No geek
is an island

Via a number of bloggers, this particular version comes from Neil Fawcett. I’m tired so my three additions aren’t as ingenious as they might be…

“Copy the list on to your blog, put in bold the ones you have listened to (completely from begining to end) and then add three more albums that you think people should have heard before they turn into their parents - remember, it isn’t necessarily your most favourite albums but the ones you think people should listen to… and when we say listen we mean from track one through to the end…If you put a link to your follow-on post in the comments of the site where you found it, the chain will be trackable. You are also allowed to DELETE up to THREE albums on the existing list, if you feel a) that this is an album which should not reasonably be foisted upon anybody, or b) that one Radiohead album is quite enough for one lifetime, thank you.”

This is Hardcore - Pulp
Moon Safari - Air
Elastica - Elastica
Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols - Sex Pistols
OK Computer - Radiohead
The Kiss of Morning - Graham Coxon
Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars - David Bowie
The Wall - Pink Floyd
Setting Sons - The Jam
Train a Comin’ - Steve Earle
Come From the Shadows - Joan Baez
The River - Bruce Springsteen
The Very Best of Joan Armatrading - Joan Armatrading
What’s Going On - Marvin Gaye
Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain - Pavement
Apple Venus Vol. 1 - XTC
Marquee Moon - Televison
Daydream Nation - Sonic Youth
Jagged Little Pill - Alanis Morisette
Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd
Leige and Leif - Fairport Convention
Afraid of Sunlight - Marillion
Dog Man Star - Suede
Work, Lovelife, Miscellaneous - David Devant & His Spirit Wife
Out of the Blue - Electric Light Orchestra

I added the last three and would remove:
Metal Box - Public Image Ltd
The Joshua Tree - U2
Untitled fourth album - Led Zeppelin

Lots has happened in the last week while I’ve been too busy to blog, but the one thing I must mention is the death yesterday of the 5th Earl Russell.

I met Conrad only a handful of times but knew him enough to feel dwarfed by his intellect. When Conrad was called as the last speaker against the motion in the monarchy debate at party conference last year, I knew the motion would fall. With thirty seconds before my summation to come up with a counter to his points, it took me several days.

Committed to his students as a professor, Conrad took a strong interest in student welfare issues. He was a former vice-president of LDYS and a regular speaker at LDYS fringes at party conference. At the student funding fringes at spring conference in Southport, we shared a few thoughts about the impact of top-up fees on university libraries. As someone who had worked for many years as an academic in the US, he railed against the Government’s attempt to Americanize the student funding system here.

Conrad was the liberal anchor of the Liberal Democrats. Although his hereditary peerage dates back to a Liberal Prime Minister, he was a true liberal in his own right and the party will have a permanent hole at its heart with his passing.

Nick has been encouraging poetry on blogs today. Spurred on by hearing John Hegley at the Edinburgh Fringe, I have written something especially. This is inspired by the pain at the end of the ring finger on my right hand. It’s called

The pain at the end of the ring finger on my right hand

My finger is hurting
It started post-election
Maybe too much knocking up
Has caused the infection
Now I’ve got a precription

The doctor says I
Shouldn’t bite my nails
And the treatment entails
Taking one pill in
Six hour blocks of
Flucloxacillin

…but I like it. Gollum Lookin’ Chain?