I suggested to Em that she might have spotted a hedgehog, so Em went outside to investigate with a torch. And lo and behold, there was a hoggy outside! He was out in the garden, rummaging around. Em went back inside to get some dog food for him, but then he slipped away under the bushes. It was lovely being able to go out into the garden to see him though, even if it was just for a fleeting glimpse. Em says there are LOADS of slugs and snails around at the moment and she keeps seeing hedgehog droppings (amazingly, very slug-like shaped poo – who’d have thought?).

That’s it for now, I’m off for another DT fix.

Favourite Music Artist – U

I’m sure all of those who know me will know that there was only one choice (of the limited choices you can make under “U”) I could make here…

U2.

I wanted to choose all my favourite U2 songs through the years, so instead of clogging up my blog with a load of U2 YouTube videos in posts, I’ve been working on a pages system to add my faves.

To view, just point the mouse to the menu link “U2” just below the blog picture banner. A drop down menu will show favourite pages listed for the 80s, 90s and 00s. Just click to view them.

If not, click the links here…

http://larelle.wordpress.com/u2-favourites-80s/

http://larelle.wordpress.com/u2-favourites-90s/

http://larelle.wordpress.com/u2-favourites-00s/

(page updated September 18th, 2011 at 20.47)

Favourite Music Artist – T

Just the two here…and I’m into both of them on and off, but of all the “T’s”, I like them most.

Travis
[youtube=http://youtu.be/zzUdJ-5fscA]

K T Tunstall
[youtube=http://youtu.be/pdu_IWxSSk4]

Bit of a Scottish theme going on with this one.

You know what’s coming next…
(visual clue below)