Playlist for November 7th

Ballboy – Avant Garde Music (Guide for the Daylight Hours)
Smiths – What Difference Does It Make? (Singles)
The Thrills – Big Sur (So Much For The City)
Teenage Fanclub – It’s All In My Mind (Man-Made)
Sondre Lerche – She’s Fantastic (Phantom Punch)
Jens Lekman – I Saw Her In The Antiwar Demonstration (Oh You’re So Silent, Jens)
Divine Comedy – I’m All You Need (A Short Album About Love)
Ute Lemper – The Case Continues (Punishing Kiss)
Hidden Cameras – Builds the Bone (Missassauga Goddam)
Caribou – Melody Day (Andorra)
Belle and Sebastian – The Chalet Lines (Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant)
Beautiful South – I’ll Sail This Ship Alone (Welcome to…)
Blur – Out of Time (Think Tank)
Tunng – Bullets (Good Arrows)
Erasure – In My Arms (Cowboy)
The Traveling Wilburys – Heading for the Light (Volume 1)
Trashcan Sinatras – I’ve Seen Everything (I’ve Seen Everything)
Mojave 3 – All Your Tears (Out of Tune)
Turin Brakes – Average Man (Ether Song)
Athlete – Tokyo (Beyond the Neighborhood)
PJ Harvey – When Under Ether (White Chalk)
Radiohead – Reckoner (In Rainbows)
Richard Hawley – Tonight The Streets Are Ours (Lady’s Bridge)
Heavenly – C Is The Heavenly Option (Le Jardin de Heavenly)
Lush – Hypocrite (Ciao!)
Life Without Buildings – The Leanover (Any Other City)

Playlist for October 10th

Spiritualized – Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space (L&GWAFIS)
Divine Comedy – Tonight We Fly (Promenade)
Rolling Stone – Tumbling Dice (Exile on Main Street)
Mclusky – To Hell With Good Intentions (Mclusky Do Dallas)
Gorillaz – Feel Good Inc. (Demon Days)
Goldfrapp – Number 1 (Supernature)
Death in Vegas – Dirge (Contino Sessions)
Plastiscines – Zazie Fait de la Bicyclette (LP1)
Stereo Total – Comme un Garcon (Stereo Total)
Caribou – She’s The One (Andorra)
Badly Drawn Boy – Born in the UK (Born in the UK)
Hard Fi – Suburban Knights (Once Upon a Time In The West)
Tunng – Bullets (Good Arrows)
Inspiral Carpets feat. Mark E. Smith – I Want You (Saturn 5)
Mother and the Addicts – Watch the Lines (Science Fiction Illustrated)
The Mabuses – Dark Star (Mabused!)
Radiohead – Wolf at the Door (Hail to the Thief)
Tricky – Makes Me Wanna Die (Pre-Millennial Tension)
Joy Division – Atmosphere (Substance)
Nick Drake – Hazey Jane 2 (Bryter Layter)
Kinks – Waterloo Sunset (Something Else By…)
Tears for Fears – Mad World (Gold)
Doves – Snowden (Some Cities)
Mojave 3 – Running With Your Eyes Closed (Puzzles Like You)
Pulp – Help The Aged (This is Hardcore)
Ute Lemper – Little Water Song (Punishing Kiss)

Playlist for Sept. 26 -- The Inaugural Webstream Edition

Badly Drawn Boy -- Degrees of Separation (Born in the UK)
Trashcan Sinatras -- I've Seen Everything (I've Seen Everything)
James -- Pressure's On (Wah Wah)
Elbow -- Scattered Black and Whites (Asleep at the Back)
Lloyd Cole -- Margo's Waltz (Don't Get Weird On Me, Babe)
Camera Obscura -- Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken (Let's Get Out Of This Country)
British Sea Power -- It Ended On An Oily Stage (Open Season)
Nouvelle Vague -- The Killing Moon (Bande A Part)
Mojave 3 -- Sarah (Ask Me Tomorrow)
Nick Drake -- Northern Sky (Bryter Layter)
The Cure -- Plainsong (Disintegration)
Oakenfold, feat. Nelly Furdato and Tricky -- The Harder They Come (Perfecto Chills 1)
The The -- Helpline Operator (Dusk)
The Fall -- Sparta FC (The Real New Fall EP)
Go! Team -- Doing It Right (Proof of Youth)
Ronson and Amy Winehouse -- Valerie (Ronson Version)
Manic Street Preachers -- Indian Summer (Send Away The Tigers)
Carina Round -- Come To You (Slow Motion Addict)
Bat For Lashes -- Prescilla (Fur & Gold)
Caribou -- Melody Day (Andorra)
Tunng -- Bullets (Good Arrows)
Editors -- Racing Rats (An End Has A Beginning)
Ballboy -- Day In Space (Club Anthems)

Listen to WEFT Online!

WEFT is now available on the apparently-here-to-stay Internet. Go to the station website to select the player of your choosing.

Playlist from Sept. 12th

Black Box Recorder -- The English Motorway System (Facts of Life)
Cocteau Twins -- Calfskin Smack (Milk and Kisses)
Slowdive -- Alison (Souvlaki)
My Bloody Valentine -- Only Shallow (Loveless)
Ballboy -- Avant Garde Music (Guide for the Daylight Hours)
British Sea Power -- Fear of Drowning (The Decline of...)
Eurythmics -- Thorn in My Side (Revenge)
Magic Numbers -- Take a Chance (Those the Brokes)
Morrissey -- Now My Heart Is Full (Vauxhall and I)
XTC -- Life Begins at the Hop (Drums and Wires)
Libertines -- Time for Heroes (Up The Bracket)
Kingmaker -- Queen Jane (Sleepwalking)
Jakob Dylan and Dhani Harrison -- Gimme Some Truth (Instant Karma)
Sean Lennon -- Headlights (Friendly Fire)
Delgados -- Coming in from the Cold (Hate)
Beth Orton -- I Wish I Never Saw the Sun (Trailer Park)
Flotation Toy Warning -- Popstar Researching Oblivion (Bluffer's Guide to the Flight Deck)
Kate Bush -- How to be Invisible (Aerial)
Futureheads -- Hounds of Love (Futureheads)
Editors -- Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors (An End Has a Start)
Ed Harcourt -- Fireflies Take Flight (From Every Sphere)
Belle and Sebastian -- Take Your Carriage CLock and Shove It (Push Barman to Open Old Wounds)
Amy Winehouse -- Tears Dry on Their Own (Back to Black)
Passengers, feat. Luciano Pavarotti -- Miss Sarajevo (Orignal Soundtracks, Vol. 1)

At Long Last: The Much Anticipated Marmite Post

Whenever I tell someone I'm British, it seems that convsersation invariably turns to either Monty Python (complete with their extensive recitations of memorized sketches, performed in a dodgy English accent) or Marmite. I don't think anyone needs Python explained to them, so let's have a little background on that manna of the gods, Marmite.

What is Marmite? Well, as the jar says, it's Yeast Extract. That means it's...some sort of thing...extracted from yeast. Or something. Wikipedia described it as a "sticky, dark brown paste with a distinctive, powerful taste," and I guess I'd agree with that, although I'd probably add the word 'salty.' It's very much an acquired taste, but if you go about it in the right way, it's impossible not to acquire.

I think the problem with many Americans' introduction to Marmite is that they have no idea to go about using it. They slather it on way too thickly and stagger away after half a bite, with the (perfectly understandable) feeling that the stuff is overpoweringly nauseating. Here's a foolproof way to introducce yourself to Marmite:

1) Get your hands on a jar of Marmite. (If you live in Champaign-Urbana, they sell it at Schnucks, World Market, World Harvest, Euromart...)
2) Also needed: one very good crusty white baguette (again, for C-U residents, I recommend getting yer bread from Pekara or Strawberry Fields), some butter, and a toaster.
3) Cut your baguette lengthwise and cut off some toaster-sized slices. Toast the bread until it is well browned but not burned.
4) Add butter almost immediately, while the toast it still very hot. Use a bit more butter than you would usually -- it should be flowing around quite liberally.
5) Open the Marmite -- resist the urge to sniff too deeply from the jar, as the strong taste might put you off. Dip the tip of a knife into the Marmite (just a half inch or so, remembering that with Marmite, 'less is more'), and spread it thinly throughout the butter.
6) Eat while hot, preferably with a cup of tea. (P.G. Tips, for maximum authenticity)

Another cracking serving suggestion is to spread a lot of cream cheese on some bread, add a thin wash of Marmite, and then top with sliced cucumber. There aren't too many other ways to use it (although there is a cookbook), but there aren't too many ways to use peanut butter and nobody seems to hold that against it...

Give it a try. Then leave a comment.

Wake Up Boo!

Scientists, gawd bless 'em, have apparently developed a formula for the perfect feel-good song. The study explored how upbeat songs create the feel-good factor, and after much careful consideration and lots of experiments with bunsen burners and pipettes and plastic eye protectors, a winner was announced.

Ladies and gentlemen, scientifically proven to be the most cheerful upbeat song ever recorded (and frequently played on my humble show): "Wake Up, Boo!" by the Boo Radleys!



(Of course, regular listeners would know that my choice would be "Pure" by the Lightning Seeds:

Playlist From August 29th

8/29
James – Ring the Bells (Seven)
Beth Orton – Concrete Sky (Daybreaker)
Magic Numbers – Undecided (Those the Brokes)
Beautiful South – You Play Glockenspiel, I’ll Play Drums (0898)
Amy Winehouse – You Know I’m No Good (Back to Black)
Eurythmics – When Tomorrow Comes (Revenge)
Smiths – What Difference Does It Make? (The Smiths)
U2 – Acrobat (Achtung Baby)
Prefab Sprout – Goodbye Lucille (Steve McQueen, Reissued)
Prefab Sprout – Desire As… (Steve McQueen, Reissued)
Elbow – Great Expectations (Leaders of the Free World)
Snow Patrol – Set the Fire to the Third Bar (Eyes Open)
Maps – To the Sky (We Can Create)
Editors – Escape the Nest (An End Has A Beginning)
The Go! Team – We Just Won’t Be Defeated (Thunder, Lightning, Strike)
Dexy’s Midnight Runners – Let’s Make This Precious (Too Rye Ay)
Mclusky – To Hell With Good Intentions (Mclusky Do Dallas)
Ride – Twisterella (Going Blank Again)
Lloyd Cole – She’s a Girl, I’m a Man (Don’t Get Weird on Me, Babe)
Art Brut – I Will Survive (It’s A Bit Complicated)
Suede – Moving (Suede)
McAlmont and Butler – Yes (The Sound of…)
Guillemots – Trains to Brazil (From the Cliffs)

Playlist From August 15th

8/15
The Kinks – Waterloo Sunset (Something Else By…)
Badly Drawn Boy – You Were Right (Have You Fed The Fish?)
Divine Comedy – In Pursuit of Happiness (A Short Album About Love)
Elvis Costello – Sulky Girl (Brutal Youth)
Pipettes – Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me (We Are The Pipettes)
Traveling Wilburys – Handle With Care (Volume I)
Teenage Fanclub – Near You (Howdy!)
Beth Orton – Concrete Sky (Daybreaker)
Joss Stone – Jet Lag (Mind, Body, and Soul)
Editors – Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors (An End Has A Beginning)
Maps – Elouise (We Can Create)
The View – Superstar Tradesmen (Hats Off To The Buskers)
Jamiroquai – Blow Your Mind (High Times: The Best Of…)
Art Brut – Sounds of Summer (It’s A Bit Complicated)
Magic Numbers – Take a Chance (Those the Brokes)
James – Born of Frustration (Seven)
David Bowie – New Killer Star (Reality)
Maccabees – First Love (Colour It In)
Travis – Selfish Jean (The Boy With No Name)
Manic Street Preachers – Your Love Alone Is Not Enough (Send Away The Tigers)
Fields – Feathers (Everything Last Winter)
Horrors – Count In Fives (Strange House)
Maximo Park – Our Velocity (Our Earthly Pleasures)
Placebo – Every You, Every Me (Without You I’m Nothing)
Snow Patrol – Spitting Games (Final Straw)
Pulp – Do You Remember The First Time? (His and Hers)

Supergrass and the Florida Mermaids

This article about a legal action against the Weeki Watchee Mermaid Attraction ("a perfect piece of roadside kitsch") in Florida, reminded me of one of the loveliest music videos of recent years. Supergrass travelled to Weeki Watchee and made a sort of short film/music video that manages to make the whole surreal and trashy enterprise appear extremely moving and lovely.

Take a few minutes to enjoy this video (oh, and it's a great song, too: "Low C")

Playlist From August 1

Ballboy – Avant Garde Music (Guide for the Daylight Hours)
Reindeer Section – You Are My Joy (Son of Evil Reindeer)
Belle and Sebastian – Jonathan David (Push Barman to Open Old Wounds)
Jesus and Mary Chain – Down on Me (Darklands)
Franz Ferdinand – Tell Her Tonight (Franz Ferdinand)
Camera Obscura – Number One Son (Underachievers Please Try Harder)
Echobelly – Great Things (ON)
Wreckless Eric – Whole Wide World (DIY: UK POP 1)
Brakes – Heard About Your Band (Give Blood)
Arctic Monkeys – What if You Were Right First Time? (Brianstorm EP)
Thrills – One Horse Town (So Much for the City)
Jakob Dylan and Dhani Harrison – Gimme Come Truth (Instant Karma)
Art Brut – Late Sunday Evening (It’s a Bit Complicated)
Madness – It Must Be Love (Divine Madness)
Basement Jaxx – Lucky Star (Kish Kash)
Bjork – More to Life Than This (Debut)
Stereolab – Ping Pong (Mars Audiac Quintet)
Stereo Total – I Am Naked (Do The Bambi)
Hot Chip – Over and Over (The Warning)
Rakes – Retreat (Capture/Release)
Electronic – Getting Away With It (Get The Message)
Fields – Skulls and Flesh and More (Everything Last Winter)
Maccabees – Precious Time (Colour It In)
The View – Superstar Tradesmen (Hats Off For the Buskers)
Cribs – Men’s Needs (Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever)
Baxter Dury – Lucifer’s Grain (Len Parrott’s Memorial Lift)
Mojave 3 – She’s All Up Above (Spoon and Rafter)
Elbow – Powder Blue (Asleep at the Back)

Playlist From July 18th

Hot Chip – The Warning (The Warning)
New Order – True Faith (Substance)
Wonder Stuff – The Size of a Cow (Never Loved Elvis)
The Streets – Fit But You Know It (A Grand Don’t Come For Free)
Jamiroquai – Too Young to Die (High Times)
Lemon Jelly – Nice Weather for Ducks (Lost Horizons)
Divine Comedy – Booklovers (Promenade)
Blue Aeroplanes - …and Stones (Swagger)
Art Brut – Jealous Guy (It’s a Bit Complicated)
Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci – Poodle Rockin’ (Spanish Dance Troupe)
The View – Street Lights (Buskers)
Maximo Park – Books from Boxes (Our Earthly Pleasures)
Field Music – Not Supposed To (Write Your Own History)
Maccabees – Mary (Colour It In)
Fields – If You Fail We All Fail (Everything Last Winter)
Bloc Party – I Still Remember (Weekend In The City)
Cribs – Men’s Needs (Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever)
Bryan Ferry – More Than This (Street Life)
Electronic – Get the Message (Get the Message)
Maps – Elouise (We Can Create)
Kate Bush – How to Be Invisible (Aerial)
Echo and the Bunnymen – Ocean Rain (Ocean Rain)
The Cure – Plainsong (Disintegration)
Blur – Sweet Song (Think Thank)

10 Best Pub Gardens in UK

Here's a great article from the Guardian (a great paper, as it happens), listing the 10 best pub gardens in the country, according to them. It's hard to convey to an American audience how crucial the pub garden is to British society and culture. Perhaps a browse through this article will get it across.

A Couple of Great Songs

Here are the videos for a couple of tracks I played on the last show. Thanks, YouTube!

St. Etienne - Like a Motorway



Super Furry Animals - It's Not The End of the World

Playlist, July 4th 2007

Here it is, the playlist for the Independence Day (or, as we call it in England, "Wednesday") show. It took me a while to get this typed up, because as soon as I left the station my wife went into labour, and six or seven hours later I was the father of a lovely baby boy (Lucian Charles). Details to follow...

Trashcan Sinatras - Hayfever (Cake)
Squeeze - Up The Junction (Cool for Cats)
Teenage Fanclub - 120 Mins (Thirteen)
Belle and Sebastian - Expectations (Tigermilk)
Cribs - Men's Needs (Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever)
The View - Same Jeans (Hats off to the Buskers)
Maccabees - First Love (Colour It In)
Playwrights - Dislocated (London Version) (English Self Storage)
Gorky's Zygotc Mynci - The Humming Song (Spanish Dance Troupe)
Supergrass - St. Petersburg (Road to Rouen)
Aliens - I Am The Unknown (Astronomy for Dogs)
Elbow - Station Approach (Leaders of the Free World)
British Sea Power - Carrion (The Decline of...)
Art Brut - Pump up the Volume (It's a Bit Complicated)
Fields - Song for the Fields (Everything Last Winter)
Jakob Dylan and Dhani Harrison - Gimme Some Truth (Instant Karma)
Paul McCartney - Ever Present Past (Memory Almost Full)
Sondre Lerche - Sleep on Needles (Faces Down)
Stereolab - Ping Pong (Mars Audiac Quintet)
Pipettes - I Love You (We Are the Pipettes)
Arctic Monkeys - Temptation Greets You Like Your Naughty Friend ('Brianstorm' single B-Side)
Travis - Battleships (The Boy With No Name)
Badly Drawn Boy - Once Around The Block (Hour of the Bewilderbeast)
Black Box Recorder - Facts of Life (Facts of Life)
St. Etienne - Like a Motorway (Tiger Bay)
Super Furry Animals - It's Not The End Of The World (Rings Around The World)
David Bowie - Changes (Hunky Dory)

Esme in the Hizzy

Had to post a couple of these: pix of Esme talking to Champaign Urbana, right before she had her meltdown over the fact that I wouldn't play the whole Charlie and Lola album, and had to be escorted from the premises by security (i.e. my wife). Anyway, here she is...

Playlist for June 20th, 2007

The Smiths -- Panic (Singles)
Brian Eno -- Needle in the Camel's Eye (Here Come the Warm Jets)
Placebo -- Teenage Angst (Placebo)
Suede -- Trash (Coming Up)
Mclusky -- To Hell With Good Intentions (Do Dallas)
The The -- Dogs of Lust (Dusk)
Carter USM -- The Only Living Boy in New Cross (1992)
Charlie and Lola -- Theme Music (Favourite and Best Music Record)
Charlie and Lola -- Bestest in the Barn (Favourite and Best Music Record)
Charlie and Lola -- I Am Not Sleepy (Favourite and Best Music Record)
Camera Obscura -- Number One Son (Underachievers Please Try Harder)
The Chrysler -- What I Must Keep With Mine (Failures and Sparks)
Belle & Sebastian -- Jonathan David (Single)
Jens Lekman -- Rocky Dennis Farewell Song (Oh, You're So Silent Jens)
Art Brut -- Direct Hit (It's a Bit Complicated)
The Pipettes -- Your Kisses Are Wasted on Me (We Are the Pipettes)
The View -- Skag Trendy (Hats off to the Buskers)
Arctic Monkeys -- Brianstorm (Favourite Worst Nightmare)
Aliens -- Setting Sun (Astronomy for Dogs)
Macabees -- Precious Time (Colour It In)
Architecture in Helsinki -- Wishbone (In Case We Die)
Get Cape Wear Cape Fly -- Glasshouses (Chronicles of a Bohemian Teenager)
James Morrison -- Wonderful World (Undiscovered)
Nouvelle Vague -- The Killing Moon (bande a Part)
Editors -- Blood (The Back Room)
Clinic -- Children of Kellogg (Visitations)
Jakob Dylan & Dhani Harrison -- Gimme Some Truth (Instant Karma)
Sinead O'Connor -- Mandinka (The Lion and the Serpent)
The La's -- There She Goes (The La's)

"Gordon is a moron!"

No, not a reference to the about-to-be-PM of Britain, but rather to the fantastic song 'Jilted John.' A perennial favourite on the show, and a one-hit wonder from 1978 in which actor Graham Fellows adopted an embittered alter-ego for this punk ditty about a feeble young lad whose girlfriend chucks him for a good looking bloke called Gordon. An outstanding work.



And whatever happened to Fellows? Well, he resurfaced years later, unrecognizeable in a completely different persona: that of mild-mannered Yamaha keyboard troubadour John Shuttleworth. Shuttleworth's scratchy Sheffield accent and earnest easy-listening compositions are utterly unmistakeable. Here's a fine example -- the tragic story of a man who starts his dessert only to find that, had he waited, he could have finished off the rest of his daughter's unwanted dinner. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you "I Can't Go Back to Savoury Now."

June 6th, 2007

Elvis Costello – Accidents Will Happen (Girls Girls Girls)
Kingmaker – Ten Years Asleep (Sleepwalking)
Art Brut – Emily Kane (Bang Bang Rock & Roll)
Aztec Camera – Good Morning Britain (Retrospect)
Doves – Black & White Town (Some Cities)
Shed 7 – Where Have You Been Tonight (A Maximum High)
Forward Russia – Nine (Give Me a Wall)
Sondre Lerche – Airport Taxi Reunion (Phantom Punch)
Divine Comedy – Becoming More Like Alfie (Casanova)
Travis – Under the Moonlight (The Boy With No Name)
Get Cape Wear Cape Fly – Call Me Ishmael (Chronicles of a Bohemian Teenager)
Klaxons – Totem on the Timeline (Myths of the Near Future)
The Horrors – Sheena is a Parasite (Stolen Transmission)
Paul McCartney – Ever Present Past (Memory Almost Full)
Lightning Seeds – Joy (Cloudcuckooland)
Suede – Shipbuilding (HELP Warchild)
Love Spit Love – Am I Wrong? (Love Spit Love)
Playwrights – Why We’ve Become Invisible (English Self Storage)
Stars – Ageless Beauty (Set Yourself on Fire)
Pipettes – Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me (We Are The Pipettes)
Miracle Fortress – This Thing About You (Five Roses)
Pooh Sticks – World Is Turning On (Million Seller)
Portishead – All Mine (Live at Roseland NYC)
Moloko – Day For Night (Do You Like My Tight Sweater?)
Tricky – Makes Me Wanna Die (Pre-Millennial Tension)
Radiohead – True Love Waits (I Might Be Wrong)
Blur – You’re So Great (Blur)

Blue Jam

Follow this link for complete archives of a dark, surreal slice of British Radio history.

The show in question is entitled Blue Jam, and a description is going to be a hard thing to pull off. It was the mastermind of a man named Chris Morris, and went out late late at night (3 a.m., in fact, so as to be as far as possible away from daylight) on BBC Radio1, a national station which plays, during the day, chart pop music aimed at the 14-24 age bracket.

So along comes Morris with this show that is so utterly sui generis, not to mention surreal and nightmarish. Each episode is an hour long, and consists of monologues and sketches interspersed with music. If that makes it sound even remotely like a radio version of Saturday Night Live, banish that thought from your mind. Essentially it's a 60-minute aural fever dream, the kind of thing you might find floating through your head as you lie, shivering yet bathed in sweat, with a fever of 103, waiting for the antibiotics to kick in.

But in a good way.

Seriously, give it a listen.

Whenever I Think of Sporting Excellence, I Think of Jagged Pink Blobs

So after months of anticipation and the expenditure of four hundred thousand pounds, the logo for the 2012 London Olympics has been unveiled. And it's shockingly bad. And the great British public, not being inclined to take these things lying down, has risen up and, with one voice, condemned it for the committee-derived piece of brand-building bollocks that it is.

First, here's the description from the Olympic Committee's website:

New brand launches


London 2012's new brand and vision were launched today by Sebastian Coe and London 2012 ambassadors.

The new Olympic emblem is based on the number 2012 - the year the Games take place and includes the Olympic Rings and the word London.

For the first time the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games emblems have been based on the same core shape.

Available in four colours – pink, blue, green and orange - the new emblem is modern and will be dynamic, evolving in the years between now and 2012.

It symbolises the Olympic spirit and the ability of the Games to inspire people to take part - not just as spectators, but as volunteers, in the Cultural Olympiad and more.

Launching the brand at the Roundhouse in North London, London 2012 Chair Seb Coe said: "London 2012 will be 'Everyone's Games', everyone's 2012. This is the vision at the very heart of our brand.

"It will define the venues we build and the Games we hold and act as a reminder of our promise to use the Olympic spirit to inspire everyone and reach out to young people around the world.

"It is an invitation to take part and be involved."

And here, by contrast, are a selection of reactions to it:

"a broken swastika"
"a toileting monkey"
"Lisa Simpson doing something unspeakable and pornographic"
etc.
etc.

The Englishest Photo You'll See All Day

This photo, for me, is a kind of immersive synesthesiac experience. I can smell the grass, I can hear the sheep, I can feel the drizzle prickling my face, I can taste the...Marmite? Anyway, I think a photo like this would forever divide the world into two types of people: those who think "Ooooh, lovely!" (i.e. English people), and those who think, "Bloody hell, that looks grim" (everybody else). I, for one, am proud to be in the former camp.

As Promised

Here'a that lovely video to the Divine Comedy song I played last night.

Playlist: May 23, 2007

Ballboy - Avant Garde Music (Guide for the Daylight Hours)
Ash - Kung Fu (1977)
Dexy's Midnight Runners - Let's Make This Precious (Too Rye Ay)
Mclusky - Alan is a Cowboy Killer (Mclusky Do Dallas)
Radiohead - There There (Hail to the Thief)
Bloc Party - Helicopter (Silent Alarm Remixed)
Hot Chip - The Warning (The Warning)
Doves - There Goes the Fear (Last Broadcast)
Camera Obscura - Happy New Year (Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi)
Belle & Sebastian - I'm a Cuckoo (Dear Catastrophe Waitress)
Stereo Total - C'est La Mort (Stereo Total)
Madness - Our House (Divine Madness)
Divine Comedy - Perfect Lovesong (Regeneration)
Beth Orton - Concrete Sky (Daybreaker)
Suede - Filmstar (Coming Up)
Elvis Costello - Sulky Girl (Brutal Youth)
Hidden Cameras - Builds the Bone (Mississauga Goddam)
Blur - Sweet Song (Think Tank)
The Chrysler - When Sara Came to Town (Failures and Sparks)
Portishead - Roads (Dummy)
Snow Patrol - Set the Fire to the Third Bar (Eyes Open)
Black Box Recorder - The Art of Driving (Facts of Life)
Morrissey - Every Day is Like Sunday (Bona Drag)

British Cultural Artifact #1: Alan Partridge

Where else could I start. The man is a national legend.

A brief life story: he is a fictional character played by comedy mastermind Steve Coogan, and he made his debut on a Radio 4 comedy show called "On The Hour." The show was a news satire -- not a satire of current events, but rather a satire of news itself, the way it is packaged and presented. Partridge was the rather hapless sports desk guy, and when the programme moved to TV as "The Day Today," he remained in that spot, and we could finally see the alarming comb-over and collection of pastel-coloured sweaters that we always suspected he was wearing on radio.




Following The Day Today, Partridge took flight, his fictitious career taking him next to the world of the talk show (or "chat show" as he would very insistently call it.) On 'Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge,' he hosted a chat show in which nothing quite worked -- guests (played by actors) would invariably end up being insulted or offended, and each show invariably ended awkwardly. The genius lay in the details, though: the fact that the staircase down which the guests descended had treads that were a little too wide to be taken one at a time, but a little too narrow to allow two steps on each, requiring guests to sort of stagger or limp down the stairs as they entered; the bemusement with which they responded to Partridge's welcoming catchphrase, "Ah haaaah!" (a reference to the ABBA song from which the show also took its title); and Partridge's passive-aggressive relationship with his bandleader, Glen Ponder. Here's a clip from a show in which he attempted to address weighty political issues, wearing a rather alarming mustache.




And following that, his imaginary trajectory took a downturn. Partridge (we are to believe) is canned by the BBC and vainly struggling to get his career back on track. We follow him in a proto-reality show style, as he attempts to claw his way back up the ladder of light entertainment, while living in a tawdry motel. This most recent incarnation, "I'm Alan Partridge" contains some of the bleakest moments ever to go under the banner of 'Comedy,' and paved the way for worldwide mega-hit The Office. (See this clip, in which he has a crucial dinner with a guy from the BBC)

Playlist: May 9, 2007

The Selecter -- Too Much Pressure (Too Much Pressure)
The Fall -- Sparta 2XX (The Real New Fall EP)
British Sea Power -- It Ended on an Oily Stage (Open Season)
Echo & The Bunnymen -- Stormy Weather (Me, I'm All Smiles)
David Bowie -- Suffragette City (The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust)
Supergrass -- Richard III (In It For The Money)
T. Rex -- Metal Guru (The Slider)
Sugarcubes -- Walkabout (Stick Around For Joy)
Sondre Lerche -- She's Fantastic (Phantom Punch)
The Travelling Wilburys -- Handle With Care (Volume I)
The Beatles -- Hello Goodbye (Magical Mystery Tour)
Sean Lennon -- Headlights (Friendly Fire)
Yoko Ono -- Nobody Sees Me Like You Do (Yes, I'm a Witch)
Blur -- The Universal (The Great Escape)
Trashcan Sinatras -- It's a Miracle (Weightlifting)
Lloyd Cole -- Loveless (Lloyd Cole)
Magic Numbers -- Slow Down (Those The Brokes)
Divine Comedy -- I'm All You Need (A Short Album About Love)
U2 -- Red Hill Mining Town (Joshua Tree)
The The -- Lonely Planet (Dusk)
Arcade Fire -- Ocean of Noise (Neon Bible)
Jarvis Cocker -- Baby's Coming Back To Me (Jarvis)

Playlist: April 25, 2007

St. Etienne -- Like a Motorway (Tiger Bay)
The Cure -- In Between Days (Head on the Door)
James -- Tomorrow (Whiplash)
Idlewild -- No Emotion (Make Another World)
Chemical Brothers -- Galvanize (Push the Button)
Gorillaz -- El Manana (Demon Days)
Lamb -- Gorecki (Lamb)
Flotation Toy Warning -- Popstar Researching Oblivion (Bluffers Guide to the Flight Deck)
Guillemots -- Made Up Lovesong #43 (From the Cliffs)
Lightning Seeds -- All I Want (Cloudcuckooland)
Trashcan Sinatras -- Got Carried Away (Weightlifting)
The Smiths -- This Charming Man (Hatful of Hollow)
The Charlatans -- Jesus Hairdo (Up To Our Hips)
The Thrills -- Big Sur (So Much For The City)
Sondre Lerche -- Face Blood (Phantom Punch)
Youth Group -- Forever Young (Casino Twilight Dogs)
Field Music -- Place Yourself (Tones of Town)
The Cinematics -- Keep Forgetting (Strange Education)
The Good, The Bad and the Queen -- Green Fields (The Good, The Bad and the Queen)
King Crimson -- In The Court of the Crimson King (In The Court of the Crimson King)
Prefab Sprout -- Bonny (Steve McQueen)
Turin Brakes -- Average Man (Ether Song)
Waterboys -- The Whole of the Moon (Best Of...)
Magic Numbers -- Life's A Game (Magic Numbers)
The Beatles -- All You Need Is Love (Magical Mystery Tour)

'Ello, Guvnor!

Oh wait, nobody has said that since 1947. Instead, a simple Hello.

For about five years now I have been hosting the radio show Transatlantica ("An eclectic mix of the best of British music") on WEFT radio in Champaign, IL, and during that time we have also witnessed the rise of another, some would argue equally powerful, force on the media landscape. It's called The Internet, and after watching it for some time, I have finally become convinced it is here to stay.

This being the case, I thought I'd join the party by creating an Interblog of my very own.

This, dear reader, is that Interblog.


I'll use it for posting the playlist from each show, as well as miscellaneous other gleanings from around the Globewide Web, most of them pertaining to Britishness, music, radio, or adorable photos of newborn zoo animals. Perhaps the occasional record or film review. I hope you'll stop by and visit occasionally, leave a comment or suggestion, and just generally make yourself at home. Um. Actually, would you mind taking your shoes off? And here, let me get you a coaster for that drink before you leave a condensation ring on my coffee table...