tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52065532011-08-01T01:03:09.324+01:00Animal CurseCome sit at my circular pianoNeilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.comBlogger821100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1158350040074578802006-09-15T20:33:00.000+01:002006-09-15T20:54:04.006+01:00I am being 'groomed' by a 7-year old boy. I daren't tell the police - it's just too messed up for comprehension. I answered the phone about 8pm last night to near-silence. Eventually 'Is your wife in the room?' This was a boy's voice, unsure of himself. I was polite and explained that I believed I was being teased, and that I was going to hang up.The phone rang again. I let it go to answerphone. Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1137986671505298022006-01-23T03:15:00.000Z2006-01-23T03:24:31.516ZI just emailed the people at 'godhatesfags.com'. This is what I had to say.ToNou9iuNl@godhatesamerica.comSubjectHi!BodyMy name's Neil and I also hate fags. I think they attract God's hate, and I want to kill them all before He does.In your wonderful article about the Memorial Services of servicemen Zyla, Karim, Kesinger and Navarro(, which you picketed so well,) you quote Ezekiel chapter 16. ThisNeilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1137977618351526102006-01-23T00:49:00.000Z2006-01-23T00:53:38.366ZOf course, that I have taken time out of my busy essay writing schedule (which admittedly, even in itself, has not been committed to paper) should be enough. But as far as content goes, this post has got it *in spades*..1966. Pet Sounds, Revolver. erm. Some Stones album or other. Black Sabbath? Led Zep?? Na. Well anyway you get the idea.1966. Not quite the summer of love. That magical era where Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1130769623689367652005-10-31T14:40:00.000Z2005-10-31T19:08:36.033ZSo now if I have an empty moment, I can blog about it. I don't know if this is good for me or for you, the hypothetical reader. Let me tell you about yesterday on the train. Two proper northern scamps, who were going on some sort of kitted out, drudged up mini-break to Carlisle, were jostling for position at the window of our Tyne-crossing diesel train. "I'll give you ten p if you let me stick myNeilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1130718657707419762005-10-31T00:30:00.000Z2005-10-31T00:30:57.713ZMoblogging. Only marginally better than logging.I haven't even seen my new network's data prices, and yet here I am, 'moblogging'. But where am I? Am I at university, lovingly laminating a comprehension activity for the aphasia group? Could I be doing a sleep in the Brain Injury house? I'm playing semi-professional football, but I got a cramp, and I thought I'd blog about it? Am I still doing my protest in Parliament Square? Being sick in the Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1100025041285039312004-11-09T16:30:00.000Z2004-11-09T18:30:41.286ZThere've been loads of times where I've thought 'I'll blog that'. But I remember nothing substantial. Here are some snapshots.
My friend Daniel James Brown has taken inspiration from the completion of the Brian Wilson 'Smile' project, a full-stop that's been anticipated for 37 years, to get me to finish all the songs I halved my heart on 5 years ago. He is my musical director. Currently I am Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1096483612453086132004-09-29T14:11:00.001+01:002004-09-30T00:13:41.496+01:00So... the interim.
I lived one day as a chavster, when I spent £450 on the car (cam shaft), bought a car hoover, got a new mobile and started playing snooker online. (By the way, if you haven't already, search for 'chav' on the Argos website).
I have become an experienced "home-maker", with a recycling strategy, broth on the stove and homemade bread cooling on the side:
I have been on the Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1093912311712063242004-08-31T00:34:00.000+01:002004-08-31T01:31:51.713+01:00Now I have a job agreed, I'll be a support worker for people with aquired brain injury living in a residential rehabilitation home in Blackpool. It's a big sideways shift for me, and I'm pretty uneasy about it.
Positives:
It's not office-based I won't be a slave to clients and contracts There could be some real scope for creative thinking There will be speech therapists and Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1093476002592820312004-08-25T23:04:00.000+01:002004-08-26T09:22:44.093+01:00Maybe you thought the blog couldn't get any gayer after my John Kerry dream.
Here are the cutest Olympians of Athens 2004:
Synchronised divers have lost it. First synchronised swimming ... OK ... if you must. Then we got solo synchronised swimming - ridiculous, until they told us that the swimmer was synchronised with the music. And now synchronised diving. Where's the music? Where Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1093224942042807982004-08-23T01:47:00.000+01:002004-08-23T02:36:49.133+01:00'Educated Guess' is a 'celeb-based RPG' community and it had me going for a while. Essentially, it's "normal people", writing celebrity blogs, and getting suggestive with each other on messenger. Here are a couple of the community rules:
Time is a biggie [...] Pregnancies must last the full 9 months. No teleportation. Time warps are allowed. If Colin Farrell is in London and you and Uma Thurman Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1092241876811797392004-08-11T16:42:00.000+01:002004-08-11T17:35:31.180+01:00I get older, my memories rot from the top like corked wine. Some things stick out twenty years:
Reading a magazine that was much too old for me with mumps. Playing a brain-based counting game, with fevered hallucinations.My sister seeing dog poo (probably white dog poo) and saying saying 'watch it', and my Gran telling her off for swearing.Me, in utter confusion, redrawing a shower scene in Roy Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1091703627084663082004-08-05T11:31:00.000+01:002004-08-05T12:00:27.086+01:00Novels, though I don't read many of them, dig away at me. They leech onto albums, so that I can't think of one without the other. Springing to mind, in pairs:
Circulatory System/Circulatory System - The Age of Wire and String/Ben Marcus
Rah!/Panoply Academy Glee Club - Giles Goat Boy/John Barth
I guess that these books and records were consumed similtaneosly, but I really feel there is Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1091635603769942522004-08-04T16:36:00.000+01:002004-08-04T17:16:31.920+01:00It's worth blogging an encounter with a Lancastrian, because I don't have them all that often. I went down the town just before, trying to find someone who sells jiffy bags in their hundreds. I popped into the local model shop to ask if they had a mail order department, and if they wanted to sell me some mailers. No, but a kid comes and says he'll show me a company that does.
So me and this kid Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1091573708362045602004-08-03T23:14:00.000+01:002004-08-04T17:17:28.900+01:00As the charming comment on my previous post points out, I don't have a lot to say at the moment.
I was offered the job with Manchester Police, but I'm not taking it. I haven't told them that yet, because I am weak. They continue to come at me with new hurdles: reference required, medical to undertake, better reference required, and I just carry on jumping, knowing that I'm going to pull up. I Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1090260057112673952004-07-19T17:21:00.000+01:002004-07-19T21:38:48.040+01:00Job club was really just a lot of form filling. The guy running it says he is looking for another job. He fails his interviews though, he told us. He told us a few things. Retired from the police after an injury, his wife divorced him and burned his stuff. He has recovered from his depression now.
There were three of us there being introduced to the scheme. Me; alternately chirpy and Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1090192480120939492004-07-18T23:29:00.000+01:002004-07-19T00:21:33.910+01:00I'm only blogging to find out what the date is. Time goes round so quickly. Morrissey and PJ Harvey are on their second singles already, and what have I done? This year's been a parade of television sport: bowls, snooker, euro 96, golf, superbikes ... I've lost track so much I've got 'WRONG WAY' flashing in my display. However there are some positives.
Positives:
Tomorrow - 'Job Club'. I Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1089373590449597862004-07-09T12:17:00.000+01:002004-07-09T12:46:58.583+01:00At last my search for corporate-inspirational/educational music has borne fruit - NASA, no less.
"The Chromatics are an a cappella group of astrophysicists..."
"The Swift Song is the theme song of the mission; an upbeat, catchy pop tune which teaches listeners about the math and science behind the elusive gamma ray bursts and the Swift satellite."
Here are some of those educational yet Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1089155998983112272004-07-07T00:19:00.000+01:002004-07-07T00:19:58.983+01:00Can't be doing with a full Glastonbury review - it seems so long ago now anyway. Here's irrefutable proof of the mink presence:
I found the Magic Band pretty lifeless. Why include Evening Bell on a festival setlist? If the Captain had been there, there'd have been Beatle Bones, Radar Station stuff, Kandy Korn... Still you can't argue. The Magic Band play a 45 minute session on the John Peel Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1087941351906142002004-06-22T22:46:00.000+01:002004-06-22T22:55:51.906+01:00Here's Nickelback: "their first godawful hit, played through the left speaker" and simultaneously "an equally shite single (released two years later)" played through the right speaker. It is extremely funny, and sad at the same time.
I'm off to Glastonbury tomorrow morning. See you all there!Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1087430006728510232004-06-16T23:45:00.000+01:002004-06-17T01:20:44.296+01:00Searching the internet for "why birds sing" syntactic was pretty fruitful. I came across this marvellous 'true story' by Joe Magee, about his forays into birdsong: getting up earlier to hear the dawn chorus start, going to Bristol to listen to the BBC's archive of birdsong, and analysing the recordings, attempting to pick out some syntactical structure and meaning.
It's a long piece, and I Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1087226666985131522004-06-14T12:39:00.000+01:002004-06-14T21:49:46.196+01:00I climbed nearly 1400 metres this weekend, up Ben Nevis (5 1/2 hours) and back down (3 hours). There were nine of us, staying in a hostel which I cannot recommend highly enough for price, lateness of its bar (4am) and hospitality (2 Scotsmen, who never did reveal their names, sang a couple of bawdy Scots bar tunes for us). Our group (quite a cultural mix, including an American, a Filipino, an Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1086622654767723532004-06-07T15:54:00.000+01:002004-06-07T18:08:52.196+01:00Very funny to read about the Big Brother crew's slip up - a 20 minute unintended broadcast on the live realplayer feed of a production rehearsal of the BBLB show. Now that's reality TV. Career fellator Michelle, getting changed on a monitor behind the crew, was subject to some acid comments from a member of the production crew called 'Dave':
"Go on Michelle, get 'em out love, go on, ohhh - too Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1086611266008752242004-06-07T13:22:00.000+01:002004-06-07T13:27:46.006+01:00Radio 4, 8:30pm tonight (monday), a program about "the curious involuntary world" of The Shiver: the body's response to cold, fear, drugs and beautiful music.Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1086609502649425482004-06-07T12:16:00.000+01:002004-06-07T13:15:51.543+01:00I've been listening to dance music over the internet. It's been riveting.
I found a rather energetic radio show here: futureboogie.com - Dom Servini guest mix. He writes for Straight No Chaser, and he's the man behind the Wah Wah 45s label.
I found it because of a song he's playing - the Spiritual South remix of Max Sedgely's (version of) Happy, which came out through Sunday Best in March, and Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1086402948385392562004-06-05T02:31:00.000+01:002004-06-07T13:05:10.683+01:00Here's a heartwarming story. Two guys, inmates of Gloucester Prison for burglary and assault, go on a rehabilitation scheme - cleaning the toxins and straightening the mind. Succcess! They're off their drugs. This is what prisons are all about - getting people back on their feet.
Towards the end of their sentences, they get moved to a lower security prison - Leyhill Open Prison: video games, Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1086357716477411932004-06-04T15:01:00.000+01:002004-06-04T15:01:56.476+01:00Some more Bad Science courtesy of the Guardian: frogs being levitated with huge magnets. Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1086195251598411612004-06-02T16:30:00.000+01:002004-06-06T01:23:27.130+01:00Now we're back from London. The trip went a bit wrong for me, I'd lost my wallet on a 134 bus (it was stolen within one minute), and the next day had to rejoin the RAC: our catalytic converter caught a cold in Oxford, and I had no ID for the RAC man.
I finally saw Misty's Big Adventure on friday night. Drums, bass, guitar, children's toys, saxophone, whisk, trumpet, cute dancing beatbox man in aNeilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1085520700735250172004-05-25T22:28:00.000+01:002004-05-25T22:31:40.736+01:00Computer cleaning:
Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1085516995782582102004-05-25T19:19:00.000+01:002004-05-25T21:53:24.033+01:00Ian was away this weekend, but I had a pretty good time. It started off slow, with a couple of sunny walks around the park, reading the thrilling story of the Amber Room (in Moscow) in the Guardian, but my weekend improved when I heard I'd got a ticket to see Morrissey! But going back to friday...
I ran into my landlord, and was taken into the house for a cup of coffee. I suppose they're Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1085184626114608202004-05-22T01:10:00.000+01:002004-05-22T01:20:41.533+01:00Johnny Farraj has put together loads of samples of arabic music, and described the unevenly tempered scales, or maqam, in which they reside. Some of the music samples are fantastic. Have a listen to Abdul Haleem Hafezin the Maqam Bastanikar scale.Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1085176049899967902004-05-21T22:40:00.000+01:002004-05-21T22:48:53.623+01:00I have to put up a little Smiths story I heard. Actually two. The first one's about Morrissey. The Viva Hate sessions are coming to a close and Stephen Street is mixing the album. He's still not been told how much he will be paid for his songwriting and production. Morrissey leaves him a note after Street 'corners' him on the subject: 'Stephen. Enough is too much. Stephen'.
Another story is a Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1085172492066388152004-05-21T21:48:00.000+01:002004-05-21T21:48:12.066+01:00Tomorrow night (saturday, 9pm) BBC radio 2 have Lost Boy, the Nick Drake story, presented by Brad Pitt. A bit like the radiohead thing really. BBC - Press Office - Brad Pitt on Radio 2Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1085167117019637472004-05-21T20:18:00.000+01:002004-05-21T22:39:00.476+01:00BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Music | Radiohead to team up with Nighy
singing christmas is all around???
Radiohead - free from EMI - have staged their own suicide. They got together, devised the sickest thing they could: hooking themselves out by the skin, on an ancient monument, like sick tinsel, in the long May day. The curtain descends, and a huge funeral commences. Sadness and confusion, and Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1085081391314998222004-05-20T20:29:00.000+01:002004-05-20T20:29:51.313+01:00I've been listening to employee-inspiring corporate music on the internet to get my spirits up a bit... ZDnet have a nice collection that they put together a couple of years ago.
Anyway, the BBC's been looking at the phenomenon too, and they've even commissioned their own rabble rouser from Japanese corporate song outsourcer Mysong. It's terrible.Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1085006412450375112004-05-19T23:40:00.000+01:002004-05-19T23:40:12.450+01:00According to popbitch, always perfectly reliable, Morrissey went and had tea last night with Johnny Marr. As unlikely as this idea may be, it tickles me. I'd be resentful of Morrissey's current resurgence if I were Marr (number 3 in the singles chart, almost certainly number one in next week's album chart). They'd have to be in league with each other. Maybe Marr did help write Vauxhall and I Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1084830469466324742004-05-17T22:17:00.000+01:002004-05-17T22:50:24.373+01:00A couple of news items have caught my eye. One is a report in the guardian last friday - another crazy bit of research. Scientists wanted to see how seperate our ability to put a use to an object was from our ability to put a name to it. It wouldn't really be fair to do it to stroke victims, so...
The children were left in a playroom with a pedal car big enough to sit in, a child-sized chair andNeilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1084385850792797252004-05-12T18:44:00.000+01:002004-05-12T19:22:35.916+01:00
I do like the new blogger - lots of new features, the best probably being this image hosting thingy, which shouldn't work for me, but actually does, at the moment. I hope the blogger staff won't read this on their wall.
I had my 13-weeks-unemployed interview at the jobcentre this morning. It was conducted by a different guy to the one who usually signs me in. He had mild tourette's: "Have you Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1083878901330875472004-05-06T22:28:00.000+01:002004-05-06T22:32:41.200+01:00My stylus still hasn't arrived. They've charged me for it though, and I've had my tax rebate! Now I don't have to rely on competitions to get the things I want.
Here is the site I use to enter competitions. Click on 'closing comps'. Yes I know it is very sad.Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1083793299166285732004-05-05T22:41:00.000+01:002004-05-05T23:00:08.716+01:00It's not foxes attacking our bin bags, it's crows. I caught one today, spreading noodles all over the driveway, just minutes after I'd put the bag out. Now I know why I regularly hear gunshots out here.
I'm sad, in a way, because I have no more interviews lined up, and I didn't get the job I went for this week - as a marketing assistant for the National Blood Service. I thought I did well, I canNeilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1083686208192143942004-05-04T16:56:00.000+01:002004-05-04T17:01:47.793+01:00An Ouija board for a dollshouse. "A must have for your Halloween setting or a slumber party in your dollshouse!"Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1083448318593296102004-05-01T22:51:00.000+01:002004-05-01T22:58:40.170+01:00The Guardian on the Iraqi torture photographs
The charges: ordering detainees to publicly masturbate; piling inmates into nude pyramids, taking pictures of them nude, battery, shoving and stepping on detainees, raping an Iraqi inmate in his mid-teens
Defendant: "We had no support, no training whatsoever. And I kept asking my chain of command for certain things ... like rules and regulations."
Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1083336614657778042004-04-30T15:50:00.000+01:002004-04-30T15:54:25.840+01:00This is a soundboard recording of the first Pixies reunion show. You'll need something like Azureus to download a torrent file though. It's probably on soulseek I know...Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1083335888975299172004-04-30T15:38:00.000+01:002004-04-30T15:42:20.310+01:00Considering google shares?Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1083274751371628312004-04-29T22:39:00.000+01:002004-04-30T13:25:03.436+01:00Where the sunsetsails
I was up early to take Ian to a meeting, and then off to an interview. It was over an hour long, with four on the panel, including a pair of scientists with screwed-up faces. It was an admin position, for an environmental quango.
I did okay, but I'm finding it hard to assess my performance in interviews. The only feedback I've had is 'you should get more marketing/Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1083267805271214672004-04-29T20:43:00.000+01:002004-04-29T20:47:35.500+01:00I've visited the counties in yellow.Which counties have you visited?made by marnanelmap reproduced from Ordnance Survey map databy permission of the Ordnance Survey.© Crown copyright 2001.Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1083150222364514552004-04-28T12:03:00.000+01:002004-04-29T20:32:03.450+01:00Looks like the chavster snooker hero and Preston native Ian McCulloch is on his way out of the World Snooker Championship in Sheffield.
It's a shame because I was hoping for an all star semi final - Ian McCulloch vs David Gray.Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1083104255631058182004-04-27T23:17:00.000+01:002004-04-27T23:24:03.186+01:00A little update on my first post here, I received a response from Ofcom, a little comp slip, within two days of my complaint - quite impressive.
Also the Korean Central News Agency have finally put a news story up about the blast. Here's an extract:
"Humanitarian aid from many countries and international organizations is greatly encouraging the Korean people in their efforts to recover from Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1083099689908230682004-04-27T22:01:00.000+01:002004-04-27T23:24:50.716+01:00I spent the morning finding cheaper electricity - very dull. I found that Basic Power and Virgin were the cheapest for us. Save on your bills was a big help. Powergen, our current supplier, were completely useless: I had to explain to them what economy 7 is.
Scallies are great fun to spy on on the net. Scally Central is the home of chavster-worship, with some excellent pictures of them in their Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1083014247205473592004-04-26T22:17:00.000+01:002004-04-27T23:26:07.810+01:00Coke music is a terrible company name. It makes me think of the third Oasis album - certainly not of music downloads. The website is hard to look at, like baby poo, and it's missing a lot of the music I look for online - White Noise, David Ackles, Pere Ubu, Bloc Party...
As many have said, if they really wanted to compete with Soulseek they could reduce the price of CD's. It's sad for artists, Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1082923826903026082004-04-25T21:10:00.000+01:002004-04-25T22:17:40.733+01:00We went to Morecambe today, strolled around the prom. The market's awful - it's all discount perfume, stain removers, bubble guns and permacell batteries.
It felt summery; a few kids running out of the cold seawater, queues for ice cream and screams from the funfair. Morecambe still heaves with pensioners on their mobility trikes.
Listen-to is down so I'll tell you I've been listening to David Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1082841432389284252004-04-24T22:17:00.000+01:002004-04-25T19:29:11.090+01:00I have just been stung by a wasp. I had forgotten how much it hurts. 10 o clock in the evening, lurking outside, by the window, like a London drug addict. I just put my hand out to close the window and it attacked. Ian killed it for me. Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1082806493508657722004-04-24T12:34:00.000+01:002004-04-24T13:09:03.450+01:00Nick Drake has a new single coming out - called 'Magic'. It seems very odd that a track that wasn't deemed strong enough to make Five Leaves Left should, 35 years later, be vying for your £3.99 alongside the likes of Pink and James Fox. It's a pretty, meandering tune. His vocal is a little shaky, and he doesn't seem behind the track, which really, from a marketing point of view, he isn't.
I Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1082743320325297882004-04-23T19:02:00.000+01:002004-04-24T00:18:58.436+01:00My boyfriend just came back from work with a very cool link. Audio Insight asks you some pretty intelligent questions about the music you like, plays you loads of bands and gets you to approve them, and eventually comes up with a list of tunes it thinks you'd like, and puts them into a virtual radio station for you - very good fidelity.
It had a pretty good hit rate for me, but then again, as Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1082735480260049602004-04-23T16:51:00.000+01:002004-04-23T17:12:52.043+01:00It strikes me that the only people who complain to Ofcom are those with too much time on their hands. How can it be worth spending £52.5 million pounds on the sensibilities of the rich, retired and unemployed?
Ofcom should sit laypeople in front of tellies and radios - listening to gay kisses, watching abortions and suchlike. It would be like jury service.
"Press A if you are comfortable with Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1082728699845670432004-04-23T14:58:00.000+01:002004-04-23T17:13:18.840+01:00I'm utterly sick of all the popups on easyjournal, so I thought I'd come over to google.
Today I am angry with the media. Initial reports yesterday of a freight train smash in North Korea, on Radio 4, put across a tentative death toll of 3,000. I practically said a prayer as I sat in the car, waiting for Ian. As no news ever really comes from North Korea, they'd taken their guesstimate from Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1086647931819487882004-03-04T12:09:00.000Z2004-06-07T23:38:51.820+01:00Dentally deadToday, in the library in Morecambe. A boy and his grandfather arrive, but this is no werthers original situation. The kid sits down at the computer, and the grandfather at his shoulder, and neither of them quite knows why. First the grandfather instructs him to type in google.
'You've got to know what you want to find. What do you usually do on the computer?'
The kid is being Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1086647867738557622004-02-25T16:18:00.000Z2004-06-07T23:37:47.736+01:00Just a fragment of my imaginationI now have a job, through an agency, stuffing feathers into cushions. I will be paid £5 more than I am getting on the dole. I applied for four other northern jobs today.
I think we found a property - a bungalow, in Hala. What a great word. And tonight, we're off to play badminton.
Oh it's all peachy-peaNeilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1086647811906061052004-02-24T09:48:00.000Z2004-06-07T23:36:51.906+01:00I'm In Great ShapeWorryingly, I have taken to gambling. Small amounts. I'm up £20 today. I go into betting shops and see the discarded slips for forthcoming races, rewrite them (with the bet scaled down a factor of 10) and make the bet myself. It's a bit like stealing, but no-one's the wiser.
I went into a betting shop this morning just as it opened. The old guys are all looking at their watches,Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1086647673981249172003-11-24T16:22:00.000Z2004-06-07T23:34:33.983+01:00IlliteratureThings are taking place apace.
I'm leaving Excess at the end of the week, leaping off into the unknown. I've got to be out of my room by next wednesday.
I spose I'll end up doing some Christmas shop work through December, then hopefully I'll get a job at Granada, BBC, Guardian, Urbis or some record label or other in Manchester. I've emailed a few record labels, and I'm sure I'd beNeilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1086647561588716412003-10-22T23:31:00.000+01:002004-06-07T23:32:41.586+01:00More lyriccy snippetsLife is all about asking why
At the right time
Exactly the same time.
Short affection span
Perception point
He shred his secrets with me
Deliver a liver - Gorilla Gaynor
It fits you like a tune
The rain falls in inches/images
They cut down the entire garden party
What a bunch of crap on my phone this time.Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1086647493580641312003-09-08T23:31:00.000+01:002004-06-07T23:31:33.580+01:00UpdateI'm still in London, Hackney, and in the pr world. I've just come back from Lancaster to visit Ian - he's working psychiatry in and around. On call tomorrow. He dicates his notes and makes big decisions. I want to be like that. In time he will be a consultant.
We went to Morecambe today, saw the Eric Morecambe statue (doesn't look like him) and went round the 2Hbookshop - best thing I Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1086647246315973412002-11-07T12:01:00.000Z2004-06-07T23:27:26.316+01:00UpdateI miss writing prose like I used to in this box. It's a quiet day in the office, I'm clear-headed and full of tea and Tunisian chocolate, 25 years old and having (regular) sex at last. I've still not told my mum. We just got offered to do the press on Princess Superstar - for reference.
The work situation hasn't really improved though - I am a subservient sub-servant-postmistress. Ian Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1086647109765548892002-10-15T23:24:00.000+01:002004-06-07T23:25:09.766+01:00Lyriccy snippetsI have to clear out my phone...
Iced Omens
How much coke music can you take?
Food councillors
A singing circular saw
Forewarned is forearm-ed
Salt pernicious
On a subliminal wage
Our population exceedes our past
No break for the border
Through a thousand pages of security code
Mill of the road
Cracked nipples
You wrote me a 14-page grovel letter
But it was boring and I ignored itNeilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1086647171368710522002-10-15T15:25:00.000+01:002004-06-07T23:26:11.716+01:00Falling dreamsJust one night of not smoking weed, and I was full of the most fantastic dreams and false awakenings. I believed I awoke at 11:30, fatally late for work, in my parents house, with my mum there. She asked if I was in a relationship, and shamefully I replied "why?" She gave me breakfast - a bag of muesli, with almost all the best bits missing. The best bits were translucent plasticy Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1086689502609616222002-09-16T11:10:00.000+01:002004-06-08T11:11:42.610+01:00Agency in WonderlandYou're drawing suns in all the skies
I creased and boxed away.
Roll me down the tips of my scales,
Bail it all, but for the sails
And we'll heal through the ocean.Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1086647015170985942002-08-29T20:00:00.000+01:002004-06-07T23:23:35.170+01:00Massive WandMassive Wand - lyrics by me for Mat's song 'Jazz lab'
A monument in stolen stone
Stands for a distorted time
Our minds caught in the trappings
Memory in shatters
Come on down, I'll show you the bones
Chelsea Flowers went on strike
Picket in a pattern
It grew into a party
Where all the music met up
All one-day flowers and flies
They get more for their memory
A colour in Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1086646884473513492002-08-23T23:20:00.000+01:002004-06-07T23:21:24.610+01:00Holding an upside-down red crossA dream I had and actually wrote down ... (last time I wrote a dream down I dreamt it, as a false awakening).
I am with the people from work, in a building owned by the boss Jayne, and there's a garage, a garden, it's indiscriminate, but I am fishing. I catch a couple of fish. I am talking to Jon from work about how many points I get for Nemo - a band of our Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1086646694270054682002-08-20T18:19:00.000+01:002004-06-07T23:18:14.270+01:00A Stuck wheelThis is brief. My new job has begun, with an overhaul of the fridge and microwave systems. It's been cleaning and lumping and mailing and filing, although I did get some of my text used in an invite to PR agencies to a new awards ceremony coming up in September. I like them here, they are a cool bunch.
I've been eating well, but drunk for a while. Friday, last day, with Aspect and Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1086646300740108752002-08-13T23:09:00.000+01:002004-06-07T23:11:40.740+01:00This kidnapping has been brought to you by...It's been the slowest of months, not limping, but long-distance pace for a long-distance race. It's down to me considering closer how my time is spent, at that time.
Aspect has had another trim: eight people went yesterday, including the useless, the popular, and a director. Two of them, who I've worked very closely with for over two years, are onlineNeilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1086646091209217402002-08-08T23:05:00.000+01:002004-06-07T23:08:11.210+01:00It's a shame about the word clusteringIan arrives in Heathrow from the Philippines early on Monday. I have the day off work, my first in many months - it's my last week anyway. Ian reads this, not many do. I try not to write for anyone. I'm apprehensive about him coming, as I know he is.
The company I work for, The Aspect Group, a rather topheavy software / internet company, is struggling. A Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1086645858171275202002-08-07T11:03:00.000+01:002004-06-07T23:04:18.170+01:00World Wide WhimThe roof of my mouth has been badly blistered by a too-early slurp of coffee. I selected 2 bananas from the stall this morning, in the process breaking the tops off them both. Our house is covered in workman's dust, and the toilet has a load of their silt at the bottom of it. Given we live in such an earmarked area - central Kings Cross - it's hard to tell exactly what their Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1086645745938628782002-08-05T10:56:00.000+01:002004-06-07T23:02:25.936+01:00Fags with FlagsI've gone down (up?) two notches on my bent-up belt, but it digs in. I've lost my work trousers. That's a real puzzle, that one. We have Mark and Jane from the pop combo Motormark staying with us at the moment. I saw he'd tried to sneak his washing in with mine. Maybe he took a fancy to my scratchy trousers as well.
I went on friday to changeable Brighton, to meet up with my old Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-108664521722301152002-08-02T22:50:00.000+01:002004-06-07T22:53:37.223+01:00Described in terms of the economyThis makes me laugh - positive reviews for a shit program that puts a "trojan" on your machine (not sure what that is) - all plainly written by employees of the development company. Invest now!. Click on view only negative reviews. "If bad was good, and good was bad, this would be an excellent grab".
I spotted some fallen leaves this morning. It'll probably be Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1086644848979932872002-07-31T20:45:00.000+01:002004-06-07T22:49:26.850+01:00Sleeping patternI've really got to get a fucking mattress, blowing up an airbed and sinking by morning is not condusive...
Oh I'm having a gross conversation about masturbation with Ian's boyfriend. I nearly shivered. He was saying how do I deal with it - his boyfriend has just gone away. I'm sure my empty set don't want to know the details.
I'll say this. I decided a few months back that I Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1086644682877141792002-07-29T15:44:00.000+01:002004-06-07T22:44:42.876+01:00Corporatewealth GamesI'm so sweaty, tired, so confused.
Driven all over this weekend. Bolton, Trafford, M1, M6, trains fucked around after Will and I drove back to Hendon from Manchester last night. I didn't get home 'till 2.
My ankle's still pretty sore, after wednesday's football. I need to do sport at least 3 times a week, or I'm never gonna lose any weight. But I can't put my weight on itNeilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1086644437667279862002-07-24T22:39:00.000+01:002004-06-07T22:40:37.666+01:00What's he building in there?I have no points. No gripes. No breakfast beyond bananas. No salesman have called for me yet this morning, and my favourite tie is on. Dreamt I had a joint and I felt guilty and pointless.
I'm listening to Flipron, who are our friends and playing the Smelly Ball as ever. Get some tracks!
Man squash makes you sweat! I didn't play for all that long, but I was a mess Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1086644284272378232002-07-23T17:35:00.000+01:002004-06-08T11:07:10.876+01:00SquashWant to remind myself to look again at the profile of GoldSoundz on the rather embarrassingly titled makeoutclub.com.
Someone interviewed on the BBC news site, regarding the criminal threats of a new airport at Cliffe.
"Peat tends to explode every so often - I'd like to see what that would do to their concrete runways"
It sounds like the countryside mafia.
I've had another day close Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1086643922444181762002-07-17T22:30:00.000+01:002004-06-07T22:32:02.946+01:00The Advertiser's DreamAnother 'went to see' entry, but this time a little more exciting - I went to see my niece!
She's called Katie Jayne, 3 days or so old, and keeping Emma and Paul very very tired indeed. I had a polaroid camera - I thought the pictures were for me - but they were for people from my mum's work! I'm going to have them sent through though and I'll put them here.
I'm tired Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1086643368925388552002-07-16T14:20:00.000+01:002004-06-07T22:25:31.946+01:00Architecture TinctureWent to see my flatmate Caroline's band deletia last night - good but they've been funnier. In a tiny toilet, a literal converted underground toilet in Whitechapel.
RANT - of course I've been saying for a while (not here) that this country is going to the wall - the government keep making strange announcements which they renounce, and the public sector is rightly about to Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1086642688426954192002-07-08T15:10:00.000+01:002004-06-07T22:28:29.780+01:00ChoosynewsRicky, Will, Dan and I went to see 'Minority Report' last night. It was very well paced for a two and a half hour story. There are three government adopted cokebaby-style sages who lie in a tank and think horrible thoughts of near-future crime. A minority report is where one of them posts a different reading on the future, and it gets disregarded by all but the best (Cruise).
I'd Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1086642465059539962002-07-03T06:00:00.000+01:002004-06-07T22:27:46.016+01:00PoemBehind the light
In a fiction capsule
Blown out details in a hot spray.
We were words
Drawn on eachother
Stunt sentences Neilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206553.post-1086642379928405952002-07-01T06:00:00.000+01:002004-06-07T22:26:39.256+01:00I'm losing my toenailRicky my friend just got a really good review for his 'Secret Songs' CD in the magazine 'It comes with a smile'. I played on a couple of songs - bullied into the notes. A really violent caralarm just started directly outside.
I'm pleased for him. They're great tunes and well recorded by his brother Rob. The struggle to actually justify my belief in myself as a musician goesNeilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07289430988512710715noreply@blogger.com0