Sinister Experiments on The Internet

Well, something about Mark's post on Facebook got me reminiscing. "Think of 25 albums that had such a profound effect on you they changed your life or the way you looked at it. They sucked you in and took you over for days, weeks, months, years. These are the albums that you can use to identify time, places, people, emotions."

Well, this rather long post lists the albums that changed my life and why. These are not necessarily good albums, or even my favourite albums. They are, however, albums that marked big changes in my life such as the one that happened last weekend. Most sane people would find this intensely dull and self indulgent, but somehow I feel the need to document my musical journey so far. If you are interested ( click here )

Three wonderful years, one dreadful week. I am single again. Going by past performance, I should be able to get a girlfriend in the next 10-20 years.

That is all

1) German Efficiency

Last Sunday I ordered tickets to various shows in the UK - and one ticket to a show in Germany, the Zita festival in Berlin.
This morning I have Zita tickets... but nothing from English National Opera, The Young Vic, Flag Promotions or Ticketmaster. German efficiency can not be questioned.

2) Chinese parents

It is well known fact that the Chinese have a one-child-per-family law. But what happens if the mother gives birth to twins? Or, as in the recent case, octoplets? Does she get to choose one? What happens to the others?

3) People seem to think that the government has somehow 'mis-managed' the economy.

Well - no. The economy is not predictable. Its not even random - its chaotic. The government can control the economy every bit as much as it can control the weather. I wouldn't like to predict what impact the recent VAT shenanigans have had, or the massive influx of public capital. All we've done is shaken the whole thing up a bit. But... its still an unstable, chaotic system. Unsurprisingly the changes they've made haven't had the desired impact.

4) I really need to start a campaign to get people to vote for anything but the big 2.5 political parties

Labour, Conservative and Liberal democrats are all offering us more of the same. Sure, they've got the odd tweak here and there... but really, giving the Conservatives a whopping great majority is only going to give us yet another parliamentary dictatorship. Vote for the smaller parties! OK, so your chosen party won't win - but at least the party that does win won't have such a whopping majority that they can continue building the surveillance society and screwing us over! And, if we are lucky, we might get a hung parliament and those over paid fuckers will have to work for their living by, you know, defending their policies in a balanced debate rather than relying on an overwhelming majority.

Best Gig: Close tie between The Damned@Islington Academy and the Diary of Dreams@Dingwalls.

Best Album: I bought only 5 albums that were released this year... none of which are worthy of this accolade. I'm liking the Scroobius Pip single Thou Shalt Always Kill though I don't own the album.

Best Book: The Glass Book Of The Dream Eaters by G.W.Dahlquist

Best Film: Pass

1. What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?
We saw a ballet - Swan Lake at the Royal Opera House. It was fantastic, even though we were standing at the back. We will be going back (I'd love to see an opera there)!

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I didn't make any, and I don't intend to make any this year either.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
No

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No

5. What countries did you visit?
Italy (9 times), France (twice), Luxembourg, Austria

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
More spare time.

7. What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
January 14th - the date Jane went in to hospital.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Managing a rapidly growing team spread between two countries.

9. What was your biggest failure?
I failed to write a single tune this year :(

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
No.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Probably my new computer. That's quite boring, isn't it?

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
The UK mainstream political parties. I am deeply concerned that come the next election we will be faced between a choice of two far right fascist parties. *shudder*

14. Where did most of your money go?
This is a stupid question. Everyone will say mortgage/rent, unless they live with their parents! The most expensive thing I bought was my new Ted Baker suit.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Seeing Carter USM - who were to be honest, a bit disappointing.

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?
Diary Of Dreams - The Curse

17. Are you happier or sadder? I'm still a miserable old git.
Thinner or fatter? Fatter - in a beer gut kind of way.
Richer or poorer? Richer - thanks to multiple cuts in interest rates.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Writing/making music.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Travelling.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
At home pretending its not happening.

22. Did you fall in love in 2008?
Nope, already taken, thank you!

23. How many one night stands?
:-O

24. What was your favourite TV program?
I don't have a telly.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
No.

26. What was the best book you read?
The Glass Book Of The Dream Eaters by G.W.Dahlquist

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Anne Clark. Not a new artist (by any stretch of the imagination!), but one that I'd never hear of before.

28. What did you want and get?
A new rug.
PVC Jeans.
A new suit & shirts. (Ted Baker - I can recommend them)
A new computer. (Cougar - I can recommend them too)

29. What did you want and not get?
I've done well this year - I've got everything I wanted :D

30. What was your favourite film of this year?
I only watched two films (The Duchess & The Dark Knight), and neither are worthy of this accolade.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Went to Cambridge - it pissed it down, but we had a great time anyway. There is a great museum of old scientific equipment there that is a real gem. And I'd always wanted to see the King's College chapel. Sadly, circumstances did not allow us to stay for a concert.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
First class tickets on British Airways instead of cattle class with Ryan Air/EasyJet.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
Ted Baker. PVC. Rubber.

34. What kept you sane?
IPM Radio. Sadly, they have just done their last show, so by this time next year... who knows?

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Dita von Tease

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
The Israeli governments dire treatment of the Palestinian people.

37. Who did you miss?
A lot of people from Maidenhead/Reading. I really need to make more of an effort to keep in touch!

38. Who was the best new person you met?
Though technically I met her a few times last year, I didn't really get to know Manuella Becker until this year. In the last few weeks I've met a *lot* of new people since we've started going out again now that Jane has fully recovered from her operation. I'm sure some of these people should feature here too... but I haven't quite got my head around all their names yet!

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008
Avoid Heathrow Terminal 2 unless the only alternative is Ryan Air or EasyJet.

Is anyone planning on going to Infest this year? We're thinking of going as the line up looks better than last year's...

Also... I seem to have narrowly avoided killing Jane and me with a lethal spicy jerked chicken... The first time I've had to throw my dinner out and start again from scratch! :-O

Ho-hum... life goes on!

My old PC is knackered. The hard disk is blitzed, there's only just enough memory to KPatience and the video card sucks so hard that KDE4 grinds to a halt. This later may be due to the rubbish drivers NVidia provide, but they no longer provide bug fixes or updates for that old card.

Sooo... VOTE!

[ ] Do nothing - you mostlye browse the web and email
Pros:

Cheap

Cons:

Sooner or later fsck is not going to be able to repair my hard disk...

Not portable

Too slow to run the latest KDE or Windows apps, and definitely not up to music stuff!

[ ] Invest in a refurbished 15" MacBook Pro (circa £897)
Pros:

Interesting new OS to play with

Good for music related stuff

Portable

Cons:

Expensive

[ ] Get a generic Kubuntu PC from Efficient PC (circa £630)
Pros:

Cheapish

Much better specification than the MacBook Pro

Cons:

KDE not ideal for music related work

Not portable

The number of junk emails I've been receiving has steadily been dropping over the last few years as more and more people patch their XP installations to SP2. Since this morning, I'm getting 75 an hour! I think someone might be exploiting a bug in XP or Vista on a massive scale....

The Arts

Best Single: Its not been a great year for music, but if you push me it would have to be Mark Nicholas - Two Sandwiches
Best Album: Again, not a great year. New albums by NIN and Revolting Cocks are probably the best of a dull bunch of releases. Where is the exciting new music I'm missing?!
Best Gig: VNV Nation @ Slimelight, more for the atmosphere than a particularly stellar performance
Best Book: The Book Thief
Best Film: Tie between This Is England and Control
Best Play: The RSC production of Macbeth

Technology

Best web site: LOL Cats (yes, I know I'm about 5 years behind everyone else with this one!)
Best non-fiction book: The God Delusion
Best Software: Kubuntu - wireless, bluetooth, video drivers, you name it, it 'just works'.
Best Hardware/Gadget: Ion USB record player. Audiophiles will probably shudder, but I can now put vinyl on to my mp3 player!

Life

• A lot of overtime.


• A lot of travelling to Italy for work. I think I am going to get pissed off with work soon!


• A lot of worry about Jane's health. She goes in to hospital 31^st January.


• I was very unenthusiastic about music last year. Nothing I heard last year inspired me, and I've made no new music either.


• The flat is now decorrated to a habitable standard! This year I'll be mostly buying furniture - its about time we had chairs rather than camping chairs!

Part cabaret act, part folk band, gothic, sharply observant and fantastically funny! I didn't know a great deal about The Tiger Lillies and only went to this gig because they were responsible for Shockheaded Peter - one of the best bits of musical theater I have ever been to. The lyrics were, to say the least, crude and focused almost exclusively on dirty filthy sex, rape and lust. The music ranged for classic blues to more folksy numbers, always performed with great wit and style, despite some distractions from an annoying American woman in the front row^[1]

My only gripe was the venue while comfortable and welcoming was really geared towards theater and hence it was seeting only. I don't think I was the only one that would have danced if there had been an appropriate space.

[1] If you are that woman, please, kill yourself now. You have no idea when to laugh and when to shut the fuck up and do not deserve to live. Thank you.

I received a voice mail today for the first time since... the last time I got voice mail, oh about 18 months ago.

Can I remember how to open listen to my voicemail on my work phone?

Nope.

So I open the manual (I know, I'm a geek and shouldn't be doing such things, but...)

To get my voice mail I have to press... wait for it...


Button 'Feature' followed by 982.


What.

The.

Fuck?


Who ever came up with that idea needs their head flushed down the toilet. I mean, what was wrong with using the big blue button with "To Mailbox" printed on it?

Heh?

How the hell have I got a plague of ants in my third floor flat? Are these some kind of alpine breed of ant?

When failure is certain, what's the point in trying?

That is, my workload has now reached a point where I will fail, and probably have a heart attack because of the stress. So why bother!

Hurrah!

I'm free!

Hip hip hooray!


Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

I need an Apple PowerBook.

But why?

Suggestions below!

Who's going this year? The line-up looks a bit lack-lustre so I'm currently undecided...

Completely useless.

Haven't updated this thing for months.

So... what have I done...

* I've tried to ignore christmas, but failed due to girlfriends insistance. Bah humbug!

* I've pushed a shopping trolly containing a broken bit of a vacuum cleaner around Walthamstow at the crack of dawn and got (understandably) mistaken for a wine-o.

* Worked, worked, worked and worked some more. I am all worked out.

* I haven't so much as picked up a guitar or piano in three months. This is most distressing, but I just don't seem to have time any more. How do other folks juggle work, romance and music making? I'm fucked if I can work it out!

* I've bought a bathroom.

* Got a new phone (don't worry, the number is the same) 'cos Orange were ripping me off something chronic.

* Hmmm.... that's about it I suppose.

A while ago there was a meme going round the interwebulator that was basically a simple test to see if you could tell different pitches apart. At the end of the test you were asked if you had a good sense of rhythm or not. Of course I said that I didn't as every single musician I've ever worked with has told me that I can't keep in time for toffee. It turns out that UCL was trying to identify people with a good sense of pitch but no sense of rhythm for some research they are doing. Accordingly I was invited to visit UCL today for further investigation. However, I am pleased to inform all those people that think I can't keep time that actually I'm rather good at keeping time. So there. It does mean that UCL are still looking for people with a good sense of pitch and a shit sense of time, however...

Good lord, I'm rubbish at updating my Livejournal these days...

What's happened recently?

Well, we went to Black Celebration. Ordinarily I would offer a mini-review of the bands, but given that all the bands sounded like they were playing in a public convenience, I shan't bother as I've no idea what the bands intended to sounded like. We've decided not to bother seeing the Cruxshadows at the Islington Academy because I have a strong suspicion they'll sound much the same as all the bands at Black Celebration, i.e. like they're playing in the toilet.

In other news, I think I might be a Goth. I bought a Specimen best-off album to try and satisfy the goth urges I have at the moment. I promise the next album I buy will be full on banging TECHNO! TECHNO! TECHNO! to compensate. I think it all started with the Dead And Buried Halloween special :S

So, when is my branch of the Northern Line going to start running on weekends again? Huh? Go on! Tell me!