"Always tell the voter what the voter wants to hear"

So, it's election time again! A moment I've been waiting for for almost three years. I'll get angry with the constant repitition (while still watching News 24 in the desperate hope of something new), I'll grt pissed off with the cameras asking people on the street what they think (what have elections got to do with them?) and I'll mock everything that the Tories say.

I've been in front of BBC News 24 for about ten of the last fourteen hours, and I can't wait for the next thirty days of it. I've got an awful lot of blogs subscribed to through Google Reader, a nice fancy reader program on my iPod Touch (plus access on my phone when I'm away from a wifi connection) plus an awful lot of books to read when I've run out of immediately topical stuff to read.

No doubt within days I'll be sick of it all, but I won't be able to drag myself away from it. I'll still be shouting at the telly for much of the day, and come 6am on May 7th I'll still be hooked, and in desperate need of sleep.

"Fascinated by good, destroyed by evil, what is there to believe in?"

CNN have a Chile desk, so all is well with the world. They even have some fancy graphics and dramatic music to play every so often, which makes it even better. They do actually have some rather fancy touch screen systems that the presenters use, which actually do seem useful. I remember Jeremy Vine had something in his "virtual studio" in the US elections eighteen months ago, but interaction seemed very pre scripted, and he'd be unable to do any manipulation of the visuals on the fly.

Anyway, it's odd to watch different news sources every so often. The BBC are sticking to their regular weekend programming on News 24 (presumably because they have no correspondents on the scene yet), and because they can't really show hour upon hour of live footage of traffic cameras pointed out to sea from Hawaii, like CNN is doing.

Anyway, sleepy time.

"Did you fall when we dragged her along? You will never know Thursday's gone."

I've just watched a Jimmy Carr DVD. You may disapprove, but I saw it as a compromise since the initial suggestion was watching one of Ricky Gervais's stand up efforts. I smiled at roughly a third of the Jimmy Carr material, but For the rest of the time I couldn't help thinking that was how the Nazi party must have started.

Anyway, I'm up North again. I'm unemployed, again. Similar to eighteen months ago, but I'd like to think this move was thought through slightly better than the last one. I don't regret moving down south. If I'd stayed up North back then I'm sure I'd have had no motivation to get a job, anything I might have got wouldn't have been anywhere near as good, and I wouldn't have anywhere near as many stories. Even if those stories mostly do involve seeing the political editor of Newsnight. Or Jenni Murray's horrible little dogs.

I do have some vague intention of updating this a bit, though I know I've said that in the past. I quite like the idea of keeping some vague record of what I do with my life, though open for all to read. Anyway, the battery is going on my iPod, and due to a lack of any vague punchline, I'll leave it at this.


(I wrote that two days ago, but I then discovered that the program I used to use now doesn't work.)

Who is Virgilio Anderson?

I can't sleep. I'm restless and stressed with lots. Nothing particularly big, just lots of little things at work, and I'm wanting to move now. We've found something that seems ace, and I'm trying to get a viewing, hopefully they'll phone me back tomorrow.

I checked Peter Mandelson's ticket earlier today. He was going to Runcorn. Is saying that a security risk?

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"I'm The Urban Spaceman..."

I'm watching a programme recorded from BBC4 interviewing the wives of many of the Apollo astronaunts. It's called Apollo Wives, but I think they've missed a trick by not calling it Mrs. Apollo. Surely Bonzos references wouldn't be lost on a BBC4 audience.

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"Right now I'm ready for the future"

Walking near Wall Street earlier today I saw someone sitting in a doorway looking sad with a cardboard sign and the following written on it:

"PLEASE HELP. WERE HUNGRY"

These four words tell an awful lot about the failings of America. A matter of minutes from New York's financial centre, where (even now) billions of dollars are changing hands, simply to make more money, there is this sign. A centre of excess, where enough money would be made in a fraction of a second by a single banker to solve this problem once and for all. It almost brings me to tears.

It should be "WAS HUNGRY".

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"A rooftop where we played. Just you, me, a clear view of the trees"

I've been wondering how long it'll be before people start moving down subway carriages away from people who have just sneezed. I give it another day.

We went to see Les Paul last night. Despite being 93, he still plays two sets every Monday night in a jazz club on Broadway. We discovered he'd had to cancel the past couple of weeks because he'd been in hospital, so it made it seem all the more special. Given his age, and the fact that he's got arthritis in his left hand, his technical ability wasn't amazing, but that's not really the point. It's amazing to see someone who's been behind so many developments with the electric guitar, who can still play so many years after. Even if he does need to be lifted onto his seat on stage.

Today is supposed to be the hottest day of the year, beating the previous record of... uh... Sunday. So we're going to Long Beach. I was hoping to see Mogwai tonight, but ticketmaster.com are bastards and won't consider the fact that someone with a credit card registered abroad might want to buy tickets. Oh, and "convenience charge"? Fuck off.

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"All the hurt I kept within, I blame myself for everything"

"The European Union has advised that you postpone all non essential travel to the United States and Mexico". Oops.

Maybe it's just because we're watching Fox News, but that's not good. CBS doesn't seem too scared (they're giving out information about Supermarkets that I thought was common knowledge).

The weather earlier was sponsored by Imodium. And they have adverts going into detail about (prescription) incontinence treatments. The British prudish nature is sometimes a bad thing, but before half past eight in the morning I can't help but miss it.

I must sound like all I'm doing is watching telly and reading the paper. Far from it, but that's far more interesting to write about than "we did this, then we did that".

Les Paul tonight. I can't wait.

Geolocate this post.

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"We speak only in memories"

I'm in Central Park, in the glorious sunshine. I suppose that makes a change from the usual things I write on this.

--

I think I may have tempted fate by saying that I needed a comfy bed. Arrival at the airport was fine, we had a perfectly fine taxi ride to the hotel, we checked in and then found the room only had one bed. We went down, assuming there had been a mixup, to then be told that was the only room they had available, so couldn't move us at all. So I slept on the floor. We were assured that we'd be okay for the next night, but when there's no other rooms available there's little you can really do.

This morning, after flicking through the telly channels and discovering that nobody in this country has the slightest interest in formula one, we also discovered that there wasn't even a kettle in the room. Anyone who has met me for even five minutes knows that I'm an utter bastard of a morning before I've had coffee, so this wasn't the best start I could have hoped for. But a diner was found to supply us with copious amounts of coffee and pancakes, before deciding to spend the day in Central Park. Since we were both so tired, and the weather was so beautiful, it was decided this was a better plan than attemping to force interest in a museum of some kind.

Plus I had the mountain that is the Sunday edition of the New York Times to devour.

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"I want to leave it all, just for a while, I'll be satellite news"

Without wanting to sound like a raging Communist, it does seem to me rather depressing that after going through security at Leeds Bradford Airport you emerge in the deepest corner of the Duty Free shop. Someone clearly made the decision that too many people were just walking past the disgusting face of international capitalism dressed in the shiney perfume boxes, and that people had to be forced to walk past the bottles of vodka at eight in the morning. Not only that but, instead of the usual "wait at gate" that used to display on the departure boards before your flight is called, you are now invited to "Relax & Shop". Instead of being a facility to assist you in getting from A to B, airports now appear to exist to take money from you.

Perhaps it's always been like that. It's been so long since I've flown that, were I not sitting thousands of feet above the Atlantic Ocean as I type this, George Monbiot would be proud of me.

I think if I ever lived in Amsterdam I'd never get anything done. Even away from the drugs and prostitution, I'd just want to spend all the time exploring the canals. I'd have to live just on a canal, and be able to step right from my house onto my boat with a small outboard motor. Not sure of a name for the boat. Probably something very witty that my brain can't think of at the moment.

Anyway, I may update this a bit more on this holiday. I'm told the hotel has wifi so I may update with the goings on of my trip. All I want to do now is land, get the bloody green form into immigration and get to the hotel. By the time we get there I'll have been up for 24 hours, so I hope the bed is comfy. My back certainly needs it.

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