There was something I wanted to say about people getting drunk at office parties and chanting “Floyd-Floyd-play-Floyd-man”, and generally being very happy when somebody plays The Man Who Sold the World<\/i>. I’ll skip the pleasantries and just say – “Fuck you.” <\/p>\n
I wonder if there is some kind of Hell in which they alternately play Sultans of Swing<\/i>, The Man Who Sold The World<\/i>, Smoke on the Water<\/i>, Hotel California<\/i>, Another Prick-oops-Brick in the Wall<\/i> and Light My Fire<\/i> throughout eternity, and I wonder if these people will still be very happy listening to the same freakin’ songs over and over and over again, and if they will still sing along for the four million five hundred thousand two hundred and ninety seventh time…..<\/p>\n
Ok, so I am turning into a musical snob. So friggin’ what?<\/p>\n
Last evening I listened to Frank Zappa 101 ( that was how amazon.com descibed the Strictly Commercial<\/a><\/i> album). I don’t know if this classifies me as a Zappa fan, but it was good, really. Weird, funny lyrics. ( Strange but true! I actually paid attention to the lyrics, they were that-kind-of-weird ). Then Suzanne Vega’s Retrospective<\/a><\/i> album.Then Street Survivors<\/i><\/a> by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Did I have a good time or what.<\/p>\n Books: The Shadow in the North<\/i> by Philip Pullman: over and done in a night. I dunno why, but the Sally Lockhart trilogy seems a bit over-rated to me. For one thing, this does not exactly fall in the kiddie-adventure category ( there’s a bedroom scene somewhere near the end), and the events seem disjointed somehow…..you know what – if this weren’t set in Victorian London, this would be a proper Hardy Boys-Nancy Drew story, loads of “supporting” characters, coincidence after coincidence ( Only in the Hardy Boys’ world would we find Fenton Hardy after the same<\/i> guy who dropped a red button in the park which Frank and Joe “happened” to find, and which leads them all to crack some international drug cartel) I will give Pullman credit, however, for killing off characters without much fanfare – one common ailment writers of series and trilogies suffer from is the inability to let go of favoured characters ( JK Rowling, anyone?). A satisfying read, but nothing memorable. I wonder if I should read book 3 soon enough and be done with it.<\/p>\n