4/28/2004 03:14:00 AM|W|P|dan|W|P|"Computer games don't affect kids. I mean, if Pac-Man had affected us as kids, we'd all be running round in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetitive electronic music" - Kristian Wilson, Nintendo, 1989. Genius. I am blogging to: Neil Young|W|P|108308975197595013|W|P||W|P|danpawley@gmail.com4/26/2004 05:02:00 AM|W|P|dan|W|P|Shamelessly lifted from Neil Gaiman's blog, but fun nevertheless... "But then I accidentally clicked on the dynamism.com site, and discovered the i-duck. Here for details. It's a 256Meg USB memory storage device, and it's a glow in the dark duck. Look. Of course, they only glow when you plug them in. Even simply blogging this makes me feel like I'm at the cutting edge of technology. iDucks. Of course." I am blogging to:The Pixies|W|P|108292358393848389|W|P||W|P|danpawley@gmail.com4/25/2004 03:03:00 AM|W|P|dan|W|P|Champions at last! Up the Greens! hmm, Leeds, Cardiff & Milwall next season. I foresee a lot of overtime for the Plymouth police force... My beloved Plymouth Argyle I am blogging to:Barnstormer|W|P|108282993993373504|W|P||W|P|danpawley@gmail.com4/22/2004 04:45:00 AM|W|P|dan|W|P|Tired. Couldn't sleep properly last night, due to being hyped up after a marathon Halo session. Great great game. Fugazi have started selling CDs of shows. Look at this for more details. Does this now make them the Grateful Dead of post-hardcore? When I've seen Fugazi they've either been astonishingly good or perfectly dreadful, but their Exeter show last year did more to restore my faith in rock music as a vital force than one hundred years of the NME ever could. My weekend was good. I have too many friends that I don't see often enough, a fact I'm painfully reminded of every time we part. So here's to you Tom, Denise, Vince, Phil, Rich & Tina. Thanks. I also managed to spend a ridiculous amount of money on comics, courtesy of Page 45 (link on the side). Still working my way through the pile, but early highlights are the next few issues of 1602 (Neil Gaiman's Marvel characters in Elizabethan Europe romp), Epoxy and the latest oupourings from the mind of Dr Parsons, which are wrong in many many ways. And finally I love the new album by Richmond Fontaine. It's called "Post To Wire". Very literate country rock, with strong narrative songs, and a lovely keening pedal steel guitar. I am blogging to:Prince.|W|P|108257784405308340|W|P||W|P|danpawley@gmail.com4/16/2004 07:43:00 PM|W|P|dan|W|P|We went to see Calexico last night at Vicar St. Wow. DC Mike on the Napkin had promised that we would be impressed and we certainly were. Seven musicians on stage made for a really full sound, alternating between evoking the dry dusty deserts landscapes of south west America, and full on Mexican dance music! A great range of instruments (the usual suspects, plus trumpets, trombones, accordion, melodica, and pedal steel) all played by very talented people. The film projections were sympathetic to the music as well, which is not something you normally see. And they played a cover of Love's "Alone Again Or". Really really good. The best gig I've been to in ages. We are off to Nottingham tomorrow for my friend's birthday. Should be good, as there will be a lot of friends I haven't seen for over a year there. We are planning on some drunken bowling and dancing. After that, who knows? Last time we were out with this group, I was trying to form a death squad to hunt and kill Sting, so anything is possible... I am blogging to:Calexico (duh)|W|P|108211286104292955|W|P||W|P|danpawley@gmail.com4/15/2004 04:27:00 AM|W|P|dan|W|P|My toe has been hurting for days. This is how Bob Marley went. Mark my words. we went to see French Toast last night - a DC band on Dischord. They were okay. Sometimes they were really good, sometimes they were dreadful and quite often it was during the same song. Quite a strong Minutemen influence, but generally all over the place. Calexico tomorrow night should be very good, of which more later. |W|P|108197107567580240|W|P||W|P|danpawley@gmail.com4/12/2004 04:49:00 AM|W|P|dan|W|P|I am reading a history of Byzantium. It is entertaining, mainly for the way the leaders of the early Christian church acted like they were in a school playground: "Most outraged of all [by attempts to resolve the monophysite heresy] was Pope Felix III, especially after the appointment to the Patriarchate of Alexandria of Paul the Stammerer, a clerics whose utterances, when they were comprehensible at all, were violently monphysite in character. At a synod in 484, Pope Felix had actually excommunicated the Patriarch of Constantinople - a sentence, which in default of anyone courageous enough to pronounce it, had been transcribed onto a piece of parchment and pinned to the back of his cape during a service in St Sophia. The Patriach discovered it later and instantly excommunicated him back." Hoho! Those wacky Christians! |W|P|108171335921885162|W|P||W|P|danpawley@gmail.com4/11/2004 11:20:00 PM|W|P|dan|W|P|I don't know anything about this graphic novel, but just look at that cover. I want this so bad! |W|P|108169332686848658|W|P||W|P|danpawley@gmail.com4/08/2004 11:15:00 PM|W|P|dan|W|P|From today in Takadanobaba in Tokyo you can spend Astro Boy money. How cool is that... and somebody has made the Beatles listenable at last. Look at Beatallica for proof. "The Thing That Should Not Let It Be" indeed. I am blogging to:LCD Soundsystem|W|P|108143440007733830|W|P||W|P|danpawley@gmail.com4/07/2004 04:47:00 AM|W|P|dan|W|P|"So what makes a great single?...It uses every production trick in the book, without fear of accusations of gimmicks or novelty to make it more than just a recording of a live performance. It must have hooklines, even when those hooklines subvert or ignore the singalong chorus norm. It should, whether it means to or not, say something striking about its chosen theme, even if it's an instrumental (music does talk). It should want to be a hit, even if it fails. It should, almost without exception, be made for people to listen to, rather than the artist to indulge themselves with. It should, when heard for the first time, induce the inattentive listener to stop what are doing and exclaim "What the fuck is that?" it mst be more than just an ad for an album, even when that is what the artist and record company intend it to be. It must speak directly to you." - from the introduction to "This Is Uncool" by Garry Mulholland. Just go read the rest. |W|P|108128539416748863|W|P||W|P|danpawley@gmail.com4/06/2004 05:52:00 AM|W|P|dan|W|P|saw a new poster for Kill Bill 2 today. It was Uma Thurman in her wedding dress holding her samurai sword. Very cool. I'm sure there is an essay to be written about the virginal connotations of the white dress versus the phallic symbolism of the sword. But not by me. Dawn Of The Dead was fantastic. Not sure how much of my enjoyment was simple relief that they didn't mess it up, but I left the cinema buzzing and grinning ear to ear. I will be going to see that one again. Tom Savini had a smart little cameo as well. I am blogging to:Tortoise|W|P|108119861743966790|W|P||W|P|danpawley@gmail.com4/01/2004 05:27:00 AM|W|P|dan|W|P|Today was my day off. The plan was I was going to laze about in the morning and then head into town to meet Es from her job and go and watch Dawn Of The Dead. Idleness and zombies - clearly the best way to spend your free time. Didn't happen though. The caretaker in our block of flats managed to smash up our patio door this morning (not normally part of a caretaker's job description, I grant you). So I spent the day waiting in for a glazier and missed any feasting on brains. Grrrr. Large panes of glass breaking is quite exciting though. The glass kept cracking all afternoon, so that from the initial few long cracks the door now looks like really intricate crazy paving. The patio faces west and as the sun set tonight it lit up the myriad cracks and lines like a molten gold spiderweb. You know the sound that ice cubes make as they hit the liquid in your glass? Our flat sounded like that all afternoon, only much louder. It was brilliant. I wonder if I can arrange for anything else to break spectacularly? I am blogging to: Galaxie 500|W|P|108076568186858318|W|P||W|P|danpawley@gmail.com