Black dog

Are bloggers more prone to depression than other people? (or are depressed people more prone to blogging?) Discuss.

(Still a couple to guess on the pop quiz. Win a fabulous HD wide-screen television! Or possibly a signed postcard from my personal postcard collection.)

Sunday night pop quiz

Come on now... only 7 and 8 to go...

In the meantime, have a listen to number 10, Prince's Girls and Boys

Stealing an idea off the lovely Realdoc, who is much more cultured and does first and last lines of books - these are lyrics from pop tunes - but which?

No Googling, or there'll be trouble.


1. Tell us a story, I know you're not boring
The Strokes, Reptilia - Anxious, Betty

2. Alimony, alimony paying your bills
When your conscience hits, you knock it back with pills
Led Zeppelin, Living Loving Maid - Señor T

3. You hear some fuss, you're like 'what's the clamour?'
It's just me naked on the cover of Glamour
Beastie Boys , Brouhaha - Gordon

4. Don't you know there ain't no devil, there's just God when he's drunk
Heart Attack and Vine - Tom Waits - Gordon

5. England my country the home of the free, such miserable weather
The Sundays - Can't Be Sure Corin, (1/2 point) Betty

6. Ain't he cute? No he ain't
He's just another burden on the welfare state
Too Much Too Young, The Specials - The Whales

7. You won't walk for days
I wanna waste some time
You wanna be so mean
Y ou love to watch
Goldfrapp, Ooh La La Greavsie

8. I try my very best to be just like I am
But everybody wants you to be just like them
They say sing while you slave and I just get bored
Bob Dylan, Maggie's Farm. Tsk. Can't believe no one got this. You bunch of philistines.

9. No, I don't want your number
No, I don't want to give you mine
No Scrubs, TLC - Betty, Patroclus, Corin (1/2 point)

10. She had the cutest ass he'd ever seen
He did too, they were meant to be
Girls and Boys, Prince - Emma



song lyrics

Mail order

Valyusha, your eloquent email appeal touched my heart. How I wish I could make you happy. Alas, you're barking up the wrong tree.

Hello, my Friend!

I miss love in my life and I desire to find it!

Hello, gentleman. I am a single girl, nice, attractive, intelligent, active and easy-going, but lonely... I am looking for a responsible man, the one who can show me wisdom, love and attention he has. I love life and I am sure I can make my only man happy. If you want to learn me better, you can find me here.

If you write to me, I will gladly answer all your questions as something inside says to me that something big and beautiful can grow between us...

Looking forward to get a letter from you!

Valyusha

spam

S.A.D.

Winter. Cold. Dark. Wet. Miserable. Let us now hibernate until Spring and the daffs come out - no really, it's okay, tell your bosses I said you could.

Okay, imagine you're going into your cave now - what 3 essentials will you take with you to last out the cold hard winter?













S.A.D.
hibernation

Britney rules, ok

I made a decision not to post about celebs but hey, rules are made to be broken. I was listening to Toxic and thinking about just how much I love Britney.

You heard it here first - Britney is the new Elvis. No, don't laugh - she is a popular heroine who made it from poor white trash background to become the nation's darling, and her success has clearly messed with her mind.

(I once saw a fascinating programme on the King's diet - when he became rich and successful beyond his wildest dreams of avarice, his idea of luxury was to get on his private jet and fly, not to some high-class Manhattan restaurant, but to the nearest fast food joint and buy every king-size burger in the place. Because when he was growing up and living on deep-fried squirrels and grits (whatever they may be), a hamburger seemed like the heighth of decadence. In a similar spirit, Britney and the despicable K-Fed's wedding featured little mini hamburgers and fries. And they wore matching pink velour Juicy Couture tracksuits too. Probably.)

Oh Britney, why do I love you? In videos, she is perfection, a beautiful, sexy airbrushed teen queen.
In the tabloids, she is a mess, and there is something admirable in her refusal to live the dream 24-7. She remains true to her roots, and it is endearing. Though you do worry about her questionable taste in men. Still, all she has to do is bat those big, long-lashed, cow-like brown eyes at you, and all is forgiven.

Heresy

So... Wordpress... what are our thoughts?

Wordpress

I sense a vast, crushing tidal wave of indifference

out there to these podcasts, but you know what? I don't care, they are fun to make.

This one is all about the hiphop - which I loved from the Sugarhill Gang's Rapper's Delight onwards - 'I got more clothes than Muhammed Ali, and I dress so viciously', lost track of when it seemed to appeal only to teenage boys, what with Public Enemy's Uzis and combat gear and humour-free shouting from Chuck D, picked up again with the wit and daring of De La Soul, and though I don't really know what's going on with it these days, just occasionally someone will appeal, like Missy Elliot maybe, to remind me the genre is still alive and kicking.

PS: There's a little bit of talking on this one.

track listing

Boomin' Back Atcha - Phoebe 1 and Freq Nasty
Sci-fi hip-hop! Phoebe 1 is great, and it gives me a warm glow when I hear a woman rapping just as well as the men.

How Hard Is It? The Fugees - I think I've written before about how their first record was phenomenal, but for some reason it was the weak second album that went on to succeed.
This name-checks John Coltrane, and deservedly so.

Humpty Dance - Digital Underground
Digital Underground were hilarious, and this one has a monster bass-line. Humpty Hump speaks up for big-nosed ugly guys everywhere "People say Humpty, you're really funny-looking..." and also for the joys of "getting busy in a Burger King bathroom."

Fallin' - De La Soul & Teenage Fanclub
This came from a film soundtrack. Apparently Judgement Night was a rubbish film but someone had the good idea of uniting hiphop and indie bands of the day. This is unusually wry and self-deprecating from the hiphop fraternity.

Can't Do Nuttin' For Ya Man - Public Enemy
Despite his image as a fool, Flavor Flav is a classically trained pianist and multi-instrumentalist, and this is undeniably great. I love the way he insults his hapless friend at the end "You're on welfare. You got a rip in your couch. Your mamma's got no nipples..."

Fugees - Vocab
Featuring a fabulous acoustic guitar loop which will put you in a trance

George Bush Doesn't Care About Black People - The Legendary K.O.
Remix of Kanye West's Gold Digger, this has got to be the best political tune ever made. So articulate and angry.

Cock the Hammer - Cypress Hill
Don't usually have much time for gangsta rap but Cypress Hill really knew how to build an atmosphere of paranoia. (I think this samples Black Sabbath.) Also like the way they updated the old call-and-response of the blues.

Stand Together - Beastie Boys
A return to sweetness and light with the Beasties. There really should be more chicken impressions on hip-hop tracks.

Get Ur Freak On - Missy Elliot
It sounds like she says "Venga!" at the beginning, which is (kind of) the Spanish for 'Come on!' Can anyone confirm? First heard at a friend's wedding. The band had just finished and jumped off the stage to dance with us on the dance-floor. It is irresistible.

hiphop

podcast

Invitation

There is a festive London blogmeet planned for 9th December in Covent Garden - I'll be going, Sevitz is going. Come on fellow London people, (or visiting non-London people) - we are not scary, we are friendly, have no fear.

A good chance to get together hey? Spread the word...


blogmeet
London

Avarice

You know every time you have an trifling, idle question, like, say, 'what is Kevin Rowlands really singing on Geno?' In the past your idle question would go unanswered, so it gives me a little buzz every time I remember that Google exists and I can find out.

So there I was idly surfing, when I remembered I'd once read that Kate Bush's Cloudbusting was based on a children's book, and I'd always wondered which one, and if I could track it down & read it.

A little light research and it turns out that it was based on A Book of Dreams, Peter Reich's memoirs of his father Wilhelm - yes he of the Orgone Energy, something our Helga knows all about. The song was about harnessing the power of orgasms to make it rain - who'd have known?

I would quite like to read this , it sounds fascinating growing up with such a dad - but when I went to find out if it was still available, turns out it's out of print and now goes for a cool 80 dollars, just in paperback, at least...

Now I know I can't have it, I REALLY want to read it.



Kate Bush
Cloudbusting
Wilhelm Reich
Orgone Energy
Books

Soulseek

Fireworks 021
Originally uploaded by Slaminsky.

That's all I'm saying, and it's all you need.

However did I live without it?

Thanks, Señor Curve.

soulseek

Gym

I've been going to the gym recently, the other day I got chatted up there. First he corrected my usage of a weights machine 'You're doing that with such charisma - but don't arch your back...'
I thought he was a gym instructor but no, he was just a random other gym user.

Then 'You have a very healing energy. Are you a nurse?'
He looked disappointed when I said I was a teacher, but then I was disappointed that he didn't follow up by asking if I liked pina coladas and getting caught in the rain, it was such a cheesy line.

Though he was very fit (doing all that professional boxer-type skipping and lifting his whole body weight on the machines - easy to impress us gals hey ) - would you ever go for a man who wears his shades in the gym?

Plus I'm not sure about flirting in the gym. Though I quite enjoy checking people out, I myself would prefer to have a cloak of invisibility whilst working out, they may be attractive but with red face, mad hair & all out of breath from the running machine, I really really am not.

gym
chatup lines

Haircut

Yes it's time for number 3, the Slaminsky Eighties Haircut Mix Tape.

It is a era that gets some flak, especially for its style - it was the decade that loved the synthesizer, it brought us Timmy Mallet and the Birdy Song, but there were some diamonds buried away in there.

On here is a random mixture, which is in no way chronological. It starts off poppy and then went a bit alternative and melancholy. I got carried away and could have made it very very long as I kept remembering bands who could come under the eighties banner, and that was leaving out the big hitters like the Smiths and the Pixies (The Throwing Muses! Dinosaur Jr!) but thought, let's keep it short and sweet.

Enjoy.

eighties
podcast

Maleducado

Having ongoing problems at work which I can't really be specific about (why did I not choose to have a sensible anonymous blog? Idiot. Having drifted into this job as part of a very vague masterplan, I find it stirring up all kinds of very strong feelings and opinions I didn't know I had.)

Anyway, it started me thinking about school, and education and all, and what I'd like to ask you is this...

Did you like school?
What do you remember most about it?
Did it prepare you for life after school?
Do you wish it could have been different?
How do you learn best?

Any thoughts you have about education in general would be most welcome...


school days
education

Turned on

No reason to post this except that I think people have missed it in the Barcelona photoset and it surely deserves a wider audience. We saw it in Vinçon, the furniture emporium, and it was the first time I've ever seen our Em shocked.





















Vinçon

Lamps