As a follow-up to yesterday's post about the power of boredom, here are some song titles in similar vein. As we've got Barbra Streisand socking it to Ryan O'Neal above, in the 1979 movie The Main Event, I thought we'd let Babs kick off proceedings today...
That one was written by the songwriting team of Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen who also wrote a bunch of classic Frank Sinatra hits including High Hopes, Come Fly With Me and the majestic All The Way. Nothing boring about those guys.
Still, at least Babs only finds love boring. These guys are bored with pretty much everything...
I always admire a title that spills over onto the next line. The Front Bottoms are from New Jersey. Iffypedia explains their name, in case you can't work it out for yourself. They also quote singer Brian Sella: "This is our name. If you don't like it then you don't like it."
Next we have Jason Lytle, with a song he presumably wrote about The Supreme Leader of North Korea...
Blimey. What a bunch of bores. Still, as the aforementioned Manchester miserablist turned dubiously-opinionated bore once had it...
What really lies Beyond the constraints of my mind? Could it be the sea With fate mooning back at me? No, it's just more lock-jawed pop-stars Thicker than pig-shit Nothing to convey They're so scared to show intelligence It might smear their lovely career
Imagine you’re standing in line in a coffee shop, waiting to
be served. It’s a long line and all the people in front of you are ordering
those silly drinks that involve whipped cream, caramel syrup and heart
attacks. What might you do to entertain yourself?
Now imagine you’re sitting at a bus stop and the bus is
late. These days, lots of city centre bus stops have those little clocks fitted
which tell you how long you have to wait till the next bus arrives. Only
instead of counting down, that number just seems to be stuck… or even getting
bigger. How might you pass the time?
Finally, imagine you’ve arranged to meet friends in the pub,
at the cinema, or somewhere in the centre of town. Only they’re running late
and you’ve got nothing to do but wait. Or… is there something else you could be
doing?
If your answer to any of those questions involves checking
your phone, then you’re suffering one of the major symptoms of the modern
malaise. And hey, maybe you’re not going on Tiktok or Snapchat or the book of
faces… maybe you’re doing some online banking, trying to crack today’s Wordle
or reading a fascinating blog post about how many different bands there are
called The Jerks (quite a few, in case you’re wondering: I’m sure I’ll get to
them in due course). Whatever it is, I can pretty much guarantee you’re not
doing what you would have done in this same situation 30 or 40 years ago.
You’re not allowing yourself to be bored.
And your brain is suffering because of that.
We’ve talked a fair bit about the mental health dangers of
internet and social media addiction during this series.
Part of the problem is ease of access. When the internet arrived on the scene about
30 years ago, you had to sit down at a computer, dial it up (which could take
up to 5 minutes in my house) and then crawl around a clunky, always crashing
cyberspace with limited options and plenty of built-in frustration.
Remember
watching slowly while every image on the page downloaded like one of those
novelty pens you turn upside down to watch the lady slowly lose her clothing?
(I don’t know why that particular simile popped into my mind. It’s not as
though anybody ever used the internet to look at naked pictures.)
That’s all changed. Today, we carry the internet with us
wherever we go, so every possible distraction is available instantly, any time
we want it. Queueing up in a coffee shop, waiting for the bus, killing time in response to ever-delayed friends… we need never be bored again! You see it everywhere you look.
Whenever people are alone with nothing to do, out comes their phone. They don’t
even have to be standing or sitting still. They’re even using it as a
distraction from the interminable emptiness of walking down the street (watch
out for that lamp post!).
“It’s good to be bored sometimes, to have that dead time. That’s when ideas come. If we’re on our phone checking Facebook, we lose some precious time that previously we used for daydreaming: gazing out of the window and having ideas blossom.”
Once you start reading up on this, you'll find hundreds of articles dedicated to the benefits of boredom. Scientists, business leaders and new age hippies all agree - being bored is good for your brain. We all know we get eyestrain if we stare at screens too long. Turns out we also get brain strain.
Scientist Catherine Price, author of How to Break Up With Your Phone runs digital detox sessions for chronic screen addicts to help them repair their brains. Tech writer Kevin Roose of the New York Times consulted her when he became aware of his own addiction...
My symptoms were all the typical ones: I found myself incapable of reading books, watching full-length movies or having long uninterrupted conversations. Social media made me angry and anxious, and even the digital spaces I once found soothing (group texts, podcasts, YouTube rabbit holes) weren’t helping.
In his article, Roose explains how he went about a full digital detox...
If I was going to repair my brain, I needed to practice doing nothing. So during my morning walk to the office, I looked up at the buildings around me, spotting architectural details I’d never noticed before. On the subway, I kept my phone in my pocket and people-watched — noticing the nattily dressed man in the yellow hat, the teens eating hot tacos and laughing, the kid with Velcro shoes. When a friend ran late for our lunch, I sat still and stared out the window instead of checking Twitter.
Since starting my new job, I finally find myself in a privileged position of being able to do nothing at certain times of the day. I mostly teach students 1:1 or in small groups, and in English that will often involve setting a lengthy task (creative writing is best) and then letting students get on with it. In my old job, I would have used that time to circulate the room, answer questions, help people who were stuck... and if time permitted, maybe catch up on a bit of marking or paperwork. In my current job, I get to stare out the window. How wonderful is that? I realise, I'm very fortunate. Most teachers would kill for the same opportunity. I wish I could give them all the gift of boredom... the profession would be in a much healthier state if it was full of bored teachers rather than teachers on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
Although, to be honest, I'm not really sure boredom is what we're talking about here. If you asked me if I was ever bored, my first response would probably be: never. I always have a million and one things I want to do... or think about. The only time I do feel bored is when I'm stuck doing something I don't want to... like a lengthy meeting or an interminable online training session about something I already know. When I talk about giving the gift of boredom, that's not what I want to offer. What I really want is to give you all the chance to get busy... doing nothing.
Allowing our minds to wander can be hugely beneficial to our wellbeing, our imagination and our creativity. Surely this is great news for everyone - doing nothing is good for us!
Some bands connect with their audience in a huge way. They create music which speaks to our hearts, or minds, our dancing feet, our souls. Some bands do all that and more.
And then there are The Others.
One thing I've learnt while doing this feature is that if you pick a band name that starts with The followed by a common noun, and you find one that doesn't immediately spring an obvious chart act to mind... chances are you'll be spoilt for choice when it comes to Namesakes.
Here are a bunch of bands called The Others. Other bands called The Others did exist, but I couldn't find them on the tube of you.
THE OTHERS #1
The year is 1963 when our first group of Others got together, releasing one single the following year (a cover of a Bo Diddley song that would later be recorded by the Shadows of Knight). After that, the young band members came under increased pressure from their parents to quit mucking about with guitars and go back to school to finish their A Levels. Much to the disappointment of one of their schoolmates, one Brian Harold May, who said they were, “very much in the same class as the Yardbirds”.
THE OTHERS #2
Our next Others came from Rhode Island, USA, in 1964 and were heavily influenced by the British Invasion. They hung around for a couple of years then called it a day.
THE OTHERS #3
These Others came from Lancaster in 1966... Lancaster, California, not the one just down from Morecambe.
Pretty standard 60s fare, but I like the guitar sound.
THE OTHERS #4
From the other side of the world, these Aussie Others started out with the single below in 1966... but also appear to have been active in the 80s, 90s, and early 21st Century. That's commitment!
THE OTHERS #5
Meanwhile, in Ulefoss, Norway, 1967 brought us The Others' cover of a song by The Pretty Things. I originally thought this was an instrumental until I listened more closely. They've got the lead singer pretty low in the mix.
THE OTHERS #6
Annoyingly catchy French mod/psych 1968. I'm surprised this wasn't a hit. That's not necessarily a compliment.
THE OTHERS #7
Cheery Irish pop band who came together in the late 60s and managed to stick it out through most of the next decade. The tube of you informs me that this track "is a cover of a 1968 single by a band called Sky which also didn't chart". Sky will no doubt feature on a future edition of Namesakes...
THE OTHERS #8
I'm guessing these guys were British and they definitely released this in 1975. Beyond that, make up your own stories.
THE OTHERS #9
The sound of Hartlepool punks circa 1978... or Birmingham Reggae, if you prefer.
THE OTHERS #10
Washington State rockers with their sole release from 1983.
THE OTHERS #11
Also in 1983... Joel Agnew was a Reverend at The First Church Of Rock And Roll, a legal Universal Life Church in Fremont, California. I guess this is how he greeted his parishioners on a Sunday morning...
THE OTHERS #12
Italy. 1993. Pfff.
THE OTHERS #13
"Italian 60's garage beat psych band from Rome, active in 1989-2002." I take this to mean that they were a 90s band who decided to pretend they were living in the 60s. They did a pretty good job of it, listening to this...
THE OTHERS #14
US Emo types who emerged from their bedrooms in the late 90s and crept back in to put their heads under their pillows once the millennium was out of the way.
THE OTHERS #15
Arriving on the scene in 2002, the heyday of Landfill Indie... were these guys any different to the others filed in that genre? The NME said yes, giving them 8/10. Q said no, calling their debut record, "the worst album of the year".
THE OTHERS #16
Discogs tells me, "22 Pistepirkko is a Finnish popular music band formed in 1980. The name "22 Pistepirkko" means a 22-spot ladybird." In 2006, the band released an album of covers, calling themselves The Others.
I did check, and there were no other bands named after a 22 spot ladybird.
THE OTHERS #17
London Dubstep producer Alex Crawford called himself The Others from 2007 onwards, even though there's only one of him. Discogs informs me he "used to be a duo" though.
THE OTHERS #18
Perth punks, making noise since 2009.
These were The Others from lots of different Mothers. Which (if any) would you wants as Brothers?
I watched the final episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm last week. You may or may not be familiar with the show in which Seinfeld co-creator Larry David plays himself as a miserable old misanthrope constantly butting heads with societal niggles. Like most comedy shows, you’ll either connect with it immediately or wonder what all the fuss is about. Being a miserable old misanthrope myself, I have found Larry a wonderful companion for the show’s duration, and while I don’t always agree with his grievances, I do understand why he gets so worked up about them.
But this isn’t a post about Curb Your Enthusiasm. I wouldn’t argue with anyone who said the show was long past its best and wasn’t as funny or as incisive as it once was. After 12 seasons, Curb had definitely become comfortable, but there’s a lot to be said for comfort TV, and I did so enjoy being invited to share in the ups and downs of Larry’s life… especially when you never knew which celebrity guest star was going to pop up to be offended by him next. Bruce Springsteen appeared three times in the final series… that in itself made my day.
12 series though… I’ve watched this show for quite some time. And I knew that wasn’t a series a year, because Larry took regular breaks, especially during the pandemic. Still, I was shocked when I looked back and discovered the first series ran 24 years ago! Hang on a minute… I’ve been watching this show for 24 years?
And suddenly, I was taken back to the year 2000. Where I was. Who I was. A completely different person. There’s a popular misconception that all the cells in the human body renew themselves every 7 years, and while that’s not 100% true, there is something in it. I was 28 years old when I started watching Curb. I lived in a different house, worked in a different job, had an entirely different social circle. Liked slightly different records, felt different emotions, saw the future… and the past… in an entirely different way. Somewhat ironically, when the show launched in 2000, Larry David was 52. The same age I am now. I’m not sure why I related to him so much as a 28 year old. In the final episode, he proudly announced that he was 76 year olds… and had never learned a lesson in his life. It made me wonder how many I’ve learned… and how 76 year old me will feel in another 24 years. 2000 doesn’t seem that long ago, and time gets faster every year. 2048 is just around the corner…
French actress Catherine Deneuve welcomes you to ten songs with French titles. She will provide the translations, since I gave up French in the Third Year...
It's that time again... time to start Snapshots with another picture of Debbie Harry posing with a camera. Of all the celebs I've found who like to have their picture taken with a picture taker, Deborah must be top of the list. Obviously, the camera loves her.
Who are the ten slightly-less-photogenic-than-Ms.Harry* people below... and what connects their songs?
(*Aren't we all?)
10. Lucky x 4.
9. Puppy Love for Shakespearean wife.
8. Big end.
7. One quarter committed.
6. I'd like a picture of the Empire State Building on my T-shirt, please.
5. Mr. Rigby.
4. Psychics look for the answer within.
3. Gav - accept Elmo, then we can undo this puzzle.
Time to put your feet up and enjoy another Friday morning coffee break, starting with one of the many, many bands called The Outsiders that popped up in Namesakes a few weeks back...
I do like my coffee hot. So hot, in fact, that I regularly burn the roof of my mouth. Which can't be good for me. The perfect cup of coffee should be just hot enough to not do that. But no cooler.
Benjamin Sherman Crothers began his musical career as a teenager in the 1930s. He took the name Scatman in reference to his improvisational singing style. Whenever I think of scat singing, I hear Louis Prima singing I Wanna Be Like You, from one of the first albums I ever owned (on cassette), the soundtrack of The Jungle Book. Scatman Crothers wasn't in The Jungle Book, but he did voice another famous cartoon character...
Do you know they only ever made one series of Hong Kong Phooey?
You don't say.
I find that impossible to believe, since it seemed to be on TV constantly when I was a kid.
You don't say.
I guess the karate craze didn't last long enough to support a second season.
You don't say.
(What did he say?
He didn't say.)
Scatman was also the voice of Scat Cat in the Aristocrats...
...and, later, Jazz The Autobot in The Transformers cartoon.
However, the role for which he'll forever be remembered is Dick Hallorann...
King Cnut could not hold back the tide, and I cannot hold back society's full-throttle descent into dystopia. All I can do is watch helplessly from the sidelines, and nod my head sagely when others hold a mirror up to the madness.
I would like to personally THANK YOU for being one of my readers.
Nothing makes me happier than seeing close friends and family enjoy a better life. I hope reading this blog helped make your life better this year :)
If you and/or your loved ones had a wonderful experience with this blog, I'd love to hear about it!
Would you please help me by leaving a review for this blog?
Your Feedback Means The World To Me.
Thanks again for choosing His Top Ten!
I would like to remind you that writing a review of your experience will help me improve my customer satisfaction.
All reviews (whether good, bad, or otherwise) will be posted on Trustblog.com to help other people make more informed decisions about their blogging consumption.
There's an episode of Black Mirror called Nosedive, in which Bryce Dallas Howard plays a young woman living in a society where every aspect of your life is rated by everyone you meet. People are encouraged to rate every interaction they have during the course of their day out of 5 stars, and everyone carries around their own aggregate score which is visible to anyone they meet via special eye filters. People go out of their way to be extra nice and keep their star rating high... because once those ratings start to dip, it becomes harder and harder to function in society.
It's all a typical Charlie Brooker satire of our need for approval and the dopamine hits that come with smileys, thumbs up and blog comments (as we've been talking about recently in Self-Help For Cynics). And like all the best satires, it feels like it's only one step away from reality.
Except... the one area where Black Mirror diverts from reality is that the people in that episode are only expected to provide a star rating. More and more these days, I'm being asked to write actual reviews every time I make a purchase or use a service... and as much as I like writing, I take umbrage at the idea of providing free marketing copy. Maybe it's because I used to work in advertising, where I got paid to write that kind of stuff. But also, I get little enough time to write... why would I waste it this way?
Clearly there are many people who like to do this. It started with eBay feedback and Amazon reviews, then came Tripadvisor and Trustpilot... and now everyone expects written feedback for everything. The blurb at the top of the page is an edited version of one of many emails I've received over the last couple of months from a company I bought a T-shirt from. It was a very nice T-shirt, but I paid you a fair amount for it and had no complaints about the service... surely that's enough? I'm not writing your marketing on top of that! STOP EMAILING ME EVERY FIVE MINUTES LIKE SOME BABY REINDEER STALKER OR A NEEDY EX!
Look. I posted a picture of the T-shirt on my blog. Please. Leave me alone now.
I was in a meeting at work last week when a consultant psychiatrist explained something about how the brain works which I thought I'd share with you. I'm paraphrasing somewhat, but here we go...
Brain tissue is like muscle tissue - you need to use it to keep it working. If you want to build muscles, you work out with weights. But you need to steadily increase the weights you use or your muscle won't grow. It's the same with brain tissue. If you want to increase your attention span, knowledge, brain power, you need to set your brain increasingly harder tasks.
Although he didn't state it implicitly, I inferred that the reverse was also true. If you stop doing physical exercise, the muscle tissue you've built will eventually turn back to fat. Similarly, if you stop using your brain to think, work things out and solve problems, eventually your brain will lose the ability to do so. Bluntly put, you'll get stupider.
Last week, we spoke about the negative effects too much social media can have on our mental health. We discussed how prolonged exposure to social media - in search of more and more feel good dopamine hits - can effectively rewire our brains. Facebook, Twitter (I refuse to call it X), Instagram, Snapchat... they're all guilty of this... but by far the worst offender in my eyes is the evil known as TikTok.
It's an article I'd recommend everyone reads - I even use it with students, ostensibly as a writing to argue exercise, but also to plant the seed in their heads that TikTok is something they should be wary of. That Forbes writer, John Koetsier, explains how he downloaded the app purely to research the article he was writing, and despite that he found himself immediately addicted.
If you've never used TikTok - firstly, well done you. (I refuse to go anywhere near it, myself.) But you may be wondering just how it can be so addictive. The answer, according to Professor Julie Albright (as quoted in Koetsier's article) is that the platform works on the same principle as a slot machine. Sometimes you win (get a little dopamine hit from having viewed a photo or video or meme that you find amusing or emotionally engaging) and sometimes you lose (that next video leaves you cold). But you keep on feeding the machine in the hope of another win... and before you know it, it's three o'clock in the morning and you've just watched your 121st post of the night.
And this is when the rewiring of your brain begins...
“Our brains are changing based on this interaction with digital technologies and one of these is time compression,” Albright says. “Our attention spans are lowering.”
That’s not just happening for kids: it’s happening for all of us. If you don’t believe that, try to watch a movie from the 50s, 60s or even 70s. In most cases, within minutes you’ll be wondering: when will something happen?
Which takes us back to that quote from my colleague the brain doctor at the start of this post. How to exercise our brains to stop them turning into pudding, as I fear mine might have been a few years back.
In the comments to this series a couple of weeks back, Alyson rightly questioned the amount of time I must spend on this blog, saying...
I do wonder if you substituted a couple of days of blogging for a couple of sessions of reading (I know you don't have time for this really enjoyable pastime any more) you would replace the dopamine hit with contentment and achievement.
I'm very much aware that my reading suffered over the last ten years. I used to read a book a week, but when I became a teacher (and soon after a father), I found it harder and harder to find the time, energy and brain space to focus on reading. And I did fall into the trap of scanning facebook instead of settling down with a book, because that seemed like something I could spend just a few minutes on rather than committing to a long read... then after a while, I found it harder and harder to pick up a book. That's something I've fought to rectify since leaving The Bad Place and starting the new job. And this year, I really feel like I've been able to retrain my brain to be able to focus on reading again. But it wasn't easy.
Similarly, this blog. One of the reasons the post-length has grown and my subject matter has become more diverse and complex is that I'm pushing myself to write better. Because sustained writing is like sustained reading: it takes effort. Both are great brain exercise. Every time I write a post that verges on a thousand words, I'm pressing some serious weights. And every time you read one of these posts all the way through - which, let's face it, is no small investment - you're pressing some serious weights too. You might not realise it, but your brain will thank you for it.
I've only got a handful of artists with the same name this week, but it's still a bit of a Squeeze...
SQUEEZE #1
In 1973, Chris Difford stole 50p from his mum's purse (stealing is wrong, kids) and used it to pay for an advert in the local sweetshop window. This strikes me as being rather an expensive advert in 1973. The web of lies tells me that 50 pence would be worth £7.58 today. That sweet shop was raking it in. Anyway, Chris's advert was for a guitarist to join his band. He didn't actually have a band, and only one person replied: Glenn Tilbrook. 50p well spent, though I hope he paid his mum back when they got famous.
Later joined by drummer Paul Gunn and the ivory-tickling Shoot-yer-nanny bloke himself, the group started out calling themselves Captain Trundlow's Sky Company and then Skyco, before settling on a name cheekily lifted from the final, much-derided Velvet Underground album (the one recorded by Doug Yule after everyone else had left the band).
Squeeze have recorded many great songs... but there's arguably none finer than the one that became a smash hit despite its complete lack of chorus.
SQUEEZE #2
Aussie soft-rockers from the 70s who arrived on the scene a year or so after the first collaboration between Difford & Tilbrook, and later became known as The Australian Squeeze. This is pretty groovy if you ask me (which nobody did).
SQUEEZE #3
Italian DJ / producer Salvatore Caltabiano has the distinction of being the first Squeeze to sign up to Discogs, forcing Glenn and Chris to make do with a Squeeze (2) designation. He also describes himself as a "contemporary dance music teacher / historian". I think I skipped that class, sorry. I listened to a couple of his tracks, and this was the most interesting, largely because of the African samples.
SQUEEZE!! #4
Japanese Ska band from the 21st Century. These guys made me smile; they're clearly living their best lives. (I hate that expression. Don't know why I used it.)
THE SQUEEZE #5
Aussie psychedelia from 2013...
SQUEEZE #6
Contemporary pop from Boston in 2020. Not bad, I suppose, for what it is...
SQUEEZE #7
And finally today, a London-based punk band from last year who don't appear to have found themselves a singer. Clearly they need to put an ad in the local sweet shop window...
Which one is your Main Squeeze... and which one makes you go Squeeze, Louise!? (Which was actually the name of a female punk band from the US in the early 80s.)
Once Bertie is tucked up in his crate-bed, Millie goes downstairs, out through the catflap, to do what cats do.
On Thursday night, the same night Bertie had rolled in cow poo, I woke suddenly to hear Louise screaming hysterically. I thought perhaps an axe murderer. Sadly not.
Millie had returned from her night time patrols and brought a blackbird with her, in through the catflap, depositing it on the landing at the top of the stairs. The blackbird was still alive, but clearly terrified, which would explain why it then defecated all over the landing carpet.
Louise, having seen something moving in the darkness, was convinced it must be a rat... hence the screams. Fortunately I was able to rescue the blackbird and put it out the bathroom window. It flew away from the madhouse that is Top Ten Towers, vowing never to return.
Yesterday was May 4th - Star Wars Day. (Because: May The 4th Be With You. Don't blame me. I didn't come up with that.) Did you need The Force to crack these clues...?
12. Flaming satellite.
Named after a Russian street gang, the "sigue sigue" meaning "burn burn"...
6. Home security camera rotates more than half way.
I've got Blink security cameras on Top Ten Towers, in case you were thinking of coming round to steal my CD collection. If you rotate something through half a turn, that's 180 degrees. Just over that would be...
.jpg)
