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elvis_chimney
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Below are the 10 most recent journal entries recorded in the "elvis_chimney" journal:[<< Previous 10 entries]
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11:22 pm
[Link] | Ok I know that I've been neglecting Livejournal a bit lately. I'm sorry - it's not you, it's me! Besides, I've gone over to the dark(er) side lately and all my blog/social networking/whateveryoucallit energies are directed towards the internet behemoth and timesink Facebook these days.
However, I saw this and I felt duty-bound to share it with you all. Don't ever let me hear you say I don't have your best interests at heart. (I also like the way I say 'you all' despite the fact that about 3 people read this).
Ladies, you may want to make sure you have your underwear in the refridgerator in preparation before watching this one:
(Possibly NSFW depending on your point of view)
The poor, poor ottoman... A piece of furniture should never have to suffer that form of indignity.
I was speechless for a good while after seeing this one, but I was eventually left feeling quite pleased once I realised that even though I was a bit of a weird kid, I was never THAT weird.
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08:06 pm
[Link] | Yesterday, the Black Cloud that follows me around made its long-awaited transition
from the realms of metaphor to reality, as I was pissed on from above
all the way home down Leith Walk while clear skies and sunshine remained a
tantalising hundred metres ahead at all times.
It also seems that whatever demonic power is in charge of making me as
grumpy as possible at all times has decided that the job of ruining my mornings
is far too much fun for scotrail to do on its own, and has enlisted the help of
the Edinburgh bus service in its schemes. This morning they both successfully
conspired against me to make me late for work. I don't want to come over all Ben Elton
here (i.e. shit, hackneyed observational comedy) but it really does seem as though the only days when the train actually leaves on time are when you are a minute late.
And to improve my mood even further - the bloody SNP won the election
the other day.
Admittedly they'll be forming a minority government and will hopefully
be able to achieve so little that no-one will consider voting for them again for
quite some time, so it's not all bad.
Aside from the fact that Alex Salmond makes my flesh crawl (sleazy creepy uncle
really isn't a good look for a party leader, much less first minister), I just
don't buy the claims of the pro-independence mob. I think Scotland does quite
well out of the Union and I can't help thinking that a lot of the independence
arguments are born out of a large chunk of misguided romanticism mixed in with
more than a hint of racism.
Current Mood:  cynical
Current Music: Maximo Park - Books For Boxes
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05:32 pm
[Link] |
I love the bloke out of Bloc Party
I was actually going to mention Bloc Party in my last post - I got hold of their new album and I've been really impressed by it, both musically and in its mostly successful attempt to ring a bit of lyrical substance back into the modern indie rock song.
Not everyone's a fan, though, as it seems that Liam Gallacher has attempted to string a sentence together and called them "a band off university challenge". Presumably he meant this as an insult, and the lead singer of Bloc Party has responsed:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6505739.stm
My favourite quotes from the article are:
--
Okereke responded by saying Oasis were "overrated", although he admitted the University Challenge comment was "quite funny".
"It probably would have been a lot more funny had he not used exactly the same words to describe Travis a couple of years ago," he added.
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and
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The singer, who studied English literature at King's College, London, also called Oasis "repetitive Luddites".
"They claim to be inspired by the Beatles but, and this so saddens me, they have failed to grasp that the Beatles were about constant change and evolution," he said.
--
Bloke out of Bloc Party, I love you.
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01:23 pm
[Link] |
Bye Bye Oslo...
This is my last week in Oslo before my triumphant return
to Scotland. I'm expecting to be greeted at the airport by
cheering hordes of tearful women demanding assurances that I'll
never leave again.
Well, I can dream can't I?
I spent the saturday night of my final weekend here in a
rooftop nightclub surrounded by the beautiful people of Oslo,
and so I felt thoroughly out of place. It was a very interesting
place though with fantastic views of the city. It would probably
be pretty stunning in the summer as it doesn't ever get completely
dark.
I'm going to have to conjure up a retrospective at some point
as I'm aware that I've not really posted that much about Norway
beyond the occasional moan about workmates. It's an interesting
if expensive place and I'm certainly glad that I took the
opportunity to come here, but I think i'm pretty much ready to
go home now.
I'm in a sort of limbo at the moment where I'm looking forward to
going home but I'm fully conscious of the fact that after about a
month back in Edinburgh I'll be sick of the place again. Also,
I'll have to resume my daily trips to Fife and The Most Depressing
Office Environment in the world (that title is pending
confirmation by Norris Mcwhirter though).
And of course it wouldn't be a proper update from me without the
mention of a band that none of you are going to take any
notice of. Lately I've been giving a lot of time to the new
Malcolm Middleton album.
Malcolm Middleton is one of the members of the now sadly
broken up Arab Strap and his new record is his third misery-laden
solo album, although the music appears to be a bit more upbeat
this time round and the lyrics have continued to develop the touch
of tongue in cheek irony that has appeared from time to time on
previous releases.
On the song 'Break My Heart' on his second record, we got
"You're gonnae break my heart I know it, and if you don't
you're gonnae break my run of unhappiness and destroy my career"
This time on "A Brighter Beat" we have
"Now you've gone and left me and there's nothing here, but a
tenner in my pocket and a fridge full of beer"
Add to that such gems of song titles as "We're All Going To
Die" and "Death Love Depression Love Death" and you get a classic
fit for any kid's birthday party.
I know you always ignore these recommendations but if you're only
going to listen to one ever then I really can't rate this one
highly enough (and if you think it's a bit downbeat then listen
to his first solo record "5.14 Fluoxytine Seagull Alcohol John
Nicotine", wich makes this one sound like Girls Aloud).
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11:15 am
[Link] |
Chimney's Tip For The Top
Another band reccomendation for you all.
It seems that the country responsible for the aural crimes of Bryan Adams, Celine Dion, Shania Twain and the Barenaked Ladies has finally decided to start doing something about its musical karma and has sent us that rarest of things - a great Canadian band.
The group in question are called Dragonette and they do an excellent line in shimmery electro-pop. If they don't become absolutely massive and top the charts for the whole of the summer then there is something deeply wrong and rotten at the core of the Britich record buying public.
Check them out at:
http://www.dragonette.com (listen to "I get Around" - it's been on repeat on my Ipod for the last couple of days and shows no sign of getting tired so far).
Right - public service done - what's been happening?
Ben and Sarah came to visit last weekend on what was the coldest weekend of the year so far. So we did some touristy stuff which was a lot of fun and something that I don't really do all that often - including a trip to the Munch museum. I could easily spend all day in that place so it was nice to go again. Sarah seemed pleased by the ready availability in Oslo of gluten free pizza and pear cider so I reckon it was a pretty successful weekend all in all.
Current Music: Dragonette - I Get Around
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12:19 pm
[Link] |
Depressing...
Today is the final day of my Twenties. When I wake up tomorrow I will be 30 years old. Old being of course the important word in that sentence.
I feel I should be spending today doing something wild and outrageous or doing all of those things that they say you're supposed to do before you turn 30, but instead I'll be sitting on planes and sitting around in airports.
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11:04 pm
[Link] |
More free advertising
Oh god this download site is incredible - i'm finding all these obscure albums I've been looking for for YEARS. The latest purchase is an album by a band called The Ukranians (bizarrely enough - they're all from Ukraine) that I last heard on the John Peel show circa 1992. Fucking sweet!
If you've never heard a cover of the Smiths' "The Queen Is Dead" sung in Ukranian then you've never lived.
Current Music: Koroleva Ne Pomerla - The Ukranians
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08:26 pm
[Link] |
I really don't update this as much as I should
Ok first up - Happy new year everyone.
Right - what's been happening?
This one's going to be a bit of a mish mash of pish (a pish mash if you will) so prepare yourselves for a tsunami of inanity.
If you're one of the few people who has stuck with this excuse for a blog for any length of time you may remember that a couple of years ago my brother bought me a laptop for Christmas, and that I felt very guilty about it as I'd bought him shite.
You may also recall that I recently destroyed that laptop in an act of stupidity involving a glass of apple juice combined with a stray elbow. This made me feel even more guilty.
Well - news of my folly obviously reached my brother as on Christmas morning I unwrapped a brand spanking new Macbook (one of the lovely new dual core Intel numbers). He's trying to kill me with guilt and turn me into an Apple whore both at the same time and it's working dammit!
So - at least I've now got something to occupy my time with now that I'm back in Oslo - although a no drink near the laptop policy has been put into practice.
Remember my last post where I stepped out of the closet by admitting to liking girls aloud (not THAT closet - the girls aloud liking closet)? Well, allow me to blow your minds even further when I own up to being rather keen on the new Kelly Osbourne single "One Word". Dunno if it's been doing the rounds in the UK but I saw it on Norwegian TV the other day and it's REALLY good. It's like she's had her previous songwriters and producers (and, thank God, stylists) humanely destroyed and got Gary Numan in to sort things out. Give it a listen. It's dead good. Well - it's quite good at least.
Another recent discovery has been the music download site http://www.emusic.com which I've been very pleased with.
Primary benefit is that all the songs are in MP3. Along with all right thinking people I'm opposed to downloading music from iTunes due to the whole DRM issue (even though, as previously mentioned, I am fast becoming an Apple Whore (tm) (I imagine the correct term is probably iWhore in fact)).
It's one of those monthly subscription jobs - 8.99 a month for 40 downloads which works out as being fairly reasonably priced, at least compared to iTunes. The music selection is towards the indie end of the spectrum so I've been pleasantly surprised to find some records I've been looking for for ages - including an album by a band called Prisonshake which I heard once on the Lee and Herring radio show in 1994 and I've been looking for ever since.
I'm still one of those old fashioned people who prefers to own the physical CD and artwork etc. so I'll probably unsubscribe when I get back from Oslo but it's pretty good in the meantime. If you're looking to try out a download service then I'd recommend giving it a go.
Current Music: Prisonshake - 2 Sisters
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10:14 am
[Link] |
Girls Aloud Get Political
For the record - I really like Girls Aloud. They do catchy pop extremely well and they seem, alleged racist outbursts in nightclubs aside, like reasonable nice people. Turns out they've got a bit of a political conscience as well as shown in an interview in the New Statesman, covered by this Guardian article:
http://music.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1971633,00.html
Anti war, with some good ideas about getting people more involved in politics, all good stuff. Unfortunately though, the journalist couldn't resist a dig with the following quote at the end of the article:
"The band blame the media for the aspiration of some young girls to be a footballer's wife. "Footballers' wives are just as bad as benefit scroungers - it's just a higher class of sponger," said Cole, wife of Chelsea left back Ashley Cole"
Shame on you Guardian! (although admittedly it must have been a pretty hard joke to resist) :)
Current Music: Mogwai - Christmas Steps
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04:13 pm
[Link] |
Rocking In The Oslo Nightclubs
The next few months are handily split up into bite-size two week periods. I have another two weeks here before I get to go home for the weekend. After that I have another two weeks in oslo before going back home for a period of.... ?
Yes you guessed it - two weeks. I can't wait. Oslo is beginning to get to me.
This evening I'll probably have to endure the now excruciatingly familiar ordeal of going out in Oslo - where I get dragged out to a dodgy nightclub by my workmate where he spends the evening staring at women and I spend the evening wishing I could afford to get drunk enough to enjoy the experience.
The fundamental problem is that he and I have very differing ideas of what constitutes a good night out. As long as I have decent company, decent music (of any type), and a bar then I'm a happy man. To him - going out means going 'on the pull', and so choices of bar or nightclub are scrutinised on the basis of their woman to man ratio and likelihood of him pulling that night (at the risk of sounding harsh, my estimation of his pulling potential is probably far less than his own, which, given that he is the standard common-or-garden personality-free computer geek, would be best termed as wildly optimistic. I should know. We can smell our own).
"But Chimney!" I hear you cry, "If you dislike it that much surely you don't have to go out!"
A fair point. However, not going out would have a few issues of its own:
Firstly, I'd have nothing to moan about. Moaning about things occupies a fairly high place on my list of hobbies. "You do the math" as an American might say purely to annoy me.
Secondly - it's either that or sit in the flat watching the same three episodes of pimp my ride that seem to have made up the majority of MTV Norway's output for the last 6 months. As previously stated - there's no way I can afford to get drunk enough to enjoy that.
Thirdly, for all I complain about him, he's not actually a bad guy and I have no real desire or right to ruin his weekend by being the unreasonably grumpy twat we all know I can be. Plus, there's always the chance that I might enjoy myself I suppose...
Current Music: Sigur Ros - Sæglopur
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