Where I come from, friends don't shoot friends into outer space

[alexsarll]

I never wanted an MP3 player - I worried about being cut off from the world by it, losing my radar and becoming one of the bovine obstacle people. But offered one free, I could hardly refuse, and I'm finding it slots into my life pretty well. I still don't wear it all the time - not if I'm reading something complicated on the Tube, not if I'm somewhere especially crowded, not if I'm somewhere with its own music, whether accidental (a park) or deliberate (a bar). I keep it low enough to hear the world (and it would hurt to have it loud enough to drown out the Victoria Line), but that's still high enough to soundtrack me. Which means I have to be careful what I put on it, because not every soundtrack is the hero's; Robyn Hitchcock on Upper Street at night made me feel like the first victim in an oblique slasher flick. Nor have I quite adapted to hearing people I know singing quite so intimately. But if nothing else, it was the perfect accompaniment when I went along for a spot of disaster tourism the day after the Great Fire of Camden; I'd still yet to work out how to choose tracks properly, but what should come on as I considered the smoking shell of the Hawley Arms but 'This Is How You Spell "Hahaha We Destroyed The Hopes And Dreams Of A Generation Of Faux-Romantics"'.

I finished this weekend with a nagging sense of underachievment, which is foolish really; if I lazed around a lot, that was largely down to ruin resulting from two grand nights out, and I still managed to get the last 200 pages of Gravity's Rainbow read. I'm glad I read it, though I'm not sure if I could intelligently say much about it yet; perhaps my back brain will have finished processing the torrent of information in a month, or a year, or three. Or not. The problem with which this leaves me is, what to read next? I like a change, but GR covers so many bases, what does that leave from my To Read pile? The Glass Books Of The Dream-Eaters is another kinky trans-European conspiracy romp. John M Ford's The Dragon Waiting is another unreal epic of European war, while The Unfree French will take me right back to the moral destructiveness of the Second World War. Even Tim Moore's fluffy Do Not Pass Go is a psychogeography of London, like Gravity's first section - albeit by way of Monopoly rather than V2 impacts.
So far I seem to be attempting to read them all. I'm not sure that's wise.

Next time somone complains about BBC3, set Being Human on them. Reviews mostly seem to be comparing it (unfavourably) to Buffy, but I suspect that's because it has supernatural creatures in a modern setting without quite being horror, and most reviewers are lazy. Impressively, for such a crowded field as the modern vampire story, it managed within an hour to establish a tone that was all its own, but if I had to reference it I'd say it's more Ultraviolet meets Spaced. The conclusion was rather naff, but that was the only mis-step; I loved the balance between the domestic comedy and the menace (the latter especially coming out in that description of the afterlife).
Note also that it's picked up a star and a writer from Doctor Who, already shaping up as the Kevin Bacon of 21st century British TV.

Comments

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Robyn Hitchcock is a very dapper gent, but I do not think of him In That Way.

[darkmarcpi.livejournal.com]

Is that a remix I see? ;) Iirc the original is not much cop, but the KSO version is quite good.

I'm currently in MP3 player hell - bought oen off ebay last year, suddenyl konked out, the seller offered a 12 month warranty and does so on the players he is still selling, but is ignoring my emails about the situation. Anyway, I have a cunning plan, outside the imminent caving his face in with a pyramid stuff.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I've never denied that there's a very small percentage of remixes which work. Emphasis on 'very small percentage'. In this instance, I think what I really want is something between that version and the original; fortunately, I have the two back to back on a single, so it comes out as a megamixy sort of approach to that.

[mylifebythesea.livejournal.com]

I held out with a Walkman for years before someone bought me an iPod, couldn't see how I'd live without it now. It's clamped to my ears as soon as I leave the house.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

See, I didn't even have a Walkman for long - a really shoddy one for a little while about 20 years back, but the tech back then was so bad I didn't ever get hooked. They always had the extra problems of limited song selection and bad battery life, even on a good one. At least an MP3 player gives me a better chance of finding something to suit my mood, without needing a supplementary backpack.

[augstone.livejournal.com]

congrats on finishing GR! quite an achievement and i imagine now you must be thankful for emerging from its dark depths, perhaps not unscathed but at least knowing it's all over...or something like that ; )

am 60 pages into 'vineland', which is great so far, but nothing like the haunting overload that was GR or V.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I do feel a bit like I've just come down from Everest or something...a slight sense of anticlimax, but also glad I can breathe again.

[bluedevi.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Being Human was great. Particularly great by comparison to Phoo Action, which was so painful, badly shot and horribly edited it made me want to curl up and cry. (I can't believe it got greenlighted for a whole series.)

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I don't so much mind that Phoo Action got a series; it looked to me like a good idea executed with too little time, money and practice, and plenty of pilots with problems that bad or worse have gone on to make good series. What annoys me is that it was commissioned before the other pilots had been shown, which would seem to undermine the supposed point of the exercise.