Things that are just too weird

1. The Vienna Vegetable Orchestra.
    A load of classically trained musicians performing Beethoven, Mozart, Liszt and the like on the veggies that go on your dinner plate. And then, at the end of the performance they give you soup made from the unused veg they have left over. Astonishing.

Playing with your food

2. Have you ever seen a Staffie do an impression of Mother Theresa? I have.

Chi

Mother Theresa

3. Have you ever been eating popcorn and thought, "Hang on, that looks a bit like Buddha. What would I do to my karmic well-being if I ate buddha? I'd better keep it." 

No? I have.

4. My allergy to ordinary processed salt. I'm the only person I've ever heard of with this, and it makes me feel like I'm drunk - and that's no fun when you haven't had any booze. I'm mentioning this because I was at my mother in laws yesterday and she used the devils' dandruff to season our food. I know this because I felt a bit funny last night and this morning I felt like this:

So, is there anything you guys find too weird for words?

Klaxons - Surfing the Void

I have to say I was rather looking forward to the new Klaxons album, so when I read a couple of shall we say....uncomplimentary reviews I was a bit taken aback and prepared for a bit of a disappointment.
What I've now learnt is this: Don't read the reviews before you've listened to the album.

If there was one crucial difference between old rave and nu rave, other than that of scale, it's that the main participants in the latter were philosophy students rather than narcotically altered Scouse builders. 

Klaxons' valiant attempt to square that circle – or rather, to big fish little fish cardboard box that circle – resulted in a rightly acclaimed, Mercury-winning debut album, a record which tried to reference JG Ballard and make you dance at the same time, and was more successful than most of their peers in blending the cerebral and the physical (you didn't hear words such as "exponential" and "Sargasso" at a Hadouken! gig).

Three years is an eternity in pop culture, and the shallow tide that bore them has receded, leaving them high and dry (albeit still with a major record deal). Meanwhile, successive waves of bands – Friendly Fires, Foals, Delphic – have picked up the indie-dance baton. 

Nevertheless, it's been time well-spent.

Surfing the Void is a denser, more complex and intense experience than its predecessor, as well as being noisier, more distorted and more mangled. Lead single "Echoes" and second track "The Same Space" are both reminiscent of the aforementioned Delphic, which may sound unfair as Klaxons were there first. Then again, Joy Division and Kate Bush were both first to the beat they use on "Venusia", so it's all relative.

It's an album which peaks late, with the brilliant "Future Memories" and the strangely angular sound of "Cypherspeed". It's also an album which, heard out of context in pretty much any era, would be an ear-jolting, borderline mind-blowing listen.

I've just listened to this again and I think it's excellent, far better than their debut, Myths of the Near Future.

Well worth a purchase or download.

 

The Fizzees 2010

Hello everyone, it's time to find out what my favourite blogs are.
There's a few different categories to get through, and everyone mentioned in this post has earnt themselves one of these, The Fizzee Seal of Approval. Stick it on your blog if you want-or not, I don't mind. :)

FSOA

Ok, lets start.

First up, in the "Read my blog or I'll stab you repeatedly" category is Joanna at My Angry Life. She might look cute and the blog background is a girly pink, but don't be deceived- this is one angry lady. Thankfully, she's also funny and entertaining, and that's the stuff that keeps you going back to it.

Next, in the "So Funny You'll Piss Your Pants" category, there are two entries.

Firstly, Hanny and Barb over at twobeansornottwobeans are genuinely laugh out loud funny. They talk about everyday life and illustrate their posts with brilliant original pictures. And they have Ninja Squirrel.

Secondly, Tricia at tershbango has a different take on things but is equally as funny. Go read about her megaboobs of doom.

Ok, serious time. These are blogs that won't be for everyone, but are well worth checking out.

BuckeyeWife at her blog here writes about how she copes with her husbands' infidelity. It's pretty stark and can be difficult to read, but it's compelling stuff. Also, if your reading this Buckeye, I've wanted to comment on some of the stuff you've written but have never really been able to find the right words. I just didn't want you thinking no-one was reading your stuff.

Also in this category is a blog by the ever mysterious The Author is Unknown. She writes about what was her real life, and it ranges from funny to desperate -often in the same post. Go Here to read it. 18+ only!

Last up, we have the general category - which is where everyone else I like resides.

First up we have Pennyclad at Vendfrippery. She likes cool kitschy stuff like me, so makes the cut.

Next is Tom at Millson Weekly who has a picture of himself with that dude from Dragons Den. Win!

Amber comes in here too, she's at http://scrappinamber.blogspot.com/ and, frankly is the daddy (mummy?) at this blogging lark. I worship at her altar. And you guys should, too.

Mrs Midnight makes the final spot on my Honour Roll, she doesn't like spiders or men with tattoos (except me, obviously), but loves her little doggies. find her at http://midnitemutter.blogspot.com/

Well, that's it. Don't take it personally if I forgot about you, I didn't mean it, sorry.

Tattoos

A corruption of the Samoan word Tatau, these first caught the attention of Europeans around 250 years ago and is first referred to by Joseph Banks, the naturalist aboard Cook's ship the "Endeavour" in 1769 where he mentions it in his journal.
To paraphrase,  he states, "I shall now mention the way they mark themselves indelibly, each of them is so marked by their humor or disposition".
It's much the same today, people (not always successfully) attempt to put a bit of their personaliy or allegiance on their skin.
They have never been more prevalent in our Western culture. We now have a number of genres to speak of, and each fulfils an (Haha!) important social function. Among the most popular is the "partner" tattoo. With these, a person permanently inscribes the name of their lover on to a (usually very visible) piece of their flesh.
An indelible way of saying "I'm yours", the tattoo can also serve as a memento of happy times, to be cherished once the relationship has irreparably broken down. Then there are Asian symbols: Chinese, Japanese, Nepalese – it doesn't matter, as long as the tattoo (apparently) means "Om" or "Tiger" and it is done on a beach in Thailand – or in Camden Market. These scream "life-experience".

Yeah, sure they do. I'm tattooed myself -several times- but these days it seems everyone is-young girls, old men, grannies, everyone. The point I'm trying to make here is this.

Choose carefully, really carefully.

Good

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bad

Hello, this is a public service announcement.

Hello dear readers, this is just a short post to let you know that tomorrow is the first annual Fizzee Awards.
Yes, I know it's exciting, sit down and you'll be ok. There'll be all sorts of things going on, a red carpet, celebrities no-ones ever heard of, shiny trophies and dancing girls.
Maybe.
Either that or I'll just tell you about some blogs I read and why you should read them too.

"Yaaaaay!"

Suddenly, that red t-shirt doesn't seem like such a good idea.........

Bullfighting is a horrible spectable and a remnant of the middle ages. It's about time the cows started fighting back.

Random short musings (again)

I really want to see Scott Pilgrim vs the World -mainly so I can snigger at Chris Evans' eyebrows, admittedly- however Mrs Rascal is less keen and thinks it might be "silly".
Actually I really wanted to see the new Piranha film, but obviously that will be "silly", so there's even less chance of us seeing that.

"hey baby, check out my eyebrows of doom"

Isn't it a bit strange that Wyclef Jean is recieving death threats for being bold enough to run for president of Haiti? From what I can make out, he only wants to do some good things for his country.

"what? kill me? mais non!"

There's very little mainstream coverage of the Pakistan floods considering the number of people affected is the same as those hit by the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004, the Kashmiri earthquake of 2005 and the Haitian earthquake of earlier this year combined. I wonder why.......

"Bob-bob-bobbing along....."

Cheap balsamic vinegar isn't very nice. Sorry, it just isn't-you really get what you pay for with this stuff.

"Don't buy me, I taste like fermented Hippo piss"