What has rocked my 2010?

Once again the nights are getting longer, snow is threatening to fall and cause mass absences from work, and people are decorating pine trees with tinsel and (in the Rooncave at least) Star Wars figures. That means it must be nearly Christmas! This was going to be a festive post, but since I’m holding off on being all Christmas-y until next week when I start my three weeks of leave, I’m going to give you all a rundown of the albums that have rocked my world in 2010.

Not all of these were released this year, but I first listened to all of them in the two thousand and tenth year since the birth of some guy in sandals who heard voices from “God” in his head, so they make the list. I should also add that it is not in order of preference, since I’m awful at deciding favourites, so they’re just in the order that I remember them!

• Danger Days: The true lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, by My Chemical Romance – This album is phenomenal. Gone is the melodrama of The Black Parade, swept away in a maelstrom of snarling guitars, insanely catchy hooks, and thumping drums. I know I said I’m awful at choosing favourites, but this is probably my Number One album of 2010.

• Carl Barat, by Carl Barat – One half of the legendary (in my eyes at least) duo behind The Libertines, and front man for Dirty Pretty Things, Mr Barat finally found time to record an album of his own. It swings from swaggering bravado to quiet introspection, and all the stops in between. A Superlative album (in spite of the awfulcover art) from one of this decades finest songwriters.

• Hazards of Love, by The Decemberists – I discovered this band and thus this album via Questionable Content, and I’m extremely glad I did. I’d love to describe this album to you, but it really is something you have to hear for yourself to understand. But it did make me want to buy a harpsichord!

• JJ72, by JJ72 – The second on this list that wasn’t released in 2010. It was actually released a decade ago, but apart from three songs (October Swimmer, Snow, and Oxygen), I’d never heard anything else from it, and in fact hadn’t heard any of those tracks in years. Then a fellow on Twitter mentioned listening to them (hello Mr Jellyknuckles!), and I fell in love. They’re like the best melodramatic bits of Muse, viewed through the mind of a drug-addled six year old.

And there we have it, the music that has been damaging my ears the most over the last twelve months. Make of it what you will, and feel free to point out any that you feel I should have included (my memory is incredibly fallible)

TTFN

And so it begins…

… 2010, that is.

Greetings and salutations my adoring readership! Bet you thought I’d died, or given up writing here didn’t you? Hmm?! Well, if you thought either, you’d be wrong! I’ve merely been terribly, terribly lazy when it comes to writing this blog. I could give you a list of excuses as I have done in previous posts, but I shan’t bore you with attempts to defend my slothful self. Instead, I shall barrage you with a bizarre selection of things that have taken my fancy of late!

First off, this:

Not sure if the image will actually reliably link to the site, or if it’s just the image (if not, here’s the link). But the site that it’s on is a repository of fashionable and often beautiful people dressing themselves up in myriad wonderful ways and posting arty pictures of themselves looking fabulous. The idea is ostensibly to show people inspired new looks and ways of wearing clothes to look cool and beautiful. Whilst I don’t need much help in either of those two categories, it’s still a bloody good site to browse through, and can prove incredibly inspiring (for instance my attempt at something approximating the look above inspired me to lose my Christmas fat before trying to fit back into my slim-fit clothing!), and a very nice way to waste an hour or so of your day. Every day!

I’d like to become a member of the site myself, but membership is either by invitation from an existing member (*hint hint*), or by wowing the admins sufficiently in an application that they make you a member. Unfortunately a large part of that application needs to be a blog of some sort showcasing your keen interest or history in fashion, and my blog is a tad too geeky to make the bill I fear. Oh well, never mind. I’ll just have to post more pictures of me looking ace! 😉

Next up is this. For those of you too lazy/un-observant/wary to click on the link, it’s some demo recordings I made and uploaded to Garageband.com. I’ve had some good feedback so far from people on Twitter and Facebook, so I thought I’d put them up here and see what you people thought of ’em. Please bear in mind that they’re only demo recordings, made in my apartment (read as: flat) using some very basic equipment, with just me and my acoustic guitar, so there are no fifty-two piece orchestras or intricate guitar solos! But those recording did spur my creative partners in crime into action, and we had our first band rehearsal in years last night. It was a bit slow-moving, but that’s to be expected given that we’re starting from scratch after years of laziness. But the first songs starting to take shape are definitely interesting, and will probably shock some of the people who think they know what we sound like…

Oh, and if the Garageband player doesn’t work, try the “lo” bandwidth version, and the bottom of the player. The “hi” bandwidth version seems to be buggered.

I’ve not done any work on any of my ongoing literary project since October/November time, so no updates there, although I have done quite a lot of reading since then, including the following:

• Dune, by Frank Herbert
• Caves of Steel, by Isaac Asimov
• Only In Death, by Dan Abnett
• Contact: Harvest, byJoseph Staten
• Fall of Reach, by Eric Nylund
• Star Wars: Wedge’s Gamble, by Michael A. Stackpole
• Shout!: The True Story of the Beatles by Philip Norman
• And starting David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens, and Star Wars: The Krytos Trap by Michael A. Stackpole

A lot of geeky Sci-Fi in there I know, but then what more do you expect from moi? Dune and Caves of Steel are classics of the genre, both written by one of Sci-Fi’s greats, and as such are good solid reads, set at a slower pace than most of today’s Sci-Fi. Contact: Harvest and Fall of Reach are both based in the Halo universe from the hit Xbox game series which I’m a huge fan of, and were fun to read, giving nice touches of history to the games. Only In Death is the penultimate book (so far) in Abnett’s Gaunt’s Ghosts saga set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, and as always delivers the fast-paced futuristic war action and characters that you actually care about. Shout! Was a break from fiction for me, and was a bloody good read, charting the course of the Beatles’ lives from their humble beginnings, through the heights of Beatlemania, and on to today (well, two or three years ago). the access Philip Norman had to private information and previously unknown sources make it an amazingly in depth biography. The two Star Wars novels are in the X-Wing series which I started reading a long time ago, and although definitely not high literature, they are so much fun to read! It’s probably because I’m a huge Star Wars geek, but I usually finish one of these books in a week because reading them is not only easy but almost addictive! And obviously, David Copperfield is me making sure that my reading list doesn’t look totally like that of a 16-year old fanboy! 😉

anyway, the little series of digits on my screen that people refer to as a ‘clock’ is telling me it’s lunchtime, so I must away! I got paid today, and it is a most welcome relief actually being able to eat again!

TTFN