"...there are also those — be they agents, journalists, jealous hangers-on or other 'wunderkind' — who seek to ruin all that is good about the game. But it is the devil that is driving them forward, and they are not going to stop. All that will remain for me is to step aside and bid them farewell on their road to hell."
Bonus bonus: my favourite song of the season: "Christmas On Riverside Drive" by Kid Creole and the Coconuts (MP3 available here with a load of August Darnell songs).
Speaking of Best, the BBC has quotes by and about him, including the immortal "Where did it all go wrong?"
In this photo, I think he looks more like Channel 8 weatherman Troy Dungan - or his evil twin.
Some of the performers and producers featured on the box set: Sandie Shaw, Brenda Lee (with Jimmy Page on guitar), Twiggy, David Gates, Dolly Parton (produced by Ray Stevens), Toni Basil (song written by Graham Gouldman of 10CC)
There's also a group called The Girls, four sisters named Sandoval. Could they be related to Hope Sandoval of Mazzy Star/Warm Inventions fame? The cheekbones look similar.
The CDs come packaged in a "hat box", which is a cute idea but takes up a lot of space.
If you hurry, you can download my favorite song from the set, "He Makes Me So Mad" by the Hollywood Jills, at Sound Bites. Like Sound Bites, I did a doubletake when I heard the start of a Dusty Springfield song and realised that it had been stolen wholesale by Saint Etienne.
Even though Amazon states it requires a modem, I got it anyway as normally routers are built to elliminate the need for a modem in the first place. It DOES require a modem, and the connection is RJ45 so no just connecting to your DLS splitter. Been in IT for a good few years and for a top 5 router to have no modem is just pants. Returning for a Netgear. Bizarre.
"Pants", for non-Brits, is slang" for "not very good", deriving from "underpants". It was even used by a Home Office official rejecting an asylum seeker's case.
Do the British overuse catchphrases? I think they do. Every fifth review on Amazon.co.uk uses the tired expression, "It does exactly what it says on the tin", which is the slogan for Ronseal woodcare products.
One of the above songs is Lou Reed's "The Day John Kennedy Died" (yeah, right, like you would have got that one). Lou also sings:
The team from the University was playing football on TV."
List of famous copyright cases, including the Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony". (More info on that case.)
I've never written a review before for a cd, but felt compelled as the latest work from The Cardigans struck me as something great and I feared they would be spoken of badly or misinterpreted by someone, hindering another from experiencing this revolution in music.
Their music seems to move with the general feeling of the musically inclined at that point and time, even so far as initiating the next wave of emotion.
But trusting them, I bought the cd and soon it took the reigns of my emotions that I'd unsuccessfully controlled, and steered me into a direction that I almost wasn't sure that I was allowed to feel.
He suggests the Led Zeppelin b-side "Hey, Hey What Can I Do" (which Shell mentioned today as the best b-side - although he may have referred to it as "Hey Hey My My").
I'll nominate two Roxy Music singles: their incredible debut "Virginia Plain", and "Pyjamarama".
Have to mention the Smiths - "Ask" and "Panic".
For nostalgia, how about ABBA's "Summer Night City" from 1978?
Excellent music too - very fond of Air. The creator of the show, Rob Thomas (not the Matchbox 20 guy), was in various bands in Austin, TX. One of his bands played support to Something Happens, which explains how they got to be on the soundtrack.
The only miscasting, to my mind, was Brandon Hillock as Deputy Sacks, as the mush-mouthed, sleepy cop who was one of Veronica's love interests in season one. He has no other credits on IMDb. I Googled him to see what could possibly be his claim to fame that got him this gig. Remember this story about costumed characters shaking down tourists on Hollywood Boulevard, and this photo of Elmo and Mr. Incredible being arrested? Well, the story says:
The hotly competitive environment underscores basic divisions among the characters. Some are weekend hobbyists who take their performance seriously and aren't so concerned about getting paid; others see the gig as a full-time job in which they must scramble for every dollar.
In the former camp are two very passable Johnny Depp impersonators -- Jim Calibur, who portrays Captain Jack Sparrow from "Pirates of the Caribbean" and Brandon Hillock, who plays Willy Wonka from "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" -- who work together. They pool their resources and give tourists a double dose of Mr. Depp. Both men have spent more than $1,000 on their costumes.
Here's an Australian list (that does include "The Sweetest Thing").
Best Buy's in-store radio has had a lone male DJ for a while. Over-earnest but not too objectionable. Now they've paired him with a female DJ, and they make inane, obviously scripted small talk between songs. Very objectionable.
97. Suede – Dog Man Star
81. Paul Weller – Stanley Road (despite recent 10th anniversary celebrations)
64. U2 – Pop
61. Pixies – Bossonova
50. Air - 10,000 Hz
41. Blur – The Great Escape
18. Belle & Sebastian - Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant
2. Stone Roses – Second Coming (and I agree that it has improved with age)
86. Lou Reed – Metal Machine Music (how can you be "disappointed" with a double album of noise?)
54. Pink Floyd - The Wall
36. Ryan Adams – Rock N Roll (great pastiches of 1980s music)
The pickup ad where it survives being hit by a meteor? Definitely real.
And the hottest babe in the Liberal Media? Still Lara Logan, now on "60 Minutes".
And we can all agree with Eric Moneypenny of FOX Sports that the Florida uniforms with the orange shoulders are ridiculous. It looked like all their players had their left arms in a sling.
A fellow called Matthew White maintains a WikiWatch. He mentions hoax articles (like the Vampire Watermelon, but has stopped giving the details so he can see how long they last.
Is this Jim-Jack-Paddy-Whack entry (about a purported Jack Daniels-Jimmy Dean sausage cocktail) a hoax? Google doesn't turn up any other reference.
Here's a Roman Numeral Converter that also allows you to test your conversion skills.
And Cecil Adams/Straight Dope explains why clock faces use "IIII" for 4 instead of "IV".
New Fed Chief Benjamin Bernanke
Promises that there will be neither hanke nor panke.
(a) Madonna (b) Bjork (c) Flea (d) Cher
(a) Steve Earle (b) Billy Joe Shaver
(c) David Allan Coe (d) Emmylou Harris
(a) "Lay Lady Lay" by Bob Dylan
(b) "Run Run Run" by the Velvet Underground
(c) "Down By The River" by Neil Young
(d) "21st Century Schizoid Man" by King Crimson
(a) Steve Wariner (b) Bruce Cockburn
(c) Bruce Hornsby (d) Vince Gill
(a) Webern (b) Tchaikovsky
(c) Chopin (d) Chausson
(i) Tuberculosis
(ii) Accidentally shot by an American soldier
(iii) Bicycle accident
(iv) Cholera or Suicide, depending on who you believe
(a) The Righteous Brothers
(b) The Everly Brothers
(c) Was (Not Was)
(d) The Ramones
(e) Japan
(f) Duran Duran
(g) Spandau Ballet
(h) The Velvet Underground
I did see Texas Tech safety Dwayne Slay unloading a "frightening shot" on the Kansas State QB. Tech has another safety called Vincent Meeks - not such an intimidating name.
If Sports = War, then the most appropriate name of all time was baseball great Enos Slaughter.
Least attractive name: Albert Pujols, which sounds like "Poo holes". Great home run, though.
The hazy darkness deepens,
And up the lane
You may hear, but cannot see,
The homing wain.
What is the opposite of "kudos"? May I suggest "menudos"? As in, "Kudos to Spoon for their angular yet melodic pop-rock. Menudos to Robbers On High Street for sounding so much like Spoon.
There's always "brickbat". Is it a bat made out bricks, or a bat designed for hitting bricks? No, just a piece of brick. (From the Middle English sense of "bat", meaning a "chunk".)
This article on legal language quotes a case from 1631, when English was slowly replacing French:
(The accused) ject un brickbat a le dit justice, que narrowly mist.
Kudos is also the brand name of a granola bar that is very close to being a candy bar.
Yeah, his numbers were pretty good this year but he shouldn't be the one to say it. Zero class. How great was it to see him ground into a double play last night and suck all the air out of the Yankees' rally?
CTNUAY CI HOTTN DELIT SUCK KUP
AHS QIPP DTIR UAWUE, HRZFINHH
ZTIHFEURHW: "SKHA UC HIRHP CI
PELITN YTOQ, U DELIT HOTTN."
The Islets of Langerhans are cells in the pancreas, named after the German scientist Paul Langerhans.
What's that other body part (something in the ear?) that sounds like a geographical feature?
The Braves also have a third baseman called Wilson Betemit, which may or may not be pronounced like "Better Mitt".
"There's a large grey bird sitting on my head. I try to shoo it away but it just stays there. Then I start to shrink - I get smaller and smaller but the bird stays the same size. Now I'm standing between the bird's legs - and then it sits down, forcing me up its arse. That's when I wake up in a cold sweat."
My therapist nodded slowly. "You're afraid of being pigeonholed."
You don't like the Beatles? That's un-American!
He "has a reputation as a party boy" - could have fooled me. Maybe they should show him whooping it up like a drunken frat boy. (Other choice quote: ""Wall Street doesn't know how bright he is.")
Apparently, the Busch family has supported the Demmy-crats ever since FDR repealed Prohibition.
That still doesn't change the fact that so many people compare Bud unfavourably to urine.
"Oh, my favorite song" she said.
And it was Joni singing "Help me I think I'm falling".
It can be the ironic use of pop lyrics, like The Brunettes quoting the Spice Girls in "Leonard Says":
Please don't scare me like that ever again.
I won't be an audience for your self-aggression.
And if you wanna be my lover,
You've gotta get with my friends.
It can be a slight variation on the original, like The Silent League borrowing a melody from George Michael in "The Catbird Seat":
You're never gonna wanna dance again.
It can be hero-worship that crosses over into spooky "SWF" territory, as when Ian McNabb of The Icicle Works tries to become Neil Young in "A Factory In The Desert":
Dream up, dream up,
Let me fill your cup.
If you count psalms as songs, there's U2 in (Psalm) "40":
I waited patiently for the Lord.
He inclined and heard my cry.
He brought me up out of the pit,
Out of the miry clay.
And finally, there's the full-blown appropriation of someone else's lyrics, put to a different tune, like Spiritualized using JJ Cale's words in "Run":
They call me the breeze.
I keep rollin’ down the road.
That full title of Darwin's book is: The Origin Of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.
For anyone who has read Darwin, there can be no doubt that he was an outspoken racist. Anyone with black skin, according to him, represented a lower, less advanced form of civilization.
Talk.Origins debunks that canard, pointing out that Darwin used "Races" in his title to refer to varieties within a species. It also links to Darwin's writings, where it is clear that Darwin held advanced views for his time. He describes convicts from India as "noble-looking figures", and compares them favourably ("from their outward conduct, their cleanliness and faithful observance of their strange religious rites") to British convicts sent to Australia. (Although he does make reference to "the disagreeable expression of a mulatto".)
Darwin also writes of the only time on his trip when he encountered "a want of politeness":
I feel glad that this happened in the land of the Brazilians, for I bear them no good will — a land also of slavery, and therefore of moral debasement.
Having "Desperate Housewives" in the comedy category makes it difficult to pick, especially when it's up against the last season of "Everybody Loves Raymond". In the Reality category, look for "The Amazing Race" to repeat. And you'd expect "The Daily Show" to win again in the oddly named "Variety, Music Or Comedy Series" category.
"There's no soft center to this music. It is very muscular, and dare I say masculine? He's a Greek-American. He's got a mustache."
In the same article, the composer says:
"Yesterday I went to take a quiet walk, and there was a guy on the other side on a cellphone, just yelling into a cellphone. I couldn't get away from him. There's no contemplation left. That's worse to me than the wars that are happening."
The Daily Telegraph calls it, "a lager-lout melodrama so consummately rubbish it's impossible to take seriously." Zap2It makes fun of the marketing of the film as "The movie Hollywood doesn't want you to see." (Roger Ebert (who has gone soft) gives it a much kinder review.) See summaries of more reviews at Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic.
The residents of the real Green Street are upset at the portrayal of their neighbourhood. Among those quoted: the owners of a cafe called "Pie, Mash and Eels". Hmmmmm, eels!
Now Ezekiel Wood says he's nervous about playing Iggy Pop. As well he should. He looks nothing like young Iggy and lacks his dangerous charisma. So why doesn't Zephaniah just back out of this project quietly and let a more suitable actor take over?
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The case was a murder trial in which jurors had to decide whether the defendant killed his victim with "malice," which has a complex definition involving an intentional act performed with conscious disregard for human life. After a couple of days of deliberations, Corrigan said, the jurors approached the judge in bewilderment, pointed out that the trial involved a fatal shooting, and asked, "What's this mallet you keep talking about?"
So what is a "furphy"? I clicked on the story at this Australian website (part of Rupert Murdoch's (spit) News Corp) but the word is never used in the body.
The word turns out to be Australian slang for a false rumour, deriving from the water-carts made by J. Furphy which were used in World War I. (Soldiers would gather by these tanks and gossip - or perhaps the drivers of the carts brought rumours with them. The article points out that scuttlebutt has a similar origin.) J. Furphy & Sons are still in business.
Good old King Bhumibol Adulyadej the Great of Thailand, the world's longest-reigning head of state. Not only did he help shepherd Thailand to democracy, he translated "A Man Called Intrepid" to Thai and holds several patents for rainmaking.
Note that Aquarium Drunk has a couple of tracks from the forthcoming Ryan Adams & The Cardinals honkytonk album. (And a slogan taken from "The Simpsons".)
And, in case you're wondering, the ".ws" suffix is for Samoa (some say Western Samoa). Someone already has windo.ws.
The Ayatollah answers questions from the faithful on many interesting topics. No shaking hands with girls, "temporary marriages" are okay, and no, Imam Hussain did not combine the prayers of zuhr and `asr on the day of `Ashura.
Of course, you're going to head straight to the questions about sex. Just notice the repetition of questions in each topic - very strange.
You will need the Glossary, but good luck scrolling to a letter (at least in Firefox).
In the interests of equal time, here's an American Catholic Q & A, and the official Catechism from the Vatican. Also, a bonus anti-Scientology website, which is redundant now that Tom Cruise is running around like a crazy man.
The greatest "Cannonball" song ever is the one by the Breeders, but Shell's right. What the hell does this mean?
Hey now, hey now, Want you, Koo Koo, Cannonball [2x] In the shade [4x]. I know you, little libertine. I know you're a cannonball. I'll be your whatever you want. The bong in this Reggae Song.
Supertramp's "Cannonball" is not as great as I remembered it being. And "cannonball" seems to be chosen for its rhyme alone.
I paid the price, for taking your advice. I felt it all, just like a cannonball.
And as for "Champagne Supernova" by Oasis, yes, it's nonsensical (but defended by some). Noel admits that he couldn't think of anything else that rhymed with "hall".
Slowly walking down the hall. Faster than a cannonball
The brass ring goes to Ryan Adams for mentioning cannonballs in two songs: "Cannonball Days" and "English Girls Approximately". Must be part of his Oasis fixation.
I'll miss you but go on, goodbye. I feel like a straight from his cannonball days, When all of your roses were mine.
Tall drink of water, she's a Norfolk waterfall. Little daybreaker, she's a shootin' like a cannonball.
Damien Rice seems to be the only one who uses it thoughtfully. Well, he is Irish. Would you call "float like a cannonball" a simile, a contradiction in terms, or an oxymoron?
Stones taught me to fly. Love taught me to lie. Life, it taught me to die. So it's not hard to fall when you float like a cannonball.
I'll also cut Van Morrison a break for his "(Straight To Your Heart) Like A Cannonball", which is probably so named in tribute to Cannonball Adderley.
We move along. Keep singing our song. Straight to your heart like a cannonball.
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