I wrote a while ago about how I'd shared some of my early memories of Marillion with an author who was writing the definitive history of the band.
Well the book has been published. It's called Separated Out. I picked up a copy in Borders today. The piece I wrote has been used almost unedited as a sidebar.
So now I have a credit in a book about an almost forgotten progressive rock band. I'm trying to work out if this is a good thing :)
It's not been a great year all in all. I've spent about half of it out of work. In January my contract finished and for the first time in seven years of freelancing, the client decided they didn't want to renew. I then spent five months looking for work before finally accepting a permanent job with Bibliotech. In October they started having really bad financial difficulties and at the start of November they made me redundant. It then took me a month to find another job. On the plus side I'm back freelancing but my rates have been cut massively.
It's not all been bad tho'. I'm almost a stone lighter that I was this time last year (I've discovered that it's far easier to lose weight when you're out of work). I had a good time speaking at a couple of conferences and it seems that my books review sideline is starting to take off (here's a tip - if you can get a review published by Slashdot then publishers think you're a reviewer and start to send you review copies of their books).
So, some good bits. But a lot of bad stuff.
Not a year I'd relish having to live through again.
The Queen's New Years Honour list has been announced. Of course like any right-minded person I have no time for a system of rewards that's based on the patronage of an unelected head of state, but it's interesting to see who has been found fit for the regal stamp of approval.
In my opinion, the most interesting choice this year is the knighthood for Ridley Scott. As the director of Alien and Blade Runner he was responsible for two of my favourite films. They are both so good that I'm even prepared to forgive him for Gladiator.
And let's not forget those Hovis ads.
I spent all day today in an office with no internet access, so it was only when I got home that I found out that one of my musical heroes had died.
Warning, I discuss major plot points from the film Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers below, but to be honest if you haven't read the books then you're no friend of mine and what are you doing reading my blog :)
"The Two Towers" was always going to be a harder book to film than "The Fellowship of the Ring". The earlier book had one narrative thread going through it, but throughout "The Two Towers" we follow three separate groups of characters who never meet (actually, in the book two of the groups do meet, but more on that later). Tolkien handles this by having two completely separate sections to the book, the first following Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, Merry and Pippin and the second following Frodo and Sam. Peter Jackson quite rightly decides to tell these two stories simultaneously. This might initially confuse fans of the books.
Other than this reordering of the story, there a far more differences between the book and the film than there were in the first film, but for some reason they didn't bother me as much. Here is a list of some of the most obvious ones I noticed.
But I'm only pointing out these discrepancies. They really didn't effect my enjoyment of the film. It's still a great piece of filmmaking. I'd really recommend it to anyone.
Tony Blair may have joined the Maggie Thatcher fan club, but luckily the ideals of the Thatcher-hating 1980s lives on.
Very soon after the Guildhall erected a statue of her, it was attacked and the head was broken off. The man who did it made no attempt to escape and used his trial as an platform to make several points about the damage that Thatcher had done to the UK. Yesterday the jury failed to come to a verdict on his guilt even though he happily admitted that he had done it.
The Guardian today has a front page with the headline Tories fall to lowest point for four years. They are saying that the Tory party's popularity rating has fallen to 27% which is the lowest it's been since 1998.
Frankly I'm surprised it's so high.
The Tory party is falling apart. Since their defeat in 1997 they have never looked like a credible opposition party. Luckily for them that's not really a problem as the Labour government has been doing it's best to be a Tory government. We're still feeling the effects of 18 years of Tory rule during which they succeeded in moving the political agenda so far to the right that people seem to have completely forgotten what left wing politics are.
I made a prediction in 1997. I predicted that the Tories would be beaten so badly that the party would self-destruct. This would leave the Liberal Democrats as the only credible oppostion party. As they are currently to the left of the Labour government this would gradually start to move British politcs back to the left which can only be a good thing.
British politics has always been a two-party system. Originally it was the Whigs and the Tories. The Whigs became the Liberals (and later, the Lib Dems) and during the early part of the 20th century their influence faded so that the two major parties were the Toris and Labour. I reckon we're about due for another of those changes so the two major parties become the Lib Dems and Labour. And the way the Tories are going I really can't see any way that it's not going to happen.
One of the first entries I made here was about how I'd given up drinking. I'm still sticking to that many months later, so I found this article from today's Observer very interesting.
Yesterday I was walking up Charing Cross Road when I passed a group of Hare Krishnas walking up the road chanting. Now I don't know about you, but once I get their chant in my head it's almost impossible to shift it. I can be chanting for hours unless immediate action is taken.
On this occasion I leapt into the Virgin Megastore where they came up trumps by playing Can't Get You Out Of my Head. All traces of the chant were eliminated immediately. Now I understand what the point of the song is.
Of course, I now have to get Kylie out of my head.
A report on the BBC site says that Maggie Thatcher has been praising Tony Blair again.
When will he learn that being praised by the most evil person to ever sit in Parliament is a sure sign that you're doing something fundamentally wrong.
Whilst I was in HMV yesterday, for some reason I noticed the Mike Oldfield section. It's frightening that Oldfield is still pumping out the same music that he's been producing for thirty-odd years but that doesn't detract anything from the genius of Tubular Bells.
This reminded me that it had been far too long since I'd listened to Tubular Bells so I put it on when I got home. It still sounds as great as it ever did. I had one slight problem with it tho'. I was playing a CD that I bought several years ago, but obviously for most of the time that I've been listening to it, it's been on vinyl. This means that there's a natural pause at the end of side one when you go and turn the record over (hey kids, gather round and listen to Uncle Dave tell you about the good old days). The end of side one is very intense with the Master of Ceremonies introducing all the instruments ("two slightly distorted guitars") and it's nice to have that break before launching into side two. One the CD it doesn't work like that as "track one" leads straight into "track two" with no pause. Because I'm so used to the vinyl version that sounded very strange to me.
Also, has anyone noticed that the shouting in the middle of the second side sounds a lot like Klingon? I reckon that's where Paramount stole the idea from. Don't forget that Tubular Bells predates the first Star Trek film by several years.
Afterwards, I also listened to Tubular Bells II. I still can't work out what the point of that was.
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