Public Enemy

We got to fight the powers that be
Lemme hear you say
Fight the power

Anna Politkovskaya

Murdered, Saturday 7 October 2006.

B52s Love Shack

Today is a B52s day.
The last 2 days have been productive and happy:
I managed(at last) to put links onto this page
I added all the pics I wanted - the mouse on the PC is acting up and if I blog on my Mac I can't add any pictures as I don't have photoshop, I also don't have a scanner as it blew up in a storm a while ago
Greta Garbo has had her stitches out and can now have a bath - she is one seriously smelly little dog
I booked my appointment with the dietician(I have been avoiding doing this for weeks)
I have finished my antibiotics
I am still not smoking (4 days may not seem long but for me it's a major achievement)
I have caught up with all my friends
I am having lunch with Nicky in a couple of hours - our precious Friday ritual
I found a really cool music shop yesterday and picked up a CD of Joy Division covers for my hubby + Bauhaus, B52s and Dandy Warhols CDs for me
I am not coughing or wheezing anymore
My potentially difficult meeting with a teacher went really well
I have gold fingernails and toenails - new OPI as recommended by the wonderful Ms.Kiew

Can't see me

Ian Brown.
Have given up smoking and am feeling thoroughly wierded out. Hopefully this is the last time.

Books

Last night I watched Kingdom of Heaven. I was about to go to bed when my husband started channel surfing and came across it. Despite having seen it before and owning the DVD we sat there til after midnight discussing the crusades, history in general and Ridley Scott films. Ridley is my favourite director, Black Hawk Down is my second favourite film (the first being Apocalypse Now) and he is English, Northern English in fact.
I love history, particularly Dark and Middle Ages European history. I studied medieval history, language, Arthurian literature and the crusades as part of my French degree. I have lots of books on all the aforementioned topics.
Herein lies my problem. My living room Indonesian table is the home of the books I am currently reading or about to start - Collapse by Jared Diamond, 2 books on Genghis Kahn, one on Kublai Kahn and Joseph Stiglitz's Globalization and its discontents. There are also 3 books on New Zealand, where we are going in December, and some Amnesty papers on Burma. Once the table is clear I can move onto the other coffee table, near the bookcases, which is also full of books waiting to be read - bios of Jimi Hendrix, The Clash, Ian Curtis, A Basque History of the World, short stories by Malaysian writers etc... My mission is to clear both tables. This is never going to happen. The pile on the Indonesian table keeps expanding thus I never get near the Indian one. Last night's viewing prompted the removal of Piers Paul Reid's The Templars and Jonathan Phillips's The Crusades from their homes in the bookcase. This relocation was preceeded yesterday afternoon by a conversation with my middle son about his English curriculum which prompted the addition of The Odyssey and The Aeneid to the stack. It is a vicious circle. Amaranta Buendia, weaving her shroud in One Hundred Years Of Solitude (my favourite book), destined to die on the day it is completed. Cysifus. I doubt I will die when the table is clear, I doubt it ever will be.

The Ramones

Blitzkrieg Pop
Loved by my youngest son, my cats and I.
Sunday morning, drinking coffee, feet on the kitchen table, sun shining, no appointments, base station on full blast playing my ipod top rated songs, my kitchen devoid of cats.
Nirvana, Portishead and Primal Scream came and went but as soon as this song came on all the cats came in.

Q

As I am not feeling belligerent today I will not rail against the nonsense that is Q's 100 greatest songs ever as voted by readers. To start the week off in a positive way I am accepting that tastes differ and perhaps people are entitled to their own opinions... The Brits voted as follows:
1. Live Forever - Oasis
2. Wonderwall - Oasis
3. Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
4. A Day In The Life - The Beatles
5. One - U2
6. Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
7. Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division
8. Stairway To Heaven - Led Zeppelin
9. Bittersweet Symphony - The Verve
10. Paranoid Android - Radiohead
I have subscribed to Q since it first came out despite it's obsession with REM, U2 and Radiohead. I can't abide REM, with the exception of Orange Crush, U2 are not my thing either and whilst I will admit to liking the odd Radiohead song( Creep, Karma Police, Paranoid Android), I just don't get what all the fuss is about. Same with Coldplay. So, no Echo and The Bunnymen in the top 100, no Ramones, only 1 Prince song, no Buzzcocks, no Happy Mondays ...
Wonderwall, Smells Like Teen Spirit and maybe Love Will Tear Us Apart, as Joy Division( along with The Clash) are my husband's favourite band, deserve to be there. If Bohemian Rhaspody and Stairway are there for their Wayne's World value they can stay too. Bittersweet Symphony has a cool video + they have the added advantage of being Northern so on that basis that too could possibly remain but I can find nothing to redeem the inclusion of nos. 4, 5 and 10.
As for no.1 - I hate that song.

My 10

Lithium - Nirvana
Heart Shaped Box - Nirvana
Straight Outta Compton - NWA
Columbia - Oasis
Head Like a Hole - Nine Inch Nails
Love Spreads - The Stone Roses
Spellbound - Siouxsie and The Banshees
Bela Lugosi's Dead - Bauhaus
Whole Lotta Rosie - AC/DC
Pretty Vacant - The Sex Pistols
My 10 favourite songs today, in no particular order.
This months Q contains a list of the 100 Greatest Songs Ever as voted by readers.
My throat infection and I are going back to bed now but when I resurface I will post on my disgust at the British public's lack of taste.

I Wanna Be Adored

The Stone Roses - Manchester's finest.
John Squire - my favourite guitarist
No 32 in Q's 100 Greatest Songs Ever - with which I will take issue later.

Rocks

Primal Scream - good for dancing round the kitchen with cats to.
Today is a two song day - the Citrine and Obsidian are doing their thing(I, according to my Reiki practitioner sister, am having problems with my base chakra and my third chakra)

Higher Ground

A rediscovered song, again via Rockstar, which has made my kitchen a happy place for the last 2 mornings.