I've been doing some thinking about Metallica, following on from a thread on here - and wondered when it was exactly they became the monster they are, from the great band they used to be. I think everyone can pretty much agree that there best output was during the Burton-era of the band - something that is certainly backed up by the number of tracks they play from say their first three albums as compared to those recorded after their death.
So when was it that they became a mainstream attra
I'm actually going to write a proper bona-fide blog entry today.
I'm going on holiday on Tuesday - hoorah! I need a break really badly, it's been such a long while, and the wife and I have been busy busy working on the house, which we purchased in April. We are off to my relatives place in Italy, a beautiful, untouristy (well, apart from Italian tourists) place half way between Genoa and Pisa called the "Golfo di Poeti" or the bay of Poets.
It looks like this :
It's called the b
Postbag iv - Christmas special!
Hello and welcome to the sporadic sifi blog colour supplement - the blog equivalent of the part of the newspaper you read when you've got through all the good, newsworthy sections. What with Christmas coming up, we've got a slight Christmas flavour - we've soaked the blog in brandy for a few hours and have decorated bits of it with holly leaves made of marzipan.
Let's start with our agony aunt section. Here's one from an occasional supplement regular "Bee
What chances the 80's revival?
MNE : 09 October 2006
The music world was left feeling somewhat apathetic and bemused today, as it was announced that a long forgotten group from the 1980s and early 1990s were looking to push their way back into the limelight. A spokesman for "The Tories" announced today that the band were looking to regroup and reform in order to re-capture their glory days of twenty years ago. The controversial outfit, responsible for such hits as "Support of Apartheid", "
Developments on the efestivals forums today saw a user by the name of Cultseeker declaring that contributing posts to a thread was a "monumental effort". The selfless act to attempt to educate the forum users was the latest in an ongoing struggle to bring light into the darkness of the depths of internet as some kind of later-day mission which has seen Cultseeker, 43 from Teeside make as many as twenty three different posts in one thread. Cultseeker, 43 from Teeside, has previously been involv
A reflection on a famous music paper's take on next years Glasto .....
Glastonbury 2007 headliners take shape
(MNE, 10 August 2006, London) :
MNE.com has learned that in a dramatic and groundbreaking change of direction to the traditional mix of contemporary and revered music acts that typically play the Glastonbury festival, the 2007 headliners will take more of an mystical direction. Whilst it was widely expected that Kylie Minogue and the Who would be the big names playing the sacre
I've had a haircut. Well, a change of hairstyle. This is quite a step forward for me, I've not had a haircut since the day before I got married, some two and a half years ago - and even then, that was a trim that my wife did by the side of swimming pool.
I've updated my personal photograph to reflect this somewhat dramatic change.
It hurts my head
Breaking news ....
E-festival regulars admitted to hospital
Reuters (08 August 2006) (London) : Initial reports have been released by a specially created police taskforce investigate an alarming trend in hospital admissions for individuals suffering from mild concussion and bruisings. At first, the initial cases of the growing nationwide phonemon were considered as isolated, one-off admissions, however, thanks to improved communciation and technology between hospitals, a disturbing pictu
Colour Supplement - 26 October 2006
Time for yet another quick dip into the world of e-festivals colour supplement - the only supplement that guarantees not to have a hundred weight of advertisements drop out onto your foot when take it out of it's cellophane bag. You can expect the normal line-up - so if you don't like it, now will be the time to flick to the end of the supplement to see if there any adverts for cheap lingerie or viagra.
But first, a word from this week's supplement spons
Self Appointed Music Honcho defines criteria
Reuters, London, November 2006 : In what appears to be one of the greatest dicktat to come out of the modern musical press since Lennon's claim that the Beatles were bigger than God, an e-festival's boarder and a self-appointed head music honcho has amazed the music world by putting down criteria as to why his musical opinion is more valid than others. In an amazing outburst, the user - who shall be referred to here as "Auntie Ian" in order to pr
Today’s blog entry is inspired by some of the comments in here.
The parable of the stupid traveller
And so it came to pass that the great and bountiful kingdom of the e-festivals forum saw many great debates and discussions as to the state of the world and it was good, for the discussions enriched and educated the minds of many; for the underlying beliefs of those in the kingdom were of peace and love, of understanding and acceptance. And into this kingdom came a great number of trave
Web log rolling rolling rolling.
Scene 1, Act 1, take II .... And .... action!
The scene is set. The page is empty, the way is forward and the road is long, with - by all accounts - many a winding turn. And where it leads, well, who knows where, who knows when. Maybe the AA do. Or indeed - in the interests of a balanced blog - so do any of the other roadside assistance groups. I wouldn't know, I don't drive ; which is sometimes a cause of concern to me, but mainly a cause of relief
Following on from the underwhelming success of the sifi blog, I've received literally some messages from the ever-decreasing readership, which I thought I'd share with you in a regular "postbag" section. I've changed the user-names to protect the guilty.
The first one comes from a Mr Templeton Sonic. He writes
"I've recently started seeing a new girl, and I think she's perfect for me. We share the same predispositions, and have passionately enjoyed periods of intense predilections t
More breaking news : Hostilities enter into their forty sixth week.
(Reuters, 15 August 2006, the Reading / Leeds Forum )
From our reporter in the field : Hostilities entered into the their forty-sixth week today in the Pearl Jam thread, as another attempt to broker a cease-fire failed, and the blood letting arguments that have caused so much damage, unhappiness and taken so much bandwidth have now escalated to boiling point. The question is no longer over who is going to win the debate,
A fairy tale for you all today. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin.
Once upon a time there was a huge country, rich in musicians and festivals, with plenty of music and places to sit outside and enjoying the sunshine. In fact, it's the near the end of Summer at the start of our story, children, and the people of this country had all been enjoying listening to their favorite music in the sunshine all summer long, and they had danced and frolicked and some had even taken some swe
Hello and welcome to Thursday’s blog entry - and as you can see from the new format, we've gone high definition digital, we essentially means you get the same old same old but it's really in your face. I've got a whole host of items and articles to titillate and amuse you - but I've decided against publishing those and instead will reheat the same old garbage that normally appears on here.
We'll start with the Postbag. I've had been utterly under whelmed with the number of PMs I've receive
And now, for the first of a weekly Friday Sifiblog feature, looking at some of the sporting news from the week and what we can look forward to in the week ahead. And because of the blanket coverage that the nation's mainstream sports receives, the Friday Sports Desk feature will look at some of the minority sports that are enjoyed up and down the country.
After the success of the summer's world event held in, erm, France - it's time for the rigours of the new Leapfrog season. The reignin
Today I am in a particularly good mood, although I don't know how long it will last however. I popped around to my Mum and Dads last night, and they've just come back from a grand tour of Austria and Italy ; we missed them by a few days when we were over in Liguria, but they had a great time - and brought us back lots of goodies from my family (and some they bought themselves). My Auntie did us a wonderful painting of San Terenzo al Mare (the place in my previous 'real' blog entry), it's a
Efestivals Spurious Awards 2006
Reuters, London : 20 October 2006
The world of music was in a state of shock today with the annual unveiling of the winners of the "Efestivals Spurious Festival Poll 2006". The long-running traditional annual awards ceremony, which has been up and running since twenty minutes ago, caused wide-spread consternation and despair amongst literally several of the festival going public. The awards - which are by comparison amongst the most respected in the festival w
Hard Disc Cost Fall
Reuters (London: 31 October 2006)
Economic analysts were in shock today after leading computer hardware suppliers announced that the cost of computer hard drives had hit an all-time low, and would continue to fall drastically following a huge drop in demand in the market.
Despite the cost of computer equipment dropping steadily over the last four to five years, analysts predict that the cost of a standard hard drive will plummet in the next month or so due to a s
It's all Halls' fault. His continual posting of things like "You are wasted on here" spurred me into action. Unless he thinks I am actually just wasted when I'm on here, in which case I'll have a rethink.
I've come to a decision. It's probably partly due to my creativity starting to flow back again after years of drug-induced coma .... regardless, instead of writing rubbish on this site all the time, I thought it might be an idea if I could actually put something together that I could act
This bits gone up.
Spurious News, a finger on-the-pulse cultural news show with a number of news segments that focus on popular culture items, ranging from film and music to more conventional arts programming.
Presenter: Hello and welcome to Spurious News, your weekly taste of what’s up and coming in the world of entertainment and arts. This week we will be looking at what we can expect from next years festival season. In film, we’ll be taking a look at the upcoming launch of a reworkin
This weeks post bag is looking a bit sparse, so c'mon people, get your missives in - and some post might not go a miss, either. I have had a few letters, regardless - and I'll share those with you, well at least those that don't involve detailed instructions as to a new and interesting uses for root vegetables. All I will say on that is I don't think it's been cold enough this year to get a really good frost for the optimum parsnip and as such they don't retain their firmness, especially after t
Monday is serious day on the sifiblog, looking at different aspects of popular culture and their place in our modern society. It's a difficult world, it's an unfair world, and it's a challenging world. Technology is moving at a breakneck pace, science is dragging us forward at such a rate - and to an extent our ethics, our morals and our beliefs as a civilisation don't change at the same speed. We have very little actual knowledge as individuals, yet as groups we can be as Gods, creating, men
