Thursday, May 31, 2007

Playing Favorites #3

I said to my gorgeous brother Stu last night, whom with his lovely partner Fritha hosted me for dinner and quality beverage, that I want to totally revise my Top 5 "imaginary Kim Hill playing favorites", incidently it's become a game...

We couldn't agree about whether you ought to include a novelty track, and the definition of a novelty track couldn't be adequately agreed upon either, it could be a reference, or dedication type track, one that you remember whilst growing up, or that your parents played, or it could simply be pure novelty, excluding the chicken dance song, the following selection might help the confused - I'm Too Sexy For My Shirt, Hands Up Baby Hands Up, Baby Got Back - Sir Mixalot. Hammond Organs featured as instruments appropriate for novelty tracks, but by the time we'd agreed to our inability to form a consensus, we'd discussed again all the tracks we know that have dogs barking in them, and I had played the Pixies and Stu was scanning a Joy Division CD cover, and we were onto the single malt.

Anyway - Chris Bourke (what happened to Mark?), I am now officially a D-list celeb, I got mentioned in the first paragraph of Dave Hansford's Listener article last week. So - come on mate. I'd so get on with Kim, and I'd tell her all about (re: the infamous John Campbell letter) how I had to shared a jersey with my younger brother, growing up in Waitangirua. The poor immigrant Scottish family and how I'm doing a PhD in Philosophy - and one of my supervisors is in residence at Oxford University, the other at Australian National University. As Ian Dury correctly points out, "There ain't half been some clever bastards, lucky bleeders"

So, in anycase, and as the case may be, in fact as the case is, at least in this case. My top 5 has a distinctively British rock theme - and so, I may as well continue where I left off.

Here it is number 3. Ready for the weekend. Mark, I am in Holland, Oxford and the UK in a couple of weeks on academic business so will be unavailable until mid july. But, well mate, I'll await the call up.

Nothing Precious At All. Stereophonics, from the "You Gotta Go There to Come Back" album.


I'm a nostalgia freak, like I said earlier, I'm not sure if it is an affliction bought about by listening to music after having a few wines, or if it is indeed a mental condition in it's own right. Whatever, this song does it for me. It burns nostalgia. It reminds me of glory days, maybe it's the old school piano riff at the beginning, but then it slots beautifully into a punchy bass line, and then there is Kelly Jone's inimitable voice. Sublime! "She's got red hair and a motorbike and lime green shoes" - it's hard not to sympathise with the character in Jone's lyrics. The song could have come straight out of the 70s, but it has a distinctive 21st century feel.




If you are going to buy one Stereophonics album - get this one.




Nothing Precious At All


I been people watching again
I think they watch me too
There's a new girl at the coffee house
She's got first day blues
She's got red hair and a motorbike
And lime green shoes
A mohair hat and a summers dress
And black tattoos
And then she fly away
In her high heel feet
And her fire dress
And she's throwing things
That took her time to save it up
And buy what's special
Then she look around
And sees what's left
And it's nothing much
Nothing precious at all
Nothing precious at all
Gonna drink herself to sleep tonight
And that's nothing new
She goes out almost nine every night
And gets high as the moon
She takes photographs of American cars
Where she went to school
She likes fireworks and candlelight
And fake bad news
And then she fly away
In her high heel feet
And her fire dress
And she's throwing things
That took her time to save it up
And buy what's special
Then she look around
And sees what's left
And it's nothing much
Nothing precious at all
Nothing precious at all

Nothing precious at all

Is she a loner or a mother's girl
That's up to you
She got fine lines round her tired eyes
And they're painted blue
She could sleep around with anyone
If she wanted to
Gotta go my time is up right now
Got stuff to do

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Focus















... however, the dilemma we face is never too far from my mind

Just fingering it out

"I look around at a beautiful life, been the upperside of down, been the inside of out, but we breathe, we breathe" Stereophonics

At the urging of a friend (I was going to say incessant urging but that would be labouring the point, not to mention exaggerating) I've decided to write an entry about - well, nothing at all, about what blog entries are usually about. Life, irritation, frustration, joy, sex (or lack thereof), drinking (are there blog entries about drinking?).

It's meant to be revealing, and honest or at least frank (there is a subtle difference) I think, therefore - something or other. But this kind of "creative" (kick) writing isn't my forte. I'm caught, my life that is, in non-fiction, and on the creative kick I'd usually resort to plaigerising Byork lyrics, like tell me the stories, play me the tunes that crack you up. Or, that I'm no fucking buddhist but this is enlightenment...

Probably that is enough, I mean above. But I haven't told you much at all. I wish I was, just for a moment a beat poet. Then I could say something cool and subliminally meaningful or at least evocative, stirring and

Maybe I need a topic - Nostalgia. There you go. I'll create a whole new blogger label for it. It's a funny thing (nostalgia) it's almost like a mental condition. He's suffering from nostalgia, which is contributing to his alcohol abuse. Or perhaps the causation runs the other way, it's the alcohol that causes the nostalgia. Don't ever drink alcohol whilst listening to this CD. That should be a warning sticker on CD's that contain ballads from about 10 years ago...

What happened to my youth? It feels like someone else lived it. Not me. That doesn't seem fair.