ouch

So, the deal is beat Chelsea, beat Barcelona and then beat Man U to win the Champions league. Sorry, but it is not going to happen. The red scum have had the luck of the draw, and the easy ride should help them win the Premiership too. Bastards.

That is what we pay our license fee for!

Even if it was actually on Sky. Manchester United 1 - Liverpool 4.
Coming 4 days after Liverpool 4 - Real Madrid 0, it was a good week.
Still United's Premiership to lose, but there was a joy in it anyway.

Now all I am hoping for is to avoid the other English teams in the Champion's league until the final. My ideal would be Man U vs Chelsea with the winners to play Arsenal or Barcelona. Unlikely, but as likely as any other combination. Just not Chelsea in the semis again please.

free album from 4ad

Can't say fairer than that.

Sometimes you can't win

The 1-1 draw with Everton in the cup was nowhere near as painful as the draw in the Premiership, but still not good. But being realistic this is a match where there is no good result - winning would not have got us 3 points, or made up for dropping 2 in the league. Losing is never good. A draw is the worst of all worlds - with a match we really don't want.

Following football really is a pastime for masochists. As a friend said, you should try supporting Swindon.

The moment we lost the Premiership

85 minutes into the derby game with Everton, 1-nil up, and we take off Torres and put on Lucas. Lucas! Not Mascherano. Lucas! Inevitably he ran around like a headless chicken, giving away pointless fouls and not touching the ball. Also inevitably 2 minutes later Everton equalised. And thus ended our challenge for the Premiership. Still it was a lot later than usual.

And yes we are still 2nd, but with the filth a game in hand and ahead on goal difference we are in the ackward position of having to beat Chelsea in the next match just to stay in touch. What would normally be seen as a good result (a draw) will probably mean that the filth go from 8 points behind us to 5 points ahead of us in 3 weeks. And that, my friends, is the sound of the Fat Fergie crowing...

January gym bunnies

Good intentions and new year's resolutions mean that the gym is full of people trying to reverse the ravages of time. Including me. But it is so hard to get motivated when you can't get parked.

This level of drive and determination is why I need to lose 20kg!

It's 2009

So this decade is already on it's last legs. Where did it all go? Nearly 20 years since Kurt Cobain killed himself, more than 30 since punk, and 20 since the Mighty Reds won the league. Funny where the time goes.

Meanwhile, I can hardly bear to think about our chances of winning the Premiership. The longer we stay at the top, the harder it will be to take if we don't win. It is hard to realise that we actually do have more points - that the opposition don't have games in hand. So what I am hoping for this weekend is a 0-0 draw between Chelski and the scum with 3 sendings off per side. It could happen!

Lolpolarbear

more animals

Let it snow...

Very Christmassy round here with 4 inches of snow. So, now is the time we discover that the Purple People Carrier has a flashing light to tell you that it is skidding. It was on and off like a strobe at a disco. The Breadcrumbs were severely disappointed to still be going to school, but did manage to make a snowman in their pyjamas. Why it wasn't in the garden I'll never know (thank you Groucho). And of course to fall out over snowballs in the ears. It must be nearly Christmas!

you can get what you want and still not be happy

A great lesson in life.
The mighty Reds are top of the Premiership, and a point clear. And still I feel disappointed we didn't beat West Ham but drew 0-0.
It is going to be a tough old season.

Oh the Huge Manatee...

I laughed like a drain...
click here for dirigible fun...

http://www.drgblz.com/

I have a bad feeling about this...

Denial is just a river in Egypt, and I am sitting on its banks to prove that point.
Meanwhile, half a world away, the USA votes. The media are already acclaiming President Saint Obama. I hope that they are right, but I am worried. Nothing against the guy, but I suspect that the gloss will soon come off and the media will quickly turn on him as a glossy liberal with no clear economic policy. Maybe not - I was wrong about Mandela.

Also meanwhile, the Mighty Reds are playing up a storm while I am out of the way and my season ticket ticks down. Having seen the highlights of the defeat at Spurs I am somewhat mollified - we did hit the post 3 times. Sometimes the ball just does not want to go in. Still too early to talk of winning anything - not the Liverpool way -be it is nice to still be in the race come November.

The Truth

One thing that really ticks me off is having to sit through the anti-piracy videos on DVDs. I mean I bought the effing thing, so I am not the person they should be lecturing.

XKCD have it nailed.... http://xkcd.com/488/

A huge sucking sound

So apparently our entire economy is broken. In fact the whole of global capitalism is broken. And according to David Cameron, it is all Gordon Brown's fault. I don't know how long that line of argument can hold when the people with the biggest problem appear to be in Iceland - and I hadn't noticed us taking control of Iceland recently.

Meanwhile, the Mighty Reds continue to perform better than expected. I don't like to even mention it in case I jinx something. Got to give kudos to Hull City though - even if they go down eventually it is a major achievement to be 3rd after 7 games and to have beaten Arsenal and Spurs away from home. Go Tigers (but please remember to lose at Anfield).

When Saturday comes

At last we beat the Scum. Sorry to be so pathetically crowing about one victory, but the relief is fantastic. At the match we didn't sing to celebrate we just roared. And roared. And roared.

When Man Utd scored after 3 minutes I thought we were going to get pasted. And we were very lucky to get the equaliser. And another referee might have thought that Robbie Keane was interfering with play by standing on the goal line for the winner. But then again, we all thought Vidic should have been sent off for his tackle on Keane, rather than his elbow on Alonso.

And anyway, it is over now. And we can move on. But without a particular monkey on our backs. No, we are not a better team than them - but at least we have regained some pride.

Onwards and upwards...

PS I am finally begining to feel that it is late enough in the year for the football season to have started.

Beijing 2008

I miss the Olympics. It was great to wake up every morning and have some wonderful sport to catch up on. It is just too early for football - even if the mighty Reds were briefly top of the Premiership. I haven't given up on there being a summer yet - I can't think about football.

But tonight LFC have the first of their "make or break" games of the season to determine whether we get into the knockout stages of the Champions League. The team have been playing like they think it is too early too, so I hope that they come through.

Bolt was amazing - I watched his heats in the 100m in Schipol, and had to say to a colleague "he's fucking jogging!". It all seemed so easy for him. Wonderful stuff.
Asafa Powell must have been gutted.

More statements of the Bleeding obvious

I'm slowly watching the New Final Honest Really the Last We Mean it Version of Blade Runner. And it is good. Really good. This is a film I thought I knew and loved, but when I think about it I had not watched it in a decade. I have an old DVD kicking about somewhere, but it didn't do much for me. The new version is just so beautiful. And slow. And opaque - they don't explain much early on; it just starts.

Hardly an original thought I know, but it is good.

Peggy Sue still lives

Quite marvelous really. I was just listening to Buddy Holly through the random wonders of i-tunes when it occured to me that the person the song is named for (but was not originally written for) is still alive. The 50s seem impossibly far off and far away, as if they only ever happened in the movies (and in America). But in human terms they are close enough that millions of people still around lived through them, and are not even particularly old. I mean 70 is old, but nowadays not that old, and that would make you 18 in 1956 - old enough to get Elvis. My 60 year old sister (and that is quite a thought) saw the Beatles.

Some of the old Blues guys currently touring are being feted more for being alive than what they actually do, but it is quite a thought that there are musicians around who played with Robert Johnson.

Perceptions

No matter how bad was for you yesterday, it was worse for John Terry and Nicolas Anelka. Missing penalties in the European Cup final must be gutting. Particularly for Terry, who should have won it but his foot slipped.

How quickly the story changes - Ronaldo would have been the villan despite his wonderful season for missing his penalty with one bit of trickery too far. Instead his story is of success and not falling at the final fence.

As Kipling said, those twin imposters...

and that's the season

So, we lost to Chelsea, and that's the season over. I could hardly watch, but realistically we were not up to the job. Riise's own goal ended up being too much of a blow. When we had the upperhand we didn't push, and Drogba beat us. That is why he is so annoying - that is what he can do if he doesn't fall over all the time.


Now in Egypt with the world's most expensive internet connection...

drawing to an end

The season is now just about finished. We are safe in the 4th Champions league spot. So, it is a question of whether there are 3 more games this season or 4. After the gut renching disappointment of Riise's owngoal in the 95th minute, my hope is beginning to drag itself off the floor. Realistically though, we need to score at a ground where we have not scored for years, and where we usually get a drubbing. The Champions league magic will have to be especially strong, especially as Chelsea are on a high after beating Man Utd. Realistically we stand no chance. The only positive thing is that because we have to score it is not a problem if they score first. Oddly, them scoring the first goal changes little.
Now is the time for Torres to pay back his transfer fee.

Oddly enough if Man Utd get through against Barcalona I would feel better about losing to Chelski - better them than the scum.

Meanwhile I feel shattered - run over by a truck. I need a break. Only another 3 weeks and I can have one. By which time the season will really be over.

Well that sucked

So I stayed up until late to watch the mighty Reds overwhelm Chelski, and then throw it all away in the fifth minute of extra time. 1-1. Still all to play for, I guess, but realistically it looks like Chelski will be in Moscow. The luck is with them.

Retro

So, I am officially getting old and stopping listening to new music. As witnessed by the fact that my favourite listening at the moment is those radical new acts Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell. Still, occasionally I listen to the Byrds.

Ho hum. Senility cannot be far away.

Tomorrow is the next big day - the Mighty Reds vs Chelski. Again. I don't know how to feel. Dread and hope combine to neutralise me.

That's all for this season...

Thanks to a dull victory over Fulham we are 1 point or one Everton slip up from 4th place in the Premiership, and our ticket to the Champions league next year. Of course the better way is to win old big ears again - but first it is the Threepeat. Chelsea again. Oh, my nervous tummy. What would be best - winning it a 6th time. Which would be worse - losing to Chelsea or Man U? Please let Barcelona have a sudden burst of quality.

Now in my second home - a hotel in the UAE - surrounded by the minor luxuries of a new disposal keyboard and speakers. With a 1 pound copy of the Animatrix to watch when I have a moment. Life, but not as we know it Jim.

Tender Evaluation

At the moment I am taking a break from a massive tender evaluation programme - 15 lots, and 94 companies bidding for multiple lots. As a process it will take the rest of April.

When I am writing proposals, it is easy to forget what is going to happen to them when they are opened. In particular it is easy to remember how long it takes to write the proposal, and not to think about how long it takes to properly interpret them.

The companies in this process are no doubt eager to know whether they have been successful, and where they can improve if not. They should be reassured that this is being done thoroughly and with all due consideration - but it takes considerable time.

It does remind me though that effort put into presentation is valuable - as is reading the brief, and answering the questions asked. Obvious, but true.

too busy

But that brings in the pennies. Another day another dollar etc.

And of course it means no time to talk about our dismal failure at the home of the scum again - even if the referee was a liability. Mascherano was sent off for dissent because Ashley Cole was not 4 days before. Which is hardly the way to make the point about dissent.

Still, the Toffees and then 3 matches against Arsenal which define both our seasons. I would be happy to take the Champions league quarter final, and not the Premiership match. But realistically both of us need all 3. Beginning to look like Man U's season.

Next

Internazionale tumble to the mighty Reds, or at least the combination of 2 soft sendings off, and the mighty Fernando Torres.
So the season continues - at least until the draw on Friday. Never happy, us football fans. Though the season has picked up oddly after Barnsley beat Chelsea, and it became the year when "the big 4" didn't win the FA Cup. Somehow that helped deal with them putting us out in the earlier round.

Meanwhile... here are the countries I have visited. Still a lot to go.


create your own visited country map
or check our Venice travel guide

snow again

Which is a funny reminder that winter still has a last blow.
Well the might reds have squeaked past Inter 2-0, Middlesbrough 3-2, Bolton 1-3 and apparently the season now comes down to beating West Ham and Newcastle and avoiding defeat to Inter. Here's hoping.

Has to be said that Torres is a God. He singlehandedly destroyed Boro. Though it has to be said that recently I have wondered if we were actually paying the opposition to gift us goals.

I strongly recommend Melvin Bragg's In our Time on Radio 4. How many people can say that?

skiing...

...is rather good fun. Next week on statements of the bleeding obvious we will be saying that some middle aged men like golf.

Anyway, I go away for a while and Liverpool have fallen apart like Northern Rock - there is still something there but goodness things are not going well.

But as I write, we have just taken the lead against Internazionale...

More statements of the bleeding obvious

The new Radiohead album is very good. And so are Sigur Ros.

Next time on statements of the bleeding obvious, George W Bush is a controversial president, and Gordon Brown is rather dour...

Oh, and The Ghost by Robert Harris is excellent. More than that, brilliant. And short. I even forgive him for not writing another Cicero book.

On a tangent, I met Kirsty McGee working reception at an expensive and trendy office complex. She like los bros Hernandez, and is a rather good singer/songwriter in the Michelle Shocked mode. Click on the link and see...www.kirstymcgee.com

All of which I only know because the people I was seeing were an hour late. I mean, it is not as if I had driven 50 miles to see them.

reconnected

As I was saying... it is the time of year when we seem to reconnect with people. The aftershocks of Christmas cards unexpected, or reminders that a whole year (or more) has passed.

It lead to a party where we all seemed older, more mellow and more settled. Which probably means we don't have the thrusting vibrant hopes of earlier years. So we can afford to be more generous with each other and the world around us. If a little dissapointed that we were not in fact going to set the world ablaze.

Of course it can still all turn out badly, even if the upside now seems to be keeping what we have. A couple of friends have lost their marrriages when they retired and their partners realised that they didn't actually want them in their lives. And a couple more have remarried to Russian partners - which will have interesting consequences in the years to come.

Our lives move on, but even the drama seems so undramatic compared to our teens when a look, a glance, a word could be the whole world.

It is only fair to point out that Tesco have now paid up for bashing the PPC. Only 13 months after the incident. Or collision, because accident means there is no one to blame... (Hot Fuzz - great movie).

Looks like I was right about our season - off to see the mighty reds vs wimpy Wigan, and if we don't win then Rafa may be for the chop. So, all we have to do to save the season is beat Internazionale. Easy stuff. Next!

another year

Welcome to 2008. Sounds like the future to me.

Finally watched the last few episodes of Battlestar Galactica Series 3. Great stuff. Great.
Makes me hate Richard Branson for denying me it in May 07. Bastard. Virgin Media are still rubbish, and still have an almost total lack of HD programmes - as well of course as high fees, and no Sky ONE. Bastards.

I would willingly switcht to SKY, if they and BT did not want to charge me so much for the privilige of buying from them. £150 for a new phone line, plus £300 for a new HD box, plus installation. I mean, I would like to - but that is going to be £500. Somewhat cheaper to bitch about it and wait for the box sets. Bastards.

That was the season that was

So, Merry Christmas. The Premiership is gone with the loss to MU, the League cup with the loss to Chelsea. And now we have Inter, run away leaders of the Italian League. So, that's the season gone right there.


So, here's to 2008/9

Happy new year.

Hey, I missed November

Listening to Central Reservation, Beth Orton.

I appear to have missed out November. First time. Says something about my month. And now 2 in a day.

Click on the Link - I find it rather romantic.

Outside it's Blade Runner

For what seems no good reason I find myself in Kuala Lumpur. It is night and raining. And indeed, it appears to be Blade Runner. Ok, there are no flyers and I have not actually seen Deckard hunting replicants, but apart from that this is it exactly. Constant warm rain, glowing neon, a sky the colour of tv tuned to a dead channel, mixed English and Asian languages, every nationality under the sun. Or rather the rain.

The future is now - just not evenly distributed.

The fusion of William Gibson and Blade Runner reminds me that WG had to leave the cinema when watching the film because he was seeing the Neuromancer in his head on the screen. And somehow they merge in the real world.

Rust never sleeps

But insurance claims do seem to. We are nearing the anniversary of when a well known supermarket (begins with T, ends with Esco) dropped off the weekly shop and drove off with a cheery wave, taking out the side of the purple people carrier on the way. The first I knew about this was when a passing motorist rang the doorbell and asked "is that your PPC that Tesco have just hit?" Unluckily for me I did not take her details. Luckily for me another guy stopped and gave me his, and offered to be a witness.

Insurance paid up apart from my excess, and promised to repay that when they got the money back. We are now getting ready to go to court. Court! What a ridiculous thing. The delivery guy says there was no accident, and so both sides are merrily running up legal bills and threatening to waste court time.

Well I was always interested in legal proceedings. Looks like I will get to see them up close.

Gagarin

Yuri Gagarin appears to be in fact film critic Mark Kermode.


Whilst this would explain why Mark's hairstyle is more appropriate to the 50's, it does beg the question of why he has not aged. Obviously, he is some kind of Soviet super soldier, a la Steve Rodgers, better known as Captain America. Well, known to some anyhow. And thus the hidden conspiricies in the world are laid bare.





Don't rush to thank me.

I remember the future

Today is the 50th Anniversary of Sputnik 1. And the breadcrumbs have never known a man on the moon. I imagined a different future.

There were only just over 50 years from the Wright Brothers to space, and only 12 from the first satellite to man walking on the moon. There has been little progress since. The X-prize may have stimulated interest in private enterprise launching space flights, but in reality these are sub-orbital hops. Not the real thing. I suspect, but hope I am wrong, that interest will die quickly when the routine flights start.

It is a long way to the moon. We don't think about it. Colleagues asked me to help them with a plan to "walk to the moon" to improve fitness. It is difficult to explain that all the interesting stuff happens in the first 10 miles, and then there is more or less nothing to report for a quarter of a million (we can ignore a few Lagrange points). We live in the layer of paint and varnish on a globe. The highest mountain is only 8 miles high, on a planet that is near enough 4 000 miles in diameter. A mere bobble. Space starts in earnest after 100miles. Still insignificant really.

Space is hard. But when I was growing up I thought we would be doing better than this. Here's to Laika, and Gagarin, and Ed White, and Neil Armstrong. And the first man on Mars. I wonder if he is even born yet.

Bat cheez burger

Thank mightgodking, not me.

Is that assigning credit, or blame?

TV now broken. Of course it is. It is 14 months old, and therefore 2 months out of warranty. That is actually quite reasonable. I mean who expects an £800 tv to last?

It then took me until 9pm to make the digibox work with the spare tv. Of course if I had RTFM it might not have taken that long. All I had to do was press reset, hold down the pause and stop buttons, then press FF until I selected SD not HDrni. Obvious really. Can you read the sarcasm?

The best bit is that seeing the 17" replacing the 37", Kid A asked "did you shrink the tv?" Almost made the whole thing worthwhile.

win some lose some

So, the roof leaks and damages the house. Both will cost £800 to fix. The insurance will pay one, but not the other. Not much choice is there?

TV

Mrs Breadcrumb has been away from home earning a crust. What splendid timing, since it co-incides with the Mighty Reds crushing Reading in the League Cup, and a number of excellent documentaries.

Torres is really looking the part. There was a coolness in his hattrick against Reading that just made you feel he could not miss. He is a class apart, and I can feel a Reds hero in development. Nothing against Crouch or Kuyt, but not since Owen have we had striker you feel is going to score. And terrorises defenders.

On tv as well as a Factory documentary (the history of Factory is the nearest thing I would have to a Mastermind subject) there have been some interesting comics documentaries. In search of Steve Ditko was not really illuminating (mainly because he refuses to talk), and Comics Brittania though interesting wasn't that exciting. In search of Mobius was great though. For the first time I could really see the Moebius contribution to Alien. The art is still so fantastic, though it appears that Giraud himself is less fabulous. He himself says that everything is second to his art. Lots of people applauded his genius - none called themselves his friend.

Winter Blues

I am sure that the reason I am so down is because of the change of the seasons, and not because we have run out of money (again), there is a hole in the roof, and I have no work coming in. That would be just crazy talk.

And of course I am fat, which doesn't help. Though apparently I lost 2 kg over the week, I gained 6 kg over the summer. This should help protect me through the winter when the heating is cut off and rain pours in through the roof. So, a bright side, eh?

Bill Bailey Kraftwerk spoof Das Hokey Cokey

You can't argue, can you?

Things fall apart

One of those days. Lost my laptop power cable. Remote for the car doesn't work. They days when everything electric is cursed.
Of course this is all really just because I have just found out that I have put on 5 kg during the summer. Suddenly the folds of fat feel obvious around my midrift. So, for 30 seconds or so I am dedicated to fighting the flab and cutting down on the chocolate, and stepping up the exercise.

But no doubt only for 30 seconds.

I think I would be happy to replace an addition to exercise for several of my other additions.

A cunning plan

Apparently it is a year since Steve Irwin was offed by a "stingray". Now Steve Fossett is "missing" in the Nevada desert? Coincidence? I think not. Obviously there is a serial killer on the loose intent on murdering adventurers called Steve. Now if only we could work out why this particular day is so important.

Celebrity Politics

Last night we voted for a pop star (well, technically a drummer) to be put forward as a candidate to be our local MP. Not sure what this actually says about the democratic process. But at least I am participating. 28 candidates, and 5 or 6 have gone through to the next phase. The rules say that we have to have one women and one BME candidate out of our 3 nominations - in practice the two best candidates (for entirely different reasons) were both white males who don't live in the area. Isn't democracy funny? Meanwhile our previous MP who lost his seat when I moved here, is about to stand as a candidate in my home constituency. Small world. Good news was there were was a reasonable number of people attending the selection meeting - about the same as the number of candidates. In such a way do we contribute to the global democracy - from village halls to number 10. It is a vanishingly small number of people who bestirr themselves to get involved. Imperfect though it is, if you don't get involved you really don't have much say.

Silly Season

A bit of warmth, but an autumn wind in the air. It is still the silly season for news though. Last night's 10 o'clock news had a feature on how there is still peace in Northern Ireland. Good news, but a bit of a sign that not a lot else is happening.

The Mighty Reds, having disposed of Toulouse in old Big Ears, have got Porto, Marseille and Beskitas. Could have been worse. But realistically you would expect the top seeds to get through. Given that that is the 4 English clubs, the 2 Milans and Real and Barca, I can see how UEFA are beginning to think the system needs a shake up.

Jim Shooter going back to LoSH? That would be news (for about a thousand of us worldwide).

Version

Stop me if you think that you've heard this one before. Can't get it out of my head. Like the Go! Team I am thinking of it as a form of brain cancer, when it is just a very sucessful meme.
Back to work, and soon the breadcrumbs will be back at school. Time for the Boo Radleys - "summers gone..."

The boy who cried at Happy Birthday

A refugee from About a boy was at the Breadcrumb's birthday party. He had a handmade jumper, hand made cards and present, and cried at loud noises. He was a vegetarian. Poor lamb - a world of pain awaits. The world of children, who are cruel and relentless.

Other than that a success. Though the divisions between the kids from the schemes and the kids from the middle classes grow bigger by the day. As do the number of single parents. We fit in and don't fit in with all of them.

Breadcrumb Day

Do you mean you don't celebrate Breadcrumb Day?

One more year and they can say "now we are 6".

You are old father time

The breadcrumbs reach 5 tomorrow, but we are holding back celebrations till Thursday. Luckily they are still too young to realise that they are being conned.

As was referee Rob Stiles on Sunday when he gave Chelsea a penalty at Anfield for Malouda throwing himself at Steve Finnan. At least he has apologised, but a probable win has been turned into a disappointing draw.

I was not there because I was learning valuable life lessons at Centre Parcs. The first of these is that the breadcrumbs are heavy, and the second is that I am not a golfer. My first ever driving practice left the shed peppered with dents, and the driving range miraculously untroubled by golf balls. It was a laugh though. And now I ache, ache, ache. All over.

Slow learner/Partition

Having discovered Portishead about a decade later, I would now like to go even further back and finally declare Loveless by My Bloody Valentine one of the great albums of all time. I've always loved Soon, but I think that I was resentful of them damaging my hearing on the Rollercoaster tour (Mary chain, MBV, Dinosaur Jnr and Blur. Yes, that Blur). 1 minute of pure noise is a cleanser for the palatte. 10 minutes is industrial noise damage. Anyway, thanks to the randomness of I-tunes I have been getting odd blasts of MBV which then carve permanent tracks into my brain. Listening to the whole thing at fuck off stupid noise it just works. Next I will be declaring my love for Wire, and going back to 1977 to start all over. (Can you spot the link pop pickers?

Changing tracks disconcertingly, watched a programme on the Partition of India. God, what a sad affair. The saddest thing was watching an old Sikh talking about his father and uncle beheading all the women in the family because of the risk of them being captured and raped by Muslims. How unspeakable. And apparently carried out in silence, with the women co-operating. The Father started with his own daughter. Makes you wonder about the human race. The one bright bit was a Hindi refugee from Lahore, who rather than blaming the Muslims, blamed Hindus for mistreating them in the first place leading to them wanting their own country. But Pakistan was forged in blood, and not got much happier since. Religion is a blight on the face of the planet. Human beings just can't get the "love one another" bit, and use it as an excuse for killing. And killing in revenge. And then killing because they killed us.

Thank God I am an atheist.

AHW RIP

Anthony H Wilson, late of Factory records, is now late. And Manchester is the lesser for it.


He changed my life by showing me the Sex Pistols, and then signing Joy Division. I never made it to the Hacienda - too shy. Which sounds oddly like Morrisey.


So now that generation is passing or gone - Wilson, Curtis, Hannett and Gretton. Odd firm of accountants. Never good with money. Or rather, never good at keeping it. Tony Wilson's obiturary should probably be that Factory record's HQ had the first Zinc roof in Manchester. But you could only see it from a helicopter. Sums it all up.
I can't explain but it is very Manchester.



Last night I heard an acoustic version of Love will Tear us Apart on Grey's anatomy, the No.1 show in the USA. I still can't understand why either Joy Division where not huge in 1980, or seem to have become so now. A Velvet Underground for a different generation.

Mindless

Group of asian youths went along the street and kicked in all the driver's side mirrors at 2:10am. Pointles, mindless and expensive for me, my asian neighbour, my 90 year old neighbour, my single mother neighbour and at least one other (don't know whose car it is).

Not a good start to the day.

Like a Motorway

One of my favourite tracks ever - a remix of Like a Motorway by St. Etienne. Not really my cup of tea at all. What it reminds me of is a drunken night in Belgium with a group of friends where we dramatically overestimated the number of limes needed for Margharitas, and emptied the local supermarket. Weended up drinking Tequilla until we had finished the limes. The rest of the weekend is a bit of a blur to be honest - apart from a vision of six of us lying on one double bed watching MTV ambient at 4am. Sounds just like this track. Honest.

Meanwhile, in real life - why do I get a cold when the weather finally turns nice?

Fair Exchange

Be Bop Deluxe. The joy of i-tunes. This still summons up 1973 for me, and a battered 45 that I made a sleeve for out of a couple of adverts in the NME.
Also, still on the retro kick, finally watched the last 3 episodes of Angel. I find David Boreanez difficult to like, because he so obviously thinks that this is beneath him. The rest is just fantastic, and the sparring between Angel and Spike wonderful. I hadn't seen the Ilyria episodes, and so had not realised what an excellent actress Amy Acker is. Honestly. The Fred thing is not the limit of her abilities. And delightful to see Alec Baldwin again, even if he is basically playing Jane in a suit. Browncoats will understand.

Meanwhile, another payday has rolled around. Damn you George W Bush. Will you stop driving the dollar down? Some of us have to take them home to countries with real currencies.

Going over old ground

Am back in the land of the future present, where the world's tallest building is still taking shape. Curiously though, I am revisiting old DVD favourites. Ok, I know these things are self-evident but Farscape, Serenity and Buffy are really good. Honest.

So far failed to source dodgy bootleg Dr Who DVDs, so the breadcrumbs are looking at disappointment. Still at least they can have fun building Arks again. Blighty is sinking, and me, I live by the river... ok, no I don't.

So, being retro - here is Chriss Foss. The way the future used to look.

Philanthropy/Yellow Ribbon

Well, I'm going home as soon as I eat my tea, have a shower, finish this blog and pack. Easy for 35 minutes...

So, I was thinking. Mainly because of an articlein Psychology Today of 10 politically incorrect truths, that there is probably no such thing as philanthropy. We are all the same gene machines, and anything any of us does to save the planet will help our genes along too. So, every do-gooder is really selfish. Just pointing it out...

Life's great imponderables

Why does every allegedly international hotel have to have a coctail bar with some national signing songs they have learnt phoentically in an endlessly booming karoake of the damned?
What is wrong with silence? Or piped music? Or god forbid, something that might actually reflect where you are?

Meanwhile in my so called glamourous life, why is it so hard of hotels to sort out the internet connections that they charge us an arm and leg for?

But these are rich person's complaints, which are shown up as rather hollow when I read about the construction workers in Dubai earning 500dh per month. That is £70, or $140. Per month. And they send money home from that.

Punch up at the 7-11

Unkansas. So there I am at the check out, slowly losing the will to live, when these two guys come pushing and shoving up the steps to the door. Suddenly one lamps the other, who falls down, and follows it up with a kick to the groin. No mean feat on slippery steps. Then both parties run off into the night, while the youths on the steps beat a rhythm on the steps with bottles, showing that they could easily be broken into weapons. So what is the protocol for this?

I've been trying to avoid there being forever a corner of a foreign field that is forever an English pedestrian by obeying the crossing signals. But that does not save you from motherfuckers on motorbikes going the wrong way up 4 lane one way streets, with no lights, against the signals. I mean, what does?

I'm not really abroad, but in Crowne Plaza world. The third world is just around the corner, but in here we are in the first world. And beer is reassuringly expensive. For the hotel that is. For me it is just prohibitive.

Hijabs and hookers. More than one culture clash. But me I am in a cocoon.

Wake up Boo

Genetics is an odd thing. Junior Miss Breadcrumb naturally shares a genetic mix with Kid A. Sadly for all concerned, Kid A, Mrs Breadwinner and me are all predisposed to lying in late. Jnr Miss takes after her grandmother, and Mrs Breadwinner's sisters, and believes that the best of the day is done by 7am. This is going to be a drag for a long, long time. For all of us.

Funnily enough, Jnr miss realises that she takes after Gran - and told me that she looks like Gran. Kid A took himself off to look in a mirror, and announced that he looked like Uncle Simon.
Me and Mrs Breadwinner will be having words...

All but an ark lark

Day four on the Big Brother Ark. Noah is washing his hair. Shem, Ham and Japeth are feeding the animals. The Unicorns have decided to go for a swim...

Will it ever stop bloody raining? Ok, I know that this week combines Glastonbury with Wimbledon, but there is no cricket so it doesn't have to be torrential. What do you bet there is a hosepipe ban?

And the bloody Intertoto cup has started. Isn't there supposed to be a bit of the year with no real football?

Hits of Glastonbury: Arctic Monkeys, Go! Team, the Coral, Kaiser Chiefs.

But the Who were rubbish.

Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain.

Summer's gone

Well that didn't last long. No more heatwave. Now we are building Arks. And there is a Sheffield flood.
Luckily the holiday was last week, and went fine. Though I am having acid flashbacks about 7 foot tall Woodpeckers. And then I see the photos and discover they were real.

So, in dedicated work avoidance am busy buying old CDs on E-bay. Downloading is not killing the music business, but e-bay must be doing some damage. Why buy a new Tracey Thorn CD when you can buy some music hacks unwanted review copy (in a really nice limited edition sleeve) for £4. Including postage. Delivered to my door. Sure beats going to HMV.

Summer's here

How do I know? Reggae sounds good again.

And no I don't want to talk about the European cup final.

And so it begins

Well, couple of hours to the Champions League final. Time for optimism. Time for realism comes later. It will be great if we can do it, but the odds are against us.
Last time I was in my local pub - this time in a bar in a far away country. Time moves on.
I never actually thought we would ever again reach the final, let alone win it - let alone reach a second final in three years. A pretty good achievement in itself. Come on you Reds.

THE GO BETWEENS - Right Here

Oh, God. Watching this again, can somebody please tell me why the Go-Betweens weren't big as U2, or at least Grant a major solo star?

A year since Grant died, and still the rockstar I miss the most. Purely because now there will be no more songs.

Alone again, Or..

Alone again naturally
All by myself
Just like starting over
It takes too
Helterskelter
It's all over now
Who's sorry now?
With or without you
Pick yourself up, and start right over again.

So, back in business for myself. On me tod. By me sen.
Hey, ho, let's go.

A stitch in time

The wounds don't heal until you take the stitches out...
Mole has gone, but the wound remains.

You can revisit the past - but it sits nervously on the edge of the sofa, and never relaxes.
Why should it?

When does being cryptic become enigmatic? Or profound, even?
Oh, never mind.

Groundhog day

So, AC Milan vs. Liverpool FC, the rematch.
Looks like narrativium rules.

Gordon Bennet it was a tense evening against Chelsea. I didn't enjoy a minute of it until it was over. Seconds of it were quite good, but nothing lasting for 60 seconds or more.

I remember a Jasper Carrott sketch that started with him saying "I got a mole". Well I don't. Do have a lot of stitches and a big scar though.

tonight's the night

Chelsea vs. Liverpool - the rematch.
As they say in Star Wars, I have a bad feeling about this...

Thou shalt always kill

Warren Ellis thinks he was slow to this. I got it from his website. What does that make me?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-MYVv4tgQc

No, seriously. Dan le Sac vs. Scoobius Pip. I would say it was the bomb, but I think that is one of the thou shalt nots.

what were they thinking?

A wonderwomen strip taken from the blog of the above name.

Can tentacle sex be far behind?

I have a bad feeling about this...

So, the Mighty Reds are through to the Semis of the European Cup, where we will play.... (cue drumroll) ... Chelsea. Groundhog day. And this time it is personal.
What worries me more than the fact that they owe us one, and are actually a better team than us, is that if we lose it could set up another Man U vs Chelsea match. Possibly the third in 2 weeks which will deterimine who wins the Premiership, FA Cup and European Cup. Groundhog Day.
The universe's driving force ((C) T. Pratchett) is narrativium - which means a good story overrules everything else. It would be such a good story that I really don't think we have a chance of getting past Chelsea if Man Utd beat AC Milan.
Our only chance is for Milan to be the red scum, and then narrativium dictates that we will beat Chelsea and set up a repeat of Istanbul. But in Athens...
Groundhog day. You know it is true. You may not believe it, but you know it is true.

"It's deja vu all over again" - Yogi Berra

What a long strange journey it is...

25 years of Love and Rockets. We are both getting old. I remember reading these as they came out (and I could afford them) in a housing association flat with the first of the white cats. And I am re-reading Locas from the beginning.

Now, back to work...

The kids are alright

Indeed they are. I finally met with a selection of the often mentioned (and maligned) youth of today, and you know what? They are fine. Probably less spotty and more together than I was at their age.
Every generation thinks that their parents (and grandparents) were gods, and that they are the last civilised generation. Every generation is wrong. There were no golden ages. There will be no monsters raised entirely by Playstation 3.

You think we would learn...

For the dead

Music by Gene.
One of those times. Couple of people I heard about but didn't know have died young (ish). It happens every day, and one day most of the world will never know when it happens to you, me and everyone we know. Unless it is really out of the ordinary.

Love your family, love your friends, love everyone.
It is a short day in the sun.

to serve them all our days

Apparently, Russian fishermen have found a strange alien creature making squeeking noises ... and eaten it. Let's hope it does not have friends who come a looking. Unless of course they say, "It's ok - Fred did look sort of delicious", and don't follow it up with "and so do your children. Can I borrow some ketchup?".

http://english.pravda.ru/science/mysteries/07-02-2007/87167-alien_monster-0

In other news, Pravda is still going? In other, other news, there is a Russian Fark?

Picture is a New York grafitti artist. Nice isn't it?
Title is from Microdisney

Context is everything

Two matches, sucessive 0-1 defeats after outplaying our opponents. Two different reactions. Losing to the Scum was gutting, losing to Barca but still putting out the best team in the world completely different. The Scum should win the Premiership - they have the luck. We could easily have won three or four nil.
But now I am dreading the draw for the Champions League - I really want a foreign club, but it could be that 4 of the 7 are British (more realistically, forget Celtic).

Curiously Mrs Breadwinner is Barca for a few days trying to earn a shekel or two. Leaving me with the breadcrumbs and more work than I can manage. So, I'm not managing and mainly letting it wash over the top of me. Life is not helped by a kind of collective nervous breakdown by the family technology. Amongst the victims are the Purple People Carrier, the washing machine and at least one of the DVD players.

Don't get me started on the fucking Virgin/Sky debacle. Tonight I missed Battlestar Galactica for the first week. The fuckers are going to pay for that.

The short, sharp cut is healing nicely. Stitches out tomorrow.

out, out damn spot

So, a small vertical incision, and a biopsy. Do you think it will make me look hard? Maybe be some protection for when the Mighty Reds play the Scum tomorrow lunchtime. Or maybe a provocation. Who knows.

Meanwhile Virgin Media are denying me my Battlestar Galactica. To say the least I am pissed (in the American sense of the phrase). Where do they think they get off? "it was too expensive, so we decided to drop it and not pass the savings along to you..." Jeez. What a shower.

To quote the most excellent Ms Winehouse, what kind of Fuckery is this?

I feel like getting all Executioner one Richard Branson's ass. This is probably my favourite page in comics. Certainly top 5 along with Cerebus and the countess, The Death of Speedy and death of the Invisible Man in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and you are in here with me from Watchmen. In case you need a clue it is from Walt Simonson's Thor.

NSFW - but funnier than real comics

I recommend http://mightygodking.livejournal.com/

A guy reworking the dialogue of Marvel Civil War for comic effect. And it is funny. Even though I have never read the original. If you look it up, see if you too think that the artist has got a real thing going for Dagger (or is it Cloak) - the white jumpsuit looks like it has been drawn by photoreferencing a whole bunch of porn. Or is it just me?

(Scans daily motto: It's never just you...)

Words of Wisdom - from Douglas Adams

"Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."-- Douglas Adams (1952-2001)

Ain't that the truth?

Aeroplane stars

"You have to sing to aeroplane stars."

Words of advice from Kid A.

... you might as well live

So the docs seem to think that I'll survive having a mildly disfigouring and not at all uncomfortable spot on my face. Even if it is technically a cancer. They seem determined to talk me out of surgery. Wonder if they will change their minds if they find out I have health insurance?

Anyway reasons to go on living include the third League of ExtraOrdinary Gentlemen. Sadly not with us until 2008. And not understood until 2009. If you've only ever seen the film, you will not understand that this is a big deal.

Current Listening - Ladykillers by Lush, and a load of Go-betweens.

Jesus. I'm Arthur C Clarke

Which is something of a surprise, you have to admit. All those years I never knew.
Though I did read quite a lot of him when I was a kid.
See below.

Off now to see a plastic surgeon. Second time in my life I've been told "there is a million to one chance that you have cancer". So, realistically I've only got 999, 998 chances left. Trouble is that I have read my Pratchett, and therefore know that million to one shots work nine times out of ten. It's the narrativium.

I am: Arthur C. Clarke Well known for nonfiction science writing and for early promotion of the effort toward space travel, his fiction was often grand and visionary.

Which science fiction writer are you?

But seriously

this is ridiculous. Not to mention unfeasible.

But funny, though.

Grey's anatomy

Curiously hooked by this. Serious Scrubs? Flipant House? ER for kids?
All of the above, but still very enjoyable and leads to ploughing through the DVDs.
The rental company must hate us - we have a couple of series on almost next day return. The postage alone must be a killer. What are they?
ER (Mrs Breadcrumb only)
Battlestar Galactica
Supernatural
Lost
Grey's anatomy

And funnily enough I was not convinced by the idea of any of them.
Meanwhile, the hard disc drive on the cable is still full of last years "things we think we will watch".

Luckily the twin thrashings by Arsenal are not recorded for posterity in this household, nor ever mentioned. You hear me? Never mentioned!

Michale Caine

Thomas Midgeley made two contributions to our modern world. He invented both lead additives for petrol, thereby poisoning most of us living in cities, and CFCs, which destroy the Ozone layer and speed global warming.

Not a lot of people know that ...

Now I may not have actually done anything today, but you've got to admit that is an improvement on old TM....

When I grow up to be a man

How touching can you get? Kid A has been telling me that he dreamt of being a big boy, but he doesn't think he will be one because he doesn't get any bigger.

All too soon, the days will flow all to quick my boy. All too soon.

hello, it's 2007

Seems quite futuristic really. Not a real date at all.
So, I'm back. And the piles of bills are not really threatening at all.

This is posted with New Blogger. Being a Luddite, I was quite happy with
the previous version that was as basic as I could cope with. I am a real fan of "good enough" technology. Which is why my mobile phone is 3 years old.

I need a shower

I've been trying not doing work, seeing if it ends up doing it by itself. You know what - it doesn't.

Next week on statements of the bleeding obvious - I shall be mostly away from home.

That Tesco Bastard

Tesco home delivery gave me an added bonus - a damaged front wing for the Purple People Carrier. Not chuffed. They are no claming that the parked car with no one in it leapt out in front of them. Not that they hit it anyhow. "We don't see how we could have...". Well I never said you did it deliberately.

So, my feelings can be summed up in the picture by the previously unheard of (by me) Chris Weston parodying Frank Miller. Just think Tesco instead of Green...

Anhedonia

And you know, it did look like that. And I still wasn't happy.
Must be Anhedonia.

Music: Wire, Map ref....
Do you image they will ever use that on Lost?

Where I am going next week

No seriously. I am. How about you?

BTW, Stockton on Tees Riverside - better than you would think. Or than I did.
And, no that is not a picture...

crisp and clean

So, autumn finally arises. Or descends. The temperature has fallen by 15 degC in 2 days. Clear and crisp.

Unlike my personal finances which are neither.

The breadcrumbs are trying to ignore the weather and don't see why they should wear coats and gloves. Are parents allowed to let them freeze to teach them a lesson?

Free music

Back in dear old Blighty. Apparently just before we are either taxed to poverty or global warming destroys us all. I thought the weather was mild. Me I'm buying beach front near the top of Norwegian Fjords.

The mighty Reds crushed Villa and Reading while I was away. God France is backwards. You could be in the middle ages.

Came across this rather nifty link to free downloads of NPR shows

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4627437

Enjoy.

holidays in the old enemy

Tick tock, tick tock. Tomorrow we set off to leave the shores of fair Blighty.

And the mountain of work that will be unfinished behind me.
oops

Last night's game wasn't pretty or enjoyable, but we won and are pretty odds on to go through to the knockout stages of the Champions League. So, just Saturday and a potential thrashing at the Red Scum to worry about then.

300

So look at the link below.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/300/trailer1/large.html

Now can you imagine it mashed up with the Fall playing Theme from Sparta FC?
This is what we want. Surely someone will oblige.

We're not Galatasaray we're Sparta FC!

oh just stop it

you know who you are.

Anyone know any short cuts to learning Spanish in 5 minutes?

21 seconds to go

actually, about 21 days to go to a holiday. Praise be.