PEX iPlumb PLS PEX fittings are constructed of durable polysulfone resin and are compatible with both copper crimp rings and stainless steel clamps. iPlumb PLS fittings are lead-free and do not rust, corrode or change the taste of water. Visit our website www.iplumb.tv for additional information or call 800-842-2543.

#34114

Buy Cheap Heavy Elbow Sleeves Support Elbow Wrap

Buy Low Price From Here Now
APT’s Own HEAVY weight Elbow Sleeve Support, set of 2 (two). PLEASE write us with your size or we will ask before shipping. Small up to 150,
Medium 150 to 200 lbs,
Large 200 to 250 lbs,
XL 250 to 300+ lbs. Elbow Support, Elbow Brace, Elbow Sleeve “Elastic Fixed sizes” (The BEST of the BEST in Elbow Heavy Grade Sleeves) APT’s Own HEAVY Weight Elbow Sleeve Support, set of 2 (two) KElbow Support, Elastic Fixed sizes SET of 2 Firm comfortable support for stiff, weak or sore elbows Super for Weight Lifting, Bodybuilding, Powerlifting, strongman, Fitness, exercise and more.. Measure knee around the elbow for proper fit choice…….
Readmore

Technical Details

– Aids in Elbow Support for Execise
– Allows you to add more weight
– Keeps heat around your elbow
– Helps injured elbows
– Lift in comfort and Exercise
See more technical details

 “Great investment if you have tendonitis” 2009-04-14
By Scott (Afghanistan)
These sleeves have been helpful in alleviating the pain in my elbows while doing curl exercises. They are somewhat tight, especially once you have a pump going, so order the appropriate size

 “Awsome Product” 2008-03-03
By Bryan Burke
I use these for squats and deadlifts to support my elbows. They provide great support! I would recommend these to anyone with elbow problems or pain while working out.

 “Just the right amount of support and heat retention” 2007-06-14
By ctgblue (East Coast USA)
I have had these for over a year now.

Alan has another hit with this item as with everything he sells (I own Ultimate straps, Black Mamba wrist wraps, etc..)

These are tight enough to be supportive but not restrictive. Warm enough to help keep the elbows feeling right, but still breatheable.

These are my “go to” weapon of choice when tendonitis flares up in my elbows on heavy lifting days.

Images Product

Buy Heavy Elbow Sleeves Support Elbow Wrap Now

What are you thankful for?

Me?

Today, I’m thankful for R.E.M.

For Elbow.

For Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds.

And for Regina Spektor.

Sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of the little things.  But that doesn’t mean I ever forget.

The NME got in on the act early. This Sunday the Observer Music Monthly publishes its top 50. So I thought I might as well have a go. I wanted to get mine done first and see how much common ground I’ve got with the OMM seeing as its my favourite music mag. It’s harder than you’d think to select just 50 albums that span 2000-2009. I’ve had to leave out some records I really like. But here we go… Please comment as you feel necessary!

50 – Daft Punk: Discovery.

49 – Bob Dylan: Modern Times.

48 – Camille: Le Fil.

47 – Arctic Monkeys: Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not.

46 – The Blue Nile: High.

45 – New Order: Get Ready.

44 – Mercury Rev: All Is Dream.

43 – R.E.M.: Accelerate.

42 – Fionn Regan: The End Of History.

41 – The Beatles: Love.

40 – The Avalanches: Since I Met You.

39 – Badly Drawn Boy: The Hour Of Bewilderbeast.

38 – Roots Manuva: Awfully Deep.

37 – Bon Iver: For Emma, Forever ago.

36 – Mark B & Blade: The Unknown.

35 – Coldplay: Parachutes.

34 – Malcolm Middleton: Into The Woods.

33 – Seafood: When Do We Start Fighting…

32 – Doves: The Last Broadcast.

31 – Duke Special: Songs From The Deep Forest.

30 – Morrissey: You Are The Quarry.

29 – Guillemots: Through The Windowpane.

28 – Bruce Springsteen: The Rising.

27 – The Gaslight Anthem: The ‘59 Sound.

26 – Billy Bragg & Wilco: Mermaid Avenue Vol. II

25 – Richard Hawley: Coles Corner.

24 – Fleet Foxes:  Fleet Foxes.

23 – Athlete: Vehicles & Animals.

22 – Spin Doctors: Nice Talking To Me.

21 – Sigur Ros: Takk…

20 – Goldfrapp: Felt Mountain.

19 – Maxïmo Park: A Certain Trigger.

18 – Delirious?: Glo.

17 – The Shins: Wincing The night Away.

16 – Ben Folds: Rockin’ The Suburbs.

15 – Green Day: American Idiot.

14 – Neil Young: Living With War.

13 – Ray Lamontagne: Til The Sun Turns Black.

12 – Death Cab For Cutie: Narrow Stairs.

11 – Idlewild: The Remote Part.

10 – Johnny Cash: American IV: The Man Comes Around

An extraordinary achievement for a man in his final year. Johnny Cash’s last ‘proper’ album has the power to bring me to the edge of tears. I bought it the week he died in 2003 and played it a lot. A mixture of originals and covers, Rick Rubin’s brilliant production means there’s pathos dripping from every track. ‘Hurt’ is one of the songs of the decade which couldn’t even be ruined by that dire Nike advert. When I first heard ‘I Hung My Head’ it stopped me dead in my tracks. Just like most of the rest of this awesome album.

9 - Interpol: Turn On The Bright Lights.

I think there’s a good case to be made for Interpol as the band of the decade. To my shame I’m yet to see them live but their three dark, brooding and melodic albums demand that I get round to it soon. I think their debut is the pick of the bunch. Starting with ‘Untitled’ which takes its cues from the shoegazing bands of the early 90’s, the album goes onto channel the best of My Bloody Valentine, Joy Division and classic Krautrock. I suppose it can be said about all the records in the list but I can’t listen to this album too many times. It sends me to sleep, it wakes me up and generally soundtracks my life.

8 – Vampire Weekend: Vampire Weekend.

The drums alone deserve some kind of award. Chris Tomson is, for my money, the best drummer in a rock band at the moment. But this isn’t Keith Moon fury, or John Bonham theatrics. He sees the drum kit as a melodic and harmonic instrument. The kit is a lead instrument here and when allied to fantastic songwriting, it’s a winning combination. The African influence if overstated (this isn’t even the noughties’ Graceland, let alone Fela Kuti or Ali Farka Touré). However, the hints of afrobeat are enough to make this stand out from the crowd. Walcott is a great track – but there aren’t any duds here.

7 – Grandaddy: The Sophtware Slump.

This outstanding record is often compared favourably with ‘OK Computer’. Well, I’ll put my cards on the table. There’s only one winner; and it isn’t Radiohead. Grandaddy are impossible to categorise, but this record combines the best bits of alt-country, electronica and post-rock. The audacity of a 9 minute opening track has been matched by many bands. The difference is they’ve not made a song as arresting as ‘He’s Simple, He’s Dumb, He’s The Pilot’. ‘The Crystal Lake’ is among the best songs of the decade while ‘Undreneath The Weeping Willow’ showcases a brilliant knack for melancholy. Released at the start of the decade, very few records have got anywhere near matching Grandaddy’s Magnum Opus.

6 – The Hold Steady: Boys And Girls in America.

‘Best bar band in the world blah… blah… blah’ said the music press. Talk about damning with faint praise. The Hold Steady are one of the greatest bands of the 21st Century, full stop. And though their earlier albums are packed with gems, this breakthrough album sees their manifesto fulfilled. How many bands could start a record quoting Jack Kerouac but never fail to be fun? The sound was compared to classic E Street Band and that’s probably as close as you can get to describing this joyous racket. Craig Finn’s lyrics are always interesting and frequently brilliant. So looking at our checklist we’ve got superb music, superb lyrics and some guys that seem delighted just to be playing rock and roll. It’ll do for me.

5 – Elbow: The Seldom Seen Kid.

I suppose too much has already been written about this album. It’d be easy to include ‘Asleep In The Back’ to prove I’ve liked Elbow since I used to play them on student radio in 2000. But that would miss the point: for once, the awards committees, journalists and hype-merchants got it right. This is an amazing album. There’s not an average track in sight in an hour’s running time. Picking highlights almost seems crazy, but ‘Grounds For Divorce’ and ‘On A Day Like This’ have deservedly grabbed the headlines and soundtracked a million daytime DIY programmes. But some of the less well know tracks contain stunning music and lyrics. When Guy Garvey croons ”We kiss like we invented it” on ‘Mirrorball’ it’s enough to melt your heart.  We await their next move with eager anticipation.

4 - Midlake: The Trials of Van Occupanther.

Take a moderately successful Texan indie band and give them a copy of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Rumours’. Stand well back and light the blue touch-paper. Doesn’t sound promising does it? How wrong could we be??? This was THE album of 2006. Inventive harmonies, layered synths and lyrics pining for the antebellum South came together to produce a stunning record. The guitar solo that comes halfway through ‘Head Home’ is one of my favourite musical moments of the decade, but this album contains several contenders for that title. The real genius of ‘…Van Occupanther’ is its ability to keep you on your toes. Just when you think it may slip into mid 70’s FM rock pastiche, the band pulls out a track like ‘Young Bride’ which forces you to admit this is a record which is far more than the sum of its considerable parts.

3 – Damien Rice: O.

David Gray is a perfectly decent singer songwriter. The same can’t be said for the likes of James Morrison and James Blunt. But how any of them came to be spoken of in the same breath as Damien Rice is beyond me. The irishman deserves to be in far better company (Jeff Buckley for example). This debut album was a slow-burning word-of-mouth behemoth that managed to retain artistic dignity while being offered on 2-for-1 deals in Tesco. Its strengths have been repeated endlessly, but any blogger who can’t find room for Lisa Hannigan’s beautiful vocals, the stunning string arrangements or the strange re-working of Silent Night is a fool. If this album has a flaw, I’m yet to find it. I can’t pick one track as a highlight because the others simply look at me reproachfully and say ‘actually we’re all rather lovely’. And they truly are.

2 – My Morning Jacket: It Still Moves.

This album sounds like the best party you’ve ever been to. If you want to label it I suppose it’s alt-country. But what on earth does that matter when the music is as much fun as this? Don’t get the idea this is some kind of comedy record though. Howling vocals, squealing guitars and pounding drums fuse together to create a brilliant racket. ‘One Big Holiday’ has a guitar hook to die for, but this isn’t an album of simple pleasures. The genius of the songs reveals itself slowly. The first time you hear it, it sounds like these are well crafted and edited jams. But like Led Zep at their peak, the tracks are more cunningly moulded than that. Crazy Horse are another reference point and when talking about a rock and roll band there are fewer bigger compliments than that. It’s a long record (71 minutes) but unusually for an album of that length, it doesn’t outstay its welcome. Superb.

1 – Stephen Fretwell: Magpie.

I’m annoyed I couldn’t find a decent picture of this album without the parental advisory sticker on it. Ok, maybe it doesn’t make an ideal present for a toddler, but any parent who’s doing their job properly should be investing in this if their child shows any kind of serious interest in music. It’s as close to a perfect record as its possible to get. At the start of the decade, Scunthorpe’s Stephen Fretwell found himself in Manchester as a promising singer-songwriter. A little while later, he was in a recording studio creating some of the most beautiful music that great city has ever produced. By 2004 it was ready for release. In reality, the Manchester thing is a bit of a red herring. Fretwell owes little to the genius of the Smiths and Joy Division or the more prosaic talents of Oasis. He’s just a good old-fashioned acoustic troubadour. So who are the key influences here? I’d guess Neil Young, Bob Dylan et al. But that doesn’t tell you much about this record’s greatest strength. Fretwell’s gift for melody is astounding. Songs like ‘Emily’, ‘New York’ and ‘Rose’ are beautifully crafted and sung. But there isn’t a track here which leaves you cold. You may know ’Run’ as the Theme of ‘Gavin and Stacey’ but don’t stop there. Investigate it immediately. Buy it and love it. There’s only one album of the decade after all; whatever the Observer says!

Buy Cheap Mueller Neoprene Elbow Support

Buy Low Price From Here Now
Firm comfortable support helps relieve elbow pain and strain. Wraparound design for easy fit and adjustable compression. Soothing neoprene warmth helps keep joints flexible……..
Readmore

Technical Details

– One size fits most.
See more technical details

Images Product

Buy Mueller Neoprene Elbow Support Now

READ THIS FIRST:

What I am trying to show you how I use photoshop to enhance the image. I think the image that comes out from the camera is already okay to use but if i can make it look even better, why not. Lightroom can be use to enhance up to a point but to complete the transformation, photoshop is needed. When view the image below, please look at them slowly, think to yourself it was you, will u be happy with the image and leave it as that.

Bueno, ahora se aproximan muchos cambios en mi vida, aunque de todas formas llevo ya unos mesecitos que he cambiado de casa, de ordenador, de móvil… Pero bueno, ahora todos los cambios son más importantes, y además, no sé qué pasa, que ya no tengo la misma ilusión por escribir que tenía antes, así que por todo esto creo que iré cerrando la temporada, hasta el año que viene (aunque puede que haga alguna entrada nueva este año si tengo algo interesante que contar)…

Además, no sé, las últimas entradas que estoy haciendo no me terminan de convecer, y además, las audiencias muestran que las que mejor funcionan son las clásicas, siendo la líder indiscutible Capítulo IV: Arthur Fonzarelli “The Fonz” in “Happy Days”, algo que demuestra un gran interés de la gente por esta serie…

Así que, a modo de cierre aquí os dejo una perlita, “Vincent” el primer corto de Tim Burton, que son 5 minutos de Tim Burton en estado puro…

Y recordad:

“Anyway,

it’s looking like a beautiful day”

Why use cast aluminum?

S&B chose to manufacture their Intake Elbows out of cast aluminum because you need a part that delivers extreme performance without the risk of it bursting in the field. While they liked the idea of using a composite material to make their elbows, they know, it’s not worth the risk.

Streamline the airflow after the intercooler.

PEX iPlumb PLS PEX fittings are constructed of durable polysulfone resin and are compatible with both copper crimp rings and stainless steel clamps. iPlumb PLS fittings are lead-free and do not rust, corrode or change the taste of water. Visit our website www.iplumb.tv for additional information or call 800-842-2543.

#34115

PEX iPlumb PLS PEX fittings are constructed of durable polysulfone resin and are compatible with both copper crimp rings and stainless steel clamps. iPlumb PLS fittings are lead-free and do not rust, corrode or change the taste of water. Visit our website www.iplumb.tv for additional information or call 800-842-2543.

Item #34113

As winter nears, the air gets progressively drier and drier, unless it snows. Otherwise, the dryness makes it very easy for one to generate static electricity, simply by removing one’s coat or sweater. I used to dread going home just because I knew that I would get shocked the moment I touched something after removing my coat. And it wasn’t a tiny shock, either – it was the kind of static shock where you can actually see the spark between skin and object. So I was surprised to discover a painless way to discharge the shock: to touch something with an elbow instead of my hand.

Since the elbow is one of the least sensitive part of the body, you can do cool things with it like elbow someone really hard, or discharge static electricity through them. You can even let lightning strike them as a survival technique: if you’re ever caught in a storm in the middle of flat land, where you are the tallest thing for miles around, then all you do is get on your knees, bend over till your head touches the ground, and raise your elbows upwards while keeping your hands on your hips. This causes potential lightning bolts to strike your elbows first, reducing the pain you feel, while the current is redirected down towards the ground and hopefully bypasses your heart. I’m sure it would still hurt (understatement of the year), but at least you’ll survive. Neat, huh?

Thanks to everybody who commented on my last blog post! I really appreciate you sharing your playlists with everyone and introducing us to some great new music!

As I was responding to your comments, something hit me. You guys have shown us an incredible ammount of support over the last few years. You’ve called your local DJs to request our music. You’ve come to our shows and purchased our CDs. And your votes have caused us to win more contests and get onto more playlists than I could count. Each of you has helped make what we do possible.

Last week was really cool because we had twenty people contribute to our post! But, our anlaytics show that hundreds of people read it. Why is that? I’m not sure. But I feel that it is – at least in some part – due to the fact that so often the creation and delivery of art is a one way street. I want to change that; so I’d like to invite you to take a moment to do three things:

1. Visit atris.wordpress.com (This will be more fun if everyone goes to the same page.)
2. Scroll down to the comment box and introduce yourself. Write a few words about anything you’d like. How did you first hear our music? What city are you from? What are your favorite movies? Pretend we just met at a coffee shop. If you’d like share your blog address, Twitter ID or someplace where we and other people can learn more about you that would be great too!
3. Check the box that says Notify me of follow-up comments via email.

Please don’t do this for us, do this for yourself and for everyone. It takes a certain amount of bravery to put yourself out there; but it’s worth it. We love to get to know people with similar interests, ideas, and opinions. And it’s really cool when group discussions are started. If you have something in common with someone who posts, let him or her know! It makes me feel great to see people responding to my comments, and I love to chime back in to share my thoughts.

Looking forward to meeting you!

-Mason

“Their music rolls like a Manchester Limousine. Beautiful on the surface yet intricate and clever if you care to look deeper. And if you do, well, the journey that you go on makes it all worth it.”

A debut that isn’t an actual debut and an opening track titled Any Day Now. No-one can say that Elbow do not have a sense of humour. Asleep in the Back was re-released in deluxe form at the end of October this year and a fanfare is as deserved today as it was in 2001 when it was first released.

Asleep in the Back was on the Mercury Shortlist in 2001, but did not win. They would return to put this right with Seldom

This was the second ‘debut’ that the band recorded, after previous material was scrapped when their record label dropped them. There was also an EP, Noisebox released in 1998 and 2000. This can be found for mega money on the internet, but handily is available in the new Deluxe Edition of the album, along with some live tracks from the Astoria and a BBC Radio One live set.

If you are one of the people who caught the coat tails of The Seldom Seen Kid then, welcome, but at some point listening to this album is essential.

Any Day Now starts the album and is as good a song about escaping as you will find. It’s got beautiful guitars that drip with sound and a bit of a mantra too;

 “Any day now hows about getting out of this place. Any ways.
Got a lot of spare time. Some of my youth and all of my senses on overdrive.”

Not so much a screaming battle plan from these boys, instead a subtle delivery bordering on sleepy and some will say miserable. Do not make the mistake of writing this track or this album off as miserable though, I’ll give you melancholic if I must.

Red is more about harmonies and a beautifully delivered vocal from Mr Garvey, effective drums and some cello in there for good measure. Little Beast is more mumbled and less comfortable than the two previous tracks, if you were drifting off then this jarry number will bring you back. The melody is plonky, the background vocals are wispy, this one’s seemingly more about the instruments but it leads into an absolute corker of a track.

Powder Blue is the perfect match of lyric, delivery and instrumentation. You strive to uncover moments of musical perfection like this. Every low mumble from Guy prior to this, is instantly forgiven as his voice soars on this track.

“Bring that minute back  We never get so close to death Makes you so alive
I share it all with you Powder blue”

This song is beautiful. In every way you want a song to be, piano work that makes you want to cry, and the high chorus that will make sure you ARE crying. I’ve not even mentioned the words, lyrics that are universal and weirdly specific too. It’s almost as if they paint the best picture ever, with stunning brushstrokes covering the entire canvas, but they still go back and give you the detail too. And to stop you getting too lost in this particular moment, it ends, abruptly, and you are on to Bitten by the Tail Fly; all together a very different animal.

I love this song, but in a very different way. A quiet vocal punctuated every now and again by startling guitar work and drums that just don’t go away. I will grant that maybe for the first listen you’re sitting there thinking “…the f’ is this…?” It packs a punch, and goes a little down the road that Elbow explore more in other offerings. I saw it live in Manchester this year,  the intensity really hits home when you see it performed on stage.

Newborn, like Powder Blue before it is a stand out track. It’s possibly the most beautiful song ever to feature an opening line about being a corpse in a bathtub. God bless Mr Garvey once again though, because it works. It’s a love song, and in both musical and time terms it is epic and neither one of these factors should put you off. It’s all gentle and pleading, takes you away in the middle and thunders back.  Coldplay comparisons may not be too welcome in connection to Elbow, but Fix You owes more than a doth of the cap to this song. In the opinion of this reviewer, this song alone is better than any sound-alike Coldplay have ever or will ever come up with.

Coming Second has a groove. I hesitate to say this because comparison’s to other bands and Elbow have rarely been helpful in my opinion, but this song is a bit Blur-like. It’s foot stomping like Beetlebum and it gets inside you.

Scattered Black and Whites is Elbow through and through; a beautiful lyric tinged with the personal, the family, the need to ground yourself in certain familiar situations. Garvey sings,  “I come back here from time to time, I shelter here…” we all need places like that in our lives and thanks to the words that world is shared with us. Climbing trees, a sister buzzing through the room, probably a man, who possibly had his own chair that no-one else was allowed to sit in and got shifted if they tried to;

“and he talks of people ten years gone, like I’ve known them all my life, like scattered black and whites”

‘He’ talks, and luckily for us, so does Garvey, and it feels like we too have known people like this all our lives.  It’s almost Royal Family-esque.

The best writers in the world (many of them featured on this site) write about what they know, what surrounds them, what they remember and what they want to happen.

Elbow are able to deliver the personal track that everyone can identify with, they do it later on Station Approach and Weather to Fly and these songs carry an extra weight because of it. You don’t have to have grown up in Bury, or hung around Piccadilly or other places in Manchester to appreciate it, it’s not a joke you won’t be in on if you didn’t… but it makes the warm feeling warmer if you did.

There’s a layered approach to the music from this band. It wont necessarily remain slow and subtle if it starts off that way,  out of a minute of a mumbling vocal and sparse music  can bloom the best four minutes of music  you will get until the next track. Some tracks take flight and soar, some are air born for the entire time and all you have to do is shut your eyes and go there and yes, some maybe downright weird the first few listens you give them, but even those take hold of you eventually.

Asleep in the Back is a journey over so many musical peaks and troths that you should never get bored or complacent in the sound the band offers. As soon as you think you have them boxed off (ballad, Newborn) they give you a jolt (Bitten by the Tail Fly, Coming Second). Ignore Coldplay comparisons and don’t get too bogged down in the ‘Guy sounds just like Peter Gabriel’ debate and judge it fairly. It’s a remarkably focused debut album, showcasing elements that the band would return to in later outings.

It’s possible to listen to Guy talk about Bury and specifically Little Beast here and think that he doesn’t have many positive things to say about the area. In reality, Bury is a small Lancashire town that seemingly everyone hopes to escape in some way, it’s possible to see the metrolink to Manchester as the only redeeming feature of the place – again the band are not the only people to have this love hate thing going on. It’s the same in any home town; love leaving, it makes coming back sweeter. If greenery, hills, the odd chav and one or two proud mills still standing aren’t enough to get you, see the Met Bar which has been the scene of many a notable music event (a Joy Division kerfuffle for one, know yer history).

When our vicar says one Sunday “And a quick mention to Chris Jupp’s son’s band, who has an album out this week”, some of the congregation of the church looked appalled that such a thing had been mentioned in the notices, by a vicar no less! The reaction was all over some faces… bringing that rock and or roll up in a place like this….indeed!

Well, those people are still sat in the same place every Sunday, a quick walk away from the Church hall where Richard and the boys practiced all that time. I don’t think the re-issued album got a mention in the notices though. Thankfully, the nation, nay the world is catching up to what some people have known all along.

 Asleep in the Back was the first step.

© Simon A. Moult / Moultymedia 2009.
All rights reserved. Copying is prohibited without prior permission from the author.

It’s that time of the decade again. Making lists of favourite things from the past ten years. 

So, I’ll start with my top songs… note this will be subject to change…

1. Doves – There Goes The Fear (2002)

2. Arcade Fire – Rebellion (Lies) (2005)

3. Modest Mouse – Float On (2004)

4. Ian Brown – F.E.A.R. (2001)

5. Elbow – Forgot Myself (2005)

6. Sigur Ros – Hoppipolla (2005)

7. Glasvegas – Geraldine (2008)

8.  Radiohead – There There (2003)

9. Interpol – Not Even Jail (2005)

10. Charlatans – Oh Vanity (2008)

11. Arcade Fire – Neighbourhood (Power Out) (2005)

12. Arctic Monkeys – A Certain Romance (2006)

13. The Coral – Goodbye (2002)

14. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Whatever Happened to my Rock n Roll (punk song) (2001)

15. Libertines – Don’t Look Back Into The Sun (2003)

16. The Strokes – The Modern Age (2001)

17. Sufjan Stevens – Chicago (2006)

18. The Shins – Mine’s Not A High Horse (2003)

19. The Delays – Long Time Coming (2004)

20. Arcade Fire – Wake Up (2005)

21. Doves – Pounding (2002)

22. Radiohead – Everything in it’s Right Place (2000)

21. Four Tet – Unspoken (2003)

22. Bon Iver – For Emma (2008)

23. Badly Drawn Boy – The Shining (2000)

24. Elbow – One Day Like This (2008)

25. TV on the Radio – Wolf Like Me (2006)

26. M.I.A. – Paper Planes (2008)

27. South – Paint The Silence (2001)

28. The Music – The People (2002)

29. Grandaddy – Now It’s On (2003)

30. Oasis – Falling Down (2008) 

31. The Cribs – The Wrong Way To Be (2005)

32. Justice vs Simian – We Are Your Friends (2006)

33. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Zero (2009)

34. New Order – Crystal (2001)

35. Ranconteurs – Steady As She Goes (2006)

36. Kasabian – LSF (2004)

37. Queens of the Stone Age – No One Knows (2002)

38. Kings of Leon – The Bucket (2003)

39. Portishead – The Rip (2008)

40. U.N.K.L.E. – In A State (2003)

41. U.N.K.L.E. and Ian Brown – Reign (2003)

42. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – Upon This Tidal Wave of Young Blood (2005)

43. The Electric Soft Parade – Silent to the Dark (2002)

44. The Verve – Love is Noise (2008)

45. The Killers – Mr Brightside (2004)

46. The Courteeners – Not Nineteen Forever (2008)

47. Mansun – I Can Only Disappoint U (2000)

48. Lupe Fiasco – Kick Push (2007)

49. Richard Ashcroft – C’mon People (Making it Now) (2000)

50. The View – Wasted Little DJ’s (2006)

The Bones Of You

So I’m there
Charging around with a juggernaut brow
Overdraft, speeches and deadlines to make
Cramming commitments like cats in a sack
Telephone burn and a purposeful gait

When out of a doorway the tentacles stretch
Of a song that I know
And the world moves in slow-mo
Straight to my head
like the first cigarette of the day

And it’s you, and it’s May
And we’re sleeping through the day
And I’m five years ago
And three thousand miles away

Do I have
time? A man of my calibre
Stood in the street like a sleepwalking teenager
No.
And I dealt with this years ago
I took a hammer to every memento
But image on image like beads on a rosary
pulled through my head as the music takes hold
and the sickener hits; I can work till I break
but I love the bones of you
That, I will never escape

And it’s you, and it’s May
And we’re sleeping through the day
And I’m five years ago
And three thousand miles away

And I can’t move my arm
Through the fear that you will wake
And I’m five years ago
And three thousand miles away

De trend is al een tijdje bezig, maar popmuziek met folkinvloeden wint terug aan populariteit de laatste maanden. Denk maar aan het succes van Bon Iver, Grizzly Bear of recenter Mumford & Sons. Mijn ontdekking van deze week wordt door muziekrecensenten omschreven als het Britse antwoord op Fleet Foxes. Da’s meteen een referentie die kan tellen, hoewel TLS toch ook een zeer eigen geluid heeft.

The Leisure Society, afkomstig uit de vruchtbare muzikale bodem van Brighton (Fatboy Slim, Blood Red Shoes, The Levellers, The Kooks) wordt door Elbow frontman Guy Garvey frequent genoemd als ‘the next big thing’. ’The Sleeper’ (met bonus-cd) is de ideale cd om zowel de herfst als de winter te overleven. Alle nummers ademen melancholie, weemoed en de groep bedient zich van een uitgebreid instrumentarium gaande van dwarsfluit tot viool.

Het is een cd geworden om liefdevol te omarmen en te koesteren. Luister naar single ‘The last of the melting snow’, ‘We were wasted’, ‘The darkest place I know’ of de inventieve cover van Gary Numan’s ‘Cars’ (op de bonus-cd). Bij ‘A matter of time’ loeren Arcade Fire en Beirut mee over hun schouder. Bij elke luisterbeurt ontdek je weer nieuwe dingen. Liefhebbers kunnen de bonus-cd integraal beluisteren als ze hier eens gaan kijken/luisteren. Ja, met deze schijfjes overbrug ik makkelijk de periode tot de lente terug in het land is. Geen herfst of winterdepressie voor mij dit jaar!

Cookie cravings ruled this last week. Desserts were my downfall. Which is strange, I didn’t grow up on desserts. We rarely ever had them, we ate enough dinner, we rarely had room for them anyway. But this week, desserts were just calling to me, begging to be eaten. And to top it all off on Monday, Cheesecake Factory apologized for the crappy OJ they served us by giving us a free dessert of our choice: I chose Apple Crisp… fruit is good for me, right? And it wasn’t any of the Many Many dairy options… Ah rationalization. So I’ve “lived a little” more than usual this past week. I promise to behave for a while, now. At least until Thanksgiving next Thursday.

Things are going well, though, Doc’s happy with me, blood tests are normal. Only my elbow is inflamed. I’ve put back on a little of the weight I lost, and that makes me happy. Now if I could just find my motivation to exercise… And that’s the thing. I know I should and all, but I have no motivation. And without significant motivation, I Will Not make the time. So here I am, doing well, but not as well as I could be. And the worst of it, I’m happy where I am, satisfied with my life. Finding motivation to move beyond that, is difficult.

Food of the week: Cheesecake Factory’s Chinese Salad

A tradicional revista britânica NME elegeu os 100 álbuns que marcaram a primeira década do século 21 com a ajuda de músicos e figurões da indústria como Arctic Monkeys, Carl Barat, The Killers, Jarvis Cocker, Pete Doherty, Elbow, Johnny Marr, MGMT, Ian Brown, The Big Pink, Snoop Dogg, Alan McGee, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Michael Eavis e muitos, muitos outros.

Os 10 primeiros lugares seguem abaixo:

1. The Strokes – Is This It (2001)
2. The Libertines – Up The Bracket (2002)
3. Primal Scream – XTRMNTR (2000)
4. Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not (2006)
5. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Fever To Tell (2003)
6. PJ Harvey – Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea (2000)
7. Arcade Fire – Funeral (2004)
8. Interpol – Turn On The Bright Lights (2002)
9. The Streets – Original Pirate Material (2002)
10. Radiohead – In Rainbows (2007)

O que achou? Foi um top 10 justo? Confira toda a lista aqui.

Ma Mixtape est un nouveau type de billet qui va revenir régulièrement. L’idée est simple, si je devais faire une cassette pour mon walkman, qu’est-ce que je mettrais dessus ?
Voilà ma réponse du moment.

SIDE A.

The Dead Weather	Treat Me Like Your Mother
Elbow	Ground On Divorce
Them Crooked Vultures	Gunman
The Rodeo (feat. Olympia)	Amazing (Kanye West Cover)
Metric	Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright (Bob Dylan Cover)

SIDE B.

Benjamin Biolay	Brandt Rhapsodie (duo avec Jeanne Cherhal)
Eiffel	Je m’obstine
Flight of The Conchords	Too Many Dicks on the Dancefloor
TV on The Radio	DLZ
Arctic Monkeys	Pretty Visitors

Mondays is for drinking
to the seldom seen kid

Someday we’ll be drinking
With the seldom seen kid
Whoooooah
Whoooooah

Det britiske band Elbow er ikke helt ukendt i Danmark og alligevel. De spillede på Roskildes Arena scene her i sommer, men kunne ikke fylde teltet. Om det var en fejlvurdering fra festivalens bookere eller om der var et kæmpe navn på Orange samtidigt, skal jeg ikke kunne sige.

I hvert fald synes jeg, at de laver fantastisk musik.

http://www.elbow.co.uk/

Truckin’ – got my chips cashed in
Keep truckin’ – like the doodah man
Together – more or less in line
Just keep truckin’ on

I woke up early Thursday morning and tried to shake off the previous night’s depression.  After the changing of hands, (during which I suppose the nurses and staff inform each other of any changes in the patients’ statuses or conditions) I was told I would be discharged.  If you say so. I phoned my friend Sarah who had offered to pick me up later in the day, saying it seemed to be on.  I warned her that I wasn’t convinced and would ring again when I was more certain.

After breakfast, one of the nurses asked if I wanted to try the shower – my first since the day before the accident, so that would be… five days.  I was foul, to say the least.  She helped me take my top off, and sealed a giant bag around my shoulder.  She gave me a chair to sit on, but I found it too cumbersome; it felt good to stand upright, even though my right arm hung awkwardly like a broken branch.  In the shower, dried blood rinsed out of my hair, and for the first time I could survey my whole body.  My right hip had wide scrapes, and there were green and yellow remnants of bruises from my hip down to my knee; my left side was in much better condition, with only a few scuffs and bruises here and there.  I scrubbed dried blood from my toes.  I shampooed and soaped twice, knowing that regular bathing was going to be an issue at home.

When I got out of the shower I looked in the mirror.  The swelling around my right eye was nearly gone, leaving behind some minor bruising and broken capillaries.  Half of my lower right eyelashes were gone.  The seven sutures above my eye seemed to be healing well.  The doctors must have fixed some second skin – synthetic skin like very thin leather – to my cheek.  Steamed off in the shower, it now hung like a flap on my face, stuck to a heavy scab.  The rest of my cheek was pink and healthy.  I pulled as much of the “skin” off as I could, leaving a patch that eventually shrivelled up peeled off a few days later.

Daniel had brought me some clothes and supplies a few days earlier – a pair of stretchy gaucho pants and a big tank top, and a pair of socks; I’d been wearing them since Tuesday.  The socks were already gungy from the hospital floor, so I skipped them, but I had no choice but to put the stinky clothes back on.  I combed my hair and returned to my room.

My bed linens had been changed (the first time since Monday).  I sat on the bed and started packing things back into my bag.  By now I was more comfortable talking with the other ladies in the room, and we passed the morning chatting.  The occupational therapist arrived, checking that I could walk around and move the shoulder and wrist.  Not long after came the social worker, asking how I thought I could get on by myself.  I told her just fine.  After she left, a nurse came to hand me a bag of medication – they were discharging me with five days’ supply of analgesics, anti-inflammatories, pain meds and sachets of powders to aid in “loosening the bowels.”  Very helpful.

“You will be discharged soon, I’m not sure when,” she said.  “Until then, you’re welcome to stay in here as long as you like.”  She handed me some extra shower bags and my discharge summary.  She leaned forward and whispered, “We’d rather you keep the bed occupied, ya know.”  Got it.

A follow-up meeting with my surgeon was arranged for two weeks hence.  I was supposed to visit the Hand Clinic in the Physio Department before leaving the hospital but “no one seemed to be in” that day.  Instead, that visit was scheduled for the same day as when I’d meet the surgeon.  I asked if I could keep a copy of my records, especially images of my x-rays.  The nurse said yes, and instructed me where to go.  She asked if I needed a wheelchair and an orderly.  No thanks, I’ll walk. I put my crusty Teva sandals back on.  My left leg was still stiff (I had been lain on my left side during the nine hours of surgery), and I could feel the blood flowing through my arm and hand as I ambled down the hall. It didn’t look like it, but in my mind I was struttin’ like Travolta.

When I returned from the Radiologist’s office, a wheelchair was waiting for me.  A dour orderly pushed me back down the hall and two floors down to the exit room.  On the way we met Sarah, come to pick me up.  The orderly dumped me in the waiting room.  I gathered my things and asked the receptionist if I needed to do anything further – sign a release form, agree to a bill…?  “Nah,” she said, “you’re free to go.”

Sarah drove me home.  First things first – I changed out of my clothes into a blue sundress I had just bought a few weeks ago, in anticipation of the summer heat.  I tucked my hair back, polished my glasses and re-emerged ecstatic.  “Tea?”  I asked Sarah.  I started to pull cups and the kettle from the cupboard.  “No, no, no!  Let me do that,” said Sarah.  “No, no, no,” said I.  “I gotta figure this out.”

We rested for an hour as I plotted the day.  I needed to go shopping, needed to get myself set up for recovery.  We went down to the Kardinya Shopping Plaza.  First stop, Kmart:  pillows to recreate the hospital bed, extra washcloths, and a few items of sleeveless clothing I can easily change in and out of.  Second, to the chemist’s for something for scabs and scars. Last, we went to Coles, for groceries.  I bought things in tubs and boxes that I could open one-handed, like hummus, yoghurt, and crackers. I tried to get healthy, pro-healing foods, although I’ll admit I picked up one box of macaroni and cheese (which isn’t as orange as in the US, but otherwise the same). At home I still had couscous, fresh spinach and half a head of lettuce.  I figured I was capable of boiling water, light stirring.  I can’t imagine chopping vegetables will be easy or safe.  By the time we hit the checkout line I was tired, and my hand had swollen into a hockey glove.

We returned to the house and as I sunk into a chair Sarah stuffed the food into the fridge and cupboards.  Daniel came home from work with a lovely bouquet of flowers.  We chatted, and Sarah made dinner – a pizza with spinach, pepperoni, olives, green capsicum (bell pepper) and onions – very yummy.  We watched Australia’s Beauty and The Geek on TV (a friend is a contestant).  Sarah left at 9:30, and I set about preparing for bed.

I wanted to bathe – I can’t stand going to bed unwashed, it’s my sanitary sanctuary.  Sponge bathing is just as awkward as putting on the shower bag, but I didn’t want to waste those.  I filled the bathroom sink with hot soapy water, scrubbed the three-quarters of my body that I could actually reach, trying to avoid the plaster.  I drained the sink and refilled it with clean, hot water, and rinsed with the washcloth.  It took me at least half an hour, and involved a lot of knocking about and swearing.  I was exhausted when I finished, and lay on my bed for about ten minutes before I could do anything else.

Going to bed is a comedy act I go through every night:  I set up the mountain of pillows so that I can recline rather than lay flat.  I tuck a body pillow under my knees – this is very comfortable when you can’t lay completely horizontal.  Then I mound another set of pillows under my right arm to prop it up above my heart, to allow the inflammation to recede.  I am effectively locked into bed by a bunker of pillows.  Then, I realize that I’m thirsty, and because of the way my room is set up, I can’t reach my glass on the bedside table on my right side.  I undo everything, take a sip, reassemble the bed.  Actually, it’s time for my medicine.  And I kind of need to use the toilet.  I re-undo the pillow fortress, take some pills, go to the loo.  Refill my water glass.  Shimmy into bed, re-engineer the pillows.  Crap – meant to get my phone.  I should check email.  Get up again…

I went through my mail, sent a few messages and wrote a lengthy email to my supervisors telling them I was home, the extent of my injury, and that I wanted to meet them next Wednesday for my bi-weekly meeting, to discuss my options and plan for the near future.  I can’t use my right hand for typing, but the laptop is small and I’m dextrous (actually, sinistrous) enough, that I can type one-handed.

It took me hours to fall asleep.  I suppose it was just adrenaline fall-out from being home and out the hospital scene. Also, the swelling had gone down along my arm enough that I could actually feel things again, and it didn’t take much movement for me to feel clicks and twinges in my elbow.  I kept thinking, there’s a pin coming undone…

Daniel was having some wall-work done on the house the next day.  I woke early when the ‘brickies’ arrived, ate a small breakfast of yoghurt and fruit, and then went back to bed, despite their construction noise.  I woke up again around eleven.  It took me an hour to get dressed, wash my face, comb my hair, figure out which meds I should be taking, etc.  Everything takes so long.

My friend Monique brought me lunch – a Greek salad and a whole spinach and cheese phyllo pie, portioned and wrapped for freezing.  Thanks Monique!  She stayed for an hour or so.  Not long after she left, my friend Kate visited.  She broke her wrist a few years ago, and she really helped to relax my fears about the clunks I had felt in the joint.  “It’s totally normal,” she said.  “Think about it, they wouldn’t release you from hospital if they thought you weren’t on the mend.”  Peter arrived mid-day; he’s endured terrible surgeries on his knees, and had lots of helpful, Peter-iffic advice:  “At least now you can eat all the ice cream you want!”  Late in the afternoon, Patsy arrived with a case of wine and therapeutic suggestions:  “Symphytus (comfrey, or bone-knit), dahling.  And Valium.  Loads and loads of valium!”

Exhausted by my first two days at home, I spent the remainder of the weekend resting.  My major accomplishments included tidying my desk, washing and hanging a small load of laundry, taking a shower, and – best of all – removing my own sutures.

I sent Daniel to a seven-day pharmacy on Sunday with a long list of needs for vitamins, emollients and remedies, and three fifty-dollar bills. I now have a medication routine of women’s daily vitamin tablets, a calcium+vitamin D3 supplement, ibuprofen and naproxen.  When the itching gets bad I have an antihistamine for that.  In the morning I poke a hole in a vitamin E capsule and smear a little oil on the suture site, to reduce scarring (although it’s a bitchin’ scar).  I apply more oil in the afternoon, as well as after I’ve bathed, and then swallow the rest of the capsule.  I was trying an herbal concoction of valerian root and passionflower for anxiety and insomnia, but it doesn’t seem to help.

Physically, I think I’m on the mend.  I’m a five-fingered army.  Aside from using a knife or can-opener, I can do just about anything.  Emotionally, though, I’m pretty fragile.  The surgeon’s warnings have left me really anxious, and every strange sensation I feel sets me worrying.  When I was on the pain meds, I was able to sit still or sleep for hours.  Now I am usually up until dawn fussing over pillows.  On Tuesday night, feeling very relaxed and comfortable, I was sitting in bed, typing at my laptop.  I had my arm propped up beside me, and I twitched slightly.  I felt my elbow joint move strangely, in the same way that it did before the operation, like it wasn’t connected.  In the blink of an eye I went from confident to completely freaked-out.  That’s it, I thought, I’ve lost it.  It’s gone.  Should I call the hospital?  What could they do at eleven o’clock at night? I waited to see if the pain would come back, or if my arm would swell up again.  Maybe it’s a normal feeling.  Maybe my arm just fell asleep.  Maybe not, maybe they’ll have to cut it off.  It’s over. I spent half the night crying, unable to reach the tissues beneath my bed.

I can’t handle this kind of emotional ambivalence.  I’d rather be flat-out depressed than this flimsy.

By Wednesday the feeling in my arm was back to normal.  The swelling had gone down and I’ve probably lost weight.  The cast, now loose, had dropped down a few inches, and I felt that if I tried, I could pull it off.  I had far too much movement in the joint, and the twinges and clicks were becoming more frequent.  I called the Hand Clinic at the hospital, hoping to talk over my anxieties and see if I could get my first meeting bumped up in the schedule, or at least get the cast refitted.  They never answered their phone.   I phoned the Physio Clinic, and asked the receptionist to relay my message.  The Hand Clinic never called back.

In the afternoon, I met my supervisors on campus and had a good meeting; they gave me some chores to do at home, chiefly writing and reading.  I have an assistant setting up the glasshouse trial, and we’re mostly on track for getting that done in time.  There are a few things I can do at home to help that along, such as labelling tags and cutting lengths of irrigation drip lines.  Easy.  After the meeting, about six of my co-workers took me up to the library café for a coffee (my first in… ten days!).  It was really good to sit and chat – I’m starting to understand that the less time I spend on my own, the less I worry.

I spent Thursday trying to figure out my health insurance.  Australia has socialised medicine, but as an international student, I’m not entitled to the same benefits as citizens (as I understand it).  I get full emergency and in-patient care, and 85% of the cost of outpatient services is covered.  I have a 33$ co-pay on prescription medication.  Worryingly, though, “ancillary” services such as physiotherapy are not covered.  I sent a message to the overseas student healthcare agent for Murdoch campus, asking her if we could meet to discuss my options.  She hasn’t responded.  I called the Hand Clinic again, and the medic there said everything sounded normal; if I wanted, she would pass me on to the Plaster Clinic to talk about the cast.  Why, thank you. Plaster Clinic Dude said that I was welcome to come in Friday morning – the earlier the better – and he would take a look.

Nurse Sarah came over in the evening for dinner and the next B&G episode, and stayed the night.  She helped me tie on the shower bag with my kludged tourniquet, made of random rubber bands I found around the house.  On Friday she drove me to the Plaster Clinic, where the Dude cut most of the bandages off, leaving just the elbow covered.  Tease! My arm never left the plaster backslab.  He redressed it, and wrapped it in blue bandage tape.  He agreed that it was an awkward cast, as it had been set while I was still on the surgery table.  “We’ll do better next Friday when you come back.”

I felt relieved from the visit. Sarah drove me on errands:  a trip to the irrigation supply store for price quotes on components I need in the glasshouse, a visit to Bunning’s, a mega-sized hardware supply just like Home Depot, and another jaunt to the grocery store.  When we got home, there was a beautiful bouquet of flowers from Peter.  Thanks, Pete!  Sarah spent the afternoon hanging out with me at home, having lunch and chatting.

I have to believe that everything is going ok down there; if I let myself think otherwise, I spiral into worry and hypochondria.  It’s so frustrating not to see the damned thing.  To be completely out of touch with this part of my body is unsettling; I have no idea how to interpret the sensations, and I’ve never been this out of control.  I don’t like taking medication, but I’m seriously considering visiting a GP to talk about sleeping aids, or something to calm my nerves.  It can’t be healthy to be this changeable.  The hospital experience has been what my family politely calls “an adventure”.  It’ll probably continue to be.  I can only continue hoping the docs know what they’re doing, and comply with their recommendations.  I’ll have a better idea (I hope!) of what to expect for a prognosis after next Friday’s meeting.  After that, I’m guessing it’ll be another four weeks in this blasted cast, followed by some lighter brace/contraption, and lots and lots of physical therapy.  I probably won’t be able to lift or strain my right arm for a few months.

I just take it day by day, and try to remember how lucky I am that I didn’t injure myself any further.  Rumour has it there’s a few care packages on the way, how exciting!  I’m really grateful for the attention of my friends, and have started to receive a lot of cards and emails from folks at home – thanks everyone, I‘m really touched by your concern.  Please, keep up the prayers and good vibes.  In the meantime, I’ll just keep on truckin’…

Sometimes the light’s all shinin’ on me
Other times I can barely see
Lately it occurs to me
What a long, strange trip it’s been…

Since the earliest days of Snorestore (sister company, blogs passim), we’ve made a point of trying out the products we plan to stock, to make sure they pass our high quality threshhold.

It’s no different with SoreStore’s products, although it’s a bit more tricky to assess if a particular sports support is working if you haven’t actually got an injury which needs help. Whereas with earplugs, you can tell straightaway how effective they are at reducing noise.

Fortunately, one of our directors is a keen (if rather rubbish) tennis player here and is forever picking up associated injuries (presumably because She. Does. Not. Learn. Or. Warm. Up. Properly). This gives her the perfect excuse to use the SoreStore range of Neo G VCS supports.

So far she has tried:

Calf muscle support

Open Knee Support

Tennis Elbow Support

She swears by Neo G’s products and is still playing tennis so something’s working. Personally I think she has just has a thing about velcro…