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