25 Things Meme, cross-posted from Face Book

[f4f3]

1. Politically, I am of the left, and consider myself a social democrat. To elaborate for my American friends, that means you can start measuring me for the orange jumpsuit now. I believe in the ownership of the means of production by the workers, I believe in the nationalisation of utilities and education, and probably of the media. But we can talk about that one.

2. I'm left handed, but play sports right handed.

3. Until I was seven I supported Partick Thistle, then I was old enough to go to Parkhead and I've been a Celtic fan ever since.

4. My favourite whisky is Talisker.

5. I consider myself an agnostic, not an atheist. I can see no way to rule out the possibility that there is a god, just as I can't rule out the possibility that the jack of spades will jump out of a sealed deck of cards and squirt cider in my ear. But I'm not betting on either.

6. The god that I was brought up not to believe in is the Catholic god. The fine lines of gradation between him and the various other Christian gods is one of the main reasons I don't believe in religion. Although I see no reason to disrespect anyone else's, or treat any particular one with more respect than any other.

7. I have one cat and one dog. And one fantastic son.

8. I'm a reasonably good chess player.

9. I played badminton for years in leagues and I'm still an occasional player.

10. I graduated from Glasgow University in Law and snooker. I've found both useful over the years, although I've never practiced either professionally.

11. I have no conception of the relationship between the value of what I do and what I get paid to do it. This has more or less always been true, ever since my first job as a hospital cleaner.

12. The things I enjoy about work and that I'm best at are very rarely written on my job description.

13. I have almost all the Everyman editions of P.G Wodehouse - given long enough, I'll have them all.

14. I read a lot. I can't imagine ever living in a house with no books.

15. My first live gig was Dire Straits at the Apollo in Glasgow.

16. My top five live gigs:
Crowded House at the Barrowland
Steve Earle at the Barrowland
Simple Minds at the Barrowland
American Music Club at King Tuts
Martin Stephenson at Cottiers

17. Most of my regrets are about things I didn't do, although -

18. I did someone a terrible wrong, once, and I regret it every day.

19. I have about 1,000 books being held hostage - every now and then I think about staging a rescue operation.

20. My son and I are in the early stages of planning a drive together. A long drive. A very, very long drive.

21. If I had to spend the rest of my life in a fifty mile radius of one spot, it would be Temple Wood in Argyll.

22. I'm a sociable person who would make a very good hermit.

23. I love Scotland, and its place in the world. Although it would be equally precious and a good deal warmer if it was 1,000 miles to the south.

24. "Manhattan" is probably my favourite movie.

25. I have been very, very lucky in the people I love. God, if you do decide to exist, bless them all, wherever they may be.

Comments

[mhaithaca.livejournal.com]

1. A nationalised media would be useless. See "Minitrue."

4. A fine malt, and probably my favourite of our distillery tours, with the possible exception of Cardhu.

10. I'd love to see your degree in Snooker. :-)

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed your "25 Things" - very informative.

1. When I was at University, I was marginally in favour of nationalising media - by which I meant the 4 TV Channels we had, and the dozen or so newspapers. I thought the degree of political influence newspaper owners had was dangerous (I was thinking of Robert Maxwell), and that commercial tv would inevitably dumb down in pursuit of advertising revenues. On the other hand, I also felt that technology would probably make broadcasting obsolete, that smaller and smaller segments of the public would be targeted, and that access to all information would one day be possible, (hell, the micro-fiche inb the University library was amazing!)so no one viewpoint could be foisted on everyone.
25 years later, I have access to 30 or so channerls of TV (I don't pay for premium channels) there are maybe half a dozen serious newspapers in the UK, and there's this internet thingy which turned out to be even more useful than microfiche.

Given all this progress, my opinion has hardened. Commercial TV has managed to lower its own standards year on year to the point that the highlight of the entertainment schedules is watching a houseful of people with severe mental problems locked in together for a month. Newspapers are owned by fewer and fewer oligarchs, and their output is targetted 5% due south of the lowest common denominator, and while I STILL have high hopes for the internet, it can be manipulated (at least on a social scale) with scary ease by anyone with a grudge and a handful of sock puppets.

Orwell dreamed up "Minitrue" as a satire on the BBC of the time - in many ways our media have exceeded his invention...

4. I loved everything about Talisker distillery - the tour, the tasting, but probably the location most of all. Have you ever made it to Islay? Wonderful malts, amazingly beautiful scenery. Aaahhhhhh.

5. I usually keep quiet about my degree in snooker, especially when having Americans explain the rules of 8-ball to me; well, it kept me in whisky when I was travelling across the U.S.

[coughingbear]

19. I have about 1,000 books being held hostage - every now and then I think about staging a rescue operation.

That is very distressing.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

It certainly is. I think a "24" style incursion is probably warranted.

[parthenia14.livejournal.com]

Nice list. I don't think I've got 25 of these.

PS My first live gig was Hawkwind at the Apollo.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

I didn't think I had either, till I started typing. I have friends who were at that Hawkwind gig - some of them have recovered.

I do miss the Apollo - I don't think anywhere has managed to replace it as a large scale venue in Glasgow. The two Concert Halls are too posh, and nowhere else is big enough.

[itchyfidget.livejournal.com]

Crowded House at the Barrowland

Dude, that was an EPIC gig (the Woodface tour, right?) I mean, I think they played about four nights, so technically it was an epic four gigs, but DAMN :)

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

I was there the night the Finn parents flew in from Australia for the gig, and Neil and Tim played together for the first time in four years - a fantastic night.