My bike is in surgery today so I decided to enjoy the brave new world of more buses, shrinking journeys, and so on.

Please god don't let it happen again.

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My brothers show is on this week and my family are so busy that I have to go three times, once with Ohna, once with Apoa and once with Kiloh (Stefanie's going on her own).

Ohna did a night a shoot last night so she got home at 6.30 this morning and got into bed in time for me to get up.

Meanwhile, me and Kiloh are only 120 pages away from the end of the Harry Potter book. Only 649 pages in and we're already getting a feeling that something might actually happen soon. OK, I am being a bit unfair. I have enjoyed it. The Ofstedding of Hogwarts is fun, and the bit where you find out more about his dad and mum and the other growns when they were at school is really good. But I do think it would have been a much better book if the first 650 pages had been reduced to around 100 pages. On the other hand, the kids do like all the detail. Anyway, I spent most of the evening last night reading it and we had to continue over breakfast. Looking forward to another instalment tonight.

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Did a few fun things this weekend, including skating with Kiloh and her friend Sally, who hurt her feet because her socks were too short. Hope they're mending now. Also went to see a tribute to Peter Tinniswood at the NFT, which was fun, although I was expecting a bit more talking than we got.

But the highlight of the weekend was visiting our little local library where I not only became a hero by getting 8 Mile out but also discovered that they now stock graphic novels (OK, comic books). The first thing you see as you come in the door are rows of brand new books just waiting to be borrowed. I started by getting a collection of rare and not so rare work by R Crumb called Odds and Ends, a Daniel Clowes collection that I haven't read yet and the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen which I also haven't read yet but feel I should before that awful-looking film comes out and ruins everything.

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Raising Victor Vargas does have a lot in common with Kids. New York, sex-obsessed kids, realism, realistic dialogue, good performances, a swimming pool,... But it's much less gruesome, with no HIV-related plot or anything. Believe it or not, it's also got a lot in common with American Pie. It's more realistic and not over-the-top/cartoony, but the characters have a similar innocence and the same obsession with sex. And there's one clear echo, which might or might not be deliberate, when one of the female characters tells her man that he is 'my bitch'.

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There's an interesting little story about film in the interview with Emo Philips in this week's Friday Thing:

In his absence, some of you may have seen his name attached to the Robert De Niro/Ben Stiller farce 'Meet the Parents'. You probably thought, that must be nice for Emo. But no.

Philips made a film called 'Meet the Parents' for £22,000 in 1991 - which he showed at Edinburgh, and at the NFT and which got rave reviews on the arts pages. Universal bought the remake rights and then, seven years later, butchered it in the remake.

'They put my name on the film in the same way we name streets after Indians we've massacred,' he explains. 'I haven't been to the cinema since. I hated the ending. In mine, everyone died. But then, mine was a film and theirs was a movie. In a film, anything can happen. In a movie, you know exactly what's going to happen. But I've learnt my lesson. I'm not planning to do any more movies. I know my limitations. I'm a good stand-up. A lot of my contemporaries are now writing gags for sitcoms. That's rather like giving up bullfighting and becoming a meat packer.'

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Went to see a fairly mad Orson Welles movie last night called Mr. Arkadin, also known as 'Confidential Report' (I seem to be on a run of movies with more than one title). It started off reminding me of the backwards Seinfeld episode but the film it most reminded us of was Beat The Devil, which it was even more hammy than and not as consistently entertaining as (ooh, dangling prepositions, you won't tell, will you?). It was so over the top that it was hard to take seriously and the main character was really horrible, so it wasn't really that engaging, but there were still some fun scenes, including a really funny turn by Michael Redgrave.

Afterwards, Geoff wanted to show me the architecture in Southwark tube station. When we asked if I could go in for a look and come out again, they sold me a platform ticket for 40p, which was quite exciting (you have to come out again within 70 minutes). The station is definitely worth seeing, btw, but the best way is to take the tube there and start from the platform.

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Just read this in the Guardian's backbencher email:

Arkansas NBC ('Coverage You Can Count On') was in polemical mood last week. 'Carl Miner of Blytheville has gotten a very important lesson on why voters should go to the polls,' it admonished readers. 'Miner was on Tuesday's ballot, unopposed for a school board seat in south Mississippi County. No one voted for him - and the candidate didn't even cast a ballot for himself.' Common oversight, surely? 'Miner says he tried to vote but the polling place near his zone was closed,' reports the channel, adding perspicaciously: 'He says he thinks he gets the seat because no one else was on the ballot.' It was the first time in Mississippi County that a whole precinct had failed to vote. Now that's what the Backbencher calls post- democracy.

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Saw a kid stealing a lift on the back of a lorry this morning. Haven't seen that for a long time. I think it was one of those moralistic cyclists who finally made him get off, but he made it most of the way from the top of Blackstock Road to the bottom of Highbury Grove.

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When it rains you can really smell the poo on the Parkland Walk

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Finally made it to see Belleville Rendezvous (or 'Les Triplettes de Belleville' if you're watching it in a Francophone country) last night. Well worth the wait and definitely makes you cycle differently after you've seen it.

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This is for anyone who thought Budleigh Salterton was boring. Jed and Ruth have never mentioned this, and they also kept pretty quiet about the nudist beach for a long time (apparently, the closer you get to Exmouth the wilder it gets). I found this after discovering that 'budleigh salterton nudist beach' was a search phrase which led some surfers to the Lecture List page.

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According to the BBC Black Dice review Jonathan mentioned, these are the groups who will clutch this to their hearts. I've now heard two 29-second excerpts and it sounds good to me. I find you can enjoy it through headphones which you're not even wearing, which is kinda special.

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Jonathan says:

hi, how are you doing - thought I should let you know about Black Dice, who you may already know about. I'm currently in love with their album and this is a review of one of their gigs from a while back.

crayzee man

Today's afternoon play is written and directed by Jim Poyser, so it's bound to be good, and funny.

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Just got back on track with Eastenders in time for Dirty Den's return. They've just done a really bizarre thing with Vicky's accent. Vicky is Michelle's daughter, born and raised in the states, who recently came back to the square to hang out with her half sister and who now also lives with her recently discovered half brother (who, btw, has sexual feelings towards the other half sister, which she half shares but is in denial about), who is about to meet her long-presumed-dead father who didn't die in the canal a couple of decades ago after all. (God, it's like a bleedin soap opera, innit?)

Anyway, Vicky (who is apparently a graduate of the Mountview Theatre School down the road from us) has just come back to the square after going home and then visiting Europe for a bit and her accent has suddenly changed to a slightly weird version of an English one. I need to re-view the omnibus to hear the exact exchange but one of the characters commented on it and she gave a reply which suggested that this was something she decided to do since she had decided to fit in. Since then we've noticed a very English 'a' in 'can't' and then a self-correction when she said was going to 'see a movie' and then tutted and changed it to 'going to the cinema'. Does anybody else find all of this just a wee bit unrealistic?

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Had a good weekend with Robbie. Ohna and Kiloh were away camping and Apoa had a number of engagements so it was good to have some company. It was Open House Weekend so we had a look in St. Pancras Chambers, which used to be a big posh hotel and is about to be redeveloped into ... a big posh hotel. Also had fun at a comedy night on Saturday. I had my mind read and Robbie got picked on a wee bit (so you're single? since? did she dump you or did you dump her? somebody else? that's even worse, isn't it?) The main act were Men In Coats who do really good visual comedy, even if they did repeatedly fire a water pistol in my face for a few seconds.

I'm off now (well, not actually moving, but you know) to listen to the Afternoon Play on Radio 4. It's 'Occasional Swim' by Annie McCartney who's really good. The website says:

Rosa and Colm meet at their local pool, and romance soon blossoms. But Colm's past requires more than a little explanation.

The thing about the guy with a past is really typical of Annie McCartney's work, which often has to do with people working out what the deal is with other people (and often getting it wrong at first).

For some reason, I'm suddenly thinking of the gun in the drawer when David Hunter first moved into the Crossroads Motel, but her stuff is in a whole different universe from that, of course.

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dug occasionally posts a message about pop lyrics. I still don't know which song the last lot came from.

But I've been having fun reading the lyrics to Violaine by the Cocteau Twins. For the full effect, you need to be listening while reading them, of course.

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I've read this in so many emails in the past few days I can almost recite it by heart. I'm too lazy to check out the source or anything.

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.

This is fun and sometimes also serious.

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This is really sad news from the linguistics department at Durham, which is definitely one of the best in the country.

Dear Colleagues,

Last June we announced the proposals by the University of Durham to close its highly successful and internationally respected Department of Linguistics and English Language. We have been very gratified over the past three months with the amount of support and solidarity we have been shown by the linguistics community in general and the LAGB in particular. University administrators themselves have commented that they were surprised by the number of letters they received on our behalf.

Nevertheless, the university administration has chosen to ignore our research rating, our teaching excellence, our international standing and the arguments of the worldwide community of linguists. It is with deep regret that we let you know that the University Executive Council has decided to close the Department of Linguistics and English Language at the University of Durham. No redeployment is being proposed, although negotiations are apparently in progress with the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, with a view to transferring the linguists at Durham to that institution. However, that move would obviously require the full support (including financial backing) of HEFCE, and as yet we have no idea whether that will be forthcoming.

We will keep the list informed of any further developments. Once again, we would like to express our heartfelt thanks to all our supporters.

The Lecture List project is coming along nicely at the moment. There are a lot of different things to be doing at once, but we're getting there. We've got a data entry screen up now so that anyone can input data about forthcoming talks. We're hoping that kind people will use the form even though we won't be giving the talks much publicity yet. If you hear of anything, please fire away.

I'm a bit disappointed that this rather groovy project probably doesn't count. If I can get enough stuff done in the next half hour I might try to get along to tonight's event. It's not looking too promising at the moment, though.

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The version of 'Let It Be' with Phil Spector's production input removed is coming out in November. xfm report it here

Seems like a pretty extreme version of a director's cut, especially since it's not clear how many directors there were, nor what John Lennon would think of it. I'm quite pleased that 'Don't Let Me Down' is going to be on it, partly cos it's a nice song but also cos the kids used to do a good version of it when they were wee. Mind you, they originally got into Gene's version rather than the one by the beatles band, believe it or not.

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Casper writes:

For the readers who don't have an encyclopaedic knowledge of your archives, this is the post I was referring to (yes, I did read that far back):

http://blogs.pumpernickle.net/billy/permalinker/?pid=22&blog=billy

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Just had a message from Casper, who was a student I taught a long time ago. Among other things, he says:

'I don't remember Deirdre Wilson as being any more au fait with popular culture than you, although her lectures were great.

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Here's a nice long message for you. Looks like they're getting less frequent but bigger at the moment.

Apoa's in her final year of primary school now which means it's time for us to come face to face with the tragic reality of England's education system (actually, the system as a whole isn't bad but the secondary transfer deal is terrible if you live in a decent-sized town or city). Historians will remember that it all went particularly wrong in the 80's when Thatcher decided to give choice to schools and to a small percentage of families, while leaving the majority to worry.

We're lucky in that we have a good state school just down the road from us, even though it's just for girls (until sixth form). Apoa's quite likely to get in there, but we can't be completely sure. I think I've gotten over my aversion to single-sex education enough to go for that if she gets in.

If she doesn't get in there, then the only thing we'll know for sure is that they won't send her to one of the other choices we put on our form (since they'll fill up with people who have put them down as a first choice). So we've decided to let her try for two selective schools, which means I have now to get over my aversion to selection (you know, that thing that there would be none of under a Labour government, according to the writing on David Blunkett's lips).

I went to the grownups-only open evening on Monday and I have to admit I was feeling physically sick by the end of the evening. I think the main cause was being reminded of my problems with selection, but it was added to by the presentations from the staff who said a little about education and a lot about why everyone should think carefully before putting their kid in for the exams and about the standards the kids will need to meet to get in. It reminded me of those helplines where the message begins by asking you to think carefully about whether you really want to be phoning. Then there was the general 'scramble for the lifeboats' atmosphere among the audience, which was pretty unwholesome. I think only one question was a general one and all the others were about the questioner's kid and their chances of getting in.

Last night, we went back for the grownups+kids open evening and got a much better impression. The kids were very friendly and relaxed, and seemed to be enjoying being at the school. Anyway, I guess it's up to Apoa really, and she seemed to think it looked pretty good. There were a few famous linguists and a showbiz celebrity in the audience and a most enjoyable standoff between two cars on a narrow road on the way home. One of the cars had a bus up its exhaust pipe but the other one still wouldn't back down. Glad I'm no longer a car owner.

Robert Elms had a piece about secondary transfer in Time Out last week but I can't point you directly to it as you have to pay to get it online.

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Some of the Haringey branch of the London Cycling Campaign are off to see Belleville Rendezvous on Tuesday, since it's got a cycling theme. I can't go but, funnily enough, Ohna came home from the library on Saturday with Vittorio di Sica's Bicycle Thieves, as well as both Waynes World movies for the kids.

The kids enjoyed 'partying on', and found both films 'excellent'. It was interesting to see how much they'd dated, which I guess is inevitable with something that's basically just a silly idea and is based on a particular pop culture moment. There was also some humour that had to be explained to the kids, mainly the jokes that were based on the idea that this was a movie made by Wayne and Garth, e.g. product placement jokes and the bit with the subtitled Cantonese where Wayne stops speaking and waits for ages while the translation comes up at the bottom of the screen.

The Bicycle Thieves is one of those classic movies I've actually seen a few times, but I enjoyed it just as much this time. The actors playing the two main characters were amazing, especially since they were amateur actors, and I've always liked the idea of films with real people and locations in them. Viewing it was also affected by having seen The Player where a key event is Griffin Mill's trip to see the Bicycle Thieves, which represents the kind of great cinema Griffin has moved far away from, and also of course has a main character who is driven to badness by the cruelty of social circumstance, which will have a particular significance for Griffin.

Since the videos were due back today, I then had to get on my bike at 1am and go and post them through the library letterbox, taking in a fox or two on the way. I remember seeing my first fox in London, probably in the late 80s, and being amazed. Now it seems like it's only a matter of time before they start applying for council houses and taking our jobs.

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I forgot to mention that Donald Davidson also climbed mountains and wrote radio plays (some of which featured Edward G. Robinson). I wonder what he'd have made of The Dark House?

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Just heard this conversation:

'Johnny Cash just died.'

'Oh, is he still alive?'

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Those lyrics take ages to load, so here they are (sorry I couldn't be bothered to make them lay themselves out properly):

Ballad Of A Teenage Queen

Artist: Johnny Cash (peak Billboard position # 14 in 1958)

Words and Music by Jack H. Clement

(Dream on, dream on teenage queen prettiest girl we've ever seen) There's a story in our town Of the prettiest girl around Golden hair and eyes of blue How those eyes could flash at you (How those eyes could flash at you) Boys hung 'round her by the score But she loved the boy next door who worked at the candy store (Dream on, dream on teenage queen prettiest girl we've ever seen)

She was tops in all they said It never once went to her head She had everything it seems Not a care, this teenage queen (Not a care, this teenage queen) Other boys could offer more But she loved the boy next door who worked at the candy store (Dream on, dream on teenage queen you should be a movie queen)

He would marry her next spring Saved his money, bought a ring Then one day a movie scout Came to town to take her out (Came to town to take her out) Hollywood could offer more So she left the boy next door working at the candy store (Dream on, dream on teenage queen see you on the movie screen)

Very soon she was a star Pretty house and shiny car Swimming pool and a fence around But she missed her old home town (But she missed her old home town) All the world was at her door All except the boy next door who worked at the candy store (Dream on, dream on teenage queen saddest girl we've ever seen)

Then one day the teenage star Sold her house and all her cars Gave up all her wealth and fame Left it all and caught a train (Left it all and caught a train) Do I have to tell you more She came back to the boy next door who worked at the candy store (Now this story has some more, you'll hear it all at the candy store)

Transcribed by Ronald E. Hontz

Just heard that he died. The first thing that immediately springs to mind about him is his music. I was listening to an early song by him recently called 'Ballad of a Teenage Queen' (lyrics here) which I'd love to make a promo video for, and we were all enjoying the most recent Rick Rubin-produced album last Christmas. The second thing I remember is how he told an audience he had Parkinson's Disease. Apparently, he dropped his plectrum and then nearly fell over trying to pick it up. When he said he had Parkinson's the audience laughed, thinking it was a joke, and he replied 'It ain't funny. But it's all right. I refuse to give it some ground in my life'

They're just talking about him on xfm right now.

Berkeley have put up a page with links to obituaries of Donald Davidson, including a brief interview with Richard Rorty on NPR

This is a good blog for semanticists.