A Day Without Rain = A Day Full of Pain
Thursday, 26 August 2010 @ 15:15
I'm a pretty cool guy I think. I've got some cool friends, I've got a great girlfriend, a terrific cat, and better than average style. Granted I have pitfalls, but overall, I think I'm above the mean, median, and mode in the cool stakes. But when I went back to my LastFM account for the first time in about 8 months really, I had something of a wake-up call. Maybe I used to be cool, but musically, I'm old news. I'm like the time my Dad thought Beyonce was a band. I'm like those people who said that rock and roll was the devil's music in Back to the Future. To put it bluntly, I'm not so cool. Everyone was listening to super trendy electro-folk artists from Bavaria, and I was loving tracks from Vampire Weekend. I was so ashamed.But I figured that even if my overall history of listening was a bit geriatric, I at least had an ace up my sleeve. Classics. You couldn't argue with classics. No-one could. There's only one thing worse than not knowing about Tibetan funereal drumming, and that (as I was recently reminded in a show at Edinburgh) is never having heard Paul Simon's Diamonds on the Soles of her Feet. So I scrolled down to my top played of all time. Surely in here could only be things to be proud of - my accumulated musical wisdom of the last few years.
Now Belle and Sebastian are my favourite band ever, and in the enviable position of being both classic and hip, so we don't have to worry about them. Sufjan, well, a bit emo, but we've always known I can be a bit like that. And crikey, it doesn't get more musical heritage than The Beatles. So the top 3 are safe I think. Final Fantasy is edgy, with links to The Arcade Fire, but a bit more on the dl, and a cheeky reference to my favourite RPG series of all time. Cat Stevens is making something of a comeback. Guillemots, ok, not everyone's cup of tea, but some stuff is very orchestral and lush. Maximo Park I think are probably the greatest mainstream rock band of this decade. Kate Bush, she was great back then (and quite sexy) and her more recent stuff is still great. And Laura Marling is darling of festival goers everywhere still.
So, the top 9 are all safe. In The Weakest Link I would have banked that. That's safe. Nothing to worry about there. But what about number 10. WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED. I have a bloody mononymous Irish singer. I have one recurring memory from my childhood Christmases, and that's Enya. Not so much listening to her as having her looped in a kind of pseudo-torture for the entire festive season. Why is she there? She was on the Lord of the Rings soundtrack. It's so uncool I did a mini-sick in my mouth. So now my new aim is to get someone else up there sharpish. Because the longer this goes on, the worse really. Enya will never come back into fashion. She's not like wine, which might improve with age. She's like Sainsbury's Basics Diet Cola, with the top left off, which goes flat. And it wasn't very good to begin with remember. I'm so ashamed.
Sir James George FrazerThe Golden Bough
April 2010 / May 2010 / June 2010 / July 2010 / August 2010 / September 2010 / February 2011 / April 2011 / August 2011 / September 2011 /
How Pleasance / The Big Issue / ULTRA-DORM / Shrimps on the Barbie / Mash up / Hello Canada / New, and arguably not improved. / Sherlock / BONJOUR MES AMIS! / Losing London /
How Pleasance / The Big Issue / ULTRA-DORM / Shrimps on the Barbie / Mash up / Hello Canada / New, and arguably not improved. / Sherlock / BONJOUR MES AMIS! / Losing London /
The title of this blog comes from a poem by Coleridge, A Wish: Wriiten in Jesus Wood, Feb. 10th, 1792, Plus most blogs are moans anyway. Including this one.
lol manuscripts
picture.
I'm a 23 year-old student in London Cambridge London, studying English Literature Law. It's hard to really think of anything truly personal
I can put here that might give you some idea of who I am, so I will just tell you that my favourite Shakespeare play is Richard II, my favourite chocolate bar is Snickers, and I have a bit of a thing for instant coffee, especially if someone else makes it for me.
I'm interested in Renaissance Literature, Higher Education policy, and libraries.
I'm completely in love with a Scottish girl.