Strangely Compelling

Noah takes a picture of himself every day for 6 years...

Axis Of Evil Productions

Back in the day, when I was struggling to find a way out of the hum drum that was the retail trade, I got a job at Choices Video, a national chain of video & game rental stores. I was the manager at two of the branches in Norwich and whilst at my second branch, I recruited a young northern monkey by the name of Andy Bennett. He was a cocky fucker, with a degree in Film Studies and a big knowledge of movies (which is why I employed him). He lived in a townhouse in the centre of Norwich with an assortment of reprobates; a guy called Weazel was the strangest and most endearing of them all. At one point, whilst having a rough patch with the now ex wife, Andy let me move in with him and I experienced true student/graduate life for the first time, and realised I hadn't really missed much, in fact, I was quite relieved that I had not followed that path !! LOL

Anyway, I tried to stay in touch, as you do, after we moved our separate ways but the odd email here and there was all that ever came from it. I still get the occasional mail from Andy, but not out of some heartfelt desire to get reaquainted, no. It's merely that I am a name on a list of email contacts to which he sends adverts and dates for his theatre company, Axis Of Evil Productions.

He has teamed up with a couple of other guys to produce what they describe as a live sitcom on stage ! There are various episodes and they have received, by their own admission, rave reviews. So much so that they are off to perform at this years Edinburgh Festival.



But, at last, he has dragged his sorry Yorkshire ass into the century we call the 21st, and gotten not only a web presence, but a MySpace page which houses some excellent clips of their Coalition production, but also some film clips too. I wonder if he's aware of the fact Rupert Murdoch now owns Myspace and dies it sit well with his moral code of ethics ?? ;o)

Axis Of Evil Myspace Page

As much as it ails me to say, do check them out because they're actually very good and I need to arrange a visit to see them, even though I know that Andy will do his usual round of diatribes about me being Italian and how Yorkshire is the centre of all things good known to man :o)

A Short History of the USA



And yes Andy, I'm still a fat bastard :o)

Enjoy :o)

Tailpipe Man

Funniest pic I've seen for a while. Used by a friend to describe a pissy little arsewipe that inhabits the FIAT Bravo Owners Forum, called Roger Ramjet (RR) and tries ever so hard to be big, clever and very trollish, but simply comes across as a cunt.

My theory is that he's about 43, lives with/shags his Mum and is on some sort of medication. Anyway, this made me chuckle :o)

UPDATE: I have found the unedited version of this pic. Look away if you do not wish to witness the true horrors of Tailpipe Man !! LOL

Spiders On Drugs

Via Sparkle Train

In the 1960s, Dr. Peter Witt gave drugs to spiders and observed their effects on web building. This short film about the results of the experiment was created by First Church Of Christ, Filmmaker.

Banksy Shop

Via Ektopia

You may know the artist Banksy from some of his work that has grabbed both headlines and attention for being witty, insightful & making a bloody good point. Check out his site for some utterly brilliant and thought provoking grafitti he did on the Israeli "anti-terrorist" wall. Genius.

Well, this highly original artist has now opened his online store at his website.

Only difference is that the 12 items on offer are actually free !!

12 high quality prints, available in 3 different sizes each. All you do is download and print.

I think if you were to cut Banksy in half, the word original would be written right through him :o)

Apple iPhone

Via Engadget

Offical Apple iPhone site.

Ok, time to officially get moist around the gusset. After much speculation, Steve Jobs announced the Apple iPhone today. It's real, it's official and it's out in the US in June and Europe in 3rd Quarter 2007.

Nokia & Sony had better start quaking in their boots.

I'm a massive Nokia smartphone fan, but this is extremely tempting. Thankfully, I'm tied to my current contract until June 2008, enough time for this thing to bed in and any bugs or issues to rear their ugly heads. Saying that Apple have a pretty good track record of getting things right.

One to watch.

An interesting view from Retro Thing can be read Here

Crazy Road Junctions Pt.3 !

Submitted by GammaGoblin via The Daily Mail

Xiamen, South China.....



There is a very good reason why we have yellow boxes on the junctions !! ;o)

Crazy Road Junctions Pt.2 !!

More road madness, this time in Vietnam !!

Love Is A Wonderful Colour

Via AVATV, a cracking song by the Icicle Works. Memories flood back....

Crazy Road Junctions Pt.1 !!

Via Sparkle Train.



This utterly amazing piece of footage shows a junction in a city in India. I sat here, gobsmacked at how nothing collided and then remembered an episode some years ago where a local council was experimenting in controlling traffic at a very busy junction. It was a notorious blackspot and one day they just switched off the traffic lights, and all of a sudden traffic stared moving quicker and there were no accidents !!

This footage just has me gobsmacked every time I watch it.

Silent Star Wars

Found via Sparkle Train, one of my new favourite blogs :o) This is bloomin' hilarious !!



Thanks Matirx :o)

Banana Skins

Well, it's FA Cup 3rd Round day today. Along with the Cup Final itself, this is probably the biggest football day of the year. Plenty of lower & non league sides do battle with bigger professional clubs to further their involvement in the biggest football trophy competition in the world.

The pick of games today has to be Macclesfield V Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, Liverpool V Arsenal and funnily enough, my team Norwich City travelling to Conference side Tamworth. I am, as ever, utterly pessimistic about our chances. We make a terrible habit of going out early doors to much lower teams and this game is being televised too, so now we can humiliate ourselves in front of millions of people, not just a few thousand !!

Seriously though, I've just seen the team sheet, and we should wipe the floor with them.

But, this is the FA Cup. Anything can, and usually does, happen.

I'll be back in 2 hours or so. Start placing bets on what kind of mood I'll be in !! LOL ;o)

UPDATE: Well, we won comfortably by 4 goals to 1. Would've been nice to have kept a clean sheet, but to be totally fair, Tamworth's goal was a worthy effort which even received copious applause from the travelling City fans. So, the giddy heights of the 4th round beckon and talk starts of a possible cup run ! ;o)

Shadows

As you may have read earlier, I recently completed the autobiography of Adam Ant. It was a great book and with a bit of my Christmas money, I bought the "Best Of" DVD that came out at the same time. It contains virtually all the single videos, except one or two of the early ones (copyright bollox, so I'm told) and compliments the book nicely. Disc 2, however, is the revelation and the catalyst behind this post.

It features a documentary made this year and was broadcast on London TV in December 2006. This version features another 25 minutes of footage and it's not a bad piece of work, although it seems to be inspired by these historical decade shows we see all too often nowadays. It's redeeming features are the interviews with Adam & Marco, but in Adam's case, these are also the most upsetting.

Until I saw this, I don't think I could ever say that I had truly seen someone where I could legitimately use the phrase, "He's a shadow of his former self". Adam looked so delicate and fragile in this film, so vulnerable and timid, it really was very upsetting. Why ? Well, you must remember, when I was growing up and Adam was a big part of my life, he was this energetic, brave, feisty, workaholic warrior, full of gusto and verve. He was a successful and very active artist and his live shows were pure and raw energy. Now, ravaged by Bi-Polar disorder and having suffered many years of it undiagnosed, it has left him in a withered state, speaking in monotones and almost struggling to summon the effort to smile. It truly broke my heart. I admire the guy totally and always have. I marvel at the way he has coped with a very debilitating illness and am so glad he is still with us, but it is mightily sad to see him like this.

I didn't just love his music. I loved his art. I loved his ability to entertain and inspire. The music world, and the world in general, lack such people nowadays. Adam insists there is still good music in him, which I don't doubt for a second.

Let's hope we get to hear it soon :o)

Oh, and in the vain hope he may read this, thanks Adam, for everything you have done for me without knowing.

P.S. I sat in bed this morning with my little girl and we watched some of the videos together. She absolutely loved them. You could see how his total showmanship just leapt out of the screen and excited her. The old bugger can still knock 'em down 20+ years on ;o)

Please also visit these sites for more information on mental illness...

Royal College Of Psychiatrists

National Association For Mental Health

Supermarket Self Service Checkouts

Ask my girlfriend what one thing she does not make me do, and that's the food shopping ! She does not want to witness violent murder, dismemberment or gutting of other customers whilst she tries to choose what cheese we should be having !

I hate food shopping.

I hate the people you find in supermarkets.

With a passion.

In the past, I have had to stop my trolley and just walk out of a supermarket before I actually committed the act of murder on some inbred fuckwit.

So, when the need arises, and there is no alternative, it's a challenge for the rest of society to avoid my murderous intentions whilst I get whatever it is we need.

But, recently, supermarkets have been introducing self service checkouts. Void of the pond scum that supermarkets seem to employ for checkout assistants, these devices promise a swift procedure and actually make my experience a little calmer. No more waiting for the dumb ginger bitch on the till to question the price of Vagisil or argue whether the coupon was vaild anymore. A simple swipe through a barcode reader, and you could be on your way in seconds rather than hours.

But I forgot to factor in the highly common "ignorant" gene found in a large proportion of the human race. People who cannot read clear instructions, ranging from "baskets with 10 items or less" signs to which way to scan an item.

Far from actually alleviating a problem, they have simply exacerbated an existing one. The problem with a vast section of mankind that says they are pre-disposed to be totally ignorant cunts.

I love these devices and I have now realised that the supermarket is actually trying to help people like me, but sadly, their valiant quest is being foiled by the dumb fucks that seem to be far more prevalent than ever before. Maybe they should install a device infront of these checkouts that scans for intelligence and rejects anyone falling short of a pre-determined level of common sense.

I love my local village shop and feel that the few extra pence I spend per item there is worth the reduced stress from having to deal with the ignorant plebians we experience all too often in our supermarkets today.

By the way, the guy in the pic at the top isn't me, but it was the best pic I could find. The look on his face seems to mirror the cuntish wankers you see trying to figure out these machines on a daily basis.

Geek Alert !! My new phone.

I'm a bit of a mobile phone geek at heart and have been through quite a few models since my first brick, back in the early 90's. Just before Christmas I changed contract and took the opportunity to get a new phone too, which is what you see above, the Nokia N73. It's the latest Nokia "smartphone" which runs on their Series60 platform which currently stands at version 3. It runs the Symbian operating system (9.1) and is jam packed with features, including the normal phone functions, a superb screen, a camera with a Carl Zeiss Tessar lens, complete with aouto focus, zoom and a mechanical shutter. With the 2GB MiniSD card installed, I currently have 1000+ music tracks, resplendent with full IDv3 tags and album art, plus loads of games and other really cool apps. It's by far the best Series60 phone I've owned, although I did want the N80, but it wasn't available on the plan I wanted.

It really is a powerhouse of a phone, made better by the internal tweaking I have carried out where I upgraded the firmware from Orange's crappy and very buggy version to the Nokia Music Edition :) All the instructions to do this can be found at All About Symbian, the net's premier Symbian resource.

I've also just acquired the adapter that will allow me to hook it up to my in car HiFi system for plenty of mobile MP3 goodness :o)

As for my S60 past, see below....

6680


6600


7650


But I still have a soft spot for this pre S60 baby...

7110


There you go, geeky moment over, you can relax now :o)

Female Beefeater to guard Tower !!

Dear God !!! The whole world's going to hell in a handcart !!!

For the first time in their 522 year history, there will be a female Beefeater ! (Note: the picture above is not her, just the only image I could find at short notice !)

Actually, good bloody luck to her. I hope she has a great time. Let's be honest, the Yeomanry is more symbolic than functional, although I fully respect their job and position. As a spokeswoman says, her appointment will be less rare as more women carve out long term careers in the armed forces. To qualify for selection a candidate "must have served a minimum of 22 years in the forces as well as boast a long service and good conduct medal". It's even more of an achievement when you realise there are only ever 35 serving members of The Yeoman Warder of Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress the Tower of London, and Members of the Sovereign's Body Guard of the Yeoman Guard Extraordinary !

Good on ya lass :)

Big "Fucking" Brother

Brace yourselves for a number of weeks of pure cuntyness as "Celebrity" Big Brother starts tonight. Another bunch of failing Z List wankers will put themselves up for display and humiliation for the next month or so and the office will resound with inane chatter about who made an even bigger twat of themslves on last nights episode.

Rumours are abound about possible contenders, and in another bizarre Ant related moment, even Adam was touted as a possibility, although the official website says his management vehemently deny this. I truly hope so.

These shows were strangely interesting when they first started and I'll openly admit to watching and enjoying the first couple of BB's, but the incessant slew of shows featuring the most talentless pieces of shite this, and other countries have to offer, desperate to relaunch their failed careers and willing to humiliate themselves even further in doing so has reached ridiculous proportions. We now face a continuous stream of this crap, 24 hours a day. The BBC redeem themselves ever so slightly in making sure there is a good level of entertainment and the celebrities they use are actually currently successful people with busy careers but I do resent my licence fee being spent on such programming.

Then there is the hideous amount of extra coverage by the papers and magazines, the internet forums full of stalkers in the making (the official CH4 BB forum is a VERY scary place !) and the radio.

Do you remember when game shows actually featured real life people ? When was the last time we had a proper Mastermind tournament, won by a taxi driver, because he displayed an education and immense intelligence ?? Not even sunday evening game show classics like Family Fourtunes feature real people anymore !! Hell no, that's too "boring" ! Let's glorify a fat, pig faced, in bred lump of lard and give her all our money and attention. Or let's take a person who's sole ambition in life is to make a career out of pretending to be someone else and make our own celebrity. We no longer reward hard work, intelligence and effort and we now glorify stupidity, ignorance and laziness and make other people believe it's a worthwhile thing to aspire to.

Don't even get me started on the "talent" shows !!!

Stand And Deliver !

Well, seeing as I stole one of his lyrics for the title of my blog, I guess it's only fitting that my first proper post is an Adam Ant related one :o)



I've just finished reading his autobiography, "Stand And Deliver" (which I got for Christmas) and a most fascinating read it is too. I've been a fan since the late 70's when, as a young and very impressionable child, his music and style spoke to me like no one else had since The Beatles. Until I saw Adam, I had only ever wanted "to be" Paul McCartney, playing bass. Within a few months of being exposed to Adam, I knew I was to be a drummer. I instantly connected with Adam's ideals, his mindset and his music. Sure, it wasn't deep & meaningful stuff, it wasn't the angry political punk or social commentaries offered by certain Ska bands, but it was pure showmanship, total theatre and deeply fascinating. I got all kinds of stick for dressing up in a similar fashion, although I'm sure my mum actually liked it !

Sadly, what many people think of when they hear the name Adam Ant now, is of a crazy old 80's hasbeen, and they could be no further from the truth. Suffering from Bi-polar disorder, Adam has been through a personal hell and has been suffering for a lot longer than many would know. His personal "fix" was to work his bollox off and spend time flying around the world and moving from one relationship to another. Some if his descriptions were very familiar having suffered from a form of depression myself.

The book is a revelation and also a confirmation of many things. It's highly interesting, not only bringing back many fond memories of those times but also filling in blanks about his life & the music industry which had often evaded me.

Hopefully, the new compilation DVD will be waiting for me when I get home tonight and the memories will really come flooding back.

So, I guess a welcome is in order...

After fellow blogger Gamma Goblin made the suggestion, here is my new, non music related blog. A place where I can sound off, vent my spleen, spit venom, sing praises, be political, be contoversial, be a tosser, be in total control and simply not give a flying fuck :o)

What can you expect ? Hmmmm, not sure, to be perfectly honest. There will be all sorts I hope. Anything that wouldn't fit on my other blog, Failed Muso, and stuff that I tend to post in other blogs comments, which is why GG suggested it in the first place !

The other day, whilst pondering this blog and it's creation, I could think of a myriad things to put in here. Now I'm a bit stumped. Funny how moods take you, isn't it ?

I'm determined to keep this regular. I keep a lot of pent up frustration about the world, society and things that piss me off, so I'm hoping this will be a cathartic process for me.

By all means comment on any post you find that inspires you to do so, but be honest, dignified and not afraid to stand by anything you say. That means that anonymous bollox will, for the most part, not be welcome or tolerated. Have the courage to stand by your opinions (as long as they are informed opinions) and be counted. Anonymity is the shield of the uneducated and ignorant. Ultimately, this is MY blog, MY webspace and MY little corner of cyberspace. I have the final say, and if you don't like it, deal with it or fuck off ;o)

So there you go. I hope you enjoy reading my shit. I hope that maybe you will take something from here. I hope that you may learn something from here, if not from me, from something you find via this place. Feel free to link to posts here. All I ask is for credit where I am the original author, and if I am not, then please credit the person who is.

And for anyone wondering about the name, it comes from the Adam Ant song Zerox. It's an all time favourite of mine, and whose lyrics are extremely relevant today. However, this is in no way whatsoever an Adam Ant fansite/blog/place of worship. There are plenty of really good places for that, namely adam-ant.net. I am a fan, and have been for nearly 30 years, but I just nicked the title as I thought it fitted with my ethos. Why did I choose it for my blog title ? Well, I am becoming increasingly convinced that all I do in life is pick up information from all over the place and then copy it for others to enjoy. I am also increasingly convinced that this is what we all seem to do in one form or another. I might expand on this theory later but for now, why not get hold of a copy of Zerox and enjoy some antmusic ;)

Thanks for stopping by. And as my daughter is very fond of saying at the moment, see you soon.