October 2004 Archives

Here, softened up by breakfast, but still a holy terror in the morn, Herr Flick Friday, green leather long coated bane of my existence. A bottle to the head and flowers up. Is he gonna kiss, or is he gonna kill? Gets two glasses of coca cola, not one. Wants the best table. Encore du chips. And a paracetamol, with sugar on top.

Luc Jansen, who incidently will be interviewing Gavin and Guggi at Ancienne Belgique's Virgin Prunes matinee on Saturday in Brussels, presents a 3 hour John Peel special on VPRO radio. (real audio)

Peel made radio shows for VPRO in the mid-Eighties. In the first hour ('uur 1') - after a Dutch introduction, you can hear one of his '86 shows, in which he calls Tom Waits a terrible old bore... then plays Husker Du's cover of Ticket to Ride.

You'll also find some lovely pictures of Peel and his son at VPRO's old villa/studio.

If I buy a song from iTMS on my work computer, how can I download it again on my home computer? There doesn't seem to be a way other than paying for it again.

Yes, I can mail it to myself, or burn it, or ftp it. But really, it should show up in my library automatically.

This is an evil plan to make me invest in an iPod. Which I'm not willing to do.

I do not need a portable player. I don't like shutting myself off from the world while I'm commuting. If I ever do invest it will be in one of iRiver's machines. Their features suit me better and sue me, but I like the look better too.

They shouldn't make paying for music so easy.

I've complained about the iTunes music store's content, but now I'm digging a little deeper and remembering those albums I thought were great, but never bought.

Like k.d. Lang's Ingenue. *click*

Thank Jobs browsing the store isn't all that easy. If you don't know what you want and you're not interested in bestsellers, it's hard to go beyond the shop window, so to say. Phew.

(translated from Dutch, written earlier today)

Who said the tide is turning on the sea ?
A strange love's caught up with me

Forever paradise
- The Undertones

As a teenager in the late 70s, early 80s, I would spend hours glued to my little radio. I would try to receive BBC Radio 1, but all I could get properly was the World Service, on short wave. Sometimes Radio 1 would drift in, shards of sound and conversation. Slowly rising, then -- often on the hour -- reception would cease.

I had read about John Peel -- a legend in his lifetime -- in music magazines. I wanted to hear his show. That's why I tuned in at night, twisting the dial fruitlessly. I did catch bits and pieces once every while. The music he played I did not know or understand. But his voice was striking. An authority, that much was clear.

Later came the hunt for tapes of his live sessions. You couldn't be a fan of live music in the 80s and not be desperate for those tapes.

I could have listened to his shows these last few years, the John Peel show is broadcast in Real Audio. But I never did.

And now I never will.

BBC: Legendary radio DJ John Peel dies
BBC Obituary
MeFi: A sad day for music
NYLPM photo tribute
Peel sessions

iTunes Netherlands has gone live. Excellent.

I just bought my first song. George Michael's Flawless (Go to the City) [Shapeshifters Remix].

But so far, no luck on finding Clinic, Woven Hand, Dresden Dolls or Hidden Cameras. It's all very middle of the road.

whatdoiknow.org writes: 'Firefox is on the move'

I decided to have a look at my sites' stats:

prolific.org
1. Internet Explorer 6.x 56.1 %
2. Mozilla Firefox 1.x 16.4 %
3. Safari 1.x 8.8 %
4. Mozilla Firefox 8.8 %
5. Internet Explorer 5.x 3.5 %

gavinfriday.com
1. Internet Explorer 6.x 69.6 %
2. Internet Explorer 5.x 12.8 %
3. Safari 1.x 6.4 %
4. Mozilla Firefox 4.8 %
5. Mozilla Firefox 1.x 2.4 %

whedonesque.com
1. Internet Explorer 6.x 61.6 %
2. Mozilla Firefox 1.x 9.4 %
3. Internet Explorer 5.x 8.2 %
4. Mozilla Firefox 6.9 %
5. Safari 1.x 6.3 %

virginprunes.com
(c'mon you old fogies, upgrade!)
1. Internet Explorer 6.x 26.7 %
2. Mozilla 16.7 %
3. Internet Explorer 5.x 13.3 %
4. Opera 6.x 10.0 %
5. Opera 7.x 6.7 %
6. Internet Explorer 4.x 6.7 %
7. Netscape 3.x 6.7 %

u2log.com
1. Internet Explorer 6.x 70.8 %
2. Safari 1.x 9.0 %
3. Internet Explorer 5.x 8.3 %
4. Mozilla Firefox 1.x 4.2 %
5. Mozilla Firefox 2.1 %

If you are in or around L.A. this Sunday, October 24:

Joss Whedon and his friends from BUFFY, ANGEL and FIREFLY are having a Fundraising Party for John Kerry.

Alyson Hannigan, Nathan Fillion, Nicholas Brendon, Alexis Denisof, Amy Acker, J. August Richards, Julie Benz, Tom Lenk, Adam Busch & Danny Strong to name a few, will be in attendance, celebrating with Joss and showing their support for John Kerry.

The party will coincide with other John Kerry house parties happening all around the country. People from these house parties will call in to speak with Joss about various topics: why he supports John Kerry, his TV shows, Astonishing X-Men as well as upcoming projects.

When: Sunday, October 24, 2004, from 1:00pm to 4:30pm
Where: CineSpace, 6356 Hollywood Blvd. 2nd Floor, Hollywood, CA 90028
Suggested donation is $50.00 (payable at the door or online at www.johnkerry.com)

Additional info is available at www.highstakes2004.com

Remember a year ago I said I was sitting on a major scoop? This is it.

In 1981, someone stole a briefcase from Bono when U2 played a gig in Portland. Since then, the briefcase has become the Holy Grail of U2 mythology. It contained lyric drafts for U2's second album, 'October'. Without the drafts, Bono had to start from scratch.

A year ago, we were contacted by someone who claimed to have the contents of the briefcase. We were sceptical at first, and asked for photographic evidence. Once given, we no longer doubted. This was it. We helped the finder get in touch with U2's management. It took a long time for schedules to match, but Bono now has his stuff back.

U2log.com finally got to publish the story a few minutes ago. Not in the way we would have liked, but we're happy to have played our small part anyway.

TV- and filmmaker and creator of the Buffy, Angel and Firefly series Joss Whedon posts to our site, Whedonesque.com:

But also:

Whedonesque.com is a relatively new site to the Buffyverse, unlike places like The Bronze where Joss and the other Mutant Enemy writers generally post. Which is why we're quite chuffed.

High Stakes 2004: Whedon Fans for John Kerry and John Edwards.

On Sunday October 24, at parties nationwide, USA fans of Joss Whedon are organising fundraisers for the Kerry/Edwards campaign.

Fans can participate in a nationwide conference call to hear Joss Whedon speak about his latest endeavors and why he is supporting John Kerry and John Edwards.

'Howyeh luv? Wanna come down to da beach wid me, look for crabs?'

They walk too fast, the pusher and his customer in their scummy nylon shell suits. Always in a hurry going nowhere fast. Hollow cheeks, dead eyes.

Pieces of H in a brown paper bag change owner while they scurry past Christchurch cathedral. A tall black girl glides by, the dealer looks and makes his lewd remark.

Maybe he knows her, maybe he doesn't. Maybe she sells, maybe she doesn't.

Dealer and client continue down to the river, laughing, coughing up phlegm.

The lady reading announcements at Duivendrecht station has rerecorded the message that drives me up the wall while I'm waiting for my train. It's worse now: 'zer maay-bee peakpokkutch and luggitsj (small pause and deep breath) thfleefs'. Seriously, what she makes of 'thieves' can not be reproduced in writing.

Dear Dutch Rail, I have a radio voice and am a near native speaker, so let me do that for you. For free. Call me.

It is fine until they push me head first into the machine. My head is right in the middle of it and they've lowered a metal grill over my face.

For a few seconds I consider pressing the alarm button as the thought 'let me out, let me out, let me out' overwhelms me.

I close my eyes, take deep steady breaths and will away the panick. 'Are you claustrophobic?' they'd asked on the questionnaire. 'No,' I had answered. But later I remembered feeling uncomfortable in bunk beds on boats, or buses.

In my ears, the tinny sound of bad headphones brings me Radio 2. Bad timing: it's the news, followed by that cut up version of What the World Needs Now. That's going to trigger unrest for the rest of my life.

'We're going to start. The first scan lasts 30 seconds,' the nice lab technican tells me. She'd put a blanket over my legs for comfort and said not to yell. 'We can't hear you.' Great. When I answer her questions, my voice sounds very, very small.

The noise, even through the headphones, is deafening but comforting. The way a heartbeat would be. I try to think happy thoughts, but cannot focus on anything. I stick to breathing deeply.

My face itches. Don't move. You can't move, because it ruins the scans. I wonder if I'm allowed to wiggle my toes. I do it anyway, just to move something.

'The second scan takes 2 minutes.'

Two minutes appear quite long. The next couple of scans are even longer. 'A sequence of 3 minutes, 4 minutes and 2 minutes.'

Behind the machine hangs a horrible Bob Ross type painting of a seascape with dolphins. I can see it via a mirror placed over my head. But I don't open my eyes very often, it's easier to disregard the confinement with my eyes closed.

Finally the noise stops. A second lab technician frees me from the machine. I look around for the first one, but she's gone. For some reason, this is disorientating.

'You can go, you don't have to wait.'

I seem ok, so I go to work, but I'm exhausted. So much so, I go straight to bed when I get home and sleep for ten hours.

Me: Be careful up North.

He: I will. Can you imagine the headlines... 'showband singer's body found in ditch on side of road?'

// oh, don't say that //

Me: I'll wear black for the rest of my life.

Get your Flickr.com Pro account. I did, anyway.

Flickr is bloody brilliant. With a Pro account you get 1 GB of uploads per month, with unlimited storage and bandwidth.

I haven't looked at the feature requests recently, but wouldn't it be great if you could integrate Flickr into your sit and branding? We've been trying to get Whedonesque.com readers to use Flickr for off topic conversation and image sharing, but they're not taking to it yet. Maybe if it looked more like Whedonesque itself, they would.

Same goes for U2log.com. Next year, U2 start touring. I'm hoping we can make it easy for fans to moblog the gigs.

Don't get me wrong, the (Irish) country side is very pretty, but I really am a city girl. Dublin just puts a smile on my face. I feel much more at home here now that I was traipsing around sheep dung in the Gaeltacht. Though I did pick up a fetching Northern twang.

Dublin is about chance meetings and surprising conversation.

Yesterday, as I walked by the set of Breakfast on Pluto at the Ierne on Parnell Square, I saw two blokes that looked like gaffers outside on the doorstep. I thought, sure, I'll walk up and ask if himself is around. As I approached and looked the one guy in the face I realised the 'gaffer' was none other than Neil Jordan himself.

I think I just about pulled off the 'I have no idea who you are' look on my face.

Later it was business as usual, old friends in the Library bar, talking about the ones that went before us and dissecting Hot Press with one of its writers. And me downing the vodka & tonics without getting a hint of a buzz.