tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203823042024-03-14T06:38:20.809+00:00World flapjack daytime is lifeUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger145125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382304.post-49680590836661357462013-02-20T21:43:00.000+00:002013-02-21T05:28:05.341+00:00February 2 (floodlight failure)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZxuitelWpeM/USUS_tkg5tI/AAAAAAAAAYY/yw1aoe0HYCw/s1600/2013-02-02-WaterlooBridge.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="271" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZxuitelWpeM/USUS_tkg5tI/AAAAAAAAAYY/yw1aoe0HYCw/s400/2013-02-02-WaterlooBridge.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WBi3fat60_s/USUS_gX0roI/AAAAAAAAAYg/D5t3Cq-0fTU/s1600/2013-02-02-RiverCafe.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="271" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WBi3fat60_s/USUS_gX0roI/AAAAAAAAAYg/D5t3Cq-0fTU/s400/2013-02-02-RiverCafe.jpeg" width="400" /></a>
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wehGWPR0Bt8/USUS_yi5o_I/AAAAAAAAAYc/QGaRTZELYxc/s1600/2013-02-02-cottage.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="268" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wehGWPR0Bt8/USUS_yi5o_I/AAAAAAAAAYc/QGaRTZELYxc/s400/2013-02-02-cottage.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Epznj_t56as/USUTAWKsUmI/AAAAAAAAAYo/rJmjrRZGhEQ/s1600/2013-02-02-firsthalf.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="268" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Epznj_t56as/USUTAWKsUmI/AAAAAAAAAYo/rJmjrRZGhEQ/s400/2013-02-02-firsthalf.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gJkbaD1_m6k/USUTBZT0UaI/AAAAAAAAAZA/ijJw8geTC7Y/s1600/2013-02-02-floodlightfail.jpeg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="268" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gJkbaD1_m6k/USUTBZT0UaI/AAAAAAAAAZA/ijJw8geTC7Y/s400/2013-02-02-floodlightfail.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--iWRL1FQCds/USUTBZ1THmI/AAAAAAAAAY8/tQgpq7a8-RA/s1600/2013-02-02-hammyend.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="268" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--iWRL1FQCds/USUTBZ1THmI/AAAAAAAAAY8/tQgpq7a8-RA/s400/2013-02-02-hammyend.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qjWMX1nHOVs/USUTBtXlR9I/AAAAAAAAAZI/P3AAkw0OMIU/s1600/2013-02-02-restart.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="268" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qjWMX1nHOVs/USUTBtXlR9I/AAAAAAAAAZI/P3AAkw0OMIU/s400/2013-02-02-restart.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-I5uShaoMXsE/USUTA45ip8I/AAAAAAAAAY0/y1YiFrHvJBU/s1600/2013-02-02-fulhamattack.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="268" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-I5uShaoMXsE/USUTA45ip8I/AAAAAAAAAY0/y1YiFrHvJBU/s400/2013-02-02-fulhamattack.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GHCJoIGynHI/USUTBzUOc6I/AAAAAAAAAZM/kt-YhWvcS6g/s1600/2013-02-02-statue.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="268" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GHCJoIGynHI/USUTBzUOc6I/AAAAAAAAAZM/kt-YhWvcS6g/s400/2013-02-02-statue.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382304.post-66327411077426989692013-02-20T06:35:00.000+00:002013-02-20T06:35:47.382+00:00February 1stI takes me about a week and a half to shoot a roll of black and white film with my old Olympus 10. Another four or five days to get it developed at the shop around the corner from where I work in Brussels, and another few days before I get around to scanning any of the pictures. My intention is to start putting some of the photos up on facebook (and here) to form a dislocated real time lifestream - dislocated by two and a half weeks.<br/><br/>
We will start with Friday night,the 1 February. <br/><br/>
We are in an African bar in Brussels 'L'horloge du Sud', on the borderline between the congolese bit of the city and the Eurocrat quarter. Itdoesn't actually have any African people in it as far as I can tell, apart from the people working there and two guys unpacking some musical instruments in a corner. <br/><br/>
But it does have, pictured here, Lorenzo, a glam rock singer, and Kat, a violinist, ringing Toby to try to pursuade him to join us (he didn't)<br/><br/>
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aGAaGWsAqx8/USRtlk2LozI/AAAAAAAAAXk/XLAjk2Ea8rs/s1600/2013-02-01-horlogedusud-Lorenzo.jpeg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aGAaGWsAqx8/USRtlk2LozI/AAAAAAAAAXk/XLAjk2Ea8rs/s320/2013-02-01-horlogedusud-Lorenzo.jpeg" /></a>
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--sN0g0FyBGg/USRtqN9GNjI/AAAAAAAAAXs/LRRBqddhC2g/s1600/2013-02-01-horlogedusud-Katarina.jpeg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--sN0g0FyBGg/USRtqN9GNjI/AAAAAAAAAXs/LRRBqddhC2g/s320/2013-02-01-horlogedusud-Katarina.jpeg" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382304.post-56245122358209493382012-12-28T22:59:00.000+00:002012-12-28T22:59:35.752+00:00Conversation about doom music, Throbbing Gristle and Nico<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I went around to my mate Nigel's house tonight - he had got two tickets for a Miko Vainio gig at Cafe Dalston in January so I went to give him the money for my one.<br />
<br />
He put on a Miko Vainio CD. It is stop-start. No vocals or drums. A long piece of feedback mixed up with what seems like an electronicly generated noise which is like a long slowed down hooter. Except apparently the noises aren't electronically generated - they are done with a guitar and effects pedals. From time to time the noises suddenly intensify. His cat didn't like it. She was fidgety on the sofa. <br />
<br />
So he switched it off and put Animal Collective on (he had been to see them at the Roundhouse - said they were fantastic). A melodic singer, drums, but in the middle a kind of ambience of swirly interesting electronic sounds, in the place where the driving guitars would be in a rock band.<br />
<br />
He put on a CD by Earth, and taled about a gig he had seen at the Union Chapel. Said Earth were the first doom band. Like heavy metal only slowed down almost to a standstill. The guitarist would play a long low note and would hold it and hold it. The drummer appeared to be in slow motion. Nigel had gone on his own and drunk Camomile tea instead of beer at the gig, just to absorb it all. His mate had speeded up an Earth LP and reported the drummer's rythymns are very complex, but you can't detect the complexity at the usual playing speed.<br />
<br />
Then he talked about another doom band - Sun O)))) . He saw them at Camden Koko. A guitarist and bass guitarists. Playing long deep notes on their guitars. No drums or vocals. He said there was nowhere you could get away from the noise. Conversation was impossible, it invaded your whole nervous system. <br />
<br />
I told him I had never really grasped what Throbbing Gristle was about. He said he doesn't listen to it anymore but it made a huge impression on him at the time. It was a whole package, no-one had done anything like it before. They had a porn star in the band (Cosey Fanni) who carried on with her porn career in parallel with the music career. Three of the band used to do performance art before the band started up. Not very nice performance art - blood, semen etc. He said they are going to release the last album they did which was a cover of one of Nico's albums. Apparently Throbbing Gristle wanted to work with Nico a couple of decades back but it never transpired.<br />
<br />
We talked about Nico. I have still got her Chelsea Girl LP on vinyl (bought when I was 17 and I tried to get hold of anything that Morrissey mentioned or said he liked). He said that Nico had very little artistic control over Chelsea Girl. The producer put cheesy strings as the backdrop to it. After that she did three LPs with John Cale and Brian Eno, and it is one of the collaborations with Cale and Eno that Throbbing Gristle have covered. <br />
<br />
Nigel out on the third of these LPs then the second. The famous Nico voice, and in the background experimental sounds. 'Eno having a laugh'.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382304.post-32986191919157314942012-12-24T22:47:00.000+00:002012-12-24T22:47:41.028+00:00The Smiths Xmas quiz<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
You don't need me, or John Lewis, to tell you that The Smiths are an essential part of everyone's christmas. So while you are waiting to see whether you get what you want tomorrow (for the first time?), here is a little quiz. The topic is dreams, and may you all have sweet ones.<br />
<br />
1) In what Smiths song does Morrissey sing of his most painful dream (and what made it so painful?)<br />
<br />2) If we are to believe the lyrics of Smiths songs:<br /> a) what event triggered the first of Morrissey's dreams?<br />
b) what was Morrissey's most recent dream about?<br />
c) what would Morrissey do if you sent him your pillow?</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382304.post-16599401882009310272012-12-22T11:18:00.001+00:002012-12-22T11:18:56.049+00:00Two self-help books I would like to write<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The first will be called 'How to get the best out of self-help books'.<br />
<br />
Chapters will include:<br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>How to choose a self-help book</li>
<li>How to decide whether or not to do the things your self-help book advises you to do</li>
<li>What to do when you have finished/abandoned/lost your self-help book</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
The second will be called 'How to live without self-help books'<br />
<br />
Chapters will include:<br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>How to find your inner purpose without a self-help book</li>
<li>How to decide whether or not you want to achieve your inner purpose</li>
<li>What to do once you have achieved/despaired of/given-up-on your inner purpose</li>
</ul>
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382304.post-87095195345844089692012-10-15T22:13:00.000+01:002012-10-15T22:16:01.050+01:00Brussels diary -day 1<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CheTcgt7b94/UHx2vxh-p3I/AAAAAAAAAW4/pwv4V0fOXko/s1600/IMG_1545.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CheTcgt7b94/UHx2vxh-p3I/AAAAAAAAAW4/pwv4V0fOXko/s640/IMG_1545.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="p1">
The Tartan army and I got the last Eurostar out of London to Brussels late yesterday (Scotland are playing Belgium tomorrow). My latest records management job involves me staying in Brussels during the week. I am renting a flat from J, a friend of a friend, who is leaving Belgium after a decade here.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
J wanted to rent the flat to someone who was happy for him to leave his records collection, tape collection, records player, tape player, book collection and all his other stuff here. </div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
The LP collection has pretty much all of The Fall, all of Robyn Hitchcock, most of Robert Wyatt, lots of Julian Cope, all of the The Smiths. The odd treasure - a double LP called<a href="http://transpont.blogspot.be/2011/04/live-at-thames-poly.html"> 'Communication'</a> with live recordings of bands that played at a Thames Poly in 1985 including The June Brides, A Witness, the Nightingales and Sonic Youth. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
There are a load of cassettes in the kitchen. J offered to move them if they were in the way. I said no. leave them, even though they occupy prime shelf space. An eclectic mix - Bootlegs (The Smiths playing GLC 10-6-1984), Billy Bragg at the beeb, Velvet Undrground, Lou Reed, Television etc. Some more obscure - Ivor Cutler, This Mortal Coil. Mix tapes J made up in the 80s. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />
We have a handover period of a week and a half before J emigrates. I've been chatting to him about the book collection and the music collection. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
I said to J that I could tell he was a collector/hoarder (I am one too), because he has an A-Z of Birmingham on the shelves (he has never mentioned knowing anyone, or doing anything in that city). In the kitchen there are two cassette copies of Bend Sinister by The Fall (they are both on the above photo but you will have to look hard to spot them). He also has an LP of Bend Sinister in the living room.</div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
Some interesting books - Iain Sinclair, Borges, JG Ballard, Saul Bellow, Pilip K.Dick, WG Sebald. Local history books about London, Brussels and other places in Belgium. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
I will play through the music collection in the order that it sits on the shelves at the moment (respect for 'original order' was installed in me in my training as an archivist). I will treat the collection as a narrative, to be read.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
For both cassettes and LPs I am starting by the ones that are out already: the tapes piled up next to the tape player on the fridge in the kitchen, and the LPs in the little LP holder next to the record player.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
This meant listening to a Van Morrison tape this morning, and a song about going out with a girl with TB (TB sheets). I found out that his real name is Ivan Morrison. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
I am allowing myself to skip some LPs but only on condition that I am prepared to renounce them for good and never play them at all. I took 'Lullabies' by Cocteau Twins off the deck after one minute. I skipped three Madness LPs. I am listening to 'Un Gars Ben Ordinaire' by Robert Charlebois while I write this. Work starts tomorrow.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382304.post-2351659407111259622012-10-08T07:23:00.001+01:002012-10-08T07:23:55.876+01:00How to read a poem out loud<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Here is a reading of a poem.<br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>The reader is Zoltan Latinovits. I can't tell you much about him.</li>
<li>The poet is Sandor Petőfi. Hungary has had many great poets but he is their 'national' poet - they have named a radio station after him.</li>
<li>The poem is in Hungarian - I can't tell you much about it. </li>
</ul>
<br />
But what I can tell you is that this is how to read a poem out loud - Latinovits brings the sounds of the words that make up the poem alive.<br />
<br />
Don't worry if you don't understand what a single one of the words mean - you don't need to.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/dlQrVBdtcuw" width="420"></iframe><br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382304.post-58353401240465049982012-09-10T22:20:00.001+01:002012-10-15T21:47:38.189+01:00On being a pigeon-linguist<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I have tried (but largely failed) to read books in six different languages, not counting English. I am not polylingual, I am pigeon-lingual - I can speak pigeon French, pigeon German, pigeon Hungarian etc.<br />
<br />
I am aiming for something more than that though. The template in my head is the person that someone I met at a party once told me about. She learned a new language every year. That would be great - three months to get the fundamentals of grammer. Three months to read a few interesting children's books. Six months to read the jewels of their literary cannon. Perhaps do an evening class. Pop over to the country for a week on holiday.
I haven't been as methodical as that as my record below shows.
In this post I am writing down my achievements or lack of them in each language, as a benchmark of my progress.<br />
<br />
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
Hungarian</h2>
<div style="text-align: left;">
This is the language I have tried most often at, and would most like to succeed at. Over the last 18 years I don't think an 18 month period has passed without me trying to learn Hungarian. I don't smoke, so learning Hungarian is my equivalent of giving up smoking, one day I will succeed. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
On my second visit to Hungary in the middle 90s my friends took me to a restaurant themed on the chararcters of the writer Rejtő jenő. It had big cardboard cut-outs of his most famous characters like Piskos Fred (dirty Fred) Holdvilag Ted (Moonlight Ted). Imagine PG Wodehouse writing books about characters in the French Foreign legion or in the Wild West. I would like to know if there is a single Hungarian character in his books (I haven't come across one yet). </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
My sister always says that it is not worth reading rubbish in a foreign language just for the sake of learning a language. You can tell from the way every Hungarian's smile at the mention of his name that Jeno is a good writer (just like so many English people smile at the mention of Douglas Adams). On various visits I have bought Rejtő Jenő books back with me. Each time I try to learn the language again I pick up one of his books. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
My highlight in Hungarian was the moment two weeks ago when a lady approached me at Gatwick airport station to ask me if it was the right platform for Victoria. I said yes and asked her if she was Russian. She said no she was Hungarian. I said 'jo estet' and took 'az elvesett cirkalo' (the lost cruiser) by Jeno out of my bag. She roared with laughter and rang her dad in Hungary from her mobile to tell her she'd met an Englishman who is reading Rejtő jenő. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
I have never actually manage to finish a Rejtő Jenő book. I am having more success this time round with 'az elvesett cirkalo'. I think it is because I met a colleague in Geneva who gave me two lessons in Hungarian and actually got me to talk in the language. I am half way through the book and just about getting the gist - I know that a guy (who later turns out to be a woman) tells some adventurers that his (her) brother, who has come up with a potentially lucrative invention, is being wrongly imprisoned in Burma for killing a woman (Helen Addington). They have agreed to sail to Burma to get his brother released in return for a share of the proceeds of the invention. Most of the humour is going over my head at the moment.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
Russian</h2>
<div style="text-align: left;">
I have tried to learn Russian three times. First time was with very good intentions, when just starting a degree in History, specialising in Eastern Europe. I was going to learn Russian so that I could get a native perspective on the country's history. A Polish friend of my future wife's dad gave me some tutoring which consisted of getting me to read out loud chunks of text from a Russian primer and correcting my mistakes. That lasted about two months. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Six years after my degree I was on holiday in Greece with my father-in-law. I discovered by chance that he could speak Russian. There were some Russian people in the reception and he started talking to him. He said it was the first time he had spoken the language since the end of the second world war. There was a Konstantin Paustovskii book of short stories in Russian kicking around the hotel (the hotel was popular with Russians). I gave it to him and he really enjoyed reading it. I ended up supplying him with a stream of Russian books - Tolstoy, Pushkin etc. He read all of them. I had never seen him read a book in English or any other language.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
I decided to learn Russian too. That Konstantin Paustovskii we had discovered in Greece turned out to be an interesting guy, he went to school with Michael Bulgakov and like Bulgakov did not emigrate when the revolution came. I got his autobiograhy in Russian from my old University library and got about a hundred pages through it. I also got about a hundred pages of Master and Margarita by Bulgakov but gave up even though I had read it in English a couple of times so in theory knew what was going on. The prose in the sci-fi of Pelevin, and in the retro detective novels of Akunin, was too complex for me. My one success was with Chekhov, who writes very clear, short sentences that give the learner a chance. I got the gist of his short story 'lady with a dog'. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
French </h2>
<div style="text-align: left;">
This is the only one I can properly read in. Best moment was reading 'La Vie Mode d'Emploi' by Georges Perec. A book set in a Parisian 'immeuble' where every chapter is a description of a different room in the immeuble, and the people in it, at one particular moment of time. The moment of time being the moment Bartlebooth dies at his desk while trying to complete a jigsaw. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
Greek </h2>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">I learned this initially to give me an idea of what my mother in law was saying (about me?) to my wife. Best moment was reading 'To Lathos' (the mistake) by Anthony Samarakis. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">It is about a guy who draws two circles on the napkin of a restaurant, and leaves the napkin behind when he goes. Both of the circles had small circles in the middle of them. A detective picks up the napkin. He knows there must be some significance to the circles, and in particular to the two small circles ('duo microus kiklous') in the middle. He has the guy followed and arrested to discover their significance. Spoiler alert - I will tell you at the bottom of this blogpost - don't read to the bottom of this blog if you are going to read the book. It is not a thriller, its more a satire on the paranoia of the authorities and was written under the Greek Junta of the late 60s/early 70s. </span></div>
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
German </h2>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">My German teacher did not want to enter me for German O'level when I was at school. I promised her that if she did put me in for it I would try really hard. I told her I had a natural talent for languages and pointed to the fact that I was predicted an 'A' in French. She relented, and put me in for the exam. I got a 'U'. Looking back, it wasn't a natural talent for languages that got me my A in French, it was the fact that I listened to French radio (France Inter) morning noon and night (for the football, cycling, as a change from English radio, and because my dad had a learning-French-fad). </span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">I have never completed a book in German. I read the first two chapters of 'Das Schloss' by Franz Kafka.
I once tried a new technique with a German short story. I read it over and over again, very quickly, without looking up a single word. The repeated readings did help to eventually get a sense of it. But I still cannot claim to have read a book in German. Imagine being able to read 'A Man of Qualities' in German - a book I am determined not to read in translation.</span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
Italian</h2>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">I have read quite a few fumetti (comics) in Italian - Dylan Dog, Hugo Pratt, Diabolik, Guido Crepax. But that doesn't really count. I did finish a Calvino book (the one which contains three stories, one about a guy who leaves his house to live in trees, one about a knight who comes back from war and there is nothing in his suit of armour, and I have forgotten the other one). But I didn't really follow the gist and only persevered because someone had chosen it for bookgroup.</span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">I can just about read a cycling or football report in La Gazetto dello Sport but most of it is just me looking out for the words that are similar in French. </span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"> (Spoiler - the circles within circles on the restaurant napkin in the book by Samorakis were a pair of breasts)</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382304.post-45528904493772906952011-10-23T21:16:00.012+01:002011-10-24T07:55:34.520+01:00shoe 001<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kBZcGqzUfKk/TqR2Leks5XI/AAAAAAAAAWw/puEyi2Byjlc/s1600/Shoe-001.jpeg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 234px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kBZcGqzUfKk/TqR2Leks5XI/AAAAAAAAAWw/puEyi2Byjlc/s320/Shoe-001.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5666784170696566130" /></a><br /><br />We were on the Isle of Wight this weekend and Andrew and I went to see Brading Town v Alton Town in the 1st round of the FA Vase. Both teams are in the Wessex league (which feeds into the Southern League which feeds into the Conference which feeds into the football league). Alton are a bit higher in the table. <br /><br />There were about 60 people there (Andrew said he counted them). The Peter Henry Ground is on a pronounced slope. At the top of the slope is the clubhouse and teabar. Slightly further down the slope is a changing room block. Then the goal that Alton defended in the first half. Behind the opposite goal, at the bottom of the slope, is the railway line running between Ryde and Shanklin. <br /><br />Every five minutes or so one of the old London Underground trains that run on the line comes rumbling past. Behind that Brading marsh, drained by the Victorians, stretches on, flat and empty, all the way to Bembridge Harbour.<br /><br />There are two small stands on each side of the pitch, each covering the little bit of touchline either side of the half way line. We were in the one on the right hand side if you look down the slope. It had 63 seats in it (Andrew worked it out). <br /><br />There were 5 people in it apart from us two. Three men behind us were talking about non-league football, and the plight of Newport Town, the Island's biggest club, now sunk down to the Wessex league, no longer able to pay its players.<br /> <br />Then they mentioned Gillingham Town (the Dorset club, not the Kent one) - another club with a great view of railway line (this time the Waterloo to Exeter line). I mentioned I had been to Gillingham Town's ground. One of the men said that he had gone there to see their changing rooms. Turned out he used to be chair of Brading and under his watch he got the funding to build the changing block and the stand we were sitting in (which cost £11,000). <br /><br />Later in the conversation he said he came from Chessington and supported Fulham. Turns out he comes to watch Fulham once a season, just like we watch Brading once a season. The last two times he had come to watch Fulham Bobby Zamora had scored last minute winners (against Blackburn and Birmingham). He told us that when Brading play Newport, usually on a boxing day, they get 250 people in the ground. <br /><br />Brading do not pay their players - some of the bigger sides in the Wessex league do. Almost all the side live on the east side of the Isle of Wight, within 3 miles of the ground (mainly Ryde and Sandown). <br /><br />Brading were 1-0 down at half time. Alton were slightly quicker and slicker. In the second half, kicking down the slope, Brading scored four great goals. After the first two Alton game back up the pitch and won a penalty straight away to restore their lead. The third met with no response from Alton. The fourth came with two minutes to go to put Brading 4-3 up. Alton chucked the kitchen sink at Brading, forced corner after corner, one shot was saved on the line by a Brading defender using what appeared to be an elbow. The people in front of us who had come to sit in the stand at half time complained that the ref had played 8 minutes injury time. Alton's goalkeeper came up. Brading scrambled the ball away for another corner. This one came to the far post where an Alton player 5 yards out was able to head in unchallenged.<br /><br />4-4. Extra time to be played.<br /><br />The only other 4-4 game I have ever seen was 27 years ago, just a few miles away, at Fratton Park when Fulham came from being 4-0 down at half time to draw 4-4 at Portsmouth, with Kevin Lock putting away a penalty in the last minute of injury time.<br /><br />The ex-chaiman told us that the team that won through to the next round got £1,000 from the FA which would mean a lot to Brading. It would pay for four away trips for the team. He seemed resigned to Brading going out with Alton getting the psychological boost from the last gasp equaliser. He wondered off to the clubhouse. By the time he'd come back Alton were 5-4 up. Brading had some near misses but seemed to run out of legs by the end.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382304.post-69618659129641937082011-04-30T23:03:00.008+01:002011-04-30T23:39:07.745+01:00A zen way of learning photographyI went to collect my first set of prints from Boots the Chemist yesterday. When the young lady picked the envelope out of the drawer it seemed awfully thin. The reason it was thin was because there were no prints in it. The negatives were blank.<br /><br />I asked her whether I'd exposed the film by opening the back of the camera too early.<br />''No, if you'd done that the negatives would be black. The negatives are clear, no light has been on them. You've either brought us in a film that you never used or the film never went through the camera''<br /><br />I went to a friends' sons 1st birthday party. Philip was there, he's a professional photographer. He explained what must have happened. <br /> ''You'll have put the film in wrong, it won't have wound on''<br />''But I was taking pictures and it was winding on''<br />"The camera will have let you press the shutter-release button and pull the film advance leaver, but if the film wasn't engaged in the sprocket then it won't actually have moved your film on at all. The film will have stayed rolled in the cannister.''<br /><br />I asked Philip how I could make sure I don't do it again.<br /><br />''Load the new film. Put the end in the sprocket, wind it on. Then take a couple of pictures with the back open. Even though you might waste some film, its worth it. When you are satisfied that it has wound on properly close the back, take a few blank shots and away you go'<br /><br />So of the 7 films I have shot since my friend lent me the OM 10 camera:<br />- film 1 is at a photographic studio that always seems to be shut whenever I go walk down the High Street<br />- film 2 was blank<br />- film 3 I exposed by opening the camera back too early<br />- films 4 and 5 are at Boots the Chemist (coming back a week on Tuesday)<br />- film 6 is in my cupboard waiting to go to Boots the Chemist<br /><br />The feedback loop is getting really long now. It is a zen way of learning photography.<br /><br />The zen teacher gives the student a camera. Student goes through all the motions - focusing the picture, setting the aperture, checking the shutter speed, pressing the shutter release, winding the film on. But they are never shown the prints. Not until the student is ready will they be shown the prints.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382304.post-48787027114967668102011-04-24T20:37:00.011+01:002011-04-25T22:24:29.933+01:00My first steps in photographyIt seems odd creating a blogpost about my photography without posting any photos. But I haven't seen any yet. I borrowed an Olympus OM10 analogue camera from a friend on April 7. I have shot four rolls of film since that date:<div><ul><li>the first (a black and white film) is at our local photographic shop waiting for me to pick up the prints</li><li>the second (a colour film) is with Boots the chemist</li><li>the third is in the bin because I didn't rewind it properly and exposed it when I opened the back of the camera</li><li>the fourth one is in the cupboard waiting to go the developers</li></ul><div>In theory we learn through feedback loops - planning something, doing something, looking at the results and comparing them with what we planned. There is no feedback loop here. In practice this may be an advantage. I haven't had to look at any duff pictures to discourage me. Instead I can fondly imagine that all the shots will be delightful.</div><div><br /></div><div>I can feel I have made some progress even without being able to see any output. I have taken 132 photographs in 17 days, and seem to be taking more and more each day. I've been getting used to the dials, to looking out for what might make a good shot, to thinking about how much exposure (light) the picture needs and whether to try and narrow the depth of field to throw less interesting parts of the picture out of focus.</div><div><br /></div><div>Waiting is a fundamental part of the analogue world. Having to wait for the prints to come back from the developers reminds me of buying a vinyl LP when I am working away in Brussels, and knowing I won't be able to hear it until I get back home to the UK and can stick it on my turntable.</div><div><br /></div><div>With the waiting lives hope and anticipation. I plan to get to Boots to pick up the films this Saturday April 30.</div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382304.post-59060038158976353912010-12-14T07:05:00.006+00:002010-12-14T20:35:42.589+00:00The Wedding Present at Camden KokoI am too old for mosh pits now. I am over forty. They weren't even called mosh pits in my day. But last night, when everyone else in the mosh pit was over forty, I made an exception.<br /><br />We were pogoing to an album called Bizarro, by The Wedding Present. It didn't make a huge stir when it was released in 1989. It isn't even The Wedding Present's most famous album (more people know 'George Best'). But on it David Gedge brought together a clutch of bittersweet songs about relationships. <br /><br />Gedge writes songs that are snatches of dialogue. Things said or thought at key stages of a relationship, when it is still up for grabs, when hope is still alive or when the wounds are still fresh. <br /><br />The frail hope of the start of relationship:<br /> 'I spent all day trying to decide, about the words that you said last night - did they mean nothing? or were they filled with hidden clues?'<br /><br />The frustration:<br />'Why don't you pick up the telephone. I know that you're at home'<br /><br />The paranoia:<br />'Is that a letter you're hiding from me? I feel like I'm being used again, can we open it and see?'<br /><br /> The killer detail:<br />"Its that razor he left upon your shelf, I'll throw it away myself'<br /><br />The mixed feelings:<br />In the song 'Thanks' a man knows his ex has shown all his love letters to her new partner. It contains the line 'his head's been on the pillow that we bought'. But it ends with the line 'I just can't get mad at you no matter how I try'<br /><br />You could compare Gedge with Morrissey, his contemporary from just across the Pennine hills. But Morrissey doesn't write about relationships, he writes about existence. Morrissey writes as a man who has given up on the prospect of relationships making him happy. When Morrissey addresses a song to another human being they are so far distant, the words could never be actually said to them. Think of 'Back to the Old house': The words 'When you cycled by, there began all my dreams' sung to a person irrevocably lost years and years ago. <br /><br />The band started the evening with a few warm up songs. Then they played a tape that collected all the words that John Peel used to introduce a Wedding Present song on air. It felt like he was speaking yesterday. You could see how moved people were. Most of them, like me, would never have heard of this band if it wasn't for John Peel. My introduction was Peel playing 'My Favourite Dress' back in 1987. The end of the tape had John Peel saying 'and this is from their new album, Bizarro'. <br /><br />The band kicked straight into playing the album. The word 'Brassneck' is spat out, twice, followed by the gentle, self-deceiving 'I have just decided I don' t love you anymore' (as if you decide something like that!) <br /><br />Gedge pauses. Asks us if we have any questions?<br />"where is Peter?'<br />'' He got kicked out of the band for being a knobhead like you''<br /><br />Why are Leeds so shit?' (Gedge comes from Leeds)<br />'How should I know, I support Man United'<br />Mocking chorus of 'we all hate red scum' from some sections of the crowd. Amazing how a Leeds band in the 80s got away with calling their first album after a Man Utd legend.<br /><br />Lots of requests. Mainly for 'My Favourite Dress'.<br /><br />With two songs of the album to go Gedge tells us the band never ever does encores.<br /><br />The penultimate song was nine minutes long. The chorus 'Why don't you put that down and take me I am yours?' is barked by Gedge. I used to play that song a lot in my twenties. I used to imagine someone saying 'oh allright then'. Tonight was my opportunity to bounce up and down and sing it in company. But the company was a lot of forty-something blokes like me.<br /><br />The last song was very short and very quiet. It finishes with 'And there is a thousand things I wish I'd said and done, but the moment's gone'.<br /><br />The thing I love about Gedge's songs is the way a stray phrase will sum everything up. You can just imagine the man, at the end of the relationship, shaking his head and saying maybe to himself, maybe to her 'That was my favourite dress you know'.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382304.post-51181254999275892972010-04-30T07:43:00.009+01:002010-04-30T08:10:42.675+01:00Fulham 2 Hamburg 1<div>Big game. I wanted to get there early.</div><div><br /></div><div>We were in the River Cafe opposite Putney Bridge station at 6. The guy at the table behind us was saying how nervous he felt, how he'd felt nervous all week. </div><div><br /></div><div>Kick off not till 8.05.</div><div><br /></div><div>The boys (my son Andrew and his friend Fred) start asking me about the posters above the counter at the River Cafe. There are four of them. One of the Juventus team that won the 1985 European Cup. One of the Juventus team that won the European Cup early in the 1990's. One of the Italian team that won the 1982 World cup. One of the Italian team that won the 2006 world cup.</div><div><br /></div><div>Underneath is a more recent addition, a half and half Fulham and Juventus scarf.</div><div><br /></div><div>Fred asked me whether Fulham would have beaten the 1985 Juventus team.</div><div><br /></div><div>No I said, and explain about Michel Platini. How he would stand in his own half and play balls over the defence into the path of the Juve striker Boniek, and how he would put back-spin on the ball so that when the ball landed it wouldn't run off into touch, it would sit up and beg to be hit in the back of the net.</div><div><br /></div><div>He asked if we could I could find a Platini video in You Tube on the iPhone. We did, but it just showed Platini's goals. I said we were probably better off typing 'Boniek' into You Tube because then we would see Platini's passes.</div><div><br /></div><div>We walked round the corner. Lots of Hamburg fans around in blue T-shirts saying 'Operation Rathausmarkt Mai 13 2010'. I asked one of them what it meant. He said that the day after the Europa League final, they were going to have a massive celebration of their Europa League win in Rathausmarkt in Hamburg.</div><br /><div>We get to the ground by 7. Very early for us, we normally get there 10 minutes before kick off.</div><div>I go over to chat to Roman and his son, we used to have a season ticket in the row in front of him. Like me he hadn't dared check the internet today to see whether or not Bobby Zamora was fit to play. Roman says we have to believe today, its all about belief. He hadn't made his mind up whether he would fly or drive to the final.</div><div><br /></div><div>I o back to Fred and Andrew. Andrew tells me Zamora is playing.</div><div><br /></div><div>Its like the old days at a football match, everyone in their positions half an hour before kick off (in the days when people stood up you had to get their early to get your favourite position on the terrace). Atmosphere building, all the songs coming out.</div><div><br /></div><div>Four big Hamburg fans are sitting six rows in front of us. In Hamburg shirts and scarves. There were Juve fans and Shaktar fans in our block in previous rounds but they hadn't worn their club colours.</div><div><br /></div><div>Game kicks off, Zamora has a good chance, massive noise. Even game, very fast tempo, Fulham have a good spell, Hamburg have a good spell. They get a free kick thirty five yards out and their fellow bends a phenomenal free kick into the top corner like a rocket. The Hamburg fans celebrate. Some of the Fulham fans get angry with them. One guy in front of me starts saying ' come on then' to them. Wanting a fight. I lean forward and tap him on the arm, 'its Fulham not Chelsea I say, and there are kids around' Give him his due the fellow stops. The Hamburg fans shrug their shoulders and walk out of the ground. </div><div><br /></div><div>Rest of the half slides by. Fulham playing well enough, decent passing, but not making their keeper do much.</div><div><br /></div><div>Half time. TV monitor below the stand shows lots of clips of Bobby Zamora in obvious discomfort from his injury, Andy Townsend speculates whether or not he will play second half.</div><div><br /></div><div>Andrew asks me, 'are we going to win this dad?' 'well son, we aren't out of it, and we will have a surge kicking towards the Hammersmith End, but Hamburg are probably favourites now, they seem a better side than Wolfsburg and Juventus'. In my heart I don't think that we will do it.</div><div><br /></div><div>We go back to our seats. The guy who sits at the end of our row says to me and the boys. 'We will do this, trust me, we will get these two goals'</div><div><br /></div><div>I eat the bit of bread pudding that I bought from the River Cafe for half time. Its proper home made grandma baked bread pudding. Please be magic bread pudding, please get us these two goals.</div><div><br /></div><div>The game restarts, Zamora chases a ball down the flanks, does well but he is limping afterwards. He is obviously not fit.</div><div><br /></div><div>I keep looking at the clock, 50 minutes gone, 60 minutes gone. I can't pretend I am enjoying the experience. The game and time seem to be draining away.</div><div><br /></div><div>A chant starts up. 'Stand up if you still believe' I stand up (even though I didn't believe). Everyone stands up. Everyone sings it. It lifts the players. Now I do believe. The power of self-fulfilling prophecy. Zamora comes off (to a massive ovation). Dempsey comes on. Fresh legs, fit legs.</div><div><br /></div><div>There is a Fulham surge now, a tide. High tempo passing, intensity. </div><div><br /></div><div>Murphy gets the ball in his own half. Plays a wonderful pass through their defence, Davies turns the defender one way, then the other and pokes it in. When the delirium had died down Fred asked me 'was that a Platini pass?'</div><div><br /></div><div>Yes I said, that is exactly what it was!</div><div><br /></div><div>Murphy gets the ball again in the centre circle. He drifts it diagonally over the full back to Konchesky (or it might have been Davies) running down that flank.</div><div><br /></div><div>'Was that a Platini pass?'</div><div>Yep.</div><div><br /></div><div>Two minutes later Murphy takes a corner that leads to a promising situation.</div><div>'Was that a Platini corner?'</div><div><br /></div><div>The ball comes into the box again. It goes into the back of the net. Writing this the morning after I still cannot picture that second goal.</div><div><br /></div><div>I said to a bloke after the game that the celebrations after the goal must have been so intensive that it punctured something in my brain and I forgot what the goal was like. He said that Dempsey's chip against Juve had fractured a hole in the fabric of the universe and we have been living in an alternative reality ever since. Yes I said, Dr Who will meet Rose at the final.</div><div><br /></div><div>15 minutes left. I am still looking at the clock all the time but this time to will it on. Not wishing my life away, just the next 14 minutes. </div><div><br /></div><div>All of the songs come out, the defiant ones and triumphant ones and the encouraging ones. But the one that gets the goosebumps going was the plaintive one, to the sound of Country Roads 'Craven Cottage, by the river, take me home' heard it a hundred times before but just at that moment.....</div><div><br /></div><div>It gets closer and closer to the end of time. Hamburg resort to hoofing the ball up long. Fulham keep 2 men up front. Everyone in the ground is standing up. Bouncing up and down with 20 thousand other people singing 'Roy, Roy, Roy'' to the tune of '1 bannana 2 bannana 3 bannana 4'.</div><div><br /></div><div>I don't know how to whistle, so I can't join in the whistling before the final whistle.</div><div><br /></div><div>The final whistle goes. What do you do? I hug my son and tell him I love him. </div><div><br /></div><div>The players are cavorting on the pitch. If you look at someone they hug you.</div><div><br /></div><div>Andrew realises he's lost his watch</div><div>'F*** the watch' I say, with a smile</div><div>What he said, surprised (I never swear)</div><div>Don't worry about the watch I say.</div><div><br /></div><div>Whenever Fulham win at home, John Pantsil, if he is playing, sprints round the pitch in a lap of honour. He did two laps last night. No-one had left the ground, everyone still in there ten minutes later.</div><div><br /></div><div>Got the train home. Saw a guy wearing a 'Dempsey's chip' T shirt, with his son. What a great idea for a t-shirt. In ten years time he will wear it and people will try and figure out what it is referring to, was someone remembering the last mouthful of a particularly savouresome portion of fish and chips?</div><div><br /></div><div>He said the tickets for the final would go on sale at 7 in the morning. Only 12,000 of them. Only to season tickets holders. 'Are you going' I said. 'I will have to pursuade the wife first because I want to take the boy' he replied. 'You'll have to wake her up at 5:30 in the morning with a cup of tea' I said.</div><div><br /></div><div>When I woke up this morning it felt like I had just walked out of the ground. Ears still ringing from the noise, throat hoarse. Great night.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382304.post-74125178998020308922008-09-13T21:03:00.010+01:002008-09-13T23:10:43.031+01:00Fulham 2 Bolton Wanderers 1It was all optimism in the River Cafe before the game. The talk was of whether Andy Johnson could emulate ex Fulham heroes Geoff Horsfield and Brian McBride and score on his debut. The father and son I met before the Arsenal game were in there: the father told us that it makes a big difference if a striker scores on their debut, they've won the crowd over from the start, and are forgiven anything after that. Jimmy Bullard scored on his home debut I said. Doesn't count he said, Jimmy's not a striker.<br /><br />In contrast the Bolton fans walking behind us through Bishop's Park were pessimistic. They told me that knowing Gary Megson he would probably play with Kevin Davies up front and everyone else back in their own penalty area. At the time I thought they were joking.<br /><br />I can't remember a game like it at Fulham for years. I renewed my season ticket three years ago (having let it lie fallow for 20 years) and they have been three years of toil and struggle. But today the sun shone and Fulham played like Brazil. We could have had five in the first half and four in the second. Zamora span a defender on the edge of the area and cracked it in to put us two up. 'Goal of the month' said the bloke next to me. Gera was intelligent on the left flank. Johnson chased everything and looked a right handful. We were totally in control.<br /><br />Bolton did what their fans said they would. One up front: Kevin Davies. Five in midfield. Gardner sometimes drifted wide on their left, but opposite him O'Brien always stayed narrow so they had no width on the right. They looked devoid of inspiration and only threatened from set pieces. <br /><br />The crowd were cheering Fulham touches with Oles from early in the second half. We were strolling. The man behind me said that Bolton looked as bad as Fulham had been under Sanchez. His neighbour asked him to refrain from mentioning that man's name. I was reminded me of a moment before one of those crucial relegation battles late last season. We were sitting in the River Cafe. A man turned to his wife and said to her 'you're worse than Lawrie Sanchez you are'. The whole cafe suddenly fell silent, wondering what this poor lady had done to deserve the slur (put sugar on his chips?).<br /><br />I couldn't help thinking of Sanchez while Fulham were stroking it around today, and about the transformation Hodgson has wrought. We've gone from the ridiculous to the sublime, from the sluggishness of Chris Baird to the athleticism of John Pantsil, from Kamara and Healy to Zamora and Johnson, from hoofing to passing, losing to winning, scowling to smiling, dreading to dreaming. But like Yin and Yang, black and white, good and evil, there would have been no Hodgson without Sanchez.<br /><br />Kevin Nolan clattered into Bullard three quarters of the way through the game, Bullard was down long enough to recall the horrible injury that took him away from us for 18 months, prompting the crowd to run through the whole of the repertoire of Jimmy Bullard songs for most of the rest of the game. Johnson and Zamora got thunderous standing ovations when they were substituted. Bolton got a goal back near the end, but the feared travesty of justice didn't materialise.<br /><br />In the crush of people waiting to be let into Putney Bridge station I heard a man talking hungarian. I guessed they had come to see Zoltan Gera. Turns out they are Ferencvaros fans. Ferencvaros, Gera's old club, are by far the largest team in Hungary. Their ground is on Ulloi Ut, the main road into Budapest from the east, and a road famous in Hungarian history for the pitch battles fought there when Soviet tanks entered the city from the east in 1956. I didn't realise what bad times they had fallen on, the guy told me that they had been relegated out of the Hungarian top flight, and stuck down there for a few years now. And to cap it all they have been bought as a feeder club for Sheff United. No disrespect for Sheff Utd but.... He told me that Sheff United have sent their second team coach, Bobby Davison to manage them. Again no disrespect, I remember him as a decent enough striker for Derby in the 80s, and I guess the mighty magyars of 53 are too old or too dead, but....<br /><br />I asked a Bolton fan what he thought of the game. He speculated on how long Megson might have left as Bolton boss. 'Some of our fans were shouting Megson out at the end but others where defending him by singing that stupid ginger mourinho song - he is no way a Mourinho.' He spoke about the money they wasted on Heider Helgueson, how all their three strikers were clones of each other, big strong and slow, and how the most of expensive of them, Elmander, is out for six weeks. No pace and no creativity. He said he would take Allardyce back tomorrow, and reminisced about the days of Okocha, Jourkieff and Anelka.<br /><br />Finally, waiting outside the turnstiles to the toilets at Wimbledon station I met the guy who used to sit behind me at Fulham, and whose 'this is toilet' comments somehow helped make the Sanchez months bearable. <br /><br />Me (gushing) Weren't we brilliant<br />Him (not cracking a smile): 'Shouldn't have let them have that goal. Should have had the game out of reach well before that <br />Me: We had loads of chances though, we hit the bar, had a goal disallowed, penalty appeal turn down<br />Him: No use having chances if you don't take them'.<br />Me: It takes a lot to please you<br />Him: Yeah he said. Don't forget I've been watching Fulham season after season he said.<br /><br />A hard bitten fans can spot a fair weather one when he sees one. Which reminds me, I forgot to tell the Ferencvaros fan I was a teenage armchair Honved fan.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382304.post-84640618387543685982008-08-24T06:33:00.021+01:002008-08-25T07:41:43.434+01:00Fulham 1 Arsenal 0First home game of the new season. Like going back to school. Checking out old haunts, seeing familiar faces.<br /><br />First stop the River Cafe, straight opposite Putney Bridge station. A great place for pre-match gossip. The gossip whets your appetite for the game at the same time as the pie and two veg satisfies the inner man. The gossip doesn't have to be true, it just has to be interesting. <br /><br />There are a couple of fellas, father and son who I often see in there before home games. Here is how our conversation went: <br /><br /><blockquote><span style="font-weight:bold;">The father: </span> I don't rate Roy Hodgson<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Me (suprised):</span> He did an amazing job last season, I don't think Jose Mourinho could have kept the dross Sanchez left us with in the premier league<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Father: </span> It wasn't Hodgson. He'd lost it, he was crying after we lost to Sunderland. For the last three games Murphy and McBride took over the dressing room. At half time in the Man City game Danny Murphy gave the team talk. I've heard it from within the club. He told them they were going down that afternoon if they didn't pull their finger out. Thats why when Kamara got the winner he ran straight over to Murphy. And that is why Murphy is captain now.</blockquote><br />At the ground we have moved seats. Not by far, up a bit and along a bit, block CL to block B, but we have crossed the great divide from Johnny Haynes lower to Johnny Haynes upper. Johnny Haynes lower was the old enclosure terrace, it has a shallow slope, and the new seats were put over the terracing four years ago. Johnny Haynes upper is much steeper, you get a great perspective on the game. The wooden seats are the original ones that were put in when the stand was built in 1905, and are the oldest in the premier league. My son admired the way these seats don't flip back when you stand up, they just stay there. I guess they wouldn't have lasted 103 years if they flipped up every time a Fulham fan stood up in anger (or joy). <br /><br />Last season Arsenal came and wove pretty patterns all around Fulham. The game was over after half an hour, Adebayor had risen twice around the penalty spot to crack two identikit headers into the lower bottom corner, both after twenty seven pass moves. <br /><br />Arsenal's midfield four that day were Hleb, Fabergas, Flamini and Rossicky. Two of them left over the summer, the other two of them were injured so this time they had to play Walcott, Denilson, Eboue and Nasri. No comparison. Walcott is still a kid. Nasri has only played one premiership game. Denilson isn't the finished article and Dave (a colleague with an Arsenal season ticket) describes Eboue as 'a traffic cone of a player who can't pass properly'. It was a good day to play them.<br /><br />Before the game I wondered if Fulham would go back to five in midfield, as most teams do against top four sides. In last week's defeat against Hull reports said that we were outmuscled in midfield, and that Bullard and Murphy in the middle weren't able to offer any protection for the defence. But no, Hodgson stuck to his guns, we played 4-4-2 same as they did. <br /><br />Fulham started well, with some nice interpassing. <br /><br />Early on Van Persie missed a good chance (I missed it too, my son needed a wee). On our way back we stood at the top of the stairs to see a Fulham corner which someone bundled in. After the match a TV replay showed that it was all 6 foot five of Brede Hangeland, flying at the ball feet first like Eric Cantona flew into that Palace fan all those years back. <br /><br />Adebayor, just like last season, rose at the penalty spot and got power and direction into a header, but this time it came back of the post.<br /><br />Arsenal's big players drifted in and out of the game, there were twenty minute periods when I forgot Nasri was playing, forgot Adebayor was playing, forgot Walcott was playing. It was Walcott that the Arsenal fans I spoke to afterwards were most disappointed with- he was up against debutant Fulham left back Tony Kallio who was standing in for Paul Konchesky, but Walcott didn't seem to want to test Kallio out.<br /><br />When Wenger brought a third striker on, Nicholas Bendtner, with twenty minutes left Robin Van Persie looked around at his team mates and shrugged his shoulders, wondering where he was going to play. A sign that all wasn't well (they stuck him out on the right side of midfield).<br /> <br />Fulham retained a good share of possession until the last ten minutes, when it became backs to the wall time.<br /><br />Murphy, as well as his usual precision passing, was a tiger in midfield, making lots of key challenges and interceptions. Bullard seemed to play a more disciplined game than at times last season, not straying too far, and hardly misplacing a pass all day. <br /><br />Zamora did a great job in his home debut as centre-forward playing with his back to goal, staying central, holding the ball up, bringing the midfield into it. Soeul Ki-Hyun drifted off him and had a decent game, he got a nice ovation at the end which will help him: he was a Sanchez signing and the crowd have got at him, which is hard on someone like him who needs confidence to play. True neither Soeul or Zamora looked like scoring on their own account, but once Andy Johnson's pace and finishing power are added to Zamora's hold up play we will have a side worth watching.<br /><br />At the end the Fulham players all stood in the centre circle and waved at the crowd, and pointed bemused at our new full back John Pantsil, who was sprinting round the touchline, as fresh as a daisy, a solo high speed lap of honour to milk the applause.<br /><br />Hodgson has been with Fulham for eight months now, and the club have got better every month. Whether it is him or Danny Murphy, someone is doing a good job.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382304.post-68518661702545444452008-08-22T06:49:00.009+01:002008-08-22T17:18:16.927+01:00Cut off your hands<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_utDavl-vV44/SK5UFT819NI/AAAAAAAAAM8/NBxlueMtcX0/s1600-h/DSC00316.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_utDavl-vV44/SK5UFT819NI/AAAAAAAAAM8/NBxlueMtcX0/s400/DSC00316.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5237215866910012626" /></a><br /><br />I went to a gig in my lunch break yesterday (a career first). <a href="http://www.myspace.com/cutoffyourhands">Cut off your hands</a> played a twenty minute set at <a href="http://www.puregroove.co.uk/">Pure Groove</a> record shop in Smithfield.<br /><br />I got there five minutes before the gig started. The shop was open as normal, it was just busier than usual. (I'm often the only person in there at lunchtime).<br /><br />I stood at the front and looked at the speakers, amps and drumkits. A person behind me said that with all that equipment the gig would be deafening in the small record shop. He was right, my ears are still aching 30 hours later.<br /><br />There were about 30 people there, swelling to about forty by the time the gig started. <br /><br />As you can see from the pic they are a four piece indie guitar band. Young fellas from New Zealand. Nice to listen to, quite melodic, check it out on My Space, there is nothing not to like about it. The singer was energetic and had a couple of drums of his own to bang away at various points. <br /><br />They were the politest band you could ever see. The singer thanked the audience for sharing their lunchtime with him. After the gig I spoked to their bass guitarist, who was browsing Pure Groove's wall of the 100 CDs and records they have selected to sell. He said they have come over to live in London because they have signed to a UK record label. I naively asked whether they had thought of signing to a New Zealand label. He said that there wasn't any decent labels in NZ and they always knew they would have to move to the US or the UK (they weren't bothered which one of the two).<br /><br />The band haven't had a day off for 2 months. They have been either playing a gig or travelling to one. I asked him how he coped with that. He said that when they had a similar workload on their Australian tour they all ended up really sick (but that was partly because people wanted to party with them after the gigs).<br /><br />Then he had to go and pack up his stuff because they were playing a gig in Portsmouth in the evening. I've looked at their tour schedule: it seems like they are playing every University in Britain over the next month.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382304.post-5890684316445780962008-07-24T06:28:00.013+01:002008-07-24T07:50:49.531+01:00Lunchtime just got better (but more expensive)Smithfield is within the jurisdiction of the City of London, but outside of the old City walls. It is the furthest that Wat Tylor and the Peasants Revolt reached in 1381 and the furthest that the Great Fire of London got in 1666. And now it plays host to what is probably the City's first and only independent/alternative record shop.<br /><br />Its called <a href="http://www.puregroove.co.uk/">Pure Groove</a>. I got a very pleasant suprise when I walked through Smithfield this Monday luncthime and saw it.<br /><br />It is a big shop but it only sells 100 titles at any one time. They pick the 100 CDs that they are really into and display them over on one wall. They change the selection every week. It is a great idea: less is more. I will end up going in the store just to find out is in their 100.<br /><br />They used to be in Archway (North London) but moved to Smithfield in June this year because they could have extra space for instore gigs. The benefit of only selling 100 titles is that it leaves the rest of the store clear for gigs, art exhibitions and installations.<br /><br />I've been there every lunchtime since I found it. I've bought <span style="font-style:italic;">We'll drive home backwards</span> by <a href="http://www.cocosuma.net/">Cocosuma</a> and <span style="font-style:italic;">Love, ire and song</span> by <a href="http://www.frank-turner.com/blog.html">Frank Turner</a>. Very happy with both. I felt my age when I read Pure Groove's description of Frank Turner as 'a modern Billy Bragg'.<br /><br />Here is a video of one of their instore shows: the Virgins. My favourite bit is 5 minutes into the video when they take the band over to the 100 wall and the band comment on the selection and on the other bands represented in it<br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Y3695HTKaC4&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Y3695HTKaC4&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />And here is Frank Turner's instore there:<br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/JmcF8FYIcw0&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/JmcF8FYIcw0&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382304.post-71276596169669532772008-07-19T23:01:00.005+01:002008-07-19T23:54:15.862+01:00Fulham 3 Celtic 1 (friendly)In Bishop's Park there is a monument to the men and women from Hammersmith and Fulham who voluntarily went to Spain in 1936 and died in the fight against fascism. I took my son to read the inscription the first time I took him to a Fulham game, but it is usually ignored by home and away fans alike as they stroll to and from matches. So it made a pleasant change today to see a group of Celtic fans pay their homage by standing at the monument after the match and singing some freedom songs from the Irish folk tradition. It made me think how nice it would be to have a friendly against Barcelona (or a Champions League tie, whatever). <br /><br />Most of Fulham's new signings played at least a half: Bobby Zamora scored with a volley, Zoltan Gera played out on the right wing and showed some subtle touches, John Pantsil played at right back and impressed my daughter with his pink football boots. David Stockdale played in goal and did OK apart from a bizarre moment when he carried the ball out of the penalty area and the referee Steve Bennett kindly waived play on. Tony Kallio came on at left back in the second half and looked tall, lanky, awkward, rangy and difficult to play against - I liked him.<br /><br />There were patches when Celtic played the ball about well but Fulham were comfortable. Jimmy Bullard looked sunburned and his famous shaggy hair has received some serious attention from a hairdresser with a peroxide look. He was his typical positive, creative but imprecise self. His passing was all awry today but he still seemed to be at the heart of our best stuff in the first half. The Celtic fans jeered him when he fell over the ball in their box and when he put a free kick into orbit over their goal. I'm not used to him getting that sort of treatment - he's one of those rare players even opposition supporters normally like (apart from Bolton fans who don't like his old club Wigan).<br /><br />Danny Murphy came on with his precise passing, a cut above anyone else's. The best moment of the match was when he chipped a corner direct to Leon Andraeson, unmarked at the edge of the box who smashed a volley into the net.<br /><br />The Celtic fans were the star of the show, there must have been 12 or 13 thousand of them, they had three quarters of the ground, they made a fearsome noise, and were very friendly.<br /><br />On the way back I got chatting with a guy who lives in Dover, and belongs to the Folkestone branch of the Celtic Supporters club . He told me they wanted to paint green hoops across the white cliffs of Dover but they couldn't do it because of health and safety considerations.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382304.post-45188725210084287192008-06-25T14:34:00.003+01:002008-06-25T14:46:00.334+01:00Anna gives her horse a nameAnna (age 6): <span style="font-style:italic;">holds up her Nintendo DS to show a gleaming white horse</span> : What jewel does this horse looks like mummy?<br />Tania (age 39): I think it looks like a pearl<br />Anna: I am going to call it pearly. How do you spell it mummy?<br />Tania: p-e-a-r-l-y<br />Andrew : (age 9) No, you don't spell it like that! (<span style="font-style:italic;">runs and gets his London A-Z. Points to a train station in South London.</span>) Look! This is how you spell it!<br />Anna: <span style="font-style:italic;">typing the name of the horse into her DS</span> : p-u-r-l-e-yUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382304.post-49863324644375540672008-06-23T21:48:00.004+01:002008-06-24T09:20:19.565+01:00The DFCThe first issue of <a href="http://www.thedfc.co.uk/">the DFC</a> arrived on our doorstep last week. I can't believe how good it is. 36 pages long with no adverts. The drawing is beautiful, the comic looks and feels special, the stories are funny, suprising and different from each other. <br /> <br />My wife, my nine year old son and me have read it cover to cover . My 6 year old has had half of it read to her and wanted the other half read to. <br /><br />It is the first weekly comic launched in Britain for 25 years. All the other comics for the 6-12 age group have played safe, made themselves monthly and based themselves around a big TV or film tie-in. But monthly serials don't work because you forget the cliff-hanger by the time the next issue comes round. The only tie-in DFC has is with the family section of the Guardian on a Saturday.<br /><br />If you haven't seen it yet it is because it not available in the shops: it costs £3 per issue, available only from the DFC website. <br /><br />Forbidden Planet have given the DFC <a href="http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/?p=7877">a gracious review</a>, even though they must be disappointed that they can't sell the comic themselves. In a perfect world it would be available in newsagents, so that kids could stumble upon it by chance. This way they are dependent on their parents to buy it. But Rome wasn't built in a day, this model allows DFC to start up with a relatively small audience. Who knows where they will be in a years time?<br /><br />Besides I like the print on demand model they operate where it doesn't get printed until someone orders it (it contrasts with the print-without-demand of all those free newspapers they give out at London stations).Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382304.post-14229594073820043632008-05-26T12:13:00.003+01:002008-05-26T12:20:34.274+01:00Me on TV talking about GraffitiFriction TV used a chunk of their interview with me in their piece about the graffiti on the side of the Tate Modern. <br /><br />I'm right at the end of the video. For background to it see my post on <a href="http://worldflapjackday.blogspot.com/2008/05/blu.html">Blu</a> (unfortunately they didn't use the bit where I went on about the numskulls!) <br /><br /><object classid='clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000' codebase='http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=7,0,19,0' width='275' height='218'><param name='movie' value='http://www.friction.tv/swf/videoplayer.swf?flvURL=http://www.friction.tv/ftv_flv.php?flv=3481'/><param name='wmode' value='transparent'/><param name='quality' value='high'/><embed src='http://www.friction.tv/swf/videoplayer.swf?flvURL=http://www.friction.tv/ftv_flv.php?flv=3481' base='http://www.friction.tv' quality='high' pluginspage='http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' wmode='transparent' height='218' width='275'></embed></object>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382304.post-79121421316937334492008-05-24T08:12:00.010+01:002008-05-25T20:45:02.572+01:00Fulham 2 Birmingham City 0<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_utDavl-vV44/SDm7kJ04k0I/AAAAAAAAALk/-Mof6o4gXq4/s1600-h/2008-05-03-FulhamVBirmingham-before.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_utDavl-vV44/SDm7kJ04k0I/AAAAAAAAALk/-Mof6o4gXq4/s400/2008-05-03-FulhamVBirmingham-before.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5204397074190734146" border="0" /></a><br />Ten to three, Saturday May 3 2008. Block CL, Johnny Haynes Stand. Me and Andrew are eating strawberries from a punnet as the rest of Craven Cottage bellows their support for Fulham before the vital relegation crunch against Birmingham.<br /><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Somehow it felt right, the day was hot, the mood was of nervous expectancy and the strawberries were delicious. I offered one to the people on our row and the one behind us: people whose black humour with occasional glimmers of cheer have mirrored Fulham's season. I did think of offering them to the folks in the row in front of me, who have suffered this season not just from Lawrie Sanchez's long ball football and second rate signings, but also from having their chairs kicked by my Andrew in his more fidgety moments. But I ducked out of that one.</p><br /><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">This wasn't just another in the long string of must-win games we have had at Craven Cottage this year (most of which Fulham lost!). If we lost this one we were relegated. The fact that Birmingham were in just as serious a predicament added spice to the encounter. Do or die today.</p><br /><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Fulham were all over Birmingham for the first ten minutes with high tempo passing football. The atmosphere was unrecognisable from your normal laid back Craven Cottage. Every chant from the Hammersmith End was echoed and amplified by the whole of the Johnny Haynes stand.</p><br /><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The game plateaud out. Birmingham's defence looked strong. Jimmy Bullard gave the ball away in his own half a couple of times which led to Birmingham's best chances. Breda Hangeland used his strength to dominate Birmingham's striker James McFadden.</p><br /><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Half time. General impression we had done allright but hadn't really looked like scoring. A man in his fifties washing his hands in the gents said that he hadn't slept the previous night for thinking about this game.</p><br /><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Second half. Not long gone. Free kick half way in Birmingham's half, Jimmy Bullard floats in a diagonal ball and Brian McBride heads in. One-nil to us and I expected that Birmingham would come at us with all guns blazing. But no, Fulham kept on swarming forward. Birmingham seem to have crumbled . When they brought on an extra striker virtually every outfield player ran over to him, asking for instructions on where their boss wanted them to play - a sure sign of disarray.</p><br /><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Fulham's forward momentum subsided, Birmingham started to get back into it. You couldn't take your eyes off it, it was frenetic. Fulham playing with huge commitment and intensity : flying into tackles and blocks. The guy behind me asked whether Brum's left back had an injury: whenever we broke down the right Simon Davies seemed to have oceans of space. There was nothing Birmingham could do about it, they had used all their subs.</p><br /><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Five minutes to go, Birmingham have a chance at one end. Then a hopeful ball somehow gets through the Birmingham defence and Eric Nevland finds himself alone with only the keeper to beat. Calmness personified, never looking like missing, he rolled the ball into the net.</p><br /><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Delirium. I leap on the man in front of me (to mitigate or compound the sin of not offering a strawberry?) I looked round at Andrew: he was being embraced by the person behind me. I hugged John the nice fella to the left of me, then Andrew. High fives with the fella behind me and the fella next to him. It seemed to last for ages but when I looked at the pitch again the Fulham players were still in a heap in front of the Hammersmith end. Murphy and Bullard on top of Eric Nevland.</p><br /><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">We only ever see Eric Nevland for 15 minutes at the end of a game but this was the second time in three weeks that he has slotted away a vital clinching goal.</p><br /><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Eventually the game resumed, the Johnny Haynes stand all standing up now. And for the first time this season a new chant is heard: not the plaintive yearning of 'come on Fulham' but the deep voiced certainty of 'we are staying up'.</p><br /><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Stoppage time. The fellas behind me started hugging and doing their own special dance: we turn around and they explain 'the final whistle has gone at Reading: they've lost one-nil'. </p><br /><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The final whistle goes, everyone stays behind to witness a joyous lap of honour. After being being second from bottom for four months, Fulham had now pulled themselves out of the bottom three, and would stay up if they won their last game of the season away at Portsmouth. </p><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_utDavl-vV44/SDm7y504k1I/AAAAAAAAALs/zyJDpU1Px4A/s1600-h/2008-05-03-FulhamVBirmingham-after.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_utDavl-vV44/SDm7y504k1I/AAAAAAAAALs/zyJDpU1Px4A/s400/2008-05-03-FulhamVBirmingham-after.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5204397327593804626" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382304.post-44012495130882596852008-05-23T21:59:00.006+01:002008-05-25T07:17:44.743+01:00Blu<div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">It was Friday lunchtime, and I was standing looking at this huge work of graffitti art painted on the front of the Tate Modern:<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_utDavl-vV44/SDc4fZ04kuI/AAAAAAAAAK0/7TP0BZD1h34/s1600-h/IMG_6676.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_utDavl-vV44/SDc4fZ04kuI/AAAAAAAAAK0/7TP0BZD1h34/s400/IMG_6676.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5203690006609695458" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">(photo from </span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif">http://www.blublu.org/blog/ )</a></span><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;">I started to sketch the big face(s). Four people came along. From their conversation it was clear that one of them knew the artist. He told me the artist was from Bologna in Italy and was called Blu. He advised me to look on YouTube for Blu's amazing animated works of grafitti. If like me you wonder how you can have animated graffiti then take a look at this stunning video:<br /></div><br /><object height="355" width="425"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/uuGaqLT-gO4&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="355" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> I went back to my sketching. A lady from Friction TV came along with a film camera.<br /><br />She asked a man next to me whether she could film him answering the question<br /><div style="text-align: left;"><blockquote>'will galleries and companies kill graffiti art by commercialising it and sanitising it?'<br /></blockquote></div><br />The man said that these graftti artists had devoted lots of time and care honing a skill and were entitled to take some money for it. Then she filmed me. I wanted to say that galleries, record companies, fashion companies and the like need new movements and ideas from time to time, but can't generate them themselves. They're forced to take ideas from the street because that is where new movements come from. But I actually went on a bit of a ramble comparing the work we were looking at to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Numskulls">numskulls </a> mixed in with a Guantanomo bay critique.<br /><br />She told us both that our contributions would be put up on the <a href="ttp://www.friction.tv/ftv_home.php">Friction TV</a> website within hours, but as I write they are not up there: maybe we didn't get through quality control.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382304.post-83362596433480768242008-04-30T22:29:00.005+01:002008-04-30T22:45:48.942+01:00Anthem for Jimmy Bullard<span style="font-style: italic;">Its Fulham's big game this Saturday: at home to Birmingham City.<br /><br />So I've written this song about Jimmy Bullard, to the tune of 'the animals marched in two by two hurrah' (with a nod to the Liverpool fans who use the tune for their Torres song.)</span><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br /></span><br /><span>That Sanchez he was such a clown, Bullard, Bullard</span><br /><span>It looked like he would take us down, Bullard, Bullard</span><br /><span>But you came back and saved the day, and now we even win away</span><br /><span>Cos you're super Jimmy, super Jim Bullard</span><br /><br /><span>They said your knee would never mend, Bullard, Bullard</span><br /><span>But now we watch your free-kicks bend, Bullard, Bullard</span><br /><span>Past the keeper like a dart, to warm the cockles of our hearts</span><br /><span>Cos you're super Jimmy, super Jim Bullard</span><br /><br /><span>You were Chris Coleman's greatest buy Bullard, Bullard</span><br /><span>You've said you'll stay until you die Bullard, Bullard</span><br /><span>We'll sing this song throughout the land, and we'll put your name on one of our stands</span><br /><span>Cos we love you Jimmy, super Jim Bullard</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382304.post-1368920498128040802008-04-17T11:40:00.002+01:002008-04-17T11:53:59.123+01:00Our second greyhound: Becks<div align="left"> </div><div align="left"><a href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_utDavl-vV44/SAcpYgPXn4I/AAAAAAAAAJU/8KsMLABGoO8/s1600-h/2008-04-17-becks.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5190162596515782530" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_utDavl-vV44/SAcpYgPXn4I/AAAAAAAAAJU/8KsMLABGoO8/s400/2008-04-17-becks.jpg" border="0" /></a>Becks has come to live with us. Like our first dog (Alexa), Becks is an ex-racing greyhound. He raced under the name of Lethal Becks and retired about a year ago. Apparently he is named after the bottled beer rather than the footballer. </div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left">After retirement Becks stayed for a year at a very good home in South East London, so he is used to being a family pet.</div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left"><br /><br />He is a nice calm dog, he hasn't been any trouble, and seems to get on fine with Alexa. I think she is pulling rank on him a bit now though: she wanted his bed this morning, so Becks had to go and sleep on hers. Then a bit later Alexa changed her mind and got her bed back</div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left"><br /> </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1