Posts from June 2007
29
Jun 07
News Knight. Me and Alan thought it wasn’t bad. Tell us we were wrong.
Fopp Flop!
So farewell then Fopp! We knew you so shortly in London, with you nice big store being open all of nine months. Why only on Wednesday I was in there, returning some books – not knowing that the money I extracted out of them was coming from the poor salesgirls WAGES! Aggressive expansionism is often a dodgy business strategy, particularly one in a market where there are already considerable downturns. But Fopp’s USP as being a some kind of relatively cool remainder store seemed to be enough to keep it trading (mind you, massive TCR store did seem to buck the trend for small and packed). I blame the cheap decks.
Add this to the HMV wobbles and THE DEATH OF MISTER CD, and we are starting to see a trend here. Ebay has killed the second hand shop, but Amazon is killing the discount record purveyor too. Drunken browsing will never be the same again.
28
Jun 07
Clean Yr Head While Asleep: THE BRILLO PILLOW
No: Don’t be stupid. Using a giant scouring pad with super cheap soap imbedded inside as a pillow would both be
a) uncomfortable, and
b) a rubbish way to clear your head.
However, what if you problem is not night-time head cleaning, but a hot head. And I don’t mean in the figurative sense. Then you need the Chillow Pillow, a pillow wot – er – chills your head down. It is a very strange thing indeed. Not refrigerated, not “cold”, the Chillow Pillow apparently will gradually draw heat away from your head. How it does this is unclear, except via the use of SoothSoft Comfort Technology (these words are trademarked and I use them at considerable risk). Here, read all about it. Note the 30-day cooling off period for online sales (ha ha). Scientists amongst us might second a guess to how this all works, cos it seems magical to me.
BUT, what is best about it is of course the name. The Chillow Pillow. So few products plump with rhyming in the name any more, so well done. And if they do bring out a Brillo Chillow Pillow (made of Willow) don’t be surprised.
Let’s Make Glastonbury Better!
It’s amazing how ideas come to you sometimes. There I was, surrounded by mud and rain and more mud, cursing the lack of urinal at the top of the New Band Tent (call it by it’s name) Field when it suddenly struck me. All the issues I had with Glastonbury reminded me of something, see if you can spot it:
1. “Father knows best” autocratic owner increasingly getting in to bed with commercial interests that seem to have only negative impacts on the punter
2. Said punters being treated like cattle with little thought for our comfort or welfare
3. Increasing costs and declining facilities
4. Being constantly told by media/controlling interests that you’re part of the best festival in the world, when you can clearly see the cracks round the edges
5. The complete lack of feedback mechanisms for us to get our views across to those in charge
Yes, being at Glastonbury is exactly like being a football fan, and what have football fans done about this? Formed Supporters Trusts, by the hundred!
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Pac Man: The Movie.
Makes as much sense as the Doom one.
Gross Stupidity pt 2
Those of us who have enjoyed the many varied series of 24 have been sad to see its decline this year. But maybe it is just as well. This season the torture porn was scaled back a touch, in favour self mutilation (people chopping off their own hands for a change). But it is the use of torture in the show which has most people concerned. Not because it is in itself unpleasant to watch (it is certainly dramatic), but more that it seems to create a built in apology for torture in actual warfare situations. Not to mention in other TV shows (what are th chances on that plane crsh their would be TWO world class conmen AND A QUALIFIED TORTURER*?).
However when an actual US Supreme Court Justice cites Jack Bauer’s success in the show as a justification IN ITSELF for torture, the world has gone nuts. And I quote:
“Jack Bauer saved Los Angeles. … He saved hundreds of thousands of lives,” Judge Scalia said. Then, recalling Season 2, where the agent’s rough interrogation tactics saved California from a terrorist nuke, the Supreme Court judge etched a line in the sand.
»
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27
Jun 07
They Are Coming For Our Kids
Why is pornography on the top shelf of a newsagents? Why are skin flicks on late at night? Why has Bob Dylan got a face that would scare off any babe-in-arms?
SIMPLE: TO KEEP THIS SICK FILTH AWAY FROM OUR CHILDREN.
I also used to think this was why they kept ABBA records on the top shelf of a record store, until I realised that it was just a happy coincidence of alphabetisation. Nevertheless the western social contract appears to suggest that there are certain things that children should be protected from while they are at an impressionable age. So while I disagree that the legal drinking age should be eighteen (nothing binge like in my teenage gin experiments), it has had the happy upshot of saving our children from many live music venues. If you have to be eighteen to got to G-A-Y then maybe you will be spared the tawdry site of seeing Danii Minogue launch her thirteenth comeback.
26
Jun 07
KITAN on the KEYS: a bad pianist’s practice diary #1
today was xi and x and nothing else [see here for haha key]:
the bach i just played through twice — it’s just like a computergame, how far can i get before i get zapped (by my own fumbly fingers partly, but also by failing to look ahead and remember the trick): ans = first time bar 5 [it’s only 27 bars long] at a place i have got perfectly right before now, and what was nice is that the next two bars went more or less exactly right after the fumble; second time bar six. In both cases it’s about a non-intuitive fingering trick, so if i keep my head, I’ll go straight through (and of course then fall over right after when I’m still patting myself on the back for getting through). I can also feel that speed is picking up on the second page, tho it’s still a LOT slower
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FT Periodic Table: Element 4: POP
Pop. It is what Freaky Trigger was about. Here, have a look at some of the early articles (COO-EE Who remembers INDIESHITE!). It was Tom Ewing’s pop fanzine, when suddenly fanzine became websites. It was quite a reputable one too. We had favourable reviews left right and centre, well Tom did. Because whilst there were a few articles written by other people, the lions share of the site was written by Tom: it was clearly his website so his gaff his rules. Though as someone who wrote something was back then the rules were pleasantly light (Tom has never been one to insist on a style guide). Just be interesting about pop music. Oh, and try not to make too many typos*.
It is quite hard to remember a world before the internet, and what I believe is called the Poptimist position was less prevalent than it is now.
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Pop Open Week 3
This week’s theme is INJUSTICE. If you want to join in with the voting and discussion, go here. If you know what a track is, please don’t let on!
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