the man of shtetl

those poor daffodils. saintt daffyd's day came and went and they were covered in snow, trying to poke their little yellow heads out into the cold. bless 'em.
there are two new songs online - a new song, 'midweek cd purchase' and a new old song, 'fanthorpe' (dedicated to our dear reverand - what a life he's had! if i used the word 'like' (without the justifier 'it's', i'd say 'he's had, like, the coolest life ever!') midweek cd purchase is deeply flawed, i'm really sorry about the bark at the end - i'll be able to pull it off live, but in my room where upstairs my housemate is having his physio round, and i've no beer, it sounds really pathetic. i need to work my my metal accent. it was recorded in two days and what with academia, i couldn't be bothered to get it sounding 'right'. please use your imagination. conversely, fanthorpe's been in production about three years, the guitar recording is contemporaneous with womansour. new songs go here.

more horsemen: things i hadn't mentioned from my trip to bath. in clinton fucking cards, they were clipped on to the bottom of the display stand. firstly, i couldn't get over the size of bath's clinton fucking card shop. it is positively cathedralic. i wandered round and round like alice in commerceland looking for something (specifically for alec meer's birthday). after toying with the idea of doing over a 'little brother' card, "where do people like you come from?" the pointlessly mr. tourette-ical "whore cunt", until i thought that buying a genuinely nice card to reflect my genuine affection for alec would be a better idea so i bought one with a dinosaur on the front. but before i found the 'value' section, i saw them. the cds. 'songs for my girl', with a generic woman on the front. a collection of smooth soul classics for the special person in my life, be it girl, boy, or for some reason, father. huh? i mean, HUH? this is an object that can only be used to end a relationship. what better way to say 'you're dumped' than by giving someone a mix cd that you didn't even make? show your apathy with clinton cards - because we don't give a fuck either.
it even had the name of the guy who compiled it on the back. some shmo, hell's bells, it's like "all back to mine: me" here.

is superman jewish? asks howard jacobson. get to around 25 minutes for a short diversion into the jewish justice league.


speaking of comics, i greatly enjoyed grant morrison's issue 0 of soldiers of victory, although jess only thought seaguy, which i loved, was only 'okay'. dc comics have got him working like a dog at the moment.

hats off to keanu reaves for pissing me off no end by starring in "a scanner darkly", one of my favourite books, and then going and starring in fucking constantine too! if i'd ever read it, i'd be well hitlered.

another thing about bath: as i was leaving, i said to dan "i've really got to get over the whole control freak music thing at parties." dan said to the effect of "yes, by all accounts you were being a bit of an arse." for some reason i really felt hurt by that - i'm admitting guilt, but he really drove it home (for avoidance of confusion, i'm not hurt by danny, but other's recognition of my actions).

on friday l and i found ourselves at the gloster, courtesy of julie keller (it was jacks's birthday). miss pain girl and heidi heelz, for all their faults, do an excellent indie night. they played 'this town ain't big enough for the both of us' and the 12" mix of personal jesus and oh so many classics-well-not-real-classics-but-really-good-songs. although i suspect they're really a freindly user interface for the slightly older man. and miss pain girl does have a rediculous pony tail.

unnovations is so out of print, it's going for 30 quid on amazon second hand. which made an offer of 16 pounds seem so reasonable.
the only other thing i have to say is that we watched the dark crystal last night. i haven't seen it since i got the world of the dark crystal

for christmas; the philosophy and art in the film is quite subtle but it is there. for instance, there's no explicit link made between Aughra having one eye and her witnessing the great conjunction.