Saturday, October 28, 2006

A picture of pure, precious beauty.



Man alive, tell me this isn't the cutest picture of the cutest baby you ever done saw? I just received this in an email from my Aunt and thought everyone has to see this. Her name's Jessi, she's just turned 7 months old and good lord, shes the most precious thing I've ever seen. Look at that expression. She'll steal your heart with the slightest of glances.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Just had to write something, get some words outta my head.

So...its teaming rain outside. The kind of rain that soaks you right through. Down to your bones. I'm still reading Tom Waits collected interviews. Its captivating. He's never written an auto- biography, and he's notoriously evasive in interviews, frequently telling tall tales about his past. So this book is the closest you can get to the man behind the myth. All you can do is read, listen to him in these interviews and read between the lines. If you read real careful you can catch a glimpse of him here and there.
I bought some books yesterday in Ulverston, a small village outside of Barrow. I got Charles Bukowskis' first book, Post Office. I was reading it later in Poppies Cafe, enjoying a extra strength cappachino. I took a swig, swirled it around in my mouth and somehow a big stream of coffee squirted out of my mouth, landing right smack in the middle of my book. A little splashed onto the crotch of my pants too. I glanced around real quick expecting to see people starring at me and my stupidity but no one had noticed. That or they hid it well. I sat there thinking what the f was that all about? Then had to make my way home with a big yellow coffee stain on my crotch. The book is great though. Funny and honest and sad.
There's a great poem by Bukowski in my Tom Waits book, its full of great lines but here's one of my favourites: "the grace is being able to like rock music, symphony music, jazz...anything that contains the original energy of joy." The poems called One for the shoeshine man.
The front page of the Independent yesterday had a huge picture of a mother gorilla with her new born baby. The story was amazing. Two female gorillas, captured by hunters eleven years ago, were returned to the wild this year and each just gave birth to healthy babies. Only the second and third times that a previously captive Gorilla reproduced after being returned to their natural environment. So there's still hope for the gorillas yet, having faced extinction for so long. The picture was beautiful. Amazing. Even more amazing was a genuinely positive news story being on the front page of a newspaper, or there being a positive news story,period.
Thats all for now. I just wanted to talk for a minute.

bye bye

Friday, October 20, 2006






1,2,3,4,5: Some classy black and white pics from the fabulous bier halle in Glasgow.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Its autumn, its rainy and grey and if I had a cat I'd probably name it Kambei.

Hello, family and friends. How the heck are ya? Good I hope. I know Scottish Ryan is good. Real good after that incredible result on Saturday. I'm alright. A little restless. Just watched Seven Samurai and Yojimbo and they got the old creative juices flowing. I couldn't imagine a better way to spend a day off?
So yeah, summers long gone, autumn has settled in nicely, winters in the mail and the shops are already selling christmas decorations. Crazy. I'm still terrible at keepin in touch, I'm still strugglin to hit the gym regularly, I'm still struggling to write my story regularly. I've been stuck in a real lazy funk lately. Workin, watchin the ol boob tube. The new series of Extras is just as brilliant as the first series. Can Gervais do any wrong?Nope. I've been spending too much cash on cds and kurosawa films. But shit,I'm only human. Just finished Reservoir Dogs the x-box I borrowed off of Nics brother. It was really violent and really satisfying in a faintly unhealthy kinda way. I'm gonna give the x-box back very soon though,I get hooked on video games very easily. And its far easier for me to waste time in the virtual world of video games than write more of my story or read one of the two dozen books I have waiting in big piles up stairs. I'm a horrible procrastinater. I'm pretty sure thats not how you spell that too. Holy cow that looks ugly. Procrastinater. Jesus.
Anyway,I might be goin to see the Fall on Friday night. If you stand on the middle of walney bridge around dusk, you can watch these little black birds fly in these beautiful weirdly choreographed patterns in the sky. They fly around and around in one big tight group. The other week I was watchin em when two pigeons tried in vain to join the group. They tried their best to keep up but those little black birds are quick and apparently not interested in letting outsiders into their circle.
Pictures from mine and Nics visit to Glasgow last month will be up very soon hopefully,along with a few other snapshots. Thats all for now...hope your all getting on brilliantly. Oh and congratulations Shawna, thats very exciting and inspiring news!Campbell publishing sounds fantastic. News like that pushes me. Canadian Ryan inspires me too, his card business is going to be brilliant. Who am I kidding, it probably is great right now. And Tash and Christy startin their video store business. Everyones suddenly doin shit.
Ok, I'm goin now!

p.s here's the music mix I listened to on the train up to Glasgow last month(I know,I'm an ass):
1. Insomnia - Faithless
2. The Message- Grandmaster flash and the furious five.
3. Extraordinary- Joel Plaskett emergency.
4. Beat Connection- LCD Soundsystem.
5. Welcome home(Sanitarium)-Metallica.
6. Bridge to nowhere- Sam Roberts.
7. Honey bee- Tom Petty
8. Instinct Blues- White Stripes.
9. Make it rain- Tom Waits.
10. Sharp Darts- The Streets.
11. Home for a rest- Spirit of the west.
12. You think I ain't worth a dollar but I feel like a millionaire- Queens of the stone age.
13. Don't believe the hype- Public enemy.
14. Give the drummer some- Ultramagnetic mc's.
15. My Philosophy- Boogie Down productions.
16. Break it down(James Brown)- Offcuts.

Next stop...Glasgow central!!!!Yeehaa!