Bill Drummond has been making quite a few appearances lately, on both radio and television. Tuesday night, he made an appearance on the BBC 6 Music program The Evening Sequence. On the program, Bill talks about his career and pop music in general, starting with the first record he ever bought, "Strawberry Fields" by The Beatles. He asserts that this record was the greatest piece of art ever made. They go on to talk about his first band, Big In Japan, and play one of their songs, "Nothing Special." Well, it certainly is something special, as that track is very hard to find!

Discussion of Bill's career as part of The KLF is inevitable, and he discusses some of the motivations behind the band. He also recounts the tragic tale behind the recording of Justified and Ancient. Thankfully, a new sampler saved the day.

Last week, Bill was on BBC 6 Music's breakfast show, but that is no longer available for download. He also made a recent appearance on the Swedish program Kobra. The program itself was about money, and they discussed the burning of a million pounds. The program will air again on Monday (Nov 29th) at 16:05 and Tuesday (Nov 30th) at 23:20, and is available online.

A little bit of looking has lead me back to a few of the KLF's old web sites. The first one I'd like to present is a publicity stunt for the Solid Gold Chartbusters. At first, the Phone Bashing web site looks like an ordinary we've done it now style site, but a quick whois reveals who is really behind it… Virgin Records. Score one for Jimi! Our next site is an innovative idea from Bill Drummond. He wanted to provide a place for you to plan your death, so prepare to die at mydeath.net. For more information about the KLF go to KLF Online.

As I wrote about a month ago, I've been playing Vampires! The Dark Alleyway, a grid-based MMORPG. Since then, I have come pretty far. I have even sent a donation into RavenBlack and gone on a few quests, both of which have gotten me several new powers. Right now, I'm up to "Local Legend" status, but hope to become an "Elder" fairly soon. I have gotten Second-Sight (from the donation), Suction, Suprise, Celerity(1), Stamina(1), Shadows(1) and Thievery(1). Let me tell you, getting into and out of the thieves guild is just as hard as people say it is.

I have been getting more coins in the bank, although I've spent some of that on acquiring new powers. I now max out at sixty-three action points, much more than I started with. Right now, I'm trying to make my way over to the Traveller's Guild so I can get the Locate power, and possibly find some of the people who have been attacking me (from time to time).

So far, only one person (Spiked) has signed up for the game via my biter link, but I'm hoping more people will join the quest and become a (fake) vampire.

Here are a few links to help out aspiring players:

• Out of Chronology Androni-guy – An out-of-date but comprehensive guide to the game
• RBPilot-light Online – A tool to help you get around
• Lost In Shadows – A LiveJournal Community devoted to V!TDA
• The RavenBlack Blood Points Database – A place to post your rankings
• Vampire City – An online map of the city (huge)
• The Abyss – An online bulletin board devoted to V!TDA
• Freedom Trade Alliance – A Yahoo! Group with strategies and FAQs

Well, good luck, and happy hunting!

Jimmy Cauty of KLF and Scourge of the Earth fame is back with a new DIY EP. His latest project is called Blacksmoke, a collaborative rock-industrial-unclassifiable project released by Crapola records. These guys also have some cool remixes and artwork, and will be having a showing this Christmas. Dr Stuey has more information about Jimmy Cauty and Blacksmoke on his web site, The Library of Mu.

The Kidd of Speed, Elena, does it again. The Serpent's Wall is a great photo tour of Kiev's fortifications. It is an interesting look in to the lifes of the Ukranian people, over the last several hundred years. You may remember Elena as the woman who took the controversial ride through Chernobyl. Some people have claimed that the ride was a fake, but it is an interesting journey nonetheless. (I personally have faith in Elena's story, and would like to point out that some of the photographs are from the collections of others.) If you are interested in the history of Eastern Europe, you may also find that page of interest.

I love some of the commentary on this site, as it serves to remind the reader how dangerous it would have been to say some of these things. "Eventually Red army won and cheerful days of communism began. They began with the robery of rich citizens and expelling them from the country… the Soviet epoch didn't left us many valuable things that would be worth digging for them. It left plenty of graves." (From page four of The Serpent's Wall.) All in all, it is a sobering look at the past, one that should remind us all of the tragedy that such fortifications are needed in the first place.

I have found a cool new game to occupy my time. It's called Vampires! The Dark Alleyway. It is a grid-based MMORPG where you are a vampire. You advance in the game by finding humans or other vampires, and sucking their blood. It is quite addictive. As you progress further in the game, you will collect coins, learn to use various facilities, and gain powers. The only real limitation on the game is the number of action points you get, which starts at fourty. Every move you make uses at least one action point, and these recharge at the rate of two per hour. Advanced players can overcome these limitations, but that takes quite a while.

I have been playing for several weeks now, and I have achieved the rank of Aspirant Elder. I have already accumulated an appreciable amount of coinage in the bank, and have even defeated a vampire hunter! Give it a try, and trust me, it's worse than Tetris™. Just a few minutes a day, and you're hooked.

I was checking the hardware sites, and noticed that AMD had released a new processor. There is a full review over on Hot Hardware. Hmmm… It sure would be nice to have one of these for my new computer. (I think what it really means for me is that prices on other AMD processors will drop.) I took two things from the review on HH. The first was that the Athlon 64 processor beats the pants off of the Pentium 4 (at least today). Secondly, getting a motherboard with the nForce chipset may be a bad idea. (I didn't want integrated graphics, anyway.)

Happy new year, everyone! For the new year, I'm planning on building a new computer and getting a high-speed connection to the Internet. How will I do that, you ask? Well, I've got something planned, but I don't want to disclose the details right now. (It is not a new job.) In preparation for the high-speed madness, I have been practicing my Quake 3 skills. Unfortunately, it seems as though everyone has moved on from the "scene". So perhaps I'll have to find some other multiplayer online Linux-compatible killfest to play occasionally…

For those of you wondering which digital camera to buy for your Linux computer, I have created a list of digital cameras supported under Linux, including the name of the software package and a URL where the software may be obtained. It is not yet complete, but I hope that it will help out many of you.

It's official, it's the year 2000, just one more year 'till the new millennium. To celebrate, I've got my official Year 2000 usenet posting!!! Yes sir, it's dated Sat, 1 Jan 2000 00:00:00 -0500. Here it is:
Path: newsfeed.slurp.net!alexdw
From: alexdw@locl.net (Alex LaHurreau)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.drwho
Subject: Re: Arthur C Clarke
References: <386cf279$1_2@news.calweb.com>
Reply-To: alexdw@locl.net
User-Agent: slrn/0.9.5.8 (ABACUS LINUX EDITION)
Lines: 26
Message-ID: <B9gb4.1518$S%2.8395@newsfeed.slurp.net>
Date: Sat, 1 Jan 2000 00:00:00 -0500
NNTP-Posting-Host: 207.87.201.207
X-Trace: newsfeed.slurp.net 946704097 207.87.201.207 (Fri, 31 Dec 1999 23:21:37 CDT)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 31 Dec 1999 23:21:37 CDT
Xref: newsfeed.slurp.net rec.arts.drwho:562387

--
AlexDW <alexdw@locl.net> -- KB9SYM -- DOCTOR WHO FOREVER
"Just look at all those noughts!"
        -- The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu
Visit The NEW Home of AlexDW at http://www.locl.net/homes/alexdw/

Yes, my New Year's posting is yet another part in my ongoing banter with Charles Daniels.  I'll bet you wish that you got the Y2K Usenet posting!