I mean, real post – like, parcels and that. Today I received in the mail a load of Shellac goodies (the 1000 hurts album in its nice 12″ box, and a couple of singles), a Q And Not U album (thanks to Ollie for those) and also the new Hood compilation CDs in a rather beautiful handmade hessian bag. It’s days like this that remind me why getting real, physical things in the post is so great.

Probably no one. Well, I liked it a lot, and the lyrics of Pugwall’s band The Orange Organics gave me some much needed guidance during some very shakey pre-adolescent summer holidays. Quirky pop ditties rife with ideals of rebellion and advice on achieving one’s personal goals were very important to me and I’m sure thousands of other mixed up 80s kids. This is why I am now very dismayed to discover that Jason Torrens who played Pugwall has grown up not to be the star that he always sung about, doing things on his own terms and following his dreams, but the drummer in some shameful corporate cock-sucking nu-metal band. This is him then, in the glory days of The Organics, and here he is today, pictured third from the left. People, I’m crushed.

Further evidence:

Bugdust

Pugmania

Here’s some good film news.

And here’s some very bad film news. If you can’t be arsed reading the article, what it boils down to is this: Less money / support of arthouse cinemas in the areas where that support is needed most. If there’s a place in the country where those cinemas can survive without BFI funding it’s London, where there’s enough people to provide an audience for just about anything. Whereas if you live anywhere else but still want to see something different, you’re on your own. Let them watch cack.

So, as I was saying before Blogger went mental and ate my post [we hates it, we hates it! etc], it was the Anti War protests on Saturday and I hope you were all present and correct. We took lots of small children with us so spent a fun Friday night making our own placards out of cardboard boxes, brightly coloured paint, plaited wool and shoogly eyes. They were rather fantastic and the press kept taking photos of us. Sadly the interview Indymedia Scotland did with two of the kids isn’t on the website [interviewer: “why are you here?” kids: “umm” interviewer: “are you against the war?” kids: “YES!”] but there are lots of photos. The Glasgow demo was brilliant I thought, filling Glasgow Green at the beginning and the SECC car park at the end. Walking up St Vincent Street with people ahead and behind as far as we could see was exciting enough. Going off for chips halfway through and returning to just as many people was amazing. Also great to see so many ‘normal ordinary’ people instead of recognising 80% of the demonstrators. Tony Blair nipped in early to do his speech at the Labour Party conference and then wussed off home to hide so there was little to do once we arrived at the SECC except be continually amazed at how many people were there, try and find a space where you could be one of the twelve people able to hear the speeches and consider occupying the Tall Ship. Then the police closed the nearest bridge over the motorway so I had to walk some more miles to get home. Best anecdote of the day: when we were watching the march going past and looking for a handy gap to slide into, one of the kids with us asked, “is that the war?”. Aww.

Also on the Scottish front, some good news and some bad. The good news is that there is finally an official website for the Yummy Fur [only about five years late eh?] which has a long and very good interview with singer John McKeown and lots of other info. The bad news is that bis have confirmed that they’ve split up. But there will be a few farewell live dates and a final record before they go and they’re all involved in new projects. Crossover news of the day as John and Steven bis’ new band Dirty Hospital will be playing Stereo in Glasgow on the 24th of March [supporting the ace EU] followed by John McKeown’s new band The Mars Hotel the day after [and my birthday, yay!]. We just need a gig by Amanda’s band The Kitchen and we’ll have the full set.

i am currently attempting to live on my own for the first time in my life, which is very strange and not entirely pleasant. my wife kim went home to indianapolis yesterday to start work, and i will go there once my visa application is processed and all that stuff. i’m very excited at the prospect of us living comfortably for the first time, going to see some exciting bands and getting away from all the ridiculous english crap that pisses me off on a daily basis. unfortunately in order to obtain this, we now have to spend months living apart. since kim moved here ten short months ago, i had become a shadow of my former self, a walking cliche, completely co-dependent and unequipped to deal with life on my own again. now the reality of spending evenings alone, going to work alone, doing everything alone is sinking in, and it’s scary. i know no one cares, and i hate to sound so lame, but i felt the need to say something about it.

in an attempt to combat loneliness i’m throwing myself into full-on selling / trading / whatever mode. if you haven’t already seen it, look at my stuff here and tell me if you want anything. equally, if you’d like to swap some tapes of random stuff, i’m always up for that. i’m also selling some stuff here so buy it! yeah…

on a lighter note, i like that show marion and geoff a lot. anyone seen it? bewildering cringe-comedy at it’s finest. also been watching some amazing films recently (well, one amazing film) but i should save that for the column.

if anyone wants to come round for a cup of tea and some cake, or send me some nice things, i’d be very happy.

There’s a new issue of Scotland’s answer to Careless Talk out now. Issue three of Is This Music? has interviews with Teenage Fanclub, Nick Cave, Swimmer One, Idlewild, Calamateur, The Beauty Shop, Cayto and Olympic Lifts plus live and record reviews and the usual actually-good free cd featuring Swimmer One, Won Mississippi, Tacoma Radar, The Aphrodisiacs, The Electroluvs, The Beauty Shop, Cayto, Real Shocks and Calamateur. £3 from independent record shops in Scotland (nationwide soon) and online from www.isthismusic.com.

Just been to see the Delgados and I realised halfway through their set that, in a sneaky quiet way, they’ve become my favourite band ever. From jangly indie pop when i was a teenager with energy and enthusiasm to their more mature epic stuff they do now, I can’t imagine me in the last [let’s not count] years without having heard their songs.

And yet it’s not like other bands, where I’ve heard a song, been grabbed by it and played through all their albums in the month after. Since Peloton, the albums (even the singles) haven’t had immediate physical/ emotional appeal to me; they get played once then left aside for weeks at first. I’m still fuzzy on the titles of the songs. But the occasional play of each was enough to put little hooks into my head and make it imperceptibly essential, part of the repertoire of noises that my mind sings to itself when there’s not anything else on. Then I realise how good the lyrics are. No flashy wordplay but so many resonant phrases that I can’t shake off. “No-one can depress me more than I can,” “for the eyes to see through all that I do,” “there is no dignity in losing a friend.” etc. A lot of it maybe is the context I first heard the songs in but there has to be power in the songs to make them still carry the emotional weight / force that memory alone doesn’t.

What I’m trying to pay tribute to is the way that the Delgados have written albums full of songs that haven’t just stuck with me, they’ve got better as the years have passed. Looking at the whole of my record collection, they are the one band I’m confident that I’ll still be listening to (with a nostalgic tear in my eye) when I’m 70. There’s lots of things I could live without: the delgados are not one of them. They are very special to me and the gig tonight was special too.

And I promise I will go out and get Hate at the weekend.

Man, are we cool or what? Totally solves all those ticket buying problems though. You’re there early enough that no-one else has bought tickets yet but not so early that you might change your mind and go do something else instead. Then you go drink alcohol and wonder what bubble-coated prawns are until showtime. The non-revolutionary part of me that likes supermarkets and tall buildings thinks it would be cool to hang out in the UGC bar even when not planning to see films. I know this to be wrong though. The ticket lady gave us a free UGC magazine to read and it was great. Reviews of upcoming movies with a handy ‘You’ll like this movie if you liked…” thing, like Amazon recommendations in reverse. Totally perceptive stuff like If you liked Muppet Treasure Island you’ll like this new Disney movie also based on Treasure Island! If you liked Memento you’ll like Irreversible ‘cos, er, it’s filmed backwards… If you like Eminem you’ll like 8 Mile! Actually the 8 Mile review just had some presuasive quotes like ‘Eminem Rocks!”. So I’m deffo going to that now.

Did we see a film? Oh, right, yeah. We went to see The Two Towers. I’d already seen it but it was all part of my convoluted Lord of the Rings viewing strategy. I watch the film for the more vivid experience of watching the story develop, then I read the book to fill in the gaps and explain anything I didn’t get and then I see the film again with my new-found understanding. I’m really enjoying this way of doing things, apart from having to stop myself from reading the last book before December. I got much more out of this second viewing although some of the more ridiculous bits seemed ridiculous beyond belief [that bit where Sam and Frodo hide under a cloak outside Mordor made me want to scream with annoyance] and some bits in the middle were really dragging but overall it rocks and even more so than the first film. I imagine most of that’s down to Gollum though who manages to be both hilarious and pitiable and steals the entire film, with Frodo’s scary eyes coming a close second. If you’ve not seen it yet then get on it before you miss your chance. I can’t wait for the next one.