22 September 2009
FreakyTrigger in ‘easy on the eyes’ scandal?! There’s a new stylesheet named ‘nu’ which you can select at the foot of the sidebar if, like me, you’re a bit sick of the pink colour scheme the site’s been sporting for some time now. The nu style alters colours and some fonts but keeps everything in the same position (for now). Try it for you might like it.
This will actually become the default style soon but fans of the pink can of course retain this as the option will remain in the sidebar and there may be another style option or two by the end of the year.
Steve Mannion in FT • No Comments
1 November 2007
Methinks the lady doth protest too much
Those of you not yet middle-aged, criticise BBC Three while you still can! Really though, the channel’s future seems as safe as their schedules and as a result I don’t think Bennett needs to act quite so irate in her defensive stance. But then as a (not middle-aged) critic of BBC Three in general for some time now I would say that.
So how does the reality match up to Bennett’s insistence that the channel provides a ‘high quality mixed-genre schedule of innovative UK content featuring new UK talent’ to that all-important 16-34 yr olds audience? Tonight we have:
more »
Steve Mannion in Do You See / FT • 15 Comments
5 October 2006
Chart Runs. An invaluable site for finding out which Cookie Crew (or, I suppose, any other band) tracks failed to make the top 75. This site collates chart data published in old Record Mirrors and elsewhere to provide the most comprehensive database on the net for singles and albums released in the UK that made the top 100. Well worth a donation.
Steve Mannion in Uncategorized • No Comments
14 August 2006
Apparently Alesha Harvey disapproves of Lily Allen’s bitching of other pop stars. But Alesha’s attitude may itself be a far bigger problem – this seemingly programmed attitude of goodwill to all (other pop stars regardless of their flaws) and reluctance to offend that makes the pop world a greyer place in the long run. Regardless of the quality of Allen’s own music and stardom, her decision to let people know exactly what she thinks of such-and-such is surely a refreshing tactic (if it can even be construed as such) that should perhaps even be encouraged among others in the game.
That said, the issue is clouded by Allen’s opinions being hardly radical and a whole-lotta-rockist, plus her reputation of being maybe a little TOO obnoxious in the flesh (like father like daughter). ‘Madonna should put it away now she’s had a couple of kids’ and ‘Kylie playing Glastonbury is a betrayal of the festival’s original values’ are stalwarts of boorish curmudgeons thrice Lily’s age and if she is to take a leaf out of Alesha’s book it should be more of the ’spice up the music more than anything else’ ilk rather than the stifling ‘if you can’t say something nice (bland) don’t say anything at all’ variety. Unfortunately I suspect you’re more likely to hear Alesha heaping praise upon the likes of James Morrison than MIA, because of her own disappointing tendency to tow the line and say what’s best for sales. It is a classic case of getting the balance right that neither have quite nailed yet.
Steve Mannion in FT • 26 Comments
19 July 2006
Ultramix 93: Party like it’s 1993 with this EPIC online mix – part of an ongoing series. High on chart hits, club classics and more unusual rarities – maybe even a bit of indie…how many do you remember?
Steve Mannion in Uncategorized • No Comments
8 August 2005
As A Tim Burton Event and even as a remake, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory feels a little TOO predictable and ‘robotic’ at times (Hollywood/ILM/Elfman etc. TOO well-oiled a machine now!) – the latter criticism ironic perhaps given the somewhat laboured ‘ahhh humanity’ scenes and dialogue scattered throughout. A sense of ‘going through the motions’ and ‘paying the bills’ pervaded much of the two hours. I don’t doubt Burton’s love and respect for Dahl’s works for one moment, but the question ‘why this, now?’ still intrigues. I probably would’ve enjoyed it more and it would’ve felt fresher if I hadn’t seen the original again on TV recently, but still…
The whole thing does feel irrevocably Burton’s World though – despite this being a re-adaptation of a text by a visionary with such a legendary style of his own. The parallels between Burton and Dahl in this respect are fun to explore and contrast in theory, but perhaps this ‘meeting of the minds’ didn’t quite live up to expectations purely because in the end the similarities seem too close. As well as the obvious shared affinity for childhood, both are fascinated by ‘the monster who just wants to be loved’. All well and cute, but could there not be something more interesting done with a ‘monster’ like Wonka beyond nudging them to the conclusion ‘families are great and should come first’? Even for a PG? more »
Steve Mannion in Do You See • No Comments
24 June 2005
When you’re not AT Glastonbury but feel as though you should be a curious conflict can develop in your mind as well as in the media. Radio 1, NME and other portals capitalise on the festival’s perpetual popularity excessively as if to justify their own existence further, their tone generally and irritatingly obsessive yet vacuous and trite and as giddy as the 16 year olds who messed up their GCSEasies and now head for The Rolling Fields Of Avalon (TM) to get inebriated on booze-injected pear-ade and possibly lose their virginity in a hedge by the toilets while The Zutons arse about on The Other Stage. This in mild contrast to what always seems a deeply cynical, schaudenfreude-tastic yet desperate effort by the Grown-Up News to report on the event, with just a hint of wry glee if a few spots of rain dog proceedings and send tents ‘floating’ and welly sales soaring.
Part of me remains that sanguine 16 year old about the whole thing, the other a jaded tosspot apparently pleased that other people are not necessarily having more fun than I am after all (surely this is not allowed). A conflict that seemingly can never be resolved.
But Glastonbury’s capricious meteorological issues aside, you cannot fail to have fun there. The only question is how much and whether it will match the probably unrealistic expectations in your head. So as I now imagine how nice it must be to hear ‘Teenage Kicks’ belted out defiantly and honourably by a withering Fergal and gang from the rain-lashed Pyramid stage, the Tor a distant, faded friend heralding you from afar, reminding you of the site’s unrelenting charm. You bastards, I wish I was there, again…
Steve Mannion in Blog 7 • No Comments
For those of us not down at Worthy Farm this weekend who sort of wish we were, 30 seconds out of every minute.
Alvin Lucier ‘I Am Sitting In A Room’
Dru Hill ‘In MY Bed’
Samantha Fox ‘Love House’
Basement Jaxx ‘City People’
Lloyd Cole & The Commotions ‘Lost Weekend’
Shrek ‘Stay Home’
Radiohead ‘Pyramid Song’ (pyramid…misery…DYS?)
Death Cab For Cutie ‘We Laugh Indoors’
Vitalic ‘No Fun’
Underworld ‘Mmmm Skyscraper I Love You’
Joachim ‘Come Into My Kitchen’
St Etienne ‘Side Streets’
O.M.D. ‘Electricity’
The Futureheads ‘Decent Days And Nights (Max Tundra mix)’
The Housemartins ‘Me And The Farmer’ (a great song to turn you off the countryside)
Sean Paul ‘Concrete’
Daft Punk ‘Television Rules The Nation’
Slowdive ‘Beach Song’
Air ‘People In The City’
Yello ft Stina Nordenham ‘To The Sea’
Steve Mannion in FT • No Comments
30 March 2005
I never really understood the porcine reference in the name as the little beasts have much more of the rodent about them than the darling/delicious pig (and indeed they are closely related to the mole and the shrew – but not the same as porcupines, alright?). That said, hedgehogs did experience their own dalliance with the culinary world courtesy of this legendary 80s meme
– alas (sorry, I mean, fortunately) said chips were flavoured of nothing more than pork fat. Still I can think of a few out there who probably harbour secret desires to sample the spiky variant, though they’d have to catch them first.
I never believed that hedgehogs were actually as fast as the pixelated wry blue show-off of gamelore but do recall an incident a few years back when staring out at the night sky from my back door one night I heard a rustling in the bushes and a dark blur racing out from the vegetation at an alarming pace, pursued by the neighbour’s cat (not Knuckles). Also impressive is their general noisiness as they forage around your garden (fortunately this does not extend to making a fox-esque cacophony at 3am) and their alleged ‘invulnerability’ when curled up into a ball, pointy bits out – though not quite tough enough for the deadliest predator of them all, SUV MAN. Hedgehog entrails spilled out all over the road in front of your house is not a pretty sight, so if they are to continue trying to cross busy roads at night I would not be adverse to powdering their diet of insects with crushed up steroids, just to boost their chances of making it from one kerb to the other in time. But it’s probably illegal. In the meantime we can only stand back and simultaneously deplore and admire their human-like willingness to dice with death in this way. Erm, hooray?
Steve Mannion in Blog 7 • No Comments
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