| Mushy Sunday |
[Dec. 6th, 2009|08:37 pm] |
My brain feels vaguely mushy. I've spent the whole afternoon a) slowly tweaking the ASoIaF forum theme a bit more, b) occasionally looking over Elio's shoulder to watch him roleplay a bloody battle on the MUSH, c) now and then pondering "The Silver Mage" which I finished last week, d) all while listening to all my Pet Shop Boys songs in alphabetical order. The first bit is enough to drive anyone crazy, and the rest are various kinds of counter-measures.
I really ought to be writing a review of "The Silver Mage" (that's the last Deverry book by Katherine Kerr), but I am not feeling motivated until I've redesigned hippoiathanatoi.com as well. And I should probably finish westeros.org first. The short version would be that I really enjoyed it, though I am clearly too much of a romantic to discuss them on the Kerr mailing list. If I was Jill, poor Nevyn would still be gathering herbs.
I guess that's why no one's going to pin the fate of the world on me anytime soon...at least I hope no one has such plans. |
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| Music Monday |
[Sep. 7th, 2009|11:05 am] |
Linda and I heard this one for the first time this past weekend... and now Linda has a new anthem. As far as she's concerned, the 80's were the greatest decade in history, and it's been downhill from there.
(The only reference that didn't click for me is the poodles with guitars; Linda explained that as a [probably European, possibly even specifically Scandinavian] term for brilliantly coifed bands like Europe and the sort of music they played.) |
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| A Concert! |
[Jul. 1st, 2009|12:46 am] |
Elio and I spent the evening at a Pet Shop Boys concert, and we had a fabulous time. I've been a fan since around West End Girls, and converting Elio to the fabulousness that is the Pet Shop Boys was a task I set out on very soon after he moved here. We've actually seen them once before together, when they played Liseberg after the release of the Release CD, but that wasn't quite a proper concert. Before that, I also saw them during the Performance tour (1990 or 1991, I believe) when they played Scandinavium in Gothenburg. I had a ticket for the seated section then, however, so I was what felt like miles away from the stage. That's pretty much the sum total of my previous concert-going experience.
We got to Eriksbergshallen a little bit before 18.30 tonight, and the line wasn't too bad. They started letting people in after not too long, and after poking around the venue for a few minutes (for the all-important bathroom visit, and to refill our water bottles) we went over to the stage. There was a small crowd present already, but we managed to get good spots in the second row to the left. It was probably just before 19.00 at that time, so it ended up being about an hour of waiting (and sweating -- it got very warm) before Neil & Chris got on stage.
It was well worth the waiting, though. Great show, all in all. Setlist was composed mainly of 80s songs (quite a few songs from Please and Actually) and songs from Yes, the most recent album. Behaviour and Very were also represented, though Release not at all and Fundamental only very slightly. In addition to their own songs they did a cover of Coldplay's Viva la Vida, partially mixed together with Domino Dancing, with Neil dressed up in robes and a crown. Other than that stage costumes consisted of lots of different coats for Neil, a disco ball jacket for Chris and lots of boxes, including worn on the head by the four dancers now and then.
While there were some songs I would have loved to hear, I don't think there were too many (if any) that I would have liked to switch out. I certainly enjoyed myself a lot, and I hope it won't be as long of a wait as this time before we get to see them again. |
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| Squeal |
[Mar. 6th, 2009|12:00 pm] |
This will be a month of waiting. Not just for books, but for the new Pet Shop Boys CD. Some snippets have finally been put up in various places, and I am absolutely head over heels for Pandemonium. There's a one-minute clip of it in this video from the rehearsals for the Brit Awards: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZXCeLWCgjs#t=0m30s |
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| Eurovision Hangover |
[May. 13th, 2007|10:38 am] |
I just woke up with a light headache from a night full of distinctly weird, Eurovision-themed dreams. Fortunately, no dancing, foil-wrapped teletubbies featured in it. But a lot of other oddness.
Which is fitting, I suppose, given that yesterday was a very odd Eurovision. Not the songs, as such. As always, when you hear them in the final, most of them are a notch better than when you heard them the first time. Listening to them early and often really changes things a lot. Of course, only a minority of voters actually do that, I would guess, so it makes it harder to see what the immediate reaction to a song would be.
( Read more... ) |
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| Eurovision |
[May. 9th, 2007|02:18 am] |
Its Eurovision time! And just so you won't have to listen to all the songs, we have done all the work for you. If you still want to, you can find them all on SVT's excellent site.
( Read more... ) |
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| The Best of Britain |
[May. 7th, 2006|11:19 pm] |
For the last ... oh, hour or two, I've had 12 short clips from the upcoming Pet Shop Boys CD, Fundamental, on repeat. Yup, I'm addicted. Of course, that's not news, I've been a fan since Please, but every new CD release gives it an extra boost. And after hearing these clips, my anticipation just got upped to a frustrating level. Some of the new songs are darn good. Once the CD is out, I might do a full review, but here are some first impressions of the CD plus the two besides for the first single:
( Read more... ) |
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| The Dreaded Music Meme |
[Apr. 6th, 2006|04:51 pm] |
Yeah, Linda and I are getting into it, too. ;) This is from our shared playlist. The big hint: lots of 80's music, especially lots of 80's Europop.
( Music Meme ) |
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| Cursing Melodifestivalen |
[Mar. 18th, 2006|10:15 pm] |
Well, the Swedish call-in vote, anyway. How anyone can think its a good idea to send Carola to represent us in the Eurovision is just beyond me. That fake smile, fake voice and fake everything just make me sick. She should just have kept to singing in whatever church she's currently in at the moment, as I really don't expect this song to do well for us in the qualifier. It is decent, sure, but it is definitely dated and too much of a typical schlager to work well today. Then again, I am almost hoping it will do really badly, because if I have to hear Carola go 'tack, tack!' again I will probably throw up. ;P
Either BWO or Andreas Johnson would have been excellent picks. This was definitely a year where we should just have kept to the jury vote and sent Andreas Johnson. Or at least made the call-in vote count for much less, perhaps half. |
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