Ώδα στα γκρίζα

Γειά σου


it quite often feels like the introductory parts i do to these blogs are, look you see, a waste of time. the title is so perfect in saying what it's all about that sometimes i think i should just jump straight into the business end of it all, so to speak. this would save you time, in particular when scrolling down to ignore the words and just look at the pictures.

my chum Spiros has, as he is so prone to do, once again been on his travels around this world of ours. as such, he has been so kind as to consider me and fetched me some more lovely, lovely fags.

this instance of him doing this great act of kindness is interesting as it has seen him get me a whole load of Greek fags, or if you like fags off of Greece. the interesting part, if you are wondering, is that in an official or ostensible way he hasn't actually been to the Greece as part of his current travels.

yes, there they are, beautified in presentation via the means, or if you like conduit, of the Commodore 64 mode on my sort of new phone thing what has a camera welded to it. or in it, if that's the right way of saying it.

i suspect the picture above makes this exceedingly clear. if not, the pictures below kind of will, but for the sake of writing something here, yes these Greek fags are indeed the highly prestigious ones off of George Karelias And Sons.

Grecian, rather than Greek, more like. these fags, to be sure, do hark back to the classical Greek history which is cherished by the term Grecian, after all, and so that's how i should refer to them. as should you. my apologies, if required, for any upset i caused by not referring to them in the most respectful way possible open to me from the outset.

as the above picture so diligently illustrates the focus of these Greek / Grecian cigarettes never shies away from quality. they are presented in one of those flat, flip open cases which exude quality and dignity. the fine, foiled paper which blankets the box encases the cigarettes to absolute perfection. this is all of little surprise, of course, or at the least should not be. hallmarks of quality are what it is to be of Greek origin.

that said, Spiros was particularly pleased when he opened up one of the packets and saw this. no, he is not a smoker himself as such. he just fancied seeing what they looked like. and what they looked like was something that made him happy.

should, however, for some peculiar reason that would be too obscure for my simple mind to comprehend, you need explicit assurance of the quality then you may have it. each packet of these splendid, splendid Grecian cigarettes comes with a bespoke Guarantee of Quality, as you can see in the below image. which has for some reason come out sideways.

to the business end, then. how do these fine, fine, Grecian cigarettes perform in their duty and obligation. thus, how are they to smoke? well, at the first instance, yes they are somewhat shorter than the traditional common "king size" cigarette. and yet they make no claim at all to be of this size, or any other, but that which they are.

in lighting one up the smoker is transformed from any ordinary or common experience. immediately you are transposed, in mind and spirit, to the coming of dawn by the shore of the Aegean Sea. there it is where you stand with your fellow men, resplendent in simple cloths made of peasant cotton, accompanied by your fellow men. all of you have copious hair protruding from your head, face and chest.

as the sun rises, glistening across the clear, beautiful and crisp (hello, Faye) blue of the Aegean, you and your brethren strip down to as nature intended and enter the waters which have washed so very much of our history and civilisation. within these waters you fish. you and your fellow men capture a formidable shoal of fish, colloquially combining them upon the shore to roast across a fire and eat.

still naked and smiling, you as men embrace by the slightest spills of the Aegean, wrestling as the gods decree, admiring the curls of salt watered touched beards and the perfection of chest hair; with particular emphasis on the symmetry. and then, as the sun fades away from another odyssey o'er the Aegean, you light up a George Karelias And Sons cigarette in a communal way, basking in your endeavours and breathing in the history.

yes, the above image does show off the part of the packaging which Spiros particularly liked. he was very much enamoured with that gold foil on the paper in the box, look you see, to be sure.

once again then i must stress how exceedingly grateful i am to Spiros for his kindness and generosity in bringing forward these fags for me to enjoy. the barbaric and brutalist tax implemented on cigarettes here in the UK means that without such kindness i would be in all sorts of trouble.

do, however, please pay close attention to the many warnings presented, both here and on all packets of cigarettes, about the health consequences. they are not good for you, at all, and smoking dramatically prohibits your chances of immortality.


Να είναι εξαιρετική σε κάθε άλλη !!!!!!!!

bulb

heya


what a time it is to be all alive, look you see, for those who have a serious dislike of changing lightbulbs. whereas once such people were perpetually vexed by how frequently lightbulbs popped and subsequently needed changing, we now live in a far more enlightened era, where such things have formidable longevity.

there are quite a few benefits, or if you wish to be more casual about it perks, to this. everything is now oh so more efficient with this form of lighting. with the environment in particular benefiting tremendously. this is quite good, if not as point of fact superb.

one possible down side to this is, however, when you procure a smart new bulb in advance of the one in use expiring. invariably this means that one must wait for a formidable passage of time before one can bask in the splendour of a particularly interesting lightbulb purchase.

indeed yes, this is exactly what has happened to me over the course of this year thus far.

whilst i have every confidence in the clarity of Commodore 64 mode with scan lines most decidedly on i am all the same happy to confirm that yes, the above is my bedside lamp. also, yes, that is it switched on, and further switched on with a recently replaced bulb.

indeed i am troubling you, who for some reason is reading this, with such information because i believe it is of some interest if not significance. the above reflects, in a quite highly reflective way, the debut ignition of a smart lightbulb i picked up, as hinted at earlier, quite some time ago.

and here it is, or at least here it is resplendent in the packaging in which it came.

no, it is not just an ordinary or standard lightbulb as such, it is rather an antique one. well, not actually an antique one, but an antique styled one. presumably manufactured as a tribute to a time when lightbulbs were made to look like this as a standard. which was, presumably, some time ago, as i can certainly not recall ones like these from my youth.

provenance of this antique bulb? Poundland, for £1, ladies and gentlemen. don't look for it, it's not there any more. i made my purchase in early to mid December 2016, and have not seen them as being available since that date. so either they sold out, they were withdrawn from sale or i just imagined it all.

actually, sorry about that dictating terms thing above. you are of course free and indeed very welcome to go right ahead and look for this sort of bulb if you so wish. my experiences suggest that they are no longer freely available to purchase, but then again perhaps my experiences will not be your own.

what appealed about this particular lightbulb? it's shiny. also, it struck me as being somewhat different from the norm, and the unusual is always something destined to catch the eye. that is, after all, how marketing and advertising works. in a broader sense, that's a rule of attraction, too.

fortune would of course have it that i spotted and subsequently purchased this bulb after only recently exchanging the one which was in place. it would have been rather wasteful to change it again, no matter how stylish it would have looked, so i elected to wait it out. and wait it out i did, from early December 2016 right through to the here and now of the end of May 2017.

how, after such a wait, does the bulb perform? rather well, as in it illuminates by my bedside enough that i may  read from a paperback novel, or if a little saucy the most recent edition of the Viz.

my (considerably) better half did, in truth, suggest that she thought it would perhaps be a little too dim in terms of light emission to be practical. whilst it is somewhat darker than what i had in place, that speaks more of the overt brightness of the previous bulb in place.

anyway, whatever flaws may exist are simply trivial. i quite like how this bulb performs, and it has made my world all the more of a better place. perhaps the fact that i was required, in a self imposed way, to wait so long to appreciate it has made it all the better.

explaining the performance of this bulb in terms of visibility is quite tricky, at least beyond the images you see here. the best i could do, i believe, is to say it echoes perfectly those murky orange street lights we used to have here in England back in the 80s. they are all stark white energy efficient things now, of course. once, though, they were planet bashing orange, and of such a shade that they served to enhance the senses of one being in Autumn when it was indeed Autumn.

as i have every confidence in the fact that i have now exhausted all possible comments of interest in association with this light bulb i guess that's that. thank you, as ever, for reading, and i can but trust that you have found this particular lightbulb to be as elegant and interesting to look at as i clearly have.



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

just a question of Barbs

hello there


during the course of one early evening in the recent past, as opposed to the distant future, i found myself watching one of the two dreadful quiz shows what BBC 2 broadcast at that time. they are, for those that do not know, Debatable and Eggheads, look you see. both are poorly paced, presumably under the misapprehension that they are creating tension, and thus neither are particularly enjoyable. but, i was quite lazy and they happened to be on.

of the two mentioned it is Debatable in focus here. what's the gist or purpose of the show? quite difficult to nail, as it happens. Discussion would perhaps be a more apt title. a member of the public is presented with a question by a host characterised by his exceptional Irish accent. this member of the public is then encouraged to have a stab at what the answer might be (from a choice of three or four, depending on the round number) before listening to three marginal celebrities or other such figures of note discuss what they might think to be the answer.

so yes, in one such round of the above recently, no less than the lovely Barbra Streisand was the subject of a question. well, a facet of her luxurious and opulent life, at the least.

indeed pictured above are the three theoretical people of note, or if you prefer celebrity debaters who seem to discuss rather than debate. no, me neither, so i would not worry so much if you don't recognize them.

quite a diverse and evenly spread look across the contributions Barbs has made to the modern world, as you can see. covered, from top to bottom, are options for the truth which cover everything from her contributions to education through to her renowned signing and her exceptional film career.

many of you will, of course, know the truth of the options given. some shall not, and for your benefit the correct answer is revealed in the very next picture.

in terms of trying to work out the answer before then, well, let us try. as Barbs has a timeless beauty it is virtually impossible to understand her age. a shared faith with Neil Diamond, however, makes it possible that she was at the same school as him.

Donald Trump was more of a celebrity businessman than he was a President back in the 80s, a time known for Barbs not being particularly arsed about politics. she only really got interested when Bill got elected in 199whatever, when she went for regular sleepover "slumber" parties with him. whilst this answer is remotely plausible, it is highly unlikely that Barbs would ever have appeared on a show like The Tonight Show, as she is more classy.

 
so yes, as "C" was patently incorrect, the correct answer was A, that she went to school with Neil Diamond. and some dude what plays chess, from what i can recall, but that did not come up as an answer as such.

even the very worst of television quiz shows have some moments of interest, then. and these moments can happen when Barbs becomes the focus of a question.

right, time that i pressed on further into this world and all that i must do in it.



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

a phoenix for the flame

hello


for just slightly south of fifty years - ever since we had a comparative choice, look you see - a wonderful conversation to have is "who is the best James Bond". it's a subject that anyone who has ever seen two or more different actors play the role is prone to have an opinion on.

i suspect, however, that the rules have always been wrong. it's perhaps not that we should have been debating who the best was, but rather discussing who our favourite is. there is, after all, a world of difference between what you like and what you can acknowledge as being the best.

to this extent, to me, for me, my Bond was, is and forever shall be, Roger Moore.

on what was a pretty bleak day for all of us here in the UK, if not the world or most of it, yesterday Sir Roger Moore passed away. at the age of 89 and having lived a remarkable, wonderful life full of achievement one is left sad at the passing of someone that gave us so much for so very long.

indeed yes there was more, so very much more, to Roger Moore than James Bond. but it is the role he was forever identified with. that is something he never once complained about. far from it - he loved the association. this was particularly true of the way it drew attention to the many causes he championed in this world. being Bond for about a dozen years, for instance, meant that attention was always given to his work as an ambassador for UNICEF.

once there was a time when the British TV channels would show a short notice tribute to someone of note when they passed away. that seems to have changed now, although perhaps the darker, more troubling news of yesterday understandably prevented any such decision.

in the absence of a broadcast tribute, i took my Bond collection out of storage and watched my favourite one again, A View To A Kill.

the film was the last time Sir Roger played the role. it's not usually considered as one of the best, but i like it. a lot. i have nothing at all but fond memories of the film. from numerous trips to the Odeon to go and see it (tickets were 99p a go back then in 1985) through to the awesome theme song, it's just ace. also, the plot might have seemed outlandish back then, but right now it's decidedly plausible.

so who was, is the "best" Bond? whichever one you grew up with, really. i grew up with Roger Moore playing the part, and so he is mine. this is as and how it should be, i think.

that said, in one interview from the last few years, Sir Roger Moore commented that the current Bond, Daniel Craig, was "perhaps better than us all". if you wanted an expert opinion on the matter, far be it from me to argue with the gentleman.

the sadness we feel about Sir Roger Moore passing is, maybe, because it closes a chapter on our own lives. the thing for us, though, is that we could always go back and read that chapter again.

after thoroughly enjoying watching A View To A Kill once more, i do believe i shall go right ahead and watch them all again. perhaps, even, the Bonds i didn't quite like so much.



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

a cigar from a sailor

ahoy


many are the ways in which life twists and turns as it progresses, look you see. things come, things go. sometimes we like them, sometimes, alas, not.

it is in keeping with the above that, to be sure, my time as being an enthusiastic user of most splendid tobacco products, or if you like cigarettes, draws to a close. perhaps, since this is being written in advance of the publishing date by a few days, they have become drawn closed already.

undoubtedly more shall be spoken, or if you like written, of that by me in the days ahead, but for now let us concentrate on what we have. and what i have is, as the title of this post pretty much tells you, a cigar. from a sailor.

controversial, perhaps, but yes. i have indeed used the other other Commodore 64 camera mode that i have available for pictures; this one featuring dithering. whilst i am perhaps sinister looking in general, on the whole this mode does tend to make things seem all the more sinister. hence, i suppose, it not being used quite so much.

so, anyway, cigar. this was indeed a most splendid gift, as said numerous times already, off of a sailor. as gifts are so prone to be it was of course an unsolicited offering, with the proposition of being given one occurring at a social soiree within the grounds of the sensational Harlo residence.

at this stage you are probably skipping over all of this text and are simply seeking a clearer image of this cigar. let me not stand in the way of this a moment longer.

don't say i do not put any effort or thought into the images for this blog. in truth, yes, i did indeed wear my outrageous, often provocative "anchor" shirt especially for the purpose of the above image. it just seemed to me to be appropriate.

the regular readers of this blog might well be somewhat confused, if not taken aback, by this. such an instance as this - a short term but mutually beneficial friendship being struck with a sailor that resulted in a gift - would be an activity that you'd associate with Spiros. whilst i have every confidence that Spiros has indeed engaged in such an exchange at some point, i am not familiar with any specifics. as point of fact i really do rather discourage him from telling me the gifts or other such "special tricks" he and his chums share.

and just where did this sailor - a naval officer, no less - obtain this cigar himself? i say himself for yes, he was a sailor of the gentleman variety, or if you like a seaman. the Netherlands, or if you like Holland, as it happens. but of course yes i made a passing reference to the song Port Of Amsterdam, recorded by David Bowie and others. alas no, he did not pick up on it. never mind the fact that he would be too young to be aware of it; in all likelihood his parents were possibly born at some stage after the David Bowie recording.

is it that the Dutch are renowned or celebrated for their cigars? not really. my suspicion is that the provenance of this cigar goes to Havana, or possibly some other, most likely South American, concern. Europe is not really known as a hotbed for producing the quality of tobacco plantations required for cigars.

have i smoked this cigar as such as of yet? no. generally smoking cigarettes is the most unpopular and frowned upon thing in the world here. i do not think i would do my name and reputation any favours if i were to go for a stroll puffing away on this beauty.

yeah, go on then, above is a "classic" Commodore 64 mode with scan lines on image of me and the cigar for you. that has something of an accidental 3D feel to it, so it does, to be sure.

my exceptional and most prestigious thanks once again to the young naval officer who presented me with this most spectacular gift, then. should i ever ignite it - perhaps with one of my matches from Mumbai - i shall surely record the moment and share it here.



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

the micro comics strike back

greetings


a little while ago, as in a year or so i think,  did a post on some Star Wars "micro comics" that i picked up at Toys R Us or similar. those items promised, look you see, to have another series of them, only celebrating the second film off of Star Wars rather than the first which was the concern at the time.

it is quite likely that i offered, promised or otherwise suggested that should i ever get some of this second series of them i would share images here. let me, then, honour whatever obligation i may have made in that regard right here, right now.

ah, yes, here you go - here's the link to the original ones of these i got, way back in June 2016. so i wasn't far off in saying a year or so ago, if indeed i said a year or so ago above. no, i don't proof read or edit what i write, that's my excuse for errors. 

just as with the ones off of A New Hope, these micro comics in celebration of The Empire Strikes Back cost just ever so slightly south of £3, or if you like they were £2.99 a packet. no inflation damage caused to the world of Star Wars merchandise as such as yet, then.

what's inside the "micro comic" packets? same as last time, but let's have a look.

from what i can see and make out, you get a "micro comic" (surprise) featuring a section of the story of The Empire Strikes Back, a 3D poster of the cover of the edition you have, some 3D glasses for your poster viewing pleasure and some sort of collectable card. well, collectable if you want to collect them.

the collectable card aspect is most decidedly dodgy. i think there's 36 cards to collect in total, and yet only 6 different comics. so i believe they want you to own each comic 6 times in order to get all the cards. and that's if you are lucky and don't pick up any duplicates.  the least you could spend to get all of the cards, on the assumption of the price i paid, is just north of £107 or if you prefer just south of £108 good luck with that.

behold, for above is one of the 3D posters. i have absolutely no clue if the 3D qualities of it have transferred across when scanning it in, or when you look upon it now. should you have some 3D glasses to hand and wish to try, please do not see me in any way trying to prevent you from doing so.

with respect to the 2 collectors cards i got in these packets, 1 of them you have already seen if you are a regular reader. should this not be you, don't feel bad. if you want to have a gander, here you go, here's a link to my most smart Fett Ice post where you can see it.

meanwhile, for the sake of completeness, here's the other card, then.

no, frankly. i do not believe that i will be spending any further funds on packets of these. certainly, at the least, not another 34 packets in the hope that i get all of the other cards in this series. as, admittedly, splendid as they look.

and for some sort of sense or idea as to how splendid they do in fact look, here you go. on the back of the 3D poster there's a guide, or if you prefer advert, to be sure, for all of the items which are theoretically available for all of this Star Wars micro comics series.

ideally yes, of course, i would have liked to have scored editions four and five of these Empire Strikes Back micro comics. that would have meant that i got the ones which featured Boba Fett and Lando on the covers. but, that's the joy of buying "blind bagging" items. you have no clue as to which ones you shall obtain.

to move slightly away from these micro comic things, here you go. each month thus far this year i have shared what my Star Wars "concept art" calendar has had on display for the month. let us not allow May to be any different. here you go, then.

yes, quite. surprisingly, and disappointingly, it is yet more concept art off of the first released Star Wars movie, ostensibly referred to as A New Hope. i kind of assumed they would divide the 12 months of the year by the 3 films, giving you 4 months per film. alas, no. it looks like 5 months of the first one, 5 of the second and just 2 of the last, Return Of The Jedi. perhaps there was just not much art to concept for that last one, then.

the other 3D poster for your further 3D viewing pleasure? of course.

it's not for me to wade into that whole debate on the subject, but yes. quite a few people regard this, The Empire Strikes Back, as being the better or the best of all the Star Wars films. to be honest i've just enjoyed them all, and have not really ever felt a need to rank them in preference.

no, it's not just you, it is me too. i don't believe that i have said all that much about the quality, value and indeed etc of these Empire Strikes Back micro comic things off of Star Wars. they are just lovely things to have a look at, i suppose, and so it's probably been best for me to let the pictures do what they ostensibly exist for, which is to be looked at.

a formality of a question, if not a theoretical one, would be if i have any interest in getting some of these off of Return Of The Jedi when they come out. going on fate and pattern thus far, that should be mid-2018. i suspect certain readers of my blog would really very much like a 3D poster of Leia in that boss "slave" bikini she had on, so we will see. if it's convenient for me to get them, and i actually spot them on sale, then yes, sure.

right, off i go, then. as ever or as usual, i do hope that some if not all of these images have been of some degree of interest!



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

adventures

heya


to say that which i have once said before, this blog started off as a fairly simple thing to keep family and friends up to date with my exploits. from such humble wishes and intent it has gotten all sorts of out of hand, look you see, with somewhere over half a million people having come and had a bit of a gander. this i still find staggering in a highly flattering way. thank you all for the visits, and i hope you've found something of entertainment and interested. and, indeed, that you continue to do so.

quite the laboured introduction, that, to the words that this shall then be one of them "keeping family and friends around the world" updated sort of posts. and indeed yes, it is the update that most of you in those groupings would prefer.

of my immediate family unit there's 75% of the members you all like, with myself forming the "meh" 25%. from that 75% as 100%, the 66% you are most interested in hearing how they are getting on is undoubtedly formed by the boys, and so here they are.

i wouldn't really imagine you'd need me to tell you this, but yes, that is the two of them out and about shoe shopping. and yes, as my sister observed when she saw this, they do seem to be suspiciously smiling and seemingly well behaved for young boys out shoe shopping. well, i guess that's down to the provision of some building blocks, or if you like lego, by the shop proprietor. wise move.

now, the title of this post suggests adventures are to be looked at. unless you do it in a really interesting way i would suggest that yes, no, shoe shopping is not much of an adventure. well, from experiences i have yes it can be, but no.

on the other hand, climbing up a massive structure and then doing a boss slide is most decidedly an adventure. so it is just as well that they boys did something akin to this, and that i have some lovely images of the business end of that.

the above is William doing what he assures me is called the "leap of faith". apparently the rules at where they went to do this - Go Climb, i think - state that climbing is a one way street. as in when you get to the top you come down via this mega slide looking contraption rather than retrace your steps down.

indeed he was rather nervous about going down such a mega steep slide. it was not the lack of choice or option that saw him go down, however, but rather that he said he saw others doing it and, in his words, "not become pancakes", so he figured it would be safe.

James had little or no such hesitation, but then again he'd the advantage of being before. i think he went along to this most splendid looking place in celebration of the birthday of a friend. as he had so much fun there he requested that the sensational Harlo gang take him and William along. with this physical activity business being more their sort of thing than it is that of me or my (considerably) better half, they were most enthusiastic about doing so.

should there be a need to promote or encourage mountaineering in the world i would have every reason to suspect that this Go Climb place has hit upon quite the winner. the idea of climbing something like Mount Everest, or that massive one they have in Japan, is to me something that just seems expensive, exhausting and an awful lot of effort to go to just to say "woo hoo, look how high up i am". the idea of being able to slide down one of them after climbing it is, however, to me, exciting.

heading off to this Go Climb place with the Harlos was not the only adventure the boys got up to over the weekend just gone. oh no. as we are well and truly within the season for it, there was cricket to be played too.

second match of the season for James, and yet again another good performance. a wicket taken, some runs scored and in once instance the ball dispensed to the boundary for a four. as i have said before the most important thing in any cricket match is that the beauty and spirit of cricket wins. it was, however, a delight to see that James and his team went on to win this particular game.

as an aside, indeed yes i am distressed by news from Australia. whatever is going on with the cricket over there is apparently on the verge of the professional players calling a strike. this poses a threat to the Ashes, due to start or if you like commence in November. it is my deepest wish that this all be resolved and the much cherished series go ahead unblemished.

William, too, has taken quite a shine to cricket. whilst there are no organized team games for children of his age they are encouraged to come along and have fun. it is through having fun you learn the beauty and the ways of the game.

erm, yes. William has indeed elected to go with a rather sleek, stylish black clothed look for cricket rather than the tradition of wearing whites. not for us to question, i suppose, and who knows - perhaps he will start off a new trend for how all players dress.

apologies that the image looks quite small above. i can but show what i have, and the above was taken at some distance by my (considerably) better half. should you "click" or otherwise "tap" on the image, perhaps it shall appear somewhat larger and more easy to see, depending on the device you use.

a final picture for you for now of the boys, stood before a certain old school house. well, one still in use, but anyway.

the above was, in point of fact, taken one late Sunday afternoon during the later stages of April. we had recently attended a church service of remembrance, where some family members we have so sadly lost were commemorated and cherished in thought.

and so that would be that for this update on how the boys are getting on. keeping busy, as i suspect you have concluded from yourself, and loving life. just as is the way things should be.

i trust all is magnificently splendid with you, wherever you are and whatever it is you are up to, adventure or otherwise!



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

random bowie - tonight

Hello



And so here we are with another edition of a random Bowie album. Impressive, look you see, that I’ve managed to keep to my idea of one a month for five months at the least. As an aside, this is one I am writing whilst wrestling with that greatest nemesis of mine, for once again I am plagued with man flu what has ebola and sarin gas injected in it. Yes, that bad and no I have no idea if I shall recover.

But you care not for my health at the best of times, and certainly less when you are here on the promise of musings about Bowie. And not just any Bowie this time, oh no. In this edition let’s have a look at, indeed a listen to, the Tonight album.

Rudimentary facts first? Sure. By the commonly accepted standard of counting them Tonight was Bowie’s 16th album proper. It came out in late 1984, some 18 months after the big selling Let’s Dance album and a short while after completing the successful Serious Moonlight tour. Whilst not selling quite as many copies the record was a success, with somewhere over two million copies shipped.

Despite the success it enjoyed it is not an album fondly remembered. This is as true of the people who made it as the majority of people who owned or played it. Usually it is Tonight or 1987’s Never Let Me Down which gets called out as “the worst David Bowie album to exist”. I, having played the album a few times over the last couple of weeks, am not at all sure this is fair.

I am going to reference my Aladdin Sane edition of random Bowie here. That was a record which Bowie was dismissive of, saying that all he ever wanted to say on the subject covered was said in Ziggy Stardust. A similar situation existed with Tonight. With Let’s Dance it would be fair to say Bowie had pretty much delivered the best polished pop record he would ever do. The record, however, had given him a huge new number of fans. He, rightly, felt the best approach was to give this market more of what they clearly wanted.

To do this he brought together most of the musicians and talent behind the success of Let’s Dance, with one glaring omission – no Nile Rodgers. This absence could be seen as a reason why, for many, the record didn’t quite hit the targets. That and the perceived “lack of effort”, as outside of the covers albums Pin Ups and Toy this album surely features the lowest number of songs composed by Bowie specifically for a record.

If for some reason I was ever quizzed or otherwise taken to task on the subject, yes. Yes, if the subject is "which David Bowie album features his name in the best and most interesting font", the answer is Tonight. I just love the way it looks on the front of the album, and on the CD. On the tape, alas, it was just a standard font used by EMI, in red on a white casing. 

Whilst I appreciate being poorly structured is a staple of all things I write here, in this instance I am not sure what to do. More musings? A track by track look at the record? The latter, I think, and then more rambling from me.

Loving The Alien – the second best song on the record. A sprawling, seven minute odyssey of lyrical and musical production genius. And one which has courted controversy in all sorts of ways over the years.

Bowie himself suggested that the song was about his “frustration” with organized religion. With references stretching from Templars and Saracens through to then modern concerns about things in the name of religion, this does come across. It seems to go much deeper than that, however, and touches on the strength of faith he’d explored before and would explore again. The passionate dynamic range of Bowie’s vocals certainly underline how important this was to him.

The song today would undoubtedly cause controversy for the religious slant, but back then not so much. It was the video that caused upset, although no one ever really said why. Some stills from it beautify this post. In its original form the video for Loving The Alien was “banned” from TV and had an 18 certificate slapped on it for sale. And yet there is nothing gratuitous or explicit in it. Strangely, when one scene was cut – that of David having a nosebleed – it was passed as suitable to show to all.

Loving The Alien resurfaced in the early 2000s. Bowie performed it on that final tour in support of Reality. The version played live was a stripped down, acoustic version, with David introducing it as being “perhaps the way it should always have been played”. Perhaps this was David’s way of telling us, the fans and the listeners, that we should have been paying more attention to the lyrics than we had.

Don’t Look Down – one of three Iggy Pop covers on the album, one of five songs on the album which Iggy Pop is credited as a writer. David and Iggy were, after all, good mates.

A sort of slow, quasi jazz, reggae, soul and swing fusion number, then. One which may surprise you to learn doesn’t really work particularly well. By the minute mark Bowie already sounds bored with the song.

God Only Knows – I would argue that in 1984 the UK audience at large would recognize The Beach Boys by Barbara-Ann, Surfin’ USA, California Girls and maybe Sloop John B. Over the last 20 or so years God Only Knows has come to be better known, of course, through things such as the ingenious use of it in Boogie Nights and the curious choice of it by the BBC to promote their commitment to music. In respect of the latter, but of course the British Broadcasting Corporation would select a song by one of America’s most treasured artists.

For his cover David decides to go with a slowed down version of a song not generally known for its high tempo. The delivery is quite perplexing, for it’s a deep, strong and committed vocal delivered but there’s always a sense that he has absolutely no interest in performing the song at all. Actually, I am not entirely sure the vocal is as good as I am saying, maybe he’s just taking the proverbial with this.

Tonight – another Iggy cover of sorts, but Bowie did co-write this with Mr Pop for the Lust For Life album. For his version David changed things a bit, wisely getting rid of the original opening lines that referenced someone dying of a heroin overdose. Also, in as seemingly as hidden and unacknowledged way as possible, David does it as a duet. With Tina Turner. Yes, that Tina Turner.

There was something of a rejuvenation of Tina’s career in 1984. Earlier in that year she released the Private Dancer album, a record that garnered much deserved critical and commercial success. The album, strangely, features Tina doing a rather obscure Bowie cover, 1984 from the Diamond Dogs album. Perhaps someone at the label thought it would be a good idea, what with the year being what it was.

Tonight is a really, really good song but perhaps for all the wrong reasons. It’s soothing more than it is seductive, more a lullaby than a love song. Rather beautiful it is, too, and well worth a listen.

When Bowie released it as a single – making no reference on the credits or cover to Tina’s presence – it didn’t chart, at least not in the top forty. Oddly when Tina released it as a single (a live version of it with David) in the late 80s it did really well.

Neighbourhood Threat – mindful of the fact that this was in practical terms pre-CD, why wouldn’t you start off side two of your lp or tape with another Iggy Pop cover? As with Tonight, the original can be found on Iggy’s seminal Lust For Life album.

Sorry, but this is just poor. No one involved in this recording sounds at all interested in being involved with it. One can only assume that it might have seemed like a good idea at the time, but when it became clear that it wasn’t there was no time to find another song to do instead. Quite possibly the personification of the term “album filler”.

Blue Jean – the jewel in the crown of the Tonight album. Not only does this edge out Loving The Alien for the title of best song on the record, it’s also one of the best songs David’s ever done. Yes I mean that. Sure it’s not deep and meaningful, but it is a beautiful, perfect pop song that makes you feel good – and ultimately that’s exactly what music is supposed to do.

A bombastic start, a catchy tune and a wonderful song to have a smart singalong to. When it was all trendy to do so I used to have this as the ringtone on my mobile phone.

The single was accompanied by a 20+ minute short film, Jazzin’ For Blue Jean, directed by the 80’s most uber avant garde filmmaker, Julien Temple. I can remember sitting and watching the premiere of it on Channel 4; from what I recall it was on a Wednesday night but I may well be wrong.

Other than a lovely reference to Frankie Goes To Hollywood (something along the lines of “I refuse to support Frankie until they tell us who Frankie actually is”), the video saw David do something he’d not done in a while – develop a musical character. Screaming Lord Byron was his name, but alas as fancy as he looked in glitter and gold he just seemed not to endear himself to the fans as much as Ziggy, Aladdin and the Thin White Duke had done. Still, some boss dancing moves in the video.

Tumble And Twirl – another Bowie-Pop collaboration, but one written for the album.

Ostensibly the song is David and Iggy reminiscing about a holiday the two of them had just recently had in Indonesia. Without that knowledge, it’s simply an upbeat, happy go lucky wonderful little ditty. Sorry, don’t have much to say about it in isolation – the tune does its thing and doesn’t really cause any strong reaction, good or bad.

I Keep Forgettin – one of the more interesting decisions made on this record. David shared the date of his birthday with The King, Elvis Presley. It sort of makes sense, then, to do a song written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, although so far as I know He himself didn’t record this one. Someone who did, however, was Ringo Starr. The version by the 3rd best ever drummer The Beatles had was released just a year before. I had no idea that the world needed so many versions of I Keep Forgettin.

This is actually pretty good. A high tempo, sharp number that feels decidedly 80s yet pays homage to its early 60s, early rock origins. Hear it and you can imagine Bowie crooning it whilst wearing a smart hat and a very shiny suit.

Dancing With The Big Boys – and so the album which started with a comment on organized religion concludes with a swipe at corporate greed. Well, perhaps not greed as such, but how giant corporate companies were conspiring to crush individuals. Done in search of profit, presumably, so yes greed then.

Another Pop-Bowie collaboration, this one apparently stemming from a “brainstorming session” when locked in a studio together. Such circumstances can usually produce great records, and this isn’t much of an exception. It’s very 80s big pop sounding, sure, but it holds up rather well. One dear friend of mine, now so sadly lost somewhere in time and across oceans, had this as their favourite Bowie song. Not for me to question its merits any further, then.

Looking at the above I would say that retrospect says a bit more time should have been given to planning and deciding on this record. Strangely, after playing it a lot lately, the sum of the record is greater than its parts – the whole thing plays well, and isn’t simply dominated by the two outstanding tracks. But still, perhaps dropping at least one of the Iggy covers for another original song (if written with Iggy then so much the better) might have made a difference.

This happens to be the David Bowie I fell in love with. My Dad bought the tape, presumably for his car. I promptly pinched it for exclusive use on my walkman, taking it with me across Europe on school trips. I confess, however, that I used to play Loving The Alien on side one, then switch the tape and fiddle with rewind a bit to play Blue Jean, and that was pretty much it. Somewhere I still have the tape, stored away safely. It was what I would consider to be a childhood friend.

And an update to the above paragraph, a couple of months later. For unrelated reasons I was going through some of my stuff in storage and found the tape!

It was only a few years after the album came out that it became popular to be critical of it. Bowie was very much at the forefront of giving that criticism. In 1989 when part of Tin Machine he made noises that he found the record upsetting, and in 1990 when promoting his Sound&Vision greatest hits shenanigans he, in one press conference, said he was “coming to terms” with Tonight. Back in 1984, however, it got fairly good reviews. This was particularly true of NME and Rolling Stone. It just so happens that, at around the time they were going to review the Tonight album, both of those esteemed publications were offered territorially exclusive interviews with David. I am sure this “helped” the reviewer understand how excellent the record was.

Is Tonight an album worth getting, then? Yes, or maybe. Both Blue Jean and Loving The Alien are amazing songs and should be owned under any circumstances. Should getting the Tonight album to do this be particularly upsetting, then you could always get The Best of David Bowie 1980/1987 instead. The album versions of both songs feature. A very nice DVD comes with some versions of the release too, featuring the shortened version of the Blue Jean video and the censored version of Loving The Alien.

But, as I said more than once above, over the last few weeks I have had no quarrel with this record being on repeat. In no way is it a masterpiece and it’s certainly not one of Bowie’s greatest. The album, however, is nowhere near as bad as it is conventionally considered.

Phew. Thanks as usual for reading. No, I have no idea which Bowie album will be next up for random selection. That’s what makes it random, I suppose. If you come back, and indeed should I survive this latest bout of manful, we shall discover the choice together. Except you will only read about it after I have made it. But still, in spirit, together.




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

the oversized or if you like large Nevada t-shirt of my dreams

hey y'all


i wouldn't describe myself as the most ambitious person in the world. that said, a life without some form of aim, hope or purpose is no life at all. one really, look you see, needs to set targets to hit in life in order to keep a sense of it all going along for some reason. it matters not how slight, modest or small those targets are.

as many of you who are regular readers here will hardly need me to say a long-standing ambition of mine has been to obtain a t-shirt which both celebrates Nevada and is somewhat oversized in terms of how it fits me. it is with nothing but joy and pride that i tell you this target has now been hit.

yes, there it is - still with the tag on. absolutely magnificent, isn't it? an added bonus is it's exactly the right shade of colour that i always wanted it to be in, too.

now, some of you might be struggling to recall the times exactly when, over the last 12 or so years and some 4,000 posts i have done (!), i mentioned that i had long held a dream of a Nevada branded t-shirt. the more cynical might even suggest that i have never shared such a dream, and that the only reason i now own this t-shirt was that it was going for a bargain price of £6. shame on you, i say, if you are in the latter group.

for your enhanced or if you like optimised viewing pleasure, yes, there above is my smart new Nevada t-shirt in Commodore 64 mode. with, but of course, the scan lines on.

i mean sure, yes, in fairness i might never have explicitly stated "i have a dream and that dream is to own a Nevada branded t-shirt which is loose and baggy in terms of size", to be sure. that doesn't mean i haven't gestured towards this in a decidedly tacit way, which i have. plus, the low price of it was an absolute bonus.

well, thank you for sharing my making the dream real. hopefully you agree that this is a most splendid t-shirt with Nevada celebrated on it, otherwise this will all have been something of a waste of your time in reading. if so, sorry for that.


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

glad to be wrong, feel the love

howdy pop pickers


well, that's my pessimism about the modern world put a little bit in its place, look you see.

in my look at the latest Kasabian album, For Crying Out Loud (2017), i speculated that the album might not be a chart success in terms of all things number one. this was due to the bizarre, messy way in which charts are compiled, specifically with reference to multiple free plays on streaming services counting.

as it turns out, i was quite wrong.

nice one, lads from Leicester! i honestly didn't expect the Ed Sheeran stranglehold to be broken at the top for quite some time, but there you go.

happy days for Blondie, too, as getting in at number four is absolutely certainly no disgrace.

so that's quality and variety ruling the day in the album charts. it remains a huge shame that they have killed the singles chart for no good reason, but at least all is not lost.



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

mail

hello there


one of the interesting traits of modern life is just how upset people get when "spam" email lands. oh, make no mistake, it is annoying, to be sure. it's just that the reaction to it, in particular when people get all "take legal action" is somewhat different to how we treated what could be called "old school" spam.

by "old school" spam i of course, look you see, mean junk mail. to this day junk mail comes through our doors, and yet no one seems to kick off about it quite  the same way they do as spam. strange, if not peculiar, as spam is an awful lot easier to dispose of and stop.

for what reason is this a point of departure for this post? Spiros apparently had nothing better to do that gather up a selection of items which at worst are "junk" mail and at best are unsolicited promotional adverts and send them on to me.

yes, behold and admire, for these are items that went through the letterbox of one of the several estates which Spiros resides in, and were handled by him personally. well, the main envelope in the background never went through his letterbox. note how Royal Mail seems to have abandoned franking stamps and has now taken to crossing them with a marker pen.

there is much of interest in this rubbish which Spiros sent me instead of simply recycling it or throwing it out. indeed yes, that is a promotional thing for the Lib Dems in advance of the forthcoming election. alas, no, Zac and the Conservatives have not sent him anything.

an item of great interest is that "blackjack strategy" card. Spiros, as the greatest legal mind of his generation, has no need for this. whenever Spiros goes into a casino he simply instructs the dealer to issue 5 cards up front, face down. he then proceeds to use his legal prowess to argue how he does indeed have an unbeatable 21. it is a case he always wins, and so clears out the casino.

Spiros does seem to get quite a few adverts for handyman services, does he not? quite useful, i suppose. that said, Spiros does, as regular readers shall appreciate, normally have no issue at all in meeting tradesmen and engaging in various exchanges with them.

overall i would suggest that my emotions are ones of being quite overwhelmed by Spiros sending me all of this. it is exceptionally kind and thoughtful f him to think that i, simple humble me, would be the best to benefit from these items.

and so anyway off i go for now, but i will be back. until then,



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

there is no more English summer scene

hello there


yes, indeed, look you see. the title of this post is the opening line to a rather famous poem; one of those illustrious ones where people only recall the first two lines. the second line to this one evokes images of cricket being played on the village green. and so this must be all cricket related.

during the course of the week James told or if you like informed us that, at invitation, he was to resume his cricketing career. as you might expect my (considerably) better half and i were most supportive of this. even, as it happens, when it transpired that we would need to be up and about tres early on Sunday morning to take him to a match.

well, that last bit was of course much more of a supportive challenge for my (considerably) better half than i. as it even further happens i tend to be an early riser, so to speak, enjoying a couple of hours of peace and quiet in the morning before anyone else is up.

not the greatest quality picture i know, to be sure, but the above is indeed James batting. although maybe it is just my eyes and you could all see that quite clearly.

exactly where was it that James made his "return debut" to the game that he has a passion for? not his home ground as such, but rather the M.C.C. ground. no, not the M.C.C., at least not yet. rather Marske Cricket Club; a venue where his grandad possibly once played and most likely had a pint or two at.

i say "return debut" as that's kind of probably what it is. whilst he played at school in South Africa, he hadn't really picked up the game here, at home for us and at the home of cricket. when playing for fun with some friends his talents became clear, however, and they requested that he reconsider his sort of retirement. hence us being at Marske Cricket Club around 9am on a cold, wet and windy Sunday.

but of course William came along too, for he had absolutely no choice in the matter. apparently there are laws or some such condition about being a parent which means you can't just leave them alone, not even if you promise to check in on them every half hour or so.

that sounds like he wasn't interested, which is most decidedly untrue. William seems keen to get playing cricket to, and had some wonderful fun in the practice nets, throwing the ball and bashing away with the bat.

a picture of James prepared and ready to go off and bat? sure, why not......

how did he get on? allowing for the fact that he was lacking in practice and warm ups as such, rather well. unlike his father he seems to have patience, which is to say that certain deliveries he let go by rather than try to welly all out of the ground. an unfortunate snick saw him play the ball onto his stumps, but otherwise some most splendid strokes saw the ball roll across the outfield.

it would be unlikely that you'd particularly wish to see me, but be warned the next picture contains exactly that. it's of me and my (considerably) better half, and as she is 33% of the 75% of my family whom you all like a good deal more than you like me, you will just have to put up with it.

yes, indeed, my beard is getting quite formidable, pronounced and long, is it not? chance has not permitted me to travel to London as such as yet, hence me not using that splendid Fortnum & Mason gift card for a beard trim and style. perhaps i should, in the interim, consult some form or sort of non Fortnum & Mason means of having it trimmed. although the people seem to prefer it this length.

as mentioned earlier, it was a cold, wet and windy day that day. so much so that, as point of fact, i expected the match to be called off. no such approach exists in the game today, with matches being played in a bold manner, no matter how brutal the weather is. no bad thing, i suppose.

James had a bit of a bowl too, as it happens. rather wisely, and at the insistence of the coaches and his mum, he did so with hi black bodied, white sleeved jumper jacket thing on.

and how did the bowling go? a very tidy first over, with a splendidly bowled wicket taken with just the third delivery.  his second over, however, revealed there is much he needs to learn in order to develop and improve. generally a good line and length was found for his bowling, but the loose nature of his approach pleased the batter very much indeed. as in the ball got dispensed around the field a bit during that second over.

the result of the game? cricket of course won. every single match of cricket should end with the principles, the spirit and the beauty of the game being declared champion.

from a match conclusion perspective, alas no, James and his team were not triumphant. not that they did badly. with it being their first game of the season as opposed to their opponents' third, and the fact that they were one player down, they all did extremely well. 

and, most importantly, they all had a thoroughly good time, with all of them playing a game that, even at their young age, they have a great love for.

unless summer comes along soon i have every reason to suspect that there are several cold and wet mornings ahead of me over the next few weeks, if not months. this is no bad thing. since i am up and about early anyway, what better things to do with my time that watch a spot of cricket?

with that, until the next time, then.....................




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