Monkey is Funky

An evening with Paul T and Anna F, aka the more vocal two thirds of Strict Machines. Three and a bit new songs, plans to enter a 'battle of the bands' type of competition, and a strange disinterest in doing more recording.

We sat on the floor and ate Paul's food, discussing canibalism, serial killers and necrophilia - good wholesome subjects.
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Anna has secretly been learning to play guitar and is writing songs in her own right. 'Secretly' because, if Paul found out, he'd throw the kind of hissy fit that goes on for months, makes him debilitatingly ill, and bores the pants off everyone else.

I've offered to help her out with recording, and anything else that might be useful.
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It looks like the great British public are in for another spate of Diana conspiracies. The investigator John Stevens (both of whose laptops were 'suspiciously' stolen in seperate burglaries) is dropping hints about new findings and a new witness.

Personally, although the Paris crash looked a little fishy, I can see no real point in having Diana killed simply to prevent her marrying a muslim and having a dark baby. It's not like it would bring down the monarchy, let alone the state, or even be a significant embarassment.
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Abu Hamza, the Islamic preacher who loudly advocated killing 'enemies of Islam' - presumably to scare everyone else into becoming like him - is in jail. This is a good thing.

He is being presented as representative of devout muslims everywhere, and anyone who isn't anti-muslim is being presented as a supporter of him. This is of course the entire point of putting him in jail, and is a bad thing.

In related news, Gordon Brown (prime minister in waiting) says laws against religious hate speech aren't tough (=extreme) enough. Because propagandists of islamism are subhuman fanatics, beyond reason or understanding. Oh, wait - that's hate speech isn't it.
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I could talk about last night's highly entertaining research into tiny ultra-leftwing sects, featuring such infighting luminaries as Arthur Scargill, Hillel Tickten and the wonderfully named Harpal Brar.

But instead, I'll mention that 'Monkey' is on ITV4. That's the Japanese serial of a Chinese legend, set in India and dubbed into English with more ham than a bacon factory.

Where else would you see an indestuctable simian flying on a pink cloud, an incredibly beautiful boy-priest traveling with a pig and a fish, and people everywhere changing into animals in a world populated by demons and really bad kung fu?

It forms much of my small cluster of childhood memories, and I'm going to savor it all again, no matter how loud everyone else groans.