Blog! Since I'm having a video night tonight (so far Best In Show and At The Height Of Summer) can I suggest that you visit instead Kottke's remaindered links? Or Vicky? Or Robyn? Or John? Or Darren?
TV Pretty coherent rant regarding the Doctor Who segment of Children in Need last night. Yes it was unfunny and stupid. At the very least it should have been prerecorded. But what really disappointed me was that Wogan and Roslin stepped up and thank Jan Raverns and the Dead Ringers people and left Sylv and Colin, the two people there who had actually played Doctor Who, who'd actually squeezed into their old costumes, standing around like lemons. My God, it took ten years, and they've finally managed to create something which was actually works than Dimension in Time.
[The thread from the RT forum has been deleted ... bit too far off topic I expect, which is why the link above doesn't work properly. Basically the gist was that despite all the merchandise and UK Gold weekend, other than Blue Peter, this was the only thing on a terrestrial channel about the show and it sucked...]
Blogging A new article at Blogger Knowledge Base gives hints and tips as to how not to get fired from your job for writing a weblog. It's all fine, but it offers a chance to re-iterate my own rules.

The Rules

(1) Don’t write about your friends unless they’re doing something amazing
(2) Don’t talk about work unless you’ve left
(3) Don’t talk about things you know nothing about
(4) Don’t make the rules too conspicuous
(5) Some rules can be broken ...

Feel free to follow them yourself. As you can see they offer plenty of scope to embarass yourself a lot.
Life I tried to avoid a Hare Krishna follower today. She approached me in the drizzle as I hammered up the road, Christmas shopping in my lunch hour.
"I'm in my lunch hour." I said.
"Talk to me!" She shouted.
"Lunch hour."
"Say Gayatri..."
By now I'm ten feet away.
"Please talk to me!" She pleads.
"I'm a non-denominational spiritualist!" I shout out of desperation. I mean it usually works ...
"What does that mean?"
I don't know! I want to shout back but I just smile from under my umbrella and carry on up the street.

I do whatever I have to do in the shop I was heading to, then I'm on my way back down the street towards her. I know she's there and I'm wondering if I should cross over the road like a coward. She spots me. We're toe-to-toe.
"It means," I say, the inevitability intoxicating, "That everyone is right somewhere along the line, and everyone is wrong somewhere along the line, and their's really no point fighting wars over it." Or stand in the drizzle holding a clipboard, I want to add but think better of it. I hope this is enough. I try to walk away.
"That's lovely." She says. She reaches for her bag... can I ...
"I've got to go." I'm feet away now.
"Say Gayatri..." She pleads.
"It's against my religion." I grin. What religion?
"You don't know what it means..." She shouts.
"What does it mean?" I shout back.
"Be happy!"
"I AM HAPPY!"
"THAT'S GREAT!"
I smile again. I turn and walk away.

Apart from the fact that for once I actually stopped to talk because part of me wanted to ask her into the Starbucks nearby for their new EggNog Latte (I'm weak), I wonder who was suckered in this conversation. I've always had issues with people trying to imprint their own beliefs on others, and that includes the man who stands in Church Street with the megaphone telling me I'm going to hell. Any religions obviously wants to publicise themselves so that they can gain followers but perhaps the best policy is action rather than agenda. Wierdly, she may have been doing both.

I think I was trying to return the favour. Given a moment she would have fitted in a whole Google search's worth of Hare Krishna. I was doing something else with our time together. It was fairly clear that she'd spent the time I was in the shop trying to work out what a non-denominational spiritualist was, as though this thing I'd made up for such occasions when I want to encapsulate my odd don'tactuallyknowwhatthehellsgoingon-type feelings was something important she'd missed, right there in the others section of the census with Jedi. If I'd worked at it, could I have found my first follower, started my own cult, gone somewhere along the road to an organised religion? Probably not. But maybe she's there right now looking it up on the internet...

But the other arguement is that I played into her hands. I'm wondering what leads someone to stand about in the horrific weather we had this lunch time doing what she was doing, when she really looked like she could have really needed that EggNog Latte. She seemed so -- obsessed -- as though the only important thing she had was to get me to say the 'happy' word. And for whatever reason I smiled throughout and did walk away thinking that actually life is pretty good (Which it mostly is actually. No really. I'm not making it up), so was that what she was playing at? Probably not. But here I am writing about the encounter and mentioning the very word she couldn't get me to say. I even googled 'Hare Krishna' looking for it because I couldn't remember.

But I told you. I'm weak. And I'm wondering if it's possible to date someone if you agree not to mention the whole religion thing...
Film Spellbound. Good film. Long words.
Film Sidekick Magazine delivers a list of films everyone must have seen by now. Well, except me because I still haven't seen The Shining. I have it on tape somewhere, but every time I decided to sit down and watch it, something happens and ... so you can imagine how many references in films and TV shows I actually don't get. I haven't seen Carrie either so I'm in a real mess. I have seen Ghost though.
News The visiting of Bush is going to be messy. But it's good to see the BBC fulfilling their public service role by telling everyone who wants to protest where to go with this handy map. I love that the police and protesters have agreed this route. Not even the law want him here. No wonder he's brought his own security force.
Life The Christmas Tree is up in Liverpool City Centre ...



Galleries When I was picking and choosing for my bedroom I actively went for an Art Gallery white cube effect. So I was disappointed to read that Charles Saatchi thinks that the White Cube is dead. Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev disagrees characterising them as a precious thing worth saving.
Commerce Shopping Japanese Style - 2003.1112. Someone's been playing SimCity in the real world again:
"From above, the project looks like a stepped, green park surrounded by urban chaos. It crosses multiple blocks and is lush with trees, flowers, lawns, cliffs, streams, waterfalls, ponds, clusters of rocks, and outdoor terraces. Winding stone walkways, designed to mimic the natural curves and stratification sculpted by wind and water, gradually ascend eight levels to the street.

Beneath the park, a man-made canyon carves a pathway through a commercial center. This corridor connects the east and west edges of the site with existing urban circulation patterns. Rising up from the canyon floor are layers of specialty retail shops and entertainment and dining venues."
Which seems infinitely preferable to what I witnessed in The Capital of Culture 2008 yesterday afternoon. This year is an online Christmas for so many reasons...
Music Anchorage BB King is slowing down this year. He's only doing 200 concerts. I'm wondering if anyone can help me with something. I remember a song in someone asks rhetorically "Are you BB King?" but for the life of me I can't work out which one. And I've tried googling. I though it was Once In A Lifetime by Talking Heads, but nothing in there. Any ideas?
Spam I've just received a spam email from someone offering an anti-spam service. Erm ...