Cool Places *

Go check out this newish blog - I have a feeling it's going to be a cracker!

* Sparks

I'm Not Satisfied *

JJ and I had a very lovely Friday evening. JJ and I then had a very lovely walk and drink around Blackheath on Saturday morning/lunchtime. Then JJ decided to visit the Dome - or, if you prefer your corporate sponsors' name, the O2 Arena - and see what was going down. Only thing was, although JJ and I both knew there was some air race going on down the Thames at this weekend, we didn't for a second think that this would interrupt our plans. We were wrong. All the (fucking empty) huge car parks were closed off, so we had to park some way off (yes, I know some will have no sympathy for car users, but JJ was going home straight afterwards to a place that is not serviced by public transport at all). But that was going to give us an opportunity to have a nice walk along the river to the Dome. We were wrong. As we approached the Thames walkway in the Millennium Village, we noticed barriers ahead. And burly security man. And burly security man asks for ticket or proof or residency. I get angry and ask why an event for "rich cunts" means us Londoners not getting access to our riverside. We are both really wound up and then total stupefied when we see ticket booths offering access to "our" riverside for £40 grandstand views or £20 for standing areas. And people are buying them??????? Stupid cunts. That's fine, they can waste their money on whatever they want, but why oh why is Ken Livingstone allowing corporations - I refuse to name this drink company - to take over our river and our pathways alongside the river and denying us locals access to said river and public footpaths for a whole fucking weekend. It's his worst mistake since encouraging scabbing on the last LUL strike and for undermining a strike at the Morning Star which gained him no support at his Campaign Group meetings.

And, to make matters worse, none of these rich cunts crashed their fucking planes!!

Did it spoil the time I had with JJ? No, but it did make us both rather annoyed!

And that's definitely enough of the negative vibes, cos we did have a wonderful time. The Railway Tavern in Blackheath - what a lovely pub and even the courtyard is no smoking. Think we'll be having lunch there in future, although we both did have great food in Zizzi at the Dome. And good beer in the Railway too. And lovely and reasonably priced wine at Zizzi.

*Fine Young Cannibals

Changes *

Couple of weeks ago, coming home (very) late after trip to see JJ in Northampton, got off last train at New Cross Station. Walked out and was aghast to see in front of me new three or four-storey building. What the fuck is it? I don't recall ever seeing any building work going on there. I can't even remember what was there before they built this place - an animal hospital or some shit like that? Anyway, ain't it weird to suddenly come across something new in the neighbourhood. So, on I walk up to New Cross Road and turn right and look over the road and find that the Amersham Arms is "closed for refurbishment", which is, I fear, a euphamism for gentrifying the place. I've been to one or two gigs in there over the years - John Otway, Eddie and the Hot Rods, a brilliant rock band whose repertoire included songs with such titles as Disco Hard On and Rock n Roll Motherfucker and one or two others - but, primarily, the Amersham was where I would go and watch Celtic games. That is, until they didn't pay up for their Setanta subs and we had to relocate to the Marquis. Anyway, so now, the times they are a changing for the Amersham. And on I walked and found - at 1.30 on a Tuesday morning - the New Cross Inn open and doing a roaring trade. It seems to me that the New Cross Inn is the only pub in the area which takes advantage of the new licensing laws, but I may be wrong. The New Cross Inn is a strange place. It used to be a right dirty dive, but it had a good and lively music night on both a Friday and Saturday night, which were always packed out. Then it got the refurbished treatment and it seemed to nosedive. It put on the football, but still, it was the Marquis, with its no frills or food policy, which was always packed out for the matches. Now, the New Cross Inn is trying desperately to get the Goldsmiths' art crowd in, but I'm not too sure how successful it is with its art exhibitions and its "club nights" - we shall see, we shall see. Anyway, off I go home.

Few days later, I'm trying to get certain things off my mind and, so, take a walk toward Greenwich. I need a drink, but decide not to go into the Hobgoblin or the Marquis or the Five Bells cos I fear that, should I bump into anyone I know, I'll be a tearful wreck. So I walk on to the newly renamed Royal Albert. Only trouble is that the door is locked at around 3pm in the afternoon, so I don't enter. So I walk on further and, rather than walk to Greenwich, decide to head for the - fuck, I forget the name of it. That one down Deptford Church Street at the roundabout. Used to have a theatre upstairs (seem to remember one of my brothers being dragged on to to the stage for a dance during a scene in a Flann O'Brien play we went to see here). The one next to that estate which seems to house the largest ratio of artists anywhere in the world. Anyway, whatever the fuck it's called, in I go and have a couple of pints and fail to solve one clue in the Guardian crossword. As I said, I had something quite big on my mind. I've never noticed the pub being a gay bar before, having drank in there every week for about a year when the boy done his karate down the road and I would wait for him in here, but now I notice many photographs of muscular and naked men. Just never noticed it before, is all I'm saying. Nice pub, nice people, nice beer. Might even pop down today for a quick one.

And the point of all this is? Fuck knows, just something to write about is all that it is!

Peace and love.

UPDATE: The Birds Nest is the nice pub in Deptford Church St.

*David Bowie

Uzi Lover*

And this at least put a smile on my face!

*Fur Q

These Days*

This cheered me up a bit tonight - not much, though!

*Jackson Browne

Red Red Wine*

The above product is the solution to our crime problem. Don't believe me? Then read this!

*Tony Tribe

Basket Case*

Oh, how disappointing, the person who has been ranting outside my office for the last two hours, causing at least two stand-up arguments with passers-by, has now gone off. And I was having such a great time listening to him/her/it (not quite sure which one it was)!!!

*Green Day

Lucky Number

For JJ - I found it!

White Rabbit

Grace is giving it laldy, while the boys in the band haven't quite woke up yet - is there any guitar work here at all??

Happiness *

Wonderful news!

*Ken Dodd

Summertime *

This time last year, when we all weren't watching the World Cup, I was spending a helluva lot of time outdoors in the summer sun, either cavorting round the countryside with JJ or heading up to Telegraph Hill with a book and a couple of tinnies while the sun went down over this beautiful city. Well, of course, we aren't having any summer sun this year, so, when not cavorting round the countryside in the car with JJ, I have been either having fights with the boy (oi, son, if you're reading, we both know we've had some real laughs also, by the way) or sat indoors listening to music. My TV has hardly been on since I moved into my new New Cross gaff two months ago. That is a very good thing. I'm not suffering from any football withdrawal symptoms at all - wait, fuck, I think I'm missing Scotland taking on either Costa Rica or Nigeria in the under-20s World Championship tonight - fuck, fuck, fuck. Anyway, as I was saying, music ....

In the absence of Darren's Friday playlist (he's a lazy bugger these days btw), here's what I've been listening to this week (yes, I know I've already mentioned some of this lot already):

Moving Targets - Penetration
Grapes of Wrath - Spear of Destiny
In God We Trust - Dead Kennedys
Chemicrazy - That Petrol Emotion
Tommy - Wedding Present
A Thin Red Line - TV21
101 Damnations - Carter USM
Killing Joke - Killing Joke
Viva Dead Ponies - Fatima Mansions
Hard - Gang of Four
Trains, Boats and Planes - The Frank and Walters
See The Whirl - Delta 5
For Madmen Only - UK Decay
New Traditionalists - Devo
Race Against Time - Penetration
Extricate - The Fall
Talk Talk Talk - The Psychedelic Furs
The Psychedelic Furs - The Psychedelic Furs

All brilliant and all on vinyl. Lined up to play now I have the following CDs:

Don't Breathe a Word - Kevin Tihista's Red Terror
Because of the Times - Kings of Leon (won in BBC Radio 6 competion)

I think I may be up pretty late tonight. But, JJ, I promise I will be fresh-faced and bushy-tailed this time tomorrow night.

UPDATE - It was last night when Scotland took on Nigeria - read about their 2-0 defeat here if you are a real saddo!
* Pretty Things

Macho-Rama *

On first seeing the headline "Boy-killer lions 'to die' in SA", I thought who'd be stupid enough to let their kid go near lions and then blame the lions for them being mauled. But, of course, such assumptions are so far off the mark. In fact, when you look at the "See Also" section to the right of this story, then you see a pattern emerge of (white) farmers keeping such wild animals - as well as killer dogs - to either terrorise their employees or to kill anyone who may stray (accidentally or otherwise) onto their land. Hope he spends a long, long time in a prison cell!

*Dead Kennedys

Grotesque *

Some people are just horrible, aren't they? Horrid gits of the week prize goes to this lot. Well, they done this! If that was my mum, I would give each and every one of them a slap - unless they were bigger than me, of course, in whicy case I would just flip them two fingers behind their backs!

*The Wonder Stuff

Me And My Doggs*

Okay, he may not have done it, but, having suffered from arthritis in the jaw and a pulled-out wisdom tooth and facing an 50,000-strong hostile audience, 3 weiners short is still quite an achievement.

*That Snoop bloke with the fantastic voice

Shattered*

This week on my turntable has been Devo's New Tradionalists, UK Decay* and For Madmen Only, Frank and Walters' Trains Planes and Automobiles, Delta 5's See The Whirl and, tonight, it's Pentration's semi-official bootleg Race Against Time. Some Superb sounds there, I hope you all agree. Also, on Monday night, after clothes buying and seeing Ash doing a live acoustic set in Virgin store in Oxford Street, I had a blast at my newly purched Psychedelic Furs' eponymous debut and the follow up Talk Talk Talk - fuckin' ace!

But that's enough about music, how about my footballing brilliance tonight? Well, there was the left foot volley into the back of the net, there was the one-two which ended with me blasting in the goal and there was me finishing off my five-goal match with a skip past three and slotting it into the roof of the net - but, of course, mention of my performance would just be big-headed, wouldn't it?

*UK Decay

Movement *

Hey, JJ, you know what this post means?

*Penetration