Here. Here.

I've heard the album - yes, yes, it takes me a time to get round to these modern beat combos  - and I really don't see it as being too 'shoegaze'. As Jim puts it, quite succinctly, it's "pop with fuzzy guitars."  There are far clearer parallels with the likes of Jesus & Mary Chain and Badwagonesque-era TFC than anything by MBV, Ride, Curve, etc. And if we're comparing things like for like, with the exception MBV, who were always a bit more than no-choruses-and-feedback, then I'd say they were better: they're not as dull.

And this coming from a Ride fan. And a Ride fan who, for all its huge excesses and pantomime performance, actually liked Carnival of Light.

Imagine the commute from Cheshire:  He'll have to go halves with Michael Owen on use of the helicopter.

Glastonbury.  Along with, on the positive side of things, Neil Young (hopefully going easy on performing tracks from his latest album), Bruce Springsteen, Doves, Animal Collective and - for a Fleet Foxes-inspired musical equivalent of the film Big - Crosby, Stills & Nash.

On he downside you have to battle through Blur, Franz Ferdinand, Lily Allen and the most blinkered brain-washed festival goers in the history of festivalling.

I don't care, because somebody up there (or in office making arrangements to finalize the bill) is smiling on me.

My three favourite bands of the moment playing my favourite festival.

First Green Man tells me Wilco are playing. Then they reveal Grizzly Bear are playing. Now they announce Animal Collective are headlining Friday.

The rest of the festival line-up so far includes the not-too-shabby likes of Four Tet, Dirty Three, Vetiver, Andrew Bird, Bon Iver and Wooden Shjips.

Which all begs the question, is there a better festival line-up to be had this year?



 

I think Ricky was the right appointment at the time in terms of maintaining continuity. But, apart major major upturn in fortune, I think looking at him existing beyond the role as glorified caretaker manager to the end of the season would have been wishful thinking. Would love to be wrong on that front, but that's the way these things go.

How many points do you reckon you need now?

For ourselves, I think another three points guarantees us safety. Took great pleasure in thumping the Smogs last weekend.

Long may Shearer's form continue too.

So there it is. Out with Messiah No.1 and, thanks to a bit of coronary intervention, in comes Messiah No. 2. Let me just check today's date again. Well, in all honesty, good. I can't stand Shearer, and I hope he not only f*cks it up, but he f*cks it right up.

The reasons for me thinking this way are simple. I can't stand Newcastle FC: they're a mess, an embarassing mess clouded by delusion fans who, despite once coming quite close to claiming the Premiership, seem to think that their number of deluded followers equates to greatness and success. It doesn't, it just shows them up as being a herd of gullible idiots. They are nothing, they're fully deserving of their current position because they're not very good, not because of injuries, mismanagement, lack of luck. So up rocks their latest icon to wave his magic wand to revive fortunes. And what a wand it is....

Y'see the problem with Newcastle fans is that they can't see the wood for the trees. The reason for their current position is plain and simple - the team just isn't good enough - and no matter which talismanic avatar they install as coach will ever change that. But, if you needed coach to rally the troops, a wizened tactical genius who could galvanise the mediocore to perform beyond their current abilities to new career highs, a spirited brain who forges a ring of steel around his army and fosters a batallion who can deploy both cunning, mettle and quicksilver ingenuity as required, would the woodbrained personality mirage of Alan Shearer be that man? No. The evidence is confirmed by his insightful analysis on Match of the Day which merely extends to describing what he is seeing on the video screen like a Pictionary team player with an intelligence by-pass. The man is a numbskull, and not only that but a coward too. Cowardly, because it's only now, staring down relegation with 8 games remaining, that he feels he will deign the football club with his presence, because for Alan Shearer Inc it's a win/win situation. He never had the balls to front up to the job earlier in the season but now, well, time favours Big Al, but doesn't the team he so dearly loves. Why? Well, if he keeps them up, he's cemented his lifelong hero status on the Toon and can either continue, or return to the healthy pay cheque of the MotD sofa. Fail, and, like a new tenant in a dilapadated appartment, he can blame either the landlord (Ashley) or the previous occupants (Kinnear, Hughton, Allardyce, Keegan) on the state of disrepair. He sighs, everyone empathizes, he returns back to sofa-based non-descript analysis on MotD with reptuation in tact, unblamed by the Mags faithful.

So go on Al. Mess it up. Send them down. Prove me right. It is written. I've seen the portent: naming Rob Lee as your assistant.

It does seem a strange choice when in essence the song is about embracing, nae even celebrating, both death and life. It is intensely uplifting musically, which I guess counts for something..... and the Flaming Lips are from Oklahoma, which counts for an awful lot.

The even stranger almost-winner is Heartbreak Hotel..... a song about being dumped and contemplating suicide??  Which sounds extremely depressing, I don't understand the significance of Oklahoma though; can the 'real' Heartbreak Hotel be found in Okie?

Given the nature of both songs, there's an underlying message that reads: Don't live in Oklahoma.

Wotchoo talkin about Ellis?

Gary Coleman

Game, set and match to the man Will Smith based his whole schtick on.

Yes it does. A few names I'm chucking in there:

Kenny Baker
Dude from Willow
Green Nigel who used to be on Tiswas and starred in Time Bandits (Rappaport?)

You, my friend, need to watch this.

You may have already, and if that's the case then you should watch it again.  The male lead (inept, thick and narcissistic) is apparently based upon your Hollywood nemesis.

I'm ambivalent to Mr Pitt. But what narks you so much? His looks? His wife? His league of adopted children?

As for the film there were a few things that looked good, well as good as they can look on trailer.

- The appearance of Neal Schweiber
- The use of the phrase 'The German'
- The swastika carved forehead (I'm not saying I like swastikas by the way just that was quite a powerful image - a bit like Darth Maul being revealed).
- Hitler fritzing out.

The rest.... to brief to comment on but there was nothing standout.

 

There are a few more images here to whet the appetite. I can't help but think that the studio interference will not be a good thing, they rarely are. I've heard of countless reshoots and revoicing. The most concerning thing is the CGI replacement of the monsters faces. I find things, however string and stickyback plastic they may be, far more beliveable when they actually occupy physical space as opposed to imagineered on a software package.  I was expecting this to be a kind of low-rent Dark Crystal, I might be disappointed now. I fear studio gloss.

http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/01/16/sneak-peek-the-monsters-of-where-the-wild-things-are/

http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/01/02/new-photos-where-the-wild-things-are/

Hmm "proper tour bus music" would that be being piped through stereo of the bandwagon you've suddenly hitched a ride on?

Is this movie ever going to come out?  It seems to have been stuck in the starting gate for at least a year and half now.  I've heard rumours that the studio wasn't happy with Spike Jonze's (director) finished effort - it being too lo-fi and amaterish - and they've had to go back replace voices and CGI-up the Wild Things' faces, which were originally just Jim Henson Creature Workshop puppets.

Anyway, a bit of leaked test footage here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z46Yym346QA&feature=related

Trailer is here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pel3GE97evA&feature=related

not to be confused with:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cGaYDwpXf4