I am going to allow Keanu Reeves to ,live

I have just been to see the film "a scanner darkly". This is the film of the book by Philip K. Dick. I was worried that Keanu Reeves would be bored and totally fuck this film up. I would then have to go round and give him a bit of a slap. Any way Reeves was on fine foem. As many of the reviewers have noted a large of the film is about stoners talking bollocks to each other. I can't help feeling that they are having a better time than me. It was first time I had been to the Grosvner cinema in the West End of Glasgow. There was a lonely corridor that I walked down. No one to take tickets. I was on my own at the start of the film. At the end of the film, I saw a couple in the half darkness huddeled together in a profesional manner staring at me. I walked back down the lonely corridor and out from the bar into the soaking rain. The puddles glistened and I walked over the bridge to my flat.

Being number one

I was explaining to my mum that even although I hadn't produced any grandchildren and that I don't have a full time job, I don't see how I can viewed as a failure because my web pages are at the top of the google rankings for "mcneile". As I was looking down the rankings I saw some very disturbing wikepedia enteries. The entry I worry about the most is that of Hugh McNeile. I am told that Rev. Hugh McNeile was an ancestor of mine. There will no doubt be some vast christian consperancy of people linking to his page that will knock my pages from number one. What hurts the most is that there is already a big statue of rev Hugh McNeile is St Georges's hall in Liverpool. The dude is dead. Why can't I be number one on google. I will take my fall from google grace with good cheer. Certainly no one should worry when the inevitable happens people will come into work and see a pool of blood seeping under my office door. When the door is kicked down, they will pull my blood stained finger from the screen where my lifeless corpse points to my web pages being second on google Perhaps I should set up a MySpace page for Rev Hugh McNeile. If he was a friend of Bryon, he probably liked chicks.

lastFM

I have been playing with the LASTFM site. This is a social networking site where the software records what you listen to. Then other people can suggest similar tracks. I am still learning how to use the site. I am listening to what lastFM describe as a hardcore station. Umm, the first band was called Mr Bangles.....

The

The BBC linked to a Times story about the 100 top web sites. As part of the comments, someone noted that they look at Julian Copes's web site for new underground music. So I checked out the site. Julian recommended the band "Vincent Black Shadow" as an album of the month. I am ashamed to say, that I looked up "vincent black shadow" on Amazon. I know that I have probably failed you for my lack of committment to underground music. Amazon found, a band called "The Vincent Black Shadow". But the the is different. I clicked on the link that Julian provided and his band provide tape and vinyl, and are below Amazon and myspace. I felt so ashamed. I frankly don't see how following Julian Cope's album of the month is going to get me laid more, still onward we must go. The Vincent Black Shadow is some kind of motorbike. How is this related to the vincent white lighting that Richard Thompson sang about? But what do I do about the amazon listing for the "The Vincent Black Shadow". One of the track listings looks cool. What would Julian do? Perhaps "The Vincent Black Shadow" are cooler than "Vincent Black Shadow". I have seen Julian Cope play at the student guild in Liverpool. He is the man, but for five pounds can I go wrong? There was a film where the woman split with a guy becaue hw used "my child" rather than "our child". Can we fall out over "the"?

In search of excellence

I have just finished reading the book "in search of excellence" by Tom Peters and Waterman. This was about the besr run companies in America during the late 70s and early 80s. Some of it is sort of dated. They really like the IBM that made mainframes, and are also very enthusiastic about the IBM sales force. I remember that many people hated IBM because the sales force would sell computers to the IT managers, but the people who used the machines hated the systems. This book was meant to be very influenciable, but after it was written many US companies started to downsize their workforce. Another thing they got wrong was "pringles". One of their favourite companies had developed pringles crisps. They originally lost money. I am actually scared of pringles crisps because if I buy a tube it usually lasts about 2 hours. So I fondly look at them (as well as Tesco vodka) at the supermarket, but usually don't buy them. I can't believe somethibg so addictive is a failure.

music hunting

Soem songs I hear on the radio just haunt you. I still remember hearing Kevin Coyne play "keep on cycling " on the John Peel Show. Some of these tracks live with me for a while, but at some stage they need to be found and played. One track I heard was about Syd Barret. The band went for tea at his house. In ths past I would have to search for these things. But now google is my friend and the band istelevision personalities. Flushed with the success of that I looked for a song with the chorus "if I had an Armalite Rifle". I now think this may have been the the gang of four But I can't find the track on itunes...

post Moscow

I am back from Moscow. I would have blogged from the hotel, but the people at the cyber cafe never seemed that happy when I wanted to use their computers. The guardian has an article on visiting Moscow. Personally I was looking fowrad to talking to some gangsters and watching a drive by shooting, but alas I never saw any part of the Russian criminal scene. There was an hour comutte from the hotel to the conference site. I had to go on the Moscow metro. The escalators seem to go down for miles.