Thursday, December 13, 2007

Ludwig - Hiccups (1977)

Back in the 1970s I used to watch this odd cartoon.
It was one of those animations that I imagined was made in some
eastern European country and had an English narrators voice dubbed on to it.

Very sweet, surreal and seventies.
Take a look.


Wednesday, November 28, 2007

rollright stones - garish photos




here are some horrendous garish manipulated photos I just
uploaded to my flickr account.
I took them in the autumn of my friends at the Rollright prehistoric stone circle north of Oxford.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

7 random/weird facts about me

goddamn its late and seizethenite has set me homework.

Here are the rules for the meme:
1. Link to the person’s blog who tagged you.
2. Post these rules on your blog.
3. List seven random and/or weird facts about yourself.
4. Tag seven random [?] people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by posting a comment on their blog.

1. I used to be able to move my hands and arms out of my body when I woke up in the morning. I could keep my eyes shut. lift my hands and touch palm to palm finger to finger. It felt fuzzy and electric. When I would open my eyes my arms were flat down on the mattress either side of me.

2. On a recent visit to Switzerland I went hiking on my own in the Alps. On each of the two days I went high up I found what seem to be prehistoric stone axe heads. I came home with them both - still need an expert to examine them.

3. Yesterday I won £100 on the premium bonds and received a package
from Pete Loveday the fantastically talented creator of Russell The Saga of a peaceful man. A brilliant graphic novel about a friendly festival goer who meets lots of strange folk, gets stoned and very paranoid often. I ordered the books from Pete and he wrote me a lovely letter.

4. I was given a Far Side calender pad for christmas last year, you know where you rip off each day and see a new comic strip.
I never got past February 18th and its still sitting and staring at me every night.

5. The other day I went magic mushroom picking with my friend at his secret patch. Before we ventured out in the rainy fields we nipped into a local pub only to find Edwina Curry there. She was a junior minister in the previous conservative UK government who it was revealed in renet years had been having an affair with the boring dull Prime Minister John Major. I tried to slip in a "major" joke but I don't think she heard me.

6. On saturday night I slept in the top bed of a bunkbed in a room occupied by a woman who spent til 4 oor 5 in the morning telling me about her strange mental state which involved the fact that everyone she ever met, spoke to or talked to was just "one" being that new everything about her i.e. God. I was kind of fascinated and concerned at the same time but eventually had to call it a night and climb up to my bunk. I didn't get physical - "scared of nutter latching on to me" syndrome kicked in. Plus my back acne was rocking something awful.

7. I am a single guy who is extremely sweet, humble, friendly and interesting and I'm always looking for great women to meet so hey how about it gorgeous? London Calling.
I promise I won't accuse you of being a nutter on a very public blog and my skin is usually good.

Oksy if you read this far then you have been TAGGED too
and better write some good old random/wierd thinsg too..
and then let me know right here in the comments section so
I can come and read them!!!

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

New Goddamn York!!! (Updated)

Okay, this is where I shout out to the
blogosphere "what the hell is wrong with NYC!!"

I booked accomodation at some cool cheap place
called Ye Olde Carlton Arms where
all the rooms are painted by artists and it
sounded fun.
I booked WAYYYY in advance.
They said I needed to confirm in November,
so I figured I would receive an email asking me
to confirm. NO NO NO I had to email them on precisely
November the Eleventh no earlier or no later or
they'd give my treasured room to some other asshole.
Which they did without so much as a "sorry for fucking up
your entire trip you limey piece of shit"

So now I have to explain to my friend that we're gonna have to
go cockroach and bedbug hunting elsewhere.

This is my first ever trip to the USA and if I do end up
in a stinking dive then it may well be my last!!!!
I'm going to support a very fine US band called Ween who I worship and I'm going to be giving lots of my fine Emglish pounds to your country. The least I could expect is that when I make a reservation, it stays a reservation.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what my best option here is???
I can't afford too much money but I don't want to have a total
suck experience. I need 30th Nov 1st Dec and 2nd Dec for two people in Manhatten. Please Uncle Sam do something to redeem yourself!!!!

UPDATE:
ok ok
the hotel I reserved with originally have managed to
find me another room. so fair play to them.
I'm still annoyed that I had to go through an evening of panicking.

also I'm pleased to get a tip from someone about short term apartment lets in NYC that I may well use next time I visit the big apple, which of course depends on whether I have a good time this first time. I'll keep you posted.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Song of a Man Who Has Come Through

Not I, not I, but the wind that blows through me!
A fine wind is blowing the new direction of Time.
If only I let it bear me, carry me, if only it carry me!
If only I am sensitive, subtle, oh, delicate, a winged gift!
If only, most lovely of all, I yield myself and am borrowed
By the fine, fine, wind that takes its course through the chaos of the world
Like a fine, an exquisite chisel, a wedge-blade inserted;
If only I am keen and hard like the sheer tip of a wedge
Driven by invisible blows,
The rock will split, we shall come at the wonder, we shall find the Hesperides.

Oh, for the wonder that bubbles into my soul,
I would be a good fountain, a good well-head,
Would blur no whisper, spoil no expression.

What is the knocking?
What is the knocking at the door in the night?
It is somebody wants to do us harm.

No, no, it is the three strange angels.
Let them come in.

D. H. Lawrence

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Knee Deep In Mud: Crack is Whack

Knee Deep In Mud: Crack is Whack

Here is a twisted blog post from out <<>>.
I found the link to it at the degenerate ween forum where I hang out
and timewaste.

{{{Let me set the stage for you. I am hanging out in my house with my friend, having just walked back from lunch. We went into the kitchen to get some water at about 3:00 pm. As I was talking to my friend, I looked out my kitchen window that faces the alley between Q and Corcoran Streets. I saw two people in the alley, one black and one white, near the back entrance of the house across the alley. I turned to my friend and said, "Are they having sex? I think they are having sex. Oh my God, they are having sex!"}}}

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Word War (dedicated to Norm Mailer)

This is a word war.
My first word war.
Tug – no.
Stretch – Pull the other way.
Clench and grit those teeth.
At war we words this is no play.
I fight you fight we and they.
Curse and pray to weep and stitch the wounded.
Another day the fight goodly is on again.
Word Vs Word and none shall win.
For words in sin do come freely to fight on
either side.
And war is fought like a water fount and the burn of sunlight.
Eternal words at war spring forth.
All strong weak mild and tough.
The pieces are arranged for the chaos.
Logic or God.
The strategy is played out.
I hear and see and touch.
I shout and flee and ache.
You words one and three.
Where the hell do you think you are going?
I have a job for you two.
Muck out the paragraph and prepare the margins.
Its going to be a bloody mess again.

Saturday, November 03, 2007

burial - interview




Kode9 Interviews Burial

9: What have you been doing since the last album?

Burial: It was a bit weird people hearing the first record because most of those tunes were made without me expecting them ever to be heard. So I've been recovering.

9: How long did it take you to recover?

Burial: About 2 years [laughs]. I've just been trying to get back to why I wanted to make tunes in the first place. The first one got slightly out of where it belonged, and I found it a bit difficult to just block things out and make tunes in a low key way again, and it took time to just get back to doing that, and liking it, and doing it fast, and not trying to be a perfectionist. Just trying to dream up tunes again without worrying what people were going to think.

9: The tracks on the first album had taken about 6 years to make in total.

Burial: Yeah, that was tunes from 2000 hand picked by you out of loads. So doing the second one was never going to be as easy as that, and also I wanted to try and learn some new stuff but I couldn't, so I just gave up and went back to the old ways [laughs]

9: Were you surprised by the reception of the first album.

Burial: Yeah. I think it promised something, but if you listened to it, it didn't really get there. But I think some people liked it because it was just a no fuss bunch of tunes. I want to do low key records so i got uneasy if there was attention. my tunes aren't for everyone but thats the point of it, it's for those people. But I still want people to like it, Im not some ice cold fretless bass playing psychopath.

9: Don't you think, that whatever you felt about it, people liked it because it made a consistent album.

Burial: Why, 'cos it was all moody?

9: Not that it was moody or not, but just that the whole thing had a consistent mood.

Burial: Yeah, it was just a sad, eerie, night time thing. But the new stuff has changed a bit. No it hasn't. Don't listen to me [laughs]

9: What do you think is the main difference between the two albums?

Burial: This one is a bit more buzzin', glowy. It's a bit more uplifting. It doesn't hang around. It's a bit more up. The tunes were made quite fast in the middle of the night and they had to fight for their right to exist. but they came out of nowhere. Its a bit like an unwanted pregnancy, i wasn't always in a good place, but most of the tunes had to be faith restoring somehow to me, but they still take a while to get into.

9: Its still pretty melancholy record. But now I think its downcast euphoria, as opposed to just downcast like on the first one.

Burial: Yeah, the first one was quite a pissed off basic record, downcast. But this one has more little bits of vocals glowing in it, flickering around and burning in the tune, messed with.

9: Why did you end up doing something a bit more 'glowy'?

Burial: It's always been difficult for me to make tunes. i'd just sit or walk waiting for night to fall hoping i'd make something i liked. Or come back in and try to make the club echo in my head from going out. I'd chosen certain vocals because the mood I was in. I wanted more vocals cos they attempt to form songs, its kind of sad but they get to you in the end, i don't want a singer i want something else. Also all i listened to for a year was Black Secret Technology. I still made most of the tunes in the dead of the night, and when you do that you have to let the tune kind of hypnotize you otherwise you'll just fall asleep or play Playstation. The tunes just lulled me, and you need a vocal to do that, and a certain type of sound to echo and circle and sway into a pattern. The moodiness made the tunes, not me. Now when I listen to them, they're ramshackle, DIY and rolling but I know there is a thing trapped in them so that when I look back on them, even if its dry, I know when it was made, I know what was going on that day, its like stapling real life to the side of the tune. I can't get a singer or some session musician to come in and play or sing some dry song, so I've got to get people singing acapellas or just mates singing in their phones and re-cut up what they're saying. Sometimes I run out of a vocal and I have to re-cut up each word and make them sing a whole new verse, and you cant tell what they're saying. But I feel I can make them say certain lyrics.

9: the puppet master ha ha

Burial: I love the sound of 'girl next door' vocals. The way it used to be. Give me that any day over a really talented trained person that can actually sing. There used to be a girl who used to sing in the flat next door but I didn't have the guts to ask her. That would have been kind of awkward to ask.

9: Why don't you do gigs?

Burial: I'm not that kind of person who can step up. I just want to make tunes.

9: Why don't you want to do pictures?

Burial: Same reason. I like the old records, where you didn't know who made them and it didn't matter. You got into the tunes more. I don't want anyone knowing i do tunes.

9: And the drawing on the front of the new album.

Burial: I've been drawing that same one since I was little. Just some moody kid with a cup of tea sitting at the 24 hour stand in the rain in the middle of the night when you are coming back from somewhere.

9: Why didn't you use a sequencer on the album?

Burial: I tried. I did one tune before. . .Unite. With someone showing me how to use it, and it worked out nice, but in the end I wasn't ready and I wanted to do another record without a sequencer again.

9: You like that ramshackle thing, don't you.

Burial: Yeah, I admire people who understand complicated programs or whatever. But I'm not that into tunes that are so sequenced that all you can hear is the perfect grid, e ven on the echoes. With those kind of tunes, sometimes I just hear Tetris music, i always know where i am in the tune so i cant get lost in it, no rough edges in some tunes even when they try hard to sound rough. I want to learn one day how to make tunes properly , but I wanted to do a tribute to my rubbish, dying computer. It starts smoking sometimes and the screen flickers like a strobelight, it mashes your eyes. The tunes are made where they're made, somewhere in my building, the roof or wherever, but not in some airtight studio. Loads of the album was made with the TV on. I wish i could make technical proper music one day but people who want technical music maybe won't like my new tunes but its not for them.

9: What don't you like just now?

Burial: fiending and fakery. Sometimes you get people who don't seem to really enjoy tunes theyre just checking what other people are into and ripping it or slating it . just because..no reason. some people just talk mostly about things they hate like it matters, like they are fighting through a crowd that isn't there. i liked the world before it was so easy for people to find out stuff and get at it. i like it when people are genuine, they like tunes, they want a dance.. i don't get it when people are ploughing in with negative claimage to something. Sometimes you just want music to stay where it is from. I love drum&bass jungle hardcore, garage, dubstep and always will till i die and i don't want the music i love to be a global samplepack music.. I like Underground tunes that are true and mongrel and you see people trying to break that down, alter its nature. Underground music should have its back turned, it needs to be gone, untrackable, unreadable, just a distant light.

9: There are more vocals on this album.

Burial: When I was growing up it was hardcore or jungle tunes and you would catch people singing them while doing the washing up. Like 'Music is the key' 'Thru the vibe' 'inner city life', 'finley's rainbow' guy called gerald, kemet crew. People would be playing them from cars. But deeper tunes too not just big tunes . They tried to put a vibe into the room. They didn't just walk in and stamp on your head. Or they worked hard to take you out of where you were, make you get lost, steal away. They weren't just serving up an element that you could instantly get into. They would put an atmosphere in the room that wasn't there before, or maybe had never been there, not take the atmosphere out the room. Vocals . . .it needs to be glowing, swaying, but I want the tunes to be likeable. Not dark for the sake of it.

9: Why is the album called Untrue?

Burial: When you are not acting like yourself . . .that's an everyday thing for everyone, but it can be a bit sinister . . .It's like the opposite of Unite.


HDBCD002 [Out November 2007]
01 Untitled (0:45)
02 Archangel (3:59)
03 Near Dark (3:53)
04 Ghost Hardware (4:54)
05 Endorphin (2:57)
06 Etched Headplate (6:00)
07 In Mcdonalds (2:09)
08 Untrue (6:16)
09 Shell Of Light (4:41)
10 Dog Shelter (2:58 )
11 Homeless (5:26)
12 UK (1:42)
13 Raver (4:58 )

HDBLP002 [Out November 2007]
A1. Raver
A2. Etched Headplate
B1. Homeless
B2. Shell of Light
C1. Untrue
C2. UK
C3. Endorphin
D1. Archangel
D2. Near Dark

Watch out for "Stairwell"/"Feral Witchchild" on Hyperdub in February 2008.

Monday, October 29, 2007

Ask, Seek, Knock

Matthew 7:7-11

"Ask and it will be given to you;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks receives;
he who seeks finds;
and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

"Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?
Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?
If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!"

Matthew 7:7-11

Thursday, September 13, 2007

burlesque is shit

Hi I found this on the blog of some stranger's myspace
page and it saved me the trouble of writing this piece myself.
from http://www.myspace.com/_mattcooley_
here is the entertaining and harshly truthful blog entry

"Burlesque is shit"

I wish to rant for a moment if I may... The thing that has rubbed my dick up the wrong way recently is the ancient art of "burlesque".

Now, there was a time when burlesque wasn't quite so offensive to me as it has now become; it was essentially a victorian forgotten cabaret type affair which ulitmately involved some good old fashionned prostitution. However, of late, there seems to be a trend towards any girl who has a tattoo or a piercing donning a corset and parading round on stage in their underwear with no real grasp of what a total tit they are making of themselves... And it needs to ucking stop!

Just like the endless stream of girls who readily got their chuffs out on Suicide Girls (or inferior versions if they were REALLY minging), the justification is that they are somehow "empowering" themselves... They are not. They are just getting their tits out! Now, don't get me wrong, I really couldn't give a shit about the plight of women's equality or whether or not some girl wasnts to show off her baps in public. In fact, I quite encourage it. But don't fucking pass it off as some kind of "power struggle" for feminism.

See, the problem is not so much burlesque itself; more so volume of it currently. And the solution is simple: Quality contol... Let's face it, there are some fucking minging birds doing this, with all the grace of a mahogany cabinet and the looks of a donkey's arse. Recently, my band played in Leeds and there was some kind of burlesque "troup" (yes, that's what they call themselves!) and the standard of the girls taking part was literally abismal. Not only this, but the minutes dragged on like hours as one after one they paraded around in ridiculous costumes whist showcasing obvious and unoriginal routines, all with a Christmas theme. Oh, the genius! People were slitting their wrists, drinking themselves into a coma to escape from this godawful spectacle.

And they all have ridiculous names: Miss Pitty Patty Twatty; Miss Kitty Von Anus; Miss Lee Dong Gook, Dabo, Kezman... Why? I realise I am probably in the minority of people who dislike this whole affair, but think about it: Currently every single girl in Liverpool is a burlesque dancer; if this trend continues, we won't be able to move for them. The projected figures for the next 12 months estimate that there could be anything up to 3billion burlesque dancers in the UK. We can't let this happen - What will become of the other "saucy" arts, such as "normal" pornography, prostitution, bukake drives? We must not let these arts die out.

I like strippers. I like strip clubs. There is a dark, hollow seediness to the whole ritual of going to a strip club while a girl who is completely devoid of emotion rubs her minge on your lap, while your mates cajole you like rabid monkeys. But stripping knows its place... It doesn't try to pass itself off as "art", yet burlesque and posing naked on the internet are no different from stripping, making porn films, prostitution... In fact, they are worse because they don't even show you their baps - Although judging by the (lack of) standard of the majority of girls who take part in this passtime, you'd probably have nightmares!

And so concludes my rant about burlesque. I realise its just a phase and the majority of these girls will look back when they grow up with some embarrassment at this period of their youth. Either way, i'll be avoiding such events as best I can in the future. Give me some filthy porn featuring girls who are dead inside any day of the week! Hurrah!

Sunday, September 09, 2007

The Loving Insights of a Real Headcase

Have you heard about Jimmy?

Jimmy kneaded his palm with the pine bed nob.
He was remembering times as a youngster.
The panic of breathlessness you got after springing
for too long on a bouncy castle. The anxiety would ease
slightly when you rested in a groove catching some air. Warm red
plastic sticking against your cheek. Then another kids feet would
slam down next to your face and you had to move or risk danger.

Jimmy was getting thrills from the sensitive nerves in his palms
combined with memories of the heroic/erotic. A flash of guilt,
selfconciousness and Jimmy remembers that he is living. And when
living you do things, constructive things that involve other
people not just yourself. So Jimmy slips on his green day glo
satin trousers. Adds a plate of tartan weetabix to his bearded
razor floss and he's ready to hit town.
Jimmy always looks at everyone he passes
right in their eyes. And he
smiles too. Unless he forgets. He knew that one day some mean
moody bastard would punch his lights out for staring and grinning
in their direction. That was why it never happened.

I'm gonna ring her bell and smash lemon over her honey spoon.
Jimmy thought this when he smiled and stared at good loooking
women. He knew that one day some gorgeous girl would smile and
they would end up naked together. That was why it never happened.

Smile and the world smiles with you. He knew other magic tricks
aswell. He was Mr Sheen.

Tricks of the wind my friend.
He was a natural old Jimmy was.
Never threw a bad dime.
But when he shone you could look right thru him and he could walk
through you. He was of the air. As if he didnt exist at all.
Part of you knew what he represented but you didn't believe that
you could be a part of it too.
At those times his wholeness was being glimpsed thru part of your
fractured being.
A tantalizing flash of impossible magic.

So Jimmy went on his way with a dancing stride. Feeling leaves
and talking to cats. Seeing litter and architecture as a past
moulding man.
No chaos of choice when he needed food. Jimmy on the ball heads
to the fruit stall.
A bargain of vitality all health freaks should learn,
dont feed the pill fire when there's money to burn.
After snacking Jimmy takes a breather
on a bench and speaks to an old Gent.
"Tell me old timer. What matters prey heavy on your mind
when your life is nearly spent?"
"Life like money should be spent well. When its not about
winning you can score own goals. To tell the truth son, no
matters prey heavy on my mind now that I'm no longer blind."

A wink and a gleam and Jimmy sets off. Over tarmac and stone the
wanderer must roam.

Taken from the old website
"The Loving Insights of a Real Headcase" by me.
This was the sister site to Matt Kings Unbelievable Hype which
you can find here.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Yahoo fucking sucks and has lost me my flickr account

I've had a Yahoo ID since about year 2000.
I'm a member of many yahoo groups.
I have a free flickr account in which I've invested
time uploading photos.

Recently I received an email saying that my
yahoo password had been changed.
Now I have never changed my yahoo ID password.
So I try to change my password.
On the ID they ask you for your DOB and
post code.
Now to be honest, when I signed up to yahoo, it was
early days of the internet and everyone I know
was being cautious of what information they were
giving out, so I may have given a slightly false date of birth.
My post code was probably correct but I've lived in so many
different places that I can't remember all the post codes.

So I can't retrieve the password that SOMEONE ELSE has managed
to change.
So I email yahoo from their webpage and receive an automated email at the email address I registered with them. No password or reactivation link. Next they ask me to email them back with more details so I do that....
Next I get THIS FUCKING EMAIL below.
So obviously I will have to start from scratch in order to get a flickr account.
But I'm afraid of doing that now if invest a lot of effort
uploading photos to flickr only to lose them all again.
I think it is a very negative situation for flickr to be associated with the impossible to retrieve Yahoo ID.

Most other registered accounts I have have a very simple password
recovery system based on the security of your email account.
An email will be sent to your email to recreate your password and bobs your uncle. I know that my email address has not been breached so why can't yahoo simply send me a new password link????
It is unbelievable!!!!!


Hello,

Thank you for contacting Yahoo! Customer Care.

In order to assist you with the account in question, we ask that you
provide the answers to all of the questions below. Yahoo! keeps
detailed records of the information you provided during the registration
of your account.

For security reasons, we require an exact match otherwise we will be
unable to assist you with your account. For this, there are no
exceptions. Please fax or send via regular postal mail the information
listed below. (We apologize for the detailed request, but in order to
provide proper security for our member accounts, these steps are
necessary)

Please send us all of the following:

* Your name

* An email address where we can contact you -- at this time we are only
able to reply via email.

* Copy of a state/government issued photo ID (please copy on the
lightest setting of your copier).

* Yahoo! ID

* Permission for Yahoo! to enter your account

* Birthdate on the account

* The answer to your Security Question. (if applicable) The correct
Secret Answer is required; even with faxed information.

* ZIP code and country

* Your alternate email address

Please fax the information to:

(503) 615 3883
Attn: CC Account Security Team

If you are outside the United States/Canada, you may fax the information
to the number below:

+1 (503) 615 3883

Or mail it to:

Yahoo!
Attn: Customer Care/Account Security
701 First Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94089-1019

Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Customer Care.

Regards,

Ray

Saturday, July 07, 2007

keep up to date with your europop

http://www.dontstopthepop.blogspot.com/
these guys have their finger on the pulse of
shitty addictive europop


the way the most addictive pop song of the moment
is "Lucky Twice" by Lucky.
If you hear this it will infect your brain and won't leave.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RxIEWCn6pI

another kindergarten pop hit is called holly dolly it is kind of a new scatman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_CbWXFpcpo&mode=related&search=

I got these from some fantastically bad spanish pop compilation I just
downloaded

Monday, June 25, 2007

Ween - Friends E.P.






















I dreamt of a move
a great move
to another place with much more land
I was driven by car
and woke before I got there
I remember the place and it was beautiful

A friends a friend who knows what being a friend is, talking with a friend.
As friends we were always so close but so far away...
friends in life are special do you want me as your special friend?
Cause you're the friend that I've been searching for.

There was more for me
It would be more open
scary to think that I could be happy
she'd said it was the same road
but up more, alot more
just be patient and we'll get there

I never got there
but the morning brings light
and so, I'll keep on looking.

buy it here

Thursday, May 17, 2007

me at UFO23 teknoval in France 1995



Here is a pic of yours truly at a free spiral tribe techno festival in France in 1995, it was in the massif centrale area not far from Bourge. I bought that hat in a local village shop.

Anyhow I could write reams and reams about that whole trip,
just getting there from the UK took about 4 days.
You'll have to ask me for further details...

adam and eve



This is a photo taken in 1996 in either Greenock, Largs or somewhere like that west of Glasgow. In the picture is Anne Marie Copestake and a Thai bloke. We had gone for a day trip to see the sea.
She was my old flatmate and a posh Glasgow artist. I loved that orange mac she's wearing and I adopted it for a while. For some reason or other I felt cool and attractive when walking down Sauchiehall street with that orange mac on.
Anyhow in the shot here they are both eating apples, hence the adam and eve title.
Despite being unemployed half the time, I really felt at home in Glasgow in those days. More than I feel at home in London now...

google stalking can cause pain

Occasionally, I google stalk.
I type in the name of someone I knew years back
to see if I can find out what they're up to.

Today I typed in the name of a girl I knew in the sixth form.
The page I found at the top of the google search is this.

My old schoolmate just stood for the Conservatives as a candidate
for councillor. Who would have thought it, the sweet outdoors loving hiker rock chick would actually want to represent the vile spawn of Thatcher. I mean I wouldn't even want to breathe in the vicinity of the awful New Labour warmongering privatisers let alone the sickening tories.

Anyway, I was shocked, but there you go.
A lot can happen in seventeen years.

Ah well Leanda, I forgive you, lets go walk up the sugarloaf listening to sweetleaf.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

sunshine

oh yeah,
let your love fly like a bird on the wing
its the season

Thursday, April 12, 2007

you can

you can you can yes you can

I can't I can't no I can't

blessings blessings blessings swing
slow tide and never fail to move and sway
and guide and breakthrough

two dozen in a box
three dozen thrown and crackled
four dozen names checked and confirmed
five dozen famous heroes forgot you existed.

nevermind eh?

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

God Tube

I guess it had to come along,

We had Youtube and then Pornotube,

now its GODTUBE.

The hilarity starts here with
Baby Got Bible

Attention without resistance

You know what space is. There is space in this room. The distance between here and your hostel, between the bridge and your home, between this bank of the river and the other—all that is space. Now, is there also space in your mind? Or is it so crowded that there is no space in it at all? If your mind has space, then in that space there is silence—and from that silence everything else comes, for then you can listen, you can pay attention without resistance. That is why it is very important to have space in the mind. If the mind is not overcrowded, not ceaselessly occupied, then it can listen to that dog barking, to the sound of a train crossing the distant bridge, and also be fully aware of what is being said by a person talking here. Then the mind is a living thing, it is not dead.

J Krishnamurti

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Brian Aldiss on childhood

Brian Aldiss once wrote,
"When childhood dies, its corpses are called adults and they enter society, one of the politer names of hell. That is why we dread children, even if we love them, they show us the state of our decay."

Thursday, March 15, 2007

mis profesoras de colegio delibes

In 2003 I set off to Spain to learn Spanish.
Before leaving I searched around for a private language school and
discovered one called Colegio Delibes in a small city called Salamanca, more of a town than a city I would say despite its
magnificent Cathedral and University buildings.

Anyhow, I was lucky enough to have chosen an excellent school
with brilliant teachers. This school had developed their own materials and had a great stucture to the daily lessons that worked very well.

My first grammar teacher was Teresa. She started the day's lessons. Tere was a lovely teacher and she gave us a very firm and strong understanding of the basics.
After a break we had Mariajose with the conversation classes which included more vocabulary learning.



Mariajo you can see on the right of the above photo. She was a really sweet woman and very nice with all the students including the younger Chinese ones who were slow to grasp the alphabet and pronunciations. She was also extremely attractive which helped with my class motivation thats for sure.



At first I thought Gemma was tired and couldn't give a shit in class, but I realised that although that may have been the case she allowed us students do most of the talking. We had come great discussions in her class.



Maite was lovely though I think I used to piss her off a bit. I would always be picking out little grammatical oddities that appeared in the homework as we reviewed it first thing in the morning.

I think Maite sensed that I was alone and needed some good old fashioned Spanish loving. She advised me to go south and find an andalusian woman. I went south but didn't find the woman.
What I did find was a less well run language school populated by lazy students and freaky teachers.
Sometimes I wish I'd stayed at Colegio Delibes for longer as I'm sure I would have carried on learning at a great pace.

Monday, March 05, 2007

Flogging a dead joke to Newcastle



Tags = Prince Charles - Dodi - Diana - Joke - Photoshop - Sting

Sunday, March 04, 2007

the blog in my head

Every day of my life, well most days,
I wander around this group of London Parishes and
a myriad of intersecting perspectives and synchronized dancing synapse domino runs sets my just about still fresh mind a-thinking.
Each one of these choice arrangements of thoughts and conclusions
feels like a nicely arranged insight, much more interesting than the average "lifestyle" pieces that are scattered throughout the
middle class Sundays that I make sure I avoid.

Now with the freedom of Blogging I have the option to make my own Copy. Write with my own shit for ink. At last freedom, avast ye Cornish Pasties - The World Is Yours!!

Yet my plan for global brain infection is fatally flawed,
for these thoughts and ideas and interesting wotnots are like vivid dreams - fucking impossible to remember later on. When you get a chance to plot them down digit to digit its always too late.
Sometimes at work I am in front of a screen - yes! - I have a chance to blog it; But it is the nature of my job that I have duties to the public and I can't say hang on a sec I'm just sketching out the beauty of a sacred insight (yes I know I like to big myself up as no-one else will.)

This frustration has led me to not update this blog so often as
I don't always want to start writing with a blank mind before I write (as I'm doing now).
I'd like to have thoughts whether they are fighting firecrackers or slow intersecting musical harmonics leading to an interesting conclusion leading to instant blog.

Currently not possible - sorry fuckers.
Other blogs are more engaging for the noo.

Monday, February 19, 2007

Arrest Made As Work Starts At Radley Lakes (from thisisoxfordshire)

Arrest Made As Work Starts At Radley Lakes (from thisisoxfordshire)

A PROTESTER was arrested as workers began cutting down vegetation at Thrupp Lake, near Radley, on Wednesday, ahead of dumping ash at the site.

About 30 protesters arrived after learning the preparatory work had started for the controversial plan to dump spent fuel ash from Didcot Power Station. They were quickly followed by police.

Last week, seven squatters were evicted from Sandles House at the site and one man, calling himself The Ant', set up a camp outside the boundary to continue the protest.

On Wednesday, after workers moved in, he went in to the lakeside area to stop them. After refusing to leave, he was arrested by police on suspicion of aggravated trespass.

Before his arrest, he said: "They have moved in to start work on cutting down trees and vegetation in readiness for bigger work later on.

"It's criminal what this big company is doing to a beautiful lake area. We plan to stop them."

Monday, January 29, 2007

Save Radley Lakes

I thought I was just going up to Oxford for some fresh air.
A Sunday stroll by some lovely lakes is what my friend had told me.
Of course when I arrived at his place in Oxford and found the place swarming with "swampies" I knew that something else was afoot.
We were going on a supporting mission to give aid and moral support to a group of ecologically concerned activists who are using direct action to protect a beautiful lake that was created after gravel digging from being ruined by the local polluting Didcot power station. They have squatted a building which sides one of the last remaining lakes under threat. Most of them have already been filled with a horrible ashy byproduct of powerstations called PFA. It is mixed with water and creates a quicksand-like ugly and toxic sludge that cannot be walked upon for decades. This will replace an utterly tranquil home to fish, nesting birds, water voles (and maybe even otters) amongst others. It is also a local amenity that we saw was used as part of many local peoples leisure time. We saw old couples strolling by, kids biking around, horse shoe prints show that its a nice place for a bit of a trot - and this was in January.

Anyhow there has been a local campaign to save these lakes which has sadly proved unsuccessful over the last few years. The new occupying 'accountable citizens' are not part of that local organisation and have not occupied the building at their behest. However this new group are committed, peaceful, well organised and well informed.
They need as much support as they can get.
Food, money, physical help and/or equipment to protect the site from bailiffs, people to come and help stop any attempted eviction. Campaigning scientists to come and record the species present and make the environmental case that the council failed to do.

Even though some of the Sunday afternoon visitors to the site may not have contributed a great deal to the work going onsite (ie me) they helped with building moral support and will hopefully go off and tell all of their friends - and those with media and publicity spreading powers - what is going on here.

It is important to note that at another powerstation in Britain,
this waste material is built up as a dry mound where it is less polluting and can be grown over with vegetation. The material can later be dug out and used by the building trade if the demand is there. The wet sludge cannot be re-used in this way.
The amount of this ash that is going to be put into this shallow lake would make only a small mound if deposited elsewhere locally. It could also help to disguise the eyesore that is Didcot power station.

Go along to the house and pay a visit. They have a very informative display inside. This is a last ditch battle as the council has already given permission for this beautiful lake to be destroyed by the already filthy polluting greenhouse gas emitting profiteers NPOWER.

Forget about booing Jade,
come and boo the bailiffs when they try and do NPOWER's dirty work.

For more details you can visit these websites:

Save Radley Lakes


Radley Village News

BBC





A final word - It was refreshing to get out of the big smoke and
all the trendy vain vacuous bollocks associated therewith and be with some proper principled getting-involved and doing something folk - quite humbling and shaming too cause I'm such a lazy websurfing fucktard ;-)

Thursday, January 25, 2007

and it burns burns burns

hoots mon,
dinae dochno doo
hipknee hopknee hoo
cracken crocken croo
glacker glocker gloo
tamm bant spillyon tichter greet tochen
garbulls gorbals tramway scottiedog

blanket snae snow

ode tae a haggis

slithny yr sharp yon knifey
in tee that there fusty lookin
bag ae meaty bits there and
watch yon chunks ae wotnot spill oot
all oer yer grannies platter

a whiff nae less o the ancients
o dour ancestor ae oors
we are grateful tae be sniffin yr
old ways ae deein thangs once again
each year we dee this and it geez us a
chance tae eat some old mountain stew
and alsee drink some ae that old mountain dew

thanks pal

Thursday, January 18, 2007

British Mating Rituals Part 1

Q:
Why don't guys get hints??
If you like them, they don't get it...If you don't (which is mostly the case and a polite smile is not a sex invite), they don't get it...

WHY????

A:
If a woman acts in a way that indicates "no" then we're programmed to take that as a maybe.

If a woman acts in a way that indicates a "maybe" then we're programmed to take that as a yes.

It's because we're wired up to have sex with as many women as possible, as frequently as possible - there's no advantage, biologically, in acknowledging a no.

As for why men never get it when you *do* like them - our higher brain (our more evolved self) is often in conflict with our more primative self. We've learnt that following our normal "no", "maybe" rules often gets us a slap. So those more sensitive members of the male population wait until it's absolutely spelt out for them - for fear of...well...getting a slap.

Add on top of that all your usual insecurities and self-esteem issues.

I've also noticed that women don't always follow the accepted mating ritual. Like it or not, we *are* animals...and we're wired up to approach courtship in a specific way - just like every other species. This courtship begins with the woman showing interest by performing a few certain actions, then it's the mans turn, then it's the womans and so on and so on and so on...and eventually you end up in bed.

The problem is that as well as being animals, we've evolved higher brain functions...and these get in the way. If the female doesn't make the first move, then that confuses the male - and the female might not make the accepted first move because her social programming is comflicting with her biological. Inevitably those situations end up with her at her mates house crying with a glass of wine and saying that nobody fanices her - and him at home watching pornography.

Friday, January 12, 2007

Acoustic Energy Wi-Fi Internet Radio



Hey folks,
I got a very generous gift voucher for John Lewis for christmas and decided not to buy new sheets, fluffy white towels or other such sensibles. No I went in for the gadget kill.

Ok so I was limited in choice. Usually JLewis don't have a large variety of each "type" of electronic item apart from DAB radios. The fifth floor Oxford Street is infested with ugly DABS.
But when I saw the Acoustic Energy Internet Radio I was almost instantly convinced. To be honest, I'd been waiting a while for this.

I was aware mainly due to shoutcast that there are literally thousands of streaming advert free radios playing perfectly honed playlists to the discerning listener out here in infranet land.
But to be honest my PC is not my media centre. I like a radio to look like a radio. It should sit in the kitchen and be on while I'm cooking, eating, digesting, crosswording or whatnot. I don't want to be dilly dallying with a mouse whilst cooking up cheap quick wok fodder.

These internet radios mean you don't even need to switch on a PC at all. Just get in from work, dump the coat get the shopping out and press "on". It connects straight to your router/modem. This model is Wi-Fi but there are also ethernet RJ45 versions.

The radio uses a downloaded list of radio stations that it shares with other manufacturers radios at reciva.com. There are several thousand channels that are categorised by country and genre. If you know of a channel that isn't on their lists you can register at reciva and submit your choice of radio channel to either "my streams" a list of your favourites that will only show up on your radio but they show up instantly or you can submit to the overall reciva directory and reciva staff manually add your choice to the overall directory ie for all radios that connect via reciva (I haven't tried this option yet - don't see the point).

I've added shoutcast and live365 radios successfully.
With live365 radio just get the radio to open using winamp, then get file info and copy the URL up to the ID number just after play
eg. http://www.lwhhive365.com/play/326347

For shoutcast the URL should look something like this:
eg. http://207.218.250.55:8800

So what else can this baby do?
Well it has links to virtually all the BBC radios and you can choose which programme from the past week you would like to hear and you can scan back and forth and pause it. Wonderful.
I'd done this on the BBC website before, but doing it with this unit just feels so much better (no mouse and keyboard malarkey).

Furthermore if you have a PC switched on in the house you can play all your mp3 albums from the Acoustic Energy radio unit.
It has a built in bit of software which scans for your windows shared folders and it creates a databas file which is placed in that shared folder. You can then choose whole albums or individual songs which are added to a playlist. Choices can be pushed to the front of the list or you can have it repeat or shuffle.
Unfortunately this little gizmo couldn't handle the vast size of my mp3 storehouse.

So I had to try plan B. I upgraded the firmware of my AE unit and the upgrade includes the ability to access a UPNP server on the network. I downloaded a lovely bit of free software called
TVERSITY MEDIA SERVER.
It was able to read my giant store of files and happily connected to my radio. I can see all the files in various different data filters. Album/artist/folders/etc . It includes recently added and view by year of album release. Nice touches.
Unfortunately the playlists that you then build up when accessing the tversity links don't seem to give you the option to put a file to the front of the queue as was possible if you used the built in "window share" option. Hopefully this will be rectified in future firmware upgrades.

Which brings us on to the faults and problems.

1. I find that when accessing the files on my PC you need to press the "select" button s l o w l y. What I mean is that you must wait for it to load up the initial directories fully. If you steam in quickly it will get confused and the unit will just reboot.
A bit niggly and something that probably wouldn't have happened with an ethernet connected, yes wi fi isn't a perfect technology yet. I would have liked an ethernet option.

2. There is no remote control and if there was you wouldn't be able to read what was being played on the radio screen anyhow.
This is something that a rival player SQUEEZEBOX3 does better. It has a clear visible screen and a remote which you can type in a few letters to predict the title of your radio station and then press GO. But I don't think the squeezebox has the same amount of pre-loaded presets (not sure on this one- don't quote me)
Anyhow John Lewis only had AE so my choice was made for me.

3. The AE doesn't work that well with my TVERSITY media server. The media server has the option of adding podcast feeds that it will refresh and download at regular intervals. My radio will not play those files grrrrr.
The Squeezebox has its own designed media server software which you install in your PC thus things like RSS feeds including text RSS feeds work perfectly on the units "visible" screen.
But hell I don't need to read ticker tape blog feeds, I just want easy podcast access. Please acoustic energy add this ability please.

4. Squeezebox with its programmeable flexibility is now able to play your last.fm radio. It can also scrobble the tracks you play.

5. I've saved one of the most fundamental nuisances til last.
In the info about the latest firmware upgrade it says and I quote

'The Radio menu will now display its options and stations in a vertical list which shows 3 stations at a time rather than the old horizontal scrolling single bar display used in the previous firmware versions. This also facilitates "Track Playing" information when listening to some stations using this feature in their data streams (below the chosen station name you will see the information of the current track playing where available).'

Well I've played many many radio stations, the majority of which DO show what track they're playing on my PC, but not one of them will show the track playing when I stream using my lovely new Wi-Fi radio. I hope this is properly implemented ASAP. It really is a fundamental thing that should have been there from the beginning.

Conclusion.

If you love radio and you love the idea of not having blasted computers on all the time, with their knack of turning your friendly house-guests into antisocial websurfing fiddlers, then you have to get one of these babies.
Sure, the inbuilt speaker isn't that hot but plug it into yr hi-fi for better sound.
Sure, some of the channels have very low bitrates and thus sound pretty poor.
But for gods sake you can add ANY radio you find out there with better quality sound.
Try searching shoutcast and live365' directories. There is some awesome shit out there to suit all tastes.
The BBC On Demand service is superb - it bares saying twice.

This is the best thing I've owned since my new sony mobile phone (which granted was only a month and a half back).

Just please add the podcasting, name of track playing and if you can be arsed the last.fm capabilities and I'll be happy.
Especially the track playing.

Three Cheers for Acoustic Energy,
I did think of this device about three or four years back,
but I'm glad you finally made it.





P.S. There are already several other manufacturers producing these Internet Radios so if you are going to invest then do your research first.

Sunday, January 07, 2007

freecycle poetry

Whisk, dough hook and K beater. 1 bowl. 2 blenders.
Bit shabby but works well.
I'm just off City Road


freecycle.org

Saturday, January 06, 2007

Unhealthy Reading

I just looked at the back of one of our new books on display
at the library.

PRAISE FOR THE QUICKENING:
'Fiona McIntosh is a seductress. I have not moved from the sofa
for three days..'
Sydney Morning Herald

Three days without moving!!
No wonder everyone's getting obese and cholestoroled and tumoured to fuck.

So all ye readers. You may be developing your intellectual abilities and
stimulating the imagination lobes of your brain, but your body is being
screwed by inertia.

I'm going to suggest Health and Safety warning posters at the next staff meeting.

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

yew neared

Thanks fer the year that will truly be grateful,
and the mermen uncle tumpter
a playlisting sleepwalking skin milker,
I tended and tundered the night away
with Poles and other foreigners
while the monster slept.
We sang we danced and their powdered rises and falls were tides that gave my stable footing buoyancy til the sun shone
bright and I staggered down Camden and Holloway road
singing " all I wanna do is have some fun, blah blah blah,
I'm not the only one"