Rage on the internet!

“Basically, what you’re saying is that sniffing glue wrecks your brain? That’s common knowledge, you didn’t have to bother.”

One of the great things about WordPress is that it has a pretty good spam filter and weeds out a lot of nonsensical messages, usually linking back to some sort of Viagra or other obvious spam site. I didn’t think too much of it and let this rather odd message go, especially when it was linked to an account called “Fake”, via the email address of one William Doherty.

A little while later, the spam filter trapped another message from aforementioned Mr Doherty:

Reinspired’s first birthday: What inspired you today?

On 29 March 2010, I did something I hadn’t done for a long time. I took a chance on buying an album I hadn’t heard and fell in love with it instantly. Three tracks in, I knew that it was going to have a significant impact on me, and the following day, I started this blog to write about it. Two people inspired me that day: the one who made the album in question, and the one whose blog gave me the idea for this one.

One year later, and a great many people have inspired me. Some have entertained, some have made me think, and many have achieved both at the same time. I thought it would be fun to catch up with those people and ask them what had inspired them today.

Let’s start with Everett True. Though we’d intermittently emailed each other in the intervening years, the last time I’d seen him was when he was still writing for Melody Maker, back in the mid-1990s. In the meantime, he’d edited various magazines included Plan B and relocated to Australia, where he now ran two blogs of which the latter – Music That I Like – I was an avid reader. Everett’s blog was a direct inspiration for this one, and it was a pleasure to catch up with him again this year, when again he inspired a creative outburst without really intending to. He now edits Collapse Board, an aggregate blog of various mostly Australian-based music critics, and performs in two bands. I dropped him an email to ask him what inspired him today.

#musicmonday: One year of Reinspiration

As we approach the first anniversary of Reinspired, here are some of my favourite tunes I’ve talked about here – one for each month we’ve been going.

Terminator 2, and other remixes

I know these have been around for a little while, but I only just saw these very well-made fan videos by Pogo, in which he cuts together sound clips and images from his favourite films to create “remixes”. In his own words:

Comprising nothing but small sounds recorded from the James Cameron masterpiece ‘Terminator 2: Judgement Day’, ‘Skynet Symphonic’ is my tribute to one of the greatest action features of all time!

Each section is composed entirely of sounds from a major scene in the film. For example, the Terminator pounding on the fire escape door is used as a kick drum. Bones breaking play the role of a snare. Electrical disturbance acts as a crash cymbal.

http://PogoMix.net
http://twitter.com/PogoMix

The rather gory video reminds me why T2 is always so heavily cut on TV.

Rome

I picked up the DVD box set for this fantastic HBO-BBC co-production because after thoroughly enjoying it on its first airing, I wanted to see it again.

Costing over a hundred million dollars for the first twelve episodes, Rome charts the events from Caesar’s conquest of Gaul through to the deaths of Antony and Cleopatra. The first series ends with the assassination of Julius Caesar, played with remarkable depth by Ciarán Hinds.

The whole cast is astonishingly good, with each giving a real range and warmth to their characters. Of course, the real stars are Kevin McKidd and Ray Stevenson as two common soldiers through whose eyes these classic parts of history are told. Their names were mentioned in passing in one of Caesar’s diaries, but in Rome they are given the major roles, often influencing history, Forrest Gump-style.

Elizabeth Taylor

Maggie the Cat is alive! Alas, no more, is the woman who portrayed her. The 79 year-old icon passed away from congestive heart failure today.

Chess Without Turns

I’ ve always hated turn-based games. I just get bored waiting to have my go, by which point I’m so impatient I just make any move without any thought of strategy, and thus don’t do very well. I just don’t find them entertaining. I managed four hours of Fallout, two hours of Fallout 2, and have never completed a game of chess. At least I don’t think I have. If I did, it was so boring I don’t remember. This is why we only play board games at Christmas, and even so, I prefer the fast-paced Boggle to the lumbering Monopoly.

Thus it was a welcome tweet from kateri_t that drew my attention to Chess Without Turns, a free-to-play browser game by indie designer Sosker. It’s specifically designed for those of us with the attention span of a toddler goldfish after too many sweets.

#musicmonday: The Beach Boys – Good Vibrations

It’s Monday, so why not send some good vibes out?

#trendingtopics: 15 Vocalists

The rules:  Don’t take too long to think about it.  Fifteen vocalists that will always stick with you.  List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes.  And in no particular order.  Tag fifteen friends, and me, because I’m interested in seeing what singers my friends choose. (To do this, go to your Notes tab on your profile page, paste rules in a new note, cast your fifteen picks, and tag people in the note — in the ‘tag’ line.

Here are mine:

Glasser

One of the most buzzed-about bands at SXSW this year, LA’s Glasser is actually Cameron Mesirow, the daughter of one of the Blue Man Group and a 70s New Wave chanteuse. The stylish, sophisticated electronica with its strong, haunting vocals has invited comparisons with Bat For Lashes, Goldfrapp and Björk, though I’d also throw the Cocteau Twins and Pram into this mix. Signed to hip label True Panther, Glasser’s album Ring was described by the BBC as “a wide-eyed, tribal, multi-textured menagerie of a record”.

.