Off The Face Of The Internet

I'm back. It's been awhile...

I haven't been particularly busy, I guess once you start not writing it's easy to continue not writing. Also things that I maybe should have gone into further detail in I mentioned on Twitter and never followed up. Like the incongruousness of the title of the taking of Pelham 123 and the horribleness of NBC's tennis coverage. Or, speaking of tennis, the Serena incident, which I didn't even mention on Twitter but had an opinion on (team Serena all the way).

I've also kind of become a crazy cat lady since the last time I wrote so there may be cat pictures popping up from time to time but I'll try not to let them take over.

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New Noisettes!!

I sort of knew that there was a new Noisettes album kicking around but I hadn't gotten around to checking it out yet. As a result of a promotional e-mail I checked their out their performance on Jools Holland via YouTube (above).

The first song, Don't Upset The Rhythm is, surprisingly very disco. It's really catchy and very danceable. The lyrics are a bit cliché but in a way that's befitting the poppiness of the song. Also Shingai Shoniwa rocked that gold lamé jumpsuit in a way I doubt anyone else could.

The second song, Never Forget You, started off with a bass line that, along with the off-beat ska rhythm guitar, made me like it immediately. I was kind of afraid at first that it was going to be a little too Winehouse-ish but Shingai's performance makes it very much a Noisettes song. Her voice is probably the best around currently and it's a shame that this band doesn't get more attention. Also the strings on both songs are perfect. I can't wait to pick up this album.

I really love bands that can change their style convincingly. I definitely prefer it to bands that do one style really well (unless that band is the Ramones). When I heard the Horrors new single for the first time I really didn't like it (despite the NME rave). They changed their style but it seemed kind of wishy-washy to me. Maybe I need to listen to it more along with the whole album, but that kind of reinforces how I feel about the Noisettes. I only needed to listen to Don't Upset The Rhythm once to like it and appreciate how seamlessly they were able to shift into disco-ey pop.If you're going to change your sound this is how you do it.

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Twitter

So I didn't think that I was going to join Twitter but I've had an exceptionally bad day and needed to do something that would occupy my mind but at the same time not require too much actual thought, like writing on here about Southland Tales, which I've been meaning to do and probably will do soon unless my day (and days in the near future) manage to get even worse which is a distinct possibility. See that was an extremely bad run-on sentence that I'm not going to even bother fixing because it would require too much thought. Anyway here's my twitter address:
www.twitter.com/ambivlentalumna. I couldn't spell ambivalent properly because it would have been too many letters so I deleted the a so it would still more or less work phonetically.

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I Officially Love Dollhouse

As you may have guessed, based on my affinity for Buffy, I've been watching Joss Whedon's new show; Dollhouse. I've liked it since I saw the first episode but I wasn't as impressed with it as I thought that I'd be. It did start to get significantly better, though, and even from the beginning it was probably still my favorite show on network television. Pushing Daisies, I'd say, is was similarly as good.

I loved Man On The Street, Echoes and Needs. They made it clear that the show was going to be much more than the first few episodes promised. The most current episode, A Spy In The House Of Love quickly became my favorite while I watched it yesterday. I hadn't been inspired to write anything about the show until I watched this scene between Ballard and Mellie:

(only watch this clip if you're up to date with Dollhouse)

Spoilers after the jump. (Definitely click continue though because that's where all my good ideas are.)

So, basically, Ballard has to sleep with Mellie after he finds out that she’s a doll in order to 'maintain the illusion', as whoever programmed Mellie put it, and not raise suspicion at the dollhouse.

He has to do something that he thinks is so wrong that he sacrificed his career to put an end to it. In sleeping with a doll he becomes corrupted; he knowingly has sex with someone who essentially lost any ability they had to consent. If he doesn’t corrupt himself in this way he'll have his plight to eliminate the dollhouse ended and most likely get himself killed.

I was kind of surprised that he went along with it so unflinchingly. As soon as Mellie went back to her un-hacked, active state he went back to exactly how he was pre-hack. He’s either ridiculously good at what he does or he’s pretty easy to corrupt.

What makes it an even shittier situation for him, if it was in fact Mr. Dominic who was hacking the dolls, Ballard's source has now dried up anyway.

At the end of the episode I liked how Dominic was kind of exposed as being similar to Ballard when he accused the dollhouse of hurting Echo after he'd tried to kill her twice. Kind of like how Ballard had to fight Echo in Man On The Street when his main motivation on the series has been to save Caroline.

It was also really funny that Dominic is actually an NSA agent since in Echoes he got outranked by Victor pretending to be an NSA agent.

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Friday Random 10: Shuffle vs. Genius

Finally, it's time for another Friday random 10 comparison (I did actually finish before it became Saturday)! Ok, so as of last time the score is shuffle 2, Genius 1. Here we go...

Starting song: Body Of An American - The Pogues



(This is another bad scan (this time of a not so great pic to begin with) but I decided that where possible I'd use pictures I'd taken. It's from the first time I saw the Pogues, St. Patrick's Day 2006)

Shuffle Playlist...............................Genius Playlist
1. Body Of An American - The Pogues..1. Body Of An American - The Pogues
2. Prayer Of St. Francis -.............W.....2. Police On My Back - The Clash
.......Sarah McLachlan
3. Shark Attack Theme - Sven Libaek...3. Sweet Jane (live) - The Velvet
.................................................................Underground
4. Pencil Skirt - Pulp (Peel Sessions).....4. Visions Of Johanna - Bob Dylan
5. Sell Out - Reel Big Fish....................5. Debaser - The Pixies
6. Chicago Seemed Tired Last Night -...6. Wonderlust King - Gogol Bordello
...... The Hold Steady
7. Under The Bridge -..........................7. Streams Of Whiskey (live) -
.........Red Hot Chili Peppers......................The Pogues
8. Girls & Boys (live) - Blur..................8. Please, Please, Please Let Me Get
................................................................. What I Want - The Smiths
9. Pulp - The Trees.............................9. Rudie Can't Fail - The Clash
10. Home Altars Of Mexico - Art Brut....10. A Message To You Rudy -
.....................................................................The Specials

Track comparisons after the jump.

Prayer Of St. Francis vs. Police On My Back: Since I have Prayer of St. Francis because of it's use in a Buffy episode so I figured I'd go with a Buffy themed video. It's pretty obvious POMB wins here, I don't even think I have to explain why, the songs speak for themselves. Also I'm pretty sure it's the only song that I've heard both Joe Strummer and Mick Jones perform. I saw Joe play it was with the Mescaleros in 2001 and 2002 and I saw Mick play it with Carbon/Silicon last April (wow, can't believe that was a year ago.)

Shark Attack Theme vs. Sweet Jane (live): I couldn't find anything on YouTube that comes close to this version of Sweet Jane. It's the live version form the Best of the 20th Century Masters Millennium edition so I just linked to the Amazon page where you can preview it. Also the Shark Attack Theme video is pretty random. But, anyway, Sweet Jane is the clear winner here. This version is slow and sparse, sad and pretty, basically everything a VU song should be. It's one of my favorites and beats a random instrumental from The Life Aquatic Soundtrack.

Pencil Skirt vs. Visions Of Johanna: No YouTube for Pencil Skirt but the Different Class version is up on Last.fm and you can listen to a sample on Amazon. The Peel Sessions version of Pencil skirt is a little more interesting to the standard version. It's more flowy, the violin is more featured and it has more of a live feel. Still it can't stand up to the sheer awesomeness of Visions of Johanna. I'd quote some lyrics but I'd probably just end up quoting the whole song. I used to sometimes use "The all-night girls they whisper of escapades out on the D train" as an away message back in college when I still used AIM.

Sell Out vs. Debaser: Sell Out is a really fun song. It was kind of the first ska song I liked before I really even knew what ska was. That being said, Debaser is probably a better song. Like most Pixies songs it's really layered and the delivery of the lyrics is perfect. It also references a Salvador Dali film so points for that too.

Chicago Seemed Tired Last Night vs. Wonderlust King: Another Last.fm link for Chicago Seemed Tired and this one's actually working for me now. Wonderlust King is just so passionate and joyful that I definitely prefer it. Maybe if it had been Certain Songs, Don't Let Me Explode, or How A Resurrection really feels I would have gone with the Hold Steady but not this time.

Under The Bridge vs. Streams Of Whiskey (live): Not the same version of Streams of Whiskey but kinda close. The specific version I have is from 1988 with Joe Strummer on guitar. The sound isn't as good as the version in the YouTube clip but I'm going to be completely biased. Even though I don't like when Genius puts more than one song by the artist within the ten, and the sound isn't good the Pogues with Joe Strummer is going to beat just about everything. Sorry RHCP.

Girls & Boys (live) vs. Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want: Ok, so the G & B also isn't the exact live version but is pretty close and Please, Please is supposed to be a studio version but I linked a live version. So I'm going with genius yet again here. If it had been the studio version of G & B it would have been a really hard decision but the live version isn't as good. Please, Please is really is another one of those sad and pretty songs I love so much. (I'm totally thinking of doing a full post on sad and pretty songs...maybe sometime soon).

The Trees vs. Rudie Can't Fail: The Clash clip is from Hell W10 which is kind of awesome and makes me miss living in West-ish London. The Trees is a really good song, one of my favorite off of We Love Life but Rudie can't fail is a classic. The interplay between Joe's voice and Mick's voice is probably at it's best in this song. It's fun, great to dance to, has great lyrics; it's pretty much anything you could want a song to be. Has shuffle gotten even one point yet? This is pretty much a landslide.

Home Altars Of Mexico vs. A Message To You Rudy: I've had such bad luck with YouTube this time. Maybe companies are getting more rabid about taking songs down... Anyway, another point for Genius. I really like the Art Brut song but Rudy is just too good. It's a song I've loved for a really long time. I love it in pretty much all of its incarnations from Dandy Livingstone's original, to the Joe and the Meskies live version, to this version. The light, kind of airiness of the keys is what makes me really love this, and is also part of what makes The Specials' Pressure Drop my favorite version of that song.

This weeks competition was a total blood bath. Shuffle didn't even get one point. Genius was a bit repetitive with two Clash songs and two Pogues songs but the songs were so good I didn't really even notice. As for the overall score Genius has pulled into a tie with shuffle, 2-2.

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Doppelgängland

Brad Pitt And Julian Barratt



Both are dashing actors in their 40's who have fathered twins and have temporarily shared similar facial hair (something I obviously think is of great importance). They don't really seem to have much else in common.

I think, if given the opportunity, Julian could do a really good job in more serious, mainstream roles if that's what he wanted. If he'd been in Benjamin Button I might have actually had some desire to see it. Alternatively I can't quite see Brad hanging out in the Zooniverse with Vince Noir. He may like jazz though...

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Early Morning* Outrage

Ugh!! So I was reading some other blogs and had the TV on in the background. The Rachael Ray Show was on and this plastic surgeon was talking about nose jobs and brought up Adrien Brody. I've loved him since he was the (kind of faux) punk in Summer of Sam. His face is perfect and his nose suits him (and I've always had a thing for big noses). This effing plastic surgeon puts up a side by side pic of Adrien and what he'd look like with a nose-job. He said even though he's very handsome, that the smaller nose fit his face better.

TOTAL LIE!! In the after picture his nose did not balance out his chin, and the proportionality was gone from his face. I'm actually surprised the Dr. didn't suggest shaving down his chin bone as well. Jesus...I'm so sick of people getting cookie cutter noses. So many awesome looking people don't have cookie cutter noses. Besides Adrien, Noel Fielding and Erin O'Connor spring immediately to mind.

After the Adrien face massacre he brought up a similar side by side showing a woman in the audience what her nose could look like post-rhinoplasty. She basically said she wanted to get the surgery but couldn't afford to so the doc was basically showing her what she can't have. Nice...

For the rest of the segment, Rachael, who doesn't really seem all that vain, had to ooh and aah over things from breast implants to eyebrow growth serum. It came off as totally fake and pandering, the same way she seems to be pandering when she does segments for people with children (ok, I have watched her show before). I tend to think it's because producers are likely pressuring her to try too hard to appeal to her perceived audience. I wonder if this will change now that the demographics of people at home at 10am, due to unemployment, become very different.

*I'm fully aware that 10am isn't really considered early morning but I freelance and I stay up really late so to me it's pretty much early morning.

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Random Grammy Thoughts

• Why did Kanye start out American Boy and why did Estelle come out after he started?* They made it seem like it was his song that featured her when it was really the other way around. SO WRONG!
• Of those nominated, I'm glad Adele won best new artist. I'm not the biggest fan but I think slightly watered down Winehouse should beat blonde, whiny, Winehouse copycat.
  
• Why did M.I.A. not get to perform her whole song alone? I think I've heard more of her music while watching the BAFTAs. She's awesome, she's super pregnant, her song was everywhere, she should get her own spot. It's nice to get lots of different people together at big events sometimes but I really wish she'd performed solo. Maybe she was offered a solo spot but said she'd rather do a group performance, but I kind of doubt it. Her performance was the only reason I was watching. At least it wasn't too far into the show so I could switch to the aforementioned BAFTAs.
  
• I was visiting my grandmother when Katy Perry came on. My grandmother's awesome reaction to Katy Perry: "Asshole."

Well that's pretty much all the thought that the Grammy's inspired. I don't usually watch but like I said I wanted to see M.I.A. At least A.R. Rahman won a BAFTA for his music from Slumdog Millionaire so someone good got an award for their music tonight.
Also, one random BAFTA thought: Is every presenter going to say "a dude playing a dude disguised as another dude"? It's getting so old I almost feel bad recreating it in print here.

*Ok, I do know why but it still pisses me off...

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Arance Rosse

Blood oranges are in season! Ever since I went to Italy I've been really into blood oranges. It's kind of hard to find them here so when they're in season it's really exciting. When I ordered an OJ in Italy, at I think the train station in Rome, it was blood orange juice and I loved it. They're less acidic than regular oranges and I also kind of feel like they have a more complex flavor. My favorite brunch place used to have lemon poppy pancakes with blood orange syrup on their menu and they were amazing. I kind of did a spin on it the other day but made toasted pecan pancakes instead. Also instead of plain syrup I made like a chunkier, compote-y type thing . Either way it was really good and I wish blood oranges were more available in the states.

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Friday Random 10: Shuffle vs. Genius

I had planned to make this a weekly thing but since I haven't been posting a whole lot random tens would pretty much take over the blog if done weekly. Instead of a consistent Friday Random 10 it's going to be more of an Arbitrary Friday Random 10 or a Friday Random² 10. Anyway onto the lists.

Starting Song: What Went Wrong - The Slackers


(I took this ^^ pic, it's kind of a bad scan though)

Shuffle Playlist....................................Genius Playlist
1. What Went Wrong - The Slackers.........1. What Went Wrong - The Slackers
2. Clampdown - The Indigo Girls..............2. Fake Tales Of San Francisco -
.......................................................................The Arctic Monkeys
3. The World Is Our Playground - ............3. Let's Dance To Joy Division -
...........Babyshambles........................................The Wombats
4. Bandits - Reverend and The Makers......4. Golden Brown - The Stranglers
5. White Riot - The Clash (demo from..........5. L.E.S. Artistes - Santogold
...........The Future Is Unwritten soundtrack)
6. Don't Give Up - Noisettes.....................6. Golden Skans - Klaxons
7. Wishful Thinking - Pulp........................7. Oh My God - Mark Ronson
.........................................................................featuring Lily Allen
8. The Way I Feel - Rancid......................8. A-Punk - Vampire Weekend
9. Rivers Of Babylon - The Melodians.......9. Rider - The Slackers
10. Alphabet Pony - The Kills...................10. When The Sun Goes Down-
.........................................................................The Arctic Monkeys

Track by track comparison (as usual) after the jump.

Before I get into the tracks though, I just want to point out that it's kinda weird that Genius apparently thinks The Slackers are an up and coming British indie band. Further down the genius list, like in the teens and twenties the songs it picked became a little more relevant (totally off topic but I've been having a lot of trouble spelling relevant today, but I think I have it down now) with some Rancid, Joe and the Mescaleros, and Richard Hell. The shuffle list almost seems more like the Genius list since it has Rancid, The Clash, and The Melodians. If the head to head is close the general off-ness of the Genius list might sway my vote to shuffle.

Clampdown (Indigo Grils version which is not on Youtube) vs. Fake Tales of San Francisco: I'm going with the Arctic Monkeys on this one. I love Fake Tales, especially the line, "You're not from New York City, you're from Rotherham." (Ok, also off topic but how nuts is it that I spell Rotherham right on the first try but can't spell relevant. I've been spending too much time listening to Yorkshire bands.) I basically only have the Clampdown cover on my computer because it's a Clash song. It's also the only Indigo Girls song I have.

The Whole World Is Our Playground vs. Let's Dance To Joy Division: Genius is pulling out ahead. The Babyshambles song is a demo and the Babyshambles songs I like best generally have to be produced well. The Wombats song is silly and fun and infinitely more listenable.

Bandits vs. Golden Brown: I like Bandits and I should listen to it more. When I was in a big 'listening to Reverend and the Makers' phase I pretty much just played out He Said He Loved Me, Heavyweight Champion of the World, and The State of Things. Golden Brown, despite reminding me of Gordon Brown, is pretty and sad and I've already said how much I like that kind of thing.

White Riot vs. L.E.S. Artistes: Ok, despite my opinion on Babyshambles demos I do usually like demos. I think it's probably because when I really started getting heavily into music I was a big proponent of lo-fi (four track recordings, raw vocals, etc.). If it were the studio version of White Riot then Santogold might stand a chance since I LOVE her song, a lot, but live or demo White Riot beats pretty much anything.

Don't Give Up vs. Golden Skans: Shuffle is starting to come back...I love Noisettes and even though Golden Skans is my favorite Klaxons song (one of the few I like) Don't Give Up pretty much kicks it's ass.

Wishful Thinking vs. Oh My God: Ok, this one's tough but I think I'm going to give it to Genius. Wishful Thinking is one of my favorite songs from the early Pulp 'Jarvis sings really deep and kind of like Morrisey' era, which, although it kind of had to grow on me, I do like. On the other hand I think Lily Allen's version of OMG is better than the original; it has horns, and she does it really well live. I actually thought it was a new song when I saw her live so Oh My God wins.

The Way I Feel vs. A-Punk: Even though And Out Come The Wolves is probably Rancid's most consistent album The Way I Feel isn't one of my favorites whereas A-Punk is my favorite Vampire Weekend song by a mile. It's so distinctive and insanely catchy so Genius wins yet again.

Rivers Of Babylon vs. Rider: This one's kind of hard but I'm giving it to Rivers Of Babylon. Rider is a great song, especially when done acoustically in a Borders (is there anything better than walking straight from work to see live music in a book store?). Rivers of Babylon is just a classic, really good, and kind of makes me nostalgic for sing-a-longs at local ska shows.

Alphabet Pony vs. When The Sun Goes Down: This is another case of a band whose demos I really love. If this had been Alphabet Pony vs. Scummy, the same song from the Arctic Monkey's demos then the result would have been different. Going up against the studio version Alphabet Pony wins. The Kills most recent album is kind of near perfect as far as albums go. All the songs are good and some are great.

Ok so in the head to head Genius barely wins 5-4, but I'm taking off points for not really picking songs that go with the original (which I think is supposed to be Genius' main purpose) and I'm also taking off points for two artist repeats. Shuffle wins this week, and pulls ahead in the overall score: Shuffle - 2, Genius - 1.

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Moi Je Joue

Usually when a commercial comes on 99% of the time my brain either shuts off or starts thinking about other stuff and I don't listen to* or observe what is coming out of my TV. I've had friends ask, "Wow, did you just see that?" and I'll have no idea what they're talking about. Even though I'm looking at the screen and can hear what's coming out of the speakers my brain isn't tuned in. This has led me to believe that commercials don't really work; at least not on me. That's probably not entirely true but I really can't think of another instance where a seeing a commercial caused me to buy a product. Magazine ads work on me, television commercials don't. This was the exception:



The 60's French pop had me listening and I really wanted to know who was using such a fun song to sell their product. I'd been listening to a bunch of similar stuff recently and I imagine that had something to do with why I was so receptive. Also, it was apparently directed by Sophia Coppola. So I guess, knowing that, it's not all that surprising that I was so taken in by it. She does tend to use music I like in her movies.

Embarrassingly, I'm pretty sure I tried out Miss Dior Cherie in a Sephora once, pre-commercial viewing, based on a description I read and didn't really like it. It's possible it was the original Miss Dior but I kind of think it wasn't. This December when I was shopping for Christmas presents (for myself) I figured it would be a good idea to get a new perfume. After seeing the commercial and downloading the Brigitte Bardot song, Miss Dior Cherie was the first perfume I tried out. I wasn't completely sold at first so I walked around for a bit with a few fragrances on those little bits of paper with various designer names on them. After the fragrances settled I decided that j'adore'd the Dior most of all.

It's probably impossible to know for sure if the commercial directly led me to liking the perfume. The fact that I think I didn't like it before makes me think that maybe it did. At the very least it made me give it a second chance. It's also possible that I'm moving away from the more intense, citrus-ey fragrances that I loved so much in college. For now I'll just enjoy my perfume and the song that led me to it.

PS: There was also this random HPV commercial that had a similar 60's sounding French pop tune with female vocals that I definitely paid attention to. It was actually, I think, out before the Miss Dior one. I really want to know what that song is. Although I didn't go out and get vaccinated as a result of the commercial. I put it on youtube so I could post it on this blog and also so maybe someone will figure out what song it is and comment:



*Since starting this post I have come up with another exception; commercials that I have listened to. Ipod commercials have tended to use bands that I either got into eventually or already liked. Like the Ting Tings, The Fratellis and CSS. The commercials never led me to buy an ipod; I already had one. I did buy the Fratellis first album on itunes though so I guess apple did win in the end. (I already had and loved the first CSS album by the time I saw the commercial)

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Hooray!!

We FINALLY have a new president. I got chills the first time he was referred to as President Barack Obama. Sometime around the 2004 election I realized that if he won again George W. Bush would be president until I was 25. It was incredibly depressing. I spent all day yesterday (with the exception of some Australian Open coverage), watching the inauguration ceremonies and balls.

The whole inauguration was really nice to watch, even though I tend to dislike stuff like that. I don't really like parades. I didn't watch that much of the concert the other day. I think I needed to watch the whole spectacle yesterday because all that ceremony and formality finally made it sink in for me. We were actually getting a new president. A president I, more or less, liked. A president I voted for in the primary

I teared up a whole lot. Stuff that has to do with voting, especially formerly disenfranchised people voting, tends to make me to cry. A lot. Every time I watch Iron Jawed Angels (which I think is ridiculously underrated, all those other HBO movies (usually about men) get so much recognition but seem so boring) I don't just cry, I weep and sob and other synonyms for cry a whole lot.

I don't think Obama is going to be perfect. He's already done some things I don't like a whole lot. I am, however, cautiously optimistic. There's a chance that a lot of good will come out of his presidency. I've already written more than I planned to so I'll just stop now.

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Pet Peeve

I really can't stand the abbreviations POTUS and SCOTUS (for the President and the Supreme Court respectively). POTUS is too close to pocus (as in hocus) and also kind of sounds like a sick old dog's name. SCOTUS bugs me even more because it sounds like a really unpleasant medical implement. And now in explaining how they bug me I've had to dirty up my blog with them which bugs me even more.

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Holiday Break

I'll be posting again soon. I was apartment-sitting at a friend's without internet for a bit then got busy with holidays. I have a bunch of ideas and will have some new stuff up shortly.

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Friday Saturday Random 10: Shuffle vs. Genius............

Today's Friday Saturday (I said in my first post I'm a bad procrastinator) and it's time for another Random 10: Shuffle vs. Genius.

Starting Song: Is There A Switch For That - 1990s



Shuffle Playlist................................Genius Playlist
1. Is There A Switch For That -.............1. Is There A Switch For That -
.......1990s.................................................1990s
2. Jet Boy, Jet Girl - The Damned.........2. A Train Roars - The Horrors
3. London Girl - The Pogues.................3. Pump Up The Volume - Art Brut
4. Mensforth Hill - The Clash.....W.........4. This Month, Day 10 - CSS
5. Lady Stardust - David Bowie.............5. Black Magic - Jarvis Cocker
6. Help The Aged - W...........................6. Tight Fit - New Young Pony Club
.......Pulp (Peel Sessions)
7. Ob-la-di Ob-la-da - The Beatles.........7. The Wrath Of Marcie -
.................................................................The Go! Team
8. Racecar Driver - Girl In A Coma........8. Guilt By Association - Louis XIV
9. Ziggy Stardust - Seu Jorge................9. Scratch Your Name -
.................................................................Noisettes
10. First Night Back In London -.............10. The Bad Thing - Arctic Monkeys
..........The Clash

Track by track comparison after the jump.

Jet Boy, Jet Girl vs. A Train Roars: This one goes to shuffle. It's basically The Damned doing one of my favorite songs in the world (Jet Boy, Jet Girl/Ca Plane Pour Moi) against one of my least favorite Horror's songs. Definite no brainer.

London Girl vs. Pump Up The Volume: Shuffle wins again here. I'm planning a post about second albums and how bands can end up de-fanging them for a "more mature" sound. I think that's kind of what happened to Art Brut's second album. It still has really good, fun, dirty lyrics but it's so much less brash and the brashness is really what made me love them in the first place. Also, I'm happy my itunes picked a Pogues song from Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash because it went through a really long phase of only picking songs from Peace and Love which was really unfortunate.

Mensforth Hill vs. This Month, Day 10: I'm really surprised I found Mensforth Hill on Youtube. Again Shuffle has caused me to pick a non-Clash song over a Clash song. Last week it was because of a demo and this week it was because of one of the least listenable tracks on Sandinista! (which is my fave Clash album, but I'm not so into the 'other tracks played backwards' dubs). I think Even a second album CSS track could have won this one. This one goes to genius.

Lady Stardust vs. Black Magic: I think this is going to have to be a draw. I love both of these songs. A lot. Lady Stardust was my favorite Ziggy song for a long time (until the 'it was cold, and it rained...' part of Five Years totally won me over). Black Magic was probably the first song off of Jarvis' solo record that I liked. Most of the others had to grow on me. It's pretty much a perfect song, coincidentally about how hard it is to write a great song and how it's a kind of x-factor. So I can't choose...

Help The Aged (peel sessions) vs. Tight Fit: So I think it's pretty obvious that shuffle is going to win today. An amazing Pulp song played live at John Peel's birthday party is pretty hard to beat, especially when it's competition is a kind of mediocre New Young Pony Club song.

Ob-la-di Ob-la-da vs. The Wrath Of Marcie: I'm so indecisive today. I actually like both songs pretty much equally. The Beatles doing ska always has a special place in my heart and Wrath of Marcie is my favorite Go! Team song. I'm going to give this to shuffle though because genius picked a Go! team song last week and has a bad habit of always picking the same songs/songs by the same artist repeatedly. Maybe that's my fault for overlistening to stuff...but whatever...

Racecar Driver vs. Guilt By Association: I thought I was going to love Girl In A Coma's album because of how much I loved Clumsy Sky. It kind of left me cold though. I definitely need to listen to it more. It has potential but at the moment I prefer the catchier Louis XIV song so genius wins here.

Ziggy Stardust vs. Scratch Your Name: Shuffle wins again. Scratch Your Name isn't my favorite Noisettes songs. Sometimes their songs get kinda proggy, I guess is the word, like Bridge to Canada. I prefer their songs that are brighter and stripped down, like Don't Give Up, Sister Rosetta, and I Will Never Fall In Love Again. So this one's going to shuffle and Seu Jorge's gorgeous cover of Ziggy.

First Night Back In London vs. The Bad Thing: I think The Bad Thing is one of the AM's more forgettable/mediocre songs and First Night Back In London is one of my favorite weird, non-album Clash songs. It has great rhythm/syncopation and has dark, kind of noir-ish imagery and tone. Shuffle wins yet again.

This week shuffle takes it 6-2 so the overall score is tied up, Shuffle - 1, Genius - 1.

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England's West Coast

When I did a semester in London we got to go on a free weekend trip. I chose to go on the Cornwall one because it sounded fun, pretty, and beachy. It was and I loved it. We got to stay at a surf lodge-type place, see loads of gorgeous scenery, and visit the Eden Project. Here are some of the pics I took with a horrendously bad/old digital camera:

This is my current desktop (and has been for awhile) and was taken in St. Ives. I'd totally love to live there for a summer. It's full of hilly, windy streets, cute shops, and very friendly people.

This is another of St. Ives. It's such a beautiful place.




These two are actually scanned. I took them with my SLR and scanned them with my all-in-one printer/scanner/fax so that's where the weird horizontal lines are from. I love how tropical they look, even though they are anything but tropical. It's basically on somewhere on a stop between London and Newquay on a warm February day.





These last two are from inside the temperate biome at the Eden Project. The flowers are kind of overly photoshopped but I like the effect. I also like how it looks like a kind of alien landscape.

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R.I.P Bettie Page

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Similar Intros

Sometimes when I'm shuffling, a song starts to play and I think it's a different song because the intros are so similar. Two songs that I recently noticed have really similar intros are Oxford Comma by Vampire Weekend and Sleepwalk by Joe Strummer



I combined both MP3s into one with Audacity. I'm sure there are a bunch of other songs that start similarly, but these two go really well together. If I was more talented with MP3s I'd attempt to do a mash-up.

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Doppelgängland

Jarvis Cocker and Kanye West



Ok, so this is obviously, mostly, a joke. I just think it's funny that they both grew beards at around the same time. Like if one were to do a trend piece on beards and they were both in it it'd be kind of funny.

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Friday Random 10: Shuffle vs. Genius

Basically I'm going to do a regular shuffle random ten and compare it to the first ten tracks of a genius playlist using the first song from the shuffle playlist. Then I'll do a song by song comparison and decide which is better. Every week I'll give the score, shuffle vs. genius.

Stating song: Paris Is Burning - St. Vincent


Shuffle Playlist................................. Genius Playlist
1. Paris Is Burning - St. Vincent..............1. Paris Is Burning - St. Vincent
2. Brown Town - The Livingbrooks......W.2. I'm On Fire - Bat For Lashes
3. I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend -.......W....3. Knife - CSS
.........The Ramones
4. Streets of Paris - The Teenagers........4. Streets of Paris - The Teenagers
5. My Legendary Girlfriend - Pulp...........5. Birthday - The Bird And The Bee
6. Whiskey In The Jar - Pulp..................6. Arcade Precinct - The 1990s
7. Duck Soup - Drumbago's Orchestra....7. Formed A Band - Art Brut
8. Walking The Sidewalks - The Clash.....8. Grip Like A Vice - The Go! Team
9. Expansive Heart - Big Rig...................9. James Bonde - Bonde Do Role
10. Moon Over Asbury...........................10. B-A-B-Y - The Brunettes

Track by track comparison (with youtube links when available) after the jump.

Brown Town vs. I'm On Fire: Brown Town has the nostalgia factor of being by a local band I used to go see ALL the time. I'm On Fire is a really pretty cover that reworks a Springsteen song. I think I'm gonna call this one a draw.

I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend vs. Knife: I'm going to give this one to the Ramones. Knife, although a cover, is more like CSS's second album than their first, and that's not such a good thing.

Streets of Paris vs. Streets of Paris: This is a pretty obvious draw. Very unoriginal of itunes to put this on both playlists just because Paris is in the title.

My Legendary Girlfriend vs. Birthday: I'm gonna give this one to Pulp. My Legendary Girlfriend is one of my favorite from early pulp and the live version is kinda similar to the random techno song Jarvis ended his recent solo shows with. Birthday is alright, I got it as a Spinner free MP3 of the day but I rarely listen to it.

Whiskey In The Jar vs. Arcade Precinct: I'm giving this one to Arcade Precinct. I love the Pulp cover but shuffle gets points off for putting two Pulp songs in a row. Also, Arcade Precinct is an amazing song in its own right, the 1990s are great live and i love the end when it goes "and the ladies in the arcade, are drinking cherry kool aid".

Duck Soup vs. Formed A Band: Formed a Band wins, it's fun, kinda silly, and loud. Duck Soup is good but it's not one of my faves on the Trojan comp, it has less energy than most of the songs on it.

Walking The Sidewalks vs. Grip Like A Vice: Even though I like Wrath of Marcie better I'm gonna go with Grip Like A Vice. It's rare that I'd pick something over a Clash song, but Walking the Sidewalks isn't the best demo from the vanilla tapes, if it was the early version of Clampdown, Death Or Glory, or Koka Kola the Clash would've won.

Expansive Heart vs. James Bonde: Big Rig isn't my favorite post-Op Ivy solo project (Common Rider definitely is, even though I don't listen to it as much as I should Last Wave Rockers is probably one of my favorite albums). Bonde Do Role edges this one out.

Moon Over Asbury vs. B-A-B-Y: Moon Over Asbury wins here. It's a kind of spaghetti westernish tribute to New Jersey. Brunettes Against Bubblegum youth is pretty good but I think I thought I'd like it more than I do. For me, it doesn't stand up that well to repeated listens.

Genius wins this one 4-3, so as of this week it's Shuffle - 0, Genius - 1

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