I'm meant to be doing some research on my work in progress, but I've been invited to meet a friend for coffee soon. Research will have to wait until I've had another shot of caffeine. This is rare for me; I usually just have that one coffee first thing in the morning. But what the heck, another cuppa might be nice. But I enjoyed my coffee this morning, as usual, and this is what I've noticed in the news:
1. The handwritten notes of Don McLean when he was devising 'American Pie' have sold at auction for $1.2 million (US). That song is evocative to me of the jukebox in my grandmother's pub. It was always blaring when I was a kid. It also makes me think of tone deaf drunks because, along with 'The Gambler' and 'Khe Sanh', it is the song that gets butchered and strangulated at the end of the evening. It should be said that both 'The Gambler' and 'Khe Sanh' aggravate me intensely for that specific reason. I'd happily never listen to 'Khe Sanh' again, and it is my understanding Australians didn't actually fight in Khe Sanh anyway. Still, no matter how grating it is to listen to someone drool 'Bye-bye Miss American Piii-iiiiiie' whilst only three bum notes away from chundering up their Bundy-and-coke, it is nowhere near the vicinity of the molar-grinding, hair-pulling, cat-kicking, ear torture that is the bland pissweak cover produced by old Madonna.
2. Dallas Buyers Club LLC have been victorious in their bid to have ISPs such as iiNet provide details of those who download movies illegally. And you know what? The people who illegally download are getting absolutely zero grams of sympathy from me. Regardless of what you think of an actor's pay packet, illegal download is fucking theft. An artist has put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into producing a work, and they are entitled to be paid for it. I say this as someone who frowns and loses sleep when producing a work which I hope people will enjoy. I have only ever viewed a pirated movie once, and it was in the name of research for my second novel 'Abernethy', in which there is a subplot involving pirated DVDs. I wanted to look at the quality of the burned CD, and I also researched how they were 'pirated', and how to recognise one. Call me an old fashioned square if you want, but illegal downloads really, really piss me off. The excuses people give are as lame as an ancient race horse: 'Boo-hoo, woe is me, it takes too long to see the episode after people in the US see it, and I can't wait.' Well screw me sideways, but what is wrong with waiting a short period of time? People just cannot wait for good things any more. People just want to arrive at the destination, and take in nothing of the magical journey. We now have the technology where you can purchase a song and listen to it as soon as the whim takes you, rather than when I was young which was to save your pocket money and go to the music store in the next town (my home town didn't have one), or else trust your mother to bring home the latest conglomeration of K-Tel hits when she did the big shop in the famed Next Town, and if it was my mother, bring home the wrong album. Look, I'll put it on the table that I do like to download my music straight away on my iPod, but I will point out that I PAY for it!!!! Nobody seems to want to wait until the baby is born to discover the gender any more. People nag and want to know their Christmas present before December 25. What is wrong with you people? Don't you like the joy of the mystery and anticipation? I suppose you all expect your orgasms to be instantaneous without the foreplay. (Wait, did someone say instantaneous orgasm? Is there a plan where one can sign up?).
3. Young Luke Shambrook has been found, and in a reasonable condition given the circumstances. Now to those dunderheads who wrote 'hyperthermia', he was being treated for 'hyp-O-thermia'. O. O. O. Not Er. O. I am delighted the boy has been found. I am also concerned someone might record a cheesy song like 'Little Boy Lost' to commemorate this, as happened when a little boy called Steven wandered away near Guyra, 1960. Happily, he was found a few days later. But does anyone else have to quell nausea when they hear that song? Not that I've heard for a long time. Hated it when I was a kid, and still hate it to this day. Imagining a frightened four year old, and his distressed parents upsets me, make no mistake on that; I am not a soulless sociopath. Just need to reach for the sick bucket when I hear that song, that's all.
Good news: another review has appeared on Amazon.com for my novel 'Silver Studs and Sabre Teeth'. Please to Amazon and check it out, and go to this link http://www.zeus-publications.com/silver_studs_and_sabre_teeth.htm for a read of the first chapter.
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