Debut Album – Ian Cockburn and the Whole World

It’s been craftily released just in time for the Christmas rush, but perhaps shortsightedly after the polls for album of the year, hell, albums of the decade, have concluded.

Yes, it is Wayward Buskers by Ian Cockburn and the Whole World. 15 slice of lo-fi pop awesomeness from the talented brother, at a very modest price of £4. To get your copy, either contact Ian directly or put in an order with me.

I dislike encouraging independent thought on this blog, but if you are unwilling to take my word for it (perhaps you may think I’m biased or something) then some of the tracks can be heard at myspace

Estimated release date for the first Seven Inches album: 2017.

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is, I have no doubt, the loveliest city in the UK. Admittedly I’ve never been to Hull, but I’m willing to stick my neck out on the issue. The centre of the city is almost entirely made up of beautiful buildings with the Old Town and the Georgian New Town complementing each other perfectly. Neither the international shopping chains nor the plethora of tartan tourist traps can outweigh its appeal.

Murukami/Wodehouse

Haruki Murukami – Dance Dance Dance

Murukami usually arouses contradictory feelings in me. I love his writing style, but I hate stories where impossible events happen. I have no problem with unlikely or improbable plot twists, (indeed many of my favourite authors depend on them) or sci-fi/fantasy books that from the start posit a different reality. But I dislike following a realistic narrative only for something extraordinary to be mixed in. And Murakami likes to do that, a great deal.

But although such elements are present in Dance Dance Dance, they don’t affect the storyline. Which is an engrossing one, with engaging characters. None of the characters or their relationships with each other really convince but it doesn’t really matter; while the traditional whodunit element is undermined by the main character fundamentally not caring who did it, beyond the extent to which it effects himself. This is a common pose in detective story anti-heroes, but its refreshing to see it being stuck to, rather than being undermined by better instincts or love.

P.G. Wodehouse – The Girl in Blue

Although Wodehouse was amazingly consistent in quality over a very lengthy career, his milieu of the idle rich worked better in their untroubled pre-World War 2 idyll. After that, with their stately homes only kept up for Americans to rent and good domestic staff hard to find, his inconsequential froth begins to jar slightly against reality.

So, finding that the heroine in this story is an air hostess is a disappointment. Air travel should have no part in Wodehouse’s world. He’s also guilty of pinching jokes from earlier works (the joke about arriving slowly because of needing spikes and running shoes was also in Do Butlers Burgle Banks).

Despite this, reading Wodehouse is never hard work, and anyone who doesn’t get a warm fuzzy feeling from passages like this…

“Hullo! Is there something wrong, darling? You look like a startled codfish. Suits you, of course. Very becoming. But it gives me the idea that something has happened to upset you.”

…is missing out

Scared of the internet

In the last week or so I’ve had a Facebook stalker who on three occasions has sent me messages about my appearance on my profile photo. Not particularly complimentary, so I think I can write off any chances of them having fallen obsessively in love with me , but equally not insulting so my self-esteem is, thankfully, intact. But the intimidation factor is such that I can’t face going online at the moment, so I will not be using the internet/updating this blog in the next 2 weeks.

Well, actually, I’m going to stay in a flat that has no internet access, but it comes to much the same thing. I can only hope my stalker has a new obsession by the time I get back online.

Book Reviews

As I buy all my books (and indeed pretty much everything else apart from food) from charity shops any review of the books I’m reading is unlikely to be characterised by theme or contemporaneity. However, the combination of being an exceptionally quick reader, a very brisk reviewer and not having much else to do with my time means that I should be able to provide quantity at least.

…and preferably without a monarchy either.

If you go to the Guardian front page at the moment, there is a link to a story entitled “Former royal aide absconds from jail”.

Because, clearly the fact that she used to work for the Windsors is far more important than that she’s also been convicted of murder.

I’m Seriously Thinking of Emigrating

Conservative political poster

Labour political poster

I despair.

This is not just a rhetorical flourish, I really am thinking of emigrating. Some country where they don’t have Cameron, Brown or Jedward.

Possibly Afghanistan?

(story and title lifted from WSC’s messageboard)

Hockey Sticks

In the big hoopla about the hacked emails from climate scientists (and I for one have nothing to fear from anything similar happening to my emails, oh no) and the so-called hockey stick projection graphs, it only just occurred to me that people mean ice hockey sticks rather than field hockey. I mean, OK, they aren’t that different, but it’d be a bit depressing if my house ended up underwater because I’d bought on the basis of a field hockey upward curve rather than an ice hockey upward slant.

Ashes to Ashes

An independent panel recently recommended adding or returning several major sporting events to the so-called “crown jewels”, events of such national resonance that they should be shown on free to air television, accessible to all. One of the most controversial suggestions was that for cricket, that home Ashes Test series between England and Australia should be included. One of the reasons that prompted it was a comparison of viewing figures from the 2005 series shown on Channel 4 that had up to 8 million viewers and the 2009 series shown on Sky which got about 2 million at its highest point. There is currently no live international cricket being shown on terrestrial TV, and critics of the Sky deal claim that it will be impossible to interest a new generation in the game if they have no TV exposure to it.

La Perfide France

The subject of cheating is rarely far from the agenda in the hyperbole-ridden world of professional sport and its media. Thierry Henry’s handball that allowed France to score the winning goal against the Republic of Ireland in their World Cup eliminator has arrived only just in time to shift the dive by his compatriot David Ngog that won Liverpool a penalty and a point against Birmingham.

The obvious lesson here is that the French as a nation cannot be trusted and probably should be banned from sport altogether, perhaps restricted to playing petanque in town squares in order to look picturesque for the tourists.