tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39106282011-04-21T23:16:14.423ZGrandpont GenieUp through the blogosphere<br>
Up where the air is clearMarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.comBlogger571100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1142679354220312902006-03-18T10:46:00.000Z2006-03-18T10:55:54.700ZLent privationsI have given up alcohol for Lent despite saying that I have no willpower and never attempt anything like that. NB the fact that I *thought* I had no willpower meant that I never tried giving up things for Lent or even making New Year's resolutions before. Responses have been varied and have included:~ ARE YOU CRAZY????~ ARE YOU RELIGIOUS????~ Nuff respect, good on yer etc etc~ Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1125656358074244572005-09-02T09:54:00.000Z2005-09-02T10:19:18.080ZNot having the internet at home - dud, obviouslyThere are certain people whom I can only confirm my continued existence by posting to sites which are not work-related and are therefore blocked by websense. Ok, maybe this is not strictly true, but it is a symptom of the way the internet has come to dominate most of our lives that just not having an internet connection at home has meant that I Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1123427028219683242005-08-07T14:39:00.000Z2005-08-07T15:16:07.230ZBack once again with the ill behaviourSo, for anyone who actually still checks this, a new post at last. It was actually Archel who spurred me on to write this, or rather, the fact that she had deleted Grandpont Genie from her list of blogs. Maybe I think about these things too much, but I immediately began to wonder why I had been lopped from her list and I rather hope that the lack of Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1112543109159964222005-04-03T15:44:00.000Z2005-04-06T20:14:17.133ZThe Pope Must Die (Oh hold on, he just has)As I said on ilx, though I appreciate not all of you read it, whilst convention dictates that a new pope should be a cardinal, in theory any adult Catholic male could be appointed and it is quite amusing to think of certain mates assuming the rôle. Guilt is a useless emotionThe danciest track on New Order’s latest album, which is pretty good for a Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1110404497456645092005-03-09T21:13:00.000Z2005-03-09T21:42:02.790ZRachael Dadd mp3s - you'd better listen!Fruker has been pestering me at length, and in French sometimes, for an update, so I thought I'd start by mentioning the fact that Rachael Dadd now has some mp3s online and I think everyone who has yet to discover this singer-songwriter really should, so anyway: the songs are here. I thought her album launch was in April...maybe I misread the site, maybe Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1106486685704404502005-01-23T13:19:00.000Z2005-01-23T13:28:57.053ZHootin' heck!
There were a couple of people from (I think) the Barn Owl Preservation Trust standing in the middle of the Westgate Centre yesterday and one of them had the biggest owl I had ever seen! This bird was so big it was almost scary. Bulky, brown and black speckled with ear tufts and huge orange eyes. Turns out that it was actually an example of the biggest species of owl in the worldMarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1105566860549173412005-01-12T21:24:00.000Z2005-03-09T21:13:41.016ZFrom blog 2 P45We've known from a while that writing a blog can get you fired, but now it seems the phenomenon of firing bloggers has got a tad closer to home and so with that in mind I'm deleting the link to my workplace, which also gives me an excuse to give the links a much needed overhaul. A lot has happened since I last did it and the fact that I still have Pumpkin Publog listed separately Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1105273031609649862005-01-09T11:55:00.000Z2005-01-09T12:17:11.610ZI think I know how Shrek must've felt
I can really empathise with the big green ogre waking up to find his swamp full of fairy-tale characters, as my garden is apparently becoming host to a batch of characters from childrens' fiction. Eeyore has been there for soem time and this morning I notice that he has been joined by Rupert the Bear. I have two theories: they have been thrown over the Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1103577128688166982004-12-20T20:59:00.000Z2005-01-09T11:55:27.113ZHow soppy can you get?
"You know you're getting old", I commented to Alan, "when your exes start having babies". Now Alan has nine years on me, with nine years extra earning power as befits his status as landlord to my tenant, so his response was not so much one-upmanship as a statement of fact, tinged with a certain sadness, as he told me that most of his mates were either on Kid #2 or were Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1103324409427944102004-12-17T22:50:00.000Z2004-12-17T23:00:09.426ZThe Gaul (not Asterix)
Of all the news stories I have heard recently, this has got to be the most perplexing. Basically, the most common reason for ships to sink is bad storms. It is very unusual for ships to be hit by submarines and even more rare for them to be hit by torpedoes fired by foreign powers (especially if we are not at war with them at the time). So why, after two enquiries, do Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1103152414578791642004-12-15T22:32:00.000Z2004-12-17T22:50:45.686ZAll clear
I went for a hospital appointment today at the Churchill, my first visit there since I had my appendix removed in the summer of 2002. This time it was to have an ultrasound scan of my kidneys to see if they were polycystic. One of the conditions on my father's death certificate was kidney failure, the eventual outcome of the polycystic renal condition he'd suffered from for at least Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1102697262191436002004-12-10T16:39:00.000Z2004-12-10T16:47:42.190ZWould-be-Goods - Brief Lives
I have only just discovered this band, although I gather they have been going for quite a while now. The first thing I notice is Jessica Griffin's very precise, clear vocal. The lyrics are extremely cultured. I'd tempted to say that this must be the most erudite band ever - listen to these song titles; 'Bad Lord Byron', 'Vivre sa vie', 'Flashman'. The tunes, Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1100736326454171342004-11-17T23:24:00.000Z2004-12-10T16:39:45.176ZA R Kane - When You're Sad
It is quite amazing how much A R Kane sounded like the Jesus & Mary Chain prior to recording their "I" album. Not that this is a bad thing, not that the JAMC sound is a bad sound, but just because of the contrast with the startling eclecticism of "I".
Roy Moxham - Tea: Addiction, Exploitation and Empire
A non-fiction writer who takes a mundane subject and expounds Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1100448382755705532004-11-14T15:47:00.000Z2004-11-14T16:06:22.756ZA duck to water
Walking by the Thamesisis on pretty much a daily basis, I often observe the behaviour of the ducks. This led on one occasion of a discussion of the reasons for the variation in the width of the V they leave in their wake with people from here, but today as I crossed the footbridge it suddenly occurred to me how ridiculous a duck looks when it's drinking. Ok, so given a duck's Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1099947251724166272004-11-08T20:47:00.000Z2004-11-08T20:54:11.723ZCongratulations....
...to fruker for securing a new job. There are good views from up there, apparently.
Julian Cope - I Come from Another Planet, Baby
Having enjoyed the rambling rapport of Cope's recent gig almost as much as the songs themselves, it comes as a pleasant surprise to find that the third track on this single, "If I Could Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over You" is a Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1099848741308683672004-11-07T17:27:00.001Z2004-11-07T17:40:17.110ZDenim - Denim on Ice
It is not hard to see why Lawrence was embittered about the eighties. He was one of the most prolific artists of the period this side of Minneapolis, he teamed up with incredibly talented people such as Maurice Deebank, Gary Ainge and Martin Duffy to create music which was always a joy to listen to, yet he was criminally ignored by both media and record-buying public for Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1099137530384223032004-10-30T11:20:00.000Z2004-10-30T11:59:06.003ZGood Club vs. Bad Club
Having been in Po Na Na with Charles and Pod last night, I can only conclude that the difference between a Good Club and a Bad Club is that the Good Clubs are run by people I know and the Bad Clubs are not. I have no idea who runs PNN. My visit to Trash in that London a couple of months ago is the only recent exception to my neat little theory.
Fingerprints in passportsMarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1097943117417780772004-10-16T15:31:00.000Z2004-10-30T11:19:14.706ZWebtrawler
No, not the search engine, that's Webcrawler. Webtrawler is the name I coined to describe what will hopefully be a regular trawl through the websites I've discovered recently. The first is strictly speaking a rediscovery as I first found it three years ago, but I've recently revisited and registered and find it fascinating - I'm talking about Hot or Not. I suppose it serves as a Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1097406176959932962004-10-10T10:40:00.000Z2004-10-10T11:02:56.960ZGrey day
It is, in stark contrast to yesterday, which was uncharacteristically warm for the time of year. Somehow I have noticed how the weather dictates (or at least influences) people's moods far more in Oxford than I ever did in London or Bristol. I think the relative sizes of the cities is urgent and key here. Oxford, being tiny compared with the other two, has fewer streets and has more Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1096203704442001022004-09-26T13:51:00.000Z2004-09-26T13:10:38.476ZA hard hatted, soft hearted, standing by the road man
Mayhem in Grandpont Village at the mo as this normally quiet, tranquil idyll has been made noisier and just generally wrong by the presence of large numbers of dayglo-coated workmen (although with apologies to KTB, I thnk 'soft headed' would be more appropriate in many cases), together with their infernal machines, barriers and cones. Holes Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1095801436144017472004-09-21T21:07:00.000Z2004-09-21T21:24:40.523Z[It., dimin. of stilo dagger (as STYLUS)]
I heard the word 'stiletto' in the 'dagger' sense prior to the 'heel' sense and therefore was utterly nonplussed by the lyrics to Marillion's 1985 smash 'Kayleigh' in which Fish bangs on about "dancing in stilettos in the snow". The teenage me went "HUH?", closely followed by "How can you be in a dagger? Far less dance in one?" It was only three years orMarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1095595587774151432004-09-19T11:37:00.000Z2004-09-19T12:06:27.773ZCriticizing sport = heresy?
I know that saying you are not interested in a sport - any sport - is seen as sacrilege in some quarters but I just want to say I DON'T GIVE A HOOT ABOUT THE RYDER CUP. There. I've done it.
Mass exodus
I am rather troubled by the huge number of people who are leaving work right now. It seems that every other day the brown paper envelope with the card and the Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1093696501574775502004-08-28T13:19:00.000Z2004-09-21T21:22:57.190ZBit meta, this
from yr actual Blogger page.....
"Five years ago today, Blogger was launched. W00t! "
which led me to think, is fruker actually running blogger these days?!
he appears to be deleting my comments tho. Tsk!
Paul Weller - Wishing on a Star
On the way back from the Mole in Toot Baldon yesterday lunchtime, a song came over the Marticus car radio. It sounded achingly familiar Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1093113312647996532004-08-21T18:30:00.000Z2004-08-21T18:35:12.646ZThe Grandpont Genie Guide to Boutique Naming
(i) Pick a female name which is uncommon in your country
(ii) Name your boutique after it.
E.g. in Tallinn there is a boutique named Tracy.
Wanted baggage
I am so relieved that my bag is arriving tonight, well, tomorrow morning actually. Pity the poor chap who has to drive a van up and down the country dropping off the possessions of passengers Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1093010699593228912004-08-20T13:35:00.000Z2004-08-20T14:04:59.593ZAn Eesti A-Z
well, not quite, but I'm getting there slowly....
Brethren of the Sword
These guys used to rule over Estonia in mediaeval times.
Cross winds
A meteorological condition which makes flying a heavy plane a hazardous thing to do. At least, that was the reason given for unloading my bag and 39 others from the plane they'd just been loaded onto. At the time of writing, the bags areMarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1089382658851195382004-07-09T14:04:00.000Z2004-07-09T14:17:38.850ZDear Pharmacist, use your mind
I decided to eschew my usual cup of coffee this afternoon in favour of....two sachets of Lemsip Max Strength. I was feeling a little rough, but not so poorly as to make going home the only reasonable course of action. And do you know, they've actually given me a bit of a high. I am not entirely discounting the possibility that this is just the Placebo Effect, Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1089109242836348732004-07-06T10:14:00.000Z2004-07-06T10:20:42.836ZNo smoke.....
We’ve just had the strangest fire drill ever! The alarm went off and we dutifully went to outside, but the fire officers, resplendent in their day-glo waistcoats, didn’t have clipboards to tick off our names or anything and disappeared en masse round to the front of the building, and eventually someone made an impromptu decision to go back inside and lemming-like, we followed! Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1088880243346719812004-07-03T18:43:00.000Z2004-07-03T18:44:03.346ZThe Beta Band - Won
This is from 2001, but I first encountered it on Sunday at the little market by St. Martin's in Trafalgar Square. I bought it on spec, originally for my friend Ruth whom I was meeting up with later on. It turned out she had a copy already so I took it home and played it. Now I have no problem with artists like AR Kane and Magnetic Fields running the gamut of genres on an Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1087944538825932632004-06-22T22:48:00.000Z2004-07-03T18:05:57.546ZMcCarthy: I Am A Wallet / Banking, Violence and the Inner Life Today
There are to my mind three odd things about McCarthy. One is the paucity of information about them online. Another is the huge difference between Tim Gane’s guitar work for them and his later contributions to Stereolab. Thirdly, it is strange that they didn’t make a larger impact, when one takes into account the popularity Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1085262594142451582004-05-22T21:49:00.000Z2004-05-22T21:50:55.586ZWindows on the world
There’s something about these new LCD computer monitors which make them like windows (or portals if you want to be all sci-fi and nerdy about it) through to another world. I think it may be just that it was never possible to make this connection with a big nasty old CRT monitor. There it sat, a big nasty beige piece of hardware, an annoying bulky interloper on the desk Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1079787610159579102004-03-20T13:00:00.000Z2004-03-20T13:10:51.873ZThese are my new shoes. They're good shoes. They won't make you rich like me, they won't make you rebound like me, they definitely won't make you handsome like me. They'll only make you have shoes like me. That's it.
Charles Barkley
Apart from Friday evening, the last conversation I had with a work person actually, well, in person, rather than telephonically, was with Laura as we walked down Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1078762304910649262004-03-08T16:11:00.000Z2004-03-08T16:14:46.653ZEuropean gargoyles and corbels
I find it strange, yet hardly unexpected, that a city’s reputation for beauty and history relies far more on the public rep of the country it inhabits than its true artistic or architectural merit. I’ve heard good things of Luxembourg City (although I’m sure it would be even better if they hadn’t torn down half of the city walls in the 19th century) and of the Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1076375595905175742004-02-10T01:13:00.000Z2004-02-10T17:24:27.606ZDudley Corporation/Querelle/Thursdays of Vega - Port Mahon 9/2/04
well, this has got to be a first - a random posting on return from a night of pissed-up debauchery. Ok, time to come clean and admit that it wasn't *that* pissed-up, aw c'mon it was a Monday.
The Port Mahon is rapidly becoming the venue-of-choice for the more low key, discerning gig-goer. It does betray its bedsit origins, butMarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1076082742731934782004-02-06T15:52:00.000Z2004-02-06T15:54:42.810Zwell, I'll be a......
Odd that I should start reading Will Self's Great Apes, lent to me by fruker, the very same week that I read Anthony Easton's article here.Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1075380313145280572004-01-29T12:45:00.000Z2004-02-10T17:25:14.060ZPost yourself
When I began to listen to The Gift by Velvet Underground for the first time recently, I wondered whether Charles McKinley, the former New York shipping clerk who air-mailed himself from Newark, N.J., to Dallas/Fort Worth Airport to visit his parents in DeSoto, had been influenced by it. By the time the track reached its conclusion, however, I realised that he most certainly hadn'tMarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1074781585916818652004-01-22T14:26:00.000Z2004-01-22T14:28:26.450ZWaiting, waiting, waiting.............
Would it be fair to say that your job consists largely of waiting for things to happen? I don't mean waiting for that much-needed pay rise or that deserved promotion. I mean on a more mundane, day-to-day level. It suddenly occurred to me that I spend a lot of my time is spent pressing Refresh or waiting for work to progress up a processing queue.
This Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1074681213182098702004-01-21T10:33:00.000Z2004-01-21T10:35:32.090ZWho was that man?
Seems that Nick Lowe finally has an answer to the question he asked, somewhat morbidly, in the song of that name on his 1995 Party of One album. According to the BBC, he was one Alexander Fallon. Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1073644958298056422004-01-09T10:42:00.000Z2004-01-21T10:36:10.653ZNew Year's Revolution
I'm getting castigated for not updating my blog again and the criticism has come from that king of the one line review, fruker. I suppose I should be glad that he is a supporter of the enterprise. I was never going to make it a New Year's Resolution to update more regularly, in fact I avoid resolutions like the plague. This may appear boring or unimaginative. Fair dues.Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1071740508635227302003-12-18T09:41:00.000Z2003-12-18T09:43:02.763ZSlightly ill
Being slightly ill always poses a dilemma for me. Do I go to work and risk making myself even more ill, or do I stay at home feeling guilty for skiving when I am quite capable of doing my job even though I am not quite 100%? In the event I plumped for the former and my observations both in street and office seem to confirm that many people have reached the same decision - coughs Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1070405492454456292003-12-02T22:51:00.000Z2003-12-18T09:17:21.263ZPC woe
Being stopped by the security guard on my way out of the building did not augur well for my life with my new (for which read ex-work) PC. It took ages to get some mouse drivers installed and when I finally did, the floppy got stuck in the disk drive, leaving its little silver slidey bit behind. I'm not actually looking forward to running the telephone cable down a flight of stairs everyMarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1069928530791424972003-11-27T10:22:00.000Z2003-11-27T10:22:57.530ZEyes down for a full house
If the popularity of sites such as the "quirky stories from around the world" from Ananova has had any effect at all, it is to discourage one from reporting the (slightly less) bizarre happenings in one's own life. But, to negate that, last night the Jude the Obscure quiz actually had a game of bingo in the middle of it. The caller had not quite grasped the Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1069178127298371472003-11-18T17:55:00.000Z2003-11-18T17:56:01.030ZQuiz preparation
I probably shouldn't be here now. In fact I definitely shouldn't, but the fact is I am still at work as it is the only time that I can print stuff off for the work quiz without people seeing me. The interrogation about what's going to be in it has been pretty much incessant. Still, I've been impressed by the number of people who are coming along.
The Oxford Mail league is Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1066817929021307392003-10-22T10:18:00.000Z2003-10-22T10:19:38.420ZOlder, yes. Wiser......?
First up, an apology to fruker for my cyber-gaffe of not having anything to say about my birthday last Friday for his link to go to. The first thing I inevitably get asked when I tell people it's my birthday is "Is it a special birthday?" by which they usually mean does it have a '0' or a '5' at the end. Well, this one had a '3' at the end, which is about as unspecialMarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1066209645137717502003-10-15T09:20:00.000Z2003-10-15T09:20:45.063ZWas that some tumbleweed that just blew past?
It's eerily quiet in the office and for once that's not just because someone's told a bad joke. A lot of people seem to be on some unspecified course and to be frank, there is little they'd be able to do if they were here. Technical problems have brought the general workflow crashing down like a house of cards. We are unable to process any Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1066060317260038622003-10-13T15:51:00.000Z2003-10-15T09:02:02.220ZA week of ruin
Saturday
Well, I've done countless NCH tin-shakes, but today's was undoubtably the coldest. It's too bad the Cowley Works Tesco people don't actually let us collect inside the store. Still, people were very generous and that made it all worthwhile. Kosar and Will chatted to me for a while, which was nice. I don't think I want to hear the Captain Pugwash theme tune ever again.Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1061408337340119552003-08-20T19:38:00.000Z2003-08-20T19:38:57.256ZA fair cop
I was the victim of a silly prank at work today and not surprisingly the culprit was Jon. I'd 'phoned someone at our other office an hour or two previously to request that a journal be taken out of the archives and sent to me. "I'll stick it in the taxi", was the puzzling response. They are using taxis to transport journals now? I thought. Well, I suppose that cf sending it via Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1059662913274351302003-07-31T14:48:00.000Z2003-07-31T14:48:33.246ZTop tunes now
Broadcast - Pendulum
Finlay - Plastic Cowboy
The Pastels - Different Drum
Top tunes soon
new Broadcast album
new Garlic album
new Belle & Sebastian album & singleMarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-1059583069549913112003-07-30T16:37:00.000Z2003-07-30T16:37:49.430ZTruck Festival, Steventon, 19-20 July
The one thing that struck me about Truck was how much it had grown since my previous visit back in '99. Then it was a fiver to get in, there was just the Truck Stage and the Barn Stage, but this year there was the Pressure Drop Tent and the Trailerpark Tent as well. Plus about ten times as many people.
The choice of stages meant that occasionally Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-925411562003-04-13T20:42:00.000Z2003-04-13T20:42:28.950ZEuro Bar rout
The Euro Bar, next to the bus station in George Street, Oxford, is not somewhere that I would normally spend a Saturday lunch time. It used to be the Welsh Pony. It was odd then, belying its name by actually being Spanish; the one time I was there a multitude of Spanish students were dancing and drinking sangria from jugs with long thin spouts, whilst being jostled by their 'Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-922456322003-04-08T21:22:00.000Z2003-04-08T21:22:40.826ZKinda inevitable
The Butchers Arms have won our division of the Oxford Mail league. They beat us (but only just!) last Thursday and so all that remains is a few 'table-top' competitions (these are where teams from several pubs all compete in the same pub on the same night). The first of these is on Thursday in Eynsham, which is situated in the wylds of west Oxfordshire for ye uninitiated. In Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-876346532003-01-18T11:19:00.000Z2003-01-18T11:19:58.000ZPride comes before a fall
After six unbeaten matches, the Shelley Arms quiz team finally suffered a defeat. No shame attached, really, as it was against the mighty Butcher's Arms. Their pub may be hard to find, but they certainly found their form on Thursday. Then yesterday, Emma and I went to see Elizabeth and Blue Kaddy at the Wheatsheaf. It hardly warranted a full review really. Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-873707602003-01-13T21:14:00.000Z2003-01-13T21:16:23.000ZNew Year, new building
...and late posting, it's true, but to be honest I have now experienced just over a week of working in our new premises in Cowley, in the middle of a business park and with a major American motorcycle manufacturer as a neighbour. "Imagine working there," I commented to my colleague Paul as we walked past their foyer, with its two huge bikes, chrome a-gleaming, resplendentMarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-864429862002-12-23T18:08:00.000Z2003-01-13T21:11:31.000ZVic Twenty and The Pictures, The Spitz, 20/12/02
Vic Twenty hark back to the eighties in a big way. Not only did they play synths, but old synths. The songs had witty lyrics, especially "Txt Msg" which is about dumping your boy- or girlfriend by mobile phone and was performed with appropriate props and ringtone noises. Vic Twenty were a genuinely engaging duo. How else could they get away Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-847022302002-11-18T11:03:00.000Z2002-11-18T11:13:27.000ZQuiz Me
Mark C has been showing off his quiz winnings I see. Emma and I had a couple of successful weeks at the Hobgoblin in St. Aldate's with top prizes (T-shirts! Polo shirts! And most importantly, BEER!) but it was while the regular quizmaster was on his hols. Once the usual compere returned from his travels bringing his hard questions with him we were languishing in fourth or fifth placeMarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-847000792002-11-18T09:25:00.000Z2002-11-18T09:25:48.963ZChris T-T and Trademark, The Cellar 11/11/02
The Cellar is busier than I've seen it in ages; it's almost as full as it was for The Rock of Travolta last year. There is an air of anticipation, a babble of conversation. That's because Chris T-T, darling of the broadsheet weekend review sections, regular attainer of five stars, is playing. First up, however, are Trademark. Fresh-faced, Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-845171342002-11-14T08:54:00.000Z2002-11-14T08:54:48.110ZTeenage Fanclub - A Catholic Education"
The first thing that strikes you about this debut album from Teenage Fanclub is how fuzzy it sounds, starkly different from the confidence and volume of their material during the band's long stint at Creation. It's easy to forget in this age of polite, polished indie how much of the alternative musical canon of 1990 sounded like this. Madchester was Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910628.post-839181222002-11-02T13:51:00.000Z2002-11-02T13:51:41.453ZHello and welcome to my blog. It is a steely grey day here in Oxford, not unlike the one when I moved here nine long years ago!Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17878141203053886563noreply@blogger.com0