The Shiny Side of Life

Matt says my blog is starting to sound angsty.

He's probably right. Or at least while he has a rather large gash in his head, I'll let him think he is =P

So, with that in mind...I'll steer clear of talking hockey, politics, money or electronics, and instead skip to the wee things that cheer me up after furious in-head battles with the aforementioned affairs.

1. Lush baths.

The shiny bath bombs you get from Lush are the best. Followed closely by pretty much all of their other bath products. I smell nice now. Um...not that I smelt bad before....I just smell nicer now.

2. The West Wing.

I love the West Wing. Ok, vaguely political reference here...but TV politics isn't real, so that's ok.
I'm only a recent WW convert. Only started watching it after Studio 60 got cancelled and Mum bought Matt WW Season 1 to stop him crying. Now it's our nightly cheap entertainment; The West Wing, some munchies, a cup of tea and a snuggly blanket. Luffly! Here's one of my favourite scenes:



3. Mad TV's Parody of The West Wing.



If you watch the WW, you will appreciate it ;o)

4. Two Songs by John Mayer.

"No Such Thing" & "Serendipity". Go listen to them.

5. Jeff Dunham.

Or "Jef-f-f Dun Haaaammm" as he might be better known to some. Too funny!
For those of you know don't know who he is, he drives a powder blue Prius and plays with dolls for a living.



Check out more from him HERE.

6. Craig Ferguson

Ok, I'm convinced he's Americas best talk show host. That could be because he's Scottish an doesn't really give a crap, I'm not sure. Either way, he makes me giggle. Thought I'd cross over this vid with my love for The West Wing and include Craigs Feburary interview with Bradley Whitford...



Right, I think that's about enough cheerness for today. I'm away to do something more constructive.....actually I'm probably just gonna chat to Shiny on msn for a bit...and then eat tea....but still...I'm going!

I'm bored...

Right...it's that time again.

"The time where One can't actually be arsed with owt else?" ...Um, yes, that one.

...It's...*drumroll*...the Moosical Quizy Thingy! Wooooooo!

C'mon, I know you're excited really =P

Anyways, for those of you that don't remember from last time, the idea is I hit shuffle on my iTunes library, pick the first 25 tunes that appear, write down a line (that doesn't include the title) from it, and you lot guess wot the song is...WITHOUT using Google cause that's just no fun now is it =P

When a correct guess is made I'll put a strike through the line and list the song title below it along with the name of whoever got it right so's you can show off to all your friends. All good?


Ok then, moosical knowledge at the ready and we shall begin...


1. "Gettin' old, gettin' grey. Gettin' ripped off, underpaid."
- "It's a long way to the top" - AC/DC (Shiny)

2. "I can promise you tomorrow...But I can't buy back yesterday."
- "I'll be there for you" - Bon Jovi (Kaz)

3. "Yet I still recall as I wander on...As clear as the sun in the summer sky."
-

4. "For here in my arms is your place. When the night grows cold and I want to hold you..."
-

5. "Wish that I could cry, Fall upon my knees."
- "Superman" - Five For Fighting (Shiny)

6. "Quicksand steals my shoe."
- "F-Stop Blues" - Jack Johnson (Shiny)

7. "As we danced, I could see in your eyes, You and me as senior citizens in love."
- "Conventioneers" - BNL (Matt)

8. "The better part of this heart's bitter land."
-

9. "It changes shape and shifts, it takes you over."
- "The Writings on the Wall" - Tea Party (Matt)

10. "Walk the cramps off, Go meander in the cold"
-

11. "Rise up, let life's kiss send us reeling."
-

12. "Oh and your sweet and pretty face, in such an ugly world."
-

13. "It's more or less the same as the things that you said."
- "Riverboat Song" - Ocean Colour Scene (Raj)

14. "If I pack the car and leave this town, who'll notice that I'm not around?"
- "Pinch Me" - Barenaked Ladies (Shiny)

15. "Your face it dances and it haunts me."
- "I Just Don't Think I'll Ever Get Over You" - Colin Hay (Raj)

16. "But first you must learn how to smile as you kill, if you want to be like the folks on the hill."
- "Working Class Hero" - John Lennon (Shiny)

17. "I just want you closer, is that alright?"
- "Last Request" - Paulo Nutini" (Matt)

18. "I'm gonna swear so loud, I'll strip the silver lining from a cloud."
- "I'm Gonna Do it All" - Karine Polwart (Shiny)

19. "You swim like you're on fire, live like your last day, drink like its water..."
- "Colorful" - Rocco DeLuca & The Burden (Shiny)

20. "An enigma wrapped in a mystery, or a fool consumed by fear."
- "For You" - BNL (Matt)

21. "Buying bread from a man in Brussels...He was six foot four and full of muscles."
- "Down Under" - Men at Work (Raj)

22. "So keep your head up, keep it on, just a whisper I'll be gone"
- "Trippin On a Hole in a Paper Heart - Stone Temple Pilots (Matt)

23. "They sold us out and they sold us short and we're the one's who'll have to pay."
-

24. "Sweet like candy to my soul, Sweet you rock and sweet you roll."
- "Crash Into Me" - Dave Matthews Band (Raj)

25. "Push the pedal down, watch the world around fly by us."
-

Mat Kearney & Tyler Burkum

...I luff this song =)


"Nothing Left To Lose" by Mat Kearney

Mat's MySpace
Tyler's MySpace
(check out Tylers solo stuff...he's great!!)

Enjoy! xx

Barenaked Ladies in Dublin

What a Letdown.

No, not the concert! Eesh no! That's the name of the song I cant stop singing from the 'Barenaked Ladies Are Men' album.

*squeeeeeeee* =D

I'm seriously having to resist melting into "fangirlyOMGijustsawthebarenakedladiesliveforthefirsttimeafteralltheseyears" mode. And I'll try my best. But I can't promise anything ;o)

After a very late (and very much delayed) flight back from Nottingham the night before, we dragged ourselves outta bed and headed down to Dublin at the crack of dawn. Well ok...it was about lunchtime really.

After Captain Planets being a massive disappointment last time, we decided to head to the world famous Eddie Rockets for some very disgusting, yet very very good diner food. Mmmm foot-long Chilli-Cheese Dogs, Garlic-Cheese Fries and Onion Rings, followed by the yummiest Oreo Malt-shake ever! We are all such incredible pies!



Anyways, after grabbing a cup of coffee to stop Matts head essploding, we headed round to the Olympia Theatre, where BNL were due to be on stage in about 2 hours time. We had planned to meet up with Carolyn, a friend of Matts from work, and her boyfriend, but for the life of us couldn't find the bar they were in. In all fairness, Carolyns directions leave a lot to be desired! =P lol

After a brief search for the mystery bar, we returned to the theatre and headed upstairs to take our seats. Yes, seats. Matt's old and Sarah has dodgy knees.
The place soon packed up and the lights dimmed down.

They bounded onto the stage with One week and the Old Apartment before going into an adlib about Ed's overindulgent eating. Apparently either the Bangers or the Mash would have been fine...but both together was a mistake. I knew how he felt! And anways, the best gigs always seem to be performed on overly full stomachs...a la Dave Matthews, who had the same problem with the Duck and the Lamb.



Many fantastic numbers followed, including a fantabulous acoustic version of "For You"...one of my fav BNL songs, "Twister: The Musical", and perhaps the highlight of the evening - the "Angry People" Dance =D Too funny! (You can see it HERE from their Brighton gig, or HERE in London.)



(clicky for bigger pics!)

I can't believe I fiiinally got to see them live =)

And the best thing about their concerts is that you can take it away with you. Literally...on a little USB stick. They record every gig they do, and you can pick it up from the merchandise stand straight after the show. How rockin is that?! And...even if you don't feel like queuing, you can take the slightly different route of downloading it from their website...complete with cd cover art. Sweet, no?

You cant beat them with a big bad barenaked memory stick!



Anyhoo...I'm gonna stop rambling now *looks at watch* mainly cause it's 3:52am and way past bedtime! Check out their audio site if ya fancy a listen for yourself. I'm off t'bed. Nighty!

My, My, My, It's a Beautiful World =)

So last night we - Matt, Shiny, Raj, Matt's parentals (for whom we'd bought tickets as a Christmas pressie) and Myself, trundled off to Belfast's Waterfront Hall to see Dave Matthews perform an acoustic set accompanied by his buddy, Tim Reynolds on geetar.


(Dave Matthews)

Fan-tastic. I don't know what else to say...besides "Dave - having the duck and the lamb, is probably never the best idea!" Anyhoo, I'm sure Matt's blog will be full of the joys of Dave in the next day or too so you can prolly read more over there.

On Sunday night Matt & I went to see Colin Hay (a la 'Men At Work') play in the Black Box in Belfast, as part of the Belfast - Nashville Music Festival. This was the one I was waiting not so patiently to see. Now, don't get me wrong...I was looking forward to seeing Dave too...but there's just something special about a much more intimate gig in a small venue, listening to someone who you never thought you would ever get to hear live. For me anyway.

There is just something about his voice; Smooth, yet it has weathered enough over the years to give it this finely ground texture. Like when you finally get your cookie dough mixed to perfection.

We were a little early for the gig, and when we arrived in the venue he was still sound checking, so we propped up a wall at the end of the bar until the event organiser eventually asked us if we'd like to go on ahead and buy tickets so's we could take a seat. I tried desperately not to reveal me inner squee as Colin walked past and said hi. *hangs head in shame* I'm such a girl.

Before the main event there were two local performers...Sarah Lyle (along with her stepdad who looked remarkable like Guy Siner, who played Lieutenant Gruber - the remarkably camp one in 80's tv show 'Allo Allo') and Tim Cobain. Tim had a superb voice and was giving away free ep's...which somehow we missed, bah!


(Tim Cobain)

When Colin took to the stage, I guess I just expected it to be like any other singers performance - a little bit of chat...some music...a bit more rambling and then more music again; but instead it was like watching a singing Billy Connelly! He went into all the ups and downs of his life and career in a brutally honest, totally relaxed, and hilarious stand up style of comfortable conversation with the crowd.


(Colin Hay)

He was superb, and had everyone joining in and cracking up at his "Are you lookin at me pal?"stories in broad Scottish and perfectly mimicked Aussie diction.

He hung around for a while after chatting to everyone and was saying about how he met this young guy 'Zach' in a bar...and how instrumental that meeting was in restarting his solo career at a point when he'd started to accept his time was up. It's funny...he said it himself, and he was right...Scrubs was the main reason half the audience knew who he was. Although I knew him from Men at Work, it was hearing his solo stuff in the episodes My Philosophy and My Overkill that really caught my attention. And Matt had never even made the connection until one evening Raj's dad, Nigel, mentioned how different the solo sound was from the old Men at Work days.

Anyways...the craic was fantastic, the beer was...um...well...whiskey actually...and I got to hear "I Just Don't Think I'll Ever Get Over You" live. =)


(Colin & Myself)

Well...it had to be done. My inner squee got the better of me, what can I say.

Whats That Coming Over the Hill......Is It An Update? ...Is It An Updaaaaate?

Well...I'm back. I'm not sure where I was, but it was dark and not the least bit shiny.

Anyhoo...upon request of Blu and threat of death from Dermo, I'm now gonna attempt to update my poor little blog with the many *cough* excitements of my life over the past few weeks. Aren't you all so very excited? Hmmm....well, no matter...I'm gonna tell yis anyways =P

Ok, lets see, what comes first? Oh, I guess it's gotta be my newly acquired Driving Licence! Fiiinally after almost 10 years of being too chicken to take the test...I passed!



Yes folks, as of the 5th Jan, I have been released onto the worlds unsuspecting roads. I received my lovely pink full licence t'other week, and I must say...it matches my new handbag just lovely! *ahem*

In other news, Matt has been playing geetar for a singer / songwriter called Allan Ellingsgaard, and performed with him at his 'Going Home' Album Launch last night in Ballymena Elim.





Check out dermo.co.uk for a couple more pics.

We also took another wee trip to down to Dublin to see Peter Mulvey. He was superb as always, and was joined by Irish musician Clive Barnes...an absolute magician on the slide guitar!







Poor Peter however is about 3 years behind the rest of the world...as we discovered from his many many many quotations throughout the night from the "Chuck Norris Random Fact Generator" such as "Chuck Norris' wristwatch has no numbers on it. It just says, Time to kick ass. " and "Giraffes were invented when Chuck Norris uppercut a horse". But, ya know, whatever keeps him amused! ;o)

I myself am much more partial to the Jack Bauer Random Fact Generator...I mean, did you know that Superman wears Jack Bauer pyjamas? ...well he does!

With this in mind, I decided it was about flippin time we had a Kiefer Movie Night. Cause...well, cause Kiefer rocks!

So last weekend, when my parents, Sarahs parents and Raj's parents all took themselves off to watch the Giants lose badly in both Hull and Shuffield, we elected to use that weekend to party, let loose and generally have a good time.

Well...we did have a good time...but whilst our respective parental units spent their time rollin in and out of hockey bars across England....we watched movies and ate salad. How feckin rock & roll are we, huh?

Ok...we didn't just eat salad. We actually had a rather lovely winter BBQ on Saturday at mine, thanks to Matty. But I did make a salad to go with it...and it flippin well rocked ok!!!

*sigh*

Anyways...despite there being beer in the fridge, wine in the rack and whiskey in the jar under the kitchen table, we all remained perfectly sober to enjoy 3 of Kiefers finest: Phonebooth, The Lost Boys, and Flatliners. Man I had forgotten just how much I loved The Lost Boys! Such a cracker movie =)

We decided we'd probably have a 'Kiefer: Part Two', as we only had time to watch 3 films...and we have still the likes of Young Guns, Stand By Me, and a few others to introduce ickle Sarah to ;o)

Anyways, Kiefer Night quickly morphed into Kiefer Weekend as we ended our celebrations on Sunday evening at Raj's, where he cooked us a beautiful Sunday Roast followed by a screening of The Sentinal on his lovely big new flatscreen.

Cue Movie.
Cue Sarah discovering that when she watched this on a plane she actually missed over an hour of it, and then finally realising why it never made any sense to her.
Cue at least 20 consecutive bellows of "Holster your weapon!!!!"
Cue 4 happy contented smiles.

Mmmmmm Pie...

Ok...I'm pretty sure this post is gonna get confusing, so I'm warnin' y'all now.

It was originally gonna be about spending last Wednesday at Shiny Sarahs, and how we had a lovely girly day eating far too much Cherry Garcia, deliberating the wonders of home made cherry pie and watching Truly Madly Deeply followed by our much anticipated Mini-Monk-a-thon; but then somehow I got side-tracked.

I'm not sure what it was...or even what I was looking for in the first place (something to do with pie I'm sure =/ ) ...but somehow I stumbled into this random website from a link somewhere. Now that site isn't particularly important in the grand scheme of things (it's not about pie either), but I happened to notice a photo of the site owner posing with a familiar face - actor, Scott Grimes.

Now there's a backstory to why in particular this photo caught my eye. The long and the short of it is, due to Stanley Cup excitement and my recent obsessive complusive watching of Monk, I took the head-staggers a couple of nights ago to re-watch Mystery Alaska (in which Monk star Jason Gray-Stanford plays Bobby Michan)...and this guy Scott Grimes played Brian 'Birdie' Burns in it. I guess a lot of people will know him better from the likes of ER and such, but for me it's always gonna be the hockey movie.

Anyhoo...my curiosity elevated slightly, I continued to nosey on round this site a little and came across some photos taken on the set of one of Scott's music videos, in which I noticed another familiar face - Jason Gray-Stanford. It appears he played the lead character in the vid; I guess the two have stayed friends from back in the day. Nice.

Anyways, you can watch the video HERE in a nice little window, and may I also recommend going to Scott's My Space and listening to his song 'Livin' On The Run' which totally reminds me of my last couple of years of high school when my best friends big bro would sit and play me a variety of bon jovi songs on his beat up old acoustic geetar =) I dunno, it just has that old skool summery vibe to it *happy sigh* good times =)