ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY THE LAST THING I’M GOING TO POST ABOUT MY RIGHT EYE

There is a name for my condition. It’s called a chalazion:

A chalazion (pronounced /kəˈleɪziən/ (plural chalazia /kəˈleɪziə/), also known as a meibomian gland lipogranuloma, is a cyst in the eyelid that is caused by inflammation of a blocked meibomian gland, usually on the upper eyelid. Chalazions differ from styes (hordeolums) in that they are usually painless apart from the tenderness caused when they swell up, and in size (chalazia tend to be larger than styes). A chalazion may eventually disappear on its own after a few months, though more often than not, some treatment is necessary.

Which isn’t as interesting as “alien death bubble” or "serial killer eye transplant", I know. But then we can’t all be TV Smith.

Or Lux Interior.

Looking through Gary Gilmore’s eyes,

This is dF

JUST WHAT WE NEED, ANOTHER BEST OF 2008 LIST: THE MUSIC

It occurs to me that I haven’t yet done some kind of 2008 retrospective yet. But the more I think about it, the more I reckon there’s no point. You were there, after all.

Anyway, you’d all much rather hear me express my feelings about 2008 in terms of music and cinema, I’m sure. Lucky you. Because it’s about that time.

Actually, 2008 wasn’t a great year for me in terms of new music. As usual, age and geography played a role, so there’s probably lots of neat stuff I missed. But overall, not that many albums really knocked my block off this year. Plenty were, at best, dependable and a good listen, but even acts I normally enjoy handed in albums that were disappointing (Bloc Party), average (Madonna) or pointless (the B-52s, 16+ years later).

Okay, we did finally get a new GN’R album, but I’m under contract to buy it in mainland China, where it’s banned. (I can’t go into details, but let’s just say there’s a free Dr Pepper riding on it.)

Anyway, as I suspected last year, it seems like today’s acts are having to rely more and more on mining the past to come up with anything “new” (Loudon Wainwright III actually did an album covering his own songs). Not that this is a bad thing – not if it convinces the young people to explore old back catalogs and come up to their parents and say, “Have you ever heard of this band called Blue Oyster Cult?”

We can only hope.

DISCLAIMER: Based on music I actually bought in 2008, and therefore a useless metric for everyone else. Also, I spent enough time on this without having to get all the links for these albums, so for more information, just Google whatever interests you, cos that's what I would have done.

TFI’S DEF 20 NEW LPs OF 2008

1. Sons & Daughters, This Gift (Domino)
2. The Duke Spirit, Neptune (Shangri-La Music)
3. Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, Dig, Lazarus, Dig! (Mute)
4. Mix Market, Shiawase no Elephant (Elephant Music)
5. The Fall, Imperial Wax Solvent (Sanctuary)
6. CSS, Donkey (Sub Pop)
7. Calexico, Carried To Dust (Quarterstick)
8. Martha Wainwright, I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too (Drowned In Sound Recordings/Nettwerk)
9. Ladytron, Velocifero (Nettwork)
10. Jonathan Richman, Because Her Beauty Is Raw And Wild (Vapor)
11. They Might Be Giants, Here Come The 123s (DisneySound/Idlewild)
12. Bob Mould, District Line (Anti-)
13. The Herbaliser, Same As It Never Was (!K7 Records)
14. Seasick Steve, I Started Out With Nothing And I Still Got Most Of It Left (Warner Bros)
15. Erykah Badu, New Amerykah: Part One (4th World War) (Universal Motown)
16. The Presets, Apocalypso (Modular)
17. Electric Eel Shock, Transworld Ultra Rock (Double Peace Records)
18. Loudon Wainwright III, Recovery (Yep Roc)
19. The Death Set, Worldwide (Counter Records)
20. Kitty, Daisy & Lewis, Kitty, Daisy & Lewis (Sunday Best)

( Tedious nerd details behind this link )

Okay. Official illegal compilation coming in a week or so.

Studio tan,

This is dF