Notorious P.O.G

Do Not Underestimate the Power of the Dark Side

gaz_mackin@yahoo.co.uk — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 22:25:47 GMT

Hey party people, hope all is well. It's time for me to poke a metaphorical stick at the waning embers of this figurative campfire and hope I don't just come away with ash all over my face. Or something. I'm not sure even I know what I meant by that.

Anyways, it's time for another forever delayed LJ entry as I attempt to tear myself away from from the seductive influence of the Big Bad MySpace - I swear I've become Rupert Murdoch's bitch! I usually try to forget he has anything to do the site, or at least rationalise my membership by telling myself I'm not actually giving him any money and maybe I can destroy his evil empire from the inside. But then I saw the front cover of Wired magazine yesterday with a MySpace cover story and a picture of Murdoch looking every bit the arrogant cunt he is and I nearly went online and cancelled my membership right there and then.

I just watched Return of the Jedi for the umpteenth time in my life, and I'm suddenly compelled to use the throne room scene as a metaphor. Myspace is the Death Star and the Emperor is Rupert Murdoch, so the question is who do I want to be? Am I gonna be Luke, whimpering on the floor while my arse gets fried like chicken by the Emperor's Force lightning bolts? Or am I gonna be Vader and toss that Emperor down a pit to his doom and renounce the dark path?

Or shall I perhaps not use badly forced Star Wars analogies to make inconsequential decisions, especially when I know I'm going to keep posting on the bloody site anyway?

So... all that weirdness aside, here's a few things that have happened in my life lately:
I had my love of football re-awoken by the World Cup, but still couldn't bring myself to care when England crash-n-burned against Portugal in the quarter finals.
I started playing football again for the first time in four or five years, and I'm dismayed by how seriously dire my physical health is - I spent the entire second half of a five-a-side match yesterday just trying not to throw up.
After 3 months of home internet connection, I now have more porn than I know what to do with.
I have become utterly obsessed with the revived Doctor Who series and completely want to have the babies of everyone involved in it's making.
I recorded a radio sketchshow with some comedy mates of mine and it's very funny and I'm looking forward to it being broadcast later this month because I'm an egotist like that.
I'm supposed to be writing sketches for a possible second series of the above sketch show, but as is abundantly obvious all I've done is watch Star Wars and wank over internet porn. But at least all the football I've been playing means every joint in my body aches, so that's nice.

Anyways, that's a few of the high points of my recent adventures. Manifold apologies for not being around much, but I love you all as always. Look for comments from me over the next few days!

Goog god... WHAT HAVE I DONE?!?!?!?

gaz_mackin@yahoo.co.uk — Fri, 05 May 2006 17:44:52 GMT

I signed up to MySpace. Will I maintain two seperate blogs, post identical entires on both sites, or is it finally time for LJ and I to part ways....?

Only time will tell. Or me. I suppose I could tell. But I ain't gonna.

So I'll continue this adulterous relationship for the time being.

I'm learnding!

gaz_mackin@yahoo.co.uk — Wed, 03 May 2006 01:41:06 GMT

Well, thanks to an entry on Unschathed's LJ, I now find myself reading up on Choctaw and Selective Mutism instead of going to bed like I really ought to. Maybe instead I should learn how to insert links into my entries? I swear I kinda knew how to use computers once upon a time!

For reasons I can't be arsed to explain, I've decided I'm going to intensely dislike the Spanish from now until I go to bed. That'll teach them to send their Armada to my hometown! I'll probably really like them again tomorrow. Actually, I like them again already. Man, my grudges don't last long! The wind got blown out of my temporary racial bigotry when I remembered that back in Plymouth there's a shapping centre called Armada. How weird is that? Who names a shopping mall after an invading navy? I guess that's something else for me to learn!

I heard a great line tonight at a gig (first one I've been to in weeks, it felt so strange) from an exceptionally funny comic named Russell Howard. He was talking about how frustrating it is when you're playing a song for someone and trying to convince them to love it as much as you do, but it just ain't happening. He said "Music is like sex or religion - you can't force it on anyone". XD

Anyways... I feel like I'm drunk even though I didn't drink all that much, so I'm going to cut this nonsense off right here. Plus it's way to close to 3am and it's a schoolnight.

Buenos noches, amigos. Hasta luego.

Ask for me in the morning and you shall find me a grave man

gaz_mackin@yahoo.co.uk — Mon, 01 May 2006 14:49:25 GMT

Ugh, I just had the worst night's sleep that I've had since forever. I've kipped in train stations and felt better for it at the end. Getting to sleep was the wost part - has anyone ever had that feeling when you're falling asleep that you've just forgotten to breathe for the past minute? I kept getting that last night. And when I finally fell asleep I had a series of weird dreams that were in no way pleasant or relaxing - I consider diving into a sewer to rescue a drowning baby to be a low point of my subconcsious adventures.

Yeah, that's right. A drowning baby. In a sewer. The fuck was that all about?!

On the plus side, I did see the Baz Luhrmann version of Romeo and Juliet last night - such an incredible film! It never faild to move me.

Leave the shooty dog thing...

gaz_mackin@yahoo.co.uk — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 22:46:37 GMT

So, after missing the entire series with Christopher Eccleston, I've finally managed (thanks to the manifold wonders of digital TV) to sit my arse in front of the telly and watch the spangly new Doctor Who. And I'm seriously glad I did! I watched an episode the other day with a werewolf and Queen Victoria, which was pretty damn good. But that didn't even touch the latest episode, with a damn creepy Anthony Head on top form and the return of K-9. It just had so many brilliant lines! If you're not watching Doctor Who, then start watching it forthwith.

Nonchalance in the face of guns

gaz_mackin@yahoo.co.uk — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 21:16:32 GMT

So I've still not entirely got the hang of updating this online insight into the tedium of my own mind, but I'm sure I'll get there eventually (and if I don't - well, I'm sure there are more pressing issues in this world of pressing issues).

It would be nice to say that I've been busy for the past few days, but in reality I have been incredibly idle. In fact, I'm working towards a new personal record for pure, unadulterated indolence (for some reason I REALLY wanted to type "idolatry", but although I have been practically worshipping our new cable TV installation I hardly think it counts as an idol). I've never been a particularly industious fella, but usually I've got a fair bit on my plate, even if it's just socialising or whatnot. But for the past month or so I've thrown myself into apathy with unbridled enthusiasm.

And I'm loving it!

I've just been enjoying lazing about the house every evening after work, mucking about on the PS2 or watching TV until the wee hours and doing very little else. It's in marked contrast to just a few months ago when I was still doing stand up and I'd spend half my nights sleeping in train stations or in the houses of random peopled I had just met in towns I'd never been to before. Oh yeah, I can't remember if I mentioned it before, but last month I took a sabbatical from doing comedy (although I imagine astute readers would have gathered that). I never wrote much about my stand up experiences in here or what it means to me, but quitting the game (even on a temporary basis) was a pretty big deal for me. Comedy's been a big part of my life for the past year or two, so I didn't drop out of it lightly. That said, as yet I have no plans to get back in the game because I'm so happy to be an utterly lazy bastard.

Hmm, reading back over what I've written so far, I guess I could summarise my post like this:

"I don't update regularly, but I will from now on."

"I recently gave up a fascinating pastime that would have provided plenty of entertaining stories if I had been updating regularly before, but now that I am updating regularly all I have to write about are computer games and late-night cable TV shows."

So, perhaps not the most auspicious thing I could write. But look on the plus side - how many people do you know that satirise their own blog posts?

Anyway, ER's just come one so I've lost all interest in writing. Hasta luego, amigos.

Where I can buy a phone? (plus MAJOR NEWS)

gaz_mackin@yahoo.co.uk — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 19:39:04 GMT

Hmmm, that line I loved in the fan-sub of Advent Children wasn't quite as fun as in the English dub - but there were many equally awesome thing which compensated for it! (such as the fantastic cast)

But that's a minor issue when compared to my MAJOR NEWS for today.

(just to clarify - my use of the phrase MAJOR NEWS is a highly relative term that applies purely to my life and has very little bearing on other people such as Canadian fishermen or Koala Bears)

Anyway, the MAJOR NEWS is that, after four years of Dilly-Dally Shilly-Shally (topical reference to the English dub of Advent Children), after four years of false promises and non-starts and after four paragraphs of me trying to build this thing up, I have finally GOT AN INTERNET CONNECTION IN MY VERY OWN FRIGGIN' HOUSE.

Happy days. :)

N.B.
I didn't actually get sort the connection out myself, my mate Simon did - I wouldn't want anyone to go thinking I'd shaken of years of indolence and lack of initiative! Plus it'll be a few days before I make my presence felt online cuz we're trying to set up a wireless connection between the four PCs currently in my house, but there's a few kinks to iron out which will probably be sorted on Wednesday. But for all the people that give a toss - I'll be chatting to all y'all a lot more very soon! :D

Thesis of a Cruel Anime

gaz_mackin@yahoo.co.uk — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 17:32:35 GMT

This week I have been mostly watching Neon Genesis Evangelion.

It's great to re-discover a series you haven't watched for a few years and find you still have a deep love for it, especially if you're a little bit wiser the second time round and are able to appreciate it more fully. It's a fiendishly complex series in places with a rich potential for interpretation (especially in the film which is ridiculously heavy with symbolism), so it was rather edifying to watch it with at least a casual understanding of Fruedian psychoanalytic theory and early Judeo-Christian mythology. It was fun to able to put things like Lilith and the Sephiroth (the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, not the long haired dude with a long sword from Final Fantasy 7!) into a historical context. And surprisingly I found myself able to break past my usual inability to perceive visual metaphors, so I was spotting things all over the place (mainly sexual in nature, but then it's just that kind of show).

Something that made me laugh about the whole thing today though, is when I asked myself whether watching Evangelion the first time round had prompted me to go out and learn about BIG IMPORTANT CONCEPTS like psychology and religious symbolism, or if instead I'd spent the past two years learning about those things just so I could watch a cartoon and actually have any idea what was happening in it. I tell ya, I never had this much trouble over Duck Tales!

Dinosaur Comics Re-visited

gaz_mackin@yahoo.co.uk — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 17:36:40 GMT

Damn, it's not just the Utahraptor, I also find the Dromiceiomimus increasingly alluring too. But not the T-Rex - I see something of myself in him, so I think it would be too onanistic.

Maybe I should stop reading Dinosaur Comics?!

I spent nearly 20 minutes on the phone talking to my dad the other day. I don't think we've ever done that before! It's quite nice to have a proper conversation with him.

I don't think I'm going to tell him about the dinosaur thing though. He may disown me!

I like Dinosaur Comics! Maybe you will too!?

gaz_mackin@yahoo.co.uk — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 17:51:30 GMT

I've spent the last 2 days reading Dinosaur Comics from the very beginning.

I find myself strangely attracted to the Utahraptor.

Is this wrong?

.... and maybe I don't want to be right. 0__o

Lazy days, don't let them get you down...

gaz_mackin@yahoo.co.uk — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 17:24:38 GMT

Bah, I really need to start organising myself better and actually get things done. My gig diary is still as crowded as something that is notably uncrowded. I've snapped up a few isolated gigs, but they are all many weeks from now. I definitely need to do something about that.

Also, there are many people I need to call today who I've been neglecting for too long. There's something really sad about taking a month to get round to phoning your own mum.

Ack, I sound way to whiny right now, so I'm gonna cut this short. Check out this Wiki entry I found the other day - are these guys just a shower of wankers or what? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I.e._Contemporary_Artists - methinks someone is using Wikipedia for a little self-promotion.

I'm doing a gig tomorrow where I'll probably just read the entry out and spend ten minutes bitching about the pretentious fuckwits. Should be fun!

:D

Mein Gott I am lazy...

gaz_mackin@yahoo.co.uk — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 18:39:38 GMT

Things accomplished this week = BUGGER ALL. Unless you count escaping from the Coral Desert prison in Final Fantasy VII after being stuck on it for several weeks an accomplishment. Which, when ya really think about it, it is. A fantastic accomplishment in fact. Yah boo to the nay-sayers who said nay, it can't be done. They're all cunts. I'm gonna put it on my CV.

Sadly my digital prison break (which I've done three times before so frankly it was embarrasing that I got stuck at all) hasn't done anything to further my goals or developing several ideas I have for routines, or booking more gigs. Or finding me a new job (I hold out little hope that any employer will hire me on that basis). Or calling my mum, or anyything else I was supposed to do this week. I've just been strangely tired and am having a great deal of trouble summoning the will to do anything at the moment.

I'm thinking perhaps I should maybe possibly take one of thise 'holiday' things I hear so much about.

In happier news, I watched several hours of Dragonball Z last night with my new crew of intensely geeky mates. It was like being 17 all over again. Me gusta mucho!

Don't make me Ang Lee, you wouldn't like me when I'm Ang Lee...

gaz_mackin@yahoo.co.uk — Fri, 17 Feb 2006 18:31:46 GMT

So often I find myself faced with the same question; just how desperate am I for a gig?

At the moment, I've got no gigs booked for the next few weeks due to incredible laziness, which isn't a situation I'm happy with. I like to do at least one gig a week, preferably 2 or more. But making sure at worst no more than a week passes in between gigs is quite important to me - an aim which I'll fuck up this week unless I do a gig in the next three days. So I'm on chortle.co.uk when lo and behold I see a sport open at the Leicester Comedy Festival at 1pm on Sunday. The downside? Leciester is nearly 3 hours away by train and in order to get there I'd have to go up on Saturday night, and as I don't know anybody in Leicester (at least no one I've got a number for) that probably means yet another night sleeping rough in a train station. Plus I'd spend 30 quid I don't have. Plus the gig might be dead cuz it's a Sunday afternoon on the last day of the festival.

It probably doesn't sound like to difficult a choice, but it's taken 15 minutes of careful deliberation for me to decide not to bother, and I still might change my mind. Aw fuck it, I'll just use my time to email every promoter I know so hopefully this kinda shit won't happen again!

BTW Spider-Man's new costume fucking rocks.

Why do super-people never go after the REAL bastards?

gaz_mackin@yahoo.co.uk — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 18:53:56 GMT

Woof. It's been a busy few days for this young lad - the usual mix of doing a gig, drinking, doing another gig, more drinking helping a friend promote their gig and attending said gig, continuing the drinking theme, dealing with a family crisis and, of course, fitting it all in around a full-time job. How did someone as terminally lazy as me ever end up with such a packed schedule?

I'm quite excited about a gig I did in Bristol on Sunday. Firstly, it was a complete surprise to me, which was fun (I'd turned up to watch without realizing I'd actually been booked to perform). I had to quickly scramble to dig up some new material from the recesses of my mind and my notebook, and ended up pulling off something that was pleasantly Not ShitTM. It was maybe even Quite GoodTM. Certainly the audience were making noises that didn't sound terribly disimilar to laughter. Some of it actually debuted in this here journal (Atum the Egyptian pervert god who sucked himself off, the dirty pervert - who am I kidding, I know I'm just jealous), so maybe I'm not completely wasting my time when I drop my excutiatingly dull thoughts in it after a long day at the office has sucked out off my joy of life.

The cool bit of the evening though was the fact that for the first time since I started this ill-advised foray into the world of comedy, my set got filmed! Not for TV or anything like that, just by a geezer I know with a camcorder. But that's all I need yo; I can hook up with him this weekend and I'll finally have a recording of myself so I can do some proper critical analysis of this shite I'm spouting all over the country. It's funny to think that the only person who's been to every single gig of mine is the only person who's never heard me perform (ie ME).

Oh yeah, I also get to indulge my super-massive ego and wank all over myself (figuratively, of course) when I watch the video and know that it's me on the screen, making 30 goths laugh in the back room of pub. Ah, what the hell, maybe I will wank all over myself!

Oh yeah, if I can get the video in a small and manageable format, I'll try and post it on here sometime.

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I've been heavily distracted in my lunch breaks this past week since discovering comic-fans' utopia Newsarama. It's completely cool. I had a bit of a chuckle to myself today when I thought about how much I was bitching last week about Muslims getting so worked up about the Danish cartoons, when I realised there are people nearly as rabid about the old Marvel vs DC rivalry. Seriously, if you put these guys in a room together and gave them knives, they would completely slit the other's throat to prove a point. I think I knew when I was writing that cartoon stuff that I wasn't really angry at Muslims, or Christians or religious people in general - I was just pissed off about people being assholes. Narrow-minded, reactionary assholes. And sadly they exist everywhere, people who just decide they hate another group of people and then produce a reason almost as an after-thought. The genius comic Daniel Kitson (who I went to see last week) put it best when he said that if you took away all religion, you'd just have people going to war with each other over colours. 'I like blue, who's with me? Let's fuck those red people up' (really loose quote).

People are cunts.

But I still love 'em.

Man, I need food. Laters.

The Devil's up my ass

gaz_mackin@yahoo.co.uk — Fri, 10 Feb 2006 18:44:36 GMT

This week I've set a new personal record for longest time to cook some sausages. Usually it takes, like, ten minutes. But this week it was taken me nearly three days! That's a substantially longer unit of time!

Ok, I suppose I should clarify. Actually, fuck it. The explanation is really dull. I'm just going to leave that paragraph as it is, and let anyone who reads it ponder over my enigmatic statement. Cuz I'm mysterious like that!

Too few people these days use the word "iconoclastic" in their CVs. I blame society.

Today's news:

Authorities confirm orphaned child feared to be suffering from elephantitus is in fact an elephant.

A cot manufacturer's survey concluded the feature parents least want to see in a cot is a dead baby - crushed glass and Dick Cheney also listed.

Breaking News:

A new survey today confirmed that the general public are sick of surveys, and think surveyors are a bunch of wankers. "We'll call it something else" pledges Question Askerer.

x

Miss Hoover, I ate my crayon...

gaz_mackin@yahoo.co.uk — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 18:49:48 GMT

Oh man, I have got to be more carful with the chairs they have here in the internet cafe - I walk away every day feeling like my coccyx has been buggered. And in a way that is more painful than actual buggery.

Right now, I'm online looking for decent broadband deals, because I'm finally getting off my lazy arse and getting hooked up to da net at home (I hope). Which will be nice. :)

I have a sexy Taiwanese housemate moving in this week, if all goes to plan.

Tonight I'm going to eat some sausages.

Yes, my life is pretty full right now. :D

Sotto voce

gaz_mackin@yahoo.co.uk — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 18:26:02 GMT

I just discovered one damn funny web comic today - http://alienlovespredator.com. If anyone out there is already a fan, I hate you for not telling me about it sooner! ;D

Hehe, I just had a quick look over my last update - I almost can't believe how ranty I got! I spent a lot of time thinking over that issue later on as I had a relaxing stroll along Bristol's floating harbour. I definitely found a few flaws, hypocricies and irregularities in my argument, mainly coming from just how worked up I got over the whole thing. But I'd still argue the cartoons were justified. Either way, I'm leaving the subject well alone now.

I think i was planning to write a whole lot more today, but I'm way to knackered at the moment. I'm still recovering from a gig I had on Monday night in Derby (I got it in the end - jut took a little persistance!) Trying to sleep in a train station has that effect on you (just so you know, the north Midlands are fucking cold). It was a fun gig though, I'm glad I went up.

Pah, I'm gonna go home. There were a couple of dozen things I was supposed to do on the net today, and I've managed bugger-all of them. I'm just wanna go eat some sausages and look at dirty magazines (not at the same time though).

x

Fellas, if you could blow yourselves, ladies, you'd be alone right now

gaz_mackin@yahoo.co.uk — Sat, 04 Feb 2006 18:55:17 GMT

Damn, did I have some weird-arse dreams last night. I was trying to book a gig in Derby on short notice yesterday (haven't heard back from the promoter yet and the gig is on Monday, so I probably haven't got it), and ended up dreaming about going to the gig. Except in my dream, Derby wasn't in the Midlands of England as it usually is. Instead, it seemed to be in Afghanistan. And the Afghan customs offices looked eerily similar to the Sixth Form block of St Mary Redliffe school in Bristol. Oh, and China shared a boder with Afghanistan. My subconscious really shoulda paid more attention in geography class!

The other weird dream was clearly derived from seeing an advert for the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, as I found myself in a house full of rotting cadevers. It wasn't the partially decomposed bodies that were disturbing so much as the slugs that were oozing all over them (probably inspired by some piss-poor sounding horror book I read the blurb for years ago about flesh-eating slugs). I remember looking at the scene and thinking "I hope this doesn't give me bad dreams". So my subconscious might be utterly ignorant about geography, but it at least has a good sense of irony.

-----------------

Aw man, I'm very irritable this week. I wrote that entry about religion mainly, I think, to try and get it all off my chest so I could get on with my week without thinking about it (mainly because I sensed I was going to wind up in an argument with someone at some point). But it feels like life has conspired to mock me as, as hard as I try to avoid it, I've been bombarded with instances of religious people with apparently no sense of self-awareness doing stupid, stupid things. It's very vexing. My biggest irritation this week are the muslims around the world (not all muslims you understand, just the ones without a sense of humour) going fucking mental over the publication of cartoons of Muhammed in a Danish newspaper. It's all so stupid really. What annoys me isn't so much the fact they're pissed off about the cartoons - if they want to not be happy about that, that's fair enough, like I'd be a bit irate if someone said to me "Spider-Man's shit, Superman is way better". It's their opinion. But then you get these idiots demanding an apology from the Danish Prime Minister, demanding he take action - like it has anything to do with him! Last time I checked, he wasn't running the newspaper. Then, of course, you get all these backwards-ass cunts burning the Danish flag and calling for violence. All over some pictures and some words. What a bunch of wankers.

I'm worried by the whole affair too, it's just another affray in a long line of attacks by narrow-minded but noisy religious parties against peopl's right to expression, to freedom of speech. The article that sparked this whole thing off was part of a debate about the dangers of self-censorship following incidents like that director Van Gogh being murdered. Artists are becoming scared to criticise, or even question certain areas of society for fear of reprisal. And then these fanatical, reactionary assholes go and prove their point! What really irked me was watching the BBC last night and there was a Lib Dem MEP there criticising the paper for being insensitive and all this garbage, and trying to say the paper took freedom of speech too far and tried to compare it too shouting "fire!" in a cinema. It's nothing of the sort.

Oh man, I'm gonna draw this tirade to a close, 'm way too wound up!

On the positive side, I have come up with some promising new material based on an ancient Egyptian religion which sould be really fun. Happy days are here again.

Love you all.

gazpacho

gaz_mackin@yahoo.co.uk — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 19:16:42 GMT

I was going to continue the theme of my last update (the religion thing), but I really don't feel like it now - I'm slightly bummed after reading a friend's LJ which was kinda sad, and I didn't have anything helpful to say. Why I feel it is that I need to do so is a question for another day. Supposedly, the desire to 'fix things' is a typically male trait, but I don't subscribe to gender-specific roles too much. Plus, I'm such a big fairy that probably doesn't apply to me. :P

My very busy week continues. Pretty much all I'll be doing for the next few days when I'm not working, sleeping or eating is distributing flyers for my friend's music night (I have no recollection if I mentioned it before or not). Plus, I really gotta book some more gigs, my diary is completely barren for the next few weeks!

Ah bollocks, gotta go.
x

Losing my religion

gaz_mackin@yahoo.co.uk — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 19:02:40 GMT

Man, I've been on a real anti-religion bent these past few weeks, ever since watching this documentary on Channel 4 by Prof Richard Dawkins. For those who didn't see it, it was basically a massive broadside against the bow of religion from an avowed atheist, and made a number of good points in an uncompromising style. It was good. And it rekindled a lot of my own personal frustration with all religions, but particularly Christianity (for no particular reason other than it was the main religion that I was exposed to as a child). There's a lot to be frustrated with at the moment too, what with the fundamentalist Christians in America, Islamic fundamnetalism, the new Nazi-Pope, my government passing a religious hatred law which will probably stifle free speech and my current bete noir, cunty-cunty Christian Voice and arse-faced Stephen Green. It's the government thing that's the most worrying at the moment (brief article here: http://chortle.co.uk/news/jan06/bill900102.php). If it goes ahead I'm going to lock myself in my room for a week and write as much scathing religious material as I can and test the new law to its limits. Y'know, it's something to do.

I'm very tired today, and not really capable of processing rational, cogent thoughts. Got home very late past two nights, but I did at least have a great time on each. Especially Sunday night; I got rather flirtatious after a couple of pints and ended up grabbing nearly a dozen people's arses (guys and gals), two girl's tits, watched two girls kiss and kissed a fella to boot. The fun thing was everyboday loved it. Just another debauched and crazy night in Bristol then!

Wow!

gaz_mackin@yahoo.co.uk — Sat, 28 Jan 2006 18:42:28 GMT

Two updates in a month, it's almost gettin' to be a habit!

Apologies to Cal and Court for not replying to you guys sooner, but if you go look at my last post uou'll find I have left enlightening and informative thoughts for you both to muse on. /pretentious

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Interesting times ahead for sure. I have two gigs as an MC this week (the fella/lady that talks shite between comics and keeps the whole night together), one of which is at a gig that I've put together myself, which will hopefully become a regular thing and will allow me to get a lot more practice at MCing. Happy days. :)

I've also been roped in to helping a close friend publicise a series of music nights in Bristol. It's gonna be a fair amount of work, but it all helps encourage young, local musicians, which is a Good Thing. Besides, it keeps me out of trouble.

I dreamt last night that a comedian I really like was dead, which made me really sad. But then I woke up and remebered that he's actually alive, which is great news because I'm looking forward to seeing his show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

My life sure is exciting. ;P

Love y'all!
gaz

Jesus Christ and Che Guevera walked into a bar...

gaz_mackin@yahoo.co.uk — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 15:54:59 GMT

I wish I had a punchline to go with the sentence abover, it promises so much. Sadly, I don't have any jokes that involve Our Lord and Saviour, or that Jesus fellow either. But strangely, there's this poster I keep seeing in railway stations that has a picture of Jeebus as a bay-bee (it's an Xmas-related thingy), but done in the style of that ubiquitous image of revolutionary-cum-tee-shirt-icon Erenesto "Che" Guevera. On one hand I can see why the poster people did it - the poster says something about the beginning of a revolution, and obviously both men were revolutionary figures (after initially wondering why they'd want to go and politicise Jesus, it occured to me that he has always been a political figure and railed against the Establishment of his time), so that's fair dinkum. But it seems strange to co-opt Che's image to promote Christ, when there are all sorts of connotations related to Che that maybe you don't really want to evoke (such as armed insurgency, or a death that owes more to incompetance and poor planning than it does to martydom). I just find the whole thing weird, and slightly desperate.

Boo

gaz_mackin@yahoo.co.uk — Fri, 04 Nov 2005 17:57:22 GMT

I got into an argument with someone the other day about whether the death penalty and if it should be abolished. This person ran through all these pro-capital punishment arguments, but I just didn't agree. They got quite pissy, but I said "It's not that I disagree with the death penalty in theory, it's just the execution...."

Man, that's a poor joke.

I'm personally responsible for genocide...

gaz_mackin@yahoo.co.uk — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 16:12:04 GMT

Hi all, been real busy lately. Gigs in Cardiff, London, Penzance all in the last two weeks. Tomorrow I go to some place in Leicestershire I've never heard of, Cardiff the next day and on Wednesday I'll be in Wolverhampton. Am I taking time off work to fit in this hectic travel schedule? Now why would I ant to go do something sensible like that?! :P

Things are going well, and a comic I really respect told me that on my last gig I was the best he'd ever seen me. It was good to hear that, so I'll keep plugging away at this thing and hopefully I'll keep getting better and better.

Got a new housemate today. He's called Pio and he's Irish. For some unknown reason, when I was asking which part of Ireland he's from I said "Are you from Northern Ireland or, um, Regular Ireland." I hope we get along ok, some people can really take it the wrong way when you describe their country as if it's a cup of coffee. :/

As happens all too often I've realised today that I've really been neglecting a lot of people imprtant to me. I hate it when you think of someone and say to yourself "I haven't chatted to them for a few weeks" and then you realise it's been a couple of months. I really need to learn to organise my life better (or find someone who's willing to give millions of pounds so I can quit work and use the extra 8 hours a day to do all the things there just doesn't seem to be any time for).

I hope y'all are well. I still owe you a story Court! Love you all guys.

gaz

Striking a blow for Freedom of Speech and cool songs

gaz_mackin@yahoo.co.uk — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 17:20:51 GMT

http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/sept05/springer200901.php

I was very happy to learn that Jerry Springer - The Opera is finally going to go on tour! My respect and gratitude goes to every one of the 21 theatres that rallied together to make sure it will be shown outside of the M25. And hopefully, whatever pathetic protests the lunatics at Christian Voice attempt will be given the contemptuous rebuttal they deserve as people file in to see what is a damn good piece of musical theatre.

I remember feeling almost smug last year as I watched America's demented fundamentalist Christian population mobilise in support of George "Mission Accomplished" Bush, as I thought to myself "I'm so happy we don't have idiots like that in Britain". I was distraught when I was proved wrong this year, as all the reactionary fuckwits came out of the woodwork with their quest for conformity and hateful views. Oh, and the hypocrisy. It's very important not to forget the hypocrisy. And what occasionally appears to be a fundamental lack of understanding of their own faith.

I could wax lyrical about the intense dislike I have for them for a good hour, but many of my greivances are really just minor annoyances. What really pisses me off is that they have the arrogance and the gall to dictate what I should be allowed to see, and what my tax money should be spent on. Fuck them and fuck Stephen Green. I'll se you at the opera.