First of all in my guise as Marty I have reviewed the book by Ross Clark which has a good ole bash at Red Tape. One of my 100 word tales appears over at the which has a healthy number this fortnight. If you like a bit of short fiction its a good collection.
One of Laurence s tales read by my betrothed Kim Benson and produced by me is up over at please give us a listen and a vote if possible.
And finally back that music pamphlet; there was an interesting piece on it over at the American Enterprise Institute entitled CB Music has also Oh it wasn t mentioned in this week but I was.
While not my writing it does worry me to see Christopher Booker being censored by the Sunday Telegraph.
The bits left out
Never mind package holidays to Spain, try this
This looks like a for aviation and space flight nuts, although it certainly helps if you have a spare million to spend. Ah, we can all dream. Space flight might be just about affordable by the time I am due to pop my clogs. The biggest news of the week is that you can now pre-order James Anglosphere Bennett s Having read a pre-release copy I can tell you it is well worth the read. I agree with it almost 100%.
In other political news there is a small on between George Soros and Medienkritik .
It centers on Soros assertion that democracy cannot be introduced by force. Update: the exchange has mysteriously disappeared from Soros site!
I used to be fucked up on drugs now I am fucked up on Jesus (Cheech Chong) clearly make a case for C C s comedic quote.
BestofMe for this week over at Owners Manual.
WJ Philips is at it again: this time he is painting objectivism as another Any objectivists reading this site care to go correct his juhenhass screed? Mike a discussion launched by Stephen Green on the nature of the current election.
And some more political fun can be found over at Zachary s place with a where you try to prevent the Dems from taking over Washington. Those itching for Halloween fun can follow provided by
And, of course, if you need a bit of creepiness in your life, you could always go buy my book . It is October, and Halloween is rapidly approaching.
It s there and should to anyone who reads this blog. You will need to wait a few hours after the actual broadcast for the BBC techies to get the latest program (on the RNC) up on the web.
Update: it is about 16 minutes in, at the beginning of the Ann Coulter segment.
bloggers who combine a taste for heavy metal music with a taste for heavy metal politics. The is up at Owner s Manual for your reading pleasure.
The is up for your money-grubbing pleasure.
That other Carnival, the one of the Vanities, is up for the week over at
In a moment that could either be described as spastic or waggish, I came up with a rather interesting contest. First, to make sure I wasn t totally off my trolley, I sent an email to She not only likes the idea but is rather enthusiastic about it. Inotherwords, it is either a bloody good idea, or she is as nuts as I am.
Assuming the latter, here is my idea:
I am (as some of you know), and have been, for a few months now, putting together a band of 30-somethings to record an album (and to tour). We are looking for original stuff. I thought it might be a good for a laugh to run a your perfect rock lyric contest.
In this we get people to suggest lyrics to a rock song they would like to hear. Of course, if my band uses any, some, or all entries we will give credit where it s duo and a share of royalties.
The deadline for entries is Valentines Day 2004 and the prize is yet to be determined.
I can predict it will be music (or about it) and purchased via Amazon, however.
Musical swots may include an MP3 of the music they suggest should be used with the lyrics if they wish. It would help if you told us what sort of song it is (ie ballad, rocker, anthemic, power ballad etc), so we can get a general idea of how it should be sung.
Unlike pop idol or any other of those efforts, we promise not to humiliate or badger you in Cowell-esque manner.
Judges will be , , and I. Our top 5 will be posted on both A Small Victory and Dodgeblogium.
Obviously this is normal, right?
There are those times in a creative person s life which you remember very well. One such time for me was when I started writing my first real novel (Land of Hope).About 5 hours into the writing it suddenly struck me what I was doing, and I said in a loud voice, holy shit, I am writing a novel! It was not long after this, of course, when I realised that writing for nine hours on the trot was a dumb idea because most of what you produce is pants. I did manage to salvage quite a few of the ideas but tossed about 40,000 words of total bilge.
I had another such moment on Saturday night, or rather Sunday morning at about 4:30, but, unlike the above one, someone else was needed for it to work properly. Whilst my bandmate John and I were waiting for a large multiplayer map for to download, he began to play a tune on his keyboard. As you do, I naturally started singing along.
The odd thing was that both the tune and the lyrics I was singing were original, with the words off the top of my head.
At first I thought I was singing in my head, that was until John began to sing along with me. Next thing I knew he had a piece of paper in his hand scribbling down my lyrics and his musical notation.
By the end of the download we had lyrics, a tune, and instrumentation for our first original song (as a band). It was both a most cathartic moment for me and one of the most pleasant experiences I have had in many a moon.
Whilst dling the next big map, we finalised the song.
I asked him whether this was the normal way to write tunes (he had written original music before, but not lyrics). John assured me that is was the first time he had ever heard of it.
What kind of song is it, you ask?
We, for our sins, have written a power ballad. I can t wait to sing it in public. Next time I hope we produce a good ole rocker.
Excellent! A Free sports service, for once! I just registered and it s dead easy no intrusive questionnaires to fill in, either!
Sport.telegraph is offering its readers the chance to watch the highlights of the Zurich Premiership match of the week, online for free.
After registering your details, you can watch all the scoring action and listen to the main talking points of the game at the click of a mouse.
NB: This is the winter solstice rant. Those wishing to skip this and merely get to the fiction bit may go to the extended entry portion.
The end of year is always a time for reflection and lists of best and worse for the year.
This piece will be have a little of both, which is amusing because I am normally not a big fan of end of year round-ups. January 1st is just another day on the calendar, not different from the day before or the day after. However, as it is the time of year for office parties and family obligations, my social life dies on the vine as of today.
To be fair, it is amusing how the date that London dies for Christmas is moving closer and closer to the actual day and things pick up more quickly in January these days.
News RSS