The Pleasure Of The Harbour

The Only People Bleeding Are Us

2008-10-15T15:26:00.000Z

High Low, Silver Lining...

2008-06-05T06:47:00.014Z

I'm having a bit of a heart attack.

All the low lows, mid lows, lows, and high lows are all intact, thanks very much.

And even some low highs and high highs.

No problem there. In the bank.

At ease.

But that jumbo bucket o'guts staring at me from the corner of the harbour has been overflowing for a while now.

And I'm this close to giving the fucker a running kick.

This close.

It'd make me feel a whole lot better. Absolutely no doubt. But I'm also so very aware that I'm also so very likely, so very likely, to go slipping on my arse.

Maybe land on my bum and after the inability to exhale has passed, come round, a little bruised, wipe off the guts and move on.

But my boots are a little worn down, only fit for pootling around the harbour walls shouting at the gulls and my wallet isn't padded enough to cushion the fall, so I'm more concerned that I'm more likely to suffer a more undignified fate.

You know. Miss the bucket altogether and end up in the harbour.

Put my foot in the bucket and slide into the harbour.

Slip, slide, head into the bucket.

Into the harbour.

Slippity, slop.

Splash.

...

Who's Paying The Bill?

2008-01-23T10:40:00.000Z

Just wondering who's going to count the numbers attending the Police demonstration today?

As a rule, the Met normally cut about three quarters off the organisers' estimate.

Applying this criteria could mean that if 15,000 actually did turn up, they'd first give an organiser total of 3,750 and then the working Police would argue that only 937 turned out.

During the last demo I attended I overheard three of the Met's finest apologising to drivers stuck in traffic that "a bunch of students are blocking the road again". It was all so quaint and Eighties and especially funny as it was clearly they who were blocking the road with, er, police road blocks.

Ah, demonstrations, what memories: being penned into Oxford Circus for six hours under the Riot Act to prevent 'the possibility' of trouble; charged by mounted police while sat down eating a sandwich in Hyde Park; watching a Holocaust surviver having to clamber over a collapsed cemetery wall to escape a battening; charged by mounted police, from behind, while walking to our coach in Welling; and constantly being funneled individually through Police lines to be filmed and photographed for doing nothing but attending officially recognised protests...

I'm sure it'll be just the same for them today.

And what a pity, as if they're a little short-handed I'm sure there would have been plenty of ex-miners or maybe Toxteth and Brixton residents up for popping down and giving them a hand with the stewarding? It's their taxes that pay their wages after all...

Hmmm?

No?

Suit yourselves...

All The News That's Fit To Print?

2007-12-11T15:55:00.000Z

'Led Zep Storm London'
'TV Star Bites Homeless Man'

Another 4am Start...

2007-11-25T04:58:00.000Z

It's 5am and I'm being helped along with my early morning insomnia by a flagged-up but non the less it-is-5-in-the-fucking-morning brick filtered bass from a party next door.

I'm staying positive however (although Monday morning might prove another matter).

So how have I been whiling away the wee hours?

Eventually finished watching The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada!

I knew from the first trailer I'd love it and not sure how it took me so long to get round to watching it. All the right mix of Americana, male angst and road movie.

And Dwight Yoakam and Levon Helm anyone? Two really great performances - let alone Melissa Leo and Mr Lee Jones himself.

Here's Levon in one of his two scenes:

And Dwight Yoakam and Melissa Leo:

And here they are doing their regular thing:

The Band with The Staple Singers: 'The Weight'
(Levon's on the drums)

Dwight Yoakam: 'Intentional Heartache'

There But For Fortune

2007-11-21T07:59:00.000Z

I'm walking up Regent Street to work in the mornings lately. This week at 7.30ish. Just in time to catch sight of the homeless guys sleeping in the Posh Shop doorways.

It's a terrible cliche but I wander along with my iPod tinkling away, maybe about to spend £3.49 on a carrot and ginger smoothie thing or £1.79 on a latte or £2.20 on coffee and toast or £3 something on a bagel or nearly £6 on a pack of Marlboros.

I'm suffering a hangover from an unexpected night of 5 pints of £3 odd beer and a £1.89 sausage pasty thing and used a £14 rail-card. I'll spend maybe £4 on Boots sushi at lunchtime and a good chance of a couple more coffees.

I've got to get round to sending back a dud piece of £30 RAM to Crucial, pay an overdue NI contribution, a credit card bill, rent and swap a £13 CD at HMV.

And I saunter past these fellas in the doorways in the morning feeling little more than a passing anger aimed somewhere between Top Shop and Western Capitalism that soon fades back into the everyday background drone.

The frustrating thing is that I feel it doesn't frustrate me enough.

Slippery When Wet

2007-11-19T18:44:00.000Z

Ok, so in other train related news, what on earth is going on when a
train station built in the centre of London has to shut some of it's
entrances when it rains?

The ever lovely Charing Cross had a whole entrance closed and another
on some bizarre one-way system tonight because the floor was slippy.

Are we insane? Does this happen everytime there's a bit of drissle?
And how do you spell drissle?

Enquiring minds need to know. And yes, I am on the old iPhone on the
train.

Again.

Born Again Virgin

2007-11-18T20:18:00.001Z

Here I am sat on the 17.41 from Lancaster to Euston.

It's going to be just short of 11 o'clock when I arrive which seems
extraordinary when I could do London to Paris and back in the same time.

Still, god forbid they should do engineering works on a work day. Take
up everyone's leisure time as long as people aren't held up getting to
jobs they hate on a Monday morning.

Bah...

To be fair I'm probably a bit biley since my trip up in First Class
was quiet as could be. In fact I had a whole carriage to myself, was
fed and watered regularly and made it in under 3 hours.

The very reason I'd spent the extra.

Years ago, when I used the West Coast line on a regular basis I would
openly hiss and curse the First Class coaches as I pushed my way into
Standard Smoking carriages (that's right kids).

Now, with a bit of disposable income, (and credit cards are disposable
income, right?) I'm justifying the "just thirty quid more" based on
the horror stories of non-vehicled friends on Virgin Trains.

Well, as First is now exhibiting all the everyday nuisance that I'd
hoped to avoid, god only knows what Standard is like...

So, I sit here contemplating the classless society and enjoying the
man over the aisle struggling with a monstrosity of a Windows laptop...

I tap away on my iPhone and listen to the girl opposite, who I'd
vaguely flirted with earlier, say to her mate on the phone that she'd
see her AT SCHOOL tomorrow....

I listen to Richard Thompson from the Macbook as I've not got the
right earphone connector for the iPhone and refuse to use the Apple
ones, not out of any particular audio-snobbery (although that would
probably be justified) but because they fall out of my ears and
broadcast more music to anyone within 100 yards of me rather than my
own head...

And more importantly realise that this entire post is merely an excuse
to practice on the keyboard and show off my week old but still magical
new toy (forgot to put any witty bracketed comments in this paragraph).

Well, I'm off for thirty quids worth of complimentary shortbread and
to send this while I've actually got an EDGE signal...

Whoopee!

iWonder

2007-11-17T18:44:00.001Z

So, a few years ago (really, years) I mused that my purchasing of some
crazy PDA thing (m2000 anyone?) would increase the posts to this here
blog.

Which it clearly didn't.

Only time will tell whether the lovely iPhone that I'm sat typing this
on will have a more positive effect.

I've been spending a lot of time reading some great blogs of late and
feel I could at least attempt to offer something of worth.

However, the Cropredy Festival, aging heavy metal stars and the bloody
iPhone is all I can garner.

Well, who knows?

(see, exciting already...)

iBack

2007-11-17T12:01:00.000Z

Well it's been a while since I've popped down to the Harbour but as
I'm sat up by the West Lancashire coast and have my magical iPhone
with me, thought I might drop by and see how everyone's doing.

Alright?

Marvelous...

6 O'Clock. Where Did That Come From?

2007-08-23T17:03:00.000Z

My Body Is Made Of Sunlight

2007-08-23T12:39:00.001Z

Two Quick Things

2007-08-15T14:25:00.000Z

Ok, firstly - within 10 years alcohol's going to be treated like cigarettes 5 years ago and within 20 you'll see it being banned by local authorities, creating 'dry' counties.

It'd be ridiculous but it'll happen, I tell thee.

Secondly and in no way related - you wanna see how FaceBook will look when you're sitting having an Xmas Pudding Latte in Starbucks on your iPhone later in the year?

You wanna?
You wanna?

Go on then: make sure you're signed in, click here and resize your browser to iPhone size.

Whooee!

I am so excited, and I quite literally can't hide it...

iLaughed

2007-08-14T21:33:00.000Z

A Brummy Xmas Anyone?

2007-08-14T11:12:00.001Z

More info here.

From The Fairport Site:

2007-08-14T08:57:00.000Z

"Just a couple of weeks before Fairport's Cropredy Convention 2007, much of the festival site was under water. Yet by Thursday afternoon, it was sunshine that flooded the campsites on the meadows that had been lakebeds just a fortnight earlier.

The sun continued to shine, the rain even holding off during Friday evening when Richard Thompson took the stage in two sets lasting nearly three hours - his mythical 'rain god' personna evaporated in the balmy evening of Friday 10 August although, of course, his 'rock god' status remains undiminished..."

Much more here.

This Petition...

2007-08-13T14:07:00.000Z

...is quite funny.

Er, this.

Check out the signatures...

"Surely one of the events of the year"

2007-08-13T10:51:00.000Z

One field, two pubs, three mates, four-pinters of 6X.

And amazing music.

I've got an essay on the whole thing somewhere, but for now, Robin Denslow will do.

Cheers everyone

Can't Get Fairer Than That

2007-08-07T13:29:00.000Z

Founding member of Fairport get's hands on in the office and on the forums:

Bless 'em...

Mac, Shmac, What About Cropredy?

2007-08-07T07:09:00.000Z

Another good article here.

They've really gone all out on PR this year and it also seems that people are able to write about it without resorting to the usual 'beard and real-ale' cliches...

Well done everyone.

Googapple

2007-08-06T23:08:00.000Z

Apple's .Mac service is out-dated.

Google Apps (mail, calendar, docs, bookmarks etc.) work a treat.

Apple has a product launch at 6pm GMT tomorrow.

Google's personalised homepage is called iGoogle.

Apple boss says .Mac service is going to get an upgrade soon.

Andy says: If Google and Apple get together to offer web applications that backup and share all your stuff across any computer (and the, ahem, iPhone) on Google's servers but with an annual charge to put an Apple sheen on the front-end...

I'm writing the cheque now...

Oh Well, Adolf Liked VW Beatles

2007-08-06T11:06:00.000Z

Full picture here.

Cropredy Now & Then

2007-08-05T08:43:00.000Z

From 1983:

And from today's Observer:

Forget Glastonbury and Womad - the 40th reunion gig of folk's finest band is this year's hottest outdoor ticket

Next weekend, at its annual bash at Cropredy, Oxfordshire, Fairport, the inventors of 'folk rock', will host their 40th-anniversary party, a celebration of four uninterrupted decades of music of enduring quality, played through an inimitable narrative, all washed down with hectolitres of wholesome ale.

...the best weekend break in the world, on the site of a pivotal battle during the English Civil War. You can sit on a deckchair or lie on the grass. You can bring your mates, your lover, wife, husband, children or parents (grandchildren too, these days) and no one will nick your wallet - they get returned, full of cash, to the Lost and Found. Any football results that day will be relayed over the speaker system; you can eat sausages and try to win a signed violin in the raffle. I never saw any chemicals at Cropredy, the odd spliff maybe; but to say that this was an unintoxicated event would be prissy. The closest Cropredy gets to corporate life is a recent partnership with Wadworths beer, sold in gallon containers as well as by the pint. The next day, a Fairport XI takes on the village cricket team - 'Not always feeling or looking our best,' says Peggy.

- FULL ARTICLE HERE (very good it is too)

· The Cropredy Festival: 40 Glorious Years is this Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

· Liege and Lief is rereleased by Universal Records, and the 4-CD Dave Pegg retrospective, A Box of Pegg's, is out on 14 August on Matty Grooves Records

'There Was a Manic Feeling in the Air'

2007-08-03T21:45:00.000Z

Good article on 'Liege & Lief' here..

Shiiiiitttttt!

2007-08-03T21:33:00.000Z