are the stars out tonight?

so... monkeys, that's good.... for whatever reason i'm feeling kind of uninspired at the moment (as you might be able to tell from my intermittent posting recently). there's lots of stuff going on (woodstock which was ace, goodricke ball which would have been more fun if i hadn't got so drunk, and we're organising brideshead day for tuesday, plus a week tomorrow is results day *aargh*), but i can't seem to really find much to say about it.

instead, here is a quote from keats' ode on indolence (we did it for a-level)...

O folly! What is Love? and where is it?
And for that poor Ambition - it springs
From a man's little heart's short fever-fit;
For Poesy! - no, - she has not a joy, -
At least for me, - so sweet as drowsy noons,
And evenings steep'd in honied indolence;

and to think i used not to understand why people liked him so much. you see the day after we finished our open paper, sarah asked what i was planning to do, i said in my best oscar wilde voice "i am planning to live the life of indolence i have always promised my self". but maybe i took myself too seriously there. i did read the new harry potter (not bothering to link it, sorry) in just over 24 hours, and i had to play a gig in that time and see some bands, and sleep and um, get over my hangover from the ball.

in other news, harold and maude is g!r!a!t!e! like a much weirder the graduate. scarily enough, it turns out that the bloke who plays the eponymous harold also played the dad in but i'm a cheerleader.

feather boa 10:42 pm

i've just found my yearbook from gcses, that was 1998, making this piece five years old. and yes, that's the real font and everything.


not with a bang, but with the whimper of thom yorke's voice came the year in which i turned 16. radiohead have influenced this page like no band have ever influenced anything in my life. ok computer is surely the album of the millennium, right up there with sgt. pepper's and the holy bible (that's the manic street preachers' version, not god's). the millennium. soon we will have to choose things which defined not only the century in which we live but the millennium. what would you choose? 1998 still sounds as though i hasn't happened yet. yesterday someone said "lighten up it's 1996 not 1969" and i didn't notice that she'd got her dates wrong.
irrelevance, isn't that what life is about? the ability to talk completely pointlessly for hours on a topic which we know nothing about - is it what separates humans from apes? we even have radio programs dedicated to it. in fact most radio programs are like that anyway. chris evans anyone? nah, me neither.
douglas coupland is also a major influence on this page of pages. his inane ramblings are frequently a source of comfort to me, particularly those concerning computers. i often wonder if the sainted thom yorke has ever read coupland, i'm almost certain he has. doug is funny and true without being too prim about it. something else funny and true is the film swingers. see it if you can.....

yes. i really was the most pretentious sixteen year old in existence. but in fairness, all the others are about how many blokes they've pulled, and how anorexic they are. at least i was... well i wasn't original... but i was still different.

by the way, i'm feeling lucky boxer shorts from google.

feather boa 8:04 pm

everyone seems to be on a roll at the moment, well i say that, but i'm thinking specifically of two bloggers: quin, who has won best personal site/ weblog in brighton virtual festival, and olav, who has won... well you'll have to watch channel 4, tonight at 8. in a vain attempt to keep up, i have been nominated for best critic on nouse for the yumas. i obviously won't get it, but it's quite nice to be on there. and even if i do win, i'm not going to be at the awards ceremony, 'cos i can't really be arsed and anyway it's really just a chance for the boys who run the socs to pat each others backs. i can kind of see why vision didn't want to be involved.

i'm now in london, because i was, for whatever reason, getting bored of york, and you know, a girl who's tired of london is tired of life and all that stuff. plus and also there's a sinister picnic, and i quite want to go. and it means i can shop for a handbag. and i don't have to worry about feeding myself, which is getting more and more difficult. although sarah and i made this lemon ice-cream, from a recipe which i heard on woman's hour a couple of weeks ago, and it's bluddy grate! you should really make it.

feather boa 5:38 pm

we watched the "britpop film", live forever at ysc just now.

i can't believe how long ago it feels now. i was trying to explain the sheer joy i felt when the blondes and the trendies in my class were suddenly singing parklife, when it suddenly hit me that that was the lower fourth, when i was a mere stripling of 13, and it was summer term 1994. where did all that time go?

the chronology of my life is dictated by the music i listen to and the books that i read (i once said that my life was measured out in paperbacks, but i'd like to add twelve-inches to that). in september 1996, i saw kula shaker, sleeper, ocean colour scene, terrorvision, and, er, bjork in wemb-er-ly arena. by september 1998, i was doing work experience at wcrs and listening to ok computer on a loop. september 2000 i was just about to start at york where i would introduce myself to my corridor mates with fold your hands child you walk like a peasant.

none of those things feels like a long time ago - i remember the thrill as i realised that this was it, i was seeing a band live for the first time. i remember being completely hooked on ok computer, so much so that when i lent it to a friend, i had to ask her to give it back because i couldn't stand to be without it. i listened to fishyclap on the way to school every day from the moment i got it (after that day at melody maker).

in ten years time will i remember this period and think: "as i was finishing my degree i was listening to the mountain goats, the magnetic fields and the kings of convenience"? probably.

feather boa 11:48 pm

somehow i am managing to keep myself busy despite not actually having anything real to do. i even managed to miss buffy last night! but it's ok, i'll watch the repeat tonight. i'd gone to see the matrix with k (don't look at me like that, nothing happened, we went to the pictures, then we went for cheesecake, it was like the nineteen fifties only gayer), you see. she's heading off to new york to learn how to be an actor...

i've been reading the life of pi, which is almost impossible to describe because it's just so bizzare. the language and the story just bowled me over, and when i finished it this morning, i immediately had to go back and re-read some bits. it reminded me of some of the books i enjoyed as a kid, when i loved the deeply politically incorrect stories of shipwreck and survival which swiss family robinson, martin ratner(?) and the coral island provided. that's also, obviously, one of the same reasons i liked lord of the flies so much. in my heart i'm a nineteen fifties english school boy, somewhat like ralph in lotf. if only i could play cricket.

feather boa 2:19 pm