You'd like to know what the public really thinks?

I've just read this blog by Alex Day. Last night I had a discussion with my friend Ash about popular music and how I had to close down a Pussy Cat Dolls song after only 30 seconds as I was, to be honest, repulsed.

I know I'm not the mainstream at all in my tastes but as I have been in the past a great lover of music by Pink, McFly and S Club 7, I feel I can say I'm not adverse to listening and enjoying music classed as "popular".

That is until recently where I have stopped listening to the radio often due to a major dislike for what is classed as "popular" these days.

Anyway I could rant for a day and a half about that, what this blog is going to be is an experiment. I'm going to listen to Radio 1 for an hour and share my thoughts.

18:50
"this is why they play my song on so many different dials" - Well I hadn't heard it before this second.
It's rapping but I'm not enjoying it (though only Eminem has ever really allowed me to enjoy rap, oh and Hank Green.)

Now he's (Scott Mills) just listing people, guests, I didn't hear earlier in the day to encourage me to check it out online.

Next song, electro-y unclear lyrics, cannot tell a word of it, not too catchy but sounds sort of classic. Might kick in soon. The drum sounds SO FAKE just remixed samples. WHERE IS THE TALENT? I haven't heard a genuine clear un-auto tuned voice yet. I still haven't heard a distinct word yet. "Aeroplane Superstar" NO LIES. Is that considered good? Really?

Ooooh a voice, slow and a bit raw. "Now I see you lying there like a lilo loosing air, air". Best of the tracks so far. The chords in the background are appealing. Oh no it's becoming very very repetitive "I'm the theory in your head, I'm the theory in your bed, I'm the ghost in the back of your head" about 4 times and now just electronic Snow Patrolish rhythms but all warped. I wonder who this is, it's quite relaxing. I could grow to like this track actually; back to those lines though, repeating again.

Oh now it's a new presenter at exactly 19:00, talking about their producer who's last show it is.

More electronic music. I'm not on board (so I guess the presenter is Zane? that's his thing? he hasn't actually said.) I think, I might be right in thinking this is supposed to be the "In New Music We Trust" show. We shall see, they'll no doubt not play a single artist from youtube. None of my beloved Milsom on the radio tonight?
 Of course not. Instead I'm listening to a HIDEOUS mix of bloops and beeps and "drum" that is just going over and over and over and sometimes adding a new layer or sound. Oh it reduced a bit and he's talking over the track.

"It's going to be a really fun night tonight!" Zane just said. The song before is still on bloody hell he's just talking over it because it is that INSANELY REPETITIVE. Who does this appeal to? It's too fast to dance to, no lyrics to sing to, it sounds like everything I might have ever heard like this. OH RIGHT he's talking over it AGAIN, it's still going 5 minutes later. It's horrible. It just cut off while he said "muck spreading".

Kings of Leon, finally a band I have heard of and have heard the Mighty Boosh take the mick out of. Oh his horrible voice. Not a fan. Oh I tuned out and started reading tumblr, it's ok background music, it doesn't intrude but I have no compulsion to hear it again. 5 albums? REALLY? Radioactive? There was nothing radioactive about that song. Give that title back to McFly.

Right transitioning to another dance track, already not enjoying it. CRAPPY SAMPLED DRUMS. Where are my bands that can play live? This guy's voice is so old fashioned. OMG it was getting good until "heaven, heaven" etc etc. It almost felt like a Depeche Mode song, a tiny bit. No, ruined by the chorus and the backing track. ERGH.

Adverty things, but not real adverts because it's the BBC.

Interpol, Barricade. Guitar repeating and what sounds like actual drums! A voice that isn't auto tuned. He sounds like he cannot really be bothered to be singing though, drawling. The guitar is SO MUCH like Driftless Pony Club that it is making me very upset that I cannot hear Craig singing Legends of Archery. No, I've decided I don't like this song anymore. The lyrics do not appeal and it's just washing over me. No catch, no enjoyment.

Stopped listening to talk to mum but there was no song on. Now there's one where they sing "ooeeoo" for sirens. It's quirky. "Better" is not behha though. PRONOUNCE IT. Disliked. "Like Blur meets the Cribs"? really? "A breath of fresh air"?

Ooh this one is very wordy, as in, you can hear them and his voice isn't so bad and it's not going through autotune. The drums and guitar are suiting it and supporting it. "Tell me how my money's spent" "All I need's a great big congratulations." Not the best lyrics, it's like a list of ideas... no narrative. Give me Erase This with it's story arch any day. Dude. I'm not enjoying this. Only 20 mins left though.

Now they're going to play another REMIX. Nooooooooooooooooo.
Dubstep? I'm not sure how I'm going to feel about this. Power chords. Ergh I'm just going to browse the internet until this song is over. Not fond.

NO WAY. They're playing it again. NOT EVEN FAIR. Only 12 minutes of listening left now! Then I can switch it off and watch some YouTube videos thank-you-please.

He just said "this is ridiculous" I agree. Pure and simple. Ridiculous. It's the bad sort though, not like Zane meant. TWICE I had to hear that. "Helen McGuire was the vocalist" she could sing but the song was not appealing. "Laid back but tough" no. Apparently there wasn't even one negative text. WHAT? NO WAY they're freaking playing it again. *CRIES*

He doesn't know where to go now. A NEW SONG PLEASE. "We need to move forward people".

OOH! Architects, day in day out. Screaming. Shake it up a bit indeed. My blood is pumping and I'm honestly happy to hear someone scream down the mic. A real band, a beautiful piece of passion. Not even my type of music but it's the best thing I've heard all night with only 3 minutes to my cut off point.



That was an experience and a half and not an enjoyable one. Maybe I picked the wrong time to do this with the new music show but I still think it's valid to say I'll be switching back to 6Music or Absolute if I'm going to radio listen at all.

Yearn

Forgive me.

Today I bought 3 new nail varnishes because they were on offer and I needed a new navy blue anyway.

They are Barry M and they are 292 Navy, 299 Racing Green and 302 Fuchsia.
This set me considering the names of my other nail varnishes.

I'm feeling indulgent and while videos load and I wait for people to post on tumblr I'm going to look through my collection.

Black - Max Factor - 87 - Ebony

Pink/Orange (It's iridescent and both.) - Stay Perfect - 90 - Taffeta

Purple - Rimmel London (Wear Maxx) - 405 - Fantasy

Green - Hot Look - 9 - Catwalk

Purple - Virgin Vie - 2231 - Russian Velvet

Gold - Rimmel London (Lycra Pro) - 431 - Gold Infusion

Clear - Rimmel London - Nail Rescue (Not worth including)

Orange - Bourjois - 92 - Orange Etincelle

Red - Virgin Vie - 3759 - Glitzy Glam

Yellow - Go Cosmetics (this one stains, I got it on the market) - Go Shade 04

Red - Miss Sporty (Lasting Colour) - n/a

Pink - Miss Sporty (Quick Dry) - n/a

Sparkles - No7 - 03 - Sparkling Silver

Blue - Rimmel (Lasting Finish) - 262 - Fuel

Burgundy - Natural Collection - name and no. have rubbed off the label

Red - Bourjois Paris (1sec per nail) - 8 - no name

Clear - Virgin Vie - Glossy Top Coat

Peach - Virgin Vie - Protective Base Coat

Green - Glo Baby Glo! - Limelight

Silver - Icing - 0302

That was just for me wasn't it. 

:D

Yaxley

After finishing off the few tissues in the boxes in James' house I have since used a whole loo roll to catch my sneezes.

Refreshing to be ill isn't it? NOT!

On Thursday, James' Birthday, we went to Liverpool for a Cafe Rouge lunch and Scott Pilgrim. I failed to find any jeans that fitted in the shops we looked in too. (The situation on jeans is dire. All of my pairs now have holes in them.)

We've spent the last few days mainly inside the house because the weather has been pretty dire and we didn't want to spend much money.

I had inspiration for next term's art project (finally!).

This is a bad and quick blog post because my ability to string together words is hampered.

Meh.

Yatter

I haven't yet told you about our day trip to Chester. On Monday we hopped on the train from Garswood with a "saveaway" for only £4.50 and rode the 40 minutes into Liverpool.
We then hopped onto the train to Chester but stopped and got off at Bebington so we could walk through Port Sunlight to the Lady Lever Art Gallery.
I must say it was an odd experience. There were too many vases and plates and everything was a bit overwhelming. However, it was still a worthwhile experience.
On the walk to and from the train station we could smell apple pie. It was such a good smell.
Anyhoo, we waited around for the train that would take us to Chester.

There are still rhinos in Chester by the way. We saw an extra 4 that we hadn't seen last time even though we weren't even actively looking!

I digressed! Once we got to Chester we headed into town to procure food, this being about 1 o'clock.
However, as I mentioned in my last blog, we had decided that the next Primark we saw we'd get James the converse-like-shoes in turquoise. That we did, and some navy ones too! Bargain.

Wilkinsons did not have sandwiches.

We went in search of a Greggs but could not locate one for far too long. It was well after 2:30 by the time food was consumed. If you were wondering, although you probably aren't, I had a very tasty chicken and sweetcorn baguette.

James was craving some sort of pudding but as we had moved on from Greggs by then and were not particularly craving a slightly overpriced cake from a tea shop we headed to what I recalled might be an area that could possibly have had a Tesco.

"By the Shakespearian Rhino!" I stated as I tried to help James remember where we were heading.

It was a Tesco. We bought some mini donuts for £1 and I bought "The Boat That Rocked" on dvd. I took great pride in fishing out my little clubcard thing that I never get to use because there is no Tesco in Lancaster.

We walked around the walls fully during our day and visited a few other shops just because we could. Heading back to James' house for about half 6 or 7. (I'm not sure.)

On Tuesday we stayed in, watched The Boat That Rocked, which is fantastic and read and cuddled the cats and other such things. It rained a fair amount so we were very content to be inside.

Today we also stayed in. We decided yesterday the 2hr train ride to get to Southport wasn't worth it to not actually do much when we were there. Instead we watched The Big Lebowski. What a strange film. We only recorded it because of that advert that we saw at the Uni cinema 3 times a week! Live more like the dude?
"That rug really tied the room together, did it not?"

PLUS it had Seymour in it. I will always call him that even though his name is Steve Buscemi.

We've whiled the rest of the day away in a typical summer fashion, eaten pineapple and biscuits and chicken wrap sandwiches and stirfry.

Maybe tomorrow will be more adventurous? James is 20 tomorrow, that's a bit scary!

Talk soon, adios!

Yesterday

Saturday 4th September consisted of me waking up at James' very very warm. His room is small and it's got the cupboard with the boiler in and I was extremely and thoroughly warm.

We were lucky enough to be able to cadge a lift from his parents to Newton-le-Willows so that we could get the train to Manchester. (This way it cost WAY less in both time and money.)

Due to my ineptitude to read signs and James' willingness to follow me, we walked all the way to Manchester Museum instead of Art Gallery. However this was not a bad move as we marvelled over Egyptian carvings/items, were a bit grossed out by the mummy of this strange lady, and stumbled into a CURRENCY EXHIBITION.

I haven't blogged enough about my currency project and that is because I've been woefully slow and getting started on it. I've got all these ideas and plans but I need to get into motion. When I get home on the 12th it'll be late but on the 13th, the Monday, I will KNUCKLE DOWN. (It needs caps, it just does.)

After that jaunt we continued onward to the Whitworth where there was an exhibition about sexual wallpaper and some landscapes/seascapes/skyscapes. Oh, and a wooden sculpture-like wall piece which was rather intriguing. There was also a video piece of some children clambering all over a neglected piece of sculpture in Peterlee.

Wandering back towards the station, in the direction of the Art Gallery, we stopped for food. I say we, James was sure we were going to find a Wilkinsons so only I got a sandwich at the first Greggs. We wandered around the more central shopping area of Manchester passing many a Greggs, some live music, an Apple store and, wait for it, a shop that was being fitted to be a Wilkinsons. Instead we went to the Tesco Express and James had a meal deal from there.

Primark was our next stop, just to have a look. Mainly we were on a mission to find some new canvas shoes for James as his actual converse got holes in them after less than a year. The standout pair were some deep turquoise ones which James pondered over and couldn't quite decide if he could "get away with them". In the end we decided that when we go to Liverpool within the next few days he might get them there instead. Other than that hightops were the only black/white option. To which James notably said, "I don't think I'm at that stage in my life."

Manchester Art Gallery had a sweet children's interpretation/interactive quality with information about Greek mythology so that made our experience there fairly enjoyable. Although the exhibitions that I thought we'd be able to see seemed to be closed for "fitting".

Back on the train it was to return to Chez Schorah.

On the flipside (am I allowed to say that?) today was a lovely relaxed and lazy day. Although this afternoon we did go on an hour (and 10 mins!) walk out to James' old school area and back, on the routes he used to walk.

I feel I've written a lot. James is currently playing Golden Sun. Mum is on skype. All is well.