September 21, 2004

One for the Earthman

If you're one of those people, like me, who used to thrill to the sounds of Eddie Van Halen's Eruption every friday night as part of the ident for Tommy Vance's Friday Rock show in the late 80s, then you'll probably dig this: said track being played on the violin (narrowband version here). If Clive Murray hasn't already seen this, he should.

September 13, 2004

Not that I'm bitter ...

The Huddersfield Daily Examiner reports that a true superstar DJ is coming to our town - Dave Lee Travis!

He's the special guest at the venue's 10th birthday party, at its regular Motown, soul and Starlight revival night in the Paparazzi club above the bar, on Friday.

The Hairy Cornflake then gets to wax nostaligc:

"I'm a huge Motown fan. Who isn't? That's when music was great, when it excited people. Nowadays I couldn't tell you a single record that's in the charts."

But soon, like a fuzzy moth drawn to a glowing pipe bowl, DLT returns to the subject that plagues him day and night:

"I haven't listened to Radio 1 for years - though I turned the dial to it by mistake in the car the other day. I switched it off again straight away.

"I think kids should get what they want to hear on radio. It's not a case of the old fuddy duddy versus the young, hip jocks.

"Radio is better than TV, but it's still going the way of all flesh. It's too easy to make programmes full of farting and crude jokes, instead of something balanced that people actually want to listen to."

The local radio career, the contempt for young BBC DJs, I'm not sure if he's more Alan Partricge or Dave Nice these days ...

September 10, 2004

Most hated men in rock

Not my top ten, but that of the Riverfront Times, via blogdex. Some lovely celebrity-bashing vitriol, for example:

wasn't it great when Sir Paul, sharing the stage with Madonna at the close of the 1999 MTV Music Awards, thought Lauryn Hill was a man, referring to the artist of the year as "some guy named Lawrence Hill?" Nice one, asshole. Worst of all, who can forget the post-9/11 ode to freedom named, with typical genius, "Freedom"? Marrying a young, blond, one-legged starfucker twelve hours after burying your hero-philanthropist wife was a good one too, mate. Go fuck yourself, McCartney

Drive, my hawkmen, DRIIIIIIIVE!

I was just nosing through these sound files (via haddock), and this classic quote made me think:

SCANNER GUY: General Kala - Flash Gordon approaching.

GENERAL KALA: What do you mean "Flash Gordon approaching"?

SCANNER GUY: On a Hawkman rocket cycle. Shall I inform his Majesty?

Now, riddle me this. Why would the Hawkmen, a race of people with wings, make fucking rocket cycles? Eh? I dunno, until I thought about that I enjoyed Flash Gordon, but now I'm finding it impossible to suspend disbelief.

September 7, 2004

New baby IQ drop

This article seems to be doing the rounds at the moment.

Researchers at the Kinsey Institute began their study in 1999 by giving 200 married couples who were planning on starting families within the next four years Intelligence Quotient (IQ) tests. By 2003, all but 27 of these couples had conceived.

Another IQ test was given to each set of parents successful in conceiving and birthing a baby six months after their child was born. These results were compared to the previous intelligence tests.

In every single one of the 173 cases, both parents scored at least twelve points lower on the second IQ test, with the majority of parents losing twenty or more IQ points.

So, it seems that six months of being woken up every couple of hours, constant fretting and otherwise radically adjusting your lifestyle to cope with an awesome new responsibility adversely affects people's ability to perform well on written tests. That sure is research funding well spent. Hopefully now that they've finished this earth-shaking study they can turn their attention to ursine aboreal defecatory habits ...