This is the sound of Accra after dark; this is cheap jollof & the simple pleasure of napping on a tro-tro back to the city; this is an ugly beautiful country; this is as harsh as it is kind; this is it being strange if a taxi has a working speedometer; this is thousands of miles away and somehow still home; this is FanYogo & Strawberry gin; this is fresh fruit and fried carbohydrates; this is a Big Star; this is waking up on a beach on the banks of the Volta; this is walking to the office, turning a corner, and seeing the Atlantic; this is early mornings & late nights; this is insect bites; this is sweat; this is sachets of water & sachets of whiskey for pennies each; this is watching the waves by moonlight; this is the rain; this is the heat; this is power outages & excitement when there’s running water; this is the dirt; this is excessive living; this is changing accents; this is fast food that takes an hour; this is ‘Obruni, Obruni!’; this is plantain chips; this is beach pigs; this is nice to be nice; this is being happy; this is barely the beginning of what I want to say…

This is my Ghana.

DrunkenWerewolf is a rather brilliant music ‘zine run by Tiffany Daniels that I think everyone should be reading. A regular blog & bi-monthly printed ‘zine full of interviews, opinions, columns, reviews & all the other good stuff about good music that you could want, it’s seriously what you’re missing if you’re not already a fan. Having recently turned 5 (I say recently, I mean last November time) DW keeps going from strength to strength and getting better & better.

Issue 12 has just been released and is chock full of goodies like Lissie, Laura Stevenson, Pearl & the Puppets, Adelaide’s Cape, Frightened Rabbit, Johnny Flynn, etc. You can get it via the P+P scheme or check out the list of stockists on the MySpace. If you’re still not sure & want to have a virtual flip through the back catalogue you can get Issues 1-9 here for download along with a bunch of FAQs in case you wanted to know anything else.

I should probably put up the ‘disclaimer’ that I sometimes write for DW & consider Tiffany a pretty great person & friend, but that certainly doesn’t take away from my sincerity in pimping this out. Basically, this is pretty excellent really, despite my rather crappy blog post. Ha. Go!

I believe that the best & fairest party for the country is Labour & though we’ve been through some challenging times, they’re the clear way forward. I am backing my party & our constituency (Makerfield) PPC Yvonne Fovargue.

It’s frustrating having to watch the election campaign from thousands of miles away, but my Proxy Vote is arranged & I cannot wait to see the result. The impression I get from abroad is that this could be the closest election yet & so every single vote counts. I won’t say I don’t care who you vote for, because I clearly do, but really I just want you to vote for whoever you truly believe in. These are exciting times; we’re standing on the edge of so much potential & I hope that the country will rise to the challenge.

Oh, and there’ll be a proper Ghanaian update soon. Promise.

x

I fly out tomorrow, so see you on the other side.

x

For the first of a sporadic series of Spotify playlists I will be making, I have decided to start off with a ‘50 from 50′. This is quite simply a track each from 50 albums that I adore & keep coming back to, or simply find catchy right now. It’s something of an eclectic list but all of the albums are worth listening to at least once, and many are worth loving forever. I guess the playlist is something of a taster (of my taste in music) to whet the appetite:

What are your top albums/tracks right now?

For a full list of albums, and their links, please click for more…

1. Adam Green – Gemstones ♥
2. Amy Winehouse – Back To Black ♥♥♥
3. Antony & The Johnsons – I Am a Bird Now ♥♥♥
4. Art Brut – Bang Bang Rock & Roll ♥♥
5. Beirut – The Flying Club Cup ♥
6. Belle and Sebastian – Dear Catastrophe Waitress ♥♥♥
7. The Beautiful South – Gold ♥♥
8. Bloc Party – A Weekend in the City ♥♥
9. Carla Bruni – Quelqu’un M’a Dit ♥♥
10. Chuck Coleman – People, Places, and Flings ♥♥
11. CSS – Cansei de Ser Sexy ♥
12. Dashboard Confessional – A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar ♥
13. David Bowie – Hunky Dory ♥♥
14. Dead Man’s Bones – Dead Man’s Bones ♥
15. Elbow – Asleep In The Back ♥♥♥
16. Eurythmics – Greatest Hits ♥♥
17. Franz Ferdinand – You Could Have It So Much Better ♥
18. George Michael – Faith ♥
19. Girls Aloud – The Sound of Girls Aloud ♥
20. Hefner – We Love The City ♥♥
21. Hercules And Love Affair – Hercules and Love Affair ♥
22. Joni Mitchell – Blue ♥♥♥
23. Kanye West – Late Registration ♥
24. The Killers – Hot Fuss: Limited Edition ♥
25. The Kills – No Wow ♥
26. Lady Gaga – The Fame ♥
27. Leonard Cohen – The Essential Leonard Cohen ♥♥
28. The Libertines – Up the Bracket ♥♥♥
29. Lily Allen – Alright, Still ♥
30. Manic Street Preachers – The Holy Bible ♥♥♥
31. Maxïmo Park – A Certain Trigger ♥♥
32. My Chemical Romance – The Black Parade ♥
33. N-Dubz – Against All Odds ♥
34. Ólafur Arnalds – Eulogy for Evolution ♥♥♥
35. Patrick Wolf – The Bachelor (Battle One) ♥♥
36. Pet Shop Boys – PopArt: The Hits ♥
37. Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson – Break Up ♥
38. Placebo – Without You I’m Nothing ♥♥
39. Pulp – Different Class ♥♥♥
40. Radiohead – Pablo Honey ♥
41. Regina Spektor – Soviet Kitsch ♥♥
42. Rufus Wainwright – Poses ♥♥
43. Scissor Sisters – Scissor Sisters ♥
44. Special Needs – Funfairs & Heartbreak ♥♥♥
45. Stars – In Our Bedroom After the War ♥
46. The Streets – A Grand Don’t Come for Free ♥
47. The Strokes – Is This It ♥♥♥
48. Sufjan Stevens – The Avalanche ♥
49. Tom Waits – Blue Valentine ♥♥
50. Tori Amos – Little Earthquakes ♥♥♥

And 10 albums that would have been on the list if Spotify had them: Arcade Fire (Neon Bible), Billy Bragg (Workers Playtime), Girl Talk (Night Ripper), IAMX (The Alternative), The Indelicates (American Demo), Kat Flint (Dirt Birds), Luxembourg (Best Kept Secret), The Moldy Peaches (The Moldy Peaches ), The Smiths (The Queen is Dead) & Tracy Chapman (Tracy Chapman).

This is my very first Things I Love Thursday, and whilst I can’t promise that it’ll be posted every week I love the concept and those people who do it too much to not join in at least a little. Let’s face it, to give a list each week of things that have made you happy is a pretty good way to spend some time. My Tumblr is a day-to-sporadic-day collection of what I love, but I think expanding on that will be really worthwhile. So, without further waffle, here are some things I have loved this week:

♥ Being on top of things: I’m actually pretty sorted right now. I’ve done pretty much all the things I need to do, and my life is finally starting to look like it might be organised. This thrills me! For too long I’ve had a lot of ‘I need to do this/speak to them/apply to that’ going on, and now I don’t. Now I don’t really have any deadlines that I need to worry about.

♥ Emails: Lately I seem to have started to get back in touch, often ‘accidentally’ with people I used to know & love but somehow drifted from. It’s really great to see how they’re doing & to exchange stories of what we’ve been doing by email. Of course, keeping up with people that I’ve never lost touch with but don’t see as often as I’d like to due to geography and circumstance is always a pleasure. It’s sometimes the one line messages that only say ‘oicbb’ that can reaffirm your faith.

♥ Delia’s Complete How to Cook: Though I’m not a bad cook, I’m certainly not a good one yet, and know that I have a long way to go before I fully understand how to make consistently super food that isn’t just accidentally quite nice. I got this book for Christmas & reading through it (& lusting after the pictures) is really great. I can’t wait to try out more recipes!

♥ Books & music: A constant. I’m reading more & listening to good music. The entire Chronicles of Narnia arrived the other day and I can’t wait to start (I’ve never actually read more than 1.5 books of it…) & I have a stack of books I can’t wait to get into. On top of this there’s been a lot of good music coming out recently and soon, plus the old favourites. I don’t listen to the radio (except as work) and live in a world of Leonard Cohen, Laura Marling, The Indelicates, Tori Amos, The Strokes, etc… Bliss.

♥ Future plans: Although I can’t really talk about it much yet, I am planning some pretty big things for this year. I’m all over the place with ideas & excitement for the possibilities. I’ll be set (or at least I should be) in the first week in March, until then I’ll just bounce around & think about all the things that can happen & what I need to do to achieve them. Sorry for being so vague!

Honourable Mentions: Our Tassimo; lounging around in pyjamas; colleagues who make personalised cupcakes; grey nailpolish; long baths; the Seesmic android app; veg*n chicken soup; BBC programs (We Need Answers, Mock the Week, Newswipe, Being Human & Silent Witness); having plans for my 23rd birthday; collarbones; emails from strangers who are becoming friends; new socks; my family; charm bracelets in the post; a clear inbox; drinking at least 3L of water a day; no Easter strike for British Airways.

Today I worked from 9am to 2pm, processing the few orders and answering the sprinkling of emails that came in. It’s slow after Christmas in the ‘retail’ job I’m currently working in & the air is only just free from the bitter freeze we’ve had lately. Yesterday morning I saw grass properly for the first time in weeks and it was glorious.

I came home and sat down with the newspaper, a cup of orange pekoe and put the new album from First Aid Kit on to review for DrunkenWerewolf Magazine. There is surely no better way to spend a Sunday. I love spreading the sections across the floor and sitting cross-legged in amongst the pages.

I need to improve my photography, I know, so that & keeping up this blog is something I’m determined to do. My life is full of lists and waiting right now. I have resolutions and to dos, favourite foods and music I don’t listen to enough, people I need to tell how special they are and colours I should paint my nails; all on scraps on paper, in pockets and drawers. 2010 is two weeks old & I already know it’s going to be special.

I hope you’re having a good Sunday too.

The greatest track of the decade?

NME.com recently released its 100 Tracks of the Decade, and whilst I may not agree with all of it there are a lot of bloody great songs on that list. As far as is possible I’ve put them all together in a Spotify playlist which you can find below. I say ‘as far as possible’ because there are 12 tracks which you can’t get on Spotify right now, and for your info I’ve put them (with their relative positions) under the cut.

Without any further faffing here is The NME’s 100 Tracks of the Decade on Spotify! (From 100 to 1.)

Missing:
96. Oasis – The Shock Of The Lightning
87. Black Lips – Katrina
81. Fuck Buttons – Olympians
57. Elbow – One Day Like This
52. The Shins – New Slang
36. Missy Elliot – Get Ur Freak On
28. Arctic Monkeys – I Bet That You Look Good On The Dancefloor
25. Arcade Fire – Wake Up
19. Radiohead – Reckoner
15. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Bang
10. Arctic Monkeys – A Certain Romance
9. Arcade Fire – Rebellion (Lies)

So I have finally relaunched hettywood.com, or should that be launched it, considering it has been nothing more than a series of holding pages for quite some time?

This site will be a collection of photographs, inspiration, writings & all the other things that you find on blogs these days.

Hi.