Copy, right?

Ok, so I shamelessly nicked the title from an MP3 blog of the same name (which is worth a look if you like cover versions), but anyway. The point is that I just found a link to the complete works of H.P. Lovecraft. Now I've never read any H.P. Lovecraft, but I'm aware that good and sensible people like Neil Gaiman have, and so here's the link. Link.

Rejoice!

FIP's back on the air. 98.5FM, Brighton people. Thanks for drawing it to my attention, Mr. a_non, whoever you are! (And who are you?!).

A couple of things about the 14th century

I've just finished a superb biography of Sir John Hawkwood, who started out a squire in Essex and ended up married to the daughter of the Duke of Milan and one of the most influential men in Italy. After his death the above fresco was painted in Florence Cathedral. He more or less achieved this by failing to go home after the Hundred Years' War (actual length, 116 years) and instead heading to Italy to start menacing cities with his company of mercenaries. Italian politics were so insane that this kind of worked, with Milan and Florence and Siena and the Pope (and the other Pope) all hiring and firing or otherwise capturing and ransoming him while he changed sides more often than you can count and acquired huge amounts of property and cash. It's all hugely entertaining from a distance of 600 years.

The two completely trivial things that really got me, though, were:
1 - Knights in battle were often electrocuted in their armour during thunderstorms.
2 - Popular belief at the time held that if you had sex with a menstruating woman the baby would be a leper.

Who needs fiction?

Because I have a mental age of 12...

Another reason to hate Travis

I have specific reasons for hating Travis that predate their dire years of being rained on. One night in 1996 while having a pint before seeing Beth Orton we were asked to move from our table "so the band could have their tea". Thinking, well, ok, we got up, and 4 spotty students sat down and started eating. "Where's Beth?" we thought. They turned out to be this stunningly average pub rock band who went down like a lead balloon as the support that night. "I bet they become successful just to annoy me" I remember thinking, pissed off that not only was I having to endure this shite, but that they'd also nicked my seat.

So just to add another layer of annoyance, they've gone and ripped off the above photograph of Sao Paulo, which I randomly found on the net last year and have loved ever since. It's by Rennee Burri, who also took a fantastic picture of Che Guevara, here. And what do Travis do? They walk across a rooftop in New York and try and grab some of the cool for themselves. Well, it isn't working, lads, you will forever be a mediocre bunch of whingers who give Coldplay a good name. Now fuck off and don't come back until you have an original idea.

Aaaahh. And relax.

Big and clever

Some sweary highlights from tonight's "The Thick of It" on BBC4...

"We are going to ram you so hard up Tom's arse that he'll have to shit out of his mouth."
"Ok, twatweasle, you got that?"
"It sucks cock so deep that the bellend is wearing your appendix as a hat."
"You couldn't organise a bum rape in a barracks."
"Normally you're about as secure as a hymen in a south London comprehensive."
"I will personally eviscerate you. Obviously I don't have your education so I don't know what that means, but I'll start by ripping your cock off and busk it from there."
"Oh God, it's like a prostate consultant's waiting room in here."
"You don't leak. Well, not from the mouth, anyway."

My Pet Goat and other important state archives

Fark had one of their photoshop contests to suggest designs for Dubya's Presidential Library (hallelujah, he's almost gone). I liked this one the best. Although honourable mention must go to this one, too.