he's seen that look of fear before

hello


recently i, look you see, did one of these posts on one of those subjects you all like. well, some of you do. you know who you are, them what like posts on discarded singular shoes. in that post there were no discarded items of traditional footwear as such, but there was a promise to bring images to you if i saw some on my travels through this world.

even more recently than the above is recent i made a celebratory post about Hartlepool, commenting if not quite commending them on the implied anti-car approach they have, and like most of the civilised world generally celebrating and appreciating their ideas about what to do with anything French.

yes, then. you are right if you have assumed, or in some form taken it as a given, that this post will bring together the two main elements mentioned above.

and, so, there you go, or there you have it. one single, solitary boot abandoned on a street within Hartlepool on what was an uncharacteristically wet and gray day in Hartlepool.

no, sorry, i do not have any further information at all concerning how or why this boot was abandoned where it was. i am not sure if it's the actual abandoned footwear or my speculation which you all enjoy, so either it does not matter that i don't know or sorry.

it might, now that i think, be less essential, Catalan like Hartlepool where i spotted this, and more that peculiar province which forms the Hartlepool / Peterlee axis. as there are several legal questions pending over the article which somehow appeared on this blog accusing Peterlee of exploiting Japanese tourists at this stage there are severe restrictions on any further comment i could pose here.

for those interested in a more general level of abandoned garment, the above would be suitable for your entertainment. as far as i was able to work out this is an abandoned skirt or similar, made of a jeans like denim material.

the place where i spotted this was partially but not all that secluded. so yes, maybe it is possible that it was abandoned as the wearer rushed to be in a disrobed state prior to engaging in some sort of sexual act, but i simply do not know this as fact.

well, anyway, there we go. or you go. sure, yes, if i spot any more oddities or peculiarities in terms of abandoned clothing, footwear or similar then i shall make every effort to take a picture and keep you posted. unless some sort of lawyer or other such legal concern tells me not to.



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

about that time i won £6.5million on the lottery

hello there


yes, i agree. quite an exciting title, that is, look you see. and, to be sure, in this post i will show you the quite simple, easy and anyone can apparently do it way that you, or anyone, can scoop any such jackpot you care to claim on any lottery.

to start with, some frames of reference. as most will appreciate, for it is commonly accepted, there are several ways in which one may secure a victory in a lottery. for the sake of clarification and completeness, here are the agreed methods -

* divine intervention from modern religions
* blind luck, or a statistical fluke
* blood sacrifices to the old gods
* science
* cheating
* stealing a winning lottery ticket off of someone

of these, we in this post....actually no, i will certainly, but you will only join in making it a "we" if you read on, shall look at the fourth on that list. quite exciting - how science enabled me to win the lottery.

that's my winning ticket. no, i do not play set numbers. one can so easily fall into that trap; if you play the same numbers more than once you are "locked in". should you risk deviating from that selection, you of course run the risk of missing out on a win. it would be unscientific. so, employing the greatest benefits of chaos theory and quantum physics, for my £2 every week i get what is called a "lucky dip".

it is the disciplines of chaos theory and quantum physics what enabled me to score this impressive win. whilst showing as much respect as i can, these are of course two complex subjects, and so for the benefit of easy reading i shall only speak of them in simplified terms here. science should, of course, be accessible to all. except them what want to do naughty things with it.

on the instance, or occasion, of the morning after one lottery / lotto draw was made, i casually logged into the website for the lottery to check my numbers. this would have all been done, of course, after i had engaged in certain morning based scientific rituals, such has having some coffee, perhaps dining on a croissant or two and almost certainly having a cigarette. or two.

there was much merriment as i checked for, according to the two disciplines of science mentioned, i had as point of fact, in a very scientific sense, won an even bigger "jackpot" prize than was initially announced.

yes, quite, indeed. as you can see above, my "numbers" had matched the requisite amount of numbers needed to earn another, technically "free", go or if you will "lucky dip". with the emphasis on a very broad overview of what quantum physics means and all relates to, this means that i find myself in a state where one possible, potential outcome is that, as and when i claim this "free" ticket, i have indeed already won the estimated £6.5million jackpot.

among, or amongst if that is right, us are those who proclaim their atheism is superior to other atheists - and therefore they are superior - because of their devotion to religion. for this senior brigade - let us call them the bishops, the cardinals or if you like the rabbis of atheism - we should cast aside anything in our society which is not based or provable by science. religion is the top of that list, for sure, but by default we would then also have to set aside things like time and money, for neither of them have any scientific base.

sure, you could say we all should simply revert money back to the gold standard, but even then no, really, as there is no scientific basis whatsoever for gold being money. it is just a belief system all buy into for the sake of an easy life. basically, mindful of my lottery win on the basis of science, if you ever meet and greet an atheist who claims one should have nothing to do with religion because of a lack of evidence or scientific proof, make sure they have neither a watch nor money. if they've got one or both, they are being rather hypocritical, or simply want an easy life.

many of you will have noticed that in the last paragraph, if you are still reading, that i correctly used the term "revert". if you ever encounter anyone who uses the term "revert back" you can, as is the case when someone says "quite unique" or "very unique", punch them in the face for their indiscretion. if it is not legal to do this, and i mean the punch in the face bit, well, it should be.

so, what will i do with the £6.5million that according to the basics of science i have already won? i am not sure. a dream of mine - a dream many share - is to win the lottery, stuff as much cash of it as possible into a smart yet functional briefcase, locate the nearest independent pimp, hand it to them and request that in exchange they supply me with drugs, with the change coming in the form of ladies of ill repute. or, in the lexicon of pimps, "b!tches", i suppose, but that strikes me as really rather crass.

i have had nowhere near as many dealings with pimps in my life as i would have liked, but still it is the case that i suspect they might be inclined to reject science. should i go up to a pimp with my scientific, quantum physics related lottery winning ticket and requested services in exchange for it, i have every reason to suspect that the result would be less pills and ladies, more threats - or actual acts - of having me taught a lesson by means of cuts and stabs off of one of them smart dagger like knives they keep concealed in their elegant walking sticks.

the same, i suppose, would be true if i waved this winning lottery ticket at a Ferrari dealership, or them fancy people what make yachts and other vessels of the sea. without actually testing this, my suspicion is that anyone with goods i may want will be reluctant to exchange them for this winning lottery loot, no matter how valid the science behind my victory is. oh, well, never mind.



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

for patching and plugging is his delight

hey there


many thanks for stopping by, look you see. despite the fact that i make precisely zero coins of money off of doing this (i am reluctant to have adverts appear), it is most pleasing when i see so many of you all around the world drop by to have a look. or, if nothing else, gander at the pictures and probably steal them too.

anyway, it's not where you're from it's where you're at, as it were, and here we are. time, methinks, for an update on the world of Spiros. he is quite popular on this blog, i know. also, i know he has been very busy. what with? as usual i cannot say much, but i believe some sort of "blog" somewhere on the internet has been making suggestions about his sexuality, so he is pursing legal action against them. no, no idea who it is he is talking about, but he has spoken to me in a way that shared the threats he will make to whoever it is when he finds then.

other than that, he has been busy with all the stuff what he gets called in for as the greatest legal mind of his generation. quite in demand, is Spiros. usually his fee is vast sums of coins of money that no average person could imagine the value of, but every now and then he's prepared to work for quasi, semi pro bono rates.

if you were wondering about The Wicker Man being alluded to in the title of this post, well then i suppose the above image answers all. yes, of late Spiros has being handling a matter for a small, or small-ish, peasant nation who have had some issues with a larger nation, and please note i did not explicitly state that it was Russia, on either side.

due to the peasant like nature of the country, and much like above i didn't mention France or Belgium or similar, as much as they desperately need the services of Spiros they are bereft of the funds normally required to secure his victory. in showing off his humanitarian, or if you like philanthropic side, he elected to accept the finest of the harvest from the peasant farmers in lieu of a fee. in a move that he assured me, or at least i have assumed, was purely for security reasons, the offerings were brought to Spiros only by select farmers, naked, who Spiros had observed to have the correct muscle tone and precise organ ratio size to be suitable for the job.

a bit of a throwback to the "early days" of Spiros and his rise to greatness in terms of being the greatest legal mind of his generation, and a prolific advocate of forming short term but all the same mutually beneficial friendships with sailors around the world? why not.

one of the conditions imposed on doing this was some strict and heavy censorship of the images. sure, you might think you know who the obscured face belongs to, as after all they are one of the most well known and recognised world leaders to have ever served. but, for the purposes of this article, you shall please kindly pretend you have no idea at all.

the above was from some jolly exciting adventure certain parties planned and paid a lot of money to try and implement.  whilst quite complex, it all related to what some might call "new colonialism", the unification of a continent for the benefit of the elite, and making real the Rhodes dream of a "Cape To Cairo" train line.

Spiros got involved in it all purely because it was early days in his career, hence the boyish good looks on the go, and the money was right. actually, the money was very right. none more right. if i recall correctly, he was getting paid an amount which ended in more zeroes than is average to have fingers; all to in a great legal mind way draw some theoretical lines and what have you on a big massive map.

no, the venture, or jolly exciting adventure, did not end at all well. it certainly didn't happen as planned. to the best of my knowledge quite a few people who were involved remain in jail as part of their punishment for participating in it, or just even thinking about it. a few, the truly guilty, of course eluded justice, as is the way of the wealthy, the elite, the ruling classes and those who are in some capacity or another related to current or former national leaders, elected or otherwise. no, Spiros was never in any danger of being arrested. due to his ethics and morals, his ability to pay bribes, his skill in making sure paperwork is always in a form that reflects the name of others and his absolute lack of hesitation in informing the constabulary of anything which would gain him favour, Spiros was never even associated with the whole sorry affair.

over the years several - well, one or two - of you have requested an image or video of Spiros kicking someone - anyone - in the head. i am happy to oblige with this.

again, the above might be quite a surprise to the more casual or trivial form of Spiros enthusiast. whereas most know the man has a great, great passion for wrestling - the proper, Roman, Greek, naked, oiled up form of wrestling - some might not be aware of his deft skills with the kung fu and related martial arts.

caution must be used here, of course. yes, Spiros does, from time to time, resolve legal disputes via the conduit of martial arts, should those foolish enough to have an opposing view to his request it, or simply "ask for it" in a tacit or implied way. there is of course a certain world leader, who i won't mention and i did not state he is currently boss of Russia, who likes to put on displays of his skills with judo. please let us be clear, at no stage did i in this post suggest that Spiros, if the money was right, would be prepared to face this unnamed world leader out of Russia, in a bout in order to resolve present world tensions. besides anything else, it is quite likely that the presumed opponent would be far too scared of a right hiding to ever dare get in the ring with Spiros.

should the above look like a broken, discarded toilet, that would be because it is. we are, in terms or within the context of this post, back in the present day. although Spiros was prepared to be kind and flexible in terms of his fee, he reckoned that the toilet they provided him with was displeasing and beneath the required standard. to their immense credit the peasants were horrified by this, and so ritualistically ripped it out and tossed it aside as part of some impromptu ceremony. i am led to believe that the replacement one performed to a quite satisfactory level.

no. even if he had sent me pictures, videos or sound recordings of him "in action" with the replacement one, i would not put them up here, thank you.

that there above is another bit of a "throwback" image, for the fans. i cannot say too much about the circumstances, but as you can see it is a very happy and content Spiros. truly, surely, yes, it does show that from time to time Spiros forms short term but all the same mutually beneficial friendships with more than one gentleman at a time. from what i recall of this particular episode, he and the gents did what i think was a dance, and it all sounded a bit like that "do the conga" thing off of Black Lace.

and so that's just about that. i would have thought many of you have just admired the pictures, so anything else i write is probably moot. my hope, however, for those who read this, is that the Spiros fans who congregate here on my blog are most delighted with this update on how he is getting on.



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

books

hello there


and so my commitment, or pledge, look you see, towards giving those interested a bit of a rundown on any if not all books i read continues, to be sure. having finished off reading another two, now then is the time to set aside all other matters on this, my side of the screen, and compose my thoughts. fluently and coherently, if i can, but i am not sure.

usually this all starts, if you will, with a look at what books i have read, followed by something of a spoiler-free overview. this is done before we proceed to a review or comment proper; in either case there is always the potential for plot sensitive spoilers. let me get on with such, then.

moving on in the direction indicated if not specified, then, a spoiler free overview. Exile off of James Swallow is the follow up to Nomad, which i read and enjoyed last February. this one was OK. speaking of last February, i have been reliably informed off of the internet that Eyes Like Mine by Sheena Kamal (also published in some corners of the world as The Lost Ones) was first published in February 2017. i, however, only bought and read it in this year, 2018, and thus i can state that it is likely to be declared as one of, if not the, best of the books i read this year.

whilst i shall take all the care i can, in particular with the second or if you like latter book mentioned, please do bear in mind that a *** SPOILER WARNING *** is in place from here on out. also, the usual links to titles are for your convenience and ease; they are not an endorsement or affiliation on my side. no, i seldom shop there myself, but plenty do, going on all that money they have.

starting all of this off with the book i started reading of the two necessitates commencing reviews proper with Exile by James Swallow. and so i shall.

provenance of my copy? it was one of those variations Tesco does with its pricing. for a week or so they had this as £3 flat to buy, rather than their standard £3.85 on its own or as part of a 2 for £7 deal. so, to this end, i was there when it was £3 so i was able to buy it for £3.

what of the plot? after the exploits of Nomad, protagonist Mark Dane is not quite where one expected to find him. that caught me by surprise. instead of being part of some fancy, well funded well meaning but ultimately vigilante in nature group, he has a kind of quasi, dull meant to be a desk job with some form of UN "task force" thing.

somewhat predictably, though, Dane stumbles on a sequence of events which threatens the stability of world security, if such was ever stable. his findings are at odds with what his bosses want him to be doing, and so he is forced to turn to (what i think was called) the Solomon Group what rescued him in the first novel, so that he may prevent a major international incident involving nuclear things from happening.

this was ok, this was. unless i do not remember Nomad as well as i suspected i did, the style, pacing and nature of this one was not what i expected. went off in a slightly different direction, so it did. for some reason this left me partially disappointed, but i enjoyed the novel all the same.

much of this is, as you may expect, jolly old action and adventure. there are many explosions, some stabbings, a great deal of shooting and even a bit of kicking people in the head. not bad, true, but one really does sometimes long for the nuances and sophistication of Cold War era "spy" novels. perhaps if the world powers could make the Cold War come back we could have them sort of books again.

otherwise, there are instances of familiarity here. the "big bad", of sorts, ostensibly a Somalian pirate, bears an uncanny resemblance to the "big bad" out of two recent Scott Mariani novels (reviewed here somewhere), Star Of Africa and Devil's Kingdom. also, one of the several endings to the novel features something of a homage to the boss video for Two Tribes by Frankie Goes To Hollywood.

a bit of a break for you, then, with a couple of other books. the big massive one in the background is indeed called The Story Of The Jews. this hefty tome was an unexpected yet exceptionally welcome gift from the man they call Magic, my occasional co-pilot and generally always top bloke. no, so far as i am aware neither i nor Magic are of the Jewish faith, although i am reliably informed that Magic considers himself to be "an advocate of progressive, modern Judaism". when he puts his mind to something, invariably it gets done. 

the other, slightly less hefty volume is I Love Harry, which is the "ultimate" book about Harry out of One Direction, although i suspect the band is no longer a going concern. it is filled with all sorts of facts, trivia and quizzes for fans of Harry. i purchased this for 50p off of some sort of sale WH Smith was having. the main motivation was that the similar volumes for the other four or five members of One Direction were going for 10p each. from this i can only conclude that i have the book for the best one of the whole lot of them what was in the band One Direction, or are still in the band if they happen to be on the go these days. 

moving on, then, and the book that i spoke the most highly of at the start, which is the debut novel of someone called Sheena Kamal. a most impressive debut, too. for me, where i am in the world, this novel is published as Eyes Like Mine. take caution, however, for in other places it appears as The Lost Ones.  no, i have no idea at all why.

the provenance of my copy? Tesco. another variation of their "book of the week" business saw me able to procure or if you like secure it for a mere £2. this was undoubtedly money very well spent.

plot? here i shall more or less give you my interpretation of the blurb off the back of the book, as i am reluctant to give spoilers. in short, a lady - our protagonist and someone who narrates most of the book - gets an early morning phone call. it is from a distressed chap who is a stranger to the lady (called Nora). the voice on the phone tells Nora that a girl has gone missing. also, as it happens, that the girl who has gone missing is in fact Nora's daughter, who she has never ever met......

it's not a perfect novel - for a relatively linear story it tends to get remarkably disjointed with the narrative - but my word it was an impressive read. a thoroughly engaging one that keeps you turning the pages. also, be warned, a rather dark, murky and often depressing tale. who knew that Canada, which has a reputation for being dull and stale and seems to promote itself as being dull and stale, could be so dangerous and interesting.

a great deal of the novel is unsettling and disturbing. well, i found it to be, and perhaps i am just quite sensitive or something. if you are of an inclination and disposition to handle such, in particular barbaric violence against the ladies of the world, then you would be rewarded by what you read here.

so, anyway, with that, then, there's another two books done. actually four, i suppose, now that i remember the brief pause i inserted.

as ever, hopefully this was of use or of interest to someone somewhere!



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

the blair gambit

hello there


today, like every day, is a day when we continue to work through our pain. it does not matter, look you see, when you read this. we are in the dark, desolate days of a world bereft of his excellency, the most righteous and noble Jim Bowen.

it is necessary for us to perhaps not work together but to support each other as we continue to come to terms with this. to their credit, several channels, in particular that Challenge one, have stepped up their repeated broadcasts of the various sermons and lessons Bowen administered to us, the simple humble people.

surely it shall be no surprise to learn that i, me, moi, have spent as much free time as i have afforded to me watching these very welcome repeat broadcasting endeavours. once in a while i find myself slipping; i lose my way and do not do things as Bowen would have decreed. the reminder is most welcome, and my forgiveness, if not salvation, is sought by making amends.

during such a screening i had the honour, the pleasure and the blessing of seeing the above. as i have spoken of so many times before on this blog, high grade celebrities - both overtly and covertly - were a regular on Bowen's chosen medium for lessons, Bullseye. here is an instance where one of the most celebrated performers of his generation did not hide his appearance.

yes, indeed, that is Lionel Blair. the Lionel Blair, the one and only, although of course his good name and outstanding reputation have been sullied and unfairly smeared by association with a certain politician. to address this, and for other reasons, it is always better to refer to former PM Tony Blair as "Tony Bliar" instead, so as not to insult Lionel Blair in error.

no, i am uncertain as to when this episode was broadcast. however, if you are interested, it should be just the work of a moment to find out. if you search for news stories, perhaps limiting the search to the mid-80s, for headlines such as "NHS struggling to cope with baby explosion", meaning a significant increase in the number of babies born, then you would just need to count back 9 months from the date of such stories and the nearest Sunday to that was when this episode was first screened. indeed, quite, this repeat i saw may well have a similar effect, so do keep an eye out for such stories around the end of November and commencement of December.

one of the most interesting - i didn't say disturbing and you cannot prove that i meant to - aspects of British society is a strange quirk in appearance. presently we have a disproportionate number of men who share specific traits. these are that they are in their 40s, they were raised by single mothers what went to pop concerts in the 70s, and the gentlemen look "more than a bit" like either Steve Harley out of Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel or that twat who used to stand on a bar stool to play the tambourine at T-Rex gigs.

what of Bowen? well, in this episode we can clearly see him first experimenting with the kind of wardrobe that he would elect to wear when he stepped up and stepped in to serve as Pope when that German fellow discovered it was a bit too much like hard work. i particularly like the effort he took to make it all "Italian cosa nosta" in style, too.

the wardrobe of the Lionel Blair? well, it's leather. rock and roll leather. this was a look he perfected in his youth, on a whim, and that rock stars all around the world copied, so as to emulate how smart and class he is. did any ever reach his level? it is not for me to say.

awwww, that's a lovely image i captured there, of Jim Bowen administering a blessing to Lionel. it surely brought him both good luck and great fortune as he threw the darts. i got distracted and so did not see what score he got.

more than once it has been the case that someone has mentioned that it's quite likely the only reason Tony Bliar ever got to be PM was because people thought they were voting for Lionel Blair. that, or they assumed Tony had some connection to him, and that he would be just as good as running a country as what everyone assumed Lionel Blair would be. history suggests this turned out not to be the case.

well, anyway, that will do for now. as ever, if even only just the images, i trust this has been of some interest to someone somewhere.



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

political commentary through the medium of deodorant

hi there


i have few remaining doubts that regular readers will, look you see, be surprised to find me once again taking to the forum of the internet to discuss further exploration of lynx (or axe, depending on where in the world you are) deodorant. those of you who are interested in my personal, as well as sentimental, hygiene will no doubt have casually assumed i'd settled into a groove of the better ones; black night, apollo and excite being the decent three.

not so. the lure of lower priced variations of lynx has, once again, and shall no doubt one day once more, always, lured me to experiment. in this instance, the lure was having two cans of it for a splendid 5p south of £4, which is good value. yes, even better valued could probably be had buy rather buying cans of deodorant off of Poundland for £1 a go, but this might be a little aloof of me but i have always had suspicions that the scent off of them might not always be what it could.

yes, as you can see in the glory of Commodore 64 mode, above, i got a tin of Africa and a tin of Peace. one of them was £1.95 reduced whereas the other was a flat £2, hence the combined figure presented in an earlier paragraph, which is to say one above not below.

what's most interesting about this is the political statement them what make the lynx (ace) are making. by having these at a lower price the intent is of course for patrons and other such consumers to buy at least one of each, for value reasons. so you end up with a big can saying "Africa" and a smaller can saying "peace". it could be just me, of course, but i doubt it - the makers of lynx are tacitly stating to buyers that Africa is a concept which is bigger than peace. i cannot help but feel that it is wrong for them to make such a statement.

although i could of course be mistaken. rare, indeed, that would be, but it happens. perhaps lynx or whatever named it "Africa" in honour of what is universally celebrated as the 3rd best song about a continent to be recorded by the 2nd best band to have taken their name from a secondary character in Wizard Of Oz. but that would be controversial of them to do, for some - believe it or not - argue that Australia by Manic Street Preachers does not tick any boxes in any of those judging categories, so they get all upset about it topping Toto.

how do the cans, or tins, perform in their ostensible function? well, let's have a look at 50% in action.

that there above is me, or if you like moi, to be sure, wearing some of the Africa one (i think), out in a public space on a relatively sunny day. this was all just after the "return" of the snow off of "the beast from the east" in mid-March, which i think clever and posh people call "the ides of March" or similar.

as the more astute of you will have observed, i am alone in the above picture. solitary. which means that the lynx has failed. the idea of it is that the fanny will flock to you if you have it on, or indeed fellow gentlemen who are partial to forming special friendships with other gents. and yet neither or none came.

the usual disclaimer, then. yes, i appreciate that i am, roughly, three times the age of which lynx is intended for. lynx exists so that feral teenagers of usually deprived or decidedly lower class backgrounds may attract a mate for short term breeding purposes, most commonly but not limited to bus shelters, partially enclosed car parking facilities and similar.

make no mistake, i have no desire whatsoever to conduct such behaviour. it just so happens that i generally prefer the fragrance of lynx to others. i just find it most peculiar that the one job it has to do does not seem to get done when i wear it.

as for the political statement being made, well, it is wrong. yes, Africa can be a violent and dangerous place, but mostly it is at peace. the best description i ever heard of Africa was "for every one person who will point a gun at you there are nine who will extend a hand of friendship and welcome you into their home". that would pretty much sum up my experience of the people of that wonderful place.

instinct tells me that this post shall be of no practical use whatsoever to anyone. the target market for lynx, them feral teenagers, don't look at conventional websites. instead they use them "apps" things to send each other pictures with banal, barely there comments attached.

but that said, you know, if you have extracted any value whatsoever from this post, well then so much the better for me doing it.



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

doubled day of release

heya


and so on to only the second day of release for the year that is 2018, look you see. here, as we ebb towards the end of the fourth month of this year. i guess we are not going to have a vintage year for music releases.

in fairness, there were some other releases i have an interest in this year - the new Jack White, the "new" Jimi Hendrix and the new David Byrne. partly i have not gone and got them for my time to listen to vibes is presently limited, but mostly i am being tight or "budget wise" and am thus happy to collect all three as and when they fall into the HMV "2 for £15" category, rather than spend £10 each on them. although, to do that, i would have to find a fourth, and spend £30 on 3 CDs i want + 1 to fill up the order, as opposed to £30 on the CDs i want. oh.

that will be then, this is now. and there are some bands, or if you will musical acts, that i will purchase any and all releases by purely on autopilot. one such concern of the vibes would be the Manic Street Preachers. with a new album out by them, then, a day of release was to be had. both actual, and the day after. kind of. sort of. look, you will see.

yes, that is the new album off of arguably Wales' most successful band ever. no, that is not a CD or LP or even one of them "download" things. that right there is the tape, what they made available off of internet, and what i ordered. so i am having that as counting as me doing a day of release on the actual day of release, for it arrived in the post on the day of release, Friday 13 April. the double edition, "deluxe" CD i went off on the Saturday after, or if you like the 14th April, to purchase.

huh? buying the tape and CD, of an album which one could hear "free" via legal and less than legal means anyhow. yes. quite normal and tres nostalgic. back in the 80s it was not uncommon for me, and many others, to purchase both the tape, the lp and the cd of some new releases. this was despite their being no real discernible difference in the content of each. we, i, did it "just because". a move that caught the record labels at the time rather off guard, for they did not think that people would buy the same album on different formats. yes, i know i have not said much on the album. anyway, that's another classic case of the record industry simply not understanding their market or audience.

so, then, off to HMV. as this was an exciting new release by an established band, i had wild expectations, hopes and ambitions that HMV would celebrate this in the window, with either massive posters celebrating a new album off of the band after  or 4 years (2014, i think Futurology came out?), or at the very least, surely a mention of it in passing

no. gone are the days of "Know HMV - Know Music". as you can see, and in fairness they were probably paid a bit to have this done, just about the whole window display of HMV - both windows - gets dominated by the VHS, Beta and Laserdisc release of Star Wars Episode VIII : Battlestar Galactica. this wouldn't, i suggest, be all that bad if it was in celebration of a decent Star Wars film, rather than this, one of the weakest and poorest ever to be made.

so, the album. my experience of it before getting it were just two of the apparently three "singles" released or if you insist "dropped". International Blue was splendid enough, and Distant Colours or whatever it is called (that, just looked at the tape box) grew on me. not sure what the 2nd single betwixt those two was, and no i am not going to look it up.

due to an administrative error, however, i had received some opinions and reviews. my understanding is that, in a moment of madness or other such general brain melt, Amazon issued the complimentary mp3s of the record to all who had "pre-ordered" the record quite some time before they were meant to. and i really hate the term "pre-ordered". when you have ordered something that is it, irrelevant of the release date or when you get it. "pre-order" is all that vast ocean of time when you haven't ordered whatever it is.

the reviews were not at all good. poor, "lost it", waste of time, says nothing, load of rubbish, etc were the most common descriptions. whereas i paid attention to this, i did not allow it to cloud my mind. whilst there are many thing what i have in common with fellow Manics fans that i consider chums, there are also numbers of differences. as i had not minded the two songs i had heard, i suspected that perhaps my reaction to the album would be different.

it pretty much was. whereas there's nothing "wow" outstanding on it, this is a solid, decent enough record. one of the few measures i can give you, and i appreciate this is perhaps relevant to those only who know me away from all this blog thing, is that the first time i played it at no point did i even think or consider of stopping it to go off for a cigarette. by the 2nd and progressive plays, it was only by the last track, 12, The Left Behind, where the band took the decision to let Nicky Wire "sing", that i felt it appropriate to have a cigarette, some distance away from the stereo.

now, then, the next picture is a bit of public service, look you see. several people will have, like me, purchased the tape. unlike me they will have done so simply to sell it, perhaps via that ebay business, for a profit, to the collectors who somehow missed it on the website. as my purchase was purely to own it, open it and play it, here's a picture of what the inside artwork looks like.

right now, as i type this, i have the Nicky Wire song on i mentioned earlier. if God loves a trier, truly, as cockneys are so prone to saying, then the presumably limitless capacity of the heart of God is brimming with love and other such emotions in respect of Nicky Wire and his singing endeavours.

thankfully, Nicky Wire's contribution to the album as a whole is rather more the composition of lyrics rather than the singing of them. voicing the words is left, wisely, to the beautiful sounds of the vocals of James Dean Bradfield. whereas he seems to perpetually promote an idea that his voice is going and he won't be able to do all of this for much longer - the idea of bringing in a new singer, leaving him to strum his guitar and bounce around on one foot to his and the fans delight - has been mooted. but, you know, for now he sounds as good here as one would expect.

perhaps one of the issues some of my fellow fans have had with this record is that it's unclear what they are saying. well, maybe that's the point of the title, Resistance Is Futile. we now live in a world where, dangerously so, society is apparently dictated to by whatever stupid thing is "trending" on "twitter" now. although something will trend for hours if not minutes, long lasting and far reaching decisions get taken. not helping this is, of course, a certain world leader of some power seemingly determined to govern and lead exclusively through the platform.

maybe the point of the record is not so much that they are exhausted, spent and tired by, of and attempting to rant and rave about things what upset them. instead, then, they are quite content to strum some splendid tunes, make a few observations and, well, that's it. less "manic street preachers", more "why don't we just sit down with a nice cup of tea and chat about this politely". one can understand how that would go some way towards alienating a devout and loyal fanbase.

should i recall right, other than Together Stronger, their splendid song for Wales and their oh so close to victory efforts at Euro 2016 (some sort of football thing), the last thing what the band has done is 20th century concerts and celebrations of Everything Must Go. if so, that shows. at times a lot of this album sounds very, very, tres, uber similar to both that and its successor, This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours. a cynic might say they've simply taken the more pop, commercially orientated melodies and riffs from those two records and added new words over them. more than once, for instance, i have found myself singing either Australia or Everything Must Go over International Blue.

any overt, classical Nicky Wire sixth form college wankery on the go? but of course. it would not be Nicky Wire if some of the lyrics were not written as he imagined himself still a 16 or 17 know it all A Level English Lit student, just knowing that the world was his to conquer with the words he composed. Vivian and Dylan & Catilin are where his sixth former wankery are most on display, but happily or sadly there are hints of it in all corners of the record.

surely there is some anger lurking on the record? hmn. depends on how you define anger. Sequels Of Forgotten Wars and Broken Algorithms lean towards being the angry, preaching ways one would most normally associate with the band. but, even then, there seems to be more a sense of resignation that nothing will ever change, rather than a rallying cry in the hopes of diverting the course of the world.

mindful of the above, we get a sequel of sorts on the record. Liverpool Revisited is unmistakably and unavoidably a follow up to the devastating conclusion of This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours, the subtle yet scathing SYMM, about Hillsborough. where the original song sought to bring justice about for the 96, this song is from a time when that justice is closer to - thankfully - being. but the song knows that "justice" will not bring back the 96, nor was away the horrific scars of the evil cover up by the police and government about why people had to die for simply wanting to watch a football match.

a not entirely unexpected tribute to David Bowie comes along in the form of In Eternity. to be honest, it in itself makes this whole album worthwhile again. whilst dangerously dabbling with sixth former wankery ("will we ever see the likes of you again"), mostly it's a subtle reference to him, and beautiful too. musically it would appear to "borrow" from moments perhaps the more fellow devout fans would get. the start and middle, for instance, sound "a bit" like the beautiful instrumentation of V2 Schnieder off of "heroes".

outside of In Eternity, well, there's no highlight or lowlight, really. at least not yet. perhaps over time, and i will be playing this again, things will stand out. mostly, though, this is a pleasant, wonderful record for us "over 40" audience of the Manics. the ones of their fanbase who first encountered them in our late teens or early 20s, and, well, have had them not too far from the soundtrack of life since then.

the most prolific and celebrated of Manics observers is of course the wonderful Franny, who from time to occasional time graces stages to perform his own music. he has, he says, noted a correlation between appreciation of Resistance Is Futile and factors such as age, being a parent and other old stuff. i am somewhere near twice his age; he hates the record and i quite like it. should you wish to, you are welcome to walk away from this blog post with that as a provisional guide as to whether or not you will like it.

what of value? is the "deluxe", 2 CD, fancy shaped set i bought worth the £16.99 HMV charged me, or if you like 1p south of £17? kind of. as has become standard for them, the 2nd CD is dominated by "demo versions" of the whole album. in most instances the "demo" versions sound exceptionally well polished, and not at all different from the album proper. have the demo disc on now, other than Distant Colours it all sounds a lot like the "last but one" version of the songs rather than the first recordings. the two extra tracks on the end of CD 2 features one done by Nicky Wire on vocals and one that is quite good.

from here to where for the band? no idea. one really gets a sense that the band members will be in the Manic Street Preachers for life, for none of them would have any idea really what to do if not all of this. a bit like U2, i suppose. in recent interviews James Dean Bradfield has spoken in a not positive way of his understanding of how some people "want a definitive end to things", but he has no interest. quite right; may it all continue for a while.

so, yes, then, the Manic Street Preachers do still appear to have stuff of interest to say, just not in as confrontational manner as normal. if my view is of any value, then absolutely worth 45 minutes of your time giving a listen too, maybe even worth doing so by paying £10 or so for the CD. or £7 for the tape off of the website, if they have copies left.



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

random bowie - never let me down

Howdy Pop Pickers


Oh, boy. How else can I start off this post, or if you like, look you see, episode? There's no element of surprise, if you have looked at the title - for some reason I've selected 1987's Never Let Me Down to do. Well, if I am going to do them all, then I kind of have to do it at some stage. So, in the month that this record "celebrates" its 31st birthday, here it is.

For some - many, actually - this record is the nadir of David Bowie's career. There have been (sorry, were) a few wonky moments here and there, but generally this is seen as the low. Which it kind of was in every sense except financial. In later years Bowie may have lamented and regretted some decisions with the record, but he most decidedly did not grumble at the way in which it improved his bank balance.

As an aside, with the above I am always reminded of Michael Caine. Once a brave journalist asked him how he felt about the universally panned, box office failure of a film that was Jaws 4 The Revenge, in which he starred. His response to that was along the lines of "I've not seen the finished film, but I believe it was quite poor. I have, however seen the house that my fee for the film bought, and I can assure you it is quite lovely".

So, anyway, Never Let Me Down. Is the album really as bad as the legend of it states? Yes and no. One review, I cannot recall which, went as far as saying something like "good lord, even the fonts are all rubbish", so bad they found it. And yet I know of more than one person - OK, two - who not only like it, but have said it is their favourite Bowie album.  In order to find out, then, I played the record - a number of times - for the first time in, probably, 27 or 28 years.

Now that we know there shall be no more, one really does wish to grab every single Bowie recording ever, embrace it, cherish it, love it, say it is great. To do this with Never Let Me Down takes an acolyte level I do not have, apparently. Whereas the record was nowhere near as bad as I had pictured in my mind, it is a bit of a flat, perhaps insipid affair - a kind of record which feels like the artist said "this will do", despite putting more hours into it than his other 80s releases.

Perhaps the best known track, if any are well known, is the first on the album and the first single, Day-In Day-Out. And on that note, one of my dearest friends has a theory. If the first track on an album happens to be the first single released from it, you know the record is rubbish. The main example of this which comes to mind is Pop by U2, but have fun finding others. Like, for instance, Never Let Me Down.

Actually, Day-In Day Out is a pretty decent pop song. Average, colour by numbers maybe, but decent. Yet also mistimed. Lyrically it's all the plight of a homeless woman in America. The audiences of 1987 did not want such; they wanted vibrancy and colour. After a few years of living with nuclear destruction, the Soviet Empire was crumbling, Uncle Ronnie had won. We wanted to celebrate freedom. Also, David Bowie sitting in his mansion in Switzerland writing a song sympathetic to the plight of a homeless woman in America was a bit like that one time Phil Collins showed his sympathy for the plight of starving kids in Africa by encouraging them to watch him fly on Concorde.

What's the one song Bowie loved from this album? The second song, Time Will Crawl. He loved it so much that when he curated that iSelect set what came free with the Mail on Sunday in 2008, he not only included it, but sent it off to the studio to have the drum machine replaced with real drums to see if that helped it find the audience he wanted.

Much of the song deals with Bowie's obsession with time, seen or rather heard in songs all across his career and of course culminating in Blackstar. in this one he references something called "the 21st Century", a thing that in 1987 we supposed would come along eventually but it seemed too, over, very very far away to consider. As I think I mentioned in the Outside episode, it is not like we were really all that aware of the dawning of a new millennium in 1995, let alone cared for it. But Bowie pressed on with his concerns and ideas.

To show I am not going to do this record track by track, let's skip to four, the titular song, or if you will Never Let Me Down. Actually this is a most splendid, decent, late 80s "Power Ballad" thing. It's quite lovely and beautiful, really. Right up until the point you learn..... *** SPOILER ALERT *** this is a song he wrote about his personal assistant, or if you prefer PA. Hmn. Rock stars should be writing songs about wives, girlfriends, the wives and girlfriends of other rock stars, drug dealers, etc. Doing a song about your PA? Not even Phil Collins strayed into that area.

Mostly, I am not going to look at the other songs. Not in detail. Yes, trivia fans, and I know I skipped the usual random trivia at the start, Mickey Rourke does indeed appear on one song, "rapping" no less. But you have to have his parts pointed out to you.

Indeed yes, I did see the interviews with select members of the Rolling Stones. in full titl Ro££ing $tone$ mode, promoting their new tour. Another tour? I had no idea Ronnie Wood had another divorce coming up. So, Charlie "Charles" Watts cannot understand why people were so upset about Bowie dying as Chas doesn't believe Bowie was "some sort of genius". Sure, you are in the Stones, you can say what you like. But it's quite strange that you would invite people to vehemently disagree with you. Who knows, perhaps it's a case of jealousy making one nasty, or simply that Mr Watts had only ever heard Never Let Me Down.

Overall, side one of the record is OK, side two a bit not so much. The whole thing seems to have been mixed down, so it sounds all dull and dour. Unless that's a freak fluke of my tape and CD copy. It's a confusing mishmash of styles, all with Peter Frampton (the Peter Frampton) throwing guitar solos at them. Strangely, barely a year later (I think), Fine Young Cannibals came along and gave a perfectly functional, working album that was a mismash of styles in the form of the superb The Raw And The Cooked. I can't but help wonder if Roland and the boys heard Never Let Me Down, thought there was something to the structure, and something they could do better.

As an aside, later in 1987 Depeche Mode released a song called Never Let Me Down Again. It's widely believed the song is all drug references. Knowing Dave, Martin and co are all amongst the biggest of Bowie fans to walk this land, I am not sure that it isn't a plea to their hero never to release a record like Never Let Me Down again.

Where is it on Never Let Me Down that the wheels come off? The nadir of the nadir, so to speak? Frustratingly, it is Glass Spider. The second half of the song is brilliant. Alas, the first half is some mumbling about a, well, glass spider. Spiders From Mars it is not.

Of course there was a point to it. The fantasy tale of a Glass Spider was the basis for a theatrical, stage production like tour Bowie wished to do. And, whatever Bowie wanted to do in the late 80s, he did. He was a celebrity with little equal, by that point. After the success of Live Aid and Dancing In The Street, and of course Labyrinth (yes, will do the soundtrack at some point), he was more likely to be pictured mingling with Diana, Fergie and society's elite than he was in a recording studio.

I went right ahead and did something that I never ever thought I would do. Yes, I did so mostly knowing that to do this blog post / random bowie episode properly, I would have to. Having long since ditched the VHS and vowing not to replace it, I purchased the DVD of the Glass Spider Tour, for about £5. maybe it was closer to £6, but it is done now.

Again, this might be clutching at wanting to love all that he did, but having watched it again it all seemed nowhere near as bad as I recalled. Sure, as with Serious Moonlight, the old classics he does don't fare well at all, but the new, pop stuff sounds all as it should. But still, man, the red suit and red shoes, the hair, the stage performers that without video screens no one at the gig could see, and the bloody great big massive glass spider.

The best parts of Glass Spider Tour? Well, the one Australian lady who is front and centre, staring at David, singing every single word of every single song. Also, David. He looks comfortable, relaxed and like he is enjoying himself. What a lovely, tear to the eye sight that is, now we know what we know.

Sadly the above is not the best image of her, but still. I would like to think that each of us, as we listen to Bowie, are personified by the Australian girl in the decidedly Australian crowd in Australia on the Glass Spider Tour DVD. She is in love, she is in awe, she is happy, she can scarcely believe she is in the presence of the music of this most wonderful man. Or, maybe that's just me.

Indeed, accusations flew at Bowie about him being a "sell out". This was unprecedented at the time - he got Pepsi to sponsor the tour. Funny thing is, the tour made a profit. Back then, you see, tours were considered a viable loss financially because they boosted record sales. Now, not so much. So thank Bowie for showing all the musicians after 1987 how they could put on a spectacular show and actually make money from doing a tour.

Was this, Never Let Me Down and Glass Spider Tour, really the low point in the career of David Bowie? To be honest, yes. It may have sold well, but the Glass Spider images soon made him a figure of ridicule. Many took the whole thing as a sign that, finally, he had run dry of creative juices. The coming of Tin Machine, broken up by a lucrative SoundAndVision greatest hits tour, did not diminish that view. Few saw the 1993 revival, in the form of Black Tie White Noise and The Buddha Of Suburbia, with some help from Kurt Cobain, coming.

So is Never Let Me Down, the 17th studio album by David Bowie as per the commonly agreed method of counting them, worth getting? Tough one, that. Day-In Day-Out, Time Will Crawl and, with reservations on the provenance, Never Let Me Down say yes, since it is rare indeed for any of them to feature on compilations or other such "best of" sets. If you can find it cheap, then yes for them three songs, or for them and if you really like Peter Frampton solos. Should you also be a big, big fan of Mickey Rourke doing incoherent mumbled raps, well then so much the better.

The Glass Spider Tour DVD? Erm, yes if you can find it cheap. As in, south of £10, I think. Should there be nothing else, there preserved is as they appeared on the record live versions of Blue Jean and Loving The Alien off of Tonight.

Overall, Bowie's only criticism of the record - that he became complacent, that he allowed others to influence the style and sound in the hope that they knew how to keep him connected to his new, massive audience - is spot on. Several promising, good if not great songs lurk on the record; they just didn't come out right at all.

Well, then, that's another episode or edition done with, and very nearly the Bowie of the 80s. Actually, that's all the solo albums proper from that decade. I shall, however, try to round up the other releases from that decade, maybe bundling them up with Labyrinth. For Tin Machine, you can, if you so wish, have a read of this article what I did when I got fed up of journalists saying the band was rubbish.

My thanks, as ever, for your time taken to read this.




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

on the street where i lived i could not hold up my head

hello


yes, indeed. the title of this post was going to be called this used to be my playground, look you see. however, i suspect that i have used that title before. also, it tends to act as a bit of a magnet for both Madonna fans and those who get quite cross at films which mix the milk that is Tom Hanks and the water that is baseball films. as you shall observe, should you read on, i was in fact perfectly capable of holding my head up. the fiddled with Bowie lyric was just the first thing what came to mind.

so, after my last post some of you might, if you take the time to think, consider my life all about being some sort of bait or honey trap for the authorities of Hartlepool. i promise you this is not the case, nor never shall be, so long as i have the muscular ability to fight it off. life rather lets me take strolls down memory, so to speak, lane.

oh, yeah - for those who do not care so much for me, be warned, as the following images are all them selfie type things. each one features moi. as the text will be all reminiscing and sentimental hygiene, well, warned you have been on every front imaginable.

from a strange twist in co-incidence or a benevolent accident by those who know not what they inadvertently did, my travels took me to the above of late. just what or where the above is would be of interest to me. that's a field, or a farmer's field, or the field of a farmer, that i used to play in. quite some time ago. how long ago? as point of fact, the last time i was on the other side of the hedge, in the field, there were four Beatles alive and well.

it all felt kind of weird and strange, really. for the last few years this place, the one which was once home before i by default and design took off around the world, has always been in touching distance. it just never occurred to me to go and have a gander, or perhaps the constraints of time meant thinking and doing such was simply not at all possible.

and there i am at some shops, up the road from where was once home, and across the road from a school i once attended. memories of the latter are limited. i can recall films on a projector in a hall, i think Watership Down was once such screened. a teacher was called Ms or Mrs Robinson or Robson or similar. further, i am convinced a classmate, perhaps he was even a friend, had the surname Porridge, or one which sounded quite the same.

with regards to the shop, two memories come to mind. back then children could roam and wander relatively freely and mostly unharmed, unless they wrote in to Jimmy Savile to be on his show and then it was taken that tacit consent had been given for all sorts of things, as it turns out. anyway. once my Mum sent me up to fetch what i thought she said was a "cassette", which was exciting, as even then i had a thing for tapes. alas, it was in fact the "gazette" i was sent for; a regional or if you will provincial newspaper.

the other memory of the shop was being laughed at, or maybe with. i was sent with money and a note, and on the note it was scribed "Lee to keep change". i can recall the shop proprietor laughing, saying he was called Lee (he wasn't) so he must be able to keep it.

yes, by that field again. i am not sure if we were told such as a warning and it was fabrication or true, but i clearly remember being told that we'd get knacked off of the farmer if he ever caught us in the field. perhaps it was an effort to discourage us from crossing a rather busy road to get to it.

with this in mind, one more vivid memory comes. i can remember a friend and i squatting behind the hedge, watching the cars. we made up convincing stories, saying that whoever was driving the car was "so and so" relative of the farmer. no idea why we did this; perhaps to scare each other or maybe just a pass the time game in those hedonistic pre-technology, amuse yourself days.

to my shame i cannot recall the name of either that friend, or any. hundreds, thousands of extraordinary, wonderful people have shared the same space as me, if even sometimes only for a minute or two. as fondly as i recall time with just about all, the specifics are lost somewhere in my memories.

indeed, something in the background there may or may not be of significance or consequence to me, you, someone, no one, this post or another. the time just seemed to make it right to take the image.

whenever someone asks me of regrets in life, there is normally just the one. actually there are several, hundreds arguably, but just one that is suitable for polite company. so little of my life has been stood still. the price for travels, seeing fantastic places and meeting amazing people, is that i never got to settle or feel stable. fate robbed me of growing up with the same people. i went through different stages of my life with different people. as grateful as i am to them and for all of that, it always feels like i missed something.

the above sounds terrible to the many dear friends i have here, there and everywhere. but they will understand. more often than not there was a quirk or incident which meant that we had no common, shared experience in our background to fall on as a frame of reference. somewhat isolated and alone has been the prevailing sense i have had in this world as a result. yes, undoubtedly some of that from my own doing.

as far as i can work out, then, that would be the farm house where the angry farmer lives or lived. sure, it was tempting to go knock on the door and say "hello, i don't suppose you would remember me, but i used to sneak into your fields and play back in 1979". but, perhaps now it is a different farmer. also, maybe it is the same and he really does get quite cross and i might have got shotgunned.

besides, i had things to do, places to go, people to see. one can only indulge going back in time so much until the reality of going forward with it comes to be.

no idea if anyone has any interest at all in this, but if so, well, then, so much the better.



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