Got to say a couple of words in praise of the Edinburgh Film Festival Early Spring thing. Some fine fine films that there’s still time to see (esp if you’re in London) but aren’t going to get released in this country. Lantana is set in Sydney, a murder mystery with a nice meandering feel and flawed, believable characters. I was even more impressed with Les Blessures Assassines (or Murderous Maids if you prefer) and have to use words like gritty, realist and ouch to describe it. It’s like Heavenly Creatures without the fluffy bits and its take on served/servant relations makes Gosford Park look like, ooh, a tedious and mannered waste of celluloid.

Consumer Protection Warning: I’ve seen an advert for Trouble Every Day, Vincent Gallo’s new film, and it’s claiming to be Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Deep Throat. That’s bollocks: it’s a vampire film with sex in it, directed by a French arthouse darling. That makes it The Hunger with less shoulderpads, less Bowie, less dialogue, more moodily framed shots, more meaningful looks, and a soundtrack by the Tindersticks. It’s a good film but don’t go expecting Buffy Does Dracula (that’s still in pre-production).

We went to check out the first gig by Glasgow supergroup John’s Not Mad on Friday. They’ve got people from Lapsus Linguae, Akira and Peeps Into Fairyland on board and had the 13th Note absolutely mobbed. Queues to get in! I’ve never seen the like. Possibly.

Anyway, they were pretty good. Seemed to be aiming for a Joy Division/Mogwai kind of thing but with an added country feel. When it was slow and sad with interacting girl/boy vocals it was great, when they tried to rock out [or, painfully, cover Love Will Tear Us Apart] it went a little awry. Considering it was a first gig it was good stuff although considering they all play in other bands so it should be. Aye, keep an eye out. They’ll be coming to an independently-minded website you know very well rather soon.

After that I finally got to see The Boy Cartographer, which is most of Pentothal’s other band. I really liked them – open and friendly and heartfelt. A bit like a sleepy Spare Snare.

The headliners were Homescience from Edinburgh and they were highly amusing. All their songs were about writing songs and girls and September being crap so I had much fun trying to guess what the obvious rhyme would be. They had some charm though with their slightly wobbly voices and jangly indie guitars. If they were more interesting they could be the new Pastels but sadly they’re more likely to be the new Travis. If they’re not Steve Lamacq’s favourite band already then they soon will be. They’re never going to run out of subjects for songs either since they’ve still not covered how it can be fun in the sun or how a car can drive far or having a dream about ice cream. They had a xylophone though, that was good.

Went to see Fridge last night. Very good. Forgave them some freejazzy noodlings I wasn’t in the mood for when they finished by building up this driving track over about 20 minutes at the end. Highest marks go to the bass player’s Tshirt with blood under the armpits, though.

Having lots of fun playing with this cutup machine that The Morning News pointed me at. Sometimes it’s like a truth machine, sometimes just funny. I used it on a message* from the man who owns me for 8 hours a day and he says “I look forward to $7.8 billion.”

[* if anyone can tell me what “leverage” is supposed to mean as a verb, I’d love to know…]

– People willing to spend £22 [TWENTY TWO POUNDS!] on the first single by The Strokes. It doesn’t even have a proper sleeve or anything. Best retrieve my copy from the immense diskant box of review stuff then
– Thinking of bidding on something and discovering it’s being sold by someone you know
– Thinking of bidding on something and discovering that Simon Minter is already bidding on it.
– Discovering yourself on page 23 of the ‘Records > 45 RPM > Other’ section at half past eleven on a Friday night.

If you find my life somewhere I’d quite like it back…

Got arrested at the Faslane Blockade;
Seen any films I’d bother to see again;
Bought any good records;
Finished reading Moby Dick
Been given the day off because of the train strikes;
Blogged.

Wow. I rock.