You Never Had a Camera In My Head

Yesterdays P&L: GBP-980.00

Yesterdays Booze: I never touch the stuff

Yesterdays Soundtrack: Various


Yesterday was a bastard day for trading, I got burned on the DOW30 futures. There was a huge amount of volatility, at first the market was looking healthy because it seemed that a solution was on the cards for the fact that Greece is bankrupt and the only way for them to balance their budget enough to stay in the Euro is to enforce economic warfare on their hapless citizens. You would think the Greeks would understand the concept of suffering for the greater good, what happened to Greek Stoicism? Anyway The Americans liked the sound of the Europeans bailing out the Greeks until Merkel basically said I just said we would, I don't really have any idea how were going to do it. The market responded badly to this. Then for reasons I am not aware, The futures started climbing upwards in quite a vigorous manner. Perhaps it was the, (slight), improvement in jobs data, maybe it was Obama taking a 180 degree spin and saying he ain't no communist and he fully supports the salaries that the CEO's of JP Morgan and Goldmans received. Speaking of Obama, perhaps he should check with America's bankers in Beijing to see if its ok for him to have the Dalai Lama for a sleepover at the Whitehouse. America may still have more guns and tanks but these days they are paid for with Chinese money.

My choice of music yesterday was varied so here is the top five according to my pc:

Enola Gay - Eighties classic from OMD. People say such weighty issues as Hiroshima are ill-served by bouncy pop songs. If you think of it at the time it was released, like Breathing by Kate Bush, nuclear war seemed very likely. The wording in this song is very clever for a pop song and mentions the bomb, (Little Boy), and the time of the detonation, (8.15). Anyone who gets the chance to go to Hiroshima should, the Peace Monument is something worth seeing. It is rather disturbing that the Americans deliberately avoided conventional bombing Hiroshima in order that they could gain a true picture of the damage their new, untested weapon would cause. And also that the other bomb used at Nagasaki was off a different type so they were quite clearly using the excercise as a test.

Boomtown - An instrumental track from The Local Hero soundtrack. Starts off quite jolly but halfway through it starts to sound more morose as the saxophone starts to howl a little more over the light jazz - What is it about Saxophones that can sound so desperate?

Hands of Time - Groove Armada, this song is about as laid back as they get, "I never really felt quite the same since I lost what I had to Gain. No one to blame, No one to blame". This song reminds me of the back of a cab, going through the streets of Bangkok in the early morning, feeling just that little bit the wrong side of worn out.

The Visitors - Who doesn't really like ABBA, They were never that big in America as they didn't see the point in touring. That is so Scandinavian, They were already huge elsewhere and didn't feel it was worth it, in complete contrast to almost every other musical act. Mind you they were also offered one billion dollars to reform in the nineties which they politely declined. Nowadays they are more known for the movie Mamma Mia, but they had some great songs. I like the way their music changed as the stresses in their relationships increased. Their last record, The Visitors is full of paranoia and regret although always manages to sound like a pop album.

Accidents Will Happen - Not the real Elvis but still a great artist. Armed Forces was a brilliant album. Accidents will happen seems to be about guilt based around a story of infidelity. This record also featured Oliver's Army.

Today I watched the movie The Truman Show. I like that movie, Even though I am not a fan of him, Jim Carrey plays the role really well. One of the lines that stood out in my mind, "We accept the world with which we are presented with... It's as simple as that". I suppose its true. Very few people seem to question the reality of their lives and if they do there always seems to be some reason to put things off. Some drudgery of work or meeting mortgage payments, something to stop us questioning our lives and following our dreams. Truman dreams of going to Fiji, pointing to a golf ball he says to his friend "See here? This is us, and all the way around here,Fiji. You can't get any further away before you start coming back". I love that - you can't get further away without coming back. We are the stars of our own Truman Show.
Makes me think about blogging, my blog started about my drinking but, at least temporarily, I don't drink anymore so whats the point?


In case I don't see ya...good afternoon, good evening, and goodnight.