The Highest British Attention to the Wrong Detail

Some of my favourite songs of the current moment:

The Fall - The Classical

Deerhunter - Fluorescent Grey

Franz Ferdinand - Ulysses

David Bowie - Cracked Actor

Yo La Tengo - The Cone of Silence

Rolling Stones - Moonlight Mile

Spoon - Utilitarian

The Jesus & Mary Chain - Hole

The Beatles - I Am The Walrus (a sort of perpetual favourite)

Willie Nelson - Shotgun Willie

AC/DC - Rock 'n' Roll Damnation

Pavement - J vs. S

Spacemen 3 - Take Me To The Other Side

Weezer - Suzanne

Music: The Year In Review

My lists:

Top Albums of 2008:

10. The Verve - Forth

An unexpectedly good album resulting from a very unexpected reunion. There are some not-too-good songs on here, but that's the way it's always been with The Verve (even Urban Hymns has one or two skippable tracks). I'm glad that they didn't attempt to use their third coming to mimic their second coming. More reflective of their early days, but certainly still a unique album in their catalogue (of four albums in 15 years).

9.  Times New Viking - Rip It Off

More noise rock from Matador Records (we can always count on CL and GC to find the newest cool thing). Largely unintelligible vocals, distortion for miles. Lot's of fun.

8. Paul Weller - 22 Dreams

I've not always been too keen on this "soul music" business that Weller always seems to delve into. Sometimes it turns out well, sometimes not. This is the first time it has turned out well since Heliocentric. Lots of tracks, guest appearance by some very cool names (Noel Gallagher, Graham Coxon), and a lot of very good songs. The old man has some life in him yet. 

7. Radiohead - In Rainbows

Better than Hail to the Thief, but not as good as their glory days. I find that Radiohead's recent work has become more background music than music that I listen to intently. Still, as background music goes this is good...but I still do miss the guitars.

6. Elvis Costello & The Imposters - Momofuku

I've put up with a lot of shabby, or at least only marginally listenable, material from EC over the past decade or so. Every once and a while, however, the clouds part and the former angry young man deigns to give us a decent piece of work. This album is one such example. "No Hiding Place" is one of the best songs he has come up with in twenty years. 

5. Portishead - Third

In another unexpected reunion surprise, Portishead re-emerged with a new album. Unlike The Verve's effort, this one is solid from beginning to end. They've somehow managed to maintain their root sound without like a 90s anachronism, which would have been the case had the tried to recreate the sound of their prior two LPs.

4. Beck - Modern Guilt

I've never been a huge fan of Beck. When I first listened to this record I did not expect it to make a top 20, let alone the upper tier of my top 10. The production has a lot to do with it (and I say this despite not being on the Danger Mouse bandwagon). The drum sound that Beck and DM managed to get is of particular note. Definitely one of the best albums of his career.

3. Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Real Emotional Trash

S.M. truly loves his guitar. He always has, but one can chart the full blossoming of his relationship with the instrument over his career. There are signpost songs on each Pavement record after Slanted & Enchanted: "Fillmore Jive", "Grave Architecture", "Fin", "Platform Blues". His solo records have featured some long guitar rambles as well: most of Pig Lib, and especially "No More Shoes" from Face the Truth. This album is literally full of them. Other than the poppy single "Gardenia", Malkmus let's his guitar do the talking. Takes a few listens, but it is a very rewarding LP.

2. Oasis - Dig Out Your Soul

The resurgence that began with Don't Believe the Truth continues and has been built upon in a major way. This is by far the most powerful guitar record that Oasis have made since Definitely Maybe. I really didn't think that they still had this in them. "The Shock of the Lightning" is one of the most memorable singles they've released in years. The production is miles better than it has ever been on an Oasis record (Standing on the Shoulder of Giants through to Don't Believe the Truth had, to varying degrees, rather sterile and at times overly sparse production. Definitely Maybe is generally well-produced, but (What's The Story) Morning Glory? and Be Here Now tend to be either too compressed, too cluttered, or both). This new albums sounds amazing; the production is very sympathetic to the songs. A great album. 

1. British Sea Power - Do You Like Rock Music?

Stunning. BSP continue to prove with this third record that they are the only band to come out of Britain in this decade to make truly classic albums. They've gone back to the big guitar sound of their debut without re-treading those waters (pun!). The balance between Yan and Hamilton songs continues to come into more equilibrium, and this is a great boon to their sound. This was the first album on this list to be released, but it turned out to be pinnacle of music released this year (according to me).

Top Reissues / Catalogue Releases of 2008:

5. New Order - Movement / Power, Corruption & Lies / Low-Life / Brotherhood / Technique (Deluxe Editions)

The good years of New Order's career captured in beautiful new 2-disc packages. There are some gaps though. Some material is actually not present on the albums that are supposed to encapsulate all the releases of this era, and thus I have had to hold on to my Substance 1987 compilation.

4. Willie Nelson - Stardust (Legacy Edition)

Willie, certainly one of the greatest interpreters of other people's songs, takes on classics from Tin Pan Alley up to the period this album was recorded. Sadly Rod Stewart has now destroyed this concept with his awful American Songbook records, but in 1978 it was a daring move that Willie pulled off, creating the best selling record of his career. His version of "Unchained Melody" tops the Righteous Brothers' in many ways, as it is restrained and lacks the over-the-top Phil Spector-ish quality of the latter's. 

3. Mission of Burma - Signals, Calls & Marches / Vs. / The Horrible Truth About Burma (Deluxe Editions)

These reissues feature extensive liner notes, bonus live DVDs, and fantastic records that sound amazing. These remasters have been done especially well. No one should ever buy the older Rhino/Rykodisc reissues. They cannot compare to the sound and quality of these new, and certainly definitive, editions.

2. The Clash - Live At Shea Stadium

The Clash during the brief period after they exploded commercially and before they imploded personally. Despite the chaos of their internal functioning, this proves that the group was as visceral at the end of their career as they were at the beginning. 

1. Pavement - Brighten the Corners: Nicene Credence Edition

Matador Records has become the master of the indie label deluxe edition. They did the above Mission of Burma releases, and they have continued their delightful 2-disc editions of the Pavement catalogue with this, the group's fourth album. Like the prior three, this features fantastic packaging, an extensive liner note book, and two discs packed with every notable song, both released and previously unreleased, from the era that the LP was recorded in. The b-sides are great, especially the classic "Harness Your Hopes". The radio sessions are excellent as well, especially the sloppy, hilarious, and downright insulting version of The Fall's "The Classical" recorded for the John Peel Show. The awful thing is that there is only one more Pavement album left for them to reissue and deluxify.

Top 3 Concerts of 2008:

3. My Bloody Valentine (September / Kool Haus, Toronto)

Raw, distorted, and warped guitar power. Speaks for itself.

2. Oasis (December / John Labatt Centre, London)

After the disaster at V-Fest, it was nice to see a full and proper show. I've seen Oasis a lot, but this was by far the best set list they've put together at a show I've been to. Dusting off old and relatively underplayed classics like "Slide Away" and "I Am The Walrus" made the show. The new songs are designed to be played live, and they came across better than a lot of their other material has over the last decade or so.

1. British Sea Power (May / Lee's Palace, Toronto)

It was a night to remember. Two genuinely entertaining openers (very rare indeed). BSP hit the stage just before midnight and blew everyone away until just after 2am. Not only the best concert of the year, but a candidate for best concert I've yet been to. 

Of Parliamentary Democracy

It has been quite remarkable to speak with people and to read the opinions of people who seem rather confused as to how a parliamentary democracy works. There seems to be the view that elections are the be all and end all and a government's legitimacy is based purely on election results. Our elections merely fill the house of commons with our representatives. The government only serves with the confidence of those representatives, and cannot remain in power based purely on an electoral result. In a parliamentary system the government will be the party or group of parties that can best maintain the confidence of the majority of the people that we have elected. Obviously the majority of the people we have elected do not have confidence in the current government. How this is a "usurpation" or "denying the will of the people" is hard to fathom. It may not be the best move and there are arguments against it; however, claims that this current issue is undemocratic leads me to believe that the people who make these claims are either ignorant of our constitution and our parliamentary system or they are purposely distorting facts for their own political ends. 

The Jam Kids on their Vespas

Today I was reading a book by Alan Brinkley about the transformation of the first phase of the New Deal (roughly 1933-1936) into the second phase (1937-1945). What had happened was thus: phase one was a scattershot affair, and borrowed from a "reform liberalism" impulse to reform capitalism. Crises of 1936-1937 changed this. The Supreme Court scandal, the impasse over executive branch reform, and the renewed economic downturn of 1937 led to a complete reevaluation of what "New Deal Liberalism" was. One major move forward was to realize that the real engine of the modern economy was consumer spending, not investment. This led to the eventual triumph of Keynsian demand side economics, which promoted government spending to prop up consumer spending, even at the risk of a short term inflation. This ended the era of more direct government intervention in the economy common in the early New Deal and led to a liberalism that was more reconciled with capitalism and business, using the fiscal powers of the government to fix the inherent inequalities of the system. This essentially become the liberalism of the 1940s-1960s that dominated American politics. 

Why this is interesting is because at the time of Brinkley's writing (early 1990s), liberalism was making a minor comeback after supply side "Reaganomics". Yet even Brinkley acknowledged that it was a very weak comeback, and despite the Clinton victory in 1992 the Republican gains in the 1994 elections meant that there would be no recognizable liberalism in the 1990s. That mirage of a liberal comeback in 1992 seems even more interesting from our current moment. Liberalism has seen major transformations over the 20th century, from laissez-faire, to reform liberalism, to New Deal liberalism, to the scattered ideology of post-1968 liberalism. It is possible that Obama could define a new era of liberalism. What it will be is unclear. What is clear is that whatever emerges out of the next four years there will be some form of new liberalism and probably a new political alignment in American politics.

Open Call for Prison Architects

Since I do not live in Hamilton anymore I thought it might make some sense to write a bit about what I am currently doing. I am in the first year of the PhD program in History and the University of Toronto. The topic on which I am going to write my dissertation is, broadly speaking, British intelligence operations in the Second World War, largely in the Mediterranean theatre. Before I can start that I have to finish the course work for this year. I am currently in two U.S. history classes at the moment (Cold War Foreign Policy  and Domestic History from the 1890s). I am also in a German class this term which is by far the most aggravating thing I have to deal with. Next term I have a course on Imperial Germany and one on The Holocaust and World War II. After that I have to read and take exams on one major field (Modern International Relations) and two minor fields (Modern Britain and American Foreign Relations). That lengthy process will take from April 2009 until the end of January 2010. At that point I will be free to pursue my dissertation which will, happily, include a trip to the British National Archives at Kew. Once (if) the dissertation is complete, who knows after that. Hopefully some form of academic career.

Living in Toronto has certain perks. For one, I live very close to Sonic Boom, the most fantastic record store I have ever been in. It was obvious that the music store scene in Hamilton was pretty terrible, but that is even more obvious now. There is an excellent used scholarly bookstore just down the street from me. I am very close to the ROM, and Robarts Library is only a brief walk away. That said, being in this area has drawbacks. One of the things that I now somewhat long from Hamilton is the total lack of pretense in the types of people you run into around the city (I am talking about the city proper, not Ancaster and Dundas). People who walk on Bloor here could not seem any more clownish. They exude a sort of disgusting, oozing arrogance. Quite reprehensible. 

In better news, I am playing ice hockey every Wednesday night. The history department has a pick-up game which always has a good turnout. The transition to Toronto has been very easy and overall this has been a fairly relaxing period of time.

A New Career in a New Town

I feel somewhat vindicated by this list of the top 100 albums of the 1970s from Pitchfork. I have long felt that David Bowie's best album is "Low" from 1977. Much to my surprise I found that not only was "Low" the highest ranked Bowie album on the list, well ahead of more commercially popular "Aladdin Sane", "Ziggy Stardust" and "Hunky Dory", but it was ranked as the number one album on the list. It is a brilliant album. Here are two videos from the album. The promo clip for Be My Wife and the music from the album opener Speed of Life.

I Have Just Discovered That Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others

Some albums that have become current favourites (some are already in my canon, others are more recent items of interest):

Fugazi - "Repeater"

The Who - "Who's Next"

Supergrass - "In It For The Money"

Spoon - "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga"

The Smiths - "The Queen Is Dead"

Silver Jews - "Starlite Walker"

Pavement - "Brighten the Corners"

Jarvis Cocker - "Jarvis"

British Sea Power - "Do You Like Rock Music?"

David Bowie - "Aladdin Sane"

As well, I would recommend checking out the "One Week Only" section on Pitchfork's online tv channel, which this week features a full documentary on the making of "The Queen Is Dead"

Are you a *sniff sniff* socialist?

An era in blogging has ended. My comrade Brent Paget has ended his worthwhile blog after a couple years of entering his enlightening thoughts into the internet for all to read. It is indeed a somewhat sad travel to go back to all the old blogs we used to check everyday for a humourous new post, only to find it still has not been updated, and has not been so for months, sometimes over year.

I myself am the greatest culprit. The carefree style with which I used to write no longer seems appropriate. I used to write believing that no one bar one or two people would ever read it. That gradually changed as more people, even people I didn't know, became regular readers of my old blog. I now feel that I cannot write the controversial things that I used to. That, combined with the fact that in September 2006 I seemed to have completely used of my reservoir of good topics. meant that blogging lost all its appeal. Perhaps it will return one day. Until then, I will maintain the infrequent entries that I place in this forum. 

I Stand Accused, Just Like You

I went to see The Verve at the Ricoh Coliseum last night. It was, needless to say, spectacular. Richard Ashcroft's voice was in far better condition than I would have imagined, sounding just as good as it did on the original recordings from the 90s. The set list was pretty great as well. They opened with A New Decade from "A Northern Soul." I can't remember what order the rest of the songs came in, but this is what they played: from "A Storm in Heaven": Already There. From "A Northern Soul": This is Music, History, Life's an Ocean. From "Urban Hymns": Sonnet, The Rolling People, Space and Time, Weeping Willow, Velvet Morning. 

The last three songs before the encore were especially good. They went with three "Urban Hymns" classics: The Drugs Don't Work, Lucky Man, and Come On. The encore was a surprisingly good version of Bittersweet Symphony and a new, as yet unreleased, song. That was the only problem I had with the show. Generally it works better to end a concert with a song that people actually have heard before. Regardless, fantastic concert. Definitely a band that I never thought I would have a chance to see given their acrimonious break-ups in the 1995 and 1998.

Broken Borders

     Lou Dobbs is probably the biggest phoney you will ever see on television (and, of course, television is very competitive in that particular character trait). The latest "scandal" of the U.S. Presidential race is Barack Obama's calling economically disenfranchised Americans "bitter." Whatever. Hilary Clinton made some useless comments about it, just about what I would expect from a woman as useless as she is. Today I saw Wolf Blitzer talking to Lou Dobbs about this (before I carry on, just think about your brain melting while listening to those two blowhards preen to each other). I figured Lou would not be too interested, as he always claims to be looking at the "real issues" of the election.

     Ah, but I forgot that Lou Dobbs is one of the men of the working class, a proletarian in capitalist clothing. He was incensed, ranting about Obama being an elitist who doesn't understand how the "bitter" American feels. There are several problems with Dobbs, which I will list here: 1. His faith in the rationality of the common American is misplaced. Contrary to what Lou thinks, America was built by privileged, elitist, slave owning white men who didn't give a toss about the commoner in anything but the most abstract sense (and thought even less of the black slave pulling his plough so as to save his horse the hassle). The common rural Pennsylvania hick (who is the specific target of this "bitter" debacle) needs someone to tell him what to do. I'm surprised they haven't all accidentally shot themselves in their collective heads with their numerous guns. 2. Lou does not speak for the working and middle classes in America. In general he speaks for rather narrow sectors of the electorate that have similarly latched on to a few controversial issues. 3. Lou Dobbs is a pandering buffoon who never cared about these issues before he saw an opportunity to make his show into a controversial news hit. Anyone who watched CNN back in the early 90s will remember Lou's show "Moneyline". Dobbs was mainly a business and economics reporter / anchor. His transformation into the spokesperson of the common American is contrived at best. 4. Dobbs' segments are reactionary and cater to the limited intelligence of the common person that he claims to speak for. I tend to agree with his positions on illegal immigration, but the way that he has inserted himself into the saga (battling with South-West U.S. Mayors specifically) has not helped his cause. Lou's other great target is China. That segment used to be called "Red Star Rising"; I've noticed that lately is has been called "Red Storm Rising." 

     The best Presidents have always been elitist, patrician, and aristocratic. Franklin Roosevelt is the best example. The current President is from the elite, but, much like Dobbs, has passed himself off as a regular, working man. The parallels between Dobbs and Bush are interesting. The differences remain vast, of course. Dobbs is in many ways a strong fiscal conservative, which Bush is not despite his protestations to the opposite. Dobbs is a real conservative in the pre evangelical neo-con mould. Regardless, both of them are relatively useless in their respective positions. 

Repeat the Ending

Yesterday I was required to make a trip to the University of Waterloo to read F.O. 800 / 314, the papers of Viscount Halifax. I took the opportunity to visit the two Beat Goes On locations (my occasional employer) in Waterloo and Kitchener. I found a number of very interesting albums. First, I purchased "Give Blood" by Brakes. I knew nothing of them except that the singer, Eamon Hamilton, used to play keyboards in British Sea Power. That was enough for me. I have been pleasantly surprised by it. It is what one could called British alt-country.

     In addition, I got "Tonight's the Night" and "On the Beach" by Neil Young. They are both downbeat records, especially the former, which can only be described as harrowing. What else? I also found the U.S. version of Suede's "Stay Together" EP. As such, it is listed under The London Suede, as at the time they were forced to do such by some U.S. lounge act called Suede. Anyhow, it has a good b-side called Dolly that is not on "Sci-Fi Lullabies", Suede's 2-disc b-side collection. Finally, I got the 2-disc version of Elvis Costello's album "Trust". These versions are unfortunately out of print, owing to Elvis licensing his catalogue to another record company (this is about the 3rd time he has done such). Luckily I managed to get his first five records in these versions, as the bonus discs have great extra material and Elvis has written extensive liner notes in each booklet. 

     So, it was worth the trip to K-W. I was not so impressed with the University of Waterloo, although their collection of microfilm did have me in awe.

     More music, though. I also recently got Stephen Malkmus' new album, "Real Emotional Trash." A number of reviews that I have read have compared it to Pavement's "Wowee Zowee!" album. I can see why people would do that (largely because critics never take Malkmus' solo albums on their own, instead always comparing them to Pavement; that is inevitable I suppose). Anyhow, I actually think that his prior album, 2005's "Face the Truth" is far closer to Pavement's 1995 classic. It's by far Malkmus' wackiest album since then. Anyhow, "Real Emotional Trash" is a solid album. At the moment my favourite song is Cold Son. The only issue I have with the record is that it is exceedingly long. Songs seem to average around 6 - minutes each. Regardless, it's still a fine piece of work. 

      I'm listening to "Wowee Zowee!" right now. I suggest you do the same. 

"Latte drinking, Wes Anderson Loving Yuppies"

A very interesting Pitchfork column on the late John Peel.

Better Days Will Haunt You

Pitchfork also has a list of the best albums of the 80s. You can once again test your hipster quotient by checking your albums against their list. I don't do as well as on the 90s list, but still decently. I own:

1. Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation

3. Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique

6. The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead

10. Joy Division - Closer

13. The Fall - This Nation's Saving Grace

22. My Bloody Valentine - Isn't Anything

23. The Jesus & Mary Chain - Psychocandy

26. Elvis Costello - Get Happy!!

28. New Order - Power, Corruption & Lies

32. Husker Du - Zen Arcade

33. The Fall - Hex Induction Hour

39. The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses

40. Dinosaur Jr. - You're Living All Over Me

41. Beastie Boys - Licensed to Ill

48. R.E.M. - Document

55. The Police - Synchronicity

58. Elvis Costello - Imperial Bedroom

70. Elvis Costello - Trust

77. The Smiths - Strangeways, Here We Come

93. David Bowie - Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)

20 in total. 

Hex Induction Hour

Here's a fun game for people who are into music. Go to this Pitchfork list of the top 100 albums of the 90s and figure out how many you own to test your hipster compatibility. I have:

1. Radiohead - OK Computer

2. My Bloody Valentine - Loveless

5. Pavement - Slanted & Enchanted

6. Nirvana - Nevermind

8. Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

10. Guided By Voices - Bee Thousand

15. Radiohead - The Bends

18. Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream

19. Beck - Odelay

22. Built to Spill - Perfect From Now On

25. Yo La Tengo - I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One

26. Weezer - Blue Album

31. Wilco - Summerteeth

34. Beastie Boys - Check Your Head

35. Boards of Canada - Music Has The Right to Children

41. Yo La Tengo - Painful

48. Portishead - Dummy

53. Weezer - Pinkerton

54. Blur -Parklife

59. Elliott Smith - Either/Or

61. Pulp - Different Class

69. Jeff Buckley - Grace

72. Silver Jews - American Water

74. Ride - Nowhere

77. Primal Scream - Screamadelica

82. Sonic Youth - Goo

26 in total. Not bad. Still a long way to go. 

I'll Forget To Breathe Someday

     I learned today via the NME that Blur are officially not going to reform. It was unlikely that it would occur, although there was supposed to be some recording done in December with prodigal guitarist Graham Coxon back in the fold. It was not to be though.

     The end of Blur will be more deeply felt in Britain than in North America. Blur have, for the most part, been criminally under-appreciated and overlooked on this side of the Atlantic. Here they will forever be associated with that awful Song 2, a single that was considered very much a throwaway by the band at the time. Blur have, since 1990, constructed one of the most impressive bodies of work in the history of British rock. 7 studio albums, 26 singles, a number of Japan-only releases, a Dutch live EP, and numerous other random international releases. No album was quite the same as the one previous. Often there were drastic differences from one LP to the next. 

     For me, and many other fans, the groups crowning achievement is their second album, "Modern Life is Rubbish", released in 1993. It was their least commercially successful album, but its esteem has grown greatly in the last 15 years. The three singles from it (For Tomorrow, Chemical World, and Sunday Sunday) are amongst their very best, and the b-sides featured on them are some of the great lost Blur tracks (namely Beachcoma, My Ark, and Young and Lovely). 

     That moment came prior to the explosion of Britpop in 1994. Blur are often thought of in terms of the other acts of the era: Suede, Oasis, Pulp, Elastica, etc etc. But the scope of Blur's musical vision and the depth of their song writing talent really puts them in a class of their own. 

     The end of Blur is kind of a strange thing for me. I'm used to liking bands that many other people have not heard of. People are familiar with Blur but only in the most superficial way for the most part. This is the first time that a band that is very much a favourite of mine has broken up whilst I was a big fan. The Beatles and The Clash ceased to exist either well before I was born or while I was still an infant. Pavement ended before I knew much about their music. Oasis is still going. The end of Blur is really the end of a musical era for me, and that has a lot of meaning, as anyone who knows me with any closeness would be aware.

     I was lucky to be able to see Blur once in concert, back in the summer of 2003. It still stands as one of the very best concerts that I have been to. Myself and Brent Paget went to see them at the Kool Haus and managed to get right at the front of the stage. The set list was fantastic. The energy of both the band and the audience surpassed anything I have yet experienced. It will certainly always be stuck in my mind. 

     Here is the video for perhaps by favourite Blur song, For Tomorrow. A requiem for one of the greatest bands of the 90s (Pitchfork thinks so too, so it must be right). 

Return To Primrose Hill

Let's talk music. Today I received two items of interest in the post. One is my multi-format order of the new British Sea Power single "Waving Flags" from their forthcoming album (already released in the UK) album Do You Like Rock Music? I received the CD single plus two 7" singles, all with different b-sides. Have yet to listen to them, will soon. 

More importantly, I received a great treasure in the form of part one and part two of the Blur single "For Tomorrow", released in 1993 from the Modern Life is Rubbish album. As a few of you know I am a collector of items by my favourite bands, and I have many Blur CD's. These two bring me up to about 65 individual official releases by Blur (Albums, EPs, Singles, Promos, etc.) The early Blur singles (1990 - 1993) are most difficult to find and can be very expensive to purchase. "For Tomorrow" was not too bad but I have my eye on the two CD set of "Chemical World", also from the same 1993 record, which will cost quite a bit if I wish to purchase it. The reason such items are high in monetary value and rarity and consequently why collecting such items is fun is that singles are usually not in continuous print. A certain amount are pressed at the time that the song is released and then that is it; no more are made. There is therefore a finite amount available. If the single was not especially commercially successful then they are even more rare, as less copies were purchased and as a result there are less available for sale now. The Modern Life is Rubbish singles were not very commercially successful (despite being some of Blur's finest releases, a fact finally realized by more people a decade later), and are hard to come across. As well, the singles from that album all have excellent b-sides, owing to the fact that they comprised the original album that was scrapped at the insistence of the record company. 

In the vagaries of record collecting one can often find that they have paid more for an item than the actual value of it warrants. Fortunately this has not happened to me (or it may have without me realizing it yet). Luckily for me the opposite has often happened: I have many items purchased for very little money that have turned out to be far more valuable. For this I have to thank my erstwhile (and occasionally current) place of the employment The Beat Goes On, a chain of used CD and DVD stores in Southern Ontario. I have seen items there that I have never thought I would come across. Radio promos, weird import singles that I never knew existed, out of print box sets, etc. Even before I worked there I was a frequent visitor and most of my interesting CDs have come from that source over the years. Luckily most of the stores sell CD singles for very little money, around $5, often less than that. I recall several years ago buying a U.S. pressing of Blur's "There's No Other Way" single from 1991 for $3.99. It sells on the site EIL for $50 cdn. I have a bunch of promos that I bought for about $40 less than their actual individual worth. 

Perfect Sound Forever

Remember when blogging used to be fun? Some of you may recall that in the spring / summer / autumn of 2006 I had a blog called "The Boy With A Thorn In His Side" that attracted some loyal readers. Eventually I ran out of things to talk about. I then decided to delete that blog, forever losing the hundreds of posts that gave much enjoyment to myself and others. Since then I have never felt the impulse to write in the same way that I did then. I forgot about this blog in which I am writing until recently, and I thought it may be a good idea to write something again. I do not expect anyone to read it, as those who used to check for updates surely do not care anymore. 

I once wrote about the stereotypical people that one sees using public transit: the teenage mom, the wobbly old person, the alcoholic quasi-homeless, etc. I am still a regular user of the city bus and I continue to be bothered by the annoying and occasionally repulsive people that I encounter. Long-time readers of my posts may remember the exploits of the various members of the Sweeting family, a group of uneducated and loutish boors who I have had the displeasure of knowing since I was 5 years old. The middle one, Jeremiah, is often on the bus when I am going to school. He is horrific. On one occasion he expelled a considerable amount of phlegm onto the floor of the bus. He is beyond repugnant. 

Many of the stalwarts of the 21 Upper Kenilworth bus are still in action. There is hawaiian shirt, although he tends not to wear those shirts anymore but rather has a large cowboy hat. The same collection of old ladies gets on the bus with those plastic bags on their heads. There is one unwelcome edition to this line-up of regular transit users. There is a wheelchair cripple who seems to have to get on the bus no matter what the time I am traveling. He slows my trip considerably.

Speaking of old people, I was waiting for a bus to school downtown today, and there was some old man standing at the bus stop at the front of Cheapies. There was a very large puddle there, and passing vehicles doused him in fairly large amounts of brown slushy water. Yet he did not move, and car after car drenched him from the waist down. Perhaps he was too proud in his old age to leave his position; perhaps he was to demented to realize what was happening to him. 

In the past I would perhaps have written something about U.S. politics, but I have been so busy this term that my CNN watching has taken a considerably downturn. This is both good and bad. Good in that I am not aggravated by Larry King, Lou Dobbs, Rick Sanchez, Paula Zahn, Wolf Blitzer, et al. Bad in that I am quite a bit less informed than I was a year ago. 

I general, I find that I care about things a lot less than I used to, and this apathy has perhaps  led to my lack of interest in blogging and blogging related activities. 

He Makes Some Tea And Says "Modern Life? Well, It's Rubbish"

http://www.nme.com/news/blur/28068

I certainly hope that this is true. It would fantastic news. If the album actually gets made then I would be able to see the full Blur line-up in concert at some point (I saw them sans Graham). While reading this article it struck me that Blur has now been together for nearly 20 years. That seems like far too long for some reason.

Cadaverous Mob

New Interpol Album in July!

http://www.nme.com/news/interpol/27938

Trigger Cut / Wounded Kite At :17

Recently there was an incident at McMaster in which racist / sexist writings were written on a Professor's door regarding the local Muslim community. As could be expected there has been considerable outrage. I don't agree with what these people did nor do I agree with their message, but there is a larger issues at work here. I sometimes think that some people resort to such underhanded tactics as vandalizing someone's door because their message is not generally accepted by society, a society that prefers to stifle personal views that contradict its own dogmas. Multiculturalism and tolerance are dogmas in Canada. If the perpetrators in this incident had attempted to express themselves in a more proper manner in an open forum they would have been silenced by the more "progressive" people around them.

The worst manifestation of this problem are laws against "hate speech". I truly despise these laws. We should not be banning people from saying things, but merely requiring them to take responsibility for what they say or write. As an example, if someone were to deny the holocaust (something that happens quite often), we should not attempt to silence the person but rather allow them to explain why they believe what they do. If the person is obviously wrong then that will quickly become apparent. I should state now that this section is grossly plagiarizing John Stuart Mill, but his points are probably more valid today than they were during his lifetime. I am not of the opinion that there should be total free speech where anyone can say anything they want. People should be held responsible, but that does not mean silencing them through the law. If we actually lived in a tolerant society those who vandalized the professor's door could speak those same ideas freely in public without fear of attack or legal action, but instead with the knowledge that they would have to validate their opinions to the public at large.

As for the recent incidents in Virginia, there is one good thing that has emerged from it. This week was supposed to be a weeklong tribute on CNN to Larry King's 50 years in broadcasting. This shooting incident has ended that and we have been spared the images of Larry King's ridiculous career.