Paperback books
Thursday, October 24, 2002
I did some scans for The Weird Worlds of A. E. van Vogt. (Click on books to see full-sized pictures.)
ω 5:29:00 PM.
Outrage in Moscow
Chechen mujaheddin (fundamentalist Muslim guerrillas) have taken a thousand people hostage in a theatre in Moscow. The building has been mined - these are suicide bombers. Their website has the latest news. [via Fark]'Responsibility for the prevailing situation in the final analysis completely lies on the Kremlin, which continues its colonial war in Chechnya, and is accompanied by daily seizures of hostages by "unidentified federals", tortures, executions - entire nightmare, about which Russian press does not speak practically and does not desire to let the Russian public know it.'ω 8:18:00 AM.
nifty
CuriousLee links three rave Hiptop reviews. The Hiptop (also known as the Sidekick) gives you wireless web pages, email, SMS text messaging, AIM, PDA, mobile phone, games, keyboard, blogging and digital camera in your pocket. Gimme gimme. Now I can take a picture and have it online in seconds from any location. Amazing.Krzysztof Kowalczyk writes on Why Hiptop will be successful. ω 6:22:00 AM.
My My Music, It's the music that I like to hear
Tuesday, October 22, 2002
Guitarist Wilko Johnson was the focal point of pub-rock band Dr. Feelgood for me. With staring eyes and jerky movements he plays the guitar staccato-fashion like he is machine-gunning the enemy. But then if you close your eyes you can hear the perfectly-timed notes played in tight, spare style.This site has a good well-illustrated discography, and don't miss A Bit About Myself - the woman who makes this site is a fan in the best possible sense. ω 9:56:00 AM.
Lead with Knowledge
Monday, October 21, 2002
Infoworld notices that Apple has all the parts of the puzzle. ω 7:39:00 PM.Kindred
You Don't Know Dick by Jonathan Lethem is an long-time fan's summary of the books of Philip K. Dick, now being republished by Vintage. (The K stands for Kindred!)"When Vintage completes the cycle in another couple of years, it will have made available all of the '50s and '60s SF novels -- the ten or fifteen books that originally made Dick's underground reputation and the twenty-some weaker titles that always kept that reputation hobbled."ω 12:20:00 AM.
Top Gear shifts down: Jeremy and Alan
Sunday, October 20, 2002
If you close your eyes when Jeremy Clarkson is raving on the BBC's Top Gear -- which is quite likely because instead of being an interesting programme about cars, it is now personality-based postmodern macho crap -- then you can hear the voice of Alan Partridge. And he's got a little friend in the studio too: "if this car is the future then bring it onnnnn". Yuck.Actually the little friend is not Quentin Wilson, he has left or maybe he is just leaving a very long pause in one of his sentences. The little friend is from a new generation.
Another innovation is that they have people in the studio watching while they masturbate over cars. They applauded after Clarkson revved up a big engine.
Bring back William Woollard! ω 7:35:00 PM.
In your room
Friday, October 18, 2002
There's another intriguing documentary in the BBC's Correspondent series on Sunday: Japan: The Missing Million about hikikomori: a million Japanese boys who won't come out of their rooms."Tadashi is slowly re-entering society. He still fears meeting strangers and is petrified that neighbours will find out that he once suffered from the disorder.ω 1:07:00 PM.
But what bothers him most is not understanding why he lost four years of his life."
HSBC - What does that stand for?
Once the Grandmothers in Argentina were demonstrating silently against the government, protesting against hundreds of political assassinations of those citizens who came to be known as The Disappeared.Now the Grandmothers' money has disappeared as all the banks have closed their frontages with metal shutters and barriers, against which the suddenly penniless middle classes bang saucepans every day in protest. One bank I noticed a lot in a TV documentary the other night (Argentina - You've Been Tango'd) was HSBC, (formerly the Midland Bank) who like the other banks have physically flown all the money out of the country.
It's a terrible thing for Argentina, but I would not imagine their savers' money means much to the banks, considered on a global basis. As ever, globalization only occurs when it suits the big corporations. The country will take longer to recover their economy with less cash in the system.
Later on TV that evening, the "Drama Premiere" of Sirens was sponsored by HSBC. I was in two minds about whether to watch it. ω 12:24:00 PM.
Genuine or Troll?
Wednesday, October 16, 2002
Columnist David Fanning at Macworld has compiled a list of nine dodgy sites. Can you tell which ones are real and which are spoofs?Bonsai Kitten
Down's Syndrome Dolls
Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership
Kim Daewoo Dogmeat Company
Landover Baptist Church
Mike Corley
Mission: America
PigeonRank
10k4awife.com ω 2:34:00 PM.
Fame at last
Danny Baker's morning radio show on London Live is great fun. No music, just chat and banter for three hours. It's mad. They like making lists, and now I have my name on one: the album giveaway. I decided to go for the greatest live album of all time: Space Ritual by Hawkwind. If that was taken I would go for 801 Live by 801 (Eno and Manzanera). I got my first choice, and so for all time, my name is against that album. That album is mine for ever. The list is closed. That is the way it works. ω 6:40:00 AM.Enzo writes, and having written moves on
Tuesday, October 15, 2002
Zen Merlin Slocombe, who has scratched his tag ENZO on hundreds of tube train windows, has gone on the run. Is he in East Finchley? The Barnet Press said Croatia, I think.Spike Milligan's gothic mansion has gone up for sale. ω 3:59:00 PM.
Don't AQI with me!
Or AQI doesn't hack it. Writing these stupid headlines is more difficult than the text. I take my hat off to all sub-editors everywhere.AQI is a rising inflection at the end of a question - or a statement! I quote from a sociolinguistic survey from 1989:
Australian Questioning Intonation
AQI is used more by working class than middle class, teenagers than adults, people under 20 (6 times more) than people over 20 and females than males
AQI may denote uncertainty and deference but has other functions as well, e.g. in narratives and among peers
The primary function of AQI is to seek verification of the listener's comprehension.
Other sources suggest that approval, rather than verification, is sought.
AQI and my reaction to it is mirrored here by Gina Snowdoll; briefly the AQI (also known as HRT: High Rise Terminal) which was quite mild and almost charming -- especially in the New Zealand accent -- has now been strengthened in its spread around the youth of Europe and probably everywhere else. I still can't decide whether its use in London means that people are unsure of every statement they make or perhaps they are not certain that they will be comprehended: a passive-aggressive insult to the listener. Uncertainty is also manifested in the USA by inserting "sort of", "like" and "kinda" in every statement and this habit has spread here too. The effect is that one is unsure what kind of response is being sought: agreement, information, approval? Who can say. They undermine everything they say. It's frustrating. It blocks communication.
Those who like windmill-tilting or lying down in front of juggernauts may care to fight back in the interests of re-education, so here is my handy guide with suggested responses to current verbal nonsense. I reckon that brooking no nonsense and being pompous is better than Gina's angry rejoinders, although both could get you in trouble with the humourless.
Question: We spent the weekend in Brighton? Answer: It could have been Southend - that has a pier too.
Question: I'm staying with my Mother? Answer: Is this the same Mother you had yesterday? (or:) You could ask her for your birth certificate in order to prove her status.
Question: I'm actually on-time this morning? Answer: But you're not late. (This is a tough one: the word "actually" has a meaning.)
Question: And I was like: how dare you! Answer: You should have said something.
Question: I need to get there by four? to book the projector? Answer: Which question first?
Question: Did you even try? Answer: What else didn't I do?
Question: And your name would be? Answer: A proper noun.
Question: And your name is... Answer:
(Silence is golden. If they never manage to complete the sentence, or are incapable of forming a question, then query whether they want to know what your name is. Or the ruder version:)
Question: And your name is... Answer: You'll never guess.
Question: Hey it's really cold, know what I mean? Answer: Yes, I do know what you mean. It is a simple concept and you expressed it clearly. (extra points for saying this in a Patrick Moore voice)
Question: I just want to get on with my life? Answer: Please don't consider suicide at your tender age.
Question: There were like five of them? Answer: Four or six?
Question: I live in Romford, right? Answer: Wrong!
Question: I have to say they make it look easy. Answer: Why do you have to say that?
Question: To be honest, I don't mind traffic jams. Answer: Was everything else you said untrue?
Question: What we're talking about is the comms aspect? Answer: I never mentioned comms.
Question: It's all about communication. Answer: What is?
Question: An interesting tiled effect - you've got a whole tiled thing going there. Answer: They are tiles.
On the telephone:
Question: Who's that? Answer: But you rang me!
This list is dedicated to my pedantic acquaintance "corrector"
Cracking Contraptions
The new Wallace and Gromit film is available online!Expensive t-shirts with warchalking symbols are available from Chunk.
Everything's available somewhere. You just have to decide whether you want to pay the price. ω 11:45:00 AM.
Bali Bombs
Sunday, October 13, 2002
There is a lot of information about the terrible attack in Indonesia at LGF in a discussion thread that contains some anger and some well-informed background data, from people all around the world.From another LGF thread:
"US media coverage on the Bali attack has been schizoid--nothing on television but front page status on the major Web and print publications--NY Times, Wash Post, MSNBC, etc. Even Fox and CNN are focusing on the DC sniper case.
Is it part of the parochial nature of television journalism over print? How else to explain this cleavage in thought by print versus broadcast media? "
Update: Clive James, one of Britain's favourite Australians, writes in the Guardian. Don't blame the west.
Alma Mater in big trub
I've been emailed via Friendsreunited.com with the news that my old school Finchley County Grammar School may be sold off and probably demolished! Please visit the website if you can help prevent this. There's just time to send an email: the council are discussing it on Monday! Yikes. I would have thought that FCS's history and utility and integral war memorial would have prevented this.This shiny new Tory council are no respecters of tradition or what people want. Having tried to scupper the artsdepot, they have also decided to sell off the beautiful Friern Barnet Town Hall with its historic wartime bunker complex. Without these buildings of quality, Barnet will be a dreary-looking place. At least the old town hall is a grade 2 listed building, but my school, which opened 98 years ago, has no such protection. ω 12:06:00 AM.
Passez les temps
Friday, October 11, 2002
Be Big Brother! at the Radio Taxis site you can monitor the journeys of four GPS-equipped cabs driving around London, making patterns on your screen. [link via antenna]Amazon have souped up their recommendations so that you can give them ratings of albums or books etc., or tell it what you don't like, from a list of 105 suggestions. The trick is to get all 105 titles to be ones that you might really buy. It's interesting how often it recommends things that one already owns. My top five recommendations after fiddling with this busy-work are now Live 1990 ~ Hawkwind; Flying Teapot ~ Gong; Fish Rising ~ Steve Hillage; Banana Moon ~ Daevid Allen and Spacebrock ~ Dave Brock, which would all fill holes in my collection. Although why Amazon thinks that I would want Pasolini films, I don't know. I remember staggering out of the Phoenix cinema in East Finchley at 3am after about fifty-seven of the one-thousand-and-one Arabian Nights.
Amazon also has lists compiled by us humble consumers, such as the 25 Greatest Brit-Psych Albums by keithbarlog, a Psych-Guru, which includes bands like Tomorrow (songs like Incredible journey of Timothy Chase; Auntie Mary's dress shop; Three jolly little dwarfs) and July (who?) as well as the acknowledged classics. Lists link to other lists. Mmm, lots of lists. ω 1:58:00 AM.
Gizmos that would make 007 blush
Saturday, October 05, 2002
The Guardian newspaper's special report on privacy, Big Brother, is now all online. ω 11:12:00 AM.Can you actually kill yourself with laxative pills? - Neil the boring hippie
Friday, October 04, 2002
Warner Bros Home Video presents The Young Ones: Every Stoopid Episode (1982, 1984) now available on DVD in the USA, "mostly uncut":"The 2.0 mono soundtrack sounds quite good, with the raucous music having nice definition and presence. Dialogue is generally clear, though the thick accents make the subtitles highly useful."
Rumpole of the Bailey: The Complete First and Second Seasons (12 hours long) is also out in the USA. In the UK we have series one and two as separate sets.
Meanwhile I've just bought Rock Follies (Season One) and I am considering the UFO box sets, while drooling over the prospect of Hammer House Of Horror - Complete TV Series (4 Disc Box Set) and Hammer Horror Originals (3 Disc Box Set) and Hammer Horror Selection (5 Disc Box Set).
I don't mean maybe
Thursday, October 03, 2002
It could very well be ... The True Story of How Be Bop A Lula was Written -- as told by "MG". [from the official Gene Vincent web site]'Although I have no connections or even interest in Rock 'N Roll, I can shed a bit of light on the origins of the song "Be Bop A Lula." In 1954, while serving in the US Navy, I was injured in a motorcycle accident in Paleremo, Sicily. After treatment in an Army hospital in Germany, I was sent to the US Naval Hospital in Portsmouth, Virginia, about February, 1955. While there, I was in a ward with Don Graves, and we subsequently met Gene.'
How about collecting Golden Earring - they've made forty albums and as many singles.
John Otway's fans have promised him a second hit single this week to celebrate his fiftieth birthday, so get down to your record shop and buy a copy of Bunsen Burner. "It's not a mix, it's a compound!" The sleeve lists all one thousand backing singers on a version of House of the Rising Sun. It had better be a hit because Otway has booked the London Palladium on Sunday to celebrate.
.XML
Wednesday, October 02, 2002
The Wibbly Weblog, for what it's worth, is now available in the very useful RSS format. Scrape up http://www.enkil.demon.co.uk/WibblyWebBloggerss.xml and stick it in your aggregator. (Maybe soon in the lovely Gbloogle search engine too!) ω 2:02:00 PM.
sigh...
Tuesday, October 01, 2002
Americans who are opposed to violence, including nuns, are being put on a no-fly blacklist. Mr. bin Laden must be overjoyed with this stupid mess. [via morons.org] ω 5:32:00 PM.
Comments by: YACCS.
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