Music musings

[tinyjo]

My dad has now MP3'd all of his Beatles vinyl, cleaned up the crackles and pops and stuck it all on a CD for my listening pleasure. So I now have the complete range of albums plus a misc selection of single tracks which is rather fun, I have to say. The fact that they've come off the vinyl gives them a pleasant period feel. He was amazed to discover that you can actually buy all of the Beatles albums on CD at high prices - I think that because all the rest of the stuff he likes gets re-mastered so slowly he hadn't realised that the demand for the Beatles made that inevitable. I wonder which bands of today will still be so revered and widely known in 40 years time (actually, I'm having trouble thinking of any that are that revered and widely known now, but the music scene is much more fragmented than it was, I suppose).

Every time I hear the Coral track (who's name I can't remember) I am reminded that it's lifted almost wholesale from "You like me too much" by the Beatles. It's very annoying.

Finally, one of the best bootlegs I found through the Q mix weeks is definitely the Christina Aguilera / the Strokes track. So imagine my surprise when at the gym this lunchtime and I switch my headphones across to the music video TV while the Sky news one is on ad break. Playing is a fairly standard looking band - drums, couple of guitars, tall blond girl singing (but dressed as an indie kid, not a tart) and possibly playing a guitar too - who I don't recognise but the tune they're playing is one I definitely do recognise. They're performing the Strokes / Christina bootleg! Bizarre. Unfortunately, that music video channel is just put together by the club and doesn't tell you who each track is by so I can't track them down but I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for that on MTV.

Comments

[tinyjo.livejournal.com]

Well, I think the interview side of things varies quite a lot from subject to subject. I did Maths, and mostly when they're interviewing for maths, they want to see if you can learn stuff so they'll start you off doing questions on stuff you know about from your A level work and then take you on to stuff you've not studied yet and see how you manage to follow the explanations. I think that's a fairly common theme so don't be spooked if you get asked about stuff you haven't covered, just try to follow what they're talking about.

All the maths interviewees had to do a test as well, but that was just making sure you had the basics down. I think that the essay subjects make you send in a couple of essays so they can see if you are any good at writing them.

I do think that Hildas is a really nice college. It's pretty relaxed compared to a lot of places and is good fun as well as being by the river and having it's own punts :) I had a great time at Oxford - it's not as scary as it seems from outside when you get here - and I wish you luck. What are you applying for?

[vamp-bite.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that. I want to do English there. I've not seen the college though (except for on tv) because i decided quite late that i wanted to apply. Whats the accommodation like etc?

[tinyjo.livejournal.com]

The accommodation is OK, although the rooms don't get as large as they do in some colleges and the food is great. When I was there most second years had to live out, which doesn't happen in some of the bigger colleges, but theres tonnes of rented stuff out there in Oxford so it's not hard to find somewhere if you do still have to that. I know they've built some more accommodation since I was there, but I expect at least some second years will still have to live out.

The bar is quite dark but very cheap and they have some fun bops. There's also plently of partying in other colleges that you can join in with if you don't fancy what's on site.

[vamp-bite.livejournal.com]

Thanks, one more question, my sister in law is a bit sniffy about me applying to st hildas because when she was at oxford she got the impression that it was a college full of cliquy lesbians or something. It comes accross as a very friendly place to me and i dont want to be put off by her opinion. How far is she right?

[tinyjo.livejournal.com]

People who don't know anyone at Hildas often assume that we're all lesbian man-haters, but its is actually a very friendly college, in my experience. There's not too much competitiveness like there can be in scary colleges like St Johns and the atmosphere is good. People tend to apply there for a variety of reasons. Some people from all girls schools feel more comfortable in what they see as a more familiar enviroment. Some girls from Muslim families are only allowed by their parents to apply to an all womens college. And some people just like the atmospere of "hanging out with the girls" that you can get. I felt like Hildas was a lot less cliquey than some of the other colleges.

If you get an interview, that will give you a chance to come and have a look around and there'll be some current students around to show you around and so on that you can chat to which should give you a bit of a feel for the place as it is now (it's now 3 years since I left) but when I was there, it was a great place to be.