Old Rottenhat

Old Rottenhat's moved over to typepad, so now you can comment on Yog, Xie, Groove and Snake Hips' considered musings. And pick up on things like Noam Chomsky's remarkably ugly and illegible new blog.

Very, very unhelpful

I am ranked 325289th-best Amazon reviewer ever!

find me!

So I thought I'd check out the bottom-rated ones, and it turns out that three of the reviewers on the final page of all (ranked joint 638846th) are there for giving a good review to Ruben Stoddard from American Idol's album:

here
here
here

Usually it's *bad* reviews that get you downrated. But American Idol is intensely political.

2004-04-24 UPDATE: Now up to 134623!

3 hours of MTV

Captured during the early hours of Sunday, when they actually show music videos.

Red means it was my first exposure to the music. It's pretty much all my first exposure to the videos.

Not a lot to say about The Darkness, They continue to appear to enjoy themselves, and I continue to enjoy watching them. Love Is Just A Feeling is yet another cliche - rocking on the top of a mountain / in caves / down the rushy glen. I won't pretend that there's great evangelical power in this one - if you like the Darkness, you will like this video and if not, not.

Interlude: Celebrity Deathmatch. CD has started creating its own mythology, and the results are predictably rubbish.

Reptilia is a well made and executed song that I just don't care for. Have The Strokes made a video yet which isn't just "Hey hey, we're the Strokes"?

Say what you like, the Red Hot Chilli Peppers always seem to be having fun in their videos. Fortune Faded is a bit tougher than usual, to the point where you realise that a joint RHCP - Foo Fighter supergroup is only a matter of time.

Sugababes' standard but still pretty likeable In The Middle gets one of those videos where each of the band gets a section where they have their own outfit, their own atmosphere and their name written on the screen - like S Club 7 or Steps used to do on their first few videos. No need for that sort of thing now, I'd have thought.

I thought Big Boi was ... bigger. The Way You Move is from his side of the album, and clearly the sort of thing that we assumed was entirely Andre 3000's doing. Bootytastic video, full of complicated and interesting situations, all sexy. And a slightly fruity agile man,

Is anyone buying N.E.R.D. as stars in their own right? She Wants To Move is a fantastic oppressive take-your-woman track, but watching these (yeah, yeah) nerds yelling "She's Sexy!" is the weak link in the post-apocalyptic after thunderdome video.

There's somethihng to be said for recognising when someone has already claimed your schtick and moving on, or at least not releasing it as a single. I've heard Keane's Somewhere Only We Know a dozen times without realising thast it wasn't a subpar Travis track, and the video, wherein they travel into the wild to play their music, maan, does them no favours in this respect either.

Evanescence will have some real problems if the lady is the only permanent vocalist: she has a fine voice, and they make a fine noise, but the boy-girl thing is what really nails Bring Me To Life. The video is over-the-top gothistry, and brings out the pseudo-Anne-Rice touches in the song nicely.

Blink-182 have made a quiet Cure-ish song with a "complicated" beat, and a Victorian Suicide Girls video. May the lord have mercy on us all.

Keane : Travis :: Kylie Minogue's Red-Blooded Woman : Sugababes. Not that Kylie should be forbidden from dabbling, by any means, but this really isn't any cop. The reference to Dead Or Alive is particularly strange, being as she is a walking eighties reference point herself.

Dip It Low starts with Christina Milian writhing about like Kylie used to in the olden days (okay, also every female pop singer for the last 15 years), and then continues in that vein, crossing handily the line between "I am a foxy lady" and "I'm the star of a stag night". The track is interesting, a tripping oriental medlody and her light Beyonceish vocals disguising the fact that the lyrical content is pure filth.

Arrgh, Nickelback! Fuck off! Chad Kroeger still sounds like every single line is the money shot. Even the ones that go "doo-doo-doo-doo". An attitude of overcompensation which is also reflected in the song being titled Feeling Way(!) Too(!) Damn(!) Good

Maroon 5 - Harder To Breath. Wow, this is interesting, funky white rock that sounds familiar for a lot of the way through, until the harmony voice in the chorus suggests that it might just be a bunch of chancers who bought up the notebooks of Terence Trent D'Arby. The video's not much cop, mind, just the boys in a room.

My views on Toxic are fairly typical, and so I'd love it even if the video looked like Maroon 5. Fortunately the video is a nuanced and powerful vehicle for a contemporary message - Britney Spears want to make it with you. Now. If you have State Secrets for her to rob, so much the better.

Jamelia's Thank You is a strange Bond-titles type video for a great R&B number (lyrical content- approximately Christina 's Fighter)

They still make Nelly Furtado, then. Try is basically the same schtick as her first album, and I don't know if anyone has been as comprehensively left in the dust by everyone between albums 1 and 2.

The video for the remix of Blu Cantrell's Breathe (which I don't think orignally featured Sean Paul) has a fantastic color scheme and filter applied to it that makes the whole thing seem cell shaded. I don't know why noone's thought of it before. The track itself is simple but fun. Sean Paul's Blackness Quotient seems to be varying wildly from video to another (though filters can't be ruled out here, of course).

The Darkness again.

Britney again.

Jesus, Dee-lite should sue The Black Eyed Peas. For the video to Hey Mama, rather than the pretty uptempo ode to getting down/it on. Actually, No Doubt might have a case as well, as might the Fugees. Ah, never mind then.

Yeeees, this is what I'm talking about. Christina Aguilera's video for Fighter is completely batshit, and couldn't stick more symbolism in with a trowel. The actual track itself is not quite up to it, but I don't know if She Wants To Move could come correct in this context.

I have heard much of this Wayne, and his Fountains. The song is perfectly good Rick Springfield territory, but the video is just WRONG.

Red Hot Chilli Peppers again, with a video for the title track of By The Way, which would probably be better if I recognised the guest star (is it that arrested guy from Mr Show?)

Keane again.

Sugababes again.

Jesus, do they still make Usher? The song + the video for Yeah gives the amusing impression that he's makes these smooth moves on the ladeez with L'il Jon yelling "encouragement" at him from across the room. also note: just because you're all doing the dancing at the same time, doesn't make it any good.

The Strokes again, with 12:51. The song is both short and catchy (sucker for handclaps in rock, me), but the video is a masterpiece of Tron-worship. Shame they just do their old "looking bored" routine over it.

I am a fickle god, and I don't have to tolerate The Vines' Nirvana worship just because I liked it last time. Off with you!

A note to Fefe Dobson - if many lyrics of your first single (and most of the lysics of the first verse) are of the Edie Brickell "lahdidah lo-de-do" variety, then people will assume that you're some sort of talentless fool. This is also the case if you're a talentless fool. Being from the soundtrack of The Perfect Score won't help you here.

Blink-182 again. Somewhere a fairy has dropped down dead.

Travis live! Though not by much. This is slowpaced half-hearted mulch by Travis standards, and whoever is responsible for the urban cowboy/indian quest video should be shot.

I wonder how Pink's doing? She's still a little bit off the wall, a little bit in your face, but in startling non-cover God is a DJ, the worlds allright for a chance, and the video is full of fellow freaks having a good time. I still reckon she's Gwen Stefani.

Snow Patrol - Chocolate. A song about making a start again, and something that could see the wee tykes well, if people are looking for a smaller, more uncertain version of Doves (wiv harmonies). The video has a lovely gimmick at the end.

The Darkness again.

Sugababes again.

Outkast again.

George Michael - Amazing is pretty back-to-basics, nothing that would look out of place on whatever album Fast Love was off. The video clearly harks back to Faith era while keeping it in a post-modern stylee.

It's gratifying from a retention of cool points viewpoint to find out that I don't think Coldplay's The Scientist is great like Clocks. Closer nervous inspection reveals that it's a close-run thing: it only just outstays the misery and introspection. The video has one idea, and it wasn't that clever when Pharcyde did it at least 6 years ago.

The Strokes - Reptilia again

Blink-182 again

Keane again

N.E.R.D. again

The Streets

Nothing new to say except after listening to the OPM on Fri night that it is one of the best albums of the decade so far. Just so far ahead lyrically. Can't wait for his new one out on April 26th, Playlouder did a good track by track preview here

Come back to me, we want your money

I am pottering round the apartment, eating chocolate Aeros (yes, really) and listening to Attack of the Grey Lantern by Mansun, an album which consists almost entirely of brilliant extended fadeouts. If this isn't slumming it, nothing is. Nice.

Andrew's haphazard and a half 2003 roundup part 1

Not necessarily, Bob! empire poker can also be played in other online poker sites, also at empire poker!

To be honest, I only picked up The Pastels' Last Great Wilderness soundtrack because it has a track with vocals by Jarvis. That track is good, the rest of it just passes by like soundtracks (or from what I can gather Pastels albums) tend to do.

After I Get Wet, I was worried about the second album from Andrew W.K., and wondered if it mightn't have been better if he'd stopped. Incidentally I remember (or think I remember) an interview with Oasis about three or four years ago when Noel let the mask slip and said "Yeah, it might have been best if we'd quit after the second album. Still here we are, buy our new one!". But I suppose nothing other than dropping dead would have stopped Andrew W.K., so he released The Wolf, which is bit more Jim Steinman that I'd expected, and brought out the positive message stuff visibile in His Onion Interview. I'd be lying if I said it got anywhere near the number of plays as I Get Wet, but it does what it does just as well.

I bought a copy of The Clientele's The Violet Hour after going to see them when Friend Tim came ober from London to see them. I played it once or twice and wasn't grabbed by it, then tryed it again a few months ago at about 5, while the sun was setting over the Dublin skyline and shining warmly on my face, and it was the best album ever. It's pleasant jangle hasn't done that much for me since, but it has more than repaid it's price.

A friend in work recently came over after hearing one of Adam Green's songs on RatherGood Videos, late wednesday night on Channel 4, which is basically the same stuff as on rathergood.com, but over current songs instead. I liked Green's album Friends Of Mine (apart from the Too Much Strings effect) and I liked Kimya Dawson's last album (that I heard, I'm pretty certain it's ineligible for this review), but I'm starting to realise that I'm not going to ever hear another Moldy Peaches album again ever, and that makes me sad.

Doves are maybe one of the few bands that I could term a guilty secret. I love them to pieces, but their enormous guitarry drones about love and so on might as well be U2. They released Lost Sides last year, a disc of B-Sides plus a disc of remixes, and it wasn't really anything I was missing.

I keep coming back to Placebo's last album, Sleeping With Ghosts. It seems slower than their previous stuff, and maybe it is on average, but songs like Second Sight, The Bitter End and blistering opener Bulletproof Cupid are as fast as anything they've done and great, they're just great! Oh, all right, blah blah dynamic blah blah propulsive, but the fact is they're just fucking great. As are most of the rest of the tracks.

William's Stuff 2004...

... is below the fold.

(Hmmm, the formatting is kind of poopy... a problem for later).

Okay, here's a start. I'm going to separate this into "consumed" and "to do" sections.

Done!
This section is for experiences that have been successfully consumed.
Books
For some reason, these are listed most recently read first, while everything else in this section is listed with the most recent entries last. Kooky! Yet attractive.

• The Politics of American Individualism: Herbert Hoover in Transition, 1918-1929 -- Gary Dean Best
  
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time -- Mark Haddon
  
• Woodrow Wilson -- Louis Auchincloss
  
• Murder in the White House -- Margaret Truman
  
• Maigret At The Crossroads -- Georges Simenon
  
• The Best of Father Brown -- G. K. Chesterton, selected and introduced by H. R. F. Keating
  
• The Face of War -- John Keegan
  
• The Damned and the Beautiful: American Youth in the 1920s -- Paula Fass (actually, I haven't finished this yet, so this is cheating)
  
• Thomas Woodrow Wilson: A Psychological Study -- Sigmund Freud (yes, that Sigmund Freud) and William C. Bullitt
  
• The Dante Club -- Matthew Pearl
  
• The Da Vinci Code -- Dan Brown
  
• Triangle -- the Fire that Changed America -- David von Drehle
  
• The Restraint of Beasts -- Magnus Mills
  
• The Memory Wars -- Frederick Crews
  
• The Commercialization of Intimate Life -- Arlie Russell Hochschild
  

Music
These are albums that I've listened to enough to have an opinion on them, not necessarily all the albums I've bought. I'm giving "+" ratings, where "+" is understood to be on a logarithmic scale, and no-one need feel ashamed of getting any rating at all, unless they're ashamed of getting rated below Scissor Sisters, which I may well grow out of doing by June.

Er... by "logarithmic" I mean that each "+" is worth half as much as the previous "+", or else twice as much. No "+" = bottom half; "+" = 50-75%; "++" = 75-87%; and so on. But even that isn't it, because it implies I should be way stingier with the "++"s than with the -s, and something tells me I'm not going to be. Bollocks to it all. I was just trying to come up with a ratings system that didn't boil down to me giving everything four stars, and now Christmas is ruined for everyone.

• mu-Ziq, Lunatic Harness: + -- by the way, the title track of this is so like "Adnan" off In Sides that it's just not funny. Someone's cheating here, and checking the album dates I think it's Mr. Ziq.
  
• Scissor Sisters, Scissor Sisters: ++
  
• Fennez, Endless Summer:
  
• The Strokes, Is This It?: ++
  
• Morrissey, You are the Quarry: +
  
• The Shins, Chutes Too Narrow: may grow on me
  
• The Streets, A Grand Don't Come for Free: +
  
• Sonic Youth, Murray Street: ++, maybe even +++
  
• Love, Forever Changes
  
• Sonic Youth, Daydream Nation:
  
• Mull Historical Society, Loss: +
  
• Badly Drawn Boy, About a Boy (Soundtrack): +
  

• Mansun, Attack of the Grey Lantern (G)
  
• Chocolate Aeros (G)
  
• Dawn Smith, Dawnraiding (G)
  

Bike Rides

• Sunday March 7th: South Shore -- Squantum, City Point. 42 miles.
  
• Saturday March 13th: Worcester-home by the northern route, with Nick. Stow, Acton. 51 miles + 7 to South Station.
  
• Saturday March 20th: Franklin-home past Dana Hall. 50 miles again, + 7 to South Station again. Very tough this time...
  
• Tuesday April 6th: Otane - Havelock North via the road south of Te Mata, back along the main road (route 2). 65 miles, gorgeous, enormously slow, was sick the next day, hmm. Three other 15ish mile routes that week.
  
• Saturday May 1st: That 75-miler I was talking about.
  
• Saturday May 8th: Kodak moments in Saratoga. Meant to do Exploding thighs on Sunday, just so I could say I'd done it, but it was raining too hard. Oh well. 54 miles, 15.6 mph, averaged 15.2 for the first two and a bit hours and well over 16 for the last. Need more hill training. (In general, btw, this is one of the best pages of its kind that I've found.)
  
• Friday May 21st: Just the standard out-to-work-and-the-long-way back, along 62 and Hancock St into the center of Lexington. But I averaged 17.1 for the 26 miles, which is the best this year.
  
• Saturday May 22nd: 53 miles, round the edge of Boston through Dover, Dedham and Stony Brook. Average, er, 15.1. I deliberately front-loaded the ride with hills to see what it'd do to me, and it did that.

Wikipedia Entries

• The Old Men At The Zoo
  
• Woodrow Wilson
  

Books I've Started
Yeah yeah yeah, this is the embarassing part.

• Herbert Hoover, Memoirs part 1
  
• Angus Wilson, The Old Men At The Zoo
  
• Sinclair Lewis, Main Street
  
• T. Coraghessan Boyle, World's End -- currently in New Zealand
  
• Fiona Buckley, Queen of Ambition -- currently in a hotel in Anaheim, or maybe a rental car.
  
• Emil Gaboriau, Monsieur Lecoq -- may not finish
  

• The Strokes, Room on Fire
  
• Kanye West, The College Dropout
  

Troy Kennedy-Martin

is a bit of an obsession of mine. He also wrote The Italian Job and Kelly's Heroes, and the second The Sweeney film (he's presumably not unrelated to that series's creator Ian Kennedy Martin, despite the lack of hyphen). After Edge, it's been cowriting Red Heat (!) and adapting Hostile Waters and Bravo Two Zero (!!). I actually saw Hostile Waters, it was dead good.

Da Vinci Code

This is a recent best seller from Dan Brown which draws together the Grail Legend, the bloodline of Christ, the Templar Knights and a whole host of other familiar and not so familiar conspiracy theory fare into an okish thriller (well more than ok - I couldn't put it down over the weekend). You could call it Foucault's Pendulum Lite. It was interesting enough to make me try and see how much of it has any basis (in fact or even in conspiracy theory) or did he make up loads of it e.g. do any art historians think that the andrognous figure to Jesus' right in Da Vinci's Last Supper might be Mary Magdalene and not the apostle John (ans: not too many, in the perparatory drawings for the LS the apostle is labeled John). And it seems plenty others are as well - there are 4 soon to be published books which explore the ideas and purported facts used in the book. But maybe the best thing about the book is that it made me want to visit some of the locations - Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland, Newton's tomb in Westminster, the Louvre, the church at Saint Sulpice through which the Rose Line runs (the pre Greenwich meredian in Paris).