Yeah, let’s talk today about Premiata Forneria Marconi, specifically their album Per Un Amico. It’s a rare bag of Italian prog brilliance.
Posted on May 3rd, 2011 at 10:23 pm — 1 Comment »
Posted on May 2nd, 2011 at 11:15 pm — 2 Comments »
Aphrodite’s Child. Heh, where am I going to start with this?
A 60s/70s band from Greece with Vangelis and Greek crooner Demis Roussos among the members. Released three albums of which I have the third and final: 666 (The Apocalypse of John, 13/18).
Posted on May 1st, 2011 at 11:09 pm — No Comments »
On Friday 13th May, I’ll be mixing it up with my fellow Prog Crusaders, capes a-flowing for Progressive Rock masters Pallas. So, I thought I’d bang on for the next 13 days about all the things I like about the genre. Talk about defending the indefensible… Although I’ll enthuse about the mighty Pallas one of these next days, today I’ll have to start with my first true love of Prog: Yes! (The exclamation mark is optional…)
Posted on May 1st, 2011 at 5:10 pm — No Comments »
I’ve been trawling the internet this afternoon looking at who is running locally in the elections this week (may 5th for those who have forgotten).
Normally I’m none to bothered about politics. i don’t like it, I don’t trust it so i tend to stay away from political discussions. Most of it involves bad rhetoric, time that can be spent doing something more worthwhile, like scratching my bum.
Posted on April 30th, 2011 at 9:05 pm — No Comments »
Since my last post, I received two kind offers to pick up / pay for the domain so that I could continue churning out my special brand of second-rate fiction… 
I’ve not accepted them and this is why.
Posted on April 29th, 2011 at 10:57 am — No Comments »
Prince William and some girl called Kate are getting married in minutes. Now, I’m not a royalist or a republican. I’m one of the great unrepresented. I just don’t care much.
Posted on April 28th, 2011 at 9:31 pm — 2 Comments »
On the back of buying the Saboteur and Ruthy and I talking about the nude content, leading onto a lament for the way our society and the media sexualise nudity (look, boobs!), we had been thinking about acceptable levels of content to subject Aurora to.
Posted on April 27th, 2011 at 5:22 pm — No Comments »
When I was working my way out of my depression, way back over a year ago, Ruth had me on her Task Centred Therapy, which (and I’m simplifying things here) involved picking a task and dedicating all your mind to it. Didn’t matter if you finished it or not, purely working on the task was enough.
Posted on April 24th, 2011 at 5:57 pm — No Comments »
A new charity shop in Partick. A new one? As if we need any more, but there it is – Save The Children – around the corner from Partick Underground on Dumbarton Road. And books, for the time being at least, are £1 each…
Posted on April 24th, 2011 at 5:03 pm — No Comments »
Given the choice I’ll always take cake, thanks all the same. It’s Easter Sunday. He has risen, He has risen indeed. A wee bit of free liturgy for you there. No extra cost. I’m good like that.
Posted on April 18th, 2011 at 10:52 pm — 1 Comment »
This was sent to me via Mr Push. Apparently it has been doing the rounds on Twitter and the like.
“BBC attacked by authors for ‘sneering tone’ in book shows” from telegraph.co.uk.
Posted on April 13th, 2011 at 11:58 pm — 1 Comment »
I only watched the first half of the first series and the odd episode of further series. Then Ruth only started working through the sixth and final season. I can’t say there’s much chance of me fully understanding everything that’s going on.
Posted on April 12th, 2011 at 11:40 pm — 4 Comments »
Today, according to the logo-meisters at Google, is the 50th anniversary of the first manned spaceflight.
Posted on March 24th, 2011 at 9:43 pm — 2 Comments »
Well, it’s been a good week. Other than a few bangers at work that seem intent on ruining it for everyone, I’ve been in a remarkably chipper mood.
And from the title of the post, can you guess why? Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on February 25th, 2011 at 7:09 pm — No Comments »
Posted on February 13th, 2011 at 4:19 pm — 1 Comment »
It’s been hectic here in Casa Big Al. My SVQ is due soon, so a lot of my not working time has been focused on chewing through the thick language of my outstanding modules.
Posted on January 21st, 2011 at 5:17 pm — No Comments »
Posted on January 9th, 2011 at 8:10 pm — 3 Comments »
It’s a wonderful movie. Just wonderful.
It’s easily one of the best kids movies of all time. Certainly It’s one that I want Aurora to enjoy as she grows up.
But as we Ruth and I watched it (part of the streaming service we have from LoveFilm through our PS3 – it’s a wonder I ever leave the flat) we noticed that everything is set up for Charlie to succeed.
Posted on January 1st, 2011 at 12:17 pm — No Comments »
Yep, we’ve survived the threats of ‘Apocalypse Snow’ and have arrived in 2011 relatively unscathed. A win, I think.
Posted on December 28th, 2010 at 7:56 pm — No Comments »
Just got round to watching this. Didn’t think Up could beat Wall-E, I didn’t think anything could to be honest.
Posted on December 27th, 2010 at 7:14 pm — No Comments »
It certainly has been some year. Looking at her today, with rusk residue on her face and fingers and that already well used ‘butter wouldn’t melt’ look in her eyes, it’s difficult to see where all the time has gone.
Posted on December 1st, 2010 at 9:11 am — 1 Comment »
I’ve become a big fan of Pallas. Neil Psychochicken, Bruce Sphenodon and I went to see them a few months ago at The Ferry in Glasgow. We wore gold capes. Eventually, so did the band. The gods of prog were pleased…
Posted on October 6th, 2010 at 10:56 pm — No Comments »
I’ve been waiting for this new series (which started tonight at 9pm) for ages, especially as they’ve had it in the can for a good while, unable to show it in case Lord Sugar influenced anyone during the last election.
Aye, fine. But it’s back and it’s just the best thing the BBC produce. Or the best thing when Doctor Who or Sherlock isn’t on.
What I especially like about it, and there’ll be no spoilers here as to who got fired, is that these guys are meant to be some of the best and brightest. And they’re pretty much a shambles. Other than things like Big Brother where you have a dozen ramdom tossers. At least these guys are ment to be a bit less random. As tossers.
- Alistair
Posted on September 4th, 2010 at 8:44 pm — No Comments »
Aurora has some childcare (whoo!) which gave myself and Ruthy a rare afternoon off. Bliss.
Posted on August 29th, 2010 at 8:43 pm — 1 Comment »
Bloomin’ hell, I’m shattered after being up since 3.30 this morning. Woke with the worst case of trapped wind ever and had to head out for a long, long walk to shift it. Got back in and it was 4.30am. Still no sleep. Got through my early shift and it’s been a long day.
Aurora is asleep, dinner is soon and an early night is calling methinks…
- Alistair
Posted on August 27th, 2010 at 1:50 pm — 5 Comments »
It’s been a busy wee week for the Bainster. One of the carers I work with has moved on to another job so I’m in the fortunate position of working with full time hours. Don’t really know how long that’ll last and I’ve forgotten how tiring a full-time week can be.
Posted on August 27th, 2010 at 8:33 am — No Comments »
Ruthy and I were discussing this morning the anti-Christ-like ways of the ever watch-able Jeremy Kyle, and the celebrity scandal episode with the wonderfully crazy Brigitte Nielsen. We thought that she’s a good match for the prince of darkness but another name was invoked who we thought would be a perfect match.
Grace Jones.
According to Ruthy, Grace Jones is “the screaming chaos that awaits us all at the end of time”.
Perfect. Couldn’t have said it better myself.
- Alistair
Posted on June 16th, 2010 at 10:46 pm — No Comments »
It has been a while (as usual) so I thought the blog required a bit of a update.
Posted on April 15th, 2010 at 12:39 am — No Comments »
A while ago mrBen became aware that a number of sites on the shared hosting we had were hacked due to a bad plugin on one of the sites. Nothing major but annoying enough to be a pest. The site maybe down or have theme / plugin issues for the next while as I sort it out.
Posted on January 13th, 2010 at 8:08 pm — 2 Comments »
In an effort to balance my last doom and gloom post, here’s a list of things I’d like to spend my time on as baby and wife allow.
Posted on January 13th, 2010 at 6:20 pm — 1 Comment »
I’ve just heard back about a job I applied for. It was something that I had wanted to do for a while, I reckoned I had enough relative experience and got through the first round of interviews and had my second yesterday. It seemed to go well, I didn’t stumble or fall at any of the questions asked but just before 6pm this afternoon I got the call that I didn’t get it. Gutted.
Posted on January 2nd, 2010 at 1:18 pm — 1 Comment »
So, happy new year!
It’s been a ‘interesting’ year, full of ups and downs.
It started well, with me riding high off the relative success of last year’s NaNoWriMo. It was an important milestone with my writing, the first time I ever got around to actually finishing something in a short time that I even remotely liked. So, that was Planet Of Snakes (a sequel to the unfinished Desert Of Zin) and very happy I was with it too.
Posted on December 28th, 2009 at 10:31 pm — No Comments »
Aurora Bain was born on Sunday 27th December at 4.07 in the afternoon.
Both mother and baby are doing well and should be back home from the hospital tomorrow.
(I would have posted this yesterday but I was shattered when I finally got home…)
- Alistair
Posted on December 18th, 2009 at 10:04 pm — 2 Comments »
Well, it has been a couple of days. Sorry about the lack of updates. It’s not like I don’t have the time…
Baby isn’t here yet. Although we have a week before Ruth is induced. We’d rather avoid that if possible but it’s not up to us; until then baby will arrive whenever he/she wants to.
There is other news which is quite exciting but I’ll probably post that tomorrow when I’m more awake…
I think it’s time for an early night with 253 by Geoff Ryman. 
- Alistair
Posted on December 11th, 2009 at 2:51 pm — No Comments »
According to the info sent out by the Department for Work and Pensions, though the wonderful people in the Job Centre, my local housing authority is the City of Westminster. It’s a bit of a trek from Partick, I know…
Just been on to their Glasgow office, they take a very dim view of the peeps taking the initial telephone claims. seem to think their attention can only be held for a few minutes. And by the state of the customer information they sent out for me to confirm, that guy just might be right…
- Alistair
Posted on December 8th, 2009 at 9:02 pm — 7 Comments »
…stays together?
Posted on December 7th, 2009 at 7:52 pm — No Comments »
Wow. It’s been over a month since my last post, and life has been hectic.
Let’s see. What has been going on in the life of Al?
Posted on October 13th, 2009 at 11:20 am — 3 Comments »
Back from Summer’s End. (the title may have given that away…)
Posted on August 31st, 2009 at 8:05 pm — No Comments »
Posted on August 30th, 2009 at 7:48 pm — 3 Comments »
Had to make a quick point about Inglorious Basterds, the new Tarantino film, and I have to say I was less then impressed. I was ready to walk out at one point but decided to stay to the bitter end in case it got better.
Posted on August 28th, 2009 at 10:38 pm — No Comments »
Although this shouldn’t come as any great surprise…
Well, what’s new (since the last post way back on the 13th of June)?
To be true, there’s good and bad.
Posted on May 26th, 2009 at 4:12 pm — No Comments »
Posted on May 21st, 2009 at 3:07 pm — 1 Comment »
Spoilers? (I mean, who hasn’t already seen Battlestar Galactica, I ask you.)
Ooh, Cally is encouraging the Chief / Galactica Boomer canoodling. That can’t end well.
Posted on May 19th, 2009 at 2:13 pm — No Comments »
SPOILERS!?!
And they think Starbuck is alive, and by “they” I mean Adama and by “alive” i mean alive… yeah, okay.
Posted on May 9th, 2009 at 7:22 pm — No Comments »
Spoilers?
Ah, memories of Zac. And an explosion in the hangar bay takes out a hundful of other pilots. The upside is that you haven’t met any of them, so the loss is little.
Posted on May 7th, 2009 at 7:54 pm — No Comments »
SPOILER WARNING!!! Just Like Before!
Posted on May 7th, 2009 at 7:14 pm — No Comments »
As usual, for those who haven’t seen it yet, this is the SPOILER WARNING.
Posted on May 7th, 2009 at 6:53 pm — No Comments »
Let’s get this out of the way first; Battlestar Galactica (the new series) is easily one of the best science fiction series ever made.
That said, and if you haven’t already watched any of it, consider this your SPOILER WARNING.
Posted on April 26th, 2009 at 8:35 pm — No Comments »
Last night laden with beer, Edgy his brother-in-law Frank, a stalwart Quo fan, and I fell upon Rockers in Glasgow, a dingy wee rock venue by The Arches under the Glasgow Central railway station.
Posted on April 22nd, 2009 at 1:30 pm — No Comments »
‘This is the good shit’
- Daisy Steiner
Mastodon was recommended to me by Ruthy and, after constantly calling them Megalodon by accident, I found Crack The Skye in Fopp on Union Street for the sum of one crisp ten pound note. After bringing it back to the Oasis Of Zin, or the study, I have to say that I’m particularly taken by it.
Posted on April 22nd, 2009 at 12:19 pm — No Comments »
It’s not really a new look or a new blog, just an attempt to do the site differently.
(How differently is a whole other thing in itself. It might just be the way I’m feeling today, in which case it’s back to the two posts a month schedule as before…)
Posted on February 18th, 2009 at 4:19 pm — No Comments »
If you have the time, check out the documentary Here’s Johnny, about John Hicklenton – a graphic artist who, among other things, drew some of the Nemesis The Warlock comics for 2000AD.
It’s about him battling MS.
Fascinating stuff.
It’s to be found on the Channel 4 on Demand service.
Posted on January 26th, 2009 at 9:16 pm — 2 Comments »
I went to see this on Friday night with Mr Push and Chaos Monkey and was happily pleased with how it turned out.
Posted on January 22nd, 2009 at 1:43 pm — 2 Comments »
I realise I’ve covered the entire post in the title.
Oh well.
It seems that ITV are repeating The Prisoner after the passing of Patrick McGoohan and, if you don’t have the series yet on DVD (and if you don’t, shame on you), it’s on their online service which can he found here.
If you have never watched any episode of The Prisoner I would recommend it heartily. I love it just as much as Classic Who.
High praise indeed…
Posted on January 15th, 2009 at 11:03 pm — 6 Comments »
Ricardo Montalban (who had done a ton of quality acting other than Khan) died earlier today and who, in my mind, played the best Star Trek bad guy ever: Khan Noonien Singh.
And also Patrick McGoohan dies today star of many things but most notable in my life, Number Six from The Prisoner, a series that I love even more then Classic Who.
They will both be missed.
Who’s up for a The Prisoner marathon ending with Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan?
Posted on January 13th, 2009 at 7:06 pm — No Comments »
This afternoon I had the great (mis)fortune to watch a film called Rawhead Rex, based on an original story by Clive Barker. The script was written by Clive Barker, which was the only good thing going for it. (That is, it was written by Barker, I’m not saying that the film is in fact any good…)
Posted on December 19th, 2008 at 12:01 am — 3 Comments »
Right, before I begin assume there is a super-spoiler warning in effect. I’m not going to blank out any storyline I mention so if I spoil the film for you (which would be difficult, the film easily spoils itself) it’s entirely your own fault…
Posted on November 19th, 2008 at 12:45 pm — No Comments »
It’s back!
Posted on July 27th, 2008 at 8:41 am — No Comments »
The Straw Men – Michael Marshall
“In a room full of victims, murderers look like gods.”
Posted on July 10th, 2008 at 6:40 pm — No Comments »
For the next few days you can hear the first episode of I Am Legend by Richard Matheson on BBC Radio 7. So far they’re up to episode four.
Go there and listen to the story that the film should have been.
A story much more sophisticated than the film ever was…
Posted on July 7th, 2008 at 12:58 pm — 1 Comment »
Wow. Last night was a whole bag of Prog-related madness.
First of we had Frost*.
Posted on June 28th, 2008 at 7:18 pm — 1 Comment »
Oh. My. God.
Posted on June 5th, 2008 at 10:54 am — No Comments »
Heh.
Saturday night saw myself, Edgy and Skiv attending Barfly, easily the crappiest venue in Glasgow, to watch the Rapcore wonders called Senser.
Posted on June 3rd, 2008 at 8:47 pm — No Comments »
Let’s get this out the way.
It’s good film. It’s an Indy movie. Go and see it.
Posted on May 20th, 2008 at 6:38 pm — 2 Comments »
Yep, Russell T Davies, executive producer of Doctor Who, is stepping down. But not until after the proposed two hour specials planned for next year instead of a full season.
Posted on May 20th, 2008 at 3:23 pm — No Comments »
Best line: “It’s like when you go to a wedding, you feel like an idiot on the way but when you get there everyone’s wearing a fez…”
Posted on April 15th, 2008 at 1:31 pm — No Comments »
I was feeling a bit on the dubious side when faced with the prospect of watching the new series of Doctor Who.
To explain, it was the majority of series three that spoiled it for me, with the Christmas special (the Kylie episode) being the final nail in that particular coffin. But more on that train wreck some other time…
Posted on March 18th, 2008 at 11:59 pm — No Comments »
Apparently he died after a cardio-respiratory attack.
BBC News have an obituary here.
A bit scunnered on hearing this but, truth be told, 90 is a fair age to reach.
It’s an odd one when an icon, someone whose work you grow up reading, dies.
Of course, I never met the man but I still feel the loss. Strange.
Anyways, wherever you are in the cosmos Arthur, I hope you’re having one hell of a time…
Posted on February 22nd, 2008 at 10:48 pm — No Comments »
I Am Legend – Richard Matheson
“Through experiments on the dead vampires he had discovered that the bacilli effected the creation of a powerful body glue that sealed bullet openings as soon as they were made. Bullets were enclosed almost immediately, and since the system was activated by germs, a bullet couldn’t hurt it. The system could, in fact, contain almost an indefinite amount of bullets, since the body glue prevented a penetration of more than a few fractions of an inch. Shooting vampires was like throwing pebbles into tar.”
Posted on January 11th, 2008 at 4:14 pm — No Comments »
Incommunicado – Marillion
“I’m a rootin-tootin cowboy, the Peter Pan, the street credibility,
Always taking the point with the dawn patrol fraternity.”
Posted on November 26th, 2007 at 7:14 pm — No Comments »
Had the misfortune to watch My Little Eye recently.
Flat and lifeless, and completely lacking in tension.
Posted on November 6th, 2007 at 12:25 pm — No Comments »
Posted on September 19th, 2007 at 9:56 pm — No Comments »
It is both helplessly cute and infinitely terrifying at the same time.
Posted on July 28th, 2007 at 5:13 pm — No Comments »
While out and about looking for other things for Ruthy’s birthday tomorrow, I happened upon The Mark of the Beast, and Other Fantastical Tales by Rudyard Kipling for a stupidly cheap price. Of course, I snapped it up.
I’ve just idly flicked through it on the bus back and at first glance it has that same fantastic style like Clark Ashton Smith.
Looks like I’ve got my reading for the next few days sorted.
Posted on April 28th, 2007 at 9:26 pm — No Comments »
A cool site I found recently is LibraryThing.
Similar to LastFM where (amongst other things) a plugin to your favourite media player catalogues what you listen to and makes recommendations based on that, LibraryThing is a place where you catalogue what you’re reading and the site recommends similar works.
That is all.
Posted on March 23rd, 2007 at 10:15 am — 3 Comments »
Burrowers is the first book in a series of six that he wrote for the Cthulhu Mythos. Lumley is is better known for the Necroscope series of horror novels (it’s what I knew him for at any rate).
Posted on February 27th, 2007 at 10:11 pm — 5 Comments »
Remember the cheezy song Popcorn? Recently done to death by the Crazy “this must die” Frog?
Posted on January 2nd, 2007 at 11:49 pm — No Comments »
Really.
Their album Black Holes And Revelations is easily a soundtrack for a sprawling Science Fiction intergalactic epic.
I’m not much of a fan normally (their not being prog) but they do rock.
If anyone has any suggestions for any other particular music to write to I’d appreciate it.
Posted on January 1st, 2007 at 10:44 am — 4 Comments »
On Saturday, before my current bout of the flu finally kicked in, I picked up a couple of books with Christmas vouchers.
Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds and Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut.
Posted on October 3rd, 2006 at 10:56 pm — No Comments »
Three old guys and their live backing band.
Two hours of music chosen from a career spanning 40 years.
Different Class.
Posted on September 2nd, 2006 at 6:43 pm — No Comments »
Cities in Flight – James Blish
“Shouting religions always strike me as essentially like pep-meetings among salesmen; their ceremonies and their manners are so aggressive because they don’t really believe the code themselves. Real faith is so much part of the world you live in that you seldom notice it, and it isn’t always religious in the formal sense.”
Posted on August 27th, 2006 at 5:48 pm — No Comments »
Good vs. Evil. Nightwatch vs. Daywatch.
It’s one of those “eternal battle” types and it’s done much better than most. The story follows Anton (for the most part), a computer programmer/analyst and Other, who is being pushed into becoming a field agent for the organisation Nightwatch (the good guys), and it shows his struggle in dealing with the less than black and white natures of each watch.
Posted on July 5th, 2006 at 10:22 pm — No Comments »
One of the better ideas I’ve ever heard.
Posted on June 2nd, 2006 at 5:43 pm — No Comments »
It’s some kind of online community music/radio thing. You can get a better explanation from the site.
I signed up for it, downloaded the media player and the plugin for Winamp and settled down to some new music.
Posted on May 9th, 2006 at 1:53 pm — No Comments »
It seems that the classic television show The Prisoner is heading for a remake.
The remake will be 6 (aye, very good) episodes for SkyOne.
Posted on April 30th, 2006 at 1:47 pm — No Comments »
So that’s it then.
This week I’ll be picking up Infinte Crisis #7 and that’ll be it for the foreseeable future. No more comics.
Posted on December 30th, 2005 at 12:09 am — No Comments »
