Two Weeks

Dear Daniel,

It looks like I've been away from here for a bit, but I think it's been less than 2 weeks. I've been spending my time constructively, though, and listening to the likes of Grizzly Bear and the new album by Smog's Bill Callahan - beautiful. I won a music quiz in the new Leeds music venue the Nation of Shopkeepers, but I didn't know the answer to the question "Which American group were originally called the Pendletones?" I've attended an anti-BNP demonstration. I've met a german man who has more control of my life than I really appreciate.

By the way, in reference to your post on christian rock below, you may like to know that since you have been away from these shores Songs of Praise has become a lot like a Petra gig. Do you know Songs of Praise reminds me of you dad's front room in where-everhelived?

By the other way:



Since we last spoke, Little Boots has gone from strength to strength, debuting at number 13 in the UK charts with the above song. I hear it at least twice a day on our radio station and I still love it. I don't like the video, though, with it's ironic "dance of the destitute". Clearly, Victoria's success is testament to the tastemaker-like power of this blog, which posted about her ooo ages ago. Equally clearly, it's testament to the power I have to make people I am acquainted with become successful by doing - precisely - nothing and speaking to them - at most - rarely.

When are you going to become a successful sitcom writer?



Dear James?

What do you mean, when am I going to become a successful sitcom writer? I already am one. The whole success lies in getting the job in the first place. The rest is just sitting around, drinking tea and cashing cheques.

That would have been my dad's front room in Bramhall, although all his front rooms look the same to me. He has to move every 3 years to be whether the trendiest part of West Stockport is. He's now in Cheadle Hulme. You'll be glad to hear he's finished his conservatoire.

Am I allowed not to be impressed by that Little Boots song? I mean, are you very good friends with her or did you just kind of meet her once and want to give off the impression that you know her? Either way, it strikes me that you take away her piano and her tenori-on and you're left with something very ordinary. But don't tell her I said that, she seems like a nice girl.

I was into Grizzly Bear years before you were. Well, Karo the Norwegian sent me an MP3 of one of their songs in 2006, I downloaded the album for free and then never listened to it, same thing.

Here's some Songs of Praise for those poor souls who've never seen it.



Dear Daniel,

Do you know that Adam from Adam and Joe made that as part of a sketch show which the BBC decided not to commission? I would like to point commissioning editors to the shows "2 pints of lager and a packet of crisps" and "The Horne and Corden show" and say: "Shame on you"...

As for being allowed to criticise something, when did proximity to me stop you from saying you weren't keen? You told me you didn't like my last album...

(Although you were very nice about it...)

Dear James,

Fair enough. So when's your solo album coming out?

Meddle

Dear Daniel,

Woody Allen's new film is called Vicky Christina Barcelona. From that trailer alone, I wouldn't bother. But it features the combined talents of That One from Lost in Translation, That One from Vanilla Sky and That One from No Country for Old Men, plus That One Who Used to Write Hilarious Social Satires of New York New-Wavers. My brother dismisses it as Woody Allen trying again to write around a particular city, like he did in Match Point. I don't know what he's talking about: I don't remember Match Point. He says that's probably for the best.

Did we watch "Jamon Jamon" together during an ill-conceived film marathon at Sheffield Uni? I definitely remember "Golden Balls" which was supposed to be the sequel, right? I think you told me that. Well, Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem were together in that, being all porno. Did you see No Country for Old Men? Not at all porno...

I can't tell you why Vicky Christina Ronaldo reminds me of Little Boots in this public arena (and I use the word "public" quite wrongly) but it's a decent enough way to introduce you to the UK sound of 2009 (copyright everyone), a talented young lady from Blackpool via Leeds who also happens to be another of my friends from the Leeds music scene who has leapt onto the rung of the music ladder where people leaning idly from upstairs windows can see you for the first time and start asking your name and listening carefully to the answer. "Hello, interesting new person," they say, "would you like some tea?"

Dear James,

Great stuff. You haven't made tea for Little Boots, have you? It'll put her right off the music biz before she's even got started. That is very good stuff, a bit like Ben Folds when he plays Smoke, only not like that very much. And also a bit like Victoria Wood, and I mean that in the nicest possible way. What's that little box she's playing with? Have you got one?

Match Point is the one where the posh chap who's supposed to be Irish kills the one from Lost In Translation and gets away with it, via a clumsy tennis metaphor. Apparently there's a ghost in the final scene; I've yet to see it. Sadly, it introduced a whole new generation over here to Woody Allen, as I sat groping my Hannah and Her Sisters DVD.

We did see Golden Balls together at the union cinema, I enjoyed Jamon Jamon later that summer with the curtains closed. I'm concerned that you think you were with me at the time. I'm now thinking of you in the erotic garlic scene. "¿Te gusta el ajo?" "Mmm, ¡venga!" That kind of thing would have lost No Country For Old Men the Oscar.