Free time killed the Internet star

Have been worryingly absent from the airwaves for ten days which given my voluntarily unemployed status really isn't an excuse. I can only say that anyone with editor access (which is only two people!) will be able to see a whole posse of posts lined up but in progress. I hope to return with possibly six or seven entries for your delectation then. In the meantime, keep it real!

"Van Patten" to take over giroscope

Hello kids,

Really sorry for the lack of posts these last couple of months... I've just been ridiculously busy with mainly work, and also making daft comments under the name 'HalBerstram' on Comment is Free at the Guardian website. Sadly, any reference to how crap Julian Glover is gets moderated out of the discussion almost immediately... Glover is very good at policing The Net.

But this lack of posting means that you readers are not getting the fine service you're accustomed to, and after 2 months of only about 1 post a week, I've decided drastic action will have to be taken.

My #1 commenter on the blog these past 4 and a half years has been the vocal right wing critic of Pyongyang, Ken Livingstone, Tony Blair, and Jerry Doyle's performance as Mr Garibaldi on Babylon 5, who posts as "Van Patten". Via private messaging I have tracked this right-wing iconoclast down and he has very kindly volunteered to take over posts for the next six months or so while I get my affairs in order.

So, many thanks Mr Van: readers can look forward to intelligent promotion of the case for withdrawal from the EU, the "draw your own Kim Jong-Il" portrait competition, and steadfast discussion of the merits of different Star Trek franchise stars. (My money was always on Brent Spiner, aka Mr Data, as the greatest ever). Sometimes a change is as good as a rest.

From ho ho to uh-oh.

Signing off (for the moment),

Hal

OK... Plan B

On second thoughts, I've decided the music scene is not interesting enough - in itself - to carry giroscope forward. I'd like to be able to say that it's this decision that explains why no post since 24 Oct, but actually it's because I'm damn lazy. That's right, I'm bone idle. Sorry about that.

But a compromise has been reached. giroscope - that which you all know and love - will continue as that unique blend of politics, comedy and Herb Alpert's mariachi trumpet sound that has captivated audiences since 1962 or thereabouts. I'm pleased to announce the imminent return of Seth B Ramal as political correspondent. Barney Ruddle is still out there on the farm cider, but on the off chance that he is sober enough to type, expect further occasional contributions. Hal Berstram has been downgraded to the status of 'typesetting automaton' after failing to come up with anything vaguely coherent during his sole tenure. As they said in both Aliens and Billericay, 'you had your chance, Gorman'.

Extra writers always welcome. I've been trying to entice 'Van Patten' to have a go in a PJ O'Rourke / Pat Buchanan 'alternative viewpoint' style but Van is having problems getting an internet connection that'll actually let him log on. The free market, eh?

Meanwhile a brand new 'brother blog' will detail the musical adventures, opinions and idiocies of a good musician friend of ours known to the masses as 'Brother Typewriter', currently residing in the where-is-the-next-song coming from file at the Burning Lodge. That will be set up late November/early December (even sooner if I pull my finger out). Watch these spaces.

best,
S. B. R.