Home
Home is so sad. It stays as it was left,
Shaped to the comfort of the last to go
As if to win them back. Instead, bereft
Of anyone to please, it withers so,
Having no heart to put aside the theft
And turn again to what it started as,
A joyous shot at how things ought to be,
Long fallen wide. You can see how it was:
Look at the pictures and the cutlery.
The music in the piano stool. That vase.
Philip Larkin
I have had a fair few comments lately where people have had trouble unzipping the files. Just so you know, I do check them prior to uploading and then double-check if people report problems.
The only thing I can think is that there is some compatability problem between the Zip program I am using - 7-Zip - and the most common variant out there - WinZip. I use AES256 for the encryption and that is only supported in WinZip 9.0 or later.
Can I recommend 7-Zip (Windows) or p7zip (Linux) if you are one of the unlucky ones?
First, both of them are free and second, I use 7-Zip so it should be OK and one of my regular readers - praest76 - has confirmed that p7zip will work on a Linux system (thanks for that).
Let me know if that helps.
Need an excuse to pass any old piece of civil liberty infringing, barely thought through, Big Brother shit legislation? You do? Well, just tell 'em its to combat terrorism and you can't get away with pretty much anything these days.
The latest howler being proposed by the Home Office is yet another database (New Labour sure have one massive hard-on for databases don't they?) that will contain the details of all phone calls and e-mails sent in the UK.
Just in case you missed it, A GOVERNMENT DATABASE CONTAINING DETAILS OF EVERY PHONE CALL AND E-MAIL SENT IN THE UK.
So,
- when your results are phoned through from the GU clinic, that'll be recorded
- when your on the phone to your Mum, crying your eyes out cause you partners a shit, that'll be recorded
- when your on the phone to your partner, whispering, ahem, "sweet nothings", that'll be recorded
- when you send that mail ordering your pharmaceuticals, legal or otherwise, that'll be recorded.
So pretty much everything about you - phone calls or e-mails - will be recorded. Why?
I ask because you see, terrorists, unlike the government, aren't stupid. Terrorists will be encrypting their communications (if they have any sense) whether it is mobile, e-mail or landline and listening in on that will be a waste of time (without the 'keys' of course). So that means the massive database is a White Elephant of truly gargantuan proportions unless, of course, its real purpose is actually to keep tabs on you and I.....
Hot on the heels of my Alison Goldfrapp expose, I bring you Ricky Gervais enjoying his Five Minutes Of Fame as Seona Dancing frontman. He'll never amount to anything, you mark my words.
When you think of 'work' does your heart immediately sink? I know mine does. That is because I currently associate the word with my present employment. I sit at a computer, tap away at a keyboard (you know how that feels surely?) and make changes to another computer hundreds of miles away. All entirely dependant upon the whim of my customer of course and believe me when I say they enjoy changing their whim. Or the whim is urgent is another one. Or maybe the first whim supplied the worng information and now it needs to be changed - urgently. Anyway, whims aside, at no point does it feel like 'work'. There is no tangible end-product and the results of my actions affect a device, and end user, remote from myself. Yes it is stressful at times but that is a human aspect of having to deal with other people. It can be interesting. But in my mind it is not connected to 'work'.
I put that down to my first full-time job having dropped out of Uni. I was a telephone engineer and it was hard work. I worked mostly on installations (as opposed to repairs) and 95% of the time on my own. The work was hard physically - the areas of Edinburgh I worked in comprised mainly of tenement flats (generally two or four flats to a landing, 3, 4 or sometimes 5 landings around one common stairwell) and this involved a lot of stair climbing carrying numerous pieces of kit (drills, cable drums, ladders) and associated tools (worn in a manly toolbelt). Not only that but the work was typically masculine, and I do mean that in a cliched sense, as it was all manual - running cables, fixing cables to walls, drilling holes, screwing boxes onto walls, connecting cables and wires up, indoors and outdoors come rain or shine, climbing poles and going under floors. And it was varied - each job was different and in a different location, even if it was only a hundred yards up the street. The end result of each job was there for you to see - a working telephone line for a person you were interacting with directly.
While I get paid more for doing my current job, I enjoyed the work of the telephone engineer.
I have posted Crown Of Thorns previously and according to the IRS website there are a few more songs out there but this is the end of what I have.
Steve Soer - Lead Vocals
Malcolm Mehyer - Guitars, Backing Vocals
Keith Finch - Keyboards, Synthesizers
Ty Holden - Bass
Phil Snow - Drums
Crown Of Thorns - Kingdom Come (Single) (Illegal Records ILS0035 1983)
I have included a scan of the Playground article, from Mick Mercer's Gothic Rock, with the Zip file which will provide some extra info. (I will try to do this as and when I remember and also where I have something worth including - live review, album review, etc.)
The other reason I mention this that I intend to try and link some of the music mag posts and the vinyl rips in future. Post some tunes over a few days with an interview sandwiched in between - how does that sound?
Back to Playground. If you have any sense at all then download this - it fucking rocks in a way that isn't rocking as such. Repetitive, which I always like, not a slow song to be found and Richo shout/sing-ing over a cacophony of guitar, bass and drums. Originating at a similar time to Altered States and coming from a similar place musically, both bands represent a reaction to the late 80's SAW-induced claustrophobia. That Playground sound like a heavier version of the aforementioned can only be considered a good thing.
Richo - Voice
Andy - Guitar
Paul Dude - Drums
Paul Fuzz - Bass
Playground - Sleeping Dogs (MLP) (Decoy DYL1 1988)
In a period where we have seen Gordon Brown and the Labour party getting a kicking from all sides, it is interesting to note that even people who he might once have considered allies have decided to join in.
Betraying all the hallmarks of political vultures (TheFreeDictionary: "A person of a rapacious, predatory, or profiteering nature") Cherie Blair, John Prescott and Lord Levy have all leapt onto the 'Brown is Bad for Britain' bandwagon and proceeded to dish the dirt by any means possible. Two Jags claims Tony Blair was scared of Gordo and that he had to act as peacemaker when the pair frequently fell out (between bouts of bingeing and vomiting obviously), Lord Levy - the Cash For Honours salesman - while saying he does not want to "bad mouth" Gordo has claimed it was "inconceivable" that Brown did not know where the money was coming from while Cherie, pleading poverty while buying a £4m country house, writes that Gordo rattled the keys to No. 10 over Tony's head.
Now is this sudden outpouring of confessional vitriol due to the mutual, though proably unspoken, concern that these people have for UK.Gov? Is it perhaps due to blind devotion to the Labour Party cause and a reflection of the damage they feel Gordo is wreaking? No, of course it fucking isn't. It is because all three have their memoirs coming out and now is a good time to get some press going, build up a good head of steam and watch those sales totals come rolling in. As usual, the motive is money - theirs. Things like solidarity, respect for colleagues and commonality of purpose are not going to get in the way of these three vultures making some quick bucks at everybody else's expense.
Tony's memoirs will be next, closely followed by Gordo's when he does the same to his successor. Boris and Dave will provide a similar mud-slinging forum while Charles Kennedy's autobiography will probably consist largely of pink elephants and numerous trips to the drinks cabinet. So fucking what.
Politics: A career move to make money out of those you are supposed to represent - nothing more, nothing less.
What is the point in having the largest military budget in the world if, while defending market forces and awarding contracts to the lowest bidder, you buy compromised gear?
This is a lesson for anybody still labouring under the illusion that computer networks can ever be safe. Despite what your government tells you and irrespective of any assurances as to the security of a network or database, they can be hacked. As you will see, it may not even require a concerted effort - just the West's Capitalist approach to doing business.
The FBI are increasingly concerned about the prevalence of counterfeit Cisco kit being deployed in, what should be, secure US computer networks. We are talking about cheap copies of switches and routers, the very building blocks of networks, being used in places such as the US Naval Air and Undersea Warfare Centres, the Marine Corps, the Air Force and the Federal Aviation Administration. The cut-price world of government IT procurement has resulted in a selection of, both authorised and unauthorised, Cisco resellers using creative new methods (that'll be buying cheap alternatives) of making money.
The result has been the discovery that the counterfeit kit is Chinese in origin - not necessarily a big surprise (cheap labour after all) - but what is of more concern is the suggestion that this production-line may actually be sponsored by the Chinese government. The implication being that all this Cisco kit the US is hooking up to its networks is not only sub-standard but it might actually contain, as yet undetected, back-doors into the very networks it is connected to. The consequences of Chinese agents or hackers having access to US networks are, and excuse my under-statement, far-reaching. As the article says, "Compromised hardware of potentially hostile foreign origin sits within secure networks of the US government, military, and intelligence services."
Still, when the bottom-line is your only concern and making big money your only aspiration, you get what you pay for.
And thanks to Rab C for pointing me at this story.
The Leveller
Near Martinpuich that night of hell
Two men were struck by the same shell,
Together tumbling in one heap
Senseless and limp like slaughtered sheep.
One was a pale eighteen-year-old,
Blue-eyed and thin and not too bold,
Pressed for the war not ten years too soon,
The shame and pity of his platoon.
The other came from far-off lands
With brisling chin and whiskered hands,
He had known death and hell before
In Mexico and Ecuador.
Yet in his death this cut-throat wild
Groaned 'Mother! Mother!' like a child,
While the poor innocent in man's clothes
Died cursing God with brutal oaths.
Old Sergeant Smith, kindest of men,
Wrote out two copies and then
Of his accustomed funeral speech
To cheer the womanfolk of each:-
"He died a hero's death: and we
His comrades of 'A' Company
Deeply regret his death: we shall
All deeply miss so true a pal."
Robert Graves
A round up of what is left in the December 1983 edition of Zig Zag that hasn't yet been posted.
Ad Nauseam posted a couple of Joolz EPs.
Alison Goldfrapps first bit of press?
Life On The Dot posted the Luddites last year.
Ministry turned out quite different.
The Milk Shakes remastered and reissued.
The last of my all-too-brief 'Mod Revival' series and this one is for John Liedown who seems to share an uncannily high number of common interests, although I daresay he already has this - the thought is there.
Secret Affair were:
Ian Page - Vocals, Trumpets, Piano, Keyboards
David Cairns - Guitars, Backing Vocals
Dennis Smith - Bass Guitar, Backing Vocals
Seb Shelton - Drums, Percussion
Secret Affair - Glory Boys (LP)
(I-Spy Records I-Spy 1 1979)
