Song, by Toad

Thank god all-fucking-mighty that it’s fucking Friday.  I am exhausted.  I’ve been up until the wee hours (5am on Tuesday, 6am on Wednesday, etc etc…) working on the videos for Sunday’s mammoth Broken Records at the Bedlam Theatre post and have had just about enough.  I don’t get too sleepy during the day though, and I can still get through it all just fine, but I am getting a little pie-eyed.  Not sleepy, per se, but the world is becoming a little surreal.

Mrs. Toad and I are a week away from going on holiday for two weeks.  We are going far, far from an internet connection and will be pretty much completely incommunicado for the whole fortnight.  This is a good thing.  I am not burned out on all this Toad business, but I am getting a little frazzled.  There’s just always so much to do and it gets really hard to keep track of it and to make sure that everything is getting done properly.

This weekend sees the Meadows Festival tomorrow, followed by the Gaza benefit thingy in the evening.  I really don’t know if I am going to make the Black Tape night tonight, but I hope so.  So much still to do in the house.

So, Mrs. Toad has just returned from a week away in the States, so I am going to pop out and have my lunch with her, before coming back and marvelling at the wondrous fountain of meaningless gibberish which the Friday Fives seems to infallibly generate.  I love this post – total chaos!

So, de-lurk; this is the lurkers’ amnesty post, remember.  It doesn’t matter if you’ve never said anything before, no knowledge of in-jokes or obscure indie bands required here, just the time to say hello and make a couple of flippant remarks.  Fives first though please – no pish-talking until I’ve got your fives down.  Then go crazy.

1. Most annoying vehicle on the road.
2. Top Summer song.
3. Best kind of sleep.
4. Favourite grandiose title (like Grand Vizier, Viscount and stuff like that).
5. Name of your stuffed toy.

This is the first track the Cave Singers have released from their forthcoming album.  Sounds bloody brilliant.
The Cave Singers – Beach House

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The Kick Inside – It’s Always the Quiet Ones (B-side to their new single Oh, Vanity!)

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These two are from a Springsteen covers CD Uncut released a few years ago.
Heather Nova – I’m On Fire

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Ed Harcourt – Atlantic City

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Counting Crows – Start Again

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So there are two huge international festivals of comedy currently underway. One of them is here in Edinburgh now that the Festival Fringe is well up to steam. (The only thing more annoying than trying to navigate pavements packed with thousands of lost tourists not looking where they’re going as you try and go about your daily business, is trying to navigate pavements packed with thousands of lost tourists not looking where they’re going and all carrying umbrellas.)

The other is in Beijing where the games of the 29th olympiad look to have got off to an unsurprisingly farcical start. Despite the Chinese authorities’ attempts to polish their turd of a regime while it’s on display to the world, flaws are rapidly beginning to appear.

Of course, there’s the hullaballoo erupting about elements of the opening ceremony being faked. The story regarding one little girl miming to another little girl’s singing voice simply because the organisers thought she was prettier, along with the bit about the ’live’ fireworks displays that were created with CGI beforehand then cut into the live TV images being transmitted around the world; are both hilarious, but hardly surprising. As some commentators have said; China are trying to present an acceptable image of their country for western audiences to digest, and when so much of our media output in the west is faked or subverted, why shouldn’t they adopt a similar approach? The problem seems to be just that the Chinese aren’t very good at it.

Perhaps more worryingly, there are reports of a British TV journalist being arrested and ‘roughed up’ by Chinese police, and having his equipment confiscated, for merely being nearby when someone unfurled a Tibetan flag.

The most worrying for me though are the reports of large groups of locals being – ahem – shanghaied into attending Olympic events to fill up empty stadia. I saw a terribly sad TV report from a journalist who had interviewed some of these unfortunate souls at the fencing event. I mean; who the fuck wants to go and see fencing?!

REM – King Of Comedy
Ed Harcourt – Shanghai