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...