Blog posts

reading’s premiere acoustic music event is….. For those in the area, check out page 9 of the current Blah Blah.

I think I’m hooked. Made it to the local " Don’t Invade Iraq" demonstration. 100 people isn’t bad for Reading and apparently good reports have been coming in from across the country. I’m always torn between wanting to support these things in Reading and wanting to join the masses in London, where there’s likely to be a better atmosphere and more friends. This time it was well worth staying put.

Malachi’s not the most common of names. But on the net so many of us use pseudonyms (and even multiple identities) that it wasn’t a huge surprise to see someone posting under that name on the university christian union message boards. It was probably when it first claimed that Malachi was its real name that I was rather surprised and perhaps a little suspicious. It claimed to be from Tallahassee in Florida and to have applied to study at Southampton University next year. It claimed that it was an agnostic interested in the Christian faith and asked some interesting (and a lot of not so interesting) questions. It was nearly believable. There was just the right level of knowledge of VeggieTales and Left Behind to suggest a familiarity with church PR in the US. But I was suspicious. It offered no explanation for its presence on our little set of boards and why on earth it would want to join the infighting and stereotyping that typify so many of the exchanges. ...

My daily routine involves opening a rapidly increasing number of pages in (the wonderfully-tabbed browsing experience which is) mozilla. On reaching the Guardian I spotted this article on Iran and felt compelled to share. It’s a portrayal which meshes well with my experiences this summer. Though I am rather shaken by the story of a hanging in Jamshidieh Park where I spent a wonderful evening.

I was going to rave on and on and on about Donnie Darko. 16 or so hours on and I’m still turning the film over and over in my mind. And then I was tempted to moan about Reading’s lack of decent cinemas which means I need to visit Oxford or London to watch the film again. Instead, that will wait, and I’ll simply mention I’ve been enjoying this series at Doonesbury. I’d not read it in the Guardian for a few weeks and have Daniel to thank for the pointer in his blog.

Maybe I don’t check amazon.com with the diligence someone interested in the web as the web should. Maybe this is new. For some time now I’ve been aware of their list-making options, allowing the humble consumer to inform their fellow consumers of products they might like. Seduction of clients through the simulation of community. Providing a window into each others’ lives. I confess to having been seduced. ‘So you’d like to …’ appears to offer those same consumers the chance to write pretty much everything. Kinda like an amazon-blog. Or something like that. It’s thrown me a little. I find it fascinating to browse these sorts of pages. Something like this provides a perfect (if exaggerated) demonstration of consumer culture. But it feels a little sad that that’s the window.

Shadow was rather good last night. Only really being familiar with Endtroducing a lot of the music was new to me, but there was more to recognise than I’d expected. Perhaps it was the liberal use of Blackalicious samples after a summer where they made up a significant chunk of my listening. Or maybe I’ve just absorbed more than I realised. Regardless, the tunes were fantastic, the visuals for the most part spot-on (oh, how I’d love some kit like that for deli) and the bass thumping. ...

I was determined I wouldn’t leave it as much as a week between updates. And I’ve succeeded, though not in the style I’d planned. The hope was to write some summary of my response to Richard Holloway’s _Dancing on the Edge_ which I finished last weekend. Or perhaps some review of last night’s Airstar show in Oxford which goes further than saying ‘it was good’. Suffice it to say that time hasn’t allowed for either of those as yet. ...

Despite Steve’s cajoling I didn’t buy a copy of the Sunday Times today. Somehow, I couldn’t quite do it. The brands have me. There’s little escape from my routine of buying a copy of the Observer or Independent on Sunday. So it works well for me that I can avoid handing money into the mits of Rupert Murdoch by making use of the internet. Anyone else who wants to see what Martin had to say about Steve can do so here. The experience has set me to wondering what my life would have been like had it not been for the internet and wondering whether I should be worried that I can’t quite work that out. When my daily routine involves checking a dozen or so websites, checking e-mail and engaging in some light instant messaging before an optional break for breakfast, it’s difficult to imagine none of that being available. Perhaps I’d get more sleep. I’d certainly need a different source of income. But then I’d probably buy less books, CDs and DVDs. Cliche though it probably is, I’d have to say that it is the community I’d miss the most. If we put aside the fact that I’d never have experienced it to miss it. ...

If you were going to attack a country on the grounds that you were worried about an apparent stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, would you presume that they might actually use those weapons to defend from your attack? Apparently, that is news to some people. The mind boggles. Of course this does all presume that the weapons haven’t been destroyed by previous bombing raids, weapons inspections or natural deterioration, but let’s humour the administration in question for a while. Why does it take the CIA to point out that if Saddam Hussein has chemical and/or biological weapons and his country is invaded he might use them for defence or revenge? Perhaps reports like this will begin to strike home the message that removing Saddam Hussein can never be a surgical operation without side-effects. If it happens, it will be messy. ...