lead story today will centre around the stupidity of animal rights extremists, the twats who

Oooh let's have a rant. Today's rant is at the animal rights extremist tossers, the section of society comprising twats like the Animal Liberation Front. Oh yes, they are protesting so peacefully that they have become the 2nd most wanted group of people in the country after Al Qaeda. That's some achievement, dickheads.

My argument is that if it is necessary to test on animals in order to develop new cures and medicines for things like cancer and syphilis, then scientists should be allowed to. I bet none of the idiot animal rights extremists actually have a problem in principle with denying homosexuals the right to treatments or drugs that can help prolong their lives.

While I have no problem with forms of peaceful demonstration, this is a situation that isn't even rapidly getting out of control - it is out of control. When Oxford University had to shelve plans to build a multimillion pound set of laboratories, one of the reasons cited was the high security cost automatically derived from the animal rights extremists. Employees of Huntingdon have been threatened, physically assaulted, with paint poured over their cars, hoax emails, and more. The great-grandmother of one scientist was buried in a peaceful remote country village graveyard. Her skeleton was exhumed and her bones scattered about the area. Her only crime was what her great-grandson did for a living. You people make me FUCKING SICK.

So, what did the politically correct, bend-over-backwards-to-achieve-diversity-at-all-costs cunts at the Metropolitan Police have to say? (Side note to the Police: You get the best results by employing the best staff, not to fill a certain racial quota. This inverse form of racial prejudice can still be considered prejudice.) "At this time, we would prefer not to comment upon this extremely emotive issue." Excuse me? These people have assaulted other people and made their lives living hell, and the police are going to just stand by and watch them? Or do you have to mutate into a pissed clubber or axe wielding maniac to get arrested nowadays?

Anyway, with all this unwanted harrassment becoming a regular feature in the lives of law-abiding employees, it's small wonder that a lot of scientific, chemical and resarch companies are relocating their efforts abroad, usually to China. Why so far, I hear you ask? Easy one.

China has long been bullied around (or at least tried to be bullied around) by the interfering UN. But it is not the only Asian country to be pestered like this - look at Korea. One of Korea's national dishes is "ten dog penis soup". I'm not joking. This is a purely cultural dish which goes back centuries. Yet animal welfare standards officers would have you believe that all Koreans are going to hell for this. Where is the consistency? And just what the fuck gives Westerners the right to criticise an ancient Eastern tradition? I thought we were supposed to be encouraging diversity and culture, blah blah blah vomit, but at the same time these morons want to suppress it and turn us all into Identihuman robots. (Let's stop there, that's a rant for another day.)

Returning to China, it has to answer similar questions of animal welfare standards. Every single time the UN gets upon its moral high horse, China merely ignores it, (and rightfully so) principally because the UN has no lawful jurisdiction over China. So the scientists are, in effect, immune from people preventing them doing their job. Asian countries are, by and large, peaceful places to live in. The only drawback is that in such a strictly communist society, there are various civil freedoms which inevitably have to be sacrificed. (I guess that's something else the civil liberties dickheads would have a field day lathering on about.) So, with all this relative strangulation upon freedom of speech, it is extremely unlikely that anyone will say a bad word about the scientists. The possibility of violence towards the companies' employees is even more remote.

Everyone wins, except the animal rights terrorists. Not only have they committed several arrestworthy charges but they have also outsourced scientific and chemical companies to Asia, which will only reduce the competitiveness of England and weaken our economic hand further. All this at a time when Asia's economic power is multiplying seemingly by the day. Picture England, a country crippled by a multitude of meaningless civil service and public sector jobs and a country for whom sick days off from work caused by binge drinking cost £350m a year. Picture Asia: China built their stadium for the Olympics so fast they were ordered to "slow things down." Japan is home to Toyota, who have now overtaken General Motors as the world's largest car manufacturer. Economics and the aspirations of their populations are soaring right now. It's only a matter of time before Asia becomes the world's next superpower, and there's absolutely nothing the idiot West can do about it.

Well done, you animal rights cunts.

Megamaalai 2006

Haven't posted here for a while, thought I could write about the Imperial concert Megamaalai on Tuesday. After playing in the successful Divali show in Royal Albert Hall, I was wondering when I was going to play flute again. Ramiya asked me at the end of December if I could play and I instantly said 'yes please!'

After a week of rehearsals, I turned up at Hammersmith Palais at 9am for the sound checks. But, with the usual Tamil late timing, we started at half ten. I looked at the brochure to see when my 2 acts were performing. The 1st one, called 'Bhava Ragam Thalam', was actually the opening to the show. The 2nd, called 'Fuse-it' was straight after the interval.

Quite a few people looked tired so when I was on stage, I tried to liven things up a little. Instead of playing a traditional carnatic song for the Bhava sound check, I did a short rendition of the Popeye sailor theme and it seemed to do the trick. There was laughter and smiles everywhere. The Fuse check was even funnier. Roshan, on the drum kit, was moaning to the engineers about his sound quality, and it turned out that he could control it.

I went out for lunch with the Fuse crew minus Roshan, Mayuran (vocal) and Trish (keyboard). They joined us later and Mayuran seemed very merry. We heard him going through part of a song, and it was clear that he had been drinking. As funny as it was hearing him, we were a little worried. So we did a run through and it was near perfect. At half six, the Palais doors were opened and an hour later, the show was about to get started.

I was waiting backstage with the Bhava crew and the comperes (Harry - an old Habs friend, and Priya). And surprise, surprise there was a big delay. I managed to calm a few nerves by playing some random tunes like Star Wars and The Great Escape. In between, Eason and Ahilan kept asking me to play Sa (the base note in Carnatic music) to help them tune their percussion instruments. 'How long does it take guys? Your pitch is fine!'

After half an hour, we finally went on stage and the show was under way. Our act comprised two dancers (Sai and Kumaran) performing Bharata Natyam (a traditional type of South Indian dance). The music was provided by vocal (Sindhu, Indhu and Anthony), violin (Ramiya), veena (Danusha) and myself on flute, with Ahilan, Eason and Baz on percussion. We played samples of Om Nama Shivaya which is a carnatic piece and Raa Raa, a song from the recent film Chandramukhi. Our performance was brilliant, so a good start to the show.

I watched the other acts in the 1^st half and there were a few which stood out. One was a group of dancers performing to the songs Men in Black (Will Smith) and Remember the time (Michael Jackson). Another act, called Mortal Kombat, showed a martial arts fight with fantastic co-ordination. By the end of the 1^st half, I was backstage getting ready for Fuse-it. Roshan gave a quick ‘team talk’ and we went on stage. Here’s a list of our planned songs.

1) Suraj Hua Maddham (from the Bollywood blockbuster Kabe Kush). Vocal: Indhu, Mayuran.
2) Cry me a river (Justin Timberlake). Vocal: Kumar
3) Oh Sukumari (from Anniyan). Vocal: Anthony, Indhu, Mayuran.
4) Kumbida Pona. Vocal: Anthony, Mayuran.
5) Jamming i.e. literally freestyling. Whatever tunes Trish thought of, I’d play along.

For Cry me a river I took the wrong flute and played the intro notes wrong, so I just left out the 1^st four bars and joined in at the chorus. Hopefully not many people noticed my mistake! Towards the end of Kumbida Pona, part of Roshan's drum kit fell off and he had to hold it together. So we couldn’t do our jam which was a real shame as we were all so excited about it. Although in the end, it was a great act.

The rest of the 2^nd half was pretty good, the best of which was a stand-up comedy, partly ruined by some random guys shouting and swearing. We all stayed in Palais for the after party which wasn’t too bad either. I ended up crashing at Sarayu’s place with Harry and his Imperial mates. I nearly cracked my ribs laughing at the drunken antics they got up to. A truly memorable day and a half.

Here's 2 random sites with some pics from the show.

Fatsarrazi
Imperial

gambling advice agency has now rejected any pleas for help with this particular customer. in other news

Amusingly, I found this lying around my computer after I left Leeds. I'm bored like I was when I made this list, and here it is:

PLACE YOUR BETS…

GAMBLING

BOB TO GO TO THE CASINO IN THE NEXT 12 HOURS 1/20

BOB TO GAMBLE ON GAMBLING 1/100

BOB TO LOSE ALL HIS MONEY ONCE AT THE CASINO 1/10

JAMIE TO LOSE ALL HIS MONEY ONCE ON WILLIAM HILL 1/2

ANYONE ELSE TO GO TO THE CASINO IN THE NEXT 12 HOURS 75/1

ANYONE ELSE TO LOSE ALL THEIR MONEY IF THEY GO TO CASINO 500/1

AROUND THE HOUSE

BROWN BATHROOM SHOWER TO FUCK UP 9/1

BARRY TO HISS AT SOMEONE EVS

ANYONE TO MAKE KIEVS FOR DINNER 4/9

JAMIE TO PLAY A GREEN DAY SONG ON HIS COMPUTER 1/5

BEN TO SAY ‘YOU FOOKIN GAY’ ON ANY DAY THIS WEEK 1/20

ONE HAMSTER TO DIE BEFORE JAMIE LEAVES HOUSE 6/1

BOTH HAMSTERS TO DIE BEFORE JAMIE LEAVES HOUSE 40/1

KITCHEN FLOOR TO TURN NEW SHADE OF BLACK 1/3

RESITS

BOB TO FAIL ALL HIS RESITS 4/1

BOB TO FAIL ANY ONE OF HIS RESITS 1/10

BOOZE

WHO WILL GET WASTED FIRST ON THE NEXT NIGHT OUT? :-

BOB 1/30

JAMIE 2/1

DAN 4/1

BEN 6/1

PULLING

WHO WILL PULL ON THE NEXT NIGHT OUT? :-

BOB 300/1

JAMIE 40/1

DAN 80/1

BEN 40/1

BILLS

1 PERSON DOES NOT PAY PHONE BILL IN FIRST WEEK 1/5

2 PEOPLE DO NOT PAY PHONE BILL IN FIRST WEEK EVS

3+ PEOPLE DO NOT PAY PHONE BILL IN FIRST WEEK 5/2

RENT

WHO WILL GET EVICTED FIRST FOR NON-PAYMENT OF RENT? :-

SAAR 1/500

ANYONE ELSE 250/1

unfettered ramblings of an insomniac proved disastrous for the magazine's popularity ratings

I'm a boomerang in the Outback
Keep your throwing arm steady so I get home
I'm a vampire bat out in Shanghai
Haven't eaten food for days
I've ordered a Chinese takeaway
I show more than I hide
I care more than I cry
I'm a phonograph baby, my wires are live
And I'm in criss cross

Fine, fine, I feel fine.

I'm a fortune cookie
Full of cheap advice
I'm a suicide rookie
Blowing last call.
I show more than I hide
Care more than I can cry
I'm a phonograph baby
My wires are live
And I'm in criss cross

Fine, fine, I feel fine.

resurgence of the fantastical left the auteur in no doubt as to the stunning originality of the set pieces

That is the working title of the next album I will be writing. The idea is to have 4 or 5 extended fantasies. At the moment, 2 have been drafted.

1. Iridescence Fantasia (9.57)
2. Moonshine Fantasia (14.45)

Now to find an R&D guy who will buy the concept. Lol.

cheerful disposition ensured that negativity would not compromise the order of the day

It struck me that I can be quite the pessimist at times, so to balance it out I thought today I will post something altogether more upbeat.

Here are some positive things which happened today:

I bought dinner for my dad.
I completed Resident Evil 4.
I got paid my week in arrears for Virgin.
I watched several retro TV shows on Challenge.
The cats didn't shit in the house for a change.
I didn't get up until 2.30.
No irritating telesales people called.

So it could be much worse. Also waiting to hear from RBS about that job. Speaking of job........oh shit. I was supposed to go do some tests at another agency today and I overslept. Oops.

Email me if you wanna go see Reel Big Fish in Leeds!!!

furthermore, this was a question of musical entertainment, and accordingly, he

Let me know if you're interested.

recalled the majesty, pomp and bombast of latter-day Queen, hard as it is to believe Wembley loved them a mere 20 years ago

Love of my life - you've hurt me
You've broken my heart and now you leave me
Love of my life can't you see
Bring it back, bring it back
Don't take it away from me
Because you don't know -
What it means to me

Love of my life - don't leave me
You've stolen my love and now desert me
Love of my life can't you see
Bring it back, bring it back
Don't take it away from me
Because you don't know -
What it means to me

You will remember -
When this is blown over
And everything's all by the way -
(Oooh yeah)
When I grow older
I will be there at your side to remind you
How I still love you - I still love you

Hurry back - hurry back
Don't take it away from me
Because you don't know
What it means to me

Love of my life
Love of my life ...
Oooh, oooh...

gambling advice agency was aghast to find its best customer had returned to the dark side

fantastical, technowizardry, borderline genius: these words and phrases could all be used to sum him up, yet

Intensely bored: am at home. Writing little bursts of melody and harmony and gluing them together to form longer pieces with interesting structures. Having already written a piece with a very arrogant title (Iridescence Fantasia) I have settled on naming this new piece Sunset Fantasia. Perhaps I will write an album of Fantasias? They are by far the most appealing musical form to me at the moment. My dad wanted me to write jazz and look how that turned out, lol...half a dozen tracks of complete rubbish.

It looks too cold out to take a walk. I feel like renting a film? There's nothing on Sky but silly repeats of The Land Before Time 4. (although the first one was amazing.) Oh sod it, I'll just watch Donnie Darko for the millionth time. Full steam ahead for an 80s nostalgia day, lol.

John Lennon once said that "'just' is the most overused word in lyrics and cheapens their basic qualities." I have listened to Bitter Glass by Feeder and it is mentioned 8 times in the whole song?

As the days go by I am getting more and more convinced that MySpace is a vortex sucking me in ;) I have done virtually nothing since I left Virgin except sit on here and play some poker. What a useless bum I am!

maritime drowning made the headlines at the local fisherman's village. those who were present to express condolences said

Cool, things are mostly back to normal, whatever that is. Got some sleep at long last and it was good. I accidentally broke my B string on my guitar the other day and it was more frustrating than I thought to repair it. But at least now I can do proper low chords. Today I have been a proper slob! Downloaded some tab for Jimmy Eat World songs off the trusty net, and got a drive thru Burger King with my sister for lunch. Then watched Simpsons for most of the rest of the day. Nobody would ever guess I'm 21.

For a joke I applied to RBS for the position of insurance manager. Weirdly I made all the preliminary rounds and have a phone interview on Wednesday! Might have to lump a crappy job to pay off student debt quicker.

Worryingly I think I am getting a case of insomnia. This is the second night in a week it is stupid o' clock and I haven't even felt a twinge of fatigue yet.

In poker news I managed to lose the £400 I earnt over the two previous days. Then I went to a very scary table, £2.50/£5 pot limit. I had £220 left. The game I play, omaha high, is based around 5 communal cards and 4 cards dealt to you. You can only use 2 of the 4 cards you are given. In my hand was 10, 10. So I called it. A 10 comes on the 4th communal card out of 5, giving me 3-of-a-kind. Great, but I'm already behind the other 2 players who both have flushes. On a whim, I push all my money into the middle, and the board pairs on the final card, giving me a full house beating the two rivals. I then work my way up to £675 before quitting and calling it a night. Who said poker was a rollercoaster game?! ;)

Here are the lyrics to the song I haven't stopped listening to all week.

----

The End Of An Anchor

I was away for a while
But I'm hoping someday you'll forgive me
Though I don't deserve it
I'll cherish it well if you give me one of your new starts

Just one more last chance
I swear that I'll earn it
If you front me for now
I'm good for it I swear
I'm better now I swear

In earlier days, they'd persecute people
They'd carry them off, and hobble their legs
For lesser offenses, than how I have harmed you
And still you allow me to walk free of pain

Though I punish myself
I will never settle
The debts I've incured for scorning the face
Of absolute beauty, and measureless grace
And though I once mocked you
I'm dying to pay for it now
I'm dying to pay for it now

So hand me the rocks to help weigh me down
And tether my legs with a cord tightly bound
To the end of an anchor thrown into the sound
And test me to see if I will rise against the worst that it can get

I wasn't well for a while
I savored the things that I knew were sure to destroy me
And that seemed to hold me
That seemed to carry me where I couldn't go
On the strength of my own
Well, I should've known
That gets me nowhere
I've learned that now I swear

In earlier days, they'd persecute people
They'd carry them off, and hobble their legs
For lesser offenses, than how I have harmed you
And still you allow me to walk free of pain

Though I punish myself
I will never settle
The debts I've incured for scorning the face
Of absolute beauty, and measureless grace
And though I once mocked you
I'm dying to pay for it now
I'm dying to pay for it now, now, now

So hand me the rocks to help weigh me down
And tether my legs with a cord tightly bound
To then end of an anchor thrown into the sound
And test me to see if I will rise against the worst that it can get

Well, I wasn't sure that I could
Well, I wasn't sure that I could
Well, I wasn't sure that I could
But, I can

the Special One took centre stage to score out his inspired masterwork

Starting to score out some of the old pieces I'd written and forgotten about, sitting on the metaphorical dusty shelf. This is a page of score from the 1st movement of my piano sonata, which was written ages ago. Some long-standing readers might recognise it from my website background.

Have spent most of today donating a box of old things to charity, loitering around Halfords for over an hour whilst the idiots there attempted to fit a replacement lightbulb and did something to the wiring instead, and am now busy playing $1/2 poker as I have no money left. Thank god for amateur Internet poker players, hm?

suggested that "hillbillies with pitchforks" was such an outdated view of American country society

I wrote these earlier cos I was bored! Included are some suggested chords in brackets if you want to strum along. When a chord appears in brackets, play it at the same time as singing the word just to the right of it.

DRIVE BY SILVER.

Drive by (D) Silver,
All the (G) way,
From the (C) forest,
To the (G) bay, and
When the (B/D#) night comes
The (Em) booze runs,
The (D/F#) cop's guns (Em/G) come out
(G#dim) Just (A7) to (D11) play.

artistic licence was inspired here in part by numerous different things, including

A very happy (yet belated) new year to you all. I would've posted sooner or more frequently on this, but I was too busy being a loner over Christmas, watching tv and being a couch potato. Lately I have begun to be absurdly interested in why root vegetables are common derogatory terms for lazy people. Anyway the new album (5th in the GrayWorks canon) is almost complete! Jump for joy now.... here's a working tracklist.

MESSAGES
M1. November, Dark November
M2. (Romantic) Fantasy
M3. Sway
M4. Supernova
M5. Back Beats
M6. Along The Promenade
M7. Nativity Scene
M8. Iridescence Fantasia
M9. Shake It
M10. Symphony of Voices
M11. Tired Eyes
M12. Lullabye
M13. Shooting Stars

Habs trio take on Gutshot

Went to Gutshot with Tony and Howard yesterday to play in the happy hour £5 tournament. Howard was going to go back to York University, but decided to come along with me. After playing some suicide chess we registered and bought in. Howard’s seat was next to mine and Tony was on a separate table. I bought £10, so began with 1000 chips. The tournament started with blinds 25-25, and there was little action in the 1st couple of hands.

The 3rd hand proved to be an interesting one. After I folded, Howard called the big blind but at the same time put his 2 cards into the pile of mucked cards which were quite close to him. So he called and folded at the same time? He asked where his cards had gone, so he WAS looking to play after the flop. Another player explained a Gutshot rule that no matter if you call or raise, if your cards touch the mucked pile they are automatically folded. Does this apply at other places? What if you went all in? Later, Howard said his ‘folded’ cards were pocket aces!!

However that didn’t matter, as we both built up a good chip stack. Howard won a big hand with trip kings and I managed to bluff a player with my K high; T and H called him a nerd (not to his face of course). Then, as the blinds increased, Howard’s inexperience began to show and his stack went down, flat calling when he should’ve raised or folded. I then suffered 2 big losses; the 1st was a bad beat on the river. The 2nd, I had J/J, Howard went all in with K/4 and another player went all in, his hand beating both of us and eliminating Howard.

My chip stack of 3500 with 50-100 blinds was reduced to 1400 with 150-300. With T and H out (Tony got beat by a full house), it was down to me to salvage some pride for the Habs crew. I went all-in with K/J and action passed to Nerd who called, revealing K/10. Flop was 9, K, J. Two pair for me and an inside straight draw (sound familiar?) for him. Turn was a 5. The river was a ……….Q. So Nerd got his own back after I bluffed him out of big pots twice. That’s the 2nd time in a row I’ve been eliminated in hold’em by a straight on the river.

At least my luck online is better. Even though I’m playing less online nowadays, I’m winning more and quitting when I should stop. That’s the way it should be done.

I'm playing in another concert, this time its Imperial's turn to steal the limelight from GKT. Ramiya told me the date is 24th Jan which is a Tuesday; I'll have to double check that.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Its 2006! May this year bring happiness to you all. I don’t usually make resolutions, but the phrase “study harder” comes to mind. I had my one and only January exam today, Principles of Finance. I’m pleased to say it went well, 60% is a real possibility.

Watched Arsenal v. Man U this evening, and I was a little surprised to see Wenger start with 4-5-1. Though he did use the same formation against the Reds in the FA Cup Final last year, and in that match we managed to keep it 0-0 after 90 minutes. I was quite concerned to see Cygan at left back against Ronaldo, but he played alright, making fewer mistakes than usual. Campbell and Toure were probably our best players, making crucial tackles to keep out the United attack.

As for our front line, Henry and Pires had good chances but it didn’t seem to go for us. It was so frustrating at times, when we kept passing the ball but should have had a shot at goal. The game finished 0-0, a fair result in the end.

Tomorrow should be interesting, I’m going to Gutshot with Tony. It will be his first live poker tournament and he can’t wait for it. I’m looking to improve my Holdem record, after going out twice before the final table.

exactly a year ago prior to this day, the man had made certain festive commitments which

Last year's resolutions
1. To hunt down whoever writes these idiotic jokes in the crackers and shoot them point blank.
2. Put a golf club through a pikey's car window.
3. Graduate summa cum laude.
4. Become an amazingly successful composer. (This is the same as last year.)

Was I successful?
1. No, because I can't afford a plane ticket to Korea.
2. No, because I can't afford golf clubs.
3. I missed a First by about (( )) this much.
4. No. This is the most disappointing by far. But if I make my current job permanent then I will start saving effective immediately for studio gear.

This year's resolutions
1. Become Eric Clapton on guitar.
2. Sort that studio equipment out.
3. Write the album which launches me.
4. Stop using eBay so much.
5. Pay off student debt.
6. Form a band.