Wednesday 31 December 2008

Tom's Highly Unscientific Top Ten of 2008!

I'm building a masterpiece in my iPod, currently 21,987 items occupying 100.95 GB. FACT.

Using the highly unscientific principle of making an auto-playlist of songs listed by my iTunes as being released in the year 2008 and sorting it by number of times played, I can show my Top Ten of the year!

This is highly unscientific as my iTunes is really rubbish at recording years. For instance, both "Sunday Bloody Sunday" by U2 and "Teenage Kicks" by the Undertones were apparently released in 2008.

This list also gives songs that were released earlier in the year a greater chance of being listened to, so again... unscientific.

With all that in mind, here's what I've been listening to in 2008!

1) "You've Done It Again, Virginia" by The National
2) "A-Punk" by Vampire Weekend
3) "Dancing Choose" by TV On The Radio
4) "DLZ" by TV On The Radio
5) "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" by Vampire Weekend
6) "M79" by Vampire Weekend
7) "Listen To Your Body Tonight" by Black Kids
8) "Ragged Wood" by Fleet Foxes
9) "Red Dress" by TV On The Radio
10) "Campus" by Vampire Weekend

UPDATE: See the top ten in VIDEO FORM!

... and here's my current all-time Top Ten!

1) "Finer Feelings" by Spoon
2) "Easy/Lucky/Free" by Bright Eyes
3) "Don't You Evah" by Spoon
4) "Friends" by Led Zeppelin
5) "Arc Of Time (Time Code)" by Bright Eyes
6) "I Want This Cyclops" by Destroyer
7) "Suffer For Fashion" by Of Montreal
8) "Gronlandic Edit" by Of Montreal
9) "A Sentence of Sorts in Kongsvinger" by Of Montreal
10) "Neon Bible" by Arcade Fire

Now, I know it looks like I only own 6 albums, and the other 21,000 tracks are entirely useless. But I promise you, there shall come big exciting developments in the year to come.

I hope.

Tuesday 30 December 2008

Tom's Highly Unscientific Top Ten in Video Form!

1) "You've Done It Again, Virginia" by The National - This is from the Black Cab Sessions. Amazing song.



2) "A-Punk" by Vampire Weekend - The BRILLIANT Garth Jennings video.



3) "Dancing Choose" by TV On The Radio


4) "DLZ" by TV On The Radio - Someone politicised this song on YouTube! Who'd'a thunk it?



5) "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" by Vampire Weekend - Another splendid Richard Ayoade video for Vampire Weekend. They have some amazing videos.



6) "M79" by Vampire Weekend - A video of a live performance of M79 laughingly labelled on YouTube as "High Quality". There is also a great internet debate at the bottom of the video which goes along these lines...

Yakslipper: "Quit declaring "high quality" when your recordings are god awful."

blinkuhx3 (the poster): "you don't have to watch them. most of them are good. i like consistency. and currently, i possess freedom of speech."

Yakslipper: "Freedom of speech works both ways. And, by the way, the quality is very bad."

Dudes! Let's agree to disagree!



7) "Listen To Your Body Tonight" by Black Kids - A dramatic reading of this song. I think it gets the mood across.



8) "Ragged Wood" by Fleet Foxes - The wonderful Carleton Singing Knights of Carleton College in Northfield, MN take on this lovely song.



9) "Red Dress" by TV On The Radio - A fairly shonky live version of the funkiest song on "Dear Science,".



10) "Campus" by Vampire Weekend - Amber Kipp made a version of this song with a Bob Dylan vibe. WINNER!




EXTRA BONUS VIDEO!

Great live version of Spoon's "Finer Feelings"! A wonderful song that I can't rave about enough!

Saturday 20 December 2008

TomCast - While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night

Listen in to Tom Wateracre's festive "reimagining" of While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night! Now featuring a lot more stuff about deckchairs.






Direct download (right click, save target as):- http://wateracre.jellycast.com/files/audio/TomWateracreShepherds.mp3
Raw feed:- http://wateracre.jellycast.com/podcast/feed/2

Wednesday 17 December 2008

TomCast - Episode One - Polite Club

Join me for the inaugural TomCast! Featuring highlights from "Pegabovine: Polite Club", the 2008 Edinburgh show. Recorded by Damian Robertson.






Direct download (right click, save target as):- http://wateracre.jellycast.com/files/audio/TOMCAST1.mp3
Raw feed:- http://wateracre.jellycast.com/podcast/feed/2

Wateracre on Kermode & Mayo

I had the very great pleasure of having a letter read out on last Friday's Kermode & Mayo podcast. If you didn't hear it, here it is...




Spot my fliers of the future saying "That's good!" - Mark Kermode.

I used to avidly wait for Kermode's Cult Movie Corner on the old Mark Radcliffe Radio 1 show, and even encouraged my friend Tony Devey to do a Cult Cellar slot on our student radio show.

Big honour, then. Do subscribe to their podcast. It is great.

Wednesday 10 December 2008

Nine Comedians And Carols

Very excited to take part in Nine Comedians & Carols on Saturday organised by Paul Kerensa (he's a big fan of Roxette), and featuring myself, Tim Vine, Miranda Hart, Jo Enright, Jude Simpson, Girl and Dean, and probably some other people showing up. (I worked that out as I've only listed eight people.) It's at St Johns Stoke, Guildford, and it might be sold out. I'm finding it difficult to check that.

I'm doing a silly version of "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night". I'll record it and stick it on my website soon, along with my traditional Christmas song about the 21st of December, as written a while ago for the Faultless & Torrance Xmastraveganzera.

I Was In A Film

Hello there -

I was in a film last Friday for my friend Geraldine Geraghty, who previously directed me in her short film Golf Sale. It's called "Me, Me, Me", or at least was called that at the time of filming. It looks like it's going to be funny and dark and delightful, so I will keep you updated of when it's completed and where it's going to be shown.

Whilst filming it in a very hot yoga studio, I had one of those horrible experiences where you say to someone "I recognise you from somewhere", and then you realise it's because they have a regular role in Pulling.

I haven't done yoga for many years, probably since university. It's one of the great joys of a artsy-fartsy drama degree that you get to do yoga and roll around on mats with over-excitable Danes. Not that I think you could call this filmed yoga actual yoga. It was half an hour of pretending to do yoga. I didn't even get to bust out my impeccable lotus position or nuffink. Still, I felt like my chakras had been properly... uh... vented by the end of it.

Monday 8 December 2008

Brighton Gig Cancelled

The Brighton gig tomorrow is cancelled, unfortunately, so apologies Brightonians, you've got to wait. Apparently the gig that I was booked on has had two nights of splendid entertainment, both of which have been poorly attended, so another comedy night bites the pebble beach, so to speak.

Speaking of Brighton's delightful pebble beach, it's worth checking out my friend Dave Holby in a mankini in this terrifying yet compelling video. It's on the website Videojug which I used to work for as a researcher, and sometime actor, as you'd know if you've ever had low self esteem, recurring dreams, or bad breath. We made many videos very very fast, hundreds of them a week, although the website has recently apparently been shedding staff almost as quickly. A shame. Mind you, I don't miss their lifts.

More news on the film I was in on Friday to come, as well as some audio delights in time for Christmas. Hooray!

Thursday 4 December 2008

wateracre dot co dot uk

Hello there -

As you can see, www.wateracre.co.uk is now coming together. Various plans for the site, but in the meantime, enjoy my new Twitter account on the right of the homepage. Feel free to follow me if you're already on Twitter.

There's also a gig list on the right, with details of forthcoming gigs, including Nine Comedians and Carols in Guildford with Paul Kerensa, Tim Vine, Miranda Hart, Girl and Dean and others, and the very exciting prospect of Totally Looped in 2009 to look forward to.

Also check out my reviews archive, featuring reviews of films, theatre and other things, written for CultureWars and other august publications.

Thanks for stopping by!

The website of Tom Wateracre

About Me

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London, United Kingdom
Writer, Screenwriter. Born in the late Seventies. Likes marzipan.