December 2003 Archives

I wrapped up warmly and shuffled to the end of the street to get oliebollen, trad new year's eve deep fried doughnuts with currents. They're tasty. Well, they would be if I could, you know, taste anything. So tonight, it's just me and my oliebol. Good times.

You killed my girlfriend's fish. (via diveintomark)

Anger made him rich. Sean O'Hagan talks to Pete Townshend. Great interview. (Is Sean O'Hagan the journalist the same man as Sean O'Hagan the musician? I've never been able to verify.)

My throat feels like I've eaten the Sahara, I've had a headache since Christmas, my body's been run over by a truck and I can just about make it from the bed to the couch and back again. From underneath my fleece blanket - shivering fiercely - I've been watching Traffik (Good, depressing. Who wants this R1 DVD? Let me know.), The Office Christmas special (Happy end, whodathunk? Brilliant.), Joan of Arcadia (surprisingly good, pity they went for 'known' actors in the adult leads), Cast Away (I don't like Tom Hanks a whole lot. Round of applause for me for sitting through two hours of him!), The Fast Show (ah, good times), Goldfinger, Thunderball... Now can I get better please?

My relatives keep nagging me about my lack of interest in Indonesia. When I tell them I'm not interested in going, they say: "You'll change your mind once you've been." (Ignoring the fact that I HAVE been, if 28 years ago.) They've got the memories of goldfish, so this same conversation (and other, equally boring, exchanges) happens every time I see them. I'm not the most patient person, so it really is putting me off visiting them. Next time I'm just going to say I've got a snake phobia and I do not want to risk encountering giant pythons: "The interest it takes in the humans now flocking to gaze upon its coils is possibly just curiosity." The interest it takes in the humans now flocking to gaze upon its coils is possibly just curiosity.

Ian Fleming Publications have opened a website promoting Fleming's books.

I'd kill for a bottle of NyQuil.

Watch the new Peaches/Iggy Pop video

I should have stocked up on more DVDs before I succumbed to the flu.

Lucky man. Just what I always wanted for Christmas.

It takes multiple hits just to slow it down... (quicktime, 35mb.)

Central Intelligence Agency: online museum. "Unique collection" illustrating the history of US intelligence.

Lady X: ""Lady X" is a cooperative indie film project that we hope will be a lot of fun and will allow participating filmmakers to show their talent. The general theme is a spy/underworld thriller consisting of episodes made independently by selected filmmakers around the globe. Each episode is approximately 5 minutes long."

So ROTK. What was with the multiple fade to blacks/whites at the end? Unsure how to end the film? Not one second of Saruman, even when they stand at the bottom of his tower? Very odd. Instead they waste valuable time on introducing the Denethor/Faramir father/son dynamic.

So Peter Jackson. Did he completely lose the plot while making ROTK, or what?

Born. Eat. Shag. Die. 2003

A Gypsy blessing.

I finally have a bit of cash to throw around at the end of this small budget year (prices are up, my salary is down) so I went online last night to spend. I looked at various things (mostly DVDs) and found myself still bound by my self imposed spending rule. 'You can't afford that, don't click'. In the end I quit out of any shopping cart screen I had open. I think my spending lust was satisfied with last week's TV acquisition.

The music nerd test. 58.45411% - Mega Music Nerd

Uncle: "Say, I was wondering - how did you get that job at your age?" Me: " ... "

From the publishers: "It looks like new edition of U2 Live will be reprinting in January. Sales have been excellent. " Woo, double hoo.

100% CSS T-shirts

Movable Type 3.0 announced for Q1 2004.

The Big Smoker won best designed weblog, I think, in the recent Guardian competition. (I can't be arsed checking that fact now.) They've done a tribute to Johnny Cash. With monkeys. (via a.whole)

None of the songs I picked made it to MKT's weblog top 2003. I'm both too old fashioned and too off the wall. It makes sense. In my dimension.

A holiday gift from the vaults chez Prol: Gavin Friday - Another Blow On The Bruise (mp3, 8mb) Live at the Carre Theatre in Amsterdam, March 1990. He was down on the floor, stretched out on the edge of the stage for the latter part of the song. Ah, good times.

Let them sing it for you.

One of the many parental indoctrinations I've had to unlearn is that "big TV sets are 'common'". I've had 13" screen tv/video combi's since I moved out. As my eyesight is not as good as it was, I've had to squint and haven't enjoyed watching the box for years. Today I finally got myself my first 'big' TV. It's a 21" Daewoo. Not huge by today's standards, but anything bigger and more expensive was giving me palpitations. I spent most of today on the couch, watching the Two Towers, and testing the tons of VCD disks I've burnt over the last year or so. Right now, even my divx to mpeg to vcd burn of Blade Runner's looking mighty good.

Great juice: Del Monte World Fruits. I'm drinking 'Mediterranean blood orange & cactus' now, had Indian mango and papaya last week. They're not overly sweet, bit of an 'adult' taste.

More squealing. My Firefly DVD set arrived. Shiny!

A sensible article about weblogs.

Best 'Best Of List'

*squeals*. Awards are shite. Until you're nominated. Not that I'm nominated. But it's close enough. *squeals some more* "Time Enough For Tears" (Bono/Friday/Seezer) has been nominated in the best Original Song category of the 61st Annual Golden Globe Awards. (source: GF)

There's a LOTR special in this month's Empire magazine. All the main actors and crew are photographed (with the ring) and interviewed. A number of them mention the cult of Cunty-bago, which was one of the Winnebago's shared by actors on the set. Apparently, the actors became so enamoured with the word they're contemplating setting up a website (c-bago.com does appear to be reserved) I can't find the Empire interview online, but the Yahoo! Group : ElijahWoodPicTrade has an interview with Elijah Wood:

One of my Dutch readers wrote a piece on his site stating non-Dutch blogs are 'boring'. I'm not taking it too seriously, but you know what? They're not.

Just minutes ago I finally finished writing the update to "The Complete Guide to the Music of U2". Finally. It'll be out in April 2004. Don't buy it, it sucks.

"So we thought, who better to pay for it than you, you're her daughter after all," he says cheerfully.

My uncle's neglected to pay for my mother's grave.

My mother is buried in a quiet spot outside the village we used to live in, not far from where I work these days. They picked the headstone. I helped them write the engraving. I was twelve. Twenty-eight years ago.

"Absolutely," I say, because yes, why wouldn't I pay for the upkeep of my parent's resting place? It isn't much, this bill, I can afford it.

I never go. I haven't been in twenty years, perhaps a little less. I've never felt the need. I don't believe in an after life. She's gone. She's not there.

"After all, I'm retired now," he says as if that's any reason to neglect paying for the upkeep of his sister's grave for TWO years.

A lot of things have happened this year that have made me very angry. This is one of them.

There are bills. There is interest. There are insistent little letters from the council. There's this thing hovering between my uncle and me where I know he was never good for anything and he's blissfully unaware.

I will pay the money. I will make the phonecalls. I will put the lease in my name. This is my right and this is my duty.

"So will you come for Christmas dinner?", he asks and I say 'yes' because I don't want to say 'no'.

I will go and eat my anger.

Early Christmas gift from G.: The Third Man - soundtrack. Sweet. Time I saw that film again.

I hadn't thought of it when I first saw the iRiver 20GB recorder, but it's good news for people who record live gigs. The only downside now is that you can't set recording levels, but Sound Professionals (the audio shop) are working on a module to fix that and I'm sure iRiver is working on integrating it as well. USB harddisk to harddisk transfer. Drool.

What are you doing for Christmas?

Post of the day.

Tom Tom Club cover You Sexy Thing.

A movie so good, he puts money where his mouth is. Wow. The Chicago Sun-Times reviewer offers his readers a ticket refund if they don't like In America like he does: "You're the lucky ones -- the ones who haven't yet seen "In America." I envy your experience of seeing this film with fresh eyes and pure expectations. Enjoy."

This one is doing the rounds, but if you hadn't seen it yet, I present: best 404 ever.

If stealing designs was legal and encouraged, I would probably rip off: Whitespace.

Most of the audience stayed put when the song came on and the credits rolled. I heard one bloke say to another: "It's got some damn good music too!" Then the crowd stayed through the rest of the credits and the Theme Finale. It's a brilliant film. Don't let the godawful stars and bloody stripes artwork on the posters and the soundtrack cover put you off. There's very little 'Hollywood' in there. Go see it.

Jim Sheridan is a little man with big stories to tell.

Fridays usually blow because of the deadlines at work, but today was made good by the arrival of the "In America" score (which is seriously good and I'm not just towing the party line), and the decision to go see the film tonight regardless of the fact that nobody wanted to go with me. I suppose it's not as cool as going to see the bloody Matrix, but everybody can do with a good cry now and then and if even the soundtrack alone is tugging at the ol' tracts, what on earth will the movie do to a prol? And Roger Ebert likes it. So does Salon.

Brad - If you could make it good. I had no idea Brad still existed - I bought their first album Shame ten years ago. Solid music, a bit old fashioned. Sweet.

... as quickly put together for Bob's 'weblog best of 2003' CD. In no particular order and off the top of my head:
1. Franz Ferdinand - Darts of Pleasure
2. Sinead O'Connor - My Lagan Love
3. The Rapture - Olio
4. Joss Stone - The Chokin' Kind
5. Colder - Crazy Love
6. Kylie Minogue - Slow
7. British Sea Power - The Lonely
8. 50 Cent - In Da Club
9. Nick Cave - Bring it on
10. David Bowie - Bring me the disco king

Brought back a U2 'Go Home' live at Slane DVD from work (hadn't bought it yet, not that essential). Watching it now I can tell you, if you invested in the Elevation Boston DVD, toss it in the bin and get this one. Better venue, better audience and better band. Note to rock stars: don't plan your video shoots.

ADSL providers are bending backwards to keep their customers. I have no intention to leave xs4all. Been with them since 94 or so, never had any problems. In November, our upstream/downstream went to 2048/640 Kbit/s. Now they've announced another upgrade. Per January 15 it's 4096/640 Kbit/s. My geek heart is all a flutter. Now I'll be downloading faster than I can watch my shows.

I read a scathing (p)review ( think on AICN) of the new Battlestar Galactica mini series. The reviewer couldn't handle the T&A in it. These fans of the old series don't like it much either. I am watching the it now and runs rings around Enterprise. This San Diego reviewer calls it compelling. It's a bit gung-ho let's kick some cyborg ass for king and country and possibly bunnies, but if this turns into a new series, I'll keep watching this. By your command.

I had no idea there's a free English paper in Amsterdam: The Amsterdam Times. They are handed out at Schiphol National Airport, bookstores, embassies and consulates and international companies.

José Luis Orihuele, of eCuaderno v.2.0, will be in Amsterdam 11-14 dec for a conference and would like to meet up with Amsterdam/Dutch webloggers for a 'Beers & Blogs' session. I won't be able to make it, but if you are interested drop me a line and I will forward his e-mail to you.

Don't know what it is but it looks sexy. No, not the Santas.

Some of this "cirque de material" I wouldn't mind being able to make. (via carnivale.org)

Burberry jammies.

Bowie, Paris 2003. What a lot of old songs they are!

An outsider's view on a country's always 'inneresting': Blogging Abroad. (via twoeyes)

The gift of... Probably not safe for work if you live in a country where a 'vagina' is not safe. For work.

Hey look, yet another example of why I shouldn't *run* a community, I should just build them and then let others get on with it. (The 'who cares' attitude always pissed me off. I care. Fuck sake.)

If he's back within a couple of days/weeks/months I'll probably tell someone 'I told you so'. I've seen them come, I've seen them go. I've been at this since 1999. I may be crap, but I don't quit. Anyway, thanks for the immensely entertaining writing, Mike!

My latest book is now listed on Amazon.co.uk: U2 (Complete Guide to the Music Of...). And yes, my ego is screaming for a book that actually has my name on its cover. Update: well, that's arranged, my name will appear alongside Bill's. I haven't a hope in hell to write anywhere near as good well as he used to, but I think my stuff will be 'easier' to read for the casual fan.

Our future queen was born today at 17.01 CET.

"Die Kinder" (1990), was a TV series with Miranda Richardson and Frederic Forrest, in which a woman's kids are abducted by her ex-husband, who is a member of the German 'Red Liberation Front'. It's a 1990 BBC2 production and I've never seen it repeated anywhere. Would love to see this on DVD. Frederic Forrest was brilliant in his role as Lomax, the former CIA agent and the whole thing was edge of seat viewing.

The Observer reviews Absolute Friends by John le Carré : More Greene than Maugham, and bursting with a satirical indignation that is sometimes grimly comic, le Carré brings the thriller face to face with contemporary politics and, in the process, has once again demonstrated his mastery of his chosen genre while at the same time giving lesser, ordinary novelists a masterclass in taking nothing for granted.

Anybody else think the Booker Prize winning Vernon God Little is shite?

Urbanimage is a photo agency that specialises in rock, punk, reggae, etc. You have to register to view most of the pictures, but it's free - unlike a lot of agencies.

The demise of mp3.com made me think of Eric Oehler's Null Device. They've got their own site now, with a weblog, audio/video, CD downloads, etc. Eric did a handwriting font for me a few years back. I'm still using it. He is also the creator of the typefaces Violator and Devotion, based on the handwriting of Anton Corbijn. You will have seen these two fonts.

Go grandma...

There's a Fox Searchlight weblog on blogspot. It's been there a while. "Fox Searchlight Pictures has decided to start this blog and join this online phenomena." Great place for me to keep up with "In America" news. Roger Ebert gave it 4 stars.

When Friendster was in beta, someone sent me an invitation. I joined and never participated. I think I find socialising as difficult online as I find it off line and it scares me even more when it's blatant and organised. Today I received my first 'pm' through the service. I immediately deleted my account.

If you spend or have spent too much time at MetaFilter, if you steal links from it and often don't mention their source (and I'm looking at you), now is the time to show some appreciation: read this and chip in.

"Is "thin air" sizeist? Shouldn't there be fat air, too?" (Deborah at TWOP)

Movable Type users, update your installation (if you hadn't already done so. It pays to keep track of the software you install.)

Amazon.com inform me my Firefly DVD set was shipped today. It's filled to the brim with extra features. Can't wait to pop 'em into the player.

The O.C. Drinking Game

For (rich) vinyl junkies: ELP Laser Turntable: plays vinyl records without a needle.

New issue of 28MM.ORG, with some interesting live concert photography. More of the photographer's work on his own photoblog.

'n' Chups.

46664 concert (South Africa) Real stream. Nicely edited for your pleasure. Watch Richard Branson do the white man clap. Listen to Peter Gabriel sing 'Biko' (you haven't heard it in ten years, admit it) and relive your tweens.

phpBB is, as they say, the bombdiggity. I finally got rid of my 'dcforum' board, a feature rich but rickety old thing I paid for a long time ago. Upgrade license long expired, I decided to go for the phpBB - cause it's free and everybody who doesn't use Invision (ex-UBB) uses it. It was dead easy to set up (another one of these 5 minute jobs), easy to configure and style and there are a number of nice hacks and mods that I'm in the process of adding. Now the aul 'Plughole' has had a make over. I hope the fresh new look and my renewed interest in running this thing will get this damn community off the ground for once, despite my obvious lack of talent in that area. Now if only I could find someone like Whedonesque's Simon to help me with it... (that means: a levelheaded people person who is a big GF fan...)

Why Joss is cool? Because he says stuff like: "They were so wrong that we may have to create a new word that means wronger." "

Web screenplay! Bwah!.

Family.

They appear from the other side of the planet. They call you on the day before they fly back. They taunt you with tales of their highly succesful children.

She's directing her first feature... He's marrying a model. How are you?

Well, I'm in a meeting right now, so I can't talk long.

They expect you to drop whatever you're doing (job, book, life) to attend their goodbye dinner.

Chinese, of course. It's tradition.

They are your elders, you must obey. You're slightly annoyed, but also pleased they remember you exist.

They're a little mental, because they're big people where they live.

That's what you like about them. They shine so brightly even the dullest coin in the pocket gleams in their presence. That's what you think you are. Dull.

You remember shopping sprees when you were still a kid. You saw how star quality makes the shop attendant crawl. You realised that money talks.

And so the evening you had planned at home -- skipping the oh so tempting office get together for a few hours devoted to your manuscript -- becomes a nervous rush home for a change of clothes.

Appearance, never high on your list, is suddenly important.

All prepped and eager and hungry you wait by the phone for them to tell you where to meet.

The hours pass. You hesitate -- they are busy, they have important lives. They will call, later.

But they don't. In all their bigness they forget to inform their long lost niece. By the time you ring them the tables have been cleaned.

And you sit there with an empty belly and the taste of ashes in your mouth.

... why hast thy forsaken me? In my recommendations today: The Corrs.

From the makers of Listamatic... and the producers of Listutorial... from the director of Floatutorial... Maxdesign.com.au present a story of parents and children and bold declarations, a quest for adjacent siblings, a heartwarming introduction to a family thing: Selectutorial: CSS selectors. Now in the web browser of your choice.

I was using Feedreader, but RssReader is a lot better.

Haven't found a link yet, but Dutch papers report Dutch insurance companies will now insure people who are HIV-positive.

Hey, are there any rich Whedonesquers? (I am speechless | Ten Years of My Life)

Matt is not allowed to view this thread. MeFi user? Read this.