Now Then Mardy Bum

"The following is based on real events. Only the names, locations and events have been changed".
So after much procrastination and a rather strange dream involving me apologising about my hair to Alex Kapronos (out of Franz Ferdinand) here is my list of the bestest stuff of the year:

Albums
Death Cab for Cutie- Transatlanticism (although out last year i bought it in March)
Sufjan Stevens - Come on Feel the Illinoise!
Arcade Fire- Funeral

Singles
Supergrass- St Petersburg
Futureheads- Hounds of Love
Dears- 22; Death of all the Romance
(special award for best song title to Cardigan's I need some fine wine and you, you need to be nicer)

Gigs
Arcade Fire
Regina Spektor
Ben Folds

Guilty Pleasures
Kelly Clarkson
Girls Aloud
Coldplay

Films (indies)
History of Violence
Mean Creek
Cafe Lumiere
(others in no particular order- Downfall, In My Father's Den, Life Aquatic, Sideways, Silver City and DIG!)
(special award to Primer since i still don't know what the hell it was about and Mysterious Skin for making me fairly uncomfortable and follwoing me round for a while)

Films (blockbusters)
Batman Begins
Million Dollar Baby
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
(others- Sin City, 40 Year Old Virgin, Wedding Crashers, Team America)

DVD and TV
Scrubs
Michael Gondry and Spike Jonze (although they've been out for ages)
Mighty Boosh (particularly the radio version)
Nathan Barley (the idiots are winning)

Magazines
Filter
Empire

insouciant thoughts

After re-reading this back i realised that this all seems fairly down tempo so here's some good stuff to placate the bad at the end:

• Neil I love you: A big thanks to Neil for sorting out my internet connection.
• Cooking: I'm loving it at the moment to the extent that the other day i sent a text saying sorry i can't come out to the pub, i'm baking. My Christmas present from my parents (us Munro clan always ask each other what we want- no surprises but you always get it) is a couple of Le Cresuet pans.
• What i want to do in Gap- www.hollywood-elsewhere.com/images/column/120205/jonze.mov
• Full Circle: Going for lunch on Sunday with some family friends who used to baby sit for me when she was at uni. Now i'm at uni at they've got little kids! I know that sounds lame but it's freaking me out.
• Live Through this: The current musical love (alongside Regina Spektor of course) of my life is "Your Ex Lover is Dead" by a band called Stars (http://videos.antville.org/stories/1276805/) which just blows me away. I think i'll do my favourite albums, films etc tommorrow when i'm at uni meeting some Dutch people.
• Come on Christmas: I desperately need for it to be Christmas so i can have a break but then i realised that i'm flying up to Edinburgh to see the folks for a week with Em this year. Made me sad to realise i won't be able to do my normal things of hanging around with my mates in pubs across the city etc... but it'll be nice to get out of town too quote Doves, "Got to get out of this Black and White Town". On a more positive Christmas note being between two cities is great for Christmas shopping.
• Joy: Was talking to someone the other day who suddenly asked, "are you just fairly sad at the moment then?" Yes, pretty much.
• Blogging: Thinking about stopping all this malarky since being honest here has affected how people treat me face to face (in a wierdo recluse type way) but having said that i have been increasingly uncomfortable at big social gatherings and often unable to think of anything to say at all. My view will probably change after a week in Scottish isolation!
• Cancellation: Bought tickets for My Morning Jacket on Friday. Gig got cancelled on Tuesday but it's a good reason (Jim James has got pneumonia).
• PhD: The other question that made me stop and think was someone asking "if you hate your PhD so much, why keep doing it?" An excellent question given i am finding it a losing battle at the moment. On the positive side i have done my teaching portfolio (showing how good i am) which is nice.
• The Britsih obsession with the weather: Also a bit bummed that we've entered the rubbish rainy bit of Autumn.
• The Showroom are finally showing Thumbsucker from Friday- hurrah!

two pleases and three thank yous

"Sometimes i feel like i wouldn't like me if i met me."