Fragile Fig Furry Fabulous
Well we’re finally back into the swing of things after a slightly stuttering start to the new year, here at Toad Hall. We have a Samamidon session in the bag, which we’ll be hoping to largely sort out this weekend. And those videos from the live show are amazing, if you ask me. The HD quality may be slow to load, but even as heavily compressed as they are (and they really are) I still think the quality is fantastic. We are likely to acquire one of those cameras for the Toad Sessions on a permanent basis, so we should be able to make some really good videos from now on. The Fence Collective’s Homegame Festival in March should produce some cracking stuff with a bit of luck, although the more footage the more editing etc etc.
Anyhow, it’s Friday and we are about to go to the pub for a couple of pints and a good meal. Our favourite haunt, the King’s Wark, has been shut down for a few weeks so we’re a bit homeless at the moment. And Shonagh, our favourite King’s Wark bartender, has been banned from reading this site at work so the fates are trying to separate me from my favourite watering hole at the moment and I shall not let them!
In other news, Tim from the Daily Growl, who has just penned a lovely Meursault review, tipped me off to a gorgeous Samantha Crain Daytrotter Session which you all might rather like. Her new album is getting ever closer and I am as excited as a small child at five o’clock on Christmas morning.
Anyone who wishes to contribute Five Friday Favourites just get in touch, but whatever the weather, here are this week’s five for your shameless time-wasting pleasure…
1. Really good song by a group you really fucking hate.
2. Really cringeworthily bad song by a group you love.
3. Favourite crap film.
4. Public figure who is a total dick, but whom you quite like anyway.
5. Some really good news you’ve had recently – share the joy, it’s fucking Friday after all!
Right, I’m starting with something great, because this is going to become bad pretty damn quickly. I really dislike The River overall, and I think it’s generally one of Bruce Springsteen’s worst albums. This song is amazing though:
Bruce Springsteen – Independence Day
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But this one is abysmal. Can’t fucking stand it:
Bruce Springsteen – Hungry Heart
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Michael Jackson is both deeply sinister and a total fruit loop. But you can’t argue with this sort of thing:
Michael Jackson – Billie Jean
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Inexplicably, I liked both of these last two songs when I was young, and because of that I still have a faint affection for them that I can’t quite purge.
Simply Red – A New Flame
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No, I really wasn’t very cool when I was twelve. But why has Phil Collins never been enjoyed in the full flower of cheesy 80s retrospection? I know that personally he’s a total cock, but musically he’s no worse than loads of the stuff which has been celebrated with ironic glee, surely?
Phil Collins – Don’t Lose My Number
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1. I suppose Black Kids would be close, but I don’t hate the band, just their music. How about Rock ‘n’ Roll Star by Oasis, whom I fucking despise.
2. I love most of the Divine Comedy’s first four albums, but National Express makes my toes curl with loathing.
3. Mrs. Toad has really got me into crappy American high school movies, despite my attempts to resist. Does Mean Girls count as awful? I think it does.
4. Boris Johnson rode this category all the way to Mayordom. Mayorhood? Mayoriness? You know what I mean.
5. I think Broken Records going to record their debut album counts. They’ve become good mates over the last year or so, they’ve really worked their arses off for this, and been messed around so many times. I’m delighted for them, and am taking it ridiculously personally.
1. Malibu Beach Nightmare by Hanoi Rocks
2. Starlight by Muse
3. Waterworld
4. Michael Portillo
5. Feb 10 till the Feb 16 i will be in New fucking York!!!!
shite…….swap 1 and 2 around….as i love Hanoi Rocks and hate Muse
1. She’s Gone by Hall & Oates
2. Leaving New York by REM
3. Hudson Hawk
4. James Blunt. As much as his music is utterly beyond redemption, I saw him interviewed on Top Gear and was disappointed to find he comes across as quite a nice bloke.
5. The sleeves on my earbud headphones had worn out, and I was about to order some new ones from the Shure website, but I thought I’d just check the little pack of different styles that they had come with – and found they had supplied two sets of the style I liked, so I could start using brand-new ones without having to spend any money. Phew!
1. MMMBop: Hanson
2. Step Into My Office, Baby: Belle and Sebastian
3. oooooooh, I’ve only recently got into really bad movies as a result of being ill over Christmas. At the moment it’ Princess Diaries 2!
4. Jeremy Clarkson. I’m so ashamed.
5. I don’t have a life threatening illness!
P.S I LOVE PHIL COLLINS! I had him on at The Bowery the other day. TOTAL joy explosion!
Get in with the guilty congfessions! Phil Collins Week on Song, by Toad!
I’ve just remembered that this post was inspired by Keane, incidentally. Dylan and I were talking in the pub last night and Can’t Stop Now came on by Keane and I was reminded that I quite like that song, despite my utter loathing of the band in general. Except I forgot when it came to writing the post, so erm, here you go.
Phil Collins played at The Bowery?!
He took time out from the Genesis world tour to stop off in Edinburgh?!!
You kept that one quiet!
Yeah, that’s why she cancelled Mumford & Sons. The Bowery has moved on to bigger things.
1.Always where I need to be – The Kooks, and I really really hate them, so how much I like this tune bothers me.
2. don’t take my sunshine away – Sparklehorse – cause it reminds me of how disappointing that last album was by one of my favourite artists.
3. Die Hard 3 and 4. Both poor, but both with John McLean, so everything is forgiven.
4. Martin O’Neill.
5. I’m going to be a dad in less than a month! I know its not recent, but who cares, it never fails to make me smile!
Phil Collins is a cunt.
(There’s your fucking t-shirt of the week.)
If Phil Collins was playing in the back yard, I’d shut the windows and phone health and safety. Rooobish!
1. I don’t fucking hate anyone see because I’m nice me right and anyone that says not is getting their head kicked in at hometime. However, I am unfond of Barry Manilow. I hope I am not alone in that. That said, the sheer nostalgic cheese in Copacabana takes some beating. Yeah, thats right mofos…BARRY MANILOW. Actually, come to think of it, I have a soft spot for Mandy as well but that goes too far..
2. Montgomery Clift by the Clash. I just don’t like it. Don’t really know why.
3. This is a hard one for me. I like crap films and will willingly watch any old shit. Who do you think made up the box office for Hot Shots Part Deux and Stop! Or my Mom Will Shoot! I have to put in a shout for Dude, Where’s My Car however I would contest thats not crap at all. Snakes On A Plane is my current fave though. Excellent stuff.
4. I’m a big BoJo fan as well but I also have a grudging liking for Simon Cowell when he is a shit and tells people who clearly need a talent(less) wake up call to go back to flipping burgers. A pox on all his other works though.
5. Eveyday I wake up next to the lovely Mr Toad is good news (gag!). However, I’d have to second him on Broken Records. About time too!
And fix that ruddy banner at the top, gets right on my wick that does.
don’t get me started on mumford and sons…ooooooffffffffffff
Simon Cowell – good answer. Snakes on a Plane is defintely, by some distance, shit enough to qualify.
Did Bart just post a random comment before posting a Friday Five?
“I am tired of these Motherfuckin Snakes on this Motherfuckin Plane!”
He did, didn’t he. Barticles – THERE ARE RULES!
1. ‘Honest Mistake’ by The Bravery.
2. ‘Lake’ by Graham Coxon.
3. The Mummy 1 & 2. Whoever thought that Brendan Frasier could bean action hero is clearly from another planet. Rachel Weisz deserves better though.
4. David Bullard. South Africa’s answer to Jeremy Clarkson, but with upper-crust pretentions.
5. No news is good news, as they say in the classics.
i fucking loved the last Sparklehorse album
course you did tom. probably cause i didn’t yeah? thought so.
1. despite the previous single being inexcusable shite, Hot n’ Cold by Katy Perry is, it has to be said, a bit of a tune.
2. the Low christmas single. Though I’ve only heard it once, and played live. And so I’ve maybe builit up in my head as being worse than it actually is.
It’s still too early to go back though.
3. Man, this is hard, as I can be as anal about films as I can be about music. Something like Plan 9 from Outer Space, or Showgirls doesn’t count, as they’re so bad they’ve achieved cult status, so then its okay to like them. I do also have a soft spot for high school comedies, if done well. Maybe Ten Things I Hate About You?
4. Hollywood bad boy Colin Farrell. He’s actually really good in Intermission. And I love the fact that he auditioned for Boyzone and failed (c’mon – not talented enough for Boyzone?).
5. Bruce Campbell is coming to Edinburgh. This is exciting for a very specific, select group of people (usually men, in their mid-late 20s).
(Note: Bart doesn’t follow rules.)
Bart makes the rules….thats what he told me anyway….when he told me to bend over.
Euan – it was the first one i got…since got them all, i think, and it the one that i keep going back to….Graeme doesn’t think much of it also….but i reckon it is a classic….apart from that yeah….anything you take a liking to i fucking hate!!! Paranoia….
Bart: Colin Farrell is brilliant in ‘In Bruges’, you should give it a watch. And “Ten Things I Hate About You” is Heath Ledger’s finest 90 minutes on celluloid, bar none.
Is Sparklehorse just one of those sort of hit-and-miss bands? Cause I really liked “It’s a wonderful life”, but I thought “Good Morning Spider” was horrible.
Good call, Dave. In Bruges was actually really, really good.
1. Dancing With Myself by Billy Idol.
2. This is like shooting fish in a barrel, but it’s got to be Rocky Fucking Raccoon by the Beatles.
3. The Warriors, of course.
4. Embattled Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. He’s so unashemedly corrupt that’s he actually one of the most honest politicians in America.
5. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEYzli8nY4U
Mrs. Toad and I would both give In Bruges the seal of approval I think. Splendid film.
Sparklehorse can be a little hit and miss, but I liked most things prior to the last one.
C&B – The Warriors? And Blagojevich is indeed fucking hilarious. To paraphrase Bill Hicks, sometimes you have to just sit back and think: fuck it, what balls!
I’ve just looked up The Warriors on IMDB. That looks so bad it deserves some sort of medal.
The Warriors is an awesome film.
You’ve never seen The Warriors?! Oh my God! There’s not a moment to be lost!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xITVFgxcDIg
The video and audio sync on this is way off, but it gives you an idea.
You know, I think it is time for a Phil Collins retrospective.
I posted Easy Lover on one of my posts last summer, and it went down really well. C&B loved it!
You could make your way through the Genesis years, (Didn’t he sing vocals on one song onThe Lamb Lies Down On Broadway before Peter Gabriel left?), through the heady No Jacket Required days of the mid-1980s, and work right up to date with the Disney soundtrack stuff he does now.
His career really is an epic journey.
The official trailer is phenomenal.
Did anyone else get a look in at doing trailer voiceovers for twenty years? That bloke has a virtual monopoly – he must be minted.
I’m particularly fond of the Baseball Furies, but the Punks on rollerskates are pretty good too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISkLxfAOTo8
1. If i could turn back time by Cher, although I think it is more to do with the video and how she is jumping about in the g-string in front of all the sailors and her son who plays guitar in the background, reminds me of my own momma and growing up.
2. I was going to go with James Blunt and ’1973′ cos i feel he really slipped after the first album but i will have to go with Dylan, as much as i adore his bobness i have always hated ‘Hurricane’ i just find it boring.
3. I love cheesy 80s films, Teen Wolf is amazing (but never ever watch Teen Wolf 2 it will burn out your eyes) but i have to pick Roadhouse, great music, great fights, great high waisted jeans – the names dalton.
4. Stalin, i like his moustache
5. I am moving to Australia in March with the missus, tickets provisionally booked.
Ricardo….your no 5 is the worse noise ever….how is that going to put a smile on my face!!!!
fucker
noise? of course i meant news!!!
You’re referring to Don LaFontaine there, Matthew, who sadly died last year.
I’m not sure if anyone has tried, or is even capable of, filling such mighty shoes.
Hmmmmmmmmmmm.
I reckon someone like Chris Eubank or Stephen Hawking should give it a crack, stir it up a bit
eh?
they don’t do much these days anyway, well Eubank drives a truck
it’s a sad day
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2009/jan/16/ricardo-montalban-obituary
paranoid, pretentious, pompous….i’d better get to a doctor.
anyways, i do think sparklehorse are a little hit or miss – but i’m with Matthew. i think their early stuff is good and I love good morning spider bart. but i agree it’s a wonderful life is amazing and my favourite of their albums.
euan – to stop p’ing yourself?
anyway, are you keeping a log of my terms of endearment
na, just the ones that hurt.
actually, that’d be all of them then.
For some reason when I read that, in my head it came out in Don LaFontaine’s voice.
How about “Good morning, Spiderbart.” as this week’s T-Shirt?
1. Wings – Live and Let Die
2. The Waterboys – Whole of the moon (actually most of this is the sae)
3.I love the mighty ducks but they’re not bad films so that doesn’t count. Maybe Superbad.
4. Ainsley Harriot
5.This is really pesamistic but I can’t actually think of any good news, I’m not a pesamistic fellow but I just can’t. I did go to see woodenbox yesterday, I’m a pal of Ali’s so it was class seing him do so well, is that good news? Either way it made me happy!
Woodenbox were class last night
*this is the sea
I was liking ‘not enough talent for Boyzone’ or something like that.
I hope you weren’t the guy who I made spill their beer, if so sorry once again!
Dav – Live & Let Die is a great choice, and I fucking loved Superbad! As did Mrs. Toad, not that that is in any way a recommendation for anything.
No Dav there was no spillage around me…..
That makes a change, Tom!
you reckon?….i never spill unless it is on purpose
Me neither, unless it’s by accident.
Did you hear the one about the toothless termite?
He went into a pub and said “Is the bar tender here?”
you killed the conversation Dylan
*Shit pun kills thread.*
I keep doing that.
I did it yesterday talking about Level 42′s basslines. You’d really think there’d be more interest..
Someone else saw “Intermission”? Grand. Loved it and “In Bruges”. Farrell can act in his natural accent, it’s the attempts at an American one that make me cringe. My boy claims it’s his revenge for the bastardized Irish accents he has to endure from from American actors. But I digress..
1. “Trouble” by Coldplay. It hurts to type that.
2. “Rock The Casbah” by The Clash. But it was the ’80s after all.
3. Zoolander.
4. Matthew! ;p
5. Despite the fact that I live in the backwoods where most bands fear to tread, Luminscent Orchestrii (one of my favorite bands) will be performing here next month.
“My boy claims it’s his revenge for the bastardized Irish accents he has to endure from from American actors”
and what justified revenge that would be. I laugh at that every time an American moans about British actors not sounding very American. Mmm, yes, it’s annoying isn’t it, chaps.
Zoolander is another fucking excellent choice, and there have been some total doozies this week. I like a couple of Coldplay songs too – only a couple, mind you – and I have never known music nerds having more trouble admitting that they enjoy a band than with Coldplay.
1. “Foundations” by Kate Nash. one of the worst albums ever, but an awesome single – i think it’s due to the Death Cab style production.
2. “Devil Town” by Bright Eyes. Something about the opening melody make me feel physically sick.
3. Independence Day. None more “epic”.
4. Hugo “Crackers from Caracas” Chavez.
5. Just bought myself a ridiculously expensive coat and absolutely love it.
1. I do like ‘In the air tonight’ by Phil Collins, but much of the rest of his stuff is just execrable.
2. ‘Gone’ by The cure.
3. Biggles.
4. Boris Johnson, hate his politics, but yet…not as much as a buffoon as I first thought.
5. the first physical release on my record turning up, after a crap week in day job.
But I’m sure even the surly Mister Farrell wouldn’t deign to criticize the work of great American thespian Mel Blanc:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxYavTEquQg
1. Really good song by a group you really fucking hate. Divine – Shoot Your Shot or The Doors – Love Her Madly. I have varied tastes in music, what can I say?
2. Really cringeworthily bad song by a group you love. Morrissey – Don’t Make Fun of Daddy’s Voice. It’s horrid, full stop.
3. Favourite crap film. Pretty in Pink. Ducky love at first sight!
4. Public figure who is a total dick, but whom you quite like anyway. er, Morrissey? Or if non-musicians it must be Russel Crowe, yummmm! I don’t care if he beats me bloody!
5. Some really good news you’ve had recently – thank god we can afford to stay in our house a year or so more due to recent financial windfall
C&B I can’t agree more with you on your good news, THANK FUCKING GOD eh? I seriously cried when I saw that live, on TV yesterday.
soory. but what a lot of shite about coldplay. i don’t love them, but parachutes is a good album and i’d bet everyone one thought so at the time. i’m not a fan, i’ve never been a fan, but not afraid to admit that their debut album deserves credit. it’s a good album. why the shame over coldplay. jeez. get over it.
and bart. katy perry – hot then cold – or whatever its cold – brilliant. and the video – gold hots pants and all, is genius!!
Actually, Euan, no. I listened to it in HMV and thought that it was decent but not worth buying. So there. (Stop being so fucking grumpy.) But there have been times when they’ve come on the radio and caught myself humming along and though: ‘FUCK NO THIS IS COLDPLAY, MY INDIE CREDENTIALS AAAAAAAGH…!” Or something like that.
Tarticus, Pretty in Pink is great. What film about a minging ginger bird with awful hair pulling the leading man isn’t great?
(Recent financial windfall? Tart, does your tired out clown’s pocket really fetch that much on the open market?)
Where do you come up with this stuff?
I’m just an extraordinarily offensive man, C&B, not a nice respectable lawyer like yourself. Some of us are just cunts, and being a cunt frequently results in comedy gold (and a lot of death threats – probably entirely justifiable ones, too).
I am sure Tart knows I meant it affectionately.
Well kudos you old cunt you. That’s right up there with “ratty old growler” in my book.
“Nice respectable lawyer”? Are you trying to be ironic? Can you say “contradiction in terms”?
Nice respectable grasping avaricious whore of a lawyer? Is that better?
OML I’ll have you know it took me three reads to understand what “tired old clown’s pocket” even meant!
And it’s not an open market. It’s a very select group of internet junkies I’ll have you know
Now please do stop phoning me, Matthew, I told you it was only that one time.
Well tell the FBI to fuck off and leave me alone then.
1. I was gonna have Keane’s ‘Can’t Stop Now’, honest.
2. Just about all of Mr Love and Justice, sadly. Even the solo disc.
3. Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves. Everything about it, even Costner’s accent, is perfect. I’m sorely tempted to break off at this point and have a moan about some of the other films but I will be good and get to the end of my list first.
4.Jonathon Ross – I thought the stuff he’s been in such terrible trouble about was just so weak – that was the real issue, look at what you’re fucking paid, you can do better than this piss poor uninventive nonsense – but generally he has a self-deprecating style which I quite like and I still hanker back to ‘The Last Resort’ which was great.
5.Both of my kids have been poorly all week with sickness bugs but we managed to keep them both out of hospital (they’re both diabetic, sickness bugs make things complicated) and they are both better now.
In Bruge’, ‘Pretty In Pink’ and ‘The Warriors’ are all fucking great movies and are not in any sense at all ‘crap films’. ‘The Warriors’ is actually having a bit of a renaissance amongst the young ones because of the videogame. Actually I’ve just looked at the thread again and nobody nominated In Bruges, it was just a response to a comment about colin farrel (who I’ve never liked in anything else, to be honest). Hmm. Anyway, Robin Hood is a brilliant crap movie, fact.
Alan Rickman made it so.
1. On the Beach by Chris Rea.
2. Old King by Neil Young. Sure, he’s done a lot of crap, but this is a stand-out stinker on an otherwise solid album.
3. Probably something involving Will Smith or Owen Wilson who are both impossible to dislike.
4. Dare I say David Cameron? OK, no then, but it’s all very well with you Edinburgers liking Boris. He’s not running your city! I’ll go with Owen Wilson.
5. The brand new double gatefold vinyl Animal Collective album that I bought today.
David Cameron makes me want to stamp on the heads of innocent little kittens. He seems harmless enough… right up until the point where he’s running your fucking country. He’s the ultimate substance-free politician. Fucking whore.
Alan Rickman did make is so although it is also, I will dare to say, a well directed little action movie, with some great little fight scenes, some for comedy, some a bit darker, and a lot of the bit parts are cast quite ‘high’ and work really well, and the end bit is just good fun. I also quite like waterworld which somebody else up there mentioned.
David Cameron, we should remember, cut his teeth as a young politician in the young tories of the late 80s / early 90s and therefore almost certainly has old speeches lurking in his closet about how mandela is a terrorist, gay and lesbian relationships are just wrong and even possibly about how we should continue to be nice to our special friend Saddam when he executes our journalists. I will say one word in his favour which is he’s actually come out and said that the tories got it very wrong about south africa. But I bet he was one of the ones loudly being ‘wrong’.
‘Speed’ is another brilliant crap movie, now I think of it, although to be honest i’ve always had a bit of a thing about Keanu.
Pretty In Pink is indeed a fine movie, but the thing that really carves its legend in stone is the magnificient title track by The Psychedelic Furs.
Well, that and Jon Cryer’s impression of Otis Redding’s “Try a Little Tenderness”!
It’s another one where completely vile people are unexpectedly perfectly cast – Andrew Clay, in this case – although my favourite bit (which I’ve said elsewhere before) is ducky lying on the bed listening to the smiths whilst andi is out with blaine. I’ve been watching Ferris Beuller quite a bit recently (it’s an exam film on the new film studies spec I’m teaching this year) and that also stands the test of time very well.
Fucking hell. Film studies sounds a lot more fun than that fucking advanced applied thermodynamics and fluid mechanics and all the other shit I had to study.
Ferris Beuller? What else is on the fucking curriculum? Back to the Future? Fast Times at Ridgemont High?
“parachutes is a good album” says Euan
“I agree” say Tom
first, i’ll have you know that Tart’s, um, pocket is by no means tired out – it is toned, muscular, and a great ride. second, wtf Tart, how could you take so long to understand what he meant by that? lmao!
third.
1. Really good song by a group you really fucking hate.
There are couple of good Journey songs, but I think the best is “Wheel in the Sky.” (I also like “Separate Ways,” but that may just be because I associate it with a youthful crush… I remember writing in my diary, “If he ever hurts you, true love won’t desert you!” and crying. Yes, Tart, I’ve always been overly dramatic.)
After writing this, I googled “best song worst band,” and came up with this extremely long and somewhat interesting list.
2. Really cringeworthily bad song by a group you love.
“We do what we’re told” by Peter Gabriel. Boring, irritating, pointlessly repetitive – I could have written that thing and I’m totally unmusical, there are like five notes in the whole song, and almost as few words – and the last few lines don’t even make sense (to me, anyway). Worse, it’s a big blotch on an otherwise classic album (“Don’t Give Up” isn’t so hot either, tho the phrase “For every job, so many men / So many men no-one needs” saves it – and the whole male voice part is fine, it’s just the syrupy female voice that ruins it). Back in the time of cassette tapes, it was always a decision about whether to get up and go over to the tape and fast-forward, or just endure it. Often enough I did the former. That’s a lot of hatred.
Also hate “Airplane” on “Rites of Passage” by the Indigo Girls. Had to include that. It’s such a godawful song… fluffy and pointless and like bland sunshiny nothing. It’s like it’s by a different group.
3. Favourite crap film.
Easy. I totally love “Fifty First Dates” even though I hate both Adam Sandler AND Drew Barrymore and usually find just about every word, move, and joke from either of them utterly cringeworthy (to borrow a word from previous item). There’s something about that film that mutes their awfulness and brings out the quirky sweetness that they’re probably trying for all the time. I can’t help loving that film. When she comes out onto the boat at the end and the wide arctic landscape is so startlingly beautiful, and her life is so unexpectedly wonderful, and they strike up “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole – I’m just a sucker for that kinda stuff.
Plus, it contains the totally gender-indecipherable “Alexa,” with such classic lines as, “If I promised a woman’s father I would not see her… I would simply shut my eyes, while she serviced my manhood,” and “I prefer sausage to taco.” Ok, I don’t know why that’s funny, but it totally is. It’s all in the delivery. Ok, never mind.
4. Public figure who is a total dick, but whom you quite like anyway.
Johnny Depp. Dates women who look like children, and reportedly beats them. Is certainly strange. I don’t like him as a person. But as an actor he’s astonishing.
John Cusack pretty much falls into the same category for similar reasons.
5. Some really good news you’ve had recently – share the joy, it’s fucking Friday after all!
Hmmm. I’ve had a lot of bad news recently. OK, when I was in the hospital bleeding heavily from a hole in my colon, it was good news when it stopped.
If you guys are finally going to agree on something, can you at least make it something that isn’t blatantly wrong?!
Weirdos, the both of you.
Parachutes is piss-poor. I listened to it in HMV in Cambridge when it came out and decided against buying it because it was too bland.
And that was when they were cutting edge for fuck’s sake.
1985 gave us Pretty in Pink
1986 gave us the Breakfast Club and Top Gun.
Now Molly Ringwald is lucky to do a car advert and Tom “I’m not quite gay and totally weird” Cruise is a Hollywood dynamo.
WTF?
The film studies thing with ‘Ferris Bueller’ involves comparing it with ‘Election’ as high school movies of their times (with the clever Matthew Broderick as student / as teacher link). We also get to do The Filth and the Fury, Audition, City of God and, to be honest, pretty much whatever I want. It’s a nice course.
1. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Aint No Easy Way: This band is the poster child of why I hate mock leather jacket wearing, druggie, cocksucking garage rock bands. But the song is good. That is all.
2. Björk – Ancestors: I wanted to write, “I don’t know what she was thinking.” But the thing I love about her is that I never know what she’s going to do. But every once in a blue moon…she puts out a song that sounds worse than if she recorded herself taking a dump.
3. Boondock Saints – It’s so over the top and ridiculous. I love it. And it’s filmed in my favorite city. Boston.
4. Jack White.
5. I’m going to an improv festival out here in San Francisco. Rachel Dratch, Will Forte, Janeane Garofalo, Rob Riggle…this going to be fun.
nobody wants to comment further on Tart’s pocket? i’m disappointed in y’all.
I think the image is a bit more than any of us can face, frankly. Although your graphic descriptions have been, erm, very much appreciated.
kata rokkar – I rather like Howl, as an album. Are they just a bunch of cock monkeys then?
[...] Keane, how did they come up then? Well last week’s Friday Fives started out as a conversation in the pub the previous night. Can’t Stop Now by Keane came [...]
ha, I hadn’t checked back since my original comment. In my defenese, I hated Coldplay (with the aforementioned exception of “Trouble”) from the very beginning. I still lived in Ireland in 2000 when “Yellow” was first released as a single and I remember telling American friends how much I hated it, most of whom replied “Who’s Coldplay?”. ;p
Also, I agree with you Brits being annoyed by American actors trying, well, any other accent. My Colin Farrell remark was merely speculation that the seemingly changeable quality of his acting talent may depend on whether he is permitted to speak in his natural accent or not.
1. I feel ashamed writing this as a first time contributor but I have a soft spot for several of the songs from High School Musical 3. It’s clearly crap but somehow become ingrained in your head and you find yourself singing along.
2. Morrissey’s new single is just about the most mediocre song I’ve heard committed to record.
3. The Perfect Catch – the American remake of Fever Pitch. About the Boston Red Sox instead and features Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon. Terrible, yet brilliant.
4. George Galloway. An absolute swine but he’s a character at least – every other politician is out for themselves but doesn’t admit it – but at least Galloway is out for himself and his causes but lets it be known to everyone.
5. In two weeks time I’ll be in Berlin enjoying my first holiday in over 18 months, result!
Do you have kids, by any chance? It might explain #1.
Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon Ack argh cough spit bleuch choke!
Sadly not, just a younger brother with tragic sense of music taste! And I had to endure the whole album in a minibus driving from Wolverhampton to Aberdeen. Their perky-ness and all round delusional high spirits eventually become soothing…or maybe not.
I think that was probably your brain shutting down in order to protect itself.
“Molly Ringwald is lucky to do a car advert” – actually, Toad, Molly is currently starring in the not so bad The Secret Life of the American Teenager on ABC in the States & was in an episode of Family Guy recently.
She’s looking rough as arseholes, mind.