Apropos of nothing.
Word has reached me that Cerys Matthews from Catatonia and Gianni from Eastenders have been canoodling in the Australian jungle on the latest series of I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here. This is quite possibly one of the most surreal occurrences I've ever come across - it's like someone made a Dada poem out of my teenage years. They took a list of all the pop cultural reference points from the 1990s, cut it up and rearranged it in some bizarre order. Seriously. Cerys and Gianni?! Emma said the other day that if someone had told you in 1998 that those two would be at it in ten years time, you'd have laughed in their face. And you would've! What next, Louise Wener and Beppe? The mind boggles.
I have spent some of today harvesting articles off JSTOR (God bless free university access) and making lofty but vague academic plans. I still need to go to London and wander the streets like some sort of itinerant under the pretension of 'research'. Me and Emma are planning to go sometime in the New Year, although maybe I'll go in December when the streets are mental, so as to capture the true meaning of urban tension. Mobile phone ringtones bouncing off the walls and ripped gussets littering the floors of ladies' departments everywhere. That'd be some bad juju!
On the subject of academic study, why has no-one written a decent social and cultural study of Christmas? There could be a bit of work there. Maybe I'll write it one day. I also need to start looking at MAs, and decide whether or not to do one next year. That way I can go cap in hand to authorities nice and early and get them to give me money. Problem is, I'm not sure what sort of subject to do. I wonder if you can do one in "Christmas Studies".
The new Radiohead album is still excellent; as is Jonny Greenwood's soundtrack for There Will Be Blood, which has soundtracked my working moments this week. He needs to write string movements for the rest of time. I've also got their discbox coming on the 3rd which I coughed up twenty quid for, so that's something to look forward to. Definitely some of the better stuff out this year. That and Kelly Clarkson. I've lost track of everything else.
Happy Thanksgiving to any American readers! I hope you enjoy your duck stuffed inside a chicken stuffed inside a turkey stuffed inside a goose stuffed inside a swan stuffed inside an ostrich. I've taken the slightly less festive option of a pizza, although I think it's made by the Texas Pizza Company, so there will be a little of the Stars and Stripes in my heart. Hopefully not clogging my arteries.
I have spent some of today harvesting articles off JSTOR (God bless free university access) and making lofty but vague academic plans. I still need to go to London and wander the streets like some sort of itinerant under the pretension of 'research'. Me and Emma are planning to go sometime in the New Year, although maybe I'll go in December when the streets are mental, so as to capture the true meaning of urban tension. Mobile phone ringtones bouncing off the walls and ripped gussets littering the floors of ladies' departments everywhere. That'd be some bad juju!
On the subject of academic study, why has no-one written a decent social and cultural study of Christmas? There could be a bit of work there. Maybe I'll write it one day. I also need to start looking at MAs, and decide whether or not to do one next year. That way I can go cap in hand to authorities nice and early and get them to give me money. Problem is, I'm not sure what sort of subject to do. I wonder if you can do one in "Christmas Studies".
The new Radiohead album is still excellent; as is Jonny Greenwood's soundtrack for There Will Be Blood, which has soundtracked my working moments this week. He needs to write string movements for the rest of time. I've also got their discbox coming on the 3rd which I coughed up twenty quid for, so that's something to look forward to. Definitely some of the better stuff out this year. That and Kelly Clarkson. I've lost track of everything else.
Happy Thanksgiving to any American readers! I hope you enjoy your duck stuffed inside a chicken stuffed inside a turkey stuffed inside a goose stuffed inside a swan stuffed inside an ostrich. I've taken the slightly less festive option of a pizza, although I think it's made by the Texas Pizza Company, so there will be a little of the Stars and Stripes in my heart. Hopefully not clogging my arteries.