I recommend this.

Only 2 full episodes in so far. He passes on advice to questions listeners think he might be able to help with. How to choose a nice white shirt. How not to procrastinate. Should I go to a party if I hate chit-chat.

Etc.

The advice so far has been both excellent and laconic.

Public Service Announcement – one of the funniest movies ever made is currently available on BBC iplayer until 24th August.

‘What’s Up, Doc’ starring Barbra Streisand, Ryan O’Neill and, crucially, Madeleine Kahn and Kenneth Mars. As wonderful as Streisand is in this these latter two steal every scene.

A Peter Bogdanovich homage to the Cary Grant comedies of the 40’s set in a beautiful 1974 San Francisco

‘Yes, Eunice’

Some whimsy. I’ve been doom-scrolllng more than usual this past week. The colossal prick at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has sent the world into yet another spiral of worry and confusion, but today was very pleasant. Because of two very small things that made me beam.

Earlier this week I heard Gordon Lightfoot’s ‘Sundown’. It may have been attached to a social media post by @Niallb, I think. Anyway, I hadn’t heard it since Lightfoot’s death and realised I’d like to learn to play it. A quick look at YouTube and up he popped, strumming away at a live show. Capo at the second fret and copy the chords. Quite easy really. Within a few minutes Gordon and I were duetting if he but knew it.

So, a wonderful song I’ve always liked learnt in moments. A small thing that made me beam today.

To cap it all my daughter came home this afternoon with a custard tart in a bag. All for her Dad. Beam 2.

Any small things you’ve done, or had done to you today, that have helped lighten the load?

What’s the current consensus of the Afterwordingentsia on the Kamala Harris campaign’s vertical take off?

The trajectory and euphoria can’t last – nothing does especially in the news cycle driven by competing news channels and the competition for clicks. Harris and Walz have the advantage of coherent thought and speech patterns as well as a modicum of decency.

Will that maintain and prevail? Trump flails and spews in response. But he always did even when he was 9 years younger and he still fluked a win.

He should have been jailed at some point during 2021. He wasn’t. He’s still out there and will be up until November 5th whatever Judge Merchan hands down in September.

Can Harris really end him?

Aldridge Prior, the Hopeless Liar is, as most in the U.K probably know, a Viz comic character. A hapless loser and blatantly obvious liar.

Very much like DJ Trump who is currently only an alleged liar. Still, he’s a decent doppelgänger.

Following his indictment on Espionage Act breaches on classified document retention and the release of a taped conversation where he appears, allegedly, to be committing offences, I’ve been intrigued by the fallout.

His subsequent media appearances have been both painful and laughable. Paper thin excuses and obfuscations abound as he looks desperate,angry and totally beyond his intellectual capacity to manage.

There is a strong likelihood he may be convicted at trial. If he is, will the judge be duty and law bound to jail him? Will he actually be detained after sentencing? Do any far more capable legal minds here have an opinion on an outcome?

This is interesting. A breakdown of the actual events and actions that would occur if Trump is in fact indicted by the New York DA regarding the Stormy Daniels case.

It hasn’t happened, and it may never. What do I know?

This is cathartic viewing nonetheless.

Testimony from the WH Chief of Staff’s Aide Cassidy Hutchinson describes a man allegedly fully aware of an attempt to overthrow a legal election and actively encouraging his supporters to aid that.

He allegedly knew Mike Pence had no intention of rejecting the official elector tallies and Trump was aware that his supporters on January 6th were armed and ready to act. He seemed, allegedly, determined to be there with them at the Capitol to lead them.

Something legally serious might now actually happen to him.

Will he flee the country? Or attempt some sort of pretext to reside elsewhere? I think he might.

I’ve lost focus on this. Can anyone summarise the current status and suggest when a full version may become widely available please?

The Only Serving Prime Minister Ever Interviewed Under Police Caution is still shiftily bumbling and smirking about with the front door key to No 10 in his ill-fitting suit pocket.

Thanks in a.

Piggybacking off hedgepig’s Shoes thread I thought I’d kick off another on a sartorial accessory.

Your watch. What, if anything, is strapped to your wrist?

It’s a very recent interest of mine that seems to have sprung up from the tedium of lockdown and home working. I’ve liked watches for quite a while, and my wife has periodically bought me interesting Swatch pieces. Those strikingly designed quartz watches aimed at a rather younger demographic than me at this stage in my so called life.

I’ve developed an interest in mechanical and automatic watches, those with non-quartz movements. The ones you have to wind up a tiny bundle of cogs, springs and escapements. It’s almost beguiling to me that these small and delicate arrangements actually keep time. Even though they did adequately for some hundreds of years before quartz accuracy arrived at the end of the ‘60s. Fascinating things.

I’ve bought a couple of automatics recently, a Seiko 5 and an Orient Ray II. The former a cheap dress/everyday and the latter a cheap Divers watch.

Wonderful things. At just over £100 each. I’d love a Tudor Black Bay, a Longines Hydro Conquest or a Hamilton Chronomatic but each » Continue Reading.

He waited 4 months for that?

What a state the man is. What precisely did he ask the barber to do and did the barber do it blindfold while suspended upside down from the ceiling on lengths of elastic?

Apparently from what I’ve read he deferred a trip to a beer garden to get a haircut as a mark of respect to the late Prince Philip. We can all imagine what the departed might say if he could see the respectful result.

Christ I am so sick of this smirking toffee nosed Ken Dodd act.

Watching The Milk Carton Kids Live from Columbus show recently I noted how they frequently stopped the entirely serious and worthy music to indulge in on stage wit.

Dry and daft stories which you find funny or you don’t but either way it’s a charming way to endear an audience to you even more. These guys seem to do it well.

See attached for details.

So, do any other acts do this sort of stuff currently? Do any of our heroes seem willing and able to racon their tuer for a few minutes between the hits?

Afterword favourite Robertson Davies’s Cornish Trilogy is, remarkably, available for kindle for £2.99 on Amazon U.K.

Search for the paperback to see the kindle offer price. Don’t be put off by the separate stand alone novels being offered at full price.

I’ve no idea if this is a short term deal or a permanent thing. I assume the former.

Pat Barker’s Regeneration Trilogy is available for the kindle from Amazon in the U.K. today only , 11th Sept, for £1.99

A rare showing on U.K. telly at 19:20 this evening on Talking Pictures TV (Freeview 81) of ‘The Rebel’. Starring Tony Hancock.

Worth seeing just for the exchanges with Irene Handl.

David Hepworth’s ‘A Fabulous Creation’ is 99p on the UK Amazon Kindle site for today only.

…every train from Kings Cross Station to Newcastle should pull away from the platform to the theme music to ‘Get Carter’

Really. It should.

Any more?

October’s Kindle Monthly Deal on Amazon in the UK features two books by Ian Kershaw:

– Rollercoaster: Europe 1950 to 2017. £1.99 – The End: Hitler’s Germany, 1944 – 45. £1.99

And Cornelius Ryan’s ‘A Bridge Too Far’. 0.99p

I think there’s a few ‘Vinyl Detectives’ floating around in there too.

‘Vietnam’ by Max Hastings is available in the Kindle version for 99p today only

Plus, 5 Bernard Cornwell novels, The Last Kingdom series, are also up for sale at 99p a go just for today.

For today only, Sunday 26th May, Amazon are offering 4 of Philip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther novels for 99p each.

The 2nd 3rd, 5th and 6th in the series.

Apparently, in another department here at work, there is a David Howie.

Does anyone know anyone else similarly one letter away from Fame?

Do you know a Milly Gibbons, a Neil Fung or a Mark F Smith?

Good Afternoon.

I was watching TOTP2 on BBC4 last night, and this was played. Then Jericho, ‘The Motive’

After about 2 minutes in I was still waiting for a tune to start. A refrain. A melody. Owt.

But no, just a series of varying pitches.

What’s the most tuneless piece of music you know?

A pal of mine is currently at the UFO gig at the O2 Academy in Newcastle, for their Last Orders tour. He’s just messaged me. ‘Lots of old memories, Kidda’

We were frequent attendees of such things at the City Hall through much of the ’80’s. I mentioned on the UFO gig review thread earlier the regular caravan of metal bands that passed by on frequent tours during those years. Even if a band I perhaps on the quiet thought was corny/actually a bit shit I enjoyed the vibe of the whole thing. The quick pint first, joining the crowd and getting in, being in the auditorium before the lights went down checking out the stage gear and smelling the electricity, the monumental noise and thud of the first number . All of it.

I’d always buy a tour programme though I was never entirely sure why. Thinking back, they were pointless. A selection of photos, some ads for Ludwig cymbals and Len Wright Trucking and a list of tour dates elsewhere in the UK you didn’t live. Yet I always bought one. Taken home on the bus and stuck under the bed. And, in my case, kept » Continue Reading.

Happy New Year everyone.

Roger Daltrey’s brand new autobiography, ‘Thanks a lot Mr Kibblewhite’, is part of the January Monthly Deal thing at £2.39.

Another one. All seven volumes of Spike Milligan’s WWII memoir trilogy are being knocked out for 99p each.

Ying tong iddle i po.