Then it was off to the Old Crown to celebrate Sylvia and Rob's wedding (coinciding with Dug and Nicki's anniversary). A very groovy evening, where I caught up on all the gossip that flies over my head while I'm at work and found out that:
- Ohna is the best dancer
- some film-makers are heading into academia
- there are many kinds of pathology
- Billy Connolly lost his virginity at the Red Lion caravan site in Arbroath
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Conversation turned to the question of secondary schools - a big topic among parents. We were sinking in a wave of nostalgia for the days when the only question about secondary schools was which one was nearest.
B-I
Had a nice afternoon at the school summer fair yesterday. It all started with a parade of drumming, whistling, singing kids following a giant fish through the streets. Could we be looking back in years to come at the birth of the Stroud Green Carnival? ("It all started with some primary school kids and a fish...")
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It was puke not poo. Does that make it better or worse? I suppose it depends on your theory of cat intentionality...
Bought a new cordless optical mouse yesterday. Got it all set up and working beautifully before I went to bed. Woke up this morning and found my cat had shit on it. What should I do? I'd thought of reciprocating by shitting on her favourite toys, but that would be the toilet and the bath...
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This is the best I could do by way of finding an example of work by Klaus Meyer. it's called Chance and is one of a series of wood and lino cuts he did to illustrate poems by Goethe.
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Article about blogging in the guardian today, including news of yet another bit of genius teenage programming in the form of a commenting application.
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Those kind xfm people gave me free tickets to go to the NFT last night and see Shellshock Rock, a 24-year old documentary about punk rock in Belfast. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed such things as 'Big Time' by Rudi. Ah, youth! And ah, the enthusiasm of Terri Hooley! He was the manager of Good Vibrations records. It was great to see him raving about how excited he was by it all, sticking on Big Time and then pogoing like a mad thing while sticking the Vs up at the camera.
The director, John T. Davis, introduced it and revealed a guilty secret about getting his film processed along with the day's news bulletins, by slipping it to the editors at the tv stations in the days when all the news items were on film.
Also enjoyed the Ed Wood-like attitude of The Outcasts recording You're A Disease:
Take one ends.
Pause.
'OK. That'll do. Now we'll try Frustration'
Good site on The Outcasts is here
This was part of the NFT's nearly over 'Never Mind The Jubilee' season, btw
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Just read the Guardian obituary of Klaus Meyer. I know almost nothing about him but now I wish I did. I especially like the sound of this:
Prepositions (1987) ... an enchanting series in which English prepositions enact their meanings in frolics with abstract shapes and colours.
I'm off to hunt down some of his work now.
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Went to see Apoa playing guitar with lots of kids from the local music scheme yesterday. A joyous celebration of the musical achievements of the kids. Plus a pretty scary outburst of road rage among the parents in the car park on the way in.
Me and Ohna tried the NYC cyclists' stop-and-look routine. Not sure if it worked, but nobody died and we all went on to admire the harmony inside the hall.
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a description of Green Day, who I'm going to see with my neighbour and his kids next month. Just me, Andrew and thousands of 12 year old boys. Should be 'interesting'.
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And dug has also posted a teeny snippet of the concert recorded with his little canon ixus digital camera:
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Here are some snaps which dug just posted from our weekend outing (click on pic for bigger version):
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from my desktop calendar B-)
Nice walk through the woods to the gig, using dug's GPS to make sure we didn't get lost.
The gig was very nice. A small crowd in a small field with a couple of small tents selling small bites and drinks. A small (i.e. young) support group and then a small set from Pulp. They were really good, even though no-one else seemed to have heard the rumour that they're splitting up.
Disappointingly, The Coral had cancelled so we'll have to keep eyes peeled for next time they're playing around here.
There were forest rangers, lots of marshals and traditional old bobbies with pointy hats. No misbehaviour of any kind. Toilets were as clean at the end of the evening as they were at the start and there was hardly even a queue. I have to say, it all seemed a bit twee compared to the kind of thing you get in Finsbury Park. I guess that's what the countryside is like?
We were very grateful for a lift back to our B&B from Ian and Pauline. Not sure if we were fit to operate the GPS by then.
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Off to see Pulp in Thetford Forest in Suffolk tomorrow. Seems like everyone's playing Pulp at the moment, including our very nice minicab driver last night. Not only was he pleasant and willing to follow whatever route we wanted to follow, he was also listening to a rather nice compilaton tape of people like the Stone Roses, the Smiths, Oasis, and Pulp. Not only that, his choices were a bit unpredictable - Slide Away by Oasis, and Sunrise by Pulp, which is the jazzy last track on We Love Life.
Looking forward to the concert, and also excited to discover that one of the support acts is The Coral. I've been snooping around their website and other links and have discovered that they make some seriously groovy music. As often, the NME's artist page for The Coral is one of the best sites about them.
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Had an unusual time in 'a secret location' last night. Simon Drake's House of Magic is 'somewhere in London'. It's a large house with lots of unusual spooky features. You have magicians doing tricks dotted around the house, lots of weird stuff to look at, and a haunted cellar to take a tour of. Later on, there's a magic show. The highlight of the magic show was the poor sod who had his head sawn off. He looked genuinely freaked out after it had been magically stuck on again.
They're not too precious about pretending it's real magic. The ghost in the cellar was happy to say 'don't touch the wires' and the card sharp refused to repeat a trick, since we'd 'know what to look for if I do it again'.
I hope the magicians aren't offended if I say that the most popular attraction with our crowd was the Addams Family pinball machine, complete with a hand in a box that would claim the ball every now and then.
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Mick McCarthy just reminded of me what the Spanish coach Jose Antonio Camacho said when someone suggested Spain had been lucky in beating Ireland:
WE'RE not lucky. It's the Irish who have a flower up their backside.
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Dear Google,
In case you don't know, I just wanted to tell you that the academics of the world are in love with you right now, thanks to the efficiency of your 'advanced search' function.
There's a buzz in the universities about the way that it allows academics to find sources which students have taken from the web and incorporated in their courseworks without acknowledgement.
The dons are delighted that one type of plagiarism is now very easy to detect. I don't suppose you can add a 'search print only' option, can you?
;-)
Just came back from a week in Scotland. The Streets sounds very different when you're surrounded by Scottish accents.
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Jonathan introduced me to Guided By Voices. Just read the nme review of their latest single, 'taken from their 978th album' B-)
The Guided By Voices website is one of the best artiste sites (let's face it, some of them are well dodgy). They bung loads of stuff on there, including chords for their songs, which is really cool, streaming e-cards, etc. etc.
Someone said to me they're a bit like the American Fall. Maybe they should be called 'The Autumn'?
I'm always collecting interesting examples of verbal behaviour, and the World Cup is a rich source of data. I've noticed that they're gonna hurt you has become a catchphrase among the pundits these days. And I'm going to spontaneously combust next time Bobby Robson continues his that's the Xth player I've bought this summer running gag.
My favourite recent expression was Mick McCarthy who was asked about his reactions from the dugout watching Ireland and said that it was one thing watching at home, or even playing, but that when you're the one sat there with your backside in the bacon slicer it's a different story. He's a master of metaphor as well as man management.
Let me know if you come across any other groovy examples.
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John sent a message to tell me about filmfour's forceometer. I liked Edward's replies:
John: This one's a bit lame, but worth it for the sound effects and the final assessment.
Edward: Like the films, then.
John: And you get to make up your own name.
Edward: That sounds like a pretty dark side thing to do to me.
John: The Force-o-meter on FilmFour.com has calculated that Darth Johnny is a virtual HAN SOLO. Find out whether you are drawn to the dark or light side of the force at http://www.filmfour.com/forceometer
Edward: Yoda is my best mate, apparently. Bollocks, he talks.
The quiz was a bit dull. The questions are a bit boring, the point of each one is too obvious and they go on forever before you get to the assessment at the end. But yes, the sound effects and the assessment are good. I'm Luke Skywalker. The force is strong with me. My father is evil, I fancy my sister and my face is kinda wonky, but nevertheless I have mastered my dark side. You are who you pretend to be, as they say ;-)
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Go on. You know you want to.
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You can read more here about the New Order gig.
Sofia Coppola, the Pet Shop Boys and Bobby Gillespie had to sit in a pile of mud to see them, but I just sat on my bathroom roof and listened - no vision, though so I didn't see that John Sim and Ralf Little were joining in on Digital B-(
As I type this I'm listening to Joy Division's Digital (the one that goes 'I feel it closing in, day in day out') being performed by New Order in the park at the bottom of the road. They've played a number of Joy Division songs tonight, including Love Will Tear Us Apart and Transmission but the most special one for me was a New Order song: Temptation. It reminded me of a few weeks ago when we gatecrashed a party across the road and as we danced to Temptation, Alan exclaimed that:
for a whole year of my life, NOTHING was more important than this song
I'm surprised to say that it's quite fun turning into an old fart.
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Don't leave your child's musical taste to chance - indoctrinate now!
You can hear examples if you visit the site.
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Well, she looked nervous on the starting line. She finished close to tears and holding her side. The only words I could get out of her were go and away. The things which upset her were:
- fell over and hurt her knee
- got a stitch
- finished nearer the end than the front
- wishes she was Martha (who finished first)
Ouch!
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Well, I'm off to see Kiloh running a mile for charity now (local fun run that they do every year). She decided to run round the block to practice yesterday. By the time she got back, she was crawling on all fours, panting "exhausted, exhausted". I hope she does better with the adrenalin of the real thing.
btw, if anyone would like to sponsor her let me know - the proceeds go to Action For Kids
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Just read a story about the last time Rodney Marsh ever played for England under Alf Ramsey. Apparently, Alf said to Marsh 'If you don't work hard enough, I'll pull you off at half time.' Marsh replied, 'That's incredible, Alf. At QPR, we just get an orange.'
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This is my favourite star wars site:
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Just went to see Attack of the Clones. I spent half an hour afterwards explaining it to the two 9 year olds I brought with me. Don't want to spoil the ending for anyone who hasn't seen it (is there anyone?), but neither of them had come close to understanding just how serious the situation was at the end. If you are taking kids, I recommend they spend a few days watching the Parliament Channel and a few episodes of Newsnight before going to see it.
Maybe the whole thing is a complicated exercise in irony based on resemblances between kids in the audience and the members of the senate who cheer happily as they hand over those 'temporary special powers'? (Thanks, Jar Jar).
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writing and crunching through some numbers from a series of experiments. Not sure whether to admit that this is partly because I don't want to take a day off in recognition of some birthday or other. 20 years ago, me and my work colleagues insisted on working (in The Other Record Shop - a now legendary ex-establishment in Aberdeen) on the day that Charles and Diana got married. They made us do some stock-taking, since nobody was around trying to buy records.
The thing is, I hope I'm working through apathy, which is the real opposite of love. I was reminded that 'love and hate are two sides of the same coin' when I read this story about sexual tension coming to the boil in Jerusalem
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God save the queen The fascist regime It made you a moron A potential H-bomb
God save the queen She ain't no human being There is no future In England's dreaming
Don't be told what you want Don't be told what you need There's no future No future No future for you
God save the queen We mean it man We love our queen God saves
God save the queen Cos tourists are money And our figurehead Is not what she seems
God save history God save your mad parade Lord god have mercy All crimes are paid
When there's no future how can there be sin We're the flowers in the dustbin We're the poison in the human machine We're the future Your future
God save the queen We mean it man We love our queen God saves
God save the queen We mean it man There is no future In England's dreaming
No future No future No future for you
No future No future No future for me
No future No future No future for you
No future No future for you
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