alexsarll: (magnus)
Alex ([personal profile] alexsarll) wrote2007-10-04 09:25 pm

Divine intervention always my intention, so I take my time

I love living in a city where nobody even thinks to mention that there's a twenty foot tall statue of a jackal-headed death god stood in Trafalgar Square. Through which I was just passing en route to the Project Adorno show at Westminster Reference Library - one Westminster library I've not been to before, but one I love; it's how libraries used to be before they started chasing the will o'wisp of 'accessibility'.

You wouldn't know it from the picture where I appear to be teasing a horse, but last weekend's Metroland Tubewalk saw me come over all Fotherington-Thomas, chasing excitedly after unusual birds and cooing over flowers. I've seen horses while Tubewalking before, but never happy-looking ones, and certainly no bunnies, and if the uneven trails through the woods sometimes had a questing air about them, it was a considerably more jovial quest than the bleak and bloody slog to North Greenwich. Plus, in Metroland they even still have Routemasters! And restaurants where one can be the only diners and hog all the staff attention! It is a happy land, to which I am still half-convinced I would like to move and open a pub in a forest.

[Poll #1066074]

In spite of having initially decided that Gallows were just a bloody racket, I nonetheless decided to give them one more chance and give the album a spin. Why do I persist in doing this, believing that there must be some substance to the hype? I can still see exactly why Kerrang! likes them; I still have no idea why NME cares. And I would definitely still characterise them as a right bloody racket. Yes, Frank Carter is clearly very angry, and fair enough, if I looked like that and lived in Watford, I'd be very angry too. A lot of my favourite music is angry, from Noel Coward through the punk classics to Luke Haines and Trent Reznor - but at least there one has some idea what they're angry *about*. Here? Not a clue. I only know from interviews that 'Will Someone Shoot That Fvcking Snake' (the closest they come to a tune) is about how date rape is bad, mmmkay? - taken in isolation, I'd just be wondering why anyone would try to shoot a snake when a spade is so much more suited to the job, because the title aside, the lyrics are just a man screaming incoherently about SOMETHING WHICH IS REALLY GETTING HIS GOAT AAAAARGH.

[identity profile] apiphile.livejournal.com 2007-10-04 08:40 pm (UTC)(link)
Arses. I really like Gallows. Or, well, the one song of theirs I've actually listened to.

[identity profile] barrysarll.livejournal.com 2007-10-04 08:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Which one was that? Still, wish I'd known, I could have saved the album for you!

[identity profile] apiphile.livejournal.com 2007-10-04 08:53 pm (UTC)(link)
The title track. I was asking for the album recently, actually, but it's okay - Adam uploaded it for me.

[identity profile] barrysarll.livejournal.com 2007-10-04 08:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Sorry, must have missed that! I had heard some on myspazz et al and thought maybe if I tried it through the big speakers it would do more for me, but no, so you're not missing out there by only having it on MP3.

(Am I the only person in the world who never understood vinyl vs CD snobbery but does sometimes find MP3s lacking next to CDs?)

[identity profile] peacockpunk.livejournal.com 2007-10-04 11:26 pm (UTC)(link)
(Am I the only person in the world who never understood vinyl vs CD snobbery but does sometimes find MP3s lacking next to CDs?)

You be wanting FLAC files then.

[identity profile] barrysarll.livejournal.com 2007-10-05 12:03 am (UTC)(link)
I remember Alec Empire getting in a tizzy about MP3s back in the day, but he was quite mental by that point, and it's only a very occasional song where I notice the difference.

[identity profile] azureskies.livejournal.com 2007-10-04 09:23 pm (UTC)(link)
I was re-reading American Gods on the train the other day. I'd just got to the bit where Shadow encounters Mr Jacquel in his more... underworldly form, before putting the book down to see the front page of the paper with a picture of the Anubis statue being carted along the Thames on a boat. The synchronicity of the universe, there.

[identity profile] barrysarll.livejournal.com 2007-10-04 09:33 pm (UTC)(link)
It came by BOAT? OK, if I'd seen that I would seriously have freaked (by which I mean dropped to my knees, as against the polite and deferential nod in which my shock manifested itself earlier).

Now, Entourage just started so I'd best shut this down for the mo.

Re: Behold!

[identity profile] verlaine.livejournal.com 2007-10-04 10:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Where is this going to be around Monday/Tuesday time? I MUST GO AND WORSHIP IT.

Re: Behold!

[identity profile] barrysarll.livejournal.com 2007-10-05 12:05 am (UTC)(link)
He showed no sign of moving from the Square in the immediate future. So you're back that soon?

Re: Behold!

[identity profile] verlaine.livejournal.com 2007-10-05 01:32 am (UTC)(link)
I am catching a plane after work tomorrow night and will be in Gatwick at 4pm on Saturday! There should be pub at some point, I suspect.

Re: Behold!

[identity profile] barrysarll.livejournal.com 2007-10-05 12:06 am (UTC)(link)
ALL HAIL!

Re: Behold!

[identity profile] pippaalice.livejournal.com 2007-10-05 10:26 am (UTC)(link)
gosh!

[identity profile] offensive-mango.livejournal.com 2007-10-04 09:35 pm (UTC)(link)
This *is* the evil alternate universe version of my partner.

[identity profile] barrysarll.livejournal.com 2007-10-05 12:09 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah, I had that conversation a while back, watching the Buffy episode where yummy Evil Willow comes through.

Me: I wish the evil alternate universe me would turn up.
Then partner who shall remain nameless at own request: You *are* the evil universe you.
Me: OK, then I wish the good universe me would turn up, so I could do unspeakable things to him for your amusement.

[personal profile] cosmolinguist 2007-10-05 08:08 am (UTC)(link)
That's what I was thinking! (About mine, obv, not yours.)

[identity profile] billywhizz.livejournal.com 2007-10-04 09:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Chesham to Little Chalfont? Wurgh, good heavens. That's my old manor, that is.

[identity profile] barrysarll.livejournal.com 2007-10-05 12:10 am (UTC)(link)
I thought as much! Nice burgh, though perhaps I felt the benefits of not having to live there.

[identity profile] moleintheground.livejournal.com 2007-10-04 10:05 pm (UTC)(link)
You came over all etc. etc.?

Here, the evil alternative universe version of your partner would hate you, no? So they wouldn't sleep with you. Plus it would be a man. Plus they would be ugly. Plus, in my case, they'd hate chimps. I'd have no chance.

[identity profile] barrysarll.livejournal.com 2007-10-05 12:13 am (UTC)(link)
I think you're confusing 'evil alternate universe version of' with 'opposite of'. Part of the beauty of Hero Squared is how they blur those lines. Even aside from that, I reckon you might like it; they're utter masters when it comes to superheroics.

[identity profile] my-name-is-anna.livejournal.com 2007-10-04 10:07 pm (UTC)(link)
hullo horse hullo alex

[identity profile] barrysarll.livejournal.com 2007-10-05 12:13 am (UTC)(link)
hullo anna!

[identity profile] publicansdecoy.livejournal.com 2007-10-05 10:18 am (UTC)(link)
Is that twenty foot tall statue of a jackal-headed death god wearing eleven foot jeans today?

-x-

[identity profile] barrysarll.livejournal.com 2007-10-05 06:08 pm (UTC)(link)
Jeans for genes? I don't know, wasn't in the Square today. And besides, I'm not sure it'd be appropriate - do gods have genes? Would a death god want any part of the road to human immortality?

[identity profile] pippaalice.livejournal.com 2007-10-05 10:23 am (UTC)(link)
bunnies? oh dear...

[identity profile] barrysarll.livejournal.com 2007-10-05 06:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes! At the place where water is bottled. Then [livejournal.com profile] atommickbrane and I sang "It must be BUNNIES!" for a bit.