Park Life

It was a slide into smoking that happenned very gradually. It started with my last job which was very high pressure and in a very gung ho masculine environment. I found myself on the balcony with frineds from work chatting to them when they nipped out for their quick ciggies and me with my coffee. When one of my ex-girlfriends smoked a few years back I used to have the occassional one, maybe 2/3 a week and it was pure bonding/enjoyment stuff....This is how it started on the balcony at work, I would pinch the odd fag now and again when stressed and tbh found it comforting in a strange way and also the group behaviour was also a factor. I am totally aware now this is how it began, but at the time you never think you're going to start smoking never mind buy a packet. Then over the months I started buying cigs at first in packs of 10 and only once or twice a week. Before I knew it I was leading the smoking squad on the balcony. In this period I was actually only smoking at work! Seems funny now but that is how it began. I quit for a time and then I moved to Germany and started a new project here which was the most stressful thing in my life and I remember the first year here was very hard away from the usual support networks of friends and familiar faces.....and the smoking crept back in. Violins at the ready.

That's such a pants excuse though, if you want to quit, then quit (the physical withdrawal peaks at 3-4 days and is gone within 3-4 weeks), they rest is psychological (and most people couldn't quit TV for a week). But it is more along the line of the reasoning for the ban. I've only been smoking cigarettes for about 5 years and in that time have quit twice with 6month and the most recent 3 month break. In the day (lunchtime etc) I rarely smoke more than 2 cigarettes(sometimes none)....It's when I'm pissed I'll go through the best part of a pack of 20 in an evening. So yes it is all in the mind.

Chill Out is pure class. Good shout. *parky starts scrolling his itunes* 3 am (Blue Danube orbital) 7:39 The KLF Ultra Rare Trax Ambient 60 4 15/10/2006 19:52 128 kbps

I'm just wondering when he'll give up tbh. I wasn't having a pop like. I'm genuinely amused This is what shaping bandwith is all about. I beleive Fop is cleaning house mind. I'm worried though that sooner or later Vic's criminal insanity and plain grudge match elbow techniques might wiegh down the elequent Fopster.

....that reminds me we haven't mentioned 'The Orb'..

one mans opinion.... however patrokles is right. some of eno's stuff was genius, some less so. YMO (and ryuchi sakamoto in particular) were great at what they did. tangerine dream came out with some brilliant stuff, and some less popular stuff as well. we could even go back to wendy/walter/ whatever it is carlos and the switched on bach series of albums. ... have to say the golden age of electronic music (IMHO) was 1989-94. it is still however very good of course but there were so many very good albums from that time that i still have and listen to. oh and FSOL lifeforms is in my top 10 all time favourites. i'd go as far as saying its a masterpiece. Utterly so. A miasma and unfolding canvass of triggered sequencing and rogue ambience. © Parky

"I have trammelled across oceans of script".. Oldman is absolute class in this.

It was condemed to page 2 of The Daily Express by the "Diana's death linked to asylum seekers" story. Aye Diana and Asylum the well worn 'double top' of the lackey editors.

I think Alex is your man. Sorry Pat. But I get the impression anyone who's sold more than 42 albums is immediateley unacceptable for you. Harsh.....

I'm guessing but I don't think this made many papers and if it did perhaps for one day. http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/06/crue...s-20000-to.html "Cruel watchdog NICE condems 20,000 to blindness Twenty thousand people will be condemned to blindness each year following a "cruel" and "appalling" decision by the health watchdog NICE, campaigners said today. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (aka National Institute for Curbing Expenditure) has come under intense pressure to approve the drugs Lucentis (ranibizumab) and Macugen (pegaptanib) for use on the NHS. The drugs treat wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which affects around a quarter of a million people. Wet AMD is the leading cause of sight loss in Britain, with 26,000 new cases each year. Yesterday Nice issued draft guidance recommending that Macugen should not be used at all on the NHS. It also only recommends Lucentis for about one in five patients with wet AMD, who have a particular type called predominantly classic subfoveal choroidal neovascularisation (CNV)."

More things they don't want to talk about: http://www.healthdirect.co.uk/2007/06/labo...w-cost-2bn.html "The increased use of external consultants by the labour government is costing the taxpayer nearly £2bn a year and is failing to ensure value for money, according to the public accounts committee. In a report published on Tuesday, the PAC estimates that in the past three years, spending on consultants in the public sector has risen by a third from £2.1bn in 2003-04 to £2.8bn in 2005-06, with central government accounting for £1.8bn, largely to increases in the NHS."

That bit was probably more important in what Mozza was trying to get across. My main grind with the media and its nothing to do with coverage of some nutters trying to ram buildings with gas cannisters or whatever...Is the way they manage month after month to avoid talking about the real issues that face us as a country. And having studied it in the past how this agenda is unfolded purposefully to keep us distracted and worried. Which is what? little green men? Sorry thought you were actually interested in proper ans... I am very interested to know what is a bigger issue to this country than lunatics driving carbombs round the streets. Clearly right at this moment it is deservedly making headlines (if a little hysterical) and it would be churlish to try and critique this. Part of the bigger issue is how it is reported and how the debate flows later. There has been a habit since 7/7 to deliver on the hoof journalism regarding terrorism, that has often imo failed to delianate truth from fiction and there seems little desire to develop the debate beyond 'the enemy within' format and 'links with al quaida' more spurious the better. In many ways the U.K. is at a crossroads regarding race/identity and also how the EU will develop (this also carries with it issues reg Turkey's entry). Profiling of the 'home grown' terrorists and developing a dialogue with the Muslim community and the interchange of ideas that comes with that ought to be at the forefront yet is strangely missing from vast sections of the reporting. From the commons report what we now know is that there is no consistant profile of British terrorists. They are from a wide range of backgrounds and even in some cases ethnicity iirc Kamel Bourgass had one Afro Caribbean parent. The debate would be better developed by the media in looking at the triggers and root causes of this new danger to our culture. IMO the continued 'them and us' style reporting is missing the key point - one where we need to address the grievances (Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon etc) and further needs to be done to understand the inner workings of this new 'militant identity' of young British Muslims. Practical counter-terrorism has always been prevention and that is facilitated by understanding the behaviour and also as mi5 have been quite successful in doing - infiltration. The ideation of successful dismantling of this nub of danger (and it is and still remains a tiny minority) will reauire the full understanding of why British muslims are identifying with this wider cause and we also at the same time need to take the British public along with the debate, because if WE aren't all along for the ride the alienation and ghettoism and misunderstanding continues. The dabate still continues regarding the foreign policy blunders, but now we really need to understand what has driven people who we live with and have done peacefully for many years to have turned on us. New Labour have been very good at steering the focus and debate away from own goals and also criminally simplifying the links with terrorism and id cards for one. And have continued to lie with reagard to how id cards will be used in the future. There are some topics that politicians love to brief journalist on, often the 'do something about it' kind. Cause the sure as hell don't want to dwell on the fact that the pensions is fucked, energy will be fucked in the next decade and that Britain has the highest amount of personal debt on the planet. Far easier to brief and agenda set on banning smoking, building a couple of schools, or the 'War on Terrah'. Peace.

When you consider they've thrown the best part of £30m on Bale and Bent, I think Schpurs are nuts! I reckon Jol will be out this coming season.

total bollocks....again For one she's now working in Leeds, I was on that 'do' and she didn't come on to you, she hates your guts - fact. She said you're an arrogant pric. And last but not least I've got her home e-mail and I'm gonna send her a link, you're well and truly fucked son Seany! Fucking funny eh, told you I'd get you you fat cnut I'm just loving the pithiness of this post. Hilarious.

There was some case involving a social worker last year refusing to go to a smokers house iirc. Get a proper fucking job - hippie twat!

The old mind control ray eh?

That bit was probably more important in what Mozza was trying to get across. My main grind with the media and its nothing to do with coverage of some nutters trying to ram buildings with gas cannisters or whatever...Is the way they manage month after month to avoid talking about the real issues that face us as a country. And having studied it in the past how this agenda is unfolded purposefully to keep us distracted and worried. Which is what? little green men? Sorry thought you were actually interested in proper ans...

Germans take the sensible approach.. http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2367860,00.html "Smokers in Germany will be limited in exercising their addiction beginning in September. The government has agreed to outlaw smoking in selected public areas, but stopped short of efforts to introduce a nationwide ban. The German cabinet on Wednesday approved a smoking ban in railway stations, public transport and federal buildings in a first step away from the country's image as a smokers' paradise. The government also agreed to raise the legal age for buying tobacco from 16 to 18." The only one that affected me was smoking on trains which has now been stopped. Never really fancied a fag on train rides anyway.

Pub landlord Tony vows to fight on. http://www.herefordtimes.com/mostpopular.v...smoking_ban.php "Herefordshire landlord Tony Blows believes the smoking ban is not just unfair, but illegal. Mr Blows, who owns the Dog Inn at Ewyas Harold, claims the ban poses a very real threat to the livelihoods of thousands of people and has promised to disobey the new law when it comes into effect on July 1. He said: "You can look at any of the countries in which a smoking ban is active and find jobs have been lost. "Ireland has lost around 1,000 pubs in the last three years and in Scotland, over 200 pubs and bingo halls have been shut. In England, it has been predicted that 3,500 pubs will be forced to close down and this really is not good enough. "This is an unjust law and we are going to defy the ban, as will another 1,000 pubs around the country. I will do whatever it takes to keep my pub open."

Just been in the park for a bbq and we were discussing this ventilation lark. He was saying it is very expensive. He goes to a bar in Berlin where they have it and the smoke just whooshes up and out the place.

I believe that was one of the plots wasnt it? Ministry of Sound? Oh and what was with the "kisses from LA bit?" That bit was probably more important in what Mozza was trying to get across. My main grind with the media and its nothing to do with coverage of some nutters trying to ram buildings with gas cannisters or whatever...Is the way they manage month after month to avoid talking about the real issues that face us as a country. And having studied it in the past how this agenda is unfolded purposefully to keep us distracted and worried.

It's rude to smoke near people who are eating end of. Even as a smoker if soemone does that while I'm eating with people I give them a piece of my mind (as long as they're not too big and scary).

Some good starting points are Orbital (just about any album really but Snivilisation or In Sides might be a good starting point also the 'Green' album - untitled but with a green cover aka 'Orbital I' which has the tunes 'Belfast' and 'Chime' which are two of the best electronic tunes of all-time imo); Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works '85-'92; Mixmaster Morris aka Irresistible Force - It's Tomorrow Already which is nice and chilled; Derrick May's Innovator compilation is quality an an introduction to 'proper' Detroit Techno; for crossover appeal I'd recommend the aforementioned Air, especially Moon Safari along with Nightmares On Wax (especially 'Car Boot Soul' and 'Smokers Delight') plus Portishead and Massive Attack ('Blue Lines' in particular); the Artificial Intelligence compilations are a good intro to the WARP techno label. There's loads of other stuff I could recommend too if you like any of that lot. Has anybody checked out the new Paul (or was it Phil?) Hartnoll album btw? He's one half of the now defunct Orbital? I've just bought it and I'm just getting into it. Quite 'soundtrack' like. Edit: Underworld as well - Dubnobasswithmyheadman and Second Toughest In The Infants Good post...you've mentioned two of the very, very best in In Sides and Dubnobasswithmyheadman. These two albums would probably be in my top 5, electronic or otherwise, of all time. 10 more essential electronic purchases IMO would be: 1. 'Tri Repetae' | Autechre 2. '76:14' | Global Communication 3. 'Substrata' | Biosphere 4. 'Music Has The Right To Children' or 'Geogaddi' | Boards Of Canada 5. 'Ascend' | Manual 6. 'Haunt Me, Haunt Me, Do It Again' | Tim Hecker 7. 'Kesto (234.48:4)' | Pan Sonic 8. 'Afro Finger & Gel' | Mu 9. 'Lifeforms' | The Future Sound Of London 10. 'Momentum' | Monolake One of the greatest albums of its kind ever made imo.