Gary 'scored a hat-trick for Sunderland AFC against Newca**le' Rowell, Gilles Peterson, Irvine Welsh, Zachary Swan, Clement & Le Frenais, Banksy, Peter Saville, Roy Ayers, Roy Keane and the fucker that nicked me Raleigh Ultra Burner in 1984.Oh, and everyone on that list down there...
Curtis Mayfield, The Knife, DJ Marky & XRS, Royksopp, A Tribe Called Quest, Joy Division, High Contrast, Sebastian Tellier, Justice, Bugz In The Attic, Worldwide, LCD Soundsystem, The Similou, J Dilla, Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, Soulwax, Mr Scruff, Erland Oye, Kraftwerk, New Order, Gil Scott-Heron, DJ Yoda, Shuggie Oatis, Mylo, Marlena Shaw, The Blue Room, Jacques Lu Cont, Craig Armstrong, Metro Area, LSK, Jamie Liddell, The Cinematic Orchestra, Nouvelle Vague, Osunlade, Roots Manuva, Four Tet, Minnie Riperton, Fat Freddy's Drop, The Avalanches, Grandmaster Flash, Etienne De Crecy, Horace Andy, Common, The Stone Roses, St Germain, Jose Gonzalez, M83, Kings Of Convenience, Annie Mac, Stevie Wonder, Koop, Lamb, Amp Fiddler, Caged Baby, Cut Copy, Chicken Lips, George Clinton, Lali Puna, London Elektricity, Telepopmusik, Nathan Fake, Roy Ayers, The Blue Nile, Flowered Up, 4 Hero, Annie, Matthew Herbert, 2 Banks of 4, Steely Dan, MC Solaar, Jazzanova, Rainer Truby, Devandra Banheart, Jurassic 5, David Holmes, Beth Orton, James Brown, Pendulum, and the theme tune from Mr Rossi.
And that's just today.
12 Angry Men, La Haine, Metropolis, Passport to Pimlico, Young Frankenstein, The Cannonball Run, Rear Window, The Cabinet of Dr Calagari, Shichinin no samurai, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Man in The White Suit, The Godfather, North by Northwest, The Lady Killers, Léon, Taxi Driver, Yojimbo, Psycho, The Maltese Falcon, The Shawshank Redemption, Blazing Saddles, Vivre Sa Vie, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Goodfellas, Vertigo, Holiday On The Buses, Amelie, It's a Wonderful Life, Nosferatu, Dog Day Afternoon, Trainspotting, Heat, Scarface, Duck Soup, Back to The Future, Ferris Bueller's Day Off - just off the top of my head...
Snowblind, Robert Sabbag...
'Now, here is how it works . . .' And Swan gave Canadian Jack the Duplicate Bag Switch. Like all of Swan's flim-flams, the Duplicate Bag Switch is designed not to protect the goods, but to protect the carrier. The goods are taken care of in the usual manner. The cocaine is packed in Madeira wood, chosen for its high specific gravity - a distinctive physical property of that wood which, after all is said and done, is nothing more than Nature's way of telling us: it is heavy. When a Madeira rolling pin or statue is hollowed out, it does not feel hollow. Neither does it feel suspiciously heavy when filled with cocaine. So whenever he could, Swan used Madeira. And he used Angel, who was more than a carpenter - Angel was an artist, and his work was flawless.So from the time it is packed, the coke is on its own, protected as well as it can be. There is no guarantee in the smuggler's handbook that everything that passes through Customs will not be opened (that is why Sicilians and Corsicans dealing in hundredweights of heroin go around Customs). The only thing that encourages or discourages a Customs man from cracking anything he finds - apart from the fundamental consideration of the time it requires - is the carrier. And if the carrier is not a consummate actor or actress (and often even that is not enough), then he or she is going to need propping up. Propping up a carrier can be done with coke, or it can be done with a foolproof smuggle. There are other ways, but the point is that if a carrier is propped up (confident, unafraid, i.e., not suspicious looking), the chances are that the Customs agent will not be any more curious than usual. Given the odds on the coke (and when you mule it, no matter where you put it, those odds conform to nothing more profound than the law of averages) and taking for granted that there's no way you can deny it's yours, man, if it's strapped to your back, then the Duplicate Bag Switch is the perfect scam.
The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
It took me a long time to learn where he came from. The little prince, who asked me so many questions, never seemed to hear the ones I asked him. It was from words dropped by chance that, little by little, everything was revealed to me.
The first time he saw my airplane, for instance (I shall not draw my airplane; that would be much too complicated for me), he asked me:
"What is that object?"
"That is not an object. It flies. It is an airplane. It is my airplane."
And I was proud to have him learn that I could fly.
He cried out, then: "What! You dropped down from the sky?"
"Yes," I answered, modestly.
"Oh! That is funny!"
And the little prince broke into a lovely peal of laughter, which irritated me very much. I like my misfortunes to be taken seriously.
Then he added:"So you, too, come from the sky! Which is your planet?"
At that moment I caught a gleam of light in the impenetrable mystery of his presence; and I demanded, abruptly: "Do you come from another planet?"
But he did not reply. He tossed his head gently, without taking his eyes from my plane:"It is true that on that you can't have come from very far away..."
And he sank into a reverie, which lasted a long time. Then, taking my sheep out of his pocket, he buried himself in the contemplation of his treasure.