"PETE AND SHELLY HAVE SMOKE INHALATION" So I met Gerry Adams today. Very warm and friendly guy. He came across as very candid, funny and intelligent. He spoke to about eight or so of us about the new book and his role in the peace process in Northern Ireland since 1972. The guy has been doing this my whole life which is an interesting perspective. He touched on recent developments including Blair cancelling the Northern Ireland Assembly elections and you couldn't help feel the man's frustration. Especially when you think of how Blair loves to be viewed over Iraq as a bringer of democracy. He did however have a very healthy sense of humour over the fact that he has seen so many politicians come and go. I guess Blair is just another cog in the wheel. I thought he was very down to earth until I got talking to him afterwards and he immediately began chatting away like we were old friends sat in the pub. He told me the funniest story about meeting Bertie Ahern in the toilets. Ha. It was a fun evening. On a different note, I was just introduced to Recumbentgaze and it's filled with good stuff. Have a look at this piece on book history. As for this little corner of the interweb I have some more crap to put up over the weekend including at long last some more Moviedrome stuff. About half the email I get through here has a Moviedrome related question - guys, Alex Cox knows more about the subject than me honest. Anyway - I have a pile of unanswered questions that should all be resolved by Sunday. Cool - then I can go see Alkaline Trio rip up the ULU. Oh I almost forgot. Foyles sold out of the very cool magazine 'Smoke' today but we now have it back in stock. I promised Jude I'd stick a link up here somewhere but there is a price for success: "Error 503 - Site Unavailable The site you are attempting to access has exhausted its allocated bandwidth and has been suspended. If you are the owner of this site, please consult our bandwidth guidelines documentation for further details" I did find an old piece of writing that Jude's co-editor, Matt, did so check this out instead and then click over to www.smokelondon.co.uk when they have sorted out their ISP with a slap and some money: "Those of you who read these updates for the words rather than to receive any great enlightenment about popmusic - which I increasingly think must be all of you, or even both of you - might be interested to know about Issue 1 of a new magazine called Smoke which I'm co-editing with my friend Jude. It's full title is Smoke: a London Peculiar, which might let you know a little more about what it is, as well as stop us getting sued by any other magazine called Smoke, of which there do seem to be a few, such as Smoke ("the distinctive lifestyle magazine for the cigar and pipe enthusiast") and Smoke Magazine (which covers similar territory but has Shannon Doherty on the front). Basically, our Smoke is a London fanzine. Which I shall now explain by way of a musical analogy. As you might know, I started out in this game by writing a fanzine called Are You Scared To Get Happy?, which was basically a music fanzine which didn't include any reviews or interviews on the grounds that bands are dull and reviews are tedious whereas music is great and so are buses. This meant it could be read - and, in some strange way, enjoyed - by people who didn't actually like any of the bands or records mentioned. And now we're trying to do the same thing for London, the greatest city in the world, before it becomes uninhabitable for a thousand years due to the detonation of a dirty-bomb in Oxford Street. If I was a bookshop, I'd probably file it under "literary magazine", because most of it is writing... but that sounds a bit poncey, and there are photos and drawings and cartoons too, so I'm not sure that really helps. If I was a greengrocer's, I'd probably file it behind the potatoes - but that would really just be out of desperation, so I'm not sure that helps either. However, we've just set up a website which includes excerpts, so... go to www.smokelondon.co.uk if you'd like a look. Do it straight away, and you could be the very first person to visit the site. Which would be something to tell your grandchildren, if you grow to really dislike them. And if you feel like ordering a copy... it's �1.70 plus postage, which isn't bad for a 36 page magazine. Though, like I say, it doesn't really have anything to do with music, beyond being co-edited by me... and having one article by Dickon from Fosca, one by Clare who used to run Sarah Records with me, and one by someone who used to write for Melody Maker, who for some reason I've decided not to name in this paragraph. Curious. I have to go now because my world is falling apart and so is yours." And just so you know what you are looking for: Mike is blogging to: The Breeders (after being reminded of their existence by Charlotte)