Confused by the coincidence, just staring gormlessly her eyes.
I took yesterday off work to house hunt. But, then I found out about a Greenpeace exhibition at Coventry’s Herbert Art Gallery. Anyone in Coventry… You have to go see this! The bulk of the work is photography from Indonesia where illegal logging is costing the environment and local life dearly. There’s also some fantastic sculpture and a multimedia A/V piece. There was also some pretentious graphic design stuff accompanied by artist bio’s that all included work for Nike and the usual suspects, or at least Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO and by extension, the big brands. That side of the show felt a bit contradictory but it’s definitely worth a visit.
After that, house hunting became shoe shopping for Rach in Birmingham which could only be brightened by a trip to HMV. Straight to the top floor and I decided to get Punish the Atom and Help She Can’t Swim LPs. The girl at the counter (who incidentally had awesome eye make-up) asked if I was going to the gig. “The Punish the Atom gig?”
“Yeah, you going?”
“Um, what’s the where and when?”
“Well it’s at lalalalala, on lalalalala” She was speaking properly, but the joint I smoked at the train station was fogging the details before my brain could process them.
“Sorry, what was that?”
“The Punish The Atom and Help She Can’t Swim gig. It’s at”
“Wait. What? Both of them? Together?” Not often you buy a few CD’s and immediately find out that you can experience all your purchases live, in one night, just down the road from home. From this point on, I am so confused by the coincidence that I’m just staring gormlessly at the counter girl’s eyes.
“Er… Yeah… I did have a load of leaflets… but they’re all gone… you want me to write the details down?”
“Er… please…” followed by standard lame-ass afterthought “cool”
Regardless of my retardness, the coincidence is enough to make me determined enough to finally get my ass over to a ChickDigJerks night. So there it is, next Tuesday (a school night!) 7.30, The Royal George, and apparently, if you stick around, it’s free entry to club NME… could there be a bigger list of Pros?
Other than those two, my ramped up sonic expenditure included this Amazon order:
LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem
The Faint - Danse Macabre
Kaito - Band Red
Help She Can’t Swim - Fashionista Super Dance Troupe (whoops… got that twice… swapsies anyone?)
Les Georges Leningrad - Duex Hot Dogs Moutarde
Telephone Jim Jesus - A Point Too Far to Astronaut
And an impulse purchase: Subtle’s LP ‘A New White’
Fahrenheit 9/11. Is it bad that I just wasn’t that impressed? I mean, sure, Bush and to a larger extent, the American administration is corrupt to the core, but we’ve always known that. I think that the way the world has spun out of control recently has less to do with a handful of powerful Americans and more to do with the general attitude of a large proportion of the western population. None of this would be happening if it wasn’t for our apathetic acceptance that “these things happen and there’s nothing we can do about it”. Perhaps if people like Michael Moore were less interested in kissing their audiences ass by taking a swipe at the popular ‘bad guys’ and instead concentrated on the things that the audience itself does to contribute to the world’s ills then they’d be a little more effective. I don’t think that we need to feel guilty for the consequences of our rampant consumerism, I just think we need to be shown how to demand that the benefits of living in the west don’t result in adversity elsewhere. Be that Iraq, Afghanistan or the world that our own children will inherit.
Well, I can’t believe I just wrote a rant about consumerism straight after a list of what I’d spent my month’s salary on. I hate to feel this guilty. But at least I don’t need to feel as guilty as the marketing executive who designed Selfridges in-store posters “I shop therefore I am”, “Buy me, I’ll complete you”, “Shopping is the new sex” and on and on and on.
After that, house hunting became shoe shopping for Rach in Birmingham which could only be brightened by a trip to HMV. Straight to the top floor and I decided to get Punish the Atom and Help She Can’t Swim LPs. The girl at the counter (who incidentally had awesome eye make-up) asked if I was going to the gig. “The Punish the Atom gig?”
“Yeah, you going?”
“Um, what’s the where and when?”
“Well it’s at lalalalala, on lalalalala” She was speaking properly, but the joint I smoked at the train station was fogging the details before my brain could process them.
“Sorry, what was that?”
“The Punish The Atom and Help She Can’t Swim gig. It’s at”
“Wait. What? Both of them? Together?” Not often you buy a few CD’s and immediately find out that you can experience all your purchases live, in one night, just down the road from home. From this point on, I am so confused by the coincidence that I’m just staring gormlessly at the counter girl’s eyes.
“Er… Yeah… I did have a load of leaflets… but they’re all gone… you want me to write the details down?”
“Er… please…” followed by standard lame-ass afterthought “cool”
Regardless of my retardness, the coincidence is enough to make me determined enough to finally get my ass over to a ChickDigJerks night. So there it is, next Tuesday (a school night!) 7.30, The Royal George, and apparently, if you stick around, it’s free entry to club NME… could there be a bigger list of Pros?
Other than those two, my ramped up sonic expenditure included this Amazon order:
LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem
The Faint - Danse Macabre
Kaito - Band Red
Help She Can’t Swim - Fashionista Super Dance Troupe (whoops… got that twice… swapsies anyone?)
Les Georges Leningrad - Duex Hot Dogs Moutarde
Telephone Jim Jesus - A Point Too Far to Astronaut
And an impulse purchase: Subtle’s LP ‘A New White’
Fahrenheit 9/11. Is it bad that I just wasn’t that impressed? I mean, sure, Bush and to a larger extent, the American administration is corrupt to the core, but we’ve always known that. I think that the way the world has spun out of control recently has less to do with a handful of powerful Americans and more to do with the general attitude of a large proportion of the western population. None of this would be happening if it wasn’t for our apathetic acceptance that “these things happen and there’s nothing we can do about it”. Perhaps if people like Michael Moore were less interested in kissing their audiences ass by taking a swipe at the popular ‘bad guys’ and instead concentrated on the things that the audience itself does to contribute to the world’s ills then they’d be a little more effective. I don’t think that we need to feel guilty for the consequences of our rampant consumerism, I just think we need to be shown how to demand that the benefits of living in the west don’t result in adversity elsewhere. Be that Iraq, Afghanistan or the world that our own children will inherit.
Well, I can’t believe I just wrote a rant about consumerism straight after a list of what I’d spent my month’s salary on. I hate to feel this guilty. But at least I don’t need to feel as guilty as the marketing executive who designed Selfridges in-store posters “I shop therefore I am”, “Buy me, I’ll complete you”, “Shopping is the new sex” and on and on and on.