I'm dreaming of a Christ-free Christmas

I wonder if Richard Dawkins celebrates Christmas? Does he sit in his study on 25th Dec refusing to eat any turkey or watch The Vicar of Dibley Xmas Special, telling Lalla that it's just another day? Does he sneer at the tree and throw away any cards he receives? Being a man who only believes in cold hard thrusting scientific FACT, he wouldn't even be able to do what the rest of us atheists-who-like-sprouts do and blether on about the Christian Romans stealing Saturnalia/Solstice/Yueltide away from the Pagans. Poor Richard Dawkins. Lalla should suggest to him that he dresses up as Santa for his local school's nativity play; he'd have a ton o' fun.

I'm dreaming of a Christ-free Christmas

I wonder if Richard Dawkins celebrates Christmas? Does he sit in his study on 25th Dec refusing to eat any turkey or watch The Vicar of Dibley Xmas Special, telling Lalla that it's just another day? Does he sneer at the tree and throw away any cards he receives? Being a man who only believes in cold hard thrusting scientific FACT, he wouldn't even be able to do what the rest of us atheists-who-like-sprouts do and blether on about the Christian Romans stealing Saturnalia/Solstice/Yueltide away from the Pagans. Poor Richard Dawkins. Lalla should suggest to him that he dresses up as Santa for his local school's nativity play; he'd have a ton o' fun.

That was the year that was

It's still a week or so before the 2007 finishes and end of year lists are pretty dull, but hey, whatcha gonna do. It's my livejournal and I'll list if I want to.

It’s been a funny old year: with two big changes early on - finally buying our flat and then moving jobs - I felt more and more that I wanted the familiar rather than the new. This is called the mid-thirties slump I think. I don’t want to sound like a Stoke Newington hippy eco-twat but I think one of the big differences this year was our organic seasonal veg box. My diet has become more varied (I've even started started eating my vegetable nemesis onions)and I haven't had a cold since May. It's great to be a smug vegetarian but even better to be a smug organic vegetarian eco-hippy twat.

New places visited 

Manningtree and Maldon and Burnham-on-Crouch in the wonderful county of Essex.
Broadstairs and surrounds in Kent
Bari and Naples
St Omer in France
Saffle in Sweden
London: Canizaro Park in Wimbledon, Chelsea Physic Garden, Gunpowder Park in Enfield
South Molton in Devon
Virginia Water and Egham

The best nights out were at the three weddings I went to (now there’s a sentence I never thought I’d say).

Songs

Peter, Bjorn and John - Young Folks. I was incredibly surprised when I started hearing this everywhere. Even my boss was whistling it.
Lucky Soul - Lips are Unhappy and Get Outta Town. Fab 1968 meets 1986 band.
Saturday Looks Good to Me - Lift Me Up. Indiepop Americans who suddenly turned into the Lemonheads when I saw them live
Amy Winehouse - You know I'm no good, Back to Black and Rehab.
Candie Payne - I wish I could have loved you more
A Smile and a Ribbon – Book Cover. “I’ve got a chip on my shoulder, got a hole in my soul, got a heart that is broken, and a story that’s already been told” another band sounding great on record but disappointing live.
Jens was the opposite, great live but his new album wasn’t a patch on When I Said I Wanted to be Your Dog. Stand out tracks were A Postcard to Nina and the fabulously bouncy Friday Night At the Drive In Bingo.
Findie-poppers Cats on Fire were the best thing at the Rip It Up festival (apart from us of course) – Higher Ground
The Go! Team’s new album was great, stand out tracks being Grip Like a Vice, Doing It Right and the collaboration with Chuck D, Flashlight Fight
Sharon Jones – Retro chick who creates that brilliant 60s soul sound without moving into vile Whitney type territory – 100 days, 100 nights
The Sexual Hot Bitches – Little kitty – as if Billy Childish and Courteney Love had a nasty little girl.

As ever, many songs not released this year had a place in my heart; The Flirtations – Nothing But a Heartache wouldn’t leave my head in the summer and Interstellar Autumn by the Chemistry Experiment in the, erm, Autumn. And Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley and La Mer pretty much all the time.

TV

The Daily Show – I am missing this terribly during the writer’s strike
Heroes S2 – good camp fun. We particularly like recreating the Parkman vs Petrelli mind-fight in our house
The final 2 episodes of Veronica Mars – pure neo-noir making up for the rest of the sub-standard series.
Dexter – a serial killer who kills serial killers – sounds dreadful, but Michael C Hall plays it brilliantly. Apart from the somewhat misogynistic characterisation of the female characters, this was the most addictive thing I watched – tense doesn’t begin to cover it.
Flight of the Conchords – the most important question of the year was: Brett or Jermaine? Jermaine or Brett? Like Mel, I’d go for both. If the BBC don’t buy the second series, I’m going on strike with the licence fee.
Soul Britannia – what the BBC does best, excellent documentaries.
UV – from 1998, and what British drama should and could be

Books

Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
The Accidental – Ali Smith
Great British Bus Journeys – David McKie
Wide Sargasso Sea – Jean Rhys
Black Vinyl White Powder - Simon Napier Bell
Why Buffy Matters - Rhonda V. Wilcox

Films

I watched a lot of great old films on the TV (especially after we bought a jolly useful freeview digibox) including some noir: To Have And Have Not, Laura, and Where the Sidewalk Ends. I liked watching Republican Cary Grant eschewing capitalism in Holiday and playing a Polish union man in Talk of the Town, and also saw the more modern Alien, Spinal Tap, and Sideways.

At the cinema I enjoyed The Prestige, The Last King of Scotland and This Is England. I was a little disappointed by Sunshine and the Simpsons movie - but they weren’t a total loss. I still want to see Southland Tales, the Golden Compass, The Nines, Brick Lane and the Darjeeling Ltd.

Internet Phenomena

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My new year’s resolution is to learn to ride the bike that I bought. And get round to decorating my room.

That was the year that was

It's still a week or so before the 2007 finishes and end of year lists are pretty dull, but hey, whatcha gonna do. It's my livejournal and I'll list if I want to.

It’s been a funny old year: with two big changes early on - finally buying our flat and then moving jobs - I felt more and more that I wanted the familiar rather than the new. This is called the mid-thirties slump I think. I don’t want to sound like a Stoke Newington hippy eco-twat but I think one of the big differences this year was our organic seasonal veg box. My diet has become more varied (I've even started started eating my vegetable nemesis onions)and I haven't had a cold since May. It's great to be a smug vegetarian but even better to be a smug organic vegetarian eco-hippy twat.

New places visited 

Manningtree and Maldon and Burnham-on-Crouch in the wonderful county of Essex.
Broadstairs and surrounds in Kent
Bari and Naples
St Omer in France
Saffle in Sweden
London: Canizaro Park in Wimbledon, Chelsea Physic Garden, Gunpowder Park in Enfield
South Molton in Devon
Virginia Water and Egham

The best nights out were at the three weddings I went to (now there’s a sentence I never thought I’d say).

Songs

Peter, Bjorn and John - Young Folks. I was incredibly surprised when I started hearing this everywhere. Even my boss was whistling it.
Lucky Soul - Lips are Unhappy and Get Outta Town. Fab 1968 meets 1986 band.
Saturday Looks Good to Me - Lift Me Up. Indiepop Americans who suddenly turned into the Lemonheads when I saw them live
Amy Winehouse - You know I'm no good, Back to Black and Rehab.
Candie Payne - I wish I could have loved you more
A Smile and a Ribbon – Book Cover. “I’ve got a chip on my shoulder, got a hole in my soul, got a heart that is broken, and a story that’s already been told” another band sounding great on record but disappointing live.
Jens was the opposite, great live but his new album wasn’t a patch on When I Said I Wanted to be Your Dog. Stand out tracks were A Postcard to Nina and the fabulously bouncy Friday Night At the Drive In Bingo.
Findie-poppers Cats on Fire were the best thing at the Rip It Up festival (apart from us of course) – Higher Ground
The Go! Team’s new album was great, stand out tracks being Grip Like a Vice, Doing It Right and the collaboration with Chuck D, Flashlight Fight
Sharon Jones – Retro chick who creates that brilliant 60s soul sound without moving into vile Whitney type territory – 100 days, 100 nights
The Sexual Hot Bitches – Little kitty – as if Billy Childish and Courteney Love had a nasty little girl.

As ever, many songs not released this year had a place in my heart; The Flirtations – Nothing But a Heartache wouldn’t leave my head in the summer and Interstellar Autumn by the Chemistry Experiment in the, erm, Autumn. And Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley and La Mer pretty much all the time.

TV

The Daily Show – I am missing this terribly during the writer’s strike
Heroes S2 – good camp fun. We particularly like recreating the Parkman vs Petrelli mind-fight in our house
The final 2 episodes of Veronica Mars – pure neo-noir making up for the rest of the sub-standard series.
Dexter – a serial killer who kills serial killers – sounds dreadful, but Michael C Hall plays it brilliantly. Apart from the somewhat misogynistic characterisation of the female characters, this was the most addictive thing I watched – tense doesn’t begin to cover it.
Flight of the Conchords – the most important question of the year was: Brett or Jermaine? Jermaine or Brett? Like Mel, I’d go for both. If the BBC don’t buy the second series, I’m going on strike with the licence fee.
Soul Britannia – what the BBC does best, excellent documentaries.
UV – from 1998, and what British drama should and could be

Books

Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
The Accidental – Ali Smith
Great British Bus Journeys – David McKie
Wide Sargasso Sea – Jean Rhys
Black Vinyl White Powder - Simon Napier Bell
Why Buffy Matters - Rhonda V. Wilcox

Films

I watched a lot of great old films on the TV (especially after we bought a jolly useful freeview digibox) including some noir: To Have And Have Not, Laura, and Where the Sidewalk Ends. I liked watching Republican Cary Grant eschewing capitalism in Holiday and playing a Polish union man in Talk of the Town, and also saw the more modern Alien, Spinal Tap, and Sideways.

At the cinema I enjoyed The Prestige, The Last King of Scotland and This Is England. I was a little disappointed by Sunshine and the Simpsons movie - but they weren’t a total loss. I still want to see Southland Tales, the Golden Compass, The Nines, Brick Lane and the Darjeeling Ltd.

Internet Phenomena

Facebook
Lolcats



My new year’s resolution is to learn to ride the bike that I bought. And get round to decorating my room.