Monsters *

Well, jim has got a bit angry about it (calm down, jim, it's not that important. I'll send off angry missives about many things, but not about this one!), while Jane merely poses a question (albeit, an interesting one). Here's what I want to say about this story.

Ken Livingstone's days as a "socialist" (yes, I know we can have a debate about what that means) are long gone. His most desired wish these days, as he told one staff association's national executive committee late last year, is to "smash the unions" on the London Underground, with support from said staff association. Some of you may agree with him, but, of course, like him, you are not a socialist!

Ken Livingstone once attempted to undermine a strike I was involved in - six weeks solid out on the cobbles, I may add - by putting down an early day motion in parliament stating that the person we were on strike for in defence of his job was an anti-semite who had shared a platform with a holocaust denier. Now there's irony in that little one, but only to say that this particular early day motion had the support of one MP - the said Mr Livingstone! I could mention that the EDM supporting the aims of the strikers was supported by a few dozen MPs, including one Tory if my memory serves me right, but I won't bother. This issue, not the strike itself, all came in the aftermath of the split in the anti-racist movement in the mid-90s. Remember, this was a time when the victims and families of victims of racist attacks were being ignored while certain sections of the so-called left fought out their sectarian games.

Anyway, back to Livingstone - and that stuff above is me going off on wild tangent by the way.

Is it anti-semitic to describe a journalist, whether jewish or not, doorstepping departing guests at a party as a concentration camp guard because of who pays his wages? I'm not sure, but consider this quote:

"He later refused to apologise, noting that the Standard's sister paper, the Daily Mail, had supported the Nazis in the 1930s."

Consider when remembering, if you ever knew, who was restaurant critic of the Evening Standard for around two years in the late 90s - Mr Livingstone, you can presume. This was the same paper that also employed the mother of his child, until he employed her in the mayoral office in London. So it's okay for Livingstone and partner to get paid by the Standard, but no-one else!

I also like to consider the little vignette told to me by a friend the other day - and I've no reason to doubt him, by the way. He has been told independently by two former comrades in Livingstone's personal fan club the Socialist Alliance in the last few weeks at seperate events that "we cannot underestimate the influence of Mossad" in the investigation into the Mayor's conduct. Right, okay, the complaints to the tossers making the inquiry into the Mayor didn't come from the Standard or from the so-called journalist involved, but rather from the Board of Deputies of British Jews, but these comments smack a bit of a "world Jewish conspiracy."

So, there we go. Livingstone is a wanker - but he's Londoners' wanker and it is up to us whether or not he should be kicked out of office or not. Even the head of the standards board thinks the process was rather strange!

The Evening Standard is a pile of crap and is only worth buying when ... err, actually, it never is worth buying!

Put it all together and what do you have? Another crap post from Reidski!!

* Sons and Daughters

Your Mind and We Belong Together *

For all those who get turned off by slushy personal blog posts, switch over now.

Do you remember (shit, I start this piece off sounding like a Marillion song!!!) THAT time when you fell in love. When it meant that every second you were with that person was so special. But every second you weren’t with that person was a drag. That every second you were with that person you enjoyed. But every second you weren’t with that person you felt you were missing out on something. That every second you were with that person was never enough. But every second you weren’t with that person was too much.

Yes, that’s where I am right now – and, unfortunately, right at this moment and until Wednesday, I’m in those seconds when I’m not with her.

We have many tastes in common. We laugh at things together. We get angry at things together. We feign indifference at things together. We share things together. And we are together.

I feel I can be with this person forever as I have at last found my soul mate. We shall see …

* Love - well, come off it, who else would it be?

The Good Stuff *

I really really should keep this stupid bloggy stuff up.

That I haven't mentioned yet that I went along to this last week with my fabby and fantastic new friend really is inexcusable - and great night out it was too! Let's not mention the drunk and incoherent Orient fan we had the misfortune of getting accompanied by at our table when trying to enjoy a romantic pre-match drink, however.

And I should have mentioned my attempt at male bonding with the boy over the weekend, which consisted of him staying in his room with his friends all day Saturday. This did give me the opportunity to go for a walk to Greenwich Park to one of my favourite spots in the world, next to the Observatory and its beautiful views over the city. The walk back home wasn't so good though as I witnessed a young woman having her bag snatched by two blokes on bikes. I did give chase but they were a bit too quick for me. It does raise the question, however, as to what I intended to do with them if I ever did catch up ...

Anyway it was back home and the boy eventually emerged from room, sent friends off and we all settled down to watch this, which, I am ashamed to say, was the first time I've ever seen it. I will say the bleeding obvious and describe it as one of the most amazing films I've ever had the pleasure of viewing - everthing about it was magnificent.

Sunday was spent going a little football crazy as I watched game after game after game. I at least interspersed all this football-watching with many laughs with the boy, which led to some scenes of hysterics as the night wore on.

Then it was on to Monday when I enjoyed a wonderful evening with a beautiful, intelligent, humourous, warm, caring and brilliant woman. We made our way for a quick drink here, a glass of wine here and a lovely dinner here - I'll leave out all the other things we done, though, as she may get a bit shy. Roll on Friday when I take a short train ride to see her again!!

Bye the way, I also must update that "Currently Reading" thing on the left - I've finished three books since that Henning Mankell crap - and more on that on another occasion. Time Traveller's Wife was magnificent and a huge weepy. Drama City by Pelecanos was far from his best but still a classic of the crime genre. Bush Falls by ???? (will have to look that one up) was also brilliant contemporary fiction. Maybe I should dedicate a post to these books ...

* B52s

Can You See Me Shining? *

This was going to be a long and considered and thoughtful post about my life over the last week. But me delaying writing it all day - despite having day off with not a lot to do - means that it is now a rushed and ill-thought out piece. Oh well.

I wanted to bring to your attention this editorial from the NY Post (sign in needed, but it only takes a few moments and doesn't cost anthing).

I wanted to write about meeting up with an old mate last week and the laughs we had when remembering, among other things, the nights out we used to have, particularly the first nights here to see the likes of this and Macbeth (sorry, can't find a link), with the latter featuring a bloke from the excellent US prison drama OZ. As was per usual at this wonderful place, the nights usually ended with everyone being extremely drunk - I have always wanted to apologise to that young US intern who I was blathering on at after the Peggy Lee show!!!

I also wanted to mention going to see Eddie + the Hot Rods and John Otway at the 100 Club on Friday night and how the night was spoiled somewhat by two of my mates nearly fighting and then me and one of my mates having a row. The music was ace, however!

And I also wanted to mention how, after doing an amazing amount of work on Saturday, I then met up with my fantastic new friend and had a lovely time. Now, I'm sure that it doesn't take too much for some of you to work out who my fantastic new friend is, but let's just say the weekend involved eating here and going to the pub to watch this lot take on the forces of darkness - match report here! A great and wonderful time was had by all - well, two of us anyway. It may be said by others who were in my city at the weekend that the weather spoiled things for them, but I'm not going to cos weekends don't get much better than that, if at all!

*shelleydevoto - which is, yes, you guessed it, a collaboration between Pete and Howard.

I'm going out tonight ... *

... but I haven't got a stitch to wear.

Well, methinks clothing is not going to be that important really!

*Yes, I know it's not a song title, but so what!

No Surprises *

We're going down. I went along to the Den on Saturday to see this crap and it confirmed that there is no alternative but for us to be relegated. That a side can see their opponents' keeper going off by half time and for those opponents not to have a substitute keeper on the bench and for those opponents replacing injured keeper with a centre back and for us not to force that centre half turned keeper to make one save says it all - Millwall are pish this season. So it means visits the likes of here, here, here and here next season. But, if things go right, at least I will also be visiting this place and you don't need me to tell you why I would look forward to that! Millwall's defeat even took the shine off Hibs superb win against the forces of darkness, but not by too much.

But a smile did well and truly return to my grumpy jock face when I accompanied messalina over to this place to see an excellent young and upcoming band Columbus and Crusoe - check 'em out here. I get really excited when seeing teenagers (no, I don't mean it like that) play new music, particularly when they do it as good as this four piece. And particularly when they do it as original as this lot. They reminded a little of Belle and Sebastian but they are doing enough of their own stuff to make comparisons with anyone somewhat irelevant.

Can't say I got too excited about Scotland winning at rugby - as I discussed/ranted over at jim's, and much like him, rugby doesn't do much for me.

I'm going to do something really really nice tomorrow night - visit my fantastic new friend - and ah cannae wait!

* Radiohead

The IT Man *

First episode of The IT Crowd has just finished - it is incredibly hilarious.
Second episode about to start - I'm off to watch it.

* John Cooper Clarke

Q: Where Do They Make Balloons?*

A: Don't know but they all end up playing for Celtic.

This was the worst performance I have ever seen from Celtic - that they won is a miracle.

Here's my take on the player-by-player ratings - markings out of 10:

Goalkeeper: Boruc - absolutely terrrible. His blunder gifted Motherwell their goal.
Right Back: Virgo - would have been better off with John Virgo.
Central Defender: McManus - never kept the line and was way too far from his fellow central defender ...
Central Defender: Varga - it says a lot when this old boy is about the best player in the hoops for a game. He done okay, but was terrible at clearing the line.
Left Back: Camara - looked shakier than when me and my fantastic new friend met for the first time. But we at least had the excuse of never having done it before (if you get my meaning).
Midfielder: Maloney - looked among the livelier of the Celtic side and at least did set up Murawksi for his goal and scored a calm and collected one of his own to take us through to the final.
Midfielder: Nakamura - always competent, but looked far too disinterested and got dragged off before he fell asleep.
Midfielder: Lennon - was asleep throughout the game. That this dumpling can get a game for any team outside of the Rymans League reserves is beyond my way of thinking.
Midfielder: Petrov - non-existend except when he was shouting at others when he himself fucked things up.
Forward: Zurawski - never in it, but took the goal well.
Forward: Hartson - big fat John has had his day. It was all the usual pattern: high ball goes up front and one of two things happen, either hartson wins free kick or gives one away.


Motherwell should have won this one. But, then again, they didn't, so fuck 'em!

* They Might Be Giants

Happy Talk *

I really really should have updated this in the last week cos it has been a great week.

Last week, as stated in previous post, went to see Luke Haines - what a superb set he played. Here it is (and thanks to the geezer over at Haines's site's discussion forum for posting it - but my occastion comments next to some of the songs):

Death of Sarah Lucas - he hates the modern Britart crowd apparently.
The Best Artist
Off My Rocker at the Art School Bop
The Mitford Sisters - you know who this is about
Dead Sea Navigators
Unsolved Child Murder - gloomy and fun at the same time
Leeds United - dedicated to the West Yorkshire Police Force in the 1970s
Baader Meinhof - we all loved them, didn't we?
Showgirl
Bad Reputation - about Gary Glitter, or so I hear.
Discomania
Meet
Me at the Airport
The Walton Hop - about Jonathan King, I hear - theme running here about paedophiles?
Buddha
The Rubettes - excellent refrain of Sugar Baby Love as he closes.

First encore – on his own without band
Some Changes
Future Generation

Second encore and band join him for stunning finale
Light Aircraft on Fire
Lenny Valentino - best song ever (see a previous post for one of the things I always say)

Anyway, what a superb evening, not spoiled at all by one-time Haines collaborator Sarah Nixey's from Black Box Recorder and her absolute crap support slot.

Great weekend followed, during which I noticed there is a full length set of an Auteurs gig from the LSE in 1999 which downloadable from Haines's site, with the very naughty title of: "No Dialogue with Cunts". It is fandabidoozie.

Superb Monday night followed that, which also featured some beautiful music, but of a more romantic kind of me and other person's own making. Have I mentionedmy fantastic new friend before? I travelled 500 miles on Monday night to be at her side - but it was well worth it. Well, 500 miles for someone who you think is going to be your fantastic friend for 300 years is nothing really!

Methinks more details of my excellent week should be given in the near future, but that's all for now cos I really must go and kick the boy's friends out of the house and cook some dinner.

Talking about the boy, had a meeting at school on Tuesday morning - lucky I caught that last train on Monday night, bye the way - as the boy is in what is know as the gifted and talented scheme, which is some new Labour bollocks that was established a few years back. Anyway, it seems the boy, as I have always always known, is gifted and talented but is such a lazy wee shite that he thinks by not doing anything, everyone will still see his gifts and talents anyway. "No no no", teacher and parents tell the boy. "You have to work harder, ya wee lazy bugger!" New programme is being brought in of encouragement + beatings = results and rewards/awards/less beatings (delete as appropriate)!

* Juanita Hall as Bloody Mary in South Pacific