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OK, so a few days ago I realised I needed a good Shangri-Las compilation, and it came in the post yesterday. On the I LOVE MUSIC forum, Tom Ewing had been talking about the song 'Past Present & Future' and it sounded too good to be without. So I heard it. And, Jesus, it's like nothing I've ever heard in my life. The specifics of the situation Mary Weiss sings, I mean talks, about are left vague, so that at first lines like "But don't try to touch me / Don't try to touch me" and "I'm all packed up and I'm on my way, I'm going to fall in love / But at the moment, it doesn't look good" just sound strangely ominous. Not just strangely ominous. Really fucking scary. And maybe even worse is the tangential, abstractedly delivered slice of suddenly remembered childhood innocence "You know, I used to sing / A tisket a tasket a green and yellow basket". And then the liner notes tell me it's about the effects of rape, and it all begins to make a horrible kind of sense. Tom disagrees with this interpretation, but it's quite hard to escape once it's been suggested to you. And I think I wish it never had been. Why? Because then I don't feel like I have the right to identify with it. But then, you might say, neither did the songwriter Shadow Morton.

.....added on Tuesday, June 5, 2001 12:09 p.m. link to this

I finally got around to putting in a site meter, and have the delight of discovering my first Google referral: "hair enthusiast". I hope they found what they were looking for.

.....added on Tuesday, June 5, 2001 12:05 p.m. link to this

Oooh - dream ticket alert! Michel Gondry (director of the best video ever, the Chemical Brothers' Let Forever Be and lots of Bjork ones) and the scriptwriter Being John Malkovich, Charlie Kaufman have teamed up on new film Human Nature, featuring Patricia Arquette, Tim Robbins, Robert Forster and (dream ticket just fell down the drain) a naked Rhys Ifans. Via Esc.

.....added on Monday, May 21, 2001 04:27 p.m. link to this

Where ludicrous band merchandise goes to die. Strangely affecting. And at just .99, the Cher thermal PJ set is undeniably tempting.

.....added on Friday, May 4, 2001 12:23 p.m. link to this

Having spent a couple of days reading blogs, I can report that the vast majority are puerile in the extreme - the random droolings of adolescent minds.
Sounds a bit the summary of one of BaaadDad's undercover investigations on the Adam & Joe Show. From a rather tedious analysis of the business ramifications of the blogging phenomenon written by an editor of the Harvard Business Review. I like that 'random droolings of adolescent minds' though. Someone should use that in their teamblog title field.

.....added on Monday, April 16, 2001 06:09 p.m. link to this

Throughout my house, I discovered that I had sub-consciously set out arrangements of three: framed photos in three, vases in three, candles in three, even the magnets on my refrigerator were grouped in threes.
Cute little examination of the behavioural quirks we take for granted on Atomic Tonic, a site worth a wider look at.

.....added on Monday, April 16, 2001 06:02 p.m. link to this

Somewhere I saw a nice hi-tech flip book of all the photos of this nice lady showing off her collection of pony tails for sale. What is a 'Hair Enthusiast event'? Is this some kind of sex thing?

.....added on Monday, April 16, 2001 05:54 p.m. link to this

1. Unbelievable by EMF This song changed my life forever, and I still live by it.
From Top Ten Songs of the 90s. Dig those inane comments!

.....added on Monday, April 16, 2001 05:50 p.m. link to this

USA Today does for the Onion's graphics department what Kissinger's receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize did for political satire.

.....added on Monday, April 16, 2001 05:46 p.m. link to this

I'm planning to go home and watch Pasolini's "critically overrated movie" The Gospel According To Saint Matthew as my late late Easter treat, but for the less high-minded, why not try Gadgets For God?

.....added on Monday, April 16, 2001 05:41 p.m. link to this

Hmm... I'm being a bit quiet lately. No conclusions about my state of mind should be drawn from my recent interest in the availability of the selfloathing.com domain.

.....added on Wednesday, March 28, 2001 03:13 p.m. link to this

When I was younger, I was a bit obsessed with people I respected approving of other people I respected. Amongst other absurdities, this resulted in my asking my father to read the lyrics of 'Hatful of Hollow' (we argued about the 'England is mine and it owes me a living' line).

I can't say that I'm completely over this. I was pleased to see Jonathan Coe bother to reply to another mad Morrissey theorist in the web chat session yesterday. Now I find like.com (tagline: "what the people you like, like"), a site entirely devoted to publishing celebrity's declarations on their cultural tastes.

.....added on Friday, March 9, 2001 05:38 p.m. link to this

It's the World's Largest Ball O' Twine!

.....added on Friday, March 9, 2001 05:36 p.m. link to this

are you a homo?, catch 22 The similarity between "homo sapien" and "homosexual" can, in limited circumstances, be used to gain sensational confessions from classmates. Brings a whole new meaning to class outings!
If you want to know what it was like growing up in Britain in the 80s, forget all those nostalgia shows and read this A-Z of playground tricks insults. Warning: rampant racism and homophobia.

.....added on Friday, March 9, 2001 05:24 p.m. link to this

"Tim [Roth] would descend with me into the pits of hell!" cries Herzog, "if a project needed that!" (generally Herzog's do). "Tim is the one actor in the world who has more intensity than anyone else right now."
Interview with Werner Herzog in the Independent. He'd been one of those directors who I had always planned to check out, but after this display of appalling judgment, I think I'll hold back.

.....added on Friday, March 9, 2001 05:16 p.m. link to this

[Remember that her name is Mavis. We'll return to this point later.]

The devil will find work for idle hands to do...

.....added on Tuesday, February 27, 2001 03:15 p.m. link to this

Web Karaoke! Possibly the coolest thing I have ever found on the internet.

.....added on Saturday, February 24, 2001 06:09 p.m. link to this

Wonderfully evocative and empathetic interview with Jonathan Coe in today's Guardian. Suddenly, he feels like a hero to me.

.....added on Saturday, February 24, 2001 05:50 p.m. link to this

The perils of unmoderated noticeboards. Or, as popbitch has it "Ace online vandalism".

.....added on Monday, February 12, 2001 03:29 p.m. link to this

The eight personality profiles ranged from the "non-brave, altruist" taking care of his elderly grandmother to the "non-altruist, brave, professional" who works as a deep-sea diver. The women who participated in Dunbar's study preferred "professional" men to "volunteers." They also treated the term "professional" as equivalent to "bravery,"
Sometimes I think that all this what women want research is just designed by men to make women look really bad and/or stupid.

Scenario 1: Sexually unsuccessful male sociobiologist comes up with this stuff as a way of capturing the moral high ground.

Scenario 2: Serial philanderer male sociobiologist comes up with this stuff in order to justify his use of women.

In other gender news, I took the Spark's Love Match test (will they ever make a test I can resist taking?). Like their personality test, you get rated on four axes (Dependent-Independent, Good-Evil, Love-Sex, Provider-Taker). Somewhat unsurprisingly, I am a Dependent Good Love Provider (or Boy Scout). They give you the usual stuff about nice guys finishing last blah blah. Then there's this one bit that says "Let us let you in on a little secret--you might have problems now, but once you get older and girls have grown tired of jerks and gigolos, you'll be a hot ticket." The idea of a 50 year old man taking the test and reading that strikes me as quite funny/poignant.

The one thing I'd possibly argue with is the 'Dependent' bit, but I tried retaking it and trying to be all free spirited and it made no difference. If I had succeeded, I would have become a Lone Ranger, which is a bit less tragic. Sex toys Pizza Boy and Playboy perhaps excluded, the rest of the male types seem thoroughly repellent.

So this is where you start to worry. I then did the test again, answering as I imagine my ideal woman would. This was quite hard, as there are at least two conflicting personalities vying for attention. But anyway, she ended up being a Co-ed (Dependent Good Sex Taker - "The men you attract don't mind being used. And you certainly don't mind using them.") who was, sure enough, 100% matched with me. Some day my Co-ed will come.

.....added on Monday, February 12, 2001 03:27 p.m. link to this

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