Yeah Yeah Yeahs live at Glasgow O2

I’ve been listening to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs for a few years but this was the first time that I’ve had a chance to see them live. The show was sold-out and the venue was packed.

I wasn’t too impressed by the support band who were just a bit too eclectic. I like Minor Threat and Daft Punk but I don’t think they work well combined in one song.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs were titanic. The stage show was fairly impressive with a giant balloon eyeball floating ten feet above the stage. Glitter bombs and confetti exploded at regular intervals while Karen O wore a fairly spectacular range of outfits. She had almost as many costume changes as Axl Rose.

Musically the YYYs were explosive. A cover version of Human Fly by The Cramps was an early welcome surprise. Most of the big songs appeared and at the end of the night the academy was full of wide grins and happy sweaty people.

I hope to see the Yeah Yeah Yeahs again.

Racism in Glasgow

I was chatting to a guy I used to work with the other day. He was born on Glasgow and grew up in Glasgow. He is very Scottish. He is also a Sikh. He thinks that Glasgow has become more racist in recent years.

My friend used to be a loyal Rangers supporter and go to Ibrox the other week. He stopped going when he heard other fans calling opposition players 'black bastards'. As he is a Sikh, he wears a turban all the time and he has a full beard. Since 2001 he says that things have become much worse. He tells me that two weeks ago he and his wife were walking through Glasgow City Centre when a ned called him a 'paki bastard'.

All of this makes me sad and angry. My friend is a Scottish as I am but he is picked on because of the colour of his skin. I want Scotland and Glasgow to be the best place in the world. We are failing when we ignore racism.

Everyone should stand up against that sort of shit.

Dodgem logic

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The Algebraist by Iain M Banks

I read the Algebraist a couple of weeks ago. It's a great space opera style science fiction book. It's full of interesting concepts I really enjoyed it. Well worth a read if you are a geek.

NHS history website

This is a website about the history of the NHS - http://www.nhshistory.net/

I think it's interesting. You might not.

I hope some Americans take a page out of our 'socialist' book.

Film - Up in 3D

I can't remember the last time I saw a 3D film at the cinema. I may have watched a 3D superman film as a kid but I can't remember. I wasn't sure what to expect of Up in 3D but I wore contact lens so that I could comfortably wear the 3D glasses.

The cinema tickets were slightly more expensive than usual to cover the price of the fairly solid glasses. There was a short feature about a stork before the main film. The 3D technology was well showcased in the short.

Lots of people have told me that Up is a great film. The first 10 minutes or so pack a solid emotional punch. It's nice to see adult emotion in a cartoon. It shows people what the medium is capable of. The film is about dealing with loss and getting on with life. It's also about talking dogs and multi-coloured birds. Generally it's good, although maybe not as good as The Incredibles.

The 3D was really prominent at the start of the film although it seemed to blend into the background a bit later on. This either means that the 3D was so good that I didn't notice it or that it stopped being there/stopped working.

Anyway, I'm glad that I saw this on a big screen. It was a good experience.

Nick Griffin and the BNP are very unpleasant and of limited intelligence

I watched Question Time on BBC 1 last night. The programme was showcasing the unpleasant racist politician Nick Griffin in his capacity as the leader of the BNP. He came across as a shifty, unusual man.

Griffin has tried to improve the public image of the BNP and unfortunately he has been elected as an MEP. This accidental election has occured because of public apathy. The only people that were keen to vote (in the face of the MP expences row and the recession) were bigots with chips on their shoulders. Small minded idiots.

Griffin has unpleasant views on homosexuality. He said that he was 'creeped out' to watch men kissing. I am sure that they would be 'creeped out' if they knew Nick Griffin was watching them. He has unpleasnt views on Islam. He maintains international links with the Klu Klux Klan. His understanding of the history of the British Isles is bizzare and tainted by racism. Winston Churchill would have put him in prison. He is a bad person.

Question Time may have given the BNP some publicity but hopefully the British public is intelligent enough to realise that the BNP are evil. Some misguided souls may feel sorry for Griffin but most of us are just hoping he will fuck off for good.

For sensible opinion see

http://www.rockagainstracism.info/

For mainstream politics - please vote for anyone who is not a racist

http://www.libdems.org.uk/
http://www.labour.org.uk/
http://www.conservatives.com/
http://www.snp.org/

For other stuff
http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/

The Longcut live at King Tuts, Glasgow.

Just before my boss went on holiday he sent me an email advising me to go and see the Longcut playing at King Tuts. I went to their website and downloaded one of their eps. It was fairly good, inventive and fresh sounding. The tickets for the gig were only 6 quid so I thought fuck it and went along to see them.

They were on top of a 4 band bill, supported by three local bands. The local bands were rather boring so I sat downstairs drinking until the Longcut came on. The Longcut are a three piece who mix loud guitars with interesting electronics. The singer also plays keyboards and drums, moving quickly between instruments within the course of a song. The guitarist makes a lot of Sonic Youth moves with drumsticks, etc.

During the set they sounded like Daft Punk, The Rapture, Joy Division, Sonic Youth and Air. They has a bass station keyboard that I fell in love with. The vocals were a bit muffled by King Tuts PA system but the show was generally exciting.

Worth investigating.

http://www.thelongcut.com/

Dead Snow - DVD review

When I learned of Dead Snow, a Norwegian Zombie Nazis film, I had to see it. I wasn't disappointed. Dead Snow is funny and at times it seemed like a remake of Evil Dead. Everything that you would expect in a film about Nazi Zombies is there. If this was an English language film, I probably wouldn't like it as much, but the Norwegian soundtrack and the snow makes it a bit different.

Dead Snow - putting new life in the Zombie genre.

Kevin Smith Spoken Word Show at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

Kevin Smith did his Q&A spoken word show at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow last night. He initially seemed a bit upset because the show was not sold out.

The first question that I would have like to ask him would be along the lines of 'Do you know that £45, the cost of one of the better seats tonight, is a bit more than $70? Also, at £35 the cheapest seats cost more than $55 and we're in the middle of a fucking recession so nobody has any money?' I'm a doctor and I had to think long and hard about a cheap seat at the show. What about the poor fuckers out there who aren't overpaid in the same way that I am?

Anyway the show was not sold out and there were a few empty seats. The advertising before the show was of a secretive fashion. In the face of such adversity, it was still an interesting night.

The Q&A format lets Smith loose and triggers interesting talk in a way that other stand-up comedians don't achieve. I guess Smith is more of a spoken word performer and an interesting person in his own right like Henry Rollins. He has a bit more to say than Frankie Boyle (although I do love Frankie Boyle).

So in 3 hours of chat from Kevin Smith we learned exactly how he takes a shit. He described it in great detail, twice. We also learned that he smokes cannabis more now than he used to. We also learned a fair bit about the greatest hockey player who ever lived, Wayne Gretsky, and how this hockey player can teach us all to be better people.

We learned a bit about working with Bruce Willis and we learned that Smith has decided to cast childish things aside and make new movies. I love Kevin Smith films and I but them all on DVD but if he decides to go for some new themes, that's cool. I hope he makes his horror film sometime.

He did well with impenetrable accents last night. One guy, apparently from Peterhead, had such a thick accent that I could barely understand any of it. There were a couple of odd questions. The most unsettling question of the night was the final one, where some idiot asked if Roman Polanski should escape charges for child molestation because he's a great movie director. Thankfully, Smith said that Polanski should be punished because his crime is unforgivable. It's nice to see that Smith has some fairly strong morals.

The show was long but lots of people didn't get a chance to ask a question. I would probably have liked to ask Smith two questions. The first would be, who, other than Prince, is the strangest famous person you have met? The second would be a nerdy question about the comic book that Smith would most want to write next if he could write anything? Maybe I'll get a chance again.

I hope Kevin Smith enjoyed his visit to Glasgow. I hope he comes back sometime. I hope the tickets are a bit cheaper next time. We'll see what happens.

To find out more about Kevin Smith, Clerks, Dogma, Chasing Amy and his other movies go to
http://www.viewaskew.com/
To read his stuff on twitter go to
http://twitter.com/ThatKevinSmith

Snoochies