The world adores matt hayward

I bought this book to read on the plane to Croatia. It’s probably perfectly suited to flying reading, but unless your plane has been delayed 3 hours don’t bother!

May’s quirky style means each rant, or chapter, is no longer than 5 pages. While I find him hilarious on Top Gear, I only got about two giggles out of this book. What really irritated me was not the lack of consistency between topics, but the continuity. Some ramblings were written 2 years ago and others 2 days ago. So one minute he’s talking about a Top Gear episode in 2004 he mentions is soon to be airing, the next something that hasn’t aired yet. Surely a good editor could have smoothed out these bumps?

If you like short, witty ramblings, you may (no pun intended) enjoy it. If not, you may as well spend your $20 down the pub. At least you’ll get a drink out of your hard earned.

Seldom do cook books truly overwhelm, but I am in awe of this one. The Curry Bible is nothing short of brilliant. Not that it’s hard covered, or 800 pages (it’s probably 150 odd). It doesn’t need to be. If the house was burning down though, this would be the one cook book I’d take with me.

Chapman is an English lad (presumably half caste) with a great insight into the methods and traditions of the curry. He lists the top 20 curries of the UK, each with its own story of how it came to be. These stories are worth the price of admission alone. For example, one curry that was invented by irate curry shop owners when pissed, racist Pommies would come in asking for something extra hot.  Kind of like a curry shop owner’s revenge!

Each of the curries has variations too, e.g. restaurant style, or traditional, vegetarian, you name it.  Each recipe is also broken down into its elements and nothing is left out. For example, how to make ghee, garam masala, a good curry ‘gravy’ etc. So after a few recipes you can start making your own variations.

Also handy is the A-Z of spices scattered throughout the book. Again explaining the etymology and how to use them. Chapman has truly left no stone unturned.

You don’t have to be a great cook for this. But the results will make others think that you are. Look at any other curry recipe in isolation and you’ll feel overwhelmed. Chapman has succeeded in making a book that’s both enjoyable readable and simplifies the art of curry making. Brilliant stuff.

I read this while on holidays the other week. All I really knew about Bon beforehand was that he lived up to his reputation as a heavy drinking, hard rocker. While that is true, Bon had one of the most interesting lives of anyone you can care to imagine. This book is amazing!

This book calls on archived rock magazines and interviews with Scott’s wife, girlfriends, family and flings. Of course, there’s heaps of interview excerpts with roadies, friends but sadly very little first hand stuff from the band or their record label Alberts. Apparently the author suggests they run a very tight ship.

Unlike Lemmy’s bio, this book is written by the erudite and journalistically inclined Clinton Walker. He’s very successfully journalled Scott’s teens, in Fremantle, his family background, a brief stint in a correctional centre, right up to his formative years in bands the Valentines and Fraternity. The hard ships of these times in his life, and the depiction of the Australian music scene (in all states) in the late 60s/early 70s is vivid and enlightening to say the least!

It’s evident after reading this book that there was no accident in Bon Scott’s stardom. Scott gigged his arse off all over Australia and had been through the band ringer not once but 3 times. Scott was definitely the antipode of the Young brothers. He was experienced, sociable, well aversed and exuberant. Qualities that the very talented, and youthful Youngs, lacked. Especially Angus who was still in his teens when Bon was almost 30. The recalcitrant and apparently paranoid way in which the Youngs ran the band would ultimately ostracise Scott into a life of loniless and alcoholism on the road.

The events around Bon’s death are discussed objectively. Around that time, Bon had found all the trappings of success but still no life partner and was living a lonely existance. Suicide is implied in that he was drinking especially heavily before his death, but there’s nothing too conspiratorial here. But those who’d think he was a chauvenistic old rocker would be interested to see all the letters in this book he’d written to lovers. He also had a penchant for all things Japanese. He was far more gentle, according to Walker, than most would imagine.

This book is well worth a read just to remember how much cooler other people lives are than yours! There’s plenty of rock and roll stories, anecdotes and the plain the good, the bad and the ugly. I’m loathed to say that the Australian history aspect of the rock scene is in itself enough reason to buy the book. But the real reason is that whilst you may not have a Whole Lotta Rosie, your life’s definitely a lot easier to live than that of a soon-to-be iconklast rock starm waiting to be a millionaire. Yes, the whole book is worth it just for that. Bon lives. 5 out of 5!

Had a difficult decision to make the other day, whether to buy this book or ‘The Dirt’ about Motley Crue. Lemmy being the all-enduring, reptilian like god of rock that he is, I decided to go for this 300 page manifest on the big man or metal. Let’s face it, he makes Keith Richards look like a scared little mouse.

So anyway, as some of you will know, I am an awful reader. I ploughed through this in a week, or four sittings. 150 pages in the first night. That’s somewhat of a record for me. Yes the book is a ripping read, but it would’ve taken far longer had the book had any real depth to it. The first half talks about Lemmy’s upbrining and the early days of British rock in the 60s. We see Lemmy leave remote Wales, get a guitar, take up speed and basically become a roady and a professional drifter. But it seems fairly scattered. Infact, I think it’s so scattered because the poor sod doesn’t really remember half of it!

There are some classic rock star drink and drug stories and insights into other bands and rock stars, but there’s very little detail. Just "he’s OK" and "she’s a bitch" or whatever, again probably because old Lemm’ was stoned out of his gord the whole time. The last half of the book however, is more to do with the low lever, "we hired this manager, fired this producer etc" all the operational stuff to do with running a big Rock and Roll band. A little dissapointing in that regard in all honesty.

Lemmy also offers a few insights into his thoughts on sexuality, terrorism, his penchant for history and chauvenism, but nothing shocking. If anything, yes the boy is overtly macho, but he has actually gone quite far out of his way to aid the careers of prominent ladies of rock including Lita Ford and the band Girlschool. Overall, Lemmy comes across as a rock stars’ gentleman, and a very good one at that!

In short this book is a fast paced collection of vignettes, rather than extended focus on any one period of his career, band mate or personality. I wish it was 500 pages longer, but that just wouldn’t be Lemm’. This is the epitome of the man and a good read at that. Hopefully one day we’ll get the full story. Now for that 600 page Motley Crue book . . .
About 6.5 out of 10. Worth a look.
Buy White Line Fever at Amazon.com

Michael C Ruppert is like the Shaft of the consipiracy theory world. He’s a bloody legend. I got onto him because in 2002, someone gave me an MP3 of one of his lectures. He’s been doing lecture tours around the world since 2001 as well as maintaining the fromthewilderness.com web site. This book is in part, several extracts from that web site’s manifestos over the past 3 years.

Speculation is not his thing and he proudly starts a lecture proclaiming that the FBI or CIA have never formally denied any of his claims. If that wasn’t enough, he tells you that he’s an ex LAPD who was well on the way to making rank as detective. Early on he tells you how he was shot at by drug running CIA operatives who worked for Cheney’s Brown and Root in the late 70s.

What this book is specifically about is Peak Oil. Or more so, the fact that oil production peaked many, many years ago. Which puts us, the humans in a really fuck off bad place. Because, as he points out, oil just doesn’t power your car, it powers the powerpoints and makes the plastics that virtually everything is made from - or wrapped in. So with so little oil left (and the remaining oil being so bloody hard to get to. Very, very hard in fact).

Now, all we need is an evil tyrant to take control of what’s left and throttle it out. Oh, and wouldn’t it be helpful if we killed off a shit tin of people so there’d be more oil to go around? Bonzer! Enter George Bush’s Empire. Tyranising the world, through it’s oil fields and keeping it inline with terror.

Invariably, this will get typecast as a 911 book. But it doens’t talk about missiles hitting the Pentagon and other salient theories. What this book does is establish a case against the Bush Administration for having a LOT to gain from such attacks taking place. This includes, and is not limited to:

- getting to loot social security funds in the advent of an emergency (eg a terrorist attack)
- putting military bases where oil fields exist and/or pipelines are requried, so long as the oil field owners look like terrorists and evildoers. And who woulda thunk the oil fields all belong to ‘terrorists’! wow!
- advancing their own corporate profiteering interests (Halliburton, Carlyle Group, Brown and Root, all who have MASSIVE Department of Defense contracts).

From the get go, Ruppert spells out this book takes the approach of a detective preparing a court case and the final chapter takes the “ladies and gentleman of the jury. . .” tack. He himself has had an interesting life and met some ne’er do wells in the making of the book. It was written over about 2 years (2002-2004). So much so that the last chapters revisit what he’d written two years ago.

Perhaps the most provocative topic explored is that Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld were VERY much in control and directing the events that had happened on 911, Rummy in particular. Cheney had setup several war game excercises to distract and confuse NORAD and the armed forces that day. He also points out the high probability that the planes were actually remote controlled on the day and even identifies a company that could’ve supplied the technology to do so.

Let it be said, this book covers a LOT of ground and goes into a lot of extracts from his newsletter and at times can be very verbose. There’s sections on where the oil is now and what the US is doing to get it, the Patriot Act, the death of several world class microbioligists all working on germ warfare and vaccines, you name it. It can get quite overwhelming.

Ruppert puts forward a pretty compelling case in this 600 page manifesto. Whilst I question a lot of it, such as his claims about Promis software, quite a lot more is definitely plausible. One thing that really sticks out is that his theory about the Saudis in particular is that their plan is to scare them out of town, leaving their lucre in the bank. As Michael Moore points out in Farenheit 911, they own a huge chunk of the US ecomony, I think some 7%.

Anyway, back to the Shaft thing, Ruppert is very unpretentious and modest, though he makes some audacious claims. There’s a lot to take in here, and it may even be worth two reads, but you really feel up to date once you’ve read it. Almost enlightened. Well worth a read- in fact a must read.

By Ben Canaider and Greg Duncan Powell.

There are several good things you can do under the influence. But most of them are illegal. Still no one can stop you getting pissed in your own house and whipping together a slap up meal. It’s really good to see though that these two blokes have apparently made a career out of it - and good on ‘em.

As you can tell, this ain’t your regular cook book. It starts with a preface on the five points to select a good wine to match your meal. Also all 100 recipies have a suggested wine (or beer) to bring out the flavour of the food. Oh, and not forgetting the wine glossary and guide at the back of the book. So it’s not just under the influence, it’s influencial.

Unlike their metrosexual, cockney counterparts these boys keep it down to earth. They have substitute items for when pay day is too far away, but don’t hold back telling you when you need to get the really good French wine either. Recipies in the book range from cheats’ pizza (highly recommended), consisting of dodgy fridge items to very flash, posh Euro recipies these bogany types learnt whilst ‘working abroad darling’. But nothing you can’t cook with a stubby in one hand.

This really is more than a cookbook. It’s funnily written and you can learn a hell of a lot from it without having to change your whole wardrobe or get tips in your hair. These recipies are far more fun than Bill Granger ones. So if you wear pink shirts with the collar up, check out his books instead. Finally a good cook book for us salt of the earth, Aussie types with a taste for fine (and bad) things! I say buy it. Broaden your palette and still remain a bogan!

Published by Murdoch Books. ISBN 1740453700.