D E N __ B E A R

Right. An invitation for anyone.

Due to an utter lack of creativity on my own part, I've decided to write a series of short pieces based on any titles people can think of. Give me a title, and I'll write a piece with it.

So, get cracking. I'm cross-posting this at DeviantArt, RYL and My New Blog.

Have fun.

I'm still doing random stuff like this and angsting at Livejournal, because it just seems wrong to do it anywhere else. All the proper blogs are at http://mrcharming.blogspot.com now.


The last person who…

1. Slept in your bed - Me ¬_¬ Other people? Laura.
2. Saw you cry – Erm. Actually not sure. Fliss, maybe?

3. You saw a movie with – Haven't been to see a film in fecking ages. No idea. At home, with teh rents, probably.
4. You went to the mall with – No fucking idea.


Have You Ever...

1. Said "I Love You" and meant it - yes
2. Gotten in a fight with your pet – Yes, I threw a shoe at my cat once.
3. Been to California - Nope
4. Been to Mexico - Nope
5. Been to China- Nope
6. Been to Canada – Twice
7. Been to Europe – Live here. Stupid foreign quizzes.
8. Danced Naked - If I had, I wouldn't remember ¬_¬
9. Wish you were the opposite sex – Only to see what it'd be like.

1. Do you have a crush on someone – Um, yeah, I guess
2. What book are you reading now – Frank Skinner by Frank Skinner
3. Worst feeling in the world – This fucking tonsilitis I have.
4. Future KIDS names- God, I'm far too un-old to think about kids. Erm. For a girl I've always liked Emily. No idea.
5. Do you sleep with a stuffed animal- Fuck it silly every night. (No.)
6. What's under your bed – The floor.
7. Favorite sport to watch – Football, if it's any good.
8. Location – Leeds, UK
9. Piercings/Tattoos – None *yet*
10. Do you drink – No, I live solely on solid foodstuffs. (Yes.)
11. What are you most scared of – The future. And wasps.
12. Where do you want to get married – I don't particularly want to, since it's fucking stupid. But I might get cheaper car insurance, so it's worth thinking about.
13. Who do you really hate – I don't know if I really hate anyone. I know some people who really hate me. (Oh, no, wait, Luke Hobson.)
14. Do you have a job – I'm a lazy shit. All my work is freelance, which isn't much anyway.
15. Do you like being around people - Certainly, when I'm in the mood.
16. Have you ever liked someone you had no chance with – Of course.
18. Are you lonely right now – Yes.
19. Song that's stuck in your head – ‘where I end and you begin’- Radiohead. (I have to put this now, as I stole it off Rei and that's what she put. Hence, I got to this question, read her answer, and now it's stuck in my head.)

1. Been in love – Yes.
2. Played strip poker – Strip *Snap* was an interesting one.
3. Gotten beaten up – Yes.
4. Pulled an all nighter – Yes.
5. Been on radio/tv – Radio.
6. Been in a mosh-pit – Oh yes.
7. Do you have any gay/lesbian friends Yes.

(Why the fuck was this section split into random groups?)

In the last 24 Hours have you...
HUGE MOTHER OF AN EDIT BECAUSE I MISEED THE 24 HOURS BIT.
1. Cried - Yes.
2. Bought something – No money.
3. Gotten sickv - I have FUCKING TONSILITIS WHICH HURTS LIKE A BASTARD now.
4. Sang – No
5. Been kissed- No.
6. Had Sex- No.
7. Felt stupid – Obviously.
8. Talked to an ex – nope.
9. Missed someone – Yes.
10. Hugged someone – Yes.

*sigh* I hate Livejournal.

It seems I'm going to fuck off to some other blog site soon. Bear with me.

Stumbled upon this thanks to Lucy's MSN name. A very interesting site, though one thing still puzzles me: can't they just do handwriting checks on the suicide note against any of his array of writings?

Went to The Cockpit tonight to see Ali Whitton, avec Ruth and Fliss. Ali was fantastic, as he has been on every occasion I've seen him. Shame about the chatty crowd, but I suppose that's to be expected at an acoustic show. Afterwards, Ali seemed strangely pleased that I was singing along to some of his songs. Heh. I know all the words, me.

At about half 9 we wandered over to Sahara, which was fairly quiet and nice - always nice in the top room on an evening with the lights and music - but there was a random painter guy near our bench, who seemed to be listening in to our conversations. Meh. Then wandered down to The Cockpit again to get a lift home.

And I have *absolutely no idea* why I am posting this. Wahey.

Trying my hand at a bit of photography.

And this is tonight's result. Working With Kenzi at Mixing Tin, Leeds.

Sahara overcharges. Cost us £10 in total this evening. £3 for a pot of mint tea! It also has a non-smoking room now, which is good, I guess. Gives people a chance to eat without smoke drifting around the place. But, like, it's surrounded by the smoking rooms, so I can't see how it'd work. Meh. Also, Fliss is cute because her lung capacity is so small that she can't smoke a sheesha properly. Which is funny.

Then from Sahara on to Carpe Diem where Working With Kenzi were awesome and we were not. The sound was horrendous throughout, somehow. WWK did really well, though, coped with it beautifully and I'm really proud of them. Thank you to Em, who lent me her bass after my top E string snapped. But dear, there seems to be something up with your input. Was crackling a bit and cut out completely at one point. Might wanna get it looked at... unless I just fucked it up somehow.

Bah, apologies to anyone who was disappointed.

EDIT EDIT EDIT EDIT

Inexplicably, I've only just found this. It's quite harrowing reading - especially considering the father later died from his injuries as well.

Hmm.

A little online fiction unfolding over at Walker's abode, going by the title of The Conspiracy of B. It's a very intriguing little thing, with some nice websites and clues and things unfolding - and it's quite complex for this sort of thing too, with the first puzzle being a morse code one... though I admit this is, what, maybe the third thing like this I've ever done, so I'm not an expert.

You can find stuff at the above link to Walker's house, and also at the Unfiction forums, where there is a thread dedicated to it.

Check it out.

This:

( See my comment statistics )

The thing about being a reviewer is that the role carries a certain responsibility of objectiveness with it. It's almost not about what you think of the product at all; far more important is what you think others' responses will be to it. As such, Circa+ by Flare won't find itself displacing Crazy Frog or whatever the fuck at number 1 any time soon.

Doesn't mean it's not fast becoming one of my favourite albums of all time.

Residing somewhere in between the straight folk of Wainright and the experimental post-music stylings of Paz Lenchantin, Circa+ is the sort of re-issue/new-release crossover that doesn't make me want to throw everything at the artist for essentially throwing the same thing at us again - ahem, Razorlight Limited Edition With Shit Song Added. Instead, not only does it retain the sheer, unblemished chillout beauty of 2000's original Circa, it adds to it by throwing in another four songs of absolutely equal effect - it's completely inexplicable why they weren't featured in the first place. It's the sort of music that contains such magic that what, one listen, would almost lullaby you to sleep, would the next send you into a blathering tearful mess. It's beauty: there's not another word for it.

It's half past midnight and I'm sitting with the lights out, insense burning across the room, blind slightly open to let me see the storm which still murmurs in the distance. I've got Circa+ playing on headphones, which if anything just adds to the magic. I find myself swaying in time with the mesmirising sweeps of the cellos. It's peaceful, more than anything. Today's storms may not have been too impressive per se, but the sheer length that they've continued - and persist to do so - has got to be worth something. Earlier, shortly after the storm hit nearby, I walked up to the fields near my house and stood, mesmirised, in the middle, staring upwards to catch the rain and the lightning, then looking out to see the entire city light up with the storm. To be honest, I missed the best of it: that was spent staring out of the window thinking 'wow, this is a pretty good storm,' before finally digging out my cagool and stepping out under the near-waterfall of rain. It was worth it, still.

I feel at peace with myself tonight, which is quite rare. I'm in a pretty optimistic mood right now, and I'm trying not to let things worry me because, at the end of the day, it's nearly time for a few weeks where I don't have anything looming over me, and I can genuinely relax for the first time in years. Summer will be good. I know it. I thought it last year and was disappointed, but I've learned from my mistakes and I know what to rectify this time. It's gonna be a good, festival-filled holiday, with other musical ventures padding out the time between muddy camping at Cambridge and Leeds fests. An expensive summer, certainly, but happiness is worth every penny I spend on it.

Look! A smile on Lewis! Fuck me...

It's hard to put into words quite how warm today is.

I'll try: very.

Confronted with the new Flare album to review. Technically, it's a reissue of 2000's original Circa, but since half the material is until now unreleased, it pretty much qualifies as a new record. It's very, very interesting. Post-folk, laid back outlandishness, with crying violin and nursery rhyme piano. I like it, I think. It's definitely not immediate, but it has a certain relaxing quality about it, and over the course of one listen my opinion of it has jumped around the vicinity of 4 marks. My plan: listen a shitload more, write, and see what the tone of the review ends up as. I like it, though, quite a lot.

I thought the following picture, from Dan's blog deserved a cross-posting.

Ah, immature humour.

Tonight was ace. Also, I'd like to publicly blame Tiff for getting me so absolutely wasted, by pointing out her secret alcohol supply. It was, undoubtedly, phenomenal.

Great to see everyone. Great that people were so unjudgemental, despite the diversity of types. Was rocking.

Love everyone. x

Highlights are the obscure We Are Scientists piece, semi-quoted the other day, Dan's opening of the White Stripes review, and Em (Fe Line)'s closing of the Colours review.

Read it, y'know.

Just finished reviewing Coldplay's X&Y. There's so much more I want to say about it that it almost makes me want to go back to the review and rewrite half of it.

And then I freak out and run around the room screaming 'Argh, deadlines!' and that puts me back in my place.

Oooh, look, see what I did there... not intentional, unfortunately.

Just conducted a most bizarre interview with Chris from We Are Scientists. Feature in GrooveStealer, released Friday, but a snippet for now:

What the hell happened at your show at The Viper Room, LA, in March? Something to do with the sound desk?

Oh, it's not that interesting a story, really. This one's pretty good, though: There was a squirrel named Cousins who would enter people's houses through the open windows and steal chocolate. He thought this was pretty smart and grew arrogant about his abilities, feeling that really no chocolate in the neighborhood was safe from him should he choose to compromise it. Well, the Bible tells us that pride cometh before the fall, but at least in this case the Bible's wrong. That squirrel Cousins went on stealing chocolate the rest of his days, which were long and sweet indeed.

Gah! Coldplay album! Late! Now not arriving until tomorrow! Need to review it! Gah! Deadlines!

Nef kindly requires that you buy her unnecessary ticket to Download.