Kanye West has become an internet meme. The basic joke is that you place him in a photo of an event and paraphrase his invasion of Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech to include details relevant to the photograph. For instance, you would have a photo of Kanye West invading Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech and have Kanye West at the side saying “Yo, Kanye, Imma happy for you and I’ll let you finish but I have to say that Jarvis Cocker wrecking Michael Jackson’s performance at the Brits is the best musical award show invasion of all time. of all time.” and the meme will have successfully eaten its own tail.

Speaking of which, I am sure he had a point. On the other hand, he was there in the first place which is a tacit acceptance of the rules and ridiculousness of the whole event so perhaps he should have held his tongue?
I have no strong opinion, I find it all faintly ridiculous these days.

David Cameron has been accused of being a con artist by Nick Clegg. Who reminds me nothing so much as David Cameron. David Cameron has also realigned his party away from the centre left in the European parliament and alongside lunatics from Poland. Who wouldn’t even be in the European parliament if it weren’t for the federalists. I am sure the irony is lost upon him.

I went and saw Gamer last night. It is a watchable and sporadically entertaining film that is, to say the least, confused. There feels to be 3 films merged clumsily into one and the crediting of two directors goes some way to explaining the schizophrenic nature of the film. Gerard Butler is largely under utilised as the growling bloke and the lead from Dexter given too little screen time as the main villain. But he is genuinely unsettling, which is a nice touch. Visually it is sometimes great and sometimes nauseating and does have some interesting points to make about online gaming. And also makes me glad I re positioned myself as a more hardcore gamer after years of fluffy mainstream play.

Before Gamer was a trailer for Ninja Assassin. This is from the creative team behind V for Vendetta and has been delayed by nearly a year. Normally a delay of that magnitude is worrying (to say the least) but it looks absolutely incredible. Probably going to be a very nice surprise to end the year on.

Oh, and I start evening class on Tuesday. With a second to follow soon on Wednesdays. So I think I will be online less and possibly less social.

Ladytron have a new album. I couldn’t listen to it all the way through. They have gone from being a jolt of something new and jagged to sounding a lot like other people. It’s all got a bit serious and musically accomplished but considerably less weird. A lot of people put out music I like and then move in a way that I don’t care much for, very few actually come back stronger. Armand Van Helden. Miss Kittin. Primal Scream. Everyone else just sort of fades away.

Miss Kittin has a new album. I like it.

New South Park! It’s spot on as satire and quite funny. But it isn’t great. It has laugh out loud moments, but not throughout.

I was walking behind a woman the other day. Well, she crossed over the road in front of me. So I am walking there already and she cuts me up and has me behind her. Now we continue walking and I am walking on my normal route home. Which is clearly her route too as she turns round and looks at me fearfully as I take the same turnings as her. Granted, I looked like a mad axe man but she crossed out in front of me. If that makes me a stalker, that makes her the metaphorical equivalent of William Tell’s son jumping round with a target on her. Or something.

Leeds station is clearly intended as a fiendish maze from which travellers must never, ever escape. It isn’t enough for them to give the wrong list of destinations for a train. Or the wrong departure time. Or the wrong platform. No, they have to do all three. I dare say if I had managed to catch it there would have been someone stood just inside the door to push me off for my temerity.

Congratulations to Labour rebels for finally working out the ten percent tax abolition is a bad thing. Next up: Murder is . . . wrong. Idiots.

Alberto Gonzales has resigned. I can´t help but feel that this is a death knell for the current Conservative grip on American politics. Bush wont be able to get someone else so utterly wrong through again, and the Democrats should spank him mightily. Add in Karl Rove having gone and suddenly the Republicans look in utter disarray. This is not, however, to say that the Democrats are in ascendancy. They are notoriously bad at capitalising and their potential presidential front runners make me shudder.

I keep hearing Phil Collin´s desecration of “Another Day In Paradise.” I know it is awful. I know I should be replsed by it. But somehow it doesn´t seem quite so bad anymore. I know not whether I have grown old and mellowed or the standard of music is now so bad that past travesties are no longer so absolutely awful in light of new lows.

I also heard Ace of Base´s “The Sign” and Blondie´s “Atomic” today. Ace of Base always makes me think of being 13 and also of Petra. These things are not connected.

Dan Dare is being resurrected by Virgin Comics. I have decided that the only thing left for comics to do, as they seemingly eat their young and gaze ever more intently at their navels, is Zombie Pirates versus Vampire Ninjas. I expect my royalties forthwith.

What I wanted to say, passionately, and entirely forgot about was:
My staff are musical plankton. They have “Loaded” by Primal Scream play and talk over it, yet turn the radio up for Boyzone. They turn off “Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones and turn the radio to Heart FM. They leave Jo Whiley’s mopy Emo morning to run on Radio 1 and don’t recognise the genius of “Son of a Preacher Man.” They make me despair.

Warren Ellis has been announced as the next writer of Astonishing X-Men. Which will probably be the high water mark of the franchise post-Morrison. He will be joined by Simone Biachi and he has already promised to rape people’s childhoods. He has a few comics out this week (Crechy, Doktor Sleepless and Black Summer) which I have been unable to procure as yet.

All Star Batman came out and actually addressed some of the plot holes in the run so far, while ignoring others. It’s becoming an utter car crash of a series, but looks great. I knew there was the potential for it to be bad after DK2, but the sheer scale of the mess and the clear lack of courage on the part of DC editorial is breathtaking.

I read “The Thin Man” last night. I can help but feel, so far from the era that spawned it, it isn’t really that good. Characters are largely cyphers and the dialogue isn’t as snappy due to its very influence. It’s like coming to Citizen Kane late and accepting all the innovation as rote.

I saw the Beowulf trailer. The special effects look shiny and unfinished and there is a distinct lack of scale and threat. I shall almost certainly see it, but I don’t see it working.

Armand Van Helden has a new album out. It sounds like a lots of eighties dance with no drops. No glitches, no dirty beats. At first it was a shock, and an unwelcome one. But it is a grower. Some of the songs I now love. However, I do prefer his glitchier, dirtier and more droptastic songs. Which the BBC apparently wants to deny exist, failing to mention albums from his discography as mood suits them.

I have discovered Yazoo Yogo Summer Berry drink. It tastes like my mother’s raspberry cheesecake. This is a very good thing. I had to track it down in its natural habitat and snare it in a huge net, but the effort has been worth it.

As I walk to (and occasionally from) the gym I pass a basketball court and football pitch. On the scrub land between them and the pavement grows two different kinds of poppies. This being on the edge of All Saints I am unsure if it is being used to cultivate heroin crops or they have declared an armistice I am unaware of.

Luther Arkwright is a very dense comic which contrives to have the end of royal dynasties and governance across Europe happen at once for some reason which wholly escapes me. In places it is beautifully drawn, and the sheer literacy of it is to be lauded. But it is bloody hard going and I am left with an overall lack of care for the characters (although rounded and developed) and plot (although detailed and meticulous) such as I have no desire to ever read it again. Or suggest to anyone else that they should.

Pirates 3 on Thursday. It shall, of course, be one of the best two sequels this summer. The other will be Ocean’s 13. Spider-Man is for emos and Shrek 3 is for people who get off on intellectual slumming.

I had just written a paragraph of a post and my browser decided it didn’t like me and would stop responding. So a musing on people stealing metal to weigh in is lost to the ages.

What is happening to the world when people don’t know the lyrics to YMCA by the Village People?
I weep for the generation coming through and the death of popular culture.

Warren Ellis (and damn everyone who didn’t read Nextwave for not reading it) apparently believes that Hilary Clinton is looking at making a run for American President in 2008. I honestly don’t want to believe it, but with Mark Warner apparently not running (which I also have a hard time believing, but the spectre of Gary Hart runs through my head flinging semen at the Mid-West) there is precious little in the way of real competition. The Democrat conference could be an old fashioned blood bath this time around.

There are lots of details of family members it turns out I have no idea of. Having once really put my foot in my mouth by not realising that my gran was a would be faith healer it now also turns out her brother was a kleptomaniac and that they didn’t originate from Bradford but from mining village on the border of South Yorkshire. If I had paid more attention growing up life would have been more entertaining.