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That photo meme
Sep. 18th, 2008 09:50 pmIt's like, post a picture of yourself, no posing, no doing of your hair or dressing up or nuffink, no post-processing.
Here you are, from the webcam on the top of the screen on my Dell laptop.
Hm.
Here you are, from the webcam on the top of the screen on my Dell laptop.
Hm.
SCI FICTION archive still there
Jul. 8th, 2007 06:44 pmI was just reading one of the stories I'd copied off the SCI FICTION site, and googled it to read the appreciation. A couple of links later, I was reading "First published on SCI FICTION" and idly clicked the link, to discover the story was still there!
So it seems that nearly a month after they said they'd take the stories, down, they're still up there. This is just a public service announcement in case anyone still hasn't saved off any of the stories they wanted to read...
ETA: If you go to the SCI FICTION front page, it says they've taken it down, but the archive page is still there, and otherwise the Wayback Machine has it all archived too...
So it seems that nearly a month after they said they'd take the stories, down, they're still up there. This is just a public service announcement in case anyone still hasn't saved off any of the stories they wanted to read...
ETA: If you go to the SCI FICTION front page, it says they've taken it down, but the archive page is still there, and otherwise the Wayback Machine has it all archived too...
Australia votes
Dec. 4th, 2006 02:08 amYes, I'm talking about that sorry-ass "My Favourite Album" thing on Triple J. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
benpeek was the first to notify me of the results in this post, and he treats it to the usual LJ memeage: Bold if you liked it, strikethrough if you hated it, and, well I'm assuming italic means "meh". Needless to say I'm not going to agree with many of his choices ;)
The list is full of lots of crap, not surprisingly, and my own vote for "Four Tet — Rounds" didn't turn up, unsurprisingly. Anyway, despite the number 1 position being a mediocre choice to say the least, it's one I like all the same, as are most on the
1–10
Pink Floyd — Dark Side Of The Moon
Jeff Buckley — Grace
Radiohead — Ok Computer
The Beatles — Abbey Road
The Beatles — Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Nirvana — Nevermind
Led Zeppelin — Led Zeppelin 4
Red Hot Chili Peppers — Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Meat Loaf — Bat Out Of Hell
U2 — The Joshua Tree
11–20
Pink Floyd — Wish You Were Here
The Beatles — The Beatles - White Album (why "The Beatles twice"? I should add that by no means are the Beatles albums in my preferred order but there you go)
The Beatles — Revolver
Pink Floyd — The Wall
Radiohead — The Bends
Neil Diamond — Hot August Night (I assume...)
Neil Young — Harvest (I assume - at best)
Carole King — Tapestry
Pearl Jam — Ten
Fleetwood Mac — Rumours (although on a generous day I might sit through it, if you insist)
21–30
Tool — Aenima (I probably like a lot of it)
Bob Dylan — Blood On The Tracks (give or take one or two tracks, but his bleat shits me, it really does)
Midnight Oil — 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 (equal with Red Sails In The Sunset)
Silverchair — Diorama
AC/DC — Back In Black (yeah, I know, they're classics, but... no, sorry.)
The Clash — London Calling
The Whitlams — Eternal Nightcap (well, I'm on it, but I did think it was a beautiful thing from the outset)
Queen — A night at the Opera
The Pixies — Doolittle
Missy Higgins — The Sound Of White (*heh*)
31–40
Paul Simon — Graceland (so I like it, got a problem with that? But I like the other world-music-thieving one better... Forget the name, the one that followed it, er...)
Anthony Callea — Anthony Callea
U2 — Achtung Baby (kinda like it, it must be admitted)
David Bowie — Ziggy Stardust and the spiders from Mars (but Hunky Dory's the real classic)
Radiohead — Kid A
The Beatles — Rubber Soul
The Stone Roses — Stone Roses
Wolfmother — Wolfmother
Oasis — What's The Story Morning Glory (sorry boys)
Tool — Lateralus (as above)
41–50
Coldplay — A Rush of Blood to the Head (Ben writes: As if you could feel a strong emotion in relation to Coldplay. They exist on your ambivalence.) (I add: they shit me, really.)
Bob Dylan — Highway 61
Sex Pistols — Never Mind the Bollocks
Van Morrison — Astral Weeks (if he's lucky.)
The Living End — The Living End (I probably like them, but whatever.)
The Strokes — Is this It? (not that I own it or would bother to, but still, yeah.)
Silverchair — Neon Ballroom
The Eagles — Hotel California (meh.)
The Smiths — The Queen Is Dead
You Am I — Hourly Daily (sorry Timmy.)
51–60
The Cure — Disintegration
Bob Dylan — Blonde On Blonde (Ben writes: I've just never bought a Bob Dylan album.) (I add: I never will)
Lou Reed — Transformer
Bruce Springsteen — Born To Run (I don't hate him, but I had to cross it out all the same)
Red Hot Chili Peppers — Californication
Metallica — Master of Puppets
Cat Stevens — Tea for the Tillerman
R.E.M — Automatic For The People (what a meh choice of REM! I mean really...)
Muse — Absolution
Joni Mitchell — Blue
61–70
Prince — Purple Rain (surprisingly. Probably only like a handful of tracks off it though.)
ABBA — Arrival
Elton John — Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (no really. Mostly I hate the old fucker but I inherited a gatefold vinyl issue of this from my auntie and despite having some abominable crap on it, it's got some good stuff too. Probably everything one needs to know of the man)
Dire Straits — Brothers In Arms
Miles Davis — Kind of Blue (it ain't no In A Silent Way but it'll do.)
Cold Chisel — East
The Smashing Pumpkins — Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
The Who — Who's Next
Yes — Close To The Edge (I almost bolded this one!)
Deep Purple — Machine Head
71–80
Rage Against The Machine — Rage Against The Machine
Green Day — American Idiot (at best a meh)
Guns N Roses — Appetite For Destruction
INXS — Kick (nostalgic reasons)
David Bowie — Hunky Dory (here it is. Belongs much higher up)
The Smashing Pumpkins — Siamese Dream
Def Leppard — Hysteria
Foo Fighters — The Colour and The Shape
U2 — Rattle and Hum
Delta Goodrem — Innocent Eyes
81–90
John Farnham — Whispering Jack (yeah that nostalgia thing. I can't strike it, sad I know. I hate him, honest!)
You Am I — Hi Fi Way
Darren Hayes — The Tension & The Spark (well so I assume)
Crowded House — Woodface (WTF? What kind of fucked up choice of Crowdies is that? You have the self-titled album and all that Enz, and you choose this? Australia, you suck!)
Live — Throwing Copper (I doubt it, but meh)
Nine Inch Nails — The Downward Spiral
Massive Attack — Blue Lines
Led Zeppelin — Led Zeppelin 2
Mike Oldfield — Tubular Bells
Radio Birdman — Radios Appear (I guess)
91–100
Ben Folds Five — Whatever and Ever Amen
Crowded House — Crowded House (at least this one's in there)
Powderfinger — Vulture Street
The Killers — Hot Fuss
The Rolling Stones — Sticky Fingers
Silverchair — Frogstomp
Queens Of The Stone Age — Songs For The Deaf
Portishead — Dummy
Soundgarden — Superunknown
The Velvet Underground & Nico — The Velvet Underground & Nico
Now, Ben adds this, which I am marking up as well because this is a bit of a dialogue with his post:
And, as an optional, ten albums I would have liked to have seen there:
Tom Waits - Rain Dogs (oh yessssss)
Beasts of Bourbon - Low Life
The Herd - The Sun Never Sets
A Silver Mt. Zion - Born into Trouble as the Sparks Fly Upward
The Cruel Sea - The Honeymoon is Over
The Stooges - Fun House
Linda Perry - In Flight (?? dunno!)
the Jesus and Mary Chain - Darklands
Art of Fighting - Wires (utterly meh)
Godspeed You Black Emperor! - Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas (but nah, f#a#&infinity; is waaay better)
Ben writes: No particular order, and you know, tomorrow, I'm sure it'll change. I can already think of theFlaming Lips, the Drones, about three or four other Tom Waits albums...
As you see, I agree about our Tom, but the Flaming Lips have always shitted me, despite Kit Brash's best efforts. I'd add Four Tet's Rounds, loads of Hood, Venetian Snares, the Clouds, Beastie Boys (Check Your Head and Ill Communication, since you ask), Pop Will Eat Itself, the Necks, and bucketloads of other stuff that would probably edge out many of the things I've even bolded along the way...
benpeek was the first to notify me of the results in this post, and he treats it to the usual LJ memeage: Bold if you liked it, strikethrough if you hated it, and, well I'm assuming italic means "meh". Needless to say I'm not going to agree with many of his choices ;)The list is full of lots of crap, not surprisingly, and my own vote for "Four Tet — Rounds" didn't turn up, unsurprisingly. Anyway, despite the number 1 position being a mediocre choice to say the least, it's one I like all the same, as are most on the
1–10
Pink Floyd — Dark Side Of The Moon
Jeff Buckley — Grace
Radiohead — Ok Computer
The Beatles — Abbey Road
The Beatles — Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Nirvana — Nevermind
Led Zeppelin — Led Zeppelin 4
Red Hot Chili Peppers — Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Meat Loaf — Bat Out Of Hell
U2 — The Joshua Tree
11–20
Pink Floyd — Wish You Were Here
The Beatles — The Beatles - White Album (why "The Beatles twice"? I should add that by no means are the Beatles albums in my preferred order but there you go)
The Beatles — Revolver
Pink Floyd — The Wall
Radiohead — The Bends
Neil Young — Harvest (I assume - at best)
Carole King — Tapestry
21–30
Tool — Aenima (I probably like a lot of it)
Midnight Oil — 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 (equal with Red Sails In The Sunset)
The Clash — London Calling
The Whitlams — Eternal Nightcap (well, I'm on it, but I did think it was a beautiful thing from the outset)
Queen — A night at the Opera
The Pixies — Doolittle
31–40
Paul Simon — Graceland (so I like it, got a problem with that? But I like the other world-music-thieving one better... Forget the name, the one that followed it, er...)
U2 — Achtung Baby (kinda like it, it must be admitted)
David Bowie — Ziggy Stardust and the spiders from Mars (but Hunky Dory's the real classic)
Radiohead — Kid A
The Beatles — Rubber Soul
The Stone Roses — Stone Roses
Tool — Lateralus (as above)
41–50
Sex Pistols — Never Mind the Bollocks
Van Morrison — Astral Weeks (if he's lucky.)
The Strokes — Is this It? (not that I own it or would bother to, but still, yeah.)
The Eagles — Hotel California (meh.)
The Smiths — The Queen Is Dead
51–60
The Cure — Disintegration
Lou Reed — Transformer
Red Hot Chili Peppers — Californication
Metallica — Master of Puppets
Cat Stevens — Tea for the Tillerman
R.E.M — Automatic For The People (what a meh choice of REM! I mean really...)
Joni Mitchell — Blue
61–70
Prince — Purple Rain (surprisingly. Probably only like a handful of tracks off it though.)
ABBA — Arrival
Elton John — Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (no really. Mostly I hate the old fucker but I inherited a gatefold vinyl issue of this from my auntie and despite having some abominable crap on it, it's got some good stuff too. Probably everything one needs to know of the man)
Dire Straits — Brothers In Arms
Miles Davis — Kind of Blue (it ain't no In A Silent Way but it'll do.)
The Smashing Pumpkins — Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
The Who — Who's Next
Yes — Close To The Edge (I almost bolded this one!)
Deep Purple — Machine Head
71–80
Rage Against The Machine — Rage Against The Machine
Green Day — American Idiot (at best a meh)
Guns N Roses — Appetite For Destruction
INXS — Kick (nostalgic reasons)
David Bowie — Hunky Dory (here it is. Belongs much higher up)
The Smashing Pumpkins — Siamese Dream
Def Leppard — Hysteria
Foo Fighters — The Colour and The Shape
U2 — Rattle and Hum
81–90
John Farnham — Whispering Jack (yeah that nostalgia thing. I can't strike it, sad I know. I hate him, honest!)
Crowded House — Woodface (WTF? What kind of fucked up choice of Crowdies is that? You have the self-titled album and all that Enz, and you choose this? Australia, you suck!)
Live — Throwing Copper (I doubt it, but meh)
Nine Inch Nails — The Downward Spiral
Massive Attack — Blue Lines
Led Zeppelin — Led Zeppelin 2
Mike Oldfield — Tubular Bells
Radio Birdman — Radios Appear (I guess)
91–100
Ben Folds Five — Whatever and Ever Amen
Crowded House — Crowded House (at least this one's in there)
The Killers — Hot Fuss
The Rolling Stones — Sticky Fingers
Portishead — Dummy
Soundgarden — Superunknown
The Velvet Underground & Nico — The Velvet Underground & Nico
Now, Ben adds this, which I am marking up as well because this is a bit of a dialogue with his post:
And, as an optional, ten albums I would have liked to have seen there:
Tom Waits - Rain Dogs (oh yessssss)
Beasts of Bourbon - Low Life
The Herd - The Sun Never Sets
A Silver Mt. Zion - Born into Trouble as the Sparks Fly Upward
The Cruel Sea - The Honeymoon is Over
The Stooges - Fun House
Linda Perry - In Flight (?? dunno!)
the Jesus and Mary Chain - Darklands
Art of Fighting - Wires (utterly meh)
Godspeed You Black Emperor! - Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas (but nah, f#a#&infinity; is waaay better)
Ben writes: No particular order, and you know, tomorrow, I'm sure it'll change. I can already think of the
As you see, I agree about our Tom, but the Flaming Lips have always shitted me, despite Kit Brash's best efforts. I'd add Four Tet's Rounds, loads of Hood, Venetian Snares, the Clouds, Beastie Boys (Check Your Head and Ill Communication, since you ask), Pop Will Eat Itself, the Necks, and bucketloads of other stuff that would probably edge out many of the things I've even bolded along the way...
Time's sf list
Nov. 15th, 2006 09:39 pmFrom benpeek, whose answers here.
The meme part of this works like so: Bold the ones you have read, strike through the ones you read and hated, italicize those you started but never finished and put a star next to the ones you love.
1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
3. Dune, Frank Herbert
4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
6. Neuromancer, William Gibson *
7. Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick *
9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
15. Cities in Flight, James Blish
16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett *
17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
22. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson
24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling
27. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams *
28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
29. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
31. Little, Big, John Crowley
32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute
38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
39. Ringworld, Larry Niven
40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut *
43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson *
44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner (but I will read it properly one day!)
45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
46. Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein (I guess)
47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock
48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks (I would hate it these days!)
49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer
As you can see, I must read some Bester, Crowley... Moorckock maybe although I think I'd hate him... Gene Wolfe for sure. And yes, Ben's probably right that this list sucks.
Update: David Moles now has the best response to this meme evar.
benpeek, whose answers here.The meme part of this works like so: Bold the ones you have read, strike through the ones you read and hated, italicize those you started but never finished and put a star next to the ones you love.
1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
3. Dune, Frank Herbert
4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
6. Neuromancer, William Gibson *
7. Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick *
9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
15. Cities in Flight, James Blish
16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett *
17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
22. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson
24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling
27. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams *
28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
29. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
31. Little, Big, John Crowley
32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute
38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
39. Ringworld, Larry Niven
40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut *
43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson *
44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner (but I will read it properly one day!)
45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock
49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer
As you can see, I must read some Bester, Crowley... Moorckock maybe although I think I'd hate him... Gene Wolfe for sure. And yes, Ben's probably right that this list sucks.
Update: David Moles now has the best response to this meme evar.
Favourite Song Meme
Aug. 7th, 2006 11:52 pmStolen from Andrew Wheeler, editor of the Science Fiction Book Club. A whole lot of bands I couldn't give two fucks about, which makes it interesting...
1. Favorite Beatles song: "Norwegian Wood" or "She's Leaving Home" or...
2. Favorite Rolling Stones song: "Goodbye Ruby Tuesday"
3. Favorite Doors song: "Alabama Song (Whiskey Bar)", but only because they didn't write it. Their version actually sucks.
4. Favorite Bob Dylan song: none whatsoever. Well, probably someone's cover of something-or-other, but still.
5. Favorite Led Zeppelin song: "Kashmir"
6. TV Theme Song: I quite like both the Buffy and Angel themes...
7. Favorite Prince Song: "Sign 'O' The Times", "When Doves Cry" (no horrible over-gospelly cover versions though please!) I can't say I like Prince much though.
8. Favorite Madonna Song: "Now I'm Following You" (parts I & II), because I liked the sampling stuff when it came out
9. Favorite Michael Jackson Song: none, I guess
10. Favorite Queen Song: Eek. Er. I'm sure there are some I can still tolerate, I just can't think of one right now.
11. Favorite Motorhead Song: none
12. Favorite Ozzy Song: none
13. Favorite Public Enemy Song: "By The Time I Get To Arizona"
14. Favorite Song from a cartoon: Uh... Seriously?
15. Favorite Bruce Springsteen song: Oh pleeeease...
16. Favorite Depeche Mode song: "Blasphemous Rumours", "A Question of Lust", "Enjoy The Silence", "Death's Door", etc etc
17. Favorite Cure song: "A Short Term Effect" (anything from Pornography really, "The Top", "Like Cockatoos", "Snakepit", "Fascination Street (Extended Mix)" etc etc
18. Favorite song that most of your friends haven't heard: Which set of friends would that be? Most of them have similar taste to me, but there would be huge wads of my music collection that most of them haven't heard! So something from Part timer, which I would've played on my radio show but hardly anyone except me has a copy of, yet. That's John McCaffrey, who is an as-yet unsung genius.
19. Favorite Smiths song: "How Soon Is Now?" still does it for me, or "What Difference Does It Make?", etc etc
20. Favorite Beastie Boys song: "So Whatcha Want" or "Get It Together"
21. Favorite Clash song: "London Calling", but only out of ignorance. I know they were great.
22. Favorite Police song: "Synchronicity II" or "The Bed's Too Big Without You", "Rehumanize Yourself"...
23. Favorite Eurythmics song: "Here Comes the Rain Again"
24. Favorite Beach Boys song: "God Only Knows" was a nice choice from Mr Wheeler; but I also like "Good Vibrations" and various others; and I love "Do You Like Worms?" from countless bootlegs of SMiLE...
25. Favorite Cyndi Lauper song: *sigh*
26. Favorite song from a movie: "Death's Door" by Depeche Mode (see above) isn't a bad choice (from Wim Wenders' Until The End of The World), or "When I Go" by Minimal Compact (from Wenders' Der Himmel Über Berlin aka Wings of Desire)
27. Favorite Duran Duran song: no, sorry
28. Favorite Peter Tosh song: not really
29. Favorite Johnny Cash song: that one about the guy who killed his dad, you know the one
30. Favorite song from an 80's one hit wonder: can't remember...
31. Favorite song from a video game: Super Mario Brothers #1, World 1, Scene 1!
32. Favorite Kinks song: I wish I knew...
33. Favorite Genesis song: Again, "Solsbury Hill" by Peter Gabriel, Mr Wheeler's choice, was a nice cheat. Mr Gabriel appears below as well.
34. Favorite Thin Lizzy song: not at all, no...
35. Favorite INXS song: "The Swing", maybe? It's been a long time. I used to like the Dekadance cassette, with its extended remixes of songs from around that era...
36. Favorite Weird Al song: there were lots of fun ones back in the day...
37. Favorite Peter Gabriel song: "No Self Control" or "I Don't Remember", or "Moribund the Burgermeister"
38. Favorite John Lennon song: "Imagine", because it's right, or "Jealous Guy"
39. Favorite Pink Floyd song: "One Of These Days" - Mr Wheeler's choice is again a good one! I like the various odd things on Animals too...
40. Favorite cover song: "Such Great Heights" by Iron & Wine is Andrew Wheeler's choice, and it's a lovely one, as is the other cover on that Postal Service single, The Shins doing "We Will Become Sillhouettes". Otherwise, let's go for John Cale's cover of "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen, or his covers (both insane studio version and live solo piano) of the Elvis Presley hit "Heartbreak Hotel"
41. Favorite White Stripes: don't know enough, but I did quite like "Fell In Love With A Girl", with its awesome Lego filmclip...
42. Favorite dance song: Gosh, that's a hard one. Looking at the six 2metre shelves of electronica CDs in front of me, not to mention the vinyl behind me, I'm hard-pressed to make up my mind. For now, let's say something from the Mashit! label, maybe Aaron Spectre's take on "Conscience A Heng Dem", or DJ C's wonderful "Billy Jungle"...
43. Favorite U2 song: "All I Want Is You" is tolerable. Zooropa, despite being a dreadful rip-off of Pop Will Eat Itself and stuff, had some tolerable moments too...
44. Favorite song from an actor turned musician: Something by Juana Molina, maybe?
45. Favorite disco song: NO! NOT.
46. Favorite Power Ballad: Andrew Wheeler votes for "Patience" by Guns 'n Roses, and he may have a point. I was going to say "NOTHING"...
47. Favorite Guns N' Roses song: "Welcome To The Jungle"? Did I get it right?
48. Favorite The Who song: "Who Are You?" maybe?
49. Favorite Elton John song: Argh. Sometimes I can cope with some of him. Let's say "Rocket Man" because it inspired Al Reynolds' Understanding Space and Time, shall we?
50. Favorite song, period: This is an impossible venture. Completely impossible. I'll get back to you on this, ok? Maybe if I can be bothered, later this week I'll do a list of favourite tunes, maybe 20 or so, just representative tunes I love. Maybe.
1. Favorite Beatles song: "Norwegian Wood" or "She's Leaving Home" or...
2. Favorite Rolling Stones song: "Goodbye Ruby Tuesday"
3. Favorite Doors song: "Alabama Song (Whiskey Bar)", but only because they didn't write it. Their version actually sucks.
4. Favorite Bob Dylan song: none whatsoever. Well, probably someone's cover of something-or-other, but still.
5. Favorite Led Zeppelin song: "Kashmir"
6. TV Theme Song: I quite like both the Buffy and Angel themes...
7. Favorite Prince Song: "Sign 'O' The Times", "When Doves Cry" (no horrible over-gospelly cover versions though please!) I can't say I like Prince much though.
8. Favorite Madonna Song: "Now I'm Following You" (parts I & II), because I liked the sampling stuff when it came out
9. Favorite Michael Jackson Song: none, I guess
10. Favorite Queen Song: Eek. Er. I'm sure there are some I can still tolerate, I just can't think of one right now.
11. Favorite Motorhead Song: none
12. Favorite Ozzy Song: none
13. Favorite Public Enemy Song: "By The Time I Get To Arizona"
14. Favorite Song from a cartoon: Uh... Seriously?
15. Favorite Bruce Springsteen song: Oh pleeeease...
16. Favorite Depeche Mode song: "Blasphemous Rumours", "A Question of Lust", "Enjoy The Silence", "Death's Door", etc etc
17. Favorite Cure song: "A Short Term Effect" (anything from Pornography really, "The Top", "Like Cockatoos", "Snakepit", "Fascination Street (Extended Mix)" etc etc
18. Favorite song that most of your friends haven't heard: Which set of friends would that be? Most of them have similar taste to me, but there would be huge wads of my music collection that most of them haven't heard! So something from Part timer, which I would've played on my radio show but hardly anyone except me has a copy of, yet. That's John McCaffrey, who is an as-yet unsung genius.
19. Favorite Smiths song: "How Soon Is Now?" still does it for me, or "What Difference Does It Make?", etc etc
20. Favorite Beastie Boys song: "So Whatcha Want" or "Get It Together"
21. Favorite Clash song: "London Calling", but only out of ignorance. I know they were great.
22. Favorite Police song: "Synchronicity II" or "The Bed's Too Big Without You", "Rehumanize Yourself"...
23. Favorite Eurythmics song: "Here Comes the Rain Again"
24. Favorite Beach Boys song: "God Only Knows" was a nice choice from Mr Wheeler; but I also like "Good Vibrations" and various others; and I love "Do You Like Worms?" from countless bootlegs of SMiLE...
25. Favorite Cyndi Lauper song: *sigh*
26. Favorite song from a movie: "Death's Door" by Depeche Mode (see above) isn't a bad choice (from Wim Wenders' Until The End of The World), or "When I Go" by Minimal Compact (from Wenders' Der Himmel Über Berlin aka Wings of Desire)
27. Favorite Duran Duran song: no, sorry
28. Favorite Peter Tosh song: not really
29. Favorite Johnny Cash song: that one about the guy who killed his dad, you know the one
30. Favorite song from an 80's one hit wonder: can't remember...
31. Favorite song from a video game: Super Mario Brothers #1, World 1, Scene 1!
32. Favorite Kinks song: I wish I knew...
33. Favorite Genesis song: Again, "Solsbury Hill" by Peter Gabriel, Mr Wheeler's choice, was a nice cheat. Mr Gabriel appears below as well.
34. Favorite Thin Lizzy song: not at all, no...
35. Favorite INXS song: "The Swing", maybe? It's been a long time. I used to like the Dekadance cassette, with its extended remixes of songs from around that era...
36. Favorite Weird Al song: there were lots of fun ones back in the day...
37. Favorite Peter Gabriel song: "No Self Control" or "I Don't Remember", or "Moribund the Burgermeister"
38. Favorite John Lennon song: "Imagine", because it's right, or "Jealous Guy"
39. Favorite Pink Floyd song: "One Of These Days" - Mr Wheeler's choice is again a good one! I like the various odd things on Animals too...
40. Favorite cover song: "Such Great Heights" by Iron & Wine is Andrew Wheeler's choice, and it's a lovely one, as is the other cover on that Postal Service single, The Shins doing "We Will Become Sillhouettes". Otherwise, let's go for John Cale's cover of "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen, or his covers (both insane studio version and live solo piano) of the Elvis Presley hit "Heartbreak Hotel"
41. Favorite White Stripes: don't know enough, but I did quite like "Fell In Love With A Girl", with its awesome Lego filmclip...
42. Favorite dance song: Gosh, that's a hard one. Looking at the six 2metre shelves of electronica CDs in front of me, not to mention the vinyl behind me, I'm hard-pressed to make up my mind. For now, let's say something from the Mashit! label, maybe Aaron Spectre's take on "Conscience A Heng Dem", or DJ C's wonderful "Billy Jungle"...
43. Favorite U2 song: "All I Want Is You" is tolerable. Zooropa, despite being a dreadful rip-off of Pop Will Eat Itself and stuff, had some tolerable moments too...
44. Favorite song from an actor turned musician: Something by Juana Molina, maybe?
45. Favorite disco song: NO! NOT.
46. Favorite Power Ballad: Andrew Wheeler votes for "Patience" by Guns 'n Roses, and he may have a point. I was going to say "NOTHING"...
47. Favorite Guns N' Roses song: "Welcome To The Jungle"? Did I get it right?
48. Favorite The Who song: "Who Are You?" maybe?
49. Favorite Elton John song: Argh. Sometimes I can cope with some of him. Let's say "Rocket Man" because it inspired Al Reynolds' Understanding Space and Time, shall we?
50. Favorite song, period: This is an impossible venture. Completely impossible. I'll get back to you on this, ok? Maybe if I can be bothered, later this week I'll do a list of favourite tunes, maybe 20 or so, just representative tunes I love. Maybe.
The Letter K
May. 8th, 2006 08:30 pmbenpeek did it. He gave me K. So I gotta do it now.K is for:
Kid A, which is the point at which Radiohead started to be really exciting. Easily eclipsing OK Computer, Kid A combines sonic experimentalism (which doesn't, perhaps, match the skill of the electronic artists they admire so much, such as Autechre, but is nevertheless great stuff) with genuinely great songwriting (see "How To Disappear Completely", "Morning Bell" (better than the Amnesiac version). Yay! (Props to them too that even further down the track they commissioned some remixes from Four Tet and Christian Vogel. I hope they continue to get interesting remixes)
kineticfactory, LJ moniker of my good friend acb, and title of a ninetynine song.Kisses. Kissing is nice. Who doesn't like kissing? People might say they don't like kissing, but they're just dumbasses. They're probably 6-year-olds or something.
James Kochalka, who has a book called Kissers, is a delightful comics artist, whose work takes on more depth as you read more of it. His Sketchbook Diaries go up daily here.
The KLF. Many, if not most, people probably don't realise how great the KLF were. They're probably perceived as a one or three-hit wonder, which they certainly were, but there's a huge amount of depth to their work when you start looking into all the remixes and alternate versions, plus when you realise that Jimmy Cauty was there with the Orb at the start of the whole ambient techno movement, and so on.
Kruder & Dorfmeister have done some of the most wonderful remix work of any artist in the last 10 years or so. Their own work is fairly thin on the ground, but that's ok. Of late I haven't heard a lot out of them, and they've gotten a bit too much into house (especially Underground Resistence) for my taste; when they toured the other year and played at the Enmore Theatre it was rather disappointing - just a long DJ set, playing some old faves but then descending into repetitive house for far too long. Still, I have a great fondness for them.
Kafta, or kofte, or other variant spellings. Yummy Middle-Eastern sausage/rissole type stuff which I enjoy making and eating in all sorts of forms.
Saul Kripke, a pre-eminent philosopher and something of a genius, with whom I suspect I disagree on most issues. A direct descendent from Wittgenstein on various topics, which no doubt is partially the source, since Wittgenstein can be partially blamed for some of the similar rubbish spouting from the Continental philosophers. *heh*
Etgar Keret, a wonderful Israeli author whose contemporary fictions are sometimes fantastical, sometimes just odd, always moving... He gets in, apart from anything else, because I am restricting myself to K last names, so that Ken Macleod and Kelly Link only get mentioned in passing, despite being very special too.
Klezmer, the music of my ancestry, important to me along with gypsy and jazz, as much as various forms of electronica, post-rock, indie, pop, rock and classical. I was aware of it through late school, but only really discovered how cool it can be some years later, as I took up with various muso friends who were forming klezmer & gypsy-related bands like Monsieur Camembert, and started playing with them and writing klezmer-inspired tunes myself.
That's 10 entries, and explanations about why they're important. I'm meant to get you to reply and ask to be given a letter, but by now you've probably seen someone else doing it too. I'm not that keen on propagating memes. But what they hell, go ahead if you like.
Courtesy ninebelow, this is apparently the Museum, Libraries and Arts Councils of UK's idea of 30 books you just gotta read, man!
As always, bold = read it, italics = own it and/or want to read it.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Bible (well, not the whole thing! Haha. And I don't own one. And are you talking about the Christian bible, or the Torah, or...?
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by JRR Tolkien
1984 by George Orwell
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
All Quiet on the Western Front by E M Remarque
His Dark Materials Trilogy by Phillip Pullman
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
Winnie the Pooh by AA Milne
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (I detested it.)
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham (but too long ago to remember much)
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (don't own, would like to read)
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (as above)
The Prophet by Khalil Gibran
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Life of Pi by Yann Martel (bugger that)
Middlemarch by George Eliot
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzenhitsyn
Not bad on my part for a list of mostly non-genre classics. As you can see, I've read all the sf/fantasy ones. Blame many of the others on reasonably good schooling, I guess! Although I read the Sozenhitsyn at some family friends' one bored night - it was rather good!
ninebelow, this is apparently the Museum, Libraries and Arts Councils of UK's idea of 30 books you just gotta read, man!As always, bold = read it, italics = own it and/or want to read it.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Bible (well, not the whole thing! Haha. And I don't own one. And are you talking about the Christian bible, or the Torah, or...?
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by JRR Tolkien
1984 by George Orwell
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
All Quiet on the Western Front by E M Remarque
His Dark Materials Trilogy by Phillip Pullman
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
Winnie the Pooh by AA Milne
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (I detested it.)
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham (but too long ago to remember much)
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (don't own, would like to read)
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (as above)
The Prophet by Khalil Gibran
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Life of Pi by Yann Martel (bugger that)
Middlemarch by George Eliot
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzenhitsyn
Not bad on my part for a list of mostly non-genre classics. As you can see, I've read all the sf/fantasy ones. Blame many of the others on reasonably good schooling, I guess! Although I read the Sozenhitsyn at some family friends' one bored night - it was rather good!
These spammers are crazy
Feb. 15th, 2006 01:56 pmIn my spam folder at work:
Subject: Former President Bill Klinton uses Voagra!
From: Jerri Ramey [alley@0451.com]
Everybody knows the great sexual scandal known as "Klinton-Levinsky".
After the relations like this Klintons popularity raised a lot!
It is a natural phenomenon, because Bill as a real man in order not to
shame himself when he was with Monica regularly used Voagra.
What happened you see. His political figure became more bright and more attractive.
It is very important for a man to be respected as a man!
See our Voagra shop to enter upon the new phase of your life.
http://_____________
Subject: Former President Bill Klinton uses Voagra!
From: Jerri Ramey [alley@0451.com]
Everybody knows the great sexual scandal known as "Klinton-Levinsky".
After the relations like this Klintons popularity raised a lot!
It is a natural phenomenon, because Bill as a real man in order not to
shame himself when he was with Monica regularly used Voagra.
What happened you see. His political figure became more bright and more attractive.
It is very important for a man to be respected as a man!
See our Voagra shop to enter upon the new phase of your life.
http://_____________
(no subject)
Jan. 24th, 2006 03:16 pmVia girliejones, a meme.
Here are the current top 50 books from www.whatshouldireadnext.com. Bold the books you have read. Italicise the books you might read. Cross out the books you probably won't read. Pass it on:
The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams
The Great Gatsby - F.Scott Fitzgerald
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter 6) - J.K. Rowling
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Animal Farm: A Fairy Story - George Orwell
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
1984 - George Orwell
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Book 3) - J.K. Rowling
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
Angels and Demons - Dan Brown
Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk
Neuromancer - William Gibson
Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (sortof - I detested it)
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
American Gods - Neil Gaiman
Ender's Game (The Ender Saga) - Orson Scott Card
Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson
A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
Good Omens - Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman
Atonement - Ian McEwan
The Shadow Of The Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Dune - Frank Herbert
That's really quite a huge number that I've read... Either this list was tailored just for me (seems unlikely!) or... whatever. There you go.
girliejones, a meme.Here are the current top 50 books from www.whatshouldireadnext.com. Bold the books you have read. Italicise the books you might read. Cross out the books you probably won't read. Pass it on:
The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams
The Great Gatsby - F.Scott Fitzgerald
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter 6) - J.K. Rowling
Animal Farm: A Fairy Story - George Orwell
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
1984 - George Orwell
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Book 3) - J.K. Rowling
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk
Neuromancer - William Gibson
Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (sortof - I detested it)
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
American Gods - Neil Gaiman
Ender's Game (The Ender Saga) - Orson Scott Card
Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson
A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
Good Omens - Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman
Atonement - Ian McEwan
The Shadow Of The Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Dune - Frank Herbert
That's really quite a huge number that I've read... Either this list was tailored just for me (seems unlikely!) or... whatever. There you go.
Weird habits meme
Jan. 22nd, 2006 06:38 pmSo I've been tagged by jaylake to reveal my secret eccentricities, or to name five weird habits anyway.
The Rules: The first player of this game starts with the topic "five weird habits" and people who get tagged need to write an entry about their five weird habits as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose the next five people to be tagged and link to their web journals. Don't forget to leave a comment in their blog or journal that says "You have been tagged" (assuming they take comments) and tell them to read yours.
1. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I like to eat raw pasta. Preferably tubular spaghetti or thin stuff, if it 's dried - I acknowledge that that hard stuff crunching in your teeth can be a bit much.
Actually, frankly I just like dough of any kind. Raw pasta goes very well with a hunk of mature cheddar cheese. Now you know.
2. I have this nervous habit of clicking my teeth together in rhythm. Actually, generally two rhythms at once - one side doing like a kick drum, the other the snare or hi-hats.
Nobody else can hear it, I would assume, but I'm sure it's bad, if not for the teeth, then for the tension in my jaw. Hello night-time tooth-grinding! Eek.
3. A recovering obsessive compulsive, I once overthrew an eastern European regime because the colours on their flag made me feel odd. My mental state at the time was such that I never followed through with a viable exit strategy, and once I lost interest the country degenerated into guerilla warfare, and the current dictator has, it must be admitted, considerably worse colour coordination than his predecessor. Me culpa.
4. I can often be a less social being than apparently most "normal" people are. I always carry a book or three with me, and enjoy sitting alone at a club reading my book on a couch in the only suitably-lit corner available.
At other times I can be a perfectly civilised participant in group or one-on-one conversations. Nevertheless, I feel more comfortable knowing I have a book handy, just in case.
5. In the vein of bibliotec's habit #1, I enjoy not only chip sandwiches (ie crisps from a packet), but am also a connoisseur of hot chip sandwiches. Particularly yummy is a hot chip and ham sandwich on white bread (unusual as I prefer multigrain in general)
NB: For privacy's sake, some of the details above have been altered slightly.
Tagging:kineticfactory, msbachelorette, autopope, aminor and ninebelow.
jaylake to reveal my secret eccentricities, or to name five weird habits anyway.The Rules: The first player of this game starts with the topic "five weird habits" and people who get tagged need to write an entry about their five weird habits as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose the next five people to be tagged and link to their web journals. Don't forget to leave a comment in their blog or journal that says "You have been tagged" (assuming they take comments) and tell them to read yours.
1. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I like to eat raw pasta. Preferably tubular spaghetti or thin stuff, if it 's dried - I acknowledge that that hard stuff crunching in your teeth can be a bit much.
Actually, frankly I just like dough of any kind. Raw pasta goes very well with a hunk of mature cheddar cheese. Now you know.
2. I have this nervous habit of clicking my teeth together in rhythm. Actually, generally two rhythms at once - one side doing like a kick drum, the other the snare or hi-hats.
Nobody else can hear it, I would assume, but I'm sure it's bad, if not for the teeth, then for the tension in my jaw. Hello night-time tooth-grinding! Eek.
3. A recovering obsessive compulsive, I once overthrew an eastern European regime because the colours on their flag made me feel odd. My mental state at the time was such that I never followed through with a viable exit strategy, and once I lost interest the country degenerated into guerilla warfare, and the current dictator has, it must be admitted, considerably worse colour coordination than his predecessor. Me culpa.
4. I can often be a less social being than apparently most "normal" people are. I always carry a book or three with me, and enjoy sitting alone at a club reading my book on a couch in the only suitably-lit corner available.
At other times I can be a perfectly civilised participant in group or one-on-one conversations. Nevertheless, I feel more comfortable knowing I have a book handy, just in case.
5. In the vein of bibliotec's habit #1, I enjoy not only chip sandwiches (ie crisps from a packet), but am also a connoisseur of hot chip sandwiches. Particularly yummy is a hot chip and ham sandwich on white bread (unusual as I prefer multigrain in general)
NB: For privacy's sake, some of the details above have been altered slightly.
Tagging:
kineticfactory, msbachelorette, autopope, aminor and ninebelow.Weird spam name/subject
Jan. 11th, 2006 01:07 pmHaven't had any interesting spammer names in my junkmail folder for a while, but today I got an email from:
"Thekla Shurtliff" <shurtluthekla@*****.com> (censored in case it's a real email, although that looks quite unlikely...)
to:
"Pleasance Elfrink" <****> (FourPlay's kinda-official email address, much-spammed. I guess that's me then!)
Subject:
Re: evangelical Tuesday
Yeah that's right, I sent that message about evangelical Tuesday. Thanks for the reply, Thekla!
"Thekla Shurtliff" <shurtluthekla@*****.com> (censored in case it's a real email, although that looks quite unlikely...)
to:
"Pleasance Elfrink" <****> (FourPlay's kinda-official email address, much-spammed. I guess that's me then!)
Subject:
Re: evangelical Tuesday
Yeah that's right, I sent that message about evangelical Tuesday. Thanks for the reply, Thekla!
Testing, testing, feeds ahoy!
Jan. 10th, 2006 04:26 pmSorry. This is just a test to see if my RSS reader is going to pick this up properly. It's a friends-only post.
Bloglines can't handle friends-only posts, although there *is* a syntax that lets you tell your RSS reader to login to LiveJournal...
Why use an RSS aggregator/reader? So that you can have all the websites you watch available at once, just like an IMAP mailbox basically, with the various sites as "folders" which notify you when there's a new post. There are other approaches too, which I may go into later, but anyway...
I'm using feed on feeds, which is basic but basically works - although I have everything in a Bloglines account as well, just to test. What I *really* want to use is Tiny Tiny RSS but I won't be able to do that until my server supports MySQL 4.1+ - hopefully happening in the nearish future.
So, let's see if this shows up! And then I'll change it and see if the change shows up - hasn't been working :/
Well, it showed up, so that bit's working. Let's see if the change shows up. Sorry for spamming you, oh friends-only friends-list.
In case you're wondering, I've now hacked feed on feeds so that updated posts do show up, and also those occasional "fake" feeds which have the same link for all items now work properly. *phew*
I might post on my real blog about how I did it - or you can comment here to ask. I've un-friends-only-ed this post now just in case it's useful if anyone else stumbles across it :)
Bloglines can't handle friends-only posts, although there *is* a syntax that lets you tell your RSS reader to login to LiveJournal...
Why use an RSS aggregator/reader? So that you can have all the websites you watch available at once, just like an IMAP mailbox basically, with the various sites as "folders" which notify you when there's a new post. There are other approaches too, which I may go into later, but anyway...
I'm using feed on feeds, which is basic but basically works - although I have everything in a Bloglines account as well, just to test. What I *really* want to use is Tiny Tiny RSS but I won't be able to do that until my server supports MySQL 4.1+ - hopefully happening in the nearish future.
So, let's see if this shows up! And then I'll change it and see if the change shows up - hasn't been working :/
Well, it showed up, so that bit's working. Let's see if the change shows up. Sorry for spamming you, oh friends-only friends-list.
In case you're wondering, I've now hacked feed on feeds so that updated posts do show up, and also those occasional "fake" feeds which have the same link for all items now work properly. *phew*
I might post on my real blog about how I did it - or you can comment here to ask. I've un-friends-only-ed this post now just in case it's useful if anyone else stumbles across it :)
Song lyrics answers
Jan. 1st, 2006 11:32 amThanks to the respondents on the song lyrics, including Stuart Johnson by email. Herewith, the answers, along with who got them right, and... the winner ;)
I only just noticed there are two number 8s too! Ha!
1. Do you have another opinion? - The Pixies, Mr Grieves (bizza, Stu by email)
2. ...She said that you gave it to her/ That night that you planned to go clear/ Did you ever go clear? - Leonard Cohen, Famous Blue Raincoat (kineticfactory, bizza)
3. Listening to you reminds me of a motor's endless drone, and how the deaf are so damn lucky - Jim O'Rourke, Memory Lame (tsk, tsk)
4. The boy said "Dad they're going to take me to task/ but I'll be back by Christmas" - Elvis Costello, Shipbuilding {covered famously by Robert Wyatt, and lots of others of course} (ninebelow)
5. ...We danced the hora/ till we vomited blood... - A Silver Mt Zion, Movie (Never Made) (kineticfactory)
6. "Tu t'appelles comment?" - "Melody" - "Melody comment?" - Serge Gainsbourg, Melody or Cargo Culte (kineticfactory (guessed but close enough), Stu by email)
7. So hard to believe that he only 19 - Hrvatski, vatstep dsp (aka Kid 606, catstep/my kitten/catnap (vatstep dsp remix by Hrvatski) (tsk, nobody knew this either)
8.1 Without a universal law there is no gravity/ without gravity there is no atmosphere/ without an atmosphere there is no chance at life/ and with no chance at life... I don't exist - 13 & God, Soft Atlas (surprised nobody knew this)
8.2 With their nine inch nails and little fascists panties tucked inside the heart of every nice girl - Tori Amos, Precious Things (bizza)
9. We got a lot to talk about/ We got a lot to try out - The Clouds, Renee's Problems {where are all the Clouds fans? *sigh*)
10. Betty came by on her way/ said she has a word to say/ about things today/ and fallen leaves - Nick Drake, River Man (bizza had the right artist but wrong song, well done though)
11. Born of the river/ Born of its ever-changing, never-changing murky water - Nick Cave, Saint Huck (Stu by email)
12. Oh yeah. The world's turned upside down/ Jimmy Finn is out - Talk Talk, The Rainbow (a hard one, but some people should know this)
13. ...and it's the same the whole world 'round. The hurt I see helps to compound, that... - XTC, Dear God (obviously I made this excerpt too difficult! tsk, tsk)
So there you go.kineticfactory got 3, one of which was a good guess. bizza got 4, one of which was slightly wrong... So I declare bizza the winner! What would you like to have won, Tim? ;)
I only just noticed there are two number 8s too! Ha!
1. Do you have another opinion? - The Pixies, Mr Grieves (
bizza, Stu by email)2. ...She said that you gave it to her/ That night that you planned to go clear/ Did you ever go clear? - Leonard Cohen, Famous Blue Raincoat (
kineticfactory, bizza)3. Listening to you reminds me of a motor's endless drone, and how the deaf are so damn lucky - Jim O'Rourke, Memory Lame (tsk, tsk)
4. The boy said "Dad they're going to take me to task/ but I'll be back by Christmas" - Elvis Costello, Shipbuilding {covered famously by Robert Wyatt, and lots of others of course} (
ninebelow)5. ...We danced the hora/ till we vomited blood... - A Silver Mt Zion, Movie (Never Made) (
kineticfactory)6. "Tu t'appelles comment?" - "Melody" - "Melody comment?" - Serge Gainsbourg, Melody or Cargo Culte (
kineticfactory (guessed but close enough), Stu by email)7. So hard to believe that he only 19 - Hrvatski, vatstep dsp (aka Kid 606, catstep/my kitten/catnap (vatstep dsp remix by Hrvatski) (tsk, nobody knew this either)
8.1 Without a universal law there is no gravity/ without gravity there is no atmosphere/ without an atmosphere there is no chance at life/ and with no chance at life... I don't exist - 13 & God, Soft Atlas (surprised nobody knew this)
8.2 With their nine inch nails and little fascists panties tucked inside the heart of every nice girl - Tori Amos, Precious Things (
bizza)9. We got a lot to talk about/ We got a lot to try out - The Clouds, Renee's Problems {where are all the Clouds fans? *sigh*)
10. Betty came by on her way/ said she has a word to say/ about things today/ and fallen leaves - Nick Drake, River Man (
bizza had the right artist but wrong song, well done though)11. Born of the river/ Born of its ever-changing, never-changing murky water - Nick Cave, Saint Huck (Stu by email)
12. Oh yeah. The world's turned upside down/ Jimmy Finn is out - Talk Talk, The Rainbow (a hard one, but some people should know this)
13. ...and it's the same the whole world 'round. The hurt I see helps to compound, that... - XTC, Dear God (obviously I made this excerpt too difficult! tsk, tsk)
So there you go.
kineticfactory got 3, one of which was a good guess. bizza got 4, one of which was slightly wrong... So I declare bizza the winner! What would you like to have won, Tim? ;)That song lyrics meme
Dec. 28th, 2005 12:47 amIt may be a meme, it may just be something people are doing... uhm... Anyway.
Go on, work out what songs these lyrics come from and, um, I'll be ya best friend. Maybe there'll be a prize in it for someone. I just wanted to post some song lyrics really. I'd rather just hum the tunes or tell you the chord changes - that's usually more what I pay attention because I am musician scum and not very good at picking up/remembering those word-things. Nevertheless, there are plenty of lyrics that mean a lot to me.
I could be mean and put in people like Hood, who never publish their lyrics, or Can, with Damo Suzuki's almost-incomprehensible improvised lyrics, but I decided that would just be silly. So, mostly this isn't too obscure, I'm hoping!
I'm screening comments for a little while just so you don't get to read other people's answers ;) I'll let this go for a few days, or maybe up to a week depending on whether there's much response. [Oh and note: If I reply to you, I'm then re-screening the comments, so that hopefully you get my reply emailed but it's still not visible - yet!]
So here goes:
Edit - the answers are up now, here
1. Do you have another opinion?
2. ...She said that you gave it to her/ That night that you planned to go clear/ Did you ever go clear?
3. Listening to you reminds me of a motor's endless drone, and how the deaf are so damn lucky
4. The boy said "Dad they're going to take me to task/ but I'll be back by Christmas"
5. ...We danced the hora/ till we vomited blood...
6. "Tu t'appelles comment?" - "Melody" - "Melody comment?"
7. So hard to believe that he only 19
8. Without a universal law there is no gravity/ without gravity there is no atmosphere/ without an atmosphere there is no chance at life/ and with no chance at life... I don't exist
8. With their nine inch nails and little fascists panties tucked inside the heart of every nice girl
9. We got a lot to talk about/ We got a lot to try out
10. Betty came by on her way/ said she has a word to say/ about things today/ and fallen leaves
11. Born of the river/ Born of its ever-changing, never-changing murky water
12. Oh yeah. The world's turned upside down/ Jimmy Finn is out
13. ...and it's the same the whole world 'round. The hurt I see helps to compound, that...
Go on, work out what songs these lyrics come from and, um, I'll be ya best friend. Maybe there'll be a prize in it for someone. I just wanted to post some song lyrics really. I'd rather just hum the tunes or tell you the chord changes - that's usually more what I pay attention because I am musician scum and not very good at picking up/remembering those word-things. Nevertheless, there are plenty of lyrics that mean a lot to me.
I could be mean and put in people like Hood, who never publish their lyrics, or Can, with Damo Suzuki's almost-incomprehensible improvised lyrics, but I decided that would just be silly. So, mostly this isn't too obscure, I'm hoping!
I'm screening comments for a little while just so you don't get to read other people's answers ;) I'll let this go for a few days, or maybe up to a week depending on whether there's much response. [Oh and note: If I reply to you, I'm then re-screening the comments, so that hopefully you get my reply emailed but it's still not visible - yet!]
So here goes:
Edit - the answers are up now, here
1. Do you have another opinion?
2. ...She said that you gave it to her/ That night that you planned to go clear/ Did you ever go clear?
3. Listening to you reminds me of a motor's endless drone, and how the deaf are so damn lucky
4. The boy said "Dad they're going to take me to task/ but I'll be back by Christmas"
5. ...We danced the hora/ till we vomited blood...
6. "Tu t'appelles comment?" - "Melody" - "Melody comment?"
7. So hard to believe that he only 19
8. Without a universal law there is no gravity/ without gravity there is no atmosphere/ without an atmosphere there is no chance at life/ and with no chance at life... I don't exist
8. With their nine inch nails and little fascists panties tucked inside the heart of every nice girl
9. We got a lot to talk about/ We got a lot to try out
10. Betty came by on her way/ said she has a word to say/ about things today/ and fallen leaves
11. Born of the river/ Born of its ever-changing, never-changing murky water
12. Oh yeah. The world's turned upside down/ Jimmy Finn is out
13. ...and it's the same the whole world 'round. The hurt I see helps to compound, that...
So... tagged by eclipsedeyes, I must present "7 songs I'm currently 'really feeling'". Here's a meme I can probably not hate! :) I will of course assume I can hedge my bets.
1. 65daysofstatic - drove through ghosts to get here or awaits rescue (both from new one time for all time album)
2. faux pas - White Light (from the very fine debut EP Faux Feels from Melbournite Tim Shiel)
3. Jason Forrest - Dust Never Settles (quasi-random choice from Shamelessly Exciting)
4. Why? - Act Five and Crushed Bones (two highlights from the excellent Elephant Eyelash album)
5. Avia Gardner - more than tongue can tell (gorgeous glitchy shoegaze from Canadian duo, title track of stunning mini-album)
6. Tanya Horo & Jono Ma - toadmobile (unreleased, still at demo stages, but it r0x0rs; indietronica from Sydney via New Zealand - ie she's from NZ originally. Used to call herself "Marvey King")
7. FourPlay - Appalachian Jam (I must include my own band because we've just had our new album mastered and it's most exciting... this track is an epic jam we did while getting ready to record "Cry Me A River", which I took home and did some fun glitchy edits and stuff on before taking it back for mixing. Ends the album on a blissful contemporary note... sad you people mostly won't get to hear it for a good few months yet!)
I'm meant to tag some others, which I don't usually do... so if you'd like to do so and you're on my friends list, go ahead and list some tunes!
If you want to hear any of this bar the FourPlay (sorry - self-promotion ain't my thing) and you're in Sydney, then you know you gotta be listening to da Utility Fog on da Sunday night. Tonight, tune in to FBi at 9pm for my gal Ange's collaboration with our friend Serena called "The First Shot" on Sunday Night At The Movies - a look at fiction vs autobiog, heroin addiction and Sydney's dark underbelly, with some great music plus book readings from my man Kit Brash and an interview with author Wayne Grogan spread throughout.
eclipsedeyes, I must present "7 songs I'm currently 'really feeling'". Here's a meme I can probably not hate! :) I will of course assume I can hedge my bets.1. 65daysofstatic - drove through ghosts to get here or awaits rescue (both from new one time for all time album)
2. faux pas - White Light (from the very fine debut EP Faux Feels from Melbournite Tim Shiel)
3. Jason Forrest - Dust Never Settles (quasi-random choice from Shamelessly Exciting)
4. Why? - Act Five and Crushed Bones (two highlights from the excellent Elephant Eyelash album)
5. Avia Gardner - more than tongue can tell (gorgeous glitchy shoegaze from Canadian duo, title track of stunning mini-album)
6. Tanya Horo & Jono Ma - toadmobile (unreleased, still at demo stages, but it r0x0rs; indietronica from Sydney via New Zealand - ie she's from NZ originally. Used to call herself "Marvey King")
7. FourPlay - Appalachian Jam (I must include my own band because we've just had our new album mastered and it's most exciting... this track is an epic jam we did while getting ready to record "Cry Me A River", which I took home and did some fun glitchy edits and stuff on before taking it back for mixing. Ends the album on a blissful contemporary note... sad you people mostly won't get to hear it for a good few months yet!)
I'm meant to tag some others, which I don't usually do... so if you'd like to do so and you're on my friends list, go ahead and list some tunes!
If you want to hear any of this bar the FourPlay (sorry - self-promotion ain't my thing) and you're in Sydney, then you know you gotta be listening to da Utility Fog on da Sunday night. Tonight, tune in to FBi at 9pm for my gal Ange's collaboration with our friend Serena called "The First Shot" on Sunday Night At The Movies - a look at fiction vs autobiog, heroin addiction and Sydney's dark underbelly, with some great music plus book readings from my man Kit Brash and an interview with author Wayne Grogan spread throughout.
River of Gods by Ian McDonald
Sep. 5th, 2005 11:04 pmFor those who aren't subscribed to my real blog's feed (woe be unto you - it's ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-syndicated.gif)
stumblingsdark), I've just written a rapturous review of Ian McDonald's River of Gods.
Read it here. I don't wish to cross-post it here because I want to centralise my comments, and I tend to feel that publishing things on LJ ghettoises them a little compared to publishing them on my own site.
If you do read the feed, please don't put comments there, because I won't be notified of them, and they'll be transient anyway as the feed only keeps the last few posts at any time.
End public service announcement.
stumblingsdark), I've just written a rapturous review of Ian McDonald's River of Gods.Read it here. I don't wish to cross-post it here because I want to centralise my comments, and I tend to feel that publishing things on LJ ghettoises them a little compared to publishing them on my own site.
If you do read the feed, please don't put comments there, because I won't be notified of them, and they'll be transient anyway as the feed only keeps the last few posts at any time.
End public service announcement.
Damn memes.
Aug. 20th, 2005 12:35 amOK well I wouldn't normally do these things but it's late and benpeek posted his, so... I filled in the answers and this is what it looks like. Don't read too much into it.
1. Go here.
2. Pass it on.
( my answers )
benpeek posted his, so... I filled in the answers and this is what it looks like. Don't read too much into it.1. Go here.
2. Pass it on.
( my answers )
21 questions meme
Aug. 17th, 2005 10:22 pmVia kineticfactory
1. When you look at yourself in the mirror, what's the first thing you look at?
Probably my hair. I don't look at myself in the mirror very much.
2. How much cash do you have on you right now?
About $70. *suspicious* Why do you ask?
3. What's a word that rhymes with "TEST"?
Guessed. I guess.
4. Favourite plant?
Basil. Although I'm a big fan of rocket these days (roquette, bébé)...
5. Who is the 4th person on your missed call list on your cell phone?
My own home! Bizarre.
6. What is your main ring tone on your phone?
The Bug vs The Rootsman fe. He-man - Killer (Soundmurderer & SK-1 Badman Rewind Remix)
Yes, I get funny looks when it "rings".
7. What shirt are you wearing?
My Mochipet t-shirt under a long-sleeved hemp jumper.
8. Do you "label" yourself?
Nope.
9. Name brand of your shoes currently wearing?
My trusty Doc Martens boots.
10. Do you prefer a bright or dark room?
Bright.
11. What did you have for breakfast?
Vegemite toast I do believe, and some chocolate milk :)
12. Since question 12 is weirdly missing, make some shit up.
There is no question 12.
13. What were you doing at midnight last night?
Downloading new drum'n'bass 12"s from slsk! Don't tell anyone.
14. What did your last text message you received on your cell phone say?
No idea, I deleted it. Last one I have kept is from a lovely viola-playing friend who is back here briefly from studying overseas and was listening to my radio show.
15. Do you ever click on "Pop Ups" or Banners?
No way.
16. What's an expression that you say a lot?
I am very fond of "jeepers" as in "jeepers creepers".
17. Who told you they loved you last?
Ange.
18. Last furry thing you touched?
*ahem*
Oh alright, 'twas my parents' cat (now that I've moved out) Puddy, on Sunday.
19. How many hours a week do you work?
Officially at the moment I'm doing 3 days a week, so 21 hours - but usually it's 2 days. But I do plenty of freelance and other than that it depends whether FourPlay's busy or not. When we record the next album, it'll be 11 or 12 days of 12 hours a day, potentially. With lots of slackarsing around.
20. How many rolls of film do you need to get developed?
None. Ever.
21. Favourite age you have been so far?
I'm quite happy at 31 thanks.
22. Your worst enemy?
Stuff.
23. What is your current desk top picture?
A big picture of FourPlay on an awning outside the first-floor warehouse where we were rehearsing a few months ago.
24. What was the last thing you said to someone?
Something about not thinking the Jan Jelinek album we're listening is that great. It's the famous loop-finding-jazz-records and Ange & I agree that it's pretty damn boring. Why bother?
25. If you had to choose between a million bucks or to be able to go back in time and fix all your mistakes which would you choose?
A million bucks, I guess. A lot of charities could do well out of that.
kineticfactory1. When you look at yourself in the mirror, what's the first thing you look at?
Probably my hair. I don't look at myself in the mirror very much.
2. How much cash do you have on you right now?
About $70. *suspicious* Why do you ask?
3. What's a word that rhymes with "TEST"?
Guessed. I guess.
4. Favourite plant?
Basil. Although I'm a big fan of rocket these days (roquette, bébé)...
5. Who is the 4th person on your missed call list on your cell phone?
My own home! Bizarre.
6. What is your main ring tone on your phone?
The Bug vs The Rootsman fe. He-man - Killer (Soundmurderer & SK-1 Badman Rewind Remix)
Yes, I get funny looks when it "rings".
7. What shirt are you wearing?
My Mochipet t-shirt under a long-sleeved hemp jumper.
8. Do you "label" yourself?
Nope.
9. Name brand of your shoes currently wearing?
My trusty Doc Martens boots.
10. Do you prefer a bright or dark room?
Bright.
11. What did you have for breakfast?
Vegemite toast I do believe, and some chocolate milk :)
12. Since question 12 is weirdly missing, make some shit up.
There is no question 12.
13. What were you doing at midnight last night?
Downloading new drum'n'bass 12"s from slsk! Don't tell anyone.
14. What did your last text message you received on your cell phone say?
No idea, I deleted it. Last one I have kept is from a lovely viola-playing friend who is back here briefly from studying overseas and was listening to my radio show.
15. Do you ever click on "Pop Ups" or Banners?
No way.
16. What's an expression that you say a lot?
I am very fond of "jeepers" as in "jeepers creepers".
17. Who told you they loved you last?
Ange.
18. Last furry thing you touched?
*ahem*
Oh alright, 'twas my parents' cat (now that I've moved out) Puddy, on Sunday.
19. How many hours a week do you work?
Officially at the moment I'm doing 3 days a week, so 21 hours - but usually it's 2 days. But I do plenty of freelance and other than that it depends whether FourPlay's busy or not. When we record the next album, it'll be 11 or 12 days of 12 hours a day, potentially. With lots of slackarsing around.
20. How many rolls of film do you need to get developed?
None. Ever.
21. Favourite age you have been so far?
I'm quite happy at 31 thanks.
22. Your worst enemy?
Stuff.
23. What is your current desk top picture?
A big picture of FourPlay on an awning outside the first-floor warehouse where we were rehearsing a few months ago.
24. What was the last thing you said to someone?
Something about not thinking the Jan Jelinek album we're listening is that great. It's the famous loop-finding-jazz-records and Ange & I agree that it's pretty damn boring. Why bother?
25. If you had to choose between a million bucks or to be able to go back in time and fix all your mistakes which would you choose?
A million bucks, I guess. A lot of charities could do well out of that.
Current Music: Exile - Pro Agonist (Planet µ)
