Gonzo!!!

Bohemian Rhapsody

Setlist Saturday 28 November 2009

Al Stewart :

Time Passages
 A Small Fruit Song
 Life In Dark Water
Clifton In The Rain
Timeless Skies
Running Man

Chris DeBurgh :

Broken Wings
Crusader

Chris Rea :

Fool If You Think It's Over
Road To Hell - Part II

Genesis :

You Might Recall
Me And Virgil
Evidence Of Autumn

Easy Star All Stars :

With A Little Dub From My Friends
A Dub In The Life

Maybe there still is room for an internet radio station for old people...? ;)

Nena : 99 Luftballons

"99 Jahre Krieg
Liessen keinen Platz fuer Sieger
Kriegsminister gibt es nicht mehr
Und auch keine Duesenflieger
Heute zieh ich meine Runden
Seh die Welt in Truemmern liegen
Hab' nen Luftballon gefunden
Denk' an Dich und lass' ihn fliegen"

Cowardly Republicans With A Big Mouth - Episode 219b

Perhaps you have followed American Politics under George Bush. In that case you may have heard of John Bolton. Bolton was Bush's candidate for the post of United States Permanent Representative at the United Nations. He did not survive all the criticism so after he filled the Permanent post Temporarily(...) he left the job before the Senate could throw him out.

As somewhat informed people know, the US government/Obama has decided to put the 9/11 mastermind(Khalid Sheikh Mohammed) on trial in New York. This has resulted in a lot of criticism from the Republicans(of all people!). They think that it is not wise to put a foreign moslim terrorist on trial in the US. The reasoning behind this criticism is that the trial may be the/a reason for other extremists to strike again.

I find it utterly ridiculous that the same political group that started the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq now crawls under their tables out of fear for more attacks.  These people are the bloodspitting over-the-top militaristic warmongers of 6 years ago yet they come up with 'security-reasons' to prevent terrorists from being tried in the US.

Anyway : I found this article about John Bolton's hypocrisy. It is just as valid for a Hell of a lot of Republicans.

Host Melanie Morgan: Given the nature and danger of bringing these terrorists to American soil, where do you think is the most safe place to be when they get here and this trial begins? Where would you put your family?

John Bolton: Well, not New York City, I'm afraid to say. This is part of the callousness and the really, lack of professionalism and judgment to put them on trial anywhere in the United States in civilian courts.

Declaring that you are 'afraid' of trials in the US is downright cowardly. Terrorists have already been on trial in Germany, the UK, Spain, etcetera. I guess the people in those countries do take their responsibilities.

The US Republicans apparently don't have the stamina to go through with this. Instead, they are organizing 'Tea-parties'. As Marie Antoinette said : "Let them eat cake".

Update : As an  extra : one of the sublinks in the article goes to this German site. 

In Paris, the headlines and the political talk I heard and read did not focus on our president or our prospects, but on the selection of a new — and no longer merely symbolic — leader for a United Europe. Europeans were talking to each other directly; Americans were not, as far as I could tell, very much a part of the conversation.

The narcissism of the 'American Elite' is indeed strikingly misplaced. For once I fully agree with the German(s) :

Look, man, the fact that your mom and your dad happened to conceive your pasty white ass on the hunk of soil known as the United States of America doesn’t make you Luke Skywalker. Grow up and get real.

Indeed.

Only for true fans

"The satirical newspaper The Onion contained a tribute to him soon after he died, with a reference to one of his works, stating that he shouldn't be referred to as dead "without checking Dresden for his younger self first"


I think it's time for 'Hocus Pocus' again soon.

Music - Al Stewart

Recently laid my hands on some Al Stewart. That guy from 'Year Of The Cat'. Songs like 'Time Passages', 'Almost Lucky', yes, sometimes the old times weren't so bad.

I'll have to write a better entry about Al soon. The man has been quite pivotal in the British Folk Scene and I've noticed that even among the older music fans there aren't too many people who know that. Due to the success of Year Of The Cat and Time Passages the rest of his impressive career got snowed under a bit.

Anyone who can write and sing with feeling about a love affair between an apple and an orange can't be all bad...

Said the apple to the orange
Oh I wanted you to come
Closer now and kiss me to the core
Then you might know me
Like no other orange
Has ever done before

Expression of the day

And one I may use more and more often...


NOBODY puts baby in the corner!

Web Query and how one often must return to The Old Days Of ICT

Well well,

Just got a question or two from the management at the company I work for : Can we use WebQuery/400 to generate graphical overviews and spreadsheets on PC's using data on the AS/400(oooooppppsss, sorry ; System I...).

Of course you can and the graphical Query Application/Workbench/DevelopersSuite/LatestBuzzword(...) is actually free if you already use the old version.

So now it's back to the JavaScript fast-track tutorials because I haven't seen that shit in years. Apparently the WebQuery/400 software generates PHP which in turn generates JavaScript/JSON. JSON in turn, is the latest preferred DB-access method in browsers nowadays and is supported fully in FF 3.5 and IE 8.0.

Mind you : I probably have the idea above completely wrong and the experienced JavaScript coders howling and shedding tears of laughter right now...

Oh well, One Keeps Learning and that is, I think, perhaps the main purpose of life.

To be continued...

Setlist Saturday 21/11/2009

As a reminder I sometimes publish the setlists of the music I DJ, both at venues as well as at home. This one is from home...

Al Stewart - Midas Shadow / Broadway Hotel / On Stage Before
Buckingham/Nicks - Without A Leg To Stand On
Camel - Never Let Go
Camel - Echoes (Rock on!)
Camel - Ice
Eric Clapton - Layla
Eric Clapton - Forever Man (How come you don't hear ThAt song on the radio anymore?)
Dire Straits - Down To The Waterline
Dire Straits - Once Upon A Time In The West
Roy Buchanan - Sweet Dreams
Jool Holland And His Rhythm And Blues Showband Featuring Ronnie Wood - Ooh La La

A little practice as I have just been asked to spin some platters in Cafe Kwatro. Has to be 'blues'... Ok!

Stuff people will hear tonight :

Gary Moore
Eric Clapton
Roy Buchanan
Steve Earle
Bad Company
Robert Johnson
John Martyn
Joe Walsh
Solomon Burke
Johnny Guitar Watson

and so on and so on...


*** Slight update***

Not me, I'm letting my girlie have this gig. She has almost everything I have in Spades anyway, especially the Blues.

Although Solomon Burke & Eric Clapton sound perfectly fine to me at the moment. Nope, nothing wrong with them...

And now for Wishbone Ash - Jail Bait!

A Day In The Life Of The Sexiest Man Alive

According to Weekly World News... ;)

On a typical day Johnny Depp wakes up nude in his four poster to the sound of Spanish Bolero music.  Before anything else he rubs his body with essential oils and goes to his veranda where he does yoga while watching the sun rise on his French vineyard.  Then he puts on pants...

Oh, I don't think I said this before, but GodlessGeeks is one of my favourite relatively unknown bits on the Web.

Internet censorship - Information Is Like People : It Wants To Be Free

An interesting background information article about censorship on the web by the good people of Wikileaks

In Internet history, 1994-2004 was the era of the pioneers. 2004-2007 was the era of the merchants. Now we’re entering the era of the bullies. Everywhere in the world, sites are going dark, arrests are increasing, more people are going to prison. The Web just celebrated its 20th birthday. Nobody used to take it seriously, but those days are gone.

Although Wikileaks was obviously founded as a response to online censorship, and may therefore be biased, the article does paint a pretty clear picture of Big Government Versus The Web.

In Thailand, using a proxy can land you in prison. The software gets around nonetheless, on USB keys or disks, competing these days with virtual private networks (VPN), encrypted gateways that are used, for example, by multinationals for secure online communication with their foreign branches. The solution is so simple that Edwin, in Wenzhou concludes, “If we really wanted to fight cybercensorship, all we’d have to do is invest a few million dollars in a massive VPN and distribute the links and keywords for free to Internet users. End of story.”

Full article here

What's in a name?

The link below isn't that interesting but I put it for one reason : the name of the author...

Shushanna??? wtf?

How to fake your own book prizes

An interesting read about how the publishing industry uses fake awards(including the corresponding websites) to sell you their crap.

Vanity Book Awards

Best of all, as USABN's Web site freely promises, "the National Best Books Awards are the ONLY Awards Program in the nation that offers direct coverage to the book buying public for every entry." Like the Special Olympics, this is a competition that everybody wins. If you enter the 2010 contest by the end of this year, they'll even throw in a "six-month full-color listing on USABookNews.com," which is "valued at $1500.00!" despite the fact that none of the publishers whose books are listed there now seem to have paid for this service or even to be aware that it's been provided.

A damn shame but there is more to life

Just exited a forum I participated in for quite a while. I will not put up the URL because that is completely unimportant. Also : If this blog entry sounds too pathetic it isn't meant to be. It's not like the End Of The World Is Nigh or anything!

That forum had/has become a standard 'leading question/standard abusive reply'-forum in which there was no room for the realization that people change and that therefore the tone of the discussions should basically change too over time. In this case the same people got/get picked out of the memberlist and are then treated like the local online village idiot. In the case of said forum this was even amplified because most members also know each other in real life.

Also, and I must say that you see this on many forums: after a while they(fora) just stop working because of what I would call 'post- and information-saturation'. Or to put in into simpler words : everybody has heard everyone else's opinion about everything so the members start to repeat themselves. And on top of that there is the obvious bias and hypocrisy that creeps into the discussions : I am perfect by definition and by the same 'standards' your are basically flawed. If I would study Sociology or Psychology, I would choose the dynamics of online forums as my subject. Even without any knowledge of said disciplines it is quite fascinating to see how such a forum behaves and evolves.

Anyway : It was fun while it lasted and it's a shame that it ended in a disappointment. Strange how such intelligent people just cannot give each other the virtual space to be. How the internet somehow encourages people to be more abusive towards each other. Is it because the web is seen as more amorphous and anonymous? I don't think that is the case anymore but what do I know? All I know is that I value a certain minimum level of politeness and some sense of social standards everywhere: one can always get into a fierce discussion but when it degrades into character assassination and swearing I draw my personal line in the sand.


Oh well: I'll use my weblog more often then. I can say almost anything here without undue interference. Mwahaa!!

I'll have a beer over all of this tonight and then get on with my online life.

(Note to self : must not forget to unregister tonight.)

'The Story Of Ender' or how I got hooked on Orson

  A few days ago I purchased 'Ender in exile' by Orson Scott Card. This is the new book in the Ender-series and it tells the story of Ender Wiggin from the moment the war against the Formics(aka 'The Buggers') is over until the time that starts with the second book 'Speaker for the Dead'. The persona of Ender is still fascinating and I must say that hardly ever have I read Science Fiction this well written.

There have been many SF-writers with brilliant ideas who could not write well. There have been many SF-writers who could write beautifully but got stuck at the same 'old' ideas. And there have been a number of SF-writers who avoided both traps. Examples of the latter category are for instance the legendary Theodore 'Ted' Sturgeon, Eric Frank Russel, Robert Sheckley, the almost forgotten Thomas Disch and most certainly not to be forgotten anytime soon : Larry Niven.

Orson Scott Card definitely belongs among these giants of Science Fiction. The prose is beautiful, the story - actually all the story lines - are compelling, and there does not seem to be an end to his original ideas.

To get an idea of the structure of the novels you can read this. Card is fleshing out the story more and more, and does so without reverting to cheap tactics to keep the sales up. Everyone who knows his work, knows that Card does not compromise much, if at all. Just when we(the readers) had gotten used to the recurring theme/persona of Ender, Card comes up with a parallell storyline about Bean, his number one during the war. And the story of Bean(as told in several books in the series) is at least as moving as the story of Ender, albeit for different reasons.

The first book 'Ender's Game' is about to be turned into a movie. On the one hand I'm quite confident it will be a good movie because Orson Scott Card has singlehandedly written the script and he is an experienced script-/scenario-/play-wright. On the other hand I do hope that the commercial assholes that run around in every movie-company stay away. The book(s) have been bestsellers so one can say that Card is 'commercial' enough all by himself.

Anyway, I've almost finished 'Ender in exile' and I will be truly sorry when I've read it.

I want more Mr. Card! Come on! You can do at least three of four more books! You can do a book or two about Dink Meeker, about Petra Arkanian(!), and not to forget : you never did actually show us what was written in 'The Hive Queen' or 'The Hegemon'.

Even I could come up with the background story. Shame that I cannot write SF at any proper level.

Guess I'll just have to wait for the Grand Old Man himself to come up with the next treat.