Music, happenings, dr pepper.

Two current addictions that must primarily be addressed. Aren't kitkat chunky peanut butter bars amazing, actually amazing. By far the best chocolate bar on the market. If i had to make a top five of chocolate bars, which obviously i do, i'd do this...

1.Kitkat Peanut Butter

2. Galaxy Caramel 

3. Cadbury's Fruit and Nut

4. Ripple

5. Crunchie

Also, i've got addicted to Dr Pepper. It is the best tasting soft drink there is, it tastes exactly like battenb(u/e)rg cake which i hate, which makes my loving of it all the more spectacular, magical, special. Yesterday i got TWELVE cans of it from Sainsbury's for £3, genius. 

GO AND BUY THE MIGHTY BOOK OF BOOSH. just needed to get that in there. This is really becoming quite the ridiculous blog post.

The main function of this post however is to pander to my journalistic qualities (lack of). I'm going to, for your pleasure, review the album 'Pinkerton' by Weezer.

Pinkerton was released in 1996 to a wave of poor reviews and apathy in respect to the band. It was considered a far more dark and troubled album than their first self titled album that was easy to listen to, fun nerdy rock and generally good natured. The album has been described by the band's lead singer in the following glowing words:

"It's a hideous record... It was such a hugely painful mistake that happened in front of hundreds of thousands of people and continues to happen on a grander and grander scale and just won't go away. It's like getting really drunk at a party and spilling your guts in front of everyone and feeling incredibly great and cathartic about it, and then waking up the next morning and realizing what a complete fool you made of yourself".

So generally, it's not got the easiest ride, but for me it is by far the best album ever released by Weezer and is probably one of the greatest five albums that I have ever listened to. What makes the album so good for me is the fact that it is edgy; some of the lyrics make you cringe, some make you laugh, and some can really make you empathise with the life of the stereotypical American teenager who is unpopular, unloved, unwilling to change, and most people have felt like this at some time so they can understand where Rivers Cuomo (the lead singer is coming from).

Here are the songs from the album, and some comments. Each song is hyperlinked so you can give it a listen. To listen look for the player on the top right of the page and click play.

"Tired of Sex" – 3:01   (just click play on the top right)
 This song is probably the best first song on an album. This is a pretty big statement considering Can't Stand Me Now is the first song on The Libertines and Black Mirror is the first on Neon Bible. The guitar solo is fantastic, Rivers sounds great, there's so much anguish. Yeah, the lyrics are a little pretentious in the sense that are we really supposed to feel pity for a guy that has lots of sex but can't find the 'one', but still, it's fantastic. 10/10

"Getchoo" – 2:52

A really heavy Weezer song. What I like about this is that the guitar riffs are so loud and heavy and complicated, the drums are smashing away, but you can still hear the meaning in the lyrics, the high pitched falsetto works really well, but the best bit is that the lead singing and the backing vocals just sound fantastic together but sound like they haven't been over-produced and still sound like garage music. It's not a song with tonnes of meaning though, it's also not the best song on the album by quite a bit. 7.5/10

"No Other One" – 3:01

This song picks off where Getchoo stops, but then the pace slows and the guitar and drum take a back seat. The drums, especially the use of the cymbals are really well thought out. The lyrics are really impressive, the story of people who are together but have no reason to be together apart from wanting to be with someone. The song is a permanent crescendo, the guitars become more screechy as the song progresses, the singing sounds anguished and powerful. It's quite a 'nice' song though, not overly adventurous. 8/10

"Why Bother?" – 2:08

I know I said this album was a lot darker, but this could very easily have been on the blue album. It's a fantastic song, the lyrics are brilliant, full of fun, energetic stuff. It's catchy, simple but effective, and the guitar riff half way through that leads to a crescendo followed by River's coming in with another verse is one of my favourite moments of the album. 9.5/10

"Across the Sea" – 4:32

When the piano intro is met with a loud power chord on guitar this song kicks off. It's the story of how Rivers fell in love with a fan from Japan who he never met but always thought about after she sent him a letter. The short story...it's a little disturbing "i wonder what clothes you wear to school/i wonder how you decorate your room/ i wonder how you touch yourself and curse myself for being across the sea" etc... but if you can put that to one side..you have probably the most complete song on the album. It's well structured, the guitar riffs are in no way textbook, the vocals are full of emotion and the end of the song takes a completely new turn and finishs with perhaps the single best minute of a weezer song! 9.5/10

"The Good Life" – 4:17

The opening verse is a typical Weezer parody, with Rivers poking a bit of fun at himself. The song starts of slowly, the verse isn't emphatic or particularly inventive, the chorus is a bit heavier, but the guitar is probably more subdued on this song than any of the first five songs on the album. The song does pick up some pace though and it is generally really catchy even if it doesn't have the most inventive lyrics. The solitary guitar solo is all-right, nothing special either, but the interesting thing about this song is that even though there is no single fantastic moment and i've actually been rather critical of some elements of it, if it is considered wholistically, it really does work and provides perhaps the most catchy chorus on the album. 8/10

"El Scorcho" – 4:03

El Scorcho is a tough song to review. It starts of as a pretty obvious joke, to me it seems like a bit of a take on people who talk ridiculously and act cool. The song is a little bit of a comedy though, Rivers' voice has none of the emotion, it's just taking the piss a bit. However, when the song kicks off and the tempo rises, the whole thing is transformed. The verse meant nothing and was a joke, but the chorus if entirely separated from the rest of the song is probably the most interesting/exciting/emotion-filled of the album. 9/10

"Pink Triangle" – 3:58

An annoying song to be frank. The verse is my favourite verse on the album and the first 45 seconds until the chorus kicks in is fantastic, my problem is the chorus. "I'm dumb she's a lesbian" is when the song just turns a bit shambolic, which is a pity because when the next verse comes in my ears prick up again and the lyrics are brilliant in each verse. 10/10 in parts 4/10 in others, so an average gives us 7/10, but i really think this is the weakest song on the album.

"Falling for You" – 3:47

Thank God that this song comes after Pink Triangle. The song is fantastic, complete, lyrically fantastic, powerful and inventive. The guitar is back to it's best on the album, River's lyrics are typically nerdy and Weezerish, the lyrics are just brilliant though "i'm a burning candle/ you're a gentle moth/ teaching me to lick a little bit kinder". Probably my favourite song on the album and I wouldn't change a thing.

10/10

"Butterfly" – 2:53

Another 'nice' song. It's acoustic, Rivers sings melodically and shows that he's not just a whiney vocalist but actually has a real talent. It's a bit odd because the rest of the album is totally different, but it works well as a final song and is a simple, pleasant way to finish off. 9/10

So that's a quick review of every song on the album. The thing is, not every song scores exceedingly highly, but no album is perfect. What is brilliant though is the general feeling that the album gives off, it forces you into the mind of the band and their lives and is really very personal. The guitar riffs throughout are really under-rated and there's so much about this album that is just pure, honest music and in a world where that doesn't really exist very often it is really welcome.

OVERALL SCORE 9.25/10

So...i've seemingly become a pretentious reviewer. Let's see how long this phase of my blogging lasts, i give it one more review ever....

Another way to die, and another few things.

Isn't another way to die a great bond theme? I love it, everyone else hates it, i think it's edgy, unusual, and i like Jack White so it works. 

Bond is great, i don't get why people say it's not as good as casino royale or why they say there is no character development. Ok, Dominic Greene is like a watered down Le Chiffre, and about half the cinema seemed very lost with the plot, but if you pay attention it is amazing, and the turmoil of it all and the darkness of both Craig and Kurylenko is amazing, and Judi Dench does a great job as always. Go see it!

Things with me are good at the minute. I'm being worked hard as always but enjoying myself as well. I had a friend up from London last weekend and it was great, and then I went down and stayed with her in London the next day so that was really fun, it's great to just hang out with someone who understands and knows everything about you already, though it's true that my oxford friends are getting to that stage with me now.

I'm venturing up to Liverpool soon as well to see a really good friend, don't know what to expect of liverpool, on one hand i'm slightly blinded by Boris Johnson's criticisms but i think it'll be great fun, it's a party city.

I'm a bit disappointed in the election in the sense that i though McCain was a lot more competent than people gave him credit for in the debates, and he made some really good arguments about Obama voting yes on energy bills that gave billions to oil companies when McCain vehemently opposed it. At the end of the day though nobody can doubt that McCain wasn't himself in the run up to the election, and it seems the Republican party had too much say in his campaign, i mean Palin was a hardline right-winger that just didn't make sense when you try and run a campaign as a maverick, and you need someone who has at least got the ingenuity to go a few rounds with Biden, and she just couldn't deliver.

Also, towards the end when I realised that regardless of who won the presidency the senate and house would be largely democrat, it made sense for Obama to win, because in an economic crisis to have gridlock is that last thing america needs, as it is witnessing now, and at least Obama will have a mandate. In saying that though, i'm intrigued to see where Obama is going to get all this money to give everyone basic health insurance, i just don't think his sums add up and he has caused so much hope and belief that surely some people are going to be disappointed. 

Ammm....what else.. i'm looking into vac schemes at the minute, i think i'm going to apply for schemes at Linklaters, A&O, Baker and Mckenzie, Slaughter and May, Lovell's and then a smaller firm and an american firm (i know B&M are american based but they don't really act like one).

Yeah, so that's that. My knee is still fooked up, but i've got an MRI scan booked now, though it is when i'm in liverpool so that doesn't really work...ah well. I hope you're fine as well. I wonder who you are though. Well, goodbye. Maybe i'll write a poem soon, i probably won't though because there's no time ever.

Shit.

Term has been going great so far. I don't have much time though to get on blogger, but i've been managing time all reet, get to go out a good bit, enjoying myself and still spending enough time on work.

Last night was awful though, first i got in a bad mood because the girl i like had the ex down for a random visit, despite her telling me everything was over with him. It wasn't much fun seeing them drunk and telling me that they were "off to bed now". Felt shit. Then everything got put in perspective when i found out about other things going on in my friends' lives. Such a fucking mess how much pain can happen to some people in their lives. 

I've been in a bad mood all day, i guess it's good in a way that i empathise so much, but it doesn't feel like it now. 

ARRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH.

Just needed to get that out somewhere. I'm currently sitting in my room, listening to at the drive in very loudly because it's such fantastic angry music.

On a brighter note, it's the goth or cloth bop tonight, quite aptly i'm going as a goth tonight.

FUN.

Next post will be nice.

On the brink again

So at 1.40 tomorrow i leave Northern Ireland again to go back to Oxford. It's always something i find amazing that you can be transported from one world to another in a matter of hours, and that right now in Oxford my friends are probably chatting away on my corridor without me. It's all very strange and something i find interesting, it makes a person feel really small.

I've been listening to Weezer so much recently, i'd really recomment getting Pinkerton, it's such a heartfelt album and full of angsty stuff and the lyrics are just fantastic. It's such a pity that Weezer haven't been able to reach the heights of their past, though the Green Album and Red Album have a few good songs, though Make Believe is one of the worst albums i've ever heard, i'm still undecided on Maladroit. 

I've also become pretty obsessed with Heroes recently, it's the sort of show i like, sci-fi, but not ridiculously so, and full of suspense, definitely something i'm glad i've started watching.

As always i'm in two minds about going back to Oxford, i think i'm naturally quite a lazy person, i've enjoyed being at home so much and their is a certain inertia that has built up, i don't feel like being thrust back into a world of work and pressure is something i want right now, but i know it's what is necessary in the long run and i've always had a really determined character so there's no way i would ever give up. I can't wait to see people in Oxford again though.

I feel i've changed a lot this summer, i feel a lot more confident in myself than i did at the start of the summer and feel i'm beginning to work out what sort of a person i am. It's taken me a long time to realise that there is no point trying to please people who you don't really know and that the most important thing is to keep yourself happy while looking out for the people you care about. Hopefully i can realise this semi-philosophy, i have my own tastes, i don't want to pander to others. I hope that people will see me for who i really am in life now whether for the better or worse. 

PS. I'm so disenchanted with the US Presidential Race, i feel proud to be a UK citizen right now (though in a very real sense i consider myself an irish citizen but that's a different story). Both candidates should be ashamed of themselves for the negative politics and the smear campaign they are both running. For Sarah Palin to claim that Barack Obama associates with terrorists because he served on a charity board with quite an undesirable figure is so slimy, and for Obama to bring up a financial scandal that McCain was a minor part of and later claimed that it was the biggest mistake of his life and apologised is just as pathetic. 

There is no morality in a US election, unlike in the UK where negative politics are certainly on the rise but thankfully show no such level as what occurs in the USA. 

Both candidates in the USA are involved in a dispicable campaign and it is so disappointing that neither could take the moral highground and focus solely on positive politics.

Who knows when i'll be posting again, Oxford always seems to really limit my posting. Hopefully i'll be back soon.

Bright Eyes

I was listening to Bright Eyes today. Instead of revising as much as i should have it inspired me to write only the second poem i'm willing to put up here. I'll attach the other poem at the bottom of this post, the new one is the one on the top. I don't think poetry is something i'm going to keep up so you're all incredibly lucky to have two to read ;-), if only they were somewhat interesting or even decently written i'm sure you'd enjoy them more. They are apocalyptic, and mundane, but i don't mind because it's better to produce something that i find moderately meaningful than something that i think someone else might like..selfish much...lol.

I'm not a poet, i'm terrible at writing original material but every now and again i give it a go, this poem isn't finished at all and was written really quickly. I haven't thought of a name yet but provisionally i'll give it the name "At the Bottom of Everything".

At the Bottom of Everything

A sense of superiority constantly fills the air,

Disposing of all the other emotions that exist in the room,

Attention focuses, fools' eyes glean, brashness lives supreme.

Sitting in the room,

A child in the body of a woman,

Gives in to the confidence of the deception,

An introverted glance, interest is sought,

When they walk off together I laugh.

Does it ever catch up with them?

Who's the real winner here as no fondness appears?

A desire for attention must be met,

Anarchy and apathy become simple buzzwords,

But they're all I know and frequent.

Confidence is found and mislaid,

But doesn't change who you are,

An introverted glance, no attention sought,

Another emotion persists in the room.

The Idiot (written last year sometime)

Beauty will save the world,
The noble wanderers,
That plunder silently.
Midas whispers.
Quick! Grab as much as you can before it all turns to dust,
Or before you do.

Fight nature, become young again,
Let your wondrous man-made light shine forever,
Care about yourself, you deserve to.
Don’t feel selfish anymore.
Are you lost?

I don’t know where we’re heading,
Anguished and alone.
Close the curtains.
Keep the vultures at bay.
Are you delicate?
Are you beautiful?
I doubt it.

USA

Just to let any readers know, I support the McCain/Palin ticket. I can't be bothered to justify it to any real extent right now, but perhaps in the future. I'm not a natural republican by any means, i've supported the Democrats in every election and mid-term that i can remember, but i have a lot of respect for John McCain and he isn't a true republican, imo being one of the most liberal republican candidates ever. I know everyone seems to think Sarah Palin is evil, meh, she seems allreet to me despite the fact she is under investigation for corruption (which she vehemently denies) and that she has a pregnant teenage daughter (which i feel should have no place in any analysis of her but am only mentioning to highlight that it shouldn't serve a place, ironic eh?). 

So before you get swept away in the tide of Obama fever, take a step back and really look at the career of McCain and the policies that he favours compared to those of Obama. It's very easy to simply support Obama because of the fervour of support that he holds at the minute, or alternatively because of the tarnished name of the republican party after the shambolic presidency of GWB, John McCain is a different breed of Republican and is the right man for the job. 

Sssseptember

Firstly a quick update as usual. Life is generally good. I'm still relaxing, listening to lots of music at the minute (the national, pulp, blur, weezer, albert hammond jr are on rotation) and i'm sitting outside in the sun which is miraculous because there honestly hasn't been any sun in Northern Ireland in weeks, most days are either cloudy with rain showers or fog, it's been miserable this summer. The sun is a welcome change, i love the heat and i'm constantly trying to brown up a bit to make up for my lack of italian language skill by at least looking a tiny bit italian lol. (the last sentence is basically not true, i'm not quite that much of a loser.)

My knee is causing me some real trouble these days. I injured it over 2 years ago now and i don't really know what is wrong with it. I've had MRI scans and X-rays, both showing nothing and sometimes i can have 3 or 4 months without any bother at all, i was able to play in 8 football matches last year at oxford competitively with no pain. At the minute it's taken a turn for the worse, some days i find it painful to walk and the idea of running is completely out. I'm starting to get a bit worried because the Oxford football season starts pretty much as soon as i'm back in October. I've been trying my best to keep fit recently, i've done a lot of cycling because it's quite easy on my knee and i've been taking cod liver oil and glucosamine sulphate in a desperate attempt to force my knee to heal. I'm planning to play through the pain barrier whatever happens in October but i'd prefer if it didn't come to that, i'm hoping to do some light jogging this week to see how bad things really are.

September will hopefully be a month of catching up for me. I'm planning to work pretty hard so i don't fail collections when i get back to uni and i've really been quite lazy so far, but i think when my brother and sister go back to school and my friends go back to uni there'll be little else to do except study which though it'll be boring, is pretty damn necessary. I'm looking forward to getting back now though, it'll be cool meeting the fresher's and seeing my friends again. I might try to be a little less private this year though, last year i made loads of friends but i really focussed so hard on my work that i didn't have much time for heading out and though i really love the people i already know well, i didn't get to know some of the year as much as i would have liked.

In the time i've been writing the sun has descended into a multitude of cloud and shows little sign of emerging, meaning that the time for writing is over.. back inside to do some law work and listen to the national!