It's like you hit me with lightning

Awesomely, Ellie Goulding made Auntie Beeb's Sound of 2010 list! Have a listen:

Like all the boys before, like all the boys, boys, boys

You left a blood stain on the floor
You set your sights on him
You left a hand print on the door
Like all the boys before, like all the boys before

This is our luck, baby, running out
Her clothes were never off
We still have our lives to run about
To steal the map, steal the map, to get us back on track
I've seen you in a fight you lost, I've seen you in a fight

We're under the sheets and you're killing me
In our house made of paper, your words all over me
We're under the sheets and you're killing me

(Like all the boys before, like all the boys, boys, boys)

In here the world won't bring us down
Our plan is golden
Out there a lonely girl could drown
In here we're frozen

Where did the people go?
My hands are empty
You're not the answer I should know
Like all the boys before, like all the boys before
(whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa)

We're under the sheets and you're killing me
In our house made of paper, your words all over me
We're under the sheets and you're killing me

We're in a mess babe, we're in a mess babe
Your more is less babe (oh, oh)

We're under the sheets and you're killing me
In our house made of paper, your words all over me
We're under the sheets and you're killing me

(I've seen you in a fight you lost
Like all the boys before, like all the boys before)

We're under the sheets and you're killing me
In our house made of paper, your words all over me
We're under the sheets and you're killing me

Killing me, killing me, killing me

Mama's Got A Brand New Bag

Now Playing: Justice - D.A.N.C.E.

New Layout! This happens when you're tweaking your blog layout at two in the morning - you accidentally delete the old layout, the backup copy has gone walkabout and you figure, what the hey, time for a change anyway, and why not a new title into the bargain? Electric Abacus is so 2002.

A Gammerstang, in case you're wondering, is a very archaic term for a tall, awkward woman; a Stridewallops - antiquated Yorkshire cant - also refers to a tall, awkward woman, but one who's long-legged into the bargain. Most days, I'm definitely the former; when I slip on my heels, I'm a credible imitation of the latter. So, Gammerstang / Stridewallops is here! Pull up a chair, grab a drink and join the conversation...

Fifteen Seconds

Now Playing: Cocteau Twins - Alice



I've always loved long-exposure night shots. Fifteen seconds is a bit much, but the end result is just so shiny, I can't help myself!

This Is How You Remind Me... How Much I Hate You.

- Che... You haven't heard?
- What?
- Maybe you should sit down.
- No, just tell me! Oh God, what is it?
- I didn't want to be the one to tell you -
- WHAT IS IT?
- Nickelback is Billboard's group of the decade.
- Nooo...
- Here, sit down... Can I get you some tea? Coffee?
- Hemlock!!!
- It's not that bad...
- Not that bad?!
- This Is How You Remind Me is only the 4th biggest song of the decade.
- Ohhh.
- Yeah.
- My soul hurts.

Through A Glass, Darkly

Philip Glass' new work, Violin Concerto No 2, may be called "The American Four Seasons" but try as I might, I really couldn't hear anything like Vivaldi tonight at Roy Thompson Hall, where the work was played for only the third time since it was premiered there on Wednesday, December 9th.

Despite the distraction of the title, the piece in question is georgeously complex and darkly soul-stirring. It evokes flight and pursuit, a labyrinth with no centre, discord and intrigue, and when it is finished you want it to begin all over again. A good deal of the credit must go to Robert McDuffie, the solo violinist for whom the piece was composed: his vigorous yet thoughtful performance was the perfect anchor for the strings section and synthesizer, conducted by TSO music director Peter Oundjian.

Structurally though, the piece is hobbled by the cadenza, which comprises the prelude as well as the three "songs" that appear between the four movements of the main piece. In Glass' own words:

"... I would only add that, instead of the usual cadenza, I provided a number of solo pieces for Bobby - thinking that they could be played together as separate concert music when abstracted from the whole work."

Perhaps because of their stand-alone nature, these solo sections, though testimony to McDuffie's undoubted skill, seem to bring the momentum of the concerto as a whole to a screeching halt. During the first song, as McDuffie valiantly sawed away, a cellist looked at his watch, a mini-epidemic of coughing and sneezing broke out in the audience, and another cellist looked out as if to say, "What? Haven't you people heard of Halls?" When this piece is released on CD, it would be intriguing to listen to it without the songs, and see how different the energy of that Concerto No 2 Redux might feel.

Beethoven's Symphony No 6 in F Major, "Pastoral" was the appetizer for the evening. Romantic and richly evocative of the countryside Beethoven loved so much, it is, as John Terauds noted in the Toronto Star, more counterpoint than counterpart to the Glass piece, which made it quite an intriguing symphonic palate-cleanser.