Mac plays live!

Well, it hasn't really happened for more than ten years. Mac playing music live - in front of a real listening audience.
Pete, my old mate from thirty-odd years ago, e-mailed me to tell me of a musicians' evening at one of his local pubs in the Forest of Dean. I didn't think much more about it but mentioned in passing to long-suffering " 'er indoors" that I wouldn't mind going along. She suggested we pay a visit to the forest in the afternoon and then go on to the gig to have a listen. So it was agreed - we'd go and have a listen.
Then, on Friday night, the inevitable happened. It happens every time we get a warm spell. Two doors down decide they're going to have a barbecue in their garden. First you get the smell of firelighters. Then the smoke as the charcoal starts to burn. Finally you get the smell of cremated meat ("we must make sure it's really cooked or else we might get salmonella").
I was so moved by this that I sat down and wrote a sarcastic grump-song about it entitled Another Darned Barbie.
Comes today and we make sandwiches, pack my guitar and head for the Forest. The area has changed considerably from how I knew it some 30-odd years ago but we finally found a quiet place to park and had a delightful walk listening to the birdsong and watching the wildlife.
Back to the car and sandwiches - then on to the venue. It's a pub. There's a few locals and some others who have come to listen. The guy running it - goes by the name of Bob - got up and, assisted by a guy called Lefty and the guy who plays drums with the Wurzels and my mate Pete on bass, got the whole thing underway with a few of his own numbers.
Then he called for others to come and do their thing. There wasn't much response so I plucked up the courage and got Pete on bass, Lefty on guitar and the drummer to join me in Another Darned Barbie. As I hadn't had time to properly learn the words my poor wife got deafened acting as music stand so that I could read them.
The song went down well - especially the line which went: "Why is everybody into animal cremation?"
Another young band got up - these kids were something else. Each of them had more talent in their little fingers than I have in the whole of my body. The girl had an amazing voice - and could really play a guitar - and the drums! Not only that she was good looking. I wish I'd asked their names because I would have been proud to list them in this blog. They didn't have a bass player so I picked up Pete's bass and joined them. They seemed grateful for a bit of bottom end.
I continued on bass for most of the rest of the evening - playing for the resident musicians and several of the stand-up musicians as well. Pete said afterwards he was grateful because usually on these gigs he is the only bass player and thus has to play all night.
Meanwhile my poor long-suffering wife had to sit it out. She said afterwards that she enjoyed listening but it was "a bit loud"!
One of the best days off I have had in a long time . . .

Humphrey Lyttelton - the End of an Era

It was with great sadness that I heard the news of the death of Humphrey Lyttelton.
Perhaps best known for his music - a great jazz trumpeter - I remember him best for his wit and pure presence on the Radio 4 programme I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue which he chaired for more than 35 years.
Barry Cryer, a colleague on the show, gave the ultimate acclaim when he remarked about Humph's amazing comic timing: "He was the only person who could get a laugh from radio silence."
He, along with his colleagues on the show, gave my family and me many happy hours of side-splitting laughter.
Humph will be sadly missed across a wide spectrum of people.
Goodnight, Humph.

Vista plus Norton equals CHAOS

I have just purchased a new computer. It came with Windows Vista Home Premium (all hail to the god William Gates) and Norton. The computer says it will run at 4 gHz. OK, great.
BUT . . .
Mr Gates over-wordy software plus Norton's interfering checking, and the stupid laptop-style keyboard on this computer all combine to make this the most user-unfriendly system I have ever used (or abused).
Sod Mr Norton and Mr Gates! I have achieved greater speeds from an Amstrad 512 Word Processor!
Come the revolution Mr Gates will be the first to be put up against the wall.
And I claim the right - after 30 years of suffering his software - to be the first to pull the trigger!

Who will be President?

Who's going to be the next President of the United States? McCain seems to have secured the Republican nomination - or has he?
Clinton and Barak are neck and neck in the Democrat camp - both wanting to be first. First woman President. First black President.
Who - outside of America - gives a shit?
Whoever gets in it'll be the same old USA thinking it owns the planet.
Look over your shoulder Mr or Madam President - Asia will soon be taking away your mantle of the world's greatest economy. And be sure they won't give a shit about a failed Western economy like yours!

Nothing to say

It strikes me that I have not made an entry for more than a month.
It also strikes me that nobody has noticed this - not even me!
It could be that nobody reads my blog!
I don't believe it . . .

Happy Christmas!

Just in case anyone reads my blog - I wish you all a very happy Christmas.
And if you don't read my blog - then you should!
It's important to me.
But it's only important to me - nobody else.
So what the hell - Merry Christmas anyway:-)

Nuclear Bullshit

Robert Gates, US Defence Secretary, has defended Israel's nuclear armaments at a Middle East security conference attended by most of the Arab world.

He does not see the comparison between Israel's nuclear arsenal and a possible Iranian nuclear capability. He stated that Israel does not train terrorists to disrupt the Lebanese government.

This, understandably, brought wry smiles to the faces of government representatives from the Arab states in the region.

Of course Israel does not train terrorists. It has no need. It has a legitimate military to do its dirty work.

Like suppressing the Palestinians.

Like taking the Golan Heights from Syria.

Like invading Lebanon on several occasions, killing thousands of innocent civilians over the killing of a few Israeli soldiers.

But all this is legitimate because it is the army, not a bunch of terrorists.

Yeah, right.

Who was it who helped build that army?

Who gave the Israelis the know-how to make nuclear weapons - which could be called "weapons of mass destruction" (where have I heard that phrase before?) and the means of delivering them?

The Yanks!

No wonder the other governments taking part in the conference thought that Mr Gates was the comedy act in between the real discussions!

With statements like those from Mr Gates who can believe anything that the US government says? But then, the US government is so tied to the Jewish vote that it dare not do anything less if it wants to survive.

There will be elections next year to see who is President of the US. It doesn't matter to the Israelis which party gets in because they have the monetary leverage to make sure their desires are fulfilled whether the President is a Republican or a Democrat.

Shit happens . . .

Unfortunately American shit costs lives.

Free Speech?

The Oxford Union, that august body which supposedly represents the epitome of free speech, was on a loser to nothing.
They had invited David Irving - famous for his denial of the Holocaust - and leader of the British National Party Nick Griffin to a debate.
The President of the Union is quoted as saying he wanted to be able to demolish their arguments in open debate.
How naive.
Needless to say the gates to the building were besieged by protesters who opposed giving these people a platform to state their views.
Words like "fascist" were bandied about. Voices were raised. They were determined not to let the two men through - or any of the other people who had tickets to be there.
Personally I abhor Mr Griffin's party and all it stands for. As for Mr Irving - I don't know enough about the Holocaust to really know what happened. But in truth millions of innocent people were incarcerated, tortured and killed in the name of the Nazi state.
But is it democracy to shout down all with whom we disagree?
Aren't we supposed to be able to debate and decide?
I think that these two men's cases are strengthened by the protest. A much better way of dealing with them would have been to have listened in total silence to their cases and then voted them down unanimously. In a democracy all sides of the argument must be considered and then the voice of reason will really be seen to prevail.
THAT would have been real free speech.

The Last Explorer . . .

The MV Explorer is no more.
It hit an iceberg.
Water got into it and it slowly sank.
Thankfully, all the 150-odd passengers and all the crew were able to evacuate the ship and get into lifeboats. They were picked up safely and taken to King George Island.
MV Explorer was not a brand new ship but it was designed to withstand the rigours of Antarctic voyaging. It had been sailing these waters for many years, latterly packed with tourists who came to see the wonders of the Southern Continent.
Now I may be a killjoy but why do these people go? They know they are not doing the planet any good by wandering round the Polar seas in a big, fuel-hungry ship. They feel safe because they are in an artificial environment - safe and warm within a large floating metal box. Looking out in wonder at the ever-diminishing ice that is all you can see of Antarctica.
And contributing to its demise by even being there!
I'm glad that no-one was hurt.
But I hope the incident will make others think twice about the unnecessary intrusion into what is the planet's last really wild place.

Slipped Discs

HM Customs and Revenue, the Government department which collects our taxes, has lost a couple of computer discs in the post. Nothing unusual in that - big organisations lose little things all the time. It's no great hardship - just make another copy and do what you were going to do with it anyway.
Not so simple!
The discs in question contained personal details - names, National Insurance numbers, bank account details, possibly even bra sizes - of about 25 million people. That's not far short of half the population of the UK!
The top dog of HMCR resigned as soon as the news broke - even though he probably had no input into the operation in question.
The poor junior clerk who actually packed up and sent the discs by insecure means was also forced to resign - even though he or she was probably only following orders from above.
The people who actually decided that sending sensitive information via a private delivery service without even a means to track their progress seem to be getting off Scot free!
Banks and other financial institutions have gone into overdrive - probably at no small expense - in an effort to protect their customers from any fraud caused by the release of their customers' details.
Hopefully the discs will turn up in some obscure office in a Government department and it will be discovered that no harm was done. But the harm has already been done. Confidence in the ability of the people who collect our taxes has always been low - now it is non-existent!
Furthermore, a most important Government department could possibly face prosecution under the Data Protection Act. This Act is there to protect the ordinary citizen from the misuse of data held about them by banks, businesses, Government departments - in fact anybody who puts your personal details onto a computer or other means of storing information. Obviously losing data such as these breaches such legislation. So HMCR could face prosecution. A massive fine could be imposed, especially if - as they should - they treat each one of the 25,000,000 as a separate case.
But who would pick up the bill for the fines - and the expensive legal costs involved?
The ordinary everyday taxpayer in the UK.
In other words YOU and ME!
Shit happens . . . we're all on a loser either way!