mockney piers

We actually have a stagnant populous. It's only growing through government policy making net immigration positive. And that's being done precisely because the population is stagnant so we need fresh blood to pay for those services an ageing population can't pay for. Just pointing out that growing population has been mentioned several times as a reason for this policy, when actually it's the opposite.

The original I hope. Again though. Not scary.

You're heading down a philosophical path which many called neo-feudalism. I'm not a big fan of the term or the concept. Although the shadowy hand of the nefarious interests of huge organisations can be found in many places, I do think this is something the masses have brought on ourselves quite willingly. Capital has capitalised (boom boom) on and often exploited the opportunities afforded them by, well, by us.

Interesting. I don't think Hitchens edges it though, I think he wins by several lengths. Blair is just being Blair really, disingenuous and lawyerly. Typical example being he argues that fanaticism would exist irrespective of religion (and of course there he is correct) but unquestioningly claims altruism, charity, spirituality and even morality as the unique property of religion. This somewhat flies in the face of his earlier facts with religious charities providing 20% of this and 25% of that but that's nitpicking; it flies in the face of commonsense and common humanity. Anyway meh, I enjoyed Listening to Hitchens, possibly not long for this world, but I would be a happier man if I never had to listen to Blair again.

I thought no one bought music anymore (apart from me) it's all about the overpriced tickets these days. O2? NO2 (ho ho ho, seewadididthere?)

Yeah, I did enjoy Cloverfield, far from perfect but nice to see some fresh approaches.

Yeah, descent was good. On a similar theme (doing ok with low budget British horror) I quite enjoyed Creep. Good build up with many a nod to a certain quality section of American Werewolf in London (how has that not been mentioned, Nazi werewolf dream made me jump out of my skin when I was a wee one, and brilliant balance of horror and humour), but the final third rather suffers once monster is revealed. His follow up, Severance, was hilarious despite casting omnipresent mockney, Danny Dyer (who actually fit the role perfectly).

Do you prospect for flowers? Weird. You could prospect IN flowers (one for the crossword buffs there).

David Lynch with Betty Blue and Eraserhead. More dread than fear really, but unsettling. After a couple of bad acid experiences, watching Jacob's Ladder saw an end to that substance for me for ever!!!!!

Oooh, I love the Thing, and whilst we talk of Carpenter, Halloween is yet to bettered in the slasher genre a true horror great frankly and was genuinely frightening the first time I saw it, though very much in the roller coaster vein. But though horror is part of his DNA he doesn't really do intelligent and creepy although Tarot is right saying The Fog had its moments, he does pace and verve (Escape from New York and Big Trouble in Little China are still faves of mine). For both it's hard to think of beyond Psycho, in fact Hitchcock, whilst rarely doing out and out Horror is surely one of the greats of the genre.

Vincent Price is a horror god!!! I love the great films from the fifties and sixties, Hammer and the Roger Corman films. For atmosphere they just can't be touched. Mind you, even when I was 11 they just weren't scary were they.

Ooh good call JJF. Likewise there are loads of examples from when I was young, though by the time I was 13 I was a pretty hardened horror buff. Weirdly having fallen out with horror for a while, I'm watching it again but much more selectively. I'm not a fan of the modern crop of slashers, been there done that, plus the remakes were universally better the first time round. But I'm finding that now I'm old and closer to leaving this mortal coil, there are films which I find hard to watch. Not so much scary in the roller coaster fashion but scary in a hangover 'the fear' sort of way. The Orphanage, at least e first half, I found quite tough going. I watched The Devils Backbone the other night and there were some uncomfortable moments. Likewise Pans Labyrinth, mind you Cronos has them too. OK Guillermo del Toro must be good then, he has a way of bleeding reality and real evil into fantasy and horror, thats very good. When the tension from the fantasy releases, then the real world has a habit of being even more horrific. I think the Shining managed that too. I've revisited the Exorcist and the Omen, and whilst both are excellent thrillers and bits of cinema, neither are especially scary. I'll have a ponder about some others on my way home.

Come on now kids, behave. Remember it could be worse, you could be hammers fans :( I still think there's the kernel of a good team, and nothing that a couple of signings, a new manager, new owners and a bit of morale couldn't fix.

Ooh, Mark Gatiss' History of Horror was lovely too. Amazed there was no Shining, and he didn't get to the current crop of creepy horror, such as Cronos, Japanese etc (thhou there was a brief nod to them) but he did stipulate it was a very personal exploration ofnthe genre. But I digress. Right top ten albums next.....

Good shouts wee quinnie Thought Ancient Worlds was pretty good too. Elsewhere (added to some of those above, inbetweeners and mongrels being notable examples) How Not To Live Your Life. The Street was earlier this year wasn't it? Very good.

That was far and away the most annoying thing about the game, breaks every rule of levelling reward. Very very annoying. I didn't minds the gates, though very repetitive, plus the enemy legroom g sort of works within that context. Or at least do something similar with enemy levelling as new areas are revelead.

Last I looked I'm afraid there were no original beatles tracks on Spotify, ditto flour (I mean Floyd, darn iPad autocorrect) and lots of other big names jealous of rights. Lots of weird cover versions mind you. If you've played with iTunes or winamp or similar software then Spotify has a very similar feel and is very easy to use. The big difference is of course that you don't persist or download the music, it's streamed/cached. You simply search for the song or band and double click away, you can add songs or whole albums to playlists, or favourite them to make them easy to track down again. This guide seemed pretty comprehensive http://www.squidoo.com/spotify_guide Enjoy.

Double or quits

Minor correction, Ireland aren't our biggest trading partner. US is for exports: https://spreadsheets.google.com/lv?key=tRrrWO5bBOx7TDxRSyuZ6gw&f=true&gid=3 Germany for imports: https://spreadsheets.google.com/lv?key=tRrrWO5bBOx7TDxRSyuZ6gw&f=true&gid=4 Both by a significant margin (double and treble respectively). From the Irish point of view I do find it a bit weird that they import such high amounts of agricultural produce from us, it's a pretty big and fertile country with a relatively small population, a perfect recipe for food security and sustainability you'd have thought.

Harms way on xbox arcade. Free and rather fun. The racing is a bit weak, but the shooting is good. If someone fancies multiplayer, looks like a lark

Limbo finished. So short, so wonderful. Keef, I'm playing Call of Cthulhu on PC, it was only a fiver from steam or I'm sure you can pick up a second hand xbox copy from game, and I keep thinking of you. I reckon you'd love it. Lots of occult, and strange gods and cultists and madness and stuff and a great atmosphere. Plus if anyones a Lovecraft fan, you actually get to wander around Innsmouth. Coooool http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/703/703445p1.html http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/703/703445p1.html

Shhhhhhhhhhh

Hear hear. Are we also in agreement that media studies doesn't count? History is fine obviously! More vocational/practical stuff should still be free and available to those who want to better themselves. I don't think seeking a return to an elitist system is right, just a better thought through one.

Loved it kingy. I am mostly doing Zola Jesus, Deerhunter Sky Larkin and Arcade Fire after my crimbo shopping yesterday inevitably took me via Fopp.

Actually I'm not a fan of Chomsky, I'm saying this as a historian. As horrible as the civil war was we sure as hell wouldn't be the same country we are without it. Straw man anyway, I don't see terrorism or civil war as a result of student fees, I see a legitimate expression of anger. We may not like it, we may condemn it from our very comfortable ivory towers, but that doesn't stop those doing from being justified and that doesn't mean it won't bring about change. Look back, from wat Tyler through chartists, to notting hill, broad water farm, toxteth, Brixton, poll tax, Bradford to name but a very small few, stuff happened as a result once the dust settled and tiresomely judgemental chattering dinner party types forgot about it. You are a patronising sonofabitch sometimes quids. Time of the month, you've been very old skool quids the last couple of days?