Culture, Alienation, Boredom and Despair

Little Baby Nothing - Manic Street Preachers and Tracy Lords

So being me I completely forgot to take my camera to both the Manics and Madonna so I had to make do with my phone...with little success I have to admit. On the upside, there was a million photographers in the divide between the Golden Circle and the non-Golden Circle standing people at Madonna so I can pinch their photos.

Madonna:

Naturally Madonna was amazing! I loved every single second of it! Her voice sounded better than I expected, the show was amazing, I liked her costumes, I liked the fact that she didn't have that many costume changes so she stayed on stage most of the time, there was a good mix of old songs, more recent songs and songs from the new album (I prefer the 80s Madonna to the now Madonna really), I loved the Britney in a lift video thing...I don't get it, I don't really know what the point of it was but I loved it all the same...just publicity for Brit Brit maybe?, I liked the guitar playing Madonna, I loved being close enough to see the whites of her eyes and all of her teeth and her unusually defined cheekbones...I could go on.

The only thing I didn't much like was waiting from 5:30 when the doors opened until 9pm for Madonna to come on stage baring in mind the Golden Circle was way over packed (literally up to the railings and the stairs, evidently there's no health and safety when Madonna's in town) and there was no support act. We chatted to the people around us, took pictures of them with their friends (other people managed to remember their cameras), browsed through their programmes (I'm too cheap to buy a £25 12page book of artsy pictures that I could no doubt see on the net anyway, £15 is about my limit to spend on a programme and even then I hand over my pennies begrudgingly, I am from the tight fisted land of Yorkshire after all) but even that got boring. People had actually started booing by about 8:30 and everyone was fidgeting and my feet were hot and hurting.

Manic Street Preachers:

(Nicky Wire)

(I know this was supposed to be James Dean Bradfield but...I'm not so sure if you can actually make him out!)

(I've convinced myself that I can see Nicky on the right of the picture.)

The queen of pop was amazing but even so, the Manics were better. I loved the tiny venue (Newport Centre is a like a leasure centre and people were minding their own business swimming and doing aqua aerobics while the Manics were playing), I loved being so close to the front. They're probably my fav band so I'd have loved it no matter what to be honest.

I'm not a huge fan of Newport though, we got a wee bit lost finding the venue to begin with and happened across a bridge full of police cars and ambulances, as we drove over the bridge we could see a man on the wrong side of the railings which was unpleasent and on the way back over the bridge (having realised we'dgone the wrong way and turned around down a dodgy looking street) he was still on the wrong side of the railings but chatting on his phone. I hope someone managed to talk him down. We ended up parking on some wierd bit of waste land, purely because when it comes to parking, I'm something of a sheep and everyone else was at it so I followed suit. It didn't look the safest of placest to leave your car but a) it was free, b) didn't close at 10:30 like some car parks and c) no one could steal my car since someone decided to park behind me and then someone else parked infront of me and since I'd already parked between too cars I was surrounded on all sides so only a very persistent criminal wouldn't been able to to steal it. Maybe if they'd had a helicopter; or broke into one of the surrounding cars first, moved it, then came back for mine; or maybe if they'd driven over one of the other cars monster-truck-style, but that seems the least likely option since I drive a 1.4 Peugeot 206 not a Hummer, tractor, tank or similar.

Credit: Me (though I don't suppose anyone would be desperate enough to pass of my camera phone 'photos' as their own!)

Yaaaaaayyy!

The Manic Street Preachers tickets finally arrived yesturday morning before I set off to work! Which meant that I could then officially get excited, I didn't dare let myself get too excited before unless something happened to the tickets and I couldn't go or something.

I started my packing last night and if over-packing was an Olympic sport I'd definately win another gold to add to team GB's unnusally large collection. I'm going for 4 days and I've packed 6 pairs of jeans, it wasn't until I came to pack my case that I noticed I owned jeans in every possible hue and realised what I dilema I faced in selecting which pairs/colours to take with me. I'm taking black Paper, Denim and Cloth bootcut, pink All Saints skinny, black leopard (very subtle, obviously) All Saints skinny, light blue Cheap Monday skinny, white Topshop straight cut and dark blue Dorethy Perkins skinny. I've so far packed 15 tshirts/tops which I intend to whittle down to an essential 10 tonight.

“It's funny. All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they'll do practically anything you want them to.”

J.D. Salinger

I've alphabetised the list of reads on the lefthand side of the page and added a few new ones. The new blogs I've added to the list are:

Fashion Fake
i heart photography
je ne sais quoi
Lisa Place
modèle de ville
NYC Donut Report
port2port
Prickly Pear Bloom
Shining Egg
Soir de Fête
The Passive Observer
The Search for Chic
Treats and Treasures
Tree Fall

I've also added a Flickr badge that links to my Flickr to the left hand side column.

"When I'm hungry, I eat. When I'm thirsty, I drink. When I feel like saying something, I say it."

Madonna.

I'm going to see Madonna on the first night of her Sticky and Sweet tour in Cardiff a week tomorrow and the tickets finally arrived on wednesday but nobody was at home so they sent them to the Post Office and I picked them up today! I'm so pleased to have them at last, it seems like ages ago when we booked them. We've got Golden Circle tickets so we won't be loitering somewhere at the back watching everything on the big screens.

Since we'll be in Wales which is about 6hours drive from where I live, we're also going to the Manic Street Preachers warm up gig for Reading and Leeds festivals in Newport, that's next thursday and according to the ticket company the tickets only came in to stock today and will be posted 'shortly' so I'm praying that they don't get held up in the post or anything.

'I got a dream and it's gonna come true'

be your own PET.

I've updated the 'Reads' section.

We had what can only be described as a monsoon today! The lambs at work had a quite a good swimming lesson. (I work in the ice cream shop of a family friend's open farm).

Currently listening to: The Kelly Affair - be your own PET

'You can't put off being young until you retire'

Philip Larkin

I placed an order with ASOS on the 5th July and their estimated time of delivery is 3-5 working days...my parcel arrived yesturday which was the 4th July, by my reckoning that's 30 days in total and about 20 working days. I am appauled that it took so long to arrive, I hadn't ordered anything exciting either.

I ordered some naff white Rayban-alikes that I was planning on wearing in the car, a little 'purse-belt' thing in black for my mother to wear to Madonna (I have a similar one in silver) and some false eyelashes I'd planned on wearing to the wedding which I no longer need so I'm planning on putting them on eBay and they also sent me a free bag which says 'FASHION IS POSH' in pink, I recieved a 'KATE WORE MY T SHIRT' one with my previous order, I feel quite eco-friendly when I tote them around in place of carrier bags.

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue

I was a bridesmaid at my cousin's wedding a few weeks ago and although we haven't got the photographer's photos yet, quite a few people have e-mailed me their snaps:

'A place where pebbles are polished and diamonds are dimmed'

Robert G. Ingersoll.

Today I went with three of my friends (my future housemates) to meet with our new landlord to a) look around our new home for the next academic year without all the junk in it from the previous tenents and b) find out exact dates for when we can move in/get keys and also if we needed our own kettle/toaster/iron etc.

It's my final year at university and it's also two of my future housemates' final year as well and it'll be one of my future housemates first year living away from home and the rest of us have lived in university owned accomodation and last year I lived in a 'luxury' student apartment owned by an agency. I met all three of my future housemates while living in university owned accomodation in my first year; I lived with one of them (we were the only English students out of the 7 students living in our house everyone else was German, French, Spanish or Chinese so we were a very multi-cultural household...which often led to conflicts over mis-communication as language was often a barrier, food was frequently an issue but above all there was one thing that caused the most arguments and that was the humble washing up bowl, seemingly only the English use such a contraption and everybody else had a bizare and random seehting hate for the poor green plastic bowl), another lived next door to us and the third was a friend of a friend who eventually became a friend. I don't want to jinx it but it looks like this year could be the best year accomodationwise. We all get on, no one has a stupidly small room (I slept in what can only be described as a cupboard in my first year) and the landlord seems nice and reliable.

I think university owned accomodation is probably the safest way to go in your first year since you probably don't know the area and there's always the union to complain to if something goes horribly wrong. However, because they have so many properties they are not always the most reliable and unless your problem is either lifethreatening or incredibly easy to solve it will probably go to the bottom of a very large pile of other problems. We had a lot of problems with ants in our kitchen which the uni were very reluctant to do anything about even though they were crawling all over the worktops and on the chairs in the living room. the cleaner also had a habit of stealing so someone had to watch her while she cleaned to make sure she wasn't helping herself to other people's stuff.

Last year in my agency rented accomodation we had no heating throughout November and no electricity in December.

So we're hoping for better things for next year.

I've managed to bag myself the biggest bedroom. It has two windows, some disasterously jazzy curtains (the decor in the house is a little...interesting), a wardrobe bigger than most shops, a shoe rack and the biggest bed I have ever seen. The landlords are a retired husband and wife team who own two student houses and treat each as if it were a child, the wife has been and bought us a brand new kettle, toaster, microwave, washer, tumble dryer, iron and ironing board even though we would happily have supplied most of those things ourselves and popped home or to the laundrette with our washing. They've also got us Sky and a massive TV to watch it on and are currently shopping around for a new sofa for us to sit on while watching our big TV. The wife has planted a pretty little garden and hopes we'll have BBQs out there while the husband has been re-plastering walls and drilling into us the importance of setting the burgalor alarm.

'Perhaps when we find ourselves wanting everything, it is because we are dangerously close to wanting nothing.'

Sylvia Plath.

Boots haul:

Tommy Guns Basil and Sage shampoo

Tommy Guns Basil and Sage conditioner

Ruby and Millie false eye lashes

Boots dental floss

Rimmel Londen mascara

Rimmel London 050 Tangerine Queen nail varnish

'Hip hop is my passion. I love to pop, and lock, and jam, and break.'

Martha Cox, High School Musical.

I'm loving the new Elle photoshoot with Ashley Tisdale, Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens. They're trying to be all edgy and grown up. But even so, I like it. I think it's sweet that Tisdale gets her cute little dog into a picture as well, bless.

The stars of High School Musical, the little cable movie that transfixed a generation, just might convince you that singing is the new rebellion. And anyone who said that sexy had to be dirty obviously never got a look at Zac Efron.By Andrew GoldmanPhotographed by Tierney GearonStyled by Kate LanphearPerhaps we shouldn’t have been nearly so shocked as the pair of High School Musical movies grew into the money-minting behemoth and generational touchstone that they have become. The first installment of the made-for–Disney Channel movie was produced for less than $5 million (and frankly, it showed) but became perhaps one of the most influential movie musicals of all time, and certainly the most profitable (chapters one and two have spawned a $1 billion industry). Nobody could argue that for a certain tween and young-teen demographic, the stars—Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, and Ashley Tisdale—inspire any less of the kind of panting, overheated adoration and obsession that John Travolta and Olivia-Newton John braved when Grease was released 30 summers ago. Whenever any two of the three go out, fans have a name for the combination, be it Ashnessa, Zashley, or Zanessa. (If the trio were witnessed slurping frappuccinos in the wild, it would be a sighting of the elusive Zashnessa.) But why have these films—on their face, no smuttier than any Doris Day picture from the ’50s—exploded smack-dab in the middle of what may someday be known as the Era of the Skank, in which alarmingly little kids began lionizing a group of young celebrities who view public pantilessness as a career move?For starters, because there’s real genius behind HSM’s modesty. Kenny Ortega—the director and choreographer of the first two films, who returns for the big-budget big-screen High School Musical 3: Senior Year—knows well the winning formula for concocting a teen sensation. As Dirty Dancing’s choreographer, he was the guy who pulled Baby out of the corner and sent her soaring into Patrick Swayze’s arms. With High School Musical, Ortega demonstrates he understands that every great teen movie—whether it’s Sixteen Candles, Grease, or West Side Story—succeeds not because the lovers eventually get together but because they are kept apart for so long. How else to explain why it took two entire films for singing jock Troy Bolton (Efron) and crooning mathlete Gabriella Montez (Hudgens) to finally lock lips on-screen? “The Disney Channel has done movies where the guy and girl kiss, but Kenny thought it would be really nice if you didn’t actually see that,” says Tisdale, who plays Sharpay Evans, the couple’s foil in song and snog. “It left fans saying, ‘Wait, we have to see them kiss!’ ” And even though the feature film will cover both prom and graduation, the East High Wildcats will remain frozen in that preteen fantasy of high school. “I mean, you’re not going to see Sharpay smoking or anything!” Hudgens says. Regis will surely get to second base with Kelly long before you’ll ever witness Troy getting his paws anywhere near Gabriella’s bra strap.Not that Ortega could have produced the same brew with just any random group of agency-repped adolescents. Hudgens brings an innocent spunk to a girl who can equally rock a bikini and the Pythagorean theorem, and Tisdale possesses that kind of pretty-girl-with-comedy-chops quality that served character actresses such as Teri Garr so well. But Efron—who, in the first two outings was too much of a pup to be Travolta-in-his-prime hot—still possessed a certain animal something on-screen that caused moms everywhere to lower their newspapers to watch him shoot hoops. It’s not just that he can shake it like Elvis, it’s that he has that magnetic quality that so many of the real deals demonstrated early in their careers. Warren Beatty had it, as did Brad Pitt, Will Smith, and one former member of the Mickey Mouse Club who plotted his own Magic Kingdom escape, Justin Timberlake. Nothing is certain, of course (someone somewhere must have once dubbed Ralph Macchio the next Brando), but Efron seems to have devoted some thought to making his big move. “Leonardo DiCaprio,” Efron says when asked to name a career he’d like his to emulate. “He did it flawlessly, starting out with a teen audience and making the transition.” This would seem to rule out a High School Musical 4: The Postcollege Years, in which our trio could vie for table-waiting jobs and off-Broadway roles while the audience holds its breath waiting for the moment when Troy and Gabriella, at 21, will finally swap spit. “It feels to me like making number four might be gratuitous,” he says. You’re 100 percent sure you’re done with HSM? “I think this is the final adventure for the Wildcats. But who knows?” No pressure, Zac. If you leave them now, all those little broken hearts will heal. By college, at least.

Credit: Elle.com

'Now oh so easily you're over me'

Ting Tings.


I really love the Ting Tings at the moment, I bought their album a couple of days ago and I've been playing it in my car non-stop. I can't get their songs out of my head.

Wear underwear! Wear your panties!

Mary-Kate Olsen.

I really love Mary-Kate look while she was out shopping with a friend in LA. The only thing I'm not so keen on is the big shirt tied around the waist.

Credit: Olsen Pap World