I thought I’d just put this here in case anyone wanted a chat over the weekend, without disturbing the more serious threads.
General weekend natter thread
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Musings on the byways of popular culture
Blah, blah, blah
Ah … mid 80s Iggy – when he wasn’t very good, but scored his biggest hit by getting Real Wild One on the Crocodile Dundee II soundtrack.
Christopher Otcasek (son of Cars Ric Ocasek – with a differntly spelt surname) ha a version on the Pretty Woman soundtrack
Real Wild One is a great tune and a DJ staple in my mid 80s student years.
Still like it
Yes, it’s better than blah,blah,blah – but doesn’t work with the thread theme so much
The BBB album is basically David Bowie finally throwing everything at the wall to achieve his ambition of making Iggy into a real pop star. He did it. Or, rather, they did it.
Thus we had the Cock In My Pocket Hitmaker on the Roland Rat Show.
About the same time Iggy was simulating anal on a giant teddy bear on kids programme, Number 73. Don’t think Sandi Toksvig was impressed.
Well, it was no picnic for the teddy bear either
*ka-tish*
lulz, roflcopters and so forth
Rhubarb, Rhubarb, Rhubarb
Perfect afternoon fare for kids tanked up on Tizer after a hard morning dodging sausages on forks at Grange Hill comp.
Gossip, Gossip, Gossip
Produced by George Martin I’m sure.
… and written by the bloke (Jim?) that says “no, no no, no, yes” out of ‘Vicar of Dibley.’
He also wrote that 2 Unlimited hit, but I believe he had help.
My word that’s good. Bravo, Sir.
We’re going for a wander around a local National Trust property on Saturday.. Very civilised.
I’ll do some more yoga, which has worked veritable marvels on my typically uncared for and ignored commuter back over the past year or so. The rest of the time I’ll muck about with my Telecaster. I’ve recently learned a few Shadows numbers and have thrilled myself skinny with the fun of them. I should have done this decades ago.
Er, that’s it.
That’s plenty of good stuff for your body and soul
I think this is one of my favourite parts of the week – early Saturday morning and I’m the only one up. Toast and tea – and enough peace and quiet to finely craft my Afterword postings.
Of course – you’re living in the future, aren’t you. That must give you quite a perspective – being among the first to do anything in the world each and every day.
Yes indeed – the sun has been up for a couple of hours. I also like this time of day because while I have been asleep, there’s usually been some shit going down somewhere in the northern hemmo to catch up on.
The world that never sleeps. There’s always someone awake somewhere doing something. Often it’s night owls like me.
As it’s coming into autumn here, I guess you’re approaching spring?
Yes – it’s a lovely time of year. Here in NZ you can reasonably bank on some good weather for a few
months. As I get older I appreciate the summer more.
Beautiful spring day here too, slightly spoiled by a howling westerly which on past form will blow massive clouds of dust in from drought-stricken western QLD. Still, mustn’t grumble.
The mem has gone back to bed because she’s feeling crook. I’m sitting in the kitchen eating avocado on bagel and contemplating my second coffee (the first one was at 5:30.) Psyching myself up to see what BBC and Grauniad have to say about the overnight shitshow. As an occasional Man of Kent I’m alternately enraged, appalled and amused by the Kermit fiasco, and feeling glad I won’t be in Folkestone in January. Next on the agenda after coffee: trimming the beard. I’ll do it in the garden so the birds can line their nests with whiskers.
I’m laying the ground work to buy a new car (like I really need one right now?).
A few well placed complimentary words, a bit more help round the house, maybe some unwarranted pressies, should get Mrs D to agree.
(Probably not with a suggestion of a BMW M5 though)
Get a 535i instead
It’s Mrs F’s birthday, so instead of me watching the ACR binge fest tonight, we’ve listened to the 180g replacement copy of Alf I bought her. She lost her original at a party in Aberdeen c. 1985.
I think this song might be about a gentleman’s trouser sausage.
Yes I think it’s an Ivor Biggun cover.
I love Alf – it was my first proper LP. I got it for Christmas. I can still sing this pretty much verbatim
Her songs in Yazoo were under-appreciated. Without her, those Yazoo records would have been a bit weak.
Vince Clarke is a genius but he can’t carry it off by himself.
There’s a whole other thread in that last sentence, if you were so inclined..
LR is an incredibly rude song. “Warm injection” “Grow in my hand” etc.
This is the song I was thinking of. Moyet heard this and wrote Love Resurrection to complete the story.
or maybe this one
Already started. We took today off to go on a coach trip to Oxford, then found out yesterday that it was cancelled because there weren’t enough bookings to to make even the socially distanced seating worthwhile. Ho hum. We took the car to Epping instead and had lunch in a cafe and pottered around the charity shops (a couple of Led Zep CDs and a small plant pot in the shape of a frog, seeing as you ask.) Hope everyone else has as relaxing a time this weekend.
We have a new piano! An actual proper piano, not a digital one.
I’m going to try and spend some time on it this weekend. I’m not a proper piano player, just a chord basher really, but I’ve dug out some old music books and I’m (very slowly and humiliatingly) picking my way through some of the easier Satie and Debussy.
I really enjoy playing the piano. Our older daughter is learning violin and it’s so nice just accompanying her, even though it’s very simple single note pieces, the harmonies give so much pleasure.
I learned piano and guitar at school, but hated the pieces I was supposed to practice, so just did the theory instead – got grade 6, but couldn’t play for toffee. When I got older, and my wife wanted a piano, I revisited it – with the music I wanted to play. A really powerful incentive, as no matter how glaringly, the music pours out.
Good luck and have fun, Arthur!
I only ever got to grade 2. I’ve got a lot to learn!
Music theory counts for little against practice. It’s the pleasure you get out of it, not the number of notes you can play in a minute.
That idea is the reverse of prog rock.
If I could reverse prog rock, I would. (It would probably sound the same)
Nah….lazy reasoning….if anything, that idea is the reverse of guys like Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Eddie Van Halen, etc….even Prince has been known to produce the odd “million notes a minute” solo….
Regress Rock?
I can’t really play, just bluff a bit when I’m recording but I love it. Periodically I get the dots out and scowl at it for a week then abandon it. I did practice really hard for a few years but it was ages ago and I’m hopelessly inconsistent now. But you’l inspired me to have a go later today.
Just a little bit every day helps.
I’m trying to get my head around My Baby Just Cares For Me & Golden Brown – both of which sound beautiful on the piano. They have quite challenging finger positions for the chords played by the left hand, but in both cases it’s a sequence repeated through the song, so once you’ve got your hand to assume the position and the change between chords, you’ve achieved a lot. Similar to guitar playing, I’ve found.
Every time I go back to it, it becomes a bit more natural and a bit more enjoyable. Though the initial stages are tough and frustrating, it’s worth it when you break through.
At this time of year I ponder whether it is the done thing to dip my conkers in vinegar.
Don’t put them in the oven! I learned that the hard way.
Oof!
Sorry for being Late with this…
I watched a University Challenge on You Tube the other day. Impressive knowledge from all, as you’d expect. And then in the picture round there was. a photo of the Seinfeld cast. Silence. Eventually one of them gingerly ventures “…Seinfeld ?” God that made me feel old.
Would be like you recognizing the Phil Silvers Show (aka Bilko) with it never having been shown on mainstream TV much.
I really love Bilko , Doberman, Ritzig and the rest. Favourite comedy show of all time ( or maybe Fawlty Towers ).
Oh yeah, me too.
Bilko always seemed to be on in the middle of the night on BBC2 in the 80s. As there were only four channels, all of which shut down at about 12.30, this was relatively mainstream.
And, of course, went considerably more “mainstream” after Peter Gabriel wrote a song about him.
@gary
C’mon guys…give Gary his due!
Why?
Because…Bilko.
Ha!
Bilko literally played himself.
Was that the one on this week n which the Royal College of Music students got more and more embarrassed as they failed to answer ANY of the music questions correctly?
Good to see Only Connect back as well.
Yes – the music students were surprisingly light on their classical music knowledge.
I love Only Connect – almost completely unaffected by COVID as there is no audience and very little in the way of social interaction at the best of times.
Yes, and have you noticed Victoria’s rack?
About 15 years ago. As did the people* who decide who and what goes on television.
(*blokes)
Maybe this comment should be on the ‘Wot you never got’ thread, but I have never found Seinfeld funny at all.
Mind you, I don’t find a lot of comedy funny, as I think I’ve said on a previous thread. I have absolutely no sense of humour at all, do I?
My controversial opinion about Seinfeld is that the main, central character is the least funny one.
He’s the least capable actor, in fact he’s not an actor at all, I find him very funny though.
He did a very good thing by surrounding himself with very talented people. The show worked really well.
That’s not the controversial opinion you’d like to think, Mr. Celebration. That was the whole idea of the show. He underplays everything. Left the slapstick to Kramer, the neurotic New York Jew stuff to George, the sharp/ditzy stuff to Elaine. He was, self-admittedly, the straight man of the show. And that was his and Larry David’s idea.
Yes – fair play to him. I believe Larry David was gong to be George.
May be what is trotted out but he is hardly a traditional straight man because he is very funny. Of course the script helps, but he is literally playing a comedian!
He is literally playing a comedian, as you say, Dai! And it helps that he is very funny!
1. Between Two Ferns – The Movie is a right pile o’shite. Which is a shame cos the YouTube episodes were mostly good.
2. I wore socks today for the first time in months. I think beach weather is pretty much over for the year.
3. Stephen Fry’s a bit of a gloom-monger:
Socks are for softies.
Lucky to still have a (very minor) football match to go to tomorrow.
Went back to London this week to visit my mum, and to tell her next door neighbour, personally, quite how wonderful she and her family … especially her two teenage daughters … had been in helping my mother with her shopping/general welfare when I wasn’t around.
Nicely done. Gratitude expressed only adds to the sum of human kindness
N A T T E R J A C K ! !
That’s lovely. Toads in Amplexus.
Oh dear, my brain is stuck in three more from them mode.
What day do you put your bins out?
We have two types.
It is very confusing innit.
You’ve reminded me I need to get some more of those compostible bags for kitchen waste. Orange peel, tea leaves, earlobes, that kind of thing.
Shaving your head in the mirror is not nearly as easy as it looks. I thought I’d save a few quid on haircuts but the bonus is I’m saving a fortune on hoopy ear-rings..
Two types, you say? Here we have 11-14 – Green bins (compost), Blue bins (paper), Yellow bins (plastic), Black bins (what doesn’t go in the first 3), Sperrmull (seasonal collection of objects from the street too big to go in the bins), Deposit machines in supermarkets (for most glass bottles), Bottle banks (for other green, white and brown glass), Cardboard banks (for what won’t go in the Blue bins), Clothes banks (for old textiles), Battery bins (in Pharmacies), and Electric warehouse (for e-waste).
Every day is bin day in Germany!🇩🇪
Sperrmull. Surely a little known ‘kosmiche’ group of the 70s?
Sounds one for, um, ‘medical’ waste….
Same in Italy! With exactly the same colour schemes! I guess that unlike Great Britain, Italy and Germany are just not freedom loving countries.
In good old England we have the freedom to leave our rubbish anywhere we please. As you can see. Everywhere.
The worst if it is that it feels as if it’s always been this way, like it’s passed on from one generation to the next “it’s alright son. Just chuck yer McDonald’s rubbish outta the car window.”
Too true. When we came back from a family trip to Zurich it was the first thing that the kids noticed as we drove home from Luton Airport, “Rubbish everywhere compared to Switzerland.”
Switzerland really is crazy clean though. Big fines for littering, they also have to police it as there is a tax on garbage bags. Your garbage will only be picked up if it is in the correct bags, they cost about Sfr 2 each. If anybody uses the wrong bags they will rip them open and try and find evidence of who didn’t use the correct ones.
Stop it, you’re giving me the horn.
I “lived” in Switzerland for five years. I’ve done my time.
Deported for missing the ashtray, I suppose.
Were there any yellow ribbons ’round the old oak tree?
I’ve got a piper lined up for a surprise birthday for my Wife on Sunday. Her immune system is compromised so it’s a virtual zoom Birthday but the piper will be very much live below the front balcony.
There’s a Mrsbellows!?
She’s a kept woman.
Photo or it didn’t happen.
No problemo.
Crivvens. Even in Canada there’s no escape.
She’s got two heads.
Normal for certain parts of Canadadia.
Paul McCartney always plays Mull of Kintyre in Toronto, with a local pipe band accompanying him. Only other place he plays it is Scotland I believe.
That’s her sister and her son. If you had viewed the whole photo you would have seen mrsbellows (centre) who is in recovery from her second bout of cancer in as many years. Officially 60 today. Unofficially about 3 years old to a hundred depending on the day. Loves gnomes.
And a guid HB to her, regardless and on all fronts.
Yes indeed – happy birthday and all my best wishes to Mrs B…
She is Zaphod Beeblebrock.
Makes sense.
Things I learned this week
“Semolina Pilchard” in I Am The Walrus refers to Notman Pilcher, the Drug Squad officer who arrested John Lennon, George Harrison, Brian Jones, Mick Jagger, Keith Richard’s, and probably any other pop star fond of a smoke in the 60s
I doubt the veracity of that.
…whose book “Bent Coppers: The Story of The Man Who Arrested John Lennon, George Harrison and Brian Jones” is out next week. Looks like absolutely everyone who has a Beatle connection is writing a book.
This was covered in Craig Brown’s One Two Three Four (itself largely a collection of reminiscences from other sources, so presumably elsewhere too). As I recall most of the nonsense lyrics in I Am the Walrus is derived from Liverpool playground rhymes.
Norman Pilcher, you mean. Notman Pilcher is a character in a 25-minute Genesis song, where Peter Gabriel probably gets dressed up as a scrotum.
Why doesn’t glue work? It’s rubbish.
Have you tried poppers?
It will, just stick at it.
An’ I’ll tell you somethin’ else, an’ all – SuperGlue????? SuperPOO more like! Eh? EH?
Bostik ain’t bostin’!
What’s the application you’re having trouble with?
Preparation H
They were great on the OGWT, as I recall.
If you have to glue prep-aitch (as we call it in the trade) to your back bottom, I’d see a journalist.
What trade is that?
Odds’n’ ends, ins’n’outs, all of that.
This week I are mostly been listening to SAULT “Untitled (Rise)” and “Untitled (Black Is)” released this year, “Eddie Gale’s Ghetto Music” & “Black Rhythm Happening” both by Eddie Gale from the end of the ’60s, Joe Pass & Jimmy Rowles’ “Checkmate”, Stan Getz & Albert Dailey’s “Poetry”, Oscar Jerome’s “Breathe Deep” which is a 2020 release and the day-to-day sounds of my suburb. Today’s sound is the wind whistling a rather unhappy tune. The sun is out but the temperature has dropped. My car is running OK but is overdue for a service. I’m wary of expensive faults being found by my mechanic.
So am I. Sault are absolutely superb.
Ooh, handy reminder – I stuck the newest one in my queue but haven’t played it yet..
Saturday Supplement:
John Zorn is generally regarded as an incredibly prolific Difficult Listening artist.
Hundreds of albums over the years, one gets the impression he’d rather compose, arrange, conduct, produce and play his saxophone than sleep.
His Dreamers project, using his most trusted collaborators Marc Ribot, Jamie Saft, Kenny Wolleson, Trevor Dunn, Cyro Baptista and Joey Baron is an extremely listenable melodic delight, exquisitely played. Go on, give this a listen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0gXGwk27Zo
Spillane is enough for me, thank you.
I’m pottering in the music room and doing a bit of admin later. Fun fun fun.
Been to Chew Valley Lake on this lovely sunny morning, walked by the lakeshore and looked at birds in the distance, and then ate some chips watching the sun reflecting off the water. Good stuff.
Well it’s coming to the end of Saturday here in Singapore. Nothing too exciting so far this weekend, but to throw in something that’s maybe a little different to the majority on here, this evening we had our first Mooncake of the year,
And before you ask, Mooncake is not some psychedelic drug, it’s a traditional Chinese bakery product that’s eaten and given around the Mid Autumn festival (I.e. this time of year). In its traditional form it’s Lotus Paste with usually salted egg in a pastry, but modern variants have a softer (snowskin) outer layer with all kinds of funky flavours (including champagne, chocolate, various fruits….), Most of the top hotels do a version and they are given as corporate / family gifts (in usually fancy boxes). They are very very sweet, so a one eight wedge is usually enough.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mooncake
Popular in Siam, too. My wife makes these.
While the tabloids were all fawning over Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston appearing together in the recent table reading of Fast Times At Ridgemount High, it was Shia LeBeouf who made it worth watching.
Everyone else read this like a normal table reading and were really boring. Shia LaBeouf smoked joints and got genuinely stoned, went completely off script and got seriously into the acting. Totally stole the show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EICmRiAAcZU
Yup. The others were loving themselves.
I bumped into Chas at a Spurs game ..we had a long chat about this and that – HHF, Geno W, working with Jerry lee Lewis on the All Stars thing, and plenty of Spurs – related stuff….As we went back to our respective seats I asked him whether they had been asked to take a role in the London Olympics..where they were notable by their absence ……He said no and that it was a “proper kick in the Niagaras. “
Wait. You went to watch Spurs this weekend! How did you get in?
Erm this was a few years ago now.. I’m not sure that Chas gets along to too many games these days..
Offspring the younger spent 15 minutes on the pitch, his metatarsals made contact with the bottom of someone else’s boots, up came a plumb-sized lump, he hopped back to the car and we went straight to a 3-hour wait in A&E for an X-ray. It’s now a multi-coloured grapefruit, but no fracture.
My RSD was, as mentioned elsewhere, a bit of a flop.
On Sunday I got up early to drive to my mum’s (and probably got a speeding ticket en route from a hidden camera – my own fault, I know), moved piles of junk from her garage to a shed and a greenhouse. She needs to get a mini-digger through the garage ‘cos she has no side gate.
Came home, mowed the lawn and did housework while my two teens (one with a comedy swollen foot, and one in a sulk) sat on their backsides.
Dull, you say? Yep, even I found that dull.
High functioning sandwich generation on display – impressive stuff!