The Acidic Turtle

I’m not one for absolutely hating bands. I usually accept that they’re just not to my taste and let them be but even I have my limits. The Twang, Hard-Fi and the Enemy are three examples of the bands that just push me too far. They’re an insult to the good word ‘music‘. I try my very best to avoid all contact with them and their music but sometimes it’s just forced upon us. So, what has provoked me to start moaning about them here? This. That’s what.

Tom Clarke, the Enemy’s chief wailer, took it upon himself to slag off the Arctic Monkeys in a recent radio interview. Now, although I might be a little bit disappointed to hear it, I wouldn’t normally have a big problem with people expressing their dislike for the Arctic Monkeys. True, they are one of my favourite bands but I can’t expect everyone to like them as much as I do. But when it’s a man who made some of the last year’s worst music, I wholeheartedly object. Mr. Clarke commented, as you can read in the corresponding article, that the Arctic Monkeys’ second album, ‘Favourite Worst Nightmare’, was “dull“. How does he justify this opinion? Well, he says “Certain aspects of their music on the second album and certain aspects of their personas in the press are just dull“. Point made, I think.

The truth is, this is just jealousy. We’ll see who wins all the awards, then, shall we? I think I know which band has the most left in them.

There is absolutely no reason on earth why I should want to write my higher-education woes but I’ll do it anyway.

As mentioned yesterday, I had an interview at UCL today. Despite everything arguing to the contrary, I believe that when you come out of the interview, you have a gut feeling of how it went and whether you’re likely to get an offer. Unfortunately, I get the impression the news is not going to be good for me. It’s not that anything went horribly wrong either; it’s more that I just don’t think I was terribly impressive. The thing that’s bugging me the most, though, is a couple of really stupid grammatical mistakes I made (when speaking French - I don’t get that wound up about the accuracy of my English grammar!). The second you’ve said them there’s no going back. It’s not even worth correcting yourself - that only serves to draw attention to something the interviewer may not have already noticed.

Anyhow, I now await my rejection letter and only hope that Edinburgh look upon me a bit more kindly.

Elsewhere, in my humble life:

Whilst on the train coming home today, I spent a good few hours just thinking things over. Perhaps not the most sensible thing for me to be doing, as the type of thinking involved usually only leads to inflated expectations and great disappointment, but I did it all the same. Anyway, in a perfect world I’d say that having this kind of mini-epiphany will prompt me into changing several things about my life, and start a whole heap of others. The root of it is that I just don’t think I’m being all that productive. My friends and I have often had the conversation regarding not devoting too much time to our work. This is because, as I’ve witnessed on a few instances, if that falls through, there’s nothing left. Obviously, this is nothing revolutionary but I’m trying to keep it in mind at the moment.

I’m no study-freak. In fact, I’m positively lazy when it comes to working. I’m quite happy to lie down on my bed and read a book - or even better, listen to some music - but I find it difficult to even spend an hour doing some solid work. So, the case is not that I’ve been devoting to much time to my studies; it’s that I haven’t spent enough time developing things outside of college. Listening to music, reading a book and socialising with friends is all very well but I’m sure it must be possible to put my time to better use and get something out of it. The unfortunate thing is that I’ve just not quite decided what it is yet.

Thankfully - for myself, at least - I’m quite certain that whatever it is will not prevent me from rambling into the abyss as I so frequently do.

Meanwhile, here’s a picture I found today that I thought was quite good.

Despite it not being what I’d normally listen to, I’ve been listening to Lupe Fiasco a lot these last few days. I suppose it can never do any harm to stray outside the general alternative rock barriers every once in a while. Thanks to such wonders as 50 Cent, I’m always extremely wary of rap/hip-hop music. Perhaps the only music from that generalised genre that I’ve listened to more than a few times in the last year is Kanye West. Anyway, my brother, who has considerably different taste to me, has put me onto Lupe Fiasco’s new album, ‘The Cool’ and consequently 2006’s ‘Food & Liquor’.

In a strange kind of way, I sort of enjoy being years behind everyone else in picking up on a new album/artist. Which is fortunate, really, because it happens all the time. It’s almost like I’m remembering something that others have already moved on from and dismissed as “yesterday’s news“. Also, not being one to listen to the radio very often - and when I do its usually spoken word - I miss out on singles being overplayed and get to listen to them in the context of the album, as they were meant. You feel less familiar with it and everything just ‘works’ a lot better.

I’ve got an interview at UCL tomorrow so will be heading down to London for the day. I really do want to go there so am just hoping I don’t mess anything up. I just have to stay calm. Try not to think about it too much.

Like that’s going to happen.