Archive for September 2003

David Blaine has succeeded in, if nothing else, dragging British idiosyncracies to the surface. I caught a Sky One special last night, an update on his 44-day water-fast on the banks of the Thames. I struggled to see some valid objections to his stunt, but for all my efforts, I just... More »

I didn't make it down to the 'End the Occupation of Iraq' demo in London today, so I thought the least I could do is spread some revealing information about the growing behind-the-scenes cash-in on this occupation. The excellent blog Baghdad Burning, an essential complement/antidote to media coverage, reports the distress... More »

It's often the case that news channels like BBC News 24 run the more revealing stories in the wee hours of the morning, for reasons we don't even need Chomsky to help us divine. I thought I'd caught one of these little outbreaks of reality last night when the guy... More »

I would have blogged this over on the norlonto.net homepage, but we've got a notice there we need to keep up until a bit of spam domain spoofing tarring our good name blows over... I just got some unrelated spam at the norlonto.net enquiries address, apparently from a Chinese firm calling... More »

On Tuesday I went to a great Kosmische gig upstairs at the Garage in Highbury. Caesar Romero belted out their rumbling, vibrant fury of latino-tinged horror-fuelled instrumentals, with their stunning dancer giving it her all. Groop shone as ever, a colourful burst of deep grooves and righteous energy. And the... More »

Just been discussing David Blaine with my good friend Jim. I've been aware since reading a BBC story about various hostile reactions to his fasting stunt that the predictable and usually charming British irreverence was out in force. Well, it seems that last night Jim ended up wading through the... More »