Loud City Song

Julia Holter – Loud City Song

I've listened to this a fair bit now. I was almost put off by the chamberpop pigeon holing, but I think it's more at home in those trippy, psychedelic-fringes where the Avey Tare / Panda Bear Animal Collective axis operate. There's a strong collection of songs. It's perfect for earphone dog walking music when there's no rush and I need to remind myself to take my time, and smell the...er...nice woodland smells. While stopping frequently, so the dogs can smell other animals' urine.

There's some avant garde and some jazzy moments, the instrumentation's never run-of-the-mill, and the voice is not over-used but dead good when it is.

Blackberries...

...as in the phones, are on the way out, the company's making huge losses and no-one wants the things, as they've been superseded by phones that have apps that allow them to make the tea and forecast the racing results accurately. With cameras and video and stuff, too.

Working on the basis that today's white elephant is tomorrow's must-have funky retro gadget-to-be-seen-with, now's the time to ditch the Blackberry and get a smartphone.

Put the Blackberry back into the box it came in, try to find the charger (probably with the Kindle or the Kobo), the usb lead and the original headphones, and stash it away for a while before sticking it on eBay for a small fortune.

There's a huge gulf...

...between viewing habits, that suggest a national obsession with food, you can't move for celeb chefs on the Sky channels on pages two to five of the menu; and the shopping habits, with the supermarkets reporting record sales of convenience Christmas dinner items. Boneless pre-stuffed turkey crowns apparently top the list.

I sort of like the traditional approach. I like having the light and dark meat and the on the bone bits, and making the roast spuds and the Yorkshires and all that.

I've noticed the emergence of pre-formed meatballs. This I find baffling. To mince, you need to add onions, garlic, chillies, herbs and spices and flavourings. Then roll them in your floured hands. I don't get buying ready-made meatballs one little bit.

So, naturally, I'm struggling with the shop-made pigs in blankets. Saves all that messing about, I guess. You know. Having to hold a sausage in one hand and wrap a rasher of streaky around it with the other. Outrageously arty and crafty stuff, that.

I realise I'm heading for my natural habitat (Jurassic Park) here, but how long before there's pre-peeled satsumas, shelled and part-chewed wallnuts (saves all that tedious mastication).

BLISS wasn't too happy at the whole smoked mackerel. She's not big on heads and tails and fins when it comes to fish “look” she said “someone's dropped a dead fish into our trolley”. In fact, she even made me cook some peas in the microwave yesterday. “A fraction of the time” she said. She didn't add “you culinary technophobe” but the look said it all.