It’s 9:23am on Tuesday the 29th of June and rather than being hard at work in at the office I’m sitting in front of my computer at home waiting for a plumber with a stopwatch to come and time how long it takes for water to dissapear down my drains. This somewhat surreal exercise is the latest in the longrunning saga of the totally screwed up drainage that plagues the lower floors of the building – the strata company apparently deciding not to fix the problem, but at least to find out exactly how much of a problem it is.
Somewhat ironically Charmaine at L.J.Hooker (apparently Josie decided that my ongoing requests for a working bathroom sink and Rebecca’s continuous demands for the strata fees to be paid on time were just too much trouble) got a plumber out to fix my bathroom sink two weeks ago, so everything is draining pretty well. Or at least draining, which after a good four or five months of no draining at all counts as “pretty well”.
Now I could be at work – I could have left a key with the caretaker – but I decided to take the morning off instead. I was planning to take the whole day off, but there’s just too much work to justify it. And I forgot that I had a meeting over at the Alzheimer’s Association yesterday morning which pretty much meant that I only got a half day’s work done on Monday. So as soon as the plumber has been and gone I’ve got to iron some clothes and drag myself into the office. Bah!
Ah well. At least I got to sleep in a bit 🙂
Anyway for wont of anything else to write about (or at least wont of anything else I feel like writing about 🙂 I figured I’d mention some songs I’ve been listening to over the last few months. Normally I would have put these in the music section, but I haven’t got around to putting the music section back in yet after the great Blog Disaster. So I have to put them in here instead.
OK, let’s see… (I’ve been scribbling them down on a piece of paper and now have to try and decipher my handwriting)… OK. First of all Wasted and Ready by Ben Quelar (if indeed that’s how he spells his name). Nothing too important to say about this one except it’s mildly catchy and the chorus is great to sing along to. Looking Good by Frenzel Rhomb – very sharp lyrics in this one, very tightly written with regards to rhymes and meter. And quite funny in an extremely dark way.
Mighty Little Man by… uh… that guy from “Blue’s Clues”. Really great song with a kicking chorus. The Begining of the End by Gentle Ben and His Sensitive Side. Apparently these guys are from Brisbane but the lead singer (presumably Gentle Ben himself) sounds so like Jarvis Cocker that it’s not funny. I mean if you took the bit where he says/sings “What’s a girl like you doing in a place like this?” and played it to 100 Pulp fans, at least 92 would identify it as a Jarvis sample. Uncanny.
Of course I can’t talk about recent musical releases without mentioning the first new Pixies release in 32 years (as one website I read put it – 12 years is a bit more accurate 🙂 Bam Thwop. To be frank I didn’t really like this when I first heard it (blasphemy! :). Much too poppy and inane. But it’s grown on me since. I guess I was expecting some kind of opus like Debaser or Letter to Memphis, but when you think about it they’re hardly going to release their strongest material first up. And also it’s a Kim Deal track which means it’s going to be different to most of the rest of their catalogue anyway. It actually works a lot better if you think of it as a Breeders track with the rest of the Pixies sitting in as guest musicians.
Anyway as I said it’s grown on me a lot. When you ignore the lyrics and actually listen to music it suddenly sounds a lot more like a Pixies track – that distinctive barely-in-control guitar sound is right there. And the insane organ break in the middle isn’t like anything I’ve ever heard on any of their other tracks, but fits right in as the kind of thing you’d expect the Pixies to do. When you consider the song in those terms it suddenly sounds a whole lot better.
So, my final conclusion on Bam Thwop? A big thumbs up 🙂
Anyway it’s now 10.00 and there’s no sign of the plumber. I suppose I’d better iron those clothes anyway. *sigh*
