Rat's blog: Street Crime Archives

William Gibson "Spook Country" signing and "Secure Beneath The Watchful Eyes" poster

By The Reverend Rat on August 31, 2007 9:00 PM | 4 Comments

Hi to all of you,

I was tipped off (thanks Mark) that William Gibson, author of "Neuromancer", "Count Zero", "Mona Lisa Overdrive", "The Difference Engine" (with Bruce Stirling), "Virtual Light", "Idoru", "All Tomorrow's Parties", and "Pattern Recognition", was going to be signing copies of his latest book "Spook Country".

A couple of years ago armed with my trusty security bit screwdriver I managed to obtain a London transport CCTV poster.

It turns out that William Gibson had put on his blog that he was after the very same poster. So...I went to the book signing with my poster and traded it for a hardback copy of his book which he then wrote a dedication in it to me :-)

The dedication says:

To Reverend Rat with extreme gratitude for his generosity and security tool!
W M. Gibson
29 Aug '07
London

That's it for now, thanks for dropping in, speak to you all soon.
Yours
The Reverend Rat +:-)

More pictures from the Forbidden Planet book signing event on Wednesday 29th August 2007:

Continue reading William Gibson "Spook Country" signing and "Secure Beneath The Watchful Eyes" poster.

Floods and FIRESTARTER!

By on behalf of The Reverend Rat on August 21, 2007 7:32 PM

We got a bit flooded in Hammersmith with all the rain, I am going to let the photos show the story.

- note the car with the lights still on under water

This is the headline in all the local Gazettes.newspapers: Ealing & Acton Gazette, Fulham Gazette, Greenford & Northolt Gazette, Southall Gazette, Hammersmith & Shepherds Bush Gazette.

FIRESTARTER Arsonist's high street rampage.

I was on my way to the Doctors when, I noticed that the door of Barclays Bank was cracked with smoke damage to the night deposit box. And then I saw Lloyds and Halifax had been attacked with the front of Lloyds burnt out and that was before I noticed a dark stain on the two ramps into the Police station all cordoned off, I could see that the tarmac had dissolved a little and the area ponged of petrol.

I took a few photos and rang a contact I have at the Gazette, no-one there knew anything about it and sent their Head Photographer to see my photos.

(Hammersmith Police Station)

(Barclays Bank)

The guy said he expected to see crap pictures i.e. mobile phone or shaky out of focus ect, pictures that don't meet the standard for printing. Mine he said were the best he had seen and used one on the front page :-)
also he said that my flood pictures would have been used if I had contacted them.
If I get four more published I can get my N.U.J. card.