disgraced trolley

hello there

yes, another post about shopping trolleys (trollies) in places where they would not usually be found. no, rather where they are not supposed to be found, look you see, for frequently i do see such.

actually, or as it happens, just the one trolley which i spotted on my travels in this instance. which means that we, after this paragraph, are free of me wondering (or pondering) if the correct spelling for the plural is trolleys or trollies. my belief is the latter, but one of them "spelling is f****d" red lines appears under it. 

this was the scene which confronted me (although not in a bold or stark way), then. a lone trolley, upside down, on a common green near some residential dwellings located in a region of fair to middling affluence. in respect of the latter, there are certainly less financially well off place but also a great number of more considered wealth. 

so far as i am aware, there are no recognised, official scrap yards all that close to where i saw this trolley.  as per previous posts on this subject, an awful lot of the recovery of our economy after all this new plague business is going to be based on scrap merchants accepting trolleys (trollies), drain covers and what have you in exchange for no paperwork required, tax free cash. one can only assume, then, that someone borrowed this trolley simply to make it easier to take some shopping home, and then just discarded it in a spot which they for some reason believed unobtrusive. 

i am not sure (no, i cannot be bothered to check) i have ever done that many images of trolleys (trollies) in the greater glory of Commodore 64 mode, so there you go, that one above is for those of you wondering what it would look like. wonder no more, my silent and invisible friends visiting here and reading this, wonder no more. 

do i every borrow or take a trolley from the stores who provide them (generously) for free? not beyond using it to shop with, and then load up the shopping from it and into the car. it has not struck me as a thing of interest to bring one home, really. having no concept of how much longer i have left (and let us not forget, according to science i am immortal, for i have not died as such as yet and so there is no scientific evidence to say i even can die, ever) i am not sure if now is the time to have one of them mid life crisis things one reads about. it would be nice if my imagination stretched to beyond taking a trolley as an act of mid life crisis, but i am quite boring i suppose. 

one of the more interesting points of observance with this trolley was not so much the trolley itself but, as you may have noticed in the first picture, the clear tyre tracks before it. i like to consider such things. were the tracks made by a vehicle, for instance, reversing on to the common ground grass to dump the trolley? or did someone have fun and decided to drive the car full tilt at the trolley to smack into it? maybe the two are unrelated except for being together. 

right, well, more trolley stuff as and when i see it, or when i have absolutely nothing else better to write about. 

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

fantastic fett fantasy fun

greetings

rather inexplicably, look you see, i feel compelled (for it is the way of the internet) to place one of them exciting looking *** SPOILER WARNING *** things here. it makes no sense to me, but fine - if for some reason you have not watched series ("season" if American) 2 of The Adventures Of Buckethead & The Frog (often abridged in title to The Mandalorian) yet for some reason have done one of them internet searches and ended up here, well, proceed at your own risk.

moving on, then, and i say absolutely nothing controversial or surprising when i state that all of this The Mandalorian business has been a huge,widely embraced and much loved Star Wars success via means of taking all of the aspects what the majority (rabid "fanboys" based in Momma's basement in Wisconsin exlcuded) of people loved of the original films and packaging it into a series. simple, effective, clear, linear good vs evil adventure stories. and my, how impressive. 

it has all been so very thoroughly enthralling and entertaining, watching Buckethead and his pet Frog meet interesting new characters (in particular the pig man off of Bespin and Apollo Creed out of Rocky) and familiar favourites (Ashoka Tano). and now they have ramped up the latter, for one recent episode early on had a certain spaceship fly in and land. 

yes, Slave I. as in, the ship of space what fans were first introduced to by seeing the original Buckethead, Boba Fett, twat around in during The Empire Strikes Back, and of course then saw the retrospective original Buckethead, Jango Fett, twat around in during Attack Of The Clones off of the prequel movies. 

who was flying it in this instance? requiring an all too easy given suspension of disbelief by the fans, none other than Boba Fett himself. his return was previously hinted at in the series, and so it is, here he is, back in action, and apparently quite alive, despite last being seen getting eaten off of a massive ground based space creature thing in Return Of The Jedi. a film which many, certainly in 1983, assumed was the "last ever" Star Wars film. 

so many questions prompted by his return. how did he survive getting eaten off of that creature? just how is it that he somehow lost his armour (to Jawas) yet Slave I remained his and undamaged? did he spend all of his time after surviving eating pies? and when did he become a dab hand at bringing people back to life with robot guts in the stomach installations? 

generally, and widely, the answer from we, the people, us, the fans who just want to enjoy it all, is very much as succinct as who f*****g cares? we have Boba Fett back, being an absolute badass as you can see above, uttering class one line quotes which reference previous films and just generally looking like one of the most aesthetically pleasing (allowing for pies being eaten) characters ever. 

being the third best and most important Star Wars character (after Lando and Lobot), there is a ludicrous weight of expectation around the character of Boba Fett. rather like Don Corleone in the first Godfather and very, very much like Hannibal Lecter in the silence of the lambs, a key to understanding his iconic presence is the limited screentime. like them two, what he could do, what he was capable of, was only ever really hinted at. and now, with Boba, we have him very much doing all of it, and then some. 

of course there are some who will raise an eyebrow (refer earlier comments about Momma's basement dwellers, but also more reasonable people) at his presentation here. sure, some actions, decisions and what have you seem not to be how we came to understand Boba Fett, in particular from The Empire Strikes Back where even Darth Vader seemed a bit scared of his ruthless, relentless ways. but, once more, the response to that is who f*****g cares, really. we get to see him smashing up stormtroopers in a way that was considerably more violent than i was expecting to see in an ostensibly fun for all the family show. i could sit and watch that all day, every day. 

with regards to how he went in the one episode he was in clearly as Boba (at time of writing), he basically used all of the tricks and tools we knew or suspected he had. possibly, then, he was tossed in as some sort of "fan service", showcasing all that he could do in a one off thing, as is maybe the case with Ashoka in the episode before. however, it does look like he is going to get something of a substantial, relevant to the plot role in the remainder of the series. after all (spoiler warning), they now need to go and find The Frog, since him off of Breaking Bad has him, and Boba Fett is known as the best person to search for stuff in this galaxy far, far away. 

for what reason that it has taken Disney, the financial custodians of Star Wars, to work out success comes from giving the fans what they want, is baffling. despite Rogue One being an overwhelming success, much of the "sequel" trilogy (despite having the ingredients to be amazing) spent far too long pandering to Momma's basement dwellers and "subverting expectations". the true low, i suppose, was Solo, where they seemed to blatantly have no interest in either what the fans wanted or how the fans knew and loved characters. except they got Lando right. 

anyway, at least now they would seem to have worked out how to get it right for the majority of fans, which is a win. one can actually feel excited about any new Star Wars stuff they announce, whereas after Last Jedi and Solo new projects were met with a groan. space cow milk, indeed.

quite a lovely touch, that was, in the above picture, giving Boba Fett some sort of Predator like thing on his arm guard stuff, showcasing his family history. kind of. and one gets every sense that this spear thing what current (or incumbent) Buckethead is holding shall be important. 

my apologies for not showing any images of The Frog off of this episode. he spent a fair bit of it doing all that transcendental meditation stuff, but yes, also did smack in the heads of a couple of stormtroopers too, which was lovely. 

live long and prosper!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

a spitting sentry horned and tailed, waiting for you

howdy pop pickers

so (yet) another David Bowie release for the year that is the year 2020, look you see. i guess, then, that this particular year has not been all that much of a complete write off. or, maybe, has it.

in this particular instance the Bowie (re)release is the second time that an album of his has been given a "50th anniversary mix" by Tony Visconti. the first was Space Oddity, and as you can read here it turned out to be a very good idea to let exist. here it is The Man Who Sold The World to get the same. and i am not at all sure that this has been quite such a good idea. 

a decision was taken to rename The Man Who Sold The World as Metrobolist for this fifty year anniversary mix. the claim is that it was "always" going to be called that anyway, but was changed to The Man Who Sold The World at the last minute. well, if they (whoever they are) say so, i guess. fine. but for years we had heard and had been told that Bowie never particularly cared for his recording of the titular track, so it seems strange that he would have merrily used it as the name of the album entire, out of the blue, and at the last minute. still, a rose by any other name, etc. 

what worked with the new mix of Space Oddity was a slight fiddle with the tracks (introducing obscure gem Conversation Piece to the album proper was a wise move) and giving it all a fresh, crisp (hello, Faye) new sounding perspective. here, for as far as i can tell, the tracklisting (or order) remains as was the case on the original, and it is just that Visconti has "remixed" all but one tune. to be complete, the untouched one is After All, with the official claim being that it was "already perfect as it was" but the official statement also saying no one could, for some reason, find the original master tape for that song so they just had to use the most recent "remix" of it. 

quite a fair comment to make, i do believe, is that The Man Who Sold The World is not one of Bowie's albums one would call widely celebrated or hailed as one of his greatest. which is absolutely not to say it is a bad album, just he has done better. my general view on the record is that one of his all time greatest songs of all time, The Width Of A Circle, is on this album, and so are eight other songs which are not quite so good as that one. but yes, a shout out to those who do hold this album up as their favourite Bowie work. famously and memorably Kurt Cobain certainly did, and i have some mates who got into Bowie after hearing this album. 

the one really baffling question posed by this release, then, is who, exactly, is it aimed at. a certain element of the Bowie fan base exists which will of course just buy anything they care to release, and yes i suppose that is where i reside. but who else did they wish to lure? removing the rather well known original title and using one of the original alternate covers which does not feature Bowie on it kind of removes the more casual fan happening to stumble across it, i would think. or suspect. nope, no idea how sales of this have gone. 

once again i have to confess (or state) that i have no idea of the technical ways in which music is produced or made, or remixed, and so i do not, perhaps, have an awareness of the correct terms to use, or phrases to say. all i can do is offer my reaction to what i hear. what i heard here, then, on this Metrobolist album, was not all that good. 

maybe it is my familiarity with it, i know not, but something just sounded plain off with the first track, the previously (as opposed to later) mentioned The Width Of A Circle. i have no idea what Tony Visconti and his crew have done to the sound of it, but no longer does it sound like the audacious masterpiece it once did. is the song sounding all of a sudden strangely "out of balance" the right way to say it, i wonder. please forgive my ignorance in how to word it, but the song here does not sound as good as it does on the tape off of a library from the 70s which was where i first heard the song, nor anywhere near as good as it does on the early 90s CD release. 

for whatever flaws and faults there were (to the ears of some) in the original release, i am far from convinced that a viable solution or practical suggestion would have been to "make the songs sound a bit more tinny". yet this is the fate which befalls Running Gun Blues. never really a great song, in truth, but one that you could just let play. by my third listen to this new version of the album, i just had to skip this track, so mangled it has now become. 

is it all bad? not really. quite close but not a complete write off. a lovely touch, for instance, is accentuating (or making louder, clearer) the guitar riff and "zane, zane, zane" bit off the end of All The Madmen, which feels like a quasi tacit acknowledgement of Bowie borrowing it and shoving it on the end of the titular track of The Buddha Of Suburbia. also, the previous titular track off this record sounds quite suspiciously like it has had more extra work on it, to try and make it the standout, or outstanding, song on the record. 

so is this worth getting? frankly, no. if you want the album and for some reason don't have it, rather look around for any of the 90s CD issues of it. absurd prices are being asked in regards of the various different "limited edition" coloured vinyl releases of this, but that will be more to do with the rarity of them rather than the quality of the actual record. but again, let me say, there was really only so much scope to do something different with what was, should we be honest, a very average album. whereas i shall place the Space Oddity variation from time to time, i do not see Metrobolist moving off the shelf very often at all. 

what next? as much as Bowie liked him and considered him a friend across many years, on the basis of Metrobolist it will be rather f*****g brave of the custodians of the Bowie Estate to let Tony Visconti mess (or mix) with the next three albums which would be due 50th anniversary celebrations, as they are Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane. actually, no. musically Hunky Dory is a little similar in tone to Space Oddity so that may work out. by that same logic, though, what Visconti has done to the rock sound of Man Who Sold The World is not something one would willingly wish to hear done to the rock sound of Ziggy. unless i am in some sort of minority on this. 

ultimately, or fundamentally, there is no such thing as "bad" Bowie. oh, but there are many cases where some Bowie is much better than other Bowie. 

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

gone are the days

bah, humbug

well, here we are again. tradition dictates, look you see, that i try to capture the excitement of days gone past for this one special time of the year. i speak, of course, of the thrill that once was getting the bumper, super, massive edition of the Radio Times and/or the TV Times, featuring listings of all the goodies what were to be broadcast over Christmas and New Year. 

for the last few years i have put myself through this, and shared my plight with you. whined about it, if you like, and it is fair to say that i have, to be sure. my complaint has been both the lack of quality of these two big name magazines and, of course, the fact that no, the broadcasters have long since ceased to make festive television choices exciting or surprising. a particularly lower than usual low has been reached this year on both fronts. 

let this be said up front (right now), then. the television selections for Christmas, and indeed New Year, by the so-called "big" channels, is predominantly sh!t. there are one or two things of interest, but mostly they have gone mediocre, dreadful and/or dull. a partial (justified) excuse for this is, of course, the fact that for most of 2020 we have waged the invisible war on the new plague, making the creation of any new television stuff tricky and difficult, if not impossible. yet still what gets served up is disappointing. 

my first challenge, then, was coming to select exactly which TV guide i was to purchase for the festive season. usually this is a toss up between the two "big ones" mentioned earlier, namely Radio Times and TV Times. still i can recall, and long for, the excitement of the day in December every year when Mum walked in with both of them off of the paper shop. back then it was so that Radio Times only had BBC stuff whilst TV Times had only ITV and Channel 4, so you had to get both. unless you were really, really anti one of the channels, i suppose. or were content to just get daily TV listings out of the newspaper, which people bought in the 80s, or even just get the listings off of Ceefax or Oracle. 

as both of them magazines now list all channels going, there is simply no need to get both. well, you could do, i guess, if somehow it was so that each had worthwhile articles in them. i doubt that this is so, but to each their own. 

for the most part it has been that TV Times has won in the last few years, for it has been considerably cheaper. i have no idea why, but Radio Times seems to price itself in a range designed to attract only those who wish to look posh and wealthy buy purchasing it. this year, the Christmas edition of Radio Times is neither north nor south of £5, whereas TV Times was unexpectedly north of £4. it was so that i nearly splurged on the TV Times, but in the end i decided (and i feel wisely) with that sort of pricing, both of them could f*** right off. 

quite a few of these newer, more recent and discernibly (apparently) obsessed with soap opera tv guides seemed to have their Christmas edition on sale for a mere £1.40. of those options, i went with the one which is called What's On TV, for it was all shiny, and i think i even recognize one or two of the people on the cover of it. since i knew disappointment was surely going to be in the pages of whichever periodical i selected, it made sense to go cheap. 

surely, and most decidedly, the choices or selections put forward by the so-called "big" channels for this Christmas are simply dreadful. yes, there are one or two of the usual "specials" of shows that are loved and well known (whether you happen to like them or not), but around those fractured moments one finds very little of interest or ambition. '

too much (far too much) time is given over to people who for some reason broadcasters are quite determined to make a "thing" no matter how little appetite there is for such. by far the worst of this is just how much Richard f*****g Osman we are exposed to. yes, he is tall, yes, he is related to someone off of Suede and yes, he is good at reading stuff off of Google, but the man is a personality void. as in, if you are in a double act with Alexander Armstrong and you are the boring one, the world of entertainment is not for you. Alan Carr also gets far too much (as in any) airtime; i have no idea what the fixation is that programme makers have but you simply cannot drag talent out of someone if there is patently none there to fetch. 

above is BBC1's New Year's Eve line up. i have selected them as they seem to be the only channel what is doing something "live" for the big event, the farewell to a wretched year we shall all be delighted to see gone. unless you own shares in PPE stuff or toilet paper. it all starts off well enough with that Paddy McGuinness (no relation) bloke, but then drops off formidably. to say that Graham Norton's one trick thing is now stale is perhaps unfair, but it is a loaf of bread on the afternoon of two days after the best before date. bravely you use it, but you know satisfaction would be binning it, or feeding it to the ducks. 

worse comes after, of course. sure, they can't do the usual New Year's Eve concert thing. but, really? of all the musical acts all around the world, they squander taxed and threatened to get licence fee money on Alicia Keys doing something or other from LA? oh dear. the break at midnight for the chimes of Big Ben is also going to be amazingly depressing too, since squatter mayor of London has binned off the fireworks and that. 

no, i have not forgotten or neglected the classical Christmas days (roughly or ostensibly 24, 25 and 26) on the tele. it is just that there is not so much to say, really. once again, sadly, there is no repeat (that i could find) of Chas & Dave Christmas Cockney Knees Up 1981 on Channel 5. i think this is the second or third year in a row what they have denied me my annual pleasure of it. 

it is at least the case that Challenge TV values putting decent stuff on over the festive period. one really cannot go wrong on New Year's Eve with them, then. yes, that's 16 (sixteen) hours (or is it 14) of The Chase, followed by a very satisfactory 3 (three) hours of Bullseye. at least it had better be proper and correct Bullseye, featuring Jim Bowen, and not that horrid variation they did with some false prophet. 

really, really bad news is that ITV have jettisoned one of the greater traditions of Christmas television, which is to say no proper James Bond film on from Christmas Eve to Boxing Day (inclusive). nearest closest (and this is quite far away) is very late on the Eve, with the complete sh!t "spoof" 60s variation of Casino Royale is on. in the life i knew, Boxing Day television was all about watching Sir Roger Moore save the world and then doing a sex. only via my DVD collection shall this happen this year. 

on a more positive note, the radio is looking (well, sounding) good. Zoe Ball is on holiday for Christmas, as too is Steve Wright, but he seems to only work for 14 - 18 weeks of the year anyhow. a massive plus is that (oooh) Gary Davies (on your radio) is on a lot on Radio 2 over the festive period. quite a bit of that Rylan Clarke fellow, too. i have taken a shine to him, i have, to be sure. yes, when i first heard him i clocked he was hopeless, but have embraced that he is hopeless in a lovable, fun and thoroughly enjoyable way. further, the brilliant Nick Abbott appears to be on LBC every single night over the Christmas season. 

between the boys and their computer games and all them "streaming" services, i suspect it shall be so that little, if any, of the stuff being broadcast over the two week Christmas tv window will end up being watched. perhaps some Bullseye and The Chase, maybe the usual Big Fat Quiz Of The Year and in all likelihood Doctor Who, if we can work out where they have put it since they have shifted it from the usual, traditional Christmas Day slot. 

am i (should i make it that far) going to bother with the tv guide next Christmas? not sure. here i could say no, i don't think i will, but i will probably end up doing so. 

perhaps this is presumptuous of me, but i suspect the only help anything i have written here will be of to you is in telling you not to worry so much about buying a Christmas tv guide, and indeed to seek something other that television for entertainment over the period. unless, for some inexplicable reason, it is so that you are one of these thought not to exist people who quite likes Richard Osman and/or Alan Carr. if so, then you are in for a treat.

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

seven at the edge of heaven

howdy pop pickers

yes, i would agree, look you see, that there has been a decidedly (distinct) slant towards vibes in posts this month. and i am aware that more musical ones are to come. well, Christmas is the time for song and dance, as well as some other stuff. 

in this instance, then, the vibes in question (or being written of) are of a varied, various artists nature, for what i have here is the latest (or most recent) of the Now That's What I Call Music albums what are being issued (kind of) on CD (compact disc) for the first time. to recap, the first few never got a digital disc release at the time. 

also to recap, they issued the first such volume on CD at the same time as volume one hundred (100) came out, as a "celebration" sort of thing. then a decision was made (presumably based on sales and general interest) that the first 10 (ten) volumes of Now were to be given the disc treatment. so, here we are at volume (or edition) seven (7).

unlike some (perhaps most) of the reissued (if that is the right term) volumes so far, this was one i had no direct connection to and very little knowledge of. certainly, at the time, i did not own it on tape or record, and nor do i recall any of my mates having it, either. there was, then, some intrigue and interest in finding out what it would feature. 

on getting it, things became clear in respect of why i would not have got it at the time. and this is certainly not because of a lack of quality on the record. just the briefest of glimpses at the tracklist, which yes is pictured here somewhere, reveals that i have the overwhelming majority of the finest of the best of the songs on the set in 7" single format. presumably my thinking would have been not to waste money on purchasing a set of songs i already had, then. 

certainly it is so that, once again, there are many who have issues with the tracklisting of this compact disc variation of Now That's What I Call Music 7. their quarrel is justified. up to now the reissues (if that is the correct way to describe them) have not been at all faithful. in many instances a different version of the song which feature on the compilation has been used, with the most upsetting and annoying one being Two Tribes back on (i think) volume 3. also, certain tracks have been omitted. in some instances this has kind of made sense (the removal of Gary Glitter from one, for instance), but in others less so. 

the big gripe, or complaint, with this one (7) is that Absolute Beginners is absolutely missing. quite strange, this. in an earlier volume (i think 5) another Bowie, This Is Not America, was absent. and yet the Bowie Estate allowed Modern Love to feature (as it should have) on one of them. no word has been given as to why it is absent, but if i were to guess they probably declined use due to the rather ill-advised decision to re-release the whole Absolute Beginners soundtrack earlier this year. 

people complaining about the missing songs, or different versions of some songs, being used are not being precious, pedantic or picky. they have a valid point. if you are going to "recreate" or reissue something, just doing it properly and faithfully is not much to ask. what would you say if, for instance, they decided to issue Sgt Pepper on CD, but omitted (for example) Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, yet gave no reason for doing so. 

still, anyway, in concentrating on what we do have here on Now That's What I Call Music 7, that which remains is not bad at all. mostly excellent, in truth. which hopefully comes out relatively clear in the more blurry than i thought it was picture above. 

let me be honest and say i was totally thrown by the inclusion of Lady In Red by Chris De Burgh on this volume. for some reason i thought this song came out much later on, say late 1988 or even 1989. but, no, apparently 1986 it was, then. oh yes, there are some stories i could tell of that song and indeed the singer, but no. an exceptionally dear friend shares those tales with me, and may she be smiling if she is reading this.

in sticking with disc one, right at the start is an all time favourite, then, with Sledgehammer (or Sledge Hammer) off of Peter Gabriel. an instance of an amazing song and an even more amazing video. Art Of Noise and Max Headroom together was ace at the time and brings back some good memories. the song Camouflage remains bonkers to this day. even the Genesis song is good, great to hear Brilliant Mind for the first time in probably 30 (or so) years. probably, if push came to shove, the best of the best here for me is All The Things She Said off of Simple Minds. 

moving on to disc two, then, and also an emphatic, excellent start with Edge Of Heaven off of Wham!. Owen Paul with the great My Favourite Waste Of Time is probably the personification of one hit wonder, in truth, and i mean no disrespect. like many chaps, i suspect, i have excellent and great memories of the video for Venus off of Bananarama. and i would be fairly sure that it was the Doctor & The Medics cover of Spirit In The Sky that tuned me in to how awesome bass was. 

on and on i could go, but let me not. except to celebrate When The Going Gets Tough The Tough Get Going off of Billy Ocean. and to celebrate the most outstanding, greatest song on disc two, which is of course A Kind Of Magic by Queen. man, what a song. what a f*****g song. oh, for trivia fans, the Bucks Fizz one is, i think, the single they released after the band survived a very nasty crash in their tour bus. good song, but i think we all bought it out of a sense of "we are sorry what happened and we are glad you are all right", mostly. 

whilst (once again) respecting those who complain about track omissions and different versions of songs being used, my biggest issue with the Now That's What I Call Music CD releases is pictured above. that's just annoying on the shelf, that is, to be sure. and by "that" i mean the change of font between the first and the rest, the use of Roman numerals on 2 (II) and regular numbers on the rest, and now the fact that they have decided to save ink on the title for 7. quite happy to have the changing colours, but is it really so bad to have wished for them to look all more uniform in my collection?

no matter how decent this (abridged) release of 7 has turned out to be, my favourite remains 4. a happy bonus is that it was so 4 had the entire tracklisting in tact, making it unique in terms of these releases. at the other end of the spectrum, or rainbow, disc two of 5 is the one which is most likely never ever to get played again. 

assuming (and it is brave to do so) there is anything left of the human race by the time 2021 comes to be, it should be so that 8, 9 and 10 get a CD release, and that (so far as i am aware) would be that. it would have been nice for them to do all 80s ones, but ten shall just have to do. 

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

hang out with all the boys

hey you

there was much merriment off of Sprios recently. i was on my usual travels when i spotted a place that he is particularly fond of, look you see. sadly, or alas, he is not permitted to go into too many of them all that often any more, for reasons i would not care to disclose but are not really related to any "lockdown" measures. 

most, but not all, of you reading this will have deduced exactly which, or what kind of, establishment that i spotted and sent images of to Spiros. others may have discovered this via one of them "google" search things, if the great oracle has little or nothing else better to do than "index" what i add to the internet. but, for those not falling (or featuring) in either category, here you go.

yes, as you can see quite clearly in the greater glory of Commodore 64 mode, it was on a particularly sunny but not overtly warm day that i happened to glace across a street and see a chapter of the YMCA on display. as buildings are, of course, so prone to be. 

no, i have not ever, so far as i am aware, actually ever been in a YMCA as such. of course there has always been a curiosity or interest, but truthfully no opportunity to do so has presented itself, or been created. this is a shame, as it all sounds rather splendid. assuming the song is accurate. 

some of you shall have already identified this, but for clarity, indeed this is the branch, or chapter, of the YMCA a gent could find in Scarborough. one really does not wish to lower the tone or anything like that, but such information of course prompts questions concerning Sir Jimmy. i have no idea if he ever attended the place, or was a patron, but it is likely. at some stage in the early 2000s he was, and in retrospect somewhat hastily, awarded the "Freedom of Scarborough" for his great work as an ambassador for the otherwise wonderful place, so yes, probably, he may well have exercised this freedom to visit the YMCA and do, well, whatever. 

it is my understanding that presently no one is attending any YMCA for any reason. this is not for some reason of boycott or similar, but that it, like so many places, is now legally closed down as we all fight the invisible war on the new plague. should we ever be allowed to go out and about and do "normal" stuff ever again, maybe a way to embrace that return to freedom we once enjoyed shall be to pay a visit to one of these places, see what it is all about. 

of course, or indeed, my chum Spiros seems to have an exhaustive knowledge of what goes on in a YMCA. certainly, he knows what goes in there with regards to being asked to leave for doing such, and then having a legal obligation placed on you never to visit again if you go back and do it some more anyway. exactly what that is, well, i would not care to mention it here. 

well, anyway, there you go (or have it). a few posts ago, somewhere around a month or so before now, i did give fair warning that i have possibly exhausted all subject matter i could write of here. this post quite possibly gives substance to such. but, well, maybe someone found this interesting, for some reason or another.

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

every christmas we're rockin', rockin' all the way to the bank

ho ho ho

well, 'tis the season, look you see, for me to moan and groan and be all (as) old (as i am), complaining about how this, that and the other are "not what they used to be". in this instance, however, it might just be that i am far from alone with this complaint. 

yes, but of course this is a grumble about, with it being (at time of publishing) that time of year, how the Christmas number one is no longer as "special" or as "important" as it once was. sure, this is in fitting with the fact that the "singles" chart is now an irrelevance, since it is no longer based on sales and few release actual singles anyway. also, of course, the entire importance and point of the singles chart was desecrated and destroyed when they let that twat Ed Sheridan (or whatever) completely corrupt it, having all the songs off his dull album with a dull name qualify for the chart, then changed the rules so that no one else could do it. 

indeed, the above is some of what to expect in my moans and groans. but i shall, however, also try and have a look at the where, when and why the concept of having the number one single at Christmas was a big deal. but first, an image of Bad News performing Cashing In On Christmas. 

no, alas, sadly, Cashing In On Christmas by Bad News was not a Christmas number one, or Christmas top ten or twenty single. or thirty. maybe the marketing was all wrong, or just vast swathes of the British music buying public have no taste at all. 

to stay on (relatively) safe ground for me, as in letting me write from a point of view that i might actually know a little of, i've opted (or elected) to stick with the Christmas number one singles of the 80s. narrowing that down, i mean any year of which the first 75% of the numbers were 198. before i looked it up, i challenged myself to name all of them from that decade. i only recalled, for what it is worth, the last seven, and did so in order. so yay, bravo me. unless you have already scrolled down to the images and had a look, you go ahead and feel free to try and guess them yourself. or not. 

festive drumroll if you please, for here, thanks to that smart Wikipedia thing (yes i made a donation to them so i guess i am all right using this), are the Christmas number ones of the eighties. 

something of an oddity which dawned on me, looking at this, was that for all the competition in respect of Christmas themed singles being recorded and released, not as many "Christmasy" songs as you might think claimed the top spot. right off the bat, the yuletide number ones from 1981 and 1987 would have been big, massive huge hits whenever they were released, for they were, are, and forever shall be, outstanding works of pop music. 

my suspicion is that it would be quite (as in very) boring to go through each of the number ones listed above. but, that said, a lovely piece of trivia for the 1985 one. just one of those pop facts which seem to forever float around in my head, so let me place it here to avoid it being lost with me, one day.

it was so that Merry Christmas Everyone by everyone's favourite self styled 'Welsh Elvis', Shakin' Stevens, was all set and ready to compete and contend to be the Christmas number one precisely one year before it became so. the management of Mr Stevens knew this was a solid hit, but were hesitant about the chances when it looked like the 1984 Christmas top spot would be a fight between Wham! (Last Christmas) and the unexpected juggernaut which has spent some 28% of the year at number one, Frankie Goes To Hollywood (The Power Of Love). just as soon as Band Aid was announced, recorded and released, the management of Mr Stevens persuaded him to pull the single, delaying the release for a year. as wise a bit of guidance, and indeed management, as you shall ever find in the history of popular music. 

one surprising, or "odd one out" on that list of ten sits centrally, for 1986 is kind of sort of in the central like middle part of the decade. not sure how or why this soul / proper r & b / rock jive classic got a re-release, but i do recall most people being a lot more impressed than i was with the "claymation" video which the song had, and which i think the proliferation of broadcast helped sell the (make no mistake, great) song. 

what took me quite by surprise when i looked was the fact that the Christmas top forty for 1986 was virtually bereft of any sort of festive themed single. as in, the only song in the official chart (at least up to 40) to even partially reference the subject of the season was Santa Claus Is On The Dole by Spitting Image, a single not quite as good as The Chicken Song. make of that statement what you will. 

no, sorry, no idea if it was the case that by 1986 all the pop stars were "Christmased out" and had no wish to do a 'novelty' record, or if it was so that we, the singles buying public, had simply grown tired of such records being added to our collections. perhaps (maybe) a combination of the two. mostly the former, i think. from what i recall Frankie vaguely threw Warriors Of The Wasteland in the direction of the charts just before that time of year, and surprisingly there was no Space Sex Santa Christmas Baby or similar off of Sigue Sigue Sputnik. also, maybe by this point all of the "big" artists really had no need to try and tap the lucrative Christmas market, for they were coining in royalties from the unexpected (yet very welcome) surge in back catalogue sales, inspired by appearing on Band Aid or at Live Aid and facilitated by the dawn of the CD. 

and yes, once again from what i remember of it all, we did kind of assume that the 1988 number one was a sort of "swan song" farewell off of Sir Cliff. it was assumed that he, like many other artists to have found fame in the 60s, would probably be retiring quite soon. there is every chance his new album shall be the number one album this Christmas (2020, for clarity). 

exactly where, or when, did the importance attached to the Christmas number one fall off? very much a matter that is eye of the beholder, in truth. i would argue that it has remained an important badge of honour for any (at least UK) artist (or band) to claim they held the festive top spot, but by the nineties i don't think many, or any, went off and recorded a specific Christmas tune. 

for we, the record buying public, it was probably the latter years of the 90s that we all went "well, you know what, this has been hijacked, let us not bother so much". the last three years of that decade, and thus that century, saw the Spice Girls take the top spot as a bit of a formality. soon after it was all manipulated to enable winners of various talent shows to claim the crown. until, of course, some facebook or similar campaign spiked it and saw Rage Against The Machine take the top spot one Christmas. that incident says to me there are many like me who also miss the special nature of being the big record of the festive period. and the less said about some efforts - the Manic Street Preachers throwing the dull, dour, depressing average Some Kind Of Nothingness at the Christmas market and being surprised when it failed, for instance - the better. 

to the best of my knowledge, the last (or previous) two Christmas "number one" songs (being the years 2018 and 2019) were both by the same lad what does something or other on you tube, and featured him shouting "sausage rolls" over some middle of the road soft rock classic or other. i am not particularly interested in whatever claims the title this year. 

bah, humbug, etc. 

ode on justice

hello there

from what i can remember there is some saying, look you see, which goes along the lines of how it is not enough for justice to be done, but that justice must also be seen to be done. or it could be that as long as justice is perceived to be carried out, whether it actually has or not becomes something of an irrelevance. 

if i am speaking (or rather writing) on the subject of justice, then yes, of course, it is so that the Christmas edition of Viz is out, and as has now become tradition (i believe this is the third year of such) there is a court case which we, the readers, must act as jury and determine justice. 

but first, yes, of course, a look at the Christmas edition of Viz, in the greater glory of Commodore 64 mode, since it is the festive season. 

whilst there is little (as in none whatsoever) chance of me saying anything other than Viz is excellent, it is a truth that from time to time some editions are more excellent than others. in this instance, they have, as i believe our friends in America would say, knocked it out of the park. the majority of favourite characters feature in this edition, with the most recent adventures of 8 Ace and Drunken Bakers being a joy to read. further (or also), as it is the Christmas edition, we get an adventure of Bad Bob, The Randy Wonder Dog. it really does have to be read to be believed. 

now let us focus on justice. yes, Christmas is the season to be jolly, happy, merry and what have you, but also we must not shirk or hide away from civic duty. it is regrettable, and deeply unfortunate, that criminals operate so close to Christmas, but such is human nature. as and when they are apprehended, they must stand trial (in this instance in Fulchester Crown Court) and face judgement by peers, accepting what sentence is passed. 

cases brought before the Viz Crown Court of Fulchester are often of an unusual nature. one which always comes to mind (it would be amiss, and indeed unprofessional to call it a favourite as such, but still) was the case involving a gentleman who was alleged to have tried to engage in an act of intimacy with a reptile. which is to say some bloke got caught seemingly trying to bum a crocodile. 

quite an unusual case, this one. in it a gentleman is accused of committing an action which would be regarded as perfectly normal if done in the privacy of his own home, or indeed with a group of fellow like minded gentlemen, gathered around a car, doing it as they watched two people inside the car engage in a most enthusiastic but ultimately short termed friendship. or, indeed, if he had done it off of a balcony. 

rather regrettably (and indeed unfortunately) it is so that the gentleman on trial stands accused of doing it whilst at work. also, whilst actually working as one of them people who make coffee and give themselves a posh name for it (barista or something). making it worse was that he did so as he prepared a coffee for one of the more respected MPs serving today. the prosecution, on the basis of witness testimony (and the taste buds of the MP), allege that he did so deliberately and maliciously. 

having considered all the evidence, i have, of course (and as usual) submitted my verdict to the Clerk of Fulchester Crown Court, which interestingly has a Whitley Bay address. as usual, i have included a stamped self addressed envelope, so that they may send me pens as recompense for my civic duty. 

should i remember to do so, yes, i will update you on the verdict, due (presumably) in the January 2021 edition. but, for now, go and buy this edition, it's well smart, it is, to be sure.

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

curated christmas chimes cheer

heya

and so we are well and truly "in the zone", look you see. which is to say that Christmas looms. no matter how peculiar, strange or odd it shall be this year, what with the invisible war on the plague still, in theory, being fought. 

it is a time, or period, or era even, for tradition. there can surely be no greater, nor more important, tradition to engage in at Christmas than to spend £1 on whatever the most elite of Christmas CDs what Poundland has on the shelf. except this year rather than handing over a shiny new one pound coin to purchase the disc, one has to make payment via a "contactless" card thing, so as to avoid passing on diseases to others. 

usually, or normally, it is so that Poundland have (quite) a range of Christmas compact discs to browse, select and purchase. this is 2020, though. we have for some reason traded in ideas of choice, freedom and what have you to just accept what we are given. and in this regard, Poundland only has the one disc of Christmas on the shelf. well, i only saw the one in the branch (or chapter) i went into, and i did not spend all that long a time looking. 

so, Santa's Christmas Playlist is indeed, then, my choice or selection of Christmas CD off of Poundland for the year. nice one, i guess. although i am still not comfortable with a collection of "various artists" doing Christmas songs, when i am more used to just selecting the one artist to hear the singing celebration of the season by or from. 

the years have been kind to me, for they have let me obtain special Christmas CDs by the three greatest recording artists of the twentieth century off of Poundland for £1. for those of you who are for some peculiar reason interested in such, here are the links to those editions - 

Chas & Dave - read more by clicking here. 

The King, Elvis Presley - He may be seen by clicking here. 

Mr Sinatra - details of the chairman's yuletide merriment found via clicking here. 

hopefully (if you are interested in such) you can make out the overwhelming majority of the tracklisting for this set in the above picture. as you can see, yes, two of the three recording artists mentioned earlier do indeed feature here, with Chas & Dave missing out. not at all sure why one of their splendid Christmas recordings was not included, but what do i know of how the record industry works.

being staunch advocates of tradition means that Poundland have stuck to the usual here, and so every possible expense has been spared in creating this compilation. one is immediately struck by a sense of all the songs curated for the collection being selected less for relevance or quality, more for a lack of needing to pay any royalties or licensing fees. it is how they do things. 

above is an image, of course in the greater glory of Commodore 64 mode, of this particular Christmas compilation CD on the shelf at Poundland. they don't even have a special display section for the festive discs this year, they have rather just shoved it with the regular stuff. which is no bad thing, as it allowed me to spot a copy of Collected by (or of) Massive Attack, which i picked up at the same time, cheers. 

one quite strange thing about this CD is that it is (probably) banned from sale, distribution, playing or even private ownership in the EU. this is due to some obscure EU directive (maybe), which prohibits you claiming a musical compilation as being someone's playlist without the express consent of that person. as the producers of the compact disc failed to produce the regulatory documents to satisfy the claim that Santa agreed the music contained on (in) the compilation was his choice, it got banned. 

going on some comments i have seen online (and if it is on the internet then it must be true), it is only a matter of weeks, if not days, that Scotland will be an independent member of the EU. so, presumably, if you go into McPoundland, you will not see this disc on the shelf there. unless those seeking independence for Scotland are just using the EU thing as an angle to get what they want, and then yes, probably you could get the disc up there. no idea, really, i shall ask someone. 

do i imagine, or expect, to play this Christmas CD much over the festive season? not really, no. a priority for me at this time of year is to play the b-side of the 12" of The Power Of Love by Frankie Goes To Hollywood, on which various Frankies bestow their Christmas blessings upon us, the devout and loyal fans. after that, them other three discs what i linked (actually four since there are two of The King, Elvis Presley) are more likely to get played. 

why, exactly, then, did i buy this with little chance of it being played much? as it happens i might throw it into my verk vehicle to play as i drive around. but, other than that, it was purchased for the tradition of such things. 

in conclusion, then, that picture above may (or might not) be a bit clearer on the track listing for you for the disc. nice one on including Johnny Cash, now i look properly, and the likes of Ella Fitzgerald and Nat King Cole do add a touch of class to proceedings. actually, this does look decent, maybe it will get more plays that i suspected at first. 

right, then, time for me, and for you, to get down and get with it, but just no longer on this post. 

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

yet another scam message

heya

just another of my infrequent, informal but (hopefully) informative things when someone elects to send me one of them scam messages, look you see. this is for the benefit of anyone unsure of how to spot fakes, irrespective or no matter how obvious they look to some of you. no, i am not really an expert and am not trying to make myself so, rather handing over info on the off chance it assists someone. 

ever since they changed the laws about marketing and using people's contact details here in the UK there has been a distinct fall in the volume of this kind of rubbish being sent. con artists are, however, always going to seek to con; criminals will behave so. 

the most recent attempt to pilfer coins off of me and countless others (probably millions) came in the form of a text message. in short, and more detail to follow, this one claimed to be off of HSBC, and gave rather unclear information on someone or other being added to my account. which presumed i had an account with the financial institution. no, i shall neither confirm nor deny the latter. 

once again this is a scam message which (more or less) instantly falls over and is exposed as fake due to the rather appalling grammar on the go. yes, if me, a quite sh!t writer, is calling you out on grammar, you have issues. unless you are telling me the statement "a new payee to MRS P COOPER has been added to your mobile banking" makes any sort of sense. not to me. 

spotting the fakes is as straightforward as looking at the domain name, or name of the web page if you like, that it wishes you to go to. everything just before the .com (or .co.uk or similar) is the actual website you are being sent to; all or anything which comes after (in this instance /hsbc) is a page on that website. never assume that because it has a name of a real company in it that it is what it says. 

in this instance, then, the website is called "untrusted-device". credit where it is due, for that is a spectacular name to register to use to dupe and con people with. sounding all authoritative and official is the key to any scam, really. but if HSBC, or any reputable (as far as banks go) company, was sending a link, you would expect and need to see their name right before the ".com" part. 

above are the registration details for this "untrusted device" website, then. information is from the most excellent website resource, who.is. which you can visit by clicking here. visiting there lets you see who has registered what website, and various other bits of information. unless, of course, they have paid money to hide that information. 

which, in this case, but of course they have. apparently (and yes i know you can see this above), the website is registered in Reyjavik, Iceland. a nice change from these scam sites being registered in Russia, i suppose, but all the same clearly nothing to do with HSBC. believe me, honest and reputable businesses do not hide their contact details. 

be very careful and very wary of any random text message (or email, or similar) advising you that you need to login to some site or other. usually, this is complete rubbish. most banks set up their own alert system for customers for this sort of thing. if you are concerned, contact your bank and ask them how to set it up. but, of course, make sure it is really your bank you are speaking to.

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

 

closing time

heya

so here we are (in theory, look you see), the last month of a truly wretched year. unless you happen to own a decent amount of shares in some toilet paper business or pasta making concern, or any other trading enterprise which people panic bought off of during the invisible war on the new plague. a war which, one suspects, shall rage for a while yet. 

to misquote a famous quote from a musician i quite like, not only is this the last calendar update for the year, but (probably) the last one i shall do. you, the people, are quite capable, i have every confidence, of finding date information somewhere else. i really think i have exhausted the theme, actually quite some time ago, but for the sake of being complete i figured rounding out the year was the decent and right way for it to all go. 

finishing the year with something of a flourish is the Star Wars calendar in the kitchen. as you can see, via the greater glory of Commodore 64 mode, that is the "classic" line up of ostensible heroes from the original three (or so) films. to go from left to right, the shiny gay robot, the bin, the fake orphan nancy boy farmer, the impostor princess, the criminal enforcer and the people smuggler. all fine role models. 

probably the biggest issue with the more recent films (editions seven to nine) is that they went to all of the trouble to bring these characters back into some more films, yet did not give them one final, or last, adventure together. i believe they call this "subverting expectations" these days, but more commonly one would refer to it as denying the fans that which they would pay money for. 

any dates of consequence or significance in the month that is the month December to highlight? plenty, really, but here are a few key ones. 

1 - a very happy birthday to Neil "Colin" Warnock, the prolific football manager, born this day in 1948. he, with affection, gets called Colin by the fans, as his name is a perfect anagram of Colin and then another word i shall leave you to have fun working out. 

2 - Frankie Goes To Hollywood were declared number one in the singles chart on this day in 1984, for the third time and with their third single, The Power Of Love. it was to be the last time they were at number one anywhere outside of the heads of their devout fans. of which i am one.

fair use of image

4 - in keeping with a musical theme, it was on this day in 1956 that the Million Dollar Quartet made their now legendary recordings. the four were Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and The King, Elvis Presley. 

5 - originally planned as a standard Stallone action film, Beverly Hills Cop was released on this day in 1984. a quite brilliant film, holds up well to this day. 

6 - this was the day when Finland, in 1917, told the Soviet Union to Отвяжись!, or words to that effect. 

8 - on this day in 1980 Mark Chapman shot and killed John Lennon, apparently after considering shooting and killing David Bowie. most hold him (Lennon, not Chapman) up as a symbol of peace, love and harmony whereas others are baffled that a man with a dubious reputation for (to be as diplomatic as i can) "mistreating" women, drugs and generally being unpleasant would be elevated to such a level. what the others don't understand is that they won't care what you did, they won't care what you said, because everybody loves you when you're dead. 

9 - they have everything for men to enjoy, you can hang out with all the boys mostly thanks to the first ever YMCA being opened on this day in 1851. Montreal, if you were wondering. 

11 - fans and admirers of the film GoodFellas (and there are many) will note that on this day in 1978 it was so that the 'Lufthansa Heist' took place. 

12 - the chairman of the board, ol' blue eyes, Mr Sinatra, was born on this day in 1915. 

14 - cinema in 1984 once more, as Runaway was released on this day in that year. i vaguely recall that it featured him out of Magnum and her off of Cheers what was not Dianne, but my abiding memory of the film is Gene Simmons out of Kiss and some really smart robot spiders. 

17 - on this day (give or take) the Aztec Sun Stone, more commonly called the Aztec Calendar Stone, was discovered way back in 1790. feel free to read up on it, but in short using it to work out the date is complex and a right f*****g headache; our system seems far simpler. 

thank you for the picture

19 - Zuzana Hejnová, regarded as the best, greatest and most important Olympiad of the Czech Republic, was born on this day in 1986. she happens to share a name with the person considered to be the best, greatest and most important tennis player of the Czech Republic, which offers some symmetry i suppose. 

20 - today is International Human Solidarity Day, apparently. no, me neither, but it seems that it is something what the UN came up with in 2005. nice one. 

22 - what do you call someone in a pub, playing pool (or billiards if posh), with a pint on their head? Beatrix Potter. this much loved, cherished and admired author passed away on this day in 1943.

24 - according to the UK singles chart announced on this day in 1972, the members of the British public what bought records opted for a Utah-centric Christmas. some (as in exactly) 30% of the top ten was Osmonds related. for the record (excuse the play on words), Donny Osmond was at 9 with Why, all of them as a collective were at 5 with Crazy Horses and Little Jimmy Osmond was the Festive Number 1 with Long Haired Lover From Liverpool, which he was not.

25 - Shane MacGowan, probably the most famous Irish person to ever have been born in Kent, celebrates his birthday today (1957). which makes it all the more of a shame that Fairytale Of New York never made it to the Christmas number one spot. 

27 - on this day in 1979 the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. much of that mess is with us today. the two most notable aspects of this were how it showcased the fact that the Soviets were completely sh!t at war, and also Rambo III. 

29 - if you are looking for a reason to prolong festive celebrations, then why not join in with the celebrations today being held in honour of Independence Day in Mongolia. probably the best record to play for this is (of course) Warriors Of Genghis Khan by Bad News. 

31 - let me take a guess at this one; in 2020 no one was particularly bothered, fussed or upset that this day was the last day of a wretched year. 

but, as has been the case on just about each instance of these updates, i would encourage you to simply celebrate and cherish dates which mean something to you. don't worry so much about what everyone else is doing, or what others may feel obliged to insist you do (and do not) celebrate. 

in giving a finale, then, either just for this year's calendar updates (2020) or for updates here which may well happen no more, a look at the splendid New Zealand calendar off of Mum & Dad. thank you once more for this, it has been lovely having it up in the shed. yes, indeed, a look at Rocky Bay up in the north island, and my apologies for the shadow i appear to have cast over the dates in taking the picture. whereas i know not as fact, i am going to assume (or presume) that it is called Rocky Bay due to it being a bay with rocky areas, and it has not been named as a well intended but ultimately needless tribute to that boxing film, the name of which escapes me momentarily.

anyway, right, then, that's that for this. may the month ahead be a decent one. if you are reading this at the start of the month it is relevant to, of course. that said, may all your days be decent.

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