Project S.A.M.

The appropriate response to this depends on how you interpret 'deities'. If a deity is some kind of agent or personal being, then there are probably plenty of religious faiths that reject the idea. I'm pretty sure that at least some verisons of Buddhism and probably Hinduism would deny that any deity exists in any realist sense, and the most analogous thing to 'god' would be some kind of impersonal absolute (or something like that). Given that religion is essentially any form of practice that is intended to lead the practitioner towards some form of salvation in response to some deficiency in their being, and must presuppose that reality is such that such practice can be successful, (eg to get into heaven despite being a sinner, or to attain Nirvana despite being trapped in a cycle of suffering) then as far as I can see the idea of religion is quite compatible with positive belief in the absence of deities. Also, it is quite possible to be a theist (or deist, polytheist, pantheist, whatever) and not be religious. Theism and atheism are just metaphysical views, the sorts of which might render religious practice rational or irrational. Just because someone believes that theism is true, it doesn't make them religious. As far as science goes, the only way science can come into conflict with 'religion', is where there is a scientific truth-claim that contradicts a truth-claim that is essential to the practice of a religion. But most essential truth-claims involved in rendering religious practice rational are of a metaphysical sort. And science is not metaphysics. Of course, I made a fairly sweeping and apparently false statement there- most religions probably involve quite a few claims about what would be naturally observable events- the resurrection of Jesus, for example (supposing that is essential to Christianity). Then what the matter comes down to is whether non-natural (supernatural) events are possible (and whether such things have, in fact, happened). But that is not a scientific question, since the domain of science is the natural causes and effects. It should be neutral to the question of whether there non-natural events or beings. Fuck this. That's enough. Couldn't help myself.

Already seen it- utterly terrifying. When you scroll down to see the photo of him in his boxers, grasping in his fist what mercifully is a mouse, rather than his cock. He still manages to squeeze in a comment about the Queen. Wanting her dead, to be specific.

So there's probably no point in me asking who Frank Turner is or what Million Dead are- I imagine I wouldn't be interested in the answer?

Will there be a register taken at the Tunnels, do you think? Will I be excused if I have a note from the doctors? I hope I can get out of it somehow, as I'm not in the slightest bit interested in Alamos, and would enjoy seeing both the Needles and Bill Ely.

Listen, LT United were performance of the year as far as I'm concerned. Seriously, I enjoyed it so much I'm still smiling about it now. Thank you for the youtube link. Mono or stereo. But stereo is better. Thank you, Lithuania. LT United were not arrogant or a piss-take, they just weren't clueless morons with a thumb up their collective ass.

There was talk of the Red Dwarf film being a 'reboot' of the story- much like in the way the novels had similarities to but were narratively distinct from the TV programmes. Except the starting point of Lister's incarceration in Stasis was going to be significantly different from both. I can't remember the details- if you go to the forums on reddwarf.co.uk you might dig something up. There was an imdb entry, but this seems to have disappeared. Seasons 7 and 8, while infinitely preferable to Hyperdrive, were pretty abismal. Even WITH Normal Lovett. As has no doubt been said countless times before, it all fell apart when the Grant / Naylor partnership did. Rob Grant continued to write the series, but the last two seasons just seemed to have had the characteristic imaginative depth sucked out of them. Rob Grant and Doug Naylor both did their own separate novels that were supposed to follow on from the first two that they did together- Rob Grant's Last Human was okay, but Doug Naylor's Backwards still felt like classic Red Dwarf. Maybe if he were to work on the show again we might see a return to form. But it seems unlikely...

Both excellent tracks I forgot to mention. It would probably surprise a few people to discover that one of their favourite Karloff tunes (Hurricane Fighter Plane) is actually a sixties psyche track. It's an entirely ace track, although Mike Cavern once played me the original unedited version which, as far as I remember, goes on for about 10 minutes with nonsense noise before - and only if you listen very carefully - the song starts. It was quite upsetting.

Well, as far as my tastes go, the sort of psyche you were referring to would be filed under "hippy shite". I mean that in the nicest possible way... My use of the term would be to refer to the sort of stuff found on Pebbles Vol. 3 (The Acid Gallery), for instance. The sort of thing you might use terms such as 'paint-peeling' and 'wig-flipping' to describe. Basically raw sixties garage stuff, played by kids who would have started off playing Louie Louie but then discovered acid and magic mushrooms and instead of thinking about peace and love and peppermint, sang songs about spiders and the like. Another one that's occurred to me would be Blue Cheer's version of Summertime Blues. A very psyched-out version, almost unrecognisable. And heavy as fuck, too.

I'm inclined towards Bluesxman's interpretation of the term 'psyche' rather than that of the originator of this thread, but here goes... The Monacles: Spider and the Fly (screeching bad trip about a boy turning into a giant spider and killing his mother) The Outcast: 1523 Blair The Chob: We're Pretty Quick (You could argue whether the above two are so much psyche as just garage, but the nonsense lyrics settle it) Teddy & Patches: Suzy Creamcheese (starts as a mad Louie-Louie-type frat-stomp and breaks down into, well, god knows what) Satori: Time Machine (layers of appropriately inappropriate instruments all played by the same (very odd) guy) The Bees: Voices Green and Purple (title says it all, really)

Surely to perform such an act of kindness is its own reward, no?

Christ in a bucket, you're right. It conveys the idea of the most charmless god-awful pub band imaginable- what other names did they choose from? Last Orders? Up in Smoke? Cook From Frozen?

I had Mark Donald when he was at BSM. You're right, he is a "dude". A really nice friendly guy who struck an honest balance between confidence-building praise and criticism when it was due. Never lost the rag or went a bit weird like a lot of instructors seem to, according to this thread. He likes the Ramones, too.

I also saw the first episode, and judged it to be about on a par with Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps and the US pilot version of Red Dwarf. It wasn't pretending to be shit for a joke. It really was shit.

The trite philosophy at the beginning put me right off, but it picks up about half-way through into an admirable albeit fairly standard polemic against American governments' outrageous abuses of power. His 'speech' for Bush strikes me as a little bit ham-fisted, though, for such a supposedly great writer.