Tuesday 29 April 2008

WANT WANT!

Outbreak of Violets on ebay.


Last time a set like this came up I believe it went for more than £1000.00. Who wants to buy it for me?

WANT!

Lego computer. Kinda.

Monday 28 April 2008

JAMES BLUNT! Ha!

Full Glastonbury line-up leaked.

Well I think that pretty much vindicates my decision not to go this year. The Pyramid line up on Saturday in particular is DIRE, so much so it could almost be a joke. I have found a total of 6 acts in the whole line up that I actually want to see.

In contrast the Big Chill line up seems to be getting better every day. Woot.

My New Favourite Restaurant

Is St John Bread and Wine, where I enjoyed lunch with my dear mama yesterday. I suspect that I'd enjoy their sister restaurant St John at Smithfields even more but I haven't been there yet so that remains to be seen.

I'm not given to superlatives when it comes to restaurants (probably because I live in Manchester, the biggest city in this country with no Michelin stars - for some excellent analysis on why this is see the May issue of Insider) but yesterday I ate the tangiest horseradish, the freshest sprats, the meatiest duck, the most flavoursome chicken liver, the tenderest pork, the most refreshing celeriac and the butteriest crumble I have ever tasted in my life. All this and it was served in a light, buzzy dining room by personable, unobsequious staff for less than £70.00 for two with wine.

Review - Jesus Camp

I'm no pootling but I will say this:

Evangelical Christians are terribly silly.

Jason Pierce Interview

Brief but worth it :)

Friday 25 April 2008

Lego Apprentice

Clearly everyone in the world has already seen this but I still love it. The prospect of an apperating Nick Hewer is utterly terrifying.



"I have an IQ of 170" "Yeah, alright"

Time Warner Watch Blue Jam

Courtesy of Bandmoreagain.

(Just a good excuse to watch a clip of The Actor Kevin Eldon, really.)

Media Relations for Beginners

Back in the bloggosphere

I think twitter stole my blog-centive for a while there, but I'm back now and in a much better mood. Here are some things that have helped:

- Seeing a happy dog smiling with it's tail up in the air, turgid with joy.
- Watching lambs frolicking like, well, like lambs.
- Watching rabbits at dusk from a train window.
- Seeing the river that runs through Newport at low tide and (inexplicably) pointing out to colleagues how disgustingly dirty it was while secretly fantasising about getting in the deep, thick, gloopy mud and hurling it around.
- Snoozing in the afternoon.
- Buying myself a subsciption to Wired as a treat.
- Getting my holiday approved for The Big Chill.
- Being one month away from spending a weekend in Tipis in deepest West Wales.

Tuesday 22 April 2008

Not Blogging This Week

Becuase I'm in a shitty mood.

So there.

Thursday 17 April 2008

Letitia Dean Botherer Bothered

What I like most about this story is the fact that in Ipswich they need a warm-up act for Letitia Dean becuase she's a really big deal.

Tuesday 15 April 2008

Boris LOL!!!! what a legernd!! Johnson!!

Charlie Brooker on the Fun-Run for London Mayor

Strangely I think Charlie Brooker's non-television columns are getting funnier than his telly ones, but that is because I am spending too much time reading his columns, television or otherwise.

I'm also pathetically grateful for the (tiny) glimpse into the minds of the writing team behind Nathan Barley, snivvelling little wretch that I am.

If This Worked...


...I'd be a MILLIONAIRE

Monday 14 April 2008

Doritos Advert

Couresty of the lovely scouse/aussie combo that is Hydra Studios.

Want

Not need, just want.

Future Sonic

Is happening in Manchester from 1st-5th May, that's the bank holiday to you and me.

Typically, as when anything good happens in Manchester, I'll be in London. But if I weren't I would be jumping around to leftfield hip-hop courtesy of RZA or arty post-punk care of Wire.

The Thing I Hate Most About Myself

Is that I have recurrent severe Piriformis syndrome, or posh Sciatica, if you will.

At the moment, sitting at my desk, I know that I am going to have an attack in the next few days.

It will be horribly painful, I will be on my own at home in the most miserable, crawling on the floor sense, and I won't be able to work. My boss will not understand that Sciatica is a crippling condition that can only be alleviated with rest (well, gentle movement but certainly not sitting at a desk for eight hours) and not just "back ache".

Thus will begin all sorts of aggro. I can't bloody wait.

Sunday 13 April 2008

The Chalets Split

Well, I guess that explains the stupidly long wait for the second album.

Bummer, they were almost my favourite band of all time.

Relive the good times here, and buy the album Check In. You never know, a surge in sales may make them start it up again.

Wednesday 9 April 2008

I am Helvetica

Which I'm pretty pleased about, even if I do think I'm a bit hotter than Helvetica girl and I like to think of myself as more of a News Gothic.

What are you and, more importantly who is your type lover?

World's First Automated Restaurant

Insert German efficiency joke here

A certain someone I know would definitely go for the minimal human interaction method of eating (although he'd be even happier they let a few hot waitresses wander around silently for show).

Tuesday 8 April 2008

Woot

Two of my favourite people make a pilot for Radio 4 that probably won't get commissioned

Oh, and Matt Berry has recently been added to the (long) list of people I am going to marry.

President Bush is the Bomb

She makes a convincing argument, you know.

Popular Mispronunciations

It is often argued that I pronounce many words wrong but that's because I am a southerner in a strange and dark land.

Popular mis-sayings in my unit include the American pronunciation of route (evidently, especially annoying to someone who works with computers and for whom the word router is used on a daily basis), "storry" (to be used when one is secretly not sorry at all), ninanet (which originated from my friend Nina being especially knowledgeable), Longdong (for London - puerile but enjoyable when slipped into polite conversation) and jism (for saying to a particularly obnoxious bus driver as you leave the bus, hoping that he'll realise that you're not saying cheers mate and sort his act out). Oh and, of course, Shitswich.

I'm sure I will remember some more and add them.

Friday 4 April 2008

TEFAL Quick Cup


I know, I know, it's just a kettle but, phwoar, what a kettle!

And what most people don't know is that it's also a filtered water dispenser and can be kept in the fridge!

PHWOAR!

Somebody buy me one!

iPod Dead

In other news, my iPod has died and I am not coping.

M.I.A. - Paper Planes

I never really got round to liking M.I.A. properly, despite seeing her being excellent in the dying days of Club Suicide (R.I.P), the first night I met the boy. This song has made me revisit her work and I'm loving every second of it.


Paper Planes Video

Thursday 3 April 2008

Merkel Will Not Attend Olympic Opening Ceremony

The German chancellor has declared that it would be "inappropriate" for her to attend the Beijing Olympics.

I'm pretty annoyed at myself for not picking up on this story earlier but even more annoyed by how little it has been covered by the UK press.

I am increasingly disturbed that we, as a country, have not made a clear signal to the Chinese that we do not support the public relations exercise they will stage this summer to publicise their brutal, undemocratic regime. The leaders of most of the EU states have now stated their intention to boycott the opening ceremony with the only notable exception (other than Gordon Brown) being Nicholas Sarkozy who has publicly said that he has "not ruled out the possibility".

I can only conclude that the reasoning behind Brown's intention to attend is an unwillingness to cool diplomatic relations with China in view of the valuable trade links the country has extended to the UK and the US.

So, effectively, our government have chosen to effectively advocate a regime with a known, proven human rights violation profile over a potential loss of commerce.

Nothing I have written above will be revelatory to anyone who has even a very basic grasp of the situation but it should be shocking. Please protest the Beijing Summer Olympics in any way you can.

Morrissey Not a Racist - Just an Idiot

Morrissey accepts a public apology from Word

I'm interested to hear that the case with the NME is still ongoing since there has been utter silence on the subject since the original flurry of knicker-in-twist emails between Morrissey's management and smug twat Conor McNicholas.

In all honestly, I am surprised that SP's management are pursuing the NME case. Unlike Word they never accused him directly of racism and largely quoted directly from an interview he gave to Tim Jonze. I think it's clear that this case is not intended to be won, but that if it were not pursued the implication would be that the inferences that readers were invited to draw by the NME are true.

The conclusion I opt to make (which isn't, I hope, too influenced by the fact that I am a fan) is that Morrissey is not a racist.

He is, like many people, utterly confused about the history of immigration in Britain. We, as a nation, appear to have developed a shorthand "Britishness" that totally disregards the many waves of immigration our island has experienced and our own imperial history. The country we live in was built using money from the tropics and labour from Ireland, the Indian subcontinent and the West Indies. To suggest that the sensation of walking down British streets and finding oneself "hard-pressed to hear anyone speaking English" is in any way new is utterly absurd (indeed, Morrissey himself would surely have experienced it, growing up in 1960s' Manchester).

Essentially, though, I don't think his comments are racist or discriminatory, just ignorant and ill-informed, something that is easier to forgive but no less dangerous.

The original NME article appears to have been removed but the BBC write up can be found here)

Not Part Of

Since the Manchester International Festival proper was such a damp squib (taking it's cue from the rainy summer in the rainy city) it's heartening to see that Manchester's more left-field entertainment elements have embraced it in their own inimitable style, choosing to launch a fringe festival - Not Part Of - during the official festival's second outing.

In all honesty, I doubt this will draw bigger crowds that last year's festival which had empty seats in all performances (apart from Monkey - thank you the BBC) but it will serve to engage the people of Manchester in this Manchester festival, something the last event utterly failed to do.

How to Project

Tuesday 1 April 2008

World's Largest Bouncy Castle

The photo is a bit rubbish but I want to have a party in it.

Not sure where we'd put the decks.

Fantasy Holidays I Will Probably Never Go On Part 3

The Guardian Hay Festival Alhambra

I've always liked the idea of the Guardian Hay Festival proper but something about it seems just a little too British and well-behaved to me. The Alhambra has always had a fantasy, Arabian nights-style debauched sexiness for me and that sultry southern Spanish-Moorish air is very conducive to lazy debate. The programme is excellent too, with an emphasis on middle eastern reporting and literature.

I'd probably stay here and drink very, very cold white wine. I'd wear a lot of black in the midday sun and Umberto Eco would develop a fascination with me.