(mood: optimistic - music: sex pistols - food: cabbage and mackerel)

Worldcon draws ever nearer - only 3-4 days to go now. Although some of us will be getting in some advance practice on the Wednesday night, seeing as how there`s a new short story anthology called Nova Scotia getting its launch at the Glasgow city centre Borders at 6pm (all welcome). In my old student union politics days, a smaller meeting in advance of the main event was called a caucus; and its not inaccurate to say that we`ll be mulling over the days to come, the panels we`ll be attending, the gatherings we`ll be enlivening with our unique presence, and the bars we`ll be propping up.....ahem....

In the meantime, Blair and the gaggle of podpeople he calls a cabinet continue along their charlatan-like progress. It seems to me that by his dont-give-an-inch, never-apologise, never-admit-a-mistake approach, he has in effect decided that the British people are expendable in his desire to prove what a desperately eager ally we are for the Bush regime. To get some idea of the scale of our ignominy, take a look at this -
http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/2005/06/27_jury-of-conscience-declaration.htm
- which is the Final Declaration of the Jury of Conscience World Tribunal on Iraq. It makes sobering reading.

Also, nice to see that the shuttle finally made it up to the International Space Station - the guys must be due about 2-half years worth of their Interzone subscription... But you have to wonder how much longer the US is going to keep on slinging this flying brick into orbit. I firmly believe that its time for a British shuttle; it would be built as a PFI project, of course, with the final cost coming in at something like 50% over original tender, with an onboard computer system using floppies, and combination teamaker- loo closets. Okay, okay, I know - the bitter irony is that if this country had continued with the technological curve that produced Blue Streak and the TSR plane, we might really be in space, instead of playing feeble poodle to the Big Dawg.

Allrighty, thats it for now - shall update before Worldcon, and during it if I have the time.

Right, first off - my Worldcon stuff.

Friday 10am - I shall moderating a panel entitled `From The Glens To The Stars`, being a discussion on Scottish SF and SF in Scotland. Also taking part - Richard Morgan, Gary Gibson, Neil Williamson, and Jack Deighton.
Also on Friday, at noon, I`ll be signing books and so forth, in the radiant company of Hal Duncan and Trudi Canavan. Should be a hoot.
Saturday, at 7pm, I`ll be on a panel entitled `Is Blogging Helping Or Hurting Your Writing?`, along with Eileen Gunn, Benjamin Rosenbaum, John Scalzi, and Martha Wells.
Also on Saturday, at 8.30pm, I`ll be taking part in a reading experience called `New Scottish Writing` which is basically going to be a showcase for the Nova Scotia anthology, published by Mercat Press, in which your `umble author has a story.
Sunday, 11am, I shall be on a panel called `Virtual and Physical Activism`, along with Ian Irvine, Geneva Melzack, Renee Seiber, and Maureen Kincaid Speller.
Then, same day, I shall be doing a reading of my own at 2.30pm.
And lastly, on Monday at 2pm, I`ll be taking part in a kaffeeklatsch, basically sitting at a table with lots of coffee etc, nattering with other writers and readers and anyone else who feels like joining in. My colleagues for this will be Glenda Larke, Frank Roger, and non other than Anne McCaffery.

I know I said I was going to mutter something under my breath about current events, but all I can say is that I was watching Tony Blair lying on TV again today...well, when I say `lying` what I mean is that whenever I hear him on the radio or see him on the box I now reflexively think to myself `Why is this man lying to me? - And what is he lying about??` Yes, its got so bad that in my personal political lexicon `Blair` and `Thatcher` are now interchangeable.

And yes, you can bet yer sweet bippy that I will rant some more...but not tonight.

Sweet dreams, y`all.

Well, a lot has happened since my last entry in relation to the London bombings, and I do have some pertinent things to say about them. Also, I have now the finalised events I`ll be taking part in at Worldcon, which I`ll also be posting here later today. For the moment, however, I`m in a meditative mood and thought I would share something with you, a piece written by an American Indian writer called Oriah Mountain Dreamer.

It is just 3 days after the London bombings and the media is, of course, rife with speculation based on not very much at all. At this stage I suspect that Scotland Yard and the Anti-terrorism division are playing their cards close to their chests, but once we know more about the devices themselves we`ll be a better state to figure out the `who`, and then logically the `why`.

My thoughts go out to those who have lost friends and relatives in this vile atrocity, as well as my admiration for those Londoners caught in its horror.

Well, it`s the Monday now and I`m still trying to assess the whole Live8 concert(s). But first here`s my take on the music itself, or at least my distilled impression. One thing that came across was how weak some of these big acts were live - Coldplay were especially underwhelming, and I was unmoved by the likes of Dido, Snow Patrol, Keane, and Ms Dynamite. The U2/Macca opener with Sgt Pepper was very pleasing, if a bit brief (tho Zur Paul did come back at the end to wind the show up), and Elton John gave a beefy performance, showing once again that despite all his luvvie extravagances he can still rock out; such a shame that his slot was marred by Pete Doherty who was clearly utterly wasted, totally banjoed out of his head as he mangled `Children Of The Revolution`.

Other surprises - the Scissor Sisters, who I`d only previously known for an awful cover of an old Pink Floyd song which escape me now, but heck, they were fun, tight and ballsy. Annie Lennox was definitely a highlight, opening with a lowkey piece on piano with heartrending images from Africa on the big screens. Sting was better than I was expecting, with no backing singers and no sodding clarinet - egad, the man had a rocky sound that day, and I did like the changed lyrics to `Every Breath You Take`. Velvet Revolver came on like sleazemeisters but they provided a meaty, focussed, nasty hard rock sound. REM, Maddona, Robbie Williams did what they do and did it well, but the highlights of the entire thing for me was the Who (a full-throttle performance) and the reformed Pink Floyd....who`da thunkit? It was quite a sight to see Dave Gilmour, Roger Waters, Nick Mason and an animated Rick Wright clearly having a great time, smiles and everthing! I mean, who knows what may come of this - a new Floyd album?

The other, overarching aspect of Live8, of course, was its raison d`etre - raising awareness and letting the G8 leaders know that they are under the lens of the popular gaze as never before. Informed/media opinion of the whole Live8 campaign seems to swing between the cynical (pointless ego-tripping) to the contemptuous (the issues are much more complicated than just debt relief, too complex for egotistic rock stars). Now, while there is undoubtedly a good deal of egostroking in the mix of Live8, it`s also very clear that Bob Geldof and the people he`s got around him are passionate about the issues and very clued in about them - yes, the whole question of solving Africa`s problems involves the rules of trade, but also the near-piratical conditionalities that accompany the aid that is being offered. Poor countries are being required to privatise their infrastructure, their education, their health systems, and their public water supplies, before so much as a WTO cent is grudgingly tossed their way. These conditionalities must end - no more selling off the communal lifeblood of poverty-stricken nations to international corporations, and those corporations who do now own great swathes of power and water utilities across Africa and S.America must be forced to divest themselves of these looted treasures.

And as for international trade, the idea that American and Europe subsidies should be scaled back and markets opened to African goods - yes, that`s all well and good, but we should also be looking at the arm-twisting that the World Bank applies to poor countries, namely that they abandon growing food for their own populations and start growing specific crops for export to.....us. Yes, shelf prices in the likes of Asda and Tesco show how much we benefit from this unjust trade.

So there you have it, my take on the music and the issues, and of course it ain`t over until the G8 have met and made their pronouncement. I personally doubt that we`ll get anything of real substance beyond the well-trailed debt relief (concocted by Blair and Brown, who seem to be acting as Bush`s point men; what an interesting spectacle it was). Of course, Blair will try to portray it in as rosy a light as possible, deploying every pseudo-compassionate, warm, fuzzy word in his armoury in an attempt to lull the big beast of popular opinion back to sleep. It is our duty to ignore him, and stay awake.