End Of The World

Starting your day by waking up, turning on the news and seeing the line 'Nuclear Reactor Emergency' is definitely one way of making you want to go back to bed. I don't want to appear over dramatic but it does all seem a bit like many of the disaster films I've watched over my lifetime what with the seemingly constant spate of earthquakes on the other side of the planet, the tsunamis and all the immanent destruction caused by it. If Jake Gyllanhal suddenly announces he's going to try and get on with his father better I will just give up and stay in bed. I worry that is what I'd do if the world was about to end. I've entertained the thought that I'd try and save people, survive by gathering supplies and digging a base underground, or even just cram in lots of things I've always wanted to do as quickly as possible. This would probably involved having several road accidents while I try and drive over ramps like a stuntman and through crates of watermelons, getting in a lot of trouble as I try to take a tiger from the zoo to take it for a walk in the park, and several women being sick as I hurriedly ask them out before everyone's face melts. It worries me that I was trying to write a really substantial list of things I'd have to do, but that's all I could come up with and I haven't even written about my desire to blow up a tower block using a T-Detonator like you used to see footage of. I presume if the world was ending doing something like that wouldn't help matters so I'd leave it be. But ultimately, based on this morning's slight panic, I'd not leave my bedroom, I'd play REM's 'End Of The World As We Know It' on repeat and generally just feel sad.

It goes without saying that everything that's happening in Japan is pretty horrifying. Watching the footage of entire buildings just being swept away is pretty hard to stop watching. Its so unreal I keep expecting some CGI beast to appear in amongst it and Nicholas Cage trying to punch it while acting badly. My brother knows lots of people over there, and despite never having met them I keep asking him for updates as to how they are. He's on Skype checking with them hourly, and luckily they live near the mountains and so seem to be safe. The world's such an ultimately small place now what with planes, the internet and teleporting - ok, not teleporting - its impossible to feel entirely detached from something even that far away. I just hope the quakes stop soon, the nuclear reactor calms down and the world realises we should probably stop using things that can only blow things up even more. I was hearing about a water powered radio on the radio last night and thinking the whole time about why, if such things can exist, we'd even bother with nuclear? So you can use something that already exists and at worst, you might get wet, or create an energy that if it all goes wrong we either turn to ashes akin to When The Wind Blows, or we all grow extra eyes, twelve legs and insect wings and spend the rest of our lives eating the young. It would nice to think that this sort of happening changes some viewpoints and we stop punching the environment in its face for a while so the world can calm down.

If the world was to end today, I'd make some point of telling the man that bought me a drink last night at my gig that I had to hide it and didn't drink it at all. He seemed like a lovely bloke and the drink was bought with full lovely intentions - him saying that he really enjoyed my set - but he had also not listened to me saying I wasn't drinking due to driving and completely ignored it. So I, like the overly paranoid over analytic man I am, decided he wasn't listening and it meant nothing. I hid the drink, finished my coffee and went home. I sometimes worry about myself that I can't just take these sorts of things as very nice compliments and get on with it. Saying that, I still would've hid the drink so it wouldn't have made much difference. To be fair, if the world was ending I doubt one of the last images that man would want is me appearing out of nowhere to tell him such things as everything sets on fire around him. Films never do that bit do they? Just as the hero is about to kiss his family goodbye, its never interrupted by someone looting, or a neighbour ruining the last speech by asking for their gardening shears back or any of the other behavior that would probably be active? I'm sure mine would involve me falling down the steps to our house in a really awkward way while everyone else on the street saw and laughed, then we'd die. It'd be just my luck. Hence why I think I'll just stay in bed.


On a final note, the new Elbow album ' Build A Rocket Boys!' is probably my current new favourite thing. It has been on constant repeat and the combination of such beautiful lyrics and incredible music has rendered me silent several times. Up to this day one of my favourite lyrics of all time is from Mirrorball from Seldom Seen Kid which says 'we took the town to town last night, we kissed like we invented it'. So simple yet absolutely poetic. I think the entire track 'Lippy Kids' from the new album has superceded that with every line. Just go get it. Before the world ends.