Thoughts on the New Danger Mouse Album

My initial thought is that this album is not out yet.

That said, Danger Mouse is once again testing the limits of music distribution. His new album with Daniele Luppi is streaming online through various websites and most interestingly, youtube. The usual nonsense of links within videos on youtube has been put to good use here. You are presented with a menu, much like a DVD menu on which you can choose a track from the album or allow it to play through itself. This allows the whole album to load, while also offering high quality tracks and therein, the best possible advertisement for the album.

My initial impressions of the music are largely positive. The resonance with Enio Morricone cannot be avoided and nor should it, with the choir of "The Good The Bad and The Ugly" and "Once upon a Time in the West" reunited for the album. Couple the contemporary spaghetti western vibe with the guest voices of Jack White and Norah Jones and you have a recipe for something very unique indeed.

Unique, however, just does not ring as accurate for the album. I have been wondering if I should just listen to some more Enio Morricone instead of this somewhat unoriginal connection. But then again, this was never meant to be a blazing trail into new territory. It is instead, slick, polished, smooth and thoroughly enjoyable on its own terms. As an homage then, this is a wonderful project.

I wonder if I can find the money and wherewithal to actually buy it.

-The English Student

Attention Monopoly

Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan last Monday.

What else happened on that day? Protesters were killed in Syria and the rift between rebels and loyalists in Libya widened. These are the only two developments that I remember from that day and in truth, they are based on a following of these news stories for the past few weeks. I partially blame my own blinkered vision on Monday for this, yet the sheer volume of attention that the death of bin Laden garnered necessarily pushed everything from the front page of sites and papers.

With good reason, too. The reaction to this event is far-reaching and has serious ramifications for everyone in both the 'west' and 'east'. I am not saying that these stories should not be given their due space and news outlets will obviously be in competition with others for the most succinct, original and in some countries, extreme piece on the event. It makes good economic sense to devote this kind of space to major events.

Yet I cannot help but wonder what the tyrants of the world are thinking when they see such dominant headlines. I do not know if Gaddafi was particularly violent on this Monday or if Syrian security forces cracked down even harder on protesters and I would be willing to bet that most people in the world do not know this either. Was such a news story a carte blanche for such regimes to enact brutalities on a people that would go largely unnoticed? I do not know and I do not know how this would be mitigated.

At any rate we should be aware of this trend and not allow dictators one moment free from the global gaze.

-The English Student

Alternative News Blogging?

Real news became ancillary news this weekend.

I will not engage with my usual effort to avoid naming certain events with the thought that they have garnered enough attention and do not need my own. Instead, I wish to name and shame the royal wedding in the UK this weekend and how certain news outlets dealt with the event. Throughout this post I do not wish to dampen the joy and fun that people gained from the event. If UK citizens wish to celebrate this wedding they are within their full rights to do so and it is always a good thing to see a country unified in joy.

It is not, however, acceptable for this particular news story to absolutely block out the rest of the world. One site in particular caused me a great deal of frustration. This site frequently live blogs on certain events. I have often left their live blog on middle eastern politics open in the last few weeks as it is both informative and updated frequently. On Friday, however, there was a blog devoted to everything that was not royal wedding related. I skimmed through this blog and found entries on Libya, riots in Bristol and other big events happening throughout the world. It was, in short, a blog of the news.

When did the news become the secondary factor of a news website?! The media itself has been quick to point out that this wedding was a massive reality television show on a huge stage. Yet surely with this self-awareness, these outlets need to consciously address the balance when relating news. If people wish to submerge themselves in royal wedding 'news' for the whole day then a royal wedding live blog would have been a brilliant way to do it and would have allowed people nonplussed by the whole affair to equally, avoid it.

Allowing oneself respite from the harrowing events of the world is understandable but that should not lead to a wider ignorance of the world.

-The English Student

Running Myself into the Ground

As previous posts may have suggested, my mental state is a touch fragile at the moment.

Possibly the most frustrating aspect of this is that I frequently now end up on this blog, only able to articulate these complaints. Perhaps this will change in a weeks time when I should get an opportunity to figure out how to be human again. For in truth, I have to admit that I am currently running myself into the ground.

I have put in a stupid amount of hours work in the past week. If my maths are correct (and honestly, that is a dubious claim in my current state) the tally is just past eighty hours. I have engaged in this foolish endeavour knowing full well what it would do to me and how little it would be worth the effort.

This self-awareness is almost more worrying. For if I knew that I was about to annihilate my body and sense of well-being then why did I continue down the same road? As this intense stretch comes to an end I have to wonder what will happen to me on the other side. Do I want to burn out? If that is the case, how much more miserable will I be when I do?

At any rate, these answers will likely be agonised over in my next post.

-The English Student

Title:

I have never felt like I want to write here less.

I feel like shit. I spend all of my time putting up this massive façade, pretending that I know what I'm talking about, know where I'm going, know what I'm doing and know who I am. I trick people into thinking that I'm good. This perpetual lie that I foist onto these wonderful people makes me feel worse.

I give people advice that I am not able to follow myself. This is hypocritical. How can I look someone in the eye and tell them that I know they're going to be okay, when I do not even believe that about myself?

Now, as it happens, I find that even this paltry, pathetic excuse of a life is untenable in its current form. I have all of these brilliant opportunities around me and huge groups of positive people, yet I can never find peace amongst. I am not worthy of them.

I am so tired of all this. Perhaps forcing myself to keep up with this weekly blog is something to hold on to.

-The English Student

Life Invasion

I have kept my life in small chunks.

These little divisions have included different groups of friends, different places and different mindsets. This weekend however, I have found them mixing. I had anticipated this and while nervous, was happy to see what would happen. The only thing that now worries me is that they may be mixing too quickly and without my control.

This may just be a step towards giving myself a coherent life. Yet at the same time I cannot help but wonder if there was a reason for keeping my life fragmented. I do not trust myself in certain situations and with certain people. Perhaps this compartmentalisation was an effort to make a new beginning with people and therefore break free of old patterns.

At any rate, the main thing that I need to do this weekend is to go along with things and not complicate matters. For any normal person, this problem would not even exist so it is surely a natural and beneficial step for some disparate elements of my life to start pulling together.

Hopefully I can even enjoy it too.

-The English Student

Shower Physiology

Surely the contemporary epiphany happens in the shower.

The moment that I step into the shower my entire body goes under a transformation. I only recently realised this transformation as the whole process of showering, the rushing water is a distraction. It is like a moment of transition. As the water hits me my body and mind sinks into a relaxation.

People frequently seem to realise the power of the shower for problem solving. Any kind of mental issue or problem that needs to be sorted out gains a completely new perspective in the shower. The aforementioned moment of transition necessarily gives a new light and affords new thinking patterns the room to work.

The other obvious benefit (apart from making us clean!) is that the shower is a place that work can rarely be done in. I once managed to do some study in the shower with a creative use of plastic pockets and tape but that is certainly not the norm. When there is no practical way to make progress on something we do not feel the usual pressure associated with it.

I may go for one right now actually.

-The English Student