Is not a woken and vengeful ghost enough?

[alexsarll]

"This may be a stupid question, but does anyone want a brick?"
"Is it a squeezy one?"
"No, it's a brick. Like you use to make houses."
We're moving offices, and that means chucking out time, and that means descending like vultures on each other's discard pile. Some of you will be getting slightly strange presents out of this, and there's sure to be a giveaway post once the adrenalin wears off and I contemplate my swag. Because the way it works here is that if you even have one reflex to move towards something, you grab it now, and wonder whether you actually want it later.

Today's anti-Olympic rant is going behind a cut because, as Takeshi Kovacs says, "it's amazing how constant repetition can make even the most obvious truths irritating enough to disagree with."
This BBC article about opponents of the Fvcking Bid is, for the most part, very good. And it's wonderful to see the national broadcaster giving the views of what is at the very least a significant minority the airtime they deserve, even in the face of heavily funded attempts to manufacture consensus.
However: "The bid's opponents aren't curmudgeons - their hearts will still flutter at the sight of another Kelly Holmes sprint finish."
Sorry, but if my heart *ever* flutters while I'm watching the Olympics it'll be a coincidental medical mishap. Sprinting isn't inherently boring, but it needs a bit more context to interest me; Indiana Jones escaping a deathtrap, for instance or James Bond charging in to defuse a bomb. Hell, I even like one bit of fiction which is entirely centred on a running race: The Human Race, in which the Flash races Sonic the Hedgehog across the Universe to save the Earth.
(The Flash later races Death itself too, but somehow that's not quite as good)

On a similar note, one Metro correspondent thinks we refuseniks are inconsistent. "I hope those opposed to London's Olympic bid are at least consistent and are opposed to all future world sporting events being staged here. If you don't want London to host the Olympics, then presumably you never want us to host the World Cups of football, rugby, cricket etc?"
Well obviously I don't want any of those either. What's your point, Colin Stankey?

Oh, and the pro-bid Standard reports that Londoners will be 'invited' to host athlete's families free of charge. If it's anything like the level of democracy that's been applied to the bid so far, then forcible billeting seems more likely.


I'm thinking the Fan Club sounds good for tonight, especially as it's the second part of kitty_collar's birthday celebrations. luxembourg are on around 10, apparently.

Comments

GIC

[innerbrat]

Smooth on the inside, crunchy on the outside!

ARMADILLO

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Oh, I remember that! Where was it from?

Re: ARMADILLO

[innerbrat]

Harry Enfield in the Dime Bar advert.

"Dime, the surprising alternative to armadillos."

You mean you haven't got an armadillo type icon just for that reason?

Re: ARMADILLO

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Ah yes! I knew it was Dime-related, but not who, or whether it was the ads themselves or a spoof thereof.
No, the icon is simply because I have thought pangolins are ace ever since I saw them on Life of Mammals.

[perfectlyvague.livejournal.com]

Chipchase? That's a marvellous surname. Or is it an exhibition event for the Liverpool bid for 2028?

[perfectlyvague.livejournal.com]

Also, was mightily amused by the headlines in the newsagents this morning informing me that I had to adopt an athlete. I'm sure that sporting prowess is much enhanced by being kept awake alnight by drunks and sirens and being trod on by your hostess when she gets out of bed at 6am.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

The one upside would be if world champion martial artists got beaten up by locals - proving that London is literally world-beating.

[perfectlyvague.livejournal.com]

I defy Kelly Holmes to beat me round Highbury Corner for a 277 at 8.15.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

She would so never have beaten me to Reformer's Tree either.

[perfectlyvague.livejournal.com]

I listened to my voicemails from Saturday last night. My favourite is Isabelle at 6:02 'I believe we have a winner, and IT'S NOT DAVID!!!!'

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

It's the new training regime for athletes lodging with chavs.

[ksta.livejournal.com]

how does the Fan club differ from SB? Lack o' goths?

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

Slightly different musical focus these days, though it's hard to put one's finger on it... more music with sharp edges, less music with fuzzy noise. I like it, but Friday nights are so difficult at the moment, and tomorrows I do be having a tutorial at 9am.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

It's ages since I've been. But like JDC says, there is a definite difference, one just can't quite summarise it.

[perfectlyvague.livejournal.com]

Fanclub is more like my record collection before 1994, SB is more like my record collection after 1999.

[perfectlyvague.livejournal.com]

Or, I guess Fanclub is my vinyl, SB is my CDs

[johnnyvertigen.livejournal.com]

With the Fanclub you actually get to hear stuff that's interesting now and again rather than an endless run of Hole, Suede, Manics etc etc bloody etc. Though saying that the last SB wasn't too bad music wise.

[jamesward.livejournal.com]

I'm currently deciding whether or not to Fan Club tonight. I want to see Mynx, but I don't really like leaving the house. They're playing the Pleasure Unit next week which has the advantage of only being five minutes away from Home, where as Fan Club has the attractive quality of being free. Tough choice.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm. I'd say go with 'free'; you can get home fairly easily on a 253, after all.

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

You'll be able to inform me, Ward, are there more or less goths than SB?

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I'd say less goths, overall.

[jamesward.livejournal.com]

I have only been to SB once in about two years, and I have probably only been to Fan Club twice in that time. HOWEVER, I can confirm that there are far more goths at SB.

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

Hoo-RAY. Still, Camden though.

[davebushe.livejournal.com]

Yay Kovacs! I started it on the tube to work this morning :)

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Is that Boardman's copy? If so, he's powering ahead of me, and I had a head start. I've still got about 130 pages to go.

[davebushe.livejournal.com]

Yes it is indeed. Picked it up last night and there are already queues around the V.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Heh. I have my uses...

[hazyjayne.livejournal.com]

Did you see the list of points on page 21 of The Metro about the bid (A Day in the Life of an IOC Expert)?

"They [the IOC Experts] were told that Londoners would be urged to adopt an athlete's family for the Games - allowing relatives to stay with them for free rather than having to book into hotels"

Where do they think we have the room; in our shoeboxes? Maybe being a bid planner means you earn lots of money so you can buy one of those nice big houses in Holland Park...

"I hope those opposed to London's Olympic bid are at least consistent and are opposed to all future world sporting events being staged here. If you don't want London to host the Olympics, then presumably you never want us to host the World Cups of football, rugby, cricket etc?"

That's right.

[darkmarcpi.livejournal.com]

Yeah, most athletics is dead boring. I mean, running...it's just people running! I'm not even sure it should be classed as a sport. Well, I suppose it is. But I like my sports to have creativity, strategic intrigue...

Anyway.

I think they should hold the Olympics somewhere that actually really needs regeneration and the financial benefits of tourism. Like the areas recently hit by the tsunami. Or Chernobyl.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Chernobyl would be ace. I've always said that if the Olympics were about full human potential (including steroids, mutation, cybernetics &c) then they might be worth watching as a kind of laboratory of posthumanity.