Mainstream hip-hop has become cock rock in blackface. Twenty years from now we will look back and laugh ourselves silly that it was possible for a lardy munter like the stupidly named “Notorious BIG” (that’s “Bee-Eye-Gee”, ladeez) to be Number One in the UK charts with an unironic Feed-The-World style ensemble display of sexual bragaddocio […]
Read MoreFebruary 2006
06Feb06 — 1
Hi, Message; Meet Medium.
Also via Tim Worstall, would you hire a “PR guru” who uses (at least) eight different fonts on his own homepage? Note that, underneath his Superhero Personality Test post, the next two items on Stuart Bruce’s site are about the messiness of the e-democracy Weblog and the importance of using plain text in email. Best […]
Read More06Feb06 — 0
What Else Is There To Do In North Carolina?
Thanks to Tim’s Britblog Roundup I discovered Ivan The Terrible of Dies Irae today. He’s not very correct, but he is very funny. On Fabien Cousteau, son of Jacques: Jacques Cousteau’s grandson, Fabien, is following in his illustrious forebear’s flippers by building a shark-shaped submarine. By means of this ingenious device he will get closer […]
Read More05Feb06 — 0
Suspicious Female Behaviour
Let’s just say I can see what their problem is.
Read More05Feb06 — 2
Bad Omen
It used to be a common pattern: first they’d misspell my name “Damien” and then they’d make a joke about 70s horror classic The Omen*. This has been fading lately, except with those of a certain age—step forward, Hak. Unfortunately, the self-eating content monster has finally got round to remaking the 1976 original. Here we […]
Read More04Feb06 — 0
Manufacturing Consent
At least two of the broadsheets have had agony columns that invite readers to respond with answers to other readers’ problems. A few years back one (I think it was the Guardian) printed a letter from a woman despairing of her live-in boyfriend ever “growing up” and marrying her. The majority of the female contributors […]
Read More04Feb06 — 2
Tandem For Sale
As announced prematurely back here by Jackie, here’s news of this month’s celebrity break-up. (But, according to the cover of one of the sleb mags in the newsagent’s George Clooney and Teri Hatcher may be involved in merger talks—denial here.)
Read More04Feb06 — 2
Beyond The Pale
Boing Boing has an item about how “frighteningly easy” it is to use FedEx to send stuff to Afghanistan. Apparently it’s also “frighteningly easy” to send things to Rwanda and Bhutan. Since my mum was on the phone to me earlier this week wondering how she could send some prints of my photos of Maisie […]
Read More03Feb06 — 4
Honest!
Writer (and prolific Harry’s Place commenter) SeanT, aka Toffee Womble, is also displeased with the lack of fact-checking in contemporary publishing that led to the success of the largely made-up James Frey memoir A Million Little Pieces: The second reason I am personally pissed off with James ‘I spent eight minutes in prison’ Frey is […]
Read More03Feb06 — 2
On The Web No One Knows You’re A Freak
Please believe me, I found this unfortunate intersection of micro-celebrities when I was looking for reflectors for bouncing off-camera flashguns. Using a reflector and a diffuser together, even a geek like me can capture a girlfriend.
Read More02Feb06 — 4
Everything But The Goal
With a fierce flick of the bedside lamp switch, José’s broodingly handsome features were thrown into gloomy relief. In an instant Tami stirred beside him, her trim, petite body sweeping upward from the Egyptian cotton to wrap him in a supportive embrace. “What is troubling you at such an hour, my love?” she asked, watching […]
Read More02Feb06 — 1
Topical Joke
Late one evening a burglar breaks into what he thinks is an empty house. As he cracks the safe in the main living room and reaches in to grab the holidaying owners’ jewels, a voice speaks to him from the darkness: “Jesus is watching you.” He turns suddenly and shines his torch around, looking for […]
Read More02Feb06 — 1
Holding Back The Years
A dermatologist explains to Rachel Johnson why even though yummy mummies look younger for their age than most of us, their cleaning ladies probably look younger: “According to a longitudinal study of 1,826 Danish twins, about 40 per cent of the variations in perceived age (i.e. how old you look as opposed to how old […]
Read More02Feb06 — 0
Unsung Genius
Richard and I have been experimenting a lot with musical rounds and vocal counterpoint lately, but never have we scaled the heights of P D Q Bach, “oddest and least loved of the twenty-odd sons of Johann Sebastian Bach”. How is it that I had never heard of the satirist and pioneer of the classical mash-up (and serious […]
Read More02Feb06 — 2
DREAMdirect update
Hurry! They’ve knocked £100 off the art deco gramophone!
Read More02Feb06 — 1
The Faintest Of Praise
Dave Simpson reviews Brighton bedwetters The Kooks in yesterday’s Guardian: “Ironically, they do white reggae much better than Babyshambles—if not yet as jaw-droppingly as The Clash.” Indeed. As rock’n’roll compliments go, that’s on a par with: Ironically, they do white rap much better than Ali G—if not yet as jaw-droppingly as Blondie.
Read More01Feb06 — 3
Pretty Things
doctorvee’s ‘Blog is looking rather slick these days. He also has a link to “thinking chess” [you need to have Java installed, but it’s worth it] which is even slicker, so slick that it’s got me thinking about doing something I swore off years ago: learning another programming language. Also via doctorvee, this pleasing tally […]
Read More01Feb06 — 12
A Simple Matter Of Taste
I hate to find myself on the same side of an argument as a po-faced foodie, but the man’s right: chocolate is a sacred thing; mixing it with orange is a sin.
Read More01Feb06 — 5
On Religion
The idea that there’s Someone Up There watching over us? Or even just that there’s Something that surrounds us and penetrates us, that binds the galaxy together? Sadly, it’s bollocks. But it’s nice to be able to say so in public.
Read More
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