The View From Here

13/8/01 - A great article on the worst fans in baseball. Worth reading even if you no idea about the sport - these fans are everywhere. This one is maybe a little baseball-specific:

"2. The guy who brings his glove
If I ever run for Senate, I'm spending all my energies getting the following law passed: "Anyone over the age of 16 who brings their glove to a game can be legally beaten and tortured." It will be my legacy."

13/8/01 - Gratuitous pig link: Pigs of China. (via gmtPlus9)

13/8/01 - Quasi are playing at the Monarch in Camden on Thursday and Louisiana in Bristol on Monday.

Their new album is put out by Touch and Go records. A label with a great pedigree. Look at that back catalogue. And Steve Albini seems to like them.

13/8/01 - Great mp3s at Matador Records and Matador Records Europe.

13/8/01 - You can see how it could be true: (scroll to Aug 1) (via lake effect)

"Things that my son first learned about through watching parodies on The Simpsons:
...
Conventional Christian church services, collection plates, and the like..."

13/8/01 - An interview with Russ Abbott:

"I can still remember the shock with which certain black-jumper-wearing school friends of mine greeted the news in the NME that Russ Abbot had released a record entitled "Atmosphere". Russ Abbot, creator of Barratt Holmes and C U Jimmy, the man whose name never appeared in a tabloid without the phrase "Top TV Funnyman" in deferent attendance, doing a cover version of a Joy Division number? Importing his Light Entertainment star-quality to the words, "Don't walk away in silence/ Your confusion/ My illusion/ Worn like a mask of self-hate"?"

8/8/01 - A St. Pete Times article on the Peter Pan man.

Love those loafers.

8/8/01 - Another Mountain Goats tribute album. BR14 - "A Postcard to the Mountain Goats".

Suggestions for the title of the latest include "Standard Bitter Tribute Album" or "Quetzalcoatl Buys a Tape Deck".

8/8/01 - I know it's old hat and I had dismissed it as pointless a few months ago but I am really enjoying Friendsreunited. If only to relive ages old class jokes.

8/8/01 - An absolutely fantastic competition at Alan Titchmarsh's website. Win a life-size cut-out of Alan Titchmarsh.

8/8/01 - It's my birthday today but have I been able to weblog? Nope. And now they decide to fix the ftp server.

3/8/01 - Fresh fruit brulée recipe. From a Sainsburys TV advert.

3/8/01 - The wonderful scorpion chair from the Cupola Gallery:

3/8/01 - Gratuitous pig link.

3/8/01 - Now why can't my friends produce a CD for their wedding? Especially a CD with the Mountain Goats. (via unpopular)

The Mountain Goats are performing in Athens, GA. tonight and it is being webcast. No time is stated but it will probably be around three a.m. my time.

A handy list of songs performed by tMG, all 353 of them.

3/8/01 - When I read the headline 'No Soft Cell For Archer' I had visions of him being deprived of his favourite synth-pop band.

He will definitely miss this interview with Marc Almond, who's definitely not happy up north:

"What do you miss most when you're out of London?
Good food and the feeling of safety. North of Watford, I get quite scared."

31/7/01 - I know it's been on Metafilter but who could resist. Lyrics of your favourite rock songs modified to a more 'Christian' feel. Sing along to the tune of "Hey! Hey! We're the Monkees":

"Here we come
Out of history
Familiar names like Noah
And Adam and Eve
[refrain]
Hey! Hey! We’re not monkeys!
Never drank primordial soup!
We’re the folks God created
Not an evolutional fluke!"

31/7/01 - This appears to be site dedicated to Led Zeppelin, but it's in Russian. For that reason I can't work out who did these fantastic Hammond organ versions of all your - OK my - favourites. Hats Off to (Roy) Harper is particularly good.

If you prefer mp3s there are more Led Zeppelin sounds here.

31/7/01 - The new IMB website. Oh dear.

30/7/01 - Sports Given To The World By Britain. [Warning: a prime example of a bad Geocities page]

Links to British sports from football to rowing. I'm sure we must be World Champions at one of these.

30/7/01 - Tallahassee has suffered from some sheepnapping:

"It seems that someone has made off with 10 of Tallahassee's kudzu-eating flock. Thieves pulled the woolly heist sometime over the past few days at Jack McLean Park on Paul Russell Road.
"I don't really expect to get them back because I think somebody ate them," said shepherd Meaghan Thacker."

30/7/01 - Did you know that many Emily Dickinson poems can be sung to the tune of 'I'd Like To Teach the World To Sing'? For example:

"Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality..."

30/7/01 - How to curse in French.

30/7/01 - The Image of the Pig in Southern Culture or "The Hog is Saint and Sinner and right up front!" South Carolina's ubiquitous pig and the art of Tarleton Blackwell.

30/7/01 - The webpage for Harry Shearer's Le Show.

30/7/01 - What to do when it's hot: ramble in the northeast Peak District and visit the Strines Inn.