from my Gran.....

hey everyone

i am still laid out with food poisoning - some sort of gastro infection and i have been booked off work.

what cheered me up was some newspaper cuttings from my Gran. one of the best is pictured here :




needless to say, she is not a fan of the man or the job he has done anywhere!!

be excellent to each other!!

HCH - an update

i am managing to (ahem) "obtain" a copy of Hollywood Chainsaw H ookers via that great oracle, the internet.

so far it looks splendid, splendid, splendid. sadly, it seems something akin to a plot turns up about 40 minutes in, but i am sure it will not disturb the majesty of the ladies in states of undress and the chainsaws too much.

i will update when i have seen the whole thing!!

James at 44 weeks (sort of)

hey everyone


sorry for the delay in updates - i have been laid out rather ill with suspected food poisoning. i wouldn't dare risk possible slander, but there's a certain famous food chain here that will not be getting much of my business in the future!

here is James a few days after the 44 week milestone. he is happiest when using Daddy's desk chair as a carousel, or when "reorganizing" Daddy's bookcases and DVD stands. i never would have thought it was such an ace idea to just store everything in a pile on the floor!

James is not too well either - teething, and thus he has swollen glands, a post nasal drip and blocked ears. perhaps that's why he ignores us when we ask him not to pull out every book, DVD and CD that we own.....

be excellent to each other!!

i must find this film.......

i think anyone reading this who knows me knows that i really need to get my hands on this film!

apparently, it only took them 6 days to make it - that's dedication to your art.

note that it stars Gunnar Hansen, who played Leatherface in the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre film. it must be good then.

be excellent to each other, and if you have this film, please be excellent to me!!!

our signed James Dean Bradfield collection!!

hi everyone

here are the scans of our seven inch collection of James Dean Bradfield, signed by the man himself!! i am not sure if two constitutes a collection, but then again he has only released two singles!

my thanks to for their excellent service - it cannot be easy to send vinyl records seven thousand miles and ensure they arrive damage free!!

as for the quality of the music, well, i do not have a record player anymore, so i can't actually here them! the CD single for each is quite smart, though!

be excellent to each other!!

looking smart there, son!!

hey everyone

when we are out and about shopping, i tend to pick up at least one outfit for James that i think looks smart. here is an example!

drawing on the style gurus of The Stone Roses and Ocean Colour Scene, these pics show James in a very ace "Madchester Rave On" casual style. the Reni hat, for me, is the crowning glory, but as you can see he did not like leaving it on his head for too much time.

James is a touch restless these days - he has been for his nine-month injections, and thus sleep is not a regular occurance. ho hum, i am sure this will get better over the next couple of days.

be excellent to each other!!!

oh dear, another dull chainsaw film

hey everyone

over the weekend i purchased Leatherface : Texas Chainsaw Massacre III for a mere R60, figuring it would not be that bad.

it was indeed bad. very bad. it was amusing that it featured the uncut and cut versions (who would want a chainsaw movie, yet a censored version?????) and seems to have a number of documentaries on it, but it was just dull and tiresome.

if you have avoided this film for the last 16 or so years, my advice is to keep avoiding it.

James at 43 weeks

hey again

here's James at 43 weeks. obviously a hard day at school, he passed out on his changing mat!

hard to believe that it has now been 10 months that we have had the priviledge and honour of James in our life!!

first school photographs!

hey everyone

here are some proof shots of James's first ever school photographs. looking quite dapper there son, although i am not sure about any sort of England shirt after Wednesday night!!

i believe we will be ordering many copies of these pics!!

be excellent to each other!!

today, dear cousin, Grandad's office; tomorrow the world is ours!

hey everyone

just a quick update to show off this most excellent picture! it seems that James and Katie have successfully infiltrated their Grandad's office and have comandeered his PC, his desk chair and his cellular phone. this is no mean feat for two babies below 12 months, and Grandad is a rather large gentleman.

the success is not resounding, of course - clearly neither James nor Katie have quite got the hang of what to do with the telephone once you have it in your hands.

with this formidable success in mind, i cannot wait to see what challenge is conquered next!!

Revisionism. Rejuvinate. Rocky?

quite frankly, i am not at all sure of what to make of this. i think it's a nice gesture that Stallone is going off to try and give a proper finale to Rocky (it is too late in the day for this to be some sort of crass cash-in), but i am not so certain that the damage done by the terrible Rocky V can be fixed.

good luck with it, Mr Stallone.

The Prestige - looking better and better

hey everyone

it is so rare these days, so depressingly rare, that a film causes excitement and anticipation. The Prestige is that gem of a rarity. it is supposed to be released later this month and i cannot wait.

i still have no idea of the full plot as such, but what a cast and what a director!

James Stands!!

hello

a couple of pictures from James's very first attempt to stand on his own. for a few weeks now he's been trying to climb up onto the couch, and now we see why!!

as you can see, he can sort of stand with one hand resting - attempts to "freestyle" stand end up with him sat on the floor!!

right, i am off to see my good friend The Colonel, and then i will attempt to see if any shop is prepared to sell me the missing DVD reissue of Star Wars. it would be very nice if they did!!

be excellent to each other!!

James starts reading??

hi there

James, as mentioned before, is very eager to start standing and walking. as a consequence, anything which is climable is now his domain, as illustrated here by his antics with one of my bookcases!!

not sure which book he was after to start reading, but the favourites to pull out are my Clive Barker collection, which could mean that he wants to be a horror fan. needless to say, the Anthony Burgess and Bret Easton Ellis books are now well hidden away. they shall stay like that until he is old enough to do something with them other than throw them on the floor!!

the answer to life, the universe and everything (ie James at 42 weeks)

hi everyone


OK, these are not actually 42 weeks exact, he was asleep again when that time rolled around!! here he is a day or so after that, quite wide awake and playing with his smart soft, rubbery building blocks!!

James and his climbing ambitions means that he can climb on to something and stand up, as the next few pics i will post shall show!!

be excellent to each other!!

Star Wars theatrical versions - difficult to get?

hi there.

the "limited edition" theatrical version dvd's of Star Wars have arrived here in SA at last. sort of.

for some mysterious reason, only 2 of the three were available to order, they being
Star Wars (A New Hope) and Return Of The Jedi :


i figured that i might aswell order them in the mean time, and get the missing one,
The Empire Strikes Back, as and when it arrived for purchase.

imagine my surprise, then, when these two arrived instead :







now obviously i want all 3, but it is somewhat bewildering that they one my website of choice said was unavailable managed to turn up!!

ho hum, i am sure i will pick up the missing one soon!




as for my initial reaction to the sets, they are what i expected, which is to say threadbare. i do not think they wanted to release the "original" versions at all, and their begruding agreement to do so for the funds it will bring in is emphatically illustrated by the lack of any different extras.

buy them if, like me, you appreciate the novelty factor of having all the different versions of films available. otherwise, stick with the 'Special Edition' box set - at least you know you will have all three films!!!

be excellent to each other!!

The Solo Manics : a mental one

Nicky Wire, once upon a time Nick Jones, has also unleashed a solo album whilst the Manics take a bit of a break. Nicky Wire is not known for his vocal prowess, and thus caution was taken in listening to it.....

whereas it is hardly a "vanity project" along the lines of Keith Moon's Two Sides Of The Moon or the various Kiss solo projects, it does not lag all that far behind. a better comparison would be John Squire's ill-fated Seahorses project. whereas that sounded like a bunch of second grade tunes that were never good enough for the Stone Roses, I Killed The Zeitgeist sounds a great deal like a number of tracks composed for the Manics but never fully worked out. this notion is somewhat underlined by the appearance of the song Goodbye Suicide, which Manicites will know was the working title for the excellent Lifeblood album.

Nicky Wire is no vocalist, and at least he does not pretend to be. the singing is borderline chanting, and he does the best he can with his vocal range. as for instrumentation, not as bass guitar heavy as it might have been, but it certainly relies on a percussion driven, industrial punk like sound.

an album, unlike James Dean Bradfield's, that is certainly not destined to appear on everyone's collection list, but a must have for the Cult of Richey Manics fan base and something for those with a taste for the quirky and unusual.

The Solo Manics : a mellow one

the Manic Street Preachers are engaged in some "solo" projects instead of kicking their heels before the next album. well, James Dean Bradfield and Nicky Wire are - no word on a Sean Moore solo project, and of course no word on anything at all from Richey Edwards.

first up is The Great Western by frontman James Dean Bradfield. The first single off the album, That's No Way To Tell A Lie, pretty much gives an accurate sample of what comes across the whole of the work. a very mellow, relaxed and pleasant album this is. there's certainly no aggressive You Love Us or anything like that, but it's still the voice of the Manics.

i am not going to get into the business of either standout or weak tracks, the whole thing happily plays along in the background. worth picking up for Manic fans around the world, if only for the novelty factor that it is a (kind of) Manics album that your grandparents would probably like.

and another new outfit

hello again

summer is here in south africa, so it is a great bonus that so many people have bought James some great summer outfits!



these pictures are of James in an outfit that Richard and Erika bought for him.



nice one, thank you, he loves it and it seems to be aerodynamic enough for him to crawl around in!



be excellent to each other!!

James for Ohio State!!

hello again

some more pictures, for a change, of James! this time he is modelling the rather smart Ohio State outfit that Grandad brought back from the USA for him. nice one!!

Counsellor!! Counsellor!! come out come out wherever you are.......

hey everyone

a somewhat slightly disturbing observation. is James in this picture below :



doing a rather good impression of Robert De Niro's mental character Max Cady out of Cape Fear?



ho hum, if he is, i guess it is without the range of tattoos and rather lengthy criminal record!!

James at 41 weeks (sort of)

hey everyone

pics of James at last!! not really the usual weekly ones - i was running late that evening and Michele forgot. ho hum, they would have been pics of him asleep again anyway!!

be excellent to each other!!