Dwardus Prime

That’s right, I’m doing the Christmas thing. It’s actually not that early, we should all probably be thinking about buying gifts and that sort of thing. Another year, guh! For the festive season I’ve made Dwardus Prime a little more cheery. Expect more content shortly, including additions to the Vika Noir mythology.

You will also notice the bloody big RSS logo over there > so you can subscribe if you like. There’s another over at the Sandwich Man webcomic to subscribe to so you never miss a page.

I’ve watched a few good films lately, including There Will be Blood, Pure, and The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. I’ll add some new reviews in the coming weeks. I’ve been in more of a reading phase this past week or two. I’m mainly reading instructional/informative books like The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler as recommended by Silja. It’s a great book if you’re interested in writing screenplays or novels or are just interested in the structure of story telling. I have also bought a book called How to Write and Sell Short Stories by Della Galton but as I’ve been focussing on my “big” story (hopefully my first novel, but let’s play it down for now, eh) I’ll read this at a later date.

New Sandwich Man page coming right up. Have a nice christmas song. Laters!

First question - what’s wrong with it?! I think it’s really cool! There’s a whole lot of hate over it at the BBC website at the moment. I mean Jesus, we’re talking 90% pure, unadulterated hate. I think the problem is that it is for a Bond film, and everyone’s so quick off the mark to call it crap unless it’s exactly what they thought it would be. Before White and Keys were revealed as the singers I thought it was gonna be Duffy, who I’m sure would have done an ace little number. Muse would have been perfect for the job but I don’t think they were ever asked. I reckon Winehouse was hit and miss - she could either have done something fantastic, or frankly, pap. The fact that Ronson scrapped whatever it is that they produced is immaterial, he’s not exactly the next John Lennon, is he? Anyway, this tune is no way as bad as people are saying, it’s pretty catchy and I’m sure it’ll grow on me even more. It seems like people just want to hark on about how much they know about Bond and music, and why change is bad. Sod em!

Here’s the link to the full song. I’m not sure how long it’ll be up, so click now (unless you like James Bond, then apparently, don’t)!

If I had to name two festival highlights this year, it would be Rage Against The Machine’s angsty performance at Reading and Elbow’s beautiful, soaring epic at Glastonbury where everyone was still chanting their provocative “One Day Like This” long after the final chord and Guy’s last uplifting lyric. Rage were a band I’ve wanted to see since my big brother bought me their debut years ago, but while I’d heard Elbow and some of their tunes, I’d never - prior to this year’s Glasto, owned any of their records or seen them live.

I’m made up that they’ve won the Mercury. They were certainly my winners, and the bookie’s favourites, but I severely doubted they’d come away with the money. Some five-minute wonder would take it, surely? Usually it’s someone I’ve never heard of and don’t particularly want to hear of again (Antony and the Johnsons are a bit like nails on a chalk board as far as I’m concerned). Even better was the fact that I’d just finished watching Rocky II (he wins, too!) and taken the disc out when my TV hit me in the face (not literally) with a very happy Elbow, followed by a rousing rendition of their “The Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver”. Brilliant!

Buy their latest album, “The Seldom Seen Kid” here - highly recommended by moi!

You may well remember songs like “Erase and Rewind” and “My Favourite Game” but you should certainly recall “Lovefool” which given the prominent place in ’96’s cinema version of Romeo & Juliet made The Cardigans a big name in pop. If you hear any of their back catalogue you’ll soon realise that there’s much more to the band than the Swedish bubblegum category you may originally have lumped them into. Nina’s lyrics are often intelligent and poignant, while the riffs are unconventional and vibrant. Unlike a lot of best ofs, The Cardigans meticulously chart their career from beginning to present and it is well worth getting hold of the two disc version. The quality of the early/alternate versions and b-sides on the second disc only serves to stress what a great and versatile band they are. From the chirpy, poppy “Rise and Shine” to the far Rockier “Godspell” you can hear the evolution in sound and also in Nina’s voice. CD also comes with an insert explaining all the songs and some of their humour. Highly recommended.

You can visit their website here.