♪ Na na-na, na-na, na-na na (clap clap) ♫
♫ Na na-na, na-na, na-na na (clap clap) ♪
♪ Na na-na, na-na, na-na na (clap clap) ♫
♫ Molag Bal, he waits for me ♪
Have finally caved in.
It was supposed to be Laufey Snowfell of Morthal, my favourite Skyrim character I created.
(Yeah, I know this is set before Skyrim, pedants, but who cares but you?)
If you see me in Daggerfall (probably wandering around repeatedly looking at the map I’ve misread for the hundreth time), say hello, unless you’re one of those weird people running around in your underwear.
Go dance on the fountain with all the rest of them.
(I think you’re supposed to go and dance in your underwear on your first day in Daggerfall, like it’s some sort of Elder Scrolls Online Freshers Week rite of passage kind of thing).
This is going to take a long time to get the hang of.
(May also try a Wood Elf and a Dark Elf later, even though the Peter Pan/Mr Spock elf ears are off putting.)
Class War
A collection of five t-shirts featuring various motifs from one of parties which took part in the 2015 UK general election in May.
Will fit Teen, Young Adult and Adults.
All items are recolourable, but the logos aren’t.
Please also find a collection of fourteen poster pictures available as pictures for your Sims 3 game.
The poster pictures use a mesh with many thanks by Yarona at Sims Modeli, so you do not need any stuff packs for this to work – it’s all base game friendly.
To use, download, unzip, and drop the contained folder into your The Sims 3\mods\packages folder and they should show up.
Enjoy!
Class War is a UK political party based around the Class War tabloid newspaper – both started by Ian Bone in 1983.
Claiming to be anarchist, it’s more a ‘Bash The Rich!’ pseudo-gang with its roots in the 70s punk movement dedicated to violent confrontation and vicious parody appealing to the lowest common denominator in order to provoke chaos rather than any structured political programme or ideology: including intimidating pupils at Eton College and long promised attacks on the Henley Regatta that have in practice come to little. Their stickers tend to be popular with teenagers and tertiary students wanting to be rebellious.
Its main claim to fame was the Saturday 31 March 1990 Poll Tax Riot in London’s Trafalgar Square (the worst riot in the UK since the 17th century Gordon Riots), which was blamed on Class War agent provocateurs – by less than a coincidence the only organisation there during the various anti-Poll Tax rallies in London that day who supported the rioters unconditionally. Later footage from Channel 4 showed that unprovoked assaults by still unidentified police officers and fear in the crowd they were about to be charged by mounted police had also been to blame for the riot.
They were originally supported by the anarchist chart topping band Chumbawamba (who did fundraisers), but they withdrew their support after Class War republished a joke photo session the band did claiming to be that of an anarchist hitting a businessmen in a suit with what they claimed was a shit-filled condom as ‘genuine’.
They were the first party to propose a 50% ‘Mansion Tax’ on properties worth £1 million and over, later copied by many other parties during the 2015 UK general election (although the idea was originally that of Liberal Democrat politician Vince Cable in 2009).
Social Democratic Party (UK)
A T-shirt featuring their original motif as used in the UK.
Will fit Teen, Young Adult and Adults.
All items are recolourable, but the logos aren’t.
Please also find a collection of four poster pictures available as pictures for your Sims 3 game, along with that of their famous diamond shaped poster which used to adorn street furnishing during the 1980s.
The poster pictures use a mesh with many thanks by Yarona at Sims Modeli, so you do not need any stuff packs for this to work – it’s all base game friendly.
To use, download, unzip, and drop the contained folder into your The Sims 3\mods\packages folder and they should show up.
Enjoy!
The Social Democratic Party was arguably the first UK political party to be specifically media orientated to compensate for a lack of mass members, which was ironically to prove their nemesis later. They were something of a ‘joke’ party for their unapologetic populism and membership largely drawn from middle class ‘bleedheart’ libertarians, ie. socially left-wing but economically right-wing, right down to their preference for serving claret wine at party fundraisers.
The party’s roots stemmed from the early 1970s when concern began over Trotskyite groups (especially Militant and the Socialist Workers Party) infiltrating weak branches of the left-wing Labour Party in ‘safe’ seats and trade unions in order to secure their members to high office – sometimes with intimidation or outright violence.
On 25th January 1981, the Social Democratic Party – or SDP for short – was formed after the so-called Limehouse Declaration , primarily from disillusioned members of Labour’s ‘Manifesto’ movement, but by the end of the year almost two-thirds of the members had no previous party political experience before – a repeat of what happened in the early 1970s with the National Front, and what was to happen later in the early 1990s with the Green Party and early 2000s with the United Kingdom Independence Party.
The SDP’s appeal to the public was less its policies than the simple fact the electorate was so fed up with the other parties which had brought them nothing but misery (in particular mass unemployment, welfare cuts and record violent crime levels) they were willing to back anyone outside of the established parties offering something different (although their original leaders and MPs all came from these) – and the more media savvy SDP were able to exploit this to the hilt.
In particular, safe Labour seats where the local branch had been taken over by Trotskyite thugs were highly susceptible to supporting the SDP – who won two famous (and very ill-tempered) by-elections in Bermondsey (1983) and Greenwich (1987) as a result. The SDP also won Hillhead in 1981 because the Labour candidate was the subject of ridicule as a famous Loch Ness Monster ‘chaser’.
The party agreed an electoral alliance with the Liberal Party, and looked on course to win the next General Election with ease, but the Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s popularity soared after Britain won the 1982 Falklands War (even though it had been her party’s incompetence which had led to it by fooling Argentina into thinking Britain wouldn’t attempt to liberate it) and thanks to the Labour Party concentrating more of its resources on unseating the SDP ‘traitors’ than on beating the Tories, the SDP-Liberal Alliance finished a poor third in terms of seats won.
After further disappointment in 1987, the bulk of the party merged with the Liberals to form the Liberal Democrats the next year, but a continuing SDP (and Liberal Party) lived on – mainly Eurosceptic members or those fearing that their ideals would be too heavily diluted in the merged party. Relations between SDP branches and Liberal branches had long been poor – and many members simply dropped out of politics altogether upon the merger.
Disaster stuck after they finished behind the Official Monster Raving Loony at the 1990 first Bootle by-election (which also happened to the Liberal candidate at the second). Even though they’d almost taken the safe Tory seat of Richmond in a by-election the year before, such was the public humiliation from being beaten by an OMRLP candidate that days later the remaining SDP members of Parliament voted to dissolve the party without even bothering to consult the membership.
Some however vowed to carry on and ran the Liberal Democrats close at the Neath by-election of 1992. After this however, the party has since faded away to a handful of members holding a number of council seats, especially in Neath and the seaside town of Bridlington where they ran the council for many years – something the SDP in its Parliamentary seats heyday never managed to accomplish anywhere at all.
Green Party
A collection of two t-shirts featuring their two original motifs as used in the UK and elsewhere (the sunflower one being the standard ‘Green/Ecological’ symbol worldwide).
Will fit Teen, Young Adult and Adults.
All items are recolourable, but the logos aren’t.
Please also find a collection of twelve poster pictures available as pictures for your Sims 3 game (including one spoof one).
The poster pictures use a mesh with many thanks by Yarona at Sims Modeli, so you do not need any stuff packs for this to work – it’s all base game friendly.
To use, download, unzip, and drop the contained folder into your The Sims 3\mods\packages folder and they should show up.
Enjoy!
Green politics has been around since the original environmentalist movements of the 19th century in reaction to mass industrialisation (it had also been dabbled with by fascist and socialist groups before World War 2), but the modern green movement and green parties as we know them today started in the 1970s from the last remains of the hippy movement in response to concerns about the environment from pollution and fears over the safety of nuclear power.
The success of Richard Adams’ Watership Down also brought worldwide attention to the plight of wild animals being destroyed by mankind even in the ‘caring’ developed world if they got in the way of making money.
In the 1980s, a sustainable green movement independent of both socialist and conservative circles had been formed, where environmentalism became the primary rather than secondary focus for attention.
Political Party Billboards
Please find a billboard with fifteen different political party messages on them from the following:
Apple Front (Apfelfront), Captain Rainbow’s Universal Party , Class War, Garlic Front, Green Party, Raving Loony Party (generic for whatever version you prefer), Social Democratic Party and the Two-Tailed Dog Party.
Only the following are genuine, the rest are merely ones made by Jazz-Hands for fun (but hopefully in the correct spirit):
Apple Front – still taken from their promotional short for their 2014 November gala. It has a cat in it, what other reason do you need to watch it?
Captain Rainbow’s Universal Party – correct slogan.
Class War – Lucy Parsons banner.
Green Party – both are actual billboard advertisements used in the 2015 UK general election.
Social Democratic Party – correct slogan.
The poster pictures use a mesh from Cloudwalker Sims so you do not need any stuff packs for this to work – it’s all base game friendly.
To use, download, unzip, and drop the contained folder into your The Sims 3\mods\packages folder and they should show up.
Enjoy!
Fruit With Moustaches (And Without)
Please find a collection of eight poster pictures for your Sims 3 game.
The poster pictures use a mesh with many thanks by Yarona at Sims Modeli, so you do not need any stuff packs for this to work – it’s all base game friendly.
To use, download, unzip, and drop the contained folder into your The Sims 3\mods\packages folder and they should show up.
Enjoy!
I really have no idea why I did this.
R.I.P. Steve Strange of Visage
Sadly largely forgotten visual pioneer whose experimental supergroup Visage (made from members of Glen Matlock’s Rich Kids and the Buzzcocks’ dark offshoot Magazine) pathed the way in sound and style for the New Romantics as well as the later Dark Wave bands of the Goth movement.
Tragically he died of a heart attack over in Egypt a few hours ago – he was only 55.
For one of the songs that still makes me cry – Mind Of A Toy – thank you.
‘Feel the rain like an English summer, hear the notes from a distant song,
Stepping out from a back shop poster, wishing life wouldn’t be so long.’
‘When I was new you wanted me, now I’m old you no longer see.’
‘A wooden head and a broken heart – used, abused and torn apart.’
Belle And Sebastian Plus God Help The Girl
Please find a collection of twenty four poster pictures for your Sims 3 game featuring the artwork for the band Belle And Sebastian, plus their God Help The Girl side project.
Please also find six t-shirts (for both sexes, adults and teens)
The poster pictures use a mesh with many thanks by Yarona at Sims Modeli, so you do not need any stuff packs for this to work – it’s all base game friendly.
To use, download, unzip, and drop the contained folder into your The Sims 3\mods\packages folder and they should show up.
Enjoy!
The ‘God Help The Girl’ Deathmatch
Which versions were better?
The originals by Stuart Murdoch’s side project/Belle and Sebastian’s Liberian flag (please chose your favourite excuse), or the remakes that formed part of the official soundtrack to last year’s movie?
Act Of The Apostle
Ireton’s chocolaty sultry vocals vs Browning’s lazy drawl with the same background score (or so it seems). Very much a matter of choice here, but a draw seems fair.
Both do beat the bejaysus out of the original version (actually Act Of The Apostle II) from Belle and Sebastian’s The Life Pursuit album (2006) which sounds so lifeless by comparison.
God Help The Girl
Very clear win for the film version. The original version sounds flatter and more studio sounding. Emily Browning’s voice also more captures the Phil Spector/Sixties cinema Swing sound the song was aiming for.
Pretty Eve In The Tub
Again, very clear win for the film version. This is a bit embarrassing, as Stuart Murdoch (the mastermind of the whole God Help The Girl project) sounds really dreadfully inferior here to Olly Alexander as a singer.
The harpsichord in the film version is what particularly transforms a pleasant enough but forgettable staccato song into a wonderful song, one of the film’s many highlights. Double knockout.
If You Could Speak
The guitar is slightly faster in the film version, less plodding. Is it really up to you whether you think the Catherine Ireton and Anna Miles with Stuart Murdoch or the Emily Browning and Hannah Murray with Olly Alexander vocals are better? Or is there more to it?
One of the real surprises of the movie was the way Murray’s stuffy nose vocals (probably from having a nose that appears made of solid bone and resonates like a tuning fork when she speaks or sings) compliments so perfectly Browning’s slightly crackling style.
Ireton’s voice with Anna Miles sounds too pure, too Sally Oldfield overdubbed. It would work with something like ‘Mirrors’, all woodwinds, but with a song that’s all acoustic guitars the original falls flat. Again, a win for the thespian trio.
Musician, Please Take Heed
The big epic cinema score number of the album sound identical over the two. The original has some lovely tubular bells in its favour, but the vocals let it down at the end, so a draw seems fair.
Perfection As A Hipster
Can you separate the two? They sound so identical vocals wise, despite Ireton being swapped for Browning. Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy is a delight in both, what a shame he wasn’t in the movie itself.
Come Monday Night
Draw. Two contrasting styles and it’s a matter of choice, both beautifully done in one of the sweetest songs from 2014.
I Just Want Your Jeans
Some may joke the day you get your arse kicked at singing by Hannah ‘Cassie’ Murray (doomed to forever be one Cassie or another…) is the day you should give up singing professionally altogether.
Yet the shocker here is how much Murray beats the original version hollow. She can’t sing as well – she sounds like she has a stuffy nose – but wow, how the hack amateur delivers it ten times better.
The moment even the most ardent Belle and Sebastian fan must deep down concede defeat is the line ‘For an hour on the park or an hour on the couch, with the boy of my choice if he makes me go ‘OUCH!”, I will swap all my dumb school prizes, I am open to dark surprises’.
Asya by contrast can’t seem to make up her mind if she wants to sound like an old Creole woman singing a traditional hymn or trying to sound alternately like a cut-price Edie Brickell/Tiffany or Bjork, and her sing-song delivery is forgettable.
I’ll Have To Dance With Cassie
Probably the most famous song – certainly the most loved. Again, this is a matter of taste as the backing tracks sound so similar, do you prefer Catherine Ireton’s posher vocals to Emily Browning’s more natural tones?
I’m A Down And Dusty Blonde
The quintet of Ireton, Celia Garcia, Dina Bankole, Asya and Brittany Stallings versus the duet of Browning and Murray.
Yes, the music is slightly different (inferior in the original), but again the latter do the job better vocally – the contrast in styles between Browning and Murray is more pronounced (and there’s sod all point having a duet with two identical singers) whilst they blend together superbly.
The five professional singers meanwhile don’t blend, they merge much like carol singers merge into a note perfect uniformity – nice, but not outstanding when you are doing pop songs.
Ironically, the one pick up between the two versions is that Celia Garcia’s voice worked better with the Browning and Murray version (Garcia singing in both), again because it contrasted with two different styles.
Conclusion
If you are going to get ‘God Help The Girl’, get the film soundtrack – it’s a clear winner. For something that was supposed to be a rushed job, it’s a vast improvement on the originals.
Of the ten tracks, half were done better by Alexander, Browning and Murray than by the original vocal line up, much to my surprise. It may be in part Stuart Murdoch being able to iron out flaws in the originals with the remakes, but the simple truth is the thespian trio blended nicer together and complimented the music better than their professional counterparts.
A lot of the original version vocals were rather overegged – in fact one of the standout tracks from the movie was the inclusion of the Belle and Sebastian song ‘Dress Up In You.’ Compare the light sweetness of the vocals on it to the original GHTG recordings and you’ll see where the original was trumped by the remake.
What do you think?
Completely Inappropriate Children’s Books Shelves
Please find a collection of six sets of shelves with four books each available as decor for your Sims 3 game.
Butchered from Lpvinyl21’s original children’s books shelves. Original mesh by Billiejean at Black Pearl Sims. Converted by Butterfly.
You do not need any stuff packs for this to work – it’s all base game friendly.
To use, download, unzip, and drop the contained folder into your The Sims 3\mods\packages folder and they should show up.
Enjoy!
This was made for future use in a story where a school room or a library would be one of the scenes and a funny back drop seemed in appropriate bad taste.
Thought some of you may get some fun with it.
AA42
AA6x7
The Mare's Nest
6s & 7s
Skeletal Screams Blogspot
