November 2005 Archives

[Moozik: Velvet Acid Christ - The Hand]

Intersting child support news from Blighty.

The Child Support Agency has had to refund hundreds of thousands of pounds in maintenance payments to more than 3,000 men after DNA tests revealed that they had been wrongly named by mothers in paternity suits.

Under CSA rules, men must start paying maintenance the moment they are named by mothers as the father of the child. They can challenge the ruling by asking for a DNA test but have to pay for it themselves.

Child Support Agency forced to pay back wrongly accused men

Hmm, wouldn't it be better to actually take a DNA test to prove parenthood *before* payments are made?

"pain and suffering in various countries"

It's been over twelve years since I last saw Depeche at Crystal Palace in 1993 [0] so needless to say I was extremely excited at the prospect of seeing them again. I wasn't disappointed. Best seats for a concert I've ever had. Overlooking the stage almost at floor level. In fact I'd say Fletch's synth bank was about 40ft away.

The arena was packed. I don't know if it was officially sold out but I didn't see an empty seat and thanks to the obligatory audience participation on Everything Counts & Personal Jesus, the house lights came on in full and you could see just how many people were there.

Notable changes since the last time I saw Depeche live. They've added a live drummer in place of the drum machines. Martin spends a *lot* of time behind the guitar instead of a bank of synths. If memory serves, he only put his guitar down to play the synth on four songs: Policy of Truth, World In My Eyes, Just Can't Get Enough, and Everything Counts. The main synth melody on A Question of Time was played on guitar instead of synth and they tweaked Precious so that one of the synth melodies was guitar based instead. Both worked extremely well even if they were unexpected.

Throughout the entire concert the band had so much energy and seemed to really enjoy themselves. Everyone grinned and laughed with each other throughout the gig. Especially when a persistent female fan beat the security guards and jumped up on stage. Dave walked around the stage with his arm around her and the security guard followed them wherever they went. The sound quality was amazing for a large venue. The band were absolutely flawless and did not miss a beat or sing out of key. Unlike earlier in the tour where they had to restart Everything Counts (Dave's "what the fuck was that?" is a classic).

So with a little help from my cell phone and if memory serves, the setlist was as follows

A Pain That I'm Used To
John the Revelator
A Question of Time
Policy of Truth
Precious
Walking In My Shoes
Suffer Well
Damaged People
Home
I Want It All
The Sinner In Me
I Feel You
Behind The Wheel
World In My Eyes
Personal Jesus
Enjoy The Silence

[first encore]
Somebody
Just Can't Get Enough
Everything Counts

[second encore]
Never Let Me Down Again
Goodnight Lovers

For me, Precious, Enjoy The Silence, and Everything Counts were the highlights of the show. Goodnight Lovers was an odd choice of song to end the show. Dave and Martin stood side by side on the little part of the stage that jutted out into the audience. It went down well with the crowd though and I must admit that I thought it ended the show well. As you can see from the setlist, there were a few notable absences, which is completely understandable when you've got 11 albums of material to pick from. No Stripped, Master and Servant, Blasphemous Rumours, or Strangelove.

So, to close, I had a bloody good time. Sang myself completely hoarse as you do at these things and I can't wait to see them again on their next tour.

[0] One of the best gigs I've ever been to in my life. 35000 DM fans, The Sisters of Mercy as the opening band. Classic.

[Moozik: Depeche Mode - Nothing's Impossible]

Good thing Gmail's (messages that have been in Trash more than 30 days will be automatically deleted) doesn't actually work. Thankfully I was able to get an email from December 2004 from my trash. I was pleased but, er, a little curious as to why my trash had not been automatically deleted as advertised.

"pain and suffering in various countries"

So sayeth my Depeche Mode concert fanboy t-shirt. Excellent gig. Probably the best seats I've ever had at any concert. I'll write more about it later but for the record, they put on an awesome show last night.

So I'll leave you with a public service announcement. Don't ever, ever, ever wear brand spanking new Dr Martens to a concert. And I mean ever. Let's just say I had to take them off to walk home :-)

[Moozik: Front 242 - Headhunter]

So today was a double whammy. Thanksgiving and my birthday. Best birthday meal evaaar.

So full. Yawn. So tired.

[Moozik: KMFDM - Adios]

So I'm sure quite a few hardcore gamers went out and bought the new Xbox this week because they wanted to be kewl and brag to their mates. This is a fine example of why you should always wait.

As for me, I didn't get one because of the distinct lack of quality launch games. I'll be waiting for another couple of months to let the dust settle on this little hardware snafu and to see if they actually bring out any games that are worth buying.

"pain and suffering in various tempos"

Depeche Mode's 11th studio album Playing The Angel came out last month and I've had a few weeks to get to know it.

The album opens with 'A Pain That I'm Used To'. A screeching fuzzy guitar gives way to a nice little bass synth riff that forms the backbone of the rest of the song. Initially Dave's vocals are quite subdued but he gets the chance to let rip on the chorus. Martin adds some reliable vocal harmonies that fit extremely well. A solid album opener and I hear that DM open with this song on their latest tour. [0]

'John The Revelator'. After skipping over this track in the beginning, I now find myself really liking it. It pulses with life with strong throaty vocals from Dave and music that certainly makes you nod your head. Should turn out to be a popular live song.

'Suffer Well'. Thumping drums, thumping bass, and minimalistc guitar and synth riffs all make their mark on this song to good effect. This also happens to be a moment in DM history because this is Dave Gahan's first DM track (he goes on to write another two on this album). To give credit where credit is due, you would never tell that this wasn't a Martin Gore song. That is quite a testament to Gahan because Gore is one of my favorite songwriters of all time. Great three song opening salvo I must say.

'Sinner In Me'. Slight change of pace from 'Suffer Well' as this song is a wee bit slower. It has all the necessary industrial bass synth riffs and bleeps but I think this song suffers from a case of "not as good as the previous three" and thus seems to somehow plod along.

'Precious'. Prior to this album, 'Enjoy The Silence' was the song by which all other DM songs are judged. Now I'm not so sure. Now it's a toss up between that song and 'Precious'. When I first heard 'Precious' on the radio, I knew they were back on form and almost forgave them for Exciter. Almost. Even though the lyrics are quite tender in their description of broken relationships and hurt souls, the song is full of warmth and has an uncanny Alan Wilder feel to it. Best song on the album.

'Macro'. Martin's first turn on lead vocals. I've listened to this song a lot and I've come to the conclusion that he somehow over sings this song. Anyone who has heard him sing 'One Caress' live can tell you, the bloke can sing. But here, I dunno, it sounds forced. The lyrics aren't all that good either and the song ends up sounding a little out of place somehow. I do like the fact that Dave provides backing vocals on the chorus. A nice reversal of vocal roles and to great effect too.

'I Want It All'. Dave's second track on the album and unfortunately, the weakest of the three. I've listened to this song a lot as I've been hoping it would grow on me. I'm thinking that if it hasn't by now, it probably never will.

'Nothing's Impossible'. If 'Precious' is the best song on the album, this one might be a very close joint second with the album opener. Dave's third and final track of the album and he makes up for 'I Want It All' nicely. His vocals are quite reserved and he sings in a slightly lower key than usual. His harmony with Martin on the chorus works very well. Good synth effects throughout and the Martin's guitar playing complement's the song well.

The instrumental filler of 'Introspectre' is followed by 'Damaged People'. Martin takes his second turn on lead vocals. A slow methodical synth melody plays throughout that seems rather reminiscent of Erasure's I Say I Say I Say album. At first listen this song is quite forgettable and you could be forgiven for hitting 'next'. But don't. This is another song that grows on you. I'm looking forward to seeing if he sings it on Friday [1]

'Lilian'. After Macro and I Want It All, Lilian completes the trio of songs that I will probably end up repeatedly skipping.

And the album closes with 'The Darkest Star'. This song is interesting. It has certainly grown on me over the past few weeks. It's a slow yet powerful song that I found myself humming the other day. That's always a good sign. And yes, this is the song that contains the album title.

So, in conclusion, a solid body of work. Better than Songs Of Faith And Devotion. Equally as good as Ultra and Music For The Masses. Which means that Black Celebration and the finest DM album ever, Violator, are still up on that pedestal.

[0] I'll find out first hand this Friday :-)

[1] I know I can prolly find out by scouring tha intarweb but I've tried to stay away from the reviews as I'd like there to be some surprise involved and not know the entire setlist beforehand :-)

[Moozik: The Human League - Being Boiled (fast version)]

...er, well, the trash, unfortunately. Yes it's the end of an era. The Dr Martens that I mentioned two years ago actually lived until this weekend. Yes, they are headed for the Dr Martens graveyard in the sky. They are, quite frankly, completely knackered in. Those DMs have been everywhere and are quite well traveled. England, Scotland, France, Spain, Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Germany, USA.

So now begins the next era in Dr Martens history. Oh yes, for I have visited drmartens.com and I have a brand spanking new pair of DMs arriving next week. NICE.

[Moozik: The Bravery - Tyrant]

Yeah, I watched it. Well I lasted about 45+ minutes before I bailed. Oh my god did that suck. The original won't go down as a classic but at least it was watchable. The remake was horrible, just horrible. Awful dialog, terrible acting and had a terrorism slant. So, yeah, in other words totally craptacular. It was a B/C celebrity extravaganza. Adam Baldwin, Rutger Hauer, Steve Guttenburg, Bryan Brown, C. Thomas Howell, Peter Weller, Alex Kingston.

Steve Guttenburg? Who knew he could still get work in Hollywood?

[Moozik: The Bravery - An Honest Mistake]

It's no real secret that I consider the Wikipedia to be my second brain. Signs that you rely on it too heavily are when you panic when it doesn't work.

request: GET http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=Grossdeutschland&go=Go, from 0.0.0.0 via srv7.wikimedia.org (squid/2.5.STABLE12) to en.wikipedia.org ([unknown])
Error: ERR_CANNOT_FORWARD, errno (115) Operation now in progress at Sun, 20 Nov 2005 17:51:22 GMT

And you know you're a geek when you know what operation now in progress actually means as you've been bitten by that lovely EINPROGRESS when stress testing a forking server.

[Moozik: PJ Harvey - Rid Of Me]

So I suppose the biggest decision I've got to make this upcoming holiday season is whether I want this holiday pack from Jones Soda or this one. Hmm, Turkey & Gravy flavoured drink or Smoked Salmon Pate flavoured drink. That's a tough one.

[Moozik: The Stone Roses - Begging You]

I'm trying to convince myself that once in a great while, it's ok to shell out from Perl and use the Unix toolkit. I need to find the newest 100 files in a directory and of those 100, sort newest to oldest.

Now, I can do this in Perl quite easily by reading the directory and using stat or File::stat on each file and add/delete from an array as necessary. The problem with that approach is that it doesn't necessarily scale that well and will be quite expensive when the directory in question contains thousands of files. So, not wanting to write a heap implementation myself, I took a peek to see if some has already done it.

But then, wouldn't it be far, far simpler to use the tools already at hand?

my @newest_files = `ls -t | head -100`;

Shudder. That feels...dirty.

[Moozik: Depeche Mode - Nothing's Impossible]

Yeah, I'll admit it, The West Wing is one of the TV highlights of Sunday night, if not the week. And I never miss it. Except when I do. Ok, so I'm a Tennis geek and was actually watching Amelie Mauresmo win the WTA Championship, BUT I was taping The West Wing.

Except it wasn't The West Wing. Oh no, satisfied with their sweeps ratings, the NBC execs decided that we didn't really want to watch The West Wing afterall. No, what the average West Wing viewer really wants to watch is that arsewipe Penn Gillette and the other bloke (who in some small measure of hilarity, never actually speaks, oh yes a side-splitter to be sure) do stuff underwater.

Except that we don't. So what the fuck?

[Moozik: Narcotic - Mentallo & The Fixer]

The other day, as I read this article regarding the use of computer algorithms to predict the success of music I thougt, hang on, I've read that somewhere before. Took me a while to remember why it rang a bell and I found it by accident this morning while doing some, ahem, bathroom reading.

The October 24th edition of time magazine has an interesting discussion between Mark Dery, Moby, Malcolm Gladwell, Clay Shirky, David Brooks, Esther Dyson, and Tim O'Reilly. One of the questions posed was "In movies, music, I'm surprised people haven't been more effective circumventing the studios to get things made.". To which, Moby replies...

I know a guy in Barcelona who has started to develop algorithms to determine whether a song is going to be a hit. It analyzes music to figure it out - and they're selling it to the record companies, and it's quite effective. If you expand on that, there's no reason you couldn't have your own personal search engine that understands your taste and can instantly analyze music based on a whole bunch of different, very subjective criteria to determine whether you might like it.

Aha, I knew I'd read that before. Seems musical taste predicting algorithms are what all the kewl kids are into :-) Moby made me grin by having the last word in the article when they were asked to make the case for optimism.

I find it comforting to bask in the glow of a bunch of erudite optimists. But I think the world is so complicated that I can't be so presumptuous as to justify pessimism or optimism, so I'll stay agnostic. But I like waking up every day, and I think Breakfast is a fantastic thing.

[Moozik: Tangerine Dream - Choronzon]

Say it aint so :-)

In early November George W. Bush, struggling to claw his way upward in polls that had acquired the consistency of quicksand after two months of blunders and disasters, launched a new PR blitz. The Administration declared it was taking charge of the nation's health and security with an all-out war on the flu (to be conducted with vaccines provided by well-connected pharmaceutical companies). "Our country has been given fair warning of this danger to our homeland," Bush declared. "It's my responsibility as President to take measures now to protect the American people."

But if Bush hoped to wipe away the stain of Katrina--and the memory of a hapless Michael Brown steering FEMA in circles while New Orleans drowned--he should have thought twice about bringing up the specter of a public health emergency, because the man responsible for coordinating the federal response to a flu pandemic or bioterror attack could well be the next Michael Brown.

Meet Stewart Simonson. He's the official charged by Bush with "the protection of the civilian population from acts of bioterrorism and other public health emergencies"--a well-connected, ideological, ambitious Republican with zero public health management or medical expertise, whose previous job was as a corporate lawyer for Amtrak. When Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff for Secretary of State Colin Powell, recently speculated, "If something comes along that is truly serious...like a major pandemic, you are going to see the ineptitude of this government in a way that will take you back to the Declaration of Independence," many of those professionally concerned with such scenarios couldn't help thinking of Simonson. They recalled his own unsettling words at a recent Homeland Security subcommittee hearing on government response to a chemical or biological attack: "We're learning as we go."

Germ Boys and Yes Men

[Moozik: KMFDM - Blackball]

Tim Bray waxes lyrical...and makes a bloody good point in the process.

I see that in our southern neighbor, the President has promised to veto anti-torture legislation and the Vice-President is trying to get the CIA exempted from it. I hate jumping to conclusions, and I'm worried; I read a lot of news, and it makes me wonder whether the faction currently governing America is heavily populated with greedy vicious lying thieving sanctimonious underhanded heartless venial creeps. That is what the evidence suggests. But like I said, you wouldn't want to jump to conclusions.

US Politics - Creepy

[Moozik: Depeche Mode - Shake The Disease]

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. You know how you can think a movie is good when you first watch it and then you re-watch it a few years later and wonder what the hell you were thinking? Ring a bell? That was the case with Star Trek VI. OMFG, the worst possible combination of writing and acting I've had the misfortune to witness. Horrible, just horrible. Although I did enjoy Christopher Plummer's overacting I must say.

I, Robot. Having never read the nine stories that make up Asimov's adaptation of I, Robot, I had no preconception of this movie whatsoever. Well, except that I haven't liked a single movie Will Smith has ever been in[0] but that's beside the point. Overall I think I actually liked this movie. I'm sure I'm in the minority and I know for a fact that Asimov fans did not like this movie. Well, my neighbor is an Asimov fan and he hated the movie so that sweeping generalization must be true right?

The Salton Sea. I really liked this movie. I'm not usually a Val Kilmer fan but I must admit he played quite a believable junkie. Vincent D'Nofrio was equally as good as a noseless nutjob drug dealer. But, sweet Jesus Val, please don't play the bloody trumpet ever again. I beg of you.

Empire Falls. You have to allot plenty of free time to watch this as it goes on foreverrrrrrr. It's not that this movie was bad. No, bad is the wrong word. It's just that along with it's great length, the tempo of the movie is soooo slooooow. I mean you *really* know you've just spent the last four hours sitting in front of the TV. So, a slow long movie. And then it ends without a bang or a whimper and you're left going "oh right". Paul Newman was good in it though.

[0] Ok, if given enough vino, I might admit to liking Enemy of the State but that's it for Mr Smith I'm afraid.

[Moozik: The Human League - The World Before Last]

So yeah, I can squeeze in a little gaming between The West Wing and Curb Your Enthusiasm. So based on the review it received in Electronic Gaming Monthly, I'm now playing Indigo Prophecy.

So how does it hold up to the game by which all others are judged? So far, not bad. Not bad at all. Time will tell...

[Moozik: The Jam - Private Hell]

As I was driving home tonight I noticed that a house down the road has all their Christmas lights on. All over their house and in their garden too. It's November 6th fer crissakes.

[Moozik: The Smiths - How Soon Is Now?]

Good thing Londoners don't use much cocaine. Oh wait...

So much cocaine is being used in London that traces of the white powdered narcotic can be detected in the Thames River, a report says.

Citing scientific research it commissioned, the UK's Sunday Telegraph newspaper said an estimated two kilograms of cocaine, or 80,000 lines, spilled into the river every day after it has passed through users' bodies and sewage treatment plants.

Cocaine traces detected in Thames River

[Moozik: Smashing Pumpkins - 1979]

Well, no real surprise.

You scored as atheism. You are... an atheist, though you probably already knew this. Also, you probably have several people praying daily for your soul.

Instead of simply being "nonreligious," atheists strongly believe in the lack of existence of a higher being, or God.

Which religion is the right one for you?

Interestingly, I scored 75% for satanism, a little higher than Neil's 67%. Newsflash, if I'm an atheist (which I am) I don't believe in fairy pixies in the sky, or the red bloke with horns and a tail.

[Moozik: Depeche Mode - Tora! Tora! Tora!]

Last night was the 2005 season finale of Bill Maher's show. Quite disappointing really. In fact I've been quite disappointed with the season in general. There have been memorable guests but I don't recall thinking any one particular episode was particularly noteworthy. Anyhoo, back to last night's show. Joe Scarborough sure likes the sound of his own voice doesn't he? My goodness. Bill did an awful job of managing the panel and it degenerated into what was really 'Real Time with Joe Scarborough'.

What annoyed me the most about Scarborough was his head in the sand attitude towards the fact that America is not actually perceived in a very good light around the world anymore. I dunno, he either doesn't realize or doesn't care. I suspect it's that he doesn't care but there you go. How the Bush administration has managed to turn around the great outpouring of support and unity that the world gave after 9/11 is a huge diplomatic failure. Oh, and Joe, do you still think there's no proof that the administration is pro-torture?

US Vice-President Dick Cheney made an unusual personal appeal to Republican senators this week to allow CIA exemptions to a proposed ban on the torture of terrorist suspects in American custody, according to participants in a closed-door session.

Cheney bid for torture ban exemption

[Moozik: James - Ring The Bells]

Well, not so much.

America's faith in George Bush and in his decision to go to war in Iraq has plummeted in the wake of a White House intelligence scandal that went to court this week, according to a new poll.

As the president encountered violent protests in Argentina at the start of his Latin America tour yesterday, a survey published by the Washington Post and ABC News showed that public confidence was eroding rapidly back home.

Nearly six in 10 Americans, 58%, said they had doubts about the president's honesty, a 13% rise in 18 months. Only 32% believed Mr Bush was handling ethical issues well, a significantly worse score than Bill Clinton achieved in his last scandal-besmirched year in office. His overall popularity has plunged to 39%, a new low for the Washington Post/ABC survey.

Mr Bush is no more popular in Argentina, where a protest by several thousand demonstrators turned ugly. In the coastal city of Mar del Plata, where he is attending a regional summit, protesters set fire to a bank, looted stores and battled riot police.

Bush feels hand of God as poll ratings slump

[Moozik: Manic Street Preachers - Natwest-Barclays-Midlands-Lloyds]

Please tell me he's joking. I mean, this has to be a piss take right? He's...not...serious...is...he?

I should be sayin' keep
My damn name outcha mouth
But y'all keep increasin' my change amount
So, go ahead and say whatcha wanna
I'm gonna sell about 2 mil
Uh, then I'm goner, uh
I know y'all wishin' you was in my position
Cause I keep gettin' into situations
That you wish you was in, cousin
I'm not your brother, I'm not your uncle, I'm Daddy do
Steppin' in this game and y'all ain't got a clue
My prediction is that y'all are gonna hate
On the style we create, straight 2008
But I know that you really can't wait
Because people always askin' me
When's the release date?
Well maybe, baby, you could wait and see
Until then all these Pavarattis followin' me
Gettin' anxious? Go take a peek
I'm starrin' in your magazines
Now every day and week
Back then, they call me K-fed
But you can call me Daddy instead
Back then, they call me K-fed
But you can call ...

K-Fed

No really, go and listen to it. And be prepared to laugh out loud.

[Moozik: The Cure - Want]

I think Brad might have just invented the best tag cloud I've seen thus far.

NICE.