Library closures and books

I've been meaning to blog about library closures for a while now, but I thought I'd wait until traffic to my blog fell to single digits to avoid hassle.

The most concise thing I can say is "It would be so much simpler if it was just about book-lending", but its not. Its about all the other things that libraries do.

Books, they're cheap, almost free, try the secondhand sellers on Amazon and eBay, or FreeCycle, or charity shops, or downloading PDFs. There was some suggestion on one of the blogs what I read about how instead of paying for libraries it would be cheaper to issue a Kindle to anyone on minimum wage or less, and they can bill the taxpayer for any books they download. Maybe the sums work out, probably not, but there won't be much in it.

But that's not what the controversy about library closures is about, in fact it shows my middle-class, well-educated, right-wing bias. I ignorantly assume that everyone has access to the internet, can use computers and has the time, space and inclination for reading.

Libraries offer internet access and computer to those who otherwise wouldn't have it, they offer the space, the peace and quiet to read or do homework, they offer somewhere to get away from home.

I had this great idea for a website, essentially it was a peer-to-peer book-lending system. Lenders can enter all the books they own and feel comfortable about giving away, you just enter the ISBN or the title and their postcode, and borrowers can search for any book they want and it gives you the contact details of the people nearest to them who have that book, send them an email ask if they can leave it on a park bench or a coffeeshop or wherever

Users would get points and badges for what they've read, what they've lent, whether they have complete serieses of books,  and so on. If no one has the book, then there's an affiliate link to Amazon and a source of revenue for the website, and the grim acceptance that sometimes libraries don't have the book you want. It would be a warped hybrid website of Zupa, Last.fm, FreeCycle, eBay, Amazon and FourSquare but for books. Actually, just making it an app for Facebook, iPhones and Android would be better than a website, using onboard cameras to scan barcodes.

I thought it would be great, public libraries become public, removing 'the state'  and any taxpayer burden from the equation.

But that just emphasises my bias, my misunderstanding of what public libraries are about, they're not just about book lending but the social services that such institutions provide.

On a similar note, I haven't been into a video shop in a while, but I imagine they don't really have many videotapes, they stock DVDs and computer games. Likewise for HMV, fewer vinyl records these days, more CDs, even more DVDs and computer games. Gor! Virgin Megastore died for it, diluting the brand. Maybe society moved on, play.com and amazon killed the high street.

But the internet can't kill libraries, cos they represent the floor, that anyone can have access to the internet. Maybe libraries shouldn't be called libraries after all this, some other name for the service provision they provide. Its not just about books, its not just about books.

If I had more inclination, I'd do a pie chart. Something showing that libraries are 30% about books, 35% about computers and internet access, 25% about helping the local community, 10% about other stuff. Maybe my percentages there aren't right, but that's the right ballpark, isn't it?

If it was just about books, this would be so much easier.

The Lovely Eggs - The Lexington 04-Feb-2011

Its 3am Sunday morning, I had a big mug of coffee before I went to bed and I can't sleep, so I'm going to rant and rave and review a gig I was at on Friday night.

There's a dark shadow over east London, and its up to me to bring light to the area, its my job, I am the light bringer, the illuminator, I illuminate, I am the illuminatus.

Earlier on Friday I was at work, at my desk, and I snapped, the bureaucracy was getting too much, too frustrating, ticking boxes and filling in forms and deadlines, instead of making London's street's safer, saving lives. Some woman is going to be waiting for her husband to come come, waiting and waiting and he's not going to make it, casserole dish clatters to floor when the voice on the phone tells her what happened. Some bloke waiting outside a cinema for his date, who's he's fancied from the other side of the office for weeks, to arrive, dreaming of that first kiss, he's going to be waiting in vain. Some old duffer heading home after a week's hard labour at the works, never reaching his destination. All because I'm doing sodding paperwork for paperwork's sake.

Christ, I have a degree in manufacturing, speak half a dozen languages, can run 25K in one go, play guitar and have an encyclopedic knowledge of the Manchester, Glasgow and London indiescenes 1995 to 2011, and I'm stuff doing sodding paperwork.

I've lost something.

I always felt awkward at gigs, lonely, on my own, but this is different. Well, its the same as the last couple of gigs. I've lost something.

Looking back at my writings and verbage over the past 17 years, I used to churn it out. God, the shite I was writing, I had a passion, its was complete nonsense, but I had a passion, there was fire. Not any more. If it was turgid before, its worse now.

Despite feeling lonely at gigs, there were people with me. In Manchester Nosni, Zee, Roz, all the people at Flyer shows, Jim Bean, Timbo, Sap. Then in Glasgow, the first time round with Rab, Nick, Faye and Cleggy and the early Bowlie kids. The in round two, Alan, Adam, Martin, the whole Note and Sleazys scene.

But now, in London, I've lost something. Am I just old? I'm missing something, its gone.

Sure, I see Bob UnderExposed, nodding recognition, and I stand two and a half metres away from Nik from Moustache of Insanity, but its not the same. I'm in a room full of strangers.

Sure, I'm seeing bands that I've seen half a dozen times before in countless guises. The first time I saw The Lovely Eggs was on the train to my first Indietracks, they were playing to about three of us in a carriage. I didn't quite know what to make of them, but they were full of love. And there was history too.

Cos Holly was in Angelica, way back in the day, who did "Teenage Girl Crush" and "Why did you let my kitten die?", god knows if I saw them in the Manchester days, but I definitely saw them in Glasgow, I reckon twice, maybe three times. Flatmate Faye reckoned she knew them from school in Lancaster. I remember seeing them play the Art School, somewhere I still have photies, then one time I saw them at Ladyfest at the old 13th Note on Clyde Street. I was stood at the bar, next to Manda Rin from Bis and Faye's brother was up visiting too. I think I even did my old 'Wonderwall' shout. I remember these things clearly, I still had a soul in them days.

Its a White Light club night at The Lexington, probably related to the old White Heat club night at Madame Jojos in Soho, Matty with a moustache is the DJ type person. I definitely still had whatever I've lost back when I went to Madame Jojos. Dananananaykroyd were playing, I saw big Duncan and Wee Susan from Glasgow, and it was okay.

About an hour before I had my rant at work, I was ploughing through paperwork, frustrating building up inside, head in my hands and a colleague from across the room started at me with what's wrong, a guy your age shouldn't have his head in his hands on a Friday afternoon, you should be living it up, the weekend's about to start, etc.

I've lived it up, I was there then. Look, here's my achievement badge, 584 gigs, 32 years of age, from The Boardwalk, to The Admiral to The Lexington.

And I'm stood two and a half metres from Nik from Moustache of Insanity, wondering where Andrew Bulhak is. Also wondering whether I should have brought along my missus or a friend who doesn't like gigs. That's it.

I'm reading John Robb's The North Will Rise Again, about the Manchester music scene 1976 to 1995, and I'm looking at the scene before me through polarised 3D specs. Is there a scene amongst the crowd at The Lexington? Are The Lovely Eggs here as part of that, hallowed guests from on high? High priestess Amelia Fletcher ministering the flock?

Am I here at all?

Is this just telephoned in from my flat, I'm hiding under the bed, scared to come out, exhausted after trying too hard? or not hard enough. Where are people I know and talk to?

Why aren't they here wearing whatever twenty-first century faces they have?

There's this timeless scene in my head, a paradigm, NPL in Glasgow, its dark outside, yellow streetlights, people from bands and other gigs walking the same way. When I get inside, there's a seat the first table, Jef and Gill are there, Adam's on the dancefloor, Andy Diamond too, other friends off of the internet in the near corner, friends I'm scared of talking to on the other side of the dance floor, Alan will be along later. Lots of drinks, plans and schemes, foolish ideas followed through and then a drunken stagger home.

But its not like that here. Occasionally there are echos and shadows and smokey reflections, like Hawthorns in Bolton in 1997, but its not like that here.

I drink three bottles of Tiger, enjoy Tender Trap and The Lovely Eggs songs, try to shrug off moldering resentment of something I can't quite put my finger on and head back to Walthamstow.

2011 exercise regime

So yeah, at Christmas, amongst all the eating and presents and stuff, my brother said I was looking a bit jowly, and to be honest I had been getting concerned about my figure.

Some time in the mid-nineties I sold my soul to the devil in return for eternal youth, and whilst I kept my boyish good looks for the past twenty years, my teenage figure is getting a bit flabby. In fact some time between Christmas and New Year my alluring but unidentifyable ladyfriend called me a 'potbellied pig' and 'fatty fat fat'. So, I was going to have to get back in the tracksuit.

For the past thirty days, almost every night I've been on the crosstrainer, pumping away.

That Eddie Izzard chap did some thing for Sports Relief where he ran a marathon every day for the best part of two months. I reckon I can do that.

Its a bit nippy for running outside at the moment, so I'm building up my stamina on the cross trainer. In case you're wondering, its a Confidence USA ellipictical crosstrainer from Amazon here a bit of a bargain at £79.99. As you can see from the graph, my best distance so far is 19.5km, almost half a marathon in one session.

We can also see some other neat trends on the graph, whilst not exactly running every day, I run more often than not. I have two modes bog standard daily distance, which was like 8.4km for the first few weeks, then 10.5km, and now 12.6km I reckon, then there's my trying really hard distance which is also increasing.

The main problems I have at the moment is that the crosstrainer is wearing. It squeaks like a bugger after the first 10km unless you pull the hand handles inwards when running. And there's the tension belt thing that it uses to control the resistance, its wearing through, has snapped twice, been mended using an old guitar strap, which has worn through too.

Anyhoo, I'm back in the tracksuit, I'm buff, toned, and a mean machine.

Public Sector, the state and petrol prices

I'm not sure if I'm filled with rage, or just paracetemol and lactic acid, but I received this email from a colleague who happens to work in the state sector.

Dear All,

Here is an interesting idea to think about (and act upon?)...unless you've already received the same message independently!

Please see what you think and pass it on if you agree with it.

We are hitting £129.9 a litre in some areas now and soon we will be faced with paying £1.50 per litre. So Philip Hollsworth offered this good idea:

This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the 'don't buy petrol on a certain day campaign' that was going around last April or May! The oil companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn't continue to hurt ourselves by refusing to buy petrol. It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them. BUT, whoever thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can really work.

Please read it and join in!

Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a litre is CHEAP, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS - not sellers control the market place. With the price of petrol going up more each day, we consumers need to take action. The only way we are going to see the price of petrol come down is if we hit someone in the pocket by not purchasing their petrol! And we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves. Here's the idea:

For the rest of this year DON'T purchase ANY petrol from the two biggest oil companies (which now are one) i.e. ESSO and BP.

If they are not selling any petrol, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit. But to have an impact we need to reach literally millions of Esso and BP petrol buyers. It's really simple to do!!

Now, don't wimp out on me at this point... keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people!!

I am sending this note to a lot of people. If all of you send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300)....and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000) ... and so on. By the time the message reaches the sixth generation of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers! If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted! If it goes one level further, you guessed it.....

THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!

Again, all YOU have to do is send this to 10 people. That's all (and not buy at ESSO/BP). How long would all that take? If each of us sends this email out to ten more people within one day of receipt, all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8 days!!! Acting together we can make a difference. If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on.

PLEASE HOLD OUT UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES It's easy to make this happen. Just forward this email, and buy your petrol at Shell, Asda, Tesco, Sainsburys, Morrisons, Jet etc. i.e. Boycott BP and Esso

I remember when I was young my father would drive a little out of his way to fill up on petrol at a petrol station that was a couple of pence cheaper than the nearest petrol station. I'd question the logic, but he'd costed it out and knew his fuel efficiency, and paying 43.9p per litre ten miles away was better than 45.9p at the petrol station opposite.

These days things have changed, petrol costs £1.30 a litre, most of that money goes to the government, about 80p is fuel duty and VAT.

Bear in mind Esso, BP, Shell, Tesco and all the rest are private sector companies.

I used to be a private sector company, I used to make CDs and sell them. They cost about 50p to make, to print on my desktop printer, and burn on my PC, cos I made so few of them I never paid VAT or any kind of tax.

Imagine if you will, that the government decided to force me to charge a duty and VAT on those CDs so I could no longer sell them for 50p each, but instead had to sell them for £1.30 each. I probably wouldn't have bothered.

Every few years we have a general election, we vote in 665 members of parliament, some of whom make up the government, but those in the government can't do much themselves, they need the vast vast apparatus of the state, thousands of employees, public sector workers following their dictats in order to collect taxes and spend the money. These people are all complicit in raising the price of petrol at the pumps.

And that is what exasperates me right now, that not only does the state artificially push the price of petrol up, but they also complain about the high price and suggest ways to put the companies out of business, to force them to lower their prices.

Ethically, public sector employees who object to high petrol prices should quit their jobs.

Here's another way I look at it. When I spend £1.30 at the petrol pump, I don't get £1.30's worth of petrol, I get 1 litre of petrol plus 80p's worth of government spending on schools, hospitals, European Union bullshit, MPs expenses, antismoking enforcement, Police officers working undercover, benefit payments and so on.

Actually I'd rather just have the petrol I pay for.

Kroll, the City of London Police and my blog

Happy new year dear blog readers.

Last year this blog had its biggest ever-readership
27,000 hits for 2010, up from 22,000 hits in 2009. Alas, its not quite call for skipping round the office, high-fiving my online journalistic success, the number of returning visitors has declined. I see these people as being folk I used to go drinking with before I moved to London, and slowly they're forgetting I exist.

Furthermore, it was in the first half of the year when the site got the most visitors.

The most popular posts being ones where I'd used magic google-juice to summon the search engine traffic (putting the right key words in the url), such as the Hollie Creig story and the Paul Chambers Twitter Joke thing.

For the latter half of the year, I've been blogging less and my subject matter has been boring.

That said, there's been one or two exciting moments, like when I blogged a moan about my temp agency messing up passing me for a week, and within minutes of clicking "PUBLISH POST", my mobile ringing with someone from their head office, raining down a firestorm on the local office, I got my money in the end. I feel a little guilty cos I was partly to blame. Anyhoo, I took that post down, fearing for my job, even though the company I work in are quite different from the company who pays me.

There was another thrilling post where I was frustrated by the amount of time it was taking my former housing renting landlord folk to give me my deposit back. They took a few hours before phoning me, the money arrived shortly after and they even phoned back the next day to ask that I update the blog post.

This is the future, rather than actually phoning helplines, just write arsey blogpost about stuff, let google do its work and someone else can run round resolving any problems.

Its a thrilling way to live.

The other week I was inspired to write a blogpost about some banner that had been strung up over a road, this blogpost in fact.

One thing I didn't mention in the original post was Kroll, they're a private investigation company who it is alleged under the auspices of Guy Carpenter, persuaded the City of London Police to expend vast resources on bringing Ian Puddick to justice.

A day or two after I clicked publish post, I noticed a Kroll ISP address in the server logs, as having read my blog. I was terrified, I felt threatened and intimidated. So, in a funk I took the blogpost offline until my nerves had calmed and I'd stopped shaking. It took quite a few sleepless nights, but eventually I thought "fuck it, live by the blog, die by the blog". I've lost countless relationships and jobs cos of this philosophy, I'm crazy, but I get the job done.

Its a weird thing about threatening and intimidating things, its all in the eye of the beholder.

I discovered a neat thing about my ADSL wifi routery thing, I can rename it anything, and so whenever my neighbours search for their networks they'll find one nearby called "MI5 mobile surveillance unit 23".

Is it Kroll's fault that I felt threatened by their ISP's appearance in my server logs? Well yes, they did hunt down my website. On the other hand I am just being a pussy by being intimidated by such things?

I dunno. Should I fuck with Kroll? Probly not. But does this blogpost count as fucking with Kroll? Well, that's up to them, innit?

There is another angle...

As part of my job, I spend hours at work randomly surfing the web, reading up on episodes of Lost or V or obscure statistics about far off lands. Its not really part of my job, just that I am incapable of doing productive work unless I have some kind of inoffensive release for my curious mind, without it, my work rate would fall.

Perhaps, Kroll appeared in my server logs because my counterpart, some underpaid temp at Kroll, was bored in his lunch break and arrived at the aforementioned blogpost randomly, with no prejudice or malicious intent.

This is how wars start, people feeling needlessly threatened. We could all do with being a little more like Samantha Smith.

My year in review

January

Living in Sudbury working in a sandwich factory, either sweeping floors or checking quality of deliveries and produce.

Stopped getting deeper in debt.
Gigs:-

Bobby McGees, Would-Be-Goods, Tender Trap - The Buffalo Bar 

 

February

Xbox 360 died of red ring of death

Gigs:-
Matthew Williams, Chris Taylor, MJ Hibbett - The Lamb

 

March

Almost got a job with Jaguar, well, went for an interview, performed pretty poorly really. The incident with my self-esteem a little, proving that I was made of better stuff than just factory floor sweeper, not but quite polished enough to get back into the manufacturing test engineering game.

Gigs-
Wonderful World of Cactapuss, Sangeeta, This Is Munich - Nottinghill Arts Club

Tracey Campbell, Rare Groove - Electrowerkz 

The Loves, The Mai 68's, King and The Olive Fields, Funsize Lions - Jamm

The School, Allo Darlin, Pagan Wanderer Lu - The Bush Hall

 

April

Quit working at the sandwich factory

Moved to a cold four bedroom semidetached house in Wembley Park
Gigs:-
Chocolate Barry, Mr Wright - The Buffalo Bar

Keith Top of the Pops, Superman Revenge Squad, Fighting Cocks, MJ Hibbett - The Lamb

 

May

Moved to North Wembley, to a former old people's home, nearer to my attractive young ladyfriend

Started work at a road working depot in Enfield, hour long commute every morning, hour and a half commute every evening.

Gigs:-
Vic Godard, The Hardy Boys - The Buffalo Bar 

 

June
Started learning to program in perl and Python again.

Gigs:-
Stars of Aviation, Moustache of Insanity, The Werewandas, Tracey's Love - Jamm

Blasted Mechanism - Westbourne Studios

Transpersonals, Witness to the Beard, What's Your Vice - Camden Rock 

 

July
Wrote a really neat strategy game in perl, and then wrote a personal finance suite in perl too, and spent much of the month entering all my bank statements.
Gigs:-

Camden Calling vs Heavy Load, The Priscillas, Malcolm Kaksois, Hughmans, The Camden Calling Collective - The Enterprise
Gronk and the Body Doubles - The Fox and Duck

Allo Darlin, The Smittens, Antarctica Takes It!! - The Luminaire

INDIETRACKS!!!!

 

August

Last time I posted on the Anorak forum

Gigs:-
STANDON CALLING

Lucky Soul, The School, The Lodger - Hoxton Square Bar and Kitchen

 

September

Went to Finland on holiday
Knitted a cluster puff hat in a day http://illandancient.blogspot.com/2010/09/knitting-project-15-cluster-puff-hat.html

Started music career again
 

October

Gave up on music career again
Moved to Walthamstow, fifteen minute commute to and from work every day, joy!

Celebrated two year anniversary with my attractive young ladyfriend
Gigs:-
Winston Echo, Pete Green, MJ Hibbett - The Lamb

 

November

Acquired sofa and bed, and perhaps more importantly: acquired an original Xbox

Spoke to mother for first time this year
Gigs:-
Snap Elect, The Plimptons, Dignan Porch, Butter - The George Tavern

The Soul Rebels Brass Band - The Royal Festival Hall

The Soul Rebels Brass Band - Oliver's Music Bar

 

December

Became 32 years of age, apparently this makes my jowls more noticeable and also increases my resemblance to a pot-bellied pig, however, was rather pleased that Facebook didn't change their privacy settings on my birthday, and thus allowed friends to send their greetings, self-esteem sky-rocketed, thanks guys.

Gigs:-
Darren Hayman - Ye Olde Rose & Crown Theatre

Fuzzystar, Hexicon, Moustache of Insanity, The Crowbar - The Wilmington Arms

Andy From Pocketbooks, Chris T-T, MJ Hibbett - The Lamb

Video Game review - The Warriors - Xbox

I think my favourite video game this year is The Warriors on Xbox. Based on the 1979 movie this game was released in 2005 for the Playstation 2 and Xbox.

Its a running round hitting people game in the vein of Grand Theft Auto, for 1-2 player game where the first 13 chapters sets out the backstory, and the last 8 or so chapters follow the plot of the movie, a gang in late 1970's New York has to fight their way back to Coney Island for some script-related reason.

Back in the Glasgow, flatmate Alan had it for the PS2, we'd play it together, getting each other's back, looking out for each on the mean streets of some other time, playing by some other rules.

Anyhoo, I think I'd moved out of that flat before we'd got through the first ten levels, and ever since, I've been itching to play it again. Alas, the Xbox was discontinued, the Xbox 360 too expensive and no guarantee that it was backwards compatible with older games anyway. Just in case, I bought myself the game off of Amazon, but with no way to play it, just hoping that one day the Xbox 360 would be backwards compatible enough or some other system could do a decent job of emulating.

I was a fool.

About two weekends back, I wandered into Cash Converters and picked up a second hand Xbox for £10, and a controller for £2.50. And within moments I'd been transported, via Glasgow 2005-2007 to Coney Island, the dark hot summer nights of 1978. I was Cleon, Snow, Ajax and Cochaise. Robbing shops, mugging civilians, marching through other gangs turf. Sometimes I'd just smash up cars for the hell of it.

I felt young again, running with my gang, knowing they'd get my back.

Some would complain that its too violent, and brutal, and lack any kind of morals, but its just a game. Besides its not all about kicking the crap out of people, some levels involve laying down city-wide burners (graffiti) or friendly games of 'king of the castle' with neighbouring gangs.

Anyhoo, I am somewhat addicted to this game.