Paperjam

Seemingly having come out of his Parisian retirement and dumped the whole Spooner business, Jarvis has now popped up on MySpace touting this protest song. You can check it out at http://www.myspace.com/jarvspace, your enjoyment of the track is likely to depend on several factors:

- The alignment of your politics with those of the nihilistic Jarv. Quite likely to be honest.

- How you feel about the music itself, Steve described it as MOR which isn't far off the mark.

- Whether the big chorus "Cunts are still ruling the world" offends you or not.

There was an interview in the NME recently where I think he said he had more stuff to put out, hopefully the music will be a touch more lively but the sentiment will remain the same.

As is the way with big commercial cinema releases of recent years, Superman Returns is a very, very, very long film. In order to recoup some of the time that you are going to spend watching it I have tried to keep this as succinct as possible.

Is it any good? Not bad, entertaining at the start, drags on a bit.

Best bit? Shuttle/plane accident

Worst bit? Superman goes to ER

Spacey? Properly evil, but clearly here for the paycheque.

Routh? Functional in the main, good in the Clark Kent bits.

Bosworth? Can't really remember.

Little kid? Androgynous.

Plot? Basically the first Superman film replayed

Less-than-subtle Christian imagery? Oh yes, almost up to Matrix levels, sacrifice, scourging, crucifixion and resurrection (twice!).

Awful patriotic flag-waving bollocks? Thankfully not.

Possible sequel titles?

The Passion of the Superman

Superdad and Superboy go Shopping for Capes

Superman vs. the Child Support Agency

Superman and the Visiting Rights on Every Other Sunday

Superman Gets Over It & Goes Speed Dating

Thanks to the magic of YouTube you can relive this freaky piece of televisual history. The Smiths are on an open top bus going to Kew Gardens with a bunch of kids. To a soundtrack of Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now they have a look round, then Sandie Shaw turns up for a performance of Jeane. The kids look perplexed.

The best bits are probably Johnny Marr seemingly making the universal signal for "Wanker" at what seems to be a ten year old boy, plus Morrissey scaring the kids by acting in a particularly Morrissey-esque way. One little girl asks where they are going. "We're all going mad", he replies. You can watch this little gem here

Normally I leave that stony, funereal indie business to Tindersticks fan Jim, but for some unearthly reason, this (via the ever reliable headphonesex) has tickled my fancy.

iLiKETRAiNS should be taken out and shot for the daft capitalisation of their name, but only after they've finished singing this song, which is a cheery little number about how Dr Beeching really shouldn't have recommended that all those little train stations be shut in the 1960s. Seems rather late to be getting all uppity about it now, but the incredible seriousness with which it's delivered, including the choir which chimes in halfway through, at a pace which makes the most stoned dub sound like Rotterdam Termination Source, is pretty convincing.

You can watch their mildly disturbing stop-motion video for the track too... watch out Thomas the Tank Engine... If you're into that kind of thing, then the discussion here provides some interesting historical context for the song.

Just watched the trailer for this cool looking monochrome animation, mixing french noir with epic Japanese anime. Could be a load of old sci-fi bollocks, but looks good albeit in a hopelessly derivative Blade Runner, 1984, Matrix, Akira, Ghost in the Shell. Sin City kind of way.

Apparently it is out now and contains "Strong language and moderate sex". Sounds like a day in the office, well the language part at least. You can see the stylish trailer here

From the bravecaptain mainling list comes news of the latest female MC to be talked up as being the ladies' answer to The Streets. This is MissOddKid and she has done a track called Weed, Wine and Wankers about how she loves, well, you get the idea. Presumably bc did the music and twiddled a few knobs etc.

The title is quite funnny and at least she isn't bloody Lily Allen so you might well want to pop over to the Spoilt Victorian Child web site and cop the free download. In keeping with everyone else she's got a myspace page too with some more tracks on there. Am I alone in thinking that if you change the "..ers" to "..ing", you've got a description of a perfect night in? Oh I am? Oh, erm, never mind...

I finished reading this sitting under a tree in the park this morning. Despite the pleasant setting, the book exacerbated my slightly dodgy mood to the point where I had to go and mercilessly hammer someone at tennis without any of my usual inconsistency or comedy moaning.

Not that I think The Great Gatsby is a bad book by any means, I can easily see why it is considered a classic, but it certainly leaves you with a sour taste in the mouth by the end.

This is a book I have meant to get round to reading for years, but I've always put it off, imagining it to a drab period romance or dull, over-literary and hard work. Fortunately a few people have nagged me to read it lately and so my preconceptions have been proved completely wrong.

TGG is a harsh look at human nature, via a bunch of really unsympathetic characters, they all seem fairly detached and selfish. Based around a decadent scene in the 1920's where the eponymous Gatsby is known for the lavish parties he throws in his mansion, it is a great exploration of how money can't really buy you what you want, the way that to some people love is a commodity and how, in the end when tragedy strikes, people will completely let you down.

I strongly recommend that you don't do what I did and have a crack at reading The Great Gatsby in the near future. I got it for a couple of quid from Fopp, although if you are feeling exceptionally tight there is a free version available on line.