This is going to sound a tad pessimistic, but could the Obama reign signal the end of (or eight-year break from) the modern day protest song? The early 21st century produced a bumper crop of classics, but what will we all sing about now?
Can you imagine Jarvis Cocker writing – or daring to release – 'Running the World' in 2009 ("Bluntly put, in the fewest of words / Cunts are still running the world")? Green Day's 'American Idiot' is now a twee period piece ("Welcome to a new kind of tension / All across the alien nation / Everything isn't meant to be okay"). And Arcade Fire, whose apocalyptic sophomore album was shot through with veiled and not-so-veiled anti-Bush polemic (“I don't wanna live in America no more"), are reportedly hurriedly rewriting their third album, which initially went by the working title of 'McCain Glovebox #4 (Brackets)'.
Thank God for the recession.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Phoney games
A few miscellaneous cameraphone pics from days of yore that came out surprisingly well.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Commuting sentences
Heh, Blog After Reading seems to have sparked Brand-Ross-Sachs levels of controversy, with a number of people wondering when all this page-flicking gets done (and good point from Fwengebola about William Gladstone's lack of access to latter-day time-wasting devices like boxsets of The Wire or b3ta newsletters).
I have one answer in the form of a commuting poem I originally wrote in response to a short ditty posted on Facebook by my old boss Martin (his went: "From London Victoria / To Brighton Central / I am always sitting / Next to someone mental"):
From Kennington
To Paddington
I get a lot
Of reading done.
And no, I do not use the Johnny 5 method.
I have one answer in the form of a commuting poem I originally wrote in response to a short ditty posted on Facebook by my old boss Martin (his went: "From London Victoria / To Brighton Central / I am always sitting / Next to someone mental"):
From Kennington
To Paddington
I get a lot
Of reading done.
And no, I do not use the Johnny 5 method.
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
The Electric Goose's new baby sister
This is probably going to make me sound a bit like a list-making OCD wrist-wringer, but for the past 11 and a half years, I have been writing down the name of every book I've read. It's simple, really: when I finish a book, I add it to the list.
I started doing this back at school in 1997, after a teacher, Mr Macfarlane, told our history class that the 19th century British Prime Minister William Gladstone used to read around 60 books a year - during his premiership. The man was devouring books like they were cheese and chive flavoured Pringles, in between running the country, bickering with Disraeli and inviting prostitutes back to his house for tea and biscuits. And I began to wonder if I got through that many (books, not whores, or biscuits), as someone who didn't have to rule the UK as well. So I started making a record.
Then, a few years ago, I discovered that Art Garfunkel has been doing the same thing since 1968 and I realised that untamed haircuts aren't the only thing we have in common.
Anyway, the reason for this confession is because I recently digitised my list, in case of fire (oh, all right, because I was bored), which means The Electric Goose now has a sister blog, called Blog After Reading. She wears glasses, is slightly pretentious and lives here.
I started doing this back at school in 1997, after a teacher, Mr Macfarlane, told our history class that the 19th century British Prime Minister William Gladstone used to read around 60 books a year - during his premiership. The man was devouring books like they were cheese and chive flavoured Pringles, in between running the country, bickering with Disraeli and inviting prostitutes back to his house for tea and biscuits. And I began to wonder if I got through that many (books, not whores, or biscuits), as someone who didn't have to rule the UK as well. So I started making a record.
Then, a few years ago, I discovered that Art Garfunkel has been doing the same thing since 1968 and I realised that untamed haircuts aren't the only thing we have in common.
Anyway, the reason for this confession is because I recently digitised my list, in case of fire (oh, all right, because I was bored), which means The Electric Goose now has a sister blog, called Blog After Reading. She wears glasses, is slightly pretentious and lives here.
Saturday, January 03, 2009
Tonight on ITV1: Demons
Although it begins with a blonde bombshell being slaughtered by a
weird furry monster with eyes like magical gobstoppers, the thing
about Demons that will most shock viewers is probably the fact that Philip ‘Life on Mars’ Glenister speaks in... an American accent. Yikes!
Seriously though, it actually takes ages to get used to. Glenister plays Rupert Galvin, an über-confident cliché-spouting hardman without, sadly, any awareness of how silly he sometimes sounds. He rocks up at the house of teenager Luke (Christian Cooke) one day claiming to be both his godfather and a “warrior” whose job it is to rid the earth of “inhumans”.
Luke’s not convinced – and he has a test tomorrow – but Galvin insists that these creatures are everywhere. It is a bit surprising no one’s noticed them, though: the one hunting Luke is a seven-foot-tall trenchcoat- wearing Marilyn Manson lookalike with bad teeth who spends his time sitting in bars on the South Bank eating cockroaches and snarling. And his evil boss Gladiolus Thripp, played by The Office’s Mackenzie Crook, has a prosthetic nose nicked off the Texas Chainsaw Massacre family and hair so outrageous he would’ve been thrown out of Kajagoogoo. Inconspicuous they ain’t.
There are a number of awful moments: Luke’s attempts to save girlfriend Ruby are set, hilariously, to the musical strains of the Kaiser Chiefs’ ‘Ruby’, the fight scene with some hoodie ninja bear-men is ludicrously leaden and Zoe Tapper, who’s had herself a busy lesbian Christmas, what with the Survivors finale and Affinity, doesn’t convince as a blind seer.
Despite all that, Demons is so irresistibly bizarre and nightmarishly disturbing, it’s hard not to like. The words “cult viewing” are written all over it in big silver writing, and whoever scheduled this show for primetime Saturday night will prove to be either a madman or a genius.
by Will Parkhouse, Wednesday 31 December 2008
Originally published on Orange.co.uk
Seriously though, it actually takes ages to get used to. Glenister plays Rupert Galvin, an über-confident cliché-spouting hardman without, sadly, any awareness of how silly he sometimes sounds. He rocks up at the house of teenager Luke (Christian Cooke) one day claiming to be both his godfather and a “warrior” whose job it is to rid the earth of “inhumans”.
Luke’s not convinced – and he has a test tomorrow – but Galvin insists that these creatures are everywhere. It is a bit surprising no one’s noticed them, though: the one hunting Luke is a seven-foot-tall trenchcoat- wearing Marilyn Manson lookalike with bad teeth who spends his time sitting in bars on the South Bank eating cockroaches and snarling. And his evil boss Gladiolus Thripp, played by The Office’s Mackenzie Crook, has a prosthetic nose nicked off the Texas Chainsaw Massacre family and hair so outrageous he would’ve been thrown out of Kajagoogoo. Inconspicuous they ain’t.
There are a number of awful moments: Luke’s attempts to save girlfriend Ruby are set, hilariously, to the musical strains of the Kaiser Chiefs’ ‘Ruby’, the fight scene with some hoodie ninja bear-men is ludicrously leaden and Zoe Tapper, who’s had herself a busy lesbian Christmas, what with the Survivors finale and Affinity, doesn’t convince as a blind seer.
Despite all that, Demons is so irresistibly bizarre and nightmarishly disturbing, it’s hard not to like. The words “cult viewing” are written all over it in big silver writing, and whoever scheduled this show for primetime Saturday night will prove to be either a madman or a genius.
by Will Parkhouse, Wednesday 31 December 2008
Originally published on Orange.co.uk
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Award in your ear
It's glitzier than the Oscars, more pointless than the Brits and bitchier than the, um, TV Quick Awards. Yes, it's my Orange's Alternative Celebrity Awards 2008! See who won...
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Saturday, December 27, 2008
He got Game (of Life)
Christmas: it's all about the boardgames. After a whizz through the Brewster's Millions-alike Go For Broke on Christmas eve, we tackled its money-making nemesis, The Game of Life, on Boxing Day. Despite the stickers peeling off the bridges, and one of the flags being broken, unbelievably, the spinner actually span repeatedly without flying off into orbit.
After I'd reached Millionaire's Mansion and my less ambitious opponents had settled down at Retirement Home, we totted up our money. Alas, Dad had so much cash, he couldn't be bothered to carry on counting once he'd reached £950,000. Then again, he was raking in the game's top salary - journalist, whose £20,000 wage tops those of teacher, physicist, doctor, lawyer and businessman. Mostly, I love this boardgame for its realism.
After I'd reached Millionaire's Mansion and my less ambitious opponents had settled down at Retirement Home, we totted up our money. Alas, Dad had so much cash, he couldn't be bothered to carry on counting once he'd reached £950,000. Then again, he was raking in the game's top salary - journalist, whose £20,000 wage tops those of teacher, physicist, doctor, lawyer and businessman. Mostly, I love this boardgame for its realism.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Caught bread-handed
Translates from the French as "truly irresistible big bastard". Said my Mum: "It's a bit big really, but I had to buy it with a name like that."
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Films of 2008
I came, I saw, I went home again. My 10 favourites of 2008 (and didn't philmz have quite a year?):
Films of 2007
And 2006...
- Man on Wire
- There Will Be Blood
- Cloverfield
- Waltz With Bashir
- 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
- The Orphanage
- Juno
- The Dark Knight
- Gonzo
- No Country For Old Men
Films of 2007
And 2006...
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