If you're one of the Daves I know, this one's for you:

Nicked from henry_the_cow :

"The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed."

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.

2) Italicize those you intend to read.

3) Underline the books you LOVE.

4) Strike out the books you have no intention of ever reading, or were forced to read at school and hated.

5) Reprint this list in your own LJ"

Hmmm, surprisingly there aren't any I would completely rule out reading, not even the dread Da Vinci code...

 

 

Everyone's talking about Doctor Who and I haven't seen the last two episodes yet because the Virgin Catch up TV thing hasn't been working in Edinburgh for the last week.

[hands over ears] LA LA LA CANT HEAR YOU LA LA LA!

There's always the beeb website I suppose. I prefer watching telly on a telly though. Yeah yeah, call me old fashioned.

I'm spending more time these days writing up the films I watch in blog form.

http://isthisvalid.blogspot.com

I'm finding it a good way to remember what exactly I've watched. It'll be fun when people start commenting about how wrong I am about everything.

The US dollar/Pound Sterling exchange rate is incredibly sweet right now, so I took advantage and bought a nice new handbag for $60, plus $17.20 shipping, which works out at less than £40.

It arrived today, but I had to pay £13.26 to Royal Mail to get them to hand it over.

Now - I expected to have to pay VAT, which I figured out would be just over a fiver. Fine. But I've also been charged the very mysterious Royal Mail International Clearance Fee of £8.

I called Royal Mail, and the girl in the call centre read something from her screen to the effect that from 3rd April 2007 this charge went up to £8 (PER ITEM!!!) and a bit of spin about how it covers administration costs and "speeds up delivery".

This has put me off ever buying goods from outside the EU ever again. Well, unless it's something really expensive, which would make it worthwhile, probably.

So much for globalisation and free trade.

Humph.

Why are old people so much better at doing anger these days than young people?

( In Goya's Greatest Scenes We Seem to See )

a poem by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Who's EIGHTY-EIGHT years old.

I've come out of my slumber briefly because of Triptych Festival issues. Issues I-VI follow:

I

If I can only see one band in the whole of the Triptych festival it will be the mighty Einsturzende Neubauten. I have waited my whole life to see them. Give me a shout if you too are going. They're playing Glasgow on Wednesday 25th of April.

II

Aside from that, I'm rather dissappointed by this year's line-up, mainly because nearly all the gigs I want to go to are in Glasgow. They seem to have majorly cut back on bands playing all three cities, which I thought was the whole point?! Prob not cost effective, especially as a lot of Edinburgh people travel to Glasgow for gigs, but personally I hate that fewer and fewer interesting gigs are happening in Edinburgh generally. Thumbs down to Triptych's organisers for exacerbating things.

III

I highly recommend checking out Les Georges Leningrad, who are a totally mental noisy Francophone Canadian band that defy any detailed discription. Let's just say I saw them at Dour a few years ago and I greatly enjoyed their music and stage antics. They're playing Glasgow on Thursday 26th. I won't actually be going though, as I've seen them before, and I can't countenance two trips to Glasgow in a row during the working week so I'm TAKING A STAND against the increasing leeching of all COOL away from Edinburgh to Glasgow.

IV

The mighty, mighty Electrelane are playing the Bongo Club on Sunday 29th. Hooray for coolness in Edinburgh. Electrelane are one of the best live bands I've seen in the last few years. However, minus points to Triptych for making them a support act to The Pastels. Rage.

V

The band I will take a chance on are Field Music. I've heard two of their songs, and they're rather too poppy for the tastes of some people, but I like them because they sound kind of like the Beatles, but the singer has a pompous shopping centre tannoy voice, which coupled with some quirky riffage and chord changes make them sound very proggy. Prog Beatle-esque. Hooray for prog. They're at the Bongo Club on Friday 27th.

VI

If I lived in Glasgow, I would go to see Terry Riley, and also that Free Noise gig that includes Evan Parker, Yellow Swans, etc. and get to see all those people I read about in Wire magazine. But I don't, so I won't. I'm taking a stand, right?

1. Listen to more music, especially new-ish obscure underground music.

1.5. Listen to less 6Music (a couple of good shows but way too much major label fake indy-schmindy dreck on it).

2. Make more music.

3. Write that filmscript that I had the idea for on October 28th 2006.

4. Go abroad at least once.

5. Get more freelance work.

6. Spend less time on the internet.

NB: #6 means I won't be spending much time on this LJ thing anymore, although I haven't the heart to delete it (yet). It's nothing personal, oh LJ friends. Basically I just spent 2 weeks in Dublin with only about 10 mins per day online to check email, with the result that I felt much more in tune with real life, and much happier.

So if I'm speaking to you, please don't assume I've been following your blog/LJ, because I probably won't have.

All hail meeting people face to face, talking on the telephone, the print medium, and fresh air!

Over and out.