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Okay, folks. I’m off to Austria for the New Year, snowboarding in Tirol.

No posting for a week, I’m not sure anybody reads this anyway but incase you do… I’ll see you in the New Year, and hopefully I’ll bring some cool pictures.

[via GearCrave]

Seriously, that isn’t right is it?  It can’t be okay to have that?  Delboy’s fancy cigarette lighters are one thing but this looks fairly realistic…

In other news, I’m starting a full-on quest to find a band name for my little project I got going on.  I kind of feel like I could go for anything, the main stress is in finding something that everyone else involved will think is “cool” enough, yet not “too pretentious”.  In fairness, they are my stipulations aswell, but its made harder by having say David and Matt wanting super cool, yet Will wants ’super Post-Rock’ (i.e. Super Pretentious), and then I have no idea what Fiona would be okay with.

I think that choosing a suitable name for a band is either an Art-form, or just plain dumb-luck.  However, my main concern is the image that a name creates, and the weight it could carry.  A long name (Godspeed You! Black Emperor) is incredibly pretentious, and you’re making even saying (let alone writing) your name a chore for your listenter, thats not cool.  A name that comes from chance, or a made up word, just sounds plain stupid if you’re the one telling someone the name of your band.

If we were to go down the route of a single one word name, then similarities could be drawn between other big artists in the genre.  For some reason, Tortoise, Mogwai, and Pelican all have something in common in the name which makes me think they’re all named after each other which is obviously ridiculous.

Then there are alliterative problems.  Mono were famously massive fans of Mogwai, and large comparisons can be drawn between Mono’s early sound and Mogwai’s.  A band crush gone too far perhaps?  Similarly there is the issue of using certain words which are contained in other band’s names.  Personally I suggested “Looking For Astronauts” as a name to the band a few weeks ago, only to be shot down for ripping it (allegedly) from the band God Is An Astronaut.  Astronauts may be a no go, but in a guardian article last month, Caroline Sullivan taught us that ”Black”, “Crystals”, and “Fuck” have proved to be amongst the more popular words of many a new band.

Perhaps I should just take the “fuck everyone” stance and just say outright, “Okay, mother-fuckers.  This is our band’s name.  [Pick whatever filters through the static, into my head].  Like it or not, from now on we’re called this…”.  The problem with that is, if in a few months down the line I decide that I don’t like it.  All the blame lies solely upon me.

…Argh, the problems with trying to be the Premier in a Democracy…

So, I turned twenty years old yesterday. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately, depending how you look at it), it feels no different to being nineteen, or for that matter eighteen. I didn’t do anything big because, well when do I ever do anything that involves more than three or four other people? I did however spend the day in Cambridge with Laura (bought a new SM57), wandering around the little boutiquey shops. Then in the evening went to Yuva, a beautiful Indian restaurant with Laura and the parents.

Spent most of the day flittering between essays, listening to Tortoise, and dreaming about the day where I’m a successful Indie music producer. I even popped over to MOO.com and toyed with the idea of getting myself some Business Cards printed up… only to remember that at the moment - I have no business. Still that shouldn’t stop a slick twenty year old up-and-coming producer from networking, should it? Of course not… and they do have some brilliant guest designers up there…

Business Cards £10.99
Buy this on MOO.com

Business Cards £10.99
Buy this on MOO.com

Similarly, I started planning out things like names, floor plans, and even charging rates in my head for the studio I’m going to open… I can tell you now, its beautiful, we’ve got some lovely carpets and the art on the walls is gorgeous…

Mad, or Gay? …or a Genius? I say Genius.

Right, I’m thinking of signing up to eMusic.com to whore these free downloads and get me some Tortoise. Also check this video of one of their sets on Youtube. Bloody Marvelous.

No not really, but earlier I gladly would have accepted that as a means for getting out of work.

Yeah thats right, you heard me. Work.

I got back home from Leeds at about 10 last night, fifteen minutes after coming through the door, my Dad tells me to be up early as I’m working on the building site. Unfair as I thought that was, I’d be getting paid and its only for a couple of days apparently.

Well, Jesus Christ. It was like working in Hell, only not hot. Colde, Very Cold. Words don’t begin to describe how unpleasant it was so I won’t bother. I don’t have the energy now.

Skip to this evening, James and I watched ‘Stranger than Fiction’, a film with Will Ferrell and Maggie Gyllenhaal…and strangely, I really liked them both. In fact, I loved them. It was a really beautiful film, try and watch it if you get a chance.

Went to see Peter Pan tonight at the Playhouse with Matt. It was pretty impressive in terms of budget, the sets were incredible… I got a little bit caught up with the hundreds of school trips there and I too thought the Pan was flying!

My main issue with it however… Captain Hook commits suicide? Since when was that the ending? No fight to the death? No punching the crocodile on the nose and sitting on it’s head like Steve Irwin taught us? Oh Hooky, poor show!

Fight Director? Well that made the play seem a lot more interesting than it really was!