Move, Bitch!

This might be my new favourite thing ever.

 

Window Shopping

There’s a small coffee shop which I pass most days on my way to and from work. It looks quite nice and, more importantly, it’s not affiliated to any of the larger chains. When my shifts are early, I often see someone waiting outside for a co-worker to show up with the keys, and if I’m passing slightly later, there can already be two old gents sat outside, passing the time of day. I’ve never been in, but it’s been on my to-do list for a while.

Last night, when I was walking home from work, the shop was closed but the lights were still on. This isn’t unusual for the time of day. There were two employees left in the shop – a man in a shirt and a girl in a summer dress. The man had one arm around the girl’s waist and was counting out the beat with the other. They turned on four and clasped hands. It only took a second to realise that he was teaching her to dance. I don’t know why this was, I don’t know why there, but it was like something from a bad American movie.

All I know is, just like a bad American romance, there was something feel-good about the scene. I walked the rest of the way home smiling.

What’s in a name?

I’ve been trying to come up with a good name for the band. It’s surprisingly difficult, and I’m not surprised that bands often go through a whole host of name changes in their lifespans. I’ve been lucky enough in the past to avoid these difficult decisions by joining bands that already had a name or forming bands where there was general agreement from the word go.  I have admit, I’m struggling for inspiration.

I don’t want to try something too pretentious, while I know that ‘jokes’ quickly wear thin (just ask the Test Icicles). A quote or vaguely obscure reference would be good, but from what? What hasn’t been said already?

At the moment, I have:

• Blink in Reverse – a Douglas Coupland reference and a really nice concept, but runs the risk of being referred to as ‘Blink’ and I don’t really want that association with Mark, Tom and Travis.
• The Safety Net – no real reference here, but I’ve Googled it and there doesn’t appear to be a band already using this name.
• The Written Word – this appeals to me, and I didn’t get any hits on Google or Myspace for bands using this exact name.
• Never Writ – taken from Shakespeare’s Sonnets 116. I’m not huge on poetry, but I like that.
• Broken-Heart Lungs – I have a recording of Tegan Quinn playing at the Juno awards and she mentions singing quietly to avoid disturbing her neighbours. She words it by saying she was trying not to use her ‘broken-heart lungs’. I like the phrase and I like the meaning, but it might be a bit of a glass half-empty kind of name.

I wonder what the others will think…

She’s been calling me again…

More vanity today I’m afraid. I don’t really have much else to post at the moment. I’ve been working on some words and recording riffs and verses in snatches. Nothing’s finished, nothing’s polished. I recorded this in my living room a couple of months ago and I’ve just taken the privacy settings off of it on Youtube. It’s one of my favourite songs, one of my favourite bands, but I’m not saying it’s a good version – I just like finding songs I can easily sing in my own accent.

I’m jamming with friends today. I’d honestly forgotten how difficult it is, after years of playing with the same, accomplished musicians, to start a band and get used to new people and their playing styles. I’m not sure if the band will come to anything, but I’ll hopefully get a few more ego-stroking Youtube videos out of it.

Cover of Less Than Jake – The Brightest Bulb Has Burned Out

So I finally decided to man up and set some of the random videos I’ve uploaded to Youtube over the past year to public. I tend to record these when I don’t have time to do anything more in-depth but I want to remember how a particular song goes. They end up on Youtube when I want to show them to someone, normally a band-mate or my brother. Here’s one that’s at least short and sweet.

Giraffe Bread 2: Havana Nights

Update from: Giraffe Bread

For those who missed it the first time around.

I almost feel like I should be writing the sequel to some saccharine, feel-good summer blockbuster here. Lily, Chris and ‘Giraffe Bread’ are back with a vengence. To date, I’ve seen just one of the Facebook groups dedicated to my friend go from 100 to 2,800 members in the space of 24 hours. One picture has been shared on Facebook somewhere in the region of 50,000 times and ‘liked’ several times that number. The Huffington Post and The Sun, as well as numerous blogs, have picked up and written about the story – despite the fact that it’s months old. I think this is fantastic and it may well be the case that this will be bigger than before. Stay tuned.

So far, there have been some spectacular reactions, some propositions and some declarations. Despite seeing a lot of the hype unfold firsthand – I spend a lot of time on Social Media at work – my favourite response so far was on this very blog. ‘Jenny’ posted:

And then you have the single women who read his cute little reply and just want to perk up his day the way he has theirs ;)

Well Chris, I reckon you’re sorted for a story to tell on first dates for the rest of your life. But remember: With great power, comes very little responsibilty.

Get oot yer bed ya fat gypsy!

I don’t really have much to say today, so here’s a little blast from the geeky past which made me giggle again recently.

I’ll just leave this here…

I’ve been reading up on Creative Commons licensing recently after it featured in a few news stories.  I really like what they seem to be doing, having found a way for content creators to share their work online and allow bloggers (like yours truly) to share and use without relinquishing copyright for commercial purposes.  You can check out the FAQ here.  In the meantime, I’ll just leave this here (Doctor Who’s on):

borrowed under Creative Commons licence for re-use

The lesser evil…

It’s been a while since I posted anything on here – mainly due to the fact that the sun came out and I got massively distracted by ‘outside’ rather than sitting drooling at the screen on my laptop all day.  Anyway, since it’s now raining (in July!), I’ve found something from the interwebz which made me giggle and I thought I’d share the love.  Non-geeks need not apply.

I’m really hoping that this meme takes off in the states and we get some genuine campaigning going on.  After all, what else is the power of the internet for?

Giraffe Bread

Who is Chris King (aged 27 & 1/3), Customer Manager?  That seems to be the question running all over Twitter this afternoon.  I’ve been watching with some interest, mainly because Chris King is a pretty good friend of mine and I’m beginning to fear for his safety in a very real way.  Maybe I should start at the beginning:

Chris works for Sainsbury’s Customer Careline, answering letters and emails that the company receives.  Mostly, this is a job which deals with complaints, anger and hysteria from irate customers and the odd prankster (it’s a free phone number).  However, last week Chris replied to a letter from a young girl, Lily.

originally posted on threescore.wordpress.com

Chris, being the lovely chap that I know him to be, responded in kind with a letter which has captured the hearts of several twitter fans and bloggers.

originally posted on threescore.wordpress.com

I must admit, I don’t really get Twitter.  Very few people are sufficiently of interest to me that I care about the minutae of their lives.  In fact, at the time of writing, I can only think of one: me.  I also struggle to believe that strangers out there in the land of the cyberwebz have any curiosity about what I ate for breakfast.  Having said that, I’ve been assured that the story is ‘trending’ and being ‘re-tweeted’ at an alarming rate.  Chris’s friends (myself included, I hope) have also gotten in on the act to see how far we might be able to take this.  Will it make the 6 o’clock news?  I’m unlikely to find out – I don’t own a television – but I’ll be scouring the morning papers tomorrow.

Choice quotes from tweets so far include declarations of admiration, love, a proposal and even some jealous infighting.  One tweeter imagined that Chris would be ‘fit and interested in animals’ while another was sure that he’s be the kind of guy your mum would love.  Some people even questioned the existence of such a person.  Some wondered if the whole thing was a marketing ploy.

[For a less jaded world view, check out Shinybiscuit’s blog here: http://shinybiscuit.blogspot.com/2011/06/lovely-letters.html]

Well, who is the real Chris King (aged 27 & 1/3)?  Just a bored Glaswegian sitting at a desk, answering your letters and emails, who hasn’t quite lost his last ounce of humanity (unlike the majority of call centre employees)?  Maybe… or maybe we’re looking at the next Oprah?  Could a TV deal follow? Or maybe – more likely, in my humble opinion – the next victim of an obsessed stalker?  Only time will tell.

That’s where we stand as of now.  I’ll keep you posted.

RGK (aged 21 & 3/4).