My top 10 albums of all time

Yikes.  Here it is.   The order is not concrete and I reserve the right to change my mind, frequently.  I’ve probably forgotten something crucial.  The rule is one album per artist, or this would just be impossible/carnage.

Nirvana – In Utero

PJ Harvey – Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea

Leonard Cohen – The Future

Hole – Live Through This (although I very nearly chose Celebrity Skin or My Body The Hand Grenade)

Cat Power – You Are Free

Joni Mitchell – Blue (although Court and Spark also gets honourable mention)

Nick Cave – The Boatman’s Call

Placebo – Without You I’m Nothing

Kate Bush – The Hounds of Love

Shakespears Sister – Hormonally Yours

Just missing out on the Top 10 are favourite albums by Sonic Youth, The Lemonheads, Fleetwood Mac (Rumours, obv), Nico, David Bowie and Lou Reed, and probably loads of others.  I may have to mull this over and come up with a definitive Top 20.

Mookychickery

Short public service announcement: I’ve written a little article for the very cool teen/feminist/culture website Mookychick!

Behold!  My ‘10 Ways To Win At Chazzing’!

http://www.mookychick.co.uk/how-to/how-to-guides/10-ways-to-win-at-chazzing.php

Dark Places

If you can get hold of it - I think it's kinda obscure - I highly recommend that you dig out this 1973 British horror film forthwith.

It has some of the bad elements of 70s horror but ALL of the good ones, which are massive.  I am of the opinion that horror films made in the 70s are the scariest of all.

This has a spooky house, madness, evil plotting, a duaal time-slip storyline (yay), psychotic children and mega glamore.  The last element is provided by Joan Collins AND Jane Birkin.  In the same film!  How, oh how, did I not know that this existed sooner?

Reader, I die.

Gallo

Have I mentioned how much I love Vincent Gallo?  I think maybe I haven’t because I take it for granted that it’s obvious.  Like, how could you not?

I once wrote an article called ‘Boys Hate Vincent Gallo Because They Are Jealous of Him’.  This was for my own erstwhile fanzine ‘The Shocking Blues and Mean Reds’; as it had a circulation of around 50, you will be forgiven if you missed it.

Like so many of us, I was first introduced to the ways of the Gallo by his 1998 film ‘Buffalo 66’, which is still one of my favourite films of all time (in fact, probably the favourite).  He wrote, directed, starred in and scored the whole thing.  I love the fact that it’s one man’s vision, total clarity of intent.  And what a vision it is – if you haven’t I suggest you watch it immediately.  It’s beautiful, funny and gut-wrenching.  And, in keeping with the topic of this little missive, Billy Brown in his red shoes and tight trousers and ‘hold me/don’t touch me!’ dichotomies is perfection.

Gallo’s next one-man-show film was ‘The Brown Bunny’.  This is probably where I start to differ from the casual Gallo fan – everyone loved ‘Buffalo 66’; it felt like no-one but me liked ‘The Brown Bunny’.  I think it’s beautiful; it’s a work of art that should be hanging in a museum.  OK, if you watch it expecting a conventional film, you may be confused – but I genuinely believe that one day people will understand it’s a great piece of cinema.  Vincent Gallo rides a motorcycle, drives a car, cries, stares, has a shower, meets a few random women – I could literally watch this for years.

I love Gallo’s attitude in his film work.  This is summed up thus: ‘you can give me complete creative control or you can pay me up the wazoo’.  Although this has actually resulted in some really good films (such as ‘Tetro’ and ‘Palookaville’), some have been frankly weird (‘Trouble Every Day’, which I actually love) and, um, a bit crap (‘Moscow Zero’, ‘Hide and Seek’, ‘Get Well Soon’).  However, the thing they all have in common is that he is absolutely mesmerising to watch.  Whatever he turns up in, you cannot take your eyes off him, in a way that reminds you how little charisma most film stars have these days.  Plus, I think it’s a pretty cool and honest way to conduct one’s career.

His career is not only in film; I may start gushing now, but his multimedia exploits indicate that he is such a genius he can basically turn his hand to anything he fancies and excel in a way that makes other human beings look decidedly inferior.  I mean, as well as writer, director and film star, he’s been a model, an artist (he only quit his acclaimed painting career ‘out of spite’), a champion motorcyclist, rapper, indie musician (his solo album ‘When’ is stunning), and allegedly rent boy.  As if that’s not enough, his website is a work of art in itself.  I suggest you have a look, and marvel.

Edies

As I write this, I am wearing an outfit – thanks to our erratic English summer – that I have realised since leaving the house is a perfect synergy of my favourite fashion icons that happened to have the same name.

Black and white striped jumper.  Shorts and tights.  A peacock print headscarf.

The Edies.

Edie Sedgwick came first, for me.  The perfect dream future girl.  The youthquaker.  I could only wish to be that skinny and suit a platinum blonde bowl cut – but I could copy the stripes, the tights, the sparkling shift dresses and the eyeliner.  Even the drawn-on beauty spot.

Then came Grey Gardens and another two – Big Edie and Little Edie.  Of course, Little Edie has the look and the terrific dances, but they work best together – cocktails in jam jars and old housecoats as well as revolutionary outfits of headscarves and old furs and tablecloth skirts.

Put together and it really is revolutionary.

As ever, all of these women are a lesson in living bravely and brilliantly and dancing to the beat of your own sparkly drum.

In the meantime, ‘it always stays the same, nothing ever changes/English summer rain seems to last for ages’.  From the basement to the sky.

Golden ages of cinema

I recently read an interview with Michael Fassbender (lovely Fassbender) in which he claimed that indie cinema went through a particularly good period in the late ‘80s (Betty Blue, Paris Texas, The Big Blue, and many others that I can’t remember) – but also acknowledged that this opinion may be purely due to his age.

I expect it is purely due to his age, as I feel identically about the late ‘90s.  It still so vividly feels like such an exciting time for film.

In a very short period of time (during which I was in my final months of living at home, and my friend Matt worked in the local video shop), I watched: Buffalo 66, The Virgin Suicides, Battle Royale, American History X, Run Lola Run, Festen, The Opposite of Sex, The Last Days of Disco, A Room for Romeo Brass, Boys Don’t Cry, Fight Club, Man on the Moon, Sweet and Lowdown…

I also watched loads of the older films that I still love (chiefly Betty Blue and Paris Texas from the ‘80s, and older films such as the Kubrick version of Lolita and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?).  At the turn of the century, I briefly lived next door to a cinema and saw so many films they all blur into one – I remember Amelie, Mulholland Drive and a lot of Mexican/South American cinema that I was seriously into at the time.

So, yeah, I think it was probably just my age.  Then again, thinking about it, I am still constantly watching loads of films that I consider to be among the greatest ever (from Black Swan to Kickass).  So, maybe – happily – all eras are full of classics if you think about it enough.

Telepathe

I worry sometimes that my brain and ears are closing themselves off to new music.  I still love music as much as I ever did – but I find myself listening to the old favourites a lot.  I get really excited if there’s a new album coming out from PJ Harvey, Sonic Youth or Cat Power – my staples.  However, it’s rare that I find a new band or artist who I fall in love with in the same way and becomes a new favourite.

There are a few bands I’ve grown enamoured of in the last few years, but even they are getting a bit older; still they’re the ones I’ve fallen in love with as a grown-up rather than a teenager:

Bat for Lashes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom, Frida Hyvönen, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Prinz Horn Dance School, Grinderman, Warpaint, Laura Marling, Josh T. Pearson.

Sometimes I’ve discovered old music at a grown-up age: Nico and Laura Nyro are two examples of artists I’ve come to late.

I love lots of my friends’ (OK, and boyfriend’s) new music.  Jack Lucan, Milenasong and Tied to the Mast.  I saw a band called Fountains last week, who I really enjoyed.

Still, when I went to my local record shop on Saturday to buy Lee Ranaldo’s new solo album, I thought I ought to investigate and buy something new.

I went for Telepathe, as they’ve been on the peripheries of my consciousness for a while without having heard them.  I liked that they are two girls and sound a little witchy and arty and cool.

I’ve only had one listen so far.  I’m yet to fall in love but I am intrigued; I think it will be a grower and I have high hopes.  I kind of hope they’ll become a new favourite.  If there are any others you can think of who might be my new favourite, let me know.