superstition is all we have left

the new iron of South Fork

2012-02-03T11:58:00.003+02:00

hi there

well, owing to circumstances that i would prefer not to go into, there was something of an urgent requirement for me to purchase a new iron (of the clothes ironing variety) for South Fork. i had no quarrel with engaging in meeting such a requirement, and thus off i duly went to invest in such an item.

behold, if you are of a disposition to be interested in such things, the new iron which shall soon take residence at the South Fork estate.

quite spiffing, isn't it? no? well, that's probably due to the limitations of my blueberry camera rather than a lack of quality in respect of the product itself. not that i am an expert in irons and that, really. i know a bit, but not that much. in all honesty, my criteria was "anything but a Samsung made one".

an added bonus for getting this iron for South Fork is that it marks certain anniversaries, i suppose. it is not the most imaginative birthday gift i could think of, but it is Mum's birthday soon. and it is probably rather close to the 50th anniversary of when Dad first heard bands like The Kinks or indeed The Beatles. The Stones too, even. an iron is probably not a natural symbol of such an anniversary being reached, but there it is.

a distinct added bonus of my trip to purchase the iron was that, in one of those let me get a t-shirt printed with "I WAS THERE" on it, the shop were busy unpacking some new items. toys to be specific. even more specific? Star Wars toys. oh yes. the rest of this shall seem somewhat predictable for many of you.

of all the ones they were unpacking, i noted that there were 3 (three) that the boys did not have any variants of at all. a sensible thing would have been to select just one or two of those for now. Star Wars toys, however, have a habit of selling out before you know it and are tricky to find again, so.......

well, just how many of the above would you have been prepared to leave on the shelf? exactly, thought so. Michele will not mind, in particular if i somehow manage to lose the receipt just now.

and that's just about the most exciting thing of late that i have to write of, really! sorry, just thought i would do an update so that any casual or regular reader would know that i am alive and well!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!

on the lash

2012-02-01T20:19:00.002+02:00

hi there

i was recently re-reading an edition of Mojo Magazine, the October 2007 edition to be specific, and was delighted to find a much cherished article once again. the article was on Ringo Starr. now, i wouldn't say that i am the biggest fan of Ringo in the world, but i am indeed a rather big fan of some of his play chums.

observe, if you will, this most excellent picture from the article.

that, for the uneducated, is Ringo in the presence of Harry Nilsson and Keith Moon, apparently heading out for a night on the lash. well, i say night - whatever they got up to after this picture was taken probably went on for a number of days.

we really do not have musical icons of this stature any more. either they are hellraisers (or sad cases) with no talent, or they have huge amounts of talent but tend to be a touch boring. Kasabian look like they could kick it, and of course there's always Liam. and Bobby Gillespe. and Bez. well, OK, there are a few, but they are of the "old guard". where, to quote a dear friend, in the blue blazes are we to find a trio of talent and mayhem like this in the modern music world?

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2012-01-31T13:28:00.002+02:00

hi there

blimey, this is turning out to be quite a rant day, is it not? sorry, shall do some nicer posts in the not too distant future!

the road is once again blocked as i look from my window at verk. no sooner had the truck from Goldfields Logistics moved than one from someone called Clifford's Transport takes over in ensuring that people cannot get onto the M1 or M2 highway in any direction. oh, those, by the way, happen to be "the busiest highways in Africa".

Clifford's Transport are not alone in their guilt here. someone called Midlands Meat decided to join in the party. i could not get a picture of that van as the Police have arrived, and it is my understanding that one should not take pictures of the Police engaged in any (presumably) legal activity or duty as a security measure. which is fair enough, especially as they seem to be shifting these trucks. if only it was a legal offence to block the roads in the way they do.

neither of the Companies listed here have anything on their web page that suggests they pride themselves in blocking off major highways. it would be nice, then, if they would refrain from doing this in the future.

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

third time lucky? dfk, dfc......

2012-01-31T12:53:00.004+02:00

hi there

some of the title above stands for don't know and don't care, i am pretty comfortable with the idea of letting you work out what the other letter might stand for.

the third edition of (sigh) Rolling Stone South Africa is apparently on the shelves. as it tends to get buried away in a corner, i.e. not on prominent display anywhere, here's what the cover looks like.

unless i get really bored and happen to be in one of the few stores actually bothering to stock this i think i will just give it a miss. the largely disappointing first edition just led to the very, very bad second edition, full as it was with info that was old or irrelevant and topped off with editing errors that should have seen someone fired. i just don't see the margin for it getting better.

the cover certainly does not tempt one. the cover stars are an Afrikaans band. good luck to them, but this is an English magazine. i seem to recall the first edition featured another Afrikaans band, Van Coke or something, whining about how they do not like English. fine, you are not obliged to, but maybe keep out of English language magazines, then. other than that, the cover seems to promise details about Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon. yay. as if this particular album had not been written about more than any other album in history, there's the small matter of this presumably pertaining to the (upteenth) reissue of this album, which happened in November last year. i guess, then that they are intent on this trend of only running articles and reviews for things which are 3 months old.

if you are interested, there's a mildly amusing article / press release
you can get to by clicking that link, in which they seem proud of them not doing what Rolling Stone magazine should be doing.

i have no idea why the actual, proper Rolling Stone magazine owners are happy to see this trash released in their name. is it that they are unaware, or that they do not care? what a shame that the magazine seems destined to fail when there is no reason for it to do so. i really wish we could get the proper magazine published here instead of this crap.

ho hum.

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

cheers for nothing, Goldfields Logistics

2012-01-31T12:45:00.002+02:00

Hi there

if you go past the Goldfields Logistics website you will see that they claim to be fast, easy and reliable.

the view from my window at verk suggests otherwise.

i have checked their site and nowhere can i see where it says that as a bonus they offer to block off the highway for thousands of people due to either incompetent drivers, overloading trucks or, if you're lucky, a combination of those two.

i am sick and tired of this happening, we seem to get a truck stuck at this point of the road at least once a week. i shall be doing my best, then, to name and shame those who block the road.

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Stone Roses march on

2012-01-31T09:18:00.003+02:00

Hi there

well, i can think of no good reason why anyone would look at my blog for information on gigs that The Stone Roses are doing when their official site does a rather good job of giving updates, but here you go.

the most recent dates added are off to the East of the world. The Fuji Rock Festival always sounds excellent, and that's where they will be on the weekend of July 27 - 29.

travel-wise, this one sounds quite handy for fans of the band in America and Australia, especially as no dates have been announced for either of those countries.

that same weekend sees the band lined up for the Jisan Valley Festival
in South Korea.

South Korea doesn't by sound immediately strike me as a place for rock festivals, but google away - the place looks beautiful and it sounds like the festivals have been excellent thus far. last year saw the Chemical Brothers and, most impressively, Suede headline. as Radiohead are at the Fuji festival, i wouldn't be surprised if they are announced for Jisan Valley too.

no dates seem to be about for south of the Equator as yet, with these two being the closest. perhaps they are just waiting for summer down here towards the end of the year. South America, Australia & New Zealand and South Africa shall just have to live in hope that a gig can be announced. oddly America is missing from their calendar too.

meanwhile, what of the new sound of the band? they have signed two record deals and commented that they were doing new material. some news, or even better a single release, would be excellent as we count down to the live return!

more news as and when i have it!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, Yeah! but.......oh, no.......

2012-01-30T10:59:00.004+02:00

hi there

those of you who are wise to the way of online videos and that may well have seen a ten second "teaser" clip for an advert that is scheduled to appear in the imminent "Super Bowl" thing that the Americans will be having.

erm, yeah, you read that right. sure, this Super Bowl business is always a big event for the adverts - "flagship" campaigns usually start during it, as it is the single most viewed / watched show on US TV. usually it's trailers for the big movies of the year that come along. but still, a teaser advert for an advert? how impressive must the advert be? well, in the case of this one, it all seemed to be very impressive indeed.

the trailer starts off with a man going to open the curtains in his bedroom. nothing too impressive there, until such time as the camera angle switches to the other side of the opened curtains. and then look at who it is.

yes, that's who you think it is. what happens next is Mr Broderick saying "how could i possibly work on a day like today", followed by a snippet of Oh, Yeah! by Yello.

i know you are or when you saw it were thinking what i am thinking. that would be they have done it. somehow, hopefully from a script left by the late, missed John Hughes, somehow they have gone and delivered the impossible dream; a sequel to Ferris Bueller's Day Off!

the whole thing looks and feels perfect. you cannot do anything but have a huge fanboy grin on your face, scream and shout "yes!" at the monitor or whatever device you saw this on and be thrilled at such news. the whole thing, all 10 seconds of it, is so pitch perfect that it cannot possibly be anything else but a much longed for sequel.

actually, as it happens, it could possibly be something else. the "word" on the net is that it's just an elaborate advert for this lot.

wow. talk about having a bubble burst and being deflated. i really, really hope Honda know what they are doing, building up hopes and excitement in the minds of millions of fans, only to reveal that all of this is just an advert for some sort of Japanese car.

i am expecting one of those celebrated, notorious "fan backlashes" to this one. good luck Honda, and indeed to Mr Broderick.

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

happiness is a jelly baby

2012-01-27T13:24:00.002+02:00

hi there

no, there's no deep rooted classical meaning or post-modernist slant to the title there, just a quality picture of William enjoying a jellybaby!

i shall probably be only doing more updates next week, so have a most excellent weekend! and, of course,

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the water boys

2012-01-26T12:05:00.002+02:00

hi there

well, collecting the boys from their schools is getting to be a lenghtier, somewhat demanding task to be honest. this is beyond the whole time and distance thing on our wonderful road system. William, as you can see, has discovered a new thing that is the most excellent thing ever in the world of most excellent things ever. this would be the idea of a water drinking fountain.

James obviously wanted to show William around his ace new "big school", and an important part of the tour once was where James can go and make water shoot up into the air. both of them, as is the case with most young chaps around the world, think this is simply excellent, and rush to have a go at it whenever the chance avails itself. or even if it doesn't.

i do my best to explain to them that they might be wasting water in messing around with them in the hope that they shall stop - James does rather like those "reduce, reuse, recycle" adverts on TV so i thought that might encourage him to stop. thus far, however, they have not shown any particular interest in stopping messing around with it. or should i say them.

the main point of appeal, it seems, is that there are two water fountains next to each other. all this is doing, outside of allowing two children to drink at once, is giving them the idea of a "mega spray", in which they will fire off both fountains at the same time. thus far they have not succeeded in doing it, but with some practice i am sure they will.

James at least does drink from the fountain whilst they are doing this; William not so much. he tries to, in fairness, but his attempts are via trying to catch the water with his hands, and then rubbing his hand all over his face and shirt! i have no doubt that he will get the hang of it, and indeed the height to do it, eventually!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

classic cinema : Year Of The Dragon

2012-01-26T10:13:00.009+02:00

The news at the moment seems to comment on the fact that, within the world of the Chinese culture, we are in the Year of the Dragon. When I hear those words I cannot do anything but think “insane Mickey Rourke film”. As the time seems appropriate, and as it may get it out of my system, what better time to write an article on this somewhat controversial film?

It is perhaps best to start right at the beginning of how this film came to be. That would, if you will, mean Michael Cimino. That name tends, amongst film fans, to conjure certain images so let’s tackle that first.

By the time of Year Of The Dragon, Michael Cimino was a director best described as “a brilliant talent but responsible for a qualified disaster”. The brilliant talent was there in his directorial debut, the celebrated and often homaged Thunderbolt & Lightfoot, and then impossible to miss in the masterpiece that was The Deer Hunter. Qualified disaster, alas, came in the form of Heaven’s Gate.

No, I am not going to give all that much time to Heaven’s Gate, for the internet is full of all the information you need. Let it be said, though, that whereas the film is nowhere near as bad as people have made out over the years (it is a rather decent film), the nature and tone of the film was never likely to be a huge Box Office success in the form the director wanted to release it and then had no chance at all in the heavily abridged version that the studio released.

All of the above added together meant that it was not until about half a decade later that Michael Cimino got to make another film, when legendary film producer Dino De Laurentiis approached him with the Year Of The Dragon project.

In regards of the actual making of the film, there are a couple of points to note before discussing the finished product. Casting the then young and hugely promising talent of Mickey Rourke in the lead role was an interesting move, considering his part was intended for a much older actor. Cimino was, however, determined that he was the right man for the part, and opted to hire him and simply age him with make up.

The other interesting point from production would be the fact that they recreated Chinatown and various suburbs of New York in North Carolina, this presumably being cheaper than getting permission to film in New York itself. Just how well they did this, going on a comment from Michael Cimino, is summed up by the fact that after seeing the movie Stanley Kubrick was convinced the whole thing was shot in New York itself, and found it incredible to learn that it was not. Who knows, it might be this aspect which encouraged and assisted him in recreating Parris Island and Vietnam in downtown London for Full Metal Jacket.

Moving on to the film itself, and the plot deals with the rise of Joey Tai (played by the impressive John Lone) as he seeks to fulfil his ambition to be the head of all Triad gangs operating in New York and beyond. Stanley White (the equally impressive Mickey Rourke) is the most decorated officer in the New York Police Department and he is determined to stop him, something powered by his return from Vietnam with only one thing, a hatred for all things Asian. Both are prepared to use whatever means necessary to get their aim in life, with no sacrifice of anyone else’s life too high a price, no level of violence considered excessive.

People who went to see the film were given this onscreen warning before the credits rolled :

This film does not intend to demean or to ignore the many positive features of Asian Americans and specifically Chinese American communities. Any similarity between the depiction in this film and any association, organization, individual or Chinatown that exists in real life is accidental.

This was done to appease the uproar from the Chinese community in general and the population of New York’s Chinatown in particular, who were fearful of the damage to trade and tourism with the world presented in the film. This did little to appease the critics, though, who derided the film as one of the most violent, sexist, misogynistic, racist and xenophobic films ever to be unleashed. This approach to the film somewhat missed the point, I think.

All of the allegations made by the critics are true, if we are honest. However, the intention of the film was to a certain extent to illustrate this. It did not try and show all Chinese citizens of New York (or anywhere else) as being in Triad gangs, just as it did not try and show that all NY police officers carried with them the prejudices which Stanley White does not hesitate to show off. It does, however, show off that such things exist. The characters would neither develop nor be plausible if they were not guilty of the things listed above and the film would have been ineffective and unwatchable if either of the two in conflict were really, really nice chaps.

It has been years since I read the Robert Daley book on which the film was based, but full credit to Oliver Stone for the screenplay he delivered to this extent. Despite some dialogue clangers, Stone built a gritty, murky world in words which unfolded superbly onscreen. Much as was the case with his celebrated screenplays for Midnight Express and Scarface, there was little point in making any of the films if he wasn’t able to present the reality, warts and all, of the world all of the films explored.

If the above makes me some sort of apologist for Cimino, Stone or the film entire itself then so be it. I just don’t get why when you know a film is about an exceptionally violent, ruthless criminal against an equally violent, prejudiced police officer one would be surprised when it turns out they are like that. As shocking and offensive as the behaviour in the film is, in particular Stanley White’s reaction to an assault on Ariane, an Asian reporter who seems to be making White warm to Asians, if you know what I mean, in the context of the characters and the film it all makes sense. If Cimino, Stone or anyone else was standing up and saying “how White and Tai behave in this film is the way the world should be” then I could understand the criticism. As it is, the film seeks to expose the good and the bad in both sides of the law, and in doing so exposes why the world we created is the way it is, for better or perhaps worse.

As far as the onscreen violence goes, well, the term “unprecedented” gets thrown about a bit too much, really. Yes the film is graphically violent, but as the intended audience was those who had seen things like, off the top of my head, Scarface, The French Connection or practially any Sam Peckinpah film, it was hardly pushing the boundaries. I suspect it just seemed a good deal worse and stronger due to the rather horrid and vile nature of pretty much every central character in the film, bar Ariane (Tracy Tzu) and Louis Bukowski (Ray Barry), the two people in the world who for reasons best known to themselves are trying to save Stanley White from total self destruction. It’s not a film you should ever consider sitting down and watching with the whole family, mind.

The four actors I have mentioned give superb performances, full worthy of more praise than they got at the time. What one has to remember is that for the most part the actors probably considered the characters they were playing as loathsome and repulsive as anyone who saw the film did. Add to this the intriguing story and the previously mentioned superbly crafted look of the film and you have something close to a masterpiece of a movie that’s been more or less neglected over the years.

The box office on release was dismal. The negative reviews did not help, and the word of mouth was “oh it’s the guy who made Heaven’s Gate so it must be bad”. Such things tended to be spoken by people who had not even seen Heaven’s Gate (few did) and overlook the fact that other than that film, Mr Cimino had given the world the two cinema classics mentioned previously. If directors were not allowed to make good films after making a poor one, how do you explain the fine films made by, say, Spielberg after Hook or even Scorsese after Bringing Out The Dead?

The aftermath of the film was pretty much to signal the end of the career of the director, and the start of something of a lull in the career of its star. Michael Cimino went on to make The Sicilian, with a low budget and little interest shown, and from then on barely appeared in the movie making world. Mickey Rourke seemed intent on taking roles that would court controversy, in particular in the brilliant but reviled Angel Heart and the average A Prayer For The Dying, a film widely seen as being Mickey Rourke openly proclaiming sympathy if not support for the IRA. I seem to recall that bastion of good taste, The Sun “newspaper”, running a picture of Rourke with an IRA Provo tattoo, something that contributed to sinking his career for a fair while.

So, is the film worth seeking out or revisiting? If you have the will and the disposition to witness a genuinely gritty, nothing spared presentation of the down and dirty of police vs gangs, absolutely. On top of being a damned good story, it’s a ruthless, brutal portrayal of cultural, institutional and personal prejudices, exposing where they can and cannot be broken. One gets the feeling that if practically anyone else had directed the film it would have been celebrated as a “hard masterpiece” and make articles like this obsolete.

A reminder, though – Year Of The Dragon is not a film to sit and watch with the family!

Be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

please consider supporting and donating

2012-01-26T08:20:00.002+02:00

Paul Collins, the brother-in-law of someone i consider a very good friend, is going to be running the London Marathon in April of this year. he's doing it in order to raise funds for Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research, and if you click on the link just there you can read the story as to why the family take every chance they can to raise funds for this.
quite frankly, if i were to attempt to even just drive the length of a marathon i would probably be out of breath, the mind boggles as to what would happen to me if i actually tried to run one. i suspect it might happen not long after starting it, though, and it probably wouldn't be pretty.
that last bit is all the more reason from my side, then, to give respect and thanks to Mr Paul Collins for making the sacrifice to go ahead and do this. i wish you all the luck in the world with the run itself, and i truly hope that you raise some much needed funds.

to everyone reading this, please note that no amount is too small, and certainly no amount is too big. when you click on the link to the donation page you will note you can hide the amount you are donating if you feel, despite what i have said, awkward about the amount you can spare. this really is a matter where every single penny helps and is appreciated.

on behalf of G Man, Paul Collins, their family and indeed myself, thank you for taking the time to read this and for considering supporting.

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the last great pop single....

2012-01-25T20:19:00.006+02:00

....was, or if you will currently is, Bodies by Robbie Williams. i've just listened to it again this evening and yes, nothing has personified nor dared all that is great about pop music since this was released over 2 years ago. more on how sad that is later, but i suppose i should give a "why" first.

some presumably unrequired history first, though. Robbie Williams was, of course, the "not as pretty or talented as the others" member of seminal 90s outfit Take That. Robbie didn't particularly care for this tag as you would expect, but that only came to the notice of the public one fine June afternoon at Glastonbury. presumably fed up of being the personification of a fifth wheel at a Take That recording or rehearsal session, Robbie headed off to Glastonbury, armed with a crate of champange libertaed from the record label.

his intention was, presumably, to sit and drink it all whilst catching some decent music. a certain Noel Gallagher clocked this pop star and his booze, and asked if he could help him neck it. sure was the response, as legend has it, on two conditions. Robbie would share the champers so long as he could join in the "Brit Pop" game of football backstage, and indeed if he could go on stage with Oasis later that day. done deal for Noel, Robbie got to do both and practically overnight went from anonymous boy bander to being really, really f****** cool.

material was required to back up being cool, though. it came eventually. the debut solo single, a cover of George Michael's Freedom 90, did well, but Old Before I Die and Lazy Days failed to inspire. the debut album, Life Thru A Lens, did sort of OK, in particular when people clocked one track - the one that would be the next single, Angels. it was this last song that saved Life Thru A Lens from a fast trip to sale bins and indeed changed Robbie from being a quasi-one hit wonder curiosity into being one of the biggest solo pop stars, financially and sales wise, in history.

hit album after hit single followed, any venue holding one of his concerts sold out in the time it just took you to read this, awards were thrown at him. he became guilty, then, of the very worst thing you can be for certain elements of the British press and society - a huge success. after a decade or so of huge success it was time, some decided, to try and knock him down.

this he duly gave all and sundry the means to do.

whereas it sold a few million (4.5 according to some), Rudebox did not sell mega millions, and did not feed his adoring public nice pop songs and a ballad as was expected. a mostly experimental piece made for the most part with the Pet Shop Boys, it bewildered many and left a few more rather cold. it was as brave and as bold a move from him as the one he took to walk or get fired from Take That, but did't quite lead to a new level of success.

i'm not going to sit here and write how Rudebox is wildly misunderstood and wrongly overlooked. in respect of artist indulgence it's not Metal Machine Music, but that doesn't mean it's a classic. it has a reasonable following of admirers, though, and it did contain one bona fide great song.

She's Madonna, by being in sound and appearance a traditional Robbie Williams song, is so out of step with the rest of the album that when it comes up on the album you can almost hear the executives at EMI begging him to rather go back and record more like it. lyrically, it was an astonishing peek into the world of celebrity. if you are unaware of it, in some stark detail it gives over the information about how Guy Richie and Madonna came to be an item, and the break up of Mr Richie's relationship on the spot - "I love you baby / but face it she's Madonna / no man on Earth / could say that he don't want her". legend persists that this is how the conversation actually went.

by the time it was released, however, interest in Robbie was on a downward road to say the least, and the single barely made Top 20. so off Mr William vanished, for nearly 2 years.

so, let's skip forward 2 years (give or take) and get to September 2009. beyond tabloid tales of Williams living in a tent in the Nevada Desert in the hopes of seeing a UFO, little interest or attention was paid to what he was up to in his day job. as it turned out, Robbie had been writing songs, recording and producing them with no less than celebrated producer Trevor Horn.

in an exceptionally rare case these days and in particular at that time, no leaks or advance copies of what Robbie had done had made it near the internet. when the first new single from Robbie Williams in over 2 years got its world premiere on stations around the world at 8am GMT very few people had heard even a note of it beforehand.

after it had been played, there were some horrified reactions, with many stations (the one i heard it on here in particular) scrambling to give apologies for the lyrical content. it's safe to say that Bodies made quite an impact on debut.

if for some reason you've not heard the song and read this far, now might be a good time to stop and have a listen. here's the link to the official video.

musically, it is all that you would have expected and hope that a Trevor Horn produced Robbie Williams song would be. it is impossible to avoid referencing Horn's greatest ever success as a producer, the celebrated 80s singles of Frankie Goes To Hollywood. musically the song carries with it a sense that this would not be at all out of place if it were released between Relax and Two Tribes back in 1984, and yet it does not sound like some nostalgia trip or "homage". it's a song very much of its time. this is for the most part due to the lyrics, which feature things that not even the boundary pushing Frankie would have got away with back then.

other than the "f bomb" dropped on radio stations around the world early in the song, most outrage and complaints came from the religious references. these come in right at the start :

God gave me the sunshine,
Then showed me my lifeline
I was told it was all mine,
Then I got laid on a ley line
What a day, what a day,
And your Jesus really died for me
Then Jesus really tried for me

wow. whatever he did actually do for two years away, reducing his famous and perhaps beloved ego wasn't on the agenda. i do think, however, there's a bit more going on here that Robbie's usual flippant mentioning of how rich and celebrated he is. it's hard not to see this as a comment on the relative ease with which certain people have attained "celebrity" status, their fame as disposable as their thoughts on how it came to be. taking that thinking even further, and one gets a sense that Robbie's commenting on the disposable nature of life itself these days.

Praying for the rapture,
‘Cause it's stranger getting stranger
And everything's contagious
It's the modern middle ages
All day every day
And if Jesus really died for me
Then Jesus really tried for me

calling for the Biblical end of days because of the bizarre, state of fear way of the world? that pay off line of "and if Jesus really died for me / Then Jesus really tried for me" is a work of genius. it's basically saying "well, the presumed best of us tried and failed, we have no hope". no hope, perhaps, but no reason just to carry on, as the chorus so brilliantly shows off :

All we've ever wanted
Is to look good naked
Hope that someone can take it
God save me rejection
From my reflection,
I want perfection

hiding behind a rudimentary rhyme scheme here is, for me, some of the best lyrics i have heard. the depth of what's going on with these words is staggering. this business of only wanting to look good naked - what's going on? a criticism of vanity? an open celebration of beauty? a scathing attack on the superficial nature of the world? and this whole "God save me rejection from my reflection" bit is sheer genius - not only is it witty, but placed in context of the "then Jesus really tried for me" theme then there's a suggestion of the narrator being oblivious to God doing his very best to save.

that Bodies works on so many different levels of interpretation is most impressive. i have no idea what or rather who the song is actually about. it could well be Robbie talking of himself, or presumably how he was, in a manner of honesty not seen since Dave Gahan begged his way through Depeche Mode's dark masterpiece Barrel Of A Gun/ equally, it could be him saying "well, this is how and who i am, deal with it". or it could be just a broad sideswipe at the world he lives in. the latter interpretation gets support from the album being called Reality Killed The Video Star.

the album title is commonly seen as a nod to producer Trevor Horn's greatest solo success, Video Killed The Radio Star. i think on top of that, though, it is the case that they just stopped him from calling it Reality Killed The Pop Star. that would have been a more honest name for it, really. the album sees Robbie return to the more "traditional" sound that the fans obviously wanted, but he's brought to it the sense and style of lyrics he explored in Rudebox. there's also a sense to it, though, that he's resigned to the fact that the world no longer has space of enduring, mega-sized pop stars.

the fact that Robbie William's 'comeback' single was kept off the top spot by the runner-up of some TV talent show tells you all of the sorry state that the music world has become. i am not saying that Robbie Williams or anyone else should automatically get to number one, but when a third rate band from a second rate talent show is outselling a genuine classic slice of pop by more than 2 to 1 you have to ask what's going on. as far as i can work out, mobile devices happened and "the kids" choose to rather download something catchy and all over TV to use as a ringtone instead of exploring and, more importantly, enjoying better (in my opinion) things.

Bodies, two or so years later, was clearly the last chance the industry has given to pop music being a decent force again. lavish production and promotion simply wasn't enough. sales did well, but not as well as Robbie had done before. of the pop music that has followed there has been one or two good moments - Lady Gaga, for instance, could be an all time great if she would only (a) stop stealing other songs and (b) in the case of something like Bad Romance, stop taking brilliant songs and ruining them by chanting "ga gaaaa oooh la la" over them again and again for no reason. Katy Perry is good too, although when you play all of her singles together you all of a sudden notice just how much experimentation and variety there was in Sigue Sigue Sputnik's Flaunt It album by comparison after all.

they say in 2011 pop records outsold rock records for the first time in a long while. yeah, ok, but you have to consider what they call a "pop" song these days. do they mean Moves Like Jagger, which just features some apparently gelded chap whining "I've got the moves like Jagger" over and over again? or do they mean I'm Sexy And I Know It, which just features someone sounding like the nerdy one out of Fresh Prince Of Bel Air channelling a homosexual variant of Barry White and chanting "i'm sexy and i know it" again and again? if so, then the definition of "pop" these days is "even more disposable than the last thing you flushed down the toilet".

Robbie Williams, and indeed Trevor Horn for that matter, aspired to do somewhat better with a humble pop record, trusting an audience to accept that "pop" had space for intelligence and interest. they reached their aspirations with Bodies, what a shame the audience for it had been denied proper, quality music for so long that they didn't know quite how to embrace it.

i kind of hope that i'm wrong with this and one day again the world at large accepts that music matters more than how it sounds as a ringtone or message alert.

thanks for reading.

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mouse Known Pleasures

2012-01-24T08:06:00.002+02:00

hi there

well, my first instinct when i saw this was to check the date. i might, for all i know or do not know, have slipped into a coma and been unaware of it, waking up on April 1. a check suggests, however, that it is indeed January 24, a date not usually associated with practical jokes.

so this t-shirt which combines the iconic images of Mickey Mouse and the band Joy Division is real, then.

erm, yeah. to semi-quote Nigel Tufnel and David St Hubbins, it's a fine little twist between clever and stupid. i am still trying to work out if this is one of the most excellent things ever made or one of the worst possible ideas that man has ever taken responsibility for. hats off to whoever came up with this, i for one will confess to never thinking of combining a Joy Division album cover with an imaginary mouse.

i kind of want one, but i also kind of want to wait and see what they do next. a Mickey Mouse altered version of Meat Is Murder or, even better, The Queen Is Dead by The Smiths?

if you are in a position in which you simply cannot wait to see what they do next and wish to own one of these shirts, this is the link you are looking for. happy shopping!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

for Jimmy Nail and Dennis Waterman enthusiasts.....

2012-01-23T21:43:00.002+02:00

hi there

well, as a thank you to all who frequently leave comments on my posts about Nasher's online gigs, here is a link to selections from his shows. happy viewing.

i'm not at all sure that i get the comparison to either Mr Ain't No Doubt Crocodile Shoes or Mr I Could Be So Good For You, but each to their own - as long as you dig the music get down on it.

for your further consideration here's a recent interview with the man too.

with some luck Nasher shall be doing a gig in the not too distant future. his autobiography is also due out later on this year. in which, presumably, some of you shall be expecting to hear him tell takes of being a Geordie brickie in Germany, as well of course as looking after a Cockney spiv down in the Winchester.

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

10 great movie music moments that have been overlooked, apparently...

2012-01-23T12:27:00.007+02:00

hey everyone

recently i had the chance to read and rather superb article from New York's celebrated Time Out magazine about the 50 Greatest Uses Of Songs In Movies. this sort of list is usually debatable at best, but they did a rather good job with it.

i would, however, nitpick with a few selections in their list, as you well might when you read it. i've selected ten other great music moments in movies for your consideration, some of which you may feel should be on that list instead of some of the ones chosen.

as Time Out appears not to have had any particular criteria except not to "cheat" and reference any musicals, i've followed path, using songs that are either specific to the film or were just used by the director to dazzling effect.

note that beyond this point *** SPOILER WARNINGS *** are applicable, but if you have not seen any of these films yet there is a very good chance that you had no intention of seeing them. if that's true, hope you change your mind after reading about one or two of them! here we go then, in no particular order.

TOP GUN
Playing With The Boys by Kenny Loggins

yes, indeed. if we are going to discuss music in movies, why not with a film that was basically one long advert for young Americans to join the armed forces, using music as a soundtrack just like any above-average or indeed superior ad would?
the piece of music i refer to here, of course, is the soundtrack to what is widely viewed as the single most uber-homoerotic scene in any film in the history of the movies. yes, the volleyball scene. young, tanned, semi-naked muscular men bonding, flexing their wares for the benefit of other men and themselves. the scene has no valid place or purpose in the film at all, apparently existing just to amuse Tony Scott. whereas his brother Ridley tends to slide towards subtle direction, Tony likes to see a film camera as a massive sledgehammer to ram home a message to the audience. sticking a song called Playing With The Boys on this scene was basically writing "this is a sledgehammer" on the hammer he was hitting people in the face with. genius.

THE BREAKFAST CLUB
Don't You Forget About Me by Simple Minds / Changes by David Bowie

a masterpiece of teenage angst cinema that has lived through the decades for all sorts of reasons. i imagine that kids these days warm to it because it shows how life was prior to iTwat and BlueBerry devices when one had detention - we kind of actually spoke directly to each other.
the film is bookended by Don't You Forget About Me to superb effect, but it's the use at the start of the film that gets it included here. nice as the bit at the end with Judd Nelson raising his fist is, before you ask. if memory serves, at the start you have an instrumental of it playing, and up onscreen comes a quote from David Bowie's Changes. this perfectly sets the tone for the next 100 minutes or so of your life, making all the more sense as the movie progresses. whoever set it up like this knew exactly what they were doing. what a shame Simple Minds turned their back on this song for so many years, really.

TERMINATOR 3
Macho Man by The Village People

there, you see, a film does not have to be an all time classic to have a great musical moment in it. Terminator 3 is nowhere near as bad as people who worshipped the smoke and mirrors covering bad plot Terminator 2 would have you believe, but by any standard it's at best an average film with the odd truly spectacular moment.
Schwarzenegger did little, if anything, to hide the fact that he had agreed to do the film purely for an absolutely obscene amount of money. just how little he cared for what went on in the film so long as hourly deliveries of cash in a massive truck perpetuated is in many respects highlighted by the scene where he parodies the "sunglasses" on moments from the first two films. this time around, Arnold stands and puts on a pair of pink, star-shaped glasses as this classic from the Village People plays. it somehow managed to avoid accusations of stereotyping and being homophobic, perhaps because it is a really, really funny scene.

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE
Singin' In The Rain by Gene Kelly / Malcolm McDowell

OK, perhaps it does beggar belief that in their list of 50 musical moments Time Out somehow managed to miss this one!
i am pretty much sure that i do not need to give much detail in regards of the first appearance of this song. apparently thought up and filmed by Stanley Kubrick and Malcolm McDowell on the spot, it remains one of the darkest most macabre moments in cinema history; succeeding as it does in making any normal view laugh out loud when one should be horrified. somewhat forgotten is how later in the film McDowell gives a second performance that is crucial to the plot, and let us not forget the sensational use of the original version of the song over the end credits.
Kubrick features rather a lot on the original 50 list, but with apologies to 2001 you kind of suspect that it was this use of music that he shall mostly be remembered for.

SHAMPOO
Manic Depression by Jimi Hendrix

the only reason i own this film on DVD is for the use of this song. whereas there are some rather funny moments (Ms Christie under the table, anyone?), overall the film was produced by someone with ego issues, highlighting these by making a film which showed off the abundantly sexually active Warren Beatty 'acting' as the abundantly sexually active Warren Beatty with the suggestion that he might cut hair. hidden beneath this layer of the film, though, is a better film only hinted at, touching the loneliness and shallow nature of the protagonists' "just sex nothing else" life.
this part hidden away comes to the fore in a party scene towards the end. in it, Beatty is torn between pursuing two women. you see him rushing backwards and forwards in a superb physical manifestation of his psychological confusion, with Manic Depression playing away. the mixing of the song here is the trick. at first it sounds like it dips in volume to synch with his movement in and out of the main party room. on repeat viewing, however, it's clear that the song has been mixed to show the dips in his confusion and mixed feelings. brilliant.

MEAN STREETS
Jumpin' Jack Flash by The Rolling Stones

Martin Scorsese features on Time Out's Top 50 more than once, and indeed shall feature again a little later on this list. and with good reason - when it comes to the correct music for a scene, few if any can be declared to be better than Mr Scorsese.
this scene in particular is legendary, and has perhaps been seen in documentaries and highlight packages by about one hundred times more people than ever saw the film. at least! although we had been introduced to De Niro's character at the start of the film (Johnny Boy blowing up letterboxes or similar, as i recall), here we get to see him proper. He arrives at a bar with two ladies who he has either picked up or (ahem) hired, checks in his pants and then proceeds to walk down the length of the bar with them, all smiles and greeting people. Keith Richards' legendary guitar and Jaggers' howling vocal provide the best soundtrack possible with the lyrics telling you all you need to know of the character. it's a moment that makes you think "i really wish i could do that".

LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS
The Boss By James Brown

in terms of audacious and career defining debut films, none more so than this first effort from Guy Richie, you could argue. he clearly clocked Scorsese's trick of making a great scene iconic with the correct soundtrack here. practically any scene involving music from this film, from the opening with Ocean Colour Scene's Hundred Mile High City to Fools Gold by The Stone Roses at the end, could have been selected. i, however, went with this one purely for the out of the box thinking shown on all fronts.
there was much mirth and humour found in the press by the idea that Vinnie Jones, footballer and nose biter of note, was to move into acting. no one thought there was any chance of him or any footballer (except Cantona) pulling it off, so his introduction to the film needed something a bit special. having the sounds of James Brown in uber-funk mode as Vinnie walks in, clad in as much black clothing as he is flashy gold jewellery, and then watch as he proceeds to smack someone senseless with, of all things, a sunbed is indeed something a bit special.
Guy Richie has a knack for this, shown by the use of Oasis in Snatch and The Clash in RockNRolla. to see what a good trick it is, watch a bad imitation - in the otherwise good film Layer Cake, one gets a scene of violence to the soundtrack of Ordinary World by Duran Duran. it just does not work.

BODY DOUBLE
Relax by Frankie Goes To Hollywood

sometimes it feels like the only two people in the world who love this film are myself and Patrick Bateman out of American Psycho. that should concern me a bit i suppose, but it does not. it's just that for some reason the rest of the world is unaware of what an amazing, excellent film this is.
not only does this film put the song to great use (it is the soundtrack to the, erm, adult-orientated movie-within-a-movie that Craig Wasson and Melanie Griffith are making), it also puts the band to great use, having most of them visible in the scene itself. Holly Johnson appears to sing the song and guide Wasson through the (ahem) exploits going on, Paul Rutherford is sat at the bar chilling, digging everything. i have never had it confirmed if the other three members of the band are in the scene somewhere, although one of the chaps in a mask looks like it might be Ped.
what better song, i ask you, could be used for the scene to which it appears as the soundtrack for? it's the kind of thing the song was composed for. a masterstroke, if you will excuse the expression, by Brian De Palma and the team who made this film to get the song and the band involved.

GROSSE POINTE BLANK
Under Pressure by Queen and David Bowie

if i had to select a favourite moment, then it is probably this one if not the one above. yes, it's that good.
the film soundtrack is loaded with 80s classics from both sides of the Atlantic. it is also filled with amazing moments of filmmaking and storytelling. in regards of the latter there, it contains one of the greatest scenes ever. John Cusack goes to visit the grave of his father. he stands in silence, empties a bottle of whiskey onto it, throws the bottle away and then walks off. in less than two minutes you have the entire story of this particular father-son relationship, presented visually in a way better than most films that have spent hours on this one particular theme have managed. genius.
combining the soundtrack and visuals best, however, is the bit at the school reunion dance, where ruthless but cute hitman Cusack is left alone with a baby briefly. in comes the "this is our last dance" verse from Under Pressure as a hypnotic scene plays out where Cusack and the baby stare into each others eyes. in a way as subtle as you can imagine, the facial expressions of both change, as if they are exchanging tales of innocence lost and innocence to be preserved and saved for as long as possible. one leaves the scene with a feeling that all of a sudden Cusack "gets" this whole "feeling" business that has been oddly absent from the last ten years of his life. a truly beautiful moment in a wonderful, must-see film.

GOODFELLAS
Jump Into The Fire by Nilsson / Magic Bus by The Who / Monkey Man by The Rolling Stones

now then, Goodfellas, and indeed this scene, feature in the Time Out list. for some reason, though, they focus on the end of this part with the piano exit / coda from Clapton's Layla. whereas the whole scene - Henry Hill's last day as a GoodFella - is breathtaking, it's the start of it which i remembered the strongest.
there are few better ways to start any day than with a blast of Harry Nilsson. if that day is to feature firearms and drugs, then the roving bass, the smashing drums and splendid guitar and howls of Jump Into The Fire is what you want. if you are going to do an absolutely massive line of coke with your mistress and then look up with wide, bloodshot eyes, then Mick Jagger screaming "I'M A MONKEEEYYYYYAAAH" is what you want to be hearing. if you're going to be ripped to the hilt on coke and go out driving, all but ramming your foot through the floor of the car as you slam on breaks to avoid an accident whilst you are in a vehicle full of guns and silencers that do not fit, then Roger Daltrey wailing "i want it, i want it, i want it" would probably be the best way to describe the rush. in respect of the latter, Scorsese specifically selected Daltrey's vocal from Live At Leeds for this scene.
considering how many music-related scenes from GoodFellas could be picked here - how about De Niro contemplating murder as he stands at a bar smoking with Cream's Sunshine Of Your Love playing for a start - just how dazzling this montage is should be apparent. i have been known to just skip to this segment and watch it again and again, to be honest.

well, that's my "other" ten to go on top of the linked list. i hope this has brought back some memories for you, or indeed inspired you to go and watch one or two of the films. or just Grosse Pointe Blank at the least. if i have missed any out, or you know of equally good or even better ones, feel free to leave a comment!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jonny Guitar Live - 29 Jan 2012

2012-01-22T16:08:00.004+02:00

hey everyone

well, what can i say - a week to go until we get another excellent gig via Stage It. the vastly talented Jonathan Granville will be online again doing another show. he will be performing on the evening of Sunday 29 January 2012, details available
by clicking right here.

i am not really in the business of giving praise where it is not deserved. if he was rubbish i would simply have denied ever knowing him and "defriended him". as it happens, i am fortunate to know him as it has meant i've got to hear some outstanding guitar and indeed a fair few of the best lyrics i've ever had the pleasure of.

to get to the gig is really simple. you just need to go to StageIt and login, either with an account for the site or with your facebook details. you need to purchase a minimum of US$5 worth of tickets, and those you can use at any show they have on. you can then use as many or as few as you like for Jonathan's show, which you can access via this link.

it shall be 30 minutes of your life that you shall not regret, well worth the time of any music fan.

if for some reason you fear that the show will not be Rock and Roll enough for you, observe if you will the below picture.

i really look forward to chatting to a few of you online at the gig as we listen to some outstanding tunes!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Samsung and the quest for zero clients

2012-01-22T09:24:00.002+02:00

hi everyone

well, the first part of this post will be a little bit of help intended for people who have recently bought a Samsung SyncMaster SA10 monitor and are struggling to get the thing to come on with a Windows 7 PC. and believe me, there are many. i am doing it in the wild hope that google or similar helps people looking for assistance, as i found precisely none on the internet.

the second part shall be for pure whine / your humour purposes, so please take it or leave it.

righty-ho, starting with the assistance. the Samsung SyncMaster SA10 monitor gets very good reviews, and presently you can get it for a rather good price here. the trick is that many PCs running Windows 7 simply do not like it in respect of plug and play - all you get is a black, powered off screen when you plug it in. eventually, i worked it out.

here is how you get your new Samsung SynchMaster SA10 or S19A10N to work :

plug in your old monitor and power up.

right click (assuming you have a right handed mouse setting) on the desktop and select "screen resolution".

on screen resolution select the lowest possible resolution, normally 800x600.

don't worry that your screen will looked messed up and be showing barely a quarter of the screen. just make sure you click "accept settings".

switch off PC, plug in your new Samsung SynchMaster SA10 or S19A10N, power up and voila! watch as your new monitor now comes on and self or auto adjusts to run fine.

yeah, it really is that simple. so simple you would have thought it easy enough to tell someone this up front. sadly, however, Samsung take a radically different approach to assisting clients.

firstly, when searching for help for a Samsung SynchMaster SA10 you do not find much at all. once you clock that Samsung prefer to call it the Samsung SynchMaster 19A10N, however, you get somewhere. i really do get fed up with this - Samsung are not the only guilty ones. they sell you a product with one particular name, but then refer to it as their "special name" alone on their side. just why is it so difficult to make something, pick a name for it and then stick to just using that name alone on a universal level?

right, here you go with a transcript of 1 (one) hour i spent having an online chat with someone in the USA to try and get this fixed. read if you wish, but if you want the highlights, it is only one hour into the conversation that i get the advice above that let me work out how to use it.

Chat start time Jan 20, 2012 4:43:06 PM EST
Chat end time Jan 20, 2012 5:53:32 PM EST
Duration (actual chatting time) 01:10:26
Operator Danny

Danny: Hi, thanks for reaching out to Samsung tech support. How can I help you today?

lee: Hi there

Danny: Hi, please go ahead with your query.

lee: i just bought a Samsung synchmaster SA 10 s19a 10n, running Win 7 home premium. i just get a blank screen. when i plug it in to an XP PC it works fine.

Danny: I see that you are not chatting from the U.S. Did you purchase the unit in the U.S?

lee: nope, down here in South Africa. the model code is ls19a 10ns/xa

lee: i think, at least - model number print is very small.

lee: is there some sort of setting in Win 7 i need to change? when i press the power on the monitor i just get the mouse logo for sleep mode, moved mouse, pressed keys, nothing.

Danny: I am sorry; we are trained on Samsung US Products only. I recommend you contact your local phone support number at: 0860 726786 Mon-Fri 08-00 AM-18:00 PM. Sat-Sun : 08:00AM to 17:00 PM Closed on Sundays.

lee: you know, this is the last time i buy Samsung! no help anywhere! Win 7 is Win 7 wherever you are in the world!!!

lee: it works on an XP machine but not Windows 7?

Danny: I understand your frustration and I truly apologize for the same.

lee: nothing on your site anywhere, except lots of people with the same problem. are you telling me you have never heard of this before?

Danny: I am sorry for the inconvenience caused to you.

Danny: We don't have any known issues with the monitor.

lee: except when you look on the page for it on your site and there are problems people have listed, no answers given?

Danny: All Samsung monitors are Plug and Play.

lee: except this one, which plugs in but does not play. why not? what are the power settings i need to adjust on Windows 7 to make it work or respond to a "wake up" from the keyboard or mouse?

Danny: The technical information and specifications of a monitor vary from country to country. Also, the voltage and the power requirement vary from place to place.
lee: you really don't want to help, do you? it has nothing to do with voltage, i have told you it works on an XP machine but not a Win 7 one. the web is full of people with the same problem and no answers. for some reason it does not respond to "wake up

lee: on Windows 7, why not and how do i change the settings in Win 7 so that it does please?

Danny: I am sorry for the inconvenience.

Danny: Would you mind holding a few minutes while I gather the required information for your request?

lee: yeah, sure, midnight here, have been battling since 6pm to get a flicker of life, why not

Danny: Thank you.

Danny: Thank you for holding.

Danny: I suggest you please try connecting the monitor to another windows 7 PC.
lee: how many pcs do you think i have? if you look around the web and your own site this is a recurring problem, are you seriously saying you have no idea what settings i need to change to?

Danny: I apologize for the inconvenience caused to you.

lee: are you saying just take it back to the store and get an LG, then?

Danny: We don't have information about any known issues with the monitor.

lee: oh yes you do - please go to your own site for this model and look at all the unanswered questions people have posted, some with the exact problem i have.

Danny: There are no settings on the monitor for any operating system, the monitor is plug and play.

lee: let me try again - plug it into a Windows 7 PC, nothing, plug it into a Windows XP PC, works perfectly, what settings need changing in Windows 7 to make it work. the driver i downloaded from your site for it makes no difference.

Danny: All Samsung monitors are Plug and Play and there is no need to install drivers. The same holds true for windows 7 operating systems as well.

lee: so why do you have drivers for download and how do i fix this?

Danny: I am sorry; we have reached the limit of our technical knowledge on this product. We recommend calling 0860 726786 Mon-Fri 08-00 AM-18:00 PM. Sat-Sun : 08:00AM to 17:00 PM . They are trained in this product, and will be able to assist you further

lee: i have reached the end of my patience with Samsung. back to the shop with this printed out to show that you will not help, then posting it everywhere i can as a warning to anyone thinking of your products. hopefully one day you will make things that you can work and assist with,

Danny: I understand your frustration and I truly apologize for the same.

lee: then why not help? how hard can it be to tell someone where and what they change in the power saving setting so that the monitor and pc are speaking to each other?

Danny: I am sorry, we don't have knowledge about the settings in your monitor. We are trained on the US products only.

lee: it's the same thing as you have in the US according to your website. the problem is settings in Windows 7, which is a universal, unless you'd care to tell me about a Windows 7 USA only edition?

lee: http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/monitors/LS19A10NS/ZA#-reviews?bvaction=writereview

lee: the "us" bit in the address is a bit of a giveaway.

Danny: Thank you for the information.

lee: great, a pleasure to give you your own information back. does it help you to help me, in the words of Cuba Gooding jnr?

lee: i guess not.....

Danny: Would you mind holding a few minutes while I gather the required information for your request?

lee: ok

Danny: Thank you.

Danny: Thank you for being on hold, it is taking more time than required for me to pull up the information, please be on hold for the next few minutes.

lee: sure, way past my bedtime anyway

Danny: I will be right with you.

Danny: I am sorry.

Danny: Thank you for holding.

Danny: Could you please let me know are you using different PC's for XP and Windows7?
lee: yes i am, 2 different PCs. sorry if that wasn't clear in the 3 or 4 times i said i plugged it into a different pc.

Danny: Thank you for the information.

Danny: Which connection cables you are using to connect both the PC's to monitor?

lee: the one that came with the monitor?

Danny: Are you using the same cable for both PC's?

lee: it's not the cable because when i disconnect that all of a sudden your monitor works to tell me no cable is connected.

Danny: Thank you for the information.

lee: yes, same cable. monitor and cable are fine, the problem, as i did mention in passing, is that your monitor does not like Win 7 in respect of thos power saving rubbish.

Danny: Thank you for the information.

Danny: Could you please let me know native resolution set on the windows 7 PC?

lee: where do i find that info?

Danny: Please click on the below link to set native resolution on your PC.

Danny: http://support-us.samsung.com/cyber/popup/iframe/pop_troubleshooting_fr.jsp?idx=152790&modelname=S19A10N&modelcode=&session_id=PZcljQvJPpG40pdVP2lJcTKLD4dwqpVQnNSGJyX0PLnt1vGpLyMm!1007829046!-1367578310!1327094949554

Danny: Are you able to access the link?

lee: resolution 1280x1024(reccomended). this of course is on my old working monitor

lee: i have spent some time changing that setting this evening, switching off, plugging in the Samsung, getting a blank screen every time.

Danny: resolution native resolution of the monitor is 1366x768. Could you please set the native resolution to 1366x768?

lee: it goes no higher than 1280x1024 so i cannot do that.

Danny: Please reduce the native resolution to 720p.

lee: lowest it goes is 800x600

Danny: Please set it 800X600 native resolution and let me know if the issue persists.

lee: and how do i do that? i do not have the samsung plugged in, hence me being able to see this?

lee: i need a solution i can try once this is done.

Danny: Thank you for the information.

lee: i really don't get this Thank you for the information thing, it's a touch condescending and patronizing. i have explained the issue, advised you that it apparently common with Samsung and Win 7 and yet you seem to just skip this.

lee: btw, as i mentioned earlier, tried all the different settings on resolution and a blank screen, so yes the problem persists.

lee: the issue, once again, is that the monitor and PC are not communicating in regards of the power save thing.

Danny: The device needs to be serviced. Please file an online service request so that your monitor will be serviced.

lee: you are kidding? i just bought it brand new today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

lee: it also works perfectly on an XP machine, you seem to forget>

Danny: I recommend you contact your local phone support number at: 0860 726786 Mon-Fri 08-00 AM-18:00 PM. Sat-Sun : 08:00AM to 17:00 PM Closed on Sundays.

Danny: I could've helped you if I had enough information on it and do not want to give you any wrong information. I hope you can understand our limitations.

lee: i have given you every single scrap of information there is, please do not speak such nonsense. your limitation seems to be you sell a product that people complain about and you cannot tell anyone how to fix it.

lee: cheers, thanks for nothing.

well, there you have it. how peculiar that Samsung wish to sell to the world and yet only offer support and help (if it can be called that) to US clients on a facility that can be accessed around the world.

i must say i am very happy with the monitor now that it is up and running, and indeed shall cherish it as the very last Samsung item i ever purchase.

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

getting cut off in traffic.....

2012-01-20T10:23:00.002+02:00

....isn't quite so bad, i suppose, when it's a Ferrari doing it to you. i mean, why else would you buy one?

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Listening To Who - Episode 6 : A Quick One

2012-01-18T13:33:00.006+02:00

hello there

well, welcome to the latest edition of listening to The Who at random. this shall be, alas or happily for you, the last one for a bit. will go into that a bit later, but for now let's worry about what this one is.

and those of you who are astute enough to have read the title will know that what i have been listening to of late is their second album, A Quick One.

A Quick One, or Happy Jack as it was renamed in the States so as to avoid causing offence by innuendo, was the second album from the band. The debut album, My Generation, sold well enough to get Gold status and the non-album singles released in between, in particular Substitute and I’m A Boy, sold well enough to make it into the Top 10. It’s fair to say, then, that there was a degree of expectation for sales to be even bigger for this record.

The album, oddly despite getting a higher chart position, did not do this, selling less than the debut. This is a bit of a pity as, in my opinion and that the accepted risk of offending or outraging fans of the debut, this one is a much better album. The sales were perhaps hampered by someone (perhaps the label, maybe producer Kit Lambert) insisting on stating on the front of the record that one should use specific equipment and settings to hear the record “properly”; something that could well be off-putting to someone who has no idea what they are talking about.

With only one cover version on the record (Heat Wave), the album boasts compositions from all members of the band, and all songs being of a fairly high quality. Sure, the bulk is still Pete Townshend, but if I tell you that this is the album which features John Entwistle’s Boris The Spider and Cobwebs And Strange, the music hall via the psychedelic Sixties contribution from Keith Moon that served as the soundtrack to his segment on the The Kids Are Alright film, you presumably get the idea of what I am speaking about. It’s not like Roger’s contribution, See My Way, is bad either.

In general, the sound seems to move away from the traditional (i.e. not modern rubbish that has ruthlessly stolen the name) R & B and pop sound towards a skiffle via swing style with a good lashing of the psychedelic sound so strongly linked to the time, in particular with Roger’s vocals. There is also, thanks to Keith Moon’s obsession with the sound, a distinct West Coast (USA) Beach vibe going on. This certainly makes for a great record, and applies to all tracks on the album bar one – the opus which gives the album its name, A Quick One, While He’s Away.

The common consensus is that the track A Quick One, While He’s Away is Pete Townshend’s first go at a Rock or Pop Opera. This isn’t strictly speaking true – I’m A Boy, released before this, was intended to form part of a bigger concept, or if you will “concept album”. I’m not going to get into the whole debate of what constitutes a concept album nor the argument about which was the first one ever to surface. The main thing is, I suppose, that a track of this nature had seldom, if ever, been tried by a “pop” group before, although of course it would be something that would come to characterize The Who in the future.

As for the song itself, well, “fun” is the first word that springs to mind. It’s a saucy, cheeky tale of infidelity and forgiveness, taking in a whole range of musical styles to tell different parts of the story. One of the most famous musical styles The Who ever used features here, of course. As the song moves towards its end, or if you will climax, one gets to hear the band chanting “Cello” over and over again? Why? Well, the band wanted an actual cello quartet on the record, but were told that there was not enough money for it. As a consequence, either as a cynical dig or just an innocent idea, they simply took to just chanting the name of the instrument over the parts where they wanted it to be.

Whereas this song came to be great, it has to be said that the initial version of it here is in many ways the least satisfactory version of it. The best, without doubt, is the composite version made from studio and live recordings that featured on the 30 Years Of Maximum R & B album. Other than that one, any live version tends to work better – the one on Live At Leeds in particular, but the band doing it on the infamous Rolling Stones Rock N Roll Circus is a must have. Legend has it that it’s The Who’s performance of it on the show which left the Stones feeling they had been overshadowed and outperformed, hence them never officially releasing the film for many years.

Whereas the album itself is pretty good, it’s the rich amount of extras that come with the CD that make this an essential purchase. Topping that list would be 80% of the tracks which made up the legendary Ready Steady Who EP.

Disappointingly, the 20% missing is Circles, aka Instant Party. This track sits up there with Success Story off The Who By Numbers as a great tune that the band seem not to exploit the greatness of as much as they could. No matter, one can find this great song on the My Generation album, or if you can find it the Singles Box. To hear an exceptional cover version of it, though, you should consider finding a copy of Substitute : The Songs Of The Who to hear Paul Weller’s great take on it.

Leaving aside what’s not there, the other four tracks are seldom released and thus well worth having. Of particular high quality is the bands’ take on the 60s Batman theme. How good is it? Michele and I have had to play it about 100 times in the last week for the boys, with James coming to the conclusion that The Who must be the best band in the world on the basis of their version. That good. Also included is their cover of Barbra Ann, which was done at more or less the same time as the more famous cover by The Beach Boys, something which suggests a Mr Keith Moon was behind the band doing it.

Since we have brought Mr Moon up, a track he wrote on the “album proper”, I Need You, is widely perceived as an attack on The Beatles. For some reason Keith got it into his head that they were “talking about him” behind is back and thus, the story goes, simply did not like them. Odd when you consider what good friends he and Ringo were, but anyway. A song which is unmistakably a go at The Beatles is a b-side included here, Doctor, Doctor. It’s credited to John Entwistle, but have a listen – the song is basically The Beatles’ Help!, presented with different, possibly interpreted as “having a pop” lyrics.

There are even more extras, but to dwell on two more of them for your money you get a previously unreleased “acoustic” version of Happy Jack that sounds rather more like a calypso version of it (it’s excellent either way) and a quite frankly incendiary, ingenious take of My Generation that phases in to Land Of Hope And Glory. Moon’s drumming on this take of My Generation ranks as some of the best the lad ever did, which is saying something.

It would appear that A Quick One was not all that popular when initially released. This should not discourage anyone from seeking it out, as there’s really rarely a bad moment on the album. True, there are not all that many moments of astonishing greatness, but what it is certainly stands as above average.

currently both amazon and HMV have this album going for £3.97 at the moment, so take your pick in regards of where you'd rather buy it from. it is certainly worth getting!

and with that, i think i have done my bit for labour of love, unpaid celebration of Who albums for a little while. the only other two i wish to write about are those two rather large, monolithic in size and scale rock operas that i hardly need name here. in order to do them the justice they deserve i think it best to take a break from the sound of the band for a while, but i assure you i will write of them later on this year.

in the mean time, thank you very much indeed for reading!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Haircut 100 (give or take 98)

2012-01-16T13:52:00.002+02:00

hi there

well, the blazing hot sun here was making some of us in the house aware of just how long our hair was getting. my beard in particular has started to feel a bit like straw, and my hair was starting to be so shabby that i could well have been mistaken for being in the band. name that reference.

moving on, then, whilst you ponder the above, the weekend was as good a time as any to get the clippers on the go. whereas you are probably better off without more pictures of me, James is reluctant to have a hair cut at the best of times so sadly no direct images of him. William, however, has no such concern.

yes, that is indeed James dressed as Batman for the event.

if my memory serves correctly, this would be young William's second haircut, and it he manages to behave surprisingly well for them, only getting a little bit impatient when the hair artist, his beloved Mummy, gets towards the end of unleashing her vision. well, i get a little impatient with her too, really.

for the most part, though, he really seems to like it!

i am not at all sure how to end this post off, really. best i can do for you is, i suppose, that if you also had a haircut this weekend then i can only trust and hope that it was a most excellent one!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

support for Frankie Goes To Hollywood from, erm, Frankie Goes To Hollywood

2012-01-16T12:21:00.003+02:00

hey everyone

well, first and foremost, and very big thanks and all the credit i can give to the legendary Gerrit F for sharing these pictures. nice one mate, i really appreciated seeing them and i can only hope anyone who stumbles upon this article does the same!

you may recall that, as usual, in a post on January 10th i reminisced about my one and only Frankie gig. this year it was a bit special, of course, as it marks 25 years since i saw the band that remains for me as being the greatest ever.

talking about this gig and that sadly final 1987 tour with like-minded Frankie fans has seen Gerrit F, to use the American expression, step up to the plate and share some pictures with us. not pictures of Frankie as such (well, not yet), but of their support act, the magnificent Berlin.

the following pictures are from the gig at the Ahoy in Rotterdam on 4th February 1987. it certainly looks like it was a rather lively gig! in what way was it lively? well, look at how Berlin singer Terri Nunn remains the consumate professional despite a most unusual stage invader.

Terri Nunn famously tried out for the part of Princess Leia in the Star Wars films. going on what she had to endure, or possibly enjoy, on this night of the tour i dare say that she would have been up to the demands of the role. then again, if she had got that part, the world might not have heard songs like Take My Breath Away , and she may well not have got to play with such an interesting backdrop!

for those of you not sure what you are looking out for in the above, well, here's another picture which gives you a little bit more than a clue.

who exactly is displaying their support in either picture is not something i am at liberty to say, really. i am, however, quite prepared to tell you that later on this year (or possibly early 2013, depending on that Mayan thing) we shall see Brian "Nasher" Nash's autobiography being published. i dare to speculate that stories will be abound in it, perhaps related to the above, possibly others even more interesting.

as for the 1987 tour itself, a certain amount of professionally recorded and filmed sound and vision recordings do exist. however, something of a contractual impasse exists in the world of Frankie; one that means it is unlikely that any live material will ever officially be released. this is a shame, but nil desperandum kids - one can search that you tube thing and find some fan shot footage if they are of a mind to do so. one can of course also search the internet for such things.

many, many thanks indeed again to Gerrit F for these quality pics!!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ice cream at South Fork

2012-01-15T16:51:00.002+02:00

hey everyone

well, what better possible way of celebrating the first week at 'big school' than taking a trip to South Fork? that would be taking a trip to South Fork when Richard and Erika are there! well, them with Lyla and Ruby-Lee of course, but what was even better was that they had a whole load of ice cream!

and not just any old ice cream, no doubt Richard would like you to be aware of no doubt. it was that fancy stuff with the German (or similar) name, Hagen Das or something like that?

James quite fancied the idea of eating a whole tub of it, whatever its name happens to be!

and of course if James was going to do that, so was Lyla!

neither of them quite managed to finish the pot, and i am not surprised really. Richard and i split a nifty caramel one between us, and that was hard work in itself. oh well, it just leaves a good deal more of the stuff for next weekend and perhaps beyond!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sssssssssssssssssssss

2012-01-13T10:44:00.007+02:00

hey everyone

well, if i tell you that William has taken a shine to walking around and pretending to hold something whilst making a "sssssss" noise, some of you may well know exactly which film has taken the number one spot in his life. for those of you who have no idea, well, here you go with the poster for this masterpiece of the moving image.

if this particular piece of information makes you none the wiser as to why William would play around the way he is, let me try and explain the scene. before i start, though, i would suggest that you rather obtain the movie on DVD and watch for yourself - sometimes words cannot quite capture the experience.

the film starts with some sort of ship, or perhaps ocean liner, in distress. why exactly the Police Commissioner of Gotham rather than, say, the Port authorities would be alerted to this is beyond me, but there you go. Commissioner Gordon has but one solution to each and every problem that lands on his desk - call Batman.

you would imagine that the Lifeguards, or perhaps even the Navy, would be a better idea to call to deal with a nautical problem, but those are not the cards dealt. Batman and Robin rush off as soon as the call comes in, taking the Batmobile (land based) off to the airport to get the Batcopter (air based) going to see what they can do with the sea based problem.

ahem - holy illusion! it turns out that the radars and all that were fooled by a projected image of a ship instead of a real one. oh well, since the dynamic duo are in the area, Batman decides to go and have a look to see if he can't work out what all of this was.

this proves to be a rather unfortunate idea, as some sort of booby trapped shark is in the water just waiting for Batman.

holy fishfingers! whatever will Batman do to get away from the shark? it is after all a shark that seems to have as strong a grip as it does almost rubber-like flexibility.

it is rather fortunate that Batman thinks ahead, far and wide, really. the Batcopter has apparently been equipped for any possible scenario, in particular if it is one that requires repelling marine based life via means of an aerosol spray.

now then, i must confess some serious lack of scientific knowledge here. i would, however, have a guess that it's unlikely that an aerosol can would work under the kind of aquatic circumstances one would find most of those inhabitants of the sea in. i mean honestly, exactly when would one be that close to a whale and need to get away that an aerosol can would be of use? just aswell, then, that this shark chose to jump some considerable distance to bite Batman rather than simply wait for the caped crusader to enter the water.

but, i hear you ask, if the Bat Shark Repellant is in the helicopter, how on earth will Batman be able to use it in his moment of greatest need for it? quite simple, really - just get Robin to bring it down for him.

no satisfactory explanation is ever presented as to how the Batcopter is all of a sudden able to fly itself whilst Robin messes about on the ladder, if you are wondering. no matter, as the important thing to the plot of the film is that Robin hands over the repellant to Batman....

....who then promptly sprays about a good armful of the stuff on to the shark....

...and then watches as the shark hits the water and explodes for no apparent reason, bar the assumption that someone - get this - has taken the time and trouble to "booby trap" the shark. Batman at least shows some remorse for this, and laments the fact that the shark had to die.

and this is all within the first 5 or 6 minutes of the film! for many this is the highlight of the whole thing, but for me it gets even better to be honest. i say that thinking in particular of the bit where Batman is running around with a bomb and is terribly concerned about blowing up some ducks with it.

The Dark Knight it most certainly is not, but then again we cannot show that one to James and William. this version of Batman remains exceptionally ace and fun viewing no matter how many times i get to watch it. for a start, it is the only Batman film to successfully include 4 (four!) 'super villains' and not be a load of rubbish!

should you have never seen nor heard of this version, well, off you go to order a copy and have some happy viewing!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

a few 13 things for you

2012-01-13T09:31:00.004+02:00

hey there

well, what were the odds? my 13th post of the year happens on the first Friday 13th of the year. spooky, strange, etc.....

i was going to write a few things about Friday 13th today to mark or celebrate the date since there are so many tales, myths and things like that. one of the best of course is the tale of the HMS Friday, an amusing tale from a hundred or so years ago and made popular by the comedian Dave Allen. the of course there's the increasingly popular school of history according to Dan Brown, in which conspiracy theorists claim as "absolute fact" that it was a Friday 13th that the Knights Templar were slaughtered. well, all of those except the ones who it was for convenient to the plot of a Dan Brown book to survive.

i was also going to write about my first memory of a Friday 13th, which took place in Sydney, Australia. i seem to recall some story of a truck or similar breaking down or crashing on the celebrated Sydney Harbour Bridge on this date in history, and the newspaper headlines proclaiming it "Black Friday". i distinctly recall asking my Mum why, and her promptly telling me of the myth of Friday 13th.

in the end, though, i decided that i simply could not be bothered. google is there, go use it to search for more of the above and beyond. instead, let me present you with my memories of two class Friday 13th films.

let's start with Friday 13th Part 3, which was presented in 3D at cinemas, no less!

i think this was the second in the series i saw, possibly seeing Part 2 first. or i might have seen this one to start, i really don't remember.

what i do remember is that the home video version, alas, did not have the skills or power to present in 3D, so you got to see all the efforts at 3D effects in standard, perhaps better 2D. the results were, frankly hilarious. in particular this scene.

it does not show off too well here, but on the VHS version you could, as clear as day, see the wire that the eye was connected to in order to create the "pop out" effect. no doubt they have fixed and cleaned up all the glaring errors for the DVD and blu-ray releases, but if you want to see how little effort they put in to disguising the effects in this one you could pick up the VHS of it off amazon.

now that i think of it, this was the second one i saw. how do i know? because i watched Part 2 and remember being very, very annoyed that Jason did not have his iconic mask on in it. you know, the ice hockey mask that class magazines like Fangoria seemed to suggest / promise that he wore at all times. nope, he only got it in this 3rd film.

the only other memorable film from the series which presently comes to mind is Friday 13th Part IV, laughably called 'The Final Chapter'. as it turns out, it was only the halfway point of the "original classic" series of films.

i think this one was the most memorable because, to be honest (and one likes to think that we are in the business of honesty here), it has the highest level of pointless, graphic nudity of any of the films.

in fairness, it also has the highest level of pointless, graphic appearances by Corey Feldman in any of the films too.

such things balance themselves out, i guess!

well, i hope that was of interest to 1, 2 or a dozen or so of you! whatever you do on Friday 13th, even if it's the same stuff you do every other day, i trust that it all goes rather splendid!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

oh, go on then - ch-ch-ch-cha ah-ah-ah-ah

a big day for a big step

2012-01-12T12:59:00.004+02:00

hi there

well, for many years now we've heard tales of that big day on the horizon for, you would hope, any and all parents. that would be "first day at 'big' school" day. whereas we were as well planned as possible for it, the day arrived and caught us somewhat by surprise. that's probably just a quirk of the whole time and space being relative thing.

moving away from Einstein as quickly as we got to him, we have always heard tales of tears and tantrums when the time for big school dawns. as James has been rather eager to get to the world of bigger school for quite some time now (18 months ago was when he first asked if he could rather go now, i believe) we were quietly confident the day would go fine. however, there's always the chance that when the moment arrives that he gets what he wants that he no longer wants it. this happens every now and then, in particular it has to be said with trips to the cinema.

anyway, the day dawned, and as you can see he was still loaded with enthusiasm about getting going!

but what happened when we actually got there? other than being delighted with the fact that Mummy was driving and thus we got there (Daddy is not particularly good with directions), he was even more thrilled about it all and was over the moon to find his classroom and desk!

what made it even better for him was some crayons that were the best ones he had ever seen in his life, or so we were made to feel ("look Mummy, there is even a light blue one" he said) and a class picture to colour in.

the only problem James had with his first day, it seems, was that Mummy & Daddy were lingering about and just would not leave to let him get on with it!

we did of course head off, and i had the pleasure of doing a stack of housework whilst Mummy worked from home. with some enthusiasm, it must be said. when we went to collect him he was still just has happy and had several wonderful stories to tell us. most of them, it has to be said, pertained to the tuck shop they had and a rough indication of prices of things that he would like, if we could see our way to giving him some money every day! well, of course we shall one day!

the day really could not have gone better, and thus far he has retained his level of enthusiasm for going back again and again! nice one!

as for William, he has not quite yet mastered the linguistical skills to the extent of saying "i will have some of that, thanks", but going on the enthusiasm he has shown for James' new bag, i would imagine he will be keen for 'big school' one day too!

needless to say we are all delighted that it has been so far so good with this latest, rather long journey that James is on!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rolling Stone SA - it's not getting any better....

2012-01-11T17:16:00.003+02:00

in fact, i do believe that it has got even worse. the first edition of Rolling Stone to be published down here was a massive disappointment, to say the least. comments on that one can be found by clicking these words right here if you are of a mind to do so.

i did say that i'd no doubt end up with the second edition and that has proven to be the case, at least after i found it again. the producers of this magazine seem really confident in people seeking it out - no instore promotions or anything, and the magazine always seem to be stuck in the lowest, most awkwards corners of stores. add to that the fact that a significant number of major chain stores are not stocking it gives one the sense that it is not going to last for much longer.

the apalling, professionally unacceptable disregard for basic editing is also working against it. what do i mean? here's the cover

did you spot it? look at the list of names at the bottom with a touch of care. actually, if you use the most casual of glance you will see a mistake that no one at Rolling Stone magazine did.

yep, that's right. Lou Reed gets listed twice. i can tell you what happened there - in order to accomodate some artists down here in the actual feature the list pertains to, some sub-editor just copied & pasted the names from an international edition in order to fit. they apparently did not bother checking the content, and nor did their editor.

most magazines would do all they could to avoid the humiliation of an editorial error like that on the front cover. Rolling Stone, at least the version here, seem to celebrate such things really. that would explain why such sloppy work extends to the content too.

here - a mere 3 months after it was released - is their review of Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds album. see if you can spot the mistake - and no, it is not the amount of stars it got!

did you spot it? quite tricky to, really, but here's a close up of the bottom of the review.

key tracks off the album are "Girl", "Power" and "Michael Jackson" are they? i have the album here and.......nope, nothing like that appears on the album, not even as elaborate hidden tracks. my knowledge of the press, however, extends to knowing that certain newspapers and publications use those words (amongst others) as "tags" in articles so that search engines like google draw attention to them.

that's just lazy editing, it really is. if Rolling Stone expects to be taken seriously, then best they hire some subs and an editor that actually read the copy before it goes to print.

as for the articles inside, astonishingly bland - youth have it tough, George Clooney is a lovely bloke, some singer wants everyone to buy her records. the only article of any consequence is a reprint of a 1994 interview with Kurt Cobain.

it's not like they have their finger on the pulse, anyway. here's a paragraph tucked away at the bottom of page 14.

wow. news of The Stone Roses reforming was front page news in the press when it happened. in October last year. Rolling Stone get around to mentioning it 3 months later in a way that suggests they might well not have bothered.

the publishers of Rolling Stone here seem to have it in their heads that the magazine will sell no matter how poor and shoddy a product they put out, and no matter how tricky it is to actually find a copy to buy. i am not at all sure how interested i am going to be in finding the 3rd edition, where no doubt there will be more editorial folly for me to find and reviews of albums i got in November. it is a great, great shame that a magazine with such a celebrated history and status amongst generations of music lovers is being allowed to have its name trashed by people who just do not seem to care.

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

25 years ago today.....

2012-01-10T11:18:00.004+02:00

......i was fortunate enough to see Frankie Goes To Hollywood live at the Manchester G-Mex.

regular readers shall be all too familiar in regards of this, since i think i have made a point of mentioning this on this date every year!

rather than the usual memories, here are two new-ish Frankie things for your consideration. first up, many thanks indeed to Lex for either making or just finding this one!

you may wish to consider clicking on the above pic to make it a little bit bigger. that's a map for the most excellent Frankie Goes To Hollywood game for the Commodore 64! i have had the game since it came out, and not once have i ever been able to complete it - perhaps armed with this i should give it another try!

beyond that, many thanks indeed to Stef for sharing this link - a new site (of sorts) called Into Frankie. click on the name there and be whisked away to a site of wonder!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Listening To Who - Episode 5 : Odds & Sods

2012-01-10T09:48:00.018+02:00

hello there

well, the new year has thus far not presented any significant reason for me to stop listening to albums by The Who at random, and nor is it likely to!

this week on the stereo in the car, for that is the only place where i can play The Who at the correct volume, it has been the turn of the compilation album Odds & Sods.

The significance of Odds & Sods as a release is arguably more at what it was an attempt at rather than anything particularly on the record itself. The popular music recording boom in the 60s and 70s led, perhaps inevitably, to the rise of the bootleg industry.

Bootlegging and the arts was nothing new as late as the 1960s, of course. For a fair few hundred years before then there had been a healthy market and thus production set up for bootleg books, and for even longer than that celebrated paintings had been copied since, well, since people started painting I suppose. Considering how the mantra “if it can be produced it can be copied” had existed in respect of the arts, it should be a surprise that the record industry, for the most part, didn’t anticipate or quite know how to deal with the rise of bootleggers. Should would be the key word there; if one looks at how the industry has dealt with any “crisis” one can understand that they have never been the most proactive.

Odds & Sods was one of, if not the, first attempt to try and fight the rising amount of bootlegs of The Who which were being sold, somewhat openly by all accounts, at each and every gig they played. Interestingly, the efforts to fight bootlegs seemed at this stage not to be particularly about the money involved – Townshend’s concern, going on interviews about it, was that fans were being sold poor quality acetate discs that tended to be unplayable after a mere 4 or 5 times on the turntable.

His wish was that if fans were so keen to hear unreleased and relatively rare things then they should be of a decent quality. This was a pretty commonplace approach taken by bands at the time – Led Zeppelin were famous for nipping down to London to buy bootlegs of their own gigs so they could review their performance, and artists like Bruce Springsteen (in those early career days of the 70s at least) were more than happy to have a “special recording section” at gigs for fans who wanted to tape the show. The Who had, of course, given a nod of the head towards such recordings with their distinctly bootleg-like packaging of Live At Leeds.

The difference with Odds & Sods was, as hinted at above, this was not a collection of fan made live recordings. The Who by 1975 had an impressive number of songs that were long forgotten b-sides no longer available or things that they simply did not release. These were the ones that the fans craved and subsequently were buying poor bootlegs of.

As for where the bootlegs originated in the first place, “lost of difference places” is the best answer. The released tracks were crudely copied from record players to reel to reel tape machines; unreleased takes had been retained by studio engineers and either sold or simply passed on to those who could press and release them.

The compilation was put together by John Entwistle in 1974. The rest of the band had somewhat substantial involvement in the imminent film version of Tommy, so he really had “nothing better to do” than work on it. In great fairness, he strove to make it a “proper” album, selecting tracks that the band had actively considered as being either singles or album tracks instead of simply just giving over polished versions of what were the most bootlegged songs. Indeed, he took to the task with such passion that two volumes were prepared for release, although only one ever surfaced. The majority of what would have been in the second volume features on the current CD version, indeed the one I picked up.

As for the actual tracks on the album, they are more curious than classic if we are honest. The two which strike one straight away are rather rare studio recordings of Summertime Blues and Young Man Blues. These two were regular songs covered live, to superb sound and effect of course on the Live At Leeds album. In comparison to the live versions, however, these studio takes seem and feel muted and lacking power. Whereas it’s certainly interesting to hear them doing it off-stage, one soon understands why the band have never been all that keen for the studio versions to be given any sort of prominent release.

Speaking of prominent releases, one may well sigh at the sight of Water and Naked Eye being included yet again as “rare” on a Who release. We cannot be all that far off these two songs being released as frequently as Substitute or My Generation, really. At least here they are included in some sort of context along with a track called Postcard – these three, along with I Don’t Even Know Myself, were intended as an ep to be released in advance of the Lifehouse project. That fell through; so did the single, but at least Postcard got a release as the promotional single for Odds and Sods.

Well worth a listen is Cousin Kevin Model Child. Now then, Who enthusiasts who hear the name Cousin Kevin would think of one thing and one thing only, and you’d be right to do so. This is the first attempt at a song about such a child for the Tommy album, and dear me what a complete mess it is. If you’ve already got or heard the 2 CD deluxe set of Tommy and heard the first demo version of it you shall be all too aware of what a catastrophic mess the whole of Tommy could have been if released as intended in its first draft state. I would really caution against listening to the whole of Tommy as a demo, but the two or so minutes of this song gives you an ample clue as to how bad it was. As for the other great rock opera from the band, Quadrophenia gets a look in with a track called We Close Tonight. It’s a pretty good, lighthearted number, the latter point being perhaps why it did not make its way onto that rather dark concept album.

In recent times Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend have become rightly celebrated for their regular concerts geared towards raising funds for Teenage Cancer Charities. What may surprise some is for just how long they have been involved with this cause. On this album you will find a song called Little Billy, written and recorded in the late 60s and presented free of charge to the American Cancer Society to use however they saw fit to raise awareness and, more importantly, funds. Alas, they chose not to, and the tape sat unused in their offices between the time of recording right up until when John Entwistle was assembling the tracks for Odds and Sods. They played it once or twice live in anticipation of it getting a release, but alas it only did here. A shame, really, as it’s a great song.

Beyond that, the set features a lot of songs that you will either already have or have variants of if you’ve picked up the 30 Years Of Maximum R & B box set or the expanded versions of the albums. The current low price of the set, however, still makes it very much a worthwhile set to pick up. The artwork on the CD, featuring a ridiculous cartoon image of the band as super heroes in action, is worth a quid or two of anyone’s money.

Whilst it is worth picking this up, it is a reminder of how the fun has been taken out of finding rare and obscure recordings. Of course it has gone forever now, with absolutely every recording ever made apparently available, usually free, on the internet. Hunting down rare, hard to find tracks that you were never intended to hear was immense fun. I remember the days when a dear friend sought out (and eventually found) a copy of the notorious The Black Album, withdrawn at the last minute by Prince, and indeed another friend who compiled a collection of tapes that must have covered everything The Smiths had ever done. Now that one does not have to earn the right or work to hear them, it makes the songs rather more disposable and insignificant than they perhaps should be. Oh well, such is the way of the world I suppose.

as stated earlier, this album was the first effort to not only strike back at the bootleg industry, but also to try and give what the fans wanted. quite a few artists have released b-side and unreleased material compilations over the years. notable examples are Marillion, Suede, Oasis and the Manic Street Preachers, but perhaps the winner is The Rolling Stones. their album Tattoo You was little more than rejected songs from the 6 or 7 years before it; the set went on to sell and be viewed as one of their greatest albums ever.

Odds & Sods does not feature any great lost classic as such, but the average sound of The Who is better than, well, no Who. the music on here, by a whisker perhaps, should appeal to more than just completists. well worth considering picking up if you're currently happy with a greatest hits set or two by the band, are thinking about getting some of the albums but are unsure what the sound of them would be like. again, in the interests of providing links that will ship worldwide, you can pick this up off amazon for £2.99 at the time of this being published, or if you like the idea of paying a bit more HMV will sell it to you for £3.99.

many thanks again for reading. i already have the next album in the stereo, so expect another episode of this in the not too distant future.

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

South Fork Sunday shenanigans

2012-01-09T14:05:00.005+02:00

hi everyone

well, there is no good or bad reason why some of this year should not continue as the last, really. at the top of that list would be regular visits to the place i call South Fork, much to the confusion of my cousin Andrew. those old and wise enough to understand will and do, i suppose, but anyway.

as there was a fair number of us at South Fork this weekend (well, all of the Grandchildren of my Mum & happy go lucky Dad that were possible without troubling the airlines) we had something of a celebration, since a fair few birthdays come up in the not too distant future. this, of course, meant that cake was very much required and indeed provided.

organized by Dad, no less. well, Michele and i picked it up, but Dad organized it. which was class.

as you can see there was much rejoicing for the arrival of the cake itself! this is certainly no bad thing as it was a most excellent chocolate one.

and yes, Richard enthusiasts, that is indeed Richard you can see in the above picture. nice of him to wear Middlesbrough red for the day!

William in particular, as you can see below, was really looking forward to the arrival of a few slices!

Ruby-Lee also really, really liked the cake. for some reason, though, she had decided that it was part cake, part mud bath thing and covered herself pretty well with it!

Grandad, showing off that his skills with cake extended far beyond simply ordering it, was on hand with a cloth to wash Ruby-Lee's face off a touch and make her look all presentable.

i know what you are thinking, and yes this was a touch puzzling at first. Grandad, as we are all well aware, tends to see his grandchildren as quasi-employees, as far as an employee can be unpaid for services rendered. usually his interest extends to them moving things around the garden for him, or simply in them being quiet whilst he watches some horses run around in a big massive circle, only for him to swear at them rather profoundly when they get close to the end of their run.

so why was he all of a sudden bothered about the appearance of one of them? well, as you might well be able to guess, he wished to have a picture of all four of them who were present!

all of these pictures are off course those which i took with my blueberry thing. i believe Erika was also clicking away, and might - just might - have managed to get one or two pictures in which the majority of them are looking reasonably the same direction. i, alas, did not as such, but i do not think the one above and the one below came out all that bad!

there can be little or no doubt that Grandad and his most peculiar way of doing things shall feature on the pages of this site over the next year, and indeed beyond. for now, though, that will do for a bit!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2012 welcomes back clowns to the road

2012-01-09T13:43:00.003+02:00

hi there

well, this was somewhat inevitable, really. after a few weeks of bliss on the roads, quite a few (the majority, i would imagine) of people have returned to verk. subsequently, perhaps consequentially, this means more irritating incidents to deal with.

like, for instance, this particular gem which sees us blocked in and unable to leave the office.

if you can't see the problem i have taken the trouble of highlighting it below - that's two trucks stuck side by side, blocking the road for absolutely anyone else. cheers for that.

the sad thing is that the company name of these trucks is presently obscured by trees. i would be delighted to contact those responsible for this and tell them what i think of it.

i suspect that they are stuck because it's just too steep an incline for the trucks with the weight they have on the back, but a good friend once advised me that when a diesel tank has less than 25% fuel, if they hit an incline like this the fuel falls below the fuel line to the engine and thus it cuts out. a standard coke bottle full of diesel may well be just what they need to fix this, then, but no one appears to be rushing to do it.

and never mind, i suppose, for if one of these two clowns moves out the way it seems just to be clearing a path for another to get stuck.

with the exception of idiot truck drivers who cause headaches for the rest of us,

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Trevor!!

2012-01-09T09:27:00.002+02:00

hi there

rock fans will be all too aware that yesterday was one of the coolest and most significant days in the world of music birthdays. January 8th saw no less than David Bowie, Peter Gill and The King, Elvis Presley all celebrate another year passing.

not to be out done, then, Uncle Trevor chose to celebrate his birthday on that day rather than today!

nice one! that is of course young Christopher handing over a celebratory cake to our shared Uncle. Christopher must be thrilled with the new sponsor name on Newcastle shirts, i am somewhat surprised that he has not forwarded on a picture of him wearing one of the shirts as such as yet.

moving briefly back to being on point, hope you are having, or depending on when you read this had, a most excellent birthday!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

a bizarre case of self-created negative advertising

2012-01-06T13:59:00.004+02:00

hi there

well, those who know me are aware that i have a love of reading in general, books in particular. and proper, actual books, not these rip-off, unengaging "ebooks". when i saw a story about an iconic bookstore closing down, needless to say i was interested enough to click the link and read about it. i was quite surprised and indeed taken aback by what i read.

firstly, one has to ask at what age and how well known a shop of any description needs to be for it to be considered "iconic". if i said to you "name an iconic store", you may well shout out Harrods, or the far more culture Fortnum & Mason. perhaps even Macys or Bloomingdales in New York. i would be surprised if any of you instantly said 'Die Boekehuis' in Johannesburg, which opened as far back as.....the year 2000.

i am an avid book purchaser, and i have never heard of the place - despite working in theoretical walking distance from it. if you click on the link to the article (right here if you missed it above), you will note that some book lovers who took the trouble of leaving a comment are unfamiliar with it, too.

by now some obvious reasons should have struck you as to why it may have closed down. for a start, the name of the place suggests it is an exclusively Afrikaans book store, which apparently it is, or rather was, not. so why have an Afrikaans name, then? bookstores that carry titles in many languages tend to have an English language name for simplicity, other language named stores tend to stock that alone. nothing like a bit of misleading advertising.

if only they did advertising, of course. the first that many seem to have heard of this place is that it is closing down. apparently they made a loss of R1,000,000 (one million, Dr Evil fans) last year, certainly not a cent of that was blown on advertising or promotion.

the reasons they give for closing are at best fascinating, at worst perhaps rather offensive. beyond giving themselves an Afrikaans names and wondering why no one goes in to buy English books at a store they didn't let people know existed, they have a tasty list of reasons for why no one used them. for the most part i shall let you read the article yourself (unless they wisely remove it, but more on that later), but this one really required highlighting.

er, what? "white South Africans are descendants of Protestants and thus do not read beyond The Bible"? of all the aloof, elitist comments made for the reason for their failure, this one really takes the cake. descendants of Protestants do not read anything other than The Bible? really?

the bit above it, about it being the fault of apartheid too (something which was abolished, say, 20 years ago), i shall leave to you to value at will.

the best part about the whole story is who ran it. as far as i can see, the only news agency running this story is News24, who i did hold a rather good view of until articles like this one started cropping up.

have a look at this.

is it just me, or is the article making a negative comment, or just flat out dig, at the fact that the store was "considered to be independent" but was in fact owned by a 'giant' media company called Media24? if i am right in reading it this way, or at least you agree with that interpretation, the interesting or perhaps bizarre thing is that Media24 also happens to own News24, who as said before seem to be the only place interested in running this story.

so, let me see if i have this in the right order. a bookstore that few have heard of is being closed down by the owners, who are reporting the elite, aloof and quite frankly offensive stance taken by them in the statement quoted? for what reason is it that you would happily insist on reporting on your own failure in such a manner that suggests most are delighted to see it go?

i can only hope, presume or pray that who worked in that store had a passion for books and a bit of intelligence - the people who wrote that statement clearly did not.

usually i would be sad to see any business close its doors, in particular when it is a bookstore. in this case, though, you would have to say good riddance with that attitude.

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Zama - merry and, indeed, gay.....

2012-01-06T11:32:00.002+02:00

hey there

tradition, or if you will superstition, decrees that today is the day that any and all Christmas decorations should be taken down and put away, ready for use later in the year. we at verk are certainly abiding by this, and the removal of the decorations went ahead today.

for the most part it was Medicine, also known as Stefan (or similar spelling), to take down our most celebrated decorations. he was, it has to be said, taking far too much time pratting about with a ladder for some. well, by some i do mean Zama, who decided to step in and help take the decorations down.

erm, step in and take the tinsel down, rather.

nice one Zama! as you can see i am giving a big thumbs up here to his most excellent new look, which suits him rather well.

please do not think the above has led to poor relations between Zama and Medicine. far from it, really. just this last hour has seen Zama bestow upon Stefan knowledge of "The Stranger" and indeed a "Sailor's", two interesting techniques that should keep Stefan very, very busy for a good deal of the imminent weekend.

hope all is as well with you as it is here!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

things that would be excellent in 2012

2012-01-04T10:16:00.008+02:00

hi there

well, as we are at the start of a new year, why not speculate on things that will happen, as well as mention things that would be quite class if they did happen?

if one starts with music, well then there really is only one possibly massive but still unconfirmed event.

ladies and gentlemen, The Rolling Stones. it's been well documented that 2012 is their 50th anniversary as a band; there's even more been spoken of the fact that thus far the band have confirmed nothing in the way of celebrations. we can but hope.

things not going so well between Jagger and Richards at the moment does not help something happen, of course, but then again things not going at all well between the two is nothing new, and certainly hasn't stopped them in the past. as the band members remain on good terms with the two surviving ex-Stones, Mick Taylor and in particular Bill Wyman, it would be something if all living Stones could get together. even if it's just a one off gig or similar, just put everything aside and celebrate what they have done.

2012 has some pretty interesting reunions lined up already, of course. yes the obvious one will follow shortly, but other than that the Beach Boys appear to have confirmed some "50th anniversary" concerts, and it seems Pink "we will never play together ag...oh, is that some money?" Floyd are all set to reunite and play at the London Olympics.

i do wonder if there's any chance of these two doing something, then?

setting a formation year for The Beatles is rather tricky. if we take that their celebrated Red compilation sets a start date as 1962, i guess then that as far as someone somewhere is concerned this is a 50th anniversary year for them.

there is no way, of course, that the two would even contemplate releasing anything "new" in the name of The Beatles, but it's not like either are adverse to playing together now and then.

Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr knocking off a song or two and releasing a single could be an interesting thing. it might help reclaim the charts back from a whole load of ringtone rubbish and return them to us music lovers.

and, of course, the bit you knew i would write of. the single biggest music news story of 2011 now turns to the most anticipated release of 2012, does it not?

the idea that The Stone Roses getting back together for some concerts was a simple pay-day was kicked out by the band signing record deals. this is to be no nostalgia trip, then - the band are back as a proper band. the fact that they have signed with a label in the USA is very interesting indeed. at the time they didn't sell all that many records Stateside, i can only guess the legacy and legend of the band has grown their over time to the point where there's now a market.

for all sorts of reasons, what The Stone Roses record and release needs to work. Ian Brown has commented that his solo career is "parked, not over", but Boby Gillespie has confirmed that Mani's departure from Primal Scream is permanent, albeit on good terms. this has been a very big price to pay for the dream of the Roses reunion; go listen to Vanishing Point, XTRMNTR and Evil Heat to understand why.

Kasabian, arguably the only band at the moment to care for Rock as both fun and an art form, have spoken of music being in a lull at present. one can only hope any or all of the above being successful enough to inspire the next generations of musicians to become rock legends.

as far as television goes, well, i would really only hope that they make thousands of new episodes of Storage Wars, as it is excellent. Yuuup, it is. if i could have just one wish or hope for TV in 2012, it would be just one small thing in one episode.

House is about halfway through its 8th series now, and if we are honest about it the show is running out of steam. i am not sure how many more series, if any, shall follow the current. time, thus, is running out for a cameo appearance that many, many people would love to see.

it may mean little to the large American audience, but for the rest of the world Stephen Fry cropping up - in a substantial part or just a background cameo - would be, if i have got the term correct, fanboy heaven. if it could be done with that ace song from A Bit Of Fry And Laurie, the hysterical Mistry / Mystery, well then so much the better!

it's a surprise they've not arranged for a cameo before now, one can only hope they do before the series has truly run its course.

over at the cinema, and there's really just the one place to begin, really. there's a huge weight of expectation resting on the shoulders of one film, and somehow those expectations seem to be getting met by all the images and trailers released thus far.

when Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins was released it took quite a few by surprise. it was celebrated, but people feared it could not be matched by the sequel. then along came The Dark Knight, which is regarded as one of the greatest films of all time in any genre. can that be topped?

a third "super hero" film has been a bit beyond most, really. Superman III and Spiderman III, whilst having some good points, were mostly average and failed in comparison to the previous films. "In Nolan We Trust" is a mantra from the net, however, and so far the signs are very, very promising.

a film that many are seeing as promising but i have huge concerns around would be Prometheus, which in a worst case sees the very welcome return of Sir Ridley Scott to the cinema.

the visuals and minimalist trailer do make this look like an astonishing visual treat, certainly more so than that false promise which was the now mostly forgotten rubbish of Avatar. and it's with good reason that i mention that horrid film.

my concern about Prometheus is the amount of fannying about Ridley has done. when the project first came about his words were "well, we do not have a script or story, but i can tell you it will be in 3D". how sad that one of the greatest visualists in cinema is more concerned with a novetly effect rather than a concrete story.

there's also the "well, is it or isn't it" question as to if this is a film in its own right or an Alien "prequel". will it matter either way?

and speaking of prequels in 3D......

considering the outcry, backlash and to a degree over-reaction to the minor yet significant changes George Lucas has made to his own films (something the fanboys forget), the mind boggles as to what reaction awaits the decision to convert all 6 Star Wars films into 3D.

of major concern would be the fact that converting existing films into this fancy novelty of 3D simply does not work. the bad box office figures for 3D films, new and old, suggests that thanfully this fad is passing, and fast. as Star Wars is box office gold (to put it mildly) you'd have to argue this is really make or break for the format.

if nothing else, hopefully the re-release of The Phantom Menace will allow for many to see the film again and realize that it is not quite as bad as ardent fanboys would have you believe. really, it is rather good indeed.

and, finally, please just let this film be "not too bad".

there's a huge level of excitement for The Avengers. and why shouldn't there be? of those super heroes that feature in it, Iron Man, Thor and Captain America have already had their own recent, superb films. erm, there were also two Hulk films, and they were less than superb.

overloading films of this nature with multiple heroes and villains tends not to work out as well as you may think. the very worst was of course Batman And Robin, which was a mess. some, of course, would argue that the X-Men films, in particular the first two, show off that many heroes and villains in one film can work. really? as great as those films were, they worked by having the focus on only one or two of the characters, with everyone else being given a mostly minor background part. this was the trick used with the Ocean's films - yeah, sure, an ensemble cast, but really the emphasis is just always on George Clooney and Brad Pitt.

my guess is that The Avengers will be all Robert Downey jnr, closely followed by Samuel L Jackson. further, it will be that they shall always seem to have prominence, or if it turns out they weren't fussed beyond the paypacket, the comments shall relate to how little screen time they have.

i am unconvinced that this film is going to be as good as any of the films mentioned a paragraph or two ago, but as both James and William think this looks like it will be the crowning moment of everything awesome, i shall be getting little choice than to see it, and more than once. please just let it be at least bearable.

beyond that lot, there's all sorts i could have hoped for - the new James Bond being good, for instance, along with David Bowie popping up to say "hello", or brothers Liam and Noel just packing it in and being polite about each other. all reasonable wishes, as preposterous it is to think that the last one there has any chance at all.

whatever 2012 does bring, let's just hope it's ace!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!

a first blueberry image of the Harlo gang for 2012

2012-01-03T14:19:00.002+02:00

hey there

well, not all that much to report on for 2012 thus far, really. there is the small matter of my dear, beloved wife trashing my most excellent kettle that goes, or rather went, "ting", but it's still a bit too traumatic to discuss right now. that and the new kettle seems to be serving its purpose.

it has not been so quiet that i have zero to share here, of course, hence you reading this. Andrew has very kindly forwarded on the following pic of the Harlo gang out and about on the streets and fields for the first time in 2012.

nice one! unless i am very much mistaken, that is a pic of the gang on the grounds of Great Ayton?

it is particularly impressive to see Andrew as vertical as he is in this picture. i had speaks with him on New Year's Day and it seems, alas, the sauce had got a little bit of the better of him. he spent a not inconsiderable amount of time communicating with me via his blueberry, presumably the very same device used to take the above image. his communique was sent as he laid on the couch "recovering" as several unspecified people (he does not like to name names) were apparently preparing breakfast for him.

one can only trust that Andrew at least had the benefit of proper ales and drinks, like John Smiths or perhaps even a Cinzano to toast the New Year, and did not trouble himself with this "alco pop" nonsense which seems reasonably popular with the kids of this day and age.

more pics and news as and when it happens!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PSP action for 2012

2012-01-01T17:32:00.002+02:00

hi there

well, weclome to the first post of the New Year! hope that it has all been excellent for you so far!

as there's the outside chance that this Mayan calendar nonsense may be true and this is the last year for the world as we know it, Grandad has decided to have a go at broadening his horizons.

small steps first, mind. when we visited South Fork today, he decided to have a go on James' PSP to see what it was all about.

and what it was all about was Lego Star Wars and Super Hero Squad. needless to say, the concept of using the force, or understanding which super hero had which power, was a little lost on Grandad, and thus he soon gave up. never mind, and least he had a go!

more, no doubt, later!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

thanks!

2011-12-30T12:25:00.002+02:00

dear reader

as this is probably my last post for the year, i would just like to give a very big thank you to all of you that have taken the time, trouble and imagination to stop by and read my musings from the last 12 months.

when i started this site off i really didn't expect many to read it, just the odd family member and a couple of friends. i am flattered, humbled and indeed astonished that so many people around the world click on the address for this and have a gander. thank you very much, i hope i have entertained or helped some time pass by, and i hope you find more of the same here next year and indeed beyond.

if you celebrate New Year's Eve, enjoy and behave. i really don't care too much for it, and dare say that i will be in bed long before the stroke of midnight, so to speak.

thanks again for reading, i look forward to you visiting in the new year!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2011 in film.....

2011-12-30T10:55:00.006+02:00

......was rather good. although i did not see nearly quite as many films as i wanted to, sadly. i just do not seem to get or be able to find the time!

it was rather fortunate that none of the films i did get to see turned out to be a waste of time. a happy accident, i suppose! easily the best of the films of this year was this one

Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes was excellent. i was not all that fussed at first as the film attracted nothing but bad reviews. as it transpired, though, the bad reviews were just plain lazy writing, and the people who saw it raved about it on the internet, causing the 'professional' critics to back-pedal like they have never done before.

whereas it is a science-fiction film, the best, most superb aspect of this film is the human drama side to the story. in this regard, John Lithgow is excellent, giving one of his best ever performances. there will be, as there so often has been in recent times, something very, very wrong indeed if the Oscars do not recognize his fine work here with a nomination at the least.

a close second would be the second film from the very promising talent that is Duncan Jones, Source Code

a bit like his stunning debut Moon, Jones has delivered another slice of what one could call "minimalist post-modernist science fiction" that certainly will not be for all tastes. i was impressed with it and its valiant and mostly successful go at re-imagining the consequences of the ability to travel in time. by no means is it straightforward, linear viewing, but it is worth a try all the same.

the funniest film i saw released in 2011 was easily Paul

to pick on lazy, professional (as they are called) critics once again, i got tired of reading how this one "was not as funny as" the two previous films featuring the lead actors, namely Shaun Of The Dead and Hot Fuzz. my view on that is so what, it's a tiresome comparison and one should perhaps just concentrate on the film they are watching rather than the ones they have before. and if you do so with Paul, you get some genuine roaring laughs, not to mention one or two knowing, obscure and non-distracting cheeky nods to films in the genre. well worth 100 or so minutes of your life.

a film which seemed to surprise many was Captain America, or The First Avenger as they chose to rename it in some countries.

apparently the makers got it into their heads that, as America is not as popular as it could be (politically) with the rest of the world, this film due to its name probably would not be popular or well received around the world. what utter, utter nonsense. Captain America is one of the more popular and less seen "super heroes" to come from the genre, and fans took to it no problem. oddly, us in the rest of the world are able to tell the difference between fact and/or news and a work of fiction.

how good was this one? even, and you may want to sit down here, my Dad enjoyed it. it had a bit of a slow start perhaps, but once it got going my word was it good fun.

although it was not quite as good as the other "super hero" film to see the light of day in 2011.

Thor was amazing. the decision to hand directorial duties to Kenneth Brannagh was inspired. noted for turning Shakespearian works into mainstream must-sees, here he delivers a wonderful film that anyone can enjoy, whether they are familiar with the comic book origins or not. it never takes itself too seriously but nor does it condescend or patronize. perhaps not as great as, but certainly worthy of sitting on the same shelf as the Batman films Christopher Nolan has delivered thus far.

a film that surprised me somewhat was Limitless

the film had little or no relation to what the write ups and promotion of it had led one to believe, but this is in no way a bad thing. it relied rather heavily on the myth that we only use a small percentage of our brain, but no matter, it is after all a work of fiction. this Bradley Cooper fellow seems to get better and better the more films he does, and this film also has an all too sadly rare thing these days - Robert De Niro taking a part more or less seriously and actually acting once again instead of simply just being Robert De Niro.

there were, of course, absolutely no surprises in Hobo With A Shotgun.

a classic, textbook example of a film doing exactly what it says on the box, really. except, i suppose, the hobo of the title (nice to see you, Rutger Hauer) doesn't always use a shotgun as he dispenses....i was going to say "justice" but in fact it's mostly just violence for the sake of it.

i will not trouble you with details of the "plot" or anything like that. the market for this film knows exactly who it is, and further were not you would assume disappointed with this one.

no one could be disappointed with Unknown either, i would have thought.

Liam Neeson appears to have been re-invented as an "action star" these days. mostly what this is doing is underlining my point that he should have been given the James Bond role nearly 20 years ago, instead of that girlie voice thing (Pierce something) that they cast instead.

it's very difficult to say much of this film without giving away the "twist" to it. i can say, however, that it falls into the twist category of "watch once and there's no point watching again", but it certainly is well worth a look the first time around. good film, Unknown is, with solid enough performances, an interesting story and well made in general being the phrases that spring to mind.

finally, the film that could have been so much more than it was, but was not nearly as bad as either it could have been or some complained of.

Conan The Barbarian had rather insane high expectations of it from a small but vocal elite bracket of the existing fanbase, not to mention a tough-ish sell in the face of how ripped off and disappointed movie fans in general were with the last "swords and sandals" film to be released, the truly horrid remake of Clash Of The Titans. it seemed not to do at all well in the cinema, which is a great shame as it turned out to be if not brilliant then certainly an enjoyable enough film to watch. perhaps it will catch on when it appears on a general DVD release, or maybe it will find a natural home on various "pay tv" channels around the world. it certainly doesn't deserve to be forgotten about.

well, that's the perhaps paltry nine films from the year i can recall seeing and truly enjoying. the list of films that i simply have not gotten around to watching as yet is no doubt twice as long, and then some!

as for 2012, well, there's the small matter of The Dark Knight Rises looming over just about all other films. we can but hope some more quality gets released before and after that one is unleashed on us!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2011 in music.....

2011-12-30T10:16:00.006+02:00

...was pretty poor, to be honest with you. i am not sure if it's just that the bands coming through are all really rather dull, or if the record industry has simply just given up, finding it cheaper and easier to re-issue than to find and release new stuff. my cousin Andrew shall argue that some "excellent" stuff was released in the year, but on what i have heard of it i shall have to disagree somewhat.

anyway, here's the best of the year from my side!

without doubt, the single most important music release of 2011 was one you cannot play on a stereo or "ipod" thing. you can, however, admire the brilliance of it.

a good deal of nonsense tends to get written about certain acts being "the best / most important British band since The Beatles". it has been spoken of in regards of The Stone Roses too. i'm not sure any act could be called that, really, but in respect of most important and influential on a particular generation, well, The Stone Roses sit quite well next to The Smiths in regards of that. the fact that the reunited band seem intent on making new music to be released in 2012 as well as doing a wide range of huge gigs makes their return all the more exciting.

as for the best new album released in the year, well, look no further than this one.

Kasabian seem to be the last band standing that actually cares for carrying on the magic of rock and proper, quality music to a new generation. Velociraptor! is one of the best albums i have ever heard, and i have heard quite a few. it's fun, interesting and just sheer quality, really. if you do not have it, get it.

2011 also saw the return of the brothers Gallagher to the album charts, apart of course. which of the two was the best? hands down, easily and something of a surprise to some the answer turned out to be Liam.

Beady Eye, effectively the last Oasis line up sans Noel, banged out a stack of great rock tunes. Different Gear, Still Speeding is a pretention free, unapologetic rock album, intended to be shouted along to and for fun to be had with it. Liam reckons the band will record and release a follow up in 2012, to quote him, "whether people like it or not". bring it on, i say.

and that's not to say that Noel's solo venture isn't worthwhile.

High Flying Birds is the most middle-of-the-road, inoffensive album to be recorded since, well, since probably Val Doonican or Roger Whittaker were last in a studio. Noel seems intent on a nice life sat with his guitar on a stool, strumming out mostly easy going songs and accepting plaudits and praise even if for the most part they are just for who he is, not what he's done. and yet the album is oddly addictive, giving one a compulsive wish to play on repeat. Noel can and has done better, whereas this will do let us hope the next one has a bit more to it.

beyond those, really it was the year of the re-release. the reissues of Frankie Goes To Hollywood's Liverpool , the solo albums from Holly Johnson and Paul Rutherford, U2's Achtung Baby, Quadrophenia from The Who and to a lesser extent Nirvana's Nevermind quite frankly stood head and shoulders above all other "new" music other than what's listed here. a nod, i suppose, to the Manic Street Preachers go at a 'singles collection', but that could have been so much more than it was.

perhaps the future of music is to revisit and rediscover all that has come before. whereas that ensures quality vibes, i do find it sad if not tragic that the current generation really has no one iconic to latch on to and follow like those before.

i trust you all found some excellent vibes over the last year! dig what you dig!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and some more Christmas images!

2011-12-30T08:27:00.005+02:00

hi there

well, hopefully there remains enough lingering Christmas spirit to enjoy these rather fine pictures sent on to me!

it would appear that the radar system Father Christmas has found Lyla and Ruby-Lee just fine! actually, i think old Santa uses a conventional map, really - much better than this whole "gsp" nonsense or whatever one calls it.

here's Lyla showing off one of many gifts to bear the celebrated name of Barbie!

now, of course we all know that Father Christmas brings the gifts for children, but parents help. in this instance, Richard's enthusiasm for Barbie, in particular those items of Barbie which are pink, is legendary. splendid work, Richard, it looks like you directed Santa to some really fine items!

Ruby-Lee appears to have had a somewhat Barbie-free Christmas in comparison, but all the same seems to have got some most excellent gifts!

Father Christmas left some gifts for Ruby-Lee and Lyla with us, ones that with some good luck shall get to them soon!

there can be no doubt that Christmas morning over at their house featured a most excellent boereorkes breakfast cooked and lavishly prepared by Erika. they are really ace, it has to be said, and would with ease have beaten the pants off the toast i had!

the class boereorkes breakfast does, through the sheer dimension and vast quantity of it, tend to add a calorie or two on the usual mass of the person blessed enough to eat it, so a rather tranquil stroll around the grounds after it is usually a most wise idea. such wisdom was evoked by the four of them!

these really are fantastic pictures. i think that the next time we head over to their abode we shall have to encourage Richard and Erika to take a few pictures of the four of us!

wow, what amazing pictures! and on the whole unblemished by images of Newcastle garments! it looks like they all had a truly splendid day. nice one!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

actual Christmas

2011-12-29T15:33:00.006+02:00

hey there

OK, let me see if i can do another update from Christmas! here are some pictures from "Christmas Day proper", as it were.

first off, when Michele and i woke up on Christmas morning, we got a big surprise. almost a shock, really. that was that we woke of our own nature, as the boys were still asleep! and they continued to sleep, having a lie-in, for something like an hour after we woke up! of all the days to pick to finally get the hang of this "we can sleep late so let us" business, they choose Christmas? this parenting business is a tricky one to grasp the logic of, really.

when they eventually did surface from their bedrooms, they were rather delighted to find a pile of presents each!

and, if i say so myself (erm, ahem, on behalf of Father Christmas), they were rather pleased with all that they got!

undoubtedly they got "too much" and all of that, but there you go, done now!

you may have heard, or experienced yourself for that matter, the idea that children often if not always prefer to play with the box that it came in rather than the toy itself.

let William demonstrate this for you!

in the afternoon it was time to pay South Fork a visit and, wouldn't you know, Father Christmas had gone and left some gifts for the boys with Grandma and Grandad!

i do love this next picture!

what deft skill James has, being able to "help" William unwrap a present and play on a PSP at the same time!

James was also able to open his presents all by himself, and was quite impressed with what he got!

well, who would not be?

a trip to South Fork in the summer also means swimming, and the chance to try and have a picture of the four of us together. not as easy as it might sound, really, if you look at this try!

and here's one of us almost, more or less, all facing the same way. if not looking the same way!

well, we had an excellent Christmas, and i can only trust and hope you all did too!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Christmas

2011-12-29T15:07:00.004+02:00

hey there

well, as our Australian friends may say, strewth! i have been rather busy at verk, it has to be said, so my ambition to get all the Christmas stuff up before the end of the year may not be met. nice to know the wheels of commerce are turning with some enthusiasm during this expected to be quiet 3 day week, i guess.

let me have a bash at meeting the end of the year, though, by taking you back to Christmas Eve, when we had a somewhat early Christmas session. this was for the benefit of visiting Ouma (my absolutely beloved, will not have a word against mother-in-law) and Dylan. and a jolly good day it was too, with an amazing, massive pile of food to eat.

oh, and of course, presents too!

the boys got a most excellent double whammy of slightly belated and slightly early Christmas presents, which made them rather happy, it has to be said!

i was fortunate to get a gift too, which was unexpectd and kind. and indeed funded the purchase of the celebrated Red & Blue set from The Beatles, not to mention the ace films Zombieland and Pale Rider. nice one Monica, thanks!

the boys are well impressed with their gifts too! the "garden set" has yet to see the garden, but the boys quite like sitting at it as they eat in the house! the Star Wars Playstation controller has gone down very well with James indeed, too!

William has had enough presents that he can now just about unwrap gifts himself, as you can see.

i have no doubt that James shall continue to "help" him with unwrappting for a while yet, mind!

hopefully Monica and Dylan liked their gifts too! well, i am pretty sure Dylan did, by all accounts - hard to go wrong with a PSP for a young lad!

more as soon as i have the time and energy!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Listening To Who - Episode 4 : Who's Next

2011-12-29T11:22:00.018+02:00

Hi there

well, time for more pondering and celebration of The Who, methinks. this time it's the turn of the album Who's Next.

So, what can one possibly write about Who’s Next? Originally released in 1971, it features 9 tracks. Of those 9, three are routinely considered to be amongst the best ten songs the band recorded, and two of those three are interchangeable at the top in regards of trying to say which is the best and which is the second best song the band ever did. The other 6 songs are not exactly bad either (far from it), and the 7 extra songs you get on the “one disc deluxe” version I recently got are familiar but excellent.

That would be the rather short version. I shall be writing a good deal more here, of course, but if you want it in brief, well, if you do not have this album then off you go to obtain a copy of it.

The fact that an album emerged from the band in 1971 must have been something of a surprise at the time, really. After the release of the legendary Tommy in mid-1969, the band went on a relentless touring scheduled, playing a massive set of their ‘rock opera’ and a standard set of classics night after night. Some of this was captured in the often released Live At Leeds album in 1970. for more on that great, must own album, click here!

A recurring theme for Pete Townshend, as highlighted in earlier posts on The Who, was the wish to capture the live sound of the band on record instead of simply trying to recreate the sound of records onstage. An interview in early ’71 has Pete saying that they were “setting out to make the best music they possibly could”, which saw the ambitious project to compose and record an album “live”, predominantly with a series of, if you will, interactive gigs at the Young Vic in London. This was all done as part of, and here’s a phrase that Who fans are all too familiar with, Townshend’s “Lifehouse Project”.

There are already quite enough articles on the whole Lifehouse project to suggest that I do not need to spend so much time on it here. In short, it was a “concept” or possibly another “rock opera” that Townshend felt inspired to create from his experiences touring Tommy. This was in specific regard of how audiences reacting, the if you will “vibrant buzz” of them. In short, the project proved unrealistic and was postponed in favour of using some of the tracks for a more straightforward, conventional album in the form of Who’s Next. For further reading in regards of Lifehouse, there is the internet certainly, but also any halfway decent book on the band will have a good deal of it, and indeed the booklet that comes with any 1995 and beyond issue of Who’s Next has a great amount on it.

So, on to the conventional album that was released. I suppose the best place to start is the three songs mentioned above. Baba O’Riley, Won’t Get Fooled Again and Behind Blue Eyes are the stand out tracks here, which certainly give weight to Townshend’s statement that they intended to make “the best music they possibly could”.

For some reason in the 70s a number of bands, in particular Queen, had “no synthesizers” written on their album, as if the sound of a synthesizer is always a bad thing. The bookends of the original album, Baba O’Riley and Won’t Get Fooled Again, both have immediately recognizable and indeed iconic synthesizer melodies and these two songs are the two I would argue the band ever did. Which is saying a very great deal indeed, considering the hefty number of great songs you can list for them. I cannot for the life of me work out what it was that happened between Who’s Next in 1971 and a band like Queen by the mid 70s that led to an anti-synthesizer campaign. Presumably some sort of prototype Jedward used them around 73 or 74?

The two songs under discussion here are of course rather familiar to a new, “younger” audience as they are two of the three songs currently used for the theme of the series of CSI shows. That shouldn’t distract from their overall awesome level of greatness, though. Nothing I can really say here can capture or describe them in detail, but I will try. Baba O’Riley speaks of a world you wish existed, and Won’t Get Fooled Again shows off just how good all four members of the band were. If for some inexplicable reason you’ve not heard either, off you go – and I do mean right now – to find copies of them.

As for the third legendary song from the album, Behind Blue Eyes, it is one that should be performed by The Who and them alone. Sadly of late the song has been tainted by a ghastly “rewritten” version by a band of limited talent called Limp Bizkit. It was with sheer delight that I read they have been dropped by their record label and thus effectively split; if they had done to a Beatles or Springsteen song what they did to this Who one they would have been hounded out of the industry a good deal sooner. Try to ignore the offensive, horrid cover and listen to Daltrey give one of his greatest ever performances on the original.

As for the other six songs, well, there are five great ones and one that I tend to skip over. That one would be the only non-Townshend song (by co-incidence I assure you) track, My Wife, written by John Entwistle. It just has an, as best I can describe it, odd mix to it, in particular on the distorted / “buried” vocals, and it takes some work to get into. With so many other treasures available, I just cannot be bothered to give it the work it requires, really.

The extra tracks on the one disc “deluxe” version are very nice to have indeed. The previously unreleased version of Pure And Easy on here is ace, evoking a psychedelic summer of love sound some four years late. Daltrey’s vocal on it certainly sounds mid-to-late 60s, which serves to illustrate just how strong and loud his voice had developed when compared to the rest of Who’s Next. It’s somewhat out of tone with the remainder of the album, but I might have considered ditching My Wife and including this one instead, really.

As for songs that very nearly did get included in the original albums, we get Naked Eye and Water. Again. Or if you will, yet again. These “rare” tracks have a habit of turning up on numerous Who releases, in particular live albums and of course the superb, must-have 30 Years Of Maximum R & B box set. Both are tracks that sound like they could be great, but tend to lean towards the average side of being very average songs, as it were. Perhaps they would or indeed will make more sense if heard as part of Lifehouse, as and when Pete finishes it off.

Mention must be made, of course, of the celebrated / infamous cover picture for Who’s Next. I remember reading one article on the album which suggested that the cover “just looks more and more childish with each passing year”, whereas other articles celebrate it as iconic brilliance. The what and why of them doing it remains something of a mystery. The band, ahem, relieving themselves upon a giant monolith has been interpreted as them announcing they’ve gone one better than their monolithic work Tommy, with some seeing it as a dig (for no given or apparent reason) at Stanley Kubrick’s 2001. In all likelihood, it’s probably just something that amused one or more of the band. A somewhat different cover was planned, and indeed is included in the CD. It features Keith Moon in a state of revealing cross-dressing. All I can say of it is that in brings to mind the words of Ian Faith when quizzed on the cover for Spinal Tap’s Smell The Glove – “you should have seen the cover they wanted to do, it wasn’t a glove, believe me.”.

When people speak of the greatest albums of the 70s, it tends to be records like Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, Bat Out Of Hell by Meat Loaf and The Dark Side Of The Moon by Pink Floyd. Others get a mention too, certainly, but rare is it that I have seen or heard of Who’s Next being spoken of in such stature. And that’s a great shame, really. Whereas I would stop well short of calling it the greatest album of the decade (that would go to Rumours, or perhaps a Bowie one), it certainly should be in the top ten of any list of that decade, top twenty in a worst case. Devout Who fans will already have this, but admirers of Rock who normally do not care for The Who (if such a type exists) should certainly consider this one.

I still find it astonishing that in such a period of prolific touring and recording that the band was able to turn out a masterpiece such as this, frankly. Recent examples of bands trying to keep the momentum going in a similar style have not worked out, really. A case in point would be the Manic Street Preachers, who followed up the excellent Journal For Plague Lovers with the distinctly average Postcards From A Young Man, and then threw out a “singles collection” which has been well documented here already. i would like to be wrong, but i doubt we shall see the high levels of quality that The Who produced year after year from any new band.

if you don't have the album, or have "just" the first issue CD featuring the standard 9 tracks of the album, you can order it at amazon or, if you prefer paying more, HMV.

there is a 2 disc version of it out there too, but it costs a great deal more.

and what shall be the next CD by The Who to be given a spin? not sure at the moment, but you'll be able to read about it here, no doubt!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the martial garment of The King

2011-12-29T10:04:00.002+02:00

hey everyone

well, as usual, my chum Spiros has alerted me to a most interesting item that he has discovered. and this one could truly be the greatest discovery yet!

behold, for this is a satin black belt as apparently endorsed and worn by The King, Elvis Presley. i will allow you a moment to digest this revelation.
Spiros assures me that the inscription on the belt is in Korean for some reason, and that it details the history of The King, Elvis Presley.
this item is available from, what i gather, is an interesting site called Elvis Karate which teaches the wide and versatile range of martial arts as practiced by The King, Elvis Presley. i would trust that this is up to date in regards of the methods used by Him - sadly i am unaware of which other strings to his bow he has added whilst living in China, but i would wager that He is awesome at them.
Spiros is rather keen on these martial arts things and has indeed gone so far as to visit places such as Sheffield to practice his deft skills. there have been one or two incidents, sure, where an 11 or 12 year old girl has absolutely lamped him in a bout or tournament, but when it comes to grappling with a gent, wrestling him to the ground and mounting him in a submissive position there really are few better than him.

Spiros advises that this item costs several thousand in any currency you care to name, and indeed a few thousand more if you (wisely) wish to have it delivered with a picture of The King, Elvis Presley wearing this particular belt. presently Spiros is preparing a number of documents in anticipation of the need for a credit facility to own one of these, and i suggest you do the same.

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Christmas in New Zealand

2011-12-28T13:59:00.004+02:00

hey there

well, needless to say i sat with a veritable stack of pictures of Christmas from across the family. i will be doing my best to update with a few images of each over the next few days, but there are more than a few to go through! bear with me, those interested and eager!

a first up would and indeed perhaps should be New Zealand, for in accordance with timelines and that they celebrated Christmas Day first. usually there is some sort of embargo which prevents all that many pictures being sent from New Zealand (well, it is either that or Gillian "not being bothered" about taking them off the camera and sending them), so it's great to get a few!

first up is Daniel, and the remarkable - indeed impressive - stash of offerings delivered to him by the one they call Father Christmas!

that all looks excellent, but Daniel appears to still prefer that rather smooth looking blanket! and why not?

as for Katie, well, it would appear that the two front teeth did not get delivered, but a whole load of other excellent stuff did!

and no, Grant enthusiasts, i have not forgotten you and your relentless desire to see and hear more of him on this site. Grant has long had an ambition to be "a bit more Freddie Mercury", and it seems he took another step towards this.

quite a quality, if fake, moustache there! good luck with growing a real one like that!

finally, as is a tradition for them, the family over in New Zealand have a go at a self-portrait every year. here's there go this year!

splendid, most splendid. in particular as they are not sticking tongues out or pulling rude gestures for a change!

many thanks indeed for the pics! it looks and sounds like you all had a most excellent time of it!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

fiddling with technology.

2011-12-28T13:32:00.002+02:00

hey everyone

here are some pictures of certain members of the Harlo gang. Chris is excluded as i didn't get to take a picture of him.

right, here are the sequence of events as to how you are seeing these pictures. we spoke to the Harlo gang on Christmas day via that Skype thing on my Dad's PC. i took these pictures with my blueberry phone as we were chatting. i then emailed the pictures off my blueberry to my address on my home PC. then the pictures went from my email to a memory stick. the memory stick then transferred the images to my PC here at verk and i have since uploaded them here. simple.

oh by the way, please do not think these are "special Christmas hats" that the Harlo gang are wearing; this is standard attire for them. in particular Colin and his rather fetching antlers.

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

James and William look for a film to watch

2011-12-28T12:55:00.002+02:00

hey there

well, after a few days here i am back posting! i've not been on here for the most part, of course, as we were celebrating Christmas, as i trust most of you were. there's also being left exhausted by the boys as they had fun for the last few days, but that's another tale for another post or two.

a hint, however, is in this post. yesterday James decided that he and William were going to watch a Superman film. this involved James, and William armed with a toy axe, deciding to hold a semi-audit of all their discs as they looked for "that one where Superman rescues the helicopte" (the first to feature Christopher Reeve, i believe you will find).

here is an image of the result of the semi-audit!

nice work, boys!

the "semi" part comes into it as, of course, James and William felt no compelling reason to put any of the discs or boxes back themselves, leaving it to Mummy and Daddy to do it. it gave us the chance, at least, to try and put some of the discs back into the correct, empty boxes. i must say, in this regard, they do have the influence of Uncle Richard a bit, as he famously used to have a pile of empty VHS boxes more or less the same height and size as he did a pile of unboxed video tapes.

i think it only took us about 3 hours to put them all back. the more interesting thing, however, is that after finding the correct Superman film, the boys instead decided to watch that class Batman film from the 60s. you know, the one where Batman gets attacked by a shark, but happily has a can of "bat shark repellant" on hand.

more posts soon-ish!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Easter Eggs in The Dark Knight Rises trailer?

2011-12-23T16:04:00.002+02:00

hey everyone

well, it seems that Christopher Nolan is having a touch of fun by hiding one or two things in the trailer for the, to put it mildly, hugely anticipated film The Dark Knight Rises
. i would guess they are there to get fans "talking" and speculating, so let us oblige him!

first up and a look at the crowd in the hugely anticipated "stadium scene".

do you see it? no? look again. still don't see it? here's a close up.

yes, that's the familiar logo of Robin! the extra who made this sign has owned up that he "did it for fun", but Mr Nolan exacts such strict control over his films he must have been aware of it and decided to leave it in.

and thus this must have been quite deliberate.....

hmn. Dick Grayson was always described as "Bruce Wayne's ward", and of course in the celebrated 60s TV series Robin was played by one Burt Ward.

it is, however, unlikely that any of this means Robin shall turn up in the film. Christian Bale said that "you will know if Robin is in it because i will not be", which seems to be a pretty conclusive denial.

there's been an incredible, if not astonishing, build up of hatred for Robin over the last decade or so, really. i am pretty sure it started out around the time he was introduced to the last series of Batman films, the dislike and hatred stemming from that horrid actor Chris O'Donnell giving his standard horrible, almost unbearable style of performance in the part.

no doubt there are more things "hidden away" in the trailer, if i spot them i shall share them!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

vibes machine

2011-12-23T08:32:00.002+02:00

hey everyone

well, nothing really. i was running particularly early this morning in regards of getting to verk, so i thought that i would pop in and get a wholesome, nutritional McDonalds breakfast.

as i was sat in the drive through bit, it seemed like a particularly good idea to take a picture of Mr Vibes, the stag i have in the car to play tunes on.

i have no idea if this is of any particular interest to anyone, so i thought i would add it here as i had absolutely no idea what else to do with this picture.

if you want more of the same, do feel free to "add" or "follow" me on this twatter business, "@leerblueberry" i believe or think my twatter address is.

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and yet more Christmas Tree action!

2011-12-23T08:10:00.002+02:00

hey there

many thanks indeed to Andrew for sending on images of how the Harlo Gang Christmas tree looks this year!

the aesthetics of it certainly suggest that Colin has been predominantly involved on a conceptual and design level, really.

wow. clearly this year Colin has chosen to evoke certain Renaissance-era sensibilities, adopting into it some bold, if not stark, post-modernist elements of nouveau cubism.

i particularly like the juxtaposition of the remote control under the tree, too - it speaks of their intention to watch the Doctor Who special on Sunday, come what may.

if the above picture was not enough, then Andrew also forwarded one more on, featuring the Harlo Gang before the tree!

the above is possibly Andrew's triumph. here, in the medium of digital, Andrew has stylised an image which seeks to recreate some of the more angular works of Hieronymus Bosch, injecting into in a some may say controversial sense of the self-portrait medium so often associated with Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun. outstanding, Andrew, simply outstanding. in particular as Christopher seems not to be wearing an offensive shirt.

well, i suspect that this update brings to an end the celebration of trees this year. what a way to end it off if so! i trust you have enjoyed looking at and reading about all these trees!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

44

2011-12-22T08:19:00.002+02:00

hey there

depending on your point of view, Richey Edwards either turns or would have turned 44 today.

there's many articles out there on his disappearance, filled with theories and speculation as to what may have happened to him.

today, though, i would imagine his family and at least three very close friends are having a hard day, the type which you would not wish on anyone. may their day be filled with nothing but good memories of this dazzling, wonderful and beautiful creature that shared his world with us for a little while.

do your best to be excellent to each other, you never know when the chance to do so will simply vanish.

birthday cake celebrations

2011-12-21T13:07:00.006+02:00

hey everyone

well, mindful of it being someone else's birthday today (heya sis, hope you have had fun!), i figured that i'd best get around to updating this corner of the internet with some pictures of James celebrating his birthday!

yes, i should have done this a week or so ago, but whoops!

the day started off interestingly enough with James making an unusual request - to wear the free t-shirt he got at the hospital when he went in for his tonsils! happy to let him do so!

it was off to a stack of presents after getting dressed, of course!

he was rather impressed with all his presents, them being for the most part related to Hot Wheels cars, Star Wars and Phineas & Ferb! i suspect, though, that his top part was opening up and reading aloud all the cards. William sat and listened, but i think he was a bit confused about another round of presents that James seemed to be the expert on opening!

after that it was off to school, taking with him of course the excellent Star Wars cake as shown off here earlier. i quite love the approach James took to cutting and sharing, really!

nice of him to cut the first slice and promptly eat it whilst everyone else patiently (more or less) waits!

James' birthday was not the only reason for celebration at school that day, as it turned out. the children all got quite a surprise visitor - one that, as my brother has pointed out, appears to have been on a most excellent diet!

James and William got some class Hot Wheels cars from Santa, which was very nice indeed! wonder how he knew to get them?

after school it was time for (yet) more cake at home, allowing us to sing and sing again!

i am not sure which is the best bit for James, really - the singing, blowing the candles out or cutting up and eating the cake. i suspect the answer lies within a combination of all of that!

and, if you thought we were done with birthday cake after that one, think again! at the weekend we went over to South Fork, where Grandma had arranged another most excellent Star Wars cake for him!

those two or three of you who have decided to follow me on this 'twatter' business (leerblueberry if you wish to "follow" or "add" me, whatever the right word is) may be interested to know that the pink heart balloon behind James there is the one he released into the wild of the skies! there's a bit better view of it in the next picture!

William is really taking quite a shine to this blowing candles out business too, although i think he's angling to get his hands on the knife, really. as they both have birthdays in December, i think Michele and i shall have to get creative and think of some days and dates for us to have candles and cake throughout the year!

well, what can i say? Mummy and Daddy are thrilled that you had an excellent birthday, son!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Listening To Who - Episode 3 : BBC Sessions

2011-12-20T09:59:00.005+02:00

hey there

well, here we go again with some more words on The Who! i suspect they are in danger of being the thing most written about on this blog. well, where is the danger in that? they are excellent, after all. well, mostly.

late last week saw me select another disc by them at random, and this time it was the turn of a compilation in the form of the official release of the BBC Sessions.

where to begin with this one? a history of BBC Radio sessions, i suppose? let's see if i can do this without delving too much into the politics and what have you.

in the 1960s the (ahem) "threat" of so-called Pirate radio stations was elimnated in the interests of state security (eh?), and happily the state broadcaster, the BBC, was able to form Radio 1, ostensibly to be dedicated to this new "popular music" for as long as the trend lasted. rather handily, the BBC were also able to hire most of the DJs who found themselves sans jobs with the closure of the Pirate stations, the recently sadly deceased Jimmy Saville being one of them.

Radio 1 was quite happy playing records by these passing interest groups such as The Beatles and The Kinks, but of course when you think England you think "unions". The musicians union (whatever it's actually called) were horrified that only recorded materials were being played, and thus insisted that x amount of broadcast time be used to present live performances.

i think the reverse of that was true and it possibly involved another union that saw a more or less blanket ban on live TV performances, however, which saw much of who appeared on Top Of The Pops miming away. but that's another story.

bands, no matter how many of these "pop" singles they sold, still had to audition to get on to do a session at the BBC, and happily The Who qualified to have their first session after a mere three applications.

the sessions that The Who recorded for the BBC have never really been celebrated or fawned over to the extent of those by, say, The Beatles or The Kinks, nor to a lesser extent those by Led Zeppelin. and they certainly have never been revered or placed in the same position of importance, jumping ahead in time, as the legendary Peel Sessions by The Smiths. The Who's output at the BBC had been pretty widely available on bootlegs, but in 2000 a decision was taken to give most of their stuff an official release.

i am not going to get into all the technicalities and dates of what they recorded when here, really. i'm trying to give you info to see if it's worth your time investing in the CD. i do appreciate that such information is of interest to many people, and thus the least i can do is give you this excellent link to a site that will tell you all that you could wish to know of the actual recordings.

the disc covers an eight year period, starting with early / first single "proper" track Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere from 1965 and going through to things like Relay and Long Live Rock from 1973. between those dates, of course, there were some classic songs the band produced. although you wouldn't know it in particular on the basis of this - one one track from Tommy (in the form of I'm Free), for instance, appears on the "standard" version. more on that later.

what does feature is a very great deal of the album A Quick One. and there's nothing wrong with that, except i have not got to that album in my random listening as of yet. Pete Townshend's first go at a mini-opera from that album, A Quick One While He's Away, features here with a highly suspicious runningly length that is one second out on being exactly seven minutes long. and that leads us to part of the "problem" with the performances here.

one thing that Pete Townshend frequently said in interviews in the 60s, and indeed hints at here on this particular disc, was that the difference between The Who and their contemporaries was that whilst they sought to replicate the sound of the studio on stage, he was more interested in capturing the sound and dynamics of the band on stage when in the studio. in the BBC Sessions, then, you really get the sound of a band trying to replicate a record that attempts to recreate a live experience as a concert sound, but done so in the constraints of specific time allocated for each song (hence the previous comment on running time) and not be too "jazz odyssey" for the radio audience. add to that the fact that, at the time, these sessions were broadcast on an AM/MW frequency and most likely heard by and large on single-speaker transistor radios, perhaps a bit too much fiddling and constraint existed to prevent these sessions ever really giving a true representation to the sound of The Who live.

and yet there's still enough on the disc to make it a worthy one to have in your collection, if not an essential one.

a song which i believe is unique to this collection - in official releases at the least - is the band having a go at a cover of Dancing In The Street. it's an unusual but by that i do not mean particularly bad take on the song, really. for the most part it's a very psychedelic take on the track, in particular with regards to Roger Daltrey's vocal. there is, however, some "messing about" on it - Keith Moon seems to be trying to turn it into the style of his beloved Beach Boys at time, John Entwistle clearly gets bored and just runs up and down the chords and by the halfway mark Pete seems a little bored too and just makes his guitar go "twang" every now and then.

other than that, there are two different sessions for Substitue, a song that always sounds great when they do it. My Generation crops up as itself and as a re-worded "jingle" for Radio 1, the same being true for the good fun that is Boris The Spider. all the other tracks (26 on the "standard" version) are worth a listen, mindful of the constraints mentioned earlier. Shakin' All Over is worth a special mention - it's not the sledgehammer to your head version of it from the Live At Leeds album, but it is a pretty good version all the same.

now, i keep mentioning that this is the "standard" version, but it is - sadly - the only version you can now apparently get. it seems that when this was released, some sort of chain store in the USA called "Best Buy" had an exclusive version with a second disc, featuring tracks like Pinball Wizard, I Can See For Miles and the excellent Heaven And Hell. that's three pretty big tracks right there that they have pretty much blocked / stopped from fans legally buying. a bit of a shame, to say the least, but if they don't want to make them legally available then i guess it is off to the world of the bootlegs if you want them!

whereas the set available is probably the best of what you can get of The Who at the BBC, it is of course not the best thing Who related to the BBC. absent entire from this set are the legendary shows and "comic interludes" Keith Moon did for them in the early 70s when he (briefly) stood in for John Peel.

one can find some less-than-official recordings of Moon's radio show on the internet, and indeed one or two snippets made it on to the bands' epic 30 Years Of Maximum R & B box set. they are well worth tracking down, and i shall say no more on the subject!

as amazon are presently charging all of £2.99 for this at the moment, it is well worth getting. the variants and versions of the well known songs that feature are easily worth that money, as indeed is the take on Dancing In The Street. if you feel an overwhelming need to purchase it for a higher cost, HMV, who apparently are yet again on the verge of going bust or are at the least in some serious financial woes, will sell it to you for £3.99 at the moment. if you spot this Best Buy 2 CD version of it anywhere, but it on sight!

BBC Sessions is nice to have in the collection to the extent that it will get played 5 or 6 times and then look really, really good on the shelf. as this can be said of nearly all live albums (well, the good ones) bar the absolutely essential, can never get tired of hearing Live At Leeds by The Who, this certainly isn't intended as a complaint or criticism of the disc. worth your consideration at the least!

right, to be honest, i am glad to take this one out of the car after 5 or 6 days. what will get played next? who knows, but there's something of a cryptic clue in the way that has just been worded......

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

at the desk of a legend

2011-12-20T09:42:00.002+02:00

hi everyone

well, ain't it cool news have sort of restarted their "behind the scenes picture of the day" feature once again, and have done so with a spectacular if somewhat intimidating image.

behold, mere mortals, for here is Stanley Kubrick sat at his desk!

best guess as to when this is, going on the technology around him, would be 'the 1980s'. sorry, can't narrow it down more than that!

looking at the desk of the great one there makes me feel vindicated about the usual state of my desk!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

South Fork on a Sunday

2011-12-19T13:30:00.002+02:00

hi everyone

well, it was off to South Fork on Sunday, and with good reason. more on that good reason in a later post, it has to be said, but there are one or two pictures (well, two) that are worth going ahead and posting now in a somewhat briefer update!

Michele and i needed to go an a quick (ahem) shopping trip, and thus left James and William in the care of Grandma. which means that they were in the hands of Grandad too, and all that this means.

it wasn't long after we had headed to the shops (ahem) quickly before the boys were causing mayhem, in this instance deciding to redecorate the grounds of South Fork with some magazines.

no doubt Grandad was going to constructively shout at them and get them to tidy up, but as James was having a little check on what was in his nose he instead, of course, decided to take a photograph. i have no doubt that the above, then, shall soon feature in or on one of Grandad's celebrated calendars for the new year. well, it would be for the new year, would it not, as there is little point in making one for this present year; less for last year.

Grandad of course likes nothing more than having grandchildren around who can perform tasks and functions in and around the grounds. it's nice to see that not being quite tall enough to do what Grandad wants is no obstacle, for Grandad will quite happily pick up a child and balance them on a ledge to get the watering done.

whereas i am sure Grandad would have a reasonable go at catching William if he should have slipped off there, William does not look quite so sure, does he?

some more pictures shall follow during the week!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!

more Christmas tree action

2011-12-19T13:21:00.002+02:00

hi everyone

many thanks indeed to Erika for sending on this magnificent picture of the tree that they have up in their part of the world!

that looks quite stylish, that does! i would be pretty sure that Richard had a big say in what decorations went where; he's quite big on the style factor.

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

from the blueberry of Spiros

2011-12-19T09:19:00.002+02:00

hey everyone

well, whereas it's getting to the holiday season, if we are not in it already, some of us are still ploughing away at verk. it's a little bit quiet compared to the usual non-holiday season (go figure), which is allowing my good chum Spiros to pursue some of his interests on his travels. thankfully he has one of them blueberry phones, so he can keep me updated with images and news.

when people think of my chum Spiros they tend to, with some immediacy it has to be said, think "Turkish Bath House". as he is exceptionally familiar, and indeed some may say rather intimate with, the closest Turkish Bath to his premises, he is frequently cruising around looking for new ones. it is a happy day today, then, as he has found one rather close - by sheer co-incidence - to the place where he's currently working.

the Seventies font used for the name of the building is class! the sign post next to it is, according to Spiros, some rather handy directions for a nearby clinic. i think it's fairly safe to say where my chum Spiros shall be spending his lunch break for the next few days.

Spiros, of course, maintains that the best Turkish Bath experience is to be found at Hotel Jason in Greece. this has always been quite strange, considering the Turks and the Greeks are not known for getting along all that well, but Spiros says it's the one place where ideas that unite the two fine nations exist in harmony. a dream Spiros has involves revisiting Hotel Jason, only taking his good friend and fellow bath house enthusiast Farouk with him.

cheers for the pic, Spiros!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Manics at the O2 Arena

2011-12-17T22:46:00.003+02:00

hey everyone

obviously i am not there, but many people are. where? the Manics big "all the singles" gig at the O2 Arena in Laaandahn (innit). some are being kind enough to instantly post pictures!

to be honest, the idea of a night of "just" singles sounded very, very boring to me. the Manics, as a number of bands do, have some true treasures not released as singles. they have also release some true, genuine rubbish as singles too.

still, i imagine a massive dome filled with Manics fans listening to the Manics would make for a most awesome night!

full credit for these pictures goes to the one they call tzb off the Manics forum. good work!

looks like he is moving around the venue a fair bit to get some decent shots!

well, hope these pictures have been of interest to some of you. there's no official plan that i am aware of to film and release this show, but no doubt loads of people will be filming on their phones and the footage shall be all over the internet a few hours from now!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Christmas in New Zealand

2011-12-17T22:39:00.001+02:00

hey everyone

well, it looks like if you are in New Zealand you have Christmas Day dinner all sorted out for you!

i imagine, no expect, Grant to be there the whole day!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

dans le jardin

2011-12-16T15:53:00.002+02:00

hey everyone

well, it is a long weekend here in our corner of the world. i have spent it, thus far, in the most relaxing way possible - running the dishwasher, washing some clothes, trying to tidy up the kitchen and all that. eventually i gave in and chilled, mostly by hacking off some razor sharp branches off a palm tree with some small garden shears.

i did the latter so i could, if you will excuse me matron, erect the massive lapa / tent / canopy thing to provide some shade in the garden.

James certainly approved!

i know you can't see the tent thingie in that pic, but i assure you that James is under it!

hope all is ace and groovy wherever you are in the world!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Dark Knight Rises In An IMAX Preview

2011-12-15T19:00:00.002+02:00

hey everyone

well, if you have found this site via google or something hoping to be able to download the prologue for The Dark Knight Rises, bad luck - i don't put that sort of thing here. try searching again, it is easy enough to find.

what i am putting here are screenshots of what is on the internet right now and advising you not to bother looking for it until there's an official release.

trying to record any sort of cinema or TV screen with a phone is pretty stupid, really. trying to do it with an IMAX screen is even dumber. still, someone had a go, and here is what you will get if you seek it.

at a guess, that's roughly one third of the screen, pretty much the top half and a glimpse of the theatre's ceiling.

with what's being billed as The Prologue To The Dark Knight Rises getting shown in only about 30 IMAX theatres in America in front of the new Mission Impossible film, there's an obvious demand for bootleg variants of it like this one. you have to ask, though, is it really worth trying to watch this?

i have tried to keep the pictures to a spoiler minimum, by the way. not that looking at the whole video could spoil much as you can see next to nothing. you can certainly guess at what's going on, but you could do that without watching i suppose.

i am led to believe that there will be an official video release in the next week or so - possibly the whole of this "prologue" footage, perhaps just the next trailer for the film which this clip seems to end off with. rather, to be honest, wait for the official video to be put out on the internet.

i imagine even more people shall try and film it over the weekend, and thus even more variants of the video will pop up online. i know many of you will insist on hunting for it - all i can say is good luck, but you really should consider patience and wait for the proper thing.

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Listening To Who - Episode 2 : The Who By Numbers

2011-12-15T10:31:00.009+02:00

Hey there

well, if you are following this after reading Episode 1 of Listening To Who, thank you very much indeed for coming back for more! this time, as the title suggests, the album selected at random is The Who By Numbers.

to call 1975 a busy year for the members of The Who, together and apart, is something of an understatement. the year began with the general release of Ken Russell's film of Tommy, giving the band, and Roger Daltrey in particular as the titular star of the film, considerably more widespread attention and visibility than before. which is saying something.

not long after that saw the release of Daltrey's second solo album, Ride A Rock Horse, which was greeted with excellent reviews and subsequent sales, partially one would have thought due to the iconic cover for it.

Daltrey certainly was not alone in the Who solo album releases this year. John Entwistle released his fourth solo effort, Mad Dog. as well received as it was by critics, fans didn't take to it all that much and it remains the poorest charting album by The Ox.

and, of course, this album was released too.

Two Sides Of The Moon by Keith Moon (and many friends) probably deserves a post all to itself one day, really. in short, the idea of allowing Keith to do a solo album was to "keep him out of trouble" whilst in his new home in Los Angeles, that probably didn't quite go as well as they may have hoped, with the less-than-sobering presence of Ringo Starr and Harry Nilsson "working" on the album. often derided, it's actually good fun for those who played on it and fans that listen to it.

with all of that going on, and some extensive and legendary gigs going on, it's something of a wonder that the world got a full blown new album from the band too, the first since 1973's Quadrophenia.

in recent interviews Pete Townshend has claimed that Quadrophenia was "the last great Who album". obviously this is said mostly to push and sell the current re-release of that album, but it's a great shame he chose to do it in such a way. granted, The Who By Numbers isn't the greatest album the band made, but it is really rather good and rather far from being their worst.

the album title is somewhat flippant, is it not? perhaps a partial reference to the interesting cover artwork (a picture John Entwistle was working on for a book that was to be the history of the band presented in drawings that, sadly, never got completed), it also suggests that the band felt it was little more than a going through the motions record. this is not the case, really, mainly perhaps because there's no such thing as "going through the motions" when it comes to this band.

with ten tracks clocking in just shy of forty minutes one could argue that it was a "by the numbers" album for the time, but what we have here - and this is really for the last time in the history of the band, as it happens - ten tracks of superior quality, including one masterpiece inexplicably buried away on this album alone in regards of release.

just what you take from this album depends entirely on how much of the baggage that came with it you choose to pick up first. a number of fans have described this album as "a Pete Townshend suicide note"; based mostly on the song However Much I Booze. the song is an open admission from Townshend about his apparently troubling increased use of alcohol. it is indeed a heavy song, one that Daltrey declined to sing as he felt it rather too personal, but the trick here is the word "open". it's not a doom and gloom affair, it's an artist addressing his own issue.

the reputation of the album being all doom and gloom is further made nonsense by the one single released from it, the saucy and witty Squeeze Box.

but i am not going to talk about that song. instead i'm going to ask you to look at the name of the b-side, remember it, and find a copy of it somewhere to play as soon as possible.

Success Story, written by John Entwistle, is one of the most "iest" songs the band ever did. that's to say it's one of the wittiest, funniest, funkiest and, erm, catchiest tunes they ever laid down. and for reasons i can fathom they only made it available on this album, on the 7" of Squeeze Box and on the film The Kids Are Alright during John Entwistles' legendary "fantasy sequence" - it didn't even make the soundtrack album. once you've heard it i am pretty confident you shall be baffled as to why this never made it on to a live set or compilation, really.

the short version is that the song is a partial parody of the band itself, partly cynical but mostly honest about themselves and the music industry as a whole. it's also something of a quick, stark commentary on the UK at the time in regards of how high income tax was, but you will work that out for yourself. mostly, it's the sound of the band letting off steam and having tremendous fun. i've played the album through 5 or 6 times this week, but have repeated this song at least twice as many times.

and, once again discarding the notion that this album is all doom and gloom, the emphasis was certainly on "fun" when they went on tour after the release of the album.

although very little of this album made it to the stage (Dreaming From The Waist, another highlight of the album, being a popular exception), it was at this time that the band clearly and genuinely fell in love with being in The Who and playing live once again. if you get your hands on any of the professionally shot but never released footage from the '75 gigs, most notably Houston and the Pontiac Silverdome, you see things like Pete smiling as he plays, the band getting along rather than trying to outdo each other, Keith Moon at the peak of being the man the world loved and - get this - John Entwistle, usually "Mr Stand There And Get On With It", interacting with the audience from time to time. mostly, granted, it is telling them to shut up, but it is better than nothing.

after the well documented failures (or if you will disasters) of attempting to tour Quadrophenia, clearly the band felt a "back to basics" approach was needed, and indeed implemented, much to the joy of some of the largest audiences they had ever played to.

whereas there were no unreleased tracks from the sessions to include on the "expanded edition" of the album, the CD does capture some of what i am speaking about here by including 3 tracks from the legendary Swansea gig they did in 1976. going on the current pricing of The Who By Numbers (you will get change from a fiver, English types), these three would make the CD an essential purchase alone.

having had the album on for the past two or three days i can say that it's a very worthwhile purchase. i've just let it repeat for the most part, bar the odd "let's have another listen to Success Story" incident. there's not a bad track on it in as far as not once have i skipped forward, at least. Daltrey's vocals, made rugged by the road and refined by the demands of the albums before this, have rarely sounded better on record, and the three musicians are absolutely on top of their game.

the only really truly depressing thing about this album, and indeed the era is that it was perhaps the last time that The Who were The Who as the world came to know and cherish them. this was a great album by a band seemingly - at last - happy to be together, and was reflected in the concerts at the time.

and, as it turned out, this time was the last time. the next album, Who Are You, doesn't really have much going for it beyond the title track and the band never got to perform the songs with the original/classic line up, due of course to the tragic, accidental death of Keith Moon not long after they recorded it. the great noise machine that is The Who marched on, to an extent admirably, but it really was never ever to be the same, which means just not as good as it was here.

the two stores which ship everywhere in the world are amazon
and hmv. at the time of writing this, not only is the disc listed as cheaper at amazon, but they also remove the UK VAT pricing portion before charging you, something that the other lot do not do hence me not doing too much business with them of late. for all the reasons listed in this review, and a few deliberately left out for you to discover, this is what one would call a wise and possibly essential purchase. enjoy it when it arrives!

i have no idea which album will get played at random next, but whatever i hear you can be sure to read of it here soon! well, soon-ish. we have a spate of holidays on this side of the world, so you may have to wait a touch for the third installment!

many thanks for reading.

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

this is......

2011-12-14T12:36:00.002+02:00

....post 300 for the year, so what the heck, this one was rather funny.

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

another birthday cake.....

2011-12-14T10:45:00.002+02:00

hey everyone

well, sort of hot on the heels of William's birthday celebrations comes the time to celebrate another year gone for James!

we asked him what he would like on his birthday cake, and unsurprisingly it involved Star Wars. a little surprisingly, perhaps, was the fact that he described in precise and exact detail exactly which characters from a long time ago far, far away were to appear on the cake and where exactly they should be.

Grandma happily arranged for such a cake to be produced!

what is interesting about the description James gave of who should appear where on the cake was that it was an excellent, exact description of the Episode III poster which is on the wall of my study. that would be the study that James isn't supposed to go in to!

James took the cake into school, and with some luck some pictures shall turn up sooner or later. in the mean time, though, i am informed that the cake was well taken to and everyone enjoyed it. unlike William's one i believe some of it actually made it home with James, but Mummy got her hands on it before i did!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the Trees of Christmas

2011-12-13T13:19:00.003+02:00

hi everyone

this blog is getting bogged down in Christmas posts at the moment, isn't it? oh well, if not now then when, i suppose.

i am delighted to say that the appeal from Gillian and myself for images of Christmas trees is getting a good deal more success this year than it did last. some pictures have arrived, and thus to stick to my word i am posting them here.

first up is, i think, how the tree over at South Fork looks this Christmas.

the emphasis here is very much on think, for i am pretty sure this one was sent recently. i cannot say for sure, as i found it on my hard drive last night quite by chance. it might be the one from last year, but never mind, for it looks pretty much the same as what i saw at the weekend.

moving on and up to the Northern Hemisphere and here's the tree that Uncle Trevor has put up in Chez Trev!

outstanding Trev! the shiny purple balls are in particular inspired! nice positioning of the fairy on top, too!

i am sure Trev will have helped Grandma Harland with her tree, too. it certainly seems that Ruby gave some support!

all looking very festive and very good ideed!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!

Listening To Who - Episode 1 : The Who Sell Out

2011-12-13T09:53:00.009+02:00

hey everyone

well, as hinted at a few posts ago, having taken delivery of 8 (eight!) CDs by The Who in the last week means that i am going to be doing some serious Who listening for a while. my intention, as the title suggests, is to give a rundown and comments on them for those who have any interest. if nothing else, they shall be written for my own amusement i guess!

i am selecting the discs on a random basis, and thus first up was the third studio album by the band, The Who Sell Out.

1967 was an interesting year for The Who. in appearance, you would have to say it was also a successful year. the year before the band had had, according to Melody Maker if no one else, their first ever number one single with I'm A Boy and chart success continued in early 67 with the top five single Pictures Of Lily. the latter was of course famous for being one of the first "pop" singles to be banned by radio stations, but more on that a bit later. 1967 also saw The Who release the first and last set of covers of songs by The Rolling Stones. The band felt that the imprisonment of some of The Stones for drug related charges was unfair, and vowed to cover a song a week by them to show support. it got as far as one recording, Under My Thumb, before the wayward Stones were set free. whereas the single didn't sell that well, it did get The Who some publicity and attention.

and speaking of attention, 1967 really saw America embrace The Who. perhaps not with the sound and the fury that welcomed The Beatles, nor the instant adoption which The Stones got, but accepted all the same. the most notable visual reference to this was the memorable - indeed, explosive - appearance by the band on the popular Smothers Brothers show.

behind the scenes, however, it was possibly as close as it had ever been to the end of The Who. Roger Daltrey, considered at this stage to be "the weak link" in the band as he only brought a voice to three of the most gifted musicians of the era, tried punching above his weight in terms of say and influence in the band. punching is quite apt, as it was Daltrey's proclivity for violence to resolve matters which saw him temporarily kicked out of the band.

if the above was mostly a power struggle between Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey then the knock on effect was to very nearly see Keith Moon and John Entwistle just get up and walk out. and how close this came to being! at a chance meeting in a pub at the time, a respected guitarist who was looking to form a band on his own listened to Moon and Entwistle complain about Daltrey and Townshend, taking the chance to offer them the job in his new band. both ultimately declined, but the guitarist, Jimmy Page, took away with him from that meeting the name, for Keith Moon - rock folklore states - suggested that Page's idea for a band would "go down like a Lead Zeppelin".

if band disharmony was not enough to be getting on with, there was the not exactly small matter of the finances of the band. they were spending money far faster than they were bringing it in. The Who's spectacular destruction of instruments and stages during gigs, and Keith Moon's ongoing fascination with destroying everything in general and hotel rooms in particular, were all very impressive, but they cost a good deal of money.

all things considered, then, it was something of a suprise, fluke, miracle or just plain "meant to be act of nature" that the four of them ever got into a recording studio, never mind actually did anything. perhaps less surprising, as it turns out, is that The Who Sell Out is not exactly a spectacular or brilliant album. it does. however, have many merits.

the best way to describe the album is perhaps as "a concept album with no actual concept and no awareness of being a concept album". is that confusing? good, then i have it descibed in the best way possible. the album is effectively just a collection of songs (mostly half decent ones) joined together by "fake" adverts and jingles for the presumably imaginary Radio London radio station. the idea, i believe, was to create the experience of listening to a radio station whilst you were actually listening to a Who album. i have no doubt at all that this all made sense to Townshend and his Pop Art sensibilities. that's not to say there's something wrong with it, far from it really. Townshend of course went on to expand and create "concept albums" of great significance after this. beyond that, though, i think it was only Sigue Sigue Sputnink with Flaunt It that took up the idea of putting adverts between songs on an album.

exactly how "fake" the adverts were intended to be is something i find debatable. some of them, in particular the ones for Jaguar and Coca Cola, are far too polished and complimentary, really. Entwistle's jingle for Radio One, borrowing heavily from his beloved Boris The Spider, falls into this category too. i very much get the sense that the jingles for the real products were done in the hope, or the off chance, that the actual companies who produced them might be tempted to stump up and purchase the songs from Townshend, to be honest. well, the album is called Sell Out, after all, and any (much needed) income generated if he had sold them could have been dismissed as "irony" i suppose.

moving on to the actual songs, and there are a number of things notable about the vocals. i believe i am right in saying that this is the Who album which features the least amount of Daltrey on and, when he is allowed to sing, for the most part it's in a somewhat unrecognizable falsetto style. it's only really on the one single off the album, the brilliant I Can See For Miles, that Daltrey truly sounds like Daltrey.

the general consensus is that this is very deliberate and relates to victory for Pete in the Daltrey vs Townshend "fight" commented on above. being forced to sing out of style and being removed entire from some songs are interpreted as Townshend "putting Daltrey in his place", as it were. giving substance to this would be the celebrated album cover artwork, pictured in this post. it was, after all, only Roger Daltrey who was forced to sit in a bath full of ice cold baked beans for the sake of 'art'.

listening to the actual songs themselves, and they are a mixed bag really. they are not bad, but far from memorable to be honest. some of them had far reaching influence, but bear with me, we shall get to that.

other than I Can See For Miles, a song of great interest is certainly Mary Anne With The Shaky Hand. this is generally seen as an allusion to masturbation; as indeed was the banned by certain stations as a consequence Pictures Of Lily. that's two songs on the same "interesting" subject in one year, then, Pete. you have to imagine that Jonathan Ross sees Townshend as some sort of king, really.

Armenia City In The Sky, written for the band by John Keene, is the album opener and clearly had some influence on certain young record buyers at the time. the youngsters i have in mind include Brian Connolly, Ian Hunter, Dave Hill, Marc Bolan, Mick Ronson, David Bowie and quite possibly the songwriting brains behind Gary Glitter. why? because the song, in the midst of the psychedelic era, sounds like pure glam. give it a listen, paying particular attention to the guitar and indeed the mix of John Entwistle's celebrated horn playing.

another song of influence is one credited to Keith Moon called Girl's Eyes, which i believe only appears on the one disc "expanded" edition i have. the song itself is nothing special, but it ends with a piece i believe they call Odorono. it is a piano piece, and it is practically note by note exactly how I Don't Like Mondays by the Boomtown Rats starts, some ten years before Saint Bob and company recorded it.

it was not only other artists who borrowed from The Who Sell Out, mind. Townshend himself notably pilfered it. if you listen to the tracks Rael 1 and Rael 2 then one hears the tune that became Underture on the Tommy album, and indeed what one could interpret as a first go at the lyrics to the "listening to you" refrain from the rock opera. and the origins of Tommy in this album do not end there - a song called Glow Girl features the lyric "it's a girl, Mrs Walker, it's a girl". one gender change later and, well, you know the rest.

and that's a nice point to end a look at the album on. after two plays through, the only real conclusion i reach is that this album was a handy exercise in getting Pete Townshend to produce a full blown conceptual album, with that one of course being Tommy. beyond that, The Who Sell Out is pretty much a patch up job, which perhaps isn't all that much of a surprise since the band were busy patching themselves up as it was made. quite how Rolling Stone in 2003 decided this was the 113th greatest album of all time is a bit beyond me; i shudder to think what sits above and below it on their list.

on the basis of the price it is currently going for (no more than four of your English pounds) it is worth picking up and giving a few plays to. the essays inside the booklet are worth that cost alone, as indeed is the run through the band give to The Hall Of The Mountain King. the only two places i know of that sell it and ship worldwide (at a reasonable fee) are HMV and amazon, so clicking on either of their names will take you away to where you can order it.

phew, we are finished with that one then! i have no idea which Who album i shall dabble with next, or if the comments will be quite as time consuming as this one, but we should find out together in the next few days!

thanks for reading.

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

New Zealand Christmas Tree

2011-12-12T20:39:00.002+02:00

hey everyone

last year, you may recall, Gillian had an excellent idea where the family, spread around corners of the world, all sent each other pictures of their Christmas tree. easy enough to do, you would have thought, with this digital camera and email business. one can even take a pic on their blueberry or iTwit device and send it soon enough. sadly, however, not many did it.

we are trying again this year! i have already shown off ours, and Gillian has now kindly sent on a look at how an Auckland based tree turns out!

very smart indeed! not quite as random with the decorations as ours, i note!

now then, how does that song go? "all i want for Christmas is my two front teeth" or something? ah yes, so it does - thanks for the reminder, Katie!

Daniel looks sort of impressed with the tree too, but one suspects that he would be a good deal more impressed if there were some presents around it. in particular with his name on!

thanks for the pictures, Gillian! should anyone else send on images, i shall be sure to put them here!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

at Christmas, but not of Christmas

2011-12-12T14:00:00.008+02:00

hey everyone

well, it is the season to be jolly and all that, and usually it is thus also the season to reel out the usual Christmas themed films. if you are somewhat tired of Miracle on 34th Street, It's A Wonderful Life and variants of A Christmas Carol, i thought i'd produce a list of 12 (for obvious reasons) films that are set at Christmas, but not particularly of Christmas in regards of the plot.

i will do my best to make the descriptions, apart from the time of year they are set, as spoiler free as possible!

Love Actually is perhaps the one film on this list that "cheats" a bit in terms of what i am saying, so let us get it out of the way now.
other than a sub-plot involving a Christmas present and of course the school Nativity play, there's nothing else to the film that says it has to be set at Christmas. it just is. and it's, quite frankly, wonderful.
for a number of years i avoided watching this one as it looked at surface value to be rather soppy, sentimental and silly. to a degree it is all of those, yet somehow pulls it off and is thoroughly good, heartwarming and heartbreaking entertainment. sure, if you want to watch it with the eyes of a cynic you can pick all sorts of holes in the seemingly almost idylic world in which it is set, but why would you want to do that? this film will entertain you for close on three hours if you just let it do its thing.

close to being another cheat would be Gremlins, i suppose. the fact that Gizmo was purchased as a Christmas present is neither here nor there in regards of the plot or story, though. however, do be warned - do NOT let children watch this film unless you have had a little chat with them about the realities of Father Christmas, as one of the few Christmas related scenes in the film, erm, kind of gives the game away on that one!
not that children in general should be watching it, really - it's rather violent this film is, but somehow (as is quite common with Steven Spielberg related movies) it got a very low age restriction certificate.
i suppose the best way to describe the film is that it's a horror film for people who really do not like horror films. there's a few thrills and scares in it, but mostly it's good fun. and certainly ace watching!

something that isn't good fun would be Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence. it is, quite honestly, one of the darkest and most disturbing films ever made, let alone being the darkest film ever to feature the word 'Christmas' in the title. it is also a masterpiece.
just how dark? well, it's set in a Japanese prisoner of war camp during World War II. that should tell you. and it's difficult to tell you any more of it without giving too much away, least of all why "Merry Christmas" features in the title.
musicians having a go at acting tends to miss more than it hits, but as David Bowie started off as an actor before dabbling with music this is very much a hit, as it were. Bowie is superb in this film, and given ample support by some fine acting. i cannot stress enough that this is in no way an easy film to watch, but well worth it if you are an avid fan of cinema as literature.

heavy but not quite as heavy as the above is LA Confidental. it's easy to forget that the story which inspired the novel which inspired the movie is referred to as "The Christmas Killings", thus it counts for a place on this list!
the 90s produced some amazing films, and for some reason (despite some valid Oscar recognition) people tend to forget about this one. a look at the sleazy underbelly of LA from an era that people would rather look at with rose-tinted spectacles, this is a crime drama-thriller that is as brutal as it is brilliant.
exceptional acting all around, in particular from the sadly often overlooked Guy Pearce, makes this film a must see if you have somehow missed this one.

depending on where you are in the world, this film was released either as The Ref or Hostile Hostages. to be safe, you are probably better off getting your hands on the film twice, one for each variant of the name, and just watching each as it's that good.
actors who made their name as stand up comedians have a hit and miss affair with the cinema (refer to Robin Williams' entire career in this regard), but this film was one that really, really captured the genius of Denis Leary. he plays a somewhat bungling robber who truly bungles one particular job and by chance ends up taking a couple with marital problems - to say the least - hostage whilst the heat dies down.
the humour is equally slapstick as it is cerebral, enhanced by the appearance of a relatively unknown at the time Kevin Spacey.
it's just pure co-incidence that this one happens during the Festive season, this is a great comedy to watch any time!

with all that goes on in the film, it's somewhat easy to forget that Robert Downey jnr's bizarre chain of events in the magnificent Kiss Kiss Bang Bang all start with his attempts to "obtain" a Christmas present via less than conventional means.
i have always found it rather difficult to accept that critics and audiences didn't particularly take to this film, really. at the time of release i suppose Robert Downey jnr had not been quite as "reformed and accepted" as he was by the time Iron Man came along, and Val Kilmer's odd reputation seems to put audiences off for no apparent reason. which is a shame, really, as both are superb in this film - arguably neither have been better, before or since.
what's it about? a daringly funny, noir but not noir comedy thriller is about the best i can do for you. watch and enjoy and you will understand why it's hard to give it a category.

is The Godfather really a film that has a Christmas setting in the background? oh yes, very much so!
in fairness this film covers a rather large amount of time, but a key sequence, when you think about it ("hospital bed" is all i shall say), happened at Christmas. as it was the first time one of the characters truly became involved in the family business, so to speak, it would be unfair not to include it on this list.
beyond Christmas itself actually featuring, it is the season which is perfect for watching this film. again, presumably, unless somehow you have gone your life without seeing it. the idea that this is a "mafia" or "gangster" film is and always has been sheer nonsense, at the core and heart of this film is the importance of family.
if for some reason you have never seen this film, please feel free to leave a comment saying why not, exactly. and then go and find a copy!

now then, why Stanley Kubrick should set his criminally overlooked final masterpiece Eyes Wide Shut at Christmas is a question that would not be answered even if he were still with us. perhaps it was for reasons of the illustration of family as in The Godfather mentioned above, or perhaps it simply amused the great director to do so.
this film was heavily promoted as a "Tom Cruise" film, which it certainly was not. it was a Stanley Kubrick production through and through, brilliantly showing off another investigation into the human condition, just as all his other films did. hard to believe that this is coming up to, what, 12 years old now?
if you skipped it at the time, or really didn't "get it", i would urge you to give it another or first try, really.

and, after a couple of light films, why not delve into the psychologically demanding world of Dumb And Dumber? i at least think this had Christmas in the background, although i could be just confusing it with the fact that a lot of it is about getting to, and indeed in, Aspen, known for its snow.
i am not sure i have ever laughed as hard at a film on repeat viewing as i did with this one. well, yes i did recently - Four Lions. this is one of those rare films in that it captures the spirit of a Monty Python movie, or perhaps even the late great Peter Sellers, yet very much has its own identity.
what, exactly, is it about? erm, for the most part it does exactly what it says on the box, really. as an added bonus it gives an interesting critique of John Denver at one point.

unless i am very much mistaken, the first Lethal Weapon film started off with the song Jingle Bell Rock, didn't it? there was also an early introductory scene to the character of Martin Riggs (played superbly by Mel Gibson) featuring a huge number of Christmas trees.
as with the original Rocky film, it's very very easy to forget just how brilliant the original movie was in the light of hit and miss, straying from the point sequels that followed. Gibson as a self-destructive cop partnered with a by the numbers Danny Glover was an amazing combination here. and let us not forget this featured one Gary Busey as the sinister Mr Joshua. sorry, that's a Gary Busey being very good indeed as Mr Joshua.
this lacks the comedy element of the sequels (no Joe Pesci here, and certainly no exploding toilets), but is very much one of the great action-thriller films to come out of the 80s. which is saying something, as there were some amazing ones.

speaking of which.....

Die Hard. this is the original poster for the film. look carefully - yes, that's right, the building is slightly larger than Bruce Willis, who at the time had a "troubled reputation" as the star of the TV show Moonlighting. this film took off big style and, rightly, made a huge star out of Mr Willis.
plot? it's Christmas, and Brucie is off to see his estranged wife. oh dear, a bunch of European (sort of German) terrorists have hijacked the building in which she works for reasons unclear. they were not expecting a cowboy to spoil the party.
what can i say of Die Hard that has not been said? an insane rollercoaster of action, wisecracks and Alan Rickman.
despite this being far from suitable for the whole family, increasingly i note magazines, polls and what have you are celebrating Die Hard as "the greatest Christmas film ever". it's a reasonable choice for the title, too.

but my choice for the greatest Christmas film ever has to be Trading Places. my first reaction to watching it the first time was to rewind the video tape and watch it again. and i laughed even more the second time around.
two elderly brothers, the Dukes, decide to conduct a scientific experiment to see which one wins, nature or nurture. they arrange for wealthy, educated Wall Street Broker Dan Aykroyd to switch places with down and out vagrant Eddie Murphy just to see what happens - with a bet of an interesting wager riding on the outcome. what follows presents some of the truest social commentary on the 80s in any art form, as well as some of the funniest things you shall ever see in a film.
for me neither of the leads have ever been as good in anything else as they were here, which is rather remarkable considering the somewhat better known films they are associated with. of this entire list, if you have seen none or only a few of these films, please make sure you see this one. or, indeed, watch it again. and do whatever a DVD considers to be rewind and watch once more!

well, there you have it. if this list has reminded you of some great films you haven't watched for a while, or given you reason to watch something you'd not considered giving a go, my work is done!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Dark Knight doesn't rise?

2011-12-10T23:24:00.001+02:00

hey everyone

a new poster has just been released for The Dark Knight Rises. and it's somewhat sinister....

hmn, they have made clear in the trailers and so on that there shall be no fourth film - just how final will this one be for Bruce / Batman?

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

my listening for the week ahead

2011-12-10T19:43:00.002+02:00

hi everyone

apologies for the promised lack of updates this week, but i have been rather busy. James went in for his tonsils to be taken out, if that makes sense, and thus i have been at home with him, doing the nursing thing and getting him back to health.

it's been quite ace, really - a week (or thereabouts) of ice cream, jelly and doing colouring in pictures! as he has made a rather good recovery thus far, time for me to take a moment or two to update the blog with some pictures.

and yes, here's one taken off my blueberry phone thingie. i had a go at cleaning the lens, but taking a pic in a less than blinding light set of circumstances still doesn't go down too well with it.

that, ladies and gentlemen, is a pile of CDs by The Who which arrived this week. seven in total, all for just slightly over twenty quid, thanks to amazon for some reason reducing the price of them dramatically - presumably to mark the release of the special edition / "director's cut" of Quadrophenia. which, as it happens, i also ordered and took delivery of this week. so that's 8 albums by The 'Oo in one week. nice!

my intention would be to listen to them all over the next week or so and give some comments; thus you have been warned. of course it's the case of "listen to them again", but it seems as good an excuse as any for some serious Who posting.

more as and when i have it to say!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Christmas Tree

2011-12-05T23:15:00.002+02:00

Hi Everyone

i really don't know exactly when one is supposed to put up a Christmas tree and, to be honest, i really have no wish to find out. the first Sunday of December seemed like as good a time as any to do it, and so we did!

well, i fetched all the stuff out of the garage, i suppose. James was very excited about doing it all, so i mostly just kept out of the way, letting him and Mummy put the actual tree up, and then watching as the two of them were joined by William to put the decorations on.

this was the first time that William had helped to do the tree, and he had a rather splendid time helping his brother put all the stuff on!

well, mostly a splendid time, i suppose. one or two of the decorations were, to William's mind, something akin to insolent, and refused to magically stick to where he decided they should be. when they landed on the floor - thankfully on the rug - William just sort of kicked them away, for they were no use to him. i think we found most of them!

one thing that William certainly wasn't allowed to either kick or particularly handle were the most wonderful new decorations we have. in his pottery classes James has made some great gingerbread men to hang on the tree, and hang on the tree the gingerbread men do!

nice work, son!!

and here's the finished, perhaps lop-sided (or however you spell it), surrounded by a degree of clutter (the boys do love their books) tree!

should you put one of these up in your home, we sincerely hope that you have as much fun doing it as we did with ours!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PARENTING with GRANDAD

2011-12-05T22:58:00.002+02:00

Hi Everyone

i suspect some of you may think i jest or overstate just how Grandad is with his Grandchildren. not many of you shall need convincing, i would have thought, after his most recent exploits in New Zealand (with his novel idea of pretending to abandon Daniel in a park in the middle of Auckland to "get some hidden pictures" of him, need i remind you) but all the same he proudly sent on some more examples of his ideas on parenting today.

Lyla appears to be getting, for the true want of a better phrase, the benefit of his approach at the moment. there is no such thing, for Grandad, as too young to start work, and here she is on the phone.

no doubt she's busy wheeling and dealing on Grandad's behalf, possibly arranging some more Bob Dylan tickets or perhaps even placing a modest but all the same hefty wager with a local turf accountant.

on that note, Ruby-Lee probably has "favourite Grandchild" status at the moment. it's a rotating thing with him, but as Ruby-Lee does not walk / run around as yet and is mostly rather quiet, she can just sit there with him as he watches the ponies.

William enjoyed that status for a little while and rather enjoyed it, but i think he enjoys running around causing mayhem at South Fork even more. his latest plan, for instance, is to catch the fish in one of the fish ponds or tanks. he will succeed in this; the only real question is how much damage he will do and exactly how much of the fish he catches will he eat. lots and most, if you wanted a speculative guess.

anyway, back to good (ahem) parenting by Grandad and indeed back to Lyla. rather unfortunately for her today, Lyla can walk around a good deal more than her younger sister. in order to help her practice walking, Grandad very kindly allowed her to mop most of the North Wing of South Fork today.

very kind and forward thinking of you, Grandad, i am sure that helped her learn to walk even better than she currently perfectly does.

the learnings do not stop there, oh no. Grandad really does not have time for any of this health and safety rubbish as such, but he does believe that if a job is possibly too dangerous for him, or he just simply cannot be bothered, this is where Grandchildren come in as handy.

like, for instance, if someone needs to lean over and place an angel on a tree.

good work Lyla, and well done to Grandad for almost using both hands to hold on to her and make sure she doesn't fall down!

i would be rather sure than more examples of his wisdom and ways of bringing up his Grandchildren shall appear here in the near future. most of it, of course, can always be written off as "character building".

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

scenes of celebration at South Fork

2011-12-05T12:48:00.011+02:00

Hi everyone

well, with William's birthday falling rather close to the weekend (some are of the school of thought that it was of a day that should be spoken of as part of the weekend), the usual weekend trip to South Fork turned into further celebrations for the young man. and why not!

it was a particularly excellent time to have such celebrations, for fate had it that Richard, Erika, Lyla and Ruby-Lee were in town too, making having a party for William all the more wise an idea.

more celebrations meant, amongst other things, more cake. this is always a winner!

nice to see Grandad, as usual of course, smiling away there. just how good a day was it? well, if my memory serves correct, not once did i hear him single out a particular grandchild as a favourite simply because they were quiet, and nor did he threaten to impose on any of them a thrashing or other slipper based problem resolution. a first, really, and yes - that good a day!

birthday cake also means birthday candles, and as you can see James was right at the forefront of being ready to "help" William blow them all out!

i think the candles were lit, blown out and lit again a dozen or so times, really! we also managed to avoid William having any chance of getting hold of so much as one candle and eating it, as he was so keen to do last week.

Richard enthusiasts shall no doubt have noted that Richard appears in the above picture. earlier in the day, it seems, he bumped into my chum Spiros. the two of them apparently sought to purchase me either a tin of shandy or a BabyCham, but alas could not find one. oh well, chaps, it is the thought that counts, and i am sure all in the store were impressed with two men running around looking for those particular drinks.

moving on, and of course there were more generous gifts for William. he was rather fortunate to have both James and Lyla on hand to "help" him open presents this time around, but it seems they were not required!

the look on Michele's face should tell you with just what passion and force William was ripping apart the wrapping paper!

after all that, there was an awful lot of running about and swimming to be done by everyone. well, not quit everyone - for the most part Ruby-Lee decided to just have a nice sit down and enjoy watching the wildlife!

very wise!

now then, as children the three of us probably loved nothing more than wandering around the land of Scotta House at our Grandma and Gramps, having pretty much the run of the land. James and William, as well as Ruby-Lee and Lyla, do tend to see and treat South Fork much the same way, which is excellent. South Fork, of course, does not quite have the high level of extremely dangerous farming equipment on which they could injure themselves, but now that i have mentioned it i am sure Grandad will sort out a combine harvester or something.

here is William, then, showing me something that has taken his interest - most likely an item he wanted to take ownership of and hit things/people with!

my apologies for my appearance here, i know i have a face for text-based updates. ho hum, at the least you can see my new glasses frames once again!

however, for good measure, here's an image of me without those new glasses!

James, aided by that class swimming suit, has really taken quite a shine to swimming, which is fantastic. he is not at all keen on getting any water in his mouth, mind, so going underwater is something he's not prepared to try. no bad thing, really, as it also means he's in no rush to try either diving or "bombing"!

Lyla is proving to be just as good a swimmer, and thus off the two go, having all sorts of fun!

i think their main game at the moment is pretending there's a shark attack and seeing just how fast they can swim away from Jaws! they also tend to throw balls in and around the pool, sending each other off to fetch them.

as for young William, well, he thinks he can swim just the same as James can, but alas he cannot really. i did however stick him in one of those inflatable hoop things, and off he went!

as soon as he was in it, right, he was away with the mixer. he clocked that he couldn't actually sink whist inside it unless he really tried to do that, and thus he pushed me away and wanted to paddle about on his own! i did my best to keep a safe distance in case of an emergency of course!

last but not least, of course, would be Marmite. no set of images from South Fork would be complete without her popping up! here she is, if i am not mistaken, trying to grab some sort of chlorine distributor and/or temperature gauge in the shape of a frog (or similar), as well as attempting to drink all of the water out of the pool!

well, that's a fragment of what the weekend was like - mostly excellent, it has to be said! there are a few more pictures to put up here, but not sure when. this week is looking a trifle busy, but i will do my best to update eventually!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!