'Vivadixiesubmaruinetransmissionplot' by Sparklehorse
'Complete Peel Sessions' (again!) by The Fall
'Employment' by The Kaiser Chiefs
'Candi Staton' by Candi Staton
'The Magic Numbers' by The Magic Numbers
'Almost Blue' by Elvis Costello
'Low' by David Bowie
'Origin of Symmetry' by Muse
'BMFA' by Martha Wainwright
'Catholic Boy' by Jim Carroll
'The Slack Album' by DJ N-WEE
'Kilimanjaro' by Teardrop Explodes
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Half Man Half Biscuit Lyric of the Day
"Tower block, You couldn't score in a tower block"
'Improv Workshop Mimeshow Gobshite' from the CD This Leaden Pall
'Improv Workshop Mimeshow Gobshite' from the CD This Leaden Pall
Monday, July 25, 2005
Shock Horror!
Credit where it's due. I saw a billboard for the Lancashire Evening Post last week that contained no grammatical error where you would have sworn there would be one. The board talking about charges against some squaddies based at Preston Barracks read:
“Preston Soldiers’ Shame”
with a correctly placed apostrophe!!
“Preston Soldiers’ Shame”
with a correctly placed apostrophe!!
Glasgow
I went up to Glasgow at the weekend with Caroline. It’s a place I have only been to once before. That was with work and I only saw the inside of pubs the whole evening! This time we went on the train and arrived at noon. We wandered down to the hotel, which was handily placed on George Street and left our bags then set off to explore the city. We decided to take one of the open-topped tourist buses – a bit of a clichéd idea but as it turned out an excellent way to get a feel for what a city is like and which bits of it you would like to see more of. The tour lasted about an hour and a quarter and the good thing about the ticket was that it lasted for two days and you could hop on and off as you pleased. We then went looking at the main shopping areas and decided we needed to eat or else dinner (lunch, whatever) would start to merge with tea (dinner blah, blah). Unfortunately, not knowing where all the good bars and restaurants were located we couldn’t find anywhere suitable and ended up in Burger King! Not an auspicious start to the weekend! Having eaten we went to the McLellan Gallery which houses some of the exhibits from the Kelvingrove, which is undergoing renovation and will not open again until next year. There were some fine examples of Rennie Macintosh’s work as well as paintings by the ‘Glasgow Boys’ group of painters. Some fantastic Italian works from the 15th and 16th Century are also on display as well as paintings by Rembrandt, Whistler and Lowry. A really enjoyable little gallery and I felt justified in suggesting a swift pint having done the cultural aspect so well. We found a decent boozer in the ‘Drum and Monkey’ and refreshed ourselves with some Hoegaarden and Deuchars IPA.
On the way back we had a look around to see what was on offer restaurant-wise and found what looked like a good Tapas bar which was already getting busy at around 6:30pm. We went back and got ready for the evening and I was overjoyed to be offered a flyer on the way down for a bar – I’ve not been offered one of those for years! As a reward we decided to honour them with our presence. It was a bar next to a Wetherspoons and it seemed to be trying to be a similar sort of place, albeit with loud music. Even the menu seemed very Wetherspoons-ish. We decided after one drink that it was a bit too dark and noisy for us so we would try the Wetherspoons next door. Out we came, headed next door only to find it was the same place! No wonder it seemed very like a Wetherspoons! It must be my age.
We walked to the Tapas bar which by this time was heaving. Fortunately the guy on the door took our names and told us to return at 9:30pm and we should have a table. 2 drinks at ‘All Bar One’ (one a particularly good pint of Paulaner lager from Munich) and we were back at the Tapas. “Just get a drink at the bar and we’ll be with you shortly” was the recommendation so I sampled the Cruzcampo and true to their word we were at a table within 5 minutes. After a bit of debate we decided to get seven Tapas dishes between us so we had a paella with chorizo, a lovely lamb casserole, some pickled anchovies, a chicken dish with sage, some meatballs, some potato and sweetcorn croquettes and some King Prawns with garlic. They were all delicious and the whole meal came to less than £25. We would certainly go back and sample some of the items we couldn’t manage this time. Back to ‘All Bar One’ for another drink before heading back to the hotel at last orders.
The next day we decided we would go to the Barras for the market held on Saturdays and Sundays. We got the tourist bus up there and it was then time to get some breakfast. Into a Greasy Joe’s for two bacon rolls and two mugs of tea. £3.20 – bargain. Halfway through doing the rashers on the griddle the bloke serving took them off and dumped them in the deep fat fryer with the chips before putting them back on the griddle after a minute or so! I had heard that lots of food in Scotland was deep-fried but I hadn’t realised the extent of it. We had been told that the Baras would be quite an experience and it was. There are dozens of stalls selling copied CDs and DVDs and other software and loads of blokes walking round selling tobacco and cigarettes. It seemed like every man, woman and child in the Gorbals with access to a PC was selling counterfeit goods! After a while though, all the stalls merged into one and we went off for the tourist bus again. We wanted to do the Hunterian up at the University of Glasgow but unfortunately it shuts on Sundays. We will have to see the Macintosh collection another time. As it was a gorgeous day we decided to head up to the West End and visit the Botanic Gardens. The West End is quite different to the City Centre – a bit more bohemian. You can tell it is a favoured haunt of the University academics. Some great shops too. The Gardens were interesting, even though I am not a gardening type at all. After a while we headed back to the city, having got a couple of tasty cakes from a fantastic deli. As our train was at 5:45pm we had a couple of drinks at a nice bar called The Ingram before getting a Sunday two course special at a Chinese. Just time for a farewell pint of Deuchars at the Ingram before collecting the bags and heading for the station.
We really enjoyed Glasgow and would definitely go back. There are still plenty of things to see that we didn’t have the chance to experience so therewill be no need to repeat anything (well, apart from The Ingram and the Tapas bar maybe!)
We had a weekend of culture of all sorts - culture and arts at the gallery, horticulture at the Botanic Gardens and sub-culture at the Barras!
On the way back we had a look around to see what was on offer restaurant-wise and found what looked like a good Tapas bar which was already getting busy at around 6:30pm. We went back and got ready for the evening and I was overjoyed to be offered a flyer on the way down for a bar – I’ve not been offered one of those for years! As a reward we decided to honour them with our presence. It was a bar next to a Wetherspoons and it seemed to be trying to be a similar sort of place, albeit with loud music. Even the menu seemed very Wetherspoons-ish. We decided after one drink that it was a bit too dark and noisy for us so we would try the Wetherspoons next door. Out we came, headed next door only to find it was the same place! No wonder it seemed very like a Wetherspoons! It must be my age.
We walked to the Tapas bar which by this time was heaving. Fortunately the guy on the door took our names and told us to return at 9:30pm and we should have a table. 2 drinks at ‘All Bar One’ (one a particularly good pint of Paulaner lager from Munich) and we were back at the Tapas. “Just get a drink at the bar and we’ll be with you shortly” was the recommendation so I sampled the Cruzcampo and true to their word we were at a table within 5 minutes. After a bit of debate we decided to get seven Tapas dishes between us so we had a paella with chorizo, a lovely lamb casserole, some pickled anchovies, a chicken dish with sage, some meatballs, some potato and sweetcorn croquettes and some King Prawns with garlic. They were all delicious and the whole meal came to less than £25. We would certainly go back and sample some of the items we couldn’t manage this time. Back to ‘All Bar One’ for another drink before heading back to the hotel at last orders.
The next day we decided we would go to the Barras for the market held on Saturdays and Sundays. We got the tourist bus up there and it was then time to get some breakfast. Into a Greasy Joe’s for two bacon rolls and two mugs of tea. £3.20 – bargain. Halfway through doing the rashers on the griddle the bloke serving took them off and dumped them in the deep fat fryer with the chips before putting them back on the griddle after a minute or so! I had heard that lots of food in Scotland was deep-fried but I hadn’t realised the extent of it. We had been told that the Baras would be quite an experience and it was. There are dozens of stalls selling copied CDs and DVDs and other software and loads of blokes walking round selling tobacco and cigarettes. It seemed like every man, woman and child in the Gorbals with access to a PC was selling counterfeit goods! After a while though, all the stalls merged into one and we went off for the tourist bus again. We wanted to do the Hunterian up at the University of Glasgow but unfortunately it shuts on Sundays. We will have to see the Macintosh collection another time. As it was a gorgeous day we decided to head up to the West End and visit the Botanic Gardens. The West End is quite different to the City Centre – a bit more bohemian. You can tell it is a favoured haunt of the University academics. Some great shops too. The Gardens were interesting, even though I am not a gardening type at all. After a while we headed back to the city, having got a couple of tasty cakes from a fantastic deli. As our train was at 5:45pm we had a couple of drinks at a nice bar called The Ingram before getting a Sunday two course special at a Chinese. Just time for a farewell pint of Deuchars at the Ingram before collecting the bags and heading for the station.
We really enjoyed Glasgow and would definitely go back. There are still plenty of things to see that we didn’t have the chance to experience so therewill be no need to repeat anything (well, apart from The Ingram and the Tapas bar maybe!)
We had a weekend of culture of all sorts - culture and arts at the gallery, horticulture at the Botanic Gardens and sub-culture at the Barras!
Friday, July 15, 2005
Did the Americans botch it?
An unashamed copy from metafilter.com:
Are the London bombings a possible long-term result of an Administration undercover operative outing? And, why exactly was this deep mole agent blown by the US Administration in August of 2004, concurrent with raising the DHS Threat Level to Orange for NYC and Washington DC financial services? While the Plame blame game and investigation carries on, we now have another old news story about a rara avis Al Qaeda double-agent undercover operative outing that is suddenly rising from the ashes of dusty newsprint almost like a phoenix seeking it's own special prosecutor. -- Following the thread of the story is a bit of a tangle, so an attempt to unsnarl the imbroglio is provided inside....
Remember the Al Qaeda operative Naeem Khan, and his infamous communications hub of a laptop, an arrest widely reported in the news during the first week of August, 2004? While on
Coincidentally, August 1st the Homeland Security Threat Level was raised to Code Orange for the financial services sector in New York City, Northern New Jersey and Washington, DC.
I remember it well because a client of our security firm was one of the NYC stock exchanges, and there was some concern afoot.
ABC News just reported that the British authorities say they have evidence that the London attacks last week were an operation planned by Al Qaeda for the last two years.
Not reported by ABC was that after his arrest Khan started working for our side - sending emails to his other Al Qaeda buddies, working as our mole.
What is the Khan connection to the London bombings? Well, intelligence officials at the time said that the plans discovered on Khan's computer included attacks on London's transport system as well as Heathrow Airport.
Furthermore, according to Americablog, " ABC reports that names in Khan's computer matched a suspected cell of British citizens of Pakistani decent, many of who lived near the town of Luton, England - Luton is the same town where, not coincidentally, last week's London bombing terrorists began their day. According to ABC, authorities thought they had stopped the subway plot with the arrest of more than a dozen people last year associated with Khan. Obviously, they hadn't.
“This was an operation the Brits thought they caught and stopped in time, but they were wrong. The piece of the puzzle ABC missed is that this is an operation the Bush administration helped botch last year. It seems at the time it was notable, yet basically ignored in the reportage of the event, that Khan was a deep undercover mole who had been flipped to work for the West."
Security experts in 2004 were quoted as being "shocked" when administration officials outed Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan as an al Qaeda mole.
Jane's Defense security expert Tim Ripley pondered, "You have to ask: what are they doing compromising a deep mole within al Qaeda, when it's so difficult to get these guys in there in the first place? It goes against all the rules of counter-espionage, counter-terrorism, running agents and so forth. It's not exactly cloak and dagger undercover work if it's on the front pages every time there's a development, is it?"
At the time, Juan Cole noted that "The announcement of Khan's name forced the British to arrest 12 members of an al-Qaeda cell prematurely, before they had finished gathering the necessary evidence against them via Khan." At least one of those people was subsequently released due to lack of evidence.
Connecting the dots between the Khan story leak and the London bombing: Seems that some of the non-arrested cell members that were tipped by the news announcement of Khan's capture took the hint, fled, and escaped the ensuing dragnet.
According to some reports coming out of the current investigation of the London bombing, some of the actors involved in the London transport bombing may have ties to those escapees. This investigation (resonating the immortal words of Scott McClellan in not commenting on Karl Rove) is still developing.
However, if this blowback is in any part true about as having arisen from our blowing Khan, we just may have a serious problem with outing our own critical anti-terrorism undercover agents in Washington...and that's true even without referencing Plamegate.
Are the London bombings a possible long-term result of an Administration undercover operative outing? And, why exactly was this deep mole agent blown by the US Administration in August of 2004, concurrent with raising the DHS Threat Level to Orange for NYC and Washington DC financial services? While the Plame blame game and investigation carries on, we now have another old news story about a rara avis Al Qaeda double-agent undercover operative outing that is suddenly rising from the ashes of dusty newsprint almost like a phoenix seeking it's own special prosecutor. -- Following the thread of the story is a bit of a tangle, so an attempt to unsnarl the imbroglio is provided inside....
Remember the Al Qaeda operative Naeem Khan, and his infamous communications hub of a laptop, an arrest widely reported in the news during the first week of August, 2004? While on
Coincidentally, August 1st the Homeland Security Threat Level was raised to Code Orange for the financial services sector in New York City, Northern New Jersey and Washington, DC.
I remember it well because a client of our security firm was one of the NYC stock exchanges, and there was some concern afoot.
ABC News just reported that the British authorities say they have evidence that the London attacks last week were an operation planned by Al Qaeda for the last two years.
Not reported by ABC was that after his arrest Khan started working for our side - sending emails to his other Al Qaeda buddies, working as our mole.
What is the Khan connection to the London bombings? Well, intelligence officials at the time said that the plans discovered on Khan's computer included attacks on London's transport system as well as Heathrow Airport.
Furthermore, according to Americablog, " ABC reports that names in Khan's computer matched a suspected cell of British citizens of Pakistani decent, many of who lived near the town of Luton, England - Luton is the same town where, not coincidentally, last week's London bombing terrorists began their day. According to ABC, authorities thought they had stopped the subway plot with the arrest of more than a dozen people last year associated with Khan. Obviously, they hadn't.
“This was an operation the Brits thought they caught and stopped in time, but they were wrong. The piece of the puzzle ABC missed is that this is an operation the Bush administration helped botch last year. It seems at the time it was notable, yet basically ignored in the reportage of the event, that Khan was a deep undercover mole who had been flipped to work for the West."
Security experts in 2004 were quoted as being "shocked" when administration officials outed Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan as an al Qaeda mole.
Jane's Defense security expert Tim Ripley pondered, "You have to ask: what are they doing compromising a deep mole within al Qaeda, when it's so difficult to get these guys in there in the first place? It goes against all the rules of counter-espionage, counter-terrorism, running agents and so forth. It's not exactly cloak and dagger undercover work if it's on the front pages every time there's a development, is it?"
At the time, Juan Cole noted that "The announcement of Khan's name forced the British to arrest 12 members of an al-Qaeda cell prematurely, before they had finished gathering the necessary evidence against them via Khan." At least one of those people was subsequently released due to lack of evidence.
Connecting the dots between the Khan story leak and the London bombing: Seems that some of the non-arrested cell members that were tipped by the news announcement of Khan's capture took the hint, fled, and escaped the ensuing dragnet.
According to some reports coming out of the current investigation of the London bombing, some of the actors involved in the London transport bombing may have ties to those escapees. This investigation (resonating the immortal words of Scott McClellan in not commenting on Karl Rove) is still developing.
However, if this blowback is in any part true about as having arisen from our blowing Khan, we just may have a serious problem with outing our own critical anti-terrorism undercover agents in Washington...and that's true even without referencing Plamegate.
Listening Post
What's been assaulting my eardrums recently? Amongst the CDs I have been listening to are:
ABC - The Lexicon of Love
Manic Street Preachers - Lifeblood
Decade - Neil Young
Sugar - Copper Blue
The Pogues - If I Should Fall From Grace With God
The Story of Jamaican Music - Various 4CD
The Fall - Hex Enduction Hour
Paul Weller - Stanley Road and Wild Wood
Deaf School - English Boys Working Girls
Talking Heads - The Name of this Band is Talking Heads
Brian Wilson - Smile
Scott Walker - Scott
Van Morrisson - Astral Weeks
The Adverts - Crossing the Red Sea with The Adverts
and many more I can't remember.
ABC - The Lexicon of Love
Manic Street Preachers - Lifeblood
Decade - Neil Young
Sugar - Copper Blue
The Pogues - If I Should Fall From Grace With God
The Story of Jamaican Music - Various 4CD
The Fall - Hex Enduction Hour
Paul Weller - Stanley Road and Wild Wood
Deaf School - English Boys Working Girls
Talking Heads - The Name of this Band is Talking Heads
Brian Wilson - Smile
Scott Walker - Scott
Van Morrisson - Astral Weeks
The Adverts - Crossing the Red Sea with The Adverts
and many more I can't remember.
7/7
Since last posting I had a sobering experience. I was due to attend a meeting in Holborn, London last Thursday 7 July. I was booked on to the 07:18 from Preston, due to arrive at about 09:45. Fortunately, because of engineering works north of Preston the train was 25 minutes late leaving. Had it been on time I would probably been on Southampton Row at the same time the bomb on the bus exploded. As it happened the train was halted at Watford Junction andwe all had to make our way back North. Of course I was only on the very periphary of the incident, not even being in London, but it did make me stop and think about what might have been.
I have never been overly concerned at the prospect of being caught up in a terrorist attack like that. I don't mena that I think it would be a pleasant experience just that the possibility is remote. It has never been enough to put me off travelling anywhere. I was in New York three weeks after 9/11 having had the flight booked for months and it never occurred to me to not travel. So being relatively close (and having had the possibility of being even closer) was something new.
I can't imagine what it must have been like to be caught up in it all. How would I have reacted if I had been walking past the BMA at the very time of the detonation? I suspect that after the initial shock I would have had the selfish reaction of 'How will I get home today?'
It doesn't put me off travelling. I will continue to travel to London whenever I have to. I will not be put off making plans to go anywhere. this is not a bravado stand agains terrorists, showing them that our way of life will carry on regardless of what they throw at us; it's a lot more mundane than that. It's the way I have always been and I guess the way I always will be. Not necessarily unconcerned but not concerned enough to make me change.
I have never been overly concerned at the prospect of being caught up in a terrorist attack like that. I don't mena that I think it would be a pleasant experience just that the possibility is remote. It has never been enough to put me off travelling anywhere. I was in New York three weeks after 9/11 having had the flight booked for months and it never occurred to me to not travel. So being relatively close (and having had the possibility of being even closer) was something new.
I can't imagine what it must have been like to be caught up in it all. How would I have reacted if I had been walking past the BMA at the very time of the detonation? I suspect that after the initial shock I would have had the selfish reaction of 'How will I get home today?'
It doesn't put me off travelling. I will continue to travel to London whenever I have to. I will not be put off making plans to go anywhere. this is not a bravado stand agains terrorists, showing them that our way of life will carry on regardless of what they throw at us; it's a lot more mundane than that. It's the way I have always been and I guess the way I always will be. Not necessarily unconcerned but not concerned enough to make me change.
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Half Man Half Biscuit Lyric of the Day
"Why it's Mr Kowalski, it was you all along.
That ski lodge would have been mine if it wasn't for you meddling kids"
'Outbreak of Vitus Gerulaitis' from the CD McIntyre, Treadmore and Davitt
That ski lodge would have been mine if it wasn't for you meddling kids"
'Outbreak of Vitus Gerulaitis' from the CD McIntyre, Treadmore and Davitt
Update
It’s been a while since I posted anything here so it’s about time I rectified things. Rugby-wise things are looking good at the moment. The U14s side I coach played a friendly a couple of weeks ago against their local rivals Chorley who play in a division above the one in which we play. With both teams at full strength Leyland ran out winners by 19 points to 10. This came on the back of another victory in a friendly over them about 3 weeks earlier. Things are looking promising for next season for us. A good test will be the 9 a side tournament at Chorley on Sunday when we will be playing against teams who all play at a higher level than us. With three of our key players absent it will be interesting to see how we cope.
On the professional front Saints inflicted the heaviest defeat EVER (75 – 0) on their fiercest rivals Wigan. Not only that but we prevented them from scoring and beat the score posted against Wigan the previous week by Leeds of 70 – 0. It was a great feeling watching us do that to a side that has crucified us on many occasions previously.
On the professional front Saints inflicted the heaviest defeat EVER (75 – 0) on their fiercest rivals Wigan. Not only that but we prevented them from scoring and beat the score posted against Wigan the previous week by Leeds of 70 – 0. It was a great feeling watching us do that to a side that has crucified us on many occasions previously.
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