i think this is the first Comment is free (Guardian) posted comment i've seen to make me laugh, from someone called TheScaryCornflake
theres plenty of indigenous people who hate this country mate, try reading this site.
[many have you despairing]
Wednesday, 23 May 2007
some good news for the Chagossians at the Court of Appeal in London today.
Families expelled from the Chagos Islands to make way for the Diego Garcia US airbase won their legal battle to return home today.
it'll be a pleasant surprise if the UK doesn't continue its shameful and disgraceful behaviour and not try to appeal..
...btw, you'd have to buy it, but one from the archives: Glenny on the murder of Zoran Djindjic
it'll be a pleasant surprise if the UK doesn't continue its shameful and disgraceful behaviour and not try to appeal..
...btw, you'd have to buy it, but one from the archives: Glenny on the murder of Zoran Djindjic
Tuesday, 22 May 2007
MY UNCLE WENT TO NEWARK AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS LOUSY 'PORTS AMERICA' TEE-SHIRT
i should have mentioned this at the time but about two months ago Dubai Ports World finally completed the sale, in full, of American assets to an American company, although the deal was agreed last year.
the deal had been seen as necessary as DPW had come under intense pressure from within the USA to offload their American holdings to an American firm.
DPW had acquired these interests in the USA when they bought another company out, the British P&O.
(public and legislative opposition to a foreign state-owned outfit controlling aspects of American port security was the driver of this hostility.)
[the company buying is American International Group, who are arguably best known outside their homeland for their sponsorship of Manchester United football club.
some embittered Mancunians have been suggesting AIG stands for Absent In Greece, which is petty and unfair but clearly i'm running with it, so you can go ahead and call me on that.]
late last year, incidentally, it was reported that
A.I.G.'s asset management unit, the AIG Global Investment Group, will take control of the port operations. The ports' current management, led by its chairman, Michael Seymour, will remain. AIG Global Investment's managing director, Christopher Lee, said that A.I.G. had "identified the marine terminals sector as a key element in our infrastructure investment strategy."
this sort of tinkering shows, pretty much, what a storm-in-teacup the whole thing was from the jump..
i should have mentioned this at the time but about two months ago Dubai Ports World finally completed the sale, in full, of American assets to an American company, although the deal was agreed last year.
the deal had been seen as necessary as DPW had come under intense pressure from within the USA to offload their American holdings to an American firm.
DPW had acquired these interests in the USA when they bought another company out, the British P&O.
(public and legislative opposition to a foreign state-owned outfit controlling aspects of American port security was the driver of this hostility.)
[the company buying is American International Group, who are arguably best known outside their homeland for their sponsorship of Manchester United football club.
some embittered Mancunians have been suggesting AIG stands for Absent In Greece, which is petty and unfair but clearly i'm running with it, so you can go ahead and call me on that.]
late last year, incidentally, it was reported that
this sort of tinkering shows, pretty much, what a storm-in-teacup the whole thing was from the jump..
i don't think i'm contributing to anything horrid here (there's a big media scrum there, and who knows really what that means) - (i would say this of course) - as regards the ongoing agony of life for the parents & loved ones of the missing British girl, Madeleine McCann, who disappeared days short of her fourth birthday in southern Portugal recently during a family holiday, but i wanted to flag up Carol Sarler (ex-Daily Express) here.
"we have paedophiles, as do "they"; we have desperate, barren madwomen, as do "they" – but at least we don’t have organised bands of evil, swarthy foreigners grabbing our babies to flog in their vile markets"
Monday, 21 May 2007
The "horror of history" in which her apologists thought her "imprisoned" was a narrative of her own making about which she remained nostalgic and unrepentant. It was richly rewarded and free of any compulsion save personal ambition. She did not suffer from it but profited, and to suggest otherwise – as she often did – is an insult to the millions who died at the hands of a regime she took pride in glorifying, using, and enabling.
- Steven Bach on Leni Riefenstahl
- Steven Bach on Leni Riefenstahl
Thursday, 17 May 2007
p.s.
it's behind a free sub but
here is the Washington Post's Juan Forero on "one of Chávez's most far-reaching experiments -- community councils"
it's behind a free sub but
here is the Washington Post's Juan Forero on "one of Chávez's most far-reaching experiments -- community councils"
yesterday
Gaunt-faced and thin in a police uniform, Jhon Frank Pinchao described how he slipped from chains the guerrillas used to hold prisoners and fled for more than two weeks through the jungle before he was found by a police patrol.
Pinchao was captured by the FARC when guerrillas attacked a police base in 1998, killing some officers and taking more than 60 hostage. He said he was held with a group of 13 hostages, including some other police officers.
All of the hostages were suffering from ailments after years in the jungle, including Gonsalves who has hepatitis, Pinchao said.
"I hope they can return soon, God protect them," he said, breaking into tears.
+
Gaza: "A BBC correspondent described the fighting as the worst he had ever seen."
&
press release for Accepting Realities in Iraq, with link to paper. (they also announce In 2007 we plan to publish reports on FLEC in Angola and the Forces nouvelles of Cote d'Ivoire.)
+
if you were at all surprised (even a little, momentarily, as i perhaps was*) with Tony Blair's slurring like a bar-room drunk at his resignation speech to his constituency - proud to have been at the helm of the greatest nation on earth - do recall that during his tenure Blair has occasionally been guilty of stoking some quite crass populism against the EU, when he has been courting tabloid readers of a certain stripe, for instance.
i thought the only national politicians that genuinely believed that theirs was the best are politicians serving under dictatorships or (of course) American ones.
it seems not.
* [i'm still unsure, i guess.]
BAGGIES BAGGIES BAGGIES BOING BOING BOING
Gaunt-faced and thin in a police uniform, Jhon Frank Pinchao described how he slipped from chains the guerrillas used to hold prisoners and fled for more than two weeks through the jungle before he was found by a police patrol.
Pinchao was captured by the FARC when guerrillas attacked a police base in 1998, killing some officers and taking more than 60 hostage. He said he was held with a group of 13 hostages, including some other police officers.
All of the hostages were suffering from ailments after years in the jungle, including Gonsalves who has hepatitis, Pinchao said.
"I hope they can return soon, God protect them," he said, breaking into tears.
+
Gaza: "A BBC correspondent described the fighting as the worst he had ever seen."
&
press release for Accepting Realities in Iraq, with link to paper. (they also announce In 2007 we plan to publish reports on FLEC in Angola and the Forces nouvelles of Cote d'Ivoire.)
+
if you were at all surprised (even a little, momentarily, as i perhaps was*) with Tony Blair's slurring like a bar-room drunk at his resignation speech to his constituency - proud to have been at the helm of the greatest nation on earth - do recall that during his tenure Blair has occasionally been guilty of stoking some quite crass populism against the EU, when he has been courting tabloid readers of a certain stripe, for instance.
i thought the only national politicians that genuinely believed that theirs was the best are politicians serving under dictatorships or (of course) American ones.
it seems not.
* [i'm still unsure, i guess.]
BAGGIES BAGGIES BAGGIES BOING BOING BOING
Tuesday, 15 May 2007
yesterday
Uribe says the arrests are proof Colombia's institutions are working and demanded authorities support the investigation. But rights groups say the militia bosses have kept their criminal networks alive and remain influential.
Paramilitary commander Salvatore Mancuso promised this week to give evidence about politicians, army commanders, business leaders and foreign companies who he says collaborated with the warlords before their demobilization.
U.S. banana giant Chiquita Brands International recently pleaded guilty to charges that it's local unit paid protection money to paramilitaries and agreed to a settlement of $25 million.
announced yesterday
'Colombia's Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said the killings were under investigation but the two men could have crossed into Venezuela as part of their undercover work against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC.
"They infiltrated the FARC; we have a lot of people infiltrated in the FARC. There is nothing unusual about that, and they were found dead in Venezuela," Santos told local Caracol radio.
"They were assassinated and appear also to have been tortured," he said.'
+
Maruf Khwaja on "Rising, uprising Pakistan"
Politics, the state, and its doctrinal fetishes have failed Pakistanis - but their voices are not yet silenced.
Uribe says the arrests are proof Colombia's institutions are working and demanded authorities support the investigation. But rights groups say the militia bosses have kept their criminal networks alive and remain influential.
Paramilitary commander Salvatore Mancuso promised this week to give evidence about politicians, army commanders, business leaders and foreign companies who he says collaborated with the warlords before their demobilization.
U.S. banana giant Chiquita Brands International recently pleaded guilty to charges that it's local unit paid protection money to paramilitaries and agreed to a settlement of $25 million.
announced yesterday
'Colombia's Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said the killings were under investigation but the two men could have crossed into Venezuela as part of their undercover work against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC.
"They infiltrated the FARC; we have a lot of people infiltrated in the FARC. There is nothing unusual about that, and they were found dead in Venezuela," Santos told local Caracol radio.
"They were assassinated and appear also to have been tortured," he said.'
+
Maruf Khwaja on "Rising, uprising Pakistan"
Thursday, 10 May 2007
yesterday
The attack was near Landazuri, in Santander province, 100 miles north of Bogota, where officials said the National Liberation Army is active.
Local police commander Gen. Jaime Otero said the officers were providing security for workers eradicating coca crops, which are used to make cocaine, when FARC members detonated explosives as their truck passed by.
today
'Valle de Cauca is a centre of Colombia's lucrative cocaine trade.
Both Farc and the right-wing paramilitary groups draw revenues from the cultivation and export of cocaine.
Army commander Gen Hernando Perez Molina said Thursday's attack on an army patrol took place at 1245 local time.
Perez told the local Caracol radio station that..had carried out the attack.
Two officers and eight soldiers were killed in the attack.
"We know this is Farc because it fits their modus operandi and historically they have operated in this zone," he said.'
The attack was near Landazuri, in Santander province, 100 miles north of Bogota, where officials said the National Liberation Army is active.
Local police commander Gen. Jaime Otero said the officers were providing security for workers eradicating coca crops, which are used to make cocaine, when FARC members detonated explosives as their truck passed by.
today
'Valle de Cauca is a centre of Colombia's lucrative cocaine trade.
Both Farc and the right-wing paramilitary groups draw revenues from the cultivation and export of cocaine.
Army commander Gen Hernando Perez Molina said Thursday's attack on an army patrol took place at 1245 local time.
Perez told the local Caracol radio station that..had carried out the attack.
Two officers and eight soldiers were killed in the attack.
"We know this is Farc because it fits their modus operandi and historically they have operated in this zone," he said.'
Thursday, 3 May 2007
two links to the Beeb: 'Iran's proud but discreet Jews', by Frances Harrison, & a photo essay from Western Sahara (camps, troops, and camels)
Wednesday, 2 May 2007
Of course he was bashed. He deserved it...I told the police beat him a lot...We are saying to him, ‘Stop it now or you will regret it.'
"Right now, no one walks about after 7 p.m., unless you want a beating"
Bashing Dissent: Escalating Violence and State Repression in Zimbabwe
"Right now, no one walks about after 7 p.m., unless you want a beating"
Bashing Dissent: Escalating Violence and State Repression in Zimbabwe
Tuesday, 1 May 2007
it's testament that, plucked at random, Owen's two latest bits at one of his places cause unalloyed joy, just plucked at random mind you.
a slap-down to Simon Jenkins (i might not be saying he's always a total duffer, politically*, and i admit to being intrigued by his forthcoming Falklands conflict book, with Max Hastings, but really more because it's Max..) is beautifully administered here, whilst the last line on this Niemeyer biscuit here should certainly be in cold, hard print.
{* tempting though, maybe}
a slap-down to Simon Jenkins (i might not be saying he's always a total duffer, politically*, and i admit to being intrigued by his forthcoming Falklands conflict book, with Max Hastings, but really more because it's Max..) is beautifully administered here, whilst the last line on this Niemeyer biscuit here should certainly be in cold, hard print.
{* tempting though, maybe}
Monday, 30 April 2007
THE CROWD SAY BO
I don't know what qualifications are required to be a weather forecaster on television or radio, but you would have thought that there were plenty of people who would like to do the job. Why, then, do the selectors find so many who are unable to pronounce the word 'Arctic' (it has two cs in it, neither silent) or the word 'Ireland' (it has an r in it, making it sound different from 'island')?
Charles Moore
I don't know what qualifications are required to be a weather forecaster on television or radio, but you would have thought that there were plenty of people who would like to do the job. Why, then, do the selectors find so many who are unable to pronounce the word 'Arctic' (it has two cs in it, neither silent) or the word 'Ireland' (it has an r in it, making it sound different from 'island')?
Charles Moore
Saturday, 28 April 2007
anyway, yesterday morning Classic fm (office ambience innit) was very affecting on the death of Mstislav Rostropovich.
their announcers and reporters were touching, eloquent, plain (in the best sense of the word), and powerful.
the first piece of music played after the news by that station was some Tchaikovsky by the London Phil, conductor: Rostropovich.
after that was the man himself playing Bach.
actually, again on Ch4 news yesterday, their arts correspondent had an emotional piece at the end of the programme, with a few figures from the world of that profession, and friends.
their announcers and reporters were touching, eloquent, plain (in the best sense of the word), and powerful.
the first piece of music played after the news by that station was some Tchaikovsky by the London Phil, conductor: Rostropovich.
after that was the man himself playing Bach.
actually, again on Ch4 news yesterday, their arts correspondent had an emotional piece at the end of the programme, with a few figures from the world of that profession, and friends.
tago-mago.net has a nas, wu-tang, & others thing, up here.
S/FJ linked him the other week actually (wot can i say, we must be on the same mail-list).
here for S/FJ, becuz, frankly, you need that picture.
S/FJ linked him the other week actually (wot can i say, we must be on the same mail-list).
here for S/FJ, becuz, frankly, you need that picture.
Wednesday, 25 April 2007
Tuesday, 24 April 2007
Chicago Triad
three random Second City snippets - unrelated, really, and what have you - called to mind/sprung to attention, in the last few days, for me, just underline how much i miss that town, not in themselves you know, but, they just do.
it's a great city.
1. Virgin Atlantic airline is introducing a daily service from Heathrow to O'Hare.
2. two of the world's 50 best restaurants are there (you know those poll results), specifically the otherworldly and transporting Alinea (is the conjuror Grant Achatz still there? got it going on) and the celebrated Charlie Trotter's (again, not a surprise).
{two alternatives to flag from the most recent* food issue of the local Time Out i've seen would be the pepito sammich' at Costa Rican gaff Irazu, in Logan Square, and the somun bread at Adria Mare on Broadway at Balmoral**.
oh, ok, three: take the apple fritter at Old Fashioned Donuts on the South Side, on Michigan, around 112th, 113th.
money quote: "The most. Insanely. Delicious. Doughnut. On. The. Planet."}
*a coupla years old, granted.
**what can i say? i must be in a carbs mood.
3. the Barclays-ABN Amro merger, one effect of which is the possible sale of ABN arm LaSalle to Bank of America.
apparently the RBS is quite cheesed off with this proposal, as one financial journalist (Stephen Kahn) writes : ABN's Chicago subsidiary LaSalle was a gem that RBS coveted.
again, it's a great city.
gosh i miss that town.
three random Second City snippets - unrelated, really, and what have you - called to mind/sprung to attention, in the last few days, for me, just underline how much i miss that town, not in themselves you know, but, they just do.
it's a great city.
1. Virgin Atlantic airline is introducing a daily service from Heathrow to O'Hare.
2. two of the world's 50 best restaurants are there (you know those poll results), specifically the otherworldly and transporting Alinea (is the conjuror Grant Achatz still there? got it going on) and the celebrated Charlie Trotter's (again, not a surprise).
{two alternatives to flag from the most recent* food issue of the local Time Out i've seen would be the pepito sammich' at Costa Rican gaff Irazu, in Logan Square, and the somun bread at Adria Mare on Broadway at Balmoral**.
oh, ok, three: take the apple fritter at Old Fashioned Donuts on the South Side, on Michigan, around 112th, 113th.
money quote: "The most. Insanely. Delicious. Doughnut. On. The. Planet."}
*a coupla years old, granted.
**what can i say? i must be in a carbs mood.
3. the Barclays-ABN Amro merger, one effect of which is the possible sale of ABN arm LaSalle to Bank of America.
apparently the RBS is quite cheesed off with this proposal, as one financial journalist (Stephen Kahn) writes : ABN's Chicago subsidiary LaSalle was a gem that RBS coveted.
again, it's a great city.
gosh i miss that town.
Monday, 23 April 2007
a recent Big Issue (UK street paper) had a piece by Hazel Healy about an April 5 demonstration - rallying 70-handed - outside Dallas Court Reporting Centre in Salford, base for UK Immigration Services.
the protest was called to show support for 50 Sudanese asylum seekers who were due to check in at Dallas Court that day, people facing the possibility of detention and eventual deportation.
"Sudanese people had been rounded up from across the country the previous week, according to Abobeker Zureya, secretary of the Darfur community in Manchester, which organised the event.
Zureya claims Khartoum is not safe for Darfuris, who will be targeted by the Sudanese government if they are returned...The Medical Foundation for Victims of Torture has documented Darfuris being tortured in 'ghost houses' in Khartoum.
Last week the Aegis trust..publicised a case where a returned asylum seeker was tortured in Khartoum."
on April 4 the Court of Appeal ruled that, in the case of three Darfurian asylum seekers due to be deported to camps near Khartoum, the deportations must be halted, on the grounds that same action would be unduly harsh, given conditions in those refugee camps.
the Home Office said it would consider an appeal to the House of Lords.
on April 5 no one was detained at Dallas Court.
Zureya says the rallies will continue until the Home Office acknowledges no part of Sudan is safe for Darfurians while conflict continues.
(one of the protestors - 27 year old Adam Al Noor Ibrahim who left Forbaranga in west Darfur in 2005 - was wearing "a blue beret representing a plea for UN peacekeeper intervention in the conflict.")
the protest was called to show support for 50 Sudanese asylum seekers who were due to check in at Dallas Court that day, people facing the possibility of detention and eventual deportation.
Zureya claims Khartoum is not safe for Darfuris, who will be targeted by the Sudanese government if they are returned...The Medical Foundation for Victims of Torture has documented Darfuris being tortured in 'ghost houses' in Khartoum.
Last week the Aegis trust..publicised a case where a returned asylum seeker was tortured in Khartoum."
on April 4 the Court of Appeal ruled that, in the case of three Darfurian asylum seekers due to be deported to camps near Khartoum, the deportations must be halted, on the grounds that same action would be unduly harsh, given conditions in those refugee camps.
the Home Office said it would consider an appeal to the House of Lords.
on April 5 no one was detained at Dallas Court.
Zureya says the rallies will continue until the Home Office acknowledges no part of Sudan is safe for Darfurians while conflict continues.
(one of the protestors - 27 year old Adam Al Noor Ibrahim who left Forbaranga in west Darfur in 2005 - was wearing "a blue beret representing a plea for UN peacekeeper intervention in the conflict.")
APING SARAMAGO
Boris Yeltsin shuffles away, and all that that entails for his family and friends*, and i wanted to say - bringing it back to 'the personal'/almost solipsistic arguably - that Dr Matthew Wyman taught a Russian politics course at undergrad level at Keele (where i, essentially, wasted a degree) and it was his passion and humanity that came through, and he was starting to teach Russian politics to me at roughly the same time as other friends in literature departments were being taught about Russian literature by their tutors (which is good as that meant everything mixed), and Dr Wyman was/is a really, really lovely bloke (one of many awesome academics i was fortunate to meet and be taught by at Keele, though in my case "taught" is perhaps a stretch) so here is the homepage at Keele for him, here, showing his interests in the teaching of politics itself and so on.
*this blog is pretty good at stating the bleedin' obvious
Boris Yeltsin shuffles away, and all that that entails for his family and friends*, and i wanted to say - bringing it back to 'the personal'/almost solipsistic arguably - that Dr Matthew Wyman taught a Russian politics course at undergrad level at Keele (where i, essentially, wasted a degree) and it was his passion and humanity that came through, and he was starting to teach Russian politics to me at roughly the same time as other friends in literature departments were being taught about Russian literature by their tutors (which is good as that meant everything mixed), and Dr Wyman was/is a really, really lovely bloke (one of many awesome academics i was fortunate to meet and be taught by at Keele, though in my case "taught" is perhaps a stretch) so here is the homepage at Keele for him, here, showing his interests in the teaching of politics itself and so on.
*this blog is pretty good at stating the bleedin' obvious
Abu Sayyaf delivers seven headless bodies to the Philippine army.
at least 32 people die in a molten steel industrial accident in Liaoning Province.
the UNHCR says people are trapped in Mogadishu.
5 babies are killed in a fire at a Sarajevo orphanage.
a young man dies following his participation in the London marathon.
there are many, many deaths, and much violence, entwined with the Nigerian elections.
in the weekend that just passed Gaza and the West Bank suffered numerous killings.
this is some news of recent days.
what is my point? {if any.}
i don't know.
at least 32 people die in a molten steel industrial accident in Liaoning Province.
the UNHCR says people are trapped in Mogadishu.
5 babies are killed in a fire at a Sarajevo orphanage.
a young man dies following his participation in the London marathon.
there are many, many deaths, and much violence, entwined with the Nigerian elections.
in the weekend that just passed Gaza and the West Bank suffered numerous killings.
this is some news of recent days.
what is my point? {if any.}
i don't know.
"Amnesty International today repeated its call to the Syrian authorities to release immediately Anwar al-Bunni when his trial before the Damascus Criminal Court concludes tomorrow, 24 April 2007."
more here
more here
Oliver Kamm is honest enough to flag up this debate here he had with aid worker Conor Foley about intervention and Darfur.
Foley cites Alex de Waal, Human Rights Watch and the ICTY, applauds some of the United Nation's work, and asks questions of Kamm.
Kamm gets stuck in to numbers, cites Brookings and pays tribute to the work Foley does.
I think that we share the same wish for peace in Darfur and agree that this crisis should not be turned into a proxy for ideological battles elsewhere. I hope that the investigation by the International Criminal Court will continue and bring those responsible for war crimes to justice, but my priority for the region is peace - and you rarely get that by bombing.
- Conor Foley.
Foley cites Alex de Waal, Human Rights Watch and the ICTY, applauds some of the United Nation's work, and asks questions of Kamm.
Kamm gets stuck in to numbers, cites Brookings and pays tribute to the work Foley does.
I think that we share the same wish for peace in Darfur and agree that this crisis should not be turned into a proxy for ideological battles elsewhere. I hope that the investigation by the International Criminal Court will continue and bring those responsible for war crimes to justice, but my priority for the region is peace - and you rarely get that by bombing.
- Conor Foley.
one feels like one should almost be apologising for posting the following link as what is said is so clearly reasonable that (surely) anyone reading it would agree with a sad shrug (sad given the matter under discussion), but the final paragraph of this normblog post appears to be news to Henry Porter of the Observer.
and that is a very odd thing.
[as per with the Guardian, you may want to hold your nose if you read all the commentary.]
and that is a very odd thing.
[as per with the Guardian, you may want to hold your nose if you read all the commentary.]
Sunday, 22 April 2007
Friday, 20 April 2007
Thursday, 19 April 2007
- what appears to be an explicit threat on the life of Gillian Dare, political officer at the British embassy, by Zimbabwe's state-run Herald newspaper, earlier this month
you can now join us, if you so desire, for a spot of –
Pseuds Corner anyone?
{it's not even that, is it}
the new Wildhearts single is called something like 'the sweetest song' (research? pah! to roughly quote this very weblog many times in its more prolifically-posting-yet-still-lazy-fool-manner past) and it has bits of na na na, like Hey Jude or realising that the Kaiser Chiefs do well with that. nah i jest.
the chorus has some lyrics (i've heard it only a few times in hardly ideal conditions) about hearing, to you (the writer of song, anyroad, i guess), the sweetest song ever, what you take that to be, and how it hits you just so, gets you just there, just right.
the 'hearts do seem to have a talent – in a few great tunes from their fine catalogue – of articulating quite precisely and poetically what seem genuine truths about the power of music, and this universe-sized ocean of music we all pursue
for saying universal things about art and life, and how art can enrich you, and enlarge your heart, which seems a quite special, well, gift.
by the way in an Uncut magazine from, ooh, about 3 or 5 years ago now i'd say, maybe, Reynolds said something about reggae being an "ocean of sound", those three exact words (it might have been ocean of music, but it was ocean of__ something) and i just want to say, that's spot on. he was reviewing some re-issues iirc, i don't even know what, just Trojan or Blood & Fire or something ("just", he magnanimously hedges..)
i am in love with that.
so, yes, the Wildhearts in concert should be decent, one hopes.
'Nationwide, the number of people killed or found dead was 233, which was second only to a total of 281 killed or found dead on November 23, 2006.'
I rushed with others to give a hand and help the victims. I saw three bodies in a wooden cart, and civilian cars were helping to transfer the victims. It was really a horrible scene.
28 year-old Salih Mustafa, who was waiting for a minibus to take him home, in Baghdad.
+
in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shooting massacre, myspace pages belonging to victims of the tragedy got deluged with messages of love and remembrance and fraternal good vibes and all that stuff. (i'd bet the Holocaust survivor professor who was killed didn't have one, but some of the younger victims certainly did.)
anyway one page had a message from a young lady saying how she wished she had said this earlier, but she loved the victim, and other pages had stuff about the wit and warmth and heart and empathy and whatnot of victims, and i'm sure you've read this elsewhere with memorialised names in a paper etc. more properly/respectfully remembered, but myspace is amazing, becuz it seems like alongside counselling and inquiries and due process and faith and community love and sincere empathy and the kindness of strangers, that a big big route out of something was, if only in terms of a small small thing but maybe remembering someone like that is a big big thing but anyway, that myspace was being used and opened up in this way, and that's pretty damn awe inspiring, if i'd stop to think, which i don't suppose i have truly yet, becuz you would likely break down entirely or maybe you have and i should shut up anyway.
so heart the myspace and people adoring each other and friends and colleagues being actual friends and colleagues. [that might be enough waffle.]
&
- the title character in aforementioned 'About Schmidt' (i suppose there's also Scottish indie rockers Idlewild with their listen to what you've got.)
Saturday, 14 April 2007
Nat Bedingfield seemed to be a missing strand between Dee Dee Warwick and Diamanda Galas earlier today.
that, and Dizzee Ras has grown up!
he's got a bit buff.
the video on the Orgreave estate, with huntsmen on horseback chasing through, settles on a wall with the scrawl ONLY COWARDS STEAL FROM THE POOR.
thunderous sounds.
that, and Dizzee Ras has grown up!
he's got a bit buff.
the video on the Orgreave estate, with huntsmen on horseback chasing through, settles on a wall with the scrawl ONLY COWARDS STEAL FROM THE POOR.
thunderous sounds.
Friday, 13 April 2007
all those tugboat crewmen that are missing in ice-cold waters after their vessel overturned between Norway and Scotland, and, well, some of their colleagues are now in hospital and, well, some did not make it that far,
one of the people on-board is a fifteen year old boy.
he was only there for his work experience.
one of the people on-board is a fifteen year old boy.
he was only there for his work experience.
Wednesday, 11 April 2007
there's a programme on British tv called 'Musicool' about a bunch of musician kids from diverse musical backgrounds (grind/thrash vocalist; dancehall emcee; drum'n'bass sort; etc) that has them gelling together in training in order to put on a show in London.
crowding around a piano for some song exercises on the first day, the dancehall lad remarked that the melody was heavy..all the emcees found that part easier than the singers.
it's combustible, and good.
crowding around a piano for some song exercises on the first day, the dancehall lad remarked that the melody was heavy..all the emcees found that part easier than the singers.
it's combustible, and good.
Sunday, 1 April 2007
'The Insider' strikes out in fine ensemble style – again – from Michael Mann.
i love the camerawork, just the jerks and the long views and the fleshy shots.
and the middle American river and how south Beirut looks. entices.
the script, tight as a gnat's chuff. (usual brooding and appropriate tunes.)
he really knows how to show cities; the view of the Big Apple from the CBS offices does make one catch their breath.
it's there.
when the sharp Gina Gershon (suit and hair and face on) is playing hard-ball with CBS press section, outlining dangers from the baccy giant, Pacino requests she repeat herself at one point in their tall office, above streets.
he doesn't ask can you repeat that please?
he says, to Gina, "come again".
Oh. Well. Then. Now.
yes. exactly.
now 'i'm sorry' but, yes, i am a bit sad, and a bit horny and a bit messed up at the mo, so, forgive me, but, that line,
jee-zus..
i love the camerawork, just the jerks and the long views and the fleshy shots.
and the middle American river and how south Beirut looks. entices.
the script, tight as a gnat's chuff. (usual brooding and appropriate tunes.)
he really knows how to show cities; the view of the Big Apple from the CBS offices does make one catch their breath.
it's there.
when the sharp Gina Gershon (suit and hair and face on) is playing hard-ball with CBS press section, outlining dangers from the baccy giant, Pacino requests she repeat herself at one point in their tall office, above streets.
he doesn't ask can you repeat that please?
he says, to Gina, "come again".
Oh. Well. Then. Now.
yes. exactly.
now 'i'm sorry' but, yes, i am a bit sad, and a bit horny and a bit messed up at the mo, so, forgive me, but, that line,
jee-zus..
Friday, 30 March 2007
more extreme lateness:
i just think Angus is so bang on the money about Germaine Greer here, classic turn of phrase w' 'annoying and sanctimonious...'.
Greer does have one of the most magnificent voices in the Anglophone sphere (is that Roberts creeping in? er) i do think though.
imagine serving a summons on her!
christ!
her reaction would, possibly, be both ghastly and erotic.
i just think Angus is so bang on the money about Germaine Greer here, classic turn of phrase w' 'annoying and sanctimonious...'.
Greer does have one of the most magnificent voices in the Anglophone sphere (is that Roberts creeping in? er) i do think though.
imagine serving a summons on her!
christ!
her reaction would, possibly, be both ghastly and erotic.
Philip's newer blog has been dormant for some time now (pot and kettle until recently), and i know this is really late to flag as a teensy-weensy way of bigging up someone i wuv (and also, i dig all his stuff here anyway, that stuff about an audience not even being there, and 'The Culture Show', and Victorian attitudes to death, and&, and&, but i digress), but this about Tom Wolfe is tip-top.
{I am interested to know though why Wolfe is so fixated on muscle groups.}
hah! (it's very true.)
in a recent Spectator, the diary of Andrew Roberts had Roberts schmoozing in the USA with Wolfe and Norman Podhoretz at a Chaos Club, NY, meet. Wolfe "complete in the high collar and three-piece white suit", if you please.
i admit upon reading this i turned nearly as curmudgeonly as Wolfe himself can be and, possibly, thought some inappropriately rude words about the man.
more here on that Roberts diary
{I am interested to know though why Wolfe is so fixated on muscle groups.}
hah! (it's very true.)
in a recent Spectator, the diary of Andrew Roberts had Roberts schmoozing in the USA with Wolfe and Norman Podhoretz at a Chaos Club, NY, meet. Wolfe "complete in the high collar and three-piece white suit", if you please.
i admit upon reading this i turned nearly as curmudgeonly as Wolfe himself can be and, possibly, thought some inappropriately rude words about the man.
more here on that Roberts diary
to change tack
SR uses a gutterbreakz (leg-end!) bleep'n'bass mix as a springboard to riff on the 'nuum once more
it's the one attained by all the "crest" moments in the nuum: hardcore, jungle 94, speed garage, 2step
SR uses a gutterbreakz (leg-end!) bleep'n'bass mix as a springboard to riff on the 'nuum once more
it's the one attained by all the "crest" moments in the nuum: hardcore, jungle 94, speed garage, 2step
and lo the day before yesterday in the Guardian newspaper or yesterday on Channel 4 News TV you had the damn fine Inigo Gilmore reporting on the UK sending back Sudanese asylum seekers to Khartoum (interviewing a Darfuri man), because as we all know the Home Office operates in a culture of snide disbelief that permeates through every fibre of some of its time-poor officials (well, how else can it be explained away?), as they are processing the claims of people to seek asylum in the UK and, furthermore, well, i don’t know.
John Reid, good lord.
you can’t doubt his sincerity to combat extremism but he runs a despicable department, how does that work; the horrid spectacle of an excellent journalist subjecting this bloke to psychological and medical tests to conclude that, yes, it seems he has been tortured, and still one assumes this is not quite enough to appease some of the morally reprehensible-in-effect and actually morally reprehensible bunch of clowns that appear to run the roost down in Whitehall, and so we have the appalling scenario of the Home Office sending people actually back on the way into hell, and then you remember this is consistent with the same Home Office that was sending Zimbabweans with failed claims back until robust opposition attacks on such a disgraceful and unsupportable policy, and then you remember that, what, what can you conclude about a department like that, i don’t know.
Tory MP John Bercow (Buckingham) deserves a medal by the pinched and miserable and small-spirited standards of some of his Home Office opposites for pointing out what any sane person can see.
(you could give him at least the same honours as Mick Jagger, anyway.)
incidentally, Tony Blair once called Bercow nasty and ineffectual – now, i don’t know any Buckingham constituents (perhaps it was a reference to local issues from the PM, after all) but if Bercow is ineffectual what does that mean for Reid?
"Sadiq's case is not isolated - I think there is a wider picture," Mr Bercow said. "There have been many cases of people who have been instructed to return to Khartoum who have been intimidated, threatened and tortured having done so. It's an extremely risky business for Britain to send people back."
what are you playing at Reid?
oh i forgot too busy having your officials crow – crow like some fucking mean-spirited gambler about your opponents lucking out! – about how Britain is all-the-while reducing its asylum burden, numbers getting lower all the time, the numbers game, all-the-while we are seeing less and less
[w’ apologies...]
the grotesque chaos of a Labour government - a Labour government
p.s.
Gilmore spoke to Khartoum’s man in London (not a monolithic govt these days, Darfur & Darfur conflict watchers remind us) as you may have seen, and granted we’ll not go there...
John Reid, good lord.
you can’t doubt his sincerity to combat extremism but he runs a despicable department, how does that work; the horrid spectacle of an excellent journalist subjecting this bloke to psychological and medical tests to conclude that, yes, it seems he has been tortured, and still one assumes this is not quite enough to appease some of the morally reprehensible-in-effect and actually morally reprehensible bunch of clowns that appear to run the roost down in Whitehall, and so we have the appalling scenario of the Home Office sending people actually back on the way into hell, and then you remember this is consistent with the same Home Office that was sending Zimbabweans with failed claims back until robust opposition attacks on such a disgraceful and unsupportable policy, and then you remember that, what, what can you conclude about a department like that, i don’t know.
Tory MP John Bercow (Buckingham) deserves a medal by the pinched and miserable and small-spirited standards of some of his Home Office opposites for pointing out what any sane person can see.
(you could give him at least the same honours as Mick Jagger, anyway.)
incidentally, Tony Blair once called Bercow nasty and ineffectual – now, i don’t know any Buckingham constituents (perhaps it was a reference to local issues from the PM, after all) but if Bercow is ineffectual what does that mean for Reid?
"Sadiq's case is not isolated - I think there is a wider picture," Mr Bercow said. "There have been many cases of people who have been instructed to return to Khartoum who have been intimidated, threatened and tortured having done so. It's an extremely risky business for Britain to send people back."
what are you playing at Reid?
oh i forgot too busy having your officials crow – crow like some fucking mean-spirited gambler about your opponents lucking out! – about how Britain is all-the-while reducing its asylum burden, numbers getting lower all the time, the numbers game, all-the-while we are seeing less and less
[w’ apologies...]
p.s.
Gilmore spoke to Khartoum’s man in London (not a monolithic govt these days, Darfur & Darfur conflict watchers remind us) as you may have seen, and granted we’ll not go there...
Elton John’s birthday bash in the Big Apple, with a few pals, was televised last night. (alas no ‘Tiny Dancer’.)
i want to say, ooh, three things about it:
(1) i did not know that Elton did quite that much for charity, and fighting AIDS. yeah i knew he was an incredibly generous and restless figure in the fight against HIV/AIDS (an absurd understatement for such an icon of largesse..), but the true figures were a gobsmacking surprise.
what an absolute legend, big big big love to Elton. clearly there are no words.
(and his putting Robert Downey Jnr in the video for ‘I Want Love’, still one of my faves of recent years.)
(2) Scots funnyman Billy Connolly has done work for Stonewall, many years ago, he said. (presumably this Stonewall, not any American organisation. i don’t know anything of the controversies detailed toward the bottom there and often go with what Peter Tatchell says, but looking at some of their achievements is heartening; eloquent defence, no?)
wow!
nice up your chest Billy, awesome.
ossum.
top, top, tip-top man. again, no idea here.
hadn’t a clue. foggiest.
gone right up in estimation. etc etc.
(3) Anne Hathaway, dancing, in a dress.
i want to say, ooh, three things about it:
(1) i did not know that Elton did quite that much for charity, and fighting AIDS. yeah i knew he was an incredibly generous and restless figure in the fight against HIV/AIDS (an absurd understatement for such an icon of largesse..), but the true figures were a gobsmacking surprise.
what an absolute legend, big big big love to Elton. clearly there are no words.
(and his putting Robert Downey Jnr in the video for ‘I Want Love’, still one of my faves of recent years.)
(2) Scots funnyman Billy Connolly has done work for Stonewall, many years ago, he said. (presumably this Stonewall, not any American organisation. i don’t know anything of the controversies detailed toward the bottom there and often go with what Peter Tatchell says, but looking at some of their achievements is heartening; eloquent defence, no?)
wow!
nice up your chest Billy, awesome.
ossum.
top, top, tip-top man. again, no idea here.
hadn’t a clue. foggiest.
gone right up in estimation. etc etc.
(3) Anne Hathaway, dancing, in a dress.
Thursday, 29 March 2007
normblog (again!), arguing against - Food as a human right - one of the less persuasive points of that Economist leader the other day.
"in making the argument, The Economist fails to answer its own question" :
more here
"in making the argument, The Economist fails to answer its own question" :
more here
Wednesday, 28 March 2007
Tuesday, 27 March 2007
"That is why the rights that make open politics possible...are so precious"
from The Economist, 22 March
&
Something more universal
from The Economist, 22 March
&
Something more universal
Thursday, 22 March 2007
Wednesday, 21 March 2007
They said Wae-halem’s name was on the blacklist
re. this report here, ‘It Was Like Suddenly My Son No Longer Existed: Enforced Disappearances in Thailand’s Southern Border Provinces’, it gets acknowledged that “most ‘disappearances’” in focus were “during Thaksin’s rule” though “many of the senior military and police officials who carried out this policy remain on active duty”, and “General Surayud’s government has done little to translate..promises into action”.
+
Everybody must be in Minsk
25th March.
re. this report here, ‘It Was Like Suddenly My Son No Longer Existed: Enforced Disappearances in Thailand’s Southern Border Provinces’, it gets acknowledged that “most ‘disappearances’” in focus were “during Thaksin’s rule” though “many of the senior military and police officials who carried out this policy remain on active duty”, and “General Surayud’s government has done little to translate..promises into action”.
+
Everybody must be in Minsk
25th March.
Monday, 19 March 2007
Tuesday, 13 March 2007
Zimbabwe Vigil - London, UK
..
PRESS NOTICE
ZIMBABWEAN DEMO IN LONDON (14/3/07)
Zimbabweans in the UK are to demonstrate outside the Zimbabwe Embassy in London on Wednesday in protest at the arrest and torture of peaceful protesters in Zimbabwe.
Supporters of the Zimbabwean opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), will gather outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London from 1 – 4 pm on Wednesday, 14th March 2007 in solidarity with the suffering of opposition activists in Zimbabwe.
They will be joined by supporters of the Zimbabwe Vigil, who have been demonstrating outside the Embassy every Saturday since October 2002 in support of free and fair elections and against human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.
For interviews etc, contact:
Ephraim Tapa, Chair, MDC UK – 07940 793 090
Julius Mutyambizi-Dewa, Secretary, MDC UK – 07984 254 830
Rose Benton, Vigil Co-ordinator – 07970 996 003
..
ZIMBABWEAN DEMO IN LONDON (14/3/07)
Zimbabweans in the UK are to demonstrate outside the Zimbabwe Embassy in London on Wednesday in protest at the arrest and torture of peaceful protesters in Zimbabwe.
Supporters of the Zimbabwean opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), will gather outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London from 1 – 4 pm on Wednesday, 14th March 2007 in solidarity with the suffering of opposition activists in Zimbabwe.
They will be joined by supporters of the Zimbabwe Vigil, who have been demonstrating outside the Embassy every Saturday since October 2002 in support of free and fair elections and against human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.
For interviews etc, contact:
Ephraim Tapa, Chair, MDC UK – 07940 793 090
Julius Mutyambizi-Dewa, Secretary, MDC UK – 07984 254 830
Rose Benton, Vigil Co-ordinator – 07970 996 003
Thursday, 8 March 2007
Matt Frei feels a bit sorry for Scooter.
the diminutive, courteous and mildly poetic consigliere
read it here.
[Frei is a good journalist.
i like him a lot.
he has a sense of humour, of course. but there's also warmth.
his pieces for tv following that man who walked across the USA last summer or so, in an attempt to lose weight - though that was not the only reason i believe - contained affection and feeling.
when he was in another part of the world for the BBC he filed some powerful pieces, bearing witness.
an article for the Sunday Telegraph from Herat will never be forgotten.
sadly it ended in this vast tragedy.]
the diminutive, courteous and mildly poetic consigliere
read it here.
[Frei is a good journalist.
i like him a lot.
he has a sense of humour, of course. but there's also warmth.
his pieces for tv following that man who walked across the USA last summer or so, in an attempt to lose weight - though that was not the only reason i believe - contained affection and feeling.
when he was in another part of the world for the BBC he filed some powerful pieces, bearing witness.
an article for the Sunday Telegraph from Herat will never be forgotten.
sadly it ended in this vast tragedy.]
Wednesday, 7 March 2007
Tuesday, 6 March 2007
Thursday, 22 February 2007
Wednesday, 21 February 2007
‘Prison Break’ tv show (airing on Channel 5 in the UK) is advertised on Ch5 with this piece of music that really stalks my soul atm (if that doesn’t sound too wanky, which of course it does).
having not heard it properly but snatches – like last night, having the tv on, but in the other room doing dishes – you get snatches and so race to your tv barking like a thing possessed, trailing dirty dish water and flapping your towel, and you get bits. (and shit on carpets.)
i don’t know if it’s some His Name is Alive-type stuff (it could be part of their catalogue if ya get me), or some old blues or it’s perhaps some blindingly well-known obvious tune that because i’ve heard it from a way off, escapes me. i know literally a second of it. a classical pianist sitting down to belt out show ballads in a folk style, at a Steinway with added juice.
to me it sounds a bit like an old man’s heart breaking, but in a cathartic, soulfully majestic sort of way. (cheerful ain’t we.)
perhaps i should sit in front of a tv for 48 hours with Ch5 on and nothing else, invariably hearing it eventually.
could be an arty experiment, couldn’t it?
tacos and a blanket.
having not heard it properly but snatches – like last night, having the tv on, but in the other room doing dishes – you get snatches and so race to your tv barking like a thing possessed, trailing dirty dish water and flapping your towel, and you get bits. (and shit on carpets.)
i don’t know if it’s some His Name is Alive-type stuff (it could be part of their catalogue if ya get me), or some old blues or it’s perhaps some blindingly well-known obvious tune that because i’ve heard it from a way off, escapes me. i know literally a second of it. a classical pianist sitting down to belt out show ballads in a folk style, at a Steinway with added juice.
to me it sounds a bit like an old man’s heart breaking, but in a cathartic, soulfully majestic sort of way. (cheerful ain’t we.)
perhaps i should sit in front of a tv for 48 hours with Ch5 on and nothing else, invariably hearing it eventually.
could be an arty experiment, couldn’t it?
tacos and a blanket.
aside from the recent issue of the wire (how sweet, btw, was Hua Hsu in saying two things he liked in '06 were the magazine and Bawlmer tv show - of same name) with the Melvins on the cover and Stelfox's fucking awesome Texan rap effort (ever since my dear boy Dan got me into Scarface i've been a big fan of the whole Geto Boys experience), the January issue recently was particularly safe.
Keenan on MV & EE, Barker in Beijing, Gary Smith, the lists (dubstep, rap, Carla Bozulich, oh yes) were all clearly extremely tasty toppings on a good pie but Jon's headline reviews piece on Dredd Foole was lovely.
he can get some phrasing, that boy.
compliments due.
RIP Ken Johnson
Keenan on MV & EE, Barker in Beijing, Gary Smith, the lists (dubstep, rap, Carla Bozulich, oh yes) were all clearly extremely tasty toppings on a good pie but Jon's headline reviews piece on Dredd Foole was lovely.
he can get some phrasing, that boy.
compliments due.
RIP Ken Johnson
i was told that Unity House on the outskirts of Stoke-on-Trent city centre has been demolished to make way for offices.
the building was perhaps (probably definitely) the tallest in Stoke; my memory is hazy (i lived in Stoke for three years in the late 90’s as a Keele undergrad and was last in the Potteries for a weekend in the summer of 2005) but i seem to recall it dominating the Hanley skyline in a way no other building did, save perhaps the grey, blocky police building (it is a police HQ isn’t it?) close to the Sugarmill gig venue.
i once saw a Swedish metal outfit eating Italian at a restaurant by the Sugarmill. Entombed or someone like that.
Unity had a certain elegance and was clearly quite tall, it was near a boozer called the Black Lion that was quite a fine, lively, local alehouse (the gaffer was Scottish iirc at the time we all drank there), on the outskirts of the city centre, near the Shelton district where five of us lived and laughed at the local gangsters holding their guns cocksure looking all silly in their cars (a house containing a Brummie and a Mancunian is – by British standards – well placed to pass such judgments).
Shelton had some nice graffiti, beautiful quiet old canals, a pretty graveyard, and a classic laundrette.
certainly surely the biggest building in the Stoke urban area was the steelworks near Vale’s ground kind of way (Tunstall? Burslem? closer to Stoke actually and i remember wrong? i dunno), which seemed to approach Chinese size in my teenage formulation.
(not the steel factories with 100,000 workers over there, ok, but it was pretty big.)
in its last years Unity was a derelict shell more or less, but provided – among no doubt other services – a good space for skateboarding, and a gloriously handsome visual fixture for any confused traveller: a budget Sears Tower, a true building of hauntology.
one big thrust (in a series of fantasy novels i loved as a kid the towering mountain lair of an evil sorcerer was described as being like a finger pointing accusingly at the gods) was complemented by a shorter, stepped attachment, the shelves receding from the street, going back shorter the higher that part of Unity climbed.
i could ruminate on urban spaces, etc. here but i’m hardly Owen or detroitblog am i.
mind you: now it’s gone and we’ll miss it. it was a superb constant on any bus journey.
the snooker player Ray Reardon had a snooker club nearby (Reardon used to do the summer circuit at British holiday camps after retiring from the pro game and would offer all comers a best-of-three arrangement where he’d split winnings with people who asked him to go easy on them, but give a genuine game – and therefore tonk someone – who said they fancied him playing as well as he could).
here’s a couple of photos of Unity.
RIP Unity House.
the building was perhaps (probably definitely) the tallest in Stoke; my memory is hazy (i lived in Stoke for three years in the late 90’s as a Keele undergrad and was last in the Potteries for a weekend in the summer of 2005) but i seem to recall it dominating the Hanley skyline in a way no other building did, save perhaps the grey, blocky police building (it is a police HQ isn’t it?) close to the Sugarmill gig venue.
i once saw a Swedish metal outfit eating Italian at a restaurant by the Sugarmill. Entombed or someone like that.
Unity had a certain elegance and was clearly quite tall, it was near a boozer called the Black Lion that was quite a fine, lively, local alehouse (the gaffer was Scottish iirc at the time we all drank there), on the outskirts of the city centre, near the Shelton district where five of us lived and laughed at the local gangsters holding their guns cocksure looking all silly in their cars (a house containing a Brummie and a Mancunian is – by British standards – well placed to pass such judgments).
Shelton had some nice graffiti, beautiful quiet old canals, a pretty graveyard, and a classic laundrette.
certainly surely the biggest building in the Stoke urban area was the steelworks near Vale’s ground kind of way (Tunstall? Burslem? closer to Stoke actually and i remember wrong? i dunno), which seemed to approach Chinese size in my teenage formulation.
(not the steel factories with 100,000 workers over there, ok, but it was pretty big.)
in its last years Unity was a derelict shell more or less, but provided – among no doubt other services – a good space for skateboarding, and a gloriously handsome visual fixture for any confused traveller: a budget Sears Tower, a true building of hauntology.
one big thrust (in a series of fantasy novels i loved as a kid the towering mountain lair of an evil sorcerer was described as being like a finger pointing accusingly at the gods) was complemented by a shorter, stepped attachment, the shelves receding from the street, going back shorter the higher that part of Unity climbed.
i could ruminate on urban spaces, etc. here but i’m hardly Owen or detroitblog am i.
mind you: now it’s gone and we’ll miss it. it was a superb constant on any bus journey.
the snooker player Ray Reardon had a snooker club nearby (Reardon used to do the summer circuit at British holiday camps after retiring from the pro game and would offer all comers a best-of-three arrangement where he’d split winnings with people who asked him to go easy on them, but give a genuine game – and therefore tonk someone – who said they fancied him playing as well as he could).
here’s a couple of photos of Unity.
RIP Unity House.
Saturday, 17 February 2007
Saturday, 10 February 2007
soap opera quote - (i love this)
in Eastenders, Stacey the market-stall holder, speaking to her boyfriend's City trader boss, says she works in a market and he misinterprets what sort of market she means, excitedly asking which and she says something like Bridge Street. we sells tops and knickers. i'll even model the merchandise for you if you like.
in Eastenders, Stacey the market-stall holder, speaking to her boyfriend's City trader boss, says she works in a market and he misinterprets what sort of market she means, excitedly asking which and she says something like Bridge Street. we sells tops and knickers. i'll even model the merchandise for you if you like.
Friday, 9 February 2007
i’ll be off to Tate Liverpool soon for ‘Bad Art for Bad People’ but – by jove – you wouldn’t want to meet Jake down a dark alley would you.
lookit the little spat he’s just had with Comrade Hari: all sorts of stupid tosh spouted and, a nice touch, personal insults about somebody’s physical appearance.
classy guy
lookit the little spat he’s just had with Comrade Hari: all sorts of stupid tosh spouted and, a nice touch, personal insults about somebody’s physical appearance.
classy guy
Thursday, 8 February 2007
Thursday, 1 February 2007
on the subject of football and - whilst i don't think this is big enough to bother Robin C. with it's still worth flagging up in the admittedly highly unlikely event he reads this - an interesting letter to a Manchester United fanzine (UWS, good interview with Rio Ferdinand, who seems a top guy) from a Manchester City supporter, enclosing comments re. a photo taken in Cardiff of some United fans at a game.
the particular fan in the centre is carrying a sign that says MANCS NOT YANKS.
he is also wearing one of those New York Yankees baseball caps that are all the rage, er, everywhere in the world.
the particular fan in the centre is carrying a sign that says MANCS NOT YANKS.
he is also wearing one of those New York Yankees baseball caps that are all the rage, er, everywhere in the world.
with the high profile arrests in Birmingham yesterday (George Alagiah, Jon Snow and various others mangling honest Brummie hood names a la Alum Rock was a peculiar joy: y'all know i'm down with the central BHAM – Snow in particular elongated a few words, a bit like how Dr Cox does when angry), we suddenly have new life breathed into the Birmingham City football ditty
[…]
He comes from Washwood Heath/
He gives the Villa grief
"it's the way i tell 'em"
k-punk gets to the point, again
{ETA: not getting at the Klaxons, but his second paragraph is good, to me. i think we can all think of some suspects in that camp..}
{ETA: not getting at the Klaxons, but his second paragraph is good, to me. i think we can all think of some suspects in that camp..}
Tuesday, 30 January 2007
one thing that's been in the UK news lately is the possibility of a strike by British Airways workers (now averted).
i just wanted to say N Cohen's Cruel Britannia anthology has a few good passages about when Bob Ayling was there if i remember.
timely reading.
Cohen's also good on another of Tony Blair's mates, Silvio B, and Labour's gambling addiction (more timely stuff).
btw, it says Jimmy now here below. it's cuz i switched blogger to the same thing as my food/drink blog (where i'm Jimmy); i'm planning to get back into the swing of things, soon, and have already started adding some links to some fave food blogs (though w/ my html skills, they are a bit messy), inc THE SARAWAK LAKSA [ two kids eat their way around Sarawak, bowl after bowl after bowl ], SO BAD ITS GOOD [ photos of L.A. carniceria store murals ], and the original and best, Great Taco Hunt, also based in the City of Angels.
i feel, incidentally, i too must register my disgust that the Wikipedia entry on tacos has recently delinked that site.
tosh!
-
foodblog.
i just wanted to say N Cohen's Cruel Britannia anthology has a few good passages about when Bob Ayling was there if i remember.
timely reading.
Cohen's also good on another of Tony Blair's mates, Silvio B, and Labour's gambling addiction (more timely stuff).
btw, it says Jimmy now here below. it's cuz i switched blogger to the same thing as my food/drink blog (where i'm Jimmy); i'm planning to get back into the swing of things, soon, and have already started adding some links to some fave food blogs (though w/ my html skills, they are a bit messy), inc THE SARAWAK LAKSA [ two kids eat their way around Sarawak, bowl after bowl after bowl ], SO BAD ITS GOOD [ photos of L.A. carniceria store murals ], and the original and best, Great Taco Hunt, also based in the City of Angels.
i feel, incidentally, i too must register my disgust that the Wikipedia entry on tacos has recently delinked that site.
tosh!
-
foodblog.
Thursday, 25 January 2007
Wednesday, 24 January 2007
Chief Executives, now they've got the skills. Justin King, currently chief executive of UK supermarket Sainsbury, now he has to be on the top of his game discussing quinoa, Omega-3, Jamie Oliver's kid-sized takes on a nice quesadilla, things like that.
but hold on!
King used to be don dada at the RAC, the UK road users' association (owned by Aviva, who have their fingers in plenty of pies, such as insurer Norwich Union), didn't he?
so where once he was banging on about black ice, taxing the motorist off the road and the pernicious toll at Tamworth, now it's 5 -a-day, PJ smoothies and finest ready meals.
now these people are the top people and so they're not so much on the details i imagine as the overall picture, which is why they get bounced around, in demand. (blue skies thinking? the first time i've ever used this phrase, and i believe a phrase everyone wants binning, one might add.)
but come on King!
sort it out!
wheatgerm or Citroen, what's it to be?
it's this shilly-shallying that gets me.
(on second thought, i think i may be getting King confused with someone else.
but any"road".)
but hold on!
King used to be don dada at the RAC, the UK road users' association (owned by Aviva, who have their fingers in plenty of pies, such as insurer Norwich Union), didn't he?
so where once he was banging on about black ice, taxing the motorist off the road and the pernicious toll at Tamworth, now it's 5 -a-day, PJ smoothies and finest ready meals.
now these people are the top people and so they're not so much on the details i imagine as the overall picture, which is why they get bounced around, in demand. (blue skies thinking? the first time i've ever used this phrase, and i believe a phrase everyone wants binning, one might add.)
but come on King!
sort it out!
wheatgerm or Citroen, what's it to be?
it's this shilly-shallying that gets me.
(on second thought, i think i may be getting King confused with someone else.
but any"road".)
maudlin tone, gently self-mocking, the dry humour, everything came together at the weekend just gone when a very close chum of mine sent me a txt re. the football that literally made me belly-laugh out loud (a rarity for me and texts).
he's an Evertonian, and they went on to win, but it must have been nils when he sent me these words:
Wigan v Everton. Two shit teams playing football.
he's an Evertonian, and they went on to win, but it must have been nils when he sent me these words:
i've been running this place down for the last couple of years or so but i think i'll get back into it, from now on.
maybe. (i'll have to sort out the archive and other links later on.)
meanwhile, Paul Dacre: fuck me, the bloke's a bit of a thicko isn't he?
maybe. (i'll have to sort out the archive and other links later on.)
meanwhile, Paul Dacre: fuck me, the bloke's a bit of a thicko isn't he?
Thursday, 2 November 2006
Dangerous Ambivalence: UK Policy on Torture since 9/11
“Britain cannot have it both ways. The government claims to oppose torture. Yet at the same it is actively trying to undermine the global ban against it.”
Benjamin Ward
“Britain cannot have it both ways. The government claims to oppose torture. Yet at the same it is actively trying to undermine the global ban against it.”
Benjamin Ward
Sunday, 22 October 2006
Friday, 13 October 2006
Saturday, 7 October 2006
one thing that's really getting me right now (as in, you know, in love) is toward the end of 'Reishi' by everyone's fave Anglian technoheads, well, as Tura.
"in other news" [old news, ok], at the close, just so (just Jack), of About Schmidt, well, i wept buckets.
oh, and that, and Annie Mac told The Times that Harvey got her in to Gorecki bigtime, true fact. (as in, you know, in love.)
..
that's our man
.
RIP PETER NORMAN
"in other news" [old news, ok], at the close, just so (just Jack), of About Schmidt, well, i wept buckets.
oh, and that, and Annie Mac told The Times that Harvey got her in to Gorecki bigtime, true fact. (as in, you know, in love.)
..
that's our man
.
RIP PETER NORMAN
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