The Den o'Iniquity

If you're here looking for the god transcript - Nick's not happy having it on the web, so I've taken it down for the forseeable future. If anyone really wants to see it, nick might give you a copy of the text file, but It's probably just gone into the blog void.
Very sorry, The T

As an extra post I want to run another game of boardgame civ before we all go back so can people post here when they do it and any suggested venues.
The T

This just in : provisional start date is 12 midday on sunday the 31st of August

Oh well, reporting back and amps aren’t quite at 11 and boots are distinctly empty of rock. Things were a bit of a disappointment :(. However it wasn't all bad I did still see some great bands. Friday was a bit of a blowout since I didn't fancy seeing punk / skater / goth bands. Toddled over to System of a down briefly but didn't feel much like high speed shouting. Primal scream were very disappointing, I never got the feeling they wanted to be there and it was a very lifeless performance. I enjoyed kill all the hippies but I don't think they really meant it. Good charlotte had the days most interesting crowd moment when they incited the crowd to pelt them and each other with bottles, sadly the wind was against them so no-one managed to ding the band, still funny though. In the comedy tent I saw a few people, best of whom was Rick Right a very funny American comedian and singer. The day's highlight was FC Kahuna in the dance tent who, though I only caught 20 ish minutes of their set were absolutely fucking amazing. Their album will be purchased shortly. Went home early on the Friday, as I didn't want to see corporate whore-rockers metallica.
Saturday brought a new and better day, with the promise of the best set of bands. Started off with a surreal acoustic by My Computer (whose computer was broken) in the dance tent then saw Less than Jake, who were cool. I enjoyed the dancing fat man with the saxophone and the shoulder top fighting in the crowd (instigated by band) at the end. Saw the beginning of alien ant farm next, but the beast was tired so we adjourned to the comedy tent. Before the comedy started we saw local band Catalyst who rocked really very well, I may look them up in Leeds on my return. The comedy was MC'ed by Kenny Junior from Phoenix Nights who as well as being a very funny fat man is great at dealing with hecklers. Saw a cool black comic from New York whose name escapes me, then some funny socialist man, then very funny posh bloke, Alasdair Barrie who is really very good. This all formed a prelude to seeing Mark Thomas, who was very funny as usual I liked his bits mocking bush, vegans and political correctness as well as his 10 minute pisstaking of the SWPs. However he got carried away with himself and over ran by 20 mins telling people to take direct action against stuff including the festival itself. Not pleased, particularly as this mad e me miss the first twenty minutes of electric six to hear lefty whinging, Grrrr. Electric six were cool in spite of Arseholes in the crowd who kept chanting for gay Bar and then left after hearing it one song from the end. This did let me into the tent though. Afterwards got some viciously overpriced food and had to queue for over an hour to use a cashpoint thus missing all but the end of Blackalicious's slot in the dance tent, which was simply awesome - his rendition of the alphabet song is truly breathtaking. After a 30 minute DJ - filled intermission came my highlight of the day - Death In Vegas - Simply. Fucking. Amazing. Muchos Woo and excess Yay. Rounding up my day was a sojourn in the late night tent, watching Daft Punk's film, which was anime-licious. On way out, was approached by a trio of Dutch people one of whom wanted to piss on me for some reason. Managed to get them to go away by talking to them for 5 mins about how the smell of piss is impossible to get out of leather (it is).
Sunday started with farce as the bus driver got lost for 30 minutes, making us miss junior senior and the darkness (who we'd missed already anyway, due to a schedule change). Beasty was a bit dejected at this, so he left after we'd seen the thrills who were decent. Next up I saw Beck who was ok and BRMC who aren't really as good live. The day was salvaged by Blur's 2 hour set though which was fantastic and enjoyed with a big bald man named Mark, who was cool and an insanely boppy lass called Kerry. All in all Leeds wasn't bad, but I wish I had seen more bands and spent less time queuing for stuff and wandering aimlessly. Mean fiddler group scalped me mercilessly throughout adding about 100 quid in cost to the 200 for the tickets for Beasty and me.
Mostly Rocked out, The T

I'm off to the Leeds Festival for the Weekend so there won't be any more updates until monday. Will report back with amps at 11 and boots full of ROCK.
We need bigger bread,
The T out.

Furthermore to the last post. THIS IS NOT A JOKE.

Just to let you know microsoft loves you, here's an extract from your EULA with Bill gates and his satanic hordes:
DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES. TO THE MAXIMUM
EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW,
MICROSOFT AND ITS SUPPLIERS PROVIDE TO
YOU THE COMPONENTS AND SUPPORT SERVICES
(IF ANY) AS IS AND WITH ALL FAULTS; AND
MICROSOFT AND ITS SUPPLIERS HEREBY
DISCLAIM ALL OTHER WARRANTIES AND
CONDITIONS, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED
OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
LIMITED TO, ANY (IF ANY) IMPLIED
WARRANTIES, DUTIES OR CONDITIONS OF
MERCHANTABILITY, OF FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OF RELIABILITY
OR AVAILABILITY, OF ACCURACY OR
COMPLETENESS OF RESPONSES, OF RESULTS,
OF WORKMANLIKE EFFORT, OF LACK OF
VIRUSES, AND OF LACK OF NEGLIGENCE, ALL
WITH REGARD TO THE COMPONENTS, AND THE
PROVISION OF OR FAILURE TO PROVIDE
SUPPORT OR OTHER SERVICES, INFORMATION,
SOFTWARE, AND RELATED CONTENT THROUGH
THE COMPONENTS OR OTHERWISE ARISING OUT
OF THE USE OF THE COMPONENTS. ALSO,
THERE IS NO WARRANTY OR CONDITION OF
TITLE, QUIET ENJOYMENT, QUIET
POSSESSION, CORRESPONDENCE TO
DESCRIPTION OR NON-INFRINGEMENT WITH
REGARD TO THE COMPONENTS.
The T

Finally I have an Announcement to make - Commencing Tuesday the 12th of August and running until the 21st of August I have the house to myself. Since as assorted geeks and nerds the traditional booze-soaked house trashing party is not really our style I propose instead a LAN PARTY. This will provisionally commence on Weds and last until Thurs with extra time running into Friday possible. Bring your computer if you can though this is not mandatory (for compy transportation arrangements contact Ben "Kitton" Wright) as there will be a rotation system and a non computer area downstairs featuring munchables, music and the very finest of TV and Film (if you have anything good be it TV series, Films or Games bring it along for maximum funnage).
If you don't hear from me before then (and you should) the assumed starting time is roundabout 12 O’clock.
Yours Enthusiastically,
The T

I'm going to break this post up into several bits (like threads) to allow people to comment on bits even if they don't feel they can comment on the whole thing. Next up the series finale of season 2 of 24. WOO AND VERILY YAY. Of course Jack Bauer as expected kicked ass and vanquished those evil terrorist mother hubbards. The twist involving President Palmer was one that I genuinely didn't see coming and sets up for a sequel better than at the end of the first series. The end of the series does however give an opportunity to reflect on the entirety of it and particularly on the messages it sent out. These, I feel were pretty mixed throughout. Islam didn't get portrayed too well throughout the film (except for the kickass Imam at the mosque who was one of my fav minor characters) and all the Arabic characters apart from Said Ali met pretty gruesome ends. Also the examination of the motives is very telling - while the terrorists themselves are very accurately portrayed as rich, westernised psychopaths, any idea that they may have some valid grievances is brushed aside. This is exacerbated by the fact that no country in the middle east (including Israel) apart from turkey is ever named, this really precludes any serious discussion of the nature of hatred of America. However the series did have Rich American oil interests as it's main villains and American survivalists and hired guns killed far more people than the Arab terrorists. The casting of the endgame villain as a Frenchman is at first site blatantly jingoistic but given the vast web of French oil interests across the Caspian and germainely in Saddam-era Iraq it is not a false one. The conclusion also seems to be a measured refuting of Bush's road to war - the basis for it is a manufactured fabric of lies and forgeries driven by big oil and the military industrial complex and security establishment. The president's closing words to his cabinet also rebuke bush as he talks of the need to explore all options before war and to be totally sure always of the factual basis for war. While the overtones of the show have sometimes been troubling (particularly the great use of torture) I feel, politically the second series has acquitted itself well. In fact given it is a creation of American Network TV it seems positively radical and subversive in its politics. Aside from the politics 24 part two also performed well, despite some truly stupid sub-plots (Tony and what's her face's date, everything to do with Kim, particularly the nuclear bunker and cougar amusing as they were) and a plot twist too far in Alex Hewitt stabbing the wicked witch and jumping off a building it maintained the tension throughout and delivered on the twists and turns. While it may not be as groundbreaking as season 1 or quite as engrossing it has nonetheless been must-see TV.

So much to blog, so little time. First off my extremely belated play report on 12 Angry Men. I don't want to spoil the plot of the play / film because it is very mighty so the amount which I can actually say is somewhat circumscribed. Basically it's set in a jury room after the trial of a young black man accused of the murder of his father. It’s about an hour and a half and follows their deliberations and arguments as they try and find the truth behind the case. Despite essentially only having one set and one scene the play is very compelling and never gets boring - it's taut, gripping and psychologically loaded. The characters are very interesting and far from 1 dimensional and we learn a lot about them considering they are largely nameless and say little about themselves directly. Both the play and the film have some very good character acting in them bringing out the various personas of the jurors. If you can get up to Edinburgh this year (and I recognise almost all of you can't) then you should see this play. The 12 jurors are all played by stand-up comedians (most notably Bill bailey who is as ever excellent) yet they all play straight and the effect really works. If you can't see the play the film is also excellent, starring henry Fonda in perhaps his greatest film role and in stark black and white. Anyway a great hour and a half and one that reminded me why I liked plays in the first place.

Quick addendum - going to see Bill Bailey's play 12 angry men in Beastyland tomorrow. Will report back afterwards.
The T

Another week, another excuse for no blog (though it's not like anyone else is blogging regularly at the mo, the bitches). On that subject though, TDT's (that damned tweedy's) webhole is getting closer to being fully functional again and is worth a visit. It seems like I never do anything any more, I just sit around playing computer games with beasty, eating and listening to my MP3s, though as the beast leaves tomorrey I should be able to cut back on the first two. The only major thing I've done lately was finishing the game of civ yesterday but I got totally ass-raped and went from second (ish) to joint last which was galling. The scorching heat we've had lately has just added to my personal torpor. I've had ideas for a blog post lying around for 5 days and not done anything about it which just deepens my feelings of excessive laziness. I'll try and get them out now, but the inital spark about them has mainly faded.
While correcting grammar and spelling a bit in the last post I realised that since doing it I not only started the aforementioned boardgame of civ but also went to the Langley party. This I feel merits at least some explanation. Since all of you people (kitton, luke, stoker, luke, manuel, dev et al) declined to actually come I spent the whole time surrounded by Gatesheadians and getting alternately bored and annoyed. No offence meant to Langley but I just didn't find listening to gig news and discussion of school on the lesser side of the river exactly riveting. That and Platt was really getting on my tits, I swear sometimes he really can be the most pugnacious and irritating man alive (if you do read this, Platt I'm usually the first person to defend you but you really can be full of yourself). Hence I snuck off fairly early and went for a walk around town to find club cuba cuba and confirm Platt wrong about the police station. I seem to leave everything early these days, what with tiredness and social awkwardness and severe weakening of alcohol hardiness and all, though at least it's not as bad as it used to be back in the bad old days when I never did anything.
My blog post idea was sparked after finishing reading the new terry Pratchett book, The Wee Free Men. I enjoyed it as usual for his work but felt that the ending was perhaps a bit premature. As is ever the way with me (maybe it's just the writers doing their job well) I felt that I strongly empathised with the central character and identified their similarities with myself far more than their differences. The barbs thrown at the heroine about her inhumanity and lack of human feeling in particular resonated with me, as did the general nature of her character - calculating, over thinking and determined. It may just be a natural human trait to identify with characters in fiction but given my general inability to identify with or empathise with people face to face and more generally in real life I count it as one of my personal pecularities. I wonder whether this is perhaps because in fiction - be it films, tv or most particularly books I get the insights into peoples thoughts, actions, feelings and motivations that are denied to me in life. In fiction the characters lives are an open vista across which conscious perception may roam like a bird, seeing and moving freely, while real life is for me like finding yourself in a maze of smoked glass, being able to see others veguely but never hear or touch them. I know this analogy is pretty much wilfully oblique, but hey whatcha gonna do about it, punk? A better way of putting it might be that most people have relationships with the human mass around them that are broadly comparable with the one a viewer might establish with an onscreen character. They see the character's feelings and movements and their triumphs and successes and will almost certainly begin to empathise with the character with few exceptions even for "anti-heroes" or flawed souls (see Tony soprano and countless self destructive TV cops). However seems more like the one you might experience with a peripheral chaarcter or extra. You never see what they do or why they do it, never bear witness to their struggles and never find any bond with them consequentially, starved of any information as to see simply who they are, you may even struggle to remember their name. I know that as explanations go, these aren't great, but then communication is never supposed to be a strong point for autists anyway. It just feels sometimes like I live in a world of opaque minds and blank masks never seeing or understanding anyone else. This is probably just fatuous nonsense.
Will try and make more sense next time, The T