motvox's blog

QotD: My Musical Influence

Which friend or acquaintance most influenced your taste in music? 
Submitted by Rev Stan.

Mom (blues, soul) & Dad (blues, rock 'n' roll, '50s pop). Hannah (indie, girl groups, Northern Soul). Leon (indie, wiggy shit). Guy (more wiggy shit, noise, Plunderphonics). Janet (Jamaican music). Keith & Jonnie (yet more wiggy shit, Arthur Russell, post-punk, lots more). Stephen Pastel (has recommended countless records of all genres over the years).

And, even though it's neither a friend nor an acquaintance, I'm grateful to The Chart Show on Channel 4 for screening the video for Sign 'o' the Times by Prince sometime in 1987. Hearing that song is the reason why I've been to thousands of gigs, and the reason why my flat is drowning in vinyl and CDs.

QotD: How I Ended Up Here

Why do you live where you live?
Submitted by memtony.

I came to Glasgow to go to University and stayed because it's ace.

(Funnily enough, one of the reasons I put Glasgow on my UCCAS form was a gushing write-up of the Sub Clubin a guide to nightclubs that came with The Face. I've spent a good chunk of the last decade in the Sub, and the only time I've been close to moving away from Glasgow was when I almost got a job in London as clubs editor of - you guessed it! - The Face.)

QotD: Patriotic

Do you consider yourself a patriotic person?  Why or why not?

No. Patriotism inevitably implies that you believe your own country and its people to be innately superior to other countries and their people, which is, frankly, a bit silly. And, let's face it, anyone who goes out of their way to identify themselves as a patriot is also likely to hold unsavoury racist, anti-immigration and right-wing views.

Also, as an English person living in Scotland, Scottish patriotism, especially that patriotism expressed through the medium of football, is bloody annoying - try being English in a Scottish pub when an England match is on the telly, it's not nice.

I suppose I'm fairly 'regionally patriotic', though, which is just as silly - though I'm not a scouser, I'm from Birkenhead, as the Tranmere chant goes, and Glasgow is better than Edinburgh!

QotD: You'd Never Believe It

What story from your wild-and-crazy youth would nobody believe about you today?

Er, none. I still generate wild and crazy stories (though, at 30, they're now a source of embarrassment rather than pride!)

QotD: Fascinating Class

What is the most interesting class you have ever taken? 
Submitted by Melissa. 

My A-Level English class. It was some sort of weird new experimental course, that didn't have any exams, just coursework, and the syllabus was set by individual teachers. I was lucky enough to have two great teachers. One was obsessed with Modernist and Dadaist poetry, the Theatre of the Absurd and the like, so I was basically given free reign to revel in Becket, Pinter, Ionescu, Genet, Jarry and, most of all, Eliot's The Waste Land, setting essay questions for myself.

The other teacher was much more of a traditionalist, particularly keen on the Victorian novel, and Middlemarch in particular, and (as well as my Mom) sparked off my interest in Thomas Hardy, whose novels I re-read fairly regularly.

I'm still pretty much obsessed with The Waste Land, too, over a decade later.

Thanks for that, Mr. Frowe and Mr. Smail! (They're both still teaching at the same school - I should drop them a line to say that, really.)

QotD: In Case Of Emergency

Who is your Alert In Case Of Emergency person?  

I just checked my Donor Card, and it lists the person I was going out with when I got it, over a decade ago, complete with their now defunct telephone number. Thanks for the reminder.

The ICE number in my telephone is my parents'.

I also carry a Necrocard, which gives anyone who finds my corpse permission to sexually violate it as they wish.

QotD: The History of S

What sites show up if you type "S" into your browser's address bar?

My own website begins with an 's', so I get...

submitresponse.co.uk/tumble/wp-admin/post.php
submitresponse.co.uk/weblog/wp-admin/post.php
submitresponse.co.uk/tumble/
submitresponse.co.uk/weblog/

...and so on.

(If you're wondering about the slightly peculiar name, it's a reference to the button you pressed to leave a comment on the messageboard that prompted me to set up a website in the first place.)

QotD: I'll Have The Usual

If a waiter stopped by right now to take your order, what cocktail or drink are you having?

At a bar: a Tom Collins, a Sidecar, a Whiskey Sour, a Pisco Sour or a Champagne Cocktail. Except on Sundays, in which case it's a Bloody Mary (ideally prepared by James at Stravaigin - the chili vodka and horseradish really blow away the cobwebs.)

In the pub: Deuchars IPA (any IPA, really), Guinness or Liefmans Frambozenbier. Except when I'm getting pissed up, in which case it's Red Stripe or Kronenbourg 1664.

With food: wine - strictly white, preferably dry, usually French. I default to Pouilly-Fuissé and Pouilly-Fumé, but have been enjoying the fruity Um Bongo stylings of New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs recently. (I can't drink reds, thanks to either the sulphates or the histamines, which make my skin go red and itchy, my eyes bulge and my head ache.)

QotD: DJ Me

What is (or would be) your DJ name?

Aside from my real name, I've been billed as Mot, Möt, Nurse Mot and DJ Glass Of Piss.

QotD: An Embarrassing Hobby

What was the most embarrassing hobby you've ever had? 
Submitted by Billie Fable.

When I was about nine, I used to paint those lead figures used for Dungeons & Dragons dice-rolling type games. I never actually played any of the games, I just enjoyed the painting bit. And the smell of solvent-based Humbrol enamel paint. Does that make it more or less embarrasing? Probably more - I was a peripheral member of the role-playing crew!

I still intend to finish the undead wooly mammoth with skeletal rider I started twenty-odd years ago.