Randomiser #30: 2 February 2007
Tsk, I'm slipping here...
Today's song: Blur, "Jubilee"
An album track from Parklife, the definitive Britpop zeitgeist album. Ah, the happy days when indie had finally conquered the world, and was just about to turn in on itself and start the Blur/Oasis feud. With the benefit of hindsight, of course, Blur were clearly infinitely better, and I'd just like to point out that I always thought Oasis were insanely overrated.
Now, to be fair, it's all too easy to see how songs like "Jubilee" could grate on people. Even I have to suppress a shudder at the words "Jubilee's dad, Billy Banker...", or Damon Albarn bleating "So he just plays on his computer game!" And yes, this is pretty much the Blur formula for this period - a bouncy little mini-anthem complete with the Kickhorns, who seemed to be on every major indie album released that year. But Blur reinvent their formula every couple of years and move on, and although this album wears its influences on its sleeve, it still found a way of making them sound fresh for the time. You're not going to mistake it for a Kinks record. Oasis, in comparison, always struck me as classic rock homagists. Never liked them.
Also today:
- Not much, to be honest. There's a minor distribution squabble in the movie industry as some major UK cinemas have pulled Night in the Museum, apparently in protest at the early DVD release date. Since the DVD is set down for easter, this does seem a bit over-sensitive. I see where they're coming from, but realistically, there's only so much you can do to create artificial scarcity these days.
Surely the selling point of cinema these days has to be the experience. Which, for some people, I suppose means being part of the crowd, although personally, I usually try to pick showings that are likely to be as minimally attended as possible. In fact, "almost completely empty" would be ideal. (Incidentally, I note that my local multiplex has stopped its irritating policy of trying to assign everyone specific seats. I don't want an assigned seat. I want to enter the cinema as late as possible, and pick a seat that doesn't have anyone irritating-looking nearby. From the fact that this policy lasted only a few months, I suspect I'm not alone.)
But even for people like me, you've got a level of projection equipment that you can't match at home. That's the selling point. So who cares about the DVD release date, really?
Today's song: Blur, "Jubilee"
An album track from Parklife, the definitive Britpop zeitgeist album. Ah, the happy days when indie had finally conquered the world, and was just about to turn in on itself and start the Blur/Oasis feud. With the benefit of hindsight, of course, Blur were clearly infinitely better, and I'd just like to point out that I always thought Oasis were insanely overrated.
Now, to be fair, it's all too easy to see how songs like "Jubilee" could grate on people. Even I have to suppress a shudder at the words "Jubilee's dad, Billy Banker...", or Damon Albarn bleating "So he just plays on his computer game!" And yes, this is pretty much the Blur formula for this period - a bouncy little mini-anthem complete with the Kickhorns, who seemed to be on every major indie album released that year. But Blur reinvent their formula every couple of years and move on, and although this album wears its influences on its sleeve, it still found a way of making them sound fresh for the time. You're not going to mistake it for a Kinks record. Oasis, in comparison, always struck me as classic rock homagists. Never liked them.
Also today:
- Not much, to be honest. There's a minor distribution squabble in the movie industry as some major UK cinemas have pulled Night in the Museum, apparently in protest at the early DVD release date. Since the DVD is set down for easter, this does seem a bit over-sensitive. I see where they're coming from, but realistically, there's only so much you can do to create artificial scarcity these days.
Surely the selling point of cinema these days has to be the experience. Which, for some people, I suppose means being part of the crowd, although personally, I usually try to pick showings that are likely to be as minimally attended as possible. In fact, "almost completely empty" would be ideal. (Incidentally, I note that my local multiplex has stopped its irritating policy of trying to assign everyone specific seats. I don't want an assigned seat. I want to enter the cinema as late as possible, and pick a seat that doesn't have anyone irritating-looking nearby. From the fact that this policy lasted only a few months, I suspect I'm not alone.)
But even for people like me, you've got a level of projection equipment that you can't match at home. That's the selling point. So who cares about the DVD release date, really?
posted by Paul O'Brien at 9:03 pm
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