Journal Entries
Violence breeds
Posted Nov 4, 2004
So George Dubbya is in for a second term. I saw one of the UK tabloids this morning was carrying a headline along the lines of 'How could America be so DUMB?'. It's bluntly put, but I find myself asking the same question. This time it seems that we can't even argue that it was fixed - it looks like he actually won, fair and square.
It seems then that the real threat isn't George Bush - it's the fact that 50-odd percent of the American people appear to agree with his xenophobic, warmongering ways; they agree that a pre-emptive strike is an acceptable deterent against an unproven threat, and above all they agree that oil and money are worth more than blood.
I only hope now that the UK ensures that his partner in crime is not re-elected, and put in his place a leader with a backbone and a conscience. If such a person exists in British politics.
I normally don't get involved in this sort of stuff but the overwhelming feeling of dread in my guts tells me this is so wrong.
Tao te Ching verse 30 (Peter Merel interpolation)
Powerful men are well advised not to use violence,
For violence has a habit of returning;
Thorns and weeds grow wherever an army goes,
And lean years follow a great war.
A general is well advised
To achieve nothing more than his orders:
Not to take advantage of his victory.
Nor to glory, boast or pride himself;
To do what is dictated by necessity,
Not by choice.
For even the strongest force will weaken with time,
And then its violence will return, and kill it.
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Latest reply: Nov 4, 2004
Another road crossed....
Posted Oct 21, 2004
Those nice people at 
are serialising my New Zealand ramble. The first part's in this week. Expect a further god-knows how many installments - I'm at ten already and that's just the first week.
Hope you enjoy.
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Latest reply: Oct 21, 2004
TPC.com is BACK!
Posted Aug 10, 2004
To whom it may concern.
After nearly 12 months of not doing very much, www.psychochicken.com is back and kicking bottom - there's some new piccies on there (Goodbye Tufty and The Ascent of Gill), two new trips (Chicago, and New Zealand parts 1-3 - more to follow on that) and some dodgy music stuff.
Alternatively, you could carry on as you were and forget I spoke.... 
tra la la....
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Latest reply: Aug 10, 2004
The Joy of Vinyl
Posted Jun 17, 2004
Well I have now completed my transition from normal music fan to complete and utter hi-fi geek with the purchase of a record deck. Not only that, but I am apparently completely brainwashed and converted to the 'records are a trillion times better than CDs' club, as I've just listened to Marillion's "Brave" (surely the greatest album ever recorded) on vinyl and heard whole dimensions (and vocal lines!) I've never noticed on any of the infinite number of times I've listened to it in digital form.
Follow that with Jeff Buckley's quite exceptional "Grace" (on 'Simply Vinyl' 180g re-issue) and if you're still not convinced, listen to Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" in its intended disc size. For the first time ever I *get* 'On The Run'.
So, if you want to talk moving coil cartridges, and the pros and cons of upgrading your phono stage - I'm yer man 
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Latest reply: Jun 17, 2004
Misplaced Childhood
Posted Mar 10, 2004
With just two hours and twelve minutes left of my twenties, I think it's really important that I spend that precious time wisely. How am I going to spend it? By listening to some of my all time favourite albums whilst luxuriating in a nip from my dusty bottle of 1974 vintage Glenmorangie of course (a particularly good year, even if I do say so myself 
).
Rather appropriately the first CD I've picked is Marillion's "Misplaced Childhood'. Not that I feel my childhood is any way misplaced; misspent possibly, but I know where it is. This was the album that made me realise that music was more than a good tune and some words, and the first time I heard the band I'm still borderline obsessive about today. I was about fifteen and it took my head off at the waist. I played it every day for about a year, and then probably once a week for another two.
Although some of the lyrics seem trite and cheesy to me now, Fish's acid-fuelled trip through his past does still strike a chord, albiet a very different one to the one it struck in an over emotional fifteen year old in 1989. It's impossible to reach a milestone birthday without taking stock in some way - some of it's good, and some of it's bad, but I don't think I've quite finished with that childhood yet.
My thirties? Bring 'em on. It's just another ten years being the kid I've always been.
Slainte
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Latest reply: Mar 10, 2004
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