So how was Love Day for everybody? Super marv one hopes?! Ours was pretty good, we had quite the lovely evening and it was most pleasant. We were both very tired when we got home and I have been yawning at work all the live long day. As I type this with my 30 minute timer next to me, I am hoping that some inspiration will strike to the very heart of me as at the moment I have no idea what I am going to blog about. Next week won’t be so bad, as it will be the test run for the new website, so I now have set things planned for set days that will still be spontaneous and fun in a non-oxymoron type way. Huzzah! No one was in at work today so i sat in my office all alone like a big loner on their own at loner camp. It was not great, though i did get a lot done. And I ate some malteasers to ease the hurt ;) Yummers! It certainly feels like Friday today, and indeed it may well be when you are reading this, but for me it is actually Thursday when I am typing this so boo ya to you! Which means tomorrow (ie Friday not Saturday if you are reading this on Friday) will be crap at work because it will feel like Saturday. Got that? Ooo yesterday (Wednesday for those keeping track!) the most weird but funny thing happened on the way home. I was at the crossing about to cross the road with a couple of other people, when a car went speeding through the crossing nearly knocking one poor lass down. The driver then got stuck in traffic about 50m away or so, so the nearly knocked down lass picked something up and threw it at the car. She had a good arm too because it cracked the back window. The driver got out and screamed “you stupid bitch” to which the stupid bitch yelled “stopped now haven’t you” and ran away. Aaah the drama...
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THE ROMANTIC MOVIE DATE:
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After a delicious meal last night, and some comedy shopping where Darren was kind enough to model some chavvy yellow hats with matching clutch man bags, we hopped off to the cinema to see Hot Fuzz – a new police comedy with those two dudes from Shaun Of The Dead (which was rather good rom-zom-com). It was in the tiniest cinema screen ever – seriously, even Asda-Walmart sell bigger screens than that – and because it’s a listed building the seats are the most uncomfortable ever. Plus it was packed so i couldn’t even spread out like i usually do. But the film was quite good actually – stylistically it’s very similar to Shaun just in terms of how some of the sequencing of shots is done, etc. Simon Pegg did a great job of his dedicated fish out of water policeman while the murder mystery storyline resolution wasn’t as obvious as it first seemed, though was a little League of Gentlemen-ish! There were some great laugh out loud scenes particularly with the female police officer who turned everything into a smutty innuendo (now that’s my type of girl!) and a scene where Nick Frost runs away all hurt and rejected with a great big stuffed bear under his arm. Hehe. And obviously it was a far superior way to spend the evening than staying in and watching the shambles/farce/ludicrousnessness that apparently was The Brits. Plus I am fairly excited by the forthcoming Hot Fuzz soundtrack which not only has Adam Ants Goody Two Shoes on it (a song that is desperate for a live lounge makeover by either Kaiser Chiefs or McFly), but a brand new chirpy little song by The Fratellis (Baby Fratelli) whom I am loving more and more by the minute. So what’s the Hot Fuzz? Overall quite an enjoyable package. Which is what i rated Darren later. Fnar fnar, etc.
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LINK: Pre-order the Hot Fuzz soundtrack
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THE MATURATION OF THEZAPPING: .
Don’t worry dudes. I still love my pop and always will. I will still practically jizz on the spot when i hear a great new boyband. I will still learn all the dance moves to the latest Kylie number in my aussie bums while standing in the window at home. So it’s all good. But in our fair land we call “indie music” in England (and “college rock” in the USA) there is sometimes a whole lot of pop sensibility to be found in those types of tunes. Since marketed as a “pop group” The Ordinary Boys (with huffy storm off Never Mind The Buzzcocks Preston) have notched up 4 consecutive top ten hits. Kaiser Chiefs have mixed “respect us” rock with pop chorus and scored a massive smash with Ruby. And now there is the View. I was sort of aware of them (indeed I wrote about their Same Jeans earlier in the year) but didn’t really pay too much attention until Mika covered that track, then a lot more attention when they turned in a quite lovely yet equally as poignant reimagining of Paolo Nutini’s Rewind. Lovely. So I thought I would check out their actually quite fine debut album Hats Off To The Busker. Lyrically they are similar to those annoying Arctic Monkeys, but musically they seem more accomplished and that is because they know how to put a bit of pop pizzazz into their tunes. Wasted Little DJ’s, Same Jeans and Skag Trendy are all great sing a long tracks that will be hummed by many come the summer festival season. It’s quite the raw sounding album and a bit more polish would be appreciated by me next time, but overall, i do quite like it :)
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Next up is Britpop “supergroup” The Good The Bad and The Queen comprising of Damon Albarn and some other people... and lets face it, Damon certainly knows how to surround himself with the right people. I decided to check this out when all the reviewers in the Sunday supplements were spunking their love on this and only being luke warm to Mika. I’ll preface by saying I certainly find the Mika album more entertaining, but this is a solid piece of work that is eminently enjoyable. It’s very melancholy and the music matches the lyrics perfectly. It’s bookended by two great tracks that could be rock epics given time – History Song and the closing title track. I did have lots of clever words to describe it, but actually some online reviewer from Sydney did it so much better... “it's the walk along the thames that you love even when you can see the homeless guy freezing almost to death, the taxi cab ride home with the view of the working girls hustling. it's the view out of your window in Elephant and Castle, the pint in the pub where the floor is adhesive and the toilets blocked. it's basically fantastic…” Quite…
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LINK: Purchase The View’s album
LINK: Purchase The Good The Bad and The Queen’s album
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THE BAD MOVIE, GREAT SOUNDTRACK:
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What about Dick Tracy? Dick. That’s an interesting name. My bottom hurts just thinking about it. Nothing like a good spanky. And so on and so forth. Yes, Madonna as Breathless Mahoney was as rubbish as those lyrics seem sitting there all naked and music free. Yet the soundtrack was one of my favourite albums of 1990 and vastly underrated in my opinion. Not only did it provide the groundwork for the magnificent Erotica with its bawdy lyrics tackling sex, love, bondage and remorse, but it provided us with Vogue which at the time was a glittering ball of magnificence. But look beyond that and there are some great tunes to be had also. More was a fantastic little cabaret number about greed; I’m Going Bananas was this crazy little calypso romp; Something To Remember was a torch song of the highest calibre; Sooner or Later was a sinister love song swathed in dark music and the epic Now I’m Following You just defied description. All magnificent. And floating the net now (and maybe for ages, who knows!) is a collection of instrumentals and demos that show these songs in the creation stages and actually just make me love them more. You know what? It was the Rudebox of it’s day! But better :)
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DOWNLOAD: The I’m Breathless demos
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QUICK BITZ/BLOG WATCH:
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~ Oooo look, those lovely History Boys (the amazing touring cast) have their own blog now. It’s enough to make you want to kiss the screen ;)
~ Nip over to Chartrigger for J'Ason's usual wry comments about the US top 10 (fave "give taylor a kiss on the way down hon!") and a Milli Vanilli movie :O
~ Electroqueer has a run down of the Brits which i didn't see, it being Valentines night and all, so cheers for the catch up ;) (again it wouldn't let me comment!!)
~ the amazing Nick at Alienhits turned one this week :) Happy birthday dude to one of the best bloggers on the web!

*Bloggers are quite rightly touched by Pinkie's amazing story. It's very sad and very raw and honest. Be sure to check it out and send hugs his way*