Category: Random

What a bloody bizarre evening’s television: The BBC | USA Today | CNN. I only wish I had pictures…

Ricky Martin’s going disco-crazy, Brian May’s gone guitar-axe-psycho, there are bemused royals all over the place and an S Club member who ate all the pies. There’s humour from Lenny Henry, an audience of 200 million people and later in the evening – Rod Stewart (*gasp*), Queen (*not that one*), Tony Bennett (*he’s still alive?!*), resident evil Annie Lennox and thirteen thousand teen sensations. It’s a right rockin’ royal TV jubilee sensation and no mistake. Gawd bless ya Ma’am and your incredibly privileged family too…

Yet each man kills the thing he loves,
  By each let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
  Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
  The brave man with a sword!

Some kill their love when they are young,
  And some when they are old;
Some strangle with the hands of Lust,
  Some with the hands of Gold:
The kindest use a knife, because
  The dead so soon grow cold.

Some love too little, some too long,
  Some sell, and others buy;
Some do the deed with many tears,
  And some without a sigh:
For each man kills the thing he loves,
  Yet each man does not die.

Anyone vaguely interested in superhero trash will be delighted to know that X-men 2 sounds like it’s going to be one hell of a ride. And speaking of over-whelming movie experiences, I’ve just seen the Spider-Man trailer on TV for the first time.

Now look – I don’t know a hell of a lot about football. And frankly I don’t care that much about football either. So this whole ‘World Cup’ thing is flying rather over my head. But when I woke up this morning and turned on the TV to find this Sweden vs. England thing happening, I thought it couldn’t do any harm to leave it on in the background. And now 67 minutes into the game I can’t help but notice that Sweden are whipping England’s ass. What the hell is that about?

I wasn’t the only person I know at the Breeders concert last night. Chris was there too. Let’s search the web for some reviews and let’s search blogdom for more weblogging Breeders fans:

Reviews: Village Voice: “The Breeders finally released a new album, Title TK, on May 21. The CD’s mere existence is an accomplishment.” Cleveland Free Times: “Title TK sounds like a record that could have benefited from an extra yearís wait, and from the fresh insight and creative input that the new band members might have brought with them.” Phoeniz New Tims: “When focused, the Breeders can still pump out a hook that actually sticks ó “Has anyone seen the iguana?” the Deals repeatedly intone on “Sinister Foxx.” But the rest of TK sounds absolutely shell-shocked.”

Bloggers: Slatch.com: “Friend: So I turn around at the bar and guess who’s standing next to me?
Me: Who? Friend: Kim Deal.”

In which Tom goes to see The Breeders:
I don’t go to concerts very often. When I was a teenager I was too lame, when I was in my early twenties I wanted to do it all the time but I only liked crappy indie groups (still do mostly) and so while everyone else was going to raves and stuff I went to occasional concerts by Stereolab and Julian Cope. And then I started teaching undergraduates, so I kind of stopped going. Too old. Felt ridiculous.

I went to see The Breeders tonight with Cal and had a great time. I last saw them in concert in Bristol about eight years ago and since they haven’t really released a lot since then, most of the people in the audience had got all old and saggy with me. Which was quite nice actually. All their songs are two minutes long and don’t really make much sense, but they have really nice solid bouncy drums and nice stop-start chunky guitar bits and they smoke cigarettes while playing and giggle at each other and bicker and it’s great! And they also played the theme tune to Buffy, which was really odd and then they dedicated a song in which one of the men shouted ‘We don’t care about you’ and then yelled Fuck you!. I love the Breeders.

Gestures of defiance let down by an inability to carry-through number three hundred and twenty in an ongoing series: MoMorgan.com is back.

Was I the only person in the world who saw Billy Bragg on Top of the Pops last night using long words and singing about modern art and anti-monarchism? The lyrics were full of phrases like ‘abstract notions’ and the song ended with ‘Gilbert and George are taking the piss….’ repeated about a dozen times. One of the most surreal TOTP moments of all time I think…

And now Metalinker has reached Daypop. Nice.