Freakangels

Just found Freakangels. Freakangels is a weekly, free web-comic by Warren Ellis and it seems to be pretty good.

Check it out

www.freakangels.com

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone
Thanks also to amazon.co.uk who are giving away free MP3 albums on their website. Good one. The offer is just on for christmas day and boxing day. I got the Glasvegas album

The Vaselines live at the Glasgow ABC

I first heard the Vaselines on the B-side of a cassette copy of 'Bleach' by Nirvana. I remember listening to it on a car stereo and thinking 'What the fuck is that?'. I was unaware of the Nirvana connection at that time and I thought that someone was taking the piss.

I was right. The Vaselines were taking the piss. I've gradually managed to understand the joke over the past 16 years. I understand why Kurt Cobain liked them.

The current era is a musical paradise. All my favourite alternative rock bands from the '80s and '90s are reforming and playing in Glasgow. I was keen to see the Vaselines but I thought that they might be shambolic. They were actually rather good.

The support act were a band called Isoceles. I was mildly upset that King Biscuit Time did not appear but Isoceles were a welcome substitute. No-one could accuse them of being original but they were energetic and entertaining in a Franz Ferdinand sort of way.

The Vaselines opened with Son of a Gun and played most of their songs. They had a heavier guitar sound than I expected. Frances McKee and Eugene Kelly paraded their famous comedy double act which was cool. It was a bit freaky to hear Frances McKee (who looks like an old-school Blue Peter presenter) talking about having a 'gang-bang/line up' with the 'attractive young men' in the support band. Disconcerting.

The gig was better than expected.

Recent political comedy moments

I was pissing myself when the list of BNP members was published on the internet. I realise that even political racists have a right to privacy but I still thought it was funny. I do not think that racists should be teachers, policemen, doctors or soldiers. I hope that this event might give some of these short-sighted numpties a kick in the arse if their jobs are in danger. Hopefully they might stop being nasty racists and accept that people are people. That would be nice. It probably won't happen.

The funniest moment was Nick Griffin complaining of 'fascism' while being interviewed by Krishnan Guru-Murthy. Griffin came across as a nasty thug.

Two people have been arrested in connection with the leak. I hope they escape any serious punishment.

blogged.com

I have been sent an email from blogged.com that says that this blog scored 7.4 and was rated as good.

I'm not sure what that means.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

I've been reading Neil Gaiman stuff for about 20 years now. I have a complete run of Sandman comics sitting in my parents house and I've read most of his novels. The Graveyard Book is probably aimed at children but can be appreciated by adults.

The story is about a baby who wanders into a graveyard on the night that his family is murdered. The ghostly inhabitants of the graveyard hide the baby from the murderer and pledge to bring him up and keep him safe. They name him Bod (short for 'Nobody').

Bod grows up in an unusual loving environment and has a few adventures along the way.

The book is readable and entertaining. You feel that you could let youngish children read it without upsetting them too much. I hope that children will still be reading this book in 50 years time. Gaiman has said that he was influenced by The Jungle Book when he was writing this story and that inspiration is tangible.

see www.neilgaiman.com

Graham Lineham

Graham Lineham is the guy who wrote Father Ted and The IT crowd. He is funny and he has a blog.

see

http://whythatsdelightful.wordpress.com/