valentine heart

Feb 14th, eh? Saint Valentine's Day with its suitably dispatched and received tokens.

Of course, many use it as an excuse to bemoan commercialism and twee-ness although any half romantic should embrace the moment.

Strange, then, to see that the Guardian's special site for Valentine pictures only has seven snaps, of which at least three are from the newspaper itself and another one is of some red edible underwear.

Even the mainstay of flickr has somewhat limited photographic moments, so I'll assume that most people want to keep their loved ones close.

Our plans are to be on the above corner at eight and then get out of this place. We'll kiss the first of a million kisses and let the past fall away. Just like the song.

mind the gap

I've been mostly away from blog-world this week and the resultant posts of the last few days are quite terse and opportunistic.

In general I don't like putting several youtube-esque posts next to one another; I suppose it is better to regard the last week as something of a 'Gap' from normal posts, although I suspect I'm the only one that will notice.

Bizarrely, some of the quirky offcuts like the preceding Cadbury's post received more hits than I might have expected, although I personally dislike the original advertisement to the point of wishing to channel hop if I see it on television.

In other news, I received back an electronic 'proof' copy of 'the book', which I shall try to proof read myself at some point over the weekend. I'm not so familiar with the publishing process but assume that this is my last chance to get it right or hit the eject button.

There's also some fun associated with cover design, where I have a few basic requirements, like the need for orange and a statutory triangle somewhere. I've tried not to be a 'book-bore' about this, but as the real threat of publication starts to loom, I suppose I'd better start thinking about the Hollywood film rights. 2010, maybe?

shocking cadburys advert

Cadbury's Eyebrow advert, the unseen truth from HappyToast on Vimeo.

I used to think Cadbury made good advertisements for their chocolates, but I do find the current one rather shocking.

liquidity easement

woke up this morning,
with no money in my shoes,
woke up this morning, yeah;
the rooster was already loose.

he'd woken up them bankers early;
they'd been at their chairman's meet.
got themselves re-mun-er-a-tion,
got themselves a money feast.

its li-li-quidity easement,
liquidity easement blues.
yeah, li-li-quidity easement,
money grabbin' blues.

my girl she has a left me,
my hound dog he did too.
the bourbon bottle's empty,
an' I can't afford no food.

they taken all my fur-ni-ture;
I'm eatin' shoe shine wax.
and all around they're tellin' me
that the moneys gone down the fax.

I got liquidity easement,
liquidity easement blues.
li-li-quidity easy meant
quick fire bonus blues.

So if you work near Wall Street
or in a big Si-tay:
then take the bonus quickly
before the money goes away.

i got liquidity easement
money printing blues.
I'm seeing all new money made,
those cats have nothin' to lose.

li-li-quidity easement,
money printing blues.
li-li-quidity easement,
snow ball bonus blues.

Written at 137 bus-stop. Use E, D and maybe an occasional A. Add table salt to taste.

n.b. I know I moved this post. It was to break up having two videos next to one another.

secret cinema has rock gods this weekend

This Sunday you'll need messy hair for the rock gods. Bring a flag. Info on the secret venue is here, but tell no-one

refuelled with geranium sorbet

Not much time for blogging because I seem to have early starts and rather late finishes to the day. The food is excellent and the geranium sorbet cleared the palate wonderfully.

It's snowing, so I feel quite at home.

expresso post

Limited time; having to drink small coffees and talk fast.

blue flashing lights are affecting my listening choices

I want to be listening to music that brings the cops around at the moment. High clock speed. Not necessarily loud, but with something to say.

So somehow Andrew Bird's new CD isn't quite doing it for me, despite my high hopes. Noble Beast. It's all pleasant enough, highly accomplished and sonically beautiful. I think it will work well as dinner party background music, but I'm not sure that I'd listen to it as a direct choice. The reviewers appear to be giving it excellent scores, and I'm sure its just me that's out of step.

Take "Not a Robot, but a ghost", which is supposed to be a stand-out track and has some clever ticky-tocky mechanicals in it, gypsy mandolin and sentient machines. I'm still finding it passing me by as a sort of swishy sweep.

Its just a passing phase I know. I shall have to keep listening to songs with titles like "Incident in a Medical Clinic" and "Burn your life down" until I come out the other side. Reprieved until a retinue of moons have passed.

snowballs from rashbre to a few blogs

A round-up of some of the UK snow posts from a few visitors to rashbre central. I don't have time to visit everyone's actual gardens, but I hope these few decently packed snowballs from here will suffice.

Take a look around!

sleepypete's snowman may not be the biggest, but certainly has character.

amanda palmer has imported snow from Boston, and is now carrying it to Paris and Barcelona.

bob-kat is demonstrating a variation on 'leave no trace'.

laquet waited ages to get this picture with not a school child or teacher in sight.

craziequeen observes Narnia variations from the palace.

niall constructs a highly impressive snowman. Check out the full version.

daily fortnight notes that the News agrees to stop so that BBC can show more pictures of snow.

debra shows another (Grrr) utterly scenic idyll. Jealous? ....

warriorgrrl Yes she makes snow (with bouncy dog).

clarissa continues as international businesswoman of mystery.

lady banana is deep in thought snow.

maximum bob is burning some form of smoky substance and may be a while.

nikki-ann creates another perfect photo with specially trained stunt robin.

pat arranges the garden to look spectacular for snow scene.

electric goose seeks an edgy urban snowman from the vast neighbourhood collection.

three leggged cat shows us how its done in Sheffield.

Its nearly all gone around here now.

animal collective merriweather post pavilion

I've been listening the new Animal Collective CD in the car recently. It came in a neat little digi-pack with an outer box of optical illusion and an inner sleeve with their name on it. The album also seems to have a sort of double layer, and I've noticed that a few of the reviewers have referenced 'Beach Boys' and surf sounds as part of the description, perhaps because of the Press handout?

That's not really how I heard it, with it being a little reminiscent of how I'd imagine a 70s prog-rock group like "Yes" would play dance music, if such a thing were possible. There's plenty of layers of synthesizers and soaring guitars, with a kind of electro pop back-beat. There's some proper lyrics that move it from pure dance to something with stories. Probably an analyst's delight.

I'll define its genre as 'blog-rock' because it's one of those bands where the fan following is generated from on-line leaks of tracks and subsequent discourse. Part of the new music model and something that Amanda Palmer commented on during the gig on Wednesday. The need to find the connection from the artist to the fans in new ways. In the ballroom we all texted our email addresses to a special phone number during the gig to stay connected.

I suppose the difference is between the musicians who are in it for the long haul (AnCo started back somewhere in the nineties, I think) versus the sleb-based X factory productions speedily filling Mr Cowell's deep trousers.

In the UK around 80,000 sales of a single attain a chart number one to promote an album. Almost better for the record company to save the marketing budget, just buy up the quantity and get the chart position for the subsequent album.

Lily Allen just made the top spot with 'The Fear' describing celebrity vacuity, sold as an £2.97 EP with every track laced with ***** words. Not banned; yet the Palmer single about stark teenage denial banned everywhere except, intriguingly, the BBC.

I understand the need for innocent uplifting pap pop of the "It’s my time, my moment, I’m not gonna let go of it, I’ll stand proud, nothing I’m afraid of; I’ll show you what I’m made of, that its my time now" type. This can be used in song contests, stadiums and for political speeches with equivalent ease. "Clear the decks, light the lights". I almost feel a java song generator moment but I'll save it for another day.

Fortunately, whilst the labels such as 'progressive' and 'underground' may be deeply unfashionable, there's still enough alt.you-name-it music around to keep things interesting and even a resurgence in the old Yes-like bands with Rick Wakeman being granted permission to perform '6 Wives of Henry VIII' at Hampton Court after waiting a bizarre XXXVII years.

But enough dismantling, I feel should probably reach for a tie-dye tee shirt to just listen to Animal Collective, perhaps whilst staring at the cover art.

John - will this do?

Amanda Palmer Electric Ballroom

A swift drink at the World's End in Camden last evening, appropriately accompanied by growling and sinister death metal from the juke-box until Julie said it was making her feel ill.

So our happy band wandered the one hundred footsteps to the Electric Ballroom which was filling with the followers of Amanda Palmer, who has been in town giving snowman construction lessons and preparing for this new European tour.

First up Göteborg's finest - Detektivbyrån - who played a sort of drum n' accordion set, punctuated with xylophone. The good natured crowd applauded well enough and then after a short refuel break, Amanda appeared. The already loud applause flipped up a few notches as she seated by the Kurt Weill, but the coolsters of Camden didn't all surge to the front and there was actually enough room to stand and enjoy.

A great blend of songs, many from the latest album, some Dresden Dolls tunes (Backstabber, Coin Operated Boy) a cover or two - somehow part of a Muse track got worked in - and also some new material. Amanda was complemented with the Danger Ensemble for some of the numbers, who performed around her and into the crowd flaunting *ahem* all manner of things during the extensive set.

A few serious moments as she talked about UK censorship and the narrowing of differences from America to UK and a tongue in cheek modification to the already ironic version of Oasis.

I know it's a flying visit to the UK, but there were some witty observations about Londoners like they didn't really know how to make snowballs until the instructions were published in the Guardian. Additions to the musical part included a picture auction and a couple from the audience being invited on stage to profess their love for one another.

There was a finale which involved "Katy Perry" and a then a mini photoshoot which has created some great flickr pictures, far better than mine.

A great evening. Amanda, don't be a stranger to the UK.


oooh, and here's Et in arcadia ego's excellent review

guerilla theatre

Thanks, Andy, for spotting this little example of theatre in unusual surroundings.

Andy's blog also promotes a certain amount of West End theatre, and its good to see the more spontaneous type, like the above, as well. Oh, not to mention Andy's folk singing - here at Havering Folk Club