Really, really bad covers

Here are some seriously horrible covers of songs that I’ve been meaning to share for months.

Smells Like Teen Spirit is a fairly easy song to play, even if you’re wasted. But what if you’re a bunch of seemingly one-day-after-puberty teenagers?

Well. It’s still easy. These kids though; fuck knows. I like the vocalist’s antics though.

Continuing with covers of Nirvana, we have 90s british boyband Take That covering – yep, you guessed it – Smells Like Teen Spirit. That’s all I’m saying.

To be fair, this cover of Muse’s Time Is Running Out isn’t a complete and utter abomination. Not unless you happen to know a bit about music theory and time structures. Then it kind of unveils itself as some rather astute butchery.

Fuck I love this cover. Europe’s The Final Countdown, raped to a fucking tee.

You have to read the info on the right of this video to understand why the sound doesn’t seem to be in sync with the video itself. That’s because it’s a cover from a Muse fansite over a video of Muse at Wembley. Please, please, PLEASE, stick with this video till the VERY end. If you aren’t equal parts astounded and bowling over with laughter, I will mail you a £10 voucher for Amazon. I promise (Not really).

That said, I’m not sure whether this is a genuine cover insofar as the guy/girl whose done the cover actually did it in all seriousness, rather than as a piss-take. Either way, it’s still hilarious.

There’s a remarkable amount of shit covers on youtube, but these in my humble opinion really take the cake. Hope they brighten up a shit work day!

songs for a dead pilot

I’ve finally done something I’ve been meaning to do for a while – something to an extent unnecessary. Cue The Strings is where all my creative writing-ish pieces (prose/poetry/short stories) are going to be from now on. No more of that on this blog.

Why? I don’t have a legitimate reason to be honest, it just seemed right. Or maybe it’s a bit off when you try to throw up a poem after you’ve embedded a video that takes the piss out of women drivers? Either way, that’s that. Hopefully I can populate the other blog fairly quickly.

In other news, sorry about the theme change. The last one was getting to me and I’d like more ’space’ per se. The compartmentalized text boxes in themes are getting to me (though I’m stuck with them on the other blog!).

um, seriously; the UKIP and BNP?

Lolbour

oh what a battering. what a shameful, shameful battering. When you’re finishing in the fourth or the fifth slot (in certain areas as opposed to overall), with the almighty UKIP ahead of you – it really is time for a nice look at yourself.

BNP in Humber and Yorkshire. LOL.

:(

Well. That hurt.

Congratulations Barca. Easily the best team in Europe, having pretty much schooled the second best team. Congrats on the treble too, it’s a brilliant achievement. :sadthumbup:

Barcelona v Manchester United – Stadio Olimpico, Rome. UEFA Champions League Final, 2009.

I’m not going to say much (in terms of analysis, i.e) because everything’s been said and done to death. I’m hellishly nervous right now, which I suppose is some proof of just how nutty most fans’ love for football and the club they follow can be. 13 hours and a couple of minutes to go I think. 6 hours of sleep and a paper on Friday. Yep, there’s a fair cumulation of emotions right now. I can only hope Rio starts, becaue if he doesn’t I think the game will be far, far closer. Evans is brilliant, but he’s young and when his nerves get shot it takes him a while to get his head straight. We cannot afford that against Barca, especially as we don’t have Fletchertron for tonight. I don’t honestly care that much about whether Giggs starts or not, whether Berba starts or whether Park will play in midfield and so on. I think any team we put out are capable of taking Barcelona to task. Anderson and Carrick will really, really need to step up though. It’s also nice that we’re playing against Barca, because I know if we lose it’ll be a fair cop – we’d be losing to the best team in Europe right now. Plus, they aren’t Chelsea/Liverpool. That helps, massively.

Anyway, here are some videos:

If only Ronaldo wasn’t such a twat on the pitch.

Two positives from the military efforts in Swat

1. Pakistani society finally seems to be on it’s way to completely detesting the taliban and not even giving a general polite nod towards their broader ‘goals’ – if they can be considered goals.
2. Imran Khan and the PTI of late are receiving a proper hammering, if The News’ letters section is anything to go by. Especially enjoyable is the vitriol directed at Supreme Abhorrent Retard Shireen Mazari. To an extent kudos to the PTI and their faces for sticking to their guns, except one can only wish what they were on about had some semblance of sense.

I also wish those who want to enter into negotiations with the Taliban would stop comparing this issue with that of Northern Ireland. I’m sick to death of people using that as a barometer, forgetting the fact that the NI issue is incredibly complex that weaves arguments and political movements based around secessionism and irredentism, and says NOTHING about implementing a religious lifestyle over EVERYONE – a religious lifestyle that is incredibly violent.

But yeah wait, so the taliban are ‘oppressed’ (!?!) and thus they must be like the IRA/UDF (other gazillion forces that were at work during the troubles?).

I really hope the Government doesn’t forget the IDPs when they, hopefully, head back to a peaceful Swat and that we can provide them with the development Swat would need and then some.

Another CL final

Haven’t posted in a bit (as has become the norm, apparently), but this is all I have to say right now:

Absolutely gutted for Fletchertron. He’s probably been one of our best players this season, and always shows up for the big games. He was also a definite starter in Rome, so seeing how he got sent off for a fucking pathetic decision by a ref who was shit from the first minute is incredibly disheartening. In fact it’s even managed to take the edge of a great achievement – reaching a second Champions League final in a row.

I hope we get Barca. Two matches a season against Chelsea are enough. Bring on the in-form team in Europe, so that either we get beaten by the best, or we show them up.

The Taliban, Swat, Buner and Imran Khan

Imran Khan talks about how we can ‘clear up’ this mess.

God this man is annoying. And retarded. And a pathetic, pathetic politician.

This is ‘our war’ because non-friendly foreign elements have invaded our country. This is our war because they’re 100km from Islamabad. How the fuck can it be anyone else’s war when the Taliban have slowly started attaining more and more land in Pakistan, implementing a legal system not wanted by the people and one that contravenes this country’s constitution? Why they’re there is utterly irrelevant for they themselves seem to not care. This bullshit pervaded by so many that the Taliban would just gleefully head back to Afghanistan leaving Swat, Dir and the tribal belt is the US left is incredibly disingenuous. We gave birth to the ISI, and this line of thought essentially states that it’s okay if the Taliban flog women and behead people, as long as it’s Afghans and not Pakistanis.

We have a moral obligation as muslims and as Pakistanis to eradicate this ideology – to eradicate the taliban. They should not rule over ANYONE, ANYWHERE in the world – except maybe if the Nazis were reincarnated.

Second, if the meteoric rise of the taliban was due to the order they provided, what the fuck of it then? Does order have a lexical priority over justice if it includes beheadings for ‘alleged’ spies? Is THAT order? Is order more important than ‘justice’ if it means women get beaten for their ankles being visible? And what of the justice all too often derived from this order that the taliban have managed to attain? And what of the fact that this order means a substantial amount of power for the Taliban, who can then use it and abuse it as they please? What stops them then? It’s not justice – for there are no countervailing powers against the Taliban. Do we believe the Taliban are ‘moral’ and wouldn’t abuse their power? Except that I think we can all conclusively claim that religious people do not have a more substantiated claim on morality than non-religious people.

And from where the fuck has this notion arised that the people of Swat are happy at the swift justice they now have? What swift ‘justice’? One only needs to look at the papers to realize just how ‘happy’ the people of Swat are.

I’m a bit non-plussed about Pakistani reaction to news that the Taliban are now in Buner. There are those who are claiming that it’s time to meet them head-on. Which is good, because it still isn’t too late for us to mobilize against the Taliban. But, where were these people months ago as Swat went under? The words of those who were anti-taliban then haven’t changed; their discourse hasn’t changed. It’s not as if an intellectual epiphany wasn’t always there, waiting to be touched. But it took Swat’s fall, and the Taliban’s now dangerous proximity to Islamabad to get Pakistanis into gear.

After 7 years.

That, is disappointing – to use a mild word. For far too long we’ve sat with our thumbs up our asses (thank you Generation Kill!). But, there’s a very disheartening question to be raised about what we as a civil and political society can achieve. With the Nizam-e-Adl regulation, and most Pakistani’s opposition to it, I think it’s fair to say that a non-military option does not exist to tackle completely the taliban. You can build up an educational system, implement a higher tax plan for the rich, manage to get our rich politicians to eradicate corruption, eradicate nepotism (all great, specific plans Imran Khan – if only they weren’t the same espoused by O/Level kids!), but a military operation will probably be needed.

Even if the people of Swat and FATA ‘rise up’, so to speak, after studying History, English, Physics and the like in O/Levels, will the Taliban just step aside, because the ‘people’ of those areas now want a different conception of justice and the good life? Like fuck they will.

I can only see more twatting about, till the taliban are knocking at Islamabad’s doors. Hopefully though, I’m completely and utterly wrong about that. Hopefully.

22

5 absolutely banal, if not dismal, years.

5 largely lonely birthdays.

Documentaries

So, I’ve been on a bit of a documentary binge recently – primarily because I’ve got exams in a month or so and don’t want to be distracted by falling in love with a tv show (though there’s a new show called Kings which is quite interesting).

Anyway, here are three mini reviews of the ones I’ve seen so far:

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

I really like musical documentaries (or rather rockumentaries). There’s some really interesting about watching a band in their space, as the dynamics bob and weave and you see musicians doing what they love while trying to tackle the serious aspects of it as well (recording, management etc).

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart is about Wilco and their almost universally heralded 2002 album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Essentially it runs through the band in their loft and then studio writing songs, having issues regarding mixing, and the now legendary drop from their label Reprise Studios. It takes you halfway into the head of one of contemporary America’s most important songwriters, Jeff Tweedy, and shows you the more maniacal, always-looking-for-attention side of musicians.

In The Shadow Of The Moon

So, here’s the thing: If when you were a kid and you did not possess a burning desire to venture into outer space, to have your shoes imprint their marks on the surface of the moon, then you had no imagination and no soul. Simple as.

If you still do not have that same desire, then you still possess neither of those two things. Or maybe you’re just an insufferable realist (like House, but without the sexiness or the wit).

This documentary takes us all the way back to the 50s, to the era of the test pilots. From there, it takes us to Kennedy’s “by the end of the decade we will put a man on the moon” speech, to recruiting astronauts to making the lunar module and the orbital shuttle to the journey itself and to their return, and the subsequent outpouring of utter joy.

There’s no real narration here, unless you count the 27 odd members of the various Apollo crews who journeyed towards the moon (Apollo 13 it was, I believe, who couldn’t land on the moon). It’s inspiring, geniunely heart-wrenching and one of the greatest stories mankind as a whole can ever hope to tell. Full of stunning images, beautiful and funny anecdotes as well some really lovely noise (the rockets firing up at Cape Kennedy – aural orgasm!). Really is worth watching if even 1/10th of you has some essence of adventure.

The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara

The essence of this film is Robert McNamara’s life, and in particular 11 lessons he gleans from it. Considered by many to be a fairly controversial character, he comes across as anything but in this documentary/interview, admitting mistakes frankly, while never trying to outright lay blame on someone else (though he does try and do it in a subtle fashion).

It’s a bit telling that his eleven lessons aren’t particular pieces of new, insightful knowledge that’d shake your socks off. In fact, they’re probably nothing more than common sense, or eons of knowledge that now is common sense. Yet, it leads me to think how tough certain circumstances are, and how tough making decisions in those circumstances are. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but as McNamara alludes to, a ‘Fog of War’ exists within war-related decision making, or dare I say security-related decision making. In other words, one cannot look at the whole board, or most of it. In such situations, the common sense knowledge he passes on throughout the documentary seems to rather missing.

He also, perhaps only to my ears/mind, seems to speak with a subtle fondness of Wilson’s statements about how WWI was the end of wars as we knew it – that the US helped win the war to end all wars. Maybe, just maybe, if JFK had lived we might’ve seen a brighter challenge to Realism in that era.

It’s a must watch for anyone interested in politics or even history, for it’s an ‘expose’ of sorts into the mind of one of the brightest political minds of the past half-century, whether you agree with whatever the use of that mind was or not. Some of his words have almost seemed prophetic as well, regarding Bush jr – seeing as though the film was released in ‘03 (or 02), I’ve read around that the interviews concluded before the Iraq war.

Anyway, when you couple the extremely interesting content with great montages and superb music from Philip Glass, you’ve got a documentary worth watching.