Are you ready Steve...?
Simply one of the best singles ever released in the history of music.
Monday, 14 August 2006
Madonna 3
Some photos from the latest Madonna escapade...
Photo of the big video-wall behind/above the stage.
Madonna's just emerged from the big glitter-ball that she's lowered onto the stage in, and sings 'Future Lovers' in her equestrian extravaganza.
Quite close to the extended stage at the end of the central catwalk, and this is one of the few photos without extraneous hands and cameras in shot...
The industrial setting for 'Sorry' during which, a few minutes later, a fight ensues and Madonna emerges triumphantly. I don't approve of gratuitous violence.
'Let It Will Be' - and the live version is much better than the album version. A very lucky photo since she only wears the hat for a few seconds before throwing it into the crowd.
In full Saturday Night Fever mode for 'Music', a great sequence!
Photo of the big video-wall behind/above the stage.
Madonna's just emerged from the big glitter-ball that she's lowered onto the stage in, and sings 'Future Lovers' in her equestrian extravaganza.
Quite close to the extended stage at the end of the central catwalk, and this is one of the few photos without extraneous hands and cameras in shot...
The industrial setting for 'Sorry' during which, a few minutes later, a fight ensues and Madonna emerges triumphantly. I don't approve of gratuitous violence.
'Let It Will Be' - and the live version is much better than the album version. A very lucky photo since she only wears the hat for a few seconds before throwing it into the crowd.
In full Saturday Night Fever mode for 'Music', a great sequence!
Sunday, 13 August 2006
Rationing
I've been watching episodes from the fourth season of 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show' over the last few weeks, just two or three episodes at a sitting from the 24 episodes. I've been good at rationing (such self-discipline is admirable). I've now watched 22 episodes and I'm putting the DVDs away. I will save the last two eposides for a special occasion when I need an instant cheer-up.I like MTM, Rhoda, Lou Grant and the crowd. This series sees the introduction of Betty White as the predatory 'happy homemaker' Sue-Ann and whenever she appears you just know there'll be some killer one-liners at odds with her happy smiling image. It sums up the age so well with topical references that are now history, the clothes (although not as outrageous as in the earlier series), the gloss and colour incontrast to our home grown entertainment like 'The Liver Birds'. I nearly laughed out loud at the scene with the fondou simply for it being there and Georgette losing the bread from the end of her long dipping fork. This was Rhoda's last series before moving home to New York and her own series - I'm waiting for that to be released.
So, that's two episodes left - all for me.
Miaow!
Saturday, 12 August 2006
Amanda Dresden Doll
That wee scamp, Amanda Palmer, has been up to things again. Her latest email is full of news about The Dresden Dolls world tour, her karaoke verite outings, design a tee shirt competition and a video montage of the Fuck the Back Row show in Brooklyn.At the moment, Amanda is "attached to my apartment floor like a 50 year old wine stain in a fairly catatonic state" and has earned a little rest before coming back to Europe next week for more gigs, including the Edinburgh Festival. Then down to Japan, New Zealand and Oz, west coast America and heading east and then landing in London for two shows at the Roundhouse on 3 and 4 November.
Amanda says that, "These Roundhouse shows are going to be FUCKING AMAZING and EPIC and we've just confirmed none other the incredibly hilarious and stunning comedienne Margaret Cho as mistress of ceremonies. The musical guests will be unrivaled. We're pulling in the entire european brigade. Do not miss this show for the life of you. Fly, boat, skateboard, but GET there." Don't worry, Amanda, I *will* be there. It's nice watching Amanda's karaoke verite videos on YouTube and I quite like this one, filmed in Prague, 'God Is Going To Get Sick Of Me'.
SLAYED? Reviews
I'm pleased to report that the SLADE re-issues are being reviewed in the music press. 'Q' gives 'SLAYED?' a good review, marking the album with four stars and a Q recommendation.
There's a feature review in 'Uncut' that again gives 'SLAYED?' four stars but the other albums don't fare so well. 'Miles Out To Sea' from 'Old, New, Borrowed and Blue' is one of the tracks on this month's 'Uncut' CD - not the track I'd pick but I'm pleased SLADE are on it at all and it's great to hear them boom out of the speakers! If you look carefully, that's Noddy standing beside the 'UT' on the front of the CD on the cover with the other Lords of Noize beside him.
Friday, 11 August 2006
Me and the NHS don't go...
This is all so strange, but my every contact with the NHS this year has gone wrong for some reason.
My diabetes experience so far has been little more than 'here's some tablets and lose some weight'. So imagine my delight when I actually get an appointment at the Diabetese Clinic at St George's Hospital - at last, some proper advice! My enthusiasm slightly reduced when I found out I had an afternoon appointment and had to fast for 10 hours for the blood test. But I can do that, no problem.
I turn up and am sent for a urine sample (I'd actually just been to the toilet but managed to squeeze some out). I'm weighed and measured. Then I'm called in to see the diabetic nurse and we have a good chat, explains what's happening to my body, chat about my slippd disc and various ailments and how I'm going through a major change, etc etc. All good stuff and she gives me a load of leaflets, forms for a blood test and ECG scan of my heart. I don't ask about the tests since I'm overjoyed to finally have some information about diabetese.
Then I see the diabetese dietician and again we have a good chat, explains how food releases glucose and my body absorbs or doesn't absorb it, food and bad cholesterol and lipids, balancing meals and all that stuff. More leaflets and a nice little poster for my fridge. Then a rather long wait to see the chiropodist (diabetic feet are problems) for a short time and him telling me to go back if I have any problems with my feet because they might need to be amputated (yes, pleasant, I know).
Then off to find the blood test room and I'm starting to feel a little light-headed after no food all day and no pills. This is in another part of the hospital so it's not my previous vampires, but they draw blood and I ask where to go for the ECG... 15 minutes or so walk later I find it, as far from the clinic as it's possible to get and remain within the hospital, walking through empty, badly sign-posted corridors. After a 15 minutes wait I'm seen, shirt off, electrodes stuck on me in various places (including ankles) with double sticky strips put on my chest so she can rip them off, pulling on the hair so she can say an absent minded 'sorry' when I winced (the kind of 'sorry' you know isn't meant and has been uttered so many times during the day that's it's automatic), puts the cardiac print-out on the end of the couch and tells me to take it back to whoever referred me and walks out the door while I'm dressing (is that rude or is that being efficient?).
I told the nurses at the cardiac place and the receptionists at the clinic that I hadn't eaten all day. What I thought I was saying was, 'help, I'm not well because I haven't eaten' but what they heard was, 'poor mite must be starving'. I should have gone for something to eat after the blood test since I was light-headed but it was so late in the afternoon that I was worried that the cardiac place would shut and I would have to come back another day. Clearly I'm partly to blame in all this for letting things happen to me and simply doing what I'm told but how come no-one noticed or listened? I turn up fasting for a 2.30pm appointment and no-one thinks to suggest I eat something, particularly since, as the dietician told me, it's important for diabeatniks to eat regularly.
By this time I'm very light-headed and my back is aching. I hobble back to the clinic to hand in the ECG print-out and I'm told to wait for a doctor to look at it. I hold onto the counter to steady myself, then I'm told to go and sit down because they can't find a doctor. I'm then told, 'the doctor says it's ok to go' (not whether my ECG is ok or that I'm going to die, but not until next week so I can go home now). I stand up and nearly faint, obviously swaying and one of the receptions reaches out to help. I say I'm ok because I just want to get home and they let me walk out. I vaguely ask what happens next over my shoulder as I leave and they say (I think) that they'll write to me. I just want to leave.
I spent 2 1/2 hours there. No food since the previous night and no tablets (and it's the lack of tablets that send the glucose spiraling). I head straight for the hospital shop for a mars bar and locozade to get some calories into my body and weave my way out and off the hospital grounds. I have another near-faint as I walk down the road to get to the bus-stop, leaning against a wall for a minute, and all I want is to get home. I ring my physio (with whom I had an appointment) to cancel and say I'll just pay the late cancellation fee.
Luckily, a bus arrives straight away and I get on. Off the bus goes, only to be stopped by the police who get on and do a quick search - for what? who knows? It just seems right that there's a further delay to my getting home!
I get home and I need food and pills but all I can do is check my blood glucose level (the nurse drummed in reguar testing and gave a booklet to record test results in) and then I collapse on the bed and sleep for three hours ... then I wake up, have food and tablets and start feeling more like a human being.
I get up this morning and my glucose level was still 3 times what it should be so I went to the gym to get it down (I had a training session booked in any case). And my back was aching from all the walking round endless hospital corridors. Not a happy bunny.
What started off so well went so wrong and I don't understand why. I should clearly be more assertive about how I feel and what I need (but that runs in my family where medical stuff is concerned). How can I nearly faint in a hospital and be able to just walk out the door without anyone saying something? Why did I have to wait so long for the blood test that I was fasting and not taking tablets for? I should have said something.
You'd think a diabetes clinic would know better really - I now do and won't be putting up with that again.
My diabetes experience so far has been little more than 'here's some tablets and lose some weight'. So imagine my delight when I actually get an appointment at the Diabetese Clinic at St George's Hospital - at last, some proper advice! My enthusiasm slightly reduced when I found out I had an afternoon appointment and had to fast for 10 hours for the blood test. But I can do that, no problem.
I turn up and am sent for a urine sample (I'd actually just been to the toilet but managed to squeeze some out). I'm weighed and measured. Then I'm called in to see the diabetic nurse and we have a good chat, explains what's happening to my body, chat about my slippd disc and various ailments and how I'm going through a major change, etc etc. All good stuff and she gives me a load of leaflets, forms for a blood test and ECG scan of my heart. I don't ask about the tests since I'm overjoyed to finally have some information about diabetese.
Then I see the diabetese dietician and again we have a good chat, explains how food releases glucose and my body absorbs or doesn't absorb it, food and bad cholesterol and lipids, balancing meals and all that stuff. More leaflets and a nice little poster for my fridge. Then a rather long wait to see the chiropodist (diabetic feet are problems) for a short time and him telling me to go back if I have any problems with my feet because they might need to be amputated (yes, pleasant, I know).
Then off to find the blood test room and I'm starting to feel a little light-headed after no food all day and no pills. This is in another part of the hospital so it's not my previous vampires, but they draw blood and I ask where to go for the ECG... 15 minutes or so walk later I find it, as far from the clinic as it's possible to get and remain within the hospital, walking through empty, badly sign-posted corridors. After a 15 minutes wait I'm seen, shirt off, electrodes stuck on me in various places (including ankles) with double sticky strips put on my chest so she can rip them off, pulling on the hair so she can say an absent minded 'sorry' when I winced (the kind of 'sorry' you know isn't meant and has been uttered so many times during the day that's it's automatic), puts the cardiac print-out on the end of the couch and tells me to take it back to whoever referred me and walks out the door while I'm dressing (is that rude or is that being efficient?).
I told the nurses at the cardiac place and the receptionists at the clinic that I hadn't eaten all day. What I thought I was saying was, 'help, I'm not well because I haven't eaten' but what they heard was, 'poor mite must be starving'. I should have gone for something to eat after the blood test since I was light-headed but it was so late in the afternoon that I was worried that the cardiac place would shut and I would have to come back another day. Clearly I'm partly to blame in all this for letting things happen to me and simply doing what I'm told but how come no-one noticed or listened? I turn up fasting for a 2.30pm appointment and no-one thinks to suggest I eat something, particularly since, as the dietician told me, it's important for diabeatniks to eat regularly.
By this time I'm very light-headed and my back is aching. I hobble back to the clinic to hand in the ECG print-out and I'm told to wait for a doctor to look at it. I hold onto the counter to steady myself, then I'm told to go and sit down because they can't find a doctor. I'm then told, 'the doctor says it's ok to go' (not whether my ECG is ok or that I'm going to die, but not until next week so I can go home now). I stand up and nearly faint, obviously swaying and one of the receptions reaches out to help. I say I'm ok because I just want to get home and they let me walk out. I vaguely ask what happens next over my shoulder as I leave and they say (I think) that they'll write to me. I just want to leave.
I spent 2 1/2 hours there. No food since the previous night and no tablets (and it's the lack of tablets that send the glucose spiraling). I head straight for the hospital shop for a mars bar and locozade to get some calories into my body and weave my way out and off the hospital grounds. I have another near-faint as I walk down the road to get to the bus-stop, leaning against a wall for a minute, and all I want is to get home. I ring my physio (with whom I had an appointment) to cancel and say I'll just pay the late cancellation fee.
Luckily, a bus arrives straight away and I get on. Off the bus goes, only to be stopped by the police who get on and do a quick search - for what? who knows? It just seems right that there's a further delay to my getting home!
I get home and I need food and pills but all I can do is check my blood glucose level (the nurse drummed in reguar testing and gave a booklet to record test results in) and then I collapse on the bed and sleep for three hours ... then I wake up, have food and tablets and start feeling more like a human being.
I get up this morning and my glucose level was still 3 times what it should be so I went to the gym to get it down (I had a training session booked in any case). And my back was aching from all the walking round endless hospital corridors. Not a happy bunny.
What started off so well went so wrong and I don't understand why. I should clearly be more assertive about how I feel and what I need (but that runs in my family where medical stuff is concerned). How can I nearly faint in a hospital and be able to just walk out the door without anyone saying something? Why did I have to wait so long for the blood test that I was fasting and not taking tablets for? I should have said something.
You'd think a diabetes clinic would know better really - I now do and won't be putting up with that again.
Thursday, 10 August 2006
Wednesday, 9 August 2006
Sneaky
O yes, that's what it is, down right sneaky.
Last week I realised at the gym that I can't really do push-ups because it puts pressure on my lower back and makes me go 'ouch'. So, what does my trainer do? He's come up with a way of doing the same exercise but sitting up, exercising the same muscle groups but without the 'ouch' factor.
Now, if that's not sneaky I don't know what is!
Last week I realised at the gym that I can't really do push-ups because it puts pressure on my lower back and makes me go 'ouch'. So, what does my trainer do? He's come up with a way of doing the same exercise but sitting up, exercising the same muscle groups but without the 'ouch' factor.
Now, if that's not sneaky I don't know what is!
Tuesday, 8 August 2006
Sssshhhh........
Now, don't tell anyone, but I've got one of these thingymajigs that don't yet have a recognisable name.
We helped Intel/Samsung do a short pilot in a couple of schools earlier this summer and, now that the pilots are over, I took delivery of a few this afternoon so that we can trial them in the office (or play with them, which is a technical term).
It's an A5 size computer - not a laptop, not a tablet, not a handheld. It's something else, with full Windows functionality, wireless connectivity and a great media system. I switched it on tonight and found that I have an open wireless system somewhere close so I've been surfing a bit.
They're already working up the next generation of the machine and will, no doubt, come up with yet another version before displaying it publicly in January next year.
We helped Intel/Samsung do a short pilot in a couple of schools earlier this summer and, now that the pilots are over, I took delivery of a few this afternoon so that we can trial them in the office (or play with them, which is a technical term).
It's an A5 size computer - not a laptop, not a tablet, not a handheld. It's something else, with full Windows functionality, wireless connectivity and a great media system. I switched it on tonight and found that I have an open wireless system somewhere close so I've been surfing a bit.
They're already working up the next generation of the machine and will, no doubt, come up with yet another version before displaying it publicly in January next year.
SLADE update....
I know you can't wait for more information about the SLADE re-issues, so here's an extract from an email from Union Square Music that's responsible for the re-issues:
"... 'SLAYED?' is available in HMV before the others because it is part of a promotion around the 1,000 greatest albums ever released so we let it go early - the other three will be instore on August 21st with the box set due September 25th. Hopefully 'Crackers' will be out then - we'll confirm nearer the time.
"Our small SLADE microsite is currently under construction - at www.unionsquaremusic.co.uk/slade - more details to follow. We'll be posting details of all the promotion the band are doing around the reissues. Great reviews out already in Q and Classic Rock (comparing Slade to both The Who and The Beatles!) and a review and feature in Uncut."
I thought I should share.
"... 'SLAYED?' is available in HMV before the others because it is part of a promotion around the 1,000 greatest albums ever released so we let it go early - the other three will be instore on August 21st with the box set due September 25th. Hopefully 'Crackers' will be out then - we'll confirm nearer the time.
"Our small SLADE microsite is currently under construction - at www.unionsquaremusic.co.uk/slade - more details to follow. We'll be posting details of all the promotion the band are doing around the reissues. Great reviews out already in Q and Classic Rock (comparing Slade to both The Who and The Beatles!) and a review and feature in Uncut."
I thought I should share.
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