Month: March 2001

I’ve been investigating Q4music.com’s guide to (and reviews of) my favourite ever band: The Pixies [Reviews: Come On Pilgrim | Surfer Rosa | Doolittle | Bossanova | Trompe Le Monde | Death To The Pixies | At The BBC | Complete B-sides].

Now I’ve never been much of a one for Robbie Williams. I mean the man’s a laugh, and it’s good to finally have some pop stars with a sense of humour and some style, even as the manufactured groups get more and more overt and trashy. But I think I could assert that I’ve never really found him attractive. Until that is I saw him this morning in a few sketches he’s done for Comic Relief. Based on the Ted and Ralph characters from The Fast Show (and more than a little based upon Scudder from Maurice), I present for you – uncut half-naked Robbie digging holes.

Here’s an interesting exercise – Mo Morgan is donating £1 to Comic Relief for every page impression that his weblog gets today. Join me in my question to bankrupt him, by visiting his site immediately.

Mark becomes the second weblogger to move his writing into the source-code. Could this be the future? Endless rows of blank-pages, updated two or three times a day with invisible content? Quick, InvestoBoy – to the Businessplanmobile…

There’s a redesign over at sourground.co.uk that is kind of what I was trying to do with the blue design of plasticbag.org – only, you know, sourground actually works. I’m endebted to the site for another reason – it pointed me towards dreamline.nu – an unofficial fan site for the works of Dave McKean – an artist who often produces the covers for the higher class of comic books.

Adjunct notice: Despite perceived trashiness of Mr Big references and forced associations with TV programme Sex and the City, said parallel is allowing me to get a handle on what might otherwise be an intolerably difficult to deal with piece of mental engineering. Hence I fully intend to investigate this particular pathway until it collapses beneath me. Having undertaken the quiz associated with the TV series, however, I was alarmed to be presented with this (edited for length and gender improprieties – unfortunately one found oneself at a professional loss as to how to remove the cheesy bits):

“Who you are: Complex and creative. Yet somehow, when it comes to relationships, you’re not adept. You can whine all you want about the way men treat you (usually, like dirt), but it’s the challenge of obtaining the unobtainable that thrills you. Your resolutions this year: To admit you made a few BIG mistakes in 2000 and move on to better things. To kick your vices (that includes seeing that ex you KNOW is no good). To tame those over-indulgent tendencies. To seek out men who might actually be SANE as well as single. In the past, you’ve been swept off your feet by charismatic creeps who are about as available as a lunch table at Le Cirque 2000. The more obnoxious and aloof they are, the more interested you are. When you do find a nice guy, you send him packing: Hey, where’s the angst?”

E-mail to Big (subject header: “Message for Mr Big”) has solicited a reply. And an altogether unsatisfying one at that. It appears, in true Sex and the City style, that Mr. Big is in fact part of the family unit “Mr and Mr Big”. This is a piece of information that I was, unfortunately, unaware of until this point. There remains a flirtatious vibe to the correspondence. This, I am afraid, doesn’t surprise me. More to the point, my decision to go along with said vibe to the detriment of my own health and general well-being also doesn’t surprise me. Tempted as I am to place my reply

on the site, I think I might just restrain myself.

Another addition to the list of technical things I need to learn about. HTML I have down pat. Mostly. CSS also mostly there with. DHTML and Javascript I can fudge my way through other people’s scripts just about. The list of languages that I was planning on knowing after HTML included Perl, but until now did not include SMIL – which weirdly looks to be one of the more interesting, and easiest, of the lot.

I spent a good four hours of yesterday walking around London in a suit. Not because I had a job interview or anything, but instead because I hadn’t worn one in about a year and a half. I thought it might be nice to look glamorous for a change. I felt great in it – really sharp – except that I appear to have been gradually swelling over the past three years. At times it felt like I was wearing a corset.

In what may or may not be the last Big related post of the evening, Tom confesses to his adoring fans that he has failed in his attempt to withhold reciprocal contact (after phone call yesterday morning) and caved in and sent an e-mail this evening at 7.20pm on March 14th, this year of our Lord, 2001. Tom would like to add that this is only fifteen hours prior to schedule. That’s not too bad. Right? [helpful advice]