Music Appreciation

DRAGON!!! One of the classic sounds of my childhood. Always remember hearing these songs, but never quite sure where. . . I guess they must have pervaded my upbringing in a subtle way.
April sun in Cuba

Are you old enough

Rain

Still in love with you

This is not justice

Steven Gerrard escapes conviction for assualt despite knocking a man's tooth out in a bar scrap, without actually being the recipient of any violence himself!

I am in disbelief that Gerrard can get away with this. Accroding to the BBC,

"Mr Gerrard told the court he had been trying to ask Mr McGee why he had a problem with him when the businessman "very quickly" got off his bar stool. He said he "firmly believed" he was about to be punched, and swung out in self-defence."

Since when did self-defence include a pre-emptive strike? This is a crazy verdict that should be appealed. Simply 'firmly-believing' that you are about to be struck DOES NOT constitute a moral (or legal) excuse for striking out. Gerrard assualted this guy. Plain and simple.

Music Appreciation

This is what you’re missing. All you hip kids and your jiggidy wiggidy dance music. Get some Lawrence Welk in you. Listen to the poppy little flute stabs. The awful script reading of the MC (albeit for a good cause).
Sneaky little dance with one of the hussies at 1:49....
And next week there will be an internationally recognised make-up artist on. Thrilling.


This track is almost funky – dig the “aw-hahs”...

Reasons why.

Reasons why you shouldn't ignore tooth pain.

REASON #1:
£1000.

Ifill to the Phoenix

It's now official that Paul Ifill has signed for the Wellington Phoenix. His signing has laready created quite a lot of conversation on the yellow-fever website. Welcome to Wellington Paul. Hope the injuries don't flare up, so that you can score some goals.

It's a war..

The British press have recently built, manned and fitted out a precious new bandwagon. The band plays to the tune of incredulity over the number of British solders killed in Afghanistan. Almost every day, one of the media outlets has to remind us of the 'current' total. Now, I agree that the loss of any soldier is a tragedy, as is the loss of any life. Particularly for the family of the soldier, death in combat is a painful burden borne by humans since we started making knives and spears.

However, the recent media coverage of Afghanistan seems to have ignored one or two key facts:

1. People die in a war. That's pretty much what happens. One bunch of people runs around trying to kill the other bunch of people. Why the surprise?

2. Afghani/Taliban soldiers are being killed too. What's the ratio of British deaths to enemy deaths? The numbers may actually suggest that the British/American forces are successfully controlling the battlefields. Is this not a military victory? Why is it not being reported as such?

3. This one's for the Telegraph: British troops using American or Australian helicopters is not a scandal. It's called military cooperation. ....... Telegrpah journo's --> you're a bunch of dicks.

It's my opinion that the media are trying to create another Vietnam, by selectively reporting negative aspects of the Afghani conflict. I'm no promoter of war, but I am very cynical towards our media, and, I think, for good reason.

Rants and observations

Royal Mail staff to strike. Might actually improve the service, get the chaff out of the system for a few days.
I saw a guy shletering from the rain whilst our for a rain. everyone else, many not with raincoats or umbrellas walking unaffected past him. What sort of a weekender sits out the rain whilst running? My colleague noted it's like people who get out of the pool once it starts to rain.
I can't wait for a "dislike" button on facebook. Many more opportunities to be rude to people! Especially the cheesy 'worship' pictures that have started populating many people's profiles of late.
Judge for yourself on this one .
Internetmonk has a new format. Continued good reading.
z.electric are probably going to announce some more London shows in the next few weeks. Keep your eye on the facebook page and the myspace page.

N1H1, H1N1, and why the media still suck

Turning to one media outlet to criticise the media has it's own ironic hypocrisy, however, I shall do it nontheless. The BBC have printed a short article on some of the perceived "over-reaction" to the swine-flu virus. Of note is the following quote:

"The virologist John Oxford, for instance, was berated on BBC Radio 4's Today programme by columnist Simon Jenkins for describing a swine flu "Armageddon". He replied that he had been asked by a journalist to speculate on an Armageddon scenario - which is what he did."

This is one of my classic hates with journalists. They ask an 'expert' to speculate on an extreme or unlikely scenario, then sit back and watch their readers get all 'up in arms' at the expert, based on their selective quotations. This is one reason I never trust the quotes I read in newspapers. Not becasue the quotes aren't accuarte, but because they are non-contextual. Journlaists should provide links to their full interview transcripts. It's the surest way around this abuse of power.