Pynchon

1. Kevin Callow came up to me asking if I knew who recorded a song called "Denis". Of course it was Blondie, who had a hit in the UK with that song in February 1978. (I remember them making their "Top Of The Pops" debut performing that song. The boys were in black suits and skinny ties, Debbie was in a pink swimsuit. Clem Burke spun his drumsticks in his fingers, threw the drumsticks in the air, caught them and didn't miss the beat! They looked and sounded fantasic.) "Denis" was originally recorded under the name "Denise" by a band called Randy and the Rainbows. I have heard that version. It is kind of a doowop track, but it is a good.
   I asked Kevin why he wanted to know who recorded "Denis". He said that he wanted to buy it for his latest lady. Her name is Denise. (I like that name.) Kevin wants to impress her. Then somebody else told me that Kevin has told this lady that he is a senior sales manager at the Company (he isn't) which explains why recently he has been wearing a suit to work. I asked Kevin if he liked this girl. He does. I asked Kevin if he intended to keep seeing her, or if she was just another fuck buddy. He does intend to keep seeing her. I then asked Kevin what he thought would happen once she found out that he was just an analyst working in a call centre and not the senior sales manager. He said that she wouldn't find out.
   Really?
   Kevin is 26 years old. Basically, old enough to know better.
2. My friend Bill Broad told me that the great silent film comedian Harold Lloyd lost two fingers of his right hand in 1919 when a supposedly-fake prop bomb went off in his hand. He always wore gloves after that containing two prosphetic fingers. (I think that is an incredible story. If you have ever seen him perform you will know what an absolutely amazing stunt performer he was.)
3. Bill Broad also told me that according to IMDB Stan Laurel appeared in 186 different films, Oliver Hardy 413 films. (Bill Broad knows his silent films.)
4. I got into a discussion with James Cunt about the redundancies. He claimed that they did not occur to save money. They had been planned. Oh, yes? Yes. 18 months ago a decision had been made to big up an Indian development centre and to reduce the development staff in the UK by natural attrition. 18 months ago. Oh, yes. This was about the time that the MD made a speech in which he said that "The Company has no plans to move Development to India". I reminded James Cunt of that. He claimed not to remember it. Then I asked him if there are any plans to move the Support section to India. He said that there were no such plans.
   One of the Team Leaders left the UK yesterday. She has moved to India. Nobody knows exactly what her role is going to be.

Last night Lorraine went to bed at 8:30pm. She was really tired. She has been getting up at 4:50am all week to get into work two hours early. I have more or less given up on the thought of us watching anything in the evenings.

So, Moon the Cat and I watched "Spartan" (I know I watched it about a week ago, but it was on Sky Movies and I really love that film) and then we watched a really brilliant Australian film called "Somersault" which won a shitload of awards at the AFI awards in 2004. It's melancholy, beautiful and touching. Just wonderful. One of the best films I saw last year, which I somehow managed to leave off my top 10 pick of the year. I am a twat.

After that I messed around with my MP3 player on random and got caught short by the REM song "Country Feedback". When I saw REM at Milton Keynes in 1995 on the Monster tour, they played "Country Feedback" as one of the encores. I have always loved that song and it always catches me out. By the time they had finished playing the song, tears were streaming down my face. I had to wipe them away. I think it's the line that Michael Stipe sings over and over again - "Crazy what you could have had". Yes. Crazy what you could have had, if you had tried harder, or knew different people or had had a bit more luck.

It's Lorraine's birthday today. She is happy and bouncing around the house. I am very determined not to spoil her birthday for her, but I feel very unhappy about a lot of things.

I think I have finally had enough of Winter. I want to take my sweatshirts off and feel the sun.

I have got to go. We are going into town so that I can buy her some bling. Then we are going to see "V For Vendetta" at the Electric Cinema, and then a meal at a nice restaurant, still to be decided.

# posted by Pynchon @ 11:14 am