Japan Rocks

Here's an absolutely amazing performance by Avril Lavigne being backed by some boy band(?) on some Japanese(?) show:




How fucking cool is that?

And the all round video on the background...

Cool as.

Why ain't British TV like this anymore?

Idiocy Part 3

So he finally gone and done it. Following on from previous posts, it turns out Lewis Hamilton is leaving the country:

Formula One superstar Lewis Hamilton is to move to Switzerland to escape the excessive public and media attention he has had in Britain over the last year.

The McLaren driver, who came second in the drivers' championship in his debut F1 season, will join Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen in Switzerland.

"Over there people don't come up to you, they leave you alone and give you space," the 22-year-old told BBC Sport.

Nothing to do with tax then.

Oh no.

He just wants some peace. Doesn't like people talking to him.

Perfectly happy to pay his tax.
Honest.

Between the Lines

I've found myself reading Bill Clinton: An American Journey by Nigel Hamilton recently (and I only add the Amazon link as a guide to what I'm up against, rather than any endorsment, of either the book or Amazon), I had nothing else in the house to read and while scanning the shelves I noticed this book which I'd, mistakenly (due to some dodgy advertising by mail order book company and some idiotic wishful thinking on my own part), bought ages ago and never got round to reading.

I'm not a big fan of biography anyway, if it's someone I really like (which Clinton isn't) I can get away with them, but otherwise I generally try and avoid them. The writing style always seems so bloody functional: fact, fact, fact, opinion, opinion, fact, revised opinion, fact, tenuously connected fact, definitive opinion. So flat. They are biographers rather than writers.

Which is of course a massive generalization. But still.

This biography utterly conforms to type.

There is one reason I'm continuing to read (this isn't strictly true, I'm taking a break from it to read something else someone suggested I should read, but I have every intention of going back to it, every intention...), and that is because of its bizarre insistence on defenses of adultery. Of course, when looking at Bill Clinton's life, one can't really avoid talking about adultery but this book takes it to extremes, not so much in its chronicles but in the discussions of male sexuality. There is constant mention of some biological imperative forcing the male into promiscuity and this same imperative forces the female into clinging to the man no matter what. I don't really have the relevant background to critique these claims, and I don't really want to. I shall just say that I always find such theories rather self serving and, coming from a school of thought which gives primacy to language, unconvincing,which is to say that any biological (or genetic) imperative is always put through the lens of the symbolic, even the biological becomes symbolically loaded: I have sex, but how I have sex is determined, not by biology, but by the symbolic.

He doesn't only use this biological thing though, oh no, he also explains it away by reference to psychoanalysis, Clinton's upbringing, changing American culture, etc.. We can see in this Freud's Borrowed Kettle, where mutually exclusive reasons demonstrate exactly what he's trying to be denied, in this case: that Clinton was personally responsible for his own infidelity.

My way of continuing to read this book then is to view the entire thing as a long letter from the author to his wife after being found out having an affair. I don't have any information to this end, and I really don't care to look for any biographical information on the author, for that would ruin my reading enjoyment. What I mean is that I am reading the book as a fictional account of the authorial voice's marital problems. The actual living author doesn't come into it, doesn't interest me, and he's taken any interest I might have had in the life of Clinton away with his plodding prose, so what I'm left with is a book that only exists between the lines. And I'm quite interested in seeing how it ends.

DumbleBORE (Cheap tabloid headline probably at odds with post content)

I have never read a word of Harry Potter and, frankly, never will, but I just saw this piece and thought it was a pretty cool use of the whole is Dumbledore gay thang:

even if some of Us the People think that the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause is best read in 2007 to permit Dumbledore to marry whomever he chooses, regardless of sex, the Supreme Court might nonetheless decide not to recognize his right to do so until it sees a clearer social consensus on the point. The one thing the Court should not say, however, is that Dumbledore cannot marry a man in 2007 simply because same-sex marriage was not allowed in 1868, when the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified.

Panda Vs Koala

Thought I'd keep a track of Avril's Stardoll interview, I'm just gonna post the most interesting answers, without the questions, the question should be pretty obvious I think:

I think Pandas are cute. But i think Koala bears are way cuter.

She goes down in my estimation, pandas are obviously way cooler than koalas

My favorite color has always been black. Now i'm really into hot pink.

Nice combination.

Next few questions are uninteresting, she picks her nose, like pizza, Lost and 24. The problem with this type of interview is the time it takes to update.

I really like I'm With You. I love singing that song. My other favorites are: My Happy Ending, Girlfriend, Hot.

Not a bad choice of songs there I guess, she could certainly have chosen worse.

I kick butt.

...takes a sentence out of context.

I love makeup.

I'm pretty tidy.

I like dogs

There's something about this type of interview that is pretty cool, it cuts to the chase, no messing about with, well, anything really, no bullshitting, no dull standardized questions about touring, promotion, etc.; no earnestness, no feigned interest. Simplicity rocks.

Yes i like to play pranks on my band when we're on the road. It keeps me entertained. I often get the keys to their rooms while their asleep. Sometimes i throw ice on them.

3 words to describe myself- creative, deep and sensitive.

And that was that. Short, sweet, and w/r/t Pandas, a bit disappointing. Compare:

A Panda

Ahhhhhhhhh, so sweet.

A Koala


What? That face, that's not cute. And that was the cutest photo of a Koala I could find. I did try.

The Hours Pass Sweetly This Night

I'm a little late on this, both in the fact that it's an album that released back in Febuary and in that i've had it on my hard drive for ages but only just got round to listening to it. I'm talking about The Hours album, Narcissus Road. On listening I can see why it took me so long to get round to it, but having said that, now I've got over my indie rock prejudice, i think it's an amazing album.



I just noticed it when I was looking for something to put on my MP3 player to get me through work and I'm now listening to it for the 4th time in maybe ten hours. I haven't been this into an album since I rediscovered Rainbow's Rising last weekend (but before that, and admittedly before the previous week's infatuation with Midlake's The Trials of Van Occupanther, another album I was stupidly late on, but before those albums i hadn't been that excited by an album for like months).

Why so good? Firstly I should mention that on the odd song it flirts with Coldplayesque rock. Flirts, but just about gets away with it. Indeed, maybe this goes someway to explaining the album's genius - it dares to risk the stigma of Coldplay, it is a record with balls. Not only in the coldplay thing. It risks pretentiousness with references to artists, films, historical figures, Icarus, the creative process, works of art. It risks naivety with exhortations to beauty, art, rock 'n' roll, risks feeling, risks feeling without irony, wears its heart on its sleeve, unafraid.


The comparison I came up with was with Adorable who, for those who don't know, were just about the greatest band of the 90's and who had arrogance and naivety in equal measure and created one of the greatest albums like evah with Against Perfection, a record that I almost put on a bit ago but I couldn't bare to not listen to The Hours. Anyway, Narcissus Road reminds me so much of Against Perfection that I pretty much don't need to go back to it.
There's also a connection with Spritualized, not in any musical sense, but in the use of cliches. I've always loved the way Spritualized write songs made up entirely of cliches but despite of/because of this still make records that feel. The Hours are similar, not so many cliches but when they're used they certainly have an effect. This is a topic I've often meant to write about. Maybe one day I'll get round to it...

The highlights: "Ali in The Jungle", a great starter and the only track I'd heard prior to the album (used to listen to it on BBC Radio 6 during the Ashes last winter - when the days play was over i'd put on Radio six and this song just always seemed to be on - and of course it's sentiments are the opposite of the England Cricket team that winter); "Love You More", a simple love song, a list of things he loves, a great tune, a song of feeling, some quality swearing; "I Miss You", the Coldplay track, maybe it's the lyrics, maybe it's the sentiments, maybe the singing, but it just about gets away with it; the last half of the album is all a highlight, particular mention to "Murder or Suicide" - more quality swearing, rock 'n' roll cliche in full effect, tennis reference(?), and to "People Say", with it's wonderfully old school finish, "Who's the richest man or woman listening to this record right now? Who gives a flying fuck", Brilliant, art over money and use of the words "flying fuck" - beat that.

That Peace Prize

Following on from this post, I noticed this on another blog.

Quoting, another blog, from there:

“When Gore goes to get the prize [… he] should be forced to march through a gauntlet of widows and orphans, Serbs, Iraqis, Palestinians, Colombians, and other victims of the Clinton era.”

And while we're off the subjects I generally blog about how about this story, newly released photos of Fidel Castro, wonder if Perez will now retract his death of Castro report...

Shut it.

John Lydon slags off Green Day for being unoriginal??

This from a guy who had one one idea thirty years ago (oh, sorry, that was Malcolm McClaren...) and is still rehashing it. And then, "The current state of music is dour -- it's lifeless and listless and mediocre", he says?! A Sex Pistols reunion (again), that just what's needed isn't it?

A bad year for peace?

Al Gore wins the Nobel Peace Price? Does that mean that we've had such a crap year at actually bringing peace to any part of the world that we had to give the peace prize to someone campaigning on climate change?

On Laziness

I haven't been posting much lately which is primarily down to the fact that I've been anti-busy. I've been having one of those spells where I feel like there's not enough time in the day to do anything so I end up just not doing anything. So I've decided to just get on with it.

The other reason I've not been posting is that I don't see the point in the whole posting links thing. It just seems so pointless, seeing something cool and then just posting a link with the words, "this is cool, watch/read it!" I started posting to this blog because I wanted to force myself to get into the whole habit of writing to improve my writing and because writing creates thought, working through ideas, putting them down, making them coherent, changes the nature of the initial thought.

The reason I say this will become obvious.

Perez has once again entered the fray on the subject of Avril. And, like so much else that Perez posts, his thoughts are pointless. I'm not sure why he posts on her.

There was this one. And then this:

Avril Lavigne's most hardcore fans are HATING the singer and “songwriter”’s new video.

Click here to watch the vageinous clip for Hot.

Then click here to read what the kids over at Avril Band Aids are saying.

Here’s a sample!

Banana_Republic:

“I’ve only seen it once but I have to say I’m quite disappointed with it. There’s no concept and nothing but close up shots of Avril for 90% of the video. It’s annoying. I want something else to look; at a background of some kind with other people. And I have to admit seeing her in the corset get-up was a bit uncomfortable for me. When I first read the concept I didn’t think much of it but seeing her dressed like that actually bothered me. Yeah she looks hot and all but….I dunno it was pushing it a bit for me. There’s a fin like between being sexy and sleezy and this was pushing that line. I was hoping it would be a little more classy than it was.”

wertzui:

It gets ridiculious when you turn into the total opposite of what you used to stand for. And that’s what’s happening here. It’s like a virgin getting married, after 3 months divorcing her husband, and then becoming the biggest slut in town, banging the entire football team. Excuse my language, and I’m by no means calling Avril a slut, this is just a comparison to how extremley she has changed! And nobody can tell me that this was “her just growing up”…. if the “grown up” Avril likes to act slutty and be a “punk-rock” version of Britney Spears, then uuuhh, I surely dont wanna have anything to do with her anymore.

Phili:

The video lacks class and taste. At one point she’s wearing a corset and barely anything else. At another point she’s CARESSING A MIC POLE. This is an official video, Steph, and whether she is or not, she looks very serious about it. I love funny videos. I love witty videos. This video doesn’t look like it is supposed to be either.

A fan forum posts remarks from fans disliking a video?! This is news? This is Perez-worthy?

I insist to you go to the forum mentioned and look at the posts, you'll see that, yeah, some of them (possibly the majority) are critical, some of them aren't. OMG! People have opinions. I hadn't realised.

I'll even post one, from DanieL: "I love it, best video ever". Huh.

Another site, an Avril fan blog, Avril Groupie, posted this Perez story without comment, okay so his intro was different but he "chose" the same comments. Recently this site had been commenting on the lack of Avril news recently, and to be fair there hasn't been a lot, but, as I suggest above, isn't posting nothing better than posting lazily? Why, when Perez is number one Avril hater take a story from his site and post it without comment? Especially if you're a fan site?

If you're a fan site why not post this story from the same forum?

I understand why Perez wouldn't post that. But...

Not that I think Avril Lavigne fans shouldn't criticise her, but taking "news" from Perez seems a little treacherous.

To the video itself:



I'm not sure why the Hot fuss.

It's not the greatest video, but then again, aren't all Avril videos a little substandard? And to single out this video for criticism seems a tad bizarre.

Certain things occurred to me when watching it:

Is it a continuation of themes which we saw in that Q interview? We see the red carpet, the fans, the photographers and Avril, immune in the middle of it all. Is it a comment on celebrity in ivory tower? Like in that interview I can see how this might be construed as a certain egotism, Avril walking through a door with a star on it for instance, but would it be any better if she pretended otherwise, pretended to be something she's not? Would that not have more of the smell of selling out? An accusation I saw bandied about on my brief trawl through the forum.

In contrast to the Britney video there is a dominating male presence - photographers, police, doormen, members of the crush of fans, members of the audience in the club. In light of a song that could be seen as anti-feminist, "Girlfriend", it is certainly interesting that she is placed in the centre of this male dominated world and dressed in a way that seems designed to recall Moulin Rouge ( i remember one of her earlier videos harking bark to 80's music videos, is this a purposeful strategy she has adopted?). Again I think we should see this as commenting on her new "sexy" role and reaction too it, reactions which we see on the forum, fanboys decrying her for showing them precisely what it is they want. Is it just too close?

The last thing is that in one of the sections of the video is filmed with a border which suggests an old style TV. That is to say, she is emphasised as performing to us, she is seen singing the song to us. In a way I reminded of the song "Thankyou" from the last Christina Aguilera album in which she serenades her fans. In the Avril version, of course, this whole idea is shown as faintly ridiculous.

One for the Ladies

Just watched Britney's new video and, the song's still pretty good, the video is certainly not as bad as the press it's been receiving, not that i've gone out of my way to look at the press, but the three things I have seen have both been, shall we say, sneery. Anyway, here it is:



One interesting thing seems to be the presence of the male. Or lack of presence. For a representation of a, I guess, pole dancing club, it seems very devoid of men. On the other hand the video features two short shots, one, a close up of a guy watching, and another of this guy sat with his friends drinking. What do I want to make of this? The fact is that the men feel tagged on, or if not tagged on, an afterthought. They are inessential. There is no feeling that the dancing is towards them, that it is a dance designed for male eyes. Indeed, the dance is directed exclusively to the women. So it feels as if, as a nod to heterosexuality, the director has just put in these shots of men, but this insertion can not hide the fact that the dance is not for them.