week six.

the past seven days i have listened to.

 

i’ve been listening to a bit of kate bush this week which frightens me as it reminds me of my mother. i am pretty sure it’s not cool to like the same music as your mother. it’s very great music for sleeping to on the train, apart from the bit on ‘hounds of love’ where there is a montage of people saying ‘wake up’, always scares the shit out of me. i know my mum will be gloating when she reads this as i used to HATE kate bush but maybe, just maybe she was right. just this one time.

totally enormous extinct dinosaurs.

i used to think that this guy’s music was rubbish, it’s not. it’s very good actually. when we shut the shop and pull a few hours after closing at work, i seem to be the one who sticks on the dance music and this has been the soundtrack to my after hours hard work.the weather has been getting worse and worse but my choice in music has become funkier and funkier. i am attempting to counteract the cold through good sounds in my ears. 

as it’s coming closer to the end of the year and it’s going to be a pretty busy couple of weeks coming upon i have decided to unveil my album of the year awards a little earlier than usual. this year’s winner has had absolutely no competition whatsoever. a landslide if you will.

kendrick lamar – good kid maad city.

i’ve given quite a bit of thought to this album of the year decision and there is only really one winner for me. this album is absolutely incredible. i’m a big hip hop fan but not a big hip hop follower. i find that in order for me to really connect with a rap album it needs to have a narrative, i need to be able to understand and relate to what i’m hearing. i work in a shop, keep a pocket vaseline on me in case my lips get dry and look forward to edge magazine coming out. i find it hard to get any enjoyment out of bitches and bucks, cars and guns.

i appreciate that it’s a very lazy comparison but i haven’t connected to an album since i first got into ready to die by notorious big. yes, it’s not topics that i understand but it’s laid out like a autobiography to be listened to and kendrick has had one hell of a first 25 years of life.

2nd place - frank ocean.

3rd place - chromatics.

honourable mentions. how to dress well, killer mike, beach house, schoolboy q, cloud nothings.

________

i was going to write about Live Long A$AP this week however i’ve only listened to it twice and don’t want to commit to a mini review just yet, it’s very good though.

week six.

my daughter and i made a camp in the front room on thursday and thought we’d get in a festive mood and watch the film. how this festive film turned out to be despicable me i’m not entirely sure and it was amazing! i laughed and laughed and laughed.
i’ve had to sit through some of the lowest moments in my life watching her choice of film (here’s to you beverly hills chihuahua) but this was awesome. 
she is super excited about christmas and not without reason. being our only child, we pour everything into her and christmas is the epitome of that. i’m hoping that she will have another blog update this week, she loved doing the last one.

we are all prepared for the big christmas dinner at stefs family. Rolled into tesco and came out £200 worse off. two hundred pounds! we did overspend on crisps a little but still, anyone that knows me will appreciate how much i love to eat and will understand how much joy the christmas food shop gives me.

i had the place to myself on saturday night as stef went out with her sisters (actual sisters, not slang for friends). fantastic i thought! the possibilities are endless, i considered:

getting drunk and watch star wars 
having a bath with the door open 
playing dark souls with the volume really loud 
actually starting an idiot abroad 3

none of these things happened. the night of endless possibilities turned out to be:

having a bath. with the door shut. 
not being able to play xbox because i was out of aa batteries. 
remembering i have deleted an idiot abroad 3 from my sky+
drinking one small kronenberg 
getting all my presents wrapped with match of the day in the background.

live long a$ap.

A$AP Rocky – Live Long A$AP.

this week i think this record deserves a bit more attention than i usually dedicate due to the amount of hype and expectancy.

it’s difficult to review this record while remembering it’s a debut album. i feel like this has been coming forever, the way word spread when it leaked only confirmed the buzz around it. the only way to tackle this is to get the hard part out of the way;
it’s a great record, very nearly incredible but not quite.

since dropping live love a$ap the mix tape earlier in the year, things have changed in hip hop slightly. records by schoolboy q and kendrick lamar has tiptoed into the hazy style of asap and in his absence filled the hole we didn’t know needed filling.

i mentioned a few weeks ago that narrative is really big deal when it comes to hip hop and i was slightly wrong in hindsight. when i wrote that what i actually meant was theme. i love a record that knows exactly how it wants to sound, how it wants to achieve this and nails it. that is precisely what is missing from live long asap.

the album starts and then is no warm up no intro, you’ve got the double suckerpunch of the title track and goldie, a beat originally made for watch the throne 2. 
if you thought jay z and kanye were the kings of self glamorising think again. if you’ve come here to listen to a rich black man tell you how awesome he is, you’ve come to the right place.

schoolboy q features on the next track and it’s the first hint of a wavering direction on show. pmw belongs on habits and contradictions, it could be a ‘feat asap’ track.

clams casino produces lvl and although the distinction is harder to justify here, i could argue that the production outshines the performance. this is more credit to clams casino for creating such an identifiable style. 
hell ft santigold is good, nothing stand out and then wait what is this.

fuckin problems is one of the best collaboration rap tracks i’ve heard this year. abbey road was a product of all of the beatles at their peak. this is the equivalent. drake (also producing), kendrick, 2 chainz and rocky have created a monster here. 
i’m not huge on wild for the night through no fault of its own and this is back to theming, the definition of sore thumb is this skrillex beat. 
every track so far feels grubby and fuzzy, the cover art is black and broken up. all of a sudden this beat comes along that sounds like it was created in a hip hop surgery.

if this was a vinyl we would flip it here. side a is good, 7/10.

part two to follow!

week five.

he past seven days.

the past seven days i have celebrated.

my birthday! on sunday i turned a year older than i was on saturday. not that it affects me too much. my age may be increasing but at heart i am already a 65 year old hillbilly with the penchant for cups of tea, being angry at strangers and plenty of early nights.

the plan was for my wife and i to head to bluewater and get all of our christmas shopping done. we woke up early and i received the coolest presents.

after i’ve gladly accepted these nautical delights, it was time to get moving. the gods of fate disagreed. within 5 minutes my daughter was shouting soup. we put her to bed hoping she would be better in half an hour. on cue, she was sick all over her bed. naturally, we had to cancel bluewater.

 

staff party.

the past seven days i have listened to.

totally enormous extinct dinosaurs. i used to think that this guy’s music was rubbish, it’s not. it’s very good actually. the weather has been getting worse and worse but my choice in music has become funkier and funkier. i am attempting to counteract the cold through good sounds in my ears.

as it’s coming closer to the end of the year and it’s going to be a pretty busy couple of weeks coming upon i have decided to unveil my album of the year awards a little earlier than usual.

kendrick lamar – good kid maad city.

i’ve given quite a bit of thought to this album of the year decision and there is only really one winner for me. this album is absolutely incredible. i’m a big hip hop fan but not a big hip hop follower. i find that in order for me to really connect with a rap album, it needs to have a narrative. i need to be able to understand and relate to what i’m hearing. i work in a shop, keep a pocket vaseline on me in case my lips chaff and look forward to edge magazine coming out. i find it hard to get any enjoyment out of bitches and bucks, cars and guns.

i appreciate that it’s a very lazy comparison but i haven’t connected to an album since i first got into ready to die by notorious big. yes, it’s not topics that i understand but it’s laid out like a autobiography to be listened to and kendrick has had one hell of a life.

2nd place – frank ocean

3rd place – chromatics

honourable mentions. how to dress well, killer mike, beach house, schoolboy q, cloud nothings.

 

i’ve been listening to a bit of kate bush this week which frightens me as it reminds me of my mother. i am pretty sure it’s not cool to like the same music as your mother.

the past seven days i have learnt.

things at my job are starting to look pretty unstable. i applied for a management position at pizza hut this week, it’s good money and it mentions a monthly bonus scheme. if that scheme is all you can pizza i will be signing on the dotted line and calling myself a teenage mutant ninja nathan before the week is out. 
i’m not too worried about it all, i am confident i can find somewhere in the new year in case worst comes to worst, i won’t let my family be without an income whatever happens (not that it will come to that)

the past seven days i have played.

game of the year? i don’t even think i can name one, it’s not been an excellent year this year. 

if you will let me get away it, can i just say skyrim again?

i’m 130 hours in, sneaky khajiit assassin with a splashing of magicka. i don’t even use a blade. bow’s and magic all the way, i’m basically invisible and invincible. a lethal weapon.

 

in the next seven days.

 

we are going to do our christmas food shop. i don’t think there is a greater trip to the supermarket than christmas food shop day. biscuits, chocolate, cheese, sweets, nuts, drinks and alcohol, the best things to spend my wage on. i’m going to get so fat this christmas that people start to call me rik.

 

friday – work.

saturday – work.

sunday – work.

monday – work.

tuesday - IIITTTTT’S CHRRRIIIIIIISSTMAAAAAS!!!!!

wednesday - boxing day!

thursday – work.

 

online communication.

i think the way we consume information and communicate online has taken a horrible route. whether it’s on facebook, twitter, instagram or even our blogs on tumblr, there is a distinct lack of conversation. quality is represented by likes, favourites, reblogs and retweets.

when i have spent the time to create format and tweak a post, the one thing i would like more than anything is for someone to have a genuine opinion on it. it’s these conversations that connect people, talking about likes and dislikes, opinions and personal tastes.

i would like to see a social network that had no numbers on it at all. where the best content would garner the most conversation in a thread underneath it. i am just as guilty of this as anybody else, i don’t leave comments or ask questions and will happily press like or retweet.

the modern internet is obsessed with information being new. again using facebook, twitter and tumblr as examples, everything is ranked in chronological order. if i have no connection online for a few hours and check my networks, there is the need to know what’s going on RIGHT NOW. when i’ve been offline for longer i will simply skip everything that’s over a day old. this means a lot of valid and interesting content has a very short shelf life, if it isn’t caught and shared within X amount of time it will be left to slip down the pile never to be seen again.

how many of your own blog posts have any sort of interaction after the initial post? do you agree?

Week four.

Firstly, nice one to frankie nobody! First person to send me a message about my blog which absolutely made my night, thanks.

I guess this post is my month anniversary update, my fourth week which seems crazy but I’m enjoying it.

the past seven days.

in the past seven days i have.

the two words that have defined the past seven days are ‘my back’. I’m totally and utterly falling apart here. I’ve got a constant strain and ache at the bottom of my spine, it’s getting pretty bad pretty quickly. stef has to pull me off the sofa at night. after speaking to the doctor for the second time he firstly tried to sign me off of work and I was like uh uh sister, and then he has referred me to a physiotherapist which I’d imagine won’t come through until January now. Humph.

I haven’t started breaking bad season five as intended. i usually watch them on the train and this week I found an excellent alternative. I’m not a massive fan of zane lowe’s style of broadcasting however his music taste and knowledge is pretty smart. last week he ran a series of programmes on some quality albums : Songs For The Deaf – queens of the stone age, licensed to ill – beastie boys, neon bible – arcade fire and dig your own hole – the chemical brothers. this has worked a charm because I’ve been able to listen to the documentary on the way to work and then the record on the way home.

I did something very adult last week, I met up with an old friend and instead of going to the pub, we went for a coffee. I never imagined in my youth when I was sleeping on my friends bedroom floor after a night out with a half eaten burger as a pillow that one day I would ‘go for a coffee’.
to add this coming of age realisation, i received an email from dyson reminding me to change the filters on my hoover. i think it’s about time I faced the facts. I’m not 18 anymore. I’ll always have my xbox though, the last bastion of my youth.

My car has started making a really lovely rattling sound every time I take her out which is concerning. I took her to the garage and she decided not to make the noise when we were there, leading to a diagnosis of “nah geezer, there ain’t nuffink i can see wrong wiv it” so I’m going to trust his advice and pretend its part of a dubstep remix of whatever is on the radio. Adele – Someone Like You (Honda Rattle Remix Ft Skrillex).

I finally watched Troll Hunter. It was cool. 7/10.

the past seven days i have watched.

i finally finally finally watched the last 3 episodes of doctor who and i feel like a moron for putting it off.

i watched asylum of the daleks and dinosaurs on the spaceship when they were on and then just got behind and never caught up. my daughter and i would always watch it together but at the beginning of this series she decided that she has had enough of being frightened every week and gracefully bowed out. she was so frightened after the unquiet dead there were tears at bedtime. i don’t even want to think about the state she was in after blink. i’ve always petitioned that there nothing wrong with scaring your kid, a point my wife doesn’t quite agree with.

i loved the past series very very much. more than the whole of last series i think, the only episode of the five i didn’t love was dinosaurs on the spaceship, but even then it was still pretty good. i was very fond of how each episode was influenced by a specific genre was brilliant, a town called mercy (western) and the angels take manhattan (film noir) are up there with some of my favourite episodes.

i thought i would be sad at the demise of amy, embarrassingly so and was preparing myself for a heart breaker which steven moffat managed to avoid and in turn deliver the absolute perfect ending to her time. sad to see her go though, she has become my favourite companion since the reboot. not so sad to see rory go, he was a douche.

quite excited to see what the future holds for the new lady.