Neil Gaiman on OBEs (it’s at the bottom of the piece) An OBE, for those of you in places that aren’t British, is the Order of the British Empire, which seems rather sweet, considering there isn’t a British Empire any longer. It’s like being made a lord of the manor of a village that was… Continue reading OBEs
Author: Dave Cross
Pink Floyd
I didn’t really have much interest in going to the Live 8 concert. Those kinds of gigs where there are far too many people and you only really want to see a third of the acts have very little interest for me. But I sent a text message in to the draw away – just… Continue reading Pink Floyd
Tags
I’m coming to the party a bit late, but I’ve finally got round to adding tags to my blog. Hopefully Technorati will do the right thing with them. It’s folksonomitastic.
Cooking Vinyl
It’s nice and sunny today and that always makes me think of World Music. The first time I remember coming across the term “world music” when I bought the album New Roots in 1989. It was a very well-planned album as it had a number of artists that I already knew and liked (Billy Bragg,… Continue reading Cooking Vinyl
On Writing
They say that if you want to be a writer then the important thing is to keep writing. And I’m certainly not going to disagree with them. But I’ve been a bad writer recently and other than the witterings on this site I haven’t written anything for some considerable time. My last published works were… Continue reading On Writing
Minor Cross-Selling Rant
I shall be really glad when the new Harry Potter book is finally published as it will stop idiot staff in WH Smith asking me if I want to pre-order it each time I buy something there. I mean, do I look like the kind of person who reads children’s books? And, by the way,… Continue reading Minor Cross-Selling Rant
Windows Firewall
Until this weekend I’d never really seen a PC running Windows that was connected to the internet using a domestic broadband connection. The only Windows PC on my home network is hidden away behind a firewall provided by the ADSL router so no-one out there on the net even knows it exists. This weekend I… Continue reading Windows Firewall
Podcasting – Why Bother?
I was going to summarise a conversation that blech and I had in the pub last night about the pointlessness of most podcasts. But spookily hitherto manages to sum it up better than I could even tho’ he was in California and not part of the conversation (which took place in London).
Choosing Music
Recently, most of my CD buying seems to be replacing records that I own on vinyl as I can’t be bothered to get my turntable set up to listen the originals. Ebay is proving to be a great source for cheap replacements. And I’m finding that the music I want to listen to (and, hence,… Continue reading Choosing Music
Eating Properly
In this week’s Bad Science, Ben Goldacre puts his finger on why he dislikes people like Gillian McKeith. At first glance, they give quite sensible advice. Dr Gillian McKeith PhD – for all the awful poo business and her bizarre misunderstanding of basic science about things like photosynthesis – promotes a pretty normal, sensible, healthy… Continue reading Eating Properly