Posts from July 2006
31
Jul 06
Poptimism CD #8: Boshtimism
This is the tracklisting for Saturday’s giveaway CD. If you didn’t get a copy – very likely as my computer overheated and I could only make 12 – I will be making more this week. This offer is really only open to people I am likely to see in the pub before too long.
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O-HUM – “Nahal E-Heyrat”
O-HUM – “Nahal E-Heyrat”: monstrous 6-minute Iranian prog-metal-disco workout from the Pop World Cup, as heard at Poptimism on Saturday.
Boutique Bowling
The other night I found myself on a work jolly to All Star Lanes, one of two mini bowling alleys to have cropped up in Soho. All-Star Lanes offers four lanes, a spacious bar, a rather less spacious restaurant, an extensive cocktail menu, Americana on the walls and stereo (lurching between Elvis and the Strokes), and a well-heeled, sometimes noisy office worker clientele. By all accounts it is a lot more tasteful and slick than rival Bloomsbury Bowling. It is also – this is rather important if you’re not sucking on the expense account nipple – a great deal pricier.
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28
Jul 06
Computer not very good at identifying album genre by cover art
I love the internet. Only on the internet will you discover a discarded university research project, (which probably got an averagish mark) still there to be discovered. Only on the internet would you be able to peruse the technical difficulties on an optical reader being able to work out what genre an album is just by its cover. Only in such an write-up would the difficulty of a human being able to correctly identify a genre just from cover art be discarded as useful info until the results.
Album Cover-Based Genre Classification – by Matt Hoffman
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Gawd Bless Yer Ma’am!
Now coming from a rather staunch royalist background, I have a stupid range of Windsor trivia clogging up my brane. In particular when it was decided that the FT group trip to the great british beer festival would be next Friday I immediately thought “ooh, it’s the queen mum’s birthday.” And, according to a memoir by her equerry, it appears (until the great british gin festival is introduced anyway) to be the best possibly place to celebrate the doddering old parasite. Gin and Dub at NOON, wine, port, fizz and martinis throughout the day, no wonder she was always smiling. You have to admire her devotion to the cause though, maybe she lived until she was 101 because she was effectively pickled…
Ian Curtis: School Work (Part 1)
Recently uncovered documents showing the gestation of the Unknown Pleasures album cover, and commentary on said from Mr Brownlow, Physics teacher at the Kings School Macclesfield.
27
Jul 06
Poptimism – Lesson Eight
Tracks:
She’s Good For Business – Mstrkrft
Shake Yr Rudebox – Robbie Williams
Don’t Feel Like Dancing – Scissor Sisters
Margarita (Dirty) – Sleepy Brown Ft Pharrell & Big Boi
Let’s Make Love and Listen Death From Above – Cansei de Ser Sexy
Twinkle Star – Halcali
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Stormbreaker Broken By Storm
Popped into the Troc to watch kiddie Bond Stormbreaker today. It does exactly what it says on the tin, but quite cheaply with its all-star (but mainly British or cheap Yank) cast. Posho surly teen lead is ultra bland, but I liked him for the sheer fact that he was blonde and thus looks like a slightly younger version of me. Will not do Potter business, not charming enough. Nevertheless, things explode, chases happen and THE STATE OF THE NATION IS ADDRESSED – in as much as the PM is played by Robbie Coltrane in a “haven’t you got rid of Tony Blair yet: I am meant to be Gordon Brown” sort of way.
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52 Pickup
52 Pickup: The reasons DC Comics’ weekly 52 series isn’t as thrill-powered as it cd be deserve a post of their own, but if you ARE reading it you’ll like it more if you’re reading Doug Wolk’s blog too.
Keep Bond (Themes) Rubbish
Ex-Soundgarden Bod To Record Bond Theme
Many of the songs from the early Bond movies have become classics, such as Bassey’s Goldfinger and Sinatra’s You Only Live Twice.
But recent efforts like Tina Turner’s Goldeneye and Sheryl Crow’s Tomorrow Never Dies have proved less enduringly popular.