Glastonbury

Follow up to my Glastonbury post, the organizers has posted who the headline acts would be.

Get this - Coldplay and Kylie among others. My Gawd! These are musical acts you go see for 2 hours a night with your girlfriend. I mean I love to watch Kylie not because of the darn music but because she is sexy. But headlining Glasto??? Must be those fuckin' Pop Idol fans. And Coldplay? Kasabian? Why couldn't they get The Libertines?

They do have some good acts though, the Killers being one. And I would love to see White Stripes. However I don't think it would be worth paying so much money to see so many mainstream acts in the line-up. I am glad now that I was stuck in a plane unable to purchase any tickets.

Source: BBC News

Cannabis Granny to contest in Election

Wow, these single issue independents are really starting to liven up this year's general election. Now we have a self confessed Cannabis fan granny who is planning to stand against Peter Hain in his Neath constituency in Wales.

"In a 24-hour period I take a level teaspoon of powdered cannabis, cut it with a knife and put a fifth into every meal or drink I have, like hot chocolate, and that keeps me free of pain for the next 24 hours.

"If I'm voted for, I'm going to promise people in this country I will fight for the rights of every man and woman to receive safe medication.

"It's going to be a hell of a long journey and I'll probably be dead before we win the argument."

Source: Guardian Eelction 2005 Blog

Music Review: New Order - Waiting For The Sirens' Call

Having never actually listened to anything by New Order or Joy Division, you would have thought I was mad to pay money to purchase this album. But I love to experiment with my music pallet. Incidentally, the place I bought it from has a pretty good returns policy, so no harm there.

Waiting For The Sirens' Call is a radio friendly album. Sorry if that sounded harsh but it is. Very poppy alternative rock with very little of the supposed punk sound that was said to inhibit their 1980s albums. That is not really a bad thing as I have already grown out of my angst ridden music collection a couple of years ago.

The whole album is pretty ordinary. What do you expect from tracks like Who's Joe?, a pretty ordinary track name that would not look out of place from an O.C. (urghhh...) soundtrack? The rest are pretty normal too with the occasional few bad ones (I Told You So). The mixture of dance tunes with pop rock churning is one to be avoided. But there are some good ones too. Low Life and Technique are two examples of what electro-rock should sound like.

Probably the track I most enjoyed is the weird (for rock's standard) sounding Jetstream, featuring Scissor Sisters' Ana Matronic mellow vocals. Well I like Scissor Sisters, but am I suppose to like this? I don't know...but it is the one I most enjoyed simply because it sounded different from the rest of the album.

Will I keep this album? Probably not. A couple of good tracks here and there but not a classic one that deserves to grace my high rise CD tower. For now I will stick with British Sea Power and Mercury Rev as my main source of Brit Rock thank you.

6/10

Blogging the underground

Found this website via greenfairydotcom, check it out. It is a little low on content but what a great project.

Anyway, inspired by tubegossip, I attempted to eavesdrop today on the Piccadilly Line and Jubilee Line.

What did I get?

'Je t'aime, Mickel'
'...Jonash totally fucked it up this time, looked what he did to it mon?'
'He looks fit' from a babe, sadly not talking about me.
'I am stuffed. No lunch for me!'
'Oi! Watch out for the bloody door will ya!'
'I think this is it, wait, is this it? Yes this is it. Come on fellas'
'Ugh...who left this here...'
'I think the first one was better'
'Manchester United got bollocked by Norwich. Too bad I also hate Chelsea'
'Did you watch the wedding on the telly?'

An utter failure! If there is anyone who is incapable of being a spy, it would be me. Better leave it to the professionals at tubegossip.

While still on the subject of the underground, check out ISawYouToday and Tube Diaries.

My dating profile

Your Top Ten Traits, Ranked

1. Liberal
2. Adventurous
3. Sensual
4. Practical
5. Big-Hearted
6. Wealthy/Ambitious
7. Intellectual
8. Romantic
9. Shy
10. Athletic

Your Top Ten Match Traits, Ranked

1. Liberal
2. Practical
3. Adventurous
4. Intellectual
5. Outgoing
6. Athletic
7. Sensual
8. Funny
9. Wealthy/Ambitious
10. Big-Hearted

Hmm...pretty much what I thought it would be...liberal at the top of both ends. You can take the quiz here.

Link source: ShaolinTiger

Dumbster plus how to blog safely

Today I logged into Friendster and found out that they have started a horoscope feature. Fact is, they labeled me as having a 'bad day'. Now I am pretty sure I am not having a bad day at all. In fact apart from the return of January weather, the sun has been out in force (compared to yesterday's hail showers) and I had a 45 minutes stroll in the local park. I also bought a book from WHSmith and an album (Feeder) from HMV while re-stocking my vitamins from Boots. And tonight I will be going out for dinner with some friends before heading to the cinema. What bad day!???!

By the way, looking at my pathetic small list of friends, all of them are experiencing either a 'so-so day' or a 'bad day'. You would have thought that since the weekend is almost here, Friendster's fortune tellers should be predicting more 'fantastic days' for us. I know many people who are looking forward to the weekend and are pretty excited by the wedding. Idiots.

Anyway via the BBC, here is the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) guide on how to blog safely without getting fired. I disagree with them that one should be anonymous when posting a blog but to each his own. I know, I know, we live in an Orwellian World and Big Brother is always watching. I don't blog about my work so it has been okay for me for now.

Prime Minister's Question reaction

Anybody who caught yesterday's Prime Minister's Question (I watched it on BBC's The Daily Politics) would know that politics is anything but dead. The last PMQ is just like previous ones, where Tony Blair never answered a single question, instead dodging the questions through spin, skirting through the issues laid down.

But whatever, it was a cracker! Yesterday's PMQ was one of the most entertaining of anything shown on TV. Reality TV at its best. Who needs Big Brother?

Name calling, cheap political shots and childish behavior by Michael Howard and Tony Blair were the highlights. Charles Kennedy on the other hand was the most civilised man in the commons and scored a genuine point against Blair on the issue of pensions. I thought Michael Howard asked some pretty good questions, but in the manner he asked, like in so many previous PMQs, how to you expect it to be answered by Tony Blair? The PM on the other hand kept banging on about the economy. It's the economy stupid. Remember Thatcher? We can fix the problem, but you have to vote Labour.

If only politics in Malaysia were this fun.

UK General Election 2005

Tony Blair has announced the UK's general election to be held as expected May 5th.

Here is his full statement.

But a defection has marred the announcement.

Watching the news, Blairlooks to be in a really good mood considering New Labour's lead has fallen.

Guardian has a weblog up on Election 2005.

Vote, but do not postal vote. More on that here.

Swing by Peter Snow's Swingometer.

Andrew Marr's analysis on the current election.

Finally head to BackingBlair for information on how to gain a Labour government without Tony Blair.