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blogonblogoff - side b

'everything is nothing if you've got no one'

Tuesday, March 23, 2004

A clarifying notice
One thing before people say I am condeming Chinese takeaways for there use of E102, E110 and E621. It's not their fault that it's what westerners want, okay! Also I'm not saying everyone uses these substances but a hell of a lot do, right! Anyway go have a curry, lager and a sunset yellow chaser if Chinese is not your cup of tea.

Posted by Edward @ 04:08 PM GMT
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Colour me bad it's a salty taste
I've had an interest in food colouring and flavouring since when I was small helping out in my parents takeaway shop, it was when I was age single figures too. Anyway the two things that have stuck with me since those days are the food colourings Sunset Yellow E110, Tartrazine E102 and flavouring MSG or E621 for those of you collecting these E numbers. Colour makes things look appealing and MSG well gives things a salty taste that don't have any taste, or can be used to mask other tastes. I've long known that have any large amounts of any of these substances can cause yourself harm. I remember my chemistry teacher saying that studies on E102 have shown that some kids go green from having too much of it. I'm not sure whether that is true but I sure wasn't going to have no yellow stuff in my food. They used to use sunset yellow in Sunny Delight but the kids didn't go green there, only yellow. Anyway my parents don't own a takeaway anymore so I don't need to mix yellow food colouring to go into sweet and sour sauce, curry or even eggs. Now don't say I didn't warn you about this stuff. If only people didn't judge food from the way it looked then it wouldn't be a problem. People go, so you have sweet and sour sauce that's not bright red? Yes you eat it not paint pictures with it!

The other thing I knew was that too much MSG makes you really thirsty and your hair to fall out (well this might be a myth but I did read something about it some year ago). Probably the main reason of my receeding hairline is having too much MSG laced seasoning with my noodles, plus crisps as a kid. Next time you go to a Chinese resturant you can be sure that nearly every single savoury dish will have a touch of MSG. I've been trying to find some decent Chinese food places that don't use MSG and so far they reside in Tucson Arizona, my parents cooking and my own cooking. I still eat crisps though.

The reason I raise this artificial flavour and colouring issue is that food chiefs have said that the food colouring some curries are so high they are linked to hyperactivity, asthma, and even cancer. Blimey that's really serious. Food colouring in Curry. Anyway I still eat curry even though I know of the colouring issue but only selective ones.

Oh and my favourite band the BMX Bandits wrote a song call E102 about people being artificial.

Posted by Edward @ 04:03 PM GMT
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Tuesday, March 16, 2004
Listen to the guy work
It's looking more and more likely that this blog is going to join the thousands of other blogs that have died through author neglect. Being busy is one thing and running around like a headless chicken trying to get all my things done at once isn't remotely the best way of keeping occupied. Guess the my record label has taken a huge back seat while I sort out my voluntary projects.

A brief trip up to Glasgow has been the only decent break from a computer for weeks. Glasgow as ever stays as one my favourite cities. Great selection for food, drinking, watching films, good galleries, record shops and all within a decent radius of the city centre and it also seems like some reasonable opening hours too. Of course there are the downsides to this especially if you walk up Sauchiehall Street at the weekend. Anyway caught Duglas Stewart and the Pearlfishers up there, saw 21 Grams (very good second film from the Amorés Perros director) and generally was able to wind down a bit.

Enough of that it's back to work again for me. I'll catch you in a few weeks time if I haven't got RSI from having a mouse bonded to my right hand by then.

Just before I go, music wise listen to these and you won't go far wrong, well you can depending on what mood you are in.


  • Bobby Conn and the Glass Gypies - Homeland LP - give these guys an award

  • Electrelane - The Power Out LP

  • Rough Trade Shops Country 1 Compliation

  • Future Pilot AKA - Salute Your Soul LP

  • Maher Shalal Hash Baz - Blues Du Jour LP

  • Ellis Island Sound - S/T LP

  • Joy Zipper - American Whip LP - This is excellent

  • Andrew Hodson - Map Music LP

  • Squarepusher back catalogue

  • Tove Sigurdsson - I Love The Work Of.. LP

  • Talcum Soul Compilations

  • Bonny Prince Billy - Master And Everyone LP

  • Ennio Morricone soundtracks

  • Lambchop - Aw C'mon/No You C'mon

  • WFMU Fundraising marathon shows

  • The Volumes Compilation

  • The Pernice Brothers - All their LP's (Recent gig in Manchester was brilliant)

  • Death Cab For Cutie - Transalanticism

  • A load of free yes that free albums on a label by Otis Fodder called Comfort Stand. Some truely excellent stuff here, for people who like their stuff raw, none commercialised, real, quirky, different and above all fun. Find yourself a niche here

  • Plus tens of other things

Yep work hard but also listen to a load of music too.

Posted by Edward @ 11:27 AM GMT
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Tuesday, March 2, 2004
You'll be a legend in your time
Blimey I'm knackered from working on my paid and voluntary work. Spending a whole weekend working on a website when you work on websites the rest of the week can be a bit of development overkill and really turn you off it. At least this coming weekend I will be having a little break in Glasgow so no way will I be laying a finger on a keyboard unless something really insane happens and I need to access the Internet. My record label is so behind I need to kick start it again when I come back.

Anyway finally found out what the soundtrack to the VW Golf commercial is, my friend did a Shazam on it and it cam back with an untitled track by LFO/Aphex Twin. Now that was fine but didn't really help as I thought it might be a white label thing but I just heard it in my iTunes player where I have it as a remix called Simon From Sidney/Untitled. I thought I had heard it before. My memory is terrible but then again work PC has 6 days work of continuous music on it so that's a lot of listening.

Posted by Edward @ 06:54 PM GMT
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