Top Five Current Literary Protagonists

1. Pechorin
2. The Underground Man
3. Harry Haller
4. Meursault
5. Maurice Bendrix

Another link

to a video. Enjoy.

Misha Glenny

is rueing the pseudo-Anglicisation of the world's languages in a report From Our Own Correspondent, whilst over at Westfordcomp, there are newly found photos from lost and discarded cameras for your delectation.

This evening I have mainly been listening to

Northern Soul. For those of you born after 1970 or with no obsessive interest in black music 1896-2005, the following links will give you an overview of the scene in the UK and a list of Northern Soul Allnighters in Berlin.

The latest diet fad

will also give you excellent nightvision. And make you look like David Caruso, no doubt.

Fashion news from Jamaica

Hair is the Hat.

All this talk about Eurovision

has reminded me of the bliss that is Father Ted. His and Dougal's (in)famous Eurovision entry can be found here.

Over at

Broke in Berlin, our dear friend Dezik is excited by the double Eurovision Song Contest this year. This will be the fiftieth year of the competition, and although there have been many great (!) songs, including the Israeli entries our Berlin-based co-blogger is so fond of, my particular favourite has to be Jahn Teigen's Mil Etter Mil from 1978, the first year Norway received 'Nul point'. Jahn is quite a trouper, though, and has repeatedly entered the Norwegian version of 'A Song for Europe', and, as you will see, has reached the final again this year.

Big news

in the UK... Phil and Grant are back in Eastenders.

"Ultimate" nazis

http://www.whitecivilrights.com/

My Top Five Things at the moment

1. Moondog: Viking of Sixth Avenue, a CD by a homeless NYC percussionist who dressed as Viking and was friends with John Coltrane
2. Dostoevskii's Notes From The Underground - I have read this more times than I care to remember, and it never ceases to amaze me
3. The Central Line - 25 minutes from Ealing to work (and back again) and much more reliable than the Northern Line
4. The list of delightfully expressive Spanish swearing left for me by our guests last weekend (Gracias, Pablito, Susanna & Vanessa)
5. Our stained glass window, through which car lights cast the outlines of angels onto the wall behind me.

Any other random (or non- random) top 2's-10's would be more than welcome, kidibids.

A new Potemkin village

Given President Putin's staunch anti-oligarch stance, it surprises me somewhat to read that there are plans for a Russian Monaco just outside Moscow. Could this be another of Luzhkov's deranged (and obscenely expensive) projects. Peter the Great looking down over the Moscow River is the most obvious example, but Luzhkov's vanity extends to having his favourite sculptor, Tsereteli (all in Russian, I'm afraid), create a bronze of the mayor himself playing tennis.

Peter Dow is single and

looking for a woman here. Can you help him out, ladies?

Theodor Adorno

believed it was impossible to engage with poetry after the Holocaust. One wonders what he would have made of Radovan Karadzic's new book of poetry.

Two links to make you laugh

Here (needs a sound card, apologies to Gwen Stefani)

and

here

The best TV show I have ever seen

was shown last night on BBC4 (the televisual equivalent of the World Service for me). The Brains Trust,four guests discussing questions intellectual, philosophical, personal and everything in between. If you get the chance, watch.

Jokes

A monkey is sitting in a tree smoking a joint when a leopard walks past and looks up and says to the monkey, "Hey! What are you doing?"
The monkey says, "Smoking a joint, come up and have some."

So the leopard climbs up and sits next to the monkey and they have a few tokes together.
After a while the leopard says his mouth is 'dry' and that he's going to get a drink from the river.

The leopard climbs down the tree, and races on thru the jungle to the river and leans over the river to get his drink.

Well, the leopard is so stoned that he leans too far over and falls into the river.

A Crocodile sees this, swims over and helps him to the side, then asks the leopard "What's the matter with you?"

The leopard explains to the crocodile that he was sitting in a tree and smoking a joint with the monkey and got too stoned and then fell into the river while taking a drink.

The crocodile says he's gotta check this hippie monkey out and walks off into the jungle where he finds the tree where the monkey is still sitting and toking on the joint.

He looks up and says "hey you!"

The Monkey looks down and says, "fuuuuccckkkk dude.............how much water did you drink????"







A man was sitting at home one evening, when the doorbell rang. When he answered the door, a 6 foot tall cockroach was standing there. The cockroach immediately punched him between the eyes and scampered off.

The next evening, the man was sitting at home when the doorbell rang again. When he answered the door, the cockroach was there again. This time, it punched him, kicked him and karate chopped him before running away.

The third evening, the man was sitting at home when the doorbell rang. When he answered the door, the cockroach was there yet again. It leapt at him and stabbed him several times before running off. The gravely injured man managed to crawl to the telephone and summoned an ambulance. He was rushed to intensive care, where they saved his life. The next morning, the doctor was doing his rounds. He asked the man what happened, so the man explained about the 6 foot cockroach's attacks, culminating in the near fatal stabbing.

The doctor thought for a moment and said, "Yes, there's a nasty bug going around."

The Ultimates

I also received the latest trabe paperback of the Ultimates this weekend. Having recently gotten back into reading comics, this story arc has really engaged me - it is an updated version of the Avengers, in which Thor is a former mental patient who may or may not be the son of Odin, Iron Man is a playboy with a brain tumour, and the Hulk (as ever) is a screwed-up scientist who rampages through lower Manhattan murdering hundreds of people becuse his ex-girlfriend is on a date with Freddie Prinze Jr. However, despite being an utterly childish pursuit, they also touch on slighty deeper questions, including domestic violence, US foreign policy, genetic engineering, etc...

Pitch and Putt

Yesterday afternoon was spent in the glorious surrounds of our local pitch and putt course, backing on to the A40. Ealing may be the greenest place I have ever lived. At the moment, the leaves are starting to fall as the inevitable end of summer and slow crawl to Xmas (less than 12 weeks away) begins. Will I enjoy the 15 minute walk to the tube once the leaves are gone and sleet and hail seek to block my route>

Still no broadband at home

BT are a bunch of jokers. It should've been installed Friday. Nothing. They should have transferred the account, but failed to. Fortunately I don't rely on the internet at home for work, but this is now over a month...

Who would win a fight between

an alligator and a Burmese python - the answer is here

Tracklist

Drunken Master Hifi Sampler 1

Let God Turn It Around For You - US Radio
Welcome To Jamrock - Damian "Jr Gong" Marley
Rudi - Butch Cassidy Sound System
Acrylic Venezuela - Osunlade
Nume Inye - Cardinal Rex Jim Lawson
I Want You Back (Z-Trip Remix) - Jackson 5
Make Me Believe In You (Black Science Orchestra Re-edit) - Patti Job
Watch Out Now - The Beatnuts
Get A Move On - Mr Scruff
Bonita Applebum - A Tribe Called Quest
The Truth - Handsome Boy Modelling School feat. Roisin Murphy
Yegelle Tezeta - Mulatu Astataque
Cookin' - Beatfanatic
Take Me Back To Piaui (Dubben Mix) - Juca Chaves
Doober - Bah Samba
Private Sunshine (Big Lounge Album Mix) - Ashley Slater
A Change Is Gonna Come - Sam Cooke
Back In The Day - Unknown
Danny Boy (Derrylondon Air) - Christy Moore

Problems for the British Council in Piter

On the day Putin travels to London for talks, the British Council in Russia is being investigated for tax dodging - not much info available in the English press at the moment, but Ria-Novosti has covered the story. Unusual timing for this story to break, and , now Putin has removed/imprisoned most of the dissenting oligarchs, will he turn to dissenting Western influences (in his somewhat paranoid view)?