Formalities

I'm disorganised. I haven't done any christmas shopping yet, or indeed any of the many things I wanted to do before christmas. There's a load of learning, marking, and preparation I want to do before the New Year and I'm pretty sure there won't be the slightest chance to get any of it done once the festivities start (not least because I will spend the most wonderful time of the year sleeping on the living room floor).

I'm currently enamoured of the new Bearsuit record, Team Ping Pong. These people are like a lo-fi version of Belle and Sebastian. Or more like three copies of the White Stripes where two of the Jacks are forced to play mid-80's Casio My First Keyboards. Anyhow, it's great, and the record clocks in at under 30 minutes! (This is a very good thing.) You can hear one track at the link at the bottom of this page.

Just to prove my point, Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground just came on over the speakers.

I also finished reading The Talented Mr Ripley. I'm a great fan of the film (though it's lukewarm for most people) but really had to read the book after being in Italy (where it's mostly set) last summer. Perhaps the bit I liked best was the description of Tom's reaction to Venice, because it was so close to what I thought: you expect Venice to be a tiny, a little bit of it like you see in the movies and the rest a sea of tat and shod. In fact the place is huge, all of it like the films only better. Can you tell that I liked Venice, despite the pouring rain (oh me it poured)? The book was good too.

Today: weekend Guardian -- I have my fingers crossed that Screen Burn will be about Space Cadets -- and then more learning about formal groups, which is as dull as it sounds but irritatingly necessary.