January 31, 2004
OK
really bored with the force 10 gales now. Feel free to stop any time now. Thank you.
by groc at 07:49 PM | Comments (0)
Guston
Oh goodie, a documentry on Philip Guston is on BBC four tonight.
An artist that turned his back on abstract expressionism (yawn) to do more cartoonesque work (yay). Excellent.
by groc at 05:49 PM | Comments (3)
More
by groc at 09:08 AM | Comments (2)
bbc
Momus' take on the issue. (Super cool Memphis TV illo.)
Me, I was going to do a photoshop thing of Blair as Pinocchio with his nose growing out of control, but I couldn't be asked. My disgust for the man has hit a new all time low. So when exactly are things going to start getting better then Tony?
by groc at 03:15 AM | Comments (0)
January 30, 2004
Yay
Apparently my ickle phone camera attachment has landed -but at my bf's house. (Don't ask.) So I've still got not it in my hot sticky hands but at least I know it's not forever vanished off into the PO's murky Twilight Zone of lost packages and mail.
by groc at 11:50 PM | Comments (1)
You are what you like
"The old High Fidelity mantra that "You are what you like" still holds true, and nothing declares what you like more forcefully than your CD collection. Most people collect CDs solely to arrange them -- alphabetically and by release date, of course -- in a comically oversize CD rack and just stare at 'em, arms outstretched, beaming. This Is Who I Am, the divine accumulation of my fabulous eclecticism. And in the event of an earthquake, Who I Am can tip over and literally crush me."
Mmmmm -who do I know who's like that? It's not just the one person either...
by groc at 11:06 AM | Comments (6)
Stepford Wives Remake
Remade as a comedy?
Oh.
I'm not sure what to make of this.
Generally I'm with what John Waters said: (I'm paraphrasing wildly here)
Why oh why do they insist on recreating classic movies - they can never match the original and the resulting film is usually a completely insulting mess. Classic movies don't need remaking. Instead why don't they go and remake any one of those thousands of awful films that litter Hollywoods history and aim to make them a lot better?
But then Hollywood isn't exactly renowned for having good ideas is it?
by groc at 07:35 AM | Comments (0)
copyright
Sample chapters from 'Digital Copyright' a book by Jessica Litman.
From chapter 5:
"If we untangle the claim that technology has turned Johnny Teenager into a Pirate, what turns out to be fueling it is the idea that if Johnny Teenager were to decide to share his unauthorized copy with 2 million of his closest friends, the effect on a record company would be pretty similar to the effect of some counterfeit CD factory burning 2 million CDs and selling them cheap. Copyright owners are worried, and with good reason. But, in response to their worry, they’ve succeeded in persuading a lot of people that any behavior that has the same effect as piracy must be piracy, and must therefore reflect the same moral turpitude we attach to piracy, even if it is the same behavior that we all called legitimate before. Worse, any behavior that could potentially cause the same effect as piracy, even if it doesn’t, must also be piracy. Because an unauthorized digital copy of something could be uploaded to the Internet, where it could be downloaded by two million people, even making the digital copy is piracy. Because an unauthorized digital copy of something could be used in a way that could cause all that damage, making a tool that makes it possible to make an unauthorized digital copy, even if nobody ever actually makes one, is itself piracy, regardless of the reasons one might have for making this tool. And what could possibly be wrong with a law designed to prevent piracy?My argument, here, is that this evolution in metaphors conceals immense sleight of hand. We as a society never actually sat down and discussed in policy terms whether, now that we had grown from a copyright importing nation to a copyright exporting nation, we wanted to recreate copyright as a more expansive sort of control. Instead, by changing metaphors, we somehow got snookered into believing that copyright had always been intended to offer content owners extensive control, only, before now, we didn't have the means to enforce it. "
by groc at 05:25 AM | Comments (0)
January 29, 2004
narked
I'm severely narked.
I want to be doing little photos like this.
Well over a fortnight ago I went through the rigmarole of buying a clip-on T68i camera unit thingy from e-bay. The only way a pauper like me could hope to afford one. I then had to buy a T68i phone for it to fit onto. The phone arrived after only about three days (albeit a lot battered looking than I was lead to believe and sans a charger. Hummrphf. Luckily the one for my old Ericsson phone works for it). But that camera never arrived presumably having disappeared into the ether. Grrrr.
It's just typical of my luck that my first ever experience of E-bay has to be a somewhat crap one. *Heavy sigh*
by groc at 10:29 AM | Comments (4)
Nigel Kneale
Jack Kibble-White interviews Nigel Kneale.
[This one's for the trash addict.]
I think I'd like to see Kinvig -of course this is one of those exceedingly rare things that they'll never repeat -not even on one of those myriad of digital channels. (These seem to be reserved for either endless repeats of ‘Only Fools and Horses’ etc. or totally utter crap like Nation 277 or Friendly TV) Likewise it's unlikely to ever be put out on DVD because supposedly not enough people would buy it. What we need is a massive databank of old TV episodes which you can either download via t’internet for yourself or at a push order an individually copied DVD from. Hurry up future.)
by groc at 05:40 AM | Comments (0)
Klaus
Nomi.
by groc at 04:43 AM | Comments (3)
January 28, 2004
M & M
Dull Will, shrill irritating Grace and infantile fairy Jack in the background as a subplot. Megan & Madonna high in the mix = best. Will & Grace. episode. ever.
by groc at 09:30 PM | Comments (1)
Phkkhewww! (sound of gunshot) Ow-ow-ow! (bullet hitting foot)
NB. This is an article from a Business Magazine -even they think the RIAA is shooting themselves in the foot -well, some more that is. But I bet you can lay money on betting that our version of the RIAA -the BPI will be rushing to repeat all the same mistakes...
These people really aren't very bright -insanely greedy yes, intelligent -no.
by groc at 08:36 PM | Comments (0)
naughty naughty
by groc at 05:06 AM | Comments (3)
Just Say 'No'
by groc at 05:03 AM | Comments (1)
January 27, 2004
Sweet
Enjoying your diet Cola?
Sweet as a tumor.
[via Goluboy.]
by groc at 03:17 PM | Comments (3)
January 26, 2004
want
It's exactly what you need if you're on holiday and want to take lots of digital photos.
by groc at 08:20 PM | Comments (7)
swopsies?
Don't suppose there's anyone out there who's willing to swop me a Mojo Jojo for a Buttercup is there? I don't need two Buttercups but I do need a Mojo Jojo I do.
by groc at 09:06 AM | Comments (11)
favicon
Ok so why is my nice new favicon happily showing up in Firebird but not doing so in Internet Explorer? Huh?
I think it might be broken that's why.
by groc at 07:38 AM | Comments (13)
sitcom
??? wtf. 'My Family' is a sitcom is it? Really? Well, I can see there is a vague situation. That of a naff middle class family doing their rather naff tedious middle-class family things but those things being turned on their head -but there's definitely no hint of any comedy. No, none. No matter how loudly they play their laughter tracks over every last thing. There is therefore no 'com' here but there is however an awful lot of 'sit' -oh wait, I’m sorry, that last word seems to be missing the letter 'h'. Yet this is deemed good enough to appear on the UK gold channel is it? That home of the supposedly ‘crème de la crème’ of British TV programmes. How desperate is that?
What's even more regrettable is that this whole thing is such a complete and utterly painful waste of some otherwise very good British actors. It's a crime.
Sigh.
When's the next new series of ‘The League of Gentlemen’ on?
by groc at 12:43 AM | Comments (7)
January 25, 2004
airport insecurity
Fingerprinting Foreigners [via Soreeyes].
The sheer brain-dead futility of this whole enterprise is truly stunning.
What no one else seemed to have bothered themselves to point out in all this is that the terrorists who perpetuated those September 11 attacks were on a suicide mission! Hence I don’t think any such similiar terrorist is actually going to mind in the least whether their fingerprints or iris prints or whatever else are on file somewhere because THEY ARE GOING TO KILL THEMSELVES and are only intent on taking as many people with them and to do as much damage as possible.
What earthly good is having the biometric information of someone who’s soon to be a corpse?
So what is the point? What is the point?
Now either the US Government is deeply, deeply stupid or is still using the excuse of 9/11 to push through lots of very sinister legislation the likes of which the old ruling elite of Communist East Germany would have been envious of. Me, I rather suspect it’s both.
I could never quite see the logic behind the likes of Bush saying “ooooh those nasty evil people are jealous of us and our freedoms in our country” and who then spend all their efforts doing everything they can to remove as many of those same (supposed) freedoms.
But as Jenny Holzer once said: “Abuse of power comes as no surprise.”
by groc at 09:06 PM | Comments (1)
January 24, 2004
Doe - d'oh
The Offical Joe Doe site - a flash driven interactive thing. It makes my brain hurt.
[I guess I should explain for the benefit of those of you without access to the SciFi channel that 'John Doe' is a TV series. It was yet another one of those in a long line of shows that the American Fox TV network commissioned but then terminated after just the one season because it failed to reach some arbitrarily set viewing figures. Which, as it was running as an on-going story was pretty damn rude of them. I hate it when they do that, and they do that a lot that Fox network do.]
by groc at 03:11 AM | Comments (0)
January 23, 2004
iPod battery life & UK MPs
Um. £79 for a battery replacement scheme? Er... now how is it all those mobile phone makers can make nice teeny tiny rechargable batteries for their nice teeny tiny phones which can be easily replaced by their owners and make replacement batteries that don't cost an arm and a leg but those almighty Mac people -can't?
Wonder if it's linked to the same reason why mac mice only have the one button? It's as if they're afraid that if a mac user had to be told how to 'right' or 'left' click -they'll fall over and if they ever had to use a scrolling wheel mouse ...why, their brains would really hurt -lots.
So having to puzzle out how to open up a flap and find that space where the battery slots in could have quite dire consequences to the ordinary Mac user, why their brains would just fuse up altogether. Far better send it off to let a specially trained expert do it. For a price.
After I'd just written the above I then found out exactly why in this article. It's quite simple: we're all being gouged on the price of rechargable batteries. Grrrr.
by groc at 07:49 PM | Comments (6)
customer dis-service
nods in agreement with this post. One day this week with only about 3 minutes to go before it's closing time I dashed into a store expecting to be able to run to what I needed to buy and be out again before they shut. Instead I was confronted with a completely different store layout -forcing me to walk up and down trying to find where they had moved the section I wanted to -aaargh. Not only that, when I did find someone to ask it turned out the store had totally removed the whole section I went in for -so it was no wonder I couldn't find it. Hurrumph.
by groc at 04:47 AM | Comments (0)
January 22, 2004
Jim Woodring - animations
Gasp.
[Via Bugpowder]
by groc at 08:29 PM | Comments (4)
Cunningham stuntsham
There's DVD of the works by Chris Cunningham? Me want.
Doya think if I had an Amazon wishlist people will buy me stuff?
No, I didn't think so either.
(Note: to self, if I ever need an example of how totally shit my BT so-called broadband connection is: all I have to do is try and play the two movie clips. Broadband movie forget it. Go to dial-up version, oh, it can't even play that either! Hurumphf! But at least the Woodring realplayer cartoons played fine.)
by groc at 07:23 PM | Comments (1)
welcome to my deleted folder
I remember when I was being driven mad by getting just ten of these a day. Now I get well over twenty. All of these are for the same porn site, I deleted the three or so that weren't. I'd have thought the spammers would have moved onto other mailboxes by now, or that with quite so many samples to work from the BT filters would have learnt to how block them by now. But oh no, they keep relentlessly coming in...
[Screams.]
by groc at 03:19 AM | Comments (0)
January 21, 2004
Cor blimey
Oh. So after practically inventing homophobia and developing an deeply ingrained general sex-phobia for everyone else over centuries -the Church of England is now going to have a sit-down to discuss the whole homosexual issue thing -again. Big whoop-de-whoop. They might even have a talk about gay marriages. Eeek, they'll be declaring the Earth isn't flat and that it goes around the sun and not the other way round next.
by groc at 05:32 AM | Comments (0)
January 20, 2004
Note to self:
Sky digital 289 -the FX channel. They're showing the 60s series of Lost in Space, Batman, Land of the Giants etc. ooooooh. Kitsch heaven. How long has this been going on and why wasn't I informed?
by groc at 03:31 AM | Comments (3)
January 19, 2004
major matt mason
I had this major matt mason little big book as a kid! My mom might still even have it somewhere.
[via the cartoonist.]
by groc at 09:45 PM | Comments (1)
Fox is no fox
Certainly one of the most unappealing things about the launch of the digital UK G2 channel has been their own promotional adverts for it. One in particular leaves me with a nasty taste in my mouth -it’s the one featuring a be-frogman-suited Sam Fox having a bucket of dead eels poured over her head. I’m far from being a fan of Sam Fox, but I feel cringingly uncomfortable for her that she either: must think she’s being clever, cool, hip and ‘ironic’ by being in this commercial (she isn’t) or else is so desperate for work and/or to be on TV that she has to humiliate herself in this way (that‘s just tragic, and we‘ve already got the Hamiltons constantly publicly humiliating themselves for that -surely that particular slot is full now). I certainly hate the makers of this commercial -what do they think they’re doing? It’s not funny and it's certainly not 'edgy' or witty or even sarcastic, and why have they singled out Sam Fox for this treatment (other than the fact she was willing to go through with it)? Then they have the temerity to have the strap line: ‘Not on our Channel’ -Er, but UK G2 -it most definitely is on your channel. You show it many times a day. You paid to have it made, and being yet another golden oldies repeats channel it‘s the only thing nearest to a programme you’ve ever made.
So we’re being told to watch UKgold 2 because it doesn’t have the sort of terrible cheap programmes where Sam Fox might be pelted with eels. But… but… it’s always promoting itself with this advert where Sam Fox is being pelted by eels. If you don’t want to see Sam Fox being pelted by eels the last thing you want to do is watch this channel, but on the other hand if you do want to watch Sam Fox being pelted by eels this is the only place you can see it and yet as you're watching it you’re being told that this sort of thing doesn’t happen on this channel… my brain hurts now.
Anyway this rant -(which as you can tell I’ve been stewing on for an age now) was brought on by reading this (which I came to via reading this). I seem remember hearing such a while back. But it all seems so implausible, surely it was just another attempt at courting publicity? No? Blimey.
by groc at 08:04 PM | Comments (0)
Ordinary everyday things that I find weird 2
So there’s this stuff, right - it’s called fresh water. It falls from the sky for free as rain. You pay a water company for a supply of it to be sent to your home to drink and to wash in and to piss and pooh into.
Then there’s the stuff in plastic bottles that they sell in shops. It’s expensive. A lot more expensive than the stuff that comes out of the taps. Often even more expensive than the water some other companies add sugar and flavourings and colours to and make fizzy. Why is it so expensive? -well because some company is putting it into plastic bottles then slapping a pretty printed label on it and then shipping it around the world and to the shops where you buy it from. All that costs money to do. They also add in a rather hefty profit margin that covers all the costs of advertising it -in order to convince you that all this is a sane and sensible thing to be doing.
People buy it because they say they think it tastes nicer than the tap water, even despite the fact it’s likely to be full of dodgy bacteria (and in a few cases it’s been known to cause food poisoning). It doesn’t seem to occur them to that if their tap water tastes that nasty that they should be complaining to their water company and keep on making a fuss until the water company does something to make the water taste nicer. They are paying for it after all. (They should do something to make them stop putting fluoride in the water too but that’s another issue for another time.)
Buying bottled water also means we have an awful lot of waste plastic bottles that we don’t know what to do with. An awful, awful lot of plastic bottles.
Weird.
by groc at 04:57 PM | Comments (3)
Avon calling
Noooooooo! Nooooooooo! I've just seen a really crappy TeeVee commerical with Avon* -(actor Paul Darrow) advertising those shopper scooter things that are so popular with the little old ladies here in Worthing. That's not right. Not Avon! [Sobs.]
Although it might have been really funny if he'd worn his old costume from the series, but that would have been more like a Harry Hill TV Burp sketch. Mmmm now there's an idea...
*from Blakes 7.
Bonus link: Oh dear Oh dear Oh dear.
by groc at 02:09 PM | Comments (3)
stoned
Here are some more pikturs.
by groc at 01:42 AM | Comments (0)
January 16, 2004
spam art
another much more famous brit blogger than me succumbs to the urge to create spam inspired art.
This is a new record. Yesterday I received 28 spams from the very same ever eager french-based porn site that's so insanely desperately keen for me to see their 'free' Paris Hilton video and other crap. Just what the hell is wrong with these people? If I got that many phone calls or pieces of snail mail it would be classed as criminal harrassment. I could have a restraining order put on them. If I had the money I'd be tempted to track them down and sue the hind quarters off them. I then received yet another 21 today.
Of course the big question remains: after so long and after so many mails -why hasn't the BT spam filter learnt how to block them yet?
by groc at 11:56 PM | Comments (0)
dontcha just love that DRM
by groc at 09:29 PM | Comments (0)
silver
ooooh Andy Warhol would be proud.
by groc at 04:44 PM | Comments (0)
Flesh and the Devil
Some quick thoughts after seeing last night's Channel 4s ‘Flesh and the Devil‘.
One does not become more Christ-like and spiritually aware simply by having oneself flogged raw or by being nailed to a cross. We now know that all that actually does is tap into the body’s own natural endorphin system - which is just to achieve a drug-like state that could be far better and more easily achieved by …er, oh yes, just taking drugs. D’oh.
In case you didn’t realise it -at around Mr. Jesus' time hundreds upon hundreds of people where crucified -it was a very common form of execution by the Romans in those days - but there was only one Christ. (Supposedly.) So experiencing crucifixion isn’t the answer. Nor indeed, is being in a blissed-out state or else we’d have millions of Christ-like clubbers roaming about the place after every weekend now wouldn’t we?
It’s supposed to be that Christ has already died once for your (and all our) ‘sins’ - so surely you shouldn’t have to go through it all again personally. It kinds of negates the whole point of his sacrifice doesn‘t it? So all that nailing yourself up stuff seems to be more than a little self-indulgent and self-centred by comparison. Tsk. The sheer presumption of it. Disrespectful or what? The 'son of god' going through it just wasn't good enough for you was it? Didn't do quite right for you? Do a better job of it can you? Um.
Surely a far better way to achieve a Christ-like state and to get yourself in God’s good books would be to be exceptionally nice to people, and encourage other people to be nice to each other, help the disadvantaged, do good works, sin no more, etc. But that’s usually long-term hard work and frankly most people couldn’t be bothered to put in that kind of effort over the long haul now could they. Always the quick fix. Hum again.
As for celibacy. Er… sorry to put the cat among the pigeons here but the chances are very high that the real proper historical Mr. Jesus (as opposed to the mythically-charged one that St. Paul invented for everyone to worship) was in fact a married man -so all that celibacy thing is a bit of mistake. Sorry.
It's (not) funny how every single last person I've met who's been into S&M has come from either a Catholic or otherwise very strict religious background. It proves it's not healthy.
by groc at 02:41 PM | Comments (0)
microcast
by groc at 01:49 PM | Comments (0)
Gene genie -loves chimney stacks
Oh wait - that was another Gene altogether.
Here's a record of Gene Roddenberry's repeated attempts to come up with a tv series idea to rival Star Trek. Which did eventually bore fruit as (the somewhat rubbishy) Andromeda. Well, the variation on the Rip Van Winkle theme and the character's name remained intact. Now it transpires there's to be another one of his ropey old ideas to be made into a series. This is not bad going for someone who's actually been dead for 12 years. Oh well it can't be any worse than Joss Whendon's decidedly odd idea of having a sci-fi Western in outer space thing.
However I got onto this train of thought escapes me...
by groc at 05:19 AM | Comments (0)
Let's have a whip round
I say let's track them down and chop their typing fingers off. Let's have a whip round to set a few hitmen onto them. It'd probably only cost each of us about 10p each to raise enough bounty to do that.
Or is the mystery explained?
On a lighter note it was certainly nice seeing this repeated tonight.
by groc at 03:42 AM | Comments (0)
January 15, 2004
jumping the gun
Simply because Kodak is to turn it's back on making any more 35 mm film cameras* it doesn't sound the death knell for film photography quite yet. Otherwise they'd stop making their film stock as well wouldn't they?
*It isn't as if Kodak was ever particularly known for making high quality 35mm cameras is it? As to why APS never took off? well, a quick look to compare it's prices for developing and printing that particular format over ordinary 35mm prices will provide some quick (and bleedin' obvious) answers there. Kodak also misfired somewhat with their photo disc system too didn't they? As to whether they'll manage to continue to make their mark in the digital photography world in face of such stiff competition remains to be seen...
Call me when the super-cheap 15 or 25 mega-pixel SLR camera is here and I might start taking the death of 35mm film a bit more seriously.
by groc at 11:02 PM | Comments (0)
artspam
Reimagining the Ordovician Gothic: Fossils From the Golden Age of Spam.
When life gives you lemons -make lemonade.
When your inbox gives you spam -make art of it?
Mmmm no, I still think knee-capping the bastards would be much more gratifying.
Don't forget my spam monsters - please spread the word....
by groc at 08:49 PM | Comments (0)
January 14, 2004
goldfrapp
by groc at 06:47 PM | Comments (2)
bad (American) ideas
One day -and hopefully one day soon, all our UK businesses* and our UK politicians etc. will wake up to the fact that they really don't have to blindly copy whatever America does first. That -gasp! maybe we can and should sit back and actually learn from their mistakes (and they make lots of them) and with that knowledge in hand do things a lot better for ourselves.
Just a few bad American ideas I can think of off the top of my head:
The 80s cult of privatising just about everything that moved.
Which went hand in hand with the still on-going disgrace of fat cat directors pay cheques and obscene golden handshakes to reward gross incompetence. Oh yes, 'greed is good', and so too then must stupidity and ineptitude be. We haven’t had our own Enron scandal (-yet) but with all the above we haven’t needed one. But you can expect a few more power cuts before we finally get the message.
Care in the community.
Saving money by closing long-term care hospitals and putting the most vulnerable people in our society onto the streets. Brilliant idea. And to think our NHS was once the envy of the rest of the world…
Replacing what was a reasonably successful ‘free’ Further Education with it’s grants system with what's proving to be a deeply flawed student loan system, one which ensures only those from wealthier middle-class backgrounds can take advantage of FE. Who are now bleating because they're being gouged. (Well hey, maybe if they'd been paying out a bit more in taxes all this time the costs would have been spread out more evenly and there wouldn't be all this mess now. D'oh.)
Outsourcing. Employing call centre workers in other countries rather than our own. Um -think for a moment, is having electronic sweatshops ever a good image for any company to have? Let alone ones moved abroad to exploit cheaper labour there.
That'll do to be going on with.
Oh to have some good British ideas... ones which will incorporate things like social justice and a sense of fair play and generosity of spirit. Qualities we haven't seen much of in decades.
*[via nicelytoasted]
by groc at 03:41 PM | Comments (0)
January 13, 2004
robbo
by groc at 07:52 PM | Comments (3)
Bad ads 2
The Specsavers family.
A totally unlikeable working class family bitch and bicker around the kitchen table nagging the father figure (?) that all his life problems would’ve been solved had he only gone to that particular branch of opticians for their two-for-one offer. When in actual fact he’d then have two sets of specs to lose and have to find again instead of just the one pair.
Shoot them. Just shoot them all dead. Anything to stop them squawking like demented harpies. Shoot them as if it was a scene from a Sam Peckinpah movie. Shoot them now.
by groc at 12:13 PM | Comments (5)
January 12, 2004
Ringu lego
Oh yeah, I nearly forgot this link was forwarded to me by my friend J-me.
Spookiness-a-go-go.
Hellraiser pinhead minifig too.
by groc at 10:39 PM | Comments (2)
Missing: one Tolkien chromosome
I was taken to see ‘Return’ this weekend and despite the sprawling noisy spectacle of it all -I was well… bored -really, really bored. I confess since they've never appealed to me I've not read any of the books, and even after watching the whole trilogy I *still* don’t want to. Although I realise it would mean I’d understand more of what was going on. (Me: “Uh? Where’d that massive army of green ghosts suddenly come from?” Him: “blah blah blah repaired sword, blah blah blah some promise, returned King, blah blah blah” Me: “oh.” (Thinks: ‘I wish that had been a bit clearer in the film‘.) For some reason I don’t feel driven to wade through those thick tomes simply to get the finer plot details of a set of films that I didn’t particularly enjoy watching the first time round. Life’s too short (and it’s getting shorter all the time).
Throughout all of the series I didn’t connect with or even particularly like any of the characters so I didn’t much care what happened to any of them. They all came across as a bit flat and cardboard-like to me. I did however, feel sorry for the poor giant cgi elephants. I like elephants -even computer generated ones. (It also crossed my mind a few times that at some level weren’t these films glorifying war? Is that such a good idea? Especially these days with that Mr Bush acting like one of the evil or mad kings out of the movie.)
So I must be amongst a teeny tiny percentage of the world who are totally missing the 'Tolkien chromosome'. It just doesn’t reach me. This might have something to do with me being more interested in imaginary futures than I am in imaginary histories. Nostalgia-worship being a particular disease endemic amongst the British. I don’t know. I don’t care. I don’t ‘get’ competitive sports either.
Oh well. I did my duty -I tried.
When’s that new series of Angel on?
(P.S. Please don’t fill my comments boxes with flames. If you liked it all well and good but any ranting at me won’t suddenly make me ‘see the light‘.)
by groc at 01:47 PM | Comments (5)
January 09, 2004
birdy
by groc at 09:30 PM | Comments (0)
Shreeeek (like a girl - a pretty girl)
(thanks to Daaaaaviiiid for the alert)
by groc at 07:23 PM | Comments (1)
I'm declaring
John Foxx's Camera as my current theme tune. You'll have to source your own copy of it because I'm out of webspace.
An interview.
The official website.
He wrote a song called 'A Blurred Girl' and if wonder if these are his photos. After all he did spend time as a illustrator/graphic artist. No? Oh well it was a nice idea.
by groc at 12:41 PM | Comments (0)
Cybergreen
Bruce Sterling interview in Reason
by groc at 11:38 AM | Comments (5)
Dammit
dammit dammit -I just missed the chance to tape Smack the Pony's musical number 'I Just Can't Find My friend'. I *love* that piece. I love the music. I love the silly dances. I love the video - especially the bit when they pogo along to the onomatopoeic words being shown on screens like 'beep beep beep' and 't-t-t-t-t-t' etc. I want it mixed up into a proper single and I want it to get to number one for at least 4 or 5 weeks, and I want it now.
by groc at 12:16 AM | Comments (6)
January 08, 2004
Commerical breaks 1
The worst adverts obviously are shown during the daytime when they presume only the unemployed, the retired, the skiving student and the housewife are watching. So that in mind most feature an endless parade of ‘normal’ (usually meaning various ugly and overweight) actors people who’ve ‘consolidated all their loans’ and thus achieved a state of nirvada-like bliss or something. Might I suggest culling as a more effective and attractive solution. After all they still don’t look that happy -probably because they know the next round of utility and credit card bills are due any moment and the whole sorry debt mess is about to start afresh.
‘Quote me happy’
The campaign started off all ‘big’ budget (*cough*) with one of this country’s most irritating men - Richard Blackwood doing a pratty little dance around outside some designer home (were we meant to believe he owned that house? - I don‘t think so somehow) and now it’s all common street folk whose intelligence levels suddenly drastically plummet and they start having inexplicably giggly spontaneous noisy quasi-orgasms when talking on the ’phone. While Stepford wife style zombie call centre staff smile in bemusement. Bizarre and stunningly stupid - who says ‘Quote me happy’? Nobody. Nobody except a non-too bright advertising executive trying to come up with a memorable strap line and failing rather miserably that’s who.
Time Life’s ‘Life of Jesus‘ video.
Errr. I think the chances that Jesus was blue-eyed and blond are pretty remote actually - in actuality he probably looked more like Bin Laden. That's a scary thought isn't it.
To be continued…
by groc at 08:41 PM | Comments (8)
Pony up
by groc at 07:16 PM | Comments (0)
Quote of the day:
David: "I look like Audrey Hepburn I do. Don't you think so."
Me: "Oh yes of course - it's the beard, it's exactly the same."
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David | Audrey |
by groc at 12:05 PM | Comments (6)
happy birthday Bowie
He shares the same birthday as Elvis Presley you know.
by groc at 11:13 AM | Comments (0)
January 07, 2004
Sigh.
just past 12pm and I've already got 7 different spams from those evil and utterly moronic Paris Hilton/free teenz moviez/incest porn website people. I must have had nearly 500 spams from them by now. Yet for all their efforts I still feel no interest whatsoever in ever visiting their site. Odd that isn't it?
If Microsoft ever wanted the world to forgive them their sins and win hearts all round, all they'd have to do is use some of their billions to put hitmen onto the worst of the spammers. (That idea could backfire though since once they got the taste for it they might extend the idea to put hitmen onto all their rivals like Steve Jobs and the linux people too...)
(buqgqwrh2m@aol.com f04dmkl@aol.com umcyyi@aol.com)
by groc at 12:16 PM | Comments (0)
current listening
Tori Amos' cover of Depeche Mode's 'Enjoy the Silence'.
by groc at 11:33 AM | Comments (4)
Aqua
By the way I spotted a copy of Aqua's CD Aquarium for £2.50 in a charity shop yesterday. Any one want me to buy it for them? Now I know what great fans you all are of the band. (You sad, sad 'irony'-loving people.)
oh and look... Industry Watchdog Sues Music Labels Over Copy-Protected CDs. When I first heard of Mac owners putting one of these sort of CDs into their machine only to have the computer crash and in some cases even stick in the computer I always thought that by rights they should be able to take the record company to court and sue for the costs of repair, and of any lost data. After all there's never any clear warning on any of those CDs. Funny that. Wonder why that is? Oh yes - of course, because no one would buy the bloody things. D'oh.
Whenever I hear the music and film industry bleeting about their imaginary lost revenues -I'm reminded of that line from Tom in 'Gimmee Gimmee Gimmee': "Don't you piss on my head and tell me it's rain".
by groc at 09:05 AM | Comments (7)
January 06, 2004
yet another sunset
by groc at 10:03 PM | Comments (0)
Zzzzzzzz
Um. It sounds like the people responsible for Channel 4's program ideas have been severely sleep deprived themselves for a considerable number of years now.
I know I'm well beyond tired of unutterable shite like this being peddled as entertainment.
by groc at 07:36 PM | Comments (3)
VR 5
by groc at 01:33 AM | Comments (8)
January 04, 2004
DVDs wot I recently watched:
Terminator 3
Much sound, fury, explosions and special effects signifying nothing. Pointless. Although I found the bleak ending an interesting touch. But it had to be there in order that the previous two films could continue to exist -after all you can‘t keep sending killer cyborgs back into the past/present day if there‘s no robot-dominated future for them to be sent back from can you? Terminator 4 anyone? But for my money having a Terminator movie that doesn’t have Linda Hamilton in it was a bad move. It’s was her character that actually made the other two movies as good as they were -not the lumpen Schwarzenegger.
(Something I've always wondered: Once the machines have achieved their objective of eliminating every last human -what will they do then? Shut down? Go into outerspace to find other humanoid-like aliens to destroy? What? Maybe they'll take up art and music -grow flowers?)
Bruce Almighty.
Unbearably schmaltzy -cloying and soft headed. If this is how Hollywood regards theosophy and the nature of man and his relationship with supreme being -then it’s no wonder mainstream America is in deep, deep trouble.
Trying so hard to be like a ‘It’s a Wonderful World’ for the 00s but with instant breast enhancements, pissing dogs and where id-driven self-centred self-interest takes over from any sense of community spirit.
Oh well. Thank god I'm an atheist.
The Ring
The American version of the cult Japanese movie series. Which despite being constantly irritated by the Matrix-style green tinge that they had throughout the entire movie -I really enjoyed. I see it as belonging alongside the others in the Japanese series as opposed to being a replacement for them.
by groc at 09:37 AM | Comments (7)
January 03, 2004
random thought
putting on my environmental hat for a moment -I was wondering: with new fangled CDs [cough] with their plastic jewel cases (I hate Jewel cases with a passion -they're awful, awful, awful) do they use more or less plastic than their 12" vinyl predecessors? Surely it's a bit more -and that's a bad thing. Also -aren't downloadable mpgs in actuality more environmentally friendly because being just computer files there is no plastic and paper whatsoever to clutter up the place? So think how much more environmentally friendly an iPod or any of it's equivalents must be when they can hold hundreds of CDs worth of music... or does having a hard-to-recycle battery negate all of that?
Unrelated slice of life:
As I was wandering around a shop today the muzak system started playing this year's Xmas hit - 'Mad World' and some child piped up loudly: "Oh Mommy -this is your favourite isn't it? You think he's sexy -don't you Mommy?" I had a hard time resisting the temptation to find this poor mommy person and give her a wink and say "hey, me too!"
by groc at 02:05 AM | Comments (1)
January 02, 2004
Pee Wee
by groc at 01:53 PM | Comments (1)
100 worse
On watching Channel 4’s top 100 worst pop songs show tonight I was struck by what a sizable bulk of the songs featured were responsible for me so vehemently hating going out on the (Nottingham) gay scene throughout the 90s. At the time I remember so many people loving and feverishly dancing away to lots of those songs (and often many times to the same tunes in the same night). I even had someone spend some time trying to persuade me just how good and fun and ‘ironic’ ’Barbie Girl’ was. I wasn’t in the least remotely convinced then and I hope that person is feeling a deep pang of shame now. Feeling like I was being tortured and perpetually mildly nauseated I was often castigated for being a misery and a spoil sport -but no, in actuality I was just someone with reasonably good aesthetic tastes and has never once felt any compulsion to blindly follow the herd. Especially not when they were doing the dance steps to ‘Tragedy’ or the ‘Macarena’. (Uh shudder. The sick bastards.) Oh, and not being off my face on substances meant my perceptions remained uncompromised. Because let’s face facts -your facilities have got to quite severely damaged before you think ‘No Limits’ or ‘the Only Way Is Up’ or Cher’s ‘Believe’ are great to dance to. Although this doesn’t explain (or excuse) people from going out and actually buying those records in the cold sober light of day. Why do they do that? Why? What is wrong with them?
But what ultimately worries me now is well, isn’t 99.9999% of the pop output now unbearable shite? Sigh.
by groc at 02:46 AM | Comments (19)
January 01, 2004
Saved
Luckily for the whole human race the plastic inflatable snowmen's attempt to take over the world was thwarted by their over-consumption of alcohol during the holiday season...
by groc at 08:08 AM | Comments (1)