Shu.Kurimu.Sensei

We are definitely short on resident reprobates and there certainly is no shortage of estate agents to choose from :)) Ever considered Tufnell Park or Finchley Central though? Both great places to live, but probably bloody expensive these days...

It's been picked up by the beeb now: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7193416.stm

If you search around teh underwurlde , somebody shared a camcorder rip of the Video Games Live concert, think it was the one in Sweden or Germany. Some good tunes done, some odd choices also. Don't think the performances compared to the 5 or so live albums recorded by Nintendo (a decade ago?) outshone them, and the adrenalin from performances by Sega's live band, or Taito's Zuntata band was not evident but at least these kind of concerts are finally happening "abroad". I think the Black Mages may have played in France a while ago though? Did anyone see VGL in London last year? Be interested to hear any thoughts on it.

I gave up coffee and cola years back, if you do some academic research on how caffeine along with other daily "treats" containing stimulants such as chocolate and fags are it becomes clear that giving up really can be hell and lead to becoming addicted to other stimulants instead! Green tea does naturally contain caffeine also, but typically in lower amounts (although this does depend on the type of tea, how it is cultivated and its strength etc.). The antioxidants in Green tea however far outweigh the caffeine and I personally don't seem to feel the effects of the caffeine at all. If you want to branch out in your green tea appreciation, do pop into The Rice Wine Shop on Brewer St in Soho, if you walk down that shopping arcade next to the number 12 bus stop at Picadilly Circus that has that soap shop, you should find yourself next to Brewer ST and the Rice Wine Shop looks like a little corner shop, it's next to an Arabic sweet shop. They have tons of teas which can be drank hot or cold (great tip for summer is to get a plastic container then bung a tea bag inside it with your water of choice, swirl it around then leave to settle). They also sell Japanese Barley tea, blends of various Chinese teas also. Note that if the box has English on it, then if you can be arsed, they can be bought far cheaper in Chinatown. Arigatou also in Brewer ST sell a good selection of teas, but are far more expensive. If you are after gourmet Green Tea then you could do worse than pop into the basement of the Japan centre which have really great tea leaves kept in the refrigerator but which cost ?20+ a bag. Too sweet for me, but across the road from the Japan centre is a traditional Japanese sweet shop. Stuff costs a fortune, is a very acquired taste but also largely hand made. Definitely also worth doing some web searches on the many excellent Chinese teas out there which you won't see in Sainsburys or Waitrose especially for those aiding digestion, circulation etc which go for a fair price in Chinatown. I tried matcha for the first time last year in Japan, despite Green Tea being an everyday drink for the last 14 years or so, had never got round to it, and it was very nice indeed. Ever try the Matcha Chiller at "Eat"? A mix of vanilla shake and 2 teaspoonfuls of matcha tea = a yummy treat! Expensive at ?2.90 though. Sorry, guilty of rambling again :-$

Hmm not sure about taking them out, when I have been there I needed to request books at least 4 days in advance and they get sent to the appropriate reading room, think they get kept at the library for 3 days or something.You can also request academic journals if you don't have access to an Emerald account, or if the journal is no longer available online, which is handy. Note that although there is internet access there, it is limited and you cannot access any of the major web based email services there unless you bring along a laptop and pay through the nose for wifi access. Check their website before going, I was lucky enough to get a 3 year pass, but I think even for a day pass you still need to bring 2 forms of ID, something like a utility bill, drivers licence, 2 forms of address and preferably photo ID as well. Lots of book thieves there apparently. If you don't want to faff about with the tube I'm pretty sure a 45 from Camberwell will take you right there. Happy reading :)-D

Heh, yeah they are pretty mad. Seeing as that wasn't enough to buzz your bins off, try some Merzbow! Seem to have forgotten most of the Japanese noise bands I was into about 8 years ago, memory is awful these days, but they did some pretty mental stuff. To end on a mellower note, something from the wonderful, and much overlooked Flower travellin band: http://youtube.com/watch?v=UgznWOhwxpE

Having been a relatively recent convert to the joys of tokusatsu http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokusatsu (note - nothing at all like the stuff that gets shown in the west) and having immensely enjoyed the midnight show Ougon senshi Garo http://youtube.com/watch?v=QBB6Yj_iilE&feature=related along with many other classic shows of its ilk I finally got round to sitting down in front of the telly to watch me some Lion maru G http://youtube.com/watch?v=9k5m8T1Ut4A&feature=related Quite frankly in the first two episodes it packed as many laughs per minute as that cartoon Family guy. Absolutely hilarious from start to finish. Wondering now if the live action series of Cutie Honey the Live can come close to matching up... http://youtube.com/watch?v=17TCknq6Xl4

Wow, hadn't noticed this before! Got a good 29 years of gaming behind me too, thankfully I study more and game less these days :)) the DS is great, but since the Saturn died I personally reckon that a good 90% of all games produced for consoles are boring and a complete waste of my time, hence sticking to the DS on the bus and Mame and its ilk for a decent pixel rush. I mean all that unlockable nonsense these days, and for what? Don't even get me started on RPGs and random battles..Is it really worth backtracking and repeating levels? Not really worth wasting any of my life on that nonsense. As the market has "matured" it seems cgi scenes and missions have replaced the entire point of games - to be fun. I know the PSP has improved a hell of a lot recently in terms of quality software, but for me the DS is an amazing bit of kit, especially for multiplayer games. Hell I'm even practising Yoga and Pilates by using DS software, there are also wine tasting, beauty and personality testing titles for it, but I digress. Guess its that "getting old" thang. Meh so much for progress, I doubt the gaming scene will ever be as exiting as in the Pc Engine/Superfamicom/Megadrive era, that was a golden time indeed :)-D This isn't a bad article, it is hardly accurate, but is a pleasant enough trip down memory lane: http://www.i-mockery.com/minimocks/50arcadecabinets/default.php For a quicker fix, this may cause spitting of rice: http://gamerhelp.com/article_viewer.cfm?article_id=131560&type=feature This is a great game: http://www.gonintendo.com/?p=20179 I love it to bits, although its a shame they put more classical music rather than the old folk tunes they included on previous arcade and Playstation versions, probably due to the popularity of the Nodame Cantabile Drama http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Nodame_Cantabile (based on the comic) which I can also highly recommend. Here is a nice video of the famous (and very much overpriced, thanks to the legions of French and American tourists who locust strip places like this to re-sell on ebay) Super Potato in Akihabara. http://www.akihabaranews.com/en/news-13757-Super+Potato%2C+THE+place+for+gamers%2C+HDTV.html There are plenty of better and cheaper places, especially in the suburbs and outside Tokyo (there are a good few retro places in and around Sapporo for example who are far cheaper)... Oh, did anyone else see "The king of Kong"? http://www.billyvssteve.com/ it starts out pretty boring but picks up momentum and if you grew up when the first games were black and white, then it's a really good watch. The whole cult of Twin Galaxies does look a bit creepy though to put it mildly. If you can't find it on dvd, like pretty much everything, it can be found in ye underwurdle :))

Quite by chance discovered The tengooz (the name is a play on words) Good stuff! Their blog is here: http://tengooz.blogspot.com/ You can hear their stuff by clicking the covers: http://www.tengooz.com/main_frame.htm They seem to have gathered quite a following here in blighty, although I didn't notice any media presence when we were over in Japan for 6 weeks last autumn. Here is some Kiiiii http://youtube.com/watch?v=KfciBxh-JJM They have been known here for some time by the regular 'headz, good stuff! Just to round off, some Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her http://youtube.com/watch?v=7ZihkMFyBWI

Props to the 2 young and really friendly geezers who happen to be asian working part time on the front tills in Somerfields! :)-D

Well I haven't eaten any chicken in about 12 years after seeing a lot of the journals my better half was reading about the levels of contamination in poultry and European farming methods. In fact I hardly eat meat at all these days, and that is pretty much quality fish from decent sources. Regarding the restaurants on Lordship Lane, have seen far too many staff from eateries of all levels of "quality" walking out of Somerfields with a bag of chicken or other meat products to ever think of dining locally.

Fields of The Nephilim http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=WfGPRNj4FLQ http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=0DWvmFquqeE&feature=related A much underrated group that sort of got lost and should have been a lot bigger, great compositions etc. Some very dodgy music videos though. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=qhGZGJFzd5E But great outfits! Or if one is in need of waking up, how about some stuff from legendary Guitar wolf? http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=JEst8udCY4Y http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=s9cVPD97Wcs http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=9woPMP57X48

By the way, which incarnation of Bomberman, there are 3 different one on the DS, shame none of the Bomberman soundtracks have come even close to matching the excellence of that of Bomberman on the Saturn, what a varied and atmospheric music selection that was!

Urban foxes don't have very long lives, and they are pretty, leave 'em alone I say. One regularly kips in our back garden and never hassles any of the cats.

"Spare any change?"

If they make it cheaper, and the tip tray gets shoved up the managers colon it should stay. Otherwise, dibs on one of their sofas

So it seems all the "new money" the newbies who like to think are middle class but are in reality simply overpaid (I'd wager less than 10percent of the Ruperts who have invaded ED were actually born middle class) make doesn't bring much happiness if all they can think to do with their money is drink grog.

Thanks for the warning! I always keep a bucket of such domestic goods near the door and wave it in their face, but sometimes I take out a Gideon bible and make up some sermon about disturbing peace etc. Alternative tactics include answering in German or my personal favourite with a kitchen knife spread with old tomato ketchup all wide eyed :))

http://nintendods.meetup.com/7/?gj=sj2

Shake that head! The mighty Electric Eel Shock - BASTARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=QS9Oscz7Smk I wake up to this every day

Maybe the lead singer from Eeels look is in vogue? :))

Ey up laddie! Yes, you're completely right, that was the right name of the documentary, the title I came up with couldn't have been less accurate, sorry! The beeb has repeated it a couple of times. Could dig it out if you like, think the quality of the encoding wasn't brilliant, but better than youtube vlc vision however :)) Anyone watching this documentary on Hawkwind on BBC 3 at the mo? Way before my time, but it's interesting to see these old geezers, and I lived near where they hung out for a couple of years so that was pretty funky in itself to see how it has changed since then. I remember seeing Jah Wobble walk past me across the road from Ladbroke Grove Sainsburys, I'd only seen him in a documentary a few days before, never having heard of him until then. Noticing my double take he doffed his hat, what a gent!

The beeb broadcast a documentary about the Radiophonic Workshop sometime last year, should be easy enough to rustle up on your p2p app of choice, or failing that http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=OIkgYiSIfQE has some clips, at some point the show showed exactly how they made up the Dr Who theme amongst others.

Cold? this is nothing compared to some of the places I have lived in! Not even any snow in London any more. Last time I remember any snow worth mentioning in the smoke was sitting on the bus home bringing home a Sega Megadrive on the weekend after working on its UK launch..Back in those days it would take easily an hour and a half from Regents ST to Goose Green.

Does Joey Deacon count?