In penguins and pearls, we'll drink and we'll dance

It's a bit early to say whether this would make it on to my Best Songs Ever Written list, but it's definitely one of the best songs I have heard this year. It's got clever lyrics, it tells a story and Guy Garvey and Richard Hawley's voices complement each other to perfection. Take note you Moulin Rouge girls who sang on Lady Marmalade - it's not about trying to out sing the next person.

A girl can do what she wants to do and that's what I'm gonna do

I am loving Freaks and Geeks, in spite of having to watch it on a small YouTube screen (I'm about half-way through the series). It is utterly wonderful. Produced by Judd Apatow of Knocked Up and Forty Year Old Virgin fame, it stars many of the actors who subsequently appeared in his films and various affiliations (including the divine Mr Segel).

It's about life in a Michigan high school in the early 1980s and centres around the Freaks - a bunch of cool stoner/slackers - and the Geeks - nerdy yet endearing younger kids. To me, it's like a cross between Degrassi Junior High and the Outsiders (James Franco really reminds me of a young Matt Dillon). It's laugh out loud funny in places and heart-rendingly touching in others, especially with the main female character trying to find her place in the world. I can't wait to see next episode, yet at the same time I don't want them to end (there is only 1 series). Yes, you can watch again, but there is nothing quite like the first time.

Everyone should see this series.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ai1FHufz_HY

I'll sing in your ear again

Number Two of An Occasional Series

The Drugs Don't Work by the Verve. I don't really like the Verve that much. I don't think Bittersweet Symphony is all that. But this song just blows me away. I remember where I was when I first heard it - asleep on a sofa in south London.

Picture the scene. It's a Saturday night and I'd fallen asleep while waiting to watch the late night/ early morning repeat of Top of the Pops (oh, those were the days, eh?). I remember being in that delicious state of semi-conscious slumber and hearing this song drifting in and out of my head. I sat up, and demanded "what the hell is this", listened to the song in amazement, said "wow" when it was finished and then went back to sleep. I believe I may even have had to ask what the song was again the next day.

But suffice to say it was enough to wake me from my slumber and I've loved the song ever since. It's immensely poignant - yes, it can actually make me cry - but can make your heart soar at the same time with its beauty. And when I hear the song, it literally gives me goosebumps. I bought the album on the strength of it, but nothing on there comes close to the sheer brilliance of this.

As if to underline what a special song it is, it was the soundtrack to one of the defining moments (at least in my eyes) of a particularly enjoyable weekend in Newquay earlier this year when it was played in a pub and me and two friends sang along rather beautifully (OK, it was after a few beers).

That just makes it even better.

It's back to front and I'm all uptight.

Transgressive Hot Summer Tour -Zodiac 4th July 2008

One night, seven pounds, four bands. Or if might have been five. I saw four, but was expecting to see five, so I'm not really all that sure. We saw So So Modern, Absentee, Esser and Jeremy Warmsley, but were also expecting to see Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man (ironically the only ones I had actually heard of before), but they were either on uber early, or not at all. And maybe that is kind of indicative of the night. As my friend put it, it was like an inverse gig. The first 2 on - So So Modern and Absentee - were much better than the last two, so it all seemed a bit back to front.

Not much else to say about it really.

Just one psychological drama after another

It was my friend's birthday last weekend, and as he is over here for 2 months before returning to Crete to live, I wanted to give him a present that he wouldn't have to lug back out there. So, since we are both huge Agatha Christie fans and the play And Then There Were None was fortuitously playing at a theatre near us, I thought "A-theatring we will go".

This isn't really a review - well, OK, a little bit. After a slightly ropey start with a bit of overacting, it was well done and entertaining, with a deliciously 1930s set.

But, that's not really the point of this. As I was watching, it got me thinking "why are we all here". Not in an existential sense, but rather what possesses people to pay out money to sit and watch other people pretending to be yet other people; and in my case, I've read the book and seen the play, so it is not as if I was going to be wondering whodunit. It seems to me to be a singularly strange thing to do, yet it is something that I enjoy and when I do go I wish I did more often. Is it just simply that we want to be entertained? Maybe. I'm not really sure what the answer is.

Galileo Figaro Magnifico

I went to the opera on last Friday. Le Nozze di Figaro at the Royal Opera House to be exact. I'm pretty much an indie rock chick at heart, so this was quite a departure for me (it's not quite Queens of the Stone Age or Glasvegas, is it?).

So how was it? Well, I actually rather enjoyed it. I can't pretend to know whether or not the singing was any good. OK, I will qualify that. It all sounded the same to me, so whether one person was better than another, I really couldn't say. But it sounded good (thank goodness for surtitles tho - my Italian is non-existent, but even with them I had to check on Wikipedia when I got back to make sure I had worked out what was going on - I was pleased that indeed I had!). The set was sumptuous, even with the restricted view, so lord only knows what it must have been like in the £600 seats (ours were a lot cheaper!)

The people were a lot less dressed up than I might have expected, although it was amusing to see lots of them eating in the interval (and lots of them leaving what looked like unfinished champagne and canapes). We did sample the bar and although I didn't think it would be cheap, £11.50 for an orange juice, a small glass of wine and 2 glasses of tap water did seems a tad on the expensive side.

Would I go again? Probably, although I did choose Mozart for a reason. He was the punk of his day, after all. Falco said it, so it must be true.

This is where I long to be, La Isla Bonita

I haven't been blogging for a little while, because I've been on my holidays! I spent 10 days on Crete, staying at the gracious villa of two good friends of mine, near to Panormo. And it was just fantastic. I hadn't realised how much I needed a holiday - it was as if a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders.

The place itself is verging on idyllic. What can be nicer than to get up in the morning and sit on a terrace overlooking olive groves and mountains (it even makes up for the tea not being quite as good as I am used to!). The villa is set on high, surrounded by gorgeous bougainvillea, and the view just takes your breath away. The picture here is not quite the view, but it is pretty close. You can see Mount Psiloritis, which also provides part of the view from the villa.

Days were idled away lazing by the pool, walking amongst the ruins and swimming in the sea. There is something just so liberating about swimming in the sea, don't you think, even if you give the lifeguard a few anxious moments when you jump the waves and the riptide pulls you under. The people are friendly and the food just divine. Somehow eating fried cheese doesn't seem that unhealthy. And the raki! You learn to grade it so you know the difference between the palatable and the paint stripper, but when you are on your holidays, it doesn't really matter.

I explored a little more of the island this time, going down south to Plakias. This took me through some truly beautiful gorges, some of which I am looking forward to walking next time. And one of the nicest things for me are the churches that you just come across suddenly while out walking. You go in and they are just lovely - incense burning, icons on the walls. You just couldn't get it in this country, sadly. They'd be locked up.

If you haven't been to Crete you are missing out. Big style. Do I sound like I can't wait to go back?