dkpw – Wicked Fire

News in that the Pope’s visit to Scotland will not only cause massive disruption to Edinburgh and Glasgow but that the security bill alone will reach £10,000,000.

Allegedly one of  the Pope’s themes is the fight against poverty. Do you smell hypocrisy? I do.

Why just not come and save all that money, instead of adding to the age of Tory austerity and adversely affecting the poor and disadvantaged. If he does have to come to spread his intolerant, bigoted and frankly ludicrous religious beliefs, he should pay for all the costs from his own not inconsiderable funds.

Devastating news just in – Penetration have cancelled their appearance at the Durham Punk Festival. I was really going to the festival to see them and the Buzzcocks. So without Penetration, the line up of the Buzzcocks,Vice Squad,Angelic Upstarts,Mad Sin,UK Subs,Discharge,The Grit, Crashed Out,The Fiend and Gimp Fist are not enough.

Here’s the announcement on Penetrations web site:

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Penetration gig cancelled
Unfortunately, due to entirely unforeseen circumstances , Penetration will not be appearing at the Punkfest alldayer at The Dunelm in Durham on 11th September.

I’ve managed to cancel my hotel. I’ll keep the car hire in place and go out with my new camera. The festival ticket was not refundable or transferable but it’s now up on eBay.

Update – the ticket sold in about an hour. Phew.

Still it’s such a shame (and typical) that the one band I really wanted to see, were the ones to cancel.

For many people of my age, as well as those younger and older, the John Peel theme tune elicited an almost Pavlovian response, promising excitement, anticipation and expectation. Ahead lay two hours of not always great but always interesting music, the gentle self-deprecation and wit of the man himself, records being played at the wrong speed and unlimited ribbing of David “Kid” Jenson.

The theme is called Pickin The Blues and was originally recorded by Elmore James. If you don’t know your blues, and you should, Elmore is one of the legendary (slide) guitarists who escaped from the depths of Mississippi travelled to Chicago in order to live and play, away from the South and all of it’s unpleasant attitudes. If you look at a list of his recordings, you’ll immediately recognise many of the titles if you’ve ever listened to Eric Clapton, The Stones, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Frank Zappa, Fleetwood Mac or Jimi Hendrix. That’s quite a list of those influenced by his sound.

The internet is a marvellous thing, as it’s allowed me to achieve something which was impossible during my time listening to John Peel. That was the age of TDK cassettes, the time before CD-Rs and computers, an analogue age. Many a time and oft, I’d sit in bed, fingers poised to record some favoured track, a witticism of John’s or some terrible howler as he cocked up a link, played the wrong side or the record at the wrong speed. He’d notice immediately if it was too fast, as the vocals usually sounded like Pinky and Perky (that’s another age related reference) but on rare occasions he would not spot a record playing too slowly. Actually many of the punk bands sounded better slowed down.

Anyway, the impossible thing was to record the WHOLE of John’s theme tune without him talking over it or the programme coming to an end before the track. In all the time I was listening, it never happened.

But now the internet has made is possible. Here is the version he used by a band called Grinderswitch (I’m still not sure if it’s pronounced Grinder’s Witch or Grinder Switch) who were/are a southern US rock band, with an excellent take on the slide guitar, a la Mr. James.

Here’s the full, uninterrupted version, complete with scratches and bumps.

Yes John, I do want it go on for ever.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

As part of my new regime, I’ve bought a couple of audio books to listen to when pounding out the miles. I’ve just finished Pride and Prejudice, which was beautifully read by Lindsay Duncan. The recording was unabridged and lasted about five weeks, so was excellent value.

I’ve bought a couple more for the weeks ahead, Emma read by Wanda McCaddon. I very nearly went for the same novel read by the lovely and normally, very well spoken Jenny Agutter. Sadly the sample clips revealed that she was reading at too great a speed and with little differentiation between the characters. Such a shame as an Agutter – Austen combination would be a perfect fit in so many peoples’ minds.

My other book is a perfect fit – The Hitch-hikers’ Guide to the Galaxy read by the splendid Mr. Stephen Fry. He was friends with Douglas Adams, and shared much in common; wit, secularism and a love of all things Apple. It’s therefore highly appropriate that he is reading his friend’s work, and he does it so well.  The laconic, sardonic humour is perfectly expressed by SF – so much so that I’ve caught myself laughing out load as I troll round Inverleith Park of an evening.

This can cause trouble, as I’ve had some strange looks as I’ve either laughed out loud or stupidly stifled a smile, only for it to become a smirk, when approaching wheezing, misshapen, lumpen female joggers. Clearly they think I, Adonis like, am laughing at them. I’m not but I’m sure it will get me a a kicking one evening.

In case you  have not read, or re-read THHGTTG recently, I thought I would share this atheistic display of wit and logic from the guide about the Babel fish:

“Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything so mindboggingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as the final and clinching proof of the non-existence of God. The argument goes something like this:

`I refuse to prove that I exist, says God, `for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.’

`But,’ says Man, `The Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn’t it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don’t. QED.’

`Oh dear,’ says God, `I hadn’t thought of that,’ and promptly vanished in a puff of logic.”

Oh, that was easy,’ says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing.

Please see any of Richard Dawkins’ books, but particularly the Blind Watchmaker, for a more complete, if slightly less witty refutation of the argument for “Intelligent Design.”

My grandmother was always careful about visiting the lavatory when in a curry house.

She was a pish wary nan.

In this post, I mentioned that a Rolex Submariner issued by the Royal Navy had been sold on eBay for £60,000. Well the gentlemen involved have posted a couple of photographs of the transaction.

Here’s the £60K watch, the £60K and the £20 NATO strap on which it was was worn.

A close up of the Submariner in original condition. Compared to a non-Military Submariner, it has minute markers all round the bezel, gladiator hands, the T mark on the dial, soldered strap pins and military markings on the caseback. This was worn by the seller during the Falklands War. I like my watches but £60K is a hell of a price.

The gentleman who facilitated the sale for the owner, is a serious collector of these rare watches, he has a few himself.

Let’s be conservative and call it £50K for each, depending on condition, that’s £450,000 there, for part of his collection…