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June 1st, 2008
12:42 pm - Heads up for, I suspect, a number of people on my FL
~*~
Bill Bailey is on Desert Island Discs next Sunday, 11:15am, Radio Four.
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May 17th, 2008
01:21 pm - Mostly for Shari
~*~
Russell Brand's weekly football column in the Guardian is always witty and insightful, so as this week is the culmination of the football season here, and a very satisfying one as Manchester United have won the Premiership and we're one of the two English finalists in this wednesday's European Cup Final, I thought you'd like a taster. ( here )
And, the in-between HIM tours and HIM festivals time reminds me so much of what we call the silly season in the UK, when Parliament takes a break for summer and journalists are left kicking their heels so resort to silly stories in order to fill the space.
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May 14th, 2008
04:57 pm - UEFA cup final
~*~
I've got a stinking cold and am tired from sneezing most of last night but sod it, radio Five Live reports that Town is like bedlam, full 75,000 crazy, drunken Scottish and Russian fans who were apparently slurring their words at 10.30 this morning! Soo, we're going into Town to watch the match on one of the big screens and soak up the atmosphere. Glasgow Rangers are the underdogs so I'll cheer for them.
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May 11th, 2008
01:22 pm - RL and online
~*~
On the odd occasion when the, shall we say, unpleasant side of communicating via the internet occurs it tends to leave a nasty taste in my mouth for a day or two but I do try to be philosophical because most disagreements are just that, disagreeable, but not disturbing; often down to misunderstandings or lack of information or just an unfortunate dislike of the other person. It happens.
Yesterday however I was reminded of a fairly rare attitude or belief, that people on the internet somehow don't matter, that those icons and words we see most days don't represent real people with feelings, values, opinions or standards. I personally term this a wild west mentality, which to me means that the bully doesn't consider normal everyday rules of behaviour apply to folks online because real life is so far away and they're not accountable for their actions. S/he feels empowered to brow beat anyone who has the misfortune to meet them with whatever obnoxious and hurtful lies they can make up; they may even takes pleasure in doing so. The reason for this behaviour could possibly lie in their real lives but I'm no pyschologist so won't speculate. The other explanation is of course that they're shits online and shits in real life as well.
Poor Jonnaluv. I won't be two-faced and say I liked her site because I didn't, but it was lively and popular and filled a need, until apparently someone sent her threatening emails and she had to close it. First of all, if someone sent me a threatening email it'd only galvanise me even more to continue what I was doing in the first place, but I'm bloodyminded and thick skinned like that. Secondly, this episode illustrates perfectly why we don't allow gossip and rumour on Valo Daily; personal tittle tattle can be fascinating but it damages Valo and the community as well. There is one passion we have in common so it's easy for fights to erupt between troublemakers causing ripples of bad feeling amongst everyone and eventually disenchantment with the artist.
And finally ~ Come on you Reds!! I'm listening to the match on the radio, as usual, on this most fascinating of football days when all the games start at the same time. 3 o'clock. So come half an hour from time the commentators will be perming who goes down and who wins the title based on the current state of play. Nail biting stuff. It's the only maths I'm interested in and I love it.
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May 7th, 2008
10:14 am - Lush
~*~
Driving into town the other day I was struck by how green, and dare I say beautiful, everywhere is all of a sudden; I'm talking about Manchester here so won't go overboard on the beauty side of things cos there's still plenty of industrial and ugly but it's suddenly become tempered by leaves and blossom and, gasp, sunshine. Town has changed so much from when I was a kid, and for the better, there're flocks of geese and swans on the canals, daisy meadows in the council estates and trees everywhere. Plenty of chavs still, but hey, live and let live.
Speaking of chavs, I was on the train to Euston with a right pair last Friday. A lad and a girl, about 19, alternately arguing and fawning over each other, loudly, it was mildly irritating but oh well, whatever works. I ignored them until her phone rang and she proceeded to tell the caller, and the whole of the carriage, that ~ "the lie detector test proved that he had had sexual intercourse with Moira but only sexual contact with Kim." Wow, I'm a nosy bleeder so put down my book and pretended to look out the window. Then she was all tears because ~ "my Dad hates me since I'd persuaded (didn't catch the name) to have an abortion, and now no-one is talking to me."
It was fascinating because I couldn't work out the scenario. Lie detector test? Since when did real people take them? I thought they were only on the telly!
Then her boyfriend starts to console her saying, in what turned out to be Portsmouth accent, "awww, but you've always got me luv." She then gets another telephone call and repeats the same story, but adding ~ "I pulled off the monitor half way through and walked off stage."
Stage?! The plot thickened, but I was still clueless and reduced to listening to their travel plans once they reached Euston, the lad consulting a timetable and revealing how poorly the National Curriculum had performed up to now by asking his girlfriend "what does depart mean?" I kid you not it was all word for word.
I felt quite sorry for them at the time and wondered about their home-life, they seemed to have no shame about their lack of manners and their apparent ignorance, but they were young so had time to grow I suppose.
The plot was revealed though when I reached Thomas and Rosy's and told the story to Rosy's friend, Lizzie, who enlightened me about Jeremy Kyle. I'd never heard of him before but once she explained that he's the UK version of Jerry Springer and has a daytime show filmed in Manchester, all the pieces slotted into place.
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April 16th, 2008
06:13 pm - Looking up, morally speaking (not really)
~*~
Speaking as an extremely disillusioned Labour voter who is tentatively veering towards the Lib Dems it gives me a small amount of pleasure to hear Gordon Brown announce, officially, that no-one believes Robert Mugabe has won the election in Zimbabwe. Why has no-one else in the upper echelons of power uttered these words yet? It's like the fucking archetypal elephant in the room.
I had a unexpectedly lovely time in Berlin this weekend; actually lovely is not the right word to use but I sometimes struggle to capture the right one, okay, the weekend was a sombre delight in retrospect, but, the point of this is to say that at the end of my news starved few days I phoned Paul to arrange a lift from Man Piccadilly on my way home and virtually the first thing out of my mouth was, has the Zimbabwe vote been announced yet?
You go on holiday and some things niggle, but somehow, while you're in your own little microcosm of perfection, you imagine that the world has righted itself by the time you go home. Five days away from the usual day to day shit and, guess what, the world hasn't moved forward at all.
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March 29th, 2008
12:16 pm - Thoughts on a damp Saturday afternoon.
~*~
A funny thing just occured to me, sat here as I am eating last night's curry and putting off doing the ironing yet again; the thing is, we organised a pretty neat swap last night on the phone ~ Thomas is looking after my daughter today and I'm looking after his son next Saturday; takes some getting used to, I may have to think about this growing up lark a bit more and leave the ironing until tomorrow. Football this afternoon.
Last time Roger and I went to Old Trafford courtesy of Paul's kind Jewish friends, United beat Roma 7-1. Well, we're there again this afternoon and hoping for a similar shedful to make up for England's dismal performance on Wednesday.
The most depressing news of the week had to be the Sophie Lancaster case. One boy has been found guilty of murder at Preston Crown Court and sentencing is due in the next few weeks. Sadly, a typically neglected childhood picture of the youths has emerged but the most frightening aspect of it all is to hear the police detectives tell of how the boys, and their families, have shown no remorse at all for this brutal and unprovoked attack; in fact one of the mothers sniggered and laughed while her son was being formally questioned by police.
I can't imagine a more heartbreaking and selfless act than that of Sophie putting herself in danger to protect her boyfriend as he lay unconscious being kicked, only to succumb herself; as her boyfriend said, he wishes he had died instead. Made me think about the nature of good and evil and that we don't need to invent gods and devils, evil and good grow and nurture only in the hearts of humans.
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March 13th, 2008
10:00 pm - Material pleasures
~*~
Well that makes two excellent films I've seen at the pictures this year, Sweeney Todd and No Country For Old Men; which for the person who usually walks away feeling a tad disappointed and foolish at having spent £14 (not taking into account food) when everyone else is downloading screener copies, is not a bad record. I was quite reluctant at first, but don't let the fact that Sweeney Todd is a musical put you off, the lyrics fit perfectly with the story and I didn't notice that usual clunky awkwardness when mid conversation one of the protagonists bursts into song. And yeah it's a horror film which is bone-breakingly and blood-spurtingly gory but imo it's also a morality tale about how greed corrupts the human spirit.
Actually I'll have to rein myself in a bit as I've spent loads this week, the pictures, tickets for a comedy store event tomorrow night, a new adapter for my laptop (since the other one was sparking, and I don't think it's meant to do that) and two CDs ~ Kings of Leon (in danger of becoming a firm favourite) and The Killers (for sentimental reasons). I need to get out into the garden this Easter, digging and weeding don't cost anything are life enhancing activities.
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March 9th, 2008
02:40 pm - Top ten hotties... (AKA ten famous sexy men)
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... according to me; and thanks to ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) synkkaenkeli for the prompt.
( here )
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March 3rd, 2008
03:42 pm - Special Day
~*~
Happy birthday to my dear friend Sue, the lady with the big heart and the magic wand!
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February 24th, 2008
02:21 pm
~*~
I heard a rumour that he's gay
I heard a rumour that he's bi
I heard a rumour he's got lung cancer
And that he mimes
And what about that affair with wotsername
And that he once raped a girl
And is losing his hair
Or is it his mind?
Or maybe I should simply get a life?
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February 20th, 2008
09:18 am - Back from the Land of Fire and Ice (and ducks)
~*~
I heard someone once say that Iceland is becoming the new Finland. Never having been to Finland I can't vouch for the veracity of this statement, however I've built an impression in my head over the years of the Finnish landscape, the sounds and the culture and yes, Iceland is new and unexplored, independent, very stylish, and the music, like the Icelandic geography is breathtaking; just make sure if you go, to take a pocket full of cash cos it's also dead expensive. £12 for two pints of lager expensive. The government has slapped massive taxation on alcohol to reduce consumption and so improve public health though judging by the high jinks outside most of Reykjavik's many nightclubs and bars on Friday night I don't know if it's working.
I've posted a photo of Reykjavik's Lutheran cathedral which is an amazing stand out landmark and strangely futuristic looking for a religious building, and below one of the geese at the city duck pond who seem to engage people in staring contests, before we inevitably give in and break off yet more bread.
I won't go on about the Association of Icelandic Knitters who seem to have beautiful shops on every corner, and likewise for the vegetarian restaurants, because, I guess these are rather niche interests that most people would find deeply untrendy and boring, however our trip to the Blue Lagoon was fantastic and amazing and worth the airfare alone. I should point out that I find the whole process of public bathing extremely tedious and usually avoid it like the plague, however, when in Iceland do as the Icelanders do, so we spent the afternoon in geo-thermal luxury and relaxation and as I'll never be able to describe the feeling of bathing in the volcanic heat of an outdoor lake in the freezing cold, I won't even try.
So that probably sums up what Iceland is to me, a land full of new experiences. Unfortunately the sky was cloudy so we couldn't see the Northern Lights, nor could we go whale watching; but we will go back. Highly recommended.
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January 31st, 2008
10:36 am - HIM and the Suicide Girls
~*~
It beggars belief to read some of the extreme reactions to this issue on the official site. Extreme reactions quite often lead to muddled and illogical thinking; for example to express my dissatisfaction with this deal on the grounds that the soft porn industry is not the most life-enhancing choice for women means that I'm a hypocrite and that I wish to chain all women to the kitchen sink. Nuff said really.
Pornography is real, it's a legal industry that people choose to work in, and on rare occasions make a very good living out of but let's not kid ourselves into believing it's somehow the ultimate expression of female freedom, sexuality or identity. Yes I agree, women should have the right to do what they want with their bodies and this includes selling themselves for sex; erm and before I go on, let's just nail one myth on the head, the magazines on the top shelf of the newsagents' stands are not artistic journals. Porn is produced purely for the sexual gratification of men, and to a lesser extent, women; the industry is not glamourous or artistic, it's not an intellectual challenge, it's not a caring service, neither is it a career I would encourage my own 18 year old daughter to enter into and I have to ask the question how many friends or family would encourage a girl into becoming a 'glamour model'?
Suicide Girls is alternative soft porn, and from what information I can gather on the internet the management are not the most benevolent. They insist on their models submitting nude photos and have absolute say over what happens to those photos, which have in some cases, apparently, ended up on hardcore sites.
So, if you want to support this deal between Sire (or whoever) and SG, then at least have the guts, and the facts, to tell it like it is and not paint a glorious rose tinted picture which abuses the hard fought principles of feminist philosophy.
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January 24th, 2008
06:07 pm - Bond
~*~
The next Bond film is to be called Quantum of Solace and takes off where the last film ended. According to BBC five live it's about relationships, and when they irretrievably break down so there's not even a quantum of solace.
I'm sure if the job does fall to him, Ville can work his lyrical magic with that title.
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January 11th, 2008
11:37 pm - Pictures
~*~
We got suckered into seeing I Am Legend tonight. Overall it gets a thumbs down. I don't recommend it to anyone who requires a bit of logic or realism in their science fiction. Honest to god, how the hell was Will Smith's apartment so homely and clean and full of shiny red apples after he'd spent the past two years (or so) in post-apocalyptic reconstruction, in said apartment, with his dog?!
Hopefully Heima won't suffer from the same hype, and Sigur Ros have got to be an improvement on Bob Marley, so, tomorrow night we're off to see their documentary/concert film at the Hyde Park Picturehouse in Leeds. Mmm, Icelandic warm and fuzzies.
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November 26th, 2007
11:46 pm - Manchester
~*~
As requested, a photo of Albert Square, taken today, for throughthis. Behind the ( cut )
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November 24th, 2007
03:15 pm - Fuzziness
~*~
A hangover kept me in bed until about two hours ago. It's been a while since I drank quite so much as I did yesterday, but it was my wonderful boss's retirement do, and, well, you have it to do don't you. We spent the afternoon reminiscing, arguing, telling daft stories and drinking in the Mark Addy until late on when we staggered strolled around the German Christmas market in Albert Square, which was amazingly busy considering the time. The cold, the lateness of the hour, the Christmas lit stalls and the aromas of food made for a very pleasant fuzzy feeling of companionship and goodwill, at the time. The fuzzy feeling now however, is less so.
Oh well the normal rhythm of life resumes after the extraordinary events at Wembley and HMRC Tyne and Wear on Wednesday. United play Bolton. And there's housework to be done.
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October 28th, 2007
11:37 am - Who and what?
~*~
The what appears to be oral sex, performed by a Royal aide and filmed by two handy, entrepreneurial Geordies who've been banged up and slapped with a gagging order for their efforts.
The who is the interesting part and it'd make a fun Christmas parlour game of elimination, maybe even charades, to guess the identity of our regal cock-suckee; but I can't wait until Christmas so here goes.
A male Royal? Probably. Oral sex on a female Royal would be much less newsworthy because how could You-Tube viewers make out the finer details under all those layers of frock?
A minor Royal? Well, he's not being described as a senior Royal so that eliminates Princes Charles and the various Dukes of this that and the other; and only £50,000, so that eliminates William and Harry; and let's face it, they don't really need to rely on aides to perform the dirty do they.
A well minor Royal? Would we give a fuck? And do the likes of James and Marina Ogilvy even merit aides?
So. He is close enough to the Queen to be of interest, maybe one of her sons? He's in need of a bit of extra-curricular activity, maybe his wife is pregnant? and has always been a bit of a loser with a shadow cast over his sexuality. Need I say more?
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September 17th, 2007
02:31 pm - My Two Ronnies moment
~*~
I decided to take a half day annual leave to pay proper attention to Venus Doom this after before the telly gets switched on, etc etc; so I swung by HMV via M&S grocery shopping and browsed the Metal section for the limited edition. No sign, so I grabbed the attention of one skinny emo assistant and asked if they had it.
He beckoned me over to the computer then indicated with a perplexed face come again cos he hadn't heard me the first time above the music playing, I repeated, and he sucked on his top lip. After a quick search he asked again what it was I wanted, he'd misheard, and I thought to myself, fuck! why does Venus have to rhyme with penis.
"Oh no" I replied, laughing, "I didn't mean that!" and, cottoning on, he said, "no no, I realise now what you said, I just thought you meant Hymn Album, as in songs of praise. I guess he took one look at my M&S shopping..
Anyroad, I got the ordinary CD as the ltd edition is a week away, and attention is being paid as I type.
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July 7th, 2007
02:11 pm - Live Earth
~*~
Am I in the mood for this? Yep sirree. Live Earth has kind of crept up on me without realising, in fact, as of last weekend I didn't even know it was on. Paul grabbed my attention last erm, Sunday I think, and said something about Al Gore saying how much he was looking forward to the Metallica gig this weekend, and I just thought to myself, wow he'll see HIM too! Yeah I know, I'm that behind the times.
So, Al Gore's probably not going to be signing up for Valo Daily in the short term but I'll console myself with today's amazing distractions, Mr Blue Sky is with us, I've just seen Genesis perform, which was an absolutely amazing pleasure for me being as I was a huge fan in the '70s, we've done the housework, and the kitchen's groaning with food and booze, and the setlist is great.
Bottoms up!
Oh and Happy 21st Birthday to Joe! And, it's 21 again, for heluvsmemore; hee.
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