Jim Stynes was, and is, my inspiration in life and now death. I’ll be reviewing his book the minute I can get my hands on it.
The Lyrical Stylings of Josh Pyke
After a one year hiatus from my one post blog, I’m returning – an amateur journo who has found a passion outside of writing. While my love of horticulture is insignificant, my rediscovered delight in the music of Josh Pyke isn’t. To fill you in, I discovered Josh at the beginning of 2010 when I heard ‘The Summer’ – since then, I’ve followed him obsessively. I did miss out on concert tickets this year, but next year I’ll be in univeristy and a better chance to afford them. The natural thing to do it appears, with my heart popping with song lyrics, would be to compile a list of hit songs, hit lyrics and sad misses. Stay tuned, this isn’t easy.
TOP 10 SONGS
10. Covers are Thrown – The song to start the countdown. It seems to be a rather complex one at first, but can be broken down through a number of listens to be Josh encouraging honesty in a relationship. Catchy, alternative, tune too.
9. Sew My Name – More on memories, and how to live with the idea of temporary love. Examines the sadness in knowing that a relationship will end, and the feeling that lingers even during high times.
8. Memories & Dust – A brilliant song about losing those who you love too young. He combines an upbeat tempo with a deeper message about the nature of youthful death and the imprint we leave when we go.
7. Goldmines – Perhaps the most passionate song in his repertoire, here Josh sings about the mines in Bathurst that were abused during the gold rush and then just left to die.
6. Punch in the Heart – Not too many lyrics in this one, a rare song on a Josh Pyke album. Beats Variations simply because of the sincere feel about it. Katy Steele steals the show as one part of the duet about missing a lover.
5. Buttons – A song about something that matters so much to me – bullying and achieving goals through adveristy. Josh is sympathetic to the people who oppose him, but admits that they need a wake up call. He is struggling to achieve his dreams, and needs to structure them to make them possible. Uses the metaphor of ‘buttons’ to represent ambitions.
4. Middle of the Hill – Any good Aussie child can identify with this one – the wonder of growing up in a little neighbourhood in the summertime and the nature of the Australian family.
3. Break, Shatter, Make, Matter – Coming in higher than most would imagine, ‘BSMM’ discusses the way the past can haunt a person. Josh asserts that, while the past can hurt, one has to reevaluate and rediscover their courage and their ‘will’.
2. The Lighthouse Song – The more I write in this blog, the more you may discover the type of person I am. The Lighthouse Songs describes me to a tee – finding a girl and enduring the storm as you look to assert yourself in the natural world.
1. The Summer – The Pyke equivilant of ‘Time of your Life’ by Green Day, Summer is often overplayed by both enthusiastic radio stations and by my computer. Describes the perfection in the summer and the way it can make somebody lose their troubles. Beautful song that talks about the beach, summer romance and taking your chances when the sun beats down. A clear winner.
5 misses:
You Don’t Scare Me – A weak opener to Chimney’s Afire that is rescued by the Summer and Lighthouse at 3 and 4. Too many bells, the type of song that you skip over when it comes on.
Mannequins – Not terrible, but incredibly monotonous – lacks any real theme aside from the blandness of people who you pick up in bars. Look elsewhere, Pykey.
Eat Me Alive – ‘Courage in a Box’ makes very little sense to me. Perhaps it holds a deeper meaning. Nice tune, but too repetitive.
Follow Me Down – Far too bland, thanks. A bit unlucky, but it just lacks the quality he is capable of.
World is a Picture – Josh’s worst by far, just can’t help but skip this flop as I seek the real music. So jumpy, not much more you can write. 2 out of 10 on a good day. (Which, in fairness to JP, is 8/10 on a bad day for a regular pop album)
10 Best Lyrics:
‘Where two oceans meet, I will find you there, ‘neath the wind worn heath, under cliff tops bare’ – Where Two Oceans Meet (Chimney’s Afire)
‘All your sweet, clean clothes would go stiff on the line, and there’d be sand in your pockets and nothing on your mind’ – The Summer (Chimney’s Afire)
‘I’m writing lists, and I’m learning about, the way the mind can miss the signs, ignore the itch inside the eye’ – Particles (Only Sparrows)
‘I trace the map in the curve of your spine, I get lost by the hour in the blink of your eye’ – Love Lies (Only Sparrows)
‘The thing that drives the wolves away, the thing that stays, is your will’ – Break, Shatter, Make, Matter (Only Sparrows)
‘Oh no, what have I done, all of these stitches have split one by one. Oh now, I see the design – the intricate framework to which i align’ – Silver (Recordings 2003-2005)
‘So I sit in the meantime, and sharpen my teeth, and incur all the bitterness that I choose to bequeath’ – Fed and Watered (Memories & Dust)
‘From way up here things are looking pretty clear, above clouds the sky is always blue’ – Monkey with a Drum (Memories & Dust)
‘Little comfort, little comfort I’m afraid you’re not enough – I’ve had some learning both unwelcome and unkind, and it seems there’s but one story told and then reworked all throughout time’ – New Year’s Song (Chimney’s Afire)
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I wrote this post six months ago, and then promptly lost the program I wrote it on. Glad to be back.
Tottenham: Season Preview
At the beginning of yet another strenuous English Premier League season, this Spurs fan is rather pensive about the Lilywhites chances of success leading in.
When lying in bed one night at the beginning of this year, I reflected that I was in the footballing equivalent of nirvana. Spurs were in the title race, playing scintillating football to boot, and the transfer window was open and waiting for a siege. On the very same night, however, a thought struck me as convincingly and terrifyingly as it was sudden: Tottenham wouldn’t make the Champions League. The lateral thinker that I am, I went over our hot streak of form and turned over in the covers; contented that Spurs would certainly make the Top 4.
Its a funny old game, isn’t it.
8 months on, and it feels like I’m a world away from that summer night.
Harry Redknapp’s guiding of the team to 1 win in 11, and his subsequent sacking, led to the appointment of Luís André de Pina Cabral e Villas-Boas, commonly known as AVB, to the position of ‘Head Coach’. AVB, who had been sacked by Chelsea months earlier, joined the club on the back of what one would imagine would have been a raft of promises to the 34 year old from Chairman Daniel Levy. None, if any, seem to have been delivered.
There is still only one striker. I refuse to consider Harry Kane an established squad member, so Jermain Defoe, whose too slight for AVB’s game anyway, is our only forward. It remains to be seen whether Emmanuel Adebayor looks in the mirror and realises that he has enough money to support himself and charity for years, or if the Internacional President will stop changing the Leandro Damiao price for the second year in a row. Fernando Llorente would be a dream, and an expensive one at that.
As amusing as I find Robin Van Persie’s defection to Manchester United, Arsenal’s strike force of Giroud, Podolski, Bendtner, Chamakh and Young still looks far more dangerous than ours.
To add to that, Luka Modric is on his way to Real Madrid, and the lack of money coming our way from the prolonged transfer is giving the board a great excuse to justify the lack of spending.
Tom Huddlestone is really the only other capable passing midfielder in the side, and his injury record is about as good as our win-loss ratio going into the start of May last season.
Scott Parker, Sandro, Jake Livermore and Jermaine Jenas (shudder) are all far more defensively minded than the other two, while Rafa van der Vaart is too set in his ways to become a midfield playmaker. The great hope, as far as I’m concerned, is Gylfi Sigurdsson – whose passing and movement coupled with his age should allow him to become a bigger and better player at Spurs.
The ultimate kick in the teeth will be if Madrid loan Nuri Sahin to Arsenal.
To the wings now, and Gareth Bale and Aaron Lennon are arguably the best combination in the league. Unfortunately, Lennon has been suffering with injury and confidence issues, while Bale is so damn good in front of goals that he may need to be pushed up front if we don’t sign a striker.
Their cover looms in the form of Giovani Dos Santos and David Bentley. While Dos Santos, in my opinion, is still a chance of becoming a good player here, Bentley has to go. Interest in Loic Remy and Hulk looks unlikely to materialise into a signing or two, and the cover looks weak.
Despite the colossal loss of Ledley King in defence, it still looks the strongest part of the side. Jan Vertonghen is a good signing, while Younes Kaboul had a very good last campaign. I’m still convinced that Michael Dawson is our best defender, and our new lifeblood, but it remains to be seen whether AVB feels the same way. Steven Caulker is an exciting prospect for the side going forward, while Sebastien Bassong will surely be sold. Kyle Walker and Benoit Assou-Ekotto is the best LB/RB combination in the English Premier League, and will be crucial to us once again, especially with the high line. Kyle Naughton just signed a new deal too and he can provide solid cover to both sides along with Danny Rose on the left and Adam Smith on the right. Vedran Corluka has already gone.
In goal; interest was strong in Hugo Lloris, but will likely come to nothing – leaving us with the eccentric Heurelho Gomes, the career benchwarming Carlo Cudicini and the ever-reliable-if-not-a-little-slow Brad Friedel. BF24 looks like the #1, but will age have finally taken its toll on the 41 year old EPL legend?
In an ideal world, Spurs would sow up a striker, a wing forward, a Modric replacement and a new ‘keeper.
Llorente, Hulk, Joao Moutinho and Lloris would be a dream, but not a reality in all likelihood.
Bassong, Gomes, Jenas and Bentley should all be gobe by the 31st.
For those unaware, Gareth Bale will wear #11, Danny Rose #3 and Rafael van der Vaart #10. Jan Vertonghen has been given #5 and Gylfi Sigurdsson #22.
Overall, I’m a nervous man. We travel to Newcastle early, and must get points. Both Premiership points and pointers from their head scout on how to sign a good, cheap, striker! Levy is making the usual errors, so it seems, which is discouraging.
Late nights with Adam Peacock, Robbie Slater, Mark Bosnich and Mel McLaughlin are charming in their own way, and I desperately hope we can at least maintain last seasons form. Harry Redknapp had it pretty right, and I wonder if AVB’s microscopic approach to tactics will really prove more effective than Redknapp’s old-school ideals.
Whatever happens, I’ll be valuing good football over long term ambitions and try to get back to what made the sport fun.
Preferred Team:
24
28 4 20 32
30 6
7 22 10
11
Prediction: 7th
We’ll check back soon.
I hope.
I haven’t written in a year.
Come on You Spurs,
Dean Goldstein
Pottermore – ONE STEP TOO FAR
Well, well, well: Week One.
When presented with the challenge of finding something worth writing about for my first article earlier this week, I immediately went through the motions. Football was too easy an option to motivate, food would have done nothing but motivate me to nip down to the 7/11 for a packet of chips (like I need an excuse) and everything in between just seemed not-right. Then, this morning, I was hit with a moment of brilliance…When walking from train station for my first class; I was thinking about whether I would continue my Facebook addiction or move over to Google+; a website which I’d recently read a favorable review about. I then remembered that Google+ is on an exclusive based trial period at the moment and my thoughts, as thoughts do, transitioned to the fact that Joanne ‘JK’ Rowling’s new website, Pottermore, is also exclusive.
Now, don’t get me started on Harry Potter, because I could go on for hours and hours: I love it. I love the characters, themes, imaginative scenery and the general style of writing; I’ve probably read each book from 4 to 20 times, because they’re so damned good. I was as desperate as anyone for Rowling to continue on and write an eighth book after the dizzying high that was the release of the Deathly Hallows novel. I did want the encyclopedia which she suggested, and I was quite curious when she revealed her plans for the Pottermore website. However, I’ve become more and more disillusioned with the Harry Potter brand since the announcement of this new initiative which, conveniently, was founded as the popular (but inferior-to-the-novels) films finished up after an amazingly successful 12 years of production – despite very little substance. In my opinion, Harry Potter stopped being about a boy discovering magic when the second book finished and Voldemort was first introduced as not a monster, but a degenerated person. The first two novels were an incredible introduction to the secretive wizarding community which Rowling created, hidden in a world where people just didn’t stop moving to see the rather obvious signs, a world incredibly similar to our own, in fact. But, when the third book investigated the theory of the flaws of the justice system (magical world or not), the books, in my opinion, turned the corner into something which children could still enjoy at ‘face’ value, but adults could recognize for being legitimate political commentaries. Harry’s introduction to the accused but innocent murderer Sirius Black meant the change of the books. We watched as Harry conquered the Dementors of Azkaban, recoiled at the means to which Black supposedly would go to kill him, agonized with Harry under the table as he found out the ‘real reason’ for his parents’ untimely death, and shared his internal celebrations when Sirius proved his innocence and Pettigrew’s guilt. We also felt Harry’s pain as the law of his world prevented Sirius from running free – for Pettigrew was hardly a rodent in literal terms – he just found a way to squirm out. That was the beginning of the new Harry Potter.
As people my age grew up, so did Harry. Rowling accommodated for our widening world knowledge by showing the toils of unwanted fame in the fourth novel, as Harry is thrust into the Triwizard Tournament against his wishes. Just as Harry is bound to the negative reputation that putting himself against the jealous Diggory supporting crowd, one cannot just escape bad press in real life. Even worse, despite all your denials of truth, people just simply won’t lay off a good story (Rita Skeeter and her ‘quick quotes quill’ playing the tabloid, in this case), and you can lose friends because of it: Even if you get your fair share of admirers from your fans Then, as Harry pulls a dead Cedric Diggory from the maze, claiming the return of the presumed (and hoped) dead Lord Voldemort, Harry is educated on being truly rock bottom as politics overtakes as the main theme of the series. While Fudge stubbornly refuses to believe Harry’s claims, Voldemort recruits followers under the Minister’s nose: Political suicide at its finest. When Harry finally ‘wins’ the public back after they realise that he was right all along, his victory comes at a great cost – the death of Sirius Black. A rock, a friend and somebody who was introduced and then taken away all too soon – even after his parents, Harry was not exempt from more loss and suffering. Rowling was telling us that life simply isn’t fair, ever. In the sixth book, as Harry takes tutoring lessons from Dumbledore, the Ministry is left to kiss his boots and try and get him back onside for image. It’s the classic fight between ‘good and evil’, of fighting through adversity and of acting too late and then saving face in what is sure to be a certain loss. Harry again then experiences loss once again, this time of his mentor Dumbledore…but this is how it’s meant to be, no more people to hide behind, Harry must face his problems on his own: Sometimes, people just have to leave home and make it on their own.
The seventh novel is the deal breaker, Voldemort makes a fateful trip to the Ministry of Magic, killing a resilient Scrimgeour and finally winning control of the country. He ends up turning it into a ‘Nazi-Germany’ situation, pure-bloods (Aryans) are revered, mud-bloods (Jews, Gypsies, Blacks, the Disabled etc.) are picked off one by one through a flawed court as the previously loyal Ministry employees ‘just take orders’ from the new regime (some with more enthusiasm then others) while half-bloods are saved by virtue of not being mud-blood (citizens). The real irony of this situation is that, just as Hitler wasn’t an Aryan, Voldemort was not a pure-blood wizard. The theme of the last book is about as dark as its cover, and we follow Harry, Ron and Hermione (can’t believe it’s taken 994 words to mention their names) through the dirtied streets of England as they try to destroy Voldemort’s Horcruxes. This all results in a final battle at the place it all started, Hogwarts, as Voldemort dies through his own ignorance and some of our fondest friends pay the ultimate price and Harry survives through the sheer virtue of courage – the same way Lily saved him all those years ago. A fitting ending indeed.
However, when Rowling refused to write an eighth book, it seemed like the end, and that’s the way it was meant to be. Now though, as the films finish, it seems like Rowling won’t go out quietly. No more movie release dates to hide behind, Rowling had made a mistake in her stubbornness, and Harry Potter was destined to become a dusty childhood relic under the bed. She could’ve written another book, but she’d left that behind, and she went on to send the ‘Twitterverse’ into an absolute frenzy as she announced Pottermore – cheesy countdown equipped. As people complained about the website not working, I investigated, and, to my horror, I found out about the way to get into the website. ‘The Big Book and Magic Quill’ was the system, as every young Witch and Wizard is written into this at birth and the first X amount of people to answer a quiz question would get in early.
What an insult to Politics and an insult to the true fans who can distinguish the real world from the written.
This is not Harry Potter, this, in my opinion, is a combination of Producers wanting to make a buck, an author being afraid of losing publicity, and desperate teens not willing to let go and move on.
What an insult, what a farce.
Dean Goldstein.
Dean GOLDSTEIN 