I am so, so impressed by White Lies' latest album, can't fucking believe they clash with MCR at Reading.

So, I live my life by lists. I suppose it's compensation for the lack of order in my surroundings - clutter follows me wherever I go, and I wouldn't have it any other way. As such, I've always kept close track of those few pre-eminent lists which define most educated people - favourite songs, favourite albums. Many all time classics or childhood favourites get lost in the mists of time and you spend months or years not listening to them because you forget all about them. This is something which I, however, refuse to stand for. As such, I have top songs and top albums playlists. I started updating my top songs playlist yesterday, it's interesting to see how it's changed...I also created my 'Reading '11' playlist, i.e. essential listening in the next few months.

I think this was basically an excuse to bitch about the impossibility of choosing a favourite A.F.I. song, which I have debated with others before. The smallest list I can narrow it down to is about 20 songs long. Forcing myself to settle for one, it had to be classic A.F.I. over their new material...

I was thinking, how interesting would it be if it was compulsory for everyone to have a 'Top Songs' playlist throughout their lives. It would be like the personality passport, a true statement of identity...Although of course it only really applies to those passionate about music. Before we go on, 'Top 25 Most Played' playlists are very different. Catchy songs are not necessarily liked songs, and more often than not kind of disliked. And it is funny to see that list of my favourite songs and realize that friends who I click with best would have a very similar list, and that friends who would be surprised or miffed by it are those who perhaps don't know me very well.

If music is such a large part of our identity, I reckon it's important to know the state of music in your social climate. I was born in the 90s but I grew up in the 00s. Which begs the rather depressing question, what has the Noughties brought us? Mostly a shitload of revivals. Barely anything particularly new. Out of those genres which could be described as 'Noughties genres' - Grime barely affected me. I love Dubstep, I'll never forget the experience of seeing Caspa and Rusko live - perhaps the word 'mahoosive' would suffice. Emo affected me profoundly, so at least I can hold on to that. Even despite the rate at which it's dismissed these days. Which is probably fair, a large percentage of Emo's detractors consist of 'Emo bands' themselves. 

Obviously R&B and Hip-Hop dominated the decade, with more European dance music creeping in towards the end, thankfully. Never been my scene but there was the odd standout act - Outkast, Beyonce, Rihanna. In terms of Rock, which is my scene, America, again, had the most to say. I guess the most prominent rock music of the Noughties was Alt and Indie - Garage and New Wave revival. The Killers, Kings of Leon, and of course The Strokes, who are probably the most important bands of the Noughties. A new wave of pop-punk bands. Mind you, heavy metal got so, so much bigger. Various breeds of metalcore rose to the surface of the public consciousness. For that, I am truly grateful to the decade of my youth. Poor Asia though, it's a real shame about J-Pop.

I listen to Punk, Metal and Indie. The music of the Noughties was so pervaded by R&B and the shit from reality talent shows I always felt like an outcast from that sector of our culture. Even much of the rock that made it to the mainstream in the 00s was too pedestrian for me. I also feel it was a lot harder than in the past to attach yourself to a music scene. Am I wrong there? Is something getting lost...? Or is this a case of 'grass is always greener 20 years in the past'? The UK's contribution to Noughties indie and metal is very fair. It's not the 70s but with bands like My Chemical Romance and The Arcade Fire, I think we're alright. I notice how dubious I sound, but in all honesty, I'm fucking amazed by the new music emerging these days. Don't know where it'll lead, but there is a lot of potential kicking around right now...

Love Magritte ^

Good Luck Wills & Kate

However much I complain that life isn't this great all the time, I'm still glad it's this way, with its ups and downs, so the high points seem that much higher...Those little things that make life good - those two or three bands that you've listened to for countless years, but still sound as new and vital as they did the first time you heard them. When they come on on shuffle, you realize that, and it makes you stop what you're doing. That life-afirming moment you realize your hangover's stopped. Post-hangover euphoria. The first bite of that hungover fried egg sandwhich. Coppella apple juice is actually like life support during hangovers. Can you tell I had an interesting night last night?

Royal wedding guys!! Such an excuse to be strangely happy. So we all know it's utterly without a point, but does love technically have a point? Nope. And for something so pointless, it's interesting, and surprising, to see how the public reacts to it - there's a practical-minded minority that are against the fuss, but a good many of us have found ourselves getting in the spirit. I like to think that says something about how, when it comes down to it, people really are willing to celebrate something as simple as another's happiness. I for one am wishing Wills & Kate a joyful and lengthy marriage x

Currently Listening to: Your Fake Name is Good Enough For Me - Iron &Wine
                                  Letters to the Metro - Mogwai (yes, I finally got that album)
                                  Ladder Song - Bright Eyes (great, but not as good as early, Digital Ash' Bright Eyes!)

Majorly Listening to: SINGItForJapan - MCR
                                Born This Way - Lady Gaga

These ^ are the two best feel good save the world songs I have heard in a very, very long time. I would really like to see Gaga getting some good rock bands as her support on her next tour, as much as I doubt it's ever going to happen. She thinks she's a pop star but she's such a rock star...

Oh, and happy easter, haha x

Boho Scene

I just finished a 3 day course at the National Portrait Gallery (Wed-Fri) in digital film and photography. Our creations were based loosely on the Ida Kar exhibition currently showing at the gallery, hence the title of the mini project - 'Boho Scene'. My four-man film crew did something rather kitsch and indulgent with lighting, but we had fun dressing up. Here are some of the results, I'm the one in the last boho photo and on the right in the other ones. Video was screened publicly at 5 in the main hall of the gallery.

Also, everyone <3s Photo Booth

British Art Show 7

I am naughty as I take pictures of things that I shouldn't, but I only took a couple in the British Art Show, which I will post here...I finally went last night, I think the night before the exhibition ends, and fortunately for me it closed as late as 1am. I was there from about half ten to quarter past midnight. I'd say 'I couldn't recommend it more' if it wasn't just about to end. It's strange, because I've heard people say that the British Art Show fails to capture the imagination and that this seventh show is additional testament to that, but it's never failed to impress me, and I find myself completely connected to so many of the works there...Roger Hiorns' 'Untitled' is brilliant. When you glance at the label beside the sculpture and read the list of materials, something kind of dawns on you - 'Bench, fire, youth'...See what I mean? It's a huge exhibition with a lot of videos so I could really have spent hours more there, but 'Camp Attack' club night at Heaven (Embankment) was calling - what a night...Anyway...

Tramp,

Follow once,

Restorm mud,

Complete the circle,

Break, redraw,

Hanging couture

From hooks in

The atmosphere,

And dangling snaps,

You mark the time,

Watch then pass,

A signalled delay,

Furthermore.

Grasses sink,

Into my brightest eye,

Hot as a wheezing cat,

Aware of distant keening.

The smoothness of ten,

Of deft apertures.

Lichen to arrange.

The first day, you wonder what
They're going to do with you, stop to
Fix, as if you were a
Travel alarm clock, flashing stats
For the maverick masses,
So debonair in the springtime, and
Never less enthusiastic - it
Keeps them on edge. Chilled
Apricots haunt my windowsill,
Remains of adoring companions
That have yet to be fed to me.
There's the glint of sunlight
At the end of the room,
The air conditioning all
Through the night. That smell,
The indomitable black coffee look
Of it normally. Sucking the air
Out of cross country competitors -
That I'm relegated to the apartment.
Dead certs of a weekly circuit,
Wonders peel paint off a local windmill,
Blind maths rats search skirting
For a clue.

I watched the night fall
With the hunger of a newborn
Despite the split horizon
And you on the phone.
There are some hours that
Deign to pass.
You asked me if there were
Club songs I liked. We dodge and
Drop leaves one by one into
Tupperware, and seal it,
Like the pulling of beads out of
The corners of our eyes,
Like that gravitation.
And the petitions float down,
Heavy, never a burden.

Paris

I took these on holiday during Summer 2010, about time I posted this rather extensive collection of a few of my favourites, for those whom it may concern...

My back garden is so pretty sometimes...