pub quiz revision #1
Cinque Ports - a historic group of towns in Kent and Sussex (Hastings, New Romney, Hythe, Dover, and Sandwich). Now how were we meant to know that?
Welcome to Catch
a story of coffee, music and football
world peace monsters
Ever since Lordi were voted winners of the Eurovision song contest by the European public, uniting Europe under the banner of monster based rock music, discussions have been going on in Downing Street to take things to the next level, and create a band of monsters who will use rock music and to unite the entire world.
Heated discussions have been going on all week as to who should be in the group. Sources have revealed that the names at the top of the list were John Prescott and John Reid who are both known to play heavy metal in their spare time, but this was blocked due to them being “indispensable to the government”. Commentators have translated this to mean that the PM can’t let them step out of the firing line or he’d have no cover left. Instead, a substitute team of Geoff Hoon (Bass), Jack Straw (Drums) and Margaret Beckett (Vocals and lead guitar) were offered and were rumoured to be practicing in Westminster last night when a grumpy Ming Campbell told them to “turn that damn music down, I’m trying to sleep” also muttering “bloody kids”.
Today it’s been revealed that Jack Straw has been forced to withdraw from the plans after someone pointed out that even though they were after monsters, they didn’t want to be scaring small children. With the monster band plan in jeopardy of falling apart, fevered attempts to find a replacement for Straw have begun, but sources point out that as the Home Office are having trouble finding anything these days, people shouldn’t hold out much hope.
sound of 2006 update #1
Back in January I tipped a number of bands for greatness in 2006, so now is as good a time as any to revisit the list and see how things are going.
The Feeling
The feeling are currently in the well rehearsed new band routine of re-releasing the debut single to cash in on the newly found fans. The band are just finishing a series of support acts for the Charlatans before heading off on the festival circuit. The album ‘Twelve Stops and Home’ is released on June 5th, expect summery popness.
Guillemots
Things have been a bit quiet here after the release of the second single ‘we’re here’. Currently on a UK tour followed by some festival appearances. The album, ‘Through the Windowpane’ is due for release on July 10th, but you need to delve into their myspace forums to find it.
The Automatic
I’ve been happily jumping around to the new single ‘Monster’ for the last week or so, again a little digging shows the album ‘Not Accepted Anywhere’ will be out June 19th. Currently on the NME new music tour, which can only be an endorsement.
Kubb
As the album was released a while back (ok, last year), kubb are in the ‘live off as many singles as we can put out’ phase, currently doing a few UK dates followed by a few festivals (including the IOW). Expect multiple single releases and as many tours as they can until people start to get bored.
We Are Scientists
Currently back home in the states for the summer, but with a festival appearance at V, We are scientists are trying to drum the album into as many peoples minds as possible, some uk dates will happen at the end of the year.
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Hmm, even I’ve got bored of this whining, sorry! That said, are playing T in the Park, Reading and Leeds, so some people must still be interested.
So there we go, expect album reviews in due course and a post praising my excelled choices towards the end of the year. If everything goes badly, don’t expect me to admit it.
the dawn of time
Many people believe that time started at the year dot, you’re wrong. Time instead started in 1884 of all years when 41 delegates from 25 nations met in Washington D.C. in October for the International Meridian Conference and decided that Greenwich should be the centre of the world.
Previously, I was of the belief that we (the British) chose Greenwich ourselves and then forced the rest of the world into following us with a mixture of long words and stubbornness, turns out that history will see it differently.
The following comes from the recorded proceedings of the conference which can be found online thanks to Project Gutenberg.
“The question was then put on the adoption of the resolution offered by the Delegate of the United States, Mr. Rutherfurd, as follows:
That the Conference proposes to the Governments here represented the adoption of the meridian passing through the transit instrument at the Observatory of Greenwich as the initial meridian for longitude.”
So, not only was there no forcing (at least not in public) but the resolution was offered by an American. Of the 24 votes, only 3 didn’t support the move. San Domingo (now Haiti) voted against and both Brazil and France (surprise surprise!) abstained.
The people of the world then set about deciding that the day should start at midnight and that the half of the world west of the meridian should have times ahead of the meridian and visa versa. Simple stuff, but only once you’ve thought of it.
And so, the people of the world agreed on something, which goes to prove that we can. Thus time began, and the world that is, came to be. Except for the Ordnance Survey which decided to continue using the previous meridian, 6 metres west of the agreed one, because they simply never bothered to change and the meridian which is used by satellite navigation systems, which is currently about 100m east of Greenwich for a number of complicated reasons including that continents are known to move.
squeeze me
Squeezy Marmite? It’s heresy I tell you.
car advert sweepstake
Went to see mi:3 last night, mediocre at best. Great stunts and action sequences intermixed with a predictable if only half present ‘plot’. It’s not bad, but it’s not enough to prompt me to review it fully. Instead, let me introduce you to the game of ‘car advert sweepstake’ which me and Si invented a couple of months back. It’s a reaction to the fact that even though the film claims to start at 8, you’re still sitting through trailers 25 minutes later (at least at the Poole Uci/Odeon/whatever it is).
The game is simple, before the adverts start, each player guesses how many of the forthcoming adverts will be for cars (the things you drive, not the movie). Each player must pick a different number, or the game doesn’t work. The winner is the player who guesses correctly (or who is nearest, but this has never come up).
Some rules:
- Multi-part adverts (like the mini adverts a while back) count as one.
- Only adverts count, adverts shown during the trailers don’t count.
- Adverts for games consoles featuring cars or the movie ‘Cars’ don’t count.
The challenge comes from deciding what type of film you’re watching, who is expected to be watching it and therefore who is likely to be advertising, so an animation will have more than a film for teenagers due to the parents who are expected to be in the audience. I know it’s not going to be a major craze, but it might just get you through until the actual film starts.
copyright flaw
If half of UK infringing copyright, perhaps we need to look at a fairer copyright law?
snow patrol - eyes open
I’ll admit, I wasn’t a Snow Patrol fan until ‘final straw’, or to be more precise, ‘run’. It wasn’t that I didn’t like their music, just that I’d not heard any of it. Curse of the small band and the big radio station? Sheltered upbringing? I’ve no idea either. That said, Snow Patrol were awesome at the IOW last year, for which I stood with the gang quite near the front and sung my voice out. Strangely I never thought to search out their earlier material, which like all other old material seems to increase in price at the record shops and not drop in price like everything else in the world (until it becomes an antique), strange really.
The reason for suddenly considering the older stuff now is the sound on the new album. Gone is the level loud and in comes a large number of quieter songs, not a bad thing, but I wanted to know whether this was a new direction, or whether final straw was the odd album out. Turns out it was the former, although feel free to prove me wrong.
I was discussing with Si in the car yesterday just who this album sounds like. The vocals are Snow Patrol, no doubt (Mr Lightbody sir, you have a great voice), but there are also hints of Coldplay, Longview (remember them), Embrace and a number of other bands I just can’t get my tongue to. There will be people who criticise this, but there’s nothing nowadays that doesn’t sound in some way like something else. There might also be criticism of some samey songs here, and I can sort of sympathise with this, but it might be that I’ve listened to it a lot on shuffle so might have been listening to the same songs over and over again.
Overall, I do really like this album; I like the louder tracks, but like the quieter tracks even more. Special praise to the second single ‘chasing cars’ which is bloomin great. Also special praise for my ipod being able to remove track 12, 3:55 of filler between the main album and the bonus tracks (just make the album longer people, please). The first great album of the year, hopefully. The first summery album of the year, definitely.
new photos
Check out my new photos section, which is now much simpler (behind the scenes) and uses the fadtastic lightbox.
more than a penguin
On the train back from the last Saints game of the season on Sunday (I might write a review of the season, should I get around to it before the next one starts!) I picked up someone’s discarded copy of the Independent. Inside was part two of ‘The Indypedia - Facts and Figures of Modern Life’ a little paperbound book of randoms. Inside, among such interesting and equally useless facts as ‘Number of new Starbucks branches due to open in the world every day during 2006: five’ and ‘By some estimates, a language becomes extinct once a fortnight’, was the following gem:
“The world most-decorated penguin is Nils Olav, a king penguin at Edinburgh Zoo who is also regimental mascot of the Royal Norwegian Guards. Nils Olav, who will be 21 this year, has held the rank of Regimental Sergeant Major in the Norwegian Army since 1993, and in 2005 he was awarded the Norwegian Army’s Long Service and Good Conduct medal.”
Once I’d stop laughing, I looked it up. Really, this isn’t a joke, the little guy even has his own wikipedia page, and I bet you thought the penguins from Madagascar were made up!
your own headcrab
Thanks Valve, just what I always wanted.