Albion and Arcadia

Lately I've been rather lonesome despite the spell of sunny weather
I've found it hard to stay on track; I cannot get it together
The Irish write the saddest songs and then move on to better things
The singer's loneliness spills out into the quiet songs he sings
Paranoid and on my own I've lived for many years
The silence in the nighttime serves to amplify my fears

I may be lonely now and I was very lonely yesterday
Despite the paranoia I won't have it any other way

Dreaming of dystopian fears that haunt the quiet of my mind
The streets and towers and smoky air of cities I have left behind
Someday I'll watch my feet again on the paving stones of Camden Town
The tower blocks of loneliness will fade away and crumble down
Lately I've been dazed, confused, can't keep my thoughts straight in my head
I thought I saw him on the streets but it can't be him, he's four years dead

I may be lonely now and I was very lonely yesterday
Despite the paranoia I won't have it any other way

Arcadia, the promised land, once haunted sailors' wildest dreams
But in its towns and cities it's not quite so lovely as it seems
The darkness of the hotels where Chelsea Girls would go to die
Is captured here in city streets, a while ago they longed to fly
The Westway into Ladbroke Grove, the grassy slopes on Hampstead Heath
The traintracks over Albion hide battlefields far beneath

I may be lonely now and I was very lonely yesterday
Despite the paranoia I won't have it any other way

-J. Ritchie, 23rd Jan 2006 Not to be reproduced except for educational purposes

Up the Bracket

...or up yours, mate.

I was feeling bored and lonely yesterday after helping my mother clean out her basement. "Should we keep these cookie cutters, ma?" "Throw 'em out." "But we might be able to use them." "Throw them out!"

The day before that I got into a long argument about Whole Foods mac'n'cheese.
J: Okay, so the sandwiches are too expensive, so we could get mac'n'cheese....
G: yeah, okay, but there's only one big carton left. We could split it...
J: or we could both get little cartons
G: Or we could both get big cartons but there's only one big carton left
J: or you could get a big carton and I could get a little carton
G: really?
J: yeah, I'm being generous.
We ate while watching Family Stone, which is a lot better than I thought it would be.

I went home and went to bed, cleaned ma's basement, got bored, and went CD hunting. They didn't have Up the Bracket at my usual place so I was forced to support Borders and therefore corporate America. Whatever. Bro's girlfriend works there. Bought Up the Bracket, listened to it several times, felt better. Been walking around with "The Boy Looked At Johnny" or "Horrorshow" stuck in my head. Pete Doherty's been arrested again and supposedly broke up with Kate Moss. Sucks for her, don't it?
Yeah...
bye

The Boy Looked At Johnny

I have a confession to make. This may shock you all. Particularly those of you who thought I was reasonbaly intelligent. Or had reasonably good taste in music.
Ready?

I like the Libertines, and I don't yet own any of their albums.

This is terrible.

ItWasGreatFun will think I'm an art-hating phillistine. Mini Wheat will think I'm a crack addict like Pete Doherty. Snowy will think I'm weird. Peaches will tie me to a chair with James Brown blasting from the speakers for twelve hours straight.
But to them I say: HAHAHAHA!!!! I will like lad-rock if I want to!!!! And you can't stop me!

Tired'n'Bored'n'Out of Leftovers...

...basically describes my chinese-foodless state. I have to argue a case tomorrow or the day after life otherwise sucks. Which sounds awfully teenagerish of me. Whoop-di-doo.
Oh well, the weekend's coming, so I'll be able to attck my movie list. Plus instaFriend, Entwistle, and Kari are probably coming over to alleviate my misery. I also have cartoonist's block. Angst, angst, angst.
Oh well.
J

Back to the USSR

Home again after break. The plumbing has stopped screwing up, our water heater isn't misbehaving too badly, and I lived on leftover takeout Chinese food for three days. Back to the USSR.
Went out to eat with Twinlets, Philosophy Dude and co. the night after I rewatched Westway to the World. Philosophy Dude has the 101'ers album so we listened to that (LETSAGETABITAROCKIN'!) and discussed Chrissie Hynde and Rude Boy, the other Clash flick. Good fun.
The next morning, my friend H and her kids came over for a chat. Elsa is three, nearly four, and Sawyer is one of the most alert babies I have ever seen. After much ooh-ing and aah-ing and ohmigodyouaresocute-ing they left and I got to work on a legal brief. The joins of studying law. Sandinista on the headphones was my only salvation from death by boredom.
After that I had barely enough energy to sit in front of the electric fire and read movie reviews. I now want to see:
Stranger than Paradise (Jarmusch, a favorite of Philosophy Dude)
Down by Law (Jarmusch, liked by the Time Out guide)
Mystery Train (Are we getting a Jarmusch thing going here? Joe Strummer's in this one)
Rebel Without A Cause (James Dean is TOTALLY my style icon)
A Place in the Sun (cos the Clash liked it so much)