A walk through the fabulous West End of Glasgow

I managed to pick up another cold on Sunday. How many more am I going to get this year? Whine, whine. Since I couldn't work on bank holiday Monday, I went for a walk around the fabulous West End of Glasgow. I went to Gibson street that is close to the University. There are a number of nice restaurants and bars around there. There is a very big bar (that I have forgotten the name of) near Woodlands Rd, that I remember that I went to with a big party of people maybe about 7 years ago before I started living in Glasgow. It is good to find places that you have been too, during a drunken night, in the clean light of the day. I found a good Indian supermarket there. I need to get an Indian cookbook to take advantage of all the ingredients I can now buy. Glasgow is very cosmopolitan. I know where there is a very good Chinese supermarket in the center of town. I now have a cupboard full of strong sauces.

the smart crowd

File Edit Options Buffers Tools Help I am not a person who is known for their dapper dress sense. I was watching Carl Perkins play "Blue Suede shoes". He looked so smart in his sharp suit. I started to think that perhaps I too could smarten up a little bit. So into Glasgow I went for some shopping. After going around the shops I ended up buying a grey sweatshirt and a pair of trainers. Part of the problem was the washing instructions on the more fancy clothes involved low temperatures. It was clear I would probably destroy them in one wash. I only know one setting for the washing machine in the flat, mostly because there are no instructions. I was never meant to hang out with the beautiful crowd.

Crossing the chasm

Last night I finished reading "Crossing the chasm" by Geoffrey Moore. This is a book about marketing high tech products. The idea is that there is a chasm between selling to different sets of people. For example, some people (early adaptors) like new technology, so will buy (or download) new things. Other people will only buy the software if they are convinced there is need. Also there are people who hate new things, so have to be dragged kicking and screaming to buy new technology. So a product may sell well to early adaptors, but the company needs to open sales to the pragmatic group There is a chasm in sales. There are more pragmatic people than early adaptors. This another book that has show me the importance of vertical markets (specialized product) versus horizontal markets.

London to Brighton

I watched the DVD for the film "London to Brighton" on Monday. This was a recent British film. The one sentence plot is a prostitute and young girl go on the run from a London gangster and pimp. The film is very real and gritty. The actor who plays the prostitute was particularly good. I was sad to read that she is working in a shop, because she couldn't get any new acting roles. I felt I should have gone out to watch "This is England", as the critics says this is another good British film. It is a sad testament to Thatcher and Blair that are not many British films about politics. Most of our films are about gangsters or fluff ("love actually"). On TV there was a program about some film about a person working in the council. I am not sure that type of film would be made now, mostly because a large fraction of us having given up on this voting business. On reflection there is a lot of drama on TV about modern politics, so perhaps I just need to watch more things on the smaller screen.

depression

I had a number of bad dreams one night about people shooting into my house. This is particularly weird because I don't actually live in a house with a garden, where bodies can be buried. (OK, I need to cut down on the number of action movies I watch) The worst dreams are when I feel like I am being smothered by someone. I try and wake up ready for a fight for survival, only to find my arm has cramp. Before I went away I saw a TV program about the depression that Stephen Fry suffers from. As part of the program, Stephen showed the inside of the hospital on Cromwell Rd in London where he stayed, when he had a break down because he was crap in a play. How these celebrities lord it over us! When I used to live in London I used to de-stress by walking along Cromwell Rd. In the darkness, I used to stare at the green windows of the Cromwell hospital. I used to fantasize about the emotional care they were getting in the hospital. I would trudge back through the litter to my solitary bedsit. Yeah, celebrities go to rehab. The rest of us fall low and end up drinking special brew outside the super-market. Yes, rehap for me would be spending a couple of years selling the big issue. There is an interesting story about depression in the online guardian. From the article:

Then, in the early 1600s, a mass epidemic of depression broke out.

It is clear that we need Dr Who to travel back in time to sort this depression thing out.

all change at radio6

I was really enjoying listening to many of the shows on radio 6. Then suddenly a bunch of my favorite shows were cut. For example the following shows were ended , MINT, Phil Jupters, and Andrew Collins, in the last couple of weeks. I particularly miss listening to Phil Jupters in the morning. I am back to listening to the Today program on radio4. They seem to move in a lot of comedians as DJs. This would be OK, but there is usually less emphasis on music and more on the presenters sexual exploits or failings. Having Russell Brand the station was some horrible nightmare. Yes of course, I didn't need to listen to his show, but they used to advertise his show on all the other shows. He has been off the station for a while, but as you can see I am still bitter about having his existence forced on me. Still, I find that I like many of the new shows. I like Guy Garvey (lead singer of elbow), Queens of Noize, Bob Dylan, and Don Letts. The aim of radio6 is to promote new music, so perpetual change is part of the deal. The listen again feature has changed the way I listen to the radio. I am listening to last night's Guy Garvey's show on this bank holiday morning. He just had an interview with the singer "Joan as Policewoman". I can now listen to shows I want, when I want to. So if I don't like Stephen Merchant -- I don't have to listen. I can put on an earlier show instead. The "listen-again" feature means that there is no excuse for missing a show. So I try to listen to every "Marc Riley's Brain Surgery", just in case I miss some new sound. The Grinderman session on Brain Surgery was great last week on the Brain Surgery.

shark

I have just finished reading "The Raw shark texts" by Steven Hall. In some sense this was a confusing book. The main character wakes up in a room not knowing who he is. He then finds that he is being chased by a conceptual shark made from words and ideas. To find out what is going on, he has to find "unspace". (Did I mention it was a bit confusing). I find that normally that this kind of plot is too intellectual and clever for its own good. This book somehow managed to walk the fine line between humanity and cold intellect. The main character dreams of his girl friend who had drowned off a Greek Island. One of the main characters was a cat who ate tuna and slept a lot.

soul

I was shocked when I heard that Billy Bragg liked Motown music. I was young, but somehow it didn't seem fair that an angry young man with a guitar, should like Motown. Looking back at Bragg's work, it is more obvious that he has a wide taste in music. Don't get me wrong I don't dislike Motown music, I do sort of like it. I wouldn't buy any Motown music, but I wouldn't (metaphorically) smash a radio up if I heard it played, as I would do with many tunes from boy bands. I do like Amy Winehouse. I like her singing style, and I even own her first CD. So I am finding soul. (Note that I said singing, rather than talking). She is a bit gobby. Another singer I like is Candie Payne from Liverpool. She has such a sweet rich voice. She is a guest DJ on radio 6, so also has a cute speaking voice. Candie Payne is playing Glasgow on May 16th at King Tuts I was going to end this scribble by saying that Napalm Death are going to be playing in Glasgow in the summer, so I will go to seem them to cleanse this soul madness from my system. Still I like what I like. By the magic of Firefox tabs, I can play Napalm death at the same time as Candie Payne. Interesting.

new voting addiction

I did actually bother to vote in the local elections and elections for Scottish parliament today. I had not voted for a while. It did seem pointless, when "new labour" was just the same as Tory. I assume I didn't screw up my ballot papers. I did follow the written instructions, but given the large number of spoilt ballot papers I could be one of those who screwed up. Anyway the only reason I wanted to vote was to give Blair a bloody nose, before he left. Although Tony Blair has been on TV, saying the election results were not so bad for labour. That's so true Tony, just like your foreign policies in Iraq have been a success. I am now addicted to voting. What can I vote for next? The BBC have an interesting page for the LHC.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will re-create the conditions present just after the big bang. Some scientists argue that during a ten year spell of operation there is a 1 in 50,000,000 chance like the LHC could cause a catastrophe of epic proportions. Either a Black Hole or a new type of matter known as `strangelets' could form destroying the planet. Or possibly the fabric of space could be ripped apart producing a truly cosmic cataclysm. Given these odds do you think the LHC should be switched on?

I voted no. I am willing to admit that I am being slightly disloyal. The web page from the BBC was created because of a science TV program about the LHC. This was a depressing program, because they marketed the LHC as a telescope. The first twenty minutes of the program was about astronomy. Why did they need to show pictures from the Hubble telescope in a program about particle physics? There were a lot of celebrity physicists saying folksy and basic stuff in semi-darkness. Although, I am in favour of popular science journalism, somehow this program was misleading. They stressed black hole production (bollocks), but didn't mention "the grid". Somebody should be punished for making that crappy program, so I used my vote. If you interested the vote was 53% to 47% for turning the LHC on. So as usual my vote didn't matter. I do see visions of Profs from High Energy Physics groups ordering their graduate students to vote "yes" before they were let out for the weekend.

the google story

I feel depressed that I didn't get a lot of things done over the weekend. Apart from go to gigs and watching TV, I did manage to finish "the google story" by David Vise. This is an unofficial history of the google company. It was interesting for a number of reasons. They only started the company to buy more computers to index the web. They didn't have any real ideas on how to make money when they started. The online advertising idea was developed a plan at the beginning. Google did start to make money very quickly, so was not your standard dot com company.

Billy Childish

I went to see Billy Childish and his new band play at the Grand Central. This place is by Central station in Glasgow. I have in fact walked past it many times, but I still managed to get lost, and it took me twenty minutes to find. I only found out about the gig when I noticed a flyer close to the University library. I enjoyed the music. Billy Childish didn't seem to play many new songs from his album: Punk Rock at the British Legion Hall. Billy Childish have punk garage sound. I drank way too much beer at the gig and afterwards in the club. One day I will learn.

Loudon Wainwright III

I did see Loudon Wainwright III play at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on Sunday. The show was almost sold out. I used the web system to buy the ticket. I kept clicking various bits of virtual theatre, just for the stupid system to tell me that area was full. Just as I was about to give up I found an empty seat. Well I guess the indie crowd love his children Martha and Rufus Wainwright more than Loudon, but I still think he is the best. Some of his songs were very funny, but some songs were so sad. There were some particularly sad songs about his mum. There was one song were he come back home after a night of parties -- all sad and depressed. His mum gives him bacon and coffee. (This was a song from his younger days I might add). I am not sure I like these sit down gigs. It just seems very wrong to sit down to watch a gig. Also I missed the start by about 5 seconds and the theater was dark. So I did manage to watch the warm up act (yet another Wainwright child) standing up because I couldn't find my seat.

Loudon

I am hoping to see Loudon Wainwright III play in Glasgow at the weekend. The way my home body life is going, I probably will not be organized enough to go to the gig. Perhaps 20 years ago I was waiting to hear a session on radio 1 by Wainwright. I was listening to the first the song by Wainwright. My mum suddenly walks into the room in tears. "Who wrote this song," she asked. Needless to say the song was about the dreaded divorce thing. I didn't have the heart to tell my mum, that I was waiting for Wainwright's song about him going round to a woman's hotel room, as there was a show on TV with him playing. His devious trick, didn't work out because, although the woman liked men, she didn't like the thing between their legs. That is the power of Loudon. Some of his songs are goofy, but others are painfully intense. Now of course, both his children are famous singers too. Perhaps I like Martha Wainwright best. In a recent interview with Martha, she said that when she was young she used to line her barbie dolls up and let them get run over. I can't actually find the article where she says this, but I would like it to be true. Anyway Martha sounds like the kind of chick, I would like to chug a few beers with, but given her pop status, I might have to settle for a bag of cocaine or a kicking from her bodyguards. This is more commitment than I can give to a fantasy relationship.

Beirut

Thanks to the Freakzone on radio6 I heard about a band/person called Beirut who have a CD out called Gulag Orkestar. As usual I can't be bothered to do more than name check, but you can read a better review here. The sound of the CD is Balkan gypsy music. One issue is that the CD is made by someone in the US (from their bedroom), so it is perhaps not really authentic. On the other hand I like the sound. It reminds me of when The Wedding Present put out some kind of Ukrainian music. Anyway, the bottom line is that I like the sound that Beirut make.

business of software

I have just finished reading the book "Eric Sink on the Business of Software". This is not selling software like Microsoft do. The idea is to sell just a small piece of software for a niche or horizontal markets. Then you don't have to compete against the big boys.

flu woes

The Chinese flu in my system was really getting me down. Thanks to global warming, it has been nice and warm in Glasgow this last week. As I walked around the fabulous West End of Glasgow, everyone looked so happy to be bathed in the sun. I felt like sh*t, because of the downer that is Chinese flu. I scowled at the young lovers holding hands. I wanted to say "this won't last. In a week's time it will be raining. In twenty years time your children will hate you, and in 40 years time you will be dead." A shrunken beggar asked to borrow 20p. I almost wept with joy, as I shook his hand. "Thank you", I said, as I vigorously pumped his hand. He edged away, happy to get away from the miserable madman. Its not worth it for 20p. I am now starting to fell better. As I woke this morning, I felt pretty weird. It had been a while since I felt any spark of joy to be alive.

shooter

I went to see the film shooter last week. It was kind of dumb, but I enjoyed it. An expert sniper is asked back to protect the president, but is framed. You know the story. Still it was well done.

Micro-ISV from vision to reality

I have just finished a book called "Micro-ISV" by Bob Walsh. Since there is a 3 letter acronym in the title you can probably guess that the book had something to do with computers. ISV stands for independent software vendor. These are small companies that write specialized software. The idea was to stay small, so that venture capital is not needed. The book was very interesting, but starting an ISV looked like a lot of work.

sunshine

I saw the film "Sunshine" this week. This is a fantastic new film directed by Danny Boyle. A team of astronauts travel to the sun to drop a bomb in it, to try and restart it. It was a very beautiful film. There was a lot of time spent just staring at the sun as they got closer. The sun up close did look fantastic.

snot

This Chinese flu thing is still in my system. It has been two weeks and I am still sniffling and unable to function. I feel bad, when I walk around. I start to sneeze and cough. Then I hear other people start wheezing and coughing too. It is almost as though I am the carrier of some designer Chinese plague. Although, I feel it is unlikely that the Chinese government will want to harm people in the UK, because the Chinese economy depends on foreign consumers. Am I complaining and feeling sorry for myself? Frankly, yes..

The God Delusion

It is Easter Sunday, so it is fitting that I have just finished reading "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins. This book is a sound argument for atheist (not a wimpy book for agnostics). I listened a bit to some religious service on radio4. It just seemed so alien and strange I never had much faith to lose, so I was sympathetic to his general argument. His political points are perhaps more important. There is no clear distinction between the religious extremist and the moderate. The one part I disagreed with Dawkins was that he was happy with anthropic arguments for basic physical theory. Dear Richard, arguments for physics, purely based on anthropic arguments, are for losers. Of course if I am going to win this Templeton prize (for the fusion of science and religion) , I will have to refute his arguments. I expect that this may be difficult using logic. A better idea might to compromise Dawkins with a spiked drink and some whores and then sell the pictures to the News of the World Newspaper. This seems more humane than killing him. Although, I would be the hero of Christianity for doing this (unless I got caught), I don't see anyway of using the shaming of Dawkins to win the Templeton prize.

300

I went to see the film 300 this week. I think I got an introduction to ancient Greek history. And there was a bit of fighting too. I can see why some people felt it was a bit homo-erotic.

The North will rise again

I have just finished reading a book called Pies and Prejudice by Stuart Maconie. (Stuart is also the DJ for the radio 6 show called the freakzone and hence is the person who made me buy a Circlus CD). Stuart was born in Wigan, but is living in the South. He tours many places in the North and North West. Part of the book is a bit of a rant about the South, particularly as the South controls the media. I grew up in Cheshire, so I of course agree that there is more to England, than the leafy lanes of the South. I have been listening to a CD of a famous Bob Dylan concert that he played in 1965. Dylan went electric, and you can hear part of the audience slow hand clap him. For many years this was described as a concert at Royal Albert Hall, however it was actually recorded in Manchester. Typical! The book is a celebration of the North of England. The book is very funny and not to be taken too seriously. It would be good to read a more political book on the North, because as Stuart notes there is actually quite a lot of money hidden in the North. Although technically I was born in Southampton, I don't feel that makes me a southerner. I hope we are clear about that.

Why I don't like 24

Ok, here are some reasons that I don't like the 24 series. The Counter Terrorist Unit CTU, does spend a large amount of time torturing people. In the episode I just watched, somebody from Amnesty global came to stop someone being tortured. The cunning people at CTU managed to torture him anyway. My guess is that if you added up the number of people who are tortured but who are innocent, then that would be virtually everyone. Anyway if you do get tortured and you are innocent, then you just get back to work. If you complain about it, then you get fired (told to leave work), as just happened in series 4 of 24. It is kind of weird, that that the US TV and films is trying to make the public, believe that it is acceptable to torture people and also that the government is corrupt. Still it is fun to watch. The program seems to have been made by Fox and Sky, so I wasn't really expecting objectivity.

some random music stuff

I have been listening to a CD called "in my own time" by Karen Dalton. Karen was in the New York folk scene in the early 60s. She seems to have been shy, so didn't push herself. My crap review of her singing is like a folk version of Billie Holiday. Her voice is amazing. I have also been listening to Bob Dylan 1966. This is a record of a famous gig in Manchester. It is amazing, because you can hear the audience slow hand clap the songs with electric guitars. This was the time when Dylan went electric, much to the disgust of his folk fans. Hadn't they heard of the Blues? I have also been listening to a CD of songs produced by Joe Meek. Joe was an infamous producer in the 60s. The songs are great pop songs, but somehow some of them are about suicide, bubble gum and sunshine.

Conclusion to trip

So my journey to China came to end. I will now try and conclude what I have learnt from this experience. As George Moore says:

"A man travels the world in search of what he needs and returns home to find it"

The Tao has been the hidden textual message of these entries about Beijing, so I will end with a quote from Confucius.

"diet and lovemaking, all primal needs of every human being".

Food in Beijing

I enjoyed the food in China. Some of the places to eat didn't have menus with pictures as they usually do in Japan. This makes ordering a bit difficult. I got very paranoid with English menus. I got more and more convinced that the English menus were different to the Chinese menus. At meal times I got tortured by the thought that the other diners were tucking into normal Chinese foods in the Sichuan style. The hotel offered a western and Chinese buffet. The western part of breakfast was toast and boiled eggs. The Chinese part of breakfast including all kinds of pickles, rice, noodles, dumplings, and some meat. I enjoyed the breakfasts, but I am not sure my body really likes spicy pickles at the start of the day. I was ready to have my taste buds expanded when I was in China. I might have tried dogs meat. At lunch time, on a couple of days, I ended up have some kind of noodles with hot water from stores/cafes. Yes, I went to China and ate pot noodles! On my last night I did eat eel. This is not pushing the envelope of my taste buds too far, but was new food to me.

Final day in Beijing

On my final day in Beijing, I took a tour of the Hutongs in Beijing. The woman in the hotel who sold me the tour was cute. (I can declare my desire safe behind the Chinese firewall) She spoke the best English in the hotel. She asked me about some English book she was reading. This turned out to be a self-help book for women looking for love. The question I was asked "was whether the author was famous." It wasn't totally clear what the best thing to say was. To my shame I have slunk around the self help sections of bookshops, but I didn't recognize the author The tour around the Hutongs was interesting. The tour was in a bicycle buggy. The Hutons are areas of traditional Beijing housing. Many of these areas are now being destroyed and people are moved into high rise flats (that are incredibly ugly) The tour around the Hutongs was interesting. The tour was in a bicycle buggy. The Hutons are areas of traditional Beijing housing. Many of these areas are now being destroyed and people are moved into high rise flats (that are incredibly ugly) I saw another area of Hutongs when I was trying to avoid the unofficial taxis outside the summer palace. There were a lot of pool tables outside. It does rain in Beijing, so the tables must be covered.

TV in china

There was a TV in my hotel room that showed the national Chinese TV channels. Kung fu transcends language barriers so I was happy to see the odd person getting beaten up. There was one kung fu show that was almost like a soap opera. The kung fu master was clearly in love with some young kung fu chick, who had a younger boy friend. Frankly, I was in love with the kung fu chick, she had the most beautiful smile. There were a lot of quiz show programs. They had young beautiful people on it being sexy. However, I didn't see anyone do more than kissing, so it looks like sex is still forbidden in China. One channel was in English. This seemed to mostly have business stories and a little bit of news. There was certainly no communist propaganda, because everyone is too busy trying to get rich. They only had three adverts on the English channel. These adverts were played about 4 times an hour? One advert was for a pillow filled with tea leaves! What, why? I admit that, if I have run out of tea, I might need to dump my tea-pillow in a bucket of hot water and drink that. How do they wash a tea pillow. I have been brain washed in some strange way. The other advert was for Js travel. Frankly, if I ever go to China again, I will not book my trip via Js travel. If I hear about J's travel, I am likely to start sobbing. After a week of watching these adverts I was ready to kill someone.

Summer palace

On Saturday I went to the summer palace in Beijing. This was another palace for the Emperors. It took a taxi ride to get me to the summer palace. This left me in a bad mood, but it was well worth the trip. There was a huge lake in the center that I walked around There a stone boat that the hated Empress Dowager built instead of building real ships. When there was a war it turned out real ships were better than stone ships and hence China lost various wars. It was very relaxing to walk around the lake. The summer palaces had been torched (after being looted) by the English during the Opium wars. This was to teach the Chinese a lesson. It turned out that the Brit. in charge was none other the famous Lord Elgin. I think this is the same dude who acquired the Elgin marbles. So I guess, if I do any thieving, I should remember to send some spoils to the British Museum.

guns and things in Beijing

On Friday all I did was go to the military museum. The museum just contained a lot of missiles, tanks and things. The upper floor had exhibitions of the communists war against the nationalists. I personally got depressed when you think about the amount of money sent on all the weapons. I did like the displays of knifes and swords, because are more fun and elegant than boring old guns. I also liked some of the smaller mortars, because they looked as though they could fit in a backpack. The guide book claimed that there was an area in the museum where you could fire air guns. Unfortunately, I didn't find the place. Somehow the museum was split into two for some reason. Unfortunately, the half I was in did not have toilets, so that cut short my visit. Expedia were also selling a great wall of china tour that also involved being shown how to fire guns by ex-members of the Red Army. Obviously, I wanted to go on such a classy tour. I could then claim that I was trained in the military arts by the Chinese military forces.

Why I like 24

This Chinese flu virus has me in its grips. My new cure for flu and colds is to watch DVD boxed sets and wait for the poison to leave my system. I am now watching "24" series 4. This is a lot of episodes to get through. I think one of reasons I like "24" is that the hacker programmers are important to the plot. I don't see my self in a gun battle. Although I could probably shoot someone in the back like the SAS do, because it wouldn't be too dangerous. I like the idea of hacking code and using google to look stuff up. I could write some code. I also wouldn't mind be tortured for a bit as well. The hackers are cool for that. They get tortured and then they go back to work. I don't think I want to do this for some weird sexual reason, I just like the idea of being a hero. Of course what would actually happen is that as soon as they get the torture tools out, I would burst into tears and wet my paints. Still it is fun to dream. I am going to sign off now, I have another 10 hours of episodes left.

The Great Wall of China

On the Wednesday I took a trip to the Great Wall of China. I booked this with Expedia. There was a driver and a tour guide and one other person on the tour. We went to the part of the all known as Simatai. This a quieter part of the Great Wall, without the huge tourist carnival. The drive took about three hours. I trusted the driver, but the driving on Chinese roads was fairly insane. Everyone was overtaking on the both the inside (using the layby) and the outside. People didn't always give much time to getting back in lane when they were overtaking. The climb up to the Great Wall of China involved a lot of steps. Frankly I had massive musscle failure after going up about 10 steps, so he tour guide spent a lot of time encouraging me to keep on going, while senior people effortlessly passed us by The other person on the tour was called Richard. He was traveling on some around the world tour. He was also working on some code to link in GPS with his mobile phone. He could still work, when he was travelling. Was I jealous of him travelling the world while still working on the laptop. Oh yes I was insanely jealous. There was a news story, that the Chinese authorities were going to clamp down on people making illegal maps with GPS. (I assume they worried about google maps like activity). I did toy with the idea of informing on Richard, stealing his laptop and his job. That would seem like the communist thing to do.

Thursday in Beijing

On Thursday, I couldn't be arsed to do anything in Beijing. I read my book and wondered around for a bit. Yes, I should have planned another big tourist excursion, but I was tired. Tourism is hard work! I can't remember exactly what book I was reading. I did read Mao by Clare Hollingworth during the holiday. The lesson I got from Mao was that he was a good military strategist in the guerrilla war. but he was not a good leader for peace time. I did like all the politics of the senior people in the Chinese Communist party as they positioned for seniority. Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot about Mao's later sexual exploits. I have to get another book about this. Interestingly, the biography I did read did talk a lot about his last wife's sexual adventures. I bought a copy of Mao's little red book, that I will shake at people, if they disagree with me.

Tuesday in Beijing

On the Tuesday I took the metro to Tienanmen square. I then walked up to the park where the Temple of Heaven is. This was a temple where the emperor used to pray for a good harvest. Needles to say this was very impressive. The park was very big and restful. I didn't see anyone doing Tai Chi, but I did see a number of people walking backwards. I don't know why. The road from Tienanmen square to the park with the Temple of Heaven in it was meant to have a lot of interesting side streets branching from it. They have just knocked down all the interesting streets. They seem to be planning to rebuild with newer more modern buildings for the Olympics next year. Ummm, I will be impressed if they actually get buildings up by next year. On the way to the temple of heaven, I visited a natural history museum. There was a big exhibition of dinosaur stuff. They had a model of a Tyrannosaurus Rex eating some other kind of dinosaur. This freaked out a 4 year old, who was both fascinated, but also wanted to hide. There was also an external building that contained human body parts. Thanks to the Rough guide of Beijing for telling me this. The room had glass vases with body parts in it. There were human brains and some corpses with missing and rotting flesh. There were some embryos of different sizes. There was a very large and loud party of school children. They had no problem with the human body parts, but I think they were too busy playing games to notice all the dead people in vases. Children have no appreciation of death. I was actually tempted to take some pictures. This was forbidden for obvious reasons. On the way back, I stopped off at the Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant for my supper. One of speciality dishs in Beijing is Peking duck. This was a famous restaurant, where people such as George Bush (the old) and Fedro Castro had eaten there. The restaurant looked expsensive and complicated. Too many stars. I know my place in this world. There was a fast food place at the front -- that was also expensive, but was good. I lost my Peking duck virginity there.

Forbidden city

On Monday I went to tour the Forbidden city in Beijing. This was the huge palace that the emperor of China used to live in. When I say huge, I mean it is of the order of 1 square km. There are many really cool buildings. My guide book said that you need a day to explore it. The forbidden city is at the back of Tienanmen square. Of course the really important issue was whether I went to the Starbucks coffee shop in the Forbidden city. The Chinese are sensitive about the influence of US in one of their cultural icons. I was told they were debating the issue of Starbucks in the forbidden city in some kind parliament. Look, I am sorry, but I really needed a latte. Coffee is not regularly drunk by the Chinese, so it is hard to get hold off, outside Tourist areas. I found that if I walked into the door of a cafe near a tourist site, the Chinese servers would look at me with a happy greedy face and they would excitedly offer to sell me a couple of coffee. Yes, the mark up on coffee is really good. The actual Starbucks is a small counter in a book shop. It was full of westerners getting their fix of coffee. I was talking to someone about this. They told me they couldn't find the place when they toured the forbidden city. Me, I just closed my eyes and let my coffee starved body guide by me in. I don't think the Chinese need to worry about cultural imperialism. I used the Beijing subway for the first time. It was designed with English maps and the station names were announced in English before the stop. The people on the trains just stared at the floor and didn't make eye contact, just as we do on the London tube.

Sunday evening in Beijing

The Sunday was also my birthday. It was one of those birthdays that ended with one of those dreaded 0s at the end. As my cousin noted, I had travelled a long way to hide from this fact. I was sitting in my hotel room, reading a book, when I heard a knock on the door. Some of the hotel staff had noticed it was my birthday, so they had a brought me a plate of fruit. This was pretty sweet of them, although I guess they felt sorry for me ... Obviously, I would have been happier to spend my birthday in some kind of opium den, or slumped in some exotic bar. Then this blog entry would have been about chasing the dragon. Unfortunately, opium dens no longer exist in China. I don't think China has developed enough to have crack houses yet. Still when the economy gets stronger they will exist. I did read about a opium den though. The book was "The chinatown death cloud peril" by Paul Malome. This was an action type book that had Ron Hubbard of scientology fame as a character.

Sunday in Beijing

On the Sunday I walked from my hotel to Tienanmen Square to have a look around. In principle it seemed easy, I had to walk out of the alley my hotel was in and go left and keep on walking. I passed the main Beijing railway station. I would like to say that I was freaked out by the number of people, but it wasn't so bad. I have actually walked on Oxford Rd in London close to Christmas. Man, there were a lot of people on Oxford Rd in London then. Somehow I thought I was lost. I always have problems reading the crappy maps in the Rough guides to cities. I was just staring at a map posted on a wall, when somebody helpfully sold me a bigger map to Beijing for 20 yuan (you can buy a cheap meal for that amount). I then walked 20 yards and I found that I was at Tienanmen Square. It is a really big square. I walked around it for some time. The museums at the side of the square were closed for refurbishment. There were a lot of people selling flags and other tacky souvenirs. The hassle from the street sellers wasn't any worse then in any European city I have been to, but you may be surprised that in a "communist state" that there were any people selling stuff on the streets at all. A good thing about Tienanmen Square was that there were a lot of free toilets around. Even though I didn't drink any beer (because there were no bars around), access to toilets is a big deal I am willing to admit that my political priorities may be a bit skewed, when I am happy about the free toilets in a city square that is famous for a recent massacre. I am willing to admit that my political priorities may be a bit skewed, when I am happy about the free toilets in a city square that is famous for a recent massacre.

Brainwashing

I slept badly last night. I kept dreaming that I was part of the space program to put a man (or woman) on the moon. The dream was confusing because I couldn't work out whether I was working for the Chinese or the British program. I remember that I had problems sleeping one night in Beijing. There was the constant dripping of water in pipes. Oh dear, my brain is no longer my own. China has a bad civil rights record and they banned this BLOG from being read in China. There were a lot of police and army on the streets, but they didn't see any hostility. I did see one guy handcuff some old woman on the ground at the entrance to a metro station. The woman was screaming abuse. A whole crowd of Chinese ran up to watch. I don't so mind so much being brainwashed by the Chinese government to betray secrets of western missions to the moon or mars. I feel weak that I didn't resist then pressure to be involved in any manned space flight. Frankly it is a waste of money. It just a publicity stunt. This is why the manned mission to Mars is supported by anti-science people like George Bush. Why can't the Chinese have brainwashed me to take money from the space program and to put it to the linear collider project?

Some thoughts on Taxis in China

The Internet travel business has made travelling simpler. No longer do I need to arrive in a city with no place to stay, as I have done in Mexico City and Tokyo. Expedia now link to some fairly cheap hotels. So I can usually amaze friends and colleagues by staying in some cheap hotel. I have noticed that people start to get nervous about staying in a hotel that costs under 25 pounds a night. However, I still needed to get from the airport to my hotel... I did more preparation for this trip than I normally do. I actually sort of knew the price for the taxi between the hotel and the airport. And yet somehow, I still ended up paying five times as much as I should have done. The flight from Amsterdam to Beijing took about 9 hours and I didn't sleep so well, so I was confused and waylaid by an English speaking unofficial taxi. As the driver turned off the main road down into a grubby alley, I certainly remembered the promise I had made to my mum, not to go off too much on my own while in China. The hotel was actually down the alley (because it was cheap), so thankfully I didn't get murdered. The next time I used a Taxi I got overcharged by 3 times the proper fare. Also, two of the taxi driver's burly friends got in the car as well as we set off with no explanation. When the guy next to me pulled out a 20 Yuan note, I knew he was hitching a ride, so I wouldn't have to elbow him in the head.Now that I live in Scotland I know that the English are an evil race. Somehow this evil gets passed onto to English speaking Taxi drivers. The English language is like an evil virus. The only time I payed the correct amount was in a cab driven by someone who spoke no English. That is my proof of my conjecture, that people who speak English are passing on the original sin, completed. Also, people who are experts in English grammer are always so annoying and patronizing. Perhaps the message is: only use taxis with working meters, if you don't want to spend 90% of the journey time worrying about being hit in the head and robbed. Anyway now that I have got my anti-taxi rant out, we can continue my tale of tourism in the capital of the middle kingdom. The hotel was clean and the staff were friendly. The hotel was close to the main railway station of Beijing. My room overlooked the railway tracks. One night I looked out to see 20 men pulling a locomotive with a rope. Every time they pulled it they shouted. This was passed 11:00 pm.

An introduction to my trip to Beijing

This is my record of my trip to Beijing. Just like Marco Polo's "The Travels of Marco Polo", I am not writing at the time of the trip, as I normally do. I am writing it in the comfort of my own home. There was only a single computer in the hotel I stayed, apart from the computer in my room. I couldn't understand the instructions on the computer in my room, because they were in Chinese. If I wasn't on holiday, I probably could have got it working. I did actually read "The Travels of Marco Polo" while I was in China. Hopefully, my report will be more accurate than Marco Polo's. I certainly saw no cannibals, men with tails, or heard of any tales of Noah's ark. Apparently, some people now speculate that Marco Polo never went to China, because he never saw the Great Wall of China. The scholars think that Polo made up some of his book. However, one of my guides said that he felt that the great wall of China was in a state of disrepair when Polo passed through. Perhaps, I didn't goto China. I could be making this up. My trip to China could have been a cover for me to lock myself in my flat to watch the first 4 box sets of "24".

Give the anarchist a cigarette

I am stuck in Amsterdam airport waiting for my final flight back to Glasgow. I think I managed to blow a huge amount of snot around the plane from Beijing. I picked up a wet cold before I left. I will post about my experiences in China later. As part of my holiday reading I read the book "Give the Anarchrist a cigarette" by Mick Farren. This was a sort of hippy who was around the counter culture in the late 60s. Some how he managed to survive the 70s as well, given that every story involved hime drinking a huge amount, doing LSD and snorting cocaine. Somehow he also wrote novels, edited a magazine, and was in a band called the socal deviants. He also organized a free music festival in theUK where the MC5 played. I am going to check out some of his music, but amazon tells me that some of it is collectable (that means expensive). He liked to party but he was actually very insightful about the counter culture as well. I did get a bit tired of the pages about getting wasted, but he did seem to achieve as lot. Thismay have been because he stayed away from the needle. He mentioned a band called the fuggs -- that I will also search out. Time for beer. Only another 4 hours to kill before my flight.

banned in China

You will be happy to know that this blog is actually banned in china. How did this happen I don't know. I was about to rant on how tasteless torfu was, but I couldn't get to my blog from the computer in the hotel. The torfu incident was caused by me pointing at a picture in a fast food restauramt. I thought the white things were chicken. Frankly torfu doesn't taste of anything. It seems a bit extreme that I can't post on this important topic. I am sure that in a nation of one billion people a complaint about the lack of taste of torfu (that is no doubt efficient to produce) relative to the yummy taste of chicken is an important political issue, but one of the reasons to go to China is for novel and spicy food. I did see my blog and made my first post from China. The next day I just saw a page of chinese charcters. Perhaps, I will get deported. I still have the edge.

china

So here I am in China, blogging on the hotel computer. Let us hope that the Chinese authorities let me post some comments here.

The host

Last night I watched a great DVD from Korea, called "The Host." This is a modern version of a Godzilla like story. A family battles a monster around a river, when it takes one of their children. The monster was believable, but there was a lot of slapstick humor too. This is a recent DVD release. One of the few Korean things I know about is Wonhyo the monk, so I was pleased that the film included the Wonhyo bridge.

china blues

Although I am looking forward to my trip to China, I am starting to get nervous about it. I have just bought a good guidebook for China: "The Travels of Marco Polo," so I should be well prepared. From the rough guide to Beijing, it looks as though there is a fairly high prospect to get ripped off by Taxi drivers. I can see a huge international incident, based on me getting in fight with a taxi driver, because the fare is too high by 2 pounds. Also there seems to be a lot of counterfeit money circulating in China. Also I managed to pick dates to visit, during the peak season for dust storms. Anyway the trip should be fun, but probably not so relaxing.

birthday present

If people want to get me a birthday present then I found the perfect gift.

Prereview of Grinderman CD

I am looking forward to getting the new grinderman CD. I stopped always buying the latest Nick Cave CD sometime ago. I was getting a bit bored of Cave's slow whinings. I am quite happy to listen to slow sad music. but Cave doesn't have the right voice. The one Grinderman track I have heard sounds more agressive and mean. I did buy a CD by birthday party (Cave's first band), but somehow I didn't really get it. The birthday part sound made more sense when I heard that Cave was influenced a lot by Johnny Cash. Anyway Grinderman sounds more birthday party than Nick Cave.

shoes

Ok, so I now agree that this Internet business is a good thing. I have been wearing some stronger boots, but the shoelaces typically came undone twice a day. This was getting annoying, because I had to keep stopping on the street to tie them up. Most people learn how to tie their shoes, when they are about five. I have always known that I wasn't tying my laces optimally. Somehow I wasn't trained correctly. Anyway as you get older it does become harder to ask people to show you the correct way. Anyway, I decided to end my hidden and secret shame. So I logged on and found this useful site. I now walk to work and I don't need to stop to tie my shoelaces. One of the reasons I never wanted kids was that I worried about the time when I had to teach my son to tie their shoelaces, knowing that I didn't know how to do it properly myself. The curse would be carried on for another generation. Although this shoelace tying issue may sound a bit trivial, BUT what if I was tieing my laces and someone came up behind me, and like violated me. I wouldn't be able to sit down for a week, and I would be emotionally scared for life. Also, what if I got into a fight, and I needed to accidently kick someone in the head. What if my boot fell off -- frankly it would be uncool, no matter how many Ninja butts I had just kicked. I feel like a new person. No longer do I slink around Glasgow, scared that my boots would become unravelled and I would have to bend down and do the tieing ritual. For the first time in my life I feel like a real man.

history

I have finished reading "Scotland - a short history", by Christopher Harvie. I can't say I have a much better feeling for the history of Scotland. I am not sure I take much in when I read books on plane journeys. Of course English history is much simpler. You just have to say "1066", and recall that England won the world cup in 1966. If pressed, you can always say "the Manga Carta -- did she die in vain", and then look superior in a well bred sort of way. I studied the history of the long march in China when I was at school. (OK, we also studied English castles). Anyway, what Chancellor Brown is thinking, when he is proposing to have citizen tests for new immigrants. The immigrants will know more British history than we do. That will change Britain, because ignorance of history is part of our national heritage.

Sunday

The high point of my weekend was going to be finding ASDA. In principle there is an ASDA store fairly close to me, but I still have to find the place. The executive summary of long boring slog was that I got lost and coudn't find the store. Actually, as I was walking up a deserted road I found that I needed a p*ss, so turned back into the warm arms of Tesco in the Maryhill shopping centre. I did find that I am living very close to a big fire station, a police station, and a bingo hall. When I lived in Liverpool, close to the end of Park Road, I also lived close to a police station, fire station, and bingo hall. Coincidence? I don't think so. I certainly don't plan where I live based on where the fire station in the city is. It is clear that I have not actually moved from Liverpool to Glasgow at all. Both places don't exist, and there has just been a slight rearrangement of the reality set where I live. I have read enough Philip K. Dick novels to know that it may be time to get seriously paranoid. However, I have a very Zen attitude about this. Even if I am the center of some vast alien experiment, I can still buy CDs. Also Tesco is selling 5% cans of larger for 62p, so why rock the boat? That Judas character in the first matrix film had a point, if you don't know that reality is not real, do you really care? I am disturbed that the Aliens seem to want to put a Bingo hall close to me.

chips as a way of life and death

I was talking with someone at work today. Suddenly I felt my throat tighten and I started to sweat. Unfortunately, my first thought was that I was having a heart attack, based on my medical knowledge obtained by watching Richard Pryor's DVD: Live in concert. This didn't calm me down. Anyway I kept on talking, because in my experience people get worried when you rush out of a room, mumbling about "going to emergency room." I don't think it was a heart attack, because when I discretely burped, I began to feel better. People tend to look down on "chips" as a food stuff, but I feel that the resulting indigestion has forced me to come to terms with my own mortality.

the grand tour

When I was in Florence a couple of week ago, I occasionally found myself admiring some attractive Italian woman. However, many times I found that the beautiful Italian spoke with an American accent. (Not that I was trying to chat anyone else up I might add). It must be the in thing for American chicks to spend time in Florence to try and look Italian.

To the holy shrines

I have just finished reading "To the Holy Shrines" by Sir Richard Burton. This was famous journey that Burton made to Mecca. He had to go in disguise, because westerners were not allowed in that city. Perhaps, it is still illegal for non-arabs to enter Mecca. The book was written in 1853, so we are not talking about the welsh actor. Burton is a very intriguing figure. In this trip, it took a lot of planning to get into Mecca. He had to convince everyone around him that he was not English. It helped that he spoke many languages. The wikepedia entry contains many of his other exploits, such as trying to find the source of the Nile. In these modern times, there is not such a big need for explorers. If I want to find out the source of the River Kelvin, I can just use google. Where is the magic in that? I have another book by Burton on swords. I am still reading that. Richard Burton was also used as a character in the Riverworld Saga books by Philip Jose Farmer . So now you know my interest.

Britney Spears

I am frankly tired of Britney Spears stealing my best ideas. She is probably having problems not with the booze, but controlling her telepathic abilities. My plan when my unhappiness got too much was to shave my hair off. This would show people that I was really suffering inside. Of course they would probably just assume that I had joined the National Front. Now what can I do? The only idea that comes to mind is a bit of self-flagellation but that it too common place and people wouldn't like my blood spread around the building. (When there is a cure for Aids that will be more socially acceptable). If Britney starts whipping herself in public then I will know that my mind control experiments have succeeded. Then she can stop this rehab business and come to Glasgow and hang out with me. I could take her to a local pub and use her to win Karaoke competitions. Hopefully her singing voice is up to that, otherwise she will be send straight back to LA.

Yoko Ono

Weird things happen. Occasionally various radio 6 presenters have played tracks from the latest Yoko Ono CD "Yes I'm a Witch." Yoko was either hated for breaking up the Beatles, or lampooned for her crazy music. When I listen to the CD, it does sound really good with a pleasing electronic sound. What next you may ask, is Craig going to get into James Blunt? The answer to that is NO! I would like to say that I have separated music from the celebrity life style, but I really got the CD because I am in love with Cat power who plays on some of the tracks.

Hot fuzz

I went out to see the film "Hot fuzz" last night. I was a bit worried because the reviews from UK flm critics were not particularly enthusiastic. Still I think it is a great film. There is a big shoot out at the end of the film, that the critics hated, but I thought it was pretty clever. Of course if you live on a steady diet of action movies, then a bit of shooting is always welcome. There were a lot of in jokes. I have seen Point Break but I have never seen Bad Boys II. On the other hand I mostly watch action movies from Korean and Japan these days. OK, so I need to watch Bad Boys II, and then watch hot fuzz. Life is stressful.

can

I have been listening to the first CD ("Monster Movie") that the famous German band "Can" made. Can very influencial, but they were not so successful commercially. I have to admit that I had never heard of them before this year. The sound of Can is very impressive. Normally I am never very fussed by a band's playing ability, but there is something about their sound like. Being a nerdy type of guy, there is the issue of which singer of Can you prefer. I of course vote for Malcolm Mooney, because he had to leave the band for mental health reasons. His singing style is more a shouting rant, but hey it works for. I also liked their second singer Damo Suzuk, but Mooney had the crazier singing style.

24

I have felt under a lot of stress to watch all of the box set of 24 series 5 in a week. I know that in a world of insane rulers, who are thinking about attacking Iran, my mission to watch all of the 24 in a week may seem trivial. But I felt I owed it to Jack Bauer to complete this simple task, because he defends LA from terrorists. I don't really have time to watch 24 50 minute episodes in a week, so I have been staying up later to stay on course. The next time I watch a box set of 24, I will just dedicate the entire weekend to the task. This does show a somehwat addictive streak. I am glad we didn't have box sets of DVDs when I was growing up, because it would have eaten into book learning. I feell lost now that there isn't the frantic rush to see all the episodes before blockbuster wants it back. 24

Cake or death

If you were to wonder into a record store in Glasgow, you might see a sad figure looking at the CD around the Ha section. He would rumage around looking for the latest Lee Hazelwood CD "cake or death". Many times, in many different shops he raises his bloated little head and mutters a dark curse and leaves the shop with his hands clutching the empty air. But today, in fopps in the fabulous West End of Glasgow, he finds the CD he wants in another section. He clutches it to his breast and gives a little yelp of joy, that is throttled by the startled stares of his fellow shoppers.

Florence

I went to a meeting in Florence last week. In principle it is very cheap to get from Glasgow to Florence via the airport at Pisa. The dreaded Ryanair have flights every two days. The flight from Glasgow is from Prestwick airport, that is actually over 30 miles from the centre of Glasgow. I am sure that there is a reason, but the flight left at 7:05. There is one bus to Prestwick airport that gets there early enough, but I hadn't booked a ticket. So I had to get a taxi at 4:30. There is a good site about the best airports to sleep at. I am not really sure I hade the correct reading material for visiting a famous Italian city. On the trip over I read "Firefox hacks tips and tools for next generation browsing." When I got to Pisa airport I bought a ticket to take me to Florence. When I got to the bus I found it was going to some place called Firenze. All the signs pointed to Firenze so it must be the place I thought. As the bus moved along I began to get more nervous that I was going to the wrong city. Of course I could have asked someone, but frankly it would have been embarrassing (and frankly I would have deserved a smack in the head). As I wondered around the city trying to find my hotel, I was also too nervous to ask for directions, just in case I got the helpful advice "you are in the wrong city". While I was walking around, I turned the corner and saw the cathedral. "Wow, ok I am in Florence". Whenever I see a cathedral I just think of the blood and sweat of the workers who built it while the bishops sat on their plush thrones praying to God that they never have to do manual labour. The cathedral at Florence is very impressive. I didn't go inside of course -- I feel queasy on holy ground. Later I met up with some people and we went for food. On the menu, there was chicken and fried potatoes, but I was told when in Rome, do as the Romans do, so I had some tripe instead. Tripe is eaten in Lancashire -- perhaps raw. I am not sure that tripe agrees with me. Anyway I had some Italian ice cream and that made me feel better.

Harvard

I was reading an article about another insane idea from Blair about how to fund British Universities in the online guardian. As part of the article, they listed the famous people who had studied at Harvard. The fist person on the list was William S. Burroughs. I was so tempted to leave my warm flat to find "the man" so I could bring fame to Glasgow Uni. Perhaps, I should get married so I could play the William Tell sexual game, before leaving for Mexico.

Elliot Smith

While I was web surfing today I found out that Elliot Smith had killed himself. I own a number of CDs by Elliot Smith. He played a kind of twangy melodic solo music that appeals to loner losers like me. If I couldn't find any CD I wanted in a store I would get an Elliot Smith CD, because I knew I would like it.

24

This is going to have to a be a short post. I rented the box set for "24" series 5 on Friday. I managed to watch the first 6 hours of the show yesterday, but frankly there is a limit too how long I can stare at the screen. (OK, I should have started watching it on Friday and as soon as I got out of bed on Saturday). Perhaps I have an addictive personality, but if there are 24 episodes, then frankly I must watch them as soon as possible. When something exciting happens there is a some drum beat and my heart rate goes up. I may as well call in sick tomorrow and watch the entire show. IT HAS TO BE DONE.

hard core po*rn

A bit of a typo in the title, what I meant to say was hard core punk. I have been reading American Hardcore - a tribal history by Steven Blush. Hard core punk was an American punk movement based on playing really fast. (If you want to know more then you can read the book). In my amateur opinion, the most famous of the hard core punk bands were: Dead Kennedys, D.O.A. and Blag Flag. My only real involvement with hard core punk was around 1985. My family was living in Knutsford. This is a small town with a very small record shop. My mum was going into Manchester, so I asked her to get me the latest Dead Kennedy's record. When she back she said, that it wasn't in the store and one of the clerks thought that was because it had been banned. This was probably just after the Dead Kennedys had broken up after some court case about some art work included with their records. My mum was not best pleased to be asked to buy a banned record, but I didn't know it had been banned. Somewhere in the boxes around me I have CDs and tapes by some of the bands mentioned in the book. Some of the US record stores I used to frequent used to sell tapes and CDs by circle jerks and others. I was always intermediated by the straight edge scene. This was a subset of punk who didn't do drugs or booze. That scene imploded as well, so I can enjoy my beer at gigs. Blush knew so many of the hard core bands. I was dissapointed that he didn't mention 9 LB hammer from Kentucky, but on reflection they may have not fit the hardcore straight jacket. I have been to see bands play where the audience was slam dancing. My guess was I watching a pale shadow of the slam dancing done in between 80 to 86s. It did look to be done by blokes who had watched too much MTV. Anyway I used to stand many rows behind the people standing outside the pit. I had never heard of a band called "bad brains", so I have ordered a CD by them. Steven Blush would be pis*ed, but I decided to buy some early slayer CDs as well. Slayer were never a hard core punk band, but they were influenced by the hard core punk bands. I am now feel up to date on both the "post-punk" and hard core punk scenes, so it is time to move on. I don't think I will be reading a book about whatever scene Green Day are in, because I still bitterly regret buying a CD by Green Day. Every time I see some one with a Green Day T-shirt, I am reminded how much I hated the Green Day CD.

JJ Cale

Although I was wondering around in a confused state, last week, due to the flu/cold that was controlling me, I still seemed to have the energy to stay up late and watch a documentary about JJ Cale. I first got into JJ Cale, when I picked up a tape of his at a market close to Wembley Stadium. I don't think I have ever talked to anyone else who liked JJ Cale. In some sense I feel a bit guilty about liking JJ Cale. He is not so prolific and not so driven to create new songs and sounds as other people. Certainly, he doesn't make so many records as say John Cale. Also John Cale has experimented with music way more tha JJ Cale. The documentary only played stuff, I had heard before. Also his sound hasn't changed too much. If I didn' need things to change, then I would be happy to listening to the same Beatles tracks, over and over again, like the amjority of so called normal people with wide musical tapes. Anyway, I feel no guilt for liking JJ Cale's music (even though Clapton is a fan as well). I can remember John Peel playing a track of JJ Cale's. After complaining about JJ Cale not making many records, I have just seen on Amazon that he has put out a number of records that I don't own.

more DVD stuff

I watched the DVD: "Rancid" on Friday night. This film was about a failed writer who gets mixed up with an ex-girl friend. There was a lot of chasing about. I personally thought that the hero was a dick. There was one scene, where his ex-girl friend sees that he has not written a single new line on his novel, since she left him six years ago. That is taking the muse thing too far. Roll on interactive TV. I could then join the film and waste most of the characters, except the nice cop with the moustache. Perhaps, I am just bitter that the "writer" still ended up with a new chick, even after his ex-girlfriend got cut up and died. Saturday night's viewing was better, as I watched the DVD Taxi 3. Being a sad person, I have watched both Taxi 1 and Taxi 2. Taxi 3 was set in Marseilles. It was a fun film about police looking for bank robbers. There was a lot of fast car stuff. Gosh, I so want to visit Marseilles.

health

When ever I go to see a film I have to sit through the adverts before a film shows at the cinema. In Glasgow this involves first seeing an advert against smoking, then an advert aganst drinking, then an advert warning of the dangerous of cocaine, and then an advert about the importance of keeping fit. Nanny state or what? I usually gnash my teeth and hope that the zombie movie main feature starts soon, so that I can see some ones head ripped (now that is something I need to worry about). The people of glasgow seem pretty normal to me. From the adverts at the cinema I would guess that the place is full of overweight alcholic crack heads. The adverts before films in England used to try to sell me icecream and whisky (yummy). Also I can't seem to be able to buy "pop tarts" here. I couldn't find any in the big Tescos in the Maryhill shop centre. Pop tarts are very useful to have in the cupboard -- in case of surprise guests. Also Tesco will only sell medium strength chillis. I want maximum strength chillis.

holidays

I have seem to have spent an age sitting on the couch. I am soon to be coming up to a birthday with a number that ends with one of those dreaded 0s in. So I thought I should go somewhere slightly different. The other option was spending my birthday in Glasgow, perhaps staying in with a crate of beer and a box set of the 24 series on DVD (sounds fun though!). So this morning I booked a holiday to Beijing, China. Using expedia makes travelling too easy. In the past I have burnt out very badly and I have had to go on an emergency holiday. Getting the flight was usually easy, but getting the hotel was always so hard. So a couple of times I have turned up to places with no place to stay. On reflection I don't think it was so wise to arrive at the airport in Mexico City with no hotel room booked (There was a counter where they booked me a room). I did of course think I was like Jack Kerouac in "On the Road" where Jack and his buddies slept on a car in a Mexican city after they had smoked a little too much blow. Also I have had bad experiences with paying huge amounts for a hotel because I didn't plan anything. I would like to travel by hitchhiking or just get on a truck and wonder around a country. I don't think that China is so exotic. It would be cool to go somewhere like Latin America, but I am coward. One of the tours that Expedia recommended was to do a trip to the great wall of China and shoot weapons. Ex-members of the chinese military would be on hand to help. Yep, that would be a cool way to spend my birthday. I doubt that people would be impressed though. "Oh yeah I went to China and shot at the great wall of china with a gun." Not eco-tourism. I was telling some people over lunch that I was going to Beijing in March. Somebody noted, that should be before the "dust storms start." What! Cool, I can't really enjoy a holiday unless there is a nice bit of suffering.

music shop

I have found another good place to get CDs in the fabulous West End of Glasgow. The shop is called Lost in Music. It is behind Woolworths (location wise only) on Byers Road. I was a bit unsure about the place until I found that they sold Lee Hazelwood CDs (although not his latest CD). They also have a small section for German music (krautrock). I got a copy of the CD Landed by Can. I liked the sound of this band a lot. I am going to have get more CDs by can. I need to check out the CDs when they had crazy singers. The fall have written a song to honour one of Can's singers. Yes Can are that important. I should have been listening to Can when I was at school in the early 80s. I will have to sign on to friends united, so I can complain about my friends not being cool enough to introduce me to ground breaking new music.

born to fight

If anyone is thinking that all I do is sit at home and watch DVDs then they would be right. Given this cold/flu thing I can just about do something useful for an hour before I have to lie down. Last night I watched the DVD "born to fight". This was an action movie set in Thailand. There was a fairly standard chase sequence at the beginning of the film. Two cops are chasing two big lorries. Then somebody fell off the top of the lorry onto the ground. Normally when this is done there is some clever cutting and you know the guy went onto a mat. But that didn't happen in this film. One guy gets knocked off the top of the lorry and in a single shot you see him fall on the ground. The lorry looked as though it was travelling fairly fast. Wow, I though the stunt men in Thailand are pretty hard. The whole film was full of stunts that looked real. In the interview part of the DVD, the director noted that they tried to do a blue scene version of a stunt, but it didn't look real enough so they got a better stunt man to do it for real. OK, the plot wasn't upto much. As the reviewers noted it was not as good as Ong Bak, but still it was a surprise to see something like that.

American Splendor

Last night I watched "American Splendor". This is a film about Harvey Pekar who wrote a famous comic strip about his life. He was working a dead end job and was living alone, but managed to create this cartoon that made him famous. He was buddies with Crumb, who did the drawings for his first comics. Some parts of his life looked depressingly similar to mine. When he met his third wife, almost the first thing he set to her was that he had had a vasectomy done. I would have never said this when meeting someone, but later on it started to bother his wife. The guy was pretty insightful, as well as being a bit weird.

ill

I have some kind of mild flu or cold at the moment. It is a dry cold, so I am not spraying snot around, but I have the fever so I can't think. I spent most day at working sitting front of my desk with my head in my hands, as I tried to get my grey cells to work. This kind of illness makes me look lazy. I don't look externally ill, but my brain is almost shut down. To cure this I usually stay in the flat and watch DVDs until the fever passes. As a bloke, I never liked to take pills and medicine for colds, because I have always felt this was unmanly in some way. I have now just scored two tablets of "Tesco max strength Cold and flu Capsules". So I feel like William Burroughs. Perhaps I will open a can of Stella later to see how far I can push myself into the interzone. From a pill for my cold, into the loving arms of Kate Moss, what a strange trip. No I don't need another pill. My DVD based cure for my cold involves watching: born to fight, pitfighter, and undead. Quality!

Severance

I watched a DVD called "severance" over the weekend. This is film about some people on team building retreat in Eastern Europe. They work for an company that manufacturers arms. Unfortunately there are some killing freaks in the woods and people start to tie. Not a particularly deep film, but good fun to watch. I also watched the DVD of "Crank". This was an action movie with Jason Statham (of transporter fame) as the lead. It was a pretty dumb film, but I enjoyed the non-stop action.

Pan's Labyrinth

Last week I went to see the film Pan's Labyrinth. The film was set at the end of the second world war in Spain. A young girl and her mother go to live with the mother's new sadist of a husband. The film blends reality with a bleak fairy tale. In fact both the real and non-real stuff contains a lot of blood and guts. I liked the way that the sadist had a watch that was left to him after his father died. The watch was meant to be broken to remind the son of the son's potential bravery. However, the watch ticked and ticked through out the film. Fair enough, because the Captain was a coward on the inside.

hate

I was at a meeting and I just casually mentioned I hated some piece of software. The chairman of the meeting renormalised "hate" to mild dislike and ignored me. So I probably use the "hate" word too much. For example, I have always hated the "vi" text editor. Whenever I am trying to help someone who uses this piece of ancient crud software and they start up "vi" I know that they are going to take about an hour to enter some simple key strokes. So I pull up my chair and start to fume and rant. So imagine my surprise when I read that the vi editor was written in certain way because the developer didn't have fast net access. The MIT people who wrote emacs had fast (for the time) computers. So their editor could be more elaborate. That is your cold war tax dollars at work . So perhaps I don't hate "vi" after all. I was also amused to see a music reviewer for the online guardian complain that he didn't like Springsteen. I have to agree. I have tried to like his singing, but there is something about him that I don't like. I watched some TV program about his recent CD of Pete Seeger songs. Anyway Springsteen doing Seeger covers didn't do anything for me. I would rather hear Seeger doing Seeger. Wikipedia tells me that Pete Seeger is still alive. Have I mentioned that I hate "vi".

Old grey whistle test

Last night on bbc4 they showed a series of programs about the old grey whistle test. This was a famous music show in the 70s and 80s. I saw Captain Beefhart perform on an old show. Wow he had a kind of crazy stage presence. This was a performance from the mid 70s, so perhaps not one of his best songs. Beefhart's visual performance although out of this world was topped by Alex Harvey doing the Brel song "Next" (the song about losing virginity in an army whore house). Harvey's eyes were shining with maniac madness. Still a number of the bands were too hippy for my taste. I did find myself shouting at the TV "get a haircut you hippy bast*ard" (as you do) and cut down on the length of the guitar solos. I was hopping to see the set done by Jerry Lee Lewis. He is playing the piano and at the end of set puts his hand in the air and twirls his finger around in away that some people may have found to be lewd and suggestive.

Bob Dylan

I listened a lot to Bob Dylan's theme time hour radio show that was played on radio's 2 and 6 over the holidays. I like Bob's patter between songs, it was some how comforting to hear his gravelly voice, He also played a good selection of older music. The guy is not stupid. I don't see that the smile addicted dick head Paul McCartney could have managed such a good job. (Not that I would have known, because I would have trashed the radio, when humble Paul started talking). When I was at school I really liked Bob Dylan. The trouble was that I was perhaps the only person (under 20) who was into Dylan. My school chums were more into the chart material. I am sure there was a lot of underground material at the time that I should have been listening too. If I could travel back in time, I would give myself a slap and a good talking too. (Note I was listening to The Smiths and New Order of course, I was uncool at school, but I wasn't that uncool!) At some stage in my life, I wanted to talk to Bob Dylan and try to convince him to make good records again. Ego of course. My brother lent me a copy of Bob's recent CD "Modern Times", that I like, but I am moved more by people like "Cat Power", "Mary Lou Lord", and "Jeffrey Lewis". Such is the fate of old artists. When I was at school Dylan put out the CD "Infidels". This was his last great lyric album. It was good that my hero was making good records again. I went to see him play at Newcastle around 1985/1986. I had to take a day off school and I missed some school trip. This annoyed some of the people in the sixth form that they threatened not to support my application to go to Cambridge University if I went to see Dylan play. Being stubborn I went to see Dylan anyway, so I didn't apply to Cambridge. For some time after this I tried my hand at telling this as an amusing story. However, I seemed to have to explain things like who Dylan was that tended to reduce the comic impact of the story. Let us see if the blogosphere responds better. One year I spent Christmas in Las Vegas. As I was walking through a casino I heard the Bob Dylan song "Jokerman" play. My life is getting strange I thought.

Beautiful Boxer

On new years eve I watched a DVD called Beautiful boxer. This was in the world cinema section at Blockbusters. I was hoping for a bit of mindless martial arts butt kicking. The film was about a transvestite kick boxer who fights to earn enough money for a sex change. This was your typical Van Damme clone film. I was hoping for something like the Ong Bak, but I suppose it cultivated my sensitive side. The film was based in Thailand. This film was meant to be based on true events. Anyone who knows about muay Thai would not even dare to take the pi*s out of a transvestite who fights in the ring. No one would want to get a knee to the head. It is never very clear to me whether the elbow to the top of the head is an effective technique. I would have thought that the bone is very thick there. Perhaps I will ask an expert. I still need to do more work on my sensitive side.

The soul of a new machine

I just finished reading "the soul of a new machine" by Tracy Kidder. This is a fantastic book about a small group of engineers who build the first 32 bit computer for a company called Data General. It describes all the technical and political problems involved. The book is also very good about the motivation of the people working on the project. It explains why many engineers move into management in their 30s, because of heavy burn out. A postdoc recommended that I read it, when I was a graduate student. I don't plan to be involved in any computer building, so perhaps I should have read it five years ago.

new word

I was reading an interesting article on the online guardian about people keeping a diary. According to the article, diaries are interesting when the writer is dead or the diary is essentially empty, since this is a record of a half lived life. In the article one of the writers uses the word: quotidian. I hate smart ass writers with their heads full of little used words. I have had problems with the meanings of words before. While I lived in Edinburgh, I once had a heavy cold, that made me hide in my dusty little bedsit until the fever left me. During my exile from the healthy world I read "120 days of Sodom" by Marquis De Sade. Needles to say this book didn't make me feel any better. I remembered the book title as "120 days of sodomy". This was not a particularly Freudian slip. At the time I was not really clear what sodom (or sodomy) meant. Somehow my mum forget to tell me about these things when I was growing up. Now I can just use google and wikipedia to look up new words. But before the web, sodomy was not part of my quotidian family life.

Brel CD

I don't want to be like one of those place snobs, but I always feel a lot happier being in a city. Sometimes, it is inevitable I have to accept being in a town. While I was visiting my mum for the holidays, I was in the music store (perhaps the musiczone) in the centre of Burnley. I saw a CD by Scott Walker called "sings Jacques Brel". Brel was a famous Belgium singer song writer, who wrote some fantastic disturbing songs. Brel gets covered a lot by English singers. I had searched a number of shops in Glasgow for this CD , once I had learnt of its existence. Technically I was in the shop to buy a present for my brother, but I needed to buy presents for myself as well. I particularly like track 7 called "if you go away". This is a fantastic sad song that is just prefect to play when a relationship falls apart. The first lines are something like: "if you go away on this summer day, then you may as well take the sun with you." It is so lonely. The trouble is, I am not sure I would ever get much of a chance to play it. I am more likely to hear, "if you spent more time cleaning the toilet, rather than listening to gloomy CDs this relationship would be in a much better shape." Or, "why can't we spend Sunday walking in the green hills, rather than staring at them out of the window in some self imposed exile from happiness. I am leaving now. Don't play that Scott Walker track when I am gone." I once got a CD of Brel singing. Unfortunately, he sang in French and the lyric is all in his world.

GUI

I speed read "User Interface Design for Programmers" by Joel Spolsky yesterday. This is a book about the design of computer GUIs. It is written in a clear style. Joel is famous for writing many of the articles on the site http://www.joelonsoftware.com/. Joel worked for Microsoft for a while so he had many insights into the way the windows GUIs are designed. Still I see so many badly designed programs. At the start of the book, he notes that people are a lot happier when they can control and change their environment. Later he complains about programs with too many options. Life is full of compromises. Working with crappy programs tends to really me fu*k me off.

The face

As my book for travelling home, I choose "the face" by Dean Koontz. I personally feel that novels should not be over 500 pages, otherwise the novelist should be shot. This book was 649 pages long, but I vote that Dean should not be shot with glock for the length of his book. Although I enjoyed reading "the face", I don't feel that I know anything more about the human condition. Still, it was a page turner with a nice mix of violence and the supernatural.

Talking weird sh*t

I was talking to some people in the pub before Christmas. They all seemed to have crazy friends, who talked for hours about crazy stuff such as giant robots. At the time I suddenly had an idea to improve road safety. The next big thing in road safety will be air bags on the outside of the car. Just thing, do you really want to take the risk of hitting a child in a car. What you really need is an air bag outside the car just in case you hit a pedestrian. Most people would feel bad if they killed a child in an accident. I am sure a car salesman could get people to pay an additional £500 for outside airbags on their new car. Trouble is that sounds a bit weird and freaky. When I thought of it in the pub, I decided to keep quiet. I didn't want to appear strange and messed up, so I kept my idea to myself. But how many people have to die because there are not air bags outside the car.

Some new music.

I worry that as I get into the old music, I will miss some of the new music coming out now. Will I have to read a book in 2016 about the music in 2006? Probably. Just to show I am keeping my eye on the new modern sounds, you can check out the ZX spectrum orchestra. I am not sure how to get hold of their music though. Cutting edge.

postpunk

I have just finished reading the book "rip it up and start again" by Simon Reynolds. This books documents the postpunk movements between 1978 and 1984. As I have mentioned before, the TV programs about punk just concentrate on the clash and the sex pistols. But there were many other bands around then who were more interesting. I have only recently discovered bands such as wire and gang of four. I was sort of growing up then, but I seemed to have missed many important sounds. I expect that I spent too much time watching Top of the Pops and not enough time listening to John Peel. I didn't have much money, so I doubt that I could have really got into those bands. I was surprised by how many of the bands were influenced by books and cultural theory. Drugs, booze and massive egos, ended most of the bands in the end. Perhaps, like life fame should end after a short while. We can't all be U2 now can we? Here are some old bands I am going to check out: * The pop group * throbbing gristle (these guys are a bit sick though) * the residents * the blue orchids * raincoats People will think I am so cool when I name check these great old bands. Or maybe not

gloom and despair ect.

There was an amusing piece on the radio about "smiling in France". The presenter noted that it wasn't considered normal to smile at people in Paris. I don't know whether this is true or not. But the presenter walked around Paris for a while and smiled at people. People got scared and looked away. Whether the French do this, I don't know, but frankly it sounds a reasonable thing to do to me. When I was very little I was forced by my parents to live in the South of England. When we visited the southern village again, a lady in a bakery remembered that as a child I used to be gloomy and quiet. She tried to cheer me up by giving me pastries. This explains a lot. People complain that I don't smile enough and spend too much time talking about darkness, disease and death. Hey, I am just waiting for some free doughnuts. As I swipe the plastic knife against the blue vein in my arm, I am just just waiting for some jam and cream. Keep smiling for the insane and jolly.

Twilight Samurai

I watched the DVD for the film "Twilight Samurai" a couple of days ago. Blockbuster have a big section on world cinema, so I get to see how people get killed in other cultures. There are only two sword fights in "Twilight Samurai", but they were good ones. Most of the film is about a poor Samurai working as a clerk and falling in love. A good "chick flick" for women who like Samurai swords. More information

booze

On Saturday morning I ventured from the safe confines of the West End to go to the centre of Glasgow to buy a Christmas present for my mum. I was stopped by soneone who was doing a survey about alchol problems in Scotland. Now I had been out the previous evening for a holiday session and my head felt a bit thick, so I wasn't really in the mood to be questioned. The first question was "how old are you?". Oh my, god I thought I am not sure I can do complicated math with a Saturday morning hangover. I told her my age, but apparently they are only interested in people with drink problems who are younger than 37. So I am now too old to take part in a survey on drink problems in Scotland. Why? On reflection perhaps that had something to do with sperm counts. As I stood stunned the woman gave me a gentle tug on the arm as she stepped away and I was propelled into the tube station and totally missed the waiting arms of the scream pub next door.

Visitor Q

I just finished watching a DVD called Visitor Q by Miike Tahshi. What, wot, what was going on? You don't watch a Miike film with your mum, but still, it was fairly crazy by any standards. Perhaps in Japan this is normal. Anyway it was way better than the Segal movie on the digital channel. Still very disturbing.

failure

Being a sad person, I got really excited when I found that Lee Hazelwood had a new CD out. I only found who Lee Hazelwood was when I was impulse buying CDs in the Probe shop in Liverpool. The CD was Poet Fool or Bum / Back on the Street Again. I really liked his crooning sound. I suppose he is most "famous" for working with Nancy Sinatra. But he has had a long and strange career that involved him working in Sweden for a while. I am usually too scared to listen to Lee Hazelwood in front of people, just in case I might need to rearrange somebody's musical taste with a slight touch of my fist. The new CD is "Cake or death". I was really nervous that it might suck. I just heard a track on Mint on radio6. He still sounds good although he is ill and old. If he had been a "main stream" successful artist, it would have been dire. Somehow a life of non-success doesn't mean failure.

Davy Graham

I am listening to "folk, blues and beyond" by Davy Graham. Davy was an English folk pioneer in late 50s and 60s. For some reason, I always thought that the British folk scene in early 60s was very much about wearing woolly jumpers and singing traditional ballads in the folk club before they started the important business of a career. Graham's guitar sound is traditional, modern and still wild. Davy liked to travel and supported himself in many foreign lands by busking. I wish I could live such a life. Of course chemicals took his spirit in the end. I am pretty sure I heard him give an interview on the freakzone on radio6. He sounded like a tired broken man. but he could still play his guitar. I have been unable to find the track listings for Graham playing on the freakzone, so perhaps he is dead and he was reaching me from the beyond with more suggestions for CDs to buy. More information about Davy Graham.

Exhaustion

There was an interesting article on working long hours in the guardian yesterday. I like the fact that it is considered normal for people to fall asleep at a dinner party. (Since I have had a student fall asleep in a tutorial I can well believe it). Sometimes I get into work and I put my head in my hands because I have got so much work to do. Then I get up and tell other people how behind I am on my work. Then at lunch I tell people how stressed I am with the over work. Then suddenly it is time to go home and I have achieved nothing all day. Well it is time to start for work. I hearing a howling gale outside that shakes the curtains. No doubt freezing rain will meet me as I walk out the door.

I started to watch a documentary about English punk bands. The trouble with these programs is that they only focus on the sex pistols, the clash, the dammned and a bunch of other bands who charted for a bit. I am kind of annoyed that they never mention postpunk bands such as wire or gang of four. They never talk about the American hardcore scene in the early 80s (black flag,..). Also I am fairly pissed that I was 38 before I heard of The Modern Lovers and Jonathan Richman. Richman was a pre-punk band that I really like. Perhaps the punk thing would be to read some more books, because I can't trust the TV.

Psycho shop

There is a good selection of books in Oxfam on Byers Rd. I have noticed that second hand book stores near Universities tend to have better selections than other places. This sounds a bit snobby, but my theory is that University folk buy lots of books, that they later have to sell when they get too additcted to booze and chemicals. Just a theory. The book in question is Psycho shop by Alfred Bester and Roger Zelazny. Bester started the book, but it was finished by Zelazny when Bester died. Bester was a major inovating in the 50s and early 60s. He only used to write when he had emotional problems. Unfortunately, he must have found happiness, during the 70s and 80s, because he stopped writing, and he died in poverty. Bester's great novels such as "the demolished man" were way ahead of their time. This novel was very confusing, particularly as it took me three months to read. Also too much physics, I don't read science fiction to learn about the science of black holes. Still not a bad read. More information about Bester

tesco

Tesco are pretty good at tempting me with their displays of stuff. I can see why they make billions of pounds in profit. I was going to the store in the Maryhill shopiing center, when I remembered that were selling wind up radios. That could be useful I thought. I don't want to get electrocuted while listening to the radio in the shower. Also a wind up radio would be useful if civilisation collapsed and I couldn't rely on email. I could sit in my third floor flat while the mad dogs and crazy drugged zombies roam the streets in search of human flesh. The wind up radio would let me know when it was safe to go to the street level and resume a normal life of going to starbucks. I am not really sure that a third floor flat is high enough. From what I rememeber of the film "28 days", I would need to hide out in a much higher flat when zombies take over. If the troops in blue helmets come in their black helicopoters and take away our pound coins, I am going to need a way to listen to the resistance that doesn't involve buying batteries with those hated euros. The power of Tesco marketing is more powerful that my paranoid fantasies. I decided what I really needed, before I stocked up on survivalist kit, was a bath mat so I don't slip over and shatter my spine. I will get the wind up radio on another trip

feel the fear and do it anyway

I have just finished reading "feel the fear and do it anyway." by Susan Jeffers. This is a self help book about feeling positive. Normally positive people get on my nerves, and I have to restrain myself from giving a light knock on the nose with a heavy object. Sometimes I like being negative and depressed, so I don't need some bright spark telling me to look on gthe bright side of life. Hey, I would feel a whole lot better, if you shut the f**k up and got me another beer. Trouble is, being positive is not always enough. You can be as positive as you like, but you may never find out why the mass of the top quark is 174 GeV. I was particularly impressed with the diagram that shows what you are like in a relationship: ------------------- | relationship | -------------------- when the relationship is over the diagram looks like: ----------------------- | | ----------------------- wow. This makes so much sense. Obviously I read this type of book for a reason. Mostly to get poison out of my system. The film Donnie Darko is particularly good at destroying the "self help crowd".

Vashti Bunyan

I am listening to a CD by Vashti Bunyan. The CD was made in the late 60s. The songs were written as Vashtil travelled by horse and cart to Scotland to live in a commune founded by Donovan. The journey took two years. She sounds so sweet and shy. Vashti dropped out of the music scene until a few years ago, when she suddenly found that her old album was fetching huge sums on the internet. That is the trouble with pop music. People no longer take two years to go from London to Scotlan, they are too busy and so get a plane instead. So they listen to Robbie Williams and feel cheated. More information. Some people are only happy when they are listning to a someone so obscure that only a few of the chosen few have heard of them.

Jeffrey Lewis

I went out to see Jeffrey Lewis play on Thursday at Kings Tuts in Glasgow. Jeffrey Lewis is a singer song writer from New York. This was one of the best gigs I have ever been to. He sang some songs that I had own. He sang a great song about meeting Will Oldam on a train in New York, that I particularly like. He also did a song about the communist revolution in China. At the same time he flicked through a big comic, drawn by himself, of the communist revolution in China. He did another song about some big brain. The magic of youtube allows you to see this song as well. The weird thing was that the Jeffrey Lewis band were the support band. I have already forgotten who the main band were. I wanted to get a T-shirt, but I know I would have some stupid joke about taking acid. He would then have muttered something about listening to the second album.