Green Wood

I was interested to see that Jonny Greenwood will be composing the majority of the score for the new film 'Norweigan Wood' based on the book of the same name. I came accross this piece on youtube and I find it hauntingly good. Enjoy!!!

...

Click on it and it will get big

John Grant - Queen of Denmark

Awesome! I don't know why I like this song so much. It puts me on edge but I find it strangely addictive. I really didn't feel up for seeing Midlake as I was pretty tired, but since I discovered this man I'm very happy. Also discovered the lead singer from Grandaddy, search am 180 on youtube.

:-)

Scala & Kolacny Brothers

Wonderful Choir

watch

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xbvr0m_shortfilms

Benjamin

Got to be one of the best blogs I've stumbled upon. http://www.badscience.net/2010/08/in-praise-of-anecdotes/

This Owl Looks Pissed!!

Roger

Awesome

This recent news story made me chuckle: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11009604. The best part of the whole story was what he did to cover it up; 'After realising he had been shown on screen, Schafernaker tried to cover up by pretending to scratch his chin.'

Romania

I went to Romania and it was awesome and now I miss it a lot!!! Another blog post will come shortly.

Colin Patterson

If anyone is an avid listener of the Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo film reviews then they will know that for the month of August neither of these two are there. Instead we get Colin Patterson and some other film reviewers. Now they seem ok but I miss Simon and Mark terribly, it's just not the same. Colin does the job but instead of feeling entertained I just feel informed at the end of these podcasts which is bad for me because I know I will soon forget it all. So it makes listening pretty pointless. Although Colin was good when he presented Richard Bacon's show the other week because he shut up and let Ricky Gervais do most of the talking and it soon became just like one of Ricky's old XFM radio shows. Some of my favourite broadcasting ever, when everybody in the Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington camp were all just the right amount of famous.

Madness in the Fast Lane

Something that won't quite stay out of my mind at the moment was the recent documentary by the BBC on the couple of Swedish twins who ran out several times into oncomming traffic. The incident was caught on camera by a BBC camerman who was filming a series about policemen. The horrific footage gets shown again and again and again as you would expect. It makes me think because it was the first piece of footage I have seen since the famed september 11th attacks that has made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and made me feel utterly at a loss. With a range of media constantly bombarding our attention we become slightly immune to the usual horrors of the world. Some days I feel like everything is tameable, I can sit back and reason why things are so and things people do are predictable and mundane. This extends into Medicine as well and the great list of things to know and skills to have seems achievable. But then on others everything is in turmoil and I am reminded of every one of my weakness. How will I ever manage to make anything of myself when I'm nervous about phoning this person? How will I ever cope with responsibility if I just lost my phone charger? How will I ever get to understand any of this? Solice can then usually be found in the usual places; a good book, a nice piece of music, the company of good friends or even just the long walk through the old industrial areas of Leicester (I wouldn't recommend this if your particular fussed about scenery).

Another thing I've been mulling over is my complete an utter inability to do anything productive unless I'm already busy. I've had ages now to do so many things but because I don't have to do them, I'll leave them to a deadline.

Charlie Brooker on writing: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/aug/16/charlie-brooker-writing-deadlines

Awstralia

Terry Pratchett

At last I have started reading the Terry Pratchett books, I can't believe I left it so long! They are a wonderful mix of wit and escapism which I am desperately in need of. I haven't been addicted to a book in a long while but each one of these demands my attention right through to the end. Wonderba I can't complement Terry enough.

Also another recent love is that for the Toy Story films. The third being a particularly fine film which made me laugh more than a lot of comedies I've seen. A truly emotional and funny film truly accesible to all the family. I think when I saw it there was only about 5% of the people in audience under the age of 16. Wonderful!

Daily Bacon

Download the daily bacon podcast from radio 5 and listen to the ricky gervais interview talking to Lord Mandelson.

Brooker

Voetball

This last weekend I had the pleasure of spending my time in London for a Gig. The sublime Noah and the Whale. We decided to spend a little time in the city either side of the gig and I took some of this time to explore a small portion of the V&A. After the disapointingly crowded Natural History Museum it was quite nice to pop in here and have a brief glance at some of the displays. One such display was a photography exhibition. "Sorry you've only got 5 minutes" was what the lady at the door said. I had a quick look around saw one picture I particularly liked, wrote the name down very quickly then left. I've shown some of Hans van der Meer's work here because I like the landscape, I like the Sunday feeling to it and I like the fact it reminds me of being a child.

I also like that these pictures remind me of this wonderful music video by the beautiful Sigur Ros.

Horst Wackerbath

Malcolm Tucker I Love Thee

One of my favourite tv comedies ever to of graced the screens is 'The Thick of It', a brilliant political comedy by Armando Iannucci. One of my favourite characters is the magnificant and terrifying Malcolm Tucker who is played by Peter Capaldi who plays this role sublimely well. Not at all like the other characters he's played such as his character in 'Local Hero' or in 'The Vicar of Dibley'. Anyway here is some of my favourite Malcolm-eske quotes:

1)"Come the fuck in or fuck the fuck off!"

2)"You are a real boring fuck. Sorry, I know you disapprove of swearing so I'll sort that out: you are a boring F, star, star, CUNT!"

3)“Darling, I wouldn’t piss on you if you were fucking allergic to piss.”

4)“You’re so back-bench, you’ve actually fucking fallen off. You’re out by the fucking bins where I put you."

5)“Get over here. Now. Might be advisable to wear brown trousers and a shirt the colour of blood.”

More where they came from!

Old Pics

So just found some old pics from a project I did quite a while ago as part of an extra humanities module.

My kind of matador

VANDALS!!!

Homeopathy

So, one of the recent tutor group meetings that I attended gave me the inspiration to write this post. A woman in my group brought up the subject of natural medicine and so I thought I'd post a few youtube Tim Minchin clips which sum up my feelings very succinctly.

Apparently Americans are happier than the English

Whoop!!!

At long last Last of the Summer Wine has been cancelled!!! This calls for some form of celebration. This show for me is one of the most depressing and boring shows ever to grace the screens. It is synonymous with the horrible feelings on a Sunday night knowing that a Monday morning is soon to follow. There should be uplifting shows on a Sunday night or shows telling you how lucky you are, not village comedy's like this. Mind you I don't really watch television anymore, ever since Iplayer there is absolutely no need to sit through mind numbingly boring programs when it's possible to watch whatever I want whenever I want. Other programs that I would be quite happy about getting the axe include; Eastenders, Coronation Street, Hollyoaks, anything with a panel of judges, the next top model series, Songs of Praise and Loose Women. Just thinking about them has made me angry. I would be so much happier if the schedules were purely filled with news, documentaries and funny comedy programs. Oh well I can't have everything. Anyway here's proof that Last of the Summer Wine has been cancelled if anybody thought it was too good to be true: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/7798220/Last-of-the-Summer-Wine-axed-after-almost-40-years.html

Special Study

Every now and again we are alowed to chose a module to do ourselves from a list of several options. On one occasion a little while ago I chose the humanities option which included a look at outside art, more specifically the art produced by mental health patients. This is a fascinating form of art which I took a particular liking to, more often than not just because I like the colour employed in these pieces. I don't know the artists for the following but I like them, not to sure if there mental health patients either but I like. :-)

Where's Wally

Just now I went on the web and was looking at random pictures on google images as I do sometimes when I get bored. I came accross this famous Bosch painting below which I think is pretty cool. What I particularly like is how detailed it is with each section of the painting reflecting some small story.

I think that it ingnites the same fascination I had with where's wally books as a kid. I love these busy pictures because you can get so much from them, I feel like they change every time I look at them.

A poem written from a hospital bed

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me

Black as the pit from pole to pole

I thanks whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds, and shall, find me unafraid.

It matters not how straight the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul

William Ernest Henley - 1875

Giant Sinkhole

Ahhhh, as if there wasn't enough already for nature to throw at us now there's the GIANT SINKHOLE. Recently after a unhealthy smattering of storms in Guetemala the hole below opened up swallowing with it a clothing factory, fortunately no one was hurt. Apparently it's 30metres deep although this picture says otherwise. I'm not really sure but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to fall down it.

Here's another very nice looking sink hole. Sink hole being a phrase which lends itself very nicely to innuendo. E.g. "Here's a picture of your mums sinkhole."

Alabama

Neil Young - Alabama

Old skool

A very old Radiohead song off of their album Pablo Honey, it feels good to play some of their old stuff. Not as good as there new stuff but still proves that even then they had potential.

Ooops

Here's the version I meant to post, the last one was pretty awesome though.

Sad Songs

I have always had a passion for sad music and it has always seemed to excite me when I've been feeling happy. I had always wondered however if it would still cheer me up when I was feeling really low and the answer is yes. Hurrah what a triumph.

Four Lions

Since Saturday I haven't been having a great time and have been feeling rather low but I have managed to cheer myself up a bit with a recent viewing of the brilliant new film Four Lions. The man responsible for this film is Chris Morris who is in my opinion a genius. He is responsible for the sublime brass eye and the excellent the day today and is known for his particularly on the edge comedy. A famous example of this being the final episode of brass eye which was about paedophiles. The film aims to mock some of those people modern society fears most, suicide bombers. It reduces their terrifying acts to a series of very human mistakes and is at time very moving. The humour is very much there from the beginning and you can tell it is a Chris Morris film. Here is a link to one of my favourite ideas to come out of brass eye: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81MWIsj2Kmc

XXX for the XX

X-celent

Wolfmother

The book I'm currently reading "Skinny legs and all" by Tom Robbins is so far proving to be a very good book. I'm enjoying the way Mr Robbins talks about very serious and interesting topics, using animated objects to allow him to do so. The objects in question being the philosophizing "Can 'o beans", the rough "Dirty Sock" and the extremely catholic "Spoon". Also the very old objects "Painted Stick" and "Conch Shell" deserve a mention. Anyway the reason I'm talking about it is because a band I'm quite fond of take their name from this book. Referencing the room of the wolfmother wallpaper...

Hospital Architecture

Having recently been sent out to the wonderful Peterborough for part of my paed's training I am feeling rather bummed. The hospital at Peterborough is the worst aesthetically that I've ever had the pleasure to go to. From the moment I walked in the front entrance and smelt the all too familiar mix of vomit, piss and other assorted bodily fluids which would normally be hanging around Birmingham New Street I felt like I had been sent back in time. This time warping effect was not a pleasant one as I had been sent back in time to one of the periods in time when people thought building shit buildings was a good idea. (I generally think that the old Victorian hospitals, if renovated respectfully, can be very aesthetically pleasing with their high ceilings and impractical fire escapes.) Here’s a wonderful picture that improves thoroughly on what it actually looks like to be there.

Thankfully for the residents of Peterborough they shall be getting a new one which looks pretty outstanding.

My Grammer is Terrible

My Grammer is Terrible, I blame my English teacher!

Money Magnet

I don't know why it keeps happening to me but it does. I keep finding money by accident in various locations and I have to say I don't really know what to do with it. I know most people would just take the money and be done with it but for some reason I always seem to have a problem with taking money which I feel was someone else’s. It's the kind of thing annoying people write in to news papers about as big ethical issues when there are far more horrendous issues to be worrying about in the world. I therefore usually like to try and make it someone else’s problem so I don't have to worry about it. About 6 months ago I found £10 lying on the ground, I didn't know what to do with it and so I left it in my wallet until it got drunkenly spent. The biggest find came next when I found £50 in an abandoned cash machine, I had AS with me at the time so I pointed it out to her and with that my moral dilemma disappeared. Then today I found £5 lying on the ground in the park so I went and bought books from a charity shop with it. I'm annoyed at myself for thinking about it. Look at this for some interesting comments; http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/blog/2009/feb/27/found-money-dilemma.

Chalk

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,

Because their words had forked no lightning they

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright

Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,

And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight

Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on that sad height,

Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Dylan Thomas

I like

I like these pictures because they each have there own story in my mind.

Vamparific

Now this post is intended to talk about the films which I have recently watched. The films in question being American Gangster, The Men who Stare at Goats and also Let the right one in. I had heard good things about all three of these films and so when I got the opportunity to watch them I did. American Gangster I'd say was a fairly reasonable film although compared to The Wire and also the sublime Godfather trilogy it seemed a little bit lacking. It had an enjoyable story line featuring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe, as a drug supplying crimelord and a policeman respectively. The main themes are of Denzel Washington's characters’ rise for power and the massive corruption in the Police force, with a major deal being done at the end to see off a large number of crooked cops. My main problem with the film was that it had Russell Crowe in it. Booo!!!

The next film I saw was The Men who stare at Goats, which I felt was a funny and entertaining film but nothing special. Certainly an interesting premise although most of the characters seemed to buy into all the paranormal stuff far too easily.

Also is the film Let the Right One in. This is a film about a young, blond boy who seems to be lonely and suffering at the hand of a trio of bullies. The bullying can be very uncomfortable to watch and you feel yourself wanting to shout at them and tell him to stand up to them. In all fairness to him though he seems to take the physical pain they inflict on him fairly well. He meets a nice girl who he has a bit of a thing for and who has amazing rubix cube abilities, adding that to the list of Vampiric skills. The rest of the story plays out with the two of them becoming very close, her murdering a large number of people indiscriminately and the two running off on a train together in the end. Aaaaaaaaww. (Watch it subtitled, I made the mistake of watching it dubbed.)

Thirst for Romance

A band that I hadn't listened to in a while, not sure quite how I was introduced to them but I really like this song. The name of the band is Cherry Ghost and this is from their first album Thirst for Romance.

Wat-a

The highest waterfall in the world is Angel Falls in Venezuela have an uninterrupted drop of 2647 feet.

Fairly spectacular you may agree and jaw droppingly beautiful. Also puts the fairly paltry 345ft proposed man made waterfall for the 2016 Rio Olympics to shame.

A Divine Image

Cruelty has a human heart,
And Jealousy a human face;
Terror the human form divine,
And Secresy the human dress

The human dress, is forged in iron

The human form, a fiery forge.

The human face, a furnace seal'd

The human heart, it's hungry gorge

William Blake

Jimi Hendrix

An old favourite of mine, possibly my favourite Jimi Hendrix song. Awesome!!

Some relief

Good cover of a brilliant song. I went to see The Travelling Band in Leicester with AS and we were very privelleged to sit right at the front.

Ink on Paper

A book I have been reading recently is Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh. Very appropriate considering my current attachment with the drugs and alcohol team (see my last post). When I first saw the film, some time ago I thought the film was amazing and possibly the only film with Ewan McGregor in that I have ever properly enjoyed. Going on my previous experiences of the book being better than the film I thought I would buy myself a £2.50 copy from the local charity book shop and delve in. Well I'm approximately 100 pages in and I'm enjoying it although I have to say I am finding the language fairly difficult. I shall share with you a passage not likely to be read out in church:

"Ah wis fuckin game fir a swedge. If the cunts hud've fuckin come ahead it wis nae problem like. Ah mean, you ken me, ah'm no the type ay cunt thit goes lookin fir fuckin bothir likes; but ah wis the cunt wi the fuckin pool cue in ma hand, n the plukey cunt could huv the fat end ay it in his pus if he wanted, like. Obviously, ah wis cairryin ma fuckin chib n aw."

Usually when I think Scottish a Sean Connery voice immediately enters my head and so for this part I have been hearing in my head a particularly potty mouthed James Bond. I've had more amusement than I should by saying out loud the old tongue twister "She sells sea shells on the sea shore" in this voice.

The language also reminds me of a particularly difficult time when I was serving customers in McDonalds and a young Scottish man came up to order his meal. I had to ask him to repeat what he was saying several times and still got his order wrong, poor man, if I wasn't such a dunce maybe our interaction would of faired better.

Substance Misuse

So I'm currently on a placement in the community as part of a module I selected myself. The choice wasn't great and so I put substance misuse down as my second choice because I thought it might be interesting. As it’s not ‘proper medicine’, not my words, it was fairly low down in the popularity steaks and so it was me who got given this opportunity. Well that's fine by me and so far I'm quite enjoying it and not just because of the fairly light workload. It’s also a very enjoyable experience and I’m learning a lot about those on the periphery of society.

I have had the opportunity to talk to those whose lives have been affected by drug use and I admire those health professionals who work with them. The service deals with all kinds of clients including sex workers, domestic violence victims, domestic violence perpetrators, rape victims and childhood abuse victims etc. One particularly disturbing new phrase I’ve come across is in referring to a sex workers significant other as ‘boyfriend/ pimp’. Hmmmph!!!

Anyway let’s have some drug and media related cynicism from Charlie Brooker a rather good columnist in the Guardian, also with a brilliant show on BBC Four.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/mar/22/charlie-brooker-newspapers-dangerous-drug

Also because nobody is born with extensive knowledge of recreational drugs their effects and side effects I would recommend the book ‘street drugs’ by Andrew tyler. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Street-Drugs-Andrew-Tyler/dp/0340609753/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269281042&sr=8-1

Just

Reminds me of the music video to a certain radiohead song.