Whose screams filled the arena loud

19th December 2007, O2 Arena, London.

SWEET!!!!!!!

Who Killed Davey Moore

Can I blow a little smoke on you?

Sorry I've been on holiday at a mate's wedding and also at a music festival. Finally, on the last night of my break I saw the Rolling Stones at the O2 arena in London.

Long time readers of this blog will remember that I gave up smoking. I have since restarted and it is obviously something wrong and stupid, but what the heck.

The Rolling Stones don't give two shits about all the "smoking will kill you" argument. Indeed, at the very same concert both Keith Richards and Ron Wood were smoking on stage. The UK media has taken a lot of interest in this and portrayed them as the rock and roll rebels.

To me it is pathetic. They could argue that they are props for their stage show. I mean could you imagine Richards without a fag? I remember watching a video of the 1999 tour at some place in Germany and Richards was smoking a spliff on stage... And we all know the infamous drug busts and stories of him snorting his dad's ashes. And were now giving him shit for this?

But what kind of society do we live in where the media portray the Stones as rebelious for smoking a cigarette? It shows how illiberal we have become in this country.

Otherwise the concert was great, although I had vertigo from being too high in the stands (only a little relieved from drinking copious amounts of alcohol) and the music bounced off the roof of the arena. The O2 is a little souless, a bit like a massive shopping centre under canvas. And they have a pizza express there which is odd for a music venue - but I guess it is the future.

You can read somehting I penned during the holidays at Rockbeatstone. A review of the compilation of a relatively unknown singer-songwriter Eric Andersen. He's playing a pub in Walthamstow in September, go check him out. I've also heard the new Bruce Springsteen song. It rocks. Read what I think of that here.

Tough Mama

Take me on a trip upon your magic swirlin' ship

I'm going on holiday, so I'm going to leave you with a short story by Kafka.

A Little Fable

"Alas," said the mouse, "the world is growing smaller every day. At the beginning it was so big that I was afraid, I kept running and running, and I was glad when at last I saw walls far away to the right and left, but these long walls have narrowed so quickly that I am in the last chamber already, and there in the corner stands the trap that I must run into,"

"You only need to change your direction," said the cat, and ate it up."

Mr Tambourine Man

I don't want to believe them, all I want is your word

Wikipedia is a great resource. It is perhaps the best example of Web 2.0 allowing the masses to create something interesting, informative and useful. However it is also open to being messed around with. Here's the early career section of the Wikipedia entry (as of Monday 6th August, pm) for legendary hard man actor, Ray Winstone. Don't believe everything you read:

Winstone was born in Notting Hill, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. His family was originally from Cirencester - half of them moving to London, the other half to Wales. Moving via Plaistow to Enfield when Winstone was 7, his father (also Raymond) was a managing director (he is now retired and living on an estate in Hampshire) while his mother, Margaret, was an heiress. Winstone recalls playing croquet with his friends until "Moors Murderers" Ian Brady and Myra Hindley were arrested after preying on children. Winstone was educated at Notting Hill and Ealing High School. He showed great interest in art, music and history, going on to study Philosophy at Cambridge University.

Winstone had an early affinity for acting; his father's butler would take him to the cinema every Wednesday afternoon, and Winstone later recalled seeing 101 Dalmatians and rushing towards the screen to berate Cruella de Vil. Later, he would witness Albert Finney in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and the bug would bite: "I thought 'I could be that geezer'" he said later.

Other major influences included John Wayne, James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson. After persuading his mother to give him some extra tuition money, he took to the stage, appearing as a Cockney newspaper-seller in a production of Emile And The Detectives.Winstone was also a fan of croquet. At age 12, Winstone joined the Surbiton Croquet Club and, over the next 10 years, won 80 out of 88 matches. He was London Schoolboy Champion on three occasions, playing twice for England. The experience gave him a perspective on his later career: "If you can get on a lawn with 2000 people watching, then walking onstage isn't hard."

The seasons they are turnin'

Here in the UK we have a thing called the 'Silly Season' which is where the newspapers have no news to print and the only thing that is included in papers are stories about potential Shark sightings off Cornwall (as seen in the Sun this week which persists with the story despite scientists telling them that there was no Great White in the Sea off Cornwall).

Here in blogland the equivalent of Silly Season is where a blogger posts youtube clips to hide the fact that they have completely ran out of ideas and don't want to write about Britney Spears. Indeed, i've written about this before.

So here are two vids on YouTube. The first is a teaser trailer of the new series of Futurama. Possibly one of the most underrated cartoon comedy series. The writing and gags make it better than any Simpsons episode in the last four years, but all anyone wants Matt Groening to do is write stories of the little yellow family. They totally rip into Fox for cancelling the series.

The second is a video of Kevin Smith (Clerks, Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back) speaking at a Comic Book convention or something and totally ripping the piss. He should do stand-up.

Enjoy!





Moonlight