Ah, nice to see love for Rank Sinatra and V/Vm! Sick Love is so good I bought it twice.
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 7:08 AM on July 23, 2008

When porn stars get pretentious, it's like we've turned some horrible corner.

See also Sasha Grey.
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 4:28 AM on June 28, 2008

I loved reading about them, reading about their frankness, their ideals, their shambolic gigs, their drunkeness.

NME gave away a CD* with a great live version of Come Taste My Mind on it which featured Sanderson pausing in the middle to mumble "Always remember to turn your fire off, always remember to turn your fuckin' fire off before you go out. That's fuckin' important."

* NME Clean Sweep - All tracks... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 7:25 AM on June 19, 2008

Since no-one seems to have linked it here is the actual speech:

"If Jim Royle gets out of his chair for a Kit Kat, I want to think, ‘he fancies a Kit Kat’ – not, ‘Kit Kat my arse!"

It is a pretty nothing story and it is interesting for someone who has only read Variety's political pieces until now to see how pitifully tabloid the reporting is.
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 3:50 PM on June 13, 2008

I'm not sure I can applaud him because I'm highly dubious that this empty gesture will actually make people think about the authoritarian nightmare they're sleep-walking into. You'd think that being shadow Home Secretary (the post he resigned from) was the ideal platform from which to oppose 42 days. This is obviously some sort of byzantine internal Tory power struggle.

So small yay for the fact the Tory Party still can't get its house in order but massive unyays for the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 5:10 AM on June 13, 2008

unless the people really do want 42 day detention.

It is quite possible they do. Opinion polls have shown them to be in favour of it and although you can argue about the questions used in such polls and whether people really understand the issue you are never going to have an informed electorate. It is one of those issues like capital punishment that people are instinctively in favour because after all it only effects bad people, doesn't it?... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 5:17 AM on June 13, 2008

Now, as UKIP agree with Davis that 42 days is wrong

Although their one MP actually voted with the Government against the party line! Can you even consider UKIP a proper party and not just a disparate group of moaning old bastards?
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 5:28 AM on June 13, 2008

I can honestly say I've never seen the word ZuNuLabour before now.

You are obviously - trivially - right that neither Blair nor Brown are Stalin but you are conflating an awful lot of issues here. The idea that "if you don't agree, vote Tory at the next election" is a solution for most people who are excised about this issue betrays a startling lack of awareness of the political landscape.
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 3:26 PM on June 13, 2008

Not to turn this into the free speech or hate speech thread but "poofters"?
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 7:49 AM on June 12, 2008

What is the point of having the haircut and uniform ones without the photos?
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 8:59 AM on June 2, 2008

There's no excuse now!

Apart from the fact Jeanette Winterson will be after your blood because bookswapping is EVIL.
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 6:08 AM on May 30, 2008

The Higson YB books are fun but nothing special. They do teach kids to question authority, take up cross country running and solve cryptic crosswords which is a message I can endorse. Oh, and the villain of the first book is called Lord Hellebore and the love interest is called Wilder Lawless so you know where you are.
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 3:55 AM on May 27, 2008

I would certainly agree that Higson wees all over Anthony Horowitz from a great height.
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 6:03 AM on May 27, 2008

Wow, Morrison wrote the Zoids comic! No wonder I thought they were so awesome when I was a kid.
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 4:42 AM on April 18, 2008

Talking of the link from Peake to Mieville, Gormenghast is one of the foundation texts of the New Weird movement, which may or may not exist and which may or may not have been recently codified in this anthology by Ann & Jeff Vandermeer.
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 7:12 AM on April 16, 2008

The War Game is on Google Video too.
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 5:19 AM on April 15, 2008

The Oxfam in Dalston has to be one of the most dispiriting places on Earth.

There are two: the normal one which is indeed slightly dispiritingly and the one just down the road that only sells music and books. That one is less dispiriting but it did smell of sewage last time I went in. And it was shut yesterday. It does have great stock though.

My favourite NME tape. And my second favourite NME tape (admittedly more for the B... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 5:14 AM on April 15, 2008

It is worth noting that the Telegraph - despite being a dreadful paper - has an excellent SF critic on staff: Andrew McKie. Dunno how much actual input he had into the list though.

And yes, Tess of the D'Urbervilles sucks.
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 9:11 AM on April 8, 2008

officially Sydney and Melbourne are about the least affordable housing markets in the world.

£70,000 is still quite a lot of money, about AUD180 000. You can get a nice modern brick veneer three bedroom five star energy efficiency house, with land, for that price in outer Melbourne.

Something doesn't add up here.
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 5:19 AM on January 31, 2008

Who on Earth would think that "22 police killed in Pakistan suicide bombing: officers" is a sensible headline? Now instead of thinking suicide bombing is bad I am just thinking that AFP are fools.
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 2:54 AM on January 10, 2008

Hmm, I also got my degree from the UCL philosophy department but I don't remember either of these two. Maybe that is why I got a 2:2...
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 1:40 PM on December 28, 2007

It is a very odd selection of tunes.
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 8:43 AM on December 6, 2007

how many writers can you name that are good at it?

James Salter.
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 5:23 AM on November 28, 2007

Also, they do pay extra for a courier: they have an internal mail system, which is contracted out to TNT.

But the Government even has its own secure despatch service.
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 4:34 AM on November 21, 2007

Why does this page not exist?
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 7:49 AM on October 23, 2007

Spastic tends to be shortened to spaz in the playground

Come on now, let's not forget spaz's venerable cousin spacker. In fact why bother using words at all when belming is much more effective. And yes, use of scoper is in full effect. It is almost as if it is impossible to control language...

And what, no mention of the Profanisaurus yet?
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 9:38 AM on October 23, 2007

It never ceases to irk that a writer as good as Ryman is the driving force behind something as stupid as Mundane SF.

Maybe this is a slight derail, but it's interesting to muse as to why traditional, fantastic science fiction is popular.

Well, it isn't really popular at all, it is a very niche interest.

No, not trying to imply that Mundane SF -need- to have a moral focus.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 2:18 PM on September 22, 2007

he isn't really saying that ALL sci-fi should be Mundane, just that Mundane sci-fi is worthwhile,

But he is saying Mundane SF produces better SF. They sensibly deleted their manifesto since it was so fucking stupid but it read in part:The number of great writers or movies which independently work within these guidelines, indicating that the Mundane Manifesto produces better science fiction. If it was just Ryman saying "this is the sort of fiction... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 12:04 AM on September 23, 2007

Does the author really believe that the substance of womanhood is so banal and superficial?

That is the whole mission statement of the Daily Mail and yet it has the highest percentage of female readership of any UK paper.
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 11:09 AM on September 20, 2007

My knowledge of British Universities probably isn't what it should be, but it's all Eton, Oxford, and Cambridge for the three of them. No wonder their comedy seems a bit "smarter".

Captain Blackadder: And then the final, irrefutable proof. Remember, you mentioned a clever boyfriend...
Nurse Mary: Yes.
Captain Blackadder: I then leapt on the opportunity to test you. I asked if he'd been to one of the great... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 3:51 AM on September 17, 2007

Well, it seems to have been a pretty successful strategy to me: confound the jury with rambling anecdotes until they can't remember why they were there in the first place.
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 7:18 AM on September 12, 2007

bugbread, it would appear I would make an ideal juror...
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 8:22 AM on September 12, 2007

It is worth snarking because this is Martin Amis, a man who as a writer of fiction is a genius, as a writer of criticism is incredibly insightful and as a writer of op-eds is a massive cock.

Okay, you can argue that his recent novels have been a bit of a mess but he still wrote Money, London Fields and The Information. To see him write drivel like this is upsetting. Whenever he talks about Islam he is like a poor... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 6:47 AM on September 11, 2007

Did anyone find Dawkins' review of Hitchens' book (linked to from the Amis article) more interesting?

Apparently not.
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 5:10 AM on September 12, 2007

I was just reading that via The Guardian too.

His mother, the Marchioness, suspected him of being idle; Pratt maintained that he was unable to study owing to a broken leg.

In fact, both these things were true.

Great stuff.
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 4:46 AM on September 12, 2007

After the sexist, racist, nonsense onslaught of Ad Nauseum there is something almost touching about the final track:

DEREK: (barely suppressed sniggering)
CLIVE: I have never seen anything more stupid in my life ..... than you.
DEREK: (sniggers)

posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 6:57 AM on September 11, 2007

This whole "all British TV is fake" debate is getting ludicrously out of hand. It really does appear that they won't be happy until everything is done live in one continuous take. (Not to say that something that keeps Yentob off our screens is a bad thing.)

Wallace and Gromit are to be honoured with a life-size statute

Suppose for a minute Five actually mean statue, well, that isn't going to be a very big statue then.
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 6:19 AM on September 7, 2007

I hope that is satire, pracowity. Can you do newspapers next?
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 7:00 AM on September 7, 2007

bunnytricks, I can't believe you missed their best one:

"Burn these sheets that we've just fucked in."
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 1:49 AM on September 7, 2007

I don't think you have.
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 9:32 AM on September 6, 2007

Nikita Lalwani nominates Bear v. Shark and asks:Whoever said that post-modern musing had to be vacuous and futile? I've no idea but I suspect is Lalwani, rhetorically, just then. However vacuous and futile is a pretty good description of Bear v. Shark which is a sort of feeble imitation of Don DeLillo.

My own answer to the question of best overlooked books is always Schooling by Heather McGowan. It got good reviews but I don't think anyone actually... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 5:07 AM on September 5, 2007

Ooh, and the short stories of Pamela Zoline are wonderful. 'The Heat Death Of The Universe' is my all time favourite short story.
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 5:09 AM on September 5, 2007

It's worth noting that the reason he has made it available is because it is nominated for the Best Novel Hugo, which will be announced next week. The Hugos have also got a shiny new website.
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 9:07 AM on August 24, 2007

and has been rather formally critiqued.

I don't remember any of those essays engaging primarily with the Singularity.
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 3:37 AM on August 25, 2007

You should have quoted from that BBC article, it's awesome!

On the profile of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the tool indicates that a worker on the CIA network reportedly added the exclamation "Wahhhhhh!" before a section on the leader's plans for his presidency.

posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 3:23 AM on August 16, 2007

Well, I didn't see De La Guarda but I thought Fuerzabruta at the Roundhouse was great. I don't have much of a performance art vocabulary so since I can't expalin why I'll just repeat that: it was great.
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 6:51 AM on August 15, 2007

Hmmm, I can't visit Lawrence Auster's site because it has been blocked by work as "extreme". That would certainly fit with someone who didn't think Melanie Philips was a big enough fascist.

I'm well acquainted with Lott though.
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 1:56 AM on August 14, 2007

It's worth noting that the I Ain't Marching Any More wikipedia link is to the album rather than the song itself. There are plenty of other good Vietnam protest songs in Ochs's back catalogue including Draft Dodger Rag from that album.
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 6:52 AM on August 8, 2007

There was no page for the song itself, ninebelow...

Sorry, that wasn't meant as a knock, just trying to spread the Phil Ochs love. He is one of America's greatest singer-songwriters but he never seems to get the acclaim he deserves.

His introduction to the live version of Ringing Of Revolution is great too:

"John Wayne plays Lyndon Johnson. And Lyndon Johnson plays God. I play Bobby Dylan. A young... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 8:13 AM on August 8, 2007

Seconding fingerbang and autodidact's advice to read Joanna Bourke.
posted to MetaFilter by ninebelow at 1:54 AM on August 8, 2007