A Place to Crash

Long Time, No Blog

Yes, this blog’s been collecting dust again. The two jobs have kept me quite busy, plus I’ve been chasing handsome young Welshmen across the Georgian countryside (tough gig, I know.) But I haven’t forgotten about the few readers I possibly have left.

I’m fairly certain that if I say one more word about “Doctor Who” or “Torchwood” my friends will throw me off the bus. But I can’t let this opportunity go by to introduce y’all to the BBC Proms, a classical music event which takes place annually at the Royal Albert Hall. This year’s show was DW-themed and featured this awesome vinegette.

I’ve been watching “The X Factor” for the first time, and while it’s by no means another “Britain’s Got Talent”, it beats “American Idol” up one side and down the other. This is possibly the best hard-luck story of the year.

If you like “I can’t believe they actually let them air that” comedy in British style (note: they get away with five times more over there), here’s some Kevin Bishop.

In case anyone’s thinking that I forgot about Robbie Williams, I haven’t. I kinda dig his longhaired paunchy look.

Finally, I try very hard not to talk about religion or politics on this blog, because discussing those subjects never seems to end well for me. However, the Red State Update’s reaction to Sarah Palin is very spot-on and very accurate.

Tags: bbc proms, doctor who, kevin bishop, red state update, robbie williams, the x factor

Feel Good Friday: ‘Angels’ and ‘God’, On High

I was going to not post anything today, because I am completely and utterly obsessed with tomorrow’s DW finale, and I’m trying not to put my Twitter readers through more. But the folks at Robbie Williams News reminded me that it’s the 10th anniversary of Robbie Williams doing “Angels” at Glastonbury.

For everyone who hasn’t read his quasi-autobio, “Feel”, Rob was pretty much Amy Winehouse-gone when he recorded this song, which came from a fragment Rob thought up whilst looking at a waterfall in Ireland during a major bender. Unlike Amy, Rob had great management that made him stay in rehab long enough to stick eventually. But before he appeared at Glastonbury and sang this, he was basically known for getting kicked outta his band, a la Doherty.

It’s a credit to him as a performer that he made one great performance into the career he’s achieved everywhere but the U.S. And that’s what I love about festivals, even though I don’t really go to many anymore. You get everyone who has at least a couple of monster hits and lots of the folks on their way there. Like Tori at Glastonbury in ‘98, who I’ve been listening to also. Wow, the same year. And if you’re an old-school Tori fan (Fox, Brittney, Matt…) you need to hear this. So today you get two.

Actually, watch this one too. And this. Heck, watch the whole search results.

Now I’m going to fight off the urge to learn how to make fanvids so that I won’t make a Ten/Donna fanvid for this song, who is @mikeschmid on Twitter, one of those folks I friended and admire from afar. There’s a lot of indie artists on there like that. Check out @thehighwaygirl, too.

And that’s it, unless anyone wants to hear my new theory about what’s going to happen to Donna tomorrow. No? Really?

Edit: I lied. I have to add this fanvid, because 1) it’s incredibly awesome if you’re a TW/Doc slasher (as far as I’m concerned, they should move the show to Cinemax and let them all go for it. Kidding!) 2) Who doesn’t want to watch three hot men and a TARDIS? 3) Captain Jack’s got the most prolific scorecard ever, and 4) This is secretly one of my very favorite songs ever.

It is the one and only song Pete Wentz had association with that I can listen to, and I know this is going to ruin my rock cred worse than the fact that I ADORE Miley Cyrus’ cover of “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”. Okay, that’s it. I’m not sure that anyone will ever listen to me seriously about music again, ever. *wanders off to listen to The Cribs to help self-esteem*

Tags: 1998, doctor who, glastonbury, robbie williams, tori amos

Feel Good Friday: Something Beautiful

Thanks to my Twitter buds GingerSnaps and Newscoma, I have found out about the Feel Good Friday thing. And it’s very cool, because I knew exactly what my first one would be, and it seems appropriate since we’re only a couple of weeks removed from Britain’s Got Talent.

As with most Robbie songs, this song and video have a story. This song was originally written by Rob and his former writing partner for Tom Jones, but he passed on it and Rob decided to stick it on my favourite album of his, Escapology.

Rob was in the middle of touring and couldn’t appear in a video, so his management and MTV-UK teamed up and did a reality show where people could try out to “be” Robbie. They weren’t going on physical resemblance, but were looking for the person who embodied his spirit and enthusiasm onstage.

The top three performed on the show and the public picked out the winner. In the extended version (which has disappered from YouTube) the winner leaves the studio to catch a bus, sits down on the bus bench and discovers that Robbie’s sitting next to him. Pretty neat.

In any case, this is one of Rob’s few truly cheerful songs. It’s a nice listen. And I dare you to even try to be depressed after playing this.

Tags: british, britpop, feel good friday, music, robbie williams

Ace and Slag: Brit Culture #1

I’ve been listening to your suggestions from my previous post. I’ve also been analyzing my blog stats. I do so much of that at work that I avoid it on my blog, unfortunately, but I should apply my knowledge to my own blogs. And I have determined that for some reason, y’all seem to like it when I talk about British stuff

Beats me why — I know most of my friends watch “Doctor Who”, and some watch “Torchwood” and “Coupling”, and a lot of us love tea and one of you actually lives there. But I only know of one American who watches as much British telly as I do *pokes Joe awake virtually states away as he snoozes during Six Nations Rugby*. That leads me to believe that BBC America would do well to just start airing all the random little BBC3 shows and get rid of “Dancing With the Stars” posthaste. But maybe that’s just my wishful thinking.

So I’m going to try to post every day or so about one or two things that are British that you should check out ASAP, and some others that should be completely ignored by the Brits themselves.

The Good
- Lily Allen and Friends: I think I’ve blogged about Lily Allen before. I’m not a huge fan of her music. Her album was basically the same song done over a dozen times. Her best work was on Mark Ronson’s works (both on his album and Robbie Williams’ — check out “Bongo Bong and Je Ne T’Aime Plus.”) She’s gained a lot of attention for slagging Ronson and Rob and just about every musician she’s ever worked with or dated, but managing to stay cute whilst doing it. And she does look really nice in retro clothing (take notes, Amy Winehouse.)

But Lily has had a horrible 2008 so far — lost a baby by miscarriage, her boyfriend dumped her within weeks, her new show hasn’t had the best start, she can’t go to a club without huge pap drama, and now she’s being treated for depression. I think every woman can relate on some level. And even though her own presenting skills are still slightly uneven, you should give her show on BBC3 a chance.

She has the most entertaining guests, and Lily’s good at conversating with them, even if it’s not the most comfortable of dialogues (i.e. Lily and Ronson’s sniping last week.) And all her segments that bring in her “friends” from MySpace (how much are they paying for the free advertising?) are actually pretty entertaining. So even if she annoys the you-know-what outta you on the front page of “The Sun”, give her a try.

Torchwood: If you’ve watched Torchwood in the past and been turned off by the soap-opera aspect, give it another look. For one thing, Martha Jones is doing a guest stint with the team (Coming Soon: Why Martha Kicks Rose’s Ass) and for another thing, a major character is stealing some tricks from the Buffy vault. That wasn’t much of a spoiler, was it? For those of you who have only seen last week’s ep on BBCA, the next two weeks will be melodrama galore, but meaty.

Also, if you happen to be watching “Torchwood” by non-BBCA means (not that I would have any idea how to do that…) please watch or TiVo the new eps from there or HDNET, even if you don’t watch them again. BBCA is doing a really great thing by reairing the show two weeks after the UK showing, and they should get the ratings boost so they’ll continue doing that. “Hotel Babylon” is coming in next month with about a six-week lag, so I guess they’re making an effort.

Not gonna slag anything tonight. Graham Norton, you’re safe for now.

(Note: Any posts about content found on American cable systems do not imply illegal means of obtaining content. You see, I’m secretly best buds with Robbie Williams and he flies me out to LA on weekends to watch all the stuff TiVoed off the extra-special satellite feeds that the BBC and ITV must provide to him. On Sundays, I motor over to Posh and Becks’ pad for the rest. Yes, that’s the ticket.)

Vid O’ Da Whatever: ‘Sweet Home Alabama’

One of the members of the Pure Robbie site sent this to me, since she apparently noticed that I’m located in Alabama.

If I’m not mistaken, he’s singing this backstage at his Albert Hall swing show. At least, I think I recognize the background.

The funny thing is that I grew up on the Tennessee side of the TN/AL border during the period when the Tennessee/Alabama football rivalry was really hot. If you were born into a Big Orange family (and yes, you are born into these things in the SEC) you’re brought up to HATE this song. Now I’ve lived on the other side of the border for six months, where people really do randomly break out into this song a disturbing amount.

And it’s especially weird to see a guy from Stoke-on-Trent who has probably never set foot anywhere near Alabama singing about how blue the skies are here. But that’s just me. Anytime Rob wants to actually visit the Southland, I’ll be happy to teach him “Rocky Top”.

New Robbie Williams Choons

Robbie Williams gave his Inner Sanctum members two new tracks for Christmas, and they’ve leaked to YouTube. I normally wouldn’t post fan club-only content, but since his online store won’t bother emailing me back about why my password won’t get me to the only page where the stuff is available, I feel no need to pass along the only thing that kept me from missing out.

(And Rob, I know you do blog searches for stuff about you, so I hope you might run across this someday. I just have one thing to say — your Web site seriously sucks. I’ve talked about this before in another post, but the people who answer your mail for the shop are rude and unhelpful, particularly to Americans when we have to ask basic questions about pricing and credit cards. If you really intend to leave EMI and go the Radiohead route, please do your fans worldwide a favor and make a site that acknowledges that you have fans from outside the UK. And dear God, please do a complete site redesign. Thanks.)

First track — a duet with Laura Critchley (she’s supposed to be the next Lily Allen): “Break America”.

It feels lately that every track Rob puts out lately (including “Lola”) is an homage to another era of music. Makes sense, since he’s made a swing album, but it makes me wonder if he’s really that horribly bored with modern music. And there’s something to that, considering every other track on Top-40 is produced by Timbaland, but I kinda would like to hear him do something with Daft Punk. Just wishin’. This is an interesting song, and it does a pretty great job at poking fun at the LA types who poke fun at everyone who comes from somewhere that’s not the West Coast.

“In and Out of Love”

This one’s even more of an era-homage — it’s straight-up disco. I don’t see this one ever being a single. But it’s fun and it’s begging for a kickass mashup and some remixes. The lyrics are a continuation of Rob’s attempts to explain why he’s not married. We get it — you’re a commitment phobe. Welcome to the club, and here’s your t-shirt.

I assume neither of these was intended to see an album or a single release, but are supposed to hint at where he’s going with his direction, like “Bodies” and that maybe-fake or maybe-really-old YouTube leak that was so depressing. In any case, I’m interested in really seeing what he’ll be doing after “Let’s Swing Again”, and if he’ll update his sound then.

Vid O’ Da Day: Close (To The Edit)

I’m watching “Frost and Pegg’s Perfect Night In” (thanks again, Joe!), which is basically Nick Frost and Simon Pegg slobbering over their favorite movie scenes, TV shows, etc. I was kinda intrigued by Frost’s shared love with me for the show “Location, Location, Location” — never saw him as a reality TV guy, but he agrees with me that Kirstie and Phil are destined someday to shag all over one of the houses they’re trying to sell.

Anyway, this is a really neat video that they showed by Art of Noise. The video won an MTV VMA for Best Experimental Video (this was only given out four times) but was banned in New Zealand for allegedly glorifying violence towards children. Okay, then.

Robday Vid ‘O Da Day: ‘Angels’

Robday is rescheduled for today because of the holiday, and because I felt like it.

It’s a hard newsday here. Not only is it the anniversary of the bus crash that killed four girls last year on the interstate five miles from here, but a former RB for the Tide was in a collision this morning that killed his wife and four of his kids, one of whom would’ve turned 19 today. He and his last surviving kid were seriously injured.

So yeah, it’s a rough day. But this came on my Slacker Radio, and it’s comforting. No wonder it’s the #2 song for funerals in the UK.

This is when Robbie Williams played at Glastonbury in 1998. You can pretty much read last week’s Robday posting about that time in his life to see why he’s so gaunt and uncomfortable and lost. “Angels” is the song that made him into the star he is today. And even though he’s known for hating certain of his early songs, he said he’ll always love this one because otherwise he’d be drunk in a pub in Stoke-on-Trent, telling everyone that he used to be in Take That.

And with my usual bonus, here’s Rob onstage at Knebworth doing the song that really is made for funerals, about his grandmother. “Nan’s Song” was the first song he wrote both music and lyrics for. It’s the kind of song you want your grandkids to write about you when you die. And yeah, “Better Man” is on there too.

Robday Tune O’ Da Day: ‘It’s Not Unusual’

Note: Robbie Williams gets one day a week in my video series. It remains one of my grand goals to somehow educate the American people in the joys of his music until he becomes just famous enough to tour here. Yes, I am selfish.

Forget arenas and clubs and TV studios — most of Rob’s most brilliant performances have been in festival settings. From his first solo performance with Oasis at Glastonbury just as Take That was in its last throes, to his own solo debut there a few years later, and even beyond at Knebworth and Leeds, he manages to do his best in front of about 50,000 or so people. Which is kinda strange considering how much stage anxiety he professes to have. But I digress.

I think that if I jumped into a TARDIS and had a choice of one festival to go to, it would have to be either Slane ‘98 or ‘99. The first show had Robbie, James, the Manic Street Preachers and headlined The Verve. The next year, Robbie headlined and the rest of the acts included David Gray, Gomez, Placebo, the Happy Mondays, and the Stereophonics. Okay, that one wins in a walk. I really would love to see James live, tho…

Anyway, at one of those festivals, Rob did a cover of this, probably as a precursor to a later memorable Tom Jones collab at the Brits. If you look at the work Rob did after this, with his swing album and his Royal Albert Hall show and an appearance in “De-Lovely”, the song is not a surprising choice. However, at the time this performance happened, Rob was only a couple of years beyond dancing N’SYNC style to teenyboppers. This is not a teenybopper song.

I would really, really love to see Rob do Coachilla or the Virgin Festival next year, not only because I am determined to see him do an outdoor show, but because I think either of those venues would show Americans that he’s done more than clown around for TMZ at Hyde a bunch of times.