Lateralus

I waited until well after the football to take a girl for a drink down at my local pub. I should have known better, because the football crowd was still there. We were sitting outside for a few drinks and next thing I know there was a 50 man riot in progress on the road outside. Can't escape that anywhere in Scotland. Oh well, second place for Liverpool. Next season is ours if we keep up the ridiculous form we're on.

To say it's not torture is naive, and to say torture is only that which causes physical harm is stupid. What other term can you possibly use to describe being blindfolded, blasted with music and being repeatedly brought to the point of drowning? Aggressive interrogation? Ha, cheer yourself up like that.

The Shangri-Las - Leader of the Pack A lovely song to be drunk and sentimental by.

I've always meant to give Arab Strap a listen, and your list gave me the final push. It's always nice to hear another Scottish voice in music, and I think I'm going to love them. I listened to The Velvet Teen too, but I just couldn't get into it. The drummer is crazy. It might be a pain, but I think you should remove the hide tags. They make the list a bit awkward to read.

If it helps people quit or keep themselves healthy then that's nice. However, I want to smoke; not pretend to smoke. Give me the real thing any day. Also, smoking does make you look cool.

I find Ayn Rand boring and unreadable, and her philosophy is disgusting. Everyone seems to love Atlas Shrugged, and I have no idea why. It's been nice and sunny this week, so I've been sitting in the garden reading and drinking beer. Polished off Hunger by Knut Hamsen and The Plague by Camus. Both were fantastic, The Plague especially so. I think Camus really hits the nail on the head with this one; it's an excellent summation of his world view, which is one I find myself agreeing with more and more. Currently I'm reading Ask the Dust by John Fante.

Hell is other people. Heaven, too.

I am interested in what you do to keep track of what you've read, since you're taking it more "professional" than most people. Specifically, do you write your thoughts about books you've read afterwards, do you write anything as you go through? Or do you just read? I make notes periodically (maybe every few chapters or so, or as long as it takes for the 'point' of the book to become apparent), noting important thematic or plot points. After I finish a book I write my thoughts about themes, characters, symbols and the like. If the book is especially short or obvious then I might not bother.

Nobody's mentioned that there's certain sweet spots for pinch harmonics - Basically natural harmonic points that you can use. Move your finger around on the strings while picking, and you'll find one or two natural harmonic points. They're usually above the neck and bridge pickups. Use these points when you're trying to do a pinch.

What's the problem? It's no different than any other slang word becoming official. What about the other 999,999 words? What about the best literature? What about unrivaled flexibility and global dominance?

Haha, you can't blame a man for trying. I hope your (and anyone else's) exams and dissertation go down well anyway.

What's your degree? How are the career prospects looking? My degree is in Publishing. As far as career prospects, they aren't too bad - I've got a decent choice as far as specialising in what I'm doing so I've got a bit of leeway. A lot of publishers are looking for graduates right now because they see them as cheap labour but I don't mind that to be honest as I'm only beginning. The credit crunch hasn't effected publishing as badly as other industries because people are staying in so that shouldn't effect me. The worst case scenario is that I need to move or do some unpaid work experience for while to improve my prospects (although I've had some through the course). Ha, a publisher you say! Did I ever mention to you that I hope to be a writer... ;)

Lots of great stuff for me to check out. I've already looked into Donald [bleep]en (how could I not with that ice cool album cover?) and I think I'm going to like him very much. Awesome to see Tom Waits get a mention too; I don't know why he didn't end up on my list. It's hard for me to pick my favourite Waits album. I would feel bad if I didn't say Small Change. I don't love every song, but I think Tom Traubert's Blues is one of the greatest songs ever.

What's your degree? How are the career prospects looking?

I've actually been reading criticisms of the Marshall Plan recently which make it look anything but altruistic. I don't say this to bash America (since I'm quite fond of it), it's just fairly interesting. It would be nice to compare American and Soviet textbooks and read what they had to say about the Marshall Plan.

That friends, is what makes a siggy. Zeus and Buddhism? Don't think so.

That happens to me once or twice a month. It's not so bad.

The Inferno is incredibly difficult to read. You'll be in for a lot of research, owing to the (probably) thousands of allusions in the text. It's extremely rewarding of course, but it takes a long time. From what I've read of Brave New World just skimming, I see a lot of that as the difference between products of two different centuries. But I agree with you; even by the standards of the times, Frankenstein is extremely overwritten in some parts. There was a page or two where Victor is talking about his marriage to Elizabeth, and I must have read the word "union" in that context ten times. And you can only elucidate so much about the themes before they get tiring. Still, those themes are very thought-provoking and the application is sound. And for what it's worth it was Shelley's debut. Agreed, the deeper meaning of the book is quite nice; my least favorite part is the two page rambling on how pretty the coastline is The author was the wife of the poet Shelley, who wrote Prometheus Unbound. The two titles are very similar thematically (as the "modern day Prometheus" subtitle would suggest). If you don't like the execution of Frankenstein, but appreciate the theme, then Prometheus Unbound would be a very good choice. Everyone should read it anyway.

Delivered today: Hunger - Knut Hamsun Journey to the End of the Night - Louis-Ferdinand Celine Memoirs from the House of the Dead - Dostoevsky The Sound and the Fury - William Faulkner The Bandini Quartet - John Fante The Plague - Albert Camus This completes my collection of Camus and leaves me with only a few Dostoevsky left to go. I also went to see my grandpa yesterday to talk about what it was like in the Communist party and the war, and he gave me: The New York Trilogy - Paul Auster Principles of Literary Criticism - I.A. Richards Ten Days That Shook the World - John Reed (Apparently very popular with communists) Bonfire of the Vanities - Tom Wolfe The New Journalism - Compiled by Tom Wolfe Bookshelf is looking good.

I hate to judge a book by its cover... But my god, who designed that? It's absolutely disgusting. The tag line is idiotic, too.

That's a myth. The drink is Goldschlager, which does have tiny gold flakes through it, but they don't cut your throat.

If you drink it, you'll just get wasted fast and have a massive hangover due to the extremely high alcoholic content (towards 75-80%) after heavy consumption. It tastes like crap if you don't dilute it enough, too. It's not really a magical drink. It's a bunch of herbs in high percentage alcohol. Correct me if I am wrong, isn't the "psychoactive" ingredient Wormwood? It is, yeah. You need to be careful when buying absinthe though; there's no restriction on labeling like there is with scotch or bourbon (or most spirits), so they can slap the name 'absinthe' on just about anything. Most of the absinthe around - like the kind people bring back from holiday - is just high strength anise flavoured alcohol, and not 'true' absinthe.

It's oversensitive to think there's a bandwagon forming. The shows that Hannity and Olbermann are on are pathetic and are archetypal American current affairs shows.

Christopher Hitchens has already done this. There's an article and a video on the Vanity Fair website. Hannity and Olbermann are both idiots. Why is the news in America spun so much?

I think it's a shame the war got so little support. The way it was conducted was a questionable of course, and the government was condescending and insulting in the way it justified the war to the public (the moral obligation should have been enough), but necessary and noble work was done in Iraq. This was very much a continuation of the Gulf conflict of the early 90's, and for Britain not to have been involved would have been a disgrace.