It’s been 5 days since I had my ‘house arrest’ lifted and so far I have managed to get off my lazy butt just once to venture anywhere. With Christmas approaching at what seems like Mach 4 Friday was spent in town trying to sort out this years Christmas present purchases for Gill and the family. It shouldn’t have been too difficult because for the past 4 or 5 years we have gathered as a family to swap Christmas lists over a communal tea. Of course some of us find we have extensive ‘would like’ lists whilst others struggle past suggesting Next vouchers. From these lists we buy what we want and then inform everyone, except the recipient, to cross it off their lists to avoid duplicate purchases.
Armed with said list I thought I would have little difficulty making inroads into the chore but it proved more difficult than I had hoped. Gill and I like to be a little adventurous with our purchases, taking peoples requests and working around them to get something a bit quirky. As an example my nephew had asked for a hoodie, now I know my sister would like something smart from Next to fit the bill but I feel at 11 it’s about time he started to rebel a bit and what better way to do that than with a slightly more ‘dangerous’ hoodie. Perhaps something with “Satan says, Lock up your daughters” may be a bit too dangerous but I didn’t want to get him the safe, middle class option. Could I find anything, could I hell as like. I tried the skater shops, music stores, alternative clothing emporiums but nothing. I even tried John Lewis and Fenwick’s in a fit of desperation but the only dangerous thing there were the prices, £95 for a hoodie to fit an eleven year old!
I did manage to get a couple of things for Tony, my brother in law, and a couple of little bits and pieces for Gill, but that was it as far as presents were concerned. I ended spending much more on myself, hmm. I bought a thick, bum length, wintry type jacket to keep my poor kidneys warm, a long scarf and a couple of CD’s. On the couple of listens I’ve managed to fit in since getting them home I think I might just have hit on my top 2 CD’s of the year so far.
If it proves not to be my favourite of the year, though I think it will, Coheed & Cambria’s ‘Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV: Volume 1. From Fear Through The Eyes Of Madness’ has by far the best title by the proverbial mile. Its musical style is rather difficult to pin down, yes it’s predominantly Prog Rock but you also get plenty of touches of straight ahead Hard Rock, a splattering of West Coast lightness and I’ll be damned if they haven’t sampled the odd keyboard section from Hawkwind. Closest attempt at pigeon holing? How about Rush playing King Crimson or visa versa, that’s not quite right but it will have to do for now. What it is undeniably though is dark. Very, very dark, so dark I felt distinctly uncomfortable with it at times. It will take a couple more listens to get my head around it some more but no other CD has affected me quite as much this year.
On a much lighter note the other CD I purchased put a smile on my face and even had Gill laughing out loud. ‘Rock Swings’ by Paul Anka is just pure, light hearted bliss. He has taken some fairly well known and often cheesy rock classics from the past 25 years or so and given them the full, Las Vegas swing treatment. Favourites so far are Survivor’s ‘Eye of The Tiger’ and Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like teen Spirit’ which I can’t stand usually. The great thing about the album is that you don’t have to know the songs on it, although you will miss out on a couple of jaw dropping moments, because it stands on its own as a great collection of well produced, well written songs. Freed from their usual pigeon holes these songs are allowed to grow into something far more majestic than you could possibly imagine – brilliant!
Armed with said list I thought I would have little difficulty making inroads into the chore but it proved more difficult than I had hoped. Gill and I like to be a little adventurous with our purchases, taking peoples requests and working around them to get something a bit quirky. As an example my nephew had asked for a hoodie, now I know my sister would like something smart from Next to fit the bill but I feel at 11 it’s about time he started to rebel a bit and what better way to do that than with a slightly more ‘dangerous’ hoodie. Perhaps something with “Satan says, Lock up your daughters” may be a bit too dangerous but I didn’t want to get him the safe, middle class option. Could I find anything, could I hell as like. I tried the skater shops, music stores, alternative clothing emporiums but nothing. I even tried John Lewis and Fenwick’s in a fit of desperation but the only dangerous thing there were the prices, £95 for a hoodie to fit an eleven year old!
I did manage to get a couple of things for Tony, my brother in law, and a couple of little bits and pieces for Gill, but that was it as far as presents were concerned. I ended spending much more on myself, hmm. I bought a thick, bum length, wintry type jacket to keep my poor kidneys warm, a long scarf and a couple of CD’s. On the couple of listens I’ve managed to fit in since getting them home I think I might just have hit on my top 2 CD’s of the year so far.
If it proves not to be my favourite of the year, though I think it will, Coheed & Cambria’s ‘Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV: Volume 1. From Fear Through The Eyes Of Madness’ has by far the best title by the proverbial mile. Its musical style is rather difficult to pin down, yes it’s predominantly Prog Rock but you also get plenty of touches of straight ahead Hard Rock, a splattering of West Coast lightness and I’ll be damned if they haven’t sampled the odd keyboard section from Hawkwind. Closest attempt at pigeon holing? How about Rush playing King Crimson or visa versa, that’s not quite right but it will have to do for now. What it is undeniably though is dark. Very, very dark, so dark I felt distinctly uncomfortable with it at times. It will take a couple more listens to get my head around it some more but no other CD has affected me quite as much this year.
On a much lighter note the other CD I purchased put a smile on my face and even had Gill laughing out loud. ‘Rock Swings’ by Paul Anka is just pure, light hearted bliss. He has taken some fairly well known and often cheesy rock classics from the past 25 years or so and given them the full, Las Vegas swing treatment. Favourites so far are Survivor’s ‘Eye of The Tiger’ and Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like teen Spirit’ which I can’t stand usually. The great thing about the album is that you don’t have to know the songs on it, although you will miss out on a couple of jaw dropping moments, because it stands on its own as a great collection of well produced, well written songs. Freed from their usual pigeon holes these songs are allowed to grow into something far more majestic than you could possibly imagine – brilliant!
1 comment:
OK, so we will cross that one off the list then! lol Steph and Billy!
Good to see you back on the road again.....even if shopping trip was not as easy as you wanted it to be.
See you Friday, if not before then.
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