29/9/99 - Happy Clappers are not my favorite people.  However the girl who was shot at Columbine, reportedly for affirming her faith, was certainly, to some extent, inspiring. The Salon article has pointed out that this may not have happened.  I don't think this is the point.  Religion is about belief not truth.  However the mother writing a book is something else.  I can see it as a way to cope, to help others but not to sell hats and T-shirts.

29/9/99 - When the British are not slagging off the Americans they are appropriating whole chunks of the culture.  It is rare when this goes the other way.  However this mixes the two phenomena, Americans playing cricket reported with awful attempts to be 'with-it', courtesy of the BBC.

29/9/99 - Driving around the South West and in Mexico we'd see many  restaurants advertising 'Menudo'.  This I found very amusing (I'll laugh at anything.  Even Okahumpka!)  When I found out the recipe I wasn't so happy, nor did I have much of an appetite, despite what they say:

"Menudo is a wonderfully aromatic soup made of tripe, hominy and chili, and is stewed for hours with garlic and other spices. the broth is rich, red, papery, and glistens with fat. It stimulates the senses, arms the insides, and clears the head."

A couple of older articles on Columbine.  From the same day, contrasting reports on the return of the students.  Happy and upbeat at CNN.  The darker side at NY Post.

The Dan Savage article "Fear the Geek".

The Onion sums it up best.

29/9/99 - It seems the most important story in Britain after the weekend was the loss in the Ryder Cup.  The European golfers were unhappy with the crowd and the overexuberant behaviour of the US golfers. CNN gives an good summary of various quotes and headlines, all quite unbearable in their jingoism.

From the Telegraph (a relatively upmarket paper):

"The behaviour of the American team, and not just on the 17th green on Sunday, might have been juvenile, but it certainly wasn't surprising. This is a country which is so insular that most Americans still believe that the Second World War was won by John Wayne, and which is comfortably the most shining example on the planet of the old adage about noise and empty vessels."

29/9/99 - Last Friday I had to announce that the Christian Death concert was cancelled.  No reason given.  Then yesterday I find out this.

"After reading articles in last week's FSView & Florida Flambeau campus newspaper, Vice President of Student Affairs Jon Dalton cancelled a Student Campus Entertainment-sponsored concert by goth-metal bands Christian Death, Mortiis, godhead and Diet of Worms.

A student complaint about the perceived Satanic nature of the concert also figured in Dalton's decision, he said."

27/9/99 - I watched the SNL 25th anniversary special last night, all 3 hours.  Pretty good.  It seems the number of dead cast members is not just coincidence but a curse.

27/9/99 - Another handy link for my trip back to England.  A guide to good record shops in London.

27/9/99 - For the Momus fans among us it seems he has sneak previews of some Kahimi Karie songs 'hidden' on his website. (via indiepop mailing list)

And coincidentally they have a prog. rock flavour (see 21/9/99).  In his own words:

"The theme for this record is 'Kahimi goes Prog'. I have attempted to make a medieval-flavoured Prog Pop sound. My models are songs like 'Bohemian Rhapsody' by Queen and 'Wuthering Heights' by Kate Bush. I would love for Polydor KK to commission artwork for this record from Roger Dean."

"Many of you are undoubtedly glad there are laws on the books keeping phone companies from handing out detailed information on who you call, all without your permission. How short-sided, even selfish, this perspective is was finally shown by the U. S. Court of Appeals (10th Circuit). In a landmark decision, the Court ruled that such laws overlooked the First Amendment rights to free speech of underprivileged companies like US West, Sprint, MCI Worldwide and Bell South. In the words of the Court, "Although we may feel uncomfortable knowing our personal information is circulating in the world, we live in an open society, where information may pass freely." And mere discomfort should never outweigh fundamental rights. Next time you are placed under surveillance, remember the rights of those watching you in an "open society". (NYT 8/30/99)"

27/9/99 - Quote of the day from an article on charity in the local paper:

""People have said to me that it's a mighty Christian thing that I'm doing," Goldberg said. "At that time, I explain that I am not Christian, but Jewish...""

26/9/99 - Woo hoo!  I submit my site to eatonweb and get immediate results.

Concerning "bad words" on the radio. (via email)

24/9/99 - I'm spending 2 weeks in Britain at the end of October so I thought I would try and track down some interesting gigs.  More difficult than I thought.  The NME site, which is awful generally, is particularly awful for gigs.  It only gives 5 hits per page, so for the dates I am interested in there are 65 pages!

And it doesn't even mention this.  Although the official website has a slightly more up-to-date lineup it has no further details.

24/9/99 - Hurry, hurry, hurry!  Buy the one and only vault door from Mystery Science Theatre 3000.

24/9/99 - Info on the US desire for a national health system.  The email made this pertinent observation:

"Nearly 3/4 of Americans want a national health insurance system like Canada's...
Only 3 percent of Canadians would prefer the U.S. health care system. By way of contrast, over 10 percent of Canadians think Elvis Presley is still alive."

24/9/99 - The DFC is still hanging on.  The site also now features links to news articles.  Like this and this contrasting the original artist's change of opinion:

"'I assume my readers are intelligent enough to know I didn't do the bad stuff,' he [Bil Keane] says."

24/9/99 - Here is the article on Christian students - I somehow forgot to actually link it.

22/9/99 - Knaresborough is a town I used to live in, from 1976 to 1978 I think.  My old school is the only one without a website.  There is a photo of my old house though!  It's the last photo on the page - the house next to the Half Moon public house.  It (my house) used to be called 'Ye Olde Drippe Droppe Shoppe' (as it was a shop)!  They've removed the letters though.  This is the view.  Nice isn't it?

I also lived in Harrogate, no school site there either, and Spalding.  This is the first site I tried for Spalding, this is not how I remember it:

I found my old church in Harrogate.  And, yay, my old school.  None of my old teachers seem to be still there, although I suppose it has been twenty years.

I found this for Spalding.  The birthplace of Doc Holliday, it seems.  A darn sight more interesting than tulips.  Ha, it seems that he was born in Spalding County in Georgia.  Back to obscurity for Spalding, Lincolnshire.

22/9/99 - At the weekend there was a programme on ABC 'Is America No. 1?' done by John Stossel.  I didn't watch it as I don't like my beliefs challenged.  I did receive this rave from the conservative Media Research Center.  I thought this deserved special mention:

"After the show aired Stossel appeared in an abcnews.com chat session for an hour during which he held his own against several hostile attacks. He suggested we have a "health care crisis" but not a "food crisis" because the government regulates health care..."

One of the reasons I never watched it was this preview: (halfway down)

"[John Stossel's] latest special, "Is America Number One?" -- which ought to be subtitled, "Of Course It Is, Ya Dope" -- is an infuriatingly one-sided hour of rah-rah for the U.S. of A"

"...it may not be long before political leaders think it judicious, Clinton-style, to parrot religious-sounding language as a matter of course to please not the rednecks but the educated middle class."

21/9/99 - Following on from the Portillo revelations the Daily Mirror political editor spreads dirt (naming no names) on a whole bunch of MPs.

"Love children? Westminster's got them in every shape and size from toddlers to adults, boy and girls, in Britain and abroad. One female minister likes her adult son so much she is said to be sleeping with him, much to the annoyance of the son's wife."

21/9/99 - Had an urge to look for Progressive Rock. (Don't we all?) It seems the best place to go is The Gibraltar Encyclopedia of Progressive Rock. All your favorites are there, including Blodwyn Pig.  I have their album back at home.  Go for it - find that private pressing or music that sounds like it will be godawful!

"Missus Beastly [Germany] 

Nara Asst Insence (70, aka Missus Beastly?), Missus Beastly (74), Dr. Aftershave and the Mixed Pickles (76), Spaceguerilla (78) 

German jazzrock/fusion band. The first one was a private pressing and featured bluesrock (a very rare collectors item, but musically uninteresting). The other three are quite good and the music is much the same like Embryo's mid-'70s stuff (fusion with strong percussion). Indeed they were tightly linked to Embryo and they shared several band members. Try Dr. Aftershave..., which is probably their best."

Another band I was interested in is John's Children.  Famous because it featured Marc Bolan, before he was in T.Rex, and because the withdrawn single 'Midsummer Night's Scene' is worth thousands. (The Holy Grail of record collectors, along with The Sex Pistols 'God Save the Queen' on A&M or The Beatles 'Please Please Me' with gold lettering, the useless things I remember.)  Anyway, it seems that they are still around!

21/9/99 - A  little background on the closure of the DFC. (via Obscure Store)

20/9/99 - I got told about a talk by David Suzuki. Laying the blame for Global Warming at the door of Science and Technology and not on rampant consumerism is wrongheaded. Not, however, quite as wrongheaded as these people.  From the FAQ:

"Is CO2 a pollutant?
No. CO2 is a benign gas required for life on earth. It is essential to our existence. Saying CO2 is a pollutant is like saying water is poison."

"About a year ago a local newspaper carried a story about a woman who had drunk herself to death. Apparently she had ingested something mildly poisonous, and when she called her doctor asking him what to do, he told her to drink lots of water and see him in the morning. She got to it and managed to drink no less than 14 litres of water before the osmotic balance in her body was so upset it could no longer function and she died (don't know how quickly)."

20/9/99 - Jeremy Paxman, renowned for being sarcastic and caustic, gets a taste of his own medicine on University Challenge

Paxman: "You're going to see a British tourist sign - for 10 points simply tell me what it is."
An oak leaf symbol appears. Imperial College buzzes: "It's a National Park."
Paxman: "Er, no."
(Voice over) "New Hall. Wilson: "It's an oak leaf."
Paxman: "Anyone can see it's an oak leaf."
Wilson, interrupting: "You asked me what it was. You said: 'What is it?' not 'What's it for?' "
Paxman, interrupting: "It signifies the . . . she, she almost gave you the whole thing. It's the National Trust, so we'll . . ."
Wilson, interrupting: "I know, but you should have said: 'What's it for?' not 'What is it?' "
Paxman: "It's a sign signifying the National Trust. I said it was a tourist sign. On a point of pedantry you may be right, but there you are, bad luck . . ."

20/9/99 - I finally got hold of the new Mountain Goats CD 'Bitter Melon Farm' at Vinyl Fever.  Another collection of their rare tracks from various compilations. On first listen it sounds great (well as great as anything recorded on a home stereo ever sounds.) I especially like their version of Ace of Base' song 'The Sign'.  I'm a sucker for cover versions.  I also bought secondhand Poster Children 'New World Report', Negativland 'Free' and a Mr. Wright album.

More music stuff.  We have the new Momus album 'Stars Forever' at the radio station.  To pay some legal expenses he wrote songs about the first thirty people to give him $1000.  He was sued by Wendy Carlos over a song 'Walter Carlos' on his previous album.  Wendy used to be Walter.

My roommate saw Wesley Willis in concert.  It seems he'll write a song about you for only $100!

20/9/99 - Another review of the Van Dyck exhibition, with a special mention of the portrait of the Abbé Scaglia, which I saw last year at the National Gallery

"Scaglia is, as so often with Van Dyck, made too tall, but the black bulk is enlivened by a swinging curve from top to bottom and by the tension suggested in the tug of knee and toe, balanced by extending the cloak onto the chair so that the silhouette acts as a  closing bracket on the right. 

The pose seems utterly casual, but is most carefully contrived, with weight on the elbow, fold forms describing the volume of the cassock as well as its silken texture, the right hand emphasising the long bow curve, the relaxed left  hand emphasising depth, both breaking the black bulk. The face is a passage of specific description, yet it in no way conflicts with the scribbled generalisation of the rich curtain, nor the very broad scrubbing with the brush that describes the base of the column."

18/9/99 - NPR's loss is PBS' gain as Ray Suarez leaves to join Newshour.

18/9/99 - It looks like the DFC is holding out against the lawyers.  It's your last chance to enter.

17/9/99 - The hot gig in Tallahassee tonight is Wesley Willis, at the Cow Haus.  We don't often get 300+lb schizophrenics appearing here. He has appeared in a film on the Chicago music scene, called 'Out of the Loop'.

Another site has an interview with him.

His rambling may be blamed on mental illness.  I don't know what Courtney Love's excuse is though. (via Bring the Rock)

17/9/99 - Is your computer sitting idly by? Want fame, glory, your name in the papers? Oh and wads of dosh? How about joining the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search a.k.a. GIMPS. My poor little 75MHz Pentium is chugging away double-checking whether 2^4123759 - 1 is a prime. It should be done around October 26th.

Another interesting mathematical number is the Erdös number. It's a bit like Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon (no link, it's too well known) but involves mathematicians who have published with Paul Erdös, a Hungarian mathematician of remarkable versatility. Unfortunately I'm not a mathematician so my number is going to be pretty big. I guess the best place for me to start would either be Lou Howard, a genuine mathematician with whom I'm published, or the Nobel prize winner Paul Flory, as he is one step away.

17/9/99 - If only I had attended an American high school (such as this one) then I could have found out what happened to my fellow classmates. (via rasterweb)

My old school (Notre Dame High School, Norwich) is not on the web. Why does this not surprise me?  But I found my old physics teacher giving succour to the enemy!

17/9/99 - This explains a lot (via email)

And this explains another set of unfortunates.

17/9/99 - Oh no!  It finally happened; they've shut down The Dysfunctional Family Circus. Hours of harmless family fun gone.