When I was a kid…

…the future looked like this – the Usborne Book of the Future. My grandma bought me the book when I was about 7 or 8 I think and I remember being engrossed in it for ages and ages. 

I really wish I still had a copy. After all, where else can you read that in the Olympics of 2020, the native moonies won’t stand a chance in the 14 Metre lunar high jump because their muscles won’t be as developed as the earth dwellers. 

Brilliant stuff. Reminds of the story someone told me the other week (as we were discussing this book) where one of their friends ran outside at the turn of the millenium shouting “Where are they, where are they?” Bemused friends enquired what the heck he was on about, to which he replied “the flying cars, they said they’d be here in the year 2000″.

Funnnnnneee. 

This was a brilliant book and I must hunt down a copy. I’m not paying the £77 asking price that someone has it up for on Amazon though. Nope.

Funnily enough, my mate Alan Holding over at MDDA also had it when he was a kid. 

Take a look at it and let me know your favourite prediction. “Farming under the sea” perhaps, or space travel on asteroids?

Now, that’s given me an idea for the sool.

-pc.

It’s coming!

It’s coming!

Originally uploaded by Martin Cahill

Heh heh…

Like my new shirt?

-pc.

The Tony Wilson Experience – 24Hour Conversation

There’s a Tony Wilson commemorative event happening this weekend here in good ol’ Manchester.

The ‘Tony Wilson Experience‘ is a 24 hour conversation featuring some of the city’s (and beyond) brightest, most creative lights offering worskhops, discussion and debate with a couple of hundred of young, talented and creative people from Manchester and further afield.

Think Peter Savile (iconic designer), Peter Hook (New Order), Steve Coogan (actor, comedian), Alan McGee (Creation Records), Mark Radcliffe (Broadcaster), Stuart Maconie (Broadcaster), Ben Kelly (Hacienda designer), Brian Cox (scientiest, broadcaster) and Matt Greenhalgh (Control screenplay) and you get an idea of the kind of people who’ll be there.

And me. I’ll be there, which I’m pretty pleased about. I’m intending on covering the event for the Institute for Social Media, i4SM, which is an initiative of the University of Manchester and Manchester City Council.

I’m likely to dabble in a bit of live blogging using coveritlive, so you’ll be able to follow what’s going on, live, on the i4SM blog. I obviously won’t be able to cover the whole 24 hours, that would be a little tiring and even though many say I’m a workaholic, I’m not a daft one.

More details as I get them today – I only found out yesterday that I’d be able to go.

-pc.

A tale of two companies

Here’s a quick note to end the BA rant.

After the 17 days elapsed we got our bags back and we were pleased that they returned. We were less pleased that one of them had been damaged and needed replacing.

We duly asked BA for compensation for it. We were refused because we hadn’t applied for it within 7 days. Forget the fact that they held onto our property for almost 3 weeks and returned it damaged.

They were very gracious in giving us £35 for the essentials credit card that didn’t work when we were in Vancouver. Whoopty-fecking-doo.

In total they held our property for 20 days and we got £35 in compensation. That’s £1.75 per day.

Contrast this with Virgin Trains. We got held up going to London recently due to a signal failure. They happily reimbursed us for the FULL amount of our tickets with no fuss whatsoever…none. This wasn’t their fault either, it was Network Rails, but as the carrier they couldn’t get us to our destination, so they compensated.

BA were at fault. They couldn’t get our bags to us. They damaged our bag and they held our property for 20 days.

I won’t say any more about it now. It’s done.

But you should never fly BA. They are a disgrace.

-pc.

Radiohead, Malahide and all that

We first saw Radiohead at the Royal Dublin Showgrounds back in 1997. OK Computer had just come out…22 June to be precise. Not that I’m Rain Man or anything when it comes to Oxfords finest…but each gig is well remembered.

So, when this tour was announce we thought we’d revisit that fair Irish city to catch them. The gig this time was at Malahide Castle though, so in the end we figured we’d skip the city for the weekend and check out Malahide.

It’s crap there. Don’t go ever. You won’t enjoy the beach at Portmarnock, the village of Malahide itself, the wonderful people, the great pubs and the relaxing time you can have there. We had terrible weather too, really warm and sunny, so you wouldn’t have enjoyed the day on the beach, either. I implore you. Don’t go. You’ll spoil it for me and this place should be kept a secret.

So, after a day of burning my ankles on the beach we headed to the gig. I’m not going to do an in depth review, I’ll leave that to noordinaryfool – from which vantage point you can read the debate about whether it was a good gig or not – but I will give y’all a snippet of video.

For what it’s worth, I’ve never been to a bad RH gig. The MEN in 2003 was the worst I’ve been to, but that’s down to the venue. Malahide Castle was superbly organised, the bulk of the other giggers polite and nicely behaved, a great venue and smashing weather. All this AND Radiohead – what more could you want.

But, as you know, you’ll get nothing unbiased about Thom et al from me. Seeing Radiohead live is the closest I get to a religious experience. I’m genuinely moved by their music, artistry and skill…and so is JC. Once a queen of dance, she know has a tear in her eye when Thom walks on stage. If you’ve never been to an RH gig, go. You won’t regret it…if you do send me the invoice.

Anyway, video, here’s Pyramid Song. You can see we were pretty close…and the HD vidcam did well, although I still think there is a slight issue with the Quicktime codec.

While I’m here, I’ll tell you what has started to annoy me. People going to gigs and not paying attention to the music…chitter-chatter all the way through it. It seems to be getting worse and afflicts both large and small venues. If you aren’t bothered about the band on stage, do us all a favour…shut your mooth and leave. Or don’t go in the first place. I’ve done both in the past. And why get completely wasted? £65 to get wasted in a field? Strange economics.

Yeah, yeah, ‘free’ country, paid my money, do what I want…yadda yadda yadda. Don’t want to hear it now and I don’t want to hear it at gigs.

-pc.

 

unplanned blog holiday

Should have said this two weeks ago, but my blog holiday has been unplanned.

I need more time. Does anyone have any?

In the meantime, I want a new iPhone and the kind people at o2 are going to let me do that…they never miss an opportunity to take my cash.

I’ll be back soon. I have to update you on my battles with large corporates.

-pc.

There’s a band in the house

This is what happens when you have a band come to play in the house. When Jackie came home and said that she’d asked the Vista guys to come and play at a party for her birthday, I thought it was the stupidest idea I’d heard in a while. Not because of the band, but just the logistics.

Anyway, I worry too much evidently. I was wrong and she was right.

It was a great night and only one complaint from the neighbours. They’d only just moved in at the back of us and asked us to close the doors. Wouldn’t mind but it was only 10pm.  I guess they were quite loud.

It was their first outing as a trio and they were bloody good.

As usual, my camera work is less than stellar.

More videos here

I got some new business cards

I like Hugh McLeods cartoons and I thought this one was appropriate.

It’s quite funny.

-pc.

oh, man. Where did the time go?

Into the ether.
I’ve been away. It looks like I’ve been lazy, but I haven’t. I’ve been blogging over on TALK – the wiki that we are trying to get established in the local government sector here in the UK. That’s taken a lot of time and it’s a slow burn. We are doing some things well and some things less well…but at some point it will ignite and we’ll be very happy.

I’ve also been working on i4sm. That’s another slow burn project that is finding it’s legs. At some point it will ignite and we’ll be very happy. There are lots of people stoking the fire.

And I’ve been working on another project. At some point…well, you get the idea.

In my absence, you should watch this. I’ve already said that this was my favourite track from 2007. I’m saying it again and showing you the video. It’s truly wonderful. Go buy it. The album version is better.

-pc.

We got our bags back after 17 days

Much appreciated, Willie.

So long and thanks for all the fish. You won’t see me on one of your planes again.