Sunday, 31 October 2010
A poor substitute
I'm finding my subscription to the premier English-Language weekly newspaper a poor substitute for actual intellectual vigour. I decided to shell out £50 quid to ease my un-ease at not doing my MSc after reading through some old essays. True, I'm more aware of world issues than I ever was from scanning the BBC website but its hard work to find the time in a week to read a whole edition before the next one falls through my letterbox!
Monday, 11 October 2010
You know when...
...in a private moment you lose yourself in thought and you either come up with something so brilliant or so hilarious you make a mental note not to forget it and to revisit it later? well i had one of those on Saturday but now I still can't remember where I went with it.
I was sitting with two friends in a sea facing cafe/bar in Langland Bay after a hard day battling Poseidon with surfboards over at Llangenith. At one point we were convinced we were going to die, and all three of us got pulled and held under at some point. But anyway we'd battled though the surf and through some home-made burgers (not home-made by us, but its just occurred to me if they're home-made who lives in that cafe?) and arrived at coffee.
The coffee arrived delivered by a guy of about our age and a girl of seventeen at most, mine had what appeared to be a heart in the froth leading to some banter along the lines of "that guy must fancy you, look at that" before we noticed one of the others had some sort of milky residue that looked a bit more suspicious "he might fancy me but looks like he went a step further with yours...". This very mature banter lead to 'wouldn't it be great if you could write a phone number in the froth on coffee...'
Then boom. My sidetrack started but I can't remember what it was or where it went. I hoped writing this would bring it back but no. If it comes back I'll update this post.
I was sitting with two friends in a sea facing cafe/bar in Langland Bay after a hard day battling Poseidon with surfboards over at Llangenith. At one point we were convinced we were going to die, and all three of us got pulled and held under at some point. But anyway we'd battled though the surf and through some home-made burgers (not home-made by us, but its just occurred to me if they're home-made who lives in that cafe?) and arrived at coffee.
The coffee arrived delivered by a guy of about our age and a girl of seventeen at most, mine had what appeared to be a heart in the froth leading to some banter along the lines of "that guy must fancy you, look at that" before we noticed one of the others had some sort of milky residue that looked a bit more suspicious "he might fancy me but looks like he went a step further with yours...". This very mature banter lead to 'wouldn't it be great if you could write a phone number in the froth on coffee...'
Then boom. My sidetrack started but I can't remember what it was or where it went. I hoped writing this would bring it back but no. If it comes back I'll update this post.
Sunday, 3 October 2010
"I've seen all on offer and I'm not impressed at all"
After strolling to the toilet at a service station and being unable to help myself singing along to Style Council's "Shout to the Top", I've been unable to get said song out of my head. In fact its quite apt for the thoughts that have been plaguing me the last few days.
I've been back down to my university town to see the boys I used to play football with, and of course Freshers week. Its four years since I started university. Four years. I feel pangs of regret when I think about it, although this seems to be my standard emotion as I'm always trying to do too much and worrying I've missed out. I had a great time at university, met some fantastic people : some who are sure to be friends for life and others I forgot mere weeks later, and grew exponentially as I was thrust into a foreign city at 18.
I miss it terribly but I'm glad I left when I did, it had lost its sheen and its excitement - the lifestyle not the city. Although I'd love to be a naive 18 year-old and do it all again. But it has got me thinking : are my best years behind me?
Nearly all my best anecdotes come from those three years, I can literally lose hours reminiscing as the narrative in my head (I pity anyone that thought Zach Braff came up with that idea as it means they haven't got one) tells of my and my friends finest hours. Am I gonna have any stories that good again? Basically most of what I have to talk about now is work. Say I get my dream job, I'll still only have work and material possessions to talk about.
What makes living away from home at university so special is that you're living for the moment. Okay the entire reason you're there is an expensive and long-term human capital investment, but you barely remember that as your degree is a mild inconvenience that fills the time between doing anything and everything with your mates. Whereas these days my primary motivators are career progression or money.
I guess what I'm trying to say, in the words of Ray Davies, "Where have all the good times gone?" and will they ever be back? Right now its a struggle to see why I'm doing anything.
I've been back down to my university town to see the boys I used to play football with, and of course Freshers week. Its four years since I started university. Four years. I feel pangs of regret when I think about it, although this seems to be my standard emotion as I'm always trying to do too much and worrying I've missed out. I had a great time at university, met some fantastic people : some who are sure to be friends for life and others I forgot mere weeks later, and grew exponentially as I was thrust into a foreign city at 18.
I miss it terribly but I'm glad I left when I did, it had lost its sheen and its excitement - the lifestyle not the city. Although I'd love to be a naive 18 year-old and do it all again. But it has got me thinking : are my best years behind me?
Nearly all my best anecdotes come from those three years, I can literally lose hours reminiscing as the narrative in my head (I pity anyone that thought Zach Braff came up with that idea as it means they haven't got one) tells of my and my friends finest hours. Am I gonna have any stories that good again? Basically most of what I have to talk about now is work. Say I get my dream job, I'll still only have work and material possessions to talk about.
What makes living away from home at university so special is that you're living for the moment. Okay the entire reason you're there is an expensive and long-term human capital investment, but you barely remember that as your degree is a mild inconvenience that fills the time between doing anything and everything with your mates. Whereas these days my primary motivators are career progression or money.
I guess what I'm trying to say, in the words of Ray Davies, "Where have all the good times gone?" and will they ever be back? Right now its a struggle to see why I'm doing anything.
Thursday, 30 September 2010
My Career as a Nightclub Boss...
So on a recent trip back to my second home I notice a prominent city nightclub is for sale. I had a little go on the Internet at finding out who owns it as when I win the EuroMillions I may buy it. Now this place has never been cool- I knew it as a Jumpin' Jaks but its also been the second incarnation of Wales first super club and host to Paul Oakenfold amongst others, and some other sweaty dark club - but the reason I liked it so much was the lay out:
As you come in you go up a split flight of stairs then queue into an area containing booth to pay, toilets and cloak room, facing you is a wide set of stairs and a sense of anticipation. Up the stairs is a sunken dance-floor with a stage at one end and a few tables at the other, apart from where the stage is there is a raised area around the dance floor with more tables and bars along two walls. Very simple. Even at 18 I was telling people its the layout I'd want in my club, it always reminded me of the Copacabana in Goodfellas for some reason.
Its got some good memories for me as Jumpin' Jaks, from being the first club I ever went in in Swansea to the '£10 all in' Fridays of second year where we used to get there early and get drunk before requesting Haddaway's 'What is Love?' and being 7 of us up on the stage before anyone else was even on the dance-floor. But I wouldn't keep the Wild West Theme, I think as I'd be a multi-millionaire before the purchase ever happened I'd make it a classy joint - perhaps I'd even call it the Copacabana. That or a sports bar that showed classic films on weeknights.
As you come in you go up a split flight of stairs then queue into an area containing booth to pay, toilets and cloak room, facing you is a wide set of stairs and a sense of anticipation. Up the stairs is a sunken dance-floor with a stage at one end and a few tables at the other, apart from where the stage is there is a raised area around the dance floor with more tables and bars along two walls. Very simple. Even at 18 I was telling people its the layout I'd want in my club, it always reminded me of the Copacabana in Goodfellas for some reason.
Its got some good memories for me as Jumpin' Jaks, from being the first club I ever went in in Swansea to the '£10 all in' Fridays of second year where we used to get there early and get drunk before requesting Haddaway's 'What is Love?' and being 7 of us up on the stage before anyone else was even on the dance-floor. But I wouldn't keep the Wild West Theme, I think as I'd be a multi-millionaire before the purchase ever happened I'd make it a classy joint - perhaps I'd even call it the Copacabana. That or a sports bar that showed classic films on weeknights.
Wednesday, 29 September 2010
My Career as an Academic....
Having a quick read through some old essays to help lil sis, or rather to help myself avoid prison by finding a way to explain how to write an essay before killing her, I found myself engrossed in a third year Labour Economics essay:
"The evidence from these empirical studies leads us to rather similar conclusions. That transfer payments lead to a reduction in labour supply as the model predicted, and that tax credit systems can induce an increased level of participation in some individuals whilst leading to a reduction in the participation of others, again as the model predicted. Although studies such as that of Brewer et al (2005) find an aggregate increase in labour market participation. The model indicated whether tax credits would increase and individuals labour supply or not would be dependant upon the preferences of the individual, and the empirical studies all identified the same clear groups in which labour supply was increased or not. All the studies indicated labour supply would increase for single parents (or single mothers), males with unemployed wives and females with unemployed husbands whist reducing the labour supply of both females and males who had working partners. This could perhaps be termed “The Breadwinner effect”, as the tax credit only increases labour market participation in households where there is only one major source of income, a breadwinner."
This enthralling final paragraph contains my solitary contribution to Economic Academia in its final sentence. As I envisioned it at the time, the marking lecturer would be impressed and immediately email me, he'd then pass word of my achievement to his peers at other Schools of Economics, a short while later a phone call from The Economist followed by the IHT would int erupt my morning viewing of One Tree Hill, I'd be awarded a first and invited to do some research with the Fellows of the department and our empirical study into The *MyName* Effect or 'Breadwinner' Effect would show working tax credits to be pointless and simultaneously bring about the fall of the Labour government paving the way for my cheeky move to Whitehall or the Bank of England.
Sadly nothing, as far as I know, came of it. Although I will have to check Professor Murphy's recent work just in case....
The two men pictured are Nouriel Roubini and Gary Becker, two academics I wouldn't mind being. Roubini as well as being more of a Rockstar than most modern day Rockstars, predicted the global recession. Whilst Nobel Laureate Becker is credited with being the first to apply Economics to traditionally Sociological subjects such as drug addiction and crime.
"The evidence from these empirical studies leads us to rather similar conclusions. That transfer payments lead to a reduction in labour supply as the model predicted, and that tax credit systems can induce an increased level of participation in some individuals whilst leading to a reduction in the participation of others, again as the model predicted. Although studies such as that of Brewer et al (2005) find an aggregate increase in labour market participation. The model indicated whether tax credits would increase and individuals labour supply or not would be dependant upon the preferences of the individual, and the empirical studies all identified the same clear groups in which labour supply was increased or not. All the studies indicated labour supply would increase for single parents (or single mothers), males with unemployed wives and females with unemployed husbands whist reducing the labour supply of both females and males who had working partners. This could perhaps be termed “The Breadwinner effect”, as the tax credit only increases labour market participation in households where there is only one major source of income, a breadwinner."
This enthralling final paragraph contains my solitary contribution to Economic Academia in its final sentence. As I envisioned it at the time, the marking lecturer would be impressed and immediately email me, he'd then pass word of my achievement to his peers at other Schools of Economics, a short while later a phone call from The Economist followed by the IHT would int erupt my morning viewing of One Tree Hill, I'd be awarded a first and invited to do some research with the Fellows of the department and our empirical study into The *MyName* Effect or 'Breadwinner' Effect would show working tax credits to be pointless and simultaneously bring about the fall of the Labour government paving the way for my cheeky move to Whitehall or the Bank of England.
Sadly nothing, as far as I know, came of it. Although I will have to check Professor Murphy's recent work just in case....
The two men pictured are Nouriel Roubini and Gary Becker, two academics I wouldn't mind being. Roubini as well as being more of a Rockstar than most modern day Rockstars, predicted the global recession. Whilst Nobel Laureate Becker is credited with being the first to apply Economics to traditionally Sociological subjects such as drug addiction and crime.
Monday, 6 September 2010
Near Death Experience...
No not some operating table dream, I have a cold/chest infection. I routine illness, except for the fact I'm asthmatic so my lungs take this chance and rub their metaphorical hands together with glee as they decide to try and off me once more. A cough and lungs full of mucus, a mild inconvenience until your lungs decide to close up at the same time. Leaving me wheezing like that blue penguin in toy story and lightheaded from lack of oxygen, I wouldn't mind but i went to the gym this morning and everything was FINE!
I'm no hypochondriac, I've worked with a broken ankle before and even played a game of 11-a-side football with the flu - albeit with a sweatshirt under my football shirt and halftime doses of : pro plus, lucozade, beechams, brandy, cough medicine and other such items. We threw away a goal lead to lose 2-1, but the highlight was me and my housemate and leftback going up for the same header resulting in a massive black eye for him and probable concussion for me.
But yeah, I can take any illness, any pain, just not the inability to respirate. Okay?!!
I'm no hypochondriac, I've worked with a broken ankle before and even played a game of 11-a-side football with the flu - albeit with a sweatshirt under my football shirt and halftime doses of : pro plus, lucozade, beechams, brandy, cough medicine and other such items. We threw away a goal lead to lose 2-1, but the highlight was me and my housemate and leftback going up for the same header resulting in a massive black eye for him and probable concussion for me.
But yeah, I can take any illness, any pain, just not the inability to respirate. Okay?!!
Wednesday, 25 August 2010
Under the Covers....
Its no secret that I love a cover version but I'm not too sure why, maybe its hearing something familiar in a knew way. But My love of covers , I think, stems from one of three events :
Seeing Moby cover Radiohead's 'Creep' at Glastonbury (on TV) , at the time I video taped it - that's right a VHS in a VHS recorder - and wound it back over and over again.
The White Stripes' cover of Dolly Parton's 'Joleane' on their Blackpool Lights DVD, as well as their release of Dusty Springfeild's 'I just don't know What to do with myself'.
Buying The Manic Street Preacher's B-Sides & Rarities CD 'Lipstick Traces' , with a whole CD of cover versions.
More on these in a bit. The stem of interest that had grown from these three seeds grew steadily for a good few years until late 2008/early 2009 when I went to see Electric Six. I'd never heard of the support act, but I didn't expect to in a tiny uni owned club. As we walked past the T-Shirt stand my eye snagged on a poster "Tragedy - The World's Greatest Heavy Metal Bee Gees Tribute"...well they weren't
They were a Glam Rock tribute. And amazing! They had the silver jumpsuits and the glitter and they belted out all the familiar Bee Gees tracks in a way you'd never heard before. Let's make no mistakes, the Gibb brothers were fantastic song writers. Why aren't bands like Tragedy everywhere? they're a million miles better than some fat burd failing to sing 'angels' on Saturday prime time TV. They've disbanded now anyway, I'll have to make sure if I ever plan to marry the engagement is long enough to allow them to reform.
All this occurred to me whilst I was making a Play list on itunes of all my cover versions, and thus inspired me to make the following list. Don't get me wrong there are some awful cover versions but these are some of the best in no particular order:
Afghan Whigs - Come See About Me
Originally by Diana Ross and the Supremes
Greg Dulli and his band never made any secret of their love of R&B, also recording a version of Barry White's 'I Can't Get Enough of Your Love Babe' before successfully merging R&B and indie-rock with the album '1965'.
Faith No More - Easy
Originally by Lionel Richie
The Classic of the 'Heavy band covers slow song' genre.
Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - Ramblin' Man
Originally by Hank Williams
A completely revamped version of the original song about wandering by two of the best voices around. Class.
"I love you baby
But you must understand
When the Lord made me
He made a ramblin' man"
Johnny Cash - If You Could Read My Mind
Originally by Gordon Lightfoot
Trigger Happy TV will be where my generation know the original from, but Cash's version is my favorite of all the great songs Rick Rubin coaxed out of him in his final years. His versions of NIN's 'Hurt', Bruce Springsteen's 'Further On Up The Road' and Nick Cave's 'Mercy Seat' should be here too.
Manic Street Preachers - Can't Take My Eyes Off You
Originally by Andy Williams
One of the songs, alongside their version of 'Last Christmas', that taught the adolescent me that old songs shouldn't be disregarded. Before listening to this version, I'd have jumped up to change the station if the original came on the radio.
Mark Lanegan - I'll Take Care Of You
Originally by Brooke Benton
If I had to pick a favorite love song this would be it.
What can be better than an old R&B song sung by a battered gravelly-voiced relic of the Grunge era?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lq3DxRRxtDk
Muse - Feeling Good
Originally by Nina Simone
I don't like Muse but I love this. Another genre-buster, great songs don't have a genre. Most Muse fans probably don't know this is by the same woman that sings the 'got my heart, got my head, got my etc etc' song from the yogurt adverts.
Placebo - Running Up That Hill
Originally by Kate Bush
Seeing a trend here?
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Higher Ground
Originally by Stevie Wonder
Its 1989 and RHCP are still pretty much an underground LA band when Mother's Milk comes out, Stevie Wonder is on the opposite end of both the public awareness and coolness scales - but what do they care?
And what a bass line.
Seal - People Get Ready
Originally by The Impressions
This song has had more covers than Time magazine, but Seal's is my favorite.
If I was forced at gunpoint to audition for a Simon Cowell show I would sing this.
Stereophonics - Nothing Compares To You
Originally by Sinead O'Conner
Mid-nineties weepy covered by Welsh pub-anthem phenomenon, one of the reasons I'm writing this list.
White Stripes - Joleane
Originally by Dolly Parton
See above
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePnoUv7qSCA&feature=fvst
Bruce Springsteen - Because The Night
Originally released by Patti Smith
This was written by The Boss who then gave it to Smith who was recording next door, she changed the lyrics a little and released the version we all know. But I can never get enough of Springsteen singing it live.
"What I got I have earned
What I'm not I have learned
Desire and hunger is the fire I breathe
Just stay in my bed till the morning comes"
Queens of The Stone Age - Never Say Never
Originally by Romeo Void
"I might like you better if we slept together", a 'turn it up, put your foot down' kind of song.
Tom Waits - Lord I've Been Changed
Originally a Gospel song
Tom Waits isn't an artist, he's a channel for some sort of spirit from another world and is possessed by the music, it doesn't come from his mouth or his instruments but out of his pores. The video of him singing this song, sat in his garage using his foot to play the tambourine whilst his kids watch through the window is well worth a watch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIhyQPixAsc
Twilight Singers - Live With Me
Originally by Massive Attack
A third appearance for Mark Lanegan on this list and a second for Greg Dulli. This track deserves to be played loud and sung to, another classic genre-bender.
Wheatus - A Little Respect
Originally by Erasure
I saw Wheatus on a student night just before Time & Envy closed, it was £5 to get in..so minus the usual £3 that's £2 to see the band. They make this song.
Tuesday, 17 August 2010
Awesome Stories #2
Not sure where I'm going with this 'awesome stories' series but I suppose at least it will make me get them out of my system and bore people less. As I mentioned them both in the same breath in my last blog I'll do the Bowie and Pop one.
So David Bowie and Iggy Pop had met sometime earlier, Bowie was pretty famous but James Newell Osterberg Jr and the band he'd recently left , The Stooges (one of my favorites), were only really known to other musicians and fans of what hadn't even really been labelled punk yet. The year was 1976 and they both packed off to Berlin together to get clean, and wound up writing an album. 'The Idiot' would become Iggy Pop's debut solo album just dipping into the charts in both the UK and US. It also happened to contain the awesome song 'China Girl'
"I'd feel tragic
Like I was Marlon Brando
When I'd look at my China Girl
I could pretend that nothing
Really meant too much
When I'd look at my China Girl"
So flash forward to 1983 and global superstar Bowie is releasing his 15th album 'Let's Dance' whilst his best mate is broke again. So what does he do? nobody likes a handout, so he chucks a new version of China Girl on and releases it as a single knowing it will sell and that his mate will be paid half the royalties. Top bloke.
So David Bowie and Iggy Pop had met sometime earlier, Bowie was pretty famous but James Newell Osterberg Jr and the band he'd recently left , The Stooges (one of my favorites), were only really known to other musicians and fans of what hadn't even really been labelled punk yet. The year was 1976 and they both packed off to Berlin together to get clean, and wound up writing an album. 'The Idiot' would become Iggy Pop's debut solo album just dipping into the charts in both the UK and US. It also happened to contain the awesome song 'China Girl'
"I'd feel tragic
Like I was Marlon Brando
When I'd look at my China Girl
I could pretend that nothing
Really meant too much
When I'd look at my China Girl"
So flash forward to 1983 and global superstar Bowie is releasing his 15th album 'Let's Dance' whilst his best mate is broke again. So what does he do? nobody likes a handout, so he chucks a new version of China Girl on and releases it as a single knowing it will sell and that his mate will be paid half the royalties. Top bloke.
Monday, 16 August 2010
Number One
The other night I saw a documentary, part of BBC Three's or Four's or Five's or Seven's - one of the cultural BBC channels anyway- series on New York music. It was called 'Blondie : One Way or Another' and confirmed a beleif thats been growing inside me for a while, Debbie Harry was THE BEST looking woman ever.
Now Blondie are just one of those bands that have been in the back of our minds since birth with their songs being on so many radio playlists, so its easy not to see that they were actually really good. Songs like Call Me, Atomic, Heart of Glass are brilliant, they'd stand up on their own without a beautiful lead singer. Of course they used sex to sell records but Harry was much sexier fully dressed than Lady Ga Ga will ever be.
Oh and 10 years older than Ga Ga, Harry was 31 when Blondie's first album was released and 34 when the band were on the cover of Rolling Stone. Proof that form is tempory whilst class is permanent. I remember reading Anthony Keidis's (of Red Hot Chili Peppers) autobiography and he tells of trying to chat her up at a party when he was in his early twenties, only to get shot down. Iggy Pop also tells of himself and David Bowie failing when Blondie were supporting on his Idiot tour. In fact, thoughout their career Harry and Blondie Guitarist Chris Stein were 'life partners'.
So in summary: Beautiful, Sexy, Talented and Unattainable even if I was born forty years earlier. Definatly the perfect woman...
Now Blondie are just one of those bands that have been in the back of our minds since birth with their songs being on so many radio playlists, so its easy not to see that they were actually really good. Songs like Call Me, Atomic, Heart of Glass are brilliant, they'd stand up on their own without a beautiful lead singer. Of course they used sex to sell records but Harry was much sexier fully dressed than Lady Ga Ga will ever be.
Oh and 10 years older than Ga Ga, Harry was 31 when Blondie's first album was released and 34 when the band were on the cover of Rolling Stone. Proof that form is tempory whilst class is permanent. I remember reading Anthony Keidis's (of Red Hot Chili Peppers) autobiography and he tells of trying to chat her up at a party when he was in his early twenties, only to get shot down. Iggy Pop also tells of himself and David Bowie failing when Blondie were supporting on his Idiot tour. In fact, thoughout their career Harry and Blondie Guitarist Chris Stein were 'life partners'.
So in summary: Beautiful, Sexy, Talented and Unattainable even if I was born forty years earlier. Definatly the perfect woman...
Wednesday, 28 July 2010
What A Difference A Year Makes....
I've just been told, and a BBC video backs this up, a former classmate and revision chum of mine from University spent today sitting in on a Select Commitee at the House of Commons with Mervyn King, Whilst all I sit in on is Attendance Disciplinaries. Fourteen months ago we were sitting around the same table explaining macroeconomics to each other. Fair?
Tuesday, 27 July 2010
Aweseome Stories # 1
The Rising - Bruce Springsteen (2002)
The Boss hasn't put out an album for over seven years and America is in a state of disaray having just been the victim of the worst Terrorism attacks the world has seen, what the average American beleives in has just been shaken to the core.
A few days after the attacks Bruce Springsteen is out driving in Asbury Park, New Jersey (not too far from New York)and when his car comes to a stop the guy in the next car rolls down the window and says "We need YOU now".
Springsteen goes home writes some songs, calls the E-Street Band into the studio for the first time in 18 years and makes an album to inspire a nation.
Hero.
The Boss hasn't put out an album for over seven years and America is in a state of disaray having just been the victim of the worst Terrorism attacks the world has seen, what the average American beleives in has just been shaken to the core.
A few days after the attacks Bruce Springsteen is out driving in Asbury Park, New Jersey (not too far from New York)and when his car comes to a stop the guy in the next car rolls down the window and says "We need YOU now".
Springsteen goes home writes some songs, calls the E-Street Band into the studio for the first time in 18 years and makes an album to inspire a nation.
Hero.
A new name...
I've decided to change the name of this blog to something much less nobby sounding. Instead I've decided to reference a song I've frequently used in facebook statuses usually during exam time.
The Song is 'Shiver Me Timbers' by Tom Waits, from the album 'The Heart of Saturday Night'. It itself borrows Martin Eden from Jack London's novel of the same name where the protaganist, a struggling writer, feels that the manuscripts he sends to publishers are returned to him by a machine without ever having been seen by human eyes. A feeling I've often identified with. Captain Ahab ain't got nothing on me. Oh and its about sailing away, running away being one of my favorite subjects for a song!
The Song is 'Shiver Me Timbers' by Tom Waits, from the album 'The Heart of Saturday Night'. It itself borrows Martin Eden from Jack London's novel of the same name where the protaganist, a struggling writer, feels that the manuscripts he sends to publishers are returned to him by a machine without ever having been seen by human eyes. A feeling I've often identified with. Captain Ahab ain't got nothing on me. Oh and its about sailing away, running away being one of my favorite subjects for a song!
Sunday, 25 July 2010
Karl Marx's Favorite Band...
A comment on someone's facebook lead me to Youtube and one of my favorite songs of all time, please can we have just one new band capable of something this good please?
Not just some souless tripe from a rhyming dictionary played over one catchy riff...
Wednesday, 7 July 2010
Better off?
I was just sitting here when the song "Burning Photographs" by Ryan Adams came on, long story short its about getting over a girl and getting rid of all your photos of her. It got me thinking, are we really better off in this ultra technological age?
I mean take this lyric:
"I used to be sad
Now I'm just bored with you
You're doomed to repeat the past
'Cause nothing is gonna last
I burned all your photographs"
Now try and get "I deleted you on facebook and twitter and erased my phone's memory" to scan, it just doesn't.
All this technology doesn't leave much room for dramatic melancholic gestures.
Sunday, 20 June 2010
A return to Blogging
Disclaimer : Despite the title this won't be a Blog about Economics or Political issues, it merely reflects the fact that after studying economics for three years I AM an economist, I use rationality assumptions in my everyday decisions and imagine little graphs in my head. No this blog will be even LESS interesting - about the day-to-day ponderings on a twenty-something failing to live out his potential and reflecting on such in a rather girly Blog. Okay thats a lie, I might touch on economics as I experiment with my plan of writing a book that brings thinking like an economist out of the lecture theatre and into the pub. Please see the cartoon above for an amusing and educational example of what not to expect.
I've been inspired to blog again firstly by my friend taking up blogging with such aplomb, http://www.firstclassramblings.blogspot.com/ and secondly by previously mentioned friend finding a blog and pointing out to me that the blogger in question was just like me (personally i think he's got a little more charisma) http://plentymorefishoutofwater.blogspot.com/ .
I did experiment with blogging during my first year at university, I managed about six posts. I think it was mainly as a result of two girls, one who wrote the most fascinating blogs about her life and one who was just fascinating - both of whom I was infatuated with. Anyway I re-read the posts one day and realised I sounded like a twat, deleted them and never blogged again. It was on Myspace for god's sake.
This first entry has taken me a few weeks to compose in my head while I decided whether or not to do this, it may be masculine bravado and/or my upbringing but writing a blog isn't something I'd ever boast about and would never ever ever mention in the pub. But I have been told I've a good writing style and if I can write six thousand words about wage discrimination facing homosexual men, I can probably knock out a few hundred once a week about what I've been thinking about recently....
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