I’m not returning to normal ‘Blogging just yet, but those of you who still buy the rag might be interested to know that today, opposite the Graun‘s editorial “The blogging generation”, there’s a letter from my dad displaying geopolitical and musical insight of the calibre that keeps people all over the World coming back to […]
Read MoreI’ve just seen a disturbing thing over at Norm’s place. Alan Johnson, a prominent figure in Labour Friends of Iraq, has answered some bonkers fundamentalist’s denunciation of the electric guitar with a selection of guitar moments. There are about twenty-five more or less famous guitarists named in his post. Of those, the half-Irish, half-Brazilian Phil […]
Read MoreHow can I resist a ‘Blog post that knocks indie rockers and iPods at the same time? Thinking of buying an iPod Nano? If you really love music, there’s a better way to spend your money. Shame about the colour.
Read MoreMy longstanding disdain for white people with dreadlocks is well known, and even extends to the otherwise charming and helpful young man in the local music shop who insists on addressing me as though we are lost siblings*. Even in Upside-Down World, if Hak is to believed, they have Pasty-farians: “[O]ne of Sydney’s more annoying […]
Read MoreThere are debates going on at Eric The Unread’s and at Harry’s Place about which of three of Eric’s teenage badges he should be most embarrassed about: Marillion, Lenin, or Greenpeace. This is indeed a question worthy of discussion. Amusingly, of the three corresponding Wikipedia entries I link to, only the Marillion one is undisputed. […]
Read MoreThe only way to make the Doors listenable: combine them with the Muppets and The Macarena. And a mash-up can even redeem Craig David as well.
Read MoreBritney’s first-born could be called “London Preston”, but will be known as “M6” to all his friends. [I love that Wikipedia has a page devoted to the M6. Wikimedia: harnessing the power of Asperger’s syndrome since 2000 AD. Did you know that the entry about Coronation Street used to be twice as long as the […]
Read MoreWell I never. The media have been taken for a ride: “[The Mirror] says that he has now returned to Germany, where he has two sisters and his father owns a farm. “And, in a final revelation which will forever shatter the enigma of a man often compared to the pianist David Helfgott whose battles […]
Read MoreSome weeks ago I promised you, dear PooterGeekers, that I would be telling you what I planned to do with my life now that the Medical Research Council no longer has need of my services. Those of you who come here for the trouser jokes can stop reading now. The rest of you might be […]
Read MoreI don’t want to upset Harry any more than he is already, but I think people should be told about this godless decadence. [click to enlarge] It’s that animalistic Negro beat music, I tell ya. The next thing you know there’ll be blacks and whites lying down together in the same bed. UPDATE: Seriously, I […]
Read MoreI’m not just writing this because she was so nice about me yesterday in her Normblog profile, but Pashmina really is on a roll at The Grammatical Puss. Her Austen-pastiche preview of the latest adaptation of Pride And Prejudice is quite the most pleasing thing I have read all week. [Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennet? […]
Read MoreI occasionally use a cheap-and-cheerful piece of computer music software called “FLStudio“. Its publishers changed the package’s name from “FruityLoops” a few years ago. Today was the first time I read the explanation for the name change given on the Website of Image-Line Software, the German company that produces FLStudio. The company offers three reasons: […]
Read MoreThe estimable Michael Brooke is back with a thorough review of Boris Gudunov at Covent Garden. You’ve got admire a man who can criticise a production of an opera for containing a ludicrous theatrical image. Meanwhile, the other ‘Blogging Brooke is kittenblogging, God help him. [click to enlarge] And just to complete the set: [click […]
Read MoreWhen I was 21 and a singer in a band I dreamt that in my thirties I would be being besieged by feisty female teenage music fans. Ha.
Read MoreJames Delingpole has also noticed James Blunt’s pedigree and the resulting article is very entertaining indeed. Another explanation is that dreamy, floppy, public schoolboy music – “bedwetter music” as Creation Records’ founder Alan McGee once cruelly put it – is very much in vogue at the moment, and has been for quite some time. It […]
Read MoreThank you for your superb contributions to the Bad Poetry Celebrity Deathmatch, both here and at Harry’s Place. Backword Dave suggested that we were questioning the artistry of the inspirational work of Harold Pinter and Michael Rosen because we disagreed with the poets’ politics. I don’t read his ‘Blog much any more, and when I […]
Read MoreIt had to happen eventually. The Anastacia Fan Club seems to have found my affectionate spoof. Now its members have descended on the comments to prove that they can’t read and have no grasp of irony.
Read MoreI’ve been ill lately—a cold and upset stomach which, if I had a wife, I would tell her was “gastric ‘flu”. Being ill is boring. Yesterday evening I crawled out of bed about nine to entertain myself by surfing the Web for some free music to download. There’s a site where people using a particular […]
Read MoreIt’s half-past one in the morning and opposite my bedroom there’s a house full of drunk Mediterranean language students with MTV accents singing Oasis’s Wonderwall out of tune.
Read MoreLance Armstrong has lost one testicle and parts of his brain to cancer. Despite this he seems likely to win his seventh consecutive Tour de France, a competition widely considered to be the greatest test of endurance in modern sport. Meanwhile his girlfriend has been in the studio complaining to Chrissie Hynde about how difficult […]
Read MoreI noticed this story a little while back and it made me smile. It’s like John Major sacking one of his cabinet members for screwing around (or the Independent having a go at the Guardian for printing the views of an extremist): Oasis fire Pete Doherty for lack of work ethic. Those “working class” Gallagher […]
Read MoreI’m not going to go into the political or ethical implications of Live8 here and now (though the sozzled socialist Psittacidae are worth reading on the subject). I am going to talk about the artistic ones, because the event illustrated beautifully the central problem with the UK music industry. I don’t like Pink Floyd very […]
Read MoreVia Beth at Mindfull Chatter [sic] I came upon this amazing piece of computer animation. The best version of the 30-second film is the DivX format file [about 8 meg], so Windows users who don’t have it already should download the DivX codec if they want to enjoy the video it at its highest quality. […]
Read MoreAndy at Rummaging writes the ‘Blog post about Eurovision that I would have written had the bastard not beaten me to it by cunningly publishing it in advance of the grand final.
Read MoreThis morning (whilst looking for something else of course) I stumbled upon this post entitled “Even Dylan Hates Hippies” from the ‘Blog the zoo last year. I thought I should share an extract with you (and not even the bit containing the phrase “Rasta wannabe”): Earlier this week Bob Dylan released his memoirs, and in […]
Read MoreFrom BBC Sport: Cuban legend Kindelan had beaten Khan in the lightweight final in Athens, but he had no answer to the Briton in front of a passionate Bolton crowd. After a cagey opening, Khan exploded on to the offensive and showed brilliant hand speed to prevail 19-13 on points. … “I managed alright,” said […]
Read MoreMichael Jackson’s story is Darth Vader’s in reverse. In Star Wars, a whiny, sexually frustrated, white man-child no one trusts turns, via hideous disfigurement, into an all-conquering, super-cool black guy who first made it big in the 70s.
Read MoreI still haven’t forgiven my parents for not hiring The Three Degrees to perform at my confirmation. This the kind of scar Philip Green’s boy will never have to bear.
Read MoreOrphan Jack has grown up knowing only the strict but kindly guardianship of Father Anthony, the devout head of the Westminster County Home for Lost Boys. By careful budgeting, Jack’s dour Uncle Gordon has managed to pay for Jack’s care during the eight years since his father disappeared. But now Jack is coming of age […]
Read MoreGeorge Bush beats Britney Spears; Martin Luther beats George Washington; Tony Blair beats Michael Jackson beats Jesus Christ; Bill Clinton beats Saddam Hussein; Osama Bin Laden beats Kofi Annan; Bob Dylan beats Donald Rumsfeld; Angelina Jolie beats Arnold Schwarzenegger. But tough luck to Madonna, Seal, Bono, and Sting. If you’re so famous you have one […]
Read More
Recent Comments