Post-Essay Laziness

It's going to be a pretty short post today. I've spent all day writing an essay on whether the US death penalty is effective in reducing crime. I'll probably write a blog about it sometime soon, because it's a subject i find very interesting, but right now i can't bring myself to write anything more about it.

Last night i made a surprising amount of progress on a short story i've been trying to write for several months now. I'd got a lot of the key elements together, but i just couldn't get it to flow, couldn't quite get it to feel like a story rather than a selection of chapters. I'd written it in a kind of odd style, i wrote the beginning, middle and end of the story without writing the chapters that linked them. Hopefully i'll have it finished soon, i'll definitely mention it on here once it's done and anyone who wants to read it would be perfectly welcome.

Now for the main part of this blog, a top 5 list of songs that got me through the essay writing today. Seeing as it took me quite a long time to do the essay, my mood changed a fair bit and so the music i listened to ended up being quite varied. Seeing as it's a Sunday evening it seemed appropriate that i did a chart countdown of my own.

At Number 5 a song that makes me want to go on a night out every time i hear it:

In at Number 4, a classic and permanent favourite

Number 3 in this countdown of songs that kept me going is a bit of good old fashioned guitar based indie, from a promising sounding band:

Just missing out on the top spot, in at Number 2 is this:

And Number 1 tonight is a song which is a definite favourite right now:

A Forest Fan's Frustration

It's safe to say i'm not all that ecstatic about the way today's sport has panned out.

Firstly Forest were utterly outplayed by Swansea today. I watched the game and apart from fairly brief spells at the end of either half, they looked a completely different class to us. All credit to Swansea, they look like real contenders for promotion this year, they attack with pace and quality passing, with the ability to take their chances as well, something they lacked last year. Saying that, i do worry that at times we were making them look good.

It's really worrying just how badly we're falling apart at the moment. We look utterly lacking in ideas and quality in midfield. Kris Boyd looks like a reasonable signing, he seems to be the kind of striker who, if given half decent service, will score goals. The problem is that we simply aren't creating enough. The really odd thing is that we have plenty of players in our team who are in theory creative, yet we for long periods today looked utterly incapable of stringing a few passes together. On the basis of the last month of games we simply don't deserve to go up. There are several other teams in the league playing much better football, much more consistently.

It's not a fact i'm exactly chuffed to have to admit, but it's the truth. We're still in a reasonable position, there's still a good chance we'll end up in the play offs. It's just that unsurprisingly if you know anything about Forest's recent history, i pretty much consider the play offs to mean we're not going up.

Almost more annoyingly, we came so, so, sooooo close to snatching a draw we really didn't deserve. When Anderson hit the post, almost straight after he pulled one back i thought maybe, just maybe we'd pulled off a highly improbable comeback.

Other sporting disappointments today include Ireland's trouncing of us in the Six Nations and Arsenal dropping points in the chase for the Premier League title. Neither of those events bummed me out anywhere near as much as the Forest one, but they had a cumulative effect.

In other, objectively far more important, news, i whole heartedly support the imposing of the no fly zone, the response of France and Britain to the attack on Benghazi and the dismissal of the supposed 'ceasefire' declared by Gadaffi. It's a nice change for once to actually be in favour of a British government's foreign policy, to actually believe that in a screwed up situation, with no 100% right answer, our government chose the best available option and are even perhaps somewhere near the moral high ground. We're not there yet, but we've at least started the climb.

To finish the blog, i'm going to post a song, as per usual. What's less usual is that the song i'm about to post is one that's in the chart's currently. Nothing against chart music, but it tends to be full of songs i only truly like when i'm drunk and in a club, not sober and posting a blog. The song is a cover, one of my favourite cover's at the moment, and a cover that is remarkable in two ways. Firstly because to have the confidence and ability to cover Bon Iver is impressive, secondly, the artist doing the cover is apparently 14. It's the cover of 'Skinny Love', by Birdy.

A Visit To Ben Affleck's Town

The 'star' of "Pearl Harbour", an actor always considered to have a potential that he repeatedly failed to live up to, with aspirations of being a big shot director. A big budget crime thriller styled after Michael Mann's classic, "Heat". It's a combination which in many ways seemed doomed to fail and i'll happily admit i had my reservations when i first heard about the project.

If you haven't guessed already, i'm talking about "The Town" and the man in question is Ben Affleck.

The 38 year old American has had a pretty mixed career, with several serious bum notes, but in the last 5 years his career has undergone a bit of a resurrection. He's started directing films as well as continuing to act and contrary to my initial belief, he's made me completely re-evaluate my view.

I watched "The Town" this evening, the second time i've seen it, and it was every bit as good with a repeat viewing. It was the second best film i saw at the cinema in 2010, only pipped by the frankly stunning "Monsters".

You can't watch "The Town" without comparing it to the 1995 Pacino v De Niro bank heist movie, but i don't see that as a criticism. Affleck's effort is excellent in it's own right, learning lessons from arguably the best example of the particular genre, without ever just becoming a poor homage to it.

The action scenes are perfectly directed, sharp and clinical, yet brutal and kinetic throughout. The central characters are well developed, with some genuine depth and complexity. It's definitely a film focussing on the people on the criminal side, with the main FBI character, played by Mad Men's John Hamm, given very little time to do anything other than scowl and make vague threatening statements. However it's excusable when the criminals are so engaging, and the relationship between Affleck's character and Rebecca Hall's is surprisingly believable given the context. Jeremy Renner is superb as Affleck's violent but loyal best friend, definitely deserving of the Oscar nomination he got.

It's the kind of film where much of the plot and many of the characters are rife with potential for becoming clichéd, yet the execution of them means it remains brilliant throughout. It's a film that is powerful, tense and manages to tow the line between showing the criminals as real people and glorifying the criminal activity.

I definitely intend to watch the film Affleck directed in 2007, "Gone Baby Gone", which starred his younger brother. There seems to be a definite chance that he may end up with a career that he can be proud of, where he may even be forgiven for his complicity in "Pearl Harbour".

A Day of Ferrets, Guinness, Bad Football and Morbid Literature

A shorter post today, just looking at a few of the things that have stood out over the past 18 or so hours.

First up, fairly early on today, i heard voices outside my window and decided to take a look through the gap in my blinds, being a full on nosy neighbour. Instead of seeing someone about to try and burgle my house, i was greeted with one of the most surreal sights i've seen in a while. I looked out on the small paved over area that passes for a back garden at my house and stood there was two men and a ferret. Yes, a ferret. In the centre of Leicester.

I then watched as the two men tried and quite spectacularly failed to capture said ferret. They chased it around, attempting to tempt a small animal into a pretty sketchy looking cardboard box, for a good few minutes. They almost looked like they'd cornered it, until the ferret, displaying an IQ that put the two men to shame, darted straight between the open legs of one of the guys, and down the alleyway, followed by two confused and cursing men.

It was an interesting start to my day definitely.

The next feature of my day was potentially the most morbid trip to a library i will ever face. I'm doing a research essay on whether the death penalty actually reduces crime in the US. Naturally i went to the library to get several related books out, only to realise that i possibly wasn't giving out the greatest sociable signals, by carrying a pile of books adorned repeatedly with the word, in bold and capitalised, DEATH. It's an interesting topic, one which has no easy answer, which is exactly what makes it such a fascinating issue to research. Whether i'll be quite so effusive in praise for the topic once i've written the essay is another matter.

Last up is the disappointment that was the Europa League football tonight. Both Manchester City and Liverpool stumbled their way to elimination, never really looking likely to survive, never looking capable of scoring the goals required to keep them in the competition. Both performances were utterly lacking in passion or determination and so though i'm disappointed, i have absolutely no sympathy for their defeats. Neither deserved the chance to continue in the competition, but it's still a shame that the two English teams in the competition were dumped out with quite so little ceremony.

One plus point is that i realised i actually like Guiness. So silver linings and all that.

As a continuation of the fairly light hearted and random nature of this post i'm going to post two videos.

The first is one that is definitely meant as a joke:

The second i merely wish was a joke:

Singing Their Hearts Out

I'd like to think i have a pretty varied taste in music, at one point my iTunes goes from the Foo Fighters, to the Four Tops, to Frank Hamilton, which i kind of love. I have, and enjoy, plenty of music which is simply fun and almost slightly throwaway, but the songs i love, the ones that get played over and over again are the songs with real emotion and passion within them.

Songs where you can tell that the musician cared about the song they were making, put real thought into the lyrics, wanting them to truly mean something to someone.

Songs where the emotion and message seem genuine rather than forced. Songs which draw in your full attention, not an easy task when most people, me included, very rarely sit down and just listen to an album, instead usually on their computer, or reading, or at least texting.

It's those things that set songs apart for me. I reckon it's why i've never properly got into the dancier and more electronic ends of music. As good as many of those songs are, and as much as i can enjoy them if i'm in the right mood, i find they rarely carry the weight of meaning that other genres achieve and it is that weight which tends to be the reason i begin to really like a song.

When i say songs with emotion and passion i'm not just talking about heart wrenching ballads. Rock songs, indie songs, folk songs and acoustic songs, pop songs, blues songs, rap songs, soul songs and classical pieces,all these genres and many more have songs within them which have struck me as powerful.

Sometimes a powerful song isn't what i want, sometimes i want a song which to use an inadequate adjective are simply more 'fun'. But the songs that matter, at least in my opinion, are the ones which clearly mattered to the person making them.

I reckon there are two types of serious music fan; lyrics people and instrument people. Pretty much everyone will lean towards one or the other. For some people it's the lyrics that make you love a song, for others it's the tune and the rhythm. That's not to say a lyrics person can't love a particular guitar riff or that an instrument person can't connect with a particular set of lyrics, merely that for anyone it tends to be one that matters more, that is the catalyst for them becoming passionate about a song.

I am definitely a lyrics person. If i like a song i pretty much inevitably try and learn at least some of the lyrics, precisely because it will be sections of those lyrics that drew me to the song in the first place. My dad on the other hand is very much an instrument person, he likes certain lyrics, but they're very rarely the defining feature of a song for him.

The inspiration for this whole post came in two parts, or more specifically two musicians. First up was Adele. It's not a situation i'm all that used to, where an artist i am really loving, someone who i feel sings with real passion and emotion, is also top of the charts and getting played everywhere, but i'm glad in this instance it has happened. I've never quite understood some music fans attitudes towards there favourite artists gaining success and mass-popularity. I guess they feel like their losing some of their connection to the music, it isn't 'theirs' any more if everyone is listening to it. You only have to go on Youtube and have a brief look at almost any popular artist's videos to see a selection of the fans boasting about 'having liked them before they were big' and making the assumption that popularity means that they've 'sold out'.

I'm perfectly happy to admit that though i'd listened to Adele's debut album, and liked a few of the tracks, i'd never really been passionate about her music until i heard the new album, particularly the now insanely popular "Someone Like You". It's one of those rare songs that makes me want to stop what i'm doing and just listen, precisely because it feels so personal and intense. Watching the live versions from the Brits and the BBC Live Lounge, watching the emotion of the song so clearly displayed on her face, it's a wonderful counter-weight to songs like 'Dirty Bit' by the Black Eyed Peas. This is a woman who managed to make a Cheryl Cole song classy and soulful (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czwlth4mx5Q), two adjectives rarely associated with the X-Factor judge.

The other artist that inspired me to write this blog, is Tim McIlrath, or more accurately his band Rise Against. Now they're not exactly the kind of band a lot of people would expect me to like, but i definitely do. There's something so passionate about their songs, yet they also carry an intelligence and political message in their lyrics, which sets them a little apart from many of the other rock/punk/metal/whatever genre you want to put them in bands. On their last album they had a song with at times almost uncomfortably honest and open lyrics about the loss of innocence of an American soldier serving in Iraq called "Hero of War", on their new album released this week, there's a song about the prejudice and fear that can be the life of many gay Americans inspired by the suicides of several gay American boys in September 2010 (the names are read out during the song in the background). These are songs about real issues, rather than songs about bizzare dance moves or lives lived solely in the pursuit of wealth and 'bling'.

I don't consider it at all naive to suggest that these songs can really matter, that a song can make a difference to someone's life. There's plenty of songs which have got me through some pretty bad days, or given me the motivation to enjoy some really good ones. Songs are like stories, they're subjective and because of that they have the potential to mean a huge amount to an individual, they are capable of meaning so much more than the simple combination of vocals and melody would suggest.

If you want to read more about just how important i believe both songs and stories to be, have a read of two of my earlier blog posts. Here's the one about music and here's the one about stories, personally that's one of the posts i'm most proud of, so i hope you enjoy it.

As always i'll finish this post with a song recommendation. Today's is fittingly a song which i've always loved, because of the passion involved and the lyrics which manage to capture emotions most people will have felt at some point. Also it proves my point that songs with passion aren't just ballads in my eyes, The Buzzcocks - Ever Fallen in Love.

As a footnote to this blog i'll put the set of lyrics that are arguably my favourite, by anyone, right now. They're from Frank Turner's song "I knew Prufock before he was famous".

"And i know i'm not the one who is habitually optimistic

But i'm the one who's got the microphone so just remember this.

Life is about love, last minutes and lost evenings

About fire in our bellies and about furtive little feelings

And the aching amplitudes that set our needles all a flickering

And help us with remembering that the only thing that's left to do is live."

Too Cool To Care?

It seems to me that a lot of the time it is cooler to dislike something than to like it, to be bored by something than to show an interest, to love something rather than hate it. I've never really understood that, why disinterest and disdain are so desirable. It's not something new, actively choosing and embracing a negative outlook on most aspects of life seems to be a uniting thread throughout the generations. You only have to look at sketches like the '4 Yorkshire men' or listen to the majority of conversations in any pub, regardless of the participants to see that it is considered much more respectable to adopt a quite miserable view of the world. "You miserable bugger" is more often a term of endearment than a stinging criticism.

There are few things that annoy me more than someone reacting with sneering disdain for someone's passion or enthusiasm about a subject. It depresses me a bit that i have probably done it myself a few times, but i do make a conscious effort not to think like that, not to be dismissive of someone else's interests, even if they don't match up with my own.

It's for that reason that at least so far as music, films and tv etc are concerned, i'm going to try and use this blog to praise things rather than criticise. If you want angry, sarcastic criticism of stuff, look elsewhere, there's plenty of corners of the Internet and TV schedules devoted to exactly that.

On that note, here's a brief review of two TV shows out there that i've really enjoyed for the past couple of months. Sadly they both finished this week, which is a shame, but they were two shows i tuned into every week.

First up is Being Human on BBC 3. It's a show that's hard to sell with description, much like the E4 show Misfits. The story of a vampire, a ghost and a werewolf trying to find a place in society and just as the title suggests be human. It's an idea that could very easily be utterly crap, yet the writing has remained sharp enough throughout that it became excellent. Darkly comedic, genuinely powerful in places and engaging it has run for 3 seasons so far and each has been as good as the last. It's looked at social prejudice, loss, friendship, betrayal, grief and murder, all without ever spooning on the message heavy-handedly. I'd definitely recommend people start from the very beginning and watch through.

Second is another BBC show, Outcasts. Now this wasn't anything hugely special, it was always a little bit too average throughout to truly become a favourite show. However after the first series it was an enjoyable sci-fi about the last members of humanity trying to start afresh on a planet called Carpathia after the Earth has become uninhabitable. It has some really good ideas (the relationship between humans and clones, the concept that what is 'super-natural' on one planet, may simply be natural on another) but never quite manages to pull them off. The acting is decent without any real stand out performances.

I've deliberately kept this blog a bit more light hearted than last night's post about the situation in the Ivory Coast. I want to keep writing about those kind of issues, but i don't want this blog to become solely devoted to highlighting political situations that i wish i could change.

As usual i will end this blog with a song that i've listened to twice already today, a song i'm really loving right now off of the recently released 4th album by Elbow. I've not actually bought the album yet, i'm having to wait until my scholarship comes through for that and several other albums, but i heard this song a while ago and it's definitely wetted me appetite for the full album. The song's called "Lippy Kids" and i hope you enjoy it.

If A Dictator Falls But The Media Don't Pay Attention, Does It Make A Sound?

This is a little side note, irrelevant to the main thrust of this blog post, but bear with me, i'll get to the important stuff soon. I've got to say i'm loving the weather we've had the past few days. I'm definitely a summer person, it makes me an almost bizarre amount happier to be able to leave the house without needing a jumper. It's a fairly arbitrary thing, i don't have any great logical reason why it is so much better, but for me it really is. Winter has it's plus points (Fresh snow, cups of hot tea held in frozen hands, the Christmas holidays, Christmas dinner and big winter coats) but it begins to drag around the middle of February and i begin to crave sunlight and green leaves instead of bare, skeletal trees.

What with the Easter holidays getting closer, this improved weather and plans for the summer seeming all the more relevant i definitely feel like i won't have to wait too much longer until the summer. It's daft how much of a difference to my initial mood waking up to blue skies in the morning makes. If i manage to combine a good nights sleep, a blue sky morning and the right song on my iPod (today's song of choice was Angus & Julia Stone's song, 'Just a Boy') it really can set me up for the day. Sounds daft and a little cheesy i know, but doesn't mean it isn't true.

In other news while my thoughts are definitely with the people of Japan and Libya as they attempt to deal with utterly terrible situations, i do feel a bit of frustration at the comparative lack of interest the world is showing in what is taking place in the Ivory Coast.

In late November 2010, the Ivory Coast held a long delayed presidential election, contested by President Laurent Gbagbo and opposition leader Alassane Ouattara. The long standing ethnic and geographical divides that saw the country experience a civil war for the majority of the first decade of the 21st century had finally been calmed to a point where it was feasible to try and hold democratic elections.

The country has a long history of unrest, with their history either side of the turn of the millennium littered with attempted coups, massacres of protesters and a drawn out civil war between the north and south. Various leaders have attempted to rule and/or unite the country, utilising different degrees of violence, oppression and exploitation since it gained it's independence from France in 1960.

The elections themselves were judged to be, despite some instances of violence, essentially free and fair and for a brief time it seemed like there could be some reasons to be optimistic to be optimistic about the future of this war torn country. That hope was short lived however; when, on the 2nd of December 2010, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) released provisional results showing Ouattara winning with 54% of the vote, Gbagbo and his supporters declared the result invalid and refused to relinquish power.

Within a few weeks the UN, African Union, EU, United States and the former colonial power France had all acknowledged Ouattara as the rightful president of the country. Despite this Gbagbo was sworn in for another 5 year term and once again the country descended into violence.

Since the disputed election there has been violence in most major towns and cities, with supporters and security forces loyal to the two potential leaders clashing angrily. There are numerous reports of armed militia's loyal to Gbagbo roaming the cities committing atrocities and brutally suppressing any opposition supporters. Rumours of mass graves, 'death squads' and mass attacks, including rape, upon women in the region, are all seen to have a high degree of truth to them.

Ouattara is based in a hotel in Abidjan, the capital of the country, protected by a force of 800 UN peacekeepers who report that they are entirely surrounded by Gbagbo's militia, who are blockading the area, making it impossible for food, water and medical supplies to reach the hotel or surrounding areas.

A brutal leader, clinging onto power long after it has become indisputable that he is no longer the rightful ruler of the nation, brutally suppressing opposition and using militia to wage a campaign of terror and violence against political opponents and civilians alike. It sounds pretty similar to what is taking place further north on the continent, yet has received such a small amount of coverage comparatively.

Maybe it's the relative distance, maybe the lack of British financial interests in the area, perhaps just an example of what i've heard being called 'compassion fatigue' where after a certain point, people just struggle to keep caring about every issue they hear about, and in a situation like the one facing the people of the Ivory Coast, where violence and unrest is nothing new, is it simply that it won't sell newspapers any more. Personally i suspect it's a frustrating combination of all those factors, but right now my thoughts are going out to he people in the Ivory Coast, struggling for democracy just like the people we supported in northern Africa. They deserve our thoughts and the attention of our politicians just as much.