'What are your intentions?'

Life This column about the horror which greeted Judy Hibson when she visited the house her student daughter had decided to rent brought back memories. My own experiences of multiple occupancy can be found here, but something I hadn't remember until today was the initial stages of the house search in my third year. I'd decided that after the horror of the second year I wasn't going to be taken in by the A4 photocopy with the rip-off numbers at the bottom and go directly to the accomodation place and pick something off a landlord card mostly at random.

I was at the office as it opened and started browsing, and within about ten minutes there were five of us in there all looking at single rooms and bedsits. So someone (I forget who although knowing me it was probably me) suggested that the five of us could team up and get somewhere together. Everyone was oddly enthusiastic about this suggestion even though we were total strangers. The sound of history was repeating because again as there I was with four girls. This time though, they seemed quite down to earth and well, normal. Also I was the only third year -- the rest were freshers and second years looking for their first house out of halls. I suppose I liked the idea of taking them under my wing.

We'd introduced ourselves by then and started to scour the cards on the walls for a house in an area which was convenient for all our individual colleges. Which is the other reason it felt right -- we'd collectively worked this out very easily and everyone was happy. It was going to be a laugh.

I'd found a card with what seemed like nice place which was five minutes away from class when I became uncomfortably aware of a woman standing on my shoulder. I turned around and she'd obviously been trying to work out how to attract my attention.

"Stuart is it?" She asked.
"That's me. Yes." I said, my mind trying to focus.

I looked the woman up and down. She was an even bigger stranger than my new housemates and yet she knew my name. It was intriguing. The best description I have is that she looked like someone's mother.

"I'm Julie's Mother."
"Oh. Hello. Yes." I said enthusiastically as I tried to remember which one Julie was.

At this moment I looked over her shoulder and across the office and realised that in my rush to find housemates I hadn't noticed that their parents were with them milling about. I suddenly felt slightly intimidated.

"We've been talking..." When she then this I knew it wasn't going to go well.
"Yes."
"And we thought it would be best if Julie lived in an all girl's house."
"Oh."
"It's her first year, you see."
"Right."

I looked over at the girl I thought was Julie. She was doing a good job of looking away without trying to look like she was looking away. My fast friend was running away very quickly. Julie's mother fixed me with a look. it said: "We don't trust you." and "What the hell do you want with our daughter."

"Ok." I finished and she walked away.

As I looked at the others it had become abundantly clear that the group would be sharing a house together. I just wouldn't be with them...

Buckingham Palace (?)

Photography


Buckingham Palace (?)
Originally uploaded by feelinglistless.
As far as I can tell there aren't any other photos of London in the collection of slides. Which makes this deeply incongruous. Who goes sightseeing in London and only takes one photo, and this photo in particular? Again with the wierd framing, although it's neat that she probably didn't want to stand too close so as not to disturb the man. Now follow the eye line of the woman on the far right. It's the uniform presumably.

Temperature Drop

By the year 2020, Britain will start to experience winters similar to those found in present day Siberia. Because of this a catastrophic war could break out as people scrabble about for an increasingly limited supply of fresh water, food and energy.

Links for 2004-11-16 [del.icio.us]

Links for 2004-11-16 [del.icio.us]

Sashinka wavers
Take your time. We love what you do, but only do it if you need to.

TheJohnCleese.com
Where former Pythons go to entertain.

Quentin Tarantino Official Website Previews
So alright is that really the QT? Well, whoever it is has just posted a preview of the concept images of an official website created by a company in Canada which looks legit...

A Third "Toy Story" film planned
And going into production *without* Pixar. It's going to be horrible. We all know it's going to be horrible.

Film of the Day: Godzilla (1998)
Not as bad as everyone says it is. No really. Listen ...

ITV3 to air European Film Awards
Which is interesting considering I haven't seen any evidence they're planning to show any European films...

Apparently the new Do They Know Its Christmas? isn't very good.
Although it can't be as bad a Band Aid II's version (which doesn't appear a b-side on the new release for some reason).

New 'I'm A Celeb' lineup finally confirmed
It's a little glimpse into hell. At least if Brian Harvey loses the plot again he can go and ask Huggy Bear what to do next like they always used to on 'Starsky and Hutch'.

Degrassi Junior High 1st Season on Region One dvd
What can I say but .... "What can I say? I just have a thing about girls who say aboot." -- Banky, 'Chasing Amy'

Live Aid

At the Live Aid concert at Wembley in 1984, concert goers had a very portable solution to water movements. Empty water and soda bottles were filled up over the course of the day and in some sections passed along the line to waiting bins to be taken to be disposed of.

Links for 2004-11-15 [del.icio.us]

Links for 2004-11-15 [del.icio.us]

The Bloggers Should Be TIME's People of the Year
Although I suspect hell will freeze over first because it'll mean paper journalists acknowledging that people on the internet are as valid.

Blogging the Band Aid recording
This is either going to be very good or very wrong. Remember Bad Aid II? (which didn't benefit from being produced by S/A/W ...)

Vienna Before Sunrise
"... a travel article that takes the reader around Vienna in the footsteps of Celine and Jesse with special reference to the hidden corners of the city." (via The Julie Delpy Tribute Site)

Guide to OAR
"Just as you wouldn't cut up the Mona Lisa to fit a handy, too-small frame, or slice off the tops of your novels in order to fit them in a bookshelf, you shouldn't tolerate mutilated works of motion picture art just to fit them in your TV."

It's the same old song, but with new stars - and a bit less chaos
Band Aid III recording in retrospective

The United Cities of America

Doctor Who News Page RSS feed
Finally. For news about the new series and the old school. Just about essential for anyone with even a passing interest.

Film of the Day: Chariots of Fire (1981)
Nice one Colin Welland. There English were coming, but it took a few years and only in American productions. It's interesting how well the film hasn't dated all that much, except for the music. The electronic orchestration does it no favours.

Shell shock at two-headed tortoise
"A two-headed tortoise has come out of its shell in Dorset to find itself in the media spotlight."

Hurry Up and Watch: DVDs Time Out
Suddenly find myself not entirely against DVDs with brief lives if its a means of distributing new films on an actual release date, so long as the disposal issue is sorted out. Seems like a good way for smaller films to get an audience.

Neil Perryman from Tachyon TV as Doctor Who writer
Neil has a short story in a Big Finish Christmas anthology which also features such luminaries as Paul Cornell, Terrance Dicks, Marc Platt and Steve Lyons. Names which'll mean nothing to anyone who isn't a fan.

The Paris Review Interviews
One chat at a time...

Wheel reflections

Photography


Wheel reflections
Originally uploaded by feelinglistless.
This is probably the best picture in the collection and even here the otherworldliness endures. It's the certainly one of the few pictures in which the photographer seemed to know what they were doing and is it possible the only image we have of whoever that was?

221b Baker Street

In the Sherlock Holmes stories, created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the detective lives at 221b Baker Street. There is a branch of the Abbey National there now, and the bank now employs someone whose only job is to replay to all the fan mail which is sent there from around the world.

'So I'd like my 11 points please.'

Life There are certain times when you wonder to what limits you can consciously and rightly be an asshole in particular situations. Those moments when it's the difference between being polite and being a doormat. I'm in Boots at lunchtime buying my meal deal. I hand over the points card, the assistant puts it through. I pay for lunch and walk away. I check the bill to see how many points I'm up to and I notice that the card hasn't been updated and that the eleven earned haven't gone on. My mind makes those split second rationalisations. Well it's eleven points. That eleven pence. That means I could have gone anywhere for my lunch. Is it worth going back. Well, it's the principal. Oh gahd.

I queue up again (it's not that long -- if it had been long I really would not have bothered). I go the next assistant.

"The points didn't go on." I'm expecting that she'll just drop them back on. She looks at the receipt.
"It's not validated. I can't put then on."

It's at this stage the asshole equation comes into play. I'm going to have to argue. Is it worth arguing for eleven pence? Is it the principal of the thing or do I not want to be a doormat? And if it is the principal have I turned a corner and turned into some moaning old bloke? Does it matter? I take a deep breath. I don't raise my voice.

"But you see gave her my card. She scanned it. I paid for lunch and the points haven't gone on. I'd like my eleven points, please."
She turns to her colleague.
"What can I do about this?"
"You'll have to speak to [insert Manager's name]."

The assistant doesn't make eye contact. She gets up and walks away to the other end of the shop. I'm still standing at the till, and the same questions keep drifting through my mind. Was it worth arguing over eleven pence? Was it the principal of the thing or did I not want to be a doormat? And if it was the principal have I turned a corner and turned into some moaning old bloke. Have I in fact become the asshole customer I've always despised? The assistant returns with a key, which puts in the side of the till and turns. She puts my card in, scans my receipt, the points go on and she thanks me for my time.

Of course in retrospect, this whole situation probably created more angst for than it did for her. It probably happens all the time and now and then someone does stand their ground, which is why in fact they can still add those points even if the receipt isn't validated. But I'm still asking myself the question. What kind of a person am I that with everything that's happening in the world that I'd stand my ground over eleven points on a Boots Advantage card. How low can I go?

Talk about turning a corner...

Links for 2004-11-13 [del.icio.us]

Links for 2004-11-13 [del.icio.us]

Lisa Loeb's 'Stay' Lyrics

Fast Forward 2005
"The future is something to get excited about again. Here's our look at the surprising people, ideas, and trends that will change how we work and live in 2005."

Film of the day: Ten (2002)
Fairly exciting piece of film making although it seemed to find the conversations between mother and son more interesting than anything else which made for repetative viewing.

Blogs are evil. Really evil. Really, really evil.
As Suw says: "My personal flabber feels currently like it’s been taken out back and beaten senseless with a cricket bat."

First trailer for 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' released
Features the only music something like this can. Soundtrack is worryingly like 'Men In Black' though. Nice everything else.

How It Works...The Computer
"This book was published in 1971, and the revised edition was published in 1979."

... err ... err ... no ... now ...

Politics Reaction to Boris Johnson's sacking at his own website. Backhanded compliments all round:

"Girl at the Spectator Eh personaly I don't expect our MP to be perfect, Who wants a prim and propper pric for a MP, no one if they require sensible politics thats for sure. Maybe I am a little off course but I would vote for a person like Jefrey Archer in preference to Tony Blair any day. But whatever you do Boris don't upset the Yanks, George may dream up something they ask Tony to send you to the US of A pronto."

"They've done you a favour, old man. Quite why you've been sacked - certainly in terms of PR - I have no idea. I mean, yes, you're a bumbling oaf, but you're a likeable bumbling oaf, and certainly more likeable than the rest of the Tories, even if that doesn't say much. I don't agree with your politics in the slightest, and I also don't agree with a lot of your non-political decisions, but the party is insane to get rid of the only Conservative MP that anyone actually likes, and our democracy will suffer as a result."

"People don't mind when politicians have affairs. But they hate it when hosts of 'Have I Got News For You' having affairs."

More comments to come throughout the day probably ... err ... err ... no ... now ...

Life Props:Natalie Imbruglia's 'That Day'

Life Props



Natalie Imbruglia's That Day

When I was commuting to work in Manchester, each day four things kept me sane. Writing this weblog which I began ironically just as I had less time write anything but also when I had a massive number of things I could write about. The sure decision going into the job that I would be there for one calendar year, until the same day one year later. The Guardian newspaper. The music. It actually took me a few months to buy a portable cd player, a Matsui which was cheap but suited the purpose. I carried with me a selection of albums in a pouch, picked mostly randomly from my collection. It was a broad mix from the Deacon Blue best of compilation (the first cd album I bought) to Mike Figgis music for his film Leaving Las Vegas. An average train journey was fifty minutes which was the length of most of the albums which was just perfect.

After a while I began to vary the music and actively looking for things I wouldn't listen to usually because I had the time to experiment. The lamented and sometimes lamentable Travels with Matsui articles on the weblog were a reaction to this as I trundled through Pink Floyd and Britney Spears. It was an interesting experiment, but after only a few weeks it began to annoy me. I needed music I could hide in for those journeys, envelope me from the madness of the packed train or the misery of the delays or the sheer tiredness. The sheer unfamiliarity of what was happening in my ears did help matters. So instead I started looking for things which were new but familiar, which I was still discovering but which sounded like they were written to appeal to me. It was about here that I first discovered World Music with Verity Sharpe's Late Junction compilations, and fell for Shelby Lynne's second album after reading a really good interview with her in The Guardian. Again as a form of synergy I put together a soundtrack for the weblog which to a degree reflects how my musical tastes were changing during that time.

Then there was Natalie Imbruglia's song That Day. It's from her second album White Lilies Island. If ever there was an unsung hour of music. Second records are always tricky and many artists fall apart. Not this one. Her first Left of the Middle was a fairly big hit, largely on the back of her recording of Torn, ironically the only thing she didn't write herself. Predictably the rest of the piece is nothing like that, sometimes dark, sometimes deadly. So the inevitable follow-up was also dissimilar to the hit and was ignored by critics and the public alike. As is the way of things, I thought it was brilliant. I suppose now I should be careful not imbue it with a mythic quality it can't withstand if you happen to hear it, but for me, during that time, it was a transporter, away from the man in front of me across the train table whose long legs kept crunching into mine (for example). I'm listening to it right now and wonder if it had been released this year during the Norah Jones / Joss Stone era if it would have found a richer audience - it has that quality you see of winding down and luxuriating.

But to return to That Day. It's the first track on the album, but I discovered in on the late pop and comedy tv station PlayUK which I'd watch before going to work, while I ate my Crunchy Nut Cornflakes. For about two weeks it was on every morning just before seven o'clock, just before REM's Imitation of Life. It's actually not that remarkable. Imbruglia appears in a dark green corridor - like an old fashioned subway. Silhouetted passers-by walk away from us as the singer steps forward, brilliantly lit, sometimes looking at us sometimes away. But it wasn't the video I was looking forward to, it was the song.

A conundrum of words. That aren't sung. It's quite close to rap, but not in an angry or aggressive way, like poetry without the beats being too obvious or in any kind of order. Hammering out the rhythm on a table it sounds more like morse code. It also doesn't adhere to the pop regime of two verses, chorus, two verses, chorus, bridge, chorus repeat to fade The second time I heard it was so that could work out what the words all were. The third time I just about managed, and by the fourth I was addicted. Like REM's It's the End of the World ..., it's there to be mastered, keeping all those words in place as deftly as she does. When I bought the single I played it over and over trying to drag myself through it. I remember standing in the kitchen making dinner, the cd single's inlay in hand working my way through the lyrics, marveling at her verbal dexterity. To this day I still can't do it. I always trip over 'Sad, scared, small, alone, beautiful'.

It wasn't until I was sitting on that evening train home, ('which had been delayed by approximately thirty minutes due to a points failure') utterly depressed, that the lyrics finally sank in ...

That day, that day
What a mess what a marvel
I walked into that cloud again
And I lost myself
And I'm sad, sad, sad
Small, alone, scared
Craving purity
A fragile mind and
A gentle spirit
That day, that day
What a marvelous mess
This is all that I can do
I'm done to be me
Sad, scared, small, alone, beautiful
It's supposed to be like this
I accept everything
It's supposed to be like this

That day, that day
I lay down beside myself
In this feeling of pain, sadness
Scared, small, climbing, crawling
Towards the light
And it's all I see and
I'm tired and I'm right
And I'm wrong
And it's beautiful

That day that day
What a mess
What a marvel
We're all the same
And no one thinks so
And it's okay
And I'm small
And I'm divine
And it's beautiful
And it's coming
But it's already here
And it's absolutely perfect

That day, that day
When everything was a mess
And everything was in place
And there's too much hurt
Sad, small, scared, alone
And everyone's a cynic
And it's hard and it's sweet
But it's supposed
To be like this

That day, that day
When I sat in the sun
And I thought and I cried
'cause I'm sad, scared, small
Alone, strong
And I'm nothing
And I'm true
Only a brave man
Can break through
And it's all okay
Yeah, it's okay

It's those final two lines. 'It's all okay, Yeah it's okay.' I know that they're not supposed to have the same resonances I was getting from them (probably for her a handy way to step away from the mic for a few moment while the band plays). But the little tired man hiding at the back of my mind agreed with her. Actually, yes it will be ok. I've heard other people tell stories like this, how the right song, at the right time can save them. And I'm sure my family and friends had said something similar to the lyric before. I don't understand why some singer I've never met in a song I'd heard many time would be more convincing. But Natalie Imbruglia was. Yes, it was all okay, yeah it was ok. I was going to be ok.

Its power comes and goes. It's there on my hard drive and WinAmp will pull it out of the many days of music now and then. Sometimes it drifts through un-noticed and sometimes, like the other day, it'll break through the fog when I think it's all going wrong to remind me that it actually isn't. That the end is in sight that the next good thing is on it's way and I shouldn't worry because ...

'It's all okay, Yeah it's okay.'

A woman standing in from of Admiral Benbow

Photography


A woman standing in from of Admiral Benbow
Originally uploaded by feelinglistless.
What is she looking at because she's not looking at the camera. She posing but doesn't seem to care. And what's with the plant pots which seems to be hovering just off the wall? Who was Admiral Benbow and what did he do to get this establishment named after him?

Links for 2004-11-11 [del.icio.us]

Links for 2004-11-11 [del.icio.us]

Sorry Everybody
I should think so too. Really. Now go and clear it up yourself. No, no I'm not doing it.

Michael Moore to shoot sequel to ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’
Opening line: "What the hell were you people thinking. Didn't you see the first film?"

Brad Dourif
FameTracker's Hey! It's That Guy! column visits Wormtongue ...

Branston Pickle
There isn't a shortage -- it's all on Ebay.

bl a th e r

What it is is...

Film of the Day: Cabin Fever (2002)
Bonkers deconstructed splatter horror. But funny.

"Total."

Life The two minutes silence at eleven o'clock today only re-inforced how actually very lucky I am. Despite my supposed lack of forward motion, I'm alive and healthy. The only thing I'm fighting is boredom; we were remembering people for home the age I've reached was an unfortunate impossibility. It's difficult to express how grateful I am that I can sit here at this table writing these words because of someone else's sacrifice. Anything I saw is facile and stupid. The problem is the war continues -- somewhere in the world people are taking up arms to defend an ideal, in some cases without having a choice in the matter. It's horrible and sad that at no point in our history has everyone everywhere known what total peace is actually like. And for some reason I've a feeling it's going to get much, much worse. And as usual I'm hopeless and helpless.

Some more people outside

Photography


Some more people outside
Originally uploaded by feelinglistless.
In some cases with these photos there is the thin end of the wedge. At no point do these people look like they're having a good time. Like Withnail they seem to have gone on holiday by mistake. This is one in which we get to see -- what? An anonymous wall and doorways. What does that tell us about how this all went. What happy memory is this capturing?

Links for 2004-11-10 [del.icio.us]

Links for 2004-11-10 [del.icio.us]

How Much is Your Personal Library Worth?
Excellent cataloguing option. But who has the time to sit down and do this? Plus -- prices in dollars...

Channel 4 fined for interrupting a movie for commercial break
The Swedish Channel 4 actually. And you'll never believe what for. Reminds me of the time ITV ran ads during the shower scene in Psycho...

Portrait
Amazon.com enter i-film's territory by broadcasting the odd short film. This one features Minnie Driver. Not that my dial-up will let me see it. But the concept is the thing ...

Darth Vader and Heidi Klum
Sith Lord meets model.

Two of Me
Man appears twice in same photo. Spooky.

New Star Wars pictures
I'm only posting these so that I can ask a question. What's gone wrong with the haircuts. Ewan looks like a mid-eighties Noel Edmunds.

Film of the Day: Control Room (2004)
It's all about the message.

The family man at home with murder and mystery
Decent local interview with Paul McGann which covers Doctor Who amongst others. Unsually the Big Finish plays are mentioned in passing.

Links for 2004-11-09 [del.icio.us]

Links for 2004-11-09 [del.icio.us]

Football great Emlyn Hughes dies
"Hughes earned 62 caps for the national team and led Liverpool to a string of honours while at the Anfield club."

Shakespeare's Kings and Queens: A Timeline
An excellent way to track who died when and where, and sorts out who each of the Henry's were.

‘Choice’ Words At a Finnish Design Seminar
"A 1969 version of Gaetano Pesce’s Up5 & Up6 chair and ottoman inflated when the PVC bag the pair came in was opened. The designs were meant to symbolize how women are tied down by the social constraints of gender."

Firefox 1.0 released
I downloaded the pre-release a few weeks ago and up until now the only change I can see are some of my extensions have stopped working. But now it's left beta it can set about conquering the universe...

National Geographic Greatest Portraits
Preview of looks to be a stunning new book.

Narnia Poster!
Glimpse of the poster for 'The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe'. Aslan! Solidiers!

Film of the Day: Firefox (1982)
Clint Eastwood directs the dramatic development of a web browser with tabbing. No really.

Do Men Have Hearing Problems?
Pardon?

'I'm waiting for her head to spin 'round...'

Film He mentioned the difficulties he was having writing the synopsis the other day on the radio, but now we can all glory in Exorcist: The Beginning as reviewed by Exorcist expert Mark Kermode. Forget the usual sobering look at a film from Sight and Sound, a magazine which found positive things to say about Pokemon: The First Movie:

"Harlin's hamfisted horror-show offers an hour and a half of tooth-grinding boredom followed by 20 minutes of all-singing, all-dancing, knees-up stupidity involving supernatural wrestling, CGI spiderwalking and the kind of drop-your-popcorn demonic dialogue ("Don't you want to stick your rotten cock up my juicy ass?") not heard since Showgirls. If only the Exorcist-spoof Repossessed (1990) had been half as funny."

He also talks about the history of the film in The Guardian:

"Schrader showed his first cut of the movie to Morgan Creek - and all hell broke loose. According to press reports, executives were outraged by the lack of shocks and gore, prompting Schrader to speculate that they hadn't actually read the script. Things turned nastier still when a widely circulated 'private' email attributed to Caleb Carr accused the director of conjuring 'one of the most inept, amateur, utterly flat excuses for a film that has ever been concocted' and declared that the film would only be salvageable with 'another 10 million in reshoots'."

In the radio version of his review he said that he hasn't seen the Schrader version yet, but that even if it's a blank screen for an hour and a half it can't be as bad as the Renny Harlin. Harsh.

[Incidentally, The Exorcist Revisited is a weblog about the films and features new photos the actual locations.]

Links for 2004-11-08 [del.icio.us]

Links for 2004-11-08 [del.icio.us]

ScreenSelect search page
Why does ScreenSelect's search page feature material from an old News page from the BBC?

Keeping an eye on Europe
My first Viewropa post ...

Peel's widow could finish his last work
"The autobiography that John Peel began last year may now be completed by his wife, Sheila."

Images from the Other Side - a photoset on Flickr
Photographs of people taking photographs

ITV to ruin Trisha's launch on Five
... by saving some of their own new episodes to run when she launches on Five. "The move means that new episodes of her show will be on two different channels at the same time."

BBC News presenter profiles
That's what those radio people look like

Firefox as MyIE2

Elton's foul-mouthed rant on Radio 1
Stop swearing on the radio. It's not big and it's not clever. Well, then again ...

Serenity Surprises Whedon
Apparently making the movie is just as difficult as running three tv shows at the same time. The man who doesn't sleep still doesn't.

Londonist
It's a weblog about London.

'It's good revenge'
"The 411 don't write love songs - they'd rather attack rotten boyfriends." New pop music that's about something. Rare.

Film of the Day: Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
Finally got to see this on dvd over the weekend. What a great film and I wished I'd seen it before all the other Eighties teen comedies which aped it. 'You dick!'

Before Sunrise / Before Sunset [1995]
... and the Region 2 release. It's a vanilla but I'll probably take a punt and buy it anyway -- I'm not sure we'll get a special edition soon...