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December 30th, 2009
01:03 pm ironlord [Link]	The Return Of The Death Of The Return Of The Quiz Of The Year I'll admit it right now: since writing the Iceland review, I've (sort of) lost my mojo for writing random entries here. It seems that nothing I'll ever write will be that good or that significant again. I haven't been writing those entries just for the hell of it that I used to, in the last couple of months. I haven't answered those "five questions" that joansies sent me, as one of them was a particularly difficult topic - but I will (eventually). And I never wrote reviews of all the September to December gigs, mainly because there was so many of them. But now, I have something to write about, because it's that time of the year again - i.e. the end. At the end of an entire decade, even. It's the time when Jools Holland counts us down to an almighty piss-up, Jimmy Carr soils the screen on another channel, and the Wyrd Ways Rock Show reviews the finest tunes of the year. And, this year, brilliance is absolutely guaranteed, as I'm chuntering all over it... again. You should all have a listen, or I'll eat you. Purely for comparison purposes, I'll link to those previous answers I gave when I was still a twentysomething. 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 are all still available for viewing. Ja katso... 1. What did you do in 2009 that you'd never done before? Actually, nothing revolutionary; I'd already done road trips to Metal Camp and Wacken, I'd already hired a car and driven it in a foreign country, but... let's just say new experiences were walking down the gap between two tectonic plates, eating rotten shark and sailing on a schooner. The two-week event where these new experiences took place completely dominated the year, as it was always going to, and I'd hope you've all read about it, as you know damn well what I'm referring to. 2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year? For the 30th New Year in a row, I made no resolutions. Long may it continue, because I dictate my own life as it happens, not at any specific point in the year. 3. Did anyone close to you give birth? I say it every year: "varying degrees of closeness" deals with the people who have drifted in and out of my life. At least I saw icampbell and kirstycarse while she was still incubating Campbell junior, who was delivered while I was at The Big Event Given In Question One, which is more than can be said for hell_ben_t and Mrs Joyce, who held on until I'd returned to these shores to drop the biggest baby ever recorded in history, or so I'm told. And there are two more on the way in 2010... 4. Did anyone close to you die? I know the run of no family-and-friends deaths cannot go on forever. In terms of "people I've met", though, I couldn't not mention Mike Alexander, given that I went to Leeds for the tribute gig for him. I never wrote about that extensively - I know I should have done. 5. What countries did you visit? Not as many as in 2008, but the impact was that much greater. You'll remember I travelled through France, Belgium and Holland on my way to Winternoise in Germany, way back in January. Add Luxembourg, Austria and (briefly) Italy when I was on my way to Slovenia for Metal Camp, then I took a look at Hungary afterwards. Amy and John, who hitched a lift with me there and back, also had the dubious pleasure of having to cross Croatia to rejoin me in Budapest. Hungary was a marvellous bonus to the trip, which I should have written about. And, as with the last few years, there was the road trip to Wacken; I've already covered the required countries. But all these pale into utter insignificance in comparison to where I went in August. You all know where it was. Iceland. The greatest foreign excursion I've ever had in my life, and worth every second of the five-year wait and every penny of the expense to get there. 6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009? Chemistry-related employment will happen. I can't put it off any longer. Running the property empire for a couple of years has been the focus mainly due to... yes, that's right, Iceland... but now I'm in a position to go back to research. And, of course, that means money. Ha! 7. What date from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? "I am in Iceland. Let me say that again... I am in Iceland." That's a piece I did to camera on 6th August, 2009, day one of the trip. In reality, it's all fifteen days that will be indelibly etched on my memory. Although, a certain shout has to go to 27th July as well, because you all know what happened that day... 8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Admittedly, I had a bit of help with it - OK, a lot of help - but the execution of the Iceland trip to the same military precision that I've done with every other festival trip or other such foreign excursion was the crowning glory, and _arnamentia_ has already said so in her Review Of The Year. Winternoise, Metal Camp and Wacken were all done the same perfect way - and last year's Epykkkkk Euro-Tour, which provided the dry run for the Iceland video, was an excellent piece of preparation. 9. What was your biggest failure? I don't do failure, because I don't know what it is. What is failure? 10. Did you suffer illness or injury? There's been those usual intermittent visits of the Acidic Cough Of Destruction, but as that's been going on for seven years now it's unlikely to go away. That it made a sharp return on day fourteen of the Iceland trip when I saw christian propaganda in front of me says it won't be going away any time soon. 11. What was the best thing you bought? On a large scale: I won't say exactly how much the Iceland trip cost me in total, but it was well into four figures. The video camera I bought to record every facet of the trip turned out to be a marvellous machine. But great things don't have to be expensive: the 20 quid I spent on a George Foreman grill in January was a fabulous purchase, and probably means I'm a stone lighter than I could have been by now. 12. Whose behaviour merited celebration? First of all, a huge shout to thunarr for anothe ryear of the Wyrd Ways Rock Show, and for letting me invade the show occasionally. Most definitely, Gareth, Gabi and Olivia at Iceland Holidays, and you shouldn't need me to explain why. Anyone who helped my celebrate turning 30 is quite welcome to take credit, but the triumvalkyriate of jellybearwhore, _arnamentia_ and faithinfire are worthy of particular celebration. In fact, faithinfire joined me on both celebratory foreign trips, invited me to her new pad in Whitby, contributed to one of my Hammer Of Retribution Ogg-Casts, promises her Iceland review will be written in February, and has voewd not to go down the marriage-and-kids route (and has done for the last decade, actually), and assures me she'll still be around for me when I'm 40 and seemingly everyone else I know has retreated into family life or descended into an internet-only existence. 13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed? Anyone involved in allowing the christian occupation of Iceland a millennium ago. And a special word goes out to the German police on the Metal Camp trip who were determined to find the drugs I didn't have, for wasting my time, as well as Amy's and John's and getting annoyed when they wouldn't be able to make an arrest. 14. Where did most of your money go? Leaving the country. The combined total of Winternoise, Metal Camp, Wacken and Iceland was more than I spent on general life for the rest of the year... 15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? It begins with an "I". 16. What song will always remind you of 2009? Really, it could be anything from the Iceland soundtrack, but here's one that didn't feature... I'm old, I'm dying... Hell can wait... I'm always late! Sarke - Old. Performed to perfection at Wacken, just a few days after I'd hit 30. Cheers, Nocturno... though I don't think I'll bhe wearing a grey woollen cardigan just yet. 17. Compared to this time last year, are you i. happier or sadder? ...I've been to Iceland. Take the hint! ii. thinner or fatter? Still fifteen stone, still got a gut, that's early-onset middle-aged spread for you. iii. richer or poorer? Let's just say my entire dinner these days consists of Sainsbury's Basics something or other. I'll have to fix this. 18. What do you wish you'd done more of? Clearing the junk out of the house again didn't happen. Bah. And I should have edited the Iceland video by now... 19. What do you wish you'd done less of? Again, less wasting time on the internet. Though all my LJ entries in September and October will stand as a monument to the greatest two weeks of my life. 20. How will you be spending Christmas? Or, indeed, how did I spend it? It was entirely at my gran's this year, for reasons I can't go into in public. There was turkey, there was Guinness, there was shit festive TV (though with a rather fetching Top Gear special in Bolivia), and there was a lot of work on the PG-rated version of the Iceland review, designed for public viewing. 21. Did you fall in love in 2009? I am really starting to resent this question. Not just because my once-legendary patience with spending what is now more than four years on the sidelines is considerably thinner than it once was, but also because that extra psychological barrier that comes with the first figure of my age increasing means that there's now even less chance that I'll ever be able to do anything about it. One of these days I'm going to explode and it's going to lose me a lot of friends. 22. How many one night stands? I fart in the general direction of this question. 23. What was your favourite TV programme? It's been the year that's finally proved that everything James May touches turns to gold. There's been two series of Top Gear of variable quality, but that's still better than 99.9% of the "reality" trash that the great unwashed unthinkingly gobble up in droves. It's on his non-TG programmes that he excels, though; Oz and James Drink To Britain was excellent viewing despite its criminal omission of mead from the list of Great British Drinks; James May On The Moon and ... On The Edge Of Space were twin technological tours-de-force, and then there's been the thoroughly entertaining James May's Toy Stories, where even though he moaned a bit too much at times I'd still like to have a few pints of brown beer with twigs in it in his presence. He may have been replaced by Hugh Dennis for Oz And Hugh Drink To Christmas, but wasn't completely missed. 24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? Don't think so, although I have rather less time for the authorities in various European countries now than I did a year ago. 25. What was the best book you read? The Saga Of Iceland: An Epic Tale Of An Epic Adventure. Author: me. It is brilliant. 26. What was your greatest musical discovery? faithinfire introduced me to Mental Home, and _arnamentia_ made me sit up and take notice of Agalloch, both via the Iceland soundtrack. Sarke were also a new band this year, and didn't disappoint at Wacken in any way. And let us not forget, for those of you who can see the post, this was the year in which Finsterforst finally came good. 27. What did you want and get? Fifteen days in Iceland. 28. What did you want and not get? This year, if I didn't get it, I didn't want it. 29. What was your favourite film this year? As always seems to happen, any film I've seen this year didn't stick in my head enough to make me remember I'd seen it. I missed Brüno, though, due to its time of release, and I'd have liked to have seen it. I should rectify this at some stage. 30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I've mentioned it many, many times over the course of the year (and this quiz) how old I was. The question number is something of a clue, isn't it? Actually, on the day I had not much to do; I finished a piece of writing that was many months overdue. Still, I had a birthday barbecue a couple of days before in which people came to my house for the first time in over five years. And then, the day after, I set off for Wacken, which was marvellous as ever. A couple of days after coming back from Wacken... there was something I did for a couple of weeks, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was. Actually, that is an utter lie. 31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Nothing short of the end of the christian occupation of Northern Europe could possibly have improved the year. 32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009? You know what? I actually made a post about this on dorky_hotties showing how I haven't changed since the last bit of hair grew to its required length eight years ago. So, if you don't know already, you never will! 33. What kept you sane? For the first seven months of the year, it was the thought that I was going to go to Iceland. For the last four months of the year, it was the afterglow that I'd already been. 34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? I'm sure there was one, though any time I'm called on to name one, I can't. 35. What political issue stirred you the most? On my side of the Atlantic, the countdown to the end of Gordon Brown's time as PM and thus the amputation of the last lingering thread of Tony Blair's authoritarian New Labour project; over the pond, the continuing idiocy of the Confederate far right in referring to Barack Obama as a communist, when those people wouldn't know what communism was if Lenin jumped out of his mausoleum, swam across the Atlantic and swatted them in the face with a rolled-up copy of Pravda. 36. Who did you miss? Credit where credit's due, as always, so if I've missed anyone, grovelling apologies. 37. Who was the best new person you met? I refuse to prioritise, as it would be unfair, but this year, poisonsvea, rimmugygi, _mauler_, hakucho_cygnus and thunarr became real peoplpe rather than just LJ usernames. 38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009. I didn't. I know everything about me I need to know already. 39. Who did you spend the most time on the phone with? My gran, my brother, and the good people of Iceland Holidays. 40. Quote a song that sums up your year: Or, rather, two weeks of the year. I quote, in its entirety, a track from what was probably the most popular of the 32 albums on the Iceland soundtrack, it being given two complete plays, and inspiring various humorous additions to the scenery. I give you "Immortal on holiday"... Along the mighty mountainsides Fog creeps beneath the tops A winding climb upon steep mountains To where the glacial tongue becomes my path Upon the mighty mountains heights These plateaus of my dreams I am at the greatest sight of all To where the glacial arms reach for me Highest mountains hear my call To you I'll guide myself The time has come for me to reach I'm brought too far to turn Tops that seem unreachable Tower in the sky Horizon to horizon On platforms yield with wind Mountains of ice calm in my sight Platforms built by wind Mountains of ice calm in my sight Platforms built for kings Along the mighty mountainsides Fog creeps beneath the tops A winding climb upon steep mountains To where the glacial tongue becomes my path Highest mountains hear my call To you I'll guide myself The time has come for me to reach I'm brought too far to turn Current Music: Wyrd Ways Rock Show LXXIII (Leave a comment)
11:37 am ali_in_london [Link]	Hamlet... The other day I watch the film version of the Royal Shakespeare Company's Hamlet, and the casting raised an important question: ( [POLL] Totty or not totty ) Tags: polls (6 comments \| Leave a comment)
06:19 am shallowthing [Link]	On Thursday I played host to msbum, who’d been let down on her original promise of crash space after the gig she was photographing up at RC. I had only been planning to put her up after Assault the following day, but fortunately she’s light enough company that I could stretch to the extra night and not want to kill her. Heh. The interim was spent eating, talking shit, watching a Def Leppard DVD, and playing with her camera. Far be it from someone as ugly as I have the misfortune to be to be entertaining thoughts of anything with as many opportunities for outright pretension as “modelling”, but since msbum has often complained that her male friends will never allow her to take pictures of them, and I have long desired to get over my mild phobia of being photographed through tackling it head-on, the logical conclusion presented itself. I was nervous as fuck at first, but something or other triggered the “obnoxious ‘rock star’” side of my personality and I must confess that I was rather enjoying myself by the point we ran out of both momentum and ideas. I remains to be seen whether I find the results anything except toe-curlingly embarrassing. Here’s hoping at least some of them are flattering… After all that I was so warm and weary that I seriously considered having a nap before Assault. Being full of meat feast pizza didn’t help either, for that matter. Heh. Assault was much as I had expected it would be: Largely fun, but not as good as when I was involved in the DJing. But then I’m biased. I guess the fact that by this point I had almost completely lost my voice didn’t help the social side of things. That was rather weird: I didn’t feel ill, I didn’t have a sore throat, and I wasn’t hacking and coughing any more than usual, but my voice just packed up almost completely. Saturday morning was spent lying in far longer than I had intended and discussing the feasibility of a self-rolling sleeping bag (perhaps using a small vacuum pump and those memory-rod things from Batman Begins) while msbum packed up her nest on my living room floor. After I saw her off at the station, I staggered off through the blinding sunlight, back to my old place in Sneinton to do some cleaning and collect some more stuff. Quote of the Day: “I turn ‘What if?’ into ‘So what?’” - Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees on coping with nervousness Current Mood: Unshaven Current Music: t.A.T.u. - 'How Soon Is Now?' (Leave a comment)
December 29th, 2009
10:17 pm shallowthing [Link]	Swallow the Sun, after the intervention of the winged visitor, seem like something of an afterthought in my memory. Which is a shame, as they were really very good. They had a real wall-of-sound thing going on, and while they might not have been as crushing as, say, Celtic Frost have been known to be live, they certainly did a splendid job of reproducing their studio sound live. There wasn’t much in the way of interaction with the crowd, and Mikko Kotamäki seemed pissed off about something – perhaps the way the crowd noticeably thinned out after Insomnium left. And they didn’t play ‘These Low Lands.’ Heh. The following Monday I finished off the bedside cabinet, and then put up the curtain rail in my bedroom. I’d have hung the curtains too, but I was defeated by my lack of curtain hooks. Apparently my logical conclusion that they’d come packed with either the rails or the curtains themselves was, in fact, erroneous. Instead I unpacked my guitar, and spent the evening reminding myself how much I’d missed having it – even though we’d not been separated for that long. On Tuesday I bought curtain hooks and retrieved my iron from Sneinton, and then used them to iron and hang the bedroom curtains. I’d have done the same in the living room too, but the curtains I’d bought were too long and needed to be taken up by some seven and a half inches. On Wednesday evening, I headed down the UoN RockSoc Christmas party at the Central. Admittedly I don’t know as many of the RockSoc folk as I used to, but I do know enough of them not to make it too odd than I turn up. Besides, I wanted to have a look at the venue; I’d already been starting to get the impression that a lot of events are going to be taking place there rather than anywhere else in future. I think I spent most of the evening perching on a barstool, enjoying toxik_angel’s hugs, casually horrifying the freshers (they need to man up, and fast) and playing Statler and Waldorf with yourapocalypse. Comedy highlight of the night was probably when Mike played Ignite’s ‘Veteran’ in the upstairs room. yourapocalypse and I promptly threw ourselves at the dancefloor, and everyone else even more promptly left. Hah. Quote of the Day: “The object of every man’s desire was staring me in the face from the age of about fourteen.” - David Rappaport, (1951-1990), 3’ 11” actor Current Mood: Contemplative Current Music: Pet Shop Boys - 'King's Cross' (Leave a comment)
December 28th, 2009
11:18 am shallowthing [Link]	Between the end of Insomnium’s set and the start of the headliner’s, I went off to talk to a few of the people I know in the crowd - ironlord, jellybearwhore, and a few Leicester people headed up by archenemy888. It’s while I was standing at the bottom of the stairs speaking to the latter that what will for evermore be known as The Bird Incident occurred. ( Cut for Loquaciousness: The Bird Incident ) Quote of the Day: “… a heartless creature is a loveless creature, and a loveless creature is a beast. To be a beast is perhaps bearable, although the man who has become one will surely pay hell’s own price in the end.” - Stephen King, The Drawing of the Three Current Mood: Long-winded, apparently Current Music: Isis - 'Hall of the Dead' (6 comments \| Leave a comment)
December 27th, 2009
07:29 pm shallowthing [Link]	I timed my arrival at the gig to perfection, missing the local bands and walking in pretty much just as Omnium Gatherum took the stage. They were good, better than I was expecting, and noticeably improved on when I saw them supporting Dark Tranquillity in the Basement. Although I was disappointed that they didn’t play the beautiful ‘Greeneyes’ from the most recent album, they did include ‘No Breaking Point’ and ‘The Return’, which almost made up for it. I was the only person dancing at the start of their set, but I most certainly wasn’t by the end. I was especially pleased and amused by the two young lads in Bloodstock T-shirts to my right, who were headbanging in time with me and attempting to take pictures of themselves while they were doing so. Aww. Insomnium came on what seemed like five minutes later, in possibly the quickest between-band changeover I have ever seen – I think all three bands were sharing gear – launched straight into the opening one-two of ‘Equivalence’ and ‘Down With the Sun’ from new album Across the Dark and the room, which had filled up nicely by now, erupted into synchronised headbanging. Every single member of the band, first four rows of the audience, all whipping their hair up and down in time. It looked awesome. I was worried that the majority of the audience would only be there for the headliners and that Insomnium would be confronted with a wall of apathy, but I was thoroughly pleased to be wrong – if anything, most of the punters seemed to be there for them. At first it seemed like the crowd were most interested by tracks like ‘The Killjoy’ from Above the Weeping World, but I think the song that got the single biggest reaction all night was probably Across the Dark’s obvious single ‘As the Last Wave Broke’. It’s nice for me to be able to see a band I like in their ascendancy for a change. Quote of the Day: “I remember Macclesfield Leisure Centre in 1983. I was playing drums on ‘Blue Monday’, and in the corner of my eye I could see this kid pucker up and lauch the biggest green ‘un I’ve ever seen, and it landed on my knee. I thought, ‘You dirty fucker’… the next song was ‘Age of Consent’, which started with the bass, so I got into my stance and started playing. The kid started smiling, it must have been one of his favourite songs, so I smiled at him, finished the riff and then hit him over the head with the fucking headstock. He went down like a fucking kipper with the four pegs in his forehead. As he went down and I pulled the bass back, the fucking headstock fell off. It cost me £150, but it was worth every penny. It was fucking hilarious, a very satisfying audience participation moment. One of New Order’s greatest moments.” - Peter Hook, bassist (among other things) with New Order Current Mood: Laid back Current Music: Scar Symmetry - 'Ascension Chamber' (Leave a comment)
12:17 pm conspiracychild [Link]	Merry Xmas and all that Well I am sat by the aga at Sam's mum's writing this on an iPhone. Had a few very enjoyable days at mum's which involved shopping and eating too much and minor traumas when the boiler broke down. Left late afternoon on Xmas eve and got here in time for the midnight communion. Xmas day involved a large lunch and the third giving of presents. Perfume, books and gadgets abounded and even a pearl necklace from Sam. Every day has involved a walk with the dog, attempting to counterbalance the excess of food. I might be reaching that dangerous age when I actually start putting weight on. Either that or my jeans have shrunk, all of them. Hmm. Anyway a happy Christmas to all from Devon. Next stop Somerset before heading back to Leeds. (Leave a comment)
December 24th, 2009
05:01 pm shallowthing [Link]	Other than damned inconvenience, the demonstration/protest/riot/delete as applicable didn’t really effect my day. I collected by beloved guitar and ferried it over to the new place, and I was slightly embarrassed by how much better I felt to have it on the premises with me. The evening saw an NTU RockSoc trip up to Sheffield Corporation. I wasn’t much inspired by the music or the attitude of the local wankers (telling me to cheer up is pretty much the fastest way to piss me off after heightism). I recall there being no fewer than six separate instances where I had to tell mouthy local strangers to piss off. That said, I do always like going north (I’m never the oldest nor the ugliest punter on the premises) and since there’s a strange timeslip effect whereby the further up the country you travel the further back in time you go, Corporation is appropriately dark, loud and free of emos – Like Clubs Used To Be. Hah. The music wasn’t terribly inspiring on this occasion, more’s the pity, but unlike most trips to other cities, I fell in with a couple of awesome randoms (Kyler and Becky, this means you, in the unlikely event that you’re reading this) that I met and they managed to keep me entertained to the point whereby the night seemed to vanish in short order. I bailed on the club just shy of half an hour before the coach was due to leave, and went on a solo mission to find the awesome takeaway that yourapocalypse and I discovered the last time we were in Sheffield together. I was impressed by my own inherent sense of direction: My feet led me straight to the place, no deviations, no wanders, and I proceeded to stuff my face with some exceedingly pleasant fish and chips. I had a bit of a lie-in on Sunday morning; more than I expected, less than I was worried I might. I made my way back to John Lewis, collected the rest of my lampshades, returned home and hung them. They look very nice. Then I went back to Ikea, and got a two-draw bedside cabinet to match the chest of drawers in my room. It’s black, heavy and utilitarian. I lugged it home on the bus (I really don’t envy poor baybee_bat having to travel on that fucking thing regularly, especially at night) and got stuck into assembling it before I had to set off for the gig. Quote of the Day: “It probably didn’t matter, but he liked loose ends no more than he liked crooked pictures hanging on walls.” - Stephen King, Wolves of the Calla Current Mood: Relaxed Current Music: Insomnium - 'Under the Plaintive Sky' (Leave a comment)
December 23rd, 2009
08:26 pm conspiracychild [Link]	So I have had a cold, mild flu, migranes and work related stress. Finally I am free of work and on the Christmas rounds. Currently sat at my Mum's house. Andrew's birthday was yesterday and we arrived in time for some food before he went out. We had dinner out last night at Ego's. Today we had a trip to the outlet village and I got Sam some designer sunglasses for our ski holiday. Bit of an expensive Christmas present but he liked them. Tomorrow Andrew is working in the am and then we are having a pre christmas lunch and some presents. (1 comment \| Leave a comment)
03:05 pm thedarkproject [Link]	Albums of 2009 I only bought 18 albums that were released this year, so a top 10 would feel a bit artificial. Instead, I'll do what I did last year and split them into the very good, the good, and the interesting. The Best Swallow The Sun - "New Moon" - An unfortunate name, given the similarity to the teen vampire film that came out at about the same time, but this is a pretty solid StS album. Objectively it's hard to claim that it's better than their first 2 albums, but nobody does melodic doom as well as this, and the extra black metal touches on this one add welcome variety. Fen - "The Malediction Fields" - When I went to see Agalloch and Dornenreich earlier this year Fen were on the bill, but I missed them due to the queue taking too long to get into the venue. After being told that I'd missed a great performance I thought I'd pick up their cd to see what the fuss was about, and I wasn't disappointed. It's hard to describe what they play, despite loads of bands sounding a bit like this at the moment, but it has aspects of black metal, folk metal, and allegedly, post-rock. It'll be good to hear what they can do with a bigger recording budget in future. Black Sun Aeon - "Death Walks Beside Me" - Another year, another Tuomas Saukkonen project. I had hoped for another Dawn Of Solace album from him this year but one was not forthcoming. Instead, we got this; a darker, harsher album, not too far removed from DoS or Before The Dawn, but with a different singer on the clean vocals. It's melodic death metal in the literal sense - fewer nods to the Gothenburg scene of old and more of an eye towards the haunting lead guitar work and acoustic sections of bands like Katatonia and Amorphis, set to heavy mid-tempo rhythms an. Depressed Mode - "For Death" - Set aside the cheesy name for a moment and you find there is actually a very competent outfit here. This, their second offering, moves on from the standard funeral doom of the first and introduced some bludgeoning riffs into the mix, while keeping the vast guitars and deep orchestration of the original. Natalie Koskinen returns to perform the sparse vocal parts, which any Shape of Despair fans should appreciate. The sad thing is, I don't think any of these 4 albums are as good as my top 5 from last year. The Runners-Up Forest Stream - "The Crown Of Winter" - This could have been amazing, but lax quality control has let this down. The long-awaited follow up to their 'Tears of Mortal Solitude' album which came out about 6 years ago, this work adds live drums into the mix with a positive effect on the arrangements and intensity. Such a shame then that the quality drops off a bit after the 3rd track, and the intro to track 8, 'The Beautiful Nature', makes me cringe more than anything else I've heard this year. I think they're going for some sort of angle demonstrating a harsh juxtaposition between urban life and a more natural rural existence there, but it's just too jarring, not to mention that whoever recorded the spoken word part fucked up royally on how to use a de-esser. This is still great for what it is - black/doom metal with ambient and symphonic aspects - but it should have been so much better. Amorphis - "Skyforger" - the only criticism I have of Skyforger is that it's pretty much the same as 'Silent Waters' and 'Eclipse'. A great album, but nothing new here. Can a band release the same album three times and get away with it? I suppose Amon Amarth do ok... Insomnium - "Across The Dark" - This is a great album, continuing where they left off with 'Under The Weeping World' but I think the clean vocal parts let it down. The accusations from some quarters of them becoming 'metalcore' are obviously ridiculous - adding clean vocals to metal doesn't make it metalcore - but the singer on those parts does have that slightly whiney quality which I dislike. Combined with the fact that the last album arguably has better songs in the form of 'Mortal Share' and 'The Killjoy', this one just isn't as good for me. Ex Deo - "Romulus" - Ex Deo is a Katakylsm side project - or more precisely, pretty much the same band - with Roman themed lyrics and a more bombastic delivery. Despite being promoted as also featuring appearances from members of Behemoth, Nile, and Keep of Kalessin, this is actually a more accessible album than your typical Kataklysm release. Worth a listen if you like your metal aggressive but not lacking melody. Otherwise notable Wolves In The Throne Room - "Black Cascade" - I keep reading that this has post-rock elements. Admittedly I'm no post-rock expert but I just don't see it. On this album at least, they sound pretty much any other atmospheric/progressive black metal band these days, which makes me wonder if the hype around this band is all coming from people getting into black metal from the post-rock side who are unfamiliar with the other bands. It might explain why they have such a buzz around them despite not being particularly different, or competent - they certainly can't play in time for example, which irritates me. Having said that, I do quite enjoy this album in places. SuidAkrA - "Crógacht" - a less interesting follow up to 'Caledonia', with an awful singy track in the middle. Not one I'm finding myself going back to, despite them having mostly sorted out the awful mix on 'Caledonia'. Paradise Lost - "Faith Divides Us - Death Unites Us" - my opinion here is not widely shared, but I do think this album is incredibly disappointing. Where are the SONGS? Apart from 'Last Regret' and the title track, it's an album of Riff 1 / Riff 2 / ...etc... / Riff 12, with little heed paid to structure and many of their melodic and harmonic trademarks stripped away in favour of heavier guitars. I like it being heavy and I like Nick putting the aggression back into his vocal deliveries but you can't compromise on songwriting like they have done here and get away with it. Katatonia - "Night Is The New Day" - Again, I appear to be in the minority, but I think this album is a big disappointment. I prefer it to the Paradise Lost one, but it's still a massive let-down. To be fair, I didn't love 'The Great Cold Distance' either, but this time it's as if they've taken that album, stripped most of the interesting guitar parts out, and re-released it. A lot has been said about whether it would be 'more like 'Unfurl' ", the B-side that many of the fans of Katatonia's mellower side have become obsessed with, but while the quieter tracks are more in this direction, they're not as good. At the other end of the scale, the heavier tracks are lacking ambition with unimaginative rhythm guitar parts. Guitarist Anders Nyström had writers block going into this album and it really shows. I hope he is able to get more involved on the next album. Lacuna Coil - "Shallow Life" - with the exception of the single 'Spellbound' which is awesome, this was atrocious. What happened to this band? Like In Flames, who rose equally quickly to worldwide prominence in the mid-90s, it's as if they've been bitten by the American bug and feel compelled to try and sound like the bands that the USA are desperately trying to move on from. Substituting interesting chordal harmonies for percussive chugging on the bottom guitar string might buy you a lot of fans quite quickly but leaves you with no depth, and I think they'll come to regret this in future years. The Prophecy - "Into The Light" - this band have continued to take their death/doom music in a more progressive direction, and although it works well - 'Echoes' being the best example on this album - it seems to be pushing at the boundaries without risking breaking them. They work hard, they perform well, I'm just not sure whether the songs have the je ne sais quoi to push them to the next level. Sirenia - "The 13th Floor" - Sirenia almost set a new record among bands in my collection for releasing 5 albums in a row which were each worse than the one before it. 'Luckily' this release was marginaly better than its predecessor so they are deprived of that particular accolade. It's still pretty awful bubble-gum post-Nightwish metal though, and when you find yourself thinking "Evanescence were heavier than this" you know something has gone wrong. Unsurprising then that lead songwriter Morten Veland feels the need to start up yet another band to get back to playing the sort of music he practically invented during his time with Tristania. Other hopes and predictions from last year: - still no album from Dawn Of Solace or Grey Skies Fallen - still no demo from Twilight's Embrace - that is on hold indefinitely! - no album from Dark Tranquillity, but that is due in March. So, next year, I hope for all of the above, plus releases from Agalloch, The Fall Of Every Season, Daylight Dies, Slumber, and Draconian. And would it be too much to ask for another Primordial record? Hopefully not... Current Mood: indifferent Current Music: Catamenia - "Astral Tears" Tags: music (17 comments \| Leave a comment)
08:29 am shallowthing [Link]	‘So,’ I thought, ‘I need a hard copy of this email. No massive deal – I’ll pop over to the central library on Angel Row and use their printers to run one off. Quicker and cheaper than trying to find the right inks and so forth.’ Off I went, gradually building my annoyance at the multitudes of stupid people at the Midwinter Festival of Sheep-like Retardery brings out of the woodwork. Nothing overly unusual there, then. Well, not until I got to Market Square and realised that I’d managed to do all of this on the day when the English Defence League (fascists, apparently, too many of whom were looking for a fight) were marching, and Unite Against Fascism (crusties, teenagers and Guardian readers, mostly, some of whom may have thought they were looking for a fight) turned up to demonstrate against them. Oh, and there apparently had been a parade earlier in the day by one of the Army regiments returned from Foreign Parts. And there was a football match on as well. I thought that poor old Nottingham Police (who can barely maintain order in the city centre on a Friday night, let alone in the middle of a riot in the making) might be a bit stretched, so I was unsurprised to see a least three closed-sided vans in Leicestershire Police colours, with “Tactical Unit” on the side. I’d been wondering if Nottinghamshire Police would be stretched enough to draft in reinforcements. I went into the library and discharged my business there, and while I was so engaged I happened to glance out of a window on the stairwell and I saw at least four mounted police trotting in formation along Maid Marian Way. I like horses. They always trigger a childlike “Yay, horses!” reaction in me; racial memory of a cross-species bond older than human history, perhaps. En route to the end of St. James’s Street, I would guess, from what other people have said. I heard rumours there was fighting there, and the mounted units were used to break it up. This filled my head with images of a cavalry charge down St. James’s Street against skinheads, crusties and football hooligans, which (if it happened) would have been the most awesome thing to happen in Nottingham for centuries. A shame they don’t issue the police with lances. After the library, I had intended to dart across the square and pop back to the old place in Sneinton to do a spot of cleaning and rescue my guitar, but I found my route blocked by a line of several hundred clarts with placards and had to take a detour around the other side of the Counting House. In case the tone of the above leaves you in any doubt, I know exactly which side I was rooting for in the whole tiresome UAF versus the EDL thing: The police. I dislike the fact that these people feel the need to make their point by committing minor public order offences, and I found myself reminded throughout of an old Judge Dredd strip in which he delivers the line “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses... and I'll give ‘em justice!” while leading a baton charge into a riot or demonstration and starts cracking heads with his daystick. Quote of the Day: “A beautiful battle is one you don’t have to fight… he did not like battles. You could get holes poked in you in battles.” - Robert Jordan, Knife of Dreams Current Mood: Peckish Current Music: Sirenia - 'Absent Without Leave' (10 comments \| Leave a comment)
December 22nd, 2009
12:54 pm fiendil [Link]	Advent meme thing - day 22 Day 22 → A website http://xkcd.com/150/ (2 comments \| Leave a comment)
December 21st, 2009
07:15 pm fiendil [Link]	Advent meme thing - days 19-21 Day 19 → A talent of yours I don't do talent. I do jack-of-all-trades. I'm pretty good at quite a few things, usually very good at picking things up, but never a shining star at anything in particular. Day 20 → A hobby of yours Wargaming. I bought the book Forest of Doom in 1983 or thereabouts, and I'm now sitting on a pile of toy soldiers big enough to squash an elephant. I enjoy painting up the models and pitting wits against people when playing em on the table, as well as having a bit of a fetish for buying new and shiny toys. I don't make my own, but I do like converting things. And tentacles. I play once or twice a week regularly, and always have models on my table to work on in front of the telly. Even now, after 20 years, I'm finding new things to play with, and new things to do with little metal and plastic men. I've been primarily a GW player for years, but have become dissatisfied with a lot of their stuff recently (not the literature or the actual models, more the rules, pricing and attitudes). Especially with the discovery of both Privateer Press and Battlefront in the last few years. I even started a second LJ account to rattle on about what I've been doing rather than clutter this blog up with it: http://beatenzone.livejournal.com/ There's pics of painted models on there, if you want a rummage. Some better painted than others. Day 21 → A recipe Cajun Jambalaya. 2 chicken breasts. Half a Matteson's smoked sausage. 3-4 rashers bacon. (All chopped into bite size pieces.) Red pepper. Onion. 2-3 stems celery. 4-6 cloves garlic. Tin of tomatoes. (All chopped into smaller than bite size pieces.) Cup of (easy cook) basmati rice. 2 cups of boiling water. Dash of sweet chilli sauce. Dash of Worcester sauce. Knorr veg stock cube. 4 bay leaves. Emeril's Bayou Blast 2 1/2 teaspoons paprika 2 teaspoons salt 2 teaspoons garlic powder 1 teaspoon black pepper 1 teaspoon onion powder 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper 1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves 1 teaspoon dried thyme I use a nice sized cook pot for this. I think mine's a 22cm (3.3litre) Le Creuset Cocotte, and this recipie fills it to the brim. Needs to have a lid! - Fry the garlic, onion, pepper, celery in either Fry-Light or a little olive oil. Until things are turning translucent. - Add tomatoes, rice, water, crumbled stock cube, sauces, and bay. Stir it all up, and bring to a simmer. - Put lid on pot. Stir occasionally. Cook for about 8-9 minutes until the rice is almost done. - While that's going on, mix up the Bayou Blast, and coat the chicken with it. Just mix them up in a bowl together. - The rice will cook almost exactly with the water that's available. A minute or two before the rice is done, you want to add, and stir in, all the meat. The meat will cook very quickly while the rice finishes, and be nice and moist. - Once the meat and rice are cooked through, it's ready to serve. And it doesn't need any accompanying dishes, as everything goes in the one pot. It's actually quite straightforward, and is absolutely awesome food. In the interests of dieting, we've tried swapping out the chicken for Quorn chunks, and dropping the sausage. About half a bag will do for this recipie. Any more will overwhelm the other ingredients. Original recipie I found used Andouille sausage, but I've never found it in the shops, so Mattesons it is. Original also uses shrimp, but I'm not a fan, so bacon. (Leave a comment)
09:17 am shallowthing [Link]	On Saturday I got up early (this is becoming an unfortunate habit, mainly due to there being little to do at night these days) and got stuck into doing some unfortunately necessary shopping, both online and in good old twat-filled meatspace. This included picking up a small roll of gaffa tape from a stall in the Victoria market staffed by a woman who had never actually heard of gaffa tape, and to whom I had to describe it before she could assist me in locating some. Unbelievably, things then got more complicated. I went into John Lewis in search of black lampshades. People have mocked me for this, but there is method to my apparently “effeminate” madness: The new flat is fairly low-ceilinged, and as a result the lightbulbs hang at approximately my eye-level. Putting shades on them will in no way reduce how often I bump into them (I’ve already broken the socket in the kitchen with my head), but it should reduce any further damage and will mean that I won’t get a hot lightbulb in the eye at any point. Heh. Anyway, they had the ones I wanted, but not enough of them (I needed one for every exposed light fitting in the flat, of which there are five). I also observed that the traditionally I AM SO MIDDLE-CLASS IT HURTS staff – whom, as always, were astonished that I a) am markedly more well-spoken than they are, and b) actually have some of that money thing to spend – seemed somewhat younger than usual. Quite where they found so many incredibly supercilious acne-plagued teenagers, I don’t know – I didn’t think there were any posh people in Nottingham, let alone young ones. I returned home, hung the shades I had, and turned to John Lewis online to buy some more. This was a surprisingly painless process (no MasterCard SecureCode!), and they offered free next-day in-store collection. Excellent, I thought, paid my money, placed my order… and was promptly told that I would need a hard copy of my order confirmation email to collect them. What the fuck? Why didn’t they mention that before I paid? The cunts. This was an issue because although I do have printer, I haven’t had any ink for it since the summer in which yourapocalypse and I went adventuring (2007, was it?). And this, dear readers, is where the complications I mentioned above kicked off… Quote of the Day: “I like Clint Eastwood because he has only two facial expressions: One with the hat, and one without it.” - Sergio Leone Current Mood: Irate Current Music: Bon Jovi - 'Runaway' (2 comments \| Leave a comment)
December 20th, 2009
01:17 pm shallowthing [Link]	On the Wednesday after the Vain show, I made a special trip back to the old place, specifically to collect my Foreman grill so I could make bacon for jellybearwhore when she visited the day after. Normally we’d watch Deadliest Warrior during one of her visits, but since we’ve got through all of those, she assisted me in re-assembling my bookcases instead. I got up stupidly early on the Friday morning for a dental appointment, and I came back with the usual clean bill of health. I remain unsure how to feel about the way that particular dentist always seems so taken aback that I have healthy (if not especially nice to look at) teeth. I then made my way across to Nottingham Office Equipment on Castle Boulevard, in search of a desk chair. x_louise_x saw me making my entrance, and so after mauling the poor girl with hugs we spent about forty-five minutes testing various available seats, and discovering that my arse is substantially larger than hers. One of us was more amused by this revelation than the other. I shall leave you, my dear readers, to decide which way round this was. Hah. She also provided able assistance by holding my coat while I hoisted the box containing my eventual selection of new chair onto my shoulder and proceeded to carry it back to the flat. This was in no way as strenuous or as miserable an experience as hand-carrying that mattress had been, but it wasn’t much fun either. The company was what made it bearable on this occasion. The rest of the day was spent assembling furniture – first the desk chair, then the big black chest of drawers I got from Ikea while we had the van. This was easily the most involved flatpack I’ve ever done battle with, but I still got it finished in fairly good time. This is hot work, however, and me being me I stripped my top off while I got it done. I made a Facebook status update about how wielding a hammer with my shirt off with my hair loose made me a “manly man”, and I was amused by the number of lasses who “liked” it or felt obliged to leave comments – and they weren’t all about the psychological traumas such a mental image almost certainly caused. Heh. Quote of the Day: “ ‘Your man Jesus seems to me a bit of a son a bitch when it comes to women,’ Roland said. ‘Was he ever married?’ The corners of Callaghan’s mouth quirked. ‘No,’ he said, ‘but his girlfriend was a whore.’ ‘Well,’ Roland said, ‘that’s a start.’ ” - Stephen King, Wolves of the Calla Current Mood: Lethargic Current Music: Monster Magnet - 'King of Mars' (Leave a comment)
December 19th, 2009
10:10 pm fiendil [Link]	X-Factor ( I love my brother ) (2 comments \| Leave a comment)
06:26 pm shallowthing [Link]	I took my place at the barrier, and to my surprise I found myself standing beside a knot of giggling teenage schoolgirls. I Am Not Making This Up – they had come directly to the gig, and still had their uniforms in their bags. I should perhaps not be surprised to report that they weren’t at all irritating, which is more than can be said for the leather-faced, crack-voiced glam harridans that showed up after the support bands had finished and commence trying to elbow their ways to the front. Vain were pretty much as I was expecting them – bloody good, but hamstrung by some of the worst sound I have ever heard, even in the Basement. Rock music is known for having guitars, you know? It’s not drum and bass. I was also amused to see how poorly some of the band have aged. Davy Vain has always been possibly the ugliest frontman in hair metal, and he isn’t getting any better. At least he doesn’t look like Tom Jones, unlike their current drummer. Hah. A band with a back catalogue of the quality of Vain’s is always going to have to leave a lot of material out – I’ve still never heard them play ‘Without You’ or ‘Looking Glass’ live, and I would very much like to do so – and the set was fairly similar to the last time I saw them, with the majority of the songs being drawn from No Respect and only a sprinkling of material from the later (and less well-known) albums. ‘Slave’ went down surprisingly well, but I think ‘Smoke and Shadows’ and ‘No Respect’ itself were the highlights of the show. Oh, and a postscript concerning my aforementioned copy of the new version of All Those Strangers: Once I’d bought it from the merchandise stall at the back of the room, I didn’t really know what to do with it. I couldn’t put it in one of the pockets of my combats (that’s an almost guaranteed way of getting the disc damaged), and I needed my hands free for applauding, gesticulating, and generally hanging on to the barriers, so instead I perched my CD on the step on the other side of the barriers. This meant that I occasionally had to grab it and whip it out of the way of careless photographers, but it was the least worst option available. However, this also meant that it was clearly visible to members of the band, and when Davy was inciting the crowd to go and buy the album, he dropped into the photography pit, snatched it up, leapt back onto the stage and proceeded to brandish it aloft as a visual aid to his declamation. He put it back when he was done, of course, so I’m amused to be able to say that the CD that’s still sitting here on my desk has a) been handled by the man himself, and b) has been a prop in one of the band’s live shows. Heh. Quote of the Day: “… the man is so old school he drives a yellow bus with gothic arch windows.” - Chris Onstad, Achewood Current Mood: Headacehy Current Music: Fear Factory - 'Zero Signal' (Leave a comment)
01:11 pm thedarkproject [Link]	Why the campaign to get Rage Against The Machine to Number 1 matters So, hundreds of thousands of people have joined a (largely Facebook-based) campaign to get Rage Against The Machine's "Killing In The Name" to the top of the UK Singles Chart this Christmas, as a backlash against the routine for the last few years where the winner of the X-Factor talent show has had their single released that week to inevitably top the charts. This year, young Joe McElderry is the winner and was expected to hit the No. 1 spot. The question is, from some quarters, "who cares?" It's just a pop chart, irrelevant to the wider world, and has no bearing on the listening habits of those of us into less mainstream music. Right? It's not that simple though. The charts themselves are pretty irrelevant, but they influence factors such as radio play and news coverage, which in turn affect what the average person at home or in the street might know of current music. Why does this matter? The problem is that if the country only ever sees music as manufactured pop, that damages prospects for the future. Kids growing up will be less interested in writing music, instead just wanting to be singers. Instrument makers and sellers will suffer. People taking music courses will drop and some schools and colleges will stop offering them. Independent record sellers, online and on the streets, will lose out to supermarkets who can pile up copies of the narrow range of music people know about. Music in the eyes of the public ceases to be an art form and becomes throwaway pop culture, unworthy of attention. What happens at the popular and commercial end does have a knock-on effect at the artistic and 'élite' end, in terms of the number of people involved, and the opportunities available to them. It's also important that we're not forever being told what to buy. Instead of the traditional model of record companies investing in new bands the same way that banks invest in small businesses, the music industry instead now spends more money on marketing a few selected singers, who don't even perform their own songs, never mind play their own instruments. The result is less diversity, demand shaped by supply. Many worthy bands cannot get the exposure they deserve, while the people who could make a difference choose not to. And recycling music so as to make it more immediately palatable to the paying public is again a negative move, buying short term success at the expense of damaging future prospects. And this song definitely ranks among the worst offenders: it was released less than a year ago, performed and thus popularised by Miley Cyrus who's arguably only famous because she has an influential musician father who was able to get her into a lucrative acting career, and written by someone else entirely. It's commoditisation of music at its worst. This touches on another point that is important to me - the success of songs like that continues to support a growing tendency for the public to heap their praise upon the wrong person. If they like Joe's McElderry's song, they will say they like Joe. They won't necessarily realise that part of why they find the song catchy was because Ms Cyrus already drilled it into their subconscious earlier in the year. And they almost certainly won't appreciate the fact that Joe won't have played any of the other instruments on the track, or that the song was written by a pair of songwriters they've never heard of. They don't care about this stuff, which is exactly the problem. The figurehead gets all the praise while the truly creative people who did most of the work remain unheard of. (We get this in computer game development too, where people often think the game was made by the publisher rather than the developer. eg. People thought Eidos made Tomb Raider. This sort of thing stops the developer from being able to develop their own brand or a reputation for quality, and makes it harder in turn for the consumer to predict the quality of what they'll be buying.) And those who think that the X Factor's Simon Cowell won't mind, because Rage Against The Machine are on the same Sony label as he works for, are mistaken - Simon doesn't own Sony so he won't be seeing any money from the RATM sales. In fact, he is apparently furious about the campaign, claiming all the coverage of the RATM campaign is evidence of BBC bias against his show, which airs on the ITV channel. But this just shows the coverage is having an effect and raising awareness of music written and performed by real musicians, which will be a victory even if Rage Against The Machine only come in second. Today is the last day when sales will count. If you care about music as art, or about musicians getting the recognition they deserve, consider making a 65p donation towards the cause. :) (I got my copy from Play.com here. Of course, if you want to cancel out my vote... you can do that here...) Current Mood: creative Current Music: Satyricon - "Skyggedans" Tags: music (9 comments \| Leave a comment)
December 18th, 2009
06:43 pm fiendil [Link]	Hey, look, an actual "journal" entry. Monday 14th Dec Went to fat club. Been doing Slimming World on-and-off for the last 3-4 months. The basic theory works well for me (a lot of the time, when I'm cooking from scratch, all I need to do is replace the meat with Quorn or beans in order to make the food "Syn"-less, and I've lost 10 pounds doing so), but it's the junk food and cider that I've got to discipline myself away from. Anyway, lost a pound since last week, even though I've been on the junk food more than I should have been. I've had no cider though, just a bit of vodka, which seems to have made the difference. Tuesday 15th Wargaming in the eve with Rich. Playing the latest game in the Warmachine campaign I'm running. He's at a decent handicap because he's not lost a game yet. And he still got the win. Dammit. I made a couple of mistakes with deployment, corrected them to a degree, had him on the back foot, but had a couple of things fail to happen, allowing him the opening he needed to jump my forces and flatten me. This took us to after midnight to finish. I gave him a lift home, then went to Asda at 1.30 in the morning to hunt for some of the elements of my fancy dress for the office Xmas party. Managed one more item, with 3 still to find. Very late finish. Doh. Wednesday 16th Found the remaining bits for my costume for the office xmas party at lunchtime. Someone said, a couple of weeks back, "the Xmas party will be Mexican themed, with a prize for best outfit". So, where the immediate thought was "poncho, hat, tache", which is what my boss did. My second thought was "Luche Libre", and from there "Nacho Libre". Since that thought, aided by the lovely Val, and egged on by the boss, I've been putting together this outfit from anything I can get hold of. I even got some football socks and laced them in order to look like wrestling boots. Each Halloween it seems I've got a good idea for some form of outfit, but it just never comes together for one reason or another, so, as this one seemed doable, I stuck at it. So I got to wander through an office featuring an occasional poncho and hat, in full-on mexican wrestler outfit, complete with cape and mask. I threatened to go topless in order to compete the outfit if there was any risk of losing the competion, but there really wasn't any question. There will be pics, but they've not surfaced yet. So, for the party, which was all done in the office, we had a Samba Amigo competition, a very hard computer game industry themed "pub" quiz, a proper Piñata filled with sweets that was hit with sticks, a big heap of beers, and, for some reason, a pervy "Russian" santa... Wasn't sold on the buffet though. Shells, beans and rice, but no meat. Was fun, but not as good as last year's drunken Rock Band shenanigans. Thursday 17th Suddenly, it's really really cold in the evening. Walking back into town to see Marilyn Manson is really really unpleasant as the wind goes straight through my hoody and trousers. Yay. Anyway. Mazza at the Arena. The wench wanted to see him, so, in the interest of being able to say "I've seen Manson", and liking a fair number of their songs, I went too. Was a bit of an odd show. I've not been to that many arena shows, but I've never been to one that was only half full before. The crowd was small and very quiet. Even when they pulled out a fast one, or Beautiful People at the end, there was bugger all reaction. Next to no jumping around, and no pits at all. First couple of songs, there's no middle end, as there's only one guitar playing the top end riffing, a huge bass sound, and the keyboard stays silent for no appreciable reason. The soundman adjusts the sound so it sounds crystal clear with a bass, 1 guitar, drums and vocals, and then doesn't make adjustments when Manson himself straps on a guitar and the keyboard dude wakes up. There may have been a couple too many slower ones as well, but Little Horn, Rock is Dead, Beautiful People, Rock n Roll Nigger all sounded huge and exactly what was ordered, but the crowd never woke up, and it did look like we might get Mazza himself playing up through boredom. He did a certain amount of abusing miserable looking youths in the front row, and in being generally offensive, but he didn't play up as much as V said he tends to on a festival stage. Interesting show, good in places, but oddly deadened by the the crowd. And I want to find out who was in charge of the spotlights, and stick their control unit up their arse. Friday 18th So, inspired by the gig, I subjected my boss to a bit of a Manson marathon today. The lasses on reception started in with the Xmas songs, so I went for the Akercocke to drown it out. Then added in Melechesh and all the good Manson I could find, and realised that I'd just put together a playlist of satanists. Humbug indeed. Huh. That turned into a bit of an essay... (7 comments \| Leave a comment)
01:15 pm fiendil [Link]	Advent meme thing - day 18 Day 18 → Whatever tickles your fancy This is a lovely little film made by one of my workmates. Full of little touches that make me giggle like a fool. The Impossible Cat is amazing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97C160KTajs (5 comments \| Leave a comment)
12:49 pm shallowthing [Link]	Monday was mostly spent doing boring, small-scaled flat-related stuff. I finally tracked down a black draining board, which now means that I have a full set of matching kitchen plastics, and I discovered that my shiny new toaster has neon blue lights (which give a pleasing contrast to the threatening orange-red glow of the heating elements). On Tuesday evening I missed KDF again, this time due to a gig – one I’d been greatly excited about. I’d seen Vain once before of course, at the Wildside Festival thing that pyretta put on at the Marcus Garvey Ballroom down in Lenton in… 2004 or 2005, I think, but they’re one of my favourite bands and so I couldn’t wait to see them in a more intimate venue. Imagine my fanboyish glee, then, when I discovered that they weren’t to be in the main hall as I’d expected, but in the Basement. Suddenly I was very glad to have turned up early enough to get a spot in the front row. Not before I’d bought some merchandise, though. This is unusual for me, for a number of reasons. More often than not I find that I already own everything a band has ever done long before I get to see them live, and I dislike buying stuff at the start of the show because then I’d have to have it with me in the crowd throughout. I made an exception this time, because I didn’t want the item I was after to sell out before the end of the gig. It’s all to do with Vain’s second album, you see… All Those Strangers, the follow-up to the classic No Respect, was recorded around about 1991, but was never released due to the collapse of their record label. Pretty much every Vain fan has heard the medium-quality bootleg that has been floating about the internet for years now, and thus know how good it actually is – almost as excellent as No Respect, and actually marginally darker – but there has never been an official, finished version. Until now, that is. Eighteen years on, Davy Vain has released a finished, mixed, mastered and slightly re-ordered version of the album. It’s only available to buy from Vain gigs, and I now have a copy sitting on my desk next to me. I’m pleased to report that even the change in the order of the tracks from the internet version works in its favour, as my two favourite tracks – ‘Do You Sleep With Strangers?’ and ‘Looking Glass’ – are now the final two on the disc, taking their rightful place as the climax of the album. Quote of the Day: “Make me bishop of Rome and I will become a Christian.” - Vettius Agorius Praetextatus (315-384AD), a pagan Roman senator, referring to the luxurious lifestyle of Pope Damasus I Current Mood: Cynical Current Music: Madder Mortem - 'Life, Lust & Liberty' (Leave a comment)
December 17th, 2009
11:40 am fiendil [Link]	Advent meme thing - day 17 Day 17 → An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.) I love these two. They were random finds on the intertron. Florian Canard (aka Squid) appears to be the artist. The way he paints water is gorgeous. This one is inspiration for the next tattoo I want. Going to combine Baizley's style (see day 6) with a kraken rising from the sea bed, similar to this. And this one's just ace. I would love to get this for one of my walls at home. (Leave a comment)
07:19 am shallowthing [Link]	After a warm and comfortable first night in the new place, my internet connection problems resurfaced with a vengeance. Firstly, the brand new Virgin router bricked to the point where even resetting to the factory defaults and using the old “admin/admin” trick didn’t work, and then my dusty old Linksys cable router refused to even acknowledge that the internet existed. Fuck’s sake. I had to give it a rest for a bit while I took manniqueen_, yourapocalypse and jonthebloody for Sunday lunch at The Old Angel. In the grand scheme of things, this seems like pretty poor thanks for the huge amount of help they gave. I couldn’t have made the move without them, and the whole affair has left me with a enormous sense of how lucky I am to have friends like these. More than I could ever have dared asked for, and better than I could ever hope to deserve. Afterwards, I collected a few more odds and ends from the old place and then went back to tackle the router again. It was still bricked, of course. I was having fun spending an enormous amount of time on hold to Virgin technical support when the fucking thing decided to resurrect itself. With no input from me, and literally just as a human being picked up on the other end. Still no wireless, but at least the ethernet fix was working again now. The chap on the phone was quite helpful, be he couldn’t get to the bottom of why the wireless wasn’t working either. He switched me from the telephone to their technical support live chatroom (an excellent idea that actually worked very well), and it was here that the issue was resolved: They’d sent me an email address, a user name, a password, and a whole bunch of other stuff… but at no point had they bothered to send me the WPA key (or, for that matter, any indication that the WPA key might be different to username or password). Voila: One functional wireless connection. I immediately celebrated by using my laptop to update my Facebook status while sitting on the toilet. Classy. Quote of the Day: “It was just another showdown on another empty street. That was all, and that was enough… that the showdown always came was the central fact of his life.” - Stephen King, Wizard and Glass Current Mood: Sleepy Current Music: Daylight Dies - 'Lies That Bind' (4 comments \| Leave a comment)

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