I don't download music all that often - I still prefer good old fashioned CDs and vinyl. But on the occasion that I do, usually when I can't wait to hear a new album that not officially out yet but has been linked onto the pirate bay, I generally feel a little bit guilty. Not that the record company hasn't made its cut but the artist hasn't got there. New blog Dear Rockers aims to give people an outlet for their guilt.

I used to think this site was hilarious, but now I'm not so sure -
comedy taken too far generally becomes not funny.

Another quality Google Maps Prank

So I finished reading The Gum Thief, the latest novel by Douglas Coupland. I'm such a big fan of Coupland I find it hard to criticise his work. His perspective comes from that of an artist rather than a writer so he always has a unique take on things. The Gum Thief being no different. The main theme here is the tragedy of growing old. And he describes it in such a beautiful way. An epistolary novel comprised of the exchanges between Roger, a washed out, drunk, 40 something employee of a globalised stationery firm and Bethany, a 24 year old goth who works alongside him. The book starts with the Bethany finding Roger's diary in the store room and reading a chapter where he pretends to be her writing to her own diary. The story develops as the two discuss their own lives and this is woven into Roger's new book that he's writing. I don't want to re-write the story here, the point I'm trying to get at is that up until two pages before the end of it, I was loving it. It had everything of a classic Coupland, the vivid descriptions, the pseudo-philosophy, he hyper-real characters, the geek pop-culture references. Then, the last two pages, they effectively destroy the whole thing with a weak ass ending that my primary school teacher told me that you should never ever do. It was not quite "And then he woke up and realised it was all a dream" but it might as well of been. So, my conundrum is this: Do, I decide to hate the book because of the ending, or, do I just rip out the last two pages and think that it was awesome and put the last two pages down to a drunken mistake? Yup, you guessed it: rip, rip, rip.....

I was just thinking about a story an old friend told me a few years ago. He was roadying for some long finished band at the Guildford Festival. The band had just finished and were being followed by The Pogues. Just as they were finishing removing all their gear from the stage up rocks Shane MacGowan and barks at the stage manager "Where's my rider". The stage manager, all clipboard and mobile phone, runs off to find what it is Shane's looking for. She comes back about 5 minutes later with two bottles of Jack Daniels, hands them over saying "There's your rider, Mr MacGowan." Shane puts one of the bottles down and then rips the cork out of the other and downs it in one go, and the walks on stage just as The Pogues are about to play. Like it was water, it didn't touch the sides.

This got me thinking, while I was having my rock band daydreams, in the car home, what would my rider be? I like a drink sure, but not in MacGowan-esque quantities or proofs. I'd certainly take a few beers. And a pack of smokes. But then you've got to think, you have to spend the whole day at the venue, so probably some food would be required. And snacking for when you're bored and waiting until it's a sensible time to have a beer, so probably some Skittles sours. And definitely some fruit juice, Apple and Blackcurrant preferably.

Not very rock and roll is it? I'd probably order up some bourbon and coke to make me look more rock and roll then sell it out the back door while they weren't looking.

Oops, forgot to mention, Kenny's got an awesome new tattoo.

I love it when I get to read new Douglas Coupland books. For me, no-one quite catches his ability to sum up the human condition. Sure, he wraps it up in a host of pop culture references, but then a geek like me loves that shit. And for just a few days, I start to think like I am one of the characters in the book and my internal voice sounds like a passage from an as yet un-written novel.

Anyway, check it out.

New tunes by my favourite band TM Odeon Beat Club

Links worth checking out:

I know I am late to the game with this, it having gone round the web a few billion times, but it is quite amazing. Watch a fight between lions, buffaloes and a crocodile:
Battle at Kruger

Linzie Hunter, an old friend of mine, has been getting a lot of press lately for her unique take on spam and art. Check out the Boing Boing post and her website and the flickr set.