D is for DONE (nearly)

Typed it, printed it, bound it. The dissertation is DONE and will be handed in as soon as Bank Holiday rolls away with these disgustingly dark rainclouds. Let's take a minute to celebrate.



10,000 words on the interiors and material culture of eighteenth century country house leads inevitably to this song. I genuinely think that I may be one of a few who could talk with (no) authority and (little) confidence on fashionable furnishings and where to put your servants in your luxury country pile. Can't help but think my interest might have waned a bit later had Damian Hirst been involved and I'd had Alex James to look at. That's actually a bit of a lie: from trawling through musty, dust covered papers untouched for hundreds of years, to spending hours transcribing ant-sized letters accompanied by bowls of tea and bags of e numbers, to finally locking myself in a darkened room and bashing away at a keyboard for weeks on end, there has been a seam of enjoyment somewhere amongst the chaos.

Emerging out of the other end somewhat heavier and of a duller, pasty complexion, I've even discovered a new must-read. No word of a lie, ex Country Life architectural editor Jeremy Musson has penned a fantastic history of servants in the country house, nattily titled Up and Downstairs: The History of the Country House Servant."



There's definetly a film or two to be made out of some of the scandalous snippets included in here, the raunch factor of which rivals Jilly Cooper on a bonkbuster marathon. One that springs to mind was the valet who had "intimate relations" with not only his lady and her young daughter but the lord as well.
Gosford Park's got nothing on this.

Spending long days tapping away on the computer means that my mind has wondered to other places rather than dusty damask coverings, and the discovery of the Pretty Much Amazing music blog is getting very close to knocking old favourite Jeffmix from pride of place as my most cherished music go-to. I check up on PMA on a daily basis and store up the deliciousness of Jeff every month for his dose of genius music selection: got to say that PMA has been boshing out treat upon aural treats recently which showered like snowdrops upon the dank February of academic life. Treats like this bad boy; Kele offof Bloc Party's solo effort.



It's a complete departure from Bloc Party of yore: screaming club night, banging out electo fabulousness and definetly not meant for standing emotionally in a dark corner. Can't wait to see what the rest of the forthcoming LP "The Boxer" has in store.

About a month ago PMA linked to Delorean, a Spanish (Basque) alt. band and their chooon Stay Close from new album Subiza. Althoug I liked this song on first listen for all its jazzy mixing of synths and plaintive vocals, it's grown and grown on me like creeping ivy.



I included this song on my April playlist and (cue casual linkage)have popped it on again on my brand spanking new May spotfy list, avaliable as always from the link on the right of the blog. It's a new month which means a whole new playlist: at this very moment in time just four songs have made it on, including the new Jason Derulo whose lyrics make me think even more happily of life without the diss.

'm feeling like a star, you can't stop my shine,
I'm loving cloud nine, my head's in the sky,
I'm solo, I'm riding solo,
I'm riding solo, I'm ridin solo, sooloooo.
Yeah, I'm feeling good tonight, finally doing me and it feels so right, oh,
Time to do the things I like,

Ahem.

I can also promise you loads of 90s anthems to get loaded up on there: currently listening to 90's Floorfiller Classics which I've been sent to review and joyously rediscovering all kinds of greats. Bobby Brown is a god. For another post, another time, perhaps...

Also sorted out my comments boxes so if you want to leave your thoughts on my posts you no longer have to belong to the google network to do so. hollllaa.

© Miranda Thompson 2010
DISCLAIMER: The video links hosted on my blog are not being presented as my own. If you believe that the copyright in your work has been violated through this post, please contact me through the blog.

Feeling Frisky?

It sounds like Pass Out's slightly glam, sassy little sister, complete with mad-fer-it drum and bass breaking it down in the final seconds. It's just a bit amazing. God of Grime Tinie Tempah comes up trumps again with Frisky on another collaboration with Labrinth after their Stylo efforts. I see this not only dominating dancefloors nation wide but probably definetly popping up on some solid remixes: will keep you posted.



Lyric du jour is surely the oh so British prioritising with "Would you risk it for a chocolate biscuit?".


© Miranda Thompson 2010
Comments much appreciated!
DISCLAIMER: The video links hosted on my blog are not being presented as my own. If you believe that the copyright in your work has been violated through this post, please contact me through the blog

Hungry Like a Wolf

...for good music.
Meant to blog this yonks and yonks ago (aka the last seven days) but with the Big D dominating most trains of thought excepting eating (I swear I go to sleep counting inventories not sheep), though of course, I didn't.

New Mystery Jets. It's truly really very good: following along the lines of their stonking second album Twenty One "Flash a Hungry Smile" jangles along on a summer's breeze, all backing wooos and boshing drums. Cheekily cute lyrics abound:Have you heard the birds and bees/have all caught STD's?

New album's called Serotonin and judging by the sound of Hungry Smile, levels should be shooting through the roof upon listening to this. And that sentence is probably definetly what the Mystery Jets want all muso-journos to be saying. Oh well, 'tis true.



The good news? You can download this track for the princely sum of 0p just by clicking onto their website, here. What a'99 sized summer treat that is.

© Miranda Thompson 2010
Comments much appreciated!
DISCLAIMER: The video links hosted on my blog are not being presented as my own. If you believe that the copyright in your work has been violated through this post, please contact me through the blog

Babas

Warning: complete and utter self indulgence ahead.

Did you like Charlie and his bitten finger? Are you a fan of oh so slightly epic easy listening treasures? Fancy seeing a goat and a small Mongolian tussle in a plastic water bucket? Alright then....



Whilst planning a cinema trip and hence ploughing through hours of trailers to make the selection we stumbled across this documentary. I doubt "Babies" is going to be the next box office sell out but you can't really get much simpler and sweeter than the story of four wee cherubs from different corners of the world taking their first steps and babbling their streams of childish inanities.The inclusion of folk-indie-artiste Sufjan Steven's "The Perpetual Self", found by Fizz after ploughing through the internet, only serves to make me love this even more.

© Miranda Thompson 2010
Comments much appreciated!
DISCLAIMER: The video links hosted on my blog are not being presented as my own. If you believe that the copyright in your work has been violated through this post, please contact me through the blog.

500 Days of Summer

Finally, FINALLY managed to watch this in the few hours snatched between hectic Sunday lunch shift and couple-y Sunday night shift. Local Spar doesn't really "do" artsy unrequited love stories (yet manages to fill every other shelf with inane Jim Carrey/Adam Sandler/freaky horror flicks for the apparently massive local fan population of the undead) so obtaining this prized copy probably was a highlight of a Sunday filled with taking food in and out of a kitchen.

Story? Boy meets girl. Boy falls head over heels. Girl...doesn't. Starring the edible Joseph Gordon Levitt, he of bashful 10 Things I Hate About You and 3rd Rock From the Sun fame and Zooey Deschanel, surefire candidate for Katy Perry twinship and all round rosy-cheeked, twinkly eyed cupcake, the script is played out through numbers flicking from 1-500, tracing the days Summer (Deschanel) has been in Tom's (Gordon Levitt) life. Not to mention muted bluesy greens colours dappling the cinematography, seriously covetable clothing and of course, a soundtrack to die for.

It's all about the music: Tom and Summer bond over the Smiths' "There is a Light that never goes out" booming out of his headphones, get drunk and sing raucous karaoke (Tom, a deliciously raw Pixies attempt, Summer, Nancy Sinatra's Sugar Town) and all the while, through the ecstatic highs and deep lows thrown up by their relationship, a haunting soundtrack keeps an emotive pace. As the film is the debut feature effort from music video director Marc Webb, music plays just as important a part as any of the actors.

Even though the Smiths would realistically take home the Oscar for Best Actor for their centrality to the whole shebang, the soundtrack is stuffed with gems. Not content with just bawling to backing tracks in dingy LA bars, Zooey Deschanel is a real life, genuine pop star as part of folky duo She&Him, consisting of she and country artist M.Ward, him. Their USP focuses on jangly, breathy, vintage pop, and their album Volume 1 isn't a million miles away from the Carpenters. They've managed to snag a spot on the soundtrack with an ebbing, plaintive cover of (who else), the Smiths' Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want.



If you fancy something a bit more upbeat, but just as endearing, try recent single In The Sun.



Doesn't she just look a doll in this? No wonder Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard snapped her up. Personally, am inclined to think he may be batting above his average here...

The album plays host to really sneaky songs, of the type that creep up on you and bear you away with their epic-ness. Exhibit#1: Mumm-Ra's She's Got You High



Back in the murky mists of time during my first term at uni, I can vaguely recall bopping about to these lads at the NME tour when it graced the biggest venue uni had to offer. Of course, now I wish my memory was better. Bloody wine.

Exhibit #2 Sarko's laydee friend/wife/hot piece of patisserie. LOOK! Her face MOVES! WOW! Never did I think I would be featuring the Gallic first lady on these virtual pages but she more than deserves buckets of praise for this dreamy piece. Vachement bien.
(is that sarko's love rival at the window?)



Exhibit #3 Temper Trap's Sweet Disposition. I know, I thought it had fallen victim to serious over exposure via radio waves but hearing it juxtaposed to the sweetest loves scenes and joyous pin pricks of Tom and Summer's relationship made me want to put it on constant replay. It's pretty hard to get tired of perfection.



I can't really put the whole album on here but I can tell you to check the rest of it out. We're talking regina spektor, Simon and garfunkel, Fiest and Wolfmother. Spotify it here

For now, I'm going to play you out on what is possibly predictably my all time favourite scene in the film. There's dancing, fountains spurting and tweeting birds alighting on shoulders. Could it get any better? It's only bloody set to You Make My Dreams Come True.




© Miranda Thompson 2010
DISCLAIMER: The video links hosted on my blog are not being presented as my own. If you believe that the copyright in your work has been violated through this post, please contact me through the blog.

Take Me to a Festival

Bright blue skies and kisses of sunshine makes me think of my favourite time of the year: it's just about time for festival season. Cue much wooping.

Thanks to currently straddling that awful time in life where uni ends and reality kicks in, its been hard to make any coherent plans for welly boot wearing, pear cider sloshing and staggering around an increasingly mucky field in remote rural English corners, and it's slightly worrying me. I'm a firm believer that, just as food always tastes better in the fresh air (bbqs. case closed), nothing can top the reverb echoing across the fields from some distant main stage. With Glastonbury tickets sold out and that week dedicated to my summer job anyway, its time to set out on a new plan; festival must haves this year include Phoenix, the xx and Vampire Weekend. I'll keep you posted as to how things pan out...

Things have already kicked off on the other side of the pond at Coachella, smack bang in the middle of a Californian desert with a line up to jizz over: staples like Muse and MGMT mix with personal faves Matt and Kim, Miike Snow and Passion Pit or newly discovered treasures like The Glitch Mob or Major Lazer, followed by Deadmau5, Aeroplane and Tiesto to take you through the night. Am postively trembling with jealousy. Can't quite imagine what festival-ling in a desert might be, (hot, sweaty and with interesting portaloo facilities most likely)but the opportunity to catch ANY of the lineup instead of being trapped with looming deadlines would be one to savour.

In honour of great music being played in fields, parks, and other wide open spaces this summer, I was going to try and do a retrospective of timeless festival moments.... but am instead going to showcase some of my favourite live moments which played out at Glastonbury 2009, year of the 9 hour bus journey/rural pub crawl from Brizzle and boiling hot sunshine. Words can't really describe the immenseness but perhaps some of this videos can help convey a sense of the buzzing atmosphere.

N*E*R*D: Rockstar




Absolutely cracking this was: NERD came onstage to a barrage of boos for keeping the crowd and left to a chorus of both screams and anger as their over-running made the Glasto organisers shut them down. In true anarchist style Pharrel helped tens of keen fans onstage to help keep the show running. Bloody good. Really enjoying the white middle-class hand pumps going on across the crowd here.

Saturday Night: THE BOSS!
Two and a half hours of sheer MAGIC. Having battled to get into the inner sanctuary of the first barriers all that was left to do was remove the wellies and get gently battered with new forty year old mates to the sounds of the fittest fifty something about. HELLO. Typically, all time fave Dancing in the Dark was saved for the end. We all loved it.



The last night proved to be a tussle between the Blur love in on the main stage or getting a bit grimey with my sound of summer 2009: THE PRODIGY! So much energy, so many shouts of "Where my WARRIORS" meant there was no better end to a weekend than hollering COME WITH ME TO THE DANCEFLOOR in everyone's faces.



Finally, although this didn't take place at Glastonbury, it's a fine example of the musical magic that can be conjured in Festival-land. Lykke Li meets Miike Snow and get it on to Kings of Leon. Unbelivable.



© Miranda Thompson 2010
DISCLAIMER: The video links hosted on my blog are not being presented as my own. If you believe that the copyright in your work has been violated through this post, please contact me through the blog.

Snooze Button

Sleepyheads

© Miranda Thompson 2010
DISCLAIMER: The video links hosted on my blog are not being presented as my own. If you believe that the copyright in your work has been violated through this post, please contact me through the blog.

Young Money

Drake dropped the new video for his latest single "Over" just a few days ago and as an advocate for his lush throaty rap I feel it's my duty to share it with you.



Currently "Over" is working out as a bit of a grower: it certainly doesn't strike me with tingles of excitement in the way that "Best I Ever Had" did and yet there's something soothing about the streaks of light juddering in the video, the constant builds, the shrieks of the strings. To be honest, Drake could do a voice-over for Pingu and I'd still love it.

On a Young Money note, Barbie wannabe and Usher groupie Nicki Minaj recently attracted some venom in the form of a Guardian music blog on "the rise of the titillating female rapper".
I read this piece with interest and can't help but agree with the author: it seems that "the shift in expectations of women has led to a new reality: a successful female artist must not only be talented, but also able to titillate the gaze of an assumed male viewer."

Don't get me wrong: I massively enjoyed Minaj doing it for the girls with Young Money and doing it to get the girls with Usher, her lyrics are blinders and her delivery slicker than your average, but Latoya Peterson makes a fair point. Not only are women like Minaj (and Kelis before her) asserting a large degree of male aggression in their approach, their overt sexuality in the pelvic grinding, wide eyed blinking and cleavage shots favoured by the former surely only serves to enforce weak female stereotypes rather than breaking new ground and providing the pop world with strong female role models. Where's Lauryn Hill when you need her eh?

Peterson's conclusion resonates strongly: "while the same tropes still hold, one can only hope that eventually the increasing female representation in rap will lead to women challenging the norms of the male-dominated space, not just performing in it."

Let's just hope that there are women out there who, rather than being inspired to strip to teeny tiny knickers and get their boobs out, are inspired by the likes of Minaj to prove that there are women who can be successful without becoming a cheap gimmick of an age old stereotype.


© Miranda Thompson 2010
DISCLAIMER: The video links hosted on my blog are not being presented as my own. If you believe that the copyright in your work has been violated through this post, please contact me through the blog.

Piste Off

Apologies for the blogging absence: blame can only be directed towards the totally lush, snowy last ten days spent en famille zipping between mountains bridging the craggy border between France and Switzerland.

To make it up, (and generally indulge my predeliction for photo taking), here's a few snapshots to try and sum up the general gist of what happens when you mix lots of cheese, lots of bantaaar and shedloads of snow. Strictly PG rated; don''t want to get the Justin Bieber lookalike in trouble.





TARTIFLETTE - tummy warming delight of reblochon cheese, lardons (bacon bits), chunky potato slices and slivers of onion goodness.










Obligatory Dog shot. You don't know how lucky you are not to also be seeing "small pug waddling" and "dog wearing neckerchief".












Much of the time not spent skiing/eating/boozing/lying down groaning with fatigue was spent industriously getting the elusive "jump" shot. Because we ARE cool like that.







Family T spent a glorious morning teetering on the edge of the universe; in between avoiding hordes of seven year olds let loose on freshly waxed skis it was all about chasing that powder into the deepest blue.















Not content with jumping on mere concrete, the more adventurous among us took to ze snow parks.



Every year I compile a fairly epic playlist with which to tackle the mountains of neige, heavy on the '90s dance and with a large slice of cheese on the side. Somewhat surprisingly, it was Glee's Somebody to Love which proved to get my juices going, though shout outs must be accorded to the Fine Young Cannibals, Iyaz and JX accordingly. Not to forget the godly Michael Bolton, bane of chalet life.

To celebrate, you're getting an eyeful of the Glee lovelies performing for Barack. The world works in strange and beautiful ways.



I'm also super happy to announce that I've finally worked out how to link my spotify to my blog - scroll down to the right to access my current playlist which I start afresh every month. Guilty pleasures and new favourites abound: as well as the toetapping Daryl Hall and John Oates, it's currently playing host to some classic Blue, Chase and Status and T.I to name but three.
Lovely stuff, but it's this angsty treat from the Kick Ass soundtrack which is rocking my world just at this precise moment in time. Taylor Momsen of Gossip Girl fame wields her punk face with The Pretty Reckless and the result is somewhat mesmerising. I do feel about 14 listening to it.



This is also fit: Jeffmix featured it about a month ago on his podcast and I've also noticed it's popped up on who else but Grimmy's "future pop playlist". You've got to admire the guy for the curls/'tache combo as well as flashing the flesh. Beautiful chirpy spring pop.




© Miranda Thompson 2010
DISCLAIMER: The video links hosted on my blog are not being presented as my own. If you believe that the copyright in your work has been violated through this post, please contact me through the blog.