Let us lie together,
you and I
and listen to the Shipping Forecast.
The lows in Lundy,
cannot disturb our joy.
It’s falling in Fisher,
but I won’t need to say I love you,
and you won’t need to run your finger
across my lips.
While gales gust in German Bight,
we are at peace
and though waves crash in Cromarty,
you are fair
and everything is…
good
00:48
February 14th, 2012Swallows and Amazons
January 18th, 2012SPOILERS AHEAD
I feel like one of those people that strikes down holy cows just to get a reaction, but… weak characters, a shallow morality, no real plot, no character arc… all these things make for a poor story in my opinion. Some particular things that annoyed me – a policeman comes to investigate the camp. Nancy tells him to clear off, which he does, because his mother used to work for Nancy’s. So, essentially, there’s a real support of class structure here. It’s not even as if Nancy has done anything other than being born into a ‘better’ family. The Amazons annoy their uncle Jim, refuse to admit it, so he has a go at the Swallows. It is Uncle Jim that is ‘in the wrong’ and is forced to apologise, despite being, it seems, a decent chap and undeserving of the punishment he gets. The whole book is a series of events that are used to educate about sailing. At one point, there’s a real danger of a story breaking out when there’s a burglary, but, instead of some intrepid adventure, the kids find the stolen stuff and the burglars are never identified and get away scott free. 400 pages of nothing…
2011 New Media Review
January 3rd, 2012Best Album: There’s been a few albums I’ve liked this year – Primus, Puscifer, Explosions in the Sky, Tom Haggerman and Skindred all had decent new releases, there were also the soundtracks to Hanna and Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and a few others, but I’m going to go with M83′s Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming. It feels like the album he’s been building up to.
Best Film: A little thinner on the ground than albums. I enjoyed X-Men: First Class, and there’s some I should watch, but haven’t, but I’m going to go for Hanna, which I thought was horribly overlooked.
Best Book: A Monster Calls. A children’s book by Patrick Ness, but incredibly original and emotive. Would recommend this to anyone.
Best TV Series: The Fades was an excellent British horror series (not often you can say that), Boardwalk Empire finished with a bang and the Borgias was well written, well acted and visually stunning, but the winner for me was the third series of In treatment, if only because Irrfan Khan delivered one of the greatest TV performances I’ve seen.
Best Video Game: There’s quite a few I haven’t played that I’d like to (Skyrim, Battlefield etc), but I’ve not really had the inclination to spend too much time on video games. I really enjoyed Deus Ex. I wanted to enjoy LA Noire, and, for a while, I really did, but, in the end, I didn’t (let’s face it, it was a good idea, but dull and repetitive). I’m really enjoying Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, and To the Moon is intruiging, but Batman: Arkham City is the winner for me.
The Jealous Wind
December 20th, 2011Follow the jealous wind as it
whistles wild, howling, erratic.
It comes at last to a stone ship,
adrift upon a sea of white.
It sees at once the two within,
their presents strewn about, ignored-
the other’s presence gift enough.
Enraged it tries to sunder shutters,
it batters windows, rattles doors,
until defeated and dejected,
it moans outside, alone.
Rescue
November 10th, 2011An azure sea
stretches horizon to horizon.
Above us the sky curves to infinity.
Isolated, not lonely.
The sound of your laughter.
Jobim crakles on the gramophone.
The snapping of canvas.
I watch as you pirouette across the deck.
You always said you’d rescue me.
Halloween Acrostic
October 31st, 2011Dead
Rise
Again.
Count-
Unseen!
Laments
Abound.
Movember Haiku
October 24th, 2011Movember #1
A noble forest
encircles red rimmed valley -
jagged rocks collide
Movember #2
70s porn tache
ray-ban shades and floral shirt
cheap leather jacket.
If you would like to donate, please go to Movember. Starting next Monday, there will be regular photographic updates of my attempts to look like a 70s TV detective.
In the Doghouse With You
October 17th, 2011I want
To lose my signal in an underground carpark whilst trying to apologise and spend the rest of the day worrying that you think I cut you off;
To say hello to a pretty girl in the street and when you ask who she is, I lie and say ‘no-one’, which is a pretty stupid thing to say, really, because everyone is someone and the fact that we just spoke, no matter how briefly would suggest that I know who she is, but basically, I lied because I was scared you would read something into it, even though there isn’t anything, she’s just an old friend and now I’ve committed the sin of lying to you and making you paranoid.
To become increasingly annoyed by a racist or homophobic relative of yours until finally I can’t contain myself and I say something to him or her and thereby ruin the whole evening and we travel home in silence, me knowing that I’ve upset you, you knowing that it’ll be some time before you can speak to that relative again and even though you disagree with their politics, family is family;
To forget one of our anniversaries. Maybe one of the traditional ones or maybe that one we don’t talk about in public;
To tell you that I’ll be straight home after the match, but I’m not, because we’ve won, because it was important, because it was Arsenal, and we never beat Arsenal and I was with my mates and they were pressuring me to have another drink and when I get home, you’ve gone out with our other friends and you’ve had to make excuses, but when you get home, I’m lying face down on the settee with my scarf and hat still on (which, although you won’t admit it, you do find kind of endearing);
To forget to post that birthday card to your mom, and when I get home and realise my mistake, I panic and hide the card in a book, but this means that it’s not there as a reminder, so I forget the next day, and the next, until, months down the line, when you’ve been wondering why your mother has been slightly snippy, you take down the book and the card falls out;
Speaking of your mother, she called, said to call her, said it was important;
I want to screw these things up and more, because being in the doghouse with you is better than being on a million other pedestals.
Autumn
October 10th, 2011Soft seductive Autumn lies around the corner,
with its carpets of russet and brown
and low red sun that drips orange fire into cold, still pools,
but soft seductive Autumn has biting white Winter at its heels,
with its blinding white glare,
frost bite and deep, damp snow drifts.
So, for now, let us enjoy the summer,
let the warm rays of the sun dance over our welcoming skin.
Let us lie in the cool grass,
and not speak of permanence,
or undying love.
Rather, let us clothe the clouds with our imaginations.
Let us make daisy chains,
and throw sycamore seeds.
Let us be as children in the summer,
for soft seductive autumn lies around the corner,
and biting white winter is at its heels.
A Dying Thought (of You?)
October 3rd, 2011As I wandered home,
I thought of you
(which goes without saying)
and I wanted to write something that expressed the way I feel.
I composed couplets that spoke of your soft red lips,
your sparkling eyes,
the way your hair flows down over your shoulders,
the way your presence lights up the room.
I chose words with care -
each syllable selected with you in mind,
and, though I do say so myself,
I was quite happy with my creation.
Until…
I realised..
What I’d come up with
is almost exactly the same as that song
-that irritating song
that was at number one for so long
-too long.
You remember? You hated it.
We hated it.
It was from a film.
I’m not sure which we hated more.
And then…
I started to whistle
(I know)
And tap my thighs.
You have to admit
it is kind of catchy
(that’s not to say I like it by the way).
But anyway
I’m so involved in that song
-that irritating song,
that I forget to look both ways
and I don’t see the car coming
and now I’m going to die
with that stupid, irritating song in my head
(although, in a way, I suppose I’m thinking of you).
