So I was reading through this thread and all I could think about was The Rapture. (The band, not the crazy religious concept.) And then that led me to think about LCD Soundsystem, to whom I now owe an apology for the following.

Yeah, I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
The kids are coming up, laughing at those Left Behind.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to Tim LaHaye and the kids from Colorado Springs.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 2:39 PM on June 3, 2008

I'm not old enough to have ever seen a resurgent Tory party heading back to power. It's rather unpleasant.

Yeah, horrible, innit. I remember Thatcher very clearly but am way too young to remember the run up to the '79 election.

I think some of the comments here are spot-on; the right-of-centre media would definitely love to give Brown not just a bloody nose but a fatal beating, and egging on/bigging up the Tories is a large... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 7:40 AM on May 23, 2008

Happy Dave: Although come to think of it, the Tories have no real reason to resist Scottish independence, most of the country hates them unconditionally, and an independent Scotland would be an easy way to say 'Look we've reduced your tax burden!

Yeah, it might reduce the tax burden, and it certainly wouldn't lose them any votes up here, since they don't have any in the first place, but given that their official name is the Conservative and Unionist... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 8:51 AM on May 23, 2008

Fascinating post, and I really like the blog. There are countless markers of various classes in Britain, and each of them produce different results depending on the way each of them interact with the others.

Regarding identifying class:
jack_mo: Usually downwards, in my experience - the number of people who, say, work in the media and are the children of professionals, but claim to be working class is staggering.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 10:43 AM on May 1, 2008

You know, every time the church/state separation in schools thing comes up on Metafilter, I'm absolutely flabbergasted at what American teachers who have a firmly religious mindset are able to get away with in the course of teaching classes that have absolutely nothing to do with religion.

It's such an odd state of affairs to read about if you were educated at a state school in the UK. The idea that my history teacher, who had plenty biases of his own, most of them... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 4:57 PM on April 27, 2008

Number one in the US the day I was born was Andy Gibb's I Just Want To Be Your Everything. Thankfully, being born in the UK means that my number one record was Donna Summer's I Feel Love, which is about as good as it gets for late-70s number one hits.
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 4:25 PM on April 13, 2008

These are just great. (By the way, it is not "Legos". It is "Lego". Thank you.)
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 8:12 PM on March 31, 2008

Oh, please, don't. I read this in The Observer at the weekend, and it's a load of meretricious bollocks from a paper which long ago slid into irrelevance.
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 2:43 PM on March 12, 2008

Good god, I love Steve Bell. Partly for the reason that, as time goes on, his objects of ridicule, from Thatcher through to Major and on to Blair, always end up resembling Bell's caricatures of them.
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 3:08 PM on March 11, 2008

I'm not proud of this, but every time I read the phrase "Etch-a-Sketch Clock" I can't help but doing a double take because I think it says Etch-a-Sketch Cock, which is a whole other internet project.
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 4:38 PM on March 10, 2008

five fresh fish, to take your last point first:

And are they any safer? Hell, no, there are still plenty of terroristic attacks there

I'd hardly call four bombs in July 2005 and two loons driving a Jeep into Glasgow airport two years later "plenty" – especially when you put that in the context of an IRA bombing campaign that last 30-odd years (scroll down this list to get an idea, and keep in mind that said list... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 11:19 AM on March 9, 2008

Yeah, that was pretty good, if rather sad.

Vinyl looks v. interesting too – right up my street, as a sad record geek of long standing.

krinklyfig: "jack_mo writes "A friend of mine has, if I remember rightly, somewhere between 60 and 70,000 records. Obviously his mates weren't going to help shift that lot, so he hired removal men. And now he's blacklisted by all the removal companies in the area.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 11:59 AM on March 7, 2008

White male comedians generally don't base their acts around being white or male.

I'm with onlyconnect on this; in fact, you might rephrase it: other people don't judge white male comedians on basing their acts around being white or male.

Bill Hicks can make dick jokes until the cows come home, and this is not (necessarily) seen as male; it's seen as Bill Hicks making dick jokes. Yet a female comedian who bases a routine on... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 8:04 AM on March 7, 2008

As some folk said further up, it would have been interesting to see the writers expand further on the jury nullification thing; it's something I'd never really heard about before – shamefully, I don't even know if the concept exists in the UK, though I suppose there might be some analogous idea, given the shared legal constructs of the US and UK.

Incidentally, following the link about Obama and The Wire upthread, and chasing subsequent links, I came across this, a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 2:53 PM on March 6, 2008

It's been covered umpteen times, but the Cale version is always the one that's done it for me. I saw him at the Queen's Hall in Edinburgh in 1999 and when he played this I thought I was going to collapse. His piano playing sounded like plates crashing to the floor, and that ringing Welsh baritone was enough to turn my legs to jelly.

Admittedly, I was on a colossal ecstasy/coke comedown at the time, and thus, um, somewhat fragile, but every time I hear... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 5:00 PM on March 5, 2008

Great stuff; I'd never seen the storyboards before. Some pics of the mural he did for the Scotland – Russia society, apparently as a graduation project, here (scroll down for some more).
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 9:39 AM on February 21, 2008

Damn, these are brilliant – particularly love this one for Keaton's The Cameraman.
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 9:23 AM on February 21, 2008

Hang on, what happened to all my tags? I swear they were there when I posted ... Will try and add them in again, sorry about that.
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 12:56 PM on February 15, 2008

First time tragedy, second time farce.
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 6:17 AM on February 14, 2008

I'd never heard of him until now, but I've got plenty of records he's had a hand in.

Every time I read about someone like Ron Murphy, I wonder how many others there are out there – mastering engineers, shit-hot studio tape ops, kit builders, and all the rest – working behind the scenes of the music I love whose names will never be known by more than a few insiders and obsessive collectors, and how long it will be until they get their dues, or even if they'll get them.
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 6:44 AM on February 13, 2008

It's a bullshit proposal and it'll never come to pass (well, I say that, but knowing this government they'll damn well try ...). There are massive implications for privacy – will people really stand for ISPs monitoring every single packet of data that moves between their machine and someone else's, which is what would be required in order to confirm that the data being transferred is "stolen"? I very much doubt it, particularly in the current political climate where... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 2:23 PM on February 12, 2008

Wow, great site. This is making me want to dig out my old 350 that an ex gave me about a decade ago – now to hunt down the right film ...
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 8:06 AM on February 7, 2008

benzo8: “The whole thing is underpinned by an unwavering arrogance, the belief that without the content of him and his peers, the Internet would crumble and fall, and only with it have we reached the technological heights that the "hippies" and "deadheads" he caricatures have raised us to.”

While this is certainly true, I think it’s only part of something far bigger, also underpinned by unwavering arrogance and a sense of... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 3:53 AM on January 29, 2008

Glad to see Alasdair Gray in there, and I'm with Abeizer on James Kelman – a writer whose work is consistently downplayed because he's a chippy working-class Scot and not afraid to say so in public.

The total lack of playwrights is really weird – if you're going to include philosophers (Berlin) and historians (AJP Taylor) why not dramatists? No Stoppard, as mentioned above, but even more surprisingly, no Pinter, no Orton, no Howard Barker. And if you're going to play the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 9:25 AM on January 7, 2008

And, FFS, why would an anticapitalist use the Frank Sobotka story? The crooked leader of a corrupt union* full of layabouts and ne'er-do-wells fails in his bid to buy influence from democratically-elected leaders, and is eventually offed by his co-conspirator. How is that a scathing indictment of capitalism?

Because it's about the bigger picture, not just the story of one corrupt union official and his attempts to grease political wheels into motion.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 12:41 PM on January 3, 2008

ROU_Xenophobe: at the very least a very sizeable minority of Americans have pretty decent health care coverage. Which is to say that they have something on the table that they'll have to give up in order to get universal health care

I think you're looking at this somewhat back to front. The health care that Americans (or at least those who actually have health care) already have – that is, the health care that is... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 4:44 PM on December 19, 2007

Oops. that should of course read "a very sizeable minority"
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 4:47 PM on December 19, 2007

Jesus, matteo, who pissed on your chips?

I just finished reading Low Life, a book which Adam Gopnik, smug hack that he is, couldn't have written in a million years, given an endless supply of both monkeys and typewriters.
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 2:37 PM on December 9, 2007

I'm tempted to get a ticket for Number 1 in Heaven, since it has Number One Song In Heaven and Beat The Clock on it.

About 18 months ago I interviewed Sparks when they were playing a small music festival on the Isle of Skye (third on the main stage bill to, um, KT Tunstall and Fun Lovin' Criminals); the weather was fucking abysmal, it had been raining for 36 hours straight and the entire site was a disaster: an armada of psychotically drunk and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 10:39 AM on December 7, 2007

The interior of St Peter's seemed pretty non-dreary

You're not wrong there; even in its current dilapidated, vandalised state, there's something weird and calm and serene about it. As long as the Buckfast-drinking locals are not hanging around, that is. (Though they're entertaining in their own, shall we say, particular way.)

A photo of Len taking a photo at St. Peter's Seminary
Ha, I'd totally... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 1:35 PM on November 3, 2007

They should have gotten Andy Goldsworthy to do it.

By the same token, I'd much rather enjoy the new Radiohead album if it had been written, recorded, produced and released by Robert Wyatt.
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 7:45 AM on October 10, 2007

roofus: yeah, I know Goldsworthy's worked with floors. I'm just making a cheap crack (ho ho) to distract myself from getting into an argument.

Ah, fuck it.

"Dude, you know what would be great for the next piece of art? Imagine if you were in this huge art gallery and there was a giant crack in the floor. Man, I'm so stoned! Let's say it's about racism."

I hate this attitude. As if this work –... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 8:09 AM on October 10, 2007

Sam.Burdick: does Coley provide his viewers with bibliographical references or do you have to do your own research?

Well, it's a bit of both. There's some information given; other than that, you're on your own for the most part. Regarding the block of wood, it was part of a show he did in Edinburgh earlier this year (pic of it here), it's stated on the title card that it's oak; other than that it's up to you. But you stand there and think about this... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 8:35 AM on October 10, 2007

Now I've plain lost track. Does that mean I accidentally came across as writing a kneejerk dismissal (when I meant a reasoned dismissal but left a quip), which you dismissed, which I interpreted as a kneejerk dismissal (but you meant a reasoned dismissal but left a quip), so I dismissed your dismissal of my dismissal, which you dismissed?

That about sums it up. (Though I didn't think it was initially a kneejerk dismissal on your part.) And yes, I think... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 8:53 AM on October 10, 2007

Avenger: Money and fame has made art into a pretentious, self-referential and elitist enterprise thats more about itself and the money it can pull in than anything else

This, if we're being honest, has been the case for, oh, about 600 years. You want to talk elitism? Let's talk about the renaissance masters who were funded by the Borgias, painting religious scenes which without the necessary education would have been impossible to interpret correctly;... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 9:06 AM on October 10, 2007

surely, I'm not the only person who spent her freshman year of high school collecting Simple Machines' monthly Working Holiday series?

I've still got most of them. Got them via mail order when I was 15, and ended up in a long correspondence with Jenny Toomey which involved me attempting to persuade Tsunami to come and play in Scotland. She said 'Yes, sure! We'd love to come and play Glasgow. Would you be into promoting the gig?' At which point I had to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 4:15 PM on August 28, 2007

There are also people who put stamps in books and don't use them to mail anything. Sometimes people find that objects have utility in themselves, not just in use.

Thing is, stamps are a one-off thing; once it's been affixed to an envelope and then paid said envelope's way, it's not worth what it was previously. Records are different – they exist to be played, and played, and played again. You can't say 'oh, well, it's been played once, and therefore... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 4:52 PM on August 28, 2007

Both of those documentaries were ace, thanks for that. Like I said in my comment in the previous (linked) thread, I love Alasdair Gray.

Kattullus: there's plenty of other Gray to read, but the best for the uninitiated is Poor Things, which is one of my favourite books ever.
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 5:40 PM on July 17, 2007

cillit bang: Dude, seriously, you're describing a terrorist group with the resources to easily pull off another 9/11. But yet the best attack they could come up with was two immensely crude car-bombs, and setting themselves on fire in a public place?

I don't know how people like you can reconcile the very obvious ameteurishness of what happened last week with your fevered dreams of international terrorists plotting for years to get their agents into Fortress... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 5:55 PM on July 3, 2007

Oh, bollocks.

Fire Hydrants
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 4:45 PM on April 6, 2007

God, I loved these programmes when I was younger; they were about the best thing on Channel 4 when I was a kid, I'm off to dip into a pool of techno-nostalgia.
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 7:15 PM on January 5, 2007

PeterMcDermott*: Personally, I like a deep-fried Mars Bar

Oh, you should see the latest trick: a macaroni cheese pie, squashed and toasted between a couple of slices of bread in a Breville, and then battered and deep fried. And let's not mention the Stonner: sausage – battered – wrapped in doner meat – battered again – and served in a pitta. With chips. The one chippy that serves it will only sell you one a week, maximum.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 4:06 PM on December 4, 2006

Brilliant, I've been waiting to see this again for ages. I interviewed him a couple of months back, and was expecting a hard time of it, to say the least. (I know at least one hack who was ordered to punch Smith "so's I'll be sober enough to do an interview".) And he was a total sweetie. Maybe I caught him when he'd had just enough bitter, but not too much.

unSane said: here's an interview I did with Mark E Smith in the early 90s during my thankfully... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 5:05 AM on October 28, 2006

Why stay in college? Why go to nightschool? It'll all be different this time.

RIP CBGB, even if it was a dive by the time it closed ...
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 4:39 PM on October 13, 2006

Do you really think there are poor people in Saudi or Kuwait? The Saudis have to import poor people from the Philippines and other countries just to do their manual labor. It's actually a pretty big problem for their economy.

Sorry delmoi, but with all due respect, that argument is bollocks.

Do you really think there are poor people in Saudi or Kuwait America? The Saudis Americans have to import poor people from the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 7:08 AM on August 9, 2006

Oh, come on, delmoi, you're surely not that stupid. My point was this: just because a country, whether it's America, Saudi Arabia or anywhere else, relies on cheap immigrant labour does not mean that there are no poor people in said country. That's a fallacious argument. I stay in the UK and there is plenty of cheap immigrant labour here, but the idea that their presence in this country indicates that there are no poor UK citizens is nonsense. I suppose all those people stuck in New Orleans last... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 4:27 PM on August 9, 2006

By the way, that first video, John Snow I think. What's up with that absurd desk and table. It looks like he thinks he's the emperor of the universe or something. And that crazy camera angle, creating such a distance between the subject and the interviewer. Very weird.

delmoi, that's just the way the Channel 4 news studio is set up, whether Snow (bless his terrible ties and unorthodox socks) is quizzing an Israeli Ambassador or the MP for Tower Hamlets.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 5:32 PM on August 5, 2006

That was great, thanks nickyskye. I spent ages staring, like some dumb child amused with a new thing, at various permutations on the "transparent NYC" page.

ericb: the Beastie Boys also used Pericoli's two Manhattan banners for the artwork of To The 5 Boroughs. (The copy I've got unfurls into a 4ft long banner, a nice miniature version of the original.)
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 9:20 AM on August 2, 2006

aisforal: that's braw. I should also recommend – for anyone who loves regional dialect, and fantastical Borgesian stories set on Scotland's east coast, Bill Duncan's The Smiling School For Calvinists, probably about the best book I've ever read set in Dundee and the surrounding area. I've never read anyone who nails that area's peculiarities so well, or with the perfect sense of humour.
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 4:07 PM on July 22, 2006

Actually, I should rephrase that: between freedom, and what the US government wanted to be portrayed as freedom.
posted to MetaFilter by Len at 3:41 PM on July 22, 2006