Diary of an absent-minded student

This week I forgot...

• ...my lunch (and only noticed when I sat down to eat it)
• ...my carrying-things-about folder (also containing my as-yet-unmemorised timetable)
• ...my phone (with which I couldn't phone Kevin to ask him to pick me up having just missed the bus home... would have been 15 minutes as opposed to 45 minutes)
• ...to unstitch the pockets of my new coat before rushing out the door this morning (and spent the rest of the day unconsciously attempting to jam my hands into pockets with effective depth of 3mm)
• ...to check whether the number 12 bus I had hopped on was heading to Coventry (good) or to Leamington (bad), before the doors closed.

Serenity (mild/vague spoilers)

Kevin and I went to see Serenity this afternoon. I have to say, I was more excited about it than any other film release since The Two Towers (which didn't quite live up to expectation in the end). Serenity, however, did.

Without going into too much detail, I thought the plot was good. It was bigger, grander than those of the TV series, but that fitted the scope of a film better. I was quite impressed with how Serenity still had the feeling of Firefly for the most part yet was still most definitely a Movie rather than a Two-Hour TV Episode on the big screen. I guess I was suprised that so little time had elapsed between "Objects In Space" and the film (it's getting harder and harder to pretend that Summer Glau is 16/17 years old) but that didn't really have much of an effect anyway.

I was pretty well convinced that I would go to see the film a second time in the cinema, but ironically, it's the brilliance of Joss Whedon's film-making that's stopping me from doing so. The [major spoiler] really shook me, and I've had that image going round in my head for the last seven hours. I'm not sure I want to see that again; once was hard enough.

They did a pretty good job with making sure that newcomers would get the backstory and background without having too much obvious exposition; a nice balance for those who have and who haven't seen Firefly. In conclusion: Go see it, 'tis good.

Bang and the dirt is gone

I was in the middle of cooking dinner the other night when the kettle exploded.

It was quite spectacular in a way — all of a sudden the lid flew off with a loud noise (landing in the washing up water with resulting sizzle) and I caught a brief glimpse of an orange glow in the kettle before it subsided. The mains circuit breaker for the whole flat was triggered, inadvertently powering down both our computers, and the lights for the kitchen too. White smoke started filling the air; luckily our faulty cooker hood was fixed a mere six weeks after we moved in, so I could turn on the extractor fan as well as opening the windows.

The explosion blew calcium carbonate (from the limescale) everywhere. It certainly removed the limescale, although I hope this isn't the method that Cillit Bang uses.

For the record, we think our kettle malfunction was a combination of there perhaps not having been enough water in there, and also the kettle having been at least 30 years old (probably more) and having sat in my parents' loft for goodness knows how long.

Still. On the plus side, we'll be getting a brand new kettle from Kevin's sister, who hadn't yet got us a house-warming present. On the downside, since neither one of us drinks tea or coffee, we'll still only be using it to boil water for pasta.

I'll make the most of it (Extraordinary Machine)

Like oh-so-many others, I too believed the gossip and rumour surrounding Fiona Apple's third album, Extraordinary Machine; namely that Sony had shelved the finished product since it was felt to not be mainstream enough. I happily downloaded the tracks that had been leaked online, played them an awfully large number of times, and barely gave Sony another thought.

On the 2nd of October I was Googling for a lyric from the album when I saw a release date noted on the webpage: October 03. Tomorrow! (There had apparently been an announcement in August which had totally passed me by.) And it would not be the same as the copy I had, as nearly all the songs had been "substantially reworked" (this is evidently what was holding up the publishing process). I scuttled off to Amazon, Play.com and CD-Wow.co.uk, all of which gave different release dates — respectively, 04/10, 11/10, and 03/10. I went for the earliest (and cheapest) and waited for my CD to arrive.

And waited. Then waited some more.

Checking my order on the 8th resulted in the discovery that the album was still considered "pre-release". All three sites had now changed the stated release date to the 11th. I grumbled a bit, but consoled myself with the thought that it would only be a few more days.

About ten more days, as it turned out, since the release date was pushed back by another week to the 17th. I don't quite understand what happened, but am uplifted by the fact that the 17th is today, and also is when the CD finally came through the door :-)

So this afternoon I've been listening to the album and, I'm sorry to say, am consequently about to give you my thoughts on all the songs as compared to the original, bootlegged versions. Sorry.

The title track, Extraordinary Machine, has been moved to track #1 in the new ordering, which seems a little strange since it hardly sets the tone of the album. This is thankfully one of the two songs that hasn't been reworked (although the vocals have been re-recorded). It's still wonderful, and it's even more wonderful having it at CD quality, which means I can actually hear all the twiddly bits and musical curlicues that escaped my ears on my downloaded copy.

Get Him Back was definitely my least-favourite song of the unofficial album, and I think the new version is a little better. I had hoped to get rid of that piano bass line and have a different drum beat to take away the clunkiness I objected to in the first place, but oh well. I do like the slower-sections to "So I say and on I go / To another one who disappoints me so".

And so to a newly sped-up version of O' Sailor, which thereby manages to knock a whole minute off the original. And I wouldn't be surprised if that's why it was done, since I can't think of any other reason. Where the original was gently shimmering and langourous, this is just slightly slower than most songs, and yet sounds rushed. I do like some of the extra tuned percussion (metallaphones) during the choruses, though.

Next, and most painful, is Better Version Of Me. There's no doubt that it is, in fact, a Worser Version. It's the only album track that actually induced face-scrunching because of how poor an adaptation it is. The beginning is curiously flat, and then Apple launches in on the off-beat, just as she did in one bootlegged copy that circled the net marked "Alternative version". It was horrible and jarring then, and I'm afraid it still is. I do quite like the instrumental section, but unfortunately it then goes into a bizarrely slow and chime-y section that I probably only don't like because it wasn't in the original. Never mind. I like the way it kicks back into the main thrust of the song again.
(It should be pointed out that BVoM was one of my favourite songs from the leaked album, so any bad points have probably been magnified.)

Tymps, previously known as Used To Love Him, is fantastic. I was smiling from the beginning to the end of this song (apart from the bizarrely intrusive electric guitar section at 1m52s). Other than that, thumbs-up. They took one of my favourite songs from the album, and made it better! And in a way that's so different I can happily have the two versions co-existing and probably regard them as different songs.

Parting Gift is entirely new to me, and is a lovely Fiona+piano ballad. 'Nuff said.

I'm torn about the reworking of Window. I can accept it if I have to, but I'd rather have the original (which probably means they're both fine but I'm biased). The first verse especially still retains the playfulness, but discards the slightly ominous feeling that the original had. I like the dramatic entry into the chorus, but then it sounds a bit too jazzy and laid-back for my liking. To be honest, it's a bit of a strange song anyway. Disregard my comments; I'm just longing for the original. I also miss the delicate, subdued ending to the bootleg copy, not replicated here since they tagged an interesting instrumental bit onto the end.

Oh Well hasn't been altered that much except for the slightly increased tempo, which I actually (shock horror) approve of. The stop-start on "what wasted unconditional love" is also good. I even prefer the (barely different) re-recorded vocals. I do, however, lean more towards the slightly less heavy styling of the original, but give me a week with this version and I won't even notice.

Please Please Please almost gave me the scrunched face again, but that's mainly because I listened to the original about four times this morning. This version isn't actually terribly different (apart from the Dr Who sound effects after "steady going nowhere"; what's with those?), and I do like the ghostly chorus of voices about 2 minutes in, and at the very very end, but I'm still sticking with the original as my first love.

Surprisingly, I really, really like the new version of Red, Red, Red. It's totally different to the original, which I liked on the first few listens but rapidly became a bit much for me. This is lovely. I'm sure it'd be repulsive to anyone who was enamoured with the original, but I never was.

I have only one thing to say about Not About Love. (Well, that's not true, but bear with me; it's more dramatic.) Where's My Cello??!? What the hell happened to the fabulous string section, where's the orchestration, why have you replaced it with electric guitars and a percussion track? What have you done to my favourite song? It's been turned into Just Another Song. With bizarre and unnecessary syncopation in the second verse. (It has an unexpectedly good bridge, given the rest of the travesty, but let's ignore that and just spit and splutter for a bit.)

And finally, we come to Waltz. Which, given that it's the other song that hasn't been reworked, is somewhat of a relief after the new Not About Love. I want to say that the sound has been enhanced, the string section has been made slightly more prominent, but I think it's just the CD vs bootleg quality at work.

(To anyone who is still waiting for their CD to arrive, or is merely curious having heard the leaked album, you can listen to 30-second snippets via the iTunes Music Store. Which I completely forgot about until yesterday afternoon, silly Cathy. The snippet they play for Please Please Please does indeed contain the Dr Who sound effects, should you be interested.)

My problem now is that I have two separate, different albums by the same person, both entitled Extraordinary Machine. How do I select one and not the other in iTunes, on my iPod, and so on? I decided I would have to rename the original version to something more inventive than "Extraordinary Machine: version 1", and decided to pick one of the song names as the new album title.

The very obvious choice, and the one I picked, is (of course) Better Version Of Me.

The Mob mentality

When Kevin and I were in Sainsbury's the other day, I noticed that the background music they were playing was the theme from The Godfather.

Kevin explained: "It's because they have offers you can't refuse."