38th of 38

hi there


every now and then, perhaps, is an obscure or random anniversary that might be worth celebrating, or at the least acknowledging. this is such an instance, look you see.

today, being the date which this was published (30 May 2020), is the 38th anniversary of the Bow Wow Wow recording of I Want Candy entering (so to speak) the UK singles chart, at 38.

i am not at all sure there is much i can say about I Want Candy beyond that. yes, it is a pretty decent tune, and it's quite weird, i guess, to be able to celebrate the 38th anniversary of something which in itself is associated with the number 38.

do, by all means then, give the song a spin if you are particularly fond of it and wish to mark, or otherwise commemorate, this moment. as far as i am aware i don't have a copy of it as such, but i do remember it so very well.



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

a couple of books what i read

hello reader


well, what can i say. hopefully something, look you see, otherwise it would be a trifle pointless sitting down to write something. and i do indeed take a seat to compose, so as to dispel any rumours circulating of me typing in a standing position.

so, to get on with my usual, standard, off the shelf 'joke' with which i start these posts, since the last time (or if you will previous) i did a bit of writing on reading some books, i have read further. not just one book, or as many as three, and not five, but just another two. and here they are.

to give the usual, as spoiler free as possible review, here we go. indeed, The Binding by Bridget Collins is perhaps not the usual sort of novel i would read, but i was intrigued. perhaps more of the magical conjuring sort of stuff than, well, that which i would usually read, but in fairness a truly excellent novel. back on substantially more solid, normal type of reading for me is House Of War, which was the most recent of 'Ben Hope' novels by Scott Mariani, but my understanding is that the next, or newest, should be in the shops around now. how is it? well, it is a Ben Hope adventure. not so bad, and it even has one or two plausible elements in it.

righty-ho, for those of you in some sort of rush (and we do live in busy times), the above will no doubt have let you know all that you would wish. further thoughts are ones which i shall consider and dwell upon below, but kindly note one of them *** SPOILER WARNINGS *** is in place. although i will take all necessary care to avoid them. in particular with the first one, but the second one, well, that's like saying "i do not want spoilers for a James Bond film, thanks". you kind of know what's going to happen, that's why you want to see (or in this case read) it. the "how" is the fun.

what drew me to The Binding, in respect of provenance, was of course the price. it was sat in the Tesco "book(s) of the week" section, being priced at either £3 or (i think more likely) £3.50. also, the cover looked like the sort of thing what a good friend of mine might have read. this was also true of the description.

to this end, i did not purchase it. instead i waited for my friend to recommend it, and then i would buy it. but, the clock ticked, and no such advice came. when it came to the day that i was fairly sure would be the last (it was) that it would be possible to get it for south of their standard £4.50, i elected to purchase. and then i left it to one side.

eventually i selected it from my pile of books to read. i sent a gentle nudge to my friend, mentioning the title. yes, indeed, it was so that they totes said that this is the sort of novel which they would read, and thus would have little in the way of hesitation or concern about recommending. so, as the novel came, even if in something akin to a tacit way, with a recommendation that i could trust, it came to be that i read it.

but, with the provenance of my copy (more or less) thoroughly established, what of the plot of the novel? this is tricky. i would not wish to give too much away, although having read the novel the bit on the back of it, the "blurb" i think they call it, gives rather too much information for my liking. let me, though, try and use that as a sort of 'blueprint' for what i write.

the novel appears to be set at an unspecified time in the past, with a decidedly but never declared impression of it being merry England. it is a time when books are frowned upon, for when they are not "false lies" (novels), they are "bindings". just what are bindings? somewhat strange mystical types are able to take away any memories you care not to have, making you forget them all, so long as they are bound in a book they create of them. a young chap, ostensibly the protagonist of the piece, is called upon to be an apprentice binder, but this may not be the first time he has experienced the art....

it is so that "memory erasing" is not a new concept, far from it. off the top of my head it was a key component of the film Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, and on more than one occasion it has been the go-to plot device for the gay tinman character in that Star Wars stuff. but, happily, The Binding takes a somewhat different approach. if, again, not entirely a new one.

conceptually what i liked about it was the dilemma faced by those who had been to a binder. one or two characters (maybe more, maybe less) become aware of the fact that they have been bound, and had some memory removed. whilst they are in no doubt that it was done with good reason, either they experienced something terrible or did such, there is that nagging frustration of wanting to know what it was that they sought to forget, if in nature rather than entire. also, with their (presumably) dark secret stored in a book, there is always the danger of someone else finding it out.

my main issue, or quarrel, with "fantasy magical" novels is how easy it is for a writer to "cheat". whereas all novels need some suspension of disbelief, to be good they have to create a plausible environment in which things can happen. when you have magic mixed in, well, you can just conjure up something or other out of the blue to patch up any plot holes or narrative gaps. happily, merrily even, The Binding does not do such things, as the lovely written novel stays well within its own peculiar rules as it goes.

as i approached the latter stages of reading this novel it was so that one afternoon i happened to have the wireless on. it was Radio 2 i was listening to, and the apparently always bubbly Sara Cox was encouraging listeners to message in with books they had read. one did so about The Binding, and said that it was so good their instinct when they finished reading it was to start reading it again. well, that is not something i have done often, and to be honest i am not inclined to read this one again. but, yes, it was absolutely well worth reading the once. now, at some stage, i hope, i shall be passing it along to the good friend who, in a roundabout way, recommended it to me.

on we go, then, well we do so if you continue reading, with the Scott Mariani novel to be published in late 2019, since it is likely wrong to call it "most recent" at this point. yes, House Of War, and yes, indeed, it is another Ben Hope adventure type novel off him. yet another, you could say, but if it works why change.

the provenance of my copy should be fairly clear on the cover. it was indeed part of the 2 for £8 deal what Tesco does on paperbacks, but i was in a rush and did not spot anything else i fancied. so, it was £4.50 that i paid for it alone.

i wasn't prepared to take a chance on "missing" this novel, as was so nearly the case with the one before. that one, whatever the name of it was, appeared either never to be on the shelf at Tesco, or came and went so fast i did not catch it. eventually i got it off of an internet thing. all too often in my time i have seen things that i fully intended to "go back and get" later, only to return and find it is not there any more. yes, that does relate to things far, above and beyond books, with other examples being people, places, emotions, concepts, opportunities, regret and so on. but, none of them tell you much about the book.

plot? well, perennial protagonist Ben Hope has just returned home off of his most recent adventure, wherever it was again. i am pretty sure India. anyway, when heading for coffee, a lady bumps into him. she appears distressed, but he thinks not too much of it. except he has her phone by accident, and the matter troubles him. after breakfast he goes to return it to her, only to find her dead, and also dead at the hands of a deadly terrorist he remembers well from his military days.  a wonky video on the phone tells Ben, instinctively, that he must avenge the slaying of the lady, kill a deadly terrorist that he had assumed dead and also thwart a massive terrorist attack.

mostly business as usual for a Ben Hope novel, then. the only real surprises are, and you were warned long ago of spoilers, that he doesn't seem to drink or smoke as much as would be usual in these tales. also, he willingly takes on a partner in this adventure, where normally the dark brooding hero insists on "working alone".

a rather disconcerting element of this particular novel is the introduction of a seemingly innocuous playfriend for Ben Hope. this would be the character of Tyler Roth, effortlessly combining in name two of the greatest of Americans; Tyler Durden out of Fight Club and of course David Lee Roth. i am unable to ascertain if when this character goes very Turner Diaries in his assertion that all who follow Islam are apparently engaged on the jihad against the West is an ill-advised attempt at exaggerated humour or a statement we should pay attention to. hey ho, i would imagine anyone "influenced" by this in either direction would be well on their way to such anyhow, and just need something on which to attribute reasons to believe.

joy be, for it is one of the Ben Hope novels which is just, mostly, sheer fun to read and indulge. there are one or two elements of the novel which are plausible. largely, though, it is all ridiculous, impossible adventure stuff, with things happening through rather amazing, if not remarkable, contrived co-incidences at crucial moments. but at the least it is not as silly as some of the novels, like for instance the one where the bloke was going to cut our planet in half with a massive laser.

whereas i have no problem sharing my views on any given Ben Hope novel, or for that matter with admitting that i rather like reading them, giving a recommendation is tricky and maybe pointless. to say "read this one" kind of requires anyone listening to that advice to have read somewhere north of 50% of the previous 20 or so books. and it must surely be so that anyone who has indeed done hat will have determined whether they wish to read this or not, without wondering what my view was.

phew, well, right, then, there you go. i have little grasp of an idea of any of this being interesting or useful to anyone. i can only kind of have the wild hope that this is so, and it if it has been, well then so much the better for me doing it.

thank you for reading, as ever. and, well, that's that for this, so until the next time.




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

how now five

howdy pop pickers


and so, after a variable level of delay, Now That's What I Call Music 5 is out in a decidedly compact disc form, look you see. well, most of it is. later on here in this post (if you continue reading) we, you, or i shall note how in a very real sense it is around 96.6% of the recording which is now out on disc.

just what is this all about, for those presently lost? well, it is stage five in the campaign to, mostly, issue the first ten (10) volumes of the (original) UK versions of Now That's What I Call Music on the modern, new compact disc format. such commenced to commemorate, or celebrate, the reaching of a particular milestone. which was volume 100 (one hundred) of Now That's What I Call Music a couple of years ago.

for my readers around the world, this all may be a little confusing, and annoying. it is so that the Now series came to be a "franchise", or if you will has an "expanded universe". the volumes are numbered in accordance with sequence of release in specific countries, so it well may be that where you are the 100 volume has not been reached. nor is the tracklisting here of what it was on the variation of five (5) released where you are. but, bear with me, music is music.

to give you a confession, there was absolutely no, as in zero, sense of nostalgic longing or sentimental hygiene in the purchase of this volume. so far as i am aware, this is indeed the first time i have ever owned this release in any format. although i seem to recall taping it off of a friend. it is not a time to repeat the euphoria i had when Now That's What I Call Music 4 came out on a disc of compact format.

why the (slight) lack of enthusiasm? by the time this one came out originally, or if you like initially, i was very much off on my own musical mission. some specific music tastes had developed, and to follow them usually i would head off on the bus to town, perhaps with a friend or two, to purchase either the 7" (for 99p or £1.49) or the 12" (for £1.99 or £2.49) of any singles that i liked. normally off of HMV, but sometimes Our Price. generally W H Smith was to be avoided as their price stickers were a nightmare to peel off, and i never thought to buy music at Woolworths.

so, or ergo, buying Now That's What I Call Music 5 in 1985 made next to no sense, for i had virtually every song off of it that i liked as a single. this was not so with 4, representing as it did a time when i was possibly slightly too young for bus travels alone, and probably did not have enough pocket money to buy all of the smart songs as singles which are on that set.

is it so that Now That's What I Call Music 5 is any good? kind of, really. much like 4, it represents some of the best songs of the year of release, but doesn't necessarily have the biggest selling ones of the time. in fact, a thing in common between the two is a decided lack of number one singles.

unfortunately, at least for me and to my ears, it is very much that 4 had a whole whack of amazing songs on it, whereas 5 has some, or one or two, or a handful of good songs on it, with a fair few of the songs being a reminder that not all which was recorded in the 80s was awesome. still, could have been worse - thankfully Spandau Ballet, for instance, are absent. one "issue" the makers of Now had at this stage was that their releases were so successful. due to this, many other labels started doing compilations of the current hits. the number of songs they could licence for use and inclusion, then, became all at once more limited than was.

and to address absences, yes, as has been the case with 80% of the to-date re-issues of Now That's What I Call Music 4, there is something not as it should be. it was a mercy and a blessing that the 20% which they got spot on correct and as it was at the time happened to be 4.

what's missing? alas, what would have been one of the finer moments of the set. for no given reason it is This Is Not America by David Bowie & Pat Metheny which is missing. this is quite odd, and no i do not believe the Bowie estate is responsible for the absence, for earlier releases featured his singles of the time (Modern Love is on one, somewhere). if they had good legal or licence reason not to include it, well, fine, but it is annoying that they do not explain the absences.

but, what of what is on the set? as you can, with good fortune, hopefully make out in the above image, disc one (which would have been tape one or record one) is the clear winner. a touch like aspects of 4, this is dominated by hit songs written specifically for films, with A View To A Kill, Axel F and Don't You (Forget About Me) covering that. this disc also showcases the splendor of Kayleigh by Marillion. a fun fact for that is that Fish invented that name, for there is no recorded use of it as a name prior to the song. further splendor is found in Bryan Ferry's greatest solo work, the superb first hit off of Fine Young Cannibals and even a song off of Phil Collins which is not annoying.

disc two feels like the wheels fall off somewhat. from memory i am almost certain that Frankie by Sister Sledge is the only number one on the set. i am not a fan of the song; as good as it is my chums at school teased me mercilessly with it on account of me being a Frankie fan. otherwise, there's the chart debut off of Simply Red, the first time ever on cd for a cricket p!ss take song, and that thing where we stood by and let Oz out of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet (sp) have a go at singing.

much else on disc two? that big political statement off of The Style Council remains class. some alarm bells rang when i heard The Unforgettable Fire by U2 for the first time in a while here. at this point they were not particularly a big deal, lacking any truly huge hits. this one sounds like a desperate effort to force a sound on them that was mid-80s ballad. wisely, an approach that was soon long gone from their sound.

right, then, is Now That's What I Call Music 5 worth getting? yes, i suppose, to complete the set. to be brutal, frank(ie) and honest, the number of songs here which have "stood the test of time" in any real or proverbial sense would take up less than the capacity of just one disc. but, nice to have.

looking at all the sets together (almost, i am unsure what i have done with my copy of 2), i am uncertain that Now That's What I Call Music 5 will be getting much play in the future. well, i doubt disc two will. yet, still, nice to have.

bring on Now That's What I Call Music 6, then. whilst i do not recall the specifics, i know i have the vinyl of that one, and from what i remember it was very good indeed.




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

the most of boss

hello once more


another delve into the world of junk mail, sent electronically. which is usually called spam, look you see, but no one has yet given me a satisfactory answer as to why. generally, yes, i would prefer not to get such, but i don't get all worked up and distressed about it like some do. besides, as is the case here, often it can be quite amusing.

do be warned, for this junk mail - "spam" - pertains (in a pertinent way) to all that coronavirus stuff, or covid-19 if you prefer the latin term for it, or indeed breathing plague, if you rather prefer to tell it like it is. a general trend in modern electronic junk mail is to latch on to the most popular of subjects. this was not always so, and back in the earlier days of the initial proliferation of email (mid to late 90s) the only "spam" one got was for russian brides and for pills to help with all this priapic.

that said, some qualities have always remained consistently true of any spam or electronic junk mail of any nature. one thing they all seem quite dedicated to doing is a comprehensive, complete and spectacular dismantling of all known was of using the english language.

quite creative and imaginative wording, that. whereas, of course, as the writing in, on, over, across and around this blog testifies, i am no wizard, guru or expert when it comes to writing. except to know to use short sentences. and not so many commas. but. seeing, or experiencing, writing of this nature does make me feel rather good of my own woeful efforts.

one thing about the limitations of my writing which is decidedly advantageous is that it exists purely for itself. at no stage is it used to promote, advocate or sell. i would probably place more effort into it if this were so. sadly, or merrily, for the writer of the above, the quality of the writing is likely to be very much key to the financial success hoped for. the poor nature of the writing (allowing for the imaginative use of capital letters) creates, alas, a discerning apocryphal sense about the product being advertised.

just what is this mail trying to sell me, and many others who got the mail? some sort of defender, or protector, against the plague of the new as the invisible war rages on. going on the images they sent with the mail, as unaligned as they are, i believe a Protective isolation plate is a big plastic sheet.

had they wished for me not to use this pictures here, well, then perhaps they should not have sent them to me in the first instances. it was an unsolicited mail, so toughies for them.

medical knowledge and me are strange companions. i know some stuff, how like for instance that cigarettes are bad for you. but, i smoke. also, i am aware that, medically, everyone dies. but, as i have not died, scientifically the evidence all points to the fact that i am immortal, for i have not died to prove that i can do so. yet i suspect there are some issued with this  Protective isolation plate.

to commence, it seems that the device works on the premise of this coronavirus either operating in just two dimensions, or simply lacking imagination. going on these images, for the defence device to work it must be so that the plague cannot move around corners or edges, or go up and down (or north and south) to seep through any gaps. apparently as soon as it hits a barrier it will just go "oh, bother", falling away and causing no harm.

it is, as the title of this post gives every indication, an aspect of the above which amused me the greatest. that one descriptive line, "The most of Boss", is special. someone somewhere should do an album with that name, or maybe a book or film or something.

should you, for any reason at all, be seeking any form of protective equipment in respect of defence against coronavirus in the invisible war, then please seek the advice of medical and/or scientific professionals wherever you are in the world. have no reliance whatsoever on anyone who randomly sends sh!t like this to your email.





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

oh, so that is how i shall cope

hey


a little south of two years ago i, look you see, wrote a concerning piece about one of the unexpected aspects of that whole 'brexit' business. you can read that, if you so wish, by clicking here. for those in more of a rush, the gist (or if you like basics) of it is that them fancy warning images on fag packets are held under copyright by the EU, so strictly speaking when the UK leaves the EU, or "does a brexit" as many might say, we will not have them beautifying cigarettes here.

my initial hope was that maybe (or perhaps) we in the UK could be trusted to have proper packaging once again, especially for things like the iconic Marlboro packs. rules have been bent before by governments for cigarette companies. the most high profile of such was undoubtedly Tony Bliar, what with formula one (going around in a circle the fastest) racing and to a certain extent snooker rather 'mysteriously' being exempt from some sort of tobacco sponsorship ban.

but, such a return is as unlikely as, well, as Bliar returning to frontline politics. sure, he mouths off a great deal, especially about his vested interested (be it financial or ego), but i mean active party politics. my understanding is that he would not be welcome. and many do-gooder, herald the nanny state, speak on behalf of others by divine (self) appointment types would have a right temper tantrum about fag packets looking all smart and proper (or proper smart) once more.

should it be so that the dull, dreary and inept (some figures released relating to all that coronavirus plague thing show an increase in smoking, April 2019 to April 2020, and no i have not increased my own by that much) so-called "warning pictures" are here to stay, then we (or rather the government) need to cut a deal as soon as possible with the government (or ruling body) of Thailand, and with the Japanese. why, exactly, should be fairly clear, in a rudimentary way, from the given image here of a warning placed on them smart mevius fags what Spiros got me.

this, as a picture, i like. no, i probably should not, and to be impressed with it, or express admiration, is likely to be at odds with the intention and purpose. but i do try to main a reasonably consistent level of honesty with all that i do. and this picture is just class, it is, to be sure. if we, the British, the UK, could secure a deal with whoever owns this image and get it licenced for use on our own fags, then that would be reasonable and acceptable to me.

before i forget, yes, the usual disclaimer for those worried about such things. smoking is a (very) silly thing to do, and one should either not start doing it, or seek help to cease doing so. quit now, etc.

whilst i cannot be sure, i am fairly confidently certain that this warning image is meant to represent a chap who likes a cigarette (or is addicted to them) having some major (substantial, indeed) coronary issues. possibly even a heart attack, but my understanding is that a heart attack manifestation is something to do with your arms, where you would grab, rather than a rough approximation of where the heart is. let me not seem or be seen to downplay the importance of the warning, for it is a decided possibility for smokers (and indeed non-smokers) alike.  yet still i am drawn to the charm, the sophistication and perhaps the elegance of the picture. or maybe i just like the shirt he has on.

one, when admiring this picture, cannot help but have a natural sense of pathos for the protagonist of this image. indeed, we must be careful, for they may be rather an antagonist in whatever story is being told. a strong sense of tragedy is evoked by this, be it from folly, misfortune or other such fall from grace. we simply don't know, unless further explanation is given in all that text over the image which i simply do not understand and would not even know how to translate. whatever my talents, many or minimal, alas สามารถพูดไทยได้ is simply not one of them, not even in a conventional sense.

i, and just perhaps yes this is likely symptomatic of the unexpected levels of free time i now have available, like to think that this is a publicity still from some class play, or film. maybe this is one of the more pivotal moments in a Japanese (or likely Thai) production of, say King Lear, or maybe even The Godfather. or an entirely original Thai (or Japanese) drama thing. possibly a comedy, too, maybe in their corner of the world it is different things which amuse them.

yes, dear reader, i am indeed quite aware of the (frankly) peculiar theory, or idea, possibly even by now proven notion that smoking can in some way, shape or form fight against this whole coronavirus, or if you like covid 19, plague business. preposterous would be my thinking, but from what i can ascertain some science types have looked into it and do that sort of nod thing they do when there's an answer they do not like. overall, though, i would have thought being a smoker would leave one rather more prone to a respiratory infection of the plague, so i am not sure, if true, this should be championed too far or too high.

maybe government officials (hello if you are one) are reading things like this on the internet, whilst being paid many thousands of pounds a week, to try and find ideas for replacing the EU images on fag packets. if so, well, you can stop reading other stuff, here is your answer. this picture or just back to normal packaging, please, with particular emphasis on and a greater wish for normal packaging.




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

well hung and a snow white tan

howdy pop pickers


every now and then some truly wonderful things can happen when you decide to, out of the blue, do a spot of arbitrary, random browsing on one of them "internet" things. it would be this sort of thing, and please note not that sort of thing, which i have found time makes me so prone to do, what with so many unexpected moments available as the invisible war rages on, look you see.

so there i was, on a retailer or two, doing a random search for the term "soundtrack". other than, perhaps more in the past than now, a collector of film soundtracks, i fancied a look, see if any struck me as worth getting, or indeed prompted a wish to watch the movie for which it provided thematic sounds. once it was also true that soundtracks (used) to provide the only means of getting a specific track, quite usually when the song was for the film alone. a superb example of this is Annie Lennox's Love Song For A Vampire, which one could only get (this was all pre-download) via the purchase of the soundtrack for Bram Stoker's Dracula. also, weirdly, for a while it was only possible to get Motown Junk off of Manic Street Preachers in a CD form via buying the Twin Town soundtrack.

anyway, perhaps reflecting how some stores "accidentally" remember my search history and prompt some likely to purchase results as a priority, this cropped up almost instantly. one that, if you like to my shame, i was unaware of such an existence or subsequent release of.

oh, yes, what was this? a documentary concerning the legendary Mick Ronson, a guitar supremo who is rather closely, as the title Beside Bowie gives every indication, associated with Bowie? that was an instant purchase then. and why would it not be, since it was astonishingly, in a "new and sealed" state, somewhere south of £5, postage all in. to be specific, remarkably south of £4.

there is a school of thought (or narrative) which gives every indication of it being quite far to say that i am, at the least, partially educated. from this hypothesis, it would be with some safety that i, after a period of reflection and consideration, concluded that if a soundtrack album existed, then there was every chance that it existed for "something" along the lines of a film or documentary.

with this theory being clung to, in a sort of "see i am coherent i can work things out" way, off i went in search of such a thing. verily and merrily, i shall have you know, it was so that yes, such a thing as a documentary film called Beside Bowie existed, and was not just some imaginary concept conjured up by whoever released the soundtrack album.

it is not quite, exactly or generally, and easily obtained documentary, though. no. apparently it did get a dvd release, but one of those "limited" ones, and so the film in this format costs a lot. how much, you ask. should luck be with you, it can be found for north of £15, which translates to being more than the cost of ordering three (3) copies of the soundtrack cd. a rather good marketing opportunity would have been to do a "special" cd and dvd bundle of it, for which they could have charged a decent (for their profit) price and had some splendid sales, but what do i know.

right, so, skipping over a few steps, let's move the tale here to the point at which i obtained this documentary and subsequently watched it. yes, it can be obtained, with a little bit of looking.

no, absolutely no idea how this film (documentary) both passed me by on release, and had remained an unknown factor in my life up until quite recently. to my shame, maybe, or perhaps i was just quite busy or occupied with other things, and it is even reasonably possible that for some bizarre, inexplicable reason them what made it went all low key and didn't make a fuss or draw attention to it. whichever, or whatever, no matter where you go, there you are.

just what is Beside Bowie The Mick Ronson Story all about? well, despite the ambiguities of the title, it's a film looking at the life of Mick Ronson, who first rose to fame by playing guitar for, or next to, indeed beside, David Bowie. if you were wondering, i can only hope that clarifies it for you.

should you feel somewhat uneasy about the title of this documentary, well, so did i. undoubtedly the name Bowie is a seller of many things, but really? to make a documentary about one person, and then title it after someone else? if, for instance, you made a documentary called Next To Mick : The Keith Richards Story, you'd probably get a punch in the face. indeed, on a similar note, In A Band With Ringo : The Story Of John Lennon (or anyone) would cause an eyebrow raise, or two.

but this is no ordinary rock icon or guitar legend. the title of the documentary is "clever" in two ways. first off is the obvious, i guess - any random decision to have a random thought of Mick Ronson and it is, with deference to all else he did, most probable that you picture him next to, or if you will beside, Bowie. also, the producers of this film would appear acutely aware of that point. one could say that the "beside" is meant also or more to be understood as "what else" he did. which was actually a fair bit.

who was Mick Ronson, then? a highly affable, aimable lad from Hull who seemed quite content to mow lawns for a living, since his band The Rats weren't shaking up the scene. but, a bloke he had played on a record (or two) for asked him to come and play with him some more, and so he became lead guitarists for the Spiders From Mars, providing musical accompaniment to Ziggy Stardust. that is paraphrased, the rest is indeed "history".

the main thing which comes across loud and clear in Beside Bowie is just what a top, wonderful bloke Mick Ronson really was. in archival footage and via the contribution of many people (more on that in a bit), there really is nothing but beautiful stuff. here's the story of a lad who just loved life, was happy doing whatever, had no baggage, no dark side, just wanted to get on with it.

perhaps the most striking, impressive and telling thing about this film is that it features a significant contribution from David Bowie. as in, presumably (obviously) recorded in late 2015, David Bowie provides a significant chunk of the narration for the document. it is a soft spoken, woozy, tired sounding David Bowie, making it somewhat of a pull on the heart of a simple fan like me to listen to, for he must surely have done his contribution aware that his end of days drew close. but, still he contributed, and so still he spoke with love and affection for the man there with him when the ride to fame shifted gear of note.

let me (us, if you are reading) dwell in the murky business of honesty here. truthfully, the first 40 or so minutes of Beside Bowie as a viewing experience is probably (easily) one of the best documentaries about Bowie himself to exist. several reviews i read afterwards complained about this, which is perfectly fair considering the subject is supposed to be Mick Ronson. but, here we are.

i wouldn't call myself expert in anything, let alone Bowie. but it would be fair to say that i am "aware" of a fair bit of the Bowie story, having followed the music, read the books and so on. so, to be fair, i think i can say it's my qualified opinion that the insights into the rise of Bowie provided here were all new and unheard to me, featuring some lovely pictures and footage.

beyond Bowie, who contributes to Beside Bowie? well, here are some of the famous faces to do precisely that. 

yes, i have done one of them "collage" things for you. no, it is not a mistake, that is indeed Angie Bowie pictured. it can be said that one "hears things" about Angie Bowie, often directly from her, and that she can be less than complimentary about her ex-husband. let it be known that here she is absolutely wonderful. there is nothing but love and affection in her words and voice for Mick, for the time, and for Bowie.

i am quite reluctant to give you anything which might be interpreted as "spoilers" here. but, i will anyway, especially as it seems particularly difficult to see this documentary. of the many joys the film offers, a particular highlight is the interview with Lou Reed. his telling of the troubles his Brooklyn ears had hearing and understanding Mick Ronson's Hull accent is a true delight. but know also virtually every moment in the documentary is of value. there is next to no fat. in fact, it probably should have gone on a bit longer than it did, but we will get to that.

moving away from Bowie, then. it is so that the 20 or so years of Ronson's life after he finished (regularly) working with Bowie gets considerably less screen time than the 4 - 5 years with him. a lot of it feels rushed and brushed over, but still there are interesting bits, and a few "i did not know that" moments.

like, for instance, the above. i had absolutely no idea at all that Ronson had gone on to work with, for but one example, Bob Dylan. or that it was Ronson who created the sound and the arrangement for Jack & Diane, as in that song of that name by John Mellencamp. and i also didn't know that he was supposed to produce the Private Dancer album for Tina Turner, missing out because, simply enough, he forgot to turn up to do it.

as it is somewhat easier to get your hands on (and sorry for the non-linear narrative), how about a closer look at the soundtrack. yes? good. up front, i can tell you it is well worth buying, whether you see the documentary or not.

for a start, and this is where i don't get those who are happy to settle for the (admittedly convenient) poor sound "download" or "stream" way of music, the booklet and the linear notes are superb. extensive extracts from the narration of the documentary are presented here for reading pleasure. but, of course, mostly the music.

the Bowie completists should take delight in three tracks there. previously you could only get the Freddie Aid recording of All The Young Dudes and the cover of Dylan's Like A Rolling Stone on Mick Ronson's posthumous Heaven And Hull album, which isn't easy to find these days. and making a release debut is Heroes off of Freddie Aid. sadly (or alas), the (in)famous Lord's Prayer is cut from the performance, but hey ho.

no, i didn't know that Mick Ronson had played on a rather famous tune off of (Sir) Elton, either. as for the three Bowie songs selected, well, fair enough representation. they are three excellent tunes, of course. including Time in particular was a good move, as it showcases Ronson's other talent, to arrange and shape the sound of a song. with regards to the others, Cracked Actor is solid ace guitar, whereas for some reason Moonage Daydream is the one tune off of Ziggy Stardust which Bowie (and latterly his estate) have been quite happy to licence wherever, whenever. it might have been nice for them to showcase his most iconic guitar piece, be that Starman or Ziggy Stardust, or his most audacious and ambitious guitar work, which would (for me at least ) be Width Of A Circle. but, you get what you are given, and no complaints.

any omissions from the soundtrack, other than that? yes, and quite significantly from the documentary too. it is fair to say that Morrissey is missing. he may well be a divisive figure in the present day, but Mick Ronson acting as producer on Your Arsenal only gets a slight mention. considering the album was a huge success, and was significant in kicking off a 70s revival in the 90s, a bit more on the subject might have been appropriate.

who knows, maybe Morrissey was approached and declined, maybe he contributed but they didn't feel it suitable or appropriate, or perhaps they know something i don't. but, a minor flaw or oversight, and one can just put on the Your Arsenal album and enjoy anyhow.

remarkable and brilliant are the two words i would select if, for some reason, you requested of me just two words to describe the documentary Beside Bowie. to go further, it's a warm, genuine, affectionate and deeply enjoyable viewing experience. full worthy of just south of two hours of anyone's time to watch it.

right, i would imagine this post ticks off my fairly successful commitment to not write of Bowie at least once a month since i completed all that random bowie business a little while ago. i have every confidence that i shall find something of the same to write about next month. but for now, go buy this soundtrack, and see if you can find the film.




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

the commodore 64 mini (c64 mini)

hello


well, this is exciting, look you see. also, be warned, for it might be quite a lengthy post. but one that is hopefully of some use or interest to one or two (maybe a few) out there. and for anyone that is not particularly interested, well, i guess this shall not be exciting. sorry.

every now and then i get what would best be described as a "sales mail" in my email. normally yes, one would (or could) call such "spam", but in fairness the predominant number of such mails i get are from businesses what i have done shopping with, and i have ticked that they may trouble me. despite this, i do understand that it is fashionable to complain anyway, but i do not.

once in a while i shall click on such an advert. not often, but sometimes. i can't give a specific, but maybe 2 or 3 out of every 10. and, of those clicks, there are instances where something which has been drawn to my attention by a mail of this nature gets bought. whereas the official David Bowie store has been unsuccessful in overcharging me for items pertaining to (their words not mine) the 37th anniversary of Let's Dance and the 47th anniversary of Aladdin Sane, another business of a not particularly musical one persuaded me to buy this.

yes, as the title of this post gives every indication, the commodore 64 mini, or c64 mini as it would appear to be branded by some. also further yes, presented in the greater glory of commodore 64 mode for the picture. but, oddly, i think i shall refrain from using that mode for the rest, for to capture images of the c64 in action in c64 mode seems rather too "meta" for me.

this magnificent, wonderful device (if you are in a rush for a review - although i would encourage you to read on, for there are a few tips) has been available, or "on the market", for a couple of years now. it was so, though, that the pricing was initially around £100, and then dropped down to somewhere around £75, possibly as far south as £50.

despite the obvious nostalgia pull upon my wallet, it was so that i had no sense of temptation. why not? for somewhere north of 20 years, now, one has been able to download, gratis (as in for free) some c64 "emulators" for a standard computer, the best of which is easily CCS64 and second best is Frodo. also, virtually every game ever made for the machine is out there on the web, too. yes, for free, and in the overwhelming majority of instances legally free, for the developers or programmers have said they "do not mind or object" to fans reviving them.

so how did this end up being purchased? let us be honest here, the primary driver was the price. market forces (or maybe that the same company has unleashed a new model called "the C64") have worked, and in the previously mentioned email sale thing, it was at a price north of £30 but also significantly south of £35. adding this to the fact that (at time of writing) the invisible war still ranges on against the new plague means i have a lot more time at home to fill than i am used to, and, well, here we are.

it is quite important to note aspects of the last paragraph. yes, this is the c64 mini that i have. the smaller, compact version (i think or suspect it is one of them "raspberry pi" things shoved in a plastic case) which does not have a working keyboard, it being there for display only. the full size one they make, the c64 or if you like c64 "maxi", has a working keyboard, lets you do vic-20, etc, for a lot greater cost. as in, that one is well north of £100. yes, it shall be so that the trials and tribulations of no (conventional) keyboard gets looked at here, along with the triumphs. so share my glory, so share my coffin, and all that.

many details, and things you will need to load, download, etc, are on the official site for them what made this. and, in a baffling move in this day and age, they have gone and changed their stated website address, as it appears on the box and packaging. evidently the printed address, www.thec64.com, no longer exists. now the correct one is retrogames.biz, which is unfortunate. i tend not to like these ".biz" or similar domains, as all too often they are the choice of fraudulent types looking to con and trick. not the case here.

getting the device up and running, is, alas, not as straightforward as unpacking it and plugging it in. no. as the warning on the side (which was not visible or mentioned on the website) makes partially clear, one is required to bring their own "plug". which, it becomes clear, by which they mean one of them "adapter" things designed for a traditional, standard or if you like conventional usb cable. oh.

sure, they provide you, as you can see above, with the usb cable used for power, which is one of them "mini" or "micro" usb to standard, normal usb things like you would have with the overwhelming majority of non-apple phones to charge them. and, as you should be able to work out in the picture above, they do include everything else, except of course a television to plug it in to.

why no plug? you would have to ask them what made it for the specifics. but, at a guess, to keep costs down, or reduce the packaging. or maybe they went on a straightforward assumption that, predominantly, the target market for this device would have several such "ac adapter plug with usb capability" in and around their home.

fear not, then. despite them wording it like you need something quite specialist via the means of using the "proper", full name, a "5v output ac adapter with usb capability" actually translates as "that plug what they give you to charge up a phone or tablet with". if you take the time to read the small print on any such adapter or "phone charger plug" you have at home, invariably you will note that it does indeed indicate a 5v output.

once you have that plug sorted, and connected it all up (tv is via hdmi only, yes they do indeed include that cable if not the television), well, of you go. very instantly and very quickly you can get racking on any one of the conveniently numbered sixty four games included. but, at this stage (and sorry if free flowing advice is scattered here), you may wish to head along to the official site and download the latest "firmware", which is a fancy way of saying operating system, i guess. you will indeed need your own usb stick for this. one downloads it on a pc, pops it on the usb stick, plugs the usb into the c64 mini, and selects system or what have you.

the reason for doing this is quite straightforward. whilst the games included are (mostly) smart, it is highly likely that you will want to play some old favourites, which can be obtained with relative ease off of the internet. for this you have to have the latest firmware (whatever that is) installed, which lets the device read games off of a usb stick. for good measure, a new free game is included with the firmware update, farming simulator or something.

how "mini" is the "mini" aspect of a c64 mini, then? well, see the image above. whereas i believe a lot of the internet likes the notion (or concept) of "banana for scale", it struck me as being appropriate to use scale comparisons ranging from 1983 to 1985, via 1984. so, in the above, there is an indication of the size of a mini c64 when compared to an ex-rental VHS copy of Body Double, the cd issue of Now That's What I Call Music 4 and the cassette single ("cassingle") of Relax, by Frankie Goes To Hollywood.

yes, it probably does say a great deal of me, and illustrates the notion of regression, that such items are within very close reach to me at any given time so that i may give you such a comparison. but don't you worry about me, i wouldn't worry about me.

for those not particularly interested in faffing with "firmware" upgrades, or simply choose not to use usb memory sticks for religious, political or sexual reasons (or any such combination), what games come with the device in an "as is" sense? i believe they are listed on most sites that sell the device, and the official one, but for a wonky picture showing them, here you go.

well, yeah, that picture is not so great, sorry. well, anyway, what many would consider the rolls royce of commodore 64 games makers, epyx, are very much represented. one gets their "biggest" titles, which includes impossible mission one and two, pitstop 2 and i think all of the games variations, be it summer, winter, californian and/or world. and super cycle. for those disposed of a more the English way of doing things games, plenty of titles - monty mole, monty on the run, boulder dash, bounder, paradroid, uridium, everyone's a wally (sadly without the song on the other side of the game tape) and plenty of others are all here.

so how, exactly, with no functioning (actual) keyboard, does one play these games? with a joystick, but of course, which yes, is provided in the singular. you can purchase an extra, if you so wish, with the going rate being, from what i can see, 1p south of £20. from what i recall the Quickshot 2, the greatest joystick of all, cost about £7.99 some 35(ish) years ago, so that is nasty inflation.

the commodore 64 was pretty much always a joystick only machine for games. some required the odd use of a keyboard, and of course "adventure" (or in some countries "quest") games required typed commands only. mostly, in the 80s, if playing games via keyboard only was your thing, then the zx spectrum was for you. or the zx spacktrum, or zx spackertrum, if you like, but i suspect i would never ever be quite so disparaging.

behold the joystick in the above image, them, for your viewing pleasure. for scale, well, please observe the size of it compared to the mini c64, and consider the size of the mini c64 in regards of the size comparison for it previously presented. much better than the "game pad" which seems to be about the only thing you can get for so-called modern so-called consoles.

one, to go a bit non non-linear, link for you to use and keep in mind would be https://www.thec64minizone.com/ for reasons that shall become clear. but this will be very true in respect of something called a "cjm configuration".

an initial drawback of no functioning keyboard, then, was that some games suggested that they would be impossible to play on this c64 mini. whereas calling up the virtual keyboard to press F7 (or similar) to start a game was fine, it is just not practical to do it in a fast paced game. my assumption, then, was that some classic games - ghostbusters, predator and ace to name but three - would not get played. but there were others.

of course one of the very first games i tried on it was frankie goes to hollywood. it remains possibly the greatest game ever, based as it is on the best band ever. there was much merriment and delight from me when i found that it played perfectly, worked perfectly and sounded as ace as ever.

then it was time to move on to another game, which just so happened to be the pictured above and in video form below bruce lee. and it was, alas, oh dear time. it appeared that it was not going to run as intended, or at all.

yes, quite. in the above video you can see an inanimate bruce lee getting his head kicked in off of the ninja, and off of the green sumo voodoo buddha like character. normally bruce would be able to be controlled to fight back, either punching or kicking these people until they disappeared. but, alas, the joystick produced no movement.

some other games - notably kikstart ii - also featured a lack of response on the joystick. oh, dear, i said, and oh bother. whilst playing what was on the machine and things like frankie goes to hollywood were boss, not being able to play other favourites was something of an issue. there was a school of thought to say maybe i would have been better just retaining the (around) £30 and simply making do with the different pc emulators i have used from time to time, over the last 20 or so years.

eventually, i clocked the issue. the games which were not working were ones which required the player to have the joystick plugged into controller port 1 on the original commodore 64, whereas generally it was port 2 for such. i did indeed take to "an internet" to see if there was a way around it, and it turns out yes.

just for the sake of showing it, here you go. above is an image of the "virtual keyboard" you can bring up by pressing a special button on the back of a joystick. in this instance, i did so in order to press the rather virtual - and legendary - f7 button to commence the game.

how, then, does one get a commodore 64 joystick port one game to work on the decidedly only joystick port two c64 mini? by renaming the game. when you obtain commodore 64 games off of the internet (and blessed be those who have re-encoded and uploaded them all), they have file names like, and let's use bruce lee as the example, brucelee.t64, or brucelee.d64, brucelee.tap and brucelee.prg.

to get the game to work, you add _J1 (underscore j1) to the file name, just before the "." for the file extension. in continuing with bruce lee, you have to rename the file either brucelee_J1.t64, or brucelee_J1.d64, or whichever extension is on the end. you are clever people, you shall work it out.

no, that picture above is not bruce lee. it is quite a different sort of game. perhaps not one that i would willingly choose to play, per se, but i felt an obligation to. as the commodore 64 was (no, is) celebrated for both its immense colour combination possibilities and the great works of art which it was possible to create on it, it struck me as sensible to choose a game which combined both elements to show all of you how it works.

so, after changing the name of brucelee.t64 to brucelee_J1.t64 on my pc, i reloaded it on to a usb flash drive memory stick thing, put it back in the c64 mini and tried it. and, i am most delighted to say, it worked. yes, then, that was "a bit" of time i spent playing bruce lee.

what, you wish to have another look at how the "virtual keyboard" works? i can see no reason why not to do so.

as you can see, then, the virtual keyboard is quite good and effective enough for pre-game options, such as selecting an opponent, or starting the game. but it is not practical to pull it up when, say, you want to leave a bait trap in ghostbusters to knack the marshmallow man.

for the record, i selected candi as an opponent in the pictured game. on reflection, candi was always better, at every option to have done so perhaps i should have chosen candi.

how about the problem (or issue) of games which require you to use the keyboard and the joystick whilst all the action is on? well, this is where something called a "cjm configuration" file comes in. as you will have observed, or noted, the joystick has a fair few buttons on it. yes, it is possible to program these buttons (configure them, i guess) to "do" the action of a specified button on the keyboard that is required in a game.

right, good, and hello indeed, candi, that game seems to be working perfectly well. oh, my, i say, three queens, that was quite lucky for me. candi did indeed have to buy some more cash with a certain item so as to keep playing.

let me be as clear as i am honest here so far i have not actually tried this out. but, if you go to that c64 mini zone web internet site thing linked earlier, they explain how you do it. also, and most importantly, they have an absolute mountain of already created "cjm configuration" files for a whole load of games.

shall i be having a go at getting one of these configuration files to work? i would certainly expect so. for a start, i'd rather like to play ghostbusters again, as that was quite class. and all them other games what i mentioned. but, i cannot do everything all at once.

purely for the sake of some extra (or more) video here, yes, that is what happens to your character when you get killed, or die, in  dragon's lair. a notoriously difficult game, that one. but also a game of legend, as the arcade machine looked like a Disney animated film, which meant in the early 80s it had the most impressive graphics. which kind of translated over to the commodore 64 perfectly well.

another issue for the c64 mini is "multiple" or double sided disc games, or indeed classic commodore 64 games which used both sides of a tape. there is no way on the mini c64 to select or change discs in a game, at least not that i could see. which is something i think you can do on the "maxi" c64, and indeed on pc emulators like ccs 64 and frodo.

this subject came up because a dear friend asked if the game pictured below, in which you can kind of make out a reflection of me (if for some reason you wanted to), worked on the device.

indeed that is racing destruction set, where you could make bonkers race tracks for bonkers vehicles using all sorts of different and bonkers levels of gravity. great and fantastic fun, but very time consuming. the game used four sides of tape, and you had to keep loading, reloading and updating stuff to build it all.

no, i have not had a go at it yet, as the system of setting up the .t64 or .d64 files to "work" in unison on the c64mini looks complex. but, perhaps you are more clever than what i am. if so, you should head to that the c64 mini zone website linked above, as they have step by step details of how to do it. and yes, perhaps one day, i shall.

one other solution to the multiple disc / tape issue with classic commodore 64 games on the c64 mini is, it would seem, to "convert" them to virtual cartridges, or if you like .crt files. doing such would be beyond my levels of capabilities, but again there are plenty of guides out there, and there are several generous, kind and talented types who have already done this, beautifying the internet with files of them as you search.

that there above is indeed the screen which greets one when kikstart ii has loaded successfully. and plays just fine on the mini c64, thanks to the magic of that _J1 renaming (or introducing to the name) business.

again, this one is a game showcased here at the request of another (as in different) dear friend. they consistently put forward the argument that this is, as point of fact, the greatest ever commodore 64 game, no matter which other ones i from time to time suggest might be. like, for instance, football manager.

rather difficult is the task of arguing with the point of view. i mean, the game was quite class, and does indeed remain so to this day. besides the as-is game being smart, what with you getting to control a motorbike and ride it over ice, snow, fire and other such things, you could create your own smart tracks to race on. yes, we created some which were all just fire.

well, why would i not try and incorporate some of the magic of kikstart ii in video form for you? from what i recall, the game name - and indeed the music - are off of a kids show in the 80s, one that in a strangely specific way only appeared to be broadcast during the summer holiday. effectively it was about them posh kids down south what got given "scrambler" motorbikes doing obstacle courses. us in the somewhat poorer areas, or simply those of us who had parents what didn't think buying a f*****g dangerous device for the kids was a good idea, made do with this £1.99 game.

in anticipating your next question, no, not yet. with several thousand commodore 64 games at my disposal, and strip poker requiring a complete test, i have not had chance to do all that i have done before and would do again. so i have thus far failed to recreate a "mega" race track on kikstart ii which is all just a load of fire after a massive ramp. but, i will.

further requests from dear friends? certainly, since that has been all the last few images have related to in essence, and happens to be just about all that remains. so, here you go.

one quite fair thing to say about combat school is that it sits in a category pile of substantial size for me. and that is the pile of games which look absolutely class and great, but i turn out to be very rubbish at. no matter how hard i tried or concentrated, there were many games which others seemed to master but i failed at. hey ho.

somewhat differently to the tacit promises with other games, i can assure you that this game will probably not get played. what, why ever not? because, rather like daley thompson's decathlon, it is an absolute joystick f****r of a game. yes, you have to take a firm grip of the shaft of the (as it were) joystick and waggle it like mad. i am in no mood, and am not of a mind, to need to spend just 1p south of £20 for a new joystick on account of furiously beating my existing one; an endeavour highly or quite likely to end in failure to quality.

yes, since you are asking, i am aware of what "poke" cheats are. and no, it seems one is unable to add them to the games on the c64 mini as such, so i cannot cheat my way past tricky levels (which often would be "all of them") on games like combat school. but, out there on the internet, there are plenty of "cracked" versions of games for the c64 you can get which have "cheat" options built in for you. stuff, you know, like infinite lives, etc.

another request from a dear friend, then. indeed, certainly, and truly, perhaps predictably it was of course Spiros who asked me if stroker was available to play on the commodore 64 mini. oddly, and for some strange reason, the makers of the machine itself did not think to include this as a default, but one can easily download and play. and yes, it does need the _J1 amendment to the file name.

just what is the game stroker about? i would in all honesty prefer not to discuss it, thank you. one could reasonably, safely say that it is a sort of biology based game, and, well, let us just leave it at that for now. but please, by all means, go and search for it on the internet if you are curious and left not particularly satisfied by the answer.

exactly, to kind of change the subject, how am i getting on with candi and the comprehensive testing of the armed and fully operational c64 mini? well, if you are interested, yes, one final picture, but no, not from the end of the game, you filthy so and so's.

should for some reason you be interested in such, yes, i did complete this game, thank you, and i can assure you that the graphics of candi were so splendidly magnificent as i recalled.

to a question, then. is the c64 mini (or c64 "maxi if you have the funds) worth getting? quite a tough one to answer. good price, yes, but you can get all the games and a really good emulator for free, gratis, off of the internet. in minutes. what your £30 (or so) is being handed over for is a bit of plastic that looks like the c64, a "proper" joystick and someone else having gone to the effort of picking some games for you. proceed with caution.

for a "like for like" comparison, be it of a speculative nature, the retro tech of last year, the handheld Atari (here you go), still gets picked up and played with. will, a year or so from now, the c64 mini still routinely be plugged in and played? maybe, but infrequently at best. it is quite a shame that, due to the dynamics of game screen use, a handheld c64 just isn't going to be practical.

whew, or phew. many thanks indeed for reading this. it would be a bonus if any of this post has been useful, practical or insightful, but mostly nice one if this has triggered off some similar great memories for you. and, yes, to the observant. you are right. this was indeed deliberately (honest) published at 6:40am (proper English time), and on a date which allows numerologists to go 19 + 05 + 20 + 20 = ........



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

more comb

heya


rather improbably, yes, look you see, this is as the title suggests. not so very long after seeing (or bearing witness to) an abandoned comb on what limited travels i am presently permitted to take, so it is that one more caught my eye. well, that i noticed it might be a better way of painting a (vulgar) picture of what actually happened.

there are some differences between this tale of the discarded and the previous one. well, so there should be, otherwise there would be little point in me recording the matter. yes, true, i hear what you sand and indeed maybe there is, overall, so very little point to many of the things i deem as needed to record here, but you are the one reading it.

assuming you continue to read, we shall explore the differences as we go. but, so as to avoid any conclusion reached or accusation made of me withholding matters for some simplistic variation of dramatic effect, such as producing an overlong and needlessly wordy sentence, it was a different type of comb and was observed in a different area to the previous.

whilst the more avid readers of this blog will need no such clarification, yes, this is a black comb i saw abandoned. somewhat famously, it was a white one in the previous such instance. or similar instance, for no two experiences can ever truly said to be the same.

it was in quite a different area that i saw this comb, but please note (members of the constabulary in particular) that it was in a place which could be deemed as perfectly reasonable to have travelled to under the current control conditions we have in place for all this plague business. but, despite the impressive (accidental) play on words in the title, no, this was not in Morecambe, which is like really, really totes far away and a place i have not really ever had much of an interest in going to.

so where was it? i would prefer not to be specific, or if you like i am going to go right ahead and decline to clarify. this was all whilst in a queue for some "essential" shopping, of course, but in a part of the world generally regarded as less affluent than where the white comb was spotted. for a clue, if you insist, it probably has the highest ratio of chemists per capita of any place in the world, which includes at least two branches of Boots. and the population is not so big.

once it was so that i asked questions of this rather striking per capita ratio. it was of an ostensible resident of the place. my abiding memory of their response was of it being that they got quite upset with the line of inqury. perhaps this was due to them living a rather sheltered, if not fragmented, life, very rarely venturing from the place. continuing with such, i have little doubt that for the purposes of their psychological comfort zone remaining as a constant they simply took as a given that everywhere has such a high demand for chemists and so the number is not unusual.

yet this was countered, or questioned, maybe even dismissed by someone who had overheard the question. although such was noted for normally refraining from being in any way willingly involved in all forms of discourse, they felt compelled to interject. to this end, the unleashed quite the diatribe, describing the reason as being as simple as requirement, as in their estimation (or possibly experience) the population of this place were dirty, vermin infested, disease riddled types in need of any and all medical solace they could lay their poisonous hands on.

no. of my quite limited experiences of the deeper nuances and mechanics of the place, i would not say that this is a conclusion which i would have reached by any natural means. and nor does it shed much in the way of the light of knowledge as to why here the black comb would be preferred, either for conventional use or to discard, over the white. maybe it is a natural expression of the intrinsic border which has formed between the two.

and so right, well, that would be it for this. yes, certainly, should i see any further combs abandoned i will duly report on them here, but no i am not off actively seeking such, honest.



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