paydirt

The question, Raymond, was 'What did you want to be?'

Christmas is coming they say. And with it decorations, food, a David Ford gig or two AND OH GOSH snow on Christmas day. Can you believe that?!? I have it on a very reliable source.

Here's a couple of things to get you thinking. I know they have me. But just be careful you hear.

Thing #1: Fascist America
Thing #2: State Snoopers

These links are brought to you courtesy of overcompensating.com and jayhawkeye.blogspot.com. Other peoples are doing the thinking so as I don't have to. That's the way. Ah Ha. Ah Ha. I like it.

Overout

Sublime

David Ford's second album. The so-called 'difficult second album'. Was it going to build on the first? Was it going to move on whilst retaining the raw emotion of the first? Was it going to alienate the hardcore fans?

A number of the new songs have been played live for a while now. Couple this with the fact that Ford bootlegs are readily available and seemingly encouraged and you'll find a double-edged sword. The songs are familiar and loved, but will they be too familiar for the album to have an effect?

On first listen, Songs for the Road reveals a less sparse approach in comparison to I Sincerely Apologise.. The upbeat, almost perky Decimate, the out-and-out raucous jam of Requiem's outro, Nobody Tells Me What To Do's clap-happy pub-along (definitely one to be belted in the face of anyone enforcing last orders) and the gospelish groove of Train all tip the nod to a more grandiose arrangement than before.

However, take a closer look and the intimacy and simplicity of the earlier material is just as prevalent. In particular the closing track ..And So You Fell, sister song to If You Only from the first album, makes you almost feel he's there in the room.

In fact generally this album seems to be one thing in one light and then the light changes and you see different reflections that you didn't realise were there. For instance, a charge often leveled is that of being miserable. But look again and you'll find the hopeful survivor in I'm Alright Now, the defiant romanticism of Song for the Road or the "there for you" love in Decimate.

I think it's safe to say that Songs for the Road delivers and delivers well.. If you already love David Ford it's a great step on. If you've yet to hear of him, it's a great place to start.

what is the sound of one hand typing?

Hey there yogi bear!

Typing whilst teeth brushing (grammar? El?). Always a charm.

To sum up:

- half term good
- david ford good
- fizz moved to the 'cup
- tommorrow is always too soon to go work
- nick sorted us out with some tasty birds tonite (rock-n-roll-ized versin of the story)
- sleep good

timeout. over

Driving in your car.

After a slight kerfuffle over our (free) tickets all is good. We're on high. He's in the middle on the piano FYI

web dizzy(ne)

Oh gosh.

Web design is one of the most infuriating things I have chanced my hand at. You think you've got something nailed but then you look at it in a different browser and BAM! Added to that I was trying to edit a Flash 8 file using Flash CS3 which was mostly fine but there were one or two things that just weren't as they should have been. Something which I can only guess at attributing to the discrepancy between the two versions..

Still. I think I'm done now. Until I get another raft of changes that is, I suppose.

Anyways.

Half-term is lovely thanks. Got band practice tomorrow, something else on Thursday, the usual on Friday and ohmygod David Ford at Shepherd's Bush Empire on Saturday. Hella.

I suspect it's all going to be over far too soon.

But I will enjoy it!

overout

statistics, dreaming and the like

Hi there faithful real-worlders. (funnily enough, as I typed that I was listening to In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel, and as we all know, his record label is.. that's right little timmy, Real World. How bizzarely inconsequential).

I hope you're enjoying yourselfs. I know I am. I'm on a break from work you see.

I was thinking it would be interesting to see some statistics about my blogging in order to further analyse myself. Specifically I have a hunch that I generally tend to post more towards the year's close. But I could be wrong. The closing in of the days, the bright but chill days in autumn, the sitting drinking hot drinks watching the poor weather in the lowlight: these cause me to be wistful and slightly melancholic in a good way. And, god forbid, this makes me feel 'artistic' which makes me want to write more. Probably.

I've been thinking about dreaming again. It truly is a weird state of affairs. Particularly the location aspect of dreams. You see I often dream about places that I know and I know in my dream that it is said place. But it bears little or no resemblance or likeness to the actual place. But yet I dream it the same in different dreams over long periods of time. Why? Why does my brain rearrange locations? I think I would understand if it rearranged them randomly each time. Or at least it would trouble me less.

Now, I'd better get back to work so I'm going to head, but so you know (and I know you want to), yes, David Ford was fantastic last nite. There were some odd people in the crowd but we didn't let it spoil the moment.

overandoutt

Oh my

We're practically on him

on the money

you see the thing is that I'm not sure what to write right now. Right write now?

But the other thing is that I'm being put to shame by Nonick Dave and the Saffa. Perhaps I should spend more time comparing myself to Mothervic or Boy Crossroads. That bears a little more comparison.

And I do still have the weight of ages behind me. Coming up to 3 years in October. That's mad good!

I will stop cooking the saucepan (as they say*) now and move on.

Tomorrow we are going to see David Ford. I think I have mentioned him. We're hooking up with Mr Ashton once down there as well.. Nice.

Tonite we were watching Scrubs again. Series 5 is getting better and better. Watched the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory over the weekend as well. Stoopid Hollywood ending aside it was a delight. Gotta love the Deppstah! Having said that, you can never replace the Gene Wilder Wonka. Although I think now you can't replace the Johnny Depp Wonka. So there's some contradictin' for you. I'm ok with it though, generally speaking.

Moving on to something else, I've been back at school for just over a week now and it feels like it's been about a year. Not because work is that hard or stressful (how taxing can it be to make one piece of paper into 2 pieces - or 60 indeed), but because I don't know why because. (that sentence sounded tortuous on purpose - honest).

Similar thing with Greenbelt. We played at Greenbelt only 2 weeks ago and yet it feels like so long ago. You would think this would make me feel damn old, but I feel so young. Or at least I feel so green. That is, not young in a "young and carefree" cliched way. You know.

Gots to go though. Bed it beckons to me.

overandout


* they being me. But it will catch on.

news and also news

I apparently have a new current favourite song. It's called 2nd Amendment by Easyworld. I've fallen in love with it.

The Saffa has jumped on board. I hesitate to report these sorts of goings on because most people appear to be hopeless bloggers. Or blaggers if you like.

In a similar vein and on a similar tack I'm going to be doing some pruning of my blogroll doon the sidebar there. Blogs that don't get updated oftener enough may find themselves 'trimmed'.

I scored a 'sweet goal'™ tonite at foop-ball. You wish you were me.

Poker very soon. Just got to get dressed.

over.

out.

bruv