Looking forward to this tomorrow night. From the looks of that setlist it will be very Think Tank-centric (playing nearly everything except my current favourite song, Caravan, actually), but should still be an entertaining evening.
Can’t wait.
Excellent. A Gold Sony award for Christian O’Connell. Just about that only thing that gets me out of bed in the mornings…
For about 15 minutes this morning I was wedged into my own little corner of the Northern line somewhere in a tunnel, somewhere outside Clapham North, waiting for the train to move following a “signal failure”. The unpleasantness of being stuck on a packed, hot, smelly train some distance underground was then compounded by the people who tried to get on to the clearly packed train at the next station (that is, when we finally reached it after we moved from our spot in the tunnel) by shouting “could you just move down a bit please?” (Ok mate, explain to me where, exactly, you would like me to move down to in this packed train? Perhaps I should stand on top of the person who is squashed in next to me for your benefit?)
Although I’ve been living in London for nearly 2 1/2 years now, I’ve only recently started commuting across town everyday. Sometimes, during my new journey, I look up from my paper or book and around at all the other people – especially, although not always, my suited companions on the Northern line, all glum faces and attitude, off to their high-flying city jobs – and wonder why we do it. I know it’s not the most original thought in the world, but I not sure I’ve worked out why. I mean, it can’t just be so we can have the means to fill our lives with more and more pointless crap – that bigger television, that new sofa, clothes you don’t need, CDs you’ll never listen to…
Sorry, it’s been a long day and I think I need a beer.
And some sleep.
In an attempt to illustrate the probelm of inappropriate 999 calls, Avon and Somerset police have posted some examples of real 999 calls on their website.
The results are, frankly, astounding. Like the man who calls 999 because his wife has gone out without leaving him any food: “Communications operator: ‘I’m sorry but I really can’t take this. It’s not an emergency because your wife won’t give you anything to eat.'”, or the woman who calls because she can’t find her glasses: “the ones for my nearsight… And I’m trying to get my lunch and I can’t see to do my potatoes very well.”.
From this week’s Time Out (summer festival special):
Q. Do you all play crowd-pleasing festival sets?
Tim [Wheeler, from Ash]: It’s for the masses, y’know, so I think you’ve got to play the hits.
David [Gray]: I’ll be doing “Please Forgive Me”, and, I dare say, “Babylon”.
Gruff [Rhys, Super Furry Animals]: Um… we don’t really have any hits.
To Loftus Road, on Saturday, to see Everton do their best to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, and throw away their last chance at a European place next season. After Everton’s Alan Stubbs had put the ball past Richard Wright for the first of our two own goals, the Fulham supporters broke out into a chorus of “there’s only one Alan Stubbs/there’s only one Alan Stubbs/one Alan Stubbs….”
Nice to see Yahoo news carrying this picture of England’s finest “restraining” a young chap during yesterday’s May Day protest.
Wearing an 8 year old Oasis T-Shirt is clearly a serious offence these days.
Makes you proud, doesn’t it?
The word “probe” is one of those horrible tabloid headline words. Not only is it over- (and mis-) used in headlines, it also fails to tell you anything.
Anyway, I was amused to see how the people over at BBC Sport have chosen to cover the story that the incident involving Everton’s Duncan Ferguson, his elbow and the head of Aston Villa’s Joey Gudjonsson in last week’s match has been referred to the FA video panel. They went with the following headline:
“Ferguson faces elbow probe“.
An elbow probe huh? Hmm. Sounds intriguing. I wonder how that’s administered. Does Mr Gudjonsson get to do it himself in some kind of revenge incident?
I was fascinated to read the Broadcasting Standards Commission’s latest bulletin (as a result of rob’s post). I entirely agree with him that some of the things people complain about are hilarious.
Call me childish, for example, but I couldn’t read:
“A listener complained about the presenter’s repeated use of the word ‘twat’.”
without laughing.
And whoever complained about “tasteless and inappropriate content” on Jerry Springer, clearly hasn’t quite grasped the point of the show. (Or, for that matter, whoever complained about “descriptions of violence” on BBC news).
I also agree with Rob that people who complain about this sort of stuff should really learn to turn over/off and/or get out more, but I was just wondering a couple of things:
– how do you get on the “standards panel”? That sounds like a cool job, rather like being on the BBFC where you get to see loads of films before they come out.
– can you only complain about program content, or can you complain about stuff just because it’s rubbish? I think that would be much more entertaining: “The commission upheld a complaint about the Des O’Connor show, because it really is shit”…
This whole having to look smart for the new job thing has a couple of interesting side effects. Popping into Enfield this lunchtime to pick up a new toaster for Sal (admittedly perhaps not the most romantic gift I have ever purchased), I was asked by a fellow shopper for advice on her deep-fat fryer purchase. To which I had to point out that I didn’t actually work there.
I’m not quite sure what went wrong when I bought the new shirts, but I can’t say that department store assistant was quite the look I was going for…