stupidcat

If I can lower the tone for a moment, a friend of mine gave another friend a cuddly toy flesh eating bacteria recently, just so he could say he'd given him necrotising fasciitis for his birthday. It was small and brown with a pretend knife and fork. Ain't scientists fun?

Firstly MRSA is a BACTERIA not a virus as kicka11 said.

And the evolution of MRSA, an antibiotic resistant strain of a bacteria about a third of us carry in the back of our throats, mostly harmlessly, has taken many years. Bacteria become resistant to antibiotics through their overuse, partly to all the people who insist on antibiotics for every sore throat/cold etc, and also now largely thought to be due to the use of massive doses of antibiotics routinely given to intensively farmed animals to allow them to be kept in more cramped, dirtier conditions without them becoming sick.

MRSA began spreading under the Tories. The underfunded NHS under the tories was also forced to contract out its hospital cleaning to private companies to save a bit of cash so Thatcher et al could bribe people with tax cuts to vote for them again. Because hospitals were forced to accept the lowest bid, rather than the best one, the companies did, and still do, pay their staff a pittance and do as little actual cleaning as they can get away with to maximise their profits, would be very small if they cleaned everything properly.

So just as cleaners in banks are made to work night shifts for minimum wage while the chief execs walk away with 10 or 11 million a year, cleaners in hospitals are poorly paid and expected to clean a lot of areas in minimum time, things get missed, there are plenty of places for bacteria to breed, etc.

So you may want to think about thanking the lovely Conservative party for starting it all. Not Blair, despite his multitude of other faults.

And stop buying factory farmed meat while you're at it, it's cruel and wrong.

All you people complaining about celebrity endorsements of things like this are missing the point. I'd do this ad in a minute but no fucker would take any notice. If the ad makes even a handful of celebrity-obsessed airheads start to think about other people and take some action (even if it's just visiting the MPH site) then this advert is worth doing.

Whether the celebrities give money or not (and how the fuck do you all know that they don't anyway?) they are helping raise the profile of this campaign. I suggest all the whiners go and actually watch the video. I've been trying to raise awareness about MPH and similar causes for long enough (see a load of my other DiS posts for starters) and am fully aware of the number of people who die every year due to poverty and inequality, in part due to our governments taking money from their countries to repay loans that we only gave them to buy stupid things like weapons from our us, to support our industries, in the first place, and the ad still brought a tear to my eyes.

When you give half of your own income to MPH or similar charities you can start bitching about famous people not doing so. Meanwhile, at least go watch the ad and sign up to MPH.

Two Oasis stories in one day?

What the...? Have I logged onto Q online by mistake? Etc!

Ick, salad. I really hate salad. Maybe that makes me a terrible vegetarian, but then salad is such a cop out.

Have you ever mowed a lawn (bear with me on this one) and put the cuttings into a bin bag, which is bulging full of cut grass, then you go back a few days later and it's taking up exactly one cubic inch in the bag? THAT's what eating salad is like. Hungry again in 2 minutes.

Maybe I'll bring my own halloumi. I might let Mike share if he's REALLY nice to me.

"stupidcat by name...."

IQ 163 by nature actually.

Maybe go back and read your own post as if you didn't know what you meant it to say. If you still can't see what i saw, well whatever.

p.s. i am aware of the fact i'm a terrible wife, so no need for anyone else to point out what an evil old ingrate i am. Poor Andy.

Yeah well a lot of us live in London and/or think it's better to use public transport than driving round a great big pollution machine all day. Hence the need for a walkman or something similar. Never using the train or bus isn't something to be proud of.

I don't get the fuss about the earphones. The white ones supplied with just about every mp3 player are also really shite. Go to richer sounds and buy youself a decent set for about £20 and not only are you no longer mugger bait but it sounds a lot better too.

Aw that's sweet. Hello boys.

Andy bought me a Zen touch for my birthday and at the time I was mildly disgusted by the thing but it's kinda grown on me. It's good to have in the car or on the tube on random, although I have about 700 songs selected and on random at the minute which is probably far less than 1% of my music so you do have a point.

The thing I don't like about it is it is a real pain in the ass to put vinyl on it. There's probably something I haven't worked out yet but at the minute we have to write vinyl to CD, edit the tracks then rip it. And as I am a right lazy bastard that means anything Andy doesn't do for me doesn't get done. And 90% of my stuff (everything older than 2 years) is on vinyl. If there's a mp3 thingy that lets you rip stright to the machine like minidiscs do I'd like to know about it.

Adios. Back to the old homework.

Macrocosmica (Brendan O'Hare's "new" band) are the best thing to come out of TFC.

Highly recommended for all fans of Part Chimp on account of the loudness when they play. Not just volume, they're just BIG.

Do you really mean veggie stuff on the bbq? Cos all the other times I've been it's been some cold things made out of sweetcorn and carots, and a bit of salad.

Come on, break out the quorn! And a few veggies on skewers would be nice, although I know that's not gona happen. My tip: barbequed halloumi.

I can't help it if I can think and write and express myself in words and you can't. Please explain why having the username 'stupidcat' makes me unable to say anything about your dubious use of text talk on a web site? I'd point out 'kopite' isn't either a name or word. But I can't be arsed, as you're just some stupid little kid who only joined this site for one day to defend Williams.

And as I already explained in my "essay" (which you obviously couldn't manage to read because it was longer than 4 lines) that just because lots of people like something it doesn't make it good.

Jeez, the youth of today. Or whatever you say at times like these.

Why do you have to like EITHER The Simpsons OR Futurama OR Family guy? All 3 are great in their own ways. The Simpsons are like members of my own family now, 16 years on or whatever I still mind missing new episodes.

You know they cancelled Futurama right? Well they cancelled Family Guy too, but then so many people bought the DVDs they changed their minds.

Meanwhile, I'm also enjoying Noggin TV a lot, or at least the clangers.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - all this clamour about the tsunami is SICK and HYPOCRITICAL when 5 million people every year die of waterborne diseases because they lack any sanitation, and 6 million under 5s die worldwide every year OF STARVATION. That's 16,500 children A DAY dying of a lack of food. Also, a million people a year die of malaria, a disease that is both treatable and preventable, but because it doesn't affect anyone in rich countries nobody gives a fuck. And most developing countries spend more money on paying interest on their debts to rich countries than they do on healthcare. Not to mention the reason farmers in developing countries are starving is because both European and American farmers are paid subsidies to grow too much food, which is then dumped on world markets at a price people in developing countries can't afford to match.

DO SOMETHING. Give one or more of these organisations your support, maybe a couple of quid a month (less than the price of a pint) or even just sign their bloody petitions:
www.oxfam.org.uk
www.maketradefair.org.uk
www.redcross.org.uk
www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk

Sorry for shouting but I'm very frustrated. Of course the tsunami was an awful thing, but it pales into insignificance compared the number of people who die every year for no other reason than to make the rest of us a bit richer and more comfortable. And I wonder what coverage it would have had if it wasn't in countries where rich tourists go on holiday? Probably about as much as people dying of malnutrition does...

Oh god yes. Please set up that fight. Quicker than that...

I've just sat here for 10 minutes puzzling about whether this is a brilliant piece of dazzling sarcasm or not.

It is, isn't it? Please tell me it is. If so, well done, ignore everything else I've written below. If not, oh dear.

Look, the number of records a person sells is a marker of how much they appeal to the mass market, i.e. the people who don't really like music, and certainly don't like new and interesting music. People who listen to bland obvious stuff because they don't like to be challenged by anything in life, who just like to be cosy. The same kind of people who think they're a saint because they put a pound in a collection box for the tsunami appeal but deliberately don't see or remember anything in the news about the 5 million people a year who die for lack of clean water and the 6 million under 5s who die for the lack of food every year (30,000 a day, fact fans). Sorry to wander off topic, but you know what I mean. People who watch eastenders and read crap opinion papers like the sun or mail or the express rather than buy papers with facts in them, so they don't have to make up an opinion for themselves. Or indeed people who are just bland smug wankers like Mr Williams himself. Sales are not a measure of quality, just quantity.

Oh, and soul searching and poignant lyrics my arse. In fact my arse is writing a song more heartfelt than anything Williams could think of right this very minute.

This isn't a text message darling. Learn to write whole words.

You haven't been on these boards much have you?

Busted: busted = bostin'!

(you have to do this in a brummie accent to make it work)

The band or the eyebrows?

i'm a bit confused by where your message is in the list

Yes I think you're right, so sorry about that I must have misheard. But they are still a stupid waste of money.

I'm just gonna repeat what I said here

http://www.drownedinsound.com/boards/thread/138879

A few points:
1. Five millon people die every year (about 100,000 a week or 15,000 a day) from a lack of food, and a similar (if not greater) number from a lack of fresh water, sanitation, and cheap medicines. The tsunami was an awful thing and I doubt anybody could have seen any of the after effects and not feel like their heart might burst, but it's totally hypocritical of people to suddenly rush out and give money now and feel all generous and not do anything about the everyday situation. Have you noticed that there's been absolutely nothing in the news about the Sudan crisis since Boxing Day? I doubt the government and militia there have stopped raping and killing people all of a sudden, but I guess it isn't sexy enough news any more to bother reporting on. Elsewhere, people are still starving to death in their thousands. But I guess it's OK, cos it's poverty's fault, and the world market, it's just something that just happens, their own fault for being poor, made by rich people's economics not a natural disaster, so we can all pretend it isn't happening, eat our cheap subsidised food that's causing half the problem, and focus on being horrified by the more unusual event, because thinking about the thousands dying preventably every day for lack of food, sanitation and basic medicines would make it difficult for us to carry on with our own priviledged lives.
2. I heard on the news just before Christmas that Band Aid 20 had sold 20m copies and raised £8m. Whoop de fucking doo. If all the people that bought it had given their £4 to Oxfam or the Red Cross instead of taking home a piece of cheap tat from their local supermarket or record megamart, that would have been £80m, 10x as much. Maybe they should have done it as a free download and put collection boxes in every supermarket and record megamart.
3. Donation sizes might have turned into some sort of competition but note £79m from the UK is little more than £1 per person, so not everyone's been that generous after all.

If anybody has been touched by any of this please set up a standing order to Oxfam, the Red Cross, or another charity that is involved in dealing with poverty in Africa or Asia day to day. A pound, or £2, or £5 a month is nothing to most of us (what, a CD single a month, or a pint), but it will make a lot of difference to the people who live in fear, poverty and hunger their whole lives. Support Oxfam's Make Trade Fair campaign (even if it's just signing their web petition, although buying some fair trade stuff would be another good bet, or just even avoid the obvious unfair-trade companies, which wouldn't even cost you anything). You don't have to drop everything and live on an allotment wearing sackcloth to make an actual real difference, every day, to people living in developing countries.

Yay Breeders indeed.

After waiting 12 years to see the Pixies, and despite them being my favourite band for years (until I got sick of Debaser being played at every shite indie club in the world - wake up DJs they did do a lot better songs than that you know) I was kinda disappointed in them live this year, it was a bit like watching someone on telly. The Breeders, on the other hand, are amazing live, so I hope they tour the record!

Was anyone else at the Shellac gig when someone asked Bob Kim Deal or Black Francis and he said the Breeders were way better than the Pixies, me and my friend clapped a lot but most people booed. Oh how wrong they are.

What are we going to do without him? There is nobody who comes close to him in terms of his open mindedness, his humour, his wit but also his kindness and dedication to both music and the people that make and love it. I can't imagine anybody else who could cover music like he did and still make a brilliant job fronting things like Home Truths (the only thing that would ever get me out of bed at 9 am on a Saturday). Not a single other radio DJ is capable or deserves to fill his space.

I'm shaking and the cat on my knee is really annoyed as he is a bit damp and doesn't understand why.

There's a new person in my "one person I wish I could bring back from the dead" spot (replacing John Smith). I wish i believed in life after death.

Shit.

Ah we only did it in London cos that's where we all live... why don't you organise a gig where *you* live?!

But I am from the North and I find the number of really rude-to-the-point-of-(my)-boiling-rage people in London quite outrageous. Back home in Doncaster old ladies would soon put a stop to people on buses hogging two seats, four year olds and their parents with a seat each on the tube while someone old stands two feet away, and people pushing you on/off the tube/buses in their haste to get past you. I have been pushed on the stairs at an Underground station for politely pointing out to someone there was a bin not 10 feet away from where they left a can on the floor. A friend of mine was pushed off a train platform by a woman because he brushed past her paper. Etc. Really, a lot of people here are twats.

But the music's good, innit?

Anyhoo, I hope everyone who came enjoyed yesterday. We had a good day.

Indeed, Sunday 24th.

And it's my kidney on the line (ebay listing prepared) if nobody turns up so I hope you all do!

It wasn't just the stage sound, the sound in the audience was frankly SHOCKING. I expect it's to do with the size and shape of the venue, but everything was muddy and fuzzy and indescernible. Everything sounded shambolic. Filed under: should have been a great gig, ruined by woeful sound. Like pretty much every gig I've ever been to at 93 feet east in fact.

Yes YMSS have cancelled sadly but the rest of the line up is still bloody good I reckon for 7 measly quid:

65daysofstatic, Jason and the Astronauts, Cove, Help She Can't Swim, Spraydog, Charlottefield, Edmund Fitzgerald, Phil Collins 3 and Ship's A Going Down.

details on www.silverrocket.org, www.monotremerecords.com

Plug please!

What you think you're going to get the last word now like you're the adult? Hardly.

So you're saying unless somebody is successful in terms of selling lots of records to people and having the NME and clueless A&R sheep baying after them (please excuse the mixed animal metaphor, I'm in a hurry) they aren't any good? So basically only bands that aren't challenging or new or awkward or offend anyone in any way are worth listening to and everyone else is shit? Jesus it's no wonder the only bands you like are people such as the libertines and babyshambles, i.e. who are offensively inoffensive. I really don't know what you are doing on this site because everybody else here is judging a band on how they sound, how interesting and/or different they are, how good a live show they put on, and how they make people feel when they listen to them. You're really missing out mate, you should open your ears a bit more.

Don't worry I wouldn't invite you to any of my gigs if you were the last person alive. You've shown there's no saving you from yourself with a bit og good music.

Never mind, when you grow up a bit you'll probably get a bit less of a twat. Most people seem to.

I do believe that the gig is sold out and you can't go anyway, so why don't you stay in that night with a dictionary and learn to spell instead?

You describe the reviews as amateurish. Well having read this whole page of your "writing" I doubt you could write a review any better than the reviewers could pull out of their arses after a particularly bad night on the beer.

E.G. imagine your Babyshambles review "There dead good, and if drownedinsound had of done it's home work then they'd think that is great too instead of having amateurs who like a music that isn't babyshambles they'res something wrong with them cos they don't agree with me. Even though everyone else who reads the site agrees with them."

(SIC SIC SIC)
Loser. Learn to write then you can justifiably complain about how everyone else does it.

You don't even know how to spell Bloc party, a band you claim are great.

Hey drownedinsound people it must make you happy to know that quite literally everyone else thinks he's a twat.

Not so good with sarcasm are you?

Seriously why don't you sod off, nobody cares what you think.

No really mate, why do you keep looking at DiS if you obviously hate it so much? Go and look at nme.com instead, it'll make you much happier.

Oh no wait... you wouldn't want to do that cos you obviously don't have anything better to do than sit around being negative do you? What a waste of time!

I don't like everything on DiS but there is sufficient of interest for me here to keep me reading, and anything I don't care about I ignore, because I'm getting a load of interesting news, reviews, tips etc for free. Maybe you could try growing up a bit, and (dare I say it) getting a life?

If you can't wait 65 days are playing my club night Upstairs at the Garage on Friday - 1st Oct - with The Mass and Team.

PS Sorry for plugging

You can see both bands together in London town on Sunday 24th October, at an all day gig at the Rhythm Factory (by Aldgate East tube). Along with more bands than i can remember - edmund fitzgerald, phil collins 3, spraydog, cove etc etc.

Then you can have a fight afterwards as to who was best.

65dos are also playing at Silver Rocket, Upstairs at the Garage (also London - sorry not in London people) this friday (1st Oct) with The Mass (v.f.loud) and Team.

Shame it's not the Phil Collins 3. Their DVD would be much more interesting.

very.

Only if you take a job lot of crash helmets for the waiting staff to wear then.

What about people that had been waiting there all day to see green day? Just because some losers were throwing stuff they should "expect" to get hit and also not mind at all?

I used to go to the front at festivals and bear the brunt of crowd surfers (thankfully not bottles, less cnuts used to go to reading a few years ago) twatting me in the head for hours so I could properly see someone I had been waiting to see for years. It was not fun. Once my boyfriend got knocked out by a crowd surfer, which was a good deal less fun even than that. Were we asking for it by standing at the front? NO WE BLOODY WEREN'T. If I wanted to get smacked about the head I'd get a sign made.

And believe me honey, I'm not dumb. The people throwing bottles because they don't like someone are the terminally dumb and the people who think it's OK to do that are only a step behind them.

Thank you. And the jostling is part of the fun at Lightning Bolt, after all.

Only if you're paying!

"Ok sweetheart, whatever you say"

You realise how much of a sexist prick you sound like there don't you? 'What's that? The little girl doesn't agree with me? Isn't it funny how girls get these funny ideas ha ha ha'

Wanker.

"and if some people were in fact injured at the front, they must have known the risks which come with being near the front of the stage at the Reading Festival in a bottle-throwing situation"

Oh. My. God. I can't believe you said that. Somewhat akin to one of those sexist old judges that used to be allowed to say that women deserve to get raped because they were wearing revealing clothes (or defence lawyers that still say that because a woman has slept with a fair few blokes she couldn't possibly say no to sex and must therefore be making the whole thing up).

The people were at the front because they wanted to see the band properly, not from half a mile away on a screen. Most of them had probably been there all day waiting to see Green Day because it would be the only chance they had to do so (why they'd want to is beyond me, but people have different tastes and all). Why does being one of the most dedicated (and desperate) fans of a band mean you should expect to have bottles lobbed at you by some twats at the back who don't care about the music, not to mention occasionally having your head half kicked off by a bunch of marauding crowd surfers?

Gah! But apologies if my sarcasm-o-tector is turned off and you didn't really mean it.

Shouldn't there be part of a sentence before the .... too? As it doesn't make sense to this person with a whole brain, not just half.

Well I guess we're getting tired of each other then.

Did you read where I said about seeing the point about people waving flags at sporting or other competitive events where a sense of pride in your country's achievements is generally regarded as A Good Thing? Obviously not, because you appear to have taken the rest of what I said about flag waving out of context as well.

While there are people who think it's their right to hurl missiles at people they don't agree with or like I most certainly will not be "lightening up" as you put it on this particular topic.

I suggest you take the time to consider how you'd feel if it was someone you cared about having things thrown at them because the person responsible just happened to feel like it before you decide it isn't a serious matter. Let's say you went on a pro-communism march and people happened not to agree with your views (and there are plenty of people out there who don't) and started throwing bricks or stones or other heavy things and hit your partner. Not nice eh?

Or is it not OK to throw missiles at people at political events but it is at artists appearing at music festivals, as you appear to be hinting ("It was Reading, not a political statement ")? Well it also isn't nice to have bottles thrown at you with great force because you happen to be standing in a crowd at a music festival, or god forbid, being on stage. It hurts just as much and it's just as rude. I see you're in a band. I must therefore also assume if somebody pays into a venue you're playing at, to see another band, but takes exception to yours for some reason you wouldn't mind them throwing pint glasses at you and your mates rather than wandering off to the bar until you finished? Because i can honestly say if somebody started throwing things at me because I played a record they didn't like I would not be taking it in the best of humour.

By the way, that's a pretty good list of bands you have on your profile!

Oh how very amusing. Do you make jokes about concentration camps too?

The thing that concerns me is WHY did they want to? You don't see many people wandering down the street waving a flag on a daily basis. Unless they're in the BNP/UKIP. So, given that waving a flag around is a bit hard on the old arms they were doing it for a reason. What was that? Because there was no need for a display of nationalism it can only have been part of the general football hooligan mentality that was also on display for the bottling.

If people have nothing better to do with their time and want to stand outside Buck House and wave flags at the Queen I have no problem with that, if they're at a sporting or other competitive event where England/UK is competing against another country then fair enough. But in the middle of a crowd at a music festival? Sorry but that's definitely shady.

Damn well better be zero or less.