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September 2nd, 2009
10:53 pm - Literal Video
Probably old hat to many, but I'd never come across the idea of ‘literal video versions’ of music videos until just now where I found a link in an, ahem, rather trainspotterish place that shall remain nameless, and I found it kinda fun:
Bonnie Tyler—Total Eclipse of the Heart
Meat Loaf—I'd Do Anything for Love
And a supposedly complete list with lots more here.
-roy
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May 4th, 2009
 | 08:03 pm - Bed and Breakfast
I was amused when just now booking a B&B near Leeds University, I gave my name to the proprietor and mentioned I'd stayed with them before—and he remarked (correctly) that I must be up for Wendy House :-)
Also just booked my B&B for October Whitby (on the assumption the dates aren't changing) and was amused to be asked "So, are you a goth yourself?". Not quite sure why he asked that, though - perhaps it's one of those B&B's that operate a goth-only policy on the goth weekend?
-roy
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March 15th, 2009
04:36 pm - Camden Canal Market to reopen this month
According to this news report the Camden Canal Market that was destroyed in the Camden Fire a year ago (not in 2007 as the report mistakenly suggests) is due to reopen this month—maybe it even has, already. There was definitely work going on in the site when I was last there a few weeks ago.
Apparently the long delay in starting work on the site had been because, for reasons that aren't made clear, they had to wait for the repairs to the railway bridge to be completed before they could gain access to the Canal Market site to make it safe.
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August 5th, 2008
| 09:51 pm - I am a bitch. How do you want me?
On Saturday I took the train to Sheffield, to see Combichrist perform live at the Corporation.
I took the Supertram to my hotel, The Harley, which is a fairly large pub with a hotel on top; I was mildly amused to be asked by the alternative-looking member of staff who checked me in (who was also the barman): "Are you here for the gig at the Corp, then? I was thinking about going to that myself." Good to know I'm looking at least vaguely the part :-)
Then off to the Corp (via tram again) after a brief detour for food. I arrived just as the first support band, Uberbyte, were finishing; I recognized the track they were playing as one I like (gets played sometimes at Wendy House, I think), and wished I'd got there earlier, but whatever, at least I know who it is now. The second support band, Ashbury Heights I could take or leave, which is just as well because I started to feel rather unwell soon after entering the venue – maybe it was just too warm and stuffy, I'm not sure – and needed to get some fresh air.
Shout outs to the usual Yorkie suspects I bumped into: ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) ayrton_nix, miss_wonderly and, erm, I'm sorry if you're reading this, I really should remember your name by now – Mandy? Then on to the main event, a manically grinning Norwegian and his band. Only ever having heard their studio albums before, I thought he did a fairly good job of doing a fairly raw and immediate version of their music, without being too rough and ready (in a way which Assemblage 23 failed to do last time I saw them, IMHO.). I realise pretty much everyone who's seen them before says they weren't really on form this weekend, but I enjoyed the gig loads, and I think a lot was down to there being a really appreciative audience. The audience enthusiasm was particularly noticeable when they first came on stage, but also very much so when they played their much demanded encore, and a large section of the audience sang the words without needing to be prompted:
I am a bitch. How do you want me?
From behind? Or on my knees?
I am a slut. Please hold me down.
I'll be your noise. This shit will fuck you up.
I don't think there are very many bleep bands that can get that kind of audience reaction.
Then, with the Combichrist gig over, I explored the venue. I had a hotel to stay in, so was in no rush to leave, and the ticket included entry to the club night, Syn. In some ways it felt a bit like Jilly's in that it had a number of rooms, only one of which was goth/industrial, and even in that there was a slightly incongruous mix of goths and ‘normals’. I like the venue a lot, though. It was nice to have an outside bit, and the music in ‘Room 3’ upstairs was full of bleepy goodness, which kept me going until the night ended at 2.30am.
Which was probably just as well; given the hotel-on-top-of-a-pub-cum-club I was staying in I wouldn't have got any sleep if I'd got back before 3am anyway.
And that was the weekend that was. Next weekend, my Aunt's 65th, which will involve an implausiby early morning (I'm aiming to check out of my hotel at 4am), and then we're almost up to INFEST! *bounce* *bounce* *bounce* Can you tell I'm looking forward to it? :-)
-roy
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July 26th, 2008
10:50 pm - Waterboarding is torture
Old news, and I'm sure many of you have seen this before, but catching up on LJ and seeing kissmeforlonger link to this Guardian piece about Christopher Hitchens volunteering to be waterboarded to find out what it's like (and concluding that yes, it is torture) reminded me. The linked video at the Vanity Fair site is worth watching, BTW, but that wasn't the main point of this post.
If you haven't seen it before you should read this post to The Straight Dope message board. Not for the faint hearted, it's a description by someone who waterboarded himself, to find out what it was like. This guy wasn't strapped down, and he was pouring water over his own face. He did try the 'advanced' version involving cling film over the mouth (or saran wrap as Americans like to call it). And his description, in a later comment, was Let's say the maximum human distress a person can voluntarily withstand is 10. Waterboarding was a 1,000.
As I heard someone say in discussion of this a while back, waterboarding isn't simulated drowning, waterboarding is simulated dying.
-roy
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July 9th, 2008
10:09 pm - Christian gas
I recently decided to switch my gas supply to the EquiGas product of the Christian non-profit organisation Ebico (formerly the Equitable Billing Company, which is rather more descriptive of what they do).
Those of you who know me will probably be aware of my deep distrust of religion, and will be unsurprised that it's taken me a considerable amount of deliberation to bring myself to deal with what is ultimately, as far as I can tell, a Christian organisation.
But it's difficult to fault what they're doing. They have one flat rate tariff, which is the same for everyone. Everyone pays the same—in particular, people on prepayment meters pay the same as those of us who pay by direct debit. In principle it means I'm paying slightly more than I need to in order to ensure that those who are less well off don't get completely ripped off (which, TBH, I'd be happy to do anyway). But in practice the fact that they don't need to make a profit means that their prices are low enough that it looks like it will cost me little, if any, extra money over my existing supplier anyway.
I considered switching my electricity to their EquiPower product, too, but in the end I stayed with Plan A and am switching my electricity supply to Ecotricity, the wind power company run by tree-hugging vegan Dale Vince, on the basis of supporting as many organisations I approve of as possible. Ecotricity puts huge amounts of money into responsibly building new UK wind generation capacity and despite my scepticism that wind power is the panacea some people would like to believe, it's hard to disapprove of Ecotricity's and Dale's approach. Ecotricity are a little more expensive though. They match the price of the traditional supplier in your area, so assuming you've already switched to a cheaper supplier, you'll lose that saving when you switch.
Anyway, a couple of options to look at if you're considering switching to environmentally friendly and/or ethical energy suppliers...
-roy
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July 4th, 2008
12:55 am - What to wear! What to wear!
I never used to have this problem...
I think back with amusement to my pre-Goth days. To not really ever wearing anything other than T-shirt and blue jeans, and being completely oblivious and indifferent to clothes. To feeling self-conscious just pairing a black T-shirt with black jeans, in order to fit in at my first visit to a Goth club. Now when I'm planning to go out I actually feel the need to plan outfits in advance...
What to wear! What to wear!
(Hey, this is fun, isn't it :-)
-roy
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June 8th, 2008
08:36 pm - Miscellania
Well, I don't seem to be doing much LJ recently—either writing or reading—lets see if I can't change that.
Over the last couple of months I've been to my first Whitby Gothic Weekend (great fun—can't think why I didn't go sooner), I went to the Wendy House 10th Birthday (think I'm finally getting the hang of dancing with glowsticks :-) after which which I met up with kissmeforlonger and then dropped in to see puritypersimmon and randomstring and their new baby. Also had kissmeforlonger and noctulita come and stay, then sherbooke and then (this weekend) my parents (WANOLJ).
And I didn't write about any of it. (Well, I suppose I just did :-)
Next weekend dcalien will be here (and no doubt much alcohol will be drunk). And the following week there is much clubbing to be done. (Well, The Calling resumes after the break and then I'll be at Wendy House on Saturday.
Also planning to go to the Assemblage 23 pre-Slimes gig, Combichrist in Sheffield and possibly The Cruxshadows in Manchester—anyone else going to any of these?
-roy
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March 30th, 2008
| 09:21 pm - Shopping
Well, that was a rather more successful shopping trip to Camden than the last one. Not only did I manage to find stuff I wanted to buy, but I even managed to not leave it on the train back afterwards :-)
-roy
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March 2nd, 2008
11:51 pm - The Weekend
Well, that was fun :-)
Went to Manchester for the Siouxsie gig—met kissmeforlonger and sprezzatoura there—and had a great time.
Siouxise was great (natch)—lots of stuff from the new album (which is really rather good) and a few oldies thrown in inbetween.
Kriss and Sarah went home afterwards, being sensible people, but I felt that being in Manchester on a Friday night I really should check out Jilly's Rockworld, and I have to say that the Underworld room is great. On the downside it's not very dressy, but there's good mix of music, and there's lot's of room to dance. I noticed that there were only a handful of people who had made the effort of dressing up in a way that I might regard as appropriate to going out to a Goth club - and then realised that they all knew each other, and when they left that was it - there were no Goth's left there. But the music was fun and I'd go back again just for that...
-roy
ETA: I also ended up with rather sore toes—I guess I'm not quite as good at walking in high heels as I'd like to believe :-)
Still, I had great fun dancing both at the Siouxsie gig and and Jilly's, so I can't be doing it all wrong... :-)
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February 4th, 2008
09:18 pm - Going, going, gone!
My car is up for auction tomorrow. I really don't have a clue what it will fetch, although I don't care that much, either. The realisation is that the annual running costs are rather more than the value of the car, so most of the benefit of selling it comes from not having to tax, insure and maintain it.
( Read more... )
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04:00 pm - Cambridge: SUSPICIOUS CASH-POINT
For the benefit of those in Cambridge not subscribed to E-Cops (I'd thoroughly recommend subscribing):
If you've recently used the cash machines at the Barclays Bank on Cherry Hinton Road, you should probably be keeping a close eye on your bank account.
( Read more... )
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February 1st, 2008
10:05 pm - Towards a carefree lifestyle
Today I put my car up for auction
Of course, I did the experiment of pretending to be carefree carfree for 3 months, absolutely for real, not only taking the bus to work, but hiring a car for a couple of hours from the local car club (car share service) on odd occasions when I needed to, and taking the train for longer distance journeys (which admittedly I do often anyway). So actually getting rid of the car for real should have made no difference.
But there was still something slightly disconcerting about it. A slightly delayed reaction when I got back to the office, having left the car at the auction house, along with the keys and paperwork.
I'm now careless carless. And I don't know why, but this also feels rather more momentous that it should. It's a change of routine which somehow feels like a new start. I dunno, and I'm not entirely sure this is all down to the car, but I just have this unjustified sense of optimism for 2008, despite the fact that I know it's going to be a hard year, economically, for all of us.
I don't know how long any of this is going to last (either the carlessness or the optimism)... We can but hope :-)
-roy
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October 11th, 2007
11:32 pm - Technology
So, I got home late on Tuesday after a night out clubbing (at The Calling—some of you may know it :) and the house was dark (not surprising—the lights are programmed to switch off around midnight, give or take, on school nights).
So I walked to the living room in the dark, but I couldn't find where I'd left the light switch. I ended up having to use the laptop in the dark to issue the necessary command to switch the lights on, and then found the light switch (which had fallen on the floor).
Some might argue this isn't normal :-)
-roy
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October 10th, 2007
09:22 pm - Whitby!
No, not the upcoming one, the one after that.
Time booked off work, early bird ticket purchased. I guess that means I'm going to my first Whitby :-)
Not that I'm a goth, of course. I'm just going for... erm... for research purposes... Yes, that's it, research purposes...
-roy
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August 29th, 2007
August 15th, 2007
09:18 pm - Car clubs
I was wondering today whether I would be prepared to do without owning my own car, and I decided that the answer would probably depend on how much money it would save me, so I went through my bank statements to try and work out how much my car had cost me in the last year.
Petrol (£1000), insurance (£310), road tax (£175), service/MOT including necessary repairs (£559), other repairs (£407), breakdown organization (£114) and residents' parking (£40), which totals an enormous £2,600. And that's just the running costs of the car—it doesn't take into account the fact that you need to buy these beasts in the first place, and replace them when they get too unreliable or too expensive to maintain.
Now, I can get to work by bus for £40 a month, most of the places I typically travel to outside Cambridge are quite easily and sensibly reachable by train, and I can always hire a car for the odd weekend if need be.
The clincher, however, might be that Cambridge is apparently getting a car club—serving in particular the Petersfield and Romsey area. A car club is the (confusing, IMHO) name given to a new (to the UK) breed of high-tech by-the-hour car rental company. The way it works is that the cars are parked in various designated parking points around the city. You book a car on the web or by phone—at short notice if necessary—then make your way to where it is parked and unlock it with your smart card. Typical cost is around £5 per hour (charged by the half hour) plus an additional 20p or so per mile if you go above a 30–50 mile allowance in any one day (but fuel is free). There will probably also be some combination of a joining fee, a deposit, or a monthly or annual membership fee, but these are usually quite modest. In addition some schemes give frequent users the option of paying a larger monthy charge in exchange for cheaper rental rates.
This solves the problem of those journeys about town that you can't conveniently—or just don't feel like—making on foot or by bicycle. And it also solves the problem of but what if I need/want to drive somewhere at short notice?. Car clubs are not the cheapest way to hire a car by the day, but they do usually have a daily rate so they're not totally out of the question if you really want to hire a car when no traditional car hire company would be open—particularly given how much money getting rid of the car would save...
So, am I prepared to do it? A lot depends on whether I'm prepared to use the bus to get to work. I takes longer, but it's not necessarily wasted time, since I can read or even surf the net using HSPDA.
In the end it probably boils down to this: am I prepared to get up almost an hour earlier every week day? For a (conservative) saving of £1,000 a year, I think the answer is probably yes.
-roy
Footnote: If anyone is interested, there's a list of car clubs here and an interactive map here—which even shows where the cars are parked. Apparently the Cambridge club will be run by Streetcar.
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August 6th, 2007
10:57 pm - 186 m.p.h. !
So I think I've finally managed to book my train tickets from Cambridge to Spittal for my Uncle's 60th birthday in September. Sadly the only actual piece of high speed rail on my itinerary is the Eurostar—the remainder of the journey on the continent consisting of a Deutche Bahn Nachtzug sleeper train between Paris and Munich, and InterCity and EuroCity trains on the German/Austrian parts of the journey. There were routes I considered that involved connections by Thalys, InterCityExpress or TGV (on the new LGV Est between Paris and Strasbourg) but none of these more interesting options ended up working out pricewise.
Still, I get to travel over 700 miles each way by train (as the crow flies—more as the railway track winds, I'm sure), and I hopefully do get to experience the novelty of a train in the UK travelling at 186 m.p.h.—along Phase 1 of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link which I believe is a proper 300 km/h high speed line, and which didn't exist when I last took the Eurostar many years ago.
Oh, and I get to go to my Uncle's birthday party, of course :-)
-roy
mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/smile.gif) pleased
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May 3rd, 2007
01:02 pm - Vote now!
Don't forget to vote (if you're in a part of the UK that is having elections today).
Polls are open till 10pm. You don't need your polling card in order to vote (though you do need to know where your polling station is).
-roy
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April 29th, 2007
09:52 pm
Ooh! Clan of Xymox playing a pre-Slimes gig on 23rd June—followed by a three-floor Slimelight...
That seems like a suitable occasion to pick up my membership card, I think:-)
-roy
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