Todays Independent

The top story is well worth a read, just thought i'd point that out.

Off on holiday...

...in the morning. Turkey again in baking heat. Imagine i'll make the odd post from holiday. I've got my reading all but sorted, the latest Brookmyre novel a couple of sci-fi epics and a couple of biographies including a borrowed copy of Terry Butchers one. Not got any decent political based stuff yet though, maybe bookshop at airport will provide that, though going from glasgow this year and can't remember how good that is for having a proper bookshop. I can probably find out online if i looked but seeing as it to late if they don't have one it's hardly worth the bother.

Taking a printed out copy of me own novel so far to persuse and revise for coming back, as well as my notebook to hopefully finish off short(ish) story i been writing and maybe do a little work on a screenplay i started.

This pisses me off

I'm all for equality and when the women play best of 5 set matches let them get equal prize money. They play best of 3 set matches however and are getting paid more than they deserve, i'd be complaining if i was one the men on tour at the inequality regarding what the women get paid compared to the amount of tennis they have to play.

More of the top women players get to play doubles because they have shorter games, this adds yet another oppurtunity to win money. It's unrealistic for the men at the top of the singles game to compete in doubles. So stop whinging you overpaid mares, you got it lovely best of 3 set matches to win a fortune and a ton of sponsors for any average female player who hasn't fallen out the ugly tree!

Worried moi?

Ok so England are through to the quarter finals of the World Cup and at the risk of sounding small minded i hope to fuck they don't get any further. Not least because they barely deserve to have gotten as far as they have got. No wonder Sven doesn't want to drop Beckham he might be getting slower and slower but he can still rely on that trusty right boot for a truly world class free kick or cross ball. it might be all the lad has but he uses it to good effect. As a team though i agree with Terry Butcher in that he helps constrain other supposedly world class players from being a more fluid and effective unit.

So far they have been laboured and a grind to watch, and in Mexico and the Ivory Coast two more impresive teams have gone out already. It is about winning games and not how you do it but i hope that whoever goes on to win the World Cup does it with some style and flair. England seem to be trying to take Greeces approach at Euro 2004 as a template, it might work at times but it sure aint pretty.

As for luck, they have had a good measure of that when it's mattered, it continued again last night in a crazy match which saw their quarter final opponents Portugal get two players sent off and possiblt one ruled out with injury. England havn't improved much at all as they went on but they getting there. I hope Portugal minus Deco and Costinha play like they can and get these clods out of the tournament so we can enjoy the skills and thrills of Brazil, Argentina, Spain et all battle it out for the top prize in football.

You just can't take them anywhere

Ok a bit harsh on thousands of well behaved English fans but having endured the bum licking coverage in the media about how great they are it's interesting to see how they will reflect on this a few other incidents over the course of the finals. The halo has slipped and the bigger the game the more likely trouble will follow.

Stiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirrrrr Craaaaaaaaaaazzzzzzzzy!!!

I think i must be sligtly obssessed with football and my general fitness, due to a variety of circumstances i am without my usual football fix today, game was axed at short notice. No football last tuesday night either, and i didn't make it to the gym on wednesday or thursday. With absolutely nothing today i'm feeling a bit agitated to say the least. Got the Clash on blaring now, it's helping to vent some of feelings of frustration. Won't get to kick a ball in anger until monday, a full week will have passed since i did any exercise. Can't remember last time i went so long with no more than a brisk walk.

I could quite happily fire the telly out of the window i think, i want to be doing something not sitting on my fucking arse all day. Dunno why more office based workers don't end up in bell towers with a rifle.

Football the Beautiful Game

For an explanation of why it is so called see todays display by Argentina. Sublime football at times and they destroyed a team that had a tremendous defensive record in qualifying. Montenegro will have been wishing they had voted for independence sooner after this humiliation.

It's to early to say who will win the World Cup but Argentina in their first two games have laid down clear markers that say "we can take on anyone." It's quite amazing the difference from the 2002 World Cup, arguably an equally talented squad just couldn't produce. I really hope they come up against England in the knock out stages and show them up and that Englands 3-2 win over Argentina earlier in the year only happened because the South Americans were in cruise control at 2-1 and subbed half their team.

Brazil vs Argentina is a final i could also live with.

You have to laugh

Obviously the World Cup is a bit of a distraction right now, so we have another slight downturn in blog output.

However i felt compelled to post about a snippet of news buried in an article about environmentaly friendly or unfriendly cars. It for me it highlights the insincerity of politicians in a rather comic manner. Current tory leader David Cameron is quite an image conscious guy and he detects that people might be concerned about the environment. Nevermind the hilarity of chartering a plane to investigate the decaying level of icesbergs in Norway or somewhere earlier in the year. On a more everyday note he has taken to using a bike around town, as as you know stop start driving in busy towns is a big way of using fuel and getting poor efficiency and therefore environmentally unfriendly. However going to and from parliament etc and official meetings he has his offical papers sent behind him in his large Lexus! Somewhat defeating the purpose of the whole idea of getting on yer bike.

Song lyrics

I don't really consider myself a connoisseur or being really pasisonate about music. I rarely go to gigs and don't really look out for new bands etc. I tend to find out 2nd hand from people i've met over the years. I got into the Stone Roses after my good friend from uni Scott Baikie reccomended them and shared his passion for them. I got into music by Richie Hawtin and other techno stuff through another good uni friend Cameron Wilson.

Other people have introduced me to other bands, and interest in one band often leads to interest in others. I can't remember how i got into liking The Doors, i remember meeting other people at uni that liked them, one particularly mental but nice Irish guy called Jerome was into them but it wasn't him who introduced them to me. I do remember going to a Doors tribute band one night with him, buying a t-shirt for about ten quid and the t-shirt not even making it home.

the same way i don't recall exactly how i got into the Clash, i was interested in the idea of punk music generally and has some basic knowledge of it's existence and impact so i listened to the most notable bands i could think of. The Clash, the Sex Pistols and the Jam were the first ones i listened to. Anyway i read something of an interview in a newspaper supplement or some such thing an interview with Chris martin of Coldplay. It was promoting their 2nd album if i recall, and he was asked about it, how they tried to move on and improve etc. He answered that he felt he had much stronger lyrics now and joked that some relative had teased him "what was all that yellow shite about?"

So i was thinking about music and lyrics. How often do we really listen to songs and what they are saying, certainly half the time music is something we have on in the background. Like now, i have music on but i'm concentrating on writing this. Then there are plenty of songs where even when you do listen you struggle to understand what the fuck the singer is on about. Techno tends to somewhat light on lyrics, doesn't that render it lacking in merit or meaning. Not necesarily, some of my favourite techno tracks are inspiring, uplifting, exciting thrilling pieces of music, although if there is meaning to osme of them it is obscure but i'm sure the artist producing them has a better idea than i.

I do think that while lyrics arn't necesarily essential to a good listening experience, i think the very best songs have got something very definate to say. Most lyrics are trite anodyne nonsense, like the entire output of Coldplay or any other bland band you care to mention. Lets not even mention likes of Michael Bolton, George Michael, Robbie Williams and all the other souless suckers of Satans cock.* However for myself i have been very into the Clash just now and one song in particular that resonates with me is called Washington Bullets(lyrics below), it is quite an angry song albeit with quite a funky tune and is a searing criticism of US foriegn policy and well the foreign policies of established powers in general and how fucked up the world is where power is prized above all else. It makes listening to shite like Coldplay seem pointless and their very existence all the more annoying as they are lauded for their meaningless work provide yet another example of how mediocrity rules the world.

Oh! Mama, Mama look there!
Your children are playing in that street again
Don't you know what happened down there?
A youth of fourteen got shot down there
The Kokane guns of Jamdown Town
The killing clowns, the blood money men
Are shooting those Washington bullets again

As every cell in Chile will tell
The cries of the tortured men
Remember Allende, and the days before,
Before the army came
Please remember Victor Jara,
In the Santiago Stadium,
Es verdad - those Washington Bullets again

And in the Bay of Pigs in 1961,
Havana fought the playboy in the Cuban sun,
For Castro is a colour,
Is a redder than red,
Those Washington bullets want Castro dead
For Castro is the colour...
...That will earn you a spray of lead

For the very first time ever,
When they had a revolution in Nicaragua,
There was no interference from America
Human rights in America

Well the people fought the leader,
And up he flew...
With no Washington bullets what else could he do?

'N' if you can find a Afghan rebel
That the Moscow bullets missed
Ask him what he thinks of voting Communist...
...Ask the Dalai Lama in the hills of Tibet,
How many monks did the Chinese get?
In a war-torn swamp stop any mercenary,
'N' check the British bullets in his armoury
Que?
Sandinista!

*according to Bill Hicks if anyone plans to sue!