You Can Compliment Me With Links

The film I’m eagerly awaiting at the moment.

Eeeep. When mobile phones go bad!

Fun radios!

The Secret Version of To Kill A Mockingbird.

A very strange Japanese comic with disappearing schoolchildren and a huge whale.

Also! Colin Powell in "huge pot calling kettle black" incident.

currently playing: Mercury Rev — Goddess On A Hiway

Learn To Become Invisible With HP

A slight downside in that it needs to work with compatible cameras. If you don’t fancy waiting for that, then get yourself a laser pointer and disappear into the red.

I don't know; is telling people how to avoid CCTV detection a terrorist offence yet?

currently playing: Gwen Stefani — What You Waiting For (Jacques Lu Cont remix)

More Songs In The Key of Chapel Hill

These two songs come from the same night, the always-entertaining WXYC 80s Dance at the Cat’s Cradle. Feather boas, legwarmers, and glitter abounded, but here’s two songs that I’ll remember from back then:

Modern EnglishI'll Melt With You

Despite it being over twenty years old, I hadn't heard this until the night itself. Modern English were originally a punk band known as The Lepers, but exposure to Joy Division led to their first album under their new name (1981's Mesh & Lace) becoming a downbeat post-punk gloom piece. Happily for all concerned, they had all bought themselves a big ice-cream by the time 1982 came around, so After The Snow wasn't quite so goth. They still couldn't find any success in the UK, but I'll Melt With You became a huge hit on American radio, even ending up as part of the soundtrack to Valley Girl. The single stalled just outside the American Top 40, but the infectious hooks and glorious "mmm mmm mmm" finale meant that it stayed inside the hearts and minds of young Americans everywhere. So, hurrah for America for loving a song which we didn't! That doesn't entirely let you off the hook for Clay Aiken, but it's a start.

(the version linked above is the 7" remix, which is what I think they actually played at the Cradle, whereas I only have the album version at the moment. The only difference seems to be louder synths on the single)

LazyboyUnderwear Goes Inside The Pants

Strictly speaking, I didn't hear this at the dance, as it's a new song. But! I did hear it on the night itself, when Laura and I were heading out to Wal-Mart at 3am to buy white trainers. What? Anyway, this song came on the radio, and we sat in the parking lot cracking up as it got funnier and funnier. A withering spoken-word attack on the Western World as it is in 2004. Remember the great Obesity Epidemic of 2004, my friends…

currently playing: ABC — Tears Are Not Enough

Darrrrrrllllling…

currently playing: Plus-Tech Squeeze Box — The Martin Show

New Features!

Just a tiny cosmetic change, to be honest. The navigation bar (to your left; the bit with the red rollovers done entirely in CSS) has been altered. I’ve removed the IM link, on the grounds that I haven’t logged into MSN for almost a year, so it’s a little pointless to leave it there. Instead, I’ve replaced it with an archive of music-related entries. So, if the BPI want to check that there aren’t any MP3s hosted on my home server, they can use that page as a handy reference point.

I'm currently thinking about my Christmas decorations. Dad is busy plotting this year's festival of lights (incidentally, the switch on party is on December 4th, if anybody wants to come along), so I guess it's time to make this site look a little festive. I probably won't be doing the Advent Calendar this time around, but if you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them…

currently playing: Stars — The Vanishing

The Long Lost Music Bit

I suggested that I might post some songs while I was in Chapel Hill. Naturally, that didn’t happen, being caught up in events and everything, but if you will forgive me for being a little late — two songs from the past three weeks!

(and, of course, they can be found in the usual place. Home taping is killing music, remember)

Blonde RedheadIn Particular

The new discovery of the holiday; this is Collin and Larsy's current theme song, and a fine one it is too. I'm probably guilty of overusing the word 'haunting', but this is a rather unsettling song, as Kazu Makino comes across as Asami from Takashi Miike's Audition; at any time, only five seconds away from throwing you into a sack and chopping out your tongue. And remember:

"x x!"

Saint EtienneFascination

Okay, this is cheating a little, because I didn't hear the song until today;. But! On my travels around Chapel Hill's rather excellent selection of record shops, I did come across this new greatest hits collection ('this is their first compilation'? heh, they're almost as bad as New Order for reissuing their songs), and wondered what this song was, so I think it counts. Fascination is from their as-yet-untitled new album, out sometime in 2005, and I'd say it's a throwback to the times of Good Humor. Wry electro-pop dancing in the streets of London, then.

Other songs from Chapel Hill to follow shortly (i.e. Ian decides to get down and drop some fresh cuts on yo-(At this point, we have sedated the author for his own good, as his gyrations to Snoop & the Neptunes' new song were, quite frankly, embarrassing — Ed.))

currently playing: Sleater-Kinney — A Quarter To Three

Back Once Again With The Politics

the administration plans to push major amendments that would shield interest, dividends and capitals gains from taxation,

The changes are meant to be revenue-neutral. To pay for them, the administration is considering eliminating the deduction of state and local taxes on federal income tax returns and scrapping the business tax deduction for employer-provided health insurance, the advisers said

Bush to the nation, then: "Oh, I'm sorry, you're not rich? Then the next four years are going to be rather bad for you. Hey, middle and working classes! Bite Me! Hahaha, I still can't believe you fell for it!"

Meanwhile, the fox hunt gang are so incensed with the undemocratic nature of the fox hunting ban that they're prepared to launch an all-out assault on one of the most important parts of our parliamentary democracy. Yes, they're so concerned about tearing foxes to pieces that they want to declare the Parliament Act illegal, and thus allow us to be governed by an unelected chamber. Hurrah!

(Okay, technically, it's just the 1949 amendment to the 1911 act, but the point stands. If the Parliament Act of 1911 is valid, then surely any law passed with it is also valid, including amendments to the original. Of course, I am not a lawyer, but I am seriously annoyed that it's people from my town who are going to do this…)

currently playing: Lemon Jelly — Stay With Me

Return of The Links!

The Onion is as good as ever.

Firefox finally reaches 1.0. And this time, it's actually usable!

Finding new uses for water filters…

Pop-up shops!

Fonts and Apple.

Old airline graphics!

currently playing: R.E.M. — Hope

Secret In-Joke Photo!

My first thought when it was brought up…

(also, like the b&w background effect?)

Well, you can all relax…

It was a long, fraught battle, but Fran Healy of Travis stepped over the corpses of Rachel Stevens, Keane, and the Sugababes to lay claim to the “woo” part of Band Aid 20: the song that makes you realise that Sonia and Bother Beyond weren’t that bad after all…

currently playing: New Order — Shellshock