Glory, Glory Hallelujah.

Hey there y'all. Got the new Ryan Adams and The Cardinals album this week but yeah, to be honest that's not much to write home about...so don't know why I'm bothering to mention it at all. Besides uneventful musical findings I did manage to get ahold of the new Mountain Goats Ep 'Satanic Messiah' from here, now if you've not listened to them before much I'd give it a look in as it's free (well voluntary donation), it's only four tracks long and the last two tracks are sublime (albeit in my opinion which, okay...may be a little biased).

This week has involved already pretty bad weather getting colder, wetter and windier. Oh how I love Scotland's climate. Although reassuringly my dad informed me that the weather on Merseyside is pretty much the same at the moment. This week I will be working as per usual but for the first time in a while I have a Saturday off meaning I can spend a friday night out without having to get up in the morning and instead will just have a whole day to nurse a beautiful, well constructed hangover.

On Sunday I really felt like something from the 24hour bakery so I went and picked up a nice tuna and sweetcorn baguette and a couple of fudge donuts for me and jen. When I got back to Jen's flat I remembered that I had a few pickles left in the cupboard from the week before and to be honest nothing goes better with a tuna sweetcorn baguette than a nice bit of pickled dill, so I joyfully added it to my baguette, much to Jen's disgust of course (sorry Jen) and now there's only one pickle left in the cupboard...all alone. How saddening a story it is. Regina has a song about a Pickle so they must be awesome.

Jim, the loneliest pickle.

Last night I sat and watched 'The Big Lebowski', I'm a fan of all of the Coen Brothers work that I've had the pleasure of seeing and I suppose in saying that, it was pretty much sacrilege that I hadn't seen this one before. Anyway, it is a fantastic film and I just couldn't stop laughing at the character John Turturro plays (however small a part it actually is). He plays a rather flamboyant, cocky, die-hard bowler named 'Jesus' - 'nobody fucks with the Jesus...', so yeah this clip may be a little out of context for those who haven't seen the film but you see what I mean - pure genius.

'It don't matter to Jesus! You don't fool Jesus'

Tonight, I sat and watched the football to wind down after work. The Manchester United fans always sing 'Glory, Glory, Man United' and for some reason I couldn't stop thinking that the Weakerthans have a version of 'Glory, Glory, Hallelujah', now I may just be going crazy and I know it's a long shot but if anyone happens to be reading this and knows that they did infact do a version please let me know that I'm not insane. Cheers.

Right now I'm enjoying a fantastic cup of smoky Lapsang Souchong tea before I head off to bed. brilliant.

JAB

'Do you do coffee?'

No actually, we pride ourselves on irritating alot of people by having the words 'Coffee' and 'Shop' incorporated in our name and NOT serving coffee...Sorry for any inconvenience.

Can't be bothered.

These Aren't the Droids You're Looking for...(A Review of this weeks Films and DVD's)

 So the week is drawing to a close again and I'm thoroughly exhausted after an exceedingly crazy day in work today. In advance, I'm sorry for posting so many youtube videos on this particular blog post but as the title states I've just been watching films and stuff when not in work and this is what I think of them all...take some time out to watch them if you will, you may find something that you like. This is how I've been entertaining myself this week.

Running my mum's shop hasn't been quite the walk in the park that I had imagined it may be...typical really. At the beginning of the week I mentioned that a bunch of Illustration folk did the Art Bar pub quiz, anyway I was kicking myself on not being able to get the Star Wars question, so when I was reminded of the scene referring to the question by a friend, I remembered the answer...too little too late. My embarrassment at my absolute lack of knowledge about Han Solo using Luke Skywalker's Lightsaber in Episode V has pushed me back into Star Wars mode as it must be oh, I don't know, three months since I last watched them all?...I was intending to do some work this evening but after such a mad day I'm going to sit with some beer and a pizza and watch Episode 1 (Not my favourite of the Star Wars saga...but where else is there to start?). The following scene isn't the scene that was mentioned in the question but simply a classic original school Star Wars scene.

Classic Alec Guinness. 

'These aren't the droids you're looking for'

Generally when I have a busy day I can't be bothered doing too much drawing or illustrating, and this week was no real exception - I finished up my answer to the Illustration Friday brief to illustrate the word 'Clutter' here, which was my main illustration goal for the week. The first film I watched this week was one that I discovered through my good friend Redd, now I'd never heard of it before and I'm not a huge Sci-Fi fan (apart from Star Wars of course...) but I remember he had mentioned a film called 'Man from Earth'.

Man From Earth

Now I'll admit it's an odd film but it's one that get's the mind racing. I'd say that it's the most intriguing film I've seen this year without a doubt, due mainly to the style of the film. When I first began watching I must admit i was thinking 'Well...this looks fairly low budget...' and as a result I had fairly low expectations, usually something like this may make me want to switch a film off or not give it any real attention but I must admit I was glued to this one after a short while. I couldn't have switched it off if I was forced to. I'd say to give it a watch if you want something thought-provoking to view. I liked it anyway. I'll not give anything of the story away incase anybody does decide to watch.

On thursday I took charge of mum's coffee shop, it's been okay in general I'm just pretty tired. Oh well I have two days off now anyway. 

A pink Danny Wallace style car that I saw 

on the way home from work on Thrusday.

I've also been getting back into Black Books again. On Thursday evening, lets just say I wasn't much in the mood for a film so I watched this.

Bill Bailey - Pure genius.

Last night's film was 'Waiting', a rather comical take on life working as a waiter. I'm not really a huge Ryan Reynolds fan, and I don't act like this as a waiter but this film does make me laugh.

Waiting.

...and then tonight I watched Star Wars Episode 1, but I already told you that though right?

Weird Al Yankovic sums up Star Wars:Episode 1  perfectly.

I also forgot to mention that due to this week being the 7th anniversary of the World Trade Centre attacks we watched a programme about the hotel next to the world trade centres, anyway, that started me off thinking about the whole 9/11 conspiracy thing. I'm not saying that I believe it as both sides have such a great supporting argument, but I know that I'd like to believe that the American government couldn't possibly do such a thing to their public. But no one seems to have a definitive answer. Anyway, I don't know, i'm the king of sitting on the fence I guess. What are your thoughts? I haven't posted any videos here simply out of respect.

Ciao

JAB

When I'm Cleanin' Windows (In Wigan)

So last week began pretty similarly to the rest, much work to be done and all that jazz. Except that this time there was a little twist thrown into the equation, Mum was taking a couple of days off so I had to be in charge. In reality it wasn't as ominous as I'd originally imagined but I certainly had my work cut out for me. Evenings in Perth alone are a little less colourful than the daytimes in the shop so I entertained myself by cooking, watching films and enjoying a few glasses of wine. I began by watching THX-1138, George Lucas' first film although the less said about that the better - I would not recommend you waste any time on this pretentious piece of crap (Sorry George, you are a Master - but only because of Star Wars). I then watched Thank you for Smoking, a film that I remember seeing advertised a couple of years ago but never got to see. It was an Okay watch, quite a black comedy but very easy to sit through, I'd recommend it if you've got the time. In my boredom I then trawled through my DVD collection (not that my DVD collection is bad, I just feel that I've watched all of them so recently) and I came across Tongan Ninja, so I then sat up and watched that - what a film! I'd forgotten the genius of the guys from Flight of the Conchords and it was a breath of fresh air to see this film again. I'd recommend you watch this film if you are a fan of Flight of the Conchords and of course if you can afford the extortionate £2.99 that you have to fork out for this gem.

The Tongan Ninja opening credits - a masterpiece.

Also this week I decided that I miss having a musical instrument with me in Scotland and at the moment I have no way of transporting either of my guitars up here so I decided to buy a Ukulele -

Samuel, my Ukulele.

It's a bargain at under £15 and will surely keep me occupied until I can get my hands on one of my guitars again. I've been learning a few bits and pieces on it, however I am aware that it sounds terrible at the moment as my fingers haven't adapted to the insanely tiny fretboard. I was learning some beginner bits and pieces, Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head, No Woman No Cry, and Banana Pancakes. I am aware of the obligatory George Formby jovial reference that needs to be inserted here so here you all go...the master at work. Enjoy...

"She's more like eighty than eighteen, when I'm cleanin' windows"

Maybe if you're lucky I'll give y'all a rendition of this someday.

Musical instruments, movies and work aside, this week (as of Sunday) saw the beginning of my holidays. Sunday afternoon me and Sanna took a train ride to Dunfermline to visit Jen and family. The train was delayed for quite some time due to trespassers or crisp packets on the line or something, but the weather was rather pleasant when we arrived which made up for things somewhat, so we all sat and had a beer in the garden which was equally as pleasant as the weather. Sunday evening we went for an awesome Chinese meal thanks to Mark and Margaret (Hello to you both if you are reading this, hope you are well!). Monday Me, Jen, Sanna, Fi and Daniel headed through to Edinburgh to see some arty things - unfortunately the weather had turned but we still had a nice day out. We visited a few galleries and saw some swell things.

Painting by Andrew Grassie.

We went along to the Talbot Rice Gallery to see the Andrew Grassie Exhibition, I'd never heard of Andrew Grassie before but I was quite taken aback by his work. His works are all photorealistic interpretations of mostly arty spaces, as shown above. The pieces are all fairly small too so you do have to kind of keep reminding yourself that they are actually paintings. I enjoyed this exhibition but thought it was quite harsh some of the comments people had left in the comments book. Silly people.

Robert Hanson drawing of a man with a moustache.

Another artist that I had very little knowledge of at the start of the day was Robert Hanson, Jen had wanted to go through to Edinburgh to see his exhibition and I just like Analogue so of course I agreed to go. Robert Hanson's drawings and prints were both amazing and I would love to have bought one if I had a little more money to throw about the place. We also visited Owl & Lion and the Red Door Gallery - two more places that just tempted me to spend money - however, for once I resisted. Oh and on the subject of moustache's, here's a rather comical collection of all things moustache.

Photo of "Opera for a Small Room" 

The last exhibition we went to was at the Fruitmarket gallery where they had a couple of interesting pieces of work by Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller. One was called The House of Books has no Windows, which was a rather cool house made of ancient books, everyone was standing on the outside viewing it but me and Jen decided to go inside, like Jen said it smelt like being inside an old book. Another piece they did was Opera for a Small Room, which again was a very intriguing piece of work, they had constructed a small old fashioned looking room in the gallery space which was very dark and eerie, as the show went on the lighting and sound changed very dramatically. Quite an odd, sppoky piece of work but it was very interesting, I just wanted to stay there and see what was going to happen next. I guess you have to see it to understand what I mean though.

Well, that pretty much brings us up to date I think. The rest of the week promises to carry on being just as enjoyable as me and Jen are travelling to Dublin on Wednesday and hopefully me and Sanna are going to see Star Wars: the Clone Wars on Tuesday, which although I am aware doesn't look so amazing, I am pretty darn excited about seeing. Below is a rather comical piece of Graffiti that I saw on my way to meet Sanna on Sunday, the original text repeatedly said I LIKE MYSELF and well, it had been modified but I don't think you needed me to tell you that really.

That's err...nice to Know.

Keep it running along smoothly.

J.A. Birch IV