The Blue Album

...is possibly the best thing Orbital have ever done - if just for the 7 minute masterpiece that is "You Lot". A pity it's going to be the last thing the brothers Hartnoll do...

Update: I wonder if it is any accident that "You Lot" is built around a sample of a Christopher Eccleston speech from "The Second Coming". This is the band that recorded a track called "Doctor?"

I'm enjoying it immensely, and it's helping me finish writing the last page of this epic white-paper...

Not sure where the copy I found on Usenet came from, seeing as it's not actually due out for another week or so. But I think it's one I'll be investing my pennies in as soon as I get into a record store on the 21st. It'll make a nice demi-birthday present to myself!

Fiction snippet: Raptor

A long section of an unfinished older work: a tale of eco-activism, nifty aircraft, artificial intelligence and the California mountains.

( Enter the world of Raptor - for 3300 words or so )

Strange objects in the London night skyline.

There's a big arch of lights somewhere over to the north of Putney. It's a fair way away, too...

Could it be the arch of the new Wembley stadium? But lit up at nearly 2am?

Kawaiiness in Putney

Fond a nifty new Japanese food and kawaii tat shop, Japanese Kitchen, in Putney. Looks like they're doing their own import export, and reasonably priced bento too!

Oh, and they stock one of my favourite drinks - Calpico Water!

Lots of Gundam too!