RIP - Robert Ward

I discovered this when Amy Rigby sent me the link to Andy Schwartz's Dictators post on Ted's blog. Please take some time to read the other stuff too because there's some damn fine writing to be enjoyed there. And you didn't seriously want to get up from in front of the screen anyway, right?

Checking out the Nobunny interview at Turn It Down, I discovered Stuffed Animals. Cool beans...

I've just spent the last wee while railing (ha ha - i'm a right comic) against the abysmal public transport that exists here in Scotland. I began to get a bug up my bahookie about this yesterday when I took the bus into Edinburgh (and back). It's possible to do this from just along the road rather than take the car to a train station but anyway. It also allows the individual to have a couple of drinks but it's not wise to have any more than two pints. I would also advise that you make sure that you evacuate that before you get on. As if you have a choice...

So the service is worse than crap but the actual journey is fine. Particulary if you have a good book (in this case, Popular Music by Mikael Neimi) and some music to listen to. Company would be OK too but most folks won't entertain it. Doubt if I will again as it happens either but it was an experiment. No animals (except me) were harmed in its being carried out.

I could really do with seeing the movie of this book again but a copy with English subtitles seems to be unobtainable.

Anyhoo, to cut a long story short, I've written curt messages to Transport Scotland, First Scotrail and also the Scottish Parliament Transport Minister. Woe betide each and every one if I get a form letter response. I have a feeling in my water (see how I brought that back to the pee thing) that this one could run and run (haw haw). My sides are aboot to split here... or are they?

So here we are in the no-persons land between alleged celebrations. Things are about to get very hairy indeed but you wouldn't think that to see the droves in Edinburgh. The place is teeming with people spending money like it's about to be worth nothing. Oh, wait a minute - maybe they're on to something there? It was good to hook up with Peter Tjolsen, my old mucker of the Oslo parish over there yesterday for a couple of libations in the Bow Bar.

A place has opened up straight across from there which I think is fairly obnoxious. They carve up a pig carcass in the window and serve it up to eat in and maybe even out. It seemed to be getting a fair bit of attention. Having not been aware of it's existence I'm curious as to how it got the go-ahead. Edinburgh is in such a palaver to grab the tourist buck that I'm surprised they never considered the feelings of vege/vegans and or people who might find it vaguely disgusting. Imagine if you stoated into a kebab shops and there was a big head on the top of the meatblock? Well it occurs to me that what they're punting is akin to that.

Peter gave me a copy of Vibeke Saugestad's Christmas EP "... From All Of Me" which feature 5 very cool original songs that'll give you a rosy punk poppin' glow from the outset.

"I Must Have Been So Good" is a spiritual cross between Darlene Love and The Ramones. Rip roaring guitars and sleighbells, a lethal concoction. There's a knack to creating that festive mood and those "Hey Ho's" that punctuate "Mistletoe Kissing" prove that these folks have got it down pat. It ain't easy to sound old but not backdated. I really need to get my hands on a copy of her (third!) album that came out earlier this year. This gal is a high calibre singer, "A Christmas Carol (for the Losers in Love)" reminds me of Maria McKee. As the outro of "Christmas Is Calling Me Home" trickles away, it stands out as a further example of how far ahead Scandanavian pop acually is. Clocking in at just under 15 minutes, you wish it would stay around just a little longer.

RIP - Freddie Hubbard